Operation Phantom Fury--Day 370 - Now Operations River Blitz; Matador--Day 265

Japan to get 124 Patriot missiles, shift to domestic manufacture

TOKYO, Nov 12 (KUNA) -- Japan is planning to procure 124 Patriot surface-to-air missiles in the coming years through fiscal 2010 and to have a domestic defense contractor build them to replace imports, which will meet initial demand, Japanese media reported Saturday.

The plan to procure Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) missiles for deployment by the Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) is part of the Defense Agency's missile defense program, said Kyodo News Agency.

The PAC-3 missiles are intended to hit cruise missiles at an altitude of up to 20 kilometers that have escaped interceptors launched by the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Aegis destroyer.

Costing an estimated JPY 500 million (USD 4.2 million) each, the missiles will first be imported from the US, but Japan is planning to switch to delivery from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., which will be licensed to produce them domestically, the informed sources told Kyodo.

The agency plans to extend the missile defense system first to Tokyo and six other major urban centers. According to its plan, four bases will each be getting four PAC-3 launch systems between fiscal 2006 and 2010, through March 2011. There will also be two backup units. Of these 18 systems, 15 of them will have eight missiles each, the report said.

Authorities interrogate 12 suspects

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Al Qaeda says 4 Iraqis, including husband and wife, carried out suicide bombings

By Alia Shukri Hamzeh

AMMAN — Security forces have arrested scores of suspects believed to be connected with Wednesday's suicide bombings that were claimed by Al Qaeda in Iraq, informed sources said Friday.

“There were ongoing arrests and we will not hesitate to interrogate any suspected individual,” said a security official. The official refused to state the exact number of arrested suspects or their nationality, but did not deny that those who were rounded up were more than 150.

The Associated Press reported Friday 120 arrests, mainly Iraqis and Jordanians. But in his press conference, Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher confirmed 12 arrests and did not elaborate on their nationalities. However, the security official, who noted that the number of those detained kept changing because many have been released after questioning, said the arrests included Iraqi nationals.

Al Qaeda said Friday that four Iraqis, including a husband and wife, carried out the suicide bombings against the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels, killing 57 people and injuring 96. The death toll of the three suicide bombings rose to 57 after Hollywood film director Mustafa Akkad died of sustained injuries early Friday (see separate story).

In a statement posted on the Internet, Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by fugitive Abu Mussab Zarqawi, said the group charged with planning and implementing the attacks was made up of three men identified as “commanders Abu Khabib, Abu Muath and Abu Omaira.” The fourth perpetrator was identified as “the venerable sister Um Omaira.”

“Um Omaira chose to follow her husband Abu Omaira on the path of martyrdom,” said the statement, whose authenticity was not verified.

Muasher said Al Qaeda was still the prime suspect, adding that the attacks were carried out according to the group's pattern.

“But I cannot confirm that until the results of the investigations are out,” he said.

Muasher told a press conference that forensic experts were still examining evidence as well as conducting DNA tests on the remains of the three men believed to be the bombers. He added that investigators had not found evidence to indicate that there was a fourth bomber, saying police were examining security videos from cameras in the hotels.

Agence France-Presse quoted a hospital source as saying that the head of a woman believed to be a suicide bomber had been found among the remains of victims at one hotel. “We received a woman's head and mangled body remains,” the source told AFP.

“This usually is the case when you are dealing with a suicide, the body is ripped apart and often the head is intact.”

But according to Momen Hadidi, the chief of staff of Forensic Medicine and head of the investigation team of autopsies, the decapitated head was that of a 15-year- old girl who has already been identified and buried by her family. Hadidi said the girl was decapitated because she was standing close to the suicide bomber.

He added that his team of forensic experts were thoroughly examining the dismembered body parts of those who were blown up by the explosions and were carrying out chemistry and biology tests.

“We are very close to identifying all the dismembered people,” he said, adding that descriptive indicators of the parts of the suicide bombers so far revealed that they were males.

“We are waiting for the tests results to come up to be sure,” Hadidi added.

Eyewitnesses and employees of both the Grand Hyatt and Days Inn hotels said they spoke to the bombers, who had an Iraqi accent.

A Grand Hyatt staffer said he saw a suspicious looking man nervously pacing back-and-forth and that he asked him if he was looking for someone, only to be answered that he was meeting friends. He said the bomber, who had an Iraqi accent, sat down at one of the tables at the piano lounge and five minutes later blew himself up.

Days Inn Manager Khalid Abu Ghosh said his staff had asked a suspicious man in his mid-20s to leave the hotel coffee shop because he was acting weird and fumbling with his jacket, in what appeared to be an attempt to detonate himself.

The hotel employees escorted the man outside the hotel, after which he blew himself up.

“It was agreed to use suicide belts for precision and to cause maximum damage,” said Al Qaeda statement signed in the name of the group's spokesman, Abu Maysara Al Iraqi.

Thirty-three Jordanians and at least 12 foreigners were reported to have been killed in the blasts. Several bodies have not yet been identified.

Iraqi Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Ali Ghalib told AP that it was possible that Amman hotel bombers came from Iraq. “The attack looks like it was an act carried by Al Qaeda and Al Zarqawi or those around him,” Ghalib said. “Whether they are Iraqis or not, we are not sure. But it is not impossible,” he added. He noted that the number of Iraqis carrying out suicide attacks has increased in recent months, saying “that is why we cannot deny or confirm” if the hotel assailants were Iraqis.

Muasher told reporters Friday that authorities have banned traffic and individuals from crossing to Iraq via the Karameh land borders.

“All land borders are open, except for Al Karameh,” he said.

Immediately after the bombings authorities closed its land borders with Iraq, Israel and the West Bank, Syria and Saudi Arabia. The borders were reopened the second day.

Although initial reports indicate that the perpetrators were Iraqis, Muasher said he did not expect a backlash against Iraqis in the Kingdom. “The attackers do not represent the views of all Iraqis. They are terrorists and barbarians who do not belong to any identity,” Muasher said.

Firebombs thrown at French mosque

France has a sizeable Muslim population.

Saturday 12 November 2005 - 5:13

An unidentified attacker has thrown two firebombs into a mosque in southern France, in an attack that was condemned by the French president and prime minister.

The attack on the mosque in Carpentras occurred on Friday and caused only minor damage, the Vaucluse regional government said in a statement. No one was injured.

The attack was condemned by President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who are struggling to contain more than two weeks of rioting across the country.

It was not immediately clear if the attack was directly linked to the wider unrest.

Chirac expressed his solidarity with the town's Muslim community and assured them that "light will be shed on the circumstances surrounding this attack", his office said in a statement.

"All steps will be taken to identify the culprits and bring them to justice so that they answer for this particularly unacceptable act," De Villepin's office said in a statement early on Saturday.

An unidentified attacker threw the firebombs at the mosque's entrance hall during Friday prayers and fled, the regional government said. He was pursued by two witnesses but escaped, it added.

About 20 worshippers inside the mosque quickly put out a fire started by one of the bombs and activities inside the mosque quickly resumed, the statement said.

Car bomb hits Baghdad market

Baghdad residents inspect the remains of a car bomb that exploded in an eastern Baghdad district November 12, 2005. The explosion in a market place killed at least eight people. REUTERS/Faleh Kheiber

Sat Nov 12, 2005 - 10:48 AM GMT

By Paul Tait

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan made his first visit to Iraq since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, arriving on Saturday amid tight security as a car bomb ripped through a Baghdad market, killing at least eight people.

Annan came from Amman where he discussed Wednesday's deadly bombings in three hotels in the Jordanian capital, which al Qaeda in Iraq said was carried out by four Iraqis, including a married couple.

His visit, which was not previously announced due to security concerns, follows separate trips by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the past few days.

Rice said she wanted to help ease sectarian tensions that have dominated the campaign for a parliamentary election on December 15. U.S. commanders have warned that insurgents may intensify their violent campaign to disrupt the vote.

As Annan arrived in the heavily fortified international "green zone" where most government business is conducted, a car bomb exploded in a market in east Baghdad, starting fires in several shops and killing at least eight people, police said.

"A car parked near a pharmacy suddenly blew up and we saw smoke and people started running," witness Ali Saleh said. "Women were searching for their children. The shrapnel flew everywhere, the force of the blast was so strong."

Another witness said many shops in the market were set on fire, with people trapped inside. Police said there were at least eight dead and a dozen wounded.

The latest attack came just two days after a suicide bomber killed dozens of people in a crowded restaurant in Baghdad known to be frequented by Iraqi security forces.

Iraq's Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government and its U.S. backers are battling a Sunni Arab insurgency that has killed thousands of people since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

BOMBINGS

The United Nations has been operating in Iraq at greatly reduced levels since international staffers were withdrawn in October 2003 after two bombings at its Baghdad offices.

Annan's Iraq envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello was among 22 people killed in a truck bomb at the former U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003.

Iraqi officials have been pressing the United Nations for months to significantly increase its involvement in humanitarian, political and reconstruction activities.

Annan was due to meet Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and other top officials, as well as U.N. staff in Baghdad.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously earlier this week to let the U.S.-led multinational force remain in place through the end of 2006, as requested by Iraq's government.

U.S. President George W. Bush, has refused to set a timetable for the troops' withdrawal, despite mounting domestic pressure to do so and falling personal approval ratings.

The U.S. military pushed ahead with an anti-insurgent operation in western Iraq near the Syrian border which it says is aimed at driving out al Qaeda militants and making the area safe for people to vote at the December elections.

The military said four suspected insurgents were killed on Saturday in a raid on an "al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist safe house" near Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad.

Government officials and U.S. authorities were checking an unconfirmed report late on Friday that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, believed by U.S. commanders to be helping the insurgency, had died.

Al Arabiya satellite television quoted a Baath party statement reporting the death of Ibrahim, the most senior member of the former regime still at large. He was number six on the U.S. military's most wanted list with a $10 million (6 million pound) reward offered for his capture.

There was no confirmation from other sources and one Web site which publishes regular news releases from Baath party supporters, made no mention of the death on Saturday morning, more than 12 hours after it was first reported.

(Additional reporting by Huda Majeed, Mariam Karouny, Claudia Parsons, Fares al-Mehdawi in Baghdad)

Marines on Okinawa mark Corps' 230th birthday

Marines re-enact the raising of the flag on Mt. Surabachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima at the Marines Corps 230th birthday celebration on Camp Foster, Okinawa, on Thursday. (David Allen / S&S)

By David Allen - Stars and Stripes Pacific edition

Saturday, November 12, 2005

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — It threatened to rain during Thursday’s celebration of the Marine Corps’ 230th birthday. But that didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits.

It had rained overnight but the drops held off during the hourlong ceremony on the parade deck, allowing those gathered to enjoy the uniform pageant of Marines in the successive garb of Leathernecks from the Corps’ forming in 1775 at Tun Tavern, Philadelphia, during the Revolutionary War to a few of today’s snipers attempting to blend in with the damp grass.

The pageant was followed by the traditional reading of the birthday message that Gen. John A. Lejeune, the Marine Corps’ 13th commandant, made in 1921, followed by a message from current commandant Gen. Michael W. Hagee.

“The sense of honor, courage and patriotism that epitomized those who answered that first call to arms 230 years ago is still indelibly printed on our ranks today,” was the message Hagee conveyed. “Let us strengthen our ties to the past by paying homage to those who have gone before us.

“As we honor the sacrifices of our wounded and fallen comrades, our commitment to one another remains unshakable. We take special pride in the actions of the Marines now serving in harm’s way.”

One of the ceremony’s highlights was the re-creation of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima 60 years ago, during World War II. It was followed by the traditional cutting of a four-tiered birthday cake by Brig. Gen. Joseph V. Medina, commanding general of Marine Corps Base Camp Butler.

Medina presented a piece of the cake to the oldest active-duty Marine present, Col. Bradley E. Turner, 53, chief of staff for Marine Corps bases, who then gave a piece to the youngest Marine present, Pfc. Osbaldo Escatel, 18, assigned to Camp Kinser.

Medina then served a piece of the cake to Lawrence E. White, 81, the oldest retired Marine present. White, who retired as a sergeant major, joined the Marine Corps in 1943.

The Corps’ birthday also was celebrated with a 230-mile run on Camp Foster consisting of 650 individuals running one-mile increments for 39 hours and culminating in a formation run of 1,500 Marines for the final two miles Thursday morning.

Marines carry the birthday cake onto the parade deck at Camp Foster on Thursday. Printed on the cake were names of some of the most renowed battles Marines have taken part in over the years. (David Allen / S&S)

Brig. Gen. Joseph V. Medina, commanding general, Marine Corps Base Camp Butler, gives a slice of the Marine birthday cake to the oldest Marine present at Thursday's event, retired Sgt. Major Lawrence E. White, 81. (David Allen / S&S)

A Marine sniper blends in with his surroundings during a uniform pageant at Thursday's celebration of the Marine Corps' 230th birthday on Okinawa. (David Allen / S&S)

Marines dressed in the uniforms worn during the Spannish American War and the Mexican War, at Thursday's celebration. (David Allen / S&S)

Al Qaida acquires Russian surface-to-air missiles

SA-18 advanced Russian anti-aircraft missile.

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

Friday, November 11, 2005

LONDON — Western intelligence sources said Al Qaida-aligned cells have procured the SA-18 anti-aircraft missile from the former Soviet Union. The sources said the missiles were smuggled into Turkey and acquired by Al Qaida-aligned cells in the Middle East.

"These are serious missiles and represents a step up in Al Qaida capability," an intelligence source said.

On Oct. 28, the French daily Le Figaro reported that Al Qaida-aligned cells have obtained SA-18s for attacks against French airliners. The daily said the cells acquired the missiles in 2002 from the so-called Chechen mafia.

Until 2003, Al Qaida-aligned cells were believed to have been limited to the Soviet-origin SA-7 missile. The SA-7 Strela, with a range of 3.5 kilometers, could be countered by most aircraft missile and warning systems, Middle East Newsline reported.

In contrast, the SA-18, which includes an advanced Super Igla variant, has a range of 5.2 kilometers and is capable of overcoming missile warning alert systems. The sources said that with the possible exception of Hizbullah, no insurgency group in the Middle East has acquired the SA-18.

In 2004 France foiled a plot to destroy passenger jets with the SA-18 Igla missile. An Al Qaida-aligned cell composed of Algerian and French nationals planned to shoot the missiles from near Strasbourg.

Information on the missile plot reportedly came from an aide to Al Qaida network chief Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi. The aide, identified as Adnan Sadiq, is imprisoned in Jordan in connection with an Al Qaida plot in the Hashemite kingdom.

Le Figaro said French investigators interrogated Sadiq in prison. Sadiq told the investigators that the SA-18s were acquired from Georgia and transported to France. The missiles have not been recovered.

Palestinians still top Al Qaida
in suicide bombings

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

Thursday, November 10, 2005

TEL AVIV — Despite Al Qaida's campaign in Iraq, Palestinians continue to lead the world in suicide bombings.

A report by Tel Aviv University said Palestinians lead other groups worldwide in suicide bombers. Authored by Yoram Schweitzer and Sari Goldstein Ferber, the study cited 400 Palestinian suicide bombers compared to 376 Iraqi suicide attackers, Middle East Newsline reported.

"Suicide attacks came to be seen as one of the most effective means at the disposal of leaders of terrorist groups striving to achieve their political goals," the report said.

The report said more than 1,323 suicide operatives worldwide conducted or attempted strikes from 1983 to mid-September 2005. Thirty groups have carried out suicide strikes, which the report said were pioneered by Hizbullah in Lebanon in the early 1980s.

The Iraqi suicide strikers were followed by 265 Sri Lankan attackers. The report said 108 Al Qaida operatives conducted suicide strikes, followed by 107 Chechens. Fifty Lebanese and 17 Turks also carried out suicide attacks.

"The capacity of a suicide attack to inflict mass casualties and immense destruction endowed its perpetrators with an aura of power that far exceeded their actual strength," the report, entitled Al Qaida and the Internationalization of Suicide Terrorism," said. "This was true first and foremost of Hizbullah, a pioneer in the use of suicide terrorism."

Al Qaida and its affiliates have usually employed more than one suicide attacker, the report said. In some cases, the attacks used groups of suicide operatives.

The report said the recruitment of suicide attacks contains four phases. The phases consist of awareness by the operative of the crisis to Islam, identification, acceptance of suicide, and separation from normal life.

"In this state, no other points of view exist but the one held jointly by the attacker and his handler," the report said. "Nothing is ambiguous and nothing is uncertain; the suicide attacker feels that Allah is with him and that he has been transformed into a good person."

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/05/front2452954.076388889.html

Police search for 8 vehicles in manhunt for Jordan bombing accomplices

LAST UPDATE: 11/12/2005 - 3:38:53 PM

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - At least two of the Amman hotel bombers spoke with Iraqi accents, police said Saturday, as security forces hunted for eight vehicles believed linked to the triple attacks.

Police also investigated the theory that two bombs - one attached to a suicide attacker and another ball-bearing-packed package - exploded during the wedding attended by almost 300 Jordanians and Palestinians at one of the hotels attacked Wednesday.

Al-Qaida in Iraq, the militant group headed by Jordanian-born fugitive Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed four Iraqis - including a husband and wife - carried out the near simultaneous bombings on the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels. The attacks killed at least 57 people, including three Americans.

Jordanian authorities have recovered the remains of only three men believed to have detonated explosives worn underneath their clothing. No female has so far been identified.

Security forces have rounded up scores of people - mainly Iraqis and Jordanians - in the hunt for accomplices in the three coordinated bombings. At least 12 people are being interrogated as suspects linked to the suicide attacks.

The Days Inn bomber argued with hotel staff shortly before detonating a belt packed with up to 22 pounds of explosives - likely TNT - at the building's entrance, a senior police official said Saturday on condition of anonymity because he was unauthorized to speak to the media.

The bomber ordered an orange juice and spoke in an Iraqi accent to staff, who asked him to move from an area where he was sitting because it was designated as a "place for families" and not single men, the official said.

"The man became angry and started mumbling words in an Iraqi accent that the waiter believed were insults before leaving the hotel," the official said.

Hotel staff saw the man then kneel to the ground and start tugging at something from under his jacket, apparently fighting with a faulty primer cord for his explosives, which finally detonated, blowing his body apart and killing three members of a Chinese military delegation, the official said.

Waiters also told police that the morning before the attack, two men entered the hotel and appeared to be staking out the premises before leaving shortly after, the official added.

Police had already revealed that the Hyatt bomber also spoke with people in the hotel's lobby in an Iraqi accent before detonating his explosives.

Suspicion about the bombers has increasingly fallen on insurgents fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces across Jordan's eastern border with Iraq.

Al-Zarqawi, who has been sentenced to death in absentia in Jordan for terror crimes, is believed to have trained more than 100 Iraqi militants to carry out suicide bombings in Iraq and possibly elsewhere in the Mideast.

The attacks bore the hallmarks of al-Zarqawi's group, one of Jordan's top policemen said, adding those hotels and other "unsuspecting places" could be hit again.

"The threat still exists against those places and others and we are meeting non-stop to determine potential targets and implement required protection," Maj. Gen. Mohammad al-Eitan, general director of public security, told a state-run Jordan TV station.

Police are also investigating the theory that two bombs - a TNT-ladened explosives belt worn by the militant and a parcel bomb packed with ball bearings - exploded in a ballroom during a wedding at the third hotel, the Radisson, the official said.

Many of those killed and maimed in the Radisson attack suffered wounds caused by ball-bearings, indicating that the TNT-packed belt worn by the bomber was not the only explosive device used, he said.

If TNT was used, it would have had to have been smuggled into Jordan, because that type of explosive is not available in the country, the official added.

Meanwhile, police released details of eight vehicles spotted by witnesses at the hotels at the time of the attacks. It was unclear what role, if any, the vehicles had in the blasts.

Two of the vehicles - a GMC Suburban four-wheel drive and a Mercedes Benz sedan - had Iraqi license plates, while the six others had Jordanian plates and included several rented cars and a van.

Jordanians across the country are seething over the attacks and thousands have turned out for two days of protests to condemn al-Qaida in Iraq.

While not unaccustomed to terror-related violence and plots, Wednesday's attacks were this kingdom's deadliest ever.

With the bulk of the victims being Arabs and Muslims, Jordanians and many of this kingdom's 400,000 Iraqi expatriates have condemned al-Qaida for turning their sights from U.S.-led occupation forces in Iraq onto fellow Muslims.

U.S. authorities said three of those killed were Americans, including Syrian-born Hollywood filmmaker Mustapha Akkad and his daughter, Rima Akkad Monla. Up to four more Americans were wounded, two seriously.

Al-Qaida in Iraq, which has released three statements since the attacks, claimed the four Iraqi attackers staked out the hotels for a month before donning explosive belts and detonating them minutes apart.

It said the bombings were carried out in response to "the conspiracy against the Sunnis," referring to the Muslim Arab group favored under Saddam Hussein's regime and now believed to form the core of the Iraqi insurgency.

Al-Qaida justified the attacks on the grounds the hotels were "favorite places for the work of the intelligence organs, especially those of the Americans, the Israelis and some western European countries." But more than half of those killed were Jordanians.

--- http://www.wkrc.com/news/world/story.aspx?content_id=5EC0C982-D148-4C06-93DD-8D4957CD59F0

Associated Press

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