| Hezbollah commander killed in Syria, civilians 'executed' Posted: 08 Dec 2013 12:54 PM PST  A Hezbollah commander was killed in battle in Syria on Sunday, as a monitoring group accused regime forces of executing five civilians during fierce fighting near the Lebanon border. The death of the Hezbollah commander came as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces advanced in the key town of Nabuk, one of the last rebel-held areas of the strategic Qalamoun region along the Lebanese border. A key member of the Syrian opposition meanwhile said the National Coalition would make a "final decision" later this month on whether to attend a Geneva peace conference planned for January 22 and aimed at ending the nearly three-year-old conflict. Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shiite movement, has lost scores of fighters since it joined Assad in battling the Sunni-led rebels, inflaming sectarian tensions on both sides of the border.
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| Seymour Hersh Alleges Obama Administration Lied on Syria Gas Attack Posted: 08 Dec 2013 12:44 PM PST  Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has dropped yet another bombshell allegation: President Obama wasn't honest with the American people when he blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a sarin-gas attack in that killed hundreds of civilians. In early September, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States had proof that the nerve-gas attack was made on Assad's orders. "We know the Assad regime was responsible," President Obama told the nation in an address days after this revelation, which he said pushed him over the "red line" in considering military intervention. But in a long story published Sunday for the London Review of Books, Hersh — best known for his exposés on the cover-ups of the My Lai Massacre and of Abu Ghraib – said the administration "cherry-picked intelligence," citing conversations with intelligence and military officials.
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| Car bomb attacks across Iraq kill at least 39 Posted: 08 Dec 2013 12:26 PM PST  By Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Car bombs killed at least 39 people across Iraq on Sunday and wounded more than 120, mainly targeting busy commercial streets in and around the capital, police sources said. The deadliest attack took place in the predominantly Shi'ite Muslim district of Bayaa in Baghdad, when a bomb in a parked vehicle exploded near car workshops, killing seven and wounding 14, the sources said. An attack on another car workshop in the Sunni district of Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad, killed three and wounded 10 after nightfall. Violence in Iraq is at the highest level in at least five years and the capital has been targeted almost daily.
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| Syrian opposition head fears U.S.-Iran thaw could benefit Assad Posted: 08 Dec 2013 12:23 PM PST  By Ahmed Hagagy KUWAIT (Reuters) - The head of the Syrian National Coalition opposition group said on Sunday a thaw in relations between Washington and Tehran could strengthen President Bashar al-Assad's hand in Syria's civil war. Ahmed Jarba said a disbursement of Iranian funds frozen in overseas bank accounts as part of a deal under which Iran is to curb its nuclear activity in exchange for sanctions relief could leave it more cash to spare to support Assad. "I am worried about this closeness (in relations) from the financial side," Jarba said in an interview with Reuters, referring to relations between the United States and Iran. If these funds were released to Iran, part of it could go to the Syrian regime and this complicates matters even more," he said during a visit to Kuwait, which hosts a Gulf Arab summit on Tuesday.
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| Iran, Saudi strategists spar, swap ideas, over Gulf security Posted: 08 Dec 2013 12:21 PM PST By William Maclean and Yara Bayoumy MANAMA (Reuters) - Invoking religious faith and desert folklore, Gulf Arab officials proclaim wariness about a possible thaw in relations between their ally the United States and regional rival Iran. The exchange at a security forum in Bahrain at the weekend was hardly a meeting of minds, and few expect years of mistrust between Shi'ite regional power Iran and Sunni Muslim-ruled states led by Saudi Arabia to be dispelled in an instant. Listening to it, Harvard scholar and former White House official Gary Samore said he expected forthcoming nuclear talks between Tehran and international powers, most of them allies of the Gulf Arabs, to be "a very protracted and difficult negotiation with uncertain results". But two days of debate between strategists from Iran and Gulf Arab states at the Manama Dialogue, the Gulf's top security conference, produced an unusually open give-and-take, short on vitriol, albeit laced with thinly veiled criticisms. |
| Bombings kill 39 in and around Iraqi capital Posted: 08 Dec 2013 10:01 AM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — Nearly a dozen explosions tore through predominantly Shiite Muslim areas in and around the Iraqi capital on Sunday, killing at least 39 people at crowded market places, commercial districts and car repair shops, officials said.
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| Baghdad area bombings kill 35 Posted: 08 Dec 2013 09:36 AM PST  A wave of bombings mostly targeting Shiite areas in and around Baghdad killed at least 35 people Sunday as surging violence spurs concerns Iraq is falling back into all-out conflict. At least 13 bombs exploded from around mid-day (0900 GMT) across Baghdad province, targeting mostly Shiite areas. The deadliest of the violence hit Al-Amil and Bayaa neighbourhoods in south Baghdad, with separate bombings killing five people in each area. Interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan gave a far lower toll for the Baghdad violence, saying three people were killed and 10 wounded.
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| Assad's forces kill five children in Syria: activists Posted: 08 Dec 2013 07:46 AM PST Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have killed at least five children during fighting for the town of Nabak north of the capital Damascus, activists said on Sunday. The fighting in Nabak pits Assad's army and allied militia against rebel factions including two linked to al Qaeda, the Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based pro-opposition monitoring group, said five children were shot dead when pro-Assad forces entered Nabak's industrial area. Activists posted images on social media of the bloodied corpses of five children and said up to seven had been killed. |
| Iraq PM's allies distance themselves as polls loom Posted: 08 Dec 2013 07:43 AM PST  Two long-time parliamentary allies are distancing themselves from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ahead of April elections, accusing him of a deeply flawed security policy and nepotism. The allegations by key Maliki supporters Izzat Shabander and Sami al-Askari echo those of the Shiite premier's opponents, who charge that heavy-handed tactics by the police and army against Iraq's Sunni Arab minority have fuelled a sharp escalation of violence this year. First elected premier in 2006, Maliki retained the post in 2010, buoyed by a sharp decline in unrest that followed a military offensive he ordered against the militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in 2008. Critics say Maliki should have realised that heavy-handed tactics such as mass arrests and the closing off of entire neighbourhoods were alienating Sunni Arabs.
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| Syria regime forces 'advance in Lebanon border region' Posted: 08 Dec 2013 06:13 AM PST  Syrian regime forces made gains Sunday in the key town of Nabuk, one of the last rebel-held areas in the Qalamoun region bordering Lebanon, a watchdog said. "There is fierce fighting in Nabuk between government forces, backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, and Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The monitor, which relies on activists and medics on the ground for its information, said President Bashar al-Assad's troops have taken "new sectors of the town". "The Syrian army is continuing to rake orchards in Nabuk, and has discovered a terrorist lair containing medical equipment and drugs," state television said.
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| Bombings kill 33 in and around Iraqi capital Posted: 08 Dec 2013 04:53 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — At least nine explosions tore through predominantly Shiite Muslim areas in and around Baghdad Sunday, hitting crowded market places, commercial districts and car repair shops in a string of bombings that killed at least 33 people, officials said. |
| Iran president Rouhani targets stagflation in first budget Posted: 08 Dec 2013 04:33 AM PST  By Marcus George and Isabel Coles DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani presented his first budget to parliament on Sunday, vowing to bring down inflation and boost growth to lift an economy reeling from sanctions and what he says was mismanagement by predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Rouhani says Ahmadinejad squandered vast oil revenues on cash handouts and housing projects during his two terms in office from 2005 and racked up enormous government debt. Gross domestic product had contracted by 6 percent over the past year, Rouhani told lawmakers on Sunday, while inflation was running at 44 percent when he took office in August, a situation he described as "very worrying". "The combination of stagnation and inflation over the past two years was unprecedented," he said.
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| Bombings kill 30 in and around Iraqi capital Posted: 08 Dec 2013 04:23 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — At least eight explosions tore through predominantly Shiite Muslim areas in and around Baghdad Sunday, hitting crowded market places, commercial districts and even a car repair shop in a string of bombings that killed at least 30 people, officials said. |
| Iran's president: Nuclear deal has helped economy Posted: 08 Dec 2013 04:21 AM PST TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that last month's nuclear deal with world powers has already boosted the country's economy, as he continues a push to convince skeptics of the benefits brought by the pact's partial sanctions relief. |
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