Military Assaults

Armed revolution never goes over well with hedonistic sun-seekers or the rum-punch crowd, and it wasn't long after the 1979 Marxist coup here that visitors began taking their sandals, cocktail shakers and sailboats elsewhere. "They would harass everybody," American Peggy Lambert, then a medical student, recalls of the gun-toting killjoys who had taken to boarding yachts putting into Grenada's scenic harbors to search for pornography or other evidence of social exploitation.

Turkish jets bombed several villages in northern Iraq early Sunday in the most aggressive action in years against Kurdish rebels who take sanctuary in the Kurdistan border region of Iraq. Local officials said at least one civilian was killed and several wounded. The Firat news agency, which is linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, said that five guerrillas and two civilians were killed and that many of the damaged buildings were schools and homes.

A Marine who fired at least 200 machine-gun rounds during a March incident that left as many as 19 Afghans dead will not testify before a special court of inquiry unless he is granted immunity, his civilian lawyer said Thursday. Fellow Marines have testified that, after a car bomb attack on their convoy in eastern Afghanistan, Sgt. Joshua Henderson fired his M240 in response to what U.S. forces believed was enemy small-arms fire. Henderson "has nothing to hide," attorney Charles W.

A senior Al Qaeda operative being hunted in the December bombing of a U.S. base used by the CIA in Afghanistan was among those killed in a missile strike in Pakistan's tribal area, U.S. officials said Wednesday. Hussein Yemeni, an Al Qaeda bomb expert and trainer, is believed to have been among more than a dozen people killed in the strike last week in Miram Shah, the largest town in North Waziristan, the officials said. Yemeni is thought to have had a major planning role in the Dec. 30 suicide bombing in Afghanistan that killed seven CIA employees and contractors and a Jordanian intelligence officer, a counter-terrorism official said.

Dr. Ahmed Ghanim's nightmarish week began with a phone call in the operating room of a makeshift medical center in downtown Fallouja. On the line was the manager of the city's General Hospital. Iraqi national guardsmen and U.S. Marines, the manager said, had entered the hospital, handcuffed the doctors and were forcing the patients out to the parking lot.

The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit decorated its chow hall with cardboard cutouts of pumpkins and put turkey, stuffing and pecan pie on the menu. There was also nonalcoholic sparkling wine and a priest who thanked God for the good fortune to come from the "greatest land in the world." But none of the Thanksgiving rituals could blot out the realities of Iraq.

There are fears that at least some of the 11 U.S. Marines killed in action in the fighting along the Kuwaiti-Saudi Arabian border last week and another Marine in a convoy may have been struck down by friendly fire. While it will not be known for sure until the battle has been thoroughly investigated, the sad truth is that such incidents are not unusual on the battlefield. In the Civil War, for example, one of the South's most famous generals, Thomas J.

At a time when world attention has been riveted on events in the Middle East and Afghanistan, the continuing drip, drip, drip of carnage on Russia's southern rim rarely gets noticed. But the bomb filled with nails, nuts and bolts that ripped apart schoolchildren and Russian army musicians in the republic of Dagestan on Thursday, fatally wounding 41 people during a moment of national celebration, is not likely to be soon forgotten in Moscow. President Vladimir V.

God knows what compelled Saddam Hussein to build a presidential suite at an ancient Christian monastery, whether it was the stunning view or the pursuit of some deeper meaning in life. After a brief visit to St. Matthew Monastery in 1980, Hussein ordered a complete renovation of the 4th century Orthodox Christian complex and the addition of luxury accommodations for himself. Hussein never returned.

Senior U.S. officials are pushing to expand CIA drone strikes beyond Pakistan's tribal region and into a major city in an attempt to pressure the Pakistani government to pursue Taliban leaders based in Quetta. The proposal has opened a contentious new front in the clandestine war. The prospect of Predator aircraft strikes in Quetta, a sprawling city, signals a new U.S. resolve to decapitate the Taliban. But it also risks rupturing Washington's relationship with Islamabad. The concern has created tension among Obama administration officials over whether unmanned aircraft strikes in a city of 850,000 are a realistic option.