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22 Syrian protesters killed, hundreds wounded
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot

Paulina Porizkova aka the first woman from Eastern Europe to grace the cover of the Sports Illustrated swim-suit issue aka the second woman (after Christie Brinkley) to be featured on the swim-suit issue's front cover consecutive times (1984 and 1985). aka Nina in "Her Alibi" aka Dallas in "Thursday" (age 46)



Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 04/09/2011 2:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Mrs.Ric Ocasek never got that....
Posted by: Beavis || 04/09/2011 8:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Ric O. of the Cars, Billy Joel, whats up with these shmoes and their HOT babes
Posted by: 746 || 04/09/2011 11:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Love the "come-hithers" looks. In my younger days mostly all I got was the "go-thithers".
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 04/09/2011 12:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Now you can say, 'Thither no more', with each shot, CS.
Posted by: Ebbeanter Smith3333 || 04/09/2011 19:43 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Insurgents kill Afghan police chief
[Pak Daily Times] Insurgents have killed a local police official in northern Afghanistan, where the Taliban has been intensifying attacks, especially against those aligned with the government. Governor Sayed Anwar Rahmati of Sari Pul province says the police chief of Ghosfandi district was killed around noon Friday. Insurgents firing machine guns at police chief Daud Esiq Zai's patrol vehicle also maimed one of his bodyguards. Separately, NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants...
says a roadside kaboom killed a coalition service member Thursday in the south. At least 106 NATO service members have been killed this year in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa North
Egypt army says will use force to clear protesters
Egypt's ruling military council said on Saturday it would clear protesters from a central Cairo square with "firmness and force" to allow life to return to normal.
Because we got rid of the brutal---protester shooting---dictator, see. And now have freedom and democracy. Which makes protesters enemies of freedom and democracy, see.
Dissent is no longer the highest form of patriotism in Egypt, either...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/09/2011 15:25 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  playtime's over
Posted by: Frank G || 04/09/2011 17:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Byzantine [who by the way used to have ownership of the place]. The generals employed the useful idiots to clear the old dead wood in the hierarchy to make room for the next generation of old dead wood. I suspect the promotion rolls had become rather stagnate. It's an old pattern.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/09/2011 19:04 Comments || Top||

#3  It's an old pattern.

If you would be so kind as to expand on that, Procopius2k? A world-wide pattern or in Egypt or Dar al Islam?
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/09/2011 21:24 Comments || Top||

#4  From the Persian Empire, through the Roman Empire, someone in the palace gets the idea that the old guys aren't doing as good a job as they could. Not confined to Egypt but it certainly has its own version.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/09/2011 22:10 Comments || Top||

#5  So, when Mohammed Ali massacred the Mamluks? Yes, that would certainly result in a personnel turnover. Thank you, Procopius2k.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/09/2011 23:17 Comments || Top||

#6  So, when Mohammed Ali massacred the Mamluks? Yes, that would certainly result in a personnel turnover. Thank you, Procopius2k.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/09/2011 23:17 Comments || Top||


Gen.: U.S. troops not ideal, but may be considered in Libya
h/t Gates of Vienna
The United States may consider sending troops into Libya with a possible international ground force that could aid the rebels, according to the general who led the military mission until NATO took over.
Army Gen. Carter Ham also told lawmakers Thursday that added American participation would not be ideal, and ground troops could erode the international coalition and make it more difficult to get Arab support for operations in Libya.
Wudnerbar
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/09/2011 05:08 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Protesters pack Cairo square, pile pressure on army
[Ennahar] Protesters packed Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday, piling pressure on the ruling military council to meet demands including the prosecution of Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
in one of the biggest demonstrations since he was ousted.

By early afternoon, the protest had swollen to more than 100,000. Thousands waved red, white and black Egyptian flags in scenes reminiscent of the height of the protests that toppled Mubarak and helped ignite revolts in other Arab countries.

"Oh Field Marshal, we've been very patient!" chanted some of the protesters, gathered in the square that was the hub of protests that toppled Mubarak from the presidency and left the army, led by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, in charge.

"Tantawi, Tantawi get your act together or do you want a pool of blood?" chanted some of the protesters.
It's fun being a mob when it gets results. The problem is afterward. Who was it that said, "A mob has many voices and no brain"?
The military has enjoyed broad support since it took control of the country on February 11 but frustrations have grown over the pace of reform. Attention is now focused on the perceived tardiness of legal steps against Mubarak and his entourage.

Mubarak and his family have been living in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh since he left Cairo on February 11.

The public prosecutor, who has filed charges against some but not all of the Mubarak-era officials, was also the focus of anger during a demonstration which one activist group declared "The Friday of Purification and Accountability".

A military helicopter hovered over the city centre as protesters poured into the square after Friday prayers to support demands including the removal of remaining Mubarak-era officials, such as the powerful provincial governors. Banners included economic demands, such as the imposition of minimum and maximum wages. "The revolution is continuing until democracy is achieved," read one banner.

"It's a strong message that the revolution is not over yet and is still going on and will not quieten down before its goals are realised," said Hassan Nafaa, a professor of political science and a prominent figure in the reform movement.

Street action remained "the real guarantee to the success of the revolution", coalition of youth activists said in a statement. "There has to be continued pressure for the quick and effective realisation of the demands of the revolution," it said.

"Oh Field Marshal, oh Field Marshal, we are staying in Tahrir," read one of the banners directed at Tantawi, who served as defence minister in Mubarak's administration from 1991 until he was ousted from the presidency.

The military has scheduled a parliamentary election for September. It has said a presidential election will be held in either October or November, until when the army will hold presidential powers.

At one point, eight young men in military uniform appeared on stage, calling for Tantawi's removal. It was not possible to verify whether they were serving in the military.

"The people want the Field Marshal to fall," one shouted over loudspeakers. Some in the crowd applauded and repeated the refrain. Others declared them imposters seeking to create trouble between the army and the reform movement and urged them to get off the stage.

"ENOUGH COLLUSION"
"We are calling on the Field Marshal to meet the demands of the people," said Ibrahim Ahmed, a 20-year old student. "Enough collusion in not carrying out prosecutions," he said.

The interim government installed by the military council has set up a new committee to uncover corruption from Mubarak's 30-year rule. The illicit gains panel is set to question Gamal Mubarak, the president's son, next week.

"If Mubarak is not prosecuted, we will go to Sharm el-Sheikh," read another banner held aloft by the protesters. The military has said the 82-year-old president, himself a former military officer, is banned from leaving the country.

The campaign against Mubarak-era figures has resulted in the arrest of once untouchable figures including the former interior minister and other ministers who held economic portfolios and are accused of corruption. Zakaria Azmi, a leading Mubarak aide, was the latest high-profile figure to be tossed in the calaboose. He was jugged on Thursday on accusations of illegal gains. Reformists questioned why it had taken so long.

"There is a feeling that the military council faces many restrictions," Nafaa, the political science professor, said.

"The aim of the protest isn't to criticise or revolt, but to express a sense of frustration because of the tardiness in bringing to trial those responsible for corruption," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  TOPIX > EGYPT PROTESTORS: WE'RE WORSE OFF NOW THAN UNDER MUBARAK.

Uh, uh, OOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPSSSSSSSIES!?

We didn't think of the consequences before we began our riotin', didn't we???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/09/2011 0:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Worse off now?? Don't think that maybe someone could have planned this? Someone who will ride in on a white/black horse to save all you poor down trodden from the results??

It's almost always the second one into the market that makes money off the invention. It's almost always the second one in that wins the revolution.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/09/2011 8:51 Comments || Top||


Tizi Ouzou blast injures local official
[Maghrebia] An unidentified official in Algeria's Public Works Department was injured by a roadside kaboom blast early Wednesday (April 6th) in blood-stained Tizi Ouzou, La Tribune reported. According to security sources, the homemade device went kaboom! near a road crew on the RN24 between Tigzirt and Dellys. The roadway between Tigzirt and Dellys is slated to reopen after 17 years. Repairs began this week.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Prospects fade for military overthrow of Gaddafi
[Ennahar] Libyan rebels said on Friday they repulsed a government assault on the besieged city of Misrata but prospects faded for a military overthrow of Muammar Qadaffy.

NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants...
leaders acknowledged the limits of their air power, which has caused rather than broken a military stalemate, and analysts predicted a long-drawn out conflict that could end in the partition of the North African oil producer.
Or it could end in a NATO protectorate and Qadaffystan... for as long as NATO is willing to continue the costly work of protecting.
Let NATO share as equal partners with the rebels in the oil in the eastern part of the country and it could become profitable to protect Benghazi...
Alliance officials expressed frustration that Qadaffy's tactics of sheltering his armor in civilian areas had reduced the impact of air supremacy and apologized for a second "friendly fire" incident on Thursday that rebels said killed five fighters.

Misrata, a lone major rebel outpost in the west of the country, has been under siege by Qadaffy's forces for weeks. On Friday snuffies said they had pushed back an assault on the eastern flank of the coastal city after fierce street battles.

"The attack from the east has been repelled now and the (pro-Qadaffy) forces have been pushed back," rebel front man Hassan al-Misrati told Rooters by telephone.

The only active front in the war, along the Mediterranean coast around the eastern cities of Brega and Ajdabiyah, has descended into stalemate for a week with both sides making advances and then retreating behind secure lines at night.

On Friday rebels at the western boundary of Ajdabiyah, gateway to their Benghazi stronghold, decamped from an artillery bombardment but there was no sign of a government advance.

The head of U.S. Africa Command, General Carter Ham, said the conflict was entering stalemate and it was very unlikely the rebels would be able to fight their way into Tripoli.

POLITICAL SOLUTION
Early hopes that air attacks on Qadaffy forces would tip the balance in favor of the rebels have now evaporated and Western leaders are emphasizing a political solution.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen took a similar line to Ham on Friday. "There is no military solution only. We need a political solution," he told Al Jizz television.

NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu spoke of the difficulties facing alliance pilots because of Qadaffy's tactics. "The fact is they are using human shields and parking tanks next to mosques and schools so it is very hard to pinpoint any military hardware without causing civilian casualties," she said.

Analysts predicted an extended conflict leading toward possible division of the country between east and west.

"The opposition forces are insufficient to break this deadlock and so as things stand the march on Tripoli is not going to happen," said John Marks, chairman of Britain's Cross Border Information consultancy.

"This standoff looks like it could go on pretty much forever ... for now we have a stalemate so we are looking rather more at a de facto partition."

Geoff Porter of North Africa Risk Consulting agreed. "It is increasingly unlikely that the rebels will get anywhere close to Tripoli," he said.

The confusion on the desert battlefield has caused "friendly fire" incidents, increasing anger among the rebels, who said they lost five men on Thursday when NATO planes bombed a column of 20 tanks brought out of storage to bolster the eastern front.

REBEL RETREAT
The strike sent the rebels into a confused retreat back toward Ajdabiyah.

It was the second time in less than a week that rebels had blamed NATO for bombing their comrades by mistake after 13 were killed in an air strike not far from the same spot on Saturday.

Rebels in Ajdabiyah painted the roofs of their vehicles bright pink on Friday to identify them better to NATO planes.

"NATO is an alliance against the Libyan people," said Alaa Senudry, a rebel volunteer on he edge of Ajdabiyah.

At the same time as expressing anger about the attacks, the rebels have accused NATO of being too slow to order air strikes to support their rag-tag army, a charge denied by the alliance.

Misrata, Libya's third city, rose up with other towns against Qadaffy in mid-February and has been under siege for weeks after a crackdown put an end to most protests in the west.

Rebels say people in Misrata are crammed five families to a house in the few safe districts, to escape weeks of sniper, mortar and rocket fire. There are severe shortages of food, water and medical supplies.

The snuffies have used containers filled with sand and stone to block roads and break supply lines to Qadaffy forces including snipers in Misrata, the rebel front man said.

Ashour Shamis, a U.K.-based Libyan opposition activist, said the coastal town was key to breaking the stalemate.

"The reason is that Misrata has a big port that acts as a key supply route of food and medicine for Tripoli, and Sirte as well. To keep Tripoli going, Qadaffy needs Misrata."
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  See also FREEREPUBLIC/TOPIX > THE BATTLE AGZ GADDAFI: NATO FEARS "WAR WITHOUT END" IN LIBYA.

and

* TELEGRAPH.UK > LIBYA TO UNLEASH WAVE [waves?] OF MIGRANTS ON EUROPE. 26000 Tunisian immigrants have arrived on Lampedusa since January 2011, ROMA WORKING OVERTIME TO GET EURO-STATES TO ACCEPT ITALIE' TRAVEL VISAS, ETC. FROM SAME, TO SAME, FOR SAME.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/09/2011 0:43 Comments || Top||

#2  His will fall apart. It's a matter of time. Time we may not have.
Posted by: newc || 04/09/2011 4:04 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't know that Muammar is smocking---but, IMO, Nicki & Davy could use some of it.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/09/2011 4:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Rebels in Ajdabiyah painted the roofs of their vehicles bright pink on Friday to identify them better to NATO planes.

Qadaffy's units to follow in 5...4...3...

On the other hand, the U.S. Justice Department said Obama's brief but expensive foray against Uncle Curly was "constitutional". So, though it's a clusterf--k, it was legal.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/09/2011 9:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Yeah, remember how the drooling lefties in 2009 wanted to hold hearings and have indictments for Bush and Company for the 'illegal war'. Someone in the White House was smart enough to avoid setting precedent for their little tour a few years latter on the calendar.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/09/2011 10:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Where is General Graziani when you really need him?
Posted by: borgboy || 04/09/2011 16:49 Comments || Top||


Misrata: fighting between rebels and Gaddafi forces
[Ennahar] The fighting raged Friday between rebels and forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Qadaffy
... dictator of Libya since 1969. From 1972, when he relinquished the title of prime minister, he has been accorded the honorifics Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya or Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution. With the death of Omar Bongo of Gabon on 8 June 2009, he became the longest serving of all current non-royal national leaders. He is also the longest-serving ruler of Libya since Tripoli became an Ottoman province in 1551. When Chairman Mao was all the rage and millions of people were flashing his Little Red Book, Qadaffy came out with his own Little Green Book, which didn't do as well. Qadaffy's instability has been an inspiration to the Arab world and to Africa, which he would like to rule...
in the city of Misrata 200 km east of Tripoli, according to an AFP photographer, as part of a group of people led by authorities.

"There is an intensive exchange of fire with small arms, rockets and heavy artillery between the rebels and the military regime," the photographer said that journalists have advanced up to 5 km inside this city that spans some thirty miles.

Before the city hospital specializing in the analysis of blood, where the authorities have taken journalists to see the victims of the festivities, a military officer who was escorting the group was slightly maimed by sniper fire.

"We're thrown to the ground, before turning back," added the journalist.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If this guy survives both NATO and US Obama air strikes, he will have to pin the extra medals on his camel.
Posted by: wr || 04/09/2011 19:11 Comments || Top||


Libyan rebels paint vehicles pink to avoid NATO friendly fire
Seems like only yesterday I was suggesting they paint the tops of their heads red and the Qadaffy supporters paint theirs green...
And thus it is demonstrated yet again why groups of combatants choose a "uniform" which makes them identifiable on the battlefield.
Posted by: Zebulon Thranter9685 || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Uh, uh, the "A BOY NAMED SUE" Song???

"OPERATION PETTICOAT" Movie???

Gut nuthin - again.

Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/09/2011 0:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Wasn't there a move about a Pink submarine. Periscope down or something like that?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/09/2011 0:39 Comments || Top||

#3  a move about a Pink submarine

The aforementioned "Operation Petticoat"
Posted by: SteveS || 04/09/2011 0:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Mary Kay of Libya. That's adorable.
Posted by: Fi || 04/09/2011 1:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Well. The anti-war liberals may now have a war they like, being the lefties are for gays in the militaries. This is a close as an group of Islamic rebels will come to that for sure.
Posted by: Zebulon Angoling1776 || 04/09/2011 1:33 Comments || Top||

#6  Do I detect a sense of humor?
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 04/09/2011 1:39 Comments || Top||

#7  Ya just knew that Code Pink was going to turn up.
Posted by: retired LEO || 04/09/2011 1:53 Comments || Top||

#8  OK, now its turned stupid.

Everyone who wanted to know what Overlord would be like today, well here you go...really expect Team Daffy to not get wind of this? Jimminy Cricket anyone play no-rule paintball 101? Dirty Dozen? Did everyone sign in, don't forget your badges.

But putting on a uniform makes one not a civilian, so plain clothes in the cameras please, for UN and try-letter news sakes.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/09/2011 2:42 Comments || Top||

#9  Did the islamists use night vision pink for the after hours kinetic military actions?
Posted by: Muggsy Glink || 04/09/2011 18:05 Comments || Top||

#10  sequins..... oh wait, Qhaddafy already uses them
Posted by: Frank G || 04/09/2011 19:27 Comments || Top||

#11  In my day it was easy. If it had a weapon and any kind of uniform, including casual attire, that was different to ours, it got slotted. Now we can shoot at anything that has pink on it, or....not? I get so confused, the rules and colours keep changing like almost for the first HD3D Television War with time sold as advertising in the breaks.
It's what the sleepers in the West don't know yet... to their detriment, uniforms are a craven issue. If they refuse to identify themselves as their own, they will all be treated the same.
Posted by: Ebbeanter Smith3333 || 04/09/2011 20:07 Comments || Top||

#12  Well, that was a relatively incoherent remark.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/09/2011 21:18 Comments || Top||

#13  Sprockets are not sequins.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 04/09/2011 21:25 Comments || Top||

#14  And thus it is demonstrated yet again why groups of combatants choose a "uniform" which makes them identifiable on the battlefield.

Terribly sorry, dear. The rebels somehow couldn't find enough time to trot down to Al-Neiman Marcus and put an ensemble together. Why, the poor dears have to share weapons - or wait until another rebel dies so they can take theirs.

Perhaps some eurodesigner can come up with a logo and a smart yet functional uniform. Maybe some of the lefties that have been supporting the o-so-chic Mexican terrorist-savant pipesmoker, sub-commander Marcos? Or maybe FARC can loan out their tailor?
Posted by: Pappy || 04/09/2011 21:25 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Deadly blast hits Nigeria on election eve
[Al Jazeera] At least six people have been killed and dozens more injured by a suspected kaboom at a Nigerian election office hours before parliamentary elections, officials and police say.
"Herbert! Did you hear that?"
"Yes, Lonzo! I heard it!"
"And you saw the wreckage fly by?"
"I did!"
"I suspect that was a bomb blast!"
"By Jove, I think you're right!"

Friday's blast in Suleja, on the northwestern edge of the capital, Abuja, went off after a fatal shooting in Borno state of four people, including an official of the ruling Peoples' Democratic Party.

President Goodluck Jonathan
... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau...
condemned the kaboom and ordered an immediate increase in security at election offices hours before voting was to begin in polls that have already been delayed twice amid organisational chaos.

A front man for the state security service confirmed the deaths.

"Six people have been confirmed dead. We don't have much detail," Marilyn Ogar told the Rooters news agency.

Yushua Shuaib, a front man for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), told Rooters: "There was an kaboom and there are several casualties. It was a suspected kaboom."

Al Jizz's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Abuja, said politics in Nigeria was a "lucrative business" and "sadly some politicians are prepared to kill for the opportunity" to get into power.

The violence was a further blow to hopes of orderly elections in Africa's most populous nation.

Nigeria is due to hold parliamentary elections on Saturday, presidential elections a week later and governorship polls in its 36 states on April 26.

The elections were postponed twice after voters turned up at polling stations to find there were no ballot papers and other election materials.

Huge budget
The Independent National Electoral Commission was given a $570m budget last August just for overhauling voter lists and buying additional ballot boxes, leading some Nigerians to question whether they were getting value for money.

There are 73 million registered voters out of a population of 158 million and the budget means each of the 36 states would receive at least $15m.

Security forces cordoned off streets in the town, where three people were killed and 21 injured by an bomb thrown from a car at an election rally last month.

The run-up to the polls has been marred by isolated kabooms on campaign rallies, violence blamed on a radical sect in the remote northeast and sectarian festivities in the centre of a nation roughly split between a Mohammedan north and Christian south.

Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 85 people have been killed in political violence linked to party primaries and election campaigns since the start of November.

The leading contenders in the presidential vote include Goodluck Jonathan, who comes from the south and became president after the death of Umaru Yaradua last May.

Muhammadu Buhari, his main challenger and former president running on the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) platform, has major support in the country's mostly Mohammedan north.

Other candidates vying for the presidency include former anti-corruption chief Nuhu Ribadu, whose Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) party has a strong following in parts of the southwest, and Ibrahim Shekarau, governor of the northern state of Kano.

The PDP controls a comfortable majority in the parliament, but some analysts say the poll could significantly loosen its grip on the legislature.

The party has won every election since military rule ended in 1999. The previous two elections, held in 2003 and 2007, were marred by fraud and irregularities.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Yemens Saleh again rejects move to replace him
[Ennahar] Dozens of anti-government protesters in Yemen were shot and maimed in fresh festivities with police Friday as President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ...
rejected a new deal to secure an end to his 32 years in power.

Saleh, facing an unprecedented challenge from hundreds of thousands of protesters, initially accepted an offer by Soddy Arabiaand other Gulf Arab states as part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to hold talks with the opposition.

Wednesday, Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said the GCC would strike a deal for Saleh to leave.

"We don't get our legitimacy from Qatar or from anyone else...we reject this belligerent intervention," Saleh told a crowd of tens of thousands of supporters in the capital Sanaa.

Frustration with the impasse may push the thousands of Yemenis who have taken to the streets closer to violence. Some 21 people died in festivities this week in Taiz, south of the capital and the Red Sea port of Hudaida.

"I don't think the GCC or the West want Yemen to go down the road of Libya, because that's exactly where it's going," said Theodore Karasik, an analyst at the Dubai based INEGMA group.

"The more entrenched Saleh gets, the greater the outside pressure, so this could really illustrate how much influence outside powers actually have over Yemen."

Fresh festivities broke out in Taiz Friday when hundreds of protesters clashed with police, who fired gunshots and tear gas. Two protesters were rubbed out and 25 maimed by gunfire, hospital sources said. Some 200 were hurt by tear gas inhalation.

The protesters had been carrying the bodies of five people killed earlier in the week to their gravesites when they ran into security forces.

In the port city of Aden, once the capital of an independent south, thousands of anti-government protesters gathered peacefully and in Hudaida, some 15,000 gathered to mourn protester deaths and demand Saleh step down.

"We're tired of this poverty and oppression in Hudaida and all of Yemen," said protester Abdullah Fakira. "Enough already."

Some 40 percent of Yemen's 23-million people live on less than $2 a day and a third face chronic hunger.
Not to mention thirst -- Yemen has been merrily using up its groundwater to grow qat.
Poverty and exasperation with rampant corruption, protesters say, drove the pro-democracy protests that began over two months ago.

AL QAEDA FEARS
Even before the protests, inspired by regional uprisings, Saleh was struggling to quell a separatist rebellion in the south and a Shi'ite insurgency in the north. The potential for a violent power struggle with the opposition also could give al Qaeda's Yemen-based regional wing more room to operate.

These factors spark concern for stability in a country that sits on a shipping lane through which more than three million barrels of oil pass each day.

Friday, local officials from Abyan, a hotbed for bully boy groups, told Rooters that military forces were trying to retake the city of Jaar, which state troops retreated from two weeks ago when they said they were overpowered by bully boys.

Security forces surrounded Jaar with tanks and artillery and clashed with what the official described as "jihadist bully boys," but they appeared to have decamped. He said troops would soon enter the city.

The United States and Yemen's key financial backer, Soddy Arabia, both targets in attempted attacks by al Qaeda's Yemen-based branch, appear ready to push aside Saleh, their long-time ally against al Qaeda to avoid a chaotic collapse in one of the Arab world's poorest countries.

"Saleh's options are gone. The Gulf initiative must have come as a shock from Soddy Arabia, which was his last ally," Mohammed Sharqi, the leader of a youth protest movement in Sanaa, said, referring to the plan for Saleh to step down.

In an apparent effort to avoid a snub to Saleh's main backer, a presidential aide told Rooters the comments were not aimed at Soddy Arabia's offer to host GCC mediated talks.

"Saudi efforts are welcome, but we reject Qatari intervention," he said.

"The president welcomes the efforts of our brothers in the Gulf to solve the crisis but rejects the statements from the Qatari prime minister which he considers interference in Yemen's affairs," he added.

Washington froze its largest aid package for Yemen in February after protests began, the Wall Street Journal reported.
How many aid packages have been frozen since this all started? Is it enough to cover the adventurism in Libya yet?
"The first installment of the aid package, worth a potential $1 billion or more over several years, was set to be rolled out in February, marking the White House's largest bid at securing Saleh's allegiance in its battle against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," it said.

Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the paper said the proposed package included up to $200 million in counter-terrorism support this fiscal year, up from $155 million in fiscal 2010, as well as a nearly equal amount for development aid.

The Washington Post said a Yemeni opposition party leader had told a U.S. embassy official in Sanaa about a secret plan to oust Saleh less than two years ago.

COMPETING FRIDAY PROTESTS
Pro-democracy protesters held a "Friday of firmness" in Sanaa, shouting "You're next, you leader of the corrupt," as armored vehicles and security forces deployed across the city.

Some 4 km (2.5 miles) away, tens of thousands of Saleh loyalists were marching, waving pictures of the president and banners that read "No to terrorism, no to sabotage."

In a move that could spark festivities, some 700 riot police took up position in an area close to General Ali Mohsen's forces. The veteran commander defected from Saleh weeks ago, and his troops are protecting a protest camp near Sanaa University.

Earlier this week, festivities broke out between Mohsen's forces and armed rustics, killing at least three people.

"We want this regime to go. Enough lying and oppression. The (GCC) initiative came late and the only initiative we want is one that makes him step down," said 45-year-old Sanaa protester Mahfouz Salam.

Friday prayers traditionally have been a trigger for demonstrations which at one point looked to have brought Saleh's rule close to collapse. Both sides in the dispute are now considering the Gulf Arab plan for his orderly departure.

Talks with the opposition to negotiate a transition stalled weeks ago, and the GCC is having trouble obtaining agreement from all parties for its initiative.

The plan would guarantee Saleh and his family immunity from prosecution, an opposition source said Thursday, but youth activists have said that should be rejected.

"Saleh needs to understand that he is going," Sanaa protester Mohammed al-Sharaabi said. "Yet he is still looking for more guarantees."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
Death Toll in Tamaulipas Mass Grave Rises to 72
See the link in the title with a computer graphic concerning the San Fernando, Tamaulipas mass graves
Officials in Tamauliaps found two more gravesites containing an additional 13 bodies raising the death toll to 72 from 59 discovered last Tuesday, according to Mexican news sources.
To read Rantburg's report on the original find, click here
Posted by: badanov || 04/09/2011 01:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Court orders 3 Juarez Cops Detained for Kidnapping
by Chris Covert

Three Juarez police officers were placed in six months preventative detention Friday for their alleged role in the abduction of four youths almost two weeks ago, according to Mexican press accounts.

Report have identified the three officers as Eugenio De los Santos Decuesta, 28, Francisco Javier Campoy Dominguez, 27, and Leonardo Ivan Loya Hernandez. All three identified as part of the security detail of new appointed Juarez Police chief Julian Leyzaola Perez.

The three officers are charged with abuse of authority, enforced disappearance of persons and vehicle theft.

Preventative detention is a legal measure imposed only by court order against individuals who are expected to undergo rigorous investigation for serious crimes. The normal term for preventative detention, colloqiually known as rooting, is 40 days.

Although reports do not mention it, it is possible the harsh length of detention is due to the seriousness of the crime, which now carries a life sentence in Chihuahua. The new harsh penalties were were enacted by newly Chihuahua governor Cesar Duarte as part of his crackdown in crime in Chihuahua.

The three officers are apparently also part of the "Delta Group" of the Juarez municipal police corporation. Its US equivalent would be a major case squad, which is a collection of police officers known for their superior weapons and tactical knowledge, who likely have a very broad mandate for taking down criminals in Juarez.

The arrests stem from an abduction by Juarez municipal police officers of four young men in broad daylight in front of a busy Juarez market in the Oasis Revolucion colony last March 26th.
To read the Rantburg report on the abduction and accusations surrounding the newly appointed Juarez police chief, click here.
To date the whereabouts and fate of the four victims is unknown. Also to date, 15 Juarez municipal police officers have been interrogated by the state attorney general about the case.

In a possibly related development, three "narcopintas", or graffiti sites were discovered Thursday which threatened several Juarez police commanders as well as the commander of Juarez Municipal Police Delta Group. The graffiti were signed by "Diego", the street name of the Juarez Sinaloa Drug cartel group commander.

Friday morning a uniformed Juaurez police officer, Joaquin Parra Perez, was shot and wounded near the intersection of Avenida Tecnologico and Calle Pradera Dorada in Juarez as he was driving his Dodge Concorde. Parra Perez is expected to survive the attack.

Also, Thursday morning several women reportedly the mothers of the kidnapping victims confronted both Chihuahua governor Duarte and Juarez Mayor Teto Murguia in a protest near a state run medical clinic. Both men could only offer condolences to the distraught women.
Posted by: badanov || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's a good sign when the police clean up themselves, right?
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/09/2011 11:10 Comments || Top||


More Mexican Mayhem
Sorry it's so late edition.
19 Die in Northern Mexico

A total of 19 individuals were murdered in ongoing drug and gang related violence which included two Cajeme, Sonora police officers shot to death Monday.

  • Two unidentified men were shot to death in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Saturday. The victims were riding in a Chevrolet Cavalier sedan near the intersection of calles Lopez Rayon and Ignacio Allende in the Insurgentes colony.

  • One unidentified man was shot and wounded at a music concert at a fair in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Saturday night. The concert of the group Los Tucanes de Tijuana was hosted by the Expogan 2011, and was interrupted by the gunfire.

  • An unidentified man was found shot to death in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Monday. The victim was found in a vacant lot near a primary school near the intersection of calles Quiches and Yaquis. He had been shot in the head.

  • A man was shot to death in Chihuahua, Chihuahua. Cesar Javier Aguilar Najera was shot by armed suspects aboard a Ford Explorer near the intersection of calles Ramon Cordova and Tarahumara in the Revolucion colony.

  • An unidentified man was shot to death in Juarez Monday. The victim had been dumped near the intersection of Madrid and Lisbon and shot several times A total of 13 9mm spent cartridge casings were found at the scene.

  • Two Cajeme, Sonora municipal police officers were shot to death in Sonora last Monday. Efrain Rosas García, 33, and Israel Tejada Aceves, 50, were found just a few meters from their patrol vehicle on the Porfirio Díaz Irrigation canal just a few meters from the International Highway. Several spent AK-47 assault rifle spent cartridge casings were found at the scene.

  • Three men were shot to death in Chihuahua, Chihuahua last Monday night. Reports say Uriel Miguel Venegas, Alejandro Carrillo and Ricardo Mendoza were aboard a Ford Expedition SUV when they were shot by armed suspects in front of the Oxxo convenience store on Avenida Dostoevsky in the Alameda colony.

  • Two unidentified men were shot to death in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Wednesday. The victims were at a residence on calle Loma la Prieta in the Lomas de Universidad colony when they were shot.

  • An unidentified man was shot to death in Juarez Wednesday afternoon. The victim was at a residence near the intersection of Ignacio Zaragoza y Vicente Guerrero when he was killed. Reports say he was shot with an AK-47 assault rifle.

  • A severed head was found at Mexican Policia Federal headquarters in Chihuahua, Chihuahua early Thursday morning. The find was made near the corner of avenidas Tecnologico and Luz Corral de Villa in the Revolucion colony. The unidentifed victim's remaining parts were found at a nearby park with a message warning not to support the Sinaloa drug cartel.

  • An unidentified man was found dismembered on the Juarez-Chihuahua highway Thursday morning. With the body parts was a warning about supporting the Sinaloa drug gang.

  • An unidentified woman was found shot to death in Juarez Thursday morning. The victim was found near the intersection of calles Ojo de la Casa and San Isidro in the El Papalote colony shot three times in the chest and head.

  • One man was shot to death and another was wounded in an attack in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora Thursday. Killed were Jorge Alberto Caballero, 24, and Juan Antonio Tirado Acosta, 25. The officers were riding aboard a Toyota Rav4 SUV on Mexican Federal Highway 15 when they were stopped by armed suspects who were riding in a Jeep Cherokee and a Subaru sedan, and fired on. Reports say AK-47 assault rifles were used in the attack.

  • One unidentified man was shot to death and another was wounded in an attack in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora Thursday. The shooting took place near the intersection of Avenida Paseo Miravalle and Calle Primavera where the victims were on foot when they were shot.

  • An unidentified man was found shot and beheaded in Torreon, Coahuila Wednesday. The victim was found in the trunk of a Honda Civic parked near the intersection of calles Cisneros and 20 de Noviembre in the 20 de Noviembre colony.
Posted by: badanov || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Dupe entry: Powerful Lasers - Once Science Fiction: US Navy Now Has Them
One if by land … lasers if by sea.

A futuristic laser mounted on a speeding cruiser successfully blasted a bobbing, weaving boat from the waters of the Pacific Ocean -- the first test at sea of such a gun and a fresh milestone in the Navy's quest to reoutfit the fleet with a host of laser weapons, the Navy announced Friday.

"We were able to have a destructive effect on a high-speed cruising target," chief of Naval research Rear Adm. Nevin Carr told FoxNews.com.

The test occurred Wednesday near San Nicholas Island, off the coast of Central California in the Pacific Ocean test range, from a laser gun mounted onto the deck of the Navy’s self-defense test ship, former USS Paul Foster.
Posted by: Craing Shomong3296 || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Fighting kills 50 terrorists, four soldiers
Pak officials said on Friday that 50 gunnies and four soldiers had been killed in a district where the United States this week criticised the army's efforts to defeat the bad turbans.

The deaths, which could not be verified independently, were reported in Mohmand
... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pashtuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Bloody Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar...
Agency, part of Tribal Areas on the Afghan border singled out for criticism in a White House report flatly rejected by Islamabad.

Local administration official Maqsood Hassan told AFP that gunnies attacked a security force patrol in the Baizai area of Mohmand, triggering an exchange of fire on Thursday.

"Four soldiers and 10 bad boyz were potted in the attack, which was repulsed," Hassan said.

"A separate air offensive targeting terrorist hideouts in different areas of Mohmand killed 40 rebels on Thursday," Hassan said, adding, "Troops used fighter jets and helicopters to pound rebel positions."

Local official Zabit Khan confirmed the incidents and casualties.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Teen boy says 400 Pakistan suicide bombers in training
[Al Arabiya] A teenage boy incarcerated as an accomplice to Pakistain's deadliest suicide kaboom of the year has said that up to 400 jacket wallahs are being groomed to wage carnage in the nuclear-armed nation.

Umar Fidayee, 14, said the would-be bombers were being trained in North Wazoo, the premier al-Qaeda and Taliban fortress in Pakistain's tribal belt where U.S. officials want Pakistain to flush out Death Eater strongholds.

He made the remarks in an interview aired Friday from his hospital bedside, where he is being treated as his arm was amputated as a result of injuries he sustained after he was shot by a guard in the April 4 attack that killed 50 people at a 13th-century Sufi shrine.
Three hundred and fifty to 400 would-be suicide bombers are getting training in Mir Ali in North Waziristan
Umar Fidayee

It was Pakistain's deadliest kaboom since November.

Police incarcerated Fidayee as an alleged accomplice and said they removed his own boom jacket, which he failed to detonate in a crowd of hundreds in Dera Ghazi Khan just minutes after two other bombers blew themselves up.

Shown covered in tubes and bandages, the teen appeared to express remorse and lifted the lid on harrowing details of his training at the camp in the Mir Ali district of North Waziristan, which lies on the border with Afghanistan.

"Three hundred and fifty to 400 would-be suicide bombers are getting training in Mir Ali in North Waziristan," he said in the interview broadcast by Pak television channels Samaa, Express, ARY and Geo.

"I was trained for two months and saw many boys being trained there," he said, going on to appeal on Paks to "please forgive me".

He was initially unrepentant however, in the interview he said he is "seeking forgiveness' from the families of those killed and maimed.

"God has given me a new life but I am sad that we killed innocent people, innocent children," he said.

Fidayee said he was initially recruited on the understanding that he would be smuggled into Afghanistan to kill non-Mohammedans.

"But they brought me here to Dera Ghazi Khan. I told them 'there is no kafir (non-believer) here'," he said.

"They told me these people are worse than kafirs," Fidayee said.

"Become a fighter and you will go to heaven"
They told me these people are worse than kafirs
Exposing an apparently disturbing recruitment at the gates of an ordinary school in North Waziristan, the teenager claimed a man he identified as Qari Zafar convinced him to begin a life of militancy.

"He told me that all this education is useless and said 'become a fighter and you will go to heaven'," Umar told the news hounds.

He said he was told to attack the shrine 30 minutes after the other two detonated their bombs, in order to cause maximum carnage among those rushing to aid casualties of the first two blasts.

In a message to other potential suicide bombers he said: "Please refuse to carry suicide kabooms. Such attacks are forbidden in Islam."

Islamist gunnies have increasingly targeted Sufi worshippers, who follow a mystical strain of Islam, in Mohammedan-majority Pakistain.

Dera Ghazi Khan is close to Pakistain's tribal belt which is described by Washington as the most dangerous place on Earth and an Al-Qaeda headquarters.

More than 4,200 people have been killed across Pakistain in attacks blamed on homegrown Taliban and other Islamist bully boy networks since government troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad in July 2007.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Target coordinates?
Posted by: Water Modem || 04/09/2011 2:14 Comments || Top||

#2  As I've said before: the only difference between Pakistan and Palestine is size.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/09/2011 4:39 Comments || Top||

#3  And they dont invade North Waziristan because?
Posted by: Angeretle Snore6772 || 04/09/2011 7:58 Comments || Top||

#4  Because NW is where the "good" taliban reside, except when the turn "bad", which is a daily occurrence.
Posted by: Zebulon Thranter9685 || 04/09/2011 8:28 Comments || Top||

#5  And also because they expect to get their Islamic butts kicked.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 11:03 Comments || Top||

#6  The Mighty Pak Army™? The deuce you say!
Posted by: Frank G || 04/09/2011 12:26 Comments || Top||

#7  Something must be done with the five million-plus madrassah students. There aren't enough jobs at the mosques and madrassahs to absorb even a fraction being graduated, not counting those whose schools send them out to beg for twelve years instead of beating them into proper memorization of Qur'an, Sunna, and Hadith. Cannon fodder is a solid option.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/09/2011 13:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Teacher borgboy sez teenage boys lie. Divide number by 10.
Posted by: borgboy || 04/09/2011 16:44 Comments || Top||

#9  But, thats not enough to wipe out Pakistan. What gives?
Posted by: newc || 04/09/2011 19:25 Comments || Top||

#10  Expressed remorse? Bit late for that, unless it was for mission failure. Whatever, chop his other arm off with a hammer and send him on his way.
Posted by: Ebbeanter Smith3333 || 04/09/2011 20:23 Comments || Top||


Bomb in Indian Kashmir kills prominent Muslim cleric
[Pak Daily Times] SRINAGAR: A bomb went off outside a mosque here on Friday, killing a prominent Mohammedan holy man, police and witnesses said. Maulana Shaukat Shah, chief of Jammu and Kashmire Jamiat-e-Ahle Hadith, which is involved in social work, was entering the mosque to lead Friday prayers when the bomb went off. No group has grabbed credit for the attack. Police, however, blamed the killing on the hard boyz fighting New Delhi's rule in the Himalayan territory.

Shah, who had survived several previous attempts on his life, was rushed to hospital where doctors pronounced him dead. Police said the killing had sparked tension in Srinagar, urban hub of the rebel movement. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah announced heightened security in Kashmire following the attack.

"We are looking at all aspects to determine who is responsible (for Shah's killing)," Abdullah said.

Shaukat has been targeted in the past by suspected hard boyz for his links with the moderate faction of separatists. Separatist violence in Indian-held Kashmire has fallen to its lowest since an armed rebellion broke out in 1989. But the state is still seething with anti-Indian sentiment.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


One killed, 14 injured in remote controlled blast in Panjgur
[Pak Daily Times] A man was killed and 14 persons, including nine personnel of the Frontier Corps (FC), were maimed in a remote controlled blast in Chitkan Bazaar area of Panjgur district on Friday.

According to official sources, unidentified persons had attached an bomb with a cycle of violence and parked it in the main Chitkan Bazaar.

They detonated it through a remote control when a vehicle of the FC was passing by the area.

Six civilians and nine security personnel received splinter wounds as a result of the blast.

Security forces cordoned off the area soon after the incident and took the injured to a nearby state-run hospital where one of the injured, identified as Abdul Hameed, pegged out.

The injured were identified as Aziz Ahmed, Habibullah, Sarwar, Waheed, Malik, Murad, Bilal, Atiqullah, Zahirullah, Bilawal, Abdul Haleem, Muhammad Jan, Asad, Muhammad Ashraf, Zakir Baloch and Muhammad Hameed. One of the injured is stated to be in a critical condition.

FC Inspector General, Ubaidullah Khan, strongly condemned the deadly blast and said some elements were playing in the hands of foreign elements to destabilise the province.

"People involved in these incidents only want to create law and order situation by targeting the people irrespective of their ethnicity," he stated in a statement issued here.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Iraq
Iraqi forces clash with Iran exiles in camp
BAGHDAD - Iraqi security forces clashed with residents of an Iranian dissident camp north of Baghdad overnight, the Iraqi government said on Friday, and an Iranian opposition group said residents were attacked and killed. The government spokesman said five members of the Iraqi security forces were wounded in the incident at Camp Ashraf. Representatives of the camp called the incident a “criminal attack” and said 25 residents were killed and 320 wounded.

An Iraqi medical source at nearby Baquba hospital said they had received the bodies of three Iranians, while 16 Iranians, five Iraqi soldiers and one Iraqi policemen were brought to the hospital with injuries. The source requested anonymity since he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The 25-year-old camp, home to some 3,500 people, is the base of the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), a guerrilla group that opposes Iran’s Shia cleric leaders. Iran, Iraq and the United States consider the PMOI a terrorist organisation.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Ashraf residents threw rocks at security forces in what he called a “riot”. Troops had not opened fire, he said, contrary to reports by camp residents.

“The security forces have pushed back residents of Camp Ashraf inside the camp by force,” Dabbagh said. “The situation is now controlled.”

“I do not have any information about any deaths or injuries among the residents of the camp,” he said.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, the PMOI’s political wing, said Iraqi security forces had been ordered by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to attack the camp, in restive Diyala province about 90 km (55 miles) northeast of Baghdad in a remote location largely inaccessible to journalists.

“Al-Maliki, under orders of (Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei, has commenced an unprecedented murder in Ashraf,” the group said in a statement. “Forces under his command used Colts, automatic weapons and machineguns installed on armoured vehicles to open fire on residents.”

Ashraf has been a sore point for Washington, Baghdad and Tehran for years. The PMOI began as a group of Islamist leftists opposed to Iran’s late Shah but fell out with the Shi’ite clerics who took power after the 1979 revolution.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who is visiting Iraq, said the U.S. military had reports of deaths in clashes at Ashraf but could not confirm them. “We’re very concerned with reports of deaths and injuries resulting from this morning’s clashes... I urge the Iraqi government to show restraint and to live up to its commitments to treat residents of Ashraf according to Iraqi law and their international obligations.”

Asked about any US military role, Gates said nearby forces might render medical help “but that’s about the extent of it”.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks, mainstream media, for that news. It turns out that Maliki is more like Janet Reno than I first suspected...
Posted by: American Delight || 04/09/2011 18:43 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Iron Dome destroys another rocket headed for Ashkelon
[Jerusalem Post Front Page] Barak says successful interception by missile defense system of 3 Kassam rockets fired earlier is "an extraordinary achievement for IDF."
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  this humiliation of the ineffectual Gazooks will not stand! Let the seething begin
Posted by: Frank G || 04/09/2011 8:24 Comments || Top||

#2  It's their allen-given right to explode the Juice. The Dome is not fair!
Posted by: Bobby || 04/09/2011 9:18 Comments || Top||

#3  pretty obviously this is disproportionate. The Juice need to give the Paleos an Iron Dome too
Posted by: Frank G || 04/09/2011 9:43 Comments || Top||

#4  I would settle for putting just plain domes over the Paleos and letting them try to live on their own and build a functioning society separated from everyone.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/09/2011 10:20 Comments || Top||

#5  ...oooooh...Thunderdome. Is it pay for view?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/09/2011 10:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Good way for Israel to bankrupt itself and a good PR op for Gov.

20 rockets sent at one time at the sytem can't cope.
Posted by: Tiny Groluque5440 || 04/09/2011 13:08 Comments || Top||

#7  Does anyone know it's real effectiveness? I heard 68% but still not sure.
Posted by: newc || 04/09/2011 19:26 Comments || Top||

#8  "Over the past 48 hours, terrorist organizations in Gaza fired over 120 Grad missiles, rockets and mortars at the Israeli home front, 50 of which were fired since this morning. Since Thursday, approximately eight Grad missiles and rockets were intercepted by IAF Aerial Defense Corps forces, using the “Iron Dome” system."

http://idfspokesperson.com/

Posted by: crosspatch || 04/09/2011 20:56 Comments || Top||

#9  Low level rockets do not really count. High range missiles are what we are looking at .
Posted by: newc || 04/09/2011 23:24 Comments || Top||


14 killed in Gaza, dozens injured in series of strikes
[Ma'an] (Ma'an) -- Israeli air strikes and artillery fire have hit Gazoo nine times Friday, killing nine, and bringing the total number of dead since Thursday afternoon to fourteen, including civilians.

A mother and daughter, and elderly man were killed in two separate strikes near Khan Younis, a fourth - identified as an Al-Qassam Brigades fighter - was killed near Gazoo City, and two faceless myrmidons was killed when a shell hit his home east of Gazoo City.

A statement from Israel's military acknowledged civilian casualties, saying that the military "regrets that the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, terrorist organization chooses to operate from within its civilian population, using it as a 'human shield'."

Hamas officials in Gazoo released a statement accusing Israel of launching white phosphorus missiles toward civilian populations, a claim an Israeli military front man denied.

The military reported "heavy rocket and mortar fire," emanating from Gazoo Friday afternoon. A later statement said a total of five mortars and eight projectiles had been fired from Gazoo on Friday.

DFLP fighters claimed to have fired two projectiles at targets from the northern Gazoo Strip. A statement said the fire was a "response to Israel's lack of commitment to the truce [and its] continuing of shelling of our unarmed people."

In the early evening, Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades said fighters launched six projectiles and three mortars on an Israeli military post east of Rafah.

Friday attacks have been reported as follows:

6:30 Shell lands on home east of Gazoo City, two civilians killed, medics said, and ten others injured.

Witnesses said three shells landed on homes in the Ash-Shuja'iyeh neighborhood. Medics said all were transferred to the Ash-Shifa Hospital.

5:30 Israeli warships fire on shoreline near Rafah, no injuries.

4:30 p.m. An Apache helicopter fired one missile on residents of Beit Lahiya, killing two Al-Qassam members, identified as Raed Shehada, 27, Ahmad Abu Ghurab. The second died in hospital of injuries he sustained during the shelling.

In the Az-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gazoo City a resistance fighter was said to have "beat feet death," a statement from resistance groups said. The strike was aimed at a metal workshop, which was damaged.

Medics confirmed that there were no injuries reported from the area.

3:00 p.m. Air strikes hit a smuggling tunnel between Egypt and Gazoo. No injuries were reported, but witnesses said a large fire broke out in the area following the blast.

Witnesses said the tunnel had been used to smuggle fuel into Gazoo. Since January, Gazoo's power plant stopped using industrial fuel from Israel, and instead began relying on fuel imported from Egypt via the tunnels. The engineer responsible for developing the purifying mechanism for the fuel was kidnapped by Israeli intelligence officers while on vacation in the Ukraine. He is currently in prison on charges of assisting the resistance in Gazoo.

2:00 p.m. Israeli artillery fire hits the Al-Farahin area east of Khan Younis. A mother and child were killed and another of her children injured.

Israeli media reported shortly before the strike that five projectiles launched from Gazoo landed near Ashkelon, with no injuries.

Medics later confirmed that Najah Kudeih, 45, and her daughter Nidal, 21, were killed, while a second daughter, Nida, 18, was maimed. Three others were maimed.

1:30 p.m. A 55-year-old man was killed by an Israeli air strike which hit in the Qarara area east of the city. Medics identified the man as Talal Abu Taha, 55.

9:45 a.m. An Arclight airstrike combined with artillery hit the town of Khuza'a, east of Khan Younis, killing two.

Israel's military said in a statement that "forces identified two terrorist squads from the Hamas terrorist organization," adding that air and artillery fire were used and the military "identified hits."

Hamas' military wing, the Izz Ad-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, named those killed as Abdallah Al-Qarra and Muataz Abu Jamea.

8:00 a.m. An Israeli strike hit in an open area east of Rafah, no injuries were reported.

7:00 a.m. Israeli shelling on Rafah airport in southern Gazoo injured three, witnesses reported.

Thursday strikes kill five

Air strikes hit what was described by the Israeli military as positions in and around Gazoo City where projectiles had been fired from on Thursday, and other raids hit targets in the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.

The strikes killed four, identified as resistance fighters affiliated with Hamas. A statement from the Al-Qassam Brigades identified those killed as leader Salah Tarabin, 38, Musab al-Sufi, 18, Muhammad Almanmom, 25, and Khaled Aldbari, 23.

Thursday afternoon, Artillery fire also hit the southern Gazoo Strip, with witnesses saying artillery fire injured five people, including a small child, and killed Mahmoud Al-Manasra, 50, who died after shells landed near his home in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gazoo City.

In total, more than 40 people were maimed across the Gazoo Strip overnight.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  "The strange thing about the dog is that it did not bark, my dear Watson."
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/09/2011 15:53 Comments || Top||


Factions resume projectile fire at Israel
[Ma'an] Paleostinian resistance factions resumed projectile fire toward Israeli targets Friday, less than a day after Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, officials declared a ceasefire, seeking to avoid further casualties.

The leading Gazoo party said it had secured pledges from most resistance factions in the coastal enclave, to stop fire if Israel would agree to the ceasefire.

An hour after the initiative was announced, a wave of Israeli air strikes hit targets across the Strip, killing four Al-Qassam fighters.

Israeli media accused Hamas of offering the ceasefire after a barrage of projectiles were fired, seeking only an escape from retaliation.

While one faction announced its refusal to participate in the ceasefire, and the DFLP said fighters launched projectiles toward Israel at approximately 3 p.m., others held off fire until 4:30, when the Al-Qassam Brigades launched the first set of projectiles.

4:30 p.m. The Al-Qassam Brigades say fighters fired six projectiles on Israeli military posts east of Rafah, and three mortar shells toward the former Sufa crossing, also near Rafah.

5:40 p.m. The armed wing of the PFLP, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, said fighters launched two Grad-style projectiles toward Ashkol.

6:20 p.m. An gang affiliated with Fatah movement said fighters fired two projectiles on a Kibbutz east of Al-Qarara, in the southern Gazoo Strip.

7:15 p.m. The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades said fighters launched a Grad-style projectile toward Ashkol another one toward Ofakim, Israeli population centers near Gazoo.

7:18 p.m. The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, said fighter launched six mortars toward the Israeli military post of Nahal Oz, east of Gazoo City.

7:30 p.m. The An-Nasser Salah Ad-Din Brigades said fighters launched projectiles toward the Zekem military post.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  I guess they have their orders.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/09/2011 4:17 Comments || Top||


Iron Dome intercepts three Grad rockets as attacks on southern Israel continue
As the rocket fire from Gaza on southern Israel continued Friday, the Iron Dome missile intercepted three Grad rockets that were fired toward Ashkelon.

The rockets were fired near the southern Israel city on Friday afternoon. In addition to the three intercepted rockets, one rocket fell in an open area near Ashkelon. No one was hurt.
And twenty other rockets were shot off toward other Israeli communities, fulfilling Hama's unilateral hudna from the night before. More would have been, but Israel killed three Hamas rocket teams as they were preparing their murderous tools. Twelve or more civilian shields were wounded (the Hamas claims changed rapidly after the event).
Posted by: Beavis || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  CNN + FOX + even NETWORK NEWS AM > Analysts + GUest Perts agree that iff the Militants keep this up, the IDF is gonna launch a serious ground MilOp into Gaza???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/09/2011 1:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Food for thought, Nasrallah?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/09/2011 4:43 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanon indicts 11 in kidnapping of Estonians
BEIRUT — Lebanese judicial officials say a military prosecutor has indicted 11 people suspected of involvement in last month’s kidnapping of seven Estonian tourists.

The officials said prosecutor Saqr Saqr charged the 11 on Friday with forceful abduction. Seven are in custody. The officials say Saqr later referred the suspects to an investigative judge. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The Estonians were cycling in the eastern Bekaa Valley when armed men wearing masks kidnapped them.
What were the Estonians doing there? The story somehow never quite gets around to that.
It wasn’t clear whether the kidnappings were politically motivated, like the wave of abductions during Lebanon’s civil war. Kidnappings are less common now but the area where the group was kidnapped is known for lawlessness, drug trafficking and clan feuds.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And what of the kidnapped Estonians? They are an afterthought in this story.
Posted by: Zebulon Thranter9685 || 04/09/2011 8:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Estonians cycling in the Bekaa valley? Why not a cycling tour of Ciudad Juarez for more thrills? Something stinks here.
Posted by: borgboy || 04/09/2011 16:38 Comments || Top||


Iran gas pipelines explode, no reason given
Operation Lemony Snickett lives on...
TEHRAN - Three gas pipelines have exploded in an Iranain province south of the capital Tehran, a news agency reported on Friday, saying the cause was unknown and giving no details of damage or casualties.

“The National Iranian Gas Company’s (NIGC) operation and rescue teams along with other governmental organisations are present at the scene and are investigating the reason for the explosion,” the semi-official Mehr news agency said. The explosions happened in the province of Qom in northern-central Iran.

The report comes two months after a similar incident in the same area. on Feb. 11, media reported simultaneous explosions on three gas pipelines near the city of Qom. An NIGC spokesman said at the time that “technical problems were not the cause” of the blasts but gave no further explanation.

Officials were not immediately available for comment.

The pipelines carry gas from refineries in southern Iran to the north and north-west, Mehr said.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Chickens, Roost?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/09/2011 4:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Bugti migration
Posted by: Frank G || 04/09/2011 8:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Wrath of Yahweh.
Posted by: Zebulon Thranter9685 || 04/09/2011 8:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Inshallah!
Posted by: Water Modem || 04/09/2011 9:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Chickens, Roost?

Woodpeckers.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/09/2011 10:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Ask yourself this question: what monarch has the gayest facial hair on the planet? If you can answer that, you know who is responsible.
Posted by: Secret Master || 04/09/2011 11:19 Comments || Top||

#7  Funny how I heard mention of the MEK numerous times right after it happened.
Posted by: newc || 04/09/2011 18:56 Comments || Top||

#8  It's Allan!!
Posted by: Steven || 04/09/2011 20:46 Comments || Top||


22 Syrian protesters killed, hundreds wounded
DAMASCUS — At least 22 protesters were killed on Friday as anti-regime demonstrations and clashes with security forces raged around Syria, the head of the National Organisation for Human Rights said.

“We have the names of 17 demonstrators killed in Daraa, and we have been told of the deaths of two protesters in Homs and three in Harasta,” Qurabi told AFP by telephone from Cairo, where he lives in exile.

“We are aware that live bullets, tear gas and another gas that causes fainting were used,” he added.

Qurabi’s report was more or less in line with other activists, who earlier said 13 protesters had been killed in the flashpoint southern town of Daraa, a number of people wounded in the central industrial city of Homs and also spoke of fighting in Harasta.

The official SANA news agency said 19 members of the security forces were killed and 75 were wounded by “armed groups” in Daraa.

Amnesty International said it had confirmed eight people were killed in protests on Friday, six in Daraa and two in Homs in the west.

“The alarming reports coming from Syria today show that the authorities have not altered their violent methods for dealing with dissent,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty’s Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme.

An activist asking not to be named for security reasons told AFP the people in Daraa were killed when security forces opened fire with rubber bullets and live rounds to disperse stone-throwing protesters.

“Thousands of demonstrators leaving from three mosques marched to the courthouse but security forces dressed in civilian clothing fired tear gas to disperse them,” said the activist.

“Demonstrators threw stones and clashes ensued,” the activist said, adding that “the situation is very tense” in Daraa, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Damascus.

Protesters angered by the deaths set fire to the ruling Baath party’s headquarters in Daraa, he added.

State television said “saboteurs and conspirators opened fire on residents and security forces” alike in the town, killing two people — an officer and an ambulance man. State television broadcast footage showing young men in keffiyehs standing behind trees while the sound of automatic weapons fire could be heard.

The agricultural city of Daraa has been the focal point of anti-government protests marred by deadly violence that human rights activists blame on the security services and the government blames on “armed” groups.

President Bashar al-Assad, under popular pressure to introduce major political reforms and end emergency powers which give security services great leeway to crush dissent, had ordered a probe into previous protest casualties in Daraa.

Abdel Karim Rihawi, who heads the Syrian League for the Defence of Human rights, said several people were injured in clashes in the industrial city of Homs and that there had also been fighting in Harasta, north of the capital. Rihawi also said several thousand people demonstrated in the port city of Banias and Tal, 20 kilometres north of Damascus.

The rallies, he said, were staged in solidarity with the “martyrs” of protests in Douma, Daraa and Latakia.

Thousands also marched in five towns in northern Syria, mainly in predominantly Kurdish Hassake and Ammuda, calling for an end to emergency rule and the release of prisoners, another rights activist said.

“More than 3,000 people, Kurds, Arabs and Assyrians (Christians), demonstrated in Qamishli after Friday prayers before staging a sit-in on the main road,” Kurdish rights activist Radif Mustafa told AFP.

The rallies came a day after Assad granted citizenship to tens of thousands of Kurds who had been denied nationality for nearly half a century because of a controversial census.

In Douma, residents formed committees to verify the identities of people arriving for a rally to check they were not armed, a rights activist said. He told AFP demonstrators and authorities had reached an agreement allowing protesters to rally without security force intervention.

Until Friday, Syrian rights activists estimated that more than 130 people had been killed in clashes with security forces, mainly in Daraa and the port city of Latakia, since the start of political unrest on March 15. Officials have put the death toll at closer to 30 and blamed the violence on armed groups and foreigners seeking to divide the ethnically and religiously diverse country.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  UN resolution in 5..4..3
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/09/2011 3:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Thousands of demonstrators leaving from three mosques marched to the courthouse

Alawites had better get ready for pogroms if they lose. The Islamists are getting frisky.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 04/09/2011 22:57 Comments || Top||


Syria: 17 killed by security forces in Deraa
[Ennahar] Seventeen people were killed and dozens wounded Friday by gunfire from security forces in Deraa (100 km south of Damascus), where several thousand protesters marched after Friday prayer, according to an activist of Human Rights.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Is Jose Ferrer still head of security forces at Deraa?
Posted by: borgboy || 04/09/2011 16:46 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2011-04-09
  22 Syrian protesters killed, hundreds wounded
Fri 2011-04-08
  Gulf states expect Yemen's Saleh to quit: Qatari PM
Thu 2011-04-07
  Rebels push back toward Brega
Wed 2011-04-06
  Gaddafi troops force retreat towards Ajdabiya
Tue 2011-04-05
  Suicide kabooms kill 30 at Pakistani shrine
Mon 2011-04-04
  Gaddafi in Tripoli, crushes officers revolt
Sun 2011-04-03
  Rebels claim Brega
Sat 2011-04-02
  Deputy emir of Caucasus Emirate killed in Russian raid
Fri 2011-04-01
  Two UN staff beheaded and eight others murdered in protest against U.S. pastor who burnt Koran
Thu 2011-03-31
  Obama 'orders covert help for Libya rebels'
Wed 2011-03-30
  Libyan Foreign Minister quits, arrives in UK
Tue 2011-03-29
  Yemeni regime loses grip on four provinces
Mon 2011-03-28
  Rebels push towards Sirte
Sun 2011-03-27
  Libyan rebels say forces reach oil town of Brega
Sat 2011-03-26
  Libyan Rebels Reclaim Ajdabiya

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