18A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY.AUGUST 15.2005
NEWS
WORLD Bush harsh with Iran on nukes
JERUSALEM - In a stern warning to Iran, President Bush said "all options are on the table" if the Iranians refuse to comply with international demands to halt their nuclear program, noting he has already used force to protect U.S. security.
Bush's statement during an interview on Israeli TV late Friday was unusually harsh. He previously said diplomacy should be used to persuade Iran to suspend its nuclear program and if that failed then the U.N. Security Council should impose sanctions.
The U.S. government and others fear Iran's nuclear work was secretly designed to produce nuclear weapons. Iran's leaders deny that, saying it was only for the generation of electricity.
The Associated Press
In the interview, Bush said the United States and Israel "are united in our objective to make sure that Iran does not have a weapon"
Iran's government resumed uranium conversion at its nuclear facility in Isfahan this past week.The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, responded by issuing a warning to Iran on Thursday that expressed "serious concern" about Iran's intentions.
But, he said, if diplomacy fails "all options are on the table."
Bush welcomed the warning, which signaled that the West wanted to give diplomacy time to ease the standoff.
In Vienna, Austria, where the IAEA is based, diplomats said Iran faced a Sept. 3 deadline to stop uranium conversion or face possible referral to the Security Council, which has the power to impose crippling sanctions. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the IAEA board's proceedings.
Iran responded with indignation to the IAEA warning. The Associated Press
A woman reacts as she waits for news of loved ones in International Larnaca airport, in Cyprus yesterday. A Cypriot airliner flying from Larnaca plowed into a hill north on yesterday.
A tragedy hits home
Western cars, trends entice Far East
Chinese visitors at the Beijing Jundong Cars Services show room preview the latest Ferrari sports car, the F430 is on display in Beijing,yesterday. China's appetite for luxury car is expected to boom due to its large population base and the growing number of wealthy benefiting from a robust economy.
The Associated Press
WORLD Marines, Afghans take crucial valley
KANDAGAL, Afghanistan U.S. Marines and Afghan troops launched an offensive Saturday to take a remote mountain valley from insurgents tied to the deadliest blow on American forces since the Taliban regime was ousted nearly four years ago.
The operation was the biggest yet aimed at rebels believed responsible for twin attacks that killed 19 U.S. troops in June. Three Navy SEALs were killed in an ambush, and all 16 soldiers on a helicopter sent to rescue them died when it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.
The offensive came at the end of a deadly week for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Seven Americans have died along with dozens of militants and civilians, reinforcing concerns that crucial legislative elections next month could be threatened by a surge in violence.
"We want them running for their lives way up in the hills where they can't attack polling stations," said Capt. John Moshane of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, based in Hawaii. "We want to isolate them from the community."
U. S. and Afghan commanders said militants in the Korengal Valley, in eastern Kunar province near the Pakistani border, were intent on disrupting voting. They said the valley held hundreds of Afghan rebels, as well as extremists from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Chechnya.
Hundreds of Marines and Afghan special forces troopers started moving into position at one end of the valley Thursday, about 120 miles east of the capital, Kabul. They dug mortar and machine-gun pits for a resupply base in a corn field near Kandagal, a village of about 100 farm families.
Reacting quickly, rebels fired rockets at a nearby U.S. post and a troop convoy but did not hit anything.
American and Afghan forces
hiked into the rugged mountains Friday and Saturday, many leading lines of donkeys laden with food and water. A-10 attack planes circled high above.
The operation was expected to last at least two weeks, Moshane said.
One of the main objectives was breaking up a network of militants led by a local Taliban officer, Ahmad Shah, also known as ISmail, who claimed responsibility for the June 28 attacks, said Kirimat Tanhah, a commander in the U.S.-trained and financed Afghan Special Forces.
Shah was suspected of having ties to al-Qaida militants in Pakistan, he said.
"Ismail's men ambushed the SEAL team and shot down the helicopter," Tanhah told The Associated Press. "Many of them are foreigners and have trained in Pakistan and elsewhere."
He said Shah also paid impoverished villagers to fight for him.
Lt. Col, Jim Donnellan, commander of the Marine battalion, said the valley was a base for lots of other "bad guys" besides Shah, including al-Qaida militants, fighters loyal to renegade former premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and other Taliban groups.
Dozens of criminals involved in timber and gem smuggling are there, too, he said.
"Some of them are thugs, others are political ideologues, coming in and throwing their money"around," Donnellan said. "Many villagers are paid good money to work with the militants."
Meanwhile, a local shepherd who rescued the only member of the ambushed SEAL team to survive June 28, was reported in hiding after militants threatened to kill him.
Donnellan, the Marine commander, confirmed the fourth SEAL was sheltered by a villager, but he declined to elaborate. He didn't comment on the accounts of tribesmen who said shepherd Sher Alam was hiding from extremists.
—The Associated Press
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