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"Six arrested over hotel terror plot" (UKPA) – 1 day ago SNIPPET: "Pakistan police have arrested six suspected Taliban militants with a suicide vest and hand grenades allegedly on their way to attack a five-star hotel and kill Americans in the country's cultural capital. The militants arrested on the outskirts of Lahore included a 14-year-old boy and a prayer leader from Pakistan's Khyber tribal area near the Afghan border, said police official Zulfikar Hameed. The prayer leader was wearing a vest packed with explosives. They told police they were targeting Americans at the Pearl Continental hotel, he said."

KABUL - Thousands of U.S., British and Afghan troops are poised to launch the biggest offensive of the war in Afghanistan in a test of the Obama administration's new counterinsurgency strategy. Military operations usually are intended to catch the enemy off guard, but for weeks U.S. and allied officials have been telling reporters about their forthcoming assault on Marjah, a Taliban-held town of 80,000 and drug-trafficking hub in southern poppy-growing Helmand province.

Soldiers from AustraliaÂ’s Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) conduct a medical clinic (MEDCAP) for the Chenartu villagers while more than 150 people gather for a shura.(Photo courtesy Australian Government Department of Defence) Courtesy Australian Government Department of DefenceThe Australian Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) with their Afghan partner force have facilitated a major gathering (shura) of village elders and religious leaders in Chenartu, north-east of Tarin Kowt, as part of their current focus on reaching out to Afghan communities across Uruzgan Province. During the meeting, village leaders and representatives were consulted to gain an understanding from the community of their...

BAGHDAD – The recent actions of one Iraqi resident here helped make the streets safer in southern Ghazaliya when he notified his local Iraqi Army unit of a possible improvised explosive device factory. "Whether it's big information or small information, [it's] all important information," said Lt. Col. Abdullah, commander, 4th Battalion, 22nd Iraqi Army Brigade, 6th IA Division. "Whatever we find, no matter how small it is, we found it because of our efforts, because of our sources, and because of the information that we get." The information regarding the IED factory resulted in the seizure of a quarter-kilogram of...

BASRAH – As the U.S. prepares to reduce troop levels here to 50,000 by September 2010, military leaders must still complete the mission; even with less boots on the ground. Smaller numbers of Soldiers depend on one another to accomplish the daily tasks needed to maintain the security, integrity and safety of the Basrah Operations Center and this host city that is home to more than 1.2 million people. Because of the drawdown and the return of U.S. camps to the Iraqi government, the remaining squad-sized elements from 2nd and 3rd platoons, 206th Military Police Company, 49th Military Police Battalion,...

The 2010 Texas Homeland Security Conference will be held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio February 15-18. The conference is sponsored by the Texas Division of Emergency Management, Texas Department of Public Safety. Attendees include more than 5,000 representatives of law enforcement, border security and port security, transportation and cyber security, as well as firefighters, emergency medical personnel, Texas Military Forces, voluntary organizations and private sector partners. Attendees also include officials from higher education, public education, health and medical care and public officials from the local, state and national governments. Representatives of more than 30 state...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2010 – Afghan and international forces seized enemy weapons and killed insurgent attackers in operations in Afghanistan in recent days, military officials reported. The Afghan National Army, supported by an international security patrol, destroyed 16 rockets and a mortar round in Kandahar province Feb. 7 and yesterday. The Afghan soldiers were patrolling near Darivshan village when they received a tip about a weapons cache from an Afghan civilian. The soldiers went to the site and recovered 16 107 mm rockets. The following day, the same patrol element found an 82 mm mortar round in a garden near...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2010 – Iraqi forces working with U.S. advisors arrested numerous suspected terrorists and seized enemy weapons in various operations in Iraq in recent days. Iraqi forces arrested 11 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq members -- including the suspected commander and two deputies of their cell -- in a rural area northwest of Baghdad today. The cell is believed to be responsible for maintaining weapons caches and carrying out deadly attacks against civilians and security forces. During a search, the security team found a shotgun, numerous assault rifles, packaging material used to transport explosives, a small rocket and terrorist...

When the Prophet Mohammad established Islam, he introduced a minimum of innovations. He employed the hallowed personages, historic legends and sacred sites of Judaism and Christianity, and even paganism, by Islamizing them. Thus, according to Islam, Abraham was the first Muslim and Jesus and St. John (the sons of Miriam, sister of Moses and Aron) were prophets and guardians of the second heaven. Many Biblical legends ("asatir al-awwalin",) which were familiar to the pagan Arabs before the dawn of Islam, underwent an Islamic conversion, and the Koran as well as the Hadith (the Islamic oral tradition), are replete with them....

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, Feb. 9, 2010 – Ask Army Chief Warrant Officer Anthony Potter what it takes to reach more than 2,000 combat flight hours and he'll tell you it requires the support of a loving family and fellow soldiers. Before being a senior in high school, the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter instructor pilot from Company C, 3rd Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry, said he always knew that he wanted to fly; that he wanted to be a pilot. So when it came time to choose a college, he made it abundantly clear aviation would...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2010 – Noting signs that the new strategy in Afghanistan “is beginning to bear fruit,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates also said during an interview aired last night that the effort to build up Iraq’s security forces and move forward with the U.S. drawdown plan there remains on track. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates speaks with Greta Van Susteren, host of the Fox News program "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren," during an interview in Rome, Feb. 7, 2010. DoD photo by Cherie Cullen  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Gates spoke with Fox News Channel’s...

Mayor Daley’s son Patrick has left his home and his job in Moscow after being summoned back to active duty in the U.S. Army, the mayor disclosed today. “My son had a responsibility. He served fours years in the military, and he’s re-deployed. He will serve his country just like every other son and daughter in this country does the same thing,” the mayor said. The mayor made it clear that his son did not re-enlist, but was summoned back to active duty. It was not known whether Patrick Daley was an Army reservist. The mayor refused to say where...

DETROIT, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Part of a Detroit airport terminal was shut down Monday after an Arabic man ignored instructions from security guards, police said.

Italy said dozens of members of Iran's hardline religious Basij militia had tried to attack its embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, but Iranian media described the incident as a student protest and did not mention any violence. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told a Senate hearing: "About a hundred Basij dressed as civilians tried to assault the embassy shouting 'Death to Italy' and 'Death to (Prime Minister) Berlusconi'."

President Obama said Tuesday that he's "bent over backwards" to engage Iran in "constructive" dialogue and said the U.S. will move to sanction the country, which has begun enriching uranium to levels capable of making an atomic bomb. Obama told reporters during a rare press conference Tuesday that the U.S. is developing a "significant regime of sanctions" in response to the Islamic Republic's move to enrich uranium to 20 percent purity level in defiance of world powers. "That indicates to us that despite their posturing that their nuclear power is only for, for civilian use that they in fact continue...

BBC Ex-USSR: Iran aiming to provoke regional military conflict - Russian exper 91) ☆ By enriching uranium to a higher grade, Iran is embarking on a deliberate course of provoking a military conflict in the Middle East due to its unstable domestic situation, Aleksey Arbatov, head of the International Security Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of World Economy and International Relations, said in a live interview to Russian Defence Ministry-controlled Zvezda TV on 9 February. He also said that Tehran will suddenly announce it has developed a nuclear weapon, and noted that 20 per cent-grade uranium was...

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran began enriching uranium to a higher level on Tuesday over the vociferous objections of the U.S. and its allies who fear the process could eventually be used to give the Islamic republic nuclear weapons. Even before the announcement U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he believed the U.N. should slap new sanctions on Iran in "weeks, not months," according to his spokesman Tuesday. France and the U.S. said Monday Iran's action left no choice but to push harder for a fourth set of U.N. Security Council sanctions to punish Iran's nuclear defiance. Russia, which has close...

Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Iran began enriching uranium Tuesday to the threshold at which it could set off a nuclear reaction, following through on a warning it had issued a day before, state media said. The enrichment was taking place at its Natanz facility under the surveillance of U.N. nuclear watchdog inspectors, Tehran said. An official with the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that a team of inspectors was on site. The United States and its allies fear Iran intends to build a nuclear bomb, while Tehran says its nuclear program is for civilian energy and medical use. On Monday,...

Liberal host Ed Schultz tried to paint the entire Republican argument as “political posturing” and challenged Rivkin, saying he was pitting his credibility against the word of Brennan. But Rivkin remained adamant that officials would not have simply assumed Miranda rights were being given automatically. Rivkin also pointed out that there should be less blame cast by both sides and more attention to the underlying failures in common sense procedure. “We’re talking about somebody who is interrogated for 50 minutes, that interrogation was interrupted and he is Mirandized. I don’t know of any serious interrogator who does not believe that...

TYLER, Texas (AP) - Recent fires that destroyed or damaged several churches in eastern Texas were likely set by an individual or a group of people, federal authorities said Tuesday. Fires that broke out at two churches near Tyler on Monday have not yet been ruled arson, but authorities are investigating them as such. They were reported within an hour of one another and there were signs that at least one of the churches had been broken into. Since Jan. 1, eight churches—seven in eastern Texas and one in the central part of the state—have been set ablaze deliberately, authorities...

Legal aid bosses have seized the house belonging to radical cleric Abu Hamza to pay off some of his defence costs. The Legal Services Commission appropriated the property in Greenford, west London, despite Hamza claiming it did not belong to him. It will now be sold in an attempt to pay off some of the £300,000 of taxpayers' money spent on his legal bills. Officials hope to raise £280,000 from the sale. Hook-handed Hamza, 51, is in jail as he attempts to fight extradition to the U.S. on terror charges at the European Court of Human Rights. He is also...

A senior Amnesty International official has been suspended after attacking the human rights charity for allying itself with 'Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban'. Gita Sahgal, head of the organisation's gender unit, branded Amnesty's links to former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg a 'gross error of judgment'. She was removed from her post within a few hours of her criticism...and now a bitter war of words is raging between the activist and her employer. Both have angrily defended their position over Mr Begg, 42, a Briton held at Guantanamo for three years until 2005 because of suspected links to...

Has Iran finally gone too far, pushing China into changing its mind about sanctions? Maybe not just yet. Tuesday, after Iran ratcheted up its uranium-enrichment program—elevating the purity of its enriched product to 20 percent—Beijing looked increasingly isolated in its calls to continue negotiations. "To talk about sanctions at the moment will complicate the situation and might stand in the way of finding a diplomatic solution," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said at a conference in Europe.Western countries have been lobbying China, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, to join them in supporting increased sanctions against the Tehran...

U.S. and allied commanders in Afghanistan are preparing for the biggest battle of the eight-year war, knowing that its outcome will reveal the chances of success for President Obama's revamped Afghan strategy. About 20,000 U.S., British and Afghan troops will soon storm Marja, the Taliban's final redoubt in the southern province of Helmand. A town of 80,000, Marja has for years been a den of narcotics traffickers and insurgents, serving as a launching pad for roadside bombs and suicide attacks. If the U.S. and its allies succeed in driving out the Taliban - and, perhaps more importantly, bring a measure...

Saed Elshari, al-Qaeda's number two in the Arabian Peninsula, has called for attacks against US interests "everywhere". The messsage was contained in an audio tape released on Monday and posted on a website often used by Islamist groups. Elshari also congratulated Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda's leader, over the apparent attempted bombing on a US plane on Christmas Day. "American and Crusader interests are everywhere and their agents are moving everywhere," Elshari said. "Attack them and eliminate as many enemies as you can." Elshari added: "I swear to God, we will open up for them doors of hell on the ground,...

They're back! The "Bomb Iran" crowd is making a big return to the political center stage after months of puzzlement over what to do about developments in the Islamic Republic. Hawks such as Daniel Pipes and John Bolton are arguing that Iran is dead-set on its pursuit of a nuclear arsenal -- and point to developments such as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement this weekend that Iran would enrich its uranium stocks to 20 percent to argue that diplomatic avenues have reached a dead end. The would-be bombers fear that the mullahs will leverage their nuclear capability to expand Persian influence...

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Dave Gaubatz, the first U.S. civilian (1811) Federal Agent deployed to Iraq in 2003. He is the owner of DG Counter-terrorism Publishing. He is currently conducting a 50 State Counter-terrorism Research Tour (CTRT). He is the co-author (with Paul Sperry) of the new book, Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America. He can be contacted at davegaubatz@gmail.com and his site is MuslimMafiaInternational.com. Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Dave Gaubatz, the first U.S. civilian (1811) Federal Agent deployed to Iraq in 2003. He is the owner of DG Counter-terrorism Publishing. He is...

Bush Was Right, Says Obama 'We're not handling any of these cases any different from the Bush administration.' By WILLIAM MCGURN This weekend, Americans were treated to something new: Barack Obama defending his war policies by suggesting they merely continue his predecessor's practices. The defense is illuminating, not least for its implicit recognition that George W. Bush has more credibility on fighting terrorists than does the sitting president. Mr. Obama's explanation came in an interview with Katie Couric just before the Super Bowl. Ms. Couric asked about trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York. After listing some of the difficulties,...

On Capitol Hill, there's a war being fought over the War on Terror, and so far, Republicans are winning. Or at least they're winning the Battle of Miranda. GOP lawmakers believe they are having some success in the effort to stiffen the spine of the Obama administration as it makes policy for dealing with captured terrorist suspects in the future. Even as the administration defends its decision to grant accused Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab the right to remain silent, the president himself is hinting that things might be done differently in the future. "Should the practice of reading suspected...

Six years ago, Yehuda Haim got on a bus to work one sunny February morning in Jerusalem, and paid with his life. Friday marks six years to the day, according to the Hebrew calendar, since a Jerusalem grocer, Yehuda Haim, was murdered on a bus that Arab terrorists blew up in Jerusalem. Ever since the restaurant at the Beit Agron Press Center in Jerusalem closed in 2001 because of declining tourism, Haim’s sandwich business at the corner grocery store had been booming for reporters. Yehuda would make each reporter a pre-prepared sandwich with fresh bread and any condiments the customer...

Afraid in Denmark – Westergaard’s kindergarten-teacher wife was fired, an auction house feared to sell his work, and he was assaulted at home. COPENHAGEN – Kurt Westergaard, who has been facing death threats for four years over his cartoon of the prophet Muhammad, is trying to settle back into his home – a month after an ax attack in his living room. The Danish cartoonist, 74, surveys the broken glass, damage to one of his artworks and ax marks on the door of his Aarhus house. He doesn’t see himself as brave, and says he’s all the more determined to...

Islam’s Child Martyrs in AmericaPosted By Jamie Glazov On February 9, 2010 @ 12:13 am In FrontPage | 5 Comments  [1]Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Dave Gaubatz, the first U.S. civilian (1811) Federal Agent deployed to Iraq in 2003. He is the owner of DG Counter-terrorism Publishing [2]. He is currently conducting a 50 State Counter-terrorism Research Tour (CTRT). He is the co-author (with Paul Sperry) of the new book, Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America. [3] He can be contacted at davegaubatz@gmail.com [4] and his site is MuslimMafiaInternational.com [5]. [6]FP: Dave Gaubatz, welcome to Frontpage...

ROMULUS, Mich. – A portion of a terminal at Detroit Metropolitan Airport was evacuated Monday after a man walked through a passenger screening checkpoint and refused to obey security officers, officials said. The passenger failed to stop about 7:45 a.m. at the McNamara Terminal, the Transportation Security Administration said. The man was arrested by airport police and was being questioned, airport spokesman Mike Conway said. "The Transportation Security Administration asked him to stop and he didn't comply," Conway said. TSA workers activated an alarm and called police. Security doors were lowered at the portion of the terminal between the security...

In a breathtakingly cynical example of playing politics, the White House just accused Republicans of playing politics over its Miranda-rights Christmas gift to the crotch bomber. With fumbling terrorism czar John Brennan walking point, administration spokesmen attacked those who believe that treating would-be suicide-bomber Umar Abdulmutallab the way we handle shoplifters harms our national security. The White House position is a PR blend of lies, half-truths and ignorance. Let's strip out the politics and lay out the facts from an intelligence professional's perspective:

Pakistani Taliban confirms Hakimullah Mehsud's death PTI, 9 February 2010, 01:11pm IST ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday confirmed that its chief Hakimullah Mehsud had died of injuries sustained in a US drone strike, ending weeks of speculation over his fate. Taliban sources based in the Aurakzai tribal region told TV news channels that 28-year-old Mehsud was severely injured in a drone attack in Shaktoi area of North Waziristan Agency on January 14. The sources claimed Mehsud died recently near Multan city in Punjab province while being taken to Karachi for treatment. His body was taken back to the tribal belt,...

Geert Wilders’s “hate speech” trial in the Netherlands began just a few weeks ago, but the outcome already seems determined. As Robert Spencer discusses in our lead story today, the Amsterdam District Court has refused to allow Wilders to call fifteen of the eighteen witnesses he had hoped to bring forward in his defense. It is also highly unlikely that the three remaining witnesses will be able to defend Wilders in the manner he desired, because the court has decided that the three witnesses will only be heard behind closed doors. With Wilders denied the opportunity to mount a forceful...

Dutch newspapers and news channels report today that a bomb was found in a train at the train station of the city of Den Bosch, in the South of the Netherlands. Experts are supposedly trying to dismantle the explosive device at this moment. Dutch news channel the NOS says that the bomb was found after passengers alerted railroad personnel that a suspicious man was moving in and around the train. When personnel tried to talk to the men he said he had planted a bomb in the train. One witness said: “First, he suddenly asked for a cigarette. ‘Excuse me,’...

TIJUANA, Mexico – Mexican federal police arrested two suspected gang leaders Monday, delivering another big blow to a brutal drug cartel that terrorized the border city of Tijuana for several years. The capture of Raydel Lopez Uriarte and Manuel Garcia Simental apparently wipes out the existing leadership of the cartel headed by Teodoro Garcia Simental, who was captured last month. Teodoro and Manuel Garcia are brothers. Lopez, known as "El Muletas," and Garcia, known as "El Chiquilin," were arrested Monday in La Paz, a city in the southern end of the Baja California peninsula, said Amy Roderick, a spokeswoman for...

One of the stranger behaviors of the ever-stranger Obama administration is its sudden adoption of the "wounded fawn" posture. No opposition was more stridently critical of a sitting president than was the anti-Bush Left. Barack Obama, as candidate and president, could not start a speech without saying "Bush did it." And have we forgotten the 2006–08 canonization of Michael Moore, the silence about the Nazi slurs, the award-winning assassination docudramas, the Knopf novel about killing George Bush, the "General Betray Us" ad, Al Gore's vein-bulging "brownshirts"outburst, and on and on? But suddenly, pundits and politicians have embraced a new gospel about...

The Obama Administration is vindicating Bush antiterror policy. Dick Cheney is not the most popular of politicians, but when he offered a harsh assessment of the Obama Administration's approach to terrorism last May, his criticism stung—so much that the President gave a speech the same day that was widely seen as a direct response. Though neither man would admit it, eight months later political and security realities are forcing Mr. Obama's antiterror policies ever-closer to the former Vice President's. In fact, the President's changes in antiterror policy have never been as dramatic as he or his critics have advertised. His...

War On Terror: Upstaging Osama Bin Laden as the most dangerous man in the world may be an American recruiter for al-Qaida: Anwar Awlaki. So why's he talking to Al-Jazeera instead of interrogators? The radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar Awlaki told the Arab TV network that he supported the failed Christmas Day airliner attack because "the American people have participated in all the crimes of their government." The turncoat added: "Some 300 Americans are nothing compared to the thousands of Muslims they have killed." Awlaki also advised the Fort Hood terrorist, whom he called "a hero." The two exchanged some 20...

2/8/2010 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) -- To any other member of the 965th Expeditionary Airborne Air Control Squadron, the five Canadian airmen who work with them are a part of the team. And that's just the way they like it. Each day the five Canadians work together as part of a crew on an E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system aircraft supporting missions in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility from an air base in Southwest Asia. Their presence with the 965th EAACS; however, is part of an international partnership between the United States and Canada -- known...

2/8/2010 - BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- Members of the Afghan National Army Air Corps and the 438th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group/Combined Air Power Task Force completed a joint rotary wing medical evacuation Feb. 3, 2010, from Bagram Airfield to Forward Operating Base Lightening in Gardez, Afghanistan. The mission was to transport an Afghan national who had been receiving care at the Craig Joint Theater Hospital at Bagram Airfield to a local medical facility in Gardez, Afghanistan, for continued care and to allow the patient to be closer to home. Other units that contributed to the mission were the 455th...

A Pentagon probe into the death of Iraqi civilians last November in the Iraqi city of Haditha will show that U.S. Marines "killed innocent civilians in cold blood," a U.S. lawmaker said Wednesday. From the beginning, Iraqis in the town of Haditha said U.S. Marines deliberately killed 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including seven women and three children. One young Iraqi girl said the Marines killed six members of her family, including her parents. “The Americans came into the room where my father was praying,” she said, “and shot him.”

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Rep. John Murtha, the tall, gruff-mannered former Marine who became the de facto voice of veterans on Capitol Hill and later an outspoken and influential critic of the Iraq War, died Monday.

In a 40 year flashback to the glories of 1960’s anti-war outrage, infamously left-wing Riverside Church in New York City is hosting a “Truth Commission on Conscience in War” next month. This special hearing, in the spirit of “truth commissions,” will evidently “explore and investigate systemic injustices, political violence, and mass atrocities” by the U.S., presumably in both Iraq and Afghanistan. It will “receive testimony, process their findings, and recommend strategies for change, healing, and reconciliation,” while lifting “up the silenced and invisible voices of victims, offering survivors a public forum to testify to their experiences.” The “commissioners” of this...

(IsraelNN.com) Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Israel Our Home party, says, "It's time to forget our obsession of "territory in exchange for peace; all future agreements must be based on 'peace in exchange for peace.'" Speaking at a party faction meeting on Monday, Lieberman said, "Peace is in fact our heart's desire, but it is not more important than Israel's existence as the state of the Jewish people or than lasting security for its citizens. We extend our hand in peace to enemies, but as long as they choose the path of war, we must be firm, return...

CAIRO – The No. 2 leader of Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood and two other top figures were arrested by police Monday in a dawn sweep targeting members of the nation's most powerful opposition group. The arrests, part of an ongoing crackdown, come as the group recently chose a new leadership and ahead of parliamentary elections set for October. Police arrested the new deputy leader, Mahmoud Ezzat, and two other members of the Guidance Council, Essam el-Erian and Abdul-Rahman el-Bir. A fourth member of the group's top level decision making body was not home when police raided his house. At least...

Jones was not talking out of the top of his head, but on the strength of solid US intelligence gathered over months on detailed war plans Iran, Syria, Hizballah and Hamas have drawn up to send five Hizballah brigades sweeping across the border to seize five sectors of Galilee, while also organizing a massive Israeli-Arab uprising against the Jewish state. Hamas would open a second front in the south and in the east. Syria is expected to step in at some stage. This plan with attached special map was first published exclusively by DEBKA-Net-Weekly 430 on Jan. 22, 2010. Key...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – NATO commanders urged the Taliban to surrender as troops dug in Monday for a major assault on a key insurgent stronghold in southern Afghanistan, sending thousands of residents fleeing. Final preparations for battle with Taliban militants around Marjah in Helmand province, which could begin within days, had begun, a senior Marines commander said. "The combat operations for the assault of Marjah have begun this morning," Lieutenant Colonel James "Matt" Baker, of 1st Battalion 3rd Marines Regiment told AFP, referring to the final phase of assault preparations. Related article: Taliban, heroin hold sway in Marjah The Taliban...