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Three Americans were killed in Afghanistan Saturday, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said.

Two of the U.S. service members died in a bombing in southern Afghanistan. The third death followed an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan. No other details were immediately available.

The casualties came as the top American diplomat and top U.S. general in Afghanistan reassured the troubled nation of U.S. support.

“Now looking ahead, we’re all focused together on the upcoming parliamentary elections and the key test will be the satisfaction of the Afghan people with the progress that’s going to come from their hard work as they approach the elections — their incredible reputation for perseverance and their indomitable spirit,” said Amb. Karl Eikenberry, speaking to Afghan journalists with Gen. David Petraeus.

Meanwhile, Afghan and coalition soldiers fought off assaults on two military bases that left more than 20 insurgents dead, ISAF said.

The fighting occurred in Khost province, a volatile region on Afghanistan’s rugged border with Pakistan.

Insurgents clad in U.S. military uniforms and wielding rocket-propelled grenades and small arms “simultaneously launched attacks” against Forward Operating Base Salerno and Forward Operation Base Chapman, ISAF said.

Chapman is the same base where a suicide bomber killed seven CIA officers on December 30.

Troops killed about 15 insurgents at Salerno and six at Chapman. Five insurgent fighters were captured and were in ISAF custody.

A Haqqani network operative who helps carry out bombings and two other insurgents died in an airstrike while fleeing Salerno in a vehicle. Two insurgents who got into Salerno were killed by soldiers. The Haqqani network is a militant group with ties to al Qaeda.

“We are tightening our grip on the insurgents and as a result they are attempting anything and everything as a last ditch effort,” said U.S. Army Col. Rafael Torres, ISAF spokesman. “The insurgents gave their best effort and came up short.”

Afghan police and ISAF members seized a car bomb and a vehicle carrying ammunition. Forces also seized suicide vests, rifles and unexploded munitions.

Four ISAF soldiers were injured, and three have returned to duty. The fourth was set to return to duty soon. No base facilities were damaged.

Also Saturday, an Afghan civilian was killed by a suicide attacker in southeastern Paktika province, ISAF said. Seven people also were wounded when the insurgent detonated a suicide vest.

By the CNN

EDS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT- An Afghan National Army soldier stands near the body of a suicide attacker near a NATO base in Khost province of Afghanistan, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010. Insurgents launched pre-dawn attacks Saturday on a major NATO base in eastern Afghanistan and a nearby camp where seven CIA employees were killed last year in a suicide bombing. NATO said there were no coalition casualties and the attacks were repelled. It said 13 insurgents were killed, four of whom were wearing suicide vests, and five captured. (AP Photo/Nishanuddin Khan)

The U.S. military says the number of its troops in Iraq is now less than 50,000, the lowest level since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. 

The announcement comes ahead of an August 31 deadline to switch the U.S. mission in Iraq from combat to training and counter-terrorism.

President Barack Obama had promised the lower levels shortly after taking office.  He also reaffirmed a prior agreement to remove all U.S. troops by the end of next year.  

But the terms appear to be somewhat fluid.   U.S. troops were still manning key positions in Baghdad this year, long after the June 2009 announcement they had withdrawn for Iraqi cities.

Peter Harling is a senior analyst on Iraq with the International Crisis Group, based in Syria.

“I’m not sure you can draw a line very clearly between combat troops and troops conducting an advisory mission,” said Harling. “I think Americans will remain armed and very vigilant when it comes to their own security.  But indeed there is no doubt that the U.S. wants to withdraw.  I think, U.S. policy in Iraq boils down to withdrawal; there’s not much more to it than bailing out.”

U.S. popular support for the war has fallen over the years, as casualties mounted and no clear victory appeared in sight. 

Tuesday’s announcement coincides with Iraq’s continued struggle to form a new government, five months after inconclusive elections.  

Harling says that many of the basic questions about a post-invasion Iraq remain unresolved, including power sharing, and the clearly-defined role of the military, the constitution and various branches of government.

“You can add to that, obviously, relations between Sunnis and Shi’ites, Arabs and Kurds, Iraq and all its neighbors - none of these questions have been answered,” added Harling.  “So withdrawing at a high pace, within the context of a framework which gives the U.S. very little flexibility, when all these questions remain unanswered is obviously a gamble.”

A recent increase in violence has raised fears that the U.S. drawdown, along with Iraq’s political vacuum, could further embolden insurgents.

U.S. officials said last week that they will increase the number of private security forces in Iraq by as many as 7,000.  The duties of the temporary contract workers would include protecting U.S. officials.

By Elizabeth Arrott

Trucks transport U.S. military Humvees, MRAPs and other vehicles recently arrived from Iraq at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, 20 Aug 2010.

General David Petraeus, the top commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said the Afghan Taliban’s momentum has been reversed in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, as well as near Kabul.

The top commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan said Monday that Taliban momentum has been reversed in areas that had been its stronghold.

Gen. David Petraeus also said that US forces would not begin an “exodus” from Afghanistan in July 2011, the deadline for beginning the withdrawal of US forces.

His remarks come after a deadly summer for US troops in Afghanistan, with casualties at their highest rates since the invasion in 2001. The US is in the middle of an attempt to turn around the war, as it did in Iraq, with a troop increase. President Obama ordered an additional 30,000 American troops to Afghanistan last fall, for a total of 100,000, and the number of foreign troops in the country is scheduled to peak in the coming weeks.

Petraeus made the remarks in an interview with the BBC that was broadcast on Monday. He said NATO forces had reversed the momentum the Taliban gained in the past several years in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, as well as near Kabul. He said NATO forces will regain momentum in other areas as well, but that challenges remain.

“You not only have to reverse the momentum, you have to take away those sanctuaries and safe havens that the Taliban have been able to establish over the course of those years,” he said, adding that “that’s going to entail tough fighting.”

He seemed to warn that the high casualty rates for NATO forces could continue. ”When you take away areas that mean a great deal to the enemy, the enemy fights back. It gets harder before it gets easier,” he said.

The Associated Press reports that two members of the international force in Afghanistan were killed by roadside bombs Monday, one of them American. Four Americans died Sunday in heavy fighting in eastern and southern regions.

In the interview with the BBC, Petraeus also downplayed the July 2011 deadline for beginning troop withdrawal. “That’s a date when a process begins, nothing more, nothing less. It’s not a date when American forces look for an exodus and look for the exit and the light to turn off on the way out of the room,” he said.

He said American forces would begin to transition some of their tasks to their Afghan counterparts on that date, “in those areas where conditions allow it, and at a pace allowed by the conditions.” He also said he would offer the president his “best professional military advice” come July on whether the deadline is appropriate.

Those remarks echoed comments from a week prior that he made during a whirlwind media blitz that included interviews with NBC’s Meet the Press, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, when he said he did not go to Afghanistan to engineer a “graceful exit” and may recommend against any drawdown of troops next summer.

Some critics have have taken the president to task for setting a withdrawal date in Afghanistan. But Agence France-Presse reports that Petraeus, who was the architect of the Iraq “surge,” will try to replicate the strategy in Afghanistan in hopes that Afghan forces will be ready to take on more responsibilities next year. While the strategy in Iraq was to enlist Sunni insurgents to fight against Al Qaeda, in Afghanistan, Petraeus is pushing for the creation of Local Police Forces, “armed men paid by the government to defend their villages,” reports the AFP.

The Taliban may be feeling some pressure, reports The Christian Science Monitor, at least in its effort to maintain the loyalty of Afghans. It recently called for a joint commission to investigate civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

By Kristen Chick

In this still made from a frame grab from high-definition video, a US Army Apache attack helicopter takes off after refueling during a several-hour firefight against the Taliban, in Zhari district, Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, Aug. 20.

BAGHDAD — On Sunday, a journalist for Al Arabiya, an Arabic-language news channel, sat in the newsroom and explained that his staff had recently returned to the bureau after being forced to leave for weeks by threats from Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

“Thank God we are able to work,” said the journalist, Mohammed Zuhair, the chief of the channel’s newsroom.

Less than 24 hours later, a suicide bomber drove a white minibus packed with explosives past several checkpoints and detonated the vehicle in front of the news channel’s office, killing 6 and wounding 16. The dead included security guards and a cafeteria worker, but no journalists. Among the wounded was a former Iraqi deputy prime minister who lives nearby. Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia took responsibility for the bombing.

On Monday evening, two other explosions struck Shiite pilgrims as they marched from Najaf to Karbala to commemorate the birthday of Imam Mahdi, a revered Shiite saint. The attacks, which also bore the hallmark of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, killed close to 20 and wounded more than 50, according to officials in Baghdad and Karbala.

While the bombing at Al Arabiya’s office spared the newsroom, the attack was a brutal reminder of the dangers Iraqis face in practicing journalism, which they have had the freedom to do for only seven years. The war here has been the deadliest in history for journalists. More than 140 have been killed in Iraq since the war began, the vast majority of them Iraqis, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Many newsrooms in Baghdad display photographs of slain colleagues. At Al Sumariya, another popular TV news channel, large photos in a hallway serve as reminders of two correspondents who were kidnapped and killed.

The attack on Monday came as officials have again been debating proposals for a new law to protect journalists — in the event that the country’s political class can end the nearly five-month stalemate that has followed March’s parliamentary elections and form a new government.

Among the ideas are to provide government protection for targeted journalists; offer compensation to the families of those killed; and set up regulations aimed at protecting the newsgathering process. A new law might also elevate a crime against a journalist to a higher level, a parallel to hate crime laws in the United States.

A draft law was sent to Parliament last year but never enacted; many here expect it will be taken up again. Officials recently held a workshop to discuss the proposals.

Mr. Zuhair, who was not hurt in Monday’s bombing, said a law would “give a capability to journalists and a stature.”

The need for a media law — which could also impose fines for publishing false information — is itself a matter of debate. Mindful of prior abuses — when the press was a propaganda arm of Saddam Hussein’s tyranny, and the death penalty could be imposed for criticizing his government — some want no government interference in the news media, even with the aim of protection. Last year, journalists in Baghdad protested against a media law, fearing it would restrict them.

Feryad Rawandozi straddles the worlds of politics and the press. A former member of Parliament, he is the spokesman for the Kurdistan Alliance, a coalition of politicians from Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, and a newspaper columnist. His position is nuanced.

“Without a law, we cannot compensate families for losing their sons,” Mr. Rawandozi said. “Some areas are still very dangerous for journalists, but not all the Iraqi areas.”

As a politician, however, he believes the Iraqi press is not advanced enough to police itself on ethics, and favors a law to regulate the profession. “Some people think we need some sort of regulation because we are not exercising freedom of speech in the right way,” he said, mentioning an article that he said misquoted him. “It’s very hard to say that journalists stick with the ethics.”

Iraq’s Constitution protects freedom of opinion and speech, but some Western groups are urging the government to give the media a deeper constitutional imprimatur. A group of press advocacy groups working with Unesco recently published an open letter advocating the passage of a freedom of information law, writing, “We still lack the legal mechanism that guarantees the citizen’s right to have access to information.”

The Iraqi government is wading into the affairs of the news media in other ways, recently establishing a special press court to adjudicate libel offenses and press freedom issues. Western advocates have criticized the court, saying the government has not disclosed enough information about the court’s procedures.

“A specialized press court is hardly the solution to the problems Iraqi journalists face on a daily basis,” Mohamed Abdel Dayem, Middle East director for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a recent statement. “Historically, press courts have been used for restriction rather than protection.”

On Monday afternoon, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia took credit for the bombing at Al Arabiya on a Web site it often uses to communicate, suggesting the attack was in response to a broadcast about the influence of the extremist group. The program was called “Creation of Death.”

“Wait for more,” the group’s statement said.

The capabilities of the group, which is homegrown but is believed to have some foreign leadership, have diminished in recent months with the killing of many top leaders, but it is still able to regularly carry out suicide attacks against institutions of Iraq’s nascent democracy.

Ayad Allawi, the former interim prime minister whose coalition won the most seats in the parliamentary elections, went to the scene of the bombing.

About a month ago the Interior Ministry notified Al Arabiya, whose headquarters are in Dubai, that it had intelligence that the network’s Baghdad office might become a target of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, according to Tariq Maher, a local correspondent for the channel who is a former employee of The New York Times in Baghdad.

The network’s Iraqi staff decamped to the Al-Rasheed Hotel for several weeks, and only in the last couple of days had returned to its office, with a scaled-down staff and added protection from the Interior Ministry, according to Mr. Maher, who was in the building when the explosion occurred. He had been up late working, and he and a colleague had gone to bed for a nap just after 9 a.m. He said a blanket that he pulled over his head saved him from falling debris.

“That is how the miracle happened, why we survived,” he said. “Two guards turned completely to ash.”

By TIM ARANGO

Soldiers inspected the Baghdad office of Al Arabiya, an Arabic news channel, after a bombing Monday in which six people died.

MINGORA, Pakistan—An apparent suicide bombing near a bus terminal in Pakistan’s Swat Valley killed five people and wounded at least 58 on Thursday, officials said, a sign that Islamist militants remain active in the northwest region despite a massive army operation.

The explosion went off around noon in Mingora, the main town in the one-time tourist haven that was largely overrun by Taliban militants in 2007.

Pakistani TV footage showed vehicles bent and twisted due to the force of the blast. Some men were desperately trying to open the doors of a car to reach a woman and man sitting in the front who were bloodied and appeared unconscious.

The area struck was crowded, so the death toll could rise significantly. Senior police official Qazi Ghulam Farooq said five people died, including two women, and that officials believed a suicide bomber was involved. At least 58 people were wounded, he said.

The Pakistan military launched its biggest operation against the Taliban in Swat in 2009 after a failed attempt at a peace deal that included pledges to impose Islamic law in the area. The operation forced some 2 million people to flee, but after a few months, the army said it had taken control and many of the refugees returned home.

Still, violence has occasionally flared in Swat, shaking people’s confidence. A handful of targeted killings of anti-Taliban elders in particular has worried those who fear the insurgents are staging a comeback in the valley.

In recent weeks, several major suicide attacks have shaken Pakistan. Last week, a pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Mohmand tribal region, killing at least 102 people in the deadliest attack in the U.S.-allied nation this year.

The attacks come as Washington is pushing Pakistan to do even more to root out militant groups that use its soil to plan attacks on Western troops across the border in Afghanistan.

The U.S. has also launched more than 100 missile strikes against Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in Pakistan’s semiautonomous tribal area along the Afghan border. The attacks have been especially frequent in North Waziristan, the home base of the al-Qaida-linked group led by Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Siraj.

One Thursday evening, three suspected U.S. missiles landed in North Waziristan’s Mada Khel area, killing at least two people, said two intelligence officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media on the record.

Pakistan officially condemns the missile strikes but is believed to secretly assist the covert, CIA-run program.

Militants have responded to the strikes by assassinating tribesmen whom they accuse of spying, including two men whose bullet riddled bodies were found Thursday in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan, said an intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The bodies were accompanied by notes saying they were killed for spying on the Taliban, he said.

By Sherin Zada and Riaz Khan

Pakistani soldiers and police officers guard the site of an apparent suicide bombing in Mingora, capital of Pakistan's troubled Swat valley on Thursday, July 15, 2010. The apparent suicide bombing near a bus terminal in Pakistan's Swat Valley killed three people and wounded at least 35 people Thursday, officials said, a sign that Islamist militants remain active in the northwest region despite a massive army operation against them. (AP Photo/Naveed Ali)

A deadly series of blasts in Uganda has been blamed on al-Shabaab, the Somali Islamist group which claims to have links to al-Qaeda.

-Al-Shabaab, which means “youth” in Arabic, has taken control of large areas of south and central Somalia. The Horn of Africa nation has been mired in anarchy since warlords toppled military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

The interim government’s attempts to restore central rule have largely been paralysed by infighting and the Islamist-led insurgency. Fighting has killed more than 21,000 people since the start of 2007 and uprooted at least 1.5 million civilians. The chaos has also helped fuel kidnappings and piracy offshore.

Al-Shabaab’s hardline militia was part of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) movement that pushed US-backed warlords out of Mogadishu in June, 2006, and ruled for six months before Somali and Ethiopian forces ousted them.

In June 2009, al-Shabaab officials in one of the group’s Mogadishu strongholds ordered four teenagers to each have a hand and a leg cut off as punishments for robbery.

Al-Shabaab’s interpretation of Islamic law has shocked many Somalis, who are traditionally more moderate Muslims. However, some residents give the insurgents credit for restoring order to the regions under their control.

The Somali government claims hundreds of foreign fighters have joined the insurgency from countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Gulf region and Western nations such as the United States and Britain. Some of the foreign jihadists have taken up leadership positions in militant groups including al-Shabaab.

One American national of Somali origin was killed while fighting for al-Shabaab in Mogadishu last July.
Also last July Australian police arrested four men linked to the group, raising concern it may be seeking targets outside Somalia.

In Sept 2009, al-Shabaab insurgents struck the main African Union military base in Mogadishu with twin suicide car bombs and killed 17 peacekeepers. Rebels said the bombing was revenge for the US killing of Kenyan-born Salah Ali Saleh Nabhan, a most-wanted al-Qaeda militant.

Two French security advisers were kidnapped by Shabaab last July but one escaped a month later. The group issued a statement of demands in September, which included an immediate end to French support for the Somali government and the withdrawal of African Union peacekeepers.

Al-Shabaab has threatened to strike Uganda’s capital Kampala and Burundi’s capital Bujumbura because both nations contribute troops to the 6,100-strong AU peacekeeping force AMISOM.

The UN’s World Food Programme suspended its work in much of southern Somalia in January due to threats against its staff and unacceptable demands by al Shabaab rebels controlling the area.

By Telegraph

Al-Shabaab fighters Photo: AP

British troops in the Sangin area of Afghanistan’s Helmand province are to be replaced by US forces, the UK’s Defence Secretary Liam Fox has said.

The UK has suffered its heaviest losses in the area, with 99 deaths since 2001.

About 1,000 Royal Marines are expected to leave and be redeployed to central Helmand by the end of 2010.

The military insists the move is a redeployment, now there are more US troops on the ground, but the Taliban are certain to portray it as a defeat.

Difficult questions
Last month Britain handed over command in Helmand to a US general.

Maj Gen Richard Mills, of the US Marine Corps, assumed control of all Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) troops in Helmand on 1 June.

Dr Fox told MPs UK forces had made “good progress” in Sangin, but the move would enable Britain to provide “more manpower and greater focus” on Helmand’s busy central belt, leaving the north and south to the US.

“The result will be a coherent and equitable division of the main populated areas of Helmand between three brigade-sized forces, with the US in the north and the south, and the UK-led Task Force Helmand, alongside our outstanding Danish and Estonian allies, in the central population belt,” he told the Commons.

About 300 logistic and security troops - from the Theatre Reserve Battalion stationed in Cyprus - would be sent to Helmand to help with the redeployment, he said.

The Theatre Reserve Battalion for Afghanistan is currently provided by the 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment.

Dr Fox also told MPs a stable Afghanistan was “vital to national security” .

Speaking at prime minister’s questions, David Cameron told MPs this was the “key year” to step up the military and political pressure in the country.

“It’s time to maximise the pressure now and then bring our forces home as we train up the Afghan army and police force to do the job that needs to be done,” he said.

UK forces should not be there in a “combat role, or in significant numbers” in five years time, he added.

Earlier, Conservative MP and former British army officer Patrick Mercer said the handover was a routine move and should under no circumstances be considered a retreat.

“Any suggestion that British forces are being beaten out of Sangin or returning with their tails between their legs is not just disingenuous, it’s actually disgusting,” he told the BBC.

Of the 312 UK deaths in Afghanistan since 2001, a third have taken place in Sangin, currently home to 40 Commando Royal Marines.

Col Stuart Tootal, who commanded the first UK battle group of of 1,200 soldiers sent into Sangin four years ago said the number of deaths that had taken place in Sangin meant there was a lot of “emotion” attached to the area.

He said: “It makes no sense from a logistic and command point of view to keep a British battle group away from its main brigade when it’s now an American area and there are American troops to take over from them.

“This reflects good practical military sense and we shouldn’t allow emotion or misinterpretation to be put above that.”

Ian Sadler, whose son Jack, 21, died north of Sangin in December 2007, said the US takeover would allow British troops to “consolidate” and “build a better base… in a smaller area influence”.

“This is a Nato exercise, it’s not the British out there fighting separately to the Americans, the Polish, the Canadians, we’re all out there together,” he told the BBC.

Sangin is the latest part of the province to be handed over to US control after the town of Musa Qaleh in March and the Kajaki dam last month.

It has witnessed some of the fiercest fighting the British military has endured since World War II, and contains a mix of rival tribes.

It is also a volatile northern district at the heart of the opium-growing industry.

The UK’s 8,000 forces in Helmand are greatly outnumbered by the 20,000 US Marines sent there by President Barack Obama.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence has named a soldier who was killed on Monday by a roadside bomb in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province as Trooper James Anthony Leverett, 20, of the Royal Dragoon Guards.

By BBC

Stage 1: UK troops in Kajaki replaced by US troops and move to Sangin. Already complete.
Stage 2: UK Theatre Reserve Battalion deploys to Central Helmand to consolidate recent gains.
Stage 3: US Marine Battalion commences operations in the vicinity of Sangin.
Stage 4: Marines replace UK forces in Sangin later this year. UK forces go to Central Helmand.
Source: Ministry of Defence

It doesn’t matter how we dress it up, the decision to withdraw our forces from the bitterly-contested town of Sangin later this year looks as though we’ve admitted defeat, and are leaving it to the Americans to sort out the mess.

I fully understand the military logic advanced by Dr Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, for the decision, which will see American Marines assume responsibility for Sangin. By moving the 1,000-strong force we have deployed in Sangin to central Helmand – currently 40 Commando Royal Marines – we can increase our force density in central Helmand, which will afford greater protection for the various agencies involved in the reconstruction effort, which is crucial to the country’s future stability.

But it still doesn’t look good. Even though British forces have fought heroically to capture and hold Sangin these past four years - losing 99 soldiers and many more seriously wounded in the process – we have never been able to dominate the surrounding area. Central Sangin itself has been transformed by the stability British forces have provided, with markets opening and commerce returning, as I discovered when I visited the town earlier this year.

But lack of numbers has meant that we have never been able to dominate the surrounding area, which has allowed the Taliban to maintain strongholds in the surrounding districts, with the inevitable consequences. Every third British patrol leaving their base in Sangin reports a “contact” with Taliban insurgents, either in the form of a road-side bomb or a direct attack. Consequently Sangin accounts for a high proportion of British fatalities and casualties.

I can understand the new coalition government’s desire to limit the number of British fatalities and the seemingly endless procession of coffins passing through Wootton Bassett. The war in Afghanistan is unpopular, and is not a vote-winner.

But I am concerned about the message this sends to our enemies who fight with or support the Taliban. British commanders wanted to stay in Sangin and fight it out until they had the Taliban on the run. They will not now be given that opportunity. And after the previous “redeployments” from Musa Qala and Kajaki, the impression is that we have been forced to withdraw from the more bitterly contested regions of Afghanistan, which doesn’t do the image of the British military any favours. Certainly, if the Taliban were to run up a victory banner, they might well have a point.

By Con Coughlin

British soldiers on patrol in Sangin, Helmand (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

India (Reuters) - Police fired at hundreds of stone-throwing protesters in Kashmir on Tuesday, killing three civilians, authorities said, the latest violence in a region at the core of a dispute between India and Pakistan.

The deaths of at least 14 people, mostly protesters, in the last three weeks have triggered the biggest anti-India demonstrations in two years across Muslim-majority Kashmir valley. Many locals blame security forces for the deaths.

“The fresh protests broke out when a body of a teenager was fished out from a rivulet on Tuesday,” Mohammad Afzal, a police official said.

Locals said the teenager had jumped into the water in Kashmir’s summer capital, Srinagar, and drowned while being chased by security forces during a demonstration on Monday evening.

Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram last week accused Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), of being behind growing anti-India protests, but many locals believe the protests are mostly spontaneous.

The growing troubles could hurt a tentative process that New Delhi and Islamabad have begun to repair relations after the 2008 attacks on Mumbai, which India blames on LeT.

In Islamabad, scores of Pakistani Kashmiris staged a protest against the recent killings.

“I want to assure my brothers in Indian occupied Kashmir that we will continue to support you until we liberate every inch of our motherland from Indian subjugation,” Syed Salahuddin, a top commander of Kashmiri militant group, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen told protesters.

Peace in Kashmir is seen as crucial for progress in relations between the two nuclear-armed countries who claim the region in full but rule in parts and have fought two wars over it.

Authorities imposed curfew in Srinagar and closed schools and colleges on Tuesday after separatists appealed to students to hold anti-India protests.

But thousands of people shouting “we want freedom” took to the streets in Srinagar to protest the fresh killings.

In downtown Srinagar, the protesters were led by the region’s

senior separatist leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

“Protests and civil disobedience will continue until India withdraws its security forces from all populated areas, and punish those found guilty,” Farooq said.

The conflict in Kashmir has killed tens of thousands of people since a revolt against New Delhi broke out in the scenic Himalayan region two decades ago.

By Sheikh Mushtaq

The bodies of Muzaffar Ahmad Bhat and Fayaz Ahmad Wani (covered with white cloth) lie on the road as policemen chase away mourners in Srinagar July 6, 2010.

Al-Qaida launches English-language propaganda magazine as it broadens reach in U.S., Europe.

Al-Qaida launched its first online propaganda magazine in English on Tuesday, a move that could help the terror group recruit inside the U.S. and Europe.

The magazine, called Inspire, is being run by al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen, which has been linked to the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt of a U.S.-bound airliner.

The launch suggests that, as al-Qaida’s core has been weakened by CIA drone airstrikes, the group hopes to broaden its reach inside the U.S., where officials have seen a spate of homegrown terrorists.

“This new magazine is clearly intended for the aspiring jihadist in the U.S. or U.K. who may be the next Fort Hood murderer or Times Square bomber,” Bruce Riedel, a Brookings Institution scholar and former CIA officer, said.

Tuesday’s launch did not go smoothly. The magazine was 67 pages long, but all but the first three pages were just garbled computer code, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist websites and obtained a copy of the magazine.

The table of contents included articles such as “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom,” which promised to be “a detailed yet short, easy-to-read manual on how to make a bomb using ingredients found in a kitchen.”

“We also call upon and encourage our readers to contribute by sending their articles, comments or suggestions to us,” the magazine’s introduction read.

At the heart of al-Qaida’s propaganda effort is Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical U.S.-born cleric now living in Yemen. Authorities say his online sermons, in English, have inspired several recent terrorist plots in the United States. The magazine promotes an article by al-Awlaki titled “May Our Souls be Sacrificed for You.” But like most of the magazine, the article did not appear in the version circulated Tuesday.

Until now, al-Qaida has relied on Arabic websites to carry its message. Now it appears to be capitalizing on its recent success recruiting inside the U.S.

By MATT APUZZO and ADAM GOLDMAN

Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden talks at a news conference in Afghanistan in this May 26, 1998 file photo. Al-Qaida launched its first online propaganda magazine in English on Tuesday, a move that could help the terror group recruit inside the U.S. and Europe.