June 8 (Bloomberg) -- A Syrian arms dealer was indicted on U.S. charges that he conspired to sell weapons to Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
U.S. prosecutors today unsealed an indictment charging Monzer al-Kassar, 61, in a conspiracy to arm the leftist group, known by its Spanish acronym FARC. Al-Kassar was arrested by Spanish authorities yesterday and held in Madrid at the request of the U.S., which claims he has a three-decade history of arming America's enemies.
``He arms and funds terrorists, sometimes on shared ideology of hatred of America and what we stand for and sometimes for greed,'' Karen Tandy, administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said in a press conference in Manhattan today.
The indictment charges al-Kassar and two associates with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and officials, and conspiracy to acquire anti-aircraft missiles. If convicted, the three men may be sentenced to as much as life in prison.
The two other defendants, Tareq Mousa al-Ghazi, 60, and Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, 58, were arrested yesterday in Romania. Al-Kassar and Moreno are also charged with money laundering.
U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia in New York said at the press conference that the U.S. is working with authorities in Spain and Romania to extradite the three men to the U.S. for trial.
Terrorist Group
Prosecutors say the defendants were arrested as they tried to complete an arms deal with two confidential informants who claimed to represent FARC, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist group.
The men were promised more than $8 million to supply arms they were told would be used by FARC guerillas to kill Americans helping the Colombian government's cocaine-eradication efforts.
Al-Kassar was to deliver 8,000 machine guns, 2 million rounds of ammunition, 120 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and 2,400 hand grenades, Garcia said. Al-Kassar also agreed to sell surface-to-air missiles to shoot down U.S. helicopters in Colombia, he said.
Al-Kassar offered to send 1,000 men to fight U.S. officers in Colombia, Garcia said. He also offered to supply C4 explosives and experts to teach FARC fighters to construct improvised explosive devices for use against U.S. citizens and military personnel, Garcia said.
Al-Kassar was acquitted in Spain in 1995 of charges he supplied rifles used by Palestinian hijackers in the 1985 assault on the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. Since the 1970s, al-Kassar has sold arms to groups in Nicaragua, Brazil, Cyprus, Bosnia, Croatia, Iran, Iraq and Somalia, among other countries, Garcia said.
Held in Madrid
Al-Kassar was taken into custody when he arrived in Madrid on a flight from Malaga on Spain's Costa del Sol, where police in 2005 broke up a 250 million-euro ($335 million) money- laundering scheme and arrested 41 people. His home, in the resort of Marbella, was closed off to prevent tampering with evidence, police said.
Moreno Godoy is also a resident of Marbella, and al-Ghazi is a resident of Lebanon, U.S. prosecutors said.
The case is: U.S. v. Al Kassar, 07-CR-354, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
Saturday, June 9, 2007
G8 commits to US$60bn aid package for Africa
The G8 wealthiest nations yesterday pledged US$60 billion to fight AIDS and malaria in Africa, and to uphold an earlier pledge to boost its development aid.
"We are aware of our responsibilities and will fulfil our obligations," German Chancellor Angela Merkel, hosting G8 leaders, told reporters on the final day of the summit.
Campaigners complain that rich nations have fallen behind on commitments made to double development aid at a summit in 2005 in Gleneagles, Scotland. Many were unimpressed with the deal.
Leaders agreed to earmark US$60 billion to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, global diseases that have devastated African peoples and their economies.
Of that US$30 billion has already been pledged by the US.
Among the pledges, the leaders made three "significant dollar commitments" to support action on mother-to-child, pediatric treatments, maternal and child health totalling US$4.8 billion.
They agreed to allow local production of drugs such as anti-retrovirals for HIV/AIDS patients to ensure cheaper prices for medication.
They also agreed to cut the prevalence of malaria in 30 African countries, which is responsible for 80 percent of deaths, cutting deaths in half.
But the declaration set out no specific timetable, saying the money would flow "over the coming years." Neither did it break down individual countries' contributions.
Campaigners for Africa say the pledge is made up largely of money which has already been announced.
"While lives will be saved with more money for AIDS, this represents a cap on ambition that will ultimately cost millions more lives," said Steve Cockburn of the Stop AIDS Campaign.
He said the pledge falls short of UN targets which oblige G8 nations to spend US$15 billion per year to combat AIDS alone through to 2010.
In comparison, the deal looks like committing them to about US$12 billion per year for all three diseases.
Leaders also reiterated an overall pledge made in 2005 to raise annual aid levels by US$50 billion by 2010, US$25 billion of which is for Africa.
"The important thing is that we have recommitted ourselves to all the commitments we made a couple of years ago," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said.
Campaigners weren't convinced.
"Despite last minute face saving measures, the G8 has failed its credibility test on Africa," said Collins Magalasi, ActionAids's country director for South Africa.
Blair and Merkel stressed they expect African leaders to fight corruption and boost transparency so donors can track aid.
"We are aware of our responsibilities and will fulfil our obligations," German Chancellor Angela Merkel, hosting G8 leaders, told reporters on the final day of the summit.
Campaigners complain that rich nations have fallen behind on commitments made to double development aid at a summit in 2005 in Gleneagles, Scotland. Many were unimpressed with the deal.
Leaders agreed to earmark US$60 billion to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, global diseases that have devastated African peoples and their economies.
Of that US$30 billion has already been pledged by the US.
Among the pledges, the leaders made three "significant dollar commitments" to support action on mother-to-child, pediatric treatments, maternal and child health totalling US$4.8 billion.
They agreed to allow local production of drugs such as anti-retrovirals for HIV/AIDS patients to ensure cheaper prices for medication.
They also agreed to cut the prevalence of malaria in 30 African countries, which is responsible for 80 percent of deaths, cutting deaths in half.
But the declaration set out no specific timetable, saying the money would flow "over the coming years." Neither did it break down individual countries' contributions.
Campaigners for Africa say the pledge is made up largely of money which has already been announced.
"While lives will be saved with more money for AIDS, this represents a cap on ambition that will ultimately cost millions more lives," said Steve Cockburn of the Stop AIDS Campaign.
He said the pledge falls short of UN targets which oblige G8 nations to spend US$15 billion per year to combat AIDS alone through to 2010.
In comparison, the deal looks like committing them to about US$12 billion per year for all three diseases.
Leaders also reiterated an overall pledge made in 2005 to raise annual aid levels by US$50 billion by 2010, US$25 billion of which is for Africa.
"The important thing is that we have recommitted ourselves to all the commitments we made a couple of years ago," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said.
Campaigners weren't convinced.
"Despite last minute face saving measures, the G8 has failed its credibility test on Africa," said Collins Magalasi, ActionAids's country director for South Africa.
Blair and Merkel stressed they expect African leaders to fight corruption and boost transparency so donors can track aid.
Report: CIA's secret prisons exploited NATO alliances
PARIS — The CIA exploited NATO military agreements to help run secret prisons in Poland and Romania where alleged terrorists were held in solitary confinement for months, shackled and subjected to other mental and physical tortures, according to a European investigative report released here Friday.
Some of the United States' highest-profile terrorism suspects, including the man considered the prime organizer of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, were detained and interrogated at the facility in Poland, according to the 72-page report completed for the Council of Europe, the continent's human rights agency.
Dick Marty, a Swiss lawyer hired by the council, said the CIA conducted "clandestine operations under the NATO framework," providing military intelligence agencies in member countries — including Poland and Romania — the cover to assist in disguising the agency's use of secret flights, operations and detention facilities, from the days immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks until the fall of last year.
Officials speaking on behalf of the CIA, NATO, Poland and Romania on Friday criticized the report's findings. Both Poland and Romania have denied that the CIA established secret prisons on their soil.
"The CIA's counterterror operations have been lawful, effective, closely reviewed, and of benefit to many people — including Europeans — by disrupting plots and saving lives," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said. "Our counterterror partnerships in Europe are very strong." He described the report as "biased and distorted."
Disclosure of the existence of CIA prisons in Eastern Europe, but not the specific countries where they were located, by The Washington Post in 2005 triggered widespread anger in Europe. The Council of Europe commissioned Marty to find out all he could about the program. The council is Europe's official human rights watchdog. It has limited power to enforce human rights regulations.
In the report, Marty expressed deep disapproval of U.S. practices with the prisoners. "We must banish forever the Bush administration mindset that effectively says, 'if it is illegal for us to use such a practice at home or on our own citizens, let us export or outsource it so we will not be held to account for it,' " the report concluded.
The report was also critical of European governments allowing the prisons and the transport of prisoners through their airspace. Many did not cooperate with the investigation, the report said, nor did NATO or the United States.
Investigators relied primarily on sources they did not identify in the report, but Marty said they spoke to more than 30 serving or retired members of intelligence services in the United States and Europe as well as civilians performing contract work for intelligence agencies.
The report provided new details about the CIA's purported methods of operation, detention tactics and detainees in the secret facilities.
The report said evidence indicated that to bypass civilian authorities the CIA used emergency provisions approved by the NATO alliance after the Sept. 11 attacks to partner with European military and intelligence agencies.
"The CIA's clandestine operations in Europe — including its transfers and secret detentions of HVDs (high-value detainees) — were sustained and kept secret only through their operational dependence on alliances and partnerships in what is more traditionally the military sphere," the report said.
The secret "high-value" prisoner program was given the NATO classification of "Cosmic Top Secret," according to the report.
The report said the NATO-oriented arrangement was particularly effective with two of the alliance's newest members, Poland and Romania, which were eager to assist the United States and strengthen ties with Washington.
A facility at Poland's Stare Kiejkuty intelligence training base was used to detain and interrogate the most important CIA suspects, the report said, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah, a suspected senior al-Qaida operative.
By this account, both men were "held and questioned using 'enhanced interrogation techniques,' " described in the report as a euphemism for torture.
The report said that based on flight documents and information provided by intelligence sources, "it is likely" that Mohammed, who was arrested in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on March 1, 2003, was transferred to Kabul, then flown on March 7 to the Szymany military airport in Poland.
Sources told investigators that when a CIA flight approached the Szymany airfield, Polish operatives would order all Polish personnel to leave the area of the runway. An American "landing team" usually waited at the end of the runway "in two or three vans with their engines often running."
When the aircraft came to a stop, the vans would race toward the plane. American officials would board the craft, then hustle the detainee into one of the vans, usually out of the line of sight of the Polish control tower.
The vans would then speed through the airport's front security gates, using high beams that blinded Polish guards, then drive down a paved road "lined by thick pine forests on both sides" and follow an unpaved road along a lake, eventually reaching the entrance to the Stare Kiejkuty intelligence training base where prisoners were held and questioned, the report said.
Some of the United States' highest-profile terrorism suspects, including the man considered the prime organizer of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, were detained and interrogated at the facility in Poland, according to the 72-page report completed for the Council of Europe, the continent's human rights agency.
Dick Marty, a Swiss lawyer hired by the council, said the CIA conducted "clandestine operations under the NATO framework," providing military intelligence agencies in member countries — including Poland and Romania — the cover to assist in disguising the agency's use of secret flights, operations and detention facilities, from the days immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks until the fall of last year.
Officials speaking on behalf of the CIA, NATO, Poland and Romania on Friday criticized the report's findings. Both Poland and Romania have denied that the CIA established secret prisons on their soil.
"The CIA's counterterror operations have been lawful, effective, closely reviewed, and of benefit to many people — including Europeans — by disrupting plots and saving lives," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said. "Our counterterror partnerships in Europe are very strong." He described the report as "biased and distorted."
Disclosure of the existence of CIA prisons in Eastern Europe, but not the specific countries where they were located, by The Washington Post in 2005 triggered widespread anger in Europe. The Council of Europe commissioned Marty to find out all he could about the program. The council is Europe's official human rights watchdog. It has limited power to enforce human rights regulations.
In the report, Marty expressed deep disapproval of U.S. practices with the prisoners. "We must banish forever the Bush administration mindset that effectively says, 'if it is illegal for us to use such a practice at home or on our own citizens, let us export or outsource it so we will not be held to account for it,' " the report concluded.
The report was also critical of European governments allowing the prisons and the transport of prisoners through their airspace. Many did not cooperate with the investigation, the report said, nor did NATO or the United States.
Investigators relied primarily on sources they did not identify in the report, but Marty said they spoke to more than 30 serving or retired members of intelligence services in the United States and Europe as well as civilians performing contract work for intelligence agencies.
The report provided new details about the CIA's purported methods of operation, detention tactics and detainees in the secret facilities.
The report said evidence indicated that to bypass civilian authorities the CIA used emergency provisions approved by the NATO alliance after the Sept. 11 attacks to partner with European military and intelligence agencies.
"The CIA's clandestine operations in Europe — including its transfers and secret detentions of HVDs (high-value detainees) — were sustained and kept secret only through their operational dependence on alliances and partnerships in what is more traditionally the military sphere," the report said.
The secret "high-value" prisoner program was given the NATO classification of "Cosmic Top Secret," according to the report.
The report said the NATO-oriented arrangement was particularly effective with two of the alliance's newest members, Poland and Romania, which were eager to assist the United States and strengthen ties with Washington.
A facility at Poland's Stare Kiejkuty intelligence training base was used to detain and interrogate the most important CIA suspects, the report said, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah, a suspected senior al-Qaida operative.
By this account, both men were "held and questioned using 'enhanced interrogation techniques,' " described in the report as a euphemism for torture.
The report said that based on flight documents and information provided by intelligence sources, "it is likely" that Mohammed, who was arrested in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on March 1, 2003, was transferred to Kabul, then flown on March 7 to the Szymany military airport in Poland.
Sources told investigators that when a CIA flight approached the Szymany airfield, Polish operatives would order all Polish personnel to leave the area of the runway. An American "landing team" usually waited at the end of the runway "in two or three vans with their engines often running."
When the aircraft came to a stop, the vans would race toward the plane. American officials would board the craft, then hustle the detainee into one of the vans, usually out of the line of sight of the Polish control tower.
The vans would then speed through the airport's front security gates, using high beams that blinded Polish guards, then drive down a paved road "lined by thick pine forests on both sides" and follow an unpaved road along a lake, eventually reaching the entrance to the Stare Kiejkuty intelligence training base where prisoners were held and questioned, the report said.
Evicted `jobless' Tamils return to Colombo
COLOMBO: In yet another twist to the eviction of "jobless" Tamils from lodges of the national capital, 186 of the 376 evacuees returned to Colombo from Vavuniya in the north on Saturday as they could not proceed to Jaffna peninsula as all links are cut off.
Colombo Range Deputy Inspector of Police (DIG) Rohan Abeywardene told The Hindu, "Since road links to Jaffna peninsula are cut off and those who had earlier agreed to voluntarily leave Colombo expressed reservations in crossing into the peninsula via the sea route, the authorities have facilitated their return to Colombo. Now these 186 people are back in the lodges that they vacated on Thursday."
Separately, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Victor Perera rejected the allegations made by "certain political elements" that the police had forcibly evicted Tamil people from Colombo lodges. Sri Lanka Supreme Court on Friday temporarily stayed the evictions.
In a statement here the IGP said, after a special discussion held with the Colombo police chiefs at the Police headquarters, that people who are making these allegations have either misunderstood the process or deliberately misinterpreting the truth.
The IGP further said that he had summoned all the inspectors-in-charge of Colombo police stations and inquired into the matter but "found no evidence" of such forceful expulsion.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday ordered a special inquiry on the manner of eviction of "jobless Tamils."
The IGP maintained that the government provided "safe transportation to 376 people out of over 20,000 Tamil lodgers" living in Colombo to their homes in North and East. The IGP said that these people had expressed "consent" to go home if free transportation was provided.
"Innocent people"
According to him some lodgers had indicated that they would have to pocket out at least Sri Lanka Rs. 15,000 as transport cost for them and for their belongings. He said the government had to take this decision for the safety of millions of "innocent people" living in Colombo and its suburbs.
The IGP said that the Island Capital has been targeted for terrorist attacks since the LTTE began its bloody campaign in 1983. IGP Victor Perera said that recent events had shown that the LTTE terrorists were operating "without much difficulty" within Colombo.
The IGP claimed that the on going police investigations into many terrorist activities also showed that the perpetrators of such attacks had been operating from lodges.
"Thus, the growing security concerns have compelled the police to focus its attention on lodgers who are having extended stay for no valid reason and those who could not prove their identity."
A report posted by on the Defence Ministry website said that Police taking similar security measures to reduce potential terrorist threats to a country's capital is nothing "uncommon or unusual" for any country.
"Particularly, after the two bomb attacks at Pettah and Rathmalana that killed seven innocent civilians and three security forces' personnel, no government can be expected to further delay stringent defensive action against terrorism.
"The shocking discovery of the lorry bomb carrying over 1,000 kg of high explosive at Nikaweratiya last week shown the extent of brutality that the LTTE was planning to bring in to the South", it said.
The IGP said the police had the authority to arrest any person under the Public Security Ordnance who cannot prove his /her identity. Earlier, the police have conducted "many search and arrest operations" without harassing any of the Tamil civilians permanently living in the Colombo city. "The suspects were detained and questioned at Boossa camp and those who found innocent were later released."
Separately, Sri Lanka Democracy Forum (SLDF), a voluntary organisation, unreservedly condemned what it termed as "indiscriminate rounding up and forcible mass expulsion" of members of the Tamil community from Colombo and their transport against their consent to the north and east of the country.
"Insensitive manner"
Calling for the immediate return of the evicted Tamil citizens to Colombo, the SLDF said: "This internal deportation represents a collective punishment upon the Tamil community and manifests the insensitive and inconsiderate manner in which the present regime has been conducting itself under the dubious claim of national security".
It said unlike those Tamils who are able to afford setting up permanent homes in flats or houses, most of the Tamils who live in the lodges and guesthouses in Colombo are relatively poor and do so having fled from the North and East in order to escape from the intolerable conditions there.
The SLDF said military operations in the North and East for the last several months resulted in the displacement of over 300,000 people. "But now the government is manifesting its hypocrisy by seeking to drive the Tamils living in Colombo back into the arms of the Tigers".
It said while the LTTE continued to cynically use the presence of the Tamil community in escalating tensions and violence in Colombo, the government had been abominable in its response and its military solution approach continued to alienate Tamils from the Sri Lankan State.
LTTE in a statement said the "forced eviction" is yet another human rights violation against the Tamils in the on going `program of ethnic genocide' of Tamils. Tamil Tigers said the instance should demonstrate to the international community the Sri Lankan Government's "true stance on the issue of the human rights of Tamils."
`Hope and optimism'
Winding up his five-day visit to the island the Japanese envoy, Yasushi Akashi told a news conference, "I am going back with a certain amount of hope and optimism for the future of this country."
Describing the prevailing situation as "rather heavy, depressed, with a serious crisis and tension in the country," Mr. Akashi said Japan had no immediate plans to slash aid to Sri Lanka or freeze assets of Tamil Tigers although international human rights groups have been lobbying Tokyo to exert pressure to stem spiralling violence.
Colombo Range Deputy Inspector of Police (DIG) Rohan Abeywardene told The Hindu, "Since road links to Jaffna peninsula are cut off and those who had earlier agreed to voluntarily leave Colombo expressed reservations in crossing into the peninsula via the sea route, the authorities have facilitated their return to Colombo. Now these 186 people are back in the lodges that they vacated on Thursday."
Separately, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Victor Perera rejected the allegations made by "certain political elements" that the police had forcibly evicted Tamil people from Colombo lodges. Sri Lanka Supreme Court on Friday temporarily stayed the evictions.
In a statement here the IGP said, after a special discussion held with the Colombo police chiefs at the Police headquarters, that people who are making these allegations have either misunderstood the process or deliberately misinterpreting the truth.
The IGP further said that he had summoned all the inspectors-in-charge of Colombo police stations and inquired into the matter but "found no evidence" of such forceful expulsion.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday ordered a special inquiry on the manner of eviction of "jobless Tamils."
The IGP maintained that the government provided "safe transportation to 376 people out of over 20,000 Tamil lodgers" living in Colombo to their homes in North and East. The IGP said that these people had expressed "consent" to go home if free transportation was provided.
"Innocent people"
According to him some lodgers had indicated that they would have to pocket out at least Sri Lanka Rs. 15,000 as transport cost for them and for their belongings. He said the government had to take this decision for the safety of millions of "innocent people" living in Colombo and its suburbs.
The IGP said that the Island Capital has been targeted for terrorist attacks since the LTTE began its bloody campaign in 1983. IGP Victor Perera said that recent events had shown that the LTTE terrorists were operating "without much difficulty" within Colombo.
The IGP claimed that the on going police investigations into many terrorist activities also showed that the perpetrators of such attacks had been operating from lodges.
"Thus, the growing security concerns have compelled the police to focus its attention on lodgers who are having extended stay for no valid reason and those who could not prove their identity."
A report posted by on the Defence Ministry website said that Police taking similar security measures to reduce potential terrorist threats to a country's capital is nothing "uncommon or unusual" for any country.
"Particularly, after the two bomb attacks at Pettah and Rathmalana that killed seven innocent civilians and three security forces' personnel, no government can be expected to further delay stringent defensive action against terrorism.
"The shocking discovery of the lorry bomb carrying over 1,000 kg of high explosive at Nikaweratiya last week shown the extent of brutality that the LTTE was planning to bring in to the South", it said.
The IGP said the police had the authority to arrest any person under the Public Security Ordnance who cannot prove his /her identity. Earlier, the police have conducted "many search and arrest operations" without harassing any of the Tamil civilians permanently living in the Colombo city. "The suspects were detained and questioned at Boossa camp and those who found innocent were later released."
Separately, Sri Lanka Democracy Forum (SLDF), a voluntary organisation, unreservedly condemned what it termed as "indiscriminate rounding up and forcible mass expulsion" of members of the Tamil community from Colombo and their transport against their consent to the north and east of the country.
"Insensitive manner"
Calling for the immediate return of the evicted Tamil citizens to Colombo, the SLDF said: "This internal deportation represents a collective punishment upon the Tamil community and manifests the insensitive and inconsiderate manner in which the present regime has been conducting itself under the dubious claim of national security".
It said unlike those Tamils who are able to afford setting up permanent homes in flats or houses, most of the Tamils who live in the lodges and guesthouses in Colombo are relatively poor and do so having fled from the North and East in order to escape from the intolerable conditions there.
The SLDF said military operations in the North and East for the last several months resulted in the displacement of over 300,000 people. "But now the government is manifesting its hypocrisy by seeking to drive the Tamils living in Colombo back into the arms of the Tigers".
It said while the LTTE continued to cynically use the presence of the Tamil community in escalating tensions and violence in Colombo, the government had been abominable in its response and its military solution approach continued to alienate Tamils from the Sri Lankan State.
LTTE in a statement said the "forced eviction" is yet another human rights violation against the Tamils in the on going `program of ethnic genocide' of Tamils. Tamil Tigers said the instance should demonstrate to the international community the Sri Lankan Government's "true stance on the issue of the human rights of Tamils."
`Hope and optimism'
Winding up his five-day visit to the island the Japanese envoy, Yasushi Akashi told a news conference, "I am going back with a certain amount of hope and optimism for the future of this country."
Describing the prevailing situation as "rather heavy, depressed, with a serious crisis and tension in the country," Mr. Akashi said Japan had no immediate plans to slash aid to Sri Lanka or freeze assets of Tamil Tigers although international human rights groups have been lobbying Tokyo to exert pressure to stem spiralling violence.
IDF foils Islamic Jihad kidnap bid
The Israel Defense Forces thwarted an attempt by Islamic Jihad yesterday to kidnap an Israel Defense Forces soldier near the Kissufim Crossing in the Gaza Strip. The four militants who carried out the attack approached the area in a car disguised as a vehicle carrying journalists. One Palestinian militant was killed in the attack, which was the first such attempt since the abduction of Gilad Shalit last year.
The Islamic Jihad militants were chased away by IDF troops. One of them became separated from the rest and hid near the site of the attack, until he was shot dead by IDF troops.
The vehicle used by the four militants who carried out the attack was an SUV emblazoned with the letters TV, indicating that it carried press members. The militants used the car to approach the fence without getting shot at by the IDF. They then blew up the fence and entered Israeli territory.
IDF troops rushed to the scene, chasing three of the gunmen back to the Gaza Strip. One of them, 19-year-old Mohammed Jaabari, became separated from the group and hid inside Israel. He was discovered by a dog from the IDF's canine unit. Jaabari shot at and killed the canine. Subsequently, IDF troops shot and killed Jaabari on the spot.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had been carried out jointly with Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction. "The aim of the operation was to retreat with a prisoner," Abu Ahmed, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, said. "This was prevented by the use of Israeli helicopters."
Abu Ahmed said the militants' armored jeep collided with an IDF armored vehicle and the Palestinian gunmen used assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in the ensuing battle.
The Foreign Press Association in Israel condemned the militants' use of a media-marked vehicle as "a grave development" that could jeopardize the safety of journalists in Gaza, who use armored vehicles for their protection.
"Proper readiness by the forces of the Gaza division and the right actions in the field prevented an attack which apparently was aimed at abducting an IDF soldier," GOC Southern Command, Major General Yoav Galant, said.
Lev-Ram, Southern Command's military spokesman, said the attack showed a need for the military to continue its raids in Gaza. "We live under constant threat," he said. "If we don't conduct such operations we will only sustain further attacks."
Security units in nearby Israeli towns and communities were placed on high alert and instructed to lock their entrance gates.
Earlier yesterday, the IDF said its troops shot and killed a Palestinian militant during an operation in the southern Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported. The army said troops returned fire on Palestinian militants, killing a gunman.
The Islamic Jihad militants were chased away by IDF troops. One of them became separated from the rest and hid near the site of the attack, until he was shot dead by IDF troops.
The vehicle used by the four militants who carried out the attack was an SUV emblazoned with the letters TV, indicating that it carried press members. The militants used the car to approach the fence without getting shot at by the IDF. They then blew up the fence and entered Israeli territory.
IDF troops rushed to the scene, chasing three of the gunmen back to the Gaza Strip. One of them, 19-year-old Mohammed Jaabari, became separated from the group and hid inside Israel. He was discovered by a dog from the IDF's canine unit. Jaabari shot at and killed the canine. Subsequently, IDF troops shot and killed Jaabari on the spot.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had been carried out jointly with Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction. "The aim of the operation was to retreat with a prisoner," Abu Ahmed, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, said. "This was prevented by the use of Israeli helicopters."
Abu Ahmed said the militants' armored jeep collided with an IDF armored vehicle and the Palestinian gunmen used assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in the ensuing battle.
The Foreign Press Association in Israel condemned the militants' use of a media-marked vehicle as "a grave development" that could jeopardize the safety of journalists in Gaza, who use armored vehicles for their protection.
"Proper readiness by the forces of the Gaza division and the right actions in the field prevented an attack which apparently was aimed at abducting an IDF soldier," GOC Southern Command, Major General Yoav Galant, said.
Lev-Ram, Southern Command's military spokesman, said the attack showed a need for the military to continue its raids in Gaza. "We live under constant threat," he said. "If we don't conduct such operations we will only sustain further attacks."
Security units in nearby Israeli towns and communities were placed on high alert and instructed to lock their entrance gates.
Earlier yesterday, the IDF said its troops shot and killed a Palestinian militant during an operation in the southern Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported. The army said troops returned fire on Palestinian militants, killing a gunman.
Bold attack on Iraqi police chief's home
BAGHDAD — Dozens of gunmen swooped into a police chief's home Friday, killing his wife and two brothers and kidnapping three of his grown children. The senior officer wasn't there, but the bold attack provided a grisly example of the dangers facing Iraqi forces as they try to take over the country's security so American forces can leave.
The attackers, armed with machine guns and rifles, drove up at 6:30 a.m., then battled their way into Col. Ali Dilayan al-Jorani's house on the outskirts of Baqouba, in Diyala province 35 miles northeast of the capital, according to officers at the provincial police center. Eleven guards also were killed, they said.
They said the attackers arrived in "many cars" and abducted two sons and a daughter of al-Jorani, head of central Baqouba's Balda police station. The officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared they would be next.
Iraqi police are frequent targets of al-Qaida-linked insurgents bent on ending cooperation between government security forces and U.S. troops in Baghdad and surrounding areas.
At least 751 Iraqi security personnel have been killed since a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown began on Feb 14. During the same length of time immediately preceding Feb. 14, at least 593 Iraqi security personnel were killed, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press. The actual number in both cases is likely higher as many killings go unreported or uncounted.
The U.S. military recently acknowledged that the rampant violence had forced it divert some attention from training Iraqi troops, who the Americans hope will be ready to assume the fight when American forces pull back.
Diyala province, a hotbed of the Sunni insurgency, has become increasingly dangerous since the beginning of the Baghdad security operation nearly four months ago.
Militants have fled the capital to avoid capture and forced the U.S. military to dispatch about 3,000 more American forces to Diyala from already overtaxed reinforcements arriving in Baghdad.
But the attack on the police chief's home was one of the boldest and bloodiest in months of violence. It also coincided with the shift in loyalty of some Sunni insurgent fighters, who have joined the fight against al-Qaida.
A policeman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisal attacks, said al-Jorani is a Sunni. He said many officers from both Islamic sects have sent their families either outside the province or in some cases, outside the country, and are living in their offices for fear of al-Qaida, which he said is feeling increased pressure as other insurgent groups turn against it in the area.
Al-Qaida has also claimed responsibility for the deadly ambush of a U.S.-Iraqi combat team south of Baghdad on May 12 when militants kidnapped three U.S. soldiers. One of the soldiers was later found dead, and the two others remain missing.
The chief military spokesman in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, told CNN that the military has been able to identify 17 militants who were involved in the kidnapping and that three of them were currently in custody.
Meanwhile, tensions rose on the outskirts of Diyala's Shiite enclave of Khalis, where dozens of suspected insurgents were gathering and police called for U.S. and Iraqi army assistance, according to Maj. Gen. Ghanim al-Qureyshi, the head of the Diyala provincial police.
Bombings also struck to the north and the south of the capital as at least 77 Iraqis were killed nationwide.
Worshippers leaving Friday prayers at a Shiite mosque in Dakok, near the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, were struck by a parked car bombing that killed at least 19 people, police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said.
About five minutes later, a suicide bomber was spotted driving toward the mosque but police in a nearby station opened fire on him and he exploded, Qadir said. At least 25 people were wounded in the twin attacks, most in the parked car bomb.
Um Zainab, a 52-year-old housewife whose son was seriously wounded, blamed Sunni insurgents for the blast and called them traitors to Islam.
"They want to kill people even when they are praying in a mosque," she said as she stood in the hospital waiting for her son to come out of surgery. "Nobody wants them in Iraq. What is the guilt of the believers who were practicing their religious duties?"
Murtada Saleh, a 62-year-old retiree, lives near the attacked Shiite mosque but said he quit going there to pray several months ago because he feared such an attack.
"I have a big family to feed and I do not want to be killed. I also have prevented my sons from going to the mosque," he said, adding that the windows in his house were shattered in the blast. "We are a religious family, but one should be cautious."
Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, is the center of Iraq's northern oil fields and has seen a recent rise in ethnic tensions as Kurds seek to incorporate the city into their self-governing region, drawing the ire of many Sunni Arabs who live there.
A parked minibus exploded at a terminal in the predominantly Shiite town of Qurnah, 300 miles southeast of Baghdad, and hospital officials said at least 16 people were killed and 32 wounded.
A witness, taxi driver Salim Abdul-Hussein, 35, said the blast damaged the bus terminal and many cars and surrounding shops, striking an area crowded each morning with farmers coming to town to shop and sell their produce and animals.
In Basra, the provincial capital 60 miles to the south, a minibus loaded with rockets, ammunition, C4 explosives and benzene blew up and caused a nearby car to explode in flames, said the police chief, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Hammadi. Police cordoned off the area and arrested two Egyptian suspects, he said.
At Qurnah hospital, director Ali Qassim told the AP by telephone that the medical facility had received 16 bodies from the explosions and 32 wounded.
The attackers, armed with machine guns and rifles, drove up at 6:30 a.m., then battled their way into Col. Ali Dilayan al-Jorani's house on the outskirts of Baqouba, in Diyala province 35 miles northeast of the capital, according to officers at the provincial police center. Eleven guards also were killed, they said.
They said the attackers arrived in "many cars" and abducted two sons and a daughter of al-Jorani, head of central Baqouba's Balda police station. The officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared they would be next.
Iraqi police are frequent targets of al-Qaida-linked insurgents bent on ending cooperation between government security forces and U.S. troops in Baghdad and surrounding areas.
At least 751 Iraqi security personnel have been killed since a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown began on Feb 14. During the same length of time immediately preceding Feb. 14, at least 593 Iraqi security personnel were killed, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press. The actual number in both cases is likely higher as many killings go unreported or uncounted.
The U.S. military recently acknowledged that the rampant violence had forced it divert some attention from training Iraqi troops, who the Americans hope will be ready to assume the fight when American forces pull back.
Diyala province, a hotbed of the Sunni insurgency, has become increasingly dangerous since the beginning of the Baghdad security operation nearly four months ago.
Militants have fled the capital to avoid capture and forced the U.S. military to dispatch about 3,000 more American forces to Diyala from already overtaxed reinforcements arriving in Baghdad.
But the attack on the police chief's home was one of the boldest and bloodiest in months of violence. It also coincided with the shift in loyalty of some Sunni insurgent fighters, who have joined the fight against al-Qaida.
A policeman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisal attacks, said al-Jorani is a Sunni. He said many officers from both Islamic sects have sent their families either outside the province or in some cases, outside the country, and are living in their offices for fear of al-Qaida, which he said is feeling increased pressure as other insurgent groups turn against it in the area.
Al-Qaida has also claimed responsibility for the deadly ambush of a U.S.-Iraqi combat team south of Baghdad on May 12 when militants kidnapped three U.S. soldiers. One of the soldiers was later found dead, and the two others remain missing.
The chief military spokesman in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, told CNN that the military has been able to identify 17 militants who were involved in the kidnapping and that three of them were currently in custody.
Meanwhile, tensions rose on the outskirts of Diyala's Shiite enclave of Khalis, where dozens of suspected insurgents were gathering and police called for U.S. and Iraqi army assistance, according to Maj. Gen. Ghanim al-Qureyshi, the head of the Diyala provincial police.
Bombings also struck to the north and the south of the capital as at least 77 Iraqis were killed nationwide.
Worshippers leaving Friday prayers at a Shiite mosque in Dakok, near the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, were struck by a parked car bombing that killed at least 19 people, police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said.
About five minutes later, a suicide bomber was spotted driving toward the mosque but police in a nearby station opened fire on him and he exploded, Qadir said. At least 25 people were wounded in the twin attacks, most in the parked car bomb.
Um Zainab, a 52-year-old housewife whose son was seriously wounded, blamed Sunni insurgents for the blast and called them traitors to Islam.
"They want to kill people even when they are praying in a mosque," she said as she stood in the hospital waiting for her son to come out of surgery. "Nobody wants them in Iraq. What is the guilt of the believers who were practicing their religious duties?"
Murtada Saleh, a 62-year-old retiree, lives near the attacked Shiite mosque but said he quit going there to pray several months ago because he feared such an attack.
"I have a big family to feed and I do not want to be killed. I also have prevented my sons from going to the mosque," he said, adding that the windows in his house were shattered in the blast. "We are a religious family, but one should be cautious."
Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, is the center of Iraq's northern oil fields and has seen a recent rise in ethnic tensions as Kurds seek to incorporate the city into their self-governing region, drawing the ire of many Sunni Arabs who live there.
A parked minibus exploded at a terminal in the predominantly Shiite town of Qurnah, 300 miles southeast of Baghdad, and hospital officials said at least 16 people were killed and 32 wounded.
A witness, taxi driver Salim Abdul-Hussein, 35, said the blast damaged the bus terminal and many cars and surrounding shops, striking an area crowded each morning with farmers coming to town to shop and sell their produce and animals.
In Basra, the provincial capital 60 miles to the south, a minibus loaded with rockets, ammunition, C4 explosives and benzene blew up and caused a nearby car to explode in flames, said the police chief, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Hammadi. Police cordoned off the area and arrested two Egyptian suspects, he said.
At Qurnah hospital, director Ali Qassim told the AP by telephone that the medical facility had received 16 bodies from the explosions and 32 wounded.
Militant Group Broke Ties in Lebanon
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- When Shaker Youssef al-Absi showed up at a Palestinian refugee camp last year and offered commandoes to fight the Israelis, fellow fighters received him with enthusiasm. They gave his 60 or so recruits weapons and military training.
Today, al-Absi and his men _ whose numbers have swelled to a few hundred, many from other Arab countries _ are pariahs in Palestinian camps, fighting a different war far from the Israeli border against a different enemy: Lebanon's army.
About a year after their arrival, the deeply religious and reclusive men of al-Absi's breakaway group Fatah Islam are now at the heart of a three-week battle against the Lebanese army in the Nahr el-Bared camp in northern Lebanon.
"Our movement welcomed them because of their desire to attack the Zionists (Israel)," said Ibrahim Abu Mohammed, an official of pro-Syrian Fatah Uprising, which armed and trained al-Absi's men in eastern Lebanon close to the Syrian border. "But it seems they had other intentions, even before they joined us."
Recent interviews with Fatah Uprising and other officials shed new light on the rapid emergence of a radical Islamic force now locked in a bloody standoff with the Lebanese army. They also reveal the complex interaction of Palestinian and other groups in Lebanon _ all opposed to Israel but with differing ideologies _ that are creating huge challenges for the government here.
More than 120 people have been killed during the Lebanese army's grinding offensive to drive Fatah Islam militants out of the Nahr el-Bared settlement in the worst internal violence in Lebanon since the 1975-90 civil war.
On Saturday, artillery and tanks pounded militant positions in renewed heavy fighting.
The Lebanese government accuses Syria of backing the militant group at Nahr el-Bared to stir up trouble in Lebanon, which the government in Damascus long controlled until forced to leave in 2005. Syria denies the claim, saying it considers the group a dangerous terrorist organization.
When al-Absi first appeared in Lebanon, Palestinians there were anticipating an Israeli attack on their camps after the capture of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants in Gaza and other violence there, said Abu Mohammed and other Palestinians.
So al-Absi's offer of fighting Israel in case of attack was received with open arms by Fatah Uprising and its deputy leader, Abu Khaled al-Amleh, who was based in Damascus. Fatah Uprising itself broke from the mainstream Palestinian Fatah movement in the early 1980s.
Al-Absi, who is wanted in Jordan for involvement in a 2004 assassination of a U.S. diplomat there, spread out increasing numbers of recruits to several Palestinian camps _ about 120 in Beirut's Bourj el-Barajneh, 60 in Beddawi in the north and 150 in Nahr el-Bared.
Abu Mohammed and another Fatah Uprising official, Mahmoud Doulla, told The Associated Press that their leaders were so impressed with al-Absi's selfless dedication to the Palestinian cause that, at first, they ignored warning signs of other trouble.
Today, al-Absi and his men _ whose numbers have swelled to a few hundred, many from other Arab countries _ are pariahs in Palestinian camps, fighting a different war far from the Israeli border against a different enemy: Lebanon's army.
About a year after their arrival, the deeply religious and reclusive men of al-Absi's breakaway group Fatah Islam are now at the heart of a three-week battle against the Lebanese army in the Nahr el-Bared camp in northern Lebanon.
"Our movement welcomed them because of their desire to attack the Zionists (Israel)," said Ibrahim Abu Mohammed, an official of pro-Syrian Fatah Uprising, which armed and trained al-Absi's men in eastern Lebanon close to the Syrian border. "But it seems they had other intentions, even before they joined us."
Recent interviews with Fatah Uprising and other officials shed new light on the rapid emergence of a radical Islamic force now locked in a bloody standoff with the Lebanese army. They also reveal the complex interaction of Palestinian and other groups in Lebanon _ all opposed to Israel but with differing ideologies _ that are creating huge challenges for the government here.
More than 120 people have been killed during the Lebanese army's grinding offensive to drive Fatah Islam militants out of the Nahr el-Bared settlement in the worst internal violence in Lebanon since the 1975-90 civil war.
On Saturday, artillery and tanks pounded militant positions in renewed heavy fighting.
The Lebanese government accuses Syria of backing the militant group at Nahr el-Bared to stir up trouble in Lebanon, which the government in Damascus long controlled until forced to leave in 2005. Syria denies the claim, saying it considers the group a dangerous terrorist organization.
When al-Absi first appeared in Lebanon, Palestinians there were anticipating an Israeli attack on their camps after the capture of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants in Gaza and other violence there, said Abu Mohammed and other Palestinians.
So al-Absi's offer of fighting Israel in case of attack was received with open arms by Fatah Uprising and its deputy leader, Abu Khaled al-Amleh, who was based in Damascus. Fatah Uprising itself broke from the mainstream Palestinian Fatah movement in the early 1980s.
Al-Absi, who is wanted in Jordan for involvement in a 2004 assassination of a U.S. diplomat there, spread out increasing numbers of recruits to several Palestinian camps _ about 120 in Beirut's Bourj el-Barajneh, 60 in Beddawi in the north and 150 in Nahr el-Bared.
Abu Mohammed and another Fatah Uprising official, Mahmoud Doulla, told The Associated Press that their leaders were so impressed with al-Absi's selfless dedication to the Palestinian cause that, at first, they ignored warning signs of other trouble.
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