Daily Summary - Tuesday, December 20, 2005

[Airbornelawyer]

Middle East:

• Iraq: Security incidents in Iraq, Dec. 20 - (Reuters Alertnet)

• Middle East / South & Central Asia: Ongoing operations – Miscellaneous releases from U.S. Central Command.

• Iraq: Ongoing operations – Miscellaneous releases from Multi-National Force Iraq.

South & Central Asia:

• Afghanistan: Three Italians hurt in Afghan suicide attack - Three Italian peacekeepers were slightly wounded in a suicide car bomb attack in the western Afghan city of Herat on Tuesday, and at least one attacker died, a spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeeping force said. In a separate incident, the governor of the eastern province of Nuristan escaped injury after 20 rockets were fired at his vehicle on Monday, his spokesman said.… (Reuters Alertnet)

• Afghanistan: NATO must cover U.S. Afghan troop cuts -- U.N. - U.S. troop cuts in Afghanistan must be covered by deployments of NATO-led peacekeepers due to take place next year, the U.N.'s peacekeeping chief said on Tuesday. The Pentagon confirmed on Tuesday that U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had ordered a cut in the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to about 16,000 from a current 19,000 by next spring. The move had been anticipated since NATO agreed to expand next year into southern Afghanistan, where Taliban and allied insurgents are most active, and to boost its 9,000-strong peacekeeping force to 15,000.… (Reuters Alertnet)

• Pakistan: Pakistani rebels blow up rail line, fire rockets - Pakistani rebels blew up a railway line and fired rockets at government buildings in troubled Baluchistan province on Tuesday as government forces pressed on with an offensive, a security official said.… (Reuters Alertnet)

• South Asia: South Asia Terrorism Update (South Asia Terrorism Portal)

• Sri Lanka: Security Situation Report. (Sri Lanka Army)

East Asia and the Pacific

• North Korea: N Korea to resume nuclear plans - North Korea has said it intends to resume building two nuclear reactors, to increase its energy capacity. The North said the move was necessary because the US had pulled out of a key deal to build it two new reactors. But some analysts fear the North wants the reactors completed so that it can produce more plutonium with which to manufacture atomic bombs.… (BBC)

• The Philippines: Philippine communist guerrillas kill 4 soldiers - Philippine communist rebels killed four soldiers and wounded a woman in an attack at a public market on the southern island of Mindanao, an army field commander said on Tuesday.… (Reuters Alertnet)

• The Philippines: Philippines says arrests Islamic militant lead - The capture of a leader of a radical group of Muslim converts may have averted a wave of bombs in Manila over the Christmas holidays, Philippine intelligence officials said on Tuesday.… (Reuters Alertnet)

Europe

• Germany: Germany frees jailed Hizbollah man wanted by U.S - Germany has quietly released a Hizbollah member jailed for life for the murder of a U.S. Navy diver, disregarding Washington's desire that he either be extradited or remain behind bars, officials said on Tuesday. The government said there was no link between Hammadi's release and that of a German hostage in Iraq just days later. "He served his term," Eva Schmierer, a spokeswoman for Germany's justice ministry, told a news conference. Sources in Berlin and Beirut said earlier that Mohammad Ali Hammadi, convicted of killing Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem in Beirut during the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight and sentenced to life in prison, was flown back to Lebanon last week.… (Reuters Alertnet)

Africa

• Nigeria: Deadly attack on Nigeria pipeline - Unidentified gunmen have blown up a pipeline in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta region, officials say. Eight people have been killed and many more are missing after the pipeline was destroyed with dynamite, said the chairman of the local authority.… (BBC)

The Americas

• The Americas: USSOUTHCOM Headline News (Microsoft Word format)

• The Americas: NOTIMIL: Prensa al Día, defense and military news related to Ecuador and the Americas, provided by the Fuerzas Armadas Ecuatoriana. In Spanish.

• The Americas: Destaques da Imprensa, defense and military news related to Brazil and the Americas, provided by the Brazilian Ministério da Defesa. In Portuguese.

• Venezuela: Venezuela gives Exxon ultimatum - Venezuela has given the world's biggest oil company, ExxonMobil, until the end of this year to enter a joint venture with the state. Failure to do so will almost certainly result in Exxon losing its oil field concessions in the country. Venezuela's socialist government has now signed new agreements with almost all foreign petroleum companies. After months of pressure from left- wing leader Hugo Chavez most foreign oil firms working there have caved in. They have agreed to hand over a controlling stake of their oil interests to the Venezuelan state.… (BBC)

• Colombia: Ejército prosigue ofensiva en el departamento del Cauca - Con la baja de dos integrantes de la organización terrorista autodenominada Nueva Generación o Mano Negra, el Ejército Nacional, a través de la Vigésima Novena Brigada, avanza en su ofensiva contra las estructuras armadas al margen de la Ley que amenazan la tranquilidad del departamento del Cauca.... (Ejército Nacional de Colombia)