Deadly blasts hit Baghdad markets.

Deadly blasts hit Baghdad markets.

BBC News | AP | 26 Sep 2013 :: At least 23 people have been killed in blasts targeting markets in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, officials say.

Bombs in the Shia Sabaa al-Bour area, north of Baghdad, killed up to 16 people. More than 40 others were reportedly injured as the area was packed with shoppers.

A blast in the Sunni Dora district, south of Baghdad, killed seven people.

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

More than 5,000 people have died so far this year in Iraq, 800 of them in August alone, according to the United Nations.

The worsening violence is also seen a spill-over from the conflict in Syria, which has taken on increasingly sectarian overtones.

There are fears of a return to the all-out Sunni-Shia sectarian violence that peaked in 2006-2007 and killed tens of thousands of people.

In recent weeks, Iraqi security forces have reportedly arrested hundreds of alleged al-Qaeda members in and around Baghdad as part of a campaign which the Shia-led government is calling "Revenge for the martyrs".

But the operations, which have taken place mostly in Sunni districts, have angered the majority Sunni community and failed to halt the violence.

Diplomats say that the government's failure to address Sunni grievances - both their political exclusion and abuses against them by the security forces - are the main factors behind the rise in violence.(Courtesy:BBC News)

Syrian Troops Attack Sunni Village, 15 Killed.

Syrian Troops Attack Sunni Village, 15 Killed.

VOA | 21 Sep 2013 :: Syrian activists say government troops backed by militia fighters have killed at least 15 people during a raid on a Sunni village in the center of the country.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday two women and a child were among those killed in the attack on Sheik Hadid village.

The group said the fighters used guns and knives to kill the residents, calling the raid a "massacre." It said it is not clear if the rest of the men killed were rebel fighters or civilians.

Syria's government is fighting a Sunni-dominated rebel force. Over 100,000 people have been killed in the two-and-a-half-year conflict.

Diplomatic efforts have recently focused on a U.S.-Russian deal that would require Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to give up his stockpile of chemical weapons.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says the Syrian government has begun supplying information about its chemical weapons, in line with the deal.

In a VOA interview Friday, spokesman Michael Luhan said the group has received a partial inventory of the weapons and expects to receive additional information by this weekend.

He said the OPCW would not release details of what was in Syria's declaration.

U.S. and Russian officials agreed, last Saturday, on a framework for ending Syria's chemical weapons program that included a one-week deadline for Damascus to submit a comprehensive list of such weapons.

The plan also calls for Syria to eliminate or remove all chemical weapons material and equipment by mid-2014.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Syrian non-compliance could lead to a request for punitive action in the U.N. Kerry said Friday that he had discussed prospects for a "firm and strong" U.N. resolution with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

Luhan said the next step for his agency was supposed to be a Sunday meeting to discuss plans regarding Syria's chemical weapons. However, he says the meeting has been postponed indefinitely.

A U.N. report released earlier this week showed overwhelming evidence that chemical weapons were used in an attack near Damascus, last month. However, the report does not assess blame.(Courtesy:Voice of America)

Pakistan releases seven Afghan Taliban prisoners.

Pakistan releases seven Afghan Taliban prisoners.

ISLAMABAD | KABUL | 07 Sep 2013 ::  Pakistan freed a group of Afghan Taliban on Saturday in an attempt to improve its troubled ties with its South Asian neighbour, but risked angering Afghanistan further by not handing them over directly to the Kabul authorities.

The announcement followed last month's trip by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to Pakistan, where he sought the handover of some Afghan insurgents as part of the stalled peace process.

Karzai as well as the United States want Pakistan to hand the insurgents directly to the Afghan authorities, but on Saturday, a group of seven Taliban was simply allowed to walk out of their cells into Pakistan.

“In order to further facilitate the Afghan reconciliation process, Pakistan is releasing seven Taliban detainees,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

A foreign ministry spokesman separately said all seven, including a senior commander called Mansoor Dadullah, were freed on Saturday. The other prisoners are Said Wali, Abdul Manan, Karim Agha, Sher Afzal, Gul Muhammad and Muhammad Zai.

Asked if they had been handed over to the Afghan authorities or were just released in Pakistan, the spokesman said: “Just released.”

Pakistan is said to have backed the Taliban's rise to power in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s and is seen as a crucial gatekeeper in attempts by the US and Afghan governments to contact insurgent leaders who fled to Pakistan after the group's 2001 removal.

But Afghanistan has long accused Pakistan of playing a double game in its 12-year-old war against Taliban fighters. It says Pakistan, facing a Taliban insurgency of its own, makes pronouncements about peace, but allows elements of its military to play a spoiling role.(Courtesy:Dawn)

Seven million displaced in Syrian conflict.

Seven million displaced in Syrian conflict.

a group of Free Syrian Army fighters carry
a woundedcomrade to cover in the town
 of Harem, Syria - File Photo/AP

DAMASCUS | AP | 03 Sep 2013 ::  The United Nations (UN) estimates that five million Syrians have been displaced inside the country due to the ongoing civil war. Another two million have fled to neighboring countries, bringing the total up to seven million, which is nearly one-third of Syria’s population.

Before the outbreak of the conflict, Syria had a population of about 23 million people.

Tarik Kurdi, the representative of the refugee agency in Syria, said that the funding gaps for those displaced remain wide. Donor countries spend less than one-third the amount required to help.

More than 100,000 lives have been lost in Syria’s two-and-a-half-year-old conflict, including the hundreds who were recently killed by an alleged chemical weapons attack on August 21.

While the Syrian government has denied involvement, no proof has so far been submitted to back up the allegations.

In Washington, President Barack Obama was lobbying Congress to support a military strike to punish the Assad regime for its alleged chemical weapons use.

While Obama initially seemed poised to launch military action, the president recently decided to seek congressional approval before deciding on a course of action.

A vote is expected after Congress returns from summer recess on September 7.

On Capitol Hill, senior administration officials briefed lawmakers in private on Sunday to explain why the U.S. was compelled to act against Assad. Further meetings were planned from Monday to Wednesday.

The Arab League, meanwhile, stopped short of endorsing military action.

In an emergency meeting in Cairo on Sunday, it called on the United Nations and the international community to take ''deterrent'' measures under international law to stop the Syrian regime's crimes.(Courtesy:Dawn)Read More>>>

Syrian rebels seize arms depot near Damascus.

Syrian rebels seize arms depot near Damascus.

Groups reportedly capture anti-tank weapons and ground-to-ground missiles; UN: 400,000 people in imminent danger in Homs

The Times of Israel | 03 Aug 2013 :: Syrian rebels captured an arms depot near Damascus Saturday, seizing anti-tank weapons, ground-to-ground Grad missiles, and a variety of other ammunition, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted by AFP.

The monitoring watchdog said several groups, including the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, were behind the capture.

Liwa al-Islam, Al-Nusra Front, Al-Tawhid battalion, the Maghaweer [rebel commando force] and the Qalamun Martyrs’ battalion… captured an ammunitions depot near the village of Qaldun in the Qalamun area” northeast of the capital, the Britain-based Observatory said.

On Thursday, rebels sent a wave of rockets slamming into regime strongholds in the central city of Homs on Thursday, triggering a succession of massive explosions in a weapons depot that killed at least 40 people and wounded dozens, an opposition group and residents said.

The attack — one of the most potent against pro-government districts in the area — overshadowed a rare trip by President Bashar Assad to a former opposition bastion outside the capital, Damascus, during which he defiantly vowed in front of troops to defeat the rebels fighting to topple him.

The huge explosion in the Homs district of Wadi Dahab delivered a jolt to Assad’s regime, which for weeks has been boasting of achievements against the rebels in the strategic Homs region and the suburbs of Damascus.

The UN on Saturday warned against a dire situation in Homs where “some 400,000 civilians [are] now displaced in the district of Al Waer, living in partially constructed buildings, schools and other public buildings. In recent days the situation in Al Waer has worsened, with reports of intense daily clashes, and rocket and mortar strikes causing many casualties.”

UNICEF Executive-Director Anthony Lake cautioned in a statement that the organization “has been aiding partners to distribute nutrition and basic hygiene supplies while striving to maintain sufficient water for the innocent people caught up in the fighting…but new checkpoints are preventing more supplies from entering the area. Water and electricity is still available for now but vegetables, milk and other essentials are in increasingly short supply.”

Lake said he feared that without safe access, the situation will deteriorate further.

The 28-month Syrian civil war has claimed the lives of over 100,000 people, according to the latest UN figures.(Courtesy:The Times of Israel)

UN envoy: Syrian regime, rebels will face justice.

UN envoy: Syrian regime, rebels will face justice.

After tour of war-torn country, official says UN is keeping track of atrocities

Syrian army soldiers, seen in the background, standing
 in front of dead bodies at Bayda village, in the mountains
 outside the coastal city of Banias, Syria, in May (photo credit:
 AP/The Syrian Revolution against Bashar Assad)

UNITED NATIONS | AP | 23 Jul 2013 ::  A top UN official says she warned Syrian government officials and rebel commanders alike during a recent visit that they will eventually face justice for crimes committed against children.

Leila Zerrougui says she was “overwhelmed” by the suffering of children she witnessed during her tour of Syria and neighboring countries.

Zerrougui is the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict. She said Monday that she made clear to both sides that the United Nations is keeping track of atrocities and that “one day Syria will come to peace and those committing the atrocities will have to face, I hope, justice.”

A recent UN report accused Syria’s main rebel umbrella group of recruiting child soldiers and Syrian government forces of detaining minors, often torturing and sexually assaulting them.(Courtesy:The Time of Israel)

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)