Nigeria military helicopter crashes in oil delta

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A Nigerian military helicopter has crashed in the country's oil-rich southern delta, just days after one of its jets crashed.

A statement from Nigeria's Air Force said the crash happened Thursday morning at its base in Port Harcourt and that the crew escaped unharmed. Local witnesses described seeing a plume of smoke rise from the base.

The air force identified the helicopter as a Russian-made Mi-24B attack helicopter. The statement said an investigation into the cause of the crash has started.

Nigeria has a history of major aviation crashes, both with civilian aircraft and military airplanes. On Monday, a Nigerian Air Force Alpha jet fighter crashed 37 miles (60 kilometers) west of Niamey, the capital of Niger, killing two pilots.

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Malian military prepares for final push on Kidal

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali is in the final stages of preparation for an assault on the northern provincial capital of Kidal, the last rebel-held town in the country's north, a military spokesman said on Wednesday.

Lt. Col. Souleymane Maiga refused to give a timeline for the attack on Kidal, saying only that preparations for the deployment are "in an advanced stage" and that Mali can no longer accept having two armies on its soil.

Kidal, the capital of one of the three northern provinces which fell into rebel hands last year, is currently controlled by Tuareg separatists who want to secure a homeland for the Tuareg people, which they call "Azawad" in the local language. The rebel National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, or NMLA, swept into northern Mali a year ago. Their victory was short-lived and within weeks they were pushed out by Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaida, who seized control of a territory the size of Afghanistan, imposing Shariah rule and opening jihadist training camps.

In January France sent in warplanes, combat helicopters and 2,000 soldiers to take back the north. Though the French purged the main towns of the al-Qaida groups, they stood by while the NMLA returned to Kidal. Soon, the Tuareg rebels were manning roadblocks in and around the city. They have since started collecting taxes and appointed their own governor, thumbing their nose at the Malian state, even as French soldiers continue to occupy the Kidal airport.

"The army is preparing to take back Kidal. Not just Kidal, but also Tessalit, Abeibara and Aguelhok," said the military spokesman, naming the localities north of Kidal, which are also believed to be mostly controlled by the NMLA. "The highest authority in the land has made clear that we cannot accept that there be two armies in Mali, so (the Malian army) is going to go to Kidal to protect the population and the territorial integrity of our country."

He added that the army needed to secure Kidal in order to allow Mali's administration to return. And in order to prepare for national elections due to be held in July. The presidential elections are seen as a key step in returning Mali to constitutional rule. The various rebel groups were able to seize the north last year in the aftermath of a March 2012 coup in the capital, led by a junior officer. The coup destroyed the military's command-and-control structure, causing disarray and leading to the collapse of the country's defenses in the face of the rebel onslaught.

Soldiers were seen ripping off their uniforms, piling into trucks and abandoning the frontline. Retaking Kidal would be a major symbolic victory for the military.

Because of their humiliating defeat last year at the hands of the NMLA, however, many fear that the military could seek revenge. Already in Timbuktu, in Gao and in Sevare, the Malian army is accused of carrying out reprisal killings of Tuareg civilians accused of complicity with the rebels. Detainees have been subjected to horrific torture by Malian forces, including water-boarding and being injected with acid-like substances that corrode the skin, according to an investigation by the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

On Tuesday, the rights group issued a statement warning all warring parties to respect the rules of engagement in the event of an operation in Kidal.

"Civilians have been through enough in the past 16 months. All sides simply must do all they can to minimize any further suffering," said Corinne Dufka, the group's senior researcher who has led several missions to Mali.

Among the measures that HRW is encouraging is the deployment of the paramilitary police, known as gendarmes, alongside the soldiers. In the Malian security force, it is the gendarmes who are mandated to question detainees during military operations and investigate disciplinary lapses by soldiers.

The military appears to have taken this suggestion to heart, and on Wednesday, an officer in the gendarmerie in Gao confirmed by telephone that a unit is accompanying the military contingent.

"The military started advancing (toward Kidal) two days ago. There is a large contingent of soldiers who are being accompanied by a unit from the gendarmerie in order to try to avoid any abuses. Anyone that is caught with an arm in their hands will not be spared, but those who are found unarmed will be treated humanely," said the gendarme, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

A spokesman for the NMLA in Europe warned that there will be blood spilled if the Malian military tries to take Kidal.

"Unfortunately there will be a clash, and the NMLA will be in a position of legitimate defense," said Moussa Ag Assarid, who spoke by telephone from Paris. "We are there to protect the population from the Malian army."

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Callimachi contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal.

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Rukmini Callimachi can be reached at www.twitter.com/rcallimachi

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Nigerian military plane crashes in Niger; 2 dead

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — An airport official in the capital of Niger says a military plane from Nigeria has crashed, killing the two people aboard.

Chaibou Massalatchi, the head of Niamey's airport, said the plane had taken off Monday to do a reconnaissance mission.

The Nigerian military is taking part in the regional effort to support France's operation in northern Mali.

Nigerian Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade said two pilots were killed when the Alpha jet fighter went down 37 miles (60 kilometers) west of Niamey.

France launched the military operation in January to oust al-Qaida-linked jihadists from power in northern Mali.

Some 6,000 troops from neighboring countries including Nigeria and Niger have been taking part, though Chad has said it's withdrawing its nearly 2,000 soldiers.

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Nigeria military: At least 11 killed in new attack

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Authorties in Nigeria say at least 11 people have been killed in violence blamed on Islamic insurgents in the country's northeast.

One attack happened Wednesday night in the fishing village of Gashua in Yobe state. Teacher Fati Umar, who witnessed the violence, said the Islamic extremists attacked a police station in the village and later a prison.

Lt. Eli Lazarus, a military spokesman, said the shootout killed two police officers and five civilians. However, Nigeria's military often downplays casualty figures to avoid the appearance that it is losing control of the region to extremists.

Another attack killed four in Bama, where a recent shootout between the military and extremists in Baga killed at least 187 people. In that attack, residents accused soldiers of killing civilians.

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A look at North Korea's military capabilities

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea's military, founded 81 years ago Thursday, is older than the country itself. It began as an anti-Japanese militia and is now the heart of the nation's "military first" policy.

Late leader Kim Jong Il elevated the military's role during his 17-year rule, boosting troop levels to an estimated 1.2 million soldiers, according to the South Korean government. The military's new supreme commander, Kim Jong Un, gave the Korean People's Army a sharpened focus this year by instructing troops to build a "nuclear arms force."

The secretive army divulges few details about its operations, but here is an assessment from foreign experts of its strengths and weaknesses:

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ARTILLERY

North Korea provided a chilling reminder of what its artillery is capable of when it showered a front-line South Korean island with shells, killing four people in November 2010 and underscoring the threat that its artillery troops pose at the disputed sea border.

South Korea says North Korea has more than 13,000 artillery guns, and its long-range batteries are capable of hitting the capital Seoul, a city of more than 10 million people just 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the border.

"North Korea's greatest advantage is that its artillery could initially deliver a heavy bombardment on the South Korean capital," Mark Fitzpatrick, a former U.S. State Department official now with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said in an email.

South Korea's defense minister estimates that 70 percent of North Korean artillery batteries along the border could be "neutralized" in five days if war broke out. But Sohn Yong-woo, a professor at the Graduate School of National Defense Strategy of Hannam University in South Korea, said that would be too late to prevent millions of civilian casualties and avert a disastrous blow to Asia's fourth-largest economy.

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SPECIAL FORCES

Experts believe guerrilla warfare would be the North's most viable strategy in the event of conflict, since its conventional army suffers from aging equipment and a shortage of firepower.

Seoul estimates North Korea has about 200,000 special forces, and Pyongyang has used them before.

In 1968, 31 North Korean commandos stormed Seoul's presidential Blue House in a failed assassination attempt against then-President Park Chung-hee. That same year, more than 120 North Korean commandos sneaked into eastern South Korea and killed some 20 South Korean civilians, soldiers and police officers.

In 1996, 26 North Korean agents infiltrated South Korea's northeastern mountains after their submarine broke down, sparking a manhunt that left all but two of them dead, along with 13 South Korean soldiers and civilians.

"The special forces' goal is to discourage both the United States and South Korea from fighting with North Korea at the earliest stage of war by putting major infrastructure, such as nuclear plants, and their citizens at risk," said Kim Yeon-su, a professor at Korea National Defense University in Seoul. "The North's special forces are a key component of its asymmetric capabilities along with nuclear bombs, missiles and artillery. Their job is to create as many battlefronts as possible to put their enemies in disarray."

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ON LAND, BY SEA AND IN THE AIR

In March 2010, 46 South Korean sailors died in a Yellow Sea attack on their warship that Seoul blamed on a North Korean submarine. Pyongyang denies involvement. Separately, since 1999, North and South Korean navies have fought three bloody skirmishes near their disputed western maritime border. Experts say those battles show while the South has an edge in naval firepower and technology, the North relies on the element of surprise.

North Korea has 70 submarines while South Korea has 10, according to Seoul's Defense Ministry. The most menacing threats from the North's navy are small submarines that would deposit commando raiders along the South Korean coast, said John Pike, head of the Globalsecurity.org think tank.

North Korea also has 820 warplanes, more than South Korea, though Seoul is backed up by American air power. The South says most of the North's aircraft are obsolete. North Korea also suffers chronic fuel shortages that have forced its air force to cut sorties, experts say.

"North Korea would not be able to prosecute a full-fledged war for very long," Fitzpatrick said. "Its biggest problem is that North Korea would quickly lose control of the skies because of the vastly superior (South Korean) and U.S. air forces. The reported number of North Korean aircraft is meaningless, because many of them cannot fly, and North Korean pilots have little training in the air."

The U.S. stations 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea and has recently flown nuclear-capable stealth B-2 bombers and F-22 fighter jets during joint drills in a show of force aimed at deterring North Korea.

Logistics and supplies are another issue. Heavy equipment deployed by naval and air forces requires extensive repairs, especially on rugged terrain like the Korean Peninsula. South Korea's Defense Ministry estimates North Korea's wartime resources, mostly stored underground, would last only two to three months.

"North Korea's only chance of winning any war depends on how quickly it can end one," Sohn said.

North Korea could try to compensate for its lack of effective equipment with sheer manpower. North Korea, a country of about 25 million, has an estimated 7.7 million reserves.

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MISSILES AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS

North Korea says it needs to develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent against U.S. aggression. It has conducted three underground nuclear tests since 2006, the most recent in February.

Pyongyang is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for four to eight nuclear bombs, according to Siegfried Hecker, a nuclear expert with Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation.

But he doubts Pyongyang has mastered the technology to tip a missile with a nuclear warhead. "I don't believe North Korea has the capacity to attack the United States with nuclear weapons mounted on missiles and won't for many years," he said on the website of Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies this month.

Bruce Bennett, a Rand Corp. expert, said earlier this month that it's very unlikely the North has a nuclear missile capable of hitting the U.S. but said there is a "reasonable chance" that Pyongyang has short-range nuclear missile capability.

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CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS

North Korea denies it runs any chemical and biological weapons programs. South Korea claims that Pyongyang has up to 5,000 tons of chemical weapons.

The IISS says that although the figures are "highly speculative," the North probably does possess chemical and biological arms programs.

"Whatever the actual status of North Korea's chemical and biological capabilities, the perception that it has, or likely has, chemical and biological weapons contributes to Pyongyang's interest in creating uncertainties in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo and raises the stakes to deter or intimidate potential enemies," it said on its website. North Korea is not a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention, but it has acceded to the non-binding Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.

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Military says Guantanamo hunger strike rises to 92

MIAMI (AP) — A U.S. military spokesman says the number of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay labeled as hunger strikers has been raised to 92 based on evaluations by medical personnel at the U.S. base in Cuba.

The new figure is up by eight from a day earlier and represents more than half of the 166 men held there.

Lt. Col. Samuel House says the military arrived at the new figure Wednesday because doctors have been able to evaluate prisoners more closely after moving them to single cells out of a communal area. That move sparked a brief clash between guards and prisoners on April 13.

Lawyers for prisoners have been saying since the strike began in February that the military was undercounting the men refusing to eat in protest of their confinement.

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US military defends Guantanamo prison raid

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — Top officials at the Guantanamo Bay detention center on Tuesday defended a raid that resulted in a violent clash with detainees, saying the operation was critical and the handful of injuries on both sides were minor.

Army soldiers with riot helmets and shields swept into recreation yards and met with resistance from several dozen prisoners, the leadership of the detention center said in an interview with journalists visiting the U.S. base in Cuba for the first time since Saturday's clash.

The confrontation ended within minutes, but not before two guards were struck in the head by prisoners and five of the prisoners were injured, including one struck by rubber pellets from what the military calls a "less-than-lethal" round fired from a modified shotgun.

"The appropriate amount of force was used for the situation," said Navy Rear Adm. John W. Smith, the commander of the detention center.

The guard force raided Camp 6 because the prisoners had for several weeks covered up 147 of the 160 security cameras, making it impossible to monitor them amid an ongoing hunger strike. Smith and members of his leadership team said they were concerned a prisoner might try to commit suicide and there were two attempted suicides since the protest began around Feb. 6.

To restore control, prison officials decided to move the prisoners in Camp 6 out of a communal area, where they eat together and freely associate for most of the day, into single cells from which they are released for two hours a day for recreation.

The troops who carried out the raid trained for three weeks to carry out the raid and were "prepared for any level of potential resistance," said Army Col. John Bogdan, who is in charge of the guard force. Prisoners had makeshift weapons, including broomsticks and batons made of plastic bottles and other materials.

Two guards were struck in the head during the confrontation but neither was seriously hurt and both have since returned to duty.

Five detainees were injured, including one who was hit by rubber pellets. Navy Capt. Richard Stoltz, who is in charge of the detainee hospital, said "there was no significant blood loss," and the prisoner was treated at the scene.

Another prisoner cut his head by banging his head on a cell door in what the military officials said was a self-inflicted wound. Stoltz said he was given about three stitches. Three others were scraped as guards secured the area and moved the men into the cells.

The communal holding areas of Camp 6 had once been held up as a model in Guantanamo. Military officials had said prisoners had grown compliant as they were able to lessen their isolation, watch satellite TV and take classes. But prisoners in February started the hunger strike to protest their indefinite confinement and what they said were intrusive searches of their Qurans for contraband.

Smith said prisoners may later be allowed to return to the communal holding areas if they follow prison rules.

The hunger strike, meanwhile, goes on, with 45 prisoners refusing meals and 13 being force fed.

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South African military to withdraw troops in CAR

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa's military said Thursday it will withdraw its troops from Central African Republic, where 13 South African soldiers died in a battle with rebels in March.

Brig. Gen. Xolani Mabanga, a military spokesman, said the troops will pull out in line with a decision by South Africa's political leadership. He declined to say how many South African soldiers remained in Central African Republic and did not give a departure date.

South Africa's military union said earlier this week that most of the 200 South African troops who were there have already been withdrawn.

Meanwhile, a South African parliamentary committee on Thursday debated the military mission in Central African Republic amid questions about its role and the constitutional legality of the deployment.

Defense Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula acknowledged in remarks to the committee that South African troops were not prepared to deal with an attack, the South African Press Association reported.

"We were not equipped in a way that would be able to repel that kind of battle," she said.

Last month, about 200 South African soldiers fought a much larger group of rebels as they swept into the capital of Bangui and overthrew the president, Francois Bozize.

South African officials have said soldiers were sent to help train the army of Central African Republic as part of a bilateral defense agreement signed in 2007, and that additional troops were sent when the security situation deteriorated at the end of last year.

The government has denied allegations that troops were sent to protect the business interests of a company allied to South Africa's governing party, the African National Congress.

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Venezuela opposition: Military can't take sides

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's presidential campaign on Wednesday veered between warnings of military meddling in the April 14 vote and opposition mirth at the acting president's suggestion that the spirit of Hugo Chavez visited him as "a little bird" while he prayed.

Opposition lawmaker Alfonso Marquina presented a complaint to Venezuela's elections council, demanding it sanction officers who have publicly backed Nicolas Maduro, who has been acting president since President Hugo Chavez's death on March 5.

Marquina has alleged that Defense Minister Diego Molero and National Guard Gen. Antonio Benavides plan to use military resources to intimidate voters, especially those dependent on government services, to cast ballots for Maduro.

Maduro's campaign denies the allegations and there was no immediate comment from the council.

But the controversy was almost overshadowed in the press and chatter in the street by Maduro's latest move to draw an almost religious connection to Chavez, whom he served as foreign minister and vice president.

Maduro declared on Tuesday that a "little bird" appeared as he was praying alone in a little wooden chapel shortly after Chavez's death.

"It sang, and I responded with a song and the bird took flight, circled around once and then flew away, and I felt the spirit and blessings of Commander Hugo Chavez for this battle," said Maduro, who interspersed his remarks with sounds to simulate the flapping of the bird's wings and its whistle.

The message, delivered as he visited Chavez's hometown of Sabaneta in southern Venezuela, was intended for a national audience of Chavistas that reveres the late leader. It also fell in line with an electoral strategy in which Maduro repeatedly emphasizes his close ties to Chavez, who tapped him as his chosen successor.

But it prompted ridicule among many of his opponents.

Many newspapers led their campaign stories Wednesday with Maduro's bird remarks. The satirical website "El Chiguire Bipolar" said the statement was so strange that its own jokes could not compete: "If you laugh, it's not because of us."

Images of birds with Chavez's head circulated among government critics on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, prompting Maduro to defend himself.

"Now the bourgeoisie and the right are talking about Maduro's little bird. What do they think? That we're ridiculous? Show some respect, gentlemen," he said at a Tuesday rally in the western state of Zulia.

Maduro also defended what he called revolutionary unity with the armed forces at a rally Wednesday in the western state of Tachira, even as the opposition was filing its complaint.

"Civic-military unity is one of the greatest works that our supreme commander, Hugo Chavez, built," Maduro said, according to the government news agency.

Venezuela's Constitution bans military officers from publicly promoting politicians or political parties. But in his 14 years in power, Chavez co-opted the armed forces' leadership to ensure loyalty to his socialist government, especially after he was briefly ousted in a coup in 2002.

Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles and his supporters have lambasted top-ranking military officers, including Molero and Benavides, for publicly backing Maduro in the April 14 election.

But just one day after Chavez died, Molero said the military would follow instructions left by Chavez. He did not elaborate.

"The national armed forces will not fail Chavez," Molero declared. "Once elections are organized, we will honor his wishes and we will give the fascists a tough blow."

On March 21, the defense minister tweeted: "From this day on, we join the battle of ideas the Supreme Commander of the Revolution pushed forward."

On Tuesday, Maduro accused the opposition of attempting to create splits within the military. He did not provide details.

"They want to divide the armed forces," he told supporters. "Everyone, be alert."

Capriles, 40, is the governor of Miranda state. After losing a hard-fought October election to Chavez in October, he agreed to lead the opposition again in this month's election. His campaign has focused on separating Maduro from the enigmatic Chavez. Maduro has sought to ride Chavez's coattails into office.

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US sends B-2s to South Korea for military drills

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In a show of force following weeks of North Korean bluster, the U.S. on Thursday took the unprecedented step of announcing that two of its nuclear-capable B-2 bombers dropped munitions on a South Korean island as part of joint military drills.

The announcement is likely to further enrage Pyongyang, which has already issued a flood of ominous statements to highlight displeasure over the drills and U.N. sanctions over its nuclear test last month. But there were signs Thursday that it is willing to go only so far.

A North Korean industrial plant operated with South Korean know-how was running normally, despite the North's shutdown a day earlier of communication lines ordinarily used to move workers and goods across the border. At least for the moment, Pyongyang was choosing the factory's infusion of hard currency over yet another provocation.

U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement that the B-2 stealth bombers flew from a U.S. air base in Missouri and dropped munitions on a South Korean island range before returning home. It was unclear whether America's stealth bombers were used in past annual drills with South Korea, but this is the first time the military has announced their use.

The statement follows an earlier U.S. announcement that nuclear-capable B-52 bombers participated in the joint military drills.

The announcement will likely draw a strong response from Pyongyang. North Korea sees the military drills as part of a U.S. plot to invade and becomes particularly upset about U.S. nuclear activities in the region. Washington and Seoul say the drills are routine and defensive.

North Korea has already threatened nuclear strikes on Washington and Seoul in recent weeks. It said Wednesday there was no need for communication in a situation "where a war may break out at any moment." Earlier this month, it announced that it considers void the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953.

But Pyongyang would have gone beyond words, possibly damaging its own weak finances, if it had blocked South Koreans from getting in and out of the Kaesong industrial plant, which produced $470 million worth of goods last year.

South Korean managers at the plant reported no signs of trouble Thursday.

Analysts see a full-blown North Korean attack as extremely unlikely, though there are fears of a more localized conflict, such as a naval skirmish in disputed Yellow Sea waters. Such naval clashes have happened three times since 1999.

The Kaesong plant, just across the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone that separates the Koreas, normally relies on a military hotline for the governments to coordinate the movement of goods and South Korean workers.

Without the hotline, the governments, which lack diplomatic relations, used middlemen. North Korea verbally approved the crossing Thursday of hundreds of South Koreans by telling South Koreans at a management office at the Kaesong factory. Those South Koreans then called officials in South Korea.

Both governments prohibit direct contact with citizens on the other side, but Kaesong has separate telephone lines that allow South Korean managers there to communicate with people in South Korea.

Factory managers at Kaesong reached by The Associated Press by telephone at the factory said the overall mood there is normal.

"Tension rises almost every year when it's time for the U.S.-South Korean drills to take place, but as soon as those drills end, things quickly return to normal," Sung Hyun-sang said in Seoul, a day after returning from Kaesong. He is president of Mansun Corporation, an apparel manufacturer that employs 1,400 North Korean workers and regularly stations 12 South Koreans at Kaesong.

"I think and hope that this time won't be different," Sung said.

Technically, the divided Korean Peninsula remains in a state of war. North Korea last shut down communications at Kaesong four years ago, and that time some workers were temporarily stranded.

North Korea could be trying to stoke worries that the hotline shutdown could mean that a military provocation could come any time without notice.

South Korea urged the North to quickly restore the hotline, and the U.S. State Department said the shutdown was unconstructive.

North Korea's latest threats are seen as efforts to provoke the new government in Seoul, led by President Park Geun-hye, to change its policies toward Pyongyang. North Korea's moves at home to order troops into "combat readiness" also are seen as ways to build domestic unity as young leader Kim Jong Un, who took power after his father's death in December 2011, strengthens his military credentials.

The Kaesong complex is the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. Other rapprochement projects created during a previous era of detente stopped as tension rose in recent years.

At the border Thursday, a trio of uniformed South Korean soldiers stood at one side of a gate as white trucks rumbled through, carrying large pipes and containers to Kaesong. At Dorasan station, a South Korean border checkpoint, a green signboard hung above the trucks with the words "Kaesong" and "Pyongyang" written in English and Korean.

The stalled hotline, which consists of two telephone lines, two fax lines and two lines that can be used for both telephone and fax, was virtually the last remaining direct link between the rival Koreas.

North Korea in recent weeks cut other phone and fax hotlines with South Korea's Red Cross and with the American-led U.N. Command at the border. Three other telephone hotlines used only to exchange information about air traffic were still operating normally Thursday, according to South Korea's Air Traffic Center.

In 2010, ties between the rivals reached one of their lowest points in decades after North Korea's artillery bombardment of a South Korean island and a South Korean warship sinking blamed on a North Korean torpedo attack. A total of 50 South Koreans died.

There is still danger of a confrontation or clash. Kim Jong Un may be more willing to take risks than his father, the late Kim Jong Il, said Yoo Ho-yeol, a North Korea expert at Korea University in South Korea.

Although North Korea has vowed nuclear strikes on the U.S., analysts outside the country have seen no proof that North Korean scientists have yet mastered the technology needed to build a nuclear warhead small enough to mount on a missile.

President Park so far has outlined a policy that looks to re-engage North Korea, stressing the need for greater trust while saying Pyongyang will "pay the price" for any provocation. Last week she approved a shipment of anti-tuberculosis medicine to the North.

Since 2004, the Kaesong factories have operated with South Korean money and know-how, with North Korean factory workers managed by South Koreans.

Inter-Korean trade, which includes a small amount of humanitarian aid sent to the North and components and raw materials sent to Kaesong complex to build finished products, amounted to nearly $2 billion in 2012, according to South Korea's Unification Ministry.

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Associated Press writer Youkyung Lee contributed to this report.

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South Sudan military says 163 killed in clashes

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — A battle between South Sudan soldiers and rebels allegedly backed by neighboring Sudan killed 163 people, most of them rebels, government officials said Thursday.

South Sudan's military spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer, said government forces also captured an airstrip in the town of Okello, which he claimed the rebels have been using to import most of their military supplies. Okello is in South Sudan's southeast Pibor County, where rebel leader David Yau Yau hails from.

"This airstrip has been used by Khartoum (Sudan) intelligence to transport and supply arms and ammunition to David Yau Yau. Some of the arms that were being dropped by Antanovs were captured, AK-47s. Some are broken, some are in good condition," Aguer said.

He said 143 rebels led by Yau Yau died in the battle Tuesday, and that 20 soldiers were killed and 70 wounded.

South Sudan peacefully broke away from Sudan in 2011 but is still dealing with violence inside its own borders. Military battles and fights between tribes kill dozens of people with alarming frequency. After decades of war with Sudan, the country is flooded with assault rifles.

Death tolls are almost impossible to verify without months of investigations, given how remote the country is and the complete lack of infrastructure. In late December 2011 and early January 2012, cattle raid attacks between tribes killed at least 600 people in Jonglei. A government disarmament campaign afterward collected more than 10,000 weapons.

Aguer said South Sudan's military will continue to "deal with the militia group" and that it would be a matter of time before Yau Yau's rebels are cleared from Pibor County.

South Sudan accuses Sudan of arming the rebellion to block South Sudan's plans to build an oil pipeline eastward through Ethiopia to a port in Djibouti.

A dispute with Sudan over oil transit fees led South Sudan to shut down its oil industry last year and look for alternative ways to transport its crude. The two governments recently reached an agreement that is supposed to restart South Sudanese exports through Sudan's oil pipelines.

Sudan has repeatedly denied having any ties to the rebels. It accuses South Sudan, in turn, of supporting rebels in Sudan's South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

Yau Yau first rebelled against South Sudan after he failed to win a parliamentary seat in the 2010 general elections. He accused the ruling party of rigging the vote. In 2011 he accepted an amnesty offer and was promoted to a general. But last year he fled to Sudan and started a rebellion in Pibor against South Sudan's government.

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North Korea says it has cut last military hotline

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Raising tensions with South Korea yet again, North Korea cut its last military hotline with Seoul on Wednesday, a link that has been essential in operating the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation: an industrial complex in the North that employs hundreds of workers from the South.

There was no immediate word about what cutting one of the few remaining official North-South links would mean for South Korean workers who were at the Kaesong industrial complex. When the link was last cut, in 2009, many South Koreans were stranded in the North.

The hotline shutdown is the latest of many threats and provocative actions from North Korea, which is angry over U.S.-South Korean military drills and recent U.N. sanctions punishing it for its Feb. 12 nuclear test. In a statement announcing the shutdown, the North repeated its claim that war may break out any moment.

Outside North Korea, Pyongyang's actions are seen in part as an effort to spur dormant diplomatic talks to wrest outside aid, and to strengthen internal loyalty to young leader Kim Jong Un and build up his military credentials.

South Korean officials said that about 750 South Koreans were in Kaesong on Wednesday, and that the two Koreas had normal communications earlier in the day over the hotline when South Korean workers traveled back and forth to the factory park as scheduled. The hotline is used by the two countries' militaries to arrange border crossings by the workers.

Workers at Kaesong could also be contacted directly by phone from South Korea on Wednesday.

A South Korean worker for Pyxis, a company that produces jewelry cases at Kaesong, said in a phone interview that he was worried about a possible delay in production if cross-border travel is banned again.

"That would make it hard for us to bring in materials and ship out new products," said the worker, who wouldn't provide his name because of company rules.

The worker, who has been in Kaesong since Monday, said he wasn't scared.

"It's all right. I've worked and lived with tension here for eight years now. I'm used to it," he said.

Pyongyang's action was announced in a message that North Korea's chief delegate to inter-Korean military talks sent to his South Korean counterpart.

Seoul's Unification Ministry called the move an "unhelpful measure for the safe operation of the Kaesong complex."

North Korea recently cut a Red Cross hotline with South Korea and another with the U.S.-led U.N. command at the border between the Koreas. The Unification Ministry said only three telephone hotlines remain between the North and South, and those are used only for exchanging information about air traffic.

Kaesong is operated in North Korea with South Korean money and know-how and a mostly North Korean work force. It provides badly needed hard currency in North Korea, where many face food shortages.

Other examples of joint inter-Korean cooperation have come and gone. The recently ended five-year tenure of hard-line South Korean President Lee Myung-bak saw North-South relations plunge. Lee ended an essentially no-strings-attached aid policy to the North.

North Korea last cut the Kaesong line in 2009, as a protest of that year's South Korean-U.S. military drills. North Korea refused several times to let South Korean workers commute to and from their jobs, leaving hundreds stranded in North Korea. The country restored the hotline and reopened the border crossing more than a week later, after the drills were over.

Shinwon Group, a South Korean apparel maker with a factory at Kaesong, said it would call its workers on Thursday morning to check on them. Shinwon's South Korean employees stay in Kaesong for two weeks before returning to Seoul. Workers at Kaesong talked by phone with the Seoul office Wednesday morning, but there was nothing unusual about the call, said spokesman Lee Eun-suk.

Lee said that the last time the phone line was cut off between Kaesong and Seoul, it was "inconvenient" but did not affect business.

North Korea's actions have been accompanied by threatening rhetoric, including a vow to launch a nuclear strike against the United States and a repeat of its nearly two-decade-old threat to reduce Seoul to a "sea of fire." Outside weapons analysts, however, have seen no proof that the country has mastered the technology needed to build a nuclear warhead small enough to mount on a missile.

In a sign of heightened anxiety, Seoul briefly bolstered its anti-infiltration defense posture after a South Korean border guard hurled a hand grenade and opened fire at a moving object several hours before sunrise Wednesday. South Korean troops later searched the area but found no signs of infiltration, and officials believe the guard may have seen a wild animal, according to Seoul's Defense Ministry.

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AP writers Sam Kim and Youkyung Lee contributed to this report from Seoul.

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North Korea cuts last military hotline with South

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Raising tensions with South Korea yet again, North Korea said it cut the last military hotline with Seoul because there was no need for communications between the countries in a situation "where a war may break out at any moment."

The hotline had provided a channel of communications between the militaries of North Korea and South Korea, which do not have diplomatic relations. The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war, divided by a heavily guarded border and with both governments prohibiting direct contact with citizens on the other side.

However, for nearly a decade, the main use of the military hotline was to arrange passage for South Korean managers who work at a joint industrial complex in the North through the Demilitarized Zone. In 2009, North Korea's move to sever the phone connection stranded some South Korean workers in the North for several days.

The move Wednesday to shut down one of the only modes of communication between the Koreas is the latest of a series of threats designed to provoke the new government in Seoul to change its policies toward neighboring North Korea. President Park Geun-hye took office in Seoul a month ago.

Moves at home to order North Korean troops into "combat readiness" also are seen as ways to build domestic unity as young leader Kim Jong Un strengthens his military credentials.

North Korea's chief delegate to inter-Korean military talks relayed in a message Wednesday to his South Korean counterpart that Pyongyang would sever communications until South Korea halts "hostile acts" against the neighbor.

South Korea and the U.S. have been holding routine joint military drills that Pyongyang considers rehearsals for invasion. North Korea also accuses the South of joining the U.S. in leading the campaign to punish Pyongyang for conducting a long-range rocket launch in December and an underground nuclear test in February.

"Under the situation where a war may break out any moment, there is no need to keep North-South military communications," he said. "North-South military communications will be cut off."

Seoul's Unification Ministry, which is in charge of relations with the North, called it an "unhelpful measure for the safe operation of the Kaesong complex."

North Korea recently also cut a Red Cross hotline with South Korea and another with the U.S.-led U.N. command at the border between the Koreas. However, three other telephone hotlines used for exchanging information about air traffic remain intact.

The line severed Wednesday has been essential in operating the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation from the 2000s: an industrial complex in the North managed by hundreds of workers from the South. The phone line is used to clear cross-border shipments and to arrange passage for South Koreans who commute to Kaesong.

Aside from the hotlines, there are no landline, cellphone, fax, email or mail connections between North and South Korea. Both Seoul and Pyongyang prohibit from direct contact with citizens from the other Korea without government permission.

There was no immediate word about the impact on South Korean workers who were at the Kaesong industrial complex. About 750 South Koreans were working in Kaesong on Wednesday, officials said, and that the two Koreas had normal communications earlier in the day over the hotline when South Korean workers traveled back and forth to the factory park as scheduled.

South Korean managers working in the border town could also be contacted on their South Korean cellphones from Seoul on Wednesday.

A South Korean worker for Pyxis, a company that produces jewelry cases at Kaesong, said in a phone interview that he was worried about a possible delay in production if cross-border travel is banned again.

"That would make it hard for us to bring in materials and ship out new products," said the worker, who wouldn't provide his name because of company rules.

The worker, who has been in Kaesong since Monday, said he wasn't scared.

"It's all right. I've worked and lived with tension here for eight years now. I'm used to it," he said.

Since 2004, the Kaesong factories have operated with South Korean money and know-how, with North Korean factory workers managed by South Koreans. The factories provide jobs and bring in much-needed hard currency for North Korea, and supply a cheap and efficient labor source for South Korea.

Other examples of joint inter-Korean cooperation that blossomed during an earlier era of detente came and went during the previous administration of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, whose tough policies on North Korea angered the Pyongyang regime.

North Korea also cut the Kaesong line in 2009, in a protest of that year's South Korean-U.S. military drills. North Korea refused several times to let South Korean workers return home from their jobs, leaving hundreds stranded in North Korea. The country restored the hotline and reopened the border crossing more than a week later, after the drills ended.

North Korea's actions have been accompanied by threatening rhetoric, including a vow to launch a nuclear strike against the United States and a repeat of its nearly two-decade-old threat to reduce Seoul to a "sea of fire." However, analysts outside the country have seen no proof that the country has mastered the technology needed to build a nuclear warhead small enough to mount on a missile.

In a sign of heightened anxiety, Seoul briefly bolstered its anti-infiltration defense posture after a South Korean border guard hurled a hand grenade and opened fire at a moving object early Wednesday. South Korean troops later searched the area but found no signs of infiltration, and officials believe the guard may have seen a wild animal, according to Seoul's Defense Ministry.

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Associated Press writers Sam Kim and Youkyung Lee contributed to this report.

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Peru criticized for 'avoidable' military draft

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Facing a shortage of recruits, Peru's government has reinstated selective, obligatory military service. But it can be avoided by paying a $700 fine, prompting accusations that what is really being imposed is a draft for the poor.

Military service had been voluntary since 1998, but meager wages, scant job training and a lack of other incentives amid an improving economy left Peru's armed forces short 30,000 recruits this year.

So the government of President Ollanta Humala, himself a former army officer and military attache, decided to re-impose the draft by decree.

Military chief Adm. Jose Cueto announced over the weekend that a draft would be held in May. It applies to all 18- to 25-year-old males chosen by lottery. Parents and university students are exempt. So is anyone who can afford the fine.

"It seems to me completely improvised with the aggravating factor that it directly affects the poor," said human rights activist Wilfredo Ardito.

Ardito called the draft discriminatory on several counts. The poor get hit twice — they cannot afford neither higher education nor the fine, he said.

Adm. Cueto defended the decree as necessary given recent low recruiting results.

He told The Associated Press that Peru's armed forces have long since left behind a past tarnished by human rights abuses in the 1980s and 1990s when it was fighting fanatical Shining Path rebels. "It's a different era," he said.

Cueto said two years of obligatory military service can be beneficial, especially for the poor.

"Military service has been stigmatized as something bad and the exact opposite is true, because it provides a series of benefits to young men, principally those of humble means. It offers instruction, trains them, creates values and, in addition, gives them a profession."

Cueto said draftees would not be sent as "cannon fodder" into Peru's southeastern hot zone, the Apurimac and Ene river valley region where more than 80 soldiers have been killed since 2008 as the military battles cocaine-funded vestiges of the Shining Path. He said only soldiers from elite troops are deployed there.

But the pay for draftees is quite low.

Cueto said it starts at a little more than $100 per month and increases to $146 per month, with room and board included. Peru's minimum wage is $283.

Much of the opinion swirling online in social media and in Peru's news media opposes the draft.

"I'm against it. They would be depriving young people of their right to decide. A lot people here can't afford to pay (the fine)," said Eduard Rodriguez, a 24-year-old gastronomy student. Rodriguez said if he were drafted he would work in order to pay the fine.

Military service is obligatory in some nations neighboring Peru, including Bolivia and Colombia, where the ranks of the armed forces are generally filled by the poor.

In Colombia, students and priests are among those exempt from service but they must pay fees ranging from $278 and $1,000 depending on social class.

In Ecuador, military service is voluntary and also largely attracts the poor.

Chile has a draft only when recruiting falls short, and its armed forces organizes job fairs for soldiers leaving military service.

In Mexico, one year of military service is obligatory for all 18-year-olds. Few are able to get out of serving and avoiding service is punishable by up to a year in prison.

An independent Peruvian security expert, Luis Giacoma, said that Peru's reinstatement of the draft goes against the global trend of volunteer militaries "with fewer members and more technology. Massive armies are by now obsolete. Now, what is being sought is professional solders."

Peru's armed forces have more than 100,000 members.

Defense Ministry spokeswoman Sara Alcantara said she could not provide a more precise number for reasons of national security.

___

Associated Press writers Frank Bajak and Franklin Briceno in Lima contributed to this report.

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Peru criticized for 'avoidable' military draft

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Facing a shortage of recruits, Peru's government has reinstated selective, obligatory military service. But it can be avoided by paying a $700 fine, prompting accusations that what is really being imposed is a draft for the poor.

Military service had been voluntary since 1998, but meager wages, scant job training and a lack of other incentives amid an improving economy left Peru's armed forces short 30,000 recruits this year.

So the government of President Ollanta Humala, himself a former army officer and military attache, decided to re-impose the draft by decree.

Military chief Adm. Jose Cueto announced over the weekend that a draft would be held in May. It applies to all 18- to 25-year-old males chosen by lottery. Parents and university students are exempt. So is anyone who can afford the fine.

"It seems to me completely improvised with the aggravating factor that it directly affects the poor," said human rights activist Wilfredo Ardito.

Ardito called the draft discriminatory on several counts. The poor get hit twice — they cannot afford neither higher education nor the fine, he said.

Adm. Cueto defended the decree as necessary given recent low recruiting results.

He told The Associated Press that Peru's armed forces have long since left behind a past tarnished by human rights abuses in the 1980s and 1990s when it was fighting fanatical Shining Path rebels. "It's a different era," he said.

Cueto said two years of obligatory military service can be beneficial, especially for the poor.

"Military service has been stigmatized as something bad and the exact opposite is true, because it provides a series of benefits to young men, principally those of humble means. It offers instruction, trains them, creates values and, in addition, gives them a profession."

Cueto said draftees would not be sent as "cannon fodder" into Peru's southeastern hot zone, the Apurimac and Ene river valley region where more than 80 soldiers have been killed since 2008 as the military battles cocaine-funded vestiges of the Shining Path. He said only soldiers from elite troops are deployed there.

But the pay for draftees is quite low.

Cueto said it starts at a little more than $100 per month and increases to $146 per month, with room and board included. Peru's minimum wage is $283.

Much of the opinion swirling online in social media and in Peru's news media opposes the draft.

"I'm against it. They would be depriving young people of their right to decide. A lot people here can't afford to pay (the fine)," said Eduard Rodriguez, a 24-year-old gastronomy student. Rodriguez said if he were drafted he would work in order to pay the fine.

Military service is obligatory in some nations neighboring Peru, including Bolivia and Colombia, where the ranks of the armed forces are generally filled by the poor.

In Colombia, students and priests are among those exempt from service but they must pay fees ranging from $278 and $1,000 depending on social class.

In Ecuador, military service is voluntary and also largely attracts the poor.

Chile has a draft only when recruiting falls short, and its armed forces organizes job fairs for soldiers leaving military service.

In Mexico, one year of military service is obligatory for all 18-year-olds. Few are able to get out of serving and avoiding service is punishable by up to a year in prison.

An independent Peruvian security expert, Luis Giacoma, said that Peru's reinstatement of the draft goes against the global trend of volunteer militaries "with fewer members and more technology. Massive armies are by now obsolete. Now, what is being sought is professional solders."

Peru's armed forces have more than 100,000 members.

Defense Ministry spokeswoman Sara Alcantara said she could not provide a more precise number for reasons of national security.

___

Associated Press writers Frank Bajak and Franklin Briceno in Lima contributed to this report.

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US military says Guantanamo hunger strike edges up

MIAMI (AP) — The U.S. military says a hunger strike at the Guantanamo Bay prison has grown to include at least 28 prisoners.

A prison spokesman says 28 men held at the U.S. base in Cuba meet the military's definition of a hunger striker. Navy Capt. Robert Durand said Monday that 10 of those men are being force-fed liquid nutrients to prevent dangerous weight loss. Three hunger strikers are at the hospital being treated for dehydration.

Defense lawyers say prisoners began the strike began on Feb. 6 to protest what they say are more intrusive searches of their cells and of their indefinite confinement. The lawyers say the strike involves most of the 166 men held at Guantanamo.

A Red Cross delegation is visiting Guantanamo this week.

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Nigeria military base attack kills at least 20

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Fighters linked to the radical Islamic terrorist network Boko Haram attacked a military base in Nigeria's north on Sunday in an assault that left at least 20 people dead, as the network's leader denied any peace talks with Nigeria's government.

The attack in the village of Monguno, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the city of Maiduguri, punctuated the video statement by Abubakar Shekau that said Nigeria will remain under attack by the group until the multiethnic nation is ruled under Islamic law. Shekau also threatened the man who in recent months claimed to be a leader of Boko Haram and said that the group wanted to agree to a cease-fire with Nigeria's security forces.

The attack Sunday, coupled with the recent kidnappings of foreigners claimed by Boko Haram and its affiliates, offered fresh doubts about the ability of Nigeria's weak central government to stop the bloodshed, despite its deployment of more security forces in the region.

"Whoever kills any of our members should await a grave retaliation from us," Shekau says in the video in the Hausa language of Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north. "We will continue waging war against them until we succeeded in establishing an Islamic state in Nigeria."

The attack on Monguno saw fighters arrive in SUVs and kill a local village leader, witnesses who spoke to The Associated Press said. The fighters later attacked a barracks at Monguno with gunfire and explosives, witnesses said.

In a statement, military spokesman Lt. Col. Sagir Musa said that 20 "Boko Haram terrorists" were killed, without acknowledging that at least one civilian had been killed. Musa also did not say if any soldiers had been wounded or killed in the attack. Nigeria's military routinely downplays civilian and soldier casualty figures.

Another security official, who requested anonymity as he could not speak to journalists, confirmed the attack occurred, but acknowledged details remained sketchy about the incident. An AP journalist could not immediately reach the village Sunday.

The attack Sunday comes after the release of the new Shekau video. A journalist in northeast Nigeria received the video Friday from men he said he didn't know. The journalist began sharing the video with colleagues late Saturday. While the AP could not immediately independently verify the authenticity of the video Sunday, the man on the video looked like Shekau and spoke like the Boko Haram's leader.

The video carried no date, but Shekau directly referenced the activities and claims of a man who has identified himself as Sheikh Mohammed Abdulaziz, a self-proclaimed second-in-command in Boko Haram. In November, a man with a similar voice as Abdulaziz told journalists in a telephone conference call that Boko Haram was willing to enter into peace talks if they were held in Saudi Arabia and involved former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari. However, Buhari refused to take part and no such talks took place as attacks continued.

In January, Abdulaziz told journalists in Maiduguri that a cease-fire would soon emerge that never did.

In the video, Shekau denies knowing Abdulaziz. In the past, Nigeria security forces have used so-called Boko Haram members in sting operations and to sow discord in the group.

"I swear by Allah that Abdulaziz or whatever he is calls himself did not get any authority from me to represent me in any capacity. I do not know him," Shekau says. "And if we per adventure encounter Abdulaziz and his group, I swear by Allah we are going to mete them with the grave judgment that Allah has prescribed for their likes in the holy book."

In the video, Shekau also says the group has had difficulty putting its messages online and blamed government interference for having to now rely on couriers to reach the public. The last Shekau video seen was posted to the Internet in late November.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege," has conducted a guerrilla campaign of bombings and shootings across Nigeria's north over the last two years. Boko Haram is blamed for at least 792 killings last year alone, according to an AP count. The group's command-and-control structure remains unclear, though it appears to have sparked several splinter groups.

A group of men claiming to belong to Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of seven French tourists from northern Cameroon late February — a first for the group. Meanwhile, a Boko Haram splinter group known as Ansaru has claimed the recent kidnappings in north Nigeria of a British citizen, a Greek, an Italian, three Lebanese and one Filipino, all employees of a Lebanese construction company called Setraco.

Despite the deployment of more soldiers and police to northern Nigeria, the nation's weak central government has been unable to stop the killings. Meanwhile, human rights groups and local citizens blame both Boko Haram and security forces for committing violent atrocities against the local civilian population, fueling rage in the region.

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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

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China defends massive growth in military spending

BEIJING (AP) — China is defending its booming military spending, saying its vast investments in the armed forces have contributed to global peace and stability.

However, in a break with previous years, no figure for this year's defense budget was presented at a news conference held Monday on the eve of the opening of the annual legislative session. Spokeswoman Fu Ying said the figure would appear in the overall budget to be released Tuesday.

Chinese defense spending has grown substantially each year for more than two decades, and last year rose 11.2 percent to 670.2 billion yuan ($106.4 billion), an increase of about 67 billion yuan.

Only the United States spends more on defense.

Fu cited U.N. peacekeeping and anti-piracy patrols as examples of China's contribution to world peace and stability.

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Islamic rebels fire rockets at military in Mali

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Jihadist fighters fired two rockets at military points in Mali's northern city of Gao on Thursday after the military pushed fighters out of the city a day earlier and as a suicide bomber attacked secular rebels near Algeria's border, officials said.

Capt. Daouda Diarra said Thursday there was also shooting on the north side of the city.

He said the rockets were likely launched by the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO.

"The jihadist have fired two rockets on us that we have recovered," Diarra said. "This is a small group and we will dislodge them and track the rest of the group who have fled 21 kilometers (13 miles) east of Gao on board seven vehicles."

Fighters with the al-Qaida-linked group had attacked a Gao checkpoint on Wednesday and fought with the military around the Town Hall in the city center on Thursday. Diarra said 16 jihadists were killed in the fighting and six soldiers were wounded.

Meanwhile, further north in Kidal, a suicide car bombing killed at least one secular Tuareg rebel, the mayor of Kidal said.

Abda Ag Kazina said that a suicide car bomber targeted a base for the secular National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, or NMLA, near the country's border with Algeria.

The Tuaregs and Islamic extremists made rapid advances on Mali's north in the aftermath of a March 2012 coup, seizing the main cities in the north. Poorly armed and demoralized Malian soldiers fled before their advance.

But the secular fighters fell out with the Islamist extremists. As the extremists have fled the French bombing campaign, it appears the NMLA fighters have moved back into some areas.

The jihadist group MUJAO claimed responsibility for another car explosion Thursday at a mechanics garage in Kidal about 800 meters (875 yards) from a French military base.

French and Chadian forces are patrolling the city of Kidal, though it remains unclear if the northern administrative capital is secure.

Radical Islamic fighters spent weeks on the run from Malian cities under a French ground and air assault that began Jan. 11 after the rebels had pushed to southern territories. The French, meanwhile, are tightening a dragnet against the al-Qaida-linked militants in one of their last remaining redoubts, mountain sanctuaries near Algeria's border.

France has said it will eventually pull out of its Mali operation so that African forces can help stabilize the West African country.

U.N. discussions about an African force for Mali have been under way for months, alongside efforts for a European Union training mission to help the Malian military.

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Gunmen attack Indonesian military chopper in Papua

JAYAPURA, Indonesia (AP) — Unidentified gunmen shot at an Indonesian military helicopter in the restive province of Papua on Friday as the crew was trying to evacuate the bodies of eight soldiers killed in attacks the day before.

Three crew members were wounded in Friday's attack on the Super Puma helicopter, which was forced to abort its mission and rush the injured to a hospital, said Lt. Col. Jansen Simanjuntak, an army spokesman.

Eight soldiers were killed in two separate attacks in the area on Thursday. The area is a stronghold of separatists who have battled Indonesian rule in the impoverished region for more than 40 years.

In the deadliest attack Thursday, about 20 assailants armed with guns and machetes attacked a group of soldiers walking to Ilaga Airport in Puncak district to collect communication equipment, killing seven, Simanjuntak said.

Two civilians also were shot in the attack, but their fate was unclear, he said. He said earlier that the two had been killed.

About an hour before that attack, gunmen stormed an army post in Tinggi Nambut, a village in neighboring Puncak Jaya district, and fatally shot one soldier and injured another before fleeing into the jungle, Simanjuntak said.

Indonesian military spokesman Rear Adm. Iskandar Sitompul said the same group was responsible for both attacks.

"They are believed to be old players who always try to disturb the situation there," Sitompul said in Jakarta, the capital.

Simanjuntak identified the assailants as members of a local separatist group led by Goliat Tabuni.

Senior Security Minister Djoko Suyanto said the incidents were "very irresponsible acts by the armed groups in Papua," adding that "the government very strongly condemns such brutal incidents." He said the perpetrators would be captured and prosecuted.

The former Dutch colony of Papua in the western part of New Guinea was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 following a U.N.-sponsored ballot of tribal leaders that has since been dismissed as a sham. A small, poorly armed separatist organization known as the Free Papua Movement has battled for independence since then.

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