A roadside bomb killed two US soldiers July 7 at a checkpoint outside Victory Base Camp in Baghdad. The attack follows the deadliest month for US troops in Iraq in two years. June saw 15 US soldiers killed in Iraq, nearly all in attacks by Shi'ite militias. The 46,000 US troops currently stationed in Iraq are to leave by year’s end under a 2008 withdrawal agreement. However, the White House is "offering" to keep up to 10,000 soldiers in the country beyond that deadline, if asked by Iraq's government. (AP, July 7)

For weeks all eyes have been on the Libyan rebels who have seized the coastal city of Benghazi in the east of the country from which they have repeatedly advanced on Tripoli—and repeatedly been driven back. Now a new advance has been launched on Tripoli from the interior Nafusa Mountains to the southwest, and reached the Gualish plains that flank the capital on the south. The army of Berber rebels has received air-drops of arms from France, and is apparently coordinating its advance with NATO air-strikes. "We waited before launching this assault and finally got the green light from NATO this morning and the offensive began," an unnamed rebel leader from the hilltown of Zintan told AFP. The rebels have gained strength and legitimacy from the recent defection to their ranks of Gen. Mohammed Ali Dhech, a key figure from Qaddafi's army. (Middle East Online, July 7; FT, July 1)

The US has brought Somali terror suspect Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame to the US to face a civil trial in New York after holding him at sea for two months, the Obama administration disclosed July 5—immediately prompting harsh criticism from both civil libertarians and Republicans. Warsame was captured by US forces on April 19 in what prosecutors would identify only as somewhere "in the Gulf region." He was detained on a US Navy ship for interrogation until being sent to the US for trial this week. In an appearance July 5 at US District Court for the Southern District of New York, he pleaded not guilty to charges of providing material support to a terrorist group and conspiring to teach and demonstrate how to make explosives. The indictment charges Warsame with providing material support to the Somali insurgent group al-Shabaab and to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen. If convicted, he faces a mandatory life sentence.

Henry Castellanos Garzón AKA "Romaña", a leader of Colombia's FARC guerillas, was sentenced in absentia to 22 years and nine months in prison for orchestrating numerous attacks and kidnappings in Meta department, Colombian media reported July 5. At the trial in the departmental capital Villavicencio, prosecutors cited reports by residents of La Uribe municipality that they had been victims of displacement, theft, threats and homicide by FARC fighters on the orders of Castellanos Garzón. "Romaña" was convicted of terrorism, conspiracy to commit crimes and aggravated theft, and orders for his arrest were reissued by the judge. However, the order seemingly contradicts widespread reports last year that Romaña was killed along with the FARC's former second-in-command, "Mono Jojoy," in a raid know as "Operation Sodoma." (Colombia Reports, July 5)

The Tahrir, a Canadian ship taking part in the planned aid flotilla to Gaza, was forced to return to Aghios Nikolaos harbor in Crete after an attempt to reach international waters was thwarted by coast guards after just 15 minutes on July 4. But another flotilla vessel, the Dignite al Karama, managed to slip past Greek authorities that night, and is believed to have reached international waters. Activists on board will have to decide whether to proceed to Gaza without the other vessels that remain immobilized in Greece. The vessel's passengers include Olivier Besancenot, head of the New Left Party in France, and French member of the European Parliament Nicole Kiil-Nilsen. Charges have meanwhile been dropped against the captain of the US ship Audacity of Hope, who was arrested near Athens. (AlJazeera, AlJazeera, July 5)

Syrian troops are reported to have shot dead at least six anti-government protesters in the city of Hama on July 5, the second day of street clashed in the city center, with residents erecting barricades and burning tires to prevent tanks from advancing. The tanks have been deployed in a ring around the city, with government forces attempting to close the circle on protesters in the downtown area. "Tens of people are being arrested in neighborhoods on the edges of Hama. The authorities seem to have opted for a military solution to subdue the city," Rami Abdel-Rahman, president of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Reuters Hama was the scene of the 1982 bloody repression of an Islamist-led uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez Assad, in which an estimated 30,000 were killed and parts of the city razed. (BBC News, July 5; Reuters, July 3)

Oil that spewed from an offshore drilling rig in the North China Sea (Yellow Sea) for more than two weeks last month spread 320 square miles, government officials acknowledged July 5, amid public outrage over why it took so long for fishermen and local residents to be informed of the spill. News of the spill emerged in late June on the microblogging site Sina Weibo and was not confirmed by the authorities until July 1. China's State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said July 5 that US energy giant ConocoPhillips is responsible for the spill. The leak took place at the Penglai 19-3 oilfield in Bohai Bay, a field being exploited by ConocoPhillips China under a joint development agreement with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation. (NYT, Xinhua, July 5)

Israeli police on July 1 limited access to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock for Friday prayers in a precautionary measure a day after clashes in the Old City. “This Friday we are preventing access to the plaza for Muslim men less than 45 years old,” a police spokesperson said, although she denied the restriction was linked to the previous night’s violence. The spokesperson added police have been “deployed in force” around East Jerusalem as security forces prepare for the possibility of new clashes with Palestinians. In the previous day's unrest, a Palestinian was wounded when an Israeli border guard opened fire to disperse protesters who were throwing stones and reportedly Molotov cocktails at the entrance to Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem. (AP, July 1)