Bomb kills 32 in Iraq as U.S. troops leave

(BAGHDAD, SECURITY, KIRKUK, PEOPLE, IRAQIS, MILITARY)

By Tim Cocks and Muhanad Mohammed
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Hours after U.S. troops handed over control of Iraq`s cities to its domestic security forces, a car bomb in the northern city of Kirkuk killed at least 32 people and wounded more than 100 on Tuesday, police said.
The blast tore through a busy market in a largely Kurdish part of the city, which is regarded as a potential flashpoint between ethnic Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen.
The U.S. pullback to rural bases from towns and cities is the first step toward a full U.S. withdrawal by 2012 agreed under a bilateral security pact.
Some Iraqis fear it leaves them open to attack by insurgent groups but many Iraqis celebrated what the government named "National Sovereignty Day," more than six years after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.
Citizens and Iraqi soldiers drove around the streets of the capital in vehicles draped in flowers and Iraqi flags. Signs were draped on Baghdad`s many concrete blast walls reading "Iraq: my nation, my glory, my honor."
"This day, which we consider a national celebration, is an achievement made by all Iraqis," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a televised address.
"Our incomplete sovereignty and the presence of foreign troops is the most serious legacy we have inherited (from Saddam). Those who think that Iraqis are unable to defend their country are committing a fatal mistake."
The day`s festivities included a parade in Baghdad`s heavily fortified Green Zone government and diplomatic district, viewed by Iraqis as the ultimate symbol of the foreign military presence until local forces took control of it in January.
In a display of the military muscle Iraq will use to combat a stubborn insurgency, thousands of soldiers and police paraded on foot or in U.S.-donated Humvees, armored cars and tanks in a compound where Saddam`s forces once staged elaborate displays.
U.S. and local officials said the pullback of U.S. troops showed how far the country had come since it was almost torn apart by tit-for-tat sectarian killing in 2006/2007.
But the Kirkuk bomb underscored the fragility of the security gains. Iraq is less violent that it has been for years, but militants still stage frequent attacks.
In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama lauded the U.S. troop withdrawal as an important milestone but warned of "difficult days" ahead.
Frantic relatives of those who had been in the area dug through the rubble in Kirkuk, searching for missing loved ones.
"I went to the market to get some bread and there was a huge explosion," said Taseen Azad, 21, who was lightly wounded. "I saw people falling on the ground, shops burning and dead people. Then someone took me to the hospital."
The U.S. military said four U.S. soldiers based in Baghdad had died of combat-related injuries on Monday.  Continued...
Original article

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Afghan-Pakistan border blast wounds several: police

(BORDER, CROSSING, AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN, SENIOR, TALIBAN)

KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber attacked a border checkpoint at a crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan on Tuesday, a senior border policeman said, wounding at least four people.
The bomber attacked the crossing for women in the east Afghan town of Torkham, senior policeman Mohammad Zaman Mamozai told Reuters by telephone from the Afghan-Pakistan border. The checkpoint was ablaze, he said.
Private Afghan television station Tolo reported that at least four people were wounded in the blast.
Ambulances were rushing to the scene from the nearby city of Jalalabad, a former Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold in eastern Afghanistan, a Reuters reporter in the city said.
The suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a room used by female security guards to check women crossing the border, Mamozai said.
Senior U.S. military commanders say violence in Afghanistan`s Taliban-led insurgency has reached its highest level since the Islamist militants were ousted after a U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
U.S. President Barack Obama has identified Afghanistan and Pakistan as his main foreign policy priority and Washington is pouring thousands of extra U.S. troops into Afghanistan in a bid to stabilize the war-racked nation.
The reinforcements are meant to help secure August 20 presidential elections in Afghanistan and to combat the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies.
(Reporting by Rafiq Sherzad and Hamid Shalizi; editing by Paul Tait)
Original article

Pakistan militant faction scraps pact, vows attacks

(PAKISTAN, GOVERNMENT, ATTACKS, OFFENSIVE, MEHSUD, WAZIRISTAN)

By Alamgir Bitani
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani militants in a northwestern region have scrapped a peace deal with the government and vowed to launch attacks, threatening to open a new front against the army already fighting in two areas.
The military says it is nearing the end of an offensive in the Swat region, northwest of Islamabad, and is set to launch an assault on Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan on the Afghan border.
The offensive in Swat was launched two months ago after Taliban fighters thrust toward the capital, raising alarm both at home and among allies who need nuclear-armed Pakistan`s help to fight al Qaeda and to tackle Afghanistan`s insurgency.
A militant faction allied with Mehsud in North Waziristan, another militant hotspot also on the Afghan border, said it was ending a pact with the government because of U.S. drone aircraft attacks and the presence of government forces in their area.
"Our leadership has decided that as long as U.S. drone attacks continue and security forces stay here, there will be no peace agreement," faction spokesman Ahmedullah Ahmedi said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
The United States has launched more than 40 attacks by pilotless drones in northwest Pakistan since the beginning of last year, many in North Waziristan.
Pakistan officially objects to the attacks, saying they drive the population into the arms of the militants. U.S. officials say the strikes ae carried out under an agreement that allows Pakistani leaders to decry them in public.
Meanwhile, the government has said Mehsud and his followers in South Waziristan will be attacked next and defeated.
Mehsud carries a U.S. reward of $5 million and a Pakistani reward of 50 million rupees ($615,000). Analysts say Mehsud has become increasingly close to al Qaeda and the military says he is behind 90 percent of "terrorist activity" in the country.
Mehsud was accused of the December 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
HEAVY SHELLING
Security forces have been closing in on his headquarters, using aircraft and artillery to attack his positions while soldiers secure main roads.
The military shelled Mehsud`s positions again on Monday evening and a stray shell hit the wall of the home of a Reuters reporter on the outskirts of the region`s main town of Wana. No one was hurt.
"There was heavy shelling for several hours and one shell hit my house. Thank God, everybody is safe," the reporter said.
North Waziristan has been relatively peaceful but Ahmedi, spokesman for the faction led by commander Gul Bahadur, said his men would go on the offensive.  Continued...
Original article

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Iraq steps into precarious but sovereign unknown

(TROOPS, FORCES, MILITANT, SECURITY, THEIR, IRAQI)

By Michael Christie
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq takes a major step toward reasserting its sovereignty on Tuesday when U.S. combat troops hand urban areas over to its relatively untested police and soldiers.
Will the end of one aspect of the "surge" strategy -- the ramped-up deployment of U.S. forces in militant strongholds that helped drive al Qaeda and other fighters underground -- lead to a collapse in security?
WILL VIOLENCE SOAR?
It is highly likely that insurgents will increase their attacks following the departure of U.S. combat troops from city centers, both U.S. and Iraqi officials say.
Some militant groups may want to create the impression that they deserve the credit for driving out the occupation forces.
The fact that the partial withdrawal has been dictated by a bilateral security pact agreed last year between the United States and Iraq is immaterial to them.
Some of the insurgents may also think Iraq and its population will be more vulnerable once the Americans pull back to their bases, and that they have a better chance of reigniting widespread sectarian bloodshed through massive bombings.
There have been indications, however, that insurgent and militant groups have lost the capacity to keep up the momentum.
While the past month saw two of the deadliest bombings in more than a year, the overall number of incidents has plunged, and major attacks are followed by weeks of relative calm.
WHAT IS AT STAKE POLITICALLY?
If Iraqi security forces fail to protect the Iraqi people from escalating attacks, Shi`ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is likely to suffer politically.
He is staking his hopes for a second term after a parliamentary poll next January on his ability to claim credit for a sharp fall in violence over the past 18 months.
Maliki has called the withdrawal a great victory as Iraq tries to shake off stigma of occupation, and he has declared June 30, "National Sovereignty Day," a public holiday.
Analysts say he has essentially backed himself into a corner by exalting the occasion -- if violence soars it will be politically unpalatable to call on the U.S. military for help.
The prime minister`s stance may also dictate commanders` behavior on the ground. They may be loathe to call on U.S. troops or air cover, no matter how much it is needed, out of fear of being punished by their superiors for apparent weakness.  Continued...
Original article

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Iraqis rejoice as U.S. troops leave Baghdad

(BAGHDAD, IRAQIS, SECURITY, IRAQI, TROOPS, FORCES, ATTACKS)

By Tim Cocks and Muhanad Mohammed
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. troops pulled out of Baghdad on Monday, triggering jubilation among Iraqis hopeful that foreign military occupation is ending six years after the invasion to depose Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi soldiers paraded through the streets in their American-made vehicles draped with Iraqi flags and flowers, chanting, dancing and calling the pullout a "victory."
One drove a motorcycle with party streamers on it; another, a Humvee with a garland of plastic roses on the grill.
U.S. combat troops must pull out of Iraq`s urban centers by midnight on Tuesday under a bilateral security pact that also requires all troops to leave the country by 2012.
All had left the capital by Monday afternoon, Major-General in Staff, Abboud Qanbar, head of Iraqi security forces in Baghdad, told Reuters.
Another Iraqi official who would not be named, said some units in cities outside Baghdad would leave at the last minute. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said 30 bases remained to be handed over. There are still some 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
Addressing military leaders in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said: "Our sovereignty has started and ... we should move forward to build a modern state and enjoy security which has been achieved."
Many Iraqis were elated even though they feared militants might use the withdrawal as an opportunity to step up attacks.
"The American forces` withdrawal is something awaited by every Iraqi: male, female, young and old. I consider June 30 to be like a wedding," said Ahmed Hameed, 38, near an ice cream bar in Baghdad`s upmarket Karrada district.
"This is proof Iraqis are capable of controlling security inside Iraq," added the recent returnee from exile in Egypt.
The government has declared June 30 a national holiday, "National Sovereignty Day."
"BIG JOY"
A spate of bombings in recent days, including two of the deadliest for more than a year that killed 150 people between them, have raised fears militants will try to step up the pace of attacks.
Yet few Iraqis see that as reason for the Americans to stay.
"It is a big joy to see them leaving," said Abu Hassan, 60, a shop owner. "There might be some more attacks because of struggles between the different parties, but Iraqis are controlling security now. It`s up to our forces now."  Continued...
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Activists sail to Gaza with aid, defying Israel

(ISRAEL, US, ACTIVISTS, ISRAELI, AUTHORITIES, GROUP, MONDAY)

LARNACA, Cyprus (Reuters) - International activists sailed from Cyprus Monday in a bid to deliver aid to the Palestinian population in Gaza, in defiance of a sea blockade by Israel.
A group of 21 activists from the U.S.-based Free Gaza Movement left the Cypriot port of Larnaca early Monday morning for a 30-hour journey on a small ferry bedecked with brightly coloured flags including a rainbow flag for peace.
The group planned to deliver three tonnes of medical supplies, some tool kits and copper wiring to Gaza. On two previous occasions, activists were intercepted by Israeli authorities.
"We have informed the Israelis of our intent to enter Gaza, and the last thing they communicated to us through the U.S. embassy in Nicosia and port authorities is that Israel is not going to let us enter," Huwaida Arraf, one of the organisers of the mission, told Reuters.
"We are unarmed civilians. It is up to our respective governments to ensure that Israel doesn`t attack us," said Arraf, a U.S. citizen.
Israel tightened a blockade on Gaza in 2007 after the Islamist group Hamas took control of the enclave, a tiny sliver of territory which is home to some 1.5 million people.
Activists say a humanitarian crisis has been exacerbated by the Israeli offensive on Gaza in December and January which had the stated aim of rooting out militants firing rockets into Israel.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Monday said stringent import restrictions imposed by Israel were crippling reconstruction efforts by donors who have pledged $4.5 billion.
It urged Israel authorities to lift restrictions to allow spare parts, water pipes and building materials into the territory.
(Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Sophie Hares)
Original article

Nigerian militants say attack Shell despite amnesty

(DELTA, NIGER, MEND, SHELL, AMNESTY, MILITANT, ATTACKS)

By Nick Tattersall
LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria`s main militant group said its fighters had attacked an oil facility belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the Niger Delta on Monday, in the face of an amnesty offer from President Umaru Yar`Adua.
Shell said it had shut in some production as a precautionary measure while it investigated reports of attacks on two well clusters in its Estuary Field in the western Niger Delta, which feeds into its Forcados oil export terminal.
"Hurricane Piper Alpha has struck at the Shell Forcados platform in Delta state today ... at about 0330 hours," the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in a statement emailed to media.
It said parts of the facility were on fire.
Forcados is one of Nigeria`s benchmark crude oil grades but production has been interrupted by militant attacks.
On June 17 Shell extended a force majeure on its Forcados oil shipments for the rest of June and all of July. The measure, which frees it from contractual obligations, was first imposed in March after an attack on its trans-Escravos pipeline.
Yar`Adua on Thursday offered a 60-day amnesty to gunmen in the Niger Delta who have been responsible for pipeline bombings, attacks on oil and gas installations and the kidnapping of industry workers over the past three years.
The unrest has prevented the world`s eighth biggest oil exporter from pumping much above two thirds of its installed capacity of 3 million barrels per day, costing it billions of dollars in lost revenue and pushing global energy prices higher.
MEND questioned the sincerity of the government and dismissed the amnesty offer as a program directed at "repentant criminals" rather than genuine "freedom fighters."
MILITANTS DIVIDED
Some militant leaders have said they want talks with Yar`Adua to work out the details of a deal, but MEND has publicly dismissed the amnesty offer, seeing it instead as an opportunity to distinguish itself from criminals.
"It will separate the wheat from the chaff and allow the government to focus on the root issues instead of tying militancy with criminality as an excuse for not addressing the grievances of the Niger Delta people," it said.
"MEND will negotiate as a group when the right time comes ... Only those who are willing to sell their birthright for a bowl of porridge will accept while the rest of us will continue the struggle until justice is achieved."
Representatives of Ateke Tom, Farah Dagogo, Soboma George and Boyloaf -- key leaders of armed gangs behind some of the most spectacular attacks -- issued a statement on Friday saying they wanted to meet with Yar`Adua.
MEND -- a loose coalition of various armed gangs in the delta -- denied Dagogo and Boyloaf would take part.  Continued...
Original article

Support for Pakistan`s anti-Taliban war seen solid

(THE, ON, TALIBAN, INVESTORS, PAKISTANI, OFFENSIVE, AMONG)

By Faisal Aziz
KARACHI (Reuters) - Two months into a Pakistani military offensive against Taliban militants, public opinion is firmly behind the civilian government and the military and it shows no sign of wavering.
The offensive was launched after defiant Taliban fighters thrust toward the capital, raising alarm both at home and among Western allies who need nuclear-armed Pakistan`s help to fight al Qaeda and to tackle a raging Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
Investors in Pakistani stocks have been unnerved by the violence, which has included a string of suicide bombs in cities and attacks on the military across the north.
But investors and the Pakistani people in general wanted to see the offensive prosecuted to the end, and only then would their confidence be restored, said a stock broker.
"It is absolutely necessary for the government to control and counter these terrorist elements and regain its writ to end the state of despondency among the people who had started to feel there was no one to protect them," said Asif Qureshi, director of Invisor Securities.
"Let alone foreign investors, the success of this operation is essential for the restoration of confidence among local investors as well," he said.
The KSE-100 index has gained 23 percent this year after losing 58.3 percent in 2008. But the index is trading about 10 percent lower than its peak of this year, partly because of security worries.
About 10,000 supporters of the Jamaat-e-Islami religious party rallied in Karachi on Sunday to protest against U.S. involvement in the region.
"ON THE BACK FOOT"
But their opposition to the offensive and sympathy for the Taliban was well known and their protest did not signal a strengthening of the argument that Pakistan should not be fighting "America`s war," an analyst said.
"They`re finding it difficult to dominate the discourse as they have been doing for some time. They`re on the back foot," said Rashid Rehman, a former newspaper editor and analyst.
"The other voices, the dissident voices, the voices who have been arguing for the last 30, 40 years that we`re heading down a suicide path, I think they`re getting stronger," he said.
Pakistani leaders have for decades flirted with the religious right when they needed support.
In the 1980s, Pakistan began used Islamist guerrillas for foreign policy aims, first in Afghanistan to fight Soviet invaders and later in the disputed Kashmir region where Pakistan- backed Muslim fighters battled Indian rule.
That engendered considerable sympathy for the "jihadis."  Continued...
Original article

Iraq lessons learned, U.S. Marines turn to Afghanistan

By Peter Graff
DESERT OF DEATH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - After five years coping with the most dangerous province in Iraq, the U.S. Marines have been given their next assignment: the most dangerous province in Afghanistan.
But this time around, they say they will talk a little more and shoot a little less.
"We spent so much time in Iraq learning from our mistakes," said Corporal Mahmoud Awada, a 21-year-old Lebanese-American Marine from Utah, who spent the second half of 2007 and early 2008 in Anbar west of Baghdad.
"We learned that we can`t just go around kicking down doors because that won`t work. In Iraq, what really helped us win over there, make the situation better, was gaining the trust of the people, becoming friends with them."
The Marines that have arrived in recent weeks in Afghanistan`s wild southern Helmand province are a different force from the Marines who blasted their way into Anbar.
Back then, the Marines were still learning the art of counter-insurgency warfare.
An Arabic speaker, Awada worked closely with the Iraqi army. It was frustrating at times, but it opened his eyes.
"You have to sit down and talk with them, talk for a while, enjoy a nice cup of tea, get to know them a little better, ask them how their family is doing," Awada said.
The Marines fought two massive battles for the Anbar city of Fallujah in 2004, the biggest engagements of the Iraq war.
Anbar was almost completely in the hands of insurgents for the next 2 or 3 years and the Marines gained an early reputation for heavy-handed use of firepower.
They had turned it around by late 2007, forming an alliance with local tribal leaders against al Qaeda militants that helped transform Iraq`s most violent province into one of its safest.
Today, they are being asked to repeat the trick in Helmand, the heartland of Afghanistan`s Taliban. U.S. President Barack Obama, overseeing a troop drawdown in Iraq, has made Afghanistan the military`s top priority.
BIGGEST WAVE
The 8,500 Marines sent to Helmand are the biggest wave of a reinforcement strategy that will see U.S. forces in Afghanistan rise from 32,000 at the end of 2008 to 68,000 by the end of 2009.
Southern Helmand, like Anbar, is virtually entirely made up of a vast, empty desert, cut through by a single river, surrounded by a band of densely populated agricultural land. Insurgents infiltrate across a long and poorly guarded border.  Continued...
Original article

Life after U.S. pullout brings worries for Iraqis

By Daniel Wallis
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Sitting in his small room in northern Baghdad, a pistol nearby and assault rifles stacked under the bed, Khalil Ibrahim is worried over Iraq`s future.
Six years after the U.S. invasion, Iraqis are contemplating the reality of life after a major milestone -- Tuesday`s withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from urban centres.
Glancing at his seven-year-old son playing a war game on a computer in the corner, Ibrahim, a chain-smoking former military intelligence officer, said he has two main worries.
"Iran has good relations with our political parties. They run militias. If the U.S. troops complete their withdrawal, Iran will do whatever it wants in Iraq," he said, scowling.
Shi`ite-ruled Iran is often accused of arming and funding Shi`ite militias who have killed Sunnis, a charge Tehran denies.
"Also, if the Americans pull out, al Qaeda will return," Ibrahim said. He knows the Islamist militants better than most.
As leader of a U.S.-backed Sunni Arab guard unit made up of many former insurgents, some of his men fought with the rebels against the U.S. military, before switching sides and helping drive al Qaeda fighters out of much of Iraq.
But as U.S. forces increasingly hand control to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki`s Shi`ite Muslim-led government under a security pact that requires them to withdraw completely by 2012, tensions are rising.
Violence has dropped sharply across Iraq, but militants still launch devastating bombings. They are usually blamed on Sunni Arab insurgents like al Qaeda, and seem aimed at undermining Maliki`s administration and tipping the nation back into the sectarian slaughter of 2006/07.
WAVE OF BOMBINGS
The last few days have seen two of the worst attacks in more than a year. A suicide truck bomb killed at least 73 worshippers leaving a Shi`ite mosque near northern Kirkuk city on June 20. Four days later another blast tore through a market in Baghdad`s Sadr City, a Shi`ite slum, killing 72 people.
The government has warned that bloodshed is likely to intensify ahead of an even more important milestone for Iraq than this week`s -- a parliamentary election due in January.
With the U.S. withdrawal from cities, many Iraqis from Shi`ite and Sunni sects say they feel exposed to what they say is corruption and incompetence afflicting Iraqi security forces.
"We`re afraid of what will happen in the next few days," 40-year-old Shi`ite civil servant Salah Abd told Reuters by the wreckage of the Sadr City blast. "We could lose a lot of lives."
Others are more optimistic about the U.S. withdrawal, which will see almost all U.S. troops pull back to rural bases.  Continued...
Original article

Pakistani jets hit militant compounds in Waziristan

By Hafiz Wazir
WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani aircraft bombed Taliban on Sunday in their bastion of South Waziristan on the Afghan border after the militants attacked two military camps, killing two soldiers, officials and residents said.
The military, near the end of an offensive in the northwestern Swat Valley after two months of fighting, is preparing to launch a new drive in South Waziristan, where Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud is based.
The decision to go on the attack against the militants came after Taliban gains raised fears of the militants gradually taking over more of the country and even posing a risk to Pakistan`s nuclear arsenal.
The campaign has broad public support and has also won the praise of close ally the United States, which needs Pakistan to go after the militants as it tries to defeat al Qaeda and stabilize Afghanistan.
Sunday`s air strikes were on two villages in Laddah district, a Mehsud stronghold, and two militant compounds were destroyed, said a government official and residents.
"It was a heavy bombing. Two militant compounds and several houses have been completely destroyed," said the government official in South Waziristan`s main town of Wana, who declined to be identified.
The air strikes came after militants attacked an army and a paramilitary camp east of Wana on Saturday night, killing two soldiers and wounding four, said the government official.
Intelligence officials later said eight militants had been killed.
CIVILIANS FLEE
The government has said Mehsud, who carries a $5 million U.S. reward on his head, and his force of thousands of followers must be defeated.
The government posted in a newspaper on Sunday a reward of 50 million rupees ($615,000) for Mehsud, and 75 million ($920,000 ) in rewards for 10 of his top men.
Mehsud, who security analysts say has become increasingly close to al Qaeda, has been accused of a string of attacks in Pakistani towns and cities including the December 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Mehsud is allied with Afghan Taliban fighters but they concentrate on attacking U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan and are not the focus of the Pakistani offensive.
With an increase in military attacks on Mehsud in South Waziristan, about 45,000 people have fled from the area, according to military estimates.
Nearly 2 million people have fled from fighting in Swat and other parts of the northwest since late last year but aid workers are not expecting a huge exodus from South Waziristan as the population there is relatively small.  Continued...
Original article

Pakistan bombs Taliban in Waziristan, 5 shot in Karachi

By Hafiz Wazir
WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani warplanes killed at least a dozen Taliban fighters on Saturday, in a strike on their stronghold near the Afghan border, while police in the southern city of Karachi shot dead five militants.
U.S. officials have issued a steady stream of praise for Pakistan since the government first took the decision to go on the offensive against the militants over two months ago.
Operations in Swat and Buner, two valleys north of the capital of Islamabad, are in their final stages and the focus has switched to the stronghold of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan, a remote tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
The air raid on Saturday on Mehsud`s mountainous redoubt was the latest in a series over recent weeks, and the government has already given orders for the military to mount an all-out assault.
The army is still assembling its forces in South Waziristan, and some diplomats expect some of the troops fighting in Swat to be moved there soon.
Mehsud is accused of a wave of suicide and bomb attacks, and while the body of his force has been focused inwards against Pakistan, his men also cross into Afghanistan to join the insurgency led by Mullah Mohammad Omar.
U.S. President Barack Obama has put Afghanistan and Pakistan at the center of his foreign policy agenda and has launched a strategy aimed at defeating al Qaeda and stabilising Afghanistan, where thousands of extra U.S. soldiers are arriving.
The latest encouragement for Pakistan was delivered by Obama`s National Security Adviser Jim Jones, when he visited Islamabad this week on a trip that coincided with the Senate`s approval for the tripling of aid to Pakistan to about $1.5 billion a year for five years.
RISK OF MILITANT ATTACKS ELSEWHERE
A close ally of al Qaeda, Mehsud carries a $5 million U.S. reward on his head.
He is accused of being behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, though there are several conspiracy theories over who was behind the former prime minister`s death.
Diplomats estimate that Mehsud has more than 20,000 men holed up with him, protected by a series of mountain ridges and dried out river beds, and gullies that provide excellent cover for the guerrilla fighters.
In Saturday`s air raid, fighter jets pounded a base run by a militant commander loyal to Mehsud in the Makeen area, around 70 km (44 miles) north of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan.
"The planes heavily bombed bases of Commander Shameem in Makeen and we have reports that 12 to 15 militants were killed," an intelligence official in the region told Reuters by telephone.
The great worry is Mehsud`s ability to mobilize Taliban elsewhere in Pakistan in retaliation against any attack.  Continued...
Original article

Iraq PM says forces can handle security without U.S.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq`s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Saturday that the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraqi cities at the end of June showed Iraq can handle its own security, despite a wave of bombings this week.
The U.S. pullback from Iraq`s urban centers scheduled to be finished at the end of the month has been seen as a milestone on Iraq`s road to sovereignty after years of military occupation.
But a spate of bombings in the capital and in northern Iraq this week, including two of the bloodiest attacks in more than a year, have shaken the confidence of Iraqis in their own forces.
"We are on the threshold of a new phase that will bolster Iraq`s sovereignty," Maliki said. "It is a message to the world that we are now able to safeguard our security and administer our internal affairs."
Two big bombings in Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk this week killed more than 150 people between them. On Friday, a bomb killed at least 13 people at a market in Baghdad. A spattering of other bombs has also fueled apprehension.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned they expect the number of attacks to rise as the U.S. troops pull back, and also in the run-up to parliamentary elections next January.
"We have high trust in our security forces to administer security and pursue al-Qaeda remnants and criminal gangs," Maliki said.
He added that Iraq had achieved comparatively good levels of security, not just through better policing but efforts at political reconciliation between Iraq`s divided factions -- something his critics often accuse him of dragging his feet on.
"If they (militants) want to bring down the political process, we say, it won`t collapse, unless national unity is shaken," Maliki said.
(Reporting by Khalid al-Ansary; Writing by Tim Cocks)
Original article

Israel plays down reports of imminent Gaza deal

By Alastair Macdonald and Adam Entous
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli officials played down reports on Friday that a deal was close with Hamas that would include the release of an Israeli soldier held captive in the Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
Israeli and Palestinian political sources and Western diplomats confirmed, however, that Egyptian mediators were still working on a package of measures that could combine exchanges of prisoners, ceasefire agreements, an easing of Israel`s blockade on Gaza and rapprochement between rival Palestinian factions.
A July 7 deadline set by Egypt for Islamist Hamas and the Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to ease a schism that has divided Gaza from the West Bank, as well as this week`s third anniversary of Hamas`s capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, has fueled speculation of a deal.
Responding to Israeli press reports citing European diplomats that Shalit was about to be sent to Egypt, Israeli officials and European diplomats in the region said on Friday they knew of no new concrete developments in negotiations.
Hamas officials have also played down earlier reports.
Nonetheless, diplomats said negotiations were in train.
The family of Shalit, who also has French citizenship, has stepped up pressure on new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a deal. The government has long baulked at Hamas`s price for Shalit`s release, notably the freeing of leading Hamas militants responsible for attacks on Israelis.
Netanyahu is also under pressure from the United States and its European allies to ease a blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza that has prevented billions of dollars in foreign reconstruction aid from reaching the enclave since Israel`s offensive in January.
Israel, which is also under U.S. pressure to renew peace talks with Abbas, has tied the blockade to the fate of Shalit.
An Israeli government official said Netanyahu wanted the international community to pressure Hamas, not Israel: "Hamas has held Gilad Shalit for some three years. He hasn`t even been given one visit by a representative of the Red Cross.
"The international community should be pushing for his release and should be pushing for such a visit."
"PACKAGE DEALS"
Hamas, which seized control of Gaza two years ago in fighting with Fatah-led forces, is keen to bolster its support among the 1.5 million Gazans by improving supplies.
Aziz Dweik, the speaker of the Hamas-dominated Palestinian parliament elected in 2006, told Reuters on Thursday, two days after he was released himself from an Israeli prison: "The Egyptians are behind the package deal which is expected to speak about the truce, to speak about opening all the crossings to (the) Gaza Strip and to speak about Shalit."
"We would like (it) to be accomplished in the very few coming days because I left ... almost 11,000 prisoners in Israeli jails," Dweik added, speaking in English.  Continued...
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Pakistani violence spreads to Kashmir

By Abu Arqam Naqash
MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Two soldiers were killed on Friday in the first suicide bombing in Pakistani Kashmir while several people were hurt in a blast near the Afghan border as the army prepares to attack Taliban in that region.
Islamist militants have carried out a series of bomb attacks across Pakistan in recent weeks in retaliation for a military offensive in the northwest but there have been no such attacks in Pakistan`s part of the disputed Kashmir region.
The army launched its offensive after Taliban gains raised fears for U.S. ally Pakistan`s future and worry about the safety of its nuclear arsenal.
The blast in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani Kashmir, will raise concern that the militants are expanding their campaign to distract the military as it closes in on Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan on the Afghan border.
"The bomber blew himself up near a military vehicle. Two of our soldiers embraced martyrdom," a military spokesman told Reuters. Three soldiers were wounded in the attack.
Kashmir is at the core of a decades-old dispute between Pakistan and India and the cause of two of their three wars since their independence from British rule in 1947.
Separatist insurgents backed by Pakistan have been fighting Indian security forces in India`s part of the Himalayan region for the past 20 years. But Pakistani Kashmir had been peaceful.
The United States has hailed Pakistan`s action against the militants and on Wednesday the U.S. Senate approved tripling aid to Pakistan to about $1.5 billion a year for five years as part of a U.S. plan to fight extremism with economic development. U.S. President Barack Obama has put Afghanistan and Pakistan at the center of his foreign policy agenda and has launched a strategy aimed at defeating al Qaeda and stabilizing Afghanistan, where thousands of extra U.S. soldiers are arriving.
AL QAEDA ALLY
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani appealed on Thursday to visiting U.S. National Security Adviser Jim Jones for U.S. help to resolve the dispute with India over Muslim-majority Kashmir.
Gilani`s office cited Jones as saying the U.S. government wanted to help the nuclear-armed neighbors resolve "core issues."
Jones is in India on Friday.
India broke off talks with Pakistan after militant attacks on the city of Mumbai in November. India blamed the attacks on Pakistan-based militants and wants Pakistan to act against them.
The United States is pushing for an easing of tension between the rivals so Pakistan can focus on fighting the Taliban.
The military has been launching air strikes on Mehsud`s bases this month while soldiers have been securing main roads and sealing off his stronghold  Continued...
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Somali rebels amputate limbs, U.S. sends weapons

By Abdi Guled and Ibrahim Mohamed
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Washington has sent weapons to Somalia`s government to thwart Islamist insurgents, who cut hands and feet off thieves on Thursday and paraded the severed limbs in the streets of Mogadishu.
Somalia`s al Shabaab insurgents are seen as a proxy for al Qaeda and Western nations fear they could destabilize the region and provide safe havens for hardline Islamists from elsewhere.
When a moderate Islamist was elected president in January, there was hope he could end nearly two decades of bloodshed in Somalia by reconciling with hardliners who want to impose a strict version of Islamic law across the country.
But Osama bin Laden declared President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed an enemy in an audiotape released in March. He called on the insurgents to topple the government and for Muslims around the world to join their jihad.
A U.S. official said the United States had sent arms and ammunition to Somalia`s government in a move signaling President Barack Obama`s desire to shore up the "fragile" government and thwart the hardliners.
"The State Department is providing ... weapons and ammunition to try to help them deal with al Shabaab and other extremists," the official, who spoke on condition he not be identified, said, confirming a report in The Washington Post.
"The government is in a very fragile state," he said, adding the United States wants Eritrea to stop supporting the insurgents. The top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Johnnie Carson, hopes to visit Eritrea soon, U.S. officials said.
Eritrea denies arming and training the insurgents.
A U.S. official, and an international security source, said the United States was providing the weaponry in accordance with U.N. Security Council resolutions.
"It`s confirmed. They received approval from the U.N. Security Council," the international security source said.
While the United Nations has had a long-standing arms embargo on Somalia, a May Security Council resolution urged member states to train and equip government security forces as long as a U.N. embargo monitoring committee had no objections.
Another foreign security source said weapons had come into Somalia for the government via Uganda, which provides half the 4,300 African Union troops protecting key sites in Mogadishu.
"The prospect of the government collapsing is sending alarm bells ringing in Western capitals, but whether this latest move will succeed remains to be seen," said Rashid Abdi, analyst at International Crisis Group.
"Going further than providing arms to actually sending in more foreign forces would be a mistake," he said. "The government would then play right into the hands of the militants, who would accuse them of accepting foreign meddling."
LIMBS ON TREES  Continued...
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U.S. adviser hails Pakistani attack on militants

By Augustine Anthony
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. National Security Adviser Jim Jones on Thursday hailed Pakistani military action against militants, while Pakistan asked the United States for help to resolve a long dispute with India over the Kashmir region.
The Pakistani military is nearing the end of an offensive in the Swat valley, northwest of the capital, that was launched in early May after Taliban gains raised fears for Pakistan`s future and for the safety of its nuclear arsenal.
U.S. President Barack Obama has put Afghanistan and Pakistan at the center of his foreign policy agenda and has launched a new strategy aimed at defeating al Qaeda and stabilizing Afghanistan, where thousands of extra U.S. soldiers are arriving.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate approved tripling aid to Pakistan to about $1.5 billion a year for each of the next five years, as part of the U.S. plan to fight extremism with economic development.
Jones held talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, a day after arriving from Afghanistan, and reaffirmed Obama`s desire to have long-term, multifaceted and strategic cooperation with Pakistan, Gilani`s office said.
"He lauded the Pakistan army`s successful operation against terrorists," Gilani`s office said in a statement.
Pakistan said it has killed about 1,600 militants in the offensive in the former tourist valley of Swat and is in the final stages of securing the region. Independent casualty figures are not available.
The army is preparing an all-out assault against Pakistani Taliban leader and al Qaeda ally Baitullah Mehsud in his stronghold of South Waziristan, on the Afghan border.
The military has been launching air strikes on Mehsud`s bases for more than a week while soldiers have been securing main roads and sealing off his stronghold.
KASHMIR DISPUTE
On Tuesday, a pilotless U.S. drone aircraft killed about 70 of Mehsud`s militant followers in an air strike after a funeral for a militant killed earlier, Pakistani officials said.
Pakistan officially objects to such U.S. strikes on its territory saying they violate its sovereignty and complicate its efforts to win people over to the government side.
In their talks, Gilani also called upon the world, and especially the United States, to help resolving a decades-old dispute with India over the Kashmir region.
India broke off talks with Pakistan after militant attacks on the city of Mumbai in November. India blamed the attacks on Pakistan-based militants and wants Pakistan to act against them.
"The U.S. government would help in every possible way for the resumption of dialogue between Pakistan and India and for resolution of the core issues," Gilani`s office cited Jones as saying.  Continued...
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Israel army to curtail operations in four West Bank cities

By Adam Entous
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said on Thursday it would curtail its military activities in four West Bank cities to help a U.S.-backed move to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The announcement, that will give Palestinian security forces a free hand to operate in the cities, coincided with efforts by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ease tensions with U.S. President Barack Obama over stalled peacemaking with the Palestinians.
A senior Palestinian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, dismissed the move as a public relations "sham." He said Israel should halt incursions without exception.
Israel has rebuffed U.S. calls for a halt to Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank. On Monday Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will meet Obama`s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, in Washington to try to narrow differences.
"As of today, Palestinian security forces will be able to operate freely in the cities of Qalqilya, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jericho," an Israeli military official said.
The official said Israeli troops would still be able to operate within those cities, battlegrounds during a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000, "in cases of urgent security need." Abbas`s Western-backed government is based in Ramallah.
More than 1,600 security men loyal to Abbas have undergone U.S.-funded training since January 2008. They are derided as collaborators by Hamas Islamists who seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 after routing Abbas`s forces there.
Israel has slowly come to back the U.S. training program as a test of Abbas`s ability to rein in militants, as demanded in a 2003 peace "road map" for establishing a Palestinian state.
Abbas has ruled out resuming peace talks with Israel until it halts settlement activity, also required under the road map.
SECURITY RESPONSIBILITY
An Israeli security source said the army would "act as little as possible to allow the Palestinians to take more initiative and responsibility over their own security."
Israeli forces would stay out of the four cities except "in circumstances of `ticking bombs`, or a planned attack" against Israelis, the Israeli security source said.
The senior Palestinian security official countered: "If there is to be a change, they (Israeli troops) should stop the incursions, not enter under the pretext of `ticking bombs`."
The changes set out by Israel fell far short of Palestinian demands it pull its forces back to positions they held before the outbreak of the uprising.
Israel has been reducing its presence in parts of the West Bank, where anti-Israeli violence has declined. But the army still carries out routine patrols and occasional arrest raids.  Continued...
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U.S. sends arms to Somalia, rebels amputate limbs

By Abdi Guled and Ibrahim Mohamed
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Washington has sent weapons to Somalia`s government after a green light from the U.N. Security Council to prevent rebels seen as a proxy for al Qaeda overrunning the Horn of Africa nation, sources said on Thursday.
When a moderate Islamist was elected president in January, there was hope he could end nearly two decades of bloodshed in Somalia by reconciling with hardliners who want to impose a strict version of Islamic law across the country.
But Osama bin Laden declared President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed an enemy in an audio tape released in March. He called on the insurgents to topple the government and for Muslims around the world to join their jihad.
The Washington Post said on Thursday arms and ammunition had been sent to the government in a move signaling that President Barack Obama`s administration wanted to thwart the hardliners.
"It`s confirmed. They received approval from the U.N. Security Council," an international security source said.
While there is a U.N. arms embargo on Somalia, the source said the Security Council had agreed to a waiver procedure for the new weapons and ammunition.
Another foreign security source said arms had come into Somalia for the government via Uganda, which provides half the 4,300 African Union troops protecting key sites in Mogadishu.
"The prospect of the government collapsing is sending alarm bells ringing in Western capitals, but whether this latest move will succeed remains to be seen," said Rashid Abdi, analyst at International Crisis Group.
"Going further than providing arms to actually sending in more foreign forces would be a mistake," he said. "The government would then play right into the hands of the militants, who would accuse them of accepting foreign meddling."
DOUBLE AMPUTATION
The al Shabaab group, which has foreign fighters in its ranks and is accused of close ties to al Qaeda, stepped up its attacks in early May. It now controls most of southern Somalia and all but a few blocks of the capital Mogadishu.
On Thursday, the insurgents used long knives to cut off a hand and a foot each from four young men in Mogadishu as punishment for theft, witnesses said.
It was the first double amputation in Somalia.
The men screamed in pain, and some spectators vomited.
Al Shabaab has carried out executions, floggings and single-limb amputations before, mainly in the southern port of Kismayu. Movies and soccer games are banned in areas it controls while men and women cannot travel together on public transport.  Continued...
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Roadside bomb kills five policemen in Iraq

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed five Iraqi policemen Thursday in the once turbulent but recently secure western city of Falluja, police said, a day after at least 72 people died in a market bombing in Baghdad.
A string of attacks has cast doubt on the ability of Iraqi forces to keep the lid on a stubborn insurgency after U.S. combat troops withdraw from towns and cities at the end of this month.
Police in Falluja in Anbar province, once the heartland of the rebellion against U.S. troops and government forces, said Thursday`s blast destroyed a police vehicle and killed all five policemen inside, including a lieutenant.
It came hours after an explosion tore through a busy second-hand market in eastern Baghdad`s Sadr City slum, killing 72 people just four days after U.S. forces handed security of the Shi`ite Muslim area to Iraqi troops and police.
Saturday, a massive truck bomb killed 73 people near the northern city of Kirkuk. That and the Sadr City market bombing were the bloodiest attacks in the country for more than a year.
Violence has dropped sharply across Iraq over the past year, but militants including Sunni Islamist al Qaeda continue to launch car and suicide bombings aimed at undermining the Shi`ite Muslim-led government and reigniting sectarian conflict.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a member of Iraq`s Shi`ite majority, has urged Iraqis not to lose heart if insurgents take advantage of the U.S. military drawdown to step up attacks.
Analysts say attacks are also likely to intensify ahead of a parliamentary election in January that will be a test of whether the country`s feuding factions can live together after years of sectarian slaughter unleashed by the 2003 U.S. invasion.
(Reporting by Fadel Al-Badrani; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Sophie Hares)
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