Get other General Politics hereIt is now more than three years since the 9/11 attacks. But the collapsing towers the smoldering Pentagon the round bland face of Mohammed Atta still have an intense immediacy. Most people will always remember where they were when the news came through. If some of the details have faded the mantra “the world has changed” seems as relevant as ever. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001 had an immense impact on global history. A retaliatory strike against the Taliban has mutated into an open-ended campaign to transform the Middle East. An unpopular president with a doubtful mandate has been able to make far-reaching changes to the US constitution and oversee a massive transfer of wealth to the rich. None of this would have been possible without the 9/
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.More than 1,100 soldiers, including 800 French legionnaires as well as US and Afghan commandos, launched a major operation east of the Afghan capital Kabul, military officials said.
Five US special forces soldiers were wounded in the fighting in the Uzbeen Valley, a Taliban stronghold where 10 French soldiers were killed in an ambush in August 2008, the officials said.
It was one of the biggest military deployments by the French army in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
The operation, codenamed Septentrion, was aimed at “reaffirming the sovereignty of Afghan security forces in the north of the Uzbeen Valley,” Colonel Benoit Durieux of the French Foreign Legion said. .
An official said three of the Americans were seriously wounded, and that the injured had been evacuated by helicopter to the nearby Bagram air base.
At least one militant was killed and three wounded in the fighting, Lieutenant-Colonel Herve Wallerand, who led the operation, said. Another one had his artery cut,” a US special forces officer at camp Rocco, the army’s advance outpost in the valley said. Jets also hit Taliban positions.
Attacked by the insurgents with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and heavy machine gun fire, the French troops responded with shells, backed up by French and US attack helicopters.
US President Barack Obama has pledged an extra 30,000 troops to bolster an international force of 113,000 already fighting a Taliban-led insurgency that has become more virulent and deadly over the past year.
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No break yet in Christchurch taxi driver slaying
By LOIS WATSON – Sunday, 07 December 2008
DECEASED: The body of Abdulrahman Ikhtiari lies near his taxi.
Taxi drivers call for security camera subsidy
Police say the public's response to their call for help in solving the brutal murder of a Christchurch taxi driver has been helpful but has led to no breakthroughs. Police and ambulance staff tried frantically to save him but he died at the scene.
Abdulrahman Ikhtiari, 39 was found lying near his taxi with a single stab wound to his chest about 1am yesterday.
Johnson said it did not appear that robbery was the motive for the attack but would not speculate whether the stabbing was racially motivated.
Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Johnson said witnesses reported seeing two men running from Ikhtiari's taxi immediately after the stabbing.
"This man. Ikhtiari had wounds on his body that could be defensive…"
The men, believed to be Ikhtiari's passengers, were heading east towards Fitzgerald Ave. is going about his lawful business, operating a taxi and he's been tragically attacked by two assailants which has caused his death.8m, with dark skin and short dark hair. They were both about 1.
No calls for help were made on Mr Ikhtiari's car radio, Radio New Zealand reported. One was wearing a dark top and trousers and a white bandana or cap, the other was wearing a white top and dark trousers.
It is just the second time a taxi driver has been murdered on the job in the past 10 years in New Zealand.
The taxi driver had fled persecution in Afghanistan and survived near disaster at sea to build a better life for his wife and five children in New Zealand.
Many other taxi drivers have been attacked most recently. .
Ikhtiari was among 141 refugees accepted by New Zealand from the Norwegian freighter Tampa. An Auckland taxi driver was stabbed by a passenger he picked up at the Viaduct last weekend. The Australian government refused to let the refugees land and they were sent to Nauru instead. The Tampa became the centre of international controversy in August 2001 when its captain picked up 430 asylum seekers from a sinking boat off the coast of Australia. They had fled Afghanistan because they were members of the Hazari ethnic minority persecuted under the Taliban regime. They had fled Afghanistan because they were members of the Hazari ethnic minority persecuted under the Taliban regime.
Ikhtiari had spent the first couple of years in Christchurch studying English and doing part-time factory work to support his wife and five children, aged seven to 16. About a year ago he had started driving cabs at night for United Taxis. He often felt intimidated by drunken and aggressive customers.
Ikhtiari's cousin, Mohammad Ikhtiari, said his family was distraught at the senseless killing. Ikhtiari's wife and sister had not stopped crying since being informed of his death.
He is angry that police appeared to have ignored previous complaints about the behaviour Afghani taxi drivers in Christchurch are subjected to.
Liz Smyth, who has close ties with Christchurch's Afghani community, said many of the men worked as taxi drivers despite having good qualifications because they needed immediate work so they could support their families. They worked long hours and often opted to drive at night because they could earn more money.
One Afghani taxi driver had been threatened with a screwdriver, another had had passengers refuse to get in his car when they discovered his nationality.
"A lot of the abuse is based on ignorance," Smyth said. "These people are very vulnerable and there needs to be a bit more protection really."
Ikhtiari is the second Tampa refugee who settled in Canterbury to die in tragic circumstances. Rahmatullah Qambari, 23, drowned in the Waimakariri River, north of Christchurch, on January 2, 2004.