Iraqi cleric threatens us troops

  the Mehdi Army is still a force to be reckoned with which says its Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr leader and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr has threatened to take up arms against US troops unless they leave the country at the end of the year.

In a rare interview, he told the BBC he believed that American forces could not be established in an agreement to withdraw from Iraq.

The United States still have approximately 46,000 soldiers in Iraq, due to him having withdrawn in January 2012.

On Thursday, tens of thousands of followers of the imam rallied in Baghdad, the call for Americans to leave.

The Pentagon has been pressing the Iraqi Government to decide soon whether it will ask some to stay beyond the deadline.

In Sadr City, Baghdad's Moqtada al-Sadr stronghold, supporters marched in military formation, their boots trampling on the flags of the United States, United Kingdom and Israel.

It was members of the Mehdi Army, a Shiite militia which fought a bitter sectarian war American invasion.

They sported a new uniform - gone was the trademark of black shirts of the past. Instead, they wore the colours of the Iraqi flag - red, white and black - with Allah Akbar (God is great) affixed through the medium.

It was an attempt to transform a source of contention spent sectarian in a broad nationalist appeal.

Message appears to tell us - we're in this together, the Iraqi Shiites or Sunnis, against the Americans.

Growing confidence

There was no weapon in evidence but, speaking of the BBC, Moqtada al-Sadr said that the Mehdi army was still a fighting force with which it takes.

Demonstrations were held in the suburb of primarily Shia Sadr City

"I know that the Iraqi Government is under considerable pressure from the US occupier, to enable them to stay in Iraq" he said in the Holy City of Najaf.

"If the Americans withdraw, we will be reactivating of the Mehdi Army." At this time, their activities are frozen, but if the Americans remain, will change.

"We are still the resistance and we can even hit their bases, troops and equipment until they are at Iraq.

Until January, Moqtada al-Sadr has spent most of the past two years in exile in Iran, squeezed out by a combined us and Iraqi military effort.

But the elections last year marked a turning point in his fortune. His party did better than expected in the survey, and now it is back in Iraq, with seats in Parliament and a growing sense of confidence.

The Americans still have thousands of troops in Iraq, and nervous of the growing influence of the Iran, they make it clear that they would like to keep some of them in the country beyond the end of this year.

But, in order to do this, they must be invited to stay by the Iraqi Government. And Moqtada al-Sadr seems determined to stand as the man who pushed the.

Pakistani army denies us troops were in the Northwest

military of Pakistan denied a report that us special forces have been integrated with Pakistani troops for intelligence missions in the Northwest of the country.

The local Dawn newspaper, said Saturday that he obtained secret dispatches by WikiLeaks which revealed that us special forces have been deployed with Pakistani troops in operations joint in Pakistan in September 2009.

A spokesman for the Department of media relations Pakistan Army categorically denied the presence of American troops in the North and South Waziristan.

Waziristan, part of the undisciplined Pakistan federally administered Tribal areas (FATA), is considered a hub for the militants, including al-Qaeda and the Taliban Afghan factions that cross the border to attack US troops in Afghanistan.

"No American troops are involved in military operations in FATA,", said the spokesman.

The cables of WikiLeaks could hurt the image of Pakistan's powerful army.

He faced rare criticism after a raid of US special secret forces who killed the al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden not far from the capital, Islamabad this month.

The army ordered the assault, which has seriously the links between the two countries, as a violation of the sovereignty of Pakistan. But the Pakistani invectives generals of the country because they did not know about the raid.

Anti-Americanism runs high in Pakistan, in part because of unmanned U.S. aircraft strike on militants, who are considered as a violation of the sovereignty of the U.S. ally and killed civilians.

Disclosure of alleged U.S. troop deployments came a day after another set of cables showed that powerful armed Pakistani leader not only tacitly accepted secret U.S. drone campaign against militants, but asked "continues coverage of predator" tribal areas by these aircraft. The army has denied the content.

North, South Sudan Abyei withdrawal of troops agreed: A

KHARTOUM, Sudan - North and southern Sudan have agreed to launch the withdrawal of troops not permitted in the flashpoint border region Abyei, the Organization of the United Nations said, a week after clashes that he caused the death of 14 people.

Both parties agreed that the pullout begins Tuesday and be completed within a week, the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) said late Sunday.

The decision was taken at a meeting of a Joint Committee composed of representatives of the North and the South and chaired by the General commanding the UNMIS Force Moses Obi, said the statement.

"The meeting agreed that the two parties will create an environment by de-escalating tensions speaking of their respective communities on the ground concerning the implementation of the agreements of Kadugli and guarantee freedom of access for UNMIS"said the peacekeeping mission.

A peace agreement signed by both parties in the capital of the State of southern Kordofan in Kadugli in January has called all forces to withdraw from the region bitterly disputed except the joint integrated units special (JIUS) staff of the North and South, the two army and police, alongside UN peacekeepers.

North and South have repeatedly accused each other of sending a large number of "irregular" soldiers to Abyei, in violation of the truce in January.

The Organization of the United Nations was not able to give estimates on the number of troops not permitted in the region, but he explains both armies were reinforcing their positions in and around Abyei in recent months.

The joint integrated units remains there, responsible for ensuring the security of the region.

It is not the first time that the North and South of the Sudan committed themselves to implement the agreements of Kadugli, and the International Crisis Group sounds a note of warning shortly after the announcement of the United Nationsby saying that the Abyei conflict had reached a point of no return.

Escalating tensions on the ground and between the leaders in Khartoum and Juba, who both made unilateral claims on Abyei, endangering the fragile peace in the Sudan and the smooth secession of the South, the think tank based in Brusselssaid.

"New escalation and risk of deployments of tit-for-tat additional forcing Sudan Abyei beyond the point of no return, evoking life and the fragile peace," she added.

The ICG warning comes a week after 14 people were killed at a checkpoint security only 17 kilometers (10 miles) North of the town of Abyei in fighting broke out between the police forces of the southern and Northern elements in integrated ago deployed mixed units.

Police had blocked a convoy of 200 troops and six landcruisers mounted with machine guns - as officials in Khartoum, said was an unauthorized arms shipment but South appointed Chief Administrator of the Abyei described as an "invasion."

The International Crisis Group described the joint integrated units as failure of the 2005 North-South peace agreement which had been largely wrong, who had already participated in large-scale clashes and have been characterized by mistrust.

Future status of Abyei is a raft of issues of Northern and southern Sudan are struggling to agree on prior to the full independence of the South, to be held in exactly two months the most sensitive.

Deadly fighting and recriminations have degenerated since January, when the region ought to vote on whether to join the North or South, alongside a referendum in the South which delivered a landslide for the secession.

But the plebiscite was postponed indefinitely in the middle of the impasse between North and South on who should be eligible to vote.

Syrian troops take mosque, 4 Dead

 Syrian army troops supported by tanks and helicopters Saturday took a prominent mosque which had been controlled by residents in a town in the South under siege, killing four people, a witness said.

The operation in the city of Dara came a day after President Bashar al-Assad has triggered a lethal force to suppress a revolt old month, killing at least 65 people, mainly in the border town.

Dara resident Abdullah Abazeid, declared that the assault on the mosque lasts 90 minutes, in which troops fired heavy machine guns and tank shells. Three helicopters took part in the operation, dropping parachutists on the mosque itself, he said.

The Omari mosque in the old city of the Roman-era town, had been occupied by residents of Dara.

Dara is at the heart of a six-week uprising and is under siege since Monday, when the Government first sent in tanks to crush the demonstrations.

Among the dead was Osama Ahmad, the son of the imam of the mosque, Sheikh Ahmad Sayasna, according to Abazeid. The other three were a woman and her two daughters were killed when a tank shell hit their house near the mosque, he said.

In another development in the region of Dara, 138 member of Assad that party ruling Baath resigned Saturday to protest against the repression. Lists of persons who have resigned, with their party rank, identity card numbers and signatures, were sent to the Associated Press by militants.

It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the lists of members of low rank. Earlier this week, another 200 mainly low-level Baath party in the province of Dara members resigned on the deadly crackdown.

In the early hours of the morning, military reinforcements poured into Dara, including 20 armoured tanks, four tanks and a military ambulance, a resident of the city told the AP.

The head of the Syrian Observatory of the rights of man, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said 65 people were killed Friday. with 36 of the dead in the province of Dara, 27 in the central region of Homs, one in Latakia and the other in the countryside of Damascus.

In all, 535 civilians have been killed since the uprising began in mid-March, he said.

An activist said authorities have asked the families of some of the people killed Friday to organize small funeral assisted by members of the family only. Similar orders received last week, but most people do not abide by them, added the activist.

The move appears to be an attempt by the authorities to avoid more bloodshed, with funeral in the weeks turned into demonstrations.

Ammar Qurabi, who heads the national organization for the rights of man in Syria, said authorities forced the families of the dead to sign documents saying that their relatives were killed by "armed groups."

He added that a hundred people in the region of Homs is missing which could mean that they have been killed, detained or injured.

Dara was without electricity, water and phones since Monday, with residents fleeing across the border. The uprising began in Dara, triggered by the arrest of adolescents who wrote anti-Government graffiti on a wall.

Sporadic firing was heard in the city on Saturday, mainly from the central zone, said another witness of Dara.

He said last week, troops were allowing women to go out to buy bread, but on Saturday, they were arrested.

In the coastal town of Banias, a resident said armed forces had withdrawn from the city centre after the positions it more early in the month.

Syrian troops bombard the restive city, add troops

 The Syrian army tanks shelled the old district of a city in the heart of six weeks of the uprising Sunday country and rolled more reinforcements to the region, which has been besieged for nearly a week, said an eyewitness.

Residents remained defiant: unable to leave their homes, they sang "God is great!" to each other of their Windows in the evenings, shocked the security forces and raise the spirits of the other.

"Our homes are near each other, even if we can't go outside, we are by Windows and the song, said a resident of Dara, speaking to the Associated Press by satellite phone." "" Our neighbours can hear us and they respond. ?

Without water, fuel or electricity, Dara is since Monday, when the regime sent troops backed by tanks and snipers from elite to crush the protests seeking to put an end to the authoritarian President Bashar Assad.

Tanks and armoured personnel vehicles cut off neighborhoods and on rooftops around the town of snipers nesting kept residents pinned in their homes. Other regions of the country also came under military control, but Dara faces more serious control.

The number of deaths has soared to 545 throughout the country by Government forces fired on demonstrators - action which has attracted international condemnation and financial penalties U.S. figures high his regime.

Tanks fired on in the heart of ancient Roman quarter of Dara Sunday, said a resident who lives on the outskirts of the city. He said that he could identify the weapons because he was a former soldier.

Men were forbidden to leave their homes but women were allowed to early in the morning for bread, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity of the Syrian forces of fear that would identify him.

The witness accounts could not be verified independently. The Syria has prohibited almost all the foreign media and limited access to the warm, making it almost impossible to confirm the dramatic events shake one of the most authoritarian regimes in the Arab world.

In addition to the military headquarters, the security forces have continued their campaign of arrests of activists and the alleged demonstrators, said activist Damascus Razan Zaitouneh, who is in hiding with her husband.

"They want to paralyze the (protest) movement," Zaitouneh said Sunday.

Zaitouneh said security forces have arrested aged brother of 20 years of her husband to put pressure on the couple to transform. She said that the arrest took place Saturday afternoon after the young man was checking on their house in Damascus.

"He called us saying that they (security forces) are heavily knocking on the door.". "It was terribly scared and he said that they would rip off the door", said Zaitouneh.

An hour later, Zaitouneh, said the young man called them once again, clearly shaken. "He said: come, I want to see you - it is clear, he was under pressure to speak with us," she said. They were not able to communicate with the young man since.

Rami Abdul Rahman, Director of the Syrian human rights observatory, also independently reported wide-scale arrests. He said that they had also revised their death toll upwards to 545 after the violent events Saturday.

On Saturday, Syrian troops killed four people by capturing a mosque which has become a focal point for demonstrators in Dara, and the security forces in Damascus kept dozens of women walking on the Parliament to urge Assad to end his crackdown on the uprising.