BAGHDAD — US-led forces are likely to launch a limited new year offensive against Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr’s Mehdi Army, blamed for sectarian death squad killings, senior Iraqi officials say.

GAZA CITY (AP) — Palestinian fighters attacked the Gaza Strip’s main cargo crossing with mortar fire early Tuesday, lightly wounding an Israeli truck driver in the latest flare-up of violence in the coastal strip.

BEIRUT (Reuters) — Lebanon’s Hizbollah-led opposition will decide this week how to press its campaign against the government and sees little chance of an early end to the standoff, the group’s deputy leader said.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel failed to achieve all its objectives in its summer war against Hizbollah fighters in Lebanon, the Israeli army chief admitted Tuesday, but he rejected calls to resign as a result.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) — Ethiopian troops will stay in Somalia for several weeks to help the victorious government pacify the Horn of Africa nation after a two-week war to oust Islamists, both countries said on Tuesday.

BEIRUT — Assassinated leaders are very much alive in Lebanese politics. The commemoration of leaders blown up or shot dead is a tradition in a country plagued for decades by political killings and civil violence.

BAGHDAD — When Ali Mohammad was woken by gunfire celebrating the hanging of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, he thought about the lessons of history in his country where rulers tend not to die quietly in their beds.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel on Thursday marks one year since a massive stroke felled Ariel Sharon and left the former premier who for decades dominated the nation’s political landscape in a coma.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- The Islamic Republic of Iran and Thailand experienced a growth rate of 57.85% in their trade exchanges during the first 10 months of the year 2006, Iran’s ambassador to Bangkok Mohsen Pak Ayeen said on Saturday.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Chairman of Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaoddin Boroujerdi said Saddam’s trial was too short.