Obama, Clinton denounce attacks on Israel(Photo-Video)

The White House and State Department denounced Thursday's attacks in southern Israel, in which gunmen armed with heavy weapons and explosives attacked buses, cars and an army patrol.

Israel said the Palestinian assailants from Gaza killed seven people after crossing through Egypt's Sinai

Peninsula. Within hours, Israeli aircraft bombed southern Gaza in retaliation.

"We condemn the brutal terrorist attacks in southern Israel today in the strongest terms," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement. "Our deepest condolences go to the victims, their families and loved ones, and we wish those injured a speedy recovery. The U.S. and Israel stand united against terror, and we hope that those behind this attack will be brought to justice swiftly."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also spoke out against the attacks:

The United States condemns today's attacks in southern Israel and all acts of terrorism in the strongest terms. These brutal and cowardly attacks appear to be premeditated acts of terrorism against innocent civilians. Our deepest condolences go out to the victims, their families and loved ones.

This violence only underscores our strong concerns about the security situation in the Sinai Peninsula. Recent commitments by the Egyptian government to address the security situation in the Sinai are important, and we urge the Egyptian government to find a lasting resolution.

The United States and Israel are united in the fight against terror. We hope that those involved in the planning of these gruesome attacks will be brought to swift justice. We stand by Israel as our friend, partner and ally -- now and always.

Rage at Police Fuels Egypt Rioting (Photo-Video)

CAIRO—The Egyptian military intervened Wednesday afternoon to quell the biggest riots since the country's former president fell in February, as new uprisings stymie the country's newly reformed civilian police force and threaten to delay the country's transition to democratic rule. As many as 5,000 protesters, many of them family members of those killed in Egypt's February uprising, overwhelmed the country's riot police Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. More than 1,000 people suffered light injuries from rock-throwing and tear

gas, the Ministry of Health reported, but only 16 people remained hospitalized Wednesday afternoon. Police arrested 40 people, including an American and a British national, according to MENA, Egypt's official state news agency. The renewed violence, and the police's apparent inability to control Cairo's streets without military assistance, mark a significant setback for Egypt's provisional government, which had sought to re-establish internal security before guiding the country toward parliamentary elections scheduled for September. The abiding instability, along with paroxysms of sectarian violence over the past several months, come as several mostly secular political leaders say Egypt isn't ready to complete its transition to democracy November's scheduled presidential elections. Whether Egypt's police can offer adequate security for parliamentary elections is already a point of anxiety for the transitional government. In contrast with recent protests that had clear political aims, the past day's violence revived Egypt's police as a focus of public anger. Police brutality and corruption was a primary grievance of the protesters who toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February. Those protests reached a turning point when the police yielded control of the streets to Egypt's more-trusted military, before melting largely from sight. Since then, Egypt's Ministry of Interior has sought to earn public trust by reform from within as its forces have trickled back onto streets. The ministry oversees regular police as well as Egypt's Central Security Forces—a paramilitary law-enforcement agency normally tasked with riot control—and Homeland Security, the successor to Egypt's reviled State Security agency. Wael Abbas, an Egyptian blogger and pro-democracy activist, said the past day's events reveal that the stated reforms within these law-enforcement agencies have proven inadequate. "The Ministry of Interior as it is at the moment should be dissolved completely. It should be demilitarized," said Mr. Abbas, who was present at some of the recent protests. "It's the same Central Security using tear gas with peaceful protesters, rubber bullets, violence—the same as during Mubarak's time." Unlike in previous protests, few among those who convened on Tahrir Square appeared to be connected with the protest movement that ousted Mr. Mubarak. According to some witnesses, some appeared to be local youths spoiling for a fight. Accounts of the latest riots at times diverge. But common to most retellings, including a statement posted by the Ministry of Interior on its official Facebook page, is that family members of the "martyrs" killed by police officers earlier this year during the revolution gathered Tuesday evening at a theater in the Cairo suburb of Agouza for a ceremony that had been planned in their honor by a local organization. According to the ministry and some witnesses, police officers arrived to prevent nonrelatives from entering the theater. After scuffles broke out between the family members and police, the officers used hand-held weapons to subdue the crowd. The ministry blamed unidentified "thugs" for the attacks on the families. Family members then crossed the Nile River to demonstrate in front of the Ministry of Interior, the object of popular ire during the February uprising. Witnesses said officers from Egypt's Central Security Forces, a paramilitary law-enforcement agency normally tasked with riot control, threw rocks at the protesters, whose numbers had by then swelled to several thousand. By about 10 p.m. Tuesday, the protesters fled to nearby Tahrir Square,the focus of the protests during Egypt's revolution, and lobbed rocks at police for about 15 minutes before the riot police employed tear gas to disperse the crowds. Close-combat fighting raged in Tahrir Square until at least 3:00 a.m. and resumed again later on Wednesday before the military inserted themselves between protesters and police officers who were defending the ministry's outer walls. The rioting came two days after relatives of slain protesters attacked police outside a Cairo courthouse following a judge's decision to delay the trial of former interior minister Habib Al Adly, who is charged with ordering demonstrators' murders. Mustafa Shishtawy, 23, said he rushed to Tahrir Square on Tuesday night when he heard that the families of deceased protesters had been attacked by police. "It was a déjà vu of 28th of January," said Mr. Shishtawy, referring to the "Friday of Rage" in the early days of Egypt's revolution. "They threw too much tear gas on us," he said. "It was definitely revenge from the police because some of them were injured when we were throwing stones." Egypt's attorney general said Wednesday his office will investigate the Tahrir Square events. The violence forms the first major rebuke for Egypt's efforts to hastily reform its police after they abruptly disappeared during the uprising in late January. Since then, the military has handled the bulk of the day-to-day law enforcement while Egypt's vast security force tried to heal itself from within. "Any country that changes from a regime institution to a democratic institution has to pass through a liquid period like this," said Aasr Nigm Al Din, the head of training for Egypt's Homeland Security, which earlier this year replaced the State Security agency. The twin pressures to both reform and redeploy have been a major challenge for the police, an institution that many Egyptians had long considered corrupt beyond repair. Mr. Mubarak's regime had used the police as a means of preserving power rather than ensuring public safety, said Mr. Nigm Al Din. He and other officers have led the internal police reform effort over the past few months by focusing on holding officers accountable and depoliticizing police work. Tuesday and Wednesday's clashes in downtown Cairo were the police's first test against a large-scale demonstration without military support, and Mr. Nigm Al Din acknowledged that the violence will harm efforts by the interior ministry to gain public trust.

Egypt detains Mubarak and sons over corruption, abuse of authority

Egypt's prosecutor general announced Wednesday a 15-day detention for former President Hosni Mubarak to investigate accusations of corruption and abuse of authority, hours after announcing the detention of his sons Alaa and Gamal.

News of the reported detention order came a day hours after Mubarak, 82, was hospitalized with heart problems as investigations began over his own role in corruption and suppressing the protests that eventually led to his ouster.

The former Egyptian president was deposed Feb. 11 after 18 days of popular protests and has been under house arrest in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh for the last two months.

According to a statement posted on the Facebook page of the prosecutor general's office early Wednesday, Mubarak, as well his sons have been detained for 15 days.

"The prosecutor general orders the detention of former President Hosni Mubarak and his sons Gamal and Alaa for 15 days pending investigation after the prosecutor general presented them with the current state of its ongoing investigations," it read.

The statement says the ongoing investigation was into the orders to open fire on demonstrators as well as any abuse of the president's authority for personal gain.

Mubarak's reported detention came just hours after Egyptian prosecutors ordered the detention of his two powerful sons over their role in violence against protesters and corruption allegations are investigated.

Alaa and Gamal Mubarak are, like their father, to be detained for 15 days, Egyptian state television said on Wednesday. State prosecutors are probing accusations of embezzlement.

Many of Mubarak's top associates are now being questioned for their activities in the previous regime, but the detention of his sons is by far the most startling development since his Feb. 11 removal from office.

Gamal Mubarak, his younger son, was a top official in the ruling party and was widely seen as being groomed to succeed his father before popular protests brought down the regime.

While the ex-president was in the hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh where he has been living since being removed from power, his sons were taken for questioning to the nearby courthouse by prosecutors from Cairo.

An angry crowd of 2,000 people gathered outside and demanded the two be arrested.

In the early hours of the morning, the head of provincial security in the South Sinai told the crowd that Gamal and his businessman brother Alaa would be detained.

"Brothers, whatever you wanted, you have got ... 15 days," said Maj. Gen. Mohammed el-Khatib, as the crowd erupted in cheers. Egyptian state television later confirmed the order.

As a police van took away the two brothers, the crowd pelted it with water bottles, stones and their flip-flops, a sign of disrespect in the Arab world.

In the two months since Mubarak stepped down, the council of generals ruling the country have initiated a series of investigations of top regime officials.

Libya: Gaddafi forces keep up assault on rebel cities

Fighting has been continuing in Libya for key cities after a fifth consecutive night of air strikes.

Overnight several loud explosions were heard in Tripoli

In Misrata, a rebel-held city east of the capital, government tanks have been shelling the area near the hospital.

There have also been reports of fierce fighting between rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces in strategic Ajdabiya. Residents fleeing the town described shelling, gunfire and houses on fire.

In Misrata, Libya's third-largest city, witnesses had said on Wednesday that tanks had pulled back from their positions under air assault from international forces.

But later residents said the tanks had rolled back into the city and resumed shelling.

An explosion was also reported at a military base in the Tajura region east of Tripoli.

Residents in Tripoli said plumes of black smoke could be seen coming from an area near a military base, although this has not been independently confirmed.

Earlier, the US chief of staff for the mission in Libya insisted there had been no reports of civilian casualties caused by allied action.

Rear Admiral Gerard Hueber's comments come despite claims to the contrary by Muammar Gaddafi's government.

Operational control

Earlier, British Air Vice Marshal Greg Bagwell said Col Gaddafi's air force no longer existed as a fighting force.

AVM Bagwell said the allies could now operate "with near impunity" over the skies of Libya and were now applying unrelenting pressure on the Libyan armed forces.

"We are watching over the innocent people of Libya and ensuring that we protect them from attack," he said. "We have the Libyan ground forces under constant observation and we attack them whenever they threaten civilians or attack population centres."

His comments came as Nato members debated who should lead the intervention, with the US keen to hand over operational control to Nato.

Nato members have been holding talks about assuming responsibility for the no-fly zone over Libya, so far without agreement.

Turkey is an integral part of the naval blockade, but has expressed concern about the alliance taking over command of the no-fly zone from the US.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has again urged Col Gaddafi to step down and leave Libya.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged all sides in Libya to cease hostilities. "All those who violate international humanitarian and human rights law will be held fully accountable," his spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates is in the Egyptian capital Cairo for talks on both Libya and Egypt's hoped-for transition to democracy following the fall of Hosni Mubarak.