Pentagon defends Baghdad security policy
US defence officials have defended their efforts to improve security in Baghdad, despite recent high-profile incidents. After all, Pentagon spokesperson Bryan Whitman conceded, "Any time someone is determined to kill innocent civilians, and kill themselves to do it, that's a hard attack to stop". Admiral William Fallon, the new commander of US forces in the middle east, told Washington politicians on Wednesday that the troop surge has served to reduce sectarian killings, but that this is "a very challenging situation where we're chasing a rabbit that runs pretty quickly". The periodic, large scale attacks, such as yesterday's market bombing, prove particularly irksome, he remarked, because they serve to incur retaliatory acts.
Initial intelligence indicates that those responsible for yesterday's attacks were linked to al-Qaida. Iraq's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has ordered the arrest of the Iraqi commander charged with securing the site of the blasts, Sadriya, for having failed to bring security to the area.
A suicide bomber has driven his car into a fuel tanker in Baghdad, killing 10 people and injuring 21. The incident happened in the religiously-mixed neighbourhood of Jadriya.
IAEA query Iran's intent
A leaked note from the deputy director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) , Olli Heinonen, to Iranian officials, suggests that Iran seeks to defy UN Security Council denuclearisation resolutions by working in an underground uranium enrichment plant. Official White House National Security Council spokesperson, Gordon Johndroe, has accused Iranian leaders of continuing "to lead their proud people down a path of further isolation". Experts and several world leaders have described Iran's claims as being greatly exaggerated, however.
Moscow request Berezovsky
The Russian ambassador to the UK has issued a warrant for the arrest of exiled tycoon, Boris Berezovsky. While a "speedy resolution would help to improve, to develop, our (British and Russian) relations even further", Yury Fedotov remarked, he warned that "an absence of a reaction would have some impact on bilateral relations". Meanwhile, the Home Office is investigating whether Mr Berezovsky's statement - in which he claimed to be plotting a coup d'état in Russia to overthrow President Vladimir Putin - compromises his refugee status in the UK. Scotland Yard is also considering whether his comments constitute a breach of anti-terrorism legislation.
Amnesty accuses Taliban of targeting civilians
London-based human rights group, Amnesty International, has accused the Taliban of increasingly targeting civilians. Resorting to abductions, beheadings and suicide attacks, the country's religious leaders, government and health workers, teachers, as well as women's rights activists, have all become prime targets for Taliban fighters. "Afghan civilians", notes Amnesty's senior director for research, Claudio Cordone, "are bearing the brunt of this conflict". In its effort to instill fear among the population, he says, only the Taliban have adopted "a deliberate policy of targeting civilians". A Taliban spokesperson, Zabullah Mujahid, has rejected this report as disinformation and Western propaganda.
Meanwhile, 24 Taliban fighters have been killed during a seven-hour long battle and air campaign in the Sangin district of Helmand province, southern Afghanistan.
Colombian guerrillas agree to cease-fire
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and left-wing guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), have agreed to an "experimental" cease-fire, during peace-talks held in Cuba. The government has announced that it will be flexible in implementing its request that the 5,000-strong ELN force be concentrated in a single geographical area, described by the latter earlier this week as a "suicide" clause. ELN guerrillas have been fighting the administration in Bogotá since 1964. Colombia largest insurgent movement, the 17,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), has refused to enter into negotiations with Uribe under the conditions currently on the table.
Last chance for Sudan before US sanctions
President George W. Bush yesterday warned Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir that he had but one last opportunity to quell the violence in Darfur before the US imposes sanctions on the country. While the White House decided to give UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon further time to deliberate with Khartoum, Mr. Bush made it known during a speech at the US Holocaust Museum that his patience was waning. UN sanctions have banned arms from the area and forbid offensive flights over the region, yet suggestions for an arms embargo on Sudan, or inhibiting travel and financial freedoms of certain government, rebel and militia leaders, have thus far not been adopted. China, Russia and South Africa have expressed a desire to hold-off on sanctions for the time being, due to Khartoum's recent concessions.
East Timor PM meets with fugitive army major
East Timor's Prime Minister, Jose Ramos-Horta, has met with an army fugitive to discuss the cessation of military operations against Alfredo Reinado and his followers. During the government's military endeavours to capture Reinado, the renegade Leandro Isaac critiqued, the people's "fundamental rights have disappeared...Law and order should be implemented". Reinado had been wanted for his suspected involvement in last year's violence, which erupted after the sacking of 600 disaffected soldiers.
Muslim extremist members of Abu Sayyaf have decapitated six captured workers held hostage on the Southern Philippine island of Jolo. Abu Sayyaf are a preeminent native Muslim 'rebel' group which attained international notoriety five years ago for its beheading of church workers and tourists.
