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An al-Qaeda-linked group has claimed responsibility for a coordinated suicide bomb and gun attack on the country’s justice ministry last week that killed at least 18 people.
Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), an umbrella group for al Qaeda-linked fighters, said in a statement published online on Sunday that it had ordered the suicide bombers to attack the building floor by floor and “liquidate” its enemies inside.
With Syrian militants crossing back and forth across the northern Lebanon border, the Syrian foreign ministry has told Lebanon to put a stop to it or else face military strikes, reports Reuters via the Christian Science Monitor.
“Syrian forces have so far exercised restraint from striking at armed gangs inside Lebanese territory,” says the Syrian diplomatic cable, adding that “patience is not unlimited.” The Syrian war has driven about a million Syrians seeking shelter into Lebanon, a country of 4 million people.
A Pro-government tribal militia based in the southern province of Abyan confirmed on Monday it managed to crack-down on one al-Qaeda cell in the region.
A tribal leader told the press on Sunday his men had sussed out and destroyed an important terror cell near the city of Jaar. Jaar was invaded by al-Qaeda militants back in 2011 when it remained under the group’s control for months. It took a large scale military operation to outroot Islamist militants in the province.
Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi front group claimed an attack on a convoy in west Iraq that killed 48 Syrian soldiers and nine Iraqi guards, in a statement posted on jihadist forums on Monday.
The soldiers had entered Iraq for medical treatment and were being transported through the western province of Anbar on their way back to Syria when the attack took place on 4 March, according to the Iraqi defence ministry.
Syrian opposition fighters captured the northeastern city of Raqqa yesterday, and crowds toppled a statue of President Bashar Assad’s father, opposition sources and a resident said.
The fall of Raqqa on the Euphrates River would be a significant development in the 2-year-old revolt against Assad. The rebels do not claim to hold any other provincial capitals.