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Turkey, Syria To Cooperate

After decades of enmity, Syria and Turkey have launched a strategic cooperation agreement. This month, the two neighbors signed an agreement meant that included cooperation in the defense and military sectors. The accord also saw the removal of restrictions along the border between Syria and Turkey.

“The brotherhood that exists between our people has been lifted to the political level with joint Cabinet meetings to be held between our two governments,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said. Officials said the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan regarded Syria as part of Ankara’s “zero problems with neighbors” policy.

They said Ankara and Damascus have decided to establish what was termed a high-level strategic cooperation panel.“Turkey is your second country and the people of Turkey have opened their arms to welcome you without the need for a visa,” Davutoglu said.

At a joint news conference on Sept. 17, Davutoglu and his Syrian counterpart, Walid Mualem, agreed to lift customs on trade between the two countries. They said trucks that shuttle between Syrian and Turkey would be exempt from taxes. “This is the biggest demonstration of cooperation, solidarity and mutual trust,” Mualem said.

However, Bulent Alireza, a senior researcher at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies commented that “the increasingly close relationship with Damascus, combined with the recent strains in the relationship with Tel Aviv, seems certain to raise additional questions about a possible change of direction in Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East.”

In 2009, Syria and Turkey launched its first military exercise. The exercise took place along the border.The analysts said the Turkish military has not been enthusiastic over cooperation with Syria. Syria has long been seen by the Turkish military as a haven for the Kurdish Workers Party, which has been conducting a long time insurgency operation against the Turkish government.

Some senior Turkish officials said Syria has drafted plans to offer asylum to Kurdish Workers Party operatives. They said the Syrian offer, praised by neighboring Turkey, would demand that the PKK agents renounce violence and surrender their weapons. “Our fight against the terrorist organization would be affected a great deal if some of these Syrians quit the organization and climb down the mountain,” Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug said.

In a briefing on Sept. 22, Basbug said the PKK contained an estimated 1,500 Syrian fighters, or more than one-third of the total insurgency force. He said Syrian members of the PKK were based in Iraq’s Kandil mountains.

The Syrian offer was announced by President Bashar Assad in mid-September. Assad said Syrian members of PKK could be allowed to return home if they renounce membership in the insurgency group.

LINK

Soldiers of the Companions of God,

Islamist Leader Said to Be Killed in Shootout

Hamas crushed an al-Qaida-inspired group in an hours-long standoff that came to a fiery end when a large explosion killed the radical Muslim group's leader inside his Gaza home on Saturday.

The fighting was sparked by a rebellious sermon by the group's leader, and his dramatic death put an end to the greatest internal challenge to Hamas' rule since it took control of Gaza two years ago.

The crackdown targeted Jund Ansar Allah, or the Soldiers of the Companions of God, one of a number of small, shadowy groups that are even more radical than Hamas. The decisive confrontation, in which 95 group members were arrested, solidified Hamas' iron rule in Gaza.

The radical groups have sought to expand the Palestinians' battle beyond Israel to include the Western World as well. And in Gaza they have tried to enforce a strict version of Islamic law to which Hamas has not agreed. They have also attacked Internet cafes and wedding parties over behavior they consider improper.

The crackdown highlights Hamas' desire to limit its struggle to the Palestinian cause and to distance itself from militants espousing al-Qaida's ideology, though the United States, Israel and others consider Hamas a terrorist organization.

The fighting broke out late Friday when Hamas security men surrounded a mosque in the southern Gaza town of Rafah on the Egyptian border where about 100 members of Jund Ansar Allah were holed up. Their leader, Abdel-Latif Moussa, provoked Hamas by declaring Gaza an Islamic emirate during a Friday prayer sermon and warning its leaders against invading his mosque.

TheNewYorkTimes

Tunisian militants attacking Iraq

The top U.S. military commander in the Mideast says attacks in Iraq will continue for some time, and they may be the work of a network of foreign fighters from Tunisia.
U.S. Gen. David Petraeus (peh-TRAY'-uhs) told a House panel Friday that four recent suicide bombers in Iraq were from Tunisia. He said officials have captured one who planned an attack.He said the Tunisian militants have returned to Iraq in the last several months as the number of Iraqi suicide bombers have dwindled. Petraeus cited some successes in Iraq, but he cautioned that progress continues to be fragile and reversible.
AP

Deadly bombings in Algeria

A deadly double bombing near Algiers sparked fears Monday of a wave of Al-Qaeda inspired attacks in what France's foreign minister said had become a "dangerous" country.

The employer of a French engineer who was killed in the attack withdrew its other expatriate staff from Algeria after blasts which local officials said killed 13 people, though the government gave a drastically lower toll of two.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner appealed for foreign firms to stay in Algeria even though he acknowledged in a radio interview that it had become a "dangerous country".

Morocco signs NATO anti-terrorism patrols

Morocco agreed Monday to contribute to NATO's anti-terrorism operation in the Mediterranean Sea, the first North African nation to do so.

NATO's Operation Active Endeavor was launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. Under the operation, NATO ships and aircraft monitor and escort shipping across the Mediterranean to deter terrorist activity.

NATO officials said more talks were needed between Moroccan and NATO military commanders before a decision could be taken on the level of Morocco's contribution. "This agreement testifies in an indisputable way to our common determination to fight terrorism, which affects both your country and the countries of the alliance," said NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer after he signed the agreement with Morocco's ambassador Menouar Alem.

Morocco is one of seven nations in North Africa and the Middle East that participate in the NATO outreach program, launched in 1994 to build closer cooperation. In 2004, NATO invited them to participate in the anti terrorism patrols in the Mediterranean, but until now only Israel has signed up. Israel does not have ships serving with the NATO operation, but reached agreement in June 2007 to share information with NATO.

NATO officials say other north African nations have expressed interest in contributing to the mission. Morocco already has 220 troops serving in the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo.

A largely moderate Muslim kingdom and a strong U.S. ally, Morocco has seen a rise of radical Islam in recent years and has jailed hundred of suspected Islamic militants under anti-terrorism laws passed in 2003. That legislation was adopted after a string of terror bombings in Casablanca killed 45 people.

IHT

Age of Terror

BBC programme

"By the late 1980s, 40% of the country's population of 24 million were under the age of 15. Many were in school preparing for jobs that did not exist.

They became known as hittistes - "those who prop up walls" - as they had nothing else to do all day.

They were angry and frustrated, providing the rich soil in which a brand of militant, fundamentalist Islam could flourish.

Neighbourhood mosques became the focus for discontent with clerics building support not just through fiery sermons but through practical support, running soup kitchens and providing food, clothing and welfare.

In 1988, Algeria exploded in the month known as Black October. Ali Belhadj organised a demonstration of 20,000 Islamist supporters who were stopped in their tracks by the military that effectively ran the regime.

In the ensuing confrontation, the army shot dead 50 demonstrators. It was Algerian's equivalent of Northern Ireland's Bloody Sunday or South Africa's Sharpeville and Soweto.

The fuse was lit. Algeria's intifada had begun, the launchpad for political Islam. "

Ban Ki-Moon to visit UN attack sites: Algiers

United Nations staff in Algeria observed a minute's silence Monday in memory of 17 colleagues killed in two bloody car bomb attacks on UN and government offices in Algiers last week. Representatives of Algeria's foreign ministry were also at the ceremony, having announced that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will visit Tuesday the two UN sites bombed in the Algerian capital on December 11.

The attacks, claimed by a local branch of Al-Qaeda, destroyed the offices of the UN High Commission for Refugees and the UN Development Programme, killing 17 employees, of whom 14 were Algerians and three foreign.

A moment of silence was similarly observed at a Paris donors' conference for a future Palestinian state, where Ban reiterated the UN's commitment to carrying out its mission. "The attacks of Algiers will never discourage us to accomplish the vital task which is ours throughout the world, regardless of the threats that weigh on our personnel," he said.

The official overall death toll was 37 but hospital sources report the blasts killed between 62 and 72 people, including students.

Top 2 Al-Qaida leader killed in Algeria

Algerian security forces killed the deputy leader of the Maghreb offshoot of Al-Qaeda in a clash in the east of the country, newspapers reported Wednesday. Zobeir Harkat, better known as Sofiane Fassila, was killed Sunday in fighting in the troubled Kabylie region, said the reports, which were not immediately confirmed by authorities.

Harkat, 32, was considered the main bomb-maker for Al-Qaeda in Maghreb, the former Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) which changed its name last year and pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

The media reports said he was believed to have been behind several suicide bomb attacks since April, including one while President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was visiting the eastern town of Batna early in September.

Newspapers said two other armed Islamists were killed in the clash with Harkat on a road from Boghni to Tizi Ouzou, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Algiers.

Hassan Hattab, the founder of the GSPC from which the extremist group emerged, surrendered to security forces on September 22 after a reported deal to benefit from Bouteflika's policy of national reconcilation. Hattab and Fassila were close for some time, the media said.

AFP

Anti-Syrian MP killed in Beirut car bomb

Antoine Ghanem, 64, a member of the Right-wing Christian Phalange Party, was killed along with eight other people in the attack in a Christian suburb of Beirut.

He was the eighth prominent anti-Syrian figure assassinated since 2005 and the attack came just six days before parliament was scheduled to meet to elect a new president in a deeply divisive vote.

"It is clear, lawmakers from the (anti-Syrian) majority are being liquidated," Ahmed Fatfat, a cabinet minister, said. He blamed the Syrian regime for the assassination, saying: "It is the only regime that does not want presidential elections in Lebanon to be held."

Parliament was due to meet on Tuesday to vote on a successor to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud but rival political leaders have failed to agree on a consensus candidate, raising fears of further turmoil. Ghanem's death reduced the anti-Syrian coalition's majority to 68 members out of the now 127-member house, with numbers set to play a key role in the vote.

“The attack aims at destabilising Lebanon on the eve of Presidential elections,” says EU Presidency, adding that this “should not weaken the Lebanese people’s resolve to take a firm stand against violence. Those responsible for committing this hideous terrorist act must be promptly brought to justice. The Presidency urges all Lebanese parties and all actors in the region to refrain from any activities that would further endanger the political stability of Lebanon.”

"Human bomb" tactic poses test for Algeria security

Reuters

A suicide bombing in Algeria that killed 19 people marked two worrying developments for the energy exporting country's bid to end attacks by armed groups seeking a purist Islamic state. The blast was the first time a suicide attacker in Algeria has detonated a bomb strapped to his body, rather than using a car bomb, Algerians say.

The attack was also the first apparently timed to coincide with a visit by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The bomber blew himself up in a crowd waiting to greet Bouteflika in the town of Batna 430 km (270 miles) southeast of the capital Algiers shortly before the president arrived. At the very least the timing of the blast suggests the town was selected for attack for maximum publicity. At worst, it may have been an assassination attempt, analysts say.

"I am not surprised by the attack. But what surprises me is that al Qaeda is using a human bomb for the first time (in Algeria)," said Liess Boukra, a top Algerian security expert. "This is a real concern. Facing human bomb attacks is not easy to counter."

Bouteflika was quick to blame the rebels, denouncing them as "criminals" trying to scuttle national reconciliation, a government policy aimed at ending 15 years of fighting between the army and Islamist groups trying to overthrow the state.

Under the policy Bouteflika had offered several amnesties under which thousands of rebels have surrendered, leading to a steady reduction in political violence in recent years. A recent high-profile surrender was of Benmessaoud Abdelkader, a former al Qaeda commander in the Saharan south who said others had also quit because they disagreed with a spate of suicide car bomb attacks earlier in 2007. He said the blasts, the first time Algerian rebels have used suicide car bombs as a military tactic, displeased many of the guerrillas because they had resulted in civilian deaths.

Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for triple suicide bombings in Algiers on April 11 that killed 33 people, and for a July 11 suicide truck blast east of Algiers that killed eight soldiers. But despite the reports of rebel disagreements on the wisdom of suicide attacks, a hard core of several hundred rebels continues to fight, most notably in mountains east of Algiers. Analysts said the rebels remained a lingering threat.

"Bouteflika was targeted since he is the symbol of national reconciliation, a policy that succeeded in significantly weakening the armed groups, particularly al Qaeda," editor of Eshorouk daily and security analyst Anis Rahmani said. "I am predicting more big attacks. Al Qaeda will do whatever possible to punish the Algerian people, who continue to support Bouteflika's amnesty offer to end the conflict," Rahmani said.

Terrorists implement new strategy

Terrorist groups resorted to a new strategy by assembling terrorists in Algeria to carry out an attack in a place somewhere, then to go another place to lead another attack, according to an Algerian security official in The People's National Army.

The terrorists chose this strategy to make as if they are numerous, said the same sources. “Terrorist group turned to media war after they had lost in the battlefield. That’s why; they are always seeking to carry out attacks to have media echo beyond Algeria”, said the official.

echoroukonline

Algeria: most criminal networks are linked to terrorismon

Organised crime increased by 5 percent per year in Algeria, according to statistics provided by the National Gendarmerie command. International networks work nowadays in organised crimes and crimes relating to terrorism using armed violence, said a report issued by the National Gendarmerie.

Most of these networks work in south of Algeria and borders, says the same report. According to investigations led by the National Gendarmerie, criminal networks are linked to terrorist groups. They supply terrorists through drugs, tobacco and weapons smuggling.

The death toll from Islamist rebel attacks and raids by government forces in Algeria rose to 25 in June from 17 in May, according to a Reuters count based on newspaper reports. The June estimate, 19 rebels and six soldiers, brings to 207 the number of people killed in the first half of 2007.

Algeria is emerging from more than a decade of conflict that began when the military-backed government scrapped 1992 legislative elections a radical Islamic party was poised to win. Authorities had feared an Iranian style revolution. Up to 200,000 people have been killed during the ensuing violence.

The bloodshed has subsided sharply in recent years from a 1990s peak, and last year the government freed more than 2,000 former Islamist guerrillas under an amnesty designed to put an end to the conflict.

But guerrilla attacks by regrouped Islamist militants persist and on April 11 they carried out their most spectacular attack in recent years by bombing the government headquarters in Algiers and two police buildings, killing 33 people.