DR Congo rebels push forward

M23 rebels march on strategic eastern town of Bukavu after seizing provincial capital of Goma earlier this week.

"President Museveni and President Kagame made it clear that even if there were legitimate grievances by the mutinying group known as M23, they cannot accept the expansion of this war," the statement added. They also cannot "entertain the idea of overthrowing the legitimate government of the DRC, or undermining its authority." Earlier on Wednesday, thousands of government soldiers and police in the DR Congo surrendered to rebels at a stadium in Goma, the main city in the eastern North Kivu province. Troops hand over weapons to the M23 rebels A rebel group seeking to overthrow the Congolese government has focused its aim on seizing the strategic eastern town of Bukavu, which would mark the biggest gain in rebel territory in nearly a decade if it were to fall. The fighters, believed to be backed by neighbouring Rwanda, already have seized the provincial capital of Goma this week and later took the nearby town of Sake on Wednesday. The violence has forced more than 100.000 people to flee, more than half of whom are children, according to the UN children's agency. While they have vowed to overthrow President Joseph Kabila's government, they remain some 1.600km from the capital of Kinshasa in a country of dense jungle with few paved roads. Meanwhile, hundreds of Congolese soldiers who had retreated from Goma days earlier were holed up in Minova, a lakeside city on the road to Bukavu. "We are waiting for orders, but they haven't come yet. We're hungry and have spent five days sleeping in the bush under the rain," said a Congolese army major who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Marching on After capturing Goma on Tuesday, the rebels advanced onto the town of Sake on Wednesday. They now say they are preparing to march into Bukavu, the other major city on the border with Rwanda. The M23 then plans to head to Kisangani, and onto the capital Kinshasa. The drive by the rebels was causing some fear in other parts of the country, Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa reported from Kinshasa. "People are very very nervous about what will happen … and the fact that the army doesn't seem to be in control of the east of the country," she said. Al Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri reported from a camp near Goma, where 19.000 families had arrived in recent days. "They don't have enough food, they don't have enough shelter for them," she said. Fighting continued not far from the camp, she said, in the town of Sake. The rebels were told to pull out a day after they captured the city, in a joint statement released on Wednesday in the Ugandan capital Kampala after DR Congo President Joseph Kabila met his Rwandan and Ugandan counterparts, Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni, to resolve the crisis in Goma. "M23 must immediately stop [its] offensive and pull out of Goma," the three presidents said in the statement. "A plan to this end is being communicated to them," the statement said. The United Nations accuses Rwanda of backing M23 fighters who now control the key eastern town of Goma and take their name after a peace agreement they signed with the Congolese government on March 23, 2009. Kigali denies the charges and Uganda has also dismissed accusations it has aided the rebels. Rwanda for its part accuses Kinshasa of renewing co-operation with Rwandan rebels based in eastern DR Congo. 'Causes of disturbances' "The government of the DRC, on its part, has made a commitment to look expeditiously into the causes of disturbances and address them as best they can," the statement added, read out by Ugandan foreign minister Sam Kutesa. Al Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri reported on "extraordinary scenes", as the security officers came to hand in their arms. "[The surrendered officers] didn't have a choice," she said. The soldiers were told they had a choice either to have peace in the city, or to leave the city, she said. M23 seized Goma on Tuesday, in a development that raised fears of a new, regional conflict. The capture of the city came after days of fighting with government troops. The peacekeepers were not helping the government forces during Tuesday's battle because they do not have a mandate to engage the rebels, said Congolese military spokesperson Olivier Hamuli. Our correspondent said people appeared to be frustrated with what they see as the UN's lack of action in protecting them from rebel groups. According to a UN official, protesters were throwing stones and burning tires at the premises MONUSCO, as the peacekeeping force is known, in at least three cities on Wednesday. Peacekeepers were on alert and UN staff were re-grouping at secure locations as a precautionary measure, the spokesman said.

International law, the Gaza war, and Palestine's state of exception

Israel's latest assault on Gaza has no legal basis as an occupying power and constitutes a set of war crimes.

Israel also advances novel interpretations of IHL in order to project the legitimacy of dubiously legal or patently unlawful practices in its fight against Palestinian resistance to occupation in all its manifestations. Israel's consistent position over the decades that Palestinian resistance is "terrorism" and that they have no right to fight for freedom extends to the interpretation that Israel's own conduct is not tightly regulated by IHL when engaged in a war against terrorists. However, the Geneva Conventions are considered customary international law, and therefore apply any time and place and on any parties who use armed force to wage war on enemies. Although Hamas' indiscriminate rocket attacks against civilians violate international law, Israel as a de facto occupying power has special obligations in regards to the Gaza Strip and West Bank [GALLO/GETTY] The large-scale military assault launched by Israel on Gaza, and the manner in which both Israeli and Palestinian forces are fighting this war, raise numerous red flags regarding large scale violations of human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL). Such violations have long characterised the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; yet despite post-Cold War improvements in the enforceability of international criminal law, in the Israeli-Palestinian context those who perpetrate human rights violations and war crimes seem largely immune to legal accountability. Certainly, international law offers no panacea for the death and destruction of war; nor does most media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict devote more than the scantiest attention to the human rights implications of such violence. International law does, however, provide the most important standard against which the conduct of opposing sides can be judged. Such judgments have political currency, if not during the heat of battle then later. As Gaza-based human rights campaigner Raji Sourani described it in the midst of the current violence, human rights is the "skin" to protect civilians from the all-out aggression of those who attack them. International law impacts the present war in Gaza in two key ways. One pertains to whether the violence deployed by each side complies with or violates IHL, in particular the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocol I of 1977. The other, more complicated issue pertains to the legal status of Gaza and its relationship to Israel, which profoundly affects what kind of violence Israel can deploy there. Since the 1967 conquest of Gaza and the West Bank, Israel has asserted that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to these areas or govern Israel's conduct toward Palestinian inhabitants on several grounds, including that Palestinians are not a High Contracting Party (state signatory). However, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the official guardian and authoritative interpreter of IHL, has consistently maintained that the Fourth Geneva Convention, which governs militarily captured territories and their civilian population, is applicable. This view is endorsed by a vast preponderance of international legal opinion, including United Nations resolutions and the opinion of the International Court of Justice.

Many blame politicians for funnelling money to paramilitary groups at the expense of creating an army and police force

Moataz Billah has just signed a contract to become a member of Libya's fledgling army Moataz Billah wears military fatigues, carries an AK-47 and lives with his comrades in what was once an army barrack. He dropped out of school in his early teens, and says playing a small part in the Libyan revolution gave him a new sense of purpose in life. “I want to become a professional soldier,” he said. Like tens of thousands of young Libyan men who took up arms during last year's uprising against long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi, the 18-year-old has been waiting for the chance to join an army that is yet to materialise. Many blame the National Transitional Council (NTC) - the body that stepped in to run the country after Gaddafi's ouster - for allowing the national police and army to fall by the wayside. In a country where leaders have historically accentuated regional divides to reinforce their own power, many Libyans believe that politicians have funnelled money to whichever militias served their private interests. For the many Libyans frustrated by the security vacuum, their government’s inability to prevent the killing of the popular US ambassador Christopher Stevens and three of his staff in the city of Benghazi last month was the last straw. Popular anger over the lack of government leadership on security and the rule of law, along with the ongoing impunity of the militias, prompted 30,000 people to take to the streets of Benghazi on September 21. And hundreds of ordinary Libyans have voluntarily handed in their weapons at collections organised over the weekend. Spurred by the protests, President Mohammed el-Megarif, head of the General National Congress (GNC) that took over from the transitional government in August, has promised Libyans that empowering the army and police force is his government’s biggest priority. Waiting for an army Even before the September 11 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, there were some signs that the new government has already been more proactive than the NTC had been. In early September, Billah signed a contract with the defence ministry. He is now a state employee, and will begin receiving a monthly salary of 900 Libyan dinars ($720) a month. Graffiti in Benghazi warns Libyans of the dangers weapons can be in the hands of the untrained [Yasmine Ryan/Al Jazeera] Billah is a member of the Libya Hourra militia, one of the many militias led by former army officers who defected to fight against Gaddafi. Abdul Wahid Wanis, a captain in Libya Hourra who first joined the Libyan army in 1980, said that the authorities had turned their backs on the many professional army officers who defected to join the revolution, and the many unemployed young men like Billah who were eager to become soldiers. “We have capable people who already had a lot of military experience, and we have new soldiers eager to get more training,” Wanis said. “Most of the people who participated in the revolution were uneducated and unemployed,” he said, arguing that the military offered a rare opportunity for disenfranchised young men to contribute to the new Libya. Nationalising the militias gives young men like Billah the opportunity to serve their nation, rather than tribal or regional interests, he said. It also delegitimises those militias, normally from a non-military background, that have attempted to define themselves as religious guardians, as well as those which have become rogue criminal gangs. Not every militia member aspires to join the security forces. Many have little faith in the national government, and relish the power that owning weapons gives them. Matthew Van Dyke, an American who fought with the Libyan rebels last year, said that many former fighters see their weapons as an insurance policy in case the national government veers off the path of democracy. “Some of those weapons they paid for in money, and some of them they paid for in blood, they will not give them up,” he said. “It’s hard for a guy who’s been working at a café his whole life to go back to working in that café again after he has been driving around with a Kalashnikov in a pickup truck. But that doesn’t mean he wants to go join the army.” In the eyes of the protesters in Benghazi, these men risk posing a longterm threat to the government, particularly when some of them have been allowed to become more powerful than the national security forces. History of distrust Libya's ex-ruler, King Idris I, was deeply wary of the armed forces he forged in the 1950s. He kept the forces weak and divided, creating paramilitary units he believed would be more loyal. That was not enough to protect him from the 1969 coup led by a young Gaddafi. Deeply distrustful of the “treacherous” officers who had helped him come to power, Gaddafi carried out extensive purges, killing or arresting everyone above the rank of colonel. Gaddafi made a watchdog paramilitary force of his own, the Revolutionary Guard. Viewed as the most ideologically loyal to Gaddafi and made up of men hand-picked from his birthplace of Sirte, it was charged with indoctrinating and spying on the rest of the armed forces.

Faraj al-Deirsy, head of Benghazi police, shot dead in the latest attack on Libyan security officials

There have been dozens of attacks on members of the Libyan security forces throughout 2012 [AFP] A top security official in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi was killed in front of his home overnight, security officials have said, in the latest violence to plague the city. Faraj al-Deirsy, head of Benghazi police, died from multiple gunshot wounds, police and interior ministry sources said on Wednesday. "This happened in front of his house when unknown attackers opened fire and hit him before fleeing," a police source said. An interior ministry official confirmed that Deirsy, in charge of security in Benghazi, had been killed. Libya has been hit by persistent instability since the overthrow of Muammer Gaddafi last year. Authorities are still trying to disarm numerous groups, mostly militias who took part in the uprising, who refuse to lay down their weapons. Wednesday's incident was one of a number of attacks in Benghazi, where local groups have also staged protests demanding more powers for eastern Libya and objecting to what they say is the central authorities' neglect of the region. In September, the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed in an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, the cradle of Libya’s revolt that began in February 2011.

Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa says it is punishing France for intervening in Malian security affairs.

Groups linked to an offshoot of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) control large swathes of northern Mali A Malian group calling itself the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of a French citizen two days ago. Abu Walid Sahraoui, spokesperson for MUJAO, one of the groups occupying northern Mali, said on Thursday: "We claim responsibility for the kidnapping of the Frenchman in south-western Mali near the Mauritanian border." The group said it would post a video of the hostage shortly. Gilberto Rodriguez Leal, 61, was kidnapped on Wednesday and it was reported he was being held by jihadists, without specifying which armed group had him in their possession. The kidnapping of Leal, who was born in Portugal but holds French citizenship, brings to 13 the total number of people held by force in the West African country. Seven of these are French nationals. MUJAO, which describes itself as an offshoot of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), has not provided details on its demands in exchange for the hostage. "With God's blessing, the mujahedin are holding a Frenchman, whose country wants to lead armies against the Muslim people," Abdoul Hicham, a top MUJAO leader, told the AFP news agency. France has been instrumental in drafting a UN Security Council resolution adopted last month which paves the way for the regional bloc ECOWAS to send troops to Mali to try to wrest control of the country's northern region from the fighters. Mauritania's national news agency ANI reported that Leal was kidnapped on Tuesday night in the town of Diema in the western Kayes region bordering Mauritania and Senegal. But French sources said he was kidnapped in Nioro, further north. Regional security sources told AFP that the hunt for Leal and his kidnappers was underway on Thursday. "The search is continuing. Mali is in contact with its neighbours, especially Mauritania where the kidnappers could take the hostage before returning him to northern Mali," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Fighters linked to al-Qaeda took the entire north of Mali, an area the size of France or Texas, in the wake of the March 2012 coup. They have since enforced a brutal form of sharia law, sparking fears the region could become the Afghanistan of Africa, with fighters carrying out Taliban-stlye attacks beyond Mali's borders. Western governments, fearing they could become targets of the group, are backing regional plans for a military force to intervene in Mali and reclaim control of its north. French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday more still needed to be done before troops are deployed. "We are not there yet," he told BMFTV. "Malian forces must first be reconstituted and neighbouring countries must provide elements. This is a matter that is first of all up to the Africans." He added that the French government had intelligence that the hostage Leal was still alive.

U.S., Japan start joint military drills amid China tensions

The U.S. and Japan have begun joint military exercises, amid simmering tensions with China over disputed islands in the East China Sea, BBC News reported. At least 47,000 personnel will take part in the biennial Keen Sword exercise, which runs until 16 November. It is taking place off Okinawa, north of islands both Japan and China claim. The two sides are locked in a diplomatic row over the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Japan controls the islands, which Taiwan also claims. The Japanese government's acquisition of three of the islands from their private Japanese owner in September sparked both diplomatic and public protests in China.

Since then ships from both China and Taiwan have been sailing in and out of waters around the islands. The Japanese coast guard on Sunday reported that four Chinese ships were once again spotted in the area. The two countries have held three rounds of talks since the row erupted, Japan's Kyodo news agency reports, with the latest taking place in Wuhan in China. The two sides agreed to hold more talks at vice-ministerial level, the report said. A U.S. statement gave few details of the exercises but said it aimed to "improve interoperability required to effectively defend Japan or respond to a crisis in the Asia-Pacific region". The drills were originally supposed to have seen U.S. and Japanese troops carrying out a mock invasion of an uninhabited island off the southern coast of Japan. In the end, it was decided that this was a bit too provocative to China. In recent weeks China repeatedly has hit out at the plan to hold the exercises. On Monday, Nov 5, a front-page commentary in state-run People's Daily Overseas Edition did not refer to the drills, but criticized the U.S. for its stance over the territorial dispute. The U.S. could not claim to be neutral on the issue while it confirmed its defense commitment to Japan, the paper said, adding that "strategic mistrust" between the countries involved could be intensified.

The Mystery of Arafat’s Death

The body of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is set to be exhumed on November 26, eight years after his death, as part of an investigation to see if he was murdered, a diplomat said on Monday, Nov 5, according to Reuters. Two senior Swiss forensic experts are already in the West Bank to discuss plans for the exhumation, which is complicated on a technical, legal and political level.

A French court in August opened a murder inquiry into Arafat's death after a Swiss institute said it had discovered high levels of radioactive polonium on the Palestinian leader's clothing, which was supplied by his widow, Suha. Allegations of foul play have long surrounded Arafat's demise. French doctors who treated him in his final days said they could not establish the cause of death. Suha has said she believes he was poisoned and has requested the exhumation so that samples can be taken from Arafat's body to see whether polonium is present. A European diplomat said French magistrates were due to travel to the Israeli-occupied West Bank later this month, with November 26 seen as the likely date for the body to be removed from its limestone mausoleum. Two senior employees of Switzerland's Lausanne University Hospital have travelled to Ramallah and are working closely with the Palestinian Authority and French judicial authorities, said hospital spokesman Darcy Christen. "We have sent our best experts for final consultations," Christen told Reuters. "Scientifically it would still be a viable operation if carried out before the end of November." Eight years is considered a limit to detect any traces of the deadly radioactive substance, according to the Swiss Institute of Radiation Physics, which is part of the public hospital.

The two experts are Patrice Mangin, chief forensic scientist at the hospital, and Francois Bochud, head of the institute. "Their on-site mission is in order to have final consultations so that we can all take a final decision," Christen said. "It is to do the fine-tuning. Things are going rather well." It is still not clear if other members of Arafat's family have given their approval for an exhumation and, with time running out, there is widespread skepticism in the West Bank as to whether his body will ever be removed from the mausoleum. No autopsy was carried out when Arafat died, aged 75, in keeping with his widow's original request. He had been effectively confined by Israel to his compound for two and a half years before flying to France for emergency medical care.

Two Iranian warships docked in Sudan on Monday

Two Iranian warships docked in Sudan on Monday, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported, less than a week after Khartoum accused Israel of attacking an arms factory in the Sudanese capital. Two people were killed after fire broke out late on Tuesday at the Yarmouk arms factory in the south of Khartoum. Sudanese Information Minister Ahmed Belal Osman said four military planes attacked the Yarmouk plant and Israel was behind it. Asked by Israel’s Channel Two News about Sudan’s accusations, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said: “There is nothing I can say about this subject.”

IRNA said the helicopter carrier Khark and the destroyer Shahid Naqdi were carrying “the message of peace and friendship to neighbouring countries and were ensuring security for shipping lanes against marine terrorism and piracy”. Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said the vessels docked in Port Sudan on the Red Sea and the fleet’s commanders were scheduled to meet Sudanese navy commanders.

Also on Monday, a fresh fire broke out at the Yarmouk compound, sending white smoke into the air, two witnesses said. Sudan’s armed forces spokesman was quoted in state media as saying the fire was caused by the spread of flames into different parts of the complex and not by any “hostile action”. Sudan, with close ties to Iran and Sunni jihadis, has long been seen by Israel as a conduit for weapons smuggled to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, via the Egyptian Sinai desert. In May, Sudan’s government said one person had been killed after a car exploded in the eastern city of Port Sudan. It said that explosion resembled a blast last year it had blamed on an Israeli missile strike. Israel declined to comment on the May incident or the 2011 blast, which killed two people. It also neither admitted nor denied involvement in a similar incident in eastern Sudan in 2009.

Iran said in June it had plans to build more warships and increase its presence in international waters, particularly to protect its cargo ships around the world. Pirates in the Gulf of Aden in January hijacked an Iranian ship carrying 30,000 tonnes of petrochemical products to a North African country.

President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney sprinted to an unpredictable finish in the last 48 hours

CONCORD, N.H. -

President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney sprinted to an unpredictable finish in the last 48 hours of a close White House race on Sunday, trying to turn out supporters and woo undecided voters in a handful of toss-up states. The two rivals crisscrossed the country on the next-to-last day of a campaign that polls show is deadlocked nationally, although the president appeared to have a slight edge in the swing states that will decide who captures the 270 electoral votes needed to win on Tuesday.

After months of sometimes bitter attacks and saturation advertising in pivotal states, Obama and Romney pressed their arguments that they offer the best solution to a weak economy and partisan gridlock in Washington.

The two also made direct appeals for votes in a race that may come down to which side does the best job of getting its supporters to the polls. “It’s up to you. You have the power,” Obama told a crowd of more than 14,000 people who filled the downtown streets of Concord, New Hampshire. “You will be shaping the decisions for this country for decades to come, right now, in the next two days.”

In Iowa, Romney urged more than 4,000 people in a Des Moines hall to get out and vote - and convince undecided or former Obama supporters to back him while they are at it. At a later stop in Ohio, he said, “Let’s make sure that we get everyone to the polls.” Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, renewed his argument that he is the candidate who can offer change and reach out to the opposition party to craft bipartisan agreements. “Accomplishing real change is not just something that I talk about. It’s something that I’ve done,” Romney told supporters in Des Moines. “And it’s something I’m going to do when I am president of the United States.”

Many polls show Obama with a slight but persistent lead in Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Nevada - states that would give him more than the 270 electoral votes he needs, barring any surprises elsewhere. “It’s really a game of inches. It’s extremely close, but things look pretty optimistic for Obama, I would say, if you do the electoral math,” Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll of four pivotal states showed Obama and Romney essentially tied in Florida and Colorado, with Obama holding a statistically meaningless lead in Virginia of 1 percentage point. But in crucial Ohio, Obama had 48 percent to Romney’s 44 percent. “Looking over the last few days, Ohio does seem to be more comfortably on the Obama side,” Clark said. The outcome of Tuesday’s vote will impact a broad range of policy issues facing the president and Congress, including the looming “fiscal cliff” of spending cuts and tax increases that will kick in at the end of the year if a deal cannot be reached.

Thorny foreign challenges such as how to handle Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the Syrian conflict await the winning candidate. Control of Congress is also at stake on Tuesday, with Democrats now expected to narrowly hold their majority in the Senate and Republicans favored to hold control of the House of Representatives. OBAMA’S SWING STATE EDGE Republicans said they see hope in early voting in key states, which mostly shows Democrats casting more early ballots but not at the pace that Obama set in his victory in 2008 over Republican John McCain by 7 percentage points. “What we’re seeing consistently ... is that there is a general underperforming in places where President Obama needs to do well and there’s an over-performing in places where Governor Romney does well,” Romney’s political director Rich Beeson said on “Fox News Sunday.” Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod said Obama’s early leads in states like Nevada, Iowa and the vital swing state of Ohio would hold up on Election Day, even if he does not repeat the size of his victory in 2008. “I’m not suggesting we’re going to win by the same margin we won in 2008. They are comparing themselves to John McCain, who had virtually no ground operation in many of these states,” Axelrod said on “Fox News Sunday.” “So, yes, they are going to do a little better than McCain did, and we may not do as well as we did in 2008, but we’re doing plenty well - and well enough to win this race,” he said. Obama and Romney made stops on Sunday in Ohio, perhaps the most important swing state. As Romney’s plane arrived at the Cleveland airport on Sunday, Air Force Two carrying Vice President Joe Biden was leaving. Ohio is particularly critical for Romney. If he loses the state, he would need a breakthrough in another state where polls currently show him trailing. That reality helped fuel Romney’s stop in Democratic-leaning Pennsylvania, where polls show the race has tightened but Obama still leads. “The people of America understand that we are taking back the White House because we are going to win Pennsylvania,” he told a raucous outdoor rally in the suburbs of Philadelphia, where a crowd estimated at 30,000 had waited hours to see him on a cold evening.

Romney advisers say the trip to Pennsylvania, where Romney only started advertising last week, was a sign of his momentum. “The map has expanded,” Romney senior adviser Ed Gillespie said on ABC’s “This Week” program. “We have been able to expand into Pennsylvania while fully funding and staying current with everything we need to be doing in Florida and Virginia and Ohio.” The Obama camp said the Pennsylvania move was a sign of desperation from a campaign that realizes it cannot win enough electoral votes in the battleground states it has been contesting. “This is a desperate ploy at the end of a campaign. To win Pennsylvania, Governor Romney would have to win two-thirds of the independents. He is not going to do that,” White House senior adviser David Plouffe said on ABC. Both candidates were getting plenty of help in the late stages from their running mates, Biden and Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan. Obama also got help at his New Hampshire rally from popular former President Bill Clinton. Ryan joined fans holding tailgate parties outside a Green Bay Packers football game in Wisconsin, then visited Minnesota - another Democratic-leaning state where Romney is making a late play. While campaigning in Ohio, Biden joked that the end of Daylight Savings Time in the United States on Sunday was Romney’s favorite day because he could officially turn back the clock.

The U.S. soldier accused of carrying out one of the worst atrocities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars

The U.S. soldier accused of carrying out one of the worst atrocities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars was appearing in a military courtroom today, where prosecutors will lay out their case that he killed 16 people, including children, during a predawn raid on two villages in the Taliban's heartland. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, a married father of two, is accused of slipping away from a remote outpost in southern Afghanistan early on March 11 with an M-4 rifle outfitted with a grenade launcher to attack the villages of Balandi and Alkozai in Panjwai district of Kandahar Province. Nine of the dead were children, and 11 were members of the same family. Six others were wounded, and some of the bodies were set afire. Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder, plus other charges of attempted murder, assault and using steroids. Today marks the start of a preliminary hearing before an investigative officer charged with recommending whether Bales' case should proceed to a court-martial. Part of the hearing will be held overnight to allow video testimony from witnesses in Afghanistan. "This hearing is important for all of us in terms of learning what the government can actually prove," said Bales' attorney, John Henry Browne. Bales, 39, joined the Army in late 2001 after the 9/11 attacks and as his career as a stockbroker imploded. He was serving his fourth combat tour after three stints in Iraq, and his arrest prompted a national discussion about the stresses posed by multiple deployments. Another of his civilian attorneys, Emma Scanlan, declined to say to what extent the lawyers hope to elicit testimony that could be used to support a mental-health defense. Bales himself will not make any statements, his lawyers said, because they don't think he would have anything to gain by it. During such hearings, defendants have the right to make sworn or unsworn statements. Making a sworn statement opens the defendant to cross-examination by the prosecutors. No motive has emerged. Bales' wife, Karilyn, who plans to attend the hearing, had complained about financial difficulties on her blog in the year before the killings, and she had noted that Bales was disappointed at being passed over for a promotion. Browne has also said that Bales suffered a traumatic incident during his second Iraq tour that triggered "tremendous depression." Bales remembers little or nothing from the time of the attacks, his lawyers have said. Testimony from witnesses, including an estimated 10 to 15 Afghans, could help fill in many of the details about how prosecutors believe Bales carried out the attack. American officials have said they believe Bales broke the slaughter into two episodes — walking first to one village, returning to the base and slipping away again to carry out the second attack. Some witnesses suggested that there might have been more than one killer. Browne said he was aware of those statements but noted that such a scenario would not help his client avoid culpability. Bales, who spent months in confinement at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, before being transferred to Lewis-McChord last month, is doing well, Scanlan said. "He's getting prepared," she said, "but it's nerve-wracking for anybody."