Commandos

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Israeli commandos dropped deep into Lebanon yesterday, clashing with Hezbollah fighters in a raid that left one Israeli soldier dead and put the first serious strain on the cease-fire that started six days ago. Israel and Lebanon swiftly accused each other of breaking the U.N. Security Council resolution that established the conditions for ending more than a month of cross-border bombing and rocket attacks that left hundreds of people...

The Wine Market is hosting a cocktail tasting featuring Hum Botanical Spirit on Thursday night from 5 to 7 p.m. On hand will be Adam Seger, the Chicago-based mixologoist who concocted Hum, a very pretty, very, very red 70-proof liqueur infused with botanicals. Andrew Wienzirl, the Wine Market's executive chef is preparing light appetizers such as lobster with saffron coulis and Israeli couscous. The event's cost is $25. Call the Wine Market at 410-244-6166 for more information and tickets.

We speak of military culture, as we do of military justice or music, only warily. Neither warfare's brute force nor its daunting precision seems to qualify it for such elevation. Yet we as a nation are fascinated by it. For one thing, America is good at making war -- methodically, reassuringly (or for some, frighteningly) good at it.Newsweek correspondent Douglas Waller is among the reassured. He has written an up-to-date, well-informed recent history of the United States' increasingly essential "secret soldiers," its commandos.

The Obama administration may finally be on the right track in its strategy for combating terrorism, as its new strategic doctrine has sworn off counter-insurgency in favor of a more targeted approach — one that we see already in effect as unmanned drones carry out strikes in Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere. The new approach is contained in a 19-page document, the "National Strategy for Counterterrorism," which was outlined Wednesday by John O. Brennan, President Obama's counterterrorism chief.

WASHINGTON -- Within minutes of receiving word that an Air Force pilot was down in Yugoslavia, an elite air commando team took off from its base in Brindisi, Italy, to rescue the flier from deep inside enemy territory.The F-117 Nighthawk fighter went down at 2: 50 p.m. EST, 50 to 70 miles northwest of Belgrade, according to a military officer knowledgeable with the rescue operation and who spoke only on condition of anonymity.A commando team launched "nearly immediately" from their base at Brindisi, guided to the crash site by a pair of E-3 AWACs surveillance aircraft, the officer said.

WASHINGTON -- Newly declassified government documents prove that the United States, after sending hundreds of Vietnamese commandos into North Vietnam during the 1960s, deliberately declared them dead, lied to their wives and then buried their story under a shroud of secrecy.Nearly 200 of those secret agents survived capture, torture and prison and are alive in the United States. They are asking the government for back pay -- $2,000 a year, without interest, for their prison time -- and help in getting 88 fellow commandos out of Vietnam.

JERUSALEM - An explosive that killed five Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip on Thursday had probably been planted there by Israeli army commandos to target militants who launch mortars into Jewish settlements, Israeli military sources said yesterday. A senior army commander called the incident a "grave mishap" and said that such tactics are being re-evaluated. The source said investigators have found "serious fault" with the undercover unit that placed the device along a path near a school.

WASHINGTON -- Thirty years after they were written off as dead, Vietnamese commandos who once worked for the U.S. Army are being abandoned again by a Pentagon that has refused to pay compensation approved by President Clinton, a lawyer for the commandos says.Six months ago, Clinton signed a law providing $20 million in compensation to the commandos, who were hired by the CIA and Defense Department for secret missions in the early days of the Vietnam War.But the Defense Department is balking at making payments.

To Sedgwick Tourison, his book about a secret army of commandos in the Vietnam War is an attempt "to correct a grievous wrong 32 years ago.""It's a story we've covered up for so long. It had to be told," said the 54-year-old Crofton author, who was an interrogator during the war and later an analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). It's not easy, but it's all documented."Mr. Tourison's book, "Secret Army, Secret War," hit regional book stores this month. The 389-page book, published by the Naval Institute Press, is an exhaustive account of the Central Intelligence Agency's attempt to train South Vietnamese commandos to infiltrate North Vietnam.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen stormed the former insurgent bastion of Samarra in northern Iraq yesterday, killing at least two elite police commandos and injuring as many as six. Witnesses said armed men in as many as 10 civilian cars marauded through Samarra, a historic Tigris River shrine city filled with archaeological treasures. They attacked a building used by security forces with mortars and rocket-propelled-grenade launchers. The gunmen then surrounded the hospital and began shooting at it until Iraqi and U.S. reinforcements arrived, witnesses said.

Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself ** ( 2 STARS) $23.4 million $23.4 million 1 week Rated: PG-13 Running time: 1:53 What it's about: A hard-drinking, cynical nightclub singer (Taraji P. Henson) must care for her 16-year-old niece and two younger nephews after they are dumped on her doorstep. Our take: Strong performances and stirring music more than compensate for Perry's hokey storytelling. 9 *** ( 3 STARS) $10.7 million $15.1 million 10 days Rated: PG-13 Running time: 1:19 What it's about: A group of nine living raggedy dolls debate how to survive in a world where malevolent machines have eliminated all other life.

Inglourious Basterds * 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS) $38 million $38 million 1 week Rated: R Running time: 2:33 What it's about: A band of Jewish-American commandos (including Brad Pitt, above) bedevil the German army, and a French Jew seeks justice for the Nazi slaughter of her family. Our take: It's so hollow and protracted that it transforms mayhem into monotony. District 9 ** ( 2 STARS) $18.2 million $72.8 million 2 weeks Rated: R Running time: 1:52 What it's about: A government agent comes to the aid of an alien race (above)

MUMBAI, India - Security forces assaulted a Jewish center in Mumbai where Muslim militants were believed holed up with possible hostages today, with black-clad commandos dropping from an Indian helicopter as sharpshooters opened fire on the five-story building. The attack came as Indian commandos scoured two luxury hotels room-by-room for survivors and holed-up militants, more than a day after a chain of attacks across India's financial center by suspected Muslim militants left at least 119 people dead.

U.S. forces crossed five miles into Syria by helicopter and launched a commando raid yesterday near the Iraqi border that left at least eight people dead, Syrian news outlets and sources reported. Details of yesterday's attack were sketchy. A military officer in Iraq confirmed that U.S. forces had conducted a raid into Syria but declined to provide further information. In Washington, military representatives did not deny that a raid had taken place. Though they would not confirm the attack, they used language typically employed after raids conducted by Special Operations Forces.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - More extremist attacks shook Pakistan yesterday on the heels of a devastating bomb attack on the capital's best-known hotel. Gunmen took the Afghan consul-general hostage after killing his driver, and suicide bombers killed nine police officers at a checkpoint in the valley of Swat, northwest of the capital. The bombing Saturday of the deluxe Marriott Hotel, in which at least 53 people died and more than 260 were wounded, was still shrouded in mystery. A little-known terrorist group called Fadayeen Islam - "Islamic Commandos" - took responsibility in a tape given to a Dubai-based television news channel, claiming that there had been 250 U.S. Marines and NATO officials at the hotel.

NAJAF, IRAQ -- The local audience knew what to expect when Iraqi commandos took the stage at the stadium here yesterday with frogs and a rabbit in hand, preparing to celebrate with a bloody flourish the handover of local authority from U.S. to Iraqi troops. The Americans were in for a surprise. As U.S. commanders and guests looked on, the burly commandos in dark green T-shirts began taking bites out of the frogs. One man knelt, placed the rabbit belly-up on his lap, and proceeded to cut it open with his military knife.

JERUSALEM - In an attack that targeted the heart of Jerusalem, a Palestinian gunman opened fire yesterday at a bus stop packed with people returning home from work, killing 2 and wounding 14. The gunman was killed in a firefight with police. Witnesses said the gunman calmly walked along Jaffa Road, the city's main shopping street, wearing a green jacket and an M-16 rifle attached to a shoulder harness - making him look like an Israeli soldier, a common sight in Jerusalem. In pouring rain at dusk, he stood in front of a cellular phone store, yelled "God is great!"

MOSCOW -- After four days of trying, Russian troops reached yesterday a convoy of crack police commandos who had been caught in a Chechen mountain ambush. They were much too late. Rebels had killed at least 32 commandos and delivered a potentially wounding blow to Russia's newly elected president. Vladimir V. Putin easily won election as president last Sunday, owing much of his popularity to the Chechen war. He promised victory and a strong, new Russia. On Wednesday morning, the commandos were attacked.