The first trial of alleged Indonesia bomber Umar Patek began Feb. 13 in the West Jakarta District Court over his role in several terrorist plots including the Jakarta church bombings in 2000 and the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing. Patek was arrested in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011, just a few weeks before US special forces killed Osama bin Laden in the same town. If convicted Patek could face life imprisonment or a death sentence. Patek is not facing "terrorism" charges under Indonesia law, since the terrorism law came into effect in 2003 after both bombings and cannot be applied retrospectively. Patek is believed to be a member of the alleged al-Qaeda-linked organization Jemaah Islamiyah, which claimed responsibility for the Bali nightclub bombings. His trial is expected to last months.

The US Defense Department announced on Feb. 14 that military commission charges have been brought against Guantánamo Bay detainee Majid Shoukat Khan, a Pakistani national who lived in the US from 1996 to early 2002 before returning to Pakistan, where was captured in March 2003 and turned over to the CIA. He is faces charges of conspiracy, murder and attempted murder, violations of the law of war, providing material support for terrorism, and espionage. The charges allege that Khan joined with members of al-Qaeda to prepare attacks against targets in the US, Indonesia and elsewhere. Khan is alleged to have used a false document to travel from his residence in Baltimore, Md., to Karachi, Pakistan, in January of 2002 to conspire with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a plot to blow up underground gasoline storage tanks at gas stations in the US. (Government Security News, Feb. 15)

Protesters took to the streets of Tehran Feb. 14, one year after opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi were put under house arrest for supporting Iran's last protest wave. Since their detention, their whereabouts have not been known. The opposition website Kaleme, which supports the opposition Green Movement, reported convergences of protesters at several points around the capital, holding generally silent marches, despite a heavy presence of riot police. (BBC News, DPA, Feb. 14)

French Development Minister Henri de Raincourt, after a visit to Mali, charged that Tuareg guerillas of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) killed nearly 100 residents in their occupation of Aguelhok, one of several northern towns that have come under attack by the rebels. Raincourt said some of the victims had their throats slit, while others were shot in the head. "The execution method was similar to those used by al-Qaeda," he said, raising the specter of Tuareg collaboration with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Mali's army also accused the rebels of conducting summary executions and working with AQIM. MNLA spokesman Abdoul Karim ag-Matafa said those killed in Aguelhok were soldiers, not civilians.

On the one-year anniversary of the start of the Libyan revolution, the NTC seems to have just lost control of Libya's west to a new federation of militias. From AP, Feb. 13:

Representatives of about 100 militias from western Libya said Monday they had formed a new federation to prevent infighting and allow them to press the country’s new government for further reform. The move was a blow to the Transitional National Council, which helped lead the eight-month uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and has sought to govern Libya since. The council has largely failed to decommission or bring under its control the hundreds of militias that fought in the war. The leader of the new federation, Col. Mokhtar Fernana, said the council’s committee in charge of integrating revolutionary fighters was taking in men who had fought for Colonel Qaddafi. "This committee is an attempt to hijack the revolution," Colonel Fernana said. One militia commander, Ibrahim al-Madani, said the fighters would not give up their arms to a corrupt government." [Sic]

Security forces in Bahrain fired tear-gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades at protesters gathered on the eve of the first anniversary of the start of pro-democracy demonstrations Feb. 13. Protesters tried to gain control of the Pearl Roundabout in the capital, Manama—the focal point of last year's movement. Riot police pushed them back at a perimeter some two kilometers from the square. Thousands of riot police and other security forces have been deployed across the kingdom. At least 60 people have been killed in protests over the last year. (BBC News, Feb. 13)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Iran Feb. 13 atfter an Israeli diplomat's wife in New Delhi was injured by a car bomb, and a second bomb was disabled in a staff member's car at the Israeli embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia. "Iran is behind these attacks; it is the largest exporter of terrorism in the world," Netanyahu said in a statement. Citing recent incidents in Azerbaijan and Thailand, Netanyahu said: "In each instance we succeeded in foiling the attacks in cooperation with local authorities. Iran and its proxy Hezbollah were behind all of these attempted attacks." The attacks came the day after the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Hezbollah operations chief Imad Mughniyeh in a Damascus car bomb blast.

A 69-year-old Palestinian man was killed and three others injured in an attack by the Israeli Air Force on tunnels and a weapons depot in the Gaza Strip on Feb. 12. The Israeli military released a statement saying its aircraft had struck four targets, including "a terror tunnel and a weapon manufacturing facility" near Gaza City. The strikes came in response to a short-range rocket that was launched from Gaza the previous day, wounding an Israeli woman, the statement said. No faction took credit for the rocket attack. Hamas, Gaza's ruling Islamist movement, has tried to rein in attacks on Israel as it seeks political accommodation with the secular Fatah movement that controls the Palestinian Authority. (Ha'aretz, Feb. 12)