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HADITHA, Iraq (July 4, 2006) -- Lance Cpl. Douglas Tetreault carries a spent round fired from an AK-47 assault rifle, which was surgically removed from his thigh last month after he was shot during a firefight with insurgents in Haditha, Iraq. The 21-year-old native of Adams, Mass., wears a nine-inch scar on his thigh every time he steps “outside the wire” to go on combined patrols with Iraqi soldiers in Haditha – a city of 30,000 nestled along the Euphrates River northwest of Baghdad. “It felt like someone had kicked me in the leg at first,” said Tetreault, after a...

UN envoy attacks Israel over Gaza Israel has ordered its army to widen its operations An emergency meeting of the UN's new human rights body on the Gaza crisis has heard condemnation of Israeli policy and its effects on civilians. Israel was violating in Gaza the "most fundamental norms of humanitarian law and human rights law", UN envoy John Dugard told the special session. But Israel, which threatens to broaden military action, said the Human Rights Council was ignoring its concerns. The meeting was called by Muslim states with support from Russia and others. UN aid agencies warn of a...

2 hours ago GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli aircraft sent missiles tearing through the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday in an unmistakable message to his ruling Hamas group to free an Israeli soldier. Defense Minister Amir Peretz told a Cabinet meeting that Israel would go after "higher-caliber targets" in the future _ a reference to senior Hamas officials inside and outside the Palestinian territories, a high-ranking political official said. Israeli aircraft, tanks and naval gunboats have been pounding Gaza for the past week in an effort to win the freedom of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Eleven Sunni insurgent groups have offered to halt attacks on the U.S.-led military if the Iraqi government and President Bush set a two-year timetable for withdrawing all foreign troops from the country, insurgent and government officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The demand is part of a broad offer from the groups, who operate north of Baghdad in the heavily Sunni Arab provinces of Salahuddin and Diyala. Although much of the fighting has been to the west, those provinces have become increasingly violent and the attacks there have regularly crippled oil and commerce routes. The groups...

n an interview with Ynet Thursday Justice Minister Haim Ramon said, “Firing 40 Qassams a day on Sderot and trying to intentionally kill civilians is a war crime.” Accidents during battle happen to every superpower that is engaged in the war on terror; it happened in London, in Spain, it is happening in the United States – it happens everywhere,” he said. “Regretfully, in the war on terror there are some innocent people are killed unintentionally.” Commenting on the international criticism regarding the civilian deaths during IDF strikes aimed at terrorists in Gaza, which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas referred to...

MDA reported that a school bus carrying a group of 16-year old girls was making its way Monday afternoon to the Ofra settlement near Jerusalem when shots were fired at the bus from the direction of the neighboring Arab village of Kafr Sinjil. An MDA paramedic at the scene told The Jerusalem Post that three girls were being treated for light wounds to the back and to their hands. Two of the girls were being treated for shock. Six bullet holes were discovered in the side of the bus. Three of the girls were evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem University...

HAQLANIYAH, Iraq (June 13, 2006) -- In the afternoon of June 3, outside the Marines forwarding operating base located in the violent city of Haqlaniyah, three insurgents armed with automatic rifles and wearing face masks opened fire on Marines working in front of the barrier-laden base. The Marines returned fire and two minutes later, another squad of Marines flooded the streets outside the forward operating base in this city of 15,000 and launched an overwhelming counter-attack that resulted in two of three insurgents dead within 10 minutes. The attack came on the heels of a previous attack less than a...

JERUSALEM - Palestinian militants fired about 10 rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip early Sunday, nearly hitting a college in the southern Israel town of Sderot, the army and rescue service said. One Israeli woman was lightly injured, but no other casualties were reported, Israel's army said. The militant wing of the Islamic group Hamas took responsibility for the rocket attacks, saying that they would continue until residents of Sderot evacuated the town in fear. The barrages came after Israeli shelling was blamed for killing eight Palestinian civilians Friday on a Gaza beach. "We have decided to make Sderot...

GAZA (Reuters) - Islamic militant group Hamas called off a 16-month-old truce with Israel on Friday after Palestinians said Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip killed 10 people, including three children. Hamas, which has run the Palestinian government since March, spearheaded a suicide bombing campaign during a Palestinian uprising that broke out in 2000. There was no immediate comment from Israel or from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been in a power struggle with Hamas since the Islamist group won Palestinian parliamentary elections in January. "The Israeli massacres represent a direct opening battle and that means the earthquake in...

Saudi fighters 'are leading the surge in attacks on British troops' By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent, and Max Benitz (Filed: 31/05/2006) Foreign terrorists, led by fighters from Saudi Arabia, are behind an upsurge in attacks against British troops in Basra, military sources said yesterday. As the Army suffered the highest number of fatal attacks in a month since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, commanders on the ground are concerned at the level of sophistication and ferocity of the assaults. L/Cpl Paul Farrelly Their anxiety was underlined when the Ministry of Defence named two soldiers killed in the latest attacks...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israeli warplanes attacked Palestinian militant bases in Lebanon Sunday in response to a rocket attack on northern Israel, Lebanese officials said. One militant was killed and at least five were wounded. The Lebanese army said six rockets were fired at a base in eastern Lebanon while several others hit a base near the Mediterranean coast. "Lebanese army anti-aircraft units opened fire at the hostile warplanes," the army said. The jets targeted two militant command posts, one of which was used as a storage facility for weaponry and ammunition, the Israeli army said. The planes carried three raids...

The puff piece starts out: “John Kerry starts by showing the entry in a log he kept from 1969: “Feb 12: 0800 run to Cambodia.” Right off the bat, this is the first piece where the Swift Boat Vets were 100% correct. At the time, John Kerry stated that his trip took place on Christmas Eve in 1968. The SBV were right at the time, he was NOT iN Cambodia on Christmas Eve of 1968. Kerry had said that this moment was “seared” into him. After the Vets came out, Kerry had his personal biographer come out and it changed...

John Kerry starts by showing the entry in a log he kept from 1969: "Feb 12: 0800 run to Cambodia." Graphic: Kerry's New Evidence He moves on to the photographs: his boat leaving the base at Ha Tien, Vietnam; the harbor; the mountains fading frame by frame as the boat heads north; the special operations team the boat was ferrying across the border; the men reading maps and setting off flares. "They gave me a hat," Mr. Kerry says. "I have the hat to this day," he declares, rising to pull it from his briefcase. "I have the hat." Three...

WASHINGTON, May 19, 2006 – Coalition forces destroyed an abandoned hotel yesterday in Haqlaniyah, Iraq, using precision munitions to deny its use as an insurgent support base, military officials in Baghdad reported today. Officials said the hotel was a known location of insurgent activity, and that coalition forces have targeted it multiple times since May 7 in response to repeated insurgent activity. In other Iraq news, coalition forces responded yesterday to multiple insurgent attacks in central Ramadi. Insurgents attacked Marines from 2/28 Brigade Combat Team multiple times with homemade bombs, medium and heavy machine-gun fire, and small-arms fire from several...

The rising death toll in Iraq from sectarian violence and insurgent attacks, the growing influence of neighboring Iran and Tehran's nuclear ambitions are issues that dominate global headlines and discussions in the corridors of power. They are also cause for growing apprehension in neighboring Saudi Arabia where many fear a spill-over effect that could destabilize the kingdom and the region. American military officials say documents, captured in a raid last month south of Baghdad show that Abu Musab al Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq network is weak, disorganized and only able to carry out hit and run attacks on relatively unprotected...

European countries are preparing a package of incentives to persuade Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment program. As tension rises over the country's nuclear ambitions, the United States is again accusing Iran of sponsoring terrorism. VOA's Bill Rodgers reports some experts believe Iran might respond to any U.S. action through surrogate terrorist attacks. Hezbollah in Lebanon -- the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the Palestinian territories -- and possibly the notorious al-Qaida -- are all terror groups with alleged ties to Iran. The U.S. State Department accuses Iran of being an active state sponsor of terrorism. Henry Crumpton heads the Department's...

State wildlife officials field a flood of calls about alligators in the wake of recent fatal gator attacks... As news of fatal alligator attacks spread throughout Florida and the nation, operators at the Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program in Okeechobee are swamped. Operators have stayed late this week to handle the flood of phone calls. They logged 225 calls on Monday, more than double the number of calls they answered a year ago. ''It was nonstop,'' said biologist Lindsey Hord, the program's coordinator. ``As soon as they hung up with one person, they answered another call.'' The call volume increased last...

A black bear chased, caught and mauled a bicycle rider on a mountain trail in Canada's oldest and most popular national park, and was shot and killed when it refused to leave the area, a warden said. The biker, Greg Flaaten, 41, a Web administrator for the town of Banff, was being treated for severe arm injuries at Foothills Hospital in Calgary following the attack, and reconstructive surgery in the biceps and triceps area was scheduled Monday. Authorities initially feared Flaaten might lose his arm, but that concern was eased when a key artery was found to be intact, maintaining...

A neighbor heard Raymond Tomco shouting yesterday but figured he was just yelling at his dogs. Then Tomco's daughter came home, went up the driveway past the pink roses nearby and opened her door to three bloody pit bulls. She walked inside. Her screams were unmistakable. Christina Tomco had found the body of her 78-year-old father covered in his own blood in the hallway of his Lusby home, according to the Calvert County Sheriff's Office. Officers said the retired builder had "countless" bite marks on his arms and hands. Authorities strongly suspect he was killed by the animals

WOODBRIDGE, Virginia, May 10, 2006 – The people of Prince William County gathered here yesterday to dedicate a memorial that honors the 22 county residents who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Prince William County, Va., residents wait in line to see the Liberty Memorial, which was built to honor the 22 county residents who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The memorial''s dedication ceremony was May 9 in Woodbridge, Va. Photo by Sgt. Sara Wood, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. It took four years and many donors to fund and build the...