Increase expected in Taliban attacks
The incoming commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan said Monday he expects Taliban militants to launch more suicide attacks this year than in 2006, when militants set off a record 139 such bombings.
Maj. Gen. David M. Rodriguez, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, said military leaders expect an increase in all kinds of attacks as the weather gets warmer.
Rodriguez, who takes command from Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley on Friday, traveled to the eastern province of Paktika next to the Pakistan border on Monday to be briefed by military leaders and the provincial governor.
Paktika Gov. Mohammed Akram Akhpelwak told Rodriguez that Taliban militants have bases across the border in Pakistan and that he hopes U.S. forces can help stop the flow of fighters crossing into Paktika.
Lt. Col. David Accetta, a U.S. military spokesman, said militants would launch more suicide attacks “because nothing else they’ve tried works.”
PESHAWAR, Pakistan
Two die in strike on procession
A second attack targeting Shiite Muslims in as many days hit Pakistan today, as sectarian violence broke out after rockets were fired at a religious procession, leaving two men dead in a northwestern town, police said.
The men who died were Sunni Muslims. At least 19 people were injured, mostly police, said Ghani ur-Rahman, mayor of Hangu. It was not immediately clear if the two deaths were caused by the rocket attack or the ensuing violence.
On Monday, a suicide bomber killed a police officer protecting a Shiite Muslim procession in northwestern Pakistan and rocket fire injured 11 worshippers at a Shiite mosque.
Both attacks have stoked fears of sectarian bloodshed as Ashoura, the holiest day in the Shiite calendar commemorating the 7th century death of Imam Hussein, built toward its climax.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
Ghana to lead African Union
The African Union chose Ghana to head the 53-member bloc Monday, turning aside Sudan’s bid for the second year in a row because of the worsening bloodshed in Darfur.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had opened the summit with a call on African leaders to end the deadlock created by Sudan’s refusal to allow U.N. peacekeepers into the violence-wracked region in western Sudan.
Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu also sharply criticized Sudan, and an aid group said it was pulling out of Darfur because it was unsafe.
Sudanese leaders were adamant that they deserved the rotating chairmanship, but international organizations opposed it, accusing the Sudanese government of taking part in the conflict in Darfur. Rebel leaders in the Sudanese region have said they would stop considering the current AU peacekeeping mission as an honest broker there if Sudan was selected.