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Posted on 03/12/2004 8:23:06 PM PST by thecabal
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- This week's deadly train bombings in Spain will not lead to a rise in the U.S. color-coded terror threat alert system, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said Friday.
"Based on the current intelligence, we have no specific indicators that terrorist groups are considering such an attack in the U.S. in the near term," said department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli attack helicopters fired missiles at an apartment building and a car in Gaza City on Tuesday, and witnesses said at least three people were killed. Hospital officials said eight were wounded, three critically.
The airstrike came just hours after Israel's Security Cabinet decided to step up attacks against Hamas militants in Gaza, a security official said.
The decision was in response to a double suicide bombing Sunday in the seaport of Ashdod, killing 10 Israelis. It was the first time in more than three years of fighting that Palestinian bombers managed to get out of Gaza to carry out an attack.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the Gaza strikes. Ambulances and Palestinian security forces raced to the scene.
One of the wounded said four missiles hit the apartment building.
Smoke was seen rising from the northern Nasser neighborhood near a refugee camp. Israeli fighter planes flew over Gaza City just after the attack.
Channel Two TV said the strike was part of the stepped-up campaign that would include daily attacks against militants from Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad, both responsible for many suicide bombing attacks.
By AHSANULLAH WAZIR, Associated Press Writer
WANA, Pakistan - Pakistani troops killed 24 suspects in a fierce crackdown Tuesday on al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives in the rugged tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, the army spokesman said. At least eight Pakistani soldiers were killed and 15 wounded in the operation.
The operation unfolded near Wana, in Pakistan's South Waziristan region, just a few miles from the Afghan border, said army spokesman Gen. Shaukat Sultan. The attacks were launched a day after the country's military president promised to rid the rugged tribal belt of an estimated 500 to 600 foreign terrorists he said were hiding there.
It also followed an announcement over the weekend that American forces were stepping up a sweep on the Afghan side of the border to capture al-Qaida and Taliban holdouts, including terror chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
"We believe that 24 suspected terrorists have been killed," Sultan said.
The majority of those killed appeared to be Pakistani tribesmen suspected of sheltering the terrorists, but Sultan said that several of the dead were also foreigners presumed to be members of al-Qaida. There was no indication that any senior al-Qaida or Taliban leader was among them.
Sultan said soldiers had only been able to retrieve a small number of the dead suspects because of continued tension in the region, though the fighting had ended by Tuesday evening. The bodies of all eight dead soldiers had been retrieved and sent to army headquarters at Wana.
About 700 paramilitary forces began the operation early Tuesday in Kaloosha, a village about six miles west of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan.
A Kaloosha resident, Qasim Khan, said paramilitary troops exchanged fire with people inside a fortress-like house. It was unclear who was inside, but it was believed to belong to one of seven tribesmen from the Yargul Khel clan accused of harboring al-Qaida and Taliban suspects. The seven had refused to surrender to authorities.
"We are not allowed to go out of our homes," Khan told an Associated Press reporter by telephone from the besieged village.
It was unclear who was inside, but it was believed to belong to one of seven tribesmen from the Yargul Khel clan accused of harboring al-Qaida and Taliban suspects.
The operation was the latest in a series of military sweeps in Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal regions. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf vowed on Monday to rid the areas of suspected terrorists, and acknowledged for the first time that 500-600 foreigners were sheltering in the region. He appealed to tribal elders for their cooperation in the counterterrorism drive.
His comments came ahead of a scheduled two-day visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan starting Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, and after police on Monday defused a large car bomb outside the U.S. Consulate in the southern city of Karachi minutes before it was timed to detonate.
U.S. forces in Afghanistan over the weekend announced the start of Operation Mountain Storm, a large-scale sweep to hunt down al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives believed to be hiding in the border region.
Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, said Tuesday that U.S. forces were involved in ongoing checkpoint and house searches and patrols in Paktika, the Afghan province bordering South Waziristan. He said American commanders "continue to coordinate and cooperate" with the Pakistanis, but would not say if there were any operations linked to the Wana crackdown.
Paktika Deputy Gov. Sadokhan Ambarkhil told AP he had no information about any military activity on the Afghan side of the border, but that drivers coming from the border region had told of U.S. forces carrying out an operation last Friday.
He had no details or firsthand information.
"We have no administration in those areas," he said.
Pakistan is a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, but has faced criticism because rebels of al-Qaida and Afghanistan's former ruling Taliban regime are believed to still be launching attacks in Afghanistan from Pakistani soil.
Mehmood Shah, a government administrator for the tribal areas based in the northwestern city of Peshawar, said Tuesday's operation involved about 700 paramilitary soldiers.
The paramilitary forces blocked a road leading to Kaloosha from Wana and vehicles heading toward the village were turned back. An AP reporter could hear mortar fire.
A cleric issued an appeal by loudspeaker from Wana's main mosque for negotiations to end the fighting.
"People should go to Kaloosha to mediate a cease-fire so that ordinary people are saved from bloodshed," Bazid Khan said at the Pir Sultan mosque.
In the past two years, Pakistan has deployed 70,000 troops in the tribal areas for the first time since independence, and has staged five military operations.
Last month, Pakistan army troops using helicopter gunships and artillery raided several villages near Wana, capturing 25 people, none of whom was reported to be a top al-Qaida or Taliban figure.
By DMITRY LOVETSKY, Associated Press Writer
ARKHANGELSK, Russia - An apparent natural gas explosion sheared off part of a nine-story apartment building in the northern Russian city of Arkhangelsk as residents slep early Tuesday, killing at least 23 people, including three children. About 20 were missing.
Police blamed two homeless men who allegedly removed bronze fittings from gas pipes to sell them.
Igor Avtushko, spokesman for the regional Interior Ministry, said authorities were searching for two men seen by neighbors. The men allegedly were carrying metal pipes and tools. He said authorities found the seals missing in two neighboring buildings, but crews fixed the gas leaks.
Earlier authorities feared sabotage or terrorism because of heightened tension in Russia after a series of attacks blamed on Chechen rebels. In fall 1999, explosions blamed on rebels ripped through apartment buildings in Moscow and two other cities, killing some 300 people.
But a gas leak was seen as the most likely cause, emergency workers said, after firefighters reported a strong odor of gas and gas employees said leaks had been reported in other buildings overnight in Arkhangelsk, about 600 miles north of Moscow. No explosive devices were found, said Natalya Ozhigina, a spokeswoman for the regional Federal Security Service agency, told ITAR-Tass.
Tuesday's blast hit at 3:25 a.m. local time, when most of the 80 residents registered in the building in Arkhangelsk would have been in bed, Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Marina Ryklina said.
Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Yuri Vorobyov told Russia's NTV television at the scene that 22 bodies had been recovered by afternoon and that rescuers found another victim but had not yet been able to recover the body. He said 24 people had been pulled from the debris alive.
"We were awakened by a terrible noise," Igor, 40, who lives in the adjoining section of the apartment building, told Arkhangelsk's Pravda Severa newspaper. "The wall of our bedroom came crashing down on the bed. ... We were in a state of shock."
The explosion destroyed a whole section of the building, leaving huge chunks of debris.
Russian TV showed footage of rescue crews clambering over the wreckage, using power saws to cut through piles of building materials as cranes lifted off the biggest beams.
The Emergency Situations Ministry dispatched an Il-76 cargo plane from Moscow with more rescue workers and equipment.
"The base version is a natural gas explosion," Vladimir Lobanov, a regional official, told state television. He said gas officials were checking all buildings in the area. Citing an unidentified gas worker, ITAR-Tass reported that overnight repair teams had to fix gas leaks in two neighboring buildings after discovering "plugs unscrewed from the gas pipes" — hinting at possible sabotage.
Lobanov added, however, that the investigation was continuing.
There were 36 apartments in the affected section of the building, which Russian state television reported housed many military veterans and employees of the local Interior Ministry.
Neglect of safety precautions has led to frequent gas explosions in Russian apartment buildings and public facilities.
"Al-Qa'ida's Al-Ablaj Warns 'Zero Hour' for Strike Inside US Has Been Set
Previous electronic messages from al-Qa'ida set the month of Shawwal [started on 25 November], or the period between Id al-Fitr and Id al-Adha, as the date for the strike that it has consistently threatened to carry out. The latest electronic message from al-Qa'ida organization showed new assertions from the organization's leader of the imminent strike inside US territories and said he would appear later on in a televised speech to speak about this operation.
Abu-Muhammad al-Ablaj, an al-Qa'ida leader, said in his new message: "I was talking with the brothers around the shaykh [Usama Bin Ladin] and they asked me to confirm that the strike would be between the two ids, that it would break the back, and would upset the balances."
He reiterated previous statements he had made: Let them prepare from now for more sorrows and let them prepare the coffins and the largest number of hospitals and graves. The coming days are full of surprises and major events that will make them an historic example. We will teach them the painful lessons that they will never forget."
If you Google the word "Fatwa" and read their orders, you will see that in 1998 they decreed that all Americans should be killed. This message was far before 9/11 and the War in Iraq. Your observation about the time element is seemingly quite accurate. The negative, however, is that they've had lots of time for preparation.
23 February 1998
Shaykh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin
Ayman al-Zawahiri
The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, "and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together," and "fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah."
We -- with Allah's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in Allah and wishes to be rewarded to comply with Allah's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson.
By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two Germans working on a water-supply project south of Baghdad were shot to death Tuesday, and their deaths brought to six the number of foreigners killed in drive-by shootings in the past 24 hours.
The top U.S. military commander said the attacks were meant to divide the 36-member coalition occupying Iraq.
The two Germans were killed in an attack Tuesday on the outskirts of the town of Mussayab, 45 miles south of Baghdad, said Dr. Jamal Kadhim, head of the emergency department at Mussayab General Hospital. Their Iraqi driver and a police officer were also killed, and two police were wounded.
Kadhim said he saw the passports of the two Germans, though a German embassy official in Baghdad said one was German and one was Dutch. Police chief Col. A'ayed Omran said they were working on a project at Al-Razzaza, a lake near the southern city of Karbala, and that they were carrying weapons because they had been attacked in the same area before.
It came after four U.S. missionaries were slain in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Mosul, where they were working on a water-purification project. One of them died on the way to the hospital, and a fifth survived.
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez spoke before the attack on the Europeans, but said such attacks were meant to divide the coalition.
"Clearly there has been a shift in the insurgency and the way the extremists are conducting operations," Sanchez said during a military ceremony in the northern city of Tikrit. "It is very clear they are going after these targets that might create some splits within the coalition."
Sanchez cast doubt on whether Spain would withdraw its 1,300 troops from Iraq, as the new prime minister has said he will do if the United Nations (news - web sites) doesn't take over peacekeeping by June 30. But he said that if they do, the loss would not be "a significant military problem" for the U.S.-led coalition.
"I think that it is still evolving," Sanchez said. "We will have to wait a few days."
The Elliotts were scouting the best location for a water purification project, said Michelle DeVoss of the First Baptist Church in Cary, N.C.
The Virginia-based Southern Baptist International Mission Board identified the four dead as Larry T. Elliott, 60, and Jean Dover Elliott, 58, of Cary, N.C.; Karen Denise Watson, 38, of Bakersfield, Calif.; and David E. McDonnall, 28, of Rowlett, Texas.
McDonnall died Tuesday morning on a helicopter that was transporting him to a military hospital in Baghdad after four U.S. military surgeons worked for six hours to save his life, the mission board said.
McDonnall's wife, Carrie Taylor McDonnall, 26, of Rowlett, Texas, remains in critical condition, the mission board said. She is the only survivor of the attack.
Lt. Col. Joseph Piek, a spokesman for American forces in Mosul, said the five Americans were traveling in one car on the eastern side of the city when they were attacked.
An off-duty Iraqi policeman found the car shortly after the late Monday afternoon shooting. Three of the victims were dead. The officer took the two wounded to an Iraqi hospital. U.S. Army air medical evacuation helicopters later transported them to a combat support hospital in Mosul.
"They knew going into Iraq, they couldn't really share their Christian faith unless somebody asked them," said Larry Kingsley, a church deacon. "They were there in a humanitarian situation. They were people who just had a great heart for helping people out."
The five knew they were traveling to a dangerous part of the world, but decided to press on, said Manda Roten, spokeswoman for the missionary board.
"Their personal love for God and their desire to obey him would outweigh any personal risks for them," Roten said.
Iraqi police and the FBI were involved in the investigation.
Sanchez said the coalition could continue without Spain's contribution if it decides to withdraw.
"It is something we will have to adjust to," the general said. "But it is clearly manageable. It is not a significant military problem for the coalition to be able to cover that area."
The new prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, vowed to pull out Spanish forces during the election campaign. The United States plans to turn over sovereignty to Iraq by June 30 but has no plans to cede control of the military operation to the United Nations.
Zapatero's Socialist party was propelled to an upset victory in elections Sunday by anger over terrorist attacks in Madrid last week that killed 200 people. Voters accused the outgoing prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, of making Spain a target by supporting the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
In Mosul on Tuesday, an Iraqi woman whose sister works for the U.S. military was slain in a drive-by shooting that also wounded the woman's brother and father, police in the city said. Police said the slain woman, a pharmacist, may have been confused with her sister who works as a translator on a U.S. Army base in Mosul.
From the 1998 Fatwa directly:
Praise be to God, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)"; and peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-'Abdallah, who said "I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but God is worshipped, God who put my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders." The Arabian Peninsula has never--since God made it flat, created its desert, and encircled it with seas--been stormed by any forces like the crusader armies now spreading in it like locusts, consuming its riches and destroying its plantations. All this is happening at a time when nations are attacking Muslims like people fighting over a plate of food. In the light of the grave situation and the lack of support, we and you are obliged to discuss current events, and we should all agree on how to settle the matter.
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