Syrian rebels capture key town near Jordan border

Syrians living in Jordan take part in a protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in front of the Syrian embassy in Amman March 29, 2013. (Reuters)

Syrian rebels on Friday captured the strategic town of Dael near the border with Jordan, after a day of fierce clashes that killed at least 38 people, activists said.

Sixteen rebels were among the dead, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The town lies less than 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Jordanian border in Daraa province, where the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime began two years ago.

The rebel gains have coincided with what regional officials and military experts say is a sharp increase in weapons shipments to opposition fighters by Arab governments in coordination with the United States.

Although rebels control wide areas in northern Syria that border Turkey, the Jordanian frontier is only about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Damascus, or a third of the distance to the Turkish border.

"Rebels now control wide areas in the Daraa countryside," said Rami Abdul-Rahman who heads the observatory. "Every area that goes out of government control is important."

Despite the steady advances and the latest rebel victory in Dael, the regime still maintains a strong presence in the strategic province that leads to the capital, said Syrian activist Maher Jamous, who is from Dael.

He added that the capture of the town increases the pressure on the regime, which is known to have posted elite troops to Daraa province.

Dael has a population of 40,000, making it one of the bigger towns in the primarily agricultural region, which is dotted with small family farms, said Jamous.

Dael was taken by opposition fighters in the early days of the uprising, but was quickly recaptured by regime forces in May 2011, he added.

Amateur videos posted online by activists showed rebels in the streets of Dael, and the bodies of dead soldiers lying on the ground.
 

30 Mar, 2013

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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2013/03/29/Syrian-rebels-capture-key-town-near-Jordan-border.html
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Lebanon security chief to hand over responsibilities amid rising tension

Lebanon's Internal Security Forces said its chief, Major General Ashraf Rifi, will on Saturday hand over his responsibilities to the next high-ranking official. (Reuters)

Lebanon's Internal Security Forces said its chief, Major General Ashraf Rifi, will on Saturday hand over his responsibilities to the next high-ranking official, General Roger Salem. 

Rifi's term ends at a critical time in Lebanon, amid rising sectarian tensions, and the collapse of the government last week.

Sunnis in Beirut took to the streets earlier this month after two sheikhs were beaten in Shiite neighborhoods.

The situation worsened when deadly clashes erupted in the northern city of Tripoli between supporters and opponents of the Syrian regime.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati resigned after ministers' failure to agree on whether to renew Rifi's term as ISF director general.

The Western-backed March 14 coalition was in favor of extending Rifi's mandate, while the Syrian- and Iranian-backed March 8 alliance was against the move.

Miqati's cabinet was dominated by the March 8 alliance, which is spearheaded by Hezbollah.
Rifi turns 59 in April, which is the maximum age for the post.

30 Mar, 2013

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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/03/29/-Lebanon-security-chief-to-hand-over-responsibilities-amid-rising-tension.html
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Israel could withstand Syrian chemical weapons: general

Major-General Eyal Eisenberg, commander of Israel's home front forces. (Courtesy of http://www.ynetnews.com)

Israel could withstand any attack involving Syrian chemical weapons, an Israeli general said on Friday, adding it was improbable that Damascus would order such a strike.

The fate of Syria's reputed chemical arsenal is a focus of international concern. Israel has threatened to go to war to prevent Islamist militants or Hezbollah guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon from getting such weapons.

Some Israeli officials have also suggested that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, battling a two-year-old uprising against his rule, could launch a chemical strike against the Jewish state in a suicidal gesture of defiance.

But Major-General Eyal Eisenberg, commander of Israel's home front forces, described the latter scenario as unlikely. "I don't foresee a chemical war being initiated against us," he told Haaretz newspaper in an interview.

He said there was a "certain possibility" of chemical arms being used against Israel were they to fall into "the wrong hands" but added: "This would not defeat the State of Israel. We know how to deal with this kind of event and are ready for it."

Israel's government has issued gas masks to some 60 percent of its citizens, mostly those living in urban areas likeliest to be targeted in a future war. Rather than equip the rest, Israel should invest in better air raid alerts, Eisenberg said.

Assad's government has publicly hedged on whether it has chemical weapons; while saying it would only use such an arsenal to fend off foreign foes. Israel is assumed to have the region's sole nuclear arsenal, a deterrent to non-conventional attack.

In the Haaretz interview, Eisenberg expressed greater worry about Hezbollah's arsenal, which Israel says includes 60,000rockets - a more formidable capacity than when the Iranian- and Syrian-sponsored group last fought the Israelis in a 2006 war.

The Lebanese front has been mostly quiet since, but Israel believes Hezbollah guerrillas might lash out in reprisal should it launch a long-threatened strike on Tehran's nuclear projects.

Among Hezbollah's rockets are 5,000 with explosive payloads of between 300 kg (660 lb) and 880 kg (1,940 lb) and capable of reaching Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial capital, Haaretz quoted Eisenberg as saying.

"I am preparing for a scenario in which more than 1,000missiles and rockets are fired at the home front on each day of fighting," he said, adding that Israel could suffer more casualties in its civilian interior than on its front lines.

Israel's technologically advanced military includes Iron Dome interceptors that can shoot down most rockets used by Hezbollah and Palestinian guerrillas in the Gaza Strip. The Israelis have so far deployed five of the interceptors, well short of the 13 they say they would need for nationwide defense.

Eisenberg said that, in any war, he would recommend that key Israeli industrial areas and military bases, rather than civilian centers, get preferential Iron Dome protection.

30 Mar, 2013

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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/03/29/-Israel-could-withstand-Syrian-chemical-weapons-general.html
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Turkish police seize firearms cache on Syrian border

Turkish authorities said they had seized thousands of firearms- including more than 5,000 shotguns and rifles, starting pistols, gunstocks and 10,000 cartridges in a warehouse by the Syrian border. (Reuters)

Turkish authorities said they had seized thousands of guns in a warehouse by the Syrian border, and a local news agency said the weapons had been destined for Turkey's war torn neighbor.

The firearms - including more than 5,000 shotguns and rifles, starting pistols, gunstocks and 10,000 cartridges – were discovered during a raid in a village on the edge of the Turkish town of Akcakale and displayed to journalists on Friday.

The Dogan News Agency said the weapons were being stored on the edge of the border town, awaiting delivery to Syria, and that the 35-year-old depot owner had been detained.

It quoted police sources as saying the firearms had a market value of around 3 million lira ($1.7 million).

Turkey is a staunch supporter of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, now in its third year, and has harbored Syrian refugees and rebels crossing over the two countries' porous 900-km (550-mile) border.

But it has ruled out arming rebel fighters, fearing it could be drawn into a destabilizing regional conflict.

Turkey has a number of firearms manufacturers and the starting pistols found in the warehouse could easily be converted to fire live ammunition.
 

29 Mar, 2013

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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/03/29/Turkish-police-seize-firearms-cache-on-Syrian-border.html
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Clashes in Hebron as Israel boosts security for ‘Land Day’

Israeli soldiers carry a foreign demonstrator as they try to put him in a vehicle under arrest during a protest commemorating the deaths in 1976 of Arab Israelis on "Land Day" in the West Bank city of Hebron. (AFP)

Palestinians and Israeli forces clashed in the West Bank city Hebron on Friday as Israel deployed significant security reinforcements ahead of a day of demonstrations.

Palestinian security forces in Hebron said that hundreds of people took part in two demonstrations, one inside the city and one south of it, and threw stones at Israeli security forces who responded with tear gas and dyed water.

An Israeli military spokeswoman told AFP that "150 Palestinians threw stones at the forces, who responded with riot dispersal means."

Both sides said there were no arrests or injuries.

Weekly demonstrations against the separation barrier near Bilin and Nilin farther north in the West Bank took place with no special incidents reported, an AFP correspondent said.

In Jerusalem, some 5,000 Palestinians participated in Friday prayers, which again passed without incident, a police spokeswoman told AFP.

Earlier, thousands of police reinforcements were deployed in Jerusalem "following information that groups of Palestinians were ready to engage in violent demonstrations" during Land Day commemorations on Saturday, spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

The annual demonstration marks the deaths of six Arab Israeli protesters at the hands of Israeli police and troops during mass protests in 1976 against plans to confiscate Arab land in Galilee.

Samri said that security had also been strengthened at the main checkpoints between annexed Arab east Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank.

An officer told army radio that the military also deployed reinforcements to the West Bank.

"Very often the mere presence of these forces acts as a deterrent and, in case of violent demonstrations, the security forces who have taken up positions in the field have an advantage over troublemakers," the officer said.

Demonstrations were expected on Saturday in the Arab-Israeli town Sakhnin and throughout the West Bank and Gaza.
 

30 Mar, 2013

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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/03/29/Clashes-in-Hebron-as-Israel-boosts-security-for-Land-Day-.html
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Too busy for politics? A Jordan MP plays video games in parliament

A politician was seen playing a "football" game on his smartphone while Jordan's Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Nisur addressed an open session at the country's parliament.

The Jordanian lawmaker used his finger to push around the digital "football" and scored virtual goals, but didn't realize he had an onlooker who decided to record the incident and post it on the online video sharing website YouTube.

Photojournalist, Amjad al-Taweel, shot the amateur video which received 85,626 hits.

The MP, who looks like he is enjoying his football game a lot more than listening to the prime minister has only been filmed from the back.

Taweel works for the Jordanian newspaper, al-Ghad, and has recorded a far more "upbeat" video in Parliament after an event earlier in March saw a Jordanian MP, angered by a fellow deputy, try and pull out a pistol.

That specific lawmaker, however, was encircled by his colleagues who managed to talk him down and calm the situation before it got out of hand.

 

30 Mar, 2013

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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/03/29/Too-busy-for-politics-A-Jordan-MP-plays-video-games-in-Parliament.html
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قيادى بالجماعة: كل من يعمل ضد الثورة المضادة يقال عليه "إخوانى"

علق صابر أبو الفتوح، القيادى بجماعة الإخوان المسلمين على مليونية "مابنتهددش" والتى تنظمها القوى المدنية اليوم الجمعة أمام دار القضاء العالى

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Muslim leaders urge Myanmar to restore order

Ethnic Myanmar activists hold a placard during a protest against the Myanmar army in front of the Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in Sydney on March 19. (AFP)

Myanmar's Muslim leaders have appealed to President Thein Sein to take swift action to quell religious violence, accusing security forces of standing by as rioters went on a rampage.

"These violent attacks include crimes such as arson and massacres which deserve heavy penalties," four groups including the Islamic Religious Affairs Council and the Myanmar Muslim National Affairs Organization wrote in an open letter to the president.

"However, in this situation the authorities neglected to take swift and effective action against the perpetrators who recklessly committed crimes in front of them," they added, in remarks seen by AFP on Thursday.

"Massacres and damages to religious buildings and property are due to the weakness of the responsible authorities to protect and take effective action."

At least 40 people have been killed and mosques burned in several towns in central Myanmar since a new eruption of sectarian strife on March 20, prompting the government to impose emergency rule and curfews in some areas.

The clashes were apparently triggered by an argument in a gold shop that turned into an escalating riot during which mosques were burned, houses razed and charred bodies left lying in the streets.
But witnesses say much of the violence appears to be well organized.

Security forces fired warning shots on Wednesday to disperse rioters and dozens of people have been detained.

It is the worst sectarian strife since violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the western state of Rakhine last year left at least 180 people dead and more than 110,000 displaced.

"The stability of the country and the protection of the lives, properties and religious buildings of Muslim communities across the country will be restored only by quick and effective action," the religious leaders said.

Nyunt Maung Shein, president of Islamic Religious Affair Council, said the letter was sent to the president's office on Tuesday but they had yet to receive a reply.

The communal clashes pose a major challenge to the reformist government of Thein Sein, a former general who took office two years ago following the end of decades of outright military rule.

Myanmar's Muslims – largely of Indian, Chinese and Bangladeshi descent – account for an estimated four percent of the population of roughly 60 million.

Religious violence has occasionally broken out in the past in some areas across the country, but was largely suppressed during the previous junta era.

28 Mar, 2013

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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/2013/03/28/Muslim-leaders-urge-Myanmar-to-restore-order.html
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6 إبريل تحاصر منزل وزير الداخلية.. والأمن يطلق المسيل للدموع

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