Syria: cousin of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad given travel ban

A cousin of the Syrian president has been banned from traveling abroad as the government says it is investigated the violence gripping the country.

Bashar al-Assad, Syrian President 

 

  

The move appears to be an attempt by Bashar al-Assad to show that he is serious about investigating the bloodshed.

State-run SANA news agency said the ban was imposed on Brig. Gen. Atef Najib, who ran the security department in the southern province of Daraa.

The uprising erupted there in mid-March after the arrest of 15 teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti.

Judge Mohammed Deeb al-Muqatran of the Special Judicial Committee says the travel ban is precautionary in order for Najib to be available for questioning. 

Al-Muqatran was quoted as saying on Monday that "no one has immunity, whoever he is."

On Sunday a mass grave containing the bodies of at least 10 soldiers was discovered by Syrian troops in a town stormed by government forces in the north of the country. 


At least four of the corpses in the grave, found outside the military police headquarters in the town of Jisr al-Shughour, near the Turkish border, had been decapitated or struck on the head by an axe, according to those present.
The government claimed the bodies, all still in uniform, were evidence of an attack by "armed gangs" on security forces it said claimed 120 lives last week.
But residents and some defecting soldiers who have fled over the border claimed that the dead were local recruits shot by their officers for refusing to open fire on peaceful protesters. 

They also claimed that the army, which moved in under cover from helicopters and tank fire, had used brutal tactics to recapture the town at the weekend.
"The soldiers told us that they would kick us into the sea," Mohammed Migdem, 60, told The Daily Telegraph, waving his arms angrily.


"They killed my uncle's son and I helped lift several dead bodies into cars with my own hands. There is a war going on in Syria against the people."
Witnesses also described how they had seen two boys trying to escape who were killed by fire from government tanks.
The unrest in Syria has claimed 1,500 lives since March, according to human rights groups, with no sign that the regime is managing to deter opposition.
There were even demonstrations at the weekend in the capital, Damascus.
Britain, France and America have led international criticism of the violence, but lack of support from the Arab League has made outside intervention likely.
China and Russia have also so far opposed a motion of condemnation at the United Nations.
"There is no prospect of getting through the UN a resolution such as the UN resolution 1973 on Libya," William Hague, the foreign secretary, said on Sky News. That resolution authorised the no-fly zone currently in place against Col Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
"In the case of Libya there was a clear call from the Arab League for action, and that was a transformative intervention. There is no such call in the case of Syria."
Mr Hague added that Syria was "undoubtedly being assisted by the Iranian government" through supplying "equipment" and advising how to crush protests.

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US drops Laden charges

The United States has formally dropped criminal charges against former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a US military raid in Pakistan last month.
In federal court in Manhattan on Friday, prosecutors disposed of a 1998 indictment that charged Laden with murder and conspiracy to kill Americans for his role in attacking US embassies in East Africa in 1998.
The bombing of US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people.
A raid by US special operations forces killed bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2.
Preet Bharara, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, asked for the change, a request that Judge Lewis Kaplan granted in a brief order.
The action came after a thorough analysis confirmed that bin Laden did indeed die after Navy SEALs raided his compound. The officials noted that facial recognition and photograph analysis confirmed the identity, along with DNA testing of the body.

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Suicide attack on Kabul police station kills nine

 






Suicide bombers in army uniform attacked a Kabul police compound on Saturday, killing nine people in the second major assault inside the Afghan capital in less than a month, the Interior Ministry said.

The Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the assault, vowed last month to carry out attacks on foreign and Afghan troops and government officials, and have assassinated several senior police commanders since the start of the year.

Three policemen, an intelligence agent, and five civilians -- including two finance ministry employees who worked in an office beside the police station -- were killed in the attack, said officials. Two other policemen and 10 civilians were wounded.

Despite the presence of up to 150,000 foreign troops, violence across Afghanistan is at its worst since the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban government. May was the deadliest month on record for Afghan civilians, the United Nations said.

"One bomber blew himself up at the gate to pave the way for the others to enter, and a second one was shot dead by the police," said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.

The last attacker was holed up in a building on the compound where he fought for around an hour before he was also shot dead.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said three of their fighters carried out the attack, but gave no further details.

The insurgents were wearing Afghan army uniforms, a Kabul police spokesman said, a trademark of recent attacks which has led the government to clamp down on a once-flourishing black market in security uniforms.

The police station is in the heart of the old city. Nearby riverside streets that are normally bustling with shoppers and stall holders were emptied by the attack.

At the site of the attack, the body of one of the bombers who was shot before he could detonate his suicide vest lay on the ground dressed in green camouflage trousers and a jacket, beside pools of blood and pieces of flesh.

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NATO strike kills civilians: Libya govt

  Libyan officials said some seven civilians were killed in a NATO air strike in eastern Tripoli in the early hours of Sunday morning.



"There was intentional and deliberate targeting of the civilian houses," deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim told reporters at the site. "This is another sign of the brutality of the West."

There were heaps of rubble and chunks of shattered concrete at the scene, which a large crowd of what appeared to be local residents were helping to clear.

On previous occasions when reporters have been taken to see fresh air strikes, the ruins of shattered buildings would typically still be smoking so soon after being hit. There did not appear to be any smoke at the site the Libyan said was targeted by NATO on Sunday morning.

If confirmed, the incident would be a blow to NATO's campaign which is aiding rebels fighting the government of Muammar Gaddafi at a time when the Western alliance is debating how to sustain its mission.

At a local hospital, reporters were shown three bodies, including a child, which government officials said were people killed in the air strike.

One of the bodies was covered with debris and dust. Reporters were also shown a wounded child.

"Basically, this is another night of murder, terror and horror in Tripoli caused by NATO," government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told  at the hospital. Five families were living in the building which was hit, he said.

It could not be immediately verified whether the three bodies had come from the destroyed building in the Arada district. Arada is a neighbourhood in the Souq al-Juma district, which is known for anti-Gaddafi sentiment.

Two weeks ago, Libyan government officials were accused by a staff member at the same hospital in a note passed to journalists of falsely labelling a child hurt in a car crash as the victim of a NATO attack.

The incident occurred just over 24 hours after the Libyan government accused NATO of specifically targeting civilians.

After four months of civil war, rebels control much of the east of Libya, the area around the western port city of Misrata and much of the Western Mountain region stretching to the border with Tunisia.

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Zawahri will be hunted: US

  Al Qaeda's new chief Ayman al-Zawahri lacks Osama bin Laden's stature among Islamists worldwide but the United States is just as determined to hunt him down and kill him as it did his predecessor.

Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Zawahri, al Qaeda's longtime second-in-command and now its top leader, does not have the "peculiar charisma" and operational experience of bin Laden, who was killed by US forces last month.

But Gates and other US officials said al Qaeda remains a threat despite its loss of bin Laden, who was considered the driving force behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

"We should be mindful that ... al Qaeda seeks to perpetuate itself, seeks to find replacements to those that have been killed and remains committed to the agenda that bin Laden put before them," Gates told .


"So I think he's (Zawahri's) got some challenges but I think it's a reminder that they are still out there and we still need to keep after them," he said.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made clear that Zawahri -- an Egyptian-born ideologue -- remained high on the US list of hunted militants even after commandos killed bin Laden in a raid on his Pakistan hide-out 45 days ago.

"He and his organisation still threaten us. And as we did seek to capture and kill -- and succeed in killing -- bin Laden, we certainly will do the same thing with Zawahri," Mullen told.


Zawahri has taken over the leadership after the killing of bin Laden,

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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.

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Syrian troops 'widening' crackdown Kill 6 civilians in Ariha

Syrian refugees talk with a Turkish soldier in a refugee camp in the Turkish border town of Boynuegin in Hatay province yesterday.

 

 

 

Syrian security forces are reportedly widening an operation in the north of the country aimed at cracking down on anti-government protests.

Troops pushed towards the northern town of Maarat al-Numaan after detaining hundreds of people in a sweep through villages near the town of Jisr al-shaghur.



Meanwhile, army killed six civilians yesterday as it swept through villages around the flashpoint northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughur, a rights activist said.


"The armed forces are continuing their operations and the sweep of the villages near Jisr al-Shughur," which the army took by force Sunday, the activist said.


Refugees have poured across the Syrian border into neighbouring Turkey to escape the government's operation, the site of an intense military takeover on Sunday.


Nearly 7,000 Syrians have so far crossed the border with Turkey to escape the violence, and an estimated 10,000 more are waiting for the opportunity to cross.

Witnesses said those still in Syria had taken shelter among trees near the border since forces moved into the northwestern province of Idlib.

The uprising, now in its third month, seeks an end to Bashar al-Assad's one-party rule, more political freedom and an end to corruption and poverty.

Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught, in Guvecci on the Turkey-Syria border, spoke to Syrian refugees inside the camp in Turkey.

One of them said he saw two military helicopters hovering over Jisr al-Shughur and heard reports of indiscriminate shooting.

Another Syrian gave this account after Al Jazeera smuggled a camera into the refugee camp: "We were besieged in Jisr yesterday.
"We couldn't leave. They shot at everyone, I was shot in the chest, My cousin, who was with me, died.
"They cut our electricity and water. We were left with nothing, that is why we came to the Turkey border."

Syrian state television said army units fought "armed groups" on Sunday, but residents and activists said troops had clashed with mutinous soldiers defending the town alongside residents.

"Army divisions entered Jisr al-Shughur and purged the state hospital of armed groups," the television said.
"Two members of the armed organisations were killed, large numbers of them arrested, and lethal weapons in their possession were seized."

On the diplomatic front, a spokesman for David Cameron, the British prime minister, said on Monday that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish leader, had expressed support for Britain's efforts to put pressure on Syria at the UN Security Council.

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Pakistan arrests CIA's bin Laden informants: report

 

 

 

 Pakistan's top military spy agency has arrested five CIA informants who fed information to the US spy agency before the raid last month which killed Osama bin Laden.

One of the detainees was reported to be a Pakistani Army major whom officials said copied license plates of cars visiting the al Qaeda leader's compound 30 miles northwest of Islamabad. 

The fate of the CIA informants arrested in Pakistan is unclear.

Outgoing CIA Director Leon Panetta raised the issue of the informants' detention during a trip to Islamabad last week where he met with Pakistani military and intelligence officers.

Some in Washington see the arrest as another sign of the deep disconnect between US and Pakistani priorities in the fight against extremists.

The United States kept Islamabad in the dark about the May 2 raid by Navy SEALs until after it was completed, humiliating Pakistan's armed forces and putting US military and intelligence ties under serious strain.

Last week, at a closed Senate Intelligence Committee briefing, Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell rated Pakistan's cooperation with the United States on counterterrorism operations a "three" on a scale of 1 to 10, the Times reported, citing officials familiar with the exchange.

Other officials cautioned that his comments did not represent the administration's overall assessment, the newspaper said. "We have a strong relationship with our Pakistani counterparts and work through issues when they arise," CIA spokesman Marie Harf told the newspaper.

"Director Panetta had productive meetings last week in Islamabad. It's a crucial partnership, and we will continue to work together in the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups who threaten our country and theirs."

Asked about the Times report, a CIA spokeswoman neither confirmed nor denied it and said she had no further comment.

Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, was quoted as saying that the CIA. and the Pakistani spy agency "are working out mutually agreeable terms for their cooperation in fighting the menace of terrorism. It is not appropriate for us to get into the details at this stage." 

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E coli death toll reaches 36 in Germany

The death toll from a killer bacteria outbreak rose to 36 yesterday, German health officials said, one day after warning that more fatalities cannot be ruled out.


The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's national disease agency, said 3,228 people had fallen sick from the virulent EHEC (enterohaemorrhagic E. coli) or the linked kidney ailment haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS).


On Sunday, German officials said 34 people had died in the country, but upped that figure to 35 yesterday.
"For many days the number of new infections from EHEC or HUS communicated to the RKI has declined in the country," the agency said in a statement that confirmed the new toll.


German Health Minister Daniel Bahr told Sunday's Bild am Sonntag newspaper that he was encouraged by the decline in new infections, but warned that more deaths were still possible.


Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment said Sunday the outbreak is the most serious of its kind recorded in the world to date.


After several frantic weeks of searching, German authorities on Friday said they had identified the contamination source as being vegetable sprouts from an organic farm in Lower Saxony, northern Germany.
The farm has been closed and all its products recalled. The farm cultivated sprouts from a variety of products including lettuce, azuki beans, mung beans, fenugreek, alfalfa and lentils.


Authorities have said though that the farm in the northern village of Bienenbuettel had done nothing wrong.
With German authorities only late last week dropping advice, particularly in northern Germany, to avoid uncooked tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce, the scare has cost European farmers hundreds of millions of euros (dollars).

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Libyan rebels edge westwards out of Misrata

 

Libyan rebels edged slowly beyond their western stronghold of Misrata toward Tripoli, but faced supply shortages after shelling from Muammar Gaddafi forces hit a key refinery in the city. Any fighting over Zlitan would bring the rebellion closer to the capital Tripoli, the Libyan leader's stronghold which lies 200 km (124 miles) west of Misrata. A doctor in a field hospital to the west of Libya's third largest city said two rebels had been killed and a dozen wounded after the two sides traded heavy artillery fire. Rebels from Misrata say tribal sensitivities prevent them from attacking Zlitan, and they are instead waiting for local inhabitants to rise up. Late Monday, six rockets hit generators at the refinery near Misrata port leaving them heavily damaged. An engineer on site said it was unclear how long it would take to repair. The fighting east of Tripoli came during a lull in NATO bombardment of the Libyan capital. State television reported the alliance had bombarded targets in Al Jufrah in the center of the country. A rebel spokesman in Zintan, in the rebel-held Western Mountains range southwest of Tripoli, said the town had been quiet after being subjected to its heaviest bombardment by pro-Gaddafi forces in several weeks Sunday. "Today has been the quietest day for Zintan in three months, although we started to hear in the evening loud blasts coming from the east." he said. "We buried (on Monday) the 10 martyrs who were killed after Sunday's clashes."

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Suicide bombing kills 34 in Pakistan

At least 34 people were killed in a suspected suicide bombing in the Pakistani city of Peshawar late Saturday, the latest attack since Osama bin Laden's killing last month.


The bombing took place near a building that houses several newspaper offices as well as apartments. The attack occurred when a large number of people were dining in the nearby restaurants.


No one claimed responsibility for the attack but Taliban militants have vowed to avenge the killing of al Qaeda chief bin Laden by US SEALS in a secret raid in the northwestern town of Abbottabad on May 2.


A small blast preceded a big one, which senior police official Banaras Khan said police suspected was carried out by a suicide bomber.


"After the second blast, a fire broke out. Several charred bodies were lying on the ground while some wounded people were crawling away from the site," witness Naeem Ahmed told.


Television footage showed twisted window frames, shards of broken glasses and fallen electricity cables strewn on roads as rescue workers were loading wounded men on stretchers into ambulances.


Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister of the northwestern Khyber Pukhtunkhuwa (KP) province, told reporters that doctors had said the death toll was 34, "but it may rise as many wounded people are in critical condition."


Peshawar is the capital of KP, which borders Afghanistan.

Hospital officials said 100 people were wounded, 21 of them seriously. .


 one of the wounded man cried 'please take me to hospital, I am alive.


Since bin Laden was killed, militants have attacked a heavily guarded naval base in Karachi; killed nearly 100 people in twin suicide bombings at the headquarters of a paramilitary force in the northwest; attacked US consulate convoy in Peshawar and killed a Saudi diplomat in Karachi.

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US hails death of top al-Qaeda militant

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the death of top African al-Qaeda militant Fazul Abdullah Mohammed is a "significant blow" to the group.


He and another militant were killed earlier this week in a shootout with police at a checkpoint in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, officials said.


Mohammed was the most wanted man in Africa, with a $5m bounty on his head.

After landing in Tanzania's capital, Dar es Salaam, on the second leg of a tour of Africa, Mrs Clinton told reporters: "[His] death is a significant blow to al-Qaeda, its extremist allies, and its operations in East Africa."
"It is a just end for a terrorist who brought so much death and pain to so many innocents in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and elsewhere - Tanzanians, Kenyans, Somalis, and our own embassy personnel."
He was suspected of having played a key role in the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa, which killed 224 people.


He was also accused of attacking Israeli targets on the Kenyan coast in 2002, and was recently believed to have been working with the Islamist militant group, al-Shabab, which controls much of southern Somalia.
Born in the Comoros islands in the early 1970s, Mr Mohammed is believed to have joined al-Qaeda in Afghanistan during the 1990s.

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Blasts kill 20 in Afghan towns

A series of bombs and explosions killed 20 people in Afghanistan's southern and eastern flashpoints yesterday, among them at least eight children and four women, government officials said.

The attacks came as the UN said that May was the deadliest month for civilians in Afghanistan since at least 2007, with 368 deaths and 593 injuries of documented.

In yesterday's deadliest incident, a vehicle hit a mine in Arghandab district of the southern province of Kandahar.

"Today at 10:00am, 15 civilians were killed, including eight children, four women and three men," the ministry said.

The interior ministry said six civilians, including a woman and two children, were wounded by mortar bombs fired at a district police headquarters in the eastern province of Kunar.

In the eastern province of Khost, a suicide bomber yesterday killed three people including the commander of a provincial Afghan police rapid reaction force and wounded 12 others, officials said.
Two policemen were also killed and nine wounded when two successive blasts hit the eastern province of Laghman, in the border with Pakistan.a

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34 killed in Pak suicide bombing

Pakistani security officials examine the site of twin bomb blasts in Peshawar early Sunday.

 At least 34 people were killed and 94 injured after twin explosions rocked a market in the Sadar area of Peshawar, Pakistan.
The first blast, relatively small, went off in the restroom of a restaurant in the crowded Khyber Super Market, according to Shafqat Malik, chief of bomb disposal in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
People gathered at the scene and many were casualties after a suicide bomber on a motorbike arrived at the restaurant minutes later and set off explosives.senior,
Muhammad Ejaz Khan, a senior police official in Peshawar, said about 10 kilograms of explosives were used in the second blast.

The neighborho
od is a residential area popular with single professionals and students. It features hotels and shops.
Saif Ul Islam Saifi, president of the press club in Peshawar, said one journalist was killed and nine others were hurt. A provincial minister said two journalists died. There are several media offices in the area.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Peshawar and the surrounding region have been swamped by a wave of violence in recent months.

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U.N. rights boss calls on Syria to halt "assault"

 The top U.N. human rights official called on Syria on Thursday to halt its "assault on its own people" and said more than 1,100 people may have been killed and up to 10,000 detained since March.

Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged Damascus to allow a fact-finding mission into the country to investigate all allegations, including Syrian state television reports that 120 members of the security forces were killed by armed gangs.
"It is utterly deplorable for any government to attempt to bludgeon its population into submission, using tanks, artillery and snipers," she said in a statement.
"I urge the government to halt this assault on its own people's most fundamental human rights."
More than 1,000 people have been killed in three months of popular unrest in Syria, human rights groups say. On Wednesday, Britain, France, Germany and Portugal handed the U.N. Security Council a draft resolution condemning Syria's crackdown on protesters, despite the risk of a Russia veto.
"We are receiving an increasing number of alarming reports pointing to the Syrian government's continuing efforts to ruthlessly crush civilian protests," said Pillay, a former U.N. war crimes judge.
Local human rights groups estimated that more than 50 protesters were killed during a protest in the city of Hama last Friday. Pillay said it would seem that it was one of the bloodiest days since the uprising began.
She voiced concern at reports of civilians fleeing the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughour after what she called threatening statements by government officials.
Syrian troops with tanks have deployed near Jisr al-Shughour, prompting many of its 50,000 people to flee. The government has accused armed bands of killing scores of its security men in the town and has vowed to send in the army.
More than a thousand Syrians have fled across the border into Turkey in the last 24 hours and have taken refuge in a tent camp, the U.N. refugee UNHCR said on Thursday.
On April 29, the U.N. Human Rights Council set up a fact-finding mission to investigate violations in Syria.
Pillay again urged Syria to allow the U.N. human rights investigators into the country to establish the facts. Members of her team are collecting evidence in the region but have yet to receive a greenlight from Damascus.
"So far we have not received any official reply from Syria -- either positive or negative," she said.

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Al Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri planned new death squad to avenge bin Laden

Al-Qaeda's chief military commander was plotting a new terrorist group called Lashkar-e-Osama to launch a wave of revenge suicide attacks when he was reportedly killed in a drone strike last week, Pakistani officials have claimed.

Ilyas Kashmiri Photo: REUTERS

 

 

Ilyas Kashmiri had convened a meeting of militant leaders to discuss hitting foreign embassies and also trying to poison Nato food supplies en route to Afghanistan to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden.

The plans were disclosed as distrust between Washington and Islamabad still surrounded Kashmiri's reported death on June 3.

US officials said their working assumption was that he remained alive despite assurances from Pakistan.

His new squad had plans to target the American, Saudi and Emirati embassies in Pakistan, according to reports.

Kashmiri called Pakistani Taliban commanders, including Asmatullah Maavia, Amjad Farooqui and Badar Mansoor to the meeting in North Waziristan a few days before he was reportedly killed.

They discussed blowing up the American embassy, assassinating visiting Chinese dignitaries and targeting the country's biggest munitions factory in Wah.
Auto rickshaws laden with explosives were suggested as one means of carrying out the attacks.
Large quantities of poison would also be procured to contaminate Nato food supplies passing through Pakistan on their way to troops in Afghanistan, the 
Kashmiri had a $5 million (£3 million) bounty on his head and been leader of Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islam (HUJI) before forming the feared 313 militant brigade.
He was thought to take his orders directly from bin Laden.
Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, said he could confirm "100 per cent", that Kashmiri had died when a Predator drone fired three missiles into a house in South Waziristan as he and associates drank tea in the garden.
However, US officials have been unable to confirm the death.
One said: "It wouldn't be the first time that reports of his death have been wrong. We're simply unable at this time to confirm reports of Kashmiri's demise. Our working assumption is that he's still walking around."

 

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US presses Saleh to hand over power in Yemen as British military assets deployed

 

Anti-government protestors celebrate President Ali Abdullah Saleh's departure to Saudi Arabia, in Sana'a. (File photo)

The White House called late Monday for an “immediate transition” of power in Yemen, where the United States fears Al Qaeda could exploit political turmoil and strengthen its presence, as Britain confirmed the deployment of military assets near the embattled nation.

After four months of deadly unrest, Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year-old regime was teetering even before the president was wounded in an attack on his palace and flown late Saturday to neighboring Saudi Arabia for treatment.

“We believe that an immediate transition is in the best interests of the people and the best interest of maintaining stability in obviously a very unstable situation,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton of the United States, speaking alongside French counterpart Alain Juppe at a Washington press conference, made it clear President Saleh should leave power but stopped short of expressly ordering him to do so, according to Agence-France Presse.

“The civilian government remains in power in Yemen. The vice president is currently serving as the acting president,” said Mrs. Clinton, adding that US embassy staff were meeting with “a broad cross-section of Yemeni officials as well as civil society to try to better assess what this means to the country.”

“Obviously, I can’t speculate on what President Saleh is going to do or say, but we do want to emphasize we're calling for a peaceful and orderly transition, a non-violent transition that is consistent with Yemen’s own constitution,” she said.

“We think an immediate transition is in the best interest of the Yemeni people, because the instability and lack of security currently afflicting Yemen cannot be addressed until there is some process that everyone knows is going to lead to the sort of economic and political reforms that they are seeking,” she said.

Washington supports a deal, brokered by the regional Gulf Cooperation Council bloc that would see Mr. Saleh cede power to an interim administration within 30 days, in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

Mr. Saleh, a wily operator who since 1978 has bought off tribal loyalties and stitched them together into a governable framework, has refused to sign the accord and warned that his ouster would only serve to boost Al Qaeda.

“Our position is that we support the agreement that President Saleh had talked about signing several times and didn't,” Mr. Carney said.

“We want a peaceful and orderly transition that’s consistent with the Yemeni constitutional process. Our position hasn’t changed.”

A top aide said Monday that 65-year-old Saleh, who was recuperating in a Riyadh military hospital, planned to return within days, a move likely to set off another round of unrest in the violence-plagued nation of 24 million people.
Saudi officials insist they will not interfere with Mr. Saleh’s decision to return to Yemen or stay in the kingdom, but behind the scenes the United States and Europe are likely to be pressing the Saudis to ensure President Saleh’s stay becomes permanent, according to Reuters.

“The Saudis will seize the opportunity ... to extend his medical recovery into a political rest,” said Yemen expert Khaled Fattah. The risk of Yemen descending into Somalia-style anarchy was “a nightmare for Saudi national security.”

In Sana’a, a fragile truce held despite a deadly sniper attack on loyalists of a powerful tribal chief blamed for Friday’s bomb attack which wounded Mr. Saleh as he prayed inside a mosque in his compound, according to AFP.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Yemen’s capital on Sunday to cheer what they said was the end of Saleh’s regime.

There was fresh fighting in the southern city of Taez, and also in the southern province of Abyan, where armed men killed seven soldiers and wounded 12 others in clashes in Zinjibar on Monday, a local official and witnesses said, according to Reuters.

An army force had tried to storm the town of 20,000. Last month, dozens of armed men believed to be from Al Qaeda stormed into Zinjibar, chasing out security forces.

The situation presents US partner Saudi Arabia and Washington with a conundrum as President Saleh has been a key ally in the fight against Al Qaeda’s Yemen-based franchise, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

AQAP has claimed several attacks against the United States and other Western interests.

The group was linked to the “underwear bomber”—a young Nigerian who allegedly tried to blow up a packed transatlantic airliner as it landed in Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

It was also blamed for the more recent parcel bomb plot, involving sophisticated explosive devices hidden in printer inkjet cartridges and sent via air freight to Jewish addresses in the United States.
Britain on Monday confirmed the deployment of military assets near Yemen but did not verify reports that ships were on standby in the Gulf to evacuate its nationals.

“As part of routine deployment UK military assets are in the region, although we are not prepared to comment further on their exact operational tasking,” a Ministry of Defense (MoD) spokesman said.

Around 80 marines were on board naval support ship RFA Fort Victoria, according to the BBC, while Sky News reported that the RFA Argus was also in the area.

The MoD would not confirm whether an evacuation was planned and repeated Foreign Secretary William Hague’s plea for all British nationals to leave Yemen immediately by commercial means.

In a statement delivered on Friday, Mr. Hague said it was “extremely unlikely” the British government would be able to evacuate its nationals given the volatile situation, AFP reported.

Britain first advised nationals to leave on March 12, and a dramatic escalation of hostilities led Mr. Hague to issue Friday’s strongly-worded warning.

In a joint statement on Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, and the Prime Ministers of Britain, Spain and Italy, thanked Saudi Arabia for receiving Mr. Saleh for treatment, and called on all parties in Yemen to “find a means of reconciliation on the basis of the GCC initiative,” according to Reuters.

Yemen, which relies on oil for 60 percent of its economy, has been dealt a heavy blow by the closure of an oil pipeline that trade sources said has caused a fuel shortages.

But the future of Yemen, dominated by rivalries among tribal leaders, generals and politicians, remains uncertain.

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NATO: service member killed by roadside bomb

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  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.

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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.

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I Shouldn't Be Alive (Season 1)

Jaws of Death Show Type: Documentary Language: English Genre: Action/Adventure
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Show description

A man crashes his plane in the African savannah. With a broken leg and pelvis, he has to make it alive past lions and other dangerous predators.

About I Shouldn't Be Alive: The show pushes the limits as survivors of death-defying ordeals relive their experiences at the edge of human endurance – and the moment of truth that kept them alive. The series examines our most basic instincts while revealing amazing intricacies and profound depths of the human condition. Each one-hour episode explores the very best true stories of survival, focusing on the moral dilemmas, crucial moments, chance events and life-or-death decisions of the survivors. Viewers will feel the pow ...er and magnitude of those decisions, and be moved to ask themselves, "What would I have done to survive?" More ›

Show Details

Cast	Qarie Marshall, Tim Beckmann, Adam Horton
Release Date	28 October 2005 (USA)
Narrated By	Qarie Marshall, Tim Beckmann
IMDB Rating	8.0/10

Complete Schedule for I Shouldn't Be Alive

Wed, Jun 01 10:00PM	Trapped in The Canyon
Thu, Jun 02 12:00PM
Thu, Jun 02 5:00PM	8	Shipwrecked
Thu, Jun 02 10:00PM	Avalanche of Terror
Fri, Jun 03 12:00PM	Vacation Nightmare
Fri, Jun 03 5:00PM	2	Lost in the Snow
Fri, Jun 03 10:00PM	Boys Adrift
Sat, Jun 04 12:00PM
Sat, Jun 04 5:00PM	20	A Walk in Hell
Sat, Jun 04 10:00PM	Fear in Freefall
Mon, Jun 06 12:00PM	Killer Crevasse
Tue, Jun 07 9:00AM
Tue, Jun 07 12:00PM	Death Climb
Wed, Jun 08 4:00AM	Vacation Nightmare
Wed, Jun 08 12:00PM	Trapped in The Canyon
Thu, Jun 09 12:00PM	Avalanche of Terror
Fri, Jun 10 12:00PM	Boys Adrift
Sat, Jun 11 12:00PM	Fear in Freefall

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