U.S. F-22 stealth jets join South Korea drills amid saber-rattling

Slim chance of life after Tibet mudslide buries 83

Searchers pull bodies out of Tibet mudslide that buried 83, say slim chance of survivors

Rescuers search for survivors at the site of a landslide in Tibet, where the government has been criticized for possibly excessive mining. (China Daily/Reuters)

Syrian rebels enter strategic Aleppo neighborhood

In this Thursday March 28, 2013 image taken from video obtained from the Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian Free Army fighters in Dael less than 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Jordanian border in Daraa province, Syria. Syrian rebels on Friday captured a strategic town near the border with Jordan after a day of fierce clashes that killed at least 38 people, activists said, as opposition fighters expand their presence in the south, considered a gateway to Damascus. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)

In this Thursday March 28, 2013 image taken from video obtained from the Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows heavy clashes between Syrian Free Army fighters and the regime’s army in Dael less than 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Jordanian border in Daraa province, Syria. Syrian rebels on Friday captured a strategic town near the border with Jordan after a day of fierce clashes that killed at least 38 people, activists said, as opposition fighters expand their presence in the south, considered a gateway to Damascus. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels pushed into a strategicneighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo after days of heavy clashes, seizing control of at least part of the hilltop district and killing a pro-government cleric captured in the fighting, activists and state media said Saturday.

There were conflicting reports about the scale of the advance into theSheikh Maqsoud neighborhood by rebel forces battling to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad. But the gains marked the biggest shift in the front lines in the embattled city in months.

Aleppo, Syria's largest city and a former commercial hub, has been a key battleground in the country's civil war since rebels launched an offensive there in July, seizing several districts before the fighting largely settled into a bloody stalemate.

The Aleppo Media Center opposition group and Aleppo-based activist Mohammed Saeed said rebels seized full control of Sheikh Maqsoud late Friday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, however, said rebels took only the eastern part of the neighborhood, and reported heavy fighting there Saturday.

Syria's state news agency SANA said government troops "eliminated scores of terrorists" in other parts of Aleppo mainly in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Said, Masaken Hanano and Bustan al-Bacha. SANA did not mention the fighting in Sheikh Maqsoud.

Sheikh Maqsoud, which is predominantly inhabited by minority Kurds, is located on a hill on the northern edge of the city. The neighborhood used to be known as "Our Lady's Mountain" and is considered one of the most strategic locations in the city because it overlooks much of Aleppo.

Activists predicted that regime forces would launch counterattacks to try to retake the area because if rebels keep holding Sheikh Maqsoud it will be easy for them to target regime-held areas with mortar shells.

The media center and the Observatory both reported that residents were fleeing the neighborhood to safer areas. The media center said regime tanks around the neighborhood were shelling the area.

An amateur video showed about two dozen gunmen standing in front of a building owned by the Syrian government. In the video, one of the gunmen claims that rebels and their "Kurdish brothers liberated Sheikh Maqsoud of Assad's criminal gangs and shabiha" or pro-government militiamen.

The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other reporting that The Associated Press did on events depicted in the footage.

Saeed, the Aleppo-based activist, said several rebel groups, including Kurdish gunmen, took control of the neighborhood after launching an attack, titled "Kurdish Fraternity," on Thursday. He said that on Saturday fighting intensified on the eastern edge of the area around an army post known as Awamid.

The Observatory said rebels captured a pro-government Sunni Muslim cleric in the fighting, killed him and then paraded his body through the neighborhood.

State-run Al-Ikhbariya TV identified the cleric as Hassan Seifeddine. It said he was beheaded and his head was placed on the minaret of Al-Hassan Mosque where he used to lead the prayers.

The SANA state news said Seifeddine's body was "mutilated" after the "assassination."

The reports of the mutilation of the cleric's body could not be independently confirmed.

The killing of Seifeddine comes nearly 10 days after a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in the heart of the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing top Sunni preacher Sheik Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti as he was giving a sermon. The March 21 blast killed 48 others and wounded dozens.

Al-Buti, like Seifeddine, was a strong supporter of the Assad regime, which is dominated by members of the president's minority Alawite sect, an off-shoot of Shiite Islam. The opposition is made up of mostly Sunnis, who are the majority among Syrians.

Extremists have been playing a larger role among the rebel groups. They include the Islamic Jabhat al-Nusra, a powerful offshoot of al-Qaida in Iraq, which has claimed responsibility for most of the deadliest suicide bombings against regime and military facilities and, as a result, has gained popularity among some rebels.

A photograph recently posted online by activists showed Seifeddine, who was in his late 50s and had a white beard. A banner posted over the picture said: "A wanted agent." Another referred to him as wanted by the rebels and read: "An agent of Syria's ruling gang and wanted by the Free Syrian Army."

Aleppo-based Sunni cleric Abdul-Qadir Shehabi told state-run TV that Seifeddine's son was kidnapped months ago. Shehabi also lashed out at the rebels, saying they "mutilated" Seifeddine's body.

"Is this the freedom that they talk about? This is the freedom of Satan," Shehabi said, referring to rebels who say they are fighting Assad's regime because it is authoritarian.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said Seifeddine's name had been put on an opposition "death list."

"He was the imam of a mosque. He was not armed when he was killed," Abdul-Rahman said. "We cannot close our eyes when the opposition violates human rights."

Abdul-Rahman said that although Sheikh Maqsoud is predominantly Kurdish, the eastern areas where much of the fighting occurred are inhabited by pro-regime Sunni Muslims known as the "Mardilis." Many of them came to Aleppo decades ago from Turkey's southeastern province of Mardin. He said Seifeddine was one of them.

Elsewhere in Syria, activists reported violence in areas of the southern province of Daraa, the suburbs of Damascus and the northern regions of Idlib and Raqqa. The Observatory said the heaviest clashes were in Raqqa and Sheikh Maqsoud.

Abdul-Rahman said the fighting in Sheikh Maqsoud killed 14 pro-government gunmen, seven rebels, 10 civilians and Seifeddine.

The Observatory said rebels were fighting a fierce battle around an army post known as the Camp in the oil-rich eastern province of Deir el-Zour, which borders Iraq.

In Damascus, residents said power was cut on Saturday in some neighborhoods. Al-Ikhbariya TV quoted Minister of Electricity Imad Khamis as saying the network suffered a technical problem that would be fixed in 24 hours. Damascus has witnessed repeated cuts in recent months.

Also on Saturday, SWR, a regional broadcaster for Germany's ARD public television network, said that one of its reporters was shot on Friday in Aleppo. SWR said the reporter, Joerg Armbruster, 65, had emergency surgery in a Syrian hospital and then was taken to the Turkish border in an ambulance on Saturday. He was to be flown to Germany for further treatment when his condition improves.

Afghan teenager fatally stabs U.S. soldier

This undated U.S. Army photo, shows Sgt. Michael C. Cable, 25, of Philpot, Ky. during his deployment in Afghanistan. An Afghan teenager killed Cable in eastern Afghanistan by stabbing him in the neck while he played with a group of local children, officials said Monday, April 1, 2013. (AP Photo/U.S. Army)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan teenager fatally stabbed an American soldier in the neck as he played with children in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Monday, as the U.S. death toll rose sharply last month with an uptick in fighting due to warmer weather.

Last week's calculated attack shows that international troops still face a myriad of dangers even though they are increasingly taking a back seat in operations with Afghan forces ahead of a full withdrawal by the end of 2014.

Just one U.S. service member was killed in February — a five-year monthly low — but the American death toll climbed to at least 14 last month.

Overall, the number of Americans and other foreign forces killed inAfghanistan has fallen as their role shifts more toward training and advising government troops instead of fighting.

But a series of so-called insider attacks on foreign troops by Afghan forces of insurgents disguised as them has threatened to undermine the trust needed to help President Hamid Karzai's government take the lead in securing the country after more than 11 years at war.

The attack that killed Sgt. Michael Cable, 26, of Philpot, Ky., last Wednesday occurred after the soldiers had secured an area for a meeting of U.S. and Afghan officials in a province near the volatile border with Pakistan.

But one of two senior U.S. officials who confirmed that Cable had been stabbed by a young man said the assailant was not believed to have been in uniform so it was not being classified as an insider attack.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said the attacker was thought to be about 16 years old. He escaped so his age couldn't be verified.

Cable's brother Raymond Johnston, a 42-year-old waiter in Owensboro, Ky., said the Army told the family the basics of what happened and that his brother was stabbed in the neck from behind.

Johnston said his brother, who also did a tour of duty in Iraq, was "prepared before he left for anything that happened" in Afghanistan.

Cable met individually with Johnston and three other family members before leaving for Afghanistan and had similar conversations with each — that the deployment was extremely hazardous and that his family and friends should "continue to enjoy life" if he was killed.

"He was able to communicate to the family about if the worst was supposed to happen, what we were supposed to do," Johnston said.

Cable's body was scheduled to return to Owensboro in western Kentucky on Thursday. Visitation was scheduled for Friday with the funeral set for Saturday.

The Afghan and American dignitaries were attending the swearing-in ceremony of Afghan Local Police in Shinwar district in Nangarhar province, senior district official Zalmai Khan said. Afghan Local Police, or ALP, recruits are drawn from villages and backed by the U.S. military.

The soldier was playing with children outside when the attacker came from behind and stabbed him in the neck with a large knife, Khan said. Other guards nearby didn't immediately notice what had happened because there was no gunshot, and the assailant was able to flee to neighboring Pakistan, he added.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid identified the attacker as a 16-year-old local man named Khalid. He said Khalid was acting independently when he killed the soldier but had joined the Islamic militant movement since fleeing the scene.

The district official Khan did not provide a name or confirm the Taliban's claim.

The Pentagon said in a statement last week that Cable, died from injuries sustained when his unit was attacked by enemy forces.

The killing comes as the U.S. death toll rose to 14 in March, compared with four in the previous two months of the year, partly fueled by the start of the spring fighting season when the Taliban and other insurgents take advantage of improved weather to step up attacks.

By contrast, at least 67 members of the Afghan security forces were killed last month, compared with 42 in February and 55 in January.

In a success story for the Afghan government, the intelligence service announced that it had foiled a plan to attack the Sulma dam in the western province of Herat.

Agency spokesman Shafiqullah Tahiri said an Afghan man identified as Sayed Gul was arrested with 1,300 kilograms (about 1.5 tons) of explosives. He blamed the Pakistani Taliban for plotting to bomb the dam in a bid to destabilize the country.

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Associated Press writers Kimberly Dozier, Amir Shah and Rahim Faiez in Kabul, and Brett Barrouquere in Louisiville, Ky., contributed to this report.

Follow Kim Gamel on Twitter at https://twitter.com/kimgamel