Kunduz, Afghanistan - A New York Times journalist visiting the site of the deadly Nato airstrike in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz was kidnapped along with his Afghan interpreter on Saturday, the provincial governor said.
The journalist, who went to talk to villagers in Omarkhel village in the Chardarah district was kidnapped by Taliban militants, Mohammad Omar, the provincial governor, told the German Press Agency dpa.
"The journalist, who works for New York Times, and his translator were blindfolded by the militants and taken to unknown location" the governor said, adding that Afghan security forces have began a search operation in the area to track down the kidnappers.
He said the Afghan army soldiers found the journalist's abandoned vehicle in the area.
A Taliban commander in Chardarah district confirmed to dpa that their fighters caught the journalist along with his translator in Easakhel village of the district on Saturday morning.
He said the Taliban leadership would decide on their fate.
September 5, 2009 - 3:52 PM
McChrystal tries to calm Afghans after air strike
By Mohammad Hamed
YAQOUBI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan flew on Saturday to the scene of a deadly air strike by his forces, trying to cool anger that threatens his strategy of winning hearts and minds.
Afghan officials say scores of people were killed, many of them civilians, when a U.S. F-15 fighter jet called in by German troops struck two hijacked fuel trucks before dawn on Friday.
The incident was the first in which Western forces are accused of killing large numbers of civilians since U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal took command in June, announcing that protecting Afghans was the centrepiece of a new strategy.
In an unprecedented televised address to the Afghan people, the general said his forces had launched the air strike against what they thought was a Taliban target. He promised to make the outcome of an investigation public.
"As Commander of the International Security Assistance Force, nothing is more important than the safety and protection of the Afghan people," he said in the taped address, released in versions dubbed into the two official languages, Dari and Pashtu.
"I take this possible loss of life or injury to innocent Afghans very seriously."
He later made a brief personal tour of the site in Kunduz, a once-safe northern province where fighters have stepped up attacks and seized control of remote areas, part of an insurgency that is now at its fiercest stage in the 8-year-old war.
NATO says its targets in the raid were Taliban fighters who had hijacked the fuel trucks, but has acknowledged that some of the victims being treated in hospital are civilians.
In the village of Yaqoubi, a scattering of mud-brick homes near the blast site, residents wept and prayed beside dozens of graves of victims on Saturday, while Taliban fighters with rifles looked on. The militants' presence was proof of their increasing domination of an area recently under government control.
"We will take revenge. A lot of innocent people were killed here," one of the Taliban fighters, only his eyes left uncovered by a thick scarf, said at the funeral.
"Every family around here has victims," said Sahar Gul, a 54-year-old village elder from Yaqoubi. "There are entire families that have been destroyed."
Village elders said 50 people were buried in Yaqoubi and 70 more in nearby villages, although Afghan officials and the Red Cross say the precise death toll may never be known.
The U.S. military plans to deploy its newest warplane against one of the world's oldest threats, sending unmanned Reaper drones to the Seychelles islands to deal with pirates menacing seagoing commerce in the Indian Ocean. Fighting pirates off the coast of Africa was one of the founding missions of the U.S. Marines two centuries ago; today, in a sign of the changing face of warfare, the mission of protecting maritime trade routes falls to ground-bound desk jockeys remotely operating high-tech flying machines.
"The Seychelles have been increasingly concerned about piracy in their waters," says Vince Crawley, a spokesman for U.S. Africa Command, explaining October's "Ocean Look" deployment. Although the military won't say how many of the drones are being sent, Crawley says there will be enough to have one flying every day from the archipelago of more than 100 islands that lie nearly 1,000 miles off Africa's east coast. About 75 U.S. personnel are bound for the Seychelles' Mahe regional airport to support the mission, which is expected to last several months.
The prime source of piracy in the area is the failed state of Somalia. There have been more than 135 pirate attacks originating from the Somali coast so far this year -- more than the total number for 2008 -- and 28 vessels have been successfully commandeered. While the annual monsoon season has recently reduced the number of attacks, observers fear that the peril will rise again with the calming of the weather. The Seychelles legislature recently approved a pact with the U.S. allowing closer military cooperation. "Our isolated geographic position and our limited economic and military resources will never allow us to patrol our vast territorial waters," a Seychelles lawmaker said during the July debate on the measure. Piracy has become "one of the most well-organized and profitable crimes in this part of the world," she continued, adding that "foreign military help in patrol and surveillance of our waters is today a necessity."
The drone flights will complement patrols by naval vessels from NATO member states and other allied countries, as well as by a pair of patrol planes being dispatched by the E.U. to the Seychelles. Also, the coast guard of the Seychelles will deploy two vessels on alternate weeklong cruises to deter pirates. And about 60 French marines are aboard 10 French tuna-fishing boats off the Seychelles, planning to stay there through the end of the fishing season in October.
It's not firepower but endurance that is needed to prevail over pirates. Ships can survey only a tiny swath of the sea, and previous ship-launched drones and land-based manned aircraft lack the Reaper's capacity to remain aloft for up to 14 hours. The drone's 66-ft. (20 m) wingspan can launch the 5-ton aircraft on missions covering more than 3,000 miles (about 4,800 km). "This makes it an ideal platform for observing the vast ocean and maritime corridors in the Indian Ocean region and assisting in counterpiracy efforts," Crawley says.
Outfitted with a variety of cameras and other sensors to detect suspected pirates, the drone is controlled from the ground via satellite links. While the MQ-9 Reaper can carry a variety of bombs and missiles, those flying out of the Seychelles won't be armed. "We're just following the conventions of international law," Crawley says. "If you have a suspected vessel, you board it and investigate it" instead of blowing it up.
The Reaper, with its unblinking eye, could help capture pirates who too often have been able to slip away. Last month, for example, a band of Somali marauders freed a 20,000-ton German cargo ship after seizing it and its crew in April between the Seychelles and Kenya. The pirates managed to escape with a $2.7 million ransom even though a German frigate, lurking nearby, arrived on the scene within 12 minutes of the pirates' departure from the cargo vessel. "The pirates took over all the belongings of the 24 crew members, including toothbrushes," Torsten Ites, captain of the frigate Brandenburg, told Agence France-Presse. "We had to provide medical assistance to the crew members, including dental services, as they had stayed for some time without brushing their teeth." Among other things, then, each Reaper deployed in the Seychelles may be the equivalent of $12 million worth of dental insurance for sailors plying the sea routes off the Horn of Africa.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"If you have a suspected vessel, you board it and investigate it" instead of blowing it up.
Unless, of course, nobody is around. Then who's to know? Enjoy your swim!
#2
about 60 French marines are aboard 10 French tuna-fishing boats
Hey, what? Tuna fishing boats have enough room for six big guys and all their stuff to hang around all day? Plus, six Frenchies doesn't really sound like enough, anyway.
#3
Do the drones have infrared cameras capable of determining number of people on board? Patrolling 3,000 mile swaths of ocean may catch human smugglers and other contraband otherwise impossible.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/05/2009 12:05 Comments ||
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#5
It's a prime location, Redneck. Clean, warm water. Nice beaches. Good surf. It's a well known tourist destination. Kinda makes me wish I knew enough to be one of those 75 U.S. personnel who are going there to support the mission.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
09/05/2009 13:33 Comments ||
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#6
Hey, what? Tuna fishing boats have enough room
Sounds like those huge factory boats (Hoovers of the Sea).
I really don't know why the US, vs Euros or Indian Ocean locals, is patrolling there. We have no skin in this game, neither economic nor tourists/future hostages. Only wealth to be expended and to be bitched at if anything goes wrong.
Posted by: ed ||
09/05/2009 13:49 Comments ||
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#7
We have no skin in this game, neither economic nor tourists/future hostages. Only wealth to be expended and to be bitched at if anything goes wrong.
Look at the location of the Seychelles. Try to imagine a big-picture, long-term (years) scenario.
#8
Yeah, it's off Kenya and Somalia. BFD.
US trade? None. Only free food (extorted from US taxpayers) shipped to east Afica.
Tourists? Not American.
Oil? Not anywhere near Persian Gulf shipping lanes.
QED: None of our damn business.
Posted by: ed ||
09/05/2009 16:03 Comments ||
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#9
They're near the persian gulf shipping lanes for tankers too big to transit the Suez Canal.
#10
Also, the reaper has a 3000 mile range, which could translate to a 1000 mile patrol radius plus a lot of loiter time. Draw a 1000 mile radius circle centered on the Seychelles, you're covering a lot of the shipping lanes between the Persian Gulf and Diego Garcia.
Not that you'll particularly give a damn, but maybe somebody not married to the Pat Buchanan School of International Studies might: One of the big issues with eastern Africa is that it's still a support area for Islamo-fascists. There have been signs of increased instability in Kenya. One of the jobs of Africa Command is to look long-term and establish some sort of cooperative effort with various nations, in case - no snark here, please - Africa goes to hell in a handbasket. Eastern and southern Africa right now are particularly troubling.
[Maghrebia] Algerian security services thwarted plans for several terrorist attacks on security services in Nasiriyah, Boumerdes province, El Khabar reported on Friday (September 4th). The arrest in Boumerdes of some 50 people suspected of providing logistical support to terrorists reportedly led to the successful security operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] A Salé court on Thursday (September 3rd) arraigned 38 alleged members of a terrorist network specialised in the recruitment of volunteers for al-Qaeda in Iraq and Algeria, local press reported. In July of 2008, Moroccan security services arrested the suspects in Tétouan, Tanger, Chefchaouen, Ahfir, Larache and Al Hoceima. The alleged plan was for members and young recruits to join al-Qaeda training camps in northern Mali before going to Iraq or Algeria.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Yemen's Huthi rebels broke a government' unilateral ceasefire early on Saturday and continued their attacks north of the country making more difficult efforts of aid groups to provide safety to thousands of displaced civilians. Never saw this one coming, did you?
Hours after the government said it had suspended its operations in the north of the country to allow access for aid groups, the rebels launched several attacks in the al-Malahid district of the war-wracked Saada province in the north of the country.
The attacks resulted in heavy exchange of fire with government forces which is feared to further impede the work of the aid groups striving to provide food and shelter for thousands of displaces civilians.
The government had announced late on Friday a unilateral ceasefire that took effect at 18:00 GMT resulting in relative calm, military officials and witnesses told AFP by telephone from the rugged Saada province where the offensive to crush the Zaidi rebels was launched three weeks ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] The Yemeni government plans to suspend its military offensive against Houthi rebels in the north to facilitate the work of aid agencies.
The commission supervising operation Scorched Earth, which began in August, said on Friday that Sana'a "sees no problem in suspending military operations from 9:00 pm (1800 GTM)."
The decision comes shortly after the military said three rebel leaders were killed in a dawn attack on their hideouts in Malaheez, the hotbed of rebellion in Saada Province.
The senior commission said the suspension was a response to requests from international humanitarian organizations and the inhabitants of Saada to allow in food and aid for people displaced in the conflict which began on August 11.
The rebels have announced their "undertaking to halt attacks on the armed forces" and "remove mines, explosives and roadblocks," it added.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR has said Saada city is almost cut off from the outside world, calling for humanitarian corridors to evacuate people and allow aid into the troubled zone.
On August 26, UNHCR estimated that more than 35,000 people have been displaced by recent clashes in the restive province, which has been the scene of sporadic violence over the past five years.
Displaying weapons with Saudi emblems, the Yemeni rebels have accused the neighboring Arab kingdom of helping the offensive by providing military support to government forces and launching several bombing runs over Malaheez, a claims Sana'a has rebuffed as 'baseless lies'.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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Yemen said on Friday it had killed three rebel leaders in fighting in the north.
"Three terrorist rebel leaders met their deaths in an army operation in the Malahidh area of Saada province," a military statement said, naming the men killed on Thursday as Jarallah Mohammed Ismail, Ali Abd-Rabbo Jabal and Abdelaziz al-Uraimi.
Government forces have been waging operation "Scorched Earth" against the Zaidi rebels since August 11.
The statement said a recent deployment of elite marksmen to the conflict zones "has inflicted enormous losses" on rebel forces.
" The authorities have missed the chance. They will be responsible for the consequences of the war. "
Abdel-Malek al-Huthi, leader of the rebellion
On Wednesday the leader of the rebellion threatened a war of attrition the day after the government refused his offer of a truce.
In a statement released in Sanaa, Abdel-Malek al-Huthi said that by their refusal, "the authorities have missed the chance" to end the confrontation and "they will be responsible for the consequences of the war."
Huthi threatened to implement a "much longer war of attrition" and promised the government "big surprises."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
These stories seem to be in inverse chronological order.
[Bangla Daily Star] Police arrested 30 activists of Hizb ut-Tahrir near Baitul Mukarram National Mosque after Juma prayers yesterday.
The Tahrir men were holding a rally to commemorate 'Badar Day', blocking the traffic on the road in front of the mosque.
On information, law enforcers and intelligence personnel took position before the prayer time. As 300 activists gathered outside the mosque, they swooped on them and took away banners, festoons and leaflets from their possession.
A scuffle broke out as some of the activists tried to free their fellows being held by police. Seven policemen were injured when the activists attacked the law enforcers, said a DMP press release.
The activists claimed that the law enforcers intercepted their rally without any provocation and detained them without reason.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] At least five people have lost their lives during massive protests against syringe attacks in China's restive western city of Urumqi this week.
"Five people have been confirmed dead and 14 others injured and hospitalized following Thursday's protests," Zhang Hong, vice-mayor of Urumqi, was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency on Friday.
It was unclear how the deaths happened, but thousands of Han Chinese have been protesting over an unexplained spate of stabbings with syringes. Many of the protesters blame ethnic Uyghurs for the stabbings.
By Thursday, local hospitals had dealt with 531 victims of hypodermic syringe stabbings, 106 of whom showed obvious signs of needle attacks.
Meanwhile, Chinese officials say the attacks were premeditated and organized to create terror.
China's Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu arrived in Urumqi on Friday to defuse the ongoing unrest in the city. "The three forces (separatism, terrorism and extremism) at home and abroad are not willing to see ethnic unity," he said.
"So they are using 'soft violence' to disrupt social order and instigate ethnic hatred," Meng stated upon his arrival in the region.
Hundreds of people lost their lives and thousands more sustained wounds due to violence in the Xinjiang province and its capital city Urumqi in May. The incident triggered Muslim' resentment across the globe over Beijing's degrading treatment towards Uighurs.
Despite China's booming economy -- which has brought prosperity and generated more jobs in the mainland -- the Turkic-speaking Muslim minority of Uighurs have long been marginalized.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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Pakistani troops backed by helicopter gunships killed about 43 militants Saturday in attacks on hideouts in the northwestern Khyber Pass region, a spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps said.
The Khyber Pass is a main route for supplies trucked from the Pakistani port of Karachi to Western forces battling al Qaeda and Taliban militants in Afghanistan.
The airstrikes took place as troops mopped up militant positions in the northwestern Swat valley, where the military says over 2,000 fighters have been killed since an offensive was launched in April.
Troops began a new operation in the Khyber this week against militants who included those who had fled the Swat offensive.
"Our forces targeted a headquarters of Lashkar-e-Islam and about 15 militants were killed in the attack," said a Frontier Corps spokesman in Peshawar, referring to a group under the command of Mangal Bagh, an ethnic Pashtun Islamist militant.
A further 28 were killed elsewhere in clashes with insurgents and airstrikes on suspected militant hideouts.
The Khyber is one of seven Pakistani regions with a high degree of autonomy based on tribal laws. On August 27 a suicide bomber killed 22 border guards at the main crossing to Afghanistan.
Helicopter gunships and fighter planes also pounded militant positions in the tribal region of Orakzai that borders Khyber, and intelligence officials said there had been casualties.
In Swat, security forces killed a militant commander and arrested five others, according to a military statement. Seven more militants surrendered to security forces.
Troops also destroyed two hideouts in the neighboring Dir region, the military said.
Security forces on Friday killed six terrorists and arrested another 41 during search and clearance operations in Swat and Khyber Agency. "Security forces conducted search operation at Peochar and killed one terrorist," the ISPR said in its daily update. It said six terrorists surrendered to the security forces at Salhand, while another two surrendered at Shah Dehri. Also, the forces apprehended seven suspects during search operations in Derai and Damghar, near Kanju. Two more suspects were arrested from Mingora, the ISPR said. Meanwhile, five terrorists were killed and 24 arrested during a clash with the security forces in Khyber Agency's Bara tehsil.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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Iraq began stationing thousands of extra police on the border with Syria this week in response to a spate of bombings blamed on militants Baghdad accuses Damascus of sheltering, an official said on Friday.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has accused Syria of turning a blind eye to Sunni militants using it as a safe haven.
That sounds like a very good idea.
" These are the emergency forces for the borders ... to fill in the gaps "
Major-General Tariq Yusuf, police chief of the Iraqi western Anbar province
Maliki says 90 percent of foreign jihadists entering Iraq do so through Syria, including fighters he blames for two bomb attacks outside ministries in Baghdad that killed nearly 100 people last month.
"These are the emergency forces for the borders ... to fill in the gaps," Major-General Tariq Yusuf, police chief of Iraq's western Anbar province, which borders Syria, told Reuters. He said Maliki had ordered the deployment personally.
Some were already stationed, while others were on the way, he said, declining to give further details.
"There is a government accusation against Syria relating to the bomb attacks ... They have information that there is a threat from Syria," he added. "We have caught two infiltrators trying to enter in the last two months."
Explanations demanded
" We just asked for investigation. But we have the proof and evidence and confessions. Al-Qaeda has even declared that it gets the logistic support from groups operating in Syria, and we have proof of that "
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh
On Thursday, Maliki challenged Syria to explain why it shelters armed groups Iraq blames for staging bombings in its territory. Baghdad has demanded that Damascus hand over two alleged masterminds of the bombings in the Iraqi capital.
Iraq's Shiite-led government blames supporters of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party and Sunni Islamist al Qaeda for recent attacks, and says Baath party leaders plotted the bombings from Syrian territory.
Iraqi officials on Monday broadcast a video of what they said was a confession by a suspected al Qaeda militant claiming to have been trained by Syrian intelligence agents there.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called Iraq's accusations "immoral" and demanded Baghdad provide proof.
Maliki has formally asked the U.N. Security Council to launch an inquiry into the bombs.
Addressing the state-run Iraqiya TV station in a program aired on Friday, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the request for an inquiry had not mentioned Syria.
"We just asked for investigation," he said. "But we have the proof and evidence and confessions. Al-Qaeda has even declared that it gets the logistic support from groups operating in Syria, and we have proof of that."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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Ma'an - Israeli authorities decided to close all three crossing points used to ship goods into the Gaza Strip on Friday.
Palestinian crossings representative Raed Fattouh said that the Israeli side closed the Kerem Shalom, Karni, and Nahal Oz crossings without stating an explanation.
Most days Israel opens at least two of the crossings to allow limited shipments of food, fuel, and humanitarian goods into Gaza. Since the imposition of a strict blockade more than two years ago, the amount of goods has dropped to one-fifth of previous levels, and the types of items allowed in are severely restricted.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
It's Tunnel Time Ahmed, in you go. "Get me some wheaties, a pack of smokes and a couple of AKs"
Posted by: Steven ||
09/05/2009 0:42 Comments ||
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A Muslim man was killed and his wife was injured in a drive-by shooting in this southern border province Saturday morning. Police said the couple were riding their motorcycle to their rubber plantation when two terrorists insurgents on a motorcycle caught up and opened fire at them.
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.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Yemen's Huthi rebels broke a government' unilateral ceasefire early on Saturday and continued their attacks north of the country making more difficult efforts of aid groups to provide safety to thousands of displaced civilians. 
Yemen said on Friday it had killed three rebel leaders in fighting in the north.
