Heavy fighting continued in Gaza last night as the Israeli army headed towards the Strip's main towns and cities and reserve units were sent to support the thousands of ground troops already in the territory. The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said that Israel was near to completing its goals in the conflict.
The toD verdict: The Israeli offensive started on 27 December when ground troops were sent into Gaza after a week of airstrikes on the coastal territory. The operation is one of retribution intended to stop Palestinian rocket attacks by Hamas which have persisted for years.Keep up to date with the latest developments and sharpest perspectives in a world of strife and struggle.
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Talks in Cairo between Hamas and Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman were said to have been positive, and Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair also seemed optimistic about the possibility of a peace settlement after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. However, Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas political leader, said on Saturday that the Israeli offensive has destroyed any chance of negotiation. Both sides in the dispute ignored a call by the UN Security Council last week for an immediate ceasefire, which was supported almost unanimously by the council, the American abstention being the only exception.
The conflict threatens to disrupt the principle of a two-state solution as the alliance of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas rejects a diplomatic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict whereas Egypt and Jordan, worried that they will have to bear the responsibility for Gaza and its population if Israel does not assume responsibility for humanitarian aid in the territory, continue to support a two-state approach. So far, thirteen Israelis have been killed. The Palestinian death toll has crept over 900.
Renewed violence in DRC as rebels divide
Violence erupted last Friday between the rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) and pro-government Mai-Mai militia near Mabenga in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a town north of Goma, the capital of Nord-Kivu province. The Virunga National Park, in Mabenga, is currently serving as a base for rebel insurgents. The clashes come in the midst of a leadership challenge within the CNDP, which looks to be splitting after Jean Bosco Ntaganda, the chief of staff of current leader General Laurent Nkunda, declared himself leader of the Tutsi-dominated group. Ntaganda, who was followed by a sizeable share of the rebel fighters, is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for war crimes.
Rival Islamist groups battle for pre-eminence in Somalia
Fighting broke out in Somalia on Sunday between rival armed Islamist groups in Guriel, north of the country's capital Mogadishu, when insurgents from the al-Shabaab movement clashed with members of the Ahlu Sunna Wal-jama'ah. The southern areas of Somalia are now largely controlled by Islamist and nationalist groups, and it is feared that the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces will present the country with a power vacuum. However, it is also possible that the pull-out of soldiers will weaken the impact of the insurgents' nationalist and religious rhetoric. Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991, and in the last two years, fighting has killed over 16,000 civilians and created over one million refugees.
Bomb attacks in Baghdad kill four, injure twenty
Several bombs were set off in Baghdad on Monday, killing at least four people and leaving around twenty injured. A car bomb was detonated in the New Baghdad district in the east of the capital, causing three deaths and ten injuries. This was followed by two separate roadside bombs, in the central Karrada district and in central Baghdad, which together killed one civilian and wounded eight.
String of Afghan bombings leaves eighteen dead
A series of attacks in Afghanistan last Thursday and Friday has killed thirteen Afghans and five American soldiers. A suicide bombing near Kandahar on Thursday resulted in the death of two American soldiers and three Afghan civilians, injuring 21 more, when the bomber drove a car filled with explosives into a busy market. Another bazaar was targeted on Friday morning, this time in Nimroz province, where a suicide bombing killed ten people including the bomber himself and a police officer. The final incident occurred when an American patrol was struck by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, killing three soldiers in their armoured vehicle. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for at least one of the three attacks, Thursday's marketplace explosion, in a telephone interview with a spokesman.
The violence came as the US commander responsible for Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, said that the country needs a "sustained, substantial" commitment from the United States and other countries in order to resist the growing power of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Lawlessness continues on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan
Clashes took place in northwestern Pakistan during the night between Saturday and Sunday when hundreds of Taliban insurgents carried out an attack on a paramilitary base in northwestern Pakistan. The attack, which was the most serious incident for months, left at least 40 militants and six Pakistani soldiers dead. Taliban forces were said to have flooded in from neighbouring Afghanistan, and fighting carried out through the night. This area of Pakistan has proved key in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and it is thought that the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, which ousted the Taliban government, forced many militants to flee to these border regions.
Elsewhere in Pakistan, the number of deaths in Hangu, a district of the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan, reached 43 in just three days. Seventeen people died between Saturday and Sunday and three were killed in clashes between rival Sunni and Shia groups on Sunday night.
