The War: Headlines From Around the Globe
[Kat]
Hat Tip Long War Journal and Mudville Gazette
A foot patrol of British soldiers recounted the moment that they survived an attack by a suicide bomber only to run into an ambush by the Taleban as they picked themselves up after the blast.“It's the luck of the Irish,” said Sergeant Paul Harrison, 27, from Liverpool, who survived the attack along with the rest of his patrol from the 1st Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment.
[continued in flash traffic]
Reconstructing the Samarra Shrine (this is for the Vets for Freedom, salute to Cpt Pete Hegseth ret.)
"It's a beautiful thing that they are rebuilding the mosque," said Abdul Jabar Salah, an unemployed father of three standing in line on Tuesday outside the mayor's office, waiting to apply for a job helping with reconstruction of the shrine."We're hopeful that as the mosque rises, so, too, will our economic situation. All things, though, depend upon security," he said.
Zawahiri tries to stay relevant in Algiers (fails miserably)
Asked about the targeting of civilians by alleged Algerian readers, Zawahiri continued to justify the attacks by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. He characterised them as efforts to secure the lives and property of Algerian citizens and as jihad to liberate Algerians from "America, France and the children of France".Algerian analysts say al-Zawahiri depicted a picture that was far from reality in Algeria.
Political analyst Ali Merdji said al-Qaeda's number two was trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to depict Algeria as an arena for fighting the Americans and French. The recording is an attempt to "introduce the bloodthirsty elements of al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb in a new way, i.e. resistance groups fighting colonisation in Algeria," Merdji said.
"This trick won't be bought by the Algerians who understand the criminal nature of the terrorist organisation, which has a long record of terrorist operations, especially as they are the first victims of that organisation's followers," he added.
This is how you do "strat comm".
Al-Zawahiri's repeated calls to kill Americans and French in Algeria contradict the principles of Islam, a local imam told Magharebia."The texts of Islamic history show that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) used to advise his companions during the wars not to hurt Christians and Jews, even by hints, and he advised them not to hurt monks in their places of worship," Abdelkrim said. If this was at the time of war, he asked, then how about the time of peace?
Sadr and Al Qaida teaming up again (repeat 2004 when they both got their gluteous maximus handed to them)
The Broken Windows Theory in Sadr City
"Tell the mayor – the mayor of Baghdad, the big mayor – tell him we'll be here tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock, and we'll be very disappointed if he's not here. The prime minister needs this to happen," he said during a Friday trip to Sadr City. "We gotta get going."General Hammond is pushing for services – trash pickup, medical care, water, electricity – for a southern slice of the volatile district. It's part of a US plan to win Iraqis away from Moqtada al-Sadr's sway. And they see a window of opportunity as fighting in Mr. Sadr's Baghdad stronghold shows signs of quieting.
After a month of fighting, the Mahdi Army has disappeared from the streets of Basra, the largest city in the south. The army and police are everywhere, and people are providing information on where Mahdi Army personnel are hiding out, and the locations of their weapons caches. Up north, in the Sadr City section of east Baghdad, the Mahdi Army is still fighting hard. But the army and police have the upper hand, and are pushing the Shia militiamen back block by block.
No all you male pervs! Don't let the title of the post fool you. This is about female soldiers in Iraq in the Lioness program.
I don't know about bitter, but definitely clinging to bible and gun:
Usually, the women soldiers went along to be available in case there were women detainees or women in the area.“The firefight finds you,” Breslow-Kynaston said. “Your mission out there isn’t to go be in a firefight. It’s to be in the convoy.”
Morgan is sturdy and strong, a tattooed “tough gal” who learned to handle firearms as a young girl on the rifle range and to shoot squirrels out of tall trees in Arkansas.
“Some people had requested some females to be attached with the companies and go out and search the Iraqi women,” she said. “They asked for a couple of volunteers. I was one of the first ones they came up to and asked if I would mind going out. Of course, I was all for it.”
She grew up in a religious family and wondered if she could go to hell for killing people. Combat taught her that if you stop to think, you die. She lived through the “longest second of my entire life” while pointing her weapon at another human being and trying to decide whether to fire, she said in the film.
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