Israeli aircraft struck today against Gaza militants who have bombarded border communities with rockets.

Hundreds of Fatah gunmen today stormed Hamas-controlled institutions across the West Bank, seeking revenge for the Islamic group’s takeover of the Gaza Strip, while Hamas forces blew up the home of a prominent Fatah family and deployed at strategic locations to solidify their control of Gaza.

Hamas fighters have seized Fatah’s senior field commanders in the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the Islamic group announced today.

An explosion has been heard in Gaza City as Hamas and Fatah gunmen exchanged automatic weapons fire at a city university and Israeli war planes pummelled Hamas targets for a third straight day, killing five people, in response to the Islamic group’s rocket attacks on southern Israel.

Mortar rounds and rockets hit Somalia’s capital early today in a series of attacks that killed 12 people including a four-year-old boy.

AS A tenuous ceasefire took hold in the Gaza Strip yesterday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh appealed to all Palestinians to prevent a resurgence in the internal violence that has left 36 people dead in recent days.

Tens of thousands of Fatah supporters packed Gaza’s main soccer stadium today in a massive show of strength to boost the movement in its increasingly violent struggle against the Islamic militant group Hamas.

A militant Islamist movement fled from rapidly advancing government forces into a rugged, forested corner of Somalia, as the prime minister offered an amnesty if they surrendered.

Fighting erupted today on the outskirts of Somalia's militant Islamic movement's last remaining stronghold as thousands fled advancing Ethiopian troops supported by tanks and MiG fighter jets.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has called for an early election to end his violent clash with Hamas, in a gamble that banks on the support of Palestinians as he seeks to weaken the Islamic militants, avoid civil war and continue peace overtures with Israel.

Thousands of Islamic militants today surrounded the only town Somalia’s government controls, the prime minister said.

A top official of Somalia’s Islamic militia has vowed to launch a “major attack” unless troops from neighbouring Ethiopia leave his country within seven days.

Iran has pledged US$250m (€188.8m) in aid to the cash-strapped Hamas-led Palestinian government, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said today.

Islamic leaders today ordered Somalis to hand in their weapons, but did not say how they would enforce the directive in a heavily armed country some fear is about to go to war with its neighbour.

A suicide attacker detonated a bomb at a Pakistan army training base today, killing at least 35 soldiers and wounding several others who were doing their morning exercises.

SOMALIA’S Islamic radicals closed down a second radio station yesterday, days after introducing strict new media laws in the war-torn country.

Somalia's Islamic radicals closed down a second radio station today, just days after introducing strict new laws for the media in the war ravaged country.

Hamas will not be edged out of power, accept a compromise or recognise Israel, Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, a leader of the Islamic militant group, told tens of thousands of banner-waving supporters at a rally today.

Fears of regional conflict has soared with the loss of a strategic port to Somalia’s radical Islamic militia, which faced angry demonstrations that erupted into deadly violence, and for the first time acknowledged getting help from foreign Muslims.

Somalia’s president narrowly escaped an assassination attempt today when a car bomb exploded outside the parliament building in the city of Baidoa, but the blast and a subsequent gunbattle left 11 people dead, officials said.

Somalia’s virtually powerless government and an Islamic militia that has seized control of much of southern Somalia have signed an agreement to eventually form a unified national army.

Former UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson has accused America of prolonging the latest Middle East conflict.

Israeli helicopters airlifted hundreds of troops into the Hezbollah heartland and warplanes launched wide-ranging airstrikes today as officials raced to enforce a UN ceasefire and end fierce fighting still raging across southern Lebanon.

A leader of an Egyptian militant group denied yesterday that it had joined al-Qaida, saying the majority of its members are sticking by a truce they declared almost a decade ago.

Indian police today arrested a journalist over his alleged ties to an outlawed Islamic group suspected of taking part in the Mumbai train bombings.

Somalia’s transitional government will meet next week for peace talks with Islamic militant rivals who have seized control of much of the country, a presidential aide said today.

Ethiopian troops in armoured vehicles rolled into the central Somali town of Baidoa today and set up a camp near the home of the interim president, residents said, less than a day after Islamic militants reached the outskirts of the base of a UN-backed, but largely powerless government.

A top official in Somalia’s Islamic militia said his forces will soon seize the base of the country’s weak interim government, a move that would give radical militants uncontested authority over much of the country.

African and Western diplomats were discussing the details of a peacekeeping mission to Somalia, an African Union spokesman said today, after militias vowing to impose Islamic rule took over the capital of the Horn of Africa country.

Israel’s prime minister Ehud Olmert denied that there was a “humanitarian crisis” in the Gaza Strip, but said Israel would buy medicine and other necessities for the Palestinians to prevent the situation becoming worse.

The cheeses and butters of the Danish company Arla are back on the shelves of Saudi supermarkets after an Islamic group called for an end to the boycott of the dairy producer, sparked by Denmark’s publication of drawings of the Prophet Mohammed.

ISRAELI, Palestinian and US negotiators failed yesterday to resolve a border crossing crisis that has caused shortages of vital food products in Gaza.

Israel branded the Palestinian government a “terrorist authority” today and halted the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax money to it in reaction to Hamas taking control of the Palestinian parliament.

A final count of votes from the Palestinian parliamentary election showed the Islamic group Hamas winning 74 seats and the Fatah Party getting 45, election officials said today.

The Palestinian cabinet submitted their resignations today following the apparent Hamas victory in legislative elections, Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia’s office said, setting the stage for the Islamic group to lead a new Palestinian government.

AN ALLIANCE of Shi’ite religious parties won the most seats in Iraq’s new parliament, results showed yesterday, but not enough to rule without coalition partners as Sunni Arabs gained seats over previous ballots.

Security forces nabbed the suspected military commander and the alleged money man of a banned Islamic group blamed for a series of deadly bombings in Bangladesh, claiming a breakthrough today in their fight against the militants.

Two leading Islamic militants jailed over the 1981 killing of Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat have been released after more than two decades behind bars, prison officials and lawyers said today.

A previously unknown group today said it had kidnapped three Hamas officials in the West Bank, accusing the Islamic group of putting itself above the law.

Police tightened security in Madrid today after an Islamic group, which claimed responsibility for the March 11 train bombings in the capital, threatened to turn Spain into “an inferno”.

Israeli soldiers killed two armed Palestinians dressed in diving gear, who attempted to infiltrate a Gaza Strip settlement from the coast in the latest in a series of failed attempts to avenge Israel’s assassination of the Hamas spiritual leader.

26 people, including three Britons, were jailed for five years in Cairo today on charges of trying to revive an outlawed Islamic group.

Egypt has released a leader of the militant group responsible for the assassination of former president Anwar Sadat after nearly 22 years in jail.

Israeli tanks entered Gaza City early today and blew up the house of a leading militant next to a neighbourhood where leaders of the Islamic Hamas terror group live, witnesses said.