Rebels

Four Libyan rebels were killed in an airstrike Thursday that the opposition's top general blamed on NATO. The incident followed the death of 13 rebels last weekend when a NATO warplane mistakenly opened fire on the fighters, according to the rebels' military command. The latest episode was met with frustration among the opposition's leaders, who accused the West of not moving aggressively to stop Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi's forces as they besiege cities and advance on the rebels' battle positions.

Syrian authorities and antigovernment activists accused each other Tuesday of reprisal killings in the central city of Homs, where government forces recently overran rebel-held areas and continue to deny access to outside humanitarian aid and human rights observers. The Syrian army has said it is "cleansing" the Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr of mines and booby traps left behind by "terrorists" when rebel fighters with the Free Syrian Army withdrew from the area last week. But activists and human rights groups said government troops in Baba Amr were carrying out revenge killings, which they say claimed an entire family, among others.

Tribal rebels trying to disrupt elections in southern Bangladesh killed three soldiers in an ambush, police said Friday.

Left-wing rebels fighting to topple the Sri Lanka government destroyed five processing factories in the Indian ocean island's central tea-growing region last week and damaged five more.

The Nigerian army launched an assault Tuesday against "Taliban" militants fighting to establish radical Islamic rule in the north of the country, in an escalation of clashes that reportedly have left hundreds dead. The rebels, armed with machetes, guns and bows and arrows, had attacked police stations and targeted police and government officials in the predominantly Muslim north Sunday and Monday.

Moammar Kadafi's forces pushed to within striking distance of Libyan rebels' de facto capital after a swift advance up the Mediterranean coast, putting themselves in position to bombard or besiege the country's second-largest city and its passionate, poorly armed defenders. Backed by superior firepower, pro-Kadafi forces launched a punishing surprise attack Tuesday on the final city blocking their advance on Benghazi, where the rebels have established a government to challenge the dictator's four-decade hold on power.

ALEPPO, Syria - In million-dollar apartments in a neighborhood of the city as yet unscathed, the battle for Aleppo plays out daily on flat-screen TVs. Amid imported sofas and abstract art, the revolution doesn't seem so close. But as the call for night prayers rang out from the minaret of the nearby mosque on a recent day, two loud explosions boomed. "Do you hear that?" a father of seven asked, briefly looking away from the TV. "It's like this every night. " From the balcony, which on this night let in a little cool summer breeze, his family can occasionally see smoke rising above other Aleppo neighborhoods that are under attack by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.

Indirect talks on the future of Libya have been taking place between representatives of Moammar Kadafi's government and rebels based in the eastern city of Benghazi, a spokesman for the opposition said Wednesday. Mahmoud Shammam of the Transitional National Council said the private mediation efforts, which have yet to bear fruit, have been held in South Africa and France through intermediaries. He said the opposition has held firm that Kadafi and his family be excluded from any future government, but added it was possible the dictator could live out his last years in Libya at an isolated location.

Police said Wednesday that leftist guerrillas bombed 18 banks in the Peruvian capital during the night, causing damage but no injuries.

A new word defines the debate over Syria in Washington: endgame. Policymakers expect the regime in Damascus to fall soon, and their focus has shifted to what happens then. In a cold-blooded, pragmatic sense, the United States and its allies don't want Bashar Assad's government to collapse immediately. Nobody's ready - inside Syria or out - to pick up the pieces. A sudden collapse could produce the same kind of chaos that enveloped Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. And with no U.S. Army units on hand in Syria to help restore order, there is fear that the regime's chemical weapons might fall into the hands of terrorists.