No wonder we get so many refugees...   ::)

12 killed in Afghan suicide blasts

A dozen people, most of them policemen, have died in two Taliban-style suicide attacks in southern Afghanistan, underlining the scale of the task facing international forces there.

The attacks followed a deadly weekend in which nine Western soldiers were killed along with several civilians and militants in Afghanistan's growing Taliban-led insurgency.

The most deadly suicide attack on Monday (local time) was outside the provincial police headquarters in Lashkar Gah, the capital of the turbulent, opium-producing province of Helmand, with the attacker disguised as a policeman in uniform.

"Eleven people, nine of them policemen and two of them civilians, were killed in a suicide bomb attack in Lashkar Gah," the interior ministry said in a statement.

Twenty-eight others, also mostly policemen, were wounded, the statement said. The provincial health department gave a similar toll.

About 17,000 United States troops are expected to start deploying to the south in the coming months to reinforce troops under pressure in the area, where several districts have fallen under control of insurgents allied with drug lords.

The deputy provincial police chief, who is named only Kamalludin, was at the scene when the bomb exploded but survived unharmed.

"I had just arrived with a five-vehicle police convoy. A man wearing police uniform walked towards us and exploded. Two of my bodyguards were also killed," he said.

A policeman at the scene said the bomber had walked towards the just-parked convoy and detonated his explosives.

"There is blood and human flesh all over where I'm standing right now," he added on condition of anonymity.

Helmand is one of the most intense battlefields in the international fight against the extremist Taliban, who were in government between 1996 and 2001, and their allies in the Al Qaeda network.

Two British soldiers were killed in a bomb blast in Helmand on Sunday (local time).

Monday's other suicide attack was at the police headquarters in the turbulent Delaram district of south-western Farah province, police said.

A suicide bomber killed a policeman outside the building with a hand grenade then grabbed the dead man's weapon and ran into the compound, said the police spokesman for western Afghanistan, Abdul Rauf Ahmadi.

Policemen fired at the attacker and bombs strapped to his body exploded, he said. Two shopkeepers were wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suicide attacks have been trademarks of the Taliban in the years following the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled the repressive Islamist movement from government.

- AFP

grendel - IMHO most of those trapped within an islamic state would LOVE to escape and be free.

Who would not ?
Evacuate islam

More fun...  living with Muslims.

Soldiers die in bid to free hostagesMarch 17, 2009 - 7:44PM

Three soldiers died and 19 were wounded in a two-day battle with Islamic militants to free aid workers abducted in the southern Philippines, the military says.

Abu Sayyaf rebels holding the Red Cross workers since January 15 tried to break through a tight military cordon around dense jungle on Jolo Island Monday, resulting in two days of fierce fighting, the military added.

Troops said an undetermined number of militants were killed or wounded, including Albader Parad, the commander holding hostages Mary Jean Lacaba of the Philippines, Eugenio Vagni of Italy and Swiss national Andreas Notter.

"Three soldiers were killed and 19 were wounded in action since yesterday's engagement," said military spokesman Brigadier General Gaudencio Pangilinan.

"The pressure is working. That is why they are trying to get out," he told reporters in Manila.

The fate of the three hostages is not known but the military said it had recovered their personal effects from a camp it over-ran Monday.

"We recovered their tents and other equipment," Pangilinan told reporters in Manila.

Pangilinan said the military did not know if the hostages were with the militants when the fighting broke out.

"We know they are intact in one group ... the Abu Sayyaf and the hostages," he said.

"They have moved I think two or three kilometres from the original encounter site."

The three were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf, a militant group behind the country's worst terrorist attacks, while on a humanitarian mission on Jolo.

Pangilinan said Parad was likely killed after he was hit by a military sniper.

The ICRC said in a statement it was concerned with the ongoing clashes which may have endangered the hostages.

Alain Aeschlimann, the ICRC's head of operations in Asia, said he last spoke with the hostages by telephone on March 11.

"The ICRC is aware that an exchange of gunfire took place in the region on Monday, 16 March," Aeschlimann said.

"We're very concerned to hear about this development."

While the Abu Sayyaf group has not made public demands for ransom, local officials trying to secure the release of the hostages have quoted a figure of $US1 million.

The group is blamed for the 2004 bombing of a passenger ferry that killed over 100 in Manila Bay.

It has kidnapped dozens of foreigners, businessmen and religious workers in the past decade and is on the US government's list of foreign terrorist organisations.

The military said an Abu Sayyaf grenade attack on a karaoke bar late Monday on Jolo killed two people and wounded at least four, and indicated it may have been a diversionary tactic.

Quote:

Govt re-lists six terrorism groupsMarch 17, 2009 - 5:25PM Six militant Islamic organisations have been relisted as terrorist organisations by federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland. One of the groups, Lashkar-e Jhangvi or Army of Jhang, is believed to be responsible for the Mumbai terrorist attacks in November 2008, Mr McClelland said. The other groups are Jaish e Mohammed or the Army of Mohammad, Ansar al Islam, Asbat al Ansar, Islamic Army of Aden and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

Oh joy  ;D

Grendel wrote on Mar 17^th, 2009 at 6:49pm:

Quote: Govt re-lists six terrorism groupsMarch 17, 2009 - 5:25PM Six militant Islamic organisations have been relisted as terrorist organisations by federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland. One of the groups, Lashkar-e Jhangvi or Army of Jhang, is believed to be responsible for the Mumbai terrorist attacks in November 2008, Mr McClelland said. The other groups are Jaish e Mohammed or the Army of Mohammad, Ansar al Islam, Asbat al Ansar, Islamic Army of Aden and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Oh joy  ;D

Attorney-General Robert McClelland missed one, the parent of these groups.

ISLAM.

If anyone has any doubts about this 'nomination' of mine, study the 'holy' Koran and Hadith.

The Koran is ISLAM's supremacist hate manual.

ISLAM, should be banned.

The Koran, Hadith, and ISLAMIC doctrine towards 'unbelievers' should be required study in our schools, universities, and parliaments.






A few example verses, from the Koran....


"....take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends....
......he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them."
[i.e. is an unbeliever, worthy of death]
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/005.qmt.html#005.051


"O ye who believe! Take not into your intimacy those outside your ranks: They will not fail to corrupt you. They only desire your ruin: Rank hatred has already appeared from their mouths: What their hearts conceal is far worse. We have made plain to you the Signs, if ye have wisdom."
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/003.qmt.html#003.118


"O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the Hypocrites, and be firm against them. Their abode is Hell,- an evil refuge indeed."
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/009.qmt.html#009.073
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/066.qmt.html#066.009


"Fighting [against unbelievers] is prescribed for you, and [if] ye dislike it.....Allah knoweth, and ye know not."
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/002.qmt.html#002.216


"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/009.qmt.html#009.029