Iraqi Troops Killed, Snatched in Fallujah

Gunmen killed two soldiers and snatched three more west of Baghdad on Saturday, as mourners buried protesters that troops shot dead a day earlier.
The unrest came as lawmakers opposed to Nouri Al-Maliki adopted a measure that would theoretically bar him from holding office beyond next year, as tensions rose dramatically after weeks of angry rallies in mostly-Sunni areas against the Shiite premier’s rule, AFP reported.
In Fallujah, a predominantly Sunni town 60 kilometers (35 miles) from Baghdad, police Colonel Mahmud Khalaf said gunmen attacked checkpoints in the east, west and north of the town on Saturday, killing two, wounding one and kidnapping three.
The trio were on leave and wearing civilian clothes at the time they were snatched, army Lieutenant General Ali Ghaidan Majeed said.
“We are conducting a search operation for them now.”
No organization immediately claimed responsibility for the incidents, which came a day after seven demonstrators were shot dead in Fallujah, but militant Sunni factions, including Al-Qaeda’s front group, often attack security forces to push Iraq back towards the sectarian war that blighted it from 2005 to 2008.
While some Shiite clerics have given cross-sectarian support to the rallies, Maliki blamed protesters and insisted soldiers had been “attacked”.
The attacks on soldiers came as funeral-goers buried the protesters shot dead a day earlier.
Friday’s rally had been moving within Fallujah but was blocked by soldiers, police Captain Nasser Awad said.
Protesters began throwing bottles of water at the troops, who opened fire.
Seven demonstrators were killed, all of them from gunshot wounds, said Assem Al-Hamdani, a doctor at Fallujah hospital.
Hamdani said 60 others were wounded, most by gunfire.
The defense ministry promised an investigation, and security responsibilities in the town were transferred to the police in an attempt to defuse tensions.
On Saturday, thousands attended the funeral of the people killed.

22 Dead in Egypt After Football Riot Verdicts

From Page 1
Egypt’s opposition threatened to boycott upcoming parliamentary polls if President Mohamed Morsi--facing his worst crisis since coming to power in June--does not find a “comprehensive solution” to the unrest gripping the country.
The National Salvation Front, the main coalition of parties and movements opposing the ruling Islamists, called for among other things the creation of a “national salvation” government, otherwise it will “not participate in the next parliamentary elections.”
Last February’s riots between fans of Port Said home side Al-Masry and Cairo’s Al-Ahly also sparked days of violent protests in Cairo, in which another 16 people were killed.

Jubilant
In the capital, both inside and outside the court, there were explosions of joy at the verdict on Saturday. Women ululated, relatives hugged and shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).
Many Egyptians believe the violence was orchestrated either by the police or by supporters of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
The Cairo court has handed its verdict to Egypt’s top cleric for his final opinion, as is customary, and set March 9 for delivering verdicts on another 52 defendants, including police officers.
The sentence is subject to appeal, judicial sources said.

Clashes on Revolution’s Anniversary
The sentences come after a day of clashes marking the revolution’s second anniversary left at least nine people dead and 530 injured.
Tens of thousands took to the streets nationwide on Friday to protest against Morsi, who is accused of failing the revolution and consolidating power in the hands of his Muslim Brotherhood.
Egypt is also in the throes of an economic crisis as foreign investment and tourism revenues dwindle, the Egyptian pound stands at its lowest level against the dollar and a budget deficit shows no sign of reversing.
Morsi early Saturday used Twitter to appeal for calm, urging “citizens to adhere to the values of the revolution, express opinions freely and peacefully and renounce violence.”
The interior ministry said 95 of its officers were injured on Friday, and Morsi said policemen were also among the dead. He expressed his condolences “to all Egyptians” over the deaths of both police and protesters.
Troops in armored vehicles deployed in Suez late on Friday, taking up positions at the entry of the canal, outside police headquarters and the governorate building.
The canal authority said on Saturday shipping operations were unaffected by the violence.
Protesters also stormed government buildings in Ismailiya on Friday, and torched the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters.
In Cairo, police fired tear gas at protesters outside the presidential palace, where clashes between Morsi’s allies and foes in December killed several people.
Protesters also set fire to tires and blocked traffic on the 6 October bridge across the Nile, a flyover connecting east and west Cairo, and blocked the underground metro at several stations, paralyzing public transport.
Demonstrators also clashed with the security forces in Egypt’s second city Alexandria, witnesses said.

Hezbollah Denies “Sectarian Conflict” in Arab World

From Page 1
“The Israeli election results showed a retreat of parties that founded and led the entity (Israel), such as Likud,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party, Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television channel.
Nasrallah said no party had achieved a decisive victory, “as Netanyahu hoped in order to lead Israel.”
Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud-Beitenu coalition scraped to victory with many less seats than it had expected to win, securing only 31 of the 120 in parliament.
Yesh Atid, a centrist party formed only nine months ago, stunned the political establishment by winning 19 seats in Tuesday’s election and coming a close second place.
Nasrallah said the results showed a “crisis for the new political leadership, a crisis for the parties and a crisis of confidence” in Israel’s government.
He warned, however, that the gains of the center at the expense of the right would change little for the Palestinians.
“Nothing will change in terms of (Israel’s) hostility” towards the Palestinians, he said, calling for “strengthening resistance” against Israel.
Israel and the Hezbollah fought a bloody 33-day war in 2006 that killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel, most of them soldiers.

Gunmen Blow Up Yemen’s Main Oil Pipeline

Unidentified attackers blew up Yemen’s main oil pipeline, forcing the country to shut down one of its most lucrative sources of income, government and tribal sources said on Saturday.
Yemen’s oil and gas pipelines have been repeatedly sabotaged by insurgents and tribesmen since anti-government protests created a power vacuum in 2011, causing fuel shortages and slashing export earnings for the impoverished country, Reuters reported.
Witnesses said the pipeline linking production fields in the central Maarib province to the Red Sea was attacked on Friday night.
“We heard a blast in the Sirwah area followed by flames rising from the pipeline,” one tribal witness told Reuters.
Yemen’s stability is a priority for the United States and its Persian Gulf Arab allies because of the country’s strategic position next to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and shipping lanes, and because is home to one of Al-Qaeda’s most active wings.
A government source said production was halted after a device placed under the pipeline exploded.
“The army is on the trail of the saboteurs and technical teams will immediately start repairing the damage,” the source said.
A long closure of the line last year forced the country’s largest refinery at Aden to shut, leaving the small producer dependent on fuel donations from Saudi Arabia and imports.
On Dec. 31, Yemen resumed oil pumping at a rate of around 70,000 barrels per day (bpd) after the latest repairs to a pipeline which used to carry around 110,000 bpd of Marib light crude to an export terminal on the Red Sea before a spate of attacks began in 2011.

Jordanians Stage protest Against Results of Polls

Protests in Jordan against the results of a general election turned violent on Friday injuring four people, and forced police to fire tear gas to disperse demonstrators, an official said.
“Rioting that also saw attacks on houses and public property” wounded four people in the northern province of Irbid, its governor Khaled Abu Zayd told Petra news agency, adding that police intervened successfully breaking up the violence.
Police fired tear gas at protesters who staged a similar demonstration in the southern Karak province, Petra added.
Preliminary results from Thursday’s election showed tribal leaders, pro-regime loyalists and independent businessmen are set to sweep Wednesday’s election in Jordan, where the prime minister is chosen by the king.
Independent Electoral Commission spokesman Hussein Bani Hani said that the final results will be published on Sunday.
Observers from the European Union earlier on Friday praised as “transparent and credible” the Jordanian general election, after the Islamist opposition alleged it had been marred by fraud.
“Polling, counting and tabulation of results in the 23 January parliamentary election were, despite minor glitches, well-administered,” said David Martin, head of the 80-strong EU mission.
On the downside, Martin said that “substantial deficiencies in the election law affect, however, universality of voter participation and equality of votes.”
King Abdullah II vowed on Friday to pursue democratic reforms after the “landmark” vote, and to reach out to groups like the Muslim Brotherhood that boycotted the election.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the king hailed the election as an important step forward and said authorities would now work to build a party-based political culture in jordan.

UK Lists Israel as Human Rights Abuser

From Page 1
British diplomats in Israel will admit that Downing Street has grown increasingly frustrated with Benjamin Netanyahu’s stubborn expansion of Israeli settlements into what should be the future Palestinian state--a policy Britain believes could derail the peace process entirely--and is taking ever stronger action to demonstrate this frustration.
Prior to both the latest escalation in the Gaza conflict and Netanyahu’s announcement regarding E1 area, Matthew Gould, Britain’s ambassador, warned Israel that continued settlement expansion was eroding its international support.
“Support for Israel is starting to erode and that’s not about these people on the fringe … The interesting category are those members of parliament in the middle, and in that group I see a shift,” Gould told Israel’s Channel 10 in August.
The Israeli government declined to issue an official response to the UK’s report on Friday, but sources in the Israeli foreign office confirmed they had read the report and found only differences of opinion that they were already aware of—’there is nothing new here’, one diplomatic source said.
Britain’s criticism has come as the United States urged Israel not to carry out its anticipated boycott of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which is meeting in Geneva next Tuesday, and is likely to raise both Israeli settlement expansion and its ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israel has complained of an ‘inherent bias’ against the Jewish regime within the UN. If it does not appear before the council for review, it would be an unprecedented snub.

Syrian Troops Attack Rebels

Syria said its troops have raided an opposition stronghold near Damascus, killing an unspecified number of rebels and uncovering tunnels used by them to move about and smuggle weapons.