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Obama to send military advisors to Iraq

President Obama said today he is prepared to send up to 300 U.S. military advisers to Iraq to assist in training and advising Iraqi forces as the tense situation in the country continues to escalate.

In a statement in the White House briefing room, Obama said the U.S. is prepared to create joint operation centers between the U.S. and Iraq in Baghdad and northern Iraq.

The president also said the U.S. is taking steps so that it's "prepared to take targeted and precise military action if and when we determine the situation on the ground requires it." The president said he would consult closely with Congress and leaders in Iraq before any decision is made.

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Here are some more details on the Special Forces troops President Obama has ordered to Iraq, according to senior U.S. officials:

• The first troops will arrive in Iraq “very soon” – they will come from forces already stationed in the Middle East.
• The troops will be divided into teams of a dozen each. The first teams will be sent to Baghdad and the surrounding areas, but ultimately will be stationed in northern Iraq as well. They will be embedded with the Iraqi military at senior levels – at first at the headquarter level, eventually at the brigade level. Others will be at new Joint Operation Centers with US and Iraqi troops.
• Not all 300 go right away. “Several” teams of one dozen trainers will go first, officials said.
• Their initial assignment will be to assess the capabilities and needs of the Iraqi forces. They will also add to the intelligence gathering capabilities. These troops would not be used to identify targets for possible future air strikes – but the officials did not rule out the possibility that they could help the Iraqis identify targets for air strikes.
• Intelligence gathering has been significantly ramped up – between manned and unmanned aircraft, they now have the capability to have 24 hour surveillance coverage.
• These troops will be covered by an immunity agreement of some kind – as are the handful of trainers already in Iraq.

Obama also said Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to the Middle East and Europe where he will talk about the situation in Iraq.

The president reiterated his pledge to not send combat boots back into Iraq.

"We always have to guard against mission creep," the president said. "American combat troops are not going to be fighting in Iraq again."

Before the announcement, Obama met with his national security team at the White House. The president huddled with congressional leaders at the White House on Wednesday where he told the lawmakers he would not need congressional authorization to carry out any of the actions he was considering at the time.

Earlier in the week, the president notified Congress that he was deploying up to 275 military personnel to provide support and security for the embassy in Baghdad.

Earlier in the day, House Speaker John Boehner criticized the president's recent handling of foreign policy matters.

"It's not just Iraq. It's Libya. It's Egypt. It's Syria. The spread of terrorism has increased exponentially under this president's leadership," Boehner said. "After the last election, I said that I hoped the president would seize this moment and take the lead, and here we are a year and a half later. You look at this presidency, and you can't help but get the sense that the wheels are coming off."

Boehner said he "heard a little bit" about the president's strategy in Iraq at an Oval Office meeting with Congressional leaders Wednesday, but he complained that the White House "has known for months" about the situation in Iraq and called on Obama to outline a broader strategy that would quell the spread of violence throughout the Middle East.

"With terrorists marching toward Baghdad, we've asked the president for a strategy to reverse the momentum and spread of terrorism," he said. "Until we know what the overall strategy is, we don't know what could be effective in reducing this violence."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who also attended Wednesday's White House meeting, said she does not believe President Obama needs to seek Congressional authorization to launch airstrikes in Iraq.

"I said this to the president and the group that a president does not need any additional congressional authority to act upon measures to protect our national security," Pelosi, D-Calif., said. "I didn't want that to be misinterpreted any support for boots on the ground, however."

ABC's John Parkinson contributed reporting.

U.S. sending up to 300 military advisers to Iraq

President Obama says the U.S. is ready to offer targeted military support but won't return to combat.
Kerry to Middle East

The number of people driven from their homes by war and conflict soars to the highest level since WWII.
Half are children

Kfar Etzion Settlement (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - The seizure of three Israeli teenagers from a popular hitchhiking stop inside a West Bank settlement bloc has shattered the illusion of peace harboured by many Jewish settlers.

After years of relative quiet following the violence of the second intifada or uprising (2000-2005), Gush Etzion found itself back in the headlines this week after the disappearance of three students Israel says were kidnapped by Hamas militants.

"This kidnapping has sent shockwaves through all the residents of Gush Etzion," says regional council head David Perel.

"We feel like they were kidnapped from our homes, on a road where everyone drives without thinking of the dangers."

Security sources say the three students were seized late on June 12 as they waited for a ride on a main road outside Kfar Etzion, the first settlement established in the West Bank after the 1967 Six-Day War.

Gilad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel, both 16, are students at the Mekor Haim religious boarding school in Kfar Etzion. The third, 19-year-old Eyal Ifrach, was studying at a Jewish seminary in a settlement in Hebron.

- Thumbs up for hitchhiking -

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A combination of undated family handout pictures made on June 18, 2014 shows the three Israeli teena …

Although most settlers are shaken by a kidnapping on their doorstep, it is not enough to make them change their ways.

For settlers in the occupied West Bank, hitchhiking is one of the most popular ways of getting around.

"For a long time, we have been asking the government for a bigger budget for public transport but hitchhiking is a way of life that we can't do without," says Perel, dismissing the hazards.

Waiting by the roadside for a car to take her home, 17-year-old Hadass Halpert shrugs off concern.

"We can't give up this means of transport," she tells AFP, while admitting she is "careful" to check who is offering the ride before getting in.

"Normal life must go on, we cannot let them win," she adds of the "terrorists who would like to stop us from living here".

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Israeli policemen arrest a young Israeli during an anti-Palestinian demonstration at the Gush Etzion …

"I'm not afraid," says 33-year-old Amir Gurevitch, waiting for a ride to the settlement where he teaches.

"For me, the main thing is to keep my normal routine, even if you end up thinking a bit more about the potential dangers."

Since the teens disappeared, Gush Etzion regional council has warned residents to be careful when hitchhiking, and Mekor Haim school has banned its pupils from thumbing rides.

- Shattering the rural idyll -

Ten miles (16 kilometres) south of Jerusalem, Kfar Etzion was built in September 1967 on the ruins of a kibbutz set up during the British Mandate (1920-1948) and destroyed during the 1948 war which accompanied Israel's establishment.

As the number of settlements in the area grew, it attracted many people lured by the rural lifestyle and affordable property prices. Today, 20,000 Israelis live there.

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Israeli soldiers during an operation in the West Bank town of Hebron on June 17, 2014 (AFP Photo/Haz …

Every day, hundreds of Palestinians work in the settlement bloc, and at the Rami Levi supermarket, a popular chain known for its cheap prices, 40 percent of the employees are Palestinian.

As news of the teens' disappearance spread, the Yesha Settlers Council urged Jewish communities across the West bank to refuse entry to their Palestinian workforce to put pressure on the local population, with dozens of settlements complying.

But Oded Revivi, mayor of Efrat settlement, has spoken out against such a move.

"This type of action can only reinforce hatred and fear; our neighbours are not responsible for this act of terror," he wrote in a public letter.

Despite everything, settler leaders say they are not deterred.

"We are going to become stronger, continue to build and show the world that we are here to stay for ever," Perel says.

More than half a million Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem.

The international community sees all Israeli settlement on land seized during the 1967 war as illegal, and ongoing construction on land the Palestinians want for a future state is viewed as one of the biggest obstacles to a peace agreement.

"What did we expect, that all the Palestinians would sit back quietly and cave in as the Israeli occupation grew stronger?" Yariv Oppenheimer, head of Israel's settlement watchdog Peace Now, wrote in an editorial.

"What were we thinking, that the quiet would be preserved for ever and that the Etzion Bloc would become a pastoral tourist site with no memory of the Palestinians?

"The other side’s loss of hope, Israeli arrogance and unwillingness to compromise have blown up in our faces."

Seven Ukrainian troops were killed in overnight fighting in the restive east, an official said Friday, as clashes between government forces and pro-Russia rebels flared ahead of the publication of a presidential peace plan that includes a unilateral cease-fire.

Separatists who want to split from the government in Kiev were operating tanks in the region, a particular sore point for Ukraine, which accuses Russia of letting the vehicles and other heavy weaponry cross the border.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has voiced concern about the Ukrainian military operation against the rebels but has resisted both the rebels' pleas to join Russia and repeated calls from Russian nationalists for Putin to send troops into Ukraine. NATO reported Thursday, however, that Russia was resuming a military buildup at the Ukrainian border.

Vladislav Seleznev, spokesman for Ukrainian forces in the east, said in addition to the deaths, 30 troops were injured in fighting near the village of Yampil in the Donetsk region.

He said 300 rebels were killed, but that could not be immediately verified. Previous government reports of high casualties among the rebels have often later turned out to be overstated.

An Associated Press reporter saw pro-Russia fighters moving in a column with two tanks and three armored personnel carriers near the town of Yanakiyeve in the direction of Horlivka in the separatist Donetsk region. The tanks flew small flags of a pro-Russia militia but otherwise had no markings. The fighters declined to say what they were doing, other than it was a "secret operation."

At the border crossing near Izvaryne in the separatist Luhansk region, an AP reporter saw a line of 100 or more cars waiting for hours to cross from Ukraine into Russia as people fled the unrest. Some of the cars were piled high with possessions. The United Nations said earlier this week that 34,000 people had been displaced by the fighting.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko discussed the details of his peace plan on the phone Thursday with Putin. Poroshenko's office said he emphasized the need for introducing effective border controls and quickly releasing hostages seized by the rebels.

Poroshenko has said the plan will start with a short cease-fire and include amnesty for pro-Russia fighters who have not committed serious crimes, a corridor for fighters from Russia to leave the country, joint security patrols, early local and parliamentary elections, and protections for the use of the Russian language.

Rebel leaders have dismissed the plan and it remains to be seen to what extent they would comply.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Russian officials were surprised at Western expressions of concern over the renewed troop buildup, saying it was merely a previously announced measure to tighten border controls.

"This is not a matter of some sort of concentration of forces, but of the strengthening of border controls of the Russian Federation," Peskov was quoted as saying by the Itar-TASS news agency.

But a senior NATO military officer told The Associated Press in Brussels that the Russians are issuing misleading statements to cover their troop movements — something they had also done in Crimea, along the border with Ukraine and now in eastern Ukraine. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal NATO information.

Separately, Putin's foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, said the Russian president is committed to dialogue on Ukraine and is planning to have a phone conversation with U.S. President Barack Obama in the coming days.

Ushakov also mentioned that Putin, on a visit to Austria next week, would be meeting with the chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to discuss Poroshenko's peace plan.

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Vasilyeva contributed from Moscow. John-Thor Dahlburg contributed from Brussels.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israeli soldiers killed a 13-year-old Palestinian in clashes during West Bank raids Friday, hospital officials said, as a search for three Israeli teens feared abducted in the territory entered its second week.

Three other Palestinians were seriously wounded by army gunfire during raids in four towns and refugee camps.

Friday's death raised to two the number of Palestinians shot dead by troops during search operations this week.

The three Jewish seminary students disappeared June 12 while hitchhiking in the West Bank. Israel has blamed the Islamic militant Hamas group for the apparent abduction, but has offered no proof.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has used the search to promote two other objectives — a new crackdown on Hamas and an attempt to discredit the Palestinian unity government formed earlier this month by Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, which is supported by Hamas.

Hamas has praised the abduction of the teenagers but has not claimed responsibility for it. The group has abducted Israelis in the past to press for the release of thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

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An Israeli soldier leaves a stone structure in search of three missing Israeli teens in the West Ban …

In Hebron, families of Palestinians arrested recently in Israeli raids protested after weekly Muslim prayers. They gestured with three fingers, one for each missing teen, in a sign of their support for the abduction.

The gesture has become popular on social media among Palestinians and others who support the abduction of the teens.

Over the past week, thousands of Israeli troops have searched hundreds of locations in the West Bank and arrested more than 300 Palestinians, many from Hamas.

The Israeli military said it conducted raids in four towns and refugee camps early Friday, detaining 25 suspects and searching about 200 locations. The army said it searched nine institutions linked to Hamas and confiscated materials.

In one raid, in the town of Dura near Hebron, Palestinian youths threw stones at soldiers, drawing army fire. A hospital official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media, said 13-year-old Mohammed Dodeen was killed by a bullet in the chest.

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Israeli soldiers leave a stone structure as they search for three missing Israeli teens in the West …

The army also opened fire during a raid in the Qalandiya refugee camp, where three Palestinians were seriously wounded, said Ahmed Bitawi, director of Ramallah's hospital.

The army confirmed soldiers used life fire, saying they were responding to life-threatening situations, and added that the troops engaged in sporadic confrontations during Friday's raids. Palestinians threw homemade explosives, firebombs, fireworks and stones, and in Qalandiya, a soldier was lightly wounded by a grenade thrown at troops, the military said.

A senior Israeli intelligence officer said Friday that anyone linked to Hamas was potentially a target for arrest.

He acknowledged that despite recent government declarations of a major crackdown on Hamas, both Israel and Abbas' Palestinian Authority have already dismantled much of the movement's West Bank infrastructure in recent years.

"But there are a lot of small places that are supporting Hamas," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military briefing regulations.

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Israeli soldiers patrol as they search for three missing Israeli teens in the West Bank city of Hebr …

"We'll go to every place that has a sign of Hamas on it, and we're going to hit it. Whether it's small or large. We really don't look only for the big symbols. There are no big symbols ... the Palestinian Authority did it (the crackdown) before and we did it."

The crisis has escalated already heightened tensions between Israel and the new Palestinian government, which is was meant to end a rift between the two main Palestinian factions stemming from Hamas' violent 2007 takeover of the Gaza Strip from Abbas' forces.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said Friday that if it emerges that Hamas did take the missing teens it would have a dire impact on the unity government.

"Clearly if it is proven that Hamas was behind the abduction, which was not proven yet, then the consequences for the reconciliation process will be very, very negative," he said.

"We have said that if it is proven that Hamas is behind it, then the president will take decisions and will have something to say about it, because we were talking about reconciliation, about a new page." He added that the abduction "will harm the achievements that we reached on the international level and it gave Israel the excuse to harm our people."

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Israeli soldiers search for three missing Israeli teens in the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday, J …

Also in Hebron on Friday, a number of foreign media crews covering a protest for Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike were roughed up by Palestinian Authority security forces.

The Foreign Press Association, which represents hundreds of journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said undercover Palestinian police attacked a CNN crew, including senior correspondent Ben Wedeman, and smashed a camera.

"Deliberate violence and intimidation against professional journalists carrying out their work anywhere is totally unacceptable," the FPA said.

Families of the three missing teenagers, Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship, met with Netanyahu Friday afternoon before the start of the Jewish Sabbath.

"This is the second Sabbath that our children are not with us," Iris Yifrah, mother of one of the missing boys, told Channel 10 TV. "Our hearts are breaking," she said tearfully.

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Associated Press writer Yousur Alhlou in Tel Aviv, Israel contributed to this report.

13-year-old killed in hunt for missing teens

Palestinian officials say the youth was shot in a clash with Israeli soldiers on an arrest mission.
Hamas blamed for kidnapping