Marines and Afghan troops who fought through the center of Marjah linked up Saturday with American soldiers on the northern edge of the former Taliban stronghold, clearing the town's last major pocket of resistance.
The joint force encountered almost no hostile fire, indicating that the militants have either fled or blended in with the local population perhaps to stage attacks later if the Afghan government fails to hold the town. Some Taliban operatives are believed to remain west of Marjah.
Posted by: ed ||
02/27/2010 11:47 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] A suicide bomber killed at least 16 people, including four Indian nationals, and wounded 32 others near an upmarket shopping and hotel complex in the heart of Kabul on Friday, and police shot dead two other would-be attackers, officials said.
Witnesses reported at least two smaller blasts around the Safi Landmark complex as police cordoned off the area, ambulances rushed to the scene and sporadic gunfire was heard.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attacks on behalf of the Islamist militants.
"Our mujahidi (holy warrior) fighters managed to attack in the heart of Kabul city once again," Mujahid told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
He said at least five Taliban fighters launched the attack. Two suicide bombers detonated explosives-packed vests near the hotel and the City Centre shopping mall. Three fighters were still holed up in the basement of the shopping centre, he said.
A police official said there was still sporadic firing from the basement. "The situation is under control," said the police official, who asked not to be identified.
The attack came as NATO-led foreign troops and Afghan forces press ahead with an offensive against the Taliban in their stronghold in southern Helmand province, a key element of Washington's new strategy to put down a growing insurgency.
The heavily fortified center of Kabul has been relatively calm since Jan. 18, when Taliban gunmen stormed the city's commercial heart, taking over buildings, detonating suicide vests and killing at least five people.
Fridays, the Muslim holiday, are the quietest day of the week in Kabul but the city's diplomatic "green zone" was immediately sealed off to traffic and loudspeaker announcements in Dari and English told residents to stay indoors.
But not in Pashto. I wonder why that is?
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2010 00:00 ||
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The South African government has notified the UN of the seizure of a North Korean cargo ship carrying tank parts to the Republic of Congo.
South Africa's foreign ministry released a statement that "confirms reporting the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ship to the United Nations," AFP reported Friday.
"The South African government has taken note of media interest and reports on the search and seizure of military equipment on board a vessel from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) destined for the Republic of Congo," read the statement.
"The government will, as the member of the United Nations, continue to contribute to efforts to prevent the production and proliferation of illicit weapons that could endanger the lives of world citizens and create conditions of insecurity and instability in some regions of the world."
The export of military equipment to Congo is in violation of UN Resolution 1906, adopted unanimously on December 23, 2009. It seeks to "support the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) operations against illegal foreign and Congolese armed groups provided they comply with international humanitarian law..."
Additionally, UN Security Council Resolution 1874 not only bans North Korea from exporting arms but permits UN member states to search and seize any North Korean cargos on land, sea and air.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Note its the Security Council resolution that matters. The UN resolution is meaningless pap.
DUBAI - Yemeni separatists shot dead a police officer in south Yemen as he drove on his motorcycle, bringing to four the number of people killed in attacks on security men in the south in a week, state media said on Friday.
The killing comes after the arrest of at least 80 people this week in security sweeps against separatists in south Yemen, as the government reacted to a week of unrest in which army positions came under fire and northern-owned shops were burned.
Witnesses said they heard heavy gunfire on Thursday from gunmen thought to belong to a separatist militia, and later saw the 45-year-old officer slumped over his motorcycle in Zanjibar in Abyan province, the defence ministry's online newspaper said. It added that the officer had previously received threats from members of the militia, led by a separatist leader formerly loyal to the government, but gave no further details.
The latest tensions flared in southern Yemen when a separatist protester was killed on Feb. 13 after police opened fire at a demonstration. Six others were injured.
Later, police clashed with demonstrators who came to claim the protester's body for burial, igniting unrest in which separatists burned northern-owned shops and tried to block a road linking Lahj province to the main southern city of Aden, residents said.
Separatists killed two people including a senior police official a week ago in an ambush. Two policemen were wounded in an attack by gunmen in the town of Dalea the following day, and on Monday a military officer was killed in south Yemen.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Sounds like the Yemeni police are just another militia group. The "separatists" are able to shut down roads, kill the cops, interfere with burials of policemen.
Who's running the show here?
Posted by: American Delight ||
02/27/2010 7:38 Comments ||
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Jahmaal James pleaded guilty on Friday to having gone to Pakistan to obtain paramilitary training for the benefit of the so-called Toronto 18 and was to be set free after being sentenced to time served. The now 26-year-old admitted in a Brampton court that he was part of a terrorist group that intended to cause violent jihad.
After entering his plea of guilt, the Scarborough man, who has been in pre-trial custody since June 2006, was sentenced by Justice Bruce Durno to seven years and credited with time served. As part of a joint submission, the judge imposed a three-year probation period, a lifetime weapons prohibition and ordered James to provide a DNA sample. James, who converted from Christianity to Islam, chose not to address the near-empty court.
Defence lawyer Donald McLeod later told reporters that his client is looking forward to getting on with his life. "This was a very hard, arduous and difficult time for him but I think now he can look forward to sort of doing things differently," said McLeod. He explained his client's attraction to the group as a "blunder, a misstep in his 20s," and described James as a "smart young man who has a lot going for him."
According to an agreed statement of fact, James travelled from Toronto to Lahore on Nov. 5, 2005, to obtain paramilitary training at a camp in Waziristan. Crown prosecutor Jason Wakely told the court that James planned to use that training to benefit the Toronto group.
James believed that once he arrived overseas, Aabid Khan, a British resident known as "Mr. Fix-It," would help him gain admission to one of the training camps in Pakistan. While there, James made several attempts to meet up with Khan, also known as Abu Omar, but became seriously ill. "This disrupted his plan," Wakely told the judge. "The Crown does not allege that James actually received paramilitary training."
When James returned to Toronto, on March 22, 2006, he became disgruntled with the reckless manner in which the Toronto group was being led and eventually pulled away because he feared the authorities were onto them. Defence lawyer McLeod told the court that there was also an "ideological shift" in his client, which explains why James distanced himself from those with extremist views.
Outside court, McLeod said that after James returned from Pakistan he delved deeper into Islam and gained a deeper understanding of it. "He still embraces the religion," McLeod said of his client. "But he realizes he may have aligned himself with a portion that was not really to his liking and that's what he disengaged from."
James was among 18 people charged with terrorism offences in the summer of 2006. Six have pleaded guilty, two have been found guilty and seven had their charges stayed. Three men still face trial. Khan, meanwhile, is serving a 12-year sentence in Britain after being found guilty in August 2008 of terror-related offences.
According to testimony heard during his London trial, Khan travelled often, including to Toronto, where he met with like-minded extremists he had met online and incited them to fight. He intended to rent an apartment for recruits on their way to Pakistan's paramilitary training camps and talked about a "worldwide battle."
#1
So Jahmaal gets probation because he refrained from committing mas murder during the 4 years he was in the slammer? I expect we will be seeing him on the news in the near future.
#4
"He still embraces the religion," McLeod said of his client. "But he realizes he may have aligned himself with a portion that was not really to his liking and that's what he disengaged from."
"may have". "not really" Right. The only thing that wasn't to his liking was the arrest.
He explained his client's attraction to the group as a "blunder, a misstep in his 20s,...
He converted from christianity to islamist beliefs, not just islam. he was really attracted to the gore and violence and death that islam offers. A conversion to a bloodthirsty cult and not the "religion of peace". He'll be back in the news soon.
#5
Justice Bruce Durno must be time served in the UK to make such a lenient ruling. The Human Rights AKA PC Brigade, will be sipping their Pims, and bashing their bishops over this one.
Posted by: Dave UK ||
02/27/2010 17:45 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] The US is set to extend a Bush-era controversial counter-terrorism law called the Patriot Act for yet another year. It's a lot worse when the Publicans do it...
The Patriot Act, hastily adopted six weeks after the 2001 terror attacks, greatly expands the government's ability to spy on Americans in the name of national security.
On Thursday, The House of Representatives voted the bill overwhelmingly and sent it to President Barack Obama for his approval.
The vote came a day after the Senate approved the extension to the bill.
With both Congressional bodies pushing for an extension, it is only a matter of time before Obama signs the legislation.
Some lawmakers in the House, however, oppose the act, saying it fails to protect privacy and gives the government too much authority to spy on Americans and seize their property.
They have wanted to rewrite or even drop some of the most controversial provisions. Some of the renewed provisions in the bill involve wiretaps and eavesdropping measures.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2010 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Seventeen militants were killed while a soldier sustained injuries in a clean-up operation in the Pastawana area of the Frontier Region (FR), Kohat, on Friday, official sources said.
More contingents of the Frontier Police and the Frontier Constabulary were deployed in Adezai, Matani and other villages of Peshawar district during the operation named "Spring Cleaning" being carried out in the semi-tribal area. Unannounced curfew remained clamped over the villages near Peshawar on Thursday and Friday.
A fresh operation has been going on against the miscreants in FR Kohat and FR Peshawar since Thursday. "Seventeen miscreants were killed while a soldier was wounded during the operation carried out in Pastawana town," a spokesman for the Frontier Corps Major Fazal told The News. Besides, security forces were reported to have recovered two suicide jackets and a cache of ammunition during the clean-up operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday prohibited the extradition of five Afghan Taliban leaders and summoned the provincial and federal governments on March 15.
The arrested militants include Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar who is considered the right hand man of Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Other arrested Afghan Taliban included Mullah Saleem, Maulvi Kabeer, Mullah Mohammad and Ameer Muavia.
The five were arrested from Faisalabad and Karachi a few weeks ago.
On February 25, a petition was filed in the LHC by Khalid Khwaja against the arrest of the five Afghan Taliban leaders. Khwaja requested that the five not be deported to any foreign country.
The case was being heard by LHC Chief Justice Khwaja Sharif.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] In charge of Operation Rah-i-rast Major-General Ashfaq Nadeem Friday said the offensive was over as most parts of Swat had been cleared of militants.
He however added that surgical strikes will continue on the basis of intelligence reports.
While addressing the media in Malakand, Major-General Ashfaq Nadeem said that security forces had cleared most parts of the valley and only a small number of militants were still operating in some areas.
Very soon, those areas would also be cleared, he said.
He also praised the role of Swat's residents for assisting in the military operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"Which parts? The parts where 'militants' aren't."
It's the only way to protect them from UAV missiles.
[Dawn] Swat Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah's nephew was arrested along with three other suspected militants from the North West Frontier Province's Nowshera district.
Official sources told DawnNews that security forces raided a house in the Pir Sabaq area near Nowshera Cantt and arrested the suspected militants.
The officials did not disclose the name of Fazlullah's nephew but said he was among key militant commanders and was a close aide of the Swat Taliban chief.
The local police expressed ignorance about any such arrests. However, intelligence agencies confirmed the suspects had been arrested in a pre-dawn operation in Pir Sabaq.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2010 00:00 ||
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One Muslim man was shot dead while he was on his way back home from the village's mosque in Pattani early morning on Saturday, Pattani police said. The victim, Mayusoh Malee, 70, was attacked on a local road in front of Islam Pattana school at Moo 1, Tambon Barahoh of Pattani's Maung district. He was shot several times in his body and died at the scene.
[Straits Times] TWO men abducted by Al Qaeda-linked militants walked free from the southern Philippines jungle on Friday, police said, nearly three months after a fellow hostage was beheaded. Had their heads on, too, which is unusual...
Michael Tan and Oscar Lu were fetched by police from a remote village near Sumisip town on Basilan island late Friday and taken to a local hospital, a police report said.
Police said Abu Sayyaf militants abducted the two along with a third employee of Hitech Woodcraft Corp. in the Basilan town of Maluso on Nov 10. The severed head of Mark Singson, the third hostage, was found abandoned at a Basilan park in early December.
It was unclear if ransom had changed hands. The kidnappers are known to have demanded money from the families of the surviving victims, who police said are both of Chinese descent.
The police report said the two were 'rescued' at the end of 'three months and 16 days of operations with pressure provided by joint checkpoints and operations' by the police and military.
However it was not clear from the report if a firefight had preceded their release or if they were abandoned by fleeing kidnappers. Founded in the early 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden, the Abu Sayyaf is blamed for a series of bombings and kidnappings targeting foreign missionaries, Christians, and US military advisers based in the south.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] The Lebanese army has arrested six more people on suspicion of spying for Israel, a security source said on Friday.
May God watch over their souls, for their bodies are no longer safe.
He said the suspects, arrested in four separate raids this week, were being questioned about providing Israel with information on Hezbollah members and their movements.
He said some of the suspects were found to have sophisticated communication devices in their possession.
On Wednesday, Lebanon's military prosecutor indicted three Lebanese with spying for Israel as part of an espionage investigation lasting nearly a year in which at least 27 suspects have been detained.
Israel has not commented on the arrests.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria, has called for the death penalty for all suspects convicted of spying for Israel. Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war in 2006.
The wave of arrests began in April 2009 with the detention of a former brigadier general of the General Security directorate.
Senior Lebanese security officials said the arrests dealt a major blow to Israel's spying networks in Lebanon and that many of the suspects had played key roles in identifying Hezbollah targets that were bombed during the 2006 war.
Other suspects have been charged with monitoring senior Hezbollah officials and at least one is alleged to have played a role in the 2004 assassination of a commander of the group.
Lebanese courts have handed down what were widely seen as light sentences
Interesting.
against nationals who have worked with the Israeli occupation and its local militias after Israeli forces ended a 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in May 2000.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
LOL! They STILL don't suspect the real culprits - the rats that infest everywhere there are Hezbullies.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/27/2010 18:52 Comments ||
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TEHRAN - Captured Iranian Sunni militant Abdolmalek Rigi said in a confession' aired on state television Friday that the United States offered to provide him with military aid to battle the Islamic regime. Rigi's arrest, which Iran touted as a blow to the United States and Britain, came as Tehran faces pressure by world powers and the threat of tougher sanctions over its controversial nuclear programme.
They (Americans) said they would cooperate with us and will give me military equipment,' Rigi said in a pre-recorded statement broadcast on Iran's state-run English-language Press TV.
They also promised to give us a base along the border with Afghanistan near Iran,' said the ringleader, stubble-faced, wearing blue prison pyjamas and speaking in Farsi. Not that any of this will help Rigi save his life ...
Rigi was seized on Tuesday after Iranian warplanes reportedly forced a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan to land in Iran. Bad idea to be in or around Dubai these days ...
It was not clear under what conditions the confessions were extracted from Rigi, whose group the Jundallah has waged a deadly insurgency in southeastern Iran killing military officials as well as civilians. Clear to me ...
Rigi said in his taped statement that he was on his way to meet a high-ranking American person' in Kyrgyzstan. He added that Americans met him in Pakistan around March 2009 and had also sought a meeting after the last major operation we took part in.'
He was apparently referring to the October 2009 suicide bombing in the provincial town of Pisheen that killed 42 people, including seven Revolutionary Guards commanders and several tribal leaders, which was claimed by Jundallah.
The Americans said Iran was going its own way and they said our problem at present is Iran ... not Al-Qaeda nor the Taliban,' Rigi said.
Iran has repeatedly accused archfoe the United States of backing the group.
Washington dismissed as totally bogus' claims on Tuesday by Iranian Intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi that Rigi had been issued an Afghan passport by the Americans' and had met a NATO military chief in Afghanistan.
Jundallah says it is fighting Tehran's Shiite rule to secure rights for Sunni Baluchis who form a significant population in Sistan-Baluchestan the restive province on a major narcotics-smuggling route bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Soon after the October bombing, Revolutionary Guards chief Mohammad Ali Jafari demanded that Islamabad hand over Rigi because Tehran had proof' he was backed by Pakistan's intelligence agency.
Pakistan's ambassador to Tehran, Mohammad Abbasi, told reporters earlier this week that Islamabad had helped to capture Rigi and that he was detained outside Pakistan. He gave no further details.
In Abu Dhabi, meanwhile, the foreign ministry said on Friday that Rigi had been arrested on a flight from Dubai after a short stopover, denying reports that he stayed in Dubai. Rigi, who came from Kabul and carried on to Kyrgyzstan, stopped over for two hours at Dubai airport and did not use his visa to enter in Dubai,' it said in a statement.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
like it or not we are at war with Iran so this news does not surprise me!
The family of the only Irish person known to have died while waging jihad has spoken of their wish to see his remains repatriated from Afghanistan. The Irish Times today reveals the story of John Burke, from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, who died at the age of 27 while fighting with the so-called mujahideen in eastern Afghanistan in 1989.
Mr Burke, who changed his name to Muhammad Omar after he converted to Islam while living in London, studied at madrassas in Pakistan before attending mujahideen training camps in Afghanistan in 1988. In a letter to his father, Mr Burke described the "guerrilla-style" training he received and the time he spent at the front fighting Soviet troops then occupying Afghanistan. "We would bomb . . . with mortars and anti-aircraft guns," he wrote. "The Russians would reply with mortars and tank fire. I always thought mortars used to whistle as they came down like in the movies, but they don't."
According to the central tracing agency of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mr Burke is believed to have been buried close to where he was killed near the city of Jalalabad. At the time of his death the Soviet Union had already withdrawn its forces from Afghanistan but the mujahideen continued to fight against the Russian-backed government in Kabul. The ICRC has provided Mr Burke's father, also named John, with photographs of the grave and a map pinpointing its location.
"It was very hard," Mr Burke recalls of the day he was informed his son had been killed in Afghanistan. "My only hope was to see if I could get his body home. I wrote to everyone I could think of to see if they could help. The Red Cross eventually found out where he was buried . . . but there are still questions over whether it is his actual burial place. Other people have said he was buried in a cemetery somewhere."
The exact circumstances of John Burke's death remain unknown. His family has received several different accounts of what happened. "We still don't know how he was killed, whether it was a shooting incident or whether he was killed when he stepped on a mine," Mr Burke, a former corporal in the Defence Forces, said.
Although several of the deceased's associates say it was his wish to be buried in Afghanistan, Mr Burke still holds out hope that his remains will be brought back to Ireland. "It is still devastating to think about it even after all these years," he said. More at this link: Born John Burke. Died Muhammad Omar.
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] A suicide bomber killed at least 16 people, including four Indian nationals, and wounded 32 others near an upmarket shopping and hotel complex in the heart of Kabul on Friday, and police shot dead two other would-be attackers, officials said.
DUBAI - Yemeni separatists shot dead a police officer in south Yemen as he drove on his motorcycle, bringing to four the number of people killed in attacks on security men in the south in a week, state media said on Friday.
TEHRAN - Captured Iranian Sunni militant Abdolmalek Rigi said in a confession' aired on state television Friday that the United States offered to provide him with military aid to battle the Islamic regime. Rigi's arrest, which Iran touted as a blow to the United States and Britain, came as Tehran faces pressure by world powers and the threat of tougher sanctions over its controversial nuclear programme.
