Target Centermass

Day: December 12, 2004

  • U.S. Mounts Fresh Attack on Taliban

    Fresh off the successful election and swearing its first democratically-elected president, Afghanistan is now the site of a new effort to keep pressure on Taliban remnants.

    The US-led military coalition in Afghanistan has begun a big offensive against militants loyal to the ousted Taliban regime in an attempt to quash any attempt to disrupt parliamentary elections next spring.

    Operation Lightning Freedom, which involves the entire 18,000-strong force, is designed to target Taliban remnants during the snowy winter months, when militants traditionally lie low and prepare for a spring offensive, said Major Mark McCann, of the coalition, in Kabul.

    The coalition credited a similar operation, Lightning Resolve, which was launched in July last year, with preventing attacks during the October 9 presidential election.

    Col. David Lamm, chief of staff for US forces in Afghanistan, said the military would continue to squeeze the Taliban while offering moderates the option of turning themselves in under an amnesty.

    Kabul has been in talks with moderate Taliban leaders for more than a year but has yet to announce an official mechanism whereby low-level militants could come in from the cold.

    Zalmay Khalilzad, US ambassador to Kabul, said this month foot soldiers could lay down their arms without fear of capture or retribution from the military.

    Afghanistan is scheduled to form a new parliament through elections in April, though many local and foreign officials believe the vote will have to be put off because of the complexity of organising it, and because about 25,000 irregular militia have yet to be disarmed.

    Despite complaints during the U.S. election campaign, the Afghani theater has never been ignored by American forces, strategists and leaders.

    Such pressure kept the Taliban and their terrorist allies impotent in the election that brought the Afghans a president. Similar pressure in the winter months, when the allies are far more mobile, supplied and organized than the ousted Taliban, could very well again bring success to April’s parliamentary election in most or all of the country.

  • 5 Soldiers Killed in Israeli Base Bombing

    Ripping a page out of the union army playbook from the Battle of the Crater in 1864, the Palestinians dug a tunnel, packed it with explosives, lit them off and charged into the aftermath. The explosion was tremendous, the result was carnage, and the charge was suicidal.

    Palestinian militants blew up an Israeli army base at the Gaza-Egypt crossing Sunday by sneaking more than a ton of explosives through a tunnel, killing five Israeli soldiers and wounding five in the largest Palestinian attack in the month since Yasser Arafat (news – web sites)’s death.

    Hitting back, Israeli helicopters fired at least five missiles at targets in Gaza City early Monday, witnesses said. There were no reports of casualties. One missile started a fire at an abandoned metal workshop, while the other target was an empty house near the Islamic University, they said.

    ….

    In the violence along the Gaza-Egyptian border, the military said in a statement early Monday that five soldiers were killed and five were injured, including two seriously, in the explosion. The statement said two Palestinians charged the base and opened fire after the blast, and soldiers shot them dead.

    Palestinians said one attacker was killed and the other escaped. The blast collapsed several structures at the crossing and damaged others.

    ….

    Israeli army spokesman Capt. Jacob Dallal said two explosions rocked the border terminal at Rafah.

    “This was a very large, well coordinated, planned attack against an international crossing, used by Palestinian civilians to cross into Egypt,” Dallal said, adding that the crossing would be closed until further notice.

    Israel TV defense analyst Yoav Limor called the blast the result of an “intelligence failure.”

    ….

    A Palestinian militant giving his name only as Abu Majad claimed responsibility in the name of the Fatah Hawks, an offshoot of the mainstream Fatah Party, and the violent Islamic Hamas.

    A Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 1.5 tons of explosives were set off in the blast, and a second, smaller explosive was detonated later. Masked Hamas militants said a gunman tried to kidnap a wounded soldier but killed him because the soldier resisted.

    Hamas’ representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, rejected calls for a halt to attacks on Israel and threatened new, unspecified types of retaliation against the Israeli occupation.

    “The talk about a truce or a cease-fire is pure speculation and illusion. The (Israeli) enemy is still occupying our land. … The next few days will witness new lessons against the Zionist occupation,” Hamdan told about 2,000 Hamas supporters in Lebanon’s Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon.

    And just what was the rationalization for this attack?

    Abu Majad said the explosives-filled tunnel was 800 yards long. He said the attack was retaliation for what he called “the assassination” of Arafat, who died in a French hospital. Some Palestinians claim he was poisoned by Israel.

    Lie, bomb and repeat. Lie, bomb and repeat.

    Come on, just fess up to the real reason — you saw a chance to kill some Israelis. Who cares if other Palestinians will suffer for it, right?