Gunmen launch deadly attack on Syrian TV station

Three journalists and four security staff were killed early on Wednesday when gunmen stormed Syria's pro-government al-Ikhbariya TV channel, the station said. The channel's broadcasts were not affected.

AFP - An attack on a pro-government television near Damascus killed seven staff Wednesday, state media said, while 29 people died in other violence on the heels of the "bloodiest week" of the 15-month uprising, according to a watchdog.
Live footage broadcast by state television showed extensive damage to the studios of Al-Ikhbariya satellite channel outside the capital with several small fires still burning.
"The terrorist groups stormed the offices of Al-Ikhbariya, planted explosives in the studios and blew them up along with the equipment," Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi told state television in a live interview.
"They carried out the worst massacre against the media, executing journalists and security staff," Zohbi said, adding that a number of staff were kidnapped.
Those killed comprised three journalists and four security guards, state media said.
Press watchdog Reporters Without Borders called for members of a UN observer mission, which suspended its operations on June 16 in the face of worsening violence, to visit the scene to ascertain the facts.
"News organisations should not be used as targets by the parties to the conflict," the watchdog said.
"However, we deplore in the strongest possible terms the broadcast by the media of messages inciting hatred and violence against civilians."
In other violence on Wednesday, 10 soldiers were killed before dawn in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, while 15 troops defected to the rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Later Wednesday fierce clashes took place between regime troops and rebel fighters in Deir Ezzor city, where explosions were reported.
Five people were killed in shelling and shooting in the Damascus suburb of Douma and surrounding areas, while regime forces carried out raids and arrests elsewhere in the province.
The central city of Homs was exposed to heavy shelling by regime forces where "living conditions remain difficult because of the blockade and bombardment, which has continued for weeks", the Observatory said.
In the northwestern province of Idlib, clashes and shelling left six civilians and three rebels dead, in addition to five soldiers, among them a colonel of the elite Republican Guard.
More than 15,800 people have been killed since the outbreak of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's regime in March last year, the Observatory said, adding that the seven days to Tuesday were the bloodiest so far.
"The pace of the killings has escalated," the watchdog said.
"The last week was the bloodiest week of the Syrian Revolution," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP by telephone, adding that 916 people were killed from June 20 through 26.
Of the 15,804 people killed since March 2011, 4,681 had lost their lives since a UN-backed ceasefire was supposed to take effect on April 12, he said.
Of those, roughly a quarter -- 1,197 -- have been killed since the UN observer mission intended to oversee the peace plan suspended its operations in the face of the mounting violence.
"The last month, from May 26 to June 26, was the deadliest since the start of the protests. During this period, 3,426 people were killed," Abdel Rahman said.

Freelance US journalist held in Syria, family says

Freelance US journalist James Foley, 39, has been kidnapped and is being held in Syria, his family confirmed on Wednesday. Foley, who contributed videos to Agence France-Presse, was seized by gunmen in Idlib province on November 22, witnesses said.

A freelance American reporter who contributed videos to Agence France-Presse (AFP) in recent months was kidnapped in war-torn Syria six weeks ago and has been missing since, his family revealed Wednesday.
US journalist James Foley, 39, an experienced war reporter who has covered other conflicts, was seized by armed men in the northern province of Idlib on November 22, according to witnesses.
Foley, who last supplied AFP with video material the day before he disappeared, was picked up in the town of Taftanaz by four men who later released his driver and translator, the witnesses said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction, in a country which has been racked by bitter civil war since the start of an uprising by rebels opposing President Bashar al-Assad's regime nearly two years ago.
Foley's family, which had earlier asked media groups not to report the abduction in the hope that a low profile would assist in efforts to free him, broke their silence Wednesday to reveal his plight.
"We want Jim to come safely home, or at least we need to speak with him to know he's okay," said John Foley, father of the missing reporter, who also contributes to the US-based international news website GlobalPost and to major US TV channels.
"Jim is an objective journalist and we appeal for the release of Jim unharmed. To the people who have Jim, please contact us so we can work together toward his release."
The family has launched a website (www.freejamesfoley.org) and Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/freejamesfoley) to highlight Foley's ordeal.
The website, which has several pictures of Foley while on reporting assignments in the Middle East, says he has been missing for 41 days. It also urges people to sign an appeal for his release.
Foley was previously kidnapped and held for six weeks by forces loyal to slain Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi while covering that civil war last year.
At the time, he was working for GlobalPost, which was involved in his rescue and which is standing by his family in the latest incident.
The reason for his abduction in Syria remains unclear. It is not known if his abductors are financially motivated or if they are linked to any Islamist groups, rebels or pro-regime forces or sympathisers.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Washington was aware of Foley's abduction, but she was unable to share any information about US efforts to help him.
In general in such cases, the United States has a "number of avenues that we try to pursue," Nuland told reporters.
"We make our own appeals through various channels and those with influence directly to the Syrian regime for information," she explained, adding Washington also uses its "contacts with the opposition as broadly as we can" to seek information.
"Sometimes there's a political motive, but sometimes it's a more mercenary, financial motive," she said.
Large parts of northern Syria are controlled by anti-Assad rebel groups that form part of the Free Syrian Army or are made up of jihadists, including foreign fighters.
Details of the kidnapping emerged weeks after high-profile US television reporter Richard Engel, who works for the NBC network, and his crew escaped after being held for five days by pro-regime militiamen in Syria's north.
Engel told his network that his team was seized while travelling with a group of Syrian rebels but that they managed to escape last month after two of their captors were killed in a firefight with the rebels.
AFP chairman Emmanuel Hoog said the organisation was doing its utmost to secure Foley's freedom.
"We are in constant touch with his family and loved ones, while reaching out to a range of contacts and doing everything we can to facilitate his release," he said.
"He is a professional journalist who is absolutely neutral in this conflict," Hoog said of Foley, who has contributed around 30 video stories to AFP since late March 2012.
"His kidnappers, whoever they may be, should free him immediately," he added.

One year after US withdrawal, uncertainty reigns in Iraq

One year after US forces completed their withdrawal from Iraq on December 18, 2011, Iraq continues to see regular outbreaks of sectarian violence and almost daily terrorist attacks, including a wave of bombings that killed 35 people on Monday.

A wave of attacks targeting both Iraqi security forces and civilians killed 35 people on Monday, in a second day of deadly violence ahead of the first anniversary of the withdrawal of US forces.
Monday was the deadliest day in Iraq since November 29, when 50 people were killed, and the latest violence comes after attacks killed 19 people and wounded 77 on Sunday.
US military forces completed their withdrawal from Iraq on December 18 last year, ending a nearly nine-year war that cost the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqis, thousands of Americans and hundreds of billions of dollars.
Violence in Iraq is down significantly from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but while Iraqi forces have held their own since the US departure, insurgent groups still pose a significant threat, and attacks occur almost daily.
On Monday, gunmen attacked a police checkpoint on the highway west of Tikrit, killing one policeman and wounding three, a senior police officer said.
A police patrol chased the gunmen, who abandoned their car and then detonated explosives in it, killing four more police and wounding two, the officer said. A doctor confirmed the toll.
In the village of Al-Buslaibi, north of Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting an army patrol killed three soldiers, army and police officers said.
And gunmen attacked an army checkpoint in the north Iraqi city of Mosul, killing one soldier, an army officer and a doctor said.
A car bomb in Khaznah, a village near Mosul populated by the small Shabak minority, killed seven people and wounded 12, while two car bombs near a Shiite place of worship killed five and wounded 26 in the northern flashpoint town of Tuz Khurmatu, security and medical sources said.
Three roadside bombs exploded near Baquba, north of Baghdad, killing one person and wounding four others, while a magnetic "sticky bomb" and a shooting in the city killed two people and wounded six, police and medics said.
In other attacks in Diyala province, gunmen wounded three Kurds in Jalawla, while a sticky bomb killed two Kurds in Baladruz, according to the same sources.
Khaznah, Tuz Khurmatu and Jalawla are all part of areas Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region wants to incorporate, over Baghdad's strong objections.
A salvo of 10 mortar rounds slammed into the town of Rutba in Anbar province, killing two and wounding nine, officials said, and a car bomb near Dujail north of Baghdad killed one Iraqi and wounded at least 10 Iranian pilgrims.
In the Karada area in central Baghdad, a car bomb killed at least one person and wounded at least four, an interior ministry official and a medical source said.
The shredded remains of a car lay at the site of the blast, which shattered windows, damaged other vehicles and left debris strewn in the street, which was packed with Iraqi security forces after the attack.
"The security situation is worsening," said Duniyah, a 23-year-old employee of a hotel near the site of the explosion, who was watching the street from inside the hotel entrance, which was strewn with broken glass.
A roadside bomb against a police patrol in Madain, south of Baghdad, wounded three police and two civilians, while an attack by gunmen on a Sahwa anti-Qaeda militia checkpoint west of the north Iraq city of Kirkuk killed one militiaman, security and medical officials said.
And a car bomb in Khaldiyah, west of Baghdad, killed two civilians and two police, and wounded seven other people, police Captain Abdul Hafez al-Mahlawi said.
Iraqi security forces have been able to hold violence in check, with the number of people killed in the first 11 months of 2012 fewer than in the same period the year before, according to government figures.
"The withdrawal of US forces meant that training became reduced, intelligence gathering became limited and quick reaction forces were no longer as well resourced or able to reach flashpoints at short notice," said John Drake, an analyst with AKE group.
"However, counter-insurgency operations and arrests didn't decline," he said, though "the Iraqi military still has a long way to go in terms of building capabilities, and they remain under-resourced and regularly targeted."

More than 60,000 killed in Syria conflict, UN says

At least 60,000 people have died in Syria’s almost two-year-long conflict, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Wednesday, citing an exhaustive study that compared death reports from seven different sources.

At least 60,000 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war, with monthly casualty figures steadily increasing since the conflict began almost two years ago, according to a new analysis released Wednesday by the United Nations.
The death toll is a third more than the figure of 45,000 given by activists opposed to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad -- the first time that the global body’s estimates are higher.

It comes as activists report that a Syrian warplane hit a gas station near Damascus on Wednesday, killing and wounding dozens of people and igniting a huge fire in what could be one of the bloodiest attacks in weeks during the 22-month conflict.
Independent experts compared 147,349 killings reported by seven different sources -- including the government -- for the study, which was commissioned by the U.N. human rights office.
By removing duplicates they arrived at a list of 59,648 individuals killed between the start of the uprising on March 15, 2011, and Nov. 30, 2012. In each case, the victim’s first and last name, the date and the location of his or her death were known.
"Given there has been no let-up in the conflict since the end of November, we can assume that more than 60,000 people have been killed by the beginning of 2013," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement. "The number of casualties is much higher than we expected, and is truly shocking."

The real death toll is likely to be even greater because reports containing incomplete information were excluded and a significant number of killings may not have been documented at all by the sources available.
"There are many names not on the list for people who were quietly shot in in the woods," Pillay’s spokesman Rupert Colville told The Associated Press.
The data, which didn’t distinguish among soldiers, rebels and civilians, also show that the killing in Syria has accelerated.
During the summer of 2011, shortly after the uprising against Assad began, the monthly death toll stood at around 1,000. A year later, an average of 5,000 were killed each month, the U.N. said.
Most of the killings occurred in Homs, followed by rural Damascus, Idlib, Aleppo, Daraa and Hama. At least three quarters of the victims were male.
"The failure of the international community, in particular the Security Council, to take concrete actions to stop the blood-letting, shames us all," Pillay said. "Collectively, we have fiddled at the edges while Syria burns."
The U.N. rights chief warned that thousands more would die or suffer terrible injuries if the conflict continues, and repeated her call that those responsible for the killings - which in some cases could amount to war crimes - should be held accountable.
"We must not compound the existing disaster by failing to prepare for the inevitable - and very dangerous - instability that will occur when the conflict ends," she said.

"Serious planning needs to get under way immediately, not just to provide humanitarian aid to all those who need it, but to protect all Syrian citizens from extra-judicial reprisals and acts of revenge" like those seen in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Congo, she said.
What began with peaceful protests has evolved into a full-scale civil war in Syria, with scores of armed groups fighting regime forces across the Arab country.
Anti-regime activists said Wednesday that a single Russian-built MiG fighter fired a missile that hit the gas station, setting off an inferno in the eastern suburb of Mleiha. Black smoke billowed from the site. An amateur video posted online showed charred bodies and gruesome carnage at the scene.

Hamas chief Meshaal vows never to recognise Israel

Exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal told a crowd of more than 100,000 Palestinians at a mass rally in Gaza on Saturday that there would be no territorial concessions to Israel or recognition of the Jewish state.

Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, making his first ever visit to the Gaza Strip, vowed on Saturday never to recognise Israel and said his Islamist group would never abandon its claim to all Israeli territory.
“Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north. There will be no concession on an inch of the land,” he told a sea of supporters at an open-air rally, the highlight of his three-day stay in Gaza.
“We will never recognise the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation and therefore there is no legitimacy for Israel, no matter how long it will take.”
In an uncompromising speech, Meshaal also vowed to free Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, indicating Islamist militants would try to kidnap Israeli soldiers to use as a bargaining chip.
Israel last year released 1,027 Palestinians from its jails in return for the liberation of Gilad Shalit, a conscript soldier who was seized by Palestinian guerrillas in 2006 and hidden for more than five years in Gaza.

Report: Israel tracking chemical arms in Syria

Amid mounting international warnings about Syria’s chemical weapons threat, a recent report in a British weekly said Israeli special forces are operating inside Syria to try to track its non-conventional weapons stocks.

While several Western governments have been warning the Syrian regime against using its chemical weapons, Israel has apparently gone a step further, according to a British news report, by deploying Israeli special forces inside Syria as spotters to track the country’s chemical and biological weapons stocks.

Over the past few days, the US and other Western governments have raised concerns that an increasingly desperate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could “cross a red line,” in the words of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and use chemical weapons. Another fear is that the nation’s stockpiles could end up in the wrong hands.
While US and Israeli officials are widely believed to be monitoring the country’s known chemical depots, a recent report in the Sunday Times said Israel has embarked on a “secret war” to track Syria’s non-conventional weapons, by deploying Israeli special forces as spotters across the border to monitor the movement of these arms caches.

‘Disastrous results’ if no talks, Egypt’s army warns

Egypt's powerful army joined calls for dialogue on Saturday, a day after the opposition rejected an offer from President Mohammed Morsi to hold talks on the political crisis that has polarised the nation and sparked weeks of deadly clashes.

Egypt’s armed forces lent its weight to President Mohammed Morsi’s calls for negotiations on Saturday with its first public statement since anti-Morsi protests erupted more than two weeks ago.
"The path of dialogue is the best and only way to reach agreement and achieve the interests of the nation and its citizens," the statement from the armed forces said.
"The opposite of that will take us into a dark tunnel with disastrous results -- and that is something we will not allow," the army said, adding that it would take measures to protect state institutions, if necessary.
The statement does not, however, signal that Egypt’s powerful army is making a return to politics, a military source told Reuters.
Tens of thousands of Egyptian protesters besieged the presidential palace again on Friday even as Vice President Mahmoud Mekky said a December 15 referendum on a constitution that liberals oppose could be put off if a delay posed no legal challenges. That concession, however, only partly meets a list of opposition demands that include scrapping a November 22 decree that expanded Morsi’s powers.

Syria fires scud missiles at rebels

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have fired Scud-style ballistic missiles against rebels in recent days, US and NATO officials said on Wednesday, representing a dramatic escalation in the Assad regime's struggle to maintain power.

Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have fired Scud missiles at rebels trying to overthrow Syria’s government, a senior US official said on Wednesday.
US officials said they were unaware of any previous instances in which Scuds were used against the rebels and it represented an escalation in Assad’s struggle to retain power in the 20-month-old uprising in which more than 40,000 people are thought to have been killed.

Israel and Hamas wage online war of words

Israel has pitted Twitter hash-tag “PillarofDefense against Hamas’s “GazaUnderAttack in a social media war of words, as both sides continue to trade fire following the killing of the Palestinian group’s military commander.

Social media became a weapon of war Thursday as both Israel and Hamas used sites like Twitter and Facebook aggressively in the wake of an Israeli raid on the Gaza Strip that killed the Palestinian group’s military commander.
On Wednesday, Israel launched retaliatory attacks against the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave, from where militants have been launching rockets towards cities in southern Israel.

Iran set to sharply increase nuclear activities, UN says

Iran has stepped up its uranium enrichment activities, having now installed all of 2,800 centrifuges at its Fordown enrichment site, meeting the site's maximum capacity, according to a UN report on Friday.

Iran is ready to sharply expand its uranium enrichment in an underground site after installing all the centrifuges it was built for, a U.N. nuclear report showed on Friday, a development likely to fuel Western alarm over Tehran’s nuclear aims.
The Islamic state has put in place nearly 2,800 centrifuges that the Fordow enrichment site, buried deep inside a mountain, was designed for and could soon double the number of them operating to almost 1,400, according to the confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report obtained by Reuters.
Tehran has produced about 233 kg (512 pounds) of higher-grade enriched uranium since 2010, an increase of 43 kg since August this year, according to the report issued in Vienna.
The Iranians have used 96 kg of the uranium refined to 20 percent of fissile purity for conversion into fuel for its medical research reactor in Tehran, the report said.

Gaza begins rebuilding as ceasefire holds

Gazans took their first steps toward a return to normalcy on Thursday, a day after an Egypt-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers brought an end to eight days of cross-border shelling.

Residents in Gaza took their first steps toward returning to normal life on Wednesday after an Egypt-brokered ceasefire halted eight days of cross-border shelling between the Hamas-ruled enclave and the Israeli army that left at least 161 Palestinians and six Israelis dead.
Israel began withdrawing its tanks from the border with the Gaza Strip as Gazans declared victory against the Israeli state.
"From the lion's den, we declare victory," said Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, the al Qassam Brigades.
Hamas's most recent show of force also seemed to be resonating with ordinary Gazans.
"This is a great period for us. It is a time of victory over our enemy and the enemy of God and this is one of the greatest joys that the Muslims have had," one man told FRANCE 24 correspondent Gallagher Fenwick on the streets of Gaza.

Turkey missile plan 'new act of provocation' Syria says

Syria described plans by Turkey to site Patriot missiles along its border as "a new act of provocation", while Russia and Iran warned the move could spark a regional crisis. In response NATO said the missiles were only for defensive purposes.

Syria said on Friday plans by Turkey to site Patriot missiles along its border was "a new act of provocation," while allies Iran and Russia warned the move would complicate the situation and could spark a regional conflagration.
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen reacted by reassuring Moscow that any such deployment would be a "defensive only" measure.
Turkey turned to its NATO partners earlier this week to request the deployment of the surface-to-air Patriot missiles to protect its troubled border with Syria, which is engulfed in a war that has cost some 40,000 lives.

Several killed as twin car bombs rock Damascus

At least 34 people were killed on Wednesday after twin car bombs exploded in Jaramana, an eastern suburb of Damascus reportedly loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, activists and Syrian media said.

Twin car bombs ripped through a Damascus suburb on Wednesday, killing at least 34 people and leaving dozens critically wounded, according to state media and hospital officials.
The state news agency, SANA, said two cars packed with explosives detonated early in the morning in the eastern Jaramana suburb, a district that is mostly loyal to President Bashar Assad. The area is populated mostly by Christians and Druse, a minority sect.
A series of blasts have struck regime targets in Damascus and elsewhere since last December, raising fears of a rising Islamic militant element among the forces seeking to topple Assad.

Egypt opens talks to strengthen Gaza ceasefire

Egypt continued efforts to secure a lasting peace in Gaza on Monday when it opened separate talks with Hamas and Israel to bolster the terms of last week's ceasefire agreement. The hostilities cost the lives of 167 Palestinians and six Israelis.

Egyptian mediators began separate talks on Monday with Hamas and with Israel to flesh out details of a ceasefire agreed last week that ended eight days of fighting in the Gaza Strip.
An Egyptian official told Reuters the talks would discuss Palestinian demands for the opening of more Israeli crossings into Gaza - a move that would help end six years of blockade of the coastal enclave ruled by the Islamist Hamas.
The Egyptian-brokered ceasefire came into force last Wednesday, ending hostilities between the two sides that cost the lives of 167 Palestinians and six Israelis.