Syrian rebel groups battle each other in north

October 04, 2013

BEIRUT (AP) — Al-Qaida militants battled fighters linked to the Western-backed opposition along with Kurdish gunmen in Syrian towns along the Turkish border on Friday, in clashes that killed at least 19 people, activists said.

The violence is part of an outburst of infighting among the myriad rebel groups opposed to Syrian President Bashar Assad for control over prized border areas. Islamic extremist fighters and more mainstream rebels are increasingly turning their guns on each other in what has effectively become a war within a war in northern and eastern Syria, leaving hundreds dead on both sides.

Turkey has been a staunch supporter of the rebels seeking to topple Assad, and has allowed the flow of weapons, men and supplies through border crossings into Syria. In an interview with Turkey's private Halk TV, Assad said Turkey will pay a "high price" for allowing foreign fighters to enter Syria from its territory. "You cannot hide terrorists in your pocket. They are like a scorpion, which will eventually sting you," Assad added.

The interview, broadcast late Thursday, was the latest given by the Syrian president to foreign media as part of a charm offensive in the wake of the Russian-brokered deal that averted the threat of a U.S. airstrike over an August chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds of people.

Assad said it was still too early to say whether he'll run for re-election next year, but suggested he would refrain from seeking a third term — if he feels that is what most Syrians want him to do. He said "the picture will be clearer" in the next four to five months because Syria is going though "rapid" changes on the ground.

"If I have a feeling that the Syrian people want me to be president in the coming period, I will run for the post," Assad said. "If the answer is no, I will not run and I don't see a problem in that."

Assad has been president since 2000. He took over after the death of his father and predecessor, Hafez Assad, who ruled for three decades. Syria's opposition wants Assad to step down and hand over power to a transitional government until new elections are held.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department called it "really unfathomable" that Assad would even contemplate running again. "If he really were to follow the wishes of the Syrian people, he would go," Marie Harf said.

"This is a process that will take time," she added. "But I think the notion of a brutal dictator who's killed so many of his own people claiming to have any opportunity to run for additional elected office is really actually quite offensive."

The infighting between rebels and the increasingly domineering role played by foreign fighters in the civil war has played into the government's line that it is fighting extremists, not a popular uprising.

Activists said heavy fighting continued Friday in the town of Azaz near the Turkish border between al-Qaida militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and fighters linked to the Western-backed Free Syrian Army group.

An activist affiliated with Syrian rebels, who identified himself as Abu Raed, said one fighter from the Northern Storm brigade involved in the fighting against ISIL was killed in Azaz. It was unclear what the overall death toll was.

He said the infighting was leaving Syrian rebels clashing on two fronts. "The best solution is a peaceful one. Otherwise we will have a river of blood, from all of us. It won't end, and it won't stop," he said, speaking from near Azaz via Skype.

ISIL fighters also battled Kurdish forces around the town of Ras al-Ain in Syria's Kurdish-dominated north, said a Kurdish activist, Bassam al-Ahmed, in the nearby town of Hassakeh. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 14 fighters from ISIL and the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group and four Kurdish gunmen were killed.

In Damascus, a team of international weapons experts in Syria was out in the field on its fourth day of work in the country. Their mission — endorsed by a U.N. Security Council resolution last week — is to scrap Syria's capacity to manufacture chemical weapons by Nov. 1 and to destroy Assad's entire stockpile by mid-2014.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Friday that Syria had submitted information about its program. Without elaborating in the statement late Friday, the Hague-based organization said its executive council would address the issue on Tuesday.

Associated Press writer Diaa Hadid in Beirut contributed to this report.

Syrian rebels capture post near Jordan border

September 28, 2013

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels including members of an al-Qaida-linked group captured Saturday a military post on the border with Jordan after four days of fighting, an activist group said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 26 soldiers were killed in the battle as well as a number of rebels, including seven foreign fighters. The post served in the past as the customs office on the border with Jordan. It was turned into an army post years ago.  

The post is on the outskirts of the southern city of Daraa where the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March 2011. The uprising later turned into a civil war that killed more than 100,000 people, according to the U.N.

Rebels control multiple areas along the borders with Jordan, Iraq, Turkey and Lebanon as well as the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Also Saturday some U.N. inspectors left their hotel in Damascus in one vehicle to an unknown location, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene.

The U.N. said Friday its team of weapons experts currently in Syria will investigate seven sites of alleged chemical attacks in the country, four more than previously known. The announcement came hours before the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to secure and destroy Syria's chemical weapons stockpile.

The team initially visited Syria last month to investigate three alleged chemical attacks this year. But just days into the visit, the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Ghouta was hit by a chemical strike, and the inspectors turned their attention to that case. The inquiry determined that the nerve agent sarin was used in the Aug. 21 attack, but it did not assess who was behind it.

The U.S. says more than 1,400 people were killed in the attack while activists gave a smaller number but still in the hundreds. The UN team of investigators expects to finalize its activities in the country by Monday, a U.N. statement said.

On Thursday, the world's chemical weapons watchdog adopted a U.S.-Russian plan that lays out benchmarks and timelines for cataloging, quarantining and ultimately destroying Syria's chemical weapons, their precursors and delivery systems.

The Security Council resolution enshrines the plan approved by Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, making it legally binding. The agreement allows the start of a mission to rid Syria's regime of its estimated 1,000-ton chemical arsenal by mid-2014, significantly accelerating a destruction timetable that often takes years to complete.

A draft of the OPCW decision obtained by The Associated Press calls for the first inspectors to be in Syria by Tuesday.

Buses in large-scale bridge protest in Portugal

October 19, 2013

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portuguese workers have protested the country's austerity measures by boarding dozens of buses and crisscrossing one of Lisbon's main bridges with their horns blaring.

Portugal's main labor group, the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers, organized Saturday's demonstration after authorities refused to allow the protesters to cross the 2.3-kilometer(1.4-mile)-long bridge on foot, citing safety concerns.

Trade unions are fighting pay and pension cuts and the scrapping of workers' rights — measures required by creditors in return for Portugal's 78-billion-euro ($100 billion) bailout in 2011. In a similar protest in April, buses decked with flags and blowing their horns crossed the same bridge over the River Tagus in long lines before the workers aboard staged a demonstration in the city.

Unions are planning more strikes in November.

Italy: protesters throw eggs at finance ministry

October 19, 2013

ROME (AP) — Anti-austerity protesters in Rome threw eggs and firecrackers at the Finance Ministry during a march Saturday to oppose cuts to welfare programs and a shortage in low-income housing. Police said 11 people were detained.

More than 4,000 riot police were dispatched to maintain order as some 25,000 protesters marched through the capital on Saturday. There were moments of tension when demonstrators passed near the headquarters of an extreme-right group, but police intervened when a few bottles were thrown.

Later, demonstrators threw eggs, firecrackers and smoke bombs outside the Finance Ministry. Police reacted by dispersing the protesters, detaining 11 of the demonstrators. There were no reports of injuries.

Ahead of the march police detained some anarchists believed to pose a security threat.

Thousands in Rome protest Italian austerity cuts

October 18, 2013

ROME (AP) — Thousands of workers are demonstrating in Rome against the Italian government's new budget, which they say will bring more hardship.

The protests were accompanied Friday by a 24-hour nationwide strike that caused disruptions for travelers. Train service was guaranteed in most cities for morning and evening commutes, but airports in Rome, Naples, Milan and Bologna had to cancel some flights. Some school and health workers also went on strike.

The USB and COBAS unions organized Friday's strike to protest austerity measures reducing transportation budgets. USB union coordinator Pierpaolo Leonardi accused the Italian government of imposing EU directives without concern for the impact on workers.

A smaller protest of about 600 workers was held in Milan.

Hollande: expelled 15-year-old can return, alone

October 19, 2013

PARIS (AP) — Under fire from the far left and members of his own party, Socialist President Francois Hollande said Saturday that a 15-year-old girl who was detained in front of her classmates and expelled as an illegal immigrant can return to France. But the rest of the family cannot come with her.

Leonarda Dibrani, however, said she would not return without her family, who are Roma, or Gypsies. The deportation of the Dibrani family, whose requests for asylum were rejected, has lit a firestorm in France, where such expulsions aren't rare but are always sensitive as the birthplace of the "rights of man" grapples with a flux of immigrants. It's an especially delicate issue for Hollande and the Socialists, who have tried to present a softer image of France's immigration policies and distance themselves from former Nicolas Sarkozy's tough stance.

The uproar began earlier this week when it became public that 15-year-old Leonarda was detained by police as she got off a bus from a school trip. Schools are considered places of sanctuary, and many thought that principle had been breached. The case has also opened a wider debate on France's immigration policies.

The story has since become more complicated, with the father admitting that he lied in his asylum application when he said the entire family fled Kosovo, where they were persecuted for being Roma. Leonarda, and most of her siblings, were born in Italy, though they do not have Italian citizenship.

A government report published Saturday found that the police followed the law, although the report said they didn't seem to realize the sensitivity of what they were doing. Apparently fearing that conclusion wouldn't put the issue to rest, Hollande went on national television Saturday to walk the line between maintaining a tough stance on illegal immigrants and showing compassion for girl caught up in the storm.

He said Leonarda, considering the circumstances of her detention, could come back to France to go to school, if she wishes. But only she can come back. In Mitrovica, Kosovo, where the family is now living, Leonarda told reporters she would not come back without her family.

"Mr. Hollande has no heart for my family? He has no pity?" Leonarda asked, in an emotional scene in front of cameras. Her father has threatened to return to France illegally and even said the family had already packed their bags.

"We thought that Hollande was a just person to protect a family," said Leonarda's mother, Dzemila Dibrani. "To give him my daughter, that is not possible." Hollande also said local authorities would be told that such detentions cannot happen while children are in the care of their schools, whether inside the building, at the exit, on a bus or in after-school activities.

Although polls show that the majority of French people don't think the family should be allowed to return to France, the case has threatened to destabilize the Hollande government. On Thursday and Friday, thousands of teenagers protested the expulsion, and students gathered again Saturday on the steps of the Opera house at Place de la Bastille. They are calling for French law to be changed so minors who are in school cannot be expelled, and their families can remain, too.

Qena reported from Mitrovica, Kosovo.

Iranian protesters outside US Embassy in Berlin

October 18, 2013

BERLIN (AP) — Iranian dissidents are demonstrating outside the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, pushing for action after the killing of 52 of their compatriots in Iraq.

A dozen Mujahedeen-e-Khalq members protested in front of the embassy Friday, next to the landmark Brandenburg Gate. The group accuses the Iranian and Iraqi governments of involvement in the Sept. 1 shooting at Camp Ashraf in which roughly half the camp's U.N.-protected population was killed. The dissidents claim seven MEK members are being held by Iraq.

Iraq denies any involvement, saying the killings were an internal dispute. The U.N. has investigated but hasn't determined who was responsible. The group, which is strongly opposed to Iran's clerical regime, has been protesting since early September, calling for international pressure on Iraq to get to the bottom of the killings.