Guerrillas

Pakistani authorities said they killed more than 70 Islamist militants in two separate clashes Friday and recaptured a fort in the largely lawless tribal region near the Afghan border. At last 50 militants who had assembled to attack a fort in the town of Laddah were killed by barrages of mortar and artillery fire, officials said. Meanwhile, army troops took back the abandoned Sipla Toi fort in the South Waziristan tribal region, the sources said.

Authorities said they had arrested a teenager who told them he would have been the next suicide bomber sent to target former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had she survived the Dec. 27 attack. The teen, identified as Aitzaz Shah, was arrested Friday in a mountainous region of the North-West Frontier Province and told investigators that he was not in Rawalpindi on the day Bhutto was slain.

The young man had been through a miserable few years. He had been rejected by the army and failed to finish his studies. Security officials kept summoning him for talks. At 25, he left his parents' home in the city, telling them he wanted to be a shepherd. They heard nothing more from him until newspapers reported that he was wanted in Germany for involvement in a plot to bomb a pair of trains.

As he prepares to leave Iraq after a year as the top Marine, Maj. Gen. Walter E. Gaskin is upbeat about the future of Anbar province but candid about U.S. mistakes made in the early years of the war that allowed the insurgency to grow. U.S. officials created a "perfect storm" after the March 2003 invasion that allowed the insurgency to attract recruits, Gaskin said in interviews here this week.

A son of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi is behind a group of foreign and Iraqi fighters responsible for a devastating explosion in northern Iraq, a security chief for Sunni tribesmen fighting insurgents said. At least 38 people were killed and 225 wounded in the blast Wednesday that destroyed about 50 buildings in a Mosul slum. The tribal security chief, Col.

Iraqi army units reached the northern city of Mosul on Sunday in preparation for what the government said would be a major offensive there against Al Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni militants. The reinforcements included Iraqi aircraft and tanks. "The largest portion of those forces have arrived already. They are Iraqi army forces and include troops, mechanized troops and air force," said Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed Askari.

A guerrilla wanted in the United States for the kidnapping of three Americans and trafficking cocaine has been captured near the Venezuelan border. The army said the capture of Luz Dari Conde Rubio, known as "Doris Adriana," was a blow to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Authorities said Rubio was part of a FARC front involved in drug smuggling and the kidnapping of contract workers Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes. They were captured in 2003 when their aircraft crashed on an anti-drug mission and are still being held.

Chad's president declared himself in control of the country Wednesday, though he acknowledged that three-fourths of his government had disappeared since rebels attacked this capital last week. For the first time since the assault began, more people were crossing bridges toward N'Djamena than away, apparently heeding a government call to return. Government forces pushed rebels out of the capital after weekend battles that left hundreds dead and sent thousands fleeing.

If there is a post-Cold War Berlin, it may well be this agricultural town straddling a river between Iran and Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic that has become an important ally in Washington's declared war on Islamic extremism.

The main rebel leader in eastern Congo said he had withdrawn from a committee set up to monitor a fragile cease-fire deal signed last month, sparking fears that a new wave of violence could sweep the region. Laurent Nkunda accused the U.N. peacekeeping force helping monitor the accord of bias after U.N. investigators said rebels massacred 30 civilians in the village of Kalonge around the time peace talks were being held in January. Rebels denied their fighters carried out the massacre.