A convoy of Ukrainian armed forces including armoured personnel carriers, military vehicles and cannons prepare to move as they pull back from the Debaltseve region, in Blagodatne, eastern Ukraine, February 27, 2015. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

By Natalia Zinets

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine on Friday reported the first deaths in three days in east Ukraine, denting hopes a ceasefire will hold, and President Petro Poroshenko said Russia would pose a "military threat" even if the truce is solid.

Government troops fighting pro-Russian separatists in the east began towing artillery away from the front line on Thursday, a sign that Ukraine's military recognised a ceasefire meant to take effect on Feb. 15 was at last holding.

But Kiev's military later announced the deaths of three servicemen in the past 24 hours, following two full days without fatalities that had raised hopes of the truce holding.

"Even under the most optimistic scenario ... the military threat from the east would unfortunately remain," Poroshenko said, referring indirectly to Russia in a televised speech at the National Defence University.

Kiev and Western governments have accused Russia of sending troops and weapons to support the separatists in east Ukraine, despite a peace deal agreed in the Belarussian capital Minsk on Feb. 12, but Moscow has denied this.

View gallery

A member of Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) to Uk …

The situation in the conflict zone was "relatively calm" overnight, Ukrainian military spokesman Anatoly Stelmakh said, although he reported isolated attacks by rebels on Ukrainian troop positions.

Ukraine continued to withdraw its weapons on Friday, but the army will remain on high alert in case of a new offensive from the separatists, Defence Ministry spokesman Serhiy Galushko said in a televised briefing.

"Sufficient troops and resources remain along the front line in case the terrorists and the forces supporting them violate the ceasefire," he said.

The rebels, who committed to the truce only after seizing a strategic town in a humiliating defeat for Kiev, have been pulling back heavy weapons since Tuesday.

Kiev says it fears the rebels could be regrouping and preparing to attack Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, as capturing the port city would help open up a corridor to the Crimea peninsula which Russia annexed from Ukraine last year following the overthrow of a Moscow-leaning president in Kiev.

Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said a convoy of GRAD missile systems and other equipment had been tracked leaving rebel-held Donetsk in the direction of Mariupol.

Moscow has in turn raised doubts about Kiev's commitment to the ceasefire and asked whether the United States and the European Union, which have imposed economic sanctions on Russia, really want the Feb. 12 peace deal to succeed.

(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Writing by Alessandra Prentice, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Eric Holder arrives at the 46th NAACP Image Awards in Pasadena, California February 6, 2015. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Shopping mall operators need to increase security through more staff, cameras and other techniques in light of threats made against the Mall of America in Minnesota and other shopping centers by Somali-based Islamist militants this week, outgoing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said.

"I certainly think we have to step up our sensitivities to what goes on in these commercial enterprises," Holder said in an interview with CNN that aired on Friday. "It would be the responsible thing for operators of these malls to increase their capabilities when it comes to keeping people safe who are just going about their everyday lives."

In a separate interview with Politico, also published on Friday, Holder said he would push in his final weeks in office to lower the standard of proof for civil-rights offenses that would make it easier for the federal government to bring charges in future cases.

The Justice Department recently closed its investigation into the shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, without filing charges against gunman George Zimmerman because of "insufficient evidence."

"I think that if we adjust those standards, we can make the federal government a better backstop - make us more a part of the process in an appropriate way to reassure the American people that decisions are made by people who are really disinterested," he told Politico.

The Senate is expected to confirm Loretta Lynch, his successor, next month.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Susan Heavey)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — With an eye on U.S.-led nuclear talks, Iran's Revolutionary Guard on Friday announced it had test fired a "new strategic weapon" in the final day of a large-scale naval and air defense drill, saying the system would play a key role in any future battle against the "Great Satan."

The claim was a new show of force by Iran just weeks ahead of a deadline for reaching a deal over its nuclear program with the U.S. and other global powers.

Iran announced the test on the final day of military drills it is calling "Great Prophet 9." The exercises are being held near the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which about a fifth of the world's oil passes.

Iran often holds live-fire war games and frequently boasts of advances in its weaponry that cannot be independently verified. The latest drill, which included a simulated attack on an American aircraft carrier, appeared to be aimed at sending a message that Iran has no intention of backing down to the U.S. in the nuclear talks.

Adm. Ali Fadavi, the Revolutionary Guard's naval chief, said the new weapon would be critical in any future naval war against the U.S.

"The new weapon will have a very decisive role in adding our naval power in confronting threats, particular by the Great Satan, the United States," he told the guard's website, sepahanews.com.

Fadavi told state TV that details of weapon will possibly be made public in coming years. "We have restrictions to expressing specifications and applications of the weapon," he said in a short interview recorded at night.

He did not elaborate, though state TV showed a brief video of missiles being launched into the sky from under the water during the daytime. Iran is known to have an advanced arsenal of missiles capable of striking as far away as Israel and U.S. military bases in the region.

Also on Friday, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported that the country has begun a regular two-day exercise on radiation emergency preparedness and response in the country's only nuclear power plant. The plant went online in 2011 with the help of Russia in southern port of Bushehr.

Gen. Gholam Reza Jalali, who heads a unit in charge of civil defense, was quoted as saying the exercise has aimed at "controlling supposed pollution" in the plant.

It said the drill was limited to preparations at the plant's headquarters, and a second stage would be held Saturday. The Iranian Foreign Ministry informed neighboring countries about the exercise, it added.

The U.S. and world powers are in the final stages of talks that they hope will reach an agreement over Iran's nuclear program. The international community suspect Iran is trying to develop a nuclear-weapons capability. Iran denies the charges, saying its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes. The two sides hope to reach a framework agreement in the coming weeks and a final deal in June.

Since 1992, Iran has sought to become self-sufficient in its military needs, producing mortars, tanks, torpedoes, jet fighters and light submarines.

Investigators said Thursday they have recovered 32,000 emails in backup tapes related to the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative organizations.

But they don't know how many of them are new, and told a congressional oversight committee that IRS employees had not asked computer technicians for the tapes, as directed by a subpoena from House oversight and other investigating committees.

That admission was in direct contradiction to earlier testimony of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.

“It looks like we’ve been lied to, or at least misled," said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla. at a congressional hearing Thursday evening,

J. Russell George, the IRS inspector general, said his organization was investigating possible criminal activity.

The emails were to and from Lois Lerner, who used to head the IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status. Last June, the IRS told Congress it had lost an unknown number of Lerner's email when her computer hard drive crashed in 2011.

At the time, IRS officials said the emails could not be recovered. But IRS Deputy Inspector General Timothy Camus said investigators recovered thousands of emails from old computer tapes used to back up the agency's email system, though he said he believed some tapes had been erased.

"We recovered quite a number of emails, but until we compare those to what's already been produced we don't know if they're new emails," Camus told the House Oversight Committee.

Neither Camus nor George would describe the contents of any of the emails at Thursday's hearing.

The IRS says it has already produced 78,000 Lerner emails, many of which have been made public by congressional investigators.

Camus said it took investigators two weeks to locate the computer tapes that contained Lerner's emails. He said it took technicians about four months to find Lerner's emails on the tapes.

Several Oversight committee members questioned how hard the IRS tried to produce the emails, given how quickly independent investigators found them.

"We have been patient. We have asked, we have issued subpoenas, we have held hearings," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the Oversight Committee. "It's just shocking me that you start, two weeks later you're able to find the emails."

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., questioned the significance of the recovered emails in an exchange with Camus.

"So as I understand it from your testimony here today, you are unable to confirm whether there are any, to use your own words, new emails, right?" she asked Camus.

"That is correct," Camus replied.

Maloney: "So what's before us may be material you already have, right?"

Camus: "That is correct"

Maloney. "So may I ask, why are we here?"

The IRS issued a statement saying the agency "has been and remains committed to cooperating fully with the congressional oversight investigations. The IRS continues to work diligently with Congress as well as support the review by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration."

The IRS estimated it has spent $20 million responding to congressional inquiries, generating more than one million pages of documents and providing agency officials to testify at 27 congressional hearings.

The inspector general set off a firestorm in May 2013 with an audit that said IRS agents improperly singled out Tea Party and other conservative groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections.

Several hundred groups had their applications delayed for a year or more. Some were asked inappropriate questions about donors and group activities, the inspector general's report said.

The week before George's report, Lerner publicly apologized on behalf of the agency. After the report, much of the agency's top leadership was forced to retire or resign, including Lerner. The Justice Department and several congressional committees launched investigations.

Lerner's lost emails prompted a new round of scrutiny by Congress, and a new investigation by the inspector general's office.

Lerner emerged as a central figure in the controversy after she refused to answer questions at two House Oversight hearings, invoking her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself at both hearings. At the first hearing, Lerner made a statement saying she had done nothing wrong.

Last year, the House voted mostly along party lines to hold her in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions at the hearings.

Fox News' Doug McKelway and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday that Britain's intelligence services do a good job and make "incredibly difficult judgments," after revelations that the masked Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John" had been on their radar for years.

Officials have identified the man shown in chilling hostage-beheading videos as Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwait-born computer science graduate raised and educated in Britain.

Emwazi, now in his mid-20s, had been known to the British intelligence services since at least 2009, initially in connection with investigations into terrorism in Somalia.

His identification as the front man for IS murder videos has put pressure on British spies, who failed to stop him traveling to Syria, and raised questions about how a soccer-playing London youngster who liked smart clothes became one of the world's most wanted men.

David Anderson, who is in charge of reviewing Britain's terrorism legislation, said intelligence agencies may have dropped the ball, but faced a big challenge to identify real threats from "hundreds, probably thousands" of suspects.

He told the BBC that "perhaps they did slip up in this case but one won't know until there's been an inquiry or a report of some kind."

Cameron said the security services did an "incredibly impressive" job and in the last few months had stopped plots that could have caused "immense damage."

"All of the time, they are having to make incredibly difficult judgments and I think basically they make very good judgments on our behalf," he said.

Cameron did not mention Emwazi by name but said it was his top priority "to find these people and put them out of action."

Emwazi appeared in a video released in August showing the slaying of American journalist James Foley, denouncing the West before the killing. A man with similar stature and voice was also featured in videos of the IS killings of American journalist Steven Sotloff, Britons David Haines and Alan Hemming, and U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig.

Authorities were working to piece together the path to radicalization of Emwazi, who came to Britain from Kuwait as a small child and attended state schools in London before studying computer science at the University of Westminster.

British spies took an interest in him long before he traveled to Syria. Court documents from 2011 obtained by the BBC list Emwazi as part of a network of west London men suspected by MI5 of sending funds, equipment and recruits to al-Shabab militants in Somalia. The group included Bilail al-Berjawi, a Lebanese-British militant who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Somalia in January 2012.

Emails that Emwazi sent to a Muslim advocacy group reveal a young man increasingly frustrated by the attentions of British spies and angry at the plight of Muslims around the world.

Emwazi approached CAGE after he and two friends were arrested and deported on a trip to Tanzania in August 2009. They said they were going on a post-university safari. But Emwazi said he was grilled by a British intelligence officer who accused him of trying to travel to Somalia.

He said the agent, who identified himself as Nick, suggested Emwazi "work for us" before saying "life will be harder for you" if he did not cooperate.

The following year Emwazi accused British agents of preventing him from going to Kuwait, where he had a job and planned to marry.

The emails show his increasing frustration with what he saw as official harassment. He wrote in one that "my 'life' is kind of on a 'pause.'"

He also sent CAGE messages complaining of the plight of Muslims in Chechnya, Iraq and elsewhere.

CAGE said that Emwazi even changed his name in a bid to escape the attentions of the security services, but still was barred from going to Kuwait. His family reported him missing early in 2013. CAGE said that four months later, police told the family Emwazi was in Syria.

CAGE is a controversial group that has been accused of condoning jihadi violence. On Thursday its research director, Asim Qureshi, described the Emwazi he knew as "extremely kind, extremely gentle."

The unmasking of "Jihadi John" sent ripples of shock through the modest west London neighborhood were Emwazi's family lived.

Sharaft Ullah, who worships at the Harrow Road Mosque near the family home, remembered Emwazi as a strict Muslim who prayed several times a day, "a very good local guy and polite with everybody."

"I feel angry because he was educated in this country and he graduated from Westminster," Ullah said. "If he has been doing these things it's wrong."

Another mosque that Emwazi was reported to have attended, the Greenwich Islamic Centre, said it had no knowledge of him.

The widow of Haines, a British aid worker, said Friday she would like to see "Jihadi John" captured and put on trial.

Dragana Haines told The Associated Press in a phone interview from her home in Croatia that "I really hope he will be caught, I think it would be a good lesson for all."

Haines, whose husband was killed in September, said she would rather see Emwazi judged in a court of law, because "people of his kind believe that death in combat is an honor, something special."

___

Associated Press writer Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia contributed to this report.