Free Republic

A grainy videotape released Tuesday shows a carload of important Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq being blown up by missiles from a U.S. Army chopper, military officials said. At least one of the dead operatives was a "high-value" target linked to suicide bomb attacks, including the car bombing of the Australian Embassy in Baghdad, an Army spokesman told FoxNews.com. Of the six men killed in the Sunday attack, one was "believed to be an Al Qaeda cell leader known to facilitate attacks and orchestrate suicide bomb attacks," Maj. Alayne Conway of the 3rd Infantry Division told Fox. Conway did not...

In the summer of 2003, an Air Force pilot named Greg Harbin was doing desk duty at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. Day in and day out, Harbin sat in front of five computer screens, scanning photographs and video sent by unmanned planes flying 1,200 miles away, over Iraq and Afghanistan. His job was to take that information, along with reports from ground troops, and identify fresh targets -- Taliban fighters or Iraqi insurgents. But one thing puzzled him. When regular units called for an attack by a Predator drone, the request went to Harbin, and then, if...

Video of insurgents planting IED. Grab the popcorn and enjoy.

An Israeli helicopter launched an airstrike along the Gaza Strip's border with Israel early Saturday, killing a Palestinian fighter and injuring two others, secutity officials said. The army said it carried out the airstrike after spotting the Palestinians trying to plant a bomb. It said they had been spotted planting explosives there two days earlier. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small group, said the fighters were "on a holy mission" when they were hit by the Israeli force. The Israeli army said the Palestinians have planted more than 40 bombs along the border since the cease-fire...

A Predator drone fires a Hellfire missile at Iraqi insurgents.

Israeli Occupation forces killed Sunday at a pre-dawn raid a Palestinian activist and arrested three others in the West Bank city of Nablus, WAFA reported. The victim was identified as Iyad Mohammed Al-Hashash 19, of Balata refugee camp, east Nablus. Meanwhile, Palestinian medics reported that Khaddar Rayan died of wounds he sustained when an Israeli missile hit a group of Al Aqsa Martyrs fighters, in the northern part of Gaza Strip. Rayan, a member of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades was critically wounded in the head late Thursday when Israel targeted three Palestinians activists located in a farm close Jabalyia refugee...

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan - Shrapnel that appeared to be from an American-made missile was found Sunday at the house where Pakistan said a top al-Qaida operative was killed in an explosion, although President Bush's national security adviser declined to confirm the death. U.S. and Pakistani officials declined to confirm an NBC report, citing anonymous officials, that the attack on the house where Hamza Rabia reportedly died was launched by a U.S. drone. But local residents found at least two pieces of shrapnel at the blast scene inscribed with the designation of the Hellfire missile, which is carried by the U.S....

Officials: CIA missile strike kills al-Qaida No. 3 Terrorist group's operational leader Rabia killed in Pakistan By Robert Windrem and Carol Grisanti NBC News and news services Updated: 12:20 p.m. ET Dec. 3, 2005 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The operational commander of al-Qaida and possibly the No. 3 official in the terrorist organization, Hamza Rabia, was killed early Thursday morning by a CIA missile attack on a safehouse in Pakistan, officials told NBC News. Pakistan's president later confirmed the militant leader's death. “Yes indeed, 200 percent. I think he was killed the day before yesterday if I’m not wrong,” President Pervez...

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at a car in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun on Friday, killing a Palestinian militant in the latest in a series of violent confrontations that have all but buried peace efforts. Expressing growing frustration with the Palestinian leadership, Israel's defense minister dismissed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as "a one-man show" bereft of support from his own people and said he saw little chance of reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians in the present generation. A Palestinian negotiator rejected the pessimistic outlook, and insisted the Palestinians were...

WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - The United States has approved full-rate production of a new Hellfire missile variant, touted by President George W. Bush for its ability to kill guerrillas in urban settings, the missile's manufacturer said on Wednesday. U.S. commanders in Iraq have asked for more of the rounds, said Lt. Col. Kevin Curry, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, who added that early versions had already been used there in "limited numbers." More than 1,870 Americans have been killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. The "thermobaric" Hellfire AGM-114N warhead creates an intense, sustained pressure...

The other day, I heard on an evangelical station a preacher say that the RCC teaches that the fires of purgatory are as hot as the fires of hell and the only difference between the two is the duration. What does the Catholic Church teach about this? Exact quote: "The fire of Purgatory and Hell are the same, except in duration"

A Spanish mother has taken revenge on the man who raped her 13-year-old daughter at knifepoint by dousing him in petrol and setting him alight. He died of his injuries in hospital on Friday. Antonio Cosme Velasco Soriano, 69, had been sent to jail for nine years in 1998, but was let out on a three-day pass and returned to his home town of Benejúzar, 30 miles south of Alicante, on the Costa Blanca. While there, he passed his victim's mother in the street and allegedly taunted her about the attack. He is said to have called out "How's your...

6/20/2005 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- An MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle destroyed an anti-Iraqi forces mortar launch site near Al Qaim on June 18 while assisting Marines under enemy fire. The air strike occurred during Operation Spear in which U.S. and Iraqi security forces in Iraq’s Anbar province called in air strikes on terrorist strong holds. An Air Force joint terminal attack controller, whose unit on the ground was under mortar attack, saw imagery from a nearby Predator assigned to another mission and requested control of the unmanned aerial vehicle. After positive identification of the launch site, the Predator...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Newly released military video reveals unmanned U.S. Predators firing Hellfire missiles to rescue U.S. troops under fire in Iraq and destroy insurgent targets. The U.S. Air Force released 10 video clips Tuesday in response to requests from CNN and other television networks. The black and white footage, all from the summer and fall of 2004, shows what officials say are insurgents planting roadside bombs, firing at U.S. positions and gathering to attack U.S. troops.

Washington, Jan. 4 (CNA) Taiwan will purchase more than 400 Hellfire missiles from the United States, worth a total of about US$50 million, American defense industry sources said Tuesday. Lockheed Martin Corp. said in a news release that the company will produce over 600 AGM-114M and AGM-114K Hellfire missiles in line with its contract with the U.S. Army. According to an agreement between Taiwan and the U.S. Army, the press statement said, 70 percent of those air-to-ground missiles will be sold to Taiwan. The statement further said that 5 percent to 10 percent of the Hellfire missiles will be delivered...

What kind of message to “infidels”, (unbelievers – Christians and Jews), is it for a Muslim to set himself on fire? Fire resembles Hell. Here’s what Islam says: Qur’an 84:10 “Soon will He (Allah) cry for perdition, invoking destruction, throwing them into the scorching fire. They shall enter the fire and be forced to taste its burning.” Qur’an 87:12 “They will be flung in to burn in the great Fire (and be made to taste its burning, in which they will then neither die nor live?” So this Muslim set himself on fire and tasted it’s burning himself? As an...

Hamas has described the killing of one of its top militants, Adnan al-Ghul, as a "great loss to our people and to the resistance". In a statement dated 21 October the group's military wing added that its operations would not be affected by Al-Ghul's death. The following is the text of the "military communique" by the Hamas military wing Izz-al-Din al-Qassam Brigades published by Izz-al-Din al-Qassam Brigades web site on 22 October How many of the prophets fought in Allah's way, and with them fought large bands of godly men, but they never lost heart if they met with disaster...

Israeli forces have killed a member of the militant Hamas movement in the north of the Gaza Strip. The man, 25-year-old Abdelaluf Nabur, was hit by a rocket fired from a helicopter gunship. Israeli sources say soldiers fired on the Palestinians as they were preparing to launch an anti-tank rocket.

A PALESTINIAN television journalist was killed today as he was giving a live report to camera on deadly clashes between US forces and insurgents in the heart of the Iraqi capital. Residents of his home town in the West Bank watched in horror as Mazen al-Tomaisi, who worked for Saudi television Akhbariya and for the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya, went down. Mr Tomaisi, 28, was killed when a US helicopter fired missiles on a mob which had gathered round a US tank in Baghdad that had been set ablaze in a car bomb attack, one of a string of bombings...

TEL AVIV [MENL] -- The United States has rejected an Israeli request for an advanced airborne munition. Israeli sources said the Bush administration has withheld approval for an Israeli request for the sale of advanced versions of the Hellfire anti-tank missile. The sources said the models were deployed on U.S. Army AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters during the war in Iraq in 2003. The models sought by Israel are the L, M and N models of the Hellfire. Israel has been supplied with earlier versions of the missile. The Israel Air Force has sought to procure the latest models of...