Low cost Afghanistan home made IED's kill as do hi-tech hi cost Predator zones
More news from Afghanistan today ...
1. Four NATO troops (US ?) were killed in an IED attack in eastern Afghanistan. Two Afghans were killed in a suicide attack in Kabul. The mayor of Kandahar survived a suicide attack that killed one civilian. One British soldier was killed in an IED attack at Musa Qala , Helmand province. The MOD have named him as Lance Corporal Christopher Harkett, 22, from The 2nd Battalion, Royal Welsh Regiment. (Full list/details of all UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001) (Pic above of Harriers in support flying from Kandahar Airbase)
UPDATE Monday 16th March 900 GMT
The Ministry of Defence has announced that 2 soldiers from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, serving with 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards travelling in a Jackal vehicle died in an explosion in Garmsir district in southern Helmand yesterday.
Lord Patel has pointed out the weakness of these vehicles as the driver and front passenger sit over the front axle and any contact with mine is proving if not fatal to cause dreadful injuries. See
Saturday, December 13, 2008 Third IED hits Jackal and the fourth soldier to die in these lightly armoured off roaders in Afghanistan with links to all previous posts.
2.Yesterday's missile strike from a Predator drone in the Pakistan's Kurram tribal agency as said to have targeted a training facility and logistical hub for the Shadow Army, the joint al Qaeda and Taliban paramilitary force operating on the Afghan-Pakistan boarder. (Launched in Pakistan/ Afghanistan ? )
"The Kurram compound served as a training camp and logistical facility for al Qaeda and Taliban fighters assigned to fight in Afghanistan," a "US intelligence official" is quoted .." ....The camp was a big, well guarded facility, one that needed taken out."
The Jackanory is that this "big, well guarded facility" was run by a local Taliban commander known as Fazal Saeed,he may / may not have been there when bombed , he may / may not be killed / inured.
More than 24 Pakistani and Afghan Taliban fighters and Arab al Qaeda fighters were killed in the strike, this on the basis of both Pakistan and Taliban sources.
This camp was ne of several .. another as attacked on Feb. 16 strike rsulting in on more than 30 al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. The camp was run by Bahram Khan Kochi,killed according to an "Afghan Taliban commander".
Last Year the CIA were claiming that The Taliban and al Qaeda last year was running 157 known training camps throughout Pakistani's tribal agencies and the greater Northwest Frontier Province.
This is the 6th strike inside Pakistan thiis calendar year there were 36 recorded cross-border US attacks and attempts in Pakistan during 2008, 29 of these 2008 attacks took place after Aug. 31. There were only 10 recorded strikes in 2006 and 2007 combined.
5 comments:
16 March 2009
"Iraq’s former foreign minister sentenced to 15 years jail"
"he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and is not expected to live much longer. He was too ill to remain standing or keep his eyes open as his sentence was handed out"
"There are, however, more sinister reasons for keeping Aziz in prison until he dies. He will be prevented from writing or speaking about the relations between Hussein's regime and the United States and its main European allies"
"Aziz was Iraq's top diplomat from 1983 until 2003. He could testify about how the US and European governments encouraged the Iraqi attack on Iran in 1980—which triggered an eight-year war and cost over 1.5 million lives. He could reveal details on the intelligence, technology and arms provided by the US and other governments to Iraq during the 1980s, including to manufacture the chemical and biological weapons used against Iranian soldiers and Kurdish rebels"
"Aziz could also testify on the way the first Bush administration encouraged Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait in 1990 and then used the Iraqi invasion as the pretext for an American-led military intervention into the Middle East"...
http://tinyurl.com/datpys
The name to Google with over the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 is April Glaspie.
OBTW. Any news of the wife and daughter of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri taken hostage by US forces in Samarra in Nov '03 ??
(Tack it on the list of war crimes that'll never be prosecuted.)
How right see posts
http://postmanpatel.blogspot.com/2006/03/where-is-april-glaspie.html
compete with v rare photo of the lady ;
http://postmanpatel.blogspot.com/2007/07/us-diplomatic-lesson-soft-cop-tough-cop.html
..."We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait. Secretary Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction, first iven to Iraq in the 1960s, that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America."
On Topic, the Torygraph reflects on this.
With home-bred hordes the hillsides teem,
The troopships bring us one by one,
At vast expense of time and steam,
To slay Afridis where they run.
The "captives of our bow and spear"
Are cheap, alas! as we are dear.
Yes. Say that piece - they come a bit late to the party for readers here who have been aware of the problems with the Jackal before it even reached Afghanistan.
Much impressed by
""The Jackal ignores all five of the basic principles of mine or blast protection and then seeks to overcome the basic design flaws with bolt-on armour, added as an afterthought. It cannot and will not work," said Dr Richard North, editor of the Defence of the Realm blog.
"Not least, the front arches are blast traps, magnifying the impact of the blast rather then attenuating it and, with a cab-forward design on top of the arches, no amount of armour will provide protection."
A serving officer said the "fatal mistake" was turning the Jackal into a patrol vehicle which meant "we are now the target".
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