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U.S. arms deal with Middle East allies clear signal to Iran: Hagel

April 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment

U.S. arms deal with Middle East allies clear signal to Iran: Hagel
Secretary of Defense testifies at a budget hearing on Capitol Hill on April 16.(Photo: Saul Loeb, AFP/)

Story Highlights

Hagel: Military action against Iran can’t be ruled out
He said Israel has the right to defend itself
U.S. remains concerned about a unilateral strike by Israeli on Iran

( / AP) — Chuck Hagel said on Sunday a $10 billion arms deal under discussion with Washington’s Arab and Israeli allies sent a “very ” to Tehran the remains on the table over its nuclear program.

“The bottom line is that Iran is a threat, a real threat,” said Hagel, who arrived in Israel on Sunday on his first visit to Israel as defense secretary.

“The Iranians must be prevented from developing that capacity to build a nuclear weapon and deliver it,” he told reporters on his plane.

The first stop on Hagel’s week-long Middle East trip came two days after the Pentagon said it was finalizing a weapons deal to strengthen the of Israel and two of Iran’s key rivals – and the .

The deal includes the sale of KC-135 aerial refueling tankers, anti- and tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey troop transport planes to Israel as well as the sale of 25 F-16 Fighting Falcon jets to the UAE.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia also would be allowed to purchase weapons with so-called “stand-off” capabilities that enable them to engage the enemy with precision at a distance. said the “stand-off” arms would give the two countries more sophisticated systems than they currently have.

Asked if the arms deal sent a message that the military option was on the table if Tehran moved to build a nuclear weapon, Hagel said: “I don’t think there’s any question that that’s another very clear signal to Iran.”

But he added the military option had been “very clear to Iran for some time” and said the arms deal was a continuation of the U.S. policy to maintain Israel’s so-called “qualitative military edge” in the region, a general reference to the supply of advanced U.S.-made weaponry and technology to the Jewish state.

Iran denies Western allegations that it is seeking to develop the capability to build nuclear weapons, saying its atomic activities are aimed at generating electricity.

Israel has repeatedly voiced its impatience with the pace of diplomatic efforts to curb Iran’s enrichment of uranium, saying they should be coupled with a credible military threat. Both Israel and the United States have said all options remain on the table when it comes to dealing with any nuclear threat.

Such talk has raised international concern of a possible unilateral Israeli strike on Iran that could lead to wider Middle Eastern war.

U.S. COMMITMENT

Hagel, who faced resistance during his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this year from lawmakers who questioned his support for Israel, said part of the purpose of his visit was to underscore to Israelis that “the United States is committed to their security”.

Asked about renewed debate in the Israeli media that Israel might have to strike Iran by itself, Hagel said “every sovereign nation has the right to defend itself and protect itself”.

“Iran presents a threat in its nuclear program and Israel will make the decisions that Israel must make to protect itself and defend itself,” he said.

But Hagel added the United States and other countries believe there is still time for diplomacy and tough international sanctions to have an impact.

“The military option is one option that remains on the table, must remain on the table,” he said. “But military options, I think most of us feel, should be the last option.”

After Israel, Hagel will visit Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. His trip comes amid mounting concerns about regional stability due to Iran’s nuclear program, the rocky transition to civilian rule in Egypt and the civil war in Syria.

Hagel said the United States was still assessing claims that the Syrian government may have used chemical weapons against its military opponents in recent months, a red line President Barack Obama has cautioned would be a “game changer” in how the United States addresses the conflict.

So far the United States has provided non-lethal aid but has declined to arm the Syrian rebels.

“Our intelligence community is still assessing the facts and what we need to know before we can determine whether chemical weapons were used by the Syrian government,” Hagel said.

(Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Andrew Heavens)

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Al-Qaeda denies death of its No. 2 in Yemen, again

April 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Al Qaeda denies death of its No. 2 in Yemen, again
This is an undated frame grab from video posted on a militant-leaning website, and provided by the SITE , showing Saeed al-Shihri, deputy leader of .(Photo: AP)

(PhatzNewsRoom / ) — SANAA, Yemen — Al-Qaeda in Yemen’s second-in-command appears, once again, to have come back from the dead.

Saeed al-Shihri has been pronounced killed three times by the Yemeni government, but an audio message purportedly from Shihri has been posted online by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s official media wing.

The authenticity of the recording could not be verified. However, the reported voice of Shihri refers to events that have taken place since his alleged death in November in what Yemen’s national security agency described as a “ operation” in Sadaa province.

In the 14-minute recording, Shihri denounces a February anti-terrorism conference in and refers to a meeting of Arab ministers in March. His main focus was to denounce ’s ruling family as “U.S. collaborators” and called for the removal of the Saudi regime “by all means.”

Yemen’s Supreme claimed in January that the terrorist was killed in November, at least the third time the former Guantanamo Bay detainee had been reported killed.

Shihri was captured in Afghanistan in 2001, sent to the U.S. for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and put on a list of 37 most dangerous inmates. He was sent back to Saudi Arabia in 2007 to take part in a . Shortly after being released by Saudi officials in 2008, Shihri arrived in Yemen and in January 2009 appeared in a announcing the creation of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The Yemeni government announced that Shihri had been killed in 2009 and then erroneously reported his capture in 2010 before once again reporting his death in a U.S. strike in September 2012.

The United States has been heavily involved in the fight against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, regarded by Washington as the most dangerous branch of al-Qaeda in the world. The number of U.S. drone strikes carried out in Yemen surpassed those in Pakistan for the first time last year, according to monitoring groups.

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Syria’s new opposition coalition seeks recognition

November 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Syrias new opposition coalition seeks recognition

() – Syria’s new opposition leadership, painfully forged under Arab and Western pressure, set out on Monday to gather recognition and wider backing for the struggle to topple al-Assad and take over the country.

Damascus cleric Mouaz al-Khatib flew to Cairo to seek the ’s blessing for the new assembly that unanimously elected him as its leader the day before.

“The first step towards recognition will take place at the Arab League,” he told a news conference. The body would then seek endorsement from Arab and Western foes of Assad known as the “Friends of Syria” and from the U.N. General Assembly.

Russia, which with China has foiled U.N. action on Syria and views Assad’s opponents as in thrall to the West, urged the new coalition to negotiate and to reject outside interference.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Moscow would keep up contact with Damascus and “the whole spectrum of opposition forces” and promote a constructive approach.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei did not answer directly when asked if China recognized the fledgling opposition body, instead calling on all parties to initiate “a process guided by the Syrian people”.

Egypt, and most Arab League members want Assad removed, although some, such as Iraq, Lebanon and Algeria, take a more neutral stance on Syria, where violence was raging on.

BORDER BOMBING

Syrian jets and helicopters attacked the rebel-held town of Ras al-Ain, with some bombs landing just meters (yards) from the , sending scores of civilians fleeing into Turkey.

A Reuters reporter on the border said one flew right along the border and appeared to stray across it at one point, as bombs sent up plumes of black smoke.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12 people, including seven Islamist militants, had been killed in the air strikes on Ras al-Ain, which fell to rebels on Thursday during an advance into Syria’s mixed Arab and Kurdish northeast.

The pro-opposition Observatory, which tracks the violence from Britain, said 140 people were killed in Syria on Sunday. Another opposition group put the death toll at 16. More than 38,000 people have been killed since March last year.

Turkey, whose border security worries were heightened by a sudden influx of 9,000 refugees within 24 hours last week, has consulted its NATO allies about possibly deploying Patriot surface-to-air missiles to deter Syria’s air force.

Such a move could be a prelude to enforcing a no-fly zone in Syria, although Western powers have fought shy of this.

Riad Seif, a respected Syrian dissident who proposed the new opposition body, said no such military intervention was needed.

“We will protect ourselves by owning developed weapons and networks of defense missiles,” he said, citing what he said was a promise by the Friends of Syria to provide “methods” to counter shelling and air strikes by Assad’s forces.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance would “do what it takes to defend Turkey”, without referring specifically to Patriot missiles.

“We have all plans in place to make sure that we can protect and defend Turkey and hopefully that way also deter so that attacks on Turkey will not take place,” he said in Prague.

Rasmussen also welcomed the new opposition group that emerged from days of wrangling in among Syrian dissidents, politicians, rebels and ethnic and religious minorities.

Eventually laying aside their disputes, they agreed to join a body called the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces that can form a government-in-exile.

INCLUSIVE APPROACH

Khatib, a soft-spoken preacher who was once imam of the ancient Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, immediately called on soldiers to quit the and on all sects to unite.

“We demand freedom for every Sunni, Alawi, Ismaili, Christian, Druze, Assyrian … and rights for all parts of the harmonious Syrian people,” he told reporters in Doha.

It remains to be seen whether the Coalition can overcome the mutual suspicions and in-fighting that have weakened the 20-month-old drive to end four decades of Assad family rule.

“There’s still a question of legitimacy,” said Michael Stephens, a Doha-based researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, acknowledging that the new body was more inclusive than the widely criticized Syrian National Council (SNC).

“But they’ve got to show that they have the links on the ground and can get aid to the right people. They need to show that they’re able to bring together all the disparate groups.”

Nevertheless, for allies who see the new body as emulating Libya’s Transitional National Council, the deal was welcome.

Qatar, which has promised to recognize the Coalition, said once a temporary Syrian government had been recognized, there would be no obstacle to it seeking weapons supplies from abroad.

“When they get the legitimacy from the international arena, they can go and contract whatever they want themselves because they would be recognized as full legitimate government,” Khalid al-Attiyah, Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, told Al Jazeera television.

The United States, which promoted the Doha unity talks, hailed the outcome, promising to support the National Coalition “as it charts a course toward the end of Assad’s bloody rule and the start of the peaceful, just, democratic future…”.

Assad, whose Alawite minority is rooted in Shi’ite Islam, has support from Shi’ite Iran and its Lebanese Shi’ite allies, but has few friends among the region’s Sunni-led nations.

With Syria enduring a bloody military stalemate almost 20 months after peaceful protests first erupted, Assad’s opponents hope a more cohesive opposition can turn the tide, winning more military and diplomatic support from allies wary of the growing role of Islamist militants, some of them linked to al Qaeda.

After days of arguing over whether and how to form the new assembly, delegates in Qatar were relatively swift to reach a consensus on Khatib as leader of the opposition coalition.

His deputies will be Seif, the 66-year-old dissident, and Suhair al-Atassi, one of the few women with a leading role.

Khatib, 50, jailed several times for criticizing Assad, fled into exile this year. He has long promoted a liberal Islam tolerant of Syria’s Christian, Alawite and other minorities.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Hammond in Doha, Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Jonathon Burch in Ceylanpinar, Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Michael Martina in Beijing and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Writing by Alastair Macdonald and Alistair Lyon; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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HSBC fears criminal charges for rule breaches

November 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

dfbddd53c71b40ea84045062eca2d0ae HSBC fears criminal charges for rule breaches

() – A U.S. fine for anti-money laundering rule could cost HSBC significantly more than $1.5 billion and is likely to lead to , Europe’s biggest bank said on Monday.

HSBC said the U.S. investigation had caused “considerable reputational damage” and had forced it to set aside a further $800 million to cover a potential fine to cover breaches in anti-money laundering controls in Mexico, adding to $700 million put aside in July.

“It could be significantly higher,” Chief Executive Stuart told reporters on a conference call, saying the latest provision was based on discussions with the various U.S. authorities involved in the probe.

The timing of any settlement is in the hands of regulators.

“The resolution of at least some of these matters is likely to involve the filing of corporate criminal as well as and the of significant fines, penalties and/or monetary forfeitures,” the bank said in its results.

A U.S. in July said HSBC had let clients shift potentially illicit funds from countries such as Mexico, Iran, the Cayman Islands, and Syria.

“The report undoubtedly caused considerable reputational damage to HSBC. The extent to which that has resulted in loss of business is hard to measure, but it has undoubtedly damaged our brand,” Gulliver said.

He said a number of staff had left the firm as a result of the investigation and a number had had pay clawed back.

The issue marks another blow for the reputation of , after rival was fined $450 million in June for rigging Libor interest rates and the industry has had to set aside more than 10 billion pounds to compensate for mis-selling insurance products.

HSBC Chairman Douglas Flint will appear before UK lawmakers investigating culture and standards later on Monday. He appears alongside new Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins and Santander UK boss Ana Botin at 1600 GMT.

HSBC reported an underlying profit – after stripping out the impact of disposals and changes in the value of its own debt – in the July-September quarter of $5.0 billion, up from a revised $2.2 billion a year earlier.

Underlying operating expenses rose by 16 percent during the quarter compared with the year before, HSBC said.

It said it is paying $200 million to $300 million more each year to meet tougher regulation and improve its U.S. compliance measures, adding to pressure on Gulliver to deliver on a promise to cut costs to below 52 percent of revenues.

The firm’s underlying cost/income ratio came in at 63.7 percent in the third quarter. Gulliver admitted getting to his 48-52 percent target was “proving challenging”, but said he remained committed to delivering it by the end of 2013.

HSBC took another $353 million charge for mis-selling in Britain, mainly for payment protection insurance.

Shares in HSBC were down 2.2 percent by 1012 GMT. (Additional reporting by Sarah White; Editing by Dan Lalor and Philippa Fletcher)

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Saudi authorities disperse anti-Assad protest in Mecca

October 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

fddc28ba3597200c162e5b17a97e4388 Saudi authorities disperse anti Assad protest in Mecca

() – Saudi authorities quickly dispersed a protest by hundreds of Syrian pilgrims calling for the fall of Syrian al-Assad and denouncing what they said was international failure to stop bloodshed in Syria, a Reuters witness said.

Protesters held up and marched toward the Jamarat Bridge in Mina, east of the Saudi Arabian , where more than 3 million congregated for the annual haj.

No one was hurt when two drove slowly in the direction of the protesters with the sirens on as the officers asked the crowd through loudspeakers to leave the area. The protesters swiftly dispersed and merged with thousands of other pilgrims in the area, the witness said.

made it clear in recent days that they want a politics-free pilgrimage and urged pilgrims to focus on performing the rituals.

The haj pilgrimage is one of the Muslim faith’s so-called five pillars and a religious duty for all Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime if they are capable. It started on Wednesday and ends on Tuesday.

This year’s haj took place against a backdrop of divisions among Muslims, with Shi’ite Iran and U.S.-allied Sunni countries such as , Turkey and backing opposing sides in Syria’s civil war.

Saudi Arabia has led Arab efforts to isolate President Bashar al-Assad’s government and has supported the rebels with money and logistics.

At the protest, dozens of security guards already deployed in the area stood by without interfering.

“Syria lives forever despite of you Assad,” the protesters shouted as the streamed by a giant wall at Jamarat Bridge used for the ritual stoning of the devil, one of the main rites of the haj.

Another slogan went: “We don’t want Bashar, all Syrians raise your arms up!”

The Syrian crisis also was evident at Mount Arafat, scene for the haj’s main rites, on Thursday when some Syrians held up rebel flags despite a call by Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti to avoid raising national and factional slogans.

“We want to make our voices heard because no one seems to listen to us,” a man identified as Sabri, 27, a Syrian who lives in Saudi Arabia, said as he held up the rebels’ black, white and green flag.

“This is not a political protest. It’s more of a humanitarian demonstration because the Syrian question has become a humanitarian one.”

The imam of Mecca’s Grand Mosque called on Arabs and Muslims on Friday to take “practical and urgent” steps to stop bloodshed in Syria, which has killed some 30,000 people, and urged world states to assume their moral responsibility toward the conflict.

Saudi Arabia has instructed its embassies to issue haj permits for Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, but most of the Syrians who made it to Mecca were those who live in the region.

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Bill Trott)

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U.S. officials believe Iran is behind recent cyberattacks

October 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

6856984c1cbabed62b358ad97d646ef0 U.S. officials believe Iran is behind recent cyberattacks

The United States believes that Iran is behind cyberattacks on and the oil industry in the Middle East, officials said.

Although officials have not made such an assertion publicly, they have characterized the attacks that occurred in recent months as initiated by a “state actor.” The U.S. intelligence apparatus observed and tracked the attacks as coming out of Iran, a third official said Monday. The official would not describe further what was observed but said the belief is the were surrogates working with the .

“We strongly believe there is a relationship between the people typing the code and people running the government,” according to the official.

“It certainly is the case that Iran is improving its capabilities in the cyber field. We’re paying attention. We are concerned about their increasing ability to operate in this realm,” a U.S. said.

Defense Secretary noted the attacks in a speech last week and warned that United States must beef up its cyber defenses or risk a potentially devastating strike.

Calling it a “pre-9/11 moment,” Panetta said he is particularly worried about a significant escalation of attacks and highlighted a known as “Shamoon.” The virus infected the computers of major in and this past summer.

In Saudi Arabia, more than 30,000 computers were rendered useless by the attack on the ARAMCO. Ras Gas was affected in Qatar.

Panetta said the attacks were probably the most devastating to ever hit the private sector.

Iran denied any involvement in the attack on the oil industry, according to a report broadcast Monday on PRESS TV, a government- agency.

“One of the main aims of the United States is to make itself look like the victim,” said Mehdi Ahkavan Bahabadi, the director of the Iran Cyberspace Center.

The report noted Iran itself has been the victim of numerous online assaults, including Stuxnet, a complex cyberattack against its nuclear program believed to have been created by American and Israeli programmers.

Panetta’s speech also covered recent attacks against large U.S. banks, which hit with unprecedented speed and disrupting services to customers.

While the attacks did not do any significant damage or result in any financial losses, it caught the attention of U.S. intelligence, according to officials.

Officials said they have not heard any talk with in the government regarding a possible retaliatory strike for the cyber attack on the banking system.

Panetta did not publicly say Iran was behind both attacks but sources say that is what U.S. officials believe.

The New York Times reported that while there seems to be no real evidence that the cyber attacks were sanctioned by the Iranian government,

U.S. officials have begun to focus their suspicion on a recently created Iranian military unit called “cybercorps.”

The unit was developed in response to American and Israeli cyberattacks on the Iranian nuclear enrichment plant at Natanz.

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U.S. defense secretary notes ‘enhanced’ capabilities amid Mideast unrest

September 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

e42758b5f114692c9bfe812c1252a158 U.S. defense secretary notes enhanced capabilities amid Mideast unrest
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta talks to reporters en route to Asia
He says recent events reinforce the need for a strong in the
U.S. in the region have been “enhanced” in recent days, he says
Panetta praises Libyan officials’ “strong effort” in response to a deadly attack

() — U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Sunday that can “deal with any potential contingencies” in the Middle East, especially after the military’s capabilities were recently “enhanced” after attacks on U.S. .

Speaking to reporters en route to Tokyo, Panetta said recent unrest underscores the importance of having vibrant, flexible U.S. military capabilities in the region. That unrest includes an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, as well as near U.S. embassies in Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia and elsewhere.

“The events of this week remind all of us of the need to maintain a strong presence in the Middle East,” Panetta said.

More arrests in U.S. Consulate attack in Libya

Some of that comes from U.S. forces’ extensive roots in the region, including bases in Iraq, Kuwait, , Bahrain, and elsewhere. Those troops make it easier to respond to in the region, which Panetta acknowledged, as do other recent moves, which include calling on members of small Marine Fleet Antiterrorism Security Teams, or FAST, teams and moving warships in the region.

“We have enhanced some of that presence with the FAST teams and others so that, if they are requested, they can respond more quickly,” Panetta said.

“It’s a combination of FAST teams plus some ships in the region that we have to try to give us the full capability we need in order to respond,” he added, while noting the didn’t “anticipate a situation right now where we would have to … do this on our own.”

Earlier this week, vigorous and sometimes violent protests broke out near U.S. embassies around the world over the “Innocence of Muslims,” an obscure film mocking the Prophet Mohammed as a womanizer, child molester and ruthless killer.

Two months after the film’s trailer was posted online on YouTube, and days after it got attention in Egyptian media, Cairo residents first expressed their ire Tuesday, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks, with protests targeting the American embassy.

Outpourings soon spread like wildfire across the . As a result, Western diplomats found themselves and their missions under siege, even as American leaders criticized the film and emphasized the U.S. government had nothing to do with it.

Afterward, U.S. officials said Marine FAST teams, with about 50 members each, were being dispatched to Libya, Sudan and Yemen to protect U.S. diplomatic missions in those countries.

But Sudanese officials rebuffed the U.S. plan to send in troops, insisting their own security forces could protect the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum. And Yemen’s parliament issued a statement early Sunday vehemently opposing the presence of U.S. troops in the country.

One nation that hasn’t voiced opposition to a small contingent of U.S. troops is Libya. Libyan officials have said they are cooperating closely with U.S. authorities in investigating Tuesday’s attack in Benghazi, which they have strongly condemned.

“I’m convinced that they want to do everything possible to be able to respond to what happened there,” Panetta said of Libyan officials. “And I think they are taking steps on the security side to provide better security. … I think they are making a strong effort to try to respond to this crisis and try to deal with the issues involved.”

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Fury over Mohammad video simmers on in Muslim world

September 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

1fa73e51323ecc5b61ec960a52ba236d Fury over Mohammad video simmers on in Muslim world

() – A wave of furious anti-Western protests against a film mocking the abated on Saturday, but U.S. policy in the Muslim world remained overshadowed by 13 minutes of amateurish video on the Internet.

Washington ordered family members and non-essential staff to leave the U.S. Embassy in , which was attacked on Friday, after Sudan turned down its request to send Marines to bolster security.

In addition, it pulled non-essential personnel out of its embassy in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, also attacked on Friday, and urged American citizens to leave the city.

Marine have been sent to U.S. missions in Yemen and Libya since the unrest erupted.

Elsewhere, stormed into Cairo’s Tahrir Square and rounded up hundreds of people after four days of clashes and demands from protesters for the U.S. to be expelled.

Saudi Arabia’s highest religious authority denounced the attacks on diplomats and embassies across the Middle East as un-Islamic.

But the Yemen-based branch of al Qaeda applauded the killings of U.S. diplomats in Libya and urged Muslims to kill more, calling the video posted on the Internet another chapter in the “crusader wars” against Islam.

A convicted of bank fraud, who has denied reports that he was involved in the film’s production, was taken in for questioning by officers investigating possible stemming from the making of the film.

Afghanistan’s Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack on a base that killed two American Marines, saying it was a response to the insults to the founder of Islam.

RELATIVE CALM

Hundreds of Muslims took to the streets of Australia’s largest city, some and bottles in clashes with police. Some carried placards reading “Behead all those who insult the Prophet”.

About 80 were arrested in Paris while trying to demonstrate outside the U.S. Embassy near the Champs Elysees, sources said.

Saturday was, however, relatively calm after at least nine deaths in the Muslim world on Friday during protests and attacks on American and other Western embassies.

President Barack Obama, leading a ceremony on Friday to honor the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans who died in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on September 11, vowed to “stand fast” against the violence.

“The United States will never retreat from the world,” he said. The Pentagon rushed to bolster security at missions abroad.

The U.S. State Department on Saturday also urged American citizens to avoid Sudan’s restive Darfur, Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan regions.

Libyan authorities said they had identified 50 people who were involved in the attack in which ambassador Christopher Stevens died.

In an interview aired on Saturday on NBC’s “Nightly News,” Libyan President Mohammed Magarief was quoted as saying that foreigners along with Libyans were involved in the attack on the consulate in Benghazi. He added there were 10 suspects in custody.

Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al al-Sheikh, denounced the attacks while urging governments and international bodies to criminalize insults against prophets.

He described the short film as “miserable” and “criminal,” but said attacks on the innocent and on diplomats were “a distortion of the Islamic religion and are not accepted by God”.

FREE SPEECH LAWS

The video, circulating on the Internet under several titles including “Innocence of Muslims,” portrays Mohammad as a womanizer and a fool.

“We were attacked by Obama, and his government, and the Coptic Christians living abroad!” shouted one long-bearded Muslim protester outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on Friday.

In the Los Angeles suburb of Cerritos, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, who has denied involvement in the film in a phone call to a Coptic Christian bishop, was ushered out of his home and into a waiting car by sheriff’s deputies, his face shielded by a scarf, hat and sunglasses.

He was voluntarily interviewed by federal probation officers and left about 30 minutes later, a police spokesman said.

U.S. officials have said authorities are not investigating the film project itself, and that even if it was inflammatory or led to violence, simply producing it cannot be considered a crime in the United States, which has strong free speech laws.

A statement posted on a website used by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula called on Muslims to “follow the example of Omar al-Mukhtar’s descendants (Libyans), who killed the American ambassador”.

“Let the step of kicking out the embassies be a step towards liberating Muslim countries from the American hegemony,” the group said.

Hundreds of mourners in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, attended the funeral on Saturday of a young protester shot to death when riot police battled a crowd attacking the U.S. Embassy on Thursday.

(Writing by Andrew Roche; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Peter Cooney)

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Al Qaeda-linked militants killed in south Yemen

September 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

b96daefb08057c257d8d4bb395a43e5b Al Qaeda linked militants killed in south Yemen

() – Two al Qaeda-linked militants and a pro-government tribesman were killed in clashes in Yemen’s restive south on Sunday, a local official and a tribesman said.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has made its base in the impoverished state, which slid into chaos last year after protests that eventually forced veteran ruler to step down.

The group has mounted operations in neighboring Saudi Arabia as well as attempting to launch attacks against the United States.

The army helped by local tribes launched a U.S.-backed drive in May to drive Islamist militants from Ansar al- (Partisans of ), an of al Qaeda, out of several southern towns they had held for more than a year.

The two militants killed in Sunday’s violence in Abyan province were from Somalia and Pakistan, the tribesman said.

Ansar al-Sharia has attracted hundreds of since it seized the towns in the south and declared them Islamic emirates. Some of those militants had previously fought in Afghanistan.

A website said an al Qaeda commander, Batees, was among eight Islamist militants killed by a U.S. strike in a remote part of the of Hadramout on Friday.

Batees had previously been captured by security forces but escaped prison during the uprising last year.

Washington, which fears the spread of Islamist militancy in Yemen, has stepped up attacks by unmanned aircraft this year.

(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Additional reporting by Dhouyazen Mukhashaf in Aden; Writing by Mahmoud Habboush; Editing by Pravin Char)

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Lebanon kidnap sparks fears of Syria spillover

August 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

04b2b9c19792bb4bd9407d276a644a4f Lebanon kidnap sparks fears of Syria spillover

() – Gulf began evacuating their citizens from Lebanon on Thursday after linked to Syria’s civil war showed violence has begun to spread across a region torn by sectarian divisions.

Lebanese Shi’ite gunmen seized more than 20 people in an area of Beirut run by Hezbollah, a group backed by Syrian ally Iran, and said they were holding citizens of Turkey and , key backers of Syria’s mainly Sunni Muslim insurgency.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, , Kuwait and Bahrain all told their nationals to leave at once. Some nations have already begun flying their citizens home.

The kidnappers’ threat to take more Saudi, Turkish and Qatari hostages to secure the release of a kinsman held by Syrian rebels in bore ominous echoes of Lebanon’s own, long civil war – and lost no time in urging visitors to leave Beirut’s popular summer tourist haunts.

“The snowball will grow,” warned Hatem al-Meqdad, a senior member of the powerful Lebanese Shi’ite Meqdad family who said his brother was detained by the Free two days ago.

-Assad, whose Alawite minority is an of Shi’, has long relied on support from Shi’ite Iran and its Hezbollah allies. He accuses the Sunni powers of the Gulf and Turkey of promoting the revolt against him, which grew out of Arab Spring demonstrations 18 months ago.

While his opponents, and the Western powers which sympathise with them, insist they want to avoid the kind of sectarian blood-letting seen in Iraq, rebels who mostly come from Syria’s disadvantaged Sunni majority have seized Iranians and Lebanese there in recent weeks, saying they may be working for Assad.

REGIONAL MOVES

On Wednesday, the Meqdad clan said it was holding more than 20 people, including a Saudi, a Turkish businessman and several Syrians they described as anti-Assad fighters. Its action was a blow to a Lebanese economy for which Gulf tourists have played a part in recovery after 15 years of civil war ended in 1990.

“We still haven’t even done one percent; we still haven’t really moved,” said a man who told reporters late on Wednesday in Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled Dahiya district that he and his fellow masked gunmen from the Meqdad clan’s “military wing” were ready to take more action against Syrian rebels in Lebanon.

The Turkish hostage told a Lebanese television channel he was being treated well. Another station broadcast footage it said showed two Syrian hostages in the custody of masked gunmen from the Meqdad clan wearing fatigues and armed with rifles.

Air France diverted one of its planes away from Beirut on Wednesday evening for “security reasons” after the kidnappings. The road from the airport has regularly been blocked by protesting families of Lebanese being held in Syria.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the kidnappings, but his government seemed largely powerless to act.

“This brings us back to the days of the painful war, a page that Lebanese citizens have been trying to turn,” he said.

Fighting in Syria has triggered violence across the border before – some of it linked to Syrian rebels bringing arms and supplies across Lebanon.

But the round of hostage-taking on both sides adds a new factor for regional states, who are advancing their strategic interests while Russia and the West are deadlocked by their deep divisions over Syria.

At a meeting in Saudi Arabia, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation suspended Syria on Thursday, citing Assad’s suppression of the Syrian revolt, but there was little support for direct military involvement.

The 57-member body’s rebuke is mostly symbolic, but it shows Syria’s isolation – as well as that of its ally Iran – across much of the Sunni-majority Islamic world.

Against that backdrop, the bloodshed in Syria continues.

AIR STRIKE, WAR CRIMES

In Azaz, near the heavily contested northern economic hub of Aleppo, bombing by Assad’s air force killed 30 people, according to a local doctor, and wounded scores more as buildings were flattened. Among those hurt, a rebel commander said, were seven Lebanese being held captive. A further four were missing.

Assad’s forces have increasingly been using their air power against the lightly armed insurgents – a tactic which featured in fresh accusations of war crimes leveled by U.N. human rights investigators on Wednesday.

They said rebels had also committed war crimes, but the violations “did not reach the gravity, frequency and scale” of those by state forces and the pro-Assad shabbiha militia.

Last month, Assad’s troops successfully counter-attacked after rebels seized parts of Damascus. They are still trying to dislodge insurgents from Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city.

A Syrian air strike wrecked a hospital in a rebel-held area of Aleppo, a doctor there said on Wednesday, an attack that New York-based Human Rights Watch said violated international law. At least two holes gaped in the walls of Al Shifaa Hospital and four floors were heavily damaged by Tuesday’s raid.

Most Western and Arab governments have called on Assad to go, saying his government’s violent response to initially peaceful protests give him no place in a future Syria.

Russia has opposed tougher U.N. sanctions against Damascus, a long-time strategic ally, but denies it is actively helping Assad remain in power. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western governments of reneging on a deal among world powers made on June 30 to push for a transitional government in Syria.

Washington shot back that it was Russia and China which had blocked efforts to pass a U.N. Security Council resolution.

The price being paid by the Syrian people was underlined by the U.N. humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, who said that as many of 2.5 million people, about one tenth of the population, were in need of aid.

Speaking in Syria where she met Prime Minister Wael al-Halki this week, Amos said: “Back in March, we estimated that a million people were in need of help. Now as many as 2.5 million are in need of assistance and we are working to update our plans and funding requirements.”

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Issam Abdullah Asma Alsharif in Mecca and Erika Solomon in Beirut; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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