#8
She was known for a comment on Marilyn Monroe. After watching MM sashay past she reportedly said, "There goes a broad with a great future behind her."
(AKI) - A senior Afghan army general and 12 soldiers were killed on Thursday when an army helicopter crashed into a mountain in the western province of Herat, military officials said. General Fazl Ahmad Sayar was one of the Afghan army's top commanders in charge of the western region, the Defence Ministry said in a statement in Kabul. "One of our helicopters crashed into a mountain due to bad weather," said Basir Khan Ghori, spokesman for the military corps in western Afghanistan. "At this stage we can confirm that the Zafar military corps commander has been killed," he told the media.
Another military official said on condition of anonymity that a total of 13 people were dead.
The statement said the helicopter crashed in bad weather in the Adraskan district of Herat province. However, some media reports said that the Taliban, who lead the insurgency against the government and foreign forces, said they had shot down the helicopter. Abdul Rashid, the district chief of Adraskan, said a recovery team was on its way to the crash site to retrieve the bodies. He said the weather was clear when the craft crashed.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Shabaab and rival Islamist group clash in central Somalia
By Bill Roggio
Two commanders of the al Qaeda-backed As Shabaab were killed during heavy fighting with a government-supported Islamist militia in central Somalia. Shabaab leaders Mohamed Mohamed Salad and Mohamed Yusuf Nur were "martyred" in the town of Guriel during clashes with the pro-government Ahlu Sunna Waljamaa, Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansour told the media. More than 30 Somalis were killed and more than 50 were wounded during the latest round of fighting in the contested central Somali town.
The fighting between Shabaab and Ahlu Sunna began in late December after Ahlu Sunna attacked Shabaab in three towns in the central Somali province of Galgadud. Forty Somalis were killed during three days of fighting that resulted in the ouster of Shabaab forces from the town of Guriel.
Shabaab, or the Somali Youth Movement, has gained considerable ground in southern and central Somalia after heavy fighting during 2008. More than 16,000 Somalis were killed last year. Late last summer, Kismayo, Somalia's second largest city, fell to Shabaab. The fighting left the powerless Transitional Federal Government in control over the town of Baidoa and in small pockets in the capital of Mogadishu.
Shabaab was formed shortly after the Ethiopians invaded Somalia and ejected the Islamic Courts Union from power in late 2006. Many of Shabaab's senior leaders trained in al Qaeda camps and are considered al Qaeda leaders. Senior Shabaab leader Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan is wanted by the U.S. Government for his involvement in the 1998 African embassy attacks and 2002 Mombasa attacks. In September 2008 Nabhan formally reached out to al Qaeda's central leadership to formally join the group.
The fighting between Shabaab and Ahlu Sunna is taking place as the Ethiopian Army is withdrawing from the capital of Mogadishu and other Somali regions. Six of Ethiopia's 14 bases in Mogadishu have been vacated.
Islamist militias allied with the Ethiopian faction of the Alliance for Re-libration of Somalia (ARS), led by al Qaeda leader Hassan Dahir Aweys, the former chief of the Islamic Courts, have taken control of the Ethiopian bases. Forces under the command of Sheikh Yusuf Indha'adde, the former defense minister of the Islamic Courts, have also attacked Ethiopian forces as they withdrew from Mogadishu.
The Eritrean faction of the ARS opposes the Djibouti peace accords, an agreement that calls for power-sharing between the Islamist militias and the government, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, the director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy's Center for Terrorism Research told The Long War Journal.
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the former political leader of the Islamic Courts, leads what is called the Djibouti faction of the ARS. Sharif and Aweys have publicly clashed over their disagreement over the peace talks. Aweys claimed he took control of the ARS in July. In August, Aweys said his forces would attack UN peacekeepers and Ethiopian forces would be "expelled from the country."
Shabaab has also vowed to attack the remaining 3,000 African Union peacekeepers as well as target Ethiopian forces as they leave the country. "We will strike AMISOM (African Union Mission to Somalia) bases like the airport and K4," Abu Mansour said today.
This article starring:
Mohamed Mohamed Salad
Mohamed Yusuf Nur
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
01/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Winner will be crowned "King of the Shit Pile"...
A remote control bomb blast killed one security personnel and wounded five others in Mechanbaba area of South Waziristan on Thursday. According to sources, some unknown persons attacked a security forcesÂ' vehicle with remote control bomb near Mechanbaba area, killing one security personnel and injuring five others. On the other hand, dead body of one Tipu Khan who was kidnapped from FR Darra on December 28 last year, was also found in South Wazirsitan.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2009 00:00 ||
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n another incident of target killing, four policemen, including a deputy superintendent of police, were killed and another seriously injured on the Sariab Road here on Wednesday.
According to official sources, five policemen, including two DSPs, Hassan Ali and Ghulam Muhammad, were on their way to the police training college in an official white colour Suzuki jeep when they were ambushed by unidentified gunmen. The attackers sprayed the police vehicle with bullets from automatic weapons, injuring all the five policemen seriously. Of them, three police constables and a DSP, who sustained multiple bullet injuries, succumbed to their injuries.
The second DSP was shifted to the CMH for treatment after first aid at the Civil Hospital. Reports suggested that the assailants had taken positions near the Government Girls' Polytechnic School on the Sariab Road. As the police vehicle approached, they ambushed it. The attack was so sudden and intense that it left no room for any possible retaliation. The attackers, subsequently, fled the spot, leaving behind the cops in a pool of blood.
DSP Hussan Ali and Constable Nasrullah breathed their last on way to the Bolan Medical Complex, while Muhammad Taqi and Sibghatullah died in hospital. On being informed, senior officials of the police and law-enforcement agencies reached the spot and started probe into the matter. Police recovered empty rounds of Kalashnikov and 9-MM pistol from the spot.
A senior police official told The News that special teams had been constituted to conduct raids and arrest those involved in the killings. He said the police had established check-posts at all entry and exit points of the Quetta city. However, no arrest was reported till our going to the press.
Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani took a serious notice of the tragic incident. He strongly condemned the attack and directed the capital city police officer to apprehend the culprits within 48 hours. The chief minister asserted that the government would not spare terrorists and deal with them with iron hands.
The incident created tension in the provincial capital and the administration had to deploy additional force to maintain law and order. A large number of people belonging to different shades of life, especially the Hazara community, thronged the hospital. Carrying coffins of the victims, they staged a protest in front of the IG police office and, subsequently, the Corps Commander House in Quetta Cantonment.
The protesters chanted slogans against the provincial government and police high-ups and demanded of the government to apprehend the attackers, as incidents of target killings have become a matter of routine in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan. Later, the deceased were buried in Hazara graveyard at Marriabad on Wednesday evening.
APP adds: President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday strongly condemned the killing of police personnel in Quetta and another incident of hurling grenades at the residence of a PPP leader. The president strongly condemned the incident of firing on the Sariab road, Quetta, in which at least four police personnel were killed.
The president said: "Such acts of terrorism would not deter the resolve of the government in the fight against terrorism." The president also strongly condemned the incident in which grenades were hurled at the residence of Pakistan Peoples Party's former MPA Qurban Ali Khan, who remained unhurt in the incident. He said the government was determined to counter terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and would not rest till militants and terrorists are eliminated from the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Several CD shops and offices were completely destroyed when three time devices planted by miscreants at three separate markets went off in the wee hours of Wednesday.
Six other shops and the house of a Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader were partially damaged while three more bombs recovered from the markets were defused. Sources said that about 10 masked men, equipped with pistols and hand grenades, came and made the watchman, Sher Muhammad, hostage before placing six bombs in a plaza and two markets at 4:20 a.m.
Three offices, Tariq Internet Cafe and two other shops were completely destroyed when a bomb exploded in the plaza, owned by former PPP MPA Qurban Khan, on GT Road. The house of the PPP leader was also partially damaged in the blast.
Similarly, two other bomb explosions in Fawad and Shaheen markets destroyed Dildar CD House, Hameed Electric Store, Bobi CD House and electronics shops owned by Abdul Wahab, Riaz, Hamid and Zeeshan. Six other shops were also damaged in the blast. However, no casualty was reported, as nobody was present in the market. Soon after the blasts, police rushed to the spot and collected evidence.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Supplies to the Nato forces resumed early Wednesday after a brief suspension on account of the military operation in the Khyber Agency. Also, on Wednesday, the American Consulate handed over sophistica-ted weapons worth $4.1 million to the Frontier Police for countering terrorism and drug trafficking.
The Nato supplies were suspended briefly after troops pounded hideouts of suspected militants in Landikotal subdivision of Khyber Agency. The Peshawar-Kabul Highway remained blocked during the operation, suspending all kinds of traffic between the two neighbouring countries.
"Supplies to the US-led allied forces in Afghanistan have been resumed and trucks have started trans-shipping goods for the Nato troops across the border," an official told The News. Around 400 trucks normally cross the Durand Line daily to provide food, ammunition, clothes and other goods to the Nato forces fighting the Taliban.
The Pakistani authorities had to launch an operation in Jamrud and Landikotal subdivisions after the Nato convoys were attacked while on way to Afghanistan. The parking terminals on both sides of the Ring Road in Peshawar housing Nato logistics were attacked at least seven times last month, killing three people and torching 300 military vehicles, Humvees and containers filled with different items.
A special security plan has been chalked out for protecting 14 container terminals located on the Ring Road between Hazarkhwani and Pishtakhara. Apart from the police, paramilitary forces guard these terminals to counter possible attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Pakistani police arrested more than a dozen Islamist militants in the southern city of Karachi on Thursday after a fierce gun battle following a pre-dawn raid on their hideout, officials said. Two policemen were killed and nine wounded before the militants' resistance was broken after several hours of shooting.
The raid came at a time when tensions were running high between Pakistan and India in the wake of a militant attack on the Indian city of Mumbai in November, and there is pressure from the international community for Pakistan to crack down harder on jihad groups. Pakistan has so far arrested 124 people belonging to banned groups. India has blamed the Pakistan-based Kashmiri militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), for the Mumbai assault in which 179 people were killed.
Interior ministry chief Rehman Malik, the country's point man on counterterrorism, said those arrested were members of an Islamic charity linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba. "We are very, very serious" about fighting extremism, Malik told a press conference, saying the anti-terror fight was the "only option" for Pakistan.
The people arrested are members of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, one of the country's biggest charities, but which is widely viewed as the political wing of LeT, banned here after an attack on the Indian parliament in late 2001.
The crackdown came in response to a United Nations Security Council resolution passed last month, describing Jamaat-ud-Dawa as a terror group.
Malik said that Islamabad needed more information from India in order to proceed with its own investigations into the Mumbai attacks and eventual prosecution of suspects.
"This is the time that Pakistan and India need to stick together," he said. "We'll be needing more information."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Charities with firepower. Should be evidence that even a Pakistani newspaper writer shouldn't be able to ignore.
Aswat al-Iraq: Policemen in Mosul on Thursday seized a workshop for making improvised explosive devices in an industrial area in the eastern part of the city, according to an official security source. “The policemen seized the workshop in the industrial neighborhood of al-Karama, eastern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: A U.S. Hummer vehicle burned down after an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near it in northern Babel province on Thursday, a police source said. “An IED went off Thursday while a U.S. convoy was passing in the area of al-Mashrou, (45 km) north of Hilla city, setting ablaze a Hummer.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: The director of al-Mo'tassem escaped an assassination attempt with a hand-grenade that was thrown at his motorcade in the central part of the district on Thursday, a local police official in Samarra city said.
"Hussein Mohammed al-Shatab, the director of al-Mo'tassem district, (20 km) southeast of Samarra, survived an attempt on his life when an unidentified man hurled a hand-grenade at his motorcade," the source, who asked not to have his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
"One of Shatab's bodyguards sustained medium injuries while his vehicle was damaged," the source added.
"The policemen and the sahwa (awakening) tribal forces searched the nearby orchards but failed to arrest the assailant," he said, not giving further details about the incident or its motives.
Samarra, a city in Salah al-Din province, lies 120 km north of Baghdad.
Shatab is one of the candidates in the local elections in Salah al-Din, 175 km north of the Iraqi capital, running under the Iraqi National List (INL) of former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. The list also includes prominent figures like Salah al-Din Governor Hamad al-Qaysi.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Policemen in Kirkuk on Thursday found three unidentified bodies of men showing signs of having been shot near a village northwest of the province, according to a senior police official. The bodies were found in the village of Tarkan, Sarkaran district, (50 km) northwest of Kirkuk.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi army forces on Thursday raided the house of Missan provincial security committee's deputy head, Fadhil Neama, after a roadside bomb went off targeting a U.S. convoy in northern Ammara city.
"On Thursday morning, Iraqi army forces raided my house at al-Nidaa neighborhood, northern Amara," Neama told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Two days ago, a roadside bomb went off near a U.S. convoy in the neighborhood.
"The raid is unacceptable and illegal," Neama said. "I am a member of the Missan provincial council and I have immunity," he added.
He said that the forces had no warrant to search his house.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Tavor, the new Israeli assault rifle is a lightweight, compact and ergonomically designed bullpup weapon designed to become a 'organic' part of the warfighter. It has already been chosen to arm the IDF.
Tavor is based on extensive research and development and close cooperation with the Israel Defense Forces. It was selected by the IDF in 2003, following an extensive competition against the M-4.
Unlike conventional assault rifles, Tavor was developed to produce effective, fast and accurate fire in all conditions, including close combat. Its ergonomic design enables the soldier to operate the weapon as part of an integrated weapon system such system does not rely only on technology, the system must rely on the human senses and capabilities, and respond best to the human needs.
Tavor is well balanced and easily operated with a single (right or left) hand. Specific models can be configured for right or left handed users. With its integral optical sight, it can be aimed and fire accurately with both eyes opened, maintaining constant eye contact with the target, improving the soldier's peripheral vision and maintaining effective situational awareness. The compact weapon fits comfortably, aimed instinctively and fired instantly and effectively even by a heavily loaded warfighter, in tight enclosures, where the use of longer weapons is impractical.
#1
Nice and compact for close quarters fighting, decent punch, and good range.
Only drawback of the bullpup design is reloading the magazine. I always found it awkward and hard to do while prone. You have to pull the weapon away from you, turn it over, pull out the magazine and then put in a new one, move it back into position and then re-acquire a shooting position.
Other than that, I liked the design.
#4
I watched a piece on the rifle on the Military channel. It seems to be a good, accurate, reliable rifle. On the mag change; I think the problem is that the mag well is so close to the face and body that it has some strange (to me) ergo's to remove and replace the mag. Practice might make it more comfortable but placing the mag in a location behind the supporting hand are hard to see and the leverages are awkward to insure the mag is seated.
#5
The one I fired was the British version. The magazine is damn near in your armpit. Very hard to change. The M-16 mag you can hit the release with your trigger finger while pulling a new mag from your belt/vest, slap it in without changing your body position, drive the bolt home in the same motion and rock and roll without changing your firing position at all (position being rifle still against your shoulder and hand on the trigger handle). Handy when faced with a charging/advancing enemy since the reload can be done in under 5 seconds (or 2 seconds when the adrenaline is pumping).
Now the advantage of the bullpup is it is very, very efficient compared to the M-16 (never fired the M-4 so I can't compare it) to house to house fighting. The short stock makes moving around corners and through doorways a breeze. And you don't need to be in a prone position for long periods much in a urban fight anyway.
But, in short I liked both rifles very much. They both have things I can nitpick about, but both are excellent and I expect the Israeli one to be just as good.
#9
#8 too bad. NATO with a short barrel isn't particluarly effective. It is said that the Iraqi insurgents don't fear the M4 because the round is not effective at any useful range, and doesn't have casualty producing effects at that range.
The TAVOR has a shorter barrel.
So the company, or at least the BN HQ should have enough full size weapons to arm the guys for longer range combat.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
01/16/2009 22:38 Comments ||
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ALONG THE ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER -- When Israeli soldiers saw a suspected suicide bomber riding a bike towards them, they moved quickly. As the man ducked into a building for safety, Israeli soldiers said they used a bulldozer to bring the walls down on top of him. When armed Palestinians popped out of a tunnel and tried to attack, Israeli troops said they used tank fire and a bulldozer to decimate the militants. Excessive force in the apprehension of the Blues Brothers has been approved... And I'm comfortably certain they got more than 1 out of 10 ...
In fight after fight and neighborhood after neighborhood, Israeli soldiers are bringing more aggressive tactics to the Gaza Strip battlefields. In interviews earlier in the week with embedded pool reporters and Wednesday with a McClatchy reporter along the Gaza Strip border, Israeli troops said a freer military hand has given them a decisive edge over outgunned Palestinian militants in the 19-day-old conflict. They also said they were surprised by the relatively light resistance from Hamas fighters.
"You can't compare it," he said. "Hezbollah is a much more organized army. Hamas, they usually run away."
From the hospital beds in southern Israel to an artillery unit along the Gaza border, nearly a dozen soldiers told McClatchy that Israel had to deliver an unprecedented blow to ensure that Hamas militants don't resume their rocket attacks when the fighting ends. "You can't be lenient," said O., a 29-year-old Israeli reservist who declined to give his full name because soldiers can be disciplined for talking to reporters without explicit permission. "We're using a lot more firepower, and the orders for engagement are less strict." One significant change this time is that Israeli soldiers don't have to go as far up the chain-of-command before opening fire, said O.
Continued on Page 49
#1
When your enemies insists on calling your every action a "holocaust", that actually expands the potential scope of your tactics. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Palestinian sources reported Thursday that the "Iranian Unit" of Hamas, members of the group's military wing trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, had been destroyed.
According to the sources, most of the unit's members were killed in fighting in the Zeytun neighborhood, where they had been deployed by the military leadership of Hamas.
The unit numbered approximately 100 men who had traveled to Iran and Hezbollah camps, mostly in the Beka'a Valley, where they were trained in infantry fighting tactics. The militants were also trained in the use of anti-tank missiles, the detonation of explosives, among other skills
#6
More like a company than a battalion, and a small company at that. But a battalion sounds better for propaganda. They could have called it a brigade even.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/16/2009 7:54 Comments ||
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#11
I just read another article last night that discussed iran threatening to pull the plug on weapons and money if they quit fighting. Maybe the HamAss leadership is getting a little desperate.
Maybe they thought they were on some kind of glorious suicide mission or something.
#14
Hmmm, flaming hoops. Suppose you dug a really deep, deep hole right on the Gaza border, surrounded it with flaming hoops and just sat back and watched.
Two captured terrorists interviewed by Maariv/NRG say that Hamas was not expecting Israel's response to the escalation in missile attacks on Israeli targets that preceded Operation Cast Lead. One of them, a 52-year-old victim of a premature detonation who had already done time in an Israeli jail, said, "Hamas took a gamble. We thought, at worst Israel will come and do something from the air - something superficial. They'll come in and go out. We never thought that we would reach the point where fear will swallow the heart and the feet will want to flee. You [Israel] are fighting like you fought in '48. What got into you all of a sudden?"
The second terrorist, a 21-year-old, said Hamas brought order to Gaza, but also brought fear. He noted that it was dangerous in Gaza for non-Hamas members, citing an instance of his being beaten and another in which he saw a friend killed when he went to get gas. "Now they're all gone," he said. "There have been no Hamasniks in the streets since the start of the campaign."
Awwwwwwwwww - da' poor babeez....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/16/2009 19:00 Comments ||
Top||
#34
"There have been no Hamasniks in the streets since the start of the campaign."
Kinda tough for some of these people to wrap their poor, feeble brains around the concept that the Juice are their liberators.
#35
Iran demanding that they fight; yes that would explain it. Out of character otherwise. How better than to throw into the grinder Iran's own troops, the better for Hamas to say, "we tried your way, now give us more money next time".
Two rockets fired by Gaza militants on Thursday hit Be'er Sheva, wounding five people, including a 7-year-old boy who was seriously hurt. One of the rockets struck a car.
A spokesman for the Magen David Adom emergency services said two people were seriously hurt and two were moderately wounded in the attack.
The Israel Air Force destroyed the launcher used in Gaza to fire the rockets into Be'er Sheva, and hit the squad that fired them, Channel 10 quoted the army as reporting.
The IAF earlier Thursday shot down a Qassam rocket launched into Israel by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
Shortly before 8 A.M., an Israeli jet fired on a rocket launching squad and intercepted a rocket, causing it to explode.
Eyewitnesses in the Kfar Aza area in the western Negev reported seeing the mid-air collision.
Gaza militants on Thursday fired a barrage of some 24 rockets at Israel, one of which exploded in the south central city of Gedera. Fifteen rockets alone struck the region between 7 and 8 A.M.
Two of the rockets exploded near Ofakim, causing no casualties. Another seven rockets hit the western Negev city of Sderot, with one exploding in the yard of a house. There were no casualties in the incident, though the house was severely damaged.
Hamas militants in Gaza on Wednesday fired their first phosphorus shell into Israel, which exploded in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council in the western Negev. No injuries or damage were reported.
Over the course of Wednesday, militants fired at least 16 rockets at southern Israel.
All of them hit open areas near Ashdod, Ashkelon, Be'er Sheva and the western Negev. Five Israelis in Ashdod were treated for shock, but no other casualties or damage were reported in the attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Another glorious victory for Hamas and its enablers.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has shrugged off fears for his safety after a bomb attack injured six people in the country's restive south, which he will visit for the first time on Saturday.
In the latest in a series of attacks to hit the Muslim-majority region where a five-year jihad insurgency is raging, separatist militants detonated a motorcycle bomb in front of Yala provincial hospital on Thursday night. Six people were wounded, including two members of the security forces, police said.
Separately one terrorist militant was gunned down and a soldier was wounded in a 10-minute clash in neighbouring Pattani province on Friday morning.
"Violence is normal in the south," Mr Abhisit said when asked if he thought the terrorists insurgents were trying to step up attacks before his arrival.
(AKI) - Militants on Thursday kidnapped an Italian, a Swiss and a Filipino aid worker employed by the International Red Cross in the southern Philippines. A regional military spokesman identified the captives as Eugenio Vagni, Andreas Notter and Jean Lacaba. The men were abducted at gunpoint from their car on the Muslim dominated island of Jolo, a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf group, which is notorious for kidnappings and terror attacks.
Italy's foreign ministry confirmed Vagni's abduction and said his relatives have been informed. He and his two colleagues had been travelling to Jolo airport after a humanitarian visit to a local prison when gunmen aboard motorcycles forced them out of their car.
ICRC chairman Richard Gordon said the gunmen released the aid workers' driver and two other Filipinos who then reported the incident.
"The ICRC currently has no indication whatsoever of who the abductors might be or of their motives. It is in contact with the authorities and other parties with the aim of resolving the situation as swiftly as possible," the organisation said in a statement.
The ICRC has also set up a special crisis unit at its headquarters in Geneva.
Italy's foreign minister Franco Frattini announced on Thursday that staff from his ministry's crisis unit are closely monitoring developments and were in collaborating with the Italian embassy in Manila.
The prime suspect in the kidnapping, Al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf's goal is to establish a Muslim 'caliphate' in the Muslim-majority southern Philippines. Over one thousand militants are believed to have joined the group since its foundation in the 1990s by Muslim preacher Abdulrajak Abubakar Janjalani.
The group has twice attacked luxury beach resorts and abducted tourists, including Westerners. They have held them for months at a time and secured large ransoms for their release. In 2001, three kidnap victims, including an American, were beheaded by their Abu Sayyaf captors.
In mid-2007, Islamist militants, believed to be from Abu Sayyaf kidnapped Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi at gunpoint on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao and held him for a month. Bossi was released unharmed.
Several other Italian priests have previously been kidnapped in the southern Philippines and released unharmed.
Philippines police and military say that more than 380 Abu Sayyaf fighters - down from 1,000 in 2002 - are hiding on and Basilan islands.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
cowardly faggots
Posted by: Oscar Hupaigum7736 ||
01/16/2009 0:36 Comments ||
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(AKI) - A Singaporean terror suspect admitted that he and an Islamist militant fugitive planned to hijack an airplane in Thailand and crash it into Singapore's Changi Airport.
"We wanted to do it out of anger with Singapore for being an ally of the United States for what it did in Afghanistan," said Mohammed Hassan Saynudin, quoted by Singaporean daily, The Straits Times.
Saynudin and alleged member of the militant Jemaah Islamiyah, Mas Selamat Kastari failed to carry out the attack six years ago after Thai authorities found out about it.
"What I was trying to do was to defend Islam and Muslims," he said.
Saynudin, 35, appeared in the South Jakarta District Court in the Indonesian capital to face terrorism charges. If convicted, he may be executed.
Kastari is accused of being a leader of the JI terror organisation. He was being held without trial in a detention centre in Singapore and escaped last February after asking for a toilet break during a family visit.
Kastari fled Singapore in 2001 after the authorities cracked down on JI and arrested dozens of its members.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Jemaah Islamiyah
NINE suspected bombers thought to belong to Islamic extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) have been arrested in separate raids in the southern Philippines, the army said on Thursday.
The arrests were made Monday and Tuesday near the town of Awang on Mindanao island, the army's Eastern Mindanao Command said.
It did not say if the suspects were foreigners, although earlier military intelligence reports have said dozens of Indonesian JI militants are believed to be training in the south alongside Filipinos from the Abu Sayyaf group and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The suspects were 'undergoing tactical interrogations,' the army said.
It said they were found with bomb-making devices and explosives, similar to those used in a series of attacks that have wounded more than 40 people since December.
The Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) is blamed for the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali, Indonesia that left over 200 dead, many of them Australian tourists.
Filipino and regional terrorism experts say the JI has infiltrated Islamist groups here after two of its senior bomb-makers, Dulmatin and Umar Patek, fled to Mindanao in 2003.
The US government has offered up to US$11 million (S$16.5 million) as a reward for the capture of the two.
Dulmatin was reported killed in a clash with Filipino troops in the south last year, although DNA tests later on a decomposing body said to be his were declared inconclusive.
In a separate incident, a bomb destroyed a small army boat at the southern port of Cotobato but caused no injuries.
Experts disarmed a second bomb in another boat, the army said, adding that the devices were similar to those widely-used by militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2009 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.
(AKI) - A senior Afghan army general and 12 soldiers were killed on Thursday when an army helicopter crashed into a mountain in the western province of Herat, military officials said. General Fazl Ahmad Sayar was one of the Afghan army's top commanders in charge of the western region, the Defence Ministry said in a statement in Kabul. "One of our helicopters crashed into a mountain due to bad weather," said Basir Khan Ghori, spokesman for the military corps in western Afghanistan. "At this stage we can confirm that the Zafar military corps commander has been killed," he told the media.
Shabaab and rival Islamist group clash in central Somalia
Pakistani police arrested more than a dozen Islamist militants in the southern city of Karachi on Thursday after a fierce gun battle following a pre-dawn raid on their hideout, officials said. Two policemen were killed and nine wounded before the militants' resistance was broken after several hours of shooting.
Palestinian sources reported Thursday that the "Iranian Unit" of Hamas, members of the group's military wing trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, had been destroyed.
Two rockets fired by Gaza militants on Thursday hit Be'er Sheva, wounding five people, including a 7-year-old boy who was seriously hurt. One of the rockets struck a car.
