Commonwealth Bank of Australia & Iranian Bank Taavon Kesharzi

I wonder why is the Commonwealth Bank of Australia,
New South Wales, Sydney, Australia is looking for Transfer Swift code information for Iranian Bank Taavon Kesharzi?

This Bank, @
No. 129 Patrice Lumumba Street, Jalal-Al-Ahmad Expressway, P.O. Box 14155/6395, Tehran, IR

Is on the US Federal Excluded Parties list.

Any ideas?

Adrian Martin was right, and bow Counter- AQIM Offensive appears to be underway.
-shimron Issachar

Mali pursues al Qaeda suspects in north - source

09 May 2009 15:59:56 GMT 09 May 2009 15:59:56 GMT
Source: Reuters

* Three army units sent in pursuit of armed group
* Hunt comes before deadline in British hostage case
* Sahara states said preparing possible joint action
By Tiemoko Diallo

BAMAKO, May 9 (Reuters) - Mali launched an operation aimed at flushing out suspected al Qaeda militants in the Sahara on Saturday and states in the region are preparing for a joint crackdown, military sources said.

A group called al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is threatening to kill a British hostage, believed to be held in the region, on May 15 unless Britain releases a Jordanian Islamist it is holding in prison.

• Mali's army sent three combat units from the northern town of Kidal to pursue a convoy of armed men spotted in the region close to its borders with Algeria and Niger, said the source, who requested anonymity.
• "We are awaiting what comes out of it. We do not know whether they are Salafists or another armed group ... but we think they are Salafists," said the source.

The AQIM title was adopted when rebels with Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) affiliated themselves to the al Qaeda network.

Mali and others in the region such as Algeria, Niger and Mauritania are trying to deflect pressure from Europe and the United States to tackle Islamist militant violence there.

• It was not immediately clear whether the Malian operation heralded a wider offensive. However, a senior military source in Niger confirmed there were preparations for a joint effort.
• "This is a about attacking head-on a joint problem, namely the presence of terrorists linked to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in this vast area," said the source.

The source, who requested anonymity, did not specify when any operation could be carried out but said Niger's army chief, General Moumouni Boureima, had recently travelled to Algeria to discuss planning with officials there.

"Algeria has supplied military aid to Niger and we would like it to do the same for us." The source said Mauritania could also take part in any joint crackdown.
AQIM has been waging a campaign of bombings and shootings, primarily along Algeria's Mediterranean coast.

A security crackdown has reduced its ability to mount attacks there, forcing it to switch its focus to the Sahara, with its vast spaces and weak government control.

It has claimed responsibility for kidnapping two Canadian diplomats and four European tourists in the past five months.

• The two diplomats and two of the tourists were released in Mali last month.
• The remaining hostages are the Briton and a Swiss.

Security experts say the British hostage is most likely being held in the thinly populated area in the Sahara along Algeria's borders with Mali.

(Additional reporting by Abdoulaye Massalatchi in Niamey; writing by Mark John; editing by Robert Woodward)

The Rest from Alertnet

Units of Foreign Fighters in the Battle for Mogadishu

MOGADISHU, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Somali government said Sunday foreign militants are involved in the deadly fighting that has been escalating in Mogadishu for the fourth day with casualties mounting.

Somali National Security Minister Omar Hashi Aden said foreign militants have been fighting alongside the Al-Shabaab fighters in fierce confrontation with the Somali government forces.

• "We have information that several units of foreign militants are fighting against our forces and this is not just an accusation... people have witnessed them around the areas they are operating in Mogadishu," the minister told reporters in the Somali capital.
  
• Leaders of the Islamist Al-Shabaab movement do not deny the existence of non-Somali fighters among their ranks saying they do not consider a Muslim to be a foreigner.

Local residents have reported seeing several foreign fighters alongside local Al shabaab forces, saying the foreign militants, who were not hiding their faces like they did before, seemed to be from Asia and Africa.

Clashes are unabated in Mogadishu amid reports of increasing casualties. Hospital and ambulance service officials said

• nearly 50 people were killed and more than 200 others wounded during the fighting in the past 24 hours.
• Three journalists were wounded after a shell hit the compound they were in when they were covering a press conference held by a senior Al-Shabaab official near the frontline.

The wounded include Abdelnasir Nur Gedi, a cameraman for the local Horn Cable Television, and Bashiir Qaliif Gaani and Mohamed Ali Nahar, both from Shabelle Radio and TV.

Local insurgent groups often held news conferences to update their activities, particularly the clashes with Somali government forces.

The Rest @ China View

Saturday, May 9, 2009

At least 12 killed in Somalia Clashes
MOGADISHU, May 8 (Reuters) -

At least 12 people were killed and scores wounded in clashes between Somalia's rebels and pro-government militias in the latest fighting in the anarchic Horn of Africa country, witnesses and militia said on Friday.

President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's government is struggling against a powerful insurgency and trying to woo other rebels over to his administration, seen by many as the best hope to restore peace after 18 years of war.

Al Shabaab fighters and those of an Islamist group loyal to the government exchanged mortar and anti-aircraft fire late on Thursday along an industrial road in the Somali capital, residents said.

"The stubborn opposition attacked our fighters and the government soldiers on our side," Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow, a spokesman for the pro-government Islamic Courts Union, told Reuters by telephone.

• "We killed eight of them and injured 30 others in one spot.
• I am sure more died. We also captured an anti-aircraft missile mounted on a battle wagon from them.
• From our side, four died and six others were injured. Innocent civilians were also injured."

Al Shabaab officials were not available for comment.

Residents said they saw at least 16 bodies and hospital sources said 55 people were injured in the fighting.

"We have no hope of peace ... I have not seen battle wagons fighting in Mogadishu for years," said resident Halima Ali.

In another incident in central Somalia, al Shabaab captured 200 new recruits heading for police training in Mogadishu, a local official said."Al Shabaab disappeared with them into the jungle and blindfolded them.

These recruits were not armed but I think they will not be killed," said Mohamed Barqadle, chairman of Buloburde district in the central region of Hiran.

(Reporting by Abdi Sheikh, Abdi Guled and Ibrahim Mohamed; Writing by Jack Kimball; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)

The Rest @ Revoultion Islam

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Possible Offensive Against AQIM Coming

Adrian Martin, an excellent source for Magreb Analysis, suggests a major offensive against AQIM is coming.

- Shimron Issachar

After the recent hostage release by the southern/Saharan wing of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), there has been much political and military movement in Algeria, Mali and the surrounding countries. According to numerous press rumors, a major joint operation in the border areas is about to go into action any day now.

The political arguments have centered around vague but barely concealed insinuations of state support for AQIM’s southern wing, although there’s precious little proof offered by anyone involved.

• Libya is the state most in the crosshairs, for allegedly funding or/and facilitating the payment of fat ransoms to AQIM, in a deal also involving the Malian state releasing AQIM members in return for someone’s thick wad of cash.

• Algeria is livid over this, and parts of the éradicateur press is so upset as to appear slightly deranged in its accusations against all and sundry for conspiring to undermine state security.
  
• However, in fact Algeria has good reason to be upset, if one disregards the hyperbole.

The government quite rightly believes that ransom payments encourages new kidnappings, and that this — not to mention the prisoners releases — is what keeps the southern AQIM networks running.

• Algeria also worries, again rightly, that such money will filter up to AQIM’s northern strongholds in the Kabylie, from where the group continues to inflict damage on the Algerian state and military.
• However, European governments do not seem to give a damn about this, as long as they can bring back their citizens safe and sound; while the poorer local governments are fine with whatever they’re paid most to be fine with, since they don’t stand a chance of securing these areas alone anyway. So the kidnapping circus continues.
• Bouteflika has for some time, after offering amnesty upon amnesty, shown signs of exasperation with this whole AQIM business, and the Algerian army appears to be slowly reverting into extermination mode in its treatment of insurgent holdouts.

Presently, then, the country is spearheding efforts to pull together a major pan-Saharan/Sahelian coalition to hit AQIM hard, either to cripple it militarily or to at least establish a steep deterrent cost for fucking with Algeria’s south.

Among the other nations coming along for the ride, convinced by a mixture of stick and carrot from Algiers, are of course Mali, but also Niger and Mauritania, the two remaining neighbors to the area of concern. You can count on the US to cheer them on and supply whatever is available of satellite imagery and other expertise.

However, it seems that Algeria is steering the bandwagon, quite in line with how it has been asserting itself as the maker-or-breaker of regional security in the last few years, and perhaps also for honestly feeling there’s nothing left to do but shoot its way out of this painful deadlock.

Militarily, things have been progressing quickly.

• A bunch of army units were just pulled down from the Algerian north towards the border, and high-level military coordination between the countries concerned is proceeding apace.
• For example, Niger’s chief-of-staff flew up to meet with the Algerian top brass (Gaid Saleh and Guenaizia), and Mali’s defense minister did the same some days ago.
• At the same time, Algiers has started airlifting military supplies to the Malian army in preparation for the expected assault, and minor manhunts are already running, with claims of an important kill just the other day.

How big this will be is impossible to tell: perhaps just a quick crackdown on the areas under suspicion, and brush-up of border security through reinforcements and coordination? But it seems like bigger things are in the making.

In so far as the press can be trusted (a big if, admittedly), a large-scale sweep is more likely, although I guess the key to it all is not scale per se, but rather how long it will go on and what it will leave behind.

In any case, one should remember that while the Touareg rebellion in Mali’s north just quieted down, the situation remains unstable and is liable to be affected in some way by any major military offensive.

On the other hand, there’s no better time to go at it than now, when there’s no hot war complicating matters; and in fact, decisively settling the Touareg conflict may well be one of the unspoken motives for the push.

Also worth bearing in mind is that two European hostages remain in the hands of AQIM. It has demanded that Britain release Abu Qatada, a Jordanian-Palestinian preacher with longstanding ties to al-Qaida’s core leadership as well as to the Algerian Jihadi movements (he used to be sort of a chief Mufti for the GIA back in the day, and later encouraged the GSPC split which evolved into AQIM). That could turn into some nasty headlines.

The Rest @ Adrian Martin, Magreb Politic Review

French Judge to Investigate 3 African Leaders for Money Laundering

AP5 May 2009A French judge has decided to investigate three African heads of state for money laundering and other alleged crimes linked to their wealth in France.

The probe follows a complaint by Transparency International France, an association that tracks corruption, against Gabon's Omar Bongo, Republic of Congo's Denis Sassou-Nguesso and Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea.

Association lawyer William Bourdon claimed Tuesday the decision was "unprecedented" for such a probe against heads of state. A preliminary investigation turned up numerous signs of wealth among the three that Bourdon says belongs to their people.

The prosecutor's office opposed the opening of an investigation April 20 and now has five days to appeal the decision by investigating Magistrate Francoise Desset.

Bongo is among the last of the so-called "African Big Men" who came to power by the gun and resisted the democratic tide sweeping the continent. He faces little political opposition in his oil-rich West African nation, ruling through a mixture of patronage and quiet intimidation.

Last year, Bongo became the world's longest-ruling head of state, not counting the monarchs of Britain and Thailand. He has been in charge since 1967.

• French media have reported his family owns abundant real estate in France — at one time with more Paris properties than any other foreign leader.

Equatorial Guinea is Africa's No. 3 oil producer. Its leader, Obiang, has faced several attempts to topple his government since he seized power in a coup three decades ago.

• His government is considered among Africa's worst human rights violators.

Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of Congo seized power for a second time in 1997 with help from Angolan troops.

Posted by David Barouski at 16:22

The Rest @ African News.com

Abu Sayyaf Commander in Sulu Sahul Dahim Reported Killed

MANILA, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Nine people, including a provincial police chief, were killed Thursday afternoon during a clash in the southern Philippines, the authorities said.

Julasirim Kasim, police director of the Sulu province, and three of his companions died when they were waylaid by suspected members of the extremist Abu Sayyaf group at a remote village in Maimbung town.

The three companions killed were identified as two policemen -- Jammahari and Abdurajan -- and civilian Rosalin Kasim, a brother of the police chief.

The authorities said Kasim and his men were in the area to verify reports of sighting of Abu Sayyaf terrorists at the Bulabug village when they were encountered by an undetermined number of Abu Sayyaf fighters.

Four other policemen were wounded in the one-hour clash. The gunfight resulted in the killing of five of the ambushers, including a Sahul Dahim who is tagged as a local Abu Sayyaf commander operating in the southern province.

Government troops recovered from the Dahim's group a

• M203 grenade launcher,
• M14 rifle
• 16 rifle
• a cal. 30
• M1 Garand rifle.

Security forces have launched pursuit operations against the suspects.

Benzali Jabarani, police director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, confirmed with Xinhua that Kasim was killed in the encounter with Abu Sayyaf members, adding that the policemen were on a mission against the extremists that had kidnapped three workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

"They were conducting operation against captors of ICRC staff when they encountered undetermined Abu Sayyaf kidnappers. He (Kasim) was killed in the firefight," Jabarani said.

The 380-strong rebel group seized

• Italian national Eugenio Vagni,
• Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba and
• Swiss national Andreas Notter

on Jan. 15 after the Red Cross workers inspected a water and sanitation project at a jail in Sulu.

Lacaba was released by the kidnappers on April 2 and Notter managed to escape from the kidnappers April 18 as the bandits were evading a potential clash with government forces.

Till now, the 62-year-old Vagni is still in the hands of the kidnappers.

The Rest @ Xinhua