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AMSTERDAM — The Cabinet is reportedly planning to send 150 commandos to Afghanistan to fight alongside US soldiers in secret operations against terrorists holed up along the Pakistan border. The elite troops would be deployed for initially one year as part of the US military's Enduring Freedom operation aimed at flushing out and destroying radical-Islamic Taleban fighters and the terrorist network al-Qaeda of Osama bin Laden, newspaper De Telegraaf reported on Friday. Foreign Minister Ben Bot and Defence Minister Henk Kamp want the soldiers to engage in combat operations with US and British troops, plus those from other willing nations...

Commandos Get Duty on U.S. Soil By ERIC SCHMITT ASHINGTON, Jan. 22 - Somewhere in the shadows of the White House and the Capitol this week, a small group of super-secret commandos stood ready with state-of-the-art weaponry to swing into action to protect the presidency, a task that has never been fully revealed before. As part of the extraordinary army of 13,000 troops, police officers and federal agents marshaled to secure the inauguration, these elite forces were poised to act under a 1997 program that was updated and enhanced after the Sept. 11 attacks, but nonetheless departs from how the...

WASHINGTON - U.S. commandos are hunting for secret nuclear and chemical weapons sites and other targets in Iran, and have a plan to turn the hard-line Islamic country into the next front in the war on terrorism. "It's not if we're going to do anything against Iran. They're doing it," an ex-intelligence official tells this week's issue of The New Yorker. Since at least last summer, the U.S. teams have penetrated eastern Iran, reportedly with Pakistan's help, the magazine said. "Iraq is just one campaign," the official told investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. "The Bush administration is looking at this as...

London 04.01.05 | My astonishment with respect to the arrest of FARC leader Ricardo Granda in Caracas continues to grow, not because Granda was in Caracas as a guest of honour of Hugo Chavez but rather due to the outlandish nerve of the FARC in condemning Chavez via public communiqués. Mind you what sort of moral stance a bunch of assassins have to be claiming anything to anyone? Their rights to claim were forfeited the moment they decided to start killing innocent peasants to achieve whatever goal they set out to reach. What's more, according to UN reports 1 million...

Twenty months after toppling Saddam Hussein, US troops still battling his followers in the heartland of Iraq's old arms industry are hitting back with a new weapon: ex-members of Hussein's special forces. For five months, Iraqi police commandos calling themselves the Black Scorpions have been based with US marines in the region along the Euphrates south of Baghdad. Roadside bombs, ambushes and kidnaps have turned the area into a no-go zone and earned it the melodramatic description "triangle of death". "All of them were previously officers in the Iraqi army or special forces," said Scorpions commander Colonel Salaam Trad. "But...

<p>February 24, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has dispatched the elite commando force that hunted down Saddam Hussein to Afghanistan for a new operation aimed at getting Osama bin Laden, officials said yesterday. Military sources confirmed that members of the shadowy Task Force 121, the unit that conducted the high-tech search for Saddam and his henchmen, have recently begun operating in the remote mountainous region along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border where bin Laden and key al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives are believed to be hiding.</p>

US commandos 'closing in' on bin Laden By David Rennie in Washington (Filed: 24/02/2004) The top-secret US commando team that spearheaded the capture of Saddam Hussein is heading for Afghanistan in the latest sign that the hunt for Osama bin Laden is coming to a head. Battle-hardened units from Task Force 121 are being shifted as intelligence reports increase on the possible whereabouts of the terrorist leader, according to an article in the Washington Times by a reporter known for his access to the special forces. Most of the "high-value targets" from Saddam's regime have been caught or killed, Pentagon...

THE CITIZEN Latest News Secret army unit gets robbed Joint Task Force 2 has truck, counter-terrorism gear stolen during stop at store David Pugliese The Ottawa Citizen January 17, 2004 Canada's commandos may have tested their mettle against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, but they appear to be no match for homegrown car thieves. A Joint Task Force 2 pickup truck containing counter-terrorism gear was stolen last May after personnel from the unit made a quick stop at a store, the military has confirmed. Although police recovered the Ford S350 pickup two days later, the thieves had made off with two empty...

IDF commando unit trained to assassinate Saddam in 1992, operation called off after 5 troops killed during training (Army Radio)

Defence Minister Henk Kamp intends to send 70 commandos to Iraq by next weekend at the latest. The minister does not want to wait until parliament has approved their deployment because of the seriousness of the situation in Iraq. The commandos will be deployed to track down terrorists in southern Iraq, where 1,100 Dutch troops are stationed. Mr Kamp says the commandos are almost ready for departure. Today, MPs submit written questions to the minister regarding extending of the mission in Iraq, which will be debated next week. The opposition parties believe the minister should wait for the outcome of...

RIYADH, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Taking cover behind desert shrubs, Saudi commandos creep up to a house where suspected militants are holed up. With a burst of gunfire and flash bombs, they storm through doors and windows, clamber over walls and race through the rooms to take control of the gunmen's hideout. Today it's just a training drill. But men from this unit of Saudi Arabia's Special Security Forces, on the front line of the kingdom's battle with an Islamist insurgency, were in action for real two weeks ago when they raided a house in Riyadh and killed a suspected...

November 13, 2003: British commandos (Army SAS and Navy SBS) have been reassigned to go after terrorists operating in Baghdad. The British commandos have long experience with this kind work, both in Northern Ireland and in the Persian Gulf. That latter experience, and the presence of many SAS members who can speak Arabic, is expected to help identify and destroy the Baath Party and al Qaeda organizations within Baghdad. In Northern Ireland, SAS operations prevented hundreds of terrorist operations. But you usually don't get credit for the attacks you stopped, and you don't want to talk about it anyway. The...

BALTIC SEA COAST, Poland (Reuters) - Under cover of darkness and in complete silence Polish elite commandos stormed an offshore Iraqi oil platform in the first days of the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein. As they advanced towards the rig's control centre, it was far from clear if Saddam would use chemical weapons or even if the platform itself was a booby-trapped. "Suddenly an old telephone we passed on the platform began to ring. We held our breath thinking the ringer could be a fuse mechanism for a bomb," recalled an officer who took part in the mission. "After...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. God Bless America...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members...

(IsraelNN.com) Reliable but yet unconfirmed sources are reporting that Israeli commandos operating in the Hevron area killed the area Hamas commander Abdullah Kuwasme. Kuwasme is responsible for dispatching homicide bombers to several attacks, including, ** The 14 bus in Jerusalem earlier this month that claimed 17 lives and left over 100 injured, ** The 18 May French Hill homicide bombing attack on board a number 6 bus. 7 persons were murdered and about 20 injured. The limited unconfirmed information indicates the elite unit tried to take him into custody and he was shot and killed while attempting to flee.

War preparations have been in full swing for months. The Pentagon says that 60,000 troops are now in the Persian Gulf region; that number could double in coming weeks.

Sixteen US commandos were killed when Afghan mujahideen launched a ferocious missile attack targetting Khost's Sahara Garden Airbase on the night of Friday 18 October. In total 5 missiles were fired, all of which successfully hit the airport's inner portion and left a devastating aftermath. Many more were seriously injured. Coalition warplanes immediately made concentrated flights over the airport to locate the attackers, all of which were in vain. The attack was planned and carried out with precision resulting in chaos and mayhem among the US troops as the missiles hit their targets. An eye witnesses reported of a loud...

by James DunniganJune 23, 2002 Recruiting commando quality troops is a difficult process. But over the last sixty years, a particularly effective method has been developed. It all has to do with training that takes men to the edge, and a little beyond. One of the unheralded military developments during World War II was training methods that can detect, and enhance those soldiers who can reliably operate in extreme situations. These initial commando training courses can last from a few weeks to a few months and are meant to evaluate a candidates psychological, as well as physical, stamina. The training...