LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“If I do not represent the entire council, I am nothing. I need to be seen to represent a united council and a united League of Arab States.”
Lakhdar Brahimi, U.N. international envoy, urging a unified front in pressuring the Syrian regime to step down to halt violence.
Article, 1A
Leader of militant Hamas to step down
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The supreme leader of the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas has decided to step down, clearing the way for the movement to choose a new head for the first time in more than 15 years, two senior officials said Monday.
Khaled Mashaal told a recent meeting of Hamas’ leadership in Cairo that he would not run in forthcoming elections for the top position, said Izzat Risheq, a confidant of Mashaal who attended the gathering. Moussa Abu Marzouk, Mashaal’s deputy, also confirmed the decision.
Mashaal will remain in his post until a new leader is chosen, most likely by the end of the year.
Hamas officials said the leadership change would not affect its confrontational approach to Israel. The group’s founding charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.
Mashaal has led Hamas since 1996. The group has been branded a terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S. and the EU.
Taliban claims video of base attack
KABUL - The Taliban published a video Monday that they say shows insurgents preparing for the brazen attack on a major NATO base earlier this month, just as NATO forces released data showing that insurgent attacks decreased in August.
In the Sept. 14 attack on Camp Bastion in Helmand province, 15 insurgents dressed in U.S. Army uniforms breached the base’s perimeter fence then used automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers to kill two Marines and destroy six fighter jets. All but one of the assailants were killed in the fighting.
The Taliban video shows men wearing U.S. Army uniforms as they practice cutting through a chain-link fence and charging through the opening. One man indicates targets with a pointer and a whiteboard showing drawings of planes and fortifications.
The footage’s authenticity could not be verified. Nothing in the video indicates when or where it was filmed.
The NATO statistics showed that insurgent attacks decreased 9 percent in August, compared with the same month last year - continuing a falloff that started in July after a spike in attacks in May and June.
Missiles kill 5 rebels, Pakistan says
ISLAMABAD - A pair of missiles fired from an unmanned American spy aircraft slammed into a militant hideout in northwestern Pakistan on Monday evening, killing five militants, said Pakistani intelligence officials.
The two officials said missiles from the drone aircraft hit the village of Dawar Musaki in the North Waziristan region, which borders Afghanistan to the west. The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Some of the dead were believed to be foreign fighters but the officials did not know how many or where they were from.
The CIA’s drone program is extremely contentious in Pakistan where residents view it as an affront to their sovereignty and contend it often results in civilian deaths. Washington says the program is vital to combating militants.
Court OKs extraditing terror suspect
LONDON - A European court ruled Monday that Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri can be extradited to the United States to face terrorism charges, including purportedly trying to set up an al-Qaida training camp in rural Oregon.
The decision ends a long-running legal battle and means that al-Masri, considered one of Britain’s most notorious extremists, could be deported within weeks along with four other terrorism suspects in Britain.
Al-Masri and the others had argued before the European Court of Human Rights that they could face prison conditions and jail terms in the U.S. that would expose them to “torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” in breach of the European human rights code.
In April, the Strasbourg, France-based court rejected those claims. Al-Masri and the four others lodged an appeal, but on Monday the court, without giving a reason, refused to hear it.
The suspects, who are accused of crimes such as raising funds for terrorists, could face life sentences in a maximum security prison.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 09/25/2012