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(IsraelNN.com) Gush Katif refugees, many of whom are still dwelling in hotels awaiting permanent housing, lit a unique menorah tonight, one made of mortar shells fired by Arab terrorists into the heart of N’vei Dekalim, the largest community of Gush Katif. That special menorah commemorates the miracle of Jewish survival throughout the ages, and reminds us of the symbolic role Gush Katif has played in the saga of Jewish history: a community standing victorious despite constant attempts by Arab terrorists to wipe it out. 5000 mortars rained down on Gush Katif, from the onset of the Oslo War in September...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Mortar rounds killed five and wounded 36 people attending an important Shi'ite religious ceremony in Baghdad on Wednesday, police sources said. Television pictures showed thousands of pilgrims marching to the Kadhimiya mosque in an old district of Baghdad to celebrate the martyrdom of Musa Al-Kadhim, a revered religious figure among Shi'ites. The police source said there were three separate mortar attacks on the crowds moving toward the mosque. They had no more immediate details.

KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel, Aug 25 (Reuters) - A mortar or rocket fired from Lebanon slammed into a northern Israeli community on Thursday, witnesses said. The Israeli army had no immediate comment.

Jerusalem, August 11: US President George W. Bush says a planned pullout of Jewish settlers from occupied Gaza 'will be good for Israel'. Bush's remarks, in an interview given to Israel's Channel One television and aired on Thursday, appeared to be an attempt to boost Prime Minister Ariel Sharon against Jewish rightists seeking to thwart the withdrawal due to start on Aug 17. "I believe the decision that Prime Minister Sharon has made and is going to follow through on will be good for Israel," Bush said, interviewed at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Asked why he thought Israel's 'disengagement'...

Some MORE good news from Iraq: QAYYARAH, Iraq - Sheik Horn floats around the room in white robe and headdress, exchanging pleasantries with dozens of village leaders. But he's the only sheik with blonde streaks in his mustache — and the only one who attended country music star Toby Keith's recent concert in Baghdad with fellow U.S. soldiers. Officially, he's Army Staff Sgt. Dale L. Horn, but to residents of the 37 villages and towns that he patrols he's known as the American sheik. Sheiks, or village elders, are known as the real power in rural Iraq. And the 5-foot-6-inch...

CHICAGO — In September 2004, Sgt. Shawna Morrison of the Illinois National Guard's 1544th Transportation Company was leaving a mess hall in Iraq's Green Zone for a meeting with her new commander when she was killed in a mortar attack (search). Morrison's parents, who reside in Paris, Ill., are urging the military to try and do anything to prevent deaths like that of their daughter's. "Do it. Do it. Do it for our people," said Morrison's mother, Cynthia. "We are just losing too many people and it is all by these types of bombs. If it is not a car...

Belmont Club History and history in the making Wednesday, December 22, 2004 The Lidless Eye Most everyone on the blogosphere has probably followed the Glenn Reynolds link to a Mosul chaplain's blog. More than 20 people, including US military and civilian personnel, were killed in a mortar attack on a base mess tent in Mosul. Chaplain Lewis was at the site. His narrative of the followup attack on the wounded and the medical personnel who responded stood out. Regardless of what some may say, these are not stupid people. Any attack with casualties will naturally mean that eventually a...

QAIM, Iraq - American troops stationed along Iraq (news - web sites)'s border with Syria are coming under increasing mortar attack from shells fired from Syrian territory, but it's unclear who's responsible, U.S. officers said Thursday. Reuters Photo Reuters Slideshow Slideshow: Iraq The 82 mm mortar rounds have been fired at U.S. and Iraqi positions in and around Husaybah in the far west of Iraq's Anbar province, said Lt. Col. Chris Woodbridge, commander of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment. "Who exactly is firing these mortars, we do not know. But what we do know is that the point of...

09-20-04 Today has been a very busy day. We're constantly being mortared now. As I was waiting outside of the phone center with about 20 Marines, we heard the whistling of a mortar round. We're used to it now, so we stood around and looked up at the sky wondering where it was going to impact. Wherever it hit, it was close because it was loud. A corpsman who was outside with us hit the deck when the mortar impacted. He was quite embarrassed when he looked up and saw we were standing there looking at him. All of us...

Police are seeking an 18-year-old Howell man believed to have been injured when a mortar exploded in a pickup truck as he and a friend allegedly blew up mailboxes early Monday morning in Howell Township. The friend, Matthew Robert Gow, 18, of Howell, who is believed to be the driver, was arraigned Monday afternoon before Livingston County District Judge A. John Pikkarainen on a charge of using an explosive device to destroy property. Gow remains in the Livingston County Jail in lieu of $10,000 cash or surety bond. (snip) Upon arrival, deputies located what they believed to be a detonated...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents fired at least 10 mortar rounds at a U.S. base on the outskirts of Baghdad International Airport on Wednesday, wounding 11 soldiers, two of them seriously, and starting a fire that burned for well over an hour.

New Zealand Army engineers working in southern Iraq have come under mortar attack, Radio New Zealand has reported. Quoting a Defence Department official it said three mortar rounds had hit their encampment in Basra. There were no reports of death or injury and no other details were immediately available. New Zealand has around 80 engineers in the region attached to the British Army.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - One U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded in a mortar attack on a military base in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul Saturday, a U.S. military statement said Sunday. The fatality brought to 559 the number of U.S. military personnel killed in action in Iraq since the invasion of the oil-rich country 14 months ago.

HANOI, May 8 (Reuters) - Two teenagers were killed and eight seriously injured when a war-time mortar bomb they were playing with exploded in a school yard in southern Vietnam, state media reported on Saturday. One teenager was killed instantly on Friday in the school yard in the central highland province of Gia Lai, the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reported. Another boy died later in hospital. A doctor at the emergency section of Gia Lai's General Hospital said the injured children were still being treated. In another accident, two scavengers died as a war-time bomb they were trying to saw...

By Terry Boyd, Stars and StripesEuropean edition, Friday, April 30, 2004 (Click on thumbnail image to view larger version of photo.) WARNING: Content of some photos is of a graphic nature. Terry Boyd / ©S&SFirst Lt. Nicholas Bradley checks on an Iraqi child killed in a mortar attack in Baghdad meant for U.S. troops. Terry Boyd / ©S&SWhile watching for another attack, soldiers race to assist the Iraqi boys hit directly by mortars. While they saved one, there was nothing to be done for the other two. Terry Boyd / ©S&SAn Iraqi man breaks down as he leads his son...

January 16, 2004: The U.S. Marine Corps has, as is their custom, taken an innovative approach to developing a new lightweight, self-propelled artillery system (the Expeditionary Fire Support System, or EFSS). They have combined an existing commercial vehicle, the Supacat HMT (High Mobility Transport) with an Israeli 120 mm mortar system. The HMT is a seven ton, four wheel cross country vehicle with a capacity for 3.2 tons. It has a 180 horsepower engine and a 4x4 drive optimized for cross country work. The cab is being modified to hold the five man gun crew. The Israeli mortar system weighs...

Four mortar shells hit a U.S. military compound Friday in the northern city of Mosul, killing a soldier from the 101st Airborne Division, the military said. MEANWHILE, AN EXPLOSION slightly damaged a highway overpass in western Baghdad Friday, and a U.S. soldier died on Thanksgiving from a gunshot wound of unknown origin in a base west of Baghdad, the military said. In Mosul, an Iraqi worker in the compound was slightly wounded in the attack at around 11 a.m. local time, Master Sgt. Kelly Tyler said.

The war of attrition continues in Gush Katif. At 11PM terrorists fired two mortars at the Jewish community of Neve Dekalim, near Khan Younis. Nobody was injured in the attack. The two rockets were the latest addition to six shells fired earlier in the evening - at an IDF guard tower and at other Jewish communities near Gaza. Mortar shells were also fired this morning and again in the afternoon. Four rockets were fired at an IDF jeep near Kissufim, in the southern Gaza strip. A Palestinian terrorist attempted to infiltrate the Jewish community of Netzarim this evening, but was...

The head of a Hamas cell responsible for mortar attacks on Israeli communities in Gush Katif was killed on Sunday night in yet another targeted killing carried out by Israel, after rockets fired from an IAF helicopter slammed into the donkey cart he drove in along a residential street in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. The strike came hours after a Kassam rocket landed in Ashkelon's southern industrial zone, marking the northernmost point a rocket has landed after it was launched from Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. The target of the IAF helicopter attack was identified...

Palestinians fired a mortar at the Gaza Strip settlement of Neveh Dekalim Wednesday, just minutes after several hundred Palestinian prisoners were released into the Palestinian Authority. No injuries were reported in the incident. Earlier Wednesday, IDF troops arrested 14 Palestinians in the West Bank city of Jericho on suspicion of involvement in terror activity. Also Wednesday, an elite Border Police unit apprehended wanted Tanzim member, Mohammed Alawuni, in a village south of the West Bank city of Jenin. The 14 are believed to be involved in planning terror attacks against Israel and the creation of weapons to be used in...