Hezbollah military commander 'killed in Syria' & Hamas rebuffed by Syria

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2 October 2012 Last updated at 13:58 ET
Hezbollah military commander 'killed in Syria'

A senior military figure in the Lebanese Shia Islamist group Hezbollah is reported to have died in Syria.

Hezbollah said Ali Hussein Nassif was buried in the Bekaa valley on Monday and had been killed "performing his jihadist duty", but did not say where.

Rebels said Nassif and several of his men had been killed in an ambush by the Free Syrian Army. Other reports said they had died in clashes on the border.

There has been no confirmation that he was Hezbollah's commander in Syria.

The US has accused Hezbollah of "providing training, advice, and extensive logistical support" to the Syrian government, an allegation the group has denied.

Lebanese officials also believe members of Hezbollah's military wing, the Islamic Resistance, are fighting in the Syrian conflict, citing as evidence a number of quiet burials of "martyrs" in Hezbollah-dominated areas.

"Hezbollah has been active in supporting the Syrian regime with their own militia," one official allied to a political bloc opposed to Hezbollah told the Washington Post last week. "They've been quite involved in a combat role, quite involved in fighting."

Obituaries for Hezbollah fighters have begun to appear in Lebanese newspapers, without the circumstances of the deaths being explained.

However, after another senior Hezbollah military commander, Musa Ali Shahimi, was reportedly killed fighting in Syria in August, there was a public funeral attended by two Hezbollah MPs in the capital, Beirut.

As with Ali Nassif, the pro-Hezbollah news website, al-Intiqad, reported only that Shahimi had "died while performing his jihadist duty".

According to Syrian activists and the rebel Free Syrian Army, Nassif was travelling in a car near the Syrian border town of al-Qusair at the weekend when a roadside bomb was detonated nearby. It is not clear whether he was killed by the blast or in an ensuing gunfight.

However, sources in Baalbek - the main town in the Bekaa valley - told the Reuters news agency that Nassif and two other Hezbollah members were killed when a rocket hit a building in which they were staying.

A security official told the Associated Press that Nassif's body was returned to Lebanon through the Masnaa border crossing on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV, and the pro-Syrian regime Lebanese newspaper al-Diyar, have both reported that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has ordered thousands more troops sent to the northern city of Aleppo to finish the battle against rebels there.

Al-Diyar said Mr Assad was flown to Aleppo by helicopter and was personally directing the campaign, thought that has not been confirmed.
Border tensions

In a separate development, the UN's refugee agency said the number of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries had reached 311,500.

"Many refugees and the communities hosting them are already running out of resources," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters.

Last week, the UN and other humanitarian agencies launched an appeal for $487m (£301m) to help up to 710,000 Syrians who they estimate will have fled to Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the US has played down the significance of video footage that emerged on Monday purporting to show the missing US freelance journalist Austin Tice being held by a group of masked men.

State department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the video might have been staged and officials believed Mr Tice was being held by the Syrian government. Mr Tice disappeared near Damascus in mid-August.

Russia has urged Nato and regional powers not to seek any pretexts for military intervention in Syria.

Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Moscow opposed the creation of humanitarian corridors or buffer zones to protect civilians. He also called for calm along the border between Turkey and Syria.

On Tuesday, Turkish troops fired across the border into the north-eastern Syrian province of Hasaka, killing a Kurdish militiaman and wounding two others, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The activist group said the Kurds were members of the Popular Protection Units (YPG), a militia close to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which the Turkish government has accused of being a front for the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

BBC News - Hezbollah military commander 'killed in Syria'

 

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February 24, 2012
In Break, Hamas Supports Syrian Opposition
By FARES AKRAM

GAZA —A leader of Hamas spoke out against President Bashar al-Assad of Syria on Friday, throwing its support behind the opposition and stripping Damascus of what little credibility it may have retained with the Arab street. It was Hamas’s first public break with its longtime patron.

Hamas’s prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, said during Friday Prayer, “I salute all people of the Arab Spring, or Islamic winter, and I salute the Syrian people who seek freedom, democracy and reform.”

The worshipers shouted back, “God is great” and “Syria! Syria!”

Mr. Haniya made his remarks in support of the uprising that is seeking to oust Mr. Assad, a reversal after years in which Mr. Assad has given safe haven to leaders of Hamas while helping supply it with weapons and cash in its battle against Israel.

But the remarks were almost as significant for where they were made: in Cairo, at Al Azhar Mosque.

During the years in which Syria supported Hamas, Egypt’s leaders were hostile to the group, treating it as a despised relative of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was also tagged an outlaw and banned. So Mr. Haniya’s remarks in Egypt served as another measure of how much has changed since popular uprisings began to sweep the region, removing President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and now trying to topple Mr. Assad.

Mr. Haniya’s comments confirmed a distance between Hamas and Damascus that emerged several weeks ago when the group’s leadership abandoned its longtime base in Syria as the environment there became more violent. The remarks, which were seen as the group’s official position because of Mr. Haniya’s role, reflected a progressively deeper split with Mr. Assad. Hamas also recently allowed residents of Gaza to stage protests against Mr. Assad and in support of the uprising.

In Syria, the protest movement began peacefully, but Mr. Assad’s forces struck back with lethal force.

In Cairo, as Mr. Haniya spoke, the crowds also shouted against Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, both of which continue to support Mr. Assad and have long been hailed on the Arab street for remaining defiant toward Israel. That was yet another significant shift caused by the Arab uprisings.

“No Iran, no Hezbollah. Syria is Islamic,” protesters chanted, according to Agence France-Presse.

Iran has been a key supporter of Hamas. On Thursday, Al Sharq Al Awsat, a London-based Arabic newspaper, published remarks by Ezzat al-Rashq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, who said that Iran had been the main financial supporter for the Hamas government in Gaza. Without the Iranian money, he said, Hamas would have never been able to pay its 45,000 government employees.

Mr. Haniya is in Cairo with other Hamas leaders from Gaza and abroad to meet with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, to try to form a government of national reconciliation between the two rival Palestinian movements. The plan for such a government was agreed to last May, along with a plan for Palestinian elections. But numerous disputes remain an obstacle.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/w...-syrian-opposition.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print

 

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October 2, 2012
Syria Berates Hamas Chief, an Old Ally, on State TV
By ANNE BARNARD and HANIA MOURTADA

BEIRUT, Lebanon — State television in Syria issued a withering attack late Monday on a longtime ally, the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Khaled Meshal, addressing him as if he were an ungrateful child, saying he was having a “romantic emotional crisis” over the Syrian uprising and accusing him of selling out “resistance for power.”

The extraordinary reproof, a departure from the blander tone of most official Syrian statements, was the government’s first broadside against Hamas since the organization distanced itself from the embattled President Bashar al-Assad this year, when most Hamas leaders left their refuge in Damascus and shuttered their office there.

The attack was an editorial delivered by a newscaster in alternately stern and mocking tones, who reminded Mr. Meshal that he was “orphaned” by Arab countries who would not take him in when he fled Jordan in 1999. She implied that he must have sold out to Israel, saying that was the only explanation for the willingness of Qatar, his new host, to accept him.

Damascus seemed to be striking back after Mr. Meshal appeared at a congress of the party of Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and after Mr. Erdogan and Egypt’s president, Mohamed Morsi, pointedly declared their shared priorities of opposing Mr. Assad and supporting the Palestinians — a blow to Mr. Assad’s longstanding and domestically compelling persona as the champion of Palestinian resistance against Israel.

Hamas did not immediately respond to the attack on Mr. Meshal, who recently announced plans to step down from the group’s helm. But at the party congress on Sunday in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, after praising Syria’s uprising, Mr. Meshal declared, according to The Associated Press, “There is no contradiction in our adoption of democracy and reform, and our support of the resistance.”

Damascus is most likely particularly furious that Mr. Meshal has taken up residence in Qatar, one of the countries, along with Saudi Arabia and the United States, that it accuses of bankrolling the insurgency.

Syria, Iran, the Lebanese militant group and political party Hezbollah, and Hamas long considered themselves an “axis of resistance,” in contrast to Arab countries — notably Egypt — that pursued a more accommodationist policy with Israel and the United States. But relations in the axis have teetered as some of Syria’s Palestinians have joined the uprising and as some Hamas officials find it impossible not to sympathize with fellow Sunni Muslims in Syria, who form the bulk of the anti-Assad movement and have borne the brunt of Mr. Assad’s brutal crackdown.

A Palestinian resident of Damascus who opposes the government said that as he listened to the broadcast, he felt as if Mr. Assad and his inner circle were speaking to him directly — and revealing the fear behind the presidential facade.

“They freaked out,” the resident, who declined to be publicly identified because of personal safety concerns, said in an interview conducted over Skype. “All the legitimacy they have is based on the resistance — as if when you are the resistance you can kill your own people — and they are losing this.”

But Hezbollah remains a steadfast ally, although it has denied allegations by domestic opponents and the United States that it has aided in Syria’s crackdown. On Tuesday, Hezbollah’s Web site reported that a senior commander in the group, Ali Hussein Nassif, had died carrying out “jihadist duties.” A Lebanese security official told The A.P. that Mr. Nassif had died in Syria. It was unclear whether he had been fighting alongside Syrian forces.

The verbal assault on Mr. Meshal came amid a Damascus public relations offensive of sorts, hours after Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem told the United Nations General Assembly that Syria’s 18-month uprising was a terrorist movement being financed by the United States and its allies to weaken Syria, and that Syrians who had fled the country had been manipulated by Syria’s neighbors in a coldhearted plot for those countries to demand foreign aid.

Nearly 300,000 Syrians have sought sanctuary in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, and the United Nations refugee agency has called the outflow a major humanitarian problem that could destabilize the region.

On Tuesday, in a speech to Syria’s Parliament, the country’s prime minister, Wael al-Halki, asserted that the world was punishing Syria for its resistance to the United States and Israel, and doubled down on the government’s response to the crisis, saying that the army was the only guarantee of Syria’s safety and integrity and that Parliament supported its measures against the crisis.

He did not discuss the desperate flow of Syrians into other countries, but acknowledged that there were more than 600,000 internally displaced people (the United Nations counts more than double that), blaming “terrorists” for the crisis.

Finally, the Parliament speaker, Muhammad Jihad Allaham, denounced the anti-Islamic film with shrouded origins in the United States that set off violent anti-Western protests in several Muslim countries. His statement appeared to be the latest instance of conspicuously incongruous solicitude toward Muslims from the steadfastly secular government as it struggles to maintain popular support during the uprising that opponents estimate has taken 30,000 lives.

The newscaster who delivered the rebuke to Mr. Meshal also castigated Egypt and Turkey for what she said was their complicity in the Palestinians’ plight.

At certain points her tone became snide: “Meshal, since you are having a romantic emotional crisis over what you call the suffering of the Syrian people,” the newscaster said, “why didn’t the Palestinian people elicit the same emotional reaction?”

She recalled how Syria defied other powers to grant him refuge in 1999. “The plane that was carrying him was sent back from the skies of airports as if he was the plague,” she intoned. “Doha and Ankara and Amman and Cairo all evaded him that day because Israel had vetoed his reception, and no one dared to defy this veto except Damascus.”

Addressing him directly, she continued, “The only possible interpretation for their sudden welcoming attitude today is that you are no longer wanted by the occupation” — referring to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories — “and no longer a threat to their safety.”

She offered a barely veiled “good riddance.”

“Syria is not regretful because it didn’t do what it did expecting loyalty or thanks,” she said, adding, “Syria is happy that the person who sold resistance for power is leaving it now.”

The editorial also took shots at Turkey’s bid to become a regional leader and champion of the Palestinian cause.

For the Turks — who have been major allies of the Syrian insurgency, providing a haven for its fighters — that role is “too big” for them to handle, the newscaster warned. “The Turkishization of the resistance is read in the Arabic language as your complete abandonment of it.”

“Meshal, remember that fire needs authentic oil or the smoke will blind eyes. And the authentic oil for the fire of resistance is distinctly Syrian, Palestinian, Arab.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/w...d-meshal.html?pagewanted=all&pagewanted=print

 

[theworldismine13]

 

[Ritzy Sharon]

SIDON, Lebanon: Rushing her three children through a busy line, Faten Youssef waited anxiously for a doctor to see her family. She was not the only one angling for a spot Sunday. Hundreds of other Syrian refugees bustled around the Sidon neighborhood of Taamir as doctors made diagnoses in moveable clinics and a pharmacist doled out medications nearby.

Youssef fled her home near Damascus three months ago, and like other refugees in Taamir, she is now seeking help from a seemingly unlikely source: Syrian President Bashar Assad’s ally Hezbollah.

This was the first day of Hezbollah’s drive to provide free medical care for Syrian refugees. It had ensured a strong turnout by hanging banners in refugee-strong areas that read: “To our brothers, the Syrian people: Hezbollah invites you to a day of free health care – health checkups and free medication.”

Although Hezbollah has stood by the side of the beleaguered Assad, its officials separate its political stance from its humanitarian work. Sheikh Zayd Daher, a Hezbollah official in Sidon, told The Daily Star, “It is our duty to support Syrian refugees ... Set our political stance aside. I am here to provide aid to our brothers the refugees, and we are providing aid for all refugees in the south.”

He added “we don’t look” to see if refugees back the Free Syrian Army.

Four doctors, 10 nurses, one pharmacist and a team volunteers from Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Committee met with patients from early in the morning. They set up mobile health clinics and pharmacies at the entrance to the village, which is home to both Sunnis and Shiites. Yellow Hezbollah flags hung among the makeshift buildings.

Hussein Nassour, a committee official, explained that its work will eventually extend nationwide, starting with the south. “The campaign is to relieve our Syrian brothers wherever they are,” he said, “and today we began in Sidon. We are operating based on the records of where refugees are living.”

Although refugees had to register for checkups, Nassour said, “we do not ask them for IDs, there are even some Lebanese who registered their names.”

Youssef said she was not concerned about Hezbollah’s political positions. She simply wanted help for her three kids. “We heard about this campaign a few days ago,” she said.

“My children are sick. It is not important who provides help, as long as someone is caring for us.”

Fawzi Sukkar, 68, who was having his blood pressure taken, said he opposes Hezbollah’s support for Assad, but respects their relief work.

“We took care of our Lebanese brothers when they came to us in [the war of July] 2006, and today they are reciprocating this kindness,” Sukkar said. “I disagree with Hezbollah and its support for Bashar, but this is a humanitarian Hezbollah now healing wounds.”

Abla Mustafa, who was attempting to skip the lines because of her daughter’s fever, fled Homs at the beginning of this year. “Hezbollah is a party of resistance, and we cannot forget what it did to Israel,” she argued.

“It defeated Israel, while Bashar has killed us and displaced us.”

One of the doctors on site, Mariam Osseily, said the most common problem she saw was stomach virus. “There is also diarrhea, vomiting, coughs, pneumonia, fever and urinary tract infections,” she said, adding these were all most prevalent in children. She attributed the problems to poor living conditions, malnutrition, and a lack of sun exposure for kids.

Although the health relief campaign is more public, this is not the first time the party has given aid to refugees. For some time, it has been providing food, cleaning supplies and cooking equipment to Palestinian refugees who fled Syria for Lebanon.

Last month, a Hezbollah delegation also delivered aid parces to Syrian refugees in the Iqlim al-Kharoub region of the Chouf.

For much of the Syrian uprising, now in its 18th month, Sunni organizations, back by Gulf states have provided the majority of non-governmental aid to refugees in the country.

The Daily Star - Mobile Edition :: News :: Local News :: Hezbollah offers health care to Syrian refugees

 

[thekingsmen]

Hamas was created by Israel...so I would expect them to support an opposition closes to it's own creator.

 

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Hizbullah Arms Cache hit in Lebanon 7+ dead

 

[Techniec]

dude wont hesistate to offer no context or distinction in any political discussions, eager to lump any and all muslims together, now hes trying to have a nuanced discussion

 

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Turkey hits targets inside Syria after border deaths

Turkish artillery has fired on targets in Syria after shells from across the border killed five Turkish nationals.

A woman and three children were among the dead when the shells, apparently fired by Syrian government forces, hit Turkey's border town of Akcakale.

Ankara's response marks the first time it has fired into Syria during the 18-month-long unrest there.

Turkey also asked the UN Security Council to take "necessary action" to stop Syrian "aggression".

The request was made by Turkish envoy to the UN, Ertugrul Apakan, in a letter to the current president of the 15-member Council, Guatemalan ambassador Gert Rosenthal.

Meanwhile, Nato envoys held an urgent meeting in Brussels at the request of Turkey, who is a member of the military alliance.

The bloc issued a statement saying it "continues to stand by Turkey and demands the immediate cessation of such aggressive acts against an ally, and urges the Syrian regime to put an end to flagrant violations of international law".

The Nato ambassadors also expressed appreciation for Turkey's restraint in its response, the BBC's defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt reports.

At the same time, the government in Ankara is expected to ask the parliament on Thursday to authorise cross-border military operations in Syria, Turkish media report.
Continue reading the main story
Analysis
image of Jim Muir Jim Muir BBC News, Beirut

The flare-up on Turkey's border with Syria carries the growing tension between the two countries to a new level.

It's the first time that Turkish citizens have been killed by fire from the Syrian side of the border. And it's the first time that Turkey has responded, by shelling selected targets inside Syria.

Ankara is clearly looking to Nato for solidarity and will doubtless win verbal expressions of support.

But at this stage that is unlikely to translate into a move towards joint intervention in the Syrian crisis or support for further escalation of bilateral hostilities.

Both countries are strongly endowed with national pride. Syria was unapologetic after its air defences in June fired on a Turkish military jet which crashed into the sea with the loss of two pilots, amidst disputed circumstances.

Much will now depend on how Damascus reacts to the reported Turkish bombardment.

Several hours after the reports, there was no word from Syria on the extent of the shelling or any damage or casualties.

If neither side is in the mood to carry the exchange further, it may die away now that Turkey has vented its anger in kind, as happens from time to time on the Lebanese border with Israel.

But the incident will further envenom an already bitterly antagonistic relationship, creating further grudges that may find eventual expression.

The Turkish armed forces have in the past moved into northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish militants who had bases there.
'Abominable attack'

Turkey's territory has been hit by fire from Syria on several occasions since the uprising against Mr Assad began, but Wednesday's incident was the most serious.

In a statement, the office of Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: "Our armed forces in the border region responded immediately to this abominable attack in line with their rules of engagement."

Targets were struck through artillery fire against places in Syria identified by radar.

"Turkey will never leave unanswered such kinds of provocation by the Syrian regime against our national security," the statement said.

Syria said it was looking into the origin of the cross-border shelling that hit Akcakale.

Information Minister Omran Zoabi added: "Syria offers its sincere condolences to the families of the victims and to our friends the Turkish people."

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu contacted UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the UN's Syria peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen after the incident.

Mr Ban urged Damascus to respect the territorial sovereignty of its neighbours, saying the cross-border incident "demonstrated how Syria's conflict is threatening not only the security of the Syrian people but increasingly causing harm to its neighbours".

Mr Rasmussen told Turkey's foreign minister that he strongly condemned the incident, a Nato spokeswoman said, and continued to follow developments in the region "closely and with great concern".
map

Mr Rasmussen has repeatedly said that Nato has no intention of intervening in Syria but stands ready to defend Turkey if necessary.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: "We are outraged that the Syrians have been shooting across their border... and regretful of the loss of life on the Turkish side."

Akcakale has been fired on several times over the past few weeks.

The BBC's Jim Muir says Syrian government forces are attempting to cut rebel supply routes by winning back the border crossing at Tall al-Abyad which the rebels seized last month.

Residents have been advised to stay away from the border, and more than 100 schools have been closed in the region because of the violence in neighbouring Syria.
Panic

Turkey's state-owned Anatolia news agency reported that angry townspeople had marched to the mayor's office to protest about the deaths on Wednesday.

Town mayor Abdulhakim Ayhan said: "There is anger in our community against Syria," adding that stray bullets and shells had panicked residents over the past 10 days.

Wednesday's attack is believed to be only the second time that people have died as a result of violence spilling over the border from Syria into Turkey.

Two Syrian nationals were killed on Turkish soil in April by stray bullets fired from Syria.

In Syria itself, at least 34 people were killed and dozens wounded in a series of bomb explosions in the centre of Syria's second city, Aleppo, on Wednesday.

The attacks levelled buildings in the city's main square. A military officers' club and a hotel being used by the military bore the brunt of the blasts, some of which were carried out by suicide car bombers.

Are you in the area? Or do you have family and friends there? Please contact us using the form below

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.

BBC News - Turkey hits targets inside Syria after border deaths

 

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Iran Holds Taliban Responsible for 9 Diplomats' Deaths
By DOUGLAS JEHL
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An angry Iran said tonight that it would hold the militant Taliban movement responsible for the deaths of nine Iranian diplomats whose bodies were recovered by the Taliban today in northern Afghanistan.

The Taliban, who control most of Afghanistan, said the Iranians had been killed by renegade forces who had acted without orders. But Iran, which had responded to the diplomats' disappearance with a major military buildup along the Afghan border, appeared in no mood for swift forgiveness.

A Foreign Ministry statement broadcast on Iranian state television said today that Iran reserved ''the right to defend the security of its citizens'' and that ''the consequences of the Taliban action is on the shoulders of the Taliban and their supporters.''

The dead diplomats were among 11 Iranians working at a consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, a northern town that was the headquarters of an Iranian-backed rebel alliance until it was overrun by the Taliban on Aug. 8. Iranian officials had accused Taliban leaders of ordering that the consulate be captured, but had held out hope that all of the missing diplomats might still be alive.

With some 70,000 Iranian troops already posted near the Afghan border, and plans announced earlier today for more military exercises to be carried out there over the weekend, Teheran-based diplomats said tonight that tensions could turn explosive.

Taliban fighters were reported today to be advancing on Bamiyan, the sole remaining base for two Shiite factions that have benefited from Iranian support.

In an apparent attempt to appease Iran and its Shiite Muslim leadership, the Taliban commander, Mullah Mohammad Omar, issued a statement tonight urging his forces to treat any prisoners of war well and ''according to the principles of Islam.'' But that seemed unlikely to quell the deep misgivings felt within the Iranian leadership toward the Taliban, who follow a purist strain of Islam's dominant Sunni faith that has shown little tolerance even for fellow Muslims.

Throughout the crisis, officials of the Taliban have repeatedly denied responsibility for the Iranians' fate. By the time their forces reached the center of Mazar-i-Sharif, the Taliban officials have said, the Iranian consulate was empty.

In announcing tonight that the diplomats' bodies had been found, a Taliban spokesman quoted by the Afghan Islamic Press said they had been recovered at a mountain near Mazar-i-Sharif, which remains in Taliban control.

[A Taliban commission set up to investigate the disappearance of the Iranian diplomats is to issue a full report within a week, said Abdul Hakim Mujahid, the Taliban's Ambassador to Pakistan, who has been designated as their representative at the United Nations, where the opposition still holds a seat.

[In a telephone interview from Islamabad, Mr. Mujahid said that after the Taliban found the bodies, it asked Pakistan and the United Nations to intercede with the Iranians and ask them to send a team to Mazar-i-Sharif so they could see for themselves the circumstances under which the diplomats had died.

[At the United Nations in New York, Iran asked the Security Council today to take ''urgent and necessary measures'' in response to the killing of its diplomats.]

The Foreign Ministry statement broadcast tonight on Iranian state television referred to the dead diplomats as martyrs, and compared them to Iranians who had died ''defending the borders of this great country during eight years of holy defense'' during Iran's 1980-88 war with Iraq.

The statement called on the Taliban to return the bodies of the dead Iranians immediately to Iran, and to arrest those who carried out the attack. And in addition to the Taliban forces, it said it held the Government of Pakistan, which has close ties to the Taliban, partly responsible.

On the day of the attack, Pakistani diplomats had relayed to Teheran an assurance from the Taliban that the safety of the Iranian consulates and diplomats in Mazar-i-Sharif would be guaranteed.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry statement also called on the Taliban to hand over Iranian ''hostages'' who it said were still being held in Afghanistan. That was an apparent reference to the remaining two Iranian diplomats and a journalist from the Islamic Republic News Agency, whose fate the Taliban has said it has been unable to determine, as well as to nearly three dozen other Iranians whom Taliban officials have said may well be in Taliban custody.

For the last month, Iran has cast its tough stance toward the Taliban as motivated primarily by concern about several dozen Iranians missing in Afghanistan, including the 11 diplomats. But some Teheran-based diplomats have said that the scale of Iran's military posturing has suggested that its concern runs deeper than the missing Iranians' fate -- and might not be resolved even if questions about them were resolved.

The diplomats have said that Iran, as a Shiite Muslim state, is plainly troubled at the prospect that such an ideological rival could soon sit unchallenged on its borders.

It was unclear tonight whether Iran had decided to dispatch additional forces to the border area. A report in the influential Teheran Times newspaper this morning quoted an unnamed senior military official as saying several divisions from Iran's regular army would soon be moved to the region to join the 70,000 troops from Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

But today's announcement on Iranian state television said only that war games involving ''commandos, special forces, armored artillery, and mechanized units backed by the air force and the army's air corps'' would begin soon along the Afghan border. It did not say whether the exercises would involve fresh contingents of Iranian troops.

-------------------- New Gains for the Taliban

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 10 (Agence France-Presse) -- Taliban fighters have made gains on a key opposition stronghold in central Afghanistan as well as the strategic Shebar Pass, officials said today.

The Taliban, which controls about three-quarters of the country, captured the central Saighan district late Wednesday and were advancing on the Shebar Pass, east of the opposition stronghold at Bamiyan, they said.

''These gains have enabled our soldiers to bring the Bamiyan airport within artillery range,'' a Taliban official said.

Bamiyan is the last stronghold of part of an anti-Taliban alliance based in northern Afghanistan that has suffered heavy losses since last month.

Earlier, the Afghan Islamic Press said Taliban fighters had begun a major offensive and captured several vital bases in Bamiyan province, in the heart of the country. The militia fighters had closed to within 15 miles of Bamiyan city, it said.

The news agency said at least 18 rival soldiers were killed and many wounded in the fighting. The Taliban put its own toll at three dead.

Taliban troops captured at least 48 soldiers, a spokesman said, adding that the morale of opposition forces was low and that it appeared the city could fall to the Taliban.

Iran Holds Taliban Responsible for 9 Diplomats' Deaths - New York Times
@Techniec

 

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@Techniec

 

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Turkey authorises military action after Syria clashes
Turkey's parliament authorised military operations outside the country's borders on Thursday, following deadly cross-border skirmishes with Syria. But Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister insisted the vote was not a mandate for war.

Turkey and Syria appeared to be heading for all-out conflict on Thursday after the Turkish parliament gave the green light for military operations outside its borders.

The authorisation from the country's lawmakers comes a day after artillery shelling from Syria killed five civilians in the Turkish town of Akcakale.

The government had sought parliamentary approval to send soldiers to foreign countries in a memorandum which said that "aggressive action" by Syria's armed forces against Turkish territory posed a serious threat to national security.
Tension mounts between Turkey and Syria

Operations will only be launched if the government deems them necessary.

Following news of the vote, a small group of protesters gathered outside the parliament chanting “We don’t want war!” and “The Syrian people are our brothers”. Police were forced to fire tear gas to stop the protesters from approaching the building.

After the vote, the country's Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said Turkey's priority was still to act in coordination with international institutions.

Speaking to reporters after parliament authorised military operations, Atalay said Turkey had exercised its right to retaliation and that the assembly's authorisation was not a "war memorandum".

Atalay also told reporters that Syria had admitted responsibility for the shelling and apologised for the deadly attack, saying “such an incident would not be repeated.”

Other Turkish officials also moved to play down the threat of war with Syria.

“Turkey has no interest in a war with Syria. But Turkey is capable of protecting its borders and will retaliate when necessary,” Ibrahim Kalin, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, said on his Twitter account. “Political, diplomatic initiatives will continue,” he said.

On Thursday a number of countries condemned Syria’s shelling of Akcakale, which killed a mother, her three children and a female relative.
Reaction to Turkey - Syria clashes

Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague expressed “strong solidarity with Turkey” saying the shelling was “completely unacceptable, not only for Turkey but for the international community as a whole”.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr also called on the Syrian government to respect its borders “to ensure that such an attack does not recur”.

Turkey has also requested that the United Nations Security Council take “necessary action” against the Syrian government.

In a letter to the president of the 15-nation Security Council, Turkish UN Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan called the firing of the mortar bomb "a flagrant violation of international law as well as a breach of international peace and security.”

(FRANCE 24 with wires)

Turkey authorises military action after Syria clashes - TURKEY - SYRIA - FRANCE 24

@zerozero @Techniec @VictorVonDoom @alybaba @daze23

 

[PewPew]

And WW3 is about to kick off. Grab your poppy corn folks

 

[Techniec]

Iran Holds Taliban Responsible for 9 Diplomats' Deaths - New York Times
@Techniec

Thats 15 yr old news bruh?