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JIMBOURG,POOL—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah, center le , at the start of a meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on Friday. ByBradleyKlapper The Associated Press KABUL, AFGHANISTAN The United States struggled Fri- day to find a path out of a presidential election cri- sis in Afghanistan that has jeopardized chances for a democratic transfer of power, a central plank of President Barack Obama's strategy to leave behind a stable state after the with- drawal of most U.S. troops at year's end. Secretary of State John Kerry held a series of back- to-back meetings in Kabul that went into the night, grappling for a plan accept- able to all that would allow the United Nations to audit extensive fraud allegations in last month's runoff vote. Kerry met separately with the rival candidates, former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and former Foreign Minis- ter Abdullah Abdullah, and conferred twice each with current President Hamid Karzai and the U.N. chief in Afghanistan, Jan Kubis. A deal remained elusive, ac- cording to senior U.S. offi- cials, though Kerry was to hold further discussions Saturday. "We are in a very, very critical moment for Afghan- istan," Kerry told reporters. "Legitimacy hangs in the balance. The future poten- tial of the transition hangs in the balance." The bitter dispute over who is Karzai's rightful successor has alarmed Af- ghanistan's U.S. and West- ern benefactors, creating a political crisis that risks un- dermining more than a de- cade of efforts to build an Afghan government capa- ble of fighting the Taliban on its own and snuffing out terrorist groups like al-Qa- ida. A prolonged crisis would have more immediate con- sequences for Afghanistan. If no process is established and both Ghani and Abdul- lah attempt to seize power, the government and secu- rity forces could split along ethnic and regional lines. And the winner amid all the chaos could be the Tal- iban, whose battle against the government persists despite the United States spending hundreds of bil- lions of dollars and losing more than 2,000 lives since invading the country after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Kerry's hastily arranged predawn arrival on Fri- day appeared to have suc- ceeded in its most press- ing objective: Getting both candidates to pull back from declarations of victory and quieting calls among Abdullah's supporters, pow- erful warlords included, for setting up a "parallel gov- ernment." USstrugglestoresolve Afghan election crisis WORLD By Josef Federman The Associated Press JERUSALEM Israel's prime minister vowed Friday to press forward with a broad military offensive in the Gaza Strip, insisting international pressure will not halt what he said was a determined effort to halt rocket fire by Palestinian militants as the death toll from the 4-day-old conflict rose above 100. Addressing a news con- ference, Benjamin Netan- yahu brushed off a question about possible cease-fire ef- forts, signaling there was no end in sight to the operation. "I will end it when our goals are realized. And the overriding goal is to restore the peace and quiet," Netan- yahu said. Israel says it launched the offensive on Tuesday in re- sponse to weeks of heavy rocket fire out of Gaza. The Israeli military says it has hit more than 1,100 targets, mostly what it identified as rocket-launching sites, bom- barding the territory on av- erage every five minutes. At least 21 Palestinians were killed Friday, push- ing the overall death toll to 106, including dozens of civilians, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Hundredsofrockets launched Palestinian militants have fired more than 600 rockets at Israel, including one that struck a gas station and set it ablaze earlier Fri- day in the southern city of Ashdod. Israeli health offi- cials said the blast wounded three people, including one in serious condition. The army also said the condition of a soldier wounded by rocket shrap- nel on Thursday had wors- ened. But there have been no deaths on the Israeli side, in large part because of a new rocket-defense system that has intercepted at least 128 incoming projectiles. Netanyahu said he has been in touch with numer- ous world leaders, including PresidentBarackObamaand theleadersofBritain,France, Germany and Canada. He said he had "good dis- cussions" with his counter- parts, telling them that no other country would tolerate repeated fire on its citizens. "No international pres- sure will prevent us from acting with all power," he said. Israel's allies have backed the country's right to self- defense, but they have called for restraint. U.N. Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern about the heavy civilian casualties in Gaza, and on Friday, the U.N.'s top human rights of- ficial said the air campaign may violate international laws prohibiting the target- ing of civilians. "We have received deeply disturbing reports that many of the civilian ca- sualties, including of chil- dren, occurred as a result of strikes on homes," said Navi Pillay, the U.N. high com- missioner for human rights. "Such reports raise seri- ous doubt about whether the Israeli strikes have been in accordance with inter- national humanitarian law and international human rights law," she said. Netanyahu brushed aside such criticism, saying Is- rael's aerial campaign is aimed at military targets. He blamed Hamas for causing civilian casualties by hiding in residential ar- eas and criticized the group for targeting Israeli popula- tion centers. Israel has massed thou- sands of troops along the border in preparation for a possible ground invasion. Netanyahu was evasive when asked about the odds of a ground operation, say- ing only: "We are weighing every possibility." Rocket fire continued in earnest from Gaza toward various locations in south- ern and central Israel. The commercial center of Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion air- port, Israel's main interna- tional gateway, also heard warning sirens Friday but these rockets were inter- cepted and there was no dis- turbance to Israel's air traf- fic. Hamas says it intends to fire rockets at the airport and warned foreign airlines to stop flying to Israel. Militants in Lebanon also took aim at northern Israel with rockets for the first time in the conflict. Rocket fire struck near the border between the two countries and the mili- tary responded with artil- lery fire toward the source in southern Lebanon, mili- tary spokesman Lt. Col. Pe- ter Lerner said. MIDDLE EAST Israel leader: Pressure won't stop offensive KHALIL HAMRA — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Palestinians look the damage of a destroyed house where five members of the Ghannam family were killed in an Israeli missile strike early morning in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip on Friday. By Donna Cassata The Associated Press WASHINGTON Two of the four U.S. deaths in Beng- hazi might have been pre- vented, military leaders say, if commanders had known more about the intensity of the sporadic gunfire di- rected at the CIA facility where Americans had taken refuge and had pressed to get a rescue team there faster. Senior military lead- ers have told Congress in closed-door testimony that after the first attack on the main U.S. diplomatic com- pound on Sept. 11, 2012, they thought the fight- ing had subsided and the Americans who had fled to the CIA base about a mile away were safe. In fact, they were facing intermittent small arms fire and rocket- propelled grenades around midnight and had returned fire. Then the attackers dis- persed. Hours later, at first light, an 11-minute mortar and rocket-propelled grenade attack slammed into the CIA annex, killing security contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. In hindsight, retired Gen. Carter Ham, then head of the U.S. military command in Africa, said he would have pressed Libyan con- tacts in the defense min- istry and other officials to help speed up the evacu- ation of Americans from Benghazi. Also, a special opera- tions team that had been dispatched from Croatia to Sicily after the first at- tack might have made it to Benghazi, if a host of vari- ables were ideal — a quick departure, wind direction and speed, and an unob- structed runway to land a U.S. aircraft. Ham said "in a perfect world, with no other dis- ruptions or distractions," it could have happened. As it turned out, a six- man security team, includ- ing Special Forces person- nel that arrived at Beng- hazi airport at 1:30 a.m., was held up there for hours by Libyan militia. "In my view, that time delay, that inability of the team to get off of the Beng- hazi airport and get to the annex and back I think al- lowed sufficient time for the second attack to be orga- nized and conducted," said Ham, who was in Wash- ington at the time of the attacks. Two House panels — Armed Services and Over- sight and Government Re- form — interviewed nine military officers earlier this year, and the testimony was released this week. For the military, the fog of war shrouded Benghazi even before the night of Sept. 11. The first assault, about 9:40 p.m. local time, which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and communica- tions specialist Sean Smith, was the first news to some military leaders that the U.S. even had a diplomatic mission in the Libyan port city — and that Stevens was there even though Beng- hazi was considered a dan- gerous, near-lawless city af- ter the fall of dictator Col. Moammar Gadhafi. In a very short time, many in the military, in- cluding Ham, would then learn about the CIA annex. In his testimony, Ham said he was certain that some- one in his command knew of the existence of the facil- ities in Benghazi, but he ac- knowledged that the crisis was "not the ideal time to become aware of such fa- cilities." Throughout the night, the information relayed to military officers in Tripoli, up the chain of command to AFRICOM headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, and the Pentagon in Washing- ton was incomplete and of- ten contradictory. And that complicated efforts to mo- bilize personnel and air- craft to get Americans out of Libya. After the first attack, Ham and other military leaders were focused on a potential hostage situation, unaware that Stevens was already dead from smoke inhalation. They were un- der the impression that the Americans at the annex were safe, and none of the information they received suggested otherwise. FOG OF WAR Commanders: Benghazi rescue hampered by lack of information MOHAMMAD HANNON — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Libyan military guards check one of the U.S. Consulate's burnt out buildings days a er a deadly attack on Tuesday, September 11, 2012, in Benghazi. Please help sponsor a classroom subscription Call Kathy at (530) 527-2151 to find out how. 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