Tag Archives: Syrian President Bashar

News, Politics, Government

Iran, Iraq have 'exceptional' security role: Ahmadinejad

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in Iraq on Thursday that Tehran and Baghdad have an “exceptional” role to play in the region’s security.

“The role of the two countries in the security of the region is exceptional,” Ahmadinejad told reporters in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, but without elaborating.

“We carry a joint message, which is a message of progress and stability and security, and also a message of peace,” Ahmadinejad said after talks with Iraqi Vice President Khudayr al-Khuzaie.

Ahmadinejad, whose term ends early next month, arrived in Iraq to a red carpet welcome.

He also met Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a statement on the premier’s website said.

Maliki said at the meeting that “Iraq supports peaceful solutions for all the problems in the region,” and told Ahmadinejad Iranian companies were welcome to take part in the reconstruction of Iraq, the statement said.

Ahmadinejad plans to visit the shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala and that of Imam Ali in Najaf, two of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam, Maliki’s spokesman Ali Mussawi said.

Iraq and Iran fought a bloody 1980-88 war launched by now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein.

But the neighbours have drawn closer since Saddam’s overthrow by US-led forces in 2003, which ultimately paved the way for expanded Iranian influence in Iraq.

The United States has repeatedly said that Iran is using Iraqi airspace to supply arms to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which is locked in a brutal civil war with rebels seeking his overthrow.

Iran has stood by its ally Assad in the more than two-year conflict, while Iraq has sought to publicly avoid backing either side.

Iran has also supplied weapons and training to Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which has entered the war on Assad’s behalf.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Fierce clashes 'trap families in Damascus district'

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Hundreds of families were trapped on Sunday in a northeastern district of Damascus by regime troops who fought fierce battles with rebel forces, a monitoring group reported.

“There is a siege because regime snipers are posted on the outskirts of Qaboun and this makes any attempt to leave difficult,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“Violent clashes are under way between regime forces and rebels in Qaboun,” in northeast Damascus where battles have raged for months as the army tries to boot out rebel forces, the Britain-based Observatory said.

“The area has also been bombed by the army,” added the watchdog, which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers on the ground.

Footage filmed by activists in Qaboun showed smoke rising from the area as the sound of non-stop artillery and mortar fire rings out.

The Observatory said residents of the area were facing a “stifling” siege.

“There’s a major shortage of food and some families have nothing to feed their children with,” the group said.

The Observatory also reported that dozens of people detained in an underground makeshift prison near a mosque in Qaboun escaped when regime forces guarding the site left to join the fighting.

Overnight, the opposition Syrian National Coalition had urged the international community to act to free “200 people” they say are being held in the mosque.

Rebels fighting to overthrow the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad control several neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Damascus from which they are able to shell areas in the city centre, that still escapes their control.

Regime forces have for months been trying to uproot those rear-bases, including in Qabun and Barzeh, in northern Damascus.

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News, Politics, Government

Suicide bomber targets mourners as 11 killed in Iraq

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A suicide bombing ripped through a Shiite funeral tent in Iraq on Saturday, the second such attack in days, killing five mourners and six others died in violence elsewhere, police and medics said.

The bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle near a funeral tent in the village of Zahra, north of Baghdad, where family members of a deceased Shiite man were receiving condolences.

Five people were killed and 10 wounded, two days after a copycat attack in nearby Muqdadiyah killed 10 mourners.

Sunni militants including those linked to Al-Qaeda frequently target members of the Shiite majority, whom they regard as apostates.

Iraq has been hit by a surge in violence that has killed more than 2,500 people have been killed this year, including over 310 this month alone.

Analysts point to widespread discontent among Iraq’s minority Sunni community, and the Shiite authorities’ failure to address their grievances, as the main factors driving the increase in violence.

Also on Saturday, a roadside bomb in a Shiite area of Muqdadiyah killed two people and wounded five, while another exploded when people gathered at the scene, wounding four more.

In Baquba, north of the capital, gunmen killed a shop owner, while others shot dead an army officer in the northern city of Mosul.

And gunmen killed a soldier and wounded another in Kirkuk, also in northern Iraq.

Gunmen also crossed into western Iraq from Syria on Saturday and clashed with border police, leaving one dead and five wounded.

Iraq has sought to publicly avoid taking sides in the civil war between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and rebels seeking his ouster, but the conflict has spilled over the border on several occasions.

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News, Politics, Government

Saudi court jails 11 for Qaeda offences

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A Saudi court has sentenced 11 people including foreigners to jail on charges including weapons training, bomb-making and ties to Al-Qaeda, the SPA state news agency reported Friday.

The prison terms handed down by the special court ranged from 18 months to 15 years, it said, without specifying the number or nationalities of foreigners convicted.

Some were convicted of “declaring that it was the duty of young people to go abroad to fight, and permitting suicide attacks, while some had links to people of the deviant doctrine,” a term used to refer to Al-Qaeda, SPA said.

Some were found guilty of “weapons training and training in bomb-making at Al-Qaeda bases,” it said, adding that “some defendants had links to someone involved in organising the travel of youth to fight abroad”.

Convictions also included “supporting Al-Qaeda attacks in the kingdom and abroad… calling the government a supporter of infidels, and allowing the killing of members of the military”.

SPA said that the 11 were part of a group of 15 people on trial, but it did not mention any verdict on the other four.

Both the defendants and the prosecution have decided to appeal the verdicts, it added.

Earlier this month, a court sentenced 18 men, again including foreigners, to between seven months and 15 years in jail for fighting in foreign conflicts on behalf of Sunni Muslim extremist groups.

Saudi officials have issued increasingly stern warnings against volunteers from the conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom going to fight alongside the mainly Sunni rebels battling to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

But diplomats say hundreds of Saudis, perhaps even several thousand, have gone anyway.

The involvement of Saudis in jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria has stoked concerns in Riyadh of a resurgence of the wave of deadly Al-Qaeda attacks that rocked the kingdom between 2003 and 2006.

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News, Politics, Government

Shelling kills 15 in Damascus: watchdog

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Fifteen people were killed Friday in shelling in Syria’s capital, among them six in the heart of the city, as the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan entered its third day, a watchdog said.

“Six people were killed when three shells (likely launched by rebels) hit Baghdad Street in the centre of the city. Nine others were killed in massive (regime) shelling of Qaboon in northwestern Damascus,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Several people were also wounded, the Britain-based watchdog said without giving further details.

“Shelling and clashes have raged non-stop in Qaboon all throughout the day,” said the watchdog, which relies on a broad network of activists, doctors and lawyers for its reports.

The army launched a campaign at the end of June to try to retake Qaboon and other rebel-held districts on the outskirts of Damascus.

The rebels fighting to topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have also stepped up shelling attacks in the city.

Elsewhere, three soldiers, four rebels and four civilians were killed when insurgents attacked the Alawite village of Qumairy in Homs province in central Syria, the Observatory said.

And in the southern city of Daraa, a bomb attack destroyed the blood bank at the general hospital, the group said. The hospital is under regime control.

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News, Politics, Government

US to provide Syrian rebels $123M more in aid

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The United States is providing Syrian rebels with $123 million in new nonlethal aid that may include armor and other types of supplies that haven’t been part of the assistance package in the past.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says the additional money will double the nonlethal assistance to the Syrian opposition as well as increase humanitarian aid.

Speaking Saturday in Istanbul, Kerry says the situation in Syria is at a critical moment and that the bloodshed needs to stop.

Foreign ministers from the main supporters of the rebels trying to topple the Syrian government are meeting in Istanbul over the weekend to increase pressure on Syrian President Bashar to step down.

The United Nations estimates that the fighting in Syria has killed more than 70,000 people.

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/9rFBLru8SQA/