From Al-Jazeera:
Two US soldiers have been charged with the murder of an Iraqi last month near the northern city of Kirkuk.
Sergeant 1st Class Trey Corrales and Specialist Christopher Shore were each charged with one count of premeditated murder, the US military said in a statement.
No more details of the alleged murder have been revealed.
It was alleged to have taken place on June 23 near Kirkuk. The men were assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.
Via the Guardian:
Seven of the most important Sunni-led insurgent organizations fighting the US occupation in Iraq have agreed to form a public political alliance with the aim of preparing for negotiations in advance of an American withdrawal, their leaders have told the Guardian.
In their first interview with the western media since the US-British invasion of 2003, leaders of three of the insurgent groups – responsible for thousands of attacks against US and Iraqi armed forces and police – said they would continue their armed resistance until all foreign troops were withdrawn from Iraq, and denounced al-Qaida for sectarian killings and suicide bombings against civilians.
Speaking in Damascus, the spokesmen for the three groups – the 1920 Revolution Brigades, Ansar al-Sunna and Iraqi Hamas – said they planned to hold a congress to launch a united front and appealed to Arab governments, other governments and the UN to help them establish a permanent political presence outside Iraq.
Abu Ahmad, spokesman for Iraqi Hamas said: “Peaceful resistance will not end the occupation. The US made clear it intended to stay for many decades. Now it is a common view in the resistance that they will start to withdraw within a year. ”
The move represents a dramatic change of strategy for the mainstream Iraqi insurgency, whose leadership has remained shadowy and has largely restricted communication with the world to brief statements on the internet and Arabic media.
The last three months have been the bloodiest for US forces, with 331 deaths and 2,029 wounded, as the 28,000-strong “surge” in troop numbers exposes them to more attacks.
From AP:
About 100 Palestinians smashed doors and windows inside an airport building in this Egypt-Gaza Strip border town early Tuesday after being trapped there for more than a month since the border’s closure, police and one of the rioters said.
Dozens of anti-riot police with batons and shields stormed Arish airport and clashed with rioters, injuring two of them, one of the rioters, Mohammed Ali, told the Associated Press.
A police official said that more troops have been deployed to the airport after Tuesday’s clashes, fearing more riots and violence. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
An Associated Press reporter was denied entry into the airport Tuesday but saw dozens of riot police deployed outside the building.
The Palestinians, who do not have entry visas for Egypt, were transferred under security supervision to Arish airport after first arriving at the Cairo airport from trips abroad.
They had expected to then travel onward to the Gaza Strip, but they have been stuck in the Arish airport since Egypt sealed off its border with Gaza after the militant Palestinian Hamas took over Gaza last month.
The Palestinians, mostly students and government employees, trapped inside the airport have complained of increasingly desperate living conditions.
“We are living in a 100 square meters. There are no services. Water is salty and masses of mosquitoes attack us every night,” Ali told the AP on the telephone early Tuesday.
“We have lost our minds. We broke the windows, the palm trees (inside the airport), the doors and everything around us in the airport,” he added.
Along with the 100 Palestinian in Arish airport, there are about 4,000 other Palestinians stranded on Egypt’s side of the Gaza border.