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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
IS Demands Release of Roumieh Inmates, Threaten to Execute Captive Soldiers
2014-09-01
[AnNahar] The Islamic State aired a video on Saturday of a captive soldier pleading to his family to pressure the state to release Islamist inmates in Roumieh Prison.

Ali al-Hajj Hassan pleaded for his family to take action "otherwise the gunnies will execute the captives."

They were given three days to comply with the demand.

"We can no longer support the situation ... Please liberate us before they kill us," al-Hajj Hassan said in the video.

Al-Hajj Hassan had not appeared in previously released videos of the captives because he was not present at the shooting location.

The families of the remaining captives staged demonstrations on Sunday, blocking the main highway in the Bekaa's Labweh region to protest their ongoing kidnapping.

A number of soldiers and security forces members were kidnapped after festivities between the army and Islamists in the northeastern town of Arsal in early August.

The festivities erupted on August 2 in light of the arrest of a prominent al-Nusra Front member.

The fighting ended on August 7 with the gunnies withdrawing from the region, but kidnapping a number of soldiers and security forces members.

A few of them have since been released, including five on Saturday.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Islamists Free 5 Security Captives, Deny Imminent Release of Christian Abductees
2014-09-01
[AnNahar] Four of the soldiers and a security forces member kidnapped by Islamist bad boy earlier in August were released late on Saturday, announced a leader of the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front.

The security personnel were transported to the residence of Sheikh Mustafa al-Hujeiri in the northeastern border town of Arsal.

They have been identified as Ahmed Ghiyeh, Ibrahim Shaaban, Saleh al-Baradei, Mohammed al-Qaderi, and Wael Darwish.

The Turkish Anatolia news agency said that the Lions of Islam only released Sunni captives.

The Nusra Front leader denied that the Islamists will be releasing any of the Christian captives.

The Front now still has in its captivity 13 security personnel, ten are held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original...
, while four others are missing, reported Voice of Leb (93.3) radio on Sunday.

The soldiers and security forces members were kidnapped after festivities between the army and Islamists in Arsal in early August.

The festivities erupted on August 2 in light of the arrest of a prominent al-Nusra Front member.

The fighting ended on August 7 with the Lions of Islam withdrawing from the region, but kidnapping a number of soldiers and security forces members.

A few of them have since been released.

Media reports have said that the Lions of Islam are seeking the release of Islamists held in Roumieh Prison in exchange for the captives.

The captors later aired a video of captive soldier Ali al-Hajj Hassan, who demanded that his parents pressure the state to release Roumieh inmates.
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Arabia
Yemenis Demand Saleh's Trial as Top Officer Killed in Aden
2011-10-29
[An Nahar] Yemenis marched by the thousands on Friday demanding President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
be tried, as a woman was killed by a sniper and five other people were maimed, four critically, witnesses said.

Meanwhile,
...back at the pond, the radioactive tadpoles grown into frogs. Really big frogs, in fact...
an officer in charge of an anti-terrorism unit in the main southern city of Aden was killed in a car blast that was blamed on al-Qaeda.

"O men who love peace in the world, Saleh must face justice," chanted a crowd of 10,000 people that amassed after Friday prayers in Sittin Street, near Change Square, which has become the epicenter of anti-regime demonstrations.

The opposition has been calling since January for the ouster of Saleh, whom they accuse of nepotism and corruption, but the strongman has refused to step down despite pressure from Gulf nations and the U.N. Security Council.

"No immunity, no protection, Saleh and his agents must be judged," demonstrators yelled, galvanized by a holy man who called on regime loyalists to "join their brothers in Change Square."

"We all need this revolution to stop the injustice of Yemen," he said.

The echo of kabooms coming from the direction of al-Hassaba, a neighbourhood in northern Sanaa, rang out in the central square, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent said.

Gunfire exchanges, which began over night between rival tribal forces in al-Hassaba, continued intermittently on Friday, residents said.

Meanwhile,
...back at the ranch, Butch and the Kid finally brought their horses under control...
pro-Saleh demonstrators gathered near the presidential palace and chanted their support for the embattled leader and for Yemeni-Saudi ties, paying tribute to the neighboring kingdom's late crown prince, Sultan bin Abdul Aziz.

A sniper killed a woman as she walked with her husband along Hael Street, which separates areas controlled by forces loyal to the government from those held by dissident troops supporting the opposition, witnesses said.

The body of Kifaya al-Amudi, 28, was taken to a field hospital in Change Square, a medical official told AFP.

There were also anti-regime protests in Ibb and Hudeida, residents said.

In Taez, Yemen's second city, five people were maimed, four of them critically, when security forces opened fire against a funeral procession in a fiefdom of the opposition, witnesses said.

And in Aden, a suspected Qaeda attack killed an officer who led an anti-terrorism unit, a police officer told AFP.

"A device placed under the car of colonel Ali al-Hajji, head of Aden's anti-terrorism unit, went kaboom!, killing the officer and wounding two of his children," the source said.

The device went kaboom! as the officer drove through the al-Arish neighborhood, near the airport, according to the police officer, who blamed al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which formed in January 2009 when Yemeni and Saudi branches of the cut-thoat network merged, has exploited the popular uprising against Saleh to reinforce its presence in Yemen's south and east.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
ŽRelease will tip balance in LebanonŽ
2009-05-02
[Jerusalem Post Middle East] A general freed after nearly four years in jail in connection with the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri said Thursday his release by a UN-backed tribunal discredited Lebanon's judiciary and could shift the country's fragile political balance.

Brig. Gen. Jamil al-Sayyed, one of the former Lebanese security officials the tribunal ordered released on Wednesday citing insufficient evidence, called for the resignation of senior Lebanese judges.

"Inevitably, there will be political consequences," Sayyed told The Associated Press in an interview. "It was only natural that when the tribunal took a decision that goes against the politically motivated detention, there would be an opposite political impact."

The tribunal's decision was a setback for Lebanon's pro-Western political bloc headed by Hariri's son Saad. Senior judiciary officials who were in charge of the generals' case are considered by many to be close to Saad Hariri and his alliance. The bloc, which holds a majority in parliament, was struggling to contain the political damage heading into crucial elections in June against a Hizbullah-led faction.

Hariri was killed along with 22 others in a massive 2005 truck bombing on a Beirut street. The billionaire businessman and longtime ally of Syria was quietly challenging Damascus' three decades of domination over Lebanon at the time of his assassination and his killing sparked a domestic and international outcry that forced Syria and its tens of thousands of troops out of the country.

Hariri's supporters blamed Syria for the killing, a charge Damascus denies. The four released by the special international tribunal set up to find out who was behind Hariri's killing were the only suspects in custody.

Sayyed was considered Syria's strongman in Lebanon. He and the other three freed generals - Ali al-Hajj, Raymond Azar and Mustafa Hamdan - directed the chief security and military intelligence services and the presidential guard. They were instrumental in implementing Syrian policy in Lebanon in the years before the Syrian army was forced to withdraw.

Their arrest nearly four years ago was a condemnation of Syria and its allies in Lebanon, so their release is likely to boost the pro-Syrian factions led by Hizbullah.

Sayyed was receiving well-wishers at a hotel as Lebanon was coming to grips with the new political reality after the release of the generals.

"What happened yesterday amounts to the downfall of the Lebanese judiciary at the hands of the international justice," he said. He said he would consider himself compensated "if the judges who erred, the officers and the journalists who fed the false witnesses with information, resign as a result of the court's decision."

He said he would wait for their resignation or dismissal, but if that does not happen, he and the others may eventually bring a lawsuit against those responsible for his detention.

"I do not seek revenge. ... But at the same time, I like accountability," he said.

The tribunal was imposed on Lebanon by the UN Security Council after deep divisions prevented parliament from ratifying its formation. The majority supported it as a way to limit Syria's influence and end a series of political assassinations that followed Hariri's. But the minority, particularly Hizbullah, saw it as a Western tool to pressure it and ally Damascus.

The generals were arrested after the first UN investigator, Detlev Mehlis, said the complexity of the assassination plot suggested a role by Syrian intelligence services and its pro-Syria Lebanese counterpart. An early draft of a report he issued in 2005 linked Syrian President Bashar Assad's inner circle but the two investigators who succeeded him did not repeat the accusations and said Syria was cooperating.

Hizbullah wasted no time in capitalizing on the release. Its officials flanked the freed generals Wednesday as supporters set off fireworks and danced.

"The priority is to hold accountable those responsible for the years of deception and stalling," a Hizbullah statement said.

Saad Hariri's political ally Walid Jumblatt, an outspoken critic of Syria, sought to rally supporters ahead of the elections.

"We will win the elections for the sake of justice and for the sake of Rafik Hariri," he told reporters Thursday. He said he accepts the court's decision but "we will not drop the political accusations" against Syria.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanon ex-security chiefs held
2005-08-30
Lebanon has arrested the head of the president's guard and three ex-security chiefs as suspects in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. They are being questioned by a United Nations team investigating the bombing which killed 21 people last February. All four - including the former head of general security Jamil al-Sayyed - have close ties to Syria, which was widely blamed for the blast. Syria has denied any role, but has been criticised for hindering the UN probe. The UN investigator, German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, is due to report his findings to the Security Council in the next few weeks. A fifth suspect, a pro-Syrian member of the Lebanese parliament, is also being sought by police.
This is one of Assad's "what were you thinking?" moments. He must not have thought it was a big thing when he signed off on killing Hariri — just another boom in a long string of sporadic booms, just another pol moved out of the way in the stately minuet of Leb politix. Instead, he ends up losing his mini-empire and in the end will likely lose his grip on Syria. All the obfuscation and stonewalling isn't going to be enough to keep the investigation from showing the links to Syria's hard boyz, not even with UN investigators.
BBC correspondent Kim Ghattas says the detentions constitute the first major development in the investigation into Mr Hariri's killing. In addition to Mr Sayyed, the former internal security forces head Ali al-Hajj and former military intelligence head Raymond Azar were seized in early morning raids on Tuesday. Mustafa Hamdan, the head of the presidential guard, later turned himself in to the UN investigators. The police also raided the house of a fifth person, Nasser Qandil, a former legislator and staunch Syrian ally. Mr Qandil was not at home and his wife said he was in Syria.
... and isn't expected back...
Mr Sayyed was widely seen as Lebanon's most powerful security figure between the end of the civil war in 1990 and the withdrawal of Syrian forces earlier this year. He and the others resigned earlier this year after huge anti-Syrian demonstrations following Mr Hariri's assassination.
Resigned reluctantly, we might add...
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told reporters that Mr Mehlis had briefed him on the investigation, and he decided to summon the four security chiefs "in order to question them as suspects". He has interrogated them previously. Mr Mehlis' team has no power to arrest or charge suspects, but has a co-operation agreement with the Lebanese authorities and can request action through the internal security services. Under Lebanese law, the four men can be questioned for 48 hours, after which they should be charged or released.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Debkoid
2005-03-30
Salt to taste.
DEBKAfile exclusive military sources report complete collapse of pro-Syrian political and intelligence structure in Lebanon and abrupt withdrawal of all Syrian commands including key figure military intelligence chief General Ghazaleh. Pro-Syrian Lebanese PM Karame backs out of forming new government in Beirut. Lebanese secret service chief Gen. Raymond Azar has fled to Paris. Internal Security Forces head Gen. Ali al-Hajj about to quit.
Looks like Debka's got it at least partially right on this one. We've got the article on Azar, from Beirut Daily Star, and the Karami story from several sources. Al-Jizzles is leading with it. Haven't seen the one on al-Hajj, but I'll take their word for it. Ghazaleh, I don't know about, but it looks like the tipping point's coming. Lahoud's hanging tough, though...
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