Tribesmen

Security forces targeted hide-outs of tribal militants accused of blowing up gas pipelines and attacking officials in troubled southeastern Pakistan, and 25 suspects were killed, a senior Cabinet minister said Wednesday. The security forces also seized weapons, including rockets, land mines and other munitions, during the two-day operation near Sui, a town about 175 miles southeast of Quetta, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said.

Pathan tribesmen harvesting opium poppies in Pakistan's rugged mountains bordering Afghanistan tend their fields with assault rifles and machine pistols slung over their backs. They say they will fight to the finish if Pakistan brings its declared "Holy War Against Narcotics" for 1993 to the remote land where their ancestors have grown poppies for generations. "We have heard that they plan to destroy our next crop.

In their songs, the Maasai tribesmen of East Africa have long celebrated the killing of lions as a test of their manhood. But now the Maasai that live in the Mbirikani Group Ranch in southeastern Kenya are trying to change their traditional antipathy toward the majestic-looking beasts.

One man lives penniless in a field under a patchwork tent as baying dogs roam outside. Another, wearing a suit jacket and tie, glides past his silver Mercedes as he welcomes guests into his plush Kabul villa. Both are Kuchis, which means "nomads" in the Pashto language. Yet they have little in common but their heritage and the view that the life of Afghanistan's wandering people is fading. Few of the itinerant tribesmen have settled down and prospered.

Reporting from Seoul and Zamboanga City, Philippines -- Gunmen raided a remote Philippine village before dawn Thursday and abducted at least 75 people in a restive southern province, an army spokesman said. Within hours the assailants had freed 18 captives, 17 of them children, amid negotiations with government officials, authorities said. They freed nine others today and are demanding that murder charges be dropped The incident was the second recent mass abduction in the Philippines.

Troop reinforcements Wednesday moved into the remote hills of central Yemen where government forces have battled armed tribesmen in an assault to capture suspected operatives of Osama bin Laden. There was sporadic gunfire, but no fighting was reported in the provinces of Shabwa and Marib, where heavy clashes took place Tuesday as the government tried to capture five suspected Bin Laden loyalists being protected by the Abida tribe. Both provinces are known strongholds of Islamic militants.

In village after village, the pattern is the same. Sinister "night letters" threaten tribal elders considered loyal to the government. The local girls school is forced to close down -- or goes up in flames. Those bold or reckless enough to travel by road risk ambush, abduction or worse. Alarmed by the tightening Taliban grip on huge swaths of Afghan countryside, U.S.

In a brazen attack on Iran's military elite, a suicide bomber today killed five Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and 26 others at a gathering of tribal leaders in a southeastern province near the Pakistan border that's known for drug running and religious extremism, according to the official Iranian news agency. The assault was carried out by a lone man who reportedly disguised himself in tribal dress and detonated an explosives belt at a gymnasium in the city of Pisheen in the Sistan-Baluchistan province, a harsh land plagued by heroin smuggling and ethnic animosities.

WASHINGTON -- Once a month, a group of staff members from the House and Senate intelligence committees drives across the Potomac River to CIA headquarters in Virginia, assembles in a secure room and begins the grim task of watching videos of the latest drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen. Sometimes they see Hellfire missiles hit buildings after suspected terrorists have entered. Other times they can make out a group or a vehicle consumed in a fiery blast. Occasionally, a smaller explosion kills just one person, as officials say happened when a missile this month crashed into a room in Pakistan's tribal areas and killed Abu Yahya al Libi, Al Qaeda's No. 2. The videos are much sharper than the grainy drone imagery that can be viewed on the Web. "You can see exactly what is going on," said a senior congressional aide, who, like other officials, spoke about the highly classified program on the condition he not be identified.