 |
|
No plan to attack US targets: Hamas chief
UK freezes assets of five Hamas leaders Fighting resumes between Pak army, militants USA could have prevented 9/11 attacks, says inquiry chief |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
No plan to attack US targets: Hamas chief Gaza, March 24 Abdel Aziz Rantisi told reporters in Gaza that his group’s militant activities are aimed solely at Israel. “We are inside Palestinian land and acting only inside Palestinian land. We are resisting the occupation, nothing else”, Rantisi said. The Hamas had issued veiled threats against the USA, something it rarely does, after the death of its spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin. It issued a statement saying America’s backing of Israel made the assassination possible. “All Muslims of the world will be honored to join in on the retaliation for this crime”, the Hamas said in a statement. President George W. Bush said after the statement that the USA takes the threat seriously. Rantisi was named the new leader of the Hamas in its Gaza Strip stronghold yesterday. Two militants
killed Two Palestinians were killed overnight near the Morag
settlement in the southern Gaza Strip belonged to the armed wing of
the Hamas movement, the militant organisation said in a leaflet issued
on Wednesday. Palestinian sources had earlier reported that only one
militant had been shot dead near the settlement. The sources
identified the two as Yasser Sultan, 24, and Mohamed al-Qadi, 22, both
residents of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. — DPA, AP |
|
UK freezes assets of five Hamas leaders London, March 24 “Chancellor
(of the exchequer) Gordon Brown today instructed the Bank of England,
as agent for Her Majesty’s Treasury, to direct financial
institutions that any funds which they hold for or on behalf of five
senior members of the Hamas must be frozen”, the Treasury said in a
statement. “This action has been taken because the Treasury have
reasonable grounds for suspecting that four of the individuals are, or
may be persons who facilitate or participate in the commission of acts
of terrorism and one, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, is or may be a person, who
commits, facilitates or participates in such acts”, the statement
said. Besides Rantisi, the other named are Musa Abu Marzouk, Imad
Khalil Al-Alami, Usama Hamdan and Khalid Mishaal. Brown also
instructed the bank to add names “Kadek” and “Kongra-Gel” —
aliases of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party to its list of terrorist
groups that are subject to an asset freeze. In Gaza city, Rantissi
today said the activities of the Hamas are aimed solely at Israel and
it has no interest in attacking US interests. — PTI |
|
|
Fighting resumes between Pak army, militants Wana, March 24 A delegation of tribal elders had earlier used a lull in the fighting to try to persuade hundreds of foreign militants and their local supporters to surrender but appeared to have failed. “We can hear heavy guns and mortar fire,” said a resident. “Our houses are shaking.” But army spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan called the exchange of fire “normal activity”. In an apparent spill-over from the fighting, suspected militants carried out a series of attacks elsewhere in Pakistan’s deeply conservative North West Frontier Province, killing at least seven persons, officials said. Pakistan’s army says it has surrounded hundreds of militants in the rugged mountains of South Waziristan near the Afghan border, and scores of soldiers, militants and civilians have died in more than a week of intense fighting. Tribal elders had been trying for two days to persuade the militants to surrender and release 14 soldiers and officials thought to have been kidnapped at the start of the clashes. Authorities said the army had been prepared to give the tribal delegation at least until Wednesday evening to make progress, and would not attack until then unless fired upon. But anger about the operation has grown among the fiercely independent tribesmen of northwestern Pakistan. Militants fired three missiles at various targets in the heart of the provincial capital Peshawar tonight and wounded two persons, said police chief Rifat Pasha. Hundreds of
protesters took to the streets in a tribal area near the Khyber Pass
to demand an end to the operation against militants. The protesters,
many brandishing automatic rifles, also denounced Israel’s killing
of Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin. |
|
|
Islamic parties assail operation Islamabad, March
24 “Parliament has not been taken into confidence about the military
operation and we are receiving dead bodies of troops,” Maulana Ahmed
Khan Sherani of Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), alliance of six Islamic
groups, said in the National Assembly. “The House should decide
whether or not the operation is itself terrorism,” Sherani said
adding that the operation had now been extended to other areas from
Waziristan and that “innocent people are being targeted”. Raja
Nadir Pervez, a lawmaker of Muslim League (N) group of exiled Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif, warned in the National Assembly that the
situation was going to worsen if the operation was not stopped.
“Pakistani soldiers used to be buried with honour but now they are
being buried secretly,” Nadir alleged. Asking the Treasury Benches
to inform the House about the exact number of casualties of Pakistani
troops, Mehmood Khan Achakzai of nationalist Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami
Party said if the government continued the operation, it would face
danger from Al-Qaida. The National Assembly will hold full debate on
the operation tomorrow. — PTI |
|
4 killed in attack on Pak police post Peshawar, March 24 It was not known if the attacks were a backlash to an offensive mounted by Pakistani forces against up to 500 Al-Qaida-linked militants in semi-autonomous tribal zones along the country’s northwest border with Afghanistan. According to a senior security official,
unidentified attackers sprayed bullets at a police post in Bannu, 150
km southwest of Peshawar. — AFP |
|
|
USA could have prevented 9/11 attacks, says Washington, March 24 With President George W Bush already facing criticism from a former White House anti-terrorism adviser, the inquiry into the 2001 attacks that left about 3,000 dead could increase pressure on his re-election campaign year. “My feeling is a whole number of circumstances, had they been different, might have prevented 9/11,” Mr Thomas Kean, Chairman, National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, told CBS television before yesterday’s key hearing. “They involve everything from how people got into the country to failures in the intelligence system. There’s a whole series of things. Had any number of them gone a different way, then perhaps 9/11 could have been prevented.” The panel of Republican and Democratic members issued a preliminary report saying the Bush Administration and the previous government of President Bill Clinton were not aggressive enough in countering the threat from Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida group. “By
early 1997, intelligence and law enforcement officials in the US
Government had finally received reliable information disclosing the
existence of Al-Qaida as a worldwide terrorist organisation,” the
report said. — AFP |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | National Capital | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
