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Military.com Forums Hot Topics & Current Events Future War GWOT ...(outside Iraq & Afghanistan)|
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Killings divide Thailand's south
A low-level Islamic insurgency turns village against village one bullet at a time source link The history of violence in Thailand's Muslim-majority South, where a low-level Islamic insurgency has claimed nearly 1,700 lives since 2004, can be traced through these two villages, just southeast of the provincial capital of Narathiwat. In these villages, it's clear just how murky this insurgency is. It's also clear that violence is growing worse since the Sept. 19 coup, despite the new prime minister's apology to Muslims for past harsh treatment. -------------------------------------- It's a long read, but an interesting one...and illustrates how Islamic insurgencies aren't just isolated to Africa and the Middle East. This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sgt_Schlappy, |
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Basic Training |
You are so right you have no idea the Thai goverment (I live in Bangkok)keeps trying to keep this local. they continue to say it's not the international Jihad. But they keep finding that many of them have been trained in Packistan. That some of there manuals on Bomb making come directly from Al Queda.
That said. they want Middle eastern money coming in. The Saudi's are even building their own beach resort. PS: the head Gereral in the coup is a Muslim.
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The Thais are important allies of ours...hope they get a handle on this.
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Top Al-Qaida-Linked Militant Killed
Associated Press | January 17, 2007 source link MANILA, Philippines - A top al-Qaida-linked militant accused of masterminding the kidnapping of three Americans who was long wanted by U.S. and Philippine authorities has been killed, the military said Wednesday. Jainal Antel Sali Jr., popularly known as Abu Sulaiman - a top leader of the Abu Sayyaf rebel group - was fatally shot in a fierce gunbattle Tuesday in a clash with army special forces, military chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon said. Sulaiman is the highest-ranking Abu Sayyaf commander killed by U.S.-backed troops. Washington had offered up to $5 million for his capture. "We have resolved that this group and their major commanders must be finished off, that this notorious group should see its end," Esperon told a news conference. Sulaiman allegedly helped plot a February 2004 bombing that triggered a ferry fire, killing 116 people in Southeast Asia's second-worst terror attack. He also was accused of masterminding the kidnapping of three Americans and Filipino tourists from the southeastern island of Palawan in 2001. One of the Americans, Guillermo Sobero, was beheaded. American missionary Gracia Burnham was wounded and rescued by army commandos after a year in jungle captivity, but her husband, Martin, was killed during the operation. The kidnappings prompted Philippine authorities to allow the deployment of U.S. troops in the southern Mindanao region to train and arm Filipino soldiers working to wipe out the resilient Abu Sayyaf. On Tuesday, army forces raided Sulaiman's camp, sparking a three-hour gunbattle through dense forests, said regional army spokesman Maj. Eugene Batara. Other insurgents escaped but troops are chasing them, Batara said. Villagers on the mountainous southern island of Jolo, a rebel informant and one of the wives of the slain rebel identified his body after the clash between the army's 8th Special Forces Company and about 60 Abu Sayyaf gunmen, about 590 miles south of Manila, Esperon said. Esperon displayed a picture of the slain militant, then stood up to scribble an `x' mark across Sulaiman's face in a U.S. poster of most-wanted terror suspects. Esperon said that Sulaiman's death could set off retaliatory attacks, but that the military was ready to thwart any such assaults. "I believe the activities of the Abu Sayyaf will go down considerably," Esperon said. Sulaiman, a 41-year-old civil engineer, began his activism by joining the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a Muslim separatist group that signed a peace accord with the government in 1996. He broke off from the MNLF due to the accord's signing and decided to work in Saudi Arabia for a few years building highways and buildings, according to police intelligence reports. In the late 1990s, he returned home and joined the Abu Sayyaf. Having once been a builder, Sulaiman was asked by The Associated Press last year in a telephone interview why he would want to destroy. He said their attacks were retribution for the many atrocities committed against Muslims worldwide. "I know that being once a builder of things would make me more efficient in destroying them," he said. |
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New command to oversee U.S. forces in Africa
By Pauline Jelinek Associated Press Published February 7, 2007 source link WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Tuesday that the Pentagon will set up a new command to oversee its operations in Africa. "This new command will strengthen our security cooperation with Africa and create new opportunities to bolster the capabilities of our partners in Africa," Bush said in a statement. "Africa Command will enhance our efforts to bring peace and security to the people of Africa and promote our common goals of development, health, education, democracy and economic growth in Africa." Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Bush approved a Defense Department recommendation that a military structure be set up to oversee missions on the continent, which U.S. officials believe has greater strategic importance to the United States than it had before because of increased efforts by China to involve itself and gain influence in Africa. "This command will enable us to have a more effective and integrated approach than the current arrangement of dividing Africa between Central Command and European Command, an outdated arrangement left over from the Cold War," Gates said at a congressional hearing on the defense spending that Bush proposed Monday for budget year 2008, which starts in October. Under the Pentagon's system, each region of the world is overseen by a specific command--essentially a regional headquarters--such as the Pacific Command, Central Command and so on. The two commands that have been responsible for Africa have been increasing activities there recently. The Central Command, which controls the Horn of Africa, set up a task force in an attempt to catch Al Qaeda terrorists escaping from Afghanistan after the war started in late 2001. It since has expanded to humanitarian and other missions. The European Command has sent Special Forces to do training exercises in North Africa done humanitarian projects, medical training and other missions such as harbor maintenance in oil-producing nations in the Gulf of Guinea. An official familiar with planning for the new command said it will include all nations on the continent except Egypt; it will stay in Central Command. |
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Moves afoot to change 'war' definition
source link WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Momentum is building among even President Bush’s most loyal allies to change the name of the war the United States has fought for more than five years. One Republican said use of the term “war” elevates mass murderers to the status of a standing army. The British government, Bush’s most loyal partner in combating Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda group, said last month it is dropping the “war” title because it does not capture the struggle’s full dimensions. The Pentagon coined “The Global War Against Terrorism,” or GWOT, while the building still displayed a deep gash from the al Qaeda strike on Sept. 11, 2001. Bush, in a speech to a joint session of Congress, called it simply “the war on terror.” Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, a Bush loyalist and ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told The Examiner he has lobbied the White House to follow the British lead. “Language is important, and I’ve told [National Security Adviser Stephen] Hadley and the president the past year and a half that I think the ‘war on terror’ is a terrible idea,” Hoekstra said. “Going back to 9-11, we shouldn’t dignify these 19 [plane hijackers] by calling them warriors and saying that they’re involved in a war,” he said. “These are not warriors. These are cold-blooded terrorists and murderers, and that’s all we should dignify them with.” John Brennan, a former senior CIA officer who directed the U.S. National Counter Terrorism Center, also believes the word “war” should be dropped. Brennan said the term connotes only military force that is required defeat radical Islam, when in fact a lot of tools, including public relations and diplomacy, are needed. “A worldwide ‘campaign’ against terrorism would be a more accurate depiction of the multidimensional scope of the effort,” he said. Finding just the right words for a fight that encompasses ideological battle and armed combat has proven illusive. The White House national security staff in 2005 weighed a name change, but decided against it. |
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Report: U.S. hits Islamic militants' Somali base
source link MOGADISHU, Somalia - At least one U.S. warship bombarded a remote, mountainous village in Somalia where Islamic militants had set up a base, officials in the northern region of Puntland said Saturday. The attack from a U.S. destroyer took place late Friday, said Muse Gelle, the regional governor. The extremists had arrived Wednesday by speedboat at the port town of Bargal. Gelle said the area is a dense thicket, making it difficult for security forces from the semiautonomous republic of Puntland to intervene on their own. A local radio station quoted Puntland's leader, Ade Muse, as saying that his forces had battled with the extremists for hours before U.S. ships arrived and used their cannons. Muse said five of his troops were wounded, but that he had no information about casualties among the extremists. A task force of coalition ships, called CTF-150, is permanently based in the northern Indian Ocean and patrols the Somali coast in hopes of intercepting international terrorists. U.S. destroyers are normally assigned to the task force and patrol in pairs. CNN International, quoting a Pentagon official, also reported the U.S. warship's involvement. A Pentagon spokesman told The Associated Press he had no information about the incident. "This is a global war on terror and the U.S. remains committed to reducing terrorist capabilities when and where we find them," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. "We recognize the importance of working closely with allies to seek out, identify, locate, capture, and if necessary, kill terrorists and those who would provide them safe haven," Whitman said. "The very nature of some of our operations, as well as the success of those operations is often predicated on our ability to work quietly with our partners and allies." At an international conference in Singapore, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters who asked about the Somalia reports on Saturday, "Frankly, I don't know exactly what was going on. I've been on the road. And I wouldn't be commenting on operational activities anyway." Puntland's minister of information, Mohamed Abdulrahman Banga, told the AP that the extremists arrived heavily armed in two fishing boats from southern Somalia, which they controlled for six months last year before being routed by Ethiopian troops sent to prop up a faltering Somali government. "They had their own small boats and guns. We do not know exactly where they came from — maybe from Ras Kamboni, where they were cornered in January," he said. Local fishermen, contacted by telephone, said about a dozen fighters arrived Wednesday, but Puntland officials said the number could be as high as 35. The United States has repeatedly accused Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts of harboring international terrorists linked to al-Qaida and allegedly responsible for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The U.S. sent a small number of special operations troops with the Ethiopian forces that drove the Islamic forces into hiding. U.S. warplanes have carried out at least two airstrikes in an attempt to kill suspected al-Qaida members, Pentagon officials have said. |
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U.S. gives $10M reward to informants
source link MANILA, Philippines - The U.S. handed over its largest reward in the campaign to wipe out al-Qaida-linked militants in the southern Philippines, giving $10 million on Thursday to Filipino informants in the killing of two top terror suspects. Four masked informants collected on promised $5 million rewards against Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani, who was slain in a September clash on southern Jolo island, and his presumed successor, Abu Sulaiman, who was killed on Jolo in January. More than 7,000 Filipino soldiers — backed by U.S. military surveillance, training and other noncombatant assistance — have been waging an offensive on Jolo since August. "Information provided by the brave Filipino citizens recognized today was instrumental in assisting the Armed Forces of the Philippines to track down and locate these two terrorist leaders," the U.S. Embassy said. |
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...[semi-related]...
U.S. Navy Plans Six-Month West African Training Mission (Source: US State Department; dated June 7, web-posted June 8, 2007) WASHINGTON --- The U.S. Navy plans this autumn to begin a half-year patrol of West Africa as a follow-up to a regional conference in November 2006, in which Gulf of Guinea nations called for greater maritime security cooperation. Under the new plan, a U.S. ship will act as a floating headquarters and training base. It will cruise the region for five or six months, conducting numerous port visits, deploying training teams and allowing international visitors on board, said Admiral Harry Ulrich, chief of U.S. naval forces for Europe and Africa. The ship will carry between 200 and 300 personnel – exact numbers will change over time as experts and specialized teams come and go, Ulrich told reporters May 31 after describing the plan to West African diplomats and military officers in Washington. The ship’s personnel will focus mainly on training and working closely with Gulf of Guinea nations. Ulrich said he actively is seeking participation from European nations with an interest in West Africa as well as nongovernmental organizations. The idea is to create a “floating schoolhouse” in which multinational training teams can train in key activities such as port and oil-platform security, search-and-rescue missions and medical and humanitarian assistance. “I think there are plenty of opportunities for nations to participate,” Ulrich said. The ship has not yet been formally identified, and the six-month mission is part of a new concept that the Navy calls Global Fleet Station. The concept allows the Navy to conduct regionwide training and partnership missions involving hundreds of Americans and thousands of international personnel while minimizing the requirements for shore-based, host-nation facilities. The first Global Fleet Station mission began in late April when the high-speed vessel [HSV] Swift embarked on a summer-long tour to the Caribbean and Central America, with teams scheduled to visit Belize, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Panama, according to a U.S. Navy announcement. For the West African mission, Ulrich said the ship is expected to sail a circuit of Gulf of Guinea nations, including: Senegal, Liberia, Ghana, Sao Tome and Principe, Cameroon, Gabon and Angola. Ulrich said that Nigeria also has expressed interest but has just completed an election and is forming a new government, so discussions on Nigerian involvement likely will take place later this summer. Ulrich said the Gulf of Guinea naval mission is “closely aligned” with the creation of the new U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced by President Bush in February to coordinate U.S. military and government interests across Africa. Unlike a traditional military headquarters, AFRICOM is expected to focus on humanitarian, medical and training missions to assist African nations in creating the conditions for political, social and economic stability. The Navy has been increasing its presence in West Africa for several years, Ulrich said, but added that the new Gulf of Guinea initiative is “in the spirit of AFRICOM.” The initiative is a follow-up to a November 2006 conference in Benin, co-sponsored by the United States, in which 11 Gulf of Guinea nations agreed to work together to address maritime security issues. The Gulf of Guinea accounts for almost 15 percent of the U.S. crude oil supply and is rich in other natural resources. But the region also faces numerous challenges, including illegal fishing, piracy, oil theft, criminal activity and illegal trafficking. A priority for U.S. policy includes helping to foster economic and political stability, and good governance as ways to undermine factors that contribute to terrorism and other regional threats. The Navy’s training teams in West Africa will focus on four main themes: - Training maritime professionals, such as navy and coast guard crews; - Improving maritime infrastructure, such as protecting harbors, ships and oil platforms; - Enhancing maritime “domain awareness,” which concerns being able to monitor and identify illegal or hostile sea traffic; and - Strengthening maritime interdiction capability, such as being able to stop illegal traffic, as well as being able to conduct search-and-rescue operations or to to help mariners in distress. Retired Ambassador Peter Chaveas, director the African Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, a Defense Department initiative, said West African officials appear to support the idea of increased U.S. Navy training emphasis. But African nations also are concerned that the concept will not be long-lasting. “Africans show a great deal of skepticism. We have to … make the case that we’re with them for the long term,” he said. Ulrich said he intends to follow up the six-month Gulf of Guinea mission with a year-round presence. -ends- |
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US Gives Ten UH-1H Helos to Philippines
(Source: U.S. Embassy in the Philippines; issued June 8, 2007) Demonstrating the American people’s historic partnership with the Philippines, U.S. Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney will turn over to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo 10 UH-1H Huey helicopters in a June 9 ceremony. The helicopters, which were refurbished under a U.S. Government program, will be used by the Philippine Air Force (PAF) to supplement its modernization program and will increase PAF’s capabilities to combat terrorism and provide humanitarian assistance during natural disasters. The aircraft are part of 20 helicopters designated for the Philippines by President George Bush; 10 additional helicopters will be delivered later this year. They were refurbished in the United States through the U.S. Foreign Military Financing program at a cost of $22 million for the 20 aircraft. The U.S. gave nearly $30 million in Foreign Military Financing to the Philippines last year. Upon the helicopters’ arrival in May at Subic Bay, they were transferred to the Clark Economic Zone where PAF specialists conducted the routine maintenance and flight checks required for all aircraft, and painted the helicopters in the PAF color scheme. President Arroyo and Ambassador Kenney will celebrate the turnover of the aircraft in a traditional ceremony held on Saturday, June 9 at Villamor Air Base in Manila that will include pouring champagne over the nose of the helicopters. Other invited attendees include Secretary of National Defense Hermogenes E. Ebdane; Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Hermogenes C. Esperon, Jr.; PAF Commanding General Lt. Gen. Horacio S. Tolentino; and senior officers of the U.S. Embassy’s Joint U.S. Military Assistance Group. The U.S. Foreign Military Financing program is just one example of the long partnership between the Philippines and the U.S. This aircraft turnover, along with the turnover of a C-130 cargo aircraft in April 2006, is part of the long-term U.S. commitment to assist the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ modernization program. The U.S. military also provides training, advice, and security assistance, and shares information with the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Ongoing U.S.-Philippine military cooperative programs include Philippine Defense Reform; counter-terrorism training; annual exercises; education and training; advice and support for logistics, engineering, equipment, and maintenance; civilian assistance programs such as free community medical, dental, and veterinarian clinics; and humanitarian assistance cooperation during natural disasters. -ends- |
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Northern Africa...
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Commander Foresees Growth of Special Operations Forces
(Source: US Department of Defense; issued March 5, 2008) WASHINGTON --- The numbers of U.S. special operations forces are expected to grow in the years ahead as the United States continues its fight against global terrorism, a senior U.S. military officer told a Senate panel here yesterday. By direction of the president, U.S. Special Operations Command is the lead combatant command for synchronizing Defense Department planning for the global war against terrorism, Navy Adm. Eric T. Olson, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Today, special operators are posted in 58 countries, mostly in small numbers, Olson said. More than 80 percent of overseas-deployed SOCOM members serve with U.S. Central Command, which has responsibility for the Afghanistan and Iraq wartime theaters of operation. “Operational commanders have learned that no other force can accomplish such a broad scope of missions in such diverse operational environments,” Olson told committee members. Global demand for special operations troops exceeds the supply, Olson noted, adding that he sees no decrease in demand in coming years, even with the announced redeployments of some U.S. forces from Iraq. “We are expanding as fast as we reasonably can -- as fast as we can reasonably absorb the growth,” Olson said, noting he envisions a special operations forces growth rate of 3 to 5 percent annually. With headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., SOCOM provides special operators from all service components to support combatant commanders worldwide. Acknowledged experts in counterterrorism operations, special operations troops also perform psychological operations, as well as counter-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, direct action, special reconnaissance, unconventional warfare, civil affairs, training with foreign forces, information operations and other missions, as they relate to special operations. -ends- |
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5 arrested in attack near US Embassy
SAN'A, Yemen - Yemeni police have arrested five suspects in a mortar attack that American officials say targeted the U.S. Embassy but instead struck a girl's high school next door, an Interior Ministry official said Thursday. The three mortar rounds, which killed a Yemeni guard and wounded more than a dozen girls, appeared to have been fired Tuesday from the rooftop of a nearby building rented by the attackers, the ministry official said. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. The official gave no further details about the attackers, their identities or their motivation for the attack. |
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Basic Training |
what you didnt know that they have those its big in southeast asia. there are some islamic extremist in the carribean as well. |
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The 300: Thai Women Go To War
>>LINK<< --excerpt--
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Yemen holds 7 in Western complex blasts
>>LINK<< SAN'A, Yemen - Seven people were arrested Monday on suspicion of involvement in attacks against a residential complex for Westerners in Yemen's capital, a security official said. The official said some of those detained may have connections to al-Qaida, but he did not elaborate. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. Several explosions shattered windows at the complex in the upscale Haddah neighborhood in San'a on Sunday. Nobody was injured, but Western residents were seen evacuating the compound shortly after the attack with suitcases and boxes. A heavy security presence blanketed the area, with troops patrolling roads leading to the U.S. and British embassies. The security official did not release the names of the seven detained, and it was unclear if they were suspected of directly belonging to al-Qaida. Authorities have not yet blamed the terror network for the attack, the official said, adding that authorities were searching for three other suspects. A little-known group purportedly with al-Qaida links claimed later Monday it was behind the attack, launched allegedly in revenge for the slaying last year of Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah in Afghanistan. The Jund al-Yemen Brigades said in a statement, obtained by the Washington-based SITE group that monitors terror traffic on the Internet, that they had fired three mortar shells at the compound. The statement's authenticity could not be independently verified. Jund al-Yemen has claimed past attacks but al-Qaida has never confirmed any affiliation to the group and its postings have not carried routine markings of the terror network's media arm. Despite government efforts to fight the network, al-Qaida has an active presence in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world and the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden. Al-Qaida was blamed for the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden that killed 17 American sailors. Last month, mortar shells were fired at the U.S. Embassy in San'a but exploded instead at a nearby girls' school, killing a security guard and wounding more than a dozen students. Yemen is also grappling with violence in the south, where security forces have been trying to put down riots by thousands of former southern army officers, political activists and unemployed men who have accused the government of unequal treatment. A Yemeni soldier was killed Monday in the rioting, security officials said. Nineteen other people — soldiers and civilians — were wounded in continued clashes across several southern provinces. Residents said government forces fired live bullets and tear gas on demonstrators in the Abyan, Aden, al-Dhale' and Lahij provinces. The rioting has underlined increasing tensions between southern and northern Yemen, 14 years after a civil war. The protesters have been largely members of the army of south Yemen who were ousted after being defeated by northern forces. Four people have died since the violence broke out early this month, and scores of protesters have been arrested. |
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