Lebanese army seals parliament after protests, Syria-linked tension

Lebanese army seals parliament after protests, Syria-linked tension Fri, Jun 21 09:40 AM EDT 1 of 4 By Dominic Evans BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Lebanese army sealed off Beirut's parliamentary district with razor wire and threatened stern action against violence on Friday after a night of unrest stoked by the war in Syria and political paralysis at home. Around 100 protesters, angered by the postponement of June's parliamentary election until next year, scuffled with police on Thursday night near parliament. Twenty camped out overnight outside the ring of barbed wire, vowing to maintain the protest. As the largely peaceful demonstration unfolded in central Beirut, protesters blocked roads with burning tires elsewhere in the capital and in Bekaa Valley towns in eastern Lebanon. Demonstrators said they were acting in solidarity with residents of the Sunni Muslim Bekaa town of Arsal, which they say has been cut off by security forces investigating the shooting of four Shi'ite Muslim men on Sunday. Sectarian violence has intensified across Lebanon and particularly in the Bekaa region because of the conflict raging across the border in Syria, where Lebanon's Shi'ite militia Hezbollah and Lebanese Sunni gunmen have joined opposing sides of the 27-month-old civil war. Rockets from suspected Syrian rebel positions have hit Shi'ite towns in Lebanon since Hezbollah intervened decisively to recapture the Syrian border town of Qusair for President Bashar al-Assad's forces earlier this month. The army also discovered a rocket launcher in an area east of Beirut on Friday. The rocket was still in place, and apparently had not gone off due to a technical fault, a security source said. The fighting in Syria has already driven half a million Syrian refugees into Lebanon and worsened a political stalemate which forced the election delay and held up efforts to form a new government. Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, a Sunni leader, warned this week of the potential for "state collapse". President Michel Suleiman has appealed to Hezbollah to bring its fighters home from Syria, saying that further entanglement there by the Iranian-backed movement will fuel instability in Lebanon, still scarred by its own 1975-1990 civil war. ARMY WILL CONFRONT "OUTLAWS" The army said several military posts and patrols were targeted on Thursday night by protesters, some of them armed, and four soldiers were wounded in exchanges of gunfire. Security sources said at least two demonstrators were hurt in a protest near the main border crossing with Syria at Masnaa. "The army leadership again urges citizens to be calm and not to follow rumors and sectarian emotions," the military said in a statement. "It will not be lenient in confronting with force any outlaws or those who harm the armed forces." The statement said gunmen fired on army posts in three towns close to the Masnaa border crossing early on Friday. The army returned fire and arrested 22 suspects in raids following the incidents. Travelers trying to reach Lebanon from Syria on Friday morning said the frontier was closed for several hours due to the skirmishes, but reopened later in the day. Army commander General Jean Kahwaji was quoted by the local As-Safir newspaper as saying the military would not tolerate any threats to Lebanon's security during what he described as "very critical and very difficult" times. In central Beirut, activists said they would keep up their protest against the 17-month extension of parliament, agreed by politicians after they failed to break a deadlock over planned changes to the electoral law. "We called for a protest yesterday against the extension and against the violation on Lebanon's democracy," protester Marwan Maalouf said. "This is a new coup against the republic. "Security forces used force against the protesters so we decided to set up tents here in a peaceful way to protest the extension. There is a year and a half, we won't let them rest." (Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Syrian rebels, Hezbollah in deadly fight in Lebanon

Sun, Jun 02 16:11 PM EDT 1 of 3 By Dominic Evans BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah guerrillas fought a deadly battle with Syrian rebels in Lebanon's eastern border region early on Sunday, security sources said, in the latest eruption of Syria's conflict on Lebanese soil. Lebanese security sources said at least 12 rebels were killed in the fighting east of the Bekaa Valley town of Baalbek, but the toll would not be clear until bodies were retrieved from the remote and rugged border area. One Hezbollah fighter also died, they said. Syria's two-year-old conflict has increasingly sucked in its smaller neighbor, with fighting shaking the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli and rockets hitting the Bekaa Valley and southern Beirut. Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah, which supports President Bashar al-Assad, is fighting alongside his army to drive rebels from the Syrian border town of Qusair, while Lebanese Sunni Muslim fighters have joined the anti-Assad revolt. Sunday's fighting took place near Ain el-Jaouze in a strip of Lebanese territory which extends into Syria, the sources said, and the rebels may have been ambushed as they set up rockets to fire into Shi'ite areas of the Bekaa Valley. Rebels have said they will carry out attacks inside Lebanon in response to Hezbollah's support for Assad's assault on Qusair, a strategic town for rebel weapons supplies and fighters coming into Syria from Lebanon. The United Nations said on Saturday that up to 1,500 wounded people might be trapped inside Qusair and U.N. officials called for an immediate ceasefire to allow them to receive treatment. The International Committee of the Red Cross asked for access, saying it was ready to enter Qusair immediately to deliver aid. But Syrian state television said Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon by telephone on Sunday that the Red Cross would have to wait until military operations in the area were complete. Moualem also expressed surprise at international concern over the fighting around Qusair, saying the world had been silent when rebels took over the town 18 months ago and that Syria was now clearing it of "terrorism", the television said. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of medical and security sources on the ground, said heavy fighting continued in the northern, eastern and southern outskirts of Qusair on Sunday. Security Council diplomats said Russia, which along with China has shielded Assad diplomatically at the United Nations, blocked a council declaration of alarm on Saturday over the two-week-old siege of Qusair. The draft statement urged forces loyal to Assad and rebels trying to oust him "to do their utmost to avoid civilian casualties and for the Syrian Government to exercise its responsibility to protect civilians". It appealed to Assad's government "to allow immediate, full and unimpeded access to impartial humanitarian actors, including U.N. agencies, to reach civilians trapped in al-Qusair". ASSAD'S HAND STRENGTHENED Moscow's move to block the statement highlights the chasm between Russia and Western nations on how to deal with the war in Syria despite joint efforts by Washington and Moscow to convene a peace conference in the next few weeks. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius suggested on Sunday that the talks could take place in July, echoing comments by officials in the Middle East. He said the Syrian government and the opposition must attend what he called "the last chance" for a negotiated solution. "It's not just about getting round the table and then asking what are we going to talk about. It needs to be prepared. That is why I say that the July date would be suitable," Fabius said. Assad has lost control of large areas of northern and eastern Syria but his forces have staged fierce counter-attacks in the south and centre, including Damascus, Deraa and Qusair. The fighting has strengthened Assad's hand before the proposed peace talks, which the 47-year-old leader says he supports in principle. However, he has dampened prospects of any transfer of his powers to a transitional government - a central element of efforts to secure a political solution. Assad's opponents have also yet to commit to the peace talks. U.S. Senator John McCain, a senior Republican who was just in Syria last week, told CBS's "Face the Nation" he very much doubted whether Assad would seriously engage in the peace talks. "Anybody that believes that Bashar al-Assad is going to go to a conference in Geneva when he is prevailing on the battlefield, it's just ludicrous to assume that," McCain said. The uprising against Assad, whose Alawite minority is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, has killed at least 80,000 people, driven 1.5 million refugees out of Syria and fuelled regional sectarian tensions. Bahrain's deputy foreign minister Ghanem al-Buainain told a meeting of Gulf foreign ministers on Sunday that intervention "by some countries" in Syria - singling out Iran and Hezbollah - demanded a "serious stance and common action" in response. Leading Sunni cleric Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, based in Qatar which has led regional pressure for Assad's overthrow, called on Saturday for holy war against the Syrian government after intervention by Hezbollah. The Syrian Observatory said a bomber from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front rebel group blew his car up near a police station in the eastern Damascus district of Jobar on Sunday, killing himself and eight members of the security forces. Pope Francis called for an end to the violence in Syria and appealed to kidnappers in Syria to free captives who include the Greek Orthodox archbishop Paul Yazigi and Syriac Orthodox archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim, seized near Aleppo last month. (Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Beirut, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Philip Pullella in Rome; Editing by Alistair Lyon and Jon Hemming)

Hezbollah in big Syria battle, Obama 'concerned'

It was Hilary Clinton, agreeing with Israeli analysis, who said that Assad has lost legitimacy and that he must go. The Israelis went further and gave Assad until the end of 2012. The British and the French followed suit. Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Tunisiaia have already been involved in recruiting, arming and financing Jihadists from all over the world and facilitating their entry into Syria. On the otherhand, the Iranians and Hizbullah insisted that they will never allow Syria to be ruled by the USraelis and continued sending men, weapons and oil to the besieged Assad regime. After threats and counter threats and thousands of victims and industrial-sclae destruction of Syrian infrastructure, Assad army started to push back the rebels and to regain control of some strategic positions. But two major events may have changed the course of events: 1.The announcement of the Nusrat Front that it is a branch of Al-Qaeda which has finally opened the eyes of the Usraeli-led West. And, 2.The Israeli massive bomardment of Syrian army positions and facilities which brought sympathy for Assad inside and outside the country. Afraid of being seen as supporters for Al-Qaeda, the Usraeli-led West have finally accepted the Russian plan for a political solution to the Syrian problem. They will also have to accept a role for Iran in any furture negotiations or fonferences. No matter what will happen, the USraelis have stopped calling on Assad to go and decided on working to limit the effects of Al-Qaeda influence in Syria. If a winner must be nominated in the battle of Assad, it must be Iran. Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times 13-05-13 ==== Hezbollah in big Syria battle, Obama 'concerned' Mon, May 20 17:26 PM EDT 1 of 3 By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Dominic Evans AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas have fought their biggest battle yet for Syria's beleaguered president, prompting international alarm that the civil war may spread and an urgent call for restraint from the United States. About 30 Hezbollah fighters were killed on Sunday, Syrian activists said, along with 20 Syrian troops and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad during the fiercest fighting this year in the rebel stronghold of Qusair, near the Lebanon border. That would be the highest daily loss for the Iranian-backed movement in Syria, highlighting how it is increasing its efforts to bolster Assad; it prompted U.S. President Barack Obama to voice his concern to his Lebanese counterpart, Michel Suleiman. If confirmed, the Hezbollah losses reflect how Syria is becoming a proxy conflict between Shi'ite Iran and Arab states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which back Assad's mostly Sunni enemies. Dozens of dead in sectarian bombings in Iraq on Monday and killings in the Lebanese city of Tripoli compounded a sense of spreading regional confrontation. Western powers and Russia back opposing sides in the cross-border Syrian free-for-all, which is also sucking in Israel - though Washington and its allies have fought shy of intervening militarily behind fractured and partly Islamist rebel forces. The White House said Obama spoke to Lebanese President Suleiman and "stressed his concern about Hezbollah's active and growing role in Syria, fighting on behalf of the Assad regime, which is counter to the Lebanese government's policies". The Beirut government, however, has limited means to influence the politically and militarily powerful Shi'ite group. The two leaders agreed "all parties should respect Lebanon's policy of disassociation from the conflict in Syria and avoid actions that will involve the Lebanese people in the conflict". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was "preparing for every scenario" in Syria and held out the prospect of more Israeli strikes on Syria to stop Hezbollah and other opponents of Israel obtaining advanced weapons. Israel has not confirmed or denied reports by Western and Israeli intelligence sources that three raids this year targeted Iranian missiles near Damascus that it believed were awaiting delivery to Hezbollah, which fought a war with Israel in 2006. FOG OF WAR Syrian opposition sources and state media gave differing accounts of Sunday's clashes in Qusair, long used by rebels as a supply route from Lebanon to the provincial capital Homs. Hezbollah has not commented but in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on Monday several funeral processions could be seen. Pictures of dead fighters were plastered on to cars and mourners waved yellow Hezbollah flags. Several ambulances were seen on the main Bekaa Valley highway and residents said hospitals had appealed for blood to treat the wounded brought back to Lebanon. The air and tank assault on the strategic town of 30,000 people appeared to be part of a campaign by Assad's forces to consolidate their grip on Damascus and secure links between the capital and government strongholds in the Alawite coastal heartland via the contested central city of Homs. The government campaign has coincided with efforts by the United States and Russia, despite their differences on Syria, to organize peace talks to end a conflict now in its third year in which more than 80,000 people have been killed. A total of 100 combatants from both sides were killed in Sunday's offensive, according to opposition sources, including the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Such a death toll would indicate at least hundreds had taken part. Troops have already retaken several villages around Qusair and have attacked increasingly isolated rebel units in Homs. "If Qusair falls, God forbid, the opposition in Homs city will be in grave danger," said an activist who called himself Abu Jaafar al-Mugharbil. State news agency SANA said the army had "restored security and stability to most Qusair neighborhoods" and was "chasing the remnants of the terrorists in the northern district". Syrian television also showed footage of what it said was an Israeli military Jeep which it said the rebels had been using and which showed the extent of their foreign backing. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the vehicle was decommissioned a decade ago and dismissed the footage as "poor propaganda". Opposition activists said rebels in Qusair, about 10 km (six miles) from the Lebanese border, had pushed back most of the attacking forces to their original positions in the east of the town and to the south on Sunday, destroying at least four Syrian army tanks and five light Hezbollah vehicles. The Western-backed leadership of the Free Syrian Army, the loose umbrella group trying to oversee hundreds of disparate rebel brigades, said the Qusair fighters had thwarted Hezbollah with military operations it dubbed "Walls of Death". Syrian government restrictions on access for independent media make it hard to verify such videos and accounts. "NO DIALOGUE WITH TERRORISTS" The fighting raged as Western nations are seeking to step up pressure on Assad - Britain and France want the European Union to allow arms deliveries to rebels - while preparing for the peace talks brokered by Russia and the United States next month. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said "no option is off the table" over the possible arming of rebels if the Syrian government does not negotiate seriously at the proposed talks. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose country has shielded Syria from U.N. Security Council action, said Syrian opposition representatives must take part without precondition, apparently referring to their demands for Assad's exit before they come to the table. Assad has scorned the idea that the conference expected to convene in Geneva could end a war that is fuelling instability and deepening Sunni-Shi'ite rifts across the Middle East. "They think a political conference will halt terrorists in the country. That is unrealistic," he told the Argentine newspaper Clarin, in a reference to Syria's mainly Sunni rebels. Assad ruled out "dialogue with terrorists", but it was not clear from his remarks whether he would agree to send delegates to a conference that may in any case falter before it starts due to disagreements between its two main sponsors and their allies. The fractured Syrian opposition is to discuss the proposed peace conference at a meeting due to start in Istanbul on Thursday, during which it will also appoint a new leadership. Among divisive factors in the rebel camp is fundamentalist Islam, practiced by some fighters and opposed by others. In the latest Internet video from Syria to cause discomfort for rebels seeking Western backing, anti-Assad Islamists flogged two men they said had infringed a ban on marrying newly divorced women. Attacks by troops and militias loyal to Assad, who inherited power in Syria from his father in 2000, have put rebel groups under pressure in several of their strongholds in recent weeks. Assad, from Syria's minority Alawite sect, has been battling an uprising which began with peaceful protests in March 2011. His violent response eventually prompted rebels to take up arms. Hezbollah has supported Assad throughout the crisis but for months denied reports it was fighting alongside Assad's troops. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the Hezbollah casualties on Sunday at 28 dead and more than 70 wounded, while 48 rebel fighters and four civilians were also killed. Tareq Murei, an activist in Qusair, said six more people were killed on Monday as Syrian army artillery and Hezbollah rocket launchers bombarded rebel-held parts of the town. Video footage purportedly showed a Syrian tank on fire at a street corner in the town. In another video a warplane was shown flying over the town amid the sound of explosions. Lebanese security sources said at least 12 Hezbollah fighters were killed in Qusair on Sunday. Seven were to be buried in the Lebanese town of Baalbek and nearby villages on Monday, they said. (Additional reporting by Erika Solomon in Hermel and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Samia Nakhoul, Alistair Lyon, Giles Elgood and Alastair Macdonald) ========================