During the investigation, officials said Omar There were 350 people receiving training in suicide bombing of militant hideouts in Waziristan. He said that these included Uzbeks, Tajiks, Arabs and Punjab.
Said Omar, who used to be blindfolded and taken to the training. He said the camp was responsible for the Sangin Khan, who was away to be always on the travel.
It was also revealed that he was supposed to be the second bombing to take place between the rescue teams, teams and media
If you’re going to imagine yourself in an exotic island, dare to dream big! Here are 10 and one of its kind where you can discover the islands of each item on your wish list, one-story overwater and wildlife in virgin food street-Semitism and cultural monuments, mysterious.
1. Bali
Find your center on the island of spiritual until they became known as the “Island of the Gods”. The warm, spiritual essence that the writer Elizabeth Gilbert found here and is celebrated by eating, prayer, and love the original to Bali for several centuries. It is one of 17000 islands in the Indonesian archipelago and the only one to which Hindus are the majority (93%). More striking is that there are spiritual celebration here almost every day. Survived three Hindu temples in Besakih (mother temple of Bali) bombing, 1963, which destroyed the nearby villages, while the missing meters, just above the pool terraces volcanic Mount Agung. Is still considered a miracle of this event by local people, who arrive in the regular procession; offers they balance on their heads and climb the steps to the voice of singing, jingling bells, and the sharp flap of umbuls – umbul (ceremonial flags worn). Anyone interested in exploring the inner self such as the Centre may Nirarta, a hotel group 11 – room amid rice terraces and gardens which hold meditation sessions a day. After you find your place here, channel your energy in the jungle tours, diving, surfing big break along the beaches of white sand and black volcanic beautiful. Exhale against a backdrop of rice paddies and sunsets that light up Impressionism Indian Ocean.
2. Vieques
Gulf of experience in the world explained bioluminescent. When he left the U.S. Navy packed up and left Vieques in 2003, after more than 60 years, and behind everything: the pristine nature. Land once used for bombing practice now been appointed as the National Wildlife. So far there are only a few of the resorts large, such as those found on the Puerto Rican mainland and instead, you’ll find the hostel colleague such as B, the aptly named Great Escape and B, where is served breakfast swimming pool (115 $). There are only two of the prominent cities (population less than 10000): Isabel Segunda on the north side of the island, and Esperanza on the south is much smaller. The result is that when access to the beach at the end of a dirt road here, your reward is the presence of sand to a large extent for yourself. Playa de la Shiva (Blue Beach) attracts divers and swimmers during the day, but the real reason Vieques belongs on the list is your bucket Puerto Mosquito. Seven bioluminescent bays on the planet, and Puerto Mosquito is the most impressive, thanks to the clarity and brightness of its waters. He called on the timetable for moonlit night for a tour to swim or kayak and will be greeted you by billions of micro-organisms that dinoflagellates ignite the water with a magical glow green, and blue (Aqua Frenzy boats, from $ 30 per person). It’s like swimming in watercolor painting.
3. Easter Island
Hopes the work of one of the most mysterious civilizations in history. Area with the nearest major, Chile, lying 2200 miles, Easter Island is a far as it is mysterious. No one knows exactly why nearly 900 giant stone blocks scattered across this scrap, cut off 60 miles square of land in central and southern Pacific, and those long, stone faces are not talking. For several hundred years, maintained a moai that are unique to this island is the custodian of silence, even with a civilization that collapsed and created a small number of tourists emerged in its wake. Aim to stand above the carnage cut stones (called ahu), and the average moai 13 feet tall and weighs approximately 14 tons each, and most of the lie who was ousted by the civil wars in the centuries 17 and 18. Spot is not particularly convincing Rano Raraku, collapsed volcano, where many moai have been extracted, and where nearly 400 character still exists, all frozen in various states of completion. The island of interest to only one town, Hanga Roa, where you want to live in the Vai Moana, low-key hotel with 18 rooms set in the floor and one (of 102 $, including breakfast and transportation to and from the airport). You can wander from the coast and then through the volcanic hills of grassland without bumping into another human being who might break the cycle of Easter Island Holiday.
4. Ischia
Neighborhoods with hot springs and therapeutic mud wraps. This volcanic island in the Bay of Naples and the therapeutic hot springs so that they have drawn admirers for the year 2000. Greeks, Romans, Turks, and soon discovered that Ischia fumaroles, hot springs and mud, and heating and hold the power to relieve sore muscles, or simply provide a degree of self-indulgence. Travelers today are pampered and likewise by massage and mud wraps courtesy of distinct heat island, which helps to fill the 22 thermal mineral pools of the sea Poseidon Spa Terme Di Giardini. After the preferred treatment, and peel off the sandals for a walk on the beach or visit the 15 century Castello Aragonese. Shoot you can also get a taste of life glam plane bearing, and is associated with Italy and filmed in the movie The Talented Mr. Ripley, and here on the site. Angelica fell to a family-run hotel villa, which naturally includes a garden and swimming pool with Jacuzzi heat (from $ 75, including breakfast).
5. Chiloé
Experience culture and wildlife and placed in isolation. The lush, cloud-covered Chiloé archipelago lies off the west coast of Chile, but its history, customs, and the similarity of language bear little or nothing to those of the mainland, or anywhere else in the world, because of its isolation. Local farmers have passed down legends of woodland gnome and charming and full of ghost ships. Protected temperate rainforest in the Parque Nacional Valdivian Chiloé. In the Pacific region, and dolphins, penguins, otters, whales and the largest creatures in the history of the blue, and studied and protected by the Centre for the conservation of cetaceans. In the center of the city of Castro, to order a meal of steaming curanto (shellfish, meat, and potatoes) and handicrafts made of found wood and colorful clothes that have been created from the wool of Chile. The population still live in traditional palafitos (stilt houses). Jesuit missionaries, who arrived first in small numbers in the 1600s, and local materials and construction techniques used to build magnificent churches. Their work alive in more than 50 wooden church located in communities such as Castro, Nercón, Chonchi, Dalcahue, and Quinchao; appearance reflects a combination of European and indigenous styles that will not find anywhere else on earth.
6. Tora Bora
In the bungalow overwater your settlement on the island of idealism in the world’s most famous. If you imagine yourself on an island in French Polynesia, Bora Bora is the place to hang your hammock. Even the novelist James Michener, who penned epics of a wide range in the South Pacific and beyond, he named the island in the world’s most beautiful. Under the warlords lorded mingled among the Society Islands to the north-west of Tahiti and Bora Bora low coral islands and over the mountain and Mount Pahia Otemanu, Twin Peaks formation of an extinct volcano in the interior of the island. Super expensive upscale resorts along the western edge of a fair share of inns and vacation rentals, overwater feature of straw-roofed, one-story built on stilts over the waters of shallow and clear, as is the jinn. (Maitai Resort is a relatively affordable option, given the competitive $ 800 plus, with rooms from $ 198 and one floor of 408 $, including taxes). Slip on a robe and relax while savoring the vision of miles of endless beaches of fine sand and lakes. Luxury, certainly, but even greater than the value of the philosophy of living in Bora Bora: Aita pea pea. In other words, “I do not need to worry.”
7. Key West
Embrace Jimmy Buffett “Margaritaville” utopia. Laid-back, beach living, p. arts scene coupled with a bright confer on one of its kind to appeal to this island is low (peak height: 18 feet). Key West inspired by the Mississippi-born balladeer Jimmy Buffett, and it is still the Holy Land to his followers, “parrotheads” that the roost here throughout the year and maintaining the mythical utopia Margaritaville alive. Seduced and also Tennessee Williams, Harry Truman, Ernest Hemingway. Defies easy categorization, the most important capital of the Republic Bank conch, tongue in cheek little nation that was created in 1982 by the residents proud of their lifestyle liberalism. Sandy beaches are the natural surprisingly rare here, but with the chance of Lgs over the reef in North America reefs only live and enjoy the company of a group Technicolor than 400 species of tropical fish, and it would be a shame to spend your time beach on the ground, anyway. When I dried off, went to Mallory Square to catch the street performers during the celebration of the sunset every day. Follow it up with drinks along the “Duval Crawl,” a tour of the watering holes in the buildings in the early 20 century that line Duval Street. From there, it’s a nice man, and walk for 15 minutes to the Diaoyutai Grand (98 $, including breakfast).
8. Penang
Treat yourself to a unique fusion in Malaysia of cultures and flavors. Start crawling in your food stalls that crowd the streets of George Town, the largest city of Penang in Malaysia and the capital and the food. Delicious fare on offer memorable flavors mixed with Malaysian, Chinese, Indian and European. Should Foodies in search of bliss Supreme orientation to the market next to the orphanage, cake Lok Si (Temple of Supreme Bliss) – to eat in a variety of dishes based on rice, pasta, fish, shellfish, chicken, pork, and vegetables Iyer, eggs and coconut. Look for Pak Lore (fried pork chopped marinated served with chili); Luke Luke (Yes, seafood, meat and vegetables), and Baker ikan (fish baked or grilled, marinated in spices and coconut milk, wrapped in banana leaves and grilled on hot coals). The same fusion of cultures is evident in local architecture, ranging from modern high-rise buildings built by British colonialists in the 19 century. Add to the mix of beach resorts, and mangrove conservation, and small fishing villages, and a share of temples, mosques and churches. KEK Lok Si embody the best of this coexistence. In seven stories, the biggest Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia, and it reflects the common values of the Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism design with an octagonal base of Chinese, Thai and East Row parameter, like the top of the Burmese.
9. Galapagos
Follow in the wake (r) of Charles Darwin’s evolutionary. Turtle with the same name is only one reason to explore this archipelago exceed species with more than 500 original and spectacular found anywhere else. Charles Darwin raised the curiosity to visit in 1835, leading to his landmark book and note that these islands are the “laboratory of evolution.” He noted a lot of kaleidoscope Darwin biological, such as penguins, sea lions, birds, blue footed boobies, is still visible on the Galapagos Islands, which is spread over 600 miles west of Ecuador. Look out for the wave albatross with a 7-8 – wings of the Spanish football on. Tour operators in the islands of boat navigation on everything from luxury yachts, and employs many of nature to guide you through the rocky coasts of the archipelago, lakes, coral reefs, bays and white sand beaches. Gap Adventures Offers small group tracks that often include meals, airfare from Quito, the cabin on board the ship 16 – passengers. Life on the island is only half the equation, so pack your mask, snorkel and wet suit.
10. The Palm Islands in Dubai
Volume of the largest archipelago in the world of man-made. Nature creates and removes the islands every day, but it took a supernatural flow of cash and credit for developers to create what they hope will be permanent Palm Island archipelago. On the basis of fee by the Sheikh, the world’s largest man-made island being dredged up and put in place and Resorts: Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira. Has been the design of each work is in progress to attract tourists, who (more than fossil fuels) can provide a renewable source of income. If all goes well, the three islands are the focal point of Dubai and the Middle East became the playground of spas, resorts, luxury apartments, villas, shopping malls superior. Palm Jumeirah is already with the Atlantis resort and water park and open land in the Trump hotel scheduled to open in 2011. (More specifically, if the option is off the island, is the Arab courtyard, which rooms hardwood floors and upholstery color significantly with prices as low as 100 for the night). S OME Islands may be more surprising and certainly less expensive, but something more ambitious and geometrically impossible.
he expected Islamabad – More rain is drowning in flood-ravaged Pakistan on Saturday and even the heaviest rains in the coming days, we accelerated and exacerbated the crisis, and radical Islamic groups to fill gaps in a partial response to the government.
Have been affected by Pakistani authorities estimate up to 13 million people across the country in South Asia through the rising waters. And killed about 1500 people, mostly in the northwestern part of the region most affected.
Heavy flooding, which began about two weeks ago had washed away roads and bridges, and lines of communication are many, have hampered rescue efforts. Justified the continuing monsoon rains in many of the helicopters in an attempt to rescue people and aid the phrase, including six helicopters on loan from U.S. troops manned in Afghanistan.
The national government was formed in response and chaos in some cases, and confidence in its ability to meet the decision shook President Asif Ali Zardari to travel to France and Europe in the midst of the crisis.
Floods receded slightly on Friday in the north-west of the country, but heavy rain in the evening and Saturday morning, while rising rivers and streams. Farooq said Pakistan Meteorological House is expected to torrential rains in Afghanistan to take things further during the next 36 hours, swelling the Kabul River has grown in the north-west Pakistan.
This probably means more of sadness and Punjab and Sindh provinces, as well as a flood of new flow of the river east and south.
Authorities have adopted a variety of fees on the number of persons from among the 175 million people of Pakistan affected by the floods.
The United Nations has been touched four million people, including 1.5 million seriously, which means that homes were damaged or destroyed. But Pakistani authorities have put the figure much higher.
Punjab and North West, and displaced flood of 12 million people, “said Amal Masoud, a national disaster official of the Department of the Authority. Sindh province, were evacuated about 1 million people, or being helped out of their homes,” said Jam Saifullah, the region’s minister for irrigation.
The United Nations said the disaster was an “equal footing” with the Kashmir earthquake in 2005 – which killed about 73000 people – in terms of the number of people who need assistance and damage to infrastructure.
About 30 000 Pakistani soldiers and to rebuild bridges and the provision of food and setting up relief camps in the northwestern part of the country, which is a key battleground in the war against al Qaeda and the Taliban. Was donated by foreign countries and the United Nations millions of dollars.
U.S. soldiers have been printed in the war effort in Afghanistan to run four helicopters Chinook and Black Hawk, and six to evacuate people from the Swat Valley, northwest of the country, support the campaign there. About 85 U.S. troops involved, although the rain was not much traffic.
Also help in the relief efforts of Islamic charities, such as e-Falah Foundation Insaniat, which Western officials believe is linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group accused of bomb attacks in Mumbai in 2008. The Brotherhood is officially banned, but not ban appeal in court and enforced unevenly.
The Director of Hafiz Abdul Rauf is the group in 1912 to provide medical and food for 100,000 people every day. And helped the institution after the earthquake in Kashmir under a different name.
“The next step, and will begin to provide shelter, but is currently providing food and medicine to flood victims is our priority,” said Rauf.
He criticized government officials, saying it does not do much to hold press conferences and ads. But he was satisfied with the efforts of the United States.
“All the help and donate to is welcome,” he said.
ISLAMABAD — A pair of bombings on Sunday killed at least 10 people, including a government official, and wounded scores more, Pakistani authorities said.
The first blast hit the home of a local official in the Kurram area of Pakistan’s semiautonomous tribal region, killing Sarfaraz Khan, his 13-year-old son and three of his young nephews, an official said. The Associated Press reported that Khan’s wife was also killed in the attack, but that could not be independently confirmed.
Some observers speculated that Khan’s killing was in retaliation for his cooperation with security forces targeting Islamist extremists in the region. Khan had been “vocal and helpful to the security agencies,” Syed Azfal, a political activist in Khan’s home town of Sadda, said in a telephone interview.
In a second attack, a suicide bomber in the capital of the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir detonated his explosives outside a prayer hall packed with worshipers marking Ashura, a Shiite Muslim holiday. The bomb killed at least five people and injured more than 80, authorities said.
There was no claim of responsibility for either attack.
The violence, on the two-year anniversary of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, underscored the volatility now challenging the increasingly weak civilian government led by her husband, President Asif Ali Zardari. Zardari has faced calls to resign since the Supreme Court earlier this month struck down an amnesty that shielded him and other officials from corruption charges. Zardari is still protected by a clause in the constitution giving the president immunity from prosecution, but opponents say they plan to file court petitions contesting his eligibility for the office.
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On Sunday, Zardari lashed out at his opponents for the first time since the court decision, telling a crowd near Bhutto’s tomb in southern Pakistan that the demands for his resignation were rooted in “evil intentions” that pose a threat to the nation’s fragile democracy.
The military is battling Pakistani Taliban insurgents based in the rugged tribal region bordering Afghanistan, including Kurram. Militants have stepped up attacks nationwide since the army opened a major offensive in the tribal area of South Waziristan this fall. Many of the attacks have targeted security forces and installations.
10 killed in Pakistan bombings on anniversary of Bhutto assassination
Shaheed Benazir Bhutto got the honour to be the first woman prime Minister of a Muslim country. She was young when she was popularly elected as the outstanding leader of the people of Pakistan and assumed the responsibilities as the Prime Minister. She proved her capabilities by leading the country and the people surprising the whole world with her political and diplomatic skills. In most part of the world, Pakistan was identified with her name as Prime Minister. In no time, she had developed her influence on the world scene bringing people and countries closer to Pakistan using the style of people’s diplomacy.
Benazir Bhutto remained Prime Minister of Pakistan twice. She led the popular masses and won popular votes from all corners of Pakistan. Being a popular leader of the broad masses, she attracted large crowd on special occasions. When returned from forced exile for the first time in 1986, more than 1.8 million people gathered at the Lahore Airport to greet the most outstanding leader of the people of Pakistan. When she came to Karachi, more than two million people gathered at the Karachi Airport to greet Shaheed Benazir Bhutto.
She was again forced to leave the country following unceremonious dismissal of her Government by former President Farooq Leghari on concocted charges. When she returned before the scheduled general elections during the military regime of General Pervez Musharraf, again, more than two million people gathered at the Karachi Airport to greet the greatest leader.
In the course of controversy, the military regime of General Pervez Musharraf was afraid of the huge public gatherings and advised her to avoid holding mass public rallies, public meetings and demonstrations during the election campaign. She contemptuously rejected it as she considered the huge gathering as symbol of real political power of any party or leader and she would continue to lead such processions.
For her defiance, the enemies of the people of Pakistan targeted her and made the first serious attempt on her life by exploding a huge car bomb when the huge procession reached close to Karsaz in Karachi. More that 180 innocent people, all PPP workers, were martyred and hundreds of others injured, score of them maimed. But such cowardly attacked did not deter the great leader to stop his close links with her people at any stage of history. She continued her political campaign in all parts of Pakistan. The second attack was planned when she was in Lahore. Finally, the assassins succeeded in Rawalpindi when she addressed the huge public meeting at Liaquat Bagh.
Pigs still can’t fly, but this winter, the mayor of Moscow promises to keep it from snowing. For just a few million dollars, the mayor’s office will hire the Russian Air Force to spray a fine chemical mist over the clouds before they reach the capital, forcing them to dump their snow outside the city. Authorities say this will be a boon for Moscow, which is typically covered with a blanket of snow from November to March. Road crews won’t need to constantly clear the streets, and traffic – and quality of life – will undoubtedly improve.
The idea came from Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who is no stranger to playing God. In 2002, he spearheaded a project to reverse the flow of the vast River Ob through Siberia to help irrigate the country’s parched Central Asian neighbors. Although that idea hasn’t exactly turned out as planned – scientists have said it’s not feasible – this time, Luzhkov says, there’s no way he can fail. (See TIME’s photo-essay “Vladimir Putin: Action Figure.”)
Controlling the weather in Moscow is nothing new, he says. Ahead of the two main holidays celebrated in the city each year – Victory Day in May and City Day in September – the often cash-strapped air force is paid to make sure that it doesn’t, well, rain on the parades. With a city budget of $40 billion a year (larger than New York City’s budget), Moscow can easily afford the $2-3 million price tag to keep the skies blue as spectators watch the tanks and rocket launchers roll along Red Square. Now there’s a new challenge for the air force: Moscow’s notorious blizzards.
“You know how every year on City Day and Victory Day we create the weather?” Luzhkov asked a group of farmers outside Moscow in September, according to Russian media reports. “Well, we should do the same with the snow! Then outside Moscow there will be more moisture, a bigger harvest, while for us it won’t snow as much. It will make financial sense.” (See pictures of Russia celebrating Victory Day.)
The plan was unsurprisingly rubber-stamped this week by the Moscow City Council, which is dominated by Luzhkov’s supporters. Then the city’s Department of Housing and Public Works described how it would work. The air force will use cement powder, dry ice or silver iodide to spray the clouds from Nov. 15 to March 15 – and only to prevent “very big and serious snow” from falling on the city, said Andrei Tsybin, the head of the department. This could mean that a few flakes will manage to slip through the cracks. Tsybin estimated that the total cost of keeping the storms at bay would be $6 million this winter, roughly half the amount Moscow normally spends to clear the streets of snow.
So far the main objection to the plan has come from Moscow’s suburbs, which will likely be inundated with snow if the plan goes forward. Alla Kachan, the Moscow region’s ecology minister, said the proposal still needs to be assessed by environmental experts and discussed with the people living in the area before Luzhkov can enact it. “The citizens of the region have some concerns. We have received lots of messages,” she told the RIA news agency. (Read TIME’s 1991 article “The End of the U.S.S.R.”)
With only a few weeks left before winter comes, environmentalists will have to work fast to keep Luzhkov from implementing his zaniest plan to date – and to stop the first snowflakes from wafting down to the city streets.
ALBANY, N.Y. – President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton are lending their political star power to an unlikely Democratic bid to win a special congressional election in an area that’s been a Republican bastion for more than a century.
The Nov. 3 contest in upstate New York’s 23rd Congressional District, a sprawling, 11-county area where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by 45,000, is shaping up as a test of a struggling GOP and a possible gauge of Obama’s coattails.
Obama, who carried the district by 5 percentage points in his landslide victory in New York last year, forced the special election when he named the incumbent, Republican John McHugh, his Army secretary. The president will host a fundraiser for the Democratic candidate, Bill Owens, on Tuesday in New York City.
In a fundraising e-mail for Owens, Clinton called the special election “bigger than just one candidate or one office … victory or defeat will also be seen as a referendum on President Obama’s agenda.”
Owens, 60, a Plattsburgh lawyer and retired Air Force captain, is one of three candidates competing for the seat. The others are Republican Dierdre Scozzafava, 49, a state Assemblywoman, and Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman, 59, a businessman.
Hoffman’s spokesman, Rob Ryan, said the race will be a referendum on Obama’s first 10 months and on the future of the Republican Party.
Democrats see an opening in the traditionally Republican district because Scozzafava and Hoffman are splitting the conservative vote. An Oct. 15 survey by Siena College showed Owens with 33 percent, Scozzafava with 29 percent and Hoffman with 23 percent. The poll of 617 likely voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
Conservative groups such as The Club for Growth have endorsed Hoffman. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich endorsed Scozzafava last week, in a move apparently aimed as shoring up the Republican’s support among conservatives.
Republicans have complained that Obama picked McHugh for the Army job because he viewed the 23rd as vulnerable. Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand won the nearby 20th district, another longtime GOP stronghold, in 2006, and Democrat Scott Murphy won a close special election in March to hold the seat after Gillibrand was appointed to the U.S. Senate.
Whatever Obama’s motivations, McHugh, who represented the 23rd District since 1993, has the credentials for the Army job. He served on the House Armed Services Committee for years and worked with the oft-deployed 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, which is in the district.
The compressed time frame of a special election — McHugh was confirmed only last month — leaves voters with little-known candidates and little time for introductions.
In the state Assembly, Scozzafava, of Gouverneur, has broken with the Republican conference only 5 percent of the time, but on high-profile issues such as same-sex marriage, greenhouse gas emissions, sex education in schools and gender identity discrimination. In the past she’s won the Working Families Line — a liberal minority party closely associated with the Democratic Party. It endorsed Owens this time.
Scozzafava’s potential crossover appeal has the National Republican Congressional Committee hopeful it can hold onto the seat, one of only three that the Republicans controlled in the state’s 29-member congressional delegation.
Owens, is the managing partner at the law firm Stafford, Owens, Piller, Murnane, & Trombley, and has practiced law for 30 years. Hoffman, of North Elba, is the managing partner in an accounting firm and oversees a family business that includes investment, real estate and construction.
State GOP Chairman Edward Cox said the 23rd is a swing district with varied demographics, including organized labor, hunting enthusiasts and farmers. He said the combined vote of Conservatives and Republicans will be heard as a rejection of Obama’s agenda — no matter the winner.
“The national relevance is that the vote against Obama is going to be overwhelming,” Cox said.
June O’Neill, executive committee chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, said the seat is symbolically important for Republicans nationally.
“Let’s face it,” she said, “this seat should be a safe Republican seat and — as recent events and the most recent poll has shown — it is no longer a safe Republican seat.”
MIR ALI, Pakistan – The Pakistani army and the Taliban claimed to be inflicting heavy casualties on each other as fierce fighting raged Sunday on the second day of a military assault on an al-Qaida and Taliban sanctuary close to the Afghan border.
The outcome of the operation in South Waziristan stands to shape the future of nuclear-armed Pakistan and the militant groups seeking to topple its U.S.-backed government. The region is home to jihadists behind soaring terrorist attacks around the country, as well as al-Qaida and other extremists believed to be plotting strikes in the West.
The army said 60 militants had been killed on the first day of the operation, while six soldiers had died. The Taliban claimed to have inflicted “heavy casualties” on the army and to have pushed invading soldiers back into their bases.
It was not possible to independently verify the conflicting claims because the army is blocking access to the battlefield and surrounding towns.
“We know how to fight this war and defeat the enemy with the minimum loss of our men,” Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told The Associated Press from an undisclosed location. “This is a war imposed on us and we will defend our land till our last man and our last drop of our blood. This is a war bound to end in the defeat of the Pakistan army.”
Tariq also said the Taliban were behind three commando-style raids on law enforcement agencies in the eastern city of Lahore on Thursday that killed around 30 people as well as the deadly bombing of a police station in the northwestern city of Peshawar a day later.
Accounts from residents and those fleeing South Waziristan on Sunday suggested that the 30,000 Pakistani troops were in for a bloodier time than in the Swat Valley, another northwestern region that the army successfully wrested away from insurgents earlier this year.
“Militants are offering very tough resistance to any movement of troops,” Ehsan Mahsud, a resident of Makeen, a town in the region, told The Associated Press in the town of Mir Ali, close to the battle zone. He and a friend arrived there early Sunday after traveling through the night.
Mahsud said the army appeared to be mostly relying on air strikes and artillery against militants occupying high ground. He said the insurgents were firing heavy machine guns at helicopter gunships, forcing the air force to use higher-flying jets.
The army is up against about 10,000 local militants and about 1,500 foreign fighters, most of them from Central Asia. They control roughly 1,275 square miles (3,310 square kilometers) of territory, or about half of South Waziristan, in areas loyal to former militant chief Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a U.S. missile strike in August.
Officials have said they envisage the operation will last two months, when winter weather will make fighting difficult.
A brief army statement said 60 militants had been killed, along with six soldiers, since Saturday. It said the army had secured high regions close to Razmak, where the army has had a base for several years, and destroyed six militant anti-aircraft gun positions.
A resident in Wana — the main town in South Waziristan and in the heart of Taliban-held territory — said the insurgents had left the town and were stationed on the borders of the region, determined to block any army advance.
“All the Taliban who used to be around here have gone to take their position to protect the Mehsud boundary,” Azamatullah Wazir said by phone Sunday. “The army will face difficulty to get in there.”
Intelligence officials said Saturday that the ground troops were advancing on two flanks and a northern front of a central part of South Waziristan controlled by the Mehsuds. The areas being surrounded include the insurgent bases of Ladha and Makeen, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to brief the media.
As many as 150,000 civilians — possibly more — have left in recent months after the army made clear it was planning an assault, but as many as 350,000 could still be in the region. The United Nations has been stockpiling relief supplies in a town near the region, but authorities are not expecting a major refugee crisis like the one that occurred during the offensive this year in the Swat Valley.
Over the last three months, the Pakistani air force has been bombing targets in South Waziristan, while the army has said it has sealed off many Taliban supply and escape routes. The military has been trying to secure the support of local tribal armies in the fight.
TEHRAN, Iran – A suicide bomber killed five senior commanders of the elite Revolutionary Guard and at least 26 others in an area of southeastern Iran that has been at the center of a simmering Sunni insurgency, state media reported.
The official IRNA news agency said the dead included the deputy commander of the Guard’s ground force, Gen. Noor Ali Shooshtari, as well as a chief provincial Guard commander for the area, Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh. The other dead were Guard members or local tribal leaders. More than two dozen others were wounded, state radio reported.
The commanders were on their way to a meeting with local tribal leaders in the Pishin district near Iran’s border with Pakistan when an attacker with explosives around his waist blew himself up, IRNA said. The explosion occurred at the entrance of a sports complex where the meeting was to be held.
Top provincial prosecutor Mohammad Marzieh was quoted by the semi-official ISNA news agency as saying that a militant group from Iran’s Sunni Muslim minority called Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, claimed responsibility.
The region in Iran’s southeast has been the focus of violent attacks by Jundallah, which has waged a low-level insurgency in recent years. The group accuses Iran’s Shiite-dominated government of persecution and has carried out attacks against the Revolutionary Guard and Shiite targets in the southeast.
Iranian officials have accused Jundallah of receiving support from al-Qaida and the Taliban in neighboring Pakistan, though some analysts who have studied the group dispute such a link.
Jundallah’s campaign is one of several small-scale ethnic and religious insurgencies in Iran that have fueled sporadic and sometimes deadly attacks in recent years — though none have amounted to a serious threat to the government.
The attack does raise questions about Iran’s grip on a sensitive border region beset by criminal gangs and drug smuggling.
The latest violence, a symptom of the tension between Iran’s majority Shiites and impoverished minority Sunnis in the southeast, appeared to have no connection with the street unrest triggered by the dispute over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election in June.
Ahmadinejad vowed to strike back at those behind Sunday’s attack, the official IRNA news agency reported.
“The criminals will soon get the response for their anti-human crimes,” IRNA quoted him as saying. Ahmadinejad also accused unspecified foreigners of involvement.
Iranian officials have often raised concerns that the United States might try to incite members of Iran’s many ethnic and religious minorities against the Shiite-led government, which is dominated by ethnic Persians.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the United States condemned what he called an “act of terrorism.” Reports of alleged U.S. involvement are “completely false,” he said.
The Guard commanders targeted Sunday were heading to a meeting with local tribal leaders to promote unity between the Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.
In April, Iran increased security in Sistan-Baluchistan Province, at the center of the tension, by placing it under the command of the Guard, which took over from local police forces.
The 120,000-strong Revolutionary Guard controls Iran’s missile program and has its own ground, naval and air units.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, condemned the assassination of the Guard commanders, saying the bombing was aimed at disrupting security in southeastern Iran.
“We express our condolences for their martyrdom. … The intention of the terrorists was definitely to disrupt security in Sistan-Baluchistan Province,” Larijani told an open session of the parliament broadcast live on state radio.
In May, Jundallah claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque that killed 25 people in Zahedan, the capital of Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province, which has witnessed some of Jundallah’s worst attacks. Thirteen members of the faction were convicted in the attack and hanged in July.
Jundallah is made up of Sunnis from the Baluchi ethnic minority, which can also be found in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The group has carried out bombings, kidnappings and other attacks against Iranian soldiers and other forces in recent years, including a car bombing in February 2007 that killed 11 members of the Revolutionary Guard near Zahedan.
Jundallah also claimed responsibility for the December 2006 kidnapping of seven Iranian soldiers in the Zahedan area. It threatened to kill them unless members of the group in Iranian prisons were released. The seven were released a month later, apparently after negotiations through tribal mediators.
Despite Iran’s claims of an al-Qaida link, Chris Zambelis, a Washington-based risk management consultant who has studied Jundallah, said in a recent article that there is no evidence al-Qaida is supporting the group. He does note, however, that the group has begun to use the kinds of suicide bombings associated with the global terror network.
He said Jundallah likely looks to Baluchi insurgents in Pakistan as a source of inspiration and possibly material support. Its ties to the Taliban based in Pakistani Baluchistan are less clear, but Zambelis said any connections are probably limited to smuggling between the two countries.
“Jundallah’s contacts with the Taliban are most likely based on jointly profiting from the illicit trade and smuggling as opposed to ideology,” Zambelis wrote in the July issue of West Point’s CTC Sentinel.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – An Arizona homicide investigation now includes three deaths after a woman died more than a week after participating in a sweat lodge ceremony that hospitalized nearly two dozen people.
Liz Neuman of Minnesota died Saturday at a Flagstaff hospital, Yavapai County sheriff’s spokesman Dwight D’Evelyn said.
The 49-year-old suffered multiple organ damage during the Oct. 8 ceremony at a resort near Sedona, a resort town 115 miles north of Phoenix that draws many in the New Age spiritual movement.
Authorities were treating all three deaths as homicides, but no charges have been filed.
D’Evelyn did not provide a city of residence for Neuman, but public records showed an address in Prior Lake, about 25 miles southwest of Minneapolis.
Neuman was among more than 50 people crowded inside the sweat lodge run by self-help guru James Arthur Ray. An emergency call two hours after they entered the lodge reported two people not breathing.
Twenty-one people were taken to area hospitals with illnesses ranging from dehydration to kidney failure. Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y., and James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee died upon arrival at a hospital.
No one else remains hospitalized.
Authorities haven’t determined what caused the deaths. Autopsy results on Brown and Shore are pending further testing.
The Rev. Meredith Ann Murray of Bellingham, Wash., who has completed all of Ray’s retreats, said Neuman was among Ray’s earliest followers and had attended dozens of his events.
According to Ray’s Web site, Neuman was the leader of the Minneapolis-area “Journey Expansion Team.” The teams, developed by Ray’s friends and followers around the country, meet to exchange ideas on his principles. The next Minneapolis-area meeting is scheduled for Oct. 23.
Ray had rented the Angel Valley Retreat Center for his five-day “Spiritual Warrior” event that culminated in the sweat lodge ceremony. Participants paid between $9,000 and $10,000 to attend the retreat.
Ray declined to be interviewed by the sheriff’s office on the night of the incident and Arizona authorities said he had not spoken to them as of Thursday. In his first public appearance Tuesday in Los Angeles, Ray told a crowd of about 200 that he has hired his own investigative team to determine what went wrong.
His spokesman, Howard Bragman, has said that Ray’s team and Ray’s attorney are cooperating with the sheriff’s investigators.
More than 100 people attended the funeral for Brown on Saturday at Holy Name of Jesus Church in Otisville, N.Y., according to The Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y. The avid hiker and surfer who had a passion for art was remembered as a spiritual seeker.
Services for Shore were held late Saturday afternoon at the Hubbard Lodge in Milwaukee.
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