Stories from 2002-07-13

"Police and witnesses said that between three and five attackers entered Qasim Nagar dressed in the robes of Sadhus (holy men) and carrying bags. They then put down the bags, pulled out guns and opened fire indiscriminately, police at the scene said. The attackers then ran to two small temples nearby, where they again took position and began firing on civilians, they added." [more]

"Some analysts believe the source of the leak to be military commanders who believe the politicians are blithely talking up an operation whose potential cost in casualties for US forces they do not fully appreciate. But others take the report as part of a process of softening up President Saddam, forcing him into a rash move that would give Washington the pretext it required. Talk of US and British agents stirring up trouble among the Kurds might, for example, prod the Iraqi leader into a strike against them, thus offering the US justification to step in." [more]

"Jordan's stand stems from its awareness of the futility of war as an option to settle differences with Baghdad. Dialogue offers the only viable path to securing a satisfactory resolution to the conflict. Iraq has to fulfil its obligations under UN resolutions. The international community also has to recognise progress and take measures that must ultimately, and soon, lead to the lifting of the sanctions. Closing this bleak chapter in the history of the Middle East is a fundamental prerequisite for long-term peace, stability and prosperity." [more]

"Pushed aside is the earlier preoccupation with antimissile defenses, space-based weaponry and other programs designed primarily to protect the United States against foreign aggressors. Instead, the new emphasis is on a far more interventionist, proactive strategy in which the United States would stand ready to strike militarily around the world wherever and whenever it thought its security might be threatened." [more]

" 'The whole atmosphere is different now from in 1990,' Mr Abu-Odeh said yesterday. 'In 1990 blood was on the ground. The Iraqi army was in Kuwait, and the whole world wanted to do something. Now only one country wants to try to do something about Iraq. Iraq has been under siege for 12 years, and Arabs are also much more disaffected with America than they were in 1990 because of the Palestinian issue.' " [more]

"Nine Europeans and three Pakistanis were wounded on Saturday when an assailant hurled a hand grenade at a tourist party in northern Pakistan, a senior interior ministry official said. No one claimed responsibility for the attack — the fifth such incident on Westerners in Pakistan this year." [more]

"Afghanistan's Pashtuns, the country's dominant ethnic group, say they are beginning to lose faith in President Hamid Karzai and to fear that the U.S. military campaign here is working against them." [more]

"Just to the north of Assab, the Americans have whipped a small local airport into the largest air base in the Horn of Africa, partly compensating for the sophisticated Prince Sultan air force base denied them in Saudi Arabia. Its new, wide runways can cater to heavy bombers, transports and fighter-bombers taking off for missions against any target in southern Iraq or the Baghdad area with the help of in-air fuel feeds." [more]

" 'Should the I.C.C. eventually seek to detain any American, the United States would regard this as illegitimate ó and it would have serious consequences,' he warned. 'No nation should underestimate our commitment to protect our citizens.'" [more]

"U.S. warplanes bombed Iraqi air-defense facilities on Saturday after coalition aircraft patrolling a 'no-fly' zone in the south of the country came under fire, the U.S. military said. In Baghdad, an Iraqi military spokesman said seven people were wounded when U.S. and British warplanes struck civilian targets in the south of the country. The spokesman also said anti-aircraft missile defenses might have hit one of the attacking Western warplanes." [more]

"The X-45 has been developed at a cost of $256m to carry weapons into combat and could be in service by 2010. Officials expect the plane will be able to carry more than 3,000 pounds (1,350 kilograms) of bombs to drop on enemy radar and missile batteries." [more]