Syrian troops renewing attacks on port - Irish times

The Irish Times - Tuesday, August 16, 2011 MICHAEL JANSEN

Yesterday their crackdown put Syrian troops on port city of Latakia and mass arrests in the town of Houla, North of Homs, third city of the country carried out.

Opposition activists reported that snipers being flee the Latakia Ramel people quarter, said a protest hub and two men were killed.

Human rights organisations report that have at least 31 civilians since Saturday, been killed when the military launched its latest offensive in this area.

Sana, the official news agency denying did respond, reports of shelling and said that troops were pursuing armed groups trying to destabilise the country.

Two soldiers and four armed were killed and 41 troops been wounded, said.

Chris Gunness, spokesman for the UN relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the Agency, which cares for Palestinian refugees, to the Irish Times said: "Half of the 10,000 refugees have left in the Commons [Ramel]." God knows where they are going, what they do, or who will look after these defenceless people. "We have violated three confirmed deaths and 12."

He said UNRWA work already had, until the offensive in Latakia started three days ago, but had reduced services for Palestinian camp near Hama and Homs "extreme" as a result of military operations in the area.

Latakia port is a key economic facility that the Government of President Bashar al-Assad is not ready, waive protesters seeking to oust his regime.

After protests in Aleppo, Syria commercial capital Mr Assad replaced the Governor of the northern province of Aleppo, Sana reported.

That daily Spanish, El Pais, showed that in the past month that Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero had sent one secret mission to Damascus to offer Mr Assad asylum and propose, a peaceful transition to power. The initiative was rejected.

Separately, the Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar al-ja has ' afari, a letter to the UN condemnation of Israel plan to me, and you create a wall along the border between Syria and Israel occupied Golan Heights.

Israel argues that it is trying, pre-vent Syrians and Palestinians of Golan, who annexed Israel 1981, while Damascus complains that builds the Israel an illegal fence on land owned Syrian Druze inhabitants of the Golan city Majdal Shams is denied access to relatives in Syria and pre-empt negotiations on the fate of the Golan Heights, to infiltrate.

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Iraq attacks concerns new on U.S. pullout - Los Angeles Times

Victims of a car bombing in Kut, Iraq, are treated in a hospital. Bombings and other attacks occurred across the nation. (Hadi Mizban, associated press / August 16, 2011)Coverage from Cairo and Baghdad - a series of explosions and shots crack in Iraq on Monday, at least 70 people killed and more than 300 in a spasm bloodshed, that fresh concerns raised, the the nation security forces wounded could by insurgents when American soldiers this year retreat overwhelmed.

The extensive attacks, including suicide bombers also car explosions and militant Kalashnikov rifles fire hit from North to South during the morning in what apparently to a co-ordinated plan. Soldiers, police and market shoppers were targeted in Najaf, Kut, Baghdad, Baqubah, and other areas.

The violence in months for one of the most evil days in the Iraq made and broke in the middle of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The country rocked with explosions as families gathered their dead and Iraqis stand shaking their heads in addition to craters and charred cars in attacks reminiscent of the fighting between Shiite and Sunni four years ago.

It seemed that Iraq was in a time warp nation still fight with terrorists, at the same time much of the Arab world on the move sectarian gangs and militias, to replace extremism by revolutions for democracy. The violence seemed to to disrupt, as US troops prepare, eight years after the fall of Saddam Hussein to leave the Government of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

There were more than 35 attacks nationwide, breaking the relative calm of recent months. The deadliest was in the southern city of Kut, where through a marketplace spun an explosion. Minutes later as a spectator collected, a car bomb exploded, killing at least 33 people and injured 77, according to a security official.

Ali Haidari, a security expert, said the attacks came shortly after Abu Mohammed Adnani was named the new leader of Al-Qaeda in the Iraq. Haidari said the terrorist organization had announcement was for weeks on its website that it exploit the perceived weakness was preparing a major operation, Iraqi forces.

He said "These attacks have been expected". "But nevertheless, I still think that Iraq should leave American troops, so that trust between Iraq, America and the international community is not lost."

The violence was relentless homemade Shiites and Sunnis alike. Diyala province left a series of bombings car and shooting 14 people dead in a region known for Al-Qaeda fighters. In Najaf, a suicide bomber detonated and five minutes later exploded close to kill a police building, two policemen and four civilians a parked car. Five security managers and a terror Chief were killed in suicide bombings in Tikrit.

Gunfire and explosions by Baghdad, the capital against. A car bomb exploded close to a motorcade carrying an official of the Ministry of higher education, killing a passerby and wounding seven policemen and civilians. Al-Arabiya television reported that a curfew had imposed several regions.

"There are countries and outside agendas, who want to spread their crises in the Iraq," said Salman Jumaili, head of political blocks Iraqiya, Parliament. "We must respect this."

The debt said "on the American troops", Ali Sabih, owner of the food shop in Baghdad. "Iraqi forces are weak, and they have more years before they are ready to protect the country."

The attacks came as the Iraqi Government, that it negotiate with Washington some nearly 50,000 US troops in the country said resignation of maintenance after the planned U.S. this year.

"The violence was for propaganda, not strategy," said Jumaa Khalaf, a political analyst. "Terrorism is not more to control the country." … What's happening today is pointless. It has no message to the Iraqi people or their political power. "Terrorism has by Iraqi was disavowed conscience and memory."

Jeffrey.Fleishman@LATimes.com

Fleishman reported Salman in Baghdad from Cairo and special correspondent.

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