PERSIAN GULF

U.S. REPORTS DEATH OF FIVE SOLDIERS

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Five American soldiers have been killed in Iraq, including three killed yesterday north of Baghdad, the American military said.

An American statement said the three members of Multinational Division Baghdad died yesterday afternoon in a roadside bombing, but it did not give a precise location. Another soldier assigned to the 2/28th Brigade Combat Team died Monday of wounds suffered the day before in fighting in Anbar province west of the capital, the military said. A soldier assigned to the 130th Engineer Brigade was killed Sunday when his vehicle was hit by a blast near Balad, America reported.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

JUDGE INDICTS 29 PEOPLE IN MADRID BOMBINGS

MADRID, Spain – A Spanish judge issued the first indictments in the 2004 Madrid train bombings, charging 29 people yesterday with murder, terrorism, or other crimes after a probe that uncovered a hornet’s nest of Islamic terrorism but no clear link to Al Qaeda.

In a minutely detailed indictment spanning 1,471 pages, Juan del Olmo, the investigative magistrate spearheading the probe, described the birth and workings of a cell of longtime residents, most of them from Morocco and Syria.

Inspired by extremist Islamic doctrine, they are said to have risen up against their adopted homeland to kill 191 people and wound more than 1,700 in the coordinated attacks.

– Associated Press

SOUTH ASIA

SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS AT LEAST 41 IN PAKISTAN

KARACHI, Pakistan – A suicide attacker detonated a bomb during an outdoor Sunni Muslim prayer service yesterday, killing at least 41 people and wounding dozens. In the mayhem that followed, angry mobs torched cars and hurled rocks at police, who fired warning shots in the air.The attacker blew himself up near leaders of the Sunni Tehrik religious group, which helped organize the prayer service at a downtown Karachi park, police chief Niaz Siddiqui said.

President Musharraf condemned the attack and ordered increased security at religious sites, adding that the culprits “will not go unpunished,” according to a statement issued on Pakistan’s state-run news agency. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the bombing. Attacks in the past have been linked to simmering Shiite-Sunni Muslim tensions, and most have been blamed on outlawed extremist groups.

– Associated Press

PAKISTANI FIRED FOR REFUSING TO CUT BEARD

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The government of Pakistan yesterday defended a decision to retire an air force pilot who refused to trim his beard for religious reasons. It said that pilots flying at high altitude “can malfunction as a result of beards being too bushy,” mainly because they could interfere with oxygen masks.

It was the latest chronicle in a struggle between the country’s secular-minded majority led by the President Musharraf, who has a moustache, and bearded Islamists, who form the major opposition party in parliament and a minority in the armed forces.

Squadron Leader Mohsin Hayat Ranjha was retired in October and four colleagues grounded for breaking the air force dress code that allows trimmed beards but bars long ones.

– The Daily Telegraph

CENTRAL ASIA

ROCKETS SLAMS INTO AFGHAN SCHOOLYARD NEAR U.S. BASE

ASADABAD, Afghanistan – A rocket exploded in a schoolyard in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, killing seven students and wounding 34 other people in an attack possibly aimed at a nearby American military base, officials said. Local police commander Mohammed Hasan accused the Taliban of targeting the boys school in the town of Asadabad in Kunar province. But a purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammed Yousaf, denied involvement.

– Associated Press