War on terror continues in many places worldwide

Saudi interior minister says many terrorists are drug users

Head of U.N. probe committee: We have evidence against Hariri assassins

Yemeni forces arrest suspects in attacks on residential compound

Morocco tracks down runaway prisoners

Afghan president seeks Pakistan's cooperation in fighting terrorism

Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, the Minister of Interior held a meeting with Kuwait's Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber Khaled Al-Sabah. During the meeting, Prince Naif welcomed Sheikh Jaber and his accompanying delegation and they discussed a number of topics of common interest between the two brotherly countries.

The Kuwaiti minister and his accompanying delegation had arrived in Riyadh on a visit to the Kingdom.

At Riyadh Airbase, they were received by Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, the Minister of Interior and a number of officials.

Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, Minister of Interior, chaired the first meeting of the National Committee for Combating Drugs.

At the outset of the meeting, Prince Naif lauded the role of private sector in supporting the program of the committee, enabling a number of addicts to completely give up the habit.

On his part, Dr. Mufrej bin Saad Al-Haqbani, Secretary General of the Committee, considered this meeting a great leap in the work of the committee.

Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, the Minister of Interior, considered drugs as one of the most serious things facing the nation and the citizens at home and that it is more serious than any war and disaster, stressing that, despite signing agreements with many nations, the Kingdom is among the front States confronting attempts to smuggle drugs.

In a statement following the first meeting of the National Committee for Drug Combating which he presided over , Prince Naif explained that the Ministry of Interior has seized hundreds of millions of tons of drugs in operations resulted in the martyrdom of more than 400 anti-drug squads.

Many of those arrested in terrorist acts were found drug users, Prince Naif said.

He called on everyone to join ranks in the fight against drugs as "the greatest threat to this country's dearest youths". "Everyone must do all the best of his ability to protect his sons, daughters and families against this evil", he added.

Prince Naif stressed keenness of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for supporting actions that contribute to keep the sons of this nation and its properties away from the epidemic of drugs and urge them to become productive elements that contribute to nation-building and development.

He considered the responsibility entrusted to the National Committee for Drug Combating as immense. However, it has the ability to face this threat, he added.

Prince Naif noted that the Ministry of Interior has requested the Ministry of Education to remain vigilant on the behavior of those targeting students in schools in order that the Ministry could shield them from this evil.

He said "we want to work and to really control any person because this epidemic does not threaten a single segment or category in the community, but almost the entire society and could be detrimental to anyone, affecting their dearest sons and daughters"

Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, Minister of Interior, signed an agreement with the Minister of Social Affairs Abdulmohsen Al-Akkas, who is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Charity Fund, according to which the fund provides all services to addicts who totally gave up the habit.

The agreement includes the provision of training and rehabilitation for those who turned non-addicts on some skills, handicrafts and scholarships for them and their children in national colleges and institutes in addition to soft loans.

The chief investigator probing the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister asked for more time to determine the membership of a terrorist network behind Rafik Hariri's death.

Daniel Bellemare said that he has evidence of the network and its ties to some other attacks but he asked the U.N. Security Council to extend the investigation for six months because there is still work to do to put together the "big puzzle."

"I cannot tell you next year at this time, or in six months, or in three months I will have results," he told a news conference. "I can tell you though that we'll use every possible effort and we will expedite the process."

South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, the current council president, said council members "were very happy not to press him on that because we leave that to him."

Bellemare, a former Canadian prosecutor who took over as chief investigator in January from Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz, said he will maintain investigative powers when he becomes chief prosecutor of the international tribunal that will seek to indict those responsible for the February 2005 suicide truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others.

Four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals have been under arrest for almost two years for alleged involvement in Hariri's murder. Syria denies any involvement, but the furor over the attack forced Syrian troops to withdraw from Lebanon after a 29-year presence.

He said the U.N. chief will determine later when the tribunal becomes operational.

"I will only state that the filing of eventual indictments will not be immediate after the establishment of the tribunal," he told the council. "The admissible evidence will have to be carefully and objectively considered."

In his first report to the council on March 28, Bellemare said investigators have evidence that Hariri was assassinated by a "criminal network" linked to some other terrorist attacks in Lebanon.

Eleven attacks have targeted politicians, journalists and security officials; nine involve bombings in public places. A total of 61 people were killed in the attacks and at least 494 injured.

Bellemare reiterated several times that "criminal network" has "to be used interchangeably with the word terrorist."

He refused to give any details of the extent, nature or members of the network that assassinated Hariri - or the other terrorist attacks linked to the network.

Bellemare reiterated that the top priority of the investigative commission now is to gather more evidence about the "Hariri Network," including its scope, the identity of all its participants, their roles in other attacks, and links with people outside the network.

"Not only is the investigation objectively very complex, it is also being conducted in a politically charged climate and in an extremely volatile environment," Bellemare told the Council.

The chief investigator was also peppered with questions about French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's confirmation that Mohammed Zuhair Siddiq, a Syrian reputed to be a key witness in the Hariri assassination, had disappeared while under house arrest in France.

Bellemare said Siddiq had been interviewed by the commission but never replied to an offer to enter its witness protection program.

"I don't know where he is," Bellemare said. "As far as (what) the impact of his disappearance is, this will have to be assessed."

In Yemen, Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a rocket attack late on villas housing US oil experts in Yemen’s capital, a security source said, adding that seven people had been arrested.

"Al Qaeda has claimed the attack on the villas in Sanaa and the security services have obtained a statement confirming this from one of Al Qaeda’s websites on the Internet," the source, who declined to be named, said.

The source said police had arrested seven people in connection with the attack, adding that three people had fired the rockets from a car on the edge of the neighborhood where the villas are located.

Security forces blocked off roads in the capital leading to the US embassy, which also posted a statement on its website advising US citizens to "exercise caution" in the area where the attack took place. Sunday’s was the latest attack to hit the impoverished state which has been plagued by Al Qaeda-linked violence.

The attack on the villas, next to a residential complex for other Westerners, came two days after the arrest in Sanaa of an Al Qaeda operative, Abdullah al-Rimi, according to the security source.

Residents said three rockets struck near the residences of US employees of the Yemen-owned Safer oil company, formerly known as Hunt Oil.

There were no reports of casualties.

The villas are near a residential compound in the Al-Hadda neighborhood of southwestern Sanaa. Foreigners, including Westerners and Arabs, live in the compound which also houses the oil company’s offices.

Suspected Al Qaeda militants have carried out several attacks in recent years in Yemen, ancestral homeland of the terror network’s chief Osama bin Laden.

Only last month, Al Qaeda’s wing in Yemen, which calls itself Jund Al Yemen Brigades, claimed in an Internet statement to have targeted the American embassy in Sanaa in an attack that hit a nearby girls’ school. Yemen joined international efforts to counter terror following the September 2001 attacks.

Meanwhile, the United States ordered nonessential embassy staff and family members to leave Yemen a day after an attack on a residential compound in the Yemeni capital.

A Yemeni official said al Qaeda had issued a statement claiming responsibility for an apparent mortar attack on a complex housing Americans and other Westerners in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital.

An al Qaeda affiliate group said earlier in an Internet statement it had fired three mortar shells at the complex.

The U.S. State Department said in a travel warning the security threat level remained high because of terrorist activities in Yemen.

"The Department of State ordered the departure from Yemen of non-emergency American employees of the U.S. Embassy and eligible family members following the April 6, 2008 attack on the Hadda residential compound in Sanaa in which three explosive rounds were fired into the compound," the travel warning said.

It also urged U.S. citizens not to travel to Yemen, viewed by the West as a haven for Islamic militants.

"The department remains concerned about possible attacks by extremist individuals or groups against U.S. citizens, facilities, businesses and perceived interests," the State Department said.

Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a mortar attack in Sanaa last month which missed the U.S. Embassy but wounded 13 girls at a nearby school.

The State Department offered to fly nonessential diplomats and family members out of Yemen after that attack.

Yemeni forces prevented hundreds of people from gathering in Al-Hurriyyah Square, near the Cabinet, during a sit-in to protest the detention campaign by the government following riots that began in some southern provinces two weeks ago. In spite of the extensive security and military presence surrounding the area to prevent protesters from reaching Al-Hurriyyah square, hundreds of journalists, Parliament members and human rights activists were able to carry out the sit-in near the Ministry of Information.

Protestors raised slogans demanding that the government release its 'political detainees'. During the sit-in a number of satiric songs were performed by Fahd Al-Qarni's band in support of the detainees and the 'peaceful struggle'.

The National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms, known as Hood, said it was informed that the number of detainees are over 200, with 98 in Al-Dhale', 12 in Taiz, 55 in Aden and 60 in Hadramout. It added that although Lahj and Abyan provinces witnessed demonstrations last week, no detainees were reported.

Previous demonstrations broke out two weeks ago in Al-Dhale' by a number of youths soon after the government refused to enlist them in the army.

The demonstrations turned to riots in Abyan, Al-Dhale' Lahj and Taiz governorates, resulting in a large detention campaign launched by security forces.

The protestors in the Sana'a sit-in issued a press release condemning the government campaign." Detention campaigns carried out by the government in a number of Yemeni provinces against political activists who organized the peaceful protest, and threats against the media and human rights activists as well as narrowing freedom of expression indicate the inclusive mentality of the government in dealing with protestors," said the release.

The release also claimed the governments to stop putting in 'oil on fire' and suppressing protests, maintaining that " The security and settlement of Yemen can't be achieved through taking tanks into streets and imprisoning opposition activists but through finding real solutions to the protestors demands.

Seven Yemeni policemen were wounded in a hand grenade attack at a checkpoint in the southern province of Lahij, the scene of unrest for over a week, a security official said.

The policemen were wounded at around 6:00 am (0300 GMT) when a man hurled a hand grenade at a checkpoint in the town of Habilayn, the official said, requesting anonymity.

Nine people convicted of offences linked to suicide attacks in Casablanca in 2003 have escaped from prison.

The Moroccan Justice Ministry said a search had begun for the convicts, who escaped from a prison in Kenitra, northwest of Rabat.

Islamist prisoner rights advocacy group Ennassir said the jailbreak coincided with a one-day hunger strike by about 1,000 Islamist prisoners held at several prisons across Morocco, including Kenitra's.

The suicide bombings in Casablanca five years ago killed 45 people, including the 12 attackers, and injured a further 100.

The attacks, which targeted a Jewish community center and cemetery, a hotel, a restaurant and a Spanish social club, were a harsh wake up call to the threat of terrorism for the moderate Muslim nation.

Moroccan authorities suspect the banned Islamist group Salafia Jihadia, which security officials have accused of being linked to al-Quaida, was behind the attacks.

A crackdown on suspected militants immediately after the bombings saw thousands arrested. Seven hundred were put on trial and four sentenced to death.

Authorities have since carried out regular anti-terror sweeps, sparking concerns among human rights groups, which claim innocent people have been targeted.

In March last year, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Casablanca cyber cafe, and investigators later uncovered an alleged plot targeting tourist sites across Morocco.



In April 2007, two brothers strapped with explosives blew themselves up near the U.S. consulate. Afghan police have arrested a senior Taliban commander in southern Afghanistan, while 15 insurgents have been killed in Afghan and NATO joint operation in the same region, officials said.

Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Jabar was arrested by police in southern province of Kandahar, the interior ministry said in statement.

It described Jabar as deputy commander for Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, another senior Taliban commander, who was arrested by Pakistan forces in February this year while crossing the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan.

Mansoor Dadullah succeeded his brother Mullah Dadullah, a feared Taliban commander who was killed in combat in southern Helmand province last year.

The Afghan army said its forces backed by NATO troops killed at least 15 suspected Taliban members in Zherai district of Kandahar province during an operation that began in the area one week ago.

"Five terrorists were killed in Zareen Khail village of Zherai district, while 10 other terrorist were killed in Zafar Khail village of the district," the defence ministry said.

Southern Kandahar province, once the main stronghold of Taliban fugitive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has been the scene of heavy fighting since the ouster of Taliban regime six years ago.

More than 8,000 people have died in the conflict since then, mostly Taliban rebels but including civilians.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed confidence that his government would work closely with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, to fight extremism plaguing both countries.

"There is no doubt that the continuation of the war on terrorism is a priority for Afghanistan. There is no doubt that Pakistan suffers at the hands of terrorism," Karzai told a press conference.

"This is a joint struggle. If either of us comes up short in this struggle, then we will have harmed our people," he said upon his return home from a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Bucharest.

The US-backed Afghan president said he had had "broad contacts" with the new leaders of Pakistan’s coalition government, including Gillani and Pakistan Muslim League chief Nawaz Sharif.

In an address to lawmakers upon taking office last month, Gillani pledged to make the fight against extremism his government’s top priority.

Peaceful lives: For his part, Karzai reiterated his call for talks with Taliban fighters who are not linked to Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network, urging them to "live a peaceful life under Afghanistan’s constitution."

Mauritanian security forces launched grenades on a house where Islamist radicals had escaped to after clashing with police and soldiers, the local news agency ANI reported. The extremists had, however, fled before police arrived at the house in the north of the capital Nouakchott.

The attack on the house followed street clashes in which one Islamist and one police officer were killed and at least eight people, most of them members of the security forces, were injured.

Police managed to capture an injured person believed to be Sidi Ould Sidna, one of among three people suspected of shooting and killing four French tourists in December.

One of the three suspects is still at large.

Ould Sidna was extradited to Mauritania from Guinea-Bissau where he had fled, but escaped from a Nouakchott law court last week.

Mauritania blames the killing of the French tourists on al-Qaeda- linked Islamists.

The north-west African desert country has seen little terrorism so far. Increasing security concerns led to the cancellation of the Lisbon-Dakar rally, which was due to pass through Mauritania in January.

European police authorities reported an increase in the number of unsuccessful, prevented or actually carried out terrorist attacks in European Union states.

Some 583 such attacks took place in the EU in 2007, a 24% increase from 2006, Europol director Max-Peter Ratzel told the European Parliament in Brussels.

The vast majority of these attacks were attributable to the Basque separatist organization ETA in France and Spain.

ETA terrorism was responsible for the deaths of two Spanish police officers, but no other deaths were caused by terrorism within the EU.

In a recent unsuccessful attack in London, the would-be attackers placed nails in their homemade bombs.

In the entire EU last year, 1,044 suspects were jailed for acts in connection with terrorism, an increase of 48% from 2006.

This consisted mainly of arrests of separatists in France and Spain. The number of detained Muslim terrorist suspects dropped from 257 in 2006 to 201 in 2007.

FBI Director Robert Mueller during a speech in London called for the continued partnership between England and the United States in the fight against terrorism.

Mueller, speaking at the Chatham House in London, said the relationship between the United States and England is one of the most strategically important partnerships in the world as the two countries face what he described as a three-tiered threat from al-Qaeda, the FBI reported.

"Al-Qaeda will not go quietly into the night," Mueller said in a statement. "It is resilient. Its network is now diffuse. And it continues to adjust its strategies and tactics. We now confront a three-tiered threat."

Mueller says the three tiers include the core al-Qaeda organization operating in largely ungoverned spaces, small groups who have ties to an established terrorist organization but are largely self-directed and the growing threat of homegrown extremists. Mueller says no matter the motive, the global intelligence communities must work together and be prepared to confront terrorism on every level.

Recent advances in technology have resulted in a greater interoperability between the U.S. law enforcement and intelligence community and British counterparts. Mueller says the two nations must continue to evolve their partnership.

"This collaboration is the future of counter-terrorism," Mueller said. "We never know when a fragment of information uncovered in one country could unearth an entire network of terror in another. "Our enemies live in the seams of our jurisdictions. No single agency or nation can find them and fight them alone."