IRAQ

• As US officials predicted, violence is increasing in the run-up to the June transfer of power.

• The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force is back in Iraq and has initiated operations in the Sunni Triangle. The 1MEF press release is characteristically terse: "Those who seek to impede the freedom, prosperity and progress of the Al Anbar residents are being physically challenged. Among those, some have chosen to fight. Having elected their fate, they are being engaged and destroyed.

• Iraq's interim Public Works Minister Nisreen Mustafa al-Burwari, a Kurdish woman, narrowly escaped assassination in Mosul.

• BBC's Gilligan now says the Iraq war was just.

• At least one National Guardsman is mistreated on his return home from Iraq - his employer's new parent company will not rehire him. The US Dept of Labor says Securitas is in violation of federal law but the Seattle company is ignoring DOL for now.

IRAN

• The Isfahan nuclear plant began producing gas from uranium ore "some time ago", one step away from enriching uranium. The IAEA will visit the country this week, unless they don't.

THE WIDER WAR

• Pakistan's army negotiated the release of 13 hostages and is withdrawing from the tribal areas, in a face-saving end to what the Pakistani government called a successful operation against al Qaeda and Taliban forces. That assessment is not universally shared. Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said recently gathered intelligence combined with eyewitness accounts indicated that Uzbek terror leader Tahir Yuldash had been badly wounded and was in hiding.

• In a move rich with irony, Pakistan began bulldozing the homes of tribesmen sponsoring al Qaeda and Taliban forces.

• Reverberations continue from Israel's assassination of Sheikh Yassin. Are the terrorists around Arafat's compound next on the list?

• Amid signs of a factional differences, Rantissi has emerged as the Gaza head of Hamas for now. He continues his threats and denunciations against the United States. Hizbollah says their forces are at the command of new Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.

• Tanzim/Fatah leaders pursuaded an unpopular, possibly mentally slow boy to become a suicide bomber, saying it was his only chance to have sex (in heaven). Fortunately, he had second thoughts and Israeli soldiers were able to help him remove the vest without injuries or deaths among either the IDF or the Palestinian civilians nearby. Read Jonah Goldberg's scathing commentary.

• Some Palestinians want the violence to stop.

• Khalid Sheik Mohammed says bin Laden ordered attacks on Heathrow airport after 9/11.

• EURSoc notes that some leaders are using the panic after the Madrid bombing to renew a push for the proposed EU constitution. Blair is among them and will not seek a referendum from the British public on the issue.

• NATO rushed troops to Kosovo after ethnic violence caused 6 deaths. Europe has begun to pay attention to the Balkans again, but ethnic cleansing is nearly complete in Kosovo.

• The East German state of Saxony Anhalt will issue "Islamic bonds" to finance their public debt.

• Syria has appealed to Australia to use its close ties with Washington to help the Arab nation shake off its reputation as a terrorist haven and repair its relations with the US. Key quote: "Secret talks between the two nations have been under way for months but have become more urgent as rogue nations reconsider their role in allowing terrorists to thrive, in light of the US determination to take pre-emptive military action."

• Publicly, however, Syria called for a tough stance against Israel.

• Amid growing signs of religious intolerance in Egypt, this report of abduction and forced conversion of Christian Coptic girls to Islam. Several Coptic Christian college students have been arrested for "disturbing national unity." The students were carrying Bibles and Christian materials with them; they are being held without any suggestion as to when they will be tried or otherwise dealt with.

• US forces return to hunt al Qaeda in Mogadishu. Warlords who expect a replay of "Blackhawk Down" may be in for a major surprise.

• A new book details the detailed pre-planning by extremist Hutu cabinet members of the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsis.
  

• A bomb exploded outside a bar in the Muslim area of Thailand. 30 people were injured, mainly Malaysian tourists.

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