Military Assaults

In declaring a cease-fire Saturday in Gaza, Israel asserted that it had achieved its goals: hurting Hamas' military wing, discouraging rocket fire into Israel and cutting the flow of smuggled arms into Gaza. But Israel had a broader goal: sending a tough message to its arch-enemies Iran and Hezbollah.

There were 14 of them huddled under the stairs. Israeli shells and airstrikes had long since shattered every window of the Helw family's three-story home. But underneath the concrete staircase, they said, they felt relatively safe -- until the soldiers came early in the morning on Jan. 4. There was pounding on the courtyard door, they recalled last week, and voices in accented Arabic shouted, "Who's in there?"

The reddish-brown scorch marks are still visible on the roofs and cream-colored stucco walls. Villagers here in this southern Gaza farm town say their neighborhood was showered with hundreds of chunks of burning white phosphorus, a controversial substance commonly used as a smoke screen to cover troop movements, over a three-day Israeli incursion in Khozaa last month. Majid Najar said the phosphorus started fires all around the home where he had taken shelter along with 20 relatives.

Ghazi Gul keeps the pictures of the dead in a pocket near his heart -- his father, two brothers, a cousin, a nephew. Gul works for the Afghan intelligence service, fighting militants on behalf of the U.S.-backed government. But he blames the U.S. for killing eight of his relatives, including his mother and two nieces. And he wants revenge.

Two months after ending its assault on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army was confronted Thursday by the first public allegations from within its ranks of unwarranted killings and other abuses of Palestinian civilians. The reports in a military institute's newsletter resembled accounts given by many Palestinians during and after the winter offensive.

A suspected U.S. missile attack killed at least eight militants Wednesday, including several foreigners, in the stronghold of Pakistan's top Taliban commander, intelligence officials said. The strike came as the Obama administration prepares to unveil a new strategy to quell Islamist insurgents threatening Pakistan as well as neighboring Afghanistan and to keep the pressure on Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders in the region.

A U.S. aircraft fired on suspected Sunni paramilitary fighters planting a bomb, killing one and wounding two, the U.S. said Friday -- the latest sign of trouble in a program that has been a pillar of the American strategy to stabilize Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said he appreciated the contribution of the Sunni paramilitary members in the fight against militants, but warned that he would not tolerate subversives in their ranks. A U.S.

Iraq's prime minister denounced a deadly U.S. raid Sunday as a crime that violated the nations' security pact and demanded that American commanders hand over those responsible to face possible trial in Iraqi courts. The U.S. military, however, strongly denied that it had overstepped its bounds and said it had notified Iraqi authorities in accordance with the rules that took effect this year governing U.S. battlefield conduct.

Soldiers sent to halt a Taliban advance toward the Pakistani capital fought their way over a mountain pass Thursday, killed at least 14 militants and narrowly escaped a wave of suicide car bombers, the army said. Troops ousted militants from the Ambela Pass leading over the mountains into Buner and were inching toward the north, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said. Soldiers opened fire on four suspected suicide car bombers who drove toward them near the pass, Abbas said.

Three Americans and two other foreign troops were killed Friday in an attack in eastern Afghanistan, officials said. Insurgents attacked Afghan and coalition forces with grenade launchers and guns, NATO forces said in a statement. The troops called in air support, and the militants withdrew. They are being pursued, the military said. Col. Greg Julian, a spokesman for U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, confirmed that three of the slain troops were Americans.