NATO strikes Tripoli, rebels refuse polls

  NATO planes resumed bombardments of Tripoli after Muammar Gaddafi's son said the Libyan leader was willing to hold elections and step aside if he lost, an offer rejected by rebels and the United States.


Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam told an Italian newspaper that the elections could be held within three months and transparency could be guaranteed through international observers.

He said his father would be ready to cede power if he lost the election, though he would not go into exile.

But Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi appeared to throw the potential concession into question, saying on Thursday that the leader of the revolution was not concerned by "any referendum."

A visiting Russian envoy said the Libyan leadership had reiterated that Gaddafi's departure was a "red line."

The rebel leadership in the eastern stronghold of Benghazi rejected Gaddafi's son's election offer.

"We tell him (Saif al-Islam) that the time has passed because our rebels are at the outskirts of Tripoli, and they will join our people and rebels there to uproot the symbol of corruption and tyranny in Libya," rebel spokesman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga told .

A U.S. State Department official also dismissed the election idea, saying it was "a little late for that."

The proposal -- which follows a series of moves the Libyan leader's officials portray as concessions but Western powers dismiss as ploys -- comes at a time when frustration is mounting in some NATO states at slow military progress.

Rebel advances towards Tripoli have been slow, while weeks of NATO strikes pounding Gaddafi's compound and other targets have failed to end his 41-year-old rule.

In the latest raids, eight loud explosions were heard in southeast and southwest Tripoli late on Thursday and planes could be heard overhead. Libyan state television said NATO had hit targets in the Al-Ferjan district of the city.

Read More

Indonesia beefs up security as Islamist cleric faces verdict

  Indonesian militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir faces a court verdict Thursday that could see him jailed for life for funding a group that aimed to kill the country's president.

Jailing Bashir would be an important step in the Indonesian government's efforts to weaken terror groups, but may not reduce the threat of attacks in the most populous Muslim country as others seek to push an Islamist agenda.

Bashir does not command widespread support in Indonesia, but a guilty verdict could inflame hardcore Islamists, some of whom have vowed reprisals after the U.S. killing of Osama bin Laden.

Underlining that risk, an anonymous text message circulating through the capital this week warned of 36 bombs exploding in across the country the moment the judge in the south Jakarta court announces a verdict for Bashir.

"Give me strength to fight against the infidels, Islam's enemies," said Bashir in a prayer at the court to hundreds of his followers, many of whom traveled from other cities for the conclusion of a long trial.

Police have stepped up security, with 2,900 officers at the court alone, where phone lines were scrambled and balaclava-wearing snipers took positions on surrounding buildings.

The frail 72-year old cleric is being tried on charges of supporting a paramilitary group that aimed to destabilize Southeast Asia's largest economy, and turn the officially pluralist and mostly moderate Muslim country into a state with Islamic law.

Indonesia has seen success in recent years in tackling militant groups, and a period of political stability and strong economic growth has turned it into an emerging market favorite among investors, though security risks remain.

Militants linked by police to Bashir's group Jema'ah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT) have been involved in recent shootouts with police, and a suicide bombing at a police mosque in Java, leading analysts to conclude they are changing tactics from focusing on Western targets to attacking local institutions.

Police say Bashir was also the spiritual leader of regional group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed over 200 people.

This is the third attempt for Indonesian law enforcers to try the white-bearded cleric on terror charges. Previous trials only kept him briefly behind bars for other crimes such as immigration offences.

Prosecutors want life in jail for Bashir, though the maximum penalty for the charges is death.

The cleric denied his involvement in the training camp based in Aceh province, which is governed by Islamic law.

Read More

Libyan rebels take new villages in Western Mountains

Rebel fighters are seen before a heavy fight against pro-Gadhafi forces at the frontline of Dafneya, some 40 km west Misrata, Libya, Sunday, June 12, 2011.



Libyan rebels have pushed deeper into government-held territory from their base in the Western Mountains, taking two villages from which forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi had been shelling rebel-held towns.

But the rebels are still a considerable way from Gaddafi's main stronghold in Tripoli, while their fellow fighters on the other two fronts -- in Misrata and in eastern Libya -- have made only halting progress against better-armed government troops.

The rebel advance some 150 km (90 miles) southwest of Tripoli on Wednesday, came as the White House insisted that President Barack Obama had the legal authority to press on with US military involvement in Libya.

Strains have begun to show in the Western alliance trying to topple Gaddafi. The US defense secretary rounded on European allies last week for failing to back the mission the alliance took over in late March.

The White House urged skeptical lawmakers not to send "mixed messages" about their commitment to the NATO-led air war that has helped the rebels push on from their bastion in the east.

"The revolutionaries (rebels) now control Zawiyat al-Babour and al-Awiniyah after pro-Gaddafi forces retreated this morning from the two villages," Abdulrahman, a rebel spokesman in the nearby town of Zintan.

In Gharyan, a Gaddafi-held town that forms the gateway from Tripoli to the mountains, there was an undercurrent of tension as the frontline moves closer to the capital.

Libyan government minders took a group of reporters to the town, which lies about 120 km southwest of Tripoli and about 20 km east of Kikla, which rebels seized from loyalists on Tuesday.

Despite an outward appearance of normality, walls around town on Wednesday had recently painted over graffiti. The windows of one government building were smashed, the sign for another was riddled with holes.

While many traders and people on the streets were reluctant to talk to reporters, one shop owner said the calm in the area during the day was replaced by fighting every night.

"Two thirds of the people here are for the rebels," he told Reuters, giving his name as Mohammed.

Those willing to talk in front of the minders were strongly pro-Gaddafi.

"Sarkozy is stupid, he is fighting this war for petrol," a man called Yunis said in French, referring to the French president, vilified by Gaddafi supporters as the driving force behind NATO bombing. "This is colonialism all over again."

Read More

Yemeni President Saleh’s health ‘stable’

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is “stable” after being treated in Riyadh for bomb wounds.
The veteran leader’s health status has been sketchy since he was flown on Saturday to Riyadh for treatment from wounds sustained in a bomb attack the day before on his presidential compound. He has not been seen in public since.
“The condition of the Yemeni president is stable,” a Saudi official said on condition of anonymity, adding the beleaguered president was waiting for doctors to “appoint a date for cosmetic surgery.”
Saleh, 69, would undergo a cosmetic operation to treat “light burns on the scalp,” he said, adding that “reports on the deterioration of his health condition are baseless.”
On Tuesday, US officials said Saleh was burned over 40 percent of his body and suffered bleeding in the brain from the attack, indicating his wounds were worse than initially reported. The revelation cast doubts on a quick return to Yemen and pointed to a deepening power vacuum.
Yemeni Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has insisted that Saleh is in good condition and that he will return to Yemen within days.
The Saudi newspaper Al-Watan yesterday quoted a Yemeni diplomat in Riyadh as saying that Saleh’s condition was no longer critical despite his having been “in great danger” earlier.

Read More

NATO: service member killed by roadside bomb

• 
  United States Marine Joshua Barron reacts onboard a medevac helicopter from the US Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment, after he was wounded in an IED strike near Sangin, in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan.

• 
• 
• 
• 

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — NATO says a roadside bomb has killed a coalition service member in southern Afghanistan.

The international alliance says the bombing took place on Sunday but gave no other details about the attack or the nationality of the killed service member.

It was the fourth coalition death on Sunday that NATO reported. A coalition helicopter crashed in eastern Afghanistan, killing two on board, and a service member was killed in an unspecified "insurgent attack" elsewhere in Afghanistan on Sunday.

More than 200 NATO troops have died so far this year in Afghanistan, many of them in the southern provinces where Taliban fighters are trying to regain territory lost over the winter.

Read More