Daily Terrorist Round-Up 8/4/05

[Straight Vermonter]

 Stay Angry

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Safehouse destroyed; 10 suspects detained

Coalition forces conducted a raid in western Ramadi early Aug. 3 resulting in the capture of 10 suspected terrorists.

Upon arrival at the intended target, a local Iraqi citizen confirmed the building was being used as a terrorist safehouse.

When forces approached the building several suspected terrorists fled throughout the surrounding area. Six suspected terrorists were immediately detained and four were captured after they hid inside a nearby Mosque.

Iraqi citizens assisted the Coalition forces by pointing out the hiding place of the four suspects.

Prior to the raid, a male who lived in the safehouse came outside and told Coalition forces that terrorists were storing explosives inside where his two small children remained.

Coalition forces immediately rescued the children and escorted them away from the building.

The children were safely reunited to their family.

The building was then destroyed by attack helicopters. Secondary explosions were seen. Additionally, improvised explosive device materials and weapons were found in the safehouse during the post-strike search.

The 10 suspected terrorists are currently detained for further questioning.

 Source - CPIC - Iraq

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8 gunmen, 1 military killed in special operation in Chechnya

MOSCOW, August 3 (Itar-Tass) - Eight gunmen were killed in a special operation of Russian federal troops which was launched on Monday in Chechnya’s Kurchaloi and Nozhai-Yurt regions, a source from the headquarters of Russian troops in the North Caucasus told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

Interior Ministry units and commandos take part in the operation against the unit of field commander Ali Tasuyev, killed back in March, the source said. Three federal troops were wounded and one was killed in a fight near the settlement of Alleroy on Wednesday morning. The losses among gunmen are specified, he said.
 

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Afghan, Coalition Forces Find Weapons, Detain Enemy Fighters

 Afghan and coalition forces discovered four weapons caches during combat operations this week, one of which was found southwest of Orgun-E in Paktika province after a brief firefight with enemy combatants Aug. 1, military officials in Kabul reported today.

During the fighting, Afghan National Police wounded one enemy combatant and detained two others.

According to military reports, enemy combatants fired on Afghan forces and fled into a nearby compound. Afghan National Police officers returned fire, wounding one of the attackers.

The wounded individual was taken to Kandahar Air Base for treatment and questioning. Afghan police then searched the compound and discovered material used for making improvised explosive devices, hand grenades, numerous parts of rocket-propelled grenades, and thousands of rounds of machine gun and AK-47 ammunition. The weapons were transported to a nearby base for destruction.

Military officials reported three more weapons caches were discovered by coalition forces in southern and eastern Afghanistan Aug. 2. The first was discovered near Bamian and consisted of 60 rocket-propelled grenades, 17 anti-tank missiles, and 600 rounds of anti-aircraft-gun ammunition.

Another cache found near Kabul contained 20 hand grenades, an anti-personnel mine, a mortar round, and materials to make improvised explosive devices. Explosive ordnance disposal personnel at the scene destroyed the contents of the cache.

A third cache near Kandahar consisted of a large amount of fertilizer, which can be used to make bombs, and plastic explosives.

(Compiled from Combined Forces Command Afghanistan news releases. )

By American Forces Press Service

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ZAMBIA: SUSPECT WHO SAYS HE WAS BIN LADEN'S BODYGUARD TO BE EXTRADITED
 
Lusaka, 3 Aug (AKI) - Zambia will deport to Britain a man believed to be linked to the 7 July London bombings that killed 56 people, announced Zambian president, Levy Mwanawasa, on Wednesday. Haroon Rashid Aswat, a 31-year-old Briton, is also wanted by the United States for allegedly trying to organise an al-Qaeda training camp in Oregon in 1999.  Mwanawasa said that both Britain and the US had asked for the extradition of Aswat, who told his interrogators in Lusaka that he had once served as a bodyguard to al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden.  "We had discussions with the governments of the US and Britain and finally agreed that Mr Aswat should be deported to his country which is Britain," Mwanawasa told reporters in Lusaka.

British officials have played down media reports that Aswat, who was arrested in Lusaka on July 21, helped organise the 7 July attacks. He reportedly had mobile phone contact with at least one of the bombers before the attacks.

Aswat's movements before the attacks are also unclear. He is believed to have spent time in South Africa and Botswana before entering Zambia. Reports that he spent two weeks in Britain before the first London bombings and left only hours before the four suicide bombers blew themselves up have not been confirmed. On that trip, he was alleged to have visited Leeds, where three of the bombers lived.

Aswat, who is of Indian origin, is thought to have been involved in radical Islam for about ten years and was an aide at the radical-frequented, Finsbury Park mosque, whose website he is said to have run in the 1990s. The Johannesburg-based daily, The Star, reported this week that Aswat was known in South Africa as a flea-market salesman who made his living selling Islamic CDs and DVDs.  He was apparently well-known in Johannesburg’s Fordsburg district, one of the city’s main Muslim suburbs dotted with street-side material shops and one of the best-known fleamarkets, the Oriental Plaza.

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Eleven more killed by troops in India held-Kashmir

SRINAGAR: Indian troops killed five activists in two separate encounters in Indian occupied Kashmir and engaged gunmen in a brief battle in IHK's main city, the army and police said.  “Both the clashes erupted when troops launched search operations against militants [freedom-seekers],” said Vijay Batra, an army spokesman.

Troops were seeking 'militants' at many other places in the occupied Kashmir after “intelligence tip-offs," they said. Indian police and activists exchanged brief gunfire in Srinagar late on Monday, police said. Two of them riding a motorcycle were asked to stop at a checkpoint in Srinagar’s Nowpora area but they ignored the signal and opened fire at the Indian troops, police said.

Six killed in Jammu areas

And a report from occupied Jammu says that six persons were killed by Indian forces in separate encounters in India held-Jammu and Kashmir. Media reports say that a sector commander of Jaish-e-Mohmmad was shot dead by the occupying forces in Rajouri district last night.  Identified as Adil, sources said that his killing came during searches in Phagla area.

A Defence spokesman said in Jammu that three activists were killed in a gunbattle with security forces in Handwara area of Kupwara district last night.

Two were shot dead in another encounter in Kulgam area of Anantnag district.

The identity and group affiliation of the ultras was being ascertained, the spokesman said adding that one more operation was going in the forest area near Vilgam.

(Gotta love the Pakistani slant on Indians killing Moslem terrorists)

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The Syrian Ba’ath Party’s Betrayal of the Mujahideen (Red on Red)

A message posted to jihadist forum titled: “The Syrian Ba’ath Party’s Betrayal of the Mujahideen,” claims that the Syria regime deployed an intelligence brigade to attack the mujahideen, as proof that they do not support the “fighters and the terrorists.” The author states that this brigade, called “al-Quds,” formerly cooperated with the mujahideen, but now, arrests many of the “Island young men” (from Saudi Arabia) who seek to enter Syria, including those who fought and died, rather than surrender.

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Top Hizbul commander killed in clash (Red on Red II)

SRINAGAR: A top Hizbul Mujahideen commander was shot dead by Lashkar-e- Taiba militants in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, a defence spokesman said on Tuesday.

Mushtaq Ahmad Khan was killed in a clash between the two rival militant groups at Breng village on Monday night.The cause of the clash was not known. Mushtaq Ahmad Khan was active for the past several years and was expected to succeed the Hizb district commander, Anantnag, who was killed by security forces earlier this year, the spokesman said.

In a separate incident, a civilian, Bashir Ahmad Wani, was killed by militants at Maniwaz-Kakipora in Pulwama district on Monday when he was returning home. — PTI

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Extremists' bid for new recruits

MUSLIM extremists are trying to recruit new members by leafleting outside a Barking Mosque. Supporters of the global Islamic political party, Hizb ut-Tahir, were spotted outside the Al Madina Mosque in Victoria Road on Friday, handing out religious propaganda to hundreds of devout Muslims as they emerged from a prayer session.

The leaflets invited members of the Muslim community to a "national emergency meeting" organised by an extreme group founded by outspoken cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed and Abu Hamza, described as one of the most radical Islamic figures in Britain.

Dr Imran Waheed, of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, said: "Despite attempts to silence criticism of Western foreign policy, the Muslim community must speak the truth about colonialism in the Muslim world and the tyrant Muslim rulers.

"They must channel their anger and frustration into Islamic political work to re-establish the Islamic Khilafah and continue to carry the message of Islam through strength of thought, argument and discussion."

According to the flyer, the aim of the meeting, held on Sunday, was to discuss the role of the Muslim community in Britain. The headline claims: "Speaking against Bush and Blair's foreign policy is not terrorism."

However, further research by the POST has revealed the party does have links with terrorists. Some of the 9/11 hijackers were members of the group when they were students in Germany.

The party is also listed as a terrorist organisation in Russia. The leaflet reads: "The last few weeks have seen intense discussion about Western foreign policy and the Muslim world. Politicians and the media have attempted to blur the debate by equating Muslim anger against Western foreign policy with terrorism."

The seminar was held at the Royal National Hotel in Bedford Way, London.

Several well-known figures were due to speak, some of whom were arrested earlier this year after they staged a protest outside the Embassy of Uzbekistan in London in response to the massacre of more than 500 Uzbek Muslims in Andijan.

Activists staged a sit-in protest in the embassy's courtyard, they chained themselves to the embassy railings and covered the building in red paint, in an attempt to represent the blood of Uzbekistan's Muslims.

Last month Margaret Hodge, MP for Barking, met with members of the Barking Muslim Community Association to discuss ways of deterring young Muslims from joining extremist groups.

She told members: "Young people are feeling isolated from education and training, from employment, from the government and from religious institutions. You need to bring them in to the Mosque as much as we need to bring them into the community."

Raja Bashir, president of the Barking Muslim Community Association, said he could not comment on the leaflets because he refused to accept one.

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Intelligence agents arrest Abu bomber
Bong Garcia Jr.

ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Police agents, backed by soldiers, raided a safehouse Sunday and arrested an alleged Abu Sayyaf member suspected to be among those involved in the bombing of two departments stores in October 2002 in this city.

In his report to the Armed Forces’ Southern Command, Col. Edgardo Gidaya, chief of Task Force Zamboanga, identified the arrested Abu Sayyaf bomber as Alex Kahal alias Alex Alvarez.

Kahal was rushed to the Southern Command Hospital after the raid, for treatment of the two wounds he suffered in a brief shootout when he reportedly resisted arrest.

The military and the police have arrested on the first week of November 2002 Kahal’s six companions in a raid in an apartment they rented that reportedly served as their operation center.

Kahal, who was not around then, was said to have been hiding in the different barangays here in the past years.

Several shoppers and bystanders died while scores were wounded during the October 2002 twin bombings at Shop-o-Rama and Shoppers’ Central Department Store, only two blocks away from the local police headquarters.

(With MILF now turning on their sometime allies in Abu Sayyaf, The Philippines is starting to get some good intel and arrests as a result of their truce with MILF.)

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[Straight Vermonter]

Statement from local (Ohio) USO

There has been an outpouring of support for the families and loved ones of the local marines killed Tuesday in Iraq. The USO offices have been flooded with calls from people wanting to help. One young man said he didn't have any money but offered to mow lawns for the families, 'he just wants to help.'

Ohioans are showing their kindness and generosity. The USO is in constant contact with the Head Quarters of the 3/25 Marines. We will update as information becomes available to us.

People can send messages of support via email to USO Cleveland and will make sure that they are forwarded to the families.

Semper fi.

[Straight Vermonter]

Ping

[fuzzy122]

Thanks for the post!

[Just A Nobody]

Thanks for the ping and for providing the USO Cleveland link!

[patriciaruth]

Thank you!

[Coop]

Great memorial graphic for our fallen Marines.

R.I.P., Leathernecks.

[Coop]

I thought you would all appreciate SV's USMC/flag graphic and his comments about the Ohio community responding to this tragedy.

[patton]

Semper Fi!

[Coop]

Prior to the raid, a male who lived in the safehouse came outside and told Coalition forces that terrorists were storing explosives inside where his two small children remained. Coalition forces immediately rescued the children and escorted them away from the building. The children were safely reunited to their family.

And yet these are the American military personnel that Code Pink and other leftists refer to as "killers."

[BufordP]

Thanks for the ping, Coop!

[StarCMC]

Thank you for the ping, Coop!

God be with those families!! I'm so glad their neighbors are stepping up and honoring their sacrifices. Thank you thank you thank you to the Ohioans for being there for the rest of the country who are too far away to be of practical help.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks Coop. Except for the weather and politics, Ohio can be a good place. :-)

[PogySailor]

bttt

[Coop]

I was kind of fond of Ohio politics last November. :-)