Panetta blames lack of intelligence for Benghazi attack

Arguing that the Pentagon was prepared for a wide range of contingencies, the US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta today blamed the lack of "specific intelligence" for the inability to quickly respond to the terrorist attack at US Consulate in Libya last year.

The September 11 terrorist attack on the Consulate in Libyan capital of Benghazi killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

"On that tragic day, as always, the Department of Defence was prepared for a wide range of contingencies? Unfortunately, there was no specific intelligence or indications of an imminent attack on US facilities in Benghazi.

"Frankly without an adequate warning, there was not enough time given the speed of the attack for armed military assets to respond," Panetta told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
In his probably last testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee as the Defence Secretary, Panetta argued that that the US was not dealing with a prolonged or continuous assault, which could have been brought to an end by a US military response.

"Time, distance, the lack of an adequate warning, events that moved very quickly on the ground prevented a more immediate response," he said while responding to a volley of questions from agitated members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"Even if we were able to get the F-16s or the AC-130s over the target in time, the mission still depends on accurate information about what targets they're supposed to hit. And we had no forward air controllers there. We had no communications with US personnel on the ground. And as a matter of fact, we had no idea where the Ambassador was at that point to be able to kind of conduct any kind of attacks on the ground," he argued.

General Martin Dempsey, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff too appeared before the Congressional Committee to testify on the tragic Benghazi attack.

Top Republican Senator John McCain, entered into a heated debate with Dempsey. "I have to admit it's one of the more bizarre statements that I have ever seen in my years in this committee. When you're talking about the Benghazi issue, you say, 'We positioned our forces in a way that was informed by and consistent with available threat estimates.'

"Then you go on to say, 'Our military was appropriately responsive,' even though seven hours passed and two Americans died at the end of that. Then you go on and say, 'We did what our posture and capabilities allowed'," McCain said quoting from the earlier statement of Dempsey.

Resurgence of revolt where Arab Spring began

As dozens of riot police fired volleys of tear gas towards crowds of angry youths on Bourghiba Avenue this week, the scene was disturbingly reminiscent of what happened on this very avenue two years ago.

Even the chanting was the same: "We want the downfall of the regime!"

The target of the crowd's anger may be a different government, but many here feel their efforts in 2011, when they succeeded in removing Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, may have been for nought.

Many outsiders, myself included, always believed the Tunisian "Jasmine" uprising had the best chance of succeeding, of building a vibrant new democracy, above all the other subsequent Arab revolutions.

Tunisia has a large civic society and almost everyone goes to school until the age of 16. French is widely spoken, in the big cities at least.

After elections to a constituent assembly, the winning Ennahda party - though allied to the Muslim Brotherhood - promised to be inclusive, and brought in several liberal elements into its interim administration.

But, as in Egypt, liberal and secular Tunisians are discovering that democracy is not so easily won.

 

Salafists emboldened

The murder of leftist secular politician Chokri Belaid may have come as a shock to most Tunisians, but there have been underlying tensions here for months.

Belaid, in many ways an old-fashioned socialist, was also a vocal opponent of Ennahda's governing coalition.

Although Ennahda portrays itself as a moderate and tolerant body, the government's critics say that in recent months it has allowed ultraconservative Muslim groups, or Salafists, to impose their will and opinions on what was always regarded as a bastion of Arab secularism.

Salafists have stopped music concerts, disrupted art shows, ransacked the US embassy (ostensibly in anger at a film which portrayed the Prophet Muhammad in a negative light) and have protested violently at universities.

The day before he was killed - shot four times as he left for work - Belaid had warned there was a climate of systematic violence sweeping across the country and threatening the revolution's many gains.

His murder "deprives Tunisia of one of its most courageous and free voices", said French President Francois Hollande.

His funeral on Friday in central Tunis is bound to be an emotional, angry event. Members of the government have been warned to stay away.

 

Crossroads

More demonstrations are expected in days ahead

And even though political leaders have responded by saying they will form a unity government made up of technocrats until new elections are held, more trouble is expected in towns across Tunisia in coming days.

This country of 11 million people is again at a crossroads.

The state of the economy, which relies heavily on "fickle" markets like tourism worries everyone.

Overseas interests - in particular French companies - continue to base themselves here and are a vital part of this country's future. If they were to be frightened off by political instability, those positive signs we all saw two years ago would begin to fade.

It is easy to see a scenario in which everything quickly deteriorates.

In the last 24 hours there have been disturbing reports of widespread looting and rioting in provincial towns, including Sfax. Young men, probably not ideologically allied to either the Islamists or the opposition, have quickly vented their anger and dissatisfaction.

Yet, the fact that thousands of citizens - young and old, man and women - care so much about the assassination of a liberal politician, also speaks volumes.

These Tunisians are desperate to avoid the polarising chaos that has plagued other countries in the region, in particular Egypt.

Most Tunisians are proud of the fact this was the place where the Arab Spring was born, but they are also determined it is not where it will prematurely die.

Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Rejects Direct Talks With U.S

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected any idea of bilateral talks with the United States on Thursday in a speech in which he scoffed at Iranian officials who might consider such negotiations.

A staunch ideologue who has often rejected dialogue with America, Ayatollah Khamenei was apparently responding to a United States offer of one-on-one negotiations between the two countries on a range of topics, including Iran’s disputed nuclear program, a suggestion that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. reinforced last week during a security conference in Munich. The Iranian foreign minister said then he was open to such talks, although Mr. Biden noted that they could proceed only if the ayatollah showed serious interest.

The ayatollah’s objection is an edict to which other Iranian officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, must adhere, and it comes after several high-ranking Iranian officials, including Mr. Ahmadinejad and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, had said the Obama administration had been taking positive steps toward Iran. Ayatollah Khamenei was straightforward in his speech on Thursday before air force commanders in his Tehran office, which was reported on his personal Web site.

He said that while some “simple-minded people” might be happy about the prospect of bilateral talks, Iran had seen nothing from Washington other than the same conspiracies.

“The Iranian nation will not negotiate under pressure,” he said. Noting the international sanctions against Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei said: “The U.S. is pointing a gun at Iran and wants us to talk to them. The Iranian nation will not be intimidated by these actions.”

“Direct talks will not solve any problems,” he added.

His remarks came after new restrictions were imposed on payments for Iranian oil on Wednesday, a move that increased economic pressure on Iran, and as Iranian and Western officials said Iran had agreed to resume multilateral nuclear talks with world powers this month in Kazakhstan. The ayatollah’s rejection of talks with the United States will not affect the Kazakhstan talks, set to begin Feb. 26.

He said the United States was desperate for talks because its policy in the Middle East had failed. “They need to draw a trump card,” he said. “Their trump card is urging Iran to sit at the negotiating table.”

“I’m not a diplomat, I’m a revolutionary, and speak frankly and directly,” he said. “If anyone wants the return of U.S. dominance here, people will grab his throat.”

His speech was a reaction to continuing United States sanctions against Iran, people close to him said.

“There is no room for any optimism,” said Hamid Reza Taraghi, an influential politician. Pointing to the new sanctions, decisions by American courts to seize Iranian assets and the support for the opposition in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is Iran’s last regional ally, he said, “We haven’t seen anything good from the U.S.”

Iran experts outside the country said they were not surprised that Ayatollah Khamenei had ruled out dialogue with the United States, given his longstanding antipathy toward the Americans. But some said his unyielding stance was not necessarily working in Iran’s best long-term interests as the cumulative economic effects of the sanctions grow more corrosive.

“This is expected from Khamenei, his ideological view of the United States is getting in the way,” said Alireza Nader, a senior policy analyst at the Washington offices of the RAND Corporation. “Khamenei may be reluctant to negotiate — perhaps he does not want to form a weak position — but his hand is going to get weaker as time goes by.”

Report: Corruption suspected in Mideast defense

An international monitoring group on Wednesday warned that excessive secrecy in Mideast security agencies leaves countries like Egypt, Libya and Tunisia open to corruption even after the overthrow of authoritarian regimes.

Continued secrecy and lack of civilian oversight in defense ministries and armed forces in the Middle East and North Africa expose them to corrupt practices, the Britain-based Transparency International said in a report on the Mideast and North Africa region released in Beirut.

Of the 19 countries surveyed, only a few disclose their defense budgets, the group said. None of the countries makes public the size of its military or the troops' salaries.

In Syria, for example, the group notes that defense policy was under tight control of the ruling Assad family even before the civil war there. And countries in transition, such as Egypt, Libya Tunisia and Yemen, lack any accountability, legislative oversight and credible "whistleblowing" systems through which concerned officers or defense officials can report suspected corruption.

It's a clear indication that replacing authoritarian leaders with elected ones is not enough to eradicate corruption, Mark Pyman, the director of the Transparency's Defense and Security Program, told The Associated Press in an interview.

"Corruptive structures have been allowed to develop and mature within defense institutions and armed forces over 20 or 30 years, and a regime change will not make them go away," Pyman told the AP. "The new administrations need to work actively to ensure that those elements of state become properly accountable in defense and security issues."

There are no signs that Egypt's elected leaders are working to open defense institutions to public oversight, Pyman said, and secrecy and lack of accountability prevail in the aftermath of the political turmoil that has been engulfing the country since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a popular uprising two years ago.

In Egypt and in other countries that have experienced decades of authoritarian rule, including Libya, Yemen, Algeria and Syria, the military owns a large portion of commercial economic outlets. Little or nothing is known about their profits.

The absence of independent legislatures in these countries contributes to high political corruption risk, the group said, adding that it has evidence that suggests organized crime has penetrated the defense sectors in at least some of the countries.

Countries that are ranked slightly higher by the watchdog are Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Morocco. Even so, their risk of corruption is still significant given that they don't publicly disclose the percentage of the national budget that is spent on secret items. All these countries show limited activity to counter corruption and enforce existing controls in the political part of the defense sector, the report said, concluding that the risk of improper purchases taking place in these nations remains high.

Libyan protesters occupy parliament

Dozens of Libyan gunmen occupied the main chamber of the country’s parliament, forcing lawmakers to work in a smaller room upstairs and delaying ratification of the budget, Prime Minister Ali Zidane and Parliamentary speaker Mohammad Magariaf said.

The militiamen demanded that some of the ministers be removed because they have links to the late Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

Libya had agreed about the composition of a government earlier on Wednesday, and Prime Minister Ali Zidane gained the support of the National Congress for his choice of ministers.

Presidential guards were stationed in the Congress complex and had been ordered not to fight with the men, it reported.

French troops clash with Islamists in 'real war' in Mali

French and Malian troops clashed with Islamist rebels near the large town of Gao, Paris said on Wednesday after reporting that hundreds of insurgents had been killed in a "real war" to reclaim northern Mali.

French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the extremist rebels, who have been driven from key strongholds which they had controlled in northern Mali for 10 months, struck back at troops with rocket fire on Tuesday.

"There were clashes yesterday around Gao," Le Drian said on Europe 1 radio. "Once our troops, supported by Malian forces, started patrols around the towns that we have taken, they met residual jihadist groups who are still fighting.

"We will go after them. We are securing the towns we have been able to take along with the Malian forces. The jihadists around Gao were using rockets yesterday."

One of the militant groups, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) said it had attacked military positions in Gao, the largest city in the north.

"The combat isn't over. The attacks are going to continue," MUJAO's Abou Dardar told AFP.

The Malian army arrested two young men in Gao's market Wednesday who were brandishing two grenades and a pistol, though it was unclear "whether they planned to commit an attack or wanted to use the weapons for robbery", a police spokesman said.

On Tuesday, Le Drian said "several hundred" al-Qaida-linked militants had been killed by French air strikes as well as "direct combat" in the key central and northern towns of Konna and Gao.

"This is a real war with significant losses but I'm not going to get into an accounting exercise," he said Wednesday when asked about the toll.

France's sole fatality so far has been a helicopter pilot killed at the start of the military operation 27 days ago.

Mali said 11 of its troops were killed and 60 wounded after the battle at Konna last month but has not since released a new death toll.

The United Nations said Wednesday it had regained access for aid operations in central Mali, and hoped to soon be able to move into the north, where security was still a concern.

"We could have access over coming days," said David Gressly, who steers UN humanitarian operations in the region, adding that some 500,000 people were facing hunger in the north.

France launched its surprise intervention in the former French colony on January 11 as a triad of Islamist groups that had seized control of the north in the aftermath of a military coup pushed south toward the capital.

Nearly 4,000 French troops have deployed, a number that will not be increased, Le Drian said.
With Paris keen to pass the baton to some 8,000 African troops pledged for Mali, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said soldiers would begin withdrawing "in March, if all goes as planned".

Hollande confirms March withdrawal
President Francois Hollande confirmed that timeline, with a government spokeswoman telling journalists: "The president confirmed this morning that if everything goes to plan, the number of French troops in Mali will begin to fall from the month of March."

Hollande, whose surprise decision to intervene in Mali won him a hero's welcome there on Saturday, had said during his whirlwind visit that France will stay as long as it takes.

The Islamists have put up little resistance, many of them fleeing to the Adrar des Ifoghas massif around Kidal, a craggy mountain landscape honeycombed with caves where they are believed to be holding seven French hostages.

Kidal, the last key bastion of the Islamists, is now under control of French forces and some 1,800 Chadian troops, but fighter jets continue to pound the region around the remote desert outpost.

Meanwhile a Tuareg separatist rebel group that kickstarted Mali's descent into chaos with a rebellion for independence last year said it is working with France against "terrorists" in the region.

The Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) linked up with the radical Islamists in its bid to secure independence for the desert nomad Tuareg people, who have long felt marginalized by Mali's government.

But after being chased from their strongholds by the extremists, they have voiced a willingness to negotiate since France intervened.

The MNLA said on Wednesday it had retaken the town of Menaka, 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the Niger border, which Nigerien troops had taken from militant occupiers but then left as they continued their advance.

Le Drian said France had "functional relations" with the group in Kidal but that fighting terrorists alongside them was "not our objective."

CIA operates drone base in Saudi Arabia

A new secret reveled that the CIA conducts lethal drone strikes against al-Qaida militants inside Yemen from a remote base in Saudi Arabia, including the strike that killed the US-born al-Qaida operative Anwar al-Awlaki.

The location of the base was first disclosed by New York Times online on Tuesday night.

Associated Press first reported the construction of the base in June 2011 but withheld the exact location at the request of senior administration officials.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because portions of the military and CIA missions in Yemen are classified.

Any operation by US military or intelligence officials inside Saudi Arabia is politically and religiously sensitive.

Al-Qaida and other militant groups have used the Gulf kingdom's close working relationship with US counterterrorism officials to stir internal dissent against the Saudi regime.

Outrage over Saudi 'blood money' in 5-year-old girl's death

Online activists in Saudi Arabia are calling for harsher punishments for child abuse after reports that a prominent cleric received only a light sentence after confessing to the beating death of his 5-year-old daughter.

The social media campaign gaining momentum on Sunday is the latest attempt to use the Internet to pressure the kingdom's ultraconservative rulers.

Saudi media reports say Fayhan al-Ghamdi, a frequent guest on Islamic TV programs, was arrested in November on charges of killing the girl. The reports said he questioned the child's virginity.

Saudi media say he was freed last week after serving a short prison term and agreeing to pay $50,000 in "blood money" to avoid a possible death sentence.

The money was presumably offered to the girl's mother or other relatives.

Shoes thrown at Iran President Ahmadinejad in Egypt

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Cairo on Tuesday, the first by an Iranian leader in more than three decades, highlights efforts by Egypt's Islamist leader to thaw long frigid ties between the two regional heavyweights.

Although the official welcome was warm, there was unscripted discord from Sunni protesters angry over Iran's support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, as well as decades of sectarian animosity between Shiite-led Iran and the region's Sunni majority.

At one point, Ahmadinejad was forced to flee an ancient mosque in downtown Cairo after a Syrian protester took off his shoes and threw them at him.

ater, anti-Iranian protesters raised their shoes up while blocking the main gates to Al-Azhar, the Sunni world's most prestigious religious institution, where Egypt's most prominent cleric chided Ahmadinejad for interfering in the affairs of Sunni nations.

The protests illustrate the limits to how far and how quickly Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi can go in reaching out to Iran: His Sunni allies at home view mainly Shiite Iran as a bitter rival, and Cairo can't afford to alienate Washington and Gulf Arab states who seek to isolate Tehran.

The three-day visit, centered around an Islamic summit, was an attempt by Morsi to strike an independent foreign policy and reassert Egypt's historic regional leadership role following the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, a close US ally who shared Washington's deep suspicions of Tehran. Such a visit by an Iranian leader would have been unthinkable under Mubarak.

Morsi gave Ahmadinejad a red-carpet welcome on the tarmac at Cairo airport, shaking his hand, hugging and exchanging a kiss on each check.

The two leaders then sat down for a 20-minute talk that focused on the civil war in Syria, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. Iran is Damascus' closest regional ally, while Egypt is among those that have called on Assad to step down.

Still, the chasm inherited from 34 years of bitter relations and the rift between overwhelmingly Sunni Egypt and Iran's Shiite leadership were on display.

Sunni-Shiite tensions dominated talks between Ahmadinejad and Egypt's most prominent cleric, Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb, who upbraided the Iranian leader on a string of issues and warned against Iranian interference in Gulf nations, particularly Bahrain, where the ruling Sunni minority has faced protests by the Shiite majority.

El-Tayeb said attempts to spread Shiite Islam in mainly Sunni Arab nations were unacceptable and called for a halt to bloodshed in Syria, where Tehran's ally Assad has been battling rebels, according to a statement by Al-Azhar about the meeting.

The Sunni cleric also demanded that Ahmadinejad speak out against insults hurled at the first caliphs who succeeded the Prophet Muhammad and other figures close to the prophet in the 7th century. Those figures are widely resented among Shiites because they are seen as having pushed aside Ali, the prophet's son-in-law, who Shiites consider his rightful successor. The dispute over succession is at the root of the centuries-old split between Islam's Shiite and Sunni sects.

The meeting was "tense," acknowledged an aide to the sheik, Hussein al-Shafie, speaking at a news conference with Ahmadinejad that el-Tayeb did not attend.

Earlier, a Syrian man was arrested by police after he hurled his shoes at the Iranian leader outside the ancient al-Hussein mosque in downtown Cairo, according to security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Ahmadinejad's visit came nearly six months after another historic first: a trip by Morsi to Tehran, where disdain for Egypt led the ruling regime to name one of its streets after the ringleader of the assassination team that gunned down President Anwar Sadat in 1981.

Egypt was once closely allied to Iran's former ruling shah. The two countries severed relations after the 1979 Islamic Revolution brought a clerical rule to power in Iran and Egypt offered refuge to the deposed shah. Ahmadinejad's visit to Al-Azhar brought him not far from a grandiose Cairo mosque where the shah - despised by Iran's clerical rulers - is buried.

Relations further deteriorated after Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

"For the first time, we are witnessing breaking of ice between the two countries," said political analyst Rafaat Sayed Ahmed.

Ultraconservative Islamists known as Salafis, who view Morsi as too pragmatic and compromising but ally with him in the face of secular opposition, see Iran as Sunni Islam's greatest enemy. Salafi clerics often rail against Shiites and Iran in their sermons.

On Tuesday, Egypt's hard-line Daawa Salafiya, which is the foundation of the main Salafi political party Al-Nour, released a statement calling on Morsi to confront Ahmadinejad on Tehran's support for the Syrian regime and make clear that "Egypt is committed to the protection of all Sunni nations."

Egypt-Iran diplomatic overtures have raised concerns among Sunni Gulf nations, who are keeping a close eye on the Iranian leader's visit. The Gulf states accuse Iran of supporting Shiite minorities in the Gulf and harbor concerns about Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

Gulf countries, especially the United Arab Emirates, have made little effort to hide their enmity to the new Egyptian government out of fear the Islamists will export Egypt's revolution to their countries. The UAE has cracked down on Egyptian expatriates for links to Morsi's fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood and has given refuge to former Egyptian regime members.

Morsi and the Brotherhood have sought to ease Gulf concerns, stressing that the security of the Gulf nations - which Egypt has relied upon for financial aid to help prop up its faltering economy - is directly linked to Cairo's own.

Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr Kamel reiterated that on Tuesday, saying "Egypt's relationship with Iran will never come at the expense of Gulf nations."

Morsi's government has presented the moves to improve ties as a policy of greater independence from the United States. He may also have geopolitical considerations: Gulf powerhouses Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are cool to Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and his rule, and several experts said Morsi wants to keep the option of ties with Iran open as an alternative.

Tunisian leader to form new government after activist shot

The killing of an outspoken critic of Tunisia's Islamist-led government on Wednesday sparked street protests by thousands who fear religious radicals are stifling freedoms won two years ago in the first of the Arab Spring uprisings.

Chokri Belaid was shot at close range as he left for work by a gunmen who fled on the back of a motorcycle; crowds poured on to the streets of Tunis and other cities, attacking offices of the main ruling party Ennahda, and by the end of the day the Islamist prime minister promised a national unity government.

There was no immediate local reaction to the plan by Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali of Ennahda to dissolve his coalition and bring in a wider range of political groups. After dark, hundreds of demonstrators were still fighting running battles with police in the capital, throwing rocks amid volleys of teargas.

Jebali, whose party has dismissed any suggestion it might be behind the assassination, said he would shortly announce the formation of a new government of non-partisan technocrats.

World powers, alarmed in recent months at the extent of radical Islamist influence and the bitterness of the political stalemate, urged Tunisians to reject violence and see through the move to democracy they began two years ago, when the Jasmine Revolution ended decades of dictatorship and inspired fellow Arabs in Egypt and across North Africa and the Middle East.

As in Egypt, the rise to power of political Islam through the ballot box has prompted a backlash among less organized, more secular minded political movements in Tunisia. Belaid, a 48-year-old left-wing lawyer who made a name challenging the old regime of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, led a party with little electoral support but his vocal opinions had a wide audience.

The day before his death he was publicly lambasting a "climate of systematic violence". He had blamed tolerance shown by Ennahda and its two, smaller secularist allies in the coalition government toward hardline Salafists for allowing the spread of groups hostile to international culture.

Mali: France seeks UN peacekeeping role

The African-led mission in Mali should become a UN peacekeeping operation as soon as possible, France has told the UN Security Council.

French forces were deployed nearly a month ago to combat al-Qaeda-linked militants who had taken over Mali's desert northern regions.

But Paris says it wants to begin pulling out its 4,000 troops in March.

It wants planning for a transition to begin now so a handover can be completed in April.

"From the moment that security is assured, we can envisage without changing the structures that it can be placed under the framework of UN peacekeeping operations," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

The French ambassador to the UN had raised the matter for the first time at the Security Council on Wednesday, he told reporters.

France wants the UN force to help stabilise Mali and seek an end to long-standing rivalry between ethnic Tuaregs and Arabs.

 

'Real war'

Earlier, the French defence minister said troops were engaged in a "real war" with "terrorists" around the Malian town of Gao.

The town is a former militant stronghold where troops are reported to have found stores of explosives and other military materials.

Islamist militants were swept from Gao last month, but Jean-Yves Le Drian said clashes were continuing in the area.

The Mali militants have been routed and cleared from most of the population centres.

But clashes are continuing away from the towns.

"When you leave the centre of captured cities, you meet jihadis left behind," Mr Le Drian told France's Europe 1 Radio.

Reporters say heavy bombardment could be heard in the centre of the city on Tuesday, with a French helicopter patrolling.

He says it seems the French intervened after militants tried to launch a rocket attack on a Malian military camp.

Eyewitnesses said French and African troops had left their military base in Gao on Wednesday morning and were heading towards the town of Ansongo, towards the border with Niger, our correspondent adds.

 

Vast desert

Earlier this week, French forces accompanied by hundreds of troops from Chad cleared fighters from the last rebel stronghold, the town of Kidal.

Mr Le Drian also insisted that the 4,000 French troops currently deployed would be the maximum number in Mali.

Islamist rebels overran towns in Mali's north, and were threatening to overthrow the government in a rapid advance last year.

The crisis has since been complicated by splits in the main Islamist militant groups.

There is also an overlapping rebellion by Tuareg, who want either independence or autonomy.

The government is weak and unable to control the north, where tiny towns punctuate a vast desert.

Officials from the UN, EU, African Union, the World Bank and dozens of nations have met in Brussels to discuss Mali's future.

They are considering how elections can be held in July, as well as the financing of an international military force and humanitarian assistance.

South African 17-year-old dies of gang-rape injuries

A 17-year-old South African girl has died of injuries received in a gang rape at the weekend, provoking rare cries of outrage on Wednesday in a country with a high level of sexual violence.

In an echo of the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a New Delhi bus in December, the Cape Town-based Cape Argus newspaper said the victim was sliced open from her stomach to her genitals. She was dumped on a building site in the town of Bredasdorp, 130 km (80 miles) east of Cape Town.

The Indian case triggered protests against endemic anti-female violence. But the Bredasdorp murder is unlikely to provoke a similar outpouring of anger in South Africa, where women's groups say rape has lost the power to shock.

"It is difficult to find reason behind the many different acts of gang rape, child rape, rape of the elderly, corrective rape and male rape," the Women's League of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) said in a statement.

International organizations to meet on Mali's future

EU officials say international organizations and up to 45 countries will meet Tuesday in Brussels to coordinate efforts to stabilize the West African nation of Mali.

Topics will include deploying African troops to Mali, where French forces, with Malian military help, are trying to wrest control of the country's vast northern part from jihadists. The conference will also discuss the humanitarian situation, ways to stabilize newly retaken cities such as Gao and Timbuktu, and how to support Mali's return to constitutional rule.

The European Union will host the meeting, which will be co-chaired by the U.N., the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States. Malian officials will also participate.

Anti-al-Qaeda militia killed in new Iraq attack

At least 19 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in central Iraq aimed at pro-government militia, officials say.

More than 40 people were injured in the blast in the town of Taji, about 20km (12 miles) north of Baghdad.

The majority of the victims were members of the Sunni Sahwa militia, which has been fighting al-Qaeda.

The attack comes a day after at least 16 people were killed in a raid on a police HQ in Kirkuk, northern Iraq.

 

'Pools of blood'

Monday's blast happened at about 11:00 local time (08:00 GMT), as the militiamen gathered to collect their pay.

The attacker is believed to have detonated his explosives belt among the crowd.

Army soldiers were also among the victims.

"We got a call there had been a huge blast at the Sahwa headquarters," local police officer Furat Faleh told Reuters news agency.

"People were lying bleeding all around and cash was scattered in pools of blood," he added.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Sahwa - or Awakening Council - are comprised of Sunni tribal members who sided with the US against al-Qaeda in 2006.

They have been often targeted by al-Qaeda-linked militants, who regard them as traitors.

PM David Cameron hosts Afghan-Pakistan talks in UK

British Prime Minister David Cameron will hold key talks with leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan to discuss the peace process and prevent a Taliban resurgence when foreign troops withdraw from the war-torn country in 2014.
The talks at Chequers, Cameron's country retreat, with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai will focus on cross-border security and the prevention of a "Taliban resurgence" when foreign troops leave Afghanistan by the end of next year.
They are also expected to concentrate on how Pakistan and the international community can support the Afghan-led peace process.

The in-depth talks today follow a private dinner hosted by Cameron for Zardari and Karzai last evening at Chequers, north of London in Buckinghamshire.
Before start of the trilateral summit, the three leaders also had breakfast and then they stood together for photos at the countryside residence of the British Prime Minister.
Prime Minister's spokesperson confirmed that foreign ministers, chiefs of army staff, chiefs of intelligence and the chair of the Afghan High Peace Council are also involved in the talks for the first time and that the leaders are expected to make a joint statement later today.
"This trilateral process sends a very clear message to the Taliban: now is the time for everyone to participate in a peaceful political process in Afghanistan. As the prime minister has set out previously, a stable Afghanistan is not just in the interests of Afghans, but also in the interests of their neighbours and the UK," the spokesperson said.

"We share the same vision for Afghanistan: a secure, stable and democratic country that never again becomes a haven for international terror," he added.
This is the third round of discussions since Cameron initiated the three-way process last year, when the three leaders met in Kabul and New York.
With the NATO withdrawal expected in 2014, Karzai has said that he does not want a repeat of the mistakes made when Russia withdrew from Afghanistan a quarter of a century ago, plunging the country into civil war.
Karzai, however, questioned the real motive behind troop withdrawal by the West, which includes around 9,000 British troops.
"They feel fulfilled with regard to the objective of fighting terrorism and weakening al Qaeda, or they feel that they were fighting in the wrong place in the first place, so they should discontinue doing that and leave," Karzai said.
"There will not be peace in Afghanistan by having an agreement only between us and the Afghan Taliban. Peace will only come when the external elements involved in creating instability and fighting, or lawlessness in Afghanistan, are involved in talks," he was quoted by the Guardian as saying.

Israel to Regret Attacking Syria: Iran's Security Chief

Iran's head of supreme national security council Saed Jalili said here Monday that Israel will regret its recent attack on a Syrian military research center.

Speaking at a press conference Monday at the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Jalili said that as Israel had regretted previous wars and aggressions, it will also regret its attack on Wednesday, adding that the Syrian government and people are serious in that regard.

His remarks came against the backdrop of the Israeli airstrike that hit a Syrian military research center in the Jumraia suburb of the capital Damascus on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Jalili, who arrived in Syria on Saturday to discuss the Israeli attack, said that Iran will capitalize on all its relationships in the international circles to support Syria, adding Syria is an important part of the Islamic world, which " will never permit any aggression on it."

The Israeli attack "has proven its failure to stir up internal differences in Syria," he said. "The Zionist enemy, its allies and tools are trying to hit the resistance in the area" as they have realized that there is a "genuine chance for a unity around the idea of resistance."

Jalili pointed out that Syria is espousing the path of resistance and has defended its causes "and subsequently it would be an aim for the enemies who will go on with avenging it."

On the crisis in Syria, Jalili reasserted that the solution for the crisis in Syria can only be "Syrian," emphasizing the " democratic means and national dialogue" as the way out.

"We have stressed, from the very beginning, that terrorism and violence could not be conducive to bringing in stability in this country," he said, adding that supporting the Syrian people could not be done through undermining the infrastructure but rather through national dialogue.

"We believe that the political program outlined recently by Syrian President Bashar a-Assad will pose the appropriate base for dialogue," he stressed, adding that "foreign intervention, terrorist practices and violent acts are all condemned."

On Sunday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said during his meeting with Jalili that Syria is capable of repulsing any aggression that might target its people, thanks to the strength of its military and the awareness of its people.

During the meeting, Assad stressed that "this aggression reveals the real role Israel is playing in cooperation with external hostile powers and their tools on the Syrian ground to destabilize the stability of Syria."

Although the details surrounding the rare air raid are still murky, Syria threatened Thursday to retaliate for the brazen attack, and its main regional ally Iran said there will be repercussions for the Jewish state over the air raid.

Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak confirmed the airstrike on Sunday at a time the United Nations called for self-restraint.

Syria said the bombed facility in Jurmaya had been repeatedly targeted by rebels who failed to storm it, adding that Israel did what the rebels could not.

U.S. officials said the Israeli airstrike targeted a convoy carrying anti-aircraft weapons and heading form Syria to Lebanon. Syria denied the claim and said the air raid targeted a research center for scientific purposes.

Syria opposition chief invited to Moscow

The head of Syria's main opposition coalition has been invited to Moscow after having his first direct talks with Russia's foreign minister.

Sergei Lavrov and Moaz al-Khatib, who leads Syrian National Coalition, met on the sidelines of an international security conference in Munich.

Moscow is a long-time ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Later, Mr Lavrov met US Vice-President Joe Biden and UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

Mr Biden told the conference it was "no secret" that Moscow and Washington had "serious differences" on issues such as Syria.

But he added: "We can all agree... on the increasingly desperate plight of the Syrian people and the responsibility of the international community to address that plight."

After meeting Mr Lavrov, Mr Khatib said: "Russia has a certain vision but we welcome negotiations to alleviate the crisis. There are lots of details that need to be discussed."

The crisis in Syria urgently requires agreement between Russia and the United States if any UN-backed diplomatic initiative is to make headway, says the BBC's Jonathan Marcus in Munich.

However, our correspondent adds, the two are still as far apart as ever.

Mr Lavrov told the conference Mr Biden's insistence that the Syrian leader step down was counterproductive.

"The persistence of those who say that priority number one is the removal of President Assad - I think it's the single biggest reason for the continued tragedy in Syria," he said.

More than 60,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Assad began 22 months ago, the UN says.

Taliban Militants Attack Pakistani Base

Taliban militants killed at least nine soldiers and four paramilitary soldiers in an attack on a Pakistani Army base in northwestern Pakistan early Saturday, officials said. Ten civilians, including three women and three children who were living in a nearby compound, were also killed.

The brazen assault took place in the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province just a day after a suicide bombing near a mosque in another northwestern town, Hangu, killed at least 26 people.

A spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility and said the attack was to avenge the death of two Taliban commanders killed in American drone strikes.

According to initial details, Taliban militants, armed with heavy machine guns, fired rockets in the predawn assault at the base in Serai Norang in the Lakki Marwat district, setting off a heavy gun battle that lasted for several hours.

A Pakistani Army official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that 12 militants were killed in the assault.

“Bodies of four terrorists, out of which two were wearing suicide jackets, are in custody of security forces,” the official said.

Eighteen members of the security forces were wounded in the attack and were sent for treatment to a military hospital in Peshawar, the provincial capital.

During the attack, one of the suicide bombers entered a house near the camp and detonated his explosives, killing the women and children, the official said.

Pakistani officials described the base as “an isolated camp” and one of the three bases set up two years ago to wrest Lakki Marwat from the control of Taliban militants.

The ferocity of the attack, which appeared to have been well planned and coordinated, took security officials by surprise, and they speculated that the attackers came from the neighboring lawless semiautonomous tribal regions, where the government has traditionally had little sway.

“We are trying to piece together evidence,” a security official said.

Lakki Marwat borders the tribal region of South Waziristan, a rugged frontier that is a redoubt of Taliban militants.

Large-scale Taliban assaults, involving several dozen fighters, are not unprecedented and indicate the extent of the challenge posed to the embattled security forces.

In the most recent such attack in December, several dozen Taliban militants kidnapped 22 tribal police officers after attacking security checkpoints on the outskirts of Peshawar. One police officer escaped but the rest were killed.

The Pakistani Army provided few details about the assault on Saturday and the subsequent operation to clear out the area.

But army officials maintained that the assault was successfully repulsed. The exact number of attackers remained unclear.

The Taliban spokesman, Ihsanullah Ihsan, who said in a telephone interview the attack was in retaliation for the killings of two Taliban commanders, identified one of the commanders as Wali Muhammad, also known as Toofani Mehsud. He was killed in an American drone strike on Jan. 6 in the tribal region of South Waziristan and was known as a trainer of suicide bombers.

The country’s lawless tribal regions have been a haven for local and foreign militants and as a result have been a frequent target of American drone strikes. Pakistan’s Parliament has repeatedly demanded an end to drone strikes, but Pakistani officials privately acknowledge the effectiveness of such attacks.

Turkey says tests confirm leftist bombed US embassy

A member of a Turkish leftist group that accuses Washington of using Turkey as its "slave" carried out a suicide bomb attack on the US embassy, the Ankara governor's office cited DNA tests as showing on Saturday.

Ecevit Sanli, a member of the leftist Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C), blew himself up in a perimeter gatehouse on Friday as he tried to enter the embassy, also killing a Turkish security guard.

The DHKP-C, virulently anti-American and listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and Turkey, claimed responsibility in a statement on the internet in which it said Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was a US "puppet".

"Murderer America! You will not run away from people's rage," the statement on The People's Cry website said, next to a picture of Sanli wearing a black beret and military-style clothes and with an explosives belt around his waist.

It warned Erdogan that he too was a target.

Turkey is an important US ally in the Middle East with common interests ranging from energy security to counter-terrorism.

Leftist groups including the DHKP-C strongly oppose what they see as imperialist US influence over their nation.

DNA tests confirmed that Sanli was the bomber, the Ankara governor's office said. It said he had fled Turkey a decade ago and was wanted by the authorities.

Born in 1973 in the Black Sea port city of Ordu, Sanli was jailed in 1997 for attacks on a police station and a military staff college in Istanbul, but his sentence was deferred after he fell sick during a hunger strike. He was never re-jailed.

Condemned to life in prison in 2002, he fled the country a year later, officials said. Interior Minister Muammer Guler said he had re-entered Turkey using false documents.

Erdogan, who said hours after the attack that the DHKP-C were responsible, met his interior and foreign ministers as well as the head of the army and state security service in Istanbul on Saturday to discuss the bombing.

Three people were detained in Istanbul and Ankara in connection with the attack, state broadcaster TRT said.

The White House condemned the bombing as an "act of terror", while the UN Security Council described it as a heinous act. US officials said on Friday the DHKP-C were the main suspects but did not exclude other possibilities.

Islamist radicals, extreme left-wing groups, ultra-nationalists and Kurdish militants have all carried out attacks in Turkey in the past.

Syria
The DHKP-C statement called on Washington to remove Patriot missiles, due to go operational on Monday as part of a Nato defence system, from Turkish soil.

The missiles are being deployed alongside systems from Germany and the Netherlands to guard Turkey, a Nato member, against a spillover of the war in neighbouring Syria.

"Our action is for the independence of our country, which has become a new slave of America," the statement said.

Turkey has been one of the leading advocates of foreign intervention to end the civil war in Syria and has become one of President Bashar al-Assad's harshest critics, a stance groups such as the DHKP-C view as submission to an imperialist agenda.

"Organisations of the sectarian sort like the DHKP-C have been gaining ground as a result of circumstances surrounding the Syrian civil war," security analyst Nihat Ali Ozcan wrote in a column in Turkey's Daily News.

The Ankara attack was the second on a US mission in four months. On September 11, 2012, US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three American personnel were killed in an Islamist militant attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

The DHKP-C was responsible for the assassination of two US military contractors in the early 1990s in protest against the first Gulf War, and it fired rockets at the US consulate in Istanbul in 1992, according to the US State Department.

It has been blamed for previous suicide attacks, including one in 2001 that killed two police officers and a tourist in Istanbul's central Taksim Square. It has carried out a series of deadly attacks on police stations in the last six months.

Friday's attack may have come in retaliation for an operation against the DHKP-C last month in which Turkish police detained 85 people. A court subsequently remanded 38 of them in custody over links to the group.