Daily Terrorist Round-Up 5/24/05 (285 Iraq Terrorists Captured in 1 Day; Pakistan & Spain Arrests)

OPERATION SQUEEZE PLAY NETS 285 SUSPECTS ON FIRST DAY

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Coalition Forces, in conjunction with the Iraqi Army and Ministry of Interior Forces, have detained 285 suspected terrorists in the western Baghdad district of Abu Ghraib in less than 24 hours.

The massive joint-combat operation involves two battalions from the 3rd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, two battalions from the 1st Brigade, 1st Iraqi Intervention Force, three battalions from the 2nd Brigade Special Police Commandos, and Soldiers from Task Force 2-14, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division.

Task Force Baghdad officials said the purpose of the operation is to hunt down, kill or capture terrorists who have been staging attacks in the Iraqi capital.

“This is the largest combined operation with Iraqi security forces to date,” said Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a Task Force Baghdad spokesperson. “The Iraqi Security Forces have the lead in this operation while we perform shaping and supporting roles.”

The operation is still underway.

BEIJING, May 23 -- A close aide to Osama Bin Laden and former Afghan Taliban leader Mulla Omar escaped before police raided his house in Nagina Colony, Multan in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province on Sunday.

Sources said intelligence agencies traced Abdur Rehman Wazir's satellite phone call to Multan and raided his house, but Wazir fled while three activists of a banned militant organization were arrested.

Wazir helped Mulla Omar escape from Kandahar after the fall of the Taliban. Wazir hid in Pakistan's Waziristan tribal region where he formed a group with al-Queda activists before settling in southern Punjab.

Sources added that Wazir is probably in touch with Bin Laden or even Mulla Omar. Abu Farraj Al Libbi, third on the most wanted al-Qaeda list, who was arrested a few weeks ago, also gave information about Wazir.

The search for Wazir is continuing through southern Punjab.

(American) Man tried to sell bomb to al-Qaeda

A US man who told undercover agents he has "no loyalty for America" has been charged with trying to build a bomb and sell it to an affiliate of al-Qaeda, officials in Texas have said. Ronald A Grecula, 68, of Bangor, Pennsylvania, was arrested on Friday in Houston during a meeting with undercover FBI agents, US Lawyer Michael Shelby said .

At the meeting, Grecula indicated willingness to build and sell an explosive device which would be used against Americans, officials alleged in court documents.

Grecula was angry with the government because he lost custody of his children, with whom he fled to Malta.

He met a confidential source in prison there while awaiting extradition to the United States for the alleged kidnapping of the children, then aged 10 and three, in a custody dispute in 2002.

Grecula appeared in court but did not enter a plea. A detention hearing was set for Thursday.

He has been charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organisation. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years and a fine of up to $US250,000. "The very first priority of this administration and this Department of Justice is to stop another 9/11 attack and this is a success story in that effort," Shelby told a news conference.

Grecula's lawyer had no comment.

According to a complaint, Grecula asked the confidential source to find a client for a large bomb he was willing to build and sell. He specifically mentioned al-Qaeda, but indicated he would sell it to any such group. Negotiations continued between April and Friday, the complaint stated.

Grecula told the source he could buy all the bomb components - including hydrogen chlorine - at a welding store, and that he was educated as a mechanical engineer and experimented with alternative fuels and energy. "If we had one of those in this room right now filled with hydrogen chlorine, this hotel wouldn't be here. It would be a crater in the ground," Grecula said during a meeting on Friday with the confidential source and an undercover officer who presented himself as an al-Qaeda agent.

Pakistan says holds two foreign al Qaeda suspects

ISLAMABAD – Pakistani security forces have arrested two foreigners suspected of links to al Qaeda, the information minister said on Tuesday.

The suspects were arrested on Monday near the town of Charsadda, not far from the border with Afghanistan and about 140 km (85 miles) northwest of the capital, Islamabad.

'They are both foreigners,' Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Reuters.

He said the identity of the suspects was being established but it appeared that neither was a senior figure in Osama bin Laden's network.

Pakistani security forces this month captured Abu Faraj Farj al Liby, thought to be al Qaeda's number three, in the same region close to the Afghan border.

Ahmed said the two were among up to eight foreign suspects rounded up since Liby's arrest.

Pakistan has arrested hundreds of al Qaeda suspects and handed many of them over to the United States since joining the U.S.-led war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

They have included Sept. 11 mastermind Khaled Sheikh Mohammed but other senior figures, including bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al Zawahri, remain at large.

(Same incident) Pak arrests Egyptian Al-Qaeda suspect:

Pakistani authorities have arrested an Egyptian suspected of having links with Al-Qaeda, a security official said today.

According to the Dawn, the suspect was arrested last night in a raid on a house in the Charsadda district, 50 kilometers northeast of Peshawar.

"Two female undercover agents posing as village women visited the home and then intelligence agents conducted the raid," a security official told foreign news agency.

"He is an old Arab claiming to be an Egyptian and married to a local ethnic Pashtun girl."

During the raid, security officials also picked up a local resident, he added.

Major terrorist act averted in Chechnya

KHANKALA. May 23 (Interfax) - Law enforcers have averted a major terrorist act in Chechnya, spokesman for the regional headquarters of the anti-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus Maj. Gen. Ilya Shabalkin told Interfax on Monday.

He said that a powerful landmine was discovered on the roadside near Goity, Urus-Martan district. If the bomb had gone off, civilian casualties could have been numerous because the road linking Goity and Urus-Martan is very heavily traveled.

Shabalkin said three militants were detained in the framework of the anti-terrorist operation on Sunday.

Kuwait opens trial of 37 suspected Qaeda militants
By Haitham Haddadin

KUWAIT, May 24 (Reuters) - A Kuwait court began the trial on Tuesday of 37 Islamist militants charged with links to al Qaeda violence and prosecutors demanded the death penalty for more than half of them.

Hooded special forces commandoes manned the courtroom and heavy security was placed outside the sprawling Justice Palace building in the capital Kuwait City.

Judicial sources say prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for about 20 suspects for four shootouts in January in which nine Islamists and four security personnel were killed.

The suspects are mostly Kuwaitis with links to militants in neighbouring Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Police said some confessed to planning suicide attacks against U.S. military and Western targets in Kuwait and say they have seized large weapons caches.

Reporters said several militants denied the charges, saying their confessions were extracted under duress, and lifted their shirts to show the judge what they said were torture marks.

Kuwait has cracked down on Islamists opposing the U.S. military presence there. Diplomats say radical Islam is taking hold among Kuwaiti youth.

Neighbouring Saudi Arabia has been targeted in an al Qaeda campaign to topple the U.S.-backed monarchy since 2003.

Eleven of the 37 suspects remain at large.

The suspects are charged with belonging to a group based on "extremist thought" and accused of calling for a fight against the state and attacking its interests and facilities.

They are also accused of attempting to kill members of "friendly forces" in Kuwait and state security forces.

The militants are said to be members of the "Peninsula Lions" group believed to be linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda. They include 25 Kuwaitis, seven stateless Arabs, two Jordanians, a Saudi, an Australian and a Somali.

Their alleged leader, Amer al-Enezi, died in police custody. The two other leading militants are being tried in absentia.

Enezi's wife, who has cancer and was in a wheelchair during Tuesday's hearing, is among the suspects, as is Osama al-Munawer, a Kuwaiti lawyer who represents Islamists. He is suspected of concealing Dosari's whereabouts.

Used as the main launch pad for the 2003 war in Iraq, Kuwait hosts up to 30,000 U.S. troops and is the main transit route into Iraq. Some 13,000 U.S. citizens live in Kuwait. (Additional reporting by Oussama Mohammad, H. Hashim Ahmed)

Spain Arrests 3 Suspects for Madrid Train Bombings

Spanish police have arrested three Moroccan men suspected of providing weapons to those who carried out the 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 192 people.

Police said that two suspects were arrested in Madrid and one in Granada.

So far, about 90 people, most of them Moroccan, have been arrested during the probe into the attacks on March 11, 2004, which also injured more than 1,500.

Police said the three men are suspected of belonging to a group linked to the terrorist network al-Qaeda.

Lashkar’ youth held with RDX (India)

New Delhi, May 23: A day after the cinema hall blasts, the Delhi Police today arrested a youth from Safdarjang Hospital bus stand claiming he was a Pakistan-trained Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant. He was standing with a bag full (more than 5 kg) RDX and two electronic detonaters, police claimed.

According to police, the youth, Mohammed Ishaq, had come to the Capital to help the outfit set up a base here. He was waiting for his associate, but when no one came to meet him, police arrested him. Police claimed they were tipped off about the meeting.

‘‘A trap was laid and a man was spotted carrying a bag. He waited at the bus for about half-an-hour and when nobody turned up and he was about to leave, he was arrested,’’ said Ashok Chand, DCP, special cell.

‘‘A module of LeT has plans to set up a base in Delhi and for that purpose explosive material is being sent to Delhi and funds are being arranged through hawala for terrorist activity,’’ said Karnal Singh, Joint Commissioner, Special Cell.

Mohammed Ishaq is a resident of Anantnag. Police said he was coming to deliver a consignment of explosives to a contact, Imran. A search of Ishaq’s hotel room led to the recovery of Rs 2.5 lakh. Police said Ishaq told them that he was trained to be a terrorist in Pakistan, where he had crossed over in 1999. The accused allegedly joined training camps in Kotli in PoK and was also ‘‘trained’’ for jihad at Muridke near Lahore.

His alleged ‘‘handlers’’, Muzzamil and Abdul Aziz of LeT, sent him back to India in April 2004 where he was directed to work under Atif, who police said was a district commander of Anantnag. ‘‘He (Ishaq) was asked to establish a computer centre in Srinagar and keep a low profile and provide safe hideouts to LeT operatives in Srinagar,’’ the police said.

In March 2005, on the directions of Atif, he went to Nepal for discussions with his LeT handlers and on his return in the second week of May he was given a consignment of explosives by Atif and directed to deliver them to Imran in Delhi.

Ishaq had earlier come to the Capital for collecting Rs 1 lakh through hawala, the police said.

Iraqi forces capture key terrorist figures

BAGHDAD, May 24 (KUNA) -- Government security forces arrested a key figure in the terrorist "Liwa Al-Noman battalion" in the town of Al-Ramadhi in western Iraq and captured Kamil Al-Aswadi, a close aide to Abu Musaab Al-Zarqawi, chief of another terrorist group, in the southern city of Samara', according to an official statement issued on Tuesday.

The statement said Al-Ramadhi arrest was based on intelligence sources who helped to capture Mohammed Daham Hamadi during a raid attack by security forces in Baghdad yesterday.

"Mohammed Daham was involved in expiatory acts and was leading the terrorist battalion of "Liwa Al-Noman" which is responsible for several roadside bombs that targeted innocent civilians and Iraqi security personnel in Al-Ramadhi," the statement said.

On his part, Wafiq Al-Samaraei, Security Advisor for the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, announced at a news conference the capture of Al-Aswadi, one of the key assistants to Al-Zarqawi in Samara', indicating the increase of insurgent attacks for the last days was due to Al-Aswadi's arrest.

Great news on the war on terror.

Also the Al Qaeda website reported today that Chief terrorist Al Zarqawi is wounded, in the Arab and Islamic world this type of admission is a strong indication that he may be already dead. We shall see.

A US man who told undercover agents he has "no loyalty for America" has been charged with trying to build a bomb and sell it to an affiliate of al-Qaeda, officials in Texas have said. Ronald A Grecula, 68, of Bangor, Pennsylvania, was arrested on Friday in Houston

Undoubtedly a John Kerry supporter.

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