A daily, open source, around the world tour of international security-related news.
By Professor Joseph B. Varner
Global War on Terror
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Insurgents in a stronghold in southern Afghanistan are fleeing a weeks-old NATO operation, perhaps to sanctuaries across the border, as troops take more ground, the alliance force said Monday. British troops and U.S. Marines launched late April the operation in Garmser district, a Taliban logistics hub on the southern border with Pakistan and from where rebels are said to move northwards to feed an insurgency. The chief of NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Dan McNeill, said Afghan and international reports from the area said insurgents in Garmser “are trying to flee to the south, perhaps to go back into sanctuaries in another country.” He did not say which country, but he was likely referring to Pakistan where extremists including from Al Qaeda are said to have camps. (Source: AFP)
cFour Canadian soldiers were wounded, one seriously, in two separate attacks yesterday in the Zhari District, about 30 kilometres west of Kandahar City. In the first incident, insurgents engaged Canadian soldiers with small-arms fire during a security operation. One Canadian was injured. At about the same time nearby, an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated, resulting in one soldier being seriously wounded while two other Canadians and an Afghan interpreter were badly injured. The blast occurred while soldiers were on foot patrol. All five casualties were airlifted to Kandahar Airfield’s multinational medical unit, with the seriously injured soldier expected to be transferred to Landstuhl, Germany. The interpreter was transferred to General Shirzai Hospital, where he is reported to be in good condition. (Source: Canada.com)
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More troops and equipment are needed to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, the outgoing U.S. general in charge of NATO forces said. General Dan McNeill commented about NATO forces being “under-resourced” as he turned over command of the International Security Assistance Force to another American, General David McKiernan, the BBC reported. NATO has 53,000 troops from 40 countries deployed in Afghanistan. (Source: UPI)
The car-bomb attack on the Danish Embassy that killed eight people appears to have been carried out by a suicide bomber, Pakistani investigators and diplomats at Western embassies in Islamabad said Tuesday. A Pakistani policeman said that the driver of the vehicle used in the attack, a white Toyota Corolla, had a red license plate designed to resemble a diplomatic plate and passed security guards on the road shortly before the car exploded outside the embassy at about 1 p.m. A television reporter for ARY television, Sabir Shakir, said he found an ear and a toe near the scene of the blast in an upscale neighborhood of Islamabad and gave them to investigators examining the debris. A Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it appeared clear that the driver of the car was in the car when it detonated. (Source: New York Times)
A man accused of planning to bomb North America-bound airliners said Monday that he was planning a publicity stunt, not mass murder. Abdulla Ahmed Ali, one of eight British Muslims charged with plotting to detonate liquid explosives aboard passenger jets, told Woolwich Crown Court he wanted to give Londoners a jolt — and attract attention for a movie he was making, by placing a small bomb at London’s Houses of Parliament. Prosecutors accuse Mr. Ali of being one of three ringleaders of a plot to kill hundreds of airline passengers by detonating bombs concealed in soft drink bottles as the flights crossed the Atlantic Ocean, or over North American cities. They say the suspects had identified seven specific flights from London’s Heathrow airport to Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Washington. They also say Mr. Ali drew up a blueprint for building the crude bombs, suggesting the explosive mixture should be injected into bottles using a syringe to keep them factory sealed. Jurors were also played footage of what prosecutors say was a suicide video intended to be seen after his Mr. Ali’s death. (Source: Globe and Mail-CAN)
France’s image in some U.S. circles as being weak-kneed on terrorism has no factual basis, according to an analysis released by the American magazine Foreign Policy. “Though many Americans view them as softies when it comes to the war on terror, the French actually have some of the world’s toughest and arguably most effective anti-terrorism laws,” the magazine concluded in a report e-mailed to subscribers yesterday.
The other countries singled out for taking a tough line on terrorism, often to the detriment of fundamental liberties, are Egypt, Jordan, Singapore and Russia. The Top 5 are “definitely” not the countries to get arrested in “if you’re plotting some terrorism mayhem.” France’s willingness to take on homegrown terrorism is rooted in its experience as the first European country to be subjected to Middle East-based terrorism during the Algerian War (1954-62). The magazine said French authorities have claimed to have thwarted several domestic terrorist plots, and that the country hasn’t been hit with a terror attack since September 11th. (Source: Canada.com)
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is downplaying the idea of a nuclear attack by terrorists after recent postings on Al Qaeda-affiliated Web sites exhorted militants to pursue weapons of mass destruction for use against the U.S. Chertoff, speaking at Oxford Union on Friday, said that while officials acknowledge Al Qaeda’s interest in developing such capability, the U.S. was more concerned about terrorists’ use of conventional arms. “The short answer is the intent is there. Its probability, particularly in the short term, is lower than conventional weapons,” he said at Oxford’s famed debating society. Chertoff’s remarks followed a series of anonymous postings on Al Qaeda-affliated Web sites, including a 39-minute video, calling on militants to acquire weapons of mass destruction. The Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant Web traffic, said the video presents the U.S. as vulnerable and suggests that militants could use such weapons as a deterrent to any nuclear attack against an Islamic country. (Source: AP)
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Nuclear bomb blueprints and manuals on how to manufacture weapons-grade uranium for warheads are feared to be circulating on the international black market, according to investigators tracking nuclear smuggling.
Alarm about the sale of nuclear know-how follows the disclosure that the Swiss government, allegedly acting under U.S. pressure, secretly destroyed tens of thousands of documents from a massive nuclear smuggling investigation. The information was seized from the home and computers of Urs Tinner, a Swiss engineer in custody for almost four years as a key suspect in the nuclear smuggling ring run by A.Q. Khan, which trafficked nuclear materials, equipment and knowhow to at least three countries: Iran, Libya, and North Korea. While the Tinner files, believed to number around 30,000 documents, had been shredded, “We know that copies were made,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, an expert on the illicit networks at the British-based International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS). (Source: Guardian-UK)
Iraq
On a day when a suicide bomber killed at least three Iraqi policemen, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd defended Monday his decision to end his country’s combat role in Iraq and accused his predecessor of misusing weak intelligence to join the U.S.-led coalition that invaded Iraq in 2003. Australia, one of the key members of the so-called coalition of the willing that took part in the invasion, on Sunday began redeploying its roughly 500 troops who remain in southern Iraq. A few hundred of the soldiers will stay in Iraq serving in noncombat roles, while others support the mission from other places in the Persian Gulf region. Rudd was elected in November on a promise to voters that he would order the withdrawal of combat troops by mid-2008.
Also Monday, a suicide bomber killed at least three Iraqi policemen and wounded scores of civilians near Mosul. The bomber targeted the policemen at approximately 7:15 p.m. in the Dawasa area. The official said concrete barriers prevented the bomber from getting closer to a police station. A U.S. military spokesman said at least 35 Iraqi civilians were wounded by the explosion. The police official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t allowed to speak to reporters, said at least two roadside bombs detonated in the city Monday. One killed a 44-year-old woman and the other injured two civilians. (Source: Washington Post)
Africa
Foreign ships gained authorization yesterday to enter Somali waters when fighting piracy and armed robbery rampant problems along the African nation’s lawless coast. The U.N. Security Council’s 15 members unanimously adopted a resolution intended to combat the attacks and hijacking of vessels along the country’s 1,880-mile coastline, the continent’s longest. More than a dozen pirate attacks have occurred this year alone, creating concerns for shipping along routes that connect the Indian Ocean with the Red Sea. Two more ships were attacked in the Gulf of Aden last week. (Source: Washington Times)
Asia
Extending the tours of U.S. troops serving in South Korea to three years and allowing them to bring their families is overdue, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Monday as he arrived in Seoul. The change in deployments is caught up in the ongoing transfer of military bases to South Korean control, but Mr. Gates said it’s time to stop the one-year, unaccompanied tours that forces currently serve here because it is considered a war zone.
(Source: Washington Times)
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Ousted King Gyanendra broke his silence Monday, saying that he will voluntarily leave the royal palace because he “is ready to make any sacrifice” for the Nepalese people. Nepalese media reported that the former king made the remark during his meeting with top palace officials and close aides inside the Narayanhiti Palace. A local radio station quoted a top palace official as saying that the decision made by the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly was acceptable to the king. (Source: Washington Times)
Sri Lankan government commandos killed six civilians including two children with a roadside mine inside the Tamil Tiger-held north of the island, the rebels said Tuesday.
Monday night’s attack, which took place in the Puliyankulam area, also injured four others, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said in a statement, two of which were children. There was no immediate comment from the Sri Lanka defence ministry, which does not comment on operations of its special forces. (Source: AFP)
Middle East
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An Israeli Defense Forces soldier was wounded by Palestinian sniper fire near the Kissufim crossing on Tuesday during an operation to uncover explosive devices planted along the Gaza border. (Source: Ynet News)
Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday that Israel has identified signs of distress coming from Hamas. Some 70 Hamas fighters have been killed during the last two months, and more than 300 have been killed during the past six months. “Hamas is very stressed. The most effective action is the siege.” (Source: Ha’aretz)
The Israel Security Agency arrested three Israeli Arabs from Lod last month on suspicion that they planned to kidnap an Israel Defense Forces soldier, murder him, and demand the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the body. The men, activists in the Islamic movement, were indicted Monday. One of them studies sharia at a Jordanian university. (Source: Ha’aretz)
Palestinians in Gaza fired a Kassam rocket at Israel on Tuesday morning. (Source: Jerusalem Post)
Syria will allow in U.N. inspectors to probe allegations that the country was building a nuclear reactor at a remote site destroyed in an Israeli air strike, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Monday. IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei did not say whether his inspectors would be granted access to the site during the planned June 22-24 visit. But a senior diplomat familiar with the details of the planned visit said agency personnel had been told that they could visit the facility. The diplomat said agency experts were also interested in two other locations with possible undeclared nuclear facilities. The diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said agency experts will also be asking for information on the possible existence of two plutonium-reprocessing facilities separate from the destroyed building. Syrian officials in Damascus did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment. Syria would need plutonium reprocessing capabilities if it were, as the U.S. and Israel charge, trying to build produce material for the fissile core of nuclear weapons. Another diplomat familiar with the IAEA trip plans said there were three other possible nuclear sites about which the IAEA was seeking information. (Source: Washington Times)
The International Atomic Energy Agency has briefed its members on Iran’s blueprint of a nuclear warhead. Western diplomats said the agency was given an Iranian government document that illustrated a technique to mold uranium metal into the shape of a warhead. They said the agency determined that the blueprint was genuine and demonstrated Iran’s interest in nuclear weapons. (Source: World Tribune)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted on Monday that Muslims would uproot “satanic powers” and repeated his controversial belief that Israel will soon disappear, the Mehr news agency reported. “I must announce that the Zionist regime (Israel), with a 60-year record of genocide, plunder, invasion and betrayal is about to die and will soon be erased from the geographical scene,” he said. Since taking the presidency in August 2005, Ahmadinejad has repeatedly provoked international outrage by predicting Israel is doomed to disappear. (Source: Breitbart.com)
Joe Varner is Assistant Professor and Program Manager for Homeland Security at American Military University.
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