Trouble in Paradise - Taliban Groups Form To Fight Baitullah Mehsud

I love it! Infighting in the Taliban ranks in North and South Waziristan could lead to some interesting developments and hopefully, a couple of hundred dead Taliban when the smoke clears. Here's some of the details from Daily Times:

“We have formed a bloc to defend the Wazir tribes’ interests in North and South Waziristan,” Taliban commander Maulvi Nazir told Daily Times in Wana. He said the bloc was established on Monday. Nazir joined hands with Haji Gul Bahadar, a Taliban chief from North Waziristan, after several weeks of discussions.Differing views: “The two Taliban commanders do not have good relations with Baitullah Mehsud, and both Gul Bahadar and Maulvi Nazir disagree with Baitullah’s methods of conducting jihad inside Pakistan,” the analysts said.

Baitullah Mehsud has an ego the size of Pakistan itself and my guess is he is going to try and teach these two renegades a thing or two. His problem is going to be public opinion and by turning a bunch of the tribal peoples against him, he might start seeing some of his own turf being swallowed up.

The article goes on to mention another sticky point for the local madman, Mehsud:

Analysts claim that Bahadar’s ‘control’ of border areas in North Waziristan will make Baitullah’s passage through “enemy territory” difficult.

So, there you have it. Old Baitullah Mehsud might just find himself all caged up and cornered like a rabid dog. Like I say, I hope he lashes out with a vengeance and all that remains is a valley chockfull of Taliban bodies.

Mehsud challenged by new militant bloc

WANA/MIRANSHAH: Conflicts surfaced within the ranks of militant leaders on Tuesday when Taliban commanders from the Ahmedzai and Utmanzai Wazir tribes announced the formation of a bloc against Baitullah Mehsud.“We have formed a bloc to defend the Wazir tribes’ interests in North and South Waziristan,” Taliban commander Maulvi Nazir told Daily Times in Wana. He said the bloc was established on Monday. Nazir joined hands with Haji Gul Bahadar, a Taliban chief from North Waziristan, after several weeks of discussions.

Differing views: “The two Taliban commanders do not have good relations with Baitullah Mehsud, and both Gul Bahadar and Maulvi Nazir disagree with Baitullah’s methods of conducting jihad inside Pakistan,” the analysts said.Meanwhile, Baitullah Mehsud distributed pamphlets in Miranshah on Tuesday, proclaiming that he would never fight Gul Bahadar or his men. Mehsud also demanded of mujahideen in the pamphlet to prove that he had ever said he would fight Gul Bahadar. Analysts claim that Bahadar’s ‘control’ of border areas in North Waziristan will make Baitullah’s passage through “enemy territory” difficult.

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Egypt Arrests More Than 100 Terrorists In Raids

Egypt conducted raids on terror cells across the country yesterday and yielded over 100 arrests. Let's look at some of the details here from The Jerusalem Post:

Security forces are referring around 110 suspects to the supreme state security prosecution, security sources told the Egyptian independent newspaper Al-Masri Al-Yawm.
They said three cells, led by operatives from outside of Egypt, had allegedly planned bombings in three large cities and that they had espoused an ideology of takfir, or accusing others of infidelity.
Large quantities of explosives and weapons were found in the suspects' possession, as well as maps of official institutions in the country.

Now the article goes on to say that the Egyptians are trying to improve their position with America but I don't buy that totally - if you read the above quote, you'll see this:

They said three cells, led by operatives from outside of Egypt, ....

This has got to be worrying the Egyptians - these leaders of these cells are linked to al Qaeda and if you are the government of Egypt, you've got your issues with the Muslim Brotherhood right in your midst and add in a bunch of al Qaeda terrorists and you've got the makings of a very violent summer.

One other thing the article mentions is that these terror cells had been recruiting young fighters from local universities.

Egypt arrests over 100 terror suspects

Egyptian security forces recently arrested more than 100 people throughout the country who are suspected of plotting terror attacks.

Large quantities of explosives and weapons were found in the suspects' possession, as well as maps of official institutions in the country.

The suspects are also being accused of using mosques to propagate their ideology, trying to instill a Jihadist world-view in students from Al-Azhar University and recruiting them to carry out their plans.
The defendants deny the accusations against them.
Analysts said the arrests could very well be genuine attempts by Cairo to clamp down on al-Qaida-inspired terrorism, but caution there are likely to be political motives behind such arrests.
Mubarak's regime faces fierce criticism inside the country, compounded by the food crisis and price hikes of basic commodities.
Given the criticism, it stands to reason that Cairo would wish to deflect attention from these problems and these arrests come at an opportune time, analysts said.
Cairo is under pressure from the United States and Israel to reform its human rights situation after hundreds of members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition group in Egypt, were arrested ahead of the local elections in April.
Egypt has also been accused of not doing enough to stop the smuggling of weapons and terrorists through tunnels from Sinai to the Gaza Strip.

Pakistani Govt Forces Capture 18 Taliban In Khyber Conflict

More enouraging news coming out of the Pakistani government's push of security forces into both the Khyber trial area and the North West frontier area of Peshawar. First, let's look at the details from Breitbart concerning the Khyber operation:

Pakistani security forces destroyed two major militant sites and arrested 18 resisting insurgents as part of an operation in the troubled Khyber tribal region that entered its fifth day Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said.
The militants were captured Tuesday at the home of hardline cleric Mufti Munir Shakir. They skirmished with paramilitary forces, who destroyed Shakir's home. Also destroyed was the residence of a rival cleric, Pir Saifur Rehman, according to a ministry statement issued late Tuesday.

What's really been impressive in the Pakistani show of force has been the very low level of loss for the government's security forces. The Pakistani government put out this statement:

The government said the "basic purpose of restoring normalcy and law and order has been achieved with minimum damage and without collateral losses."

Now, if I was them, I'd refrain from counting my chickens too fast - there's a lot of Taliban in those mounains and a lot of tribes sympathetic to them.

Pakistan arrests 18 militants in northwest

Supporters of the two clerics have clashed in recent years, adding to the volatility in the semi-autonomous tribal regions, which are considered havens for Taliban and al-Qaida fighters who stage cross-border attacks in neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistan launched the offensive over the weekend after militant activity in the tribal areas began to threaten Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, as well as a key supply line for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The paramilitary forces have encountered relatively little resistance overall.
In a separate statement, the ministry and local political administrators said recent police raids led to arrests of 46 alleged criminals in Peshawar. Arms and drugs also were recovered.
The government said the "basic purpose of restoring normalcy and law and order has been achieved with minimum damage and without collateral losses."
So far during the military operation in Khyber, authorities say forces have destroyed several militant centers, including a radio station, and recovered some men kidnapped by militants and criminals for ransom.
Although Pakistan has previously launched operations against militants in the troubled North and South Waziristan tribal areas, the offensive in Khyber is the first since parties opposed to President Pervez Musharraf came to power after February elections.
The new government has also sought to reduce violence through peace deals with militants, raising concerns in the U.S. that negotiations would simply give room and time for extremist fighters to regroup and intensify attacks in Afghanistan.
The government has not backed off of its plans to negotiate peace, but said it had to take military action because of the threats to Peshawar.
Still, Taliban leaders have vowed revenge over the offensive, and Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistan's top Taliban commander, has suspended peace talks between his allies and the government.

Taliban Get Caught Between A Rock And A Hard Place And 33 Don't Need Their Turbans Anymore

Wow, this is one battle I'd like to see the video of - from Bill Roggio's Long War Journal comes this report:

The US military and Afghan National Army fought yet another major engagement in eastern Afghanistan along the border with Pakistan. An estimated 33 Taliban were killed in a battle in the Spera district in Khost province.
The battle began after the Taliban launched a complex attack on a US outpost in the Spera district, right along the Pakistani border. The Taliban followed up a rocket attack with small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire. US forces beat back the attack with "mortar, artillery fire and close air support," the International Security Assistance Force reported in a press release.
The Taliban fighters "crossed into Pakistan." The US military said the Pakistani border guards launched an artillery strike at the Taliban forces, and estimated 33 Taliban fighters were killed in the fighting. No US or Afghan forces were killed in the engagements.

Can you imagine the look on those Taliban faces as they are high tailing it into Pakistan and all of sudden they have Pakistani artillery raining down on them from the front and they've got American AH-64's coming hard from behind them?

Once again, the Taliban are trying these frontal assaults but now, with Paki troops on the border that does some serious damage to the exit strategy for the Taliban. For years now, the Taliban have thought that they can overrun these U.S. and NATO outposts - they put a lot of planning into it but they just never get it through their heads that the Americans and coalition troops in those outposts are well armed AND sharp shooters.

33 dead Taliban is a great day, any day. And I encourage you to read below or the full article for the full tally of dead Taliban over the past two weeks. It's bloody awesome.

US repels Taliban attack on the Pakistani border

The Taliban have launched a series of attacks against district centers and Afghan and Coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan. Paktika, Paktia, and Khost provinces have seen an increase in attacks over the past two weeks. The Taliban are attempting to destabilize the eastern region and overrun Afghan government centers. Many of the attacks have originated from Pakistan.
Twenty-two Taliban were killed after Afghan police repelled attacks on two district centers in Paktika province and one in Paktia province on the night of June 24. Earlier that same day, a large Taliban force made up of Afghan, Arab, and Chechen fighters attacked a district center in Paktia. Afghan and US forces killed 16 Taliban during the attack.
US and Afghan forces killed 55 Taliban and wounded another 25 during a massed attack on a patrol in neighboring Paktika province on June 20.
Two large-scale rocket and mortar attacks were launched from Pakistani soil during the same timeframe. On June 27, a Taliban rocket team fired at a US outpost in Paktika province. The Taliban also fired rockets at a US base in Paktika on June 21. One Afghan woman and three children were killed in the attack. US forces launched artillery at Taliban positions inside Pakistan after both attacks.
The three provinces border Taliban-controlled tribal agencies of North and South Waziristan in Pakistan. The Taliban, led by Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan and the Haqqani family in North Waziristan, use the tribal agencies as bases to attack US and Afghan forces.
US forces have singled out the Haqqanis as a major threat in eastern Afghanistan. Siraj Haqqani is one of the most wanted men in the region because of his close links with Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.
Taliban attacks in eastern Afghanistan have increased by 40 percent since last year, Major General Jeffrey Schloesser, the commander of Combined Joint Task Force-101, said during a briefing on June 24. While the attacks are “not really effective in lethality” they are “increasingly more complex."
The strikes are originating in Pakistan, Schloesser said, noting that the “enemy's taking refuge and operating with what I will call some freedom of movement in the border region, and they're using this sanctuary to reconstitute, to plan and to launch attacks into Afghanistan.”

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Taliban Leader Mullah Omar Living In Quetta Sporting Shades?

You know, if this is true, it does prove how far reaching America's efforts to squash Taliban rule has been. No, I don't say that because of battle victories or because of ground lost by the Taliban. I say that because of this , taken from the article here at CanadaEast:

He says the Taliban founder has turfed his trademark turban, trimmed his beard and begun wearing sunglasses.
"He has totally changed his appearance," says Zaher, a self-described Taliban commander under the former regime.
"He does not look like a Talib anymore. He does not even wear a turban."

This reporting of Omar's appearance and whereabouts is coming from Mullah Mohammed Zaher who has sat down with Omar many times and seen Omar conducting prayer services at a mosque in Quetta. Now, the question is whether or not to believe Zaher.

But back to my point, which is that the once mighty Mullah Omar, the defiant one...has turned tail and has compromised even his traditional Taliban appearance to save his lousy skin.

Now, on a side note, I have to ask a seemingly obvious question. If you are a Taliban leader and one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, would wearing sunglasses in the middle of Quetta, Pakistan REALLY make you blend in? I mean really, how many Pakistanis are walking around with RayBans on ? : )

Mullah Omar wears shades, has trimmed beard, lives in Pakistan: ex-follower

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The notorious leader of the Taliban, one of the world's most wanted fugitives, has reportedly had a makeover and been sighted on numerous occasions in Pakistan.
The one-eyed cleric Mullah Omar has significantly changed his appearance since he fled from his native Afghanistan seven years ago, says a former follower. Mullah Mohammed Zaher says he has personally met with the reclusive jihadist several times in Quetta, Pakistan.
He says the Taliban founder has turfed his trademark turban, trimmed his beard and begun wearing sunglasses.
Coupled with the fact that few pictures of him exist, Zaher says it would be difficult to pick Omar out of a crowd.
"He has totally changed his appearance," says Zaher, a self-described Taliban commander under the former regime.
"He does not look like a Talib anymore. He does not even wear a turban."
Zaher says Omar has several safe houses in the Quetta area, and that he has eaten meals with him there more than once in recent years.
"I used to meet him. I have seen his home," Zaher said through a Pashto-language interpreter.
"He used to call us over."
Zaher also lent support to a claim made five years ago by Afghan President Hamid Karzai about what the Taliban founder has been up to.
He says Omar is now a religious imam and has led Friday prayer services at a mosque next to a medical clinic in Quetta's Saleem plaza.
The Afghan president publicly declared in 2003 that his intelligence sources had informed him that Omar was seen praying at that mosque in the bustling plaza.
Despite Karzai's claim, few reports have emerged since then about the fugitive mullah's whereabouts.
"We got a call about 10 days ago from our sources in Quetta that Mullah Omar was seen at a mosque near Saleem complex in the city," Karzai told Newsline.com in December 2003. "I know where the Saleem complex is. I have lived in Quetta myself for many years."
A U.S. intelligence source told CNN in 2006 that American officials believed Omar was in the Quetta area, and that at one point they had his whereabouts pinned down to a precise neighbourhood.
Britain's Independent newspaper reported last year that Omar was being sheltered by Pakistan's intelligence services - a claim the Pakistani government vigorously denied.
But Zaher says it's true.
He says Omar has even spent the night on a military compound in the Nawakilli area near Quetta, where he says he and other militants received bomb-making lessons from members of the Pakistani army.
Zaher escaped to Pakistan after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
He says he became tired of facing harassment and extortion from corrupt officials in the new Karzai government, and he moved his family to Quetta in 2003.

Israel Seals Gaza Crossings After Pali Rocket Attack

Israeli radar indicated a rocket was fired into southern Israel Monday night and thus closed the cargo crossings into the Gaza Strip, and of course, Hamas was quick to deny it and blah...blah..blah. Here's some of the details from Breitbart:

Gaza's Hamas rulers denied a rocket was fired on Monday evening, and accused Israel of looking for excuses to shirk its commitment under the cease-fire agreement to ease its blockade of impoverished Gaza.
"The closing of the border today is unjustified and another indication that the Israeli occupation is maneuvering and trying to dodge the conditions of the calm understanding," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
The Israeli military said its radar detected a rocket launched from Gaza that struck near the communal farm of Mefalsim.

And here's my favorite line from the article:

It was not clear how Hamas would know definitively whether a rocket was fired. Several militant factions operate inside Gaza

Hahaha. Nice little jab by the writer of this - and it is spot on. Hamas was so quick to deny this that it's ridiculous. When the first rockets were fired into Israel after the truce was signed, it took Hamas about five days to admit that the rockets were fired (but of course, it was blamed on Islamic Jihad). But this time, there is an immediate denial?

We all know that Hamas cannot be trusted and at the same time, I think the whole world is becoming weary of this constant victim status the terrorist organization continually assumes.

Israel seals Gaza crossings after rocket attack

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel closed its cargo crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after accusing Palestinian militants of firing a rocket at southern Israel in violation of a shaky truce.
Gaza's Hamas rulers denied a rocket was fired on Monday evening, and accused Israel of looking for excuses to shirk its commitment under the cease-fire agreement to ease its blockade of impoverished Gaza.
"The closing of the border today is unjustified and another indication that the Israeli occupation is maneuvering and trying to dodge the conditions of the calm understanding," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
The Israeli military said its radar detected a rocket launched from Gaza that struck near the communal farm of Mefalsim. But it said actual rocket fragments were not located, and local security officials were searching for them Tuesday morning.
It was not clear how Hamas would know definitively whether a rocket was fired. Several militant factions operate inside Gaza.
No injuries or damages were reported Monday, but Israel has taken a zero-tolerance approach to any violation of the cease-fire. Since the truce went into effect on June 19, the crossings have been closed for five days because of rocket and mortar attacks.
None of them has caused serious injuries or damage