Terrorism & Security

Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin talks on the phone before an interview in Kabul March 27, 2013. The Afghanistan government is shocked by Pakistan's "complacency" in the nascent Afghan peace process and is ready to work without Islamabad's help on reconciliation, the deputy foreign minister told Reuters on Wednesday. (Mohammad Ismail/REUTERS)

Pakistan: Afghanistan 'overreacting' in pulling out of military visit

By Whitney Eulich, Staff writer / 03.28.13

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

Pakistan accused Afghanistan of overreacting when it pulled out of a military visit to its neighbor this week – a cancellation that puts added strain on an already tense relationship and presents another hurdle to the Afghan peace process.

The Army in Pakistan had invited more than 10 Afghan officers to participate in military drills in Quetta, in Pakistan's southwest. But the officers refused to come after what the Afghan government called “unacceptable Pakistani shelling” across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Scores of shells were fired into Afghanistan on Monday and Tuesday, and have been followed by “days of angry diplomatic exchanges,” reports Reuters. Such incidents have occurred sporadically across the Durand Line, the British-drawn border that Pakistan acknowledges but which Afghanistan disputes. 

"We believe that Afghanistan overreacted to a small incident," a foreign ministry spokesman told Agence France-Presse, adding that its "disciplined and responsible" troops had responded to what it called "some intrusions from the Afghan side."

The altercation comes just days after US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Afghanistan to complete the handoff of the Bagram military prison. The Afghan war is now in its 12th year and more than half of the 66,000 American forces will withdraw from the country by 2014, reports The New York Times.

According to The Christian Science Monitor, Mr. Kerry and President Hamid Karzai “held a rosy news conference” where they discussed US-Afghan relations, which have also been strained in recent weeks by Afghan government accusations that the US is supporting the Taliban.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have long traded blame for the Taliban violence that has plagued their shared border, and last month there was a sense of hope for cooperation after a trilateral meeting with British leaders.

The gathering was “billed as a success after it ended with an optimistic pledge to seek a peace settlement with the Taliban within six months,” reports The Wall Street Journal.    

In reality, senior Afghan officials now say, Pakistani preconditions made at the summit — and rejected as unacceptable by Kabul — have set off a new crisis between the two neighbors. “What we ask from Pakistan is to prove that that country wants peace and stability in Afghanistan,” Mr. Karzai’s chief of staff, Abdel Karim Khurram, said in an interview.

Pakistani officials said they set no preconditions and that their government supports a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.

Pakistan was the Taliban’s crucial supporter during the 1990s civil war, and US and Afghan officials say the insurgency’s leadership is still operating from Pakistani shelters.

One Pakistani official this week told Mr. Karzai he was blocking opportunities for peace and taking his country “straight to hell,” reports Reuters. Afghanistan responded such words were part of “a failed propaganda attempt” to push a historic transition off course.

Although Pakistan’s cooperation is seen as crucial to a successful peace process in Afghanistan, for the first time this week Afghan officials signaled they may be ready to “go it alone,” reports a separate Reuters story.

Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin told Reuters that Afghanistan planned to use senior Taliban officials "recently handed over by the United States in Bagram prison to urge militants to pursue peace.”

Mr. Ludin acknowledged the critical role Pakistan plays and noted that Afghanistan would still welcome its support. But, he said, "[we] here in Kabul are in a bit of a state of shock at once again being confronted by the depth of Pakistan's complacency, we are just very disappointed." 

"The sad reality is though Pakistan still remains the most important missing link in this whole vision that we have," Lundin said.

In an editorial in Pakistan’s The Nation, the very same language and themes were repeated.

Afghanistan is not only Pakistan’s neighbour, but is also closely and inextricably linked to it in more than one ways….

Vietnamese fishing boats are seen near Da Tay island in the Spratly archipelago in January. (Quang Le/Reuters)

Flares, gunshots, and fires, oh my: The latest South China Sea accusations fly (+video)

By Arthur Bright, Staff writer / 03.27.13

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

China has denied Hanoi's accusations that it fired upon a Vietnamese fishing boat last week near the Paracel Islands as "sheer fabrication," and claims that its patrol vessel only fired flares and did not damage the boat.

Beijing said yesterday that despite Vietnamese accusations that the fishing vessel was fired upon and its cabin "burned down" during a confrontation last week near the Paracels, which both China and Vietnam lay claim to, the Chinese patrol vessel's actions were "necessary and legitimate," reports state newspaper the China Daily.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters that China has indisputable sovereignty over the Xisha Islands [the Chinese name for the Paracels] and their adjacent waters, and the Vietnamese fishing boat entered the waters for "illegal fishing operations".

"According to confirmation by relevant parties, no harm was done to the Vietnamese ship at that time and place," Hong said.

An unnamed Chinese navy official goes further, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reports, calling the Vietnamese description of events a "sheer fabrication" that "revealed the ulterior motives of the relevant Vietnamese authorities." 

Staff aboard the Chinese patrolling vessel tried repeatedly to persuade and demand the Vietnamese boats to leave by whistle blowing, shouting and handflag guiding, but all failed.

Then the Chinese vessel fired into the sky two warning signal shells, which burned out and extinguished in the air.

There is no such things [sic] that Chinese vessel fired with weapons or the Vietnamese boats caught fire, said the official.

This is just the latest event in an ongoing dispute between Vietnam and China over islands in the South China Sea. China claims to have historical territorial rights over the entire sea, but Vietnam, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, and several other nations each lay claim to various islands within the region – including the Paracels and the Spratleys, which Vietnam claims.

The Vietnamese government publicized the issue on Monday, saying that the Chinese vessel illegally chased and fired upon the Vietnamese vessel as it fished in what Thanh Nien News called its "traditional fishing grounds" in the Hoang Sa Archipelago, the Vietnamese name for the Paracels.

"This is an extremely serious issue, violating Vietnam's sovereignty over Hoang Sa Archipelago, threatening the lives and damaging properties of Vietnamese fishermen," [Foreign ministry spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi] said.

"This has seriously violated international laws and agreements on basic principles in solving sea issues between Vietnam and China, and is counter to the Declaration of Parties in the [South China] Sea (DOC)."

Radio Free Asia reports that Pham Quang Thanh, the captain of the fishing boat, said that "When we saw the vessel from afar, we left right away. But after about 30 to 40 minutes, they were already right behind us."

“I tried to head east to get away, but they were close to us, and they started shooting at us,” Thanh said.

Thanh then ran inside the boat’s cabin, he said.

“I heard four explosions and found that the boat’s cabin was on fire, and I called everybody to put out the fire with sea water.”

His Chinese attackers had meanwhile left, eventually halting about five or six nautical miles away, he said.

“They just left. They didn’t show any willingness to help, or even to stop to check on us. They wanted to destroy us.”

Citing an earlier news report, Thanh Nien News describes a similar scene, but names the ship captain as Bui Van Phai, who said his boat collided with the Chinese vessel before the chase began.

The Syrian revolutionary flag, is seen in front of the empty seat of the Syrian delegation during the opening session of the Arab League summit in Doha, Qatar, Tuesday. Syrian opposition representatives took the country's seat at the Arab League summit that opened in Qatar on Tuesday, a significant diplomatic boost for the forces fighting President Bashar al-Assad's regime. (Ghiath Mohamad/AP)

Rebels capture strategic no man's land: Syria's seat at the Arab League

By Whitney Eulich, Staff writer / 03.26.13

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

In a symbolic move, opponents of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad took the country’s seat at an Arab League summit in Doha today, despite the resignation of the opposition Syrian National Council president on Sunday.

The delegation of opposition leaders included interim Prime Minister Ghassan Hitto; the head of the national council, George Sabra; and Moaz al-Khatib, who, despite stepping down as president of the Syrian National Council after Mr. Hitto’s appointment led today’s delegation in Qatar.

Syria’s membership to the Arab League was suspended in 2011 as a result of the government’s bloody crackdown on the opposition, which began two years ago this month and has claimed the lives of over 70,000 people, according to the United Nations.

The “decision for the opposition to take Syria's seat was made at the recommendation of Arab foreign ministers,” The Associated Press reports.

After being met by applause, Mr. Khatib thanked the presidents, kings, and emirs in the audience for their recognition of the opposition at the two-day summit.

"It is part of the restoration of legitimacy that the people of Syria have long been robbed of," Khatib said.

When Khatib addressed the summit he opened by painting a dire picture of Syria’s reality today: a quarter of the population displaced and tens of thousands dead, reports Al Jazeera. He asked for more support from Arab and Western leaders, calling on the United States to implement NATO Patriot missiles to defend rebel-held areas from President Assad’s airpower, Reuters reports.

The Syrian government spoke out against the opposition’s presence at the summit today, saying that by inviting them, the Arab League was legitimizing “terrorist acts that are committed overtly and blatantly against the Syrians, their institutions and properties," said an editorial in the government newspaper Al-Thawra, the AP reports.

The Assad government also accused the Arab League of trying to cozy up to Israel and the US: "The Arab League has blown up all its charters and pledges to preserve common Arab security, and the shameful decisions it has taken against the Syrian people since the beginning of the crisis and until now have sustained our conviction that it has exchanged its Arab identity with a Zionist-American one,” the editorial said.

Arab world split

Reuters reports that in an opening speech the Qatari emir pushed for the UN to put an end to the “oppression and repression of the people” of Syria.

The war in Syria has divided world powers, paralyzing action at the Security Council. The Arab world is also split, with Saudi Arabia and Qatar the most fervent foes of Assad, and Iraq, Algeria and Lebanon the most resistant to calls for his removal.

It is not only international powers that are divided, however. As The Christian Science Monitor noted yesterday, divisions between the political and militarized branches of Syria’s opposition are being strained, as well.

The disconnect between the military on the ground in Syria and the politicians of the council was further exposed by the [Free Syrian Army]'s rejection of the council's appointment of Ghassan Hitto to the office of provisional prime minister. AFP reports that the FSA's leaders announced that they do not recognize Mr. Hitto's appointment, saying they "cannot recognize a prime minister who was forced on the National Coalition, rather than chosen by consensus," according to FSA media coordinator Louay Muqdad….

Hitto's appointment also appears to have prompted the council's president to resign. Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, a former imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, on Sunday announced his resignation as the president of the Syrian National Council, reports Reuters. Mr. Khatib, a moderate Sunni who in recent weeks had called for negotiations with members of the Assad regime to end the Syrian civil war, saw his influence limited by the appointment of Hitto, an Islamist-leaning technocrat backed by Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The council has not accepted Khatib’s resignation, and has asked him to reconsider. Reuters reports that Khatib publicly said it was the lack of international failure to support an armed revolt against Assad that led to his resignation. In light of the reception of Khatib and the opposition delegation at the Arab League summit, The Guardian’s Ian Black said:

If this were Shakespearean drama, or a political soap opera, you might well think that what he [Khatib] is going to do is return to his post [as opposition leader] at the demands of admiring colleagues, who say only he has the ability to steer the Syrian opposition through this crucial and painful period in their history.

In this undated file photo, Syrian Commander Riad al-Asaad, who heads a group of Syrian Army defectors appears on a video posted on the group's Facebook page. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday March 25, 2013, a bomb stuck to his car targeted Asaad during a visit to the town of Mayadeen in eastern Syria. (Free Syrian Army/AP)

Hard times for Syria's rebels: top commander injured, PM rejected

By Arthur Bright, Staff writer / 03.25.13

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

One of the Syrian rebels' top military leaders was wounded – and perhaps killed – by a bomb today in eastern Syria, while Syria's tenuous opposition threatened to come further unglued after the resignation of its leader and a rejection of the group's new provisional prime minister.

Col. Riad al-Asaad, the nominal head of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), was injured in a blast in the town of Mayadeen in eastern Syria, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.  Agence France-Presse reports that, according to the Observatory, Assad survived a car bomb and was transferred to Turkey for treatment of his injuries.

The Associated Press notes that Assad, while titularly the leader of the rebels' military wing, in fact plays a largely symbolic role, having been superceded by the Office of the Chiefs of Staff, which is associated with the leading opposition political group, the Syrian National Council. But even the office's influence is limited, as most militias on the ground in Syria wage their campaign against the government independently of a military command structure.

The disconnect between the military on the ground in Syria and the politicians of the council was further exposed by the FSA's rejection of the council's appointment of Ghassan Hitto to the office of provisional prime minister. AFP reports that the FSA's leaders announced that they do not recognize Mr. Hitto's appointment, saying they "cannot recognize a prime minister who was forced on the National Coalition, rather than chosen by consensus," according to FSA media coordinator Louay Muqdad.

Voice of America notes that Hitto received 35 votes out of 48 cast in an election held last Tuesday by the 62-member group, but that several prominent dissidents boycotted the vote.

Hitto's appointment also appears to have prompted the council's president to resign. Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, a former imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, on Sunday announced his resignation as the president of the Syrian National Council, reports Reuters. Mr. Khatib, a moderate Sunni who in recent weeks had called for negotiations with members of the Assad regime to end the Syrian civil war, saw his influence limited by the appointment of Hitto, an Islamist-leaning technocrat backed by Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood.

"I had promised the great Syrian people and promised God that I would resign if matters reached some red lines," Alkhatib said in a statement on his official Facebook page, without explaining exactly what had prompted his resignation.

"Now I am fulfilling my promise and announcing my resignation from the National Coalition in order to be able to work with freedom that cannot be available within the official institutions," he said.

The Washington Post reports that Hitto's appointment had been opposed both by Khatib's faction within the council and by the United States, "whose diplomats argued against the move on the grounds that it created an unnecessarily divisive distraction from the goal of bringing down Assad’s regime, according to Syrian opposition members."

But the Syrian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood backed Hitto in a move "widely seen as an effort by the Brotherhood to claw back some of the influence lost when the original Syrian opposition body, the Syrian National Council, was absorbed into the wider Syrian coalition."

The Guardian's Middle East editor, Ian Black, offers further insight into Khatib's departure:

Syrian opposition sources said Khatib had been unhappy for some time and that his frustrations had come to a head over the recent decision to appoint a prime minister of a transitional government – though he was not opposed personally to Ghassan Hitto, a Syrian of Kurdish origin who has been living in the US.

Qatar, hosting this week’s Arab League summit in Doha, had pressed for the move in part to allow the anti-Assad opposition to take over the Syrian government seat on the league council when the conference opens on Tuesday. The Muslim Brotherhood also backed Hitto.

Khatib, the sources said, is also angry at the flow of weapons to jihadi type armed groups compared to the few getting through to the Free Syrian Army, in part because of disagreements between Britain and France, which would like to lift the EU arms embargo, and other member states.

The Guardian also notes that the council has not accepted Khatib's resignation, and has asked him to reconsider.

A file photo shows Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti speaking at a mosque. A blast at a mosque in central Damascus on Thursday killed Buti, a supporter of President Bashar al-Assad, state television said. (Courtesy of SANA/Reuters)

Assad lashes out after death of leading Syrian cleric and key Sunni ally

By Whitney Eulich, Staff writer / 03.22.13

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad announced today that his troops would “wipe out” extremists after a suicide bombing killed a leading Sunni cleric who was a vital source of support for the Assad regime.

The blast in a downtown Damascus mosque yesterday killed 49 people, including Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti and his grandson, and injured 84, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

Sheikh Buti was a supporter not only of Bashar al-Assad, but his father and predecessor as president, Hafez. As a Sunni, Buti's support for the predominantly Alawite Assad regime carried substantial weight, especially amid the predominantly Sunni-led uprising against the regime. He is also the most senior religious leader to be killed in the conflict, which has claimed more than 70,000 lives, the Associated Press reports.

The use of suicide bombings has become a common tactic in the Syrian war, but this was the first time a mosque has been the target.

It was also one of the biggest security breaches of the conflict, according to the AP. The New York Times reports that the military command and the Baath party headquarters are in the vicinity and the area is one of the most secured in Damascus.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing. A spokesman for the rebels' Free Syrian Army said the group did not take "any responsibility for this operation," reports BBC News. "We do not do these types of suicide bombings and we do not target mosques," Loay Maqdad told al-Arabiya television, according to BBC. 

Abu Anas, who lives near the mosque, told the New York Times that he was surprised Buti was targeted, even if he did back Assad. “It is very bad and sinful to kill someone inside a mosque, whatever his background,” Mr. Anas said. 

The support of Sheikh Buti, a Sunni, gave particularly important credibility to the regime, the Times reports. 

Mr. Assad is a member of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, and his closest advisers and loyalists are Alawites, but the president still claimed credibility as a unifier of Syria’s religious sects partly because of the backing of prominent spiritual figures like Sheik Bouti.

“He was the most important Sunni clerical supporter of the Assad regime,” said Joshua M. Landis, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma and the author of the Syria Comment blog, which has tracked the conflict’s progression from a peaceful political uprising to a sectarian-tinged civil war. “It is a great blow to the regime and the remaining Sunni supporters of the president.”

Buti regularly preached on Syrian television, where his sermons were aired live and he had his own religious program. He encouraged the country to support Assad in his fight against the rebels.

According to the AP, earlier this month Buti gave a speech stating that there was "a religious duty to protect the values, the land, and the nation" of Syria. "There is no difference between the army and the rest of the nation," Buti said, endorsing Assad’s forces.

The Guardian reports that a former spokeswoman for the Syrian opposition, Bassma Kodmani, told the BBC that Buti was “widely despised.” 

"He [Buti] was not a very popular figure in Syria. About a week ago he called on 'Good Muslims' to fight to defend the regime against gangs – as the regime usually describes the rebels. That probably provoked a lot of anger among the revolutionary groups who perceived him as corrupt and controlled entirely by the regime.

I am not justifying [the attack] … Obviously a new level of violence has been reached and there is no justification for something such as this inside a mosque."

(The Guardian notes that Ms. Kodmani may have confused Buti with Syria's Sheikh Ahmad Badr al-Dine Hassoun, who explicitly encouraged Syrians to join the Syrian Army.)

Some have pointed fingers at the regime itself for the suicide bombing, reports Agence France-Presse. Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, head of the Syrian National Coalition, said: "This is a crime, by any measure, that is completely rejected."

“Whoever did this was a criminal,” Mr. Khatib said. “And we suspect it was the regime."

The Syrian government deemed tomorrow, Saturday, a national day of mourning, and the airwaves are flooded with sermons today, the AP reports.

In his statement on state-run TV, Assad said Buti was a representation of true Islam in confronting "the forces of darkness and extremist" ideology.

"Your blood and your grandson's, as well as that of all the nation's martyrs will not go in vain because we will continue to follow your thinking to wipe out their darkness and clear our country of them," Assad said.

US President Barack Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (l.) review troops during an arrival ceremony at the Muqata Presidential Compound in the West Bank City of Ramallah March 21, 2013. (Larry Downing/REUTERS)

West Bank hosts Obama, Gaza sends rockets

By Arthur Bright, Staff writer / 03.21.13

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

A pair of rockets launched from Gaza hit the southern Israeli town of Sderot today, amid President Obama's first state visit to Israel and just hours before he was due to meet with the Palestinian president in the West Bank.

The rocket attack is a reminder that even if the president manages to bring Israel and the Palestinian Authority to the negotiating table, he still has to contend with the more radical Hamas in Gaza, over which the Palestinian Authority has no leverage.

The Associated Press reports that the attacks caused no injuries, though one rocket did hit the courtyard of a house in Sderot, causing minor damage, while the other landed in a field. Two more launches were detected in Gaza, but the rockets landed in the Palestinian territory.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, AP adds.

Haaretz notes that a senior Hamas official earlier this week "threatened retaliation against Israel for what he called frequent violations of the ceasefire agreement, by Israel." Haaretz says he referred to "a number of incidents where IDF forces opened fire at Palestinians approaching the Gaza security fence." The newspaper adds that today's attack was the second rocket attack from Gaza in less than a month.

Israeli officials told Haaretz that Israel was not expected to respond at this time. "The Israeli response will come at the right time and the right place," they said.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, with whom Obama later met in the West Bank, criticized the attack, Reuters reports the official Palestinian Wafa news agency as saying.

"We condemn violence against civilians regardless of its source, including rocket firing," he said. "We are in favor of maintaining mutual and comprehensive calm in Gaza."

The attack highlights the difficult task facing Obama, who hopes to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. Even if Israel and the PA agree to meet and relaunch peace talks, the PA has no authority over Hamas-run Gaza, which could take steps to derail any progress. Any reconciliation between the two Palestinian factions seems far off, and even Palestinians in the West Bank are becoming impatient.

 The Christian Science Monitor reports:

In Israel, there is cautious optimism that Obama's visit will nudge leaders back to the negotiating table. Many Palestinians are disillusioned by the lack of action after his Cairo speech, however, and recent unrest has sparked some speculation about a third intifada, or uprising.

Peace advocates on both sides say the window for a viable two-state solution is fast closing – at best, in two years – largely because of expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Still, the first day of Obama's visit, spent in Israel and including appearances with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, went well. It appears to have shored up a US-Israeli relationship that had seemed tattered as recently as last year, reports the Monitor's Christa Case Bryant.

...Overall, Obama managed to sail right through the awkward moments and hit all the notes Israelis wanted to hear. He outlined his vision of a two-state solution as a strong Jewish state next to a sovereign Palestinian one, without mentioning anything about curbing Israeli settlements in the West Bank; promised continued foreign aid; insisted on calling Netanyahu by his nickname, Bibi; complimented his wife Sara, saying the Netanyahu boys must have gotten their good looks from her; and, in a more serious moment, recognized the sacrifice of Netanyahu's family, who lost his brother Yoni in the 1976 Entebbe operation to rescue more than 100 Israeli and Jewish passengers whose plane had been hijacked. ...

One senior Israeli official who was asked ahead of time about what Obama would have to do to make his visit a success, reportedly replied simply, "Land." Indeed, before Obama even addresses the Israeli public in a speech tomorrow; before he visits the Dead Sea Scrolls, thus implicitly acknowledging that Israel's right to exist here dates back thousands of years before the Holocaust; before he visits the grave of Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism ... in the eyes of many Israelis, his mission is already accomplished.

For the Palestinians, the feelings are quite the reverse. 

The screen of an automated teller machine of Shinhan Bank shows a 'out of service' sign after a hacking attack, in central Seoul Wednesday. South Korean police were investigating a hacking attack on an Internet provider that brought down the servers at major South Korean banks and top TV broadcasters. (Lee Jae-Won/Reuters)

South Korea cyberattack: whodunit? (+video)

By Whitney Eulich, Staff writer / 03.20.13

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

South Korean officials are investigating what they say is a widespread cyberattack, responsible for shutting down the computer systems of at least three major news broadcasters and two banks. The Army has raised alert levels out of concern that the attacks are linked to the country’s increasingly hostile neighbor to the north.

"We do not rule out the possibility of North Korea being involved, but it's premature to say so," said a Defense Ministry spokesman.

Just hours before the network disruptions, the South Korean intelligence agency accused North Korea of “carrying out intensive cyber propaganda attacks against the South, designed to damage government policies and encourage social discord,” reports The Telegraph.

Affected networks were “partially or entirely crippled,” according to the Korean Internet Security Agency (KISA), a state watchdog. The BBC reports that KISA has also reported accounts of hacked computers showing skulls on the screens “which could indicate that hackers had installed malicious code in the networks.”

Police said that at least some of the computers affected had files deleted, reports Reuters.

South Korean President Park Geun Hye has put together a cyber security team to look into whether North Korea is the culprit behind today’s attacks. The network disruption coincided with meetings in Seoul today between US and South Korean officials on how to best enforce United Nations-imposed sanctions on the North.

Tensions have been on the rise on the Korean Peninsula since the UN slapped Pyongyang with a fresh round of sanctions in February after its latest nuclear test.

In addition, the North has closely watched and warned against the joint military exercises taking place between the US and South Korea in the region. Last week, North Korea repeated a threat to no longer honor the 1953 armistice that effectively ended the fighting of the Korean War, and cut off a military hotline that connects the neighboring countries, reports The Christian Science Monitor.

“Partly for propaganda purposes and partly out of a kind of paranoia that makes them fear for their security, North Korea regards the exercises as a threat, even though they are defensive in nature,” Yonsei University Professor Moon Chung-in told the Monitor.

Reuters reports that just last week North Korea complained of being a victim of cyberattacks as well, pinning the blame on the US and its allies for attempted “sabotage.” To put that into perspective, less than 1 percent of North Korea's population has access to the Internet. Reports Agence France-Presse: "Access to the full-blown Internet is for the super-elite only, meaning a few hundred people or maybe 1,000 at most, analysts estimate."

Pyongyang has threatened to attack the US and posted a statement on its official state news agency saying “the hostile forces will never escape [North Korea’s] strong military counter-action” if the US continues to fly sorties over the peninsula.

According to Reuters banks have restored all operations today, however:

… TV stations could not say when they would be able to get their systems back up. Some workers at the stations could not boot their computer.

Broadcasts were not affected.

South Korea's military said it was not affected by the attack but raised its state of readiness in response. None of the country's oil refineries, power stations, ports or airports was affected.

“It’s hard to find who did it immediately but North Korea is the usual suspect,” Park Choon Sik, a Seoul Women’s University professor of cyber security who used to work for a government agency specializing in cyber security, told Bloomberg.

“Cyber attacks are much easier weapons for North Korea as they cost far less than missiles or nuclear tests, but they can send more people into a real panic,” Professor Park said.

In April 2011 South Korea blamed the North for similar computer stalls at Nonghyup Bank, disrupting ATM and online banking services for millions of clients for three days, reports Bloomberg. Reuters reports that the biggest cyberattack in the south was nicknamed “10 days of rain” by McAfee, the anti-malware firm.

North Korea has long been believed to have “hacker schools." An article on North Korean hacking was published by Al Jazeera English in 2011 with accounts from two defectors who reportedly attended the North’s “hacking schools.”

"There is a pyramid-like prodigy recruiting system, where smart kids from all over the country – students who are good at math, coding, and possess top analytical skills – are picked up,” one of the defectors told AJE.

Park told Bloomberg that South Korea is particularly “vulnerable to cyber terrorism” due to the high volume of businesses and transactions that take place online there.

“Broadcasters and banks were hit today, which itself is really a big concern, and the next target can be infrastructure, such as power, communication and transportation facilities,” Park said.

Smoke rises from the site of a bomb attack in Baghdad's Sadr City Tuesday. A dozen car bombs and suicide blasts tore into Shiite districts in Baghdad and south of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, killing more than 50 people on the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. (Wissm al-Okili/Reuters)

Bombs rock Baghdad, ten years after Iraq invasion announced

By Ariel Zirulnick, Staff writer / 03.19.13

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

Bombs went off in food markets, residential neighborhoods, and checkpoints in and around Baghdad today, on the tenth anniversary of the US announcement of its invasion of Iraq.

The Wall Street Journal reports there were at least 15 attacks, mostly car bombs, between 8 and 9 am local time, primarily in Shiite neighborhoods of the capital and Iraqi Army locations. According to the Associated Press, at least 56 were killed and more than 200 were wounded.

No group has claimed responsibility yet, but the Journal reports that they bear similarities to previous violence claimed by Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), which has accepted responsibility for a number of recent attacks, including one on March 17 that targeted the justice ministry. According to AP, AQI "favors spectacular, coordinated bombings intended to undermine public confidence in the Shiite-led government."

The attacks are not surprising, and would not be even if it was not an important anniversary. After declining, then leveling off from a peak in 2006 and 2007, sectarian violence in Iraq began rising once again last year. The rise in attacks came on the heels of the completion of the US troop withdrawal and as political infighting brought Sunni-Shiite tensions to the forefront.

As The Christian Science Monitor reports, the concrete walls surrounding the Iraqi parliament are going back up, only a year after they were taken down in a nod to improved security in the capital. For the most part, the attacks appear to be Sunni insurgent attacks attempting to destabilize the Shiite-led government, which has taken steps to block Sunni participation in politics. 

Prior to the US invasion, predominantly Sunni Baathists, led by Saddam Hussein, dominated the government and security forces. Shiites have most power and influence now, and the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has consistently marginalized his Sunni Arab political opponents.

The country has also been rocked by nearly weekly Sunni protests demanding that Iranian influence in the country be curtailed and that their lack of standing in the post-war power-sharing government that increasingly does anything but distribute power among Shiites and Sunnis be mitigated. In 2012, Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi fled Baghdad prior to being sentenced to death on charges of leading a death squad that targeted Shiite leaders. He said the charges were fabricated for political advantage.

BBC journalist Jim Muir describes the forces that have left the unity government a hollow shell, both a reaction to attacks by Sunni groups and a catalyst for further attacks:

[Sunni leaders] charge that [Prime Minister Nour Maliki] has monopolised power by keeping control of the still-vacant defence and interior ministries, making himself almost entirely in charge of a security apparatus which they assert has been increasingly victimising Sunnis.

"The political process which is supposed to have brought democracy to Iraq, in fact brought one party and one person who are ruling Iraq," said Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak, another senior Sunni figure, referring to Mr Maliki and his Shia Daawa Party.

"There is no real participation by others, and the country is heading towards a harsh, backward dictatorship without a shred of wisdom."

As the Monitor reports:

"These multiple identities competing with each other is what fuels the crisis you see in Iraq's political landscape," says an Arab analyst with long experience in Iraq who asked not to be named. "In 2003 when the genie of ethno-sectarianism came out of the bottle it gave rise even to subsectarian divisions.... Communities live in fear of each other."

The New York Times reports that although Baghdad is flooded with foreign journalists covering the anniversary, it is barely a blip on the radar for most Iraqis – day-to-day life is still too unpredictable.

“If our situation were better than this, we would surely remember that day when the Americans came to free Iraq and gave us the chance to build a better future,” Mr. Shimari said. “But the Americans didn’t give us that chance. They did all the things possible to ensure that Iraq is going to be ruined.”

…

Another journalist, Sabah Sellawi, the editor of the newspaper Maysan, said, “The instability in Iraq is more important than this day.” 

On the 10th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, former and current Monitor journalists who covered the war are looking at where Iraq stands today and how things stood at the peak of the war:

* Ten years after invasion, Iraq remains dangerously divided – In the new Iraq, old sectarian fears remain. Around Baghdad's Green Zone, concrete walls pulled down a year ago are going back up.

* The day the conflict changed – Ten years after the Iraq invasion, reporter Scott Peterson recalls the day a suicide attack threw him out of bed in a formerly quiet Baghdad neighborhood – and blew a hole in any sense that the war was keeping its distance.

* On the road to Baghdad for 17 days – Andy Nelson, who photographed the US invasion of Iraq, recalls the pulling down of Saddam's statue – and early signs of chaos. 

* The Iraq war: a timeline – A photo collection depicting the main events of the conflict.  

In this undated photo released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and distributed last week, a rocket launcher is fired during a live drill by the Jangjae Islet Defense Detachment and the Mu Islet Hero Defense Detachment deployed in the southwestern sector of North Korea. KCNA reported North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guided the drill. (KCNA via Korea News Service/AP)

China warns US missile defense plan will antagonize North Korea

By Arthur Bright, Staff writer / 03.18.13

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

China warned today that US plans to bolster its missile defense program in the Pacific following North Korea's recent nuclear threats will only antagonize Pyongyang, even as North Korea slammed Washington's "hostile policy" and refused to negotiate its nuclear capacity.

Reuters reports that the Chinese Foreign Ministry said today that the problem of North Korea's nuclear program would be best solved through diplomatic means, and that US missile defense plans did not help the situation.

"Actions such as strengthening anti-missile [defenses] will intensify antagonism and will not be beneficial to finding a solution for the problem," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. "China hopes the relevant country will proceed on the basis of peace and stability, adopt a responsible attitude and act prudently."

China's comments come in response to Friday's announcement by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel that the US plans to beef up its missile defense system in Alaska and California. Mr. Hagel specifically cited North Korea's third nuclear test and its "irresponsible and reckless provocations" of recent weeks as reason for the upgrade, which will include 14 new interceptors in Alaska and a new early-warning radar system in Japan.

But the announcement brought further fierce criticism from North Korea, which said on Saturday that the US had "compelled [North Korea] to have access to nukes" because it "escalated the situation of the Korean Peninsula to an extreme phase," reports CNN.

"[North Korea's] nuclear weapons serve as an all-powerful treasured sword for protecting the sovereignty and security of the country," a foreign ministry spokesman said, according to the state-run KCNA news agency. "Therefore, they cannot be disputed ... as long as the U.S. nuclear threat and hostile policy persist."

Pyongyang also denied that its nuclear program was a "bargaining chip" for negotiating economic concessions from the US, which has spearheaded a series of UN sanctions against the North.

North Korea then warned on Sunday that it would target Japan, as an ally of the US, in the event of a war on the Korean peninsula. Japan had recently called for "independent additional sanctions" against Pyongyang, Voice of America reports.

North Korea's nuclear threat was a major topic on Sunday's Washington news shows. Rep. Mike Rogers (R) of Michigan told CNN that the political situation in North Korea made for a potentially explosive mix. "You have a 28-year-old leader who is trying to prove himself to the military, and the military is eager to have a saber rattling for their own self-interest, and the combination of that is proving to be very, very deadly," he said.

He added that the North Koreans "certainly have a ballistic missile that can reach US shores," though Agence France-Presse notes that Mr. Rogers did not specify whether he was referring to Alaska and Hawaii or to the continental US. The Pentagon and most experts agree that the continental US is outside the range of North Korea's missiles.

The New York Times' David Sanger, appearing on CBS's Face the Nation, said the North's missile range is probably only half what they need to hit the lower 48 states, but the danger remains high.

"They've now conducted a third nuclear test, and by all the early indications, this time it really worked," Mr. Sanger said. "They have sent a missile as far as the Philippines. If you do the math on that, they're about halfway to being able to hit the Continental United States."

Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, added on Face the Nation that "just because a missile can't reach the United States doesn't mean that it can't reach our allies in Asia who look to us for their security..."

At least one regional ally is backing the expanded US missile defense plan. Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr told the Australian newspaper that he will endorse the plan when he meets with US officials during a 10-day visit to Washington that starts today. Mr. Carr called North Korea's threats "irresponsible and bellicose."