Negative Blogs

Israeli warplanes launched two raids on the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinians said, wounding one person hours after militants in the enclave fired a rocket into southern Israel.

Officials of the Islamist Hamas movement in Gaza and witnesses said one air raid was on the Khan Yunis area and the second targeted tunnels at Rafah used by smugglers under the territory’s border with Egypt.

One Palestinian was wounded in his home by shards of broken glass from a blast in the second raid, the sources said.

The air strikes came after Gaza-based militants fired a rocket into southern Israel earlier on Saturday, without causing either casualties or damage.

The projectile exploded in an open field near the Gaza border, an Israeli military spokeswoman said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman told AFP that the two attacks had been launched in response to the rocket fire.

Around 180 rockets and mortar shells had been fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel since the beginning of the year, she said.

By france24.com

A Hamas policeman guards a site in Gaza City after Israeli warplanes bombarded it in October 2010. Israeli warplanes launched two raids on the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinians said, wounding one person hours after militants in the enclave fired a rocket into southern Israel.

Security experts say that parcel bombings sent to embassies across Athens on Monday and Tuesday have all the hallmarks of anarchist groups looking to make a ’symbolic gesture.’

Athens, Greece

A two-day barrage of parcel bombings targeting embassies in Athens bears the hallmarks of anarchist groups in Greece that may have used the attacks to draw international support for their revolutionary cause.

Police have declined to say officially whom they suspect in the attacks, other than it is likely a local anarchist group unconnected to mail bombs from Yemen attributed to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. One of the suspects taken into custody Monday has been identified as a member of the Conspiracy of the Cells (or nuclei) of Fire, referred to as SPF, which is among a number of anarchist groups that have surfaced in the past several years.

“SPF has a track record of international actions,” says Brady Kiesling, a former American diplomat and expert on Greek terrorism. “It is definitely an anarchist group looking for a symbolic gesture.”

Security experts say they have recently noticed an uptick in Internet chatter among anarchist groups looking to make a statement about the economic crisis in Greece and Europe, and to strike out against countries where anarchists are currently imprisoned. They say that could explain the selection of embassies that were targeted since Monday.

“These letter bombs were not strong enough to kill anyone,” says Mary Bossis, a terrorism expert at the University of Piraeus. “But they were strong enough to send a message around the world.”

There were no injuries in the explosions at the Swiss and Russian embassies on Tuesday, and police were able to intercept and detonate parcel bombs addressed to the Bulgarian, Chilean, and German embassies.

Today’s bombs followed botched attempts to send explosive parcels to the office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Dutch, Belgian, and Mexican embassies Monday. A suspicious package sent Tuesday to the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel marked with the Greek economic ministry’s return address may also be connected.

On Monday, the Greek police apprehended two men, ages 22 and 24 at a courier center in the Athens neighborhood of Pangrati. They were reportedly armed with pistols and bulletproof vests and allegedly caught with explosive parcels. A courier company employee became suspicious of the men because of their wigs and baseball caps.

The younger of the two suspects has been identified as the member of SPF, one of the groups that has risen to prominence in the last few years, especialy since Dec. 6, 2008 when the shooting death of a 15-year-old boy by police set off nationwide youth riots.

Embassies in Greece have been on full alert following the bombings that began Monday. The German and Bulgarian embassies notified the police of suspicious packages and they were disposed of in controlled detonations. A courier handed over another package addressed to the Chilean embassy.

Greeks have become somewhat accustomed to anarchists setting off bombs from time to time, typically without injury. But this recent increase, coupled with several recent fatalities, will do little to generate much sympathy for their cause, say security experts. An Afghan boy and his mother were killed in March when he accidentally set off a bomb while rummaging through a dumpster. On June 24, a booby-trapped parcel addressed to minister Michalis Chrisochoides killed top aide George Vassilakis.

“Greeks have an understanding with their terrorists,” Mr. Kiesling says. “You don’t hurt anybody and we don’t look for you too hard.”

The mistakes made by the two men caught on Monday practically delivered them to the police, Kiesling says.

“The members of these groups are young amateurs,” adds Ms. Bossis. “But they are inventive amateurs and dangerous.”

By csmonitor.com

A police officer prepares for a controlled explosion of a suspect package in Athens, Greece, Monday. Petros Giannakouris/AP

Greek police have arrested four people after uncovering a plot to send parcel bombs to Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and three foreign embassies in Athens.

The parcel addressed to Mr Sarkozy was found in the hands of two suspected far-left militants after a similar package intended for the Mexican embassy in the Greek capital detonated inside a courier company and injured an employee.

Police said one of the four people arrested was a suspected member of an obscure group that specialises in arson attacks on offices and homes of politicians, Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei.

From a postal slip found on the suspects, the police tracked down and exploded a second parcel at a neighbouring courier company, addressed to the Dutch embassy.

Two more devices found on the detainees were intended for the French President and the Belgian embassy, the police said.

The Dutch foreign ministry said it had been informed by the Greek authorities “and remain in close contact with them.”

Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei had also planted a small explosive device in a bin outside the Greek parliament in January, after police claimed to have arrested several of the group’s members in raids around the capital.

Attacks on government and police targets are relatively frequent in Greece and are commonly attributed to left-wing extremists.

By telegraph.co.uk

A police explosive expert prepares a controlled blast near a courier service in the Athens suburb of Pangrati Photo: AP

The maker of the explosives discovered aboard air-cargo services last week may have also supplied devices that targeted a U.S. airliner on Dec. 25 and a Saudi Arabian prince in August 2009, President Barack Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser said.

“The indications are right now, based on the forensics analysis, that it’s an individual who has been responsible for putting these devices together,” John Brennan said yesterday on ABC’s “This Week,” without naming the suspect. The bombmaker “is a very dangerous individual, clearly somebody who has a fair amount of training and experience,” he said.

Authorities are focusing on Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the al-Qaeda bombmaker behind plots to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight and to kill the prince spearheading Saudi Arabia’s antiterrorism effort, said a U.S. official who asked not be named because the investigation isn’t complete.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told CNN Oct. 30, that the devices discovered last week appear to contain PETN, the same explosive substance found in the underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly tried to take down the Northwest airplane.

The packages found last week in the U.K. and Dubai, both originating from Yemen and bound for Jewish synagogues in Chicago, triggered an examination of three United Parcel Service Inc. planes Oct. 29 and confiscation of a FedEx Corp. parcel. Both companies halted service from Yemen.

Sophisticated Bombs

The UPS bombs were sophisticated in their construction and in the way they were concealed, Brennan said yesterday on “CNN’s State of the Union.”

Investigators have to “presume” other devices may still be out there, though there is no specific evidence, Brennan told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Yemeni security forces yesterday released a woman who was arrested with her mother on suspicion of attempting to send two parcel bombs, local NewsYemen website reported, citing the woman’s father.

Authorities had taken the daughter into custody in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, the defense ministry said in a mobile- phone text message two days ago. Abdulrahman Barman, a member of the National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedom, a Yemeni human rights group who said he represents the suspect, identified the younger woman as 22-year-old Hanan al-Samawi, an engineering student at Sana’a University.

Hundreds of Sana’a university students protested in solidarity with their arrested colleague. The students who gathered at the gate of the university said al-Samawi is innocent and has no connection with any suspicious groups.

Al-Qaeda Suspected

The attempted bombings appear to be the work of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemeni branch of the international terrorist organization that took credit for the Sept. 11, 2001, airplane hijackings in the U.S., Brennan said.

The sophistication of the bombs “shows that it was an al- Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula effort,” Brennan said on the ABC program. “It’s not just these two individuals. We’re looking for a lot more.”

The parcel intercepted in Dubai included a computer printer with explosive materials hidden inside the ink cartridge and an electric circuit connected to a mobile phone’s SIM card, the United Arab Emirates’ state-run WAM news agency said, citing a statement from Dubai police.

Mobile-Phone Detonator

One of the two intercepted packages was set to be detonated by a cell phone and the other by a timer, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. Authorities don’t rule out other potentially lethal packages having been shipped, the person said.

Brennan said authorities are pursuing all leads to find out more about the bombs. Police in Dubai said officials intercepted and defused one at a FedEx facility in the emirate on Oct. 29.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the Dec. 25 attempt by Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian, to blow up the Northwest transatlantic flight, and the Aug. 27, 2009, suicide bombing targeting Prince Muhammad bin Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, the assistant interior minister. The prince suffered non- life threatening injuries from the Jeddah attack.

Authorities also are “looking very closely” at whether the crash of a UPS plane in Dubai in September is related to the cargo-bombs plot, Brennan told “CNN’s State of the Union.”

Obama said he and his top intelligence aides concluded there was “a credible terrorist threat against our country” and pledged to “destroy this al-Qaeda affiliate” in Yemen. The president spoke Oct. 30 about the plot with British Prime Minister David Cameron, according to a White House statement.

Yemen Rejects Intervention

As police surrounded the house of Al-Samawi, the student, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh held a press conference to declare he wouldn’t accept any outside attempt to deal with al- Qaeda operatives in his country.

“We will not accept any intervention in our internal affairs,” Saleh said. “We do not want anybody to hunt down al- Qaeda, for we will chase down al-Qaeda wherever they are, using our own planes and equipment.”

Yemeni authorities expect to begin screening 100 percent of air cargo leaving the country, Mahamed Abdul-Kader, deputy chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority, told reporters yesterday at a conference in Doha, Qatar.

“We think Yemen is able to handle” security, said Saif al-Suwaidi, director general of the United Arab Emirates’ general civil aviation authority. “This could have happened anywhere,” al-Suwaidi said, speaking at the same conference.

British Response

British Home Secretary Theresa May said Oct. 30 that steps will be taken to stop all unaccompanied cargo entering the U.K. from Yemen after interception of a device at East Midlands Airport the previous day. The package seized was viable and could have exploded on board an aircraft, she said.

The U.K. threat level was at “severe,” though there was no indication “that another attack is imminent,” May said.

Authorities in Yemen were searching for more packages and had examined 24 suspect parcels in Sana’a, the Associated Press reported, citing a Yemeni security official.

The Oct. 29 discoveries triggered examinations of three cargo flights that landed in Philadelphia and in Newark, New Jersey.

Brennan notified Obama about the potential threat at 10:35 p.m. Washington time on Oct. 28, setting in motion a response that included the Central Intelligence Agency, the Homeland Security Department and the Federal Aviation Administration, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Additional steps are being taken by the U.S. to screen cargo, Obama said in remarks at the White House. Brennan said it is “prudent” to ensure that packages from Yemen are “looked at very carefully, and that’s what we’re doing right now.”

The incident spurred UPS and FedEx to put an embargo on shipments from Yemen. The U.S. Postal Service also suspended acceptance of international mail originating in Yemen.

By bloomberg.com

Emirates and UPS cargo planes sit on the tarmac of Dubai airport on October 31. Photographer: Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images

MULTAN, Pakistan — A bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded at the gate of a famous Sufi shrine in central Pakistan during morning prayers Monday, killing at least five people, officials said.

The blast at the Farid Shakar Ganj shrine in Punjab province was the latest in a string of attacks targeting Sufi shrines in Pakistan. Islamist militants often target Sufis, whose mystical practices clash with their hardline interpretation of Islam.

The dead from Monday’s blast included at least one woman, said Maher Aslam Hayat, a senior government official in the Pak Pattan district where the shrine is located. At least 13 others were wounded in the explosion, he said.

The bombing significantly damaged a row of shops outside the shrine, said Hayat. But the shrine itself, which is dedicated to a 12th century Sufi saint, was largely undamaged, he said.

Local TV footage showed the twisted and charred body of the motorcycle on which the bomb was planted. It also showed large piles of broken wood and chunks of concrete from the shops damaged by the blast.

After the attack, a top Sufi scholar, Mufti Muneebur Rehman, criticized the government for not doing enough to protect the Sufi population. Pakistan is 95 percent Muslim, and the majority practice Sufi-influenced Islam.

“Our rulers are too busy serving foreign masters and have not prioritized protecting the people and sacred places from terrorists,” said Rehman.

Earlier this month, two suspected suicide bombers attacked a beloved Sufi shrine in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, killing at least eight people and wounding 65 others.

A suicide attack in July killed 47 people at the nation’s most revered Sufi shrine, Data Darbar in the eastern city of Lahore. That attack infuriated many Pakistanis, who saw it as an unjustified assault on peaceful civilians.

The government has waged a sustained military campaign against militants based in its semiautonomous tribal region along the Afghan border who have declared war against the Pakistani state. But militant violence remains a problem.

A roadside bomb struck a passenger van in the Orakzai tribal region on Monday, killing three people and wounding two others, said Aurangzeb Khan, a local government administrator. The blast tore apart the vehicle, which was passing near the village of Tanda.

The Pakistani military declared victory in Orakzai in June after pounding Taliban militants in the area for months with airstrikes and artillery. But militant attacks and military operations in the area have continued.

Army helicopter gunships pounded suspected militant hideouts in Orakzai on Sunday, killing 15 alleged insurgents, said Jehanzeb Khan, another local government official.

By foxnews.com

Oct. 25, 2010: In this photo released by China's Xinhua news agency, people gather at the blast site in Pak Pattan, a city in Pakistan's Punjab province, early Monday morning

More than five years after the attacks brought terror to the capital, bereaved families will finally have the chance to ask officials questions about whether their loved ones could have been saved.

The inquest, which gets under way at the Royal Courts of Justice today, will have a wide-ranging remit to examine whether the emergency services’ response was adequate and whether MI5 and the police could have prevented the 2005 atrocities.

Four suicide bombers armed with home-made explosives packed into rucksacks launched co-ordinated attacks on three Tube trains and a bus on July 7, 2005, in Britain’s worst terrorist atrocity since the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

It has taken so long to hold the inquests because they could not start until after the trial of three men accused of helping the attackers choose their targets.

The trio were cleared of the charge at Kingston Crown Court last year, although two of them were convicted of conspiracy to attend a terrorist training camp.

Lady Justice Hallett, who will chair the inquest, is sitting without a jury.

She has already ruled the proceedings will have a wide remit, examining all four bombing scenes to determine whether more could have been done to save the victims at each bomb site.

By foxnews.com

In this July 7, 2005 file photo, a forensic officer walks next to the wreckage of a double decker bus with its top blown off and damaged cars scattered on the road at Tavistock Square in central London.

The Pakistan-Afghan crossing was closed 11 days ago after a NATO incursion that killed two Pakistani soldiers. Militants took advantage of the blockade to attack more than 150 parked trucks, killing at least 6 people.

Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan — Pakistan on Sunday reopened a key Afghan border crossing used by trucks and tankers ferrying fuel and supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan, ending an 11-day blockade imposed after a NATO helicopter cross-border incursion that killed two Pakistani troops.

The first of hundreds of trucks and tankers stranded at the Torkham checkpoint at the Khyber Pass since Sept. 30 began moving across the border early afternoon Sunday. The border reopening should ease the massive bottleneck created by the blockade, which was followed by a series of militant attacks on parked NATO oil tankers and trucks across Pakistan.

More than 150 NATO trucks were set ablaze or damaged in those attacks. At least six people were killed in the attacks.

Although U.S. officials hailed the border reopening as a welcome development, relations between Islamabad and Washington remained palpably tense. The killing of the two Pakistani border soldiers by NATO helicopters on Sept. 30 was seen in Pakistan as an intolerable violation of the country’s sovereignty and came at a time when the U.S. had dramatically stepped up its drone-missile campaign against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants hiding out in Pakistan’s largely lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border.

In September, the U.S. carried out 22 drone-missile strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas, most of them directed at the Afghan Taliban wing known as the Haqqani network in the North Waziristan region. Pakistan has balked at moving against Haqqani network fighters, a reluctance that has exasperated officials in Washington because Haqqani fighters use North Waziristan as a base for launching attacks on U.S., NATO and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials decided on Saturday that they would reopen the Torkham crossing. That decision came four days after the U.S. government and NATO formally apologized for the deaths of the Pakistani soldiers, saying the helicopter crews mistook the men for insurgents they had been pursuing across the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Pakistan plays a vital role in keeping supply lines open for U.S. and Western troops battling Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. About 40% of NATO’s non-lethal supplies bound for Afghanistan move by truck from the Pakistani port city of Karachi to either the northwestern border crossing at Torkham or the southern crossing at Chaman. The Chaman crossing, located in Balochistan province, was not shut down after the Sept. 30 NATO helicopter incursion.

In recent years, U.S and NATO forces have established northern routes through former Soviet republics in Central Asia as alternate supply lines, which has allowed NATO to reduce its reliance on Pakistan as a transit nation. At one point, 80% of NATO’s non-lethal supplies moved through Pakistan.

By latimes.com

A truck carrying fuel for NATO forces in Afghanistan enters into Afghanistan through Pakistan's Torkham border crossing point.

U.S. and NATO forces have killed more than 100 fighters from a Pakistan-based faction of the Taliban during two weeks of stepped-up military operations along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The intensified border operations have contributed to tension between the United States and Pakistan that reached a critical point last week, when U.S. forces crossed into Pakistan and mistakenly killed three Pakistani frontier forces. Pakistan closed a key border crossing used to supply fuel to U.S. forces in Afghanistan in retaliation.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell expressed remorse for what he called a mistake by U.S. forces and said results of a joint NATO-Afghan investigation of the incident would be released Wednesday.

Morrell said U.S. and NATO forces targeted Haqqani network fighters using border areas as refuge in eastern Afghanistan. He said more than 100 were killed, and later gave a more precise figure.

The tally was an example of an increasing U.S. willingness to provide figures for enemy deaths in a counterinsurgency fight that U.S. commanders have long insisted can never be won by attrition.

“The threat is real, and though we’ve had success in killing 110 of them, there clearly are more of them out there who remain a threat to our forces,” Morrell said, adding that the Islamist fighters also battle Afghan and Pakistani forces.

The Haqqani network is a Pakistan-based faction of the Taliban with close ties to al-Qaida.

The group was started by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a commander once supported by Pakistan and the U.S. during the 1980s war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Haqqani has since turned against the U.S., and American military officials have said his organization - now effectively led by his son, Sirajuddin - presents one of the greatest threats to foreign forces in Afghanistan.

Morrell said he has not heard anything to suggest the U.S. will change the way its aircraft operate along the border, although he would not discuss specific rules of engagement.

“We will retain the right to defend our forces, to defend ourselves,” he said during a Pentagon press conference. “And our forces who operate on the border with Pakistan are in a very dangerous and difficult situation.”

The helicopter strike that killed the three Frontier Corps forces was the third such incursion into Pakistan in less than a week.

Pakistan is extremely sensitive to any U.S. military presence inside its borders, and conspiracy theories about U.S. motives abound. The incidents further opened Pakistan’s weak civilian government to charges at home that it is a U.S. puppet.

The stepped-up operations coincided with but are not directly tied to the three cross-border incursions, which U.S. officials acknowledge puts additional pressure on Islamabad to respond.

“There are occasional setbacks in our day-to-day relations, this being one of them, the most recent of them,” Morrell said.

Other U.S. officials stressed that the United States is not intentionally squeezing Pakistan to make the point that if it fails to vigorously target militants the United States will step in.

A small bomb damaged a truck in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday that was carrying oil to NATO troops in Afghanistan - the latest attack on stalled supply convoys since Pakistan shut the border crossing last week.

U.S. and Pakistani officials have said the Torkham crossing would probably reopen within a few days. U.S. military officials said the closure has not harmed delivery of fuel to U.S. forces, although alternate routes are less convenient and more expensive.

The increased military operations along the border and CIA drone strikes farther inland are a logical outgrowth of better intelligence and targeting information flowing from sources inside and outside Pakistan, officials said. At the same time they represent a calculated risk that the tense partnership between Washington and Islamabad can withstand the inevitable backlash.

“There are mistakes. There are incidents which create misunderstandings,” Morrell said.

“But that does not mean the relationship - this crucial relationship to us - is in any way derailed.”

Besides safe passage for NATO supplies, the U.S. needs Pakistan to help target the Taliban and al-Qaida militants who stage cross-border attacks on troops in Afghanistan. Pakistan meanwhile receives billions of dollars in military and civilian assistance that help keep its economy afloat.

By kansascity.com

A driver of Afghanistan-bound NATO truck sleeps as vehicles are parked at Pakistani border post Torkham in northwest of Pakistan on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010. Pakistan blocked a vital supply route for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in apparent retaliation for an alleged cross-border helicopter strike by the coalition that killed three Pakistani frontier troops.

Men believed to be militants set fire to 35 tankers in Pakistan that were carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan on Friday, officials said, a day after three soldiers were killed in a cross-border NATO airstrike.

Senior local officials blamed “extremists” for the attack on the tankers, which took place in the southern town of Shikarpur. About 12 people, their faces covered, opened fire with small arms into the air to scare away the drivers, and then they set the fires. Ten people were later arrested.

Chief Abdul Hameed Khoso of the Shikarpur police said the damage to the tankers varied, but he added, “There is no loss of human life.”

In another part of Pakistan, two unidentified men fired on a NATO tanker traveling through a town in Baluchistan Province toward Afghanistan. Two people burned to death after the vehicle caught fire, security officials said.

The attack comes during a tense week in relations between the United States and Pakistan. Angered by repeated incursions by NATO helicopters over the past week, Pakistan has blocked a supply route for coalition troops in Afghanistan. Analysts say border incursions and disruptions in NATO supplies underline growing tensions in a relationship that the United States relies on heavily to stabilize Afghanistan.

The latest cross-border attack took place in the northwest, when three Pakistani soldiers were killed and three were wounded as NATO forces chased militants in the Kurram tribal region.

It was the third such attack in a week, the Pakistan military said. NATO said the helicopters briefly crossed into Pakistani airspace after coming under fire from people there.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, speaking in Parliament, said Pakistan was a partner in the war against Islamist militancy but would allow no infringement of its sovereignty.

“I want to assure the entire nation from this house that we will consider other options if there is interference in the sovereignty of our country,” Mr. Gilani said without elaborating.

Pakistan’s ambassador to Belgium lodged a protest with NATO’s deputy general secretary over the incursions, the Pakistan Embassy said in a statement.

On Thursday, hours after the cross-border attack, Pakistani authorities halted tankers carrying supplies for the NATO forces passing through the Khyber tribal region on the Afghan border.

About three-quarters of cargo for NATO forces in Afghanistan moves through Pakistan, most via two border crossings: Chaman north of Quetta in Baluchistan, and Torkham at the Khyber Pass.

Delicate gear like ammunition, weapons and critical equipment is flown in.

By nytimes.com

Police inspected a row of smoldering NATO fuel trucks in southern Pakistan after an attack on Friday.

Ecuadorean soldiers firing automatic weapons and concussion grenades rescued President Rafael Correa late Thursday from a hospital where he was trapped most of the day by police rebelling over a cut in benefits.

At least one security force member was wounded in the 35—minute operation, and the government said at least one person was killed and six injured in clashes earlier in the day outside the hospital between Correa’s supporters and insurgent cops.

Correa, 47, told cheering supporters from the balcony of the Carondelet palace after being spirited away from the hospital at top speed in an SUV that the uprising was more than a simple police protest.

“There were lots of infiltrators, dressed as civilian and we know where they were from,” he shouted. But he did not blame anyone specifically.

Correa was trapped in the hospital for more than 12 hours after being treated for a tear—gassing that nearly aphyxiated him during a confrontation with hundreds of angry police officers who also shoved him and pelted him with water.

Correa expressed thanks from the balcony to all his supporters who went to the hospital and “were ready to die to defend demoracy.”

The violence began when hundreds of police angry over the new civil service law plunged this oil—exporting South American country into chaos, roughing up and tear—gassing Correa, shutting down airports and blocking highways in a nationwide strike.

At the hospital, Correa had vowed to leave either “as president or as a corpse.” He also negotiated with some of the insurrectionists, but the outcome of those talks was unclear.

Hours before the rescue, the armed forces chief, Gen. Ernesto Gonzalez, declared the military’s loyalty to Correa. He called for “a re—establishment of dialogue, which is the only way Ecuadoreans can resolve our differences.”

But Gonzalez also called for the law that provoked the unrest to be “reviewed or not placed into effect so public servants, soldiers and police don’t see their rights affected.”

The law, which Congress approved on Wednesday, must be published before it takes effect and that has not happened.

After police took to the streets, the government declared a state of siege, putting the military in charge of public order, suspending civil liberties and allowing soldiers to carry out searches without a warrant.

Police took over barracks in Quito, Guayaquil and other cities. Some set up roadblocks of burning tires, cutting off highway access to the capital.

Schools shut down in Quito and many businesses closed early due to the absence of police protection that left citizens and businesses vulnerable.

Looting was reported in the capital {hbox}” where at least two banks were sacked {hbox}” and in the coastal city of Guayaquil. That city’s main newspaper, El Universo, reported attacks on supermarkets and robberies due to the absence of police.

Peru and Colombia closed their countries’ borders with Ecuador in solidarity with Correa. Along with the rest of the region’s leaders and the United States, they expressed firm support for Correa. Bolivia’s leftist president, Evo Morales, summoned South America’s presidents to an emergency meeting set for Friday in Buenos Aires of the continent’s fledgling UNASUR defense union.

This poor Andean nation of 14 million people had a history of political instability before Correa, cycling through eight presidents in a decade before the leftist U.S.—trained economist first won election in December 2006. Three of them were driven from office by street protests that plagued the country, which is a member of OPEC.

In April 2009, after voters approved a new constitution he championed, Correa became Ecuador’s first president to win election without a runoff. That success has led him at times to act with overconfidence.

Confronting the protesters Thursday morning, Correa was agitated and unyielding.

“If you want to kill the president, here he is! Kill me!” he told them before limping away with the aid of a cane as an aide fitted a gas mask over his face. Correa’s right knee, with which he has had recurring problems, was operated on last week.

Some 800 police officers in Quito joined the protest, which appeared to have arisen spontaneously. The number of participants outside the capital was unclear. Ecuador has 40,000 police officers.

Correa called the unrest “an attempted coup” spurred by his opponents in remarks to reporters at the police hospital, where he at one point was hooked to an intravenous drip. “They’re practically holding the president captive,” he said.

Correa’s leftist ally, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, claimed earlier that the Ecuadorean leader was “in danger of being killed.” Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, said at one point that insurgents were trying to enter the hospital through the roof.

Chavez’s claim was echoed by Cuba while the Organization of American States’ secretary—general, Miguel Insulza, called the situation “a coup d’etat in the making.”

The United States didn’t go that far.

“We urge all Ecuadorians to come together and to work within the framework of Ecuador’s democratic institutions to reach a rapid and peaceful restoration of order,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement.

The striking police were angered by a law passed by Congress on Wednesday that would end the practice of giving members of Ecuador’s military and police medals and bonuses with each promotion. It would also extend from five to seven years the usual period required for a subsequent promotion.

“They are a bunch of ungrateful bandits,” Correa said of the protesters after they set upon him.

He said the new law “is removing bonus payments and decorations from the entire public sector … to prevent abuses of state money. We know the Ecuadorean people support us in all this.”

The U.S. Embassy issued a message warning U.S. citizens “of a “nationwide strike by all levels of police, including military police.” It warned them to “stay in their homes or current location, if safe.”

The president’s policy coordination minister, Doris Soliz, asked Ecuadoreans to be calm and support the government.

Air force troops shut down Quito’s Mariscal Sucre airport as the protests began Thursday morning. Dozens of flights were canceled and it was unclear when international service would be restored to the Quito, Guayaquil and Manta airports.

The head of Ecuador’s civil aviation authority, Fernando Guerrero, said in a statement that international operations were suspended at the latter two airports “due to the lack of immigration and counternarcotics personnel.”

By thehindu.com

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a gas mask, is rescued from a hospital where he was holed up by protesting police in Quito, Ecuador.