[An Nahar] Five straight days of festivities in Cairo between protestors hostile to Egypt's military rulers and security forces have left 17 people dead, the health ministry said Thursday.
The toll rose Thursday after two people died from their injuries, health ministry official Hisham Shiha told state television. ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
Shiha said the 46 people were still being treated in ministry hospitals and an undetermined additional number in military facilities.
The festivities broke out on December 16 between security forces and demonstrators camped since late November in Cairo's administrative heart.
The activists were protesting against the nomination to prime minister of Kamal al-Ganzouri, who previously held the post under the Hosni Mubarak's ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... toppled regime.
Activists have called for a mass rally on Friday, dubbed the "Friday of Restoring Honor," to demand the military hold accountable soldiers responsible for abuses committed during the festivities, which have sparked international outcry.
Voters went to the polls again on Thursday in run-offs for the second stage of staggered parliamentary elections, a landmark vote that has been overshadowed by the protest deaths.
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12/23/2011 00:06 ||
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[An Nahar] The United Arab Emirates said Thursday it is revoking the citizenship of six naturalized citizens because the government says they pose a threat to national security.
The unexpected order was issued by President Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan earlier this month, according to the announcement by state news agency WAM. The men were granted Emirati citizenship between 1976 and 1986.
The news agency quoted an unnamed source at the General Administration for Naturalization, Residency and Ports Affairs who said the six had acted to threaten "the national security of the UAE through their connection with suspicious regional and international organizations and personalities."
Some of the men were associated with groups that have been linked with terrorist financing, the state news agency quoted the official as saying.
It didn't provide details or say where the men originally came from.
A person familiar with the case told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that four of the men were of Iranian origin and two came from Yemen. He said the men's Emirati citizenship status was revoked "once it became clear that the rules under which they were granted (citizenship) were being violated."
The seven-state UAE federation is a close ally of the United States. It has not seen the widespread anti-government protests that have rocked much of the Arab world this year, though officials have taken steps to tamp down indications of dissent.
Five political activists, including a prominent blogger and an economics professor, were convicted late last month on anti-state charges that included insulting the UAE's top leadership, endangering national security and inciting people to protest. They were pardoned by the federation's president a day after their sentences of two to three years in jail were handed down.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2011 00:10 ||
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#1
And people say we can't learn anything from Arabs.
For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas, click here.
Four armed suspects were killed Thursday in Tamaulipas state in a firefight Tuesday with a unit of the Mexican Army, according to Mexican news accounts. Pro'ly not a good idea to take on the regular Mexican army...
The unit, part of the Mexican 4th Military Region came under small arms fire while on patrol in Valle Hermoso, Tamaulipas. Army counterfire killed four armed suspects. A total of 18 individuals, including three women surrendered to the army unit.
In the aftermath, 47 rifles, 297 weapons magazines, 7,107 rounds of ammunition, tactical and communications gear and a vehicle were seized.
Another Mexican Army unit encountered armed suspects in the same municipality last December 10th, which is also Human Rights Day, killing 11 armed suspects and arresting two. To read the Rantburg report on the Human Rights Day encounter at Valle Hermoso, click here
[Dawn] A clash between the activists of Islami Jamaat Tulaba ...the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami... and Imamia Students Organisation on Thursday over holding a Yaum-i-Imam Hussain event on the Punjab University's New Campus left several of them injured and some vehicles damaged.
Around 200 students belonging to both organizations pelted each other with stones and bricks, besides resorting to gun sex at the varsity's parking lot adjacent to Faisal Auditorium. Girl students, who were sitting in the lawns of Institute of Education and Research and preparing for their examinations, got traumatised and took refuge inside the institute building when the violence erupted at around 11am.
The armed clash continued for almost two hours, while police played silent spectator.
The coppers deployed on the campus, meanwhile, bravely ran away when they saw a group of students heading towards them. A large battalion of varsity's security guards was also not seen on the spot.
The Rescue 1122 personnel later shifted the injured students to Jinnah and Sheikh Zayed hospitals, while a journalist, Abdul Shakoor and over a dozen injured students were given first aid on the spot.
The girl students, who witnessed the whole incident from first floor of the IER building, told Dawn the IER and Faisal Auditorium lawns, parking lot and the road leading towards the main gate had turned into a battlefield.
"Bricks and stones were flying like birds," a student, Muniba Ijaz, said. Another student said their examination had also been postponed in the wake of the clash.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Four persons, including a girl child, were maimed in a remote controlled kaboom at the private clinic of a lady doctor in Hangu city on Thursday.
The main gate, waiting rooms and boundary wall of the clinic were badly damaged in the kaboom. The lady doctor remained unhurt in the blast, however, her assistant received injuries.
Police said that the remote controlled device had been planted at the gate of the clinic and it went kaboom! when several patients were waiting for their turn for medical checkup. The clinic is situated in Bahadar Garhi area of Hangu city.
The injured child, Sayam, who had come to the clinic for treatment, was at death's door, doctors said. The other people, who suffered injuries from the splinters of the gate, were identified as paramedic Khayal Mohammad, Abdul Lateef and Naeem Shah. "All the three injured are in their teens," sources said. They were being treated at the district headquarters hospital by the surgeons of Medics Sans Frontiers, which had its own operation theatre and emergency room inside the building.
The bomb disposal squad said that the device could be approximately two kilograms heavy because its blast was very huge and jolted the surrounding houses and buildings.
Security in the region was beefed up to avoid any untoward incident owing to the daylong visit of Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... to Kohat and Orakzai Agency ... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers... on Thursday.
In Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, a kaboom destroyed a portion of a house owned by a primitive at Saadat Town in Rasheed Garhi area on Thursday morning, police said.
According to police the bomb was planted beside the house of Saadat Khan Mohmand, who has shifted from Mohmanad Agency and dealing in property business.
An official of Yakatoot cop shoppe said that the complainant avoided to nominate anyone in the case and said that he had not enmity with anyone. Quoting the complainant, police said that his family had got no threats and he was unable to blame anyone for the blast.
An official of the bomb disposal unit said that about 800 grams explosives, packed in a canister, were used in the blast.
He said it was a time bomb but it seemed that the device went kaboom! before its time and people remained unhurt.
About the Wednesday`s blast in Nasir Mohmand Surgical Hospital in Gulbahar, the official said that experts found no proof about use of explosives in it. It was surely a gas kaboom, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2011 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The victims of central Baghdad's Karrada explosion early on Thursday has reached 13 civilians killed and 36 others injured, according to an Iraqi police report.
"The Number of victims of a booby-trapped car explosion close to the Christian Nuns Hospital in central Baghdad's Karrada district early on Thursday, has reached 13 civilians killed and 36 others injured," a Baghdad Police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/23/2011 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: ;At least 3 civilians have been killed and 9 others injured in a booby-trapped car explosion on Thursday in east Baghdad's al-Shaab district, a security source reported.
"A booby-trapped car, left by unknown gunmen on the main highway in Aden district of east Baghdad's al-Shaab area, blew off on Thursday, killing 3 civilians and wounding 9 others," the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/23/2011 00:00 ||
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CAIRO: Hamas has agreed to join the Palestine Liberation Organization a key step toward unifying the long-divided Palestinian leadership. Hamas' leader Khaled Meshaal on Thursday joined a committee that will prepare for elections to the PLO leadership.
Those elections are likely years away but Meshaal's move means he will work with the ineffectual Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, head of the rival Fatah party.
Thursday's development is an important step toward reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah which have been split since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.
Separate elections in the West Bank and Gaza for a unified Parliament are tentatively set for next year.
Islamic Jihad is also hoping to join the PLO and the group's leader, Ramadan Shallah, will attend the Cairo talks along with all the other faction heads, members of the PLO Executive Committee and the speaker of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), Selim Zaanoun.
Fatah delegation chief Azzam Al-Ahmed said the meeting would look at the possibility of setting up a new PLO leadership body which would be "the first concrete application of the Cairo agreement, of the reconciliation and of the partnership between all the political forces."
The new body "will focus on the restructuring of the PLO leadership and of the PNC," he said.
I'm looking forward to having Meshaal put himself somewhere where Mossad can grab him...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/23/2011 00:00 ||
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An assistant village leader was killed in an ambush in Narathiwat province on Friday morning. Witnesses told police that Suema-nga Yusoh, 47, assistance village chief in Rangae district was driving home in his car when terrorists gunmen hiding in the rubber forest along the road sprayed bullets from AK47 and M16 assault rifles at him. The victim was hit several times and died at the spot.
Police have arrested five terrorists men suspected of being involved in an attack on a Yala police station on Wednesday night. The five terrorists, wanted under the emergency decree, were rounded up in a pre-dawn raid yesterday. The terrorists suspects were named as Muhammat Waekachi, 19, Chummanan Singthong, 19, Abdunmuttolo Masae, 21, Saiwan Sengso, 22, and Ahamat Samo, 26.
During the attack on Wednesday a grenade was fired into the police compound, damaging one building. No one was hurt in the attack.
Meanwhile, Karin Ma, a 54-year-old villager, died from his injuries yesterday after he and three other villagers were hit by stray bullets during an terrorist insurgent attack on a military checkpoint, also on Wednesday. No soldiers were hurt in the incident. Muammatnu Ma, 17, was also seriously injured and is being treated at the hospital. The two other villagers wounded, Maesong Matimo and Mae Hakuechi, are in a stable condition.
As many as 23 villagers and police were injured in a spate of evening terrorist shooting, grenade and bomb attacks in Yala and Pattani provinces on Wednesday. Pol Lt Gen Paithoon Chuchaiya, chief of the Police Operation Center for the Southern Border Provinces, said yesterday he had called a meeting with Yala and Pattani police to look into the attacks.
Pol Lt Gen Paithoon noted that terrorists insurgents are intensifying their operations during the Christmas and New Year celebrations. He said he has deployed more police to provide added security for people in the southernmost border provinces during this period.
Lebanon warned Damascus two days ago that al-Qaeda had infiltrated into Syria from its territory, Syria's Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday, after two explosions rocked Syria's capital killing at least 40 people.
Spokesman Jihad Makdesi said, "The Lebanese authorities warned us two days ago that al-Qaida group infiltrated to Syria from (north Lebanon's town of) Ersal. And today's suicide bombers caused the death of around 40 and more than 150 injuries, all are civilians and military personnel. Freedom seekers should know that this is not the way to achieve democracy."
Two booby-trapped cars blew up at Syrian security sites in Damascus on Friday, killing several civilians and soldiers,state television said. Witnesses reported hearing large blasts rock the capital. Finally, it becomes serious.
#5
Hey maybe this gets Erdogan the excuse he's looking for to re-establish Turkish hegemony, errr... I meant "aid the people of Syria against civil disorder and terrorism"
#7
Hey maybe this gets Erdogan the excuse he's looking for to re-establish Turkish hegemony, errr... I meant "aid the people of Syria against civil disorder and terrorism"
This is a great idea, given how the Turks have traditionally mellowed out after winning large chunks of territory in battle.
#8
Given they have a need to suppress and dominate after conquering, no surprise that some do prefer the "Turkish option" for ripping Syria apart. And by doing this, Lebanon changes massively - logistics nightmare for the terrs there. Jordan all of a sudden becomes a key power regarding the Bekkah valley, and Israel in the Golan - not to mention Iraq looking at some of Syria's far eastern and northeastern border area (via the Kurds) to help "provide security" and maybe even reclaim stolen weapons sent there during the last days of the Hussein regime.
It will be very interesting to watch what they find in those dug-in bunkers and underground storage facilities.
The terrorists in Lebanon are going to get awfully hungry and low on supplies without the Syrian routes to Iran open.
It certainly will be interesting to watch the Alewites and Baathist run for their lives (and wonder how much loot they can take with them).
#9
If they are smart, they have closed out all of the foreign bank accounts and transferred those funds to gold, platinoids, and bearer bonds now. The 'secret' bank account route for dictators is no longer secure like it used to be, while the metals and the bearer bonds can be transported in secure aircraft to just about anywhere in the world.
#10
Hey maybe this gets Erdogan the excuse he's looking for to re-establish Turkish hegemony, errr... I meant "aid the people of Syria against civil disorder and terrorism"
Dunno what Tehran might do about that. It could get interesting.
#11
Not sure that the Turks really want Syria; they just want their southern border to be quiet and for Syria not to be a source of trouble, particularly the Syrian Kurds.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/23/2011 12:29 Comments ||
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#12
Not sure that the Turks really want Syria
Well, Erdogan needs to conquer something after all the noise he's been making lately.
[An Nahar] More than 2,000 members of Syria's security forces have been killed in nine months since anti-regime protests broke out, state news agency SANA said on Thursday.
"In response to a fallacious U.N. report on the situation in Syria, we have informed the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that the number of deaders has surpassed 2,000 members of the security forces and the army," according to a letter SANA says was sent.
The United Nations ...an organization whose definition of human rights is interesting, to say the least... has said that more than 5,000 people have been killed in the same period.
At the same time, Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... denounced "politically motivated, false reports of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and the international commission established by the Human Rights Council," SANA said.
On December 2, the rights council urged tougher international action against Syria, condemning "gross violations" of human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. following evidence security forces killed and tortured dissidents.
Syria insists that there are "hundreds of beturbanned goons who have publically admitted killing protesters, committed robberies and liquidations and disseminated fabricated information in exchange for money provided from neighboring countries."
It accused the commission of being "in step with the plans of certain countries who want to destroy Syria and impose a military intervention ... while serious crimes are committed by terrorist groups."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2011 00:08 ||
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#1
Does it include deserters executed by the loyal forces?
[An Nahar] An Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... advance team arrived in Syria on Thursday to launch a hard-won observer mission to oversee a plan to end nine months of bloodshed after the opposition accused regime forces of "massacring" hundreds in two days.
Meanwhile, ...back at the fist fight, Jake ducked another roundhouse, then parried with his left, then with his right, finally with his chin... there was no let-up in the killing, with human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... activists reporting at least 21 more people killed and festivities between defectors and regular troops in flashpoints Homs and Idlib.
The Arab League team "arrived in the afternoon and then left to attend a meeting," a hotel front man said.
It is part of an Arab plan endorsed by Syria on November 2, which also calls for the withdrawal of the military from towns and residential districts, a halt to the violence and the release of detainees.
Opposition leaders have charged that Syria's agreement to the mission on Monday was a mere "ploy" to head off a threat by the vaporous Arab League to go the U.N. Security Council.
The opposition Syrian National Council charged on Wednesday that regime forces had killed 250 people in 48 hours in the run-up to the advance team's arrival.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights released a grisly video to back its claim that security forces committed a massacre on Tuesday in the town of Kafer Awid in northwestern province of Idlib.
The video zooms in on the faces of at least 49 men, some of them completely disfigured, before panning out to what appear to be rows of additional corpses.
In Berlin, the foreign ministry said it had summoned Syria's ambassador to demand an immediate halt to the "brutal" repression of anti-regime demonstrators.
"The brutal acts by the security forces against the Syrian population are absolutely unacceptable and a flagrant violation of Syria's agreement with the Arab League," said Boris Ruge, the ministry's head of Middle East affairs.
"Given the crimes that have come out into the open, everyone should be asking himself if he can morally serve such a regime," he said in a statement.
On Thursday, nine people died in the central city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding the number could rise given the "high number of maimedat death's door."
In Idlib, security force gunfire killed four civilians, the Observatory said, with festivities underway between security forces and defectors in the town of Kharbet-Ghazale.
An attack carried out by defectors in retaliation for the previous day's killing of eight civilians, including a 10-year-old child, left one soldier and eight others maimed in the same province.
Further south in Daraa, cradle of the uprising, "a civilian was killed in the town of Tafas during raids by security forces searching for activists."
Elsewhere, four soldiers and two defectors were killed in festivities in a checkpoint in Baba Amro.
Pro-democracy activists called on Facebook for nationwide protests on Friday against the observer mission, with the slogan "Protocol of death, a license to kill."
The advance team consists of a dozen security, legal and administrative staff from the Arab League's secretariat, who will make the logistical preparations for the arrival on Sunday of an initial 30 observers.
"Their mission is to consult with Syrian officials to prepare for the delegation's visit," Arab League secretary general Nabil al-Arabi said.
The mission's leader, veteran Sudanese military intelligence officer General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, said its numbers would swell to a total of between 150 and 200 in the following days.
According to their marching orders, they will number an "amount reasonable to accomplish the mission" and will include "Arab civilian and military experts chosen by Arab countries or organizations."
Their task will be to monitor the "cessation of violence on all sides, and to ensure the release of detainees placed in durance vile in connection with the current crisis," according to the text of the protocol.
Observers "should be free to communicate with anyone, in coordination with the Syrian government."
Foreign ministry front man Jihad Makdisi said it was "honest and important" that the text of the protocol referred to violence on all sides as well as gangs, "because it takes into account armed gangs."
Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has said he expects the observers to vindicate Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... 's claims that the unrest has been caused by "armed terrorist groups," not peaceful protesters as maintained by Western governments and human rights watchdogs.
Muallem has said the observers will be able to access so-called "hot zones" but not sensitive military sites. Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... called on Damascus to grant full access.
Syrian opposition groups have criticized the observer mission.
"We call on the Arab League to refer the matter of the crisis in Syria to the UN Security Council," said Omar Edelbi, front man for the Local Coordination Committees, which have been driving the protests on the ground.
He called the observer mission "another attempt by the regime to bypass the Arab initiative and empty it of its contents."
The United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... estimates that more than 5,000 people have been killed in the regime's crackdown since mid-March.
In New York, La Belle France said "significant progress" had been made at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Syria.
"We are waiting for Russia to do all it can for negotiations to proceed rapidly" on a resolution it proposed condemning the violence in Syria.
For its part, state news agency SANA said Thursday more than 2,000 members of the security forces had been killed since anti-government protests erupted in March.
"In response to a fallacious (U.N.) report on the situation in Syria, we have informed the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that the number of deaders has surpassed 2,000 members of the security forces and the army," according to a letter SANA says was sent.
At the same time, Damascus denounced "politically motivated, false reports of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and the international commission established by the Human Rights Council," SANA said.
On December 2, the rights council urged tougher international action against Syria, condemning "gross violations" of human rights following evidence security forces killed and tortured dissidents.
Syria insists that there are "hundreds of cut-throats who have publicly admitted killing protesters, committed robberies and liquidations and disseminated fabricated information in exchange for money provided from neighboring countries."
It accused the commission of being "in step with the plans of certain countries who want to destroy Syria and impose a military intervention ... while serious crimes are committed by terrorist groups."
[An Nahar] The Lebanese Army Intelligence Thursday tossed in the calaboose a man (M. D.) on suspicion of launching the latest rockets from the South.
According to Al-Manar television "this arrest was made on the international road in Shtoura after the suspect was being followed by the army."
The suspect was transferred to the Department of Defense in the car he was driving.
On December 12, a woman was injured overnight in southern Leb when a rocket apparently fired towards Israel landed instead in a Lebanese border village.
The Katyusha rocket, fired from Leb's Bent Jbeil region, landed in the village of Hula, near the border with Israel.
On November 29, a series of rockets were fired from the border area into Israel, prompting a retaliatory strike by the Jewish state. No one was injured.
A Lebanese website initially said an obscure Al-Qaeda-linked group calling itself the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam grabbed credit for the November attack in an email message.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
They're taking him to a course (like driver improvement) on rocket launching?
WASHINGTON The United States on Thursday offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of a key Al Qaeda fundraiser, who is said to be a Syrian operating from Iran. The reward for Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil marks the first time that a terrorist financier has been targeted in such a way, said Robert Hartung, assistant director for threat investigations with the State Department.
According to US officials, the man also known as Yacine Al Suri was born in Syria in 1982. He was put on a US Treasury Department blacklist in July when he was described as a high-level Al Qaeda figure operating out of Iran. His role, according to US officials, was to transfer funds and to recruit militants from the Middle East who transited via Iran to Al Qaeda in Pakistan.
The $10 million was posted as part of the program Rewards for Justice, set up in the 1980s, with the aim of hunting down suspects wanted for terror acts against the United States.
The current head of Al Qaeda, Ayman Al Zawahiri, has the highest bounty on his head of $25 million.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/23/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Ten million IS a pretty high amount for the RfJ program... Hmm.. something doesn't feel right about this...
Posted by: American Delight ||
12/23/2011 21:24 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Punjab
The injured child, Sayam, who had come to the clinic for treatment, was 
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: ;At least 3 civilians have been killed and 9 others injured in a booby-trapped car explosion on Thursday in east Baghdad's al-Shaab district, a security source reported.
CAIRO: Hamas has agreed to join the Palestine Liberation Organization a key step toward unifying the long-divided Palestinian leadership. Hamas' leader 
WASHINGTON The United States on Thursday offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of a key Al Qaeda fundraiser, who is said to be a Syrian operating from Iran. The reward for 
