Here’s a video from al-Jazeera with the Taliban claiming to have recruited hundreds of new suicide bombers in preparation for a new offensive against NATO forces. They also claim to have a new anti aircraft weapon, but the claim is not elaborated on.
Another video from the the group calling themselves ‘The Islamic State of Iraq’, this one showing a US twin-rotor Chinook being brought down by methods that are unclear. In the recent two weeks there has been a series of US helicopter bring-downs caught on video, but at this stage there is only speculation as to why there has been an increase. Some suggest that a new group has been formed dedicated to the sole task of bringing down choppers and denying the US forces open access to the skies. The other theory is that Al Qaeda in Iraq are now in possession of Russian made SA-7 Surface-to-Air Missiles.
Transcript starts:
1336.30 MANILA HOTEL:
POPOV from MANILA HOTEL. Can you confirm you engaged that tube and those vehicles?
1336.36 POPOV35:
Affirm Sir. Looks like I’ve got multiple vehicles in reverts at about 800 meters to the north of your arty rounds. Can you switch fire, and shift fire, and get some arty rounds on those?
The events in this video show an incident that happened on the 28th March 2003, but has only just been leaked. It shows a US plane mistaking British ground forces for hostile troops, and then opening fire on them.
Here’s the summary of the UN IPCC 2007 report [PDF], written for policy makers. The full report is not expected to be released online until May.
There is a webcast of the press conference given, talking about the report and explaining the data. Note: the webcast doesn’t seem to work in Firefox.
This video released by As-sahab shows the preparation of an IED and it’s use in Afghanistan. The video continues with the use of the IED against what are claimed to be Canadian soldiers, but it seems this claim is inconsistent with what is shown.
Those with a sense of irony will notice that Nobel brand explosives are used.