Tripoli, Libya
NATO gets serious: In its heaviest attack yet, NATO sent warplanes to pound the Libyan capital this week, targeting Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi’s command compound. NATO said it destroyed a vehicle storage facility that was supplying regime forces, while the Libyan regime said three civilians had been killed. The U.S. also invited the rebel governing body known as the National Transitional Council to open an office in Washington—although, unlike France and several other countries, it did not formally recognize the group as Libya’s government.
Abyei, Sudan
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Return of war? Fighting over a town on the border of north and south Sudan threatened this week to plunge the two sides into civil war just months after they agreed to a peaceful split. North Sudan’s army sent tanks into the disputed town of Abyei, causing nearly the entire population of 20,000 to flee southward. Oil-rich south Sudan said the north had seized Abyei to provoke war and derail secession, while north Sudan said it was merely clearing out southern troops that were there illegally. Southerners voted for secession from the north in a January referendum arranged under a 2005 peace deal; the split is to take place this July.
Ankara, Turkey
Sex sting snares opposition: A Turkish party that bills itself as a guardian of Islamic values suffered wrenching national embarrassment this week, just ahead of elections, after at least 10 prominent members were caught in a sex sting. Videos posted on the Internet showed lawmakers from the Nationalist Action Party, or MHP, meeting young women for apparent trysts. “If you have at least a little bit of shame, or devotion to the cause, you should all resign,” said a message posted on-screen with the videos. Ten MHP lawmakers have done so. The scandal is likely to benefit the ruling Justice and Development Party, which seeks a two-thirds majority in elections this month so it can push through a controversial new constitution. Nobody knows who is responsible for the videos; one MHP member blamed President Obama.
Damascus, Syria
More oppression: Syrian forces continued a brutal crackdown on demonstrators this week, despite new U.S. and European sanctions leveled against President Bashar al-Assad and top figures in his regime. The funerals of protesters generated more victims as security forces fired into crowds of mourners. Some protesters have taken to holding demonstrations at night and posting videos of their actions online. “At night it is difficult for security forces to monitor our movements, [making] targeting us with snipers more of a hassle,” a protest leader told the Los Angeles Times. The Syrian regime was defiant. “The president is our leader, we will continue with that, and I am sure that we will emerge from this crisis stronger,” said Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem.
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Driving while female: Saudi vice police have arrested a woman who posted a video of herself driving a car. The video by Manal al-Sherif, who had learned to drive when she lived in the U.S., got more than 500,000 views in three days, before authorities took it down. Al-Sherif is leading a movement that encourages Saudi women to take the car keys on June 17 and flout the ban on women’s driving. She faces charges of “besmirching the kingdom’s reputation abroad and stirring up public opinion.” But Human Rights Watch said it was not her driving but her arrest that “opens Saudi Arabia to condemnation and, in fact, to mockery around the world.”
Sanaa, Yemen
Revolt in capital: Foreign diplomats fled Yemen this week as the conflict between the government and protesters turned into a pitched urban battle between soldiers and some of the country’s most powerful tribes. Anti-regime tribesmen fired on government buildings in Sanaa after President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused for a third time to sign a deal, brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council, in which he’d agreed to resign within a month in exchange for immunity. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. was “deeply disappointed” that Saleh was “turning his back on his commitments.” Ignoring the international criticism, Saleh sent his forces to attack the compound of Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar, Yemen’s most influential tribal leader. “This is an attempt to drag the people into a civil war,” said Sheikh Mohammed Naji, leader of a different tribe.
Karachi, Pakistan
Taliban humiliates navy: A small group of Taliban militants destroyed two U.S.-supplied surveillance aircraft this week in a brazen attack on a major Pakistani naval base in Karachi. The six militants killed 13 Pakistani security personnel and held out for 17 hours against more than 100 commandos; two of them even escaped. Coming just weeks after Osama bin Laden was found and killed in a garrison town, the Taliban attack engendered merciless criticism of the Pakistani military. Some analysts wondered whether officers had colluded with the militants to allow them to penetrate the base, which is just 15 miles from a nuclear-weapons storage site. “This is a blueprint for an attack on a nuclear facility,” said Shaun Gregory of England’s Bradford University. “Terrorists have now developed a range of tactics—foreknowledge, use of uniforms, simultaneous attacks on different entry points, etc.—which enable them to penetrate high-security bases.”
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