Free Republic

US embassy staff and the US ambassador in Baghdad have been evacuated, according to two unnamed Iraqi Foreign Ministry officials cited by Reuters, as hundreds of Iraqi protesters swam the embassy compound. Iraqi supporters of a powerful Iranian-backed militia were attacking the outside of the fortified zone that surrounds the US embassy compound in Baghdad, protesting against American air strikes that killed 25 fighters from the group, news agencies reported.

Afghan forces have trapped up to 200 Taliban fighters in a southern village, possibly including the militia's military commander, demanding they surrender or come under attack, Afghan officials said Monday. Afghan police and government officials said the suspected Taliban fighters were surrounded as they gathered for a meeting in the mountain village of Keshay in Uruzgan province on Saturday. Provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Qasim Khan said NATO troops were also involved in the siege, but NATO spokeswoman Lt. Col. Angela Billings said she had no such information. Khan told The Associated Press that Mullah Dadullah, a close aide to...

Hundreds protest Minuteman Project at U.S.-Mexico border 07:17 AM Mountain Standard Time on Monday, April 18, 2005 By The Associated Press SIERRA VISTA -- Raising their voices and arms in song and reaching across the border in fellowship, hundreds of U.S. and Mexican citizens gathered at a metal wall dividing the United States and Mexico in Naco. The demonstration Sunday was sponsored by churches from both countries in response to the Minuteman Project. "It's a way of healing the border," said Harry Walters of Bisbee. Minuteman volunteers began spreading out earlier this month along a 23-mile stretch of desert between...