Ops and Intel update.05.21.09

Mexico:

Hizballah is training Drug cartels in Mexico.

Training the cartel members in bomb-making.  

 Hizballah sells them heroin and trains them for cash.

The opium base or heroin is commonly trafficked by Tajik drug runners from Afghanistan, across N Iran to Syria to Hizballah where it is further refined, shipped from Syria to Mexico

Source, confidential., WORKING SECOND SOURCE

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al Qaeda:

AQ is recruiting from the dating websites.

More developing...WORKING SECOND SOURCE

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Swat:

Inquiry: Intel says, Seven highly trained Iraqi Al-Qaeda masterminds have entered Pakistan?

The ops in Swat are yielding a real intel bonanza, dozens of foreign fighters are being interrogated from all over.  Look for lots of arrests in Karachi, Peshawar, etc. 

 Intel overload right now Saudi, Libyan, Afghani, Syrian, Uzbek, Tajik and Chechen AQ mostly coming in from Iraq..  Calling them "masterminds" is a stretch, they are trained mainly in IED's and explosives. 

The Paki's are not sharing them with us, for now..

From Inside Beltway...WORKING SECOND SOURCE

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Paki Swat is drawing al Qaeda troops from all over M.E.

This would seem to verify Paki KIA reports.

And verify Paki has gotten serious about bringing

the Taliban to heel.

G

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‘I was standing in front of my trench, when I was shot…’ 

RAWALPINDI: ‘They used to attack early in the morning or after dark. They would always go for an ambush,’ said Lieutenant Zaigham, wounded in battle with the Taliban and lying in a hospital.

Zaigham – who did not give his full name – sustained shrapnel wounds from fierce street fighting in the Swat valley and is a patient at the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalpindi, away from the combat in the northwest.

Lying in bed with bandaged wounds, he and fellow soldiers spoke of intense battles against heavily-armed insurgents, who put up stiff resistance and are often able to outflank Pakistan’s well-equipped and motivated soldiers.

Pakistan has declared the combat area a closed military zone, sealed off to journalists and aid workers. It is impossible to corroborate information coming from behind the frontlines from either soldiers or trapped civilians.

From May 4 to May 17, when Zaigham was wounded, his unit advanced slowly from Khwazakhela in northern Swat to the nearby town of Matta, which has long been under Taliban control.

‘There were strong resistance during the entire journey but we managed to clear the area. They buried mines and planted IEDs (improvised explosive devices) every 50 metres,’ he said.

‘There were checkpoints, bases and training centres in the mountains. We were clearing and destroying all this.’

‘They positioned snipers in holes made out of the walls of houses. They used civilians as human shields. They used to attack from houses and roofs.’

‘They are well equipped, they have mortars. They have rockets, sniper rifles and every type of sophisticated weapons,’ said Zaigham.

‘I am certain that foreign elements are behind these militants. Can I ask something very simple – who are their sponsors? What their sources of funding? Who runs their logistics?’ he said.

Residents trapped by the fighting in Swat have also said the Taliban dug trenches and were well armed. US-based Human Rights Watch has accused the Taliban of using ‘human shields’ by preventing civilians from leaving.

Zaigham was wounded when a rocket shell exploded in Matta and shards of shrapnel sliced into his shoulder and leg. He needs constant care.

‘Some of my colleagues embraced shahadat (martyrdom) in this fight and some were wounded, but we forced the militants to retreat,’ he said.

Pakistan says more than 1,050 militants and 58 soldiers have been killed, but Taliban spokesmen speaking to local media heavily contradict those claims.

Neither have authorities released any word on civilian casualties.

Wounded soldiers who spoke to AFP said they were willing to lay down their lives for what commanders have declared a fight to ‘eliminate’ militants.

Soldier Haseeb Ahsan, 26, was among those flown into Peochar, in northern Swat last week in a bid to open a new front and wrest back control of a Taliban bastion and alleged stronghold of Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah.

The airborne troops admitted they came under heavy fire.

‘We landed in the jungle. Militants ambushed our group. I received two bullets in my right thigh, but I kept on firing’ he said.

‘My wish was to die in the way of Allah and for my country. I will definitely go back and hit them hard,’ he said.

One of the younger soldiers, Mohammad Asif, 18, was he was wounded last week in Swat’s main town of Mingora, where the Taliban are still in full control.

‘It was midnight. I was standing in front of my trench, when I was shot. They always attack secretly. I wanted to tell them ‘don’t attack like jackals, attack like men’,’ he said.

‘When I was hit, I returned fire and they ran away. I want to go back, I wish I could become a martyr for my country’ he said.

SOURCE:

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Islamabad, Thursday, May 21, 10.01GMTT

Support for Pakistan's war seems be to holding. Nightly, the county's media shows salute its soldiers.

One newspaper headline is particularly striking: "The nation speaks with one voice: Crush 'em!"

In the markets and coffee shops people seem to want the crisis over, but welcome the fact that the army is tackling the Taliban.

"The thing is, Pakistanis have realised that the Taliban have gone back on their promises, have shown themselves incapable of sticking to peace deals so Pakistanis have become fed up," Khadim Hussien, a university professor and analyst, told Al Jazeera.

"The Taliban are offering nothing - no new ideas, no way out."

It's an interesting thing to witness, this broad public and political support for the war.

SOURCE:

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Fortress Islamabad.

Huge concrete walls have gone up around some buildings. In other parts, black and yellow concrete safety barriers have turned open roads into go-kart courses.

The Marriott Hotel, subject to a massive bomb blast in September last year, is cocooned in a massive shell made out of blast walls and sandbags.

Armed guards, pump action shotguns draped casually over their shoulders, stand on every street.

Driving past the Parliament requires you to navigate several checkpoints and the route from one end of Islamabad to the other, which used to take 20 minutes, can now take an hour.

Fashion shows still happen here, there is a thriving arts scene, the markets are packed with every kind of Pakistani buying every kind of cloth and the cafes are still doing a brisk trade.

But it's not the carefree atmosphere of my youth. People tend not to hang around as much as they used to, most entertaining now happens at home and Islamabad's vast array of restaurants, though packed by day, remain emptier than ever at night.

Islamabad - they call it the beautiful city here. Carved out of the hills it's definitely that, but it's also nervy and tense. 

SOURCE:

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A shout of  "hurrah. hurrah", for the Pakis and Islamabad..G

“There is no God but Allah; Mohamed is the Messenger of Allah” In the name of God, praise be to God, and praise and blessings be upon the Messenger of God, his family, his Companions, and all those who follow him.

Those who believe, fight in the Cause of Allâh, and those who disbelieve, fight in the cause of the (false moujadeem), Tâghût (Satan). So fight you against thefriends of Shaitân (Satan). Ever feeble indeed is theplot of Shaitân (Satan the false Moujahedeen ). ] al-Nissa:76.

Gerald

Internet Anthropologist

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