A farmer in southwest China killed a village leader in a suicide bombing that also seriously injured nine other local officials following a land dispute April 15. Yue Xiaobao detonated explosives strapped to his body as he approached officials from Lishan village, Yunnan province, the Beijing Times reported. The attack came after village leaders had destroyed Yue's crop of sweet potatoes and tobacco, a leading cash crop in the region. Yue carried out the attack while officials were on an inspection tour of local farmlands. Yue and Lishan village leader Ren Xuecai were killed immediately.

Violence between the Philippine army and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) continues in the southern region of Mindanao. Clashes with the 2,000-strong MNLF have left 21 dead and displaced 50,000 people. [AlJazeera, April 18] A suspected motorcycle blast has shaken the Mindanao city of Cotabato after a pro-government rally. [Reuters, April 18]

US officials in Afghanistan claim to have intercepted arms sent from Iran to the Taliban. The Bush administration had earlier accused Iran of abetting Shia death squads in Iraq, and more recently claiming that Tehran was backing both Sunni and Shia militants in the country. The allegation of involvement in Afghanistan would suggest that US strategists are bent on making the case that Iran is concertedly opposing American efforts in the "war on terror" in the region. [NYT, April 18]

Over 150 people have been killed [April 18] in a series of blasts in Baghdad, with at least 115 dying in a bombing at a food market in the [Shi'ite] district of Sadriya. The other major incident was an attack on a police checkpoint that has left at least 42 people dead. [BBC, April 18]

The national human rights group CODHES [Council on Human Rights and Displacement] reports that more than 15,000 Colombians were displaced from their homes during the first one hundred days of 2007. The primary cause of this forced exodus has been the fighting between security forces and leftist guerrillas, while a US-led initiative of spraying narcotics crops with herbicides has also been a contributory factor. "Fumigation," notes CODHES director Jorge Rojas, "causes the expansion of coca growth into new areas," with both left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries forcibly ejecting farmers from these lands. Cocaine production comprises a major resource for both leftist and rightist combatants, while its capitalization is often thought to have exacerbated and entrenched this four-decade-old civil war. [Reuters, April 17]

From the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), April 15:

IFC Launches an International Campaign to Free the Iraqi Detainees Being Held In the U.S. Camps in Iraq
As a result of the new Bush security plan in Iraq, hundreds of people have been randomly detained. In fact, the plan meant to spread fear among people to preclude them from any opposition to the occupation.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Antonio Guterres, has appealed to the international community for "genuine solidarity and unstinting aid to displaced Iraqis and to the states housing them." Nearly 4 million Iraqis have been forced from their homes during the conflict. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have appealed for 18.2 million Swiss francs (almost £7.5 million [or $15 million]) to assist some 100,000 displaced Iraqi families. [Reuters, April 17] UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has asked neighbouring countries to continue to provide sanctuary to Iraqi refugees. [AlJazeera, April 17]

Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the group the Islamic State of Iraq, has described Iraq as "the university of terrorism." According to al-Baghdadi, his al-Qaeda-associated group has used the war in Iraq as a training ground for jihadists, commenting that the "largest batch of soldiers for jihad in the path of God in the history of Iraq are graduating, and they have the highest level of competence in the world." He also expressed confidence in the future success of the insurgency. The statement was released as an audio clip on the Internet on Tuesday to mark the fourth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq. [AlJazeera, April 17]