War Bulletins Updated: Not the right bad guy

posted at 10:23 am on September 12, 2006 by Bryan
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Afghanistan: Bad guy bagged.

On the day of the fifth anniversary of the 9-11 attack, Coalition forces score a high value target in Afghanistan. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the commander of Hezb-i-Islami and ally of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, has been captured during a joint U.S. and Afghan Army raid in “eastern Afghanistan.” Hekmatyar, contrary to his rhetoric gave up to the Coalition forces without a fight. Hekmatyar’s arrest is said to be part of an ‘ongoing operation.’

Update: Wrong bad guy. The real Hekmatyar is still on the loose.

Afghanistan: NATO allies balk.

Five years after the world stood “shoulder to shoulder” with America in the aftermath of 9/11, The Times has learnt that many of the countries that pledged support then have now ignored an urgent request for more help in fighting a resurgent Taleban and its al-Qaeda allies.

Turkey, Germany, Spain and Italy have all effectively ruled out sending more troops. France has not committed itself either way, but the military sources in Kabul said that there were no expectations that the French would contribute to a new battlegroup, especially now that they were providing a substantial force in Lebanon.

They have rejected an appeal from General James Jones, the American Supreme Allied Commander Europe, for 2,500 more troops to fight alongside American, British, Canadian and Dutch soldiers. The 26-nation alliance has not volunteered a single extra combat soldier.

What’s needed are combat troops that can fight right alongside US and British combat troops, and that seems to be part of the problem: The countries named don’t have many combat units capable of fighting alongside US and British troops. What they do have, they don’t want to commit. Multilateralism does have its limits.

Denmark: According to a Qatari paper, explosives found last week resemble explosives used in London’s 7/7 attack.

Chemical explosives seized during a raid in Denmark last week are of the same type as those used in the July 2005 London bombings, known by the acronym TATP, tabloid B.T. reported yesterday.

A phial seized on September 5 at the home of one of the suspects held in an anti-terror swoop in Odense contains “a clear liquid consisting of a synthetic mix for the production of triacetone triperoxyde (TATP) and crystals consisting of TATP,” the paper said, quoting a laboratory analysis report.

The lab report was found on Saturday in the street outside the Copenhagen laboratory by a passerby, B.T. said.

Neither the Danish intelligence service PET nor the Odense police would comment on the newspaper report.

Six Danes and a foreigner aged 18 to 33, all Muslims, were arrested in a raid on September 5 suspected of planning terrorist bombings.

In addition to the TATP, police seized chemical fertilizers, bottles of natural gas and pieces of shrapnel, B.T. said.

TATP is relatively easy to make and has surfaced in a number of recent terrorism investigations, including bombings in the Middle East and the London bombings in July 2005.

And Syria: Terrorists killed attacking the US embassy.

Islamic militants attempted to storm the U.S. Embassy in Damascus on Tuesday using automatic rifles, hand grenades and at least one van rigged with explosives, the government said. Four people were killed in the brazen attack, including three of the assailants.

No Americans were hurt, and the attackers apparently did not breach the high walls surrounding the embassy’s white compound in the city’s diplomatic neighborhood.

But one of Syria’s anti-terrorism forces was killed and at least 11 others were injured, the country’s official news agency reported. The wounded including a police officer, two Iraqis and seven people employed at nearby technical workshop.

They attacked shouting “Allahu Ackbar,” in case anyone suspected these might be Episcopalean extremists.

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