Scores of Taliban militants were killed last week in an operation involving Afghan and foreign troops in Afghanistan, the interior ministry said on Sunday.
The operation occurred in the Bala Boluk and Bakwa districts of western Farah province which lies near the border with Iran, the ministry said in a statement, adding the districts were under the control of the government. "It is worth mentioning that the operation lasted for three days, as a result of which more than 100 enemies of Afghanistan's peace and stability were killed," it said.
An interior ministry official said there were no casualties among Afghan forces and the U.S.-led troops during the operation. He did not know if air support was involved.
The government release on the Taliban deaths comes amid other reports from the area about civilian casualties during the operation, but the ministry official said he had no information about these reports. The Taliban could not be contacted immediately for comment. If accurate, the reported losses will be the heaviest amongst the militants in many months in Afghanistan where violence has surged since 2006.
Ousted from power in 2001, the al Qaeda-backed Taliban are largely active in southern and eastern areas and the militants mostly rely on suicide attacks and roadside bomb in the face of some heavy losses in conventional battles in recent years.
In capital Kabul on Sunday, a remote-controlled blast aimed at an army bus killed a civilian woman and wounded five, including three army soldiers, the defence ministry said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
RIP MR. Bo Diddley... Play me in when my time comes
DHAKA - Two explosions rocked a hotel in central Dhaka late Sunday, injuring 16 people and sparking a large fire, police said. A Sri Lankan man, who was staying on the hotel's 6th floor, was badly burned over 90 percent of his body when the blast occurred at about 9:30 pm local time, said local police chief Farid Ahmed. He was in critical condition at an area hospital.
Some furniture was burned and a wall inside the building collapsed due to the impact of the blast.
In the second explosion, which occurred 30 minutes later, 15 Bangladeshis were injured by flying glass, Ahmed said.
It is not clear what caused the explosions at the hotel, which is near Dhaka's commercial district. Fire and explosives experts were at the scene to investigate. No arrests have been made, Ahmed said.
Let me guess: first explosion was mean to tumble the hotel, second was meant to kill the rescuers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Let me guess: first explosion was mean to tumble the hotel, second was meant to kill the rescuers
Or, judging by the initial explosion, force the hotel to evacuate then target the evacuees.
ISLAMABAD: The death toll in a huge blast near Danish embassy in F-6 II area in the Red Zone of the federal capital Islamabad on Monday has reached to eight, while seven wounded said to be in a critical condition. The car blast near the Denmark embassy damaged a boundary wall of the building, while nearby UNDP office premises were also damaged in the blast. According to sources 10 to 15 kilogram explosives were used in the blast, which also shattered the vehicles parked in the area. Huge clouds of smoke were seen over the area. The blast created four feet deep crater sources said. Police have cordoned off the area to collect evidence about the incident. Relief operations were underway and the wounded being transferred to hospitals.
Posted by: Classer ||
06/02/2008 06:57 ||
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#1
Another news source said the dead were all Pakistanis, not Danes. I'm starting to think that Islam is the greatest killer of Muslims around the world.
#3
I'm starting to think that Islam is the greatest killer of Muslims around the world.
Actually the Pakistani Army has killed more Muslims ( > 1 million ) than any other entity in recent times.
No whining about this from other Muslims though... once the killers are Muslim, there is no manufactured rage and protest. The vitims were a lower category of Muslim as well, not Arab, not Central Asian, not Persian. The Bengalis were "short and dark and ate rice" while their Punjabi killers were "Tall and Fair and ate wheat".
Lahore matrons were heard to tut-tut over the reports of mass rape committed by the Pakistani troops... "at least the babies will be fair skinned".
Posted by: john frum ||
06/02/2008 16:11 Comments ||
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#4
The Embassy will be located in a well to do area, inhabited by the educated, English speaking elite.
"Since the printing of cartoons, we always had this fear," said Sana Khalid, a resident of the area. "But what they did to our religion, they deserve it.
Posted by: john frum ||
06/02/2008 16:14 Comments ||
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The Taliban in Swat on Sunday set up their own court in the Piochar village of Matta tehsil, sources told Daily Times. They said that three cases were also heard in the court headed by a Qazi. Sources said that two cases were about land disputes, while the third one was a feud over money.
The hearing of the first case, filed by complainant Lal Zada against Muhammad Rahim over a land dispute, will resume on June 5. The hearing of the second land dispute case will resume on June 8 which was filed by Muhammad Rafiq against Shah Zar. The third case a monetary dispute between Shah Zar and Taj Khan will be taken up again in the Taliban court on June 26, sources said. Local residents said that people from the upper areas of the Matta tehsil had started registering cases with the Taliban, adding that the Taliban had arrested the alleged killer of a man from the Kalakot area.
When contacted for comment on the parallel judicial system, Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the local Taliban cleric Mullah Fazlullah, however denied the working of a Taliban court in Piochar, contending that a jirga to resolve disputes between local people had been established, and not a court.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
So what happens if somebody doesn't like the verdict handed down by the jirga?
PESHAWAR Haji Hannan, a leading militant commander, was shot dead along with his aide by unidentified gunmen near Dera Ismail Khan yesterday. One person sustained injuries in the incident.
Haji Hannan, who was leading a traditional tribal lashkar in the Shakai area of Wana, South Waziristan, was coming to D.I. Khan when his vehicle was ambushed by armed and masked men in Darazanda, a semi-tribal Frontier Region associated with D. I. Khan. Both Haji Hannan and his aide lost their lives on the spot whereas another person sustained injuries. It could not be ascertained whether the injured person was travelling with Haji Hannan or was one of the attackers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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* U.S. monthly death toll drops to new low
* Iraq says oil production at post-war high
* Australia pulls out combat troops Gotta have some bad news to counter the good news, right? Because, hey, that's fair and balanced reporting and this is Reuters, after all.
BAGHDAD, June 1 (Reuters) - U.S. troop deaths in Iraq fell to their lowest level last month since the 2003 invasion and officials said on Sunday improved security also helped the country boost oil production in May to a post-war high.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Iraq's oil minister credited better security for the two milestones, which illustrated a dramatic turnabout in the fortunes of a country on the brink of all-out sectarian civil war just 12 months ago. "We've still got a distance to go but I think lower casualty rates are a reflection of some real progress," Gates told reporters in Singapore. "The key will be to continue to sustain the progress we have seen."
(VOI) - Two members of a family were killed and four others were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near their house in Diala, a police source said. "A roadside bomb went off in front of a house in Yakiti (Union) neighborhood of Jalula, Diala province, leaving a women and her 3 year-old boy dead, and four members of the same family wounded," Ahmed Khalifa Qasab, Jalula's police chief, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). "Security forces rushed to the scene of the accident, and investigations are underway to reveal the perpetrators," he noted. Khanqeen, a disputed town between the central government and Kurdistan region, lies 155 km north-east of Baghdad
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Riddle me this: How come the family or neighbors did not notice it when the bomb was emplaced? Was it done at night with noiseless tools? Was it left there in a grocery bag? It makes no sense that the neighborhood would have known anything about it or someone would have said something.
#5
You've obviously never lived in a bad neighborhood.
You're right there.
But nonetheless, it's suicidal! When that thing goes off, you and your family may well be toast! Ain't nobody that stoopid! I can see staying in your house when criminals with guns roam the street because you can't avoid being a random victim. But this isn't random!
Am I missing some social pressures here or something?
The only thing I can imagine is that AlQ doesn't give a $hit about the fact that this behavior will get them exterminated, because every time they do this it's going to lose any possible allies they have for a couple of blocks around. I guess that's why they pour gas on six year old kids and set them on fire at random.
All the Coalition has to do is to endure while these guys wear out their welcome, and then the bad guys will implode. This assumes that the good guys don't get stupid and go off on the locals - EVER. The bad guys have all kinds of leverage in their favor. The can act like animals 1000 times over for each Coalition criminal act (like that 14 year-old girl's rape/murder or Abu Ghraib) before the locals will swing back to supporting the Coalition. Perhaps AlQ has been counting on this, and the Coalition didn't play according to their gameplan.
#6
The difference between Iraq and the Hood, deals with consequences. In Iraq the authorities know that AQ and its allied criminal posse are a direct threat to their lives and power. In the Hood the same intimidation and loss of life is tolerated in our cities because the authorities don't view it as a threat to their lives and power. That's why local politicians don't really care about cleaning up the Hood till they can no longer blame someone/something else and get away with actually doing nothing but 'show' for public consumption. That's why it's safer to do a tour in Iraq than live in or around certain neighborhoods in America. Just ask Robert Crutchfield.
(VOI) Eighteen people were killed and 36 others wounded while security forces arrested 48 people in acts of violence in different areas of Iraq from 9:00 p.m. on Saturday until Sunday noon, security sources said.
In Baghdad a security source said a car bomb parked near the Iranian embassy headquarters in the central Baghdad area of al-Salihiya went off on Sunday morning, killing two civilians and wounding five others. "Four civilians were wounded when an improvised explosive device emplaced by unidentified gunmen inside a civilian vehicle went off in al-Tashri'e neighborhood, western Baghdad," Maj. General Qassem Atta, the spokesman for the Fardh al-Qanoon (Law Imposing) security plan, told Aswat al-Iraq Voices of Iraq (VOI). Atta also said another IED went off a short while later in the area of al-Ghazali, al-Nahda neighborhood, central Baghdad, when a traffic police patrol was passing by, leaving four patrol men wounded.
In the predominantly Sunni province of al-Anbar, a Hit police source said a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest near an Iraqi police checkpoint on Saturday evening, killing 14, including Lt. Colonel Khalil Ibrahim Jazzaa al-Dulaimi of the city police, and three policemen others, and wounding 10 civilians.
In Diala a police source said clashes broke out between security men and members of the anti-al-Qaeda Sahwa (Awakening) tribal fighters, leaving one child killed and three other civilians wounded in al-Mafraq neighborhood, Baaquba district.
In another part of Diala, a security source said a woman was killed when a roadside IED went off in al-Katoun neighborhood, central Baaquba, on Sunday.
In Kirkuk, 250 km northeast of Baghdad, an IED went off near an Emergency Police patrol, close to the College of Sciences, leaving six patrol men and two civilians wounded.
In Salah al-Din, an Iraqi police patrol came under firing attack by unidentified gunmen in the village of Sheikh Hamad, on the left coast of al-Shurqat district, prompting the security forces to launch a massive raid in the village, arresting 70 suspects.
Meanwhile, the U.S. army said it arrested four men wanted by security authorities for links with al-Qaeda network in Baghdad, in addition to 10 suspects, in a security raid in different areas of Iraq.
In a statement on Sunday, the U.S. army said two servicemen were wounded when their chopper crashed during an early hour of Sunday morning south of Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI) An Iraqi security force captured 70 suspected gunmen after their patrol came under fire in the district of al-Shurqat, northern Salah al-Din province, on Sunday, police said. "An Iraqi police patrol came under fire attack by unidentified gunmen in the village of Sheikh Hamad, on the left coast of Shurqat district, prompting the security forces to launch a wide-scale raid, capturing 70 suspected gunmen," a police source, who asked to not have his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq Voices of Iraq (VOI). The source did not give further details. Shurqat district, which lies 80 km south of the city of Mosul, belongs administratively to the Salah al-Din province, north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI)- At least 14 people, including four policemen, were killed, and 10 others were wounded in a suicide attack targeting a police checkpoint in Hit city, western Iraq, a police source said on Sunday. A suicide attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body near a checkpoint manned by policemen in central Hit, late on Saturday, killing 14 people and wounding ten more, the source, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq- Voices of Iraq- (VOI). The source added that four policemen, including a senior officer, were among the dead. Hit, a city within Anbar province, is located 180 km west of Baghdad. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the U.S. forces in Anbar told VOI that U.S. reinforcements were sent to Hit after the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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A Chinese capret salesman has been killed in the South in what police on Monday blamed on a rare act of violence against foreigners by Islamist terrorists insurgents in the deep South.
Cai Wensheng, 55, was killed by two pistol shots to the head outside a teashop in Narathiwat province late on Sunday, police said. Detectives said Cai and two Chinese colleagues selling carpets in the area, and no business problems had been reported. Two terrorists militants rode up on a motorcycle, pretended to be interested in buying the vendor's carpets, and killed him without warning. The killers escaped on their motorcycle.
Iran's Intelligence Ministry said on Sunday it had arrested 11 members of a terrorist group with foreign links behind an ambush in which a cleric was killed and seven other people were wounded, a news agency said.
The attack on a bus in a southwestern province took place in the Iranian month which ended on April 19, the semi-official Mehr News Agency said. The killed cleric was from a town in the eastern province of Khorassan. The Intelligence Ministry's "agents succeeded in taking in 11 members of the terrorist, mercenary band linked to foreigners in a number of operations", it said, without giving further details.
The Islamic Republic has in the past accused the United States and Britain of trying to destabilize Iran by supporting rebels, mainly those in sensitive border areas. Last month, Iran made an official protest to the United States, via a Swiss intermediary, about what Tehran says is Washington's support for a group blamed for bombing an Iranian mosque. Iran has said the United States, Britain and Israel were involved in the explosion in a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz in April that killed 14 people and wounded 200.
Iran and the United States have not had diplomatic ties since 1980. They are now embroiled in disputes over Iran's nuclear plans, which Washington says are aimed at building bombs, and what U.S. officials say is Iranian meddling in Iraq. Tehran denies both charges.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Scores of Taliban militants were killed last week in an operation involving Afghan and foreign troops in Afghanistan, the interior ministry said on Sunday.
PESHAWAR 
The attack on a bus in a southwestern province took place in the Iranian month which ended on April 19, the semi-official Mehr News Agency said. The killed cleric was from a town in the eastern province of Khorassan. The Intelligence Ministry's "agents succeeded in taking in 11 members of the terrorist, mercenary band linked to foreigners in a number of operations", it said, without giving further details.
