Daily Terrorist Round-up Stories 4/27/05 (US Muslim Convicted of terror; 130 busted in Iraq)

(American based) Muslim leader convicted inciting military training

Washington, April 27. (PTI): A US federal jury has convicted a prominent Muslim leader of inciting his followers to undergo militant training abroad under various terror outfits, including Lashkar-e-Toiba.

Ali Al-Timimi (41) was convicted yesterday when the jury decided that words were enough to send him to prison for what prosecutors said will be a mandatory life sentence.

Five days after the September 11 attacks, prosecutors said, Timimi met with some men in Fairfax County and urged them to join Taliban forces in Afghanistan.

Timimi was accused of approving a plan for group members to prepare for 'holy war' by obtaining military training from Lashkar-e-Toiba, which the US government has labelled a terrorist organisation.

Several of the men Timmi talked to went to an LeT camp where they fired assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, court records show.

The Fairfax County resident was found guilty of all 10 counts against him, including soliciting others to war against the United States and contributing services to Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers.

"By his treasonous criminal acts, he has proven himself to be a kingpin of hate against America and everything we stand for, especially our freedom," US Attorney Paul J McNulty said in a statement after the verdict.

U.S. and Iraqi troops report more than 130 militants detained in raids

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) U.S. and Iraqi troops detained more than 130 suspected militants and seized weapons in a series of raids across Iraq this week, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

At least 94 of those captured came from the Baghdad area, said Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a spokesman for Task Force Baghdad. Both weapons and munitions were seized, he said. ''You name it, we have it,'' Kent said.

Most of the militants detained in Baghdad were believed to be directly involved in recent attacks in the capital. Two were ''specifically targeted as members of an execution cell,'' the military said in a statement.

''These aren't random searches. ... We are acting on specific, credible information we receive from local citizens who want to join us in the fight against terrorism,'' Kent said. ''We are questioning people in the area and conducting our operations based mainly on this information.''

In Babil province south of Bagdad, coalition forces found illegal weapons and detained 20 people, including one fugitive wanted by the U.S. military for attacking troops.

Iraqi security forces and coalition troops captured 17 more suspects in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, the military said. Rocket propelled grenades and artillery rounds were seized.

In Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, north of Baghdad, U.S. forces arrested six suspects over two days, the military said. Another suspect was detained in the holy city of Najaf, the military said.

‘Militants were in touch with LeT top gun in J-K’ (Follow up to yesterday's story)

New Delhi, April 26: INVESTIGATIONS by the Delhi Police Special Cell into the LeT module busted by them last night in an encounter near Pragati Maidan revealed that the slain militants were in constant touch with Abu Qama, the Lashkar commander of J-K based in Pakistan.

This has come out in the examination of phone calls made from the Thuraya satellite phone recovered from the militants, one of whom was a Pakistani.

‘‘The Pakistani militant was identified as Osama, a resident of Sialkot. A fake election card in the name of Mohammed Amin Bhatt, resident of Kishtwar in Doda was recovered from him,’’ said Karnal Singh, Joint Commissioner, Special Cell.

Osama, who was living in the Capital under the name of Abu Saad, was the suspected fidayeen whom police were keeping under technical surveillance.

Osama had come to collect a consignment of arms from Sabbid, the militant from whom police recovered a fake election card in the name of Mansoor Ahmed Wani of Kishtwar. Sabbid, police said, had driven the car from J-K and had reached Delhi via Karnal. Toll tax receipts of Haryana and of petrol at stations in Jammu and Haryana have also been recovered.

A fake registration certificate with the name and address of Md. Wani, resident of Gaffar Manzil, Jamia Nagar was recovered from the Maruti 800 driven by Sabbid. On verifying the registration number from the Transport Department, police found the car was in the name of New Jain Software Technology, Qutub Institutional Area, and was sold to Sumita Singh of Hissar.

‘‘Teams have been despatched to Hissar and J-K. A pocket diary was recovered from Osama which contains the satellite telephone numbers and other numbers in Pakistan and J-K and two e-mail IDs of Yahoo and Rediff, the details of which have been sought,’’ said Ashok Chand, DCP, Special Cell. The police is also analysing the calls made from Hutch mobile phone recovered from the militants.

Police said investigations were on about the bases set up by Osama in Delhi and a search is on for other module members.

FOREIGN MERCENARIES EMPLOY LOCAL RESIDENTS FOR TERRORIST ATTACKS IN CHECHNYA

GROZNY, April 27, (RIA Novosti) - Foreign mercenaries from among the Arabs and Turks operating in Chechnya are trying to employ in their terrorist attacks members of different nationalities living in the republic, according to Russian secret services, reported Major-General Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman for the regional headquarters for the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus.

The law enforcement bodies know that the mercenaries handle practically up to 80% of the funds allocated to finance illegal armed formations.

But, according to Shabalkin, evidence by self-reported militants suggests that financial injections from abroad into illegal armed formations have markedly diminished in the recent period. The headquarters reported that not a single bandit group made up mostly of mercenaries came to the assistance of their partners-in-crime against whom federal forces mounted special operations.

On January 30, 2005, for example, in the Urus-Martan district of Chechnya, law enforcement bodies isolated and destroyed two militants from the Bugayev group.

On April 5 of this year in Khasavyurt in Dagestan, a special operation demolished two warlords - Anvar Visayev and Anvar Abdulkadyrov, the headquarters said.

In addition, intelligence reports and information supplied by detained militants say that an armed conflict has erupted between bandits of the Dzhanet grouping over finances, it was noted at the headquarters.

Kyrgyzstan: Banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Faces Dwindling Appeal, Internal Divisions (Excerpted)
By Gulnoza Saidazimova

Many observers are concerned the recent revolution in Kyrgyzstan has created instability that could be used by Islamic extremists to gain influence. Russian media say radicalization of Islamic groups is inevitable in Kyrgyzstan. Western journalists have focused specifically on the country's south, where the banned organization Hizb ut-Tahrir has traditionally been most active. Many Kyrgyz experts, however, see the situation differently.

Prague, 27 April 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Before the parliamentary elections that triggered Kyrgyzstan's March revolution, Hizb ut-Tahrir had called on voters to boycott the ballot. The group has also rejected the new interim government, for the same reason it rejected that of ousted leader Askar Akaev: Neither is Islamic.

“Our position has always been the same. No matter who it is, a peasant or a head of state, our appeal remains unchanged -- we urge them to do good and to avoid evil; we call on them to follow Shari'a [Islamic law]," Dilyor Jumaboev, a Hizb ut-Tahrir member, told RFE/RL from the southern Kyrgyz town of Kara-suu. "[The Kyrgyz revolution] was a democratic process based on a democratic ideology. Muslims didn’t play any role in it. It wasn’t a victory of Muslims or of Islam."

But it is precisely that democratic process that some say might have weakened the appeal of Hizb ut-Tahrir. Until recently, Hizb ut-Tahrir's popularity was partly based on its role as an outpost of dissent in the authoritarian countries of Central Asia.

But the revolution gave many Kyrgyz an alternative channel for voicing their discontent. It also gave them a rare opportunity for legitimate political participation.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, or the Party of Liberation, has openly sought to create a regionwide Islamic state, or caliphate. It disavows the current political regimes in Central Asia, as well as Western capitalism, as "kufr," or systems devised by nonbelievers.

Hizb ut-Tahrir has traditionally claimed to endorse no violence in pursuing its goal, and it has never been officially linked to any terrorist act. But the group is outlawed in Russia and most Central Asian countries, including Kyrgyzstan.

Analysts say Kyrgyzstan's March revolution, in addition to dampening Hizb ut-Tahrir's appeal, has also deepened an already existing internal split in the group.

There have been suggestions that Hizb ut-Tahrir is no longer united in the goal of nonviolent methods to achieve its ends. One branch still advocates a peaceful, global Islamic revolution. But another is pressing for a shift to more forceful means and focusing on revolution in a single country rather than regionwide.

“Experts say this split started 1 1/2 to two years before the revolution, when opinions changed within Hizb ut-Tahrir," said Alisher Saipov, an independent journalist from the southern Kyrgyz town of Osh. "These groups emerged after internal squabbling. At present, some Hizb ut-Tahrir members say the debate over the method of fighting is ongoing -- as are the splits."

Two (Terrorists) arrested, explosive material recovered during raid in Karachi

KARACHI: The Karachi Police has detained two members of a banned religious outfit from the Orangi Town area in Karachi and has recovered a large quantity of explosive material from them through which at least two hundred bombs could be made.

The Orangi town police raided a house at a thinly populated area of Datanagar on a tip-off about the explosive material. The highly dangerous explosive material was hidden in an underground tank in one of the rooms of the house. The 33 kg of explosive material included sulphuric acid, picric acid, acitone and gunpowder while two ready made pipe bombs, toy bombs, telephone bombs, book bombs, detonators, fuses, timers, one gas cylinder, one electronic weighing machine, two TT pistols, dozens of audio cassettes and literature was also recovered from the house.

According to police the two detained members have been identified as Nafees and Yasin and they belong to the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad religious outfit. The police say that the arrested are the accomplices of Asif Ghafoor who was involved in an attack on President Pervez Musharraf and was shot dead in a police encounter on 17th November.

The suspects have also kept a newspaper in which the news about the death of Asim Ghafoor was published.

Soldiers kill Abu Sayyaf gunman on southern Philippine island

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine marines clashed with Muslim extremists on a southern Philippine island Tuesday, killing one militant, a military spokesman said.

Marines searching for members of the extremist Abu Sayyaf group encountered the rebels outside Patikul town on Jolo island, a day after gunmen ambushed soldiers, killing two of them and wounding five. There were no government casualties in Tuesday's clash, marine spokesman Capt. Rommel Abrau said.

Fighting broke out early Tuesday in the village of Darayan, Abrau said, giving no other details.

On Monday, Abu Sayyaf guerrillas blew up an army vehicle in an ambush in Maimbung town south of Patikul, instantly killing one soldier. An army lieutenant died later, military spokesman Lt. Col. Buenaventura Pascual said.

The attack came three days after a visit by U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone to Jolo, one of Abu Sayyaf's strongholds.

The al-Qaida-linked group, which is on a U.S. terror list, has been blamed for ransom kidnappings and for beheading some of its hostages. It also claimed responsibility for a ferry bombing that killed 116 last year in the worst terror attack in the Philippines.

Abu Sayyaf's ranks have been depleted by U.S.-backed offensives, but it has reportedly bolstered its loose alliance with regional militant group Jemaah Islamiyah and local bandits.

Mauritania arrests Islamist leaders (warning: Al-Jazeera spin)
**Mauritania has arrested several leading Islamist opposition figures and accused them of being in league with a group linked to al-Qaida.**

Mahfudh walad Ammar, spokesman for Mauritania's police, said in a statement on Tuesday that recent confessions had linked the Islamist leaders arrested on Monday to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), based in neighbouring Algeria.

"They sent about 20 people to the GSPC for military training and the first contingent of seven has returned to the country," the police said in its statement.

"These elements have been arrested, the rest of the group is still in GSPC training camps," it said. "The dismantling of this structure has entered a new phase with the arrest on Monday ... of the main leaders of the organisation".

Shifting supoort

President Muawiya walad Sidi Ahmad Taya angered many Arabs in a nation straddling sub-Saharan and Arab Africa when he shifted support from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein towards Israel and the United States.

Mauritania became the third Arab League state to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1999. The government has said Israel's foreign minister is due to visit Nouakchott but has given no further details.

Opposition members said Islamic spiritual leader Shaikh Muhammad al-Hasan walad Didu and Mukhtar walad Muhammad Musa, a former diplomat to several Arab states, were arrested on Monday with up to 14 members of the moderate Islamist opposition.

"The regime has started a new repression against a strong current of national opinion probably to please the Israeli foreign minister before his visit to Nouakchott," Islamist leader Muhammad Jamil walad Mansur said.

Mauritania is an impoverished former French colony where power has not changed hands through the ballot box since independence in 1960.

Critics say Taya, who seized power in a 1984 coup, exaggerates the Islamist threat to curry favour with Washington while using it as a justification for stifling opposition.

Guerrillas detained in Chechnya

GROZNY. April 26 (Interfax) - Militants involved in a series of abductions and terrorist attacks have been detained in Chechnya, spokesman for the federal forces in the North Caucasus Maj. Gen. Ilya Shabalkin told Interfax on Tuesday.

A member of Salman Mastayev's guerrilla group was detained in Grozny's Staropromyslovsky district, Shabalkin said. He is believed to have been involved in attacks on local residents, administration officials and law enforcement officers. Mastayev himself is reported to have fled to a CIS country, the spokesman said.

Another guerrilla, who is a member of Selim Bimurzayev's group, was detained by police in the village of Serzhen-Yurt in Shali district. He is accused of staging a series of terrorist attacks in Vedeno district.

Other detentions include a member of Kyuri Iriskhanov's militant group, who has been placed on the wanted list for his role in a series of railway bombings in 2001-2002, and a Nadterechny district resident who was wanted for taking hostages in Volgograd region, Shabalkin said.

Winning team quotes of note:

These aren't random searches. ... We are acting on specific, credible information we receive from local citizens who want to join us in the fight against terrorism,

found guilty of all 10 counts against him, including soliciting others to war against the United States and contributing services to Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers.

A pocket diary was recovered from Osama which contains the satellite telephone numbers and other numbers in Pakistan and J-K and two e-mail IDs of Yahoo and Rediff,

Mauritania has arrested several leading Islamist opposition figures and accused them of being in league with a group linked to al-Qaida.

Its not a secret, but it simply isn't much publicized that U.S. Army Special Forces operate in may countries throughout North Africa to include in Mauritania.

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