Kabul- Five Afghan security force personnel were killed and four wounded when their vehicle was blown up by a remote-controlled bomb in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, an army official said. The blast happened in Urozgan province as the soldiers were patrolling jointly with NATO troops, General Rahatullah Raufi, regional Afghan army commander, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
"Five Afghan soldiers were killed on the spot and four were wounded," Raoufi said. The wounded were evacuated to hospital where their condition was declared stable. NATO forces had escaped harm.
http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Five_Afghan_security_forces_killed__01042007.html
Thai govt warns of more bomb attacks in Bangkok
1/5/07
The Thai government has warned people to be prepared for repeats of the bomb attacks which killed three people and wounded dozens of others in Bangkok on New Year's Eve. Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont has told parliament that forensic tests showed the bombs were not of the same type as those used by the separatists in the south of the country. And he says Thais should brace themselves for more such attacks.
In another development, the Thai foreign ministry has met with diplomats in the Bangkok to try to ease international concerns over the security situation. Many foreign governments have issued travel advisories since the blasts.
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s1821751.htm
Teacher's 'threats' to attack police
January 04, 2007
A BRISBANE high school teacher has been accused of threatening to attack Queensland police with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault rifles during raids by al-Qa'ida terrorists.
John Howard Amundsen, 41, the first Queenslander charged under the national anti-terror laws, allegedly warned that al-Qa'ida would attack suburban homes and streets at random across southeast Queensland. At a bail hearing last month, Supreme Court judge John Muir said prosecutors did not appear to have a strong case to support the terrorism charge and needed to prove Mr Amundsen was planning the alleged attacks to advance a political, religious or ideological cause.
But in an affidavit filed the day of the hearing and relied on by the judge and prosecutors, police alleged Mr Amundsen made threats on May 9 last year in an email to the Queensland Police Counter Terrorism Co-ordination Unit. The email, purported to be from "Zelcari Le Sahaenda", the "operation chief" of al-Qa'ida in Australia, was sent from an internet cafe at Indooroopilly Shoppingtown in Brisbane's west.
"Infidels," the email said, "We are now amongst you. We have successfully developed methods for gaining access to Australia through entry points other than your airports and ports. We now have three active foreign-sourced cells in Brisbane.
"We are now fully resourced. Our targets have been exhaustively researched and finalised. Our teams are experienced operatives from the war against the Americans in Iraq ... we have imported RPG 7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and AK-47s for hit-and-run attacks on your facilities and police patrols. "We will strike within the next three weeks."
In the police affidavit, seen by The Australian yesterday, Detective Sergeant Sean Edwards of the Organised Crime Investigative Unit said that on the same day, police received another email containing an identical message. The second email contained a photograph of an explosive device similar to those allegedly found when police raided Mr Amundsen's house in the north Brisbane suburb of Aspley the next day.
Police found 53kg of explosives and 10 detonators during the raid. They alleged some of the explosives had been used to assemble four powerful bombs, two of them packed with large nails.
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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21008317-2702,00.html
WASHINGTON: U.S. Navy vessels are deployed off the coast of Somalia to make sure al-Qaida and allied jihadists are not able to escape the country by sea now that the once-dominant Islamist forces in Somalia are in retreat, the State Department said Wednesday.
Of particular concern is the fate of three al-Qaida militants who were believed by U.S. officials to be under the protection of the Islamic Courts Union in Mogadishu until Ethiopian forces drove the Courts from power in recent days.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack noted that the missions off the coast are being carried out by a U.S. task force based in the Horn of Africa,
The al-Qaida militants are believed to have had a role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and in the 2002 bombing of a hotel in Kenya.
Kenya sent extra troops to its border with Somalia on Wednesday to keep Islamic militants from entering the country
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http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/03/america/NA_GEN_US_Somalia.php
Kenya on alert as fighting nears border
Thu, January 4, 2007
Kenyan soldiers and helicopters bolstered defences at the Somali border yesterday to stop fighting from spilling over after Ethiopian warplanes attacked fleeing Islamists on the other side of the frontier.
A local police commander said a Kenyan helicopter had escaped undamaged after being shot at by Somali militia and an Ethiopian missile targeting Islamists strayed into Kenya late on Tuesday.
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