Yesterday's multiple coordinated suicide attacks in Kirkuk, leaving over 20 dead, seemed intended not only to demonstrate that the "insurgency" (a rather too flattering word) is still alive despite the killing of al-Zarqawi, but also to advance the late jihad leader's aim of pushing Iraq into sectarian civil war. Kirkuk is simmering with ethnic tensions, with Arab, Kurdish and Turkoman residents (who had been cynically played off against each other under the Saddam dictatorship) vying for turf and political power. (See WW4 REPORT #48). Thus far, however, the city remains one of the more peaceful in Iraq, in part due to the ethnic-reconciliation and solidarity-building efforts of the Iraq Freedom Congress. (See WW4 REPORT #119). The Kirkuk attacks ostensibly targeted official buildings and police patrols, but the reckless and indistriminate "collatoral damage" seems clearly aimed at a general atmosphere of terror. From the UK Guardian:

Zapatista Subcommander Marcos joined actress Ofelia Medina and other celebrities at a public meeting of activists and artists in the Mexico City district of Coyoacan June 12 to demand that the World Cup not obscure the struggle to demand justice for those detained in the Mexico State police assault at the village of San Salvador Atenco May 4 and 5. A joint statement noted that a government attack on the Chiapas village of Techabaquebal during the last World Cup, killing seven Zapatistas, failed to attract media attention. "The football Mundial is used as a cover for crime," read a statement. (La Jornada, June 12)

First from CBS, June 13, via Chiapas95:

LOS ANGELES Dozens of people have been arrested for allegedly violating a court order and obstructing sheriff's deputies from evicting farmers and supporters from a 14-acre urban garden near downtown Los Angeles.

Another brick in the wall. From AP, June 9:

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court sided with the Bush administration Friday on an electronic surveillance issue, making it easier to tap into Internet phone calls and broadband transmissions.

The court ruled 2-1 in favor of the Federal Communications Commission, which says equipment using the new technologies must be able to accommodate police wiretaps under the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, known as CALEA.

Hamas called off a 16-month-old truce with Israel June 9 after attacks by Israeli forces in Gaza killed 10 Palestinians, including three children playing on a beach. "The Israeli massacres represent a direct opening battle," Hamas said in a statement. Prime Minister Esmail Haniya, also a Hamas leader, called the deaths a "war crime" and urged Jordan and Egypt to intervene.

More uneasy deja vu from Lebanon. The sons of the Syria-backed President Emile Lahoud and the bitterly anti-Syria Druze leader Walid Jumblatt get into a shoot-out in Beirut—just as their fathers opposed each other in the civil war. From Lebanon's Daily Star, June 5:

BEIRUT: Following in their father's footsteps, Ralph Lahoud and Najib Jumblatt clashed on Saturday in a shooting incident that damaged Jumblatt's car. Newspapers reported on Sunday that shots were fired by President Emile Lahoud's younger son's bodyguards at the car of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt's stepson in the bustling street of Ain Mreisseh.

Nine people were wounded, five seriously, when a bomb exploded in a roadside restaurant in Hub, on the eastern edge of Pakistan's restive Baluchistan province on June 9. "It is done by those who have been carrying out such terrorist activities all over Baluchistan," said a local police official, referring to Baluch militants fighting for greater autonomy and control over the province's natural resources. Last month, nine people, including four police, were wounded when a bomb strapped to a bicycle exploded in the town. Baluchistan, bordering with Iran and Afghanistan, has Pakistan's largest gas and oil reserves, and militants resent these resources being used to benefit other regions. The revolt escalated in December when militants fired rockets during a visit by President Pervez Musharraf to the town of Kohlu. Musharraf has announced plans for major infrastructure projects in Baluchistan to win local support, but has vowed to deal harshly with the rebels. (Reuters, June 9)

Reuters reported May 29 that Mali's armed forces are hunting down Tuareg rebels who have taken up arms again, demanding more autonomy for the desert north. According to the report, the rebels used pickup trucks mounted with machine guns to attack army camps in the desert town of Kidal, some 1,000 kilometers northeast of Bamako, before withdrawing to surrounding mountains with looted weapons.