Arrest head of Qaeda.

Lebanese troops arrest head of Qaeda-linked group

The 'emir' of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades was arrested
 by the intelligence services of the Lebanese
 army in Beirut. (File photo: Reuters)

Al Arabiya News |1st jan 2013 :: Lebanese troops arrested the leader of the al-Qaeda-linked group responsible for a double suicide bombing at the Iranian embassy in Lebanon in November, the defense minister told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday.

Maged al-Maged, the "emir" of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, "was arrested by the intelligence services of the Lebanese army in Beirut," Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn said, without specifying when the arrest took place.

"He was wanted by the Lebanese authorities and is currently being interrogated in secret," the minister added.

On Wednesday, Sirajeddin Zreikat, member of the Sunni Muslim extremist group, appeared to have had his Twitter account suspended.

Zreikat has claimed responsibility for attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut which killed 25 people.

He also warned there would be more attacks in Lebanon, if Hezbollah continued to send troops to support President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria's on going civil war.

In an interview with Al Arabiya News on the day of the embassy attack, former Iranian President Abolhassan Banisadr said “What is happening in Syria is an international war, all regional parties are involved. Iran, Lebanon and Turkey are heavily involved,” adding that the “Syrian and Lebanese people are the victims of this global war.”(Courtesy : Al Arabiya )

Syrian air force bombs hospital in north, say activists.

Syrian air force bombs hospital in north, say activists.

Syrian warplanes have bombed one of the main hospitals serving
 rebel-held territory in the north of the country, according to
activists and video footage. (File photo: Reuters)

Beirut | Reuters | 12 Sep 2013 :: Syrian warplanes have bombed one of the main hospitals serving rebel-held territory in the north of the country, according to activists and video footage.

Eleven civilians, including two doctors, were killed in the strike against the hospital on Wednesday in the town of al-Bab, 30 kilometers northeast of Aleppo city, the opposition Aleppo Media Centre said on Thursday.

Video footage posted on YouTube showed the limp body of a young child being carried out of the hospital by a man. Another boy lies on the floor, blood on his head and dust covering his body.

In the video, dust fills the air. Rubble and smashed up air conditioning units lie on the floor.

The Aleppo Media Centre said that the emergency and radiology departments were destroyed in the attack.

Syrian jets have bombed civilian schools, hospitals and bakeries - illegitimate targets under the laws of war - during the two-and-a-half--year conflict which started with pro-democracy protests against four decades of Assad family rule.

More than 100,000 people have been killed and divided world powers have been unable to halt the violence.

The government has not commented on the strike but state news agency SANA said on Thursday that the army had killed 14 “terrorists” - a term it uses for rebels - north of al-Bab in an operation on a militant convoy.

Death toll in Lebanon bombings rises to 47; al-Qaeda blames Hezbollah.

Death toll in Lebanon bombings rises to 47; al-Qaeda blames Hezbollah.

Sheikh who is linked to Sunni group friendly with Hezbollah arrested as suspect, after surveillance video shows him at site of explosion

BEIRUT | 24 Aug 2013 ::  Lebanese security forces arrested a suspect on Saturday in connection with the devastating double bombing the day before that killed at least 47 people in the northern city of Tripoli, the state news agency said.

The National News Agency identified the suspect as Sheik Ahmad al-Ghareeb, and said police took him into custody at his home in the Miniyeh region outside Tripoli. It said al-Ghareeb, who has ties to a Sunni organization that enjoys good relations with Lebanon’s powerful Shiite Hezbollah militant group, appears in surveillance video at the site of one of the explosions.

The coordinated explosions Friday outside two mosques in Tripoli, a predominantly Sunni city, raised already simmering sectarian tensions in fragile Lebanon, heightening fears the country could be slipping into a cycle of revenge attacks between its Sunni and Shiite communities. For many Lebanese, the bombings also were seen as the latest evidence that Syria’s bloody civil war — with its dark sectarian overtones — is increasingly drawing in its smaller neighbor.

Lebanese police officials said Saturday 47 people were killed and more than 500 wounded in the attack. Some 300 people were still in the hospital a day after the attack, 65 of them in critical condition, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The United States, United Nations, and Arab League strongly condemned the violence and the loss of innocent lives.

Meanwhile, al-Qaeda claimed Saturday that Hezbollah, backed by Iran, was behind the bombings in Tripoli. The organization’s North African branch, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, said via social media that it was “certain” that Hezbollah was behind the “heinous act” in Lebanon. The organization also vowed to retaliate for the attack.

For its part, Iran said the instability in Lebanon plays into the hands of “the Zionists,” aka Israel.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi “strongly condemned” the terror attacks and said “takfiri,” or Sunni Muslim extremists, were trying to sow unrest and create strife between the different communities in Lebanon, Iran’s news agency IRNA reported.(Courtesy:The Times of Israel)

Syria opposition claims hundreds dead in 'gas' attacks.

Syria opposition claims hundreds dead in 'gas' attacks.

This citizen journalism image provided by the Local Committee
 of Arbeen which has been authenticated based on its contents
 and other AP reporting, shows Syrian citizens receiving treatment
 after an alleged poisonous gas attack fired by regime forces,
 according to activists in Arbeen town, Damascus, Syria, on Aug. 21, 2013.

SYRIA | 21 Aug 2013 ::  Government forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have carried out a "poisonous gas" attack near the capital Damascus that has left hundreds dead, Syrian opposition groups claimed Wednesday.

Anti-regime activists are saying that regime forces fired "rockets with poisonous gas heads" in the attack. The number of reported deaths has ranged from 100 to close to 800. The claims and reports could not be independently confirmed.

The Syrian government said there was no truth to the allegations "whatsoever" that chemical weapons were used.

"They are an attempt to divert the United Nations commission on chemical weapons from carrying out its mission," the state-run SANA news agency said.

UN chemical weapons inspectors are in Syria this week to investigate claims that chemical weapons have been used there by both sides in a bloody and protracted civil war.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the shelling was intense and hit the eastern suburbs of Zamalka, Arbeen and Ein Tarma. Rami Abdul-Rahman from the SOHR says he has documented at least 100 deaths from Wednesday's attack. He says it's not clear whether the victims died from shelling or toxic gas attacks.

The Local Coordination Committees said hundreds of people, perhaps as many as 775, were killed or injured in the shelling. Such different figures are common in the immediate aftermaths of attacks in Syria.

Videos and images that appeared to show victims with symptoms consistent with a chemical attack surfaced online Wednesday, although their veracity could not be immediately confirmed.

The Syrian government has long denied claims by the opposition on chemical weapons use, saying rebels fighting to overthrow Assad's government have used such weapons.

Wednesday's claim of the chemical attack, if confirmed, would be the most serious since the March 19 incident in Khan al-Assal when at least 30 people were killed. Assad's regime and the rebels have blamed each other for that attack.

Unrest in Syria began in March 2011 and later exploded into a civil war. More than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague was among the first international leaders Wednesday to comment on the reports, saying he was "deeply concerned" by the allegations. The United Kingdom will raise the alleged attack with the U.N. Security. Council.

"It is clear that if they (the reports) are verified, it would mark a shocking escalation in the use of chemical weapons in Syria," Hague said.

He called on the Syrian government to allow immediate access to the area for the U.N. team currently in Syria.

France has asked the U.N. delegation to visit the site of the alleged attacks.

That request would seem to fulfill the U.N. requirement that a member state make a formal request before such action can occur. Syria would also need to agree to the request. It was not immediately clear whether that would happen.

Syria's ambassador to Russia dismissed the allegations, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.(Courtesy:USA To Day)

Syrian Kurds battle al-Qaeda-linked rebel faction.

Syrian Kurds battle al-Qaeda-linked rebel faction.

BEIRUT  | AP | 20 Aug 2013 :: Kurdish militias fought al-Qaeda-linked rebel groups in north-eastern Syria on Tuesday in heavy fighting that has helped fuel a mass exodus of civilians from the region into neighboring Iraq, activists said.

The clashes between Kurdish gunmen and Islamic extremist rebel groups have sharply escalated in Syria’s northern provinces in recent months. The violence, which has left hundreds dead, holds the potential to explode into a full-blown side conflict within Syria’s broader civil war.

Tuesday’s fighting, which pitted Kurdish militiamen against rebels from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, was focused in three villages near the town of Ras al-Ayn in the predominantly Kurdish Hassakeh province, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Around 30,000 Syrians, the vast majority of them Kurds, have fled the region in recent days and crossed the border to the self-ruled Kurdish region of northern Iraq, the United Nations refugee agency has said. The new arrivals join some 1.9 million Syrians who already have found refuge abroad from the country’s relentless carnage.

The massive exodus has put a severe strain on Iraqi Kurdistan’s regional government and aid agencies ability to accommodate them all.

The UNHCR said it is sending 15 truckloads of supplies 3,100 tents, two pre-fabricated warehouses and thousands of jerry cans to carry water from its regional stockpile in Jordan. It said the shipment should arrive by the end of the week.

Kurds are Syria’s largest ethnic minority, making up more than 10 percent of the country’s 23 million people. They are centered in the poor northeastern regions of Hassakeh and Qamishli, wedged between the borders of Turkey and Iraq. There are also several predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods in the capital, Damascus, and Syria’s largest city, Aleppo.(courtesy:The Hindu)