Middle Orient

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.

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.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — In a gesture to Syria, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday said he is open to “any murmur of peace” from Israel’s enemies. Syria has recently signalled that it would like to reopen peace talks with Israel, which broke down seven years ago.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraqi officials backed away on Thursday from suggestions they would hang Saddam Hussein within a month, amid speculation the government is divided over whether to execute the ousted leader quickly.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein is due to be hanged within weeks but the government has given few details of how, when and where it will hang him.