Hostages Dumped in River

April 20, 2005 --

Fifty Bodies Found Near Baghdad — Iraqi President
The bodies of 50 people, believed to be those of hostages held in a town near Baghdad earlier this week, have been found in the Tigris river south of Baghdad, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Dozens of Bodies Found in Tigris River
Shiite leaders and government officials claimed last week that Sunni militants had abducted as many as 100 Shiite residents from the area, but when Iraqi forces moved into Madain, they found no captives. (Washington Post)

19 Bodies Left in Iraqi Soccer Stadium
The bodies of 19 Iraqis were left Wednesday in a soccer stadium in this town 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, an Iraqi reporter and residents said. (AP)

Two Dead in Baghdad Suicide Blast
A suicide car bomb attack aimed at a U.S. patrol in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, has killed at least two Iraqi civilians, including a child. (BBC)

Iraqi Security Forces Capture Two Zarqawi Associates
Iraq Security Forces are detaining two men suspected of working for al-Qaeda-linked terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Iraqi government said in a statement e- mailed from the capital, Baghdad. (Bloomberg)

Reports Reveal Zarqawi Nuclear Threat
Recurrent intelligence reports say al Qaeda terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi has obtained a nuclear device or is preparing a radiological explosive — or dirty bomb — for an attack, according to U.S. officials, who also say analysts are unable to gauge the reliability of the information's sources. (Washington Times)

Obscure Figures Hunted in Iraq
The U.S. Army was looking for "The Egyptian." The suspected leader of a local Sunni insurgent cell wasn't really Egyptian, as far as intelligence officers knew, but they gave him the nickname because he stuck out from the Shiites in this town northwest of Baghdad. (Chicago Tribune)

Insurgents in Iraq Increasingly Target Top Government Officials and Military Recruits
Parliament delays meeting after alleged mistreatment of legislator by U.S. at checkpoint. (The Daily Star)

Recent Violence Stirs Sectarian Tensions in Once-Quiet Basra
In a Shiite-dominated city with many Sunnis, a series of assassinations and other attacks threaten to ignite widespread bloodshed. (LA Times)

Saudis in Talks on Nuke Loophole Agreement

Saudi Arabia has quietly begun talks on a U.N.-sanctioned agreement that could curtail any outside probe of its atomic intentions — a move that heightens concerns in a region already edgy about rival Iran's nuclear program. (AP)

Pearl Killer Says He Met Bin Laden

British-born militant Sheikh Omar said that he met terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden twice in Afghanistan. (Arab News)

U.S. Military Claim Angers Pakistan
A Pakistani general says US claims that Pakistan is planning a new offensive against militants in its Waziristan region are "highly irresponsible". (BBC)

Nine Taliban Rebels Killed in Gunbattle, 16 Captured

Nine Taliban rebels were killed in an overnight gunfight after clashes with Afghan military forces earlier yesterday bringing the death toll in some of the heaviest fighting in southern Afghanistan this year to 17, an official said. (AFP)

17 Afghans Freed From Guantánamo Prison
Seventeen Afghan detainees released from the American prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, were formally handed over to Afghan authorities here on Tuesday. (NY Times)

Yemeni Forces Facing Threats on Two Fronts

After years of working to shake its reputation as a hotbed of Islamic militancy, Yemen is now trying to keep the lid on two separate threats, both of which have bubbled up into violence and can do so again. (AP)

U.N. Envoy Under Scrutiny for Ties to Lobbyist in Oil-for-Food Case

The United Nations said Tuesday that it was weighing whether a special envoy for Secretary General Kofi Annan who has admitted associating with a lobbyist charged in connection with the Iraq oil-for-food program should step aside while investigations into his role continued. (NY Times)

A Leader of Egyptian Jihad Killed

An Egyptian militant who was a prominent leader of Ayman al Zawahri's Egyptian Al Jihad organization was recently killed in Chechnya while fighting Russian security forces. Mahmoud Hesham Al Hennawi who was known as Abu Sahl was arrested together with al Zawahri and a third man on the borders of Daghistan in 1996, according to Hani El Sebai, an Islamist residing in London. The authorities didn't know the identity of the men and released them. Al Zawahri returned to Afghanistan, while al Hennai continued to Chechnya. (Al Hayat)

Tunisia Accused of Holding Political Prisoners in Long-Term Isolation

Dozens of inmates are held in solitary confinement to crush leaders of banned An-Nahda group. (AFP)

Spain Keeps a Vigilant Eye on Al Qaeda Threat

Although 75 members of al Qaeda have been arrested in Spain, the terrorist group's efforts to recruit followers among Muslim residents of that country remains a threat, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos told Washington Post reporters and editors last week. (Washington Post)

AP Sues U.S. to Get Guantanamo Documents

Government documents related to military hearings for Guantanamo Bay detainees are of ``urgent concern'' to the public and should be released, according to a lawsuit filed by The Associated Press against the Defense Department. (AP)

Five Muslims to Sue U.S. Over Border Detentions
Five American Muslims will file a federal lawsuit today after they and dozens of others were detained last December by United States border agents as they returned home from a religious conference in Toronto, their lawyers said. (NY Times)

Ansar Al-Islam Founder Faces Extradiction To Iraq

Norway's judiciary has indicated that it intends to hand over the founder of the terror group Ansar al-Islam — who currently lives in Norway — to magistrates in Baghdad, provided they receive guarantees he will not be executed. (AKI)

Dangerous Democracy
Imperial America won't like the free Arabia that missionary America will have helped to spawn. (The Guardian)

Rooting for the Good Guys
The dramas playing out in the Arab world and in Israel are all variations on a theme: Can democracy really take root or thrive in the Middle East? (NY Times)

Dialogue With the Islamists
Before 9/11, the prevailing belief in the European capitals, not to mention Washington, was that democracy leads the "extremist Islamists" to power. (Al Hayat)

A Sept. 11 Plea?
Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged with a crime in connection with the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is reportedly ready to plead guilty to the capital offenses with which he is charged. (Washington Post)

Sistani Between Solving Crises And Intervening In Daily Politics
The UN Secretary General Representative for Iraq, Mr. Ashraf Qazi, in light of his visit to Sistani, said that the latter is a religious man and not a politician and intervenes in the political affairs but if there is a crisis. (Al Hayat)

The Hope That Is Kirkuk
The northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk is a microcosm of the entire country, complete with the ethnic conflicts and other challenges facing Iraq. (Jordan Times)

More Danger In Random Terrorism
Commenting on the explosion that rocked Cairo's Al-Azhar district, Egypt's prosecutor-general described it as a "random" individual action unlikely to be repeated in not being linked to any long-term group strategy. He aimed to be reassuring but we should not take it lightly. (Al Ahram Weekly)