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ByMonikaScislowska The Associated Press WARSAW, POLAND War- ships. Tanks. Helicopters. Rapid reaction forces. Thousands of NATO troops are on the move this month in Poland and the Baltic states, practicing sea landings, air lifts and as- saults. The massive maneu- vers on NATO's eastern flank that began in early June in- clude the first-ever train- ing by the new, rapid reac- tion "spearhead" force, and are NATO's biggest defense boost since the Cold War. Polish and Baltic state leaders have made it clear that they want to host large numbers of U.S. and NATO forces as a deterrent in the face of a resurgent Rus- sia, and are welcoming the thousands of allied troops to their land and sea test ranges. Polish and Roma- nian leaders are even seek- ing more of a permanent allied military presence ahead of next year's NATO summit in Warsaw. "We must know how to defend ourselves. It is our goal to assure a stable or- der," Polish Foreign Minis- ter Grzegorz Schetyna said. "In the face of new, real threats, the biggest en- hancement since the Cold War of the alliance's collec- tive defense is taking place," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the Polish PAP news agency. He added that the spear- head exercise means to show that NATO is "ready and capable of facing every challenge and every threat." East European countries that took pains to shed Mos- cow's dominance almost three decades ago have been jittery ever since Rus- sia annexed the Crimean Peninsula last year and be- gan backing separatists in the deadly conflict in east- ern Ukraine. They have urged NATO to show force as a deterrent. In response, all kinds of NATO troops are testing their readiness this month to react and cooperate in the face of a potential cri- sis in the Allied Shield ex- ercise in Poland, the Bal- tic states and in Romania. Those nations had signif- icantly downscaled their armies and defense spend- ing since the Cold War, but now they want to be sure that NATO will defend them in time of need — especially Poland, with its memories of failed defense alliances at the start of World War II. Over 2,000 of the troops taking part in the Noble Jump maneuvers in south- western Poland are from the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force that Pres- ident Barack Obama and NATO leaders agreed upon at a NATO summit last fall. Multi-national drills are also being held at Poland's northwestern range in Drawsko Pomorskie, along with greatly scaled-up an- nual BALTOPS exercises on the Baltic Sea. BALTOPS this year in- cludes a spectacular am- phibious landing of 700 al- lied troops on a beach in Ustka in northern Poland. Its maneuvers involve some 60 ships from 17 NATO and partner nations and about 5,000 troops. But for the first time they are tak- ing place without Russia, whose Kaliningrad military port is on the Baltic. On Wednesday at BAL- TOPS, a Polish army am- phibian sank while return- ing to its ship following the drill. Both crew members were rescued unscathed. A multi-nation corps in Poland's Baltic port of Szc- zecin was doubling its staff to 400 this year to host the spearhead's command. Underscoring the maneu- vers' significance, the No- ble Jump exercises are be- ing visited Wednesday and Thursday by Stoltenberg and NATO's commander for Europe, Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, as well as Pol- ish Defense Minister To- masz Siemoniak and de- fense ministers from some other NATO nations. Russian President Vladi- mir Putin is not taking all this military activity lying down. On Tuesday, he an- nounced a substantial re- armament program for Russia that, among other things, will add to its nu- clear arsenal this year "over 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of penetrating even the most technologically advanced missile defense systems." Stoltenberg reacted by saying that Russia is "un- dermining the treaties we have had jointly in place for several years, which are im- portant for arms control." Speaking ahead of the spearhead exercises in Za- gan, in the southeast, he said that NATO members "don't seek confrontation. We seek and strive for a more coop- erative relationship but the precondition for that is that Russia is respecting the bor- ders of its neighbors." Russia's long-standing nuclear rhetoric, invest- ment in nuclear forces and in military exercises "re- quires that NATO is re- sponding," Stoltenberg said. 'SPEARHEAD' FORCE New NATO force trains in Poland to assure alliance's eastern flank CZAREKSOKOLOWSKI—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Soldiers park amphibious vehicles on a ship as they participate in a massive amphibious landing during NATO sea exercises in Ustka, Poland, on Wednesday. By Sarah El Deeb The Associated Press CAIRO The knock on the door came just before mid- night, a group of plain- clothes police demanding that 29-year-old Fatma el- Sayed, an activist with one of Egypt's secular oppo- sition groups, come with them. Her father pleaded to accompany her, but they took her away, alone. For the next four days, el- Sayed was kept in a cell in the security agency head- quarters in her home town of Alexandria — off official records, essentially disap- peared into Egypt's laby- rinth of detention facilities. She was interrogated with- out a lawyer and denied the injections she needed after recent surgery. "They tried to extract in- formation from me," she said — about fellow activ- ists in the opposition group April 6, about the group's call for a protest against the high cost of living, about any coordination with the Muslim Brotherhood. "I gave them nothing," she said. Egyptian security agen- cies are increasingly detain- ing activists and students in secret, snatching them from homes or the street and holding them without offi- cial record of their arrest, as their families scramble to find them, activists and lawyers say. Activists have tracked more than 160 such sus- pected disappearances in police custody during the past two months — a sign of the renewed unchecked power of security agen- cies. It is a return to past practices under autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak, when detainees were held, sometimes for years, with- out trial under notorious emergency laws in effect for decades and lifted after his 2011 ouster. El-Sayed was lucky. Af- ter four days, police filed a record of her arrest and released her on bail. She has been charged with membership in April 6, a leading force in the anti- Mubarak uprising that is now banned. Other missing activists have reappeared days or even weeks later when police finally filed ar- rest reports. But the whereabouts of most remains unknown. Activists and lawyers fear they are abused during in- terrogation. At least one of the miss- ing turned up dead. Islam Ateto was taken by security agents in May as he left a classroom at a Cairo uni- versity, according to stu- dent unions. Soon after, police announced that At- eto was killed in a gunbat- tle with security forces in the desert, alleging he was wanted for the assassina- tion of a police officer. Government officials, including Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab, have re- peatedly denied there are any extra-legal detainees in Egypt, saying those in custody are held either on a prosecutor's order or were arrested during the act of a crime. With the recent spike in reports of missing detain- ees, government officials have largely ignored calls for an explanation. Repeated requests by The Associated Press to the spokesman for the In- terior Ministry received no response. A senior security official dismissed allega- tions of disappearances and questioned how it could be proven that security agents took anyone away. However, another offi- cial said secret interroga- tions and detention were sometimes necessary when state security or intelli- gence agencies are pursuing terror cells that threaten national security. Both of- ficials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to speak to the media. The government has re- peatedly touted its "war on terrorism" — a refer- ence to its battle against Islamic militants carrying out stepped-up attacks and to a crackdown on Islamists following the military's July 2013 ouster of Islamist Pres- ident Mohammed Morsi. With the clampdown, many activists have gone into hid- ing, complicating efforts to determine who has been de- tained. When grilled by the fa- ther of a missing woman on a private television sta- tion last week, Interior Min- istry spokesman Abu Bakr Abdel-Karim insisted that if she had been arrested, "le- gal procedures must have been followed." SUSPECTED DISAPPEARANCES Secret police detentions of activists on the rise in Egypt AMR NABIL — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Egyptian women wait near an armored army vehicle guarding Tora Prison in Cairo. By Ahmed Al-Haj The Associated Press SANAA, YEMEN A series of Islamic State-claimed bombings in Yemen's rebel-controlled capital killed at least four people and wounded 60 Wednes- day night amid the coun- try's raging war. The online claim, if true, would further complicate the ongoing conflict in Ye- men that pits Shiite reb- els known as Houthis and breakaway army units against an array of often rival forces, including lo- cal tribesmen, loyalists to the exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour and al-Qa- ida militants. The bomb- ings came on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan, when radical Sunni mili- tants around the region of- ten escalate their attacks against Shiites, whom they view as heretics. Meanwhile Wednes- day, airstrikes by a Saudi- led coalition backing Hadi struck a convoy of civilian vehicles in the southern city of Aden, killing at least 31 people, authorities said. In Sanaa, ambulances rushed through the streets in northern and central parts of the capital where the offices of the rebels, known as Houthis, are lo- cated. Pictures posted on- line from the area show huge orange flames ris- ing from the areas, which also are home to Shiite mosques. Security officials earlier said two suicide attack- ers drove car bombs into the gates of two buildings before detonating them. They said a third attack targeted a gathering of Houthis in Sanaa's Green Dome district. The Health Ministry said "preliminary" reports indicate the blasts killed four people and wounded 60. The online statement claiming Yemen's Islamic State affiliate carried out the attack said its mil- itants set off four car bombs outside two Shi- ite mosques, including in the Green Dome district, which is close to a security office used by the Houthis. The third car bomb hit the Houthi's main political of- fice and a fourth targeted the home of a Houthi pol- itician on the same street, it said. The Islamic State group, which now controls a third of both Iraq and Syria in its self-declared caliph- ate, has had its Yemen af- filiate claim attacks in the country before. In March, just before the Saudi-led coalition began its air- strike campaign, the af- filiate, which refers to it- self as the Sanaa province, claimed responsibility for a series of suicide bombings in Sanaa targeting Shi- ites that killed at least 137 people and wounded 345. American officials initially expressed skepticism that affiliate existed, as Yemen is also home to the world's most dangerous al-Qaida offshoot. The al-Qaida branch, whose leader was killed in a U.S. drone strike last week, has targeted the Houthis in dozens of deadly attacks and its militants are en- gaged in near-daily attacks in central Yemen. U.N.-brokered talks be- tween the rival factions in Yemen's civil war are un- derway in Geneva, aimed at ending the violence and addressing the humani- tarian crisis in the Arab world's poorest country. Mediators hope for a hu- manitarian truce during Ramadan, which starts Thursday, but neither side has shown any desire to compromise. 60 WOUNDED Is la mi c St at e- cl ai me d Yemen bombings kill at least 4 people Thiscouldbeyourluckyday by helping a dog or cat find a loving home from... Ad Sponsorship $ 25 Call Suzy 737-5056 RedBluffDailyNews ELI Paws & Claws TEHAMACOUNTYANIMAL SHELTER 1830 Walnut Street P.O. Box 38 • Red Bluff, CA 96080 (530) 527-3439 CORNING ANIMAL SHELTER 4312 Rawson Rd. 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