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)

White House spokesman jokes about Islamic attacks on Christian churches in Egypt.

White House spokesman jokes about Islamic attacks on 

Christian churches in Egypt.

The DC | 23 Aug 2013 ::  The White House’s deputy press secretary today downplayed Muslim attacks on Christians in Egypt, joking about the savagery  that has left at least six Christians dead.

Press secretary Josh Earnest was asked by Fox News’ correspondent, Ed Henry, if President Barack Obama has a “red line” beyond which he would act against Muslim attacks on Egyptian Christians.

“Well, I didn’t bring my red pen out with me today,” Earnest joked.

After making his joke, Earnest said the administration is “outraged… and concerned” about the Muslim attacks on almost 100 churches, monasteries, orphanages and other marked Christian sites. Many Christians’ shops and homes have also been looted and burned by mobs.

But Earnest didn’t name or criticize the attackers, even though he did charge the military with perpetrating “violence… against peaceful protestors.”

“I can tell you that we have condemned in unambiguous terms all the violence that’s has been perpetrated there in Egypt,” he said.

“We have been concerned and condemned the violence that has been perpetrated by the government against peaceful protestors, and we’re just as outraged and just as concerned about reports that Christian churches have been targeted,” he said.

During the last year, Obama backed the brotherhood-backed elected prime minister, and is now considering whether to strongly push for its return to power.(Courtesy:The DC)

Reports: Syria chemical attack responders die.

Reports: Syria chemical attack responders die.

Despite seemingly overwhelming evidence, the Syrian government continues to deny that it used chemical weapons.

USA TODAY | 23 Aug 2013 :: Some first responders to a reported chemical attack in Syria have died after treating victims, providing more evidence that a weapon of mass destruction was used, opposition forces said Thursday.

"Some of them came down with similar symptoms and passed away," said Khaled Saleh, a spokesman for the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army, which the United States has provided with non-lethal aid. Saleh said at least six doctors died after treating victims. "We don't have the (total) number of dead first responders yet," he said.

Despite seemingly overwhelming evidence, the Syrian government continues to deny that it used chemical weapons. Three dozen countries, including the U.S., have now called for a United Nations investigation.

Saleh said he learned Thursday that one of the people he had been in touch with Wednesday who was treating people injured in the attack had later passed away.

Between 800 and 1,700 people died Wednesday after a rocket attack on the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, according to the Syrian opposition, which reported receiving victims in area hospitals and finding more bodies in house-to-house searches Thursday.

Dan Layman, a spokesman for the Syrian Support Group, which supports the Free Syrian Army in Washington, said doctors, nurses and first responders had reported Wednesday that they'd experienced secondary symptoms while working with victims.

"The doctor I was talking to yesterday said the residue on the victims and their clothing was making the doctors get dizzy and have trouble breathing and (they) had to pour water on their faces and had to step out of the room," Layman said.

Layman said he learned Thursday that two of those nurses died.(Courtesy:USA TODAY)Read More>>>

Officials: Bomb kills pro-Qaeda commander in Pakistan.

Officials: Bomb kills pro-Qaeda commander in Pakistan.

Policemen and Ranger soldiers stand outside a prison following
 an attack in Dera Ismail Khan prison on July 30, 2013. (Reuters)

Peshawar | AFP | 23 Aug 2013 ::  A militant commander who sheltered Al-Qaeda fighters was killed on Thursday by a roadside bomb along with four associates in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt, security officials said.

Ghulam Jan Wazir died on the spot when his vehicle hit the bomb in the Sholam area, five kilometers (three miles) west of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan district on the Afghan border.

A senior security official told AFP that Wazir had for several years sheltered Arab and Central Asian fighters in South Waziristan.

“He was anti-government and well known for his support to foreigners,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Local residents also said Wazir had a reputation for harboring Uzbek, Tajik and Central Asian militants in the past.

He was among a group of fighters forced to leave South Waziristan when Maulvi Nazir, a prominent warlord allied to the government, launched an armed campaign in 2007 against foreign fighters.

Wazir returned to South Waziristan last year after reaching a deal with the Nazir group, before Nazir was killed in a U.S. drone strike in January.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wazir’s death. He is the third pro Qaeda militant commander killed in similar circumstances in South Waziristan in the last two years.(Courtesy:Al Arabia)

Twin blasts kill 29 in Lebanese city of Tripoli.

Twin blasts kill 29 in Lebanese city of Tripoli.

Hezbollah condemns attacks outside two mosques in the northern city; health minister says over 350 wounded

TRIPOLI | Lebanon  | 23 Aug 2013 ::  Twin car bombs exploded outside mosques in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli Friday, killing at least 29 people, wounding over 350 and wreaking major destruction in the country’s second largest city, Lebanese Health Ministry officials said.

Footage aired on local TV showed thick, black smoke billowing over the city and bodies scattered beside burning cars in scenes reminiscent of Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war

The blasts hit amid soaring tensions in Lebanon as a result of Syria’s civil war, which has sharply polarized the country along sectarian lines and between supporters and opponents of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. It was the second such bombing in just over a week, showing the degree to which the tiny country is being consumed by the raging war next door.

Tripoli, a predominantly Sunni Muslim city, has seen frequent clashes between Sunnis and Alawites, a Shiite offshoot sect to which Assad belongs. But the city itself has rarely seen such explosions in recent years.

Friday’s blasts mark the first time in years that such explosions have targeted Sunni strongholds and were bound to raise sectarian tensions in the country to new levels. It was also the most powerful and deadliest in Tripoli since the end of the civil war.(Courtesy:Times of Israel)

36 Muslim Brotherhood members die in Egypt.

36 Muslim Brotherhood members die in Egypt.

CAIRO | 21 Aug 2013 :: At least 36 members of the Muslim Brotherhood were killed in a riot in Egypt when they attempted to escape while being moved to a jail, state news agency MENA reported.

Armed clashes broke out Sunday between security forces and militants, who intercepted and attacked police vehicles carrying the Muslim Brotherhood detainees to the Abu Zaabal prison near Cairo, Xinhua said Monday.
The clashes took place before the police vehicles entered the prison.
The detainees tried to escape with the help of the militants, who took a police officer hostage. The security men fired tear gas shells in response. Some detainees suffered from suffocation while several militants were shot dead.
More than 600 people have been sent to 15 days in custody pending investigation over Saturday''s clashes at Al-Fatah mosque which left at least 79 dead.(Courtesy:News24)

Blast near railway station in Chaman kills two, injures 15.

Blast near railway station in Chaman kills two, injures 15.

CHAMAN | 21 Aug 2013 ::  A blast occurred near the railway station in Balochistan's Chaman town situated near the Pak-Afghan border on Wednesday killing at least two persons and injuring ten others, DawnNews reported.

Security and rescue teams reached the blast site and shifted the wounded, which included women, children and two policemen, to Civil Hospital Chaman where an emergency was imposed.

Deputy Commissioner of Chaman said that the remotely-detonated explosives were planted on a motorcycle whch was parked near the ticket booth at the railway station.

Security forces cordoned off the railway station after the blast.

Railway traffic in the area stood suspended whereas the Pak-Afghan border at Chaman was also sealed following the incident.(Courtesy:Dawn)