A daily, open source, around the world tour of international security-related news.
By Professor Joseph B. Varner
Global War on Terror
One Canadian soldier was seriously injured and two embedded reporters were shaken up when the military vehicle they were riding in early Sunday hit a roadside bomb near the town of Salawat, southwest of Kandahar City.
Scott Deveau, who is covering the Afghanistan mission for Canwest News Service and the National Post, was sitting in the back of an armored vehicle with a Canadian Press reporter and a group of soldiers when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device (IED) around 11:30 a.m. local time.
One of the two soldiers in the front of the armored personnel vehicle, usually used to transport troops, was seriously injured during the blast. (Source: National Post-CAN)
President Karzai accused Afghan and U.S. led coalition forces yesterday of killing at least 89 civilians in an attack in the western province of Herat in what could be one of the worst cases of “collateral damage” in Afghanistan since 2001. The US military said that 25 militants and five civilians, including two children, were killed in the ground attack and airstrike on Friday, and added that it was investigating reports of further noncombatant casualties. An Afghan minister who visited the area put the civilian death toll at 90, a human rights group at the scene estimated it at 78 and the Interior Ministry reported 76 non-combatants dead, including 50 children. (Source: The Times-UK)
President Hamid Karzai dismissed an Afghan Army general and another officer on Sunday for their part in a commando operation in western Afghanistan that Afghan officials said killed about 90 civilians on Friday. Afghan officials say that mostly women and children died and that they were killed when a joint patrol of Afghan Army commandos and American Special Forces trainers called in airstrikes on a compound in the village of Azizabad. Major General Jalandar Shah Behnam, commander of the 207th Corps, based in Herat, and Major Abdul Jabar, commander of an Afghan Special Forces battalion, were removed from their posts for negligence and for concealing the truth, the president’s office said in a statement. Both men have been summoned to Kabul for further investigation. (Source: NY Times)
Militants used rockets and a bomb to attack the family home of a lawmaker in Pakistan’s volatile northwest early Monday, killing eight people including the politician’s brother.
Meanwhile, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik announced a ban on the country’s umbrella Taliban group, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. The militants targeted the Swat Valley residence of provincial lawmaker Waqar Ahmed Khan of the ruling Awami National Party. Khan said his brother, two nephews and several guards died in the attack on the compound, which belongs to him and his extended family. Pakistan’s Taliban movement has claimed responsibility for a handful of devastating suicide bombings in recent days, calling them revenge for military offensives in Swat, once a tourist destination, and the northwest Bajur tribal region. A peace deal struck between provincial lawmakers and militants in Swat appears to be in tatters amid ongoing fighting. (Source: AP)
Soldiers and police fired at Muslim protesters demanding an end to Indian rule in Kashmir as authorities arrested top separatist leaders Monday in a bid to quash unrest that has left at least 37 people dead since June. The three latest deaths came late Sunday in Srinagar, Kashmir’s main city, and Monday in a village on the city’s outskirts and a nearby town, when security forces confronted angry protesters defying a curfew in the Muslim heart of India’s Jammu and Kashmir state. The state government said in a statement that soldiers opened fire Monday after they were shot at by protesters, who wounded two soldiers and two police. At least 15 protesters were believed to have been wounded. (Source: Washington Times)
There was no immediate reaction from the separatist groups that are organizing protests.
Algerian security forces killed 10 Islamist rebels in a security operation southwest of the capital on Sunday, state news agency APS cited the Interior Ministry as saying. The ministry said in a short statement carried by APS that troops also seized five Kalashnikov automatic rifles, a grenade launcher and four FSA semi-automatic guns in the operation in Ain Defla province, 110 km (70 miles) from Algiers. The security operation followed two car bombings in Bouira town southeast of Algiers on Wednesday that killed 12 people and wounded 42. A bombing on Tuesday killed 48 people and guerrilla ambushes on Sunday killed 11 in areas east of Algiers. Al Qaeda’s Maghreb wing claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attacks, Al Jazeera television network reported. (Source: Washington Post)
Conventional wisdom long held that Somalia was so inhospitable that even Al Qaeda gave up trying to gain a foothold amid feuding clans, erratic warlords and a wily population hardened by years of anarchy. Now, in the wake of an aggressive U.S. counter-terrorism program that has alienated many Somalis, there are signs that Al Qaeda may have its best chance in years to win over Islamic hard-liners in the Horn of Africa nation. After once denying or downplaying links to the terrorist network, a senior leader of Somalia’s most notorious Islamic militia now acknowledges that his group has long-standing ties to Al Qaeda and says he is seeking to forge a closer relationship. (Source:LA Times)
Three men arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences have been linked to an investigation into threats to kill Gordon Brown, it emerged last night. The suspects were detained on August 14 in a joint operation between Lancashire Police and the Greater Manchester police counter-terrorism unit. Police confirmed that the arrests are linked to a posting on the al-Ekhlaas website in January calling for the deaths of Brown and his predecessor Tony Blair. The group making the threats called itself “al-Qaeda in Britain” and demanded the withdrawal of British forces from Iraq and Afghanistan. It also demanded the release of Muslim inmates from the high-security Belmarsh prison. Two of the suspects were arrested at Manchester airport as they were about to board a flight to Finland. The third was arrested in Accrington, Lancashire. (Source: Guardian)
Iraq
U.S. forces said on Sunday they had caught two prominent Al Qaeda leaders, including one they blamed for the kidnapping of an American journalist. They said they had captured Ali Rash Nasir Jiyad al-Shammari, known as Abu Tiba, on August 17 and Salim Abdallah Ashur al-Shujayri, known as Abu Uthman, on August 11. Abu Tiba was the Sunni militant group’s senior advisor in the Iraqi capital, while Abu Uthman was its “emir,” or leader, for the capital’s eastern Rusafa district. Abu Tiba was in charge of al Qaeda during its most active period in early 2007, they said in a statement. Abu Uthman was believed to be the planner directly behind the kidnapping of U.S. journalist Jill Carroll, a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor who was held for nearly three months after being abducted in 2006. His associates were also involved in the kidnappings of British/Iraqi aid worker Margaret Hassan, who was slain by her captors in 2004, and of a group of Christian peace activists. (Source: Reuters)
A suicide bomber killed at least 25 people celebrating the return of an Iraqi detainee from U.S. custody, Iraqi officials said Sunday night. The blast at a tribal feast in suburban Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib area was one of the deadliest attacks in recent months. It served as a grisly reminder of the carnage that insurgents can still inflict in Iraq even as violence reaches its lowest level since the war began. The attack occurred at 8 p.m. as members of the Awakening Movement, a group mainly made up of former Sunni insurgents who have now joined with U.S. forces, gathered for a party in the city of al-Nasr Wal Salam, west of the capital. The men were celebrating the release of a son of Adnan Hanoush, head of the Awakening Movement in the city, witnesses said. They said the son, Sami Hanoush, was freed from Camp Bucca, a U.S.-run detention facility, three days ago. The bombing also exacerbated tensions among the Awakening Movement toward the Shiite-led Iraqi government. Government leaders have criticized the arming of former Sunni insurgents and recently stepped up their rhetoric and actions against the program. Also on Sunday, the U.S. military said it had captured a Sunni insurgent who planned the kidnapping of Jill Carroll, a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor who was held captive for 82 days in 2006. The military said it captured Salim Abdallah Ashur al-Shujayri, a senior leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, on August 11. (Source: Washington Post)
United States
The Defense Department is looking for an “energetic and imaginative executive” to run its newly formed Defense Media Activity, according to an advertisement on the agency’s Web site. The executive would earn as much as $172,200 a year overseeing DMA, which since its establishment in January combines formerly separate Pentagon media organizations, such as the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service, the Stars and Stripes newspaper, and the Pentagon Channel on television. It also includes the DefenseLink Web site and the military services’ Web sites, the Bloggers Roundtable, and the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine magazines. All told, the new chief would oversee 2,400 military, government and contract employees around the world, and a budget of more than $225 million. (Source: Washington Post)
Africa
Zimbabwe’s opposition won the vote for speaker of the first parliament since disputed elections in March, claiming votes even from the ruling party of autocratic President Robert Mugabe on Monday amid stalled talks over sharing power. Shortly before the vote, police seized two opposition politicians as they entered parliament to be sworn in.
Despite the arrests, Lovemore Moyo won the key position by 110 votes to 98 votes, a distribution that indicated he got votes from both the parties of Mugabe and a splinter opposition faction. Mugabe’s party had been expected to win because of divisions in the opposition amid reports from legislators that Mugabe’s party had been trying to buy their votes. (Source: AP)
Americas
The full extent of a nationwide health crisis linked to tainted deli meats will not be known for weeks, the federal Health Minister advised yesterday, as the number of confirmed cases and deaths continues to rise and Maple Leaf Foods, the company at the centre of the outbreak, extended its product recall. “We expect that both the numbers of suspected cases and confirmed cases will increase as this investigation continues and samples continue to be received from provincial, territorial and federal partners,” Health Minister Tony Clement said in Ottawa. The Health Minister added that because symptoms of listeriosis can occur for months after food is consumed, it may be several weeks before this outbreak completes its course. First made public more than a week ago, the outbreak has already been linked to four deaths out of 21 confirmed cases, with 30 more under investigation. On the weekend, public health officials definitively linked Maple Leaf products to the illness, finding a match in two cases between the listeria strain found in the company’s meat and the strain involved in the outbreak. Maple Leaf Foods, which had previously closed for cleaning the Toronto plant linked to the cases, has extended its product recall to all meat produced at that facility, urging Canadians to check their kitchens for affected products. (Source: Globe and Mail)
Toronto’s senior spy has told a group of Muslims he is frightened of potential terrorist attacks on Canadians and wants their help to “de-demonize” Canada’s national-security agencies.”I want you to help. . . . Us doing it alone is like one hand clapping,” Andy Ellis implored a group of Muslims he had invited to the Meadowvale Community Centre in Mississauga. The regional director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said he is increasingly worried about young extremists. Federal agents appear frightened by what they are learning about radicalization and even more frightened by what they don’t know. While more dialogue with ordinary Muslims could help pinpoint problems, it can be hard get the discussion going – especially when what the agents regard as their success stories are often shielded by court-ordered publication bans, and the details of their mistakes are publicly picked apart by federal judges. “The RCMP, CSIS and other agencies have lost credibility,” one of more than 20 Muslims who came out for the meeting stood up to tell Mr. Ellis. Citing the charges dropped against several suspects rounded up in Toronto two years ago, and raising the 2002 case of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen sent to a brutal Syrian interrogation prison aboard a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency jet, he asked a pointed question: “Is there a campaign to pick on Muslims?” (Source: Globe and Mail-CAN)
The Conservative government is shelving a $2.1-billion project to replace Canada’s aging naval supply ships because bids from the shipbuilding industry were “significantly” higher than the money set aside for the program. The government also cancelled a tender call for the purchase of 12 mid-shore patrol ships for the Canadian Coast Guard. Public Works Minister Christian Paradis announced the decisions in a statement released at 8:30 p.m. Friday. (Source: Chronicle Herald-CAN)
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson says the government views the recent actions of Russia in Georgia and in the Far North “with great concern,” and this is helping drive the Conservatives’ Arctic strategy. (Source: CTV.ca)
Asia
North Korea claimed Sunday that joint military exercises by South Korea and the United States were a rehearsal for an attack against it and warned it would repel any aggression.
“The army and people of (North Korea) will never remain an onlooker to the U.S. military and the South Korean bellicose forces staging frantic anti-(North Korea) war moves,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency quoted Gen. Kim Jong Gak as saying at a meeting in its capital. Soldiers killed 12 Tamil separatists in fighting along the front lines dividing government territory from the rebels de facto state in northern Sri Lanka, the military said Monday. (Source: AP)
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says he is withdrawing his party from Pakistan’s ruling coalition. The move will likely concentrate power in the hands of the main ruling Pakistan People’s Party, which wants to maintain the country’s close ties with the United States. Sharif said Monday that he is pulling out of the five-month-old alliance because it has failed to restore judges ousted by ex-President Pervez Musharraf. Lawmakers are expected to choose People’s Party leader Asif Ali Zardari as Musharraf’s successor on September 6. (Source: AP)
At least four rebels died in clashes Sunday in the Kilinochchi region, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. Thirteen soldiers were wounded in the same battles. Also Sunday, clashes in Vavuniya, Welioya and Mullaitivu regions killed eight rebels and wounded three soldiers. Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not be reached for comment on the military’s claims. Both sides routinely exaggerate enemy casualties and underreport their own. Independent verification of the fighting was not possible because most journalists are barred from the war zone in the north. (Source: Los Angeles Times)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-sri-lanka-civil-war,1,4551107.story
Europe
This ancient hilltop town, ripe with Roman, Greek, Norman and other influences, has hosted a very modern gathering: a conference on global risks like cyberterrorism, climate change, nuclear weapons and the world’s lagging energy supply. More than 120 scientists, engineers, analysts and economists from 30 countries were hunkered down here for the 40th annual conference on “planetary emergencies.” The term was coined by Antonino Zichichi, a native son and a theoretical physicist who has made Erice a hub for experts to discuss persistent, and potentially catastrophic, global challenges. (Source: IHT)
The U.S. and other Western nations may not like what Russia is doing, but officials in Moscow believe those countries lack the leverage, strength or unity to intervene. In this historic hub of expansion and empire, Russia’s military victory over U.S.-backed Georgia was cheered as evidence that Moscow has regained its global dominance, and proof that the rest of the world can’t risk standing in its way. As Russian soldiers poured into neighboring Georgia this month and Russian warplanes bombed fleeing, ill-equipped Georgian troops, U.S. and European officials condemned Moscow. But the image of Russia that appeared over and over in media here was that of a country rising from its knees. The United States and the nations of Europe may not like what Russia is doing, but officials in Moscow now believe those countries lack the leverage, strength or unity to intervene, analysts here say. Several of them repeated the same idea: that the West no longer exists as a unified force. (Source: IHT)
President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia said Sunday that he planned to rebuild the shattered Georgian Army, and that even after its decisive defeat in the war for control of one of Georgia’s two separatist enclaves he would continue to pursue a policy of uniting both enclaves under the Georgian flag. Also Sunday, France called an emergency summit meeting of the European Union for September 1 to discuss “the future of relations with Russia” and aid to Georgia, according to a statement from the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. The meeting was framed as a response to Russia’s failure to meet the terms of the cease-fire agreement that Sarkozy negotiated between Moscow and Tbilisi. Sarkozy said he was responding to the demands of “several states” for the meeting, which will take place in Brussels. According to senior French officials who helped negotiate the cease-fire agreement, the Russians must pull all their troops back to positions before the crisis began on August 7. The Russian peacekeepers stationed in South Ossetia and Abkhazia before that date may stay, and may continue to send out patrols into a “security zone,” a thin buffer zone about eight kilometers, or five miles, beyond the borders of the ethnic enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia said Saturday that its military pullback from Georgia had been completed. But Russian forces remained entrenched deep inside Georgia, maintaining checkpoints several kilometers from Gori close to the South Ossetian border and two observation posts near the Georgian Black Sea port city of Poti. Separately, in the Georgian port of Batumi, the first American naval vessel arrived Sunday to distribute American humanitarian aid. A train carrying oil cars exploded while traveling near Gori, the city in central Georgia that Russia had occupied for about 10 days. Georgian officials said the train had struck a mine left behind by Russian troops. No one was reported killed in the blast and the raging fire that followed, which sent thick plumes of black smoke across the countryside. (Source: IHT)
Russia’s parliament voted unanimously Monday to urge the president to recognize the independence of Georgia’s two breakaway regions, a move likely to stoke further tensions between Moscow and the small Caucasus nation’s Western allies. The votes by both chambers of Russia’s parliament, which were not legally binding, come as the White House announced Vice President Dick Cheney would travel to three former Soviet republics next week, Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. (Source: AP)
Russian general suggested that U.S. ships in the Black Sea loaded with humanitarian aid would worsen tensions already driven to a post-Cold War high by a short but intense war between Russia and Georgia. The U.S. Navy destroyer U.S.S. McFaul reached Georgia’s Black Sea port of Batumi on Sunday, bringing baby food, bottled water and a message of support for an embattled ally. The deputy chief of Russia’s general staff suggested the arrival of the McFaul and other U.S. and NATO ships would increase tensions: Russia shares the sea with NATO members Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria as well as Georgia and Ukraine, whose pro-Western presidents are leading drives for NATO membership. (Source: AP)
Middle East
Two boats carrying dozens of international activists sailed into the Gaza Strip Saturday in defiance of an Israeli blockade, receiving a jubilant welcome from thousands of Palestinians. Since setting sail from Cyprus early Friday, the mission by the U.S.-based Free Gaza Movement had been in question. Israel initially hinted it would prevent the vessels from reaching Gaza. But late Saturday, Israel said it would permit the boats to dock in Gaza after determining the activists did not pose a security threat. Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said Israel wanted “to avoid the media provocation” that the group was seeking. (Source: AP/San Francisco Gate)
Israel began releasing 199 Palestinian prisoners in the West Bank on Monday, as a gesture of good will to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Israel Prison Service was to take the prisoners from Ofer Prison, close to Jerusalem, to the Beituniya checkpoint near Ramallah, Israel Radio reported. Upon their arrival, Abbas was to welcome them at a formal ceremony in his Muqata headquarters in the West Bank city. (Source: Ha’aretz)
Earlier this month the U.S. and Israel agreed on the deployment of a high-powered early-warning missile radar system in the Negev, to be staffed by U.S. military personnel. The station will receive information from the U.S. team in Europe that will aid it in its work. The deployment of the Joint Tactical Ground Station (JTAGS) system, is widely seen as a kind of parting gift from Washington to Jerusalem as President George W. Bush prepares to leave office. The new system is significantly more accurate than Israel’s “Green Pine” radar system, which supports the Arrow anti-missile system. The system will protect Israel’s skies from missile attacks, but the flip side of the deal is that Israel’s freedom of action against Iran or Syria will be significantly curtailed.
Senior Israeli defense officials view the radar system deployment as a signal of Washington’s opposition to an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program. (Source: Ha’aretz)
Israeli police and Shin Bet forces raided the Islamic Movement’s al-Aqsa institution offices in the northern city of Umm al-Fahm on Saturday night and shut down the place. The operation was carried out in accordance with an “unlawful organization” order issued by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, following information that the institution had ties with the Hamas headquarters in Jerusalem. Simultaneously, some of the movement’s bank accounts were frozen. (Source: Ynet News)
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is heading back to the Middle East for a new peace mission, but there are few expectations for a major breakthrough. She is still pushing for a peace agreement by the end of the year. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert plans to resign next month over a corruption scandal, but under Israel’s complicated system of government, Mr. Olmert could remain in office for many months as caretaker prime minister, even after his Kadima party chooses a new leader in September. Mr. Olmert’s spokesman, Mark Regev, says Israel will do all it can to reach a peace deal before U.S. President George Bush leaves office in January. As a goodwill gesture to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel free Palestinian prisoners on Monday to coincide with Rice’s arrival. While Palestinian officials have welcomed the prisoner release as an important step, they are pessimistic about the chances of a broader peace deal. (Source: Voice of America)
Iranian state media say the country’s supreme leader has urged President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to plan for a second four-year term in office. It is the first time that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has made such a strong public endorsement of Ahmadinejad, who faces re-election next year. The ayatollah has the final say on all the country’s affairs. Ayatollah Khamenei met Mr. Ahmadinejad and the Cabinet Saturday and praised them for defying international pressure to stop Iran’s nuclear program. (Source: Voice of America)
Iran’s official news agency says the country has begun designing its second light-water nuclear power plant, a 360-megawatt facility in the southwest. Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, says experts have chosen the site where the light-water nuclear reactor will be built using local technology. Iran is still finishing building its first nuclear power plant, a 1,000-megawatt reactor in the southern city of Bushehr being constructed with Russian help. It is to begin operations early next year. Iran has said for years that it was planning to build a 360-megawatt nuclear power plant in Darkhovin, in the southwestern Khuzestan province. (Source: AP)
Joe Varner is Assistant Professor and Program Manager for Homeland Security at American Military University.
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