South Africans 'trained terrorists' (?)

[2RHPZ]

SA men 'trained terrorists'

26/07/2004 12:48
Tisha Steyn

Cape Town - Efforts to confirm whether one or more South Africans have been arrested during a raid on a suspected terrorist hide-out in eastern Pakistan failed on Monday.

Pauline Cilliers of the foreign affairs office in Pretoria confirmed that the department was aware of the reports.

All efforts to get hold of Ronnie Mamoepe, national foreign affairs spokesperson, failed, as he was "in a meeting".

Cilliers said they were "running around after receiving the report".

However, the first secretary of the Pakistan High Commission in Pretoria, Jawed Khattak, was available and told News24 that two South African men were apparently being held.

The website of Indian newspaper Dawn named the two South Africans as Zubair Ismael and Feroze.

Ismael was reportedly arrested along with his Pakistani wife Asya.

An earlier Associated Press report from Islamabad stated that three men, apparently a South African, a Sudanese and a Kenyan, were arrested along with others after a 12-hour shootout with security services in a small town in eastern Pakistan.

Neither the government of Punjab nor Punjab police would confirm if the arrested men belonged to Al Qaeda terror network, reported Dawn.

According to Dawn, police commandos surrounded the house in Mohallah Islam Nagar after officials of an intelligence agency confirmed, with the help of a foreigner in their custody, that there were foreigners in the house.

"The commandos ordered them to surrender, but instead of giving themselves up, the inmates opened fire on security forces. The commandos returned fire. Local people said that firing from both sides continued intermittently. Police evacuated the adjoining houses fearing a large-scale attack from the terrorists," Dawn reported.

According to the website, the siege continued for "the entire Saturday night and until 09:00 on Sunday". Eventually police commandos stormed the house after breaking the walls and the roof of one of the rooms. At one stage part of the house was on fire.

The siege only ended when the commandos used tear-gas, and a number of foreign nationals appeared in a window and indicated they wanted to surrender.

Police teams found two Kalashnikov rifles, two pistols, two hand-grenades, two laptop computers and other accessories and a large number of bullets in the house. They also found atlases, maps of some countries and some literature in Arabic. A packet containing a powder-like chemical was also seized.

The initial investigation showed that the foreigners had rented the house from a bank manager about one and a half month ago. Police detained a real estate dealer.

Dawn said five of the men, including the two South Africans, received training in Afghanistan and Iran and were believed to have been involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan over the past three years.

[Gringo]

Mercs?

[Trident-za]

This is causing quite a stir here in South Africa. It wouldn't suprise me if they are South African - or from any other country for that matter. Do all terrorists only come from "arab" countries? Of course not.......

[usa320]

Africa is becomming a great place for terrorists to hide...

With the exception of JTFHOA, there really arent any efforts to combat terrorism in Africa.

People seem to neglect the fact there is a problem with terrorism in Africa, though its quite obvious.

[Echo7]

Its no big surprise, that these men are from South Africa. There are two main fanatical groups that operate here, PAGAD and Quibla, that align themselves to Hamas and other terror groups.
Both of them have, and continue to train local muslims, in things like small arms, urban tactics and basic bomb building. As demonstrated by the bombing of Planet Hollwood in Cape Town, which has a large and somewhat militant muslim population. Durban also has its branches of the above two groups, only smaller. Training is conducted there also.
Our government stance is very weak on terrorism, especially if it is overseas conducted by a protected group (islamists), in all probablity they will get a slap on the wrist, if extradited here.
Our police force just doesn't have the capability to monitor the training/activities of these people.
Our intelligence services probably aren't interested, as there is no local threat.
Our current government is anti Israel / anti western/ and definitely not aligned with the USA.
Expect to see more.
Echo7 out.

[n4292936]

With the exception of JTFHOA, there really arent any efforts to combat terrorism in Africa.

Actually there are several others as well. Lets not presume to understand an entire continents strategic intent/operations/abilities from a steady diet of Fox News alone. Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and more than a couple more subsaharan countries have been battling their own indigenous terrorist groups for a while now - most of them without appreciable American help.

[Echo7]

"most of them without appreciable American help" - Assuming they would agree to American help in that sphere.
Most of them won't, because the governments are corrupt and a significant portion of their finances come from local islamic groups, not to mention precious votes.
Make no mistake. American aid and dollars are welcome, not so your help with the scourge of terrorism. That is the way in Africa.
Echo7 out.

[n4292936]

"most of them without appreciable American help" - Assuming they would agree to American help in that sphere.
Most of them won't, because the governments are corrupt and a significant portion of their finances come from local islamic groups, not to mention precious votes.
Make no mistake. American aid and dollars are welcome, not so your help with the scourge of terrorism. That is the way in Africa.
Echo7 out. Yes, I think many of the mentioned countries dont take American aid. More often than not, for better or worse, this is probably because it comes with conditions and strings attached. Nations like Algeria, Egypt, and the DRC dont rely on Islamic support to stay in power, and in fact have a history of fighting against islamic findamentalists (islamic brotherhood and in the case of Algeria: Armed Islamic Group (AIG), the Movement for an Islamic State (MIS), the Army of the Prophet Muhammad, the United Company of Jihad, and the Armed Islamic Movement (AIM)). Others in Africa such as Rwanda and Uganda have terrorist groups who aims are completely seperate from the standard islamic radicalist agenda. The Lords Resistance Army, for example, ostensibly works under a Christian banner.

[khukuri]

Egyptian sf were trained by american sf. Us repedly makes joint exerecises with wgypt paras.

Algeria and marooco get their help from france.
dam egypt even have abrams tank.