Taliban Bombers Fail

Bombers try to storm U.S. base in Afghanistan

By Rahim Faiez - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Aug 19, 2008 8:25:46 EDT

KABUL, Afghanistan — A team of suicide bombers tried unsuccessfully to storm a U.S. military base near Afghanistan-Pakistan border in a daring attack on a major American installation, officials said Tuesday.

Militants failed to gain entry to Camp Salerno in Khost city after launching waves of attacks just before midnight on Monday, said Arsallah Jamal, the governor of Khost.

The attacks came a day after a suicide bomb outside the same base killed 10 civilians and wounded 13 others.

Soldiers on the ground, fighter aircraft and helicopters chased the retreating militants. NATO said its forces identified the attackers about 1,000 yards outside of the base perimeter and launched helicopter gunships.

Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, said Afghan soldiers, aided by U.S. troops, chased and surrounded a group of insurgents, and that six militants blew themselves up when cornered. Seven other militants died in those explosions and a rolling gun battle, he said.

“[The Afghan National Army] is saying that anytime we get close to them, they detonate themselves,” Jamal said.

NATO offered a slightly different account, saying three suicide bombers detonated their vests and three more were shot dead. NATO said seven attackers in total were killed.

At least 13 insurgents and two Afghan civilians died in the attack, officials said. Five Afghan soldiers were wounded in the fighting, Azimi said.

The Taliban appeared to confirm the account. Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said 15 militants had been dispatched for the attack on Salerno. Seven blew themselves up and eight returned to a Taliban safehouse, he said.

Jamal said the bodies of at least two dead militants were outside the checkpoint leading to the base’s airport. Both had on vests packed with explosives, Jamal said. It wasn’t clear if those militants were among the dead in Azimi’s count.

Militants have long targeted U.S. bases with suicide bombers, but coordinated attacks on such a major base are rare.

The attack comes a day after the top U.S. general in the region, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser, issued a rare public warning that militants planned to attack civilian, military and government targets during the celebration of Independence Day on Monday.

Meanwhile, 10 French soldiers were killed in fierce fighting about 30 miles east of Kabul on Tuesday. Qazi Suliman, the district chief in Surobi, said a French patrol came under Taliban attack on Monday, sparking a three-hour gun battle.

Any landing you can walk away from ...

.. is a good one?

Iran test-fires rocket

(CNN) — Iran test-fired a rocket that it plans to launch later to carry a research satellite into space, state-run media reported Sunday.

The launch of Iran’s two-stage rocket, called Safir or “messenger,” was successful on Saturday and “paved the way for placing the first Iranian satellite in orbit,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The test launch comes amid back and forth between Iran and Western powers on the country’s controversial nuclear program, and concerned senior U.S. officials, who said Iran could use the rocket to deliver warheads.

“The Iranian development and testing of rockets is troubling and raises further questions about their intentions,” said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Travis Air Force Base Fire

NYT: Space Probe Pinpoints Origin of Vapor Jets on Saturn Moon

Space Probe Pinpoints Origin of Vapor Jets on Saturn Moon


By KENNETH CHANG
Published: August 15, 2008

Exquisite close-ups of fissures on a tiny ice-ball moon of Saturn will provide the latest clues in solving how a 310-mile-wide ice ball could possibly be shooting geysers of vapor and icy particles.


Since the discovery of the jets in 2006, the moon, Enceladus, has jumped near the top of the list of potential places for life in the solar system. A warm spot near Enceladus’ south pole powers the jets and may also melt below-surface ice into liquid water, a necessity for living organisms.

On Monday, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft made its latest flyby of Enceladus (pronounced en-SELL-ah-dus), passing 30 miles above the surface at a speed of 64,000 miles per hour.

The new images, at seven meters per pixel, offer a resolution 10 times as great as earlier views. Scientists can now see the V-shaped walls of the fractures that are nearly 1,000 feet deep.

“This is the mother lode for us,” Carolyn Porco, leader of Cassini’s imaging team, said in a news release. “A place that may ultimately reveal just exactly what kind of environment — habitable or not — we have within this tortured little moon.”

The observations should help scientists understand how geological processes can persist on such a small body, which is being heated by tidal distortions induced by Saturn.

A series of long “tiger stripes” scar Enceladus’ solar polar region, and earlier observations had allowed the Cassini scientists to triangulate the origin of the jets within the tiger stripes and show that the warm spots also coincide with the tiger stripes. In its last flyby in March, Cassini flew through the plume and detected organic molecules, the carbon-based molecules that could provide the building blocks for life. Cassini also detected water vapor, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. The composition was surprisingly similar to that of a comet, scientists said.

In the fall, Cassini is to make an even closer near-miss of Enceladus, passing through the geyser within 15 miles of the moon’s surface.