Afghan attacks kill 8 US troops in 24 hours
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — American forces suffered a deadly 24 hours in Afghanistan, with eight troops killed in attacks including an audacious Taliban raid on a police compound in the key southern city of Kandahar, officials said Wednesday.
The U.S. and its coalition allies have warned that violence and troop casualties are likely to mount this summer as thousands of new forces fan out across southern insurgent strongholds in a bid to turn around the nearly 9-year-long war.
However, a top U.S. commander in the south said Wednesday that the new operation should start reducing violence in coming months.
So far in July, 45 coalition troops have died in Afghanistan, 33 of them Americans, continuing the upward trend of the previous month, which was war’s deadliest for the NATO-led force, with 103 international soldiers killed.
A suicide attacker slammed a car bomb into the gate of the headquarters of the elite Afghan National Civil Order Police late Tuesday night in Kandahar, the international force said. Minutes later, insurgents opened fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
Three U.S. troops, an Afghan policeman and five civilians — three interpreters and two security guards — died in the attack, but NATO said the insurgents failed to enter the compound.
Four more American troops were killed elsewhere in the south Wednesday by a roadside bomb, while one more U.S. service member died the same day of wounds from a gunbattle, also in the south. NATO gave no further details of those attacks.
The special Civil Order Police had only recently sent 600 more officers to Kandahar to set up checkpoints along with international forces to try to secure the south’s largest city, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi telephoned reporters Wednesday to claim responsibility for the attack. The insurgents, who are prone to exaggerate death tolls of their enemies, claimed 13 international troops died in the raid.
Also in Kandahar, a pro-government cleric and member of a local people’s council was gunned down in a mosque Wednesday. Haji Khalifa, a member of the Pajawai district shura, or council, was shot dead as he prayed, said provincial shura member Agha Haji Lalai.
He said assassinations have increased in Kandahar as insurgents make the point they can still operate despite the extra security.
NATO and Afghan patrols are stepping up patrols around Kandahar province to pressure insurgents in rural areas. The strategy is to improve security with more and better-trained police and troops so that capable governance can take root and development projects can move forward and win the loyalty of ordinary Afghans.
The Taliban have responded by ratcheting up suicide attacks and bombings.
Army Brig. Gen. Ben Hodges, a top U.S. commander in southern Afghanistan, said Wednesday that the new Kandahar operation is still in its early stages and security will begin to improve in coming months as additional American and Afghan forces move into violent areas.
“It’s a rising tide,” he said. “And that tide is starting to come in now. We’re going to start feeling those positive effects here as July turns into August.”
In the contested district of Zhari, where the government has far less control than in Kandahar city, Hodges said the timing of the beginning of combat operations will depend on when the Afghans are ready to take the lead in governing. American military forces could clear these areas quickly and decisively, he said, but doing so without establishing local governance and permanent security forces would have negative consequences.
“All that would accomplish is a lot of casualties, ours as well as Afghans,” he said, “and we would create even more insurgents because we’d be leaving.”
Experience in neighboring Helmand province has proved how difficult it can be to establish an effective government presence after clearing a militant stronghold.
Officials on Wednesday confirmed that the government representative in the troubled southern district of Marjah had been replaced, barely six months after a major NATO military offensive to retake the area from the Taliban.
Provincial spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said Abdul Zahir has been replaced as district chief as part of a “reform procedure.” He would not say if Zahir was removed because of continued instability in Marjah. The southern farming town — much like the current Kandahar push — was intended to be a showcase of good Afghan governance after combined Afghan and international forces expelled the Taliban, but authorities have struggled to consolidate their control.
Hodges, the American commander, said Zahir was ousted for refusing to take a qualification test required under Afghan law. He said he did not have details but suspected the test requirement was waived when Zahir was first recruited as district chief.
Nine Afghan civilians died in Marjah on Tuesday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb, the Ministry of Interior said. Another homemade bomb killed two security guards traveling on a road in eastern Paktika province.
On Tuesday in Helmand, Britain’s forces suffered a blow when an Afghan soldier partnered with them turned against his unit, killing three British troops, including the company commander, before fleeing. The Taliban later announced the man had surrendered to the insurgents and was in “a safe place.”
Afghan Gen. Ghulam Farook Parwani identified the soldier Wednesday as Talib Hussein, age 22 or 23, a Hazara minority Shiite Muslim from the eastern province of Ghazni.
The soldier’s identity deepened the mystery of his motive, since the Hazara were persecuted by the Taliban when the hard-liners ruled Afghanistan during 1996-2001 with their extreme interpretation of Islamic law. Taliban are mostly of ethnic Pashtun Sunni Muslims who see Shiites as doctrinally impure.
Parwani said Hussein was recruited into the Afghan army only about eight or nine months previously. He said initial investigations indicate Hussein was a habitual hashish smoker.
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Libyan ship with aid for Gaza reaches Egypt port
EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) — A Libyan aid ship blocked by Israeli missile ships from steaming to Gaza reached an Egyptian port Wednesday, bringing an end to the latest challenge to Israel’s naval embargo of the Palestinian territory.
The director of the Egyptian port of el-Arish, Gamal Abdel Maqsoud, said the Libyan boat radioed Wednesday evening asking permission to dock there. He said the ship, the Moldovan-flagged Amalthea, was 15 miles (24 kilometers) off the Egyptian coast.
The ship reached the waiting area Wednesday evening, but has yet to dock because the captain is seeking clearance from the shipment’s organizers, Abdel Maqsoud said.
It appeared likely the cargo would be unloaded Thursday.
Egypt’s foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, told reporters that Cairo has agreed to let the Amalthea through, and that as soon as the boat docks, its cargo will be unloaded and handed over to the Red Crescent to deliver to Gaza.
In recent days, with the Amalthea’s organizers insisting it would go to Hamas-ruled Gaza and Israel saying it would not allow that to happen, the stage appeared set for a showdown on the high seas. Framing the faceoff was Israel’s botched attempt to block a similar Gaza-bound aid ship in May, an incident that ended with the deaths of nine pro-Palestinian activists — eight Turks and a Turkish-American on one of them — in a violent confrontation on board.
Israeli missile ships had been shadowing the Amalthea since Wednesday morning to ensure that it would not reach Gaza. An Al-Jazeera reporter on board the aid boat said Israeli ships were arrayed in a “wall” meant to prevent the Amalthea from continuing toward the Palestinian territory.
Despite the Israeli insistence that it would not allow the ship through the blockade, Hamas officials in Gaza had been urging the Amalthea to press on. Speaking at a ceremony naming a street after those killed in the May 31 confrontation, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the territory’s Hamas government, called the Libyan ship “our moving hope in the Mediterranean Sea.”
“Beware not to fall into the trap and stop in a port other than Gaza,” he said as the street was named “The Martyrs of the Freedom Flotilla.”
Conflicting messages on Tuesday created confusion over whether the Amalthea intended to try to run the blockade or not.
A spokesman for the Libyan mission, Youssef Sawani, insisted the ship would try to reach the Palestinian territory, but said those aboard would not violently resist any efforts to stop them.
He later said in Tripoli that after mediation from the European Union, the organizers agreed to enter el-Arish port and send the goods by Thursday to Gaza.
“Our aim is not provocation or political propaganda,” he told reporters in Tripoli.
The Gadhafi foundation, headed by the son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, said the Amalthea left Greece on Saturday carrying 2,000 tons of food and medical supplies. Israel invited the activists to sail to the Israeli port of Ashdod and unload the supplies there, after which Israel would screen the goods and send them into Gaza overland. The group refused.
The deaths of the nine activists in the May 31 raid focused international attention on Israel’s blockade of Gaza, imposed after the Islamic militant and anti-Israel Hamas violently overran the Palestinian territory in June 2007. The international criticism forced Israel to ease its land blockade of the territory but it has maintained the naval embargo, insisting it is vital to keep weapons out of Hamas’ hands.
Restrictions remain on materials like cement and steel that Israel says could be used for military purposes, and Gaza’s 1.5 million people, confined to the small, impoverished territory, have been plagued by other problems, including a chronic cash shortage.
George Saba, who manages a branch of the Cairo Amman Bank in the territory, said Wednesday that because of cash shortages the bank could not pay this month’s salary to government officials. Palestinian officials in the West Bank were trying to arrange a transfer of Israeli cash into Gaza to alleviate the shortage.
Also Wednesday, a Gaza health official said a 42-year-old Palestinian woman was killed and four other Gazans were wounded late Tuesday by an Israeli tank shell. The military said it opened fire after spotting people near the security fence and suspected they might be planting explosive devices.
A Gaza rights group, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, issued a statement Wednesday condemning unknown Palestinian assailants for throwing a grenade at the campus of Gaza’s YMCA, run by local Christians. No one was injured in the attack, which the group said took place early Tuesday.
Members of extremist Islamic groups in Gaza have been suspected in past attacks on internet cafes and Christian institutions.
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3 officers plead not guilty in Katrina shootings
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Three police officers charged in the killing of two unarmed residents on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina and a cover-up that followed pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.
Sgts. Robert Gisevius and Kenneth Bowen and Officer Anthony Villavaso stood before a federal magistrate in green prison garb, shackled at the waist and ankles. They will remain jailed at least until a hearing Friday. A tentative trial date is set for Sept. 13.
Magistrate Louis Moore Jr. read the counts — 13 against Bowen, 11 against Gisevius and 10 against Villavaso. Former officer Robert Faulcon made his initial court appearance Tuesday in Texas, where he was arrested, but has not entered a plea.
The charges against the four carry a maximum sentence of life in prison or the death penalty, although U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said the Justice Department hasn’t decided whether to seek the latter punishment.
The family of two victims — Ronald Madison, who was killed, and his brother, Lance, who survived — sat in the front row of the packed courtroom. Gisevius cried quietly as he stood with his lawyer.
“We’ll be able to pick this indictment apart,” said Frank DeSalvo, Bowen’s lawyer. “There is a lot of fantasy there.”
Bowen, Gisevius and Villavaso were suspended without pay after the indictments were released Tuesday, NOPD spokesman Bob Young said on Wednesday.
Five former officers already have pleaded guilty to charges they helped cover up the shootings. Prosecutors have said police fabricated witnesses, falsified reports and plotted to plant a gun to make it appear that the shootings were justified.
The shootings at the Danziger Bridge happened Sept. 4, 2005, six days after Hurricane Katrina smashed levees and left the city flooded and in chaos. Bodies floated in filthy flood waters. There were reports of looting and gunshots rang out throughout the blacked-out city.
It was in this backdrop that police, desperate to regain control, were called about 9 a.m. that morning after reports of gunfire at the bridge.
Seven heavily armed New Orleans police officers stormed the bridge. Prosecutors said they shot at the first people they saw, people they say were crossing the bridge to find food.
When it was over, two men were dead and four others lay wounded on the hot concrete.
The indictment claims Faulcon shot mentally disabled Ronald Madison, 40, in the back as he ran away on the west side of the bridge. Bowen is charged with stomping and kicking Madison while he was lying on the ground, wounded but still alive.
Madison’s brother, Lance, was arrested and charged with trying to kill police officers. He was jailed for three weeks before being released without indictment.
Bowen, Gisevius, Faulcon and Villavaso also are accused of shooting at an unarmed family on the east side of the bridge, killing 17-year-old James Brissette and wounding four others.
Sgt. Arthur Kaufman and retired Sgt. Gerard Dugue, who helped investigate the shootings, were charged with participating in the alleged cover-up. Charges against them include obstruction of justice.
Kaufman and Bowen “specifically discussed using Hurricane Katrina to excuse failures in the investigation, and thereby to help make any inquiry into the shooting go away,” the indictment states.
Kaufman allegedly took a gun from his home and claimed to have found it at the crime scene a day after the shootings, then lied about that gun under oath and in reports, prosecutors said.
Dugue is accused of lying to a federal agent when he said he had no concerns about the truth of the officers’ statements.
“In fact, he had many ‘red flags’ and ‘question marks’ about the officers’ stories, but he reported the questionable information as fact and relied upon it without qualification,” the indictment says.
The charges, unsealed Tuesday, are the culmination of a two-year probe by the federal government. An internal police investigation found no wrongdoing by officers. A state grand jury convened to look into the matter charged seven officers with murder or attempted murder, but a state judge threw out all the charges in 2008.
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Utah agencies probe alleged illegal immigrant list
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah Gov. Gary Herbert’s spokeswoman said Wednesday it will likely be several days before it’s known whether state workers leaked the personal information of more than 1,300 people who an anonymous group claims are illegal immigrants.
Several media outlets, law enforcement agencies and others began receiving the list in the mail this week, demanding that those on it be immediately deported.
The list sent chills through the state’s Hispanic community and marks the latest example of hysteria that has spread since Arizona passed its harsh immigration crackdown this year.
A 36-year-old Salt Lake City woman whose name was on the list along with those of her husband and three children, told The Associated Press through a translator that she’s consumed by fear.
“Our worst fear was that immigration will come for us or will stop us while driving or being out on the street,” said the woman, who requested anonymity to protect her family’s identity.
The woman, who said she has been in the U.S. for eight years, said her family is considering returning to their home outside of Mexico City where they all have citizenship.
Hispanic activist Tony Yapias, who translated the conversation over the phone, said the woman’s fears are prevalent.
“This is real. This is a witch hunt style of doing things,” he said while noting he had seven missed calls during his brief interview with the AP from concerned Hispanics. “What concerns me the most in this whole debate is just the cowardness, the intolerance.”
Conservative Utah lawmakers are considering adopting a measure similar to Arizona’s when they meet in January.
Arizona’s law, which takes effect July 29, directs police enforcing other laws to ask about a suspect’s immigration status if there is reason to believe the person is in the United States illegally. The Obama administration has sued Arizona to throw out the law and keep other states from copying it.
Democratic State Sen. Luz Robles of Salt Lake City said she’s worried the release of the list will distract from a substantive policy debate at a forum on immigration with the governor next week.
“This is one of those issues that’s volatile. I don’t know what’s coming next,” she said. “It was obviously a very calculated process and that is concerning.”
The list contains Social Security numbers, birth dates, workplaces, addresses and phone numbers. Names of children are included, along with due dates of pregnant women on the list.
Herbert spokeswoman Angie Welling said the governor did not set a timeframe for the investigation, but that it is a priority. The state’s technology department is assisting to see which state agencies have records that match those on the list.
“Obviously they’re working on it now and we’re interested in hearing the results,” Welling said. “It’ll take several days. This is a lot of information and it will take some work to really get down to it because, obviously, those data are accessed for legitimate purposes on a daily basis.”
The woman the AP spoke with said her family’s personal information could have been accessed by government workers because they had applied to the state’s Children Health Insurance Program.
While each state agency is being reviewed, Welling said most of the focus is on the Department of Workforce Services, the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services.
If there’s an indication that a law might have broken, the Utah Attorney General’s Office will investigate, Welling said.
Intentionally releasing a private record is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. If someone stole a protected record, it could be prosecuted as a third-degree penalty punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
“The people who sent out this information — if they are interested in making sure the law is followed — they should identify who they are and explain in detail how they obtained this information so we know whether or not they violated the law,” said Paul Murphy, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s spokesman.
In a letter included with the list, the writers say their group “observes these individuals in our neighborhoods, driving on our streets, working in our stores, attending our schools and entering our public welfare buildings.”
“We then spend the time and effort needed to gather information along with legal Mexican nationals who infiltrate their social networks and help us obtain the necessary information we need to add them to our list,” the letter says.
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Pilot, 3 grandchildren die in Michigan plane crash
DETROIT (AP) — A 73-year-old Chicago area man and three of his granddaughters from Israel were killed when their small plane crashed on an interstate in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
A 13-year-old grandson, who was hospitalized after being ejected from the aircraft, was the only survivor from the Tuesday evening crash, Mackinac County Sheriff officials said.
The pilot, Moshe Menora of Skokie, Ill., was killed, along with Rikki Menora, 16; Rachel Menora, 14; and Sara Klein, 17.
The grandchildren had been visiting from Israel for about a week, Moshe Menora’s widow, Sema Menora, told The Associated Press Wednesday.
She said the boy, Nathaniel Joseph “Yossi” Menora, suffered burns to half his body, and that the others died instantly.
Police said the twin engine Beechcraft Model 58 had not yet reached 1,000 feet after taking off from the Mackinac County Airport when it encountered trouble. The plane flipped after striking a median barrier on I-75, before resting on the shoulder about 250 miles northwest of Detroit.
Moshe Menora and his grandchildren took off about 10:15 a.m. Tuesday in the six-passenger plane from a small airport outside Chicago on a day trip to Mackinac, his widow said.
Moshe Menora had about 30 years of experience as a pilot.
“He just wanted to do something with the children for a few hours,” Sema Menora said. “They wanted to go in the plane. It was a special treat and he was a very skilled pilot.
“He had a very good relationship with his grandchildren. He enjoyed flying and wanted them to be part of what he loved, and they loved it.”
Sema Menora said she last spoke with her husband Tuesday morning before they left.
“I just said, ‘Have fun, have a good trip and I’ll see you for dinner,'” she said.
By dinnertime, a meal of baked salmon, mashed potatoes and salad was ready.
“I knew they would be starved,” Sema Menora added. “They were coming back about 5:30 p.m. Something went wrong in the takeoff.”
Sholom Menora — father of Rikki, Rachel and Yossi — told his mother from the Michigan hospital where Yossi was being treated, that the plane had split in half. The boy was in the rear of the plane at takeoff, Sema Menora said.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. The FAA said the plane’s tail number is 3081N and that the aircraft is registered out of state.
Rikki and Rachel came from Bet Shemesh, Israel, along with their brother. Sara was from Jerusalem.
Moshe Menora was born in Haifa, Israel, and had been working in real estate in the Chicago area. He and Sema Menora celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in March.
—-Contact The Daily Reveille’s news staff at [email protected].