Afghanistan's government has appointed a new governor to northeast Kunar province and reassigned other top officials in a major shakeup at the interior ministry, Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said. "The reform of the security forces in the ministry of the interior is on the way, we are implementing it phase by phase," Jalali told reporters. "Some major changes in the assignment and reassignment (of posts) were made this week. There will be more changes to make the new structure effective," he said.
Eight top officials have been named, notably the heads of anti-drug and anti-terrorist departments, the director of security, technical director, inspector-general, and budget and finance director. "We need to assign and reassign people to key positions, both in Kabul and in the provinces. This week we assigned a new governor to Kunar, and also there are some new appointments on the way," said Jalali. Awaited since the minister's appointment in February, the reforms are being implemented amid strong political rivalry within Afghan institutions between former comrades-in-arms of assassinated anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Masood and the rival faction of President Hamid Karzai.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/02/2003 6:39:35 PM ||
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Afghan government forces arrested 60 Taliban rebels on Friday following a rocket attack on a major dam in the southwest of the country, a provincial governor said. The governor of the province of Helmand, Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, told Reuters three rockets had been fired on Thursday night at Kajakai dam in the north of the province, but had missed their target. Typical islamic marksmanship, can't hit a dam thing.(rimshot)
"In the morning we launched a mopping up operation," he said. "We arrested 60 Taliban, among them 10 senior officials." Senior officials on a operation, must be getting short handed.
Akhundzada said government forces conducted house to house searches in the area and that operations were continuing. "In some places we also discovered missiles and important documents," he added. Nice work
Posted by: Steve ||
05/02/2003 1:18:58 PM ||
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Citing increased security concerns, the United States on Thursday renewed a warning for U.S. citizens to avoid travel to Saudi Arabia. "Information indicates that terrorist groups may be in the final phases of planning attacks against U.S. interests in Saudi Arabia," the State Department noted in a "travel warning." Terrorists in Saudi? I'm shocked!
The warning, the third this year regarding travel to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region, said there was no information on a possible target. The statement made no mention of the shooting of a U.S. civilian worker at a naval base in Saudi Arabia earlier on Thursday. "Minor wound, nothing to see, move along."
The State Department said it was continuing to offer free transportation out of the kingdom for U.S. Embassy dependents and non-emergency staff who decide to leave. "Private U.S. citizens currently in Saudi Arabia should evaluate their own security situations and should consider departing Saudi Arabia," the State Department said. It urged U.S. citizens who choose to remain in Saudi Arabia despite the travel warning to register at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh or at the consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran. "Leave sample of DNA and phone number of next of kin."
Posted by: Steve ||
05/02/2003 8:32:22 AM ||
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Lawyers for a controversial Islamic radical announced plans Wednesday to fight his extradition from Germany to Turkey to stand trial on an array of terrorism charges. Attorneys launched the appeal on behalf of Metin Kaplan, the Islamist known as the "Caliph of Cologne", who is currently in pre-extradition custody in Germany. They said he would face "intolerable human-rights abuses" were he to be extradited to Turkey. Cue truncheons. Groom mustachios.
Turkish authorities accuse Kaplan of bombing the Ataturk Museum and ordering the occupation of a mosque. Until March, Kaplan was in Dusseldorf jail serving a four-year sentence for incitement to murder. Since then he has been in pre-extradition detention. The German government dropped its original opposition to extraditing him based on the risk that he faced a penalty, death, that is banned in Germany. Turkey's parliament has since passed a resolution to eliminate the death penalty. Last year a German court affirmed the 2001 ban on Kaplan's German organization because it opposes democracy and does not recognize German law. Reports say that despite doctrinal differences, Kaplan has had links with terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. Turkey would like him to have even more in common with Binny...
Turkish prosecutors want to try Kaplan for treason, as he seeks the overthrow of the Turkish state and its replacement by a caliphate or religious government with himself as caliph. "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed was his prophet, and I am Mayor of Baghdad Caliph of all I survey. Now let me outta here before the giggle juice kicks in".
Kaplan's jail term is for calling in a sermon for a man to be put to death. The victim was duly murdered in May 1997. The two killers have never been caught.
Posted by: seafarious ||
05/02/2003 12:25:16 AM ||
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Armed Iranian rebels based in Iraq accused Tehran's army on Friday of making cross-border raids and ambushing its troops on a daily basis. The commander of the People's Mujahideen's [Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization - MKO] Ashraf base said Iranian forces had killed 28 Mujahideen in attacks throughout the northeast of Iraq since the start of the U.S. war to oust President Saddam Hussein. If true, Iran is going out of it's way to give us an excuse to wack them.
The Mujahideen, which has several camps in Iraq, has sought to overthrow Iran's Islamic government for more than two decades. The Iranian government denies its troops have entered Iraq. "Nope, must have been, er, Laplanders."
The United States, which like Iran labels the Mujahideen a terrorist group, bombed its troops during the Iraq war. But it agreed a cease-fire last month that allowed them to keep their weapons if they withdrew inside their bases. Tehran says the cease-fire shows the U.S. has double standards in its war on terrorism. U.S. troops have established camps in Baquba about 22 miles from the 17-year-old Ashraf base where Mujahideen fighters train with tanks, artillery guns and simulated computer war games. A few U.S. special forces drove in trucks through the 40 square-kilometer base on Friday and a helicopter flew above some 100 women fighters, aged 18 to 65, as they practiced gun drills. I have read a few stories that suggest that this is more of a surrender in place than a ceasefire or recognition.
"The only thing we want is for the world to recognize our legitimate right to fight the terrorist Iranian regime," the base's female commander Pari Bakhshai said. "Our activities are absolutely independent of anything that happens in Iraq. Our only enemy is the Iranian regime," added Bakhshai, a former tank gunner dressed in an olive-green suit and head-dress. The Ashraf base is located about 100 km from the Iranian border and 90 km northeast of Baghdad. Bakhshai said there had been no indications from Washington that it would drop the terrorist label for the group despite the cease-fire. The Iranians are really bent out of shape over our not disarming this group. Maybe we're fishing with them as bait?
Posted by: Steve ||
05/02/2003 11:56:47 AM ||
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More than 60 people have been injured when a passenger bus exploded in northern Vietnam. Police say all 51 people on board the bus and a dozen others who were near the vehicle when it exploded were seriously injured. Police say they are investigating the cause of the blast, which happened in Bac Ninh province, around 30 kilometres north of Hanoi. A policeman said, "We took the victims to local hospitals and the more seriously injured to the National Burns Institute in Hanoi. We do not know the cause of the explosion but an investigation is underway." Doctors at the National Burns Institute say they have received about 30 victims, many of them in a critical condition.
I had no idea they had Islamists in Vietnam...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/02/2003 8:42:35 PM ||
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From Debka. Salt liberally...
Updated findings show Tel Aviv suicide attack was originally planned for Passover by Damascus-based Hamas operations mastermind Imad al-Alamai who works with Hezbollah. He was controller of British killer team, one of which spent four months in Damascus preparing operation. His partner flew to Syria through Europe three weeks ago. Together they passed through Jordan to Allenby Bridge crossing, entering on British passports and driving to Gaza Strip. Their bomb belts contained new type of explosive not seen before by Israeli bomb experts and presumed imported. Al Aqsa Brigades of Arafatâs Fatah and Hamas claimed attack. The Tel Aviv cafe bombing near US embassy Tuesday night was carried out by Assif Mohammed Hanif, who blew himself up when security guard Avi Taviv pushed him away from entrance to Mikeâs Place. Second terrorist Omar Khan Sharif ran away dropping his bomb belt and is still sought. Three Israelis were killed and 60 injured in blast.
The jibes with what I heard about Omar. The Damascus sojourn would lend credence to the Hizbollah involvement, too. Kind of embarrassing for the Hezbollah involvement to come out now, with Powell in Damascus. If Debka's report is accurate, chances are really good it'll be verified in our intel...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/02/2003 9:03:31 PM ||
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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.
