In a move to combat terror, India has shut down 18 websites used as bulletin boards to plan terror and to pass hate messages by terrorists. The Loons on the left will all be in overdriven umbrage mode over this, but in the background people’s lives are at stake. I think it’s a smart move.

New Delhi, Jul 18: The government has ordered the blocking of 18 websites in a bid to check shooting up of terror and hate messages on internet following the deadly Mumbai serial blasts which killed over 200 people.
The Department of Telecom has asked 150 Internet providers to block out 18 websites which could be used by terror groups to communicate and spread provocative messages.
Two websites www.Dalitstan.Org and hinduunity.Org figure among the blocked sites. It is not immediately clear till what time period this blockade will be in force.

Turkey has accused the US of double standards on Terrorism, they complain about the PKK and their raids on civilians while being sheltered in Northern Iraq. Watching Israel’s example, they threaten to raid cross-border to get at the PKK. The problem with that is that the PKK doesn’t have set bases, and many of them reside in Turkey, not Iraq. They are just as bad as any other terrorist group in that they target and kill innocent civilians with intent. It’s a prickly moment, we can’t let the Turks invade the Kurdish North of Iraq, however we must at the same time do more to combat the PKK. This from The Daily Star:

Washington Tuesday warned Ankara that a cross-border operation against Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq would be “unwise.” “We have repeatedly said that we believe that unilateral  military action across the border with Iraq would be unwise,” the US ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, said in an interview with the NTV news channel.

He was speaking after Ankara Monday urged Washington and Baghdad to act against the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), whose militants have enjoyed safe haven in the mountains of northern Iraq, signaling that it is ready to take cross-border action if they fail to do so.

In yesterday’s update I noted that the Taliban had taken over two towns in Southern Helmand by chasing a handful of police off, and wagered that they would be dead if they stayed longer than a day. It’s a bet I win, as Yahoo reports:

KABUL, Afghanistan – Hundreds of Afghan and coalition soldiers reclaimed one town from the Taliban and moved on a second Tuesday, following an outburst of violence that has forced thousands of residents to flee their homes, the U.S. military and aid officials said.

Afghan and coalition forces retook the town Tuesday and unfurled the Afghan flag over the charred compound, Akhunzada said.

The troops moved on toward Garmser, a town of more than 50,000 on the Helmand River, where the Taliban on Sunday defeated 40 poorly armed policemen who had been holed up in a concrete compound for more than two weeks.

The U.S. military said Tuesday that coalition and Afghan forces had “experienced only limited small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire” as they headed to Garmser.

Also in the same article, sure signs that the Taliban has scraped the bottom of the barrel and is now down to the D-teamers — they can’t even win against a girl’s school:

• Militants fired rocket-propelled grenades at an eastern Afghan girl’s school Monday but caused no casualties, the U.S. military said.

• The U.S. military said a homemade bomb exploded accidentally Sunday in southeastern Afghanistan, killing one militant and wounding three.

In Baghdad Iraqi security forces have captured four top Al Qaeda leaders, as Xinhua reports:

BAGHDAD, July 18 (Xinhua) — An Iraqi top security official said Tuesday that four key al-Qaida leaders, who are responsible for major bombings and sectarian bloodshed in the country, have been captured in Baghdad.

Iraq’s National Security Advisor Muwafaq al-Rubaie made the government announcement in a televised news conference. 

Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops captured the four al-Qaida leaders and killed the fifth, a Jordanian who slaughtered last month two U.S. soldiers in Yousifiyah town, about 20 km south of Baghdad, al-Rubaie told the reporters. 

Rubaie identified the detained four as Abu Uthman, Abu Aisha, Abu Eyhab and Mahmoud Abu Islam, all are leaders of al-Qaida’s Omer Brigade.