In Afghanistan:
Two civilians thwarted an attempted terrorist attack Tuesday when a vehicle loaded with explosives attempted to crash through the front gate of a U.S. base in the Afghan capital, according to the U.S. military.And success in Pakistan:The two men, an interpreter and a security guard, dragged the apparent suicide bomber from the vehicle before he could detonate explosives, said Col. Tom Collins, the chief spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
"I think it's a pretty amazing and heroic event," Collins said.
He said that at about 9 a.m. Tuesday (10:30 p.m. ET Monday) a driver crashed his vehicle into Camp Phoenix, the base where the Afghan National Army and police are trained. The driver reached for what appeared to be a cord to detonate a bomb, he said.
"Amazingly, a couple of Afghans who just happened to be on the scene there realized what was happening," Collins said.
"Anyone's inclination would have been to run away but these guys are genuine heroes," Collins said.
Five compounds of al Qaeda's winter hideout, where foreigners and local militants train to make bombs, were the target of an air strike this morning in South Waziristan, Pakistan, according to a senior Pakistani official.(via)
Around 30 were killed, including many foreign fighters from Uzbekistan and Chechnya. There is also suspicion that some Europeans might be among the dead. So far, officials there do not expect to find any high-value targets, such as Osama bin Laden or his top deputy Ayman al Zawahri, amongst the dead.
"We had confirmed intelligence of 25 to 30 personnel, including a few foreign terrorists and their local facilitators," said the spokesman for the Pakistan Army, Major General Shaukat Sultan. "As a result of the strike, three out of five compounds have been destroyed, and two could not be hit."
One of the comments caught my eye:
An AQ HQ in Pakistan, huh?When I read things like this I think that people just don't get this war. They haven't a clue that this is not revenge for 9-11, this war is about fighting an enemy that is in many countries and who want to end our way of life because they want us to submit to Allah. What happened on 9-11 brought us into the fight, it was a sucker punch but it wasn't the only part of the fight. This war will take many forms and will be fought on many different battlefields. I really wish that people actually got that.
Isn't it interesting? Cheney and W say we will chase Iranians across the border as need be. But chase the real perps of 911 into Pakistan? Nope.
I dont want to believe those 911 conspiracy theories, but...
