HOW'S IT GOIN', OSAMISTS?:

Voters reverse Islamists' rise in Pakistani politics (Ashraf Khan, 9/06/05, The Christian Science Monitor)

Voters in Pakistan have dealt a surprising blow to religious extremists, bucking the rise in recent years of radical Islam in politics here.

Countrywide elections for local governments, which were held on August 18 and 25 in over 100 districts, reversed the gains made by radical Islamists who came to power in two out of the country's four provinces in 2002. They had played a strong opposition role in the federal parliament and posed a formidable challenge to President Pervez Musharraf's vow to bring "enlightened moderation" to Pakistani society.

The absence of full elections at the federal level has enhanced the importance of Pakistan's local and city government as a political bellwether. Observers here point to a number of reasons for the poor showing for the religious parties, including internal divisions; changes to the ballot; as well as a cooling off of tensions caused by the government's reorientation following Sept. 11, 2001.

"It apparently seems that the establishment has laid their hands off the Islamists and radicals' influence has faded all over the country," says Jaffer Ahmed, chairman of the Pakistan Study Centre at the University of Karachi.

If someone had told you that four years, nearly to the day, after 9-11 the big story from Pakistan would be moderate victories in elections, you think you'd have bought it?

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Pakistan deploys 9,500 troops at Afghan border (MUNIR AHMAD, 9/06/05, Associated Press)

Pakistan has sent 9,500 more troops to the border with Afghanistan to prevent infiltration by militants intent on disrupting Afghan elections later this month, the army said Tuesday.

Taliban-led insurgents hoping to disrupt the Sept. 18 vote are believed to have sought sanctuary in some parts of Pakistan's deeply conservative tribal regions, drawing criticism from Afghan and U.S. officials.

Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the war on terror, now has about 80,000 forces at the border.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said 5,000 additional forces have been deployed in the northwest and 4,500 in southwestern Baluchistan province.

The deployment was completed after an Aug. 28 meeting in Islamabad of senior military commanders from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States to review security for the Afghan vote, the country's next key step toward democracy after two decades of war, he said. [...]

A similar clampdown by Pakistani forces on the border area ahead of Afghan presidential elections in October was credited with decreasing militant activity inside Afghanistan. That vote went relatively peacefully.

Mubarak prises open the military's grip on power (Ed O'Loughlin, September 6, 2005, The Age)

FOR 50 years Egypt's colonels and generals decided which of them — Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, Hosni Mubarak — would be president and then staged referendums so the people could agree.

But tomorrow, for the first time in Egypt's history, a head of state will be elected from a list with more than one name.

Analysts believe that the 77-year-old President Mubarak, seeking a fifth six-year term, has several reasons for abandoning his old winning formula.

Closest to home is the suspicion that he would like to see his younger son, Gamal, succeed him.

But while he is head of the National Democratic Party's policy committee, Gamal Mubarak, 41, is by trade a banker, not a soldier, and therefore not eligible for the old route to power.

Simply installing him in power via the party would anger not only the generals but also the regime's opponents on both the progressive left and Islamic or nationalist right. It would also be an affront to the US, which is campaigning for democracy across the Arab world.

Saudis storm 'militant hide-out' (BBC, 9/06/05)

Saudi security forces have stormed a building where suspected Islamic militants have been holed-up in the eastern Saudi Arabian city of Dammam.

It comes after a three-day gun battle that has led the deaths of five alleged militants and three police officers.

Witnesses said the shooting died down after security forces moved in on the block in a busy street where the suspects had barricaded themselves in. [...]

Earlier, security forces said three suspected militants and two policemen had been killed in clashes around the building on Monday evening.

The deaths brought to five the number of suspected militants killed in the fighting that began on Sunday. A police officer also died in earlier clashes.

The clashes began when security forces targeted two militants they said were wanted by the authorities.

One of the alleged militants was killed in the fighting on Sunday and another died later in hospital, sources said.

Zaid al-Samari, a 31-year-old Saudi, was named in local media reports as one of the two killed.

He is thought be on a list of 36 most wanted people sought in relation to several attacks in the kingdom since May 2003.

U.S. and Afghan Forces Kill 25 Suspected Taliban in Two Raids: Nearly 50 alleged insurgents are detained. The assaults in two provinces on successive days follow an abducted politician's slaying. (Paul Watson, September 6, 2005, LA Times)

U.S. and Afghan forces killed 25 suspected Taliban fighters and captured dozens more in operations in two southern provinces over two days, Afghan and U.S. officials said.

On Monday, U.S. and Afghan forces killed 12 suspected militants and detained nine others in a raid in Zabol province, the U.S. military said. Soldiers were brought by helicopter into a remote area where militants were believed to be gathering before launching attacks. No casualties were reported among the Afghan and U.S. forces.

The operation in Zabol followed a raid in neighboring Kandahar province in which U.S. and Afghan forces killed 13 suspected Taliban fighters, and captured dozens more, in a remote area where a political candidate was kidnapped and executed last week, a provincial official said.

U.S. and Afghan troops dropped by parachute from American aircraft in the operation, which began Sunday, Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said by telephone from Kandahar city, the provincial capital. None of the coalition troops was injured.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 5, 2005 11:59 PM