Posted on 08/03/2005 4:15:09 PM PDT by Gucho
By Sara Cardine - News-Sentinel Staff Writer
Jul 28, 2005 - 06:38:35 am PDT
It was nothing more than a scrap of paper pressed into the billfold of an ordinary men's wallet. On it were a few words, scribbled in Arabic, a language reportedly familiar to the note's owner, 22-year-old Hamid Hayat.
"We put You at their throats," one part of it read. "We seek refuge with You from their evil."
Those words are historically thought to have come from the lips of the Islamic prophet Muhammad at a time when he was afraid of a group of people.
Now, more than 1,000 years later, those same words are a key piece of evidence in a federal trial against Hayat, who was arrested June 6 and later charged with lying to agents about his connections with a terrorist training camp in his native Pakistan.
Prosecutors consider that one piece of paper an important component of their case against the Lodi man.
The passage was translated as reading, "Let us be at their throats" -- which Hayat's attorney, Wazhma Mojaddidi, claims to be a misinterpretation of the sentiment behind the saying.
"It literally says, 'We put You (Allah) at their throats," Mojaddidi wrote in a July 15 filing. "The expression ... does not, in Arabic, have the blood-curdling connotation that it has to English speakers' ears."
In an interview Tuesday, Mojaddidi, who is herself Muslim, added that that one passage is usually carried by Muslims when they are afraid of someone or something. She said she, herself, once carried Islamic texts for good fortune, though she now puts more faith in recitation of prayers.
Most Islamic scholars, however, were not familiar with that particular text, but did attest to the practice of carrying religious words for good luck.
While Hayat's attorney could not speak for the her client's state of mind on the day of his arrest, she said he knew, when he woke up, that he would be interviewed by FBI agents.
Many Islamic scholars consulted on the cultural importance of the passage said they believed it likely would have come from the hadith, a voluminous collection of accounts on the life and sayings of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.
Baki Tezcan, a UC Davis professor of Islamic history, said did not know the specific hadith found in Hayat's wallet.
Tezcan added that the act of carrying supplications for specific circumstances is widely practiced in many Muslim communities.
People usually seek hand-written prayers from local holy men to carry with them for good health and luck in personal matters. Ordinarily, the paper is folded up many times into a triangle small enough to fit in a locket. Businesses also sometimes display religious texts as hopes for prosperity, Tezcan said.
"I used to carry something very small in my change purse," he said. "My mom gave it to me and told me I should carry it -- I don't know what it said."
Though more conservative Muslims frown on the practice as a kind of idolatry, most local Muslims believe in the positive power of carrying written passages.
Eide Alawan is an outreach coordinator for the Islamic Center of America in Detroit. Alawan said he was not familiar with the details of the Hayat case, but did say that the real reason Hayat was carrying the passage may not be something that makes sense to non-Muslims.
"He may understand it in a way that's not translatable into English," Alawan said.
In a telephone interview Wednesday, he added that Allah is commonly refereed to by Muslims as being closer to a person than his own jugular vein. While that may be a harsh image in English, it means that a person's God is closer and more vital to them than their own life blood -- something that is much more natural to Muslims, Alawan explained.
Malik Ahmad, a member of the Lodi Muslim Mosque, agreed that the paper in Hayat's wallet was not likely a veiled threat to another person, but a sentiment of protection between a man and his god.
Ahmad added that he carries, in his wallet, words of protection that he got from a friend for the same purpose.
"It has nothing to do with other people," Ahmad said. "It's like when you're scared and you say, 'Oh God, save me' -- it's just protects me from my enemies."
Like Alawan, Ahmad believes that the words of on the scarp of paper found in Hayat's wallet may have been turned against him by prosecutors or the media.
"He's just trying to get closer to the Lord," Ahmad added.
By Sara Cardine - News-Sentinel Staff Writer
Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005 - 11:18:34 pm PDT
The annual celebration of Pakistani Independence Day, a three-year tradition in Lodi, has been canceled this year, organizers say.
The cancellation comes as the result of a lack of organization among founding members of the event, though some speculate recent news of possible terrorism links in the area might put a damper on public celebrations.
In past years, the one-day August event has featured music, dancing, food and games -- all put on by the South Asian Culture Club and Community Partnership for Families of San Joaquin County.
But this year, there wasn't enough of an organized effort to get the celebration off the ground.
Some suggest now might be an opportune time to focus on an event that would unite a politically fractured Muslim community, though the original organizers of the celebration say the decision has nothing to do with politics.
Former Lodi City Manager Dixon Flynn was actively involved in the sponsorship of past Pakistani celebrations. He is also a current member of the Breakthrough Project, an organization that promotes cultural diversity.
"Because of all the recent scrutiny ... they're probably hesitant to come out in front of (the public eye)," he said.
The community has been in the media spotlight since two mosque members were arrested for lying to federal agents about possible connections to a terrorist camp in Pakistan, while two former religious leaders were charged with immigration violations.
In addition to the arrests, several members of Lodi Muslim Mosque are embroiled in a lawsuit over control of the nonprofit religious corporation, and other members have filed suit over money spent on the Farooqia Islamic Center project, a school planned for Lower Sacramento Road.
Nawaz Shah, a former SACC member involved in the planning of the first Independence Day celebration, maintains that the group decided not to hold an event because its members have not been active.
"It's not because of political issues," he said. "It's just because everybody's busy."
Some SACC members moved on to college, while others started jobs or families, Shah added. And because there is, essentially, no club left, there won't likely be a Pakistani celebration unless a new organizer steps forward.
"If somebody else wants to do it, it's up to them," Shah said, adding that recent politics within the Muslim community had no bearing on the decision to cancel the event.
Flynn said he hopes to see the event continue in the future and that disputes between warring factions in the Muslim community will not cause people to lose sight of the importance of celebrating a culture.
"The (celebrations) we've done in the past have been very successful," Flynn said. "I know I learned a lot from them."
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A recent but undated photo of killed US journalist Steven Vincent dressed in Arab garb taken in the southern city of Basra, 500kms from Baghdad. Vincent, who had been in Basra for the past two months, was killed after he was snatched yesterday evening along with his female translator, police and the US embassy in Baghdad said. The Iraqi translator was also shot twice but she survived.(AFP/File)
US journalist shot in Iraq feared rise of religious extremists
Wed Aug 3, 2:41 PM ET
NEW YORK (AFP) - US journalist Steve Vincent, who has been killed in Iraq, was a staunch supporter of the war but a fierce critic of the United States and Britain over what he saw as the growing influence of religious extremists, especially in the Iraqi security forces.
A freelance journalist, Vincent's work was regularly published on the Internet and he also contributed articles to the New York Times, the US magazines the Christian Science Monitor and the National Review.
He was found shot dead in Basra, where he had been staying for several months to research a book on the history of the the southern port city.
In a commentary piece published in the New York Times on Sunday and titled "Switched Off in Basra," Vincent offered a scathing critique of British policy in Basra for failing to address what he saw as efforts by Shiite organisations to take control of the city.
British troops are responsible for security in southern Iraq, including Basra.
Vincent wrote that Shiite parties and clerics were populating the local police with their supporters who had "dual loyalties to mosque and state" and were enforcing religious social policies -- like dress codes -- on fearful residents.
"Fearing to appear like colonial occupiers, (the British) avoid any hint of ideological indoctrination," he said. "In my time with them, not once did I see an instructor explain such basics of democracy as the politically neutral role of the police in a civil society."
Vincent's previous experience had been as an investigative reporter and art critic in New York City, where he had lived for 25 years.
Following the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, which he witnessed from the roof of his East Village apartment, and the start of the Iraq war, Vincent decided to travel to Baghdad.
Two trips in the fall of 2003 and the spring of 2004 resulted in a book: "In the Red Zone: A Journey into the Soul of Iraq."
Despite the volatile security situation, Vincent spurned the security guards employed by most reporters travelling in Iraq and was known to often take taxis to interviews with his translator, Noor al-Khal.
Khal, who was kidnapped in Basra along with Vincent on Tuesday evening, was also found shot and seriously wounded.
Vincent writings expressed his support for the Iraq war as part of a broader struggle against religious extremism, but they also reflected disappointment what he saw as the failure of the occupying forces to foster genuine democracy in the country.
"Not for the first time, I felt I was living in a Graham Greene novel," he wrote in his Weblog in July.
"This about about a US soldier -- call it The Naive American -- who finds what works so well in Power Point presentations has unpredictable results when applied to realities of Iraq," he said.
Journalists who had recently met with Vincent in Basra said he had almost finished research on his second book and was thinking of taking a break in New York before returning to cover national elections in Iraq scheduled for December.
Roadside Bomb Kills 14 Marines in Iraq
By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Fourteen U.S. Marines were killed Wednesday when a huge bomb destroyed their lightly armored vehicle, hurling it into the air in a giant fireball in the deadliest roadside bombing suffered by American forces in the Iraq war.
A civilian translator also was killed and one Marine was wounded. The victims were from the same Ohio-based Reserve unit as six members of a Marine sniper team killed on Monday in an ambush claimed by the Islamic extremist Ansar al-Sunnah Army.
The deaths brought to 23 the number of Marines killed in the past week in fighting along the volatile Euphrates Valley of western Iraq and marked one of the bloodiest periods for U.S. forces in months. In all, 44 American service members have died in Iraq since July 24 — all but two in combat.
A Marine officer, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said the attack occurred as troops were traveling in an armored amphibious vehicle to assault insurgent positions around a village near the Haditha dam, a longtime way station for foreign fighters infiltrating Iraq from Syria.
Suddenly, a thunderous explosion rang out and the vehicle flipped over in a fireball, he said. The surviving Marine scrambled from beneath the overturned vehicle, the officer said.
The Marines killed Wednesday were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Brook Park, a Cleveland suburb, and attached to the Regimental Combat Team-2. Nine of them were from a single smaller unit in Columbus.
President Bush lamented the deaths of the 14 Marines, calling the attack a "grim reminder" America is still at war.
"These terrorists and insurgents will use brutal tactics because they're trying to shake the will of the United States of America. They want us to retreat," Bush told some 2,000 lawmakers, business leaders and public policy experts in Grapevine, Texas.
The heavy loss of life cast new attention on a longtime Marine complaint — the lack of protection provided by their armored amphibious vehicles, or AAVs. The vehicles are designed to be dropped from ships for coastal assaults. Although fast and maneuverable, the vehicles have armor plating that is lighter than those used by the Army — a critical issue in a war where the roadside bomb is the most common threat.
Moreover, American commanders have warned that while insurgent bombings have been declining in number, they have been increasing in power and sophistication. Villagers reached by telephone said the blast blew the vehicle into pieces, and a large crater could be seen nearby.
"This is a very lethal and unfortunately very adaptable enemy we are faced with," said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, a Pentagon staff officer and former commander of U.S. forces in Mosul.
Marines have been fighting for months in a string of towns along the Euphrates to try to seal a major infiltration route for foreign fighters slipping into Iraq from Syria. Late Wednesday, insurgents fired two mortars at Marine positions near Haditha. Moments later, U.S. warplanes could be heard mounting counterattacks, residents said.
The Marines stepped up operations in May in hopes of pacifying the area so Iraqi military and civilian forces could assume effective control. However, government authority in the heavily Sunni Arab region is tenuous.
U.S. officials have long complained that American forces seize Sunni areas only to have Iraqi authorities lose them again to the insurgents once American troops leave. Despite those complaints, the Bush administration is talking about handing more security responsibility to the Iraqis and drawing down forces next year.
At least 1,821 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
On Wednesday, the Web site of the Ansar al-Sunnah Army posted photographs from Monday's attack on the Marine sniper team. One picture shows a bloody, battered body wearing Marine camouflage trousers. Another shows two hooded gunmen standing in front of several rifles, apparently taken from dead Marines.
In a statement accompanying the photos, Ansar al-Sunnah said the insurgents lured the Marines out of their base and ambushed them.
"The intention was to capture them alive, but they opened fire on the mujahedeen," the statement said. "The heroes slaughtered those who were still alive ... except for one, who begged the mujahedeen for his life. They captured him and he is in our hands."
At the Pentagon, Ham said no Marines were missing and believed captured.
In Brook Park, the Cleveland suburb where the battalion was based, businesses tied red, white and blue ribbons on their doors, and some had American flags hanging in the windows. A bouquet of red roses was placed at the gate of the Marine headquarters, an old brick schoolhouse.
Among the six killed Monday was Cpl. Jeffrey A. Boskovitch, 25, of North Royalton, Ohio, an aspiring police officer who planned to set a wedding date with his girlfriend when he returned home this fall.
A New York City police officer serving in the Army Reserve was shot and killed Tuesday by a sniper while guarding prisoners at the Camp Victory military base, outside Baghdad, city officials said Wednesday. Staff Sgt. James McNaughton, 27, was the first member of the police force to be killed in action in Iraq.
In Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, an American freelance writer was found dead late Tuesday — the first U.S. journalist slain in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion. Steven Vincent of New York was shot multiple times hours after he and his Iraqi translator were abducted at gunpoint, police said.
The translator, Nour Weidi, was seriously wounded. Five gunmen in a police car abducted them as they left a currency exchange shop Tuesday evening, police Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaidi said.
Vincent had been in Basra for several months working on a book about the city's history. In an opinion column published July 31 in The New York Times, he wrote that Basra's police force had been heavily infiltrated by members of Shiite political groups, including those loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
He quoted an unidentified Iraqi police lieutenant as saying that some police were behind many of the assassinations of former Baath Party members that have taken place in Basra. He also criticized British forces for failing to curb the infiltration.
According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 46 journalists and 20 media support workers have been killed covering the war in Iraq since March 2003. Insurgent actions are responsible for the bulk of the deaths.
The Vienna, Austria-based media watchdog International Press Institute condemned Vincent's killing and urged Iraqi authorities to conduct a speedy and thorough investigation.
The death underscored how "Iraq continues to be the most dangerous country in the world in which to work as a journalist," the group said.
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press photographer Jacob Silberberg in the Haditha area, and AP writers Abbas Fayadh in Basra and M.R. Kropko in Brook Park, Ohio.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - An explosion killed two people and wounded at least five others on the Asian side of Istanbul late on Wednesday, CNN Turk television reported.
It said the blast occurred in a moving car in the Pendik district of Turkey's largest city. The NTV channel said the explosion happened in a nearby rubbish bin.
Television footage showed police sifting through the wreckage of destroyed cars and ambulance workers helping the injured.
It was not clear what caused the blast and police were not immediately available for comment.
Turkey has suffered a series of bomb blasts in recent months, mostly blamed on militant Kurdish separatists. Islamic militants and far-left radicals have also been behind bomb attacks in Turkey in the past, including in Istanbul.
Five people were killed last month when a bomb struck a minibus in the popular Aegean resort of Kusadasi. Kurdish militants claimed responsibility for that attack.
Two explosions ripped through rubbish bins on Tuesday in the southern resort city of Antalya, injuring six people. A government minister said a gas leak was behind those blasts.
Wed Aug 3, 2:21 PM ET
GRAPEVINE, Texas (Reuters) - In the wake of the deaths of 14 U.S. Marines in Iraq, President Bush said on Wednesday the best way to honor the dead is to complete the mission and he rejected any early U.S. withdrawal.
"We're at war. We're facing an enemy that is ruthless. If we put out a (pullout) timetable the enemy would adjust their tactics. ... The timetable depends on our ability to train the Iraqis, to get the Iraqis ready to fight and then our troops will come home with the honor they have earned," Bush said in a speech.
Bush was sticking to a familiar position despite the grim news that 21 Marines have been killed in three days in Iraq, including 14 on Wednesday in the deadliest roadside bomb attack since the Iraq war began.
Those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said, "have died in a noble cause and a selfless cause."
"Their families can know that American citizens pray for them, and the families can know that will honor their loved ones' sacrifice by completing the mission, by laying the foundation for peace for generations to come," Bush said in remarks to the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Bush insisted progress was being made in Iraq and that he has a "strategy for success in Iraq" by hunting down insurgents, training Iraqis to provide for their own security and helping Iraqi political leaders write a constitution and prepare for elections.
He said U.S. troops would be pulled out "as soon as possible, but not before the mission is complete."
Wed Aug 3,12:56 PM ET
Local Marines were killed in Iraq in an attack by insurgents.
A Marine found about a mile from the rest of his unit is a North Royalton native, NewsChannel5 reported.
Lance Cpl. Jeff Boskovitch believed he was part of a larger purpose in Iraq, his family said.
He was proud to serve his country, and his family was proud of his dedication.
"They told my brother, there was an attack," said Dan Boskovitch, Boskovitch's uncle. "Some of his squad had been killed and his whereabouts were unknown at this time."
The family's fears became real when they got news that Jeff would not be coming home.
"At my heart right now is that I won't be able to say, 'Jeff, you did a great job and I'm so proud of you,' " said his uncle, Joe Andrick.
Cpl. Boskovitch had dreams of becoming a police officer. He felt the Marine Reserves would prepare him. His father, Jim, was proud.
His younger siblings, Brian and Kim, both admired their brother.
Boskovitch and his fianc?e, Shelly, were set to get married next year, WEWS reported.
"Right now, I feel as if there isn't anything I can say to Jim and Kathy and Vicki and his brother and sister -- other than I'm so sorry for them," she said.
WEWS reported the family came together at Boskovitch's father's home in Cuyahoga Falls to support each other through this tragedy.
"He just embodied wholesomeness and strength everyone looked up to him, and we will miss him very, very much," Shelly said.
Wed Aug 3,11:06 AM ET
ROSWELL, N.M. - Among the candy, shampoo, bandages and snacks, Nicole Vargas accidentally packed a pricey surprise in her care package for soldiers in Iraq — her wedding ring.
Vargas, who runs the Roswell Rocha and Vargas Adopt-a-Soldier volunteer program, said the diamond-and-gold ring slipped off her finger while she was packing a box of treats several weeks ago.
Vargas' husband Ralph recently purchased the ring in honor of the couple's 16th wedding anniversary. Nicole Vargas decided to wear the ring right away, even though it was a bit loose.
So far, Vargas, a stay-at-home mother, has shipped 4,100 pounds of goodies and toiletries to U.S. soldiers in Iraq with the help of donations from local businesses.
Vargas is hoping a keen-eyed soldier will find her ring and send it back.
"I'm gonna send the soldier who finds it a major package, like 100 pounds. I'll put a crock pot in there and some dry beans and all sorts of stuff. It will be my best care package ever," she said.
August 03, 2005 - 6:52 PM
WASHINGTON - Experts say the 14 Marines killed today in Iraq were patrolling desert terrain in a vehicle better suited for beach landings.
The amphibious assault vehicle that carried the Marines is designed to carry troops in water operations from ship to shore, then operate on the beach and inland.
John Pike is a defense analyst with the think tank Global-Security.org. He says the amphibious vehicle's design can protect troops against small arms fire, but not a direct or indirect hit from a large explosion.
Army Brigadier General Carter Ham told a Pentagon press conference that he knows of no data showing the amphibious vehicle has been more vulnerable to insurgent bombs.
The 14 were members of the Third Battalion, 25th Marines, headquartered near Cleveland.
Wed Aug 3,10:24 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Wednesday denied a claim by an Iraqi insurgent group that it had captured a U.S. Marine in western Iraq.
"I don't have anything to suggest that is accurate. I have no indication that there are any unaccounted for personnel," Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters in response to questions.
An Iraqi insurgent group said earlier in the day it had captured a U.S. Marine who was wounded in a clash in western Iraq in which eight other Marines were killed.
The Army of Ansar al-Sunna said on its Web site that it would soon issue pictures of the Marine, who it said it captured after ambushing U.S. forces near the town of Haditha, northwest of Baghdad.
The U.S. military said on Tuesday six Marines were killed on Monday in the same area. The body of one Marine was initially unaccounted for but was recovered later, according to the statement.
In this undated photo released by the Coullard family, Marine reservist Sgt. David Coullard, 32, from East Hartford, Conn., is shown. Coullard was among six Marines killed in Iraq on Monday, family members said Wednesday. Coullard was a member of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Ohio. He and five others died northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, while on sniper duty on Monday. Fourteen other Marines from the same base were killed early Wednesday when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device. (AP Photo/Coullard Family)
Marine reservists Cpl. Jeffery A. Boskovitch, left, of North Royalton, Ohio, left, and Sgt. David Coullard, of East Hartford, Conn., are shown in a photo Coullard sent to his mother July 30, 2005, taken somewhere just outside Baghdad. Coullard was a member of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Ohio. He and five others, including Boskovitch, died northwest of Baghdad while on sniper duty on Monday, Aug. 1, 2005. (AP Photo/Coullard Family)
U.S. Marine Sgt. David Coullard, of East Hartford, Conn., is shown in a family photo taken by his mother in 2001. Coullard was a member of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Ohio. He and five others died northwest of Baghdad while on sniper duty on Monday, Aug. 1, 2005. (AP Photo/Coullard Family)
In a photo provided by his family U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Roger Dale Castleberry Jr. is shown. Castleberry, 26, of Cedar Park, Texas, assigned to the Marine Corps Reserve's 4th Reconnaissance Battalion, based in San Antonio was among the six enlisted men killed Monday, Aug. 1 in a firefight with insurgents west of Baghdad, the Defense Department said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Family Photo via The Austin American-Statesman)
In this photo released by Normandy Studios, Lance Cpl. Edward Schroeder, 23, of Cleveland, is shown in his 2000 Columbia High School yearbook photo taken in New Jersey. Fourteen Marines from one battalion, including Schroeder, were killed Wednesday in a roadside bombing in Iraq, most of them from a Columbus, Ohio-based company that also suffered multiple casualties just months ago. (AP Photo/Normandy Studios)
Lt. Col. Kevin Rush, a unit spokesman for the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, poses for a photo at his headquarters Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2005, in Brook Park, Ohio. Six reservists from the unit were killed Monday in an attack northwest of Baghdad. Rush said he expected the bodies to be returned home later this week. (AP Photo/Jamie-Andrea Yanak)
This undated photo provided Wednesday Aug. 3, 2005, by the New York City Police Dept., shows NYPD Officer James McNaughton. McNaughton, the first member of the police force to be killed in action in Iraq, was serving in the Army Reserve and was killed by a sniper while guarding prisoners at a camp in Iraq, New York City officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/New York City Police Dept.)
This July 19, 2005 family photo shows Lance Cpl. Brian Montgomery of Willoughby, left, and Daniel Nathaniel 'Nate' Deyarmin, Jr. of Tallmadge, in Iraq. The two Marine reservists based in Brook Park were killed Monday, Aug. 1, 2005, with four other members of their unit, while on sniper duty in Iraq. (AP Photo/Family Photo via Akron Beacon Jounal)
American flag flies full-staff Wednesday evening Aug. 3, 2005 at Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Center in Columbus, Ohio, where nine of 14 Marines who were killed in Iraq were based. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
By David S. Cloud The New York Times
THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2005
BAGHDAD An hour before dark on July 23, a huge bomb buried on a road southwest of Baghdad Airport detonated underneath a Humvee carrying four American soldiers.
The explosive device was constructed from a bomb weighing 230 kilograms, or 500 pounds, or more that was meant to be dropped from an aircraft, according to military explosives experts, and was probably Russian in origin.
The blast left a crater 2 meters deep and 5 meters wide, or 6 feet deep and nearly 17 feet wide. All that remained of the armored vehicle afterward was the twisted wreckage of the front end, a photograph taken by American officers at the scene showed. The four soldiers were killed.
In recent months, as was shown in the catastrophic bombing in Haditha on Wednesday, in which 14 marines were killed, the roadside bombs favored by insurgents in Iraq have grown significantly in size and sophistication, adding to their deadliness. But what happened in the aftermath of the attack further alarmed U.S. military officers.
A special squad of explosive experts, formed to investigate major insurgent bomb attacks, was sent immediately to the site to begin looking for evidence about who was responsible, several American officers said.
Examining the area in the dark, a British explosives expert stepped on a second smaller bomb buried nearby and was badly wounded, two American officers said. He would later have an arm and a leg amputated, the officers said. A third device, hidden a few yards away, was found and defused.
"This was a catastrophic event," said Sergeant Jason Knapp, a U.S. Air Force bomb technician who arrived at the scene of the attacks the next morning.
Military personnel said the attack last month indicated that a new and deadly bomb-making cell targeting American patrols was probably operating near the large coalition military base at the airport, an area that two officers said had seen little insurgent activity in months.
There was further evidence for that on Saturday. Less than a mile from the July 23 attack, four more American soldiers were killed when their Humvee was struck by another hidden bomb. They were from the same Georgia National Guard battalion as the four soldiers killed in the previous attack.
The episode illustrates the constantly evolving war of moves and counter-moves happening every day in Iraq between insurgent bombers and soldiers trying to stop the roadside bombs and suicide attacks.
As the threat from bombs and suicide attacks has grown, the Pentagon has rushed 24,000 armored Humvees to Iraq since late 2003. But the insurgents have responded by building bombs powerful enough to penetrate the vehicles' steep plating.
As the military has begun conducting post-bombing investigations, insurgents increasingly have begun planting multiple devices at the same location, apparently to disrupt investigative teams sent to the blast site, or at least delay their work while they clear the site of any secondary bombs.
The British officer who was wounded investigating the site, whose name has not been released, was a member of the Combined Exploitation Cell, an American-led organization that is charged with identifying the insurgent bomb-makers using clues recovered at bomb sites.
The organization is composed of specialists from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and from Britain and Australia.
Senior American commanders say they have also seen evidence that insurgents are making increased of use of "shaped" charges that concentrate the blast and give it a better chance of penetrating armored vehicles, causing higher casualties.
Bomb-making techniques used by the anti-Israeli militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon increasingly have begun appearing in roadside bombs in Iraq. A senior American commander said that bombs employing shaped charges closely match Hezbollah's homemade bombs used against Israel.
"Our assessment is that they are probably going off to school," to learn how to make bombs that can destroy armored vehicles, the officer said.
Sometimes improvised explosive devices, known as IEDs, are placed in the open to draw in American disposal units. "A lot of times they plant fake IEDs and wait until you come on site to open up," said Sergeant Burnell Zachary. "Once the mortar rounds stop, the drive-bys come." Last week, as an American bomb team was defusing a bomb in the predominantly Sunni Baghdad neighborhood of Ameriyeh, a passing black BMW opened fire on the unit and its security detail, according to an after-action report.
An Iraqi police detachment that was providing security for the team returned fire and struck the passenger in the car in the chest, the report said.
Meanwhile, a few blocks away, American snipers were watching an Iraqi man who was stacking rocks along a street the bomb disposal unit would have to take leaving the neighborhood, according to the report. They suspected he was building a hiding place for a bomb.
"Snipers engaged and killed the individual who appeared to be emplacing an IED," the report says.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005 - The Belgian Secretary of Defence - A. Flahaut - visited Afghanistan on July 22nd till 24th, where he paid a visit to the Belgian troops, contributing to the “ISAF” (International Security Assistance Force) ‘peace force’ under NATO command in Kondoz and Kabul.
Currently, Belgium has approximately 363 military personnel in Afghanistan at three locations. The Netherlands have deployed 503 personnel for ISAF operations at four locations and about 228 for operation "Enduring Freedom".
The objective of the ISAF troops consisting of 8,000 military personnel (from 36 countries) is to maintain security in and around Kabul, to support the Afghan transitional government and to bring peace and stability in the Afghan territory. In anticipation of the parliamentary elections taking place September 18th, 2005 an expansion of the ISAF capacity is expected.
Belgium participates to this ISAF peace force since March of 2002, when the first C-130 left for Karachi (Pakistan) to ensure logistical support. In March of 2003, 160 Belgians participated in securing “KAIA” (Kabul International Airport) under a German/Dutch command.
Since the beginning of 2004 Belgium has also contributed a military unit for the first “PRT” (Provincial Reconstruction Team) at Kondoz (northern Afghanistan) under German command, responsible for the handling (planning, loading and unloading) of aircraft. Belgium also contributes with staff personnel, a communication and transmission team, as well as explosive clearance specialists. Kondoz is at approximately 300 km from Kabul. This is an equivalent of a ten hour drive on the local roads. By air, both cities can be reached within +/-45 minutes.
At the end of 2004 one C-130H Hercules was permanently stationed at Kabul and used for logistical flights. Subsequently to a request by “SACEUR” (Supreme Allied Commander Europe), Belgium deployed four F-16s (3 aircraft + 1 spare) to the Dutch detachment, particularly as a deterrent and for eventual firepower from the air to the ISAF troops.
ISAF VII at Kabul is currently under command of a Turkish Colonel. Turkey has actually three S-70A Blackhawk and one C-130E Hercules stationed at the international airport. The Turkish contingent will be replaced by two helicopters of the Italian Marine at the end of July 2005 and by one additional helicopter at the beginning of September 2005, as well as by three CH-47 Chinook of the Italian Force in August. As from August 1st, 2005 Portugal will take over the Turkish command over the airport KAIA with ISAF VIII.
Under the codename operation "Eastern Eagle" an F-16 detachment is present at KIAI. Since April 1st, 2005 the Netherlands deployed four F-16AM's for a one year period. The first Fighting Falcons and pilots of 312 sqn came from Volkel AB to be relieved in July of 2005 by military personnel of Leeuwarden AB. On July 14th, 2005 the Dutch detachment was transformed into a “EEAW” (European Expeditionary Air Wing) consisting of 165 military personnel, 65 of which Belgians (pilots of the 2nd Wing and 10th Wing, military personnel of the 1st Wing, BKoks and Comopsair). In October of 2005 the Belgian 2nd Wing pilots will be relieved by their colleagues of the 10th Wing from Kleine Brogel AB.
This EEAW was enabled by the Belgian deployment of an F-16 detachment for six months to Afghanistan. On July 6th, 2005 six F-16AM of the 2nd Wing departed Florennes AB heading for Akinci AB (Turkey). The “TOA” (Transfer of Authority) was however delayed because the KDC-10 of the Dutch Air Force was stranded on Aruba with technical problems. Only by July 12th, 2005 the ferry flight to Kabul succeeded by four F-16s owing to the aerial refuelling by a C-135FR tanker of the French Air Force above the Black Sea.
The principal tasks of the Belgian/Dutch detachment in the framework of the “EPAF” (European Participating Air Forces) will be “CAS” (Close Air Support), “QRF” (Quick Reaction Force) and “REC” (Reconnaissance) flights. A punctual cooperation is indispensable for the operational purposes such as mission planning, intelligence and operations management as well as for the joint maintenance of the aircraft.
To carry out the different flights above Afghanistan the F-16s are equipped in a standard way with a Lantirn Targeting Pod, detection and protection systems, a 20 mm Vulcan cannon, 2 external fuel tanks of 300 gallons each, complemented by two AIM-9L sidewinders and two GBU-12 laser-guided bombs.
For Belgium this is the first participation to a peace operation force outside of Europe, which is why the Commander of the Air Component - Gen-Maj Vl. M. Audrit - as well as the Secretary of Defence - A. Flahaut - described this mission as one of the most important in the history of Belgian Air Force.
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