A Canadian soldier was killed after being hit by a roadside bomb near the Afghan city of Kandahar, according to a statement issued by the Canadian Minster of Defense Peter MacKay.
This incident raises the number of Canadian soldiers killed in the country to 142 since 2002. Last week MacKay announced 90 more soldiers will be deployed to Afghanistan in order to train the local forces.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2010 00:00 ||
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[Quqnoos] A home-made bomb hit a bus carrying a mine clearance team in Kandahar province on Sunday, killing four people and injuring 14 others
The improvised explosive device -- the Taliban and other militants' weapon of choice against foreign forces and government targets -- detonated as they drove on a dirt road near Daman district.
"The de-miners were travelling in a minibus. There was a remote-controlled bomb on the road. They struck the bomb," Daman district governor Sarajuddin Khan told AFP.
The US military has said the increasingly sophisticated devices killed 322 coalition soldiers and wounded 1,813 in 2009 -- double the number in the previous 12 months.
The UN has said that most civilian deaths -- 2,412 last year -- were caused by Taliban bombs and suicide attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2010 00:00 ||
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Mine clearers? Were they clearing old Soviet mines?
Posted by: American Delight ||
04/12/2010 6:40 Comments ||
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An AP article out there about a different 4 Afghan civilians also killed - their bus was pulled off waiting for an American convoy to pass when all of a sudden, for no reason, as the 3rd or 4th vehicle passed shooting broke out and raked the bus. "Within hours, scores of Afghans had blocked the main highway out of Kandahar city with burning tires, chanting "Death to America," and calling for the downfall of Afghan President Hamid Karzai."
Given our ROE and fire discipline, this story smells like either Taliban opened fire from (or from behind) the bus in order to induce return fire, or actually shot up the bus themselves.
#3
NPR had a bit about Glenmore's story, unless there was another bus shooting yesterday. It seems the bus came speeding up to the convoy from behind. The driver refused to slow down despite shouts and warning shots from the Americans. There was no place to go around, as there were ravines or something on either side of the road... so in self-defence the Americans did what they had to in order to stop the bus before it plowed into them (that last bit was unmentioned by the NPR reporter). I apologize because I can't find the story on the NPR website, but I heard it on the radio about noon.
[Bangla Daily Star] Two outlaws were killed in "shootouts" with police in Kushtia and Chuadanga early yesterday.
Of them, Alamgir Hossain, 36, is a top cadre of outlawed Gono Mukti Fouz (GMF) in Kushtia while Ferdous Ali, 45, is from outlawed Purba Bangla Communist Party (PBCP) in Chuadanga.
Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of Kushtia police and Detective Branch of police raided an orchard at Alampur village of sadar upazila. A group of GMF cadres were holding a meeting there around 3:00am.
As the law enforcers cordoned off the orchard, the outlaws opened fire on them. Alamgir came in the line of fire when the policemen fired back, and died on the spot.
Police said Alamgir, of Bottail village under sadar upazila in the district, was accused in six cases including four for murders and two for extortion.
An LG gun, two locally made bombs and four bullets were recovered from the scene after the shootout.
In Chuadanga, PBCP cadre Ferdous Ali was shot dead at Kaliabkari under Damurhuda upazila.
Damurhuda police said a patrol team spotted a group of people around 2:30am on Kaliabkari playground.
As the police team challenged the gang, they hurled bombs and opened fire on police. When the police retaliated, Ferdous sustained severe injuries.
He was taken to Damurhuda Upazila Health Complex where doctors declared him dead at about 3:45am.
Five police personnel including three officer of Chuadanga Police Station were also injured in the gunfight. They are Sub-Inspector Niaz and Daud, ASI Samim and constable Sufian and Shamim.
The police said Ferdous was an accused in five cases including two for murders.
Ferdous was also involved in a bomb attack on police on April 7 in Natudah bazaar area, they said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2010 00:00 ||
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Those orchards sure are hazardous places for cadres. They should put up warning signs or something.
No worries, they all drive cabs. Or they're bricklayers. Perhaps they teach math and science at the local schools. Honorable folks every one.
Federal authorities say they're certain nearly 300 Somalis allegedly smuggled into the United States by a Virginia man who admitted contacts with an Islamic terrorist group are in the country, but they can't find them despite a worldwide search for leads.
The search, first reported by the Washington Examiner, started in early February after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Anthony Joseph Tracy on charges that he helped smuggle the Somalis into the United States from Kenya. The 35-year-old has since been indicted on charges of conspiring with Cuban Embassy officials in Kenya to help the Somalis illegally enter the United States. ICE Agent Thomas Eyre has testified that authorities are "concerned" about the contact Tracy admitted having with the Somali terrorist organization Al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda ally.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema questioned Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeanine Linehan about the status of the government's search for the illegal immigrants.
"We have not identified anyone," Linehan said. "We believe all the individuals are present in the United States. But by the virtue of [Tracy's] successful smuggling scheme, we are having difficulty finding them."
Eyre indicated in his testimony that authorities are trying to determine whether any of the Somalis are associated with Al-Shabaab. Nah, can't be, they're all economists. Or work at the local nursing home as assistants. Perhaps they're farmers.
In a court filing, Linehan said agents and prosecutors have "issued numerous subpoenas, reviewed Department of Homeland Security records, and conducted witness interviews throughout the United States, as well as in Australia and Africa."
According to court documents, Tracy helped the Somalis move to the United States by getting them travel visas to Cuba through contacts he had at the Cuban Embassy in Kenya. Tracy's attorney declined comment for this story.
The Somalis are believed to have entered the United States through the border with Mexico after making a circuitous trip from Kenya to Dubai to Moscow to Cuba to South America then to Mexico and northward, Eyre testified.
In March, federal prosecutors requested an extra month to indict Tracy because of investigation delays caused by the February snowstorms that battered Washington. Even with the indictment now in hand, Brinkema said the government's case could be "shaky" without authorities locating the Somalis.
Tracy has been held without bail and his case has been scheduled for trial on May 17.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2010 13:33 ||
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The Somalis are believed to have entered the United States through the border with Mexico after making a circuitous trip from Kenya to Dubai to Moscow to Cuba to South America then to Mexico and northward, Eyre testified.
This is how you lose confidence in your government. The officials who are charged with enforcing the law and protecting the citizens are derelict in their duty on a regular basis. It's not just an occasional failure, it's a chronic failure to make even a credible attempt to do the right thing. They want to spend trillions of dollars that they don't have on things that we don't want or trying to do things that they should not do. But they won't do the things that they are charged by the Constitution to do. The only plausible explanation that comes to me is that they are all crooked.
#2
Agreed, EU. And how can they track the whole route from Kenya to Mexico but lose them in the US? Probably practicing with the machetes at Swift, carving beef.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Pakistani troops backed by helicopter gunships have bombed militant positions in the restive northwest tribal belt, killing 13 and injuring several others.
According to Pakistani officials, the troops pounded three militant hideouts in the Orakzai tribal district on Sunday.
The assault came a day after at least 45 militants were killed during the operation by security forces in Teera Valley area of Khyber.
Pakistani military has recently launched a series of operations in an effort to stem the militants from the troubled tribal zone.
Khyber agency is the main supply route for NATO troops through Pakistan into Afghanistan.
The Orakzai Agency, one of the country's 'Federally Administered Tribal Areas', is believed to be a stronghold of pro-Taliban militants.
Over 3,500 people have been killed in bombings and other attacks by militants throughout Pakistan since July 2007.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Police said gunmen attacked a police patrol in northwestern Pakistan, killing one officer and wounding two others.
Local police official Jawed Khan said the gunmen ambushed the police before dawn Sunday as they were traveling in a van across a bridge in the town of Mardan.
Khan said authorities also found the body of a second police officer at a checkpoint several kilometers from the ambush site. The officer's throat had been cut.
Mardan is located in North West Frontier Province, an area where the military has battled a persistent Taliban insurgency.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2010 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Sixty civilians were killed and as many sustained injuries when fighter jets bombed Sra Vella in Jamrud Tehsil's Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency on Saturday, local sources said.
However, official sources claimed 35 militants were killed when jets hit their hideouts in the valley.
The injured were shifted to hospitals in Jamrud and Peshawar through the difficult hilly areas and most of them succumbed to their injuries on the way, the sources said.
Tribal sources said two fighter jets dropped heavy bombs on the house of Hameed Gul in the Sra Vella area in Tirah Valley around 10:00am. As a result, the house was turned into rubble and three children and two women were killed.
"After 10 minutes of the bombardment when the villagers and labourers working on nearby water channel approached the house to retrieve the bodies, the fighter jets again bombed the house killing and injuring more than 150 people," Sadiq Khan, an injured and eyewitness, told this scribe in the Civil Hospital Jamrud.
He said all those killed and injured, including women, in the bombardment were from Kokikhel, a sub-tribe of Afridis and were innocent people having no links with the militants.
Some of the slain tribesmen included a tribal elder, Said Noor, Khana Baan, Taweez Gul, Shaoor Baaz, Bismillah Khan, Amrat, Aman Shah, Tor Jan, Mahabat Khan, Daulat Khan, Khalid, Asadullah, Shakirullah, Khair Muhammad, Aziz, Umer Khan, Abid Khan, Khalid, Zahoor, Saeed, Qari Asadullah, Khanzeb, Waheel, Sabeel, Subedar Samandar Khan, Zahoor and Malik Jan.
"We are neither associated with the Taliban nor the militant group Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) then why security forces killed my son," Ameen Jan, the father of Saeed, told this scribe while carrying a coffin for his son in Jamrud Bazaar.
He said the house which was bombarded by fighter jets was owned by three brothers Sher Mat Khan, who is a soldier in the Pakistan Army, and Yarmat Khan and Qimat Khan, who are serving in the Shawal Rifles in the paramilitary Frontier Corps.
He expressed surprise that the military authorities did not know that security forces pounded and destroyed the house of their own soldiers.
Meanwhile, security forces claimed that 35 militants were killed when jets pounded their hideouts in Fasht Killay, Maharaba Tapo and Dowa areas in Tirah Valley early in the day. The sources said the area is considered to be the stronghold of the LI.
Security forces had been carrying out airstrikes against the hideouts of militants of the Mangal Bagh-led LI and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency for the last seven months.
It was the first time that fighter jets carried out bombardment in the Kokikhel area of Jamrud Tehsil.
The residents of Jamrud Tehsil resented the bombardment and asked the government to bring to justice those responsible for the killing of innocent people. They said innocent people were killed and maimed but the authorities were claiming to have eliminated militants.
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Three brothers who were members of the US-allied Sahwa "Sons of Iraq" militia that helped tame the nation's insurgency were killed when a roadside bomb engulfed their car on Sunday, officials said.
The incident, in which a fourth brother was wounded, occurred around 10:00 am (0700 GMT) in Adhaim in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, said a security official who confirmed the men were Sahwa fighters.
A hospital official in the provincial capital Baquba said three brothers had died and a fourth was hurt.
Diyala, which is ethnically and religiously mixed, still sees sporadic attacks despite security improvements elsewhere in Iraq.
The Sahwa (Awakening) movement, known as the "Sons of Iraq" by the US army, joined American and Iraqi forces in 2006 and 2007 to fight Al-Qaeda and its supporters, leading to a dramatic fall in violence across the country.
Control of the Sahwa passed to Iraq last October, and for the past year their wages -- said to have been cut from 300 dollars under US leadership to 100 dollars -- have been paid, often late, by the Shiite-led government.
Recent months have seen a series of apparent revenge attacks on Sahwa members, leaving dozens dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2010 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] The Gaza Electricity Company transferred 3 million US dollars to the Palestinian Authority treasury in Ramallah on Sunday, after Palestinian factions met to discuss the means to bring an end to blackouts experienced across the Gaza Strip.
Yasser Al-Wadiyah, independent politician representative, announced the transfer, saying it "was agreed on [during the meeting] to transfer the appropriate fees, collected from [Gaza] residents to the PA in Ramallah."
The official told Ma'an the meeting included all Palestinian factions and independent figures, as well as various heads, board members, directors and representatives of the private sector in Gaza and NGOs.
"The meeting was held to discuss the means of getting the [electricity] situation back to normal and provide the power plant with the needed industrial fuel to avoid similar crises that would harm the health and education sectors," Al-Wadiyah said.
Meanwhile, head of PR at the Gaza Electricity Company, Jamal Ad-Dardasawi, said fuel transfers for Gaza's sole power station had resumed, with three truckloads carrying 220,000 liters of diesel permitted into the besieged coastal enclave via its southern crossing wit Israel, Kerem Shalom.
This fuel transfer will be spread over five days, with 1,100,100 liters fuel to be delivered within a week, Ad-Dardasawi said. The Israeli permits the maxim entry of 2,200,000 liters into Gaza, he added. "This is only enough to operate one out of four generators in the plant."
The power station will be able to provide residents in the districts most affected by the fuel shortage with up to eight hours of electricity, instead of the current six hours of power and 12 hours of blackouts, he added.
Shortages have plagued the power plant since December 2009, when European Union officials handed over responsibility for fuel transfers to the Palestinian Authority, apparently at the PA's request so EU aid could be channeled into civil servant salaries. Ever since the handover, as well as the corresponding closure of the main fuel transfer terminal at Nahal Oz, fuel imports have fallen to 50 percent of recent capacity.
"This [the latest transfer] is insufficient and is not a way out of this major crisis faced by Gaza residents, but it is a step in the right direction, as it amends the electricity distribution to districts that are enveloped in darkness," said Ad-Dardasawi
"I hope that the appropriate circumstances are created to increase the amount of fuel allowed in for the power plant to guarantee that at least two generators are functioning, to meet the residents' power needs," he said, expecting an increase in use over the summer.
The sole power generator in the Gaza Strip was completely closed down on Saturday, the head of the electric company announced, following a day of unheeded warnings that a humanitarian crisis was at hand.
Walid Sa'd Sayel, who also heads the Gaza power plant's board of directors, the energy crisis "catastrophic," insisting that relevant authorities "rescue the Gazans, who are human beings first and foremost, and they rely on power as much as they need water and air. Without action, we face a humanitarian disaster of unprecedented scale."
Shortly after the announcement, both the PA and the Gaza government launched accusations at each other over responsibility for Gaza's ongoing fuel shortage, with Hamas alleging the Ramallah-based leadership had used EU funds intended for diesel transfers to increase civil servants' salaries.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
So the whole thing was about Hamas having to pay their Gaza fuel bills? And it was the PA sitting astride the pipe?
No money no fuel? The Jews originally made the business arrangement with the PA for the transfer of fuel and that deal is still in place and it was at that time up to the PA to DISTRIBUTE the Fuel appropriately and now Hamas is in control of Gaza and they dont get their fuel DIRECTLY from the Jews, they have to get it through their ever so very dear friends in the PA? Because when the deal was ORIGINALLY made the Jews piped the stuff to a PA distributor...
And now Hamas has to CO-OPERATE with PA to turn on the lights in GAZA. And it wasnt the Jews fault that PA and Hamas couldnt agree on WHO pays the bills on time.
I just will bet that Hamas had to suck hard and smile with its mouth full on this little situation.
Hamas had to ante or sit in the dark. And there was nuthin' they could do about it but kiss the pig's hiney and be told "do it like you mean it."
It must be so wonderful to be a Palestinian. Wouldnt you just love to be a Palestinian?
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.
[Bangla Daily Star] Two outlaws were killed in "shootouts" with police in Kushtia and Chuadanga early yesterday. 
