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Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, 65, says America's rejection of an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon is "totally unacceptable." He denies that Syria has been supplying arms to Hezbollah and says an international force in Lebanon will only work if it isn't perceived as merely protecting Israel. SPIEGEL: Minister, how can Syria contribute to resolving the crisis in the Middle East? Moallem: First of all, Syria is not involved in the events that led to this crisis. Nevertheless, we support the Lebanese resistance, because it is based on a right defined in the UN charter: Resistance is legitimate for as long...

COALITION and Afghan troops killed about 45 Taliban insurgents in strikes in southern Afghanistan overnight, as two soldiers were killed in combat operations in the east, the US-led force said. About 40 insurgents were killed in an attack on a "known enemy camp" in Uruzgan province, while another five were killed in a separate operation in the same province, the coalition said. The two coalition soldiers were killed while on patrol in the eastern province of Kunar, it said, without releasing their nationalities. The larger coalition attack was in the west of Uruzgan where "coalition forces engaged the enemy in...

When you have the best-selling book in the nation you can say a lot of things and people will listen. Ann Coulter, author of the white-hot "Godless," turned her sights on events in Iraq during a Thursday visit to Fox News Channel’s "Cavuto on Business” where she commented on the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "It is a great day for America, a great day for our troops, a day to be proud,” she said. "This is an amazing victory.” Coulter, famous for skewering liberals, said many of her detractors will view this day with mixed emotions, a feeling that...

Around 100 Taliban including senior commanders were killed in a major battle in southern Afghanistan this week, a provincial governor has said, raising the toll from 18. Six policemen, three Afghan soldiers and three civilians were also killed in the battle on Wednesday and Thursday in Panjwayi district of Kandahar province, provincial governor Assadullah Khalid told reporters Thursday. A Canadian soldier serving with a US-led coalition also died in the fighting in one of the biggest battles in Afghanistan in months. The new toll brought to more than 170 the number of Taliban killed in several major battles in Afghanistan...

PAKISTANI gunship helicopters destroyed a suspected militant compound in a restive tribal region bordering Afghanistan, killing a number of foreign insurgents, a military source said. The raid, conducted overnight on the basis of "confirmed intelligence", targeted a hideout in Nagar, six kilometres south of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, the source said on condition of anonymity. Pakistani forces have carried out a series of operations against suspected militants in lawless North Waziristan over the past month and a half. The military said around 250 rebels and five soldiers have been killed. "A sting operation with the help of...

The Israeli air force registered several successes against enemy elements over the Sabbath, taking out rocket-launching cells and terrorist training camps. The strikes continue Saturday night. IAF aircraft Saturday morning struck and killed two Palestinian Authority terrorists in northern Gaza. The two men, members of the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade's Mujahideen units, were involved in Kassam rocket attacks on Israeli targets in the western Negev. The cell they were a part of was planning further rocket attacks, as well. Arab sources reported that a missile fired by an IAF plane struck a car carrying the two terrorists, killing them...

WASHINGTON -- Puerto Rico's attorney general asked members of Congress on Tuesday to pressure the FBI to cooperate with his investigation into raids by its agents against independence advocates in the U.S. island territory. In a briefing for House Democrats, Attorney General Roberto J. Sanchez Ramos said bureau officials have stonewalled his investigation of an FBI raid that left one militant independence leader dead. "Only through open and frank communication between Commonwealth and federal authorities can we hope to best service our common interest in the protection of our citizens," Sanchez Ramos said. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the senior...

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz instructed the IDF on Thursday to step up targeted killings and anti-terror operations in the West Bank in order to thwart terrorist activities, including retaliatory attacks in response to the IDF's extended raid into Jericho on Tuesday. "The Jericho operation sent a clear message to the other side that Israel will not compromise when it comes to its national security principles," Mofaz said during a security consultation at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. "We will demonstrate resolve until we achieve our goal." Due to intelligence indicating terror groups were planning attacks against Israel, Mofaz decided...

Two high-ranking Aksa Martyrs Brigades operatives were killed Monday night after the car they were driving in was struck by missiles fired from IAF fighter jets in Gaza City. It was the third targeted killing in Gaza in three days. The dead were identified as 24-year-old Hassan Asfour - a senior Aksa commander from Beit Lahiya and the head of a Kassam rocket cell. The other operative killed was identified as Jabalya resident Rami Hanouna, 28, also involved in the firing of Kassam rockets at Israeli cities. Outside the morgue where the charred bodies were taken, an Aksa spokesman who...

ehran, Iran, Jan. 09 – A dozen senior commanders of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) died in a plane crash in northwest Iran on Monday, a government spokesman announced. A Falcon jet belonging to the IRGC crashed 13 kilometres southeast of Lake Orumieh, killing all 15 passengers on board. They included seven members of the General Command of the IRGC Ground Forces. The commanders who died in the crash included Brigadier General Ahmad Kazemi, commander of the IRGC Ground Forces and a rising star in Iran’s radical Islamist military, Brigadier General Saeed Mohtadi, commander of the IRGC’s 27...

SIX suspected Taliban militants were killed when a landmine they were planting on a road exploded in Afghanistan's insurgency-hit southern province of Kandahar, officials said today. The incident occurred last night in Maywand district, Kandahar police chief Abdul Malik Wahidi said. Maywand administration chief Mohammad Nabi Idari said the men were planting the landmine on a road used by Afghan and US forces on patrol. The dead were believed to be Taliban, whose regime was ousted by a US-led military campaign in late 2001 for sheltering terror mastermind Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network. Separately police said they had...

Indonesia's most wanted man and the terrorist blamed for a string of attacks including the Bali bombings has reportedly blown himself up after police raided his East Java hideout this afternoon. Malaysian bomb mastermind Dr Azahari Husin apparently triggered a bomb killing himself and two accomplices after police surrounded a villa in the hill resort town of Batu, near Malang, local television news stations reported. An undated police handout photo shows Malaysian bombmaker Azahari Husin. Photo: Reuters Witnesses told of gunshots and at least two explosions after crack anti-terror police raided the house around 3.30pm this afternoon. The area was...

QAIM, Iraq — A U.S. offensive aimed at Al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents in western Iraq entered its third day Monday, with airstrikes in a town on the banks of the Euphrates River , witnesses said. At least 36 militants have died since the fighting began, officials said. No serious U.S. casualties have been reported in the "Iron Fist" offensive by 1,000 Marines, soldiers and sailors near the Syrian border. In Baghdad, Iraq's oil minister narrowly survived an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb blasted his seven-car convoy, killing three of his escorts, officials said. Elsewhere, roadside bombs and fighting...

US forces backed by fighter aircraft and helicopter gun ships overnight pushed an offensive along the Syrian border as Al-Qaeda in Iraq threatened to kill two marines it claimed to have kidnapped while taking part in the sweep. A force of 1000 US soldiers launched Operation 'Iron Fist' in and around the village of Sadah in the restive Euphrates Valley on Saturday, the latest offensive aimed at rooting out Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents in the border region. "Coalition Forces, including helicopters from 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, engaged and killed eight armed terrorists in fighting early in the day October 1," said a...

At least 15 Palestinians have been killed and scores injured in a blast during a parade by the militant Hamas group in the Gaza Strip. A truck carrying gunmen and home-made weapons blew up during the rally in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. Israel has denied involvement, while the ruling Palestinian Fatah faction said it held Hamas responsible. It is the deadliest incident in Gaza since Israel pulled its troops and settlers out earlier this month. Hours earlier, Palestinians fired rockets into Israel from Gaza after Israel killed three militants in a raid in the West Bank town...

TAL AFAR, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi troops swept into the insurgent stronghold of Tal Afar early Saturday, conducting house-to-house searches and battering down walls with armored vehicles in a second bid to clean the city of militant fighters. Some 30 miles south of Baghdad, meanwhile, police found the bodies of 18 men who had been handcuffed and shot to death in Iskandariya, a town where dozens of killings have been reported in escalating vengeance killings by Shiite Muslim and Sunni Aram "death squads." "Two days ago gunmen in police uniforms broke into their houses in a Shiite neighborhood of...

SIX suspected Taliban fighters were killed in a clash with police in southern Afghanistan and six policemen were wounded in a separate bomb attack, officials said overnight. The loyalists of the hardline Taliban regime ousted in late 2001 were killed in a police operation on the highway between the southern cities of Kandahar and Zabul, a frequent target of Taliban attacks, they said. "After an hour fighting, six Taliban were killed, the others fled. There are a lot of Taliban attacks on this highway," Zabul province spokesman Gulab Shah Alikhil said. A remote-controlled bomb exploded near the southern city of...

The Palestinian Authority on Thursday condemned the killing of five Palestinians by the IDF in Tulkarm late on Wednesday night, saying Israel would have to bear the consequences of the operation. Several armed groups threatened to resume their attacks on Israel in response to the killings. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said the Israeli "despicable crime" was in the context of continued attempts by Israel to destroy the unofficial truce and the peace process. "This is happening at a time when the Palestinian Authority is trying to preserve the period of calm and abide by agreements reached with Israel," Abbas said...

"Greenpeace complained Thursday to the Federal Communications Commission about MSNBC talk show host Tucker Carlson's praise for a fatal attack 20 years ago on the environmental group's flagship."

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. air strikes killed an estimated 40 insurgents in western Iraq on Saturday, the military said, but in Baghdad a suicide bomber attacked the headquarters of an elite police unit, killing three. Seven precision-guided U.S. air strikes on the outskirts of the town of Karabilah killed the insurgents who were stopping vehicles at gunpoint and threatening Iraqi civilians, said a U.S. military statement. The military said there were no U.S. casualties when Marines engaged large groups of insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and AK-47 assault rifles. The U.S. military said there were no reports of...