Free Republic

Volunteer suicide bombers seek to attack Israel By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press TEHRAN, Iran – Hard-line Iranian student groups have asked the government to authorize volunteers to go carry out suicide bombings in Israel in response to the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip. The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had not responded to the call by Wednesday. Five hard-line student groups and a conservative clerical group launched a registration drive on Monday, seeking volunteers to carry out suicide attacks against Israel.

Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip for the fourth day straight on Tuesday. Gaza officials said that, as of Monday, 364 Palestinians have been killed, and the United Nations noted that at least 62 were civilians. How did the U.N. determine which of the victims were combatants? Gender and age. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency came up with the figure by sending emissaries to visit hospitals and other medical facilities. Under the Geneva Conventions and subsequent international law treaties, civilians are those who do not belong to the armed forces, militias, or organized resistance movements....

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. Army is investigating allegations that Special Forces troops killed an al Qaeda suspect in cold blood and cut off his finger during an overnight operation near Baghdad earlier this month. The U.S. Army is investigating the killing of Iraqi bomb-making suspect, Hardan al-Jaburi. The December 10 raid, on a house in the Salman Pak district, 15 miles south of Baghdad, targeted suspected bomb-maker Hardan al-Jaburi. In a statement, the U.S. military said al-Jaburi, armed with an AK-47, confronted troops conducting the raid. "Perceiving hostile intent, the forces engaged the armed man, killing him," the...

The article is in Hebrew, so anyone who can read it is welcome to check out the link, but the following photos are from the article: While the exact location has not been disclosed in order to avoid providing artillery spotting intelligence to the terrorists, the release of this photo of the vicinity was permitted, and you can see the playground and weightlifting equipment in the background. This shows the shrapnel's effects on a steel fence, which helped deflect the blast from an adjacent bus stop and playing fields. Memorials to earlier victims of terrorists were placed on the bench.

I've been going through Daylife, which is a photo service encompassing AP, Reuters, and other news services. The captions are provided by the respective news services. These photos are in reverse chronological order (most recent at the top), and shows just how the media bias creeps in. [...]

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel rejected international pressure to suspend its air offensive against Palestinian militants whose rocket barrages are striking close to the Israeli heartland, sending warplanes Wednesday to demolish smuggling tunnels that are the lifeline of Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers.

NEW DELHI (AFP) — India on Wednesday said Pakistan was in "denial" over the Mumbai attacks and refusing to acknowledge evidence linking the gunmen who carried out the assault with elements in Pakistan. "If anyone is in a state of denial, anything that we give will be denied," Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters. The minister said the Pakistani father of the sole surviving gunman had confirmed to Pakistan television that his son was involved. "If that is not evidence then what is?" Chidambaram said. The November attacks in Mumbai left 172 dead, including nine of the gunmen whom India...

In the summer of 2006, after Iran’s surrogate, Hezbollah, had repeatedly rained missiles into Israel from Lebanon – and then killed and kidnapped some Israeli soldiers, the world condemned Israel for retaliating to stop the missile attacks and recover her soldiers. Now again, after continuous provocation by the Hamas terrorists in Gaza, who sneak into Israel to plant bombs and kill people and who also hurl missiles daily into Israel, Israel is again being condemned by the anti-Semites of the world for defending herself. If a country on our border, like Mexico, were to launch missiles into the United States,...

NATO's vital supply link through the Northwest Frontier Province has been shut down as the Pakistani military launched an operation to clear the Taliban from the area. "Supplies to NATO forces have temporarily been suspended," Tariq Hayat Khan, the Khyber agency's political agent, told reporters. The main road between Peshawar and the border town of Torkham has been closed as the military launched attacks using "artillery, tanks and, helicopter gunships," Geo News reported. It is unclear if the operation is being led by the Army or the paramilitary Frontier Corps.

Shin Bet chief briefs cabinet on day five of Gaza offensive, says terror operatives hide in hospitals, mosques. IDF: Hamas increases use of densely populated areas for launching pads. Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin briefed the cabinet Wednesday on the progress of Operation Cast Lead. According to Diskin, "Hamas has been attacked like it has never been attacked before. It has suffered significant damaged and its rule over Gaza has been compromised." Diskin also noted that large numbers of Hamas operatives are hiding in hospitals and that some are posing as medical staff. "Some are also hiding in mosques and...

Israel Gaza War — On Facebook Face-to-Facebook combat: The “I Support the Israel Defense Forces In Preventing Terror Attacks From Gaza” Facebook group page. By Sharon Udasin The Jewish Week As war rages in the Gaza Strip, a parallel stream of cyber combat grinds on in perhaps today’s most populated Web forum and networking hub, Facebook.com. Two hours after the first Israel air strikes against Hamas on Saturday, American-Israeli public relations leader and Israel Defense Force veteran Joel Leyden created a Facebook “group” titled “I Support the Israel Defense Forces In Preventing Terror Attacks From Gaza.” By Monday afternoon, the...

According to a report published by the Hamas-affiliated Palestine Information Center Web site, PA President Mahmoud Abbas has ordered his officials in Ramallah to set up an "emergency room" to prepare for reassuming control over the Gaza Strip after the Hamas government is toppled by Israel.

As we have asserted from the day one, it is almost certain by now that the Gaza campaign was an election show and lacked political objectives. Israeli tanks are massed at the border with Gaza for four days but don't cross into the hostile territory. IAF continues sporadic raids against non-viable targets. Resurgent Hamas pounds Israel with dozens of rockets as far as Beersheba, hit Israel's major highway. Israeli leftists joined her Arabs to push for ceasefire. Peace Now, Meretz, and Avodah joined hands against the invasion. Israeli government is split on the army's suggestion to offer Hamas ceasefire. Hamas,...

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel on Wednesday rebuffed French calls for a 48-hour humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip and stepped up preparations for a possible ground offensive after Hamas's long-range rockets hit a major population center.

they have Humanitarian crisis to solve in Darfur and in Zimbabwe and a lot more people have suffered a great deal more in either of those areas

FORMER defence minister Brendan Nelson came close to being killed by an enemy rocket while on a secret visit to Baghdad. As Dr Nelson toured the "green" zone with Australian troops on April 21, 2007, a Katyusha rocket exploded nearby. The "indirect fire" incident has been kept secret by the military. In answer to The Daily Telegraph's questions about the incident, the Defence Department has admitted rockets landed within 500m of "Australian personnel". "There were no injuries or damage to equipment reported in this attack," a spokesman said. "Rocket attacks within the International Zone were routine occurrences during that period."

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is under "tremendous pressure" from the US to extradite Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks, to India, a media report said on Wednesday. The Americans are believed to have given Pakistan a taped conversation Lakhvi allegedly had with gunmen involved in attacks on Mumbai on November 26. American audio experts had checked the tape and concluded it was genuine and that the speaker was Lakhvi, the Dawn newspaper quoted US and diplomatic sources as saying. Though Indian officials had been saying for some time that Lakhvi should be handed over...

Hamas acts like a couple of naughty 12 year old boys looking for excitement and poking at a hornets' nestwhat do they expect to get from their actions? a cheap thrill ? a raison de etre?Israel must insure that Hamas does not get from this whatever it is they were seekingthe only thing that can be done now is to place Gaza under martial lawIt should have been kept that way back in 2005. events leading up to this weeks' action clearly show that the militant opposition will make every advantage possible from any concession given themI have never hear...

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas rockets hit the major Israeli city of Beersheba on Wednesday and Israel described as unrealistic a French proposal for a 48-hour truce that would allow more humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. Foreign powers have increased pressure on both sides to halt hostilities and Israeli officials made clear that Israel had not rejected the French plan outright and was open to amendments. But ahead of a meeting of Israel's security cabinet, political commentators predicted public anger over the widening of the rocket attacks to include Beersheba, 40 km (24 miles) from the Gaza Strip, would tip...

Israel's deadly air offensive in the Gaza Strip has sparked clashes between Palestinian gunmen and Egyptian security forces. Nearly 300 Palestinians, most of them armed militants, have been killed since Israel launched the offensive on Saturday. Hundreds of Palestinians breached the Gaza border fence in four places and poured into Egypt on Sunday. Egyptian police opened fire, prompting gun battles with Palestinian militants. Several hours later, Egyptian officials said border guards restored order. The breach followed Israel's bombing of 40 tunnels in Gaza used by the ruling Islamic militant group Hamas to smuggle weapons and supplies across Egypt's Sinai Peninsula....