- Iran: Eight Prisoners Hanged on Drug Charges
- Daughter of late Iranian president jailed for ‘spreading lies’ - IRAN: Annual report on the death penalty 2016 - Taheri Facing the Death Penalty Again - Dedicated team seeking return of missing agent in Iran - Iran Arrests 2, Seizes Bibles During Catholic Crackdown
- Trump to welcome Netanyahu as Palestinians fear U.S. shift
- Details of Iran nuclear deal still secret as US-Tehran relations unravel - Will Trump's Next Iran Sanctions Target China's Banks? - Don’t ‘tear up’ the Iran deal. Let it fail on its own. - Iran Has Changed, But For The Worse - Iran nuclear deal ‘on life support,’ Priebus says
- Female Activist Criticizes Rouhani’s Failure to Protect Citizens
- Iran’s 1st female bodybuilder tells her story - Iranian lady becomes a Dollar Millionaire on Valentine’s Day - Two women arrested after being filmed riding motorbike in Iran - 43,000 Cases of Child Marriage in Iran - Woman Investigating Clinton Foundation Child Trafficking KILLED!
- Senior Senators, ex-US officials urge firm policy on Iran
- In backing Syria's Assad, Russia looks to outdo Iran - Six out of 10 People in France ‘Don’t Feel Safe Anywhere’ - The liberal narrative is in denial about Iran - Netanyahu urges Putin to block Iranian power corridor - Iran Poses ‘Greatest Long Term Threat’ To Mid-East Security |
Sunday 21 September 2014Hezbollah checkpoint hit by suicide attackAl Jazeera English A suicide car bomber reportedly killed three people at a checkpoint manned by the Shia group Hezbollah in eastern Lebanon, the state-run news agency reported. However, a Hezbollah-run TV station reported later on Saturday that the suicide bomber did not kill anyone at the checkpoint in the Bekaa Valley. There was no immediate way to reconcile the contradictory reports. The bomber detonated his explosives-rigged vehicle at the checkpoint about 5km from the Syria border near the town of Khreibeh, Lebanon's National News Agency said. It was not immediately clear if the reported casualties were bystanders or Hezbollah fighters. Since July 2013, dozens of people have been killed in more than a dozen suicide car bombings that have rocked the country. The attack on Saturday was likely linked to the conflict in Syria, as the spillover from the war raises sectarian tensions in the Mediterranean country, where Sunnis and Shia back opposing sides of the neighbouring conflict. Sunni fighters, including the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), have been trying to punish the Iranian-backed Hezbollah because its fighters are battling alongside forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. They have claimed responsibility for previous bombings in Lebanon that have targeted Shia communities. But they have also increasingly targeted the Lebanese army itself, seeing it as aligned with Hezbollah fighters. Tensions have ratcheted further in recent weeks, after fighters from Syria overran a Lebanese border town, Arsal, in early August, capturing and killing soldiers and police. The fighters, including the al-Qaeda linked Nusra Front and ISIL, are holding about 20 Lebanese hostages. At least three have been killed by their captors. Two have been beheaded by ISIL, sparking days of violence against Syrian refugees in Lebanon and tit-for-tat kidnappings between Sunnis and Shias. Lebanese soldier killed News of the killing of a third soldier surfaced on Saturday, when the father of one of the men held captive by the Nusra Front said he believed that his son had been killed by the fighters. Maarouf Hamieh said his son Mohammad was shot to death after a video appeared onlilne showing the soldier repeating the demands of his captors before being shot. "It's confirmed," the father said grimly in an interview with The Associated Press. In the video, a man identified as Mohammed Hamieh is shown kneeling in what appears to be an orchard, dizzily swaying as he tries to breathe, pleading that Hezbollah fighters must leave Syria or otherwise his captive comrades would be killed. "I am paying the price now, and all of my friends will die, all of them," he said, his voice occasionally breaking into sobs. As he spoke, a masked man sat silently behind him, and seconds later shot the Lebanese soldier in the back of his head. A captive Lebanese policeman then was shown, his hands handcuffed, pleading with the Lebanese government to speed up negotiations or he would be killed next. Twitter messages by a Nusra Front account said that Hamieh was "sacrificed" and warned that the policeman would be next. Another tweet on a Nusra Front account said the al-Qaeda linked rebel group was open to negotiations to secure the release of the Lebanese captives, but that so far all negotiations had failed. At least seven of the captured Lebanese soldiers and policemen are being held by the Nusra Front, while the others are being detained by ISIL. Following the video's release, angry Shia residents near Hamieh's hometown kidnapped Sunnis from a neighbouring village, even as his family pleaded for calm. |