Land mine kills 17 Afghans traveling to a wedding

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A roadside bomb in western Afghanistan killed 17 civilians traveling to a wedding Friday, an Afghan official said.

Abdul Rahman Zhuwandai, a spokesman for Farah province, said the civilians were riding in a bus that hit the bomb in Pusht Rod district.

At least 10 people were wounded in the explosion in what is a relatively peaceful part of the country.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, saying, "Our people want to live in joy and happiness."

Separately, two service members with the U.S-led military coalition were killed Friday by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan, the coalition said. Their nationalities were not released.

Two Missing in Oil Rig Blast

Egypt president vows to stand by Gaza

Israel's Barak seeks three more Iron Dome rocket interceptors

Video: Rocket Barrages Intensify Between Israel, Gaza

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Defence Minister Ehud Barak will seek cabinet approval for funds that could provide Israel with three new Iron Dome rocket interceptors, officials said on Friday as cross-border fighting surged in Gaza.

Israel's military air defence corps has four Iron Dome batteries deployed and will receive a fifth from state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd after Barak rushed its production, his ministry said in a statement.

It said Barak would on Sunday, the beginning of the Israeli work week, ask the cabinet to earmark 750 million shekels ($190 million) for expanding the Iron Dome program. An Israeli official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, estimated that money would be enough for three more batteries.

First fielded last year, Iron Dome has served as a bulwark against rockets and mortar bombs fired by Palestinian militants in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.

The system has shot down 192 such missiles since fighting flared up on Wednesday, the Defence Ministry said.

Iron Dome, along with Israeli ballistic missile shield Arrow, has received extensive support from Washington, which seeks both to reassure and restrain the Jewish state in the face of the nuclear advances of its arch-enemy Iran.

The U.S. Congress approved $205 million for Iron Dome in fiscal year 2011, which ended on September 30. President Barack Obama's administration said on March 27 it would seek "an appropriate level of funding" for further acquisitions.

Barak's ministry said he wanted to draw from the $3 billion in annual U.S. defence grants to help pay for Iron Dome's expansion. Some $550 million has been spent over the past five years on Iron Dome development and manufacturing, it said.

BACK-BURNER TO BIG BOOST

Iron Dome was little more than a flimsy plan on a back shelf of the Defence Ministry when the 2006 summer war with Hezbollah erupted, bringing 4,000 rockets flying in from southern Lebanon.

The defence minister at the time, former trade union boss Amir Peretz, smarted at the sight of thousands of Israelis stewing in bomb shelters. As a resident of the southern town of Sderot, he was also aware that Palestinians in the nearby Gaza Strip were themselves amassing missiles.

So Peretz found the funds and ordered Rafael to rush Iron Dome into production. Rafael engineers worked around the clock, with the Haifa-based company keeping the pace competitive by having two rival teams put together different design proposals.

The winning version uses a variant of the missile detector on warplanes to spot ground-to-ground rocket and mortar launches. A quick calibration lets Iron Dome determine whether the missile is on course to hit a populated area, and ignore it if it is not. If Iron Dome decides to engage, it fires a guided missile that blows up the rocket or mortar shell in mid-air.

Iron Dome's first live trial was in July 2010. By April 2011, it was fielded outside Israel's southern city of Beersheba and shot down its first real Gazan rocket.

Iron Dome has been billed as providing city-sized coverage against Katyusha-style rockets with ranges of between 5 km (3 miles) and 70 km (42 miles), as well as mortar bombs. The system is truck-towed for easy transport, and Israel says it needs 13 of the batteries for satisfactory nationwide defence.

Rafael is in the last stages of developing a more powerful interceptor, David's Sling, that would use similar technologies against longer-range rockets and cruise missiles.

Each Iron Dome interception costs Israel between $30,000 and $50,000. Israeli officials say the system prevents potentially lethal rocket strikes that might force the country into a war that could cost as much as $380 million a day.

According to industry sources, Iron Dome's interception success rate is between 70 and 80 percent and should improve. Rafael has been working to expand Iron Dome's range to 250 km and make it more versatile so that it could intercept rockets coming from two directions simultaneously.

(Writing by Dan Williams, Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Will Waterman)

Egypt president toughens rhetoric on Israel

Protesters chant slogans against the Israeli invasion of Gaza, in Al-Azhar mosque, where President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood called for demonstrations, after Friday prayers, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 16, 2012. In his Friday sermon at Al-Azhar, influential cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, not shown, said the Islamic world would not be silent in the face of Israel's military operation in Gaza. (AP Photo/Thomas Hartwell)

An Egyptian boy leads protesters in chanting slogans against the Israeli invasion of Gaza, outside Al-Azhar mosque where President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood called for demonstrations after Friday prayers, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 16, 2012. In his Friday sermon in Al-Azhar, influential cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, not shown, said the Islamic world would not be silent in the face of Israel's military operation in Gaza. (AP Photo/Thomas Hartwell)

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Islamist president delivered his fiercest condemnation yet of Israel's offensive in Gaza on Friday, warning that the blood Israel sheds will be a "curse upon it" and presenting post-revolution Egypt as the new Arab champion for thePalestinians.

Mohammed Morsi spoke in a speech at a mosque after weekly Friday prayers, dramatically stepping up his rhetoric against Israel hours after his prime minister visited Gaza in a show of support for its Hamas rulers. After Friday prayers, thousands marched in Cairo in support of Palestinians.

Morsi, a veteran of the Muslim Brotherhood group that opposes Israel, has been trying to walk a middle path amid the first major crisis with Israel since he took office in late June. Many in Egypt demand that the country's first elected president take a tougher line with Israel than ousted leader Hosni Mubarak did. At the same time, Morsi feels pressure not to go too far and risk straining ties with Israel's ally, the United States.

At the same time, Morsi appears to be trying to turn the crisis to his advantage, by depicting Egypt as the Arab world's main protector of the Palestinians, after years under Mubarak, who was closely tied to Israel and opposed to the Hamas militant group.

"Egyptians love peace ... but they have always been able to fend off aggressors and protect the land, the nation and the Muslim world," he said in his address at a mosque near his home in a Cairo suburb. "We are even more insistent on remaining a protective shield to the Arab and Muslim world."

"We say to the aggressor, peace will never be achieved through aggression ... because war does not build stability or peace," Morsi said. "This blood will be a curse on you," he said as the crowd in the mosque chanted, "God is great" and "With our blood and souls, we sacrifice for Palestine."

"I say to the aggressor to take a lesson from history and stop this farce and bloodshed or else you will face the wrath of the people and their leadership," he said. "Egypt today is different than Egypt yesterday and that the Arabs today are different than the Arabs of yesterday."

Morsi has pulled Egypt's ambassador from Tel Aviv to protest Israel's bombardment of Gaza, which Israel says was launched in retaliation for Islamic militant rocket attacks. At least 22 Palestinians, including 12 militants and six children, as well as three Israelis have been killed in three days of fierce exchanges between the Israeli military and Gaza militants. Seven Palestinians were killed earlier in the week from another series of airstrikes.

The dispatching of his prime minister, Hesham Kandil, was a dramatic if largely symbolic show of support for Hamas, which is effectively the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Kandil is the highest level Egyptian official to visit Gaza since Hamas took over the territory in 2007 after winning elections two years earlier.

Despite the strong rhetoric, Morsi's government continues to work closely with Israel on security issues pertaining to the Sinai Peninsula, where militants have launched attacks on Egyptian forces and Israel. Since his election, Morsi has promised to abide by Egypt's 1979 peace deal with Israel.

The president's speech Friday was a strong contrast to low-key comments he made a day earlier. Speaking during a Cabinet meeting, he denounced the campaign as "unacceptable" but avoided sharp condemnations of Israel.

The switch also reflected the change in venue, as Morsi moved from talking as head of state in the corridors of government to speaking in a mosque to conservative religious supporters. In Thursday's comments, he referred directly to "Israelis" — a reference he rarely makes — whereas in Friday's speech he avoided using the word "Israel," referring repeatedly to "the aggressor" instead.

In Friday's marches around Cairo, many waved the Palestinian flags and the Syrian flags in support of rebels seeking to oust the regime there. In Cairo's Tahrir Square, a few hundred protesters burned an Israeli flag. Prominent Brotherhood figures took part, many brandishing the checkered Palestinian scarf, or keffiyeh, during the marches.

The Palestinian cause unites Egypt's feuding political factions, from secular leftists to conservative Islamists, and all are putting pressure on Morsi to be tough on Israel.

Mubarak, who built close ties with Israel, was frequently criticized by Egyptians for failing to help the Palestinians and for joining Israel in blockading the Gaza Strip after Hamas' 2007 takeover. Mubarak outraged many by keeping Egypt's crossing into Gaza closed for part of the three-week Israeli offensive in the territory in the winter of 2008-2009.

One protester, Hesham Khalil, said Morsi's response so far was "unexpected," suggesting it was an improvement over Mubarak.

"We are not used to such reactions but that still does not please the ambitions of Egypt's revolutionaries. We want a reaction that stops the bloodshed in Gaza."

One of the Arab world's most well-known television clerics, Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, gave a prayer sermon Friday at Cairo's foremost mosque, Al-Azhar, vowing the Islamic world would not be silent in the face of Israel's military operation in Gaza. The Egyptian-born al-Qaradawi, who is based in Qatar, was largely exiled from Egypt under Mubarak's rule for his closeness to the Brotherhood.

"Our (Muslim) community is the strongest community," al-Qaradawi said, addressing thousands of worshippers packed tightly in the mosque. "Israel, the arrogant supremacist on the ground, cannot break this community with its missiles, weapons from the air, ground and sea, or with its nuclear bombs."