A short reminder of who is responsible for the current conflict, and why they are trying to start conflict elsewhere to distract. 

One other note: in the left sidebar near the bottom you can pull up the category and review the updates the past two weeks, there’s been good news on many fronts although the Hizbullah & Hamas attacks on Israel are definitely worrisome.

In Israel, Haifa was hit by Hizbullah rockets, killing 8, southern Lebanon leafleted to evacuate prior to Israeli bombing attacks – report from Yahoo News:

HAIFA, Israel – Lebanese guerillas fired a relentless barrage of rockets into the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Sunday, killing eight people at a train station and wounding seven others in a dramatic escalation of a five-day-old conflict that has shattered Mideast peace.

Soon after the Haifa attack, Israeli airstrikes reduced entire apartment buildings to rubble and knocked out electricity in swaths of the Lebanese capital Sunday.Israel had already bombarded southern Beirut, a teeming Shiite districts where Hezbollah has its headquarters, prior to the Haifa bombing. A series of 18 explosions rocked Beirut before sunrise.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed that there would be “far-reaching consequences” for the rocket attack — the worst since Israel pulled out of southern Lebanon in 2000 after an 18-year occupation. Smoke rose over Haifa and air raid sirens wailed as the dead and wounded were evacuated. Other rockets hit the city’s major oil refinery, gas storage tanks and a major street during the busy morning rush hour.

Further stories show the rocket was Syrian manufacture:

Transportation Minister and former Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz declared on Sunday afternoon that the rocket which hit the train station in Haifa and killed eight was maunfactured by Syria.

“The metal from the missile shows that it was made in Syria…We know that over the last few years, Syria has transferred ammunition to Hizbullah and that is what they used today,” he said after touring the site of the attack.

Iran warns Israel about attacking Syria, story here.

“We hope the Zionist regime does not make the mistake of attacking Syria, because extending the front would definitely make the Zionist regime face unimaginable losses,” foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.”Iran is standing by the Syrian people,” he added. “We have offered and will offer Syria and Lebanon spiritual and humanitarian support,” Asefi said, reiterating Iran’s denial that it is providing military and financial assistance to the Hezbollah movement.

He also hit out at the United States after President George W. Bush said Israel had “every right to defend itself”. “The United States has had a destructive role by vetoing resolutions and hence encouraging the Israeli crimes,” Asefi said, referring to Washington’s use of its veto in the UN Security Council Thursday to block a resolution calling for a halt to an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. “The United States should reconsider its policies and correct its wrong attitude of supporting the Zionist regime

Lebanon calls for a UN-Brokered Cease-fire, admits they failed to control Hizbullah at VOA:

Israeli air strikes in Lebanon killed at least 32 people on Saturday, and residents in the heavily targeted south were trying desperately to flee. The Lebanese prime minister declared his country a disaster zone, and pleaded for a U.N.-brokered ceasefire.

As Israeli bombs and missiles pounded the country for the fourth day, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora made an impassioned plea for help in a televised address to the nation and the world. He said, “We call for an immediate ceasefire, backed by the United Nations.” He declared Lebanon a disaster zone and pleaded with the country’s friends in the international community for help.

The Lebanese prime minister acknowledged that his government has been too weak to fully control the entire country, especially the Shi’ite-dominated south, where the militant group Hezbollah has been the defacto authority. He called for work to extend the state’s authority over all its territories, in cooperation with the United Nations in southern Lebanon.

Israeli airstrikes have been heaviest in the south. Israeli leaders have vowed to continue the military offensive in Lebanon, until Hezbollah no longer has the capacity to attack Israel. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets from Lebanon into Israel, which began its offensive after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers Wednesday in a cross-border raid.

In Afghanistan, 70 more Taliban have been sent to graves in the last 24 hours as the offensive continues, as reported by ABC news. “There is no end date for Operation Mountain Thrust”

KABUL, Afghanistan Jul 16, 2006 (AP)— There is no end in sight for a massive anti-Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan, which must continue until local authorities gain control of the insurgent-dominated region, the U.S.-led coalition said Sunday.

More than 10,000 soldiers have fanned out across southern mountain ranges, desert plains and opium fields to crush the Taliban in Operation Mountain Thrust, the largest military operation in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001.

“The purpose of doing that is so we can extend the authority of the government … in areas where the government hasn’t been in years,” Col. Tom Collins, chief U.S. spokesman in Kabul, told reporters. “Because of that there is no end date per se to Mountain Thrust.”

 

In New Delhi, India, Nadeem Kashmiri has been accused of data transfer fraud, and has links to Pakistani Islamist terror groups, leading to speculation that the embezzlement could have been to fund terror:

New Delhi: Nadeem Kashmiri, the prime accused in the data transfer fraud in HSBC’s BOP (back-office processing) and who was arrested last month for allegedly siphoning off nearly half a million dollars from customer accounts, has links with Pakistan-based militants, police said on Saturday.

It may be recalled that Kashmiri was arrested on June 27 over accusations that he siphoned off about 233,000 pounds ($420,000) from the accounts of 20 HSBC customers in Britain.

The latest revelation that Kashmiri had a Pak-link assumes importance in the face of the Mumbai blasts and could unravel use of fraud to finance terror activities.

Although officials have stopped short of blaming Lashkar for the attacks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday had said the bombers had help from “across the border,” a clear reference to Pakistan.

He also warned that the peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals would be in jeopardy if Pakistan does not stop harbouring terrorists.

Kashmiri, a native of Bangalore, worked for HSBC Electronic Data Processing India Limited. The unit handles the bank’s back-office work from an outsourcing centre in Bangalore where Kashmiri is being currently held and interrogated

In Bolochistan, Pakistan more than 800 Bugti Followers, affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, Surrender to the government, Bugti still loose as VOA reports:

Pakistani officials say hundreds of rebel tribesmen have surrendered to local authorities in the violence-hit southern province of Balochistan. Men allegedly were responsible for scores of attacks on gas fields and government security forces.

The southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan has been the scene of bloody clashes between government forces and tribesmen loyal to a renegade tribal leader, Nawab Akbar Bugti.

Officials say hundreds of Bugti’s supporters surrendered Saturday during a public ceremony near the tribal elder’s hometown of Dera Bugti.

Government spokesman Abdul Razik Bugti says more than 600 militants, including at least three top rebel commanders, were among those taking advantage of the government’s amnesty program.

He says in the past week more than 800 militants in all have surrendered and have promised to cooperate fully with the government.

Nawab Akbar Bugti remains on the loose, living in mountain hideouts, and continues to fight government forces.

Pakistani officials say Nawab Akbar Bugti and members of his private militia have attacked government outposts, gas pipelines and security forces. The rebel commander and his supporters are demanding greater control over Balochistan’s valuable local resources, which include sizable energy deposits.

Human rights groups say the government has responded with disproportionate force and charges it with human rights abuses throughout the region.

The violence, which erupted in 2005, has destabilized vast portions of the sparsely populated province, which shares a long border with Afghanistan and Iran. Security analysts say Taleban and al Qaida insurgents cross in and out of Afghanistan on Balochistan’s remote frontier.