www.terrorismwatch.org

The plan is intended to establish a special Palestinian intelligence monetary unit under US and EU supervision.

The cable quotes Arditi as saying the proposal is aimed at destroying the Hamas group in Gaza financially and giving Fatah time to rebuild needed support.

According to the document, Israel’s national security council has committed to an initiative to provide the Gaza Strip with enough money to buy only basic materials.

Adriti said Israel is discussing downsizing the amount of monies transferred to the Strip monthly, allowing only enough to prevent a collapse in the banking sector.

At least 12 soldiers have been killed in southern Yemen by Islamist militants, officials say.

Gunmen reportedly ambushed a military convoy escorting water tankers and lorries carrying food supplies in Lawder, in Abyan province.

Officials said army units were pursuing the gunmen.

Yemeni troops have carried out a series of raids in the area in recent months, targeting militants said to be linked to al-Qaeda.

Abyan and adjacent Shabwa province have become major fields of operation for al-Qaeda.

Attacks by the group on western and regional targets are on the increase and al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based wing is thought to have been responsible for the air cargo bombs intercepted in Dubai and Britain last October.

The country also sees sporadic violence by Southern separatists, who say the central government discriminates against them.

The government signed a ceasefire with Shia rebels in the north in February 2010.

In 2009, police and security forces killed 51 ‘commanders’. Out of the 51, 27 belonged to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen followed by Lashker-e-Toiba, he said, adding there are 450 to 500 militants operating in the state and 45 to 50% of them are foreign militants.

He said that security situation is now under control and incidents of militancy are also low in the state.

KANDAHAR: A suicide bomber killed 17 people, including a police commander, inside a public bathhouse in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar on Friday in the country’s worst attack in more than five months.

The bombing, which officials said wounded 21 people, was the bloodiest attack since July and comes after the end of the deadliest year in an increasingly unpopular war that has now dragged on for more than nine years,

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said three of its troops were killed in two separate attacks on Friday in the east and south of the country.

Zalmai Ayoubi, spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, said the target of the bathhouse raid, which took place in the town of Spin Boldak on the Pakistan border, was the border police commander.

“This brutal and inhumane act was the work of the enemies of Islam and humanity,” he said, adding that all the other casualties were civilians.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a statement condemning the attack as “un-Islamic”. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi by telephone from an undisclosed location said that his hardline group had carried out the attack.

The marketplace attack underscored the perilous security in parts of the southern province of Kandahar, the Taliban’s spiritual home, despite being the focus of the US-led military strategy to reverse their momentum.

It was the deadliest bomb blast in Afghanistan since a northern provincial governor and 19 other people were killed at a mosque in Takhar on October 8.

“At around 12.00pm (0730 GMT) a suicide bomber blew up explosives strapped to his chest at a public bath in Spin Boldak,” border police official General Abdul Raziq said. Apart from the head of the rapid reaction border police unit, who was killed, and two policemen who were wounded, all the other casualties were civilians, Raziq said.

In a separate incident, criminal investigation police chief Farid Ahmad was killed in a drive-by shooting in Kandahar, the provincial capital, police said.

The local government confirmed from Kandahar that at least 17 people had been killed in the attack on the baths and that 23 people were wounded.

A doctor at the small cottage hospital in Spin Boldak said that 14 people were seriously wounded in the suicide attack.

“Three were in a critical condition and transferred to the military hospital in Kandahar,” he said. Shopkeeper Mujebullah, whose cousin was wounded, said the baths were in a crowded market and used by people to wash before attending the Friday prayers.

“The public baths were destroyed. Lots of dead bodies were picked out of the rubble at the beginning and afterwards,” he said. “Different people were killed in this explosion – old people, even children,” he added.

The Kandahar government released a statement saying the bomber had been targeting a police commander named Ramazan, who died in the attack. agencies

Staff Reporter
QUETTA: A shutter down and wheel-jam strike was observed in many parts of Balochistan on Friday to protest against the killings of two Baloch student leaders, Qambar Chakar and Ilyas Nazar. The bullet-riddled bodies of the two students were found from Kech district on Wednesday.

The strike was also observed in Trubat, Mand, Tump, Khuzdar, Naal, Zehri, Naushki, Buleida, Gwadar, Pasni, Jiwani, Panjgur, Ormara, Dasht Plains, Hoshap, Kalat, Mashkay, Hub and Mastung in response to a call made by the Baloch National Front (BNF).

Most of the shopping and commercial centres remained closed for the day and the streets wore a deserted look with no traffic plying on the roads. There was very thin attendance in government offices in the absence of the public transport.

Women staged a protest rally in Turbat and marched through various parts of the city. They chanted slogans against the Frontier Corps, accusing them of killing the two Baloch students in illegal custody.

The protesters also burnt tyres on the Coastal Highway disrupting the flow of traffic.

Tough security measures were adopted during the strike to avoid any untoward incident. Personnel of the Frontier Corps and police patrolled the streets of Kech Valley — from Awaran to the border wih Iran. Unidentified people torched a private vehicle in Mastung.

According to a statement issued by the BNF on Friday, the strike will also be held today (Saturday).

Earlier, two bullet-riddled dead bodies of the student leaders were found in a deserted place near Pasni Road in Turbat, around 800 kilometres away from the provincial capital on Wednesday.

According to the Turbat police, local people spotted two bodies in Pidarak area, some 11-kilometres away from Turbat city, and informed the police. The dead bodies were taken to the Civil Hospital where they were identified as Qambar Chakar and Ilyas Nazar.

By Latifa al Arousni

Rabat, Asharq Al-Awsat – Moroccan political analyst Dr. Mohamed Darif, who specializes in studying Islamist groups, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Moroccan authorities have dismantled dozens of terrorist cells since 2002 thanks to the pre-emptive security approach pursued by Morocco which had made it possible for the Moroccan authorities to foil a large number of these terrorist cells‘ plans.

Dr. Darif added that the continuous news in Morocco of terrorist plans being foiled and terrorist cells being dismantled can be explained by the logistical and technical abilities developed by the Moroccan security services, which has allowed Rabat to monitor the activities of such groups.

Answering a question about some people’s suspicions about why so many terrorist cells have been uncovered in Morocco – with Rabat claiming to have dismantled as many as 70 terrorist cells since 2002 – Dr. Darif told Asharq Al-Awsat that the skeptics need only ask themselves one question, and that is: Is Morocco truly being targeted by Al Qaeda?”

Dr. Darif stressed that there are a number of reasons why Morocco would be targeted by Al Qaeda to this extent, not least of which is that Morocco is one of the few countries that has announced its full commitment to the global war on terror. Darif added that the ruler of Morocco, King Mohammed VI, was visiting Mauritania when 9/11 occured, however he cut short this visit and returned to Morocco where he announced that Rabat was fully committed to waging war against terrorism.

Dr. Mohamed Darif stressed to Asharq Al-Awsat that ever since this time, Al Qaeda has had a vendetta against Morocco. He also added that we should not forget that one of Al Qaeda’s leading commanders, Mohammed Haydar Zammar, was arrested by the Moroccan authorities in December 2001 and later handed over to Syria. Morocco was also known to have taken part in the controversial US “extraordinary rendition” program, with Guantanamo Bay detainees being rendered to Morocco, including senior member of Al Qaeda Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, who is accused of being a “key facilitator” for the 9/11 attacks, as well as former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed, who has subsequently spoken about the torture he suffered there.

Dr. Darif also told Asharq Al-Awsat that some people have said that the 16 May 2003 Casablanca bombings which resulted in the deaths of 45 people were planned by Al Qaeda – and carried out by their affiliate organization Salafia Jihadia – in retaliation for Moroccan security cooperation with the West, particularly the USA.

Further evidence of Morocco’s commitment to combating terrorism, according to Darif, can be seen in the case of the two Moroccan embassy staff who were abducted in Iraq in 2005. Rabat completely refused to negotiate with Al Qaeda for their release, and in fact, the Moroccan Senior Council of Clerics which is headed by King Mohamed VI met [at this time] and issued a statement condemning Al Qaeda as an organization that has nothing to do with Islam.

Darif also indicated that when the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat changed its name to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in January 2007, it issued a statement threatening violence against Morocco if any officials appeared on satellite television to condemn them.

Darif also told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Moroccan authorities’ success in dismantling this huge number of terrorist cells is, most of all, due to the authorities’ awareness that their country is being targeted, and has therefore sought to develop strong relations with security apparatus in western countries and the Arab world, particularly Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Jordan.

Darif also indicated that the majority of those arrested in Morocco do not belong to any single organization, for the jihadist salafist ideology is prevalent throughout Morocco. As a result of this, the Salafist jihadists who have been arrested by Morocco are of different trends, and vary in their attitudes towards the authorities which is something that has made it even more difficult for the Moroccan authorities to open a dialogue with them.

Darif added that the majority of cells that have been dismantled since 2005, such as al-Sirat al-Mustaqim, the Ansar al-Mahdi group, al-Murabatoon al-Judud, Fatah al-Andulus, and others, were also accused of trying to recruit fighters for Iraq and Afghanistan.