Iran & the Middle East

• Yemeni security forces foiled two attempts to attack oil and gas facilities when they engaged four suicide bombers in two seperate vehicles on Friday. One security guard was also killed in the failed attacks. According to Saba, the state news agency, the first attack targeted an oil storage facility in the southern oil exporting port of al-Dhabah and the second, an oil refinery and gas producing unit in Marib. The Yemeni president announced a reward for information leading to the capture of the terrorists who carried out suicide bombings.

• Yemen announced on Saturday they had arrested four al-Qaida members who were planning attacks in the capital Sanaa following the Friday attacks on oil and gas facilities.

• A radical faction of the PKK appears to have been behind a deadly bombing in southeast Turkey according to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan.

• In an echo of the intelligence wars that preceded the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a high-stakes struggle is brewing within the Bush administration and in Congress over Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program.

• Five people, including a senior Palestinian security official, have been killed in a drive-by shooting in Gaza City.

• A Syrian government delegation was in Cyprus on Sept. 15 seeking the release of Syria-bound aircraft defense systems from North Korea impounded by the Mediterranean island two weeks ago.

America Domestic Security & the Americas

• Stephen Hayes has a terrific article in the new issue of The Weekly Standard explaining in detail why the recent Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on Iraq, and Hussein's relationships with Al Qaeda, is an abysmal document. Mark Eichenlaub also has an excellent post at Regime of Terror pointing out some of the inane conclusions in the report.

• The chairman of a key U.S. Senate panel on Thursday called for swift passage of a controversial bill criticized as an expansion of the government's electronic spying powers. The pitch from Sen. Arlen Specter on the Senate floor arrived one day after Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee gave the green light to his National Security Surveillance Act, touted as a compromise with the White House to verify the constitutionality of programs like the National Security Agency's terrorist surveillance program. The vote, which had stalled for several weeks, was 10 to 8 along party lines.

• U.S. President George W. Bush on Saturday defended his proposals to allow tough questioning of suspected terrorists as necessary to keep Americans safe, despite a revolt in his own Republican Party over the issue. With the U.S. Congress considering legislation on how to try and question foreign terrorist suspects, Bush is pushing a proposal to allow for what he calls "an alternative set of procedures" for CIA interrogations.

• Despite professing confidence they can compromise, the president's national security aides and holdout Republican senators are not saying how they can reconcile deep differences over limits on
  CIA interrogations of suspected terrorists. After a week of public sparring, both sides gave little evidence Sunday of how they might soften their position. As a result, it is unclear if Congress quickly can pass legislation authorizing aggressive methods against terrorist detainees, as President Bush wants.

• The House easily approved building 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to get major border-security legislation on President Bush's desk before November's elections. Theborder-fence bill was approved on a 283-138 vote. The vast majority of House Republicans were joined by 64 Democrats to support the measure. Six Republicans voted against it. Michael Cutler comments here.

• A mass rally of supporters of defeated Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has "elected" him head of a parallel government. Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Mexico City's main square, the Zocalo, for the show of hands.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Russia is scrambling to save a $1.5-billion contract with China for the sale of 38 large transport aircraft that is in jeopardy due to delays in delivery of the planes.

• A senior Kazakh security official has said the country’s National Security Committee (KNB) has asked that two more groups, Japan's Aum Shinrikyo and another unidentified group, be added to the country's list of banned terrorist groups.

• The Council of Ministers of Belarus has adopted decision number 1061 that calls for the publication of a list of terrorist organizations according to online paper Newsru.com.

Afghanistan & Southern Asia

• Afghan security forces have recaptured a district headquarters in western Farah province that had been seized by the Taleban, local police say. The building in Golestan district, which fell to insurgents after days of fighting, was retaken within hours, police chief Sayed Aqa Saqib said.

• The stepped-up public campaign of the so-called neo-Taliban has accompanied increased insurgency and terrorism efforts by those same guerrillas. But while they have managed to convey their messages with greater frequency, their pronouncements have sometimes been marked by glaring contradictions. While inconsistencies are not new to the neo-Taliban, their recent frequency suggests strains could reemerge between Afghan opponents of the central government and their foreign allies.

• NATO nations faced renewed calls on Friday to supply extra troops for Afghanistan, with commanders stressing a Polish offer of 1,000 soldiers next year did not plug the shortfalls. NATO's top commander of operations, James Jones, last week requested up to 2,500 extra troops to help combat fiercer-than-expected Taliban resistance in the south of the country before the onset of winter in coming weeks.

• Taliban insurgents unleashed two attacks last week against Afghan police positions in western Farah province. The incident coincided with recent assessments that Taliban fighters from Helmand and Kandahar are moving west under intense Coalition pressure in both provinces. Canadian led Operation Medusa, which was launched 12 days ago in western Kandahar, has secured over 50% of the targeted district, killed hundreds of Taliban fighters and dispersed many militants into neighboring provinces. The Taliban ambushed a police patrol last week in Farah, sparking an intense gun battle which left 11 Afghan officers wounded, 4 killed and 4 Taliban militants dead.

• A blast hit a car on a road just to the south of the Afghan capital on Saturday, killing three Afghan aid workers and wounding one, police said.

• About 60 suspected Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, starting a battle in which four militants died, police said Saturday. The clash occurred Friday in the Khas Uruzgan district of southern Uruzgan province, said Mohammad Zahir, the district police chief.

• Seventeen insurgents were killed by ISAF, while one coalition soldier was killed and another injured in the volatile Afghanistan, the military said on Saturday. The rebels were killed on Friday night on a road close to an ISAF base in the southern Uruzgan province when they were placing roadside bombs, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.

• As NATO troops exert pressure on Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, militants have regrouped in western provinces and ignited violence that has killed a dozen people in two days, officials said Thursday. Afghan and NATO fear that Farah province, which borders Iran and is twice the size of Maryland, could become a Taliban sanctuary if military power isn't used to crush the militant threat quickly. Farah is a predominantly Pashtun area where people have ethnic links to the Taliban militia.

• NATO and Afghan government forces have forced Taliban troops out of a southern Afghan district after a two-week operation in which NATO said hundreds of militants were killed. "This has been a significant success and clearly shows the capability that Afghan, NATO and coalition forces have when they operate together," the British commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General David Richards, told a news conference on Sunday.

• An aide to fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar warned of "problems" in Pakistan's North Waziristan region in case of a violation of a peace pact signed this month, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

• A suicide car-bomber attacked a NATO convoy in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Sunday, killing himself and a passer-by, a police officer said. No NATO troops were hurt in the blast, the officer said.

• Here is the transcript of an interview Hugh Hewitt did on his radio show with Bill Roggio on the topic of Afghanistan.

• Here is the CDI's Afghan update for the month of August. It is a roundup of events in Afghanistan throughout the month.

• Here are daily updates from the South Asia Terrorism Portal for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

• Daveed Gartenstein-Ross has a post at the Counterterrorism Blog reporting that Pakistan has released 2,500 foreign fighters linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda who were "detained by Pakistan after fleeing the battleground in Afghanistan."

• Pakistani rights activists called on the government on Sunday to suspend Islamic laws on rape and adultery until controversy over them is settled. The government is struggling to amend the laws, known as the Hudood Ordinances, which require a rape victim to produce four male witnesses to the crime or risk charges of adultery.

• Indian police commandos shot dead five Maoist rebels, including three women, in the jungles of Andhra Pradesh on Friday, a senior police officer said. One of those killed in the forests of the northern district of Warangal was a maker of rockets and launchers, said the area's top police officer, Stephen Ravindra.

• A top Muslim militant, a policeman and a villager were killed and six security force personnel hurt during a fierce gunbattle in revolt-hit Indian Kashmir, police said. The firefight, in southern Udhampur district, erupted Thursday afternoon when Indian soldiers, backed by police, raided a policeman's house where the militants were hiding.

• A top leader of the Pakistan-based Islamic militant Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) group was killed by Indian security forces in the country’s northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, a defence official said on Saturday. He said Abu Saad had served as LET area commander, chief administrator and financial controller for Jammu and Udhampur districts in India-administered Kashmir.

• Police on Thursday recovered the body of a photographer whose head had been chopped off after being abducted by militants in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, triggering anti-Pakistan protest by local residents, official sources said here.

• Police in Bangladesh said on Sunday they had arrested eight members of a killing squad led by a Dhaka University student, the latest swoop on criminals ahead of next Janaury's election. The group was detained in the capital, Dhaka, on Saturday and a cache of arms and ammunition was seized from them, a senior police officer said.

• Resident's of Sri Lanka's besieged Jaffna peninsula enjoyed their most peaceful day in weeks on Friday as government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels kept their distance after both sides conditionally agreed to talks. Residents reported intermittent shellfire before dawn, but nothing like the pitched battles that have been fought for over a month that have cost hundreds of lives and seen tens of thousands flee their homes.

• Government forces shelled Tamil Tiger positions in northeastern Sri Lanka as suspected guerrillas shot dead four civillians in renewed unrest on the island, officials said. Troops attacked concentrations of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Trincomalee district but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

• Sri Lankan government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels exchanged gunfire and skirmished at sea on Sunday, bringing to an end a four-day lull in fighting around the besieged Jaffna peninsula.

Far East & Southeast Asia

• Police in Japan Saturday carried out a series of raids on the cult believed responsible for releasing deadly gas into a Tokyo subway in 1995.

• A series of bombs exploded in the southern Thai town of Hat Yai, in the province of Songkhla, killing at least two people and injuring dozens. Thai media reported that the bombs, hidden in motorcycles, were triggered by mobile phones.

• On Friday, a divided U.N. Security Council voted to add Myanmar to its formal list of global hot spots, deeming the Asian country's junta government a threat to international peace and security.

• Southeast Asia, once a playground for some of the world’s most deadly terrorists, has become a key link in US efforts to unravel the secret web of international terrorism.

Europe

• Despite U.S. concerns, the European Union on Friday hailed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' move to form a national unity government to replace one led by Hamas.

• A suspected international terrorist with dual French-Algerian nationality has been deported from Britian to France on national security grounds.

• A man accused of involvement in an alleged al-Qaeda plot to bomb Britain told a jury on Friday he had talked of blowing up the House of Commons and killing all the MPs, including the prime minister.

• The European Union on Friday called on the United States to respect international law in its handling of terror suspects after President Bush acknowledged his country had operated secret prisons abroad.

• Two men arrested in Manchester on the same day as 14 others were detained in London over an alleged terrorist training and recruitment network have been released without charge.

Africa

• Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Thursday fended off intense international pressure for him to accept U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur, denouncing what he called a hidden agenda to "recolonize" his country. But two senior members of Sudan's national unity government, both ex-rebels, came out in favor of a U.N. mission in Darfur. They said African Union peacekeepers already on the ground were failing to halt the bloodshed in the conflict-torn region.

• Burundi has arrested an intelligence services commissioner and two military officials in connection with the deaths of 15 people accused of working with rebels, an official said on Thursday. A public prosecutor said Dominique Surwavuba, commissioner for the national intelligence services in the northern Muyinga province, arrested the 15 people in July and took them to a military camp. A few days later their bodies were found in a river, rights groups said.

• The flow of weak and hungry Somali refugees into Kenya has tripled to 300 a day amid fears of a flare-up of conflict around the port city of Kismayo, the United Nations said on Friday. Some 22,000 Somalis have now fled into neighbouring Kenya since the start of the year.

• More than three months after a federation of Islamic clerics came to power in Somalia, the group, as expected, has established strict religious rule in the capital, Mogadishu, and the wide swath of the country it controls. But Somalis, diplomats and regional analysts say the group also has shown a willingness to negotiate, and that that has eased fears that its rule would turn the anarchic country into another training ground and safe haven for Islamic terrorists.

• Three rebels from the southern Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) blew themselves up the Ethiopian capital with Eritrean-made explosives they were planning to use for an attack, police said on Saturday. Two died instantly and one succumbed later in hospital after the device blew up in their hands on Friday, police said.

• The head of Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army rebels, Joseph Kony, has arrived at an assembly point in Sudan as agreed in a truce to end his devastating insurgency, a delegate said on Sunday. Confirmation of the presence of Kony would be a huge boost to what is widely seen as the best chance for an end to a two-decade war in north Uganda which has been one of the world's worst and most neglected conflicts.

The Global War

• The number of weak and poorly governed nations that can provide a breeding ground for global terrorism has grown sharply over the past three years, despite increased Western efforts to improve conditions in such states, according to a new World Bank report. "Fragile" countries, whose deepening poverty puts them at risk from terrorism, armed conflict and epidemic disease, have jumped to 26 from 17 since the report was last issued in 2003. Five states graduated off the list, but 14 made new appearances. Douglas Farah comments here.

• President Bush on Friday dismissed as an "urban myth" the idea that his administration has become distracted from the effort to track down al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

• The alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners, described as one of the most highly sophisticated terrorist operations ever organised, would have cost less than £ 7,000 to carry out, according to security sources.

• David Asman writes that al Qaeda's claims the U.S. is stealing Middle East oil is "hogwash" and notes that it is al Qaeda in fact that would like to seize control of Saudi Arabia and the oil reserves there.

• The leaders of more than 50 developing countries have gathered in Cuba for the NAM summit, which brings together 118 nations - nearly two-thirds of the UN's members - including many developing countries, for an alternative forum of debate. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told leaders at a summit that the world must solve the problems of the Middle East.

Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know. For ongoing tips, email "MondayWindsOfWar", over here @windsofchange.net.