(SomaliNet) A regional maritime group said on Wednesday that Somali pirates have seized another ship, a Greek bulk carrier, despite a large international naval presence in the waters off their lawless country.
The vessel was they second they had taken since the weekend's spectacular capture of a Saudi supertanker carrying $100 million of oil that was the largest hijack in history.
The incident was the latest espisode in a wave of Somali piracy this year that has driven up insurance costs, made some shipping companies change their routes and prompted an unprecedented military response from NATO and the European Union among others.
"The pirates are sending out a message to the world that 'we can do what we want, we can think the unthinkable, do the unexpected'," Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, told Reuters in Mombasa.
His group, which monitors attacks at sea, said the Greek ship was taken on Tuesday in the Gulf of Aden with about 25 crew on board. He had no further details but it followed the hijacking of a Hong Kong-flagged ship carrying grain and bound for Iran.
No ransom has been demanded so far for the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star, which the pirates seized on Saturday after dodging international naval patrols in their boldest strike yet. A spokesman for the owners, Saudi Aramco, said the company hoped to hear from the hijackers later on Wednesday.
The hijacking took place 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, far beyond the gangs' usual area of operations. On Wednesday, it was believed to be anchored near Eyl, a former Somali fishing village now used as a well-defended pirate base. "Eyl residents told me they could see the lights of a big ship far out at sea that seems to be the tanker," Aweys Ali, chairman of Somalia's Galkayo region, told Reuters by telephone.
Somali gunmen were believed to be holding about a dozen ships in the area, and more than 200 hostages. Among the vessels is a Ukrainian ship loaded with 33 tanks and other weapons that was captured in another high-profile strike earlier this year.
The seizure of the Sirius Star was carried out despite an international naval response, including from NATO, to guard one of the world's busiest shipping routes. Warships from the United States, France and Russia are also off Somalia.
Given that the pirates were well-armed with grenades, heavy machineguns and rocket-launchers, the foreign forces were steering clear of direct confrontation, and in most cases the owners of the hijacked ships were trying to negotiate ransoms.
British Royal Navy Commodore Keith Winstanley, deputy commander of the Combined Maritime Forces in the Middle East, said coalition forces could not be everywhere. "The pirates will go somewhere we are not," he told Fairplay, part of defence analysts Jane's Information Group. "If we patrol the Gulf of Aden then they will go to Mogadishu. If we go to Mogadishu, they will go to the Gulf of Aden."
In a show of resolve, Kenyan police paraded eight suspected pirates in a Mombasa court on Wednesday. The Royal Navy captured them, and killed two others, in the Gulf of Aden last week.
Also on Wednesday, South Korea said it was planning to send navy ships to the waters off Somalia to protect commercial vessels from pirates, and Japan was considering a similar move.
(SomaliNet) A day after hijacking it in the restive Niger Delta, gunmen in Nigeria have released a cargo ship and its crew, a senior Nigerian military official said on Tuesday.
According to reports, the attackers intercepted the MV Thou Galaxy on Sunday as it sailed for Warri in Delta state, seizing at least 10 people on board including the captain. "The vessel was released yesterday with its cargo and all the crew members," said Brigadier-General Wuyep Rimtip, head of the military taskforce in the western Niger Delta. "I'm not aware that any ransom was paid before their release and I don't expect the state government to pay any ransom for their release."
A military spokesman on Monday said he believed gunmen loyal to rebel leader Tom Polo were behind the attack. Insecurity in the Niger Delta, home to Nigeria's oil sector, has slashed a fifth of the OPEC member's oil production since early 2006.-
Rab recovered one US-made belt-fed M79 grenade launcher and five 40mm grenades at Rangamatia in Chittagong's Fatikchhari upazila early yesterday. The weapons were found abandoned near a graveyard during a raid on a hideout of criminal gang Daulat Bahini at Malikasha in North Rangamatia, Rab said.
Rab 7 commanding officer Zahidur Rahim said they believe the arms belong to Daulat, the gang's kingpin. "The M79 grenade launcher and its 40mm grenades were first widely used by the US troops during the Vietnam War," he told The Daily Star.
"The grenades can successfully hit their target within 150m (point target) and is effective within a range of 350m (area target)," he added. "The anti-personnel cartridges were used against people and light vehicles and had a devastating effect within a 5m radius of the target," said the Rab official.
(AKI) - Italian anti-terrorism police have carried out at least 135 raids and are investigating 11 foreigners in various Italian regions who are suspected of links to an alleged Morocco-based Islamist group. The organisation, called 'Al-Adl Wal Ihsan' or Justice and Charity, is being investigated for association to commit international terrorist acts.
Several apartments and cultural centres thought to be linked to the Moroccan movement are being investigated as well as 11 foreigners.
According to investigators, the 'Justice and Charity' movement is a front for a group seeking the restoration of an Islamic caliphate in Morocco and the abolition of the monarchy.
Justice and Charity is believed to be Morocco's largest opposition Islamist movement. However, the group claims it wants to transform Moroccan society through non-violent means and social work.
Justice and Charity is tolerated by the Moroccan government but reportedly has no legal status to organise meetings.
The group has repeatedly accused the government of imprisoning its members and limiting its funding resources.
The anti-terrorism investigations are taking place in the regions of Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Lombardy, Veneto in northern Italy and in the central Emilia Romagna and Marche region.
Posted by: Fred ||2008-11-20 00:00 ||Comments
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File under: al-Qaeda in Europe
KABUL, Nov. 19 -- A suspected U.S. suspected airstrike deep inside suspected Pakistani territory Wednesday killed suspected six insurgent suspected fighters and wounded suspected several others, according to a suspected Pakistani security suspected official.
The airstrike in the district of Bannu in the North-West Frontier Province appears to be the first such attack outside Pakistan's tribal areas. It came as the country's top military officer met with NATO officials in Brussels to discuss the cross-border missile strikes, which have been increasingly frequent in recent months and which the United States considers necessary for combating al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The attacks have stoked tensions in Pakistan and drawn public rebukes from the government.
An unmanned U.S. Predator drone fired at least two missiles early Wednesday morning at a house near North Waziristan, one of seven semi-autonomous tribal territories that line Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. A Pakistani security official said the six who were killed were believed to be foreigners with suspected links to al-Qaeda.
So nobody will especially miss them ...
Details about those killed could not be confirmed. A Pakistani military spokesman declined to comment. The U.S. generally does not acknowledge such attacks and has so far not issued any public comments on the use of Predator airstrikes on Pakistani soil.
Shortly after Wednesday's strike, Quazi Hussain Ahmad, head of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, vowed to block a vital NATO supply route if the U.S. attacks continue, the Associated Press reported.
Make .. our .. day ...
Posted by: Steve White ||2008-11-20 00:00 ||Comments
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Gunmen riding a motorbike shot dead a retired major general of Pakistan Army and his driver in the outskirts of the capital on Wednesday,
Major General (R) Ameer Faisal Alvi from the Special Services Group (SSG) had retired more than two years ago. He was heading for his Islamabad office at 9:30am on Wednesday when the unidentified gunmen stopped his car on Islamabad Highway near the PWD Colony in Koral police precincts, a police official told Daily Times.
They shot at him and his driver Tanveer and fled, he added. Police cordoned off the area and began a search while the bodies were taken to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.
Hospital sources said eight bullets hit Gen Alvi -- three in the head, two in the neck and three in the chest. The driver had six bullet injuries including one in his head. Police told Online news agency one or more 8MM pistols had been used in the attack.
A first information report had not been registered by Wednesday evening.
Terrorist act: Police sources said the killing was being seen as a terrorist act by 'militants'. Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives have targeted top army leaders and security officials in the past.
One senior official said personal rivalry could not be ruled out. He said the murder could not be linked with the Lal Masjid operation because the general had retired long before the incident.
Violence began to escalate last July when army commandos stormed the Lal Masjid during the regime of General (r) Pervez Musharraf, himself an ex-SSG head. A wave of suicide bombings has since killed hundreds of people and Taliban have targeted security forces.
Violence subsided when the new government that came to power after the election in February opened talks with Taliban, but it picked up again after top Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud suspended the talks in June.
President, PM condemn: President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani condemned the killing in separate messages. Gilani deplored the tragic killing and expressed deep sorrow over the demise of the retired general.
President Zardari said he "prayed to Allah Almighty to rest the departed soul in peace and grant courage to the bereaved family to bear the loss with equanimity".
Security has deteriorated alarmingly in the country over recent months with the military attacking Al Qaeda and Taliban strongholds in the northwest while they have responded with attacks on security forces. Two suicide bombers had killed at least 59 people in an attack on the country's main defence industry complex in August.
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File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
Five suspected Taliban fighters were killed in artillery fire and shelling by gunship helicopters in various areas of Bajaur Agency on Wednesday, while five Taliban and four civilians were killed in the military operation in Swat. In Bajaur, officials and locals said the aerial strikes targetted Taliban positions in Mamoond and Charmang areas.
APP reported that Taliban fighters had also been killed in Nawagai tehsil. The political administration has tightened security in the agency by setting up checkposts in various areas and increasing the number of security personnel, continuing the search for Afghan refugees and arresting seven suspects.
In Swat, ISPR said five Taliban fighters were killed by security forces in Kabal tehsil. A spokesman for the military's media information centre in Swat told APP that gunship helicopters were called in after the Taliban attacked troops in Kabal. Civilian deaths: Also, four people -- two women in Khwazakhela and two men in Kabal -- were killed and seven injured as mortar shells hit civilian houses, according to locals. ISPR officials refused comment on the civilian deaths. NNI however reported that 10 civilians had been injured in the operation in Swat.
School blown up: Meanwhile, the Taliban blew up a boys' primary school in Bara Bandai area of Kabal tehsil. NNI however reported that a girls' school had been blown up. According to official figures, 123 schools have so far been destroyed by the Taliban in Swat.
Iraqi security forces have arrested an alleged "senior" Iranian commando from the elite Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force at Baghdad International Airport, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
The military said they suspected the man of "involvement in facilitating Iranian weapons shipments into Iraq" under the cover of working for an organization involved in the restoration of Iraqi religious sites. The man is alleged to have used the organization as a front in order to bring weapons into Iraq concealed in shipments of building materials, the military said in a statement released late Tuesday.
The U.S. military has long accused Iran's Quds Force of arming, training, and funding Iraqi militiamen to stoke the sectarian violence that has convulsed the country since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, charges Tehran has denied.
The statement also said the man was carrying an "unspecified amount" of cocaine.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
38.103.63.58
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(SomaliNet) A regional maritime group said on Wednesday that Somali pirates have seized another ship, a Greek bulk carrier, despite a large international naval presence in the waters off their lawless country. 
(SomaliNet) A day after hijacking it in the restive Niger Delta, gunmen in Nigeria have released a cargo ship and its crew, a senior Nigerian military official said on Tuesday. 
(AKI) - Italian anti-terrorism police have carried out at least 135 raids and are investigating 11 foreigners in various Italian regions who are suspected of links to an alleged Morocco-based Islamist group. The organisation, called 'Al-Adl Wal Ihsan' or Justice and Charity, is being investigated for association to commit international terrorist acts. 
Gunmen riding a motorbike shot dead a retired major general of Pakistan Army and his driver in the outskirts of the capital on Wednesday,
Five suspected Taliban fighters were killed in artillery fire and shelling by gunship helicopters in various areas of Bajaur Agency on Wednesday, while five Taliban and four civilians were killed in the military operation in Swat. In Bajaur, officials and locals said the aerial strikes targetted Taliban positions in Mamoond and Charmang areas. 
Iraqi security forces have arrested an alleged "senior" Iranian commando from the elite Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force at Baghdad International Airport, the U.S. military said Wednesday. 
