[Al Arabiya Latest] Two Sudanese staffers of Libya's Gaddafi Foundation who had been reported kidnapped in Darfur are free, Sudan's state minister for humanitarian affairs told AFP on Friday, saying they had never been abducted.
"I have just contacted the security people at El-Fasher (capital of north Darfur). The two Sudanese from the Gaddafi Foundation were freed after half an hour. It was a misunderstanding," Abdel Baqi Gilani said, adding that they had never been kidnapped but declining to elaborate.
Sudanese intelligence services also insisted that the two men had not been abducted, according to a senior official with the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] French aid worker Gauthier Lefevre from the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) was kidnapped in Darfur on Thursday, the organization said in a statement.
The ICRC currently has no indication of who the abductors might be or of their motives, the statement said.
The abduction comes just days after an Irish and Ugandan aid worker from the agency Goal were released after more than 100 days in captivity in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
Darfur has seen a wave of kidnappings this year, mostly from young armed men demanding ransom money. Two U.N.-African Union peacekeepers are still in captivity.
Aid agencies say they have faced increased hostility in Darfur since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in March.
The United Nations estimates some 300,000 have died since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in 2003 accusing central government of neglect. The brutal counter-insurgency campaign drove more than 2 million people from their homes.
Heavy fighting has dwindled but sporadic clashes continue and the spread of arms has led to the collapse of law and order in the huge region.
"The ICRC is calling for the rapid and unconditional release of its kidnapped staff member," the statement added.
Lefevre was kidnapped at 12 p.m. (0900 GMT) north of the West Darfur town of el-Geneina, near the border with Chad by unknown armed men.
ICRC said he was travelling in one of two clearly marked vehicles from the organization.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] An armed Islamist group on Thursday killed seven private security guards in an ambush in the Kabylie region east of the capital, residents and security sources said.
It was the deadliest attack in the country since July, when Islamists killed 11 in an attack on a military convoy.
The string of attacks has been blamed on al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which emerged out of the Algerian fundamentalist Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat and sees itself as the north African wing of Osama bin Laden's network.
The group of guards were on their way to pick up employees of the Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin when they were attacked 25 kilometers (16 miles) south of Tizi Ouzou.
Six of the guards were killed instantly and the body of the seventh was found near the site of the ambush. The driver of the bus was badly wounded in the attack and taken to hospital in the nearby town of Boghni.
Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin is building a water pipe network in the drought-hit area south of Tizi Ouzou.
Shortly after the ambush, security forces launched a sweep of the area, local people said.
Earlier this month Algerian government forces killed an armed Islamist identified as AQIM commander Mourad Louzai.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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An Interpol wanted criminal was found shot dead at Siddhirganj in the district yesterday. The deceased, Ashiqur Rahman Shikder alias Tofazzal Hossain Shikder, 45, was the vice-president of Narayanganj district Jubo League.
The deceased, Ashiqur Rahman Shikder alias Tofazzal Hossain Shikder, 45, was the vice-president of Narayanganj district Jubo League.
His bullet-riddled body was found lying on the road near Jalkuri Health Complex in the morning. Informed by the locals, police recovered the body.
According to a police source, International Police Organisation (Interpol) issued a "red warrant" against Tofazzal and his brother Golam Rasul Shikder on March 12, 2007.
"The warrant was on the Interpol website till the time he was slain," the source said. He was wanted in 20 cases, including two sensational double-murder cases.
Witnesses said two bullets holed into his forehead and an eye. The body was sent to morgue for autopsy.
Family members, however, claimed that RAB members arrested Tofazzal from a residential hotel in Tantibazar area of Dhaka on Wednesday and he might have been killed in "crossfire".
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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So do we fill in the blanks to the story now or wait for the 'official' Crossfire report to be published?
[Kyodo: Korea] The United States on Friday slapped sanctions on North Korea"s Amroggang Development Bank and a North Korean banker for their alleged involvement in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Under the sanctions, Amroggang and Tanchon Commercial Bank President Kim Tong Myong will face a freeze of any assets in the United States and be banned from doing business with U.S. financial institutions, the Treasury Department said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Hmmm, One way for Obama to get the needed cash for Obamacare.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/24/2009 0:57 Comments ||
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Whaqt kinda assets does Amroggang Development Bank have? Thirty, forty bucks?
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 11:00 Comments ||
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They probably have billions in counterfeit $100 bills, which, by the way, are worth more than genuine Federal Reserve notes. Don't underestimate the power of this great bank.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/24/2009 12:00 Comments ||
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A new U.S. congressional report claims North Korea is transferring weapons technology to Syria through Iran.
In the report, the Congressional Research Service, an entity that works exclusively for the U.S. Congress, revealed that Iran was assisting in the procurement of weapons of mass destruction-related technology by providing North Korea with a platform for such trade with Syria.
The report however does not offer further details on the alleged interaction.
That is certainly quite enough to be going on with.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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The way we are dealing with cancerous nations like NK, Iran, and Syria is comparable to a person with cancer treating it with diet modifications. Insane.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/24/2009 7:20 Comments ||
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I read that as Norks passing more wind. sounds right, about all they'regood for is more and more mouth.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/24/2009 12:25 Comments ||
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Authorities in Minnesota are declining to extradite a man arrested at O'Hare International Airport on Thursday on a Minnesota warrant for allegedly making terror threats, officials said.
Ismail Alqawasmi, 36, of Richfield, Minn., who has been in Chicago Police custody since his arrest at O'Hare at 8 p.m. Thursday, will be released after Wright County, Minn., Sheriff's police said they will not drive to Chicago to extradite him, according to Cook County State's Attorney's office spokesman Andy Conklin.
Alqawasmi flew into the United States from Amman, Jordan, on Royal Jordanian airlines and a customs official conducting a name check found an active warrant from Wright County in Buffalo, Minn, for "terroristic threats," according to police.
The alleged threats did not entail a "big plot or conspiracy," according to Wright County Sheriff's Sgt. Michael Steffer.
Alqawasmi was charged with felony terroristic threats and misdemeanor assault after a Jan. 18, 2008, incident in which he allegedly threatened a male acquaintance, Steffer said.
At 11:09 p.m. on Jan. 18, Wright County Sheriff's police responded to a residence at 101 Second St. in St. Carmichael, Minn., after 911 calls reported a person outside making threats with a knife, according to the complaint filed in Minnesota Judicial Court.
Officers found Ismail Hashem Alqawasmi of 6720 15th Ave. S. in Richfield, and his wife Mariam Abumayaleh, 25, sitting in a 1993 Toyota Camry near the residence, the complaint said.
After speaking with Alqawasmi, his wife and the homeowner Moatasim El-Khatib, police found a black plastic-handled steak knife on the stairs. El-Khatib told police Alqawasmi was pounding on his front door, threatening him to come out and talk or else he would cut him, according to the complaint.
Alqawasmi admitted going to El-Khatib's door. El-Khatib stated he feared for his life and believed Alqawasmi was capable of carrying out his threats, according to the complaint.
Alqawasmi was arrested and charged with terroristic threat and reckless disregard of risk, a felony, since he threatened to commit a "crime of violence with purpose to terrorize another or to cause evacuation of a building," the complaint said. He was also charged with fifth-degree assault, a misdemeanor.
Alqawasmi was supposed to appear for a jury trial on Oct. 5, 2009, in Buffalo, Minn., and when he didn't show up, a warrant was issued, according to Steffer.
Conklin said the charges in Minnesota will not be dropped, but police do not wish to travel to Chicago for extradition. Should Alqawasmi be arrested in Minnesota, the charges will still stand.
Alqawasmi was searched and had a Jordanian passport that was being held by U.S. Customs, according to police.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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More like a glorified Disturbing the Peace beef than what we would normally call "terrorism."
Soldiers captured the strategically located hometown of Pakistan's Taliban chief Saturday after fierce fighting, officials said, the army's first major prize as it pushes deeper into a militant stronghold along the Afghan border. The Talibs will now attempt to take it back again.
A suspected U.S. missile killed 22 people elsewhere in the northwest, but apparently missed a top Taliban figure, authorities said. Curses! Foiled again!
Pakistan's eight-day-old offensive in the Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold of South Waziristan is considered its most critical test yet in the campaign to stop the spread of violent Islamist extremism in this nuclear-armed, U.S.-allied country. The army operation has prompted a wave of retaliatory attacks by militants this month that have killed some 200 people. They've been conducting those "retaliatory attacks" for the past five years and the victims have included Benazir Bhutto. Probably President Ten Percent is thinking "they got the old woman, they'll get me if I don't stamp them out like the roaches they are!"
The battle for Kotkai town took several days and involved aerial bombardment as soldiers captured heights around the town. Always a better idea than replaying Dien Bien Foo.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said troops were now ridding the town of land mines and roadside bombs planted by the insurgents. Planted, I'm guessing, when they retook the town, knowing the Mighty Pak Army was gonna take it back from them eventually.
Kotkai is symbolically important because it is the hometown of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud and one of his top deputies, Qari Hussain. It also lies along the way to the major militant base of Sararogha, making it a strategically helpful catch. "Thank God, this is the army's very big success," Abbas said. "The good news is that (communications) intercepts show that there are differences forging among the Taliban ranks. Their aides are deserting them." I wouldn't get my hopes up too far, since there are other ones flocking to the standard from Punjab and parts of Sindh. And probably from Jeddah and Dhubai and Ferghana and Grozny.
Pakistan is under intense international pressure to clear its tribal areas of insurgents, many of whom are blamed for attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. The government has pressed ahead in South Waziristan despite a wave of violence that has put the nation on edge. The wave of violence was there long before the offensive was there. It picked up in 2002, when the jihadi establishment split with the Perv establishment.
Bombings on Friday alone killed 24 people, including 17 headed to a wedding. The reception was simply ruined.
The army said Saturday that three more soldiers had died, putting the army's death toll at 23, and 21 more militants had been killed, putting their overall death toll at 163. That's a 7:1 kill ratio, assuming the Paks aren't lying, which they prob'ly are. I doubt that's high enough, given the flow of reinforcements. Y'gotta kill 'em quicker than they can reconstitute.
Access to the tribal belt is severely restricted, making independently verifying the army's information all but impossible. Multiply Pak casualties by three or four and divide the turban casualties by two, at least. That puts the deaders approximately even, which I'm guessing is about right, even with air support.
The U.S. has launched scores of missile strikes at militant targets in the tribal belt over the past year, killing several top militants including former Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. The latest strike hit Chuhatra village in the tribal region of Bajaur, local government official Mohammad Jamil said. The missile hit a hide-out of the militants that included a tunnel. The target appeared to be Faqir Mohammad, a prominent Taliban leader, but he is believed to have escaped, Jamil said. Most of the 22 killed were Afghan nationals, he said. That's too bad. Faqir would look ever so much better as a corpse. Bajaur's as far north of South Wazoo as you can get and still remain within the FATA.
Pakistan formally protests the missile strikes, saying they violate its sovereignty and raise sympathy for the Taliban, while the U.S. rarely discusses the attacks. Analysts believe the two sides have a secret deal allowing the strikes. That would seem eminently sensible. No doubt that was worked out under the hated Bush administration.
The U.S. has shown no sign of easing the drone-fired attacks even when Pakistan is waging its own fight in the tribal areas. Asked if the missile attacks are a distraction or help, the army spokesman said Pakistan would prefer to go it alone. "We do not want any assistance or interference from outside," Abbas said. "On the other hand, we're not doing a real good job of tracking down Faqir Mohammad, are we? But that makes the assumption tracking him down is something we want to do..."
He further added that a mysterious explosion Wednesday in North Waziristan -- initially described by intelligence officials as a suspected U.S. missile attack -- had turned out to be a blast caused when explosives being loaded onto a vehicle accidentally detonated. "Mahmoud! Your stogie!"
[KABOOM!] The U.N. says some 155,000 civilians have fled the region. The International Committee of the Red Cross said Saturday that it is worried about civilians left behind, but it has no way to verify claims about their status because it has no presence there. Nor is it all that easy to tell the civilians from the combatants. Both the women and the Talibs wear burkas, and subteens are routinely fitted for boom vests.
"We want access both to the areas affected by the fighting and also to the people arrested as part of the operation," said Sebastien Brack, a Red Cross spokesman in Islamabad. "Oh, yasss! We want to send out people in to wander in and out of the warring sides, disrupting their operations and provided lotsa hostages for the Talibs! That is our way!"
The army has deployed some 30,000 troops to South Waziristan against about 12,000 Taliban militants, including up to 1,500 foreign fighters, among them Uzbeks and Arabs. And Chechens. Don't forget the Chechens. And the occasional Brit, though usually they're not named Nigel or Percy.
This article starring:
TTP
Baitullah Mehsud
TTP
Faqir Mohammad
TTP
Hakimullah Mehsud
TTP
Qari Hussain
TTP
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 12:04 ||
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#1
if the Taliban really wants this town, why not retreat and let them reenter? Then go back in to hammer them some more? Then again and again until no more Taliban. No rebel force does well again a fully equipped military. the problem the military has is getting them to stand and fight. So, if you find a place where they will, use it to destroy as many as you can.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/24/2009 14:26 Comments ||
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#2
"Kotkai - home of the Big Pie Hat"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2009 15:29 Comments ||
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#3
Probably one more typical agreement between ISI and Taliban...
Posted by: Large Snerong7311 ||
10/24/2009 19:36 Comments ||
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This is from an Indian publication, naturally. We won't see it appearing in the Pakistainian press unless there are a significant number of casualties, which'll be the fault of RAW catspaws. But it looks like even though the actual Pandits have been chased out, there still remains a residuum of Kashmir local pride, if not actual nationalism. Presumably it's something the Indos will be nurturing and even financing, and rightly so. It'll tend to grow the more India develops and leaves Pakistain in the Islamic dust.
Kashmir's a complicated subject, possibly beyond my increasingly feeble understanding. But it doesn't take much in the way of rocket surgery to consider disguising the Mighty Pak Army as "uncontrollable" tribals and unleashing them on J&K -- which woulda required a cross-country trek and a fragile supply chain -- as a really cheap and cynical operation. About on the level we've come to expect from the Pakistainian government, in fact.
Kashmiris from all walks of life observed a "Black Day" in Pakistan Kashmir, including capital Muzaffarabad, on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of the invasion of the area by Pakistani army men disguised as tribesmen from the North West Frontier of Province (NWFP), known as the Lashkars.
A large number of people, carrying black flags and protest placards, participated in demonstrations held in various parts of Pakistan Kashmir.
Among the participants were Arif Shahid, the general secretary of the All Party National Alliance (APNA), Baltistan National Front leader Nawaz Khan Naji and Abdul Hamid Khan, the Chairman of Balawaristan National Front, besides others.
So vociferous were the protests by the almost 800-odd participants, that security forces deployed to ensure maintenance of law and order, had to use teargas shells and firing in the air to disperse them.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/24/2009 07:08 ||
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Cynical the Paks always can do. Cheap is a must since they barely have two sticks to rub together, especially after President Ten-Percent gets his. You'll not often see 'expensive and cynical' together in Pak-land ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/24/2009 15:44 Comments ||
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The tactic of Pak soldiers in mufti being passed off as tribals has been used several times.
In 1947, Pak officers led a rag tag militia of Pashtuns to seize Kashmir from the Maharajah, who was dithering over Lord Mountbatten's choice of joining India or joining Pakistan.
The tribals did much looting on the way and stopped to abduct several Catholic nuns from a convent they ransacked. While they were busy indulging in looting and rape, the Indians grabbed every transport they could find and airlifted their army into Kashmir.
In 1965 there was Operation Gibralter. Pak soldiers pretending to be tribals infiltrated across the LOC. The local Kashmiri shepherds alerted the Indian army. Soon Indian tanks were moving across the international border and heading for Lahore.
In 1999, the SSG commandos and Northern Light Infantry, in the garb of 'mujahideen' seized several unoccupied posts from where they could cut off the Indian national highway and force a surrender of the Indian garrison. A local Kashmiri shepherd alerted the Indian army. Soon hundreds of artillery pieces were blasting those mountaintop posts and Gurhka and Naga soldiers chopping off heads at 12000 ft.
Pakistan even refused to take back their dead, disavowing them. One Pakistani father, a veteran of the British Indian Army in WW2 approached the Indian HQ in Delhi to get back the body of his son.
Pakistan has given land in Kashmir to Army veterans from the Punjab. These settlers are not welcome by the locals.
In contrast, article 371 of the Indian constitution protects Kashmir. No law passed by the Indian parliament is valid in Kashmir unless also passed by the Kashmir legislature. No non-Kashmiri Indian citizen may buy or own land in Kashmir. Kashmiri MPs sit in the Indian parliament. Many are Federal ministers. One, Nehru, was a Prime Minister. Representation without Taxation!
Posted by: john frum ||
10/24/2009 15:49 Comments ||
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#4
That should be article 370.
371 is a similar article which applies to the North East of India. It protects the tribal people there, with their tradition of communal land ownership, from the timber and mining barons who would have otherwise moved into the NE.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/24/2009 16:00 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Iranian border authorities handed over to Pakistan on Friday the bodies of five Pakistanis, claiming that they were killed in the suicide attack on the Revolutionary Guards on Sunday. Not the boomer, surely? Or were they handed over in coffee cans?
According to sources, Iranian authorities suddenly informed the Taftan administration and Pakistani border officials that they had brought the bodies. 'A letter was handed over to Pakistani border authorities with the bodies,' the sources said. Dear government of Pakistain,
How are you? We are fine. Keep your beturbanned mosque refuse out of our country or they'll get the same.
Yours truly,
Government of Iran
However, Pakistani border officials expressed doubt about the claim of Iranian authorities. A police officer in Taftan, Abid Khan, said the cause of deaths appeared to be torture. 'I am sure they were not killed in a bomb blast.' "We certainly have enough kabooms here. We should know what they look like!"
He said blood was oozing from the ears and noses of two bodies. Although only medical examination would determine the cause of death, they appeared to have been tortured, he said. Musta been pretty fresh-killed for the blood to still be oozing. Maybe he shoulda said "crusted."
The bodies were received by an official of the Taftan administration, Syed Zahid Shah. He said four of the men hailed from Yaro, in Pishin district, and from Nawan Killi, near Quetta. Maybe they died after listening to Muskrat Love ...
He said the deceased -- Abdul Sattar, Rehmatullah, Abdullah, Wali Mohammad and Allah Nazar -- belonged to the Trahkai Pakhtun tribe and had gone to Iran in search of jobs. "I got a job for yez!"
"Oh, yeah? Doin' what?"
"Infantry support to a suicide boomer!"
"What's it pay?"
"10,000 rupees if you make it!"
"And if we don't?"
"72 doe-eyed houris!"
"Apiece?"
The bodies were handed over to their relatives. Amanullah, a relative of one of the victims, said: 'I have received the five bodies in Taftan from Pakistani border officials.' "Yeah. It wuz awful. Poor Sonny. All that blood oozing from his nose and ears! Left a trail all over the house! Pretty much ruined the rug!" "It's a Persian rug, right ma'am?"
He said after learning that the five men, who were related to each other, had been arrested in Zahidan four days ago he had gone to Taftan along with another relative to make efforts for their release. However, when he reached Taftan, he was informed about their death. 'An independent inquiry should be conducted into the cause of the deaths,' he said. "But we're gonna do it on this side of the border!... And we're takin' donations of paper towels!"
AFP adds: Iran's Fars news agency quoted Sistan-Baluchestan's deputy governor Jalal Sayyah as saying that four Pakistani citizens were among those who had died in the attack on the Revolutionary Guards. He alleged that the suicide attacker had been trained in 'one of Jundallah chief Abdolmalek Rigi's bases in Pakistan'.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
He said blood was oozing from the ears and noses of two bodies.
Concussion does exactly that.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/24/2009 1:00 Comments ||
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#2
But then it stops as the blood congeals. The kaboom was a week ago, fergawdsake.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 10:03 Comments ||
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#3
Even if they'd had a liberal application of the number 7 portable drill the bleeding should have stopped if it was a week ago ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/24/2009 10:41 Comments ||
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Once long ago I happened on an accident victim who had been run over by his own car, he was bleeding from his eyes and ears, But he was still conscious, I reassured him and called 911 and he was whisked away by ambulance, I was Told later by the cop on the scene (who I happened to know) That he died in hospital.
Never knew his name.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/24/2009 12:36 Comments ||
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A car bomb ripped through a restaurant in the city's posh Hayatabad township on Friday, leaving 15 people injured.
The injured were taken to the Hayatabad Medical Complex, where two of them were said to be in a critical condition.
The blast in Phase-II of the township damaged the Evergreen Complex, which also has a wedding hall, smashed windowpanes of nearby buildings and houses and snapped power cables.
The restaurant is located near the office of Hayatabad sub-divisional police officer, Bagh-i-Naran and Al-Zarghoni Mosque.
SSP (operations) Mohammad Karim Khan told reporters that the device contained 50-60kg explosives. The bomb planted in a black car was detonated by remote control.
He said police were regularly checking suspected vehicles but there were about 100 exit points and all of them needed detectors for scanning vehicles.
Police released a sketch of the suspect drawn on the basis of description given by eyewitnesses.
District Coordination Officer Sahibzada Mohammad Anis told reporters that two suspects had been taken into custody.
According to witnesses, a young man with thick hair and moustache arrived at the restaurant in a black car and stood there for some time eating grapes. When he started walking away, a watchman of the restaurant called him, but the man walked towards the main entrance of the complex and moments later the car exploded.
A police officer told Dawn that engine and chassis numbers of the car had been found.
An official said that police and Frontier Corps personnel fired into the air to disperse people who had gathered after the blast. This was done, he said, because there were reports that another blast might take place.
NWFP Information Minster Mian Iftikhar Hussain told journalists that militants wanted to terrorise people but the government would never bow to saboteurs and continue to fight them.
He said the government was determined to face challenges and protect lives and property of the people.
This was the fifth blast in Peshawar since Sep 26. The other four attacks claimed 82 lives.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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A suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked a major Pakistani air base on Friday, killing seven people in an escalating campaign that strikes at the heart of this nuclear-armed nation's security forces.
The strike was one of three bombings in northwest Pakistan that killed 24 people and wounded at least 28 as the army pushed a seven-day offensive deeper into al-Qaida and Taliban territory close to the Afghan border.
About 200 people have been killed this month in a string of militant attacks on military, police and civilian targets nationwide. The onslaught is undermining confidence in the U.S-backed government and risks sapping public support for the assault in South Waziristan.
The civilian government and politically powerful military are under intense international pressure to root out Islamist militants that are also blamed for rising attacks on U.S. and NATO troops across the frontier in Afghanistan.
The army has undertaken several offensives along the border in recent years, losing hundreds of soldiers, but questions remain over the country's commitment to the fight against militants that it nurtured for years for use as proxies in India and Afghanistan.
The bomber blew himself up at a checkpoint on a road leading to the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex at Kamra, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the capital, Islamabad. The sprawling complex is the country's major air force maintenance and research hub, servicing and building jet fighters and radar systems.
The blast killed two security officers and five civilians who were on their way to work at the base, said police officer Akbar Abbas. Some 13 people were hurt.
Hours later, an explosion struck a bus traveling in the Mohmand tribal region, further north than South Waziristan.
Four women and three children were among the 17 killed, said Zabit Khan, a local government official. He said it was unclear whether the bus struck a buried bomb or the explosive device was detonated by remote control.
The military has carried out anti-Taliban operations in Mohmand over the last year that it claims have been successful, but insurgents remain there in numbers.
Also Friday, a car bomb exploded in the parking lot of a recreational facility housing a restaurant and a marriage hall in Peshawar, the main city in the northwest. Fifteen people were wounded in that blast.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] A bus carrying a wedding party has hit a landmine resulting in the death of 16 women and children in Pakistan's troubled tribal region.
The bus was on its way to the Mohamand Agency on the Afghan border, where security forces have been pressing an offensive against pro-Taliban insurgents for more than a year.
Two men, five women and nine children were killed. The injured were transferred to the Lady Reading hospital in Peshawar.
Earlier in the day, 15 people were injured when a car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in the northwestern city of Peshawar, underlining the threat to civilians in a nation where more than 190 people have died during pro-Taliban-linked attacks in the past 19 days.
Meanwhile, in another incident of violence, the Pakistani Air Force confirmed that 15 security staff were wounded and two of its personnel died when a bomber blew himself up in the wealthy district of Hayatabad at an air force checkpoint, about 60 kilometers (38 miles) west of the capital Islamabad.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The military said on Friday that the death toll in the assault on the Taliban rose to more than 160 on the seventh day of intense fighting in South Waziristan.
Thirteen militants, including six Uzbeks, have died since the last death toll, bringing the overall number of militants killed during the operation to 142, a statement said.
In addition, two troops have been killed in the offensive around the tribal region, where authorities say scores of Al Qaeda and Taliban-linked attacks have been masterminded, bringing the overall number of dead personnel to 20.
Some of the most 'intense fighting' has been between the Taliban stronghold of Sararogha and Jandola, home of a large military base, where the army said seven militants had been killed and Uzbek-language books confiscated.
Backed by helicopter gunships and warplanes, troops have been locked in heavy fighting aimed at dislodging Taliban from bastions such as Kotkai, the hometown of TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud.
The military said it had secured the ridge of Shishamwan behind Kotkai, after an 'intense engagement' allowing troops to besiege Kotkai from the east.
Around 30,000 troops are taking part in the offensive against an estimated 10-12,000 militants in the tribal area.
Relief workers say that more than 120,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.
Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked extremists have carried out a two-year campaign of suicide bombings and raids that have killed 2,280 people.--
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
[Dawn] Islamabad Capital Territory Police on Friday arrested 60 suspects during the search operation in various areas of the city and also recovered 22 guns, 10 pistols, two Kalashnikovs, ammunition, 102 wine bottles from their possession, the police source said.
According to the details, the search operation has been expanded in the rural areas and strict checking is being done to avert any untoward incident. Most of the arrested persons are Afghan nationals or belong to Waziristan.
On Friday, police conducted a search operation in rural areas including Dhok Noon, Dhok Makhan, Bhatta area, Sohan, Pind Warian, Khana Dak, Khana East, Koral, Ghori town, Kalinger and other slum areas in the jurisdictions of Aabpara and Margallah police stations.
Meanwhile, 40 motorcycles and seven vehicles were also impounded as their owners could not produce the documents.
The Anti-Terrorist Squads have been deputed at Red Zone who would ensure foolproof security around the important buildings and sensitive installations.
The contingents of ATS would also patrol in various sectors and would conduct surprise checking.
Policemen on horse backs have started patrolling in jungle areas as well as rough routes.
The police source said that Eagle Squad and Falcon police teams of Rescue 15 have been directed to further improve patrolling.
In case of any incident, the Falcon staff along with police staff of respective police station would report on the scene.
The police spokesman said these stringent security measures are being taken by Islamabad Police after keeping in view the law and order situation and ensure protection to important offices and buildings.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
Security agencies have arrested two of the highest ranking Punjabi Taliban commanders, who are believed to have masterminded the 10/10 attack on Army's General Headquarters (GHQ) and other high-profile strikes in Lahore.
The two commanders identified as Iqbal and Gul Muhammad, both hailing from Faisalabad, were arrested earlier this week by law-enforcement agencies, senior officials disclosed to Dawn on Thursday.
They were members of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Shura, the umbrella council of about top 40 militant commanders that coordinates and oversees Taliban activities in Pakistan.
The two, who were in charge of militancy in Punjab, officials claim, served as the link between Taliban's main leadership in Waziristan and the increasingly threatening Punjabi Taliban network, a grouping of sectarian and Kashmir focussed militant groups responsible for the Taliban hits in Punjab and the federal capital.
Their arrest, which is being claimed by the security agencies as a major breakthrough against the Taliban in Punjab, came after telephone intercepts by intelligence agencies and disclosures by Muhammad Aqil alias Dr Usman, who led the October 10 attack on the military's power base and was the only attacker to be arrested after the 22-hour hostage crisis in one of the headquarters' buildings.
Iqbal and Muhammad are said to be of the same ranking in the militant hierarchy as Aqil, who was also one of the TTP Shura members.
Security sources say the two remained involved in most of the major attacks in Punjab this year including the one on the GHQ and the three coordinated attacks in Lahore on October 15.
At least one of them is believed to have escorted the GHQ attackers. The responsibility for the GHQ and Lahore attacks has been claimed by the Punjabi Taliban.
The Punjab faction of Taliban had been previously linked to the Marriott bombing, and attacks on the navy headquarters in Lahore, and on the FIA.
Taliban had stepped up attacks in Punjab and NWFP before the start of Rah-i-Nijat, the military operation to flush out terrorists from their South Waziristan stronghold, to stave off the offensive.
Punjab government has so far been downplaying reports about the rise of Punjabi Taliban.
However, security analysts believe that the growing role of Punjabi Taliban has heightened the militant threat not only in Punjabi heartland, which has recently suffered multiple suicide bombings, but also in the rest of the country, because the Punjabi militants have increasingly taken control of the Taliban forces and are believed to be more lethal than their Pakhtoon counterparts.
Security analysts, however, are sceptical if the arrests would break the backbone of Taliban in Punjab.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: TTP
[Dawn] Security forces besieged the militant stronghold of Kotkai in South Waziristan after fierce clashes on Thursday.
Officials said seven militants and five soldiers were killed in gunbattles in Sherwangei, Nawazkot and areas around Kotkai, the hometown of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakimullah Mehsud.
According to sources, security forces have launched the second phase of operation Rah-i-Nijat.
Officials claimed to have killed over 100 militants during the operation which started on Saturday. Around two army divisions backed by military planes and helicopters are taking part in the operation.
Security forces are reported to have advanced 3kms from Mendana and set up a checkpoint in Sheenwam. The troops are facing heavy resistance from militants who are occupying hilltops.
After besieging Kotkai, troops started a search operation in the area which has a population of about 5,000.
According to independent sources, about 300 houses have been destroyed or damaged by air strikes and artillery shelling in the area between Spinkai Raghzai and Kotkai. Officials did not confirm the report.
Militant spokesman Qari Hussain denied involvement of the banned TTP in Tuesday's suicide bombings at the International Islamic University in Islamabad and an explosion in Peshawar's Khyber Bazaar.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: TTP
[Iran Press TV Latest] Israeli police have resorted to force as hundreds of Palestinians and international peace activists held a demonstration to protest the regime's settlement activity on occupied lands in the West Bank.
Police clashed with the protestors near the West Bank village of Ni'lin, firing tear gas as the demonstrators threw stones to protest the construction of the separation wall and the expansion of Israeli settlements, Ynet reported.
At least eight people, including a French national were injured in the clashes.
Six others were also arrested on the outskirts of the Qiryat Arba settlement near the West Bank city of al-Khalil.
The West Bank towns of Bil'in and Ni'lin are the scene of weekly demonstrations against the Israeli separation wall.
The protestors condemn the confiscation of thousands of acres of Palestinian land for constructing 723 km (454 miles) of a barrier of steel and concrete walls, fences and barbed wire.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar will visit Pakistan on Friday to discuss ways of cracking down on a Sunni rebel group behind a deadly attack on the elite Revolutionary Guards.
State television reported late on Thursday that Najjar will head a large security delegation to Islamabad for talks with his Pakistani counterpart and other top officials on means of fighting Jundallah.
"Mostafa Mohammad Najjar will meet Pakistani officials, namely the interior minister, about the recent terrorist attack and ways of fighting against the terrorist group," an interior ministry spokesman, Mehdi Azar Makan, said.
Iran on Tuesday turned up the heat on Pakistan saying that Jundallah (Soldiers of God) which claimed responsibility for the Oct. 18 suicide bombing, is based on its territory. Islamabad denied the allegations.
Top commanders of the Revolutionary Guards were among 42 people killed in the attack -- the deadliest assault in recent years on Iran's prestigious military force which was set up after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Tehran says that Jundallah chief Abdolmalek Rigi is based in Pakistan and has asked Islamabad to hand him over.
However, Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit has denied that Rigi is in the country and said the attack was aimed at undermining ties between Islamabad and Tehran.
"We don't know the whereabouts of Rigi," Basit said. "As Interior Minister Rehman Malik said, Rigi is not in Pakistan."
A Jundallah statement on the Internet said the aim of Sunday's operation was to avenge "the wounds of the Baluch people which have been bleeding for years without end."
Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, which shares a border with both Iran and Afghanistan, is also rife with Islamist militancy, Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence and a regional Baluch insurgency.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran declined on Friday to endorse proposals by the U.N. nuclear watchdog to help reduce Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium.
It said it was awaiting a "positive and constructive" response from world powers to its proposal on providing nuclear fuel for a Tehran reactor producing medical isotopes, state television reported.
"Now we are awaiting a positive and constructive response on Iran's proposal from the other party on providing nuclear fuel for Tehran's reactor," TV quoted a member of Iran's negotiating team, who attended the Vienna meeting on Oct. 21, as saying.
"The other party is expected to avoid past mistakes in violating agreements ... and to gain Iran's trust," the unnamed official said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier Friday his country accepts the IAEA proposals.
"We agree with these proposals and we are counting on not only Iran, but all the other participants of the negotiations, to confirm their readiness to implement the proposed scheme," Lavrov told reporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
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] French aid worker Gauthier Lefevre from the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) was kidnapped in Darfur on Thursday, the organization said in a statement.
[Al Arabiya Latest] An armed Islamist group on Thursday killed seven private security guards in an ambush in the Kabylie region east of the capital, residents and security sources said.
A new U.S. congressional report claims North Korea is transferring weapons technology to Syria through Iran.
Authorities in Minnesota are declining to extradite a man arrested at O'Hare International Airport on Thursday on a Minnesota warrant for allegedly making terror threats, officials said.
Soldiers captured the strategically located hometown of Pakistan's Taliban chief Saturday after fierce fighting, officials said, the army's first major prize as it pushes deeper into a militant stronghold along the Afghan border.
The target appeared to be 
The U.N. says some 155,000 civilians have fled the region. The International Committee of the Red Cross said Saturday that it is worried about civilians left behind, but it has no way to verify claims about their status because it has no presence there.
[Dawn] Iranian border authorities handed over to Pakistan on Friday the bodies of five Pakistanis, claiming that they were killed in the suicide attack on the Revolutionary Guards on Sunday.
A car bomb ripped through a restaurant in the city's posh Hayatabad township on Friday, leaving 15 people injured.
A suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked a major Pakistani air base on Friday, killing seven people in an escalating campaign that strikes at the heart of this nuclear-armed nation's security forces.
[Iran Press TV Latest] A bus carrying a wedding party has hit a landmine resulting in the death of 16 women and children in Pakistan's troubled tribal region. 
[Dawn] The military said on Friday that the death toll in the assault on the Taliban rose to more than 160 on the seventh day of intense fighting in South Waziristan.
[Dawn] Islamabad Capital Territory Police on Friday arrested 60 suspects during the search operation in various areas of the city and also recovered 22 guns, 10 pistols, two Kalashnikovs, ammunition, 102 wine bottles from their possession, the police source said.
Security agencies have arrested two of the highest ranking Punjabi Taliban commanders, who are believed to have masterminded the 10/10 attack on Army's General Headquarters (GHQ) and other high-profile strikes in Lahore.
[Dawn] Security forces besieged the militant stronghold of Kotkai in South Waziristan after fierce clashes on Thursday.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran declined on Friday to endorse proposals by the U.N. nuclear watchdog to help reduce Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium.
