Gunmen kidnapped a French aid worker off a neighborhood street Monday and killed an intelligence agency employee who tried to stop the abduction, police said, latest in a series of attacks against Westerners in the Afghan capital.
Three assailants in a red Corolla tried to kidnap two French citizens riding in a small van in Kabul, but after a scuffle they got away with only one, said Mohammad Daud Amin, a police commander in the neighborhood where the abduction took place. "A resident tried to prevent this kidnapping. A kidnapper opened fire and killed him. They were able to kidnap one Frenchman," Amin told The Associated Press. The Interior Ministry identified the resident as the driver for the intelligence chief of Panjshir province.
Etienne Gille, president of AFRANE, a French aid group focusing on education, said the kidnapping took place as a member of its staff and a man from a second French aid group were being driven from a residence rented by ARFANE to its offices. "The car was blocked by another car that was driving the wrong way," from which "an armed man emerged," Gille told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. AFRANE's employee managed to escape, while the other aid worker was taken, he said. "There was an Afghan on the street who intervened," Gille said.
A witness, Mohammad Shafi, said the man who intervened lived in a house across from where the kidnapping occurred. "He grabbed the machine gun of one of the kidnappers, who opened fire, burning his hand. After that the kidnapper shot him three times in the chest," Shafi said.
Gille declined to provide the name or organization for which the kidnapped man worked but said he was in his 30s. The man, a French national, had been in Afghanistan about a week, Gille said, adding he believed it was his first time in the country.
Another explosion hit an EnCana Corp. sour-gas pipeline in B.C. Friday afternoon, this time near the small community of Tomslake, south of Dawson Creek near the Alberta border, the RCMP said.
"The site of an explosion was discovered at a natural gas wellhead at approximately 12:30 p.m. today," Sgt. Tim Shields said in a news release Friday.
"The site is about 12 kilometres northwest of the community of Tomslake The explosion appears to have been deliberately detonated and is located in a rural isolated area," he said.
The explosion caused a small gas leak that was quickly contained by EnCana engineers.
The leak did not pose any danger to the public, and there is no report of any injuries, Shields said.
Members of the RCMP Integrated National Security Enforcement Team are at the scene.
Testing, testing. 1,2,3
Eco-terrorists or Islamo-terrorists? Is there a difference?
Soon to appear at a pipeline near you.
#1
The previous 2 were blamed on locals opposed to energy development. No arrests.
Posted by: ed ||
11/03/2008 19:57 Comments ||
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#2
This explosion wasn't even reported for 12 hours. Sgt. Shields urged the public to get more involved in the case, pointing out that the third blast occurred just after midnight on Friday but police weren't called until noon the next day. He said people recalled hearing a boom in the night, but didn't report it.
"This often occurs when people think that somebody else will inform the authorities," he told reporters on Saturday
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba A military jury has convicted a man who was accused of being an aide of Osama bin Laden and making propaganda videos for al-Qaida in the second Guantanamo war crimes trial.
A jury of officers announced the verdict Monday at the U.S. base in Cuba.
The jury of military officers voted to convict Ali Hamza al-Bahlul of Yemen, who faced charges of conspiracy, solicitation to commit murder and providing material support to terrorism.
Each count carries a possible sentence of life in prison. Sentencing was to immediately follow the announcement of the verdict.
#5
It's stupid and evil (in a self destructive, amoral postmodern, leftist way) to allow to live those who would genocide us in a heartbeat and have taken actions to implement it.
Posted by: ed ||
11/03/2008 23:22 Comments ||
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Gunmen in Pakistan have kidnapped an Afghan government adviser visiting relatives in a northwestern border region, police said Monday, the third prominent Afghan kidnapped in Pakistan in recent weeks. Akhtar Kohistani, an adviser at the Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, was abducted in Seerdoor Kadak, a village in Pakistan's northwestern Chitral district, while visiting his in-laws. Chitral is opposite the insurgency-plagued Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nuristan.
"Unidentified armed men broke into his in-laws' house last night and took him away," said Chitral police chief Sher Akbar Khan. Khan said the motive for the abduction was not known and his men were investigating.
Late last week, gunmen kidnapped Zia-ul-Haq, a brother of Afghan Finance Minister Anwar Ul-Haq Ahady, in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, security officials said. Pakistani police are also searching for Afghanistan's top diplomat in Pakistan, ambassador-designate Abdul Khaliq Farahi, who was kidnapped on September 22 in Peshawar.
A suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a checkpoint in South Waziristan on Sunday, killing eight paramilitary troops.
The deadly blast occurred near the main gate of the Zalai Fort as Frontier Corps troops gathered nearby, said Maj Gen Athar Abbas, the army's top spokesman. "We have confirmed reports of eight deaths," he said. Four people were wounded. The fort is 20 kilometres outside Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan Agency.
The troops were washing their vehicles when the suicide attacker came, two intelligence officials said. They described the explosion as 'large' and said it destroyed the checkpoint and damaged the front wall of the fort. The intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to media.
In a statement, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the suicide attack, saying he 'deplored the loss of innocent lives'.
Zardari said in another statement he would 'continue the fight against extremists and terrorists and to make Pakistan a safe place'.
The attack came after two missiles fired by a suspected US drone at a Taliban hideout near Wana killed 12 suspected Taliban on Friday. It was the second strike that evening. The first strike was made in the neighbouring North Waziristan, where two missiles hit a pick-up truck and a house west of the town of Mir Ali, killing 20 mainly Arab men, security officials said.
Among the dead was an Egyptian Al Qaeda operative, Abu Jihad al-Masri, described by the United States as the terror network's propaganda chief. Washington had offered a one-million-dollar bounty for his death or capture.
On Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the house of a senior police official in Mardan. At least eight people were killed. The previous day, Pakistani troops had killed five Taliban and captured an explosives expert known to have links with Afghan Taliban.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/03/2008 00:00 ||
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Unidentified men have abducted an Afghan minister's brother who has been living in Pakistan's northwestern border city of Peshawar, police said Sunday. Zia ul-Haq, 45, was whisked away from his home in suburbs of the capital city of North West Frontier Province, where Taliban- and Al-Qaeda-linked militants are active.
Peshawar police officer Banaras Khan said that despite hectic efforts no trace had been found of Haq since his abduction last Friday. "We believe he was injured in the kidnapping attempt because there were blood stains at his doorstep," the police officer added. "No one has claimed responsibility of the kidnapping so far."
Another police officer, Khalid Khattak, said Haq was the brother of Afghanistan's revenue minister, Anwar ul-Haq, and was running a business in Peshawar. Zia ul-Haq was not known to have made any enemies locally, Khattak added.
The Finance Ministry in Kabul confirmed the abduction but declined to comment further.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/03/2008 00:00 ||
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A string of bombings killed seven people and wounded at least 33 others on Monday, including a senior Oil Ministry official, authorities said.
Six people died when two bombs one of them hidden in a trash can exploded in Tahariyat square in central Baghdad during the morning rush hour. Police said 21 people were wounded, including 10 policemen and two women. The explosions caused extensive damage to shops lining the square in the predominantly Shiite eastern side of Baghdad.
Also on Monday, Abdul-Sahib Salman Qutub, one of three senior undersecretaries in the Oil Ministry, suffered minor injuries when a bomb went off at his house as he left for work, ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said. Jihad said Qutub's driver was seriously injured in the attack.
Another bomb exploded around noon near a police patrol in west Baghdad, injuring one policeman and a civilian, police said.
In Baqouba, some 35 miles northeast of the capital, a car bomb exploded in a parking lot across the street from the Diyala provincial council headquarters, killing one policeman, authorities said. Eight people five of them policemen were wounded in the blast, which occurred as a conference on protecting Iraqi journalists took place inside the building. None of the meeting's participants were injured in the attack.
Also on Monday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged to protect Iraq's Christian minority, which has faced a spate of attacks this month in the northern city of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. Some 13,000 Christians fled the city this month, although some are slowly returning home.
"We all feel ashamed that such disgusting events take place in Iraq where one man kills another for reasons of identity or religion and ethnic background," al-Maliki said in a speech at a conference on Islamic-Christian dialogue. "We will pay all efforts to keep our Christian brothers honored and respected in Iraq for they are an essential component of its society," he said.
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraq sent extra army and police forces to boost security along its border with Syria after Damascus reduced its troops, Anbar police chief said on Sunday. "Three battalions of army and police, from western Anbar province, were sent to secure the Iraqi-Syrian borders and to stem the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq," Maj. Gen. Tariq al-Asal, Anbar police chief, told Aswat al-Iraq.
The security forces are expected to be deployed around Iraq's border town of al-Qaim, a known transit point for foreign fighters entering the country from Syria. Al-Qaim is close to al-Sukkariya, where last Sunday's attack took place. Syria decided to reduce its military presence along its borders with Iraq in a response to the U.S. attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/03/2008 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Roadside bomb killed an anti-Qaeda tribal chieftain in the volatile province of Diala on Sunday, a security source said. "A roadside bomb went off against the private car of Abbas al-Mujamai in the main road of south Buhriz district, 5 km south Baquba," a Diala Security source told Aswat al-Iraq. "The blast left the chieftain and five of his family killed," the source noted.
The chieftain headed the Sahwa (Awakening) council in Imam Habash district, a tribal council backed by the Iraqi government to fight al-Qaeda network.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/03/2008 00:00 ||
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Four people were killed and three went missing in the collapse of an underground tunnel north of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, security sources said. Sources from the militant group Hamas informed Egyptian authorities of the incident.
Egypt is still searching for the missing people inside the tunnel, the source said. The identities of the dead and missing were not immediately known, the source said.
Four Palestinians were injured and hospitalized earlier Sunday after the collapse of another tunnel, according to Palestinian medical sources.
Tunnels on the Egyptian border have become common ways to get food and fuel into the Gaza Strip, which Israel blockaded after Hamas took over the coastal territory last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/03/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Someone tell them to try using a backhoe next time. And I wonder if they were properly permitted.
#2
I'll bet they didn't call Miss Utility, either.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/03/2008 7:43 Comments ||
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#3
Looks like stormy weather. Perhaps Allah is not pleased...
Gaza Maan More than ten tunnels running between Gaza and Egypt collapsed on Saturday night after heavy rains inundated the area for several days over the past week.
Sources within Gaza say that a handful of other tunnels have sustained minor damage. Tunnel owners have begun to repair the tunnels, and expect to salvage what have become a lifeline for the besieged area.
#5
Late last month, following a series of tunnel deaths, Hamas summoned owners to discuss workers' compensation. Forty-five tunnel workers have been killed this year, both in accidents and during Egyptian anti-smuggling operations.
Owners were asked to sign a promise to pay the Islamic diyeh, or blood money, to the family of each worker killed, said an Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The compensation for accidental death amounts to about 20,000 Jordanian dinars (S$41,000).
First the bad news. Sorry about Mahmoud. The good news? You're rich!
#7
Mutual of Gaza is going to increase premiums ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/03/2008 10:08 Comments ||
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#8
Looks like a bad day all around for the GTA...
EL-ARISH, Egypt (AFP)--Egyptian security forces have uncovered 13 tunnels used by smugglers to slip contraband into the Gaza Strip, a security official said Monday.
Three of the tunnels collapsed after heavy rain along Egypt's border with the Palestinian territory, the official said, adding that the remaining tunnels would also be destroyed.
Sri Lanka's air force on Sunday bombed a Tamil Tiger training base in the Indian Ocean nation's northern jungles, a day after a fierce sea battle killed 18 insurgents, the military said.
The air raid struck a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) camp near Iranamadu, site of recent battles that are part of the military's intensified offensive to retake rebel-held territory in northern Sri Lanka. The military, which had restricted information on casualty numbers over the last two weeks, declined to give any figures for the air raid.
Two male university students stopped by soldiers in the military-controlled Jaffna peninsula died when troops shot one after he fired a pistol, and the other took a cyanide capsule - the trademark of the rebels, the military said on Sunday.
On Saturday, the military said it had killed 18 rebels, including seven "Black Tiger" suicide fighters in a sea battle east of the northern Jaffna Peninsula. The casualty figures are based on intercepted rebel communications, the military said.
"The Navy special boat squadron had observed a cluster of small LTTE boats off Nagarkovil sea, and killed 14 LTTE cadres and injured 16," Navy spokesman Commander DKP Dassanyaka said, adding that five sailors were wounded.
Air force jets shortly thereafter destroyed two fleeing boats and killed four other rebels, the military said. But the rebel-linked www.TamilNet.com web site quoted the Tigers as saying the destroyed a Navy boat and hovercraft in the clash. It also said seven "Black Tigers" were killed.
A separate land battle killed at least 13 Tigers at Paddariyalvillu, near the northwest coast, it said.
The military in the last week has said it captured a number of rebel defence lines, including taking control of the port of Nachikudda, on the north-western coast where it has been fighting for more than a month to shut down rebel naval operations there.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/03/2008 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.
Unidentified men have abducted an Afghan minister's brother who has been living in Pakistan's northwestern border city of Peshawar, police said Sunday. Zia ul-Haq, 45, was whisked away from his home in suburbs of the capital city of North West Frontier Province, where Taliban- and Al-Qaeda-linked militants are active.
Four people were killed and three went missing in the collapse of an underground tunnel north of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, security sources said. Sources from the militant group Hamas informed Egyptian authorities of the incident. 
