(KUNA) -- Afghan officials claimed they had arrested 11 Taliban from different provinces who were allegedly planning to target Afghan police, army and the foreign troops in suicide attacks. The 11 detainees, captured in the central capital Kabul and Kandahar, Helmand and Maidan Wardak province, also included three Pakistani citizens, said officials of the Afghan Interior Ministry on Wednesday.
General Abdul Manan Farahi, head of the counter-terrorism department of the Interior Ministry, told a news conference explosives and other material had also been recovered from the detainees. The explosives resembled those which was captured by the Afghan authorities last year, said Farahi, who would not give more details about the type, nature and the country from where the explosives were supplied. He said some of the explosives were fitted in suicide jackets which were also found with the suspects.
Asked who were responsible for giving the detonating material to terrorists, the official said explosives were being smuggled into Afghanistan from the neighbouring country "but we did not know at the moment which country is involved." He said two of the detained Pakistanis among the 11 suspects were assigned to assassinate governor of Afghanistan's Helmand province and the provincial reconstruction team (PRT) stationed there.
In recent months, suicide attacks in Pakistan have also been mounted. In one such suicide attack, a former two times Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed along with some 20 workers of her party. Earlier, two Pakistani ministers escaped separate suicide attacks in NWFP, the Pakistani province bordering Afghanistan. In the same token, six Afghan parliamentarians were among the nearly 60 people killed in a suicide attack in Samangan province of Afghanistan some three months back.
This article starring:
Benazir Bhutto
General Abdul Manan Farahi
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11132 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
Six Algerian soldiers have been wounded in an ambush east of the capital Algiers, reports say. The men were injured when their vehicle drove over an explosive device that had been planted on the road near the town of Tizi Ouzou, in the Kabylie region. There has been no claim of responsibility for the ambush, which comes four weeks after a double suicide attack in Algiers. The ambushed patrol had been involved in a search for rebels.
The group known as al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb said it carried out December's attacks, in which 37 people were killed when a UN refugee agency office and a government building were hit.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
Not the NHS to blame this time
EIGHTEEN British soldiers were last night facing an agonising wait to see if they will contract a deadly disease through contaminated blood supplied by America. Today it was revealed that six British civilian workers may have also received the blood transfusions.
The gravely wounded troops needed drastic transfusions after cheating death on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Now they fear they could yet be killed by donated blood that was not properly screened and certified by US authorities. It could leave them vulnerable to potentially lethal infections such as HIV, hepatitis and syphilis. The Sun is describing this as a grotesque example of "friendly fire". Somehow their outrage has left them unable to ask whether the same unscreened blood was provided to American and other coalition troops. Yes, this is scandalous but it is hardly an instance of British troops being treated any more cavalierly than they are by their own government.
#2
it is very sad and I also wonder how it could have happened. They didn't tell us how, so I suspect that the blood was needed so urgently that they used donations that were not yet screened or some other perfectly logical explanation.
#4
If this blood was obtained through normal channels it WAS screened. The only way it could have gotten through normal screening that I can think of is if a blood donor began to exhibit symptoms after donation. There is a period of time after initial infection that screening cannot detect. That is one reason (among many) that the military does not like to enlist folks with risky behaviiors.
#5
If its in the Sun then you have to take with a grain of salted caution. Most likely this will turn out to be a fizzle.
Posted by: Ron Paul ||
01/10/2008 12:43 Comments ||
Top||
#6
The only "unscreened" blood on the battlefield used by Americans is from direct donation by other soldiers on site. However, its been policy that all soldiers deployed overseas are personally screen before deployment just for such situations.
#7
The Telegraph offers more specific detail about the issue:
Unlike the British system, which tests designated blood donors before they deploy on operations and when they are in the field, the Americans randomly ask soldiers to donate while they are in the field. While the blood is retrospectively tested poor administration meant the Americans could not be certain all transfusions were clean and hundreds of potentially infected US troops are awaiting test results. But the US Department of Defence said the American donors who provided the blood had now all tested negative for hepatitis and HIV.
#8
Britian, how you treat these troops is how God will deal with you. Making them change on runways and giving them unscreened blood pisses me off. Get your act together britian you filthy country.
#10
It is amazing the level of outrage they can sustain when they acknowledge these men would all have been dead except for American medical assistance.
Just another pile of Lies plastered onto the Mountains of cowardly Lies made against the USA by the same breed ball of inadequate Pygmies in the British media who were selected because they were born without testicles, little envy driven nut-less wonders who hate themselves so much they are driven to into vicious contempt for America and Americans;
...because our courageous Men and Women have what the Brit Pygmies will never have, Gigantic Stones! and our Wymins have Beautiful Gigantic Metaphorical Stones!
whew!,
Yeah! Good Old Muscular America and Beautiful Wymin Americans with SUPER Blood!!
Italy expelled a Turin imam to his native Morocco Wednesday after his sermons were secretly filmed and his views were deemed a threat to public security, officials said.
Mohamed Kohaila, who had been living in Italy for years, was deported in the evening, according to the Interior Ministry. The ministry said local and national anti-terrorism authorities determined that Kohaila was inciting "violently anti-Western behavior" and maintained relations with extremists close to militant jihadists. Kohaila was a close aide to another Moroccan-born imam in Turin, Bourki Bouchta, who was deemed an extremist and expelled from Italy in 2005, police in the northern Italian city said.
This article starring:
BURKI BUCHTA
al-Qaeda in Europe
MOHAMED KOHAILA
al-Qaeda in Europe
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11133 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Europe
#1
Given the zero tolerance given to speech critical of muslims, regardless of truth, in the EU, one should think a whole flood of Imams should be expelled or detained.
#2
It's a start, a slow start, but still a start, hopefully this news will be repeated daily until the Imams left are NOT spittle spewing fanatics.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/10/2008 12:40 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Can you imagine the rage this would cause if done in the States? the ACLU, the leftnuts and other assorted moonbats (but I repeat myself) would by positively hyperventilated over this 'invasion' of free speech / church and state separation/ no probable cause for the search / unvalidated parking, etc, etc...
#4
The ones who make speeches that are threats to public security tend to have connections that are ill advised. We've expelled an immigrant imam or several on that basis.
#5
#2: It's a start, a slow start, but still a start, hopefully this news will be repeated daily until the Imams left are NOT spittle spewing fanatics.
Posted by: Redneck Jim|| 2008-01-10 12:40 ||Comments Top||
What, let BOTH of them stay? I'm sure Italy can find something else to expel them for.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/10/2008 21:57 Comments ||
Top||
What is the retirement plan there? 401k in madrassas?
Pakistani security forces have arrested a retired army major suspected of being the mastermind behind a suicide attack on an air force bus which killed eight people, an intelligence official said on Wednesday.
The suspect, Ahsan-ul-Haq, was arrested in the outskirts of the eastern city of Lahore on December 17, the official said. a while ago...wonder if he's squealed?
"We recovered explosives and jackets used for suicide bombings at his house next to a madrassa (Islamic school)," said the intelligence official, who declined to be identified. next to a madrassa? I'm sure it was a coincidence
Authorities later arrested five of Haq's associates in the city of Sargodha, based on information provided by Haq, the official said. yep, he squealed
"All of them admitted they were behind the Sargodha attack and were planning to carry out similar attacks, even against politicians," he said.
A suicide attacker on a motorbike rammed a bus carrying air force personnel on their way to a base in Sargodha, 170 km (100 miles) west of Lahore on November 1, killing eight people.
Haq, who was is in his 60s, was said have been close to Afghan Muslim guerrilla commander Younis Khalis, who battled Soviet forces in the 1980s and later had links with the Taliban.
Haq ran a militant training camp in Afghanistan during Taliban rule, the security official said.
The Taliban regime ended when U.S.-led troops ousted the hardline Islamists for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden, weeks after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Pakistan has been hit by a wave of suicide bomb attacks in recent months which have killed about 400 people, many of them members of the security forces and security agencies.
Suicide bombers have also attacked politicians including opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, assassinated in a gun and bomb attack in Rawalpindi on December 27.
The government says an al-Qaeda linked militant based in the lawless South Waziristan region on the Afghan border was behind Bhutto's killing. A spokesman for the wanted commander, Baitullah Mehsud, said he was not involved. HT to LGF
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
a while ago...wonder if he's squealed?
Sure as hell he squealed, Once those Paki Security Forces made Ahsan-ul-Haq wear panties on his head he started squealing like a Hawg Piggy!
Sixteen suspected militants were rounded up in various parts of Swat on Wednesday, while artillery fire in the Manja and Totano Bandai area demolished one and damaged three houses, sources said. The house of militant commander Khalid said to be Maulana Fazlullahs close aide was demolished, while citizens Muhammad Room and Sher Afsars houses were partially damaged. No casualties were reported though, sources said. Taliban hideouts in Ghat Piochar, Namal and Shaur were also targeted. No human or material losses were reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under: TNSM
#1
while citizens Muhammad Room and Sher Afsars houses were partially damaged. No casualties were reported though, sources said. Taliban hideouts in Ghat Piochar, Namal and Shaur were also targeted. No human or material losses were reported.
sooooo, their hideouts were hit but no human or material losses were reported? How do you hit something with no material loss? Oh wait, they didn't say that they were hit, only targeted. Now I understand. (not)
Thousands of armed tribesmen met in a remote Pakistani district yesterday vowing to organise a lashkar (legion) to hunt down al-Qaeda-linked militants blamed for killing eight of their kinsmen. The tribal jirga (council) at Wana in South Waziristan bordering Afghanistan came three days after militants stormed two offices and killed eight tribal elders of a government-sponsored peace committee.
The council ordered tribesmen from every household belonging to the Wazir tribe to come to Wana with arms to prepare for action, a local official said.
The council ordered tribesmen from every household belonging to the Wazir tribe to come to Wana with arms to prepare for action, a local official said. "One man from each house should come to Wana with a gun at 10:00 am (0500 GMT) on Thursday to plan our defence and act against those who are responsible for disorder," tribal chief Malik Ghaffar told the gathering.
Wazir tribe chief Maulvi Nazir, who earned fame after he drove out hundreds of Uzbeks from the region last year in bloody clashes, is expected to address the lashkar on Thursday. He did not turn up at Wednesday's meeting but had earlier blamed Baitullah Mehsud, a top Al-Qaeda commander and leader of the rival Mehsud tribe, for the killing of the peace committee members. Residents have reported that announcements have been made on a public address system asking Mehsud tribesmen to "leave Wana to avoid losses."
Leader Mehsud is accused by the government of masterminding a spate of suicide attacks in the country, including the December 27 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in a gun and suicide bomb attack in Rawalpindi. Mehsud has denied any involvement in the killing. Local sources told AFP his tribe was preparing a jirga to negotiate with the Wazir tribe to avoid a confrontation.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
"Armed Pak tribesmen vow to hunt with down militants"
#2
but had earlier blamed Baitullah Mehsud, a top Al-Qaeda commander and leader of the rival Mehsud tribe, for the killing of the peace committee members
they vow but take no action. Nevertheless, Baitbreath should enjoy his last noxious ones. I give him less than 6 months.
Scores of people fled Mohmand Agency as security forces targeted local Taliban positions, well-placed sources told Daily Times on Wednesday.
The Frontier Constabulary (FC) launched a major operation against local Taliban, who recently intercepted several trucks loaded with flour and oil bound for Afghanistan. They sold the commodities being smuggled to Afghanistan to locals at government rates and even compensated the drivers, the sources said.
The operation was also prompted by Taliban attacks on checkposts in agency headquarters Ghalanai late on Monday night, which left two militants dead and two security personnel Subaidar Hamid Khattak and constable Idrees injured.
Meanwhile, residents from Darwazgai staged a protest in front of the Peshawar Press Club. The Mohmand Agency residents said the local Taliban were members of their families and demanded that the government stop the operation immediately.
Injustices and exploitation: Shahbaz Yasir Ali Mohmand, a National Assembly candidate for NA-36, told Daily Times that around 100,000 people had vacated the area since late Monday night, after the FC started targeting their areas with artillery.
He said the Taliban were locals who had taken up arms against injustices and exploitation perpetrated by the political administration and chieftains.
Mohmand tribesmen support the Taliban, he said. The Taliban are seeking an end to the colonial-era rule of Maliks and the political administration to solve the problems of tribal people. Shahbaz said tribal people would expand their movement and relocate to Afghanistan if security forces continue targeting their homes, he added.
He also warned that the National Assembly candidates of the agency would boycott the elections if the government did not stop the operation immediately. He did disclose, however, that the masked gunmen who had occupied the shrine of Haji Sahib Turanzai and an adjacent mosque on July 29, included some foreigners and local Taliban from other tribal agencies.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
Local Taliban commander in Swat Maulvi Fazlullah denied reports that security forces had killed him, BBC Urdu reported on Wednesday. Fazlullah telephoned the BBC office in the evening, and said he was safe and that reports about his death in a security forces operation were baseless, according to BBC. BBC quoted Fazlullah as saying that he was all right and leading the local Taliban movement against the security forces in Swat. Fazlullah alleged that the government was spreading rumours about his death to demoralise militants fighting against the security forces in Swat, BBC reported.
This article starring:
MAULVI FAZLULLAH
TNSM
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11129 views]
Top|| File under: TNSM
#1
Mark Twain: The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
U.S. bombers and jet fighters unleashed 40,000 pounds of explosives during a 10-minute airstrike Thursday morning, flattening what the military called al-Qaida in Iraq safe havens on the southern outskirts of the capital.
A military statement said B-1 bombers and F-16 fighters dropped the explosives on 40 targets in Arab Jabour in 10 strikes.
The massive attack was part of Operation Phantom Phoenix, a nationwide campaign launched Tuesday to root out al-Qaida in Iraq fighters.
``Thirty-eight bombs were dropped within the first 10 minutes, with a total tonnage of 40,000 pounds,'' the statement said.
The attack was carried out above approaching troops of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, which has battled insurgents south of the capital for months.
Nine American soldiers have been killed in the first two days of the new offensive - some of the deadliest for U.S. forces in Iraq since last fall. For all December, 23 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq.
Six soldiers were killed and four were wounded Wednesday in a booby-trapped house in Diyala, the U.S. command said. It also announced that three U.S. soldiers were killed and two wounded in an attack Tuesday in Salahuddin province, north of Diyala.
Posted by: Sherry ||
01/10/2008 09:42 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11134 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
#1
Wow. Rolling thunder with shock and awe, motherpuckers!
#3
Sadly, it looks like it took 6 troops dying from a booby-trapped house before we started just blowing the damn things up BEFORE we knock on the door!
I know intel is wonderful when you can get it from these houses...but killing the morons from a distance is nice too!
#4
Justrand...Agreed. At some point you have to decide how many US lives are worth sacrificing to ensure zero collateral damage. My tolerance level when it comes to US lives is pretty high.
#6
from reading the news at rantburg, they are really mopping up right now. Good thing that the MSM has non-stop coverage of Hillary's crying game to prevent this from getting out.
#11
#10 RD
oh i've always been here, just usually don't have much to say that's already been said. (kinda like on LGF, i just sit and pick at the carcasses of the trolls left by greater Lizards)
but i passed out candy canes when Saddam got dropped, and as long as the US and Free Iraqi boys both keep it up, i'm gonna keep it up...
As David Matsuda tells it, he's probably the last person you'd expect to see in a U.S. military uniform climbing out of an armored vehicle in Iraq.
An anthropology professor from the East Bay campus of California State University near San Francisco, he's a self-described peacenik who opposed the war in Iraq, did his academic research in Guatemala and never carries a gun. Terrorists prefer you don't.
"I'm a Californian. I'm a liberal. I'm a Democrat," he says. "My impetus is to come here and help end this thing." I'll take it. Maybe liberals have a use after all! :-)
Matsuda is part of the U.S. military "Human Terrain Team" (HTT) program, which embeds anthropologists with combat brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan in the hope of helping tactical commanders in the field understand local cultures.
The program is controversial: the American Anthropological Association denounced it in October, saying it could lead to ethics being compromised, the profession's reputation damaged, and worst of all, research subjects becoming military targets. ??? [Boggle].
Matsuda says the concern is based on a misunderstanding of what he has signed on to do. Yeah. I feel your pain. Libs always seem to be looking for the worst in what is being done here.
"There's been a knee-jerk reaction in the anthropology community, that you've been co-opted, that you're a warmonger, like you're clubbing baby seals or something," he said. "I came here to save lives, to make friends out of enemies." Do did the Trunks. Welcome to the club. We know what you mean. Why don't you apply your anthroplogy skills to figure out that the Libs are using it to gather a power base among uninformed/uneducated/ignorant folks.
Soldiers in northeastern Baghdad -- an area transformed over the past year from one of the most violent parts of Iraq to one of the best illustrations of the security improvements of late 2007 -- say they are grateful for Matsuda's expertise as they make the transition from fighting to peacemaking. I'm sure it's all because of this guy. And the guys behind him wearing all the battle rattle.
"It's a huge asset," said Staff Sergeant Dustin "Boogie" Brueggemann who, as a tactical psychological operations specialist, has spent the past year trying to win hearts and minds in Adhamiya, until a few months ago one of the most violent strongholds of Sunni Arab militants in Iraq.
"The guys who were out with him were saying: 'Dr Matsuda's so smart!' Soldiers even on the lowest level now, we see the big picture just by listening to him talk," he said. Until recently we've been creating problems using the women's latrine. Now they don't laugh at us so much anymore.
"He gave me so much information that had I known it a year ago I could have done things differently," he said. "He gave me a history of the Ubaidi tribe. A lot of people here are members of that tribe. I knew a little bit about them, but I didn't realize just how big they were." They all put their pants on one leg at a time, dude. I mean their dishdashas. I mean . . . . Oh, nevermind. They're all important.
Further up the command chain, Lieutenant-Colonel David Oclander, deputy commander of the 5,000 soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division, said Matsuda had given a presentation on how Iraqis resolve conflicts that proved valuable in approaching Shi'ite clerics. Does it involve shoving a tank gun up their collective arse?
"The HTT has been a great help in making sure that when we dialogue with them, we dialogue with them in a way they understand and appreciate," he said.
Matsuda says he arrived at exactly the right time, when a sudden sharp decline in violence opened new opportunities for engagement in his unit's area.
The brigade is a classic example of last year's new U.S. strategy in Iraq that saw greater numbers of troops deployed to Iraq and more emphasis on interaction with civilians.
Before the troop buildup, the entire area of northeastern Baghdad -- including about half of the capital's population -- was covered by just a single battalion of about 800 U.S. troops who suffered some of the worst casualties in Iraq.
Now the area is covered by the brigade's six battalions, including four combat battalions each covering separate neighborhoods as diverse as Sunni Arab stronghold Adhamiya and Sadr City, the giant Shi'ite slum of more than 2 million people.
In the past six months violence plummeted, as Adhamiya's Sunni tribal leaders turned against al Qaeda militants, and Moqtada al Sadr, the Shi'ite cleric whose Mehdi Army militia controls Sadr City, declared a ceasefire.
In December 2006, there were 450 killings in the area, mostly by sectarian death squads trying to drive rival groups out of their neighborhoods. There were just 15 killings last month, mainly by ordinary criminals, said Oclander.
On Saturday, Matsuda -- wearing a U.S. military uniform but unarmed -- spent two hours with soldiers from 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry lingering on a street in Adhamiya where a few months ago U.S. forces would have had to fight either in or out.
They meandered in and out of shops, bought falafel sandwiches and ate them on a street corner while playing with local children who already seemed to know their names. Periodically they knocked on doors and asked permission to come inside homes for a chat. They never turned down an offer of tea.
Most of local people were friendly, although they complained about a lack of electricity and their suspicion of the Shi'ite-led government and its security forces. Yeah, we've been kinda wondering, too.
Matsuda said he had learned a lot that day -- about who was moving into vacant houses and who was renting them out, how a local clinic got its medicines, how shop owners were getting funding to reopen their shops.
"We have a window of opportunity here to make a difference for these people. We have to take it," he said.
#4
People I've talked to who've come back from theatre say this sort of info has been incredibly useful to them. Put it in context: under the provisional authority the coalition refused to acknowledge or work with the tribal structure in Iraq, with disastrous results. Matsuda and others like him have given our forces the info needed to size up, negotiate with, peel off or effectively smash the natural force groupings they face. No small value, that.
#9
Not much different than the Indian Fighters of the West, who observed, learned, and dealt with the local natives, technologies of generations removed from micromanaging Washington. They got to do this stuff locally because no one was around to get in their way. They probably didn't know of, but instinctively understood Sun Tzu's dictum about 'know yourself and your opponent and be successful in a thousand battles'.
#10
This kind of stuff was somehow known or learned by at least a few units, based on my blogreadings over the past several years, and led to successful relationships with some tribal leaders, which ultimately led to a lot of the success of the 'Surge' (maybe they had an activated reservist who took an Anthropology class before getting called up, or maybe they just had the right combination of personnel skills and common sense.) If an honest liberal academic (boy does that sound like an oxymoron) can expand the number of successful units, then power to him.
#11
It works both ways. Professor Matsuda (Japanese name?) gets to share his expertise and gets useful information he can write up later, and when he goes back home he'll take respect for what our military are doing over there -- sort of a Fifth Columnist for the good guys.
Yow! Let's see, 40,000/38 ==> 38x1000# bombs and 2x2000# bombs!
Sounds like a good day for the Coalition, if you ask me!
I have an idea for another progress metric: The ratio of fluffy bunnies to terrorists killed. The less folks think the terrorists are winning, the less likely they are to hide behind them and claim that any terrorists were innocent family members to get government compensation for their deaths. I would expect this to asymptotically approach some value. When it jumps to 0/0 for a few months, it's over! :-)
U.S. bombers and jet fighters unleashed 40,000 pounds of explosives during a 10-minute airstrike Thursday, flattening what the military called al-Qaida in Iraq safe havens on the southern outskirts of the capital.
The strikes, carried out above approaching troops, was part of Operation Phantom Phoenix, a nationwide campaign launched Tuesday against al-Qaida in Iraq.
A military statement said two B-1 bombers and four F-16 fighters dropped the bombs on 40 targets in Arab Jabour in 10 strikes. Al-Qaida fighters are believed to control Arab Jabour, a Sunni district lined with citrus groves and scarred by daily violence.
"Thirty-eight bombs were dropped within the first 10 minutes, with a total tonnage of 40,000 pounds," the statement said.
The attack came a day after the U.S. military reported that nine American soldiers were killed north of the capital in the first two days of a new offensive.
Many militants have fled U.S. and Iraqi forces massing north of Baghdad in Diyala province. Like Arab Jabour, Diyala is an agricultural area of palm and citrus groves that has defied the trend toward lower violence. After this brief spike in violence, I'll bet it drops abruptly.
The campaign's scope is nationwide but is mainly focused on gaining control of Diyala and its most important city, Baqouba, which al-Qaida has declared the capital of its self-styled Islamic caliphate. Maybe they can move it to Atlantis now or something.
Six soldiers were killed and four were wounded Wednesday in a booby-trapped house in Diyala, the U.S. command said. It also announced that three U.S. soldiers were killed and two wounded in an attack Tuesday in Salahuddin province, north of Diyala.
The toll marked some of the deadliest days for U.S. forces in Iraq since last fall. For all December, 23 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq.
The blows against U.S. troops came as extremists tried to stay ahead of the military advance. Al-Qaida fighters retreated north from Diyala, presumably to Salahuddin, the top U.S. commander in northern Iraq, Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, told reporters in Baghdad on Wednesday.
"Operational security in Iraq is a problem," he said, noting that the Iraqi army uses unsecured cell phones and radios. "I'm sure there is active leaking of communication." "In fact, we're so sure, we may have taken advantage of it a wee bit!"
Hertling said his troops had killed 20 to 30 insurgents in the first two days of the operation. It was unknown how many were killed in Thursday's strike.
They're still piling up the itty bitty bits. Then they'll count the noses, count the ears and divide by two, the heads, the arms and divide by two, etc., and average the results. After they get the civilian claims for casualties, they'll divide by the current fluffy bunny-to-terrorist ratio and see if the results compare.
Only Baghdad province has been deadlier than Diyala the past two years, according to an Associated Press count.
And while violence has declined over the past six months in Baghdad and many other places in Iraq, much of Diyala has remained a killing field. At least 273 civilians were slain in Diyala last month, compared to 213 in June. Over the same span, monthly civilian deaths in Baghdad dropped from 838 to 182. Seems like a few of them are escaping to Diyala.
The reason for the surge of bloodshed is that insurgents who were pushed out of the western province of Anbar and out of Baghdad shifted their operations into Diyala, U.S. commanders say.
The tree-lined farm region is more difficult terrain for fighting insurgents than the desert of Anbar, suggesting Diyala may not have seen the last of al-Qaida in Iraq. Compounding the difficulty for the military is the checkerboard pattern of Shiite and Sunni communities adjacent to one another. After the place is eventually cordoned off and the trees mown down with Agent Whatever, I'll bet there's going to be a sudden surge in the number of cobblers there.
The military will need a period of peace and stability to meet its goal of speeding up work on basic services and other civic projects that commanders believe will win more allies for the American effort.
In central Baghdad early Thursday, two bombs exploded nearly simultaneously close to a military checkpoint, killing two policemen and one soldier, police said. Eleven others were wounded in the attack, including four civilians.
Posted by: gorb ||
01/10/2008 05:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11132 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
#7
Indeed, Mojo. Since they are now a permanent addition to the landscape, one might say that Diyala owns them.
Posted by: Gromomble Oppressor of the Iowans8916 ||
01/10/2008 11:38 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Hmmm, interesting. If we're converting that many jihadis into component parts at one go, it implies we're pretty confident that we have their networks defined, and don't care much about prisoners to interrogate. Works for me!
#11
"Seems like a few of them are escaping to Diyala."
Very few of them. If you look at the numbers, Baghdad killings dropped by 650. During the same time, Diyala's killings "surged" by 60. Bottom line, the escapees are getting fewer and fewer.
Also, hidden in all the gloom and doom is the little gem: "For all December, 23 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq."
It may take a little longer to reach the "Grim Milestone" than the MSM thought.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
01/10/2008 16:44 Comments ||
Top||
#12
OTOH, HAARETZ > MUSHARAFF WARNS US NOT TO STRIKE/ATTACK MILITANTS IN PAKISTAN. Anyone that does will "regret the day" they came into Paki mountains.
(KUNA) -- Al-Qaeda leader was caught east of Mosul city, located in northern Iraq, said a statement by the Iraqi army on Wednesday.
The Iraqi army went on saying that troops, based in Al-Kask area west of Mosul, arrested Raad Awad Issa, al-Qaeda leader in the province of Senjar, in Barzan town near the Syrian border today. Iraqi troops had confiscated from Issa some documents consisting of names for other terrorist groups in the region. The terrorist is accused of killing seven family members in the Senjar province.
Meanwhile, in northern Mosul, the Mutli-National Force (MNF) discovered the body of another Qaeda leader who was killed on December 25 during a coalition raid in Ninawa governorate north of the country. The Qaeda leader was identified as Hayder Al-Afri, who is also known by his alias Emad Abdul-Khareem. Al-Afri was responsible for the attacks against Iraqi citizens as well as U.S. marines. He was the leader of the so called Islamic state of Iraq in west of Mosul and also assume several posts in the Al-Qaeda. The terrorist was among others killed in the December 25 MNF's raid which also resulted in the arrest of about 27 militants.
This article starring:
EMAD ABDUL KHARIM
al-Qaeda in Iraq
HAIDER AL AFRI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
RAAD AWAD ISA
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11129 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
#1
Strange geography in Iraq - West Mosul is east of Mosul?
(KUNA) -- US warplanes destroyed one of Al-Qaeda hideouts and Kazakh forces found a weapons depot in separate operations in Iraq. US F-16 fighter jets dropped two 500-pound bombs, destroying a house used by al-Qaeda to make and store improvised explosive devices in Busayefi, near the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, the MNF said in a statement on Wednesday.
According to the statement, the operation, conducted on Sunday, was executed by the MNF Center soldiers. The house-turned-hideout was destroyed and explosive making materials were found and confiscated.
Another MNF statement said members from Iraqi civil forces division handed the Kazakh forces a weapons depot that contained about 1,369 ordnance. The statement quoted a Kazakh Army source as saying that the cache, dating back to the Iraqi-Iranian war, was delivered to the Iraqi forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
#1
Kazahkstan has 29 military personnel in Iraq, combat engineers attached to the Polish contingent, according to Global Security.org
Posted by: Gromomble Oppressor of the Iowans8916 ||
01/10/2008 4:31 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Is Kazahkstan the only Islamic country with troops in Iraq? (Technically they are only ~half Islamic, but their laws are significantly Islamic - except for the universal suffrage part.)
#3
Kazakhstan is an interesting place. They've sent at least one (ethnically Russian) cadet to West Point under the academy's foreign student program. She did pretty well from what I've been told, academically and on the military side, graduated and went back home to a military commission.
#7
Ok, it's not entirely a silly question. She does represent what the Islamicists hate and would outlaw if they could. But her government sent her and paid for her time here, so the Islamicists aren't having it all their way by any means.
(KUNA) -- Two palestinians were killed and six were injured in an Israeli air raid in the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip, eyewitnesses said. They added in press remarks that Israeli warplanes unleashed a rocket at an apartment building killing the two and injuring the six others. Khedra Wahdan, 30, and Mohammad Kafarneh, 22, were killed in the air strike, they added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
Three Muslims have been shot dead by suspected Islamic terrorists rebels and seven others have been injured in a string of shootings in Thailand's restive south, police say.
A 34-year-old Muslim government official was gunned down on Wednesday in a drive-by shooting in Yala, one of three jihad insurgency-torn provinces bordering Malaysia. Later in the day, gunmen opened fire on five Muslims who were sitting outside a house in Yala, killing one and wounding four others.
Terrorists Militants also ambushed a motorcycle carrying three Muslims late on Wednesday - one man was shot dead with two others injured. One Buddhist villager was also shot and wounded in a separate attack late on Wednesday.
Sri Lankan troops have captured a section of rebel-held territory in the islands northwest and killed 44 Tamil Tigers, the military said on Wednesday, as a new chapter in a 25-year civil war intensifies.
Troops killed 38 Tigers in a series of confrontations in the war-battered north on Tuesday, and killed six more on Wednesday, the military said, adding the dead included an eastern Tiger leader called Shankar. Troops captured a small chunk of rebel terrain in the northwestern district of Mannar on Tuesday, the military said, forging on with a declared campaign to evict the Tigers them from all terrain they control in the north, as they have in the east.
We captured one square kilometre, said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara. To gain ground advantage ... we are applying pressure. Whenever possible we will confront them. A pro-rebel web site said the Tigers resisted an army bid to advance across heavily-defended forward defence lines in the far northern Jaffna peninsula early on Wednesday, and that the army retreated.
Totting up death toll claims by both sides, around 150 people have been reported killed since the government announced last week it was formally scrapping a battered 2002 ceasefire pact. Tuesdays fighting came as suspected Tamil Tiger rebels assassinated a Sri Lankan minister with a roadside bomb between the capital and the islands only international airport, the second MP killed in a week. One of his security detail also died. Another explosion shook a downtown area of the capital on Tuesday evening, when a bomb planted in a phone booth near the Hilton hotel in Colombos business district detonated, but there were no casualties.
Security raised: The government said on Wednesday it was beefing up security for MPs following the attacks. We will take action to provide the necessary extra security for members who have threats against them, WJM Lokubandara, speaker of the house, told parliament. He said the security details of all MPs would be doubled to four guards. In the capital Colombo, the government on Wednesday heightened already tight security with heavily armoured troops guarding the roads leading into the city of 650,000 people.
Sri Lankan police and security forces have been on high alert for Tamil Tiger attacks following the governments announcement that it was pulling out of a tattered ceasefire agreement starting January 16.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
this will never make it too MSM. Hell they haven't even gave an estimate on how many ppl got killed in the FLA pileup yesterday, but let a troop cut his finger in iraq and they would be surfing the web on what charges too bring him up on
#4
Hey, Guys,
I can't see the number on the hull of the cruiser, but the big 70 I on the side of the second ship is on a DDG, USS Hopper. The ships shown in order are an FFG, DDG an finally the cruiser. Maybe someone else can see the hull number on the cruiser better than I can and can let us know what it is.
#7
dealing with middle easterners is like dealing with lying children. They have cherry all over their face and hands as they insist they didn't eat that pie. They think they are clever and that you are fooled. The only thing that prevents them for getting whipped is the kindness of adults.
#9
Is this MOUD = IRAN's version of BILL CLINTON'S own "Perjury is Truth", "Economic Expansion is Recession/Depression", "Twice Elex Fraud is Twice Legitimate", rants???
D *** NG IT, MORIARITY, YA SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN NO ONE IN GOVT + INTEL-PYWAR - YOU KNOW, the MAFIA - DON'T CARE FOR ACCURACY, BARBECUE, OR NAKED BABES ANYMORE!
#11
REALCLEARPOLITICS > WSJ - IRAN'S PROVOCATION. Nutshell - Author argues that IRAN had better remember America has a long history of naval conflicts or wars flaring up becuz of incidents like this one, espec where major or impor free trade/commerce routes are involved. America historically is not afraid to send its navy = wage war whether its a world power or not. AUTHOR - THE WORLD = US-IRAN TRULY CAME CLOSE TO WAR THIS PAST SUNDAY.
Iran aired video Thursday of its boats and U.S. naval ships in the Persian Gulf in an apparent attempt to show that there was no confrontation between the vessels.
The grainy 5-minute, 20-second video without sound or narration showed a man speaking into a handheld radio, with three U.S. ships floating in the distance. It appeared to be shot from a small boat bobbing at least 100 yards from the American vessels.
The footage did not show any Iranian boats approaching the U.S. ships, nor any provocation. But the short clip likely did not show Sunday's entire encounter, which U.S. Navy officials have said lasted about 20 minutes.
It aired on state-run English-language channel Press TV, whose signal is often blocked inside Iran. How convenient.
The Pentagon has released its own video of Sunday's incident, showing small Iranian boats swarming around U.S. warships in the Strait of Hormuz.
In the recording, a man speaking in heavily accented English threatened, "I am coming to you. ... You will explode after ... minutes."
The incident, which ended without any shots fired, has heightened U.S.-Iranian tension as President Bush visits the region. Bush was in the West Bank on Thursday, and heads next to Arab Gulf nations where he is expected to discuss strategy on Iran.
Iran has denied its boats threatened the U.S. vessels, and accused Washington of fabricating its video. The Pentagon dismissed that claim and warned its ships would respond with force if threatened. Actually, I heard they're going to open a six-pack of Whoop-A$$ if they do it again.
Posted by: gorb ||
01/10/2008 06:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
ION IRAN, FRAVAHR.org > IRAN is planning to bury the TOMB OF CYRUS OF THE GREAT + other PERSIAN icons from Iran's past as part of a massive nationwide system of new dams = water projects.
Also from FRAVAHR > THE AYATOLLOLAH'S NATIONAL THEOCRACY AS FREEMASONIC MACHINATION.
HMMMMM, first ALEXANDER THE GREAT, now CYRUS' - maybe CYRUS will get perturbed at his tomb/grave being underwater and "go for a walk" ala "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN" [underwater walking pirates] + GUNS-N-ROSES. D *** NG IT. MORIARITY, WHOM KNEW THE BATTLESHIP OKLAHOMA CAPSIZED AND SANK IN IRAN DURING PEARL HARBOR!
TLC is hosting a reality show titled Miss America Reality Check. It features the 52 contestants for the Miss America title including GI Jill, Jill Stevens.
The Miss America contestant who receives the most eligible and verified votes during the Voting Period and who is not already included as a top 15 finalist in the Miss America Pageant, as chosen by the Miss America Pageant judges (Top 15), will be chosen to become the 16th finalist in the Miss America Pageant. If the contestant with the top votes is already in the Top 15, the contestant with the next-highest number of votes will be the 16th finalist, and so forth. The 16th finalist will be announced at the Miss America Pageant airing on Saturday, January 26, 2008 at 8:00pm Eastern Time.
#9
GI Jill will be the subject of my first blog post for 2008. Mrs Mundi asked what she'll do for the talent portion of the pageant. I'm hopin' she'll demonstrate a perfect 3 tap on a cutout DinnerJacket. Hey - I can dream can't I?
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/10/2008 22:14 Comments ||
Top||
#10
your only as old as the women you feel
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
01/10/2008 22:16 Comments ||
Top||
#11
OK. That's it. Shoot me someone (only in the foot of course). If this is what the MASH unit looks like, I will gladly become a casualty.
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.
(KUNA) -- Afghan officials claimed they had arrested 11 Taliban from different provinces who were allegedly planning to target Afghan police, army and the foreign troops in suicide attacks. The 11 detainees, captured in the central capital Kabul and Kandahar, Helmand and Maidan Wardak province, also included three Pakistani citizens, said officials of the Afghan Interior Ministry on Wednesday.
Six Algerian soldiers have been wounded in an ambush east of the capital Algiers, reports say. The men were injured when their vehicle drove over an explosive device that had been planted on the road near the town of Tizi Ouzou, in the Kabylie region. There has been no claim of responsibility for the ambush, which comes four weeks after a double suicide attack in Algiers. The ambushed patrol had been involved in a search for rebels. 
Italy expelled a Turin imam to his native Morocco Wednesday after his sermons were secretly filmed and his views were deemed a threat to public security, officials said. 
Thousands of armed tribesmen met in a remote Pakistani district yesterday vowing to organise a lashkar (legion) to hunt down al-Qaeda-linked militants blamed for killing eight of their kinsmen. The tribal jirga (council) at Wana in South Waziristan bordering Afghanistan came three days after militants stormed two offices and killed eight tribal elders of a government-sponsored peace committee. 
Scores of people fled Mohmand Agency as security forces targeted local Taliban positions, well-placed sources told Daily Times on Wednesday.
(KUNA) -- Al-Qaeda leader was caught east of Mosul city, located in northern Iraq, said a statement by the Iraqi army on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in northern Mosul, the Mutli-National Force (MNF) discovered the body of another Qaeda leader who was killed on December 25 during a coalition raid in Ninawa governorate north of the country. The Qaeda leader was identified as 
(KUNA) -- US warplanes destroyed one of Al-Qaeda hideouts and Kazakh forces found a weapons depot in separate operations in Iraq. US F-16 fighter jets dropped two 500-pound bombs, destroying a house used by al-Qaeda to make and store improvised explosive devices in Busayefi, near the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, the MNF said in a statement on Wednesday.
(KUNA) -- Two palestinians were killed and six were injured in an Israeli air raid in the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip, eyewitnesses said. They added in press remarks that Israeli warplanes unleashed a rocket at an apartment building killing the two and injuring the six others. Khedra Wahdan, 30, and Mohammad Kafarneh, 22, were killed in the air strike, they added.
