Is a Regional Mid-East War Beginning?

[tekisui]

In Lebanon:
"I announce that our forces are on full alert to confront any possible war against Lebanon," he said.

"If Israel carries out any new aggression against us, we promise to retaliate in a war that will change the whole map of the region," Nasrallah warned.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x196805

In Gaza:
Hamas says it foiled Fatah plot to assassinate Ismail Haniyeh
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x196803

and

The UN has said Israel should not collectively punish the Gaza population while responding to security threats.

The organisation has also criticised Israel's decision to close all border crossings with Gaza, preventing delivery of aid shipments to the 1.5 million people living in the territory.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x196806

and

Israel has escalated operations in Gaza, killing at least 36 militants since Tuesday in the biggest flare-up of violence since the Islamist movement took power. Hamas has launched about 200 rockets into southern Israel in the same period, lightly wounding more than 10 people.

On Thursday, Israel announced it would close all crossings into and out of Gaza for several days to all but essential humanitarian aid, intensifying its almost two-year siege of the territory aimed at stemming rocket fire.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hlrTSDhpV_E_W67kSDfmvAaTXdLg

In Israel:
Israel has carried out the successful test launch of a long-range, ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, in what was intended as a clear show of strength to Iran.

Rocket remains fired from the Gaza Strip are inspected in the southern Israeli city of Sderot

While Iranian military chiefs carry out regular test firings of their own missiles, events that are often shown on state television, in Israel things are done with less fuss.

The lack of public awareness caused a flap when the contrail from the test firing was seen in the skies over Jerusalem causing many Israelis to call the emergency services fearing attack by Palestinian militants.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/18/wmid218.xml

In Iraq:
Iraq’s radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr may end a freeze on his militia’s activities, eliminating a key factor behind recent improved security in the country, his spokesman said on Friday. Sadr ordered a six-month freeze of the Mahdi Army’s activities late last August after allegations that his fighters were involved in bloody clashes in the central Shiite city of Karbala. The suspension was scheduled to last until the end of February, but the statement from Sadr’s office warned that the freeze may not be extended because, it said, the security services remain infiltrated by criminals. “The decision to suspend the Mahdi Army’s activities has not been rewarded with good results because the government is still counting on criminal gangs inside their security system in the provinces (outside Baghdad) without taking any legal measures against their crimes,” said Sadr’s spokesman Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi.
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/client/pagesdetails.asp?nid=11034&ccid=11

In Pakistan/Afghanistan:
Pakistani authorities said they killed more than 70 Islamist militants in two separate clashes Friday and recaptured a fort in the largely lawless tribal region near the Afghan border.

At last 50 militants who had assembled to attack a fort in the town of Laddah were killed by barrages of mortar and artillery fire, officials said. Meanwhile, army troops took back the abandoned Sipla Toi fort in the South Waziristan tribal region, the sources said.

In another clash, at least 20 militants were killed when they tried to attack a convoy in the Chagmalai area, authorities said.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan19jan19,1,7503621.story?coll=la-headlines-world

and

The war in Afghanistan is only just beginning as NATO forces, far from pursuing remnants of a defeated Taliban, are entering a widening and deepening conflict they may well lose security NGO said on Saturday.

Taliban insurgents, fighting to overthrow the pro-Western Afghan government and eject foreign forces, carried out more attacks over a wider area in 2007, the Afghanistan NGO Security Office (ANSO) said in its report for last year, and the best case scenario for this year, is "more of the same".

"A few years from now, 2007 will likely be looked back upon as the year in which the Taliban seriously rejoined the fight," said ANSO, which monitors security for the dozens of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in Afghanistan.
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSISL216061

On Iran/US relations:
No. 3 U.S. Diplomat, Lead Negotiator on Iran, Retires.
R. Nicholas Burns, 51, has led the administration’s efforts on Iran, serving as the United States negotiator with the five other countries — Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — that have been seeking to rein in Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Mr. Burns has thrived under a succession of administrations, both Republican and Democratic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/19/washington/19diplo.html?em&ex=1200891600&en=b7f9be7662bac8a6&ei=5087%0A