Region

AMMAN — At least 40 Syrian soldiers were killed on Saturday when rebels detonated explosives packed beneath an army base in Aleppo, activists and rebels said.

The Islamic Front, an umbrella rebel organisation, claimed responsibility for the bombing, though the claim could not be immediately verified.

A video posted on the Internet showed a massive blast sending clouds of dust and debris into the air as gunshots rang out in the old Zahrawi area of Aleppo.

The front said 40 government soldiers were killed. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 20 died in the blast and added that fierce clashes had erupted along the divided city’s frontlines, where fighting between rebels and troops has escalated in recent days.

Rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad regularly carry out guerrilla attacks but have only recently begun using large tunnel bombs on military targets. Last week, they claimed responsibility for blowing up a hillside army base and a hotel used by soldiers in Aleppo.

The government has vastly superior firepower and has intensified air strikes using crude barrel bombs on residential areas in rebel-held Aleppo, killing at least 132 civilians in the last three days, a local medical group said.

Gunbattles, air strikes, car bombs, shelling and executions regularly kill more than 200 people a day in Syria, where a conflict that started as a peaceful protest movement has killed over 150,000 people and forced millions from their homes.

Despite the carnage and loss of swathes of territory in the north and east to insurgents, Syria plans to hold a presidential election next Tuesday that is all but certain to give Assad a third term. Opponents have dismissed the vote as a farce.

DUBAI — Sudan turned down an Iranian offer to set up air defences on its Red Sea coast after a 2012 air strike Khartoum blamed on Israel, fearing they would upset Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia, Sudan’s foreign minister was quoted as saying on Thursday.

In an interview with the Saudi-owned Al Hayat newspaper that seemed aimed at improving frosty ties with Riyadh, Ali Karti played down Khartoum’s links to Iran and to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is outlawed in Saudi Arabia.

“Iran, in truth, offered to set up air defence platforms on the Western coast of the Red Sea after the latest Israel raid, but Sudan rejected that because this would require Iranian arms experts [on the ground],” Karti said during a recent visit to Saudi Arabia, Al Hayat reported.

“We rejected that because it is an Iranian presence against Saudi Arabia, something which we do not accept,” he added.

The 2012 air strike killed four people and partially destroyed an arms factory in Khartoum. Sudan blamed Israel, which did not comment at the time on the accusations.

Israeli officials have in turn accused Sudan of funnelling weapons from Iran to the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Iranian officials were not immediately available for a comment on Karti’s comments.

Sunni-powerhouse Saudi Arabia, a key regional ally of the United States, has been locked in a contest with non-Arab Shiite power Iran for influence in the Middle East.

The rivalry has effectively divided the region into two camps, with countries either allied to Saudi Arabia or to Iran.

Qatar factor

Sudan has been entangled in a complex web that put it at odds with Saudi Arabia when the world’s top oil exporter tried to shore-up Egypt’s military-backed government in its struggle with the Muslim Brotherhood after the army ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi from power last year.

Sudanese media have said Karti travelled to Saudi Arabia two weeks ago for talks with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal to improve “lukewarm” ties between the two countries.

Karti denied that Khartoum supported the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been outlawed by Egypt as well as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Brotherhood’s embrace of the ballot box challenges the principle of dynastic rule in the Gulf.

“There is a belief in the Gulf states that we have feelings towards the Muslim Brotherhood in any country in the Gulf or even in Egypt. But Sudan has refused to join the Muslim Brotherhood group,” Karti said, according to Al Hayat.

Sudan said last month after a visit by Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani that Doha would deposit $1 billion at Sudan’s central bank as part of an aid package to Khartoum — a move likely to be seen in the region as evidence of Sudan’s ties to Qatar, an ally of the Brotherhood.

In his interview with Al Hayat, Karti also played down Sudan’s relationship with Tehran. “Our ties with Iran are quite ordinary,” Karti said.

SEOUL — Lebanon’s ambassador to South Korea died in a car accident Thursday in Seoul, police said.

Jad Saeed Al Hassan was driving his car by himself when it hit another vehicle inside a tunnel, police officers said on condition of anonymity, citing department rules.

He was taken to a hospital, where doctors said the diplomat had died before his arrival, according to officials at the Inje University Seoul Paik Hospital.

Two South Koreans in the second car were slightly injured and taken to another hospital, the officers said. Seoul National University Hospital refused to comment on the status of their injuries.

Other details about the accident were not immediately known, including what caused the ambassador’s car to hit the other vehicle.

A person at the Lebanese embassy in Seoul confirmed that Hassan, who was born in 1954, had died, but refused to provide further details.

LONDON — Britain’s government agreed on Thursday to give extracts of letters from Tony Blair to George W. Bush to an inquiry into the Iraq war, overcoming the main hurdle to publication of the long-awaited report.

The probe will receive “gists and quotes” of communications from former prime minister Blair to ex-president Bush in the run-up to the conflict in 2003, inquiry chief John Chilcot said in an official letter.

But Bush’s replies will not be included in the report, which is examining Britain’s involvement in the war, Chilcot said.

“I am pleased to record that we have now reached agreement on the principles that will underpin disclosure of... communications between the UK prime minister and the president of the United States,” Chilcot said in his letter to Jeremy Heywood, the British government’s top civil servant.

“These documents have raised difficult issues of long-standing principle,” Chilcot wrote.

The inquiry was set up in 2009 and was expected to report in 2010. The last public hearings took place in 2011.

But disagreements over the publication of some 25 written notes from Blair to Bush and more than 130 records of conversations have been the biggest factor in delaying the findings of the inquiry.

Chilcot, himself a former civil servant, said the government had now begun “detailed consideration of gists and quotes requested by the inquiry” and urged it to answer as soon as possible.

“Consideration will be based on the principle that our use of this material should not reflect president Bush’s view,” he said.

The inquiry chief said the new material was “vital for the public understanding of the inquiry’s conclusions”.

There had been fears that Blair — who as Labour prime minister committed British forces to the US-led invasion of Iraq after forming a close bond with then-president Bush — and the US administration would block the release of the confidential papers.

“The inquiry intends to submit its report to the prime minister as soon as possible,” Chilcot added.

He did not give a date but reports earlier this year said it was expected before the end of the year.

Blair, who went on to become a Middle East peace envoy, insisted earlier this week that he was not to blame for the delay in publication of a report which could heavily criticise his handling of the war.

“It certainly isn’t me who is holding it up. The sooner it is published the better from my perspective as it allows me to go and make the arguments,” he told BBC radio on Tuesday.

British Prime Minster David Cameron has also expressed his hope that the report will be published before year’s end.

Britain was the second largest contributor of troops to the Iraq invasion after the United States.

A total of 179 military personnel were killed in Britain’s six-year involvement in Iraq.

Blair’s relationship with Bush came under close scrutiny in Britain, where opposition to the Iraq war saw around one million people march in London in 2003.

Blair has previously denied that he and Bush, both committed Christians, prayed together before the invasion of Iraq.

BEIRUT — Syria’s divided rebels and their foreign backers have been watching in disbelief as the regime gears up for an election to give Bashar Assad another presidential mandate despite their uprising.

The vote, which the Damascus regime can hold only in territory it controls and embassies abroad, signals confidence by Assad and his allies that they will win the war.

“Two years ago, we used to think it was impossible the regime would last long enough to hold the 2014 election. I just can’t believe it’s going to happen,” sighed Thaer, an activist from Homs city, once known as “the capital of the revolution”.

“When the revolution began, we were much stronger, the movement was peaceful and massive, and our hopes were high,” he told AFP via the Internet.

Now, he says, the election is a new signal that Syria’s revolt has escalated into a proxy war, “in which the Syrian people are paying the highest price”.

A rebel commander in Damascus province agreed.

He said the reason the regime is able to hold its vote is because of the opposition’s endemic division, a lack of leadership, and a failure by the international community to make good its promises to the revolt.

 ‘Factionalism burdens the revolution’ 

“The international community is not merely paralysed... The truth is it doesn’t actually want to help,” said Selim Hejazi, echoing the opposition’s belief that while Assad has all the help he needs, the so-called Friends of Syria who back the revolt have been more self-interested.

Hejazi also cited “the continuous disorganisation and factionalism among the ranks of the armed opposition [as] burdens to the revolution.”

While Assad’s regular army has received huge amounts of military, financial and economic assistance from Russia and Iran, support for the rebels from their backers in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the West has been at best chaotic.

Even though the opposition has seized significant swathes of territory across the country, the regime still massively outguns the rebels with its regular army, air force, growing paramilitary force and elite fighters from Lebanon’s Shiite Hizbollah.

Syria’s revolt broke out in March 2011 as an Arab Spring-inspired, non-violent movement demanding political change.

It later morphed into a nationwide Islamist insurgency that in time has grown increasingly radical and violent, after Assad’s regime unleashed a massive crackdown against dissent.

The West, especially the United States, has so far held back from providing much military assistance, citing fears that weapons would land in the hands of jihadists.

‘No political solution’

According to Samir Nashar, a veteran anti-Assad dissident and member of the main opposition National Coalition, the West’s fears have kept the opposition weak.

“The West, especially the United States, seem to focus on managing the Syrian conflict — not on effectively supporting the opposition,” Nashar told AFP by phone from Turkey.

Syria expert Noah Bonsey, who works with the International Crisis Group, agreed.

“Western allies have offered words that raise rebel expectations, but the limited material support they provide is insufficient to effectively empower the moderate elements they ostensibly back,” Bonsey said.

Meanwhile, support for the regime from its allies has come in the form of financing, weaponry and political clout.

On the ground, the regime has scored a string of advances in recent months, steadily raising the heat as election day edges closer.

In the past few weeks, it has reclaimed the Old City of Homs and broken the rebel siege of Aleppo central prison.

Opponents see the advances as part of Assad’s electoral campaign, and a stark indicator that “there is absolutely no political solution in sight. The regime is saying loud and clear it wants to win militarily”.

Opposition and regime representatives met earlier this year in Switzerland for talks sponsored by the United States and Russia.

The opposition insisted Assad be excluded from any future power-sharing formula, while the regime refused to accept any pre-conditions. The talks ended in stalemate.

With more than 160,000 killed and nearly half the population displaced, the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe that has struck Syria also “makes people feel the whole world is conspiring against them”, said Nashar.

Thaer, the activist from Homs, said that even though he considers the election a “farce... it sadly means the war will continue, and the bloodshed will continue”.

PARIS — Scientists lack proof that camels are the source of a deadly new virus that has killed 186 people in Saudi Arabia and should widen their hunt to other animals, veterinary experts meeting in Paris said.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) was discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and has since infected more than 650 people worldwide, including in the United States and France. It can cause flu-like symptoms, pneumonia and organ failure in some.

So far, most evidence points to camels as the infection source but there is no certainty yet, making further and wider research indispensable, they said.

“We know nothing on a potential transmission mode between camels and humans, neither on food products from camels which could be involved,” Bernard Vallat, Director General of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), told a news conference.

Juan Lubroth, Chief Veterinary Officer of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, called for further studies on camels and on other animals including bats, rats and even pets such as cats and dogs.

Bats have been found with a virus close to MERS.

“I think we should keep our mind open and that an investigation where we have very little information has to be wider,” Lubroth said.

Margaret Chan, head of the World Health Organisation (WHO), insisted at the start of the OIE’s general session on Sunday there was still no proof of a link between camels and humans.

“The evidence is by no means conclusive and we need to know this as we issue advice to the public,” she said.

Masks, gloves

With initial evidence pointing to camels, authorities in infected countries and the WHO called for extra precaution when dealing with the animals such as wearing masks and gloves.

The link with camels is the subject of extensive study among scientists outside Saudi Arabia, but it has been relatively absent from much of the official domestic debate.

Saudi Arabia’s acting health minister Adel Fakieh told Reuters on Wednesday that the kingdom was working with international scientific organisations to improve its response.

The WHO held an emergency meeting earlier this month on MERS. It said there was no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus.

BOSTON — In an unprecedented, three-year cyber espionage campaign, Iranian hackers created false social networking accounts and a bogus news website to spy on military and political leaders in the United States, Israel and other countries, a cyber intelligence firm said on Thursday.

ISight Partners, which uncovered the operation, said the targets include a four-star US Navy admiral, US lawmakers and ambassadors, and personnel from Afghanistan, Britain, Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

The firm declined to identify victims and said it could not say what data had been stolen by the hackers, who were seeking credentials to access government and corporate networks, as well as intelligence on weapons systems and diplomatic negotiations.

“If it’s been going on for so long, clearly they have had success,” iSight Executive Vice President Tiffany Jones told Reuters. The privately held company is based in Dallas, Texas and provides intelligence on cyber threats.

ISight dubbed the operation “Newscaster” because it said the Iranian hackers created six “personas” who appeared to work for a fake news site, NewsOnAir.org, which used content from the Associated Press, BBC, Reuters and other media outlets. The hackers created another eight personas who purported to work for defence contractors and other organisations, iSight said.

The hackers set up false accounts on Facebook and other social networks for these 14 personas, populated profiles with fictitious personal content, and then tried to befriend targets, according to iSight.

To build credibility, hackers approached high-value targets after establishing ties with victims’ friends, colleagues, relatives and other connections over social networks including Facebook Inc, Google Inc. LinkedIn Corp. and Twitter Inc.

The hackers would initially send the targets content that was not malicious, such as links to news articles on NewsOnAir.org, in a bid to establish trust. Then they would send links that infected PCs with malicious software, or direct targets to web portals that ask for network log-in credentials, iSight said.

The hackers used the 14 personas to make connections with more than 2,000 people, the firm said, adding that it believed the group ultimately targeted several hundred individuals.

“This campaign is not loud. It is low and slow,” said Jones. “They want to be stealth. They want to be under the radar.”

ISight said it had alerted some victims and social networking sites as well as the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and overseas authorities. An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment.

Facebook Inc. spokesman Jay Nancarrow said his company had discovered the hacking group while investigating suspicious friend requests and other activity on its website.

“We removed all of the offending profiles we found to be associated with the fake NewsOnAir organization and we have used this case to further refine our systems that catch fake accounts,” Nancarrow said.

LinkedIn spokesman Doug Madey said the site was investigating the report, though none of the fake profiles were currently active.

Twitter declined to comment. Google did not respond to a request for comment.

Post-Stuxnet era

ISight disclosed its findings as evidence emerges that Iranian hackers are becoming increasingly aggressive in the wake of the 2010 Stuxnet computer virus attack on Tehran’s nuclear programme, widely believed to have been launched by the United States and Israel.

ISight said it could not ascertain whether the hackers were tied to Tehran, though it believed they were supported by a nation state because of the operation’s complexity.

The firm said NewsOnAir.org was registered in Tehran and likely hosted in Iran. The Persian term “Parastoo” was used as a password for malware associated with the group, which appeared to work during business hours in Tehran, according to iSight.

Among the 14 false personas were reporters for NewsOnAir, including one with the same name as a Reuters journalist in Washington; six employees who purportedly worked for defence contractors; a systems administrator with the US Navy; and an accountant working for a payment processor.

A spokesman for Thomson Reuters Corp., which owns Reuters, declined to comment.

Chris Hadnagy, author of “Unmasking the Social Engineer,” said Newscaster was by far the most sophisticated hacking campaign involving social networking sites that has been uncovered so far.

“We’re going to see more and more of this vector being used. It is probably a lot deeper than we realise right now,” said Hadnagy, who runs a website, www.social-engineer.com.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Two suspected Jewish extremists have been charged with racially motivated attacks against Arab-owned property, the justice ministry said Thursday, after a spate of vandalism.

A 16-year-old arrested earlier this month for scrawling graffiti on and smashing the door and windows of a dentist’s practice in Yokneam, an Arab Druze town in northern Israel, was charged on Thursday, the ministry said.

The minor’s name was not made public, in accordance with Israeli law.

On Wednesday, prosecutors filed charges against Adir Yosef, 26, for damaging an Arab-owned car in Yokneam earlier in May.

According to the charge sheet, Yosef’s alleged felony was part of a wave of 14 racist crimes that took place in and around Yokneam over the past three months.

So-called price tag attacks are nationalist-motivated hate crimes by Jewish extremists that mostly target Palestinian and Arab property, but have also included attacks on other non-Jews as well as leftwing Israelis and the security forces.

A spate of attacks preceded last week’s visit of Pope Francis to the Holy Land, prompting calls from some government ministers and security officials to label the attacks “terrorism”.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel’s army has suspended a non-combat soldier seen firing his weapon during clashes in the West Bank this month in which two Palestinian teenagers were killed, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The report was published in Haaretz amid a military police probe into footage from two CCTV cameras that appeared to show the shooting of the two teens was unprovoked, taking place during a lull in the clashes.

The shooting took place during a day of protests on May 15 as Palestinians marked the “Nakbeh”, or catastrophe, of Israel’s establishment in 1948.

Haaretz said the soldier had been spotted on CNN footage released last week, firing “what appeared to be a rubber bullet” at around the same time the first of the two teenagers was shot.

But it said there was no proof his shot was responsible for killing of Musaab Nuwarah.

“The IDF has found no evidence proving that this soldier’s bullet caused Nuwarah’s death,” it said.

The paper said the suspended soldier was a member of the army’s communications division, a non-combat unit. Such troops, it said, were not permitted to fire unless attacked themselves.

An Israeli army spokesman refused to comment on the report, only saying “the military police investigation is ongoing”.

In the CNN footage, a group of five or six of the so-called “border police” officers in dark grey fatigues and helmets with visors can be seen milling around behind a breeze block wall in the town of Beitunia, southwest of Ramallah.

In a 13-second clip focused on them, a soldier in green fatigues is seen kneeling behind the wall, aiming his rifle.

A first shot appears to be fired by a border policeman standing among the group, then 10 seconds later, the kneeling soldier also appears to fire a shot.

Immediately after the second shot, one of the border police is seen taking the weapon from the soldier and the camera quickly pans round to show Palestinians carrying the teenager to an ambulance.

According to the CCTV footage, the two teens were shot in the same location but there was an hour and 13 minutes between the two incidents.

Palestinian medics have said both were killed by live bullets, but the Israeli army has denied live fire was used at the scene.

BEIRUT — Syrian government forces rained barrels bombs on Aleppo Thursday, as they pressed a campaign against rebels in the northern city where dozens have been killed this week, a monitor said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said jihadist fighters executed 15 civilians in the northeastern province of Hasakeh.

At least seven children were among those killed by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant near the town of Ras Al Ain, it said.

The Observatory did not give any immediate toll for Thursday’s raids on Aleppo’s rebel-held districts, but said regime helicopters dropped barrel bombs on some of the areas.

It comes after the group reported barrel bombs killed at least 58 civilians on Tuesday and Wednesday, including 15 children, while seven civilians were killed in similar raids on Monday.

Aleppo has been split into areas held by the regime and opposition since shortly after fighting broke out in Syria’s former economic hub in 2012.

Regime warplanes have waged an aerial offensive on the eastern, rebel-held districts since mid-December, frequently dropping barrel bombs on the area, with hundreds killed in these raids

The use of barrel bombs — barrels packed with explosives and scrap metal — has been condemned by the international community and human rights organisation.

The UN has called on Syria to end bombardments of residential areas with barrel bombs.

Loyalist forces have made advances on the ground against rebels battling to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, thanks to support from fighters of Lebanon’s Hizbollah movement.