Free Republic

MIRAMSHAH: Eight persons, including six suspected Arab nationals, were killed and as many seriously injured in another missile attack by a US Predator in Ghundai Kalley near Tapi in North Waziristan Agency on Sunday. Residents from Tapi village told 'The News' that a spy plane was seen flying over the village during the attack. "The plane fired two Hellfire missiles on a house where some guests were staying," the residents said, adding, two more houses were also damaged in the air strike. Besides six suspected Arab nationals, the villagers said two locals, including a woman and her minor daughter, were...

The fanatical Taliban mastermind behind recent attacks in which six British soldiers died in Afghanistan has been killed in a missile attack by an Army Apache helicopter. In what military chiefs described as a 'deliberate and surgical strike', the 35-year-old rebel leader - known as Sadiqullah - died alongside nine fellow Taliban fighters after the Apache fired two laser-guided Hellfire missiles at their red pick-up truck and destroyed it. The rebel leader had been tracked down after weeks of secret intelligence work. His death would have been instantaneous, as the warheads of the 5ft-long missiles, which travel at 950mph, are...

Senior U.S. and Pakistani officials tell NBC News that Wednesday’s Predator attack on a village in northwest Pakistan was not insignificant, that a “high-value target … an Arab” was among those killed. U.S. officials believe the unnamed target was planning attacks outside Pakistan, “so we nailed him,” in the words of one.

WASHINGTON, May 11, 2008 – A U.S. Hellfire missile killed an insurgent near the site of a roadside-bomb attack in Baghdad’s Adhamiyah district today, U.S. military officials said. A vehicle was destroyed while another insurgent fled the scene. “Our soldiers, along with the Iraqi security forces, continue to meet with the local populace to identify these criminal elements and eliminate the threat they pose,” said Army Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a Multinational Division Baghdad and 4th Infantry Division spokesman. “We will continue to use precision fire to defend the Iraqi people and ourselves against these criminal elements.” In yesterday’s operations:...

WASHINGTON, April 25, 2008 – Coalition and Iraqi forces killed 22 suspected terrorists, captured 37 others, and seized weapons caches in Iraq over the past three days, military officials said. During operations today: -- An air weapons team fired a Hellfire missile at four criminals as they attempted to emplace an improvised explosive device in northeastern Baghdad around 1 a.m. The missile killed all four and destroyed the IED. -- A separate AWT witnessed two criminals setting up a firing position in northeastern Baghdad at about 1:30 a.m. The AWT engaged with one Hellfire missile and killed one criminal; the...

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2008 – A Hellfire missile fired from a coalition unmanned aerial vehicle killed six heavily armed criminals in northeastern Baghdad yesterday, military officials reported. Officials said coalition forces from Multinational Division Baghdad operating the UAV fired on a large group of criminals with rocket-propelled-grenade launchers and a mortar tube. In other operations in Iraq yesterday: -- Soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team found a weapons cache in Janabi. It contained a wide variety of ammunition and illumination rounds, propellant, fuses, a hand grenade, TNT and other bomb-making materials. The cache was turned over...

Iraqi and Coalition forces are conducting strikes against the Mahdi Army and other Iranian-backed Shia terror groups in Baghdad and Basrah. As these raids are occurring, the Sadrist movement cancels a scheduled protest in Baghdad and issues conflicting reports about Muqtada al Sadr's consultations with Shia clerics to disband the Mahdi Army. Clashes in Baghdad Today's clashes in the Shia neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad began after Mahdi Army fighters attacked a police and US Army patrol and fired mortars and rockets at the International Zone in central Baghdad. Five policemen and four civilians were wounded in an improvised explosive device...

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2008 – An Army Apache helicopter and an Air Force F-16 took out a mortar-launching team and their launch site yesterday after an observation team saw them emplacing mortars in the New Baghdad district, military officials reported. A joint security station reported a mortar attack near its location in the New Baghdad district. After a second 82 mm round exploded near the station, an aerial surveillance team pinpointed the two mortars' point of origin. Iraqi security forces called in a U.S. Army Apache air weapons team that killed the mortar crew with a Hellfire missile. An F-16...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASERELEASE No. 20080408-09April 8, 2008UAV destroys rocket rails, mortar and 10 criminals (Baghdad)Multi-National Division – Baghdad PAOBAGHDAD – A U.S. Air Force Predator observed four rocket rails in an open field in northeastern Baghdad at approximately noon April 8.The unmanned aerial vehicle fired one Hellfire missile destroying all rocket rails after the UAV controllers determined there were no civilians in the area.In a second engagement a Predator observed a group of armed criminals with rocket-propelled grenades and a mortar tube in northeast Baghdad at approximately 1:45 p.m.The unmanned aerial vehicle engaged these criminals firing one Hellfire missile killing...

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Fierce clashes between Shiite gunmen and US forces in the Iraqi capital's Sadr City district killed at least 20 people on Sunday, amid calls from Iraqi leaders for all militias to be disbanded.In northern Iraq, meanwhile, Iraqi security forces freed 42 university students who had been kidnapped by gunmen, a local army commander said.Security and defence ministry officials said women and children were among the 20 dead and 52 wounded in the Sadr City clashes that erupted at around midnight and continued sporadically throughout the day.The US military said it launched two air strikes in Sadr City...

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces stepped deeper Friday into the Iraqi government's fight to cripple Shiite militias, launching airstrikes in the southern city of Basra and firing a Hellfire missile in the main Shiite stronghold in Baghdad. The American support occurred as Iraqi troops struggled against strong resistance in Basra and retaliation elsewhere in Shiite areas — including more salvos of rockets or mortars into the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad. It was the first time American jets have been called to attack militia positions since Iraqi ground forces launched an operation Tuesday to clear Basra of the armed groups that...

Banished to the basement, the 29-year-old mother with a childlike mind and another baby on the way had little more than a thin rug and a mattress to call her own on the chilly concrete floor. Dorothy Dixon ate what she could forage from the refrigerator upstairs, where housemates used her for target practice with BBs, burned her with a glue gun and doused her with scalding liquid that peeled away her skin. They torched what few clothes she had, so she walked around naked. They often pummeled her with an aluminum bat or metal handle. Dixon -- six months...

When a missile fired from a U.S. Predator killed a top al-Qaida leader last week it underscored the warfighting power of unmanned aircraft, which are being considered for even greater use in Afghanistan and would consume at least $3.4 billion in the Pentagon's 2009 proposed budget. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will be traveling to a meeting of NATO defense ministers this week to discuss military needs in Afghanistan, which include more such eyes-in-the sky. And Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said Tuesday that the demand for intelligence-gathering aircraft there, as well as in Iraq, "has never been higher." According to...

A grainy videotape released Tuesday shows a carload of important Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq being blown up by missiles from a U.S. Army chopper, military officials said. At least one of the dead operatives was a "high-value" target linked to suicide bomb attacks, including the car bombing of the Australian Embassy in Baghdad, an Army spokesman told FoxNews.com. Of the six men killed in the Sunday attack, one was "believed to be an Al Qaeda cell leader known to facilitate attacks and orchestrate suicide bomb attacks," Maj. Alayne Conway of the 3rd Infantry Division told Fox. Conway did not...

In the summer of 2003, an Air Force pilot named Greg Harbin was doing desk duty at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. Day in and day out, Harbin sat in front of five computer screens, scanning photographs and video sent by unmanned planes flying 1,200 miles away, over Iraq and Afghanistan. His job was to take that information, along with reports from ground troops, and identify fresh targets -- Taliban fighters or Iraqi insurgents. But one thing puzzled him. When regular units called for an attack by a Predator drone, the request went to Harbin, and then, if...

Video of insurgents planting IED. Grab the popcorn and enjoy.

An Israeli helicopter launched an airstrike along the Gaza Strip's border with Israel early Saturday, killing a Palestinian fighter and injuring two others, secutity officials said. The army said it carried out the airstrike after spotting the Palestinians trying to plant a bomb. It said they had been spotted planting explosives there two days earlier. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small group, said the fighters were "on a holy mission" when they were hit by the Israeli force. The Israeli army said the Palestinians have planted more than 40 bombs along the border since the cease-fire...

A Predator drone fires a Hellfire missile at Iraqi insurgents.

Israeli Occupation forces killed Sunday at a pre-dawn raid a Palestinian activist and arrested three others in the West Bank city of Nablus, WAFA reported. The victim was identified as Iyad Mohammed Al-Hashash 19, of Balata refugee camp, east Nablus. Meanwhile, Palestinian medics reported that Khaddar Rayan died of wounds he sustained when an Israeli missile hit a group of Al Aqsa Martyrs fighters, in the northern part of Gaza Strip. Rayan, a member of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades was critically wounded in the head late Thursday when Israel targeted three Palestinians activists located in a farm close Jabalyia refugee...

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan - Shrapnel that appeared to be from an American-made missile was found Sunday at the house where Pakistan said a top al-Qaida operative was killed in an explosion, although President Bush's national security adviser declined to confirm the death. U.S. and Pakistani officials declined to confirm an NBC report, citing anonymous officials, that the attack on the house where Hamza Rabia reportedly died was launched by a U.S. drone. But local residents found at least two pieces of shrapnel at the blast scene inscribed with the designation of the Hellfire missile, which is carried by the U.S....

Officials: CIA missile strike kills al-Qaida No. 3 Terrorist group's operational leader Rabia killed in Pakistan By Robert Windrem and Carol Grisanti NBC News and news services Updated: 12:20 p.m. ET Dec. 3, 2005 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The operational commander of al-Qaida and possibly the No. 3 official in the terrorist organization, Hamza Rabia, was killed early Thursday morning by a CIA missile attack on a safehouse in Pakistan, officials told NBC News. Pakistan's president later confirmed the militant leader's death. “Yes indeed, 200 percent. I think he was killed the day before yesterday if I’m not wrong,” President Pervez...

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at a car in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun on Friday, killing a Palestinian militant in the latest in a series of violent confrontations that have all but buried peace efforts. Expressing growing frustration with the Palestinian leadership, Israel's defense minister dismissed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as "a one-man show" bereft of support from his own people and said he saw little chance of reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians in the present generation. A Palestinian negotiator rejected the pessimistic outlook, and insisted the Palestinians were...

WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - The United States has approved full-rate production of a new Hellfire missile variant, touted by President George W. Bush for its ability to kill guerrillas in urban settings, the missile's manufacturer said on Wednesday. U.S. commanders in Iraq have asked for more of the rounds, said Lt. Col. Kevin Curry, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, who added that early versions had already been used there in "limited numbers." More than 1,870 Americans have been killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. The "thermobaric" Hellfire AGM-114N warhead creates an intense, sustained pressure...

The other day, I heard on an evangelical station a preacher say that the RCC teaches that the fires of purgatory are as hot as the fires of hell and the only difference between the two is the duration. What does the Catholic Church teach about this? Exact quote: "The fire of Purgatory and Hell are the same, except in duration"

A Spanish mother has taken revenge on the man who raped her 13-year-old daughter at knifepoint by dousing him in petrol and setting him alight. He died of his injuries in hospital on Friday. Antonio Cosme Velasco Soriano, 69, had been sent to jail for nine years in 1998, but was let out on a three-day pass and returned to his home town of Benejúzar, 30 miles south of Alicante, on the Costa Blanca. While there, he passed his victim's mother in the street and allegedly taunted her about the attack. He is said to have called out "How's your...

6/20/2005 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- An MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle destroyed an anti-Iraqi forces mortar launch site near Al Qaim on June 18 while assisting Marines under enemy fire. The air strike occurred during Operation Spear in which U.S. and Iraqi security forces in Iraq’s Anbar province called in air strikes on terrorist strong holds. An Air Force joint terminal attack controller, whose unit on the ground was under mortar attack, saw imagery from a nearby Predator assigned to another mission and requested control of the unmanned aerial vehicle. After positive identification of the launch site, the Predator...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Newly released military video reveals unmanned U.S. Predators firing Hellfire missiles to rescue U.S. troops under fire in Iraq and destroy insurgent targets. The U.S. Air Force released 10 video clips Tuesday in response to requests from CNN and other television networks. The black and white footage, all from the summer and fall of 2004, shows what officials say are insurgents planting roadside bombs, firing at U.S. positions and gathering to attack U.S. troops.

Washington, Jan. 4 (CNA) Taiwan will purchase more than 400 Hellfire missiles from the United States, worth a total of about US$50 million, American defense industry sources said Tuesday. Lockheed Martin Corp. said in a news release that the company will produce over 600 AGM-114M and AGM-114K Hellfire missiles in line with its contract with the U.S. Army. According to an agreement between Taiwan and the U.S. Army, the press statement said, 70 percent of those air-to-ground missiles will be sold to Taiwan. The statement further said that 5 percent to 10 percent of the Hellfire missiles will be delivered...

What kind of message to “infidels”, (unbelievers – Christians and Jews), is it for a Muslim to set himself on fire? Fire resembles Hell. Here’s what Islam says: Qur’an 84:10 “Soon will He (Allah) cry for perdition, invoking destruction, throwing them into the scorching fire. They shall enter the fire and be forced to taste its burning.” Qur’an 87:12 “They will be flung in to burn in the great Fire (and be made to taste its burning, in which they will then neither die nor live?” So this Muslim set himself on fire and tasted it’s burning himself? As an...

Hamas has described the killing of one of its top militants, Adnan al-Ghul, as a "great loss to our people and to the resistance". In a statement dated 21 October the group's military wing added that its operations would not be affected by Al-Ghul's death. The following is the text of the "military communique" by the Hamas military wing Izz-al-Din al-Qassam Brigades published by Izz-al-Din al-Qassam Brigades web site on 22 October How many of the prophets fought in Allah's way, and with them fought large bands of godly men, but they never lost heart if they met with disaster...

Israeli forces have killed a member of the militant Hamas movement in the north of the Gaza Strip. The man, 25-year-old Abdelaluf Nabur, was hit by a rocket fired from a helicopter gunship. Israeli sources say soldiers fired on the Palestinians as they were preparing to launch an anti-tank rocket.

A PALESTINIAN television journalist was killed today as he was giving a live report to camera on deadly clashes between US forces and insurgents in the heart of the Iraqi capital. Residents of his home town in the West Bank watched in horror as Mazen al-Tomaisi, who worked for Saudi television Akhbariya and for the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya, went down. Mr Tomaisi, 28, was killed when a US helicopter fired missiles on a mob which had gathered round a US tank in Baghdad that had been set ablaze in a car bomb attack, one of a string of bombings...

TEL AVIV [MENL] -- The United States has rejected an Israeli request for an advanced airborne munition. Israeli sources said the Bush administration has withheld approval for an Israeli request for the sale of advanced versions of the Hellfire anti-tank missile. The sources said the models were deployed on U.S. Army AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters during the war in Iraq in 2003. The models sought by Israel are the L, M and N models of the Hellfire. Israel has been supplied with earlier versions of the missile. The Israel Air Force has sought to procure the latest models of...

HERSH/NEW YORKER: RUMMY'S TERROR HUNT Sun Dec 15 2002 11:01:20 ET The November 3rd killing of Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, an Al Qaeda leader, in Yemen, by a Hellfire missile, 'marked a dramatic escalation of the American war on terrorism,' Seymour Hersh claims in 'Manhunt,' in the December 23 & 30, 2002, issue of the NEW YORKER. On July 22nd, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld 'issued a secret directive ordering Air Force General Charles Holland, the four-star commander of Special Operations, 'to develop a plan to find and deal with members of terrorist organizations,' Hersh reveals, stating in his order...

JERUSALEM: On a day of remembrance for Israel's fallen soldiers yesterday, Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon warned the army would continue to assassinate leaders of radical Palestinian movements. "Pre-emptive strikes will continue because they undeniably weaken terrorist organisations," General Yaalon told public radio in an interview marking Israel's Remembrance Day. But he admitted the killing of militant Palestinian leaders did "not immediately dent the motivation" of radical organisations and risked fanning the flames of violence through retaliatory attacks. The speech came as Palestinian fighters fired on a military vehicle in the southern West Bank near Hebron yesterday, killing an...

<p>I have been staring with great anticipation out the window of my flat here in the heart of San Francisco, sighing heavily, waiting for the riots and the plagues and the screaming monkeys and the blistering rain of inescapable hellfire. I have my camera all ready and everything.</p>

Hamas vows revenge after senior activist assassinated by Israel in Gaza Strip An Israeli helicopter gunship fired two missiles at a car in Gaza City on Thursday, killing at least one person, Palestinian police sources and witnesses said. Two of the missiles struck the car and a third landed nearby in the street, witnesses said. Israel Radio reported that the strike killed a senior official in Hamas. The man killed in the strike was later identified as Iyad El-Bek, 27. Palestinian police at the scene said the strike was an "assassination." "A response is coming. The crime will not pass...

Al-Khalil, April 29, IRNA -- The Israeli occupation army on Tuesday murdered two Palestinian resistance fighters in two separate attacks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the first incident, two Israeli helicopters fired hell-fire air-to-ground missiles at the car of Nidal Salameh, an activist affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, killing him immediately. The missiles reduced the car into charred, twisted metals. Another person who was traveling with Salameh was badly in injured in the attack. In the village of Khadr, west of Bethlehem, the Israeli army assassinated Mahmoud Salah, a local head of...

As a recipient of various Arab real-time satellite TV channels, such as al-Jazeera, Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, Egypt Satellite, etc., I have been watching these programs perhaps more than CNN and the others recently, only if for the sole reason I want to find items that are provocative and are not making it into the Western media.If I was looking for 'provocative', I certainly found it by viewing, yesterday morning US time, a live satellite broadcast from LBC which was relaying the IRAQ TV broadcast of frightened US POWs from Texas, and humiliated/disrepected bodies of American heroes that had been shot...

American Said Died in Yemen Strike 2 hours, 13 minutes ago By AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press Writer SAN`A, Yemen (AP) - An American was believed to be among the six militants killed in a CIA (news - web sites) missile strike this weekend, a security source said Thursday. The six men, including Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, al-Qaida's top man in Yemen, were killed Sunday when a Hellfire missile fired from a pilotless CIA spy plane destroyed the car they were riding in. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the other five were known by their aliases — Saleh...

Many commentators have noted that the war on terrorism will require a battle for the "hearts and minds" of the world's Muslim radicals. We agree. But it's also true that, when all else fails, some of the more incorrigible hearts and minds need to be atomized. That's where the U.S. Predator unmanned drone comes in. In northwest Yemen on Sunday, a certain Qaed Salim Sunian al-Harethi was travelling by car with five other notables when a Hellfire missile, released by a Predator soundlessly lurking at high altitude, hit his vehicle. Car and occupants were destroyed. But Mr. al-Harethi will not...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 — The lethal missile strike that killed a suspected leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen was carried out under broad authority that President Bush has given the C.I.A. over the past year to pursue the terror network well beyond the borders of Afghanistan, senior government officials said today. The president was not asked to authorize the specific decision to fire the missile that killed the suspected Qaeda leader, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, the officials said. But Mr. Bush had been advised that the C.I.A was pursuing Mr. Harethi. Under the rules that Mr. Bush had approved, his...

Death of Terror Chief Deals Severe Blow to al-Qaeda By Elaine Monaghan in Washington and Daniel McGrory (U.K. Times, London) THE man killed by an unmanned CIA aircraft in Yemen yesterday was the mastermind behind the suicide attack on the USS Cole in which 17 sailors died, according to the United States. Ali Qaed Sunian al-Harthi was a key ally of Osama bin Laden and was on the FBI’s most-wanted list. He died with five other al-Qaeda suspects when their car was struck by a Hellfire missile launched by a CIA drone. Last night Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 10/26/02 - Bagram, Bamiyan, Gholghola, Hamburg, Dahuk, Aziz taken BREAKING: Dr. Germ taken, Lahore, Pakistan, Dr Amir Aziz, Bagram, live-fire exercise, Apache Hellfire, heroes return from a sortie, Harrier jets, Bamiyan, Afghanistan, Gholghola School, Kabul cricket game, 772nd MP Company, Massachusetts Army National Guard, Kandahar, 82nd Airborne, Gaza,Akram al-Zatma, Hamburg, Germany, Terrorist Mounir el Motassadeq at trial, Arad, Israel, at the funerals caused by Palestinian terrorists, Khan Younis, terrorists practice, Dahuk, Turkey =========== Bagram =========== In Bagram, live-fire exercise with Apache Hellfire missile. In Bagram, heroes return from a sortie. In Bagram,...

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The U.S. army carried out live-fire exercises using Apache attack helicopters in Afghanistan Tuesday and said the aircraft could have an important role in any war on Iraq.The Apache, the U.S. military's primary attack helicopter, was widely used against Iraqi air defenses at the start of the 1991 Gulf War.The test-firing of its Hellfire missile system was carried out near Bagram air base, the U.S. military headquarters north of Kabul. Apaches fired three of the laser-guided missiles, worth around $45,000 each, at targets in hills around the base. The U.S. military spokesman at Bagram, Lieutenant-Colonel Roger...

Dr. Abdul Aziz Ranteesi, one of the prominent Hamas Movement leaders in the Gaza Strip, has urged military wings of all resistance factions to strike the Zionist enemy anywhere and at any time without inhibition. Ranteesi, speaking at an urgent rally held by the Islamic bloc in the Islamic University in Gaza yesterday to protest the Zionist massacre in Shuja'iah and Zaitun suburbs, advocated the severest retaliation as punishment to the bloodbath that left nine Palestinians killed and 50 others wounded four of whom in serious condition. The Hamas leader said, "We must strike in Tel Aviv, Yaffa, Haifa ......

What's the smokey backroom? Smokey Backroom ^ Posted on 08/18/2002 8:33 PM Central by Itsfreewill Jim posted a message to the moderators, Mods: The Smokey Backroom is here. This forum is setup for those who want a little more heated debate. I'm recommending that we allow a little more rule bending here. We don't want the racist stuff or the propaganda, but we can allow the people to let their hair down a bit. Spitting, biting, hair pulling and cursing allowed as long as they don't go to extremes. I'm thinking we can also move out of control flamewar threads...