Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources/August 11/13

Lebanon vows to protect Turks after kidnap on airport road
Lebanese pilots call for immediate release of Turkish colleagues
Following kidnappings, Turkey tells nationals to leave Lebanon
Turkey to withdraw bulk of peacekeepers in Lebanon
'Dangerous' Fugitive Arrested on Drug Dealing Charges
Kidnap of Turks will harm Lebanon tourism: Abboud
18-year-old Lebanese killed by Israeli cluster bomb
General Security Official: No Decision to Deny Entry for Palestinians Fleeing Syria
Charbel Meets Ozeldiz, Vows State Protection to Turkish Citizens
Aoun Say Change and Reform to Propose Solution on Refugees Crisis
Hamas supplied Sinai terrorists with Iran-made Fajr-5 missiles for foiled attack on Eilat
Sinai militants say target of Israeli drone, four killed
Obama Blames Putin for 'anti-U.S. Tone', Lavrov Denies New 'Cold War'
Lavrov: Russia, U.S. Want Syria Talks 'as Soon as Possible
Iraqi Kurd president says ready to defend Kurds in Syria
Syria: FSA denies withdrawal from Latakia
Syria: SNC set to combat “warlords”
More than 30 Dead in Syria Regime Air Raids
Assad sends air force to prevent rebel advances in Latakia
56 Killed as Iraqis Mark End to Bloody Ramadan
S. Korea, U.S. to Conduct Joint Military Drill
Egypt: Government plans to end rallies in Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square  
Ya'alon: Israel respects Egypt's sovereignty
Report: Egyptian prosecutors have evidence Morsi incited murder of protesters
Al-Qaida-linked group says it was target of alleged Israeli drone strike in Sinai
Will Rouhani’s election affect US timeline?
US, Russia agree to prepare for elusive Syria peace talks 

Lebanon vows to protect Turks after kidnap on airport road

August 10, 2013/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Lebanon vowed Saturday to protect Turkish nationals in Lebanon as authorities stepped up efforts to ensure the safety of tourists in the country, a day after gunmen kidnapped two Turkish Airlines pilots on the airport road in Beirut. “We will protect Turkish citizens in Lebanon and all the people,” Charbel told reporters after a meeting with Turkish Ambassador to Lebanon Inan Ozyildiz, adding that the search for kidnapped Turkish Airlines pilot Murat Akpinar and his co-pilot Murat Agca was ongoing.  “Lebanon rejects kidnappings and the government is trying with all its might to free them,” he said. Ozyildiz left without making a statement. Akpinar and Agca were forced out of a shuttle bus at gunpoint at the Cocodi Bridge, less than a kilometer from Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport, Friday morning. They had been on route to their Beirut hotel at the time of the abduction. Ankara, hours after the brazen abduction, urged its nationals to leave and avoid travel to Lebanon. A security source told The Daily Star authorities have responded to the incident by boosting security for tourists, particularly Turkish nationals, in the country. As a precautionary measure, a list of names of all Turkish tourists presently in the country has been circulated to security and concerned agencies, the source said. In a further indication of the boosted security, Lebanese security forces accompanied a bus carrying Turkish tourists visiting the east Lebanon towns of Zahle and Baalbek, the source said. Soldiers deployed along the airport road after the abduction and police could be seen patrolling the Downtown Beirut area where the offices of Turkish Airlines and a Turkish cultural center are located.  The brother of one of the abducted pilots, Irfan Akpinar, voiced trust that Turkey would manage to secure the release of his sibling. "l trust my government and hopefully we will get a good result,” Anadolu News Agency quoted Irfan as saying. He said Turkey’s envoy to Lebanon had contacted him and informed him of the latest development in his brother’s case. "We want to hear good news as immediate as possible," he said. A group calling itself Zuwwar al-Imam Ali al-Reda has claimed responsibility for the abduction, demanding the release of nine Lebanese Shiites who have been held by Syrian rebels since 2012. The nine were among 11 Lebanese kidnapped by the Syrian opposition in May 2012 in the Azaz district of Aleppo. They had returned from a pilgrimage in Iran. Only two of them have been released. Families of the Lebanese have denied involvement in the kidnap of the Turks but voiced support for any action that might bring their case to a close. They have in the past protested outside the Turkish Embassy and other Turkish institutions in Lebanon, claiming Ankara, which supports the Syrian opposition, can secure the release of their loved ones.
Ozyildiz also met with head Future parliamentary bloc MP Fouad Siniora who condemned the kidnapping, saying the "crime is directed against Lebanon first before Turkey." "It is a crime that does not represent Lebanon and harms stability and its true purpose is to damage ties between the two countries," Siniora said, according to his office. As well as urging its citizens to depart Lebanon, Turkey made a decision earlier this month to withdraw the bulk of its U.N. peacekeeping troops.

Lebanese pilots call for immediate release of Turkish colleagues

August 10, 2013/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: The Lebanese Pilots' Syndicate called Saturday for the immediate release of two crew members of Turkish Airlines who were kidnapped a day earlier by gunmen in the Lebanese capital after departing Beirut’s international airport. In a statement, the Syndicate urged the kidnappers to release “as soon as possible” Turkish Airlines pilot Murat Akpinar and his co-pilot Murat Agca. “The aviation industry transcends borders and impacts the lives of millions of people around the world, regardless of their nationality, and therefore the lives of its workers must be safeguarded and no harm should come to them under any pretext,” the Syndicate said. The Lebanese pilots said they stood by their Turkish counterparts and “will not spare any effort to help secure the release of our kidnapped colleagues.” Akpinar and Agca were forced out of a shuttle bus at gunpoint at the Cocodi Bridge, less than a kilometer from Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport, Friday morning. They had been on route to their Beirut hotel at the time of the abduction

Kidnap of Turks will harm Lebanon tourism: Abboud

August 10, 2013 04:37 PM (Last updated: August 10, 2013/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The abduction of two Turkish Airlines pilots will deal a blow to Lebanon’s tourism sector, warned caretaker Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud Saturday, who lamented the poor response to the spate of abductions that have plagued the country recently. “What happened could be the last nail in the coffin of the tourism sector,” Abboud told LBCI, adding that the incident would have an adverse effect on the tourism sector.
He said the repercussions of the kidnapping would harm the economy as a whole given that tourism represented more than 20 percent of Lebanon’s GDP.
Pilot Murat Akpinar and his co-pilot Murat Agca were forced out of a shuttle bus at the Cocodi Bridge, less than a kilometer from Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport, after 3 a.m. and taken away by six gunmen, security sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Daily Star. The sources said the gunmen drove off in a silver BMW X3 and a black KIA Picanto after kidnapping the two from the shuttle. They had been headed to their Beirut hotel. Abboud said the incident comes at a time when officials are already attempting to reduce the impact of the existing travel advisories by Gulf countries.
“Moreover, the land borders have been shut down and an airplane ticket from Jordan to Lebanon has jumped to $700,” he said. The minister also held the government responsible for neglecting to fully resolve the growing number of kidnapping incidents in the country. Asked about the possibility that the abduction could be related to the case of nine Lebanese held in Syria, Abboud said: “Retaliatory kidnappings are a vicious cycle and no one can convince me that kidnapping someone is a solution to anything.” A group calling itself Zuwwar al-Imam Ali al-Reda has claimed responsibility for the abduction, demanding the release of nine Lebanese Shiites who have been held by Syrian rebels since 2012.

18-year-old Lebanese killed by Israeli cluster bomb

August 10, 2013/By Mohammed Zaatari The Daily Star /SIDON, Lebanon: An 18-year-old was killed Saturday when an Israeli cluster bomb exploded in Hasbaya, south Lebanon. Hisham Abdel-Al, a young shepherd, was working on a farm in the Hallat village when he stepped on a cluster bomb, dying instantly. Israel dropped some 4 million cluster bombs in Lebanon during the July-August 2006 war, most during the last 48 hours of the conflict, according to the United Nations. Hundreds have been wounded in cluster-bomb related incidents since 2000 and 2006. The Army’s Lebanon Mine Action Center along with the U.N. and other international organizations have been working since 2006 to remove the deadly ordinance from the south.

Hamas supplied Sinai terrorists with Iran-made Fajr-5 missiles for foiled attack on Eilat
DEBKAfile Special Report August 10, 2013,/The missile launcher destroyed by two rockets fired by an Israeli drone at Ajarah in North Sinai Friday, Aug. 9 was capable of firing 4 heavy Iranian-made M-75 missiles known as Fajr-5, which Hamas possesses, but not Sinai Salafists
Its 75-kilometer range covers Tel Aviv from Gaza Strip or Eilat from inland Sinai. The five terrorists killed in the drone strike were prevented from launching these rockets against Eilat airport Thursday by a tip-off from Egyptian intelligence to Israel. The Fajr-5 proved its high accuracy by leveling a building in the central Israeli town of Rishon Lezion on Nov. 20, 2012.
Since then, Hamas has upgraded the Fajar-5’s performance with an integrated radar system. It is carried by an Iranian made vehicle. debkafile’s military sources have not yet established whether Hamas handed the Iranian weapon over to the Salafist Bedouin acting in concert with al Qaeda in Sinai before the Egyptian army placed the Gaza Strip under siege in early July, or smuggled it across more recently. Even though Egyptian forces destroyed many of the Sinai-Gaza smuggling tunnels ahead of their counter-terror operation in Sinai, they may have missed a couple.
The Iranian rocket, which is 10 meters long, 333mm diameter and weighs 9 tons, is based on a 302mm Chinese rocket sold to Tehran in the 1990s and reproduced as Fajr-5. To move it through the smuggling tunnels, the missile would have had to be broken down into 8-10 sections and then reassembled at the other end, a function only Hamas is qualified to perform. It is also possible that a terrorist cell managed to infiltrate Sinai in recent days and collected the Fajr missile system from Hamas, which is trained in its operation.. Neither Egypt nor Israel has provided any clues to the identities of the five dead terrorists.
In either case, Hamas cooperation was clearly forthcoming. That the Palestinian terrorist group ruling the Gaza Strip is supplying advanced weapons to Sinai Salafists is a strategic development of the highest order indicating its resolve to fight the military regime headed by Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah al-Sisis in Cairo and an emerging coalition between Hamas, al Qaeda in Sinai, the Muslim Brotherhood ousted from power in Egypt and Iran.
Two years ago, Israel refrained from pointing the finger at Teheran when missiles made in Iran and supplied to terrorists were first launched against Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Rishon Lezion. Israel remains silent when they are pointed at Eilat.
debkafile reported Friday:
Intelligence sharing and military cooperation between Egypt and Israel foiled a terrorist missile attack from Sinai on Eilat Thursday, Aug. 8, say foreign sources. Egyptian security officials reported that an Israeli drone fired a missile in the northern Sinai peninsula, killing five Islamic militants and destroying one or more launchers. Egyptian military helicopters circled over head. The launcher, said the officials, was rigged for firing at targets in Israel from the vicinity of Egyptian Rafah in northern Sinai.
Eilat has come under rocket fire from Sinai in the past.
The Israeli military has refused to comment on the report. debkafile’s military sources note that it is not absolutely clear that the Israeli air force was responsible for the attack on the terrorists’ missile squad. It may have been an Egyptian operation in the course of its counter-terrorism campaign ongoing in Sinai and the Egyptian command preferred not to admit it took place on the Muslim Eid al Fitr festival.
According to those sources, six terrorists were killed, not five as reported.
The Israeli military has refused to comment on the incident. debkafile’s military sources say it is not absolutely clear that the Israeli air force was responsible for the missile attack on the terrorists’ missile squad. It may have been an Egyptian operation in the course of its counter-terrorism campaign ongoing in Sinai, to which the Egyptian command preferred not to own up because it occurred on the Eid al Fitr festival. According to those sources, six terrorists were killed, not five as reported, at a point south of Egyptian Rafah not from the Egyptian-Gazan border. The terrorist group was apparently in flight from a part of the Egyptian-Israeli border opposite Eilat from where they had planned to strike Israel’s southernmost airport Thursday night. Their route 230 km north toward the Gaza border indicated they planned to cross over and reach safety in the Palestinian Hamas-ruled enclave.
debkafile’s military sources report further that the military-intelligence cooperation in force between Israel and Egypt in the war against Salafist, al Qaeda and Hamas jihadis broke surface Friday when an Egyptian security official told The Associated Press that intelligence, suggesting terrorists planned to fire missiles Friday at Israel as well as locations in northern Sinai and the Suez Canal, was passed by Egypt to Israel. Eilat airport was closed for two hours Thursday night in response to the tip-off. The official also said that Egyptian authorities planned to start air patrols Thursday night over the Naqab desert in the Egyptian Sinai, where Islamist terrorists have hideouts.
Egyptian airports in the Sinai operated normally into Thursday night despite the warning, including those in the resort cities of Sharm el-Sheikh and Taba, said Gad el-Karim Nasr, the head of state-owned Egyptian Airports Co. Taba is only 10 kilometers from Eilat.

Charbel Meets Ozeldiz, Vows State Protection to Turkish Citizens
Naharnet/Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said Saturday that the Lebanese authorities will protect Turkish nationals and set free a pilot and co-pilot kidnapped by gunmen a day earlier. We are protecting Turkish (citizens) in Lebanon in addition to all the people,” Charbel said after welcoming the Turkish Ambassador, Inan Ozeldiz, at his residence in Hazmieh. Charbel vowed to secure the release of the abducted Turkish Airlines crew members when security forces locate their whereabouts. “We will bring them when we know where they are,” he said. “Lebanon rejects kidnappings and the state is exerting all efforts to secure their release,” he added. The ambassador left without making any statement. Six gunmen intercepted a van carrying the Turkish Airlines employees from Rafik Hariri International Airport to a hotel in the Ain Mreisseh seafront at dawn Friday, kidnapping the two pilots - Murat Akpinar and Murat Agca - but leaving the four other crew members behind. The attack prompted Turkey to issue a travel warning urging its citizens to avoid unnecessary travel to Lebanon and those already present in the country to leave. Charbel telephoned President Michel Suleiman on Saturday to brief him on the result of his meeting with Ozeldiz, who also met with al-Musatqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora. Saniora hoped that the kidnapping would not affect ties between Lebanon and Turkey. He condemned the abduction, saying it had bad political and economic repercussions on Lebanon.

Aoun Say Change and Reform to Propose Solution on Refugees Crisis
Naharnet /Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun said Saturday that his Change and Reform parliamentary bloc will propose a draft-law to resolve the problem of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. During a two-day visit to the eastern city of Zahle, Aoun warned against “the dangers and the repercussions” of the refugees' case as winter approaches. He said the bloc will make the draft-law proposal next week after he expressed regret at the way the government was dealing with the issue of refugees. Aoun made his remark at Zahle's Catholic bishopric. Some 675,000 people fleeing Syria's conflict have sought shelter in Lebanon, the U.N. says, among them 60,000 Palestinians. It says the 28-month-old civil war has killed more than 100,000 people and created millions of refugees. SourceAgence France Presse.

General Security Official: No Decision to Deny Entry for Palestinians Fleeing Syria
Naharnet/An official in the General Security Department denied that Lebanese authorities have taken a decision to prevent Palestinian refugees escaping the fighting in Syria to enter Lebanon. In remarks to pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat published on Saturday, the official who was not identified said: “The same measures are being applied on all the refugees (coming) to Lebanon from Syria whether they were Palestinians and Syrians.”
General Security “is implementing the measures that were underway before the Syrian crisis started in terms of checking their documents and identification papers,” the high-ranking source said.
His remark came a few days after Human Rights watch said most Palestinians trying to enter Lebanon have been denied entry since August 6, 2013. An HRW statement said people stranded at the border included "entire families, children, the elderly and the sick". It said the Beirut government "should urgently rescind its decision to bar Palestinians from Syria from entering Lebanon.”From August 6, it appears "the only Palestinians allowed to enter Lebanon were Palestinians with Lebanese wives or mothers, or who had plane tickets to leave Beirut that day,” HRW said. It said there has been no public announcement of a change in policy. Some 675,000 people fleeing Syria's conflict have sought shelter in tiny Lebanon, the U.N. says, among them 60,000 Palestinians.
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Lavrov: Russia, U.S. Want Syria Talks 'as Soon as Possible'
Naharnet /Moscow and Washington are in agreement about the need to stage a fresh round of Syria peace talks "as soon as possible,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday. "Our opinions are very much the same. Come what may, we need to convene the Geneva 2 meeting as soon as possible," Lavrov told reporters in Washington. Lavrov added that U.S. and Russian officials would meet again on the issue at the end of the month.
Lavrov and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Friday amid strained relations between the former Cold War foes.
Russia, the United States and the United Nations have spent several months attempting to set up a conference on Syria aimed at arranging a political transition. Russia is a key ally of the Syrian regime and has sought to protect it since the beginning of the conflict by blocking certain Western resolutions at the U.N. Security Council. A first round of Geneva talks held in June last year ended in a stalemate with an accord laying out plans for a political transition in Syria that was never implemented. A second round of Geneva negotiations had initially peen penciled in for June this year, and then July, but failed to materialize amid sharp disagreements about the purpose and objectives of the negotiations. As well as sharp differences on Syria, Russia-U.S. relations have chilled over Moscow's decision to give U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden a temporary haven in Russia.
Speaking before Friday's talks, Kerry said he had not always seen eye-to-eye with Lavrov but both sides recognized the need for a political solution. "Sergei and I do not always agree completely on responsibility for the bloodshed or on some of the ways forward, both of us and our countries agree that to avoid institutional collapse and descent into chaos, the ultimate answer is a negotiated political solution," Kerry said.
SourceAgence France Presse.

S. Korea, U.S. to Conduct Joint Military Drill
Naharnet/South Korea and the United States on Saturday said they would launch an annual military exercise later this month, routinely denounced by North Korea as an "all-out war rehearsal.” The South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) will conduct the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise from August 19 through to August 30, the CFC said in a press statement. "Ulchi Freedom Guardian is a critical alliance exercise to sustain the readiness" of the two allies' armed forces, said General James Thurman, commander of the 28,500 U.S. troops based in the South. About 30,000 U.S. troops, including most of those based in the South plus 3,000 from overseas, are taking part in the drill, a CFC spokesman told Agence France Presse. More than 50,000 South Korean troops will also take part, Yonhap news agency said. The drill is largely a computer-simulated exercise, with troops remaining in their normal bases. Hours after the CFC notified the North of the planned exercise, there was no official reaction from Pyongyang. Pyongyang has previously reacted angrily to such drills, branding them all-out war rehearsals and vowing to bolster its "nuclear deterrence.” The announcement came as the two Koreas are to hold a fresh meeting on the reopening of a shutdown joint industrial estate in the North on Wednesday.
Rodong Sinmuun, the official daily of the North's ruling communist party, on Saturday called for mending ties with the South. It urged Seoul to abide by a 2000 joint declaration for reconciliation and exchange adopted at a landmark inter-Korean summit. The two Koreas have already held six rounds of fruitless talks aimed at resuming operations at the Kaesong complex, shuttered down by Pyongyang in early April as military tensions on the Korean peninsula soared. Both sides blamed the other for its closure, with the North insisting that its hand was forced by hostile South Korean actions and intimidation -- in particular, a series of joint military exercises with the United States. SourceAgence France Presse.

More than 30 Dead in Syria Regime Air Raids
Naharnet /Syrian regime air strikes killed more than 30 people Saturday in the Latakia province, bastion of the ruling Assad clan, and the northern city of Raqa, a monitory group said. Seven children were among at least 13 civilians killed in an air raid on Raqa, the only provincial capital in rebel hands, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said the raid was apparently aimed at positions of the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) which largely controls the city. ISIS has been the dominant force in the city since its capture by rebels in March. Residents have held several protests against the policies of ISIS which follows an extremist line of Islam, according to the Observatory. An Italian Jesuit priest and activist, Paolo Dall'Oglio, who hoped to negotiate with ISIS in Raqa, went missing in the city at the start of August. In the coastal Latakia province of northwest Syria, at least 20 people were killed in several air strikes on the Sunni rebel town of Salma in the Jabal al-Akrad area, the Observatory said. At least six of those killed were Syrian rebel fighters, while four were foreign volunteers, said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Observatory. Latakia province is a stronghold of the Alawite minority of President Bashar Assad, apart from rebel-held pockets.
Islamist rebel forces have captured about 10 Alawite villages in the Jabal al-Akrad, a mountainous area of the province. The army has hit back, sparking fierce fighting that has left dozens dead on both sides, according to the Observatory. In their operation, the rebels have kidnapped a leading Alawite cleric, Sheikh Badreddine Ghazal, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground and medics for its information.
In Damascus, a car bomb ripped through the Shaghur district of the capital late Saturday, wounding several people, three of them children, said the Observatory. In Aleppo province, further east, government troops stormed a village overnight, killing 12 people, the Observatory said. Al-Nusra Front jihadists and other rebel fighters in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor seized control of the offices of Syria's ruling Baath party in the Howeika district, sparking regime bombardment, the Observatory said. ISIS fighters have clashed for the past month with Kurdish militia forces in the Raqa region, triggering a warning on Saturday from Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani of a cross-border intervention to protect fellow Kurds. Syria's Kurds, marginalized by Damascus for decades, have walked a fine line since the conflict began, trying to avoid antagonizing loyalist forces or rebels who have fighting since March 2011 to overthrow Assad. More than 100,000 have been killed in the past 29 months of conflict. SourceAgence France Presse.

56 Killed as Iraqis Mark End to Bloody Ramadan
Naharnet/Car bombs targeting cafes and markets in Baghdad were among nationwide attacks that killed 56 people on Saturday as Iraqis marked the end of their bloodiest Ramadan in years. The blasts were the latest in spiraling violence that authorities have failed to stem, with bloodshed at its worst in five years amid worries of a return to the Sunni-Shiite sectarian war that peaked in 2006-2007. The latest violence comes just weeks after massive assaults, claimed by al-Qaida's front group in Iraq, on prisons near Baghdad that freed hundreds of militants, with analysts warning of a resulting spike in unrest. They also come as security officials trumpet a vast weeks-long security operation north of Baghdad that they say has led to the killing and capturing of numerous militants. Overall, 15 car bombs and a series of shootings and other blasts killed 55 people and wounded more than 200 across the country on Saturday, as Iraqis celebrated Eid al-Fitr holiday that follows the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. A spate of vehicles rigged with explosives were detonated in eight different neighborhoods of Baghdad -- predominantly Sunni, Shiite and confessionally mixed -- in apparently coordinated strikes. The blasts struck public markets, cafes, and restaurants, killing 32 people overall, while violence earlier on Saturday killed two others, according to security and medical officials A series of blasts hit Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 31 people. Also on Saturday, north of the capital in Tuz Khurmatu, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle near a police checkpoint, killing nine people and wounding 48. Two car bombs in the southern city of Nasiriyah killed four, while a car bomb in the shrine city of Karbala left five others dead. Elsewhere, three people were killed and five others wounded in separate attacks in Babil and Nineveh provinces. More than 800 people were killed in attacks during Ramadan, which began in the second week of July and ended this week.
Militants struck targets ranging from cafes where Iraqis gathered after breaking their daily fast, to mosques where extended evening prayers were held during the month. The violence came just weeks after brazen attacks on prisons in Abu Ghraib and Taji in which hundreds were freed. Analysts, as well as global police organisation Interpol, have warned that the jailbreaks could lead to a rise in attacks as many of those who broke out were linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Security forces have meanwhile launched major operations, among the biggest since the December 2011 withdrawal of US forces, targeting militants in multiple provinces including Baghdad. Violence has markedly increased this year, especially since an April 23 security operation at a Sunni Arab anti-government protest site that sparked clashes in which dozens died.
Protests erupted in Sunni-majority areas in late 2012, amid widespread discontent among Sunnis, who accuse the Shiite-led government of marginalizing and targeting them.
Analysts say Sunni anger is the main cause of the spike in violence this year. In addition to security problems, the government is failing to provide adequate basic services such as electricity and clean water, and corruption is widespread. Political squabbling has paralyzed the government, which has passed almost no major legislation in years. SourceAgence France Presse

Sectarian War, the Major Threat to the Middle East
By: Seyed Hossein Mousavian/Asharq Alawsat
Despite their distinct theological differences, the two main branches of Islam, Shi’ism and Sunnism, have co-existed in relative peace for centuries. The current level of sectarian conflict is a modern phenomenon rooted in political opportunism, the spread of radicalism and the distortion of religious tenets in order to instill a constant state of insecurity in the region.
The Islamic Revolution of 1979 ushered in the first Shi’a-led Islamic Government and led to fears in some Sunni countries that the “Shi’a revolution” could soon reach their shores. Post-revolutionary Iran, with its central Islamic identity, aspired to unite the Islamic world around three key fundamentals: independence, freedom and Islam. The political survival of unelected, Western-backed regional governments, coupled with attempts to limit Iran’s influence, led some to take advantage of historical differences between Shi’ites and Sunnis to incite sectarianism.
Next, the Arab Spring began to unravel the socioeconomic and political fabric of the region, with both positive and negative consequences. In this transformative process, sectarianism was regrettably advanced by some parties, leading to a level of violence unprecedented in its scope.
If sectarianism is not rooted out, there is a risk that the region will be scorched for the foreseeable future, with worldwide repercussions.
Fanning this extremism are the Salafists, whose narrow and strict interpretation of Islam considers all other Islamic sects, including the Shi’ites and even some Sunnis, as infidel. This categorization essentially opens the door for the mass bloodletting of Muslims. A follower and promoter of this doctrine is Egyptian cleric Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who issued a religious fatwa urging Sunni Muslims worldwide to join Syrian rebels in their fight against president Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad and Lebanon’s Shi’ite Hezbollah.
On June 1, Qaradawi said that “every Muslim trained to fight and capable of doing that must make himself available to support the Syrian rebels.” The cleric, who previously supported Hezbollah in its fight against Israel in 2006, also asked: “The leader of the party of Satan [Hezbollah] comes to fight the Sunnis. . . . How could 100 million Shi’ites [worldwide] defeat 1.7 billion [Sunnis]?”
Prior to the Egyptian cleric’s inflammatory comments, two other Lebanese Salafist clerics, Salem Al-Rafii and Ahmad Al-Assir, said that fighting against the Assad regime and Hezbollah was a “jihadist duty.” Recently, violent clashes between Sunni and Shi’ite communities in Lebanon has been on the rise, and the fighting has been exacerbated by the bomb detonated in the Shi’ite- and Hezbollah-supported southern suburbs of Beirut in early July, which injured dozens and added fuel to the sectarian fire.
With the militarization of the Syrian uprising complete, foreign fighters joining local armed factions will embolden radical Islamists of various ideological persuasions to dictate the course of the rebellion. This elevates the risk of the all-out civil and sectarian war in Syria spilling over into neighboring countries, especially Iraq, Turkey and Lebanon. Salafist rebels recently desecrated the Damascus burial site of Prophet Muhammad’s granddaughter, Sayyidah Zaynab, who is revered in both Shi’a and Sunni Islam. This attack prompted thousands of protestors to gather in Tehran and voice their anger at the rebels and vow to protect other holy shrines. The targeting of Shi’ite and Muslim holy sites by Salafist rebels will only further fuel the violence and empower the extremists on all sides of the conflict.
In Iraq, coordinated bombings have torn through mostly Shi’ite areas of country, killing over 700 people in April and 450 civilians in May this year. As insurgents step up their operations throughout Iraq, there are clear signs of a rapid deterioration in the security situation: At least 60 people were killed and over 100 wounded as a total of 17 car bombs exploded in mostly Shi’ite areas across Iraq in the last week of July.
Sectarian tensions are also being exacerbated by anti-government protests and the ongoing Syrian conflict. In addition, Lebanon has not been spared from the instability in Syria. The recent deadly attack by religious extremists on Lebanese soldiers left 18 dead and 128 injured—sending a clear signal that Syria-related clashes could drag Lebanon, already grappling with political instability, back into a civil war.
Unrest in Egypt continues, and recently four Egyptian Shi’ite Muslims were killed and then set on fire by Salafist extremists in the village of Abu Mussalam. In the case of Egypt, this violent turn is a forewarning of the expanding extremist views in the country.
In Syria, thousands of foreign fighters are believed to have joined the fighting against Assad’s regime. The US, Europe, Turkey and some Arab countries are providing financial and military backing to the fractured opposition; Russia, Iran and Hezbollah are supporting Assad. With international and regional powers divided over involvement in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, I do not see an end to these conflicts in sight. I am also concerned about the regionalization of the current conflict in Syria, which would have consequences far beyond the region.
In the last decade, thousands of innocent Muslims have been killed in feuds between extremist Sunnis and Shi’ites. Most likely, Sunnis and Shi’ites will never agree on each other’s interpretation of Islam and the history of their religion, but both Sunnis and Shi’ites can stop fighting and killing each other, for the sake of Islamic unity.
Prominent religious leaders from both Sunni and Shi’a sects should appeal to their followers to stop fighting and killing one another and to agree with each other’s interpretation. Recently, Iran’s former president, Seyed Mohammad Khatami, and former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir bin Mohamad made a “Joint Appeal to Sunnis and Shi’as” to end the violence and bloodshed that have characterized Sunni-Shi’ite relations for some time.
The former Iranian president went a step further, writing to the head of Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb, urging Islamic unity and seeking to take “the flames of grudge, extremism, and blind terrorism away from all the Islamic societies.” While violence has engulfed Muslim countries like Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, Sunni–Shi’ite animosity would clearly make Islamic countries all over the world more vulnerable to the current crisis.
Sunnis and Shi’ites—bound by the same faith in Allah, the Noble Qu’ran, and the Prophet Muhammad—are massacring one another and threatening regional peace, stability and security. Sunni–Shi’ite conflicts expand instability, civil war and sectarian conflict in the Middle East and beyond.
In the coming years, one of the most important security challenges for the Middle East will be the emerging sectarian and civil war in Syria spilling over into Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. While a peaceful resolution to the Iranian nuclear file is a must, the UN Security Council and regional countries should consider “sectarian war” the most imminent threat to the peace and security of the Middle East, with potentially disastrous consequences for the world. No country in the Middle East would be safe from the repercussions of a sectarian war. Delaying measures to mitigate the sectarian crisis facing the region will risk making its resolution impossible in the future.
The regional powers—Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iraq—should press the United Nation Security Council, which is responsible for peace and security in the world, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which represents all Muslims countries, to establish a task force to examine the Sunni¬–Shi’ite divide in depth and submit concrete proposals to end the current quagmire. Thousands of non-governmental organizations and all members of the Christian–Muslim–Jewish community have a similar responsibility to stop the violence and bloodshed and promote peace and understanding.


Obama, McCain and Graham make a 'huge mistake' in Egypt
by Raymond Stock/Fox News
http://www.meforum.org/3576/egypt-obama-mccain-graham
On their current trip to Cairo, Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), two of President Barack Obama's most persistent critics on everything in foreign policy from Syria to Benghazi, have found common cause with him at last.
All three fear that the anti-American (and generally anti-human) Muslim Brotherhood (MB), whom they mistakenly see as "moderate," will disappear from the halls of power in Egypt, our most important Arab ally. They also evidently worry that the MB's leading figures, such as now-deposed (and arrested) President Mohamed Morsi—who had awarded himself powers greater than any previous ruler in Egypt's history—will not be free to plot a return to power in an ancient nation that he had nearly destroyed in only one year.
Echoing earlier White House warnings, the two senior senators suggested that we may cut off our $1.6 billion in annual (mainly military) aid, the very tie that binds our countries together, as it has for more than thirty preciously peaceful years. Not to comply with their demands, McCain and Graham said August 6, would be—as Graham put it--a "huge mistake."
The White House, McCain and Graham have warned that the aid may be cut if the MB's leaders are not freed from detention—they have been under arrest since President Mohammed Morsi was overthrown July 3 by the military in response to the historically huge popular demonstrations at the end of June. (Morsi has since been charged for having been part of a 2011 prison break alleged to have been carried out by Hamas.)
They further demand that the MB be brought into the new transitional government of technocrats appointed by the quietly charismatic (and mysteriously Islamist, but apparently independent) strongman minister of defense, General Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi--who had himself been appointed by Morsi. That new government, headed by Adly Mansour (a Supreme Constitutional Court justice) as interim president and respected economist Dr. Hazem Beblawi as prime minister, claims it has reached out to the MB, which refuses to respond to its overtures. Meanwhile, the Islamists are gathered in two major squares in Cairo, waiting for the security forces to clear them away—and for the chance to be martyred when they do.
In response to McCain and Graham's warnings, Mansour denounced what he called "unacceptable interference in internal politics." In this, even a nation infamous for its political xenophobia can be forgiven for seeing a not-so hidden hand attempting to steer the ship of state.
But by blundering this way, Obama, McCain and Graham are joining the departing U.S. ambassador in Cairo, Anne Patterson—widely mocked (with gross inaccuracy) as a hayzaboon, or old crone, for reportedly hectoring Egyptians not to rise up against the elected government (which had turned itself into an Islamist dictatorship)—on a list of new Ugly Americans. She unfortunately gave this advice shortly before the largest demonstrations ever seen in human memory were directed against her suspected client, Morsi. (Reflecting heightened paranoia, her possible successor, Ambassador Robert Ford—who had previously served in Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq and Syria—is under considerable Twitter fire in Egypt, bizarrely accused of having caused the strife that has recently plagued those countries.)
And by going this route, Obama, McCain and Graham are risking one of America's most crucial alliances. They would do so for a not-so-beautiful friendship with a far from benign band of brothers that actually wants to conquer and rule the world (not just the Middle East) in a revived Islamic caliphate. (It is the same risk that Obama took when, after brief vacillation, he abruptly dumped our country's long-term "friend," Hosni Mubarak, in 2011, knowing that Islamists like the MB would likely be the only force capable of winning many votes in the new "democracy.")
The Brother's goals are hardly secret, despite eight decades of adroit, religiously-sanctioned lying, or taqiyya about their intentions. But they were elected, and so, it is said, we ought to support them. Then again, the U.S. cut off aid when Hamas, the MB's Palestinian branch, won parliamentary elections in 2006--because they refused to renounce terrorism, recognize the State of Israel, and accept agreements that the previous government had signed.
The MB undoubtedly believes that to get what it wants in the short-term—to halt the flow of American cash and equipment to its enemies in the military--is to continue to boycott the bogus "reconciliation" process. (Already, Obama has suspended the scheduled shipment of four F-16s last month, in a move that angered millions of Egyptians.)
If an aid stoppage should last, that could lead to the collapse of the transitional government and Morsi's reinstatement as president—the MB's irreducible demand. Hence they have resisted the senators' calls to dialogue with the new regime. There is no obvious reason for the Brotherhood to change this strategy.
The estimated eight-to-twelve billion dollars quickly coughed up by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to cover emergency imports of diesel fuel and wheat and to rebuild depleted hard-currency reserves are surely crucial for now. But if the military—Egypt's most prestigious institution and itself a pillar of the economy—should have nowhere else to go, Russia and China are always waiting in the wings, and would love to have a presence on both the Nile and Suez.
Refusing to recognize that popular will can mean more than just elections, America's "huge mistake" begins. Given that the ratio of MB opponents to supporters is now perhaps seven-to-one, added to the resentment that most Egyptians feel against any effort to tie vital aid to the tyrannical MB, and the wildly-popular al-Sisi's own fury at the Brotherhood for pushing him (and most Egyptians) into such a place, it is likely Morsi's side that will fail.
And with it, our own.
**Raymond Stock, a Shillman-Ginsburg Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum and a former Assistant Professor of Arabic and Middle East Studies at Drew University, spent twenty years in Egypt, and was deported by the Mubarak regime in 2010.

Dr. Walid Phares: Al-Qaida Is Growing
Friday, 09 Aug 2013 /Newsmax

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/phares-alqaida-gorwing-mideast/2013/08/09/id/519673

By Courtney Coren and Kathleen Walter
The time has come for the Obama administration to recognize that al-Qaida has grown and has a much further reach than previously acknowledged, Middle East expert Walid Phares said in an exclusive Newsmax interview.
"The claim that al-Qaida is on the run, on the path of decline, those claims basically have not been verified by a U.S. decision to shut down 22 embassies," Phares said.
The truth is, Phares explained, is that al-Qaida has grown immensely.
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"But now is a time for reality and the reality is that al-Qaida today in 2013 is much bigger, much larger, much more sophisticated and has more members, not just the center of al-Qaida but also the the branches of al-Qaida and in many countries around the world," he said in his interview with Newsmax TV.
But Phares said it is inaccurate to describe the membership rise as a resurgence: "I don't think this is a comeback as some would try to frame it. This is the ballistics of al-Qaida. It has never stopped.
"The jihadi movement has never stopped recruiting, indoctrinating. So if we do not stop the ideology because the ideology is the industry — the factory — then they're going to continue to come in waves. Younger, more sophisticated, more educated and more daring, if I may say."
And part of the problem, he adds, is that President Barack Obama's administration fails to recognize that it is in an ideological battle.
"The foundation of this administration's foreign policy and national security has been that the previous foreign policy was wrong," Phares says. "The previous foreign policy had identified an ideology so when in 2008 during the presidential campaign and again last year, the president said that this war is going down, that we are not fighting an ideology."
Phares said that the United States needs to work closely with Yemeni officials to fight the global terror network
"The Yemeni government is really confronting al-Qaida inside Yemen, but the difference with the US campaign against al-Qaida is that they would only fight al-Qaida if it's fighting them," Phares explains. "So what we need to see happening is a strategic coordination between the United States and the Yemenis as one integrated strategy against al-Qaida to get real results."
Phares is a congressional advisor and the co-secretary General of the Transatlantic Legislative Group on Counter Terrorism. He is author of several books on terrorism including, 'The Confrontation: Winning the War Against Future Jihad.'
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