Spanish warship rescues French hostage from pirates

 

Troops from a Spanish warship stormed a pirate skiff in the Gulf of Aden Saturday and rescued a French hostage missing from her yacht but found no trace of her husband, the EU anti-piracy mission said. As a helicopter kept watch overhead, naval commandos in a fast launch fired on the skiff to disable its engine. The boat sank, but the hostage was rescued and seven pirates were arrested unharmed, the Spanish defence ministry said. "She was the only hostage on board the skiff. Her husband was not on board," EU naval spokesman Captain Paul Gelly told AFP, confirming the rescued hostage was Evelyne Colombo, wife and crewmate of missing sailor Christian Colombo. "She is safe and sound," he said, explaining that Colombo and the detained pirates are now on board the Spanish ship. A German warship, the FGS Bayern, found the couple's catamaran the Tribal Kat, adrift in waters off Yemen on Thursday. There was no-one on board and the EU Atalanta naval command launched an air and sea search for the attackers. French officials said there were signs of a struggle on board the yacht, which was towed to Djibouti to be studied by agents from the DGSE spy agency. "It was like searching for a needle in a haystack," Gelly said. "Our priority was to search for any vessel that might have been leaving the area and heading for the coast of Somalia." The French frigate Surcouf detected a suspect vessel and on Saturday the Spanish warship SPS Galicia chased it down. The Spanish defence ministry said when the skiff ignored an order to stop, the commander of the Galicia ordered his men to open fire. "At that time, it was discovered that they had a hostage on board, who was a woman," it said. "The amphibious ship proceeded to intercept the pirate vessel. The operation involved a helicopter and naval warfare team, who fired on the engine of the boat, to disable it." Christian Colombo is a former French navy crewman and the couple were experienced sailors who wanted to see the world and were passing through the Gulf of Aden en route for the Indian Ocean and eventually Thailand. "They knew they were taking a risk and everyone advised them not to go," a relative told AFP. One of the couple's daughters, Emilie, posted a message of concern on the blog they were keeping of their high seas adventure. "The last I heard from Christian was around a month ago. He was south of Egypt and heading for Malaysia," said the skipper's friend Gerard Navarin, who once helped him set a catamaran speed record off Toulon. The waters between Yemen and Somalia are notorious for attacks by pirate gangs, and French yachts have been among the vessels seized in the past. A second yacht went missing at around the same time as the Tribal Kat. Somali pirates frequently seize crew from merchant ships and pleasure craft in the dangerous waters off the conflict-ravaged Horn of Africa and have taken millions of dollars in ransom for their release. According to the watchdog Ecoterra, at least 50 vessels and at least 528 hostages are being held by Somali pirates, despite constant patrols by warships from several world powers. A French couple was kidnapped from a yacht in September 2008 as it headed through the Gulf of Aden. A ransom was paid, but French commandos later ambushed the pirates, killed one, captured six more and recovered the cash. In April 2009, another French yacht was seized. This time special forces troops intervened when the boat was still at sea. In the ensuing gunbattle a French bullet accidentally killed the hostage skipper. In addition, a French DGSE agent is thought to have been held hostage by Islamist militants in the Somali capital since July 2009

Hague court jails ex-Yugoslav army general

 

highest-ranking officer of the former Yugoslav army has been jailed for 27 years by the UN tribunal at The Hague for war crimes. General Momcilo Perisic, who served as chief of staff of the Yugoslav army during the Balkans conflict, was found responsble for murder, persecution and attacks on civilians in Bosnia and Croatia in the 1990s. The tribunal found Perisic, 67, guilty of helping Serb troops plan and carry out war crimes, including the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica and of the 42 month-long siege of Sarajevo. Perisic was also convicted of failing to punish his subordinates for their crimes of murder, attacks on civilians, and injuring and wounding civilians during rocket attacks on Zagreb in Croatia. He was also found guilty of securing financial and logistical support for Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia. Criminally responsible "Momcilo Perisic was found criminally responsible for aiding and abetting murder, inhumane acts, attacks on civilians and persecution on political, racial or religious grounds in Sarajevo and Srebrenica," Justice Bakone Moloto said. Perisic becomes the first Belgrade official to be convicted for Serbia's role in the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, a role the regime in Serbia has always staunchly denied. The court also found Perisic bore command responsibility for the shelling of Zagreb in 1995. The tribunal found evidence that Perisic had had a "collaborative relationship" with Bosnian Serb military commander General Ratko Mladic, and "substantially aided his operations". Perisic had kept General Mladic on the Yugoslav Army payroll list, and personally signed Mladic's promotion to the rank of colonel general in 1994. Mladic is currently on trial at The Hague on charges of crimes including genocide. But the tribunal did not find evidence that Perisic had "exercised effective control" over Mladic or any other Yugoslav Army officer serving in the Bosnian Serb army. Mladic has been indicted for genocide by the Yugoslavia tribunal and was arrested in May this year.

Freed Egyptians tell of torture in Libyan jails

 

With drawn and gaunt faces, some 30 Egyptians holed up in a modest Libyan hotel speak of the incarceration and torture they suffered at the hands of Muammar Gaddafi’s loyalists. “They told me, ‘You Egyptians, you caused problems in your country, and now you have come to destroy ours’,” said Mahmud Abu Zeid, referring to the popular uprising that ousted neighbouring Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak in February. “They wanted me to say that I was armed and had encouraged Libyans to rise up against Gaddafi,” he said. The 31-year-old said he was the first Egyptian to have been jailed in Abu Slim, a district of Tripoli that saw some of the fiercest fighting and worst atrocities before Gaddafi lost his grip on the capital late last month. Abu Zeid said the Gaddafi loyalists forced the Egyptians to record confessions that they had triggered the revolt against his regime, before they were eventually freed by revolutionary fighters. “For five months, they gave electric shocks to my son. I was so weak that I was unable to walk, so they dragged me like a sack,” he said, adding, “I ended up recording their message.” Under pressure he “confessed” to having used guns to encourage Libyans to call for the ouster of Gaddafi, he said, adding however that the Libyans who heard the recordings were not fooled. Abu Zeid’s account tallied with that of other refugees at the hotel in Benghazi, the rebellion’s stronghold in eastern Libya, some 600 kilometres (370 miles) from their homeland. “They gave out bread by kicking it at us, and we had a litre (two pints) of water to be shared among a dozen prisoners,” said another Egyptian man who added that he had been shot twice in the leg. It was still difficult for him to walk. Like him, other men in the hotel showed scars and burn marks on their backs they said were the result of torture. Tamer Rad, an Egyptian labourer who worked in Libya for two years, said he had been forced to to drink urine when he asked for water. “I was really thirsty. I asked for water, crying. They told me ‘You want to drink? Here!’ And they poured urine into my mouth. I was handcuffed, I could not resist so I had to drink it,” he said. The 26-year-old said the Egyptians had been stuck in Benghazi for several days and that he now had only one thought — of leaving Libya and returning to Egypt. The group said they fled to Benghazi after being freed on August 21 when anti-Gaddafi fighters broke open several jails as they overran Tripoli. And they had been unable to move on because, they said, the Gaddafi loyalists burned their travel documents and they are unable to contact the Egyptian embassy in Libya. On Monday, the Egyptian foreign ministry said the men would be repatriated on the same day, explaining that they had been forced to stay in Libya after the fall of the regime due to “insecurity on the roads” and the closure of airports.

20 people, including a senior army officer, were killed on Wednesday when two blasts were detonated by separate suicide bombers in southwest Pakistan

At least 20 people, including a senior army officer, were killed on Wednesday when two blasts were detonated by separate suicide bombers in southwest Pakistan, police officials said.

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Reuters

A police officer assisted an injured man at the site of a double suicide bombing in Quetta, Pakistan, on Wednesday.

The attackers targeted the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force commanded by army officers, stationed in Quetta. At least 30 people were injured in the explosions.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but suspicion immediately fell on Al Qaeda and Taliban militants . On Monday, Pakistani officials announced the arrest of a senior Al Qaeda leader, Younis al-Mauritani from Quetta. The operation was conducted by Inter-Services Intelligence, the country’s intelligence organization, and the Frontier Corps, according to an army spokesman.

The attack Wednesday morning in Quetta took place in a high-security neighborhood where several government offices and residences of high-ranking government officials are located.

The attackers targeted the house of Brig. Farrukh Shehzad, the deputy inspector general of the Frontier Corps. One bomber detonated his vehicle outside the house of the officer, a witness told AAJ TV, a private television news channel.

Soon after the first attack, another attacker entered the house on foot and started firing before detonating his explosives. Brigadier Shehzad was wounded and his wife was killed, according to initial local news reports. A colonel, Khalid Masood, was also killed in the attack.

Local television networks broadcast images of charred vehicles as ambulances ferried the wounded to nearby hospitals. The house of the wounded brigadier was badly damaged.

Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, has a history of sectarian and nationalist violence. Al Qaeda leaders and Taliban militants are also thought to have found a safe haven in the city and the province

Heavy gunfire in central, north Syria; 11 killed

 

Syrian security forces unleashed a barrage of gunfire on Wednesday, killing at least 11 people and leaving thousands cowering in their homes as President Bashar Assad's troops kept up the government's assault on a 6-month-old uprising, activists and witnesses said. Nine of the dead were in Homs, a hotbed of opposition to Assad's autocratic regime. Two others were shot dead during raids in Sarameen, in northern Syria. For days, security forces have been pursuing activists and anti-government protesters in Homs, part of a ferocious crackdown on the most serious challenge to the 40-year Assad dynasty. The UN says more than 2,200 people have died in nearly six months of protests. "All through the night, there was shooting. The gunfire didn't stop," a resident of the city said by phone on Wednesday. "I can't tell exactly what is going on because it's dangerous to go out." Omar Idilbi, a spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees, an activist network, said security forces simultaneously stormed several districts in the old part of the city, including the Bab Dreib, Bab Houd and the Bayada neighborhoods. Nine people were confirmed dead in ongoing shooting in those areas, the LCC said. The London-based Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists across the country, said 10 were killed. Homs, Syria's third-largest city, has seen some of the largest anti-regime protests in Syria over the past months, despite repeated crackdowns. On Tuesday, security forces opened fire from a checkpoint in Rastan, just north of Homs, killing two people, including a 15-year-old boy, activists said. They said five unidentified corpses, including that of a woman, also were found dumped around the city centre.

Qaddafi Reports Add to Libyan Confusion

 

In another confusing round of claims and counterclaims by the Libyan rebels, a spokesman for their most powerful militia commander said Wednesday that rebel forces had cornered Libya’s fugitive leader, Col. Muammar Qaddafi, a report dismissed by a spokesman for the transitional government’s military. The claim came as rebel officials as well as officials in neighboring Niger said Colonel Qaddafi had not fled into Niger, nor had two of his most powerful sons, contrary to speculation after news reports said 200 armed vehicles or more headed into the country recently. On Tuesday, officials within Niger and some independent witnesses said that there was no such convoy, while confirming that some smaller number of Libyan vehicles had entered in recent days, and the State Department said that at least a dozen senior members of the Qaddafi government had fled to Niger. On Wednesday, Mohamed Bazoum, Nigerien foreign minister, told French Radio: “There’s no question that some people arrived. But it wasn’t at all of the order of magnitude that people have said. Two hundred vehicles, that’s inconceivable. Ten cars, maximum.” The Associated Press quoted a spokesman for Niger’s president as saying that one was Colonel Qaddafi’s security chief, Mansour Dao. The Wednesday claim that the fugitive leader was cornered came from Anis Sharif, the spokesman for Abdel Hakim Belhaj, who is the chairman of the Tripoli Military Committee and the leader of one of the biggest rebel militias. Mr. Sharif said a variety of rebel units had converged on an area in the desert where they had confirmed the presence of the leader. “We are waiting for the right moment to move in and in the meantime we are tracking his movements,” Mr. Sharif said. “He doesn’t have a very strong protection with him, not as much protection as we had expected. He only moves at night to avoid NATO air strikes.” Mr. Sharif declined to say where the location was, other than in the Sahara desert, which occupies more than half of the southern part of the country. He said that the rebel forces had advanced to within 40 miles of his location and had surrounded the area. “He cannot escape,” he said, adding he expected rebels to move in soon. “It’s up to the leaders on the ground who will make their move when it’s time.” Abdulrahman Busin, the military press liaison, said that the reports of Colonel Qaddafi being surrounded were rumors, and that there were also unconfirmed reports that he was in yet another convoy moving toward the remote Niger border. Niger also borders Burkina Faso, another landlocked Saharan country, which had previously announced that it would grant asylum to Colonel Qaddafi. On Tuesday however, according to the Associated Press, Burkina Faso officials said he would be arrested if he arrived there.

NIGER'S FOREIGN MINISTER CLAIMS GADDAFI WAS NOT ON CONVOY

 

Neither Gaddafi nor any of his sons were on the convoy that arrived in Niger from Libya. The statement was made by Niger Foreign Minister, Mohammed Bazoum, on the microphones of Al Arabiya.& 13; The news was leaked by sources of the National Transational Council, according to which the 200-250 vehicle convoy that crossed the Fezzan desert to reach the ciy of Agadez, escorted by local security forces, carried an enormous load of gold and cash as well as several members of Gaddafi's family. "None of this is true", Bazoum said, cutting short, "it isn't Gaddafi and nor do I think that the convoy was as large as reported". In his opinion, the convoy carried former officials of Gaddafi's regime, although of intermediate ranking: this therefore also appears to deny the presence on the convoy of Mansour Daw, the chief of the Colonel's security forces. & 13; Also France, the former colonial power of the sub-Saharan Country, denied rumors concerning Gaddafi: "We have no information enabling us to think that Colonel Gaddafi is on that convoy", reiterated a spokesperson of the Elysee

MI6 saved Saif Gaddafi from death threat

 

British intelligence and Scotland Yard were involved in an international operation to protect Saif al-Islam, the son of Muammar Gaddafi, from an Islamist plot to assassinate him on British soil, secret files discovered by The Independent have revealed. The British intelligence services suspected that the plot was linked to Qatar, currently the West's foremost Arab ally against the Libyan regime. MI6 and the SAS are now involved in the hunt for Saif, along with other members of the Gaddafi family who remain elusive in the endgame of the Libyan civil war. The dictator's son has been condemned by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, for his part in the brutal crackdown which followed the February revolution and for which he faces war-crimes charges. But, in the past, MI6 urgently contacted its French counterparts after Libyan authorities reported that a terrorist cell linked to the Gulf state of Qatar was planning the attack from Paris. The French told UK officials at the time that "the Qatari Interior Minister was known to be an Islamist extremist sympathiser".

Libya rebels close in on Kadafi stronghold

 

Rebel forces were closing in Sunday on a strategic town still loyal to longtime Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi amid reports that negotiations for the town's surrender had broken down. Abdullah Kanshil, a rebel negotiator, told reporters Sunday that talks meant to craft a nonviolent surrender of the desert town of Bani Walid had failed. He said the next step was in the hands of field commanders. The focus in the six-month civil war has shifted to Bani Walid, a Kadafi stronghold about 90 miles southeast of Tripoli, the capital. Rebel forces captured Tripoli last month, sending Kadafi and his family on the run. However, Libya's rebel forces have yet to assert control over the entire nation. That fact has slowed progress in forming a new government in Tripoli and instilling confidence in a nervous and war-weary population. Rebel forces have been massing outside Bani Walid, in some cases reportedly as close as 10 miles from the town center. Libya's interim rulers have issued an ultimatum giving Kadafi strongholds — including Bani Walid and the coastal city of Surt, Kadafi's birthplace — until Saturday to surrender or face an all-out assault. But some rebel spokesmen have given mixed messages, declaring that an attack on Bani Walid could begin anytime. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, meantime, has been bombing targets in and around Bani Walid and Surt, along with several Kadafi strongholds in southern Libya. From his hiding place, Kadafi has publicly urged his followers to resist the rebel onslaught until the end. His whereabouts and those of several of his sons remained publicly unknown. His wife, daughter, two sons and several grandchildren have fled to Algeria. Rebel official say capturing or killing Kadafi is important to convince Libyans that the longtime leader is never returning to power.

Russia says former Libya govt should help reconciliation

 

Members of Libya's former government should participate in the country's reconciliation process, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday, weighing in on the future of a country where it has billions of dollars in contracts at stake. "Those political, ethnic and tribal forces which represented former leaders of the Libyan government unconditionally should be a part of the process of national reconciliation," Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as telling a news conference with his Brazilian counterpart Antonio Patriota. Russia had billions of dollars worth of arms, energy and construction deals under deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi, and Moscow wants to make sure they are not lost during the transition to power by Libya's interim council. Moscow has invited members of the National Transitional Council to discuss Russian contracts in the country stricken by six-months of civil war, an initiative Lavrov said had been received with some interest. "Now there is interest, which was expressed by representatives of the National Transitional Council, regarding sending here those members of the structure, who are responsible for economic affairs," he said. Russia's top oil and gas producers Gazprom , Gazprom Neft and Tatneft had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in exploration in Libya before suspending operations when an uprising broke out earlier this year against Gaddafi's rule. Russia said it recognised Libya's NTC as the legitimate authority in Libya on Sept. 1 after repeatedly accusing NATO forces carrying out airstrikes as overstepping their mandate and siding with anti-Gaddafi forces in a civil war. Russia's arms exporting monopoly Rosoboronexport has also said that it may have lost some $4 billion in existing and potential arms deals with Gaddafi's government. Aram Shegunts, director general of the Russia-Libya Business Council, told Reuters in August that Russian energy firms are likely to be barred from resuming work in Libya after NATO-backed rebels ousted Gaddafi.