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 )

U.S. building coalition for Syria strikes, Kerry says.

U.S. building coalition for Syria strikes, 

Kerry says.

A protester raises the national flag of Syria during a demonstration
 against possible U.S. military intervention in Syria in front of the
 U.S. embassy in Rio de Janeiro, September 4, 2013. (Reuters)

Al Arabia | 05 Sep 2013 :: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that an international coalition set to take action against the Syrian regime is growing, adding that Arab countries are being approached to participate.

“We are building support with ... other countries, among them the Arab League,” Kerry said, as the U.S. administration tries to sell its plan for military action to Congress.

The move against the government of President Bashar al-Assad was triggered by a suspected chemical weapons attack on a suburb of the Syrian capital last month, which Washington says has killed at least 1,400 people.

“Specific countries that have talked in terms of acting” include Turkey and France, as well as some Arab states, Kerry said in a statement carried by AFP.

Kerry said the United States had reached out to more than 100 countries in efforts to form a coalition that supports military intervention in Syria.

The news comes as a resolution authorizing a military strike on Syria was approved on Wednesday by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.(Courtesy:Al Arabia)Read More>>>

Syria firing missiles into civilian areas, rights group says.

Syria firing missiles into civilian areas, rights group says.

Residents dig through rubble in Aleppo, Syria,

 searching for survivors following an alleged

 missile attack by government forces.

ANTAKYA | Turkey  | 06 Aug 2013 ::  The Syrian government has fired highly destructive ballistic missiles into populated civilian areas, killing many, including children, a human rights group reported Monday.

At least 215 people, 100 of them children, have been killed in nine apparent missile attacks from February to July, according to Human Rights Watch, which said its representatives visited seven of the sites.

The rights group said the repeated use of high-explosive weapons, including destructive Scud missiles, in populated areas indicated that the Syrian military was willfully using "methods of warfare incapable of distinguishing between civilians and combatants, a serious violation of international humanitarian law."

“In towns and cities in opposition controlled areas throughout northern Syria, civilians cannot escape the reach of these destructive weapons,” said Ole Solvang, the group’s senior emergencies researcher.

In two of the attacks, nearby rebel military sites were not struck by the missiles, the group reported, while in seven other attacks, there were no apparent military targets.

The group said the latest attack came less than two weeks ago in the Bab Al-Nairab neighborhood in Aleppo, killing at least 33 civilians, including 17 children.

On July 26 at dusk, just as families across the city were sitting down for iftaar, the meal to end the daylong Ramadan fast, a ballistic missile struck several homes, residents told representatives of the rights group.

Residents said the worked until the morning hours digging through the rubble to find survivors and pull out the bodies, the group reported.

About 10 homes were destroyed, and the explosion’s impact extended across two neighborhoods, the group said, and an entire nine-member family was killed.(Courtesy:Los Angeles Times)