Ready to hand over Basra by years out
“We are very close to being able to hand over Basra” to Iraqi control, the British Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, has declared. Stirrup estimates that the army will be in a position to do so in the second half of the year.
Drawing up contingency plans for a gradual withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq has been described as a “priority” for the Pentagon, by Secretary of Defence Robert Gates. Pentagon spokesperson Bryan Whitman has stressed that despite these initiatives, the defence department is not planning on a quick or wholesale withdrawal of troops, however.
US officials have expressed increasing concern at the counter-productive role played by Saudi Arabia in Iraq. Not only are Saudi officials highly critical of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki – who they accuse of being an Iranian agent – but are also both failing to stem the influx of foreign fighters into Iraq, and have offered financial support to Sunni groups in the country.
Lal Masjid protests erupt into violence
Violence has returned to Islamabad’s Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), where students protested the arrest of pro-Taliban cleric Abdul Aziz on Friday. A bomb exploded near the compound after students clashed with police. Earlier, the protestors prevented a government-appointed cleric from leading Friday prayers, in what was intended to be a peaceful re-opening of the mosque.
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Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has reportedly been counselled by his military aides to seek an “honourable exit”, after the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry by the Supreme Court on 20 July.
The Lal Masjid siege has intensified Pakistan's spiral of violence and emboldened its Islamists, says Maruf Khwaja on openDemocracy.
Charges dropped against Haneef
Australia’s chief prosecutor has dropped charges against Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef, on the grounds that “there was no reasonable prospect of conviction”.
A substantial number of perpetrators of terrorism are products of a scientific education. Debora MacKenzie asks whether there is a connection and how deep it might go, on openDemocracy.
Naxalite menace discussed behind closed doors
The Indian Assembly has, for the first time since independence, held a secret sitting. In this meeting elected officials discussed the Naxalite menace, which in the past, elected officials had feared speaking out against for fear of retaliation. Last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described the group as the “biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country”.
Yakub Memon, the brother of the prime accused Tiger Memon, has been sentenced to death by an Indian court for his role in the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai. Three other members of the Memon family were handed out life sentences.
Bangladeshis sentenced for patronising Islamists
Twenty-five people were sentenced to 31 years and six months’ imprisonment in Bangladesh on Thursday, in the first judgement against those accused of patronising Islamist militant group Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
UN: Eritrea backing Islamic Court militants
Eritrea has allegedly been furnishing the Somali militias of the Islamic Courts Union – known as the Shabab – with military hardware, a United Nations (UN) Monitoring Group on Somalia has disclosed. Eritrea has called the claims a “total fabrication”.
Converted jihadist to offer counter-narrative
Sayid Imam al-Sharif, the founder and first emir of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organisation, and author of the Salafi jihadists’ ‘bible’ – Foundations of Preparation for Holy War – is set to release a book-length repudiation endorsed by hundreds of other former militants, of the rationality behind jihad.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has expressed concern that not all the African states “have passed the necessary legislation”, such as anti-terrorism laws, “to make the Convention on Terrorism operational”.
Palestinian-Israeli security cooperation
Organisations loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas have passed on information on terrorist plots in the West Bank to Israel as part of limited security cooperation between the two administrations, Israeli security sources have disclosed. Nevertheless, the Palestinians have criticised Israel for not pursuing full and extensive security cooperation.
Three members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. Islamic Jihad have identified one of those killed in the attack on Thursday as Omar al-Khatib, a senior commander in the group’s armed wing, al-Quds Brigades.
The Palestinian Authority government has for the first time taken to not including reference to an armed struggle against Israel in its platform, published on Friday. Nonetheless, the government has called for a “popular struggle against the Israeli occupation”.
Increasing evidence of Muslims questioning the authority of mullahs, sheikhs and ayatollahs who preach Muslim superiority and Islamic entitlement, writes Bradley Burston in his blog on the Haaretz website, is a positive step toward developing a healthy degree of self-hate. “May we, Muslim and Jew”, he asks, “have the wisdom to address our own failings with the vigour with which we attack each others’”.
