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ByJosefFederman The Associated Press JERUSALEM Israel'sprime minister threatened Tues- day to take even tougher action against Hamas fol- lowing an intense wave of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, as the country bur- ied three Israeli teens it says were kidnapped and killed by the Islamic mili- tant group. In comments broadcast live on national television, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his first goal is to find the killers of the three teens. "We will not rest until we reach the last of them," he said. But a broader mission is to act against Hamas in its Gaza stronghold, the Is- raeli leader said as he con- vened an emergency meet- ing of his Security Cabinet to discuss a response to the deadly abductions. "Hamas continues to sup- port, even at this time, the kidnappings of our citizens and is directly responsible for firing rockets and mor- tars at our territory, includ- ing in recent hours," Netan- yahu said. "If there is a need, we will broaden the campaign as much as needed." The three teenagers — Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Is- raeli-American citizenship — disappeared on the night of June 12 as they were hitchhiking home from Jewish seminaries they at- tended in the West Bank. The abductions sparked Israel's broadest ground operation in the West Bank in nearly a decade, with the military deploying thou- sands of troops in a frantic search for the youths. Ac- cusing Hamas of being be- hind the abductions, it also launched a massive crack- down against the group's West Bank infrastructure. The manhunt came to a grim end on Monday when searchers discovered the teens' bodies under a pile of rocks in a field near the city of Hebron, a few miles from where they disappeared. The plight of the teens captured the nation's at- tention, and the discovery of their bodies prompted an outpouring of grief. An es- timated 50,000 mourners attended Tuesday's funeral in the central Israeli city of Modiin, arriving in hun- dreds of buses organized for the occasion. "This day has sponta- neously turned into a na- tional day of mourning," Netanyahu said in his eu- logy as the three bodies, wrapped in blue-and-white Israeli flags and laid out on stretchers were laid to rest side-by-side. Earlier, hundreds of peo- ple had headed to the teens' hometowns for separate memorial services. "Rest in peace my child," said Fraenkel's mother, Rachelle, who became a well-known figure during the ordeal as she sought to draw attention to the teens' plight. "We will learn to sing without you. We will always hear your voice in- side of us." Thousands of Israelis have died in wars and vi- olence with the country's Arab neighbors over the years, but these killings struck a nerve, largely be- cause of the young ages of the victims and the fact that they were unarmed ci- vilians. "Today, we are burying a child who could have been any one of ours and there- fore he is one of ours — all of us," Finance Minister Yair Lapid said at the me- morial for Shaar. Israel has identified two Hamas operatives as the chief suspects in the kid- nappings. But it has of- fered little public evidence against the men, who re- main on the loose. As Israel buries teens, new threats against Hamas MIDDLE EAST By Ryan Lucas The Associated Press BAGHDAD Despite mount- ing pressure to step aside, Iraq's Nouri al-Maliki vowed Friday not to aban- don his bid for another term as prime minister and pledged to stay on until the Sunni militants who have overrun much of the coun- try are defeated. The sharp words are cer- tain to prolong the politi- cal impasse gripping Iraq, which is facing urgent de- mands for a new govern- ment that can hold the na- tion together in the face of an onslaught that threat- ens to cleave it in three along ethnic and sectar- ian lines. The offensive by mil- itants who have swept across much of northern and western Iraq since last month has been fueled in part by grievances among the country's Sunni Mus- lim minority with al-Ma- liki and his Shiite-led gov- ernment. Al-Maliki, a Shiite who has been prime minister since 2006, has been ac- cused by former allies and others of monopolizing power and contributing to the crisis by failing to pro- mote reconciliation with Sunnis. The U.S. has urged the formation of a more inclu- sive government but has not explicitly called for al- Maliki to bow out. In what has been seen as a rebuke of al-Maliki, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has pressed lawmakers to quickly form a new government that can confront the militant threat and unite the coun- try. Lawmakers failed in their first session of parlia- ment on Tuesday to make any progress. On Friday, al-Sistani la- mented the inability of po- litical leaders to agree on a new prime minister and urged them to redouble their efforts, a cleric who represents him told wor- shippers in a sermon in the holy city of Karbala. Al-Maliki's State of law bloc won the most parlia- mentary seats in April elec- tions, which would tra- ditionally make him the leading candidate to head a new government. But al- Maliki failed to gain a ma- jority in the legislature, meaning he needs allies to form a government. That has set the stage for intense wrangling over the makeup of a coalition — and, above all, who will be prime minister. Al-Maliki made clear on Friday his determination to stay on for a third consecu- tive term — or at least un- til he has crushed the in- surgency "I will never give up the nomination for the post of prime minister," he said in a statement issued by his office. He framed the debate over his future in dem- ocratic terms, remind- ing Iraqis that the voters handed his bloc the most seats in parliament, and declaring that he must "stand by them during this crisis that Iraq is passing through." Al-Maliki said that to pull out now "while facing terrorist organizations that are against Islam and hu- manity would show weak- ness instead of carrying out my legitimate, national and moral responsibility." "I have vowed to God that I will continue to fight by the side of our armed forces and volunteers un- til we defeat the enemies of Iraq and its people," he said. Iraq's military claimed progress in that fight Fri- day, saying troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships captured the vil- lage of Awja — the birth- place of former dictator Saddam Hussein — south of Tikrit. The push through Awja is part of an offensive whose ultimate aim is to retake Tikrit. North of Tikrit, govern- ment airstrikes hit around eight vehicles carrying mil- itants trying to capture Iraq's largest oil refinery, said Sabah al-Nuaman, the spokesman for Iraq's coun- terterrorism services. He reported as many as 30 in- surgents were killed. Fighters from the Is- lamic State group have been trying for weeks to capture the Beiji facility, some 155 miles north of Baghdad. The group ap- peared on the verge of tak- ing the refinery last month, but military troops man- aged to hold on and have since received reinforce- ments. IRAQ Al -M al ik i si gn al s hi s intent to stay in job KARIMKADIM—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, center, attends the first session of parliament in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, on Tuesday. By David Mchugh The Associated Press KIEV, UKRAINE Fighting in eastern Ukraine left at least nine Ukrainian sol- diers dead Friday, as gov- ernment troops pressed their offensive against pro- Russian insurgents using heavy artillery and combat jets and prospects of a truce appeared dim. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Ukraine was ready to con- duct another round of talks between representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the rebels on Saturday, but didn't name their venue. Two previous rounds of such negotiations held dur- ing a 10-day cease-fire have yielded no visible progress, but they brought the war- ring parties together for the first time. Moscow strongly pushed for extending the truce and holding more talks in an ap- parent hope to negotiate a settlement that would allow it to secure a degree of in- fluence over the neighbor. The continuing fighting is putting more pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been fac- ing increasingly angry na- tionalist demands to send troops to help the insur- gency — a move that would inevitably trigger crippling Western sanctions. Ukraine's National Se- curity Council chief Andriy Parubiy said Friday that Russia was massing troops near the Ukrainian border and claimed that it let in- surgents attack the Ukrai- nian border posts from its side. The statements could not be independently veri- fied. The two neighbors, who share a 1,250-mile border that is unmarked and un- guarded outside of a few checkpoints, have been trading claims and counter- claims ever since Ukraine began fighting pro-Russia separatists in April. The government said nine troops were killed and 13 others were wounded in Friday's fighting in the east, according to the Interfax news agency. It did not elab- orate on where or how the deaths occurred. Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, the head of Ukraine's SBU security service, told jour- nalists that over the past four days 20 Russian tanks or armored vehicles had il- legally crossed the border to take part in the insurgency. Ukraine says Russia is arming and supporting the separatists, a charge that Russia denies. For its part, Moscow has repeatedly ac- cused Ukrainian troops of firing shells that landed on the Russian side and on one occasion last month hit a Russian border post, wounding one customs offi- cer. Russian border guards said 10 artillery shells flew from the Ukrainian side Friday, but no one was in- jured. It is nearly impossible to prove or dispel the claims from the opposing sides, since the fighting consists of intermittent clashes be- tween small units with no fixed front line and it is deadly dangerous for jour- nalists and other observers to travel around. Five jour- nalists have been killed cov- ering the conflict and sev- eral teams of observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have been kid- napped by rebels. Russia has proposed hosting both OSCE observ- ers and Ukrainian officers at its border checkpoints to prove it wasn't fueling the mutiny. The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday accused Poroshenko's government of dragging its feet on hold- ing another round of nego- tiations to resume a truce and accused it of using cluster munitions against civilians. Parubiy said govern- ment forces were attacking rebel positions in eastern Ukraine with artillery and planes and that 17 villages had been recaptured since a unilateral cease-fire expired Monday. He said Ukrainian forces now controlled 23 of the 36 local regions within the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces that have de- clared independence. EASTERN EUROPE Uk ra in e cl ai ms i ts w in ni ng ground in the rebellious east DMITRY LOVETSKY — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Ukrainian army soldiers move to a position near the village of Dovgenke, Kharkiv region, eastern Ukraine on Friday. N EWS D AILY REDBLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U NTY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 PHONE: (530)527-2151 FAX: (530) 527-5774 545 Diamond Avenue • P.O. Box 220 • Red Bluff, CA 96080 Support our classrooms, keep kids reading. DONATE YOUR VACATION newspaper dollars to the Newspaper In Education Program HELP OUR CHILDREN For more details call Circulation Department (530) 527-2151 SATURDAY, JULY 5, 2014 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 5 B