Afghanistan says Mullah Omar died in 2013
Afghanistan says Mullah Omar died in 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan asserted Wednesday that the Taliban’s reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, died more than two years ago in a Pakistani hospital — an announcement that injects new uncertainty into the country’s fragile peace process.
If confirmed, the surprising news of the death of Mullah Omar, would remove a unifying figure for the insurgents, who are believed to be split on whether to continue the war or negotiate with the government of President Ashraf Ghani.
In Washington, the U.S. government said they considered the report of the Taliban leader’s death credible, though it was not confirmed by the Taliban or Pakistan.
The Afghan government’s announcement came just two days before a second round of peace talks between the government and negotiators claiming to speak for the Taliban leadership. It also raises questions about the authority of Taliban representatives who attended a first round of talks in Pakistan on July 7, as well as earlier informal meetings in Qatar and Norway.
Abdul Hassib Sediqi, the spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, said Mullah Omar died at a hospital in the Pakistani city of Karachi in April 2013.
Ohio officer faces murder charge
CINCINNATI (AP) — A University of Cincinnati officer who shot a motorist during a traffic stop over a missing front license plate was indicted Wednesday on a murder charge, with a prosecutor saying the officer “purposely killed him” and “should never have been a police officer.”
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters announced the grand jury indictment at a news conference to discuss developments in the investigation into the July 19 shooting of 43-year-old motorist Samuel DuBose by Officer Ray Tensing.
Authorities have said Tensing spotted a car driven by DuBose and missing the front license plate, which is required by Ohio law. They say Tensing stopped the car and a struggle ensued after DuBose refused to provide a driver’s license and get out of the car.
Tensing, 25, has said he was dragged by the car and forced to shoot at DuBose. He fired once, striking DuBose in the head.
But Deters dismissed Tensing’s claim that he was dragged by the car and suggested that he shouldn’t have pulled DuBose over to begin with.
Turkish airstrikes complicate fight against IS
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — President Barack Obama’s stepped-up partnership with Turkey in fighting the Islamic State may come at the cost of alienating another key group he’s counting on for help in the same conflict: the Kurds.
To Obama’s relief, Turkey has finally started bombing Islamic State targets in neighboring Syria, and agreed to let the U.S. military launch airstrikes from key air bases inside Turkey in a deal announced last week. But in an unexpected twist, Turkey simultaneously started shelling Kurdish rebels in Iraq, where Kurds have proven unusually capable of wresting back territory from the Islamic State militants with the help of air support from the U.S.-led coalition.
The White House has publicly sided with Turkey, endorsing the NATO ally’s right to defend itself against recent deadly attacks in Turkey by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. But Iraq’s prime minister says the Turkish strikes violate Iraq’s sovereignty, and U.S. officials have quietly signaled they’re urging Turkey to lay off.
It’s a dizzying array of alliances that illustrates Obama’s paucity of good options for partners in his campaign against the Islamic State, an extremist Sunni militant group known in Arabic as Daesh. The U.S. considers the PKK, which has waged a long insurgency in Turkey, to be a terrorist group, but is supporting and equipping other Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria that share the PKK’s goal of defeating the Islamic State.
“Knowingly or not, the U.S. is going to end up having to choose between the Turks and the Kurds,” said Blaise Misztal, national security director at the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center.
Instead of fighting Dems, Republicans fight each other
WASHINGTON (AP) — When Republicans took full control of Congress this year, they were determined to show voters they could govern responsibly. Instead they’ve been tearing each other apart in extraordinarily public displays, delighting Democrats and giving some in the GOP heartburn as the party aims for the White House in 2016.
Just a few days ago, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz took to the Senate floor to accuse Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of lying, provoking a public dressing-down from top GOP senators.
A second tea party-backed senator, Mike Lee of Utah, had to dispense mea culpas to McConnell and others after an aide’s email surfaced suggesting outside groups should punish fellow Republicans for their votes.
And in the latest episode of Republican vs. Republican savagery in less than a week, a conservative lawmaker, Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, filed a resolution Tuesday evening aimed at unseating GOP House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.
Meadows’ move, which infuriated House party leaders, is highly unlikely to oust Boehner. The speaker dismissed it as of little consequence and made clear he would not allow it to come to a vote.
House votes to provide money for highway aid, plug hole in veterans’ health care budget
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to shore up federal highway aid and veterans’ health care before heading out of town for its August recess, leaving unresolved an array of sticky issues that are sure to complicate an autumn agenda already groaning under the weight of indecision.
In one of their last decisions before adjourning for a month, the House backed a bill that would extend spending authority for transportation programs through Oct. 29, and replenish the federal Highway Trust Fund with $8 billion. That’s enough money to keep highway and transit aid flowing to states through mid-December.
The vote was 385-34.
The Senate plans to take up the House bill before a midnight Friday deadline, when authority for the Transportation Department to process aid payments to states will expire.
Lawmakers said they were loath to take up yet another short-term transportation funding extension — this will be the 34th extension since 2009. But Republicans and Democrats don’t want to see transportation aid cut off, and they are eager to pass an amendment attached to the extension bill that fills a $3.4 billion hole in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ budget. The money gap threatens to force the closure of hospitals and clinics nationwide.
Carter: Successful Iran nuke deal preferable to military strike
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Wednesday that the U.S. armed forces stand ready to confront Iran, but told lawmakers that a successful implementation of the nuclear agreement with Tehran is preferable to a military strike.
Carter, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and three members of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet testified at a committee hearing as part of the White House’s aggressive campaign to convince Congress to back the Iranian nuclear deal, which calls on Iran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief.
Carter said there is a possibility that the nuclear agreement will move forward, but will not be “successfully implemented.”
“That’s why we are under instructions from the president to preserve, and indeed we are improving — and I can’t get into that here — the military option,” Carter said. “Temporary as it is, it needs to be there because that’s our fall back.”
At the same time, Carter said that the successful implementation of the agreement would be better than taking military action because a strike would be temporary and likely would make Iran “irreconcilably resigned” to getting a nuclear weapon.