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 )

Iranian diplomat threatens to kidnap Obama’s daughter if U.S. attacks Syria.

Iranian diplomat threatens to kidnap Obama’s daughter if U.S. attacks Syria.

U.S. President Barack Obama with his daughters
Malia and Sasha. (File photo: AFP)

Al Arabiya | 07 sep 2013 :: An Iranian strategic expert has warned that one of the daughters of U.S. President Barack Obama will be kidnapped and raped if America carries out a military strike on Syria, reported the Daily Mail on Friday.

Alireza Forghani, the former governor of the Kish Province in southern Iran, threatened mass murders and abductions on U.S. citizens in the event of an American-led attack on Syria.

“Hopefully Obama will be pigheaded enough to attack Syria, and then we will see the … loss of U.S. interests [through terrorist attacks],” the website reported him as saying.

“In just 21 hours [after the attack on Syria], a family member of every U.S. minister [department secretary], U.S. ambassadors, U.S. military commanders around the world will be abducted. And then 18 hours later, videos of their amputation will be spread [around the world].”

According to media reports on Friday, the United States intercepted an order from an Iranian official instructing militants in Iraq to attack U.S. interests in Baghdad if the attack goes ahead.

The State Department issued a warning on Thursday telling U.S. citizens to avoid all but essential travel to Iraq.

The United States has been preparing for a military strike on Syria, evacuating non-essential embassy staff from Beirut. It has also warned Americans to avoid all travel to Lebanon and southern Turkey.

Obama is still awaiting the Congress’ authorization for military action. The lawmakers will reconvene on Monday and the president will address the nation on Tuesday.(courtesy:Al Arabiya)

Iraqi Shia family targeted in deadly attack.

Iraqi Shia family targeted in deadly attack.

BBC News | 04 Sep 2013 :: An attack on a Shia Muslim family living near Baghdad has left at least 16 people dead, Iraqi officials say.

Six children and five women were among those killed when the neighbouring homes of two brothers in the town of Latifiya, 40km (25 miles) south of the capital, were targeted overnight.

A survivor said the gunmen shot anyone they saw before blowing up the houses.

Sectarian violence has surged across Iraq in recent months, reaching its highest level since 2008.

More than 800 people were killed in August alone, with Baghdad province worst affected.

Latifiya is in a religiously-mixed region that came to be known as the "Triangle of Death" at the peak of Iraq's insurgency in 2006 and 2007.

No group said it was behind the latest attack, but Sunni militants linked to al-Qaeda frequently target the country's Shia majority.

"Gunmen broke into our house overnight and shot my father four times in the head, they killed my two brothers, they killed my cousin, they were shooting everyone they saw, I escaped from the back door," one of the survivors, Haneen Mudhhir, told Reuters news agency from hospital.(Courtesy:BBC News)

Arms Shipments Seen From Sudan to Syria Rebels.

Arms Shipments Seen From Sudan to Syria Rebels.

13 Aug 2013 :: Syrian rebels, frustrated by the West’s reluctance to provide arms, have found a supplier in an unlikely source: Sudan, a country that has been under international arms embargoes and maintains close ties with a stalwart backer of the Syrian government, Iran.

In deals that have not been publicly acknowledged, Western officials and Syrian rebels say, Sudan’s government sold Sudanese- and Chinese-made arms to Qatar, which arranged delivery through Turkey to the rebels.

The shipments included antiaircraft missiles and newly manufactured small-arms cartridges, which were seen on the battlefield in Syria — all of which have helped the rebels combat the Syrian government’s better-armed forces and loyalist militias.

Emerging evidence that Sudan has fed the secretive arms pipeline to rebels adds to a growing body of knowledge about where the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria is getting its military equipment, often paid for by Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Saudi Arabia or other sympathetic donors.

While it is unclear how pivotal the weapons have been in the nearly three-year-old civil war, they have helped sustain the opposition against government forces emboldened by aid from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.

Sudan’s involvement adds yet another complication to a civil war that has long defied a diplomatic resolution. The battle has evolved into a proxy fight for regional influence between global powers, regional players and religious sects. In Sudan’s case, it has a connection with the majority Sunni rebels, and a potentially lucrative financial stake in prosecuting the war.(Copy From:The Times of Israel )

Bin Laden son-in-law accuses U.S. of torture, collusion with Iran.

Bin Laden son-in-law accuses U.S. of torture, collusion with Iran.

A man believed to be Sulaiman Abu Ghaith in a still from a 2002 video. 

New York City | AFP | 20 Jul 2013 :: Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law on Friday asked a New York court to throw out terrorism charges against him, partly on the grounds he had been tortured on the flight that brought him to the United States.

In a motion seeking the dismissal of the case, lawyers for former al-Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith also claimed U.S. officials had colluded with Iran over his detention there for more than a decade after the 9/11 attacks.

The move marks the first salvo of a landmark legal battle in which Abu Ghaith’s lawyers will seek to challenge the U.S. government’s conduct in the “war on terror.”

Prosecutors declined to comment on the dismissal motion. They have three weeks to respond, and the judge then has two weeks to set a date for a ruling or a hearing on the issues raised.

Abu Ghaith was detained by U.S. agents in Jordan at the end of February and flown to New York. He was indicted on March 1 on a single count of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals.

That move was decried by prominent Republicans who said he should have been treated as an enemy combatant and sent to Guantanamo Bay -- though human rights groups welcomed President Barack Obama’s decision to seek a civilian trial.

Abu Ghaith, a 47-year-old Kuwaiti national, is best-known for his incendiary statements alongside bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

In a speech cited by the U.S. government indictment, Abu Ghaith defended the attacks and warned Americans the “storms shall not stop, especially the airplanes storm.”

The defense team argues Abu Ghaith has effectively been declared guilty -- on the basis of his “mere association” with bin Laden -- of a crime that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

They deny that his fiery rhetoric reflects direct involvement in any plot to kill Americans.

The motion presented to a U.S. District Court in Manhattan Friday seeks the dismissal of the charges, most notably for violation of due process and the defendant’s rights under the Speedy Trial Act.

The submission says Abu Ghaith was interrogated on the flight from Jordan under “capture shock” tactics designed to induce extreme vulnerability and terror in their client.

The tactics included being stripped naked, shackled and subjected to sensory deprivation through the use of blackout goggles and ear coverings, which the defendant says were refitted whenever he stopped answering questions.

The dismissal motion also alleges Abu Ghaith could have been brought to trial much sooner, given that the U.S. had been able to secure the smooth transfer of other al-Qaeda suspects from Iran in the years following 9/11.(Courtesy:Al Arabia)Read More>>>

West demands tougher action against Iran arms to Syria.

West demands tougher action against Iran arms to Syria.

UN | 19 Jul 2013 ::The United States led western calls for tougher UN action on Iran's arms supplies to Syria and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.The calls came yesterday as Russia blocked a UN panel's unanimous ruling that a ballistic missile launch by Iran was a breach of international sanctions, diplomats said.

 The US government called on the UN Security Council and its sanctions committee to tackle Iran's alleged breach of UN measures with "increased vigor." "The committee should also address the steady of flow of Iranian arms, military support, advisers and training to groups in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, Iraq and beyond," said US acting ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo.

 Iran has long supplied weapons to President Bashar al-Assad's government "knowing they would be used to massacre the Syrian people," DiCarlo told a Security Council meeting.  The seizure of Iranian arms off the Yemen coast in January "was more than just a sanctions violation, it was an aggressive act to undermine Yemen's transition," said the US envoy.

 The vessel was intercepted by the Yemeni coastguard in the Arabian Sea on January 23. "This council must tackle with renewed urgency, Iranian military assistance to Hezbollah and other armed terrorist
groups and should also consider the impact of Iran's actions on the sovereign rights of other countries especially Lebanon," she said. Britain's UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said there was "credible information that Iran is providing substantial military and financial support to Hezbollah and the Syrian
regime in contravention of the UN embargo on arms exports by Iran."

 French political counsellor, Philippe Bertoux, also said that the council must "assume is responsibilities" over Iran's sanctions breaches. Iran already faces widespread sanctions over its nuclear program and a UN panel of experts ruled in January that the firing of a Shahab ballistic missile by Iran in July last year was a breach of UN sanctions, diplomats said.

 However, Russia, supported by China, blocked the usual consensus publication of the experts report, even though a Russian and a Chinese expert are on the panel, diplomats said.Gary Quinlan, the Australian ambassador to the UN who chairs the Security Council's Iran sanctions committee, said
only that "some members" do not back the experts view.

 Britain's Lyall Grant said the Security Council should add individuals linked to the launches to UN sanctions lists.DiCarlo of the United States said the missile launch was a "clear violation" of UN resolution 1929.(Courtesy:News 24)

Report: Saudi missile sites target Iran, Israel.

Report: Saudi missile sites target Iran, Israel.

The discovery is a sign that Saudi Arabia has prepared for the possibility that Iran will become a nuclear power, and it's a reminder that a decades-long truce between Saudi Arabia and Israel is just that, and not a peace treaty, one analyst says.

Satellite imagery over this Al Watah DF-3 complex on
 March 21, 2013, reveals details of a previously undisclosed
surface-to-surface missile facility within Saudi Arabia.

 Oren Dorell | 14 Jul 2013 :: Saudi Arabia has built missile launch pads that target both Iran and Israel with ballistic missiles, according to imagery and analysis by IHS Jane's, the British security consultancy.

While IHS Jane's analysts did not see actual missiles, the sites include command and control facilities and underground bunkers that likely conceal missiles and launchers nearby, said Allison Puccioni, a senior image analyst at IHS Jane's.

The discovery is a sign that Saudi Arabia has prepared for the possibility that Iran will become a nuclear power, and it's a reminder that a decades-long truce between Saudi Arabia and Israel is just that, and not a peace treaty, says Michael Rubin, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute who briefs members of the U.S. military on Iran.

The Saudis' "predominant fear is that Iran will become a nuclear power," Rubin said. "They're showing they're serious."

Puccioni said one site, at Al Watah, is about 5 years old and others were apparently build in the mid-2000s. They resemble missile launch sites in China built for the Dongfeng-3 (DF-3), a medium-range missile that can launch a 4,700-pound payload with a range of 1,600 miles. The DF-3 launches from trucks known as transporter erector launchers (TELs).

"We've not seen the TELs but the entire area has drive-in bunkers." she said. "How far it goes into the mountain I can't tell you, but it's wide and tall enough to accommodate a transporter erector launcher."

IHS Jane's analysts concluded that unlike two previously-known sites at Al Sulayyil and Al Jufayr, the new site at Al Watah has a different layout than previously known missile bases and that the new site "potentially serves as a training and storage complex with the ability to perform operational missile launches as required."

Launch pads at the new site also bear markings on the ground that point in the direction of Iranian and Israeli targets, they said.

"Saudi Arabia is likely to begin re-arming its missile stock with more modern and accurate Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMs)," said Robert Munks, deputy editor of IHS Jane's Intelligence Review.

Former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal said in 2011 that his country would purchase "off the shelf" nuclear weapons if Iran developed its own supply. "For such short notice, the foundations for both nuclear-capable launch vehicles and for acquiring the warheads will need to be laid in advance," Munks said.

Kenneth Pollack, a senior fellow in the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, said the Saudis started buying ballistic missiles from China in the 1980s at a time when Iran and Iraq were warring with similar weapons. The Saudis maintain the weapons as a deterrent to Iran, Iraq and Israel, its chief rivals in the region, Pollack said.

The most significant aspect of the IHS Jane's analysis is what it does not show, Pollack said: The review did not find that Saudi Arabia is investing in new missile capability to counter a growing threat from Iran.

"These are really old missiles," Pollack said. "Wouldn't you want faster, better missiles if only to send a message to the Iranians?"

Rubin says Saudi Arabia's current alliance with the United States and its truce with Israel should not be taken for granted because the monarchy leadership is in flux.

The succession to the Saudi throne passes from brother to brother, and many of that generation are now in their 80s. "Each king may last a year or so if not less," Rubin said.

And among the 3,000 or so princes, there are pro-Western moderates such as Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, as well as others who dislike the United States and lean toward radical ideologies, Rubin said.

"Anyone looking at this structure must recognize that what seems safe today could pose a tremendous threat in the future," Rubin said. (Courtesy:USA TODAY)

Afghan Taliban confirm talks in Iran.

AP

The image shows Afghan Taliban fighters. — Photo by AFP

KABUL|03|June|2013:: A Taliban spokesman has confirmed that the Afghan insurgents have sent a delegation to Iran for three days of talks. The unprecedented meeting signals that Iran could be seeking the role of regional mediator between the Taliban and Kabul.

Spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said Monday in an email that emissaries from the Taliban's political office met with Iranian officials over the weekend.

He said a separate group of clerics attended a religious conference in Tehran.

An Iranian news agency said Saturday that Tehran had hosted a Taliban delegation.

The Sunni Muslim Taliban have long been enemies of Iran's ruling Shia clerics.

Ahmadi also said the Taliban's political wing would accept any invitation for conferences, a possible good sign for so-far fruitless efforts to negotiate an end to the Afghan war.(Courtesy:Dawn)

Iranian support for global terror surged in 2012.

Iran support for global terror surged in 2012: US.

The State Department released
 Country Reports on Terrorism for
 2012 on Thursday. – File Photo

WASHINGTON | 31 May 2013:: The Obama administration is accusing Iran of increasing support for global terrorism to levels not seen for two decades.

The administration also says core elements of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan are headed for defeat, as their leaders increasingly fight for survival.

The State Department released Country Reports on Terrorism for 2012 on Thursday.

The reports say Iran's sponsorship of terror has reached a tempo unseen since the 1990s, with attacks plotted in Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia.

Those include an attack on a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Bulgaria that killed six, as well as thwarted strikes in India, Thailand, Georgia and Kenya.

The reports say core al Qaeda continues to weaken. But they also note the US must defend itself from a “more decentralized and geographically dispersed terrorist threat.” [Courtesy: Dawn].