Al Jazeera journalist detained in Berlin on Egyptian warrant

FILE - Journalists wait outside court adjacent to Tora Prison as 20 Al-Jazeera employees are on trial accused of membership in the Muslim Brotherhood and also for aiding it, in Cairo, Egypt. (Source: AP)

A prominent Al-Jazeera Arabic journalist was detained on Saturday in Germany over an Egyptian arrest warrant, the Qatar-based broadcaster reported, the latest in a long series of legal entanglements between Egypt and its satellite news channels.

Ahmed Mansour, a senior journalist with its Arabic service, was detained at 1320 GMT (9 am EDT) while trying to board a Qatar Airways flight at Berlin’s Tegel airport heading to Doha, the station reported. It said he previously had been sentenced in absentia in Egypt to 15 years in prison over allegedly torturing an unnamed lawyer in Tahrir Square in 2011, a charge both he and the channel rejected.

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While not identifying Mansour by name, German police spokesman Meik Grauer said authorities detained a 52-year-old Egyptian-British journalist and that prosecutors would look into the arrest warrant on Sunday.

In October, Al-Jazeera said Interpol had rejected an Egyptian request to put out a “red notice” for Mansour’s arrest.

The network’s Acting Director General Mostefa Souag called for Mansour’s immediate release, in a statement released Saturday evening.

“Other countries must not allow themselves to be tools of this media oppression, least of all those that respect freedom of the media as does Germany,” Soaug said.

Mansour recently conducted an interview with the head of the Nusra Front, the al-Qaida branch fighting in Syria’s civil war. In a Facebook post Saturday night, he said showed German authorities an email from Interpol saying he was not wanted by them.

Egypt and Qatar have had tense relations since 2013, when the Egyptian military ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi amid massive protests. Doha is a strong backer of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood. Cairo accuses Al-Jazeera of being a mouthpiece for Morsi’s supporters, charges denied by the broadcaster.

In December 2013, Egyptian security forces raided a hotel room used by Al-Jazeera English, arresting three journalists and later convicting of them of being part of a terrorist group and airing falsified footage intended to damage national security in a widely criticized trial.

Acting bureau chief Mohamed Fahmy, who has Canadian citizenship, and Egyptian producer Baher Mohammed are free on bail amid a retrial. Australian journalist Peter Greste was deported in February.

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Analysis: Obama Asia policy faces toughest test on trade

President Barack Obama looks out as he sits on stage as Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks during her investiture ceremony at the Warner Theatre in Washington. (Source: AP)

Critics have long predicted that President ’s policy to shift America’s focus toward Asia is doomed. The legislative battle over his trade agenda could prove the acid test.

Legislation to smooth the way for a free-trade pact with 11 other Asia-Pacific nations hit a wall in last week. A fresh vote in the House was set for Thursday to try to reverse that setback. Formidable obstacles remain— principally, opposition from Obama’s fellow Democrats who believe trade deals cost American jobs.

The Obama administration itself has always presented the Trans-Pacific Partnership as crucial to its “pivot” toward the increasingly prosperous Asian region, after a post-9/11 preoccupation with wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Officials have been at pains to point out the policy means more than ramping up America’s military presence to counter rising-power China.

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But the administration was slow off the blocks in the politically prickly task of getting congressional support for “fast track” authority for the president to negotiate trade pacts that lawmakers can approve or reject but not amend. That’s viewed as essential for winning eventual US ratification for TPP.

The upshot is the current logjam in Congress. Obama and his legislative allies — which in this case are mostly Republicans — were consulting Wednesday to find a way a way through it.

While plans were yet to be finalized, officials said the House could have a stand-alone vote on fast track on Thursday. A package of aid for workers who lose their jobs because of imports would become part of a separate bill. The two measures were originally combined into one, to sweeten the deal for union-backed Democrats, who voted against it anyway last Friday.

That political setback was greeted with anguish by Asia experts in Washington and former administration officials.

Larry Summers, a former director of the National Economic Council in the Obama White House, wrote that unless the trade legislation votes were successfully revisited, it would “doom” the TPP. “It would leave the grand strategy of rebalancing US foreign policy toward Asia with no meaningful nonmilitary component,” he said.

Obama, who was born in Hawaii and spent some of his childhood in Indonesia, has described himself as “America’s first Pacific President.” He took office believing that in no small measure, America’s future is tied to Asia’s, as the center of global economic growth has shifted eastward.

His grand strategy to elevate America’s profile in the region has been welcomed both in Washington and in Asia, where China’s assertive behavior in disputed maritime territories has unnerved its neighbors.

But skepticism has grown.

Preoccupation with crises in the Middle East, cuts to the US aid and defense budgets, and domestic political

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WikiLeaks starts publishing over 5,00,000 Saudi documents; 60,000 files already leaked

WikiLeaks said in a statement that it has already posted roughly 60,000 files. Most of them appear to be in Arabic.

WikiLeaks is in the process of publishing more than 500,000 Saudi diplomatic documents to the Internet, the transparency website said on Friday, a move that echoes its famous release of US State Department cables in 2010.

WikiLeaks said in a statement that it has already posted roughly 60,000 files. Most of them appear to be in Arabic.

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There was no immediate way to verify the authenticity of the documents, although WikiLeaks has a long track record of hosting large-scale leaks of government material. Many of the documents carried green letterhead marked “Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” or “Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” Some were marked “urgent” or “classified.” At least one appeared to be from the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

If genuine, the documents would offer a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the notoriously opaque kingdom. They might also shed light on Riyadh’s longstanding regional rivalry with Iran, its support for Syrian rebels and Egypt’s military-backed government, and its opposition to an emerging international agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program.

One of the documents, dated to 2012, appears to highlight Saudi Arabia’s well-known skepticism about the Iranian nuclear talks. A message from the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Tehran to the Foreign Ministry in Riyadh describes “flirting American messages” being carried to Iran via an unnamed Turkish mediator.

Another 2012 missive, this time sent from the Saudi Embassy in Abu Dhabi, said the United Arab Emirates was putting “heavy pressure” on the Egyptian government not to try former president Hosni Mubarak, who had been overthrown in a popular uprising the year before.

Some of the concerns appear specific to Saudi Arabia.

In an Aug. 14, 2008 message marked “classified and very urgent,” the Foreign Ministry wrote to the Saudi Embassy in Washington to warn that dozens of students from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries had visited the Israeli Embassy in the US capital as part of an international leadership program.

“They listened to diplomats’ briefings from the embassy employees, they asked questions and then they took pictures,” the message said, asking the embassy for a speedy update on the situation.

Another eye-catching item was a document addressed to the interior and justice ministers notifying them that a son of Osama bin Laden had obtained a certificate from the American Embassy in Riyadh “showing (the) death of his father.”

Many more of the dozens of documents examined by The Associated Press appeared to be the product of mundane administrative work, such as emails about setting up a website or operating an office fax machine.

The AP was able to partially verify a handful of documents’ authenticity

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Bahrain’s opposition leader, Ibrahim Sharif released from prison after 4 years

Ebrahim Sharif (L), president of the secular Al Waad Society (National Democratic Action Society), is greeted by friends after being released from jail, at his residence in Manama, Bahrain June 20, 2015. Sharif was pardoned by Bahrain's King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa in the early hours of Saturday. (Source: Reuters)

A top Bahraini opposition leader was released after more than four years in prison for his role in protests calling for reform in the Gulf kingdom.

The WAAD (National Democratic Action Society) group confirmed on its official Twitter account that Ibrahim Sharif was released yesterday. Sharif was sentenced in June 2011 to five years in prison for plotting to overthrow Bahrain’s 200-year-old monarchy.

Sharif was one of 20 prominent pro-democracy activists calling for political reforms who were convicted by a military-led tribunal after the government cracked down on them. He was leading WAAD at the time of his arrest in March 2011.

Bahrain’s majority Shiites, inspired by Arab Spring protests elsewhere, launched an uprising seeking to limit the wide-ranging powers of the ruling Sunni dynasty. The strategic island nation is home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Brian Dooley, a program director with Human Rights First, applauded the release.

“More than four years after President Obama called for the release of peaceful opposition leaders in Bahrain Ebrahim Sharif is finally out,” he said in a statement. “This is a long overdue move, and he should never have been jailed in the first place.”

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California balcony collapse: Experts point to likely wood rot

A worker measures near the remaining wood from an apartment building balcony that collapsed in Berkeley, Calif., Wednesday, June 17, 2015. (Source: AP)

Wood rot from exposure to excess moisture likely weakened the horizontal beams supporting an apartment balcony that collapsed in Berkeley, California, killing six people, several independent experts said a day after the tragedy.

But the consensus among structural engineers interviewed by Reuters on Thursday was that the balcony should otherwise have been sturdy enough, under normal circumstances, to safely bear the weight of the 13 people who were on the deck at the time.

All 13, mostly college students from Ireland working in the San Francisco Bay Area for the summer on temporary visas, were hurled to the street below when the fourth-floor balcony gave way during a birthday celebration on Tuesday.

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Splintered wooden support joists, which experts said were visibly decayed, were left protruding from where the platform detached from the building’s outer wall as it crashed onto a vacant third-floor balcony just below.

Three men and three women in their early 20s, including an American friend of the Irish students, died in the collapse, and seven others were hospitalized.

The integrity of the stucco-over-wood frame construction at the Library Gardens apartment complex, near the University of California at Berkeley, immediately came under scrutiny as city inspectors began to examine the accident site.

Municipal officials declined to discuss the condition of the balcony’s underlying structure or speculate on what caused the collapse.

But three Bay-area structural engineers and a veteran building inspector from New York who examined pictures from the site all agreed that wood rot from moisture seeping into the balcony’s support beams was a likely factor in the failure of the deck.

“It appears that decay in the structural members probably played a role,” said Derrick Hom, the Oakland-based president of the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California.

Hom and others said it would take a thorough physical inspection of the site to determine the source of water that led to decay of the wooden beams.

Alvin Ubell, founder and chief inspector of Accurate Building Inspectors in New York City, said internal moisture from condensation was the most likely culprit, citing high humidity in coastal regions like the Bay Area.

He and other experts agreed that defects in the design, installation and maintenance of waterproofing, flashing materials and ventilation could leave untreated wood framing especially vulnerable to decay.

Otherwise, they said the use of wooden timbers to support cantilevered platforms in such construction was commonplace.

Still, structural failures accounted for an estimated 5,600 injuries from balcony-related falls from 1990 to 2006, according to data collected by the Center for Injury Research and Policy in Columbus, Ohio, and published in 2009 by the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

As for questions of weight, Hom said the crowd on the deck may have put the balcony close

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Denmark’s center-right opposition wins election

With all votes counted, preliminary official results showed the opposition bloc led by Lars Loekke Rasmussen would get the 90 seats needed to secure a majority in the 179-seat legislature. (Source: Reuters photo)

Denmark’s center-right opposition won a parliamentary election after strong gains by an anti-immigration party that wants to limit the European Union’s influence over the small Nordic country.

With all votes counted, preliminary official results showed the opposition bloc led by Lars Loekke Rasmussen, a former prime minister, would get the 90 seats needed to secure a majority in the 179-seat legislature.

“Four years ago we handed over the keys to the prime minister’s office. I then said it was only a loan,” he told supporters in Copenhagen.

“There is a majority that believes that Denmark needs a new government and gives us a possibility to get the keys back.”

His main opponent Helle Thorning-Schmidt conceded defeat, saying she would resign as prime minister and leader of the Social Democratic Party on Friday.

“We were beaten on the finish line,” said Thorning-Schmidt, Denmark’s first female leader. “I know that Lars Loekke (Rasmussen) loves Denmark and he should be happy that he takes over a Denmark that is in great shape.”

Loekke Rasmussen’s own Liberal Party lost 7 percent of its support and was surpassed by one of its allies, the Danish People’s Party, as Denmark’s second biggest political group.

That party, which is opposed to immigration and skeptical of the EU, surged to 21 percent, helping the opposition get 51.5 percent of the vote, the results showed.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether his party would seek Cabinet posts or try to use its leverage in Parliament to influence the government, like it did before 2011.

“The most important for the Danish People’s Party is to get political influence,” party leader Kristian Thulesen Dahl said.

Loekke Rasmussen was expected to become prime minister, because he has the support of the other members of the bloc.

Before the vote, the opposition parties endorsed British Prime Minister David Cameron’s bid for EU reforms, which suggests that Denmark, too, may consider a looser relationship with the union.

The Danish People’s Party has called for Denmark to take back more authority from the EU headquarters in Brussels and for border controls to be reintroduced on the boundaries with Germany and Sweden. That’s controversial among many EU members who feel it would challenge the spirit of a borderless Europe.

Election campaigns focused on welfare spending, the economy and immigration, with both Thorning-Schmidt and Loekke Rasmussen promising to further tighten Denmark’s controls on immigration.

“I want an open Denmark, but I also want a Denmark that is efficiently shut for people who don’t want our country,” Loekke Rasmussen told reporters when he voted Thursday.

Thorning-Schmidt, who is married to British Labour lawmaker Stephen Kinnock, lost the election even though her Social Democratic Party improved slightly and remained Denmark’s

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Increase in beach goers reason for increase in shark attacks

Vacationers walk in the surf in Oak Island, NC, the day after a 12-year-old girl from Asheboro lost part of her arm and suffered a leg injury, and a 16-year-old boy from Colorado lost his left arm about separate shark attacks off Oak Island. (Source: AP)

Federal wildlife protections are helping sharks rebound, but they aren’t the sole reason for the uptick in encounters between sharks and humans. Expanding human populations and growing use of beaches are major factors too, scientists say.

Recent shark attacks in North Carolina and Florida have made headlines as the summer beach-going season gets into gear. Such attacks have become more common in recent years — the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File says the number of unprovoked shark attacks has grown in every decade since the 1970s.

Shark researcher George Burgess, who publishes the file, said this decade is almost certain to set a record for shark attacks.

“The fact of the matter is, while shark populations rebound and hopefully come to where they once were, the human population is rising every year,” Burgess said. “We’re not rebounding, we’re just bounding.”

Americans made 2.2 billion visits to beaches in 2010, up from 2 billion in 2001, according to a US Army Corps of Engineers estimate. A spokesman for the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association said the figure is likely still rising because of the improving economy.

Populations of some shark species have grown due in part to conservation efforts, such as a 1997 US law that prevented the hunting of great white sharks. Dr. Bob Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida, said preservation and management have also helped repair populations of species like the sandbar shark and blacktip shark.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 also has helped increase the population of seals, which are a favorite prey of white sharks. In Massachusetts, the growing number of seals has raised concerns in recent years about the animals attracting sharks to beaches favored by humans.

Hueter said the rebounding white shark population justifies vigilance, but he added that it’s presumptive to assume there are more shark attacks because there are more sharks in the ocean.

“Sharks are fairly sophisticated. If they are hunting for seals, they are going to concentrate their efforts near a seal colony,” he said. “Are you going to go swimming in a seal colony? Of course not.”

There were 72 shark attacks worldwide in 2014, three of them fatal, according to the International Shark Attack File. The deadliest recent year was 2011, when 13 of 79 attacks were fatal.

Greg Skomal, senior scientist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, said encounters with marine animals such as sharks are inevitable as long

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Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) continues to “operate, train, rally, propagandise and fundraise’ in Pakistan: US report

"The Pakistani military undertook operations against groups that conducted attacks within Pakistan such as TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan), but did not take action against other groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, which continued to operate, train, rally, propagandise and fundraise in Pakistan," the State Department said in its annual report on terrorism for the year 2014.

Pakistan has not taken action against -e-Taiba (LeT) as the terror group continues to “operate, train, rally, propagandise and fundraise” in the country, according to a US State Department report which acknowledged today that India remains one of the most persistent terror target.

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“The Pakistani military undertook operations against groups that conducted attacks within Pakistan such as TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan), but did not take action against other groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, which continued to operate, train, rally, propagandise and fundraise in Pakistan,” the State Department said in its annual report on
terrorism for the year 2014.

Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network leadership continued to find safe haven in Pakistan and although the country’s military operations disrupted the actions of these groups, it did not directly target them, the report said.

It said India remained a target of terrorist attacks, including operations launched by Maoist insurgents and domestic and transnational groups.

The level of terrorist violence was substantially unchanged from 2013, it said.

“Indian authorities continued to blame Pakistan for supporting terrorists operating in Jammu and . On September 3, Al-Qaeda announced the establishment of a new branch in the Indian subcontinent,” the report said.

India deepened counter-terrorism cooperation with the US, highlighted by a September 30 Summit between US President and Prime Minister when both sides pledged greater cooperation in countering terrorist networks and in information sharing.

Even though only a small number of Indian nationals are believed to have joined the Islamic State, the Indian government closely monitored the domestic threat it and other terrorist organisations posed, the report said.

The State Department said South Asia remained a front line in the battle against terrorism.

Although al-Qaeda’s core in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been seriously degraded, its global leadership continued to operate from remote locations in the region that the group has historically exploited for a safe haven.

Al-Qaeda’s presence in the region continued to face pressure from international, Afghan, and Pakistani forces and Pakistan’s ongoing offensive in North Waziristan Agency launched in June 2014 further degraded the group’s freedom to operate, the report said.

Pressure on al-Qaeda’s traditional safe haven has constrained the leadership’s capability to communicate effectively with affiliate groups outside of South Asia, it said.

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5 Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Travel Agent

While internet booking motors have made it simpler for voyagers to purchase their own particular flights or lodging rooms, travel specialists still offer a level of administration and skill not offered by a pursuit bot. "When you book on the web, the booking motor or site just comprehends what information you data," brings up Chuck Flagg, proprietor of a Cruise Holidays office in Canton, Georgia. "They don't comprehend what is really critical to and your gang. It doesn't know whether you are a 60-something who still likes to move it up with local people at the club or in the event that you are OK being around children." Travel specialists likewise may have exceptional livens or evaluating not accessible to the overall population.

Here are a few inquiries that can help you pick the right travel specialists for your needs.

1. Have you gone to my destination? Whether you're making a trip to Paris or Puerto Rico, inquire as to whether your specialists has been there (and provided that this is true, how as of late?). While manuals and sites offer bunches of point of interest on a given destination, they don't generally measure up to being there in individual. "Book information or internet preparing courses by suppliers is entirely unexpected from encountering it firsthand," Flagg says. Lisa Griswold, co-proprietor of the Atlanta-based Pixie Vacations, who represents considerable authority in arranging Disney get-aways, concurs, including that "you don't know how superb a Disney voyage is until you've encountered one: the delight, the tender loving care, the little additional items, the character association."

2. What is your reaction time? On the off chance that sitting tight a few days for a reaction to a messaged inquiry is going to make you on edge, ask potential operators when they're accessible and how rapidly you ought to expect a reaction. "A few operators are low maintenance specialists, and they work in the nighttimes," Griswold says. "Some are accessible amid the school day. Others do this full time. It's unquestionably shrewd to see whether your calendar can organize with what your specialists can give."

 

3. What administrations do you offer? Specialists give differing levels of administration. Some will just book inns and flights and abandon you to fill in alternate points of interest, so in case you're expecting help with supper reservations or ground transportation, inquire as to whether he can deal with those. "A decent specialists is going to help you with any points of interest that you need," Griswold says. "We offer schedule arranging down to what rides they plan to go on, which stops to go in which days and direction that with their suppers."

 

4. Do you have any confirmations or accreditation? Flagg recommends getting some information about preparing or confirmations to get a vibe for the specialists' skill. For example, in case you're occupying a journey, you could search out an operators guaranteed through the Cruise Lines International Association. Griswold includes that you additionally can ask how regularly the specialists goes to classes to stay current in the business.

 

5. What charges would it be advisable for me to anticipate? A few specialists charge a level expense or an hourly expense for travel counseling, while others acquire commission from the air transport or lodging booked. "Get some information about charges, whether there are occupying expenses or any sort of retraction expenses," Griswold says. "There are some high rates out there, and a few organizations would prefer not to converse with you unless you're willing to submit."

 

Obviously, while you get some information about the specialists' experience and strategies, she may be testing you also. This can be a decent sign, as Flagg proposes searching for a specialists who asks "why" questions. "This is something online will never ask," he says. "Why would you like to take this excursion? Why did you pick a Disney journey? Did the nourishment offerings settle on this some piece of your choice?" Once a specialists inspires your answers, she will be better prepared to tailor the outing to you and your gang.

 

Ireland votes on legalizing gay marriage; verdict on Saturday

Leaders of the country's dominant faith, Roman Catholicism, have fueled opposition to the measure.

For months, Ireland has debated whether to legalize gay marriage. Now it’s time to vote, and the choice is a simple yes or no.

Friday’s referendum on amending the Irish constitution to give marriage rights to homosexuals is expected to be approved, based on all opinion polls that have given “yes” voters a double-digit lead throughout the two-month campaign.

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But government officials and gay rights activists are expressing caution given Ireland’s track record in producing surprise referendum results.

They say achieving a high voter turnout is crucial, particularly among younger citizens who traditionally don’t vote in great numbers.

Leaders of the country’s dominant faith, Roman Catholicism, have fueled opposition to the measure.

Polls opened at 7 am (0600GMT) and close at 10 pm (2100GMT). Results will be announced Saturday.

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Senate blocks bill that would end US bulk data dragnet

US President Barack Obama (AP Photo)

The US Senate rejected legislation early on Saturday aimed at reforming NSA intelligence gathering, a blow to President and others who support ending the bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records.

The House of Representatives passed the measure overwhelmingly last week, with Democrats and Republicans uniting in their desire to rein in the National Security Agency’s highly controversial program that scoops up data from millions of Americans with no connection to terrorism.

But it got hung up in the Senate, where it fell three votes shy of the 60 necessary to advance in the chamber. The Senate immediately turned to consideration of a two-month extension that would temporarily reauthorize the telephone data dragnet and other parts of the USA Patriot Act which are set to expire June 1 without congressional action.

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But that bill failed to reach the 60-vote threshold as well. When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed quickly voting on extensions lasting until June 8, or June 5, or even June 3- two days after returns from its break- Republican Senator Rand Paul objected, placing the fate of key national security provisions in jeopardy.

In addition to the telephone metadata collection, provisions authorising roving wiretaps and lone-wolf tracking are also set to expire when the clock strikes midnight at the end of May.

With lawmakers scrambling for a solution in the dead of night before the Senate goes on a scheduled one-week break, the White House yesterday drove home the very real prospect that national security operations could lapse on June 1.

“There is no plan B,” acknowledged White House spokesman Joshua Earnest to reporters. “These are authorities that Congress must legislate (and are) critically important to ensuring that the basic safety and security of the American people is protected, and that the
basic civil liberties of the American people are protected.”

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Islamic State purge Syrian town of Assad loyalists

In this picture released on Wednesday, May 20, 2015 by the website of Islamic State militants, Islamic State fighters take cover during a battle against Syrian government forces on a road between Homs and Palmyra, Syria. (Source: AP)

Islamic State group militants hunted down Syrian government troops and loyalists in the newly captured town of Palmyra, shooting or beheading them in public as a warning, and imposing their strict interpretation of Islam, activists said Friday.

The purge, which relied mostly on informants, was aimed at solidifying the extremists’ grip on the strategic town that was overrun Wednesday by IS fighters.

It also was part of a campaign to win the support of President Bashar Assad’s opponents, who have suffered from a government crackdown in the town and surrounding province in the last four years of Syria’s civil war.

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The strategy included promises to fix the electricity and water grids – after Palmyra is cleared of regime loyalists, according to an activist in the historic town. The man is known in the activist community by the nom de guerre of Omar Hamza because he fears for his security.

The capture of Palmyra has raised alarm that the militants might try to destroy one of the Mideast’s most spectacular archaeological sites – a well-preserved, 2,000-year-old Roman-era city on the town’s edge – as they have destroyed others in Syria and Iraq. For the moment, however, their priority appeared to be in imposing their rule, with activists saying there were no signs the group moved in on the ancient ruins.

In neighboring Iraq, IS militants made more territorial gains, seizing the small town of Husseiba, less than a week after capturing the provincial capital of Ramadi, said tribal leader Sheikh Rafie al-Fahdawi.

They captured the Iraqi side of a key border crossing with Syria on Thursday after Iraqi forces pulled out. The fall of the al-Walid crossing in Anbar province will help the militants shuttle weaponry and reinforcements more easily across the border of the two countries where they have declared a self-styled caliphate.

The IS militants imposed a curfew in Palmyra from 5 p.m. until sunrise and banned people from leaving town until Saturday morning to ensure that none of the government figures they seek manage to escape, activists and officials said. Jihadis went through the streets telling residents via loudspeakers not to give refuge to Assad loyalists.

IS commanders also fanned out to Palmyra’s mosques to deliver sermons during Friday’s weekly communal prayers. Mosques were packed after fighters on Thursday had urged people to attend and told women to cover their faces.

The sermons were mostly about the importance of performing the five-times-a-day prayers in the mosques and women having to cover their faces and dress in loose clothes, Hamza said via Skype. At the mosque where he prayed, the person delivering the sermon was a non-Syrian Arab, as were most of the leaders in the group in town, he said, while the fighters were Syrians.

In his sermon, the speaker warned that women not wearing the proper Islamic attire will be flogged.

Fighters were carrying out a bloody, door-to-door search to find and kill fugitive soldiers and known Assad loyalists, several activists said.

Prompted by the IS warnings not to provide shelter, some residents came forward with information about troops who had tried to melt into the population when the militants stormed into the town, said another activist who goes by the nom de guerre of Bebars al-Talawy for his security.

Amateur video posted on a pro-IS Facebook page showed residents and militants gathering around two bloodied men in military uniforms on a Palmyra street.

“Let all the residents see them,” one of the men shown in the video told an IS fighter. Photos circulating on pro-IS Twitter feeds showed purported government troops shot to death or decapitated.

The video and photos appeared genuine and corresponded to other Associated Press reporting.

Hamza and al-Talawy said as many as 280 loyalists and government soldiers were summarily killed, some shot in the head or beheaded in a public square.

Militants abducted soldiers and pro-government gunmen from homes, shops and other places where they had sought to hide, said al-Talawy, who is based in the nearby city of Homs.

“The search is going from house to house, shop to shop, and people on the streets have to show identity cards,” said Osama al-Khatib, an activist from Palmyra who is now in Turkey. Al-Khatib last contacted his friends and relatives Friday morning in Palmyra before the government cut off phones and Internet service in the town. The communication was later partially restored.

Al-Khatib said some 150 bodies lay in the streets, including 25 residents who were members of the pro-government militia known as the Popular Committees.

The door-to-door hunt was similar to a purge the militants carried out in Ramadi after it fell Sunday.

The UN Security Council condemned the “barbaric terrorist acts” by the Islamic State group and expressed deep concern for the thousands of people still in Palmyra after the takeover, especially women and children. The council statement called for safe passage for people leaving the city and pointed out that “the primary responsibility to protect its populations lies with the Syrian authorities.”

On Thursday, gunmen believed to be from IS kidnapped a Christian priest, the Rev. Jacques Mourad, from the village of Qaryatayn, southwest of Palmyra. The 48-year-old Mourad and his bodyguard were taken to an unknown location, according to a priest in in Damascus, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. He said the priest’s computer and car also were seized.

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said he received with “deep sadness” the news of Mourad’s abduction.

Hamza said the public killings in Palmyra appeared aimed at winning support of residents who opposed Assad’s rule, and that the strategy was succeeding with some.

“People don’t seem to be resentful of the new guidelines. They are saying it is much better than the regime, which used to terrorize the whole town, especially through the arrest campaigns,” Hamza said.

He said electrical power – which had been out for 10 days as Syrian troops and Is militants battled each other – was partially restored Friday.

Hamza said there were no signs the group was moving on the ancient ruins in Palmyra, a caravan oasis that linked the civilizations of Persia, India, China with the Roman empire through trade.

Instead, IS fighters had moved into all the government buildings, he added.

But he and other activists reported that Syrian aircraft dropped barrel bombs near the military security headquarters at the northern edge of the ancient ruins. There were no reports of casualties or damage to the site.

Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the Antiquities and Museum Department in the Syrian capital of Damascus, said there were no gunmen in the area of Palmyra’s ruins, which once attracted thousands of tourists.

But he acknowledged that “there are arrests and liquidations in Palmyra.” He added that IS fighters are “moving in residential areas, terrifying people and taking revenge.”

Gov. Talal Barazi of the central province of Homs, which includes Palmyra, said IS fighters have abducted men and “might have committed massacres.” He added that about 1,400 families fled the town of 65,000 before IS halted the exodus Thursday.

Hamza said most of those who left are regime supporters, including a clan from the neighboring Deir el-Zour province that had been based in Palmyra to help defend the government.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and al-Talawy said the next target for IS appears to be the Tayfour air base near Palmyra, where many government troops had retreated. They said the militants were moving reinforcements to the area.

Activists al-Talawy and al-Khatib said IS had also captured the phosphate mines at Khunayfis, near Palmyra.

The town of Husseiba in Iraq’s Anbar province had fallen overnight to IS forces when police and tribal fighters withdrew after running out of ammunition, said al-Fahdawi, the tribal leader.

“We have not received any assistance from the government. Our men fought to the last bullet and several of them were killed,” he told the AP in a telephone interview.

Husseiba is about 7 kilometers (4 miles) east of Ramadi, where IS militants routed Iraqi forces in their most significant advance in nearly a year.

Al-Fahdawi said that with the fall of Husseiba, the militants have moved closer to the strategic Habbaniyah military base, which is still held by Iraqi forces.

The UN World Food Program said it is rushing food assistance into Anbar province to help tens of thousands of residents who have fled the latest fighting.

About 25,000 people received emergency food assistance Thursday, and supplies for an additional 15,000 displaced people were en route to another area near the militant-held city of Fallujah, the WFP said.

The Iraqi government plans to launch a counteroffensive in Anbar involving Iranian-backed Shiite militias, which have played a key role in pushing back IS militants elsewhere in the country. The presence of the militias could fuel sectarian tensions in the overwhelmingly Sunni province, where anger and mistrust toward the Shiite-led government runs deep.

In Washington, US defense officials said Iran has entered the fight to retake a major Iraqi oil refinery in Beiji from IS militants, contributing small numbers of troops – including some operating artillery and other heavy weapons – in support of advancing Iraqi ground forces.

Two US defense officials said Iranian forces have taken a significant offensive role in the Beiji operation in recent days, in conjunction with Iraqi Shiite militia. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Iran’s role in Iraq is a major complicating factor for the US as it searches for the most effective approach to countering the Islamic State group. US officials have said they do not oppose contributions from Iran-supported Iraqi Shiite militias as long as they operate under the command and control of the Iraqi government.

The US has been leading a coalition that has been conducting airstrikes against IS militants in Iraq and Syria.

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At least 10 Afghan police officers killed in Taliban assault

The Taliban have launched a number of attacks across many parts of Afghanistan since their warm-weather offensive began on April 24. (Source: AP photo)

Officials in Afghanistan say at least 10 police officers have been killed in an ongoing Taliban assault in the country’s volatile south.

Mohammad Ismail Hotaki, director of Helmand province’s Joint Coordination Office, says Taliban fighters attacked 10 police checkpoints in the province’s Sangin district. He says three have been captured by Taliban and they are surging forward in their assault Sunday.

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Officials say there are a large number of Taliban fighters involved in the attack.

The Taliban have launched a number of attacks across many parts of Afghanistan since their warm-weather offensive began on April 24. Police checkpoints are regular targets as they are often poorly manned and vulnerable.

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Gaza’s unemployment rate is the highest in the world, says World Bank

The World Bank on Friday released a report stating that Gaza's economy is on the "verge of collapse," saying the unemployment rate there is now the highest in the world. (Source: AP)

Gaza’s economy is on the “verge of collapse,” a new World Bank report warned Friday, saying the unemployment rate there is now the highest in the world and calling on Israel and international donors to remedy the situation.

It charged that “blockades, war and poor governance have strangled” the economy of the Gaza Strip, ruled by the Islamic militant group Hamas.

The report said Gaza’s GDP would have been four times higher if not for conflicts and restrictions, including a blockade in place since 2007.

Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade on Gaza after Hamas violently seized the territory from forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel says the blockade is necessary to prevent Hamas from getting weapons and building militant infrastructure, while critics say it amounts to collective punishment.

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Since its takeover, Hamas has fought three wars with Israel, including 50 days of fighting last summer in which thousands of Gaza buildings were either destroyed or damaged. Over 2,200 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, were killed during the war. On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed.

The report said Gaza’s economy is badly hurt as a result of the fighting, especially the agriculture, construction, manufacturing and electricity sectors.

It said about 43 percent of Gaza’s 1.8 million residents are unemployed; a figure it said is the highest in the world. Youth unemployment reached about 60 percent by the end of last year, it said.

“The current market in Gaza is not able to offer jobs leaving a large population in despair particularly the youth,” Steen Lau Jorgensen, World Bank country director for the West Bank and Gaza, said in the report. “The ongoing blockade and the 2014 war have taken a toll on Gaza’s economy and people’s livelihoods.”

The report warned that the “status quo in Gaza is unsustainable.” It said the coastal territory’s recovery depends on an easing of the blockade and on donor countries honoring their pledges made at an international conference in Cairo after last year’s war.

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US Senate passes bill on fast-track trade authority for Obama

US President Barack Obama (Source: AP photo)

In a major victory for President , the US Senate overcame bitter divisions  and approved a bill that gives him the authority to swiftly negotiate and forge international trade pacts.

A coalition of 48 Senate Republicans and 14 Democrats voted for Trade Promotion Authority last night, sending the legislation to a difficult fight in the House of Representatives, where it faces more entrenched opposition from Democrats.

The passage of the bill from the Senate by 62 to 37 votes was immediately welcomed by the US President.

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“Today’s bipartisan Senate vote is an important step toward ensuring the United States can negotiate and enforce strong, high-standards trade agreements,” Obama said in a statement.

“If done right, these agreements are vital to expanding opportunities for the middle class, levelling the playing field for American workers, and establishing rules for the global economy that help our businesses grow and hire by selling goods Made in America to the rest of the world,” Obama said.

This Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation includes strong standards that will advance workers’ rights, protect the environment, promote a free and open Internet and it supports new robust measures to address unfair currency practices, he said.

The legislation also includes an important extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) to help all American workers participate in the global economy, Obama said.

Passage of the bill allows the administration to finalise negotiations with 11 other Asian and Pacific nations and bring the trade deal to for a vote, with lawmakers not permitted to make changes.

Trade Promotion Authority bill’s passage is a critical step toward enabling US to negotiate modern trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific and Europe that reflect its values, said US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.

This will open up new markets, level the playing field for US businesses and workers and create more high-paying American jobs, she said.

US Trade Representative Michael Froman said the Trade Promotion Authority is a critical tool for advancing trade agreements that support jobs, protect workers and promote core American values.

“The legislation the Senate passed today will update Congress’s marching orders to the Administration on trade policy and put in place unprecedented new requirements for transparency and congressional consultation,” he said.

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Year-old Thai coup imposes superficial calm but little else

Speaking to reporters the same day, Prayuth acknowledged that seizing power "was wrong." (Source: AP)

Shortly after seizing power in a coup that followed months of debilitating street protests, Gen. Prayuth Chan ocha vowed to end Thailand’s decade of political upheaval once and for all. In his words, “to bring everything out in the open and fix it.”

A year later, the military can boast that it has restored stability and kept this Southeast Asian nation calm. But the bitter societal fissures that helped trigger the putsch are still simmering below the surface, unresolved.

“Our differences have just been pushed under the rug by a junta that prohibits freedom of expression,” said Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Nothing has been done to address the root causes of Thailand’s deep divide.”

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What is happening now is the imposition of peace by force, Sunai said. “There’s no guarantee that whenever the junta lets go of their iron grip, the country will not to fall back into conflict,” he added.

On Friday, the anniversary of the takeover, police quashed a small, peaceful demonstration in Bangkok, triggering scuffles as those who took part were dragged away. At least 37 students were detained before being released Saturday after 11 hours of questioning. Seven others who staged a similar protest in the northeastern city of Khon Kaen were also freed.

Speaking to reporters the same day, Prayuth acknowledged that seizing power “was wrong.” But he nevertheless defended the overthrow of Yingluck Shinawatra’s government, saying “we cannot fix the past, but we can build for the future.”

The problem, critics argue, is that the junta may be sowing the seeds of more conflict by building that future on its own terms — with reform committees, a rubber-stamp legislature and no input from the party it toppled, Pheu Thai, whose supporters likely still represent a majority of the electorate.

The latest point of contention, a constitutional draft released in April, has been criticized even by groups who supported the putsch.If approved, the charter would significantly weaken the power of political parties, shifting it to unelected agencies like a proposed “National Moral Assembly” that would be empowered to investigate politicians for offenses as minor as “impolite” speech — ultimately initiating the path to their removal.

The charter’s drafters say such reforms are designed to check abuse by corrupt politicians, a problem acknowledged by all sides. But Pheu Thai officials say the real aim is to prevent their party from governing effectively if it wins again.

“Nobody knows how these agencies would be made accountable themselves,” said Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, a former premier who was among those who called for Yingluck to resign as prime minister before the coup. Speaking of the junta, he added: “They should be more concerned with making elected governments more accountable, rather than making them weaker.”

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Roadside bomb kills 2, including Afghan district chief

An Afghan official says a roadside bomb has killed that two people, including a district administrative chief, in the country’s south.

Dost Mohammad Nayab, spokesman for the provincial governor of Uruzgan province, said today that Mohammad Ismail Haqyar, district chief of Charcheno, along with his bodyguard were killed while they were on their way to their office.

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Nayab says a friend of Haqyar was wounded in the attack, which took place in Charcheno district.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. However, Taliban insurgents often use roadside bombs and suicide attacks against Afghan security forces and government officials across the country.

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Video purports to show kidnapped Chinese tourist in Pakistan

Taliban fighters.

A militant video purports to show a Chinese tourist kidnapped by the Taliban in Pakistan a year ago asking for his government to help him be released.

The video was released Sunday by a militant known to belong to a Taliban splinter group. While it could not be independently verified by The Associated Press, the man in the video resembled other known photographs of Hong Xudong, kidnapped in May 2014.

In the video, the man identified as Hong asks for the Chinese government to honor his kidnappers’ ransom demands, without ever stating them. Chinese officials and state media did not immediately comment on the video Sunday.

Hong went missing after entering Pakistan from neighboring India in April 2014. He was abducted near Pakistan’s lawless tribal regions, a haven for militants.

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IS claims responsibility for suicide blast that killed 21 in Saudi Arabia

A family member of a victim mourns at the mosque in al-Qadeeh village. (Source: Reuters)

A suicide bomber killed 21 worshippers during Friday prayers in a packed mosque in Shia-dominated area of eastern Saudi Arabia, residents and the health minister said, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

It was one of the deadliest assaults in recent years in the kingdom, where sectarian tensions have been frayed by nearly two months of Saudi-led air strikes on Shia Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen.

More than 150 people were praying when the huge explosion ripped through the Imam Ali mosque in the village of al-Qadeeh, witnesses said.

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A video posted online showed a hall filled with smoke and dust, with bloodied people moaning with pain as they lay on the floor littered with concrete and glass. More than 90 people were wounded, the Saudi health minister told state television.

“We were doing the first part of the prayers when we heard the blast,” worshipper Kamal Jaafar Hassan told Reuters by phone.

It was the first attack targeting minority Shias since November when gunmen opened fire during a religious celebration in al-Ahsa, also in the east where most of the group live in predominantly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia.

Islamic State said in a statement that one of its suicide bombers identified as Abu ‘Ammar al-Najdi carried out the attack using an explosives-laden belt that killed or wounded 250 people, US-based monitoring group SITE said on its Twitter account.

A photograph posted on social media showed the mutilated body of a young man, said to be the bomber.

The Saudi Interior Ministry described the attack as an act of terrorism and said it was carried out by “agents of sedition trying to target the kingdom’s national fabric”, according to a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

The agency quoted an Interior Ministry spokesman as saying that the bomber detonated a suicide belt hidden under his clothes inside the mosque.

“Security authorities will spare no effort in the pursuit of all those involved in this terrorist crime,” the official said.

A hospital official said that “around 20 people” were killed in the attack and more than 50 were under treatment at the hospital, some of them suffering from serious injuries.

In Yemen, a bomb at a Houthi mosque in the capital Sanaa on Friday was also claimed by Islamic State.

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Mass graves of hundreds of suspected trafficking victims found in Malaysia

The Star newspaper reported on its website that nearly 100 bodies were found in one grave on Friday. (Source: AP photo)

Mass graves believed to contain bodies of hundreds of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been found in Malaysia, media reported said on Sunday.

Police discovered 30 large graves containing the remains of hundreds of people in two places in the northern state of Perlis, which borders Thailand, the Utusan Malaysia newspaper reported.

The Star newspaper reported on its website that nearly 100 bodies were found in one grave on Friday. A police spokeswoman declined to comment saying a news conference on the issue would be held on Monday.

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A police official who declined to be identified said police commandos and forensic experts from the capital, Kuala Lumpur, were at the site but it was not clear how many graves and bodies had been found.

It was also not clear if the bodies were members of a Muslim minority from Myanmar known as Rohingyas, the official said.

Northern Malaysia is on a route for smugglers bringing people to Southeast Asia by boat from Myanmar, most of them Rohingyas, who say they are fleeing persecution, and people from Bangladesh seeking work.

Smugglers have also used southern Thailand and Utusan Malaysia said police believed the discovery had a connection to mass graves found on the Thai side of the border this month.

Twenty-six bodies were exhumed from a grave in Thailand’s Songkhla province, over the border from Perlis, near a camp with suspected links to human trafficking.

More than 3,000 migrants, most of them from Myanmar and Bangladesh, have landed on boats in Malaysia and Indonesia this month after a crackdown on trafficking in Thailand.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Thursday pledged assistance and ordered the navy to rescue thousands adrift at sea.

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Saudi Arabia says suicide bomber was Islamic State operative

The suicide bomber. (Source: AP)

Saudi Arabia has confirmed that Friday’s suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in the east of the country that killed 21 was carried out by an Islamic State militant, backing up an earlier claim by the group.

The Interior Ministry identified the bomber as Saudi citizen Saleh bin Abdul rahman Al-Qashaami in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency late Saturday.

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It says he was wanted for being an active member of an Islamic State-linked terrorist cell, and that the explosive use in the bombing was a military-grade compound known as RDX.

The attack in the village of al-Qudeeh in the eastern Qatif region was the deadliest assault by militants in the kingdom since a 2004 al Qaida attack on foreign worker compounds.

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Islamic State asserts responsibility for Shiite mosque blast in Saudi Arabia

The Islamic State said Friday that it was behind a blast that killed or wounded scores of worshipers at a Shiite mosque in Saudi Arabia, marking the first time the militant group has claimed an attack in the oil-rich kingdom and raising fears of an expanding sectarian conflict in the region.

There was no immediate comment from Saudi authorities on the Islamic State’s assertion of responsibility, which was carried in written and audio statements distributed by accounts linked with the Islamic State on Twitter.

The Islamic State communique said that a “martyrdom-seeking brother” set off an explosive belt during a gathering of “impure” worshippers, according to the SITE Intelligence group, which monitors militant postings on social media and elsewhere.

The Sunni extremist group views Shiites as Muslim heretics and opposes ties by Saudi Arabia’s Sunni leadership with the West. The same statement called the attack a “unique operation” and referred to the group’s newly declared “Najd Province,” which encompasses central Saudi Arabia and includes the Saudi capital, Riyadh. The Saudi monarchy presides over Islam’s two holiest sites, making the kingdom a hugely symbolic target for Islamist militants.

[]

In a statement also posted Friday on Twitter, the Saudi Health Ministry said 21 people were killed and 123 wounded in the blast.

The suicide bomber targeted worshipers at a mosque in the village of Qadeeh in the province of Qatif, part of a mostly Shiite enclave about 240 miles northeast of the capital.

An activist, Naseema al-Sada, told the Associated Press that a suicide bomber detonated explosives as worshipers marked the birth of the 7th-century Shiite saint Imam Hussein. The official Saudi News Agency reported an explosion at the mosque but had no further details. The report said authorities launched an investigation into the attack.

Saudi Arabia’s eastern region, which is the heartland of the kingdom’s Shiite minority, has been the scene of sporadic unrest and violence for years. Shiites, who account for an estimated 12 percent of the Saudi population, say they face widespread discrimination from the kingdom’s Sunni leaders. And Shiite protesters have clashed with Saudi security forces during demonstrations for greater rights in the past.

In November, gunmen opened fire on a Shiite religious procession, killing seven people. Saudi officials blamed the attack on militants linked to the Islamic State, a radical al-Qaeda offshoot also known as ISIS or ISIL.

At the time, an audio statement from a person claiming to represent the gunmen praised the Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but did not specify any group linked to the slayings, SITE reported.

A statement from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday condemned the attack “in the strongest terms” and said “such attacks on places of worship are abhorrent and intended to promote sectarian conflict.”

Also on Friday, Saudi journalist Sukina Meshkhis posted a tweet saying that the Islamic State does “not represent Sunnis.”

“Their filthy hands do not distinguish between Sunni and Shia,” Meshkhis said of Islamic State militants. “May God protect this nation from their evil.”

[]

In March, a Saudi-led military coalition began weeks of airstrikes in neighboring Yemen against Shiite rebels who Saudi officials say are backed by Iran. Tehran has denied it supports Yemen’s Shiite rebels, known as Houthis.

But many Shiite leaders in Saudi Arabia have pledged support for the military campaign in Yemen, where the Houthis practice Shiite traditions different from those in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

Security has been increased in the Shiite areas of Saudi Arabia since the air war began.

Murphy reported from Washington. Karen DeYoung in Washington and Heba Habib in Cairo contributed to this report.

Erin Cunningham is an Egypt-based correspondent for The Post. She previously covered conflicts in the Middle East and Afghanistan for the Christian Science Monitor, GlobalPost and The National.

Brian Murphy joined the Post after more than 20 years as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief for the Associated Press in Europe and the Middle East. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has written three books.

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NATO hopes to keep a base in Afghanistan, U.S. general says

The leaders of the United States and other NATO nations are intensifying discussions about future support for Afghanistan, probably meaning at least some American troops will remain here well after President Obama leaves office, a U.S. Army general said Saturday.

Gen. John F. Campbell, commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, said that NATO military commanders plan to establish a base in Kabul to help distribute aid, facilitate weapons sales and continue efforts to train Afghan security forces.

Although Campbell stressed that NATO civilian officials probably will be in charge of the new mission, a contingent of troops also would be needed to secure the base. Campbell said that NATO forces also could be used to help bolster the Afghan air force and intelligence service.

“Countries will see that there are areas where they can help Afghanistan, and they will want to do that. And instead of trying to figure it out on their own, there will be a NATO headquarters where they can synchronize this,” said Campbell, adding it was too early to speculate how many NATO personnel would remain in Afghanistan and where they would be housed.

But preliminary discussions about the matter were held in mid-May when foreign ministers from the 28-nation NATO alliance met in Turkey. There was also a NATO defense chiefs meeting in Brussels last week. NATO leaders hope to finalize decisions about Afghanistan ahead of a scheduled NATO summit in Warsaw next summer, Campbell said.

“Our future presence will be led by civilians. It will have a light footprint, but it will have a military component,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.

The talks are another sign that Obama will face continued difficulty in trying to fulfill his promise to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by the time he leaves office in January 2017. Earlier this year, Obama pledge to slash the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by half over the course of the year.

Instead, with the Taliban and the Islamic State posing continued threats in Afghanistan, Obama agreed to keep 9,800 American troops in the country into next year. They form the bulk of the 13,200 international troops currently stationed here.

Obama has stressed, though, that he plans to complete the withdrawal during his final months in office.

But any post-2016 NATO operation would be in addition to what Campbell said are already plans to leave a residual force of American troops behind to guard the U.S. Embassy. Preliminary planning for that calls for about 1,000 troops and contractors, Campbell said.

Talks about a long-term international presence in Afghanistan are taking place amid growing signs that the Afghan military is struggling to repel the Taliban insurgency.

Since the start of the annual spring fighting season in late April, Afghan forces have been with Taliban militants in at least 10 provinces. In northern Afghanistan, the challenges facing the Afghan army are so persistent that it is paying local militias to help it fight the Taliban, .

Campbell is also worried by the expansion of the Islamic State into Afghanistan and Pakistan. Citing local officials, Afghanistan’s Friday that Islamic State militants now control most of Nangahar province in northeastern Afghanistan.

Campbell dismissed those reports, saying neither Islamic State nor the Taliban control large areas of territory in Afghanistan. But Campbell said that the threat posed by the Islamic State has been steadily increasing over the past six months.

“We are not seeing it operationalized to the point of like what you are seeing in Syria,” Campbell said. “But I think, given time, that is where they want to go, so I think we have to squash that out now while we can.”

As part of a security agreement between Afghanistan and the United States, American forces are continuing raids and airstrikes against targets deemed a security risk. Campbell declined to comment on whether those targets now include Islamic State militants, but he said he has “all the appropriate authorities” to protect coalition troops.

If all U.S. troops in Afghanistan fall under NATO command in 2017, though, Campbell said new negotiations would be needed to continue those operations.

Tim Craig is The Post’s bureau chief in Pakistan. He has also covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and within the District of Columbia government.

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