Monday Winds of War Briefing
Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Monday's Winds of War briefings are given by Peace Like a River and Security Watchtower.
Top Topics
* A U.S.-led coalition strike on a militant training facility in Afghanistan's borderlands with Pakistan killed five suspected extremists, including senior Taliban leaders, the U.S. military said Saturday. The military said that "key senior leaders of the Taliban network" were among the five dead in the strike late Friday on the site at the remote Qal'a Sak village in Helmand province.
* Following protests over the publication of a controversial cartoon that enraged the Azeri minority in Iran, government officials are blaming outsiders for the unrest. Gateway Pundit has more analysis and photographs of the protests and response (More here).
* Islamic and secular militias battled in Somalia's capital Thursday, the most widespread and some of the deadliest fighting in Mogadishu in 14 years. Dozens of people were killed and thousands fled their homes on foot.
* Violence flared up along the Israeli-Lebanon border, when Palestinian militants fired Katyusha rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel on Sunday, prompting Israeli airstrikes against two terror camps in retaliation. Later in the day a Hezbollah sniper shot an Israeli soldier, setting off additional airstrikes. By Sunday night, Israel had agreed to UN-brokered ceasefire.
Other topics today include: Hamas gunmen reappear in Gaza; Abbas to expand security force; Palestinian terrorists detained in Burin; Ahmadinejad doubts Holocaust again and consolidates power; IDF counterterrorism operations; Hamas rejects Abbas plan; Saudi charities; Hayden confirmed as CIA chief; Padilla's al Qaeda connections; Manhattan subway plotter convicted; Canadian cell funding terror; Russian plots averted; Beslan terrorist gets life in prison; Russia to sell Iran missiles; Militants detained in Chechnya; Violence in southern Afghanistan; Peace talks in Nepal; Kashmir bus bombing; Osama bin Laden sighting reported; Pakistan's war against al Qaeda; Pakistan looking at Waziri withdrawal; Tourists killed in Sri Lanka landmine attack; Violence in Timor; Japan to boost maritime security; Alleged ties between Philippine communist rebels-Jemaah Islamiyah; UK to extradite 9/11 suspect to Spain; Britain uncovered 20 major conspiracies; EU to add Tamil Tigers to terror list; Fierce fighting in Somalia and more.
Iran & the Middle East
* Following orders to keep a lower profile, Hamas gunmen have reappeared in limited numbers in areas of Gaza on Sunday.
* Three Palestinians have been killed in Gaza on Friday after attempting to dismantle an unexploded artillery found outside their home.
* According to several reports, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas intends to increase his Presidential Guard to 10,000 members.
* Following recent escalation of violence on the Israeli-Lebanese border, Israeli secret services are concerned about a possible terrorist attack against Israeli diplomatic and economical locations abroad, especially in Eastern Europe.
* Two Arab terrorists on their way to strike Israel were captured by IDF troops in the town of Burin, south of Shechem. The two men were carrying explosive charges. The Arabs tried to evade capture before their arrest and threw away their explosives. The explosives were recovered and exploded by police sappers.
* Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Germans they should no longer allow themselves to be held prisoner by a sense of guilt over the Holocaust and reiterated doubts that the Holocaust even happened. Ahmadinejad said he doubted Germans were allowed to write "the truth" about the Holocaust and said he was still considering traveling to Germany for the World Cup soccer tournament, despite what he called a "Zionist plot" trying to prevent him from attending.
* Egyptian prisoner Abdel-Fattah’s blog has become one of the most popular pro-democracy voices in Egypt. He has continued writing despite being arrested in early May during a street demonstration in Cairo - part of a crackdown on reform activists by Egyptian security forces.
* President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is trying to consolidate power in the office of the presidency in a way never before seen in the 27-year history of the Islamic Republic, apparently with the tacit approval of Iran's supreme leader, according to government officials and political analysts here.
* IDF soldiers involved in counter-terrorism operations throughout Judea and Samaria on Sunday arrested 13 suspects. Arrests were made south of Jenin, near Ramallah, in Bethlehem and the Hevron area. Suspects in custody include Islamic Jihad, Fatah Tanzim and Hamas terrorists.
* On Saturday, Hamas rejected a deadline set by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to accept a plan that indirectly calls for recognition of Israel, which he has threatened to put to a referendum.
* Crossroads Arabia has the latest on Saudi efforts to restrict charities, now prohibited them from soliciting donations at government schools, private schools and other educational institutions in Saudi Arabia, such as colleges and universities.
* Abu Hamze, a senior Islamic Jihad official, and his brother Nidal were killed in southern Lebanon in a car bombing on Friday that the Palestinian terrorist group blamed on Israel.
* Late Saturday, gunmen open fired at IDF soldiers operating in Samaria near Assira a-Shimaliya. No injuries were reported. On Sunday, IDF troops fired on two Arab terrorists as they were approaching the security barrier separating Gaza from the Negev, near kibbutz Kfar Aza.
America Domestic Security & the Americas
* After hearing assurances he will be independent of the Pentagon, the Senate on Friday easily confirmed Gen. Michael Hayden, a career Air Force man, to head the CIA. Hayden, a four-star general, currently is the top deputy to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte.
* In unusually frank criticism of U.S. policy on Cuba by a top military officer, the outgoing head of the Miami-based Southern Command said Thursday he favors a top-to-bottom review of the policies, including a long-standing ban on most contacts between the U.S. and Cuban militaries. The comments by Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock came just days before President Bush is to receive a major report on U.S. policies toward the island, coordinated by the State Department but with input from other agencies, including the Department of Defense.
* Federal investigators say they have evidence that former Chicago street gang member Jose Padilla was a higher ranking member of Al Qaeda than first thought.
* In 2004 Shahawar Matin Siraj settled on bombing one of Manhattan's busiest subway stations - a scheme that resulted in his conviction Wednesday on federal conspiracy charges. A jury in Brooklyn deliberated two days and reached the verdict in a case that cast a spotlight on the New York Police Department's efforts to monitor radical Muslims after the Sept. 11 attacks. Siraj faces up to life in prison at sentencing Oct. 5, although the term could be much shorter under sentencing guidelines.
* A federal judge sentenced a Lebanese man to the maximum five years in prison for conspiring to help the group Hezbollah, turning aside his plea for mercy "if not for me, then for my kids." U.S. District Judge Harvey Schlesinger imposed the maximum sentence, plus five years' probation, Thursday for Fadl Mohammad Maatouk.
* A criminal cell operating across Canada is funneling millions of dollars to Dubai to fund terrorist activities through a sophisticated credit/debit card fraud scheme, says the head of Alberta's Integrated Response to Organized Crime unit.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
* According to Russian Deputy Prosecutor-General Nikolay Shepel, forty nine planned terrorist attacks were averted by the Russian security services in South Russia during the investigation into the Beslan case.
* The opening of the Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline comes amid heightened security and the potential of terror attacks on the new Caspian supply route to western demand.
* A southern Russian court sentenced to life in prison the only known surviving hostage-taker in the Beslan school siege, a ruling that failed to appease many victims' families who had hoped the trial would expose the role negligence by Russian authorities played in the siege's deadly outcome.
* Russian defence minister Sergie Ivanov has confirmed that Moscow intends to honour a controversial deal to supply Iran with surface-to-air missiles. The contract for up to 30 missile systems would be fulfilled except in "extraordinary circumstances".
* According to an Iranian official, Russia wants Iran and European countries to resume talks on Iran's nuclear programme and stands firmly against the use of force.
* Kyrgyz security forces detained and interrogated prominent Islamic preacher Sheikh Rafiq Kamalov, the imam of Jami-mosque Al-Sarhasiy in Karasu city, after the security services found a book with his phone number among the personal belongings of the gang members killed during May 12th raid on the Kyrgyz border.
* Law enforcement officers detained four militants in the south of Chechnya, the republic's Interior Ministry said Saturday. Local police detained three militants in the Shatoi District, and another one, suspected of being involved in grave crimes in the region in the past years, in the Shali District.
* The Russian Federal Security Service's border troops will change over to recruiting professionals, not conscripts beginning in 2008, FSB First Deputy Director and border service chief Vladimir Pronichev said on Sunday.
* A monument to Soviet secret police founder Felix Dzerzhinsky was unveiled in the Belarusian capital Minsk, provoking protests from human rights defenders and opposition politicians. Dzerzhinsky, reviled by critics of the Soviet era, helped establish the first Soviet secret service, called the Cheka, in 1917 under Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.
* The Russian Federal Drug Control Agency will open foreign representations in eight countries, including Afghanistan and Tajikistan, in 2006, Viktor Cherkesov, the agency's director, told journalists.
Afghanistan & Southern Asia
* An upsurge in violence in Afghanistan over the past week was the result of pressure on the Taliban from al-Qaeda and other supporters, a provincial governor said, citing Afghan intelligence. This included al-Qaeda and other militants based in neighbouring Pakistan, said Asadullah Khalid, governor of Kandahar province, which has seen the bulk of the unrest.
* Three Taliban militants and two policemen were killed in a clash in southwestern Afghanistan on Friday, a provincial official said. The clash erupted after guerrillas ambushed a convoy of police in Ghazni province, southwest of the capital Kabul.
* In the wild, unforgiving terrain of southern Afghanistan, over which people have fought for centuries, the latest players on the battlefield are crack British troops in light, maneuverable Land Rovers. The Pathfinders, an elite unit of 16 Air Assault Brigade, spent five days on a grueling pursuit of Taliban militants across this rugged landscape, it emerged yesterday. The hunt culminated in their first engagement with the Taliban since 3,300 British troops arrived in Helmand province.
* Nepal's government and Maoist rebels began their first peace talks in nearly three years on Friday in a bid to end a decade-long insurgency that has cost thousands of lives.
* A bomb planted on a Kashmir tourist bus that killed four Indians came as a bloody reminder that peace efforts by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cannot ignore the demands of armed Muslim rebels. No one claimed responsibility for the explosion which hit Srinagar shortly after the premier wrapped up a two-day roundtable here Thursday evening with a pledge to look at devolving more power to Indian Kashmir and to halt human rights abuses.
* The Pakistan-based chief of an alliance of Muslim militant groups fighting New Delhi’s rule in Kashmir said the guerrillas would continue their struggle until the region secedes from India, a report said on Friday.
* Two terrorists were killed and an army jawan injured in a gunbattle in Badgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, a defence spokesman said.
* With a spurt being witnessed in terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and reports of 59 terrorist camps operating from across the border, India will ask Pakistan what steps it has taken on the ground to dismantle terror infrastructure on its soil when top officials of the two countries meet in Islamabad on Tuesday.
* Pro-Taliban militants shot dead a trader whom they accused of spying for government forces in a restive Pakistani tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials said.
* Here are the daily updates from the South Asia Terrorism Portal for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
* Reports that US has not closed Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan's case and that Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has been sighted in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) are seen as indicators that President Pervez Musharraf is coming under renewed American pressure.
* Pakistani security agencies have arrested more than 1,000 al-Qaeda suspects between January 2002 and May 2006, according to a comprehensive study by the Pak Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS).
* A large quantity of explosives have been seized by Pakistani police during a dawn raid in Karachi, reports say. Two men were arrested during the operation on suspicion of supplying bomb-making material.
* Sources in northern Pakistan have told AKI that Islamabad is rapidly reviewing its policies on Waziristan and will eventually withdraw its troops and recognise the Pakistani Taliban militants who in practice run the tribal region.
* A powerful bomb blew up a gas pipeline in a remote town of insurgency-wracked southwestern Pakistan, gutting dozens of shops but causing no casualties, a government official said Saturday.
* Seven people have died when a jeep carrying Sri Lankan tourists hit a landmine in a national park in the northwest of the country. The army found bodies in a destroyed jeep in Wilpattu National Park, near the area held by the Tamil Tigers.
Far East & Southeast Asia
* Women and children ran screaming from their homes as renegade militias burned dozens of homes in East Timor's capital Saturday, even as foreign troops worked to stem violence that threatens to split the nation. Civilian militiamen armed with machetes and spears roamed neighborhoods in southern Dili, throwing rocks through the windows of the small, tin-roofed houses and setting them on fire. In response, Australia is sending hundreds of more troops in hopes of containing the violence.
* Filipino minority party members are calling for a recently signed agreement between the U.S. and Philippines to be submitted to the Senate for review and ratification, a move the current government calls unnecessary. The new agreement aims to bolster the mutual efforts of the two allies in combating terrorism and other security threats.
* Don Randall, a Liberal Party MP and Chairman of the Australia-Sri Lanka Friendship Group, blasted the LTTE's spokesperson in the Australian Federal parliament, John Murphy, for making allegations against the democratically elected Sri Lankan government and aligning himself with a terrorist organisation.
* The Japan Coast Guard will heighten efforts to deal with pirates in the Malacca Strait and other areas of Southeast Asia to protect Japanese ships against attacks. The coast guard will establish a five-member team of experts in anti-piracy issues, who will gather information from dangerous areas, analyze the data and come up with countermeasures. The information will be shared with shipping companies.
* Communist insurgents attacked the southern Philippine village of San Roque and killed three people while wounding four others. According to Colonel Ricardo Visaya, commander of the 69th Infantry battalion, communist rebels from the New People's Army (NPA) have ties to Jemaah Islamiyah.
* Two Filipinos will share a 500,000-dollar reward from the US government for a tip that led to the arrest of a key terror suspect in the southern Philippines last year, the US Embassy said Monday. Hilarion del Rosario Santos III, the alleged head of the Rajah Solaiman Movement, a group of Christian converts to Islam that has been closely associated with Al Qaeda-linked militants, was arrested in southern Zamboanga city in October together with six other suspects.
Europe
* Is there a threat for foreign visitors in Germany? Recently there has been a lot of discussion about safety for foreigners in Germany. Discussion that is very unwelcome by the German government, because it damages Germanys image right before the start of the football world cup.
* A London court ruled today to extradite to Spain a supposed Al Qaeda activist who is believed to have been connected with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 38-year-old Farid Hilalili has 14 days to appeal the court’s decision before the Supreme Court which must make a final ruling on the extradition of the Moroccan.
* According to British Defense Secretary John Reid, security services have uncovered twenty major conspiracies being plotted by Islamists in Britain.
* The Old Bailey has heard that members of an alleged British terror cell discussed planting explosives in London's famous Ministry of Sound nightclub. In secret recordings made by security surveillance teams, Akbar and Omar Khyam, another member of the alleged al-Qa'eda-linked cell, appear to discuss possible targets.
* Poland has dissolved its military intelligence service in a bid to weed out communist-era spies. Polish lawmakers voted 375 to 48 to do away with the old service, which has seen no reform since the fall of communism in 1989, and replace it with two new agencies, called the Military Intelligence Agency and the Military Counterintelligence Agency.
* Along with stone lifting and all-male cooking clubs, hearty traditions in Spain's Basque Country include violent rampages by "the puppies of ETA" -- young supporters of the separatist guerrilla group. A quiet summer would be a boon for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who hopes to be able to tell parliament in June that ETA is honouring a permanent ceasefire it declared in March after 38 years of armed struggle for Basque independence.
* The European Union is expected to put Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers on its list of terrorist groups next week, a spokesman for the EU's Austrian presidency said Saturday. The EU move, agreed in principle on May 18, is an item on the agenda of a meeting of the 25-member bloc's ministers in Brussels.
* Adnkronos International (AKI) is reporting on the suicide bomber recruitment effort in Iran and a telephone interview they conducted with Mohammad Ali Samadi, spokesmen for Setad Pasdasht Shohadaye Nehzat Jahani Islam (Headquarters for the Commemoration of the Martyrs of the International Islamic Movement). According to Samadi, suicide bomber applicants are allowed to select whether they would like to attack Israel, the United States or Great Britain, but proposals are underway to expand upon that and add other European nations to the list.
Africa
* Heavy artillery, mortar shelling and gunfire killed at least 20 people in a fourth day of fighting between rival militias in the Somali capital, residents and militia leaders said on Saturday.
* A report from PINR entitled Somalia's Tangled Web Becomes Contorted examines the myriad of competing factions and interests in Somalia. The report says "The most important and complicating recent development in Somalia's political situation is the rise of the I.C.U., which marks the emergence of Islamism as a major force that cuts across traditional social divisions and has polarized them to some extent, disrupted the tenuous and shifting balance of power, and challenged traditional modes of dispute resolution by transcending to some degree the clan structure."
* A baby with its leg blown off by shrapnel. Corpses in the streets. The wounded writhing in pain inside wheelbarrows, the only ambulances around. Horrible memories have followed those who fled the war-ravaged Somali capital, Mogadishu, this week for the relative safety of this town about 50 miles down the coast.
* One of the world's most wanted rebel chiefs, Joseph Kony, of the Lord's Resistance Army, has called for an end to his 20-year war with the Ugandan government. "Most people do not know me...I am not a terrorist," the elusive Kony said from the southern Sudanese bush in the first video footage seen of him for years.
The Global War
* The United States has offered to help an Indian state remove thousands of mines planted by Maoist rebels and train its police force to battle the insurgents, a senior Indian official said on Friday. Two American diplomats made the offer to the government of the central state of Chhattisgarh during a visit on Thursday, said B.K.S. Ray, senior state official for home affairs.
* Relatives of Omagh bomb victims demanding the closure of a Real IRA support website hosted in Toronto have requested a meeting with the Canadian Ambassador in London. It features a public forum topic on 101 ways to murder Lord Trimble.
* This roundup on terrorism was at FreeRepublic.
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Top Topics
* A U.S.-led coalition strike on a militant training facility in Afghanistan's borderlands with Pakistan killed five suspected extremists, including senior Taliban leaders, the U.S. military said Saturday. The military said that "key senior leaders of the Taliban network" were among the five dead in the strike late Friday on the site at the remote Qal'a Sak village in Helmand province.
* Following protests over the publication of a controversial cartoon that enraged the Azeri minority in Iran, government officials are blaming outsiders for the unrest. Gateway Pundit has more analysis and photographs of the protests and response (More here).
* Islamic and secular militias battled in Somalia's capital Thursday, the most widespread and some of the deadliest fighting in Mogadishu in 14 years. Dozens of people were killed and thousands fled their homes on foot.
* Violence flared up along the Israeli-Lebanon border, when Palestinian militants fired Katyusha rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel on Sunday, prompting Israeli airstrikes against two terror camps in retaliation. Later in the day a Hezbollah sniper shot an Israeli soldier, setting off additional airstrikes. By Sunday night, Israel had agreed to UN-brokered ceasefire.
Other topics today include: Hamas gunmen reappear in Gaza; Abbas to expand security force; Palestinian terrorists detained in Burin; Ahmadinejad doubts Holocaust again and consolidates power; IDF counterterrorism operations; Hamas rejects Abbas plan; Saudi charities; Hayden confirmed as CIA chief; Padilla's al Qaeda connections; Manhattan subway plotter convicted; Canadian cell funding terror; Russian plots averted; Beslan terrorist gets life in prison; Russia to sell Iran missiles; Militants detained in Chechnya; Violence in southern Afghanistan; Peace talks in Nepal; Kashmir bus bombing; Osama bin Laden sighting reported; Pakistan's war against al Qaeda; Pakistan looking at Waziri withdrawal; Tourists killed in Sri Lanka landmine attack; Violence in Timor; Japan to boost maritime security; Alleged ties between Philippine communist rebels-Jemaah Islamiyah; UK to extradite 9/11 suspect to Spain; Britain uncovered 20 major conspiracies; EU to add Tamil Tigers to terror list; Fierce fighting in Somalia and more.
Iran & the Middle East
* Following orders to keep a lower profile, Hamas gunmen have reappeared in limited numbers in areas of Gaza on Sunday.
* Three Palestinians have been killed in Gaza on Friday after attempting to dismantle an unexploded artillery found outside their home.
* According to several reports, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas intends to increase his Presidential Guard to 10,000 members.
* Following recent escalation of violence on the Israeli-Lebanese border, Israeli secret services are concerned about a possible terrorist attack against Israeli diplomatic and economical locations abroad, especially in Eastern Europe.
* Two Arab terrorists on their way to strike Israel were captured by IDF troops in the town of Burin, south of Shechem. The two men were carrying explosive charges. The Arabs tried to evade capture before their arrest and threw away their explosives. The explosives were recovered and exploded by police sappers.
* Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Germans they should no longer allow themselves to be held prisoner by a sense of guilt over the Holocaust and reiterated doubts that the Holocaust even happened. Ahmadinejad said he doubted Germans were allowed to write "the truth" about the Holocaust and said he was still considering traveling to Germany for the World Cup soccer tournament, despite what he called a "Zionist plot" trying to prevent him from attending.
* Egyptian prisoner Abdel-Fattah’s blog has become one of the most popular pro-democracy voices in Egypt. He has continued writing despite being arrested in early May during a street demonstration in Cairo - part of a crackdown on reform activists by Egyptian security forces.
* President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is trying to consolidate power in the office of the presidency in a way never before seen in the 27-year history of the Islamic Republic, apparently with the tacit approval of Iran's supreme leader, according to government officials and political analysts here.
* IDF soldiers involved in counter-terrorism operations throughout Judea and Samaria on Sunday arrested 13 suspects. Arrests were made south of Jenin, near Ramallah, in Bethlehem and the Hevron area. Suspects in custody include Islamic Jihad, Fatah Tanzim and Hamas terrorists.
* On Saturday, Hamas rejected a deadline set by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to accept a plan that indirectly calls for recognition of Israel, which he has threatened to put to a referendum.
* Crossroads Arabia has the latest on Saudi efforts to restrict charities, now prohibited them from soliciting donations at government schools, private schools and other educational institutions in Saudi Arabia, such as colleges and universities.
* Abu Hamze, a senior Islamic Jihad official, and his brother Nidal were killed in southern Lebanon in a car bombing on Friday that the Palestinian terrorist group blamed on Israel.
* Late Saturday, gunmen open fired at IDF soldiers operating in Samaria near Assira a-Shimaliya. No injuries were reported. On Sunday, IDF troops fired on two Arab terrorists as they were approaching the security barrier separating Gaza from the Negev, near kibbutz Kfar Aza.
America Domestic Security & the Americas
* After hearing assurances he will be independent of the Pentagon, the Senate on Friday easily confirmed Gen. Michael Hayden, a career Air Force man, to head the CIA. Hayden, a four-star general, currently is the top deputy to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte.
* In unusually frank criticism of U.S. policy on Cuba by a top military officer, the outgoing head of the Miami-based Southern Command said Thursday he favors a top-to-bottom review of the policies, including a long-standing ban on most contacts between the U.S. and Cuban militaries. The comments by Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock came just days before President Bush is to receive a major report on U.S. policies toward the island, coordinated by the State Department but with input from other agencies, including the Department of Defense.
* Federal investigators say they have evidence that former Chicago street gang member Jose Padilla was a higher ranking member of Al Qaeda than first thought.
* In 2004 Shahawar Matin Siraj settled on bombing one of Manhattan's busiest subway stations - a scheme that resulted in his conviction Wednesday on federal conspiracy charges. A jury in Brooklyn deliberated two days and reached the verdict in a case that cast a spotlight on the New York Police Department's efforts to monitor radical Muslims after the Sept. 11 attacks. Siraj faces up to life in prison at sentencing Oct. 5, although the term could be much shorter under sentencing guidelines.
* A federal judge sentenced a Lebanese man to the maximum five years in prison for conspiring to help the group Hezbollah, turning aside his plea for mercy "if not for me, then for my kids." U.S. District Judge Harvey Schlesinger imposed the maximum sentence, plus five years' probation, Thursday for Fadl Mohammad Maatouk.
* A criminal cell operating across Canada is funneling millions of dollars to Dubai to fund terrorist activities through a sophisticated credit/debit card fraud scheme, says the head of Alberta's Integrated Response to Organized Crime unit.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
* According to Russian Deputy Prosecutor-General Nikolay Shepel, forty nine planned terrorist attacks were averted by the Russian security services in South Russia during the investigation into the Beslan case.
* The opening of the Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline comes amid heightened security and the potential of terror attacks on the new Caspian supply route to western demand.
* A southern Russian court sentenced to life in prison the only known surviving hostage-taker in the Beslan school siege, a ruling that failed to appease many victims' families who had hoped the trial would expose the role negligence by Russian authorities played in the siege's deadly outcome.
* Russian defence minister Sergie Ivanov has confirmed that Moscow intends to honour a controversial deal to supply Iran with surface-to-air missiles. The contract for up to 30 missile systems would be fulfilled except in "extraordinary circumstances".
* According to an Iranian official, Russia wants Iran and European countries to resume talks on Iran's nuclear programme and stands firmly against the use of force.
* Kyrgyz security forces detained and interrogated prominent Islamic preacher Sheikh Rafiq Kamalov, the imam of Jami-mosque Al-Sarhasiy in Karasu city, after the security services found a book with his phone number among the personal belongings of the gang members killed during May 12th raid on the Kyrgyz border.
* Law enforcement officers detained four militants in the south of Chechnya, the republic's Interior Ministry said Saturday. Local police detained three militants in the Shatoi District, and another one, suspected of being involved in grave crimes in the region in the past years, in the Shali District.
* The Russian Federal Security Service's border troops will change over to recruiting professionals, not conscripts beginning in 2008, FSB First Deputy Director and border service chief Vladimir Pronichev said on Sunday.
* A monument to Soviet secret police founder Felix Dzerzhinsky was unveiled in the Belarusian capital Minsk, provoking protests from human rights defenders and opposition politicians. Dzerzhinsky, reviled by critics of the Soviet era, helped establish the first Soviet secret service, called the Cheka, in 1917 under Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.
* The Russian Federal Drug Control Agency will open foreign representations in eight countries, including Afghanistan and Tajikistan, in 2006, Viktor Cherkesov, the agency's director, told journalists.
Afghanistan & Southern Asia
* An upsurge in violence in Afghanistan over the past week was the result of pressure on the Taliban from al-Qaeda and other supporters, a provincial governor said, citing Afghan intelligence. This included al-Qaeda and other militants based in neighbouring Pakistan, said Asadullah Khalid, governor of Kandahar province, which has seen the bulk of the unrest.
* Three Taliban militants and two policemen were killed in a clash in southwestern Afghanistan on Friday, a provincial official said. The clash erupted after guerrillas ambushed a convoy of police in Ghazni province, southwest of the capital Kabul.
* In the wild, unforgiving terrain of southern Afghanistan, over which people have fought for centuries, the latest players on the battlefield are crack British troops in light, maneuverable Land Rovers. The Pathfinders, an elite unit of 16 Air Assault Brigade, spent five days on a grueling pursuit of Taliban militants across this rugged landscape, it emerged yesterday. The hunt culminated in their first engagement with the Taliban since 3,300 British troops arrived in Helmand province.
* Nepal's government and Maoist rebels began their first peace talks in nearly three years on Friday in a bid to end a decade-long insurgency that has cost thousands of lives.
* A bomb planted on a Kashmir tourist bus that killed four Indians came as a bloody reminder that peace efforts by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cannot ignore the demands of armed Muslim rebels. No one claimed responsibility for the explosion which hit Srinagar shortly after the premier wrapped up a two-day roundtable here Thursday evening with a pledge to look at devolving more power to Indian Kashmir and to halt human rights abuses.
* The Pakistan-based chief of an alliance of Muslim militant groups fighting New Delhi’s rule in Kashmir said the guerrillas would continue their struggle until the region secedes from India, a report said on Friday.
* Two terrorists were killed and an army jawan injured in a gunbattle in Badgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, a defence spokesman said.
* With a spurt being witnessed in terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and reports of 59 terrorist camps operating from across the border, India will ask Pakistan what steps it has taken on the ground to dismantle terror infrastructure on its soil when top officials of the two countries meet in Islamabad on Tuesday.
* Pro-Taliban militants shot dead a trader whom they accused of spying for government forces in a restive Pakistani tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials said.
* Here are the daily updates from the South Asia Terrorism Portal for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
* Reports that US has not closed Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan's case and that Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has been sighted in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) are seen as indicators that President Pervez Musharraf is coming under renewed American pressure.
* Pakistani security agencies have arrested more than 1,000 al-Qaeda suspects between January 2002 and May 2006, according to a comprehensive study by the Pak Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS).
* A large quantity of explosives have been seized by Pakistani police during a dawn raid in Karachi, reports say. Two men were arrested during the operation on suspicion of supplying bomb-making material.
* Sources in northern Pakistan have told AKI that Islamabad is rapidly reviewing its policies on Waziristan and will eventually withdraw its troops and recognise the Pakistani Taliban militants who in practice run the tribal region.
* A powerful bomb blew up a gas pipeline in a remote town of insurgency-wracked southwestern Pakistan, gutting dozens of shops but causing no casualties, a government official said Saturday.
* Seven people have died when a jeep carrying Sri Lankan tourists hit a landmine in a national park in the northwest of the country. The army found bodies in a destroyed jeep in Wilpattu National Park, near the area held by the Tamil Tigers.
Far East & Southeast Asia
* Women and children ran screaming from their homes as renegade militias burned dozens of homes in East Timor's capital Saturday, even as foreign troops worked to stem violence that threatens to split the nation. Civilian militiamen armed with machetes and spears roamed neighborhoods in southern Dili, throwing rocks through the windows of the small, tin-roofed houses and setting them on fire. In response, Australia is sending hundreds of more troops in hopes of containing the violence.
* Filipino minority party members are calling for a recently signed agreement between the U.S. and Philippines to be submitted to the Senate for review and ratification, a move the current government calls unnecessary. The new agreement aims to bolster the mutual efforts of the two allies in combating terrorism and other security threats.
* Don Randall, a Liberal Party MP and Chairman of the Australia-Sri Lanka Friendship Group, blasted the LTTE's spokesperson in the Australian Federal parliament, John Murphy, for making allegations against the democratically elected Sri Lankan government and aligning himself with a terrorist organisation.
* The Japan Coast Guard will heighten efforts to deal with pirates in the Malacca Strait and other areas of Southeast Asia to protect Japanese ships against attacks. The coast guard will establish a five-member team of experts in anti-piracy issues, who will gather information from dangerous areas, analyze the data and come up with countermeasures. The information will be shared with shipping companies.
* Communist insurgents attacked the southern Philippine village of San Roque and killed three people while wounding four others. According to Colonel Ricardo Visaya, commander of the 69th Infantry battalion, communist rebels from the New People's Army (NPA) have ties to Jemaah Islamiyah.
* Two Filipinos will share a 500,000-dollar reward from the US government for a tip that led to the arrest of a key terror suspect in the southern Philippines last year, the US Embassy said Monday. Hilarion del Rosario Santos III, the alleged head of the Rajah Solaiman Movement, a group of Christian converts to Islam that has been closely associated with Al Qaeda-linked militants, was arrested in southern Zamboanga city in October together with six other suspects.
Europe
* Is there a threat for foreign visitors in Germany? Recently there has been a lot of discussion about safety for foreigners in Germany. Discussion that is very unwelcome by the German government, because it damages Germanys image right before the start of the football world cup.
* A London court ruled today to extradite to Spain a supposed Al Qaeda activist who is believed to have been connected with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 38-year-old Farid Hilalili has 14 days to appeal the court’s decision before the Supreme Court which must make a final ruling on the extradition of the Moroccan.
* According to British Defense Secretary John Reid, security services have uncovered twenty major conspiracies being plotted by Islamists in Britain.
* The Old Bailey has heard that members of an alleged British terror cell discussed planting explosives in London's famous Ministry of Sound nightclub. In secret recordings made by security surveillance teams, Akbar and Omar Khyam, another member of the alleged al-Qa'eda-linked cell, appear to discuss possible targets.
* Poland has dissolved its military intelligence service in a bid to weed out communist-era spies. Polish lawmakers voted 375 to 48 to do away with the old service, which has seen no reform since the fall of communism in 1989, and replace it with two new agencies, called the Military Intelligence Agency and the Military Counterintelligence Agency.
* Along with stone lifting and all-male cooking clubs, hearty traditions in Spain's Basque Country include violent rampages by "the puppies of ETA" -- young supporters of the separatist guerrilla group. A quiet summer would be a boon for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who hopes to be able to tell parliament in June that ETA is honouring a permanent ceasefire it declared in March after 38 years of armed struggle for Basque independence.
* The European Union is expected to put Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers on its list of terrorist groups next week, a spokesman for the EU's Austrian presidency said Saturday. The EU move, agreed in principle on May 18, is an item on the agenda of a meeting of the 25-member bloc's ministers in Brussels.
* Adnkronos International (AKI) is reporting on the suicide bomber recruitment effort in Iran and a telephone interview they conducted with Mohammad Ali Samadi, spokesmen for Setad Pasdasht Shohadaye Nehzat Jahani Islam (Headquarters for the Commemoration of the Martyrs of the International Islamic Movement). According to Samadi, suicide bomber applicants are allowed to select whether they would like to attack Israel, the United States or Great Britain, but proposals are underway to expand upon that and add other European nations to the list.
Africa
* Heavy artillery, mortar shelling and gunfire killed at least 20 people in a fourth day of fighting between rival militias in the Somali capital, residents and militia leaders said on Saturday.
* A report from PINR entitled Somalia's Tangled Web Becomes Contorted examines the myriad of competing factions and interests in Somalia. The report says "The most important and complicating recent development in Somalia's political situation is the rise of the I.C.U., which marks the emergence of Islamism as a major force that cuts across traditional social divisions and has polarized them to some extent, disrupted the tenuous and shifting balance of power, and challenged traditional modes of dispute resolution by transcending to some degree the clan structure."
* A baby with its leg blown off by shrapnel. Corpses in the streets. The wounded writhing in pain inside wheelbarrows, the only ambulances around. Horrible memories have followed those who fled the war-ravaged Somali capital, Mogadishu, this week for the relative safety of this town about 50 miles down the coast.
* One of the world's most wanted rebel chiefs, Joseph Kony, of the Lord's Resistance Army, has called for an end to his 20-year war with the Ugandan government. "Most people do not know me...I am not a terrorist," the elusive Kony said from the southern Sudanese bush in the first video footage seen of him for years.
The Global War
* The United States has offered to help an Indian state remove thousands of mines planted by Maoist rebels and train its police force to battle the insurgents, a senior Indian official said on Friday. Two American diplomats made the offer to the government of the central state of Chhattisgarh during a visit on Thursday, said B.K.S. Ray, senior state official for home affairs.
* Relatives of Omagh bomb victims demanding the closure of a Real IRA support website hosted in Toronto have requested a meeting with the Canadian Ambassador in London. It features a public forum topic on 101 ways to murder Lord Trimble.
* This roundup on terrorism was at FreeRepublic.
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