The King of The "North" Is Coming!

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Mary
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Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Mary »

Christian-Muslim Clashes In Egypt Kill 13


By HAMZA HENDAWI,
Associated Press
Article Source
March 9, 2011


CAIRO – Clashes that broke out when a Muslim mob attacked thousands of Christians protesting against the burning of a Cairo church killed at least 13 people and wounded about 140, security and hospital officials said Wednesday.

The Muslims torched the church amid an escalation of tensions between the two religious groups over a love affair between a Muslim and a Christian that set off a violent feud between the couple's families.

The officials said all 13 fatalities died of gunshot wounds.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The late Tuesday night clashes added to a sense of ongoing chaos in Egypt after the momentous 18-day democracy uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11. The uprising left a security vacuum when police have pulled out from Cairo and several other cities three days into the uprising.

The police have yet to fully take back the streets, something that has left space for a wave of violent crime and lawlessness in some parts of the nation.

In a separate incident, at least two people were wounded when rival crowds pelted each other with rocks at Cairo's central Tahrir Square, the uprising's epicenter, according to an Associated Press Television News cameraman at the scene. He said the violence pitted youths camping out at the square to press their demand for a complete break with the ousted regime and another group that is opposed to their continued presence at the square.

The Christian protesters on Tuesday blocked a vital highway, burning tires and pelting cars with rocks. An angry crowd of Muslims set upon the Christians and the two sides fought pitched battles for about four hours.

Mubarak handed power to the military when he stepped down, but the military does not have enough troops to police every street in Cairo, a sprawling city of some 18 million people that, at the best of times, is chaotic.

Even before the uprising unleashed a torrent of discontent, tensions had been growing between Christians and Muslims in this country of 80 million.

On New Year's Day, a suicide bombing outside a Coptic church in the port city of Alexandria killed 21 people, setting off days of protests. Barely a week later, an off-duty policeman boarded a train and shot dead a 71-year-old Christian man and wounding his wife and four others.

Egypt's ruling generals have pledged last week to rebuild the torched church and the country's new prime minister, Essam Sharaf, has met the protesters outside the TV building in downtown Cairo to reassure them that his interim government would not discriminate against them.

But the Christians were not appeased. At least 2,000 of them protested on the highway on Tuesday night and a separate crowd of several hundred has been camping out outside the TV building for days to voice their anger at what they perceive to be official discrimination against them.


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Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Donald C. Burney »

Anger over Quran burning spreads in Afghanistan

Story By: Amir Shah, Associated Press, April 2, 2011

Source of Article

KABUL, AfghanistanAnger over the burning of the Muslim holy book at a Florida church fueled a second day of deadly violence half a world away in Afghanistan, where demonstrators set cars and shops ablaze Saturday in a riot that killed nine protesters, officials said.

The church's desecration of the Quran nearly two weeks ago has outraged millions of Muslims and others worldwide, fueling anti-American sentiment that is further straining ties between the Afghan government and the West.


The uproar even brought violence to the normally peaceful city of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan on Friday, where a crowd of protesters — apparently infiltrated by insurgents — stormed a U.N. compound in an outpouring that left four Afghan protesters and seven foreign U.N. employees dead.

In an unrelated attack that nonetheless demonstrated the kind of violence plaguing Afghanistan nearly a decade after the U.S. invaded to oust the Taliban and hunt al-Qaida, two suicide attackers disguised as women in blue burqas blew themselves up and a third was gunned down at a NATO base on the outskirts of Kabul.

The Quran was burned March 20, but many Afghans only found out about it when Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the desecration four days later. The burning took place at the Dove Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, the same church where the Rev. Terry Jones had threatened to destroy a copy of the holy book last year but initially backed down.

On Saturday, hundreds of Afghans carrying long sticks and holding copies of the Quran over their heads marched through Kandahar, the largest city in southern Afghanistan and the cradle of the insurgency. The crackle of gunfire could be heard throughout the city, which was blanketed by thick black smoke.

Security forces shot in the air to disperse the crowd, said Zalmai Ayubi, a spokesman for the provincial governor. It's unclear how the protesters were slain, he said.

The governor's office in Kandahar province issued a statement saying that nine protesters were killed and 81 others were injured in the demonstration that turned into a riot. Seventeen people, including seven armed men, have been arrested, the statement said.

The governor's office claims demonstrators were incited by extremists who joined the group and set property ablaze.

"Some wicked and destructive people placed themselves amongst the protesters and started rioting throughout the entire Kandahar city," the governor's office said. "The enemies of the people and country also burned down the furniture and a bus at a ladies' high school in Kandahar and destroyed some other properties.

Shops and restaurants throughout the city were shuttered and routes leading into the city were blocked by security forces.

An Associated Press photographer estimated the crowd at a few thousand and said demonstrators had smashed his camera and roughed up other journalists.

The bloodshed began Friday in Kabul, Herat in western Afghanistan and Mazar-i-Sharif, where thousands flooded the streets.

The seven foreigners killed at the U.N. compound included four Nepalese guards. The other three were identified by officials in their home countries as: Joakim Dungel, a 33-year-old Swede; Lt. Col. Siri Skare, a 53-year-old female pilot from Norway; and Filaret Motco, a 43-year-old Romanian who worked in the political section of the U.N.

Dan McNorton, a spokesman for the U.N. in Kabul, said the organization had no plans to pull out of Afghanistan.

"The U.N. is absolutely committed to remaining in Afghanistan to ensure that the Afghan people receive all the support they deserve from the U.N.," McNorton said.

Karzai's office said the president spoke on the telephone Saturday morning with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Karzai asked the secretary-general to extend his condolences to the families of the slain U.N. workers.

He also called on the U.N. to help promote religious tolerance throughout the world to ease friction between people of different faiths. Karzai said Afghan officials were investigating the U.N. attack and would bring the perpetrators to justice.

In Florida, Wayne Sapp, a pastor at the church, called the events "tragic," but said he did not regret the actions of his church.

"I in no way feel like our church is responsible for what happened," Sapp said in a telephone interview on Friday. Afghan authorities suspect insurgents melded into the mob outside the U.N. compound and they announced the arrest of more than 20 people, including a militant they suspect was the ringleader of the assault. The suspect was an insurgent from Kapisa province, a hotbed of militancy about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of the city, said Rawof Taj, deputy provincial police chief.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid sent a text message to The Associated Press on Saturday denying that the insurgency was responsible for killing the U.N. workers.

Demonstrators have alleged that the four protesters were killed by Afghan security forces. Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said Saturday that a delegation of high-ranking Afghan officials was being sent to the city to investigate what happened during the demonstration in which seven vehicles, including a police vehicle, were burned.

"When the demonstration started, the number of people increased every minute to around 5,000," Bashary said. "The police did take action, but we are investigating how these casualties occurred. Were the steps and actions by police adequate or not?"

Bashary also gave reporters details of Saturday's attack on NATO's Camp Phoenix, a base on the east side of Kabul that's used to train Afghan security forces.

He said three armed insurgents wearing suicide bomb vests arrived at a main gate at the base around 6:45 a.m. Two of the attackers opened fire and then detonated their vests of explosives, Bashary said. The third opened fire and was killed by NATO forces. The body of a fourth person, an Afghan man at the scene, has not been identified. Three NATO service members were injured.

The gate at the base was scorched from the explosions. An AP reporter at the scene saw the remains of at least one of the attackers dangling from the gate. Police officer Mohammad Shakir told the AP that two suicide bombers were clad in blue burqas, the all-encompassing coverings worn by many women in Afghanistan.

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Mary
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Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Mary »

Afghan Quran-Burn Protests Enter 3rd Day


Gen. Petraeus, NATO rep condemn Florida pastor's desecration of Muslim Holy Book;
Taliban says it's wrong to excuse as freedom of speech


April 3, 2011
Article Source
CBS News


Image

Afghan protestors burn an effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama
during a demonstration in Jalalabad, Afghanistan,
Sunday, April 3, 2011. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)



(CBS/AP) KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan protests against the burning of a Quran in Florida entered a third day, with demonstrations in the south and east Sunday, while the Taliban called on people to rise up, blaming government forces for any violence.

The desecration at a small U.S. church has outraged Muslims worldwide, and in Afghanistan many of the demonstrations have turned into deadly riots. Protests in the north and south in recent days have killed 20 people.

In southern Kandahar city on Sunday, hundreds took to the streets for the second day in a row, and hospital officials said 20 people were hurt in skirmishes between police and demonstrators. On Saturday, nine people were killed and 80 injured when a protest turned into a riot.

At least two wounded police officers and 18 civilians had been brought into city hospitals, said Qayum Pokhla the provincial health director.

9 more dead in Afghan Quran-burning protests

A morning protest in Jalalabad city was peaceful, with hundreds of people blocking a main highway for three hours, shouting for U.S. troops to leave and burning an effigy of President Barack Obama before dispersing, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene.

A similar protest in eastern Parwan province blocked a main highway with burning tires for about an hour, with more than 1,000 people protesting against the desecration of the Quran, said provincial police chief Sher Ahmad Maladani. He said there was no violence.

The violence started Friday when demonstrators stormed a U.N. compound in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, killing 11 people including seven foreign U.N. employees.

The Taliban said in a statement e-mailed to media outlets that the U.S. and other Western countries have wrongly excused the burning a Quran by the pastor of a Florida church on March 20 as freedom of speech and that Afghans "cannot accept this un-Islamic act."

NATO officials re-iterated their condemnation of the Quran burning in an apparent attempt to quell the rising anger.

"We condemn, in particular, the action of an individual in the United States who recently burned the Holy Quran," said the statement issued by military commander Gen. David Petraeus and the top NATO civilian representative in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill.

"We further hope the Afghan people understand that the actions of a small number of individuals, who have been extremely disrespectful to the Holy Quran, are not representative of any of the countries of the international community who are in Afghanistan to help the Afghan people," the statement said.

On Saturday, U.S. President Barack Obama extended his condolences to the families of those killed by the protesters and said desecration of the Quran "is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry." But he said that does not justify attacking and killing innocent people, calling it "outrageous and an affront to human decency and dignity."

Video: Pastor Terry Jones

Pastor Terry Jones says he doesn't feel responsible for the violence in Afghanistan.

Last month Jones put the Muslim Holy Book on "trial,"charging the Quran with crimes against humanity. A "jury" found the Holy Book guilty, and the kerosene-soaked book was ignited, the video streamed over the Internet.

Jones, speaking from a judge's bench, said that like in an American court, if one is found guilty, there are consequences.

And to anyone watching who may disagree with the verdict, Jones said, "All you have to do is put together your own trial."

The Taliban statement said that those killed during the protests were unarmed demonstrators.

"Afghan forces under the order of the foreign forces attacked unarmed people during the protests, killing them and arresting some, saying there were armed people among these protesters, which was not true," the statement said.

Sher Jan Durani, a spokesman for the government of northern Balkh province, where the first riots occurred, said there were multiple armed men among the more than 20 arrested. Afghan authorities suspect insurgents infiltrated the mob.

In Kandahar, officials said 17 people, including seven armed men, have been arrested.

The protests come at a critical juncture as the U.S.-led coalition gears up for an insurgent spring offensive and a summer withdrawal of some troops, and with Afghanistan's mercurial president increasingly questioning international motives and NATO's military strategy.


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Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Mary »

Church Burning Deepens Tumult of Egypt Transition


Associated Press
Article Source

Image

Egyptian Army soldiers stand guard outside the burned Virgin Mary church
in the Imbaba neighborhood of Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, May 8, 2011. More photos »


By MAGGIE MICHAEL and SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press – Sun May 8, 4:59 pm ET

CAIRO – Relations between Egypt's Muslims and Christians degenerated to a new low Sunday after riots overnight left 12 people dead and a church burned, adding to the disorder of the country's post-revolution transition to democracy.

The attack on the church was the latest sign of assertiveness by an extreme, ultraconservative movement of Muslims known as Salafis, whose increasing hostility toward Egypt's Coptic Christians over the past few months has met with little interference from the country's military rulers.

Salafis have been blamed for other recent attacks on Christians and others they don't approve of. In one attack, a Christian man had an ear cut off for renting an apartment to a Muslim woman suspected of involvement in prostitution.

The latest violence, which erupted in fresh clashes Sunday between Muslims and Christians who pelted each other with stones in another part of Cairo, also pointed to what many see as reluctance of the armed forces council to act. The council took temporary control of the country after President Hosni Mubarak was deposed on Feb. 11.

After the overnight clashes in the slum of Imbaba, residents turned their anger toward the military. Some said they and the police did almost nothing to intervene in the five-hour frenzy of violence.

Analysts warned of signs of Coptic violence, especially with reports that some Christians have opened fire at Muslims.

"The Coptic volcano is exploding," Coptic expert Youssef Sedhom said. "How would Copts respond if they find their back to the wall facing guns? They would have no option but self defense," adding, "don't blame Copts for what they do."

Six Muslims were among the dead, according to Egypt's state-run news agency.

The bloodshed began Saturday around sundown when word spread around the neighborhood that a Christian woman who married a Muslim had been abducted and was being kept in the Virgin Mary Church against her will.

Islamic extremists declared the crowded district a state within a state in 1990s, calling it "the Islamic Republic of Imbaba," one of the country's hottest spots of Islamic militancy.

The report of the kidnapping, which was never confirmed by local religious figures, sent a large mob of Muslims toward the church. Christians created a human barricade around the building and clashes erupted. Gunfire sounded across the neighborhood, and witnesses said people on rooftops were firing into the crowd.

The two sides accused each other of firing first.

Crowds of hundreds of Muslims from the neighborhood lobbed firebombs at homes, shops and the church. Residents say Christians were hiding inside. Muslims chanted: "With our blood and soul, we defend you, Islam."

Rimon Girgis, a 24-year-old with a tattoo of a Coptic saint on his arm, was among the Christians who formed a human shield around the church.

"They were around 40 bearded men chanting slogans like 'There is no God but Allah.' After rallying Muslim residents, they opened fire," he said. "We Copts had to respond, so we hurled stones and pieces of broken marble."

Some of the wounded were carried to the nearby St. Menas Church, where floors were still stained with blood hours later.

"Every five minutes, an injured person was rushed into the church," said Father Arshedis. "We couldn't reach ambulances by phone. We called and no one answered. We tried to treat the injured. We used the girls' hair clips to extract the bullets."

"The army is responsible because they took no action," he said.

Later the same night, the Muslim crowd moved to a Christian-owned apartment building nearby and set it on fire. Piles of charred furniture, garbage and wood were mixed with remains of clothes, food and shoes. Shops on the ground floor of the buildings were destroyed.

Some soldiers and police did fire tear gas, but failed to clear the streets for hours.

By daybreak, the military had deployed armored vehicles and dozens of troop carriers to cordon off a main street leading to the area. They stopped traffic and turned away pedestrians. Men, women and children watching from balconies took photos with mobile phones and cheered the troops.

Across the Nile river, in downtown Cairo, clashes broke out on Sunday afternoon. Muslim youths attacked Coptic Christian protesters, said Christian activist Bishoy Tamri.

TV images showed both sides furiously throwing stones, including one Christian who held a large wooden cross in one hand while flinging rocks with the other.

Scores were injured, but an army unit securing the TV building did nothing to stop the violence, Tamri said.

Late Sunday thousands of Copts decided to camp out in front of the TV building overnight to press demands to bring the arsonists to justice and to make religious instigation a criminal offense.

Islamic clerics denounced the violence, sounding alarm bells at the escalating tension during the transitional period following Mubarak's Feb. 11 ouster by a popular uprising.

"These events do not benefit either Muslim or Copts," Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the sheik of al-Azhar, told the daily Al-Ahram.

During the 18-day uprising that ousted Mubarak, there was a rare spirit of brotherhood between Muslims and Christians. Each group protected the other during prayer sessions in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the revolution.

But in the months that followed, there has been a sharp rise in sectarian tensions, as the once quiescent Salafis have become more forceful in trying to spread their version of an Islamic way of life. In particular, they have focused their wrath on Egypt's Christians, who make up 10 percent of the country's 80 million people.

On Friday, a few hundred Salafis marched through Cairo to praise al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and condemning the U.S. operation that killed him.

Critics say Egyptian military authorities have done too little to stem the religious violence. But authorities arrested 190 people after the church attack, sending them to military prosecutions and threatening the maximum penalty against anyone attacking houses of worship.

Copts complain of widespread discrimination, including tight restrictions on building or repairing churches, while Muslim places of worship do not face such limits.

In one of the worst attacks against them, a suicide bomber killed 21 people outside a church in the port city of Alexandria on Jan. 1, setting off days of protests. Egypt made some arrests but never charged anyone with the attack.

Tensions have been building for the past year as Salafis protested the alleged abduction by the Coptic Church of a priest's wife, Camilla Shehata. The Salafis claim she converted to Islam to escape an unhappy marriage — a phenomenon they maintain is common.

Because divorce is banned in the Coptic Church, with rare exceptions such as conversion, some Christian women resort to conversion to Islam or another Christian denomination to get out of a marriage.

Shehata's case was even used by Iraq's branch of al-Qaida as a justification for an attack on a Baghdad church that killed 68 people and other threats by the group against Christians.

On Saturday just before the violence erupted in Imbaba, Shehata appeared with her husband and child on a Christian TV station broadcast from outside of Egypt and asserted that she was still a Christian and had never converted.

"Let the protesters leave the Church alone and turn their attention to Egypt's future," she said from an undisclosed location.

In the Egyptian Sinai desert, hundreds of Bedouins forced authorities to set free a prisoner after laying siege to the main courthouse, firing gunshots in the air and burning tires, witnesses said.


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Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Mary »

Pro Bin-Laden Rally In Gaza Strip:
'[Osama Bin Laden] is the Man Who Shattered the Crosses;
That is the Man Who Brought the Americans to Their Knees'


May 31, 2011
Article Source
Memri

Speakers at Pro-Bin Laden Rally in Gaza Strip: 'That is the Man Who Shattered the Crosses…That is the Man Who Brought the Americans to Their Knees'


Following are excerpts from footage from pro-Osama bin Laden rallies in the Gaza Strip, which was posted on the Internet on May 20, 2011, CLICK HERE to view.

Image


At Gaza Rally: "America is the Enemy of Allah"

Crowds: "There is no god but Allah.

"America is the enemy of Allah." […]

At Rafah Rally: "Osama Destroyed America"

Crowds: "Our souls and our blood we will give for you, oh Osama.

"Our souls and our blood we will give for you, oh Osama.

"Our souls and our blood we will give for you, oh Osama."

Demonstrator: "There is no god but Allah."

Crowds: "There is no god but Allah."

Demonstrator: "Sheikh Osama is loved by Allah."

Crowds: "Sheikh Osama is loved by Allah."

Demonstrator: "There is no god but Allah."

Crowds: "There is no god but Allah."

Demonstrator: "Sheikh Osama is loved by Allah."

Crowds: "Sheikh Osama is loved by Allah."

Demonstrator: "Osama destroyed America…"

Crowds: "Osama destroyed America…"

Demonstrator: "…using a civilian plane."

Crowds: "…using a civilian plane."

Demonstrator: "Say: 'Allah Akbar.'"

Crowds: "Allah Akbar!"

Demonstrator: "Beware, oh Pakistan…"

Crowds: "Beware, oh Pakistan…"

Demonstrator: "…of the soldiers of Taliban."

Crowds: "…of the soldiers of Taliban."

"Khaybar, Khaybar, Oh Jews, the Army of Muhammad Is Returning"

Demonstrator: "Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews…"

Crowds: "Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews…"

Demonstrator: "…the army of Muhammad is returning."

Crowds: "…the army of Muhammad is returning." […]

Image


Sheikh Munir Al-'Aydi: "This blessed man, Osama, Allah's mercy upon him, has given his money and his soul for the Jihad for the sake of Allah. At a time when real men are few, he united the nation around monotheism. Allah's mercy upon you, oh Osama. You were good in your life, and you were good in your death. That man Osama thwarted the American plan in this region, and did what no man has ever done before, especially in our times. He is not a man like all men. He is a man who was true to the pledge he made before Allah.

"That is the man who said: 'I pledge before Allah that America and its people will enjoy no security before we enjoy true security in Palestine.' He was always devoted to the land of Palestine. He was always devoted to the liberation of the holy places. He was always devoted to the instating of the law of Allah. […]

"Today, this proud lion has been dumped in the sea by the country of heresy and prostitution, America. They wanted him dead or alive. […]

"That is the man who brandished his weapon to fight the enemies of Allah. He led the Global Front for Jihad against America and its allies, the worshippers of the cross. He rightfully earned the title of the imam of our times."

Sheikh Munir Al-'Aydi: Bin Laden Is "The Man Who Shattered the Crosses"

Demonstrator: "Say: 'Allah Akbar.'

Crowds: "Allah Akbar!"

Demonstrator: "Say: 'Allah Akbar.'"

Crowds: "Allah Akbar!"

Demonstrator: "Say: 'Allah Akbar.'

Crowds: "Allah Akbar!"

Sheikh Munir Al-'Aydi: "That is the man who shattered the crosses. That is the man who brought the Americans to their knees. That is the man who humiliated the hypocrites in the East and West. That man through whom Allah distinguished men of truth from men of falsehood. […]

"In the days of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, when there were claims that the Koran was man-made, the scholars of those times would say that you could distinguish between a man of truth and a hypocrite by his love for Imam Ahmad. In our times, we too say that you can tell a believer from a hypocrite by his love for Osama bin Laden."

Crowds: "Allah Akbar!

"Allah Akbar!

"Allah Akbar!

"Allah Akbar!"

Sheikh Munir Al-'Aydi: "You are not dead, oh Osama. You live on in the hearts of us all. Osama lives on in the heart of every man. All our sons are Osama. Our entire nation is Osama." […]


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Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Mary »

Israeli Troops Battle Protesters In Syria, 20 Dead


APBy DANIELLA CHESLOW
Article Source
Associated Press
AP – 4 hours ago

MAJDAL SHAMS, Golan Heights (AP) — Israeli troops on Sunday battled hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters who tried to burst across Syria's frontier with the Golan Heights, killing a reported 20 people and wounding scores more in the second outbreak of deadly violence in the border area in less than a month.

The clashes, marking the anniversary of the Arab defeat in the 1967 Mideast war, drew Israeli accusations that Syria was orchestrating the violence to shift attention away from a bloody crackdown on opposition protests at home. The marchers, who had organized on Facebook, passed by Syrian and U.N. outposts on their way to the front lines.

"The Syrian government is trying to created a provocation," said Israel's chief military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai. "This border has been quiet for decades, but only now with all the unrest in Syrian towns is there an attempt to draw attention to the border."

Human rights groups say President Bashar Assad's forces killed at least 25 people in northern Syria over the weekend, and another 65 activists were killed in the central city of Hama on Friday, as anti-government protests spread through the country demanding his resignation.

There was no Syrian comment on why the protesters were allowed to storm the border, apparently undisturbed by authorities. But Syria's state-run media portrayed the event as a spontaneous uprising of Palestinian youths from a nearby refugee camp.

After nightfall Sunday, Syria's state TV said there would be an open-ended sit-in at the border, and thousands more protesters were on their way.

The protests began around 11 a.m. with what appeared to be several dozen youths, brought in on buses. It gained strength through the day.

By evening, the crowd had swelled to more than 1,000 people, who milled about, prayed and chanted slogans in an uneasy standoff with Israeli troops in the distance. The army bolstered its positions, posting a dozen armored vehicles and jeeps along the border road.

Image

Israeli riot police officers stand at the ready as pro-Palestinian protesters, not seen,
demonstrate along the border between Israel and Syria near the village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, Sunday, June 5, 2011.
Israeli troops on Sunday battled hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters who tried to burst across Syria's frontier with
the Golan Heights, killing a reported 20 people and wounding scores more in the second outbreak of deadly violence
in the border area in less than a month.


A small group of youths managed to cut through a recently fortified coil of barbed-wire and took up positions in a trench inside a buffer zone about 20 yards (meters) from a final border fence. Israeli troops periodically opened fire at young activists jumping into the ditch, sending puffs of soil flying into the air.

As the standoff stretched into the evening, Israeli forces fired heavy barrages of tear gas to break up the crowds. Hundreds of people fled the area in panic, while some 20 people laying on the ground received treatment. It was not immediately clear whether the crowd would return to the front lines.

At nightfall, crowds of people fell to the ground in Muslim prayer, and several small groups lit bonfires, indicating the standoff would continue.

Israel had promised a tough response after being caught off guard in last month's demonstrations, when troops killed more than a dozen people in clashes along the Syrian and Lebanese borders. In Syria, hundreds of unarmed protesters managed to breach the border and entered the Israel-controlled Golan for several hours.

The May 15 unrest occurred on the anniversary of Israel's birth in 1948, a day the Palestinians refer to as the "nakba," or catastrophe.

Sunday's clashes marked the "naksa," or setback, the term the Palestinians use for the defeat in the 1967 Mideast war. During that war, Israel conquered the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Gaza Strip and Sinai peninsula from Egypt in just six days of fighting.

Israel returned Sinai to Egypt under a 1979 peace accord, and withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

The Palestinians seek the West Bank and east Jerusalem, along with Gaza, for a future state, while Syria demands a return of the Golan, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel which Israel has annexed, as the price for peace.

Still, until last month, Syria has steadfastly kept its border with Israel quiet for nearly 40 years, fueling the Israeli accusations that Syria was trying to draw attention away from the months of protests that have left more than 1,200 Syrians dead.

Ahead of Sunday's unrest, the army said it would deploy large numbers of forces, along with anti-riot weaponry like tear gas and water cannons, to prevent a repeat of the May clashes.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered forces to show "maximum restraint," but also said Israel would protect its sovereignty.

"Unfortunately, extremist forces around us are trying today to breach our borders and threaten our communities and our citizens. We will not let them do that," he told his Cabinet.

The Israeli military said it used live fire only after firing warning shots into the air and issuing verbal warnings to protesters to stay away.

Image

Pro-Palestinians protesters try to rescue a wounded man after he was shot by Israeli troops
along the border between Israel and Syria near the village of Majdal Shams in Golan Heights, Sunday, June 5, 2011. Israeli troops
opened fire across the Syrian frontier on Sunday to disperse hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters who stormed the border of the
Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, reportedly killing four people in unrest marking the anniversary of the Arab defeat in the 1967 Mideast war.


Protesters waved Palestinian flags and threw rocks and trash over the fence, and the sporadic pops of Israeli gunfire were heard throughout the day. The wounded were taken away on stretchers by groups of young men.

"We were trying to cut the barbed wire when the Israeli soldiers began shooting directly at us," Ghayath Awad, a 29-year-old Palestinian who had been shot in the waist, told the AP at the hospital.

Residents of Majdal Shams, ethnic Druse who remain Syrian citizens while living on the Israeli side of the frontier, watched the protest from rooftops, booing each time the military tried to speak and cheering on the protesters. When troops fired tear gas, a crowd of residents — some holding Syrian or Palestinian flags — began to scream and hurl stones from rooftops at the nearby forces. Israeli anti-riot police fired tear gas and moved into the town. Village elders with thick mustaches argued with the forces, but there were no signs of violence.

Throughout the day, ambulances raced to the hospital in the Syrian border town of Quneitra with the wounded and dead. State-run Syrian TV said 20 people were killed, including a woman and teenage boy, and 325 were wounded, 12 critically. Hospital officials confirmed the casualty count, providing names of all the dead.

Capt. Barak Raz, an Israeli military spokesman, confirmed that protesters made it through a first layer of the border fence — the area protected by barbed wire — but got no closer than 160 yards (meters) away from the final fence. He said the army would "continue to operate" throughout the night to prevent border breaches.

He refused to confirm reports that Israel had laid land mines along the area, saying only that the army "took measures to ensure we wouldn't allow any crossing into Israel."

The army claimed that protesters threw firebombs that ignited land mines on the Syrian side of the border. There was no confirmation from the Syrian side.

The recent protests have drawn attention to the plight of Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled from their homes during Israel's war of independence in 1948. The original refugees, and their descendants, now number several million, and they demand "the right to return" to the families' former properties.

"We want on this occasion to remind America and the whole world that we have a right to return to our country," said Mohammed Hasan, a 16-year-old student who was wounded in both feet.

As a Palestinian living in Syria, he is likely the descendant of people who left or fled the area that became Israel during the 1948-49 Middle East war.

Israel opposes the return of these people, saying it would spell the end of the country as a Jewish state. The plight of the refugees and their descendants is one of the most difficult issues in any future Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.

Around half a million Palestinian refugees live across 13 camps in Syria, a country with a population of 23 million. Palestinians are allowed to work and study in government and private schools, but they do not have citizenship and cannot vote. In neighboring Lebanon, Palestinian refugees are largely discriminated against and banned from all but the most menial professions.

Things were relatively calm on Israel's other borders on Sunday.

About 400 Gazans hoisting Palestinian flags and posters gathered near the main passenger crossing into Israel, but riot police from Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, prevented them from marching toward the crossing.

At the West Bank's main crossing into Jerusalem, several hundred Palestinian young people tried to approach the checkpoint. They threw stones at Israeli forces, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. No major injuries were reported.

Palestinian organizers in Lebanon called off a planned march to the Israeli border after Lebanese authorities had declared the area a closed military zone.


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10 Die In Twin Blasts At British Compound In Kabul


Image

Afghan police stand guard near the site of a suicide attack and a clash outside The British Council in Kabul,
Afghanistan, Friday, Aug. 19, 2011. Two suicide bombers attacked a British compound in the Afghan capital on Friday, killing
at least three people and wounding others, police and eyewitnesses said. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)


By AMIR SHAH
Article Source
Associated Press
August 19, 2011

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Suicide attackers stormed a British compound in the Afghan capital on Friday, killing at least 10 people in a five-hour gunfight on the anniversary of the country's independence from Britain.

A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the attack on the British Council in the western part of Kabul.

The dead included eight Afghan policemen, a security guard whose nationality was not immediately known and an Afghan municipal worker, according to Kabul police official Farooq Asas. Two of four people wounded in the blasts were not Afghans, he said.

Britain's Foreign Office said all insurgents involved in the attack were killed.

The attack started with one suicide bomber detonating an explosives-laden car outside the British Council while another suicide bomber struck inside the compound, according to Afghan police.

Afghan security forces dispatched to the scene said that at least three insurgents fought from a secure bunker inside the compound with rifles and rocket propelled grenades.

An Afghan policeman named Azizullah said that the insurgents wrestled weapons and ammunition from the guards at the compound. Afghan men often use one name.

In London, the British Foreign Office confirmed that all British nationals were safe following the attack.

"My thoughts are with those killed and injured and their families and friends, including locals working to protect the British Council building," Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said. "It is a sad fact that once again an attack aimed at the international community has killed Afghans."

"It is due to the presence of mind of the staff involved and our good security measures that no British nationals were hurt," he said, adding that the attack would not affect Britain's commitment to Afghanistan.

British authorities would not say how many of their personnel were inside the building at the time of the attack. At one point Afghan police carried a man with a Union Jack patch on his shoulder on a stretcher away from the scene.

The Afghans on Friday mark Independence Day, the anniversary of the date the country reached full independence from Britain in 1919.

As the stand-off was still going on five hours after the initial blasts, Asas, the police official, said he had counted five suicide bombers. One detonated the car outside the compound, one set of an explosion inside while at least three more got inside the compound on foot.

Hours into the battle, two more blasts occurred, part of the building was on fire and smoke covered the areas, according to a reporter for The Associated Press at the scene.

Ambulances and at least one helicopter airlift ferried casualties to hospitals. The explosions shattered glass windows a third of a mile (half a kilometer) from the site.

Afghan troops led the assault on the insurgents, but NATO troops were on the scene in an advisory role.

The walled compound of the British Council is located in an upscale residential area in west Kabul. It consists of two buildings, one is a two-story building and the is other a single-story structure. The Council focuses on aiding foreign nations with education and building civil society.

Friday's firefight also damaged two neighboring high schools and several auto repair and auto parts shops nearby.

While violence continues to rage in many parts of Afghanistan, attacks in the capital are relatively uncommon. In June, 21 people were killed at a Kabul hotel, including nine insurgents, with militants fighting NATO and Afghan troops for five hours with rocket-propelled grenades and suicide bombs.


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Rockets, Airstrikes Follow Attack On Israel


Image

Israeli soldiers secure the area near roads leading to the sites of several attacks in the Arava desert,
near the southern Israeli resort town of Eilat, Friday, Aug. 19, 2011. On Thursday, gunmen who appear to have
originated in Gaza and who crossed into southern Israel through the Egyptian desert ambushed civilian vehicles
traveling on a remote road in southern Israel, killing eight people. Six were civilians, and two were members of
Israeli security forces responding to the incursion.(AP Photo/Oded Balilty)



By MATTI FRIEDMAN
Article Source
Associated Press
August 19, 2011

JERUSALEM (AP) — Gaza militants launched barrages of rockets deep into Israel early Friday and Israeli aircraft struck targets in the Palestinian territory in the aftermath of the deadliest attack against Israelis in three years.

Gunmen who appear to have originated in Gaza and crossed into southern Israel through the Egyptian desert ambushed civilian vehicles traveling on a remote road, killing eight people. Six were civilians, and two were members of Israeli security forces responding to the incursion.

Thursday's attack signaled a new danger for Israel from its border with the Sinai Peninsula, long quiet under the rule of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak. He was deposed in February, and the desert of the Sinai Peninsula — always restive and controlled largely by Bedouin tribes — has become increasingly lawless.

The sudden spike in violence threatened to upset the already frayed ties between Israel and Egypt and escalate the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

On Friday, militants in Gaza launched at least 17 rockets into Israel, the military said. One, aimed at the city of Ashkelon, was intercepted by the new Israeli anti-missile system known as Iron Dome. Another hit next to a synagogue in the port city of Ashdod and wounded six Israelis, according to Israeli emergency services.

Israel's south has been equipped with early warning systems and bomb shelters over years of rocket fire from Gaza, and those measures have helped keep casualties low.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited some of the wounded in hospital Friday afternoon. "We killed the head of the group that sent the terrorists but this is just an initial response."

The Israeli military's chief spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, said it was "too early" to say that a broad escalation in Gaza was imminent.

"If we see that Hamas is choosing to escalate, we will not hesitate to expand the scope of our actions, respond in strength and exact a price from Hamas," he told Israel Army Radio on Friday morning.

Israeli aircraft hit five targets in Gaza in response to the rocket attacks, the military said. Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Adham Abu Salmia said five people were killed, including a militant.

Egyptian officials said five Egyptian security personnel died as a result of Thursday's gunbattles. An Egyptian security official said three died Thursday and two others died of wounds on Friday. He said they were apparently caught in a crossfire as Israeli soldiers chased the attackers.

On Friday the Egyptian news agency said Egypt filed an official protest over the deaths and called on Israel to investigate. The news agency said the Egyptian army chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Sami Anan, who is also second in command of Egypt's ruling military council, went to Sinai to head up Egypt's inquiry.

An Israeli military officer gave a different version of the events. He said one of the attackers was a suicide bomber who fled back across the border into Egypt and detonated his explosives among the Egyptian security personnel. It was not possible to reconcile the two versions.

The military said Friday that Israeli forces killed seven militants during the clash. The officer, briefing reporters by phone on condition of anonymity according to military regulations, said there were at least 15 attackers — Palestinian militants from Gaza, members of an extremist group.

Israel responded hours after the border attack with an airstrike in Gaza that killed five members of the group, known as the Popular Resistance Committees. The dead included the group's leader.

A spokesman for the group, Abu Mujahid, would not confirm or deny responsibility for the attack inside Israel.

Also Friday, dozens of Palestinians trying to reach the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for Muslim prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan scuffled with police at one of the gates to the Old City. The police were allowing access only to older Muslims in a measure police said is meant to prevent unrest.

The officers used a water cannon to disperse the crowd and made several arrests, police said. No injuries were reported.

The violence in the south focused Israel's attention on its border with Egypt — 125 miles (200 kilometers) of mountainous desert with no fence for most of its length. Bedouin smugglers ferrying drugs and thousands of African asylum-seekers into Israel have crossed the border almost unimpeded for years.

Thursday's attack — the deadliest for Israel since a Palestinian gunman killed eight people in a Jerusalem religious seminary in 2008 — took place near Israel's popular Red Sea resort city of Eilat, at the height of the tourist season.

Though the desert outside Eilat showed signs of an increased military presence on Friday morning, the city itself appeared unaffected. Joggers and cyclists were visible along the beach.

A new fence is currently under construction, and the military says it will be completed by the end of 2012.

The attack came after a prolonged period without negotiations between Israel and the Western-backed Palestinian leadership in the West Bank. That deadlock has led the Palestinians to unilaterally seek recognition of statehood at the United Nations next month, a largely symbolic move opposed by Israel and the U.S.


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Suicide Bomber Kills 40 In Pakistan Mosque


Image

REUTERS - A paramilitary soldier secures the site of a sucide bomb attack inside a mosque in Jamrud, located
in Pakistan's Khyber region August 19, 2011. A suspected suicide bomber killed at least 34 people in a mosque during Friday
prayers in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region of Khyber on the Afghan border, a top government official said.


By RIAZ KHAN
Article Source
Associated Press
August 19, 2011

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber struck a mosque in a Pakistani tribal region during Friday prayers, officials said, killing at least 40 people and wounding 85 others in the deadliest attack in the country in recent weeks.

The attack came during the holy month of Ramadan, a time of fasting, sharing and heightened community spirit for Muslims.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but the Taliban and other Islamist militants have previously targeted mosques, especially if they believe enemies — such as army soldiers or anti-militant tribesmen — are using the facilities.

The mosque hit Friday is in Ghundi, a village in the Khyber tribal region, a part of Pakistan's tribal belt. Khyber has long been a base for Islamist militants, and the Pakistani army has waged multiple operations aimed at pacifying the region but with limited success.

Khyber also is a key region for the U.S. and NATO, because a large portion of non-lethal supplies heading to U.S. forces in Afghanistan passes through it.

Some 300 people had gathered for prayers Friday afternoon in the Sunni mosque, and many were on their way out when the explosion occurred, local administrator Iqbal Khan said.

"All the evidence we have gathered confirms that it is a suicide attack," said Fazal Khan, another local official who also confirmed the casualty figures. He said witnesses alleged the bomber was a young man.

Saleem Khan, 21, said people panicked after the blast, and that amid the smoke, cries and blood, several ran over him when he fell.

"Whoever did it in the holy month of Ramadan cannot be a Muslim," he said from a hospital bed in the main northwest city of Peshawar. "It is the cruelest thing any Muslim would do."

TV footage from the scene showed a heavily damaged building. Prayer caps, shoes and green prayer mats were scattered across a blood-splattered floor, while ceiling fans were twisted and walls blackened. Men comforted a young boy who wept as he held his hand to his heart.

The attack appeared to be the deadliest since twin bombings in mid-June killed around 40 people in Peshawar. That attack was believed to be part of a wave of bombings staged by militants to retaliate over the U.S. killing of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in May.

The Pakistani Taliban and their affiliates stage attacks in Pakistan because they oppose Islamabad's alliance with the United States.

Also Friday, two U.S. missiles struck a house in a tribal region that was once a Pakistani Taliban stronghold, killing four people, intelligence officials said.

The strike came as Pakistani-U.S. relations are struggling since the unilateral American raid that killed bin Laden in the northwest Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad. The continued missile attacks, which Pakistan officially opposes, suggests Washington considers the tactic too valuable to give up.

Though Pakistan objects to the covert, CIA-run missile program, it is believed to have aided it at times. The U.S. rarely acknowledges the program.

The two missiles hit a house Friday in Sheen Warsak village in the South Waziristan tribal area, according to two Pakistani intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

The identities of the dead were not immediately clear. Although U.S. officials insist the vast majority of victims in the strikes are militants, Pakistanis and some human rights activists have said civilians are often caught up in the attacks.

South Waziristan is a lawless stretch of rugged territory that was largely under the control of the Pakistani Taliban until October 2009, when the country's army launched an operation against the insurgents. However, militant activity is still occasionally reported in the region.

It is nearly impossible to independently verify the information from the region because access is heavily restricted.


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Bin Laden Film Reveals Doubts


Image
In this 1998 file photo, al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden
is shown in Afghanistan. A person familiar with developments
said Sunday, May 1, 2011 that bin Laden is dead and the
U.S. has the body. (AP File Photo)/AP


Erie Times-News
Article Source
Published: September 1, 2011 12:01 AM EST

A new documentary film reveals that a last-minute double-check of intelligence before the raid that killed Osama bin Laden last spring cast fresh doubt on whether the al-Qaida leader was really in the Pakistani compound where he was found.

The History network, in its "Targeting Bin Laden" special that airs next Tuesday at 8 p.m., said President Barack Obama convened a special "red team" of terrorism experts to take a fresh look at the evidence.

That team had greater doubt that bin Laden was in the Abbottobad, Pakistan home primarily because they didn't believe he would take the risk of having as many visitors as he did.

Despite the new assessment, Obama ordered the mission to proceed. Four days later on May 2, a team of U.S. Navy SEALs successfully located and killed the terrorist leader behind the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Obama was interviewed two weeks ago for the special, which provides a ticktock account of what went into the planning and execution of the raid.

Other people interviewed for the special include national security adviser Tom Donilon, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan and former CIA officials.

"At the end of the day only the president can weigh those risks," Donilon told interviewers. "Only the president can ask, 'What's in the nation's interest? What are the risks worth running here? What will we accomplish if this works? How will I deal with it if it doesn't work?' It was a quintessential presidential decision."


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9/11 REMEMBERED


AP Sources: 2 Terror Suspects May Be US Citizens


By EILEEN SULLIVAN & KIMBERLY DOZIER
Associated Press
Article Source
August 10th, 2011 – 40 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Al-Qaida may have sent American terrorists or men carrying U.S. travel documents to launch an attack on Washington or New York to coincide with memorials marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11, government officials say.

One U.S. official says al-Qaida dispatched three men, at least two of whom could be U.S. citizens, to detonate a car bomb in one of the cities. Should that mission prove impossible, the attackers have been told to simply cause as much destruction as they can. But U.S. intelligence officials say they have no evidence there is anyone inside the United States tied to the plot.

Although the initial tip suggested terrorists, including U.S. citizens, may be traveling to the country, that remains unconfirmed.

Word that al-Qaida had ordered the mission reached U.S. officials midweek. A CIA informant who has proved reliable in the past approached intelligence officials overseas to say that the men had been ordered by newly minted al-Qaida leader Ayman al Zawahri to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Sunday by doing harm on U.S. soil.

The tipster says the would-be attackers are of Arab descent and may speak Arabic as well as English. Counterterrorism officials were looking for certain names associated with the threat, but it was unclear whether the names were real or fake.

Image
A New York police officer examines the rear section of a truck at a vehicle check point on Friday, Sept. 9, 2011 in New York. The city is deploying additional resources and taking other security steps in response to a potential terror threat before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. U.S. counterterrorism officials are chasing a credible but unconfirmed al-Qaida threat to use a car bomb on bridges or tunnels in New York or Washington. (AP Photo/Jin Lee)


Intelligence analysts have looked at travel patterns and behaviors of people entering the country recently. And while they have singled out a few people for additional scrutiny, none has shown any involvement in a plot.

Counterterrorism officials have been working around the clock to determine whether the threat is accurate, but so far, have been unable to corroborate it, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.

In the meantime, extra security was put in place to protect the people in the two cities that took the brunt of the jetliner attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon a decade ago. It was the worst terror assault in the nation's history, and al-Qaida has long dreamed of striking again to mark the anniversary. But it could be weeks before the intelligence community can say whether this particular threat is real.

Undaunted by talk of a new terror threat, New Yorkers and Washingtonians wove among police armed with assault rifles and waited with varying degrees of patience at security checkpoints.

"We're watching," James McJunkin, FBI assistant director in charge of the Washington field office, said Saturday. "We expect we're going to get an increase in threats and investigative activity around high-profile dates and events. He added: "This is a routine response for us. It's routine because it's muscle memory."

For months, the FBI had planned to increase staffing around the anniversary and police knew they were going to be out in force in Washington, he said.

In New York on Friday, security worker Eric Martinez wore a pin depicting the twin towers on his lapel as he headed to work in lower Manhattan where he also worked 10 years ago when the towers came down. "If you're going to be afraid, you're just going to stay home," he said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, too, made a point of taking the subway to City Hall.

Briefed on the threat Friday morning, President Barack Obama instructed his security team to take "all necessary precautions," the White House said. Obama still planned to travel to New York on Sunday to mark the 10th anniversary with stops that day at the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa.

Washington commuters were well aware of the terror talk.

Cheryl Francis, of Chantilly, Va., said she travels over the Roosevelt bridge into Washington every day and doesn't plan to change her habits. Francis, who was in Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, said a decade later the country is more aware and alert.

"It's almost like sleeping with one eye open," she said, but she added that people need to continue living their lives.

Image
New York City Police officer Steve Chei, right, patrols outside Citi Field as fans enter the stadium before a baseball game between the New York Mets and the Chicago Cubs, Friday, Sept. 9, 2011, in New York. Security has been enhanced around the country in the weeks leading up to the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)


The intelligence community regularly receives tips and information of this nature. But the timing of this particular threat had officials especially concerned, because it was the first "active plot" that came to light as the country marked the significant anniversary, a moment that was also significant to al-Qaida, according to information gleaned in May from Osama bin Laden's compound.

The U.S. government has long known that terrorists see the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and other uniquely American dates as opportunities to strike. Officials have also been concerned that some may see this anniversary as an opportunity to avenge bin Laden's death.

Britain, meanwhile, warned its citizens who are traveling to the U.S. that there was a potential for new terror attacks that could include "places frequented by expatriates and foreign travelers."

Acutely aware of these factors, law enforcement around the country had already increased security measures at airports, nuclear plants, train stations and more in the weeks leading up to Sept. 11. The latest threat, potentially targeting New York or Washington, prompted an even greater security surge in those cities. U.S. embassies and consulates abroad had also boosted their vigilance in preparation for the anniversary.

At Penn Station in New York, transit authority police carried assault rifles and wore helmets and bullet proof vests as they watched crowds of commuters. Police searched passengers' bags as they entered the subway, and National Guard troops in camouflage fatigues moved among riders, eyeing packages.

In Washington, Police Chief Cathy Lanier warned that unattended cars parked in suspicious locations or near critical buildings and structures would be towed.

Speaking in New York, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said there was "a specific, credible but unconfirmed report that al-Qaida, again, is seeking to harm Americans and in particular, to target New York and Washington."


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Pakistan Mulls Deploying Air defenses To Border
AP
Article Source
By ASIF SHAHZAD
Image
Pakistanis take part in an anti NATO rally in Islamabad, Pakistan on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011. Hundreds Pakistanis from different groups rallied in the capital Islamabad to condemn NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani troops. The placard and banner in center reading as 'there is only one treatment for American aggression holy war holy war' and completely stop the NATO supplies route . (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
SLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan may deploy air defense weapons to the Afghan border to prevent future NATO airstrikes such as the ones last month that the Pakistani military claims were pre-planned and that killed 24 of the country's soldiers, a senior lawmaker said Friday.

U.S. officials have denied last month's attack was deliberate and have worked to repair the damage it caused to the country's already strained relationship with Pakistan. Finding a way to mend ties is important because Pakistan is seen as critical to the Afghan war.

The possibility of Pakistan deploying air defense weapons to the border shows just how much distrust exists between the country and U.S.-led forces fighting in Afghanistan, even though Islamabad has received billions of dollars in American aid over the last decade.

The NATO airstrikes against two army posts on the Afghan border before dawn on Nov. 26 added to anger that Pakistan still felt over the covert U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town in May. Pakistani officials were outraged they were not told beforehand about the operation against the al-Qaida chief, which also originated in Afghanistan, and fumed over the violation of the country's sovereignty — as they have done with the NATO attacks.

Maj. Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem, Pakistan's head of military operations, told the Cabinet and the Senate's defense committee Thursday that officials believe the airstrikes were planned and speculated they may have been carried out by the CIA, according to the head of the defense committee, Javed Ashraf Qazi, who attended the briefing.

The CIA is widely despised in Pakistan because of frequent drone strikes targeting militants in Pakistan's tribal region.

Nadeem said the military was considering deploying air defense weapons to the Afghan border to prevent future attacks, according to Qazi.

A report in Pakistan's leading English-language newspaper, Dawn, erroneously said the military has already decided to deploy the weapons.

"You cannot deploy these systems on each and every outpost. Sometimes these posts are attacked by militants, and you may lose these weapons," said Qazi, a retired army general and former head of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

Despite these risks, the defense committee was convinced the military should deploy air defense weapons to the border, said Qazi.

Pakistan army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has instructed troops on the ground that they are allowed to strike back against any future incursions without prior approval of top commanders, Qazi quoted Nadeem as saying.

NATO attacks have killed Pakistani troops at least three different times along the porous and poorly defined border since 2008, but the Nov. 26 incident in the Mohmand tribal area was by far the most deadly.

U.S. officials have said the strike occurred when a joint U.S. and Afghan patrol requested air support after coming under fire. The U.S. checked with the Pakistan military to see if friendly troops were in the area and were told there were not, they said.

Pakistan has said the Americans gave the wrong coordinates — an allegation denied by U.S. defense officials. Pakistani officials have also said the attack continued even after authorities contacted one of the centers meant to coordinate military activity between forces on either side of the border.

Pakistan retaliated immediately by closing its Afghan border crossings to NATO supplies, demanding the U.S. vacate an air base used by American drones and boycotting an international conference held earlier this week in Bonn, Germany, aimed at stabilizing Afghanistan.

Since the border closure, hundreds of NATO trucks have been stranded at the poorly guarded border terminals. On Thursday, assailants torched more than 20 tankers. There were no casualties in the attack.

The crisis has come as Pakistan continues to battle militant and other forms of violence across the country.

A vehicle carrying paramilitary soldiers in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi hit a roadside bomb Friday, killing three troops and wounding four others, said police official Akram Naeem.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Islamist militants, including the Pakistani Taliban and their allies, have carried out many such bombings throughout the country. Karachi has also experienced frequent violence caused by power struggles between gangs allegedly connected to the city's main political parties.


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Obama Heralds End of Divisive Iraq War
Image
President Barack Obama meets with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Monday, Dec. 12, 2011. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
AP
By JULIE PACE
Article Source
Monday, December 12, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama heralded the end of the divisive Iraq war Monday, and warned Iraq's neighbors that the United States would remain a major player in the region even as it brings its troops home.

"Our strong presence in the Middle East endures," Obama said. "And the United States will never waver in the defense of our allies, our partners and our interests."

Speaking after a morning of meetings with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Obama said other nations must not interfere with Iraq's sovereignty. While he stopped short of mentioning any countries by name, U.S. officials are closely watching how neighboring Iran may seek to influence Baghdad after U.S. troops withdraw.

Early signs of how Iraq may orient itself could come from how it handles troubles in Syria, where the United Nations says 4,000 people have been killed in a government crackdown on protesters. While Obama has called for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, Iraq has been more circumspect, with al-Maliki warning of civil war if Assad falls and abstaining from Arab League votes suspending Syria's membership and imposing sanctions. Those positions align Iraq more closely with Iran, a key Syrian ally.

Obama said he and al-Maliki were both deeply concerned by the Syrian government's assault on its own people. And Obama said he was confident that the Iraqi leader's approach to dealing with Syria was based on his own nation's interests.
Image
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gestures during his news conference with President Barack Obama, Monday, Dec. 12, 2011, in the South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo)

"Even if there are tactical disagreements I have no doubt those decisions are made based on what's best for Iraq, not considerations of what Iran would like to see," Obama said.

Al-Maliki's trip to Washington came as the last American troops were preparing to leave Iraq ahead of a Dec. 31 deadline. Just 6,000 U.S. forces remain, down from a high of 170,000 at the war's peak in 2007.

About 1 million U.S. troops have cycled through Iraq since the war began nearly nine years ago. Obama said the military can officially withdraw from Iraq "with honor and with their heads held high."

Following their meetings at the White House, Obama and al-Maliki traveled to nearby Arlington National Cemetery, where some of the nearly 4,500 Americans killed in Iraq are buried. The two leaders stood solemnly as their nations' national anthems were played. Then together, they placed a large wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, a monument dedicated to U.S. service members who died without their remains being identified.

Mindful of what he called America's "enormous investment of blood and treasure," Obama said Monday the U.S. would seek to build a comprehensive relationship with Iraq, with the goal of making the war-weary nation a model of democracy in the region.

Al-Maliki said Iraq will still need U.S. help on security issues, combating terrorism, and training and equipping the Iraqi military, as well as other areas including education and developing its wealth. He said there were "very high aspirations" for the relationship between the two nations."

Yet significant questions remain over the details of the security relationship between the U.S. and Iraq once all Americans troops are withdrawn. Iraqi leaders have said they want U.S. military training assistance for their security forces but have been unable to agree on what type of help they'd like or what protections they would be willing to give American trainers.

The U.S. will be selling Iraq weapons, including the sale of 18 F-16 fighter jets announced Monday.
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President Barack Obama and Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shake hands in the South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington, Monday, Dec. 12, 2011. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)[/i
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And the U.S. will maintain a significant presence in Iraq, with about 16,000 people working at the embassy in Baghdad. The size of the embassy has been a point of contention among some in Iraq, who see the massive mission as another way for the U.S. to wield influence in their country.
Obama defended the embassy's scope, saying there were special security needs required in a country fresh off a protracted war.

"As president of the United States I have to make sure that anybody who is in Iraq trying to help Iraqi people is protected," he said. "I'm putting civilians in the field. I want to make sure that they come home, because they are not soldiers."

The White House has been eager to promote the end of the Iraq war as a promise kept for Obama. He was an early opponent of conflict, and pledged to bring the war to a close when he ran for the White House.


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BAGHDAD BLAST KILLS 40 AS TENSIONS RISE!


December 21, 2011
Story By Kareem Raheem | Reuters
Source of Article

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A series of blasts and a suicide bomber hit mainly Shi'ite areas in Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 40 people in the first major attack on Iraq's capital since a crisis erupted between its Shi'ite-led government and Sunni rivals just days after the U.S. troop withdrawal.

The apparently coordinated bombings were the first sign of rising violence after Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki moved to sideline two Sunni leaders, just a few years after sectarian killings drove Iraq to the edge of civil war.

In the largest blast, at least 18 people were killed when a suicide bomber driving an ambulance exploded the vehicle near a government office in Karrada district, sending up a large dust cloud and scattering car parts into a nearby kindergarten, police and health officials said.

"We heard the sound of a car driving, then car brakes then a huge explosion, all our windows and doors are blown out, black smoke filled our apartment," said Maysoun Kamal, who lives in a Karrada compound.

At least 40 people were killed and 149 more were wounded from more than ten explosives in Baghdad, said Ziad Tareq, a spokesman of Iraq's health ministry.

Two roadside bombs struck southwestern Amil district, killing at least seven people and wounding 21 others, while a car bomb blew up in a Shi'ite neighborhood in Doura in the south, killing three people and wounding six, police said.

More bombs ripped into the central Alawi area, Shaab and Shula in the north, all mainly Shi'ite areas, and a roadside bomb killed one and wounded five near the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya, police said.

Violence in Iraq has ebbed since the height of sectarian violence in 2006-2007 when suicide bombers and hit-squads targeted Sunni and Shi'ite communities in attacks that killed thousands and pushed the country to the brink of civil war.

Iraq is fighting a stubborn insurgency with Sunni Islamists tied to al-Qaeda and Shi'ite militias, who U.S. officials say are backed by Iran, still staging daily attacks.

US TROOPS OUT ONLY DAYS AGO

The last few thousand American troops pulled out of Iraq over the weekend, nearly nine years after the invasion that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein. Many Iraqis had said they feared a return to sectarian violence without a U.S. military buffer.

Days after the withdrawal, Iraq's fragile power-sharing government is grappling with its worst turmoil since its formation a year ago. Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs share out government posts in a unwieldy system that has been stymied by political infighting since it began.

Shi'ite Maliki this week sought the arrest of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi on charges he organized assassinations and bombings, and he asked parliament to fire his Sunni deputy Saleh al-Mutlaq after he likened Maliki to Saddam.

The moves against the senior Sunni leaders are stirring sectarian tensions as Sunnis fear the prime minister wants to consolidate Shi'ite control.

Iraq's Sunni minority feel marginalized since the rise of the Shi'ite majority in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. Many Sunnis feel they have been shunted aside in the power-sharing agreement that Washington touts as a young democracy.

Thursday's attacks were the first major offensive in Baghdad since November when three bombs exploded in a commercial Baghdad district and another blast hit the city's western outskirts on Saturday, killing at least 13 people.

In October, bomb attacks on a busy commercial street in northeastern Baghdad killed at least 30, with scores wounded.

(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami; Writing by Patrick Markey and Rania El Gamal; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
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