The Terrorist Round-up for 5/07/06

5/07/06

[Straight Vermonter]

Black Day in Basra

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Israel foils plot to kill Palestinian president
Uzi Mahnaimi

A HAMAS plot to assassinate Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has been thwarted after he was tipped off by Israeli intelligence. Hamas’s military wing, the Izza Din Al-Qassem, had planned to kill Abbas at his office in Gaza, intelligence sources said.

Abbas, who became president of the Palestinian Authority last year after the death of Yasser Arafat, was formally warned of the danger by the Israelis and cancelled a planned visit to the territory.

The murder plan is the clearest sign yet of the tensions inside the Palestinian Authority between Hamas, which swept to power after elections in January, and Abbas’s Fatah movement.

Hamas leaders, who refuse to recognise the state of Israel, suspect Abbas of obstructing their attempts to govern, which have been hampered by a financial boycott from donor nations. “Hamas considers Abbas to be a barrier to its complete control over Palestine and decided to kill him,” said a Palestinian source who was an adviser to Arafat and is a close acquaintance of Abbas.

It is understood that the attack would also have targeted Mohammed Dahlan, Abbas’s strongman in Gaza.

< snip >

While Hamas is struggling to maintain power, and Abbas to remain relevant, economic chaos is spreading in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. For the second month in a row 160,000 employees of the Palestinian Authority have not received their salaries.

(Things keep getting better and better in this part of the world. Red on red is what we like to see.)

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Clash leaves 4 militants dead in S. Afghanistan

Four suspected Taliban militias were killed as they encountered with government troops in the restive Zabul province on Friday morning, a military official said Saturday.

"Our crackdown to enemies led to the killing of four Taliban in Jaldak district yesterday morning," Commander of Southern Corps General Rahmatullah Raufi told Xinhua.

A number of arms and ammunition including eight hand grenades were also recovered from the possession of the militants, he added.

Taliban-linked militancy is on rise as over a dozen people including two Italian soldiers have lost their lives in hostile action over the past one week.

A U.S. military helicopter also crashed in the rugged Kunar province in east Afghanistan where a heavy anti-militants' operation "the Mountain Lion" has been going for the past one month.

Taliban-linked insurgency has claimed the lives of over 300 people including 15 American soldiers since beginning this year.

(It seems to be a rule that any media report coming out of Afghanistan has to mention "Taliban-linked militancy is on the rise". They never seem to mention that this is always the case as people in this part of the world do not fight in winter instead they rest and re-arm and come out with new vigor in the spring.)

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Egyptian police identify another Sinai bomber

Egyptian security forces have identified a suicide bomber who targeted a bus carrying peacekeeping forces near their base in the Sinai late last month, police sources told AFP on Saturday.

The April 26 attack, which caused no casualties from the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), was said by the authorities to be linked to a deadly strike on the Dahab tourist resort two days earlier.

Eid Salman Mohammed Selim blew himself up as vehicles carrying an Egyptian police officer and peacekeepers from the MFO passed by a base in Al Gura, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of the Gaza Strip.

The nineteen-year-old bomber, who was a theology student at Al Azhar university, was the brother of Salman Selim, one of the suspects of the Dahab bombings who was killed by security forces Sunday, the source said.

His cousin, Selim Atta, also one of the suspects was killed in the same police sweep.

Selim had been a follower of the Tawhid wal Jihad (Unification and Holy War) group which has been held responsible for the attacks in Dahab which left 19 people dead.

A second suicide bomber, on a motorbike, tried to detonate his explosive charge against an Egyptian police vehicle that was rushing to the scene of the first attack.

The Egyptian authorities have charged the same group was also responsible for the July 2005 attacks that killed some 70 people in Sharm el-Sheikh and those further up the coast that left 34 dead in October 2004.

Both previous spates of attacks were followed by major raids in the Sinai, a vast desert and mountainous expanse mainly inhabited by Bedouin tribes.

The MFO is an independent peacekeeping force not related to the United Nations, created as a result of the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty and funded mainly by the two neighbours and the United States.

It currently has contingents from Australia, Canada, Colombia, France, Hungary, Italy, Fiji, New Zealand, Norway, the United States and Uruguay.

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Former Taliban leader shot dead in Balochistan

Unidentified gunmen today shot dead a former Taliban leader in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, relatives of the deceased said.

Mulla Samad Barakzai, former head of Taliban's department for promotion of virtue and prevention of vice in the southern Helmand province, was gunned down in Pushtoon Abad area of Quetta, the provincial capital, they said.

No one has claimed responsibility for the murder.

Barakzai had been living in Balochistan since the fall of Taliban.

Motives behind the murder are not clear.

It is believed that Barkzai was in contact with the current Afghanistan government.

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Battle underway in Dagestan's Buinaksk district

A battle between a unit of interior forces and an illegal armed group is currently underway near the community of Kazanishche in Dagestan's Buinaksk district, a Buinaksk city police source told Interfax on Saturday.

"According to information we possess, the clash started last night. Preliminary reports indicate that one serviceman was killed and several wounded," the source said.

One man dies, four get injuries in special operation in Dagestan

According to preliminary data, one serviceman of interior troops of the Russian Interior Ministry died and another four got injuries in a special operation to reveal and destroy participants in illegal armed groups conducted in the Buinaksk region of Dagestan.

As a source in the law enforcement bodies told Itar-Tass, “joint combing of the locality to reveal the rest of a gang, which was partially destroyed about 15 days ago, was launched in the area of the village of Nizhneye Kazanishche early in the morning.” According to the source, “a reconnaissance group of interior troops got in ambush and was fired on by gunmen.”

The numerical strength of the gang is still unknown. According to the Interior Ministry, “the area of the supposed whereabouts of gunmen is closely surrounded. Additional forces and armoured vehicles are concentrated at the site of the operation.”

The Caucasus region.

Special forces know names of militants blockaded near Buinaksk - general

Russian special forces know the names of the militants surrounded near Buinaksk, Interior Forces First Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff Gen. Sergei Bunin said.

"According to our intelligence, law enforcement bodies know who the militants blockaded near Buinaksk are, we know their names," Bunin said on Saturday.

"We will disclose these names only after the operation is over, ," Bunin said.

Wanted man leading armed group outside Buinaksk

Ibragim Ibragimov, a wanted Dagestani resident, is heading a militant group which was spotted outside Buinaksk early on Saturday morning, Dagestani Interior Ministry spokesperson Anzhela Martirosova told Interfax.

"The group's commander has been identified as Ibragim Ibragimov, who is a resident of Dagestan and a federally wanted armed group member," she said.

(All of these stories came from the same source. I'm not sure why they did not put them together as one story.)

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Three militants killed in encounter in Manipur

Security forces have killed three militants belonging to Zeliangrong Revolutionary National Front (ZRNF) in an encounter in G Kholet village in Senapati district of Manipur, official sources said today.

As the Assam Rifles personnel raided G Kholet village, about 40 kms north of here, at around 11 pm last night and ZRNF militants opened fire at them, they said.

In the ensuing gunbattle, three militants were killed. One M16 rifle, two pistols, two Chinese-make handgrenades, several rounds of ammunitions, one wireless set and some documents were recovered from the victims, they said adding some ZRNF members escaped during encounter.

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J&K police plan legal battle against ultras

Hafiz Mohammad Saeed	Syed Salahuddin

Even as there was no let-up in the military offensive against militants in Jammu and Kashmir, police authorities here plan to launch a major legal battle against the ultras operating from across the border.“We plan to approach Interpol to issue red card notices against top militant leaders, including chairman of United Jehad Council and supermo of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen Syed Salahuddin and Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed now in Pakistan,” the inspector-general of Jammu and Kashmir police, Mr K Rajendra Kumar told PTI.

He said the wanted militant leaders also included chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad Moulana Masood Azhar and Al-Umer chief Mushtaq Ahmed Zarger who were released in exchange for the passengers of hijacked Indian Airlines plane IC-814 on way to Delhi from Kathmandu (Nepal) on the eve of 2000.

“The legal offensive against the militants has already been set in motion and once the process is completed we will approach Interpol to issue red corner notices against them,” Mr Kumar said.

“We are planning to use all our resources to get Interpol warrants against the militants who are the brain behind the violence in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in the country,” he said.

Moulana Masood Azhar	Mushtaq Ahmed Zarger

The issuance of Interpol warrants will make a strong case against them in future and will also limit their movements even within Pakistani territory, the police officer said.

However, Mr Kumar said the process is very complex and time-consuming and “we are seeking support from the Union home ministry and other security agencies and police forces across the country.”

As a first step, the police chief said the courts where cases are pending against the militants have to declare them as proclaimed offenders.

“We will go step by step to seek international-level sanction against them,” he added.

Police sources said the Jammu and Kashmir police has already prepared dossiers on most of the top militant commanders, especially the ideologues who spearhead the violent campaign in Kashmir from across the border.

The sources said most of these militant leaders travel to the Middle East, especially to Saudi Arabia, for the Haj and Umrah. Once there is an Interpol warrant against them, India can take the matter up with other governments and push for their extradition.

“We are working to put together a foolproof case against the militants based in Pakistan,” the sources said.

However, the sources said, the state police is currently vexed by the difficulty of locating the real name and addresses of Pakistani militant commander Salahuddin, alias Bilal alias Hyder Karar, who has been leading the Lashkar’s Kashmir operations from the jungles of Bandipora for the last six years.

“We have been trying our level best to get information about him,” they said adding his real name and actual address in Pakistan are essential for us to pursue an Interpol warrant.

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US to send CIA officials to fight Al-Qaeda remnants in Chitral

Under a deal reached last week with Pakistan, the United States has decided to send Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials to confront with the remarks of Al-Qaeda in Chitral.

It may be recalled that Chitral area is on the border with Afghanistan. It is close to Shia-dominated areas of Gilgit, according to report of Radio Tehran.

( Here is a story from a few weeks ago that may be relevant.)

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Militants base destroyed in Pakistani tribal region

Local tribal leders Saturday put on fire a militants base in Pakistani tribal agency of Bajaur, a day after militants used it to attack soldiers that killed one, said locals.

Tribal elders Saturday morning found a dead body of local Taliban militant, who died in exchange of fire with soldiers in the aftermath of rockets attack on a military checkpost on Friday in the agency, a resident of Bajaur agency told KUNA by telephone on the condition of anonymity.

He said the house of Wali Muhammad Khan was set on fire and was imposed a fine of some USD 5,000.

Militants attacked a checkpost of Levis force on Friday and Thursday, killing five soldiers and wounding three others. There was an exchange of fire that claimed life of a civilian and a militant also.

[Straight Vermonter]

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[JLS]

Please add me to this ping list.

[Straight Vermonter]

You're in.

[SteveMcKing]

Do you realize how painfully few Americans, even supposedly engaged and aware individuals, have a damn clue that campaigns like this exist, let alone their scale and effectiveness--

Yet people speak as boldly as any authority in judging our efforts and motivation, proclaiming non-wisdom that can only be printed on bumper-stickers.

I dare say this applies to >99% of people... though such ignorance is immeasurable.

[wildcatf4f3]

Its the effect of six years of bombardment by the MSM.

[LjubivojeRadosavljevic]

["Do you realize how painfully few Americans, even supposedly engaged and aware individuals, have a damn clue that campaigns like this exist..."]

I do.
I understood it years ago when I saw what was going on in Bosnia and Kosovo in terms of both Iranian involvement and the Mujahideen.

I understand what Islamofascism is all about.

[Straight Vermonter]

If you haven't seen it check out their website showing the excellent work they are doing. Although, I think they are probably doing some things in the dark of night that don't make it on the webpages.