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Pakistan, Taliban Declare Ceasefire
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Pakistani army troops carry their weapons as they board a helicopter during military operations against pro-Taliban militants in Swat.
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Pakistani authorities and pro-Taliban militants declared a ceasefire Friday in the volatile Swat Valley in the latest bid to curtail an explosion of violence along the Afghan border, officials said.
The ceasefire followed talks between representatives of the North West Frontier Province government and militant leader Maulana Fazlullah whose armed followers grabbed control of much of the valley last year, AP said.
Pakistan’s army responded with a military operation that banished militants to the mountains and left scores dead. It was a sign of the instability in Pakistan’s northwestern frontier regions where Islamic militants have challenged the government’s authority.
Pakistan’s civilian administration, elected in February, is seeking dialogue with Taliban sympathizers, a break from the more aggressive policy of US-backed President Pervez Musharraf, who has mostly sought to tame extremists through military force.
“After hours of talks, we have reached a cease-fire in entire Swat valley,“ said Wajid Ali Khan, a provincial minister after the talks held in the northwestern town of Chakdara.
He said that more negotiations would follow to bring “peace and stability“ in the province.
Muslim Abdur Rasheed, an aide to Fazlullah, confirmed the cease-fire would take effect on Saturday. He described Friday’s first round of talks as a “confidence-building initiative.“
He said the two sides have yet to discuss the militants’ demands, which include the imposition of Islamic law in the valley, the withdrawal of the army, release of detainees and compensation for damage suffered by local people in the military operation.
Neither Rasheed nor Khan would say when the next round of talks would be held.
The cease-fire is the latest sign that Pakistan’s new national government, led by the party of assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, wants to use dialogue and development to curb militancy across the border region. The North West Frontier Province’s government, which is led by a Pashtun nationalist party, has joined the effort.
Chance to Build Up
Musharraf also tried striking truces with some groups--deals that US officials complained gave Pakistani militants as well as Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters a chance to build up strength.
Last month, Pakistan freed Fazlullah’s father-in-law, Sufi Muhammad, from six years in custody in return for an agreement from his group to renounce violence.
Muhammad had sent thousands to battle the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. His group--Tehrik Nifaz-e-Sharia Mohammed, or the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law--resurfaced under Fazlullah’s leadership after his arrest in 2002, but Fazlullah has previously made clear he is not bound by the deal struck by Muhammad.
Fazlullah won a large following with firebrand preaching over an illegal FM radio station but alienated others by turning to violence, including suicide bombings in a once-tranquil region.
He had tapped into popular frustration over official corruption and failings in the justice system. His group wants a Taliban-like system, including compulsory beards for men, mandatory veils for women and the outlawing of music and television.
Since Pakistan’s new civilian government took power from Musharraf’s military regime, militant attacks have subsided somewhat, although there have been isolated bouts of violence.
On Thursday, suspected Islamic insurgents killed a soldier and wounded another near a checkpoint in Kabbal, a town in the Swat Valley. Also this week, militants set fire to two girls’ schools in the valley.
The Swat Valley was once a leading tourist destination in Pakistan because of its mountains and riverine scenery.
US Reaction
Meanwhile, Washington is concerned by the new Pakistani government’s negotiations with the Taliban, Eurasianet reported.
US opposition to the peace talks with insurgents is rooted in bad previous experiences. Pakistan concluded various accords in 2004, 2005, and 2006 with the Taliban in the Waziristan region on the Afghan border. But American, NATO, and Afghan officials blame these agreements for the strengthening of the Taliban and the undermining of peace and security in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Such apprehension perhaps prompted US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte to categorically reject any new peace agreements with the militants that might result in strengthening their hold on certain remote regions of the borderlands.
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Egypt Opens Border to Gazans
Egypt began allowing hundreds of Palestinians to cross from the besieged Gaza Strip on Saturday for advanced medical treatment, AFP reported.
“We began to transport patients requiring treatment abroad into Egypt via the Rafah crossing after our Egyptian brothers opened the crossing,“ said the director of Gaza emergency services, Muawiya Hassanein.
“We will transport 550 patients in 40 Palestinian ambulances and five trucks. All of them have official medical referrals from the health ministry,“ he added.
The patients include 200 people wounded in Israeli military operations and 70 children under the age of 16, he said.
Meanwhile, Three Palestinians were killed and four injured on Friday during two Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian doctors and Hamas.
The first raid, which killed two Palestinians near Rafah at the southern end of the strip, was aimed at a police station occupied by Hamas, the Islamist movement which took power of Gaza in June 2007.
The second attack targeted another Hamas police base in the town of Khan Yunis in the centre of the territory and killed one Palestinian, the same sources said, without specifying if the victims had been Hamas members.
In another development, the Israeli army says a rocket fired from Gaza fell next to a Jewish seminary in southern Israel and damaged the building, AP said.
No one was hurt in Saturday’s rocket strike in the border town of Sderot. The army says a second rocket fell in the courtyard of Sapir College in Sderot.
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Baghdad Fighting Nears End
Sadrists, Gov’t Reach Truce
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An Iraqi youth carries his sibling while crossing a closed off overpass to make their way on foot towards Muthafar Square at the entrance Sadr City.
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The movement of anti-American cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr said on Saturday it had struck a deal with Iraqi officials to end weeks of fighting in Baghdad that left another 13 people dead overnight.
Sheikh Salah Al-Obeidi, spokesman for the cleric’s office in the central shrine city of Najaf, said the deal reached with a government delegation would be effective from Sunday.
“We will stop the fire, stop displaying arms in public and open all the roads leading to Sadr City,“ Obeidi told AFP.
“This agreement will be executed from tomorrow. The Sadr movement has agreed to the contents of the deal and it has now become an official document.
Obeidi, who took part in the negotiations leading to the clinching of the deal in Baghdad, said the two sides had reached agreement on most issues.
“The two groups agreed on 10 of the 14 points discussed. The agreed points do not include disbanding of Jaish (army) Al-Mahdi,“ he said.
The US military launched air strikes against suspected militia targets in the vast slum district of some two million people throughout the night, witnesses and Iraqi medics and security officials said.
“Every 10 minutes or so we heard explosions,“ said Sadr City resident Hussein Kadhim, 35.
“Last night must have been one of the worst nights of fighting in the past month.“
A medical source at the Al-Sadr hospital said 77 people were also wounded in the fighting. All of the dead were men but the wounded included women and children.
Since March 25, US and Iraqi forces have been launching strikes on Sadr City, mostly from the Mahdi Army. Hundreds ofcivilians have died.
19 Sadrists Killed
Clashes in Baghdad between US soldiers and Sadrists left 19 dead, and one American soldier died of non-combat injuries, the military said Saturday.
The US soldier, who was assigned to the Multi National Division Ñ Center, died of non-combat related injuries Friday, the military said.
The death raised the number of US military fatalities in Iraq to at least 4,074 since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
77 Wounded
Iraqi health authorities said Saturday 77 others were wounded--including women and children-- in clashes in Sadr City district since Friday.
Some residents in Sadr City huddled around half a dozen torched cars on Saturday morning, AP Television News footage showed. Two men held a blood-covered sheet and pillow outside a house, the footage showed.
During clashes on Friday, Mahdi Army members also launched rockets toward the fortified Green Zone, taking advantage of a sandstorm that gave cover from attacks by US aircraft.
Some rockets fell short, including one that damaged the BBC bureau.
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Israelis Kill 5 Hamas Fighters
Israeli air raids on Gaza killed five Hamas activists Saturday.
The first overnight raid, which killed two Palestinians near Rafah at the southern end of the strip, was aimed at a police station used by Hamas, the head of Gaza emergency services, Muawiya Hassanein, said, AFP reported.
The second attack targeted another Hamas police base in the city of Khan Yunis in the south of the territory and killed three members of the Hamas-run paramilitary group that polices the territory, he said.
The third strike took place east of Khan Yunis, wounding two Palestinians from the Islamic Jihad movement, medics said.
An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed the raids, saying “there were two aerial attacks against Hamas posts and one against gunmen approaching the (border) fence in the south.“
Hamas in response fired rockets at southern Israel on Saturday, hitting a house and a Jewish seminary just hours after five Hamas policemen were killed in Israeli air strikes.
No one was hurt in the strikes, AP reported.
Hamas fighters said they fired 15 homemade rockets at Israeli settlements. The Israeli military said five of them landed, one directly hitting a house in the border town of Sderot, a frequent target for Hamas. Another landed next to a Jewish seminary and another in the courtyard of a local college.
Since Israelis and the Palestinians relaunched formal peace talks in November after the so-called peace conference in Annapolis, at least 458 Palestinians have been killed, according to an AFP count. Other sources however have announced more death tolls.
Israel has been threatening a wider ground offensive for months.
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NATO Troops Killed
At least 8 soldiers of the NATO-led force have been killed during an operation in the southeastern province of Paktia in Afghanistan.
Cairo Meeting
Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the political crisis in Lebanon. Saudi Arabia and Egypt had called for the meeting.
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Ray of Hope for Lebanon
The sudden deterioration of the security situation in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon has been as unsurprising as the cool spring breeze coming off the Mediterranean at this time of year.
With both major parties locked into a stalemated political confrontation for the past year and a half, escalation was anticipated after both sides suddenly raised the heat in the past two weeks.
A political contest of existential proportions transformed into street clashes after a series of separate incidents, including Hizbullah’s detention of a French national, Walid Jumblatt’s strong accusations against Hizbullah, and the government’s decision to clamp down on the Hizbullah telephone system and the Beirut airport security hierarchy.
The union movement’s general strike Wednesday provided the opportunity to expand a legitimate cost-of-living issue into a totally incomprehensible political battle on the streets.
Thursday saw the two main leaders--Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and MP Saad Hariri--speak out about the issues, and it was not surprising that both followed similar scripts.
They declared their allegiance to Lebanon’s security and sovereignty above all else, insulted each other with gusto and occasional venom--in both cases suggesting that the other was Israeli-like in his actions--and then offering terms for a political deal.
The last act is the most important, because it touches on core issues at play here: The unity of Lebanon, avoiding sectarian and civil war, resolving the issues of the presidency and a national unity government, and addressing the contested government decision on airport security and the Hizbullah telecommunications system.
A careful analysis of what Nasrallah and Hariri both said suggests that they are speaking the same language that has always defined Lebanese politics and politicians: Act tough, show that you are a real man who is prepared to fight, and then offer a deal in which nobody loses face, manhood, or their privileged access to shared incumbency and the assets of statehood.
Hariri’s specific offer in reply to Nasrallah’s suggestions seems reasonable, and in line with what Nasrallah said ;we can find a solution to this problem.
The points each man made--basically to review the government’s two controversial decisions and immediately restart the national dialogue--indicate a middle ground where the concerns of all parties can be taken into account. The fact that all agree on General Michael Suleiman as the next president is also a good sign.
The question is not whether these and other political leaders in Lebanon will ultimately agree on a comprehensive compromise that they can live with. That is as certain as the breeze.
The unknown factor is only about how much more suffering, death and political mediocrity all Lebanon must suffer before the politicians actually make the compromises.
Their commitment to the discipline of a purposeful and practical national dialogue remains unclear. Both major camps engaged in a fruitless dialogue two years ago, and there are few signs that they would do any better now.
Lebanon is a tortured and vulnerable land with mediocre leaders when it comes to consensus and stable, sensible governance.
The two positions outlined Thursday offer a ray of hope. All Lebanese, meanwhile, hope that some responsible adult leaders might step forth now and act on that opening.
Daily Star
19 Die in Turkey-PKK Clashes
At least 19 Kurdish rebels and six soldiers were killed overnight in clashes and a bombing raid in southeastern Turkey, the Turkish military said Saturday. It also reported disarray within the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) after Turkish air strikes on its positions in neighboring northern Iraq last week, with several leaders allegedly abandoning their mountain hideouts and many militants fleeing their camps, AFP reported.
In the latest episode of violence, the rebels attacked a military outpost in the province of Hakkari, which borders Iraq and Iran, late Friday, killing two soldiers, the army said in a statement posted on its website.
Turkish warplanes bombed the area in response, killing at least 19 militants, it said, adding in a second statement that another four soldiers died in ensuing clashes as the army pursued the rebels on the ground.
The attack on the military outpost was carried out “to change the atmosphere of panic“ among PKK ranks that followed Turkish air raids on rebel positions in northern Iraq last week that “dealt the terrorist organisation a serious blow,“ it said.
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Army Revokes Siniora’s Anti-Hezbollah Move
The Lebanese army said on Saturday that it was revoking measures taken by the government against the Hezbollah movement and called for all armed militants to withdraw from the streets.
It said that the head of airport security, who was reassigned from his job, would remain in his post and that the army would look into a communications network set up by Hezbollah, AFP reported.
The army’s statement came shortly after Prime Minister Fouad Siniora made a televised address to the nation on Saturday.
After three days of clashes proceeded by calmness in Beirut, Siniora said the state would not fall into the hands of Hezbollah which he accused of launching a coup by taking control of Beirut.
“Your state will not fall under the control of the putschists,“ Siniora said in a televised address to the Lebanese. It was his first response since Hezbollah and allied fighters routed pro-government gunmen in west Beirut on Friday, Reuters reported.
He said the Lebanese government can no longer accept that Hezbollah freely holds on to its weapons.
He urged the army on Saturday to impose security throughout the country and immediately clear militants from the streets following Hezbollah’s takeover of west Beirut.
The death toll from fierce clashes reached 25 with relative calm restored to Beirut. Residents ventured out on Saturday and businesses opened following a halt to the gun battles.
Elsewhere on Saturday, clashes erupted between supporters of the Lebanese government and of the opposition in northern Lebanon, leaving five people killed and a number of others wounded, a security official said.
In other news, senior Shiite cleric Seyyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah said on Friday the current problem in Lebanon is not sectarian but rather political, warning Christian and Muslim religious figures against “falling into the trap of sectarian speeches that instigate strife.“
In his weekly Friday sermon, Fadlallah urged Lebanese officials to manage internal dialogue in a way that preserves the country’s balance, future and power and to protect civil peace, the national Islamic unity and resistance, according to Daily Star.
Israel Facing Internal, External Crises
Representative of Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Tehran on Saturday said that Israel is facing critical internal and external conditions.
“The extensive festivities marking the 60th anniversary of establishment of the Zionist regime are aimed at diverting the attention of its people from the serious crisis it has been facing. É In recent years, experts have underlined that Israel is encountering a severe internal crisis and it needs to restore the self-confidence of its people,“ Naser Abu-Sharif told Fars news agency on Saturday.
He recalled that the Zionist regime’s reliance on the army is one of the parameters responsible for the crisis.
“(The first prime minister of Israel David) Ben-Gurion once said that upon its first defeat Israel will disintegrate. Israel has been defeated hundred percent by the Hezbollah although it does not concede defeat. Furthermore, Zionist leaders are corrupt and (Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert may be tried for corruption,“ he noted.
Olmert has been charged with accepting bribes from an American businessman during a campaign. He has denied the charge.
Abu Sharif went on to cite pursuit of radicalism as another factor behind the Israeli crisis.
“Israeli society is not like advanced societies and its people prefer to isolate themselves than seek wars. Israel is also facing an external crisis. Gaza Strip and Iran’s influence in the region have created an external crisis for Israel,“ he pointed out.
Regarding the presence of Arab countries in the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of establishment of Israel, said, “Arabs do not directly participate in the celebrations. They rather cooperate (with Israel) through participating in the US-Israeli plans. For example during the 33-day fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, Arab countries directly denounced Hezbollah .“
Stressing that the more intense the rift between Arab people and their leaders, the more the latter lean toward Israel, the PIJ official said,
“The bad omen is that America and Israel use the rift for implementing their plans in the region. There are no strong leaders in the Arab world who could unite Arabs against the US.“
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MONDAY, MAY 12
GENEVA - World Trade Organization (WTO) technical-level talks.
MIAMI - Sentencing of Carlos Kauffmann, a Venezuelan who pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in the alleged cover-up of a plot to smuggle $800,000 into Argentina to fund a presidential election campaign.
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