Iran blocks Web sites promoting reformist Khatami

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian authorities have blocked two Web sites promoting the presidential bid of Mohammed Khatami, reformists said Saturday, in a first sign that powerful hard-liners might seek to thwart his challenge to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election.

Khatami declared on Feb. 8 he would run again for president, setting the stage for a major political showdown in coming months between the popular reformist — who made dialogue with the West a centerpiece of his eight years as president — and the country's ruling hard-liners.

His candidacy poses a serious threat amid popular discontent with Ahmadinejad over the sagging economy, and the action against the Web sites came as Khatami named leaders in charge of his election campaign.

The Web sites, http://www.yaarinews.com and http://www.yaari.ir, were set up last summer in anticipation of Khatami's candidacy. They could not be accessed from inside Iran on Saturday, though they were viewable outside the country. Khatami's own campaign site, http://www.khatami.ir, was still accessible.

"At midday, we learned that our Web sites have been blocked. ... Closing down our Web sites means hard-liners are not going to tolerate Khatami challenging Ahmadinejad," Behrouz Shojaei, editor of one of the sites, told The Associated Press Saturday.

Yaari News, which Shojaei runs with other Khatami supporters, has reported on his candidacy, the reformist's views and growing support for his presidential bid. The other targeted Web site presented people's views on Khatami's candidacy.

Shojaei said the government was also likely angered after the sites reported that provincial officials bused people in to attend a rally where Ahmadinejad was speaking in the city of Yazd on Wednesday.

Ahmadinejad allies claimed that the relatively large crowd showed the hard-line president's popularity. It might also have been an attempt to strike a blow to Khatami, whose birthplace is Yazd.

Prominent Khatami ally Majid Ansari said blocking the sites was simply an attempt to increase pressure on reformists before the election.

"Reformist opponents assume they can block the path of people's understanding but people are wise enough to judge these actions," Ansari said.

"Blocking sites won't stop Khatami from challenging (Ahmadinejad)," he said.

Khatami's candidacy poses a serious challenge to Ahmadinejad, whose mixture of anti-Western rhetoric and fiery nationalism sharply contrasts with Khatami's tempered tones and appeals for global dialogue.

Khatami's decision to run against Ahmadinejad could significantly shake up Iran's politics, appealing to citizens disillusioned by the country's failing economy and Ahmadinejad's staunch anti-U.S. foreign policy.

Relations between the United States and Iran improved marginally during Khatami's eight years in office, and he encouraged athletic and cultural exchanges. But it deteriorated after the Sept. 11 attacks when former President George W. Bush declared Iran belonged to an "axis of evil." Ahmadinejad widened that gap after he was elected in 2005.

But Khatami's decision to run comes as President Barack Obama has signaled a willingness for a dialogue with Iran, particularly over the Islamic Republic's controversial nuclear program.

Hard-liners have vowed they would never again allow reformists to take control of the government and have used the Guardian Council, an election watchdog that vets candidates, and other institutions they control to block reformists from gaining power. It is unclear if the Council will move to block Khatami's candidacy.

Reformists have suffered setbacks in past years as hard-liners and conservatives have consolidated power. Hundreds of reformist newspapers have been shut down, and the Guardian Council barred thousands of reformist candidates from running in parliamentary elections in 2004 and 2008.

Thousands protest killing of two men in Indian Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India (AFP) – Thousands of Kashmiris Saturday held noisy anti-India demonstrations following the death of two young men in a shooting incident allegedly involving Indian troops, police and residents said.

The killings took place Saturday evening near the apple-growing town of Sopore, 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of the summer capital Srinagar.

Residents said two men traveling in a car died when soldiers opened fire after a group of Kashmiri youths threw stones at them and chanted anti-India slogans.

A spokesman for the army said they were investigating the incident, which left a third Kashmiri seriously hurt.

"Initial investigations point to army's role in the killings," said a senior police officer of Baramulla district, of which Sopore is an important town.

He said thousands of angry Kashmiris chanting "we want freedom" and "Allah is great" took to the streets to protest the deaths.

Sopore is a stronghold of hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani.

Kashmir is in the grip of a nearly two decade old insurgency against Indian rule that has so far left more than 47,000 people dead, according to official figures.

Anti-India sentiments run deep in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, which last year witnessed some of the biggest pro-freedom protests. Over 50 Muslims were killed, mostly by security forces.

Pakistani Taliban say Swat ceasefire to be reviewed

By Junaid Khan

MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan said on Saturday officials had agreed a "permanent" truce with Taliban fighters in the northwestern Swat valley, but a Taliban commander said its own ceasefire would be reviewed next week.

"They have made a commitment that they will observe a permanent ceasefire and we'll do the same," Syed Mohammad Javed, the Commissioner of Malakand, told reporters after meeting with elders in Swat.

Around 1,200 people have been killed and between 250,000 and 500,000 people have fled the valley which lies within the Malakand division of North West Frontier Province.

Last Sunday, Islamist militants called a 10-day ceasefire in the valley as a "goodwill gesture" towards the peace talks. It runs out on Wednesday.

"We heard that the government announced a permanent ceasefire, but we have announced a 10-day ceasefire and we will consider an extension when it ends," Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah told illegal FM radio.

Western governments, and many Pakistanis, have been alarmed by the government's offer to reinstate sharia law in Malakand if the Taliban agreed to peace.

They fear that a ceasefire could result in another sanctuary in Pakistan where al Qaeda and Taliban militants could move freely, and also worry that Taliban fighters elsewhere in the region will be encouraged by the government's move.

Fazlullah congratulated his men on what he said was the reintroduction of sharia (Islamic law) in Malakand. "Your sacrifices have not gone to waste, but they have proved a success for Pakistan, particularly for Malakand," he said.

Government officials were not immediately available to comment on Fazlullah's statement.

Javed said efforts were being made to persuade the Taliban to allow girls' schools to reopen. Militants had torched around 200 girls' schools in Swat in a campaign against female education. Boys' schools will reopen on Monday.

The ceasefire announcement came a day after Fazlullah met his father-in-law, Maulana Sufi Mohammad, a radical cleric freed by the government to negotiate peace.

IN PRINCIPLE

The deal was agreed in principle on Monday by the government for NWFP and Sufi Mohammad, who then carried back the proposals to Fazlullah. He is said to have forged links with other Pakistani jihadi groups and al Qaeda.

Sufi Mohammad led a revolt in 1994 in an attempt to bring Islamic sharia law back to Swat, and went on to lead an army of thousands of tribesmen in a futile attempt to help Taliban and al Qaeda fighters hold off U.S.-led forces in 2001.

He was arrested after his return to Pakistan and spent six years in jail before the government released him last year.

Richard Holbrooke, special U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, expressed unease over developments in Swat on Thursday and said he had been told by President Asif Ali Zardari that the pact being negotiated with the Islamists was an "interim arrangement" to stabilize the Swat region.

Zardari will not sign off on the re-introduction of Islamic law in Malakand unless peace is assured, according to officials.

Holbrooke visited Pakistan last week on his first tour of the region since being appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama.

Pakistani officials said U.S. officials had urged Paksitan to exert more force in Swat, rather than negotiate.

But the army is fighting Taliban insurgencies elsewhere in the northwest, notably the tribal regions of Bajaur and Mohmand, and wants to be supplied with counter-insurgency equipment.

Pakistan says truce agreed with Taliban in Swat

By SHERIN ZADA, Associated Press Writer

MINGORA, Pakistan – Pakistan has agreed to an open-ended cease-fire with Taliban militants in the Swat Valley, government officials said Saturday, extending a truce as the country pursues broader, much-criticized talks aimed at calming a large swathe of its northwestern region bordering Afghanistan.

The Taliban leader in Swat, however, said the militants would only decide on whether to halt fighting for good after a 10-day cease-fire announced last Sunday expires — and that decision hinged on the government taking unspecified "practical steps."

The twists underscored the fragile nature of peace talks in Pakistan's northwest, where al-Qaida and Taliban militants have established strongholds. Past peace deals have collapsed, including one last year with militants in Swat that security officials said simply allowed the insurgents to regroup.

Also Saturday, a roadside bomb killed one person elsewhere in Pakistan's chaotic northwest along a supply route that is used heavily by U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the mother of an American kidnapped in southwestern Pakistan issued the family's first public appeal for his release.

Taliban fighters in the Swat Valley have beheaded opponents, torched girls schools and terrorized the police to gain control of much of the one-time tourist haven, despite a lengthy military offensive. Hundreds have been killed and up to a third of the valley's 1.5 million residents have fled, making the government increasingly desperate to pacify the area.

In a talks with a hardline, Taliban-linked cleric, the government agreed Monday to impose Islamic law in Swat and surrounding areas if the extremists stop fighting. It also suspended the military offensive, though it did not pull out troops. The cleric, Sufi Muhammad, was dispatched to persuade the militants to agree to peace.

On Saturday, senior regional official Syed Muhammad Javed told reporters in Swat: "The government and the Taliban fighters have decided to observe a permanent cease-fire. The Taliban has agreed to it and so do we."

Area government official, Shaukat Yousufzai, confirmed that both sides agreed to extend the cease-fire but told the AP the talks between Muhammad's group and representatives of Swat Valley Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah — Muhammad's son-in-law — would proceed.

"Our representatives have listened to them, and they will listen to them if there is anything more they want to convey," he said.

Fazlullah said the Taliban still had to discuss the deal. "We will consult again after the 10-day cease-fire," he said in a radio address. "We will also observe a permanent cease-fire if the government takes practical steps."

Though he did not specify what those steps should be, Fazlullah urged Pakistan to enforce Islamic law in the area and create "an environment of confidence."

The U.S., NATO and Britain — as well as human rights activists — have voiced concerns about the talks, with NATO warning they could create a safe haven for Islamist extremists. Pakistan has deflected the criticism, saying they were merely responding to long-standing local demands for a more efficient justice system.

The legal changes they have publicly mentioned are technical, and do not involve the harsh interpretations of Islamic law adhered to by many Taliban, such as banning female education.

Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters hidden in sanctuaries in northwestern Pakistan have managed to strike at the Western military effort in Afghanistan without crossing the border, by attacking traffic along the main land supply route to the Khyber Pass.

The roadside bomb Saturday apparently targeted an oil tanker headed to NATO troops in Afghanistan, local government official Ameer Zada Khan said. The remote-controlled bomb killed one person and wounded two others near the Landi Kotal area, he said.

As Pakistan's overall security has deteriorated, foreigners have become popular targets.

United Nations official John Solecki was taken captive Feb. 2 in the southwest city of Quetta in Baluchistan province, and his kidnappers have threatened to kill him.

His 83-year-old mother, Rose Solecki, asked the people of Baluchistan for help in securing her son's freedom.

"I cannot begin to explain the sorrows and pain that I am going through right now," Solecki said in an audio message released through the U.N. "My husband and I are old. We want to be with John again."

Solecki's kidnappers have identified themselves as the previously unknown Baluchistan Liberation United Front, indicating they are linked with separatists, not Islamists.

US finds 13 civilians died in Afghanistan strike

By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – An operation the American military at first described as a "precision strike" instead killed 13 Afghan civilians and only three militants, the U.S. said Saturday, three days after sending a general to the site to investigate.

Civilian casualties have been a huge source of friction between the U.S. and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has stepped up demands that U.S. and NATO operations kill no civilians and that Afghan soldiers take part in missions to help prevent unwanted deaths.

A U.S. military statement said the decision to dispatch a general to the western province of Herat to investigate shows how seriously the U.S. takes civilian casualties. The U.S. rarely releases the findings of civilian casualty investigations, and the disclosure this time could show the effect of Karzai's criticisms.

The U.S. military originally said 15 militants were killed Tuesday in a coalition operation in the Gozara district of Herat province, but Afghan officials said six women and two children were among the dead, casting doubt on the U.S. claim.

Afghan officials say the group targeted in the airstrikes were living in two tents in a remote area. An ethnic group of Afghans known as Kuchis travel the countryside with livestock and live in tents. Photographs obtained by The Associated Press from the site showed the body of a dead young boy — bloodied and dirtied.

In response, Brig. Gen. Michael Ryan traveled to the site to meet with Afghan elders. Investigators found weapons and ammunition, but concluded that 13 civilians were killed along with three militants, the U.S. said.

An expert on civilian casualties said she was "cautiously optimistic" the U.S. is taking a new approach in dealing with civilian casualties. Sarah Holewinski, the executive director of The Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, said more high-ranking military officials are visiting gravesites and apologizing.

In recent weeks, she said, Defense Secretary Robert Gates "turned the old way of doing things on its head."

"Instead of immediately denying civilian deaths, which deeply angers Afghans and with good reason, he said the U.S. will instead immediately investigate, make apologies and provide amends where appropriate," she said.

The U.S. on Saturday released photos of Ryan talking with Afghan elders and embracing a mourning man.

"We expressed our deepest condolences to the survivors of the noncombatants who were killed during this operation," Ryan said in a statement. "Our inquiry in Herat demonstrates how seriously we take our responsibility in conducting operations against militant targets and the occurrence of noncombatant casualties.

"Our concern is for the security of the Afghan people. To this end, we continually evaluate the operations we conduct during the course of our mission in Afghanistan and have agreed to coordinate our efforts jointly," Ryan said.

Holewinski said an upfront apology is what "U.S. and allied troops should have been doing from the beginning."

"Avoid harm, investigate when it occurs, apologize and provide compensation or other amends," she said.

After increasingly angry demands by Karzai for more U.S.-Afghan military cooperation, the American and Afghan militaries announced plans this month to increase the number of Afghans who will take part in U.S. operations.

The Afghan Defense Ministry condemned the civilian deaths in a statement Wednesday but noted it would take more time to implement the agreement. It also urged U.S. forces to "be very careful during their operations."

The investigative team's trip to Herat came one day after the U.N. released a report saying 2,118 civilians died in the Afghan war last year, a 40 percent increase over 2007 and the most in any year since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that ousted the Taliban's hard-line Islamist regime.

The report said U.S., NATO and Afghan forces killed 829 civilians, or 39 percent of the 2008 total. Of those, 552 deaths were blamed on airstrikes. Militants were blamed for 55 percent of the deaths, or 1,160.

President Barack Obama this week announced the deployment of 17,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 already in the country to fight an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency. A higher number of troops in the country also means that civilian casualties could increase.

In Kabul, meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Karzai for talks about the ongoing American strategic review of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, the president's office said.

Pelosi, D-Calif., arrived in Afghanistan on Friday to meet with Afghan officials and U.S. and NATO military leaders and troops, said Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a U.S. military spokeswoman.

Afghanistan was to send a high-level delegation headed by Foreign Minister Dadfar Rangeen Spanta to the U.S. on Sunday "to review the joint strategy and the fight against terrorism," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Saturday.

Afghanistan's interior and defense ministers, its national security director and chief of intelligence are on the delegation.

Pakistan is also sending representatives. Spanta and Pakistan's foreign minister are expected to meet together with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Movladi Udugov: ''Everything said by Russian puppets, including about Maskhadov – is a lie''

The head of Analysis and Information Service of the Caucasus Emirate, Movladi Udugov has briefly commented on recent developments related to propagandistic activities of the group of defectors from the former organization men of CRI and the combatants defected to the side of Russian infidels and joined the ringleader of pro-Moscow apostates Kadyrov.

Movladi Udugov said:

"Everything that is being told by these Russian puppets, including about Maskhadov - is a lie. There has not been any the-called "document" at all, according to which Maskhadov had reportedly offered Russians "to annex Ichkeria" to Russia.

If such a document had existed, the FSB, which captured the entire archive of Maskhadov after his assassination, would has been released it long time ago or at least would has been told about its existence. If, as they say, Maskhadov had constantly called to Moscow, the same FSB would has been released recording of those conversations long time ago.



In addition, the defectors' claims that allegedly Basayev and Yandarbiyev had "approved" "Ichkeria's entry into Russia", clearly points to the falsity of these allegations on the very fact of this absolute absurdity.



The only document that was approved by Aslan Maskhadov, and was known by everyone, including in Europe and in Russia - is the so-called plan "conditional independence of CRI" of Ilyas Akhmadov, who offered introduction of international control (UN) over Ichkeria similar to that later was done in Kosovo.



The have not been any other documents, not including the attempts of Zakayev wedging with his so-called "Liechtenstein initiative", developed by Rybkin and Berezovsky, who was rejected by Maskhadov.



Everything else is a completely lie and chit-chat, including the statements of Kadyrov, which in the Chechen society allowed themselves to do only Chechenized slaves, who gained power over the Chechens from the hands of enemies.



These Moscow puppets are playing only that play and say only those texts that are approved by the Lubyanka, although the Cheka propaganda, not without the help of the so-called democratic press, trying to impress the opposite, pumping the television image of its marionette.



Discussing with puppets, who look for arguments to justify their betrayal, and who are call the monstrous humiliation of the Chechen people a "national revival" - is absurd and has no meaning.



We are living in different dimensions that would never coincide, pursuing different goals, which would never unite.



They look for in this world the satisfaction of infidels and are fighting for the establishment of their laws. Mujahideen are looking for satisfaction of Allah and struggling for the establishment of laws of Lord of the Worlds.



They would arise in the Judgment Day in the company of unfaithful - with their current friends and masters. Mujahedin would arise in the company of their comrades who gave their lives for the fact that the word of Allah was above all on this earth.



Infidels and their henchman apostates are doing what they can, what in their power and Mujahideen are doing what they can, what in their power. And the result is with Allah. Everything else has no meaning.



The only thing that is acceptable is the words of former Chief of Security of Maskhadov - Shaa Turlayev, who did not pass the fall to his lot of the test of Allah, and turned from the Mujahid into Kadyrovite: "We know them, they know us. We know who is who and who worths what".

French anti-piracy fleet can use Yemeni ports, minister says

Sana'a, Yemen - Yemen has agreed to provide French navy ships operating in the EU-led anti-piracy mission off Somalia with logistical services at its ports, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Saturday. Kouchner, who paid a one-day visit to Sana'a, made the announcement after a meeting with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

"France and Yemen will exert joint efforts to fight piracy. It is unacceptable to let pirates attack cruise and commercial ships," the French minister said.

Piracy off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden has surged in recent months as Somalia descended further into chaos and unrest.

Kouchner said his country would support the newly-elected Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed to set up security forces and a coastguard force to help secure shipping around the Horn of Africa.

He added he would hold talks on this regard with Sheikh Sharif in Djibouti on Sunday.

The Gulf of Aden, which lies between Yemen and Somalia, and connects the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean, has seen an unprecedented rise in piracy, with 42 ships hijacked and 69 piracy attempts thwarted in 2008.

The waterway is one of the world's most important sea lanes, and an important thoroughfare for goods heading from Asia to Europe.

Lebanese Army responds to rocket fire

Troop reinforcements have been sent to southern Lebanon after rocket and artillery fire were exchanged with Israel Saturday, Lebanese military officials said.

The Lebanese Army Command said in a statement that troop reinforcements along with international peacekeepers were deployed to southern Lebanon after hostilities began with "a suspicious party" firing several rockets from a region south of the port city of Tyre in the direction of Israel, KUNA, the Kuwait News Agency, reported.

"The Israeli enemy after the firing of the rockets attacked Lebanon with eight artillery shells that exploded in the vicinity of Quleileh-Almansouri axis," the statement said.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Al-Siniora told reporters that the firing of the rockets and the Israeli retaliation constituted violation of the UN resolution 1701.

The Palestinian militant group Hezbollah denied firing the rockets into Israel, as did the Palestinian Fatah movement in Lebanon. KUNA reported, saying Lebanese Army troops had located the two rocket launchers that were used for firing the missiles into Israel.