NATO air strike kills fighter linked to Afghan hotel attack (Reuters)

KABUL (Reuters) – NATO aircraft killed an insurgent leader linked to a deadly hotel attack in the Afghan capital this week, the coalition said on Thursday, a raid that raised questions about whether Afghan forces are ready for the looming security transition.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the Intercontinental, one of two major hotels used by foreigners and Afghan government officials, a rare night-time raid that began on Tuesday and ended five hours later with 12 killed.

However, the NATO-led Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network had also been involved in the assault by nine suicide bombers and gunmen.

ISAF identified the Haqqani network leader killed in an air strike as Ismail Jan, who it described as a deputy to the senior Haqqani commander in Afghanistan, Haji Mali Khan.

It said he and "several Haqqani fighters" were killed in the air strike in the Gardez district of Paktia province south of Kabul on Wednesday.

"The Haqqani network, in conjunction with Taliban operatives, was responsible for the Tuesday night attack on the Kabul Intercontinental hotel which killed 12 people, including a provincial judge," ISAF said in a statement.

The brazen raid came only a week after President Barack Obama announced a phased withdrawal of combat troops, with 10,000 to leave by the end of this year and another 23,000 by the end September 2012.

Obama's announcement preceded the start of a gradual transition of responsibility to Afghan forces from next month that will end with all foreign combat troops leaving Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

With that transition process to begin in seven areas next month, the hotel raid raised serious questions about whether Afghan forces, particularly the police, were ready to take over.

"It shows one of the concerns is that the Afghan security forces are growing in quantity, not in quality," said Thomas Ruttig, co-director of the Kabul-based Afghanistan Analysts Network.

SNIPERS

The attack ended when snipers on board a NATO helicopter killed the last three attackers fighting from the roof of the hotel. Earlier television footage showed Afghan forces firing wildly into the air.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that some police had refused to fight back.

ISAF has been training members of the 126,000-strong Afghan National Police since 2009.

Afghan police, who will be at the front line of the security transition in villages and towns across Afghanistan, have long been viewed as inept and lagging behind the training of the better-equipped army, which had been the focus of training efforts since the Taliban were toppled in late 2001.

Violence has risen to record levels across Afghanistan over the past 18 months as NATO troops, especially U.S. forces, hit back against a growing insurgency, especially in the Taliban heartland in the south.

A quarterly report by the United Nations secretary-general to the Security Council about Afghanistan found that the number of security incidents since March had risen 51 percent on the same period in 2010, with suicide attacks rising sharply.

Attacks in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar were especially worrying. "The city of Kandahar and its surroundings registered the majority of the incidents during the reporting period, with a quarter of the overall attacks and more than half of all assassinations recorded countrywide," the report said.

But Ruttig said the attack also highlighted other problems confronting Afghanistan before the transition process, which also includes handing the running of civil institutions and projects over to Afghans, begins.

Not the least of those is the political paralysis that has gripped the country for months.

"The fact that neither NATO nor the Afghans were able to prevent it says something -- that transition needs to be something more than just security," Ruttig said of the hotel attack.

"Security forces are only part of transition. There also needs to be a strengthening of political institutions and, at the moment, the parliamentary crisis has brought politics to a standstill," he told Reuters.

Last week, a special poll court set up by a decree by President Hamid Karzai overturned the results for a quarter of the seats in parliament from elections last year, effectively throwing out 62 MPs who had been declared winners.

The move, and the court itself, have been branded unconstitutional and illegal by Afghan and Western officials and observers. Critics have said the court was set up by Karzai to further his own political agenda and silence opposition.

(Additional reporting by Alistair Scrutton; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

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The Kabul Intercontinental Attack: The Taliban's Clear Message (Time.com)

Ali Omar and his son Ali Omar had returned to Kabul for a visit. The father had moved to the U.S. years ago and the son was born there. On Tuesday, they were having dinner by the pool of the Intercontinental Hotel in the Afghan capital where they were staying during their trip. It was a festive evening with several parties of well-to-do Afghans celebrating birthdays and other occasions. Then came the sound of gunfire. "The police told us it was some kids messing around and not to worry about it," says Ali Omar the younger, the owner of an Afghan restaurant in Fremont, California. "Then the gunshots kept getting closer and closer." His father adds, "At first, it was one or two shots from far away. After 15-16 minutes it was wild. War. Everyone was escaping."

Nine Taliban fighters had entered the heavily fortified Intercontinental Hotel in a brazen attack on foreigners and Afghan provincial officials who were in town to prepare for the wind-down of coalition forces set to begin in July. Once the intruders got past three heavily defended security checkpoints up a winding road and into the hotel - still decorated in a decaying, late 1970s style of plate glass windows, marble and heavy velvet curtains - there was chaos. Ali Omar the restaurant owner began videotaping what he saw. "I recorded it up to the point where a guy came in and started shooting into the crowd, then it was a free-for-all," he says. The video shows police standing on the pool deck with AK-47 rifles. People walk by the camera and Omar points out a policeman who he said was shot and killed minutes later. The tape cuts off as a loud explosion is heard. (See "The Taliban's War in Pakistan.")

Eyewitnesses say about 60-to-70 people, including women and children, were on the pool deck having dinner when men in white headscarves, carrying AK-47s and grenades and apparently suicide vests ran in shouting in Pashto and started shooting. The people on the pool deck all ran and jumped off the back wall, onto a steep, wooded hillside that leads down to a main road. The crowd had to knock down a section of a wall topped with barbwire to make it to safety on the street, according to the younger Omar, who recounted the episode, still in a blood spattered shalwar kimeez. Diners and hotel guests tell TIME the attack began around 10 p.m. Most of the fighting did not end until around 4 a.m., after NATO helicopter gunships killed three insurgents on the roof of the hotel. But the siege only came to a close early in the morning when the last bomber, who had been hiding out in the hotel, blew himself up.

The assault left between 18 and 21 dead and 13 wounded, Ministry of Interior spokesman Sadiq Sadiqi told TIME. Local news said nine civilians, two policemen, one Spanish national and nine suicide bombers were killed and that 13 civilians, five government officials and two NATO soldiers were wounded.

The Taliban had its official version. The group's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tells TIME that "eight suicide attackers entered from the west gate of the Intercontinental Hotel. One of them blew himself up at the gate. He killed some guards and police and destroyed the gate." Mujahid tells TIME that "only 13 foreigners were killed" without mentioning any Afghan fatalities. "The suicide attackers were contacting me while they were attacking and told me how many foreigners they were killing." He continues, "then they heard the helicopters coming. They went to the windows to shoot at them and they were killed by the helicopters. It was around 4 AM when we lost connection with them. Every five minutes they were calling us to tell us about the casualties."

The attack came a day after the end of a high-level meeting in Kabul that was preparing for the Bonn 2 Conference, a 50-nation meeting that will be held to discuss the upcoming security transition in July and the withdrawal of foreign military forces in 2014. Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, told TIME that the target of the attack was guests staying at the hotel: governors and mayors from the three provinces and four cities - Kabul, Bamyan and Panjsher provinces and the cities of Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat, Lashkar Gah and Mehtarlam - that will be the first to see the security transitions from coalition to Afghan forces in July. (See "In Afghanistan, Civilians Help Soldiers in Counterinsurgency.")

As the transition draws near, the attack on the hotel has only reinforced the belief of Afghans and foreigners that Afghan forces are not ready to take over security responsibilities. "We heard shooting and we saw the police dropping their weapons and running from the area," says Noor Mohammad, a member of the National Directorate of Security who was still in uniform and had been at the hotel for his boss' birthday party. "I can't trust them. How can I trust them? They dropped their weapons because they heard some shooting. How can they ensure security for us? How can they fight against the Taliban? No way, I don't trust them at all," he says quietly as he cradled a hand that had been cut by barbwire as he helped his boss' children escape down the hillside.

"In any way possible, the program will be successfully implemented. Our enemies know that they don't have the capability to hurt our national intention," said Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, the Chief of the Security Transition Program. "Our country is ready to take any sacrifice necessary on this path," Ahmadzai said today at the government's first security handover conference, Tolo TV reported. But in light of today's attack many Afghans will continue to disagree.

Sahel Wafa, an Afghan who now works for a pharmaceutical company in London after having fled the fighting in the 1980s, watched the attack unfold from the roof of his parents' house. He saw the entire assault and the police reaction from his vantage point across the street from the entrance to the hotel. "I don't think they're ready to take over security. I suppose that as soon as the Americans troops leave, you will see a lot of chaos. Not only from the Taliban, but within the Afghan people, the society. I don't think the security forces are ready to take over at all."

(See "Osama bin Laden's Legacy: 13 Years of Terrorist Attacks.")

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Police search Kabul hotel after Taliban attack kills 9 (Reuters)

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan police sifted through one of Kabul's landmark hotels room by room on Wednesday for any more casualties, securing the building after an overnight assault by Taliban suicide bombers killed eight Afghan civilians and police and a foreigner.

The nine attackers, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons, stormed the heavily guarded Intercontinental hotel, frequented by Westerners and VIPs, before a NATO helicopter killed the remaining insurgents in a final rooftop battle that ended a raid lasting more than five hours.

The foreign victim was a Spanish civil aviation pilot, according to Spain's foreign ministry.

The brazen raid came only a week after President Barack Obama announced a phased withdrawal of combat troops to 2014, and it raised more doubts about the ability of Afghan security forces to battle insurgents.

It needed a NATO helicopter to finally finish off the attackers, and NATO trainers helped oversee the Afghan police response to the raid.

After several explosions, attackers entered the hotel late on Tuesday and made their way to the ballroom, a hotel receptionist said.

Some carried tape recorders playing Taliban war songs and shot at anyone they saw. Guests jumped from second and third floors to escape, the receptionist told Reuters, asking not to be identified.

"The police are still searching room by room to see if there are any casualties or any threats," Kabul police chief Ayoub Salangi told reporters.

Eight people were wounded in the attack, according to the Interior Ministry.

There have been insurgent attacks at a hotel, guesthouse and a supermarket in Kabul over the past year, although the capital has been relatively quiet compared with the rest of the country.

The timing of the attack, suggested similarities with other raids meant to show the Taliban retain the ability to strike at will despite gains made by NATO-led troops over the past 18 months.

Some guests included provincial governors attending a conference due to begin on Wednesday over the transition of civil and military responsibility from foreign forces to Afghans, two Afghan officials said.

Last week, Obama announced plans for an initial withdrawal of 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, with another 23,000 to leave by the end of 2012, sparking concern the Afghan security forces were not ready to take over.

But President Hamid Karzai said the plan stood.

"This insurgent attack cannot stop our security transition process," Karzai said in a statement.

LATE-NIGHT ATTACK

Hours after the attack began, some foreign hotel guests were driven away in diplomatic vehicles while others waited on a street outside the hotel as the sun rose over Kabul.

Reuters witnesses heard at least seven blasts over the course of more than five hours, with bursts of gunfire heard.

Three insurgents were shot dead while six blew themselves up.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said several fighters from the Islamist group had attacked the hotel.

Mujahid, who spoke to Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, said heavy casualties had been inflicted.

The Taliban often exaggerate the number of casualties in attacks against Western and Afghan government targets.

One blast was heard at the start of the attack and then three more about an hour later, one of the Reuters witnesses said. Bursts of gunfire were heard over the same period and flares lit up the sky.

Reuters television footage showed police firing tracer rounds into the air as other officers moved through the hotel.

Power was cut in the hotel and in surrounding areas after the attack.

The hotel, built on a hill in western Kabul with fortifications around it, was for years the city's main hotel and is often used for conferences and by Westerners.

Violence has flared across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced the start of a spring offensive at the beginning of May.

The last big attack on a major Kabul hotel used by foreigners was in January 2008, when several Taliban gunmen killed six people in a commando-style raid on the city-center Serena hotel.

The increase in violence comes as NATO-led forces prepare to hand security responsibility to Afghans in seven areas from next month at the start of the gradual transition that will end with all combat foreign troops leaving by the end of 2014.

The two-day conference to discuss the transition was due to begin in a government building in the center of the city on Wednesday. Officials said the conference would go on despite the attack.

Violence across Afghanistan in 2010 the worst since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi, Omar Sobhani and Ahmad Masood; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Police search Kabul hotel after Taliban attack kills 9 (Reuters)

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan police sifted through one of Kabul's landmark hotels room by room on Wednesday for any more casualties, securing the building after an overnight assault by Taliban suicide bombers killed eight Afghan civilians and police and a foreigner.

The nine attackers, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons, stormed the heavily guarded Intercontinental hotel, frequented by Westerners and VIPs, before a NATO helicopter killed the remaining insurgents in a final rooftop battle that ended a raid lasting more than five hours.

The foreign victim was a Spanish civil aviation pilot, according to Spain's foreign ministry.

The brazen raid came only a week after President Barack Obama announced a phased withdrawal of combat troops to 2014, and it raised more doubts about the ability of Afghan security forces to battle insurgents.

It needed a NATO helicopter to finally finish off the attackers, and NATO trainers helped oversee the Afghan police response to the raid.

After several explosions, attackers entered the hotel late on Tuesday and made their way to the ballroom, a hotel receptionist said.

Some carried tape recorders playing Taliban war songs and shot at anyone they saw. Guests jumped from second and third floors to escape, the receptionist told Reuters, asking not to be identified.

"The police are still searching room by room to see if there are any casualties or any threats," Kabul police chief Ayoub Salangi told reporters.

Eight people were wounded in the attack, according to the Interior Ministry.

There have been insurgent attacks at a hotel, guesthouse and a supermarket in Kabul over the past year, although the capital has been relatively quiet compared with the rest of the country.

The timing of the attack, suggested similarities with other raids meant to show the Taliban retain the ability to strike at will despite gains made by NATO-led troops over the past 18 months.

Some guests included provincial governors attending a conference due to begin on Wednesday over the transition of civil and military responsibility from foreign forces to Afghans, two Afghan officials said.

Last week, Obama announced plans for an initial withdrawal of 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, with another 23,000 to leave by the end of 2012, sparking concern the Afghan security forces were not ready to take over.

But President Hamid Karzai said the plan stood.

"This insurgent attack cannot stop our security transition process," Karzai said in a statement.

LATE-NIGHT ATTACK

Hours after the attack began, some foreign hotel guests were driven away in diplomatic vehicles while others waited on a street outside the hotel as the sun rose over Kabul.

Reuters witnesses heard at least seven blasts over the course of more than five hours, with bursts of gunfire heard.

Three insurgents were shot dead while six blew themselves up.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said several fighters from the Islamist group had attacked the hotel.

Mujahid, who spoke to Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, said heavy casualties had been inflicted.

The Taliban often exaggerate the number of casualties in attacks against Western and Afghan government targets.

One blast was heard at the start of the attack and then three more about an hour later, one of the Reuters witnesses said. Bursts of gunfire were heard over the same period and flares lit up the sky.

Reuters television footage showed police firing tracer rounds into the air as other officers moved through the hotel.

Power was cut in the hotel and in surrounding areas after the attack.

The hotel, built on a hill in western Kabul with fortifications around it, was for years the city's main hotel and is often used for conferences and by Westerners.

Violence has flared across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced the start of a spring offensive at the beginning of May.

The last big attack on a major Kabul hotel used by foreigners was in January 2008, when several Taliban gunmen killed six people in a commando-style raid on the city-center Serena hotel.

The increase in violence comes as NATO-led forces prepare to hand security responsibility to Afghans in seven areas from next month at the start of the gradual transition that will end with all combat foreign troops leaving by the end of 2014.

The two-day conference to discuss the transition was due to begin in a government building in the center of the city on Wednesday. Officials said the conference would go on despite the attack.

Violence across Afghanistan in 2010 the worst since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi, Omar Sobhani and Ahmad Masood; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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The Kabul Intercontinental Attack: The Taliban's Clear Message (Time.com)

Ali Omar and his son Ali Omar had returned to Kabul for a visit. The father had moved to the U.S. years ago and the son was born there. On Tuesday, they were having dinner by the pool of the Intercontinental Hotel in the Afghan capital where they were staying during their trip. It was a festive evening with several parties of well-to-do Afghans celebrating birthdays and other occasions. Then came the sound of gunfire. "The police told us it was some kids messing around and not to worry about it," says Ali Omar the younger, the owner of an Afghan restaurant in Fremont, California. "Then the gunshots kept getting closer and closer." His father adds, "At first, it was one or two shots from far away. After 15-16 minutes it was wild. War. Everyone was escaping."

Nine Taliban fighters had entered the heavily fortified Intercontinental Hotel in a brazen attack on foreigners and Afghan provincial officials who were in town to prepare for the wind-down of coalition forces set to begin in July. Once the intruders got past three heavily defended security checkpoints up a winding road and into the hotel - still decorated in a decaying, late 1970s style of plate glass windows, marble and heavy velvet curtains - there was chaos. Ali Omar the restaurant owner began videotaping what he saw. "I recorded it up to the point where a guy came in and started shooting into the crowd, then it was a free-for-all," he says. The video shows police standing on the pool deck with AK-47 rifles. People walk by the camera and Omar points out a policeman who he said was shot and killed minutes later. The tape cuts off as a loud explosion is heard. (See "The Taliban's War in Pakistan.")

Eyewitnesses say about 60-to-70 people, including women and children, were on the pool deck having dinner when men in white headscarves, carrying AK-47s and grenades and apparently suicide vests ran in shouting in Pashto and started shooting. The people on the pool deck all ran and jumped off the back wall, onto a steep, wooded hillside that leads down to a main road. The crowd had to knock down a section of a wall topped with barbwire to make it to safety on the street, according to the younger Omar, who recounted the episode, still in a blood spattered shalwar kimeez. Diners and hotel guests tell TIME the attack began around 10 p.m. Most of the fighting did not end until around 4 a.m., after NATO helicopter gunships killed three insurgents on the roof of the hotel. But the siege only came to a close early in the morning when the last bomber, who had been hiding out in the hotel, blew himself up.

The assault left between 18 and 21 dead and 13 wounded, Ministry of Interior spokesman Sadiq Sadiqi told TIME. Local news said nine civilians, two policemen, one Spanish national and nine suicide bombers were killed and that 13 civilians, five government officials and two NATO soldiers were wounded.

The Taliban had its official version. The group's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tells TIME that "eight suicide attackers entered from the west gate of the Intercontinental Hotel. One of them blew himself up at the gate. He killed some guards and police and destroyed the gate." Mujahid tells TIME that "only 13 foreigners were killed" without mentioning any Afghan fatalities. "The suicide attackers were contacting me while they were attacking and told me how many foreigners they were killing." He continues, "then they heard the helicopters coming. They went to the windows to shoot at them and they were killed by the helicopters. It was around 4 AM when we lost connection with them. Every five minutes they were calling us to tell us about the casualties."

The attack came a day after the end of a high-level meeting in Kabul that was preparing for the Bonn 2 Conference, a 50-nation meeting that will be held to discuss the upcoming security transition in July and the withdrawal of foreign military forces in 2014. Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, told TIME that the target of the attack was guests staying at the hotel: governors and mayors from the three provinces and four cities - Kabul, Bamyan and Panjsher provinces and the cities of Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat, Lashkar Gah and Mehtarlam - that will be the first to see the security transitions from coalition to Afghan forces in July. (See "In Afghanistan, Civilians Help Soldiers in Counterinsurgency.")

As the transition draws near, the attack on the hotel has only reinforced the belief of Afghans and foreigners that Afghan forces are not ready to take over security responsibilities. "We heard shooting and we saw the police dropping their weapons and running from the area," says Noor Mohammad, a member of the National Directorate of Security who was still in uniform and had been at the hotel for his boss' birthday party. "I can't trust them. How can I trust them? They dropped their weapons because they heard some shooting. How can they ensure security for us? How can they fight against the Taliban? No way, I don't trust them at all," he says quietly as he cradled a hand that had been cut by barbwire as he helped his boss' children escape down the hillside.

"In any way possible, the program will be successfully implemented. Our enemies know that they don't have the capability to hurt our national intention," said Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, the Chief of the Security Transition Program. "Our country is ready to take any sacrifice necessary on this path," Ahmadzai said today at the government's first security handover conference, Tolo TV reported. But in light of today's attack many Afghans will continue to disagree.

Sahel Wafa, an Afghan who now works for a pharmaceutical company in London after having fled the fighting in the 1980s, watched the attack unfold from the roof of his parents' house. He saw the entire assault and the police reaction from his vantage point across the street from the entrance to the hotel. "I don't think they're ready to take over security. I suppose that as soon as the Americans troops leave, you will see a lot of chaos. Not only from the Taliban, but within the Afghan people, the society. I don't think the security forces are ready to take over at all."

(See "Osama bin Laden's Legacy: 13 Years of Terrorist Attacks.")

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Police search Kabul hotel after Taliban attack kills 10 (Reuters)

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan police sifted through one of Kabul's landmark hotels room by room on Wednesday for any more casualties or security threats after an overnight assault by Taliban suicide bombers killed 10 Afghan civilians and police.

The eight attackers, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons, stormed the heavily guarded Intercontinental hotel, frequented by Westerners and VIPs, before a NATO helicopter killed the remaining insurgents in a final rooftop battle that ended a raid lasting more than five hours.

The brazen raid came only a week after President Barack Obama announced a phased withdrawal of combat troops to 2014, and it raised more doubts about the ability of Afghan security forces to battle insurgents.

It needed a NATO helicopter to finally finish off the attackers, and NATO trainers helped oversee the Afghan police response to the raid.

After several explosions, attackers entered the hotel late on Tuesday and made their way to the ballroom, a hotel receptionist said.

Some carried tape recorders playing Taliban war songs and shot at anyone they saw. Guests jumped from second and third floors to escape, the receptionist told Reuters, asking not to be identified.

"The police are still searching room by room to see if there are any casualties or any threats," Kabul police chief Ayoub Salangi told reporters.

Eight people were wounded in the attack, according to the Interior Ministry. Two policemen were among the 10 dead.

There have been insurgent attacks at a hotel, guesthouse and a supermarket in Kabul over the past year, although the capital has been relatively quiet compared with the rest of the country.

The timing of the attack, suggested similarities with other raids meant to show the Taliban retain the ability to strike at will despite gains made by NATO-led troops over the past 18 months.

Some guests included provincial governors attending a conference due to begin on Wednesday over the transition of civil and military responsibility from foreign forces to Afghans, two Afghan officials said.

Last week, Obama announced plans for an initial withdrawal of 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, with another 23,000 to leave by the end of 2012, sparking concern the Afghan security forces were not ready to take over.

But President Hamid Karzai said the plan stood.

"This insurgent attack cannot stop our security transition process," Karzai said in a statement.

LATE-NIGHT ATTACK

Hours after the attack began, some foreign hotel guests were driven away in diplomatic vehicles while others waited on a street outside the hotel as the sun rose over Kabul.

Reuters witnesses heard at least seven blasts over the course of more than five hours, with bursts of gunfire heard.

Some insurgents were shot dead by police while others blew themselves up.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said several fighters from the Islamist group had attacked the hotel.

Mujahid, who spoke to Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, said heavy casualties had been inflicted.

The Taliban often exaggerate the number of casualties in attacks against Western and Afghan government targets.

One blast was heard at the start of the attack and then three more about an hour later, one of the Reuters witnesses said. Bursts of gunfire were heard over the same period and flares lit up the sky.

Reuters television footage showed police firing tracer rounds into the air as other officers moved through the hotel.

Power was cut in the hotel and in surrounding areas after the attack.

The hotel, built on a hillside in western Kabul with fortifications around it, was for years the city's main hotel and is often used for conferences and by Westerners.

Violence has flared across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced the start of a spring offensive at the beginning of May.

The last big attack on a major Kabul hotel used by foreigners was in January 2008, when several Taliban gunmen killed six people in a commando-style raid on the city-center Serena hotel.

The increase in violence comes as NATO-led forces prepare to hand security responsibility to Afghans in seven areas from next month at the start of the gradual transition that will end with all combat foreign troops leaving by the end of 2014.

The two-day conference to discuss the transition was due to begin in a government building in the center of the city on Wednesday. Officials said the conference would go on despite the attack.

Violence across Afghanistan in 2010 the worst since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi, Omar Sobhani and Ahmad Masood; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Nigerian police chiefs to meet over Abuja bomb attack (AFP)

LAGOS (AFP) – Nigeria's top police chiefs will meet in the nation's capital on Tuesday over a deadly blast that killed at least two people, including the alleged suicide bomber, a spokesman said Monday.

"The Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Abubakar Ringim, has called for a crucial meeting with all the commissioners of police from the 36 states and the federal capital territory, Abuja over the incident," Olusola Amore told AFP.

He said that police authorities would make public the outcome of the investigation into Thursday's bombing at the forces' national headquarters in Abuja that left a policeman and the suspected bomber dead.

Local media said up to eight people were killed in the blast at the police car park that also wounded several other people and damaged many vehicles.

Amore said no arrest had been made.

The attack was claimed by the radical Islamist Boko Haram sect which has been blamed for series of deadly attacks particularly in the north of the country in recent months.

The sect said Ringim was the target of the attack as he had made an offensive statement about the group.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sin", launched an uprising in 2009 which was put down by a brutal military assault that left hundreds dead.

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Iran dissidents call for protection after attack (Reuters)

VILLEPINTE, France (Reuters) – An Iranian dissident leader called on the United Nations on Saturday to protect her group's Iraqi base after an attack by Iraqi security forces.

Camp Ashraf, about 65 km north of Baghdad, is the base of the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), which the United States, Iraq and Iran consider a terrorist group.

The camp's fate has been in question since the U.S. military turned it over to Baghdad in 2009 under a bilateral security agreement.

On April 8, Iraqi forces moved against the camp in what they said was an attempt to reclaim land and return it to farmers. The United Nations says 34 Iranian dissidents were killed, while Iraqi officials say three died.

"The armed forces must leave the camp and an impartial investigation into the April 8 massacre must begin," Maryam Rajavi told an event outside Paris that drew an estimated 15,000 people, mostly Iranian exiles from around the world.

"It is doubly important for the U.N. to assume protection for Ashraf," she added, to cheers from the crowd.

The PMOI -- headed by Rajavi's husband, believed to be in hiding -- has for decades has advocated the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran in place since 1979.

The United States has proposed a temporary relocation of Ashraf's residents within Iraq, pending eventual resettlements in third countries, but the PMOI's umbrella group -- the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) -- rejects this.

Among the crowd was former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who said Ashraf's residents should be evacuated to the United States and Europe, "where they can be safe."

(Writing by Lionel Laurent; Editing by Alison Williams)

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Toll from Kabul attack rises to nine: ministry (Reuters)

KABUL (Reuters) – The death toll from an attack by three suicide bombers on a police station in the heart of Kabul Saturday has risen to nine, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

"In this attack, three policemen, five civilians and one intelligence agent were killed and two policemen and ten civilians were wounded," it said.

(Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Iran forces attack protesters: opposition website (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran's opposition website Sahamnews said security forces attacked pro-reform demonstrators gathering in Tehran on Sunday to mark the anniversary of the 2009 disputed presidential election.

Witnesses said thousands of security personnel were deployed in Tehran to prevent a revival of the mass anti-government rallies that erupted after the 2009 vote.

"Security forces attacked the crowd with electric batons ... in the Vali-e Asr street to disperse the demonstrators," Sahamnews said.

Another opposition website, Kaleme, said "hundreds of demonstrators" were arrested by the security forces.

Opposition websites had called for a "silent rally" to mark the vote, which reformists say was rigged to secure the hardline president's win. Authorities say the election was the "healthiest" since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

The Sahamnews website also said supporters of the opposition gathered in other parts of the city.

"Shopkeepers were ordered to close down their shops ... hundreds of people have gathered in other areas of Tehran," the website said.

Opposition leaders Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, who spearheaded protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re- election in 2009, had been placed under house arrest after calling for a rally on February 14.

Two people were shot dead at the February 14 rally, during which thousands of the opposition supporters took to the streets in defiance of a heavy security presence to back uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, that toppled their leaders.

Iran, which crushed its own anti-government protests in 2009, says uprisings in the Arab world were inspired by the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution but are worried about revival of anti-government unrest.

Iranian leaders have portrayed the Arab Spring as an "Islamic awakening," while avoiding to support the popular uprising in Syria, its most important ally in the region.

Tehran has strongly condemned military deployment by Saudi Arabia to quell unrest in Bahrain. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are both allied to the West.

(Editing by Matthew Jones)

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Syrian forces attack northern town, residents flee (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian tanks and helicopters stormed the town of Jisr al-Shughour on Sunday, residents said, and state television reported heavy clashes between army troops and gunmen opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.

More than 5,000 Syrian refugees have crossed the border and a UNHCR spokesman said the Red Crescent was preparing a fourth camp with room for 2,500 more. Witnesses said some 10,000 Syrians were sheltering near the border.

The assault on Jisr al-Shughour, astride a strategic road in northwest Syria, is the latest action by the armed forces to crush demands for political freedom and an end to oppression that pose an unprecedented challenge to Assad's 11-year rule.

Residents said earlier that most of the town's 50,000 people had fled toward the Turkish border about 20 kms away and tanks and helicopters were shelling and machinegunning the town.

Damascus has banned most foreign correspondents from the country, making it difficult to verify accounts of events.

"Heavy confrontations are raging between army units and members of armed organizations taking up positions in the surroundings of Jisr al-Shughour and inside it," state television said.

Army units defused bombs and explosive charges planted by gunmen on bridges and roads into the town, it said. "Two members of the armed organizations were killed, large numbers of them arrested, and lethal weapons in their possession were seized."

State television said the forces uncovered mass graves of security men killed and buried by armed groups in Jisr al-Shughour and said their bodies bore marks of "atrocities." It did not give details.

The government said last week that "armed gangs" had killed more than 120 security personnel in the town after large demonstrations there. Refugees and rights groups said the dead were mutinous soldiers, shot for refusing to fire on civilians.

"When the massacre happened in Jisr al-Shughour the army split, or they started fighting each other and blamed it on us," a woman refugee, who refused to give her name, told Turkish news channel NTV.

MOST RESIDENTS LEFT

A senior Western diplomat in Damascus told Reuters: "The official version is improbable. Most people had left Jisr al-Shughour after seeing the regime's scorched earth policy, shelling and the heavy use of armor in the valley."

"The refugee exodus into Turkey is continuing and the numbers are higher than those officially counted so far."

Asked if there were clashes in the town Mustapha, a 39-year-old mason who fled early on Sunday, told Reuters "What clashes? The army is shelling the town from tanks. Everyone has been fleeing.

"Even if we did have guns, what are they going to do in front of artillery? Syria is a tightly controlled dictatorship and all of a sudden the regime says Jisr al-Shughour is armed to the teeth. They are lying. They are punishing us for wanting freedom."

Residents said the army unit was commanded by Assad's brother Maher and was copying the tactics used in other centers to crush protesters demanding an end to Assad's autocratic rule.

The United States accused the Syrian government of creating a "humanitarian crisis" and called on it to halt its offensive and allow immediate access by the International Committee for the Red Cross to help refugees, detainees and the wounded.

Turkey has provided camps for refugees and sent the wounded to hospitals, but restricted access to the refugees, saying this is to protect their privacy.

Bassam, a tiler who fled to Turkey as troops approached the town, showed mobile phone camera footage of a dead man, between 18 and 25 years old, with a bullet wound in his leg, and a large exit wound in his stomach. He lay on a bloodied cloth.

Another picture showed a young man who had been shot in the head. He said the two were killed just outside Jisr al-Shughour by troops under the command of Maher.

"There are only a few people left. I escaped on my motorcycle through dirt tracks in the hills," he told Reuters.

He said troops burned wheat crops in three villages near Jisr al-Shughour in a scorched-earth policy aimed at crushing the resistance of protesters in the area.

Other refugees said troops killed or burned cows and sheep and burned crops on farmland around the village of Sarmaniya, south of Jisr al-Shughour.

The state news agency said "armed terrorist groups" had burned land in Idlib province as part of a sabotage scheme.

Human rights groups say security forces have killed more than 1,100 Syrian civilians in increasingly bloody efforts to suppress demonstrations calling for Assad's removal, political freedom and an end to corruption and poverty.

The Syrian protests were inspired by uprisings against other entrenched autocrats in the Arab world.

At the United Nations Russia and China snubbed Security Council talks called on Saturday to discuss a draft resolution condemning Syria's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, U.N. diplomats said.

Largely Sunni Muslim Turkey had backed Syria's ruling hierarchy -- members of the minority Alawite sect -- but has been increasingly critical of Assad's use of force to quell the protests.

Thousands of people were gathering on the Syrian side of the border, according to an activist helping coordinate the movement of refugees. "The border area has turned practically into a buffer zone," said Abu Fadi. "There are 7,000 to 10,000 people here now."

(Additional reporting by Alexandra Hudson in Guvecci, Turkey; editing by Tim Pearce)

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South Sudan accuses north of air attack, clashes flare (Reuters)

JUBA/KHARTOUM (Reuters) – South Sudan's army accused the north on Friday of bombing a southern border village and said southern forces were getting ready to defend against a possible ground attack.

The south is preparing to secede on July 9 and fears of fresh fighting between the two long-standing rivals grew after the north seized the contested Abyei region on May 21.

The United Nations said fighting between northern forces and southern-aligned armed groups in the north-run oil state of Southern Kordofan had spread to the tip of the southern Unity state and that tens of thousands may have fled the clashes.

Philip Aguer, spokesman for the south's Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army, said the northern military was trying to occupy areas near the border -- whose exact position is yet to be decided -- in an attempt to control the country's oil fields.

"There has been an air bombardment by northern forces in Unity state, in the morning yesterday and again in the afternoon. Three people were killed in the morning," Aguer said. The three dead were civilians, he said.

"We are expecting not only air attacks but also ground forces. We know their forces are moving from Abyei toward Unity state. ... We are getting ready to defend ourselves. Our forces near the border are on maximum alert and are expecting an attack any time," he added.

A spokesman for the northern army was not immediately available to comment. In previous statements, it blamed southern or southern-aligned forces for provoking fighting in Abyei, Southern Kordofan and elsewhere.

The White House said on Friday night it was "deeply concerned" by the developments in southern Sudan.

"The United States condemns reported acts of violence in Southern Kordofan that target individuals based on their ethnicity and political affiliation," the Obama administration statement said. "We call on the UN to fully investigate these incidents, and we demand that the perpetrators immediately halt these actions and be held accountable for their crimes."

South Sudan voted to secede in a January referendum promised by a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of brutal civil war between the north and south.

That vote went more smoothly and peacefully than many analysts and humanitarian groups predicted, but a lack of agreement between the two sides on questions such as how to share debt and oil revenues has complicated the split.

The secession could see the north lose some 75 percent of Sudan's current 500,000 barrels a day of oil output, the lifeblood of both the northern and southern economies.

VOLATILE BORDER

Northern forces have been fighting armed groups in the volatile Southern Kordofan border state since a police station was attacked on Saturday.

Between 30,000 and 40,000 people may have fled fighting in the state capital, Kadugli, alone, the United Nations said on Friday. The town's normal population is estimated at 60,000.

"The fighting has spread to the disputed border area of the northernmost tip of Unity state in southern Sudan," Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, told reporters in Geneva.

Armed checkpoints were set up on the main roads inside and around Kadugli and there had been reports of "large-scale" looting as late as Thursday, she added.

Kouider Zerrouk, spokesman for UNMIS, the local U.N. Mission in Sudan, said separately that MiG and Antonov aircraft bombardments were reported in the state's Umm Dorain, Umm Serdiba, Heiban and Saraf el-Gamos on Thursday, and artillery fire could be heard near Kadugli on Friday.

"The security situation in Kadugli and its environs remains volatile," he said. "Military build-up is continuing in various locations."

Analysts have seen Southern Kordofan as a flashpoint because it is home to thousands of northerners who sided with the south against Khartoum during the last civil war. Northern officials have called last week's clashes an "armed rebellion."

The region also holds the most productive oil fields that will be left in the north after the split.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki met with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Thursday to discuss Southern Kordofan and Abyei and was scheduled to travel to Juba to meet officials there on Friday, state news agency SUNA said.

Abyei, long a centerpiece of the north-south divide, has been one of the most contentious issues before southern secession. It is used all year by the south-linked Dinka Ngok people and part of the year by northern Misseriya nomads.

Khartoum took control of the area with tanks and troops nearly three weeks ago, following an attack on a convoy of northern soldiers and U.N. peacekeepers that was blamed on southern forces. The move drew an international outcry.

Abyei was "calm but unpredictable" with sporadic shooting in the region's main town, OCHA said on Friday. Some 101,800 people may have fled the fighting there, it added, up from a previous estimate of 96,000.

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz in Khartoum; Editing by Louise Ireland and Peter Cooney)

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Face transplant for chimp attack victim

(CNN) -- More than two years after a chimpanzee mauled her, Charla Nash will once again be able to eat solid foods and regain her sense of smell thanks to a full face transplant, doctors at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital said Friday.

"I am happy to report that the team has achieved tremendous success," said Dr. Elof Eriksson, chief of the Division of Plastic Surgery.

Surgeons also transplanted two hands to Nash, but they didn't thrive and were removed.

In February 2009, Sandra Herold had called her friend Nash for help in getting her pet chimpanzee, Travis, back inside her house after he used a key to escape. When Nash arrived, the chimp, who had been featured in TV commercials for Coca-Cola and Old Navy, jumped on her and began biting and mauling her, causing serious injuries to her face, neck and hands.

Police shot Travis to halt the attack and he later died of gunshot wounds.

Doctors say they see Nash as more than an animal attack victim.

"To us, Charla is a courageous, strong person. (She) inspired the team to do everything possible, using our collective expertise, to restore her quality of life," Plastic Surgeon Director Dr. Bohdan Pomahac said.

Nash's face transplant was different than others done before because of the extent of damage to it, the doctors said.

She is the third person at Brigham and Women's Hospital to receive a full face transplant; Dallas Wiens was the first in the United States to have such a surgery in March, also at the hospital.

Nash is the second to receive a double-hand transplant at the same time as a face transplant; the first was performed in France in 2009. That patient died of a heart attack in a later operation.

Nash had lost her nose, upper jaw, most of the soft tissue on her face, and both upper and lower lips. She was also left blind.

The surgery, which was performed last month, involved removing some tissue and attaching skin and underlying muscle, based on vessels and nerves that provide motor and sensory functions, Pomahac said. The entire hard palate and teeth were also transplanted.

The result was "miraculous," said Nash's brother, Steve.

The thing Nash is most looking forward to, her brother said, was visiting their favorite hot dog stand.

As for the double hand transplant, doctors successfully attached the new hands, but a few days later Nash became sick and her blood pressure fell, causing circulation problems to the new limbs. After a few days, doctors saw that the hands were not thriving and removed them.

In the next three months, Nash will regain sensation to her face, and in six to nine months will be able to smile, control her lips and otherwise make facial expressions, Pomahac said.

"All these things will gradually improve," he said.

Nash skipped her child's high school graduation because she was afraid of taking away from the occasion, but thanks to the transplant, can look forward to being present for college graduation, Pomahac said.

The surgery will give her a chance to have a more normal social life, he said.

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Residents fear army attack on north Syrian city (AP)

BEIRUT – Syrian activists say there are fears of a major military attack in a northern region where authorities said weekend clashes between armed men and government troops left 120 security forces dead.

The government has vowed to respond "decisively" to the violence in Jisr al-Shughour, triggering fears of an even more brutal crackdown by a regime known for ruthlessly crushing dissent.

One activist said on Tuesday there were reports from local residents that Syrian troops were preparing for an onslaught on the town of about 50,000 people near the border with Turkey. The activist spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Syria is determined to crush an uprising against President Bashar Assad. Rights group say more than 1,300 have been killed since the revolt began in mid-March.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

BEIRUT (AP) — Armed men killed 120 Syrian security forces and torched government buildings Monday in a northern region where troops have unleashed deadly assaults on protesters for days, Syria said. The government vowed to respond "decisively," hinting at an even more brutal crackdown by a regime known for ruthlessly crushing dissent.

If confirmed, the attack in the north would be a turning point in what so far has largely been a peaceful uprising threatening the 40-year rule of President Bashar Assad and his family.

Opposition activists were skeptical of the official casualty toll, saying the authorities were setting the stage for a new onslaught. But even they acknowledged there was fighting, although it was not clear who was involved. The government described the attackers as "armed gangs," a phrase it often uses to describe the protesters.

Communications were cut to the area around Jisr al-Shughour on Monday and the details of the attack were impossible to verify, but there have been unconfirmed reports by activists and residents in the past of Syrians and even mutinous troops fighting back against security forces.

Adnan Mahmoud, the chief government spokesman, acknowledged that Syrian forces had lost control of some areas for "intermittent periods of time" and said residents had appealed to the army to do what was necessary to restore security.

"We will deal strongly and decisively, and according to the law, and we will not be silent about any armed attack that targets the security of the state and its citizens," said Interior Minister Ibrahim Shaar.

The surprisingly high death toll among pro-regime troops would suggest some sort of major lashback against the crackdown against the uprising — though by whom was unknown because of the seal over the area. Regardless of who carried out Monday's attack, it shows new cracks in a rule that has held out through weekly protests of thousands of people.

Human rights activist Mustafa Osso said there were unconfirmed reports of a few soldiers who switched sides and were defending themselves against attacking security forces, but he said the reports suggest the mutiny is limited and "does not pose a threat to the unity of the army yet."

"The protesters have so far been peaceful and unarmed," said Osso.

A Syrian activist speaking on condition of anonymity said there were unconfirmed reports of infighting between security forces. "The situation is very foggy, it is unclear who is doing the shooting, but the situation is very serious and appears to be getting out of control," he said on condition of anonymity.

He said there were fears the army was preparing a major attack.

Before Monday's killings, the government and some human rights groups have said more than 160 soldiers and security forces had died in the uprising. The latest deaths marked by far the deadliest single strike against them.

The government's unusual admission of the death toll and loss of control appeared to set the stage for an even stronger action to crush a popular uprising that began in mid-March and poses a potent threat to the Assad regime.

State television added the armed groups carried out a "real massacre," mutilating some bodies and throwing others in the Orontes River.

Jisr al-Shughour, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the Turkish border, has been the latest focus of Syria's military, whose nationwide crackdown on the revolt has left more than 1,200 Syrians dead, activists say. The town was a stronghold of the country's banned Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s. Human rights groups said at least 42 civilians have been killed there since Saturday.

Syria's government has a history of violent retaliation against dissent, including a three-week bombing campaign against the city of Hama that crushed an uprising there in 1982. Jisr al-Shughour itself came under government shelling in 1980, with a reported 70 people killed.

Assad's decision to allow pro-Palestinian protesters to storm the Israeli border twice in recent weeks indicates he may be trying to deflect focus from a serious crisis at home, and possibly divert international attention from a new crackdown. State television broadly carried Sunday's protest at the Golan Heights to the south frontier, which left as many as 23 people dead in fighting with Israeli forces, but it has not carried any footage of the protest, crackdown or ambush at the northern edge of Syria.

Monday's state television report said the officers were ambushed as they responded to calls from residents for protection from the armed groups. It said 20 policemen were initially killed, and then the groups blew up a post office and attacked a security post, killing other forces.

The report said the armed groups were hiding in homes and firing at security forces and civilians alike, using residents as human shields.

The TV reports could not be independently confirmed. The Syrian government has severely restricted the media and expelled foreign reporters, making it nearly impossible to independently verify events.

Details of the operations in Jisr al-Shughour and nearby Khan Sheikhoun have been sketchy and attempts to reach residents of the town were unsuccessful.

Ahead of Monday's report, another activist said gunmen had successfully kept security forces out of the area, but he had no details. Fearing retaliation, the activist requested anonymity.

A prominent activist in touch with a resident of Jisr al-Shughour said: "There are dozens of people killed and they are a mix of civilians, police and security forces in the past 24 hours.

"There are reports that security forces took a beating and there is armed resistance keeping them on the edges of the town," he said.

Amnesty International criticized Syria's "brutal treatment of protesters" and called on the UN Security Council to condemn the killings and refer Syria to the International Criminal Court.

"Those responsible for the brutal crackdown of pro-reform protesters must no longer be allowed to get away with murder," Philip Luther, Amnesty's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement Monday.

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Five U.S. troops killed in Iraq rocket attack (Reuters)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Five U.S. service members were killed in a rocket attack in Iraq on Monday, in the worst single toll for American troops in the country for at least two years, the U.S. military and Iraqi security officials said.

The attack showed Iraq's security situation is still precarious despite a decline in violence. U.S. troops are preparing to withdraw from the country more than eight years after the invasion that toppled former dictator Saddam Hussein.

The U.S. military in Iraq gave few details, saying only that a base in eastern Baghdad came under "indirect fire."

A senior Iraqi security official said the Americans had died when militants fired rockets into a joint base in Baghdad's Baladiyat district in the east of the capital.

"This morning, the American base at Loyalty Camp came under rocket attack. There was a lot of smoke inside and the Americans died in that attack in the Baladiyat area," the security official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

Loyalty Forward Operating Base, on the former site of Saddam's internal security directorate, is next to Sadr City, the stronghold of anti-U.S. Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Two suspected militants involved in the attack were killed when a rocket exploded prematurely on the truck they were using as a launch platform, an Interior Ministry source said.

Violence in Iraq has steadily declined since the height of sectarian conflict in 2006-7, but gun and bomb attacks still occur daily, often targeting local Iraqi security forces.

At least 13 people, mostly Iraqi soldiers, were killed on Monday when a suicide bomber detonated a car in an attack on security forces in the central city of Tikrit.

Tikrit is dominated by Sunni Muslims, a minority in Iraq who were favored under Saddam. Suspected Sunni Islamists, including al Qaeda, have carried out frequent attacks in the town and surrounding Salahuddin province, trying to destabilize the Baghdad government and stir up sectarian tension.

WITHDRAWAL DEBATE

U.S. forces officially ended combat operations in Iraq last August ahead of a scheduled U.S. troop withdrawal at the end of this year. American troops are now mainly involved in a support and training role, and helping Iraqi security forces in counter-terrorism operations.

U.S. fatalities in Iraq since last year have become more sporadic. Two U.S. soldiers were killed in May. Monday's deaths brought the total of U.S. military casualties in Iraq since 2003 to 4,459, the icasualties.org website reported.

So far this year, 29 U.S. service members have been killed in Iraq, compared with 60 last year and 150 in 2009, the website said. That compares with 961 in 2007 at the height of the sectarian conflict.

Around 47,000 U.S. troops still in Iraq are due to leave by the end of 2011 under a security pact, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led coalition government is debating the sensitive question of whether to ask Washington to keep some of them in place.

U.S. officials and senior Iraqi military commanders have said they believe some kind of continuing U.S. military presence is necessary to ensure Iraq's security and defense needs, especially in an advisory and training role.

(Additional reporting by Khalid al-Ansary, Waleed Ibrahim and Suadad al-Salhy; writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Jon Hemming)

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Libya: NATO uses attack helicopters

NATO-allied aircraft, including Britain's Apache helicopters, were being used for the strikes, the Ministry of Defence said.String of explosions heard in TripoliRebels report rocket attacks in ZintanNATO calls helicopter attacks successfulBritish foreign secretary visits Benghazi

(CNN) -- Top British officials paid a visit Saturday to leaders of Libya's opposition government, the beneficiary of the first NATO helicopter attacks on ruler Moammar Gadhafi' military vehicles, equipment and forces.

Foreign Secretary William Hague and International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell traveled to Benghazi, where they reiterated support for the Transitional National Council.

According to a statement, Mitchell announced new support for the clearing of mines in besieged cities, including Misrata. He and Hague visited a Benghazi hospital treating those wounded in the conflict.

The visit, which included a discussion of the country's possible future, followed helicopter attacks by British and French forces on the regime's military.

"This successful engagement demonstrates the unique capabilities brought to bear by attack helicopters," said Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, who commands NATO's Libya operation. "We will continue to use these assets whenever and wherever needed, using the same precision as we do in all of our missions."

British forces, flying from the HMS Ocean, used Apache helicopters for the overnight strikes, according to the Ministry of Defence. French helicopters took off from the assault ship Tonnerre, the ministry said in a statement.

The Apaches struck a regime radar installation and a military checkpoint, both located around Brega, a key oil town in the east, British officials said. Hellfire missiles and 30mm cannon were used to destroy the targets, they said.

Royal Air Force ground attack aircraft destroyed another military installation, while a separate mission hammered two ammunition bunkers in central Libya, according to the statement.

A French military spokesman said 20 targets, including vehicles, were destroyed. Several helicopters responded to small-arms fire from the ground, but none were hit, he said.

"The use of attack helicopters provides the NATO operation with additional flexibility to track and engage pro-Gadhafi forces who deliberately target civilians and attempt to hide in populated areas," NATO said in a statement.

Meanwhile, a string of explosions -- at least 10 -- rocked the Libyan capital of Tripoli early Saturday evening, CNN journalists reported.

There also was fighting in the western city of Zintan.

According to Mamdouh Dardair, a rebel fighter, portions of the town were hit by a large number of rockets fired by Gadhafi forces. The rockets damaged infrastructure, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

CNN could not confirm the account.

On Friday, fighting continued in the western town of Yefren, where NATO-allied aircraft destroyed government tanks and personnel carriers, officials said.

NATO warplanes belonging to the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force fired Paveway guided bombs and destroyed two main battle tanks and two armored personnel carriers belonging to Libya's military, said Maj. Gen. John Lorimer, strategic communication officer for the chief of the defense staff. The airstrikes occurred Thursday, he said.

NATO reported that government forces were continuing "to attack the peoples of the western highlands," Lorimer said.

Meanwhile, rebels claimed to liberate Yefren and the nearby town of Kikla, both of which are about 25 miles east of their stronghold in Zintan, one rebel fighter said.

Talhat al-Jiwayli, a rebel on the front lines in Zintan, also said that anti-Gadhafi forces were surrounding the town of al-Rayyana, more than 7 miles northeast of Zintan.

A resolution approved by the U.N. Security Council in March authorized member states "to take all necessary measures to protect civilians under threat of attack in the country, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory."

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CNN's Kareem Khadder and Michael Martinez contributed to this report.

CNN

AU soldiers killed in Somalia suicide attack (AFP)

MOGADISHU (AFP) – Two soldiers with the African Union force in Somalia were killed Monday in a suicide attack by Al-Qaeda loyalists that also claimed the lives of at least three attackers, AU and Somali forces said.

Shebab extremists, who pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda last year, claimed responsibility for the attack and claimed their forces killed eight AU troops without revealing their own casualties.

Extremist insurgents disguised as Somali soldiers attacked Shakala military base south of the capital Mogadishu and exchanged fire with AU troops guarding the compound, the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) said in a statement.

Four assailants believed to be Shebab Islamist militiamen were behind the attack, the head of Somali security forces Mohamed Abdulahi told AFP.

"Two of the suicide bombers were killed before entering the base, but one was able to activate his bomb," he said.

The AU statement said the attackers drove up in a white saloon car but failed to enter the base. "Three of them were killed, including one would-be suicide attacker who ran away towards Hamar Weyne district," it said.

Two AU troops were killed and five other soldiers were wounded when the body of one of the suicide attackers exploded, it added.

Shebab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage said: "The mujahedeen and in particular the unit tasked with the suicide attacks launched a well-organised assault this afternoon."

"They successfully killed eight soldiers at the entrance (of the base) and they forcefully entered", he said, adding at least 20 soldiers were injured.

Shebab leaders and foreign Al-Qaeda fighters in Somalia two weeks ago declared vengeance "in the near future" for the death of Osama bin Laden by US special forces in Pakistan earlier this month.

Somali police at the time said it was aware of a series of planned suicide attacks.

Shebab extremists control southern swathes of Somalia and part of its capital.

However, they have retreated after pro-government forces in February launched a 9,000-strong offensive backed up by AMISOM forces that include soldiers from Uganda and Burundi.

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Top Afghan official killed in attack

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A bombing in northern Afghanistan that killed a top Afghan official and wounded a German general Saturday came as tribal leaders warned that insurgent attacks were discouraging some civilians from cooperating with security efforts, officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing at a high-level meeting of Afghan officials and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, the latest in a series of attacks that have rocked Afghanistan following the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

During meetings last week with senior Afghan ministers and ISAF officials in the volatile Zabul province, civilians "cautioned that insurgent intimidation has discouraged cooperation from some citizens," according to an ISAF statement released Saturday.

Provincial Gov. Mohammed Neseri warned residents to do their part to protect themselves.

"Insurgents cannot intimidate citizens if everyone is united in defending their homes and their villages," Neseri said, according to the statement.

The top coalition commander in Afghanistan has warned of a likely increase in high-profile attacks by insurgents looking to demonstrate their ability to strike. In a letter this month to ISAF forces, Army Gen. David Petraeus said the attacks may increase the risk of civilian casualties and put Afghan and ISAF forces in difficult situations.

The attack Saturday in the northern Takhar province town of Taloqan occurred at a high-level meeting of Afghan and coalition officials in a governor's office, a provincial spokesman said.

The officials were gathered to talk about security following a May 18 protest in front of a NATO compound where German soldiers opened fire on demonstrators, who they claim had become violent, German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters.

The blast killed seven people, including Gen. Dawood Dawood -- a well-known Afghan regional police chief who was one of the country's lead point-persons in eradicating opium poppy fields, said Faiz Mohammad Tawhidi, a spokesman for Takhar provincial Gov. Abdul Jabar Taqwa.

Dawood was a veteran anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban resistance commander, he said.

Also killed were two German soldiers, a provincial police chief, the governor's secretary and two guards, according to Tawhidi and Qari Sadiqullah, secretary of the provincial council.

Among the eight wounded was Maj. Gen. Markus Kneip, a veteran German officer and the regional head of the ISAFacross nine provinces of northern Afghanistan, de Maiziere said.

The provincial governor was also wounded, Taqwa said.

In a phone call to CNN, Taliban spokesman Zabulliah Mojahed claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mojahed said Taliban fighters targeted the officials because they were making plans in the meeting to "launch an operation against the Taliban in the north."

"After our mujahedeen found (out) about this meeting, then it was targeted by our suicide bomber," he told CNN from an unknown location.

ISAF spokesman Rear Adm. Vic Beck condemned what he called "the senseless murder of these Afghans and coalition members who have fought so hard for the people of Afghanistan.

"ISAF will remain relentless in our support to our Afghan partners to find those responsible and bring them to justice," he said.

The attack came two days after eight U.S. troops died when two improvised explosive devices blew up in Shorabak District, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Kandahar, according to ISAF.

That region -- on the opposite end of the country from where Saturday's attack occurred -- has been the site of a spate of recent violence after Taliban forces unleashed multiple attacks earlier this month in their so-called spring offensive.

CNN's Larry Shaughnessy and Chelsea J. Carter contributed to this story.

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Lockheed Martin hit by cyber attack

Officials at Lockheed Martin detected and thwarted a cyber attack earlier in May.The company says no customer, program or employee personal data has been compromisedLockheed Martin is one of the world's largest aerospace companies

(CNN) -- Lockheed Martin acknowledged a "tenacious" attack on its information systems network this month but said no customer data was compromised.

The company issued a statement Saturday saying it learned of "a significant and tenacious attack" on May 21. It said the company's information security team quickly detected the attack and that no customer, program or employee personal data has been compromised.

It did not elaborate on the nature of the attack.

"Throughout the ongoing investigation, Lockheed Martin has continued to keep the appropriate U.S. government agencies informed of our actions," the statement said. "The team continues to work around the clock to restore employee access to the network, while maintaining the highest level of security."

Lockheed Martin is one the world's largest aerospace companies. It has about 126,000 employees, according to the statement.

CNN's Deborah Doft contributed to this report.

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Lockheed Martin hit by cyber attack (AP)

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press – Sat May 28, 11:58 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Hackers launched a "significant and tenacious" cyber attack on Lockheed Martin, a major defense contractor holding highly sensitive information, but its secrets remained safe, the company said Saturday.

Lockheed Martin, the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon confirmed that the contractor's information systems had come under attack. Lt. Col. April Cunningham, speaking for the Defense Department, said the impact on the Pentagon "is minimal and we don't expect any adverse effect."

Still, the concerted attempt to breach the contractor's systems underscored the risk to the nation's critical defense data. Chris Ortman, Homeland Security spokesman, said his agency and the Pentagon were working with the company to determine the breadth of the attack and "provide recommendations to mitigate further risk."

Lockheed Martin said in a statement that it detected the May 21 attack "almost immediately" and took countermeasures. As a result, "our systems remain secure; no customer, program or employee personal data has been compromised." The company's security team is still working to restore employee access to the targeted network. Neither Lockheed Martin nor the federal agencies revealed specifics of the attack.

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AP writer Jennifer Malloy contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

Yahoo! News

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