By SINAN SALAHEDDIN and LEE KEATH
Associated Press Writers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An examination of the remains of hundreds of Kurdish men, women and children discovered in three mass graves show they were lined up, gunned down and buried where they fell almost two decades ago, an American forensic expert testified Thursday in the genocide trial of Saddam Hussein.

Michael Trimble described several of the recovered bodies — a pregnant woman shot through her belly, killing the fetus; a young girl wearing little green boots whose leg had been shattered by bullets; an infant apparently smothered under the body of his mother.

It was the third straight day of testimony by American forensic experts in the trial of Saddam and six co-defendants, who face possible execution if convicted for a 1987-88 military offensive against the Kurds of northern Iraq.

The prosecution estimates that 180,000 Kurds were killed in the campaign, code-named Operation Anfal, in which Saddam's army allegedly destroyed hundreds of villages and killed or scattered their inhabitants in a scorched earth campaign against separatist guerillas.

Trimble, a forensic archaeologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, investigated the three mass graves in 2004 on behalf of the Iraqi tribunal prosecuting Saddam and members of his regime.

The graves — two in the northern province of Nineva and one in the southern province of Muthanna — contained 301 bodies, Trimble said, all of them believed to be Kurds detained in the Anfal campaign. He found evidence, he said, that suggested they were killed between 1988 and 1990.

In one of the Nineva sites, Trimble and his colleagues discovered the bodies of 25 women and 98 children. They found 64 adult males in the other.

In the Muthanna site, he said, they found 27 women, 85 children and two adult males.

The graves were dug by earth-moving equipment or shovels in remote desert locations. The captives — bound and blindfolded — "were led into the graves and then executed with pistols or automatic assault rifle fire," he said. "The graves were then covered by those directing the execution."

Trimble showed the court photos of the bodies and grave sites, as well as computer reconstructions of the scenes. Many of the 64 men found at one of the Nineva sites were bound together. The pattern of bullet wounds, he said, showed that the men stood in an arc and twisted as they sought to escape the gunfire.

In the Muthanna grave, he said, experts found one woman with wounds on her hands, suggesting she had tried to shield herself from the bullets.

He showed the picture of an infant wearing a necklace and a pacifier, saying the child — three to nine months old — had no bullet wounds. "This child's ribs were broken on the right side," he said. "This child probably smothered to death in his mother's arms because a broken rib would not have killed it."

During the testimony, Saddam said Trimble came from the "army of the enemy," and challenged his impartiality.

"Let me suggest the court consider what is said by the American expert but also call a new trial expert that has nothing to do with the enemy or the army of the enemy," he said. "Let him come and examine the mass graves, or other mass graves, because I know there are more mass graves, and let him start neutrally."

"Any Iraqi person will notice that only American experts are coming ... and will be suspicious," he said. "So I suggest bringing neutral witnesses."

One of his co-defendants — Hussein Rashid Mohammed, former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi Armed Forces — insisted he "had nothing to do" with the detentions and executions of Kurds. "I didn't issue orders to people" involved in executions, he said.

Mohammed insisted Anfal was a "clean" campaign, aimed against Kurdish rebels allied with Iran, with which Iraq was at war. "We were fighting Iranians who were occupying part of Iraq," he said. "We have the right to fight."

After Trimble's testimony, the trial was adjourned until Monday.

All seven defendants in the case are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the Anfal campaign. Saddam and his top co-defendant Ali Hassan al-Majid face additional charges of genocide. The defendants have pleaded innocent.

Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging in an earlier trial on charges of crimes against humanity for a campaign against Shiites in the 1980s. The sentence triggered an automatic appeal.

Iraqi officials have not said whether Saddam, if he loses his appeal, could be executed while on trial for the Anfal campaign.

____

Sinan Salaheddin reported on this story from Baghdad, and Lee Keath from Cairo, Egypt. Some material in the story came from a pool report at the trial in Baghdad.

The Norway Post

The Government will consider the possibility of restricting Mullah Krekar's freedom of movement within Norway. This has been announced by Minister of Labour and Social Inclusion Bjarne Haakon Hanssen.

The controversial Mullah Krekar, former leader of Kurdish guerrilla group Ansar al-Islam in Northern Iraq, is living in Norway with refugee status.
He has been declared a danger to Norway's national security, and recently lost his appeal against an expulsion order.

However, his deportation is not imminent since Norway is refusing to send him to a country that cannot guarantee his safety.

This latest move by the Government comes following a proposal from the Progress Party that the Immigration Act be changed so that expelled persons may be held in isolated custody.

Hanssen says that house arrest is probably contravening the European Human Rights Convention, but that other measures will be considered.

BBC News
Frances Harrison

One of Iran's most senior clergymen has issued a fatwa on an Azeri writer said to have insulted the Prophet Muhammad. The call on Muslims to murder Rafiq Tagi, who writes for Azerbaijan's Senet newspaper, echoes the Iranian fatwa against Indian writer Salman Rushdie.

It was issued by the conservative Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Fazel Lankarani.

The writings of Rafiq Tagi sparked recent demonstrations outside the Azerbaijani embassy in the Iranian capital, Teheran.

The Iranian media is reporting that Grand Ayatollah Lankarani's followers inside the republic of Azerbaijan wrote to him asking for advice about what they called "the apostate writer".

They accuse the Azeri writer of portraying Christianity as superior to Islam and Europe as superior to the Middle East.

They allege that he has ridiculed all the sanctities of Islam and done it knowingly, fully aware of the consequences of his action.

In response, Grand Ayatollah Lankarani is said to have issued a fatwa calling for the death of the writer and also the person responsible for publishing his articles.

Earlier, an Iranian cleric had offered his house as a reward to anyone who killed the Azeri writer.

But this latest fatwa comes from one of the dozen or so Grand Ayatollahs in Iran, who has a large following.

An Azerbaijani court sentenced the writer Rafiq and his publisher to two months in jail for an article which was illustrated by the same cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad originally published in Denmark that caused outcry in the Muslim world.

The Washington Times

TODAY'S EDITORIAL

One of the worst-kept secrets in Washington is the Iraq Study Group's expected recommendation that the United States negotiate over Iraq's future with rogue regimes in Iran and Syria -- whose support for terrorist groups and militias helped turn post-Saddam Iraq into a powderkeg in the first place. Administration critics depict the Bush approach to dealing with Iran and Syria as essentially an across-the-board refusal to engage in substantive talks.

But this is silly: Syria has an embassy in Washington and the United States has one in Damascus, and all three countries are represented in organizations such as the United Nations. Since September 11, the Bush administration has discussed issues, including Afghanistan, Iraq and al Qaeda with Iran and Syria. What really bothers Mr. Bush's critics is his refusal to hold higher-level, higher-profile talks with Iran and Syria that would amount to a public-relations windfall for these regimes. They disregard the fact that the Bush administration -- like many of its predecessors -- has tried time and again to resolve differences with Tehran and Damascus at the most senior levels. With both governments, the result has been a nearly unbroken series of diplomatic failures dating back to Jimmy Carter's presidency.

In the wake of the Iranian Revolution, then-President Carter was determined to improve relations with the Islamist regime. So, he sent National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski to meet Iranian Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan, a relative moderate, on Nov. 1, 1979, in Algiers. Iranian radicals loyal to Ayatollah Khomeini responded three days later by seizing the American embassy in Tehran -- putting an end to any possibility of rapprochement. In 1985 and 1986, then-President Reagan tried unsuccessfully to sell arms to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages. In 1998, after Mohammed Khatami was elected, Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright moved to weaken U.S. sanctions on Iran; former FBI Director Louis Freeh maintains that Mr. Clinton dragged his feet in the investigation of the 1996 bombing of the U.S. military barracks at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, in which 19 American servicemen died. It all came to naught when the regime responded by demanding that Washington pay reparations to the Iranian people and denounced improved relations with Washington as "treason."

Other U.S. efforts to engage Tehran collapsed due to Iranian provocations. Cooperation on Afghanistan ground to a halt in early 2002, after Israel captured the Karine-A, a ship carrying 50 tons of weapons to Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority. In May 2003, Washington broke off talks after Iran was found harboring al Qaeda leaders implicated in suicide attacks which killed Americans. Last year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dropped U.S. opposition to Iran's admission to the World Trade Organization and agreed to the transfer of spare aircraft parts in exchange for Tehran's coming clean about its nuclear program -- something it still refuses to do.

The pattern with Syria was similar, dating back to Damascus' spurning Mr. Carter's efforts to persuade it to join Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in making peace with Israel. During the 1990s, Syria worked to sabotage the Clinton administration's efforts to attain an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement. Between 2001 and February 2005, the Bush administration sent five senior-level U.S. delegations to Syria in an effort to persuade President Bashar Assad to change his behavior on terrorism and his subversion of Lebanese independence; all of those efforts failed.

In sum, the burden of proof is on advocates of engagement to show that this time, high-level negotiations with Tehran and Damascus will achieve something useful.

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS -Iran's president urged the American people in an open letter Wednesday to demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and reject the Bush administration's policies in the war on terrorism.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also appealed directly to the new Democratic-controlled Congress, saying the American people "showed their discontent" with President Bush's policies in the recent midterm elections and it was up to lawmakers to change course.

"I hope that in the wake of the midterm elections, the administration of President Bush will have heard and will heed the message of the American people," Ahmadinejad wrote.

"But if the approach remains the same, it would not be unexpected that the American people would similarly reject the new electoral winners, although the recent elections, rather than reflecting a victory, in reality point to the failure of the current administration's policies," he warned.

Ahmadinejad's letter to "Noble Americans," which was distributed by Iran's mission to the United Nations, also said that the U.S. invasion of Iraq had led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, an exponential growth of terrorism and the destruction of Iraq's infrastructure.

"I consider it extremely unlikely that you, the American people, consent to the billions of dollars of annual expenditure from your treasury for this military misadventure," he said.

He suggested that it would be beneficial for the U.S. to withdraw its troops from the country and spend its money instead on domestic problems, citing the "many victims" of Hurricane Katrina who continue to suffer.

The letter makes no mention of Iran's disputed nuclear program, which the U.S. alleges is geared toward secretly developing atomic weapons.

Ahmadinejad wrote a rambling, 18-page letter to Bush in May, which Washington criticized for also not addressing Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. is leading the drive to impose U.N. sanctions on Tehran for its refusal to stop enriching uranium.

URGENT ACTION

Iran: Further information on arbitrary arrest/possible prisoner of conscience/medical concern: Mansour Ossanlu (m)

PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/129/2006
29 November 2006

Further Information on UA 08/06 (MDE 13/002/2006, 9 January 2006) and follow-up
(MDE 13/094/2006, 17 August 2006) - Arbitrary arrest/ possible prisoner of
conscience/ medical concern

IRAN Mansour Ossanlu (m), Head of the Union of Workers of Tehran and
Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed)

Mansour Ossanlu, the Head of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus
Company (the Union), was re-arrested on 19 November. He is detained in Evin
prison, and has reportedly not had access to his lawyer. He is reportedly not
receiving medical treatment for a serious eye complaint.

On 19 November, Mansour Ossanlu was arrested outside his home by members of the
security forces, who were reportedly in plain clothes. His place of detention
was initially unknown. Prior to his arrest he had received a court summons
ordering him to attend Branch Four of the Special Court for Government
Employees on 20 November.

On 26 November, Mansour Ossanlu appeared at Branch 14 of the Revolutionary
Court for initial investigations by the Prosecutor. No specific charges are
said to have been mentioned in the court. Mansour Ossanlu’s lawyer was
reportedly not present during the court session.

The Minister of Justice and spokesperson for the Judiciary stated a few days
after Mansour Ossanlu’s arrest that he had been re-arrested because he had
failed to hand himself over to the prison authorities when an arrest order and
summons was issued for him. However, his legal representatives have said that
Mansour Ossanlu did not receive an arrest order or summons to return to prison:
he had only received an order to attend court on a date after his arrest, 20
November.

Mansour Ossanlu is detained in section 209 of Evin prison. His family have
been able to visit him once, and his wife was also able to speak to him when
she attended the court session on 20 November. Mansour Ossanlu is suffering
from a serious eye complaint. His eye had been operated on a few days prior to
his arrest, and was still bandaged when he was arrested. He is unable to see
properly, and is believed to not have had access to medical treatment inside
prison.

Mansour Ossanlu was among 12 officials from the Union who were arrested by
police at their homes on 22 December 2005, apparently in connection with their
peaceful trade union activities. He was released on 9 August 2006 after payment
of bail amounting to 150,000,000 Toumans (approximately US$163,000). He was
said to be awaiting trial on charges, the exact nature of which were not known,
but which may include "propaganda against the system" through leaflets and
interviews with foreign anti-government radio stations, and "acting to disturb
internal state security" by establishing links with hostile opposition groups
and foreign countries. If he is detained solely in connection with his peaceful
exercise of his internationally recognized right to form and join trade unions
or to freedom of expression, he is a prisoner of conscience, and should be
released immediately and unconditionally.

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Nov. 29 – A group of Iranian Majlis (Parliament) deputies are launching a probe into the conduct of the Canadian embassy in Tehran, accusing its staff of spying on the government.

The lawmakers have charged that the embassy has been “acting against the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran” and has effectively “replaced the embassy of the United States in Iran”.

They are seeking the closure of the mission.

The state-run daily Etemaad quoted on Wednesday Majlis deputy Javad Arianmanesh as saying that lawmakers would move to close down the embassy if it was determined that the Canadian mission was spying.

Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ezhei will soon be summoned to explain the “espionage activities of the Canadian embassy in Tehran”.

Earlier this month, Canada sponsored a resolution, adopted by the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, accusing Tehran of torturing its political opponents.

A prominent international press freedoms watchdog released on Tuesday the names of dozens of journalists who were banned from practising their profession in Iran.

Reporters Without Borders said in a statement that since ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in June 2005 “with a team consisting above all of former revolutionary guard commanders and intelligence officers, the repression of journalists in Iran has become more subtle and less visible, but it continues to be as effective as ever and to maintain Iran’s position as a leading violator of free expression”.

“Using arbitrary arrest and incarceration to decimate its independent press, the Islamic Republic has been the Middle-East’s biggest prison for journalists and cyber-dissidents since 2000”, the group said.

“Nowadays fewer journalists are imprisoned in Iran but this does not mean the authorities have relaxed the pressure on the press. Journalists are now often released provisionally after several days or weeks in detention, but no date is set for their trial, still less for their acquittal or the withdrawal of charges. Sometimes they are given prison sentences without ever being ordered to report to prison.

“Prosecutions that are delayed and sentences that are not implemented are threats that hang over journalists and prevent them from writing freely”, it added.

The group said that Ahmadinejad’s government and Iran’s judicial authorities had turned the entire country into the “region’s biggest open prison”.

“Most independent journalists or journalists who do not work for the government media are targeted by the authorities. One way or another is found to prevent them from working. At the same time, prosecutions are initiated against them and they have to pay large sums in bail (up to 60,000 euros) to get a provisional release while awaiting for the case to come to trial.

“These journalists are unable to work any more after getting out of prison. On the one hand, they are afraid of writing another article that might displease the authorities. One the other, many editors and publishers get clear instructions not to hire them. In some cases, the arrests of journalists is accompanied by the closure of the media they work for.

“The pro-reform daily Rouzegar was recently banned by the Press Surveillance Commission after giving jobs to journalists from the daily Shargh, after Shargh was closed down by the authorities on 11 September. The culture minister and Tehran prosecutor Said Mortazavi had sent the editor a list of journalists to fire, including former detainee Ahmad Zidabadi.

“Iranian journalists who choose to work for independent media are singled out for constant harassment”, the statement said.

Saharkhiz, the editor of the monthly Aftab and the business newspaper Akhabr Eghtesadi, was sentenced on 14 June of this year to four years in prison and a five-year ban on working as a journalist for “offence to the constitution” and “publicity against the regime”.

Baghernia, the publisher of the business daily Asia, was sentenced by the Tehran Supreme Court on 19 August to six months in prison for “propaganda against the regime” in the 5 July 2003 issue of Asia, which included a photo of Maryam Rajavi of the opposition People’s Mujahideen. Her husband, Iraj Jamshidi, the newspaper’s editor, was arrested on 6 July 2003 for the same reason and was sentenced to a year in prison. Baghernia received her second summons to report to prison in early November, but has not been arrested.

Since the start of 2004, Reporters Without Borders has registered more than 30 cases of journalists fleeing Iran to escape prosecution.

RWB listed the following individuals as having been banned from practising their profession in Iran:

Mr. Abbas Abdi, Mr. Abbas Kakavand, Mr. Abbas Dalvand, Mr. Abolfazel Vesali , Mr. Abolghasem Golbaf, Ms. Azam Taleghani, Mr. Ahmad Zidabadi, Mr. Akbar Ganji , Mr. Ali-Hamed Iman, Mr. Ali-Reza Jabari, Mr. Ali-Reza Redjaï, Mr. Ali Reza Alavitabar, Mr. Amin Movahedi, Mr. Ali Mazroi, Mr. Arash Sigarchi, Mr. Behrouz Gheranpayeh, Mr. Bjjan Safsari, Mr. Ejlal Ghavami, Mr. Ezatollah Sahabi, Ms. Fariba Davoudi Mohajer, Ms. Fatemeh Kamali, Mr. Firouz Gouran, Ms. Fatemeh Govarai, Mr. Hassan Youssefi Echkevari , Mr. Hoda Saber, Mr. Hossein Ghazian, Mr. Hamed Motaghi, Mr. Kivan Samimi Behbani, Mr. Majid Tavaloui, Mr. Iraj Jamshidi, Mr. Latif Safari, Mr. Madh Amadi, Mr. Mana Neyestani, Mr. Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, Mr. Masoud Bastani, Mr. Mohamad Ghochani, Mr. Chammad Hassan Alipour, Mr. Mohammad Sedigh Kabovand, Mr. Mojtaba Lotfi, Mr. Morteza Kazemian, Ms. Narges Mohammadi, Ms. Noushin Ahamadi Khorassani, Ms. Parvin Ardalan, Ms. Parvin Bakhtiarynejd, Mr. Reza Alijani, Ms. Saghi Baghernia, Mr. Saide Madani, Mr. Said Saedi, Mr. Shadi Sadr, Mr. Siamak Pourzand, Mr. Taghi Rahmani, Ms. Tonya Kabovand, Mr. Yosef Azizi Banitrouf and Mr. Mohammad Javad Roh.

Sourec:Iranfocus

By Kevin Gray

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Iran's top diplomat in Argentina appeared before an Argentine judge on Tuesday and criticized an investigation alleging Tehran masterminded the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center.

Charge d'affaires Mohsen Baharvand requested the special hearing to refute allegations by Argentine prosecutors seeking the arrest of Iranian officials in connection with the attack.

His comments have no legal bearing on the case but his appearance marked the first time an Iranian official responded to the charges before judicial authorities in Argentina.

"I want to say Iran had absolutely nothing to do" with the bombing, Baharvand said in Farsi through a Spanish translator. "The road you have chosen is wrong."

Tensions between the two countries have risen in recent weeks after a judge issued arrest warrants for former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and eight officials in a probe of the July 18, 1994, blast that killed 85 people and injured more than 200.

In the attack, an explosives-laden truck detonated outside the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) building, leveling a symbol of Latin America's largest Jewish community.

No one has been convicted of carrying out the blast, and judicial misconduct and charges of a government cover-up have plagued a lengthy investigation.

Rafsanjani was Iran's president at the time of the bombing, and the other officials being sought include several of his former top aides.

Argentine officials say Rafsanjani and other Iranian officials ordered the bombing and entrusted Hezbollah to execute it out of anger over Argentina's decision in the 1990s to stop providing Iran with nuclear technology.

Baharvand said Argentina was not Iran's only provider of nuclear technology before the bombing.

SERIES OF COMPLAINTS

Appearing in a Buenos Aires courtroom, Baharvand rattled off a series of complaints about the investigation on Tuesday, challenging key parts of it as several family members of victims of the bombing watched from a gallery.

He said Argentine authorities had failed to produce any new evidence to back up their requests for the arrest warrants, citing previous failed bids to extradite Iranian officials.

In 2003, Britain rejected an extradition request of Iran's ambassador to Argentina at the time of the attack, saying the evidence was not strong enough.

"The investigation seems to be always based on the same information," Baharvand said.

In an interview with Reuters this month, prosecutor Alberto Nisman said evidence gathered by Argentine authorities and used as a basis for the warrants had partially drawn on testimony from Iranian dissidents and former government officials.

But Baharvand said at least two of the witnesses were "terrorists" with links to an armed Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahideen Organization, and said others were neither in Argentina nor Iran when the bombing occurred.

"We think you still have to find the real killers," he said.

Argentine officials did not immediately comment on his statements.

Iran Focus

United States President George W. Bush reaffirmed on Tuesday that his administration would only hold direct negotiations with Iran over the security situation in Iraq if Tehran first suspended its uranium enrichment activities.

“As far as the United States goes, Iran knows how to get to the table with us, and that is to do that which they said they would do, which is verifiably suspend their enrichment programs”, Bush said in Tallinn at a joint press conference with Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves.

“One of the concerns that I have about the Iranian regime is their desire to develop a nuclear weapon, and you ought to be concerned about it, too. The idea of this regime having a nuclear weapon by which they could blackmail the world is unacceptable to free nations. And that's why we're working through the United Nations to send a clear message that the EU3 and the United States, Russia and China do not accept their desires to have a nuclear weapon”, he told reporters.

“There is a better way forward for the Iranian people, and if they would like to be at the table discussing this issue with the United States, I have made it abundantly clear how they can do so, and that is verifiably suspending the enrichment program. And then we'll be happy to have a dialogue with them”.

Bush said that the Iraqi administration was a sovereign government capable of handling its own foreign policies. “They're having talks with their neighbours. And if that's what they think they ought to do, that's fine. I hope their talks yield results. One result that Iraq would like to see is for the Iranians to leave them alone. If Iran is going to be involved in their country, they ought to be involved in a constructive way, encouraging peace”, he said.

“They have made it abundantly clear, and I agree with them, that the Iranians and the Syrians should help, not destabilize this young democracy”.

“A democracy in the heart of the Middle East is an important part of defeating the radicals and totalitarians that can't stand the emergence of a democracy.

“One of the interesting things that's taking place -- and people have got to understand what's happening -- is when you see a young democracy beginning to emerge in the Middle East, the extremists try to defeat its emergence.

“That's why you see violence in Lebanon. There's a young democracy in Lebanon, run by Prime Minister Siniora. And that government is being undermined, in my opinion, by extremist forces encouraged out of Syria and Iran. Why? Because a democracy will be a major defeat for those who articulate extremist points of view”, Bush said.

by Paul Schemm

MOUNT QANDIL, Iraq (AFP) - It took just a few minutes inside the offices of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the mountain village to figure out who was their leader.

Ronahi Ahmed was in charge, and the men in the room immediately deferred to the stern-faced woman with long curly hair and an unexpectedly brilliant smile.

Although ostensibly a member of the civilian political wing of the PKK, Ahmed still had a pistol at her belt, a reminder of her days as a guerrilla leader.

In a part of the world known for the subordination of women, nowhere do females play a greater role than in the ranks of this Kurdish movement in the rugged mountains of northern Iraq.

Once Marxist but now saying it is committed to peaceful and democratic change, the PKK retains a quasi-military structure that gives its own brand of feminism a distinctly martial cast.

"When a woman leaves her home and picks up a rifle it is no small thing -- it is a social revolution," said Arshem Kurman, a hardened guerrilla and lecturer at one of the movement's schools where women's rights are taught.

"We are opening the eyes of Kurdish society," she added, explaining how female fighters in the PKK symbolize women's empowerment among her people.

With their camps in the mountains and an emphasis on education and equality, the PKK aims to offer an alternative model for Kurdish and Middle Eastern women.

Their struggle is constant, admit the women activists and guerrillas, not only in wider society but also among their fellow fighters who themselves do not always reflect the movement's progressive attitudes.

"That is the importance of martyrdom -- it gives our cause weight," said Kurman, adding that female losses in battle and suicide bombings by women have forced men in the movement to take them seriously.

"Women are dying every day, so what better way to send a message?" she said, and described how one Kurdish woman killed more than 50 Turkish soldiers in a suicide attack in the 1990s.

During that decade the PKK launched 15 suicide attacks -- 11 of them by women. But in 1999, after Turkey jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan, the movement announced its commitment to a peaceful solution.

In February this year an Iraqi Kurd from Sulaimaniyah set herself on fire near the Turkish-Iraqi border in protest at Turkish treatment of the Kurds. Posters of Vian Jaf can now be found in many of the movement's buildings.

PKK leader Cemil Bayik stressed that the leadership did not want to encourage such actions, however.

"We are not saying the action was right and we criticize it openly, but as you are aware, emotion in the Kurdish people is running very high," he said at his headquarters in the Qandil mountains. "The Kurdish people respect her actions."

Bayik also displays a poster of Vian Jaf on the wall of his room.

Gaining respect and equality in the male-dominated societies of the Middle East is not easy, PKK women said.

"A woman can't stand up and talk in such a society," said Reha Baran, an administrator at the school -- a cluster of stone huts in the mountains.

"For example, in Kurdish society men are the only ones allowed to speak. If a husband is not home, then it is the eldest son, regardless of his age.

"Because of the backwardness of society, women have been pushed to the margins," she added. "Our aim is to return them to the center of daily life and society."

Female activists and guerrilla leaders converge from all over the Kurdish regions to study at this school and learn how women were deprived of their rights and what can be done to regain them.

They then take these ideas back to their villages and units and spread them throughout Kurdish society.

Cahide, who as a guerrilla goes by just the one name, travels to Kurdish towns and villages to try to present a different social model to these traditional societies.

"They look at women as weak and when we go there they don't take us seriously," she said. "But as time passes, you stay and talk and start to put across your ideas... they look at you more seriously and start to listen."

Cahide admitted that they have to be careful not to alienate her audience, however.

"When I go to a village I know there are red lines. You have to know these people and their culture and how much they can handle," she said.

The young female PKK guerrillas feel that their lives, in which they carry weapons alongside men in a struggle for Kurdish identity, are still vastly superior to what they would have lived had they stayed in their villages.

As the sun set on a hillside overlooked by the towering snowcapped bulk of Mount Qandil, a dozen female guerrillas aged between 15 and 21 sat in the grass drinking tea.

They all laughed when asked if they had not preferred to stay at home and bear children rather than arms, universally shaking their heads.

"Women in these families are forbidden from learning, forbidden from leaving," said Rojbin Hajjar, a Kurd originally from Syria.

In some cases, especially in Iran, guerrillas have helped unhappy girls run away from their families to join the PKK, Hajjar added.

"We are not just an example for the women of the Middle East but for women the world over," added rebel commander Sozdar Serbiliz.

Iran Press News: Amir Kabir University newsletter reported that at 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 25th the regime’s agents and disciplinary guards attacked university students who had been prohibited from entering the Amir Kabir Polytechnic campus; the students are members of the university students assembly and directors of the students publications who were barred by the university president from stepping onto the grounds. The explosive atmosphere of the campus lead the disciplinary guards and agents to brutally attack and physically assault the students.

The attack began when the students who took to peacefully sitting on the inside of the university’s front gates.

A phone call from the office of Ali-Reza Rahaii, the university president, to the Etemadzadeh, the commander of the disciplinary guards on campus lead to him ordering the security patrol to attack the peaceful protestors and to bounce them from the university.

This measure met with the reaction of the students who complained about the unjustified order for the presence of the guards; eventually however the number of students who joined the protestors increased so much that the disciplinary guards could no longer maintain the level of oppression. One of the disciplinary guards said: “The order to attack and beat the students was handed down via a phone call to the disciplinary command; they forced us to take action.”

During the clash one of the students was severely injured and was transferred to a nearby hospital.

During the last 3 weeks Ali-Reza Rahaii, the regime-installed president of Amir Kabir University banned the student activists and assembly members from stepping onto the campus.

It is worth mentioning that the regime has recently begun actively expelling students with records of political and human rights activism from continuing their education; the ministry of education and training as well as the ministry of sciences have also, at the behest of the regime, begun refusing to allow those who are near completion of their studies from receiving their degrees and officially graduating.

BBC

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is due to meet Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran on the second day of a key visit for Iraq's future.

Mr Talabani is hoping to secure Iranian help to improve the security situation in Iraq, which is teetering on civil war according to UN chief Kofi Annan.

On Monday, Mr Talabani held talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said Iran was ready to do whatever it could.

The US has repeatedly accused Iran of impeding efforts to stabilise Iraq.

But Mr Ahmadinejad said a secure, progressive and powerful Iraq was in the interests of Iran and the whole region.

Mr Talabani, a Farsi speaker, is the first Iraqi head of state to visit Tehran in almost four decades.

Uncontrollable

The past week has been one of the bloodiest since the American-led invasion in 2003.

Speaking to reporters in New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said drastic action was needed to prevent a civil war.

The BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran says Iran seems increasingly concerned about the uncontrollable level of violence in Iraq.

Last week's multiple car bomb attacks in Baghdad's Sadr City - in which more than 200 people were killed - were the deadliest in Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003.

The UN says violent deaths among civilians hit a record high in October, with more than 3,700 people losing their lives - the majority in sectarian attacks.

by Ammar Karim

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A fresh outbreak of violence left dozens dead across Iraq as President Jalal Talabani finally reached Tehran and sought help to curb the bloodshed in his war-ravaged country.

Meanwhile, a US F-16 fighter jet crashed while flying in support of American ground troops fighting a battle just northwest of Baghdad and rebels also bombed the country's main northern oil distribution centre on Monday.

There was no news on the cause of the crash or the condition of the plane's single pilot, but a US military spokesman said the crash site had been secured.

Insurgents killed at least 35 people, many in Baghdad where a three-day curfew ended Monday which enabled Talabani to fly to Tehran for a much-anticipated visit with his hardline counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

With the lifting of the curfew more clashes erupted around the city, leaving over a dozen dead.

Nine of those killed in Baghdad were police while four others were passersby, said a medical source at Yarmuk hospital, who added that 20 policemen were also wounded.

The clashes took place in the western neighbourhood of Yarmuk and the southern areas of Saidiyah and Dura.

Further south mortars came crashing down on the Jisr al-Diyala neighbourhood, killing three and wounding 15 others.

Artillery duels between rival neighbourhoods have become increasingly common over the last few days, with the city often resounding with the boom of falling mortar shells.

Gunmen also attacked Baghdad's municipal offices in the city centre and clashed with guards, wounding four. They then kidnapped three others.

Just north of the capital, violence also ripped across the restive Diyala province with 14 people being killed in several incidents, including two oil ministry employees murdered in the town of Khalis.

In nearby Mahmudiyah, meanwhile, a massive pillar of black smoke could be seen in the sky following an oil pipeline rupture. US forces reported the area had been secured, but there was no immediate word on the cause of the incident.

Five more people were killed in Iraq, including four in a mobile telephone shop in Muqdadiyah in Diyala province. Police said gunmen first killed the shop owner and then planted a bomb which blew up as people gathered to attend to him.

At least 13 corpses were also found on Monday.

Talabani reached Tehran Monday seeking help from Iraq's eastern neighbor to curb the violence.

"We need Iran's comprehensive help to fight terrorism, restore security and stabilize Iraq," Talabani told reporters at the beginning of a two-day visit to Shiite-dominated Iran which Washington accuses of funding and arming militias in Iraq.

Accompanying Talabani were the ministers of oil, foreign affairs, education, industry and science, as well as a number of parliamentarians and advisors, said his office.

His departure had been delayed by a huge attack on Shiites in Sadr City that killed over 200 people, and prompted the imposition of a three-day curfew to stave off further violence.

The Iran visit comes amid a flurry of diplomatic activity to resolve the worsening situation in Iraq, with US President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki set to meet Wednesday in the Jordanian capital Amman.

British Defence Secretary Des Browne also took the opportunity to describe Iran's behaviour in Iraq as "unacceptable".

He warned the Islamic republic against seeing Iraq as a "tool in a wider confrontation" with the international community, which is battling to persuade Tehran to curb its nuclear plans.

Browne also said that Britain expects to withdraw thousands of troops -- from its current total of some 7,100 -- from Iraq by the end of next year.

Insurgents also bombed Iraq's main northern oil distribution centre as two mortar shells landed on it Monday, an official with the Northern Oil Company said.

The massive fire continued to burn despite efforts by the US army, Iraqi army and civil defense brigades to put it out, he added.

"This is the first time this installation has been attacked with such force," said the official, who would not reveal the extent of the damage or whether pumping had ceased.

The station is responsible for regulating the flow of crude oil from the country's rich northern oil fields around the city of Kirkuk.

Exports from the northern fields only resumed in October after a hiatus of several months due to sabotage and was pumping 250,000-300,000 barrels per day.

AFP

TEHRAN, Nov 27, 2006 - An Iranian military plane crashed early Monday at Tehran's Mehrabad airport killing 36 people including 30 members of the Revolutionary Guards, state television reported quoting a statement by the force.

The report read on television added that there were 30 revolutionary guards and six crew on board and another two were injured and taken to hospital
"It crashed at the end of the runway, at 7:30 local time (0400 GMT)," the spokesman for the Iranian civil aviation organization, Reza Jafarzadeh, was quoted as saying on Fars news agency.

There were no survivors when the Antonov 74 aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff, the director of the airport told the TV channel.

The plane was heading for Shiraz in the south of Iran, the television said.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards are the Islamic regime's ideological army.

Mehrabad international airport is used for civil and military purposes. It is situated in a western district of the capital.

With Monday's crash and a military helicopter crash which occurred a week ago killing six people on board, since 2003 and according to an AFP tally there were six military crashes resulting in more than 450 people killed; however not all were military staff.

Around a week ago, six people were killed in a military helicopter crash in the central Iranian town of Najafabad near the ancient city of Isfahan. No further details about the accident were given.

In January 2006, an Iranian military plane crashed in the northwest of the country, killing all 13 people aboard including a top military officer.

The plane, a Falcon, came down near Orumiyeh, near the Turkish border; among the dead were Ahmad Kazemi, the commander of the ground forces of the Revolutionary Guards, and seven senior officers.

The Falcon crash came barely a month after a decrepit Iranian military transport plane, a Lockheed C-130, crashed into the foot of a high-rise housing block after suffering engine failure. The aircraft was bought from the US before the 1979 revolution.

A total of 108 people were killed, the majority journalists who were assigned to cover a military war game.

In October 2003, an Iranian air force F-4 fighter crashed while on a training flight west of the capital, killing both its crew.

More than 300 people were killed aboard an Iranian troop transport aircraft when it crashed shortly before landing in February 2003, in one of the world's worst air accidents in the southern Iranian province of Kerman.

The Russian-built Ilyushin plane was carrying 284 elite Revolutionary Guards and 18 crew on a flight from the southeastern town of Zahedan when it came down near the southern city of Kerman.

Iran's civil and military fleet is made up of ancient aircraft in terrible condition due to their age and lack of maintenance. The Iranian regime is barred by sanctions from buying American Boeing planes or European Airbus craft when they include a significant number of US parts.

Recently, American officials announced that they decided to allow selling spare parts for the aged Iranian civilian fleet.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani will visit the neighboring Iran on Monday, his spokesman told Xinhua on Sunday.

"President Talabani will start his visit to Iran on Monday. The visit is expected to last a couple of days," Hiwa Uthman said by telephone.

Talabani will discuss with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on several issues, including those of common interest, Uthman added.

Talabani's visit to Tehran had been scheduled on Saturday but delayed due to a curfew in Baghdad after a series of deadly bomb attacks on Thursday that killed and wounded hundreds of people in Baghdad Shiite slum of Sadr City.

The Iraqi government said on Saturday that the curfew will lifted on Baghdad on Monday.

According to an earlier statement issued from Iraqi presidential office, Talabani also accepted an invitation to visit Damascus and agreed to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

But the statement did not specify the date of the visit.

Source: Xinhua

Bloomberg
Ladane Nasseri and Marc Wolfensberger

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted the collapse of Israel, the U.S. and Britain, attacking what he called their ``oppressive behavior.''

``The Zionist regime is on a steep downhill towards collapse and disgrace,'' Ahmandinejad told supporters at a rally of Basiji militia forces near Tehran today. In a reference to the U.S. and U.K., he said ``the collapse and crumbling of your devilish rule has started.'' The speech was carried live on state television.

Iran doesn't recognize Israel, and Ahmadinejad drew international condemnation after saying in October 2005 that Israel should be ``wiped off the map.'' The U.S. and Iran have had no diplomatic ties since 1980 following the seizure of diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

The U.K., which has an embassy in Tehran, is among the three European countries pushing for sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

The Iranian president also called on neighboring countries to drive out ``foreign occupiers,'' in a reference to U.S.-led forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

``The people of the region are well able to establish regional security,'' the president said in the speech near the shrine of the Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. ``The presence of foreigners is the source of discord and conflict.''

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, whose visit to Tehran yesterday was postponed because of the curfew imposed on Baghdad since Nov. 23, will fly to the Iranian capital tomorrow, state television reported separately today.

The Iraqi president's trip to Iran is aimed at ``expanding bilateral ties in business, trade and transport affairs,'' the report said. Iraq security will not be the main issue discussed in this meeting, the Iranian Foreign Ministry's press office said on Nov. 21.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ladane Nasseri through the London bureau at lnasseri.net Marc Wolfensberger in Tehran at mwolfens.net

The Observer

Tracy McVeigh, foreign editor

With a smile the young man emerges from a car and swaggers towards the camera, but his balance is off kilter because his hands are tied behind his back and he slips a bit on the grass.

He recovers and bends his gangly body with a laugh, looking for all the world like a teenager making a home video with friends. Another young man follows him, walking stiffly. Someone in a thin grey suit kisses both men on both cheeks and strolls off-camera.

Dozens of people are milling about. A crowd can be seen held back by barriers, but even the guards look relaxed, standing well back from the two with their hands bound. Two rusty cranes on flatbed trucks are parked on the grass, the ropes hanging from each are rough, tangled with knots and the noose at the end looks amateurish - like a random piece of rope washed up on a beach.

Almost casually someone puts the rope round the awkward youth's neck first, then the second, steps back and the cranes pull up the ropes. The second man's body is still, and the camera stays on the taller one until he stops moving, about six minutes.

The film shows the public hanging of Alireza Gorji, 23, and his friend Hossein Makesh, 22, in July in Broudjerd, Iran. According to official versions of the charges, they were put to death because they had behaved 'immorally'. The truth, according to anti-government campaigners, is that the two men were among increasing numbers of political activists being executed by Iran on trumped-up charges.

'Both these men had been involved in anti-government protests in their home town and everyone who watch the hanging knew this,' said a human rights observer in Tehran.

On Tuesday the UN General Assembly condemned Iran for human rights abuses and the video - filmed by a Revolutionary Guard, smuggled out by opposition activists and seen by The Observer - is rare evidence of Iran's efforts to quell dissent. Amnesty International last year documented at least 94 public executions although many more are suspected to take place in secret - in September the authorities told a lawyer for Valliollah Feyz-Mahdavi, 28, that he had died after a suicide attempt in prison. Feyz-Mahdavi had been arrested for membership of Iran's main opposition - the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran.

Tehran has now been condemned on more than 50 occasions by the UN for severe human rights violations.

The Broudjerd video has been obtained by an exiled opposition group - the National Council of Resistance of Iran. At the House of Commons on Tuesday, it will be shown to cross-party MPs to encourage the British government to reconsider what the National Council regards as a policy of appeasing the Iranian regime. The group will unveil documents on the execution of more than 20,000 political victims, including evidence for the involvement of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.