BASILAN ISLAND, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / 28 Aug) – Two Abu Sayyaf gunmen were allegedly killed in fighting Tuesday with government soldiers in Basilan island, south of the Philippines, a military report said.

The report said the clash occurred near Tipo-Tipo town, but it was unclear whether the soldiers recovered the bodies of the slain militants.

The military usually reports intelligence information gathered from different sources whose confirmation was difficult to validate.

Security officials have previously said that more than 40 militants have been killed in clashes since last month, but only seven bodies were recovered on the island, which the military claimed in the past to be free from Abu Sayyaf since the government all out war in 2001.

A local news television, Chavacano Patrol, reported Tuesday night that a Muslim villager in Basilan came out in the open to say that one of Abu Sayyaf militants, Puruji Indama, reported killed by soldiers in a clash last week, is alive.

“I and my companion were gathering wild fruits when we saw Puruji and his group searching for his brother Umair. And they found Umair’s body near the river – his head is missing and both Umair’s hands were also chopped off,” the villager said, his face covered for fear of retaliation.

Marine Brig. Gen. Juancho Sabban, commander of a task force pursuing the Abu Sayyaf, denied soldiers decapitated the slain militant. “We don’t do those things,” he told the same television interview.

The military reported that the two brothers, tagged as behind the beheading of 10 Marines in Basilan island in fierce clashes on July 10, were killed in a fighting August 18. Fifteen Marines were also killed in the same fighting, the military said. (Mindanao Examiner)

Indonesian police arrested the country’s most wanted terrorist Zarkasi from Yogyakarta city on 15 June, 2007. Zarkasi, the Indonesian born terrorist was leading the Southeast Asian terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah since 2004.

Just two days earlier to this, police exposed that they had captured Jemaah Islamiyah’s military chief Abu Dujana, during a raid in the island of Java. These two arrests will disrupt Jemaah Islamiyah’s network for sure, but whether it will stop the group’s destructive activities remains a question.

Jemaah Islamiyah is responsible for a string of violence in the Asia Pacific region, including the 2002 bombings on the island of Bali, which left 202 people including 80 foreigners dead. Jemaah Islamiyah meaning ‘Islamic Group’ is dedicated to the establishment of an Islamic State in Southeast Asia incorporating Indonesia, southern Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

Over 900 active members are incorporated in the group while thousands other remain as supporters. Leaders of the group are mostly Indonesian nationals who fought or trained in Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s.

Several researches indicate that, in addition to raising its own funds, JI receives money and logistic assistance from Middle Eastern and South Asian contacts, Islamic minded nongovernmental organizations and other terrorist groups including the al-Qaida.

The recent arrests of Jemaah Islamiyah’s leader and military boss surely gave its network a major blow but it still possesses the ability to bounce back as it did after the arrest of Hambali in 2003. Keeping JI’s past record in mind, it is predictable that the group will try to regroup very quickly and will mark its presence in the region with a bang. In the process, existing leadership will definitely try to find new techniques of operation so that their network will not be easily detected by the security forces in future.

The capture of Riduan bin Isomoddin Hambali, Jemaah Islamiyah leader and al-Qaida’s Southeast Asia operations chief in August 2003, damaged the group’s strengths but could not reduce its ability to carry out bomb attacks. On September 2004, JI activists activated a car bomb near the Australian Embassy in Jakarta and left 11 people dead.

Intelligent reports suggest that some JI leaders currently are recruiting activists and holding military training in the southern Philippines. One of the main players - Abu Bakar Bashir, considered as the religious leader of the group faced couple of years behind the bars till 2006 and now living in Java.

Additionally, Indonesian police are still looking for Malaysian born Noordin M Top, now heads a breakaway faction of Jemaah Islamiyah. As long as these two persons roam free and preaches new recruits, danger of destructive attacks remains wide open.

Foreign governments, specially Australia, human rights groups and corporate houses operating in Indonesia criticized the government for failing to control Jemaah Islamiyah’s violent activities.

The government admitted that detecting JI militants in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, where administration is open to mass corruption, is very hard. The recent arrests will bring a fair share of relief to the government but it must not lie back for a single moment as the ideology of JI is still intact and it remains a legal organization in Indonesia.

Capturing the most wanted criminals will not do much if the judicial system does not provide support to it. Indonesian government therefore needs to continue its search to arrest other militants and has to improve both legislative and judicial systems of the country to root out Jemaah Islamiyah for ever. (Subhan Choudhury)

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / 28 Aug) – Filipino police on Tuesday implicated the New People’s Army in the abduction of a political activist in Manila and said it has three people who provided information about the victim.

Jonas Joseph Burgos, a trainer of a peasant organization, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the Philippines) went missing following his abduction inside a restaurant in Caloocan City.

His family said one witness in the abduction saw Burgos forced into a vehicle with license plate number TAB-194, which was later traced to a vehicle impounded by the Army’s 56th Infantry Battalion in Bulacan province.

The military said the license plate was stolen from the vehicle inside their base.

The vehicle, owned by Mudlong Mauro, was seized by army soldiers for transporting illegal lumber in June 2006. It previously linked communist insurgents in the disappearance of Burgos.

Edgardo Doromal, head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said they have in custody Emerito Lipio, also known as Ka Tibo and Marlon Manuel, both NPA rebels captured in Bulacan province, and Melissa Concepcion, a former NPA fighter.

Lipio said the NPA ordered rebels to investigate Burgos who was suspected of spying for the military among other allegations.

“Ka Ramon was seen talking to a government soldier. He was also reported seeing and talking to rebel returnees and several times went home without permission from the NPA,” Lipio said at a news conference in Manila.

Last month, ssenior state prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco, of the Presidential Task Force Against Media Harassment, ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to summon six intelligence soldiers to shed light on the case after a witness implicated them to Burgos’ disappearance.

Velasco was removed from the case after he implicated the soldiers in the abduction of Burgos.Intelligence chief Maj. General Delfin Bangit said no soldiers from his group were involved in the abduction of the activist.

Burgos’ family denied the allegations of the military. The activist’s mother, Edith Burgos, said the military was behind the abduction her son.

“My son Jonas, according to witnesses, was forcibly taken by a group of six males and one female while he was having lunch at the Hapag Kainan Restaurant in Ever Gotesco Mall, Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City, on April 28, 2007 at about 1.30 p.m. As he was being forcibly taken, he was shouting “Aktibista lang po ako! (I am only an activist).”

“I realized that Jonas could be missing when he did not come home that night of April 28th,” she said. (Mindanao Examiner)

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / 28 Aug) – Filipino and Muslim rebels negotiating peace have agreed to extend the stay of international truce observers in the strife-torn Mindanao island in southern Philippines, a rebel spokesman said on Tuesday.

Eid Kabalu, of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, said peace negotiators have held urgent talks Monday in Kuala Lumpur to discuss important issues that included the stay of the International Monitoring Team.

“MILF and Philippine government negotiators have agreed to extend the stay of the IMT for another year,” Kabalu told the Mindanao Examiner.

The IMT is composed of 41 officers from the Malaysian Defense Forces, the Royal Malaysia Police, and the Prime Minister’s Department and is also supported by 10 military officers from Brunei Darussalam and 5 from Libya. Japan also has a member in the IMT.

But despite the peace talks and a fragile truce signed six years ago, sporadic clashes between soldiers and rebels still continue in Mindanao. However, the presence of the IMT prevented the clashes from further spreading.

“The presence of the IMT is very important to the peace process and stability of Mindanao and the southern Philippines in whole. The IMT is like a magnet that holds us together and the presence of international truce observers gives the peace negotiators confidence in achieving peace in Mindanao,” Kabalu said.

Manila earlier postponed the peace talks in Malaysia. The talks on Monday, however, failed to reach any new agreement on the Muslim’s ancestral domain in Mindanao.

Malaysia is brokering peace talks between the Filipino government and the MILF, but negotiations ended in September in Kuala Lumpur with both sides failing to sign any agreement on the most contentious issue — ancestral domain – which refers to the rebel demand for territory that will constitute a Muslim homeland.

It is the single most important issue in the peace negotiations before the rebel group can reach a political settlement.

President Gloria opened up peace talks in 2001 with the MILF, which is fighting for independence in Mindanao island, whose 16 million populations includes about 4 million Filipino Muslims.

Mohagher Iqbal, chief MILF peace negotiator, said Manila previously offered his group the Muslim autonomous region, which is composed of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi which are among the poorest in the country torn by strife and clan wars since its creation in 1989. The MILF flatly rejected the offer and insisted on self-determination.

The ancestral domain, on the other hand, covers the whole of Muslim autonomous region and other areas in Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces where there are large communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes. And even Palawan Island in central Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner)

Washington, DC - Responding to the Philippine Congress’s implementation of the Human Security Act (HSA) in July, Filipino groups along the east coast will be converging for a concert in Washington DC on Friday, September 28, one week after the 35th anniversary of Martial Law as declared by former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos in 1972.

The concert, organized by the Filipino-American alliance BAYAN USA and featuring Filipino-American hip-hop sensations Blue Scholars and Kiwi Illefonte, aims to bring awareness to the repercussions of the newly-passed and controversial bill, and connect with the overall issue of increased US military spending to places where US troops are present, such as the Philippines.

The concert will also be featured as part of a one-week encampment organized by the Troops Out Now Anti-War coalition, that will culminate in a march to Capitol Hill on Saturday, September 29th. A similar encampment will also be held in Los Angeles on the same dates.

“The HSA is a disaster for domestic security in the Philippines. It will cause the endangerment and the termination of innocent lives,” states Valerie Francisco of Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment, or FIRE, a community organizer who recently returned from the Philippines to protest the HSA.

FIRE, along the Anakbayan, the Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, under the banner of BAYAN USA, and local DC groups such as Katarungan will be sponsoring the mini-concert set outdoors and following next-day anti-war march near Capitol Hill.

The Fil-Am groups have also warned that US-based advocates and supporters of the broad Arroyo opposition under the HSA are also subject to the measures of the state with such a vague definition of terrorism.

This comes in light of reports on extra-judicial killings, increase in forced disappearances throughout the country, and a watch-list of names provided by the Bureau of Immigration and Department of Justice jeopardizing travelers from abroad that speak out against Arroyo’s domestic policies.

“These days, to oppose the Arroyo regime is the most genuine act of security. To highlight this issue during the Martial Law anniversary is fitting and appropriate, because the Philippines is still under undeclared Martial Law,” states Jonna Baldres of Anakbayan.

The groups have also been calling for restrictions on US military aid to the Philippines, in line with its human rights work. September also marks continued Congressional deliberations on US military spending for 2008.

Nearly 50 US solons have signed a petition letter calling for Arroyo to handle the human rights crisis in the Philippines.

In response to a recent US Senate hearing and Congressional deliberations on the fate of US military aid to the Philippine government this past year, the Arroyo regime has resorted to deflecting possible aid reduction by pushing for an all-out war in Mindanao, the southern-most island, claiming Al-Qaeda cells exist, much to wide public disagreement.

Following the public reports of UN Rapporteur Philip Alston, and Amnesty International, the Philippine military has been identified as the key perpetrating group of extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances. In 2001, President George Bush declared the Philippines the Second Front to the War on Terror.

Since then, the Philippines has remained the fourth largest recipient of US military aid in the world and the largest in the Asia-Pacific region.

A US soldier examines the foot of a Muslim villager during a medical mission in Marawi City in southern Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner Photo Service)

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / 28 Aug) – An independent anti-war coalition on Tuesday urged Filipino lawmakers to investigate the presence of U.S. forces in southern Philippines.

The Stop the War Coalition, which is composed of people’s organizations, NGOs, social movements, women’s, students’, religious, youth and other organizations, said the presence of US troops and small American military bases in the country must be investigated because it violates the Constitution.

“We at the Stop the War Coalition call for an immediate independent investigation as to the constitutionality of allowing the establishment of US bases in Mindanao,” it said in a statement sent Tuesday to the Mindanao Examiner.

“We urge our elected legislators to call for an independent investigation into the issue and demand that they be given access to inspect the bases, and to summon US and Filipino officials to explain. We call for the Abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement. We demand an immediate end to the war in Mindanao and an end to US intervention in the war,” it said.

The Bangkok-based Focus on Global South, an international research institute that monitors US military activities in the Philippines, said an American-based construction unit has been spending $14.4 in Mindanao.

It said the US Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) had in June 6, 2007, awarded a six-month $14.4-million contract to a certain “Global Contingency Services LLC” of Irving, Texas for “operations support” for the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P).

According to its own website, the NAVFAC is the unit within the US military that is in charge of providing the US Navy with “operating, support, and training bases.” It “manages the planning, design, and construction and provides public works support for US Naval shore installations around the world.” Among their business lines are “bases development” and “contingency engineering.”

The JSOTF-P is the unit established by the US Special Operations Command that has been stationed in the southern Philippines since 2002 and which Focus on the Global South believes has established a new kind of US basing in the country.

Global Contingency Services LLC is a partnership between DynCorp International, Parsons Global Services, and PWC Logistics. The $14.4 million contract is actually part of a bigger $450-million five-year contract for Global Contingency Services to “provide a full range of world-wide contingency and disaster-response services, including humanitarian assistance and interim or transitional base-operating support services.”

A US Embassy official admitted that the American government has commissioned the construction of facilities across Mindanao for US soldiers, but insists the projects are not permanent military bases.

Karen Schinnerer, US Embassy deputy spokesperson and deputy press attaché, said the American construction projects are for “medical, logistical and administrative services” to be used by the American soldiers. She said the structures are “definitely not permanent US bases.”

US soldiers will use the facilities only on a temporary basis for them to “eat, sleep, and work,” she said.

Earlier on Friday, an official from the Philippine commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement said that the US was not building bases but living quarters for troops training local soldiers.

US troops are currently deployed in Zamboanga City, Jolo and Tawi-Tawi islands in the Sulu Archipelago and Maguindanao province in southern Philippines, where local soldiers are battling terrorism.

They have their own base inside Philippine military facilities where US troops maintain communication and intelligence facilities which are only accessible to the Americans, although sometimes senior Filipino military generals tour the facilities on special permission from US military.

A Philippine Air Force base in Mactan island in Cebu province also is being used as base to a fleet of US Orion reconnaissance planes, while US ships in international waters are where unmanned spy aircrafts are flown to conduct reconnaissance missions over the southern region.

Last year, villagers in Jolo island recovered an unmanned aerial vehicle called “Predator” which crashed in the hinterland. The crash of the spy plane was never reported by the US military and kept secret until the craft was found. A similar aircraft also crashed at sea off Zamboanga.

And as Schinnerer said, there are facilities—however, they are temporary quarters and not a military base. She added that the US government does not even have plans of leading any kind of military operations against rebels in Mindanao.

Schinnerer said the US troops are in Mindanao upon the invitation of the Philippines.

“We will work with the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] as it is by invitation of Philippine government to work beside them we work on the medical services,” she said, adding that the project has been contracted privately.

Stop the War Coalition also urged other independent groups to protest the presence of US facilities in the region.

“Because of the ongoing war in Mindanao, Stop the War Coalition believes that US basing in the country and its involvement in the war will complicate the situation and move us away from peaceful and just solutions to the problems.”

“Stop the War Coalition believes that neither the US nor the Philippine government has the incentive to tell the truth about the US bases in Mindanao. We therefore call on all Filipinos to oppose these bases, call for their abolition, and demand the withdrawal of US troops from the country,” it said.

But many Filipinos in areas where the US troops are operating said they are supporting the presence of the Americans, who are involved in humanitarian missions and development projects.

US troops have built roads and schools and bridges in southern Philippines and at the same time helping the local military defeat terrorism. (Mindanao Examiner, with reports from the Manila Times)

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / 28 Aug) – Philippine soldiers shelled suspected Abu Sayyaf lairs on Tuesday in the hinterlands of Basilan island as the military pressed hard to flush out the militants tied to al-Qaeda terror network.

“Our operation against the Abu Sayyaf is going on and troops shelled suspected lairs of terrorists in the hinterlands,” Colonel Rustico Guerrero, commander of the 1st Marine Brigade in Basilan island told the Mindanao Examiner.

There were no immediate reports of Abu Sayyaf casualties, but Guerrero said the shelling was concentrated in the town of Ungkaya Pukan, where 15 soldiers had died in previous clashes.

Last week, two soldiers were wounded in an Abu Sayyaf ambush on the island, just several nautical miles south of Zamboanga City.

More than two dozen soldiers were also killed fierce clashes in Ungkaya Pukan and Al-Barka towns since last month. And about a dozen casualties from the Abu Sayyaf side.

Troops were pursuing more than 100 Abu Sayyaf gunmen and Moro rebels linked to the killings of the soldiers, ten of whom were beheaded and mutilated.

Social workers said as many as 12,000 people have fled their homes because of the military offensive, although there were no reports of civilian casualties.

The Abu Sayyaf was said to be planning to kidnap journalists and civilians and used them as shield against pursuing government soldiers in Basilan.

President Gloria Arroyo was in Basilan this month and inspected troops fighting the Abu Sayyaf. She ordered the military to crush the Abu Sayyaf so the government can start development projects on the islands.

Security forces were also battling Abu Sayyaf militants in Jolo island, blamed for the killing of more than two dozen soldiers last month.

But while government offensives continue, Arroyo also ordered humanitarian projects on the two islands under the so-called “HELP for Basilan and Sulu Program.”

HELP stands for Health, Education, Livelihood Progress. Arroyo ordered all government agencies to contribute projects to the HELP template.

She pointed out that economic development remains the principal weapon against terrorism and that despite the recent hostilities, Basilan and Sulu are by no means a war zone.

The Commission on Higher Education has already offered additional scholarship slots and the Department of Trade and Industry also launched the “Sulong Sulu, Bangon Basilan” programs.

The government held its licensing examination for teachers in Jolo island and the Philippine Military Academy entrance test Sunday. The teachers’ examination was the first-ever held in Jolo while the PMA test was the first to be conducted in 17 years, said the island’s Governor Sakur Tan. (Mindanao Examiner)

10 Held In Killing Of Russian Journalist: AP

MOSCOW - A Chechen crime boss, Russian police and security officers were involved in the death of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Russia’s top prosecutor said Monday.

But he suggested that someone outside Russia masterminded the killing of the frequent Kremlin critic.

Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika spoke hours after announcing that 10 people were arrested in the October killing of Politkovskaya, a crime that has blackened the reputation of President Vladimir Putin’s resurgent Russia.

Chaika’s remarks echoed earlier statements by Putin and allies who have suggested Politkovskaya’s slaying could have been plotted by Kremlin opponents abroad to damage Russia’s image.

The prosecutor said investigators had determined that “only individuals located outside the bounds of the Russian Federation” could have had an interest in killing the journalist.

Politkovskaya, who criticized Putin and revealed human rights abuses in Chechnya, was shot dead Oct. 7 in her Moscow apartment building. Her killing drew international attention, deepening Western concerns about Russia’s course and compounding concern about the safety of journalists and Kremlin critics in the country.

Chaika said the killing was set up by a Chechen native who led a Moscow organized crime ring that specialized in contract killings, Russian news agencies reported.

According to the news agencies, he said people involved in Politkovskaya’s killing were also involved in the 2004 shooting death of American magazine editor Paul Klebnikov and the killing last year of Russian Central Bank deputy chief Andrei Kozlov.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

MOSCOW (AP) — Authorities said Monday they have arrested and will soon charge 10 people in the killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya — an outspoken critic of the Kremlin whose death sparked global concern about the safety of reporters in Russia.

“We have made serious progress in the case of the murder of the journalist Politkovskaya,” Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika told President Vladimir Putin in televised remarks. “As of today, 10 people have been arrested in this case, and literally in the nearest future they will be charged with the commission of this grave crime.”

Politkovskaya, a critic of Putin who exposed human rights abuses in Chechnya, was shot dead in her Moscow apartment building in October.

Her killing drew international attention, compounding concern about the safety of journalists and Kremlin critics in Russia. Putin sparked outrage abroad when he seemed to dismiss Politkovskaya shortly after her killing, saying her influence on Russian political life was “very minor.”

Chaika did not identify those arrested, or say when they were detained.

A Moscow district court approved the arrests of eight suspects in Politkovskaya’s killing on Friday, city court spokeswoman Anna Usacheva said, suggesting the suspects were detained within the last few days. There was no immediate explanation for the different numbers of suspects.

Chaika’s remarks were the first announcement of arrests in the Oct. 7 killing, which Western governments have urged Russian authorities to solve. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists said 13 journalists have been killed in contract-style murders since Putin took office in 2000.

There had been no word of specific progress in the case for months. In April, the journalists’ advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said there appeared to have been no progress in the investigation, and called for an international commission or parliamentary inquiry if authorities produced no concrete and conclusive evidence.

Politkovskaya’s killing came less than two months before the radiation poisoning death in London of Kremlin critic and former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko, which further damaged the Russian leadership’s reputation abroad. Litvinenko blamed Putin for both his poisoning and the murder of Politkovskaya.

Days after Politkovskaya’s death, Putin suggested her killing could have been plotted by Kremlin foes abroad to harm Russia’s image, and his allies have made similar remarks about Litvinenko’s death, pointing to Boris Berezovsky, a former Kremlin insider who is one of Putin’s fiercest critics and lives in Britain, where he has refugee status.

In November, Chaika said a possible foreign connection was among several theories being investigated in the Politkovskaya case.

Politkovskaya, who was 48, was a highly respected journalist whose tireless reporting chronicling the killings, tortures and beatings of civilians by Russian servicemen in Chechnya put her on a collision course with the authorities but won her numerous international awards.

She also wrote a book critical of Putin and his military campaign in Chechnya, documenting widespread abuse of civilians by government troops. And she was a persistent critic of Kremlin-backed Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, accusing his security forces of kidnapping and torturing civilians.

Much speculation about her slaying has focused on Kadyrov, who was prime minister of the war-scarred region when she was killed and became its president in March. He has denied involvement.

Alexei Simonov, chairman of the Glasnost Defense Foundation, a leading Russian media rights watchdog, said he and the staff of Politkovskaya’s newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, knew of the arrests a week ago.

“I think these are serious arrests based on real evidence,” Simonov said, asserting that the motive was “undoubtedly linked to Chechnya.”

He said that those arrested likely included the shooter and accomplices who set up surveillance. But while he said he was confident investigators tracked down Politkovskaya’s killers, he expressed concern that the truth about who was behind the slaying could prove more elusive.

He said the staff of Novaya Gazeta feared the authorities would “steer the case in the direction of London” and blame Politkovskaya’s killing on Berezovsky.

Weeks after the killing the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that investigators were focusing on former Russian police officers linked to crimes against civilians in Chechnya.

Pointing to Russian prosecutors’ unenviable record in solving journalists’ slayings, Igor Yakovenko, head of the Russian Union of Journalists, voiced caution about the prosecutor’s announcement.

“I really want to hope that we have reached a turning point, but I think we should wait for concrete results,” Yakovenko said on Ekho Moskvy radio.(AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan - Five Western soldiers, including three Americans, were killed in a string of Taliban attacks in eastern and southern Afghanistan, officials said on Monday.

The Americans were killed along with two Afghan soldiers in a Taliban ambush on Monday in Ghazi Abad district of eastern Kunar province, near the border with Pakistan, the district police chief told reporters.

NATO officials in Kabul said earlier that two soldiers had been killed while on patrol Sunday, one in an attack in eastern Afghanistan and the other in the south.

NATO did not identify the victims.

However, the Netherlands’ military said a Dutch soldier had been killed overnight by a bomb in southern Afghanistan.

It said the 30-year-old sergeant was in a unit searching for explosives in the province of Uruzgan when an improvised device exploded, Chief of Staff Dick Berlijn told a televised news conference. A 23-year-old corporal was wounded, Berlijn said.

The Netherlands has about 1,700 troops in Afghanistan.

Violence has surged in the past 19 months in Afghanistan where more than 100 Western troops under the command of NATO and the U.S. military have been killed this year while fighting a renewed Taliban-led insurgency.(Reuters)

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. (AP)

CRAWFORD, Texas - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned, ending a months-long standoff with Republican and Democratic critics who called for his ouster over the Justice Department’s botched handling of FBI terror investigations and the firing of U.S. attorneys, officials said Monday.

The likely temporary replacement for Gonzales is Solicitor General Paul Clement, who would take over until a permanent replacement is found, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Justice Department planned a news conference for 10:30 a.m. in Washington. President Bush was expected to discuss Gonzales’ departure at his Crawford, Texas, ranch., before leaving on a trip to western states.

Two administration officials speaking on grounds of anonymity said that Gonzales had submitted a resignation letter last Friday. These officials declined to be identified because the formal announcement about Gonzales was still pending.

A longtime friend of Bush, who once considered him for appointment to the Supreme Court, Gonzales is the fourth high-ranking administration official to leave since November 2006.

Donald H. Rumsfeld, an architect of the Iraq war, resigned as defense secretary one day after the November elections. Paul Wolfowitz agreed in May to step down as president of the World Bank after an ethics inquiry. And top Bush adviser Karl Rove earlier this month announced he was stepping down.

A frequent Democratic target, Gonzales could not satisfy critics who said he had lost credibility over the Justice Department’s botched handling of warrantless wiretaps related to the threat of terrorism and the firings of several U.S. attorneys.

As attorney general and earlier as White House counsel, Gonzales pushed for expanded presidential powers, including the eavesdropping authority. He drafted controversial rules for military war tribunals and sought to limit the legal rights of detainees at Guantanamo Bay — prompting lawsuits by civil libertarians who said the government was violating the Constitution in its pursuit of terrorists.

Bush and Gonzales had lunch over the weekend in advance of announcing his resignation. One said that Gonzales’ resignation would take effect in two or three weeks.

Gonzales among about a dozen senior administration officials to resign amid a protracted congressional investigation into whatever role politics played in the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys.

“It has been a long and difficult struggle but at last, the attorney general has done the right thing and stepped down,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and one of the department’s most vocal critics.

The flap over the fired prosecutors proved to be the final straw for Gonzales, whose truthfulness in testimony to Congress was drawn into question.

Lawmakers said the dismissals of the federal prosecutors appeared to be politically motivated, and some of the fired U.S. attorneys said they felt pressured to investigate Democrats before elections.

Gonzales maintained that the dismissals were based the prosecutors’ lackluster performance records.

Thousands of documents released by the Justice Department show a White House plot, hatched shortly after the 2004 elections, to replace U.S. attorneys. At one point, senior White House officials, including Rove, suggested replacing all 93 prosecutors. In December 2006, eight were ordered to resign.

In several House and Senate hearings into the firings, Gonzales and other Justice Department officials failed to fully explain the ousters without contradicting each other.

U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president, and can be removed. But congressional Democrats said politics played an unusually key role in the ouster of several prosecutors.

Bush repeatedly defended the firings of the prosecutors but acknowledged that he did not think Gonzales had done a good job of explaining it to Congress.(AP)