Lebanese troops, tanks and armored vehicles deployed south of the Litani River on Thursday, a key provision of the U.N. cease-fire plan that ended fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. The deployment marks a first step toward extending government control in a region Lebanese troops have largely avoided for four decades.
In Beirut, the international airport reopened to commercial traffic for the first time since July 13 when it was attacked by Israeli warplanes and gunboats. A Middle East Airlines passenger jet touched down from Amman, Jordan, ending a 36-day Israeli blockade, and a Royal Jordanian flight was expected later Thursday.
MEA Chairman Mohammed Hout said the blockade had been partially lifted to allow flights between Amman and Beirut. Airport officials said full commercial traffic could resume next week.
The bad thing is that we now have the head of Lebanon's largest parliamentary block, Saad Hariri, giving impromptu speeches about Israel and Syria:
Saad Hariri accused Israel of "living off the blood" of Palestinian, Lebanese and other Arab people. He also accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of trying to sow strife in the neighboring country where it kept an occupation force for 29 years.
And while he may have a point, this is just going to get shit started all over again.
Top al Qaeda Man In Pakistan Nabbed
A senior al Qaeda commander allegedly tied to the London airplane bomb plot has been arrested in Pakistan, Pakistani intelligence and law enforcement officials have told ABC News. Matiur Rehman, one of the most wanted men in Pakistan, is known to have met with the alleged plot ringleader Rashid Rauf, according to the officials.
Rehman’s capture could provide the most important leads in months to the whereabouts of Al Qaeda’s top two leaders, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri. Rehman was believed to be in frequent contact with Zawahiri.
Israel wants Turkey to impose blockade on Iranian arms
Israel wants the Turkish military to impose an air and ground embargo to prevent Iran using Turkish territory to send arms to resupply Hezbollah, a senior Israeli security source said on Thursday.
Israeli intelligence believes that nearly all of the heavy weapons that Iran has provided to Hezbollah passed through Turkish ground or airspace en route to Syria and then Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon, security sources said.
White House backing new plan to defuse insurrection in Pakistan
Another one blows up in the Bush Administration's faces:
A U.S.-backed plan to defeat Islamist militants in Pakistan's autonomous tribal areas has backfired badly, and the Bush administration is working with Pakistan to come up with a new strategy to defuse the insurrection.
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf "sees that what he was doing wasn't working," said one U.S. official who's familiar with the new plan. "He really has a mess."
Now Musharraf's government is attempting to negotiate truces in the areas, expand local police forces and introduce development projects to reward tribal leaders who break with the militants. The Bush administration has pledged millions of dollars to the new effort, said the official, who, like others familiar with the plan, spoke only if granted anonymity.
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