CENTRAL ASIA

3 KILLED AS DEMONSTRATORS CLASH WITH SECURITY FORCES

Protesters angered at President Karzai’s sacking of a warlord governor in the west of the country ransacked U.N. compounds and clashed with security forces yesterday, leaving as many as three people dead and dozens wounded, including three American troops who were hit with stones.

Interior Minister spokesman Latfullah Mashal said there were no deaths.

The American-backed interim leader, facing a fresh security crisis ahead of October 9 elections that already are threatened by Taliban terrorists, denounced the rioting and said he would deal with it “strongly.”

Angry protestors took to the streets after Saturday’s announcement that Governor Ismail Khan, the regional strongman, had been “promoted” to a Cabinet post in the capital.

Mobs chanting slogans against the government and in favor of Mr. Khan turned their wrath on the U.N., storming and looting two of its compounds and forcing its staff to flee to an American military base.

At least one U.N. vehicle and a guard house were set ablaze, spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said.

The American soldiers were injured by rocks as they helped evacuate dozens of U.N. staff and relief workers to their small base in the city, the American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, said.

– Associated Press

EASTERN EUROPE

EX-POLICEMAN ‘MASTERMINDED’ TERROR SIEGE

INGUSHETIA, Russia – A police sergeant from Ingushetia who disappeared six years ago is accused of being among the ringleaders of the Beslan siege. Officials of the republic’s interior ministry believe that Ali Taziyev, who worked for Ingushetia’s external security division protecting government officials, has turned into a ruthless killer since he was caught up in a kidnapping involving Chechens in 1998.

His family believes that he is dead, but the Interior Ministry claims that he joined the Chechen rebel movement and has taken part in several operations against Russian forces, under the codename Magas.

Officials now suspect that he was one of four commanders who masterminded the attack on School Number 1 in Beslan in which more than 330 people died, more than half of them children.

Musa Apiyev, Ingushetia’s deputy interior minister, said: “The fighter known as Magas, who is the former police officer Taziyev, is connected to a series of terrorist attacks and there is evidence that he participated in the Beslan incident.” Mr. Apiyev said that Magas was the “leader of a bandit formation” based in Ingushetia. The tiny republic, flanked by mountains, has suffered in recent years from the spillover of conflict from neighboring Chechnya.

Police released a photograph that, they say, shows Taziyev earlier this year with Shamil Basayev, the Chechen warlord accused by Moscow of organizing the Beslan attack. The Russian security service, the FSB, has offered a $9.9 million bounty for information leading to the capture of Mr. Basayev and another Chechen leader, Aslan Maskhadov.

– The Daily Telegraph

MIDDLE EAST

SIX EGYPTIANS INDICTED FOR ISRAEL TERROR PLAN

Six Egyptian students were indicted in Beersheba District Court yesterday for allegedly infiltrating into Israel, planning to kidnap IDF soldiers and negotiate their return in exchange for Palestinian Arab prisoners, take control of a military tank, and rob a bank.

The six, students from Cairo, ranging in age from 25 to 30, were caught by border policemen three weeks ago near the southern town of Nitzana along the Egyptian-Israeli border, equipped with knives and reconnaissance equipment.

According to the charge sheet, five of the defendants have been holding military training exercises for the past several years with the aim of perpetrating anti-Israel attacks. The five, police said, worked independently and are not affiliated with other terror organizations.

Between 2001 and 2004, the group, on several occasions, traveled to the Israeli border in order to infiltrate but for different reasons gave up and returned to Cairo. The charge sheet further states that the six planned to rob a bank in Mitzpeh Ramon in order to fund their terrorist activities in the country.

On August 25, close to midnight, the six were spotted by a Border Police patrol moving along the border with Egypt. The force opened chase and caught the six some two miles inside Israel wearing black clothes and carrying knives, binoculars, communication devices, flashlights, and maps of Israel.

-Jerusalem Post

U.S. MAY HELP SYRIA WITH BORDER SECURITY

An American envoy said yesterday that American military experts might work alongside Syrians to stop insurgents crossing the Syrian-Iraqi border to fight coalition forces.

William Burns, the assistant secretary of state for the Near East, also praised Prime Minister Sharon’s contentious plan to withdraw Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip. Mr. Burns’s meetings during recent days with Middle East leaders, including President Mubarak yesterday, have focused on the continuing American led war in Iraq, a souring in American-Syrian relations and the stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian Arab peace process. On Saturday, Mr. Burns urged President Assad to withdraw his country’s 20,000 troops from Lebanon and stop interfering in internal Lebanese affairs, the latest salvo in a series of recent negative American-Syrian dealings. Syrian forces have been in Lebanon since the 1975-90 civil war.

Mr. Burns also urged Syria to do more to stop insurgents crossing its porous border with Iraq to fight American-led coalition forces. Damascus denies supporting such insurgents, but says it can’t fully police its 360-mile border with Iraq.

– Associated Press

SOUTHEAST ASIA

TERRORISTS PLAN TO HIJACK TANKER

Fanatics from the Islamic terror faction blamed for last week’s suicide attack on the Australian Embassy in Indonesia are planning to hijack an oil tanker or freighter and turn it into a floating bomb.

American intelligence has passed on warnings about the plot to launch an attack in the region’s busy shipping lanes to several countries, including Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. They acted after intercepting communications between terrorists from Jemaah Islamiah, a network linked to Al Qaeda.

The terrorists have been discussing plans to seize a vessel using local pirates. The hijacked ship would be wired with explosives and then directed at other vessels, sailed towards a port or used to threaten the narrow and congested sea routes around Indonesia.

Strong indications that Islamic extremists are planning a new wave of bloody attacks against Western targets also emerged in Pakistan, where detained terrorists revealed that the latest Al Qaeda videotape was intended to be a trigger for fresh atrocities.

Prisoners captured in recent weeks have told

their interrogators that last week’s taped message from Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy, was a signal for Al Qaeda cells that were already on standby.

– The Daily Telegraph

SOUTH ASIA

PAKISTAN CLASHES SAID TO LEAVE NINE DEAD

WANA, Pakistan – Pakistani security forces and insurgents clashed yesterday in fighting that killed at least nine people in the mountains near the Afghan border where Al Qaeda-linked fighters are believed to be hiding, military officials said.

Between six and eight insurgents were killed during the fighting in Kani Guram, a mountainous area about 30 miles northeast of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, said Army spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan. He didn’t say whether the dead suspects were foreigners or local tribesmen.

Army officials in the capital of Islamabad, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said three soldiers died in the clashes. Military officials said mortar, rocket, and small arms fire continued throughout the day. One of the officials said bodies of some rebels had been spotted on mountainsides but could not be retrieved because of the fighting. Residents reported hearing heavy gunfire starting at dawn yesterday.

Zafar Ali, who lives in Kani Guram, said helicopter gunships bombed Asman Manza, a nearby mountain peak. Residents also reported seeing at least four military pickup trucks carrying injured people, although it wasn’t clear who the injured were.

– Associated Press