JERUSALEM: Al-Aqsa foundation for endowment and heritage issued an urgent appeal to the Palestinian people and the Islamic Nation to save occupied Jerusalem before it is entirely judaized and Al-Aqsa Mosque before it is destroyed, warning that there will be more dangerous Zionist attacks on the holy city and Mosque during this year.In a new report, the foundation underlined that during 2008, Israel escalated its policy of fait accompli in Jerusalem and raced against time to carry out different judaization schemes against Islamic holy places, antiquities, history and civilization other than Palestinian inhabitants of the city.The report outlined that the Zionist break-ins at Al-Aqsa Mosque escalated significantly in the second half of 2008, where groups composed of hundreds of men, women and children in addition to Israeli politicians under heavy police guard desecrated the Mosque dozens of times.It added that the IOA also committed a violation of another kind against the Mosque last year, where it allowed foreign tourists half naked to take a tour inside the Mosque and banned any activities in support of Al-Aqsa Mosque.The report elaborated that Israeli extremist groups along with officials built a synagogue on an Islamically-endowed (Waqf) real estate called Hammam Al-Ain near Al-Aqsa Mosque in the heart of Muslim neighborhood and there are still ongoing Israeli excavations under this Waqf.It added that the IOA almost finished the building of a huge tall synagogue called Ha Hurba on the land of the Omari mosque in the heart of the old city of Jerusalem. The dome of this big synagogue, the report says, is aimed to create a Jewish landmark covering the historical Islamic places especially the Dome of the Rock. According to the report, illegal Israeli settlers seized dozens of houses in Jerusalem through piracy and fraud despite the attempts made by Jerusalemites to encounter this scheme, while the IOA demolished 71 Jerusalemite houses and buildings, issued 219 evacuation warnings and closed many Islamic institutions.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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