Posted on 06/17/2004 5:51:13 PM PDT by nuconvert
New Waziristan Offensive Starts
Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gun ships have launched a fresh offensive in the South Waziristan region, officials say. Military and transport helicopters are reported to be accompanied by jet fighters west of the town of Wana.
Witnesses say that they heard the helicopters fire rockets at suspected militant hideouts.
An earlier offensive ended on Sunday after attacks using artillery, helicopter gun ships and jet fighters.
Since Sunday there have been at least two incidents of fighting - in one dozens of militants attacked a border security post.
The army has been trying to persuade rebellious sub-tribes protecting several hundred suspected foreign militants to hand them over for registration, so far unsuccessfully.
Instead, the tribesmen have been digging in, staging lightning strikes against the military.
They accuse the security forces of fighting against them on behalf of the Americans who are continuing to mount anti-Taleban operations across the rugged border in Afghanistan.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Do you have coordinates for Angor Adda?
No joy on my end, and had to eyeball 2km from FB...Shkin, based on the reports from 10/2003 to get it placed.
To save you some time, I've tried "Angur Adha", "Angoor Adda", "Angur Adda" and several other similar variants at:
http://www.traveljournals.net/explore/pakistan/locations/t/index/3.html
and
http://www.islamicfinder.org/cityPrayer.php?country=pakistan
with no luck.
If no coordinates, do you know if it is due east of Shkin on that same road, SE of Shkin on the track over the 10,700' feature, or SSE on the valley road that runs NS and intersects the road through Shkin just east of the border?
Thanks.
Speaking of GIS s/w, if you have any that generates DTED from DPPDB stereo pairs, let me know. The three today I looked at worked for their own test data, but not for real DPPDB.
Your post #11, I see you've been paying attention like few have.
NAME---------------HITS
angorada ----- 18
angoorada ---- 8
angoradda ---- 3
angooradda --- 8
angor ada ---- 2
angoor ada --- 134
angor adda --- 161
angoor adda -- 432
angurada ----- 8
angur adda --- 3
angur ada ---- 14
angore adda -- 111
Possibly even worse, none of those names can be found on the GEO Names data base!
BUT, I was finally able to pin it down...
Geonames Search Results For:
MBR: 32°26'N, 69°11'E by 32°36'N, 69°21'E (+/- 5'or 9 km from Shkin)
(4) PPL 32° 33' 56" N 069° 18' 42" E AF29 WB20 NI42-15 6207203 6224139 2002-08-20
Variant ƒe Angør Kðt Zyåbu (UNI= 6224138)
(4) PPL 32° 31' 11" N 069° 16' 14" E AF29 WA29 NI42-15 -3392575 -4826240 2002-09-26
Variant Skin (UNI= -4827278)
Variant Shakin (UNI= -4825236)
Variant Shåken (UNI= -4825183)
That places Angorada 6.4km (3.0 mi) NE (037º) from Shkin.
Simple as pie, LOL!!!
--Boot Hill
I really have to believe we are closing in on "somebody" - be it Zawahiri, Omar or UBL -
Side question - I have looking and I haven't found any audio links to Al Zawahiri since the first show of force by Pakistan back at the end of March - Also, at that time, Ret. Gen. Hunt (from Fox News) was reporting that SEALs killed Al Zawahiri during that operation (on the Pak side of the border) - However, nothing ever came of this info -
Just curious, has Zawahiri put out an audio since late March 2004??
Have you tried here:
N38.7310 W104.8475
Knock hard, they may not hear you at first if the doors are closed.
You may have difficulty finding that in the public domain, and may have to code it yourself. It's going to take some processing horsepower too, though I suspect you already know that.
A general overview of the file structure and at least part of the algorithm to ingest the pairs is here:
http://www.ai.sri.com/~apgd/reports/monthly-08-98.text
You're also going to have to convert from WGS-84 in order to export to DTED, but that will probably be the least of your worries.
Sooooo, where can one find this type of data online?
;-)
Thanks a bunch for that.
• “...has Zawahiri put out an audio since late March 2004”
Great question. I'm not aware of any recent Zawahiri audio and that is plenty curious. Remember today's news that we never disclosed (for security reasons) last winter's capture of a high-level terrorist in Iraq? Hmmm...
--Boot Hill
Thanks, Boot Hill, for the welcome and for the data. Interesting you found my site looking for maps, because that's how I found this place. Looks like a good place for a guy like me to hang out. Not many people are paying any attention at all to this offensive, and even fewer still are looking at the terrain and thinking for themselves.
I'd enjoy discussing possibilities in greater detail, but it doesn't seem like such a good idea in such a public place.
:-)
Simple as pie, my foot.
I can tell roughly how many searches you had to run to find that and I know how long each one takes. LOL, that's why I usually try the Islami-finder first and GEOnames only in dire emergencies.
Thanks again for the effort, I would have never found that....variant...on what they've been writing in the news.
Why it almost looks like someone has a plan!
Life on the internet can get real strange at times!
• “...even fewer still are looking at the terrain and thinking for themselves.”
Like they say, you can't tell the players without a program. And in this case, the players are the mountains, the passes, the valleys, the towns and the borders. And the program is the maps. Without the maps, you're just guessing about what's really going on and, more importantly, why.
• “I'd enjoy discussing possibilities in greater detail, but it doesn't seem like such a good idea in such a public place.”
There's very little we can discuss here that the bad guys don't already know because they're hip-deep in it. But some thoughtful opsec and a little discretion, never hurt anyone. Plus, here on FR you can avail yourself of private FReepmail to keep selected parties up to date with up coming events that you feel should be treated more discretely.
• “Simple as pie, my foot. I can tell roughly how many searches you had to run to find that and I know how long each one takes.”
You got that right! I did that search back in March and if memory serves, it took about four hours to glean what I could from Google and then do a narrow, focused search of the GEONames data base. One good thing about the speed of that data base, is that I can generally tell when a major U.S. operation is under way, because it takes extra long to post the results to me.
• “I usually try the Islami-finder first and GEOnames only in dire emergencies.”
Islami-finder is built from a much narrower (populated place) data base than GEONames. Even worse, they don't include variant names nor do they include the names of mountains, hills, valleys, springs, etc., etc. And geographic features comprise a lot of the features that we find ourselves tracking down.
For example, take that volatile collection of little villages, a dozen or so miles SW of Wana. You've already mentioned one of them, Kaloosha. Often cited in that collection of villages, is Azam Warzak. The problem is, Azam Warzak (native: Azamiwarsakai) is not a village it is a set of hills and the nearby villages are so small that they are commonly referred to by the name of the nearby hills, Azam Warzak.
BTW, I occasionally use another website, similar to Islami-find. I'll see if I can dig up the URL tonight and post it to you so you can compare the two and see if one is more worthwhile than the other.
Enjoyed the exchange.
--Boot Hill
Valin, I have oplans, fragplans, SIOPs, even floorplans. Thing is, Mushie won't take my calls, not sure why.
Boot Hill, I found out about Azam Warsak the hard way. Several days worth. At some point, I even found some coordinates...N32.0931 W69.4139...but IIRC there was a question mark attached to them so take them with a grain of salt. Not sure, that was about 857362543548392745 little villages ago.
I have a theory. I don't speak Pashto, but I'm guessing that every mud hut is actually a village, since more than one person probably lives there. The "village" names are related to the tribe and family names, so you have "Uncle Fred's town", "Uncle Fred's brother's town", and then you have "Uncle Fred's other brother's town" except the folks on that side of the clan switch the last two names around because obviously they are closer to this brother by blood and marriage so the first brother is the other brother to them. Of course, when somebody dies....or moves....or visits relatives...
Anyway, the contact seems to have moved slightly to Baghar, a different town near Angor Adda, or perhaps one of the miscreants died, or moved, or...anyway, it was still going on as of sundown, Lima. Sixteen rotary wing assets pounding away, possible CAS, reports of heavy casualties amongst the bad guys but no solid confirmation on that yet.
Things are heating up elsewhere too. Seems some PPP type in Karachi walked into a bullet, and his comrades walked out of the NA to plan massive protests. Could be SOP, could be significant, maybe after the mud at Baghar is returned to the horizontal state, I wouldn't complain if they took time to consolidate a bit. It's not like anyone has anywhere else to go.
Oh yeah, almost forgot to check Dawn's "breaking news". Sultan named one of the dead miscreants.
Some guy named Nek Mohammad.
http://www.dawn.com/2004/06/18/welcome.htm
(Herat changed hands again too.)
Last week during the Reagan funeral someone reported that al-Zawahiri released a tape.....but with the hub-bub with Reagen it went right over media's head. But the CIA reviewed the tape and COULD NOT CONFIRM IT WAS HIM SPEAKING.
That's the coordinates I found, too (as long as you change that west longitude to east). I believe the question mark you mention is a reference to an unverified place name, rather than unverified coordinates. Azam Warsak is really that obscure.
• “Sixteen rotary wing assets pounding away, possible CAS...”
Since there are no reporters in the Shkin/Angorada area to call Mushi a liar, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Paki's are not availing themselves of some U.S. assets, like Spectre from across the border at our base in Shkin. It wouldn't be the first time...
• “Sultan named one of the dead miscreants. Some guy named Nek Mohammad.”
The CNN version of the story is posted to FR over here...
Missile kills Pakistan tribal head
Got to get some shut-eye, see you tomorrow.
Boot Hill
LoL.
Like your new tagline
Yes, I remember that. Hasn't been any follow-up, so who knows....?
Good idea. Where do we drop it?
A green MOAB??
What happen to the Orange?
I hope they catch UBL before the election!!!
Sounds like they're getting close!
Maybe they come in an assortment of colors, like M&Ms.
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