CARIBBEAN

ARUBAN POLICE RELEASE FATHER OF DUTCH SUSPECT

ORANJESTAD, Aruba – Aruban police freed the father of a Dutch suspect arrested in the disappearance of an Alabama teenager, the man’s wife said, hours after a party boat disc jockey held in the case was ordered released.

Anita van der Sloot said the most important thing for her now “is that my son comes [out] free.”

No immediate comment was available from officials about the release of Paul van der Sloot, 52, a high-ranking justice official who is studying to be a judge on the Dutch Caribbean island. Earlier yesterday, a judge also ordered police to release Steven Gregory Croes, the party boat disc jockey held in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, saying authorities did not have enough evidence against him, the man’s lawyer said. Mr. Croes, 26, was one of five people held in the case of the 18-year-old young woman last seen in the early hours of May 30. No one has been charged in the case, including the last person reportedly seen with her, 17-year-old Joran van der Sloot. Searches for Ms. Holloway have been fruitless.

– Associated Press

PERSIAN GULF

BOMBS STRIKE POLICE HEADQUARTERS, ARMY BASE, HOSPITAL, KILLING 33

MOSUL, Iraq – Suicide bombers struck a police headquarters, an army base, and a hospital around Mosul yesterday, killing 33 people in a setback to efforts to rebuild the northwestern city’s police force that was riven by intimidation from insurgents seven months ago.

At least 14 people were killed in attacks elsewhere in Iraq, including an American soldier whose convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in Baghdad and six Iraqi soldiers who were gunned down outside their base north of the capital.

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, meanwhile, said it may take as long as 12 years to defeat the insurgents. He said Iraq’s security forces will have to finish the job because American and foreign troops will have left the country by then.

The attacks in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, started early yesterday when a suicide bomber with explosives hidden beneath watermelons in a pickup truck slammed into a downtown police station near a market. U.S. Army Captain Mark Walter said 10 policemen and two civilians were killed.

Less than two hours later, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the parking lot of an Iraqi army base on Mosul’s outskirts, killing 16 people, Captain Walter said. Most of the victims were civilian workers arriving at the site, he said. Of the seven injured, one lost a leg and another was paralyzed from the waist down, the military said.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

U.S. TROOPS ADVANCE INTO SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN

KHAKERAN VALLEY, Afghanistan – Skimming low over the desert in helicopters with guns at the ready, American troops advanced yesterday into southern Afghanistan, seeking to reassert control after a spate of attacks raised fears of an Iraqi-style insurgency here.

The troops hopped from village to village in Khakeran Valley, searching mud huts and wheat fields, meeting village elders and detaining at least two men.

As many as 300 insurgents are believed to be holed up in the valley, about 130 miles northeast of the main southern city of Kandahar, Lieutenant Luke Langer, a platoon leader in the 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, said.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

BULLDOZERS FLATTEN GAZA BUILDINGS IN FIRST MILITARY OPERATION

SHIRAT HAYAM, Gaza Strip – Israeli bulldozers flattened a row of abandoned buildings next to this seaside settlement yesterday, clashing with Jewish settlers in the first military operation aimed at hampering opponents to Israel’s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

In a taste of what could lie ahead, troops scuffled with the young settlers who taunted them, climbed on bulldozers, and lay in front of one to try to prevent the demolitions. One Israeli soldier was punished for siding with the settlers.

Israel plans to uproot all 8,500 Jewish settlers in Gaza, as well as about 500 residents of four small settlements in the West Bank, beginning in mid-August. Settlers strongly oppose the plan, and Israeli officials fear extremists among the opponents could turn violent. Opponents of the pullout had planned on moving into the buildings, former Egyptian resort cottages abandoned after Israel captured Gaza 38 years ago, to reinforce resistance during the withdrawal. The demolished cottages are near a derelict beachfront hotel in Gaza where hundreds of opponents already have barricaded themselves.

– Associated Press