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MEXICO CITY – A convoy of gunmen engaged state police in a running shootout Friday that killed five officers and possibly one of the attackers in the western Mexico state of Jalisco, authorities said. The state attorney general's office said the gunbattle began when a convoy of seven vehicles carrying at least 30 gunmen approached state policemen on a local highway. Four policemen died in the initial fighting and another officer was killed when police gave chase to the assailants. The body of a dead man was found in one of the vehicles involved in the gunbattle and might be...

Palestinian civilians have accused Hamas of forcing them to stay in homes from which gunmen shot at Israeli soldiers during the recent hostilities in Gaza, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported Thursday. More than 1,250 Palestinians were reportedly killed during Israel's offensive against Hamas in the coastal territory. Israel has been harshly criticized for the large number of civilians among the Palestinian dead, of whom they numbered more than half according Gaza officials. But the Italian paper also quoted a doctor at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital as disputing the number of Palestinians said to have been killed in the...

MUMBAI, India — A Muslim graveyard has refused to bury nine gunmen who terrorized Mumbai over three days last week, leaving at least 172 people dead and wreaking havoc at some of its most famous landmarks. The men are not true followers of the Islamic faith, according to the influential Muslim Jama Masjid Trust, which runs the 7.5-acre Badakabrastan graveyard in downtown Mumbai. "People who committed this heinous crime cannot be called Muslim," said Hanif Nalkhande, a trustee. "

KHARTOUM (AFP) - Gunmen have attacked police from the African Union and UN peacekeeping force in Darfur for the first time, injuring one officer by beating him with a rifle butt, a UN spokesman said Thursday. "Four gunmen attacked, yesterday afternoon, a UNAMID police patrol, two kilometres (one mile) from the Zam Zam camp for internally displaced persons, injuring one officer," said spokesman Noureddine Mezni from the UN African Mission in Darfur. The unarmed police were stopped at gunpoint as they returned from a routine patrol at the camp, which is near Darfur's political capital of Al-Fasher. The officers were...

GEORGETOWN (AFP) - - Gunmen with assault rifles shot and killed 11 people in a Guyana village early Saturday, in an attack police blame on a criminal gang whose leader has threatened widespread violence. At least five of the victims were children, said Divisional Police Commander Leroy Brummel. Three survivors were hospitalized with gunshot wounds. The killing in the village of Lusignan was a "cowardly act" by "sick, demented criminals," said President Bharrat Jagdeo, addressing his country and appealing for calm. "We have to ensure this does not spread ethnic tension," said Jagdeo. "These are criminals. We have to hunt...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hundreds of gunmen from the shadowy Army of Islam marched in a funeral for five Gaza militants Thursday, firing in the air in their first public appearance in such large numbers. The five Army of Islam members buried Thursday were among a total of 12 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes over two days. The Israeli military said it has targeted militants involved in rocket fire on Israeli border towns. A statement from the group posted on Islamic Web sites on Thursday said a sixth member wounded in Wednesday's strike against its men had since died...

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces battled Iraqi police and gunmen Friday, killing six policemen, after an American raid captured a police lieutenant accused of leading an Iranian-backed militia cell, the military said. Seven gunmen also died in the fight, a rare open street battle between American troops and policemen. Washington has demanded the government purge its police force of militants, and U.S. and Iraqi authorities have arrested officers in the past for militia links. But the Bush administration said in an assessment Thursday that progress on that front was "unsatisfactory." The lieutenant was captured before dawn in eastern Baghdad, but the...

HERMOSILLO, Mexico - Police chased the remnants of a criminal assault force through mountains near the Arizona border on Thursday after kidnappings and gun battles in which at least 22 people died. Federal police helicopters and ground forces searched the Sierra Madre for fleeing gunmen on Thursday while state police moved in to replace terrified local officers who abandoned the town of Cananea, 20 miles south of the U.S. border. Officials said Thursday that a powerful drug cartel may have sent the assailants armed with assault rifles who arrived in 10 to 15 vehicles on Wednesday, pulled four lightly armed...

MILAN, Italy (AP) - Three armed men hijacked a regional bus Tuesday in northern Italy and set it on fire after freeing the passengers, officials said. An off- duty police officer was injured and two of the three hijackers were apprehended. The bus was traveling south from Alessandria to Acqui Terme, cities southwest of Milan, when the men—armed with a pistol and knives—took it over and forced the driver to turn off the highway and onto a state road heading in the opposite direction, a carabinieri official in nearby Novara said. An off-duty police officer who was on board tried...

CBNNews.com - GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Armed assailants set off explosives at a private school in northern Gaza early Saturday, damaging the building but causing no casualties, Palestinian security officials said. There was no claim of responsibility. The attack took place around 5 a.m., several hours before the start of the school day. The attackers overpowered security guards, then set off bombs in several areas of the American International School, security officials said. One of Gaza's best private schools, the American International School was founded in 1995 and has more than 600 students. In March 2006, the Dutch principal...

Lake Worth -- Three men were shot dead and at least four others wounded Tuesday evening after an argument in the backyard of a home. One survivor was flown to St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach and the three others were flown to Delray Medical Center, where police stood guard at the entrance to the emergency room. Three survivors were in critical condition. Authorities said they knew the men's names but declined to identify them. They were looking for three men, armed with an assault-style rifle and wearing ski masks, who were driving a black Dodge Stratus. Police...

MOGADISHU (AFP) - An Ethiopian military convoy was ambushed in a new round of deadly violence in the Somali capital Mogadishu, hours after the African Union agreed to send peacekeepers to the war-torn country. At least one person was killed in the ambush Saturday, which triggered a major gunbattle in the volatile south of Mogadishu. Coming in the wake of a brazen attack late on Friday on the residence of the interim president, the AU stabilisation force should be under no illusions about the scale of the task that awaits it. The interim administration and peacekeepers not only face having...

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2006 – U.S. and Iraqi security forces will go after any rogue band or group that preys on innocent Iraqi citizens, a senior U.S. officer said in Baghdad today. "That is something that we're not going to tolerate," Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, told reporters in Iraq's capital city. Caldwell was responding to a reporter's question about news reports that said rogue gunmen operating in southeastern Baghdad yesterday had used illegal roadblocks to stop and murder innocent Iraqis. The gunmen detained and killed several Iraqi citizens at those checkpoints, according...

Plast-inian, the PLASTIC language of the Arab Muslim 'Palestinians' - PLASTINIAN - Whether the (so called) 'Palestinian' Arab Muslims are a "nation" that is 39 years old (since 1967) or a bit more than that or even if you believe that they are just another group of Arabs, one thing is certain, they have contributed some vocabulary, Take some PLASTINIAN lessons: Hamas' terrorists greed for higher salaries (2006) = "starving Palestinians". Killing it's own people (like Muhammad Al Dura 2000, Rafah 2002 in a cave & now Gaza beach 2006) = "israeli aggression". Arab settlers (at the 1800's and their...

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Hundreds Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas went on a violent rampage against the Hamas-led government Monday night, riddling the parliament and Cabinet buildings with bullets to protest an attack against their comrades in the Gaza Strip by Hamas gunmen. The security men shot out the windows of the parliament before storming the two-building Cabinet complex, where they smashed furniture, destroyed computers and scattered documents. No casualties were reported. But the mob set fire to one of the Cabinet buildings, causing heavy damage as flames quickly spread. "Every time they touch one of ours...

Gunmen kill 21 commuters near BaghdadBy QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 11 minutes ago BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen dragged passengers off a buses northeast of Baghdad and killed 21 people, including a dozen high school students. The attackers spared four Sunni Arabs in one the worst sectarian atrocities in recent weeks. Serwan Shokir, the mayor of Qara Tappah, said one other person was wounded in the early morning attack. He said there were 26 people on three mini headed from his town to Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. The 12 slain students were apparently headed for Baqouba...

Trans-border aggression:Tourist raped, another shot near Caracol! Friday, 19 May 2006 By Ann-Marie Williams - News Editor Decommissioned military men from Guatemala’s scaled-down army are believed to be the ones responsible for the recent series of armed attacks against tourists visiting archaeological sites and other destinations in the Cayo District. The situation has become so bad that the United States Embassy in Belize issued a travel advisory cautioning Americans to stay away from the Cayo district. Days after this caution, a commando force of brigands ambushed three tourist groups on their way from Caracol, stripping each tourist of money and...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen killed the son of Iraq's top judge Saturday as the country's prime minister-designate struggled to form a national unity government that could eventually open the way to stability. Attacks outside Baghdad killed five Iraqis and a U.S. soldier, part of the undercurrent of daily violence marring the slow-moving political process. Frustrated with such violence in the south, the governor of oil-rich Basra, Mohammed al-Waeli, asked his provincial council to fire the regional police chief and the defense ministry to sack an Iraqi army general. Al-Waeli, a member of the dominant Shiite coalition, demanded the dismissal of...

Slaughter as gunmen fight to control Somalia's capital By Mike Pflanz, East Africa Correspondent (Filed: 11/05/2006) Somalia's lawless capital Mogadishu was engulfed in violence yesterday as fighting between rival factions brought terror to civilians. At least 14 people were killed in a fourth day of fighting between gunmen allied to conservative Islamic leaders and others loyal to a group of powerful businessmen. The bloodshed took the death toll to 96 since Sunday, with an estimated 200 people wounded. Most of the dead and injured were civilians. The two sides have used heavy machineguns, rocket-propelled grenades and artillery. A mortar round...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Violent clashes and mass protests erupted Saturday across the West Bank and Gaza Strip between followers of the militant group Hamas and Fatah rivals, after a Hamas leader accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of treachery. The two sides traded gunfire and hurled stones and firebombs, escalating a fierce power struggle between militant and moderate factions focused on control over Palestinian security forces. Abbas said Saturday he would not allow the accusations to plunge the Palestinians into civil war. The unrest followed the president's recent moves to take control of all six security forces and Hamas's...