Stepping up the assault on the Iraqi city of Diwaniya, believed to be a stronghold of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, US occupation forces launched an air strike on a supposed safehouse April 7. At least six people, including two women and a child, were killed by a missile fired into their home from a US warplane. Mahdi Army fighters reportedly returned fire with rocket-propelled grenades. The operation dubbed "Black Eagle" was launched the previous morning, aimed at disrupting the Mahdi Army's position in the city and within the local police force—which has been ordered to stay off the streets during the operation. US Col. Michael Garrett, who is leading the operation, said that joint US-Iraqi security bases will be set up inside the city, to permanently deter the Mahdi Army. (Arab Monitor, April 7; LAT, April 8).

Luz María González Armenta, leader of Defense and Promotion of Human Rights-Emiliano Zapata (DEPRODHEZAC), is free but still facing charges after being arbitrarily arrested March 30 at a protest vigil outside the municipal presidency office in the Mexican border city of Matamoros. The vigil was demanding the return alive of José Rafael Sánchez Martínez, a local youth who has been "disappeared" since a confrontation with the city police Jan. 30. González reports via e-mail that she was released after ten hours in the "pestilential cells" of Barandilla municipal jail. In her latest communication April 5, González writes:

A bomber driving a truck loaded with TNT and chlorine gas crashed into a police checkpoint in Iraq's Anbar province April 6, killing at least 27 and wounding dozens. The bombing near Ramadi marked the ninth use of suicide chlorine bombs in the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. The attacks come as many Anbar tribes have switched allegiance, with large numbers of military-age men joining the police force and Iraqi army in a bid to expel fighters of "al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia." Police Major Mohammed Mahmoud al Nattah, a member of the Anbar Salvation council, told state-run Iraqiya TV that the bomber hit a residential complex, and that dozens of wounded were taken to the Ramadi hospital. Nearby buildings were heavily damaged and police were searching the rubble for more victims. (AP, March 6).

A slight irony. On April 7, the New York Times runs an optimistic op-ed by Munir Akram, Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN, entitled "A United Front Against the Taliban." He assures readers that tribal leaders along the Afghan border are being turned against the Taliban, and that the Afghan refugee camps where the Taliban recruit are about to be cleared out (which the Afghan refgees themselves might not consider such good news). He writes that the largest camps—Pir Alizai and Gidri Jungle in Baluchistan Province, and Jallozai and Kachi Garhi in the North-West Frontier Province—are about to be moved across the border under a deal with the Afghan government (where, we note, they will likely remain recruitment fodder for the Taliban).

The FBI has arrested two Indian nationals running an electronics company in South Carolina, and cited two unnamed Indian government officials as "co-conspirators" in the alleged export of sensitive dual-use items to three Indian entities: Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), for possible use in production of missiles and missile-launch vehicles; the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), for use in the development of the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft; and Bharat Dynamics Limited for various defense projects.

The New York Times reports April 5 that US officials are reviewing an informal request from Tehran for an envoy to visit five Iranians who were imprisoned after a US raid in northern Iraq in January. Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV told at a news conference that the request is "being assessed at this time."

CNN reports April 6 that the US military is providing logistical support for the Mujahedeen Khalq, an Iraq-based Iranian guerilla group—which is on the US State Department list of foreign terrorist organizations. According to the report, the US military "regularly escorts" MEK supply runs between Baghdad and its base, Camp Ashraf. "The trips for procurement of logistical needs also take place under the control and protection of the MPs," said Mojgan Parsaii, vice president of MEK and leader of Camp Ashraf.

ABC News, citing unnamed US and Pakistani intelligence sources, reports April 3 that the ethnic Baluch militant organization Jundullah, responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran, has been "secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005." Officials say the relationship with Jundullah "is arranged so that the US provides no funding to the group," which would require an official presidential order or "finding" as well as congressional oversight.