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Israel Gearing Up
For Gaza Attack
A senior Israeli war official has said the military is in preparation for incursions into the Gaza Strip despite a truce deal with Hamas.
“It is not clear how much longer the ceasefire will last and we need to be prepared for an operation in Gaza,“ a senior official told The “Jerusalem Post“.
A ceasefire implemented in the Gaza Strip last month has been violated by the regime for several times, according to Al-Jazeera.
On Thursday, Israeli troops shot dead a teenage Palestinian along the border with the Gaza Strip.
Hamas however said the group would continue to observe the truce with Israel.
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An Israeli soldier directs a Merkava tank as it leaves its position at an army outpost near the Nahal Oz crossing on the border with the Gaza Strip on June 19.
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“The Palestinian factions show a great commitment to making this understanding successful, but the occupation must also be committed to their obligations,“ Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
The truce was meant to ease an Israeli imposed blockade on the Gaza Strip since Hamas took power in the territory in June 2007.
Olmert Should Resign
Meanwhile, most registered Kadima voters believe Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should not run in the primary elections for party chairmanship scheduled for mid-September, this according to a poll published on Friday by “Yedioth Ahronoth“.
The survey of 508 registered Kadima voters, which was conducted by the Dahaf Institute, showed that 79% of them believe Olmert should resign amid the ongoing corruption investigation against him, while only 17% of the party’s registered voters believe he should not step down.
According to the poll, a total of 57% of the registered members believe the prime minister, who is expected to be questioned by police for the third time regarding the hundreds of thousands of dollars he allegedly received over a 15-year period from Jewish-American businessman Morris Talansky, should not run in the primaries and should not take part in the primary elections.
The survey further revealed that should Olmert decide to run for party leadership, he would lose to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who, according to the poll, enjoys the support of 37% of the voters as opposed to 18% who back the PM. Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz is expected to gain 22% of the votes, the poll showed.
Detainees Arrested
Hamas has detained two armed men from Fatah group who fired Qassam rockets into Israel, a move which jeopardizes truce deal in the region.
The men were arrested after two Qassam rockets were fired from northern Gaza towards Israel on Thursday afternoon, “Ynet“ reported on Friday.
“They chased the two after they fired the rockets and abducted them,“ an official from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group linked to Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah group, said.
One of the rockets was landed near a kibbutz in the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council.
Al-Aqsa claimed it launched the rockets in response to an incident earlier on Thursday in which a Palestinian man belonging to the organization was killed by Israeli forces on the Gaza border.
“The firing (of rockets) endangers the ceasefire. This is an attempt to disrupt the truce and not a response to Israeli actions,“ Hamas officials said.
Another senior Hamas leader, Moussa Abu Marzouk said “Firing rockets (to Israel) is just an act by individuals and not by the resistance groups, and efforts are under way to put them under control.“
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Iraq Seeks to Limit US Powers
The US military presence in Iraq should be codified and brought under Iraqi government power, Iraqi Vice-President Adel Abdel-Mahdi said.
Iraq’s government has asked the United States to put an end on the immunity and other infinite rights of the foreign troops there, Abdel-Mahdi told the Arab daily “Asharq Al-Awsat“ Thursday.
He said the Iraqi officials were seeking to modify the conditions since November 2003, but the former US Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld escaped to specify the ’Status of Forces’ in Iraq in February 2004.
Abdel-Mahdi said the US military commander can take into custody any Iraqis and confiscate any Iraqi building and property while we cannot detain any US soldier who has committed even the worst crimes.
“Even the Iraqi president’s order is not effective at the US checkpoints in the Iraqi government’s headquarters,“ Abdel-Mahdi said.
Asked on Iraq-US security pact, Abdel-Mahdi said,“ We are discussing the draft of the security pact with the US and there is no signed agreement yet.“
Boosting Ties
Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the first Turkish leader to visit Iraq in nearly 20 years. His visit came on the same day Kuwait said it planned to name an ambassador to Baghdad soon because security had improved, further easing Iraq’s regional diplomatic isolation, Reuters reported.
Erdogan pledged on Thursday to boost ties with Iraq and urged the region to do more to help the Baghdad government rebuild after years of war.
The Turkish leader said both Baghdad and Ankara wanted to form a “security area that would eliminate terrorist threats between the two countries“.
Relations have often been strained by Kurdish PKK rebels who use northern Iraq to launch attacks into neighboring Turkey.
Erdogan and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki established a council for “strategic cooperation“. Ministers for security, energy, trade, investment and water resources would sit on the council and meet three times a year, a joint statement said.
Middle East Command
In other news, the US Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly confirmed Army Gen. David Petraeus as commander of the military headquarters responsible for US operations across the Middle East, including Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Senate confirmed him by a vote of 95-2.
It also confirmed, 96-1, the nomination of Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno as top commander in Iraq, replacing Petraeus. Odierno, who served as Petraeus’ deputy in the war, will be promoted to full general, Reuters reported.
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Rebels Killed
A Turkish news agency reported on Friday that army troops clashed with Kurdish rebels in the southeast and that 10 of the rebels were killed.
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Egypt Detains 70 Brotherhood Activists
Nearly 70 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood members have been arrested and detained in two days in north of Cairo, a security service official said on Thursday.
According to ’Alalam’, thirty members of the banned but tolerated group were arrested on Thursday at ’Dessuq’, in “Kafr el-Sheikh“ province, where a by-election was being held, said a security official on condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, 100 Brotherhood supporters were arrested during a march in the same area, of whom 62 were released. The other 38, members of the Brotherhood, remain detained, the official said.
The detainees are accused of supporting a candidate belonging to the group, the main opposition group in Egypt.
The Muslim Brotherhood, created in 1928, was officially banned in Egypt in 1954 but is relatively tolerated.
It has one-fifth of the seats in parliament, won in the election in 2005, with candidates standing as “independent.“
Since the 2005 vote, Egyptian authorities have prosecuted leading members of the Brotherhood in military tribunals and arrested thousands of members and supporters.
10 Arrested Over US Consulate Shooting
Authorities detained 10 suspects on Thursday in connection with the attack on the US Consulate in Istanbul that ignited a firefight leaving three policemen and three assailants dead.
Police and Turkey’s intelligence agency also were investigating whether one of the slain gunmen had any relationship with Al-Qaeda when he visited Afghanistan, AP said.
Police suspect the attackers had ties to Al-Qaeda but so far say they have no actual proof.
Interior Minister Besir Atalay said on Thursday that 10 people were in custody. One of the attackers escaped in a getaway car, but it was not immediately clear if he was among the 10 detained.
Erkan Kargin, one of the three attackers killed by police outside the consulate, had traveled previously to Afghanistan, according to a government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Dozens of militants from Turkey have had military training in Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and some also fought and died in Al-Qaeda ranks in Iraq, Turkish officials say.
If Kargin’s suspected relationship with Al-Qaeda is confirmed, the police are likely to label the attackers as militants linked to Al-Qaeda in Turkey, said Demirel, the Turkish terrorism expert.
Homegrown militants have been posing an increasing threat to Turkey. As both a secular state and a US ally, it is a high-profile target for Islamists who subscribe to Al-Qaeda’s world view.
“Al-Qaeda has chosen Turkey as a main target and it would not be wrong to assume that the group would have instructed cells in Turkey to act,“ said Ihsan Bal, head of terrorism studies at Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization.
Yet he added this does not mean Al-Qaeda leaders are issuing direct orders to all their Turkish adherents.
Sudan Leader to Face Genocide Charges
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court will seek an arrest warrant on Monday for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, charging him with genocide and crimes against humanity in the orchestration of a campaign of violence that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in the nation’s Darfur region during the past five years, according to UN officials and diplomats.
According to the “Washington Post“, the action by the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina, will mark the first time that the tribunal in The Hague charges a sitting head of state with such crimes, and represents a major step by the court to implicate the highest levels of the Sudanese government for the atrocities in Darfur.
Some UN officials raised concerns Thursday that the decision would complicate the peace process in Darfur, possibly triggering a military response by Sudanese forces or proxies against the nearly 10,000 UN and African Union peacekeepers located there.
At least seven peacekeepers were killed and 22 were injured Tuesday during an ambush by a well-organized and unidentified armed group.
Representatives from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council--Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States--met with UN officials Thursday to discuss the safety of peacekeepers in Darfur.
UN military planners have begun moving peacekeepers to safer locations and are distributing food and equipment in case the Sudanese government cuts off supplies.
The violence in Darfur began in February 2003 when two rebel groups attacked Sudan’s Islamic government, claiming a pattern of bias against the region’s black African tribes.
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