Current Middle-Eastern News In A Glance

Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A roadside bomb killed three Canadian soldiers Wednesday in a southern Afghan province where separate clashes left 21 suspected Taliban militants dead, officials said.

Also in Kandahar province, police lost control of the remote Ghorak district to the militants hours after retaking a neighboring district, said Esmatullah Alizai, the provincial police chief.

Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) - U.S. forces expanded their push against insurgent strongholds outside Baghdad on Wednesday as Iraqi units joined the offensive and took control of several districts in the key city of Baqouba, the military said.

The commander of U.S. ground forces, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, said the campaign seeks to uproot insurgents - including Sunni factions linked to al-Qaida - in areas north and east of Baghdad and allow Iraqi forces to take greater control over the four-month-old effort to restore control of the capital.

Palestine- Gaza Strip

EREZ CROSSING, Gaza Strip - Israel fired missiles and sent tanks on a foray into Gaza on Wednesday, killing four Palestinians in the deadliest military action since Hamas militants took control of the coastal strip.

At the same time, Israel allowed in a few sick and wounded Palestinians who had been holed up for days at a fetid border passage with Gaza.

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Current Middle-Eastern News In A Glance

Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) - A truck bomb struck a Shiite mosque Tuesday in central Baghdad, killing 75 people and wounding more than 200, even as about 10,000 U.S. soldiers northeast of the capital used heavily armored Stryker and Bradley fighting vehicles to battle their way into an al-Qaida sanctuary.

The troops, under cover of attack helicopters, killed at least 22 insurgents in the offensive, the U.S. military said.

The thunderous explosion at the Khillani mosque in the capital's commercial area of Sinak sent smoke billowing over concrete buildings, nearly a week after a bombing brought down the twin minarets of a revered Shiite shrine in the northern city of Samarra and two days after officials lifted a curfew aimed at preventing retaliatory violence from that attack.

Gunfire erupted shortly after the blast, which police said occurred in a parking lot near the mosque, causing the outer wall and a building just inside it to crumble.


Police and hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared retribution, said at least 75 people were killed and 204 were wounded, adding that the toll could rise as bodies were pulled from the debris.

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Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - Days of fierce fighting with NATO and Afghan forces left Taliban militants in control of one southern Afghan district and battling to take over another Tuesday, officials said.

Taliban fighters seized Miya Nishin district in Kandahar province late Monday, provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai said. Authorities were planning to retake the remote area.

In neighboring Uruzgan province's Chora district - home to more than 100,000 people - fighting continued between NATO and Afghan forces and militants who attacked police posts in the province's main town on Saturday. Some officials reported dozens of civilian casualties.

"It has been a contested area for some number of months," NATO spokesman Maj. John Thomas said. "(The Taliban) are making an effort right now to establish control in that area," he said, predicting more fighting in coming days.

"There's reason to believe that the situation on the ground is still unstable," he said.

Precise casualty figures were not available but two Afghan officials said more than 100 people had been killed, including at least 16 police. A Dutch soldier also died, and three others were wounded.

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Current Middle-Eastern News In A Glance

Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Seven children were killed in a U.S.-led coalition airstrike targeting suspected al-Qaida militants in eastern Afghanistan, a coalition statement said Monday. The strike came hours after the deadliest insurgent attack since the Taliban fell in 2001.

Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) - As many as 36 people were killed in a fierce battle early Monday between Shiite militiamen and British forces doing house-to-house searches south of Baghdad, Iraqi police and hospital officials said.
More than 100 others were injured in the fighting in Amarah, located 200 miles southeast of the capital, the officials said..

WASHINGTON (AP) - Stabilizing Iraq could take as long as a decade, says the U.S. commander in Baghdad. "In fact, typically, I think historically, counterinsurgency operations have gone at least nine or 10 years," Gen. David Petraeus said Sunday. "The question is, of course, at what level."

Palestine- West Bank

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is poised to lift its economic and diplomatic embargo against the Palestinian government in the West Bank now that a U.S.-backed moderate has evicted Islamic radicals from governance..

Hamas' violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last week, however, essentially split the Palestinian government. Hamas, which does not recognize Israel's right to exist, now runs Gaza, home to an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians. Abbas and his secular Fatah Party now run the West Bank. The West Bank, although much larger, also is home to estimated 1.5 million Palestinians.

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Current Middle-Eastern News In A Glance

Afghanistan - KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A bomb ripped through a police bus in a crowded civilian area in Kabul on Sunday, killing more than 35 people, officials said, in what appears to be the deadliest attack in the capital since the fall of the Taliban.
The police academy bus was carrying several police recruits when the bomb went off inside it, leaving several dead, said Zalmai Khan, the deputy police chief of Kabul province. At least 35 people were also wounded.

The thunderous explosion was heard throughout central Kabul at about 8:10 a.m. local time.

Iraq - BAGHDAD (AP) - Security forces in Baghdad have full control in only 40 percent of the city five months into the pacification campaign, a top American general said Saturday as U.S. troops began an offensive against two al-Qaida strongholds on the capital's southern outskirts.

Not mentioned is how much of the entire of Iraq is in "full control."

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Current Middle-Eastern News In A Glance

Afghanistan - KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of U.S. contract workers and military personnel in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul on Saturday, killing at least four civilians, officials said. A soldier opened fire on the crowd after the attack, killing one civilian.
The suicide attack in western Kabul also wounded four civilians and a foreigner, said Gen. Ali Shah Paktiawal. He said an international military vehicle and seven civilian vehicles were damaged in the attack. The bomber also died.

Iraq - BAGHDAD (AP) - An explosion leveled a Sunni mosque Saturday in Basra, residents said, in the second retaliatory attack in as many days for the toppling of minarets at a prized Shiite shrine in Samarra.
Iraqi police did not immediately respond to the bombing of the al-Ashrah al-Mubashra mosque, witnesses said....

The Gaza Strip - RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Fatah gunmen on Saturday stormed the Hamas-controlled Palestinian parliament building and Education Ministry, witnesses said.

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