Saturday, March 29, 2008
Iraq: US widens bombing in Basra; some 40 Iraqi police officers surrender arms to militants
U.S. jets widened the bombing of Basra on Saturday, dropping two precision-guided bombs on a suspected militia stronghold north of the city, British officials said.
Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman, said U.S. jets dropped the two bombs on a militia position in Qarmat Ali shortly before 12:30 p.m.
Basra is Iraq's commercial and oil hub, and militant followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been battling Iraqi and coalition forces in the southern city since Tuesday.
"My understanding was that this was a building that had people who were shooting back at Iraqi ground forces," Holloway said.
The number of people killed in the latest strikes was not yet known, he said.
Iraqi police said that earlier in the day a U.S. warplane strafed a house and killed eight civilians, including two women and one child. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release the information. The U.S. military had no immediate comment on the report and it was not possible to independently verify it. (AP)
At Syria summit, Abbas calls for Arab troops in Palestinian territories
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Arab leaders assembled at a Damascus summit Saturday to send peacekeeping troops to the Palestinian territories, as Arab leaders debated the future of a 2002 peace initiative.
Abbas spoke at the opening of a deeply divided annual Arab League summit that leaders of the U.S.'s top allies boycotted to protest Syria's hard-line stances in nearly every crisis in the Middle East.
Abbas has called in the past for international peacekeepers in the Gaza Strip. But his call Saturday at an Arab summit in Damascus is the first time he has urged Arab countries to send forces.
He asked Arab countries to "think seriously of Arab and international
protection for our people."
Abbas took a sharply pessimistic tone over Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations launched in November. "The coming couple of months are decisive. If we don't reach a solution by the end of this year, it means the whole region will be on the verge of a new era of tension and loss of confidence in peace," Abbas said. (Haaretz)
Labels: Arab Leauge, Palestine
Turkey hits rebel targets in Iraq
Turkey has been bombarding Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq with aircraft and artillery, the Turkish military has said.
At least 15 rebels died in cross-border shelling on Thursday as they prepared to attack targets in Turkey, it added.
Air strikes were carried out on Friday, but it was unclear whether there had been any casualties from the raids.
In a week-long offensive last month, Turkey targeted bases it said were used by rebels for cross-border attacks.
Up to 3,000 Kurdish rebels attached to the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' Party, used the bases, it said. (BBC)
Labels: Iraq, Kurdistan, Turkey
Sadr orders militia to reject PM's call to surrender arms
Radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday ordered his followers to reject Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's call to surrender their arms as clashes with troops raged for a fifth straight day.
"Sadr has told us not to surrender our arms except to a state that can throw out the (US) occupation," Haider al-Jabari of the Sadr movement's political bureau told AFP in the holy city of Najaf, home to the cleric's main office.
On Wednesday, Maliki gave a 72-hour deadline to Shiite fighters, mostly Mahdi Army militants loyal to the anti-American cleric, to disarm in the southern city of Basra after launching a crackdown against them a day earlier.
The deadline for surrendering heavy and medium weaponry in return for money expired on Friday. After the militia put up stiff resistance, Maliki extended it until April 8.
The crackdown on areas controlled by Sadr's militia has severely strained a freeze of Mahdi Army activities the cleric ordered last August.
Since Tuesday, violence has raged across Shiite regions of Iraq, with nearly 260 people killed as Shiite fighters clashed with troops. (AFP)
Labels: Iraq
Taliban attack Afghan power plant
Taliban insurgents blew up a power station in the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Saturday, killing two people and wounding eight, police said.
The power station, in the district of Girishk, is the main source of electricity for the area.
"Two employees of the station were killed and eight other people including two passers-by were wounded in the explosion," said provincial police chief, Hussain Andiwal.
"The building was damaged but the power supply machinery is safe," he said.
Taliban militants planted hundreds of roadside bombs and conducted scores of suicide bomb attacks in 2007 in Afghanistan, contributing to a record year of violence that killed 6,000 people, nearly 2,000 of them civilians. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan
Syria opens Arab summit, promises to help on Lebanon
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday promised at an Arab summit in Damascus to help resolve a political crisis in Lebanon, which boycotted the meeting in protest at Syrian policy.
Eleven heads of state from the Arab League's 22 members were present at the opening, less than normal for the two-day annual event, reflecting suspicions that Syria has obstructed the election of a new Lebanese president through its allies.
Along with Lebanon, three key U.S. allies -- King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan -- stayed away from the summit, reducing the chances it will break new ground on Lebanon or other conflicts.
The conflict over Lebanon reflects the wider struggle for regional influence between the United States and Syria's ally Iran.
Assad dismissed the accusation that his country was behind the deadlock in Lebanon, which has not had a president since November because the government and the Syrian-backed opposition cannot agree on the composition of a new cabinet. (Reuters)
Labels: Arab Leauge, Lebanon, Syria
Hamas chiefs tout Israel truce, call for internal reconciliation
Hamas' exiled leader Khaled Meshal wants reconciliation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' rival group Fatah and is interested in a conditional truce with Israel, a pro-Hamas Web site quoted him as saying Friday.
Meshal urged Arab leaders to support the group's fight against Israel and to protest against an Israeli-led blockade of Gaza, defending daily cross-border Qassam attacks as self-defense, according to the Web site.
But he also reiterated Hamas was ready to discuss a "comprehensive" cease-fire with Israel.
"All Palestinian factions of resistance have expressed full readiness to deal with the issue of calm, on condition that it be comprehensive, reciprocal and simultaneous," Meshal was quoted as saying.
The Gaza-based Web site also said Meshal wrote to Arab leaders requesting support for Hamas-Fatah dialogue, after a Yemen-brokered agreement to revive talks between the rival factions appeared to falter this week. (Haaretz)
Labels: Hamas, Israel, Palestine
American face of Al-Jazeera English quits over lack of editorial input
The most high-profile US face on Al-Jazeera's English-language service has quit the network, citing increasing editorial control by the Qatar-based management, according to reports Friday. "To put it bluntly, the channel that's on now - while excellent, and I plan to be a lifetime viewer - is not the channel that I signed up to do," Dave Marash, a former ABC correspondent, told The New York Times.
He said that the 24-hour Doha-based network had started exercising increasing editorial control not only over its Washington bureau, but also over the European and Asian broadcasting hubs in London and Kuala Lumpur.
"They started covering the whole world very well, but from the point of view and the interests of Doha and the surrounding region," he said.
Editorial input from the Washington bureau, he said, "small at the start, has gotten smaller and smaller." (AFP)
Labels: Media
Iraqi Kurds stress flexibility over Kirkuk
Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region would be ready to accept an equitable political solution other than a referendum to the controversial issue of control of the oil-rich Kirkuk area, a senior official said Friday. "If there is any other solution [than the referendum], the government of Kurdistan is committed to be part of this solution, that could be an option," said Falah Mustafa Bakir, the Kurdistan regional government's official responsible for external relations.
"The government of Kurdistan would be ready to accept a political agreement that would satisfy all the parties," he added in an interview with AFP.
The oil hub, located about 250 kilometers north of the capital, Baghdad, is claimed by both Arabs and Kurds, and a referendum to decide its fate was to have been held last December but was delayed after UN intervention. Kurdish leaders agreed to a six-month postponement of the vote at the recommendation of the United Nations. (AFP)
Leading Iranian cleric calls for end to Iraqi clashes
A high-ranking Iranian cleric on Friday urged Shiite militants and Iraq's government to negotiate an end to their clashes that have cost dozens of lives in Iran's conflict-torn neighbor. Shiite militants including the Mehdi Army of hard-line cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the government of Iraqi Premier Nuri al-Maliki should "sit down" and "sort it out," said Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati.
"I really ask the popular forces in Basra that if you, brothers, have a something to say, come and sit down and tell the government," Jannati said at Friday prayers in Tehran, referring to Mehdi Army's supporters. "There are some who are benevolent and can act as mediators.
"I ask the government of dear and esteemed Mr. Nuri al-Maliki who is running the government with power and wisdom to listen to these popular forces and see what they say and sort it out together," he said.
Jannati heads the hard-line Council of Guardians, the Islamic republic's top vetting body which must approve all parliamentary legislation. (AFP)
Russia offers help for NATO in Afghanistan - for a price
Russia offered Friday to help out NATO's hard-pressed forces in Afghanistan, Interfax news agency reported, but linked this to the alliance halting membership bids by ex-Soviet Georgia and Ukraine. Speaking ahead of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's summit next week, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Interfax Moscow was "considering the possibility of deepening" cooperation with NATO in its war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The offer appeared to refer to ongoing negotiations over transit for NATO forces through Russia rather than Moscow sending troops - something unlikely given the Soviet Union's traumatic defeat by Afghan insurgents in the 1980s.
However, Grushko warned this would not happen "if each other's lawful security interests are not taken into account," making clear that topping those interests was opposition to NATO expansion.
The statement came ahead of a NATO heads of state gathering in Bucharest on April 2-4, where Afghanistan and expansion will be the main issues. President Vladimir Putin will attend the summit on April 4 for the NATO-Russia Council meeting. (AFP)
Labels: Afghanistan, Russia
Siniora states his case for decision to boycott summit
On the eve of the Arab Lague summit in Damascus, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Friday that his government was staying away from the gathering to demonstrate the Lebanese people's refusal to accept a presidential vacuum. In a televised speech, Siniora addressed the Arab community, stressing that "Lebanon should only be represented by its Christian president, who reflects the country's diversity and is the only Christian Arab president," Siniora said.
Lebanon has been without a president since Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his term. Parliament sessions to elect a new head of state have been postponed on 17 occasions as part of the power struggle between the government and the opposition, which Siniora and his allies accuse of obstructing the process on behalf of Syria.
The prime minister described as "disappointing" the fact that Lebanon has been without a president for four months. (Daily Star)
Labels: Arab Leauge, Lebanon
American warplanes join Iraqi troops in taking the fight to Shia militia
US aircraft attacked Shia militia in Basra for the first time in the current round of fighting as intense battles continued between supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr and tens of thousands of Iraqi forces in a crackdown personally supervised by Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
British troops, based at the city's airport, were kept away from the operation described by George Bush as "a defining moment in the history of Iraq".
American fighter jets dropped bombs on a mortar team and a militia stronghold in Basra, said Major Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman. The number of casualties was unknown.
As protests spread across Iraq, US aircraft also attacked Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, killing at least five civilians, according to Iraqi police and hospitals.
"There have been engagements going on in and around Sadr City. We've engaged the enemy with artillery, we've engaged the enemy with aircraft, we've engaged the enemy with direct fire," Major Mark Cheadle, a US military spokesman in Baghdad, said later. (Guardian)
US Mid-East commander is replaced
The Pentagon has appointed a temporary replacement for the commander of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan who retired early amid controversy.
Admiral William Fallon quit on 11 March - a year after taking the job - blaming public perceptions of a rift with US President George W Bush.
A magazine article had said Adm Fallon was opposed to military action on Iran.
Lt Gen Martin Dempsey assumed interim command of US Central Command (CentCom) in a ceremony at a Florida air base.
Deputy at CentCom since August 2007, he will serve as acting commander until Mr Bush finds a permanent replacement. (BBC)
Labels: Afghanistan, Iraq, U.S.
Israeli-Palestinian Trade Suffers
The sun had just begun to rise over the mountains of this Palestinian city as the truck carrying jeans destined for the drawers of Israeli women began the arduous journey to Tel Aviv.
The trip should take an hour and a half. But the Palestinian driver did not have a permit through an Israeli military checkpoint and the X-ray machine at a crossing was broken, so the jeans arrived 8 1/2 hours later.
During a visit this weekend, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hopes to get Israel to ease some of these security restrictions and allow freer travel of West Bank merchandise and businesspeople.
Israeli-Palestinian trade helps build a strong Palestinian economy, which the United States considers essential to getting the sides to sign a peace deal by the end of the year.
Merchants from both sides say such partnerships are ideal: Israeli clothing shops need cheap labor and West Bank Palestinians need the work. But Israeli and Palestinian businesses are working together less these days because of distrust and ongoing violence. (AP)
President Calls Battles in Iraq a 'Defining Moment'
President Bush today called the Iraqi government's battle against Shiite Muslim militias a "defining moment in the history of a free Iraq" that shows a commitment to "even-handed justice," and he vowed continued U.S. help for the effort.
Answering questions from reporters after a White House meeting with Australia's new prime minister, Bush said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made the decision to take on the militias and criminal gangs in the southern port city of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city and main oil-exporting hub. Bush said that he was "not exactly sure what triggered the prime minister's response" but that he suspects it stemmed from complaints from Basra residents who grew "sick and tired" of the gunmen's behavior in the city.
"From the beginning of liberation, there have been criminal elements that have had a pretty free hand in Basra," Bush said. "And it was just a matter of time before the government was going to have to deal with it."
"Most people want to have normal lives," he said. "Most people don't like to be shaken down." (Washington Post)
Friday, March 28, 2008
UK apologises over Iraq abuses
Britain will admit in the country's high court that troops breached parts of the European human rights convention with regard to an Iraqi prisoner who died in custody in Basra in 2003.
Des Browne, the British defence secretary, said that the ministry of defence would also on Friday admit breaching the rights of eight other Iraqi deatinees.
Bob Ainsworth, armed forces minister, said: "I deeply regret the actions of a very small number of troops and I offer my sincere apologies and sympathy to the family of Baha Mousa and the other eight Iraqi detainees."
Mousa, a 26-year-old hotel worker, suffocated when he was forced to the floor with his arms behind his back as soldiers tried to cuff him, prosecutors said last September. (Al Jazeera)
We're fighting for survival, says Mahdi army commander
A senior commander in the Mahdi army said today the militia was fighting a battle for survival in Basra against a rival Shia faction seeking to obliterate it ahead of September elections.
Fighting broke out in Basra on Tuesday when Iraqi government forces launched an offensive against Shia militia in the city. Overnight, US jets carried out air strikes in support of Iraqi forces in at least two locations.
Shiek Ali al-Sauidi, a prominent member of the Moqtada al-Sadr-led movement in Basra, said his men were being targeted not by the Iraqi government but by government militias loyal to the rival Supreme Islamic Council faction.
"They are a executing a very well drawn plan. They are trying to exterminate the Sadrists and cut and isolate the movement before the September local elections," he said in a telephone interview with the Guardian. (Guardian)
Labels: Iraq
Charges against Marine in Haditha case dropped
Charges were dismissed on Friday against a U.S. Marine accused of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault in the 2005 shooting deaths of two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians at Haditha.
The charges against Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum, 26, were dismissed "in order to continue to pursue the truth seeking process into the Haditha incident," the Marines said in a statement.
Word came of the development as jury selection was set to begin in Tatum's court-martial on charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault at the Camp Pendleton Marine base in Southern California.
Tatum was one of eight Marines charged in the November 19, 2005, killing of 24 men, women and children at Haditha that triggered international condemnation of U.S. forces.
He faced 19 years in prison if convicted on all on all charges.
Iraqi witnesses say angry Marines massacred unarmed civilians after a popular comrade was killed by a roadside bomb. Defense attorneys argue that the civilians died during a pitched battle with insurgents. (Reuters)
Absences overshadow Arab summit
Arab leaders have begun gathering in Damascus for a summit already undermined by a series of high-profile snubs.
Yemen and Jordan on Friday announced they would be sending low-level representatives to an annual Arab League meeting normally attended by heads of state.
A Jordanian official said that the kingdom's delegate to the Arab League, Omar Rifai, would head the Jordan delegation at Saturday's summit.
While the Yemeni news agency Saba said that Abd Rabbo Mansour, the country's vice-president, would represent Yemen.
Saudia Arabia and Egypt had earlier announced they would be represented by low-level delegations in protest against what they called Syrian "meddling" in Lebanon.
Lebanon's government said it would boycott the event amid the continuing deadlock with the Syrian-backed opposition over the make-up of the cabinet and the election of a new president.
Morocco and Oman were also sending low-level delegates.
Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, also said on Friday that he would not be able to attend the summit due to a struggle with Shia militias at home. (Al Jazeera)
Labels: Arab Leauge
UN says 'criminals' killed Hariri
Evidence suggests the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated by a "criminal network", an investigating UN team has said.
No suspects were named, but the investigators said a "Hariri Network" had Mr Hariri under surveillance before the assassination.
The ex-PM and 22 other people died in a huge car bombing in Beirut in 2005.
Past UN inquiries suggested that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence forces had played a role - which Syria denied.
The UN panel, headed by Canadian former prosecutor Daniel Bellemare, said in the 10th report on the case that it could now confirm that "on the basis of available evidence... a network of individuals acted in concert to carry out the assassination", said the news agency AFP.
The commission suggests this network was responsible for other attacks against high-profile Lebanese figures, and at least part of the network continued to operate after Mr Hariri's killing. (BBC)
Oil price down as Iraq fear eases
Global oil prices have fallen slightly in Friday trading on the news that an attack on an Iraqi export pipeline was not as serious as earlier thought.
The price of benchmark US light sweet crude fell $1.93 to $105.65 a barrel by early afternoon in Europe while London Brent crude lost $1.22 to $103.78
"The [Iraqi] problem is not as serious as we thought," said oil analyst David Johnson of Macquarie Research.
A slightly stronger dollar had also lessened demand, analysts said.
A weaker dollar generally increases the price of commodities such as oil and gold, as investors see them as a haven for their funds.
Continuing strong global demand for oil is also another factor keeping oil prices high. (BBC)
U.S. forces drawn deeper into Iraq crackdown
U.S. forces were drawn deeper into Iraq's four day-old crackdown on Shi'ite militants on Friday, launching air strikes in Basra for the first time and battling militants in Baghdad.
The fighting has exposed a rift within the majority Shi'ite community and put pressure on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose forces have failed to drive fighters loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr off the streets of Iraq's second-largest city.
Authorities shut down Baghdad with a strict curfew, but that did not halt rocket attacks and clashes in the capital.
Defense Minister Abdel Qader Jassim acknowledged that Iraqi security forces had been caught off-guard by their foes.
"We supposed that this operation would be a normal operation, but we were surprised by this resistance and have been obliged to change our plans and our tactics," he told a news conference in Basra. Reporters were brought to the briefing in military vehicles and kept inside because of clashes nearby. (Reuters)
Hamas urges Arab summit to back Yemeni bid for reconciliation with Fatah
Hamas wants this weekend's Arab summit in Damascus to back a Yemen-sponsored reconciliation agreement between the group and its Palestinian rival Fatah, a pro-Hamas Web site quoted the group's leader as saying on Friday.
Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, in exile in Syria, was also quoted as urging Arab leaders to support its fight with Israel, although he reiterated the Islamist group was open to a conditional truce.
The Gaza-based Web site said Meshal wrote to Arab leaders requesting support for Hamas-Fatah dialogue, after a Yemen-brokered agreement to revive talks between the rival factions appeared to falter this week.
Meshal called on Arab leaders to "shoulder your national and brotherly responsibility to foster a Palestinian-Palestinian dialogue", according to the report, which was also carried by London-based pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat.
Hamas seized control of Gaza last June after routing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah forces. Abbas then sacked a Hamas-led unity government and pursued U.S.-backed peace talks with Israel. (Haaretz)
Labels: Arab Leauge, Fatah, Hamas, Palestine, Yemen
Baghdad under curfew
Authorities in Baghdad have imposed a three-day curfew on the Iraqi capital as the country's prime minister pledged there would be "no retreat" in the fight against Shia militias.
Thursday's total curfew order - intended to "protect civilians" - came as clashes between Iraqi security forces and fighters from the Mahdi Army, led by Shia cleric Muqtada al Sadr, spread from the southern city of Basra to Baghdad.
On Thursday the heavily-fortified Green Zone in the heart of the Iraqi capital again came under rocket and mortar fire.
More than 130 Iraqis are reported to have died in three days of heavy fighting, with hundreds more injured.
One American was killed in Thursday's attacks on the Green Zone – the second to die this week.
On Friday the Iraqi parliament is due to hold an emergency session to discuss ways to end the violence. (Al Jazeera)
Labels: Iraq
Israel seeking peace talks with Syria: minister
An Israeli minister said on Friday that the Jewish state was trying to revive peace talks with Syria and that the price of a deal was the occupied Golan Heights.
The comments by Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer came after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reiterated this week that Israel was willing to make peace with its Arab neighbor and hinted at behind-the-scenes talks.
"Every effort is being made to bring Syria to the negotiating table," Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio.
"We know that sitting at the negotiating table is not to sing Hatikva (Israel's national anthem) but to sign an agreement, and we know very well the price of this agreement."
Asked if the price was to relinquish control of the Golan Heights, Ben-Eliezer said: "Exactly." (Reuters)
Iraq extends Shia arms deadline
Iraq's government has extended by 10 days a deadline for Shia militiamen fighting troops in Basra to hand over their weapons in return for money.
More than 130 people have been killed and 350 injured since a clampdown on militias began in Basra on Tuesday.
US-led forces joined the battle for the first time overnight, bombing Shia positions, the UK military said.
Aid agencies say the violence upsurge had made Iraq's already poor humanitarian situation "critical".
Speaking in Geneva, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Unicef and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) called on all the warring parties to allow the passage of food and medical supplies. (BBC)
Labels: Iraq
Bush Gives Apology for Suez Shooting
President Bush apologized to the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, on Thursday for the killing of an Egyptian vendor when a cargo ship chartered by the United States opened fire on his small boat near the Suez Canal on Monday in an episode that has enraged Egyptians.
“President Bush expressed his deep regret and sympathies for the incident in the Suez Canal,” a White House spokesman, Gordon D. Johndroe, said Thursday morning aboard Air Force One. (NY Times)
Press watchdog blasts Egyptian editor's sentence
A leading media watchdog has condemned the jail sentence handed down to a newspaper editor by an Egyptian court over articles alluding to the allegedly failing health of the country's aging president, Hosni Mubarak. In a statement released late Wednesday, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the verdict against Ibrahim Eissa, editor of Ad-Dustour daily, was pronounced after a hearing that lasted just 10 minutes.
The Boulak Abul Ela Court of Misdemeanor, on the outskirts of Cairo, sentenced Eissa to six months in prison for "publishing false information and rumors" about Mubarak's health. The court said the articles were likely to disturb public security and harm the country's economy. Eissa was freed on 200 Egyptian pounds ($37) bail, and his lawyers said they would appeal what they called a politically motivated verdict.
"By sentencing our colleague to prison, Egyptian authorities have once again shown their determination to clamp down on critics in the press through the pernicious use of the courts," said CPJ executive director Joel Simon. "The appeals court should throw out this politically motivated judgment." (Daily Star)
Labels: Egypt, Free Media, Free Speech
42 Democrats Vow a Drawdown in Iraq If They Win Seats
More than three dozen Democratic congressional candidates banded together yesterday to promise that, if elected, they will push for legislation calling for an immediate drawdown of troops in Iraq that would leave only a security force in place to guard the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
Rejecting their party leaders' assertions that economic troubles have become the top issue on voters' minds, leaders of the coalition of 38 House and four Senate candidates pledged to make immediate withdrawal from Iraq the centerpiece of their campaigns.
"The people inside the Beltway don't seem to get how big an issue this is," said Darcy Burner, a repeat candidate who narrowly lost to Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) in 2006.
The group's 36-page plan does not set a specific deadline for when all combat troops must be out of Iraq. "Begin it now, do it as safely as you can and get everyone out," Burner said. (Washington Post)
Palestinian Authority Granted New Trial in Terrorism Damages Suit
The Palestinian Authority won a major legal victory when a federal judge, in a ruling made public yesterday, agreed to set aside a judgment of nearly $200 million awarded to American victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel and allow a new trial.
Such rulings are rare, and the judge, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero, said that he would vacate the previous legal victory only if the Palestinian Authority put up a $192.7 million bond to ensure that it does not default again if it loses in court. In a ruling Wednesday, he also ordered the Palestinians to reimburse the plaintiffs for previous legal expenses.
But Marrero's decision gives the Palestinian government hope that it can escape from lawsuits that its officials said threatened to bankrupt it. Top Palestinian officials, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, had urged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to intervene in the case. (Washington Post)
Hamas, Islamic Jihad: Truce with Israel must include West Bank
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have informed Egypt that they are only prepared to accept a truce with Israel on condition that it include the West Bank, as well as the Gaza Strip, sources close to the Palestinian groups said Thursday.
The two groups told Egyptian security officials during a meeting in Sinai on Thursday that they wanted a "comprehensive and mutual" truce as soon as possible, according to the sources.
The Egyptians have worked out a truce proposal that also calls for reopening the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Sinai and partially lifting the blockade on the Strip, again according to the sources, who added that the initiative also called on Israel to refrain from targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders.
Thursday's meeting apparently ended without an agreement after the Egyptians told Hamas and Islamic Jihad representatives that Israel had rejected their demand to include the West Bank in the truce. (JPost)
Labels: Hamas, Israel, Palestine
Bush likely to delay planned withdrawal of troops from Iraq
George Bush signalled yesterday that he was likely to suspend the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq this summer because of fears that the country might return to the levels of violence witnessed last year.
Speaking as a three-day curfew was imposed on Baghdad and as fighting continued for a third successive day in Basra, the US president said there had been gains in Iraq, with overall levels of violence down, but security was fragile.
He would make his decision about more withdrawals from the 154,000-strong US force after speaking next month to the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and the US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker. But he added: "As I consider the way forward, I will always remember that the progress in Iraq is real, it's substantive, but it is reversible. And so the decision on our troop levels will be ensuring that we succeed in Iraq." (Guardian)
Pentagon criticised over contract for company run by 22-year-old
The Pentagon has suspended dealings with its main supplier of munitions to the Afghan government after some cartridges delivered from China and various former eastern bloc countries were found to be more than 40 years old.
Details of the Miami-based company, identified as AEY Inc – headed by Efraim Diveroli, 22, who has little experience in the arms business, and a vice-president who was a licensed masseur – were revealed yesterday by The New York Times. The suspension seems to have been triggered by evidence that the men misled US officials about the true sources of the equipment and, in particular, that large consignments of cartridges had originated in China, which may have been a violation both of its contract and United States law.
AEY struck lucky when it was chosen as the Pentagon's lead munitions supplier for Afghanistan, with one federal contract awarded to it last year worth in excess of $300m (£150m). AEY is also under criminal investigation by the Defence Department and Customs and Excise. The affair is also deeply embarrassing for the Pentagon, which decided to turn to the private sector to keep the Afghan forces supplied when the insurgency in the country intensified in 2006. (Independent)
Labels: Afghanistan, U.S.
Stalled assault on Basra exposes the Iraqi government's shaky authority
The Iraqi army's offensive against the Shia militia of the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Basra is failing to make significant headway despite a pledge by the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to fight "to the end".
Instead of being a show of strength, the government's stalled assault is demonstrating its shaky authority over much of Baghdad and southern Iraq. As the situation spins out of Mr Maliki's control, saboteurs blew up one of the two main oil export pipelines near Basra, cutting by a third crude exports from the oilfields around the city. The international price of oil jumped immediately by $1 a barrel before falling back.
In Baghdad, tens of thousands of supporters of Mr Sadr, whose base of support is the Shia poor, marched through the streets shouting slogans demanding that Mr Maliki's government be overthrown. "We demand the downfall of the Maliki government," said one of the marchers, Hussein Abu Ali. "It does not represent the people. It represents Bush and Cheney." (Independent)
Labels: Iraq
U.N. sees boost in funding for Hariri tribunal
The United Nations now has enough money in hand or pledged to cover first-year costs of a special tribunal in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, officials said on Thursday.
The rise in funding brings the start-up of the controversial court, authorized by the Security Council last year, a step closer but officials still could not say when it would begin work.
A U.N. investigation is still under way into the assassination of Hariri and 22 others in a Beirut car-bomb explosion on February 14, 2005. (Reuters)
Migrants killed on Egypt's border
Egyptian border guards have shot dead two African migrants, as they tried to cross the frontier into Israel.
The two men are both in their 30s, and according to a security official, are from the Ivory Coast.
The guards are said to have opened fire on them after they refused orders to stop at the border.
Eight other migrants have been killed at the border by Egyptian police this year, and scores of others detained - most of them from Africa. (BBC)
Kurds allege ethnic cleansing in Syria
The Syrian regime is torturing the country's Kurdish minority and is planning an ethnic cleansing in the Kurdish region, a Kurdish opposition group says.
Syria's plan to move 10,000 troops into the country's Kurdish region could mark a dangerous turn in the attitude towards this ethnic minority, Sherko 'Abbas, president of the United States-based Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria told The Media Line.
Celebrations of the Kurdish Nowruz spring festival were marred this week in Syria when clashes broke out between security forces and Kurds. Three Kurds were killed and dozens were wounded.
In addition, at least two people were killed in Turkey in Nowruz clashes between Kurds and riot police.
For some time the Syrians have been accusing the Kurds of treason and alliances with the Americans and with the Israelis, 'Abbas said. (JPost)
Labels: Syria
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Syria calls on Saudi Arabia to help on Lebanon
Syria called on Saudi Arabia on Thursday to exercise its influence on Lebanon's pro-Western governing coalition to solve the country's political crisis, which has left it without a president since November.
Beirut's government, which is backed by countries including the United States and Saudi Arabia, has been locked in a power struggle since November 2006 with an opposition alliance backed by Syria and led by Hezbollah -- a group also sponsored by Iran.
Simmering tension between Saudi Arabia and Syria over Lebanon has boiled over in the run-up to an Arab summit that opens in Damascus on Saturday.
Lebanon and Washington's closest three Arab allies Saudi King Abdullah, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah will not attend in protest against what they consider Syrian meddling in its neighbor. (Reuters)
Labels: Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria
Bush invites Abbas to U.S. for talks on Palestinian state
U.S. President George W. Bush has invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the White House in early May for talks aimed at advancing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said on Thursday.
Abbas has been invited for around May 1, though the details of the visit are still being worked out, Johndroe told reporters on Air Force One as the president was en route to Ohio to deliver a speech on the Iraq war. Aides to Abbas said on Wednesday the Palestinian leader had been invited for April 24.
The White House meeting with Abbas is part of a continuing effort "to work with the Palestinians and the Israelis as well as other countries in the region in realizing a Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel," Johndroe said.
Bush launched Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Annapolis, Maryland, in November aimed at addressing sensitive final status issues such as Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees, Jewish settlements and borders. (Haaretz)
Labels: Israel, Palestine, U.S.
Iraqi Prime Minister Says No Retreat
Iraq's prime minister vowed Thursday to fight "until the end" against Shiite militias in Basra despite protests by tens of thousands of followers of a radical cleric in Baghdad and deadly clashes across the capital and the oil-rich south.
Mounting anger focused on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is personally overseeing operations against the militias dominated by Muqtada al-Sadr's supporters amid a violent power struggle in Basra, Iraq's southern oil hub.
The Iraqi leader made his pledge to tribal leaders in the Basra area as military operations continued for a fourth day with stiff resistance.
"We have made up our minds to enter this battle and we will continue until the end. No retreat," he said in a speech broadcast on Iraqi state TV. (AP)
Labels: Iraq
MoD: British soldiers breached Iraqi's human rights
British soldiers breached the human rights of an Iraqi who died while in UK custody in Basra more than four years ago, the defence secretary, Des Browne, said today.
Baha Mousa, a hotel receptionist, suffered 93 injuries and died screaming in custody, witness statements read to the high court said.
Browne said the Ministry of Defence would also admit to violating the rights of eight other Iraqi men in September 2003 at a high court hearing due to take place on Friday.
Over the last few months, the court has heard harrowing accounts of the treatment of Iraqis by British troops in Basra.
Mousa was one of several men seized from a hotel when it was raided, and weapons were recovered, in 2003. (Guardian)
Syrian FM: Israel must show commitment to peace process
Israel must show a commitment to the peace process if Syria is to re-evaluate its support of the 2002 Saudi peace initiative, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said on Thursday.
The minister's comments were made two days before Arab leaders were to meet in Damascus for a regional summit scheduled for Saturday.
According to Moallem, Israeli reluctance to take diplomatic steps towards peace was behind the decision made by Arab League members in Cairo last month that the continuation of the Saudi Peace initiative will hinge upon Israeli cooperation.
The summit has been riven by deep divisions between Arab leaders, mainly over alleged Syrian meddling in Lebanese affairs. Lebanon has announced it is boycotting the summit, while Egypt and Saudi Arabia have announced they were sending only low-level officials to the gathering in a snub to Syria. (Haaretz)
Labels: Arab Leauge, Israel, Syria
Egypt holds new talks with Hamas, Jihad over truce with Israel
Egypt held a new round of talks with Hamas and Islamic Jihad on Thursday as part of efforts to strike a truce between the Palestinian militant groups and Israel, Egyptian sources close to the talks said.
Egypt, with U.S. blessing, has been trying to negotiate a cessation of hostilities between Israel and the militants from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
The sources, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said the talks were held on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing and attended by Hamas official Jamal Abu Hashem and Khaled al-Batsh of Islamic Jihad.
General Mohamed Ibrahim, a senior aide to Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, represented Egypt, they added without elaboration.
Thursday's meeting also addressed the release of a Hamas leader who was detained by Egypt and accused of planning suicide attacks inside the country. (Haaretz)
Labels: Egypt, Hamas, Palestine
Israel: Hezbollah Increases Rocket Range
With Iranian backing, Hezbollah guerrillas have dramatically increased their rocket range and can now threaten most of Israel, senior Israeli defense officials said.
The Lebanese group has acquired new Iranian rockets with a range of about 185 miles, the officials said Wednesday. That means the guerrillas can hit anywhere in Israel's heavily populated center and reach as far south as Dimona, where Israel's nuclear reactor is located.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge the confidential intelligence assessment to the media. (AP)
Labels: Hezbollah, Israel, Palestine
Oil above $107 on pipeline attack
Oil prices have risen above $107 a barrel after one of Iraq's main export pipelines is blown up.
A company official said damage would cut Basra's exports by a third, adding to supply fears and increasing concern about stability in the region.
The rise extended Wednesday's gains of $4 a barrel after a US report showed lower-than-expected petrol stocks.
A sharp sell-off of all commodities last week took oil below $100 after investors cashed in their gains.
Earlier, the price of New York light sweet crude oil had reached a record high of $111.80.
Another key measure of the oil price, London Brent crude, also rose by $1.20 to $105.18. (BBC)
105 killed in battles in Shiite areas of Iraq
Fighting rocked two Iraq cities on Thursday as security forces battled Shiite militiamen for a third day in clashes that left 105 people dead,