The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Horror comes calling at US theatre
24-yr-old opens fire, kills 12, injures 55
Hall was screening new Batman flick

Accused James Holmes. — AP

Denver, Colorado, July 20
A gunman in a gas mask and bullet-proof vest killed 12 persons at a midnight premiere of the new "Batman" movie in a suburb of Denver early on Friday, sparking pandemonium when he hurled a gas canister into the auditorium and opened fire on moviegoers.

The attack injured 55 others including children during a screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" at a mall in the suburb of Aurora, which turned into a chaotic scene of bleeding victims, horrified screams and pleas of "I'm hit, help me," witnesses said.

The suspect also booby-trapped his Aurora apartment with sophisticated explosives, creating a hazard for law-enforcement and bomb squad officers who swarmed to the scene. Authorities evacuated five nearby buildings, and created a perimeter of several blocks.

Officers took the suspect into custody in the parking lot behind the cinema, where he surrendered without a fight, police said.

He was armed with a high-powered rifle, a shotgun and two pistols, according to a law enforcement source close to the investigation. The suspect was identified as James Eagan Holmes, 24, a University of Colorado medical school student who was in the process of dropping out of a graduate program in neurosciences, the university said in a statement. His family issued a statement of sympathy for the victims and asked for privacy while they "process this information."

The living room of the suspect's apartment was crisscrossed with trip wires connected to what appeared to be plastic bottles containing an unknown liquid, said Chris Henderson, Aurora's deputy fire chief. Authorities planned to detonate the suspected explosives with a robot, he said.

"The pictures are fairly disturbing. It looks very sophisticated, how it's booby-trapped. It could be a very long wait," Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates told reporters. The gunman appeared at the front of the theater during the movie and released a canister which let out a hissing sound before gunfire erupted, police said. — Reuters

Mass shooting incidents in ’11, ’12

April 9, 2011: Netherlands

Tristan van der Vlis opened fire in the Ridderhof mall in Alphen aan den Rijn, south of Amsterdam, killing six before turning the gun on himself

July 22, 2011: Norway

A gunman kills 69 people at a youth summer camp of Norway's ruling political party, on the small, holiday island of Utoeya. Anders Behring Breivik is later charged with the killings, as well as with an earlier bombing in Oslo in which eight persons died

Dec 13, 2011: Belgium

Gunman Nordine Armani kills three people, including a 17-month-old toddler, wounding 121 in a central square in the eastern city of Liege, before shooting himself. The next day Belgian investigators found the body of a woman in a warehouse used by the gunman raising the death toll, including the killer, to five

Assad’s troops launch all-out assault on rebel strongholds in Damascus

Damascus, July 20
Syrian forces launched an all-out assault on opposition strongholds in Damascus today, a day after rebels seized crossings on Iraq and Turkey borders on the 16-month conflict's deadliest day so far.

Rebel fighters also clashed with troops in several neighbourhoods of Aleppo in what a human rights watchdog said was the fiercest fighting so far in Syria's second city.

At the United Nations, the Security Council voted unanimously to give one final 30-day extension to a troubled observer mission that was supposed to be overseeing a peace plan for Syria but which suspended its operations on June 16 in the face of mounting violence.

The vote came after emergency consultations just hours before the expiry of the 300-strong mission's mandate after Russia threatened to use its veto powers as a council permanent member for the second time in as many days.

State television trumpeted the news of the military's Damascus offensive.

"Our brave army forces have completely cleansed the area of Midan in Damascus of the remaining mercenary terrorists and have re-established security," it said, using the regime term for rebels.

Reporters taken on a regime-organised trip saw three bodies, empty streets, shuttered shops and buildings pockmarked with bullet holes. A security services source told AFP the military has launched a general offensive in Damascus.

The assault comes after a Wednesday bombing that killed four senior members of the regime, including the national security chief, who died today. General Hisham Ikhtiyar had been wounded along with Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar in the National Security headquarters bombing, which was claimed by the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Defence Minister General Daoud Rajha, President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and General Hassan Turkmani, head of the regime's crisis cell on the uprising, were all killed in the explosion.

A state funeral was held for the three in Damascus today ahead of their burials in their native provinces, the official SANA news agency reported, adding that Vice President Faruq al-Shara had attended but not Assad himself. — AFP

Beginning of an end in Syria?

Dubai, July 20
The attack by a suicide bomber which killed Defence Minister Dawoud Rajiha in Damascus on July 18, and injured several other top security officials, including the interior minister and the intelligence chief would appear as though the last wave of the Arab Spring has hit hard.

There is little doubt that Syria has descended into civil war. To validate the obvious, recently, and belatedly, the International Red Cross Committee has deemed the uprising a non-international armed conflict.

In response, as witnessed by network footage, the Assad regime continues to unleash heavy artillery and helicopter gunship attacks on rebels and civilians alike. The rhetoric from the West and the Arab world has been vociferous, but effete. Multilateral efforts to restore peace and negotiate an orderly exit for Assad have all but failed. The political movement in exile, The Syrian National Council, has been gaining ground, in part, due to defections of some senior members of Assad's coterie.

But, on balance, it has been unable to galvanise world powers to construct a viable plan to evict Assad, an Alawite — a sect of Shia Islam, who has ruled Syria for over a decade, presiding over a predominantly Sunni population. Against this background, The Free Syrian Army — the mosaic of rebel fighters across Syria — had probably come to the ineluctable conclusion that it's on its own.

Now, the end-game scenarios for Assad are dwindling, as rebel forces enter Damascus. So, what is the geopolitics of the conflict, and what might the end game for Assad look like? Geopolitics of the conflict Broadly, the Western powers of the UN Security Council support the rebels and are desirous of a regime change, while China and Russia have routinely exercised their veto to block UN resolutions. — ANI

Extension to UN Syria mission

United Nations, July 20
The UN Security Council unanimously approved on Friday a 30-day extension to a UN monitoring mission in Syria that had been deployed as part of international envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan to end the 16-month conflict that has killed thousands.

The UN Syria mission has up to 300 unarmed military observers whose role has been to monitor a failed April 12 ceasefire in Syria. Most of their monitoring activity was suspended on June 16. — Reuters

US lower house cuts military aid to Pakistan
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

The US House of Representatives has cut $650 million from its military aid to Pakistan amid warnings that the move will send a wrong message to the Pakistani people.

According to a report received from Washington, senior Republican lawmakers claimed they were trying to tamp down demands for still deeper reductions because of conservative anger at Pakistan’s policies.

“The issue is not so much about the cuts, or the money, it’s the message this sends to Pakistan,” said Ambassador Sherry Rehman while commenting on the Wednesday night vote in the House.

“We are talking to a number of Congressmen, and are constantly engaged with key players on Capitol Hill,” it was stated. During a debate on the Defence appropriations bill, Congressman Ted Poe, a Texas Republican, came to the floor demanding a $1.3 billion cut on US aid to Pakistan.

Tribesmen rise against Afghan Taliban

Alishing (Afghanistan), July 20
About 200 tribesmen gathered in an eastern Afghan town this week to mark what they said was an uprising against Taliban insurgents — the latest in a series of such moves, officials say.

Analysts caution that the so-called uprisings could be attempts by local militia leaders to reassert their authority ahead of the 2014 withdrawal of NATO troops supporting the government of President Hamid Karzai.

Or they could be orchestrated as part of a government strategy, they say.

But on Wednesday, in the central bazaar of Alishing, a farming district in eastern Laghman province, the tribesmen — some carrying AK-47 rifles or rocket-propelled grenades — made their intentions clear.

"We're fed up with the Taliban and their brutal aggressions against our people," a tribal elder among the protesters, Ghulam Rasoul, told AFP at the scene.

"We're standing up against them and will not allow them to oppress our people and kill our people," the turbaned elder said.

Laghman provincial administration spokesman Sarhadi Zwak told AFP that Alishing's revolt was the latest in a series of similar moves across the province northeast of Kabul.

And since mid-May, self-armed tribal militia have secured several villages in Ghazni province's Andar district south of the capital, a senior interior ministry source told AFP.

They were keeping the Taliban at bay and helped reopen dozens of schools the insurgents had closed, he said on condition of anonymity.

Although at an early stage, the revolts have worried the insurgents. "Taliban fighters used to control most of the provinces, but now they are losing ground in areas like Helmand, Kunduz and more recently Kandahar, Zabul and Ghazni," a mid-level Taliban source said. — AFP

Indian envoy meets Nepal oppn leaders

Kathmandu, July 20
Amid a political deadlock in Nepal, Indian Ambassador Jayant Prasad held consultations with senior leaders of the main opposition NC to discuss current situation in this country and matters pertaining to bilateral ties.

Prasad had a meeting with Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala at the opposition leader's residence at Maharajgunj on the outskirts of Kathmandu yesterday, NC sources said today.

The current political situation in Nepal and matters relating to Nepal-India relations mainly figured during their talks, they said.

The Indian envoy inquired about the ongoing political deadlock in the country, the sources said.

During the meeting, Koirala told Prasad that the Nepali Congress was ready to cooperate in building consensus and ending the current political stalemate in the country, whose Constituent Assembly was dissolved on May 27. — PTI

Biggest oil spill kills highest number of dolphins

Washington, July 20
The largest oil spill ever caused the highest number of dolphin deaths in the Gulf of Mexico, concludes a two-year scientific study.

Most troubling to scientists was the exceptionally high number of young dolphins that made up nearly half of the 186 dolphins that washed ashore from Louisiana to western Florida from January to April 2011. — IANS