Somali insurgents shot down a US drone aircraft flying over the southern port of Kismayo on Monday and were searching for the wreckage, a spokesman for the Shahaab insurgent group said.
"We fired at an American plane spying for information over Kismayo. Our forces targeted the plane and shot it and we saw the plane burning. We think it fell into the sea," said Sheikh Hassan Yacqub.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
And they killed all aboard. Anymore exciting stories? The fact remains that they are almost totally helpless against these weapons.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/20/2009 4:47 Comments ||
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#3
It wasn't shot down, it landed on a submarine ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/20/2009 8:44 Comments ||
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#4
If the US were flying drones over Somalia, I doubt they'd be flown low enough for the Somalis to shoot them down. I'd suspect the launch of a Global Hawk. Predators/Reapers would only be flown if there was a target to use it against. I wonder if they shot down another kite...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/20/2009 14:52 Comments ||
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#5
More likely the Somali jihadis are imitating the Paleostinian press release jihad on account of total impotence against the real thing.
Posted by: ed ||
10/20/2009 14:59 Comments ||
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#6
Shot it down with what? Surely the thing was flying high enough to thumb its nose at just about anything insurgents could possibly bring to bear.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Hardline al-Shabaab rebels have destroyed a mosque and the grave of a revered Sufi Muslim sheikh in central Somalia after shooting in the air to drive away local protesters, residents said on Monday.
Al-Shabaab, which Washington says is al-Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state, has targeted Sufi holy sites and religious leaders in the past, saying their practices go against the insurgents' strict interpretation of Islamic law.
The rebel group is waging a stubborn insurgency against the fragile U.N.-backed government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.
Witnesses said residents in the small town of Galhareeri tried to stop al-Shabaab fighters late on Sunday, but the rebel gunmen opened fire in the air, forcing everyone to flee.
"They destroyed the grave of Sheikh Ali Ibaar and our mosque. They also knocked down our Islamic university," local elder Hassan Ali said.
"We are now just squatting among the trees on the outskirts of the town. We do not know where to flee."
Fighting in Somalia has killed 19,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes.
Al-Shabaab insurgent group has shocked many Somalis, who are traditionally moderate Muslims, with its stern version of Sharia (Islamic law,) which has involved amputations for thieves -- and most recently the whipping in public of women for wearing bras.
Al-Shabaab fighters have also banned movies in territory under their control, as well as forbidding musical telephone ringtones, dancing at weddings and playing or watching soccer.
Some residents, however, give the rebels credit for restoring a degree of law and order to parts of the country.
Ali Yasin Gedi, vice chairman of Mogadishu's Elman Peace and Human Rights Organization, told Reuters that Sunday's attacks in Galhareeri were a violation of the freedom to worship. "It is against Islam to violate human rights," he said. Right. Tell it to the Shabaab.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
If we had anything resembling Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy, we could have a positive effect from ALQ own-goals like this one.
And I can't blame Obama, this should have been taken care of years ago.
"It is against Islam to violate human rights"
I would make a big deal out of that statement, in a way that would probably make many Muslims uncomfortable. But I am a big meanie.
#2
Times like these are when you need a drone carrying a napalm canister. I'm sure that only Al-Shabaab would have been barbecued. We're trying to fight a war with both arms tied behind our back and one foot in a bucket. That's a recipe for losing.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/20/2009 14:55 Comments ||
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Somali pirates seized a Chinese cargo ship Monday with 25 people onboard, a naval spokesman for the European Union's anti-piracy force said, in the first successful attack on a Chinese vessel since the country deployed three naval warships to the region.
Cmdr. John Harbour said that coalition forces had observed at least two pirates onboard the deck of the De Xin Hai and the cargo ship also was towing two light skiffs used by the pirates behind it. All 25 crew onboard are Chinese, he said.
The attack occurred early Monday in the Indian Ocean about 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) east of the lawless Somali coastline. Harbour said he believed it was the farthest afield the pirates had ever struck.
"We're pushing them further and further afield to get targets," he said, referring to a coalition of navies dedicated to fighting piracy in the region.
Analyst Roger Middleton from British thinktank Chatham House said it was unlikely that the Chinese would want to endanger the lives of their crew through direct intervention. French and American navies have both engaged pirates holding hostages, he said, but only when the navies believed the hostages' lives were in imminent danger.
The Chinese "probably would use a more cautious approach," Middleton said. But, he added: "We've never seen so many Chinese citizens captured at a time when Chinese ships were in the region."
A previous attack on a Chinese vessel last year was repelled when the crew used homemade Molotov cocktails to fight off their attackers.
Somali pirates have recently ramped up attacks after a period of quiet during poor weather. They use sophisticated equipment and so-called larger "mother ships" to enable them to strike hundreds of miles offshore. The multimillion-dollar ransoms they share are a fortune in their impoverished and war-ravaged country.
A total of 146 people, including the crew of the De Xin Hai, are currently being held hostage by pirates.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#3
What else would the Chinese do? They're going to use it as an excuse to expand their naval power. They're cranking out all these brand-new destroyers and nothing to do with them.
#5
First India, then the French, now the Chinese. Very interesting, its almost as if the Pirates are daring these Great Powers (but not Superpowers) to engage in the region.
#6
Band together and turn the coastline into craters.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/20/2009 12:37 Comments ||
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#7
One or two ARCLIGHT strikes that leave nothing standing in the pirates' home port higher than a six-inch pile of rubble would put an end to this. We just don't have the courage to go against "public opinion" (mostly from the Euroweenies). Thus, the pirates keep pirating.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/20/2009 14:58 Comments ||
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#8
OP - the home towns would be ideal for napalm...
The news of Louzaï's death is a blow to al-Qaeda leader Abdelmalek Droukdel "and those who remain loyal to him", Presse-DZ editorialised on Monday.
In other news, Algerian security forces on Saturday October (17th) successfully concluded a large-scale offensive against terrorist groups operating in Kabylie, Tout sur l'Algerie reported. Ground forces in Iloula Oumalou and Imsouha, backed by aerial bombardment, targeted an arms and munitions trafficking operation that supplied arms and munitions to terrorist groups in Tizi Ouzou and Boumerdès.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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Tajikistan's security forces killed four Taliban-linked militants and captured one in a gunfight, the Central Asian state's Interior Ministry said on Monday.
Tokhir Normatov, a senior ministry official, said the shootout took place on Sunday in the town of Isfara, close to the border with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan when security forces tried to detain members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).
"The security forces fired back and killed four... another one surrendered and was detained," Normatov told Reuters. Pakistan said this month it had killed Takhir Yuldashev, the leader of the IMU, which has fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan and is also believed to be aligned with Al Qaeda. Ex-Soviet Tajikistan, which borders Afghanistan, reported a string of gunfights with the IMU this year, prompting fears of violence spilling into the wider Central Asia region.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
North Korea has been caught trying to acquire South Korean military equipment capable of jamming communications, officials said Monday.
North Korean agents based in China attempted to buy two devices produced for the South Korean military in 2005 and 2007, the defence ministry said. The devices generate noise to stop an enemy from eavesdropping on communications between South Korean military units, it said. "The North's attempts, which we know of from intelligence, prompted security authorities to take steps to tighten management of related equipment," a ministry spokesman said.
The ministry refused to confirm a statement from Kim Dong-Sung, a legislator from South Korea's ruling Grand National Party, that North Korea had failed to acquire the equipment. "We received a report from military security authorities that the North's attempts were unsuccessful but they did not say how," an aide to Kim told AFP.
South Korea Monday described North Korea's admission of an enriched uranium nuclear weapons programme as a "very worrying" development and questioned whether the country is committed to disarming.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
South Korea Monday described North Korea's admission of an enriched uranium nuclear weapons programme as a "very worrying" development and questioned whether the country is committed to disarming.
I wonder what their first clue was....
Hell I'd bet if Kimmie would just have waited Obumble would have sold it to him at a fire sale price.
TWIN suicide blasts have torn through a university campus in Pakistan's capital, killing five people, as the military pursues a major anti-Taliban offensive in the lawless northwest.
Today's bombing of Islamabad's International Islamic University was the seventh major militant attack in just over a fortnight and the first since the military launched what officials vowed would be a knockout blow against the Taliban.
Two explosions seconds apart rocked a male teaching faculty and women's cafeteria of what is one of the largest Islamic universities in the world, attracting Muslim students from home and abroad.
"We are in a state of war. They will make every effort to destabilise the country. These so-called Islamists are enemies of Islam and enemies of Pakistan,'' Interior Minister Rehman Malik said at Islamabad's main hospital.
The US embassy in Pakistan said the "vicious attack on a respected Islamic educational institution reveals yet again the cruel and inhuman nature of the terrorists operating against Pakistan and its people''.
"Seven people including two suicide bombers are dead, and 29 injured in the two attacks. Among the dead is one female,'' senior city administration official Rana Akbar Hayat said.
Doctor Minjahul Siraj, at Islamabad's main hospital, said 22 people were wounded including 16 women.
The first blast ripped through the faculty of Islamic jurisprudence used by male students and the second hit a women's cafeteria.
Posted by: tipper ||
10/20/2009 10:25 ||
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#1
Is it time to start whacking preachers yet, boys?
#2
Past time, but their "Religion" (Spit) prohibits them.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/20/2009 12:40 Comments ||
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#3
other reports on this included the fact that many students refused to believe the perps were Sunni moslem and blamed India, Iran, Britain Israel or the US
Posted by: lord garth ||
10/20/2009 14:12 Comments ||
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#4
POPCORN! Get cher popcorn here! Can't watch the game with a popcorn!
Pakistan's army, in the midst of a major new offensive against Taliban militants, has struck deals to keep two powerful, anti-U.S. tribal chiefs from joining the battle against the government, officials said Monday.
The deals increase the chances of an army victory against Pakistan's enemy No. 1, but indicate that the 3-day-old assault into the Taliban's strongholds in South Waziristan may have less effect than the U.S. wants on a spreading insurgency across the border in Afghanistan.
Under the terms agreed to about three weeks ago, Taliban renegades Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur will stay out of the current fight in parts of South Waziristan controlled by the Pakistani Taliban. They will also allow the army to move through their own lands unimpeded, giving the military additional fronts from which to attack the Taliban.
In exchange, the army will ease patrols and bombings in the lands controlled by Nazir and Bahadur, two Pakistani intelligence officials based in the region told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because revealing their identities would compromise their work.
An army spokesman described the deal as an "understanding" with the men that they would stay neutral. The agreements underscore Pakistan's past practice of targeting only militant groups that attack the government or its forces inside Pakistan.
That should get interesting, now that the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban have decided to work together in both arenas.
Western officials say South Waziristan is also a major sanctuary and training ground for al-Qaida operatives. The mountain-studded region has been under near-total militant control for years and is considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden.
The United States has responded cautiously to the initial Pakistani strategy, publicly welcoming the offensive but saying little about the specific choice of targets.
"We have a shared goal here, and the shared goal is fighting violent extremism," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Monday.
Kelly said he was unaware of an agreement to keep some militant factions out of the fight for now, but other U.S. officials said the strategy is not surprising or necessarily worrisome.
Because the faction loyal to Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud poses the most direct threat to the Pakistani government and army, it is the logical first target, U.S. officials briefed on the offensive said.
While a broad offensive that takes on all comers at once might be ideal, it is not practical, U.S. military officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the United States has no direct role in the operations of another country.
U.S. officials are watching the offensive closely with the hope that the Pakistani army will not pull back after the initial onslaught, and will eventually widen the offensive to cover other militant factions and the more forbidding ground of North Waziristan.
The army's offensive in South Waziristan is pitting some 30,000 troops against 11,500 militants belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella grouping of the country's main militant factions blamed for 80 percent of the attacks in this nuclear-armed nation over the last three years.
The Taliban have claimed responsibility for a surge in strikes over the past two weeks that has killed more than 170 people. The attacks have included a 22-hour siege of the army headquarters and a bombing of the U.N. building in the capital, Islamabad.
Pakistani security analysts said the army had little choice but to cut deals with rival Taliban factions to have a chance of success. The campaign will likely be far tougher than in the Swat Valley, a northwest region where government troops overpowered insurgents this year. The army has conducted three previous offensives in South Waziristan since 2004, all unsuccessful.
"If the army opens up multiple fronts, they will be deluged," said Khalid Aziz, a former top administrator in the northwest. "It's like having a patient suffering from multiple diseases -- you tend to treat those that are life-threatening first."
The army is setting its sights on Hakimullah Mehsud, who became leader of the Pakistani Taliban after its former chief, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a U.S. missile strike in August.
Bahadur's area of influence lies in North Waziristan just across the border from South Waziristan, abutting land controlled by the Pakistani Taliban. He and his followers come from a different tribe than the Mehsuds, who make up the majority of the Pakistani Taliban. Nazir controls territory in South Waziristan.
Both allow their lands to be used by fighters who cross into Afghanistan and are loyal to the Mullah Omar, the head of the Afghan Taliban. Omar is believed to be living in Pakistan.
As the region's British colonial rulers did decades ago, the army is exploiting tribal rivalries to try to gain control in the region. Nazir is an old-time opponent of the Mehsud tribe, while Bahadur is reportedly angry over the appointment of Hakimullah as Taliban chief.
Being able to move unimpeded through their territory gives the Pakistani army a massive boost in its current campaign.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said there was no agreement with the two men, but "there is an understanding with them that they will not interfere in this war." He said the army "had to talk to the devil" to isolate its main target.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday sentenced Hijratullah, a man charged with involvement in the March 30 attack on the Manawan police training school, to ten years in prison.
Law enforcers had arrested Hijratullah near a makeshift helipad at the Manawan police training centre on March 30. Authorities had also confiscated grenades, daggers, a wireless device and an Afghan passport from him.
The punishment awarded to Hijratullah is less than the maximum allowed under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997.
According to Article 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, "Whoever commits a terrorist act shall: (i) if such act has resulted in the death of any person be punished with death; and (ii) in any other case be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years but may extend to life imprisonment, and shall also be liable to fine."
However, Hijratullah was acquitted of charges in another attack on a police station on The Mall due to lack of evidence.
At least 26 people were killed and over 150 injured in the first siege of the Manawan training school in March. Baitullah Mehsud, the late commander of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, had claimed responsibility for the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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Law enforcement agencies have arrested at least 114 suspected Taliban from across the country during an ongoing security operation, a private TV channel reported on Monday. According to the channel, Sindh police arrested 18 suspected Taliban, including a foreigner woman from Guddu area of Kashmoor district. District Police Officer Abdul Salam told reporters that in the last three days, the police had arrested 49 suspects from the Sindh-Punjab border and other areas of Guddu. He said those arrested included Afghan, Iranian, Tajik, Uzbek and Turk nationals.
Meanwhile, Islamabad police on Monday arrested an activist of the banned Jamaatud Dawa organisation from Pir Wadhai.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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At least six Taliban were killed and three others injured during security forces' action in Salarzai and Mamoond tehsils of Bajaur Agency on Monday, sources told Daily Times. Separately, a suspected Taliban was killed while attempting to build a bomb in Mandal area of Bajaur Agency. The explosion killed the Taliban and injured members of his family in the tribal region. Further details of the incident were not available. Meanwhile, security forces also claimed to have recovered heavy artillery, including anti-aircraft guns, from Khar.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] At least four suspected militants were killed as jets destroyed a house in the Kranch area of Upper Orakzai Agency, DawnNews reported.
According to unconfirmed reports, tribesmen were trying to reach the remote area for rescue and confirmation of the casualties.
Meanwhile, sources said, four people, including a child, were injured as jets destroyed two houses in bombardment in the Feroze Khel and Sultanzai areas of Lower Orakzai Agency. -- DawnNews
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] A man identified as Aijaz attempted to rob a bank by posing as suicide bomber in Lahore's Mustafabad locality, but was arrested injured with security guard's firing.
According to police, Aijaz, who lives in Karachi, broke into the bank posing as a suicide bomber, tried to harass people and bank staff to get away with looted money.
The robber was shot by a guard on his way out of the bank with 3 million rupees. A passerby, Sajid was also hurt by guard's firing.
Police recovered the cash from Aijaz. It was later found that there was no suicide jacket on him.
Both Sajid and the robber have been shifted to hospital for treatment.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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Eighteen Taliban were killed in the last 24 hours, while two soldiers were martyred and another 12 injured, Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Major General Athar Abbas said on Monday.
He told journalists at a press conference that security forces were advancing from three fronts: on the Jandola--Sararogha axis, on the Shakai-Ladha axis and from the south and southwest of Razmak. He said security forces had surrounded Kotkai, the hometown of Qari Hussain - widely regarded as the "mentor of suicide bombers" - and secured Tor Ghundai (east of Kotkai) and Shishwarm (northeast of Kotkai). He said the forces were consolidating positions after securing Sherwangi despite stiff resistance. He said several terrorists were killed in heavy fighting.
Abbas said security forces were also consolidating their positions in the south and southwest of Razmak despite rocket fire from Makeen.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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Police on Monday claimed to have arrested Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's (TTP) Karachi chief, along with three accomplices, all accused of planning a major terrorist.
Speaking at a press conference, CCPO Waseem Ahmed and SSP Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam Khan said they had arrested Akhtar Zaman, believed to be the chief of the TTP's Karachi chapter, and three accomplices identified as Samiullah alias Shamim, Fazal Kareem and Munawwar Khan from a Sohrab Goth hideout. "These men had tried to blow up an oil depot in Kemari on September 15," Ahmed said, adding the culprits had planned to target the offices of security agencies using an explosives-laden vehicle.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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It's Debka, so salt to taste. But still, one can hope they're right.
The mysterious explosion which knocked Hizballah's military telecommunications network out of commission Saturday night, Oct. 17, had evolved by Sunday morning into three Israeli wiretapping devices buried in the hills of Houla in South Lebanon which were discovered and blown up.
DEBKAfile's military sources report that Hizballah and the Lebanese army had got together in the interim on their story, indicating deepening cooperation between them. The story was fabricated to cover up the extent of the damage to Hizballah's military telecommunications network and pay Israel back for exposing the 300 illegal weapons cached in the South Lebanon and housing thousands of different types of missiles - in gross breach of UN Security Council resolution 1701.
UNFIL spokesperson Yasmina Bouziane did not confirm the Hizballah-Lebanese army's account - only that peacekeepers were at the scene. They have not finished investigating an explosion five days ago which destroyed one of the forbidden weapons caches that were hidden behind the villa of Hizballah leader Saeed Nasser.
Our military sources add that Hizballah can no longer deny that a mysterious hand is at work destroying its weapons depots and the logistical infrastructure it has installed in South Lebanon. They believe this hand belongs to the IDF's special operations units.
A Lebanese military spokesman said Sunday night that Israeli unmanned aircraft detonated one device Saturday night and a second Sunday morning, while the third was defused by the Lebanese army during the day.
Not everyone in Lebanon bought the story: Some Lebanese media quoted Lebanese officers as attributing the explosion to a "breach" in the Hizballah's telecommunications network in south Lebanon. Two cables of 50 meters were exposed - one for wiretapping, the other for broadcasting, they reported.
#1
IDF has to know that if they attack Iran, Hizballah will attack them. So you might expect them to try to neutralize Hizballah as much as possible beforehand.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/20/2009 18:55 Comments ||
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#3
Given that the bad guys weapons storage is probably as bad as the Russians, all a saboteur would need to do is attach a small, hidden antenna to some explosives. A "miili-amperage overcharge" can happen naturally, or is very easy to induce at a distance.
Claymore mines were very sensitive to such overcharges, so teaching their use was entirely by the numbers, with emphasis on grounding those damned wires.
Ma'an -- The military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the National Resistance Brigades, claimed on Sunday evening that a group of their fighters exchanged fire with Israeli forces.
In a statement on Monday morning, the group said a special Israeli unit made an incursion across the border into Beit Hanoun, and retreated under heavy fire.
Israel's army denied that the reported incursion took place.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Actually, it's pretty clever, since anyway, the main idea is to generate media signature, more than really harass the joooooos... so, why take risks and actually have a shootout that you will either lose, or don't win?
Just stay home, and phone rooters that you kicked israeli ass and drove them back with the tail between their legs, while sipping some tea and surfing sat channels to see if there's some T&A. Same benefit, much safer.
#2
group of their fighters? Why would anyone join the DFLP anway since it was even an after-thought during the 70s-80s? It's like saying the NFL wanted me, but but chose to play arena football.
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.
Somali pirates seized a Chinese cargo ship Monday with 25 people onboard, a naval spokesman for the European Union's anti-piracy force said, in the first successful attack on a Chinese vessel since the country deployed three naval warships to the region.
[Maghrebia] An al-Qaeda terrorist sought since 1995 died October 7th while attempting to flee Algerian security forces in El Bayadh, El Khabar and other local media outlets reported on Sunday (October 18th). Trained engineer Mourad Louzaï, 43, aka Nouh Abou Qotada El Salafi, joined the former GSPC in 1994. In 2009, after being named head of Algeria internal communications for al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, he became responsible for co-ordinating contact between local fighters and zone commanders, sources said. Louzaï also reportedly organised and participated in the June 17th ambush slaying of 20 gendarmes and a civilian in Bordj Bou Arréridj. 
Tajikistan's security forces killed four Taliban-linked militants and captured one in a gunfight, the Central Asian state's Interior Ministry said on Monday. 
[Geo News] A man identified as Aijaz attempted to rob a bank by posing as suicide bomber in Lahore's Mustafabad locality, but was arrested injured with security guard's firing.
Eighteen Taliban were killed in the last 24 hours, while two soldiers were martyred and another 12 injured, Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Major General Athar Abbas said on Monday.
Police on Monday claimed to have arrested Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's (TTP) Karachi chief, along with three accomplices, all accused of planning a major terrorist.
