An Afghan-international force captured a Taliban commander in Zabul province last night. The commander is responsible for coordinating and assisting in attacks against Afghan and international forces and has also been involved in the procurement and emplacement of improvised explosive devices.
Posted by: ed ||
06/18/2010 10:27 ||
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Fourteen of about 40 Pakistani soldiers who went missing after a militant attack on a security checkpost this week have been found in Afghanistan and flown home by helicopter, military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas told Daily Times on Thursday. Afghan authorities handed over the 14 Frontier Corps soldiers to the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad city. The 14 soldiers include five who were handed over to the consulate in Jalalabad on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2010 00:00 ||
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[Quqnoos] Scores of insurgents were killed Wednesday in an operation conducted by the Afghan and coalition forces in southern Afghanistan
A spokesman for the 505 Spinghar zone, Muhammad Osman Yari, said the operation was conducted on Wednesday morning in an effort to wipe out Taliban militants in Surobi and Komal districts of the southern Paktika province.
"Thirty eight armed anti-government insurgents were killed in a joint operation launched by the coalition forces and the Afghan police," said Mr. Yari in an interview with Quqnoos.
Police forces and civilians haven't been vulnerable in the push, he said.
The deaths come as NATO forces are on the verge of escalating their offensives in southern Afghanistan to drive Taliban from their untouched strongholds.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2010 00:00 ||
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SPECIAL forces troops had ''ripped the heart out'' of a powerful insurgent group in a battle in southern Afghanistan, the commander of Australian forces in the Middle East said.
The battle occurred during a five-day operation in Kandahar province, where Australian commandos and Special Air Service soldiers are taking part in what the NATO-led coalition hopes will be a decisive push against insurgent strongholds over the next few weeks.
Major-General John Cantwell said the Australian troops and their Afghan counterparts had routed a group of well-trained and well-armed fighters, many of whom are believed to have trained in Pakistan. Major-General Cantwell told the Herald, ''It stands out as one of the most significant military actions our blokes have been involved in for many years,'' adding that the area was important because it was close to Kandahar, an insurgent haven, and it controlled approaches to Oruzgan province, where most of Australia's 1500 troops are stationed.
Continued on Page 49
Babelfish with a hat tip to Nota Roja for the additional information.
Mexican Federal agents raided a criminal safe house in Juarez Wednesday, netting the arrest of eight men accused of kidnapping an freeing two women, according to Mexican news accounts.
A police unit of SecretarÃa de Seguridad Pública Federal (PSF) which specializes in kidnapping cases raided the residence near the intersection of calles de Francisco Märquez y Norberto Hernändez, in the Melchor Ocampo district.
The group of criminals in the operation were known as The Reds.
Rogelio Morales Barrientos, 28, an Juarez ex-police officer and leader of the group was arrested.
Also, among the arrested were Javier Ribota Talavera, the owner of the house, Felipe Arellano Gonzälez 44, an active Juarez municipal police agent, Yolanda Rueda Romän, 45, his wife and Daniel Gonzälez, one of the police officer's sons who police say provided security for the safe house. Police also detained Paula Gonzälez, the couple's presumed daughter.
Reports are the two unidentified victims rescued, 20 and 14, were apparently raped during their captivity. The victims were kidnapped June 13th.
Police also seized two sedans and a Jeep SUV, seven cell phones and about 2,000 pesos in cash.
Thirteen people died in northern Mexico in drug and gang related violence, including a gun battle involving the Mexican Army in Tamaulipas and three young soccer players in Juarez. According to Mexican news reports a total of 24 people were killed in gang related violence in 24 hours in Juarez Wednesday.
The attackers also shot up the front of the state offices to supress response of police agents in the building befofre fleeing from the scene.
Three unidentified young people were shot to death and two more were wounded while playing soccer in a late Wednesday night attack in Juarez, say Mexican news accounts. The attack took place at about 2336 hrs near the intersection of calles Arroyo Norte and Nopales Norte in the Colinas del Norte district of Juarez.
A man was found shot to death Thursday morning in southeast Juarez, according to Mexican news reports. Juan Carlos Delgado Patiño, 30, was found on the highway to Porvenir in San Agustin near the Los Arenales district. He had been shot four times.
An unidentified man was shot riding his bicycle in Juarez Thursday, according to Mexican news accounts. The attack took place near the intersection of calles Acapulco and Municipio Libre in the Melchor Ocampo district. Investigators at the scene say a 9mm weapons was used in the attack.
Witnesses say the victim was a car washer.
Two men were shot to death at an auto body shop in Juarez Thursday, say Mexican news accounts. Gerardo Jesús Chäirez, 45, thought to be the proprietor of the shop and another unidentified man were found near the intersection of calles Zihuatanejo and Rafael Velarde in the Galeana district.
A package delivery company and its employees were robbed of packages and personal belongings in an armed robbery Wednesday night in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, say Mexican news accounts. Witnesses say five hooded armed suspects carrying assault rifles entered the Carssa package delivery company at about 1900 hrs near the intersection of calles 14 and Justiniani in the San Rafael district.
The suspects took a number of packages said to be bound for Juarez, then forced employees to the ground, and then forced them to give up personal belongings. A few minutes after the robbers left, employees called police. Chihuahua state police is said to be investigating the robbery.
A former head of Transit Police in Guaymas, Sonora and a taxi cab driver were found dead early Thursday morning, say Mexican news accounts. Juliän Mendoza GarcÃa, 65, was found in the Rodolfo Sänchez Taboada indistrial park not far from the abandoned cab. The cab driver is unidentified.
The translation makes it unclear how he and the driver were killed.
An unidentified man was shot Mexican Army to death by elements of the Mexican Army in Tamaulipas, say Mexican news reports.
The confrontation occurred at Km. Marker 190 on the Miguel Alemän to Nuevo Laredo highway when elements of the Mexican 4th Military Zone came upon a group of men who open fired on the military unit. Return fire killed one suspect. About 200 kilograms of marijuana were seized following the gunfight.
Two unidentified men were shot to death in separate crimes in Juarez, according to the Mexican news daily La Polaka. The first shooting took place near the intersection of calles Rosales and Madera in the Anähuac district inside the kitchen of a private residence.
The second murder took place inside a grocery store near the intersection of calles Alamogordo and Calexico in the Parajes del Sur district.
Federal prosecutors added another terrorism charge yesterday against a Sudbury man and a former Mansfield man who allegedly traveled to Yemen in a failed attempt to join a terrorist camp and then plotted to shoot shoppers at a suburban mall before scrapping the plan.
Tarek Mehanna, 27, of Sudbury, and Ahmad Abousamra, 28, who lived in Mansfield but is believed to be in Syria, were each charged in a new indictment with one count of conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, namely Al Qaeda, according to US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz. The two had previously been charged in a 10-count indictment with providing and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to provide false information to law enforcement officials, and several counts of providing false statements to law enforcement.
Although the new charge mentions support of a designated foreign terrorist organization, prosecutors had previously alleged that the men had sought to aid Al Qaeda since 2001.
Mehanna, a 2008 graduate of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, was arrested Oct. 21 and has been held since then. His Boston lawyer, J.W. Carney Jr., was not available for comment yesterday.
Prosecutors allege that Mehanna and his friend Abousamra traveled to Yemen and tried to join a terrorist training camp but were rejected. The two then plotted to shoot shoppers, but abandoned the plan because they could not get automatic weapons, prosecutors allege. They are also accused, but not charged, with plotting to kill two unidentified government officials.
If convicted of material support charges, the most serious offenses, each man faces up to 15 years in prison.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Guantanamo detainee Ibrahim al-Qussi concluded a deal with the United States, in which he will confess to his crimes in return for easing the sentence to be enacted against him, Al Arabiya reporter said on Thursday.
The Sudanese al-Qussi, who is also known as 'Bin Laden's Cook', is accused of links with al-Qaeda terrorist group and planning terrorist attacks against U.S. troops. He has been detained in Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba since 2002.
According to Al Arabiya reporter, the details of the deal haven't been declared yet, but it will include an easing of his punishment in return of his confessions.
In case the deal was implemented, it would be the first of its kind since the start of U.S. President Barack Obama's presidential term.
Al-Qussi's pre-trial hearing, scheduled for next week, has been postponed until a final decision is taken regarding the deal.
This article starring:
Ibrahim al-Qussi
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2010 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] A tribal clash in the limits of the Ghouspur Police Station claimed the lives of four minors and an adult and injured four persons here on Wednesday.
Police said that armed persons of the Aughoha tribe attacked the Bhindo Malik village with sophisticated weapons, which resulted in the death of four minor children identified as Farhan, Ashiq, Nadeem and Abdul Aziz. Mst Mukhtiar, Mullan and Mukhtiar Malik were injured.
The attackers fled from the scene of the incident. Later, hundreds of villagers came out on the roads as a sign of protest, blocking the National Highway connecting Shikarpur and Jacobabad. Sources said that the mob blazed Karam Pur Police Post and added that the police resorted to baton-charge, tear gas and firing to disperse the protestors. During the action, two villagers, identified as Abdul Latif Malik and Dhani Bakhsh, were seriously injured. The former succumbed to his injuries.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2010 00:00 ||
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Indian security forces killed 12 Maoists, including three women, in the latest of a series of raids against rebel strongholds in the east of country, officials said on Thursday.
The government launched a major offensive last year to tackle the worsening left-wing insurgency, but since then the Maoists have hit back with bloody strikes including the massacre of 76 policemen in April. The latest rebel deaths occurred late Wednesday when commandos and paramilitary special forces acting on a tip-off targeted about 45 Maoists gathered in a village in the Midnapore district of West Bengal state.
"This was a major success. We found eight bodies and we have information that four more bodies were carried away by the Maoists, while many more were injured," director general of police Bhupinder Singh told reporters in Kolkata.
"When the Maoists opened fire, the forces retaliated," he said. A Maoist spokesman speaking to local media from an undisclosed location confirmed the attack but said only five rebels from the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army -- an armed wing of the Maoists -- had died.
As part of the same government operation in Midnapore district, security forces killed eight Maoists on Tuesday, while on Monday in neighbouring Jharkhand state 10 rebels were killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Commies
#1
Posted by: john frum ||
06/18/2010 6:14 Comments ||
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#2
And when we say there is *absolutely* no cannibalism in the Indian Army, we mean there is not very much.
Even with this Iraq is safer than northern Mexico ...
DIALA / Aswat al-Iraq: Two policemen were killed and three others wounded in an attack with an improvised explosive device (IED) that targeted their headquarters in eastern Diala province on Thursday, according to a local official.
"An IED went off near al-Quds police station in al-Mukhisa village, Abi Saida, al-Muqdadiya district, (45 km) east of Baaquba, leaving two policemen killed and three others injured," Awwad al-Rubaie, a member of the Abi Saida municipal council, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
A security source, who spoke to Aswat al-Iraq on customary condition of anonymity, confirmed the incident and its details.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Al-Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate claimed responsibility on Thursday for an attack by gunmen and suicide bombers on Iraq's central bank, in which at least 15 people died. The attack on Sunday triggered a 90-minute gun-battle in the heart of the Iraqi capital, a day before parliament sat for the first time since a March election that produced no clear winner.
National Security Minister, Sherwan al-Waeli, told Reuters the attack was not a robbery, adding that it involved 15 gunmen, including seven suicide bombers.
In a statement published on jihadist websites on Thursday, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) said it was behind the "unique" attack, which was carried out by five men.
"The Bank was targeted because it is the artery that feeds the Satanic alliance with life via oil money and the stolen wealth of Muslims," said the statement.
And because the ISI needed money ...
A number of attacks since the election, which has yet to produce a government, have been blamed on an effort by Islamist insurgents linked to al-Qaeda to prove it remains a potent force despite the loss of senior commanders.
Overall violence in Iraq has dropped since the sectarian carnage in 2006/07, but bombings and shootings are still common.
Insurgents continue to pose a threat as the United States moves ahead with a plan to end combat operations in August and cut troop numbers from around 85,000 to 50,000 by Sept. 1, before a complete withdrawal by the end of 2011.
Also on Thursday, an anti-al-Qaeda fighter and four family members were killed as they slept in their garden to escape the heat in a former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, officials said. It was the second attack against Sunni figures who have turned against the terror network in as many days.
Gunmen broke into the house of Khudr al-Issawi and opened fire on him and his family during the pre-dawn attack in a village near Fallujah, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad. The farmer, his wife, two daughters and a son were killed, according to local police chief Brig. Gen. Mahmoud al-Issawi. Another son was wounded.
The police chief, who blamed al-Qaeda in Iraq, said the slain man was a member of one of the local government-backed Sunni militias known as Awakening Councils in the village of Fhelat. The groups helped changed the course of the war when they revolted against al-Qaeda and joined the Americans in late 2006 and 2007.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2010 00:00 ||
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An Islamic militant group on Friday claimed responsibility for firing five mortar shells at an Israeli army force in southern Gaza Strip, after the force rolled into the area.
Al-Quds Brigades, armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, said in a leaflet sent to reporters that its militants confronted the invading Israeli army force with five mortar shells. "Our fighters confronted the army force as soldiers tried to infiltrate into the area near Kissufim gate on the borders between southern Gaza Strip and Israel, where the soldiers forced to pull back," said the leaflet.
An Israeli army response was not immediately available. However, local sources and eyewitnesses said that the Israeli army force tried to sneak into an area east of the town of al-Gararah, east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip. They said they heard explosions and gunshots, but no injuries were reported from both sides.
Meanwhile, Israel on Friday closed down all Gaza Strip commercial crossing points, according to Raed Fatouh, the Palestinian liaison officer for goods entry into Gaza, adding that the crossings will be also closed on Saturday.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Israel on Thursday approved a plan to ease its blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip following weeks of international pressure, but provided few details on what new goods would be allowed in.
The security cabinet's decision was a response to mounting international calls to ease the four-year blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory in the wake of a deadly May 31 raid on a fleet of aid ships.
Under the plan, Israel would "liberalize the system by which civilian goods enter Gaza (and) expand the inflow of materials for civilian projects that are under international supervision," the government said in a brief statement.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel would maintain its naval blockade and inspect all goods entering by land.
"The intention is to ensure that more goods can enter, but always after an Israeli check, which will ensure that there is no weaponry, no arms and no materials which could be used for warfare," he said in a statement.
Hamas swiftly rejected the move, which senior leader Ismail Radwan dismissed as an attempt to "relieve the pressure" on Israel following the flotilla incident.
"We in Hamas reject the Zionist decision, which is an attempt to obscure the international decision to completely lift the siege," he told AFP.
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority also rejected the move, with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat calling it a "public relations ploy."
"President Mahmoud Abbas demands the complete lifting of the siege on the Gaza Strip," he told AFP. "He believes there are no partial solutions."
The European Union, meanwhile, welcomed the Israeli decision.
"We're looking with great interest to what the Israeli cabinet has said this morning," top EU diplomat Catherine Ashton said, adding that she hoped it would allow "many more products" to enter Gaza.
But France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters: "It is the first major progress since the crisis began. But it is not enough."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2010 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] ONE of the suspected Muslim militants who kidnapped an elderly Swiss man was shot dead in the southern Philippines hours after their hostage was rescued, police said on Thursday.
Pursuing policemen shot at three suspected abductors of 72-year-old Carl Rieth late on Wednesday, killing one while two others escaped, said Senior Superintendent Edwin Ocampo.
'The operations against the other kidnappers will continue. We still have people in the area,' said Mr Ocampo, police chief of Zamboanga city near where the shootout occurred. The three suspects were waiting for a boat so they could escape to the nearby island of Basilan when police caught up with them, said Mr Ocampo, adding that a pistol was recovered from the dead man.
Police tracked the three suspects after recovering a weakened, haggard Mr Rieth in a coastal village near Zamboanga before dawn on Wednesday.
At least eight heavily armed men snatched Mr Rieth, a businessman and long-time resident of Zamboanga, from his beachfront home on April 4. The kidnappers abandoned their hostage when they saw a rescue team closing in, the military said on Wednesday.
The police and military had insisted that no ransom was paid for Mr Rieth. It could not be determined if the dead suspect was a member of any Muslim rebel group, said Mr Ocampo.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Britain
#1
Beachfront property in Zamboanga
Beachfront property not what it used to be.
It could not be determined if the dead suspect was a member of any Muslim rebel group, said Mr Ocampo.
Belonging to a specific rebel muslim group doesn't seem to be a requirement for violence--just any old muslim group seems to be the price of admission to violence.
[Straits Times] ISLAMIC extremists led by a deported Syrian scholar with suspected ties to Al-Qaeda were planning to blow up houses of worship in Malaysia, a government-linked newspaper reported on Thursday.
The New Straits Times said Aiman Al Dakak, 45, was among nine foreigners including Syrians, Yemenis, Nigerians and a Jordanian deported in April, most of them students.
According to previous Malaysian reports, 10 foreign terror suspects had been deported. Police and home ministry officials had no immediate comment on the latest report.
The NST did not specify which 'houses of worship' were allegedly targeted by the group but said they were located in the states of Penang and Selangor. The foreigners and their local associates felt that Malaysia, which is 60 per cent Muslim, was losing its identity as an Islamic country, the report said.
It said Aiman was also trying to revive the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) by attracting new members from Malaysian universities.
The paper reported that Aiman, who is fluent in Arabic and English, gave lectures to both local and foreign students at his home, indoctrinating them with jihadist ideology and urging them to carry out the bombings.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2010 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.