Militants kill 10 Yemeni soldiers

The incident occurs in the town of Lawdar on WednesdayThe soldiers are shot by militants at a military checkpoint in the townIn other clashes, an al Qaeda commander is killed, officials say

(CNN) -- Militants gunned down 10 soldiers at a military checkpoint in southwestern Yemen, authorities said Thursday.

The incident occurred Wednesday in the town of Lawdar, security officials said.

In an unrelated incident Wednesday, the Yemen Defense Ministry said it had killed Waleed Osairi, an al Qaeda commander, along with several other suspected al Qaeda militants.

The deaths occurred in Abyan province and is part of an effort to clear the area of the terror group, the government said.

Yemen has been consumed by unrest for months as protesters have demanded an end to the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule. Saleh and other senior officials were wounded June 3 in an attack on the mosque at the presidential palace. Saleh is being treated in Saudi Arabia. Officials have said he will return when he has recovered.

In recent weeks, government troops have battled both tribal forces and Islamic militants, including al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz and journalist Hakim Almasari contributed to this report.

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Syria: Soldiers kill 'terrorist groups'

A YouTube video grab shows protesters holding a banner during a pro-democracy demonstration on June 10, 2011."A large number" of arrests are made, state media reports "A number of "armed" terrorists are killed or woundedThe conflicts in Syria has raged for three months

(CNN) -- Syrian soldiers working to retake a rebellious northern town killed, wounded and arrested members of "armed terrorist groups" operating in the region, state media reported Saturday.

This development unfolded as Syrian troops on Friday afternoon came to the entrances of the city, Jisr Al-Shugur, in an operation "to restore security and tranquility to the area which was being terrorized by armed terrorist groups," the Syrian Arab News Agency reported.

This military offensive took place amid anti-government protests raging across Syria for nearly three months, outpourings that have led to violent security crackdowns on demonstrators.

Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime has consistently blamed what it calls armed gangs for the bloodshed over the last three months. But activists and protesters say security forces have caused the violence.

The Syrian government announced it would punish Jisr Al-Shugur after it accused "armed groups" of killing at least 120 security forces there several days ago.

Syrian refugees who fled to Turkey disputed that claim, saying some of the soldiers rebelled after being ordered to fire on unarmed protesters and instead started fighting among themselves.

The military advance spread panic throughout the civilian population, and residents said they had evacuated women and children from Jisr Al-Shugur in recent days. More than 3,800 Syrians have fled to Turkey, the Anatolia news agency reported.

In the nearby town of Maaret al-Nouman on Friday, Syrian security forces and helicopters advancing toward Jisr Al-Shugur sprayed automatic weapons fire into a crowd of thousands of protesters demonstrating after Friday prayers.

As the army reached Jisr Al-Shugur, it "arrested a large number of the armed terrorist group members and killed and wounded a number of them, despite the fact that these groups resorted to setting up traps using dynamites stolen from Wadi Abyad dam area," SANA reported, citing Syrian TV.

The military confiscated machine guns, explosive devices, detonators and Turkish SIM cards from those arrested, state TV reported on Saturday.

"Cameramen and reporters" were ambushed at the entrance of Jisr Al-Shugur "after they came under heavy fire by the terrorist armed gangs." It said the journalists were doing well and there were no casualties.

"The army managed to foil the armed groups' attempts to besiege the grain silos in the area. The group had threatened to burn crops and any vehicle that attempts to transport groups to the silos," SANA reported.

Protests spread across Syria on Friday and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 25 people were killed in various locations, including 11 in Maaret al-Nouman.

Amnesty International said it believes that more than 1,100 people have been killed in the three-lcrackdown, including 82 children.

Every Friday for weeks, anti-government marches have been organized after Muslim prayers. Friday's expression of discontent was called "the Friday of kinship."'

CNN

Alternative treatment promoted for soldiers suffering from PTSD

Donna Karan and David Lynch attend a December function for Lynch's foundation, which aims to relieve PTSD in veterans.Transcendental meditation can help tackle PTSD, a medical researcher saysDr. Norman Rosenthal says he has facts, figures and testimonials to back him upStar-studded events this week are kicking off a campaign to teach veterans how to meditate

Washington (CNN) -- Celebrities and a medical researcher want to convince the Defense Department this week that meditation could help the increasing number of military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress.

Star-studded events in New York and Washington are bringing together people experienced in transcendental meditation with soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

Designer Donna Karan hosted a reception in Manhattan on Tuesday evening, and movie director David Lynch ("Blue Velvet," "Mulholland Drive") and CNN anchor and correspondent Candy Crowley will headline a Washington event Wednesday to kick off a campaign the sponsors hope will teach 10,000 veterans how to meditate.

A Georgetown Medical School clinical professor, Dr. Norman Rosenthal, said he has the facts, figures and testimonials to show that meditation can be a low-cost, low-risk alternative to strong narcotics often prescribed by government doctors.

The Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs "are big institutions," Rosenthal said in a telephone interview. "Our hope is someone will raise an eyebrow and say, "Well, well."

He includes case studies in his new book, "Transcendence-healing and Transformation through Transcendental Meditation."

In one case, he quotes a Marine gunner on a Humvee who saw heavy fighting in Iraq. The Marine wrote that PTSD symptoms disrupted his sleep and derailed his family life upon his return to the United States, but "TM (transcendental meditation) has helped with organizing, prioritizing and just being calmer overall. I just feel better."

Rosenthal says a simple seven-step process has quick results. "What do we have to lose? It is so cheap, and it is safe," he told CNN.

The military, meanwhile, is facing a number of challenges over the use of powerful drugs prescribed for a variety of stress-related ailments, with increased risk of sometimes deadly, accidental overdoses. The Army's assistant surgeon general, Brig. Gen. Richard Thomas, told CNN recently that he thinks there has been over-reliance on prescription drugs.

"It reflects how we are in society. We do have a tendency to rely on prescription meds," he said.

And the Pentagon, according to Thomas, is receptive to nondrug treatments.

"Whether it be acupuncture or biofeedback or yoga therapy, there is a host of other things we can provide to patients to take care of them right, other than narcotics," Thomas said at the Pentagon. "Narcotics may still have a role, but it doesn't have as big a role and there are alternatives, and that's the key."

Rosenthal said he and his fellow researchers, who published their findings in the journal Military Medicine, found that meditation can help an individual control emotions and thoughts and deal with common PTSD complaints of anxiety, depression, sleeplessness and anger.

He compares his latest efforts to win government support to his early uphill battle researching and publicizing his findings after he first diagnosed seasonal affective disorder, or SAD.

His research on military PTSD and meditation has a pilot study of five veterans. He brushes aside any suggestions that this is too small a sample.

"When you get a powerful intervention, you see a signal," Rosenthal said. "And how do you get interest without a pilot study?"

His book says of 1.64 million U.S. military personnel sent to the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones between 2001 and 2008, one in seven met criteria for PTSD.

"Half of these veterans had never sought any kind of help for their symptoms, probably because of the stigma of being labeled with a psychiatric disorder," Rosenthal wrote. "Of those who sought help, half received inadequate treatment."

CNN

Yemen security official: Islamists kill 5 soldiers (AP)

SANAA, Yemen – Radical Islamists who overran a south Yemen town killed five soldiers in an ambush on Tuesday, security officials said, while fresh clashes broke out in the capital between security forces and fighters from the country's most powerful tribal confederation, edging the country toward civil war.

Almost four months of mass street protests across Yemen calling for democratic reforms and the ouster of longtime president Ali Abdullah Saleh have rocked the stability of this impoverished corner of the Arabian Peninsula. Saleh's security forces shot dead four protesters in the southern city of Taiz Monday, medics said, bringing the two-day death toll there to at least 25.

The upheaval in Yemen has sparked fears that militant groups will take over. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula operates in its weakly governed provinces along with a number of other radicals, like the ones who overran the town of Zinjibar near Yemen's south coast over the weekend.

A Yemeni security official said militants ambushed an army unit driving toward the town Tuesday, killing five soldiers and injuring 12. The militants fired on the army convoy from behind, forcing them to speed into an ambush where other gunmen fired on their cars.

The soldiers killed two militants before fleeing the area, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

Hundreds of armed Islamists stormed the town last week, seizing banks and government offices before setting up barricades to solidify their control. Shelling by army units outside the city failed to dislodge them over the weekend while sending residents fleeing.

Resident Hilmi Ali, 21, said army shelling over the weekend appeared to fall randomly over the town, striking a mosque and four houses in his neighborhood and killing seven of his neighbors.

The Islamists overran a police administration building and intelligence office and could be seen over the weekend driving police cars around town, Ali said. Dozens of families fled.

"We walked on our feet to leave the city," he said by phone from the city of Aden.

It remains unclear whether the Islamists who seized Zinjibar are connected to al-Qaida. Other armed Islamist groups have sought refuge in the area, including some who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, and others who fought with Saleh's government in a 1994 civil war with the south.

Before Tuesday's ambush, the Interior Ministry said 22 soldiers had been killed since Friday. It remains unclear how many civilians and militants have been killed.

In the capital, Sanaa, fresh gunfights and rounds of artillery fire broke out Tuesday between government troops and fighters loyal to the country's most powerful tribal leader, marking the collapse of a fragile cease-fire.

The fighting brings head-to-head two of Yemen's most powerful men: Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, head of the country's Hasid tribal confederation and Saleh, who has heavily stocked the security forces with relatives and allies during his 33-year rule.

Clashes resumed overnight after the failure of a days-old cease-fire that ended last week's clashes, which killed 124 people. Tribal fighters withdrew Sunday from the Local Administration Ministry, one of more than a dozen ministries and government buildings they'd seized in the Hassaba neighborhood, also home to the family compound of Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, the Hasid leader.

Abdel-Qawi al-Qasi, a spokesman for al-Ahmar, said that Saleh's force broke the agreement by not withdrawing from buildings they had occupied, especially those around al-Amhar's house.

Clashes erupted early Tuesday and continued through the morning, with tribal fighters seizing a number of new buildings, including the upper house of parliament, the headquarters of Saleh's ruling party and a key street leading to the airport.

"Any place that poses any danger to us and they are firing at us from, we will take it," al-Qasi said.

Al-Qasi said the tribesmen had also seized the Interior Ministry. Yemeni state TV called the fighters "gangs" and denied they'd seized the building.

At least one person was killed — a man who was driving through the neighborhood, said witness Abdel-Waid Ali. Official information on casualties was not immediately available.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh has clung to power despite daily protests, defections by key allies and intense pressure from the United States and powerful neighbors like Saudi Arabia to transfer his powers.

His security forces have waged a brutal crackdown that has included sniper attacks on unarmed protesters, and he has several times pledged to step down under a deal with the opposition only to back out at the last minute.

Beyond the capital, violence also roiled the southern city of Taiz, which has been a hotbed of anti-government protests since the early days of the uprising.

Medics said government troops fired on protesters Tuesday, killing four and bringing the two-day death toll to at least 25.

Soldiers backed by tanks and bulldozers moved in over the weekend, smashing a tent camp the protesters had held in a central square and destroying a field hospital that had been set up in anticipation of such an attack.

On Tuesday, the U.N.'s human rights office in Geneva said it received reports from Yemen that more than 50 people have been killed by pro-government forces in Taiz since Sunday. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay cautioned that the reports "remain to be fully verified."

Pillay said in a statement that "such reprehensible acts of violence and indiscriminate attacks on unarmed civilians by armed security officers must stop immediately."

Government forces opened fire again Tuesday on demonstrators who had regrouped for marches on several main streets, said activist Boushra al-Maqtali.

Protesters set fire to tires and threw stones at the police, who fired rubber bullets, live ammunition and tear gas to disperse them, said another activist, Ghazi al-Samie.

"The city is boiling," al-Samie said. "All shops have been closed and government employees did not go to work and armored military vehicles blocked all the roads leading to the city to prevent people from nearing districts to join the protesters."

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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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Roadside bomb kills 4 NATO soldiers in Afghan east (Reuters)

KABUL (Reuters) – A roadside bomb killed four service members from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan's volatile east on Monday, the coalition said in a statement, one of the worst attacks on foreign troops in recent weeks.

ISAF gave no other details, including the nationalities of those killed. Most of the troops serving in the volatile eastern provinces near the border with Pakistan are American, although some other members of the NATO force are stationed there.

Violence has surged across Afghanistan this month since the Afghan Taliban announced the start of its long-awaited "spring offensive."

U.S. commanders had warned of a spike in violence this month as the Taliban and other militants seek to hit back after NATO-led forces made significant gains in arresting a growing insurgency, particularly in the Taliban heartland in the south, over the past 18 months.

They have warned that significant attacks would be likely in the east, where the insurgency is much more fragmented, and in major cities.

On Saturday, a suicide bomber killed six medical students in an attack in the main military hospital in a heavily guarded area of the capital Kabul, not far from the U.S. embassy.

The next day, four Taliban suicide bombers staged a brazen assault on a police compound in the eastern Khost city, killing three police, two Afghan soldiers and a civilian.

The Afghan intelligence agency said on Monday the attack on the Kabul hospital was carried out with the help of a "rogue" soldier, the latest in a string of incidents where insurgents have infiltrated the Afghan police force and army.

An Afghan soldier who had been recruited by the Taliban two months ago gave the bomber, who was Pakistani, his identity card so he could enter the hospital, agency spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told reporters.

He said the soldier and four others had been detained since Saturday's attack.

RECORD CASUALTIES

Despite the presence of up to 150,000 foreign troops, violence across Afghanistan is at its worst since the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban government by U.S.-backed Afghan forces. There were record casualties on both sides last year.

The death of the four ISAF troops in the east on Monday brings the number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this year to at least 188, according to counts kept by independent monitor www.icasualties.org and Reuters.

Another homemade bomb killed four ISAF troops in the south a week ago, while a suicide bomber in an Afghan army uniform killed another five, as well as four Afghan soldiers, in the eastern city of Jalalabad on April 16.

At least 2,465 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the war began, roughly two-thirds of them from the United States.

Last year was by far the deadliest of the war for foreign troops, with at least 711 killed, and 2011 is on a similar trend. By the end of May 2010, 220 foreign troops had been killed, according to casualties.

Escalating violence across Afghanistan has raised questions that a plan by the United States to begin a gradual drawdown of troops in July may be premature despite recent gains. NATO is planning to hand over all security to Afghans by the end of 2014, a transition that is looking increasingly more difficult.

(Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Paul Tait and Alex Richardson)

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Child soldiers add questions for Pakistan (OneWorld.net)

May 17 (OneWorld.net) - A new focus on Pakistan in the UN Secretary-General's annual report on Children and Armed Conflict may complicate the task of rebuilding relations with the US in the aftermath of the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Submitted to the Security Council as part of the UN's responsibility for promoting and protecting the rights of children, Ban Ki-moon's 55-page report paints a grim picture of the entrapment of both boys and girls in the world’s most degrading conflicts.

From the section headed "Developments in Pakistan", it is clear that children have become active agents within the flow of warmongering personnel and equipment across the notoriously porous border with Afghanistan. Their assignments range from passive couriers to tragically unwitting suicide bombers in both countries.

The report refers to the escalation of terrorist and sectarian violence across Pakistan by groups linked to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, such as Tehrik-i-Taliban and Lashkar i Jhangvi. "Children have been used by these armed groups to carry out suicide attacks," the UN says.

The most damning evidence is cited by the UN child rights monitoring team in Afghanistan which claims to possess "documented and verified cases of Afghan children recruited and trained in Pakistan by armed groups, including the Taliban."

Such exploitation of children from both countries inside Pakistan will come as a disappointment to UN agencies after earlier reassurances given by Pakistan authorities.

In his corresponding report published a year ago, the Secretary-General referred to Pakistan's formal submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. This promised "strict measures to stop recruitment of children by non-State actors, in addition to initiating reforms to streamline and regulate the madrasahs that were the major source."

Nevertheless, advisers to Ban Ki-moon have stopped short of recommending that militant groups active in Pakistan should be included in the report's "list of parties" that recruit or use children in armed conflict.

This annexed list is significant in that it may provoke the UN Security Council into demanding government action plans to enforce protection of children.

In some circumstances the list can also trigger a response under the US Child Soldier Prevention Act. Signed into law in 2008, this law blocks US military aid to countries which support paramilitary or militia groups recruiting under-age personnel. The armed forces in Pakistan are very substantially dependent on US aid.

The question of whether or not the Pakistan government and its institutions "support" terrorist groups lies at the heart of recriminations following the death of bin Laden on Pakistan territory at the hands of special US forces.

There is an unexpected twist in the UN report on Children and Armed Conflict which may add fuel to this bonfire of ambiguities.

The report addresses circumstances in which children are the victims of violence, as well as perpetrators. The Secretary-General has highlighted his concerns about attacks on schools and hospitals by anarchic militant groups. In conflict zones, schools may find themselves in the firing line from various quarters, from religious zealots to recruiting sergeants.

Amongst 15 countries identified by Ban Ki-moon as suffering such attacks, Pakistan stands out. Groups opposed to secular education and girls' education have destroyed no fewer than 273 schools in Malakand, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The Secretary-General has chosen this issue for the headline recommendation of his report. He requests that "the Security Council add parties to conflict that are attacking schools and hospitals to the annex of the report."

It seems very likely therefore that militant groups in Pakistan will be added to what is described in the UN press release as the "List of Shame".

Whether exposure in a child rights context will trigger consequences for US-Pakistan relations is very uncertain. Indeed Ban Ki-moon has stamped his impartiality on the report by including reference to controversial US drone attacks on targets inside Pakistan.

"No data is available on the number of children killed or injured in those attacks," the report says. "The United Nations does not have access to these sites to undertake any independent verification."

* More Information:

Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict

OneWorld Child Labour Guide

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Yemeni soldiers slain in countryside

Other than Taiz, anti-government marches were peacefulFor the second straight day, militants killed Yemeni soldiersAl Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is blamed for the killings

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Violence rocked embattled Yemen on Saturday as suspected militants killed government soldiers for the second day in a row and security forces wounded around three dozen anti-government protesters.

The unrest comes as the regime is coping with two conflicts -- militant activity across the country and an anti-government movement demanding the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Six soldiers were killed and five others were injured in the Baitha provincial town of Rada'a, the Interior Ministry said.

It is blaming al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula for an attack on security forces.

"The terrorist group attacked them in large numbers. They were at least 20 terrorists and well armed," Amer Shaibari, a security official in Rada'a said.

On Friday, at least five soldiers were killed in Marib province by the al Qaeda group, a force that Yemen and the United States have been fighting for years.

Yemen's government is unpopular among many citizens, and it has been facing a lot of street opposition in recent months.

* * More than half a million protesters marched the streets of Taiz on Saturday demanding the ouster of the Saleh regime., ,

At least 35 protesters were injured when the republican guard and the central security opened fire at a protest in downtown Taiz province, medical staff said. Eyewitnesses said they saw at least 20 snipers taking shots at marchers from rooftops.

At least 10 of the injured were shot by security forces and more than 25 beaten by batons and rocks, said Yasser Nusairi of the medical staff in Taiz., , One of those injured was shot in the head and is in critical condition.

* * "It's the same procedure every time with the government. We get attacked only because we march peacefully," said Saleh Ariki, a protester beaten with a baton in Taiz by security forces. "Marchers were attacked three times today already.", ,

Along with Taiz, protesters also took to the streets in several provinces, including Sanaa, Ibb, Aden, Hodieda, Saada, Amran, Hajjah, Shabwa, and Hadramout. Except for Taiz, all of these events were peaceful.

One activist, Labib Abdullah said protesters will march to Saleh's palace on Tuesday and demand he step down.

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Al Qaeda in Yemen kills 5 soldiers

Anwar Al-Awlaki is one of the key figures of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).The incident took place in Marib provinceAQAP recently was called more dangerous than bin Laden's Pakistan groupThe United States tried but failed to take out al-Awlaki in a drone strike

(CNN) -- Suspected members of al Qaeda's Yemen wing ambushed an army vehicle on Friday and killed at least five soldiers, a government official told CNN.

The incident took place in Marib province, in the western section of the country.

Three other soldiers were injured in the ambush, conducted by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, also known as AQAP.

Yemen's government is unpopular among many citizens, and it has been facing a lot of street opposition in recent months, but it has been a U.S. ally in the fight against militants -- most prominently AQAP.

In December, John Brennan, the administration's top counterterrorism adviser, said AQAP posed a greater threat to Americans than the bin Laden group based in Pakistan.

Speaking at a forum at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, he said AQAP was "increasingly active" in reaching out to find terrorist recruits, even in the United States.

One of the key figures in the group is Anwar Al-Awlaki, the American-born radical Muslim cleric who moved to Yemen and has become a key figure in AQAP.

A U.S. drone strike recently attempted but failed to kill al-Awlaki. This came after the U.S. military swooped into a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2, and killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Al-Awlaki has been linked to the suspect in the Fort Hood massacre of 13 people in 2009, as well as the suspect in the 2009 Christmas Day "underwear bombing" attempt in which a man allegedly tried to detonate an explosive device sewn into his underwear as his flight headed toward Detroit.

CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.

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Black soldiers waged wars on two fronts

Stories, videos, cold cases. Once in uniform, black recruits faced a range of prejudicial treatment, including low pay, inferior weapons, inadequate medical care and relegation to fatigue duty. With blacks in camp, white soldiers were spared from degrading manual tasks such as digging ditches for latrines.

Black soldiers understood that only on the battlefield could they earn the respect of whites. Although black regiments participated in 39 major battles and 449 minor engagements, it was their remarkable valor in several battles in 1863 and 1864 that assuaged Northern prejudices, impressing naysayers enough to give serious consideration to the widespread use of black soldiers.

Learning that the North was arming slaves, the Davis administration threatened to re-enslave captured blacks and execute white officers for aiding servile insurrection. When Lincoln vowed to retaliate by executing Rebel officers taken prisoner, Davis backed down. But the Confederate president could do little to slake the racial animosity of many rebel commands, which adopted a no-prisoners policy signified by carrying the "black flag" into battle.

When blacks responded with terror tactics of their own, the war descended into a vicious cycle of atrocity and reprisal that has somehow faded from the American memory. The war may have been a chivalrous contest for some combatants, but not for the Rebels who shot surrendering blacks at Fort Pillow, Tenn., or the blacks who murdered wounded Confederates at Jenkins' Ferry, Ark.

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Some soldiers prefer amputations rather than damaged limbs, now that prosthetics are so good

But the bomb blast in Afghanistan that had taken his right leg on March 22, 2010, had so damaged the left one that bones stubbornly resisted mending. Standing on the left limb was excruciating. Leonard could see other amputees at Walter Reed Army Medical Center up and running on new, high-tech prosthetics.

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