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Daily Terrorist Roundup Stories - April 2,2005 (Arrests in six countries)
4/2/05

Posted on 04/01/2005 11:41:42 PM PST by Straight Vermonter


Coalition forces arrest three Taliban commanders

 
US-led and Afghan forces have seized three mid-level Taliban commanders in a central region of the war-scarred country, officials said on Friday.  The men were arrested in an operation Thursday in the Charchino district of of Uruzgan province, Lieutenant General Muslim Ahmed, a commander of the Afghan National Army (ANA) in Kandahar told AFP. "They were hiding in a house. We had intelligence about their presence. The raid was conducted jointly by US forces and ANA," he said. "The house was surrounded, and there was no exchange of fire during the operation."

The detainees were handed over to coalition forces, he added. The US-led military coalition has around 18,000 troops in Afghanistan who have been hunting down militants from the ultra-Islamic Taliban regime since it was toppled in late 2001.  Taliban attacks have surged with the advent of spring, with a series of bomb blasts and ambushes leaving a number of Afghan policemen and militants dead. Officials said Friday that a former Taliban commander had surrendered to the Afghan government, one of most high-profile figures to do so. (See story below)

Commander Abdul Waheed handed himself over to the authorities in southeastern Helmand province to take advantage of a planned amnesty announced by Kabul early this year.  US-backed President Hamid Karzai's administration has been in talks with a number of former Taliban leaders in recent months but has not announced the final details of the amnesty scheme.  The top US commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General David Barno, said this week that the Al-Qaeda terror network was trying to mastermind a comeback by the Taliban.

The militia supported Osama bin Laden both before and after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
 
 
Key former Taliban commander surrenders

Kabul - A former Taliban commander has surrendered to the Afghan government, one of most high-profile figures to do so since the regime was toppled more than three years ago, officials said on Friday.

Commander Abdul Waheed handed himself over to the authorities in the south-eastern Helmand province to take advantage of a planned amnesty announced by Kabul early this year, provincial intelligence chief Dad Mohammad Khan said.

American-backed President Hamid Karzai's administration has been in talks with a number of former Taliban leaders in recent months but has not announced the final details of the amnesty scheme.

Waheed has now moved to the Afghan capital Kabul where he is expected to meet Karzai.

'His surrender will help to bring other Taliban officials in'
"He was a key Taliban commander. His surrender will help to bring other Taliban officials in," Khan said.

It was unclear if the surrendered commander had been involved in any anti-government attacks since the fundamentalist Islamic Taliban were ousted by a US-led military offensive in late 2001.

The Taliban sheltered al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden before and after the September 11 attacks on the United States, in which about 3 000 people died.

An 18 000-strong US-led coalition force remains in Afghanistan where they are hunting down Bin Laden as well as militants from the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

An Afghan intelligence official in Kabul said Waheed had close ties with Mullah Omar, the spiritual leader of the ousted militia during their 1996-2001 rule of the war-shattered country.

Karzai has said that with the exception of a hard core of about 150 fighters accused of war crimes, the country's remaining 1 000 or so Taliban footsoldiers would be eligible for the government amnesty offer.

Remnants of Taliban have launched a spring offensive in their heartland in Afghanistan's south an southeast, with a series of bomb blasts and attacks targeting Afghan soldiers and police and US forces.

The United States is also running an amnesty scheme of its own, under which about 30 Taliban have surrendered. The programme will later be rolled into the Afghan government's reconciliation drive, officials said.

On Thursday two suspected insurgents were killed by a mine they were planting on a road to target a local government official in Helmand's Nawzad district, Khan said. - Sapa-AFP

 
Six local and foreign al-Qaeda fugitives arrested in NWFP

Islamabad, Mar 31 (UNI) Six al Qaeda suspects were arrested by Pakistani security agencies in an early morning raid in the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP).

Confirming the arrests to the state-run Pakistan Television, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said four to six people, including some foreigners, were captured in the raid.

However, he did not disclose their nationalities and the exact place from where they were arrested.

He also clarified that none of the six captured suspected carried head-money but added that small arms and some literature were seized from their possession.


Police seize 13 Madrid suspects (Related story below)

Spanish police have arrested 13 more people in connection with the Madrid train bombings that claimed 191 lives.
Police say 12 people were arrested when more than 100 officers took part in raids in and around Madrid, in an operation lasting several hours.

They detained a number of Moroccans, Syrians and other suspects of North African and Middle Eastern origin. A 13th suspect was seized later.

Meanwhile, Belgium has extradited a Moroccan suspect to Spain.

Spanish prosecutors suspect Youssef Belhadj of being al-Qaeda's European spokesman, who claimed responsibility for the 11 March 2004 train bombings in a videotape.

Mr Belhadj denies involvement in the attacks.

Four of those arrested on Friday were believed to have links to Mr Belhadj, government and police sources said.

Another detainee was thought to have been the personal assistant of the alleged mastermind of the attacks, a Tunisian named Serhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet.

"The Tunisian" was among seven suspects who died when they blew themselves up during a police raid on the Madrid suburb of Leganes last April.

More than 70 people have been arrested in the course of the investigations into the attacks, which have been blamed on Islamic radicals.



Belgium extradites Madrid bomb suspect

BRUSSELS, Apr 1 (Reuters) Belgium today extradiated a suspected Islamist militant to Spain, where he is wanted for alleged involvement in the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people last year.

''Everything went well. He has arrived (in Spain),'' a spokesman for the Belgian federal public prosecutor's office said.

The Supreme Court of Appeals last month cleared the way for Moroccan-born Youssef Belhadj's extradition to Spain, where he is suspected of being the al Qaeda spokesman who claimed responsibility for the bombings in a videotape.

Born in Morocco but living in Belgium, he was first arrested in March 2004 and later released. Police arrested Belhadj again in early February.

Investigation into the March 11 attacks turned up information suggesting Belhadj could be ''Abu Dujan'', a purported spokesman for Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda in Europe.

Abu Dujan said on the tape that the attacks on four commuter trains were in retaliation for the then Spanish government's cooperation with US President George W Bush, particularly citing Spanish involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The tape was released hours before Spaniards went to the polls in a general election that ousted the pro-US Popular Party, electing Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero who pulled Spanish troops out of Iraq.

More than 100 suspected Islamic militants have been arrested in Spain since the March attacks. Many have been released for lack of evidence.



Five gunmen killed, two arrested in Tikrit  
 

BAGHDAD, April 1 (KUNA) -- Iraqi security forces on Friday killed five gunmen and arrested two others in the Tikrit Province, north of Baghdad.

A US Army press release said today that a group of gunmen attacked an Iraqi Rapid Reaction Force unit at 6 a.m. nearby a police station in Tikrit, north of Baghdad.

The press release added that the Iraqi force responded to the attack, killing five gunmen and arresting two others with the help of the US forces.

Meanwhile, Iraqi security forces arrested two leaders of armed groups in Iraq in the city of Mosul.

An Iraqi Government's press release confirmed that Iraqi security forces, based on tips from Iraqi citizens, arrested terrorist Shukarah Khail in Mosul.

It added that Khail, 38, is holding Pakistani citizenship and is leading a terrorist cell that transports terrorists and weapons into Iraq. He is also involved with beheading a number of Iraqi Government employees and members of the Iraqi security forces.

The Iraqi forces also arrested "the Afghan terrorist Alawi Al-Ralih in Mosul," said the press release.

It noted that Al-Ralih, also known as Abu Zad, is leading an insurgent cell and planning attacks with explosives against Iraqi security forces and citizens.

SV-Another article I read tonight siad that pressure on "insurgents" in Mosul had gotten so intense that they were leaving for Kirkuk, so look for that area to heat up.
 
 
Less than 5% of Chechens support Chechen militants

 
 MOSCOW, April 1 (Itar-Tass) - Chechen Prime Minister Sergei Abramov believes that less than five percent of Chechens support Chechen militants.

He refused to estimate the number of militants who are fighting in Chechnya, but noted that at present “there is much fewer of them” than before.

According to Abramov, the qualitative line-up of militants has also changed. “These are mainly mercenaries who are fighting for money. Unfortunately, they are financed well. There are forces who want to destabilize the situation in the North Caucasus,” he pointed out. “But this will not happen,” Abramov believes.
 
SV-Mercenaries in Iraq and Chechnya and the fighters in Afghanistan are largely foreigners who are no longer welcome in their home countries. Methinks the Jihad has faltered a bit.


Action against officials aiding militants (Tax dollars for terrorists-India)
 
Delhi has decided to take stern actions against the officials who allegedly help the underground groups in the northeast region to get access to central funds meant for development purposes.

The central officials have begun a brainstorming session on how to plug up such delinquencies and block the funds from getting into the hands of the militant groups in the region, particularly in Manipur and Nagaland.

A high level meeting in this regard was recently held in New Delhi under the chairmanship of the Union cabinet secretary BK Chaturvedi.

The meeting also discussed the possibility of mass scale inter-state transfer of employees of the central and state governments to minimize the nexus among a section of officials and the insurgents.

Centre has also been given feedback by the intelligence agencies of the region that a number of officials had taken voluntary retirements, unable to withstand the pressure from the militant groups in recent times in the states of Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura, added the sources.

It is estimated that as much as 70 per cent of all funds available to the state governments of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur under the 'rural development' sector was being systematically siphoned off by a well organized network of militant cadres, contractors, civil servants and members of the political executive.

According to intelligence officials, a complex arrangement between various influential people and terrorist elements exists in the northeast and this arrangement facilitates a continuous transfer of resources into the underground economy.
 
 
Four ultras among six killed in J&K

Srinagar, April. 1 (PTI): Four militants were killed and two persons including a security jawan injured in two separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir, where ultras beheaded two civilians after chopping off their limbs in Rajouri district, a police spokesman said today.

Three militants of Hizbul Mujahideen identified as Manzoor Ahmad, Dilawar Bhat and Zakir Faisal Khan were killed after a fierce overnight gun battle at Trenz in Shopian area of Pulwama district this morning, the spokesman said.  He said three AK assault rifles and some ammunition were recovered from the possession of the slain ultras.

In another encounter, he said security forces shot dead a militant of Jaish-e-Mohammad, Abdul Majid during combing operations at Sonabrari forest in Anantnag early today. A security jawan and a civilian were also injured in the encounter and were hospitalized, An AK rifle, three magazines and three grenades were seized from them.

Militants abducted one Lal Hussain Gujjar from Allal village in Rajouri and took him to Thanamandi forest belt yeaterday. They tortured him, chopped his limbs and beheaded him, police sources said. The ultras also left a message saying informers would meet the same fate in the district, they said.

Another person Amar was kidnapped and beheaded in Argi village of the district yesterday, the sources said.



French Police Arrest Basque Terrorist Suspect Fleeing Car Crash

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- French police arrested an alleged member of Basque terrorist group ETA as he tried to flee the scene of a car crash in Dax, southwest France, Spain's Interior Ministry said.

Peio Ion Sanchez Mendaza, 35, was caught after crashing a stolen Fiat Punto, according to a faxed ministry statement. Detained three times in Spain since 1991, he'd been on the run since August and was carrying documents with four different identities, including his own, the ministry said.

ETA, whose initials stand for Euskadi ta Askatasuna, or Basque Homeland and Freedom, killed more than 800 people since the late 1960s in a campaign to gain independence for the Basque- speaking areas of Spain and France.



Terrorist links grow (Canada)

KATE DUBINSKI and MAX MAUDIE, EDMONTON SUN

  Sinister links are emerging between a former Leduc man charged with terrorism-related offences in the United States and militant jihad groups in the Middle East. Two reports link Kassem Daher, who ran movie theatres in Leduc after moving to Canada in the 1980s, to the bombing of the World Trade Centre in 1993.

The two reports, by Beirut Indy Media and U.K.-based AFI Research, say Daher was detained by Canadian authorities in connection with the bombing but released in 1998 because of lack of evidence.

Daher returned to his native Lebanon in 1998.

But in a conversation taped by the FBI in 1995, he refers to the Wetaskiwin-based Canadian Islamic Association as a "cover, I mean it's very good."

Daher was listed as the organization's vice-president at its inception in January 1992.

CSIS, the RCMP and the federal Justice Department were unable to confirm if Daher was detained in connection with the 1993 Trade Centre bombing. But Daher is a suspected associate of Egyptian Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, also known as the Blind Sheik, who is currently serving a life sentence in the U.S. for his role in organizing the WTC bombing.

Daher, a Sunni Muslim, is thought to be a salafist, one of the oldest and most militant groups linked to al-Qaida.

"It's militant. There's no other way around it. It's one of the most prestigious groups within al-Qaida," said John Thompson, a terrorist expert with the Mackenzie Institute.

The institute lists Daher as one of "a variety of terrorists and key supporters who have lived in Canada while on the run for terrorist actions in a homeland conflict, or who have acted on behalf of an overseas terrorist organization after establishing a Canadian residence."

CSIS spokesman Barbara Campion said CSIS is not tracking Daher because he is in Lebanon. "He is a dual Canadian-Lebanese citizen. He's living in Beirut, and he's unable to leave because of bail conditions," said Campion yesterday.

Daher was arrested in connection with a gunfight in 2000 in the Lebanese capital, and Campion said his bail conditions prohibit him from leaving the country.

CSIS director Jim Judd also said in February that Daher is a member of Ubat Al Asar, a Lebanon-based extremist organization seeking to establish a radical Islamic regime.

Even if CSIS wanted to find him, though, Thompson said Daher would be almost impossible to locate.

"If he's in Lebanon, he might as well be on the other side of the moon as far as our ability to track him is concerned," he said, adding Syrian control of most of the country, and armed militia, mean it's a haven for terrorist groups.

Daher and Kifah Wael Jayyousi - who was arrested on Sunday in Detroit - are charged with conspiring to provide material support and resources for terrorism and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure people or damage property in a foreign country. The charges stem from conversations taped by the FBI between the two men.

Federal Conservative justice critic Vic Toews said the allegations made by U.S. authorities should carry enough weight to stir Canadian authorities to action.

"It's incumbent upon our government to look at these kinds of allegations to ensure that these are not fronts for terrorism," Toews said, adding that "we have to be very careful when we make accusations, and we have to be careful not to tar everyone with the same brush."

Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan - minister of public safety and emergency preparedness - wasn't available for comment. But a spokesman said officials know Canada is not immune from terrorist cells.

"Security agencies do what's necessary to ensure it isn't used as a base," said Alex Swann.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; War on Terror
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 04/01/2005 11:41:42 PM PST by Straight Vermonter
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To: AdmSmith; Cap Huff; Coop; Dog; Ernest_at_the_Beach; ganeshpuri89; Boot Hill; Snapple; ...
Let me know if you want on/off the terrorist roundup ping list.

Terrorist Scorecard

2 posted on 04/01/2005 11:42:25 PM PST by Straight Vermonter (Liberalism: The irrational fear of self reliance.)
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To: Straight Vermonter

Would you be so kind as to add me to the terrorist roundup ping list?


3 posted on 04/01/2005 11:43:41 PM PST by pax_et_bonum (Three guys walked into a bar. The fourth one ducked.)
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To: pax_et_bonum

Certainly.


4 posted on 04/02/2005 12:03:33 AM PST by Straight Vermonter (Liberalism: The irrational fear of self reliance.)
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To: Straight Vermonter

Bump


5 posted on 04/02/2005 12:05:44 AM PST by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
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To: Straight Vermonter

Please add me to the ping list--and thanks for the good work!


6 posted on 04/02/2005 12:11:19 AM PST by Fedora
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To: Straight Vermonter

Busy day :) Very good !!!


7 posted on 04/02/2005 2:01:32 AM PST by Deetes (Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick)
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To: Straight Vermonter
Can you add me to your terrorist roundup ping list?
I love good news! ;-)
8 posted on 04/02/2005 2:05:42 AM PST by Tunehead54 (I'm not winking - this way I only have to hit the shift key once - so I'm lazy! ;-)
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To: Straight Vermonter

Thanks for the ping .


9 posted on 04/02/2005 4:31:56 AM PST by iso
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To: Straight Vermonter
Yemen clashes kill 36 soldiers and Shi'ite rebels

SANAA, April 2 (Reuters) - Yemeni army tanks and helicopters pounded Shi'ite rebel strongholds in the north on Saturday, killing at least 36 people, officials and rebel sources said.

Fighting broke out late on Friday in the northern area of Nishour after rebels tried to attack an army camp. Ten soldiers and six rebels died in the battle, an official said.

Clashes spread close to Saada province on Saturday, killing at least 20 rebels, rebel sources said.

It was the latest in a series of clashes between government forces and rebel followers of slain Shi'ite Muslim cleric Hussein al-Houthi. Local sources said the government was using tribal leaders to mediate a rebel surrender.

Houthi, a Zaidi Shi'ite Muslim who founded a radical group called Believing Youth, was killed last September after two months of clashes with security forces in which at least 200 rebels and state troops died.

Yemeni security sources have blamed Houthi's father, Sheikh Badr el-Deen, for the new round of violence which has killed dozens of government soldiers and rebels since erupting in late March in Saada and surrounding areas of Nishour, al-Shafaah and al-Rizamat.

Yemen says Houthi's armed group is allied to Iran and is trying to overthrow the government, install a Shi'ite religious rule, and is preaching violence against the United States and Israel at mosques. The group is not linked to al Qaeda.

Authorities have detained around 800 suspected followers and have closed many religious schools run by Houthi's followers, saying they were illegal.

Sunni Muslims make up most of Yemen's 19 million population, while Shi'ite Muslims, which include the Zaidi sect to which President Ali Abdullah Saleh belongs, compose about 15 percent.

Yemen has joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It has cracked down on al Qaeda-linked militants following attacks at home, including the 2000 USS Cole bombing and the 2002 attack on the French supertanker Limburg.
10 posted on 04/02/2005 4:55:20 AM PST by Straight Vermonter (Liberalism: The irrational fear of self reliance.)
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To: Straight Vermonter

American captured in Iraq said to be key Zarqawi aide (More info on this guy)



Associated Press

The U.S. military in Iraq is holding a man it says is the first American captured fighting for the Iraqi insurgency. Pentagon officials describe the man, who holds U.S. and Jordanian citizenship, as a senior associate of al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The American was captured in a raid at his home in Iraq in late 2004, Matthew Waxman, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, said in an interview Thursday.

Officials declined to provide his name, hometown, or identify him other than to say he functioned as Zarqawi's emissary to insurgent groups in several cities in Iraq.

Zarqawi, who has declared his allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, is the most wanted man in Iraq and is tied to numerous bombings and kidnappings since the U.S.-led invasion removed Saddam Hussein from power two years ago.

Defense officials also say the captured American helped coordinate the movement of insurgents and money into Iraq, and provided support for kidnappings carried out by Zarqawi's operatives, Waxman said.

"Weapons and bomb-making materials were in his residence at the time he was captured," Waxman said. Several other insurgents were captured in the raid, conducted by U.S.-led coalition forces.

After his capture, a panel of three U.S. officers determined he was an enemy combatant and not entitled to prisoner-of-war status under the Geneva Convention, Waxman said.

The man is still being held as a security threat but has been visited by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

His capture represents a complicated legal issue for the military, and it is uncertain whether he will be turned over to the Justice Department for investigation or to Iraq's new legal system, which has handled the prosecution of other foreign fighters who came to Iraq to fight the U.S.-led occupation and new Iraqi government.

Waxman said officials were considering how to proceed with his case.

11 posted on 04/02/2005 5:02:11 AM PST by Straight Vermonter (Liberalism: The irrational fear of self reliance.)
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To: Straight Vermonter
Europe's Boys of Jihad (Excerpted)

The case file of the French homeboys who joined the Iraqi jihad contains a startling photo.

It's the mug shot of Salah, the alleged point man in Damascus, Syria, who authorities say arranged for guns and safe passage into Iraq for extremists from Paris. Salah has a serious expression beneath a short Afro-style haircut. He looks as if he's posing, reluctantly, for a middle school yearbook.

When Salah left for Damascus with the jihadis last summer, he was 13 years old.

"He's just a little kid!" exclaimed Ousman Siddibe, a leader of Good Boys of Africa, an African-French community association in Paris' Riquet neighborhood. "We have some husky guys around here, but he's not one of them. And he's got an innocent face."

Salah, the son of African immigrants, remains a fugitive two months after police here broke up the alleged terrorist cell. His odyssey is a drastic example of a trend, investigators say: Not only are Islamic extremists in Western Europe radicalizing faster, they are also younger than ever.

"The trajectory is changing," said Marc Sageman, a forensic psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania and a former CIA officer. "Extremism is now appealing to younger and younger people."

Before the Sept. 11 attacks, the thousands of militants from around the world who flocked to Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, and to the wars in Chechnya and Bosnia-Herzegovina, were mostly in their 20s and 30s. In his book profiling 172 jihadis of that era, "Understanding Terror Networks," Sageman found a median age of 26, as "most people joined the jihad well past adolescence."
12 posted on 04/02/2005 5:10:16 AM PST by Straight Vermonter (Liberalism: The irrational fear of self reliance.)
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To: Straight Vermonter

I haven't kept a count, but that Madrid cell seems to have been huge.


13 posted on 04/02/2005 5:19:50 AM PST by Coop (In memory of a true hero - Pat Tillman)
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To: Straight Vermonter

Please add me to your ping list, thanks. Good work!!!


14 posted on 04/02/2005 5:19:57 AM PST by Springman
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To: Straight Vermonter

Thanks for your excellent summaries - I look forward to them!


15 posted on 04/02/2005 6:58:38 AM PST by Ben Hecks
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To: Straight Vermonter

SV-Mercenaries in Iraq and Chechnya and the fighters in Afghanistan are largely foreigners who are no longer welcome in their home countries. Methinks the Jihad has faltered a bit.


Not according to some here. It's faltered more than a bit. 9-11 was the highwater mark of Islamic terrorism.


16 posted on 04/02/2005 8:06:24 AM PST by Valin (DARE to be average!)
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