Missile kills Pakistan tribal head

CNN ^ | Friday, June 18 | Syed Mohsin Naqvi

[AdmSmith]

ISLAMABAD (CNN) -- A tribal leader accused of harboring Al Qaeda militants in Pakistan's western border region was killed Thursday night in a targeted missile strike, according to Pakistan intelligence sources. The Associated Press quoted an army spokesman Friday as identifying the tribal leader as Nek Mohammed, a former Taliban fighter.

He was killed late Thursday at the home of another tribal chief, the spokesman said.

"We were tracking him down and he was killed last night by our hand," Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told The Associated Press.

[AdmSmith]

Here is a ref to the 25,000 Jihadis in Karachi:
http://www.deepikaglobal.com/latestnews.asp?ncode=17885

Jehadi organisations active in Karachi and Punjab

Islamabad, July 13 (UNI) Over 25,000 Jehadis, who have undergone terrorist training in Afghanistan, are operating in the troubled port city of Karachi and Punjab province targeting Shias and continuing with their anti-Indian activities unbriddled, media reports said here.

"The Jehadis are continuing to kill Shias quite freely. In some cases the Police has been found involved in the Shia-killing spree," reports Friday Times.

It said leaders of the coalition of the Jehadi organisations -- Brigade 313 -- were either allowed to flee or escape from police dragnets. Lashkar e Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harkatul Jihad Islami, Harkatul Mujahideen Al Alami and Lashkar -e-Jhangvi are among the coalition.

The authorities have recently captured some police officials who maintained close links with the Harkatul Mujahideens and other groups, it said and added the Jehadis, facing trial in the province, were being acquitted by the courts.

The Weekly said that a worrying development was that Punjab was becoming a sanctuary for the Lashkar Jhangvi terrorists.

President Pervez Musharraf,who had launched a campaign against the terrorist groups, have failed to contain their activities in Punjab and Sindh Provinces as Jehadis have stepped up their activities. The President said that Al Qaeda elements were operating from the tribal Areas and were responsible not only for acts of terror inside Pakistan, but also in other friendly countries including China.

The Weekly said that leaders of the top five terrorists groups were "either in confinement or allowed to remain at large. Those in confinement under the state surveillance have been allowed to get out and disappear." At least two important terrorist satraps Hafiz Mohammed Saeed of the LeT and Maulana Masood Azhar of JeM, whose groups were actively involved in "low intensity conflict in Kashmir" were virtually free and issuing "provocative statements", it said. Both Hafiz Saeed and Maulana Azhar had maintained links with Osama bin Laden.

It said "the militants that would kill President Musharraf are militants that have spearheaded the Kashmir jihad. They are all deobandi-Wahhabi in character and aligned with the Al-Qaeda.

President Musharraf should grasp the mettle of terrorism in Pakistan and get rid of it even it means no option on the resumption of Jehadi in Kashmir. The price for Kashmir option is very high and the people of Pakistan may finally refuse to pay it with their blood."

[AdmSmith]

Probably.

[jeffers]

From Mantoi to Shkin, as the crow flies, is 30.8 km or about 20 miles.

Mantoi's at about 2300m elevation, the ridge just east of there is up around 2450m and the ridge just west of the village is 2540m tall. I'd want to silence any mortars up there before putting people into Mantoi.

The main ridgeline north of Mantoi is 4.5km away, or about 3 miles. There's a north-south spur ridge NW of Mantoi that extends to within 3km. Those are about 3200m high, or about 10,500', near the operational ceiling of most of the heavier lift troop carrier helicopters. At those ranges, 81mm mortars wouldn't be able to reach Mantoi, and even a 4" would be stretching it.

Not sure what equipment the enemy has, assuming Soviet early 1990's era at best, and also not sure of rocket ranges of the type in use by the militants, but I suspect the ridges mentioned so far refer to the lower ones closer to Mantoi and Sangtoi.

[jeffers]

Interesting.

Al Qaeda has implemented efforts to end the schism between Sunni and Shiite, instead preferring to concentrate on the west as its main enemy. In fact, I understand that even discussing differences between the sects is considered a sin under AQ's twisted interpretation of the Koran.

Of course, thetical differences have bever stayed AQ's hand in alliances past.

[AdmSmith]

Here is a presentation of the world according to bin Laden and al Qaeda by Brian Jenkins at RAND



http://www.oss.net/dynamaster/file_archive/040509/8e4fee5357af4b569ce5e2f4bdcedf5f/Brian%20Jenkins%20on%20Al%20Qaeda%20Code%20and%20Direction.ppt

[AdmSmith]

Al Qaeda has implemented efforts to end the schism between Sunni and Shite,instead preferring to concentrate on the west as its main enemy.

I am not so sure about that. The Wahhabis, Deobandis and Tabligh Jamaats detest the Shias that they call polytheists, a grave sin that only can be punished by death.

In Pakistan these fundamentalists are especially targeting Shia doctors as well as Sunni Sufis.

[jeffers]

Agreed, many of the AQ affiliated Pakistani terrorist organizations have implemented attacks against Shia targets, including Jayash-e-Muhammed, Harkat-ul-Jihad and Lashkar-e-Toiba, but the two idealogies are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

This is a new viewpoint in my experience, not well substantiated by other sources. It comes from "Inside Al Qaeda" by Rohan Gunaratna. I have not yet assigned an overall credibility level to this author, even though he presents new information not yet confirmed by other sources, along with amplification of data presented by numerous sources, and consistent with their in-depth analysis.

In part, he states:

"Idealogically, Al Qaeda differs markedly from groups of the past. It has taken the first steps to breaking the SHIA-SUNNI divide that has traditionally kept apart two terrorist groupings. By forging a tactical relationship with Hezbollah, Al Qaeda mastered the art of bombing buildings. Al Qaeda has persistently argued that Islamist groups should shed their doctrinal differences and unite to take on their real enemy, the West, and strike the US, the "head of the snake".

Obviously, any cooperation to date with Hezbollah would indicate that AQ places the west higher on its priority list than Shiite polytheists who not only worship Allah, but also certain of Mohammed's followers. Is there a viable AQ-Hezbollah (or Iranian) connection? The following suggests that there is, and it has been reasonably substantiated by other sources. Out of 1100 sat-phone calls intercepted by the NSA, 238 went to Britain, 221 to Yemen, and roughly 110 went to Iran, the third highest total of the calls recorded. Other sources say that calls placed to Iran outpaced those to Yemen, but still list these three nations as the top three recipients.

A belief that Muslims of all sects are a lesser enemy than the west would also allow AQ to form alliances with groups who target Shiites and Sufists, meaning that the Pakistani anti-Shiite attacks might not necessarily indicate an anti-shiite bias on the part of AQ leadership.

On the downside, the same author claims that Jaji was a significant military victory, while other sources note that the Soviets had already decided to pull out of Afghanistan, and he makes no note of the fact that the mujas retreated after five days of conflict. He also claims that Bin Laden was significantly involved in an attack on Jalalabad, a claim I've not seen elsewhere.

Bottom line, AQ's contacts with Hezbollah and Iran are too well documented to simply ignore, though I'm not yet sure I can extend that to a general AQ policy against anti-Shiite bigotry, but nor am I yet willing to discount such a possibility.

[Boot Hill]

8   “I'm taking my system off-line for up to two days. I'll ping you all when I return.”

Formatting the disk, reloading the system, including all application software and user files was a piece of cake, that took less than a day. However, downloading and installing 100+ MB of Microsoft "critical security" updates and service packs, just about broke my balls.

Anyway, I'm back, but give me a day or so to catch up.

--Boot Hill

[Dog]

Nice to have you back Boot....big fight going on in Mantoi Pakistan..

[jeffers]

WB.

Viva la Gates.

[Cap Huff]

Welcome back!

[AdmSmith]

ditto!

OK, let's take them...

[AdmSmith]

http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en69555&F_catID=&f_type=source

Tribal elders split over penalizing militants

WANA, July 13: Differences surfaced among tribal elders over the demolition of houses of relatives of two wanted militants as clashes continued between security forces and militants in the South Waziristan region on Tuesday.

Despite disagreement, a 40-member committee comprising tribal Maliks, announced here that about 4,000 volunteers would demolish the houses of the relatives of the two militants in Doag Kali and Wacha Dana.

The committee members and a group of tribal elders who met in Wana on Tuesday, were divided over the demolition of houses of the relatives of Maulvi Abbas and Mohammad Javed.

The two wanted militants have refused to surrender but say they will not support or shelter local and foreign fighters. The sources said that a group of tribal elders, however, opposed the demolition of the houses of the militants' relatives, saying that such tactics could not force them to give themselves up to the authorities.

Reports reaching from the war zone said that intensity of the firing between security forces and militants had minimised on the fourth day and both sides were exchanging fire intermittently.

The four-day-long clashes have claimed the life of a minor girl and eight others have been wounded, while a large number of families have become displaced in the troubled region.

ROCKET ATTACK: Militants fired around a dozen rockets on the Scouts Camp in the Razmak sub-division of the North Waziristan on Monday night, Pazir Gul adds from Miramshah, the agency headquarters.

The militants targeted the Shawal Scouts camp at around 9.30pm, some 70 kilometres south of the regional headquarters, but no casualty was reported. Sources said that three rockets landed inside the Razmak Fort while one hit the playground of the Cadet Colleg, Razmak, which created panic among the students.

They said that the rockets fired from the nearby hilltops missed the target. The rocket attack was followed by an intense exchange of fire between the security forces and assailants for half-an-hour.

TWO CHILDREN KILLED: Two children were killed on Tuesday in a mortar attack by suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants on a military checkpoint in a remote tribal village near Afghan border, officials said, AFP adds.

"Two boys were martyred after mortars fired by miscreants hit them in Khamrang village," military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan told AFP. The militants missed the target and mortar shells landed away from the military post in Khamrang village near tribal South Waziristan's main town Wana.

[Boot Hill]

8   “Lwara, at least the one we are interested in, is, I believe, Lwara Mandi or a variant there-of, and if you have coordinates, it would be helpful.”

The name "Lwara" (and variants) is a popular Pashtoon name and is commonly used on both sides of the border. If I'm not mistaken, the U.S. has two Afghani FF bases at places called Lwara. Both are very close to the Paki border. I believe that the "Mandi" portion of the name ("Lwara Mandi") merely means town or village.

Try this high percentage one first:

Unverified Name:   Lwarah Dashteh
Generic Name:   Dashteh
Variant Name:   Lwara Dasta
Type:   Plain
Coordinates:   32° 57' 50" N 069° 28' 48" E
Located:   Paktika Province, Afghanistan

It can be found on the first map below in the red circle.

multimap.com

|

The above map came from MultiMap.com. Click the logo on the left to visit the best site on the internet for accurate and detailed maps of the entire world.

 
Here is another "Lwara" that is also likely a U.S. base.

Unverified Name:   Lwarah
Variant Name:   Lwara
Type:   Populated Place
Coordinates:   33° 17' 56" N 069° 40' 15" E
Located:   Khowst Province, Afghanistan

It can be found on the second map (below) in the red circle.

multimap.com

|

The above map came from MultiMap.com. Click the logo on the left to visit the best site on the internet for accurate and detailed maps of the entire world.

 
Was that any help?

--Boot Hill

[Boot Hill]

8   “Nice to have you back Boot....big fight going on in Mantoi Pakistan.”

Thanks for the welcome back.

Here is the map locating Mantoi, Pakistan.

multimap.com

|

The above map came from MultiMap.com. Click the logo on the left to visit the best site on the internet for accurate and detailed maps of the entire world.

 
--Boot Hill

[AdmSmith]

I think Mandi means Market.

[Boot Hill]

Thanks for that information, Adm.

I ran "Mandi" through the GEOnames data base and all the geographic features with that name appended to it, were "populated places", so I inferred that it must mean "town". Good guess, but no cigar!

--Boot Hill

[AdmSmith]

I do not smoke, but Mandi means Market ;-)

[AdmSmith]

In many cases a town originated as a market and this is true in this area as well. In earlier posts you can read that the people due to the war has been unable to go to the market places = (nowadays towns) to sell their products such as tomatoes. Mandi (or Mantoi) is Market in English.

[Boot Hill]

“I do not smoke”

Watching Fahrenheit 911 might make you smoke just a wee bit!

--Boot Hill