Three detainees released to families

Three Guantanamo prisoners were flown to Bosnia Tuesday and released to their families in the first detainee transfer ordered by a U.S. federal judge, according to local police and an attorney for the men.

A judge in Washington ordered the release of Algerian-born Boudella al Hajj, Mustafa Ait Idr and Mohammed Nechle last month, saying the U.S. government’s case was not strong enough to continue holding them. The order came in the first hearing on the Bush administration’s evidence for keeping prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in eastern Cuba as “enemy combatants.”

An unscheduled Tuesday night flight to the Sarajevo airport delivered a group of men to police who rushed them out of the building, put them in armored vehicles and took them to state police headquarters.

Two hours after the plane landed, a uniformed officer standing outside police headquarters told media that the men were allowed to go home after going through an identification process.

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Rebels claim they rebuffed military

Sri Lankan rebels said today they had repelled a coordinated government offensive into rebel-held territory, killing 130 government soldiers and wounding hundreds of other troops. The government denied the claims.

The fighting came as Sri Lankan forces pushed ahead with a monthslong offensive against the Tamil Tigers’ northern stronghold in the face of punishing seasonal rains and stiff rebel resistance.

The latest battles erupted Tuesday when government forces launched attacks on rebel positions in at least four sites in the Kilinochchi district and along the front lines in the Jaffna peninsula, the rebel-linked Web site TamilNet reported, citing Tamil Tiger officials.

Islamabad, Pakistan

Kerry: Terrorist crackdown ‘sincere’

Pakistan appears “sincere” in its effort to crack down on a militant group blamed for the Mumbai terrorist attack and has arrested more suspects, Sen. John Kerry said Tuesday.

But the next head of the U.S. Senate’s powerful foreign relations committee also suggested that generous American assistance to Pakistan depended on it capping past support for extremist groups.

India is suspicious of Pakistan’s avowed clampdown on Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group New Delhi blames for last month’s attack, which killed more than 160 people and raised concern that the nuclear-armed neighbors could slide into their fourth war.

Pakistani authorities have raided suspected militant training camps and confirmed the detention of three key suspects, including two alleged plotters of the attacks and the purported head of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Kerry said he had learned during two days of talks with Pakistani government and military leaders that authorities had taken more action than had been announced.

“I know that more people have been detained than India is aware of,” Kerry told reporters in Islamabad on Tuesday.