The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.One for the good guys.
The removal of 550 metric tons of “yellowcake” — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy.
It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.
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RELATED: The capricious and unknowable...
..."Will of Allah"
The U.S. military said air strikes targeted a large group of militants in Nangarhar and no civilians were in the area.Unfortunately... there were here...
"Intelligence revealed a large group of militants operating in Deh Bala district. Coalition forces identified the militants in a mountainous region and used precision air strikes to kill them," a U.S. military statement said.
"We don't have any reports of any civilian casualties," said U.S. military spokesman Captain Christian Patterson. "There were not any women or children present in the area."
A Taliban suicide car bomber targeting German police trainers wounded three schoolgirls in relatively peaceful northern Afghanistan on Sunday, the deputy provincial police chief said.And right next door...
As foreign troops get better at protecting themselves from suicide bombs, most victims are ordinary Afghans. The Taliban killed some 200 civilians in suicide bombs last year.
At least 13 people have been killed in two bomb attacks in Iraq.Yeah... let's give these guys nuclear weapons.
In the first, a car bomb exploded in a mainly Shia district in north-eastern Baghdad, killing six people and injuring 14.
The second bomb, in the restive eastern province of Diyala, killed seven people, including the wife and two children of a Kurdish leader.
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UPDATE: On the other hand, if Pakistan falls...
It's a turnkey terrorist solution.
-- ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A senior government official says more than 10 police officers have been killed in a suicide attack in Pakistan's capital.*
The blast came as thousands of Islamists were gathered not far away to mark the one-year anniversary of a deadly military crackdown on a radical mosque. It was not clear whether the events were linked.