Fatah Security Headquarters Overtaken by Hamas
June 14, 2007 -- HAMAS VS FATAH VIOLENCE
Hamas Captures Fatah Security HQ
Hamas is reported to now control almost the entire Gaza Strip Hamas militants have seized the headquarters of their rival Fatah's Preventive Security force, tightening their control over the Gaza Strip. (BBC)
Olmert Mulls Int'l Force to Stop Arms Smuggling at Gaza-Egypt Border
The deployment of a multinational force along the Philadelphi Route in Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border, should be seriously considered, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday. (Harretz)
Abbas Orders Elite Guard to Attack Hamas
Print Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the first time Thursday ordered his elite presidential guard to strike back against Hamas militants bent on besieging his Gaza City compound. (AP)
IRAQ
Iraq Qaeda Group Kills 14 Abducted Officers-Web
An Iraqi al Qaeda-led group said on Thursday it had killed 14 Iraqi army and police personnel and posted an Internet video showing a masked militant shooting the kneeling men in the head. (Reuters)
Several Sunni Mosques in Iraq Attacked
A handful of Sunni mosques were attacked or burned Thursday, but curfews and increased troop levels kept Iraq in relative calm a day after suspected al-Qaida bombers toppled the towering minarets of a prized Shiite shrine. (AP)
Female Iraqi Refugees Vulnerable to Human Trafficking
Many Iraqi refugees fled violence in their own country only to face extreme poverty and marginalization in Syria. Increasingly desperate, a growing number have reportedly turned to extreme measures to support themselves and their families. (ABC News)
U.N. Supports U.S Troops Staying in Iraq
The U.N. Security Council agreed Wednesday to an Iraqi request to extend the mandate of the U.S.-led multinational force after the country's foreign minister said the troops were "vitally necessary." (AP)
IRAN SUPPORT OF TALIBAN
Afghan Minister Denies U.S. Claims
Afghanistan's defense minister on Thursday dismissed claims by a top U.S. State Department official that there was "irrefutable evidence" that the Iranian government was providing arms to Taliban rebels. (AP)
Gates links Iran to Taliban Weapons
Defense Secretary Robert Gates tied Iran's government to large shipments of weapons to the Taliban in Afghanistan and said yesterday such quantities were unlikely without Tehran's knowledge. Gates's comments, following accusations by a State Department official, were the strongest yet by a Cabinet secretary about Iran's support of the militant group in Afghanistan. (AP)
Analysis: Backgrounder: Is Iran Abetting the Taliban?
By Lionel Beehner
U.S. officials say they have found evidence that Iran has supplied weapons to Taliban rebels operating along the Afghan-Pakistani border. This has prompted questions about why majority Shiite Iran would support a Sunni-led force it has opposed for more than a decade. But some experts say there are a number of reasons why a strengthened Taliban would serve Iran's interests, particularly in keeping U.S. forces off balance, as well as potentially deflecting pressure over its nuclear program. (NY Times)
AFGHANISTAN
33 Militants Killed in Afghanistan
Afghan troops killed 33 Taliban militants, including several commanders, in three operations in the country's volatile south, officials said Thursday. (AP)
Taleban Is Accused of Murdering Girl Who Had Dared to Attend School
Gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed a girl of 13 and a woman teacher in a savage attack on female education in Afghanistan, six years after the Taleban regime was removed from power. (The London Times)
SYRIA/LEBANON
Damascus Denies UN Report of Arms Crossing Into Lebanon
Syria has roundly denied claims by UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen of illegal arms trafficking from Syria into Lebanon. A senior Syrian Foreign Ministry official, quoted by the official Syrian Arab News Agency, called the claims "false." (AFP)
U.S.
FBI Finds it Frequently Overstepped in Collecting Data
An internal FBI audit has found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions in recent years, far more than was documented in a Justice Department report in March that ignited bipartisan congressional criticism. (Washington Post)
Imported Toothpaste Recalled in 4 States
The Colgate-Palmolive Company said Thursday that 5-ounce tubes of counterfeit toothpaste sold in discount stores in four states under a Colgate label are being recalled because they may contain a poisonous chemical. (AP)
IRAN
Tehran Loses Five Soldiers to Rebel Action
Five Iranian soldiers have been killed during clashes with armed rebels in a Kurdish populated area in the northwest of the country, local papers reported on Wednesday. (AFP)
CHINA
Police Rescue 217 "Slaves" In China
Police in China have rescued 217 people, including 29 children, who had been working as "slaves" in brick kilns, state press reported Thursday. (AFP)
SPACE SHUTTLE
Space Station Computer Failure; Astronauts Scramble
An unprecedented computer failure in the Russian segment of the International Space Station has engineers at space centers in Houston and Russia scrambling to solve the problem before the Space Shuttle Atlantis undocks on June 19. (ABC News)
U.K.
Man Linked to Bomb Gang Revealed to Be on the Run
A British Muslim who was allegedly approached to become a suicide bomber on the London Underground is today revealed as being one of the six men who are on the run having breached their control orders. (Guardian)
CANADA/SPAIN
Suspected ETA Member Arrested In Canada
Canadian police have arrested a suspected member of Basque separatist group ETA, which called off a 14-month ceasefire last week, Spain's government said on Wednesday. (Reuters)
SOMALIA
Somali Gunmen Attack Ethiopians and Kill Official
Somali insurgents assassinated a local official on Thursday and attacked Ethiopian troops overnight just hours after a second attempt to start a peace conference was postponed, residents said. (Reuters)
THAILAND
3 Killed, 13 Schools Burned in Southern Thailand
Three Muslim men were gunned down, while separatist insurgents set fire to 13 schools in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, police said Thursday. (AFP)
CHECHNYA
Troops Jailed for Chechnya Murder
A military court in southern Russia has sentenced four soldiers to prison terms for murdering six Chechen civilians. (BBC)
NORTH KOREA
Report: N. Korea Funds Transfer to Begin
A financial dispute that has held up North Korea's pledge to shut down its nuclear reactor could be nearing a breakthrough amid a news report that the long-awaited transfer of frozen North Korean funds will start Thursday. (AP)
ANALYSIS/OPINION
A Failure to Protect Our Troops
The Bush administration and military leaders in Washington are always claiming that they will do anything to support American troops fighting in Iraq. That makes it all the more infuriating to learn that, for more than two years, the Pentagon largely ignored urgent requests from field commanders for better armor-protected vehicles that could have saved untold lives and limbs. (NY Times)
Kim Jong-Il's Vanishing Act
Reports that Kim Jong-il is seriously ill have been bolstered by his apparent disappearance from public view. This is big news: the demise of North Korea's Dear Leader would set in train potentially earth-shaking events. But at least one very close observer is skeptical: Kim's "disappearance", he says, is merely another of the arch-schemer's stratagems. This one involves US$25 million. (Asia Times)
Global Islamic Media Front Instructs Islamists to Infiltrate Popular
Non-Islamic Forums to Spread Pro-Islamic State PropagandaRecently, the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) announced a new comprehensive media campaign titled "The Battar Media Raid to Defend the Islamic State [of Iraq] (ISI)," whose declared purpose is to repel the intensive campaign against the ISI by Arab and Western media agencies and to stop the increasing military campaign against the ISI by Sunni organizations in Iraq. The following are excerpts from the announcement: (MEMRI)
View: Middle East's Five Crises
By Joris Voorhoeve
The United States cannot sustain the current rate of casualties (either American or Iraqi), or the expense. To create the conditions for long-term stability, a negotiated separation may be needed, comparable to the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the war in former Yugoslavia. (Daily Times)
The Gaza Invaders
By Tariq Alhomayed
What is happening in Gaza today is political immorality in the real sense of the word on the part of both Hamas and Fatah. People are taken from their homes, killed and thrown to the street. Others are thrown off high-rise buildings alive. Hamas is busy talking about "traitors" and Abu Mazen is warning against a "collapse." What treason and what collapse could be worse than what we are seeing in Gaza today? (Asharq Alawsat)
Keeper of the Saudi Secrets
Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain seems determined to use his final weeks in office to show how far he has strayed from the pledges of clean government that helped sweep him to power a decade ago. Defending his decision to block a corruption investigation into the sale of fighter jets and other weapons to Saudi Arabia, Blair said last week that the probe would have led nowhere except to the "complete wreckage" of a vital strategic relationship. (International Herald Tribune)
Saudi Shiites and the 'Fire Inside' of National Dialogue
By Fred Wehrey
The Saudi Shiite news service Al-Rasid released its second annual human rights report in late April. The document is a survey of discriminatory practices against the kingdom's Shiite minority. Noting a palpable stall in government reform efforts, the report cited the influence of Salafist hard-liners in the clerical bureaucracy who dissuaded the ruling family from codifying further concessions to Shiite identity. Other Shiite activists have pointed to the stagnating effect of the wars in Lebanon and Iraq on the integration of the Shiites and on reform in general. (The Daily Star)
The Insider Daily Investigative Report (DIR) is a summary of major news articles and broadcasts relating to investigative news, including international terrorism and developments in Iraq. The DIR is edited daily from foreign and U.S. sources by Chris Isham and Elizabeth Sprague of the ABC News Investigative Unit. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ABCNEWS.