H/T Blackfive -- this is the guy the SEAL team went looking for, and Ismial takes credit for the death of the 16 killed in the helicopter crash. Marcus Dad's posted at Blackfive -- he's delighted, alto, that not the word/s he used! One bad tango gone
A senior leader of a Taliban splinter group known as the Bara bin Malek Front, one of the most dangerous insurgent groups operating in northeastern Afghanistan, was killed during a blazing shootout with Pakistani police in the North Western Frontier Province earlier this week.
Security forces opened fire on Mullah Ahmad Shah, better known as his nom de guerre Commander Ismail, after he failed to stop at a police check point near the Afghan border. Ismail was attempting to smuggle a kidnapped Afghan day laborer back to an insurgent hideout on the Afghan side of the border, according to Pakistani security officials who spoke with CBS.
Taliban spokesman Zabibullah Mujahid also confirmed the killing of a top Taliban commander in the area according to the same report.
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Ismail repeatedly spoke with the media, claiming credit for various attacks and threatening more bloodshed. He spoke with the American news network NBC twice in 2005, once in August and again in December, the latter of which he allowed journalists to videotape his discussion.
In the tape, he detailed how he and his men ambushed the Navy SEALs and even presented video footage of the attack. Osama bin Laden reportedly sent a letter praising him and his men shortly after the two helicopters were shot down in the summer of 2005.
Ismails death may seriously jeopardize the survivability of the Bara bin Malek Front with remaining members choosing to fold into wider known Taliban channels or the al Qaeda element in Kunar led by the elusive Abu Ikhlas al-Masri. A Kunar based Taliban sub-commander who spoke with CBS described the possibility Ismail had been killed as a full-scale blow.
KABUL, Afghanistan - A roadside bombing killed the son of the Netherlands' top military officer on Friday, a day after his father assumed command of the Dutch armed forces, officials said. Lt. Dennis van Uhm, 23, was one of two Dutch soldiers killed in the explosion 7 miles northwest of Camp Holland, the Dutch military base in Uruzgan province, spokesman Lt. Gen. Freek Meulman said.
The Dutch are fighting alongside U.S, British and Canadian troops at the forefront of NATO's battles with the Taliban and other insurgents in southern Afghanistan. Other NATO nations such as Germany, Italy and Spain are based in the relatively safe north and west and have been criticized for not sending their combat troops to help out in a fight.
Friday's casualties bring the death toll of Dutch soldiers to 16 since the Netherlands began contributing combat forces to the NATO mission in Afghanistan in August 2006. The Dutch have 1,650 troops in southern Afghanistan.
There was no immediate comment from Gen. Peter van Uhm, who took up a new job as the overall commander of the Dutch military in a ceremony outside parliament in The Hague on Thursday. "This morning I asked Gen. Van Uhm, the military commander, to concentrate on his personal situation," Defense Minister Eimert Van Middelkoop told reporters at a hastily called news conference in the Netherlands. "The contrast between yesterday's festivities ... could not be starker."
Two other soldiers were wounded in the attack on the Dutch soldiers' vehicle, which was returning to base after a reconnaissance mission, the Dutch military said. "There is no reason to believe that the roadside bomb attack was directed at Lt. Van Uhm," Meulman said.
Posted by: Col B. Guano (ret.) ||
04/18/2008 10:57 Comments ||
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#4
Yes, thank you for all you do, NATO allies. May he rest in the arms of his creator.
Posted by: BA ||
04/18/2008 14:12 Comments ||
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#5
The Netherlands have been doing more than their fair share in Afghanistan. Dank ye wel, Lt. van Uhm, and your family for supporting your choice. I've no doubt the Dutch forces will send a suitable escort to serve you in the afterlife.
Afghan and foreign forces killed several dozen Taliban insurgents on Thursday in separate clashes in Afghanistan, officials said.
After the traditional winter lull, violence has increased in recent weeks in Afghanistan. Twenty Taliban fighters were killed in a joint operation by Afghan and NATO forces in the southern province of Zabul, a senior provincial police official, Faridullah Khogiani, said. In neighboring Ghazni province, 10 insurgents died after a botched ambush against a joint Afghan and U.S.-led convoy on a highway in Ghazni province, a provincial official said. In another clash in the same province, the Afghan National Army killed three more Taliban guerrillas, the defense ministry said in a statement.
There were no casualties among Afghan and foreign forces in any of the encounters, Afghan officials said. The Taliban could not be contacted immediately for comment.
Also on Thursday, at least two NATO soldiers were wounded and a tank destroyed when a remote-controlled roadside bomb exploded in Kandahar's Spin Boldak town on the Pakistani border, border police chief, Abdul Raziq Khan, told Reuters. He did not give the nationalities of the wounded soldiers but most of the foreign soldiers in Kandahar are Canadian. A Taliban spokesman told Reuters that the militant group was behind the blast.
This article starring:
Abdul Raziq Khan
Faridullah Khogiani
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2008 00:00 ||
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[11129 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#4
After the traditional winter lull, violence has increased in recent weeks in Afghanistan.
But it has been all doom and gloom all the time. Is Reuters saying it hasn't been that bad recently but now it will get worse? Or that it's been bad even though there has been a lull? Wanting it both ways again as usual.
A suicide bomb exploded on Thursday outside a mosque as worshippers were leaving after prayers in southwest Afghanistan on Thursday, killing 24 people, the provincial governor told AFP. Two senior police officers were among the dead and 34 people were also injured, some of them children, in the attack in Zaranj city, capital of the Nimroz province which borders Iran, Ghulam Dastgir Azad said. There was a suicide bombing in front of the citys mosque and at this time we have 24 people confirmed dead and 34 wounded, some seriously, he said, adding that most of those killed were civilians.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the explosion, that occurred next to a popular market outside the mosque, but similar acts in the past have been blamed on Taliban militants.
Also on Thursday, Afghan and international forces killed 13 militants during operations in the south, while a top rebel commander was also captured.
Ten Taliban-linked rebels were killed in the province of Ghazni along a key highway linking the capital Kabul to southern Afghanistan, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. It added these terrorists were attacking passengers and supply convoys and said two other rebels were wounded and some others captured.
Mahboobullah Sabawoon, the chief of Gilan district where the operation took place, confirmed the incident but put the death toll at nine. The defence ministry meanwhile said in a separate statement that three Taliban fighters were killed in an operation elsewhere in Ghazni. It gave no further details. And the interior ministry, in another statement, said a prominent Taliban commander was captured in the Taliban-infested southern Uruzgan province.
Meanwhile, NATO acknowledged that a privately contracted helicopter had mistakenly dropped ammunition and other supplies in an area where Afghan officials have said the items were picked up by the Taliban. NATOs International Security Assistance Force said on Thursday that the helicopter shipment of food, water and ammunition intended for police was mistakenly dropped in southern Zabul province.
This article starring:
Ghulam Dastgir Azad
Mahboobullah Sabawoon
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2008 00:00 ||
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[11131 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
The dreaded Spring Offensive - blowing up mosques and markets and killing women and kids. Taliban idea of a recruiting tool.
A Rajshahi divisional court yesterday awarded life terms to all 11 militants of Jama'aul Mujahidin, Bangladesh (JMB) in a sedition case filed for taking combat training to fight against the state in 2005. Judge M Sajedul Karim of the first court of Rajshahi divisional special judge also fined the accused Tk 20,000 each, in default of which they are to spend two more years in jail.
The convicts include Enamul Haque and Golamur Rahman alias Golam Mostafa, both regional JMB commanders and followers of executed militant leader Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai and arrested militant kingpin Asadullah Al Galib respectively.
The others sentenced are Rajshahi University Arabic student Ibrahim Hossain, madrassah teacher Jaharul Islam, madrassah students Merajul Islam, Shah Wali Ullah, Zakir Hossain, Mansur Rahman, Biplob Hossain, Abu Zafar and Mozammel Hossain.
They were arrested from Mozammel's house at Puthiapara in Paba upazila on July 18, 2005 while they undergoing combat training. Police recovered diaries and notes from them including details on 'restricted military training on arms, ammunition and detonators', guerrilla warfare and revolutionary Islamic slogans and songs for Jihad. The training included making simple and sophisticated bombs including time bombs and remote control bombs, operating rifles, etc. Local and foreign personnel provided the trainings, according to the prosecution.
After investigation, sub-inspector Zahidul Islam, the then officer-in-charge of Paba police station, lodged a sedition case with a magistrate court on September 4, 2005 and pressed charges against them on February 6, 2006.
Delivering the judgement the court said, prosecution allegations that the militants were engaged in anti-state activities and that they had been receiving 'exclusive combat training on arms, ammunition and detonators' with ulterior motives against the state was proved without any doubt. The court examined a total of eight prosecution witnesses in the case and evidence recovered from possessions of the accused.
One of the sentenced militants, Mozammel, hurled abuses at the police and journalists after the sentence was read out.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2008 00:00 ||
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[11126 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
A Muslim preacher who barracked former Home Secretary John Reid faces life in jail after he was found guilty of calling on his followers to train to be terrorists and telling them to kill non-believers to get to heaven.
Abu Izzadeen, whose real name is Trevor Brooks, 32, led a group of Islamic radicals who stormed the moderate Regents Park Mosque in central London and then forced back police who tried to evict them.
Izzadeen was found guilty of incitement to terrorism abroad along with three of his associates, Abdul Rehman Saleem, also known as Abu Yahya, the convert Simon Keeler, also known as Suliman Keeler, and Ibrahim Abdullah Hassan. Brooks, Keeler and two other men, Shah Jalal Hussain and Abdul Muhid were found guilty of collecting money for terrorists in Iraq. Hussain skipped bail while the jury were deliberating and is now on the run
The group delivered a series of speeches from the middle of the mosque in November 2004, which coincided with a night of the Muslim festival of Ramadan known as the Night of Power. They were found on a DVD lasting nearly five hours in which Brooks told his followers: Allah will remove all the kufr [disbelief] from the earth, and how? With dua [prayers] or with some books? No my dear Muslim brothers with jihad for the sake of Allah...So we are terrorists, terrify the enemies of Allah. Brooks said anybody who sought dignity outside of shariah [Islamic law] would be humiliated.
In another speech, recorded two years later in Small Heath, Birmingham, Brooks asked his audience; Are you ready for another 7/7? Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said this time Brooks was trying not to break a new terrorism law, making it illegal to glorify terrorism. But he said he had clothed his message in the words of Mohammed Siddique Khan, one of the July 7 bombers who left behind a videoed message. He said he was telling them listen, absorb and follow the words of a suicide bomber. Brooks told his audience: These people have made a clear statement: If you stop, you'll be saved. If you don't stop, we're going to kill you indiscriminately. Now, you take the bus, you take the train? You could be the next target. You could be burned alive. You prepared to die?
Brooks claimed his arrest was politically motivated after he interrupted a speech on fundamentalism by then Home Secretary John Reid at a youth centre in Forest Gate, East London, two months later, causing a storm of publicity. Izzadeen was a follower of the radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, one-time leader of a group called al-Muhajiroun, who left for the Lebanon in the wake of the July 2005 bombings.
The Regents Park speech was found on a DVD recovered during a raid on Bakri's home in Haringey, North London, on March 15 2006 in the wake of the protests against the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Running for four hours and 48 minutes it covered a period at the mosque between 3.48pm and 10.15pm.
The police were called at 8pm by security staff at the mosque as the preaching began outside and returned an hour and 20 minutes later after the crowd had moved inside. But the crowd forced the officers from the mosque as they chanted leave, leave, leave and out, out, out as well as Allah-u-Akbar.
One female officer said she was pushed, shoved and spat at. Inside the mosque speakers referred to the September 11 hijackers as the magnificent 19 and the audience clapped those who had chosen to answer the call by becoming martyrs.
Mr Laidlaw said the defendants had crossed the line representing the boundary of freedom of expression by some considerable distance and become criminal. He said that in the tape, largely recorded before the police arrived, the speeches became progressively more emotive and inflammatory and insulting in their tone. He added: Much of what they say and believe is deeply, deeply offensive to liberal, fair-minded people. Their views are by ordinary standards, among other things, intolerant, racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic. If others were to describe them and their religion in the language they use the defendants would understandably be outraged.
#4
Let's see what they sentence him to. I keep hoping that the Brits will show some spine only to keep being bitterly disappointed. Personally, I'd like to see this bastard and his associates swinging from a rope and the mosque dynamited and bulldozed. See Kipling's "The Lament of the Border Cattle Thief" for a primer on the subject of how Muzzies think--and how to handle them properly.
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
04/18/2008 16:37 Comments ||
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#5
"Abu Yahya,"?
Didn't Patti LaBelle & the Drells do a song about hime once?
Officials say a Turkish soldier was killed in a clash between troops and Kurdish rebels near Turkey's southeastern border with Iraq. The local governor's office said the clash took place late Wednesday on Mount Kupeli in Sirnak province. On the same day Turkish warplanes hit a group of Kurdish rebels reportedly trying to infiltrate Turkey from the Avasin-Basyan region of northern Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2008 00:00 ||
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[11130 views]
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The FBI is now involved in the theft of a car after it was found in Los Lunas with an explosive device and Iraqi currency inside. FBI agents say that they have ruled out terrorism
Oh. Well. That's a relief. Bombs and Iraqi currency, huh? Good thing it's not a terrorist case, no sir ...
The car was reported stolen last week. After the theft, the cars owner was fueling his motorcycle when he spotted his stolen car. While he was refueling his motorcycle, low and behold, the vehicle that he had reported stolen that belongs to him happened to pull into the gas station area also, said Los Lunas Police Captain Charles Nuanes.
The cars owner pulled the keys out of the ignition of his stolen car and the people in the car fled.
When police arrived, they found the explosive device and less than $1,000 worth of Iraqi cash. We dont know what their intentions were, said Nuanes. We dont know what they were planning on doing with any of this.
But it's not terrorism, nope, nope ...
Police suspect Toby Jaramillo, who is well known to Valencia County law enforcement, was behind the cars theft. Hes in jail charged with stealing another car.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2008 11:24 ||
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[11128 views]
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#1
FBI agents say that they have ruled out terrorism.
Domestically we are "guarded" by far too many fools in positions of authority.
While I agree with most of the sentiments here about rushing to judgement on *not* labelling something terrorism, I'd note the suspect's name is not exactly Arabic/Muslim sounding. Could be more of a "south of the border" thing, involving folks with nefarious connections to other sources of revenue (e.g. the Iraqi cash)?
Posted by: BA ||
04/18/2008 14:15 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Vets coming back to Upstate NY have passed out Iraqi dinar with Saddam's mug on it to classrooms of kids.
Maybe the thieves took a stash of dinar during an unrelated robbery?
Just puttin' it out there!
Posted by: Johnny al Quachran ||
04/18/2008 21:11 Comments ||
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#12
Apparently Toby Jaramillo sold his stolen car to some angry people.
Two children, a sub-inspector and constable of the Kanju police station were injured on Thursday when unidentified assailants opened fire on them.
The assailants ambushed the police officials car as they headed home from the police station, APP reported. Sub-Inspector Bakht Bedar and constable Akhtar Hussain, who were critically wounded in the attack, were airlifted to Peshawar. The children reported by APP to be two brothers, Hussain and Bilal of Sher Malook are being treated at Saidu Sharif Hospital. Kabal police have registered a case against four accused Koza Bhandi residents, Ali Rehman alias Fouji, Muhammad Naseem, Rehman Ali and Ali Haider, who were identified by Sub-Inspector Bedar in the first information report (FIR),
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2008 00:00 ||
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[11126 views]
Top|| File under: TNSM
ISLAMABAD: The Netherlands has moved its embassy in Islamabad to a hotel due to security concerns following the release of an anti-Islamic film by a Dutch politician, an embassy spokeswoman said on Thursday. We didnt feel safe anymore in that building for the time being, so we decided to shift temporarily, the embassy spokeswoman told Reuters. The film has drawn strong condemnation and protests from Islamic countries, including Pakistan. Last month, an Al Qaeda-linked website called for anti-immigration lawmaker Geert Wilders death and an increase in attacks on Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan. Obviously, our country has been on a higher profile because of this film and thats why we are on alert for any sort of information coming in regarding our security situation, the spokeswoman said.
Pakistan has denounced the film as an attempt to propagate the politics of hate and xenophobia.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2008 00:00 ||
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[11125 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Residents of the citys affluent Hayatabad locality are shifting to their native towns, as clashes erupt between two rival groups in the neighbouring Khyber Agency. Several families are not sending their children to schools amid fears of a broader conflict between the Lashkar-e-Islam (LI), a militant group headed by Mangal Bagh, and the people of the Kooki Khel tribe, and the fear of an operation by the security forces. One person was killed and several others wounded in an exchange of fire between the two groups on Wednesday evening. I have moved my family to Nowshera following the fighting in Jamrud last night, a local resident said.
An official of the Turk-Pakistan International School said that students attendance had dropped over the last two days. The official, who is also a resident of Hayatabad, said the residents were living in a fear since a rocket attack on the area more than one and a half month ago. Were vulnerable to threat because the warring sides are stationed on the two ends of Hayatabad, he said.
Hayatabad is also the biggest industrial area in the city and its industrial sector is linked with the areas of Jamrud sub-division on one side and Bara tehsil on the other.
An official at a local cable-manufacturing factory said that employees from Jamrud were absent on Thursday. Senior officials of two local factories refused to comment on the issue when approached for comments. The owner of a marble factory said that there was fear among both workers and industrialists. He said that it was the governments responsibility to provide security to the people.
A security guard at a factory told Daily Times that owners of big factories were avoiding making comments because of the fear of reprisals from local militant groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2008 00:00 ||
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[11129 views]
Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami
An apparent infiltration attempt at the Kerem Shalom crossing on the Gaza border was prevented by the IDF's Beduin desert reconnaissance battalion Thursday. Shots were reportedly fired at three Palestinian gunmen who moved into the Palestinian side of the crossing. One of the gunmen was shot and killed, and one injured. The third gunman fled the scene, and was being pursued by IDF troops.
The IDF believed that the men were trying to infiltrate the Israeli side of the crossing in order to carry out an attack. Kerem Shalom, located in the southern Gaza strip, is currently the main crossing used to transfer food and medical supplies to the Gaza Strip.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2008 00:00 ||
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[11129 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Well, if they use the food and medical supply crossing to launch attacks then you know what to do.
The IDF says it's sealing the West Bank and Gaza during the Jewish Passover holiday.
The closure takes effect at midnight Thursday and bars Palestinians from entering Israel. Passover begins at sundown Saturday and lasts a week. Passover commemorates the exodus of the ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
Israel routinely seals the Palestinian territories during Jewish holidays. The closure largely affects the West Bank, since Gaza has been virtually sealed by Israel and Egypt since the violent Hamas takeover there last June.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2008 00:00 ||
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[11132 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
But what about the Paleostinian's human right to defile a Jewish holy day?
New fighting between Tamil separatists and government forces across Sri Lanka's northern region killed 16 rebels and one soldier, while air force jets bombed a rebel supply base, the military said yesterday.
Air force pilots confirmed they hit the Tamil Tiger logistics base Thursday, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said. He did not have details of casualties or damage at the jungle base in the rebel-held Mullaitivu district. But the rebels said that bombs had instead hit civilian homes, killing a child. "One child was instantly killed and several civilian huts destroyed," the LTTE said in a statement.
In infantry clashes Wednesday, soldiers killed six rebels and wounded nine others in the northern Vavuniya district, just south of the rebels' de facto state, Nanayakkara said. One government soldier died and eight others were wounded in the fighting, he said.
Separate clashes in the northeastern Welioya region killed five rebels and wounded nine soldiers and 47 rebels, Nanayakkara said. Other fighting elsewhere in the region killed five rebels and wounded four soldiers, he said. Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not be reached for comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Members of Hezbollah attacked and kidnapped a police officer in south Beirut on Thursday, marking the second attack on Lebanese police by Hezbollah in as many days, security sources reported.
On Wednesday Hezbollah forcefully freed two suspicious detainees, by surrounding the police with a mob of 100 angry Hezbollah forces, threatening to attack the policemen unless the two bearded men were immediately released.
The sources said the police officer was investigating an illegal construction site in the suburb of Ghadir when he was beaten up by two local residents.
Hizbullah members drove in, kidnapped the officer and whisked him to a Hizbullah office where he was illegally interrogated by Party officials on activities of the police force.
The officer told his superiors later Hizbullah officials set him free only because he is Shiite.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
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.
Afghan and foreign forces killed several dozen Taliban insurgents on Thursday in separate clashes in Afghanistan, officials said.
A suicide bomb exploded on Thursday outside a mosque as worshippers were leaving after prayers in southwest Afghanistan on Thursday, killing 24 people, the provincial governor told AFP. Two senior police officers were among the dead and 34 people were also injured, some of them children, in the attack in Zaranj city, capital of the Nimroz province which borders Iran, 
The FBI is now involved in the theft of a car after it was found in Los Lunas with an explosive device and Iraqi currency inside. FBI agents say that they have ruled out terrorism
Residents of the citys affluent Hayatabad locality are shifting to their native towns, as clashes erupt between two rival groups in the neighbouring Khyber Agency. Several families are not sending their children to schools amid fears of a broader conflict between the Lashkar-e-Islam (LI), a militant group headed by Mangal Bagh, and the people of the Kooki Khel tribe, and the fear of an operation by the security forces. One person was killed and several others wounded in an exchange of fire between the two groups on Wednesday evening. I have moved my family to Nowshera following the fighting in Jamrud last night, a local resident said. 
An apparent infiltration attempt at the Kerem Shalom crossing on the Gaza border was prevented by the IDF's Beduin desert reconnaissance battalion Thursday. Shots were reportedly fired at three Palestinian gunmen who moved into the Palestinian side of the crossing. One of the gunmen was shot and killed, and one injured. The third gunman fled the scene, and was being pursued by IDF troops. 
The IDF says it's sealing the West Bank and Gaza during the Jewish Passover holiday. 
New fighting between Tamil separatists and government forces across Sri Lanka's northern region killed 16 rebels and one soldier, while air force jets bombed a rebel supply base, the military said yesterday.
Members of Hezbollah attacked and kidnapped a police officer in south Beirut on Thursday, marking the second attack on Lebanese police by Hezbollah in as many days, security sources reported.
