India's Maoists guerillas threatened more attacks March 26, 11 days after they killed 55 police and tribal militia in a raid on their camp in the central state of Chhattisgarh. The two-page statement signed by "Azad" called the attack a "heroic and tactical counter-offensive by the Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army against state-sponsored reign of terror." The statement pledged "bigger" attacks if the Salwa Judum (Campaign for Peace) movement was not stopped. The government-sponsored movement is recruiting local tribespeople as informants. Tens of thousands have also been forcibly relocated from their villages into army-controlled camps in an effort to isolate the populace from the Maoists. "The guerrillas assisted by the Bhoomkal militia will take up attacks on bigger scale if the Salwa Judum campaign is not withdrawn," the statement said. Bhoomkal means "land army" in a local tribal language, and is the name of the Maoists' own armed network among the populace. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said last year the Maoist revolt was the biggest internal security challenge facing India since independence in 1947. (Reuters, March 26)

NATO warplanes carried out airstrikes in Helmand province March 25, killing 19 militants and bringing the toll from a four-day operation to 99, the Afghan defence ministry said. (AFP, March 26) Fighting in the region continues to claim the lives of civilians. The UN news agency IRIN interviewed residents of a small village in Helmand's Gherishk who said family members had been killed by cross-fire in recent clashes, and that they were considering fleeing to Kandahar, the nearest city. Officials denied the claims. "No civilian has been killed or injured in the Gherishk operation," said Gen. Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense. More than 1,000 civilians were killed or injured in clashes between insurgents and ISAF in Helmand and neighboring provinces in 2006, according to Human Rights Watch, and some 5,000 families have reportedly been displaced in the province since September 2006. (IRIN, March 26)

Pakistani agents recovered three Iranian policemen who were kidnapped by Baluch militants and handed them back to authorities in Iran, while a fourth is believed to have been killed. The four police were abducted Feb. 27 by the Jundallah militant group after a deadly clash in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, and taken across the Pakistani border. (AFP, March 26)

The Tamil Tiger rebels launched their first air strike March 26, hitting a Sri Lankan air base near Colombo. They Defense Ministry said three airmen were killed and 16 wounded, but the military's newly-purchased MIG fighter jets were not damaged. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said the raid, carried out with two planes, was aimed at interrupting the "indiscriminative bombing of the Tamil areas" by the Sri Lankan government. LTTE guerillas attacked the same base in 2001, destroying half of the Sri Lankan fleet. (Asia News, March 26) In India P. Nedumaran, leader of the Tamilar Desiya Iyakkam of Tamil Nadu, said the LTTE air attack has brought "endless joy and happiness to Tamils all over the world." (Asian Tribune) Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's pro-government LankaWeb cites claims on the Counterterrorism Blog that the LTTE sold stolen Norwegian passports to al-Qaeda operatives. Writes Counterterrorism Blog's self-appointed "expert" Aaron Mannes:

US and Iraqi officials are in contact with representatives of some Sunni insurgent groups to build an alliance against al-Qaeda in Iraq, outgoing US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad announced March 26, saying he is cautiously optimistic that "success is possible." Khalilzad admitted he had flown to Jordan for meetings with representatives of the Islamic Army of Iraq and the 1920 Revolution Brigades. (Reuters, NYT, March 26) In Ramadi, Col. John W. Charlton boasts that a new anti-Qaeda Sunni alliance, the Anbar Salvation Council led by Sheikh Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi, has cut attacks in the city by half in recent months. But the leader of the Association of Muslim Scholars, Sheikh Harith al-Dhari, describes the Anbar Salvation Council as "thieves and bandits." US forces in Anbar report growing gun battles between rival Sunni militias in Ramadi. They used to describe such skirmishes as "red on red" fighting—battles between enemies. Now they call it "red on green." (AP, March 26)

Venezuela has announced it is working on a number of new oil deals with China, as it aims to reduce its dependence upon crude exports to the US. The China National Petroleum Corporation is expected to sink new investments in Venezuela's oil facilities. The announcement comes as President Hugo Chavez is pushing a reorganization of Venezuela's oil industry which would strip major US companies such as Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron of their majority stakes in Venezuelan oil projects. "The United States as a power is on the way down, China is on the way up," said Chavez after the announcement. "China is the market of the future." (BBC, March 25)

The Los Angeles Times reported March 25 on new CIA intelligence indicating that the Colombia's army chief, Gen. Mario Montoya, collaborated extensively with right-wing paramilitaries that Washington considers terrorist organizations. The report circulated within the CIA and obtained by the LAT claims Montoya and a paramilitary group jointly planned and carried out a 2002 "Operation Orion" to eliminate guerrillas from poor areas around Medellin. Operation Orion sent 3,000 Colombian army troops and police, supported by helicopter gunships, into the vast guerilla-controlled shantytowns ringing Medellin. At least 14 people were killed in the operation, and rights observers say dozens more disappeared in its aftermath. The UN and Organization of American Stateshave investigated the reports, and Colombian Sen. Gustavo Petro, an opponent of Uribe, publicly charged that 46 disappeared during the operation.

Early on March 20 in Tirua, in Chile's Region VIII, police arrested Jose Huenchunao Marinan, a Mapuche community leader (werken) and activist who had been in hiding for nearly three years. Huenchunao, a member of the Arauco-Malleco Mapuche Coordinating Committee, was sentenced in August 2004 to 10 years in prison for a December 2001 arson attack against the Poluco Pidenco estate, property of Forestal Mininco, a subsidiary of the Compania Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones (CMPC), in Ercilla, Region IX. A number of other activists, including Patricia Troncoso Robles, Juan Carlos Huenulao and brothers Juan and Jaime Marileo Sarabia, were also sentenced to 10 years in the same case. (Argenpress, March 23 via Resumen Latinoamericano; La Tercera, Santiago, March 22; UPI, March 20 via Terra Noticias; Santiago Times, March 21 via UNPO)