Posted on 04/16/2005 10:05:56 PM PDT by TexKat
U.S. army personnel pay their respects during a memorial ceremony at the Bagram airbase, north of Kabul, April 15, 2005. U.S. troops at the Bagram airbase gathered to remember victims of a U.S. military helicopter crash in Afghanistan on April 6 that killed 18 people. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
A U.S. soldier pass by the stage during a memorial ceremony at the Bagram base, north of Kabul, Afganistan on Friday April 15, 2005.The service honored for the death of those 18 people, who were lost in the helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan earlier this month. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
U.S. soldiers fire volleys during a memorial ceremony at the Bagram base, north of Kabul, Afganistan on Friday April 15, 2005.The service honoring the deaths of those 18 people, who were lost in the helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan earlier this month. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
17 April 2005
KUT, Iraq - Iraqi soldiers surrounded a town south of Baghdad as gunmen, believed to be Sunni militants, held scores of Shiite residents hostage and threatened to kill them unless all Shiites left.
The mass seizure of residents Saturday coincided with a string of insurgent attacks across the country in which at least 17 Iraqis were killed, seven of them in one explosion in central Iraq.
In an incident likely to heighten sectarian tension between the majority Shiites, who swept January’s elections, and the embittered disempowered Sunnis, gunmen blew up an empty Shiite mosque in Al-Madain after taking the hostages.
An interior ministry official said the gunmen were holding some 80 hostages and threatening to kill them unless all Shiites left the town, which lies some 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Baghdad.
Iraqi army special forces have surrounded the town and there was a brief exchange of gunfire, the official added.
The standoff began Friday when the gunmen riding pickup trucks seized hostages and called over loudspeakers on Shiites to leave, a defense ministry official said.
Scores fled the town, some heading for the city of Kut further south.
“They have detained more than 80 people, including women and children, and they are threatening to kill them unless Shiites leave,” Iraqi army Captain Haitham Mohammed said.
Many Iraqi soldiers and police put on civilian clothing to flee the mixed Sunni-Shiite town, located on the Tigris river on the site of the ancient city of Ctesiphon.
The area around Al-Madain is home to several Sunni Arab tribes who follow the radical Wahhabi brand of Islam that dominates Saudi Arabia and recent reports suggested that Shiites have set up vigilante groups for protection.
An interior ministry official suggested events in Madain could be a response to the abduction of Sunnis from the powerful Dulaimi tribe, who have a presence in the area.
In other violence, at least 17 people were killed, including two US soldiers and a Turkish truck driver, in separate incidents, US and Iraqi officials said.
In the most lethal attack, seven died, including a number of policemen, and five were wounded when a bomb went off in a crowded lunchtime restaurant in Baquba, north of the capital, police said.
In Baghdad, one civilian was killed and three wounded when a suicide bomber drove his car into a military-guarded convoy bringing to four the number of bombings in the capital since Thursday.
The Al Qaeda-linked group of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said in statements carried on the Internet that it carried out Saturday’s two suicide attacks, in Baquba and in Baghdad. The authenticity of the statements could not immediately be verified.
An Iraqi policeman was also shot dead in southern Baghdad while driving his car, the interior ministry said.
In continuing attacks on the estimated 140,000 US troops in Iraq, one American soldier, travelling in a convoy, was killed by an explosion near Taji, north of Baghdad, the US military said, one day after another had died of his wounds in an attack near Tikrit, further north.
This brings to 1,547 the number of US military personnel killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion more than two years ago.
A Turkish truck driver was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near the northern oil refining town of Baiji setting his vehicle ablaze, said Iraqi police. This brought to eight the number of foreign truck drivers killed this year in northern Iraq.
An Iraqi soldier died and another was wounded overnight in an explosion near Samarra, north of Baghdad, and four civilians were wounded in a dawn car bomb attack against an Iraqi army convoy in the same area.
The Iraqi army meanwhile said it had arrested 20 people in Khalis, north of Baghdad, on suspicion of involvement in insurgent attacks. It also said its soldiers had killed two leaders of Ansar al-Sunna, an Al Qaeda-linked network, Friday.
The leader of the network was identified as Abu Bakr Mohammed Nayef al-Janabi, a former intelligence officer under Saddam Hussein.
Meanwhile talks continued among different factions on forming the new government as parliament prepared to meet Sunday.
“As far as we know the government has not been formed, so it will not be on the agenda when we meet,” Hajem al-Hassani, parliament speaker told AFP.
The main obstacle to completing the cabinet is finding the right candidates from the Sunni community, which largely boycotted the elections and whose radical elements are fuelling the insurgency.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar al-Zebari warned Iraq’s neighbors to do a better job to prevent insurgents from slipping across their borders.
“We expect more from them. Before the excuse was there’s no elected government. This time we stand on stronger ground,” Zebari said ahead of a two-day meeting in Istanbul with foreign ministers from Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey.
“We need more action from them on border protection (and) the penetration of terrorist infiltrators.”
He listed controls on money transfers and media incitement as other areas of concern.
Rebels hold 150; Shi’ite mosque blown up
Web posted at: 4/17/2005 6:47:11
Source ::: AFP
KUT: Iraqi soldiers surrounded a town south of Baghdad yesterday as gunmen held 150 of Shiite residents hostage and threatened to kill them unless all Shi’ites left.
The mass seizure of residents coincided with a string of insurgent attacks across the country in which at least 17 Iraqis were killed late on Friday and yesterday, seven of them in one explosion in central Iraq.
In an incident likely to heighten sectarian tension between the Shi’ites and the Sunnis, gunmen blew up an empty Shi’ite mosque in Al Madain after taking the hostages. An interior ministry official said the gunmen were holding some 150 hostages and threatening to kill them unless all Shi’ites left the town which lies 30km south of Baghdad,. Iraqi army special forces have surrounded the town and there was a brief exchange of gunfire, the official added.
The stand-off began on Friday when the gunmen riding pick-up trucks seized hostages and called over loudspeakers on Shi’ites to leave, a defence ministry official said. Scores fled the town, some heading for the city of Kut further south.
Many Iraqi soldiers and police put on civilian clothing to flee the mixed Sunni-Shiite town, located on the Tigris river on the site of the ancient city of Ctesiphon. The area around Al-Madain is home to several Sunni tribes.
In other violence, at least 17 people were killed, including two US soldiers and a Turkish truck driver, in separate incidents. In the most lethal attack, seven died, including a number of policemen, and five were wounded when a bomb went off in at crowded lunchtime restaurant in Baquba.
In Baghdad, one civilian was killed and three wounded when a suicide bomber drove his car into a military-guarded convoy bringing to four the number of bombings in the capital since Thursday.
In continuing attacks on the estimated 140,000 US troops in Iraq, one American soldier, travelling in a convoy, was killed by an explosion near Taji, north of Baghdad, the US military said, one day after another had died of his wounds in an attack near Tikrit. This brings to 1,547 the number of US military personnel killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion more than two years ago. The Iraqi army meanwhile said it had arrested 20 people in Khalis, north of Baghdad, on suspicion of involvement in insurgent attacks.
Meanwhile Luxembourg, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, said an international conference on Iraq may be held in Brussels at the start of June if Baghdad agrees. “The moment has come for it to tell the world what kind of future it is planning for its people,” said EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
Taco van der Eb / Polaris for Newsweek
Was it a plot? KLM Flight 685 shows it's hard to tell the good guys from the bad
Mystery Flight Two passengers trigger alarms—and fresh echoes of 9/11.
By Mark Hosenball and Michael Hirsh
NewsweekArpil 25 issue - It's part of the routine for air travel since 9/11. Fifteen minutes after KLM Flight 685 took off from Amsterdam for Mexico City on April 8, Mexican authorities forwarded the names of all the passengers to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The reason: the flight was scheduled to pass through U.S. airspace after making a long swing over Canada. The information was then passed on to the U.S. National Targeting Center, based at a secret address in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. That's when the routine became extraordinary: by the time the Boeing 747 had finished its three-hour crossing of the Atlantic, Homeland Security screeners were on high alert. The names of two Saudi passengers aboard the KLM flight had begun producing "hits" on the screening center's lists of 70,000 suspect foreigners.
Troops besiege gunmen holding hostages in Iraq
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
Most of the people committing suicide bombings in Iraq today are foreigners, not Iraqis, a senior Multinational Force Iraq official told reporters at an April 14 meeting with reporters in Baghdad.
“The sense is that many of the suicide bombers are in fact foreign jihadists, not Iraqis, for the most part,” the official said, speaking to reporters on background.
“The ones that we’ve gotten our hands on are certainly foreigners,” he pointed out.
Foreign insurgents operating in Iraq seem to be coming from about 25 countries, the official noted. The majority, he observed, are from Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
However, U.S. military analysts in Iraq “don’t see that foreign fighters have become a significant force in the insurgency,” the official noted. Out of about 10,000 detainees now being held in Iraq, only “357, 358, something like that” are non-Iraqis.
The official also cited reports that say Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s anti-American militia, the so-called Mahdi Army, is undergoing “some regeneration.” However, the official added, Sadr’s Baghdad-based group, which had been blamed for several atrocities, had “lost a lot of public support” since the Jan. 30 Iraqi elections.
The official declined to comment on the idea of any possible amnesty program for former insurgents. “That will obviously be a government of Iraq decision,” the official said.
Locals stand in the Rasol-Aladham Mosque which they say was damaged several days ago by a U.S. military attack in the town of Madaen, 40 km (25 miles) southeast of Baghdad April 16, 2005. U.S. and Iraqi troops raided Madaen on Saturday to rescue 150 Shi'ite hostages whom Sunni rebels have threatened to kill in a standoff that raised fears sectarian violence in Iraq could spiral out of control. Picture taken April 16, 2005. REUTERS/Akram Saleh
Local men walk near the ancient ruins of the Khosrow Persian Palace in the town of Madaen, about 40 km (25 miles) southeast of Baghdad April 16, 2005. U.S. and Iraqi troops raided Madaen on Saturday to rescue 150 Shi'ite hostages whom Sunni rebels have threatened to kill in a standoff that raised fears sectarian violence in Iraq could spiral out of control. Picture taken on April 16, 2005. REUTERS/Akram Saleh
US soldiers blindfold detainees after a roundup of suspected insurgent leaders in the village of Sallamiyah, 25 kilometers south of the city of Mosul. Iraqi troops entered the besieged city of Madain, where Sunni militants have rounded up 80 hostages and threatened to kill them unless all Shiites leave the community, an interior ministry official said(AFP/File/Cris Bouroncle)
Afghan soldiers remove the wreckage of damaged tankers from the explosion site in Kandahar, Afghanistan on Sunday, April 17, 2005. Suspected Taliban rebels set off a bomb next to a fuel tanker parked outside the main U.S. military base in southern Afghanistan early Sunday, setting off a chain of large explosions that destroyed five tankers and injured three drivers, officials said. (AP Photo/Noor Khan)
Taliban Bomb Trucks Carrying Oil for U.S. Military
Sun Apr 17, 5:58 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A bomb planted by Taliban rebels destroyed five trucks carrying oil for the U.S. military in Afghanistan and wounded three drivers, a senior Afghan army official said.
The pre-dawn blast destroyed one of the trucks parked outside Kandahar airbase -- a major U.S. military base in southern Afghanistan -- and caused four others to catch fire, said General Muslim Hamid, army corps commander for Kandahar province.
"Three drivers of the tankers have been critically wounded in the incident," he said, adding the three were from neighboring Pakistan.
Taliban attacks have picked up following a winter lull after the guerrillas failed in their vow to disrupt October elections. But activity is down on past years, fueling speculation that the movement may be struggling to find recruits and resources.
The attack on the oil tankers came a day after the Taliban triggered a remote-control explosive device that injured nine Afghan government soldiers in a passing car in Zabul province, district chief Wazir Mohammad told Reuters.
Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi confirmed the rebels were behind both attacks.
The Taliban, who U.S.-led forces toppled in late 2001 for harboring al Qaeda chief, Osama bin Laden, have warned local residents against helping or working for U.S.-led forces.
In an ambush on April 1, members of the radical group killed three Pakistani truck drivers carrying supplies for the U.S. military in Kandahar.
The rebels have rejected reports they are in reconciliation talks with the Afghan government and said they were training suicide bombers to target government officials, foreign forces and aid workers.
Afghan army soldiers examine burnt oil tankers in Kandahar, April 17, 2005. A bomb planted by Taliban rebels destroyed five trucks carrying oil for the U.S. military in Afghanistan and wounded three drivers, a senior Afghan army official said. REUTERS/Ismail Sameem
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani authorities seized nearly two tonnes of morphine worth millions of dollars from a remote southwestern village near the Afghan border, a security officer said on Sunday.
The drugs were found in caves near the town of Chaghi in Baluchistan province, which borders Afghanistan, in two separate raids on Saturday, said Rizwan Malik, an officer of the paramilitary Frontier Corps.
The morphine, which is refined from opium, often in southern Afghanistan, was probably destined for the international black market.
Malik said two lots of 950 kg each of morphine were recovered in the raids, carried out after a tip-off but no arrests were made as the drugs had been abandoned.
Officials say a tonne of morphine is worth about $10 million on the international market.
Most illegal drugs seized in Pakistan come from Afghanistan, the world's leading source of opium and its refined form, heroin.
Good morning Gucho, all!!
Today 17 Apr 2005 | 17:28 KT
BAGHDAD, April 17 (KUNA) -- Iraqi security forces arrested two leaders of outlawed armed groups who received funding from Saddam Hussein's former deputy, Izzat Al-Douri, a government statement said Sunday.
It said Hashem Hussein Radhwan Al-Jabbouri was arrested in Tikrit after one of the locals provided information about his hideout.
Jabbouri, a relative of Al-Douri, was an officer in the former intelligence agency and is currently responsible for backing and guiding "terrorists" in Nahrazzab area, said the statement.
Jabbouri received large sums of money from Al-Douri to form terrorist groups and fund military operations against the Iraqi government and Iraqi forces nationwide, said the statement.
Jabbouri also helped foreign terrorists to enter Iraq, it added.
Another man called Sabah Hamal was also captured by the Iraqi forces in Diyali province in northeast of Baghdad.
The government statement said Hamal was a police chief in Saeediya in Diyali and abused his post to launch "terrorist attacks" against the Iraqi forces.
Intelligence showed that Hamal cooperated with terrorist groups linked with Al-Douri.
Al-Douri's whereabouts is unknown. He was the vice-president of the former so-called Iraqi revolutionary council that was spearheaded by Saddam Hussein.
Iraqis walk out of their besieged town of Madaen where over 150 hostages, including women and children, are being held south of Baghdad, April 17, 2005. Iraq's al Qaeda wing said on Sunday a hostage crisis in Madaen near Baghdad had been fabricated to give Iraqi forces a pretext to raid the town and attack Sunni Muslims, according to an Internet statement. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
Iraqi Army soldiers line up as they seal off the town of Madaen, where over 150 hostages, including women and children, are being held south of Baghdad, April 17, 2005. Iraq's al Qaeda wing said on Sunday a hostage crisis in Madaen near Baghdad had been fabricated to give Iraqi forces a pretext to raid the town and attack Sunni Muslims, according to an Internet statement. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
An Iraqi soldier stands guard near an elderly man on the outskirts of the besieged town of Madaen where over 150 hostages, including women and children, are being held in the town that is 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, April 17, 2005. Iraqi troops backed by U.S. forces raided parts of Madaen Sunday to try to rescue Shi'ites seized by Sunni insurgents and threatened with death, officials and witnesses said. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
Iraqi police and U.S. Army soldiers take up positions near the scene of a mass hostage taking in the town of Madaen, about 40 km (25 miles) southeast of Baghdad April 17, 2005. Hundreds of Iraqi forces took up positions around Madaen on Sunday in preparation for an operation to rescue Shi'ite hostages whom Sunni insurgents have threatened to kill, Reuters witnesses said. Iraq's al Qaeda wing said on Sunday a hostage crisis in Madaen near Baghdad had been fabricated to give Iraqi forces a pretext to raid the town and attack Sunni Muslims, according to an Internet statement. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
Iraqi police wave their weapons as they prepare for an operation to rescue hostages in the town of Madaen, about 40 km (25 miles) southeast of Baghdad, April 17, 2005. Hundreds of Iraqi forces took up positions around Madaen on Sunday in preparation for an operation to rescue Shi'ite hostages whom Sunni insurgents have threatened to kill, Reuters witnesses said. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
Iraqi policemen guard demonstrators calling for security stabilization on the outskirts of their besieged town of Madaen where over 150 hostages, including women and children, are being held south of Baghdad, April 17, 2005. Iraq's al Qaeda wing said on Sunday a hostage crisis in Madaen near Baghdad had been fabricated to give Iraqi forces a pretext to raid the town and attack Sunni Muslims, according to an Internet statement. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
April 17, 2005 Sunday
BAGHDAD: Three US soldiers were killed and seven wounded in a mortar attack on a US military base near Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a statement from the US military said Sunday.
Three of those wounded in the Saturday night attack were critical and required evacuation, the statement added.
The insurgents fled to a nearby mosque after firing several mortar rounds, but Iraqi forces failed to find them on searching the area, military said.
Three U.S. Troops Killed in Iraqi City of Ramadi
Sun Apr 17, 7:04 AM ET BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Three U.S. soldiers were killed by mortar fire at a U.S. base in the city of Ramadi overnight, the U.S. military said Sunday.
Seven servicemen were also wounded in the attack, three of them seriously, the military said in a statement. The attackers were believed to have fled into a nearby mosque. But when Iraqi security forces searched it, they found no insurgents.
Ramadi, about 65 miles west of Baghdad, has been one of the most violent cities over the past two years, with daily attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces.
The deaths raise to more than 1,180 the number of U.S. troops killed in action in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.
Attacks against U.S. forces have declined since Iraq held elections at the end of January, figures show. But more than 100 troops have died since Feb. 1, including 20 this month.
Sun Apr 17, 7:48 AM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces have recaptured the last of 11 prisoners who escaped from a U.S. jail in southern Iraq, the U.S. military said Sunday.
The 11 broke out of Camp Bucca, near the southern town of Umm Qasr, at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday after cutting a hole in the jail's chain-link fence.
Iraqi security forces searched for them at dawn and quickly rounded up 10, but one remained at large. He was eventually captured Saturday afternoon about 15 km (10 miles) from the jail, the U.S. military said.
It was not clear how long the detainees had been at Camp Bucca, which holds about 6,000 prisoners, but the military said they were being held on charges ranging from possessing illegal weapons to attacks on U.S. forces.
"An additional charge of escape will now be added when these detainees are tried before the Central Criminal Court of Iraq," the military said in a statement.
Saturday's jailbreak was believed to be the first successful escape from a U.S. detention facility in Iraq.
It came less than a month after the discovery of a small network of tunnels at the prison, including one more than 600 feet long that reached beyond the perimeter fence. Those tunnels were discovered before anyone could escape.
There has been growing unrest at the prison in recent months. A riot in early April in which 12 prisoners and four U.S. guards were wounded prompted the International Committee of the Red Cross to call for an investigation.
At the end of January, four inmates died and six were wounded when U.S. guards opened fire to quell rioting at the jail, the U.S. military said.
Palestinian gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades hold their weapons as they walk with an unarmed Palestinian policeman, left, after stopping traffic in the main square of the West Bank town of Jenin, Sunday, April 17, 2005. Armed Palestinian militants in the West Bank town of Jenin fired into the air and threatened to immediately kill members of the Palestinian parliament Sunday, demanding the Palestinian Authority provide jobs to former prisoners and to relatives of people killed during nearly five years of fighting. (AP Photo/ Mohammed Ballas)
Militants Shut Down Palestinian Building
By MOHAMMED BALLAS, Associated Press Writer
JENIN, West Bank - Armed Palestinian militants shut down a government building in the West Bank on Sunday and threatened to kill members of the Palestinian parliament, demanding the Palestinian Authority provide jobs to former prisoners and to relatives of people killed in fighting.
The violent threats were the latest in a series of incidents of lawlessness in the Palestinian territories, and illustrated the challenge Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas faces as he tries to restore order and maintain a fragile truce with Israel.
Meanwhile, Israeli security forces on Sunday held their first "war game" to prepare for the Gaza withdrawal planned for this summer, simulating violent confrontations with Jewish settlers and testing the officers' decision-making and responses.
Overseen by Army chief Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, top army brass, police officers and Shin Bet internal intelligence commanders simulated worst-case scenarios, officials said on condition of anonymity.
Israeli security officials have expressed fears that settlers — who fiercely oppose Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from all Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements — could violently oppose the pullout, and even open fire on soldiers and police ordered to evacuate them.
In the West Bank city of Jenin, about 40 militants gathered in the main intersection, firing into the air as several hundred sympathizers encouraged them. The armed men were led by Zakariye Zubeydi, the head of Jenin's branch of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades — a militant group linked to Abbas' Fatah movement.
Zubeydi told the crowd he was ready to march on the offices of local parliamentarians. "In half an hour, if we find any of them in their offices there will be blood and then our only language will be the bullet," he said.
Later, two Aqsa gunmen, under orders from Zubeidi, confiscated the keys of the building housing lawmakers' offices and shut it down, said Iyad Nassab, the building's office manager. Nassab said he sent everyone home before the gunmen arrived, and that the building was empty.
The militants demanded jobs for themselves, for Palestinians recently released from Israeli prisons and for relatives of those killed during the nearly five-year-old intefadeh, or uprising.
Last month, Abbas launched a program designed to provide jobs for hundreds of gunmen and militants on the run from the Israeli authorities. The program offers security and government jobs to militants, with the best positions given to those who have spent the most time in Israeli jails or on the run from the military.
Hundreds of gunmen have already signed on to program, which calls on the new recruits to accept the rule of law and the gradual disarming of gunmen.
The initiative is the most significant step taken so far by Abbas to rein in militants and is geared mostly to gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
Al Aqsa gunmen have been responsible for much of the lawlessness in the West Bank and Gaza. Last week, a group of Aqsa militants rampaged through the streets of Ramallah, trashing restaurants and firing on Abbas' headquarters, prompting the new leader to fire his West Bank security chief and announce an overhaul of the ineffective and often warring Palestinian security forces.
Despite the cease-fire, the Palestinian economy remains in shambles. The Palestinian Authority — one of the biggest employers in the West Bank and Gaza — suffers from a large budget shortfall, and Israel has barred most Palestinian laborers from entering the country to work. The World Bank estimates unemployment at about 25 percent in the Palestinian areas.
Before fighting erupted in September 2000, more than 150,000 Palestinians worked in Israel. Today, just a few thousand West Bank and Gaza Strip Palestinians have permits to work in Israel.
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