Uncertainty Over US Strike Against Al-Oaida Leader In Libya

This wanted poster from the website of the U.S. State Department's Rewards For Justice program shows a mugshot of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, charged with leading the attack on a gas plant in Algeria in 2013 that killed at least 35 hostages, including three Americans. The U.S military said on Monday, June 15, 2015 it likely killed the al-Qaida-linked militant leader when it launched airstrikes in eastern Libya over the weekend. (U.S. State Department Rewards For Justice via AP)

CAIRO (AP) — Pentagon officials say they believe they hit their target — the one-eyed, al-Qaida-linked commander who led a deadly attack on an Algerian gas facility in 2013. But uncertainty still surrounds the U.S. airstrike in eastern Libya, and whether Mokhtar Belmokhtar was actually among the militants said to have been killed in the bombing.

Libyan officials say Sunday's airstrike hit a gathering of militants on a farm outside Ajdabiya, a coastal city about 850 kilometers (530 miles) east of the capital, Tripoli, but there were conflicting reports on how many died.

An initial assessment shows the bombing that targeted Belmokhtar was successful, and "post-strike assessments" were still underway Monday to determine whether the Algerian militant was killed, said Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.

"But we're not prepared to confirm that because we haven't finalized our assessment," he said, adding that the strike had hit a "hard structure." Maj. Mohammed Hegazi, a military spokesman from Libya's internationally recognized government based in the east, also said tests were needed to identify the dead, which numbered at least 17, with their bodies badly burned. Among those killed were three foreigners — a Tunisian and two unidentified militants, he said.

Hegazi criticized his own government for rushing to confirm late Sunday that Belmokhtar was among the dead. "I don't confirm or deny. We are waiting confirmation," he told The Associated Press by telephone. "It is not easy."

He said the raid was based on solid intelligence that indicated militants forced out of the eastern city of Benghazi by fighting there had taken refuge in Ajdabiya. No civilians were killed, Hegazi said, adding that the militants took the fatally wounded Tunisian to a hospital in Ajdabiya, clashes erupted with local troops that left three soldiers dead.

In the airstrikes, two F-15 fighter jets had launched multiple 500-pound bombs, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss details of the attack. Authorities say no U.S. personnel were on the ground for the assault.

A Libyan Islamist with ties to militants said the airstrikes missed Belmokhtar, but killed four members of a Libyan extremist group linked to al-Qaida, Ansar Shariah, in Ajdabiya. That group was tied to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

The Islamist, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal in Libya, told the AP that Belmokhtar wasn't at the site of the airstrike. However, a news website that has previously carried statements from Belmokhtar said he was in Ajdabiya, meeting with affiliates. The Mauritanian website quoted informed sources in Libya as saying six people were killed in the raid, and a Tunisian and Yemeni were wounded.

Abdel-Basit Haroun, a security adviser to the eastern government, said a total of 29 people were killed in the airstrike, which hit a meeting of al-Qaida affiliates as they tried to "rearrange their ranks."

If Belmokhtar's death is confirmed, it would be a major success for U.S. counterterrorism efforts. He is one of the most-wanted militants in the region, with a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture, and it is not the first time authorities claimed to have killed him.

Believed to be 43 years old, Belmokhtar fought in Afghanistan and was reported to have lost his eye in combat. He was one of a number of Islamist fighters who have battled Algeria's government since the 1990s, later joining al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, the group's North Africa branch.

He was also known as "Belaouer the One-Eyed," ''Abou al-Abbes" and "Mr. Marlboro," because he was accused of smuggling cigarettes through the Sahara and the Sahel region. He formed his own group and led the January 2013 attack on Algeria's Ain Amenas gas complex that killed at least 35 hostages, including three Americans. He later emerged in Libya, and is believed to have been based in the western and southern parts of the country.

The U.S. filed terrorism charges against Belmokhtar in connection with the Algeria attack. Officials have said they believe he remained a threat to U.S. and Western interests. Belmokhtar had just split off from al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb to start his own franchise.

The charges filed against him by U.S. law enforcement officials included conspiring to support al-Qaida, use of a weapon of mass destruction and conspiring to take hostages. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara had said Belmokhtar "unleashed a reign of terror years ago, in furtherance of his self-proclaimed goal of waging bloody jihad against the West."

Intelligence officials said Belmokhtar had essentially built a bridge between AQIM and the underworld, creating a system where various outlaws support each other and enroll youths. He's been linked to terrorist attacks and the lucrative kidnapping of foreigners in the region.

Libya has been plagued by chaos since the civil war in 2011, which drew in U.S. and European airstrikes that helped topple longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. He was killed by armed groups, which have since grown to roil the country in violence.

Recently, the internationally recognized government, backed by its own militias, has been forced out of Tripoli by Islamist militias and their affiliated politicians who set up their own government and parliament.

U.N.-sponsored talks have bogged down as the two sides exchange accusations. The weekend U.S. bombing raid could cause more disarray among the rival Libyan groups. A Facebook page associated with Libya Dawn, the Islamist militia backing the Tripoli-based government, denied that the airstrikes targeted al-Qaida and instead said they targeted Islamists who are "Libya's revolutionaries ... considered the safety valve for the revolution." It said U.S. warplanes were allied with the forces led by powerful Gen. Khalifa Hifter and backing the internationally recognized government.

The east-based government hailed the U.S. raid as a "piece of the international support that it has long requested to fight terrorism that represents a dangerous threat to the regional and international situation."

It added that the government would like more help fighting terrorism, including the Islamic State group, which controls Sirte, west of Ajdabiya, and is spreading to the west and south. Militants have taken advantage of Libya's chaos, with fighters flowing into the country's vast ungoverned spaces.

Al-Qaida militants in eastern Libya are battling the Islamic State group for power and resources. But as IS has grown in power, fueled by successes in Iraq and Syria, some al-Qaida fighters have switched loyalties.

It was not the first time the U.S. has been involved in the fight against Libyan extremists. U.S. special forces went into Tripoli in 2013 and took Abu Anas al-Libi out of the country. Al-Libi, who was accused by the U.S. of involvement in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, died in January in a U.S. hospital from a longstanding medical condition.

Associated Press Video journalist Sagar Meghani in Washington and Rami Musa contributed to this report.

Al-Qaida Confirms US Strike Killed Leader Of Yemen Affiliate

The leader of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, identified by the IntelCenter as Nasir al-Wahishi, in Yemen. Al-Qaida on Tuesday, June 16, 2015 confirmed that al-Wahishi, its No. 2 figure and leader of its powerful Yemeni affiliate, was killed in a U.S. strike, making it the harshest blow to the global militant network since the killing of Osama bin Laden. (IntelCenter via AP, File)

CAIRO (AP) — A U.S. airstrike has killed Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, who commanded its powerful Yemeni affiliate, dealing the global network its biggest blow since the killing of Osama bin Laden and eliminating a charismatic leader at a time when it is vying with the Islamic State group for the mantle of global jihad.

In a video statement dated June 14 and released Tuesday by the Yemeni affiliate, a senior operative announced the death of Nasir al-Wahishi, a veteran jihadi who once served as bin Laden's aide-de-camp, and said his deputy, Qassim al-Raimi, has been tapped to replace him.

"Our Muslim nation, a hero of your heroes and a master of your masters left to God, steadfast," Khaled Batrafi said in the video, vowing that the group's war on America would continue. "In the name of God, the blood of these pioneers makes us more determined to sacrifice," he said. "Let the enemies know that the battle is not with an individual... the battle led by crusaders and their agents is colliding with a billion-member nation."

Yemeni security officials had earlier said a U.S. drone strike killed three suspected militants in the al-Qaida-held southern port city of Mukalla last week. U.S. officials had said they were trying to verify whether al-Wahishi was killed.

Al-Qaida's Yemen affiliate has long been seen as its most lethal, and has been linked to a number of foiled or botched attacks on the U.S. homeland. The group claimed responsibility for January's attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that killed 12 people.

In addition to leading the Yemeni affiliate, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Wahishi also served as deputy to Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's top leader, who succeeded bin Laden in 2011. Al-Wahishi's death is a major loss for al-Qaida as it struggles to compete with the Islamic State, a breakaway group that has seized vast swaths of Syria and Iraq and spawned its own affiliates elsewhere in the region.

Both groups are dedicated to bringing about Islamic rule by force, but al-Qaida does not recognize the IS group's self-styled caliphate and has maintained that the priority should be to wage jihad against America in order to drive it out of the Middle East.

Batrafi vowed to make the United States "taste the bitter flavor of war and defeat until you stop supporting the Jews, the occupiers of Palestine, until you leave the lands of the Muslims and stop supporting apostate tyrants."

Al-Raimi, the new leader of AQAP, is thought to have masterminded a 2010 plot in which bombs concealed in printers were shipped to the U.S. on cargo planes before being detected and defused. Yemen's government has mistakenly announced al-Raimi's death three times since 2007. He is believed to direct training camps in Yemen's remote deserts and mountains, where he organizes cells and plans attacks.

AQAP's master bomb-maker, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, is also believed to still be alive. He is thought to have designed the bombs used in the cargo planes plot and in a failed attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound passenger plane in December 2009 by a man who had explosives concealed in his underwear.

Al-Asiri is also believed to have dispatched a suicide bomber in 2009 to assassinate Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, then head of Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism agency. The attack failed, and Mohammed bin Nayef is now the crown prince.

Al-Wahishi had fought alongside bin Laden at Tora Bora in Afghanistan in late 2001 before the al-Qaida leader slipped across the border into Pakistan. Al-Wahishi fled to Iran, where he was detained and deported to Yemen in 2003.

He was among 23 al-Qaida militants who broke out of a detention facility in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in February 2006. Three years later, al-Wahishi announced the creation of AQAP, which gathered together Yemeni and Saudi militants following a sweeping crackdown on the extremist group by Riyadh.

AQAP has been able to expand its reach in recent months as Yemen has slid into chaos. Shiite rebels known as Houthis captured Sanaa last year and are battling southern separatists, Islamic militants, and local and tribal militias across the country. Yemen's military, once a close U.S. ally against al-Qaida, has split between opponents and supporters of the rebels, and a Saudi-led coalition has been bombing the Houthis and their allies since March.

In April, AQAP took advantage of the chaos to seize Mukalla and freed several prisoners, including Batrafi. It then struck a power-sharing deal with local tribesmen. But despite such gains, it is engaged in battles with the Houthis and allied forces on at least 11 fronts, Batrafi said.

And Mukalla has proved something of a death trap, with U.S. strikes killing al-Wahishi, two senior militants and scores of fighters there since the city fell in April.

10 Key Findings From Report On CIA Interrogations

Jose Padilla, center, is escorted to a waiting police vehicle by federal marshals near downtown Miami. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ten major findings from the newly released summary of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on the CIA's detention and interrogation program:

—Enhanced interrogation techniques used on terror detainees, including simulated drowning and sleep deprivation, were ineffective in gaining intelligence leads that led to important operations against terrorist groups or prevented attacks on the U.S.

—The prison conditions and harsh interrogations of detainees were more brutal than the CIA officials acknowledged to the American public and in contacts with Congress and the White House. The simulated drowning technique of waterboarding was "physically harmful," with effects that included vomiting and convulsions. At least one terror detainee died of exposure in an overseas prison.

—The CIA's management of coercive interrogations and its system of "black site" prisons was "deeply flawed." Personnel were sometimes poorly trained, medical personnel assisted in harsh treatment, and record-keeping was mismanaged.

—The agency's use of coercive interrogations was based on a program developed by two psychologists who had no experience in interrogations or counterterrorism. The CIA never conducted a comprehensive analysis of the program's effectiveness.

—The CIA actively impeded or avoided congressional oversight. CIA senior officials repeatedly gave inaccurate information to congressional leaders and at one point under-counted the number of terror detainees who were subjected to harsh treatment under questioning.

—CIA officials often gave inaccurate information about its interrogation program to Bush administration White House and legal officials, preventing a proper legal analysis of the prison operations. Bush legal officials relied on erroneous CIA data to codify the use of waterboarding and nine other enhanced interrogation techniques.

— Interrogators sometimes used harsh tactics not condoned by CIA superiors or White House legal officials. But interrogators and prison officials who violated CIA policies were rarely disciplined or reprimanded.

—Much of the information that the CIA provided to the media about its interrogation and detentions program was inaccurate, preventing clear scrutiny of detainees' treatment.

—The CIA's reliance on harsh interrogations complicated the national security missions of other federal agencies. The FBI abandoned its traditional role in interrogations as the CIA began to rely on harsh methods. And the CIA often resisted efforts by the agency's inspector general to investigate the use of harsh interrogations and conditions in black sites.

—The CIA's harsh interrogations and secret detentions in overseas prisons damaged the reputation of the U.S. around the world.

Detainee Zubaydah A Key Figure In Senate Report

Abu Zubaydah, date and location unknown. Zubaydah was the CIA’s guinea pig

WASHINGTON (AP) — Abu Zubaydah was the CIA's guinea pig.

He was the first high-profile al Qaida terror suspect captured after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the first to vanish into the spy agency's secret prisons, the first subjected to grinding white noise and sleep deprivation tactics and the first to gasp under the simulated drowning of waterboarding. Zubaydah's stark ordeal became the CIA's blueprint for the brutal treatment of terror suspects, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee's report released Tuesday.

The newly released report cites Zubaydah's detention in Pakistan in March 2002 as a turning point in the Bush administration's no-holds-barred approach to terror suspects and the CIA's development of coercive interrogation tactics.

The United States brutalized scores of terror suspects with interrogation tactics that turned secret CIA prisons into chambers of suffering and did nothing to make America safer after the 9/11 attacks, Senate investigators concluded Tuesday.

The committee report accused the CIA of offering a misleading version about what it was doing with its "black site" captives and deceiving the nation about the effectiveness of its techniques. The report was the first public accounting of tactics employed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and it described far harsher actions than had been widely known.

The tactics employed included confinement to small boxes, weeks of sleep deprivation, simulated drowning, slapping and slamming, and threats to kill, harm or sexually abuse families of the captives. The report catalogued the use of ice baths, death threats, shackling in the cold and much more, including waterboarding. Many detainees developed psychological problems.

The case of Abu Zubaydah offers a personal view of those experiences. While CIA officials subjected Zubaydah to a growing array of harsh interrogations, legal officials working for President George W. Bush wrote memos citing Zubaydah as a key test case to justify the extreme measures, the report said.

Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002 alone, according to a previously released Bush-era legal document. The new Senate report said CIA interrogators had a pre-arranged plan about how to dispose of Zubaydah's body if he were to die during questioning: He would be cremated.

The physical effects on the terror suspect were immediate and pronounced. Straining under a waterlogged cloth clamped over his face, Zubaydah became "completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth," according to CIA emails cited in the report. He was body-slammed by his captors. He was hooded, then unmasked and ominously shown a coffin-like box. He was locked in a cramped cell, reduced to wailing and hysteria, the report said.

Zubaydah's torment became the template for the CIA's black-site interrogations, the Senate report said. It provided interrogators with reams of data, CIA medical specialists with the limits of human endurance and Bush administration officials with the legal outlines of how they would deal with future terror suspects. At the CIA's request, the report said, top Bush administration Justice Department officials approved the use of waterboarding and other coercive tactics to humble Zubaydah and enshrined a harsh regime that controlled every aspect of his life.

U.S. and Pakistani officials grabbed Zubaydah in the town of Faisalabad and wounded him in a firefight in March 2002. He was taken to a prison site in an unidentified country described as "Detention Site Green" in the report, but confirmed as Thailand, according to prior legal documents, media accounts and international investigations. While healing, Zubaydah was questioned by FBI and CIA interrogators. But the FBI veterans soon withdrew from the black site after protesting that CIA interrogators were using abusive techniques on Zubaydah.

In his first waterboarding session in early August 2002, CIA interrogators hooded and shackled Zubaydah and pitched him into a wall. They repeatedly asked "questions about threats" to the U.S., but Zubaydah insisted he had no information to give.

The interrogators strapped Zubaydah to a board, covered his face with a cloth and poured water over it. Zubaydah choked, vomited, then blacked out, coming to under medical supervision after expelling "copious amounts of liquid," according to CIA records cited by the Senate. "So it begins," a CIA officer wrote to superiors in a cable from the prison.

Zubaydah was waterboarded as often as twice a day over the following weeks. Even some CIA veterans at the Thai prison were horrified by the scene, according to the Senate report. In one cable, a staffer said "several on the team profoundly affected ... some to the point of tears and choking up." The harsh tactics continued through the month until staffers concluded that the detainee was cooperative.

In a 2006 speech that confirmed the detention and interrogation program and cited Zubaydah, Bush said the detainee was a "senior terrorist leader and a trusted associate of Osama bin Laden." Jose Rodriguez, the senior CIA official who oversaw Zubaydah's questioning from agency headquarters in Virginia, said on CBS' "60 Minutes" that Zubaydah became "compliant within three weeks" and "gave us a roadmap that allowed us to capture a bunch of al Qaida senior leaders."

The Senate report disputes both accounts, saying Zubaydah was a low-level minnow in the al Qaida hierarchy and offered no substantive information about real terror plots or structure. Senate investigators quote an internal CIA report from 2006 that acknowledged Zubaydah was miscast as a senior terror leader. While the CIA told Bush's National Security Council that the tactics were effective and "produced meaningful results," the Senate committee said other CIA documents indicate Zubaydah never provided information such as the next terrorist attack or identities of operatives inside the U.S.

The report also branded as "inaccurate" previous CIA contentions that Zubaydah's harsh treatment coerced him into providing critical early information about the "Dirty Bomb" plot," a purported plan by terror suspect Jose Padilla to ignite a radiological device in a U.S. city. Arrested in Chicago in 2002, Padilla was convicted in a 2007 trial of conspiracy to commit murder overseas, but not charged with the bomb plot. Zubaydah mentioned Padilla as a possible threat to FBI interrogators before he was subjected to waterboarding and other severe techniques, the report said.

In the official CIA response to the Senate committee, the agency said that Zubaydah named Padilla as a result of harsh interrogations. But the CIA acknowledged that "it took us too long to stop making references to his infeasible 'Dirty Bomb' plot."

More than 12 years after his capture, Zubaydah remains confined to the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He has yet to be charged with any crimes under the government's military tribunals — a limbo predicted in 2002 by CIA terror experts, according to the Senate report.

In a 2002 email to CIA headquarters, the CIA's interrogators said they wanted assurances that Zubaydah would never be allowed to publicly describe what they were doing to him, recommending that he should "remain incommunicado for the remainder of his life."

US Prepares For Security Risks From Torture Report

 White House press secretary Josh Earnest speaks during his daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, Dec. 8, 2014, where he answered questions on the CIA, Yemen, and other topics.

WASHINGTON (AP) — American embassies, military units and other U.S. interests are preparing for possible security threats related to the release of a report on the CIA's harsh interrogation techniques at secret overseas facilities after the 9/11 terror attacks.

The report from the Senate Intelligence Committee will be the first public accounting of the CIA's use of what critics call torture on al-Qaida detainees held at "black" sites in Europe and Asia. The committee on Tuesday was expected to release a 480-page executive summary of the 6,000-plus-page report compiled by Democrats on the panel.

"There are some indications that the release of the report could lead to a greater risk that is posed to U.S. facilities and individuals all around the world," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday. "The administration has taken the prudent steps to ensure that the proper security precautions are in place at U.S. facilities around the globe."

Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said "there is certainly the possibility that the release of this report could cause unrest" and therefore combatant commands have been directed to take protective measures.

U.S. officials who have read the report say it includes disturbing new details about the CIA's use of such techniques as sleep deprivation, confinement in small spaces, humiliation and the simulated drowning process known as waterboarding. It alleges that the harsh interrogations failed to produce unique and life-saving intelligence — a conclusion disputed by current and former intelligence officials, including CIA Director John Brennan.

It also asserts that the CIA lied about the covert program to officials at the White House, the Justice Department and congressional oversight committees. President Barack Obama has said, "We tortured some folks."

Earnest said that regardless of whether the U.S. gleaned important intelligence through the interrogations, "the president believes that the use of those tactics was unwarranted, that they were inconsistent with our values and did not make us safer."

While the White House has said it welcomes the release of the summary, officials say they do have concerns about potential security threats that could follow. On Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry asked the committee's chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to "consider" the timing of the release. White House officials said Obama had been aware that Kerry planned to raise the issue with Feinstein, but they insisted the president continued to support the report's release.

Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

US Sends 6 Prisoners From Guantanamo To Uruguay

And reviewed by the U.S. military, a soldier stands guard at the front gate entrance to Guantanamo's Camp 6 maximum-security detention facility, at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba.

MIAMI (AP) — Six prisoners held for 12 years at Guantanamo Bay have been sent to Uruguay to be resettled as refugees, the U.S. government announced Sunday — a deal that had been delayed for months by security concerns at the Pentagon and political considerations in the South American country.

The six men — four Syrians, a Tunisian and a Palestinian — are the first prisoners transferred to South America from the U.S. base in Cuba, part of a flurry of recent releases amid a renewed push by President Barack Obama to close the prison.

All were detained as suspected militants with ties to al-Qaeda in 2002 but were never charged. They had been cleared for release since 2009 but could not be sent home and the U.S. struggled to find countries willing to take them.

Uruguayan President Jose Mujica agreed to accept the men as a humanitarian gesture and said they would be given help getting established in a country with a small Muslim population. "We are very grateful to Uruguay for this important humanitarian action, and to President Mujica for his strong leadership in providing a home for individuals who cannot return to their own countries," U.S. State Department envoy Clifford Sloan said.

Among those transferred was Abu Wa'el Dhiab, a 43-year-old Syrian on a long-term hunger strike protesting his confinement who was at the center of a legal battle in U.S. courts over the military's use of force-feeding.

The Pentagon identified the other Syrians sent to Uruguay on Saturday as Ali Husain Shaaban, 32; Ahmed Adnan Ajuri, 37; and Abdelahdi Faraj, 39. Also released were Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Abdullah Taha Mattan, 35, and 49-year-old Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi of Tunisia.

Uruguayan officials declined comment Sunday on the transfers. Adriana Ramos, a receptionist at a military hospital in Montevideo, the capital, said the six men were being examined there but declined to provide any details.

Cori Crider, a lawyer for Dhiab from the human rights group Reprieve, praised Mujica, a former political prisoner himself, for accepting the men. "Despite years of suffering, Mr. Dhiab is focused on building a positive future for himself in Uruguay," said Crider, who was heading to Montevideo to meet with him. "He looks forward to being reunited with his family and beginning his life again."

The U.S. has now transferred 19 prisoners out of Guantanamo this year, all but one of them within the last 30 days. Saturday's move brings the total number of prisoners still at Guantanamo to 136 — the lowest number since shortly after the prison opened in January 2002. Officials say several more releases are expected by the end of the year.

Obama administration officials had been frustrated that the transfer took so long, blaming outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel for not approving the move sooner. They said after Mujica had agreed to take the men in January, the deal sat for months on Hagel's desk, awaiting his signature as required by law. The Pentagon didn't send the notification of the transfer to Congress until July.

By then, the transfer had become an issue in Uruguay's political election and officials there decided to postpone it until after the vote. Tabare Vazquez, a member of Mujica's ruling coalition and a former president, won a runoff election on Nov. 30.

Upon taking office, Obama had pledged to close the prison but was blocked by Congress, which banned sending prisoners to the U.S. for any reason, including trial, and placed restrictions on sending them abroad.

The slow pace of releases has created a tense atmosphere inside the prison. A hunger strike that began in February 2013 totaled about 100 prisoners at its peak, including Dhiab and Faraj. The U.S. now holds 67 men at Guantanamo who have been cleared for release or transfer but, like the six sent to Uruguay, can't go home because they might face persecution, a lack of security or some other reason.

Prisoners from Guantanamo have been sent around the world but this weekend's transfer was the largest group sent to the Western Hemisphere. Four Guantanamo prisoners were sent to Bermuda in 2009 and two were sent to El Salvador in 2012 but have since left.

Associated Press writers Nedra Pickler in Washington, Leo Haberkorn in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Luis Henao in Santiago, Chile, contributed to this report.

American, South African Killed In Yemen

Luke Somers, 33, an American photojournalist who was kidnapped over a year ago by al-Qaida, uses a camera during a demonstration demanding the release of Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo Bay prison.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — An American photojournalist and a South African teacher were killed Saturday during a high-risk, U.S.-led raid to free them from al-Qaida-affiliated militants in Yemen, a turbulent Arab country that is a centerpiece of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the region.

The predawn raid was the second rescue attempt in as many weeks to free Luke Somers, a 33-year-old freelance photographer and editor kidnapped just over a year ago in Yemen's capital. South African Pierre Korkie, abducted 18 months ago with his wife in the city of Tazi, also was killed by militants as U.S. forces descended upon the militants' compound in southern Yemen. A South African aid group trying to negotiate Korkie's release said he was a day from freedom after a deal late last month that included a "facilitation fee" to the kidnappers. The relief organization had told Korkie's wife that "the wait is almost over."

President Barack Obama said he ordered the raid because Somers was believed to be in "imminent danger." The president, in a statement, condemned Somers' killing as a "barbaric murder," but did not mention the 56-year-old Korkie by name, offering condolences to the family of "a non-U.S. citizen hostage." The South African government said it was informed that Korkie died during the mission by American special forces.

"It is my highest responsibility to do everything possible to protect American citizens," Obama said. "As this and previous hostage rescue operations demonstrate, the United States will spare no effort to use all of its military, intelligence and diplomatic capabilities to bring Americans home safely, wherever they are located."

About 40 American special operations forces were involved in the rescue attempt, which followed U.S. drone strikes in the area, U.S. officials said. The rescuers, backed by Yemeni ground forces, advanced within 100 meters of the compound in Shabwa province when they were spotted by the militants. A firefight ensued.

Amid the fighting, U.S. forces saw a militant briefly enter a building on the compound. U.S. officials believe it was then that Somers and Korkie were shot. When Americans entered the building, they found both men alive, but gravely wounded.

Officials said that based on the location where Somers and Korkie were being held, there was no possibility that they were struck by American gunfire. U.S. forces pulled Somers and Korkie onto V-22 Ospreys, and medical teams began performing surgery in midair. One hostage died during the short flight; the second died after the Ospreys landed on the USS Makin Island, a Navy ship in the region.

The raid was over in about 30 minutes. U.S. officials disclosed details of the mission on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the raid. Saturday's operation was the second rescue attempt by U.S. and Yemeni forces to bring Somers home alive. On Nov. 25, American special operations forces and Yemeni soldiers raided a remote al-Qaida safe haven in a desert region near the Saudi border.

Eight captives, including Yemenis, a Saudi and an Ethiopian, were freed. Somers was not at that location. He and five other hostages had been moved days earlier, officials later said. Roughly a dozen people are believed held by al-Qaida militants in Yemen.

On Thursday, al-Qaida militants released a video showing Somers and threatening to kill him in three days if the United States did not meet the group's unspecified demands or if another rescue was attempted.

U.S. officials said that threat prompted Obama to move quickly. Using information obtained during the first raid, U.S. officials believed Somers was being held Shabwa province, a stronghold of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist group's Yemeni branch. Officials believed a second hostage was there, too, but did not know it was Korkie.

By Thursday evening, the Pentagon had sent the White House a proposed plan, which Obama approved the following day. Officials alerted Yemen's President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who gave his support. Hadi has been a critical U.S. partner in seeking to undermine Yemen's dangerous al-Qaida affiliate. With the permission of Yemen's government, the U.S. has for years launched drone strikes against militant targets in the country and provided Yemen with hundreds of millions of dollars in security assistance.

When Obama announced U.S. airstrikes this year against militant targets in Syria and Iraq, he held up the Yemen effort as a comparable model. Yemen's highest security body, the Supreme Security Committee, issued a rare statement Saturday acknowledging that the country's forces had carried out the raid with "American friends." The committee said all the militants holding the hostages were killed in the operation.

No American forces were killed or sustained serious injuries in the raid. Yemen's government said four of its forces were wounded. Korkie was abducted in May 2013 along with his wife, Yolande, who was doing relief work. She was released in January without ransom as a result of negotiations by the South African relief group, Gift of the Givers.

But al-Qaida militants demanded a $3 million ransom for Korkie's release, according to those close to the negotiations. Although that demand was dropped, the kidnappers did insist on the "facilitation fee," according to the aid group. The undisclosed amount was raised by Korkie's family and friends, according to the South African Press Agency.

"A team of Abyan (Yemeni) leaders met in Aden this morning and were preparing the final security and logistical arrangements, related to hostage release mechanisms, to bring Pierre to safety and freedom," said Imtiaz Sooliman, the aid group's founder. "It is even more tragic that the words we used in a conversation with Yolande at 5:59 this morning was: 'The wait is almost over.'"

The U.S. government has a policy against paying ransoms to win the release of hostages. Korkie was a dedicated teacher, a family friend said. "Teaching was his life. His heart took him to Yemen. He loved teaching the poor," said Daan Nortier, who is acting as a family spokesman.

Lucy Somers, the photojournalist's sister, told The Associated Press that she and her father learned of her brother's death from FBI agents just after midnight Saturday. "We ask that all of Luke's family members be allowed to mourn in peace," she said from near London.

Somers was kidnapped in September 2013 as he left a supermarket in Sanaa, according to Fakhri al-Arashi, chief editor of the National Yemen, where Somers worked as a copy editor and a freelance photographer during the 2011 uprising in Yemen.

Before her brother's death, Lucy Somers released an online video describing him as a romantic who "always believes the best in people." She ended with the plea: "Please let him live." In a statement, Somers' father, Michael, also called his son "a good friend of Yemen and the Yemeni people" and asked for his safe release.

Fuad Al Kadas, who called Somers one of his best friends, said Somers spent time in Egypt before finding work in Yemen. Somers started teaching English at a Yemen school but quickly established himself as a one of the few foreign photographers in the country, he said.

"He is a great man with a kind heart who really loves the Yemeni people and the country," Al Kadas wrote in an email from Yemen. He said he last saw Somers the day before he was kidnapped. Al-Arashi, Somers' editor at the National Yemen, recalled a moment when Somers edited a story on other hostages held in the country.

"He looked at me and said, 'I don't want to be a hostage,'" al-Arashi said. "'I don't want to be kidnapped.'"

Pace reported from Washington. Associated Press writers who contributed to this report include Maamoun Youssef, Sarah El Deeb, Maggie Michael and Jon Gambrell in Cairo; Robert Burns in Kabul, Afghanistan; Ken Dilanian in Washington; Adam Schreck and Fay Abuelgasim in Manama, Bahrain; Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg and Yusof Abdul-Rahman in London.

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Al-Qaida Leader Says It Has Expanded Into India

In this image taken from video, Ayman al-Zawahri, head of al-Qaida, delivers a statement in a video which was seen online by the SITE monitoring group, released Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014.

NEW DELHI, INDIA (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Al-Qaida has expanded into the Indian subcontinent, the leader of the terror group said in a video statement released Thursday, with a regional group that will "wage jihad against its enemies."

In the video, which was seen online by the SITE monitoring group, Ayman al-Zawahri said al-Qaida had been preparing for years to set up in the region. The new group "is the fruit of a blessed effort of more than two years to gather the mujahedeen in the Indian subcontinent into a single entity," al-Zawahri said.

While the statement referred to the "Indian subcontinent" — a term that most commonly refers to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal — al-Zawahri's comments were widely seen as directed at India, a largely Hindu nation with a large Muslim minority.

Until recently, India had largely seen itself as beyond the recruiting territory of international jihadists like al-Qaida. However, the Islamic State militant group, which has seized control of large parts of Iraq and Syria, is increasingly believed to be gaining followers in India. Last month, an Indian engineering student who had traveled to Iraq with friends, and who was thought to have joined the Islamic State, was reported killed.

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh met Thursday morning with top security and intelligence officials to discuss the threat. A spokesman for India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party said the statement was "a matter of serious concern. But there is nothing to worry about. We have a strong government at the federal level."

India, though, has a notoriously underfunded and ill-trained security infrastructure. In 2008, a small group of Pakistani militants attacked Mumbai, India's financial hub, effectively shutting down the city for days and leaving 166 people killed.

New Delhi has also waged a long-running insurgency war in Kashmir, India's only majority-Muslim state, with militants fighting to bring independence to the Himalayan region or join it to neighboring Pakistan. The fighting has left thousands of people dead.

Some analysts saw the announcement, which showed al-Zawahri speaking in front of a dark curtain, as an effort to revive the fortunes of al-Qaida, which has been largely eclipsed, at least publicly, by the Islamic State, the militant group that in Syria and Iraq that recently executed two American journalists.

"This may be ruse for al-Zawahri to enhance his diminishing clout among Arab Muslims and Pakistani mujahedeen who are veering in a big way toward the Islamic State militant group leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi," said Rana Banerji, a prominent Indian intelligence and security analyst.

AP Writers Ashok Sharma and Nirmala George contributed to this report.

Israel Says Foils Al-Qaida Plot On US Embassy

From a web posting by al-Qaida's media arm, as-Sahab, provided by IntelCenter, shows al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri. Israel on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014, said it had foiled an "advanced" al-Qaida plan to carry out a suicide bombing on the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and bomb other targets, in what analysts said was the first time the global terror network's leadership has been directly involved in plotting an attack inside Israel. The Shin Bet intelligence agency said it had arrested three Palestinians who allegedly plotted bombings, shootings, kidnappings and other attacks, and that the men were recruited by an operative based in the Gaza Strip who worked for al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL. (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Israel on Wednesday said it had foiled an "advanced" al-Qaida plan to carry out a suicide bombing on the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and bomb other targets, in what analysts said was the first time the global terror network's leadership has been directly involved in plotting an attack inside Israel.

The Shin Bet intelligence agency said it had arrested three Palestinians who allegedly plotted bombings, shootings, kidnappings and other attacks. It said the Palestinian men, two from Jerusalem and one from the West Bank, were recruited by an operative based in the Gaza Strip who worked for al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri.

While a number of groups inspired by al-Qaida have carried out attacks against Israel before, this appeared to mark the first time an attack was directly planned by al-Qaida leaders. The Shin Bet said the Palestinians planned on attacking a Jerusalem conference center with firearms and then kill rescue workers with a truck bomb. Al-Qaida also planned to send foreign militants to attack the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv on the same day using explosives supplied by the Palestinians, it said.
It said five men whose identity and nationality were not disclosed were to fly into Israel with fake Russian passports to attack the American embassy. It was not clear where the men are located. The Palestinian operatives had planned on several other attacks, it said. One included shooting out the tires of a bus and then gunning down passengers and ambulance workers.

The agency said it the plot was in "advanced planning stages" but gave no further information on how close the men got to carrying it out. It said the Palestinians from Jerusalem had used their Israeli resident cards to scope out and gather intelligence on targets. They were arrested in the past few weeks, it said.

A number of al-Qaida-inspired groups have carried out rocket attacks from Gaza and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, as well as shootings in the West Bank. Israeli intelligence calls these groups part of a "global jihad" movement.

Aviv Oreg, a former head of the Israeli military intelligence unit that tracks al-Qaida, said the plot marked the first time it has been directly linked to an attempted attack in Israel. "This is the first time that Ayman al-Zawahri was directly involved," he said. "For them, it would have been a great achievement."

The Shin Bet said the three suspects made contact with al-Qaida over the Internet. It said they planned on traveling to Syria — where various jihadist groups are battling the forces of President Bashar Assad — for training.

Oreg said that many foreign fighters fighting the Assad regime are from Chechnya and predominantly Muslim parts of Russia and speculated that the militants with the phony documents would be from there.

Al-Qaida-inspired groups are on the rise in the Gaza Strip, which is run by the Islamic militant Hamas. These groups accuse Hamas of being too lenient because it has observed cease-fires with Israel and has stopped short of imposing Islamic religious law, or Shariah, in Gaza.

In the West Bank, Israel and the Palestinian Authority of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have cracked down on Islamic militants. Three Salafis, members of a movement that advocates a hard-line interpretation of Islamic law, were killed in a shootout with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank last November.

Afghan President Again Demands US Airstrikes End

An Afghan police walks ahead of members of civil society organizations for their protection as they march in a street, during an anti terrorism demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2014. Hundreds of Afghans gathered outside a Lebanese restaurant in Kabul on Sunday to protest against Taliban attack that killed 21 people. The assault Friday by a Taliban bomber and two gunmen against the La Taverna du Liban restaurant was deadliest single attack against foreign civilians in the course of a nearly 13-year U.S.-led war there now approaching its end. They chanted slogans against terrorism as they laid flowers at the site of the attack. The dead included 13 foreigners and eight Afghans, all civilians. The attack came as security has been deteriorating and apprehension has been growing among Afghans over their country's future as U.S.-led foreign forces prepare for a final withdrawal at the end of the year.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Afghanistan's president demanded Sunday that the United States no longer carry out military operations or airstrikes and must jump-start peace talks with the Taliban before his country signs a security deal to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014.

President Hamid Karzai's deepening anti-American rhetoric comes as the Taliban intensifies its assaults ahead of the planned withdrawal and after Friday's militant raid on a popular Kabul restaurant, the deadliest single attack against foreign civilians in the course of the nearly 13-year U.S.-led war.

Although Karzai has made similar demands in the past, he has in recent weeks ratcheted up his condemnations of alleged U.S. failures as Afghans look fearfully ahead to an uncertain future. Karzai made the statement after being presented with the findings of an investigation into a joint Afghan-U.S. military operation last week that resulted in civilian casualties which he blamed on a U.S. military air strike.

The U.S.-led international military coalition, however, provided a sharply different account Sunday of what happened during the two-day operation against insurgents in eastern Parwan province, saying it was an Afghan-led effort and carried out at the request of the government.

Karzai convened his National Security Council on Sunday to discuss the Parwan attack. "Airstrikes are a matter of concern for the Afghan people. The National Security Council said there should be an immediate end to all operations and airstrikes by foreign forces," a statement said.

Karzai sent a delegation to investigate the Jan. 15 airstrike in the Ghorband district of Parwan province, which borders Kabul. The delegation blamed the U.S. for ordering an operation it said killed 12 civilians and four Taliban fighters. It further said local authorities were not informed about the operation.

The coalition, which is carrying out its own investigation, said the government was not only aware but had requested the operation ahead of the country's April 5 presidential elections because the area had fallen under Taliban control.\

"The operation was requested by the governor in response to those conditions," the coalition said in a statement. "The resulting plan, approved through the Ministry of Defense, was a deliberate clearing operation to disrupt insurgent activity, based on intelligence obtained primarily by Afghan forces."
The coalition said a team of more than 70 Afghan commandos with a few U.S. Special Operations Forces carried out the operation. Senior U.S. military officials, who requested anonymity as they weren't allowed to brief journalists about an ongoing investigation, said the commandos came under heavy fire almost immediately. An Afghan commando and U.S. soldier were killed, they said.

Afghan National Security Forces had nine U.S. advisers with them when they became trapped by withering fire from residential homes, they said. "At that point, the ANSF and coalition advisers were unable to maneuver or withdraw without sustaining significant casualties. The combined force required defensive air support in order to suppress enemy fire from two compounds," the coalition statement said.

One senior U.S. military official said the decision to ask for air support was taken "in extremis" by the Afghan ground commander. The official said there were two civilians killed and one wounded. Karzai's comments come as he has declined to sign an agreement allowing some U.S. forces to stay past the planned withdrawal. Karzai tentatively endorsed the deal after it was completed last October, but first refused to sign it until after it was approved by a council of tribal elders known as the Loya Jirga in November.

But after the elders approved it, Karzai still declined to sign it, now saying he wants his successor to decide after the elections. The U.S. had wanted the deal to be signed by Dec. 31 because it needs time to prepare to keep thousands of U.S. troops in the country for up to a decade. NATO allies also have said they won't stay if the Americans pull out.

The agreement aims to help train and develop Afghan forces, while also allowing for a smaller counterterrorism force to pursue al-Qaida fighters and other groups. Karzai again demanded Sunday that the U.S. do more to start talks with the Taliban, although an American effort to get them going through intermediaries in Qatar collapsed last summer. The Taliban have refused to talk directly with Karzai, his government or its representatives.

Karzai's statement further warned that the country risked slipping into "feudalism" if his conditions were not met. Meanwhile Sunday, hundreds of Afghans gathered outside a Lebanese restaurant in Kabul to protest against a Taliban assault there that killed 21 people Friday. A suicide bomber and two gunmen attacked La Taverna du Liban, killing 13 foreigners and eight Afghans, all of them civilians.

Protesters chanted against terrorism as they laid flowers. "Today, we stand against terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, and the killing of the civilians by terrorists," demonstrator Salma Alkozai said.

Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report.

Iraq Announces Offensive Against al-Qaida

A gunman aims his weapn during clashes with Iraqi security forces in Fallujah, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2014. Violence across Iraq, including a series of car bombings and fighting between militants and government troops over control of the country's contested Anbar province, killed dozens Saturday, officials said.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi government forces and allied tribal militias launched an all-out offensive Sunday to push al-Qaida militants from a provincial capital, an assault that killed or wounded some 20 police officers and government-allied tribesmen, officials said.

Since late December, members of Iraq's al-Qaida branch — known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — have taken over parts of Ramadi, the capital of the largely Sunni western province of Anbar. They also control the center of the nearby city of Fallujah, along with other non-al-Qaida groups that also oppose the Shiite-led government.

A military officer and two local officials said fierce clashes raged through Sunday night in parts of Ramadi, but gave no details. Later, the commander of Anbar operations, army Lt. Gen. Rasheed Fleih, said that Iraqi special forces retook al-Bubali village following fierce clashes with the militants who had held it for about three weeks. Al-Bubali lies on the road between Ramadi and Fallujah.
Fleih said that gunmen had booby-trapped several houses in the village before their retreat. He declined to give any figures regarding casualties. The two Anbar officials said 20 police officers and allied tribesmen were either killed or wounded during the assault. The officials were unable to provide a breakdown of the casualties.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who heads the al-Qaida group in Iraq, urged Iraqi Sunni Muslims to join the militants in an audio message posted on militant websites Sunday. "You the Sunni people in Iraq, you can carry the weapons against the Shiites... This is your chance, so do not miss it. Otherwise you will be finished," al-Baghdadi said. He also exhorted his militants to continue their fight and also attack Baghdad.

Hours after the offensive was announced, Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki vowed to continue fighting "terrorism," but left the door open for a political solution. "Our battle is firstly to beat and eliminate terrorism, though we welcome any solution, any proposal and any political meeting that should realize the priority of destroying terrorism, al-Qaida, its formations and its allies," al-Maliki said.

Elsewhere Sunday, gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint run by an anti-al-Qaida, pro-government Sunni tribal militia outside the city of Baqouba, killing the local leader and four assistants, a police officer and medical officials said. The former al-Qaida stronghold Baqouba is located about 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of the capital, Baghdad.

The Sunni militia, known as the Awakening Council, was formed by U.S. forces during the height of the insurgency. They are seen as traitors by al-Qaida's local branch and other militant groups. The officials in Anbar province and Baqouba spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.

Violence has escalated in Iraq over the past year, particularly since late last month after authorities dismantled an anti-government Sunni protest camp and arrested a Sunni lawmaker on terrorism charges. To alleviate the tension, the army pulled back from Fallujah and Ramadi, but that allowed al-Qaida militants to seize control.

Last year, the country saw its highest annual death toll since the worst of the country's sectarian bloodletting began to subside in 2007, according to United Nations figures. The U.N. said violence killed 8,868 in 2013. Sunday's violence brought the death toll so far this month to 364, according to an Associated Press tally.

Associated Press writer Sinan Salaheddin contributed.