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In the war: Pakistanis protest over U.S. missile strike

November 24, 2008

Protesters urged Islamabad yesterday to sever ties with the United States over a U.S. missile strike that killed a militant linked to a jetliner bomb plot, highlighting risks in seeking to eliminate extremists along the Afghan border. Pakistani intelligence officials say British citizen Rashid Rauf and a Saudi militant, Abu Zubair al-Masri, were among five killed in the raid Saturday in North Waziristan. Britain had been seeking Rauf's extradition before he escaped from Pakistani custody in 2007. Rauf had allegedly been in contact with a group in Britain planning to smuggle liquid explosives onto trans-Atlantic flights. About 100 people in the eastern city of Multan demonstrated against the missile strike, burning an effigy of President George W. Bush.

Saddam Hussein's cousin, known as "Chemical Ali," appeared in court in Baghdad yesterday, accused of orchestrating the bloody repression of Shia rioters after the 1999 killing of the father of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. It was the fifth trial of top Saddam-era figures and the second to include Tariq Aziz, the dictator's defender and a fierce critic of the United States after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent 1991 Gulf War.

Barack Obama told Afghanistan's leader he will dedicate more U.S. aid and military power to the region's fight against extremist groups once he takes office, it was announced yesterday in Kabul. Obama was said to have had a phone conversation Saturday with President Hamid Karzai.