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Massive searches in Saudi capital Iraqi officials challenge US claims Militants blow up airport in Pak Blast in Russian
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Massive searches in Saudi capital Riyadh, June 20 The extensive search ended with no immediate word on results. The three neighbourhoods searched included Al-Malaz, site of a gunbattle on Friday that ended with the death of Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, the mastermind of Paul M. Johnson Jr.’s kidnapping and killing and other terror attacks in Saudi Arabia. The police sealed off the neighbourhoods yesterday night, searching any cars that tried to leave. Dozens of policemen in cars and armoured vehicles moved in to search houses as other officers kept watch from a helicopter into the early morning hours. Yesterday, Adel al-Jubeir, Foreign Affairs Adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah in Washington, said agents were looking for the 49-year-old Johnson’s body on the northern outskirts of the capital, and Saudi security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they have been searching desert areas around Riyadh. Houses and apartments suspected of being used by militants also were being searched, they said. Saudi Arabia announced yesterday it had killed Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, considered the leader of Al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia, and three other militants in a clash with security forces in Riyadh hours after the terror group posted photographs Johnson’s beheading on an Internet site. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia warned Muslim militants they would share the fate of their slain leader unless they repented, as Al-Qaida vowed renewed “holy war” in the kingdom. Al-Qaida’s leader in Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, was shot dead by Saudi forces on Friday along with three other prominent militants hours after they beheaded American hostage Paul Johnson, whose body has still not been found. “We tell this deviant group and others that if they do not return to the right path, they will meet the same fate or worse,” Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah said yesterday. “Security forces will deal with them, God willing, and with every aggressor inside or abroad,” he added. State television showed the bloodied corpses of the four militants, saying they had been behind a wave of violence against foreigners in the Gulf state, a key US ally and the world’s biggest oil exporter. “The government is strong and will eradicate the enemy and cleanse the country of them,” Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef said. “God willing, we will be victorious.” Al-Qaida confirmed the killings of Muqrin and three others in an Internet statement yesterday but voiced defiance. “The Mujahideen are continuing
jihad that they have pledged to God and the killing of their brothers will not weaken their resolve but only increase their determination and commitment,” it said.
— AP, Reuters |
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Iraqi officials challenge US claims Falluja (Iraq), June 20 The US military said yesterday’s attack which killed 22 Iraqis was launched against a safe house for Muslim militants commanded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, described by the Americans as the top Al-Qaeda operative in Iraq. But Brigadier Nouri Aboud, a member of the Falluja Brigade entrusted by the US military with the security of the city, said there was no evidence to suggest the site was anything but the home of an extended Iraqi family. “We inspected the damage, we looked through the bodies of the women and children and elderly. This was a family,’’ he said. “There is no sign of foreigners having lived in the house. Zarqawi and his men have no presence in Falluja.’’ Brig-Gen Mark Kimmitt said in Baghdad yesterday that a ‘’precision strike’’ hit the house used by fighters loyal to Zarqawi, accused by Washington of leading a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and of decapitating a US hostage last month. Tikrit/Iraq: Five policemen were killed and three were injured in an US air attack early today in the Iraqi city of Samarra, according to the police. The policemen were guarding a house belonging to the Interior Minister Falah-al-Naquib when the US soldiers opened fire from a helicopter. The US military had destroyed the central police building in Samarra in an air attack a few hours earlier. The Iraqi police have not ruled out the possibility that the attacks were mistaken targets.
— Reuters, DPA |
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Militants blow up airport in Pak Islamabad, June 20 Some 20 rockets were fired last night at the airport in the remote town of Sui, about 350 km east of Quetta, capital of Baluchistan, by unidentified assailants, the province’s Interior Secretary Abdur Rauf Khan told newsmen. “It is a terrorist act and we are investigating.” Though, the officials initially thought it could be the act of local tribal, the scale of attack made them suspect that foreign militants could be behind it. Sui town is also prone to attacks from tribesmen demanding more royalties from the government for the gas extracted from the region. Mr Khan said explosives were planted along the walls of the two-room lounge and office of the airport, which were completely demolished in the attack. The runway of the airport was not affected as the rockets targeted only the building. Reports reaching here said the rockets also damaged several nearby homes. It was the latest in a series of attacks on Sui, and the terrorists, according to the Interior Secretary, usually target paramilitary checkposts in the area. He said army, paramilitary and police were performing their duty in the area, but the rockets were fired from a long distance and it is difficult to immediately find out the people responsible. Reports said security forces returned fire in the direction from where the attack was carried out. But it was not known if the attackers suffered any losses.
— PTI |
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Blast in Russian
oil pipeline Moscow, June 20 The fire was put out a few hours later, but not before up to 60 tonnes of oil had leaked out, covering an area of almost 5,000 square metres, local emergency ministry officials said.
— AFP |
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Clinton loses temper with interviewer London, June 20 Questioned repeatedly by BBC interviewer David Dimbleby, the former US President becomes visibly angry and rattled, the British newspaper said, quoting a BBC executive. Clinton’s anger at the line of questioning during the 50-minute interview to be broadcast on Tuesday night, lasts several minutes, according to the report. The interview took place in a New York hotel on Wednesday. “He is visibly angry with Dimbleby’s line of questioning and some of that anger gets directed at Dimbleby himself. As outbursts go, it is not just some flash that is over in an instant. It is something substantial and sustained,’’ the BBC executive said. “It is a memorable television show which will give the public a different insight into the President’s character. It will leave them wondering whether he is as contrite as he says he is about past events. Dimbleby manages to remain calm and order is eventually restored,’’ he added. Clinton agreed to speak to Panorama as part of the publicity campaign for his autobiography My Life.
— DPA |
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Falluja (Iraq), June 20
