8  theSun | FRIDAY JUNE 26 2009

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Taliban chief escapes

US attack
LONDON: The head of Pakistan’s
Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, left
a funeral procession before it
was hit by a suspected US mis-
sile strike that killed 80 people
mourning an earlier barrage,
intelligence officials said yes-
terday.
They claimed that several
senior Taliban militants were
killed in the attack launched
from a drone aircraft.
Mehsud, who is accused of
plotting suicide bombings and
the assassination this week
of his chief Taliban rival, is the
target of a looming offensive by
Pakistan’s military in the South
Waziristan tribal area bordering
Afghanistan.
Suspected missile strikes
killed several people at a pur-
ported Taliban training centre
on Tuesday. The second barrage
rained down on a funeral pro-
cession for some of those killed
in the first attack.
Two intelligence officials
said that although Mehsud had
visited the village where the
funeral took place, he left before
the drone-fired missiles killed
80 people and wounded dozens
more. Qari Hussain, a close as-
sociate of Mehsud, denied that
the Taliban leader had narrowly
escaped with his life.
“Baitullah Mehsud was at a
secret place at the time of the
missile attack, and the attack
killed only five of our colleagues,
and the remaining 45 slain men
were villagers,” he said.
Dozens of air-strikes have
been carried out in the tribal
regions over the last year, draw-
ing criticism from Pakistan’s
leaders that they fire up raging
anti-Americanism and jeopard-
ise military operations. An im-
pending offensive will focus on
Mehsud, who reportedly has up
to 12,000 men under his control.
– The Independent

of Wall Street swindler Bernard

briefs
US actress Farrah
Fawcett dead at 62
LOS ANGELES:
Actress Farrah
Fawcett (pix), the
Charlie’s Angels
television star
whose big smile
and feathered
blond mane
made her one of the sex sym-
bols of the 1970s, died yesterday
after a long battle with cancer,
her longtime companion actor
Ryan O’Neal said. She was 62.
Fawcett was first diagnosed
with anal cancer in late 2006. She
died in a Los Angles hospital after
being admitted earlier this week.
“After a long and brave battle
with cancer, our beloved Farrah
has passed away. Although this
is an extremely difficult time for
her family and friends, we take
comfort in the beautiful times
that we shared with Farrah over
the years and the knowledge that
her life brought joy to so many
people around the world,” O’Neal
said in a statement. – Reuters
Madoff‘s fate to be
known on Monday
NEW YORK: Thousands of peo-
ple who lost their life savings in
a multi-billion dollar scam will
discover on Monday the fate
Madoff, who at 71 could face a
150-year jail term.
Madoff’s fall from grace
since his shock arrest in De-
cember will be complete when
he returns to a New York court-
room on Monday for sentenc-
ing after pleading guilty to one
of the biggest, most complex
financial scams in history.
Once the darling of the mar-
kets who was believed to have
the Midas touch, the former
chairman of the Nasdaq now
languishes in a tiny prison cell
after admitting 11 charges of
fraud, perjury and theft. – AFP
HK tutor faces jail
for sex with pupil
HONGKONG: A Hongkong
language tutor was yesterday
facing jail after being convicted
of using threats to force a 14-
year-old girl pupil into having sex
with him. Gary Siu Cheuk-ming,
27, lured the girl who attended
his private Japanese lessons to
a meeting in a hostel after claim-
ing he could get modeling work
for her and filmed her naked.
He then had sex with her
at least 10 times over a three-
month period after threatening
to distribute the video if she did
not sleep with him, the South
China Morning Post reported.
The girl eventually told another
teacher what was happening
who alerted police.
The offences all took place in
2006, the report said. – dpa
Iraqis demand protection
from bombings
BAGHDAD: Hundreds of angry
Iraqis gathered yesterday around
US the wreckage of a market bombing
approves in Baghdad where 78 people were
killed, demanding better protection
sweeping from the government when US
Pakistan troops pull back to rural bases.
aid A string of blasts has cast doubt
on Iraqi forces’ ability to keep the
package lid on a stubborn insurgency as US
pg 10 troops withdraw from towns and
cities by June 30. More explosions
yesterday killed five policemen and
at least two civilians.
Violence has dropped sharply
across Iraq in the past year, but
militants including the Sunni Al
Qaeda continue to launch car and
suicide bombings aimed at under-
mining the Shi’ite-led government
and reigniting sectarian conflict.
Residents at the site of Wednes-
day’s blast in Baghdad’s Sadr City
slum sobbed and hugged each other,
and many furiously cursed the au-
thorities. The blast came four days
after US soldiers handed control of
the Shi’ite area to Iraqi forces.
“I expect more explosions,”
Mustafa Hussain, a 33-year-old
grocer, told Reuters at the scene,
where pieces of flesh, shreds of
bloodied clothing and shoes still
littered the area.
“Iraqi forces don’t have enough
experience and they don’t check
vehicles well at their checkpoints
... they must prove their abilities to
the people.”
Jawad Kadhim, a 40-year-old
Sadr City taxi driver, said the at-
tack was aimed at stoking sectarian
hatred.
“The terrorist groups want to
send a message that when the US
troops leave the cities there will
be a security vacuum,” he said.
“Relaxed security and corruption
at checkpoints is the main reason
we fear what may come next.”
A massive truck bomb killed
73 people near the northern city of
Kirkuk on Saturday. That and the
Sadr City market bombing were
the bloodiest attacks in the country
for more than a year.
Members of parliament delayed
a grilling of the oil minister to de-
nounce both bombings, and agreed
to give the families of the Kirkuk
blast victims one million dinars
each.
The International Committee
of the Red Cross said it delivered
water and a tonne of medical sup-
plies to the hospital where most of
the wounded from Sadr City were
being treated.
“The political nature of these
attacks is becoming clear. They
are an attempt to delay or suspend
the withdrawal of US forces from
Iraqi urban centres according to the
timetable,” Vice-President Tareq al-
Hashemi said in a statement.
Elsewhere yesterday, police in
the once turbulent but recently
secure western city of Falluja said
a roadside bomb destroyed a police
vehicle and killed all five police-
men inside.
Falluja in Anbar province was
once the heartland of the rebellion
against the US military and Iraqi
government forces.
Hours later, at least two people
died and 30 others were wounded
when another bomb struck a
crowded bus terminal in the south
of the capital, a hospital source said.
In eastern Baghdad, the US mili-
tary said nine American soldiers
were wounded when two roadside
bombs hit their patrol. – Reuters

Iran’s Ahmadinejad compares Obama to Bush

TEHERAN: President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad accused Barack Obama
yesterday of behaving like his predeces-
sor towards Iran and said there was not
much point in talking to Washington
unless the US president apologised.
Obama said on Tuesday he was “ap-
palled and outraged” by a post-election
crackdown and Washington withdrew
invitations to Iranian diplomats to at-
tend US Independence Day celebrations
on July 4 – stalling efforts to improve
ties with Teheran.
“Mr Obama made a mistake to say
those things ... our question is why he
fell into this trap and said things that
previously (former US President George
W.) Bush used to say,” the semi-official
Fars News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad
as saying.
“Do you want to speak with this
tone? If that is your stance then what
is left to talk about ... I hope you avoid
interfering in Iran’s affairs and express
your regret in a way that the Iranian
nation is informed of it.”
About 20 people have died in
demonstrations following the disputed
June 12 election. Police and militia
have flooded Teheran’s streets since
Saturday, quelling the most widespread
anti-government protests since the
1979 Islamic revolution.
Analysts say the battle has now
moved off the street into a protracted
behind-the-scenes struggle within
Iran’s clerical establishment, facing an
unprecedented public rift.
Opposition leader Mirhossein
Mousavi, who says he won the poll,
has the backing of such powerful
figures as former presidents Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad
Khatami, and senior cleric Grand Aya-
tollah Hossein Ali Montazeri.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, who normally stays above
the political fray, has sided strongly with
Ahmadinejad.
“My personal judgment is that this
is a country deeply split and emotional-
ised,” a Western diplomat in the region
said.
Khamenei has upheld the result and
Iran’s top legislative body, the Guardian
Council, has refused to annul the elec-
tions. State Press TV quoted a spokes-
man for the council as saying they were
“among the healthiest elections ever
held in the country”.
Mousavi said yesterday he was deter-
mined to keep challenging the election
results despite pressure to stop.
“A major rigging has happened,” his
website reported him as saying.
“I am prepared to prove that those
behind the rigging are responsible for
the bloodshed.”
He called on his supporters to con-
tinue “legal” protests and said restric-
tions on the opposition could lead to
more violence.
Mousavi supporters said they would
release thousands of balloons on Friday
imprinted with the message “Neda you
will always remain in our hearts” – a
reference to the young woman killed
last week who has become an icon of
the protests.
Obama had previously been muted
in his criticism but on Tuesday he said:
“The United States and the international
community have been appalled and
outraged by the threats, the beatings,
and imprisonments of the last few
days.”
Before the election, Obama had tried
to improve ties with Iran – branded by
Bush as part of an “axis of evil”.
Washington had been hoping to con-
vince Teheran to drop what it suspects
are plans to develop nuclear bombs,
while also seeking its help in stabilising
Afghanistan.
It had invited Iranian diplomats to
attend Independence Day celebrations
for the first time since Washington cut
diplomatic ties with Teheran in 1980.
The move to withdraw the invites was
largely symbolic as no Iranians had even
responded.
Mohammad Marandi, who is the
head of North American Studies at
Teheran University, said mistrust of the
United States and Britain was rife.
“In the short term relations will defi-
nitely get worse, but in the long term
the US really has to re-think its policy
and to recognise that regime change is
not possible in Iran.” – Reuters