Middle East

'Ghost city' Mosul braces for assault on last bastion of al-Qa'ida in Iraq

Mosul looks like a city of the dead. American and Iraqi troops have launched an attack aimed at crushing the last bastion of al- Qa'ida in Iraq and in doing so have turned the country's northern capital into a ghost town.

Inside Middle East

Violence grips Lebanese city as peace talks loom

Tuesday, 13 May 2008

Pro-government Sunni Muslim gunmen and militiamen loyal to Lebanon's Iranian-backed Shia Hizbollah have fought with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the northern city of Tripoli.

Al-Sadr ceasefire allows troops to enter Shia slum

Tuesday, 13 May 2008

The anti-American Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is the great survivor of Iraqi politics. In a tactical retreat he yesterday authorised a ceasefire under which the Iraqi army, but not US troops, will enter the great Shia slum of Sadr City in Baghdad while Mr Sadr's Mehdi Army militia will stop firing rockets and mortars into the fortified Green Zone.

Blast kills Gaza teacher in front of her children

Monday, 12 May 2008

The UN is demanding an investigation into how the Israeli military killed one of its Palestinian school teachers by blasting open the front door of her Gaza home with explosives in the presence of three of her children.

Fighting moves outside Beirut

Monday, 12 May 2008

Lebanon hung between fears of all-out war and hopes of political compromise yesterday even as government supporters and opponents battled with rockets and machine guns in the mountains overlooking the capital.

Elderly Israeli woman killed by Gaza rocket

Monday, 12 May 2008

A 75 year old Israeli woman was killed yesterday by a rocket fired from Gaza as Israel suggested any truce in the Strip depended on the release of the Army corporal seized almost two years ago. The woman died after the rocket struck a house in Yesha, nine miles from Gaza's eastern border and further than the usual targets of Qassam rockets. Islamic Jihad said it had fired rockets at the time of the fatal attack. The move came as Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman spent the day in Israel seeking a ceasefire agreement following Egypt's success in persuading the Palestinian armed factions to drop its earlier pre-condition that Israel halts military action in the West Bank. In meetings with Mr Suleiman yesterday, Israel's leaders—including the Defence Minister Ehud Barak—reportedly linked the release of Cpl Gilad Shalit explicitly to any putative ceasefire. Cply Shalit was seized by three militant groups—including Hamas—in a cross border raid in June 2006. Prime Ministerial spokesman Mark Regev said that Cpl Shalit was "an integral element" and added: "Hamas cannot expect Israel to sit by idly when they are holding a young serviceman hostage now for almost two years.” Meanwhile Mr Barak held out the prospect of a large scale military operation if Hamas did not halt fire from Gaza. But Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri declared: "Any new conditions are an attempt to sabotage (Mr Suleiman's) efforts." Attempts to agree a prisoner exchange for Cpl Shalit have yet to bear fruit.

Robert Fisk: Hizbollah rules west Beirut in Iran's proxy war with US

Saturday, 10 May 2008

Another American humiliation. The Shia gunmen who drove past my apartment in west Beirut yesterday afternoon were hooting their horns, making V-signs, leaning out of the windows of SUVs with their rifles in the air, proving to the Muslims of the capital that the elected government of Lebanon has lost.

Hospital that heals division

Saturday, 10 May 2008

If this were any family, there would be nothing remarkable about the way six-year-old Adham Takatka gently tickles the palms of his baby brother Mohammed before, unprompted, planting a kiss on one of his cheeks. But the bond between these two brothers will always be special. It isn't everyone who can say his first achievement as a new-born infant was to save someone's life, but Mohammed will certainly be able to make that unusual boast when he grows up.