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A bear killed two militants after discovering them in its den in Indian-administered Kashmir, police say. Two other militants escaped, one of them badly wounded, after the attack in Kulgam district, south of Srinagar. The militants had assault rifles but were taken by surprise - police found the remains of pudding they had made to eat when the bear attacked.The militants had made their hideout in a cave which was actually the bear's den, said police officer Farooq Ahmed.The dead have been identified as Mohammad Amin alias Qaiser, and Bashir Ahmed alias Saifullah. News of the attack emerged when their...

A bear killed two militants after discovering them in its den in Indian-administered Kashmir, police say. Two other militants escaped, one of them badly wounded, after the attack in Kulgam district, south of Srinagar. The militants were armed with AK-46s but were taken by surprise - police found the remains of pudding they had made to eat when the bear attacked. It is thought to be the first such incident since Muslim separatists took up arms against Indian rule in 1989.

SHERWANGI, Pakistan (AFP) – Hundreds of foreign fighters were on the run in this battle-scarred region near Afghanistan Sunday, the military said, pressing a major offensive into a third week. Between 600 and 800 foreign militants had been in around Kanigurram town but their resistance was broken by heavy bombing from jet fighters, helicopters and artillery, Brigadier Mohammad Ihsan told reporters on a visit to the normally closed conflict area. Commanders have described Kanigurram as a major Tehreek-e-Taliban "operational centre" and base for Uzbek fighters. "They are on the run," Ihsan said. The foreigners were mostly Uzbeks but also Chechens...

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's army pushed deeper into a Taliban sanctuary close to the Afghan border Tuesday, claiming to have killed 42 militants in the latest stage of an offensive against extremists blamed for relentless attacks in recent weeks . In the capital, gunmen attacked a high-ranking Pakistani army officer in the second targeted shooting against top military brass in less than a week, part of a wave of violence sweeping the country in apparent retaliation for the 11-day long offensive in South Waziristan. The army officer, and his mother who was traveling with him, escaped unhurt from the assault in...

LONDON (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday the latest militant attack in Pakistan shows an "increasing" threat to the state, but voiced confidence Islamabad was in control of its nuclear arsenal. Clinton told reporters in London that the militants' brazen bid to storm the Pakistani military headquarters in Rawalpindi on Saturday highlighted the scale of the threat. The attack brought renewed US focus on Pakistan, which has won praise from Washington for its new crackdown on militants, just as the Obama administration tries to revise its strategy in neighboring Afghanistan. "Yesterday was another reminder that extremists...

Military officials in Pakistan say a siege by militants near the army's headquarters in Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad, is over. Commando forces raided a building where militants were holding hostages just before dawn Sunday. Four militants, two soldiers and three hostages were killed during the operation. Another wounded militant was captured. The violence began just before midday Saturday when a group of heavily armed militants in army uniforms tried to enter the Pakistani military headquarters. As soon as they were stopped at a main check post, the attackers lobbed several grenades and opened fire with automatic weapons on the...

<p>DETROIT (AP) - A retired police officer-turned-pastor shot and wounded a man who broke into his Detroit church, police said Monday.</p> <p>Lawrence Adams went to Westside Bible Church on Sunday evening and found the intruder inside the building, said Detroit police Sgt. Eren Stephens. The man began swinging an object at the retired police lieutenant, who pulled out a handgun and shot him in the abdomen, he said.</p>

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – A U.S. drone attacked militants in Pakistan in Tuesday, killing at least 45 of them, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan launched an operation against militants Sunday in a district covered by a government-backed peace deal, threatening the survival of a pact that raised U.S. concerns about the country's willingness to confront the insurgents. A top government official insisted the deal remained "intact" and denied American pressure prompted the offensive, while another warned that the Taliban in a valley that was the focus of the deal must disarm or "face action." A military statement said the offensive in Lower Dir had already killed "scores" of militants, including a commander, and left at least one paramilitary soldier dead. It...

ISLAMABAD – A suspected U.S. drone fired two missiles Wednesday at an alleged hide-out connected to a Taliban leader who has threatened to attack Washington, killing 12 people and wounding several others, officials said. The attack came a day after Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a police academy in the eastern city of Lahore, saying it was retaliation for U.S. missile strikes on militant strongholds along the Afghan border. Mehsud also vowed to launch an attack on Washington or even the White House in phone interviews with The Associated Press and local media....

BAHAWALPUR, Pakistan – The compound bore no sign. Residents referred to it simply as the school for "jihadi fighters," speaking in awe of the expensive horses stabled within its high walls — and the extremists who rode them bareback in the dusty fields around it. In classrooms nearby, teachers drilled boys as young as 8 in an uncompromising brand of Islam that called for holy war against enemies of the faith. Sitting cross-legged on the floor of the Dar-ul-uloom Madina school, they rocked back and forth as they recited sections of the Quran, Islam's holy book. Both facilities are run...

Palestinian militants launched a rocket and a mortar shell into Israel on Sunday, causing no injuries. Rocket fire by Gaza militants and Israeli retaliatory airstrikes have become nearly daily occurrences.

"Fruit of Islam JR. Drill Team of Mosque #7 of the Nation of Islam in New York. The Fruit of Islam is the Brown Shirt-like paramilitary group run by Louis Farrakhan."

Federal officials said this morning they have indicted an Afghan national for lying about his alleged ties to terrorists in a bid to fraudulently obtain a U.S. passport. Ahmadullah Sais Niazi, 34, who was arrested without incident this morning at his Tustin residence by members of the joint terrorism task force, was named in a five-count indictment returned Feb. 11 by a federal grand jury. The indictment, unsealed this morning, alleges Niazi hid associations with “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” groups including Al Qaeda, Hizb-i-Islami and the Taliban, when he

(IsraelNN.com) Islamists reached new heights of audacity in a face-off with pro-Israel demonstrators in Malmö, Sweden on Sunday, firing rockets and throwing pipe bombs at the pro-Israel group in broad daylight and under police's noses. No one was hurt. The incident was videotaped by Swedish blogger Ted Ekeroth, whose blog contains videos showing the attack. Between 400 and 500 people gathered in Stortorget Square for a peaceful pro-Israeli protest. The police sealed off the entire square and only allowed in the protesters, as well as a smaller group of Islamists, and separated the two groups from each other. Blogger Ekeroth...

A shocking new video that appears to show Pakistani militants beheading a kidnapped Polish engineer has emerged. The seven-minute video appears to show the Polish hostage, Piotr Stanczak, sitting on the floor flanked by two masked men. Off camera, a militant briefly engages him in conversation before three others behead him. The video is so horrifying that some news wire agencies chose not to distribute the images. One of the hooded men then addresses the camera, blaming Pakistan for the killing for not agreeing to their demands to release Taliban prisoners. If confirmed, Stanczak's death would appear to be the...

Pakistan's military says its troops have killed at least 35 insurgents in the northwestern Swat valley. In a statement Tuesday, Pakistani officials say the army targeted militants in an overnight operation in the Khawaza Khela part of the valley. Militants in Swat are battling to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law in the one-time tourist haven. A Taliban leader has told families there that girls will be killed if they attempt to go to classes when schools reopen next month.

Al Qaeda terrorists have been left fearing the Black Death plague after it wiped out at least 40 insurgents at an Algerian training camp, it was reported today. The horror disease, which killed 25 million people in medieval Europe, is understood to have been found in a militant’s body dumped at a roadside. Terror group AQLIM (al Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb) was forced to turn its shelter in the Yakouren forests into mass graves and flee, it has been claimed. Now al Qaeda chiefs are said to fear the plague has been passed into other cells...

AP's headline is "Cousins plead guilty in plot to kill US soldiers." But of course they didn't get involved in this plot because they were cousins. The Department of Homeland Security doesn't need to begin a Global War On Cousins. They did this because they wanted to wage jihad. They met the jihad recruiter at a Muslim convention. They were clearly inspired by Islamic teachings regarding the necessity to wage war against unbelievers. But since none of that is suitable for an AP headline, we get...cousins. An update on this story. "Cousins plead guilty in plot to kill US soldiers,"...

Militants are being encouraged to use the online site through postings on other Islamic forums on the Internet. Wednesday, December 3, 2008 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Islamic extremists are being instructed on how to use the popular video-sharing site YouTube as a way to disseminate propaganda videos, a U.S.-based terrorism monitor said on Tuesday. Militants are being encouraged to use the online site through postings on other Islamic forums on the Internet, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. Last week, an extremist authored step-by-step instructions on posting video to YouTube, which he described as "one of the most famous and biggest...

LOI SAM, Pakistan – Pakistan's army captured a key militant stronghold near the Afghan border, a breakthrough in a bloody push against the Taliban and al-Qaida that has claimed 95 civilian lives, the military said Saturday. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said troops on Saturday captured Loi Sam, a town in the Bajur region sitting on a vital intersection connecting the border to three neighboring Pakistani regions. "Now we have complete control in this area from where miscreants used to go to Afghanistan," Abbas told reporters flown into Bajur on a military helicopter Saturday. "Miscreants have been expelled or...

KHAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistani helicopter gunships, fighter jets and artillery pounded militant hideouts in a Pakistani tribal region bordering Afghanistan on Monday, killing 12 rebels, officials said. The strikes were carried out at militants' hideouts across Bajaur, where Pakistani troops and Islamic extremists have been locked in fierce fighting since August. "Pakistani helicopter gunships, jet fighters and artillery hit militants' hideouts, killing 12 militants and wounding more than a dozen others," a senior security official told AFP. Local administration official Mohammad Jamil confirmed the deaths of 12 Taliban fighters in Monday's offensive.

U.S.-led coalition troops killed 21 militants in two separate clashes in southern Afghanistan, while insurgents killed 10 civilians in the same area, the U.S. military said Thursday. Coalition troops on a security patrol Wednesday in the Shaheed Hasas district of Uruzgan province repelled an ambush by insurgents, killing 12 militants, the U.S. military said in a statement. There were no coalition casualties.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's army chief named a general considered a hawk in the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban to head the country's powerful spy agency, asserting his control at a time of U.S. concern that rogue operatives are aiding Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha oversaw military offensives against militants in the lawless border regions with Afghanistan in his most recent job as director general of military operations. His appointment as head of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, the country's main spy agency, was part of a broader shake-up of army top brass announced...

When it comes to fiscal conservatism, George W. Bush failed us. He has angered fiscal conservatives in both parties. I don't spend much time defending Bush's fiscal record because there's really very little worth defending.   But Bush's failure wasn't because he cut taxes. Bush failed because he failed to cut spending.   P.J. O'Rourke defined fiscal conservatism as follows: "To a true fiscal conservative, tax cuts don't matter much, and neither does the national debt. That is because the real problem is spending. Even the best and most necessary public spending comes with a harrowing price: the percentage of...

"The European Union is now helping pay the salaries and pensions of Palestinian Authority workers. On August 20, officials in Brussels announced that the EU will be providing the PA with an extra €40 million ($58.8 million) in financial aid. This money comes on top of the €440 million ($650 million) in aid the EU pledged to the PA at a donors’ conference in Paris last December." "In addition to covering some of the Palestinian Authority’s salary and pension costs, a part of this European cash has been earmarked for the construction of a new Palestinian security force headquarters in...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Central Intelligence Agency official traveled to Islamabad and confronted senior officials with evidence of ties between Pakistan's spy agency and militants operating in that country's tribal areas, the New York Times reported in Wednesday editions. The CIA envoy presented information linking members of Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) with some militant groups responsible for a string of attacks including the suicide bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul this month which killed 58 people, the newspaper said. The report, based on accounts by U.S. military and intelligence officials, described the decision to confront Pakistan...

HE exploded into US politics with a message of hope and change that has people around the world believing President Obama will save America and the planet. He’s running a veritable Santa’s Grotto stacked with promises of health care reform, protectionism in trade, cheaper petrol, more money for schools, the space program, veterans, students, infrastructure, as well as lower taxes. He’s promised energy security, an end to the Iraq war, to befriend America’s enemies and remain unindentured to big business and lobbyists. A less optimistic panel of Harvard thinkers at the Centre for Public Leadership recently said the problems facing...

BAGHDAD - Government troops began house-to-house searches for al-Qaida in Iraq militants in Mosul on Thursday, part of a major security operation to cleanse Iraq's third largest city from cells of the terror network. Described by the U.S. military as the last major urban base of al-Qaida in Iraq, Mosul has become the site of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's third security drive in two months as he attempts to defeat Shiite militants and Sunni extremists. Al-Maliki flew to Mosul on Wednesday to take charge of the operation by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces. On Thursday, he sought to enlist the support of...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A Lebanese minister says the Cabinet has reversed measures against Hezbollah militants that triggered the worst violence since the country's 15-year civil war. Hezbollah has demanded the government reverse the decisions last week to sack an airport security chief for alleged ties to the Shiite group and to declare the militants' private telephone network illegal. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the moves amounted to a declaration of war and shortly after, he unleashed his fighters on the streets of Beirut. The clashes left 54 dead. Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said the Cabinet revoked the decisions "in view...

The Manipur government has decided to provide arms and ammunition to the people of the state to defend themselves from militants. Official sources said in Imphal on Saturday that the state cabinet, presided over by Manipur Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh, discussed the issue on Friday night at a meeting, which lasted for over three hours. In the first phase, the people of Heirok and Chajing would be provided security by opening special posts, to be commanded by Special Police Officers. The people of Heirok in Thoubal district had been demanding arms, following the killing of three people by militants...

Five Taliban militants blew themselves up in a house in the Afghan capital Kabul after 10 hours of clashes with besieging Afghan security forces on Wednesday, an Interior Ministry official told Reuters. While the Taliban have launched sporadic suicide attacks in Kabul, the militants have not before been detected in any numbers inside the city which they have vowed to target this year in their fight to overthrow the pro-Western Afghan government.

Zimbabwe militants seize farm of Commercial Farmers' Union president By Sebastien Berger in Johannesburg Last Updated: 1:43am BST 10/04/2008 Zanu PF militants have invaded the farm of Commercial Farmers' Union president Trevor Gifford, saying he is never to return home. Mr Gifford, who has spent a frantic week in Harare trying to assist at least 60 fellow farmers cope with their own invasions around the country was not at home near Chipinge, about 220 miles south east of Harare, when the mob of about 30 wearing Zanu-PF T-shirts arrived at his security gate. "They have left messages with staff for...

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Militant supporters of President Robert Mugabe targeted whites Monday, forcing about a dozen ranchers and farmers off their land as Zimbabwe's longtime ruler fanned racial tensions amid fears he will turn to violence to hold on to power. Mugabe's opponents pressed a lawsuit seeking to compel the publication of results of the March 29 presidential election that they say Morgan Tsvangirai won. The opposition leader urged the international community to persuade Mugabe to step down. "Major powers here, such as South Africa, the U.S. and Britain, must act to remove the white-knuckle grip of Mugabe's suicidal reign...

Obama yanked New Black Panther endorsement for 'political reasons' 'It's part of the game,' says anti-white, anti-Jew leader Sen. Barack Obama addresses controversy over his pastor in Philadelphia speech yesterday The removal by the Barack Obama campaign from its official website of an endorsement from the black supremacist New Black Panther Party, or NBPP, was decided upon for "understandable political reasons," according to the party's national chairman. "It's the game of politics," the NBPP's Malik Zulu Shabazz told WND. "The Obama camp's move to remove our blog doesn't mean much because I understand politics. We still completely support Obama as...

BETHLEHEM, West Bank - Israeli troops opened fire on a car in the West Bank on Wednesday, killing four Palestinian militants, Palestinian medical officials said. The violence threw doubt on prospects for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Associated Press Television News video showed medical officials loading the bodies of the men into an ambulance. The Israeli military had no immediate comment. Palestinian security officials said one of the dead was the commander of Islamic Jihad in the Bethlehem area, Mohammed Shehadeh, and two others were also members of Islamic Jihad. The fourth belonged to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades,...

Three “Middle Eastern militants” are in custody in the Philippines for plotting to attack the US embassy in Manila, as well as three other embassies in the capital. Authorities suspect them of belonging to either Jemaah Islamiyah or Abu Sayyaf, both terrorist groups affiliated with al-Qaeda. They describe the plot as at an “advanced” stage, indicating an attack had been imminent: Three suspected Middle Eastern militants have been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to bomb the U.S. and three other foreign embassies in the Philippines, officials said Thursday.“There is a high probability that they are involved in some...

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - A coalition of Taliban militants in northwestern Pakistan declared an "indefinite" cease-fire Wednesday in fighting against security forces. The government said it was preparing for peace talks. A Pakistani army helicopter crashed in the same region, killing three generals and five other soldiers. The army said initial reports indicated a technical fault in the chopper and ruled out hostile fire as the cause. Maulvi Mohammed Umar, a spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, a militant umbrella group, said the cease-fire would cover the lawless, semiautonomous tribal belt that borders Afghanistan, and the restive region of Swat...

US Strike Exposes Entrenched Militants Friday February 1, 2008 9:46 PM By MATTHEW PENNINGTON Associated Press Writer ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - The U.S. missile strike that killed a top al-Qaida commander just over a mile from a Pakistani military base shows how entrenched Islamic militants are in the lawless tribal regions, where extremists have launched increasingly bold attacks. The targeting of Abu Laith al-Libi also suggests American intelligence is improving and that President Pervez Musharraf is willing to turn a blind eye to attacks along the Afghan border if they avoid civilian casualties. Pakistan has yet to confirm the death...

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - At least 40 militants and eight Pakistan soldiers have been killed in 24 hours of intense fighting in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, the military said Thursday. Thirty militants have also been arrested in the clashes in the South Waziristan tribal district, the hideout of a rebel commander accused of masterminding the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. "Reportedly, 40 miscreants have been killed in the last 24 hours and 30 miscreants have been apprehended, many of them injured," the military said in a statement. Troops have hammered militant hideouts and reinforced outposts in days of clashes...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The Pakistani military pounded an extremist stronghold Sunday near the Afghan border where a rebel leader blamed for the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is believed to be hiding, officials and witnesses said. The strikes came after authorities said Saturday they had arrested a 15-year-old boy in northwestern Pakistan alleged to have been involved in the Dec. 27 slaying of Bhutto, an opposition leader critical of rising Islamic extremism in the country. The central government has never had much control over South Waziristan, a tribal area where several top militants are believed to live. They...

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - In an embarrassing battlefield defeat for Pakistan's army, Islamic extremists attacked and seized a small fort near the Afghan border, leaving at least 27 soldiers dead or missing. The militants did not gain significant ground, but they did further erode confidence in the U.S.-allied government's ability to control the frontier area where the Taliban and al-Qaida flourish. Attacks on security forces are rising in the volatile tribal region, and Pakistan is reeling from a series of suicide attacks that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and hundreds more, chipping away at President Pervez Musharraf's prestige...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Suspected Islamic militants killed eight tribal leaders involved in efforts to broker a cease-fire between security forces and insurgents in northwestern Pakistan, a security official said Monday. The men were shot in separate attacks late Sunday and early Monday in South Waziristan, a mountainous region close to Afghanistan where al-Qaida and Taliban militants are know to operate, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was unauthorized to make comments to the media.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan reiterated that it will not let American forces hunt al-Qaeda and Taliban militants on its soil, after a news report said Sunday that the Bush administration was considering expanding U.S. military and intelligence operations into Pakistan's tribal regions. The Foreign Ministry dismissed as “speculative” a story in The New York Times saying President Bush's top security officials discussed a proposal Friday to deploy U.S. troops to pursue militants along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. “We are very clear. Nobody is going to be allowed to do anything here,” said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, the top spokesman for Pakistan's...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Benazir Bhutto was the target of threats from virtually all of the militant groups who make Pakistan their home — from al-Qaida to homegrown terrorists to tribal insurgents on the Afghan border. Her assassination after a rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi — where the country's military and intelligence services are based — also focused anger and suspicion on the government of President Pervez Musharraf. The former prime minister had blamed al-Qaida, the Taliban and homegrown militants for a suicide bombing that tore through a procession welcoming her back from exile in October. But she accused...

MINGORA, Pakistan - The Pakistani army has driven Islamic militants from all the towns in a scenic northern valley and killed 290 of the followers of a pro-Taliban cleric who has called for a holy war against the government, a general said Saturday. The militants, followers of firebrand preacher Maulana Fazlullah, had taken control of at least eight towns in the Swat valley since July, scattering outgunned police and erecting "Taliban station" signboards outside former police stations. Officials accuse them of imposing a reign of terror, shuttering schools for girls and beheading locals who opposed them. Their seizure of the...

BAGHDAD - Hundreds of American and Iraqi troops backed by helicopters descended Friday on a remote desert area southwest of Baghdad to root out al-Qaida in Iraq and search for two U.S. soldiers missing after a deadly insurgent ambush six months ago. Acting on intelligence, the soldiers dug with shovels through heaps of sand and went house-to-house after a dramatic pre-dawn air assault into two Sunni villages near the boundary with Anbar province. U.S. officers said there was no sign of the missing soldiers but stressed it was only the first day of the operation dubbed Marne Courageous, which also...

SWAT, Pakistan - Muslim extremists are expanding their control of northern Pakistan, challenging the U.S.-backed government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and adding to the lands where terrorists allied with Osama bin Laden find refuge. Once restricted to pockets in the mountains along the Afghanistan border, radical mullahs and their followers now wield power in vast areas of northwest Pakistan. They have moved in the past few months beyond the tribal regions and into northern Pakistan cities and the Swat Valley. The increased influence of the Islamic radicals was highlighted this week by intense fighting between local gunmen and government...

Pakistani border death toll rises The army faces well-armed, well-trained militants in Waziristan Forty-five Pakistani soldiers and 130 pro-Taleban militants have died in two days of fierce fighting in North Waziristan, the Pakistani army says. Earlier, the military said 50 of its troops had gone missing during the battle near the Afghan border. The soldiers had disappeared after militants attacked security posts and an army patrol outside the town of Mir Ali over the weekend. By Monday night, many of the men had been relocated, but 25 were found dead. Fierce fighting After a number of attacks on military convoys...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - At least 65 pro-Taliban militants and 25 Pakistani soldiers were killed in new clashes in Pakistan's North Waziristan on Monday, the military said. Around 65 militants and 20 soldiers were killed in battles in the tribal region on the Afghan border on Saturday and Sunday. Military spokesman Waheed Arshad said there had been more fighting in the region on Monday. "Today, we recovered 25 more bodies of our soldiers from different areas and we have reports that 130 militants were killed in three days."