Suspected al-Qaida bombers toppled the towering minarets of Samarra's revered Shiite shrine

The attack stoked fears of an upsurge in intra-Muslim violence. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government rushed to contain Shiite wrath against Sunnis, clamping a curfew on Baghdad and asking for U.S. troop reinforcements in Samarra, 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of here, and for a heightened U.S. military alert in the capital.
But sketchy reports of sectarian strife began to come in: Police told of at least four Sunni mosques in Baghdad and south of here attacked by arsonists and bombers, and of a smaller Shiite shrine bombed north of here. More...

Iran: Porn movie producers to get death penalty under new law

The Iranian parliament Wednesday gave the final green light to a law declaring producers of porn videos and films as "the earth's corrupt" and thus applying to them the capital punishment under the Islamic Republic's interpretation of Sharia law. Under the new law, anyone distributing pornographic material can be sentenced to a fine of up to 16,000 euros while owners of a porn video or film risk up to 76 lashings. More...

Civil War in Gaza

More than 100 Arabs killed by Arabs in last three days, mortar shells at Abu Mazen's office, and a rocket at Hamas PM Haniye's home, what has until now been known as "violence" is now widely being called, even in Gaza, all-out civil war. The fighting in Gaza is now in its latest and most severe round since it broke out well over a year ago. More...

In Saudi Arabia, a view from behind the veil

Megan K. Stack - The hem of my heavy Islamic cloak trailed over floors that glistened like ice. I walked faster, my eyes fixed on a familiar, green icon. I hadn't seen a Starbucks in months, but there it was, tucked into a corner of a fancy shopping mall in the Saudi capital. After all those bitter little cups of sludgy Arabic coffee, here at last was an improbable snippet of home — caffeinated, comforting, American.I wandered into the shop, filling my lungs with the rich wafts of coffee. The man behind the counter gave me a bemused look; his eyes flickered. More...

Tehran's Secret 'Department 9000'

President Bush said last week he expects a "bloody" summer in Iraq. What he didn't say is that a growing covert war between the United States and Iran may be one reason the conflict is escalating. U.S. intelligence has identified the principal unit behind Tehran's efforts to supply Shia insurgent cells in Iraq. It is a supersecret group called Department 9000, which is part of the elite Quds Force of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. More...

PC brigade ban pin-ups on RAF jets - in case they offend women and Muslims

Nose art enjoyed another surge in popularity during the 1991 and 2003 Gulf Wars, when risque images appeared on many British warplanes. But the decision to ban the images followed a visit by glamour models to southern Afghanistan before Christmas. During the trip they signed paintings of themselves on RAF aircraft. Commanders decided the images were sexist and insisted there was no place for them in the modern armed forces. There was also concern that they could cause offence in a muslim country where until 2001 all women were forced to wear the head-to-toe burkha in public. More...

Ismail Khan in Shindand

While Herat province is the only one in Afghanistan to have uninterrupted power supply, electricity is not available in Shindand. The legendary Afghan warrior against the Soviet resistance, Ismail Khan, a Tajik, was ousted as governor of Herat and as a token gesture made minister of energy. He now makes sure that his Pashtun adversary in Shindand is kept in the dark.

"Every time our opponents, especially Ismail Khan, spread stories that Shindand is full of Pakistanis and Chechens - but with no evidence - NATO carries out a bombardment, and those who are killed are Afghans”, says Haji Nasru, the strongman of the Shindand district. More...

Iran forces the issue in Afganistán

Iraq: Al-Qaeda being squeezed in the capital

A fierce battle between local Sunni residents and al-Qaeda insurgents in an outlying Baghdad neighbourhood this week is evidence that moves to isolate the terror group by other Sunnis are taking hold even in the capital. According to a detailed report on the Washington Post on Friday a battle this week in the western Amiriyah area has claimed at least 28 lives. It quoted the local mayor Mohammed Abdul Khaliq as saying that residents, alienated by the indiscriminate violence of its fellow Sunnis, rose up to force al-Qaeda out.The microcosm mirrors what is happening in the western provinces, especially al-Anbar and Diyala, where Sunni tribes have united in an anti-Qaeda alliance. "I think this is going to be the end of the al-Qaeda presence here," mayor Abdul Khaliq told the Washington Post. He said that the fierce fighting Wednesday and Thursday began over accusations that al-Qaeda in Iraq had executed Sunnis without reason.

Taliban uses weapons made in China, Iran

Sophisticated new weapons, including Chinese anti-aircraft missiles as well as items made in Iran, are reaching Taliban forces in Afghanistan, according to government officials and other sources. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said during a visit to Kabul yesterday that there was no evidence as yet that Tehran government officials are involved in shipping weapons to the country for use against U.S. and NATO forces. He did not comment on the appearance in the country of Chinese anti-aircraft weapons, evidence of which was provided to The Washington Times. A set of photographs was provided depicting Taliban insurgents showing off new supplies of Chinese-made HN-5 shoulder-fired missiles. The weapons, similar in design to Russian Strela-2 missiles and in use with China's People's Liberation Army since the early 1990s, are limited in range, speed and altitude, but effective against helicopters and low-flying airplanes.

Document: Iran Caught Red-Handed Shipping Arms to Taliban

Striking at the Taliban's Heart

The Right Fight

Jacob Laksin - Few today are receptive to the idea of a “war on terror.” From a war-weary public, to a political commentariat impatient with such supposedly simple-minded slogans, the country seems determined to move beyond the notion that the fighting underway in Iraq is in any significant way connected to the global terrorist threat to national security. So it is to President Bush’s credit that he used his commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy this week to reacquaint a disaffected nation with a stubborn fact: Iraq remains the central theater in the fight against al-Qaeda and its jihadist brethren. More...

Turkey seizes Iranian arms in Syria-bound train

Turkish authorities seized weapons hidden among construction materials on a Syria-bound train from Iran after Kurdish guerrillas bombed and derailed the train. The cargo was discovered when authorities checked containers on the train, which was attacked by separatist Kurdish guerrillas on May 25 near the town of Genc in southeastern Bingol province, Prosecutor Ismail Sari told reporters Wednesday. The bomb attack derailed seven of the train's cars, Sari said. Authorities were investigating the incident, and would also check cargo on the rest of the train, he said.
The Iranian Embassy issued a statement Wednesday denying that the weapons belonged to Iran, and said the allegations were being made "by circles" aiming to disrupt Turkey's close relations with Iran.

Iraq: Special Operations: High Profile, but in Shadow

Every night in Iraq, American Special Operations forces carry out as many as a dozen raids aimed at terrorist leaders allied with Al Qaeda, other insurgent fighters and militia targets. Their after-action reports are the first thing that Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior American commander in Baghdad, reads the next day. The missions also are closely watched by senior policy makers in Washington, who differ on whether the small number of elite units should focus on capturing and killing leaders of the group that calls itself Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and foreign fighters in Iraq, or whether the greater threat comes from the Sunni- and Shiite-based insurgency. A vast majority — between 80 percent and 90 percent — are aimed at Qaeda-allied targets, while the rest attack other extremist elements, say senior military officers in Baghdad and Pentagon officials.

The mix of targets on any night depends on the intelligence that has been gathered and on an assessment of "can we go after the specific threat or target with the precision required to have a high probability of capture," the officer said. The Special Operations teams are deployed throughout the country so they can respond faster to emerging intelligence on potential targets.
Larger-unit missions primarily engage in what are called clearing operations and aim to uncover arms caches, go after bomb-making cells, rescue civilian hostages held by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia or other insurgents and capture or kill insurgent and militia leaders.

Betrayed

Amir Taheri - While elements of the Left in the United States and Europe are calling on Western democracies to abandon Afghanistan and Iraq to the Taliban and al Qaeda and surrender to the Khomeinists in Iran, new alliances are emerging against the jihadists in the region.
In much of the Middle East, most notably Afghanistan and Iraq, the Left is part of these new alliances.

* In Iraq, two rival Communist parties, along with Social Democrats and other center-left groups, supported the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and continue to play a significant role in the new pluralist system. They are resolutely opposed to a premature withdrawal of American and allied forces, as demanded by the U.S. Congress.

* In Lebanon, Walid Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party is at the heart of the democratic movement to against the Islamic Republic's attempt to dominate the country through its Hezbollah surrogates. The Lebanese democratic movement includes other parties of the Left, notably the Socialist Salvation Movement (Inqadh) and the Movement of the Democratic Left.

* In Iran, virtually the whole of the Left rejects President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's anti-Americanism and calls for normalization of ties with the United States. The recently created independent trade-union movement is emerging as a vocal challenger to Khomeinism.

Perhaps the most interest ing new anti-jihadist alli ance, however, is taking shape in Afghanistan. After months of discussions the leaders of several parties that had fought each other for two decades have come together to set up a new alliance called Popular Front (Jibheh Melli). One major figure in the group is Burhaneddin Rabbani - an Islamic scholar who served as Afghanistan's president after the Communist regime's collapse in 1992. More

U.S. Working To Sabotage Iran Nuke Program

CBS News - Iran is continuing to make progress on its expanded efforts to enrich uranium — in spite of covert efforts by U.S. and other allied intelligence agencies to actively sabotage the country's nuclear program. "Industrial sabotage is a way to stop the program, without military action, without fingerprints on the operation, and really, it is ideal, if it works," says Mark Fitzpatrick, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Non-Proliferation and now Senior Fellow in Non-Proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Sources in several countries involved told CBS News that the intelligence operatives involved include former Russian nuclear scientists and Iranians living abroad. Operatives have sold Iran components with flaws that are difficult to detect, making them unstable or unusable.

Senior government representatives pointed to the case of the exploding power supplies. Installed at the pilot enrichment facility at Natanz in April 2006 as Iran was first attempting to enrich uranium, the power supplies, used to regulate voltaage current, blew up, destroying 50 centrifuges. The head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency, Vice-President Gholamreza Aghazadeh said in January of this year that the equipment had been "manipulated."

Welcome to Gaydamakland

Buses paid for by billionaire Arkadi Gaydamak roll into Ganei Yehoshua's Bereshit Park in Tel Aviv Thursday evening, carrying several hundred Sderot residents as part of his efforts to provide them with a temporary respite from Kassam attacks.
As they leave the buses, each family is greeted by a representative of the Israel Experience Ltd., an organization set up by Gaydamak to absorb and process the Sderot "refugees" while they are under his care. And as long as they are under his tarpaulin roof, they have to follow his rules: Watch TV on a huge screen with surround sound, eat gourmet food, dance at a concert, play in a jumping castle, and basically pretend you are on an all-expenses-paid weekend away.

Israel Left Gaza - Now Gaza Attacks Israel

Less than two years after Israel pulled out of Gaza, Gaza is now once again attacking Israel. Kassams continuing to rain down upon Sderot and environs - three more were fired Tuesday morning, causing no damage - it appears that the public is just as confused about what to do as the government is. In a poll taken this week for the Knesset TV Channel, 78% of the public opined that the government was not responding forcefully enough to the Kassam-firing terrorists in Gaza. However, at the same time, a majority of the respondents still feel that ground forces should not be sent in. It should be noted that the poll was carried out before the Kassam-caused death of Shir'el Friedman of Sderot Monday night.

Al Qaeda's New Front in Lebanon

Walid Phares - In northern Lebanon, a group named Fatah al Islam conducted several attacks against the Lebanese Army, killing (up to) 25 soldiers and losing (up to) 15 members in addition to civilian casualties. The fighting is still raging at this hour. This security development, which could be happening in many other spots in the troubled Middle East, from Iraq to Gaza, and from Somalia to Afghanistan, has however a special dimension. It signals in fact the opening of a new front in the War with al Qaeda’s Terror: Lebanon.

Fatah al Islam, formed last November and headed by Palestinian-born Shaker Absi, is linked directly to al Qaeda. Absi was a colleague of Jordanian-born Abu Musab al Zarqawi, killed by an US air raid last year. Fatah al Islam since its inception has told its supporters and the population in its areas of training and operations that it follows the Jihad of al Qaeda.

Fatah al Islam aims at creating an "Emirate" (Islamist principality as in the Taliban model) in the Sunni areas of Lebanon, and is planning on conducting operations similar to the ones in the Sunni Triangle of Iraq. But according to the Lebanese Government and terrorism experts, the group is being secretly supported by the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad.

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Christians seek protection after Islamic extremists warn them to convert or face bombs

Pakistani Christians living in a town beset by pro-Taliban militants sought government protection on Wednesday, a day before the expiry of an ultimatum warning them to convert.
About 500 Christians in Charsadda, a town in North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, received threatening letters earlier this month telling them to shutter their churches and convert to Islam by May 17 or face "bomb explosions."
Community leaders say several Christians — a tiny minority in predominantly Muslim Pakistan — have fled the town and that others are living in fear.
Chaudhry Salim, a Christian leader in Charsadda, said police had not taken the threat seriously.
"Police say someone is joking with us by writing these letters," Salim said at a news conference in the capital. "They have deployed only two policemen at our churches ... this is the kind of security we are getting now."

Turkish Daily Hurriyet: "Turkey - A Stage For Spy Wars Related to Iran's Nuclear Activities"

The mainstream, high circulation Turkish daily Hurriyet reported on the mysterious crash of a small aircraft near Trabzon, under the headline "Again, Iran. Again, A General. Again, Nuclear Espionage."
The paper said that on May 10, during a visit to Ankara, retired Pakistani general Zakaullah Bhangoo, who is close to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, flew in a Sky Arrow 650T craft piloted by a Briton, Michael Newman, to the Turkish city of Trabzon, on the Black Sea. After spending the night in a small neighborhood hotel, the two took off for Tebriz, Iran.
When the plane did not arrive at its destination, search and rescue operations were launched; the remains of the plane and the bodies of the two were found in a forested area near Trabzon.
While the crash is being investigated, autopsies were carried out on the two victims. The bodies will be repatriated via their countries’ diplomatic missions.
The Turkish daily Hurriyet reported that authorities had confirmed that the Turkish Intelligence Service (MIT), and possibly also the CIA and the Mossad, were tailing Gen. Bhangoo due to suspicions that he might be traveling to Iran to deliver nuclear know-how and possibly parts for nuclear plants.

Saudi Arabia: Bin Laden fatwa behind attack on oil platform

Osama bin Laden directly ordered the failed attack against an oil platform in Saudi Arabia in February 2006, Saudi authorities announced on Tuesday. The revelation came from a terror suspect arrested by the police accused of having given logistic support to the suicide bomb cell that sought to attack the Abqiq site. Abdullah al-Muqrin said "an operation of this nature could not be carried out without a fatwa (religious edict) from bin Laden himself and to receive it we had to wait for eight months". According to the statements by the terror suspects, the aim of the terror network was to reproduce in the kingdom the same effect that the 11 September attacks had in the United States. In addition, the cell reportedly planned to carry out attakcs in neighbouring Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Last month the Saudi authorities arrested 172 suspected members of seven terrorist cells, some of whom had reportedly been training as pilots to be used in attacks on state oil sites.

Hezbollah builds a Western base: From inside South America’s Tri-border area, Iran-linked militia targets U.S.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia has taken root in South America, fostering a well-financed force of Islamist radicals. From its Western base in a remote region divided by the borders of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina known as the Tri-border, or the Triple Frontier, Hezbollah has mined the frustrations of many Muslims among about 25,000 Arab residents whose families immigrated mainly from Lebanon.
An investigation by Telemundo and NBC News has uncovered details of an extensive smuggling network run by Hezbollah. The operation funnels large sums of money to militia leaders in the Middle East and finances training camps, propaganda operations and bomb attacks in South America, according to U.S. and South American officials. U.S. officials fear that poorly patrolled borders and rampant corruption in the Tri-border region could make it easy for Hezbollah terrorists to infiltrate the southern U.S. border.

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Germany Terror Threat May Involve Kurd Radicals

A threat warning issued by the United States in Germany last month could involve attack plans by an al Qaeda-affiliated group of Kurdish militants, officials said on Friday. U.S. and German authorities said, however, that there was no new threat in Germany beyond the official April 20 State Department warning. They were responding to a report by ABC News on its Web site on Friday that officials believe terrorists were in the advanced planning stages for an attack on U.S. military personnel or tourists in Germany.
Some German media reports have suggested involvement by Iraqi militants. However, U.S. officials rejected the notion of a role by Ansar al-Islam, a militant group of Iraqi Kurds and Arabs who have vowed to establish an independent Islamic state in Iraq. "There is intelligence reporting suggesting there is a group interested in staging an attack, potentially in Germany," said a U.S. official who asked not to be named because the issue involves classified information.

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Cheney Lines up Middle East Arab Allies for US Iraq Pull-out and Possible Iran Attack

DEBKAfile - US Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Riyadh Sat. May 12, with a full caseload for his talks with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz . He is seeking coordination with the Saudis in good time for the approaching winding-down of US military forces in Iraq. Cheney will also clinch the Bush administration’s offer to double the Saudi air force in size, boosting its capability for contending with Iranian air might and the Revolutionary Guards’ naval and marine strength.

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Schalit´s incertain future

Hamas's armed wing, Izzadin a-Kassam, has threatened to execute kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalit if the army enters Gaza. In an as-yet-unpublished statement to a Palestinian Web site, the group's spokesman, Abu Obaidah, was quoted as saying that if the IDF carries out a military incursion in Gaza, Schalit's life could be in clear danger, and he may even be killed. "One way or another, it is in the hands of Izzadin Kassam," Obaidah said in the statement. Shortly after the report was released, Hamas sources in Gaza denied that Abu Obaidah had made any such statement.
In response, MK Yisrael Katz (Likud) called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to declare that if Hamas harmed Schalit, PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his friends in the Hamas government would be assassinated. More...

Al-Qaeda: Hamas betrayed God

Terror group says it cannot 'keep silent' over Hamas path 'which will lead to hell'.
Hamas has been accused of "betraying its own martyrs and God" during a recent statement issued by al-Qaeda.
A video made by al-Qaeda leader Yahya al-Libi, who is in Afghanistan, was released at the end of April. Ynetnews has obtained the full recording, one of a number of growing scathing verbal attacks on Hamas by al-Qaeda.
"I am sending this message to the people of Palestine, whose blood is being shed by the Jewish occupiers," al-Libi said.
"Hamas has abandoned jihad for politics. It has betrayed its youths. Its main activity is politics. Since its decision to go down the path of politics, Hamas has begun to descend on a downhill slope. They betrayed the dreams of their young fighters and they stabbed them in the back," al-Libi added.
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Al-Qaeda fanatics in bid toi join MI5

AL QAEDA extremists are trying to infiltrate Britain’s spy agencies. Dozens of suspected Islamic fanatics have been weeded out after attempting to join MI5 and MI6.They were identified by the vetting process applicants go through over six to eight months.The success in exposing the moles has underlined the dangers faced by the security services as they seek to recruit more Muslims.Britain is also facing a bigger threat from home-grown extremists than has so far been admitted, say experts.Police and MI5 say they are working at full stretch to defend Britain from Al Qaeda attacks.Last week MI5 declared there were 2,000 terror suspects and their supporters active in the UK. Lord Stevens, former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, believes the true figure is nearer 4,000. He called on the Government to increase the manpower of police and intelligence services to combat Al Qaeda-linked terror gangs.

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U.S. military arrived in Algeria to fight al-Qaida

According to Washington Examiner newspaper, United States of America have sent U.S. Marines and a group of military experts specialised in intelligence to Algeria upon its request in order to help the country fighting terrorism. Adm. Eric T. Olson, SoCom's deputy commander said the U.S. military arrived in Algeria after Algerian authorities had asked for the American help and declared the war against “al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb”. This terrorist organisation targeted Algiers in April 11th by suicide bombings attacks. The American special operations troops are on a mission to train Algerian troops in how to track and capture terrorists, said Washington Examiner. The deployment of U.S. special operation forces is not just in Northern Africa, but in several parts of the world, in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, said Eric T. Olson. He added that U.S. Special Command did not have enough for the increasing demands. The Pentagon's decided to devote $2,5 billion for 2008 budget provided for 6,300 additional special operations troops, bringing the command to 54,000 personnel. According to U.S. Special Forces, North and West Africa and the Sahara region about more than 4 million square miles of desert and villages has become one of the main fronts in the war on al-Qaida.

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Sudan: Evangelists killed in Nuba mountains

(Compass Direct News) – An Egyptian and three Sudanese Christians were killed last week when their truck came under gunfire after holding an evangelistic meeting in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains region. Egyptian Daniel Girgis, 37, and local Sudanese Christians Markous Tiya, Rihab Kafi Jadeen and an unidentified young boy were killed when unknown assailants opened fire on their vehicle last Friday night (April 27). At least five others, two foreigners and three Sudanese, were injured in the attack that began when the truck driver refused to stop at a makeshift roadblock of large rocks. “When they finished [showing] the Jesus film [in the village of Gnaya] they were going back to the town they were visiting,” Barnaba Timothous, evangelism coordinator at the Bahry Evangelical Church, told Compass. “On their way there, someone behind the mountain fired at them. It was night, they saw just two men.” Though the motive for the attack remains unclear, Timothous said he suspects it was caused by Muslims who were unhappy that Christians were doing evangelism in the area.

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Guantanamo prisoners have no place to go

(ADNKI).- The US military has cleared as many as 85 Guantanamo prisoners for release but they are still at the prison camp because they have no where to go. Only three have gone home. Eighty-two remain at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as US officials try to find a country that would accept them. In many cases, the prisoners' countries do not want them back. Yemen, for instance, has refused to accept some of the 106 Yemeni nationals at Guantanamo. US laws prevent the deportation of people to countries where they could face torture or other human rights abuses. Virtually, all the prisoners at Guantanamo come from countries that the State Department has cited for records of human rights abuses. There are 17 Chinese Muslim separatists who have been cleared for release but fear they could be executed for political reasons if returned to China. Compounding the problem are persistent refusals by the United States, its European allies and other countries to grant asylum to prisoners who are stateless or have no place to go.
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Iran’s complicity in al-Qaeda operations

DEBKAfile - The US Pentagon states that the senior al Qaeda operative -Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi- was captured by the CIA at an undisclosed location while attempting to reach his native Iraq after meeting al Qaeda operatives in Iran. DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources say this disclosure points to four significant developments:
1. Iran is again providing al Qaeda members with a path to Iraq from Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2002, the Islamic Republic afforded defeated al Qaeda groups an escape route from Afghanistan.
2. Iran is allowing al Qaeda terrorists operating in Iraq to strike from within its borders. Evidence of this, if confirmed by al Hadi ,would further exacerbate the military tensions between Washington and Tehran.
3. DEBKAfile’s sources surmise that he was picked up crossing the Iranian border into Iraq.
4. Word is awaited to clarify if the CIA’s capture of al Hadi’s capture was a fluke or the result of a tip-off by an Iraqi informant, whether in Kurdistan or from inside Iran.