Al-Qa'eda gets the RAF's message
 

In today's Daily Telegraph:-

Al-Qa'eda gets the RAF's message
By Thomas Harding
(Filed: 05/10/2005)

For a while, the 50 al-Qa'eda terrorists sheltering in a building deep in the Hindu Kush must have thought they were safe.

They had held off the Australian SAS for several hours, watching rockets and bombs drop around them, seemingly without much effect. Their confidence, however, was misplaced and short-lived.

Among their number, intelligence sources believe, was an influential al-Qa'eda figure. He was probably congratulating himself on his lucky escape just as 1,000lb of high explosive packed into an enhanced paveway bomb vaporised the building.

For a millisecond, before they were wiped out, the insurgents discovered the true meaning of the accuracy of GPS (global positioning system) guided weapons. The sortie was one of the biggest successes for the six GR7A Harriers stationed in Kandahar, where they support the Americans operating against Taliban and al-Qa'eda in the south and east of Afghanistan.

"Because we have bombed the enemy so effectively over a length of time people on the ground know that if they hear us then they are in trouble," said Wing Commander Bruce Hedley, the commanding officer of No 3 Squadron RAF.

His small force provides a "tremendous punch", flying over all of Afghanistan taking reconnaissance pictures and providing 24-hour firepower "whenever anyone shouts, 'I'm in trouble.' "

No 3 Sqn will also help British forces when they deploy to the volatile region early next year, part of a push to harry insurgents.

Two Harriers were patrolling over Uruzgan province in central Afghanistan when they spotted activity outside a cave system two weeks ago. Australian special forces were sent in and the insurgents fled. Unusually, they withdrew fighting, suggesting they were protecting a senior commander.

As the Australian SAS closed in, the Harriers launched a low-level rocket attack and followed up with a paveway bomb into a field nearby to let the terrorists know "we meant business" and give them the chance to surrender.

The message did not get through and they "got the second bomb". There were no survivors.

Aw C'Mon Now! Gimmee A Break Here!
 

Just put the bomb in their turban and call it message delivered!

"Knock! Knock!" "You're Outta Here!"

It makes nice reading.

But they've just recruited a hundred more terrorists.

This explains why

1. We will never win
2. The Americans bomb the Infant Schools and Wedding Receptions

I can hear OC 3 Sqn speaking, but I can see a Police Chief announcing that a terrorist has been shot six times in the head on the London Underground.

The man shot on the underground was found to be innocent, the people at wedding parties etc are "pressumed" to be innocent. By implication, you think the targets in this case were innocent - and your proof is?

I'm happy to assume that the Harrier blokes did a great professional job, and that they killed genuinely evil men who represented a real danger to us and our allies.

I will not lose one second's sleep over their fate.

I'm impressed that they chose to deliver a 'warning shot' to give the insurgents a chance to surrender. I'm kind of pleased that they didn't avail themselves of this opportunity, since I'm happier to see Islamist terrorists dead than captured, causing us difficulties as we struggle to balance our responsibilities and duties with the need to extract int and the natural desire for revenge.

BUT

SirP's LC is absolutely right. They will be replaced (probably at a ratio of ten to one) and this kind of breathlessly enthusiastic and triumphalist coverage will serve only to increase the danger to Britain, and to harden moderate Islamic attitudes against us.

It also seems more Sun-like than I'd expect from a supposedly serious and intelligent broadsheet, but then the Telegraph's defence coverage has gone terribly 'Beano' since Mick Smith left.

***Rant on***

Innocent?? I think a major point that everyone seems to be forgetting is the man shot by Police on the underground may have been innocent of terrorism , but was working in Britain illegally after staying on after his visa had run out – making him a criminal. His Brazilian family then appear over here and are incensed that he could ever have been harmed. Having personally lived in Sao Paulo off and on over the last few decades, the Police regularly (well at least monthly…) round up and kill upwards of 30 people a night for even the slightest of crimes (sleeping in the street etc) to which there is never a comeuppance. I have no sympathy for a man stealing money out of this country or his whinging family.

***Rant off***

Right, where were we??

I rub my hands with glee at the fire storm that post will ignite JNo:uhoh:

all spelling mistakes are "df" alcohol induced

So JNo, it's now ok for our police to be judge, jury and executioner is it? Where does that appear in law? When did Parliament debate that one? Where was I when the vote was taken? Overstaying a visa has never been punishable by death - except in Blair's Britain.

Jackoniko:

Well put.

The right wing tw@ts who are comfortable with vigilante justice sicken and disgust me, whether they're defending wicked pond life like Tony Martin or the unprofessional policemen who effectively executed a man who was innocent of any SERIOUS crime and who was, by all accounts, an asset to this country and his community.

JNo,

You need to loosen your tie, mate, I think you're suffering from restricted circulation above the shoulders.

woooahh slow down horsey.. :)

1. Its now been proven the policeman were unprofessional has it?

2. Not by all accounts was he an asset but I won't go there. Fact remains he should not have been in this country. No not a serious crime but still a crime.

One need look no further than this forum - not even in Jet Blast - to see how inflamed emotions are over both immigration and terrorism.

I fear our moderate law-abiding country that valued free speech and justice for all has gone.

So how do we get it back?

Is that another way of saying 1000' @ 6 :E

Have to say that a couple of hundred thousand pounds spent on a warning shot seems like a huge waste of money to me.

Could just be that the cement heads still can't bomb even with GPS and a spot!

lol, combine this with the typhoon gun thread on the warning shot issue! Surely a crv or 2 through the roof would have been warning enough?!

We have been here before with an emotional thread concerning the Brazilian. A thread which in the end had to be locked and showed this forum in a very poor light.

Please let us not go there again eh?

:(

"Fact remains he should not have been in this country."

Call me a pinko, but I'd rather have decent folk who make a contribution to our society living here than right wing knuckleheads who don't share the traditional British virtues of tolerance and openness, and who can't and won't extend the hand of friendship and welcome to those who do us the huge compliment of wanting to come and participate in British society.....

A hard working Brazilian bloke is likely to make more of a contribution than some slack-jawed dole-scroungin Essex Chav, however 'British' the latter might be.

Jackonico

The trouble with the Bleeding Hearts Brigade on this and other fora is that they can never come up with an answer to the question: "if you were an armed policeman tracking a suspected suicide bomber who entered a crowded public space and you were instructed to apprehend him, how would YOU set about it? Walk up to him, identify yourself as a policman, and ask him to raise his hands so that you can carry out a body search?" BOOM!

And you all believed the Daily Torygraph?

Was this a different incident from the one in the RAF News? The warning shot was a CRV-7. When that did not have the desired effect he let them have two pods. Hardly hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The only issue I have is the release of name and photo of the pilot. Me? I would prefer the grey suit and dark shades.

Well, I have to say I am disappointed in 'PPruners'. I put the DT article on the forum in the expectation that it might trigger a reasoned debate about the merits of the operation in Afghanistan, the role of the GR7 and the RAF in general and the likelyhood that our Tone is going to extend the UK's presence there.

I did not expect it to degenerate into hard-right -v- pro-immigration slanging match. Very distasteful and unworthy.

Can we now start the reasoned debate.....please?

I agree. Please keep the topic on track gentlemann - and ladies. These diversions lead to the wrong kind of debate - as they always do.