The New Nation - Internet Edition

US loses 5 more soldiers in Iraq violence

AP, Baghdad

In a daring ambush, insurgents blasted a U.S. patrol with a roadside bomb Monday and showered survivors with gunfire from a mosque in increasingly lawless Mosul. Five American soldiers were killed in the explosion - even as Iraqi troops moved into the northern city to challenge al-Qaida in Iraq.

Iraqi reinforcements, along with helicopters, tanks and armored vehicles, converged on Mosul for what Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged would be a decisive battle against al-Qaida in its last major urban stronghold.

The attack on the U.S. patrol - the deadliest on American forces since six soldiers perished Jan. 9 in a booby-trapped house north of Baghdad - raised the Pentagon's January death count to at least 36.

The toll so far is 56 percent higher than December's 23 U.S. military deaths and marks the first monthly increase since August. But the figures remain well below monthly death tolls of more than 100 last spring.

Tensions in Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, have spiked after the explosion last week in an abandoned apartment that authorities say was used to stash insurgents' weapons and bombs. As many as 60 were killed and 200 injured.

The unrest in Mosul stands in sharp relief to a significant decline in bloodshed most elsewhere in Iraq in recent months. The relative calm has been credited to a U.S.-led security crackdown - along with a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and a cease-fire order by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for his powerful Mahdi Army militia.

But influential members of al-Sadr's movement said Monday they have urged the anti-U.S. cleric to call off the six-month cease-fire when it expires in February - a move that could jeopardize the security gains.

In Mosul, the attackers struck in the southeastern Sumar neighborhood, a middle-class district popular with former officers in Saddam Hussein's military and now a suspected hotbed for the insurgency. After the roadside bomb blew apart the American vehicle - killing the five soldiers - gunmen opened fire from a mosque. A fierce gunbattle erupted as U.S. and Iraqi soldiers secured the area, the military said. Iraqi troops entered the mosque but the insurgents had already fled, according to a statement.

"The insurgents are willing to desecrate a place of worship by using it to attack soldiers to further their agenda," said Maj. Peggy Kageleiry, a U.S. military spokeswoman in northern Iraq.

Missile kills 12 militants in Pakistan

AP, Peshawar

A missile destroyed a suspected militant hideout in volatile northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing 12 people, officials said. In other clashes in the area, militants killed a soldier and injured four more.

Twelve dead in suspected Pakistan missile strike: officials

Intelligence officials said the dead were pro-Taliban militants, but residents said they were tribesmen staying at the house of a local elder in Khushali Tari Khel, a village on the outskirts of the town of Mir Ali.

"A missile came from an unknown direction on Monday night and hit the house, after which 12 people have died," a local administration official told AFP.

The Pakistani army was not immediately available for comment.

"The identities of the dead are not ascertained but we had reports that suspected them of being linked to the Taliban," an intelligence official said.

Pakistan's tribal belt has been identified by US officials as a major sanctuary for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants plotting attacks on regional and international targets.

It was not clear who fired the missile but several previous attacks in the area have been attributed to US-led coalition forces across the border in Afghanistan.

Islamabad is loath to admit any US military action on its territory, given that President Pervez Musharraf has repeatedly rejected US offers for joint operations in Pakistan's troubled borderlands.

Supplies run out in Egypt-Gaza border town

AFP, Rafah

Khaled Salah's shop in the border town of Rafah is almost empty, to the immense disappointment of Palestinians who fled a blockaded Gaza to stock up on vital supplies across the border in Egypt.

Only two tins of vegetable oil and a few honey jars sit on the shelves of his modest grocery shop in the divided town that straddles the Sinai peninsula and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Several hundred thousand Palestinians have swarmed into Egypt since militants blew up the Rafah barricades on Tuesday night after a punishing Israeli lockdown of the territory cut vital fuel and aid supplies.

But after six days, supplies are running dry and Egyptian authorities are barring trucks from bringing in fresh deliveries.

"The shops are empty and they won't let us go to El-Arish (further west). Never mind, we'll have a look around Rafah," sighs Sabah al-Arji surrounded by her 11 children.

Fighting in Sri Lanka's north claims 33 lives

AFP, Colombo

Fresh fighting in Sri Lanka left at least 33 combatants dead on both sides, the military said Tuesday as security forces continued their push to regain swathes of rebel-held territory in the north. Security forces said they killed 32 Tamil Tiger rebels during clashes in the northern districts of Mannar and Vavuniya on Monday and placed their own losses at one soldier dead and three wounded.

There was no immediate comment from the Tigers, but the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website said the guerrillas were using booby-trapped devices and snipers to keep troops from advancing into territory held by them in Mannar.

Since the beginning of January, the security forces have killed 780 rebels and lost just 29 soldiers, according to statements issued by the defence ministry.

Both sides are known to give wildly varying casualty figures which cannot be independently verified.

Brown urges Musharraf to ensure credible elections

AFP, London

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday told Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf that next month's elections had to be credible, insisting the country's stability was vital for South Asia.

Brown's call came as demonstrators staged angry protests against Musharraf's visit to London, at the end of a week-long trip to Europe aimed at reassuring leaders about the transparency of the delayed February 18 vote.

"Credible elections" were "essential", Brown said at a joint news conference following what he called "very productive" talks with a "key ally" in combating terrorism and extremism.

Car bomb kills 3 in Algeria

AP, Algiers

A car bomb exploded Tuesday outside a police station in northern Algeria, killing at least three people and wounding several others, security officials said.

The blast in the city of Thenia, some 40 miles east of the capital Algiers, seriously damaged several nearby houses, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

A wave of recent attacks in Algeria has signaled that Islamic fighters are regrouping in the country, where military crackdowns and amnesty offers had thinned the insurgents' ranks.

Earlier this month, four people died when a vehicle rigged with explosives slammed into the police station in the town of Naciria, east of Algiers.

Blizzards strand thousands in China, 25 killed

AP, Guangzhou

At least 25 people were killed as a bus plunged off an icy roadway in China Tuesday, the latest casualties in a surge of severe winter weather that has disrupted the country's busiest holiday travel season and stranded hundreds of thousands of Chinese. About 500,000 people - most migrant workers - were stuck in the southern city of Guangzhou, railway officials said. Heavy snowfall in provinces to the north had cut off parts of the busy railway line that starts in the city and ends in Beijing. The crash brought the known death toll in the last two weeks to about 50. Xinhua News Agency said the bus veered off the road, plunging some 40 yards into a valley in mountainous Guizhou province at 7:40 a.m. The new agency said that in addition to the 25 deaths there were also 13 people injured, accounting for all 38 aboard. Two passengers were hospitalized in critical condition, while injuries to the 11 others were less serious.

Kenya clashes intensify after opposition lawmaker shot dead

AFP, Nairobi

The slaying of a Kenyan opposition lawmaker sparked riots Tuesday across the east African nation already reeling from weeks of deadly clashes set off by disputed elections. Police fired tear gas and hundreds took to the streets of opposition strongholds in western Kenya and Nairobi's slums to protest the murder of opposition MP Mugabe Were from Nairobi's Embakasai constituency. Heavily-armed police patrolled two recent western Rift Valley flashpoints of violence, the lakeside towns of Nakuru and Naivasha, where scores have died in gruesome attacks in recent days, pushing the overall death toll since the December 27 election to more than 900. Plumes of smoke rose from Naivasha's slums and machete-wielding youths burned houses and roamed the streets, an AFP correspondent said.

EU envoy calls for release of Suu Kyi

AFP, Bangkok

The EU's special envoy for Myanmar on Tuesday urged the country's military regime to free democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as he kicked off an Asian tour aimed at pressuring the junta for reform. "I hope the lady Aung San Suu Kyi can be free as soon as possible," Piero Fassino told reporters after a meeting with Thai Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram. Aung San Suu Kyi, a 62-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner, has spent 12 of the past 18 years under house arrest in Yangon. The ruling junta, in an apparent bid to defuse global pressure after its bloody crackdown on protests last September, appointed Labour Minister Aung Kyi in October to handle contacts with the detained opposition leader. Since then, Aung San Suu Kyi and Aung Kyi met four times, including their last meeting on January 11, but the military government has given no details of their talks.