2A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 4, 2004 _________ NATION/WORLD Sharon vows to escalate offensive JERUSALEM (AP) - Prime Min- ister Ariel Sharon pledged yesterday to escalate a broad Israeli offensive in northern Gaza, saying troops will remain until Palestinian rocket attacks are halted. Israeli officials said the offensive - in which 58 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed - will help clear the way for an Israeli withdrawal. Israel poured 2,000 troops into north- ern Gaza after a Palestinian rocket attack on Wednesday killed two preschoolers in the Israeli town of Sderot. In new bloodshed yesterday, at least seven Palestinians, including a 13- year-old boy, were killed, while a sec- ond 13-year-old boy died of wounds sustained earlier. The fighting, concentrated in Jebaliya refugee camp, has caused heavy dam- age. Palestinians say Israeli forces have destroyed homes, torn up roads and left a kindergarten in rubble. Speaking on Israel Radio, Sharon said he was determined to halt rocket fire on towns inside Israel and shelling of Jewish settlements in Gaza. "The current situation cannot con- tinue," Sharon said. "We have to expand ... the areas of operation in order to get the rocket launchers out of the range of Israeli towns," he added. Israel is operating in a 5-mile strip of northern Gaza, aimed at keeping its cit- ies and towns out of rocket range. "The forces will have to remain there as long as this danger exists," Sharon told Israel's Army Radio. The rocket attacks could complicate Sharon's plan to pull all troops and Israeli settlements from Gaza next year. Sharon insisted yesterday that the pull- out would take place on schedule. Hard-line opponents, including mem- bers of Sharon's own party, accuse the prime minister of caving in to terror- ism and warn that a pullback will only increase further violence. Against the backdrop of criticism, last week's fatal rocket attack left Sharon with little choice but to act, said Gerald Steinberg, a Middle East expert at Bar- Ilan University. "Not doing anything ... was not an option the government could accept," he said.I Raanan Gissin, a top adviser to Sha- ron, said the offensive would pave the way for the withdrawal by striking a tough blow against the militants. "When we leave, it won't be under the threat of fire," Gissin said. "We have seized the initiative." After an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis, Palestinian legislators issued a statement yesterday implying that mili- tants should stop firing rockets at Israel. "The Palestinian Legislative Coun- cil, while asserting our people's right to resist Israel's ugly occupation, calls on all factions to put this resistance in a strategic frame that is consistent with the Palestinian higher interests," the lawmakers said. Over the weekend, Israeli forces hit hard at Palestinian militants in the Jebaliya refugee camp and the nearby towns. The army has labeled its opera- tion "Days of Penitence." Israeli officials said the military had no intention of setting up a long-term presence in northern Gaza, but they gave no time limit for the operation. OUR WRITERS WENT TO BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS YELLOW BOX. MAKE ME FEEL BETTER; CALL 7632459 NEWS IN BRIEF KANDAHAR, Afghanistan Violence increases as election nears The killing in Afghanistan spirals onward, undermining U.S. claims of success in pacifying the country with less than a week to go before an historic experiment with democracy - direct presidential elections. The deaths of three Afghan soldiers and two militants over the weekend - bare- ly noted in news reports - brought to at least 957 the number of people reported killed in political violence this year, according to an Associated Press review. The toll includes about 30 American soldiers. With Afghanistan three years removed from the brutality of Taliban rule, President Bush has acclaimed the Oct. 9 presidential vote a beacon of hope for the Islamic world, and a prelude to even more tricky balloting slated for January in Iraq. But the tally of dead in Afghanistan - a haven of tranquility compared with Iraq - is an indicator of the task facing both the U.S. military and whomever becomes Afghanistan's first directly elected president - most likely the Ameri- can-backed incumbent, Hamid Karzai - to consolidate a shaky peace. The number of dead was drawn from a review of hundreds of daily stories by The Associated Press since January 1. The actual toll is believed to be significantly higher, since many killings in remote areas are not reported. "Nobody relishes figures like that," said Maj. Gen. Eric Olson, the No. 2 Ameri- can commander in Afghanistan. SAMARRA, Iraq Death toll high as insurgents retreat Bloodied by weeks of suicide bombings and assassinations, Iraqi security forces emerged yesterday to patrol Samarra after a morale-boosting victory in this Sunni Triangle city, and U.S. commanders praised their performance. American and Iraqi commanders have declared the operation in Samarra, 60 miles northwest of Baghdad, a successful first step in a major push to wrest key areas of Iraq from insurgents before January elections. But locals were angered by the civilian death toll. Of the 70 dead brought to Samarra General Hospital since fighting erupted, 23 were children and 18 were women, hospital official Abdul-Nasser Hamed Yassin said. Another 160 wounded people also were treated. "The people who were hurt most are normal people who have nothing to do with anything," said Abdel Latif Hadi, 45. Twelve miles south of Baghdad, two bodies - those of a woman and a man whose head was severed - were found, with police saying the corpses looked like those of Westerners. GAUHATI, India Explosion levels Indian utilities, marketplace Militants bombed utilities, a tea plantation and a crowded marketplace in north- eastern India yesterday, intensifying violence that has killed 57 people in two days and snarling efforts to bring cease-fires in a region where dozens of ethnic rebel groups are fighting for separate homelands. At least 17 bombings and shootings were carried out over the weekend in Naga- land and Assam states. The attacks - particularly an explosion Saturday that ripped through a railway station full of commuters - angered even some separatist leaders. Nearly 40 groups have been fighting in the mountainous region of multiple ethnicities wedged between Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar. Rebels in Naga- land have been leading one of Asia's longest running separatist conflicts, dating to shortly before India gained independence from Britain in 1947. Assam's top police official blamed the string of attacks on two militant groups - the United Liberation Front of Asom and the National Democratic Front of Boroland. MOUNT ST. HELENS NATIONAL MONUMENT, Wash. Scientists: Volcanic eruption seems imminent As scientists warned that an eruption of Mount St: Helens appeared immic nent yesterday, eager tourists camped out along park roads, hoping to catch a glimpse of the seething volcano without being overcome by ash and smoke. A second long tremor early yesterday and an increase in volcanic gases strongly sug- gest magma is moving inside, researchers.from. the U.S.GeologicaSurvey said..Th,. mountain's alert was raised to Level 3, the highest possible, after a volcanic tremor was detected Saturday for the first time since before the mountain's 1980 eruption. "I don't think anyone now thinks this will stop with steam explosions,"'geologist Willie Scott said yesterday at the Geological Survey's Cascades Volcano Observatory in Van- couver, Wash., about 50 miles south. At this point, scientists do not expect anything close to the devastation of the May 18, 1980 explosion, which killed 57 people and coated much of the Northwest with ash. - Compiled from Daily wire reports www.nichigandaily.com The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Mondays during the spring and summer terms by students at the University of Michigan. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $110. winter term (January through April) is $115, yearlong (September through April) is $195. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. Yearlong on-campus subscriptions are $40. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press. 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