Free Republic

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A car bomb attack on a U.S. patrol outside the rebel-held city of Falluja on Monday killed seven American marines and three Iraqi National Guardsmen, in the deadliest single attack on U.S. forces in five months. The attack raises the official Pentagon U.S. death toll for the Iraq war to at least 988. An Internet statement purportedly from a group holding two French hostages demanded a $5 million ransom for them and gave a 48-hour deadline to come up with the cash. In an another blow to Iraq's U.S.-backed government, officials retracted a claim to have captured...

The beginning of another refugee crisis? The PA is refusing to allow 2,000 Arab residents of PA-controlled Rafiah to return to their homes, preferring that they remain stuck in Egypt. The background of this harsh decision is that Israel, because of security considerations and terrorist warnings, has closed the Rafiah crossing, offering an alternative route instead. The Palestinian Authority refuses to allow the stranded people to use it. IDF Maj.-Gen. Yosef Mishlav, Coordinator of Government Activities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, opened the Nitzana border crossing, some 40 kilometers to the south, to the Arab residents as a humanitarian gesture....