Two explosions have rocked a police station in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar, killing at least two policemen, officials say. They say about 30 people - including civilians - were injured when two suicide bombers detonated their bombs in quick succession inside the station.
'General targeted'
"There were two suicide bombers who blew themselves up inside the police headquarters one after another," Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of Kandahar's provincial council, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency. The bombers targeted a senior border police commander, General Abdul Razaaq, who was injured in the attacks, reports say. Earlier reports said at least six people had been killed in the blasts. Police sealed off the area shortly after the explosions.
In a separate development, a suicide bomber attacked a Nato convoy in the western city of Herat but caused no casualties, officials say.
The US-led coalition said its forces had killed more than 10 insurgents in an operation in the eastern province of Khost on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2008 00:00 ||
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A warship off Somali waters captured 14 pirates, whose captives include two Pakistani crew of an Iranian ship. "About 14 pirates came across a warship that we think could be American and all the pirates on board were captured and their boat destroyed," said Abdulqadir Muse Yusuf, the fisheries minister for the Puntland semi-autonomous region, said on Sunday. "We are still investigating the identity of the warship."
A man who said he was the pirates' servant told Reuters on Sunday that the Iranian ship with 28 crew members including two Russians, two Pakistanis and a Syrian would soon be freed once the $2 million ransom agreed upon was paid. "The bargaining about the ransom is over and pirates are just waiting for the money," Abdinur Farah told Reuters from the deck of a seized Iranian ship.
Two French nationals were seized in their yacht in the perilous waters on Tuesday and the French navy has said it is ready to try to free them, although their safety came first. "The French tourists, whose boat was also hijacked, are now held inside the hilly areas of Habo village. They are safe and healthy," Farah said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Here is your targeting information for Habo village, Mudug, Somalia, Gentlemen:
Latitude 5.9167 Longitude 48.0833 Altitude (feet) 482
Lat (DMS) 5° 55' 0N Long (DMS) 48° 4' 60E Altitude (meters) 146
Double check your targeting coordinates on the map, and set weapon detonation altitude of 1500 ft AGL for maximum blast effect. Any questions? No? OK, let's get to work.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/08/2008 0:22 Comments ||
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#2
Alaska Paul, can you post the link to the Google Street View? The Predator pilots need to clarify a point or two.
#3
What sense does it make to capture Somali pirates? In a failed state there are no jails, no judiciary, no police and damned little civilization. They will be back at work in six months.
#7
It's a maritime tradition that you pick up captives and not let them drown. You can hang them once they are aboard, but you don't let them drown. Only pirates throw people overboard.
#9
What sense does it make to capture Somali pirates?
Intel. Mothership names/descriptions, pirate leader names/descriptions, buildings in the village where the leaders hang out, hostages may held, etc. Compare information obtained against information extracted from other pirates.
#11
Steve - I don't think the Malaysians have had a chance to get there yet - it's about a four-day sail from Singapore to Somalia at best speeds.
AP - actually, what you need are six B-52H models, 430 500lb bombs, a center point, heading, and start point. Altitude is 48,000 feet, speed is 360kt indicated. Formation flying in two "V"s of three, with the second "V" 600 feet behind the lead, and 200 feet higher. Give me a couple of hours, and I can prepare the radar predictions for the aim point and the start point. It would be a one-off mission, since there wouldn't be anything left for a follow-up mission.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/08/2008 15:07 Comments ||
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#13
AP - actually, what you need are six B-52H models, 430 500lb bombs, a center point, heading, and start point. Altitude is 48,000 feet, speed is 360kt indicated. Formation flying in two "V"s of three, with the second "V" 600 feet behind the lead, and 200 feet higher. Give me a couple of hours, and I can prepare the radar predictions for the aim point and the start point. It would be a one-off mission, since there wouldn't be anything left for a follow-up mission.
Sorta handy to have this kind of skill bouncing around here at Rantburg. Gotta keep that in mind..
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/08/2008 19:03 Comments ||
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#16
We have the skill and the means. We just need the will.
BTW, Seafarious, Google Earth not good for many places in Somalia. Not enough detail in the images. Better talk to DoD mapping folks for your little mission, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/08/2008 21:12 Comments ||
Top||
#17
yeah and "street view" in Somalia shows a strip of dirt with piles of sh*t and qhat juice
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/08/2008 21:55 Comments ||
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#18
Not Skipjack, Cod
No cod, no skipjack, no pirates. Nothing. Just bubbles and odor.
The government is planning to officially ban 18 splinter groupings of clandestine armed communists soon, as law enforcing agencies identified them as organisations engaged in anti-state activities in 13 north-west and southern districts. RAB's been hungry lately...
According to top officials of police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), the decision is being taken for the first time since the independence of the country, with an aim to eradicating such organisations before the next parliamentary election.
Responding to recommendations of different intelligence agencies, the police headquarters in early August sent a proposal to the home ministry for banning the outfits, sources said.
On Thursday, the home ministry in a top level meeting with chiefs of law enforcement and intelligence agencies discussed the matter and initiated a process of banning the outfits. Home Adviser Maj Gen (retd) MA Matin chaired the meeting.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nur Muhammad confirmed the initiative to The Daily Star saying, "The topic is being discussed."
Once the outfits are banned, they will hardly get any chance of slipping through legal loopholes, which has been common so far, as the new rules will be tougher, the home adviser said.
The government already banned Islamist militant outfits Shahadat-e Al Hikma, Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, and Harkatul Jihad Al Islami.
Armed communist operations started in the country since the independence, but they splintered into many small groupings following intra-party rivalries over blessings of successive ruling parties during tenures of elected governments, and over establishing supremacy.
In the name of so called revolutionary agenda of capturing state power through armed struggle, the outfits so far killed hundreds of people including law enforcers, and robbed a number of police stations making off with government arms and ammunition.
Citing many previous killings of political leaders, the top officials of police and Rab said operatives of the outfits might become more active before the next parliamentary poll.
18 OUTFITS
Intelligence wings of Rab and police identified 18 outfits and their 40 leaders who are active in 13 north-west and southern districts.
Among the 40 leaders, two were killed in 'crossfire' and six were arrested leaving the rest operating.
Among the outfits, Lal Potaka (Red Flag) faction of Purbo Banglar Communist Party Marxists-Leninist (PBCP M-L) is active in Rajshahi, Natore, Naogaon, Bogra, Pabna, Sirajganj, Kushtia, and in Gangni of Meherpur.
Red Flag used to be led by Dr Mizanur Rahman Tutul who died in 'crossfire' on July 27. The outfit is now being led by Madhu Babu alias Shafik.
Other leaders of the group are Ratan alias Titas, Abdus Salam Tapu, Zahangir alias Jalal, Rashid, Ibrahim Chairman, Khokon, Wali Chairman, and Anwar.
PBCP M-L Jana Juddha (People's War) faction is active in Jhenidah, Chuadanga, Meherpur, Pabna and Kushtia. It is now without a leader since its former chief Tapan Malitha alias Dada Tapan died in 'crossfire'.
PBCP M-L (Rashid) is operating in Khulna and in its adjoining areas led by Harun Sheikh, where another outfit Bangladesh New Biplobi Communist Party (BNBCP) led by Gazi Quamrul is also active.
BNBCP also has two others factions -- Mrinal Group led by Dev Prashad alias Manik, and Sailen Group led by Shailendranath Biswas.
Another outfit Sramajibi Mukti Andolon or Gana Mukti Fouj is active under the leadership of Aminul Islam Mukul in Jhenidah, Kushtia, Pabna, Chuadanga, Rajbari and Meherpur.
Other leaders of the outfit are Shahin Rumi, Shamsul Islam Robin, Anwar Hossain Debu, and Shisir.
Bangladesh Communist Oikkya Prokria is led by Mosarraf Hossain Musa in Jhenidah.
Omol Krishna Mandol, Hasanul Haq Hasu, and Swapan Chakrabarty are leading Bangladesh Biplobi Communist Party in Chuadanga, Kushtia, Meherpur, and Rajbari.
Nuruzzaman Laltu leads Banglar Communist Party in Chuadanga.
Roni Biswas is leading Bangladesh Communist Juddha in Chuadanga and Meherpur.
Samad Member, Aziz Commander, Kamrul Hasan Himu Kha, and Hapu alias Hasanul Haque are leading Sarbahara Group in Rajbari, Babuganj, Ujirpur, and in Gournadi of Barisal.
Sarbahara Sagor Group is active in Rajbari, led by Bulu Akhtar Sagor.
Sarbahara Party is led by Alam Sadhu and Edward Biswas Nanu in Pabna and Barisal while Sarbahara Zia Group is led by Nur Muhammad Sikdar, Abdur Rahim Hawladar, Fazle Rabbi, and Abdur Rahim Sikdar.
Sarbahara Poresh Group is active under the leadership Abul Kalam in Rajbari and Faridpur.
Jashod Gono Bahini of Azibor Chairman and Anwar Hossain Anu is active in Kushtia.
Regional Bahini is being led by Montu Chairman, Sayeed, and Malek in Pabna.
The leaders arrested so far are Ibrahim, Gazi Quamrul, Dev Prashad Manik, Nuruzzaman Laltu, Kamrul Hasan Himu Kha, and Abul Kalam.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
For a minute there, when i saw the headline, i thought it was another plank from The One's ever-shifting platform.
Banned militant outfits Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) in a letter to Rapid Action Battalion-5 (Rab) headquarters and Rajshahi Metropolitan Police threatened bomb attacks on the homes and offices of all advisers to the caretaker government. "Yo! Rab! Come and get us!"
The also threatened bomb attacks on offices of law enforcement agencies and the administration within this month. "We're really craving a thorough butt-kicking!"
The letter, faxed from Chapainawabganj at 12:49am on September 4, was signed by M Obaidur Rahman Giasi, self-proclaimed military chief of JMB. It was made available to journalists last night. Copies of the letter were also sent to different offices of Police and Rab in Dhaka, Chittagong and Rajshahi. The letter held Rab responsible for executions of the outfits' spiritual leaders and blamed army personnel and police for "torture of political leaders including former lawmakers". "We are just so-o-o-o-o jealous! Us remnants need our own crossfires and neck stretchings!"
The letter said the outfits have plans for devastating attacks on metropolitan police in Dhaka, Chittagong and Rajshahi and offices of superintendents of police in districts across the country. "Devastatin'! Y'unnerstand? Devastatin'!" Mahbub Mohsin, commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police, told reporters that all law enforcement agencies concerned have started investigating the matter.
This article starring:
Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh
Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
Mahbub Mohsin, commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police
M Obaidur Rahman Giasi
Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2008 00:00 ||
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A British jury has found three men guilty of conspiracy to murder thousands by plotting to down at least seven trans-Atlantic airliners bound for the United States.
The prosecutor told jurors during the trial that the men planned to attack United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada flights by smuggling liquid explosives onto jets and detonating them in-flight.
The unraveling of the plot in the summer of 2006 caused travel chaos. Restrictions on the amount of liquid passengers can carry in their hand luggage imposed in the wake of the men's arrest still remain in place.
It was intended to be the bloodiest terrorist attack since Sept. 11, 2001.
Posted by: ed ||
09/08/2008 12:35 ||
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The Pakistan army has found in Kashmir an excuse to keep its soldiers from doing duty along the Afghan border, sources in Delhi said.
Border Action Teams (Bats) of soldiers and militants, dormant for the past two years, have been revived and stationed along the Indian border after General Ashfaq Kayani took over as army chief in November last year, the home ministry sources said.
Their prime objective, the sources added, is to stall the polls in Jammu and Kashmir.
The team, made up of 10-25 men each, raid isolated BSF and army posts and clear the way for infiltrators, the sources said. The three militants who took nine people hostage in a Jammu house last month and killed eight Indians had been helped across the border by one such Bat, they added.
We know the Jammu incident was not meant to be the last one, a BSF source said.
Pakistan is known to have used Bats to its advantage in the late nineties. Even three years ago, they had raided army posts, the sources said.
After Kayani took over from Pervez Musharraf as army chief, he was faced with a large number of desertions by soldiers who did not want to be posted along the northern Afghan border where the casualty count was high.
But Pakistan was under pressure from the US to crack down on militants there. Kashmir gave the army the perfect excuse: since it had to deploy soldiers along the Indian border, it could not possibly send too many to the troubled north.
We found out that many of them did not want to fight on the Afghan border. Now, they have opened a new front as a ruse for not sending men to the northern border, a source said.
So, Bats were back in action. Many team members are highly motivated local boys, a source said.
Delhi brought in commandos from Chandanwari in Himachal Pradesh to tackle the three Punjabi-speaking militants behind the Jammu hostage horror.
The security forces are not taking any chances, given that a militant killed in Samba last year had 15 grenades on him besides an AK-47 and an Uzi sub-machine gun along with ammunition that could rival any commandos.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/08/2008 12:59 ||
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#1
I have to marvel at India's patience. If this kind of crap were being used against me, I'd get tired of it very quickly and see how much I could do to put a stop to it. If it meant pushing an army to the banks of the Indus River (from which India got its name, BTW), I think I'd do it, not worrying how many military or civilians I killed along the way. I also don't think I'd leave any building standing that was an ammo dump mosque or two stories or more tall. Luckily for Pakistan, Indians are a more peaceful bunch than I am.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/08/2008 15:15 Comments ||
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DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - Missiles fired from U.S. drone aircraft hit a seminary and houses associated with a top Taliban commander on Monday, killing at least nine people, including militants and civilians, officials and witnesses said. The explosions occurred in a village in North Waziristan, a militant stronghold in Pakistan's northwestern wild tribal belt and a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri.
A Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his job, said three suspected foreign militants and two children were among the dead in what appeared to be part of a stepped-up U.S. campaign against militant havens in Pakistan's tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan. The targets were linked to Jalaluddin Haqqani, a veteran of the jihad against Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s who American commanders count among their most dangerous foes.
1st Lt. Nathan Perry, a spokesman for the U.S. military coalition in Afghanistan, said he had no information that he could release on the matter. He did not deny coalition involvement.
Haqqani and his son, Siraj, have been linked to attacks this year including an attempt to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a bold attack on a luxury hotel in Kabul. Haqqani network operatives plague U.S. forces in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province with ambushes and roadside bombs.
Reports varied on casualties in Monday's attack in northwestern Pakistan. The intelligence official said 12 people died three suspected foreign militants, two local men, four women and three children when several missiles hit the seminary and adjacent houses in the village of Dande Darba Khel. Another 15 people mostly women and children were injured, he said, citing informers. A second Pakistani intelligence official gave a similar account.
Rehman Uddin, a Taliban militant who said he was at the scene, said 20 people died and 18 were injured. "Some of our brothers were killed, but most are women and children," Uddin told The Associated Press by telephone. One of the homes hit belonged to Siraj Haqqani, but neither he nor his father had been there at the time, Uddin said. Pakistani troops had raided the seminary at least three times in the past.
Maj. Murad Khan, an army spokesman, confirmed only that blasts had occurred in Dande Darba Khel and that a dozen people were injured. He said the cause of the explosions was under investigation.
Bakht Niaz told the AP by phone that he and several other shopkeepers saw two Predator drones flying over the area before several explosions around 10 a.m. "We got out of our shops and ran for safety," Niaz said.
Abdur Rahim, a local resident, said he saw militants who refused to let him and others to approach the scene, even to help, remove nine bodies from the destroyed houses near the seminary. Injured women and children were loaded into pickup trucks and driven toward nearby Miran Shah, the region's main town, Rahim said.
#1
saw two Predator drones flying over the area before several explosions
If the Pakistanis on the ground actually SAW the predators then they were definitely flying so low that they hit exactly what or who they were aiming at.
Update on the strike against the Haqqani compound
At least 21 people including women and children were killed Monday in a missile strike by suspected US drones on a Pakistan tribal town near the Afghan border, officials told AFP.
The drones fired several missiles that hit a house near a madrassa or Islamic seminary in North Waziristan, the officials said, in the fourth such strike in the rugged tribal region in almost a week. "Seven civilians and 14 militants have died in the missile strike," an intelligence official said, hours after the 11am (0500 GMT) strike.
Women and children were among the dead, as well as the militants, including nine "foreigners" believed to be of Arab origin. A security official told AFP that more than 25 people had been wounded.
"The latest casualties include an important Arab militant identified as just Hamza and two other Arabs identified as Musa and Qasim," the official said but was unable to give full names immediately. Some of the injured are in critical condition, hospital officials said.
Foreigner is a term used by Pakistan authorities for Al Qaeda militants.
The drones were apparently targeting the house or the madrassa established by former Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani during the 1978-88 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, residents said. Haqqani, who was a close aid to fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar, has not been seen since the fall of the hardline regime in Afghanistan in 2001.
Residents said two pilotless aircraft circled over Dande Darpakhel, three kilometres (about two miles) north of the region's main town of Miranshah, before at least one drone fired several missiles.
On Friday, three children and two women were killed in the same region during a suspected strike by a pilotless aircraft. At least five militants were also killed the day before when a missile fired from an unmanned plane hit a house in the North Waziristan village of Mohammad Khel, officials said.
The latest strike follows Pakistani claims that US-led forces based in Afghanistan killed 15 people in a border village in neighbouring South Waziristan district last week.
...
Posted by: ed ||
09/08/2008 12:37 ||
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#1
Reuters: Ten militants and a sister, a sister-in-law and two nieces of Haqqani as well as two children were killed in the attack, residents said.
..
The New York Times reported in July that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had given Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani evidence of the ISI's involvement with Haqqani, along with evidence of ISI connections to a suicide bombing at the Indian embassy in Kabul that killed nearly 60 people on July 7.
Posted by: ed ||
09/08/2008 12:44 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Baby duck and fluffy bunny losses to be announced at the next briefing.
Several explosions reportedly caused by missile strikes from unmanned US drone aircraft hit a house and seminary linked to a key Taliban commander in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, officials said. An intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of his job, said at least six people were killed, including three foreigners and two children, in what appeared to be the latest in a string of attacks by US forces on Islamic militant havens in Pakistan's tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.
The targets apparently belonged to Jalauddin Haqqani, a veteran of the jihad against Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s who American commanders describe as one of their most dangerous foes. Haqqani and his son, Siraj, have been linked to attacks this year including an attempt to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a bold attack on a luxury hotel in Kabul. Haqqani network operatives plague US forces in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province with ambushes and roadside bombs.
Indian troops killed six militants in separate gun battles, including two senior members of militant groups, police said on Sunday. After a fierce firefight, soldiers shot dead two "divisional commanders" of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish Muhammad militant groups in the Sopore area of north Kashmir, a police spokesman said. Another militant and a soldier were killed in a separate clash in a remote area, police said. They said Indian soldiers also killed three suspected militants late on Saturday when they tried to sneak into Kashmir from across the Line of Control, northwest of Srinagar. New Delhi says militants regularly slip into India under the cover of shooting by Pakistani troops to join an anti-Indian insurgency in Kashmir. Islamabad denies the charge.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2008 00:00 ||
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A militant leader wanted by the political administration for inviting militants to Khyber Agency surrendered to the authorities on Sunday.
JUI-F Landi Kotal ameer and Tanzeem Ittehad-e-Ulema leader Ijaz Shinwari was wanted for allegedly inviting militant leader Mangal Bagh to the area and challenging the writ of the government by taking unilateral action against criminals.
Shinwari had earlier refused to surrender, but gave in to the administration's pressure after it began arresting the people of his tribe, Khuga Khel, impounding their vehicles and sealed their shops to force him to surrender.
According to official sources, Shinwari submitted a surety bond of seven million rupees and a jirga consisting of Khuga Khel tribal elders stood as his guarantors.
The militant leader also pledged to uphold the agreement and not to challenge the government's writ.
The political administration released all the detained persons of Shinwari's tribe, returned the impounded vehicles and allowed the sealed shops to open after the signing of the accord.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2008 00:00 ||
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The death toll from a suicide blast at a security checkpoint in northwest Pakistan has risen to 33, after more bodies were found and several people died in hospital, police said Sunday.
The attack happened Saturday near Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, as lawmakers prepared for President-elect Asif Ali Zardari to take over as Pakistan's new leader. "The death toll has risen to 33, as 11 wounded died in hospital overnight and rescue teams recovered six bodies from the debris," provincial police spokesman Riaz Ahmed told AFP by telephone.
Five of those killed were policemen, he said. About 80 others were wounded and receiving treatment in hospital. "The blast was very powerful," Ahmed said, adding that the vehicle used in the attack was loaded with about 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of explosives.
The force of the blast destroyed some 60 shops and two houses in the area, he said.
A security official said the attack could be part of a backlash against the Pakistani military's intensified campaign to root out Taliban-linked militants hiding in the lawless rugged tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Former president Pervez Musharraf had been a key ally of the United States in its efforts to combat militancy in the border area, which Washington says is being used as a launch pad for rebel attacks on U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. But Pakistan's fragile coalition government has been struggling to tackle the violence that has seen nearly 1,200 people killed in bombings and suicide attacks across the country in the past year.
Musharraf resigned last month, paving the way for Zardari, the widower of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, to rise to power.
Zardari won 481 of 702 electoral college votes in a landslide victory welcomed by Western countries and neighbors Iran and Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Security forces continued shelling Taliban positions in several parts of Swat district on Sunday.
According to residents, several houses were damaged in the shelling, but no casualties were reported.
According to residents, several houses were damaged in the shelling, but no casualties were reported.
Militants blew up two markets and the houses of Pakistan People's Party-Sherpao (PPP-S) District President Sher Shah, his brother and his nephew in Kabal.
The continuous curfew in Kabal tehsil in the wake of fighting has caused a shortage of food while water supply to houses has also been affected due to the frequent power outages, residents said. In Mandal Dag area of Matta tehsil, a compromise was reached between the Taliban and the residents after the residents surrendered to the militants following two days of clashes that killed 30 people. Following the compromise, the militants ended the siege of the area and released 20 people they had taken hostage in the clashes.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Secterian clashes in Kurram Agency killed three children and injured many on Sunday. The clashes involved six Sunni and six Shia tribes, with both using heavy weaponry and targeting civilian houses. The areas worst hit by the fighting include Sadda, Bara Chamkani, Karman, Balish Khel, Kunj Alizae, Trhi Mangal, Sangeena and Anandi. The agency's civilians organised protest rallies and demanded that the authorities concerned stop clashes in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2008 00:00 ||
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One person was killed and 13 were injured as army helicopters pounded a suspected militant hideout near a madrassa in Darra Adam Khel on Sunday, Dawn News reported. The channel quoted witnesses as saying that the airstrikes occured in the Sharki area of Darra Adam Khel. They said that students were taking their lessons at the madrassa when the helicopters fired rockets at the building. According to the channel, eight of the injured children were taken to the Divisional Headquarters Hospital, Kohat, while two, who were in a serious condition, were rushed to Peshawar.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Tribesmen used a machine gun to fire at a low-flying pilotless US aircraft above North Waziristan on Sunday. The aircraft was not hit. The tribesmen said that NATO missile attacks from Afghanistan always followed drone flights. Violations of Pakistan's airspace by US drones have reportedly increased in the last six months.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Clean up your own mess and we won't interfere. Refuse to clean up your mess and we'll do it for you - less efficiently, and considerably more messy. Your choice.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/08/2008 17:47 Comments ||
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Baghdad - When members of the Air Force's 447th Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit first arrived here in May, they were dealing with three to four roadside bombs a week. During prior tours, the group's veterans say at least one a day was normal.
But last month, they went their first week without encountering a single roadside bomb.
For US soldiers in Iraq, this decline is perhaps the loudest herald of a quieter Iraq. It's also representative of the US military's greater strategic shift, focusing less on individual threats like improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and broadening their scope to the larger counterinsurgency mission.
"We've made a mistake focusing on IEDs as a technological threat," says Frederick Kagan, a military expert at the American Enterprise Institute. To defeat roadside bombs in Iraq, the military had to broaden their focus beyond the devices and look at them as a piece of the entire conflict. "As we've been winning the counterinsurgency, the effectiveness of IEDs has been wearing off," he says.
IEDs, the military's name for roadside bombs, have posed the biggest threat for most of the war, accounting for the death of more than half of all US servicemen killed in combat. But since the troop surge began earlier this year, which is also when the military began to place a greater emphasis on counterinsurgency tactics, US military officials say IED attacks have dropped by 70 percent.
Explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technicians attribute the decline to a shift from targeting the devices alone to investigating and searching for entire bombmaking groups. Instead of simply detonating IEDs as soon as they found them, EOD teams began spending more time studying the devices, questioning locals, and trying to trace the bombs back to their source.
"We're more with gathering evidence, trying to preserve evidence, bring it back so we can try to do that CSI aspect," says SMSgt. Pervis King, a native of Cuero, Texas. "The way it has evolved since the war started, weapons intelligence teams now assist us with gathering evidence out on the battlefield so we can come back and try to prosecute the insurgents." Bombmakers often leave fingerprints and other biometric data that soldiers can use to find those behind the bombs.
While IEDs remain a considerable threat coalition troops continue to strike or destroy between 190 to 220 IEDs every week and in August at least seven servicemen lost their lives in IED attacks, according to statistics compiled by the website iCasualties many bomb networks are having a difficult time rebuilding after major Iraqi and coalition offensives, according to the US military.
"They can and have regenerated themselves, but they often don't come back with the same effectiveness," says US Army Col. Kevin Lutz, commander of the counter IED task force in central Iraq. Building and properly planting IEDs is a specialized skill, he says, and lately US forces are seeing increasing numbers of ineffective IEDs now that senior bombmakers or supplies have been apprehended or killed.
In the south of Iraq, a major Iraqi-led offensive this spring may have damaged cells that make specialized explosively formed penetrator (EFP) bombs that are designed to destroy armored vehicles. Traditionally, the south has been the main entry point for the devices coming from Iran, says Dr. Kagan, but even though weapons smugglers can get EFP-making materials into the country, this spring's offensive eliminated or broke up many cells they supplied.
"Iranians can in principle send supplies to whatever middlemen they have, but their ability to deploy those weapons has been degraded," says Kagan.
Most EOD technicians agree that the biggest change has come from the locals. A year ago, when US forces discovered an IED, most local Iraqis claimed to know nothing about it. Now, however, many EOD teams find many roadside bombs thanks to locals' tips.
"They're more willing to give us the information we need, whereas before they were scared for their families or what not," says US Air Force EOD technician TSgt. Ron Wilson.
Still, Colonel Lutz says, continuing to study IEDs remains a vital element of continuing to reduce the threat. The Pentagon provided $11.25 billion from 2004 to 2007 to deal with the IED threat. "As part of the counterinsurgency doctrine you have a counter-IED element, because it's the insurgent's weapon of choice."
#1
I respect Kagan but he seems to forget that until we reduced the daily IED carnage we were in no position to attract the info needed to dismatle the IED placing networks.
#5
The Israelis have been doing this for years. Did no one think to ask them?
The Israelis have also had several generations of living next to the Palestinians, which provided them with many who speak Arabic fluently, live under cover and provide the necessary information to make surgical strikes effective.
This is nto the "legal" use of prosecute (as to puton trial), but the military use of prosecute, to follow up or carry forward something undertaken or begun, usually to its completion: to prosecute a war.. So proscute the insurgents means to END them by taking thier lives.
By the time he was captured last month, the man known among Iraqi insurgents as "the Tiger" had lost much of his bite. Abu Uthman, whose fierce attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians in Fallujah had earned him a top spot on Iraq's most-wanted list, had been reduced to shuttling between hideouts in a Baghdad slum, hiding by day for fear neighbors might recognize him.
In the end, a former associate-turned-informant showed local authorities the house where Uthman was sleeping. On Aug. 11, U.S. troops kicked in the door and handcuffed him. They quietly ended the career of a man Pentagon officials describe as the kidnapper of American journalist Jill Carroll and also as one of a dwindling number of veteran commanders of the Sunni insurgent group known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).
Uthman, whose given name is Salim Abdallah Ashur al-Shujayri, was one of the bigger fish to be landed recently in a novel anti-insurgent operation that plays out nightly in Baghdad and throughout much of Iraq. U.S. intelligence and defense officials credit the operation and its unusual tactics -- involving small, hybrid teams of special forces and intelligence officers -- with the capture of hundreds of suspected terrorists and their supporters in recent months.
The "fusion cells" are being described as a major factor behind the declining violence in Iraq in recent months. Defense officials say they have been particularly effective against AQI, which has lost 10 senior commanders since June in Baghdad alone, including Uthman.
Aiding the U.S. effort, the officials say, is the increasing antipathy toward AQI among many ordinary Iraqis, who quickly report new terrorist safe houses as soon as they're established. Fresh tips are channeled to fast-reaction teams that move aggressively against reported terrorist targets -- often multiple times in a single night.
"Wherever they go, they cannot hide," said a senior U.S. defense official familiar with counterterrorism operations in Iraq. "They don't have safe houses anymore."
The rapid strikes are coordinated by the Joint Task Force, a military-led team that includes intelligence and forensic professionals, political analysts, mapping experts, computer specialists piloting unmanned aircraft, and Special Operations troops. After decades of agency rivalries that have undermined coordination on counterterrorism, the task force is enjoying new success in Iraq with its blending of diverse military and intelligence assets to speed up counterterrorism missions.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen said in a recent interview that the cells produce intelligence that nets 10 to 20 captures a night in Iraq.
"We're living in a world now where targets are fleeting," Mullen said. "I don't care if they're on the ground, in the air, on the sea or under the sea -- you don't get much of a shot, and you've got to be able to move quickly."
Fusion cell teams have helped collect and analyze intelligence not only against AQI and Sunni insurgents but also against Shiite militias and foreign fighters, say U.S. military officials.
Headquartered in an old concrete hangar on the Balad Air Base, which once housed Saddam Hussein's fighter aircraft, about 45 miles north of Baghdad, the Joint Task Force in Iraq runs fusion cells in the north, west and south and in Baghdad, U.S. officials said.
The headquarters bustles like the New York Stock Exchange, with long-haired computer experts working alongside wizened intelligence agents and crisply clad military officers, say officials who have worked there or visited.
Huge computer screens hang from the ceiling, displaying aerial surveillance images relayed from Predator, Schweizer and tiny Gnat spycraft. The Bush administration's 2009 supplementary budget request included $1.3 billion to fund 28 unmanned aircraft, officials said, and all will go to the interagency teams in Iraq and Afghanistan, not the Air Force.
For the Joint Task Force, the CIA provides intelligence analysts and spycraft with sensors and cameras that can track targets, vehicles or equipment for up to 14 hours. FBI forensic experts dissect data, from cellphone information to the "pocket litter" found on extremists. Treasury officials track funds flowing among extremists and from governments. National Security Agency staffers intercept conversations or computer data, and members of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency use high-tech equipment to pinpoint where suspected extremists are using phones or computers.
Fusion cells remain one of the least-known aspects of U.S. operations in Iraq, U.S. officials said, but they have produced significant captures. In March, a fusion cell team captured Hajji Mohammed Shibl, whom U.S. authorities had linked to a string of gruesome attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces. His Shiite militia group has ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
"The capabilities for high-end special joint operations that exist now only existed in Hollywood in 2001," said David Kilcullen, a terrorism expert and adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Data gathered in a raid at midnight -- collected by helmet-mounted cameras that can scan rooms, people, documents and cellphone entries and relay the pictures back to headquarters -- often lead to a second or third raid before dawn, according to U.S. officials.
"To me, it's not just war-fighting now but in the future," Mullen said. "It's been the synergy, it's been the integration that has had such an impact."
Defense officials said Uthman's capture reflected the success of the program and also sent a powerful message to remaining AQI members, who are now surrounded by foes even in regions once regarded as friendly. While AQI remains capable of staging deadly suicide bombings, its leaders are becoming reviled throughout the country and are hard-pressed to find sanctuary anywhere in Iraq, according to U.S. defense and intelligence officials.
The progress has somewhat eased concerns among military analysts about an al-Qaeda resurgence in Iraq after U.S. combat troops draw down, Pentagon and intelligence sources said.
The shift also is tacitly acknowledged inside al-Qaeda's base on the Afghan-Pakistan border, as Osama bin Laden has begun retooling his propaganda campaign to emphasize the conflict in Afghanistan instead of the failing effort in Iraq, the officials said. While there is little evidence that al-Qaeda is attempting to move fighters and resources from Iraq to Afghanistan, the Iraq conflict is no longer driving recruitment and donations for al-Qaeda as it did as recently as nine months ago, they said.
Attacks inside Iraq by AQI, meanwhile, have dropped sharply, with 28 incidents and 125 civilian deaths reported in the first six months of this year, compared with 300 bombings and more than 1,500 deaths in 2007.
"Iraq will always be a target that resonates for al-Qaeda, but we believe it will never again be the central front," said a U.S. counterterrorism analyst who was not authorized to speak on the record. "Their ability to affect what is going on in Iraq has been greatly diminished."
AQI's decline can be traced to several factors, the officials said. Last year's troop increase helped stabilize Baghdad and other major cities, freeing combat forces to take on AQI strongholds throughout the country.
Even before the "surge," the much-celebrated Anbar Awakening movement signaled a rift between tribal leaders of Iraq's Sunni minority and AQI. Since 2006, defense officials have described a deepening revolt by Sunnis repelled by al-Qaeda's brutal attacks against civilians and forced imposition of sharia, or Islamic law. Sunni leaders also objected to AQI's takeover of smuggling routes and black-market enterprises long controlled by local chiefs.
"We don't see the Sunni community going back to al-Qaeda under any circumstances," the senior defense official said.
Iraqi citizens of Babil province yesterday led U.S. soldiers to the seizure of a huge amount of components suitable for the construction of deadly explosively formed penetrator-type bombs, military officials reported.
Acting on a tip from local Iraqi citizens, the U.S. soldiers discovered more than 2,500 bomb-making components at three separate locations in an area southeast of Samrah Village in Babil province. Officials believe this discovery will significantly disrupt explosively formed projectiles attacks within central Iraq.
U.S. soldiers found the cache after a group of local Iraqi citizens informed them of a suspected cache location that had recently received more munitions. The Iraqi citizens gave the soldiers a notebook with sketches of the munitions and its general location and led them to the site where the cache was located. The soldiers used metal detectors to discover three separate locations where parts of the cache were located.
An explosive ordnance disposal team searched the cache sites and found complete components for EFPs along with C-4 explosives. The Diwaniyah Peninsula and the Samrah Jungle are known historic weapons trafficking locations in the area. Included in the cache were 414 blocks of Iranian M112 C-4 explosives, 860 copper plates, 501 back plates, 529 retaining rings and 157 steel bodies, which were all the type commonly used by the enemy to make EFPs.
"The Iraqi citizens made a significant decision to support their government and security forces when they provided the information that led to the discovery of this cache," said Army Lt. Col. John Casper, Multinational Corps Iraq's chief of operations. "In doing so, they removed devastating weapons from the hands of terrorists and placed their trust and confidence in a future for Iraq."
During other operations yesterday:
-- A vehicle-born improvised explosive device was discovered in Kirkuk. Coalition forces discovered the constructed car bomb in Kirkuk City and later disarmed it.
-- Three suspected insurgents were killed and a house was destroyed in Mosul when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated Sept. 6. The suspected insurgents were constructing the VBIED when it detonated prematurely. The blast also damaged four local civilian homes.
In Sept. 5 operations:
-- U.S. soldiers captured a suspected criminal during an operation in the Rashid district of southern Baghdad. The detainee is a reputed explosives expert suspected of using explosively formed projectile IEDs against Iraqi and coalition forces.
-- U.S. and Iraqi soldiers confiscated explosives and other ordnance during searches in Baghdad. While searching a street in the Mansour district of Baghdad, Iraqi soldiers serving found nine blocks of dynamite hidden inside an empty store.
-- Acting on a tip from a local sheik, U.S. soldiers patrolling northwest of Baghdad seized a cache that included 12 cases of ammunition, two 122 mm canisters, a large amount of .50-caliber ammunition and a heavy machine gun barrel.
-- A Sons of Iraq militia member thwarted the emplacement of an improvised explosive device and U.S. soldiers arrested a Special Groups criminal in Baghdad's Rashid district. A Sons of Iraq member reported to U.S. troops that an individual had just emplaced an IED. An explosives ordnance disposal unit sent to the site detonated the device. U.S. soldiers captured the suspected Special Groups criminal in the Risalah community. The detainee was transferred to a forward operating base for further processing.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2008 00:00 ||
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A series of roadside bombs wounded at least 14 people Sunday in eastern Baghdad, police said, in a sign of the ongoing security threats despite a sharp reduction of violence in the Iraqi capital.
The first blast occurred at 9:10 a.m. Sunday along Palestine Street near Beirut Square, injuring five people, including three policemen, officials said.
Another bomb exploded nearly an hour later on the Mohammed al-Qassim Highway, also in eastern Baghdad, wounding three policemen, police said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Two people died and another two were seriously injured in four separate shootings in less than 24 hours in Thailand's restive south, local police said Monday.
A 64-year old Muslim villager was shot dead early Monday morning while riding his motorbike to work on a rubber plantation in Narathiwat province. Hours later in another drive-by shooting, a 58-year old Buddhist janitor was slain on his way to work at a school in Pattani province.
Also in Pattani province on Sunday evening, a 46-year-old Muslim man was shot on his way home, while a 17-year-old girl was shot while travelling to a market with her family. Both were seriously injured.
Sri Lanka's air force launched attacks on two Tamil separatist camps in the embattled north Sunday, and infantry clashes elsewhere in the region killed eight rebels and three soldiers, the military said.
Helicopter gunships attacked a Sea Tigers camp in Kavitaramunai in the rebel stronghold of Pooneryn before dawn, said air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara. The Sea Tigers are the rebels' naval wing.
Hours later, fighter jets bombed a rebel training camp deep in guerrilla-held territory in Mankulam, Nanayakkara said. Pilots said both attacks were successful but details of casualties were not immediately available, he said.
Meanwhile, ground battles Saturday along the front lines separating government-controlled areas from rebel-held territory left eight rebels and three soldiers dead, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara. Clashes in Vavuniya killed five rebels and three soldiers, while fighting in Welioya and Kilinochchi killed three rebels and wounded eight soldiers, he said.
With communication all but cut with the northern areas, rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not be reached for comment.
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09/08/2008 00:00 ||
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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.
Two explosions have rocked a police station in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar, killing at least two policemen, officials say. They say about 30 people - including civilians - were injured when two suicide bombers detonated their bombs in quick succession inside the station. 
A warship off Somali waters captured 14 pirates, whose captives include two Pakistani crew of an Iranian ship. "About 14 pirates came across a warship that we think could be American and all the pirates on board were captured and their boat destroyed," said Abdulqadir Muse Yusuf, the fisheries minister for the Puntland semi-autonomous region, said on Sunday. "We are still investigating the identity of the warship." 
The government is planning to officially ban 18 splinter groupings of clandestine armed communists soon, as law enforcing agencies identified them as organisations engaged in anti-state activities in 13 north-west and southern districts.
The death toll from a suicide blast at a security checkpoint in northwest Pakistan has risen to 33, after more bodies were found and several people died in hospital, police said Sunday. 
One person was killed and 13 were injured as army helicopters pounded a suspected militant hideout near a madrassa in Darra Adam Khel on Sunday, Dawn News reported. The channel quoted witnesses as saying that the airstrikes occured in the Sharki area of Darra Adam Khel. They said that students were taking their lessons at the madrassa when the helicopters fired rockets at the building. According to the channel, eight of the injured children were taken to the Divisional Headquarters Hospital, Kohat, while two, who were in a serious condition, were rushed to Peshawar.
By the time he was captured last month, the man known among Iraqi insurgents as "the Tiger" had lost much of his bite. Abu Uthman, whose fierce attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians in Fallujah had earned him a top spot on Iraq's most-wanted list, had been reduced to shuttling between hideouts in a Baghdad slum, hiding by day for fear neighbors might recognize him. 
