Left: Exiled Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden is seen in this April 1998 file photo sitting behind a map of Afghanistan in an undisclosed region of the country.
Right: Students of International Islamic University demonstrate in front of the American Center in Islamabad on Friday against Thursday's military attacks by the US government on Afghanistan and Sudan. — AP/PTI

UN sanctions on Iraq to stay
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 21 — The Security Council, as expected, has decided to continue the eight-year-old tough economic sanctions against Iraq, even as Baghdad rejected chief weapons inspector Richard Butler’s request for the resumption of cooperation with the inspectors.

Taliban refuse to hand over Laden

WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (PTI) — Undeterred by a series of lightning airstrikes on its bases in Afghanistan, the Taliban militia today refused to accede to U.S. demands to hand over reclusive Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, believed to have masterminded the recent bombings on U.S. Embassies in East Africa, for trial.

A Taliban spokesman confirmed over CBS-radio that the USA had bombed Khost and Jalabad last night, but said Laden had survived the attack.

The American jets did not appear to have hit their targets, he said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted a Taliban leader as saying that Laden was not involved in the recent blasts at U.S. Embassies and that they would never allow the exiled Saudi Islamic fundamentalist to fall into American hands.

Laden has also denied his involvement in the bombings but the USA has said it has no doubt that the Saudi dissident was one of the masterminds behind the recent bombings on its Kenyan and Tanzanian embassies and in other terrorist attacks.

UNITED NATIONS (AP): The Taliban would discuss turning over Osama bin Laden to U.S. officials if they presented credible evidence that he was involved in terrorist activity, the Islamic militia’s New York representative said on Thursday.

Norullah Zadran said the Taliban condemned the U.S. military strikes on Khost, about 45 km south of Kabul, in the strongest possible terms.”

KHARTOUM (AFP): Sudan television showed pictures of five seriously injured people being removed from the debris of a building complex hit by a US air strike.

The television said the injured were removed from the Al-Shifaa pharmaceutical factory, a site Washington says produced chemical weapons.

The television also showed pictures of the plant on fire, encircled by security and fire fighting forces as rescue teams searched the rubble for victims on Thursday.

Sudanese state television played continuous national and Islamic anthems with recorded pictures of soldiers and popular defence forces training, punctuated by interviews with government officials, in the wake of the attacks.

Meanwhile, Angry Sudanese stormed the empty U.S. Embassy compound in Khartoum early this morning after US jets attacked a pharmaceutical plant in the Sudanese capital.

State-run Sudan television showed scores of people scaling the wrought-iron fence around the embassy in the heart of the capital.

Hundreds more outside the fence threw stones at the building and struck at the fence with sticks.

Protesters who got inside the compound could be seen pulling down the American flag and dragging it on the ground. It was unclear from the TV footage if they got inside the locked building.

Policemen could be seen on the street in front of the complex but did not stop the mob. There was no footage to indicate if the crowd remained in compound or was dispersed by the police.

ISLAMABAD (AFP): Scores of para-military troops and the police guarded the American Embassy on Friday amid strong fears of reprisal attacks after US missile strikes on alleged terrorist camps in Afghanistan.

The security agencies were on red alert because of fears of retaliation amid immediate calls for protest rallies by religious and political leaders, police sources said.

75 US missiles used in attacks

WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (AFP) — Sea-launched cruise missiles alone were used in the US attacks on terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and a Sudanese chemical plant in Khartoum, US Defence officials said.

About 75 cruise missiles were launched from US navy ships in the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea, one official said.

Two warships in the Red Sea fired the missiles that struck a pharmaceutical plant on the outskirts of Khartoum, while five other warships in the Arabian Gulf targeted the camps in Afghanistan, the source said.

Operational details of the attacks have been kept under unusually tight wraps because military leaders felt that the release of any such information might give their adversaries an edge, the official said.

Reuters adds: After US military strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan, Washington banned US airlines and pilots with US certificates from flying over the two countries till further notice.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a notice to airlines and pilots and the ban on flights over Afghanistan and Sudan took effect from 4 am, said FAA spokesman Eliot Brenner.

Under code-sharing arrangements with the USA, the order also prevents foreign airlines from carrying anyone with a US-issued ticket on flights over those airspaces, he said.

Meanwhile, the State Department cautioned U.S citizens worldwide to “exercise much greater caution than usual” following U.S military strikes against suspected terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan.

Americans were advised to take “additional and enhanced precautions” in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya and North Korea where there are on U.S diplomatic posts, the State Department said in a public announcement yesterday.

US strikes outrageous: Yeltsin

UNDATED (PTI): The US missile strikes on suspected terrorist bases in Afghanistan and Sudan today evoked mixed worldwide reaction with Russian President Boris Yeltsin describing it as “outrageous”, while Britain, Germany and Israel strongly supporting the American action.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan reacted cautiously, saying he was concerned over the development.

The Arab League, condemning the “Rambo-style” attacks, said that US action was a threat to the security and stability of the Middle East.

Pakistan, where security has been beefed up around American embassy and its other establishments, said the strikes were “a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of an Islamic country.”

Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz told Parliament the attacks were a “matter of grave concern for the people of Pakistan”.

China, in its initial guarded response, said the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, which prompted American action, should be dealt with through the United Nations and international law.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, “strongly supporting” the US action against “international terrorists”, said “the atrocities this month in Nairobi, Dar-es-Salaam, and Omagh (Northern Ireland) have shown the pain and suffering that terrorism can bring suffering to innocent people.”

German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, supporting the strikes, said his government “strongly condemns all forms of terrorism, which can only be opposed by consolidated, substantial and determined action by all states.”

Israeli Defence Minister Yitzhak Mordechai said “the war against terrorism wherever it may be must be incessant, it is needed to guarantee the security and stability of the world.”

Radical Palestinian group, Hamas, terming the attack on Sudan as that on “whole Arab and Islamic world”, threatened to strike at US and Israeli installations.

Iraq and Libya, the known foes of America, condemned the “revulsive” and “unjustified” US action.

Libya, whose leader Muammar Gaddafi telephoned Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, said Libyan people were supporting Sudan “in the fight against this aggression”.

The anti-Taliban Afghan government still recognised by the United Nations said it supported the fight against terrorism but doubted that “the recent air strikes” could totally eliminate all terrorist training centres in Afghanistan.

Sudan has said a raid by US aircraft on a pharmaceutical factory in the light industries area in Khartoum North was “a criminal act.”

Australian Prime Minister John Howard termed the US action as “entirely justified” and said, “any country is entitled to act in self-defence and to embark upon a retaliatory strike where there is a clear attack upon its own citizens...”

Japanese Premier Keizo Obuchi, expressing guarded support to the US action, said “although we are still investigating the facts of the matter at present. I can understand the resolute attitude taken by the US against terrorists.”

Attack to counter threat: Clinton

WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (AP) - In an address from the Oval office just three days after he spoke to the nation about the Monica Lewinsky investigation, US President Bill Clinton, defending the US attack in Afghanistan and Sudan, said he acted to counter an immediate threat of more terrorist acts.

He said US intelligence indicated that a gathering of key “terrorist leaders” was planned at the site in Afghanistan for yesterday.

Mr Clinton and Defence officials said the facilities attacked were linked to Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire whom US officials call a major sponsor of terrorism.

Acting on intelligence information that Mr Clinton said pinpointed “one of the most active terrorist bases in the world” and an industrial plant that made agents for chemical weapons, Mr Clinton said he ordered the attacks not only in response to the August 7 bombings of two American embassies, but also to pre-empt more planned terrorist attacks on Americans.

He ordered the strikes based on the unanimous recommendation of his national security team.

NEW YORK (AP): Many of US President Bill Clinton’s self-described severest critics” rallied behind his decision to bomb terrorist facilities in Sudan and Afghanistan.

“If people think the Congress is not going to be totally supportive of the Commander-in-Chief, they are just mistaken,” said Sen, Alfonse D’Amato, a Republican from New York. “This may serve notice that whatever our local disagreements, we stand with our commander-in-chief, and he was absolutely proper and forceful.”

“I take the action for what it was to stop the terrorists and to make them pay for what they did,” said Rep. Dan Burton, a Republican from Indiana. And that was the right thing to do. That’s coming from one of the President’s severest critics.”

A handful of others, however, harboured some septicism of the timing of the attacks, coming the same week Mr Clinton, a Democrat, admitted to the American public having had an “inappropriate relationship” with Monica Lewinsky. Some suggested an analogy to the recent Hollywood movie “wag the dog” in which a president stages a fake war to divert attention from a sex scandal at home.

While there is clearly much more we need to learn about this attack and why it was ordered today, given the President’s personal difficulties this week, it is legitimate to question the timing of this action, Sen. Dan Coats, a Republican from Indiana, said in a statement.

Arab Afghans make USA’s No 1 target

CAIRO, Aug 21 (AP) — They helped win a war against Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Their exploits were celebrated across the Muslim world. Now, in a rain of bombs on two continents, this battle-hardened, devout corps, an “Islamic international,” has become the number one target of the world’s number one power.

These Arab veterans of the 1980s Afghan war transformed their old crusade in recent years into a new one against “illegitimate” Arab rulers, against an Israel that occupies Muslim land, against an America that supports both.

It was an attack against America, the deadly US Embassy bombings in Africa on August 7, that led to US air strikes yesterday against locations in Afghanistan and Sudan linked to followers of one of the leading “Arab Afghans,” Osama bin Laden, an exiled Saudi millionaire.

US President Bill Clinton said Laden’s followers were believed to have played a “key role” in the embassy bloodshed.

These militants are a small cluster of 25,000 Arabs and other Muslims who left home to fight in Afghanistan. Their paramilitary skills, growing sophistication and ample finance set them apart from an earlier generation.

The Arab Afghans bombed the World Trade Centre in New York in 1993 and the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan two years later. And they have fought in wars and insurgencies in some of the world’s most troubled spots - Bosnia, Chechnya, Kashmir and Tajikistan.

Now, a group of those Arab Afghans has sent another stark message: their war has just begun.

Strikes will continue from everywhere, and Islamic groups will appear one after the other to fight American interests,” said a statement last week from the World Islamic Front for jihad against Jews and crusaders, a group formed in February.

Osama bin Laden stands as perhaps the most notorious of the new generation of Islamic militant.

Like thousands of other Saudis of his generation, he journeyed to Afghanistan soon after the 1979 Soviet invasion of that poor Muslim nation in Central Asia, joining activists who would later form the nucleus of militant Islam.

The war was heavily financed by an estimated $ 36 billion from the USA, the biggest covert operation since the Vietnam war.

Scion of one of Saudi Arabia’s richest families, he gave up a life of plenty to bring in the bulldozers that cut the tunnels and roads along which the guerrillas trekked. His bravery on the battlefield soon became legendary.

After the war, stripped of his citizenship by a Saudi government fearful of his militant Islam, Laden made his way to Sudan, protected by Hassan Al-Turabi, that country’s Islamic ideologue.

Western pressure forced him to leave Sudan in 1995 and return to Afghanistan, where he has resided since.

But his money, a fortune estimated at $ 300 million has continued to support a vast network, Mustafa Hamza, an Egyptian wanted in the attempt in 1995 on Egypt’s President, was reported to be running a company owned by Bin Laden in Somalia.

The contacts he forged remain loyal, too. One of them is Ayman Al-Zawahri, a doctor and Afghanistan veteran who heads Egypt’s jihad group, which assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981.

UN sanctions on Iraq to stay

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 21 (PTI) — The Security Council, as expected, has decided to continue the eight-year-old tough economic sanctions against Iraq, even as Baghdad rejected chief weapons inspector Richard Butler’s request for the resumption of cooperation with the inspectors.

The decision came last night during a mandated 60-day review of the sanctions.

The Security Council will discuss afresh the Iraqi issue next week after the Secretary-General’s special envoy and former Indian Ambassador to the UN, Mr Prakash Shah, gives his report on the failure of his efforts to persuade Baghdad to resume cooperation.

Mr Shah was sent by Secretary-General Kofi Annan with a “firm” message but the Iraqis rejected it.

Diplomats say the Iraqi refusal to cooperate apparently played little role in the council’s determination as similar decisions had been taken in about four dozen reviews conducted so far. Even if Baghdad had continued cooperation, the result would not have been much different, they say.

The 15-member council does not hold a formal vote but decides on the basis of views expressed by members. Unless all five Permanent Members, who have veto power, agree sanctions cannot be eased or lifted.

Suspended jail term for Botha
GEORGE (South Africa): Apartheid-era President P.W. Botha (82) was given a suspended jail sentence of one year and a $ 1,600 (SA) fine after a magistrate’s court here found him guilty of contempt of South Africa’s Truth and R Commission. Botha’s lawyer, Lappe Laubsher, told the court the former President planned to appeal against the conviction and sentence. He was then released on bail of $9. — AFP

Nigerian Cabinet
ABUJA: Nigeria’s military ruler General Abdulsalam Abubakar has formed a new 31-member cabinet, the presidency announced in an official statement. The key Ministers for Finance, Foreign Affairs and Oil, all lost their posts. The cabinet retained four members of the government formed by Abubakar’s hardline predecessor General Sani Abacha, and contained a host of new faces, with eight serving or retired military men among those appointed.—AFP

Death for hijackers
ISLAMABAD: A special anti-terrorist court in Pakistan on Thursday sentenced to death three Baluch youths and an airport security force (ASF) personnel in connection with the hijacking of a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight. Judge Saleem Ahmed of the special court of the Hyderabad/Mipurkhas division awarded the punishment to Shahsawar Bloch, Sabir Bloch and Shabbir Bloch, who had hijakced the plane on May 24 demanding $ 20 million as ransom, alleging neglect of their Baluchistan region and protesting against any nuclear tests in their province.— PTI

Lion dies of heartbreak
CAIRO: It may be better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all. But for circus lion Romeo, a love lost ended in death. When Romeo’s mate, Karima, left him for a younger lion at the national circus in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, the shock was too overwhelming. He fell into a two-week depression during which he stopped eating, the daily Al-Ahram reported on Thursday. Efforts by circus veterinarians to bring him out of depression and eat failed and Romeo died on Sunday of a heart attack, the paper said, quoting circus officials. — AP

Honour for comedian
WASHINGTON: Comedian Bill Cosby and country singer Willie Nelson head the list of Kennedy Centre honourees for 1998, the centre has announced. The other recipients in the 16th annual national celebration of the arts were conductor Andre Previn, former movie star Shirley Temple Black and the Broadway composing team of John Kander and Fred Ebb. The artists will be honoured at a two-hour celebration at the Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts on December 6. — Reuters