Israel blasts Hamas targets, diplomacy gains steam

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli warplanes and gunboats blasted more than two dozen Hamas targets Saturday, including weapons storage facilities, training centers and leaders' homes as Israel's offensive against Gaza's Islamic militant rulers entered a second week.

There were tentative signs that the current phase of fighting may be nearing an end. Most of the airstrikes targeted empty buildings and abandoned sites, suggesting Israel may be running out of targets.

Ground troops massed on the border, waiting for a signal to invade Gaza, but international cease-fire efforts were also gaining momentum.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is visiting the region next week, and President George W. Bush and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon both spoke in favor of an internationally monitored truce.

Israel launched the offensive on Dec. 27 in response to intensifying rocket fire by Hamas militants in Gaza. The operation has killed more than 430 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, according to Palestinian and U.N. counts. Four Israelis have also been killed, and rocket attacks on southern Israel persist.

In the latest attacks, the Israeli army struck the homes of two Hamas operatives, saying the buildings were used to store weapons and plan attacks. Hamas outposts, training camps and rocket launching sites also were targeted, it said.

Early Saturday, it dropped leaflets in downtown Gaza City ordering people off the streets.
Later in the day, several airstrikes struck the city, killing a night watchman at a Gaza City school. Four people, including a midlevel Hamas commander, died of wounds sustained earlier, Gaza health officials said.

Palestinian militants fired six rockets into southern Israel, causing no injuries. One rocket struck a house in the city of Ashkelon, police said.

The Israeli airstrikes have badly damaged Gaza's infrastructure, knocking out power and water in many areas and raising concerns of a looming humanitarian disaster.

Israel briefly opened its border Friday to allow nearly 300 Palestinians with foreign passports to flee the besieged area. The evacuees told of crippling shortages of water, electricity and medicine.

Maxwell Gaylard, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinians Territories, said some 2,000 people have been wounded in the past week and a "significant number" of the dead were women and children. "There is a critical emergency right now in the Gaza Strip," he said.

Israel denies there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and has increased its shipments of goods into Gaza. It says it has confined its attacks to militants while trying to prevent civilian casualties.

While ground troops remained poised to enter Gaza, Israel also has left the door open to a diplomatic solution, saying it would accept a cease-fire if it is enforced by international monitors.
This latest round of violence erupted after the expiration of a six-month cease-fire that was repeatedly marred by sporadic rocket attacks on Israel.

Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, speaking from Damascus, Syria, warned that any ground assault would lead Israel to "a black destiny of dead and wounded." He asserted that the group had sustained minimal losses.

He did, however, say Hamas was "ready to cooperate with any effort leading to an end to the Israeli offensive against Gaza, lifting the siege and opening all crossings." Israel's call for international monitors appeared to be gaining steam.

At the United Nations, Ban urged world leaders to intensify efforts to achieve an immediate cease-fire that includes monitors to enforce the truce and possibly protect Palestinian civilians.
In Washington, Bush on Friday branded the rocket fire an "act of terror" and outlined his own condition for a cease-fire in Gaza, saying no peace deal would be acceptable without monitoring to halt the flow of smuggled weapons to terrorist groups.

"The United States is leading diplomatic efforts to achieve a meaningful cease-fire that is fully respected," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

But with time running out on the Bush presidency, the crisis in Gaza is likely to carry over to President-elect Barack Obama. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continued telephone diplomacy to arrange a truce, but said she had no plans to make an emergency visit to the region.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and several Arab foreign ministers were flying to New York over the weekend to urge the U.N. Security Council to adopt an Arab draft resolution that would condemn Israel and demand a halt to its bombing campaign in Gaza.

Abbas, whose forces in Gaza were ousted by Hamas in June 2007, still claims authority over the area.

The council is expected to discuss the draft resolution on Monday. But the United States said the draft is "unacceptable" and "unbalanced" because it makes no mention of halting the Hamas rocket attacks.

AUDIO PROVES ZAKAYEV'S COLLABORATION WITH RUSSIAN INFIDELS

31 December 2008

Wakil (representative) of the Emirate of Caucasus Shamsuddin Batukayev has made a statement ten days ago following an operation by the intelligence services of the Emirate aimed at proving Akhmed Zakayev's collaboration with secret services of Russian infidels. The following is a full translation.Results of special operational measures have confirmed that Zakayev is closely collaborating with FSB of Russia

Statement by Wekalat of the Caucasus Emirate

Mukhabarat (Intelligence Service) of the Caucasus Emirate has received operational information about ex-CRI's ex-foreign affairs minister Akhmed Zakayev's links with FSB of RF since long ago. The information about those links was received from sources among [Mukhabarat's] agents.Despite Zakayev openly called for a rebellion against the legitimate ruler of Muslims in Caucasus and established secret contacts with the ringleader of pro-Moscow puppet regime Kadyrov, information from agents about Zakayev's links with FSB of RF needed additional confirmation.

In order to obtain facts proving Zakayev's collaboration with Russian secret services, a special operation using operational resources of Mukhabarat of the Caucasus Emirate and Wekalat (General Mission Abroad) of CE was prepared and carried out.

Carrying out special operational measures, Mukhabarat of CE has managed to offer Russian secret services a fake communication channel between the leadership of Caucasus Emirate and Wekalat of CE abroad.

That fake channel carried an audio tape of an "operational letter" from the head of Wekalat of CE Shamsuddin Batukayev to the Amir of CE Abu Usman, which was meant to make both Zakayev and FSB interested.

18 December 2008 Ahmed Zakayev published the mentioned audio tape on his personal site.Thus, Zakayev with his own hand, de facto, confirmed the information from agents about his close ties with FSB and coordination of his traitorous activity against the Caucasus Emirate with Russian secret services.

At the same time in the territory of the Caucasus Emirate, operational and investigative measures revealed the location of an agent, who was actively financed from London through Zakayev during all this time.

Irrefutable documentary evidence of such financing (audio correspondence between the agent and Zakayev was intercepted) and preparation of an attempt upon the life of the Amir of the Caucasus Emirate Dokka Abu Usman were obtained. Witnesses were found who made proper testimonies.

Thus, all these documents, including the audio tape of Shamsuddin Batukayev's "letter", which was received by Zakayev from FSB or RF (which irrefutably proves the presence of Zakayev's operational contacts with the Russian secret services), were enclosed with the common case of participants of the anti-state rebellion.Wekalat of CE reminds that any decision regarding this or that person who took part or continues to take part in the criminal gang consisting of ex-members of CRI government, including double agent Akhmed Zakayev, will be made by the Sharia court. Its decision will be announced officially.The Islamic state Caucasus Emirate carries out all its actions openly, based on the Sharia, and does not need to hide its intentions regarding betrayers, their ringleaders and accomplices, insha'Allah.Shamsuddin Batukayev Wakil of Wekalat of CE

Kavkaz Center

AirTran apologizes for removing Muslim passengers

WASHINGTON – AirTran Airways apologized Friday to nine Muslims kicked off a New Year's Day flight to Florida after other passengers reported hearing a suspicious remark about airplane security. One of the passengers said the confusion started at Reagan National Airport just outside Washington, D.C., when he talked about the safest place to sit on an airplane.

Orlando, Fla.-based AirTran said in a statement that it refunded the passengers' air fare and planned to reimburse them for replacement tickets they bought on US Airways. AirTran also offered to take the passengers back to Washington free of charge.

"We apologize to all of the passengers — to the nine who had to undergo extensive interviews from the authorities and to the 95 who ultimately made the flight," the statement said. "Nobody on Flight 175 reached their destination on time on New Year's Day, and we regret it."
AirTran said the incident was a misunderstanding, but the steps taken were necessary.

Two U.S. Muslim advocacy groups, however, were critical of the airline's actions. The Muslim Public Affairs Council called on federal officials Friday to open an investigation. And the Council for American-Islamic Relations filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation, saying "It is incumbent on any airline to ensure that members of the traveling public are not singled out or mistreated based on their perceived race, religion or national origin."

Bill Adams, a DOT spokesperson, said the department thoroughly investigates discrimination complaints but would not comment further.

One of the Muslim passengers, Atif Irfan, said the family probably would not fly home with AirTran because members had already booked tickets on another airline, but appreciated the apology.

"It's definitely nice to hear," he said.
Irfan said when he boarded the flight Thursday, he mentioned something to his wife and sister-in-law about having to sit in the back. His sister-in-law replied that she believed the back of the airplane was the safest, but Irfan believed it was better to be by the wings.

"She said, 'Yes, I guess it makes sense not to be close to the engine in case something happens,'" Irfan recalled Friday. "It was a very benign conversation."

Shortly after taking their seats, members of the group were approached by federal air marshals and taken off the plane, Irfan said. They stood in the jet bridge connected to the airport and answered questions while other passengers exited and glared at them.

Irfan said he thought he and the others were profiled because of their appearance. The men had beards and the women wore headscarves, traditional Muslim attire.

"My wife and I are generally very careful about what we say when we step on the plane," he said, adding that they have received suspicious looks in the past. "We're used to this sort of thing — but obviously not to this extent."

Irfan, 29, is a lawyer who lives in Alexandria, Va. He was traveling to a religious retreat in Florida with his wife, along with his brother and his family, including three children, ages 7, 4 and 2. They were joined by his brother's sister-in-law and a family friend.

Federal officials ordered the rest of the passengers from the plane and re-screened them before allowing the flight to depart about two hours behind schedule. The family and friend eventually made it to their destination on a US Airways flight.

Family members were upset that AirTran didn't allow them to book another flight. The airline said in a news release Friday that one of the passengers became irate, made inappropriate comments and had to be escorted away from a gate podium by local law enforcement.
"We felt very disrespected," Irfan said. He said FBI agents had cleared their names and asked AirTran to put them on another flight, but to no avail.

Christopher White, a federal Transportation Security Administration spokesman, said the security concern on the plane was handled appropriately.

White said the pilot, after being informed of the remarks, requested that two federal air marshals on board remove the nine passengers. TSA then alerted authorities, including the FBI, which conducted an investigation.

"Our role, basically, is to determine whether (those) in question pose a threat," FBI spokesman Bill Carter said.

He and White said that once authorities determined there was no security threat, it was up to the airline on how to proceed.

"If the pilot is uncomfortable with someone flying on their plane, that's their decision," White said.

Discount carrier AirTran Airways is a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings Inc. Its hub is in Atlanta.

Bush: Hamas attacks on Israel an 'act of terror'

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush on Friday branded the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel an "act of terror" and outlined his own condition for a cease-fire in Gaza, saying no peace deal would be acceptable without monitoring to halt the flow of smuggled weapons to terrorist groups.

Bush chose his weekly taped radio address to speak for the first time about one of the bloodiest Mideast clashes in decades. It began a week ago. Israeli warplanes have rained bombs on Gaza, targeting the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has traumatized southern Israel with intensifying rocket attacks.

"The United States is leading diplomatic efforts to achieve a meaningful cease-fire that is fully respected," Bush said. "Another one-way cease-fire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable. And promises from Hamas will not suffice — there must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end."
The White House released Bush's radio address a day early. It airs on Saturday morning.
Despite Bush's account of a U.S. leadership role, with time running out on his presidency, the administration seemed increasingly ready Friday to let the crisis in Gaza shift to President-elect Barack Obama. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice briefed Bush on developments in Gaza, and she continued furious telephone diplomacy to arrange a truce. Yet, she said she had no plans to make an emergency visit to the region.

More than 400 Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed in the latest offensive. The U.N. estimated Friday that a quarter of the Palestinians killed were civilians. In their waning days in power, Bush and Rice have been working the phones with world allies.

Bush offered no criticism of Israel, depicting the country's air assaults as a response to the attacks on its people. The White House will not comment on whether it views the Israeli response as proportionate or not to the scope of rockets attacks on Israel.

"This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas — a Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria that calls for Israel's destruction," Bush said.

The president said Hamas ultimately ended the latest cease-fire on Dec. 19 and "soon unleashed a barrage of rockets and mortars that deliberately targeted innocent Israelis — an act of terror that is opposed by the legitimate leader of the Palestinian people, President (Mahmoud) Abbas."
Hamas-run Gaza has been largely isolated from the rest of the world since the Islamic militants won parliamentary elections in 2006. Then Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, expelling forces loyal to the moderate Abbas.

Bush expressed deep concern about the humanitarian suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza. U.N. officials say Gaza's 1.5 million residents face an alarming situation under constant Israeli bombardment, with hospitals overcrowded and both fuel and food supplies growing scarce.
"By spending its resources on rocket launchers instead of roads and schools, Hamas has demonstrated that it has no intention of serving the Palestinian people," Bush said. "America has helped by providing tens of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid, and this week we contributed an additional $85 million through the United Nations. We have consistently called on all in the region to ensure that assistance reaches those in need."

The White House has cautiously said Israel must be mindful of the toll its military strikes will have on civilians. Here, too, Bush blamed Hamas for hiding within the civilian population. "Regrettably, Palestinian civilians have been killed in recent days," he said.

International calls for a cease-fire have been growing. Bush promised to stay engaged with U.S. partners in the Middle East and Europe and keep Obama updated. Obama is receiving the same intelligence reports on Gaza that Bush is.

Rice has spoken to both Obama and his choice for secretary of state, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, about the situation at least once in the last week. Obama and Clinton have remained mum out of deference to Bush, who still has 18 days in office.

There have been growing calls for Rice to intervene with Israel in person amid rising international concern about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza. Her decision to stay away will likely disappoint those calling for a more robust U.S. role, particularly as French President Nicolas Sarkozy intends visit the region next week.

In recent days, U.S. officials had said that a Rice trip to the Middle East, as a first stop on a long-planned visit to China next week, was under consideration. But those officials said Friday that Rice would stay in Washington. They spoke on condition of anonymity because an announcement is not expected before the weekend.

Israel lets Palestinians flee; UN warns of crisis

By ARON HELLER and IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writers

EREZ CROSSING, Israel – Israel allowed several hundred Palestinians with foreign passports to flee Gaza on Friday, even as its warplanes bombed a mosque it said was used to store weapons and destroyed homes of more than a dozen Hamas operatives.

The evacuees told of crippling shortages of water, electricity and medicine, echoing a U.N. warning of a deepening humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip in the seven-day-old Israeli campaign. The U.N. estimates at least a quarter of the 400 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes on Hamas militants were civilians.

Jawaher Hajji, a 14-year-old U.S. citizen who was allowed to cross into Israel, said her uncle was one of them — killed while trying to pick up some medicine for her cancer-stricken father. She said her father later died of his illness.

"They are supposed to destroy just the Hamas, but people in their homes are dying too," Hajji, who has relatives in Virginia, said at the Erez border crossing between Gaza and Israel.
President George W. Bush on Friday branded the Hamas rocket attacks an "act of terror," while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Hamas' leaders of holding the people of Gaza hostage.

"The Hamas has used Gaza as a launching pad for rockets against Israeli cities, and has contributed deeply to a very bad daily life for the Palestinian people in Gaza and to a humanitarian situation that we have all been trying to address," she said.
International calls for a cease-fire have been growing, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected in the region next week.

Bush said no peace deal would be acceptable without monitoring to halt the flow of smuggled weapons to terrorist groups.

"The United States is leading diplomatic efforts to achieve a meaningful cease-fire that is fully respected," Bush said Friday in his weekly radio address, released a day early. "Another one-way cease-fire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable. And promises from Hamas will not suffice — there must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end."

Israel has targeted Hamas leaders in the past but halted the practice during a six-month truce that expired last month. Most of Hamas' leaders went into hiding at the start of the Israeli offensive on Dec. 27.

Israeli troops in bases in southern Israel are awaiting orders to invade Gaza.
Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, speaking in Syria, warned that any ground assault would lead Israel to "a black destiny of dead and wounded."

However, he said Hamas was "ready to cooperate with any effort leading to an end to the Israeli offensive against Gaza, lifting the seige and opening all crossings."

Israel appears to be open to the intense diplomatic efforts by Arab and European leaders, saying it would consider stopping its punishing aerial assaults if international monitors were brought in to track compliance with any truce with Hamas.

Israel began its campaign to try to halt weeks of intensifying Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza. The offensive has dealt a heavy blow to Hamas but has not stopped the rockets, which continue to strike deeper and deeper into Israel. Three Israeli civilians and one soldier have been killed in the rocket attacks.

More than 30 rockets were fired into southern Israel on Friday, slightly injuring four. Sirens warning Israelis to take cover when military radar picks up an incoming rocket have helped reduce casualties in recent days.

Israeli TV showed video of a table set for the traditional Sabbath meal covered with shrapnel and broken glass.

After destroying Hamas' security compounds early in the operation, Israel has turned its attention to the group's leadership. Israeli warplanes on Friday hit about 20 houses believed to belong to Hamas militants and members of other armed groups, Palestinians said.
Israel also bombed a mosque it said was used to store weapons. The mosque was known as a Hamas stronghold and was identified with Nizar Rayan, the Hamas militant leader killed Thursday when Israel dropped a one-ton bomb on his home. Rayan, 49, ranked among Hamas' top five decision-makers. The explosion killed 20 people, including all four of Rayan's wives and 11 of his children.

Israel's military said the bombing of Rayan's house triggered secondary explosions from the weapons stockpile there.

Fear of Israeli attacks led to sparse turnout at Friday's communal prayers at mosques throughout Gaza. Still, thousands attended a memorial service for Rayan, with throngs praying over the rubble of his home and the nearby destroyed mosque.

An imam delivered his sermon over a car loudspeaker as the bodies of Rayan and other family members were covered in green Hamas flags. Explosions from Israeli airstrikes and the sound of warplanes could be heard.

Following the prayers, mourners marched with the bodies, with many people reaching out to touch and kiss them.

"The Palestinian resistance will not forget and will not forgive," said Hamas lawmaker Mushir Masri. "The resistance's response will be very painful."

Israel also destroyed homes of more than a dozen Hamas operatives. Most appeared to be empty, but one man was killed in a strike in the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.
Fourteen other Palestinians died Friday — killed in airstrikes or dying of wounds from earlier violence, officials said. Among them were two teenagers as well as three children — two brothers and their cousin — who were playing in southern Gaza, according to Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain.

Maxwell Gaylard, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinians Territories, said 2,000 people have been wounded in the past week and a "significant number" of the dead were women and children. "There is a critical emergency right now in the Gaza Strip," he said.

The U.N. World Food Program began distributing bread in Gaza to Palestinian families. It said there had been a drastic deterioration in living conditions, with shortages of food, cooking gas and fuel, as well as frequent power cuts.

Israel denies there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and has increased its shipments of goods into Gaza. It says it has confined its attacks to militants while trying to prevent civilian casualties.
The military has called some houses ahead of time to warn inhabitants of an impending attack. In some cases, aircraft also fired sound bombs to warn away civilians before flattening the homes with their missiles, Palestinians and Israeli defense officials said.

Israeli planes also dropped leaflets east of Gaza giving a confidential phone number and e-mail address for people to report locations of rocket squads. Residents appeared to ignore the leaflets.
In all, Israel allowed 270 Palestinians to cross the border from Gaza to flee the fighting. The evacuees all held foreign passports, and were expected to join their families in the U.S., Russia, Turkey, Norway, Belarus, Kazakhstan and elsewhere.

Nashwa Hajji, Jawaher's 13-year-old younger sister, said her family left their home following Israeli warnings, but others refused. "People said, 'We don't want to go. We will die where we are,'" she said.

The Hajji family was notified Thursday by the U.S. consulate that it was being evacuated. After crossing Erez, they and others boarded buses taking them to Amman, Jordan. Hajji said she, her mother and five siblings would fly to Virginia from there.

The State Department said it had assisted 27 U.S. citizens and members of their immediate families to leave Gaza on Friday and make their way to Jordan and stood ready to help others. Department officials said earlier this week they were aware of roughly 30 Americans in Gaza but that there could be others.

Many of the evacuees were foreign-born women married to Palestinians and their children. Spouses who did not hold foreign citizenship were not allowed out.

"I feel happy and sad," said Caroline Katba, 15, A Russian citizen. "Happy, because I am going to Russia, and sad, because my father is left behind."

9 Muslim passengers kicked off flight after remark

WASHINGTON – Nine Muslim passengers were kicked off a flight from Washington, D.C., to Florida after other passengers reported hearing a suspicious remark about airplane security.

AirTran Airways spokesman Tad Hutcheson called the incident on the New Year's Day flight from Reagan National Airport to Orlando, Fla., a misunderstanding, but defended the company's response. He said the airline followed federal rules and did nothing wrong.

One of the Muslim passengers, Kashif Irfan, told The Washington Post the confusion began when his brother was talking about the safest place to sit on an airplane.

"My brother and his wife were discussing some aspect of airport security," Irfan said. "The only thing my brother said was, 'Wow, the jets are right next to my window.'

Irfan told the newspaper he thought he and the others were profiled because of their appearance. The men had beards and the women wore headscarves, traditional Muslim attire.
Irfan, 34, is an anesthesiologist and his brother is a lawyer. Both live in Alexandria, Va., with their families, and were born in Detroit. They were traveling with their wives, Irfan's sister-in-law and Irfan's three sons, ages 7, 4 and 2. A family friend also was traveling with the group to a religious retreat in Florida.

Federal officials ordered the rest of the passengers from the plane and re-screened them before allowing the flight to depart.

The family was upset that AirTran didn't allow the Muslim passengers to book another flight. They eventually made it to their destination on a US Airways flight.
"The FBI agents actually cleared our names," Inayet Sahin, one of the family members kicked off the flight, told CNN. "They went on our behalf and spoke to the airlines and said, 'There is no suspicious activity here. They are clear. Please let them get on a flight so they can go on their vacation,' and they still refused."

Hutcheson said the passengers were given a full refund and are welcome to fly on AirTran now that the investigation is complete.

Hutcheson and a federal Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman said the pilot was right to postpone the flight.

"At the end of the day, people got on and made comments they shouldn't have made on the airplane, and other people heard them," Hutcheson said. "Other people heard them, misconstrued them. It just so happened these people were of Muslim faith and appearance. It escalated, it got out of hand and everyone took precautions."

One of the passengers removed, Abdur Razack Aziz, said he will consider a lawsuit.

US readying south Afghan surge against Taliban

By JASON STRAZIUSO and RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writers

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Afghanistan's southern rim, the Taliban's spiritual birthplace and the country's most violent region, has for the last two years been the domain of British, Canadian and Dutch soldiers. That's about to change. In what amounts to an Afghan version of the surge in Iraq, the U.S. is preparing to pour at least 20,000 extra troops into the south, augmenting 12,500 NATO soldiers who have proved too few to cope with a Taliban insurgency that is fiercer than NATO leaders expected.

New construction at Kandahar Air Field foreshadows the upcoming infusion of American power. Runways and housing are being built, along with two new U.S. outposts in Taliban-held regions of Kandahar province.

And in the past month the south has been the focus of visiting U.S. and other dignitaries — Sen. John McCain, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, U.S. congressional delegations and leaders from NATO headquarters in Europe.

For the first time since NATO took over the country in 2006, an experienced U.S. general, Brig. Gen. John Nicholson, is assigned to the south.

He says U.S. Gen. David McKiernan, NATO's commander in Afghanistan, has made the objectives clear in calling the situation in the south a stalemate and asking for more troops, on top of the 32,000 Americans already in Afghanistan.

"By introducing more U.S. capability in here we have the potential to change the game," Nicholson said.

The Army Corps of Engineers will spend up to $1.3 billion in new construction for troop placements in southern Afghanistan, said the corps commander in Afghanistan, Col. Thomas O'Donovan.

Violence in Afghanistan has spiked in the last two years, and Taliban militants now control wide swaths of countryside. Military officials say they have enough troops to win battles but not to hold territory, and they hope the influx of troops, plus the continued growth of the Afghan army, will change that.

U.S. officials hope to add at least three new brigades of ground forces in the southern region, along with assets from an aviation brigade, surveillance and intelligence forces, engineers, military police and Special Forces. In addition, a separate brigade of new troops is deploying to two provinces surrounding Kabul.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last month that Afghanistan could get up to 30,000 new U.S. troops in 2009, depending on the security situation in Iraq. Col. Greg Julian, a U.S. military spokesman, said Monday that one ground brigade should arrive by spring, a second by summer and a third by fall.

Nicholson said he expects the U.S. forces to be deployed in Kandahar city and along vital Highway 1, which links Kandahar to Kabul, and in neighboring Helmand province, the world's largest producer of opium poppies for heroin.

NATO forces are well positioned in three key areas of northern Helmand, said British Lt. Gen. J.B. Dutton, deputy commander of the NATO's Afghan mission.

"What we have not yet achieved is to join those areas up, so there is a security presence that allows locals to drive safely between those areas. That's the sort of thing we are going to want to improve," he said.

Since 2006, the U.S. has concentrated its forces in eastern Afghanistan, along the border with Pakistan, while the south is policed by 8,500 British troops, 2,500 Canadians and 2,500 Dutch.
Their overall commander is Dutch Maj. Gen. Mart de Kruif — who would also have command of any incoming U.S. forces in the south next year. By the fall of 2010 the top officer in the south will be American.

The infusion of U.S. power risks Americanizing a war that until now has been a shared mission of 41 coalition countries. But Dutton, the British general, suggested there was no choice. "It has to do with national capacity and a number of political considerations in those countries," he said. In Canada and many European countries, governments face low public support for keeping troops in Afghanistan combat zones.

Dutton said the British contribution is "significant," as well as that of Canada, which he noted has lost more troops per capita in Afghanistan than any other nation.

Nicholson, the U.S. general, said the Canadians have fought "heroically" but simply don't have enough forces to secure all of Kandahar. The Canadian Embassy declined to comment.

More U.S. troops — 151 — died in Afghanistan in 2008 than any of the seven years since the invasion to oust the Taliban, and U.S. officials warn violence will probably intensify next year. "If we get the troops, they're going to move into areas that haven't been secured, and when we do that, the enemy is there, and we're going to fight," said Nicholson, who spent 16 months commanding a brigade of 10th Mountain Division troops in eastern Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007.

That fighting should eventually clear the way for security and governance to take hold, he said. "If you want to summarize that as it's going to get worse before it gets better, that's exactly what we're talking about," he said.

Taliban militants kill 20 Afghan police in ambush

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Taliban militants ambushed a group of Afghan police while they were eating lunch in a remote and dangerous part of southern Afghanistan, killing 20 officers and one of the policeman's mother, an Afghan official said Thursday. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said two Taliban were killed and four wounded during the ambush. Ahmadi claimed 32 police were killed, but that number had not been confirmed by Afghan officials.

The attack came Wednesday in the small village of Shaghzay in the district of Kajaki in Helmand province, said Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for Helmand's governor. He said 20 police — bodyguards for the district chief of nearby Musa Qala — were killed. Musa Qala for many months of 2007 had been held by Taliban fighters.

The mother of one of the police pleaded with the militants to spare her son's life, and she was also killed, Ahmadi said.

The region between Musa Qala and Kajaki is filled with Taliban militants, and the Afghan government has little control outside of main district centers. Taliban fighters operate their own parallel government in the region, sometimes called a shadow government.

The Taliban's shadow police chief for Helmand province, Mullah Mohammad Qassim, claimed in a call to The Associated Press that one of the policemen in the group of bodyguards was a Taliban sympathizer and had helped set up the ambush. There was no way to confirm the claim.
Afghan police have less training and weapons than Afghan soldiers, and they often bear the brunt of Taliban attacks. At least 870 police were killed in attacks in 2008, including the 20 killed in Helmand. Some 925 died in 2007.

Meanwhile, NATO said two of its soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday. One of the troops was identified as British. The second soldier's nationality was not immediately released.

A record 151 U.S. forces died in Afghanistan in 2008, the deadliest year yet in a seven-year war that military officials say is likely to get even bloodier in 2009, as thousands more American troops pour into the country.

The number of roadside bombs doubled from the year before to roughly 2,000, with many of the devices more powerful than in previous years.

Iraq takes control of Green Zone from US

By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – The United States handed over control of the Green Zone and Saddam Hussein's presidential palace to Iraqi authorities on Thursday in a ceremonial move described by the country's prime minister as a restoration of Iraq's sovereignty.

At a ceremony marking the transition, Nouri al-Maliki said he will propose Jan. 1 be declared a national holiday to commemorate what he called "Sovereignty Day" — the day Iraq took the lead in security away from U.S. forces, regained control of its airspace and reclaimed a wide swath of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. Iraq already marks New Year's Day as a holiday.
The area that became known as the Green Zone on the west bank of the Tigris River was occupied by the United States shortly after the 2003 U.S. invasion and walled off from the rest of the city.

Until Wednesday, Saddam's former palace formally served as the U.S. Embassy and headquarters of the U.S military in Iraq. Thursday's palace handover was mostly ceremonial, as most U.S. diplomats and military officials long since moved to a new embassy building on the other side of the Green Zone, which is also known as the International Zone.

"This palace is the symbol of Iraqi sovereignty and by restoring it, a real message is directed to all Iraqi people that Iraqi sovereignty has returned to its natural status," al-Maliki said.

"We have the right to be proud and to be happy and to hold celebrations these days, especially on this day," said al-Maliki, adding he would submit his national holiday proposal to the cabinet. "This day is to be remembered and we have the right to consider it a national day."

The 4-square-mile area along the Tigris is separated from the city by a 13-foot-high wall of reinforced concrete, dotted with watch towers and machine gun nests.

Restricted to U.S. and Coalition personnel, several other embassies, Iraqi ministries and parliament, it was considered the most potent and visible sign of American occupation and had often come under insurgent attacks.

Although now under Iraqi control, it is unlikely to be dismantled any time soon because of the violence persisting around Baghdad — despite an overall dramatic drop in attacks and killings nationwide. But violence continued Thursday.

A roadside bomb killed two Iraqi soldiers in the town of Jalula, 80 miles northeast of Baghdad, a regional police official said.

In the northern city of Mosul, where the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq continues, a parked truck bomb killed three police officers trying to search it and wounded a bystander.

In the city of Kirkuk, also north of Baghdad, Iraqi and U.S. troops killed three suspected al-Qaida gunmen during a raid, police said.

Violence around Iraq had plunged in 2008, with attacks declining to an average of 10 a day from 180 a year ago. The murder rate in November was less than 1 per 100,000 people — far lower than many cities in the world.

U.S. military deaths in Iraq also plunged by two-thirds in 2008 from the previous year, a reflection of the improving security following the U.S. military's counterinsurgency campaign and al-Qaida's slow retreat from the battlefield.

According to a tally by The Associated Press, at least 314 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq in 2008, down from 904 in the previous year. In all, at least 4,221 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since the war began in 2003.

For Iraqis, the fatalities had also plunged: During 2008, at least 7,496 Iraqis died in war-related violence according to an AP count, including 6,068 civilians and 1,428 security personnel, down 60 percent from 2007.

The Associated Press tally does not reflect a comprehensive total for Iraqi deaths because reports do not come in from all of the country. The estimate, however, has proven accurate for tracking trends.

The plunge in violence in Iraq follows the U.S. "surge" of 2007, when thousands of additional troops were sent in to try to rein in a country that appeared to be on the verge of disintegration. That was coupled with a counterinsurgency campaign that included a decision by Sunni tribesmen to switch allegiances and fight al-Qaida. A focused effort to rout Shiite extremists also gave U.S. and Iraqi forces the upper hand.

Israel kills top Hamas figure, escalating campaign

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel assassinated a Hamas strongman Thursday in its first assault on the top leadership of Gaza's rulers, escalating a crushing aerial offensive even as it declared it was ready to launch a ground invasion.

The airstrike targeted the eight-story apartment building that was home to Nizar Rayan, 52, ranked among Hamas' top five decision-makers in Gaza. The attack killed 12 other people including two of Rayan's four wives and four of his 12 children, Palestinian health officials said. The Muslim faith allows men to have up to four wives.

While escalating its 6-day-old military offensive against Hamas in Gaza, Israel also appeared to be sounding out a possible diplomatic exit from its campaign by demanding international monitors as a key term of any future truce.

The offensive is meant to crush Gaza militants who have been terrorizing southern Israel with rocket fire that is reaching closer to the country's heartland than ever before.

In launching the campaign on Saturday, Israel made it clear that no one in Hamas was immune and Thursday's strike drove that point home. The airstrike blew a huge hole in the side of the building where Rayan lived and sent a thick plume of smoke into the air.

Hamas leaders went into hiding before Israel launched its operation, but Rayan was known for openly defying Israel.

Hamas threatened to take revenge against Israeli soldiers who were massed along the border with Gaza, waiting for a signal to invade.

"We are waiting for you to enter Gaza to kill you or make you into Schalits," it said, referring to Sgt. Gilad Schalit who was seized by Hamas-affiliated militants 2-1/2 years ago and remains in captivity.

Record 151 US troops die in Afghanistan in 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan – A record 151 U.S. forces died in Afghanistan in 2008, the deadliest year yet in a seven-year war that military officials say is likely to get even bloodier in 2009, as thousands more American troops pour into the country.

The number of roadside bombs doubled from the year before to roughly 2,000, with many of the devices more powerful than in previous years.

Unlike in 2007, when militants carried out ambushes only in small numbers, insurgents over the last year massed in groups of hundreds on multiple occasions. Some 200 militants nearly overran a small U.S. outpost in eastern Afghanistan in July, launching an early morning attack that killed nine U.S. troops.

U.S. forces suffered an average of 21 deaths in Afghanistan each month this year from May to October — by far the deadliest six-month period in Afghanistan for American soldiers since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban.

The U.S. now has some 32,000 forces in the country — record levels — and officials say those troops have moved into new territory and rousted militants in those regions.
But militants gained new ground in the south — even on the doorsteps of Kabul — and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced on a recent trip to Kabul that Afghanistan could see up to 30,000 new forces in 2009.

Col. Jerry O'Hara, a U.S. military spokesman, said Afghanistan is a "work in progress" but that advances were made in 2008.

"New forces are going to be coming to Afghanistan and it's going to come with a pretty lethal punch, if a lethal punch is still needed, to ensure we have security so we can work on development and governance," he said.

In addition to the 151 U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan this year, British troops suffered 50 deaths, and Canadian troops 28. Other countries in the 41-nation coalition lost 56 troops combined.

Afghan police again suffered gravely in the fight against Taliban and other insurgents. At least 850 Afghan police were killed over the last year, according to data compiled by The Associated Press. More than 925 Afghan policemen died in Taliban ambushes in 2007.

Overall, the AP recorded at least 6,340 insurgency-related deaths in Afghanistan over the last year. In 2007, AP recorded more than 6,500 deaths.

The AP count shows that U.S. and NATO military forces killed about 370 Afghan civilians during operations; Taliban and other militants killed about 770.

The AP count is based on figures from Western and Afghan officials and is not definitive. Afghan officials are known to exaggerate Taliban deaths, for instance, and NATO's International Security Assistance Force does not release numbers of militants it killed, meaning AP's estimate of 3,800 militant deaths is likely low.

The U.S. and NATO strategy relies on an increasingly capable Afghan army. But while the army is being recruited and trained — to an eventual strength of 134,000, up from about 70,000 today — the U.S. next year will send in thousands of new troops.

As those troops move into two provinces around Kabul, and into regions in the south long patrolled by British and Canadian forces, commanders say the level of violence will rise. The timing of some of the deployments is based on continuing improvement in the security situation in Iraq.

"If we get the troops, they're going to move into areas that haven't been secured, and when we do that, the enemy is there, and we're going to fight the enemy," Brig. Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in southern Afghanistan, said in an interview.

"So at first you're going to see a spike in violence and fighting and, unfortunately, casualties," he added. "But on the back end of that when we've defeated the enemy ... we'll be able to introduce governance and development. But people need to understand that there will be an increase in fighting and casualties to get to the point."

Israeli leaders reject immediate Gaza truce

JERUSALEM – Israeli officials say the country has decided to reject an immediate 48-hour pause in a devastating five-day offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

Israel's leaders are facing growing international pressure to halt the assault. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert discussed a cease-fire proposal floated by France's foreign minister with his foreign and defense ministers overnight.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting's contents were classified.

The officials say the meeting ended with a decision to continue operations. A top forum of Cabinet ministers entrusted with security matters will discuss the continuation of the offensive Wednesday.

Israeli jets and assault helicopters continued to pound targets Wednesday through pouring rain as the Gaza Strip entered its fifth day of battle.

By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer

Pakistan: India moves troops toward shared border

By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer Munir Ahmad, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan said Tuesday that India had moved troops toward their shared border, following Islamabad's own redeployment of forces toward the frontier amid tensions over the Mumbai attacks.

Indian officials would not comment on the claim, but denied another allegation that they had activated forward air bases.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi made the claims in a televised address that included overtures toward India to help improve the frayed ties between the nuclear-armed neighbors, who have already fought three wars in the past six decades.

"I understand India has activated their forward air bases, and I think if they are deactivated, then it will be a big positive signal," Qureshi said. "Similarly, as far as their ground forces are concerned and which have been deputed and deployed, if they relocated to their peacetime positions, then it will also be a positive signal."

Qureshi further offered to send a high-level delegation to New Delhi to help investigate the November assault in Mumbai, which killed 164 people.

The foreign minister, who was among several Pakistani leaders who have been calling for calm in the region, reiterated that India had not turned over any evidence backing up its claims that Pakistani militants had staged the Mumbai assault.

However, he noted that Indian officials had said that was because their own investigation was not over.

"And the government of Pakistan wants to assure them that when the evidence will come to us, our thinking from day one was constructive and peaceful and we will do our best to reach the bottom of the matter," Qureshi said.

An Indian military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters, denied that key air bases had been activated. "We have not activated any of our forward air bases," he said.

There was no immediate comment by India's defense ministry on the statement that the South Asian giant had moved some troops to forward positions.

Intelligence officials said last week that Pakistan is shifting thousands of troops away from its militant-infested northwest regions bordering Afghanistan and toward India. Witnesses in towns along the Indian border have reported seeing more troops than usual, but there have been no signs of a massive buildup on the Pakistani side.

Defiant Hamas hits Israel with dozens of rockets

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and JASON KEYSER, Associated Press Writers

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Palestinian militants sent a deadly barrage of missiles flying deep into Israel on Monday, demonstrating that Hamas still had firepower three days into Israel's punishing air offensive in Gaza.

Four Israelis, including a soldier, were killed and eight wounded. Palestinian health officials put the three-day death toll in Gaza at 364; the U.N. said the total included at least 62 civilians.
In Monday's attacks, Israel focused its bombing on the houses of Hamas field operatives in a campaign meant to tear at the roots of the extremist group ruling Gaza. Israel's defense minister promised a "war to the bitter end against Hamas" and allied militants.

Early Tuesday, Israeli aircraft dropped at least 16 bombs on five Hamas government buildings in a Gaza City complex, destroying them, setting fires and sending rubble flying for hundreds of yards, witnesses said. Rescue workers said 40 people were injured.

Intensified rocket strikes by Gaza militants, which triggered the Israeli offensive, have revealed the expanding range of missiles that are making larger cities farther inside Israel vulnerable.
In a barrage Monday night, a missile crashed into a bus stop in Ashdod, 23 miles from the Gaza Strip. A woman died and two others were wounded, one seriously — the first casualties in the city of 190,000 residents.

The military said an Israeli soldier was killed later in a mortar strike, the first soldier to be killed in the conflict. Five others were wounded, one seriously, according to a military statement.
Earlier Monday, an Israeli was killed and one seriously wounded by a rocket strike in the Negev desert community of Nahal Oz, closer to the Gaza border. A rocket also killed an Israeli construction worker in the city of Ashkelon. In all, five Israelis have been killed since the Gaza offensive began Saturday, bringing to 19 the number killed in rocket attacks from Gaza this year.

Early Tuesday, Hamas released a statement saying its squads had fired 43 homemade rockets, 17 longer-range Grads and six mortar shells at Israel. Other militant groups also fired rockets at Israel.

The targets chosen by Israel on Monday pointed to an intention to chip away at Hamas' foundation. Israeli aircraft staged five separate strikes on the houses of field operatives, though there was no confirmation that any of them were killed.

A grainy video taken by an Israeli drone airplane showed several men loading a pickup truck with what the Israeli military said were medium-range Grad rockets. Moments later, a big explosion from an Israeli missile strike envelops the image.

One Israeli attack targeted a house in the Jebaliya refugee camp, killing seven people, but the Hamas activist was not there, Hamas security and relatives said. Another hit the Jebaliya home of Abdel-Karim Jaber, a Hamas political figure who is a senior administrator at Gaza's Islamic University. He was not at home and it wasn't immediately clear if anyone was hurt in the strike.
In another air assault, an Islamic Jihad commander was killed as he was walking near his house, said Abu Hamza, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad's military wing.

Israel's airstrikes on more than 325 sites since midday Saturday reduced dozens of buildings to rubble, overwhelmed hospitals with wounded and filled Gaza's deserted streets with smoke and fire. The military said Israeli naval vessels had also bombarded targets from the sea.

On Monday, aircraft pulverized a house next to the home of Hamas Premier Ismail Haniyeh, a security compound and a five-story building at a university closely linked to the Islamic group — all symbols of Hamas strength in the coastal territory it has ruled since June 2007.

Israel's offensive has rattled the Middle East and capitals around the world, triggering street protests and fiery speeches by adversaries of Israel like the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. In the day's biggest outpouring of anger, tens of thousands of Hezbollah's supporters stood in a pouring rain in a Beirut square to condemn Israel.

Stone-throwing clashes broke out in about a half-dozen spots in the Palestinians' West Bank territory as well as in several Arab-populated areas inside Israel. Israeli police and soldiers fired rubber bullets and tear gas at rioting youths, but it did not appear anyone was injured.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Israel's offensive as excessive and demanded an immediate cease-fire. He said key international and regional players — including foreign ministers of the Arab League nations holding an emergency meeting Wednesday — must "act swiftly and decisively to bring an early end to this impasse."

The U.S. government said it was "vigorously engaged" in trying to restore a cease-fire.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe defended the Israeli response, but added that the Bush administration was urging Israel to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza.

With Israeli troops and tanks massing on the Gaza border, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told parliament he wanted to strike a devastating blow against Hamas. However, later he indicated a ground assault was not inevitable, issuing a warning that he was giving Hamas a last chance to halt its rocket fire.

Speaking in Hebrew, Barak told the lawmakers: "We have a war to the bitter end against Hamas, and the home front, which has turned into a battlefront, will continue to be a source of strength for the Israeli military." Some news organizations translated the start of the quote as saying "an all-out war on Hamas."

Short of reoccupying Gaza, however, it was unlikely any amount of Israeli firepower could completely snuff out militant rocket attacks. Past operations all failed to do so.
The Cabinet's decision over the weekend to call up 6,500 reserve soldiers could be a pressure tactic. Military experts noted no full combat units had been mobilized and said Israel would need at least 10,000 soldiers for a full-scale invasion.

For the first time, Israel also hit one of a series of tunnels prepared by Hamas along the border with Israel for use in attacks on invading ground troops, several Israeli TV networks said. One tunnel was packed with explosives and several militants inside were killed, Channel 1 said.
Most of those killed in three days of airstrikes were Hamas members. A Hamas police spokesman, Ehab Ghussen, said 180 members of Hamas security forces were among the dead.
But the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees expressed concern about civilian casualties. A rise in civilian casualties could intensify international pressure on Israel to end the offensive.
In New York, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said his agency had not been able to determine a precise number of civilian casualties, but knew of at least 62 women and children killed. He said 1,400 people had been injured. Eight children under the age of 17 were killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes Sunday night, Palestinian medics said.

Holmes said he was very worried about a shortage of humanitarian supplies in Gaza.
"Because of the effective blockade that's been in place for many months now, and because of the increasing tightening of this blockade in recent weeks around Gaza, stocks of vital items are either very low or nonexistent, and that's particularly the case, for example, with wheat flour," he said.

Israel opened one of Gaza's border crossings Monday to allow several ambulances and 62 trucks carrying medical supplies and food to cross. "Obviously these supplies are better than nothing, but they remain wholly inadequate," Holmes said, saying that his agency needed 100 truckloads of flour every day to meet needs.

In Gaza, some families left their apartments next to institutions linked to Hamas, fearing they could be targeted. Suad Abu Wadi, 42, kept her six children close to her on mattresses in her Gaza City living room. Her husband sat with them, chain-smoking. Abu Wadi said he had not said a word since seeing their neighbor carrying the body of his child, killed in an airstrike Saturday.

Gaza's nine hospitals were overwhelmed. Dr. Moaiya Hassanain, who keeps a record for the Gaza Health Ministry, said 364 Palestinians had died and more than 1,400 wounded. Some of the injured were being taken to private clinics and even homes, he said.

Egyptian officials said ambulances were ferrying wounded Gazans to hospitals in Egypt from Gaza's Rafah border crossing. Tariq al-Mahlawi, Egypt's deputy health minister, said 32 patients had been brought in by nightfall and that 500 beds were ready to treat Palestinians.
Around mid-afternoon, ambulances ferried the wounded from Gaza toward the crossing in the border town of Rafah, where over a dozen Egyptian ambulances waited to take over the casualties.

Despite Israel's battering attacks, sirens warning of incoming rockets sent Israelis scrambling for cover throughout the day as more than 40 rockets and mortar rounds rained down.
Israeli security officials warned that the militants' rockets are powerful enough now to reach Beersheba, a major city 30 miles from Gaza.

Mazal Ivgi, a 62-year-old resident of Beersheba, said she had prepared a bomb shelter. "In the meantime we don't really believe it's going to happen, but when the first boom comes people will be worried," she said.

Hamas calls 'reservists' to foil attack

Hamas's armed wing, Izaddin Kassam, on Monday announced that it was recruiting an additional 1,000 militiamen ahead of a possible IDF ground operation in the Gaza Strip.

The group said that thousands of volunteers from the Gaza Strip had also asked to be recruited to the movement in the past 48 hours so that they could fight against IDF soldiers.

The announcement came as sources close to Hamas said that the movement's armed wing had hardly been affected by the IDF operation that began on Saturday.

The sources told The Jerusalem Post that many of the casualties in the first two days of the operation were "ordinary" policemen who had been recently recruited to various branches of the security forces.

"These policemen were being enlisted to direct the traffic and fight crime," the sources said. "These are not the militiamen who are responsible for the rocket attacks on Israel."
This explains why Hamas did not rush to evacuate the headquarters of the "civilian" police force in Gaza City before the IDF offensive.

On the contrary, the police chiefs decided to go ahead with plans to hold a graduation ceremony for the cadets on Saturday because they did not believe that they would be targeted by Israel.
According to the sources, these policemen were not members of Izaddin Kassam. As such, they were never asked to participate in armed attacks on Israel. Nor had they been asked to prepare for the possibility of having to fight against the IDF when and if it invades the Gaza Strip.
"Almost all the policemen who were killed in the past three days were responsible for imposing law and order in the Gaza Strip," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. "Many of them were not even Hamas members."

Another Hamas operative said that Izaddin Kassam, which functions as the official Hamas "army," has over 15,000 men throughout the Gaza Strip who are better trained and equipped to fight against the IDF.

This is the same paramilitary force that defeated tens of thousands of US-backed Fatah policemen and security officers in the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

Ever since taking full control of the Gaza Strip, the Hamas militia have been busy training its men for the possibility of an IDF invasion or a revolt by Fatah loyalists.

The preparations included the construction of a vast network of underground tunnels and bunkers in various parts of the Gaza Strip, as well as the smuggling of tons of explosives and missiles across the border with Egypt.

A former Palestinian Authority security official estimated that Izaddin Kassam has over 20,000 rockets and mortars, as well as tens of thousands of tons of explosives.

The official said that according to reports emanating from the Gaza Strip, most of the group's commanders have survived the IDF offensive.

"Israel has managed to kill only a small number of Izaddin Kassam members," said a Palestinian journalist in Gaza City. "The Kassam doesn't have offices and public security bases. This is a clandestine organization entrusted with carrying out special missions."

The Hamas militiamen have now been entrusted with the task of repelling an IDF ground attack. Spokesmen for the group said on Monday that their men are determined to fight to the end.
"We have many surprises for Israel," said one of the spokesmen. "We are just waiting for the ground attack to teach them an unforgettable lesson."

HAMAS looking to change picture

Dec. 28, 2008

Herb Keinon ,

THE JERUSALEM POST

Israel delivered a heavy blow to Hamas Saturday and the organization's leadership was in shock, but looking for ways to surprise Israel and "change the picture," Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Yuval Diskin told the cabinet at its weekly meeting Sunday.

"Hamas has not yet responded, and may even try to surprise us," Diskin said. He said the organization viewed Saturday's attacks as the"first blow," but was now looking for courses of action that would change the situation.

Diskin was among the top security officials who briefed the cabinet Sunday, including Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The purpose of the meeting was to hear briefings on the situation, and not to debate the goals of the operation, one government official said. That discussion, which lasted four hours, was held last Wednesday in the Security Cabinet, where the military operation was approved.

Diskin, who is mandated with having his finger on the pulse of the mood in the territories, said that a not unsubstantial part of the Palestinian population understood that the operation was against Hamas, which had inflicted great suffering on them, as well. He did not say upon what this assessment was based.

The cabinet was also told that Israel had knocked out an estimated 50 percent of Hamas's underground rocket launching capacity on Saturday, but that the organization still retained a significant arsenal of short-and long-range missiles.

One cabinet official said that Hamas had not turned to Israel to negotiate a cease-fire and that no international player had contacted Israel in an attempt to mediate.

According to Ashkenazi, Israel had expected that Hamas would fire a volley of rockets into Israel after the first wave of air strikes, and therefore 15 minutes after the initial strike Israel knocked out the missile launchers located in underground pits throughout the Strip. Nevertheless, the cabinet was told that Hamas still retained thousands of missiles.

Ashkenazi said that most of the Palestinians' 230-250 casualties on Saturday were uniformed, armed Hamas personnel. Ashkenazi said the IDF would continue with the operation for as long as necessary, and would call up additional reservists in the coming day.

In light of that, the cabinet approved the Defense Ministry's request to call up 4,500 reserve troops, in addition to the 2,000 mobilized on Saturday. The additional troops were to be allocated to the home front as well as to reinforce ground forces.

The cabinet also approved a continued "special situation" in the Gaza periphery, a situation that went into effect Saturday and is expected to continue until March 31, 2009. This status enables the Home Front Command to instruct local authorities to close down factories, keep people in their homes and other emergency regulations.

In addition, ministers okayed the initiation of Melah (Economy in Time of Emergency) in the Gaza periphery, a plan that would mobilize civilians, along with government and security service infrastructure, to help in times of crisis.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the cabinet that "the patience, determination and stamina of the residents of the home front will, in the end, determine the ability of our military, security, civilian and diplomatic frameworks to function in order to complete the mission that we think must be attained."

Olmert said the government had launched the operation "to restore normal life and quiet to residents of the South who - for many years - have suffered from unceasing rocket and mortar fire and terrorism designed to disrupt their lives and prevent them from enjoying a normal, relaxed and quiet life, as citizens of any country are entitled to."

RESULTS OF MAHMOUD ABBAS VISIT TO RUSSIA

Palestinian leader MahmoudAbbas visited Russia.His visits to the United States and Russia over, Palestinian leaderMahmoud Abbas will complete his world tour in Egypt, today.

"Theamount of problems we are facing does not go down but we must continue," President Dmitry Medvedev told Abbas in Moscow."Complicated situation" in the region (Middle East) was also discussed in the talks with Premier Vladimir Putin late at night, yesterday. Russia transacted $20 million to the Palestinian Autonomy in twoinstallments in two years. The monies were spent on health care and education. What information is available indicates that the Palestinians will receive two helicopters from Russia in 2009. Moscow also intended to give the Palestinians some armored vehicles but theIsraelis hit the roof claiming that weapons mounted on the vehicles might end up in terrorists' hands instead of being used against them.

Tourism and investments were discussed at the talks with RussianForeign Minister Sergei Lavrov, yesterday. Meanwhile, investing in the region in question at this point certainly takes courage. Israeli-Palestinian negotiations failed to result in the coveted peace accords and agreement to establish the state of Palestine. HAMAS retains control over part of the autonomy.

"The Russian leadership views Abbas as the leader of the Palestinian people," Lavrov said. Dissatisfied with HAMAS nowadays, the Russian Foreign Ministry backed its criticism by the visitor. As for Abbas, he made numerous references to the mistakes HAMAS was making. To be more exact, Abbas said that it was wrong for HAMAS to refuse to attend Palestinian unity talks and to "manipulate religion". As for the faith, Abbas elaborated on this subject in the course of his unexpected trip to Chechnya. The Palestinian leader came to Grozny on the night preceding his arrival in Moscow. Abbas met with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and visited the grave of Akhmad Kadyrov assassinated on May 9, 2004.

"Geography of your trips is getting increasingly more extensive. You visited the Chechen Republic which we consider nice and useful," Abbas heard from Medvedev, yesterday.

Source: Vremya Novostei, No 238, December 23, 2008, p. 5