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Combat copters enter Libya fray
Five top Yemeni officials in Saudi Arabia for treatment
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Washington, June 4 Al-Qaida has released a two-part 100-minute video apparently produced after the death of Osama bin Laden that calls for individual acts of jihad on “enemy soil,” a US-based monitoring service said. Mediterranean boat capsize claims 150 lives
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Combat copters enter Libya fray
Benghazi, June 4 As the NATO-led war entered a new phase, explosions rattled Tripoli and US lawmakers chided President Barack Obama for failing to obtain congressional approval for military action in Libya. “Attack helicopters under NATO command were used for the first time,” the military alliance said in a statement. “The targets struck included military vehicles, military equipment and fielded forces” of the Gaddafi regime, it said, without detailing where the strikes had taken place. British Apache choppers and French Gazelles and Tigres were deployed, the two countries said. The Apaches returned safely to a carrier, Britain’s defence ministry said, also without disclosing the targets. The helicopters destroyed a radar post and a checkpoint near the coastal oil city of Brega in the overnight strikes, according to Britain’s domestic news agency PA. The attacks were launched as part of the aerial campaign to protect Libyan civilians from Gaddafi’s forces in line with a UN resolution that barred ground troops. British Defence Secretary Liam Fox said the use of the Apaches showed the willingness of the coalition to “keep the pressure up” on Gaddafi. “We made to Colonel Gaddafi very clear that there is a very quick way to stop the current NATO activity and that’s for him to go and stop waging war on his own people,” Fox told journalists at a Singapore security conference. In the latest diplomatic setback for Gaddafi, China made its first confirmed contact with Libyan rebels this week following a spate of defections by high profile figures, including senior oil official and former Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem. In Beijing, a terse Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said Beijing's ambassador to Qatar, Zhang Zhiliang, had met and "exchanged views on developments in Libya" with Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the chairman of the rebel council that is trying to offer itself as a credible temporary alterative to Gaddafi. The ministry gave no details but the meeting itself was an indication that Beijing wants to keep open lines of communication with the rebel forces. Military analysts say attack helicopters will allow more precise strikes against pro-Gaddafi forces hiding in built-up areas than the high-flying jets used so far, while reducing the risk of civilian casualties. But given the vulnerability of helicopters to ground fire, their deployment also increases the risk of Western forces suffering their first casualties of the campaign.
— Agencies
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Five top Yemeni officials in Saudi Arabia for treatment
Sanaa, June 4 Hisham Sharaf, minister of trade and industry, said he met with Saleh on Friday night and that the President remained defiant in the face of escalating violence. Months of peaceful demonstrations to oust the regime have become a raging military conflict in the capital and elsewhere. “He was in very high morale. The strike that doesn’t break you makes you stronger. The strike made him more adamant that he won’t handover the country until he is sure it will be safe and clear of militias,” Sharaf said. He said he spoke with Saleh at a military hospital on Friday night where he was treated for minor wounds before returning to the presidential palace. But a senior official in the president’s office said Saleh remains in the military hospital. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press. Presidential spokesman Ahmed al-Sufi declined to comment. He accused the United States of orchestrating the attack on Saleh, saying all signs pointed to American involvement “because of the precision and the timing.” A military official said, however, investigators were trying to determine if there was a security breach in the palace guard.
— AP
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Qaida video exhorts individual jihad
Washington, June 4 Among the several speakers are Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaida’s long-time number two to bin Laden, and American-born Adam Gadahn, who says that Muslims living in the West are “perfectly placed to play an important and decisive part in the jihad against the Zionists and Crusaders.” Muslims living in the United States can easily buy automatic assault weapons at a gun show without any identification or submitting to a background check, Gadahn says, speaking in English, according to a transcript of the first video released yesterday by the SITE Monitoring Service. “It’s important that we weaken our cowardly enemies’ will to fight by targeting influential public figures in Crusader and Zionist government, industry and media,” Gadahn said. The video was produced by Al-Qaida’s media arm, as-Sahab and is titled, “You are only responsible for yourself.” It was posted on Web forums on Thursday, and opens with old footage of bin Laden sitting next to al-Zawahiri giving a speech that criticises the Western occupation of Muslim lands. The Al-Qaida leader was killed on May 2 by US commandos who raided his safe house in Abbottabad, Pakistan. SITE said the video appears to have been made after bin Laden’s death because references to him add the phrase: “May Allah have mercy on him” after his name. Other top Al-Qaida officials who appear on the video include Abu Laith Al-Libi and Attiya Allah. The narrator of the first video also lists several Muslims who carried out individual acts of jihad, portraying them as paragons to be admired and copied. Gadahn is one of Al-Qaida’s top propagandists. Born Adam Pearlman, he began studying Islam in 1995 when he was 17. He converted later that year and reportedly moved to Pakistan in 1998. He has appeared in many Al-Qaida videos. — AFP
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Mediterranean boat capsize claims 150 lives
Geneva, June 4 The tragedy appears to be one of the worst and the deadliest incidents in the Mediterranean so far this year, said Adrian Edwards, the spokesman for the UNHCR. The Geneva-based agency said at least 578 of the estimated 850 persons on board, mostly from West Africa, Pakistan and Bangladesh, survived the Wednesday sinking. The boat, manned by people with little or no maritime experience, set sail on Saturday afternoon from the Libyan capital Tripoli and was headed for Lampedusa in Italy, Edwards said. “It ran into difficulties soon after departure and experienced problems with its steering and power,” he said.
— AP
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