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Posted on 04/01/2007 6:46:34 PM PDT by nwctwx
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=33001
‘Arrowhead Division’ Commander Reports Operation Arrowhead Strike 9 Successes
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 30, 2007 – A major clearing operation that wrapped up last week in Baghdad succeeded in preventing 3,200 roadside bombs, jailing 42 terrorists, and seizing enough weapons and explosives to outfit an enemy infantry battalion, the commander of the 2nd Infantry Division’s 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team reported today.
Army Col. Steven Townsend described sweeping success in Operation Arrowhead Strike 9, which kicked off March 20 to clear west-central Baghdad’s Mansour security district.
The unit’s ninth brigade-level operation since arriving in Baghdad in December “significantly reduced insurgent activity” in the region in support of the Task Force Dagger ground forces operating there, Townsend told Pentagon reporters via videoconference from Camp Liberty.
The “Arrowhead Brigade” soldiers worked hand in hand throughout the 36-day campaign with the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, which controls the battle space, and Iraqi forces.
Townsend tallied the operation’s gains: three confirmed terrorists killed in close combat, 161 suspects detained for questioning, with 42 of them placed in long-term detention. Two kidnap victims were rescued, after being found chained in empty houses. “Both had been tortured and would surely have been executed eventually,” Townsend said.
The most impressive yield of the operation came in terms of 92 weapons caches found during the operation, he said. The troops captured and destroyed 356 small arms, mortars and or rocket-propelled grenades, 147 explosive munitions, three car bombs, two suicide vests, and 143 completed or partial roadside bombs.
Some of these munitions were from Iran, China and former Warsaw Pact countries, but it wasn’t possible to tell how long they had been in Iraq, he said.
In addition, the troops captured a roadside bomb electronics factory that held components for up to 3,200 additional bombs, and destroyed three homemade explosives factories found in abandoned homes, Townsend said.
But the real significance of Operation Arrowhead Strike 9, he said, extends far beyond the actual weapons, bomb-making materials and suspects captured. “All of this success enabled the Daggar Brigade and the Iraqi Karkh Area Command to make progress in a more meaningful way,” he said.
Townsend cited signs of that progress. Killings and mortar attacks in the district have “dropped off significantly” and Iraqis are moving on with their day-to-day lives. They’re cleaning trash and sewage from the streets, reopening markets and moving about on the streets in greater numbers.
They’re also taking a stand against violence, he reported, providing more leads through phone and e-mail tip lines.
“This success did not come without a cost,” he noted. Two Arrowhead brigade soldiers and an Iraqi army soldier died during the operation, and a Stryker vehicle was lost to a roadside bomb.
Since moving into Baghdad to replace the outgoing 172nd Stryker Brigade, the Arrowhead Brigade has assumed a two-fold security mission, Townsend explained. It serves as Multinational Division Baghdad’s strike force, a mobile, offensively oriented force that disrupts insurgent activity and clears areas of the capital where insurgents are operating. At the same time, it serves as Multinational Corps Iraq’s operational reserve, ready to respond to threats anywhere in Iraq.
Its most important job, he said, is to reinforce troops operating on the ground.
“In my view, it is the battle space owners who do all the heavy lifting here in Baghdad,” Townsend said. “They are living among the people, patrolling the toughest places in Baghdad day in and day out, and working on supporting Iraqis’ efforts in all four of our main lines of operation: security, transition, economics and governance.”
The “Arrowhead Brigade,” home-based at Fort Lewis, Wash., holds a long list of “firsts” in the Army, Townsend noted. It was the Army’s first Stryker brigade, its first Stryker brigade to deploy for combat and its first Styker brigade to return for a second deployment to Iraq.
Nearly half the unit’s 4,000 soldiers are veterans of its first deployment, he said.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=33000
“Taliban’s Influence Waning in Southern Afghanistan , NATO General Says”
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 30, 2007
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=32998
136 Taliban Fighters Killed, Two Detained in Afghanistan
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 30, 2007 – Coalition forces killed 136 Taliban combatants and captured two suspects during operations in Afghanistan over the past four days.
During a raid this morning in the Khowst district of Khowst province, coalition forces detained two men at a suspected al Qaeda safe house. Upon arriving at the site, coalition forces discovered the men trying to hide an automatic weapon, ammunition and military-style load-bearing vests.
The raid was conducted based on credible reports of recent sightings of militants and weapons at the compound, military officials said. The detainees will be questioned to determine their identities and their affiliation with violent extremists in the area. No shots were fired, and there were no injuries during the operation.
U.S. Special Forces soldiers, accompanied by Afghan National Police and other coalition members, identified and engaged several Taliban fighting positions 37 miles south of Shindand, in Herat province, while conducting a reconnaissance patrol yesterday.
After gaining intelligence describing Taliban activity in the Zerkoh Valley, coalition and Afghan National Police forces maneuvered into positions to pinpoint and attack the Taliban fighters. Once in position, coalition and Afghan National Police forces initiated the attack on the enemy positions with mortars, small arms and rocket propelled grenades.
A few hours later, additional coalition and Afghan National Army reinforcements arrived. A coalition aircraft was requested and dropped multiple munitions on several identified enemy locations. As Taliban fighters attempted to flee, an AC-130 gunship engaged and killed 26 enemy fighters on both sides of the river valley. A total of seven enemy positions were destroyed, and 87 Taliban fighters were killed during the 14-hour engagement.
Forty-eight hours earlier and under the cover of darkness, U.S. Special Forces and Afghan National Police patrolling near the village of Parmakan, in the Zerkoh Valley, received small-arms and rocket-propelled-grenade fire from more than 70 Taliban fighters.
During the engagement, 49 Taliban fighters, including two local Taliban leaders, were killed by a combination of small-arms fire and close-air support. As was previously reported on April 27, one U.S. Army soldier was killed in the engagement.
Every precaution was taken to prevent injury to innocent Afghan civilians during the two battles, and there were no civilian injuries reported, U.S. officials said.
“Taliban fighters are no match for ANP and coalition forces,” said Army Maj. Chris Belcher, a Combined Joint Task Force 82 spokesman. “We will intensify our operations to rid Afghanistan of all Taliban and foreign fighters who harm innocent Afghan civilians and threaten the government of Afghanistan.”
(Compiled from Combined Joint Task Force 82 news releases.)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=globaljihad
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=jihadpropaganda
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=internet
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http://www.memri.org/jihad.html
http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=jihad&ID=SP156507
Special Dispatch Series - No. 1565
May 1, 2007 No.1565
“Islamist Websites Monitor No. 92”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=globaljihad
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=thailand
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http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/016249.php
April 30, 2007
“Jihadists shoot, kill 3-year-old boy in southern Thailand
Thai Jihad Update. “Three-year-old boy shot dead in Thailand,” from Agence France-Presse”
PATTANI, Thailand (AFP)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=hezbollah
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=hizballah
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=hizbullah
#
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1826061/posts
Study: Hizbullah won propaganda war
Jerusalem Post ^ | 04-30-2007 | GEORGE CONGER
Posted on 04/30/2007 10:52:44 AM PDT by bedolido
Hizbullah won the Second Lebanon War by achieving a propaganda victory over Israel, a Harvard University study has concluded. Aided and abetted by a compliant and credulous press, Hizbullah achieved victory by convincing the world that Israel was the aggressor and that Israel’s retaliatory offensive was a “disproportionate” response to the kidnapping and killing of its soldiers.
(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...
More details UPDATE:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/016254.php
April 30, 2007
“Five jihadists convicted in London bomb plot”
(AP)
LONDON (AP)
http://www.truthusa.com/IRAN.html
#
Note: This makes me feel like crying, too.
I pray for the Iranian people every day.
###
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/007411.htm
“A cry for help from Iran”
By Michelle Malkin · April 30, 2007 11:02 AM
#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x66h5kAKg5g&eurl=
“Iran police & woman’s Hijab(hejab)”
(Added April 26, 2007)
Ottawa Police have made an arrest in connection with Ottawa’s third murder of 2007.
An Ottawa resident was arrested without incident on Monday with the help of his legal counsel.
17-year-old Hassan Al-Khazaali was stabbed in the parking lot of a gas bar on Carling Avenue Saturday night. He died in hospital a short time later.
Major Crime Investigators now say the murder was not a “random attack.”
Constable Isabelle Lemieux says the victim and the suspect knew each other.
No other information has been released and police have not provided a motive for the murder.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=globaljihad
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=pakistan
#
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/04/30/bad-deal-in-bajur/
VIDEO/blog (with Erick Stakelbeck): “BAD DEAL IN BAJAUR”
(April 30, 2007)
Thank you fanfan.
Updates appreciated on this case.
ISTANBUL - Istanbul police detained Wednesday six members of the terrorist organization PKK _ including a seeing-impaired woman _ and impounded more than 6.5 kilograms of plastic explosives and a bomb vest with a detonator on it, security officials said.
The terrorists were believed to carry out "a sensational bomb attack" as the the seeing-impaired terrorists would blow herself up, officials added. It was not immediately clear when the attack would take place or what its target would be.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=173747
Knife scare disrupts airport (Australia)
4/30/07
A knife has been found wedged between two seats in the Virgin Blue passenger terminal at Melbourne airport. The potential weapon was found beyond the X-ray and metal-detecting screening point about 5.40pm on Friday. It was not known how long it had been there.
Melbourne airport spokesman Tom Perry yesterday said the discovery caused half-hour delays to up to four flights. "The prohibited item was found after the screening point in the Virgin Blue area of terminal three," Mr Perry said. "As a precaution the terminal was cleared. "The response was textbook," he said.
Excerpted
http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,23483,21644081-27977,00.html
Police seize 'extraordinary' guns and explosives from Vancouver condominium (Canada)
Sunday, April 29, 2007
VANCOUVER - Guns and materials for making explosives have seen seized at a high-rise condominium in downtown Vancouver. But city police say there is no indication the cache is terrorist-or gang-related. Police spokesman Howard Chow says officers arrived at the unit in response to an anonymous 911 call.
Some media reports say machine guns were part of the armoury found in the condo. But Chow would say only that "extraordinary firearms" were among the weaponry seized. Military explosives experts were called in to help police examine the find. Chow says 40 residents from a number of floors in the building were evacuated. A resident of the suite, a man in his 30s, is in custody and charges are pending. Chow says police will not be making further comment on the seizure until Monday or Tuesday. The condominium complex is a half a block from both Science World and a SkyTrain station and a block from the GM Place and BC Place stadiums in downtown Vancouver.
A cache of guns and explosives was also seized in Victoria Friday. Police say a large moving truck was pulled over in the city's downtown core. Inside, police found explosives and restricted firearms including two sawed-off shotguns. Brass knuckles, blasting caps and two crossbows with hunting arrows were also seized as were several boxes of ammunition.
Police believe some of the guns were from the central Vancouver Island community of Duncan. A 28-year-old man was arrested and will appear in court in June.
Syria has built a fortified complex buried deep underground and cloaked in secrecy to manufacture and store ballistic missiles capable of striking Israel, an Israeli newspaper said on Monday.
The complex includes 30 reinforced concrete bunkers, production facilities, development laboratories and command posts, the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot quoted "foreign experts" as saying, without specifying its location.
Excerpted
Qaeda figure urges Hamas "bombs, fire" on Israel
29 Apr 2007
An al Qaeda leader called on the Islamist Hamas group to fight Israel with "bombs and fire" in an Internet video posted on Sunday, days after militants launched rockets into southern Israel breaking a ceasefire. "Where is revenge, where are the bombs, where is the fire?" Abu Yahya al-Libi asked members of the military wing of Hamas in a video posted on a Web site used by Islamist militant groups. "Your loyalty to the blood of your predecessors, those loyal men, can only be through strict commitment to path of jihad ... and rejecting any other way," he said in the undated video.
Excerpted
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L2961459.htm
Interior Minister Top Taliban Target (Pakistan)
Karachi, 30 April 2007 - The weekend suicide bomb attack targeting Pakistan's interior minister has shone the spotlight on the man heading the only civilian body fully trusted by Western intelligence regarding the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Interior minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao is genuinely anti-Islamist and pro-Western and his special investigation unit works jointly with the American FBI - unlike Pakistan's powerful armed forces and intelligence services - involved in data collection and probes into al-Qaeda and Taliban activities in Pakistan.
Excerpted
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.409818154&par=0
Serbia and Montenegro believe that more Muslim radicals were operating in Montenegro. Serbia and Montenegro refer to these groups as "Wahhabis" (after the Sunni sect found in Saudi Arabia). This follows a couple of recent reports from Bosnia that "Wahhabi" radicals are aggravating Bosnian Muslims.
"Wahhabi" has become a general term for Muslim radicals in all three countries. One of the Serb reports said that there are up to 150 radicals in its own Novi Pazar area (southwestern Serbia). On April 20 Serb police killed a man suspected of belonging to one of the groups.
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/balkans/articles/20070429.aspx
THANKS to Oorang for pointing to this article:
SNIPPET - QUOTE:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1810409/posts?page=1553#1553
Police In Istanbul Detain Six PKK Terrorists With Bomb Vest (Turkey)
4/30/2007
ISTANBUL - Istanbul police detained Wednesday six members of the terrorist organization PKK _ including a seeing-impaired woman _ and impounded more than 6.5 kilograms of plastic explosives and a bomb vest with a detonator on it, security officials said.
The terrorists were believed to carry out “a sensational bomb attack” as the the seeing-impaired terrorists would blow herself up, officials added. It was not immediately clear when the attack would take place or what its target would be.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=173747
Thanks to Oorang for pointing to these 2 articles:
SNIPPET - QUOTE:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1810409/posts?page=1554#1554
Syria has underground ‘missile city’: Israeli report
30/04/07
Syria has built a fortified complex buried deep underground and cloaked in secrecy to manufacture and store ballistic missiles capable of striking Israel, an Israeli newspaper said on Monday.
The complex includes 30 reinforced concrete bunkers, production facilities, development laboratories and command posts, the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot quoted “foreign experts” as saying, without specifying its location.
Excerpted
Qaeda figure urges Hamas “bombs, fire” on Israel
29 Apr 2007
An al Qaeda leader called on the Islamist Hamas group to fight Israel with “bombs and fire” in an Internet video posted on Sunday, days after militants launched rockets into southern Israel breaking a ceasefire. “Where is revenge, where are the bombs, where is the fire?” Abu Yahya al-Libi asked members of the military wing of Hamas in a video posted on a Web site used by Islamist militant groups. “Your loyalty to the blood of your predecessors, those loyal men, can only be through strict commitment to path of jihad ... and rejecting any other way,” he said in the undated video.
Excerpted
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L2961459.htm
THANKS to Oorang for this post:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1810409/posts?page=1553#1553
QUOTE-SNIPPET:
Police seize ‘extraordinary’ guns and explosives from Vancouver condominium (Canada)
Sunday, April 29, 2007
VANCOUVER - Guns and materials for making explosives have seen seized at a high-rise condominium in downtown Vancouver. But city police say there is no indication the cache is terrorist-or gang-related. Police spokesman Howard Chow says officers arrived at the unit in response to an anonymous 911 call.
Some media reports say machine guns were part of the armoury found in the condo. But Chow would say only that “extraordinary firearms” were among the weaponry seized. Military explosives experts were called in to help police examine the find. Chow says 40 residents from a number of floors in the building were evacuated. A resident of the suite, a man in his 30s, is in custody and charges are pending. Chow says police will not be making further comment on the seizure until Monday or Tuesday. The condominium complex is a half a block from both Science World and a SkyTrain station and a block from the GM Place and BC Place stadiums in downtown Vancouver.
A cache of guns and explosives was also seized in Victoria Friday. Police say a large moving truck was pulled over in the city’s downtown core. Inside, police found explosives and restricted firearms including two sawed-off shotguns. Brass knuckles, blasting caps and two crossbows with hunting arrows were also seized as were several boxes of ammunition.
Police believe some of the guns were from the central Vancouver Island community of Duncan. A 28-year-old man was arrested and will appear in court in June.
1,553 posted on 04/30/2007 2:43:10 PM PDT by Oorang (Tyranny thrives best where government need not fear the wrath of an armed people - Alex Kozinski)
THANK YOU Oorang for all the posts today.
I was thinking about something while watering the various gardens today.
THINKING OUT OF THE BOX - SPECULATION: I wonder if the big attack by the Global Jihadists does not pertain to just one country, but actually is a multi-country attack on certain targets? Their favorite targets seem to be Jews, Christians, financial, energy (oil, eletrical grids) and other areas of interest (to them).
Your speculation makes sense to me. I would think a multi-country attack would make the wacky jihadists quite pleased. The question is could they pull it off. I believe they have the manpower and means to do it but it would require a big dose of luck. If one person/cell got busted, and talked, that could cause the entire operation to fall like dominoes. IF (big if) this is the scenario, I hope the folks that make the bad guys talk are not politically correct. Politically correct and war do not go together.
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