Posted on 17 December 2009. Tags: air strikes, air strikes against al Qaeda
DEC 17 2009 YEMEN — Warplanes and security forces on the ground attacked an al Qaeda training camp in the area of Mahsad in the southern province of Abyan. Saleh el-Shamsy, a provincial security official, said at least 30 suspected militants were killed. Witnesses, however, put the number killed at over 60 in the heaviest strike and said the dead were mostly civilians. The United States has repeatedly called on Yemen to take stronger action against al-Qaida, whose fighters have increasingly found refuge in Yemen the past year.
Wikipedia: Mahsad | Abyan | Yemen | al Qaida
SOURCE: Yemen claims 34 killed in raid on Qaida hide-outs | Yemen says 30 militants killed in airstrikes
Posted in 24/7 ALERTS!
Posted on 17 December 2009. Tags: Arizona, arrest, cocaine, Drug cartel, drug trafficking, drugs, gun battle, gunbattle, heroin, kill, Mexican drug cartel, Mexico, raid, shootout
Two hundred sailors raided an upscale apartment complex and killed a reputed Mexican drug cartel chief ‘boss of bosses’ Arturo Beltran Leyva and three members of his cartel in a two-hour gunbattle — a significant advance in President Felipe Calderon’s drug war.
Cartel gunmen hurled grenades that injured three sailors — at least 10 explosions heard. The Beltrán-Leyva brothers have dominated drug trafficking — cocaine and heroin — across the border with Arizona.
Wikipedia: Beltrán-Leyva Cartel | Sinaloa Cartel
SOURCE: Mexican navy kills top cartel kingpin in shootout
Posted in 24/7 ALERTS!
Posted on 17 December 2009.
DEC 17 2009 BAGHDAD — A car bomb exploded outside a popular restaurant in central Baghdad on Thursday night, killing three people and wounding 16 as diners were out enjoying the start to their weekend. The explosion occurred about 7:10 p.m. outside the City Chef restaurant in the Karradah neighborhood. Diners were injured.
Wikipedia: Karradah (predominantly Shiite neighborhood)
SOURCE: Car bomb near central Baghdad restaurant kills 3
Posted in 24/7 ALERTS!
Posted on 17 December 2009.
Senior U.S. defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted video feeds by intercepting unprotected communications links in some of the remotely flown drone aircraft systems by using $26 software that could be purchased online. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber from the Russian company Sky Software to regularly capture UAV-drone video feeds. The U.S. government has known about the security breach flaw since 1993 in Bosnia, but a laptop confiscated from a Shiite militant last December contained drone feed evidence.
Newer ‘Reaper’ model drones are being developed and delivered to the military at about $10 to $12 million dollar per aircraft, which will also have to be retrofitted to provided a secure video communications link.
Posted in 24/7 ALERTS!, Video
Posted on 17 December 2009. Tags: climate conference, Conference of the Parties, COP 15, COP15, Copenhagen, environmental treaty, FCCC, global warming, international environmental treaty, protest, UNFCCC
Progress in the climate change summit in Copenhagen was in jeopardy Wednesday night with complex negotiations falling 18 hours behind schedule over failure to overcome disagreements on how to combat global warming. Outside the conference, police clashed with protesters, who broke through a security cordon in a failed to break in to the conference center. Climate secretary, Ed Miliband, warned of a “farce”.
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Posted in Energy, Protests
