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(03/07/03 3:28pm)
ALGIERS, Algeria -- An Air Algerie jet caught fire on one of its engines and crashed shortly after takeoff from an airport deep in the Sahara Desert on Thursday, killing 102 people on board, the airline said. One person survived.\nThe crash of the Boeing 737 occurred minutes after the plane left the Algerian town of Tamanrasset bound for the capital, Algiers, nearly 1,000 miles to the north.\n"There was a mechanical problem on takeoff," said a spokesman for the airline, Hamid Hamdi. He said he had no other information about the cause of the crash. "Unfortunately, we know only of one survivor," he said.\nHamdi said there was "no element that leads us to think there was a terrorist attack."\nAlgeria, an oil- and gas-rich nation in North Africa, has been torn by a decade-long insurgency by Islamic militants that has left tens of thousands dead.\nWitnesses at the Tamanrasset airport and airline officials said one of the plane's two jet engines caught fire as it was taking off.\nSix Europeans were among the 97 passengers; their nationalities were not known, said Hamdi. The remaining passengers and six crew members were Algerians, he said. The nationality of the survivor was not known.\nAfter Thursday's crash, Prime Minister Ali Benflis convened emergency crisis units at the airports in Algiers and Tamanrasset to deal with the crash, thought to be the first in the history of Algerian commercial aviation.\nInterior Minister Yazid Zerhouni and Transportation Minister Abdelmalek Sellal were headed to the scene.\nHamdi, the airline spokesman, insisted that the downed plane had been well maintained.\n"This Boeing 737-200 was, at takeoff, in perfect working order," he said. State-run Air Algerie was set up in 1953 and this was its first crash, he said.\nTamanrasset, in the Hoggar Mountains, is a stop for Sahara Desert travelers in a region of ancient archaeological sites and prehistoric paintings and engravings. It was not immediately known whether foreign tourists were on board.\nThe site is also a meeting place for Tuaregs, nomadic people famed for their blue robes.\nMore than 120,000 people have been killed in the insurgency launched by Islamic militants after they were shut of out parliamentary elections in 1992.\nIn late 1994, one of Algeria's most radical groups, the Armed Islamic Group, hijacked an Air France plane, killing three passengers. Most international carriers stopped flights to Algeria after the hijacking, and Air Algerie flights to Paris were suspended for two years.\nAlgeria's army has been hunting down insurgents who refused President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's offer of amnesty for some militants willing to surrender their weapons. But militant groups have struck back, stepping up attacks on army convoys.
(01/21/03 9:44pm)
UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary of State Colin Powell implored other nations Monday to face up to Saddam Hussein, saying the world body "must not shrink" from its responsibility to disarm Iraq.\n"We cannot be shocked into impotence because we're afraid of the difficult choices ahead of us," Powell told members of the United Nations Security Council.\nPowell, who faced a new burst of skepticism in talks with other leaders earlier Monday, was urging reluctant nations to focus on Baghdad's failure to disarm and to prepare to weigh the consequences by the end of the month.\nThe secretary said the U.N. must come to grips with a regime that he said has acquired, developed and stocked weapons of mass destruction and trampled human rights at home.\n"So no matter how difficult the road ahead may be with respect to Iraq, we must not shrink from a need to travel down that road," Powell said.\n"Hopefully, there will be a peaceful solution," he said. "But if Iraq does not come into full compliance, we must not shrink from the responsibilities that we set before ourselves" when the Security Council called for the disarmament of Iraq.\nPowell cited Saddam's Iraq as a case in point.\n"Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists or states that support terrorists would represent a mortal danger to us all," he said. "We must make the United Nations even more effective, we must build even closer international cooperation to keep these weapons out of the hands of terrorists"
(01/15/03 5:11am)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A jammed tail assembly may be to blame for the commuter airline crash that killed 21 people at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, a federal investigator said.\nA possible malfunction of the Air Midwest plane's elevator, a flap on the tail used to control a plane's angle of climb or descent, would have hampered the pilot's efforts to control the aircraft.\nJohn Goglia of the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday that the five-member panel had reached no official conclusions about the crash's cause. A final determination probably will take months.\nGoglia, who had been the on-scene member of the team and the investigation's spokesman, offered a leading theory.\n"I think they pulled back (the controls) and the elevator jammed," Goglia told The News & Observer of Raleigh. "That's my personal opinion."\nGoglia did not immediately return a call seeking further comment Tuesday.\nThe Beech 1900D, a twin-engine turboprop, was operated by Air Midwest Inc. as US Airways Express Flight 5481. It crashed in flames Jan. 8 just after taking off for a short flight to Greer, S.C. Investigators said it climbed sharply, rolled and dropped, clipping a corner of a hangar before hitting the ground and exploding.\nGoglia told the newspaper it's not clear what might have restricted the elevator's movement, if that is what happened.\nInvestigators have focused on the thin cable that connected the elevator to the cockpit flight controls. The cable ran through a series of pulleys and guide pins, and it passed near screws, bolts and other mechanisms that could have affected the cable. In addition, maintenance workers adjusted the cable's tension little more than 24 hours before the crash.\nThe pilot would have had trouble controlling the plane if the tension was wrong, if bolts were loosened, or if a pulley malfunctioned, Goglia said.\nInvestigators said the flight data recorder showed the elevator was moving unusually while the plane lifted off from the runway, as it had on all eight previous flights since routine maintenance was performed. Goglia said that reading may have been false and investigators have modified their initial interpretations of the data.\nElevators on Beech turboprops have jammed in at least four other cases during the past 15 years, according to NTSB records.\nA spokesman for Air Midwest, a subsidiary of Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group Inc., said Monday that 35 of 43 Beech turboprops in its fleet had been checked so far and no problems were found.\nGoglia said the airline's findings make it more likely that any problem was confined to the crashed plane.\nHe said investigators were still concerned about the weight and balance of the plane, which was near its maximum takeoff load.
(01/15/03 3:07am)
FAIRFAX, Va. -- Prosecutors say they have extensive evidence to present at a hearing to determine if teenage sniper suspect John Lee Malvo should be tried as an adult for capital murder and face the possibility of being put to death.\nA juvenile court was expected to hear from more than 20 prosecution witnesses over two days, beginning Tuesday, to determine if the evidence against Malvo is sufficient to forward the case to a grand jury.\nIf the judge determines prosecutors have demonstrated probable cause, Malvo, 17, would be tried in adult court, where he would face the death penalty if convicted of the Oct. 14 slaying of FBI analyst Linda Franklin.\nMalvo and John Allen Muhammad, 42, have been accused of shooting 18 people, killing 13 and wounding five in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.\nMuhammad, who also faces the death penalty if convicted of capital murder in the gas station slaying of Dean H. Meyers, is scheduled to go on trial in October in neighboring Prince William County.\nNormally a preliminary hearing is a brief, perfunctory affair, but Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. said the complexity of the case requires him to present an unusual number of witnesses.\nMalvo is facing two counts of capital murder related to Franklin's slaying under two separate Virginia statutes.\nOne count allows the death penalty when a person commits more than one murder in a three-year period. That means prosecutors must present evidence of two different shootings at the hearing.\nA second count allows the death penalty under Virginia's new anti-terrorism statute, which passed the Legislature in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. Under that law, prosecutors would not have to prove multiple murders, nor would they even have to show Malvo was the triggerman in the Oct. 14 shooting. But they would have to demonstrate the crime resulted in either an attempt to intimidate the general population or coerce government policy.\nOne piece of evidence that will not be used against Malvo is the alleged confession he gave to investigators in November when he was transferred to Fairfax County from federal custody.\nHoran has said he will not use any statements from that interrogation. Defense lawyers have already indicated they will seek to suppress any incriminating statements Malvo may have made, because he did not have a lawyer present with him during the interrogation.\nProsecutors turned Malvo's statements over to defense attorneys last week.\nThe lawyers said late last week that they are still reviewing the information that prosecutors had turned over and declined to comment further.\nA judge on Friday rejected defense lawyers' efforts to close Tuesday's hearing to the public. The lawyers and Malvo's court-appointed guardian, Todd G. Petit, had argued publicity from the hearing could taint a future jury pool.
(01/10/03 7:20pm)
KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait -- American troop reinforcements come to Kuwait daily in the biggest military buildup in the region since the Gulf War -- but it's hard to tell.\nAfter heavy media coverage of their departure from bases in the United States this week, complete with teary embraces with relatives and their views of possible war with Iraq, the soldiers are landing in Kuwait in near secrecy.\nThe U.S. government is engaged in a juggling act -- advertising loudly to Saddam Hussein that he faces the threat of massive force if he fails to give up weapons of mass destruction, while trying to keep a low profile in the gulf region to ease local sensitivities.\nThe balance is highly visible -- or perhaps invisible -- in Kuwait, the largest forward staging area for a potential U.S. ground invasion of southern Iraq.\nTroops from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Stewart, Ga., this week have been arriving at a military base near Kuwait City's international airport, part of a deployment that will ultimately bring the division's entire 17,000 troops to the region.\nReporters have been forbidden from entering the Kuwaiti base to film or interview the arriving troops. Convoys of buses guarded by machine gun-equipped Humvees and police cars shepherd the Americans to their camps, which are generally closed to the media.\nU.S. military spokesmen have confirmed the arrivals are taking place, but will not discuss numbers or units.\n"We're not discussing force flows," said Capt. David Connolly, an Army public affairs officer. "We're telling people we're redeploying forces around the world to support the war on terrorism, and that's it."\nThe military worries the deployment -- involving tens of thousands of soldiers and Marines, as well as Navy battle groups and Air Force units around the region -- might be seen as indicating an invasion is imminent.\nThat decision, officials stress, lies with President Bush and the buildup is only to give him forces at his disposal if he judges military action must be used to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction.\nKuwait was uncomfortable when journalists covering the Army's biggest live-fire exercise since the Gulf War reported comments and took pictures of troops stating their readiness for war -- such as a tank with a cannon painted with the words, "All The Way to Baghdad."\nSince then, at rare opportunities to meet the troops at Christmas and New Year's or at a boxing tournament, public affairs officers have asked reporters -- and told the soldiers -- to focus on the celebrations, not war speculation.\nAt the same time, in reaction to criticism over reporters' lack of access to the 1991 Gulf War, the military is trying to allow more opportunities for coverage.\nKuwait owes its freedom from Iraqi occupation to the U.S.-led coalition that drove out Saddam's military in 1991. The country has hosted a brigade-sized U.S. deterrent force since. Authorities have been staging civil defense drills to prepare the population in case Saddam fires Scud missiles at American positions or at civilian centers.\nAyed al-Mannah, a Kuwaiti political analyst, said the American buildup does embarrass Kuwait, "but the justification is clear: We have no other choice but to support the Americans. Saddam didn't leave us any other choice."\nHe noted that there is a U.S. military buildup in other countries, but believes the media are concentrating on Kuwait because it borders Iraq.\n"Some believe that Kuwait wants revenge, but this is not correct," al-Mannah said. "There is a sort of unjustified dense media coverage. The war hasn't even started."\nAround the region, U.S. military personnel try to keep a low profile to accommodate local sensitivities, and troops seldom wear uniforms off base.\nActing under instructions from the State Department, U.S. naval officers in Bahrain will discuss ships at sea in detail, but will not respond to questions about the 5th Fleet's headquarters in the Bahraini capital, Manama.\nU.S. Air Force officers in Qatar will describe how their planes refuel fighter jets over Afghanistan, but journalists cannot visit Al-Udeid Air Base, where the planes are based.
(12/16/02 5:11pm)
WASHINGTON -- Breaking ranks, a veteran Senate Republican called Sunday for new leadership elections, saying Sen. Trent Lott has been so weakened by a race-based controversy that "his ability to enact our agenda" is in doubt.\n"There are several outstanding senators who are more than capable of effective leadership. And I hope we have an opportunity to choose," said Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma, the outgoing GOP whip.\nRepublican leader Lott, R-Miss., had no immediate reaction to the comments, which instantly added a new dimension to his struggle to survive the fallout from remarks that touched on racial segregation.\nA White House spokesman also declined comment.\nWhile Nickles has served with Lott in the GOP leadership for several years, they have been rivals as well as colleagues. Nickles' statement appeared timed to blunt a Sunday broadcast offensive by Lott's allies seeking to lay the controversy to rest.\n"I have a lot of confidence in him as the leader and as a senator. And I think we should not lynch him, we should give him an opportunity," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said on CNN's "Late Edition."\n"I think he's going to continue to lead us, and I think he can be very effective as our leader in the Senate," Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told ABC's "This Week."\nMcConnell, elected to succeed Nickles as the No. 2 Republican leader, added that he had confidence in Lott's ability to "move forward with the president's agenda in the new Congress."\nLott, 61 and in line to become Senate majority leader in January, triggered an uproar this month when he said that Mississippians were proud to have voted for Sen. Strom Thurmond in 1948 on the pro-segregationist Dixiecrat ticket.\n"And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either," Lott added in remarks at the 100th birthday for the retiring South Carolina senator.\nLott's most recent apology came Friday, when he strongly denounced racism and segregation at a news conference in his home state, and asked for forgiveness and forbearance.\nLott also arranged a 30-minute appearance on Black Entertainment Television for Monday, part of an effort to demonstrate his concern about issues of importance to African-Americans.\nBut Nickles' comments seemed likely to propel the Republican leadership drama into a new phase. A closed-door meeting of the 51 GOP senators in the new Congress must be called if five make a written request.\nSen. John Warner, R-Va., also suggested a meeting of the rank and file. "I feel we should come together as a group and make that decision and put to rest, once and for all, this controversy," he said on CNN.\nAlternatively, GOP senators are scheduled to meet privately on Jan. 8, the day after the new Congress is sworn in, and Nickles could raise the subject of leadership elections then.\nNickles' spokesman, Brook Simmons, said he did not know whether Nickles would run for leader if there were an election.\nSimmons said Nickles told the White House on Saturday night of his plans to speak out, and informed Lott early Sunday.
(12/16/02 5:10pm)
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.N. inspectors hunted for weapons of mass destruction at missile plants and nuclear complexes Sunday, while an unusual visitor -- Hollywood star Sean Penn -- spoke out in Baghdad against a U.S. attack and in support of the Iraqi people caught up in an international crisis.\nIn Berlin, meanwhile, the German defense ministry said the United Nations had asked it to supply the inspection operation with unmanned spy aircraft to help in the search for banned Iraqi weapons or the facilities to make them.\nA decision on whether to supply the LUNA drones and the technicians needed to maintain them likely will be made this week, said a ministry spokesman on customary condition of anonymity. German-U.S. relations were strained over Berlin's opposition to attacking Saddam Hussein, but Berlin has pledged full support for the inspection program.\nPenn issued his comments at the end of a three-day visit to Iraq which was organized by the Institute for Public Accuracy, a research organization based in San Francisco, California.\n"Simply put, if there is a war or continued sanctions against Iraq, the blood of Americans and Iraqis alike will be on our (American) hands," Penn said at a news conference in the Iraqi capital Sunday.\nU.N. inspectors hunting for banned weapons of mass destruction searched a missile plant south of Baghdad that the United States said had aroused suspicion. It was one of ten sites the newly bolstered inspection team visited Sunday, according to Iraqi government officials and a statement by U.N. inspectors' headquarters in Baghdad.\nWith the arrival of 15 inspectors Sunday and the routine departure of others in recent days, the total of U.N. sleuths now stands at 105, said Hiro Ueki, a spokesman for the U.N. program in Baghdad. On Saturday, the teams visited a dozen sites, a number Ueki said was the largest single-day site visitation since the inspectors returned to Iraq on Nov. 27 after a four-year hiatus.\nThe sites visited Sunday included al-Mutasim, a government missile plant occupying the grounds of a former nuclear facility 46 miles south of Baghdad, the inspectors said. As usual, they offered no details about what they sought or found.\nAl-Mutasim was cited in a CIA intelligence report released in October that detailed what U.S. officials said was evidence Iraq was producing chemical and biological weapons and the means to deliver them. The report also cited the facility as a site where Iraq might be trying to build nuclear weapons.\nIraqi officials said the inspectors also revisited al-Qa'qaa, a large nuclear complex just south of Baghdad, Sunday that had been searched Saturday and last week as well. The site had been under U.N. scrutiny in the 1990s and was involved in the final design of Iraq's nuclear weapons ambitions before it was destroyed by U.N. teams after the 1991 Gulf War.\nThe United Nations offered no details on Sunday's inspection at al-Qa'qaa. During their Saturday visit, inspectors said they questioned the director of the facility about changes made since teams were last in Iraq four years ago. Last week the teams began taking an inventory of nuclear materials still at the site.\nAlso Sunday, the inspectors returned to a missile complex north of Baghdad for the second time in two days. The complex, the government-owned al-Nasr Company, 30 miles north of Baghdad, also houses sophisticated machine tools that can, for example, help manufacture gas centrifuges. Such centrifuges are used to enrich uranium to bomb-grade level -- a method that was favored by the Iraqis in their nuclear weapons program of the late 1980s.\nHaithem Shihab, manager of a factory in al-Nasr, said the inspectors compared the facility to site plans and checked machinery.
(12/16/02 5:10pm)
KARACHI, Pakistan -- In a foiled suicide bomb plot, Islamic militants planned to ram an explosives-laden Volkswagen into a car carrying U.S. diplomats in Karachi, Pakistan police said Sunday.\nPolice said they arrested three men Friday and Saturday and seized about 250 sacks of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer used in explosives. They said the suspects had been trained at a camp in Afghanistan run by Islamic militants fighting Indian rule in the disputed province of Kashmir.\n"They were preparing for the attack on American diplomats in the coming days, and they had the car bomb ready," provincial police chief Kamal Shah told a news conference.\n"They were surveying for appropriate place" on one of the main roads in this southern port city, frequently used by diplomats, he said.\nShah said one of the suspects, Asif Zaheer, was linked to a May suicide bombing outside a hotel in Karachi that killed 14 people, including 11 French engineers. "Asif Zaheer is an expert in explosives, and he was the man who prepared the car for suicide bombing at the Sheraton Hotel," Shah said.\nPolice said they had no immediate evidence of links between the foiled plot and the al Qaeda terror network.\n"We cannot rule out a network of al Qaeda in Karachi," he said. "But there is no concrete evidence yet."\nThe plan apparently involved loading the nose of the rear-engine Volkswagen bug with explosives, waiting for a diplomatic vehicle to pass and ramming it to detonate the bomb.\nThe would-be attackers apparently decided on their plan after a June bombing outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi killed 12 Pakistanis but no Americans.\n'"Assessing the strength of the U.S. consulate building, we decided to target American diplomats as they traveled on city roads'," Shah quoted Zaheer as telling police.\nHe said Zaheer had no apparent links to the consulate attack but wanted to drive the planned suicide car bomb personally to ensure the plot succeeded.\nThe 250 88-pound sacks of fertilizer -- not all of which would have been used in the car bombing -- could produce a huge explosion. Shah said Zaheer told investigators it was twice the amount of explosives used in the May bombing.\nEarlier Sunday, authorities had announced the arrests of three men Saturday in connection with the May suicide bombing, but it was not immediately clear if they were the same three suspects discussed in the press conference.\nShah only said that six suspects are still at large in that attack.\nHe said Zaheer and the other suspects were trained in Afghanistan at the camp of the militant group Harakat Jihad-e-Islami.\nThe militants demand that Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan, be reunited and either be given independence or be allowed to join Islamic Pakistan. India's part of Kashmir is the majority Hindu country's only state dominated by Muslims.\nPolice have arrested several other people in connection with the May attack, and have apprehended dozens of others alleged to have taken part in a spate of attacks on foreigners in Karachi.\nMany of those arrested earlier are reportedly members of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen Al-Almi extremist group.\nEarlier reports had suggested the suspects might be linked to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a group blamed for the June consulate bombing, as well as attacks on several churches. But Shah said that appeared not to be the case.\nZaheer was also wanted in connection with the killing of a television producer in the capital, Islamabad, earlier this year.
(12/13/02 5:39am)
CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar -- Amid a buildup of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region, Defense Secretary Donald M. Rumsfeld met Thursday at a desert encampment with the U.S. general who would run a war against Iraq.\nOn the outskirts of the capital city of Doha, Rumsfeld gave a pep talk to several hundred troops. He reminded them of the death toll from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.\n"Your mission in the global war on terrorism is to see that attacks of that magnitude don't happen again," he said.\nEarlier, the United States won Qatari approval for major improvements to an air base in this Persian Gulf nation that would play a central role if President Bush ordered war against Iraq.\nUpon his arrival in the Qatari capital Wednesday night, Rumsfeld signed an agreement giving the go-ahead for several construction projects at al-Udeid air base. He said they would improve the quality of life for the 3,300 U.S. troops there and given them more "state-of-the-art capability." He did not disclose details from the classified document.\nAt a news conference following the signing ceremony, Rumsfeld rebutted suggestions that the work at al-Udeid was related to American preparations for war against Iraq.\nIn an interview on NBC's "Today" show, Rumsfeld said Thursday that "there should be no doubt that I and the president and others have let it be known publicly and privately to the Saddam Hussein regime that anybody involved in using weapons of mass destruction will wish they hadn't."\nCommenting on a Washington Post report that Islamic extremists affiliated with al-Qaida might have taken possession of VX, a chemical weapon, in Iraq, Rumsfeld said the possibility "should come as no surprise to anybody."\nOther officials strongly disputed the report. Counterterrorism and defense officials said they have no credible evidence Iraq supplied the nerve agent to al-Qaida operatives.\nIraq denied passing such weapons to Osama bin Laden's supporters.\nU.S. intelligence has received reports -- of questionable reliability -- that al-Qaida has sought chemical and biological weapons assistance from Iraq. But there's no solid evidence Iraq actually provided any, officials said.\nA senior administration official said U.S. intelligence had uncorroborated information that Islamic extremists with ties to al-Qaida may have received a poisonous substance in Iraq, but the identity of the substance and whether it came from Saddam's government is unknown.\nWhite House spokesman Ari Fleischer declined to comment on the Post report but said "we have long-standing concerns about Iraq providing weaponry to al-Qaida."\nRumsfeld also told ABC's "Good Morning America" he had not seen the Post article, but said "I have seen other information over a period of time that suggests that could be happening." He said it has been known for some time that "the terrorist states have chemical weapons and have relationships with al-Qaida and that al-Qaida is trying to get such weapons."\nQatar, a thumb-shaped peninsula jutting off the Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia, has emerged as a key American ally, and Rumsfeld was spending a full day Thursday touring Camp As Sayliyah, where the U.S. Central Command has set up a new command post.\nRumsfeld met with Gen. Tommy Franks, the Central Command commander who has been here for a week preparing for and overseeing the conduct of an exercise, called Internal Look, that is testing the new command post's communications links with Navy, Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and special operations commanders elsewhere in the Gulf.\nIn the event of war in Iraq, Franks likely would run it from As Sayliyah.\nRumsfeld toured the Joint Operations Center, met with Franks and other commanders and then held a video teleconference over secure lines with Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force and special operations commanders elsewhere in the Persian Gulf.\nIn an interview with CNN at his Doha hotel, Rumsfeld was asked whether he was pleased with the battle plan for a possible war in Iraq. "Sure. General Franks and his staff have done a very good job," he said.\nRumsfeld said it remained unclear whether war would be necessary and held out the possibility that Saddam Hussein would change his pattern of behavior and decide to cooperate with the United Nations and disarm. "People do unusual things when under duress," he said.\nThe new command post was developed, and the exercise planned, before the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States, but the current tension with Iraq has led to speculation that Internal Look is a rehearsal for an invasion of Iraq.\nCentral Command officials refuse to discuss the scenarios being tested during the computer-assisted war game, which is scheduled to end early next week.\nThe exercise does not include troop movements.
(12/13/02 5:07am)
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- A U.S. military helicopter crashed in mountainous central Honduras, killing all five soldiers aboard, the U.S. military said Thursday.\nThe cause of the crash was not known, but there had been heavy rains in the area over the past three days.\nThe Black Hawk helicopter from Soto Cano Air Force Base in Palmerola, Honduras, crashed at 8:55 p.m. Wednesday while on routine training, said Lt. Col. Bill Costello, a spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command in Florida.\nThe crash took place in the mountains near Santa Cruz de Yojoa, 85 miles north of the capital, Tegucigalpa.\n"Right now, we are classifying it as a training accident," Costello said. "It is being investigated."\nThe names of the dead were being withheld pending notification of relatives. The crew belonged to the 1-228th Aviation Regiment, part of the U.S. Army South in Puerto Rico.\nArnold Espinal Guttered, a Honduran police spokesman near the site of the crash, told Radio HRN on Thursday that "the bodies of all the helicopter's occupants were recovered earlier this morning."\nU.S. Army South spokesman Maj. Rich Crusan confirmed that five crew members were aboard the helicopter. He said the bodies would be returned to the U.S. base in Palmerola.\nThe control tower at La Mesa international airport in San Pedro Sula, 110 miles north of Tegucigalpa, reported that the helicopter had arrived there from the Palmerola base to participate in a night landing exercise.\nAfter filling up with fuel, it was headed back to the base when it crashed 40 minutes after taking off.\nHonduran and U.S. soldiers participated in the rescue operations.\nPalmerola is a $30 million base built in 1983. It lodges 130 permanent and 195 temporary service soldiers.\nThe unit involved in the crash was assigned to Joint Task Force Bravo, the U.S. military command that conducts training, counter-drug, and humanitarian missions in Central and South America and the Caribbean.
(12/13/02 5:06am)
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A senior Iraqi general dismissed as "ridiculous" a U.S. report that an Iraqi chemical weapon was delivered to an Islamic extremist group affiliated with al Qaeda.\n"They know very well," Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin said Thursday of the U.S. government, "we have no prohibited material or activities, and all the stockpile (of chemical weapons) have been destroyed."\nMeeting with reporters, Amin also described as "piracy" last Monday's surprise U.S. takeover of a U.N. master copy of Iraq's all-important arms declaration, a move the Iraqi government previously denounced as allowing Washington to "play with" and "possibly forge" the documents before they could be reviewed by the rest of the world.\nAmin, chief liaison to the U.N. weapons inspectors now operating in Iraq, said the Iraqis thus far are satisfied with the "professionalism" of the inspections.\nThe U.N. teams, in the third week of resumed inspections, headed out again Thursday on their daily missions. They visited a missile test site west of Baghdad, an antibiotics plant and a metalworking plant, among other facilities, Iraqi Information Ministry officials said.\nThe Washington Post on Thursday quoted sources as saying the Bush administration had received a credible report that Islamic extremists affiliated with al Qaeda took possession of a chemical weapon -- suspected to be the nerve agent VX -- in Iraq in October or November.\nThe sources were said to be "two officials with firsthand knowledge of the report and its source." But other unnamed U.S. officials cited by the newspaper suggested the "report" may have been based on a hypothetical case raised in a recent U.S. military communication.\n"This is really a ridiculous assumption from the American administration," Amin said, speaking in English in response to a question.\n"We are used to (hearing) such reports from the enemies of Iraq," he said, naming U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies.\nWhite House press secretary Ari Fleischer declined to comment on intelligence that the Bush administration may have received about a transfer. But he did not dispute that a transfer may have occurred.\n"We have long standing concerns about Iraq providing weaponry to al Qaeda. We know al Qaeda is seeking it," Fleischer said.\nIn a wrap-up report in 1999, after U.N. inspectors withdrew from Iraq, the United Nations said the Iraqis had not adequately explained the disposition of 1.5 tons out of 3.9 tons of VX nerve agent they acknowledged producing in the 1980s, all of which Iraq said it had destroyed.\nThe U.N. inspectors said they found traces of VX where the Iraqis said they had neutralized the chemical agent, but could not confirm the amount.\nAmin spoke after two days of extensive activity by the U.N. inspectors. On Wednesday, they paid unannounced visits to at least eight sites including a medical research center and a new missile factory.\nThe teams from the U.N. nuclear agency -- the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna -- have intensified their work this week, after receiving reinforcements Sunday that increased the number of nuclear inspectors to 27.\nOn that same day, Iraq's massive arms declaration was flown from Baghdad to New York and Vienna, where analysts are poring through its 12,000 pages in search of still more sites to visit and questions to answer.\nThe declaration was filed under a new U.N. Security Council resolution requiring Iraq to report on nuclear, biological, chemical and missile research and production. The resolution also mandates that Iraq surrender any weapons of mass destruction -- which it denies it has. The U.S. government says it is sure the Baghdad government retains such weapons, and threatens war if Iraq fails, in Washington's view, to comply with U.N. disarmament demands.\nThe resolution also mandated the resumption of the inspections after a four-year gap. Before such monitoring ended in 1998 amid U.N.-Iraqi disputes, inspectors destroyed tons of Iraqi chemical and biological weapons and dismantled Iraq's program to try to build nuclear weapons.\nIn the late 1980s, as part of that weapons effort, scientists and engineers at an Iraqi nuclear center at Tarmiya, 25 miles north of Baghdad, sought to master a difficult technology -- electronic magnetic isotope separation -- to enrich uranium to fissionable levels usable in atomic bombs.\nThat effort stalled, and Iraq turned to another technology at another site, again unsuccessfully. Within two years of Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War, U.N. inspectors tracked down and destroyed buildings and equipment at the Tarmiya site, as well as at other nuclear facilities. Tarmiya remained under U.N. monitoring until 1998.\nReturning after four years to the site -- now known as the Ibn Sina Company -- the monitors "inspected the new activities at the site and verified that no nuclear activities remain or have been initiated," the U.N. statement said.\nThe inspection agencies -- the IAEA and the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, for chemical and biological weapons and missiles -- generally have not reported on the results of their field missions. There was no explanation why it was done in this case.\nIn fact, a U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, noted that plant managers and other Iraqis have frequently told reporters after inspections that the monitors found nothing indicating work on weapons of mass destruction. "But," he said, "that doesn't mean the inspectors have found nothing." He said "bits and pieces" of any evidence found would be collated over time.\nInspectors on Wednesday also continued their thorough review, started earlier in the week, of operations at al-Tuwaitha, Iraq's major nuclear research center.\nIn the 1980s, scientists at the site 15 miles southeast of Baghdad were key to Iraq's efforts to build nuclear weapons. Many of the complex's more than 100 buildings were destroyed in U.S. bombing during the 1991 Gulf War.\nThe U.N. office also reported that a team completed its inspection Wednesday of the remote al-Qaim uranium mining site and a nearby processing facility.\nIn the coming months, U.N. officials hope to inspect hundreds of Iraqi industrial and research installations, many of them "dual-use" sites whose products or equipment could be devoted to either civilian or military use.
(12/11/02 5:31am)
WASHINGTON -- A ship carrying a dozen Scud-type missiles from North Korea was intercepted in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, U.S. officials said. They said the missiles were believed to be headed for Yemen.\nThe ship was stopped and boarded about 600 miles east of the Horn of Africa, the officials said.\nU.S. intelligence had been tracking the vessel closely, said U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.\nThe ship contained about a dozen short- to medium-range missiles, similar to the Scud missiles used by Iraq in the Persian Gulf War, the officials said. It also contained missile parts.\nThe ship was stopped and boarded by a patrol boat in the region.\nThe patrol boat was not a U.S. ship, but that of another nation, a U.S. official said. However, a U.S. team rushed to the scene to participate in the search, the official said.\nThe ship "had another flag, but it was a North Korea ship," the official said.\nThe ship was held in the area while the search continued.\nOfficials said the shipment did not appear to be headed for Iraq.\nYemen has been identified by the United States as a nation that has harbored terrorists, although its government has been an ally of the United States in the war against global terrorism. Yemen's port of Aden was the site of the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole by terrorists, which killed 17 sailors.\nYemeni officials contacted late Tuesday said they had no information concerning the ship, its contents or its boarding by international forces.\nThe boarding of the ship occurred as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was traveling in the area.
(12/11/02 5:28am)
SEOUL, South Korea -- Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Tuesday that Washington would seek a "diplomatic solution" to North Korea's nuclear weapons program.\nNorth Korea reiterated its rejection of a U.N. watchdog's appeal to abandon its nuclear program and to accept foreign inspections.\nArmitage, who arrived in Seoul on Tuesday, discussed North Korea with President Kim Dae-jung, Foreign Minister Choi Sung-hong and Defense Minister Lee Jun.\n"In my meetings today, we reaffirmed our common interest in finding a diplomatic solution to North Korea's destabilizing pursuit of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction," Armitage said in a written statement.\nWashington and its allies are trying to pressure the North to give up its nuclear ambitions.\nEarlier Tuesday, North Korea's state-run news agency, KCNA, said the communist state rejects as "unilateral and biased" the International Atomic Energy Agency's resolution urging North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program and open its facilities to outside inspectors.\nNorth Korea cannot accept the Nov. 29 resolution because "the United States dubbed the (North) an 'axis of evil' and a target of the pre-emptive nuclear attack, creating a serious crisis," KCNA said.\nDuring the meetings in Seoul, Armitage also discussed Washington's possible war against Iraq.\nDomestic media reported that South Korea is willing to provide logistical support. The country dispatched engineering and medical units during the 1991 Gulf War.\nArmitage was scheduled to leave for China on Wednesday and to visit Australia later in the week.
(12/11/02 3:54am)
RAMALLAH, West Bank -- The Palestinian high court on Tuesday ordered the release of the alleged mastermind of a clandestine shipment of Iranian weapons to the Palestinian Authority, but it appeared unlikely he would be set free soon.\nThe defendant, Fuad Shobaki, is being held under British supervision at a Palestinian jail in Jericho, the only West Bank town not under Israeli occupation.\nIsrael, which initially demanded that Shobaki be extradited and only reluctantly agreed to have him jailed in Jericho, said his release would violate international agreements and give Israel the right to try to capture him.\nViolence continued in the Gaza Strip, where undercover Israeli soldiers shot dead a Hamas activist early Tuesday. The army said he threw bricks at the soldiers from a roof and fled when they tried to arrest him.\nU.N. officials charged Israeli soldiers also fired late Monday on a U.N. bus carrying Palestinian students to a technical university in Gaza, injuring a 20-year-old. The army said it was unaware of any vehicle being hit in the area.\nAides to Yasser Arafat said it was unlikely the Palestinian leader would go along with the court order to release Shobaki because of Israeli and international pressure.\n"We respect the decision of the high court but the circumstances are difficult because of Israeli blackmail," said Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat. "If we remove Shobaki from where he is right now, he may be abducted or killed by the Israelis."\nIsrael says Shobaki, the finance director of the Palestinian security services, bankrolled a foiled shipment of 50 tons of weapons from Iran. The weapons, transported aboard a ship, the Karine A, were seized by Israeli naval commandos in the Red Sea in January.\nThe Palestinian high court ruled Tuesday that there was no evidence against Shobaki. His lawyer, Hussein Shiyoukhi, said the Israeli army had searched Shobaki's home and office and did not find any documents to back up the accusations.\nShiyoukhi said he has asked Arafat to keep Shobaki in the Palestinian leader's compound in Jericho "until we can settle the whole issue with other parties," referring to Israel, the United States and Britain.\nRaanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the release of Shobaki would violate agreements with Israel.\n"The revolving door policy is still effect," he said. "They arrest in one door and let out in the other door. ... If they do not comply with their part of the deal to keep in custody we go back to square one and we can pursue them."\nShobaki was sent to the Jericho prison in May, along with five other Palestinians, as part of a deal that ended Israel's 34-day siege of Arafat's compound in Ramallah. Israel had initially insisted that the men be handed over.\nFour of those sent to Jericho prison were convicted of assassinating right-wing Israeli Cabinet Minister Rehavam Zeevi in a one-day trial in Arafat's compound in April. The four -- all activists in a radical PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to 18 years. Human rights activists criticized the trial as unfair.\nIn June, a Palestinian court in the Gaza Strip ordered the release of PFPL leader Ahmed Saadat, who is also being held in Jericho. The decision infuriated Israel and was later overruled by the Palestinian Cabinet.\nThe U.N. Reliefs and Works Agency, or UNRWA, said Tuesday that a 21-year-old Palestinian killed Dec. 2, Maher Saqallah, had been a janitor at a U.N.-run school - making him the fourth U.N. staff member killed in the past three weeks.\nPalestinians said then that Saqallah had been a bystander during a gunbattle between militants from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militia and Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Tulkarem. The Israeli military said soldiers fired at Palestinians throwing firebombs.\nTensions between UNRWA and Israel have been high since soldiers shot and killed one of the agency's British employees, Iain Hook, on Nov. 22 during a gun battle with armed Palestinians in Jenin. The army said its soldiers mistook a cellphone Hook was using for a weapon and that gunmen had entered the walled UN compound. UNRWA denies that gunmen had entered the compound.\nTwo other U.N. school employees were among 10 Palestinians killed in Gaza on Friday.
(12/11/02 3:53am)
ASMARA, Eritrea -- Sharpening the U.S. focus on the Horn of Africa as a haven for terrorists, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld arrived in the Eritrean capital on Tuesday to discuss expanding military cooperation and to visit American troops training in neighboring deserts.\nRumsfeld was visiting Ethiopia and Djibouti as well as Eritrea. The three impoverished nations are neighbors in an unstable region that lies across the Red Sea from Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden.\nLater in the week, Rumsfeld was headed to the oil-rich sheikdom of Qatar in the Persian Gulf to get a firsthand look at a new U.S. military command post headed by Gen. Tommy Franks.\nFranks and hundreds of his battle staff are conducting an exercise this week to test the command post's ability to communicate with its naval, land and air components elsewhere in the Gulf. It is widely seen as a practice run for a possible American-led war against Iraq, although no combat troops are involved.\nIn Asmara, the Eritrean capital, Rumsfeld met with President Isaias Afwerki and other government officials. Afterward, Isaias told reporters his country was not looking for U.S. handouts but was determined to help the United States in any possible to fight a global war on terrorism.\nAsked whether the offers included allowing U.S. troops on Eritrean soil, Isaias replied, "That is the least of them."\nLater Rumsfeld flew to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, where he was meeting Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.\nIn an interview en route from Washington, Rumsfeld said the Bush administration was pleased at the cooperation of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti in the war on terrorism. He left open the possibility of expanding the U.S. military presence in the area but said no decisions were imminent.\n"I'm not here to engage in transactions," he said. "I'm not here to put pressure on anybody. I'm here to demonstrate that the United States values what these countries are doing."\nSo far the United States has only agreed to use Camp Lemonier in the desert hinterland of Djibouti.\nThe port at Assab, on the southern tip of Eritrea, is one of the largest on the Red Sea. When Franks -- commander of all U.S. forces in the Horn of Africa, the Persian Gulf and Central Asia -- visited Assab in March the government offered to host American forces on its soil.\n"It's not so much a matter of saying 'no,'" Rumsfeld said, adding, "It's something that evolves over time."\nThe Pentagon recently established a specially tailored military force, called Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, to oversee anti-terrorist operations in the region. It is led by Marine Corps Maj. Gen. John Sattler, whose headquarters is the USS Mount Whitney, a command ship newly arrived in the area.\nRumsfeld indicated the United States is in the Horn of Africa for the long haul. He said his decision to visit the area should be seen as an indication that the war on terrorism is truly global.\n"The fact that it is going to be a long war and the fact that it is a distinctly different kind of war is emphasized by the fact that we absolutely require the cooperation of countries of all sizes on each continent on the face of the Earth if we are going to be successful," he said.\nDuring the Cold War the United States operated a listening post from Asmara. It was known as Kagnew Station and run by the Army Security Agency, a forerunner of the National Security Agency.\nIn neighboring Djibouti, hundreds of American troops have been training for months. Many are at Camp LeMonier, a French air base. Although some U.S. combat forces operated from Djibouti during the conflict in Somalia in the early 1990s, it has taken on added importance in the war on terrorism.\nDjibouti is close to Yemen and on the Bab el Mandeb Strait, a choke-point where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden. It's not far from Yemen's port of Aden, where the USS Cole was attacked by terrorists in October 2000, killing 17 sailors.
(12/10/02 5:31am)
WASHINGTON -- Underpinning the U.S. review of Iraq's 12,000-page arms declaration, "there's skepticism and there's fear" about Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambitions, President Bush's spokesman said Monday.\nWhite House press secretary Ari Fleischer also said the United States had security concerns about sharing its own intelligence with United Nations inspectors trying to verify Saddam's insistence that his regime has no weapons of mass destruction.\n"We're going to continue to work with the inspectors to help to get them the information so they can do their job. ... Of course, at the same time, we want to make sure that sources and methods are not compromised in any information that could be conveyed to the inspectors," Fleischer said.\nHe withheld judgment on the arms declaration that Iraq turned over to the United Nations Security Council on Saturday. The United States wants to study the material "thoroughly, completely and fully and thoughtfully," Fleischer said.\nU.S. officials were still helping the Security Council president copy and distribute the material by Monday afternoon, he added.\nOver the weekend, a military adviser to Saddam suggested that Iraq was close to building an atomic bomb a decade or so ago -- a "wistful" admission of how much Iraq "yearned to get nuclear weapons," as Fleischer described it, and proof that the United States is right to be skeptical of Iraqi denials now.\nSaddam, the Iraqi president, insists his regime has no programs for developing banned nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. Bush says Saddam is lying.\nUnder a U.N. Security Council resolution unanimously approved last month, international weapons inspectors are in Iraq trying to validate those claims along with the information submitted on Saturday.\n"On the broader picture yes, there's skepticism and there's fear about Iraqi intentions and abilities," Fleischer said.\nOn the narrower question of determining the validity of Iraq's declaration to the U.N. Security Council, "that process deserves respect and it deserves thoughtful judgment and we will not rush to it," Fleischer said.
(12/10/02 4:49am)
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Serbia headed for a major political crisis after it failed a second time to elect a president, with supporters of the top vote-getter vowing on Monday to challenge the outcome.\nYugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica claimed he was robbed of victory because of irregular voter lists.\nHis backers said they would mount an appeal.\n"We will not give up on the truth," Kostunica aide Dragan Marsicanin said Monday. "Those responsible for the election robbery will be held accountable sooner or later."\nSunday's vote was invalid because some 44 percent of the electorate cast ballots -- short of the 50 percent minimum turnout required by the election law, according to the State Electoral Commission and independent observers.\nThe inconclusive outcome drew criticism from international groups who sent observers to the election.\n"We are very concerned about the negative consequences this unresolved impasse could have for the future of Serbia's reform process," said Thomas M. Cox, of the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly.\nThe result dealt Kostunica a serious blow, indicating that the once overwhelming popular support he enjoyed when he toppled Milosevic in 2000 has shrunk.\nThe uncertainty at the polls also set the stage for a showdown between Kostunica and his chief rival, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, exacerbating an ongoing power struggle between the two politicians who had teamed up to remove Milosevic but later split.\n"We are heading for a major political crisis," said political analyst Milan Milosevic.\nKostunica's camp claimed "scandalous rigging" of the election results by the state electoral commission and the independent observers. Kostunica also blamed Djindjic and the Serbian parliament.\nHis supporters vowed to appeal the results to the Serbian Supreme Court and international institutions, although Kostunica's challenge to the October election results was unsuccessful.\nKostunica, a moderate nationalist with pro-democratic views who advocates cautious reforms, faced two extremists: Vojislav Seselj of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party and Borislav Pelevic of the Serbian Unity Party, founded by late Serb warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as Arkan.\nExit polls showed that Kostunica won 58 percent of the votes, Seselj won 36 percent, while Pelevic had 3.4 percent, election monitors said.\nWhile existing law bars a runoff after Sunday's vote, it was not immediately clear whether or when more elections would be held. Dragoljub Micunovic, a top politician, said the matter is not regulated by the constitution.\nKostunica has indicated he would not run again, but would try to bring down Djindjic's government in the Serbian parliament, thus provoking nationwide general elections. To achieve that, Kostunica would have to forge an alliance with Milosevic's loyalists in the assembly.\nKostunica's current post is to be eliminated as part of a reform of present-day rump Yugoslavia, which is to turn into a loose union of the remaining republics, Serbia and Montenegro, with the same name.\nKostunica had hoped to win the Serbian presidency to counter Djindjic's grip on power in the republic. Djindjic, however, has hinted he wants to change the election law, and install an ally of his own as president by changing the law to allow presidential elections by parliament.\nSlow economic and social reforms, scandals and perpetual power struggles between Kostunica and Djindjic have disillusioned Serbs, who are more concerned with their dire living standards and rampant unemployment.\nA new president was supposed to succeed Milan Milutinovic, whose term ends in January. He is likely to be replaced temporarily by Serbian parliament speaker Natasa Micic.\nMilutinovic was indicted by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, along with Milosevic for war crimes in Kosovo and likely faces extradition once his mandate expires.
(12/10/02 4:48am)
MOMBASA, Kenya -- Police released computer-generated images Monday of two men believed to have taken part in the Nov. 28 attacks on two Israeli targets in Kenya.\nThe images of the unidentified men -- one bearded with a receding hairline, the other with a shaven face and head -- are based on information from witnesses, said Deputy Commissioner of Police William Langat. He said Kenyan police believed the men are in their 30s.\nThe men were described as "Arab-looking" by witnesses, Langat said. But many Kenyans living on the country's Indian Ocean coast are of Arab descent, and the suspects could be Kenyans or foreigners, he said.\nLangat refused to say which of the attacks -- the suicide car-bombing of a hotel or the firing missiles at an airliner -- the men are thought to have taken part in, saying only that "they were seen at one of the two locations around the time of the attacks."\nPolice do not know whether the men are still in Kenya but are "seeking support of the public in finding the men," Langat said.\nOn Nov. 28, unidentified assailants fired two missiles at a Boeing 757 Arkia Airlines charter as it was taking off from Mombasa airport with Israeli tourists returning to Tel Aviv.\nShortly afterward, a vehicle loaded with explosives plowed into the Paradise Hotel, 12 miles north of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean. Ten Kenyans, three Israelis and at least two bombers were killed by the blast at the hotel frequented by Israelis.\nSeveral days later, Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network claimed responsibility for the attacks on an Islamic Web site.\nAl-Qaida then threatened faster, harder strikes against the United States and Israel in a statement attributed to the group that appeared Sunday on a militant Web site.\n"The Jewish Crusader coalition will not be safe anywhere from the fighters' attacks," the audio statement said, using a term common among Islamic militants for what they see as a U.S.-Israeli alliance.\n"We will hit the most vital centers and we will strike against its strategic operations with all possible means."\nThe statement was attributed to al-Qaida spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. The site, which has posted previous statements attributed to the terror network, included what appeared to be a photograph of Abu Ghaith taken from a video frame.\nThe attacks in Kenya were first claimed by the previously unknown Army of Palestine.\nIsrael believes al-Itihaad al-Islami, a Somali-based terror group with links to the al-Qaida network, carried out the two attacks, an Israeli security official said Monday on condition of anonymity.\nThe official said Israel did not have proof of al-Ittihad's involvement. And in Kenya, Langat disputed that possibility.\n"We can suspect anyone and everyone," Langat said. "But we have not gotten any information about" al-Itihaad taking part in the attack.\nAl-Itihaad has been named a terrorist group by Washington and is suspected of harboring al-Qaida fugitives.\nPolice are holding more than a dozen people for questioning in connection with the Kenya attacks, but Langat has said none of them are really considered to be suspects.
(12/09/02 3:47am)
DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Bombs tore through four movie theaters packed with Muslims celebrating the end of Ramadan Saturday, killing at least 17 people and wounding 200, police and witnesses said.\nThe bombs went off within 30 minutes of each other starting at about 6 p.m., and were believed to have been planted in the projection rooms of the theaters, a police official said on condition of anonymity.\nMany of the victims were injured by falling bricks or steel. The death toll could rise because some of the wounded were in critical condition, doctors said.\nThe movie theaters in the town of Mymensingh, about 70 miles north of the capital Dhaka, were crowded with people celebrating Eid-al-Fitr, the Islamic festival marking the end of Ramadan. About 3,000 people were believed to be inside and around the theaters when the explosions occurred.\n"It was a terrible scene. Doctors were overwhelmed with so many injured people being brought at the hospital," said Muzahed Ahmed, a university teacher who took part in the rescue work.\nA local television channel reported that a fifth explosion at a movie theater outside Mymensingh, but police denied that.\nNo one claimed responsibility for the blasts. Police chief Modabbir Hossain Chowdhury said the explosions appeared to be "the works of an organized group," but did not identify any suspects.\nTen people were killed instantly, while five others died on way to a hospital, a local resident quoted doctors as saying. Two other men died later of their injuries.\nJahangir Alam, a journalist, was standing near one of the theaters before the explosions occurred.\n"I heard a big bang and then saw many people running for shelter," Alam told The Associated Press by phone. "There were bodies lying in blood and many injured crying for help."\nHospital officials have appealed for blood donations to treat the injured. Hundreds of relatives gathered outside the government hospital and several others to get information about their loved ones.\nOne bomb exploded as people came out of a movie theater after a show. Movies were on at the time of the explosions.\nSimilar bombings of a theater and a circus show killed six people and wounded 200 in September in the southwest.
(12/09/02 3:46am)
CAIRO, Egypt -- al Qaeda threatened faster, harder strikes against the United States and Israel in a statement attributed to the group that appeared on a militant web site Sunday.\n"The Jewish Crusader coalition will not be safe anywhere from the fighters' attacks," the audio statement said, using a term common among Islamic militants for what they see as a U.S.-Israeli alliance.\n"We will hit the most vital centers and we will strike against its strategic operations with all possible means."\nThe statement was attributed to al Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. The site, which has posted previous statements attributed to the terror network, included what appeared to be a picture of Abu Ghaith taken from video.\nThe Web site also posted a text version of the statement.\nThe whereabouts of Abu Ghaith, along with al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, have been a mystery since the network was chased out of its haven in Afghanistan by U.S. bombing following the Sept. 11 attacks.\n"We will chase the enemy with terrifying weapons," the statement said. "We have to widen our fighting fronts and conduct more concentrated and faster operations ... so (the enemy) feels unsafe and unstable on land, air and sea."\nThe statement also said a purported al Qaeda claim of responsibility for the Nov. 28 attacks on Israelis in Kenya was genuine. That claim was posted on several other Islamic sites last week.\nThe attacks in Israel included a hotel bombing that killed 10 Kenyans, three Israelis and the bombers, and a botched attempt to shoot down an Israeli charter plane.\nSunday's statement said al Qaeda does not usually claim responsibility for attacks, but would do so "according to the relevant circumstances."\nU.S. officials have said they considered the claim of responsibility for the Kenya attacks to be credible.\nTerrorism experts believe al Qaeda has made use of the Internet, which enables people to communicate cheaply, widely and anonymously. It has been difficult to trace and confirm postings attributed to al Qaeda that appear periodically on several sites.