Shadi Fadda brings us today's headlines relating to Palestine and other news from around the internet.Land theft / Ethnic cleansing
Ayalon proposes Palestinian population transfer
Ma`an/Agencies - A peace deal could include a population swap in addition to a land swap, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said told the London-based Arabic daily Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat on Saturday. An alternative put forward by Ayalon would see the transfer [of] the Palestinian minority in Israel with citizenship, as well [as] towns and villages still populated with significant numbers of Palestinians in the north, in exchange for sovereignty over Israeli settlement blocs in the West Bank, the daily reported. This swap would not include Nazareth, he said
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
MK Tibi: Israeli Arabs not immigrants
Arab and leftist politicians are slamming Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon for promoting a land swap that would see Arab Israelis come under Palestinian control. MK Ahmad Tibi dismissed Ayalon's remarks, saying that the deputy FM and his boss, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, "have a basic flaw in understanding the fundamental values of democracy and civil rights." "We are not chess pawns. We did not arrive in the country on planes and we did not immigrate here," Tibi said. "We do not wish to expel anyone…but if someone wishes to expel us, I'll say this: Whoever got here last will be leaving first. That way, there will be fewer fascists in Israel."
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Giving in to the settlers in Beit Sahour / Amira Hass
People in Beit Sahur believe the Israeli settlers who claim that the Israel Defense Forces was responding to the settlers' pressure when it started erecting a new guard tower last week in the eastern part of this largely Christian West Bank town. Locals do not, however, accept the army's claim that the tower was added for professional, military reasons. The settlers vow to keep up the pressure - and Beit Sahur residents know all too well what they mean. In the last 18 months, settlers from the Gush Etzion area have been holding increasingly frequent protests against the "Arab construction" in Beit Sahur.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/
Activism / Solidarity / Boycott, Sanctions & Divestment
Who would teargas 'Avatar'?
VIDEO by Haitham Al Katib: Bil`in reenacts Avatar film - Friday 12 Feb.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
Two injured at the weekly Bil`in protest
As has been the case every Friday for the past five years, villages joined by international and Israeli supporters marched from the village after the midday prayers. A journalist and a villager sustained light wounds, while scores were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation
http://imemc.org/index.php?
Israeli troops attack protesters near Bethlehem
Israeli soldiers attacked anti-wall protesters on Friday near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem using tear gas and sound bombs. Today, villagers changed the route for their weekly march, ending up at a nearby settler highway. This road is closed for Palestinians on Fridays. Soldiers then forced people back to the village using rifle butts and batons.
http://imemc.org/index.php?
PSP: 5 international activists suffer tear gas inhalation
Five international activists suffered tear-gas inhalation as they assisted Palestinian farmers tend to their trees on Saturday in the village of Saffa, north of Hebron, the Palestinian-founded popular resistance organization the Palestine Solidarity Project said. PSP spokesman Mohammad Awad said "Israeli authorities prevented 70 peace activists who came to show solidarity with the farmers and forced them to return, escorted by an Israeli patrol."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli court frees non-violent protesters / Jonathan Cook
JERUSALEM // The Israeli courts ordered the release this week of two foreign women arrested by the army in the West Bank in what human-rights lawyers warn has become a wide-ranging clampdown by Israel on non-violent protest from international, Israeli and Palestinian activists. The arrest of the two women during a nighttime raid on the Palestinian city of Ramallah has highlighted a new tactic by Israeli officials: using immigration police to try to deport foreign supporters of the Palestinian cause ... The detention this week of Ariadna Marti, 25, of Spain, and Bridgette Chappell, 22, of Australia, suggests a revival of a long-running cat-and-mouse struggle between Israel and the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a group of activists who have joined Palestinians in non-violently opposing the Israeli occupation.
http://www.thenational.ae/
The Only Democracy? -- new blog from Jewish Voice for Peace
Midnight arrests. Defamation of human rights organizations. Expulsion of journalists. Human rights demonstrations broken up with violence. Censored films. Confiscated laptops. That's just a fraction of the reality on the ground in Israel/Palestine that stands in contrast to the official story about 'the only democracy in the Middle East.' That's why we're launching a new blog: The Only Democracy?
http://www.
Fayyad takes on settlements
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is urging intense action against products manufactured in settlements, calling to remove them from markets in the Palestinian Authority and around the world.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Violence
Palestinian man killed by Israeli fire in Hebron
Palestinian medical sources in Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank, reported that a Palestinian man, 41, was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers on Friday evening in Bab Al Zawiya area, in the center of the city. The army claimed that the Ahmad Sayyid Faraj, 41, attempted to stab a soldier, while eyewitnesses confirmed that he was just walking in the street when a soldier opened fire at him.
http://imemc.org/index.php?
Report: 2 Palestinians killed by IDF mortars near Kissufim
Golani Brigade troops launch mortars towards four Palestinian gunmen attempting to plant bombs along security fence; security officials say incident part of growing phenomenon -- Unofficial Palestinian sources in Gaza reported at around noon Friday that two or three gunmen were killed in an exchange of fire with IDF soldiers near the Kissufim crossing.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Despite circumstantial evidence, Shin Bet can't pin mosque arsonists
A decision is to be made by the central district prosecutor in the coming weeks on whether to indict suspects in the torching of the Kfar Yasuf Mosque. However, Haaretz has learned that the prosecution considers the evidence presented by the Shin Bet security service to be circumstantial and borderline in terms of an indictment. Nevertheless, the Shin Bet is pressing for an indictment. The Shin Bet's unit in charge of investigating Jewish terrorists were involved from the outset in the probe into the December 11 burning of the mosque.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Assassinations / Targeted killings
PA official: Israel's anti-terror campaign going too far
Israel overstepping boundaries with covert assassination campaign, Senior Palestinian source tells London-based newspaper; Egyptian official says Israel has stepped up anti-terror activity across Mideast -- "Israel is overstepping their boundaries," the Palestinian source was quoted as saying. "Other countries don’t want to become a killing field for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” ... Among other attacks, The Times cites the explosion of a "tourist bus" outside Damascus that killed Iranian officials and Hamas members. In another case, several people were killed after a meeting between Hamas and Hezbollah members in Beirut was also targeted.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Detention
Egypt navy 'detains four fishermen off Gaza' (AFP)
GAZA CITY (AFP) - Egyptian naval forces have arrested four Palestinian fishermen off the coast of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials and witnesses said on Saturday ... Witnesses said the fishermen had apparently strayed into Egyptian waters ... But the Hamas-run agriculture ministry insisted the four men had been arrested while "doing their job" and called on Egypt to stop "oppressing" Palestinian fishermen.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/
Hamas: Affiliate, Islamic Jihad member detained by PA
Security officers with the Palestinian Authority detained two West Bank residents from Qabatiya village in the northern West Bank on Friday night, Hamas officials said, adding that the men were targeted for their political affiliation. One of the men was affiliated with Hamas, a party statement said, while the second was a member of the Islamic Jihad.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Siege / Blockade
Authorities: Gaza Power Plant to cease functioning within hours
...In a statement, the Energy Authority reported that one generator had already been shut down and the remaining amount of fuel in the Strip was only sufficient to continue the plant's electricity output for a few hours, putting shut-down at just after sunset ... The announcement of an imminent power outage is the second in two weeks, with an announcement of closure on 4 February, prompting an emergency delivery of fuel on the following Friday, when Gaza crossings are frequently shut. A generator was shut down on 6 February, but then re-started later in the week.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Egyptian security detonates Rafah tunnel
Egyptian authorities detonated and collapsed a tunnel in the Yabna area of Rafah on Saturday afternoon ... Medical sources added that no injuries were reported following the tunnel's detonation.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Rafah crossing closed for 40 days, 167 people stranded
The de facto border crossing administration said 267 people remain stranded on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, most of whom are patients ... Additionally, the administration said the Erez crossing into Israel has been partially functioning over the past week, with a total of 696 people leaving Gaza, among them 464 residents, 188 international passport holders and 45 from Israel ... As for the Kerem Shalom crossing, Gaza's southern border, the Gaza administration said that between 4 February and 10 February 435 truckloads were allowed into Gaza of which 377 were goods for the private sector, 44 contained humanitarian aid, 38 were from the World Food Program, and 6 were for UNRWA. The crossing administration added that 74 truckloads of fuel entered Gaza,
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Border Control / Let him go to Haiti - Akiva Eldar
The following sentence is taken from a ruling issued by Be'er Sheva District Court Judge Rachel Barkai: "Israel is one of the few countries in the world that extends humanitarian medical aid to citizens of other countries, as we are now witnessing the aid offered to earthquake victims in Haiti." This was the preface to the judge's decision to reject the petition of Atsem Hamdan, a Gaza resident, who sought a permit to receive urgent medical treatment at a Palestinian hospital in East Jerusalem.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Technical difficulties halt work on Gaza-Egypt wall
Work on the Gaza-Egypt steel barrier, which has been going on with US assistance, has been halted in some places due to technical difficulties, an Egyptian newspaper says. According to workers, the border area's geological characteristics are hindering work and preventing construction teams from laying steel plates, Al-Masry Al-Youm reported on Friday.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.
Retaliation
Report: Projectile lands in western Negev, no injuries
Israel Radio reported a projectile landing in western the Negev late on Friday, with no injuries or structural damages. The report said the projectile was launched from Gaza, but no Palestinian faction operating in the Strip claimed the attack.
On Friday morning Israeli forces aimed artillery fire at a group of what a spokesman called "armed men detonating an explosive device" near the border wall, and fired in their direction. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported two men were killed in the attack but the report remained unconfirmed as of Saturday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Racism / Discrimination
Israel upholds legality of Jews-only housing complex in Jaffa
The Tel Aviv District Court rejected a petition this week against a decision to lease land in Jaffa's Ajami neighborhood for the exclusive use of members of the religious Zionist community ... The petitioners said the decision was discriminatory, because it would exclude anyone other than members of the religious Zionist community from purchasing an apartment in the complex, which is situated in a neighborhood where a majority of the residents are Arab. This is especially unfair given the shortage of available housing in the neighborhood, they argued.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Political developments / Diplomacy
Clinton: 'Blair and Mitchell to intensify efforts to resume Middle East talks'
U.S. Secretary-of State, Hilary Clinton, stated Friday that U.S. Middle East Peace Envoy, George Mitchell, and Middle East Envoy, Tony Blair, will intensify their efforts to ensure the resumption of the stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Following talks with Blair, Clinton said that the British official, as a representative of the Quartet Committee, would intensify his efforts with Mitchell in order to boost the chances of peace talks. She added that the United States is committed to a two-state solution....
http://imemc.org/index.php?
PA scandal
Al Aqsa TV yet to air PA sex scandal tape
The Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV has yet to air a videotape Israeli Channel 10 TV released Tuesday, which allegedly reveals Palestinian Authority corruption in a sex scandal tape. On Thursday, Fatah official in charge of Jerusalem affairs Hatim Abdul Qader was quoted praising de facto government Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh for his decision not to air the videotape, though it was not clear whether the decision to avoid airing the clip came directly from the Hamas leader.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Abbas lashes out at 'Israeli attacks' against him
While speaking on the issue of resuming peace talks under the auspices of an American plan, Abbas referred to "Israel’s attack" on him via a media interest in hundreds of leaked document and a sex tape allegedly used in a corruption scandal involving land sales of Palestinian property to Zionist Israelis. Abbas added that the attacks were not all in relation to the corruption files, noting the Israeli newspaper Israel Today quoted Israeli Minister of Infrastructure Uzi Landao last week saying, “There is no difference between former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and president Abbas since both had the same goal of destroying Israel.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Abbas aide in sex tape scandal urged to quit (AP)
RAMALLAH, West Bank — As sex tapes go, it's fairly tame — a man gets undressed in a bedroom, slides under the covers, plumps the pillows and calls to a woman to join him. But the man is a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and a former Palestinian intelligence official who secretly recorded the scene alleges the aide tried to trade his influence for sex.
http://www.google.com/
A stink bomb / Uri Avnery
This week the Netanyahu government let off a stink bomb under the chair of Mahmoud Abbas. For months now, Abbas has angered the prime minister ... Now Netanyahu has decided to teach Abbas a lesson. For three days, day after day and program after program, Channel 10 (Israel’s second biggest TV station) has broadcast shocking “disclosures” about financial and sexual scandals at the top of the Palestinian Authority.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Husseini must resign / Nasser Laham
Adults and children alike were left speechless when they saw what aired on Israel's Channel 10 Monday. How could parents explain to their kids, with any credibility, what they were witnessing? The shock was enormous. No matter what pain it causes him personally, chief of staff Rafik Al-Husseini must resign immediately for the sake of the country and its interests.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Right of reply / Fahmi Shabana
Concerning what was published by Ma'an News Agency's chief editor, Nasser Laham, in regard to the latest corruption scandal ["Husseini must resign," 11 February 2010], I would like to offer the following response
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Other news
Palestinian student senates threaten action over transfer of grants
The Union of Student Senates in Palestinian universities will take steps to ensure the closure of West Bank universities if demands for the retention of student grants, rather than a transition to loans, are not met by the Ministry of Education.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Art craft, industrial zone underway in Tulkarem
An agreement to construct an art craft and industrial zone in the West Bank city of Tulkarem was signed on Saturday. Mayor of Tulkarem, Iyad Al-Jallad, said the new zone is intended to centralize factories and small workshops that have cropped up across the city in residential areas, which he said were "an annoyance to residents." The new zone will assist in the creation of jobs, Al-Jallad said,
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Jerusalem Old City wall's tumultuous story makes revamp a chore
Three years ago a stone from the Old City wall in Jerusalem fell into a church school yard next door. Fears that the wall was crumbling spawned a complex project to restore its stones while preserving traces of history left by inscriptions, shells and animals. It turned out later that the stone had fallen from a Jordanian support column rather than the Ottoman wall. But by then the NIS 15 million renovation project was already on its way.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Archaeological findings unveil 1,500-year-old Jerusalem road
Until recently, archaeological excavation was not permitted at the site, as it serves as a crossroad in the Old city, and the entrance into one of the city's most popular markets. However, due to digging in the area carried out by the Jerusalem Development Authority in recent months, the Antiquities Authority was able to excavate to confirm the map's findings. "It is beautiful to see how David Street, one of today's busiest streets, is actually upholding the ancient route of a road that existed 1,500 years ago," said the supervising archaeologist Dr. Ofer Shion.
ttp://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Supreme Court: Terror suspects cannot be remanded in absentia
A law allowing courts to remand people suspected of security offenses in absentia contravenes the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty, and is therefore unconstitutional, a nine-justice panel of the Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Analysis / Opinion / Human interest
Palestinian journalists scoff at 'farcical elections' / Khalid Amayreh
Independent and professional journalists throughout Occupied Palestine are scoffing at the "Palestine Journalists Syndicate" journalists’ union elections which took place on Saturday, 6 February, under the aegis of the Fatah organization, describing the event as a "farce" and "fraud."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israel needs Goldstone / Bradley Burston
[Part two of Fear of peace will be the death of Israel ] ...This is about the lengths we will go, and the depths, in order to protect what we so desperately need to believe about ourselves. This is about how many others we will need to blame, vilify, assault, scapegoat and smear, before we actually take one wholly honest long look in the mirror. This is about the war we made in Gaza, and what it did to Israel. This is about how Israel's conduct of the war has done more damage to the Jewish state than all the thousands and thousands of Palestinian rockets and mortar shells put together.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Is Israeli society strong enough to face the future? / Aluf Benn
At the base of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's worldview is profound anxiety over Israel's future and its fortitude in the face of the threats surrounding it. Netanyahu is afraid that if Israelis are pressed hard enough, they will simply get up and flee, especially if presented with the material temptations of American society and its satellites ... But the hard question relates to processes of social change in Israel: How will the program accommodate ultra-Orthodox and Arab youth, who together will be a majority in their age group within a few years? They are raised on other narratives, non-Zionist ones, and Netanyahu's program is designed to present the "core of the Zionist story."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Playing the honor card / Amnon Toledano
One characteristic of racism is the use of one aspect of a culture as if it were its only feature, so that everyone belonging to the culture is seen as one-dimensional, possessing only this quality. This is how anti-Semites depicted Jews, as excelling in trade, as though they were motivated solely by greed. Many Israeli politicians have used the element of honor in Arab or Muslim culture, and turned it into the dominant and nearly sole characteristic of any Arab or Muslim, no matter who he is. According to this stereotype, it is the only thing that interests them ... The Arab mentality theory also causes Israeli leaders, with Netanyahu in the lead, to think that these same empty gestures will make Palestinian leaders ignore the facts on the ground - building in the settlements and heavy losses by the Palestinians, because after all the only thing that interests them is their honor.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
A retractionist-retentionist discourse / Daniel Levy
...There are any number of game-changing options to consider. Maybe it is possible to engage Hamas (as is happening in the ongoing Shalit negotiations), to lift the Gaza siege, and to accept Palestinian unity instead of vetoing it, so as to facilitate an empowered negotiating and implementing address. After all, Israel spoke to the PLO before its charter was amended, and the United States engaged Sunni ex-insurgents in Iraq and is encouraging dialogue with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Alternatively, Israel could encourage internationalization of the conflict, handing the territories over to an international protectorate and international forces....
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Brainwashing at work
Below a news item about one of those proliferating official recruitment activities for high school students in Israel. Here the speaker is Avigdor Kahalani, a former senior military officer, Knesset member, government minister, and later head of the educational branch of the Ministry of Defence and of the "The Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers". As often happens, the English item on the Ha'aretz site is quite diluted. The Hebrew version also mentions that the applauding crowd responded to the speech with shouts of "death to the Arabs".
http://groups.google.com/
Our weekend outing / Doron Rosenblum
Where: The Golan Heights, Ein Mokesh and Hermon Land . What to see: On the Golan Heights we drive between basalt boulders along mine fields set off by rusty fences and perforated warning signs, amid huge army bases. We look for the vineyards and the horses, but find mainly IDF outposts, trenches and rock-strewn firing ranges, dotted with mines ... Where: Picnic between Na'alin and Bil'in. Why: Carpets of cyclamens, oak trees, two types of rockrose - sage leaf and hairy - hummingbirds, humming of army radios, prickly burnet in the spring and prickly gatherings of demonstrators and soldiers in every season of the year. And besides, it's close.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Sunset on the highway, not a day at the sea / JB
I am a young Palestinian Christian woman in my early twenties. I was excited to receive my holiday travel permit, allowing me to visit lands occupied by the military in 1967, and Palestinian areas in Israel. Most other months of the year I am not allowed to go into Jerusalem, or to Yaffa or Haifa or Nazareth, because I am a Palestinian.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Films / Books
Twilight Zone: All that remains / Gideon Levy
This week I watched the film whose full title is: "The Time that Remains: Chronicles of a Present Absentee," a name that recalls, perhaps unintentionally, "All That Remains," the monumental work by historian Walid Khalidi about the 418 lost Palestinian villages. It is a very sad movie, despite being full of humor, bitter as that humor may be. It is also a very beautiful film, a careful aesthetic evident in every image and detail; a magnificent dance of occupation, a captivating dance of death, a feast for the eyes that are supposed to shed a tear.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Joe Sacco's Footnotes in Gaza: A thin black line / Amira Hass
"It is quite evident that the Israelis do not wish to have United Nations observers circulating in the Strip and reporting upon the actions they are taking against the civilian populace. From the reports we receive from UNRWA personnel and from the very few incidents that have been witnessed by observers, I have come to the conclusion that the treatment of civilians is unwarrantedly rough and that a good number of persons have been shot down in cold blood for no apparent reason."
These words were written not in the 2009 Goldstone report, but in a letter dated November 13, 1956 - eight days after the end of the Sinai Campaign and five days after Israel, under pressure from the United States and the Soviet Union, announced its readiness to retreat.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Book review: The root of return / Steven Silber
Zeal for Zion: Christians, Jews, and the Idea of the Promised Land, by Shalom Goldman. ...His main focus is on Christian Zionism -- the belief among Christians that the Jews have a religious claim to the Holy Land. In short, Goldman, a professor of Hebrew and Middle Eastern studies at Emory University, says that "Jewish Zionism would not have succeeded without the help of Christian Zionism." Zionism, he writes, was the "Jewish implementation of an idea that had been developing in Christian circles for more than 300 years."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Iraq
Friday: 19 Iraqis killed, 53 wounded
Excerpt: At least 19 Iraqis were killed and 53 more were wounded in new attacks. Many casualties resulted from a bombing near Najaf. An incident involving U.S. and Iraqi forces left as many 10 dead near the Iranian border as well. Also, campaign season opened today across Iraq. Campaigning for next month’s national election officially began today. The election could resolve several problems that Iraq has left hanging until a new parliament is chosen; however, if elections are found to be faulty, it could just as easily increase sectarian violence instead.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Anti-Baath campaign a spur to Iraq Shiite voters
But some experts call claims that the former Baath Party of Saddam Hussein is resurgent an election ploy. They say the two main Shiite blocs feared a public swing away from sectarian politics.
http://www.latimes.com/news/
Other Mideast
Yemen Shi'ite rebels deny assassination bid (Reuters)
* Rebels deny shooting at official on Friday * Saudi Arabia demands rebels free 5 Saudis within 48 hours * One person killed during protest in south Yemen
http://www.alertnet.org/
Salafis till fertile ground in Yemen
From the bedraggled southern outskirts of Sana’a, Sheikh Mohammed Ibn Saleh and his fellow proselytisers fan across Yemen to preach the merits of their austere, but increasingly popular, version of Islam, known as Salafism. Their exhortations are often at odds with many of the country’s diverse range of Muslims, whose various sects of Sunnis and Shiites have prided themselves on coexisting peacefully for over a millennium.
http://www.thenational.ae/
U.S., other world news
Thousands protest against Mohammad caricature in Oslo (Reuters)
Around 2,000 people protested in Oslo on Friday over the printing of a caricature of the Prophet Mohammad as a pig by a Norwegian newspaper. Tabloid Dagbladet printed a photo of the cartoon on Feb. 3 to illustrate a front-page story describing how the Facebook page of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) linked to pages featuring caricatures of the Prophet. The links were posted by participants to the Facebook group and removed by PST.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Obama names envoy to the Muslim world
U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday he was naming a special envoy to a top Islamic body to further Washington's cooperation with the Muslim world. Obama told a U.S.-Islamic World Forum in the Qatari capital Doha in a recorded video message that he was naming White House official Rashad Hussain as special envoy to the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/
Coalition forces surround Taliban's Helmand stronghold
KABUL // Some 15,000 US, British and Afghan troops have encircled the small town of Marjah, deep in southern Afghanistan, and were ready yesterday to storm the defences of the Taliban’s last big stronghold in Helmand province. For days now the onslaught has been expected, said to be the biggest ever coalition operation in the nine-year war.
http://www.thenational.ae/
www.TheHeadlines.org
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