Iraq violence: Baghdad hit by series of deadly blasts.

Iraq violence: Baghdad hit by series of deadly blasts.

BBC News | 07 Oct 2013 :: At least 22 people have been killed and dozens hurt in a series of explosions across the Iraqi capital, police say.

There are reports of at least six apparently co-ordinated bomb attacks in mainly commercial areas of Baghdad.

The majority were reported in mainly Shia districts, but a predominantly Sunni Muslim neighbourhood was also hit, according to Reuters news agency.

Iraq has seen a sharp rise in sectarian violence in recent months. Nearly 6,000 people have been killed this year.

Two of the explosions were reported in Doura and in the Husseiniya district, where a parked car was reportedly blown up in a busy street during the evening rush hour.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.The rate of attacks has quadrupled since the relative calm in the months before US forces pulled out in 2011.

Almost 1,000 were killed in Iraq during the past month alone, the UN has said, amid fears of a return to the sectarian conflict that peaked in 2008.

Most of the violence has been blamed on Sunni Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), which belongs to the over-arching Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

Iraq has also seen a spill-over of violence from the conflict in Syria, where jihadist rebels linked to the Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni militant umbrella group that includes al-Qaeda, have risen to prominence.

In the past two months, Iraqi security forces have reportedly arrested hundreds of alleged al-Qaeda members in and around Baghdad as part of a campaign the government is calling "Revenge for the Martyrs".

But the operations, which have taken place mostly in Sunni districts, have angered the Sunni community and failed to halt the violence.(Courtesy:BBC News)

Egypt military helicopters hit Sinai militants: Security.

Egypt military helicopters hit Sinai militants: Security.

The wreckage of a burnt car is seen after assaults on militant
 targets by the Egyptian Army, in a village on the outskirts of
 Sheikh Zuweid, near the city of el-Arish in Egypt's Sinai peninsula
 September 10, 2013. (Reuters)

Cairo | AFP | 13 Sep 2013 :: Egyptian military helicopters on Friday carried out air strikes on Islamist militant positions in Sinai, two days after suicide bombers killed six soldiers in the restive peninsula, security sources said.

Apache helicopters targeted hideouts and vehicles used by the militants near the town of Sheikh Zuwayid in northern Sinai, the sources said.

On Wednesday, two car bombs targeting the military intelligence headquarters in the town of Rafah and a nearby checkpoint killed six soldiers and the two militants who drove the vehicles.

A little known jihadist group in Sinai claimed responsibility for the attacks in the town bordering the Gaza Strip.

Jund al-Islam, or Islam’s Soldiers in English, made the claim in a statement posted on militant Islamist forums.

The group accused the Egyptian military of targeting “unarmed Muslims” in its campaign to quell an Islamist militant insurgency in north Sinai.

The military has poured troops and armour into Sinai to crush the insurgency which surged after the army overthrew Egypt’s Islamist president Mohammad Mursi on July 3.

A subsequent crackdown on Islamists left hundreds killed and more than 2,000 arrested across the country.(Courtesy:Al Arabiya)

Syrian Kurds capture jihadist commander in northern province.

Syrian Kurds capture jihadist commander in northern province.

FSA fighters take positions during what they say is
 an offensive against forces loyal to Syria's Assad

Al Arabia  | 21 Jul 2013 :: A commander of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) was reportedly captured late Saturday by Syrian Kurdish fighters.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the jihadist commander was captured as battles raged.

“Battles pitting fighters from the Kurdish Fighters brigade against ISIS and other groups are raging on in several areas of Tal Abyad in Raqa province, after (Kurdish) fighters captured ISIS’ emir in the town,” said the monitoring group.

Tal Abyad lies on the Syrian border with Turkey,

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP news agency the commander’s nom-de-guerre is Abu Musab, though it was unclear whether he is Syrian or foreign.

The news comes just days after fighters loyal to the Committees for the Protection of the Kurdish People (YPG) expelled Al-Nusra Front and ISIS from the strategic Kurdish town of Ras al-Ain in Hasake province, AFP reported.

At least 50 jihadist and Kurdish fighters were killed in fighting in northern Syria this week alone, according to a toll released earlier Saturday by the Observatory.

Kurds represent about 15 percent of the Syrian population.

The clashes in Tal Abyad broke out after jihadists ambushed a school that Kurdish fighters in the town were using as a base, said the Britain-based Observatory.(Courtesy:Al Arabia)