Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- An Al Qaeda figure killed in a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan last week is believed to have been an Algerian allegedly involved in training militants and plotting attacks against the West, officials said Friday. The Algerian, known by the nickname Abu Sulayman Jazairi, apparently died May 14 in the strike that killed as many as 14 people and destroyed a compound near the village of Damadola, an Al Qaeda stronghold in northwestern Pakistan, officials said. A knowledgeable U.S. official and a senior European anti-terrorism official said Jazairi was thought to be dead.U.S. anti-terrorism forces are targeting front-line planners...

WARSAW - US and Polish troops did not damage the archaeological ruins of ancient Babylon despite setting up a military headquarters at the site for two years, Iraqi Deputy Minister of Defence Ziad Cattan said on Friday in Warsaw. “There was no damage done to archaeological artefacts in Babylon by either Polish or US troops,” PAP news agency quoted him as saying. Cattan echoed claims by Polish defence officials that the presence of troops at the site helped to preserve Babylon’s archaeological treasures. Earlier this month, John Curtis, a senior archaeologist with the British Museum, had alleged that more than...