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Showing posts with label War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label War. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Iran Warships To Sail Through Suez, Israel Warns

iran warships, iran
Two Iranian warships planned to sail through the Suez canal en route to Syria on Wednesday, Israel's foreign minister said, calling the move the latest "provocation" by Tehran and hinting at an Israeli response.

Israel sees a major threat in Iran's nuclear programme and calls for its elimination, but the countries' geographical distance has kept them from open confrontation. Syria is one of Israel's neighbouring foes and an ally of Tehran.

"Tonight, two Iranian warships are meant to pass through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea and reach Syria, something that has not happened in many years," Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a Jerusalem speech distributed by his office.

"To my regret, the international community is not showing readiness to deal with the recurring Iranian provocations. The international community must understand that Israel cannot forever ignore these provocations."
(Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Source:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/16/suez-canal-iran-israel-syria_n_824037.html

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Israel Three Killed in Gaza

At least three Palestinians have been killed by tank fire near the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, reports say.
Medical staff and witnesses said Israel fired shots across the border near the town of Beit Hanoun in Gaza. One report said the two of those killed were a 91-year-old man and his 33-year-old grandson.

Militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip earlier fired a rocket into Israel but no casualties or damage were reported.
Adham Abu Salima, a spokesman for medical services in Gaza, told AFP news agency that the 91-year-old victim had been a caretaker at a farm.
His grandson died shortly afterwards from his wounds, he said.
The identity of the third victim was not yet clear.
Israeli army radio described the people killed as "terrorists" and said that at least one of them was armed. There has been an increase in rocket fire from Gaza in the past week, although it is nearly always ineffectual.
One Thai farm worker in Israel has been killed by rocket fire from Gaza in the past 18 months while scores of Palestinians in Gaza have been killed over the same period.
The increase in rocket fire comes as the US is trying to relaunch peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
Hamas is rejecting those talks.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Ten killed in Drone Attacks in North Waziristan

At least ten people were killed in twin drone attacks in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) capital Miranshah, Geo News reported Wednesday.

According to sources, the US surveillance plane attacked on two houses with missiles in border area of North Waziristan’s Dargha Mandi at Ghulam Khan Road area, killing at least six people on the spot and injuring two others.

Both the houses were completely destroyed in the attack. The deceased could not be identified as yet. The drone plane’s second attack was in Ambor Shaga on Dattakhel Road, where two missiles were fired at a vehicle, killing four people and injuring another man.

The spy planes are still making low flights in the area.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Seven US soldiers killed in Afghanistan

Seven US soldiers have been killed in two bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan, the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) says.

Five troops were killed by a roadside bomb in one incident while two others died in a separate bomb attack, Isaf said in a statement. Witnesses in Kandahar said a US Army vehicle hit a bomb in the early afternoon, the Associated Press said.

Fourteen US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in the last three days.

Meanwhile, the governor of the Lalpor District in Nangarhar Province was killed by a car bomb in the city of Jalalabad on Monday, according to police spokesman Ghafor Khan.
 The bomb, which had been planted on the vehicle, exploded while it was driving into a government compound, said Mr Khan.

Governor Syad Mohammad Palawan was reportedly travelling to a meeting of provincial security and political leaders when he was killed.
The US has sent an extra 30,000 troops to Afghanistan since December 2009 in an effort to defeat the Taliban. US troops now comprise roughly 100,000 of the 120,000 foreign military soldiers in Afghanistan, most in the south and east where the Taliban is most deeply entrenched.

Foreign troops fighting the Taliban operate under US and Nato command and are supporting Kabul's Western-backed government against a Taliban-led insurgency that has gained strength in recent years.News of the most recent attacks comes a week after a senior US general in Afghanistan said President Barack Obama's July 2011 deadline to begin pulling troops out of the country was encouraging the Taliban.

The White House is expected to review the Afghan war in December.

More than 1,200 US soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2001.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Secret of Lawrence of Arabia revealed

The diary of one of the British officers's colleages records the existence of the so-called ''X Flights'' led by Lt Col TE Lawrence across the former Ottoman empire.
James Hynes, 80, discovered the documents after his cousin told him that her father served alongside Lt Col Lawrence during World War One.

She revealed that she had kept typed up copies of his journal.

The diaries describe everyday life in the Turkish desert during World War One, including how one of Lawrence's aristocratic men managed to burn breakfast for the squadron after being ordered to cook an English fry up.

Lt Col Lawrence had led the '''X flight'' sorties in 1918 against the Turks accompanied by a handpicked team of colleagues which included the sixth Earl of Winterton who was then a sitting MP.

The secret missions helped Lt Col Lawrence capture Damascus in 1918 where he became instrumental in setting up an Arab government.

But the flights were so sensitive the RAF were said to have known nothing of them and they remained a secret - eluding depiction in the 1962 Hollywood movie Lawrence of Arabia starring actor Peter O'Toole.

Now details of the flights have emerged in diaries complied by an aircraft mechanic George Hynes who was one of Lawrence's closest aides during the Arab revolts.

In one entry Hynes flight sergeant air mechanic wrote: ''All who took part in the Desert Operations had a great respect for Lawrence the Amateur soldier.''

Mr Hynes's nephew James, 80, of Mold, North Wales, who has now written a book based on his uncle's diaries said: ''"As the years went by, I wondered what had happened to Uncle George's stuff.

"When I got in touch with my cousin Ellen, she said she had a 220 pages of typed script pages. He had typed them from his original notes and they were very faint because he had typed them up on a typewriter in the 1930s.

''It is obvious George wanted to rush to Lawrence's defence because there were times when people dismissed him as a bit of a romancer.

''But it was amazing to see details of the X Flights. A lot people obviously know about Lawrence himself but nobody really knows about the X flight - not even the RAF.

''The only people that really knew about the X flights were the people conducting the war in the desert. As soon as they got orders to move after Lawrence had taken Damascus they were simply whisked away.
''It was so secret in fact that after George had been demobbed in 1919 he tried unsuccessfully for two years like the other flight members to get back pay for taking part in them but they didn't get it as the RAF knew nothing about it.''

'X Flight' was a small group of planes used by Lt Col Lawrence and his company to carry out secret missions after taking the town of Aqaba in 1917 during the Arab revolts against the Turks, who had sided with Germany.

Missions included bombing Turkish railway lines, cutting off supply routes and telegraph wires. George Hynes was responsible for keeping the aircraft airworthy. The crew worked in difficult desert conditions, living and working in temperatures that varied between freezing and 100 degrees.

But the diaries detailed the camaraderie between the troop made up of people from different walks of life.

One of his entries said: ''Lord Winterton said to one of Rigger mechanics: ''Wheeler what about breakfast this morning?'' in that English long drawn pronunciation as he would state the perfect English in that peerage manner.

''Lawrence said in his short but polite low voice: 'yes what about you Winterton making breakfast this morning? These men have a rough time getting here.''

Lord Winterton replied: ''Good idea give me the bacon etcetrah!'' and Wheeler settled down to light the fire built of scrubs in desert method and commenced operations.

''Winterton fried the bacon strips that they must have scrounged, for our parties never had such a luxury in advance operations.

''He was doing his best but it caused much humour that us British soldiers relish because Winterton had damned near burnt it all to a cinder as they say in Lancashire.

''That was an incident that Lord Winterton, Lawrence and our ranks fitted into the picture with a true spirit of comradeship on the desert for Lord Winterton was a recruit to desert warfare in Arabia.''

James Hynes a retired English and education lecturer, added: ''Their task on a daily basis was to take reconnaissance photographs to bomb, to machine-gun, and very often to convey Lawrence about to secret airbases.

''The only time the aircraft could fly was 4-6am when the air was cool. The Turks would be at their busiest in the latest time of day when they knew they weren't going to get attacked. The afternoon temperatures might be 100 degrees so it was too dangerous for them to fly.

"Very often these young men would be sleeping in the desert with not only their grey coats but also blankets as it was so cold.

"The x-flight aircraft would take pictures, they would bomb, they would machine-gun and they would attack.

"'Very often Lawrence, would stay on the secret airfield with the fliers and their airmen. But it was made sure he was getting certain messages would dropped for him in bags.

"At one time George had to go out to an aircraft that had gone down in the desert with Lawrence onboard.
''He got a message to go down, George went as a mechanic in charge they saw where the aircraft had come down with Lawrence as passenger. George then fixed the mechanical fault and helped to get the aircraft going again with Lawrence onboard. If he hadn't have fixed it Lawrence would never have survived.
George Hynes maintained contact with Lawrence before the army officer died in a motorcycle accident in 1935 aged 46. George himself died in 1973 aged 78.
When the Lawrence of Arabia film was shown in Liverpool in 1962, George thought it was a pity nothing was ever shown about X flights. He died without knowing that people are reading about it now.

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