Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !

Iraq

Islamic State member in charge of seizing conscripts’ houses, weapons arrested in Nineveh

2018-03-10

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) An Islamic State member, who was in charge of confiscating houses and weapons of police conscripts, has been arrested, Nineveh Police Command announced on Friday. Speaking to Baghdad Today website, Lt. Gen. Hamad Names al-Jabouri, commander of Nineveh police, said troops “managed to arrest IS member called Ahmed Hussein Khalaf Ibrahim, who is from a village in Nimrud region.” The militant, according to Jabouri, “was in charge of confiscating houses and weapons of the conscripts in Nineveh.” “Troops managed to arrest him in al-Karama district in eastern Mosul,” he added. On Tuesday, an IS emir was arrested in an operation in south of Mosul, the military intelligence department announced Moreover, the Nineveh Operations command said 26 people were arrested in western Mosul over their suspected affiliation with the Islamic State. Earlier this week, Hassan al-Sabaawi, member of Nineveh provincial council, warned against appearance of IS militants.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syrians confess to Lebanon twin bus bombings

2007-03-16

Four Syrians held by the Lebanese authorities have confessed to bombing two buses in Lebanon last month, killing three people and wounding 23, Lebanon's interior minister said on Tuesday. The blasts, which occurred minutes apart, tore through two buses traveling on a busy commuter road, killing three people and wounding 20. A higher death toll was averted because passengers from the second bus had rushed out to help the victims of the first explosion. Hassan al-Sabaa said the men were members of Fateh al-Islam, a small Palestinian group which he linked to Syrian intelligence. Fateh al-Islam broke away last year from Fateh al-Intifada, another Palestinian group. A fifth man, also Syrian, was on the run, Sabaa said. "It is no secret that Fateh al-Islam is Fateh al-Intifada and Fateh al-Intifada is part of the Syrian intelligence-security apparatus," Sabaa told reporters. Picture: Shaker al-Absy (R), head of Fateh al-Islam, holds a news conference with unidentified colleagues in al-Bared refugee camp near the port-city of Tripoli in north Lebanon March 13, 2007. Fateh al-Islam denied any link to the bus bombs in the Christian village of Ain Alaq. The sign on the wall reads, " There is no God but Allah, Prophet Mohammad is the messenger of Allah". A Fatah Islam spokesman who identified himself as Abu Salim told the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. that the group was innocent. "It is impossible for us to carry out such an act," he said The bombing on February13 was a day before the second anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, whose killing many Lebanese blame on Syria. Damascus denies involvement. The bombing had been added to a list of attacks being investigated by a U.N. inquiry into the Hariri killing. Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said the men had been instructed to carry out the attack before February 14. "They said that their bosses had asked them to be ready to carry out another operation," Aridi said, adding that the target was to be an office of the Kataeb Party, a Christian faction which is part of the anti-Syrian governing coalition. Pierre Gemayel, a cabinet minister and Kataeb leader, was assassinated in November. Ain Alaq is in the area of Bikfaya, home to Gemayel's father and Kataeb leader, former President Amin Gemayel. Security sources said earlier that six members of Fateh al-Islam had confessed to the Ain Alaq bombs. Fateh al-Islam first emerged in the Palestinian refugee camp of Bedawi in north Lebanon. Governing coalition leaders said the February 13 bombing was designed to deter their supporters from attending a Beirut rally to mark the Hariri killing and to bolster their camp against a political challenge by the opposition. The opposition includes Hezbollah and Amal, which are both close allies of Syria . Ring Leader The security officials told The Associated Press that the ring leader of the plot was a Syrian, Mustafa Sayour, who had confessed to planting the bombs. In addition to the arrests, police officers confiscated a "large quantity of explosives" that were hidden in the Beirut apartment of Mustafa Sayour Members of the network, according to the source, infiltrated into Lebanon from Syria last November under the cover of the so-called "Fatah-Islam" group, which was set up by Syrian intelligence with the objective of carrying out terrorist attacks to destabilize Lebanon and block the ratification of the international tribunal which would try suspects in the 2005 Hariri murder and related crimes. Absy is wanted in Jordan for murdering Laurence Foley an American diplomat in 2002, but Syria has refused to hand him over to the Jordanians .

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syria plausibly denies Leb allegations regarding Fatah Al-Islam

2007-03-15

(KUNA) -- Syria on Wednesday denied Lebanese allegations that a Palestinian splinter group, Fatah Al-Islam, had detonated bombs in two passenger buses in Lebanon last month by instigation from Syria. Syrian Interior Minister Bassam Abdel-Majid, who was asked to comment on the Lebanese allegations regarding the Palestinian group, denied the allegations arguing that the group (Fatah Al-Islam) was linked to Al-Qaeda and planned to launch terrorist attacks in Syria before its underground activities were uncovered in August 2002. The Syrian minister said that some of the group's members were arrested, along with the group's leader Shaker Al-Absi, a Jordanian Palestinian born in the city of Jericho. The Syrian minister said Al-Absi was coordinating with Al-Qaeda's late chief in Iraq, Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi in order to launch terrorist attack together. "The group's members were prosecuted in Syria," the minister said. He added that Al-Absi was released after serving three year in jail with forced labor. "But later reports showed that he had resumed planning terrorist attacks along with Al-Qaeda operatives and training some of their members," the minister said. He added that Al-Absi was now at large and an investigation was underway to learn his whereabouts, specifically since a warrant for his arrest has been issued by Syrian authorities. Abdel-Majid described Lebanese allegations as strange and "fall within the pack of stories and accusations invented against Syria for the sake of unsettling the internal situation in Lebanon and ruining Lebanon's relation with Syria." Lebanese Interior Minister Hassan al-Sabaa had said the men (Palestinians) were members of the Fatah al-Islam, a small Palestinian group which he linked to Syrian intelligence. Fatah al-Islam broke away last year from Fatah al-Intifada, another Palestinian group. Four of the Syrian Palestinian gang were caught and admitted involvement in the bombing of two buses in the Meten town of Ain Alaq killing three people and injuring more than 10. A fifth gang member, also Syrian, is on the run, Sabaa said.

Link

Europe

Scandinavia now fears attacks on embassies

2006-02-06

Nordic countries last night feared that attacks on their foreign missions could spread across the Middle East after demonstrators burned down the Danish consulate in Beirut in protest at the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. The incident followed attacks in Damascus, Syria's capital, on Saturday by mobs on the embassies of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. All the Nordic countries sharply condemned the attacks at the weekend and demanded security guarantees for their diplomatic staff in the Middle East. Per Stig MÞller, the Danish foreign minister, said yesterday: "It is totally unacceptable that governments do not secure embassies in their territory." Jens Stoltenberg, Norway's prime minister, said: "What happened in Syria is completely unacceptable. We are going to ask Syria for compensation and we will take the matter up at the United Nations." The US also condemned the attacks. "The government of Syria's failure to provide protection to diplomatic premises, in the face of warnings that violence was planned, is inexcusable," the White House said. A crowd of several thousand demonstrators in Beirut set the Danish consulate alight, angered by the publication of the drawings of the Prophet Mohammed in Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, in September, and the failure of the Danish government to address Muslim concerns over the cartoons. The pictures, considered blasphemous by Islam, later appeared in a Norwegian newspaper, making Norway also a target for Muslim radicals. Reports from Beirut yesterday said cars were overturned and people were hurling rocks at nearby buildings, in spite of the deployment of 2,000troops and riot police. Security forces arrested 174 protesters, of whom they claimed almost half were Syrians, while Hassan al-Sabaa, Lebanon's interior minister resigned last night. Fouad Siniora, Lebanon's prime minister, said: "Those who are committing these acts have nothing to do with Islam or with Lebanon." Denmark said it was withdrawing most of its diplomatic staff from Syria, while recommending Danes leave the country. Norway was likewise cutting its diplomatic personnel in Syria. "We contacted the Syrian foreign ministry last Thursday, requesting additional security measures, but despite this the crowd of demonstrators was able to cross the distance of some 5km from the Danish to the Norwegian embassy on Saturday," the Norwegian embassy said. The Iraqi transport ministry said yesterday it had frozen all contracts with the Danish and Norwegian governments. Saturday's protests in Damascus followed reports that text messages were circulating citing plans by demonstrators in Copenhagen to burn Korans. Danish police at the weekend denied any such gatherings had occurred.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syrian witness says Hariri's son forced him to lie

2005-11-28

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - A man has appeared on Syrian state television saying Lebanese officials, including the son of Rafik al-Hariri, had forced him to testify falsely to a U.N. inquiry into the former Lebanese prime minister's assassination. And Syrian State Television wouldn't lie... Hosam Taher Hosam, a Syrian who said he had worked with Syrian and Lebanese intelligence during Syria's military presence in Lebanon, said in a programme aired on Sunday that an elaborate scheme of torture, threats and bribery had forced him to testify to chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis. Not that torture, threats and bribery had anything to do with his current statement His appearance came after Damascus agreed to allow five Syrian officials to be questioned by Mehlis at U.N. offices in Vienna in connection with Hariri's February 14 assassination. Hariri and other officials accused by Hosam could not immediately be reached for comment. Hosam, who said he belonged to Syria's Kurdish minority, said followers of Hariri and other anti-Syrian officials had detained him for a while in Lebanon and had wanted him to go to Vienna to confront the Syrians to be questioned by Mehlis. "It is all a ploy," Hosam said. "They were after Syria." He said Hariri had told him he was convinced Syria was behind the truck bomb that killed his father, but needed Hosam's testimony to prove it. Syria kept a tight grip on its small neighbor Lebanon for nearly three decades until a Lebanese and international outcry over Hariri's death forced it to withdraw its troops in April. Hosam also accused Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh of arranging for other witnesses to testify falsely to Mehlis. Hosam said his captors had wanted him to implicate Maher al-Assad, a brother of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and his brother-in-law, Major General Asef Shawkat, the head of military intelligence. Hosam said he had been tortured, injected with drugs and offered $1.3 million by Lebanese Interior Minister Hassan al-Sabaa to tell the investigators he had seen the truck used in Hariri's killing in a Syrian-controlled military facility. Hosam said he believed Mehlis was unaware of the alleged scheme. "I felt he had no relation to anything or knew anything," he said. Mehlis has interviewed more than 500 people in connection with Hariri's killing, diplomatic sources say. His interim report in October did not name Hosam. I expect to see a whole series of witness "recanting" their previous statements

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Bomb kills anti-Syria journalist in Beirut

2005-06-02

A prominent anti-Syrian journalist was killed when a bomb exploded in his car in Beirut on Thursday in an attack the opposition blamed on Syria and its Lebanese security allies. The killing of columnist Samir Qaseer four days after the start of Lebanon's staggered parliamentary elections shocked the country that is only just coming to terms with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in February. Security sources said Qaseer, from An-Nahar newspaper, died instantly when a bomb under the driver's seat of his white Alfa Romeo blew up as he switched on the ignition outside his home in the Christian Ashrafiyeh neighborhood. The lower part of his body was torn apart. A passerby was wounded, several cars were damaged and windows in nearby buildings were shattered by the explosion. Interior Minister Hassan al-Sabaa said the bomb weighed between 500-700 grams and was most likely detonated by remote control. Qaseer, 45, was a columnist for Lebanon's leading daily who had for years called for an end to Syria's role in Lebanon. His fiery writings against Syria and the Lebanese "police state" landed him in trouble in 2001 when the Syrian-backed security services seized his passport and threatened him with arrest. He was said to have received several death threats.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-6 More