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Showing posts from February 14, 2010

Taliban ammunition 'running low'

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Source: BBC News Troops are due to push into south-west Marjah in the coming days Taliban militants battling coalition troops in Marjah, Afghanistan, are running out of ammunition, Nato officials say. A BBC correspondent in Kandahar says that from eavesdropping on Taliban communications, Nato understands militants have called for support. On Wednesday, an Afghan general said Taliban fighters were increasingly using civilians as "human shields". The Afghan-Nato offensive in Helmand province is now in its sixth day. Operation Moshtarak, meaning "together" in the Dari language, is the biggest coalition offensive since the Taliban fell in 2001. Nato officers told BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner in Kandahar that the resistance they were currently encountering was coming from small, disjointed but determined groups of fighters. Protecting Marjah In the next few days, US Marines and Afghan government troops are due to push into sout

Editorial : Redefining 'support' of terrorism

Source: LA TIMES  The Supreme Court should clarify a U.S. law so that those seeking to counsel groups to abandon terrorism won't be prosecuted. When most Americans hear that it's illegal to supply "material support" to foreign terrorist groups, they probably assume that the prohibition involves financial or technical support -- sending money to pay for hijackers' air fares or providing wiring for a bomb (or advice about how to use it). In fact, the law also seems to prohibit residents of this country from trying to talk political movements out of terrorism or counseling them on how to bring their grievances before international bodies. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will be asked to invalidate those sections of the law. It can and should do so without undermining the primary purpose of the law. At issue in the case is language in the law, which was revised in 2004, that makes it a crime to aid a group on the secretary of State's list of terrorist organi

Terrorism: The Most Meaningless and Manipulated Word

Published on Friday, February 19, 2010 by Salon.com     by Glenn Greenwald Yesterday, Joseph Stack deliberately flew an airplane into a building housing IRS offices in Austin, Texas, in order to advance the political grievances he outlined in a perfectly cogent suicide-manifesto .  Stack's worldview contained elements of the tea party's anti-government anger along with substantial populist complaints generally associated with "the Left"  (rage over bailouts, the suffering of America's poor, and the pilfering of the middle class by a corrupt economic elite and their government-servants).  All of that was accompanied by an argument as to why violence was justified (indeed necessary) to protest those injustices: I remember reading about the stock market crash before the "great" depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything.

Pakistan air strike 'kills 30' in South Waziristan

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Source: BBC NEWS   Pakistan says the South Waziristan area is a haven for militants At least 30 militants have been killed in Pakistani air strike near the Afghan border, the military says. It says a militant "hideout" was hit in the Shawal mountains of South Waziristan, following a tip-off. The army launched an offensive in South Waziristan last October to root out militants blamed for bombings. The offensive was closely monitored by Pakistan's Nato allies in Afghanistan, who say the area is a haven for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Pakistan's government said the operation had been completed in December, but fighting in the area has continued. "The hideout in Shawal was targeted after we were tipped off that terrorists were hiding in the mountains," said a military spokesman. The strike came 10 days after Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's top Afghan military commander, was captured in Karachi.

Naxal ‘revenge attack’ leaves 11 Bihar villagers dead

Source: The Indian Express Friday , Feb 19, 2010 at 0107 hrs As many as 11 villagers, including a child, were killed when a group of over 200 Naxalites attacked a village in Jamui late on Wednesday night. The Left wing extremists resorted to heavy firing for over 90 minutes on the hapless villagers, reportedly in retaliation to alleged killing of eight Maoists by the villagers a fortnight ago. Though the incident is not linked to Centre’s Operation Green Hunt, the attack in Naxal-infested Jamui, bordering Giridih in Jharkhand, might well have given a strong  message to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who recently chose not to attend a high-level meeting called by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in Kolkata. On Thursday, Kumar said the police had been asked to be on extra alert in Naxalite-hit districts, but refused to commit on any crackdown against the extremists. “The incident seems to be purely out of revenge though we have no proof of these villagers killing

Market bomb, US missiles kill 20 in Pakistan

Source: ABC Posted 9 hours 11 minutes ago A bomb attack and a US missile strike killed 20 people in north-west Pakistan as Islamabad raised fresh concerns about knock-on instability from a major US-led offensive in Afghanistan. The bomb exploded in a market controlled by Islamist militants in Khyber, which is part of a NATO supply route to troops in Afghanistan and has been branded an Al Qaeda headquarters by Washington. A militant commander and 15 others were killed in the explosion in the village of Dars in the Upper Tirah valley. The blast also damaged a mosque and some shops, leading security officials to suspect it might result from a feud between rival Islamist factions. In total 16 people were killed and more than 20 injured, a local security official said. A witness who runs a private telephone exchange in the area told AFP: "It was a huge blast. I saw 16 dead bodies. I saw a lot of injured people lying on the ground." Azam Khan, a deputy leader of the Lashkar-e

Politics of terrorism By Kuldip Nayar Friday, 19 Feb, 2010

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Source: The dawn Firefighters examine the site of a bomb blast at the German Bakery restaurant in Pune. —Reuters A couple of years ago when President Bush visited New Delhi he pointed towards Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to say that here was a person who had no Taliban in his country. This was not really true even at that time. The then security advisor, M.K. Narayanan, said that he had his fingers crossed because the terrorists could strike anywhere, at any time. Yet what was apparent was that the terrorists came from outside and that India had no sleeper cells inside. At least, that was the impression. A bomb blast in Pune a few days ago, has confirmed that Indian sleeper cells are very much there. They call themselves the Indian Mujahideen to distinguish themselves from militants in Pakistan. I suspect that New Delhi knew about their presence even when the terrorists attacked Mumbai in November 2008. But the government considered it prudent not to mention the

Yemen rebels hand over two Saudi soldiers

Source: Reuters Fri, Feb 19 01:43 AM Yemeni Shi'ite rebels handed over two captive Saudi soldiers via Yemeni authorities on Thursday as part of efforts to end a long-running conflict in northern provinces bordering Saudi Arabia, a government official said. A Saudi defence ministry spokesman said the two men "were exhausted but in decent shape. Assistant Defence Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan welcomed them at Riyadh's military base." Riyadh, sucked into the fighting with rebels in November, had said returning the soldiers would help prove their captors were serious about ending their conflict with Saudi Arabia. "We don't know anything about the two remaining (Saudi) prisoners. We will not rest until we recover them," the spokesman said. The Houthi insurgents, named after their leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, offered Riyadh a truce last month and released one Saudi soldier earlier this week. The Saudi Interior Ministry is holding 500 "infiltrato

Twilight of the suicide bomber

Source: Hindustan Times Wed, Feb 17 10:15 AM Kabul, Feb. 17 -- The Taliban's suicide bombers have been selling their lives cheaply of late. From January 24 to February 14, 17 suicide bombers took aim at coalition members but failed to kill any of them, according to reports from Afghan police and military officials. ISAF officials credit better training of Afghan forces, and disruption of the bomb-makers' networks by NATO-led raids. Analysts say the Taliban no longer have foreign expertise in preparing suicide bombers, and have a hard time finding competent recruits in a society that until recent years had little history of suicide attacks. Hindustan Times

Maoists target another Indian hydro-power project in Nepal

Source: Hindustan times Wed, Feb 17 11:05 AM Kathmandu, Feb. 16 -- Maoists in Nepal have stopped survey work on a hydro-power project being developed by an Indian firm. This is the fourth major power project targeted by the country's main opposition party. On Monday members of Tamu Rashtriya Mukti Morcha affiliated to UCPN (Maoist) stopped survey work on 250 MW Upper Marsyangdi project being developed by GMR Group in the western development region. Terming the project as against the interests of Nepal, president of the outfit and Constituent Assembly member Amar Tamu stated that the firm failed to consult local residents before starting work. The GMR Group has acquired 80 percent stake in Himtal Hydropower Company, a Nepali company developing the project. The project is expected to be commissioned in 2016. Reports quoting project director Dilip Kumar Singh stated that work on the project has not yet begun and 90 percent work on the detailed project report has been completed wit

Soldiers storm presidential palace in Niger

Source: The Indian Express Fri, Feb 19 10:06 AM Armed soldiers on Friday stormed the presidential palace in Niger in an apparent coup attempt against President Mamadou Tandja. Loud explosions and long bursts of gunfire could be heard as army men took control of the presidential palace while he was chairing a meeting with ministers. His guards made frantic efforts to secure the president but to no avail and his whereabouts were not known, sources said. Military music continued to be aired on radio and television stations sending signals that a coup has taken place in the country but no announcement has been made by the plotters. Sources in N Djamena, capital of Niger, say sounds of gunfire scared away residents near the palace and the whole country is in suspense as government officials decilned to disclose developments. The president was elected in a democratic elections held in 1999 after several coup attempts but refused to step aside last December as the constitution stipulated

Suicidal pilot crashes plane into US tax office

Fri, Feb 19 08:08 AM Source: IANS Austin (US), Feb 19 (IANS) A single-engine private plane, reportedly flown by a suicidal pilot, crashed here Thursday into a seven-storey building complex housing the offices of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) injuring two people, media reports said. The pilot was killed while two people were injured and one person was unaccounted for in the crash that federal officials said they had no reason to suspect was terrorism related, ABC news reported. Federal authorities were investigating an online note reportedly written by 53-year-old software engineer Andrew Joseph Stack, the man identified by authorities as the pilot of the plane, in which he appears to have taken the responsibility for the attack on the IRS. The note titled 'Well Mr. Big Brother IRS Man ... take my pound of flesh and sleep well' was signed 'Joe Stack (1956-2010)', the report said. 'I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at 'big brother' while he

25 killed in blast near militant base in Pakistan

Source: HT Fri, Feb 19 01:20 PM Islamabad, Feb. 18 -- A bomb blast killed at least 25 people, mostly Islamist insurgents, in Pakistan's restive tribal region near the Afghan border Thursday, officials said. More than 50 people were wounded in the explosion near a militant base in the Tirah valley of the Khyber district, a stronghold of Islamist insurgents involved in attacks on trucks carrying US and NATO supplies to Afghanistan. The blast in remote Akkakhel village severely damaged a compound used by members of the Lashkar-e-Islam (Army of Islam), a pro-Taliban militant group with a strong presence in Khyber. An intelligence official in the region confirmed the death toll, and said a senior leader of the Lashkar-e-Islam, Azam Khan, was among the dead. He said the casualty count could increase as several victims were injured critically. Earlier another official had said the bombing occurred in Orakzai district. Later on, he explained the reason for the confusion was that the sit

Baradar's capture, Marja camapign unlikely to break Taliban will: NYT

Source: (ANI) Fri, Feb 19 01:45 PM Islamabad/Kabul, Feb.19 (ANI): The capture of Mullah Baradar, the deputy commander of the Afghan Taliban, in Karachi recently, and the ongoing the Marja campaign is unlikely to break the Taliban's will to fight, but there is hope that the mounting pressure will make some members start questioning their allegiance, says the New York Times in a report. The paper further goes on to say that top US commander in Kabul, General Stanley McChrystal and Afghan leaders have been drafting a plan to offer jobs and other incentives to persuade insurgents to put down their weapons and renounce the Taliban's brutality and medieval ideas. Guaranteeing their security from reprisals - from their former comrades or their neighbors - will be essential, the paper adds. However, the NYT warns that the Taliban's hardcore leaders will never want to reconcile with Kabul. Even if they do, their price will be far too high, claims the report. The joint raid by A

2 more Taliban leaders held

Source: Hindustan Times  Fri, Feb 19 02:00 PM Kabul, Feb. 19 -- Two senior Taliban leaders have been arrested in recent days inside Pakistan, officials said on Thursday, as American and Pakistani intelligence agents continued to press their offensive against the group's leadership after the capture of the insurgency's military commander last month. Afghan officials said the Taliban's "shadow governors" for two provinces in northern Afghanistan had been detained in Pakistan. Mullah Abdul Salam, the Taliban's leader in Kunduz, was detained in Faisalabad, and Mullah Mohammed of Baghlan province was captured in an undisclosed city. The arrests come on the heels of the capture of Abdul Ghani Bardar, the Taliban's military commander and the deputy to Mullah Mohammed Omar, terror outfit's founder. Baradar was arrested in a joint operation by the CIA and ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency. The arrests were made by Pakistani officials, the Afghans said

Maoists kill 21 jawans in West Bengal

Source: TOI Sukumar Mahato & Caesar Mandal, TNN, 16 February 2010, 02:15am IST BELPAHARI (WEST MIDNAPORE): Scores of Maoists ambushed security forces in Silda (just 30km from Midnapore town) on Monday, killing 21 Eastern Frontier Rifle (EFR) jawans and abducting many injured soldiers, in the most devastating and daring Naxal attack in Bengal so far. The camp, located in the middle of a busy market place, was completely gutted. Clad in tracksuits and preparing dinner, around 50 EFR men were caught completely off guard when 60 to 70 Maoists began firing from automatic rifles. The jawans were boxed in by the five-foot walls and barbed wire fence of their camp as the guerrillas opened fire from all sides. Maoist leader Kishanji claimed responsibility for the attack almost immediately after it took place. ``This is our Operation Peace Hunt against their Operation Green Hunt,'' Kishanji told TOI. ``This is our reply to Chidambaram and Buddhadeb. Steer clear of the jungles

An explosion ripped through a busy intersection in Dadu city in southern Pakistan's Sindh province, killing three people. The blast also wounded nine people, according to a local hospital official. (Feb. 14)

Raw Video: Blast in Southern Pakistan Kills 3

Bombing at Iraq Crime Lab Kills 2 Policemen

Source: VOA I raqi officials say a car bomb exploded outside a police crime lab in the northern city of Mosul Tuesday, killing two officers. At least seven other people were wounded in the morning attack. In a similar incident last month, a suicide bomber struck a police forensics lab in Baghdad, killing 22 people.  A group affiliated with al-Qaida, the Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for that attack. Also in Mosul Tuesday, a police official says gunmen opened fire on two Christian university students, killing one and wounding another. On Monday, three bombings in western Iraq left one person dead, and wounded at least four others.

Somali Defense Minister Survives Assassination Attempt

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Source: VOA Alan Boswell | Nairobi 15 February 2010 Photo: AP A Somali government soldier looks at car exploded by a suicide bomber in Mogadishu, 15 Feb 2010 S omali rebel group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for a failed suicide bombing attempt against the defense minister for the Western-backed Mogadishu government. The capital city lies mostly abandoned as remaining residents have fled in expectation of a government offensive.  Somali Defense Minister Yusuf Mohamed Siad, better known by his nickname "Inda'ade," survived an assassination attempt Monday after a car carrying explosives blew up near his convoy in Mogadishu. AP A 2009 file photo of Yusuf Mohamed Siad, Somalia's state minister for defense during celebrations of Somali independence day The minister says that after the first car failed to directly hit his vehicle, a second one nearby exploded as well. Two of his bodyguards were reportedly hurt in the blasts, and an unknown number of civilians.  E

Two killed, 16 hurt in Dadu bomb blast

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Source: The news Monday, February 15, 2010 By Riaz Qadir Narejo DADU: Two persons were killed and 16 others sustained injuries in a bomb blast here on Sunday. The incident, the first of its kind in the city, occurred at the Marvi Hotel near the Cinema Chowk. Panic gripped the area and the city was shut down after the blast. Dadu District Police Officer (DPO) Ghazi Salahuddin told reporters that the bomber was among the dead while 16 people were injured. The DPO rejected the impression that it was a suicide bombing. He said the bomber was carrying the explosives to plant it at some place for terrorism, which went off accidentally at the Cinema Chowk. He said the blast occurred at around 11:00 am. The explosive material was of two to three kilograms. The identity of the bomber is yet to be ascertained, as his face was badly damaged in the blast. The police said more than six people, including former Taluka Nazim Juhi Usman Jamali, the owner of the hotel, had been apprehende

Unknown Pakistani group claims responsibility for Pune blast NIRUPAMA SUBRAMANIAN

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Source: The Hindu PTI German Bakery, the site of the explosion. A Pakistani group known as Laskhar-e-Taiba Al Alami has claimed responsibility for the Bomb blast in Pune An unknown group calling itself the Laskhar-e-Taiba Al Alami claimed on Tuesday it was behind Saturday’s bomb attack in Pune that killed nine people. A person who identified himself as Abu Jindal called  The Hindu  here, described himself as the spokesman of the LeT Al Alami (international), and claimed the group had carried out the attack because of what he said was India’s “refusal” to discuss Kashmir in the forthcoming talks with Pakistan. The telephone number that showed up on the caller identity carried an area code common to the Waziristan tribal area and Bannu, the adjoining district in the North-West Frontier Province. When this correspondent tried calling back the number, a recorded voice message said the number was temporarily not in use. Kashmir jihadists do not believe in India-Pakistan talks on Kashmi

Dubai names suspects wanted for killing of Hamas man

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Source: BBC NEWS Dubai police have released CCTV footage of the suspected killers Police in Dubai are to issue arrest warrants for 11 "agents with European passports" suspected of assassinating a top Hamas official last month. Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was murdered in his hotel room in Dubai on 20 January. Reports have suggested that he was in Dubai to buy weapons for Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. It has accused Israeli agents of killing him. Dubai's police chief said six of the suspects had British passports, three were Irish, one French and one German. The Britons were named as James Leonard Clarke, Stephen Daniel Hodes, Paul John Keeley, Michael Lawrence Barney, Jonathan Lewis Graham and Melvyn Adam Mildiner. One of the group was a woman with Irish papers in the name of Gail Folliard. The other Irish suspects were named as Kevin Daveron and Evan Dennings.   We have no doubts that it was 11 people holding these passports, and we regret that they used the travel