Region

CAIRO — An Egyptian military tribunal sentenced Tuesday seven alleged militants to death and two to life in prison for their roles in consecutive attacks that killed nine soldiers this year, an official said.

Egypt’s government has intensified its efforts against militants who have increased and escalated their attacks mostly against troops and government installations. The simmering dispute follows the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and a subsequent crackdown by authorities on Islamists. Militant groups say they are avenging the crackdown.

Speaking Tuesday, President Abdel-Fattah El Sisi said terrorism requires international cooperation and that no country can face it alone, but he stressed that Egypt does not need international help in facing terrorism on its own territory. Egypt is concerned about the rising powers of Islamist militias in Libya, who have also carried out cross-border attacks in Egypt.

El Sisi, however, repeated previous government denials that Egypt has participated in attacks on Libyan soil. Officials have told the Associated Press that Egyptian warplanes had bombed Libyan militia positions in the eastern city of Benghazi.

El Sisi said the Libyan military is capable of protecting its own territory, according to comments published by the state news agency MENA.

Egypt’s government has also intensified its crackdown on weapon smuggling, including closing tunnels along the border with the Gaza Strip it suspects are used for such contraband. In his comments to editors in chief of state newspapers, El Sisi also said his country is working closely with Sudan to coordinate border patrols.

The long borders with Sudan are also a common route for weapons and militant smuggling.

In the trial, the sentenced defendants are alleged members of the Al Qaeda-inspired militant group Ansar Beit Al Maqdis, or Champions of Jerusalem. Originally based in northern Sinai, the group has also claimed responsibility for most of the major attacks in or near Cairo, targeting mostly troops and government installations.

In Egypt, civilians accused of attacking members of the armed forces are only tried before military tribunals. Human rights groups criticise military trials for hasty procedures, harsh sentences, and limited transparency. The verdicts can be appealed, but any appeal would return to another military court.

Six of the defendants were arrested in March following a raid on their hideout on the outskirts of Cairo, during which two officers were killed.

The defendants are also accused of plotting two other attacks against a military bus and a military checkpoint, killing seven soldiers. One of the defendants was tried in absentia.

In a detailed investigation of the case and the trial documents, the independent online news site Mada Masr found that two of the defendants were previously arrested and detained in the second half of the last decade, spending between three and five years in prisons during the reign of Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak was forced to step down following mass protests against him in 2011. At least one of the defendants had traveled to Syria to join militants fighting there before returning to Egypt to join Ansar Beit Al Maqdis, Mada Masr found after reviewing the 1,000-page trial file.

The military official said the court issued its decision Tuesday after the country’s top Muslim cleric approved the initial sentence in August, a necessary step.

ISTANBUL — Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu unveiled sweeping new security laws branded as repressive by critics, saying those in possession of banned objects at protests would face up to four years in jail.

The changes were first announced last week by the Islamic-rooted government following deadly protests in Istanbul and the Kurdish-majority southeast over Turkey's Syria policy.

Davutoglu said the legislation is aimed at ending the ambiguity over the use in demonstrations of "weapons of violence", including Molotov cocktails, stones and other sharp objects.

Those protesters possessing such objects — not currently regarded as a crime — will be detected and banned from entering rallies.

Police will be able to arrest those suspected of possessing such objects at a protest, and those convicted could face up to four years in jail, he added.

"Molotov cocktails are weapons of violence. If someone sets fire to ambulances, libraries, mosques or Koranic institutions by throwing Molotov cocktails... we cannot call this freedom," Davutoglu told a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara.

He said the bill calls for stricter punishment for offenders wearing masks to conceal their identity, damaging public property, as well as resisting the police.

The detention time limit will be doubled to 48 hours, Davutoglu said.

Police will also be given greater authority to search demonstrators or their houses, without the need for "concrete evidence".

"Calls for violence" through social media will also be recognised a crime, he said.

The legislation will make it easier for authorities to wiretap suspects and allow for these recordings to be used as evidence.

'Don't call it authoritarian' 

At least 34 people were killed and 360 wounded earlier this month when Kurds took to streets over Turkey's lack of support for the mainly-Kurdish Syrian border town of Kobani, which is under attack from Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

Over 1,000 people were detained for their involvement in the protests which caused damage to hundreds of public buildings.

The heavy-handed tactics used by Turkish police, who frequently resort to tear gas and water cannon, have drawn widespread criticism from rights groups at home and abroad.

A brutal police crackdown on anti-government protests in May-June 2013 left eight people dead and thousands injured.

The reform package has sparked outrage from the opposition, which said it would turn Turkey into a "police state" and threaten citizens' right to protest.

But Davutoglu said it is aimed at "strengthening the guarantee of public liberties and security".

He also warned foreign media not to characterise the reforms as authoritarian, saying the same measures are in place in other countries.

"Media outlets in Europe should not make a fuss about this law... They need to engage in self-criticism first," he said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also lashed out at criticism of the legislation, saying the government was taking the same measures "as Europe and the US".

"I personally know how the security forces in the West handle violence and vandalism," Erdogan told a symposium in Ankara.

The legislation will also impose tougher penalties for drug dealers, who are "seeking to eradicate the next generations" and "will be treated like terrorists", Davutoglu said.

ANKARA — Iranian security services have arrested several suspected spies in the southern province of Bushehr where the country's first nuclear power plant is located, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Tuesday.

Iran has repeatedly cited signs of what it calls foreign plots to sabotage its nuclear programme, which world powers fear could be put to developing an atomic bomb capability and are seeking to curb through high-level negotiations, with a deadline of November 24 for an accord.

The Islamic Republic says it is developing nuclear energy only for electricity and medical treatments.

"Thanks to the vigilance of intelligence ministry forces who monitor the moves of the foreign intelligence services, some agents who intended to carry out surveillance and intelligence gathering for foreigners have been arrested," Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alawi Alawi told Fars, without elaborating.

He said Bushehr province was Iran's nuclear hub and therefore "has a special position at the national level".

Although the West suspects Iran has tried to develop the means to assemble a nuclear weapon behind the facade of a civilian atomic energy programme, the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power station on the country's Gulf coast is not itself deemed to be a serious proliferation risk by Western states.

In 2010, Iran's uranium enrichment facilities were temporarily impaired by a virus known as Stuxnet, which was widely believed to have been developed by the United States and Israel, although no government took responsibility for it.

In March of this year, pumps at Iran's planned Arak reactor, seen by the West as a potential source of plutonium that could fuel nuclear bombs, were subjected to a failed sabotage attempt, Iranian media quoted a senior official as saying.

Iran and the world powers — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — are trying to negotiate an end to a decade-old standoff that has led to damaging economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic.

The election last year of moderate Hassan Rouhani as Iranian president led to an interim diplomatic accord last November under which Tehran has curbed some sensitive aspects of its enrichment activity in exchange for limited sanctions relief.

It remains unclear whether the two sides will meet the self-imposed November 24 deadline for a permanent deal that would scale back Tehran's nuclear capacity to remove its potential for bombmaking in exchange for a phasing-out of all sanctions.

ANKARA/NEW YORK — Iran is pushing what it portrays as a new compromise proposal in nuclear talks, but Western negotiators say it offers no viable concessions, underscoring how far apart the two sides are as they enter crunch time before a November 24 deadline.

In the negotiations with six major powers, the Iranians say they are no longer demanding a total end to economic sanctions in return for curbing their nuclear programme and would accept initially lifting just the latest, most damaging, sanctions.

Western officials dismiss the proposal as nothing new and say the Iranians have always known that the sanctions could only end gradually — with each measure being suspended and later terminated only after Iranian compliance had been proven.

The officials say that in talks in Vienna they too have offered what they call compromises over demands that Iran limit its nuclear programme, but they have been rejected by Tehran.

"The bottom line is that they do not appear willing to limit their enrichment programme to a level we would find acceptable," a European diplomat said. "We may have no choice but to extend the talks past November... It's either that or let the talks collapse."

Under their most recent offer, Iranian officials have told Reuters that Iran's leadership would be satisfied with removing crippling US and European Union energy and banking sanctions imposed in 2012.

They described this as a major stepdown from Iran's consistent calls for the removal of all sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic because of its refusal to heed UN Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment work.

Tehran calls the sanctions unfair and illegal.

Compromise or no compromise?

The proposal by Iranian negotiators in talks with the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China has the backing of the Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian officials say.

"For the other party involved, it might be only a political issue, but for Iran what is in danger is the existence of the establishment if the economic hardship continues," a senior Iranian official said.

Building on a UN Security Council sanctions resolution passed in 2010, the United States and EU in 2012 imposed major sanctions against Iranian oil and gas companies and strengthened restrictions on the country's central bank.

Under the US National Defence Authorisation Act Section 1245, Washington also forced Iran's major oil customers to greatly reduce their purchases of Iranian oil or face having their banks cut off from the US financial system.

The result has been a sharp drop in Iranian oil revenues, soaring inflation and unemployment and a weak Iranian currency.

"Iran wants to return to the situation before these sanctions were imposed," the Iranian official said. "If agreed, it will help in reaching a compromise by the November 24 deadline."

US officials have made clear they would make swift moves to suspend sanctions if a proper deal with Iran is secured and Tehran complies with it.

"If we get a comprehensive agreement and if Iran complies... Iran will begin to end its isolation from the world community, because the sanctions in the first instance will be suspended and ultimately lifted," a senior US official said last month. "It will take some time, but they will be lifted."

Reducing the centrifuges

A series of meetings in Vienna last week between US Secretary of State John Kerry, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton failed to break the impasse. Tehran and Washington said they made some progress but much work remained. It is unclear when the next round of talks will start.

One sticking point is the number of centrifuges Iran would be allowed to keep under a deal.

Iranian officials say they would be willing to live with fewer centrifuges provided they were more advanced machines that enrich more uranium at a faster pace. Their goal is to ensure that the volume of uranium they enrich is not reduced as a result of any long-term accord with the six powers.

Western officials say this is not a real compromise.

The United States, France, Britain and Germany would like the number of centrifuges Iran maintains to be in the low thousands, while Tehran wants to keep tens of thousands in operation. It now has about 19,000 installed, of which about 10,000 are spinning to refine uranium.

SANAA — Al Qaeda-affiliated Sunni Muslim insurgents killed 18 Shiite Muslim Houthi rebels and seized an important city in central Yemen, tribal sources said on Monday, in a spread of sectarian conflict as central government authority has unravelled.

The northern-based Houthis established themselves as power brokers in Yemen last month by capturing the capital, Sanaa, against scant resistance from the weak administration of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

Houthi forces have since advanced into central Yemen and taken on Sunni tribesmen and Al Qaeda militants, who regard the Houthis as heretics. Fighting has flared in several provinces, alarming the world's No.1 oil exporter Saudi Arabia next door.

Tribal sources said that at least 10 Houthi fighters were killed when Al Qaeda-linked Ansar Al Sharia fighters shelled a house in the town of Radda in Al Bayda province on Sunday night.

Eight more Houthi fighters were killed in clashes on the outskirts of Radda, they said.

Ansar Al Sharia said in a report from Al Orsh area in Al Bayda that "dozens of Houthis" have been killed or wounded in battles since Sunday evening. "The battles are continuing until this moment," the report added.

There was no immediate word on casualties from Ansar.

Radda, with a population of 60,000, has long been a stronghold of Ansar, which includes many fighters from local tribes who are up in arms over the new presence of Houthi rebels in the mainly Sunni-populated region.

There is growing international concern about Yemen's turmoil because of its proximity to Saudi Arabia and international shipping lanes, as well as the risk of Al Qaeda using the country as a springboard for attacks abroad.

Al Qaeda insurgents seized major town

In a significant development, residents and activists said Al Qaeda fighters had marched into Al Odayn, a city of 200,000 in the central province of Ibb, captured the local government offices and raised their black and white flag on it.

“They came in at midday, invaded the town, chanting Allahu Akbar [God is Greater] and seized the government compound unopposed,” one resident of Al Odayn said.

Residents also said Sunni militants destroyed the home of a local Houthi member who had been trying to recruit local fighters to join a popular committee, a kind of a grass-roots police force Houthis have established in other parts of the Arabian Peninsula country.

The Houthis’ advance and clashes with Ansar Al Sharia prompted often faction-ridden regional Sunni tribesmen to close ranks to try to protect themselves.

In a statement issued on Sunday, a committee of local tribesmen warned that they would not tolerate the presence of “any armed militia from any party” in Al Bayda province and called on the central government to step in to maintain order.

“The state must carry out its national duty to spare the province of sectarian strife...,” said the statement, which was obtained by Reuters.

The Yemeni armed forces have largely avoided confronting the Houthis since they moved into Sanaa last month, raising speculation that President Hadi was tacitly allowing the group to move freely while a new government is being formed.

Whether it would command more authority than the last one is big question, however. While the Houthis signed a power-sharing pact with other political parties, this has not deterred them from thrusting into other regions of Yemen.

In a further sign of gathering chaos, Al Qaeda militants on Monday raided the Um Al Maghareb military airport in the eastern province of Hadramout province, not far from the Saudi border, and looted equipment, military and security sources said.

BENGHAZI, Libya — Libya's beleaguered elected parliament has declared a formal alliance with a renegade former general, as it struggles to assert some authority in a country many fear is sliding into outright civil war.

Three years after the overthrow of Muammar Qadhafi, the oil-producing desert state is in chaos, with Islamists and other militias fighting for territory and influence and the regular armed forces reduced to near-impotence.

One faction has seized Tripoli, setting up its own assembly and administration in the capital and forcing the internationally recognised government to take refuge in the east of the country.

Khalifa Haftar, a former general under Qadhafi, is one of dozens of commanders of irregular forces calling the shots in the country. Last week, his forces launched a new offensive against Islamist militias in the eastern city of Benghazi.

The House of Representatives, Libya's elected parliament which has relocated to Tobruk in the far east, has endorsed Haftar's Operation Dignity against Islamists, giving him an official role, parliament spokesman Farraj Hashem said.

"Operation Dignity is leading officers and soldiers of the Libyan army ... Operation Dignity is an operation of the Libyan army," he said late on Sunday.

The move appears in contradiction to past calls from the House of Representatives for all militias to be disarmed to help restore order and rebuild the state.

The decision to endorse Haftar might also worsen a conflict between the House of Representatives, allied to the internationally recognised government of Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thinni, and the new rulers of Tripoli.

Both recognised bodies have been based in eastern Libya since an armed group from the western city of Misrata seized Tripoli in August and set up its own assembly and government there.

The Misrata faction has denounced Haftar as a Qadhafi loyalist who is trying to stage a counterrevolution with other officials of the former regime. Haftar helped Qadhafi seize power in 1969 but fell out with the former strongman in the 1980s.

Western powers and Libya’s Arab neighbours fear conflict is dragging the North African country towards full-blown civil war.

Last month, the United Nations launched talks between the House of Representatives and elected Misrata members who have boycotted the parliament and who have links to the rival assembly in Tripoli. No progress has been reported publicly so far.

BAGHDAD — Iraq's top Shiite cleric on Monday gave his support to the new government battling the Islamic State (IS) group as militants unleashed a wave of deadly attacks on the country's majority Shiite community, killing at least 43 people.

The blitz by the militants this summer plunged Iraq into its worst crisis since US troops left at the end of 2011. While there was no claim of responsibility for Tuesday's attacks, they seemed likely calculated by the group to sow fear among Iraqis and keep pressure on the new Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi, who took office last month, met Monday with top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani in the southern city of Najaf. He said after their talks that Sistani welcomed the recent formation of the government that Abadi now leads.

The spiritual leader wields considerable influence among Iraq's Shiite majority, and the meeting carried symbolic significance because Sistani has shunned politicians in recent years to protest how they run the country.

"We have a long and hard mission ahead of us," Abadi told reporters after emerging from the meeting with the cleric, who is believed to be 86 years old. 

“One of the missions is related to security. We need arms and we need to reconstruct our security forces.”

Sistani lives in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, 160 kilometres south of Baghdad, and rarely appears in public.

The day’s attacks killed dozens in Baghdad and the Shiite holy city of Karbala.

In the capital, the bomber blew himself up among Shiite worshippers as they were leaving a mosque in a central commercial area after midday prayers Monday. That blast killed at least 17 people and wounded 28, a police officer said.

In Karbala, four separate car bombs went off simultaneously, killing at least 26 people and wounding 55, another police officer said. The city, about 90 kilometers south of Baghdad, is home to the tombs of two revered Shiite imams and the site of year-round pilgrimages. The explosives-laden cars were parked in commercial areas and parking lots near government offices, the officer added.

Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to media.

The attacks in Baghdad and Karbala, the latest in relentless assaults that have challenged the Shiite-led government, came a day after a suicide bombing targeted another Shiite mosque in the Iraqi capital, killing 28 people.

The latest attacks bore the hallmarks of IS, which has recently claimed several other large bombings in Baghdad and elsewhere, particularly in Shiite areas.

The militants have captured large chunks of western and northern Iraq, carving out a proto-state on both sides of the Syria-Iraq border and imposing its own harsh interpretation of Islamic law. Since August, US warplanes have been carrying out air strikes against the group as Iraqi and Kurdish security forces work to retake territory it has seized.

ANKARA/BEIRUT — Turkey said on Monday it would allow Iraqi Kurdish fighters to reinforce fellow Kurds in the Syrian town of Kobani, while the United States air-dropped arms for the first time to help the defenders resist an Islamic State (IS) assault.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington had asked Ankara to help "get the peshmerga or other groups" into Kobani so that they could help defend the town on the Turkish frontier, adding that he hoped the Kurds would "take this fight on".

If the reinforcements come through, this may mark a turning point in the battle for Kobani, a town that has become a frontline of the battle to foil IS’ attempt to reshape the Middle East.

The Syrian Kurds have struggled for weeks against better-armed IS fighters. US-led air strikes have helped the Kurds avoid defeat, but they have been unable to resupply fighters besieged on three sides by IS and blocked by Turkey from bringing fighters or weapons over the border.

Ankara views the Syrian Kurds with deep suspicion because of their ties to the PKK, a group that waged a decades-long militant campaign for Kurdish rights in Turkey and which Washington regards as a terrorist organisation.

Speaking in Indonesia, Kerry acknowledged Turkish concerns about support for the Kurds, and said the air-drop of supplies provided by the Kurdish authorities in Iraq did not amount to a change of US policy.

He indicated that the battle against Islamic, a group also known by the acronym ISIL that has seized large areas of Syria and Iraq, was an overriding consideration.

“We understand fully the fundamentals of [Ankara’s] opposition and ours to any kind of terrorist group, and particularly, obviously, the challenges they face with respect to the PKK,” he told reporters.

But he added: “We cannot take our eye off the prize here. It would be irresponsible of us, as well as morally very difficult, to turn your back on a community fighting ISIL.”

Iraqi Kurdish official Hemin Hawrami, writing on his Twitter feed, said 21 tonnes of weapons and ammunition supplied by the Iraqi Kurds had been dropped in the small hours of Monday.

Kerry said both he and President Barack Obama had spoken to Turkish authorities before the air-drops “to make it very, very clear this is not a shift of policy by the United States”.

“It is a crisis moment, an emergency where we clearly do not want to see Kobani become a horrible example of the unwillingness of people to be able to help those who are fighting ISIL,” he added.

Turkey has stationed tanks on hills overlooking Kobani but has refused to help the Kurdish militias on the ground, suspicious of their links to the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and demanding broader US action that would target Syrian President Bashar Assad as well as IS.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara was facilitating the passage of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces which are also fighting IS in Iraq.

Cavusoglu stopped short of saying whether Ankara backed the US decision to air-drop the weapons.

Peshmerga preparations

The spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) peshmerga fighters said that the Iraqi Kurdish region was ready to send backup forces to Kobani and planning was under way.

“There are efforts and we are prepared to send some back-up forces either by land or air,” said KRG peshmerga ministry spokesman Jabar Yawar. He said the forces were not en route.

But one Kurdish official in Iraq, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed doubt that any fighters would be deployed to Kobani as they battle IS at home.

The Kurdish administration in Syria has said thousands of fighters are ready to cross to Kobani from other Kurdish areas of northeastern Syria if Turkey allows them to.

Turkey’s refusal to intervene in the fight with IS has led to frustration in the United States. It has also provoked lethal riots in southeastern Turkey by Kurds furious at Ankara’s failure to help Kobani or at least open a land corridor for volunteer fighters and reinforcements to go there.

‘Not enough to decide the battle’

The US Central Command said US Air Force C-130 aircraft had dropped weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to allow the Kurdish fighters to keep up their resistance in the town which is called Kobani in Kurdish and Ayn Al Arab in Arabic.

The main Syrian Kurdish armed group, the YPG, said it had received “a large quantity” of ammunition and weapons.

Redur Xelil, a YPG spokesman, said the arms dropped would have a “positive impact” on the battle and the morale of fighters. But he added: “Certainly it will not be enough to decide the battle.”

“We do not think the battle of Kobani will end that quickly. The forces of [Islamic State] are still heavily present and determined to occupy Kobani. In addition, there is resolve [from the YPG] to repel this attack,” he told Reuters in an interview conducted via Skype.

He declined to give details on the shipment.

Welat Omer, one of five doctors in Kobani, told Reuters by telephone that he and his colleagues had received medicine and were distributing it to patients. This included drugs for children and the elderly and materials for operations.

“This medicine will only be enough for five days. We want them to send more, because we have many patients,” he said.

The United States began carrying out air strikes against IS targets in Iraq in August and about a month later started bombing the militant group in neighbouring Syria.

However, the resupply of Kurdish fighters points to the growing coordination between the US military and a Syrian Kurdish group that had been kept at arms’ length by the West due partly to the concerns of NATO member Turkey.

The United States is also planning to expand military aid to the “moderate” opposition to Assad as part of its strategy against IS. But rebel groups battling both Assad and IS in western Syria complain they have yet to receive the kind of support going to the Kurds, whom they have accused of cooperating with Assad — a charge the Kurds deny.

Syrian government war planes launched at least 99 air raids on rebel targets on Monday, one of the highest rates since the civil war began in 2011, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

“We are still getting vetted and trained ... however the Kurds, while being classified as a terrorist organisation, get air drops without any vetting or training,” said an official in a rebel group, declining to be named for security reasons.

Washington has pressed Ankara to let it use bases in Turkey to stage air strikes, and a Turkish foreign ministry official said the country’s airspace had not been used during the drops on Kobani.

The US military conducted six air strikes against IS militants near Kobani on Sunday and Monday, the US Central Command said in a statement.

US forces, in coordination with Iraqi ground troops, also conducted six air strikes against the militant group in Iraq near Fallujah and Bayji with help from France and Britain, Central Command said.

Advance notice

Obama gave advance notice to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the plans to deliver arms to the Syrian Kurds.

The Turkish presidency said Obama and Erdogan had discussed Syria, including measures that could be taken to stop IS’s advances, and Kobani.

In a statement published on Sunday, it also said Turkish assistance to over 1.5 million Syrians, including around 180,000 from Kobani, was noted in the conversation.

In comments published by Turkish media on Monday, Erdogan equated the main Syrian Kurdish political group, the PYD, with the PKK, describing both as terrorist organisations.

“It will be very wrong for America with whom we are allied and who we are together with in NATO to expect us to say ‘yes’ [to supporting the PYD] after openly announcing such support for a terrorist organisation,” Erdogan said.

Kobani is one of three areas near the border with Turkey where Syrian Kurds have established their own government since the country descended into civil war in 2011.

RIYADH — A Syrian professor at a Saudi Arabian university has disappeared and joined the Islamic State group fighting US-backed forces in her homeland, a newspaper reported on Monday.

Al Hayat quoted Ibrahim Al Khaldi, the spokesman for the University of Dammam, as saying Iman Mustafa Al Boga had resigned for unknown reasons.

It quoted from her Facebook page, which says she is "moving around in the north of Syria".

"I was Daesh even before Daesh existed," she says in another post, using the Arabic acronym for the group which has been accused of atrocities including crucifixions and beheadings.

"And I have always known that there is no solution to the problems faced by Muslims but in this jihad," Boga added.

The kingdom is seeking to deter youth from becoming jihadists after Syria's conflict attracted hundreds of Saudis.

King Abdullah decreed in February jail terms of up to 20 years for citizens who travel to fight abroad, and the kingdom's top cleric has called IS and Al Qaeda "enemy number one" of Islam.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al Sheikh has urged Muslim young people not to be influenced by "calls for jihad... on perverted principles".

Since September Saudi Arabia and Qatar, along with their Gulf neighbours Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, have taken part in or given support to US-led coalition air strikes against IS, which has declared a "caliphate" straddling Syria and Iraq.

Muslims around the world have denounced the militants.

"I left my dear university, my fancy car, my big house and large salary," to be free from "sinful laws of the tyrants that suffocate the ummah", Boga posted on October 14.

She later added that she had travelled without assistance from anyone.

"We do not know the reason behind her resignation," Al Hayat quoted the university spokesman as saying.

The university "is keen to protect its students from ideas and methods that could be a danger to them, and could question their beliefs, traditions and customs", he added.

Al Hayat reported that Boga, who was known to have extremist ideas, had spent many years at the campus teaching Islamic jurisprudence and economics.

TEHRAN — Iran's defence minister said his country is ready to ship defensive materials to Lebanon to aid its army in the fight against Sunni extremists on Monday, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

The report quoted Gen. Hossein Dehghan, speaking at a joint briefing with visiting Lebanese Defence Minister Samir Moqbel, as saying the shipment would help thwart extremists who plan to commit "inhuman crimes" in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

"We will provide an Iranian-made consignment of defensive items to the Lebanese army for their use in fighting the group and other terrorist groups," Dehghan said. The Lebanese troops have been fighting militants from the Islamic State group since fighting spilled into the Mediterranean country from neighboring Syria.

Dehghan did not elaborate on the contents of the shipment but said it was a gift intended for "swift action against a possible threat". The United Nations imposed an arms embargo on Iran in 2007, banning it from importing and exporting weapons.

"The aid mainly includes items for ground forces — for confronting terrorist currents," he said, adding that Iran was also ready to provide training to the Lebanese army.

The shipment now awaits approval from Lebanon, Dehghan said, a country he described as having a "special position" in Iran's foreign policy. Shiite Iran backs Lebanon's Hizbollah, a Shiite group now fighting alongside forces of key Iran ally President Bashar Assad against the Sunni extremists in Syria.

Iran's former ambassador to Beirut, Ghazanfar Roknabadi, said the US and some groups in Lebanon are worried about the aid because they are concerned it could be used against Israel.

"They say the aid breaks sanctions, but it is just a gift and there is no money in return," said Roknabadi, adding that Iran had proposed gifting the aid years ago.

Iran, a major weapons manufacturer in the region, has in the past said it exported military products to scores of countries, although it has never revealed details.