The New Nation - Internet Edition

US troops kill 27 in Pakistan, 25 in Afghanistan

AP, Dera Ismail Khan

Suspected U.S. missiles slammed into two villages close to the Afghan border Friday, killing 27 people including an Arab al-Qaida operative and other foreign militants, intelligence officials said.

The new strikes raised the number of such attacks to at least 17 since August. The surge has angered many Pakistanis and put strains on a seven-year U.S. alliance with Pakistan, where rising violence is exacerbating economic problems gnawing at the nuclear-armed country's stability.

The apparent attacks by American unmanned planes come amid Washington's frustration at what U.S. officials say is Pakistan's failure to curb Islamic extremists blamed for attacks in both Afghanistan and Pakistan - and suspected of planning Sept. 11-style terror strikes in the West.

Dozens of foreign al-Qaida members, including Osama bin Laden, are believed to be hiding in northwestern Pakistan's lawless tribal areas along the Afghan frontier.

The United States rarely confirms or denies attacking suspected militant hideouts inside Pakistan and the identities of those killed are only occasionally made public. Residents frequently say that civilians, sometimes women and children, are among the dead.

The al-Qaida member reportedly killed Friday was identified as Abu Kasha Iraqi, the intelligence officials said.

Reuters report adds: US.-led coalition forces killed 25 militants, including a woman fighter, in separate raids aimed at a suspected al Qaeda commander and Taliban in Afghanistan, the U.S. military said Saturday.

One operation targeted a "known al Qaeda leader," believed to have facilitated the movement of foreign troops into eastern Kunar province, it said without naming the suspect.

"The al Qaeda leader is also believed to be in contact with other militants in the region t."

The seven militants killed in that operation included an armed woman, it said. The military did not say if the "al Qaeda leader" was among the dead.

But villagers and a provincial official disputed the military's report.

All those killed in late Friday's attack were civilians and belonged to one family, several residents said. A local official, on condition of anonymity, confirmed their accounts.

The provincial governor refused to comment on the incident.

Other raids targeted the network of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a top military commander for the Taliban-led insurgents in southeastern Khost, the military said.

At least 18 militants were killed in those attacks in a compound, it said.

It did not say whether there were any casualties among the coalition forces in any of those operations, but a separate statement Friday said one foreign soldier was killed in an engagement in an eastern area same day.

The Taliban could not be reached for comment and Reuters had no immediate independent verification of the accounts.

U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban's radical Islamist government after it refused to hand over al Qaeda leaders wanted by Washington for the September 11 attacks which killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.

Many more civilians have been killed in Afghanistan, nearly seven years on after the invasion and al Qaeda as well as Taliban leaders are still at large.

Aftershock rattles Pakistan as disease spreads among survivors

AFP, Wam

A strong aftershock rattled southwestern Pakistan Saturday, as aid agencies warned that disease had begun to spread among tens of thousands of earthquake survivors waiting for relief supplies.

The 5.0-magnitude quake struck just before 6am in the mountainous province of Baluchistan, where a powerful pre-dawn tremor on Wednesday killed up to 300 people and left 70,000 people homeless.

There were no immediate reports of further casualties or damage as a result of the latest aftershock, the second strongest of more than 250 tremors to have shaken the region since Wednesday's quake.

Aid has begun reaching devastated villages, but angry villagers in remote areas said they desperately needed shelter, with thousands of people whose mud-brick homes were flattened sleeping in the open in freezing temperatures.

The UN Children's Fund said Friday they and Pakistani government officials assessed the situation in the worst-hit districts and were "concerned about the urgent needs of children and women".

"With winter closing in, the most urgent needs of the survivors are shelter, safe drinking water, food, warm clothing and emergency medical assistance," a UNICEF statement said.

Clean water was a "priority," it said, adding that children were especially vulnerable to diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera.

The district health officer of the stricken hill town of Ziarat, Ayub Kakar, told AFP that children were already suffering from exposure to the harsh conditions.

"Due to the cold hundreds of children are being treated for pneumonia, abdominal diseases, diarrhoea and chest problems," he said.

"We fear the death toll will rise. Such diseases, if not treated in time, are life-threatening," Kakar said.

Children could be seen running after cars on the road adjoining the affected areas begging for food and drink, witnesses said.

Residents in the quake-hit village of Khanozai, near Ziarat, blocked the main road in protest at the lack of relief goods despite government pledges to help them, an AFP reporter saw.

17 rebels killed in sea clash, claims Sri Lankan Army

AP, Colombo

Sri Lanka's navy fought a fierce battle Saturday against Tamil Tigers in the northern sea, destroying six rebel boats and killing 17 guerillas with the help of air strikes by military bomber planes, officials said.

Navy spokesman D.K.P Dassanayake said the sea battle took place in the early morning off northern Jaffna peninsula when the navy observed a cluster of rebel boats and attacked them.

The clash killed 14 rebels and destroyed four boats, while five sailors were wounded in the fighting, he said.

Air force planes later chased fleeing rebel boats and bombed them at their landing point, destroying two more boats and killing three more rebels, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.

The Tamil Tigers could not be contacted for comment because communication lines to rebel-held territory have been severed.

However the rebel-affiliated TamilNet Web site reported that rebel suicide fighters had sunk two navy vessels and damaged another. Seven rebels were killed in the mission, the report said.

About 20 boats took part in the attack, the report said.

It is difficult to get independent accounts of battles in Sri Lanka's civil war because reporters are barred from the war zone.

The sea battle Saturday came amid intensified military attacks against the rebels on land. Authorities have vowed to crush the rebels and end their decades-old campaign for a separate state in the island nation.

In Friday's battles near the rebel headquarters of Kilinochchi and the northeastern front of Welioya, troops seized three rebel bunkers, causing heavy damage to the rebels, a military statement said without releasing casualty details.

The Tamil Tigers have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered marginalization at the hands of successive governments controlled by ethnic Sinhalese.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.

Iraq, Iran to exchange remains of 1980s war dead

AFP, Baghdad

Iraq and Iran are to exchange the remains of soldiers killed during the 1980-88 war between the two countries, according to Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh.

"The delivery of the remains is set for November 15. We will receive the remains of 200 Iraqi soldiers in exchange for the remains of 41 Iranians," Dabbagh said in a statement issued late on Friday. The exchange will take place in a border area, he added.

"The Iraqi government will continue its efforts with the Iranian side to find solutions to outstanding issues, particularly those concerning humanitarian aspects," Dabbagh said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said in August that tens of thousands of members of the Iraqi and Iranian armed forces are still listed as missing 20 years after the war ended.

During the conflict an estimated one million people were killed on both sides.

Voter turnout in US poll expected to be highest in decades

AP, Washington

Voter turnout will be the highest in decades, dwarfing recent presidential elections, experts predict. The only question dividing experts is how huge will it be. Will it be the largest since 1968, largest since 1960 or even, as one expert predicts, the largest in a century? Soaring early voting levels hint at a big turnout, but that could just be the same voters casting ballots earlier instead of more voters hitting the polls. Weather should generally be favorable, according to forecasts.

What early voting numbers mean and how much of the youth and Hispanic votes turn out are the big factors political scientists look at when trying to predict how many eligible Americans will vote. Michael McDonald of George Mason University is so optimistic he's predicting the highest level in a century.

"We're going to definitely beat the turnout rate in 2004, the question is by how much," McDonald said. "We have a chance to beat the 1960 turnout rate." "It's not just an election of a generation, it's an election of generations with an 's'," McDonald said Friday.

He's not alone. The dean of voting turnout predictions, Curtis Gans, director of the nonpartisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate at American University, this week amped up his turnout forecast. Initially he said it would be around 2004 levels, but now he is looking at a turnout that would be the highest since 1960.

Afghan conflict must not be seen as America's war: Gates

AFP, Aboard A Us Military Aircraft

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that Afghanistan's military must be expanded and that the conflict needs to be recognized as "an Afghan war, not an American war and not a NATO war."

Promoting the expansion of Kabul's military force, Gates said: "We would be making a terrible mistake if this ends up being called America's war. This is the Afghans' war for their own country, and we need to make sure they know we are not there to run it, we are there to help."

"What everybody would like to see is the most rapid possible further expansion of the Afghan military forces, because this needs to be an Afghan war, not an American war and not a NATO war," he told journalists on an airplane returning to Washington from Florida, where he oversaw the promotion of General David Petraeus to the head of Central Command. Afghanistan has seen a spike in violence from a resurgent Taliban in the last two years, and Gates acknowledged the disparity between focus on Iraq and Afghanistan.

"There are close to a million people (serving in) security services of different kinds in Iraq," he said.

"In Afghanistan, which has four more million people (than Iraq) and is a third bigger than Iraq, they (the security forces) are 150,000."

US and NATO military commanders have voiced support in recent days for three additional Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) for the Afghan theater of operations, to counter the upsurge in violence.

Washington has already announced reinforcements of 2,000 Marines to be sent to Afghanistan in November, and a 3,700-strong brigade in January.

"I think my successor will do everything possible to be responsive" to requirements for extra troops, said Gates.

"I think we do need to try and satisfy that requirement in 2009 for three additional BCTs."