Washington, 22 Feb. - Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network continue to operate from the area that straddles the Durand Line, the US State Department has said, without specifying whether the alleged al-Qaeda camps are on the Afghan or Pakistan side of the border. "We continue to be concerned about the existence of Al Qaeda’s leadership that’s out there, Osama bin Laden among others," the department’s deputy spokesman Tom Casey told a briefing in Washington. He was commenting on a New York Times report earlier this week that Al Qaeda leadership has successfully revived the terror network, working from bases in North Waziristan.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry has already dismissed the report as ‘absurd’, noting that in the presence of 80,000 Pakistani troops in the tribal region it was not possible for any group to establish its bases in that area. North Western Frontier Province Governor Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai also dismissed the report as speculative. “Why should they come here looking for safe havens when the whole of Afghanistan is a safe haven?” he asked.
The State Department’s response, which confirms the presence of the al-Qaeda network in the region without blaming Pakistan, conforms to US policy towards Islamabad. Reports in the US media say that the State Department recently opposed a Pentagon proposal to launch direct strikes on the alleged al-Qaeda hideouts in Waziristan because it fears that such moves can destabilise the Musharraf government and thus create more problems for Washington in the region.
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http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=
Muslim cleric killed in Dagestan
22.02.2007
MAKHACHKALA, February 22 (Itar-Tass) - Unidentified assailants killed the mullah of neighborhood mosque in Makhachkala's Nagornaya Street on Thursday, city police told Itar-Tass. "The body of Dagir Kachayev, 53, was found by parishioners in the ablution room before the prayer," police said.
Kachayev was shot twice in the head. Supposedly, he was killed at 06:00, Moscow time. Detectives found two shell casings from Makarov pistol at the scene. A criminal probe has been launched.
http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11277641&PageNum=0
Egyptian border and security authorities have arrested 3 Palestinians and Egyptians in the Sinai region, including one who was wearing an explosives belt and had crossed from Gaza to Egypt in an underground tunnel, security officials said Wednesday. The authorities put their security forces in northern Sinai on high alert Wednesday in a bid to make sure that no more armed people were at large. Police set up more checkpoints and border guards were seen using iron poles to probe the ground near the newly found tunnel in a search for more.
One of the Palestinian detainees, a man in his early 20's, was caught Tuesday as he tried to cross the Gaza-Egypt border in an underground tunnel near the Egyptian border city of Rafah. He had wrapped himself in an explosives belt, said the soldier who caught him, Mohammed Abdel Wahab. The arrested man told Egyptian state security officials that he had been plotting an attack with other Palestinians in Sinai, said an official.
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Group Decries Classroom Distribution of Anti-Islam Materials
Thu, Feb. 22 2007
RALEIGH, N.C. - A high school teacher allowed a group whose declared mission is to "raise an awareness of the danger of Islam" to distribute literature in his class, including a handout titled "Do Not Marry a Muslim Man," according to an advocacy group.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations says a representative from the Kamil International Ministries Organization, based in Raleigh, spoke to a ninth-grade world history class at Enloe High School and distributed the literature, which also discussed Jesus.
The father of a Muslim student reported the incident, said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper. The council wrote to Wake County schools Superintendent Del Burns asking that the incident be investigated and that the teacher be disciplined.
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