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Attacks, political strife unsettle Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - Gunmen fired on a car carrying two Afghans from a German relief agency in a former Taliban stronghold, officials said Wednesday, killing them both in another setback to stuttering efforts to bring assistance to long-suffering Afghans.

The U.S. military forecast more attacks on civilians - possibly including a major strike in the capital - as tension and violence continue to mount in the run-up to landmark October elections.

On Wednesday, Afghanistan's powerful defense minister, Mohammed Fahim, backed a rival to President Hamid Karzai in the elections, and insisted he would not use violence to try to hang on to office.

Karzai last week dropped Fahim, a militia leader who also serves as deputy head-of-state, from his ticket for the Oct. 9 presidential vote. The surprise move split Karzai's Cabinet and put NATO troops in Kabul on alert for any reaction from Fahim's troops.

NEW YORK - Three Britons freed from Guantanamo Bay claim they suffered systematic brutality and were kept in cages in the sweltering Cuban heat during their detention at the U.S. military base.

In a report released by their lawyers Wednesday, the men say the brutal treatment forced them to make false confessions.

"The idea that these three people were kept in this prison, this gulag and forced to make false confessions is amazing," Michael Ratner, head of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said at the group's Manhattan offices.

Asif Iqbal, Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul, friends from England, were released from the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo in March after more than two years.

UNITED NATIONS - More than 100,000 people protested Wednesday in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, against Security Council action on Sudan, but Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the world organization would not be deterred from helping to end the violence in the country's western Darfur region.

The marchers, who news agencies reported had been organized by the government, demonstrated outside U.N. offices and accused the organization of providing cover for an American attack on the country like those in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Annan, Annan, you coward, we will not be ruled by the Americans," they shouted, Reuters reported.

"Sometimes governments use these demonstrations to put pressure on the U.N. and to send a message to the international community," Annan said. "Some of the statements are not necessarily for you or me, but for people on the ground."

TURKEY QUAKE: A moderate earthquake struck Turkey's Aegean coast Wednesday, and at least seven people were injured jumping out windows or from balconies, an official said. No damage was reported in the region. The 5.4-magnitude quake hit at 6:01 a.m. and sent foreign tourists and residents into the streets in panic.