Posted on 08/06/2005 5:00:22 PM PDT by Gucho
Sunday 7th August 2005
BAGHDAD: Six rebels and an Iraqi soldier were killed when US and Iraqi forces engaged in an air and land firefight against a series of co-ordinated insurgent attacks in south Baghdad, the US military said yesterday.
The fighting broke out on Friday with a mortar and small arms attack on an Iraqi army post at about 7.55pm.
"Iraqi soldiers returned fire while (US) attack helicopters rushed to the site" and fought the insurgents "with rockets and gunfire," the military said in a statement.
"Almost simultaneously, a suicide bomber drove a truck into a nearby Iraqi army checkpoint," killing one Iraqi soldier and wounding another.
US tanks arrived at the site within minutes, and when another suicide car bomber "tried to attack a third site in the area, one of the US tanks fired and hit the car, killing the driver and causing the car bomb to explode prematurely," the military said.
Just after 8pm, insurgents at a fourth location "fired two rocket-propelled grenades and a mortar round at another Iraqi army post in south Baghdad," the military said, adding that none of the rounds caused any damage.
According to the military, insurgents attempted to "re-group for another attack on each of the two Iraqi army posts" over the next two hours, but US and Iraqi forces "defeated the terrorist attacks with gunfire and rockets from the air and small-arms fire on the ground."
"The enemy came to fight us with no success," said Maj Listen Edge of Kennesaw, Georgia, an operations officer.
Twelve suspects were captured in the fighting, the statement added.
Elsewhere, clashes between rebels and security forces in the central city of Samarra left two Iraqi soldiers dead and four civilians wounded.
A civilian was also killed and three wounded when a shell struck their home in the city. West of Samarra.
In Baquba, one policeman was killed and another wounded by unknown gunmen while security forces conducted raids in a district.
A British soldier was injured in an attack in the southern city of Basra.
As the constitution debate rumbled on, about 1,000 US Marines and Iraqi soldiers combed western Iraq in the latest security operation, code-named Quick Strike.
The US military claimed some success yesterday saying it had thwarted car bombings in the region after finding three vehicles packed with explosives following a tip-off. It said the security forces blew up the cars.
August 06, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Task Force Baghdad Soldiers conducted Operation Able Warrior to defeat terror cells operating west of the Baghdad International Airport in the early-morning hours of Aug. 4.
In less than three hours, Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, 48th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division conducted a series of simultaneous attacks and captured 41 suspected terrorists, including three foreign fighters.
"We went out and did what we set out to do—this was a picture-perfect mission," said Lt. Col. Steve McCorkle, commander of 2nd Bn., 121st Inf. Reg. from Warner Robins, Ga.
Operation Able Warrior was conducted in order to disrupt car bombing cells and roadside bomb emplacers, and prevent them from planning, preparing and carrying out terrorist attacks in the area.
"We want to set the Iraq Army up for success. This operation will help the Iraqi Security Forces take more control of the day-to-day operations," said Lt. Col. Thomas Carden, a spokesperson for the 48th BCT and resident of Americus, Ga.
By 48th Brigade Combat Team PAO
BBC World News Service - LIVE - Click RealAudio - Stream
BBC World News Service - LIVE - Windows Media - Stream
Click Radio Taiwan International (English)
Live TV Coverage of Discovery Crew
Click LBC 1152 AM London News Radio
Israel News Radio, 0430 UTC - English
Israel News Radio, 2000 UTC - English
Radio Pakistan News Bulletins (English)
Voice of Russia, 0300 UTC - English
Voice of Russia, 0800 UTC - English
Radio China International, 1500 UTC - English
Radio Polonia, 1700 UTC - English
Radio Australia, 0700 UTC - English
God Bless and keep our Hero's safe. I pray each and every day that he keeps them safe and helps them defeat our enemy.
God Bless America
Thanks for posts as usual. We and recently the Iraqi security forces keep removing the goons either by bullets or by handcuffs. But notice we no longer hear about dozens of IED explosions on the highway going to the airport. Hardly any suicide car bombers getting through to soft targets, e.g. little kids playing around say a squad of soldiers. I cannot help but feel those that are left unless truly crazed with the idea of somehow getting their 72 white raisons or white grapes if they die killing infidels, and apostates are the only ones that are going to be willing to die in their twisted causes.
Sane people (other then the foreign insurgents) must be thinking is this crap worth it. The elections are going to go forth no matter what they try to do. And Iraq will have a democractic government fully elected by the peoples of Iraq in less then a half year. Even the hard core Sunni Ba'athist must be wondering what the use. Then again, perhaps I over rate their amount of reasoning powers. Perhaps a diplodocus has a much larger brain then they.
Stars and Stripes - Pacific edition
Sunday, August 7, 2005
YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — About 120 soldiers from the 305th Quartermaster Company will deploy this month for a yearlong tour in Iraq, according to 8th U.S. Army officials.
The soldiers with the 305th are to provide supplies and water to other units throughout Iraq. They began training for their deployment in June, 8th Army officials said.
“They were selected … because of how well they were already trained at the time and because of the leadership of the company commander and the first sergeant,” Col. Jayne Carson, 501st Corps Support Group commander, said Thursday at a farewell ceremony. “The leadership goes further than that. They have great warrant officers, talented platoon sergeants and knowledgeable squad leaders.”
Capt. Kimberly Jordan, the company commander, also spoke at the ceremony.
“We are determined not to count the days of this deployment but to make every day of this deployment count,” she said.
Thanks Gucho. Looks like the good guys had a busy day.
By Ellen Connolly and Linda Silmalis
August 07, 2005
AUSTRALIA is working with Britain to compile a database of suspected extremists who could be deported from the country.
It will also examine Britain's new laws, which give authorities the power to close places of worship which are being used as centres for inciting extremism. The move comes ahead of next month's national terrorism summit in Canberra, which will focus on the need to increase security measures.
The Sunday Telegraph can also reveal that the Prime Minister has planned a meeting with Islamic leaders in a further measure to combat hate-preaching.
It is understood the Federal Government wants to enter both meetings with a fresh approach and does not want to be committed to following Britain's lead.
The meeting with Islamic community members will be held in Sydney or Canberra.
Senior ministers will also be invited to attend. The discussions will focus on ways the Government and the community can counter apologists for terrorism and people who advocate violence as a solution to problems.
In other measures to prevent a terrorist attack, Australia's security agencies are understood to be working closely with Britain to compile a more comprehensive database of suspected extremists from around the world.
The list will include overseas-born extremist Islamic clerics, people inciting terrorism on websites, and those known to have trained in Pakistan or Iraq.
Senior ministers and members of the Islamic Council, in addition to community leaders, will be among those who will be invited to attend the talks.
In the UK yesterday, Tony Blair announced new powers to deport or deny entry to foreign nationals who "foster hatred" and an automatic refusal of asylum to anyone who has participated in terrorist activity.
A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, said the issue of deporting individuals was complex because of citizenship.
Many people who became citizens of Australia did so after relinquishing their citizenship from their birth country.
Among those who could be at risk are Abu Bakr, a militant Muslim living in Australia since 1989, who describes Osama bin Laden as "a great man".
He has had his passport confiscated by ASIO.
Sheik Mohammed Omran, who said the US Government, and not the al-Qaeda leader, was responsible for the September 11 attacks will also be a target of authorities.
From correspondents in London
August 07, 2005
SAUDI officials alerted Britain several weeks before the deadly July 7 bombings in London that a terror attack was being planned, two Sunday newspapers reported.
The Observer quoted a security official in the Saudi capital Riyadh as saying that information was passed to MI5 and MI6, Britain's domestic and foreign intelligence agencies respectively.
The Sunday Telegraph quoted the Saudi ambassador to Britain, Prince Turki al-Faisal, as saying that details of a possible conspiracy to attack London -- apparently extracted from terrorism suspects in Saudi Arabia -- had been given to British intelligence.
"There were reports passed on to your authorities several months ago (in April-May) in general terms of a heightened expectancy of attacks on London," said the ambassador, a former chief of Saudi intelligence.
Security sources played down the reports. The Observer quoted one source as "categorically" denying that any specific information had been received that could have averted the July 7 attacks.
The source said they "did not recognise" the details of the Saudi claims, which came to light one month to the day after the attacks.
There was no immediate comment from the Foreign Office or the Home Office, but Prime Minister Tony Blair has previously rejected suggestions of an intelligence failure.
Fifty-six people were killed, including four apparent suicide bombers, in the July 7 morning rush-hour bombing of three Underground subway trains and a double-decker bus.
It was the deadliest attack ever in the British capital, and was followed two weeks later by an attempted copycat attack in which the explosives, stuffed into rucksacks, failed to go off.
Saudi security sources were reported Sunday to be investigating whether two al-Qaeda operatives were in phone contact with a British ringleader of the plotters of the July 7 bombings.
Money transfers were thought to have been made from Saudi Arabia to Britain in the first six months of the year through businesses in the two countries, it was reported.
The Observer and the Sunday Telegraph said the investigations revolve around two Moroccans, identified as Kareem al-Majati and Younes al-Hayari, both alleged to have been senior figures in Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
The two were killed in separate shoot-outs in Saudi Arabia in the weeks before July 7.
The Observer quoted a Saudi official as saying: "It was clear to us that there was a terror group planning an attack in the United Kingdom. We passed on all this information to both MI5 and MI6."
The official was quoted as saying that investigations were underway into whether calls made by the two Moroccans to Britain were directly to the London bombers.
"It is our conclusion that either these were linked or that a completely different terror network is still at large in Britain," he added.
Prince Turki was quoted in The Observer as saying in a statement: "There was certainly close liaison between the Saudi Arabian intelligence authorities and the British intelligence authorities some time ago, when information was passed to Britain about a heightened terrorist threat to London."
To the Sunday Telegraph, he said: "In the course of an exchange of information between the kingdom and the UK, there were reports passed on to your authorities several months ago (in April-May) in general terms of a heightened expectancy of attacks on London."
"This information came in the form of statements made under interrogation from terrorists who had been arrested in the kingdom and other places," he said, without indicating where the "other places" were.
By AMY TEIBEL - Associated Press Writer
Sat Aug 6, 6:51 PM ET
JERUSALEM - Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Saturday he would consider holding Jewish extremists bent on derailing Israel's upcoming Gaza Strip withdrawal without charge or trial, after a Jewish army deserter opposed to the pullout shot four Israeli Arabs to death.
Israel has frequently employed the procedure, known as administrative detention, against Palestinians, but rarely uses it against Jews.
Mofaz acknowledged in an interview with Channel 2 TV that an intelligence desk set up to deal with the withdrawal "didn't operate well" in the case of Thursday's attack, when the soldier opened fire on a bus in a northern Arab town.
"We will also consider something that I oppose but the Shin Bet (security service) recommends: We will consider administrative detentions ... of all those the Shin Bet recommends," he said.
He would not estimate how many people might be detained under such circumstances, but said the detentions would be "pinpointed."
Soldiers went to the extremist West Bank settlement of Tapuah, where 19-year-old Eden Natan-Zada fled after he deserted, but did not find him there, Mofaz said.
"That doesn't mean that everything was done," he said. "When you have a deserter missing for 45 days, gun in hand, in the Tapuah area, and parents who cautioned (the military) about him, that should have set off alarm bells."
The boy's father told The Associated Press he had asked the army to find his son. He said he was concerned his son's weapons would fall into the hands of fanatics in Tapuah.
Israeli Arab leaders meeting in Nazareth criticized the government for failing to intercept Natan-Zada before he attacked. The soldier, who was wearing the skullcap, beard and sidelocks of an ultra-Orthodox Jew, opened fire on the driver then killed three other passengers before he was subdued and beaten to death by an angry crowd.
"This man's name was known to the Shin Bet, and the army didn't let police know he had deserted. ... He had a uniform and a gun, and was wandering free," said Mohammed Barakeh, a lawmaker.
"Just as they go after act against Palestinian 'ticking bombs,' so should they act against Jewish 'ticking bombs,'" the Haaretz newspaper cited Ibrahim Sarsur, a leader of Israel's Islamic Movement, as saying.
The two were among hundreds of Arab leaders who met to discuss how their angry community should respond to the slayings. They agreed to hold a mass protest, but did not set a date.
Although the mood among Israeli Arabs is grim, they "don't want to respond in an incendiary way," Barakeh said.
Sarsur called on the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has threatened retaliation for the attack, to "mind its own business and let the (Israeli) Arab public handle the matter," Haaretz reported.
Although meeting participants advocated nonviolence, the potential for friction was inherent in the Islamic Movement's call for a mass turnout at a Jerusalem shrine that is a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Barakeh said the Islamic Movement issued a statement urging Israeli Muslims to turn out in force at the Temple Mount, or Haram as-Sharif, compound on Aug. 14, a Jewish holy day when many observant Jews are expected to visit the site to pray for the cancellation of the withdrawal.
07 Aug 2005 01:13:32 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Simon Cameron-Moore
ISLAMABAD, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A Pakistani crackdown on militants has raised the ire of the religious right but is backed by the country's moderates, exposing divisions in a society that denounces extremism but sympathises with the Islamists' cause.
Although Pakistan's 150 million people are more than 90 percent Muslim and the nation was carved out in 1947 from colonial India's Muslim-majority areas amid horrific violence, the opposition to radical Islam is well-entrenched.
But there is considerable anti-U.S. and anti-Western sentiment and a strong network of fundamentalist Islamist groups in the country.
Managing the contradictions is a major job for President Pervez Musharraf, but some say the former military chief is keeping the divisions alive to ensure he gets continued support from the West.
"Secularism is alien to most Pakistanis, but they don't want violence and extremism. They just want to get on with their lives," said Irfan Husain, a Karachi-based political commentator.
A cross-section of people back that view.
"If Musharraf takes action against the people who talk about extremism, the majority will support him," said Faiza Jamshed, a student, as she shopped in Karachi's upmarket Clifton district.
Atif Sherazi, who makes $67 a month running public phone booths in Rawalpindi, the garrison town next to Islamabad, says he approves of Musharraf's plan for checks on madrasas, or religious schools, to ensure they are not fomenting extremism.
"He has to do all this to show the world that we are not terrorists," said Sherazi.
But the numbers, and the politics, show it may not be expedient for Musharraf to go the distance against hardliners.
Last month, surveys published by the U.S.-based Pew Research Centre found 52 percent of Pakistanis regarded Islamic extremism as a threat to their country.
On the flip side, 51 percent of Pakistanis had some or a lot of confidence in Osama bin Laden "to do the right thing regarding world affairs", up from 45 percent a year earlier.
IN MUSHARRAF'S INTERESTS?
Many analysts say Musharraf has no room in his equation for the kind of secular-minded political parties that ruled before he staged a military coup six years ago. These have historically represented moderate Muslims but now find themselves out in the cold.
Analysts say there appears to be a tacit understanding between the government and the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an opposition alliance of six conservative religious parties.
The MMA never won more than six percent of the vote until 2002 when it got 11 percent, becoming the biggest opposition block in the National Assembly and taking a share of power in Baluchistan and full control of North West Frontier, two of Pakistan's four provinces.
"By bringing them into the mainstream and allowing them more space are they really being contained?" asked Khawar Mumtaz, a Lahore-based development activist.
With widespread poverty amid pockets of affluence, fundamentalist groups have a ready-made audience, analysts say.
"How can we end support for bin Laden without ending support for bin Laden's arguments?" said Husain Haqqani, a former adviser to three Pakistani prime ministers and now a member of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Others say the root of the problem could lie in the army's role in running Pakistan's affairs. In the early 1980s then President Zia ul-Haq, also a general who overthrew an elected government, became an ally of the West for organising opposition to the Soviet invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan.
Zia oversaw the Islamisation of Pakistan's army and, with U.S. and Saudi financing, allowed in Arab mujahideen, or holy warriors, like Osama bin Laden, to fight the Soviets during the 1980s.
Two decades later, Musharraf is trying to unwind all this following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Hardliner groups are furious at this turnaround and there have been at least two attempts on Musharraf's life. But although the president launched another crackdown on militants following the London bomb attacks in July, there are some who believe he may be pulling his punches.
"The Islamists' strength has been contrived to allow the military to remain ascendant," said Haqqani.
Musharraf needs the spectre of fundamentalism; otherwise Pakistanis and Washington may tire of him, Haqqani said.
"He wants to calibrate extremism, not eliminate it."
AlertNet news
Sunday August 7, 2005
PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, Russia (AFP) - British and US specialists joined Russian navy rescuers in a race against the clock to save seven sailors trapped in a mini-submarine on the Pacific Ocean floor before they ran out of oxygen.
A Russian ship carrying a sophisticated British undersea robot along with British and US rescuers including divers and medical personnel arrived at the site of the accident and were to begin "active work" in the rescue effort quickly, Russian and US officials said.
"The active work of the British rescue device will start in one hour," Interfax news agency quoted Captain Alexander Kosolapov, spokesman for the Russian Pacific Fleet, as saying from the fleet's home port in Vladivostok at 2100 GMT Saturday.
The remotely operated Scorpio unmanned submersible is equipped with heavy-duty cutting equipment which Russian officials said they hoped could be used to cut the stricken submarine free from netting and antenna debris in which it was entangled.
The Russian mini-sub, itself meant for rescue work, became ensnared Thursday in fragments of fishing net and in parts of an undersea coastal surveillance antenna system.
It has been immobilized since then near the seabed at a depth of around 190 meters (620 feet) about 70 kilometres (45 miles) off the coast of Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.
With the undersea drama in its third day, Russian officials seemed increasingly to be pinning hopes on the British and US assistance as Russian efforts to attach cables to the stricken submarine and tow it to shallower water have so far failed.
"We are awaiting the arrival of the British Scorpio in order to cut the submarine free from the antenna and its anchor," Interfax news agency quoted an unidentified senior staff officer with the Russian Pacific Fleet as saying.
Russian officials gave varying accounts of how much oxygen remained for the crew, but most said their air would run out by Monday.
Hourly state television news broadcasts steadily showed military spokesmen stating that rescuers were in regular contact with the crew and consistently describing their physical condition as "satisfactory."
As they awaited the arrival of the British and US rescue teams and gear, Russian officials said their own efforts to raise the "Priz" AS-28 mini-submarine using cables continued non-stop, despite deteriorating weather conditions.
"The cables are in, they are being joined and they are preparing for the lifting," Pacific fleet commander Admiral Viktor Fyodorov told NTV television. If successful, divers would then be able to go to the rescue, he said.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov arrived at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on Sunday to coordinate rescue operations, taking place in a region known to have sensitive Russian military installations.
The commander of the Russian Pacific Fleet, Admiral Viktor Fyodorov, said he had no security concerns despite the participation of foreign naval personnel in the effort to save the trapped submariners.
"There are secret zones in this region that are off-limits, such as entry to a submarine base," Interfax news agency quoted Admiral Viktor Fyodorov as saying. "But I see no particular problem with participation of foreign rescuers in the operation."
With the clock ticking on their air reserves, the stranded submariners took emergency precautions and families on shore kept an agonising vigil.
"Papa's on the boat. He's coming back soon," the wife of submarine Captain Vyacheslav Milashevsky reassured her children in footage shown on state-run Channel One television.
The crew, described by naval spokesmen as highly experienced, were waiting in temperatures of about five degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit) and mostly in darkness in a bid to save energy.
To preserve every bit of oxygen, they were wearing special thermal suits and making a minimum of movement, officials said.
The confusion over the causes of the accident and level of air reserves recalled the chaotic reaction to the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea almost exactly five years ago in which all 118 crew died.
President Vladimir Putin met with intelligence and security service chiefs prior to dispatching Ivanov to oversee the rescue operation.
However, Putin, whom critics lambasted for failing to take command over the Kursk disaster, has yet to make any public statement.
The accident was the latest in a long series of crises to hit Russia's decrepit post-Soviet military, all the more embarrassing because of major sea-air exercises planned with neighbouring China later this month.
However, in marked contrast to the Kursk disaster, Moscow wasted no time in calling on foreign expertise to help the rescue operation based in the militarily sensitive Kamchatka Peninsula. Japanese rescue ships were due to arrive on scene early next week.
The Priz AS-28 is of Soviet design dating from 1986 and only four were built. Meant for deep water rescue missions, it has room for three operators and 20 passengers.
Saturday, August 6, 2005
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.