CAIRO -- Rescuers searched the Sinai Sunday for a plane carrying members of a team responsible for security arrangements between Israel and Egypt. The plane belonging to the Multi-National Force disappeared in clear weather about 80 miles from al-Nakheel in the Sinai, reported KUNA, the Kuwait news agency.
Authorities fear the plane may have hit a mountain before crashing, KUNA reported. The Multi-National Force is responsible for security arrangements between Israel and Egypt, as stipulated by the Camp David peace treaty.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/05/06/plane_disappears_over_sinai/
Afghan police raid Taliban ‘suicide prep school’
Wed, 04/04/2007
Afghan police acting on a tip stormed a madrassa in western Farah province seizing 22 Taliban members, according to officials. The raid targeted well known Taliban commander Mullah Hayatullah Khan but was not amongst those arrested. Most of those arrested are teenagers thought to be undertaking suicide bomb indoctrination.
Farah province has recently seen an upsurge in Taliban related violence including a spate of suicide bombings and high profile assassinations. The targeting of Mullah Hayatullah Khan and other known commanders is the latest tactic to be widely employed by ISAF and Afghan forces intent on spoiling the Taliban’s military objectives.
Excerpted
http://www.afgha.com/?q=node/2498
Up to 4,000 terrorism suspects and their supporters are active in Britain, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens said yesterday. Lord Stevens said the security service MI5 had recently suggested a figure of 2,000 but the true number was "probably nearer 4,000".
Police and MI5 were "still too underfunded and undermanned to cope with the task they face in the decades to come. And that's how long this will last," he said. The "infection" had spread out from "hot spots" such as Luton, the West Midlands and Finsbury Park in London and those involved in the fertiliser bomb plot case which finished this week were "ordinary and British".
Lord Stevens also gave warning that al-Qa'eda-linked extremists were already trying to infiltrate the police and the security services and that dozens had already been weeded out. He urged that known terrorism suspects and "hate clerics", such as Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada, should be deported, adding: "Our human rights come first. Yet, incredibly, our so-called Human Rights laws, and our enviable history of religious tolerance, mean that foreigners preaching death and destruction to our way of life are allowed to stay here because their own countries won't tolerate such evil."
In his column in The News of the World, after five terrorists were jailed for life in the fertiliser bomb case - which began as Operation Crevice for Scotland Yard when he was still Commissioner - Lord Stevens called for an independent Parliamentary committee "to publicly oversee the security services". This task is currently carried out by the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), which reports to the Prime Minister. Police and security services, he added, had "nothing to hide. But it's vital the public know that". There is controversy over how MI5 handled intelligence over links between the fertiliser gang and Mohammed Sidique Khan, the ringleader of the July 7 bombers.
It was claimed yesterday that al-Qa'eda extremists, including Khan, held a "summit" in London four years ago, at a barbecue, and plotted activity in Britain. The claims in The Sunday Times are attributed to Hassan Butt, a one-time radical now said to have turned his back on fundamentalist violence, Butt - a former spokesman for the now defunct al-Muhajiroun extremist group founded by Omar Bakri Mohammed - claimed the barbecue took place in late April 2003, after the invasion of Iraq and that he also met Mohammed Junaid Babar, an American jihadist who was the principal "supergrass" witness for the Crown in the fertiliser case at the Old Bailey.
It emerged in the trial that Khan, Babar and members of the fertiliser gang had attended a training camp in the Afghan border region in July 2003. It has also emerged that anti-terrorism police made inquiries around five months before the July 2005 bombings into two cars which were shown to be linked to Khan. The checks were carried out by Scotland Yard detectives as part of the preparation of the fertiliser case. Khan's own Honda and a courtesy car loaned to him by a garage cropped up during a surveillance operation in February and March 2004.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/07/nterror07.xml
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=33069
Afghan, Coalition Force Foil Attack; Suspects Detained
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 6, 2007 – Afghan and coalition forces thwarted an attack in Afghanistan’s Farah province yesterday, 10 suspected Taliban were detained in a separate incident, and the Afghan border police also stopped two suicide bombers near the Pakistan border.
Afghan National Police defended the Bakwa district center in Farah province yesterday following an attack by an unknown number of Taliban fighters.
The Afghan force asked for a show of force to stave off the insurgents, and coalition forces responded with close-air support. The police also requested assistance from the Farah Provincial Reconstruction Team’s security forces to secure the Bakwa district center.
The police held the district center against the Taliban, though eight Afghan police were killed in action. Two were wounded in action and one is reported missing in action. The wounded were evacuated to a hospital.
Seventeen insurgents were reported killed. The insurgents also burned four Afghan police vehicles.
In the Qalat district of Afghanistan’s Zabul province yesterday, coalition forces detained 10 men after raids on multiple compounds.
Officials said credible evidence led the forces to the compounds, where the detainees are suspected of facilitating foreign fighters working for the Taliban. Coalition forces were targeting known Taliban commanders and sub-commanders who organize attacks on coalition forces and peaceful Afghans in the Zabul province.
“These men are acknowledged facilitators for the Taliban in the area,” coalition spokesman Army Maj. Christopher Belcher said. “They have pushed their way into the homes of locals, demanding food and shelter, putting innocent families in danger.”
On May 4, Afghan Border Police guarding a Chamkani area border control point in Paktia province’s Dand Patan district stopped two suspicious men wearing concealed suicide vests when the men failed to stop after ignoring warnings from the police.
After repeatedly warning the bombers to stop, the guards shot and wounded one bomber. The wounded bomber detonated his vest, killing himself. The second suicide bomber evaded the guards during the aftermath of the explosion. There were no injuries to any Afghan civilians and no other shots were fired.
“The actions of the Afghan Border Police prevented the potential deaths of dozens of innocent Afghan civilians,” Belcher said. “Suicide bombers are cowards, and their actions bring disgrace upon their families and their religion.”
Coalition and Afghan national security forces have received intelligence indicating more than 10 Taliban commanders were among those killed during fighting in the village of Parmekan, south of Shindand in Herat province, on April 27 and 29.
One of the senior Taliban commanders reportedly killed was from Helmand province and recently was released with four other Taliban members in exchange for an Italian journalist who was taken hostage two months ago. Two other senior Taliban commanders who died in the battles were known enemies of the Afghan government for the past three years.
Reporting and intelligence suggests that most of the senior Taliban commanders and sub-commanders entered the Zerkoh Valley to reinforce enemy fighters in the village of Parmekan at the conclusion of the first battle against coalition and Afghan National Police forces. They were later killed during the second battle.
Combined Joint Task Force 82 and NATO’s International Security Assistance Force are working with the Afghan government to make inquiries into the incident to confirm reports of civilian casualties during the operation, officials said.
“Coalition and Afghan National Army Forces value the life of all Afghan civilians, while Taliban fighters have been known to use Afghan civilians as human shields when attacking coalition and Afghan national security forces,” Belcher said. “The lengthy battle against the Taliban fighters is an indication of the precautions taken by coalition and Afghan National Security Forces to positively identify enemy fighters and prevent the harm to any innocent Afghan civilians who did not vacate the area.”
(Compiled from Combined Joint Task Force 82 news releases.)