CALAIS, France (Map, News) -
Hijrat Hotak's parents sold the family home in Afghanistan, paying a smuggler $15,000 (euro10,200.61) to help buy a bright future in Britain for their 15-year-old son.
Instead, after a long, perilous journey, he lives in "The Jungle," a squalid encampment in Calais where Hotak and hundreds of other hungry migrants nourish dreams of sneaking across the English Channel.
And even that will not last.
Hotak's humble shelter here will be gone within days, when the camp will be razed by French authorities who see it as a public-health nightmare, a haven for human traffickers and a point of contention with the British, who want the border to their country better sealed.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Army: Taliban commander dies from wounds suffered during capture in Pakistan's Swat Valley
ISLAMABAD (Map, News) -
Pakistan's army says a Taliban commander known for beheading opponents has died in custody from wounds sustained during his capture last week.
The army media center says Sher Muhammad Qasab died in custody Sunday. Qasab's three sons were killed in the gunbattle with security forces in the Swat Valley when he was arrested.
Qasab is an Urdu-language word meaning "butcher." He was given the title because of his ruthlessness toward enemies. He had a $121,000 bounty on his head.
The arrest was the third from the army's list of the 10 most-wanted Swat militants.
The Pakistan Taliban has been on the run after being cleared from the scenic valley and surrounding areas in July. Their leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed in an Aug. 5 CIA missile strike.
Taliban leader tells 'invaders' to study history
KABUL (Map, News) -
The Taliban's reclusive leader said in a Muslim holiday message Saturday that the U.S. and NATO should study Afghanistan's long history of war, in a pointed reminder that foreign forces have had limited military success in the country.
The message from Mullah Omar comes less than a month before the eighth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan to oust the Taliban for hosting al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
This year has been the deadliest of the conflict for U.S. and NATO troops, and political support at home for the war is declining. Taliban attacks have spiked around Afghanistan in the last three years, and the militants now control wide swaths of territory.
On Saturday, bombs targeting military vehicles in the south where the Taliban are increasingly powerful, killed six people.
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In his message for the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which ends the fasting month of Ramadan, Omar said the U.S. and NATO should study the history of Alexander the Great, whose forces were defeated by Pashtun tribesmen in the 4th century B.C.
"We would like to point out that we fought against the British invaders for 80 years from 1839 to 1919 and ultimately got independence by defeating" Britain, a statement attributed to Omar said.
"Today we have strong determination, military training and effective weapons. Still more, we have preparedness for a long war and the regional situation is in our favor. Therefore, we will continue to wage jihad until we gain independence and force the invaders to pull out," it said. The statement's authenticity could not be verified but it was posted on a Web site the Taliban frequently uses.
Omar is believed to be in hiding in Pakistan but hasn't been seen in years.
President Barack Obama has increased the U.S. focus on Afghanistan after what critics say were years of neglect under the Bush administration. Obama ordered 21,000 more troops to the country this year, and by year's end the U.S. will have a record 68,000 in the country.
Militant ambushes have become increasingly sophisticated and deadly, and U.S. troops say the Taliban is no longer the ragtag force the military first faced in late 2001. Civilian deaths and a corrupt Afghan government have turned many toward the militants, who have pushed into northern Afghanistan this year for the first time.
In the southern city of Kandahar, a bomb hidden on bicycle exploded as an Afghan army vehicle drove by, killing five people - four civilians and one Afghan soldier and wounding 15 people, said Mohammad Pashtun, a regional police official.
The Danish military said Saturday that one of its soldiers was also killed after militants fired on troops on patrol in the southern province of Helmand. Denmark has lost 25 soldiers in Afghanistan since it joined the U.S.-led coalition in 2002. Separately, Hungarian officials said a suicide attacker drove a vehicle into a Hungarian convoy in the northern city of Pul-e-Khumri. No troops were killed.
The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is expected to ask Washington for thousands more troops in coming weeks, but public support for the war is waning, and political leaders are questioning the need for more forces.
Al-Qaida posted a new video this week threatening that if Germans do not push their political parties to withdraw the country's soldiers from Afghanistan, "there will be a rude awakening after the elections." Germany holds national elections Sept. 27.
Omar's message said the international community has "wrongly depicted" the Taliban as a force against education and women's rights. It did not elaborate. Taliban militants force women to wear the all-encompassing burqa and don't allow females outside the home without a male escort.
Pakistan: Bomb kills 2 at checkpoint in northwest
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Map, News) -
A Pakistani official says a bomb blast has killed two people at a security checkpoint in the country's northwest.
Local government official Aslam Khan says the explosion occurred in Dara Adam Khel. The area is near the tribal regions and is famous for its illegal arms bazaar.
Khan says police are still investigating if the Saturday bombing was a suicide attack.
It was unclear whether police or civilians were killed.
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Taliban fighters in Pakistan's northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan frequently target security checkpoints.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistani police raided a local security firm that helps protect the U.S. Embassy on Saturday, seizing dozens of allegedly unlicensed weapons at a time when unusually intense media scrutiny of America's use of private contractors has deepened anti-U.S. sentiment.
Two employees of the Inter-Risk company were arrested during the raids in Islamabad, police official Rana Akram said. Reporters were shown the seized weapons - 61 assault rifles and nine pistols. Akram said police were seeking the firm's owner.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Rick Snelsire said the U.S. contract with Inter-Risk to provide security at the embassy and consulates took effect this year. It is believed to be the first U.S. contract for the firm, said Snelsire, who did not have a figure for its amount.
"Our understanding is they obtained licenses with whatever they brought into the country to meet the contractual needs," he said. "We told the government that we had a contract with Inter-Risk."
Akram said he had no idea about any U.S. links to Inter-Risk. A man who answered the phone number listed for the company and identified himself as Riaz Hussain confirmed the raid but gave contradictory answers when asked about any U.S. ties.
The company popped up Friday in one of a slew of local media reports that have focused on private security firms American diplomats are believed to use in Pakistan.
In particular, Pakistani reporters, anti-U.S. bloggers and others have suggested the U.S. is using the American firm formerly known as Blackwater - a claim that chills many Pakistanis because of the company's alleged involvement in killings of Iraqi civilians.
The U.S. Embassy denies it uses Blackwater - now known as Xe Services - in Pakistan.
Scandals involving U.S. private contractors have occurred elsewhere in the region.
In Washington on Friday, the Commission on Wartime Contracting heard testimony about another contractor - ArmorGroup North America - involving alleged illegal and immoral conduct by its guards at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan.
Earlier this year, the Iraqi government refused to grant Xe Services an operating license amid continued outrage over a 2007 lethal firefight involving some of its employees in Baghdad, although the State Department has temporarily extended a contract with a Xe subsidiary to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq.
Many of the reports in Pakistan have been prompted by U.S. plans to expand its embassy space and staff. Among the other rumors the U.S. denies: that 1,000 U.S. Marines will land in the capital, and that Americans will set up a Guantanamo-style prison.
The U.S. says it needs to add hundreds more staff to allow it to disburse billions of dollars in additional humanitarian and economic aid to Pakistan. The goal is to improve education and other areas, lessening the allure of extremism.
Some analysts say Islamist and other opposition groups may be planting the stories in the Pakistani press and blogs to portray Pakistan's government as an American lackey.
Pakistani political analyst Talat Masood said Inter-Risk's association with America "will increase the apprehensions that existed that the Americans are engaged in clandestine activities," and that the raid shows "the Pakistan government is asserting itself."
The U.S. considers stability in Pakistan critical to helping the faltering war effort in neighboring Afghanistan, and has pressed Pakistan to crack down on extremism on its soil. Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are believed to use Pakistan's northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan as hide-outs from which to plan attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has launched offensives against militants, but has also relied on some local militias to help fend off the Pakistani Taliban. Some of these militias share the same aims as the Taliban in Afghanistan, but disagree with targeting the Pakistani government.
On Saturday, one pro-government militia leader said the army had asked him to stop fighting the Pakistani Taliban. Turkistan Bhitani told The Associated Press that he and 24 aides surrendered their weapons to the army in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan and that he had asked 350 of his men to do so as well.
Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, however, said he knew nothing of such an arrangement.
Al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban have fueled violence in Pakistan, including attacks that pit Sunni Muslims against Shiite Muslims.
Police said Saturday that the death toll from a suicide car bombing at a hotel in a Shiite Muslim-dominated village in Pakistan's northwest rose to 40. The Friday blast in Usterzai village was followed by a bomb in nearby Cho village that killed a Sunni official.
Also Saturday, the army said in a statement that 51 militants had surrendered in the last 24 hours in the northwest Swat Valley, and that another seven were arrested. It also said militants fatally shot five civilians in a minibus there.
---
Associated Press writers Lori Hinnant in Kabul and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan contributed to this report.
A Pakistani official says a bomb blast has killed two people at a security checkpoint in the country's northwest.
Local government official Aslam Khan says the explosion occurred in Dara Adam Khel. The area is near the tribal regions and is famous for its illegal arms bazaar.
Khan says police are still investigating if the Saturday bombing was a suicide attack.
It was unclear whether police or civilians were killed.
This story continues below
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Taliban fighters in Pakistan's northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan frequently target security checkpoints.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistani police raided a local security firm that helps protect the U.S. Embassy on Saturday, seizing dozens of allegedly unlicensed weapons at a time when unusually intense media scrutiny of America's use of private contractors has deepened anti-U.S. sentiment.
Two employees of the Inter-Risk company were arrested during the raids in Islamabad, police official Rana Akram said. Reporters were shown the seized weapons - 61 assault rifles and nine pistols. Akram said police were seeking the firm's owner.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Rick Snelsire said the U.S. contract with Inter-Risk to provide security at the embassy and consulates took effect this year. It is believed to be the first U.S. contract for the firm, said Snelsire, who did not have a figure for its amount.
"Our understanding is they obtained licenses with whatever they brought into the country to meet the contractual needs," he said. "We told the government that we had a contract with Inter-Risk."
Akram said he had no idea about any U.S. links to Inter-Risk. A man who answered the phone number listed for the company and identified himself as Riaz Hussain confirmed the raid but gave contradictory answers when asked about any U.S. ties.
The company popped up Friday in one of a slew of local media reports that have focused on private security firms American diplomats are believed to use in Pakistan.
In particular, Pakistani reporters, anti-U.S. bloggers and others have suggested the U.S. is using the American firm formerly known as Blackwater - a claim that chills many Pakistanis because of the company's alleged involvement in killings of Iraqi civilians.
The U.S. Embassy denies it uses Blackwater - now known as Xe Services - in Pakistan.
Scandals involving U.S. private contractors have occurred elsewhere in the region.
In Washington on Friday, the Commission on Wartime Contracting heard testimony about another contractor - ArmorGroup North America - involving alleged illegal and immoral conduct by its guards at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan.
Earlier this year, the Iraqi government refused to grant Xe Services an operating license amid continued outrage over a 2007 lethal firefight involving some of its employees in Baghdad, although the State Department has temporarily extended a contract with a Xe subsidiary to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq.
Many of the reports in Pakistan have been prompted by U.S. plans to expand its embassy space and staff. Among the other rumors the U.S. denies: that 1,000 U.S. Marines will land in the capital, and that Americans will set up a Guantanamo-style prison.
The U.S. says it needs to add hundreds more staff to allow it to disburse billions of dollars in additional humanitarian and economic aid to Pakistan. The goal is to improve education and other areas, lessening the allure of extremism.
Some analysts say Islamist and other opposition groups may be planting the stories in the Pakistani press and blogs to portray Pakistan's government as an American lackey.
Pakistani political analyst Talat Masood said Inter-Risk's association with America "will increase the apprehensions that existed that the Americans are engaged in clandestine activities," and that the raid shows "the Pakistan government is asserting itself."
The U.S. considers stability in Pakistan critical to helping the faltering war effort in neighboring Afghanistan, and has pressed Pakistan to crack down on extremism on its soil. Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are believed to use Pakistan's northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan as hide-outs from which to plan attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has launched offensives against militants, but has also relied on some local militias to help fend off the Pakistani Taliban. Some of these militias share the same aims as the Taliban in Afghanistan, but disagree with targeting the Pakistani government.
On Saturday, one pro-government militia leader said the army had asked him to stop fighting the Pakistani Taliban. Turkistan Bhitani told The Associated Press that he and 24 aides surrendered their weapons to the army in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan and that he had asked 350 of his men to do so as well.
Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, however, said he knew nothing of such an arrangement.
Al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban have fueled violence in Pakistan, including attacks that pit Sunni Muslims against Shiite Muslims.
Police said Saturday that the death toll from a suicide car bombing at a hotel in a Shiite Muslim-dominated village in Pakistan's northwest rose to 40. The Friday blast in Usterzai village was followed by a bomb in nearby Cho village that killed a Sunni official.
Also Saturday, the army said in a statement that 51 militants had surrendered in the last 24 hours in the northwest Swat Valley, and that another seven were arrested. It also said militants fatally shot five civilians in a minibus there.
---
Associated Press writers Lori Hinnant in Kabul and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan contributed to this report.
Afghan commandos try persuasion in strategic towns
GHOWS KALAY, Afghanistan (Map, News) -
The village is little more than a handful of mud huts surrounded by wheat fields, but the runway at NATO's main air base in Afghanistan's south is visible from the town center. There, the Afghan commando, his beard still youthfully scraggly, tried to persuade a small audience of countrymen to turn against the Taliban and rebuild their country.
Aziz once hoped to be a doctor, but instead found himself in uniform, offering a formal speech carefully printed on folded white paper, as NATO cargo jets rumbled overhead to and from the Kandahar base. A surface-to-air missile in hostile hands could wreak havoc on the stream of flights.
Trained by a U.S. Special Forces team, 22-year-old Aziz and others like him are now among the best hopes for winning over people in the Taliban's southern heartland - especially in strategic towns and villages like Ghows Kalay. The crowd's gaze was fixed on the young man, the men nodding assent and the children trying not to fidget in the dust as they awaited the soccer balls and other gifts they knew would follow.
"We are a very powerful people, but we are sending our sick to Europe and India. Why? Because we don't have good doctors. We don't have engineers and teachers," said Aziz, who addressed the group with a megaphone tucked under his arm.
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In the past, American psychological operations teams would have conducted the kind of meeting led by Aziz. The U.S. spends millions of dollars printing leaflets and funding radio stations in Afghanistan, but few of these programs have been as effective as the visits by the Afghan commandos, American trainers said.
The Afghan Information Dissemination Operations program is still in its infancy. Created eight months ago, American trainers are working to train teams for all six Commando Kandak units, hoping they will draw more respect than the troubled Afghan police force or army.
"They are the bridge between us and the target audience," said a Fort Bragg-based sergeant among the trainers. A native of Puerto Rico, he spoke on the condition of anonymity for security reasons. "We are always in search of key communicators. What better kind of key communicator than a local."
At a class Wednesday at a base near Kabul, a half-dozen commandos from the 1st Commando Kandak sat in two rows, learning how to distribute aid. The outlines of their task can be learned in the classroom - with some difficulty.
"There is no word in Dari for body language," the instructor from Puerto Rico told The Associated Press. "I wasn't prepared for them not to understand what body language was."
But it is up to the Afghans to tailor the message, explain to locals how destructive the Taliban have been and show them the promise of an Afghan government. In the region of Kandahar, where the Taliban hold sway and have their own shadow government, delivering that message will be a challenge.
Col. Farid, deputy commander of the Afghan Commando Brigade, said a Taliban mullah near Kandahar once warned that international forces would not let the Afghan troops pray. Farid and his men prayed at the mosque that Friday, then Farid visited the mullah and prayed with him as well. That was all it took, Farid said, for the villagers to give him information about roadside bombs and enemy fighters.
"The enemy was using my religion, history and culture against me," Farid said. "We have to offset insurgent propaganda."
Anthony H. Cordesman, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said persuading a foreign culture is always hard for soldiers.
"You can't win the information battle because fundamentally it is fought with local values," he said. "Even with good communications skills, they are going to be treated differently. The host country has to take the lead because nothing we do is going to be convincing."
Sgt. Abdullah, a 25-year-old from Bamyan Province in northern Afghanistan, passed the university entry exam and was going to study agriculture before he joined the army. Now a squad leader in the 1st Commando Kandak, he understands that force might not be enough.
"Commandos can show the people that they are here to win hearts and minds," Abdullah said. "The help we give to the people is the message we have for the people."
The program be almost as hard to sell to the commandos. The men, trained to capture and kill bomb makers and insurgent leaders, are sometimes less interested in acting as messengers.
"The commandos consider themselves a lethal force," the instructor said.
But in Ghows Kalay, the benefit of commando teams seemed evident.
Aziz urged the villagers to warn the commandos or NATO troops about any Taliban in the area. He told them to watch for men firing rockets.
"We need to stand shoulder-to-shoulder to build up again," said Aziz, who is from eastern Afghanistan hundreds of miles away. "This country is our mother and our father. Fighting does not benefit us."
When he was done, the commandos backed up a tan Ford Ranger full of soccer balls, prayer rugs and backpacks. The special operations sergeant watched in amazement as the villagers walked to the truck. In 10 minutes, most of the village was kicking a soccer ball or running home with a prayer rug or hygiene kit.
A special operations sergeant working with Aziz's unit near Kandahar looked on with a wide grin.
"Sometimes in the class I don't think they are getting it, but seeing them in action blows my mind," the sergeant said. "You put a local in there and the words go straight to their ears."
Ramadan brings out Egypt's split personality
The holy month of Ramadan has brought out Egypt's cultural split personality, twisting Egyptians into knots over whether their society is secular, Muslim or a muddled mix.
Two furious debates have been raging through the season in the Arab world's most populous nation. On one hand, rumors that police arrested Egyptians violating the daily Ramadan fast raised dire warnings from secularists that a Taliban-like rule by Islamic law is taking over.
On the other, Ramadan TV talk shows on state-sponsored television featuring racily dressed female hosts discussing intimate sex secrets with celebrities have sparked outrage from conservatives, denouncing what they call the decadence that is sweeping the nation.
So is Egypt being taken over by sinners or saints? Egyptians have always been a boisterous combination - priding themselves on their piety, while determined to have a good time.
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Ramadan, the final day of which is Saturday in most of the Islamic world, shows the contradictions. Egyptians widely adhere to the dawn-to-dusk fast, in which the faithful abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex from dawn until dusk. After sunset, while some pray into the night, many Egyptians party with large meals and a heavy dose of TV entertainment produced specially for the month.
But the confusion comes from the government as well. It has often promoted strict Islamic principles in an attempt to co-opt conservatives and undercut extremists whom the state has been battling for decades. But it also increasingly dominated by businessmen who this year are more heavily than ever promoting Western-style secular culture.
There is no explicit law in Egypt to punish those not abiding by the fast, nor are there religious police to enforce Islamic rules as in Saudi Arabia. Many restaurants still serve during the day, and coffee shops can be seen with their doors cracked open, patrons hidden inside sipping tea or smoking water pipes.
But independent newspapers reported this month that police arrested more than 150 people for openly violating the fast.
Most of the reports have been unconfirmed. But Ahmed, a 27-year old fruit vendor, told The Associated Press he and 15 other people were arrested in a market in the southern town of Aswan on Sept. 5, for smoking in public.
"I was slapped, kicked around," Ahmed said, refusing to give his last name fearing further police harassment. "They asked me why I am not fasting ... They insulted me and used foul language."
Ahmed said he was kept in the police station for nearly six hours, then let go. "Now I am fasting, I swear," he said.
Police officials refused to confirm if Ahmed and others were arrested for not fasting, saying only they were rounded up for investigation.
The reports sparked criticism from Egyptian human rights activists, who called the crackdown unconstitutional. Activists said it appeared some police were acting individually to enforce the fast, a sign of increasing conservatism in the Interior Ministry. Some critics argued that adherence to the fast is traditionally a matter between each individual Muslim and God.
The Interior Ministry didn't deny or confirm the reports, but a ministry spokesman was quoted in the press last week insisting the security forces have a right to crack down on violators of the fast.
Bilal Fadl, a popular satirical columnist, said the ministry is mimicking "big sister Saudi Arabia," adding, "can we be so demanding from the sheiks in the Interior Ministry and ask them to postpone their campaign to defend (Islam) ... and start with implementing religious laws that fight corruption?"
An Egyptian blogger who goes by the pseudonym "Kalb Baladi" (Stray Dog) warned, "once we start going down the slippery slope of religious fascism, Egypt will become another Afghanistan in no time."
But the campaign appeared to have backers among the public. One woman who called into a popular talk show, Al-Qahira Al-Yom (Cairo Today), said fast-breakers were "looking for trouble" and should be jailed.
Television talk shows and soap operas produced especially for Ramadan have sparked their own debates.
State television and private channels owned by businessmen close to the government flooded the airwaves with new programs that liberally discussed taboo subjects like extramarital relationships, polygamy, divorce and sex education. Most featured stylish female hosts and often veered into titillation.
Ramadan is supposed to be a time of piety and religious reflection. Open talk of sex on TV is frowned upon throughout the year - but it's outright shocking during the holy month, when Muslims believe Islam's holy book the Quran was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.
Gehad Auda, a political analyst and member of the ruling party, said the government was intentionally trying to challenge religious extremists by opening the doors to more daring topics on TV.
"There is a new television logic, not only with images, but also through dialogue, without fear by breaking taboos surrounding many issues" to raise social awareness, Auda said.
In one espoused of a talk show called "The Daring One," the host - a famous female film director with a penchant for short skirts - kept pressing her actress guest about what she and her boyfriend liked to do when they're alone.
On the same show, another actress confessed she once had an abortion - which is illegal in Egypt and strictly forbidden by Islamic law. A male guest admitted to extramarital affairs.
The barrage of provocative shows has unleashed heavy criticism.
"We should boycott all this absurdity and obscenity and read the Quran," Mahmoud Ashour, an official with al-Azhar, the highest institution of Sunni learning in the Muslim world, told a gathering.
Columnist Ahmed Gamal Badawi wrote in the liberal opposition daily Al-Wafd that the government policy to "besiege" Islamists with "obscenity" would backfire and only add "millions to their ranks."
Wael Abdel Fattah, a producer of one of the new talk shows but also a government critic, said the conflicting messages of arresting fast-breakers while challenging religious sensitivities just show the state's determination to impose its power on all sides.
The state "is now dressing up in fashion, wearing a suit and tie, talking elegantly, showing pretty pictures but it is still very much in control ... it all fits the traditional tools of oppression," he said.
Two furious debates have been raging through the season in the Arab world's most populous nation. On one hand, rumors that police arrested Egyptians violating the daily Ramadan fast raised dire warnings from secularists that a Taliban-like rule by Islamic law is taking over.
On the other, Ramadan TV talk shows on state-sponsored television featuring racily dressed female hosts discussing intimate sex secrets with celebrities have sparked outrage from conservatives, denouncing what they call the decadence that is sweeping the nation.
So is Egypt being taken over by sinners or saints? Egyptians have always been a boisterous combination - priding themselves on their piety, while determined to have a good time.
This story continues below
Advertisement
Ramadan, the final day of which is Saturday in most of the Islamic world, shows the contradictions. Egyptians widely adhere to the dawn-to-dusk fast, in which the faithful abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex from dawn until dusk. After sunset, while some pray into the night, many Egyptians party with large meals and a heavy dose of TV entertainment produced specially for the month.
But the confusion comes from the government as well. It has often promoted strict Islamic principles in an attempt to co-opt conservatives and undercut extremists whom the state has been battling for decades. But it also increasingly dominated by businessmen who this year are more heavily than ever promoting Western-style secular culture.
There is no explicit law in Egypt to punish those not abiding by the fast, nor are there religious police to enforce Islamic rules as in Saudi Arabia. Many restaurants still serve during the day, and coffee shops can be seen with their doors cracked open, patrons hidden inside sipping tea or smoking water pipes.
But independent newspapers reported this month that police arrested more than 150 people for openly violating the fast.
Most of the reports have been unconfirmed. But Ahmed, a 27-year old fruit vendor, told The Associated Press he and 15 other people were arrested in a market in the southern town of Aswan on Sept. 5, for smoking in public.
"I was slapped, kicked around," Ahmed said, refusing to give his last name fearing further police harassment. "They asked me why I am not fasting ... They insulted me and used foul language."
Ahmed said he was kept in the police station for nearly six hours, then let go. "Now I am fasting, I swear," he said.
Police officials refused to confirm if Ahmed and others were arrested for not fasting, saying only they were rounded up for investigation.
The reports sparked criticism from Egyptian human rights activists, who called the crackdown unconstitutional. Activists said it appeared some police were acting individually to enforce the fast, a sign of increasing conservatism in the Interior Ministry. Some critics argued that adherence to the fast is traditionally a matter between each individual Muslim and God.
The Interior Ministry didn't deny or confirm the reports, but a ministry spokesman was quoted in the press last week insisting the security forces have a right to crack down on violators of the fast.
Bilal Fadl, a popular satirical columnist, said the ministry is mimicking "big sister Saudi Arabia," adding, "can we be so demanding from the sheiks in the Interior Ministry and ask them to postpone their campaign to defend (Islam) ... and start with implementing religious laws that fight corruption?"
An Egyptian blogger who goes by the pseudonym "Kalb Baladi" (Stray Dog) warned, "once we start going down the slippery slope of religious fascism, Egypt will become another Afghanistan in no time."
But the campaign appeared to have backers among the public. One woman who called into a popular talk show, Al-Qahira Al-Yom (Cairo Today), said fast-breakers were "looking for trouble" and should be jailed.
Television talk shows and soap operas produced especially for Ramadan have sparked their own debates.
State television and private channels owned by businessmen close to the government flooded the airwaves with new programs that liberally discussed taboo subjects like extramarital relationships, polygamy, divorce and sex education. Most featured stylish female hosts and often veered into titillation.
Ramadan is supposed to be a time of piety and religious reflection. Open talk of sex on TV is frowned upon throughout the year - but it's outright shocking during the holy month, when Muslims believe Islam's holy book the Quran was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.
Gehad Auda, a political analyst and member of the ruling party, said the government was intentionally trying to challenge religious extremists by opening the doors to more daring topics on TV.
"There is a new television logic, not only with images, but also through dialogue, without fear by breaking taboos surrounding many issues" to raise social awareness, Auda said.
In one espoused of a talk show called "The Daring One," the host - a famous female film director with a penchant for short skirts - kept pressing her actress guest about what she and her boyfriend liked to do when they're alone.
On the same show, another actress confessed she once had an abortion - which is illegal in Egypt and strictly forbidden by Islamic law. A male guest admitted to extramarital affairs.
The barrage of provocative shows has unleashed heavy criticism.
"We should boycott all this absurdity and obscenity and read the Quran," Mahmoud Ashour, an official with al-Azhar, the highest institution of Sunni learning in the Muslim world, told a gathering.
Columnist Ahmed Gamal Badawi wrote in the liberal opposition daily Al-Wafd that the government policy to "besiege" Islamists with "obscenity" would backfire and only add "millions to their ranks."
Wael Abdel Fattah, a producer of one of the new talk shows but also a government critic, said the conflicting messages of arresting fast-breakers while challenging religious sensitivities just show the state's determination to impose its power on all sides.
The state "is now dressing up in fashion, wearing a suit and tie, talking elegantly, showing pretty pictures but it is still very much in control ... it all fits the traditional tools of oppression," he said.
Pakistan police raid US-employed security firm
ISLAMABAD (Map, News) -
Pakistani police say they have raided a local security firm that has a contract with the U.S. Embassy.
Islamabad police official Rana Akram says the Inter-Risk firm is accused of illegal weapons possession.
The raid Saturday comes amid intense coverage in the local media of American use of private security firms in the country, much of it negative.
Akram says police found 61 assault rifles and nine pistols that were allegedly unlicensed.
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U.S. Embassy spokesman Rick Snelsire says the embassy's contract with the firm took effect at the start of this year.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - A bombing at a mosque in northwestern Pakistan killed a prominent Sunni Muslim official just hours after a suicide attack in a nearby Shiite Muslim-dominated village left 40 dead, police said Saturday.
It was not immediately clear if the two were linked, but the mosque bomb Friday was the third blast in the area in two days, underscoring the relentless security threat in a region riddled with Taliban and al-Qaida and simmering with sectarian tension.
The bomb went off at the mosque in Och village near Hangu town before midnight, killing district Mayor Haji Khan Afzal and wounding three other people, police official Gul Jamal said.
Afzal was apparently praying at the mosque when the blast - 18 pounds (eight kilograms) of explosives detonated by remote control - brought its roof crashing down on him, Jamal said.
The mayor was affiliated with Jamaat Ulema Islam, an Islamist party in the government.
Meanwhile, the death toll from an overnight suicide car bombing at a hotel in the northwestern village of Usterzai on the outskirts of Kohat jumped from 29 to 40. Five of the injured died in a hospital and rescuers retrieved six more bodies from rubble of the two-story Hikmat Ali Hotel, area police Chief Ali Hassan said.
The hotel - owned by a Shiite - was among several buildings destroyed or badly damaged in the attack.
Local media reported that a little-known group calling itself Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Almi claimed responsibility. It is possible the group is linked to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned Sunni extremist organization with ties to al-Qaida.
The Taliban and al-Qaida believe Shiite Muslims are infidels, and their influence has fueled sectarian attacks that have long plagued Pakistan. The latest assaults came just days before Muslims from both sects celebrate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
"When the clouds of dust cleared, I saw the dead bodies and the pieces of bodies all around, and everywhere there was blood and wounded people. They were crying," Wagar Ali, who was wounded in the blast, told AP Television News.
TV footage showed some of the wounded in hospital beds and on stretchers. The victims were bloodied, bandaged and seemingly in shock.
Vegetable seller Madad Ali, hurt in the explosion, said he saw the suicide bomber approaching.
"I was working when I saw a van come from the Kohat road. Inside was a man with a beard, and he blew himself up with a very powerful blast," said Ali. "The roof of the shop came in on me and I was stuck underneath. People started to dig us out from the rubble."
Pakistan has launched several offensives against extremist groups in the area over the past year, but attacks persist.
The U.S. is particularly anxious for Pakistan to clamp down on insurgents it blames for attacks on American and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan.
On Thursday, six people were wounded when a bomb planted outside a shop in Kohat's main bazaar exploded.
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Associated Press writer Inamur Rehman in Kohat contributed to this report.
Bomb kills local mayor in northwest Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Map, News) -
A bombing at a mosque in northwest Pakistan killed a prominent Sunni Muslim official just hours after a suicide attack in a nearby Shiite Muslim-dominated village left 29 dead, police said Saturday.
It was not immediately clear if two were linked, but the mosque bomb Friday was the third blast in the area in two days, underscoring the relentless security threat in a region riddled with Taliban and al-Qaida and simmering with sectarian tension.
The bomb went off at the mosque in Och village near Hangu town before midnight, killing district mayor Haji Khan Afzal and wounding three other people, police official Gul Jamal said.
Afzal was apparently praying at the mosque when the blast - eight kilograms of explosives detonated by remote control - brought its roof crashing down onto him, Jamal said.
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The mayor was affiliated with Jamaat Ulema Islam, an Islamist party in the government.
Earlier Friday, a suicide car bomber rammed into the two-story Hikmat Ali Hotel on the outskirts of Kohat town in Usterzai village, killing 29 people and wounding 55 others. The hotel - owned by a Shiite - was among several buildings destroyed or badly damaged, police official Asmat Ullah said.
Local media reported that a little known group calling itself Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Almi claimed responsibility. It is possible the group is linked to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned Sunni extremist outfit with ties to al-Qaida.
The Taliban and al-Qaida believe Shiite Muslims are infidels, and their influence has fueled sectarian attacks that have long plagued Pakistan. The latest assaults came just days before Muslims from both sects celebrate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
"When the clouds of dust cleared, I saw the dead bodies and the pieces of bodies all around, and everywhere there was blood and wounded people. They were crying," Wagar Ali, who was wounded in the blast, told AP Television News.
TV footage showed some of the wounded in hospital beds and on stretchers. The victims were bloodied, bandaged and seemingly in shock.
Vegetable seller Madad Ali, hurt in the explosion, said he saw the suicide bomber approaching.
"I was working when I saw a van come from the Kohat road. Inside was a man with a beard, and he blew himself up with a very powerful blast," said Ali. "The roof of the shop came in on me and I was stuck underneath. People started to dig us out from the rubble."
Pakistan has launched several offensives against extremist groups in the area over the past year, but attacks persist.
The U.S. is particularly anxious for Pakistan to clamp down on insurgents it blames for attacks on American and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan.
Kohat police official Ali Hasan Khan said four more bodies were retrieved from the rubble of the car bombing late Friday, raising the death toll to 29. Another 55 people were wounded and hospitalized, Khan said.
On Thursday, six people were wounded when a bomb planted outside a shop in Kohat's main bazaar exploded.
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Associated Press Writer Inamur Rehman contributed to this report from Kohat.
Suicide bomber kills 29 in northwest Pakistan
KOHAT, Pakistan (Map, News) -
Scores of bloodied and bandaged victims filled hospital beds after a suicide car bomber destroyed a two-story hotel in northwest Pakistan, killing 29 people and underscoring the relentless security threat to the region.
The blast Friday on the outskirts of Kohat town wounded 55 others. It was the second attack in two days in the area, which is close to Pakistan's rugged border region with Afghanistan where al-Qaida and Taliban militants hold sway.
The attack took place in the Shiite-dominated village of Usterzai, raising speculation that it may have been a sectarian assault by Sunni extremists. It occurred just days before Muslims from both sects celebrate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
Meanwhile, a bomb exploded at a mosque in the northwestern town of Hangu before midnight Friday, killing the district mayor Haji Khan Afzal and wounding three people, police official Gul Jamal said. No one claimed responsibility, but Afzal was from a prominent Sunni Islamist party.
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Islamist militants have also staged bombings in public places in the northwest to warn locals from cooperating with security forces, or punish them for already doing so.
The Hikmat Ali Hotel - owned by a Shiite - was among several buildings destroyed or badly damaged, police official Asmat Ullah said. At least eight cars were mangled by the force of the blast, witnesses said.
Sunni extremist groups such as the Taliban and al-Qaida believe Shiites are infidels, and their influence in Pakistan in recent years has fueled sectarian attacks that have long plagued Pakistan.
"When the clouds of dust cleared, I saw the dead bodies and the pieces of bodies all around, and everywhere there was blood and wounded people. They were crying," Wagar Ali, who was wounded in the blast, told AP Television News.
TV footage showed some of the wounded in hospital beds and on stretchers. The victims were bloodied, bandaged and seemingly in shock.
Vegetable seller Madad Ali, hurt in the explosion, said he saw the suicide bomber approaching.
"I was working when I saw a van come from the Kohat road. Inside was a man with a beard, and he blew himself up with a very powerful blast," said Ali. "The roof of the shop came in on me and I was stuck underneath. People started to dig us out from the rubble."
Pakistan has launched several offensives against extremist groups in the area over the past year, but attacks persist. The U.S. is particularly anxious for Pakistan to clamp down on insurgents it says are behind attacks on American and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan.
No one claimed responsibility for Friday's attack in Kohat, a garrison town about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of Peshawar, Pakistan's main northwestern city.
Kohat police official Ali Hasan Khan said four more bodies were retrieved from the rubble late Friday, raising the death toll to 29. Another 55 people were wounded and hospitalized, Khan said.
On Thursday, six people were wounded when a bomb planted outside a shop in Kohat's main bazaar exploded.
Despite Friday's attack, Pakistan's military has made gains in the region over the past year. A four-month-old army offensive against Taliban militants in the Swat Valley has - according to the military - killed more than 1,800 alleged militants, while at least three top leaders of the Swat Taliban have been arrested.
Suspected U.S. missile attacks have also played a significant role in neutralizing the insurgency, including the Aug. 5 CIA drone strike that killed Taliban chieftain Baitullah Mehsud.
Officials said Thursday they believed the al-Qaida operations chief for Pakistan and a top Uzbek militant were killed in missile attacks in the northwest earlier this month. A Pakistani patrol killed 10 Taliban attempting to infiltrate Swat Valley's main city of Mingora on Thursday.
Government officials say the army is also closing in on Swat Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah, whose radio broadcasts long spread fear among residents of the valley.
Search and clearance operations over the previous 24 hours in Swat led to the arrests of seven militants and surrenders of another 13, the Pakistani military said Friday.
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Associated Press writers Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Hussain Afzal in Parachinar and Robert Kennedy in Islamabad contributed to this report.
Taliban Twitter
The Taliban (Pashto: طالبان ṭālibān, meaning "students"), also Taleban, is a Sunni Islamist, predominantly Pashtun fundamentalist religious and political movement that governed Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when its leaders were removed from power by NATO forces. It has regrouped and since 2004 revived as a strong insurgency movement governing at the local level and fighting a guerrilla war against the governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan, allied NATO forces participating in Operation Enduring Freedom, and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). It operates in Afghanistan and the Frontier Tribal Areas of Pakistan.
The Taliban movement is headed by Mullah Mohammed Omar. Mullah Omar's original commanders were "a mixture of former small-unit military commanders and madrasah teachers," and the rank and file made up mostly of Afghan refugees who had studied at Islamic religious schools in Pakistan. The overwhelming majority of the Taliban movement were ethnic Pashtuns from southern Afghanistan and western Pakistan[7], along with a smaller number of volunteers from Islamic countries. The Taliban received valuable training, supplies and arms from the Pakistani government, particularly the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and many recruits from madrasahs for Afghan refugees in Pakistan, primarily ones established by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI).
Although in control of Afghanistan's capital (Kabul) and much or most of the country for five years, the Taliban regime, which called itself the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan", gained diplomatic recognition from only three states: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. It has gained some amount of political control and acceptance in Pakistan's border region, but recently lost one of its key leaders, Baitullah Mehsud, in a CIA assassination.
The Taliban is today classified by security analysts as an "alternative government" in Afghanistan. It operates fifteen Sharia law courts in the country's southern provinces handling civil and commercial cases and collects taxes on harvests in farming areas. Reflecting its persistent power to intimidate the populace, the Taliban implemented one of the "strictest interpretation of Sharia law ever seen in the Muslim world", yet still occasionally updates its code of conduct. In mid-2009, it established an ombudsman office in northern Kandahar, which has been described as a "direct challenge" to the ISAF
Article Source: http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban
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