NEARLY 100 terrorist attacks, some intended to take place on US soil, have been thwarted since September 11, 2001, according to FBI Director Robert Mueller. But he warned that many potential terrorists remain at large in the United States.

OPENING up a visible new front in the war on terror, US forces launched a pinpoint missile strike in Yemen, killing a top al-Qaida operative in his car in the first such overt attack outside of Afghanistan, a US official said.

Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, al-Qaida’s top man in Yemen who was killed in a US air strike, had eluded capture for months by hiding in the desert and remote villages.

In another round of escalation, Israel hammered Palestinian police buildings all over Gaza yesterday, retaliating for the first Palestinian mortar attack on an Israeli town and adding to tension already building on Israel’s border with Lebanon.