Thats not Al-Qaida. It was Kurdish Hezbollah which did Istanbul bombings. Oh, wikipedia intelligence...
Look, Iranian speaking...
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Lebanese troops battle north Lebanon militants for third day | News , Lebanon News | THE DAILY STAR
TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Lebanese troops battled Islamist militants behind attacks in Tripoli and the northern district of Minyeh for a third day Sunday with the death toll rising to 27.
The Lebanese Army vowed to press on with its offensive until all the militants are crushed, a security source told The Daily Star, adding that the military was operating according to clear-cut dictums.
"The Army has three 'Nos'," the source said. "No to a ceasefire, no to safe corridors and no to self-proclaimed security zones."
According to the source, the spirits of troops were high and the Army had the upper hand in the running battles.
Four soldiers were killed and six others wounded when militants ambushed two Army vehicles in Jisr al-Mhammra in Minyeh as the military continued to fight pockets of militants in the district, north of Tripoli.
Lebanese Army helicopter gunships blasted militant hideouts in north Lebanon Sunday after fighting between the military and jihadists in the city’s old souks intensified sharply overnight.
Army patrol units launched blistering attacks on militant hideouts inside Bab al-Tabbaneh, the first time troops penetrate deep inside the heavily armed neighborhood.
Militants and soldiers clashed in Bab al-Tabbaneh with machine guns and grenades, causing heavy damages of several apartment units being used by militants to attack the Army.
Also, 12 civilians were wounded when a mortar was fired near Bab al-Tabbaneh's Harba Mosque. Ambulances that rushed to the scene couldn’t reach the area because of heavy gunfire that erupted after the crash.
Security sources said a short truce was being examined in a bid to evacuate the wounded.
Residents of poverty-stricken Bab al-Tabbaneh reacted to the violence with grief.
"Bab al-Tabbaneh residents, who already live in dire conditions, pay the price every single time," shop-owner Ahmad Zoabi told The Daily Star.
"If the state looked after us and provided job opportunities to the youth, none of this would have happened," he said.
Another resident began to cry as he spoke of the conditions in the neighborhood.
"No one feels our suffering. No one stands by us," Wadih Hoda said as he wiped away tears. "I hope that the Lebanese Army will help Tabbaneh's children live a better life."
The National News Agency reported that a number of families have been fleeing Tripoli to the nearby Dinnieh area since Saturday, as the clashes escalate and the civilians casualties increases. The NNA said most of those families are originally from Dinnieh villages, but reside and work in Tripoli.
“The era of firing and assaulting the Army and then hiding inside Bab al-Tabbaneh is over,” a security source said, adding that troops were responding to attacks on their patrols with exceptionally heavy fire.
Three rigged cars and a weapons cache packed with weapons ammunition and military gear, in addition to 50 explosive devices set for detonation, were seized by the Army during early morning raids Sunday in the northern district of Minyeh, an Army statement said.
In an unprecedented move for the military in Tripoli, an Army helicopter targeted the Vegetable Market, where militants are holed up, with two rockets at 5:15 a.m. Sunday, security sources told The Daily Star.
An Army statement Sunday said troops pursued operations against terrorist groups in Tripoli and carried out a vast deployment in the neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh and its surrounding.
The Army also blocked the main highway linking Tripoli to the province of Akkar because of sniper fire in the area.
The Army heavily deployed within Tripoli’s labyrinth-like old souks and in the Western Saqiarea, which runs parallel to Bab al-Tabbaneh, and is considered as the souks only existing corridor towards the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the sources said.
The sources explained that the deployment of the Army in the Saqi was a preemptive step to prevent the militants from fleeing towards the sea.
A military vessel equipped with a rocket launch pad was stationed off the city's coast.
Fighting intensified after Tripoli militant leader Shadi al-Mawlawi refused to hand over to authorities soldier Tannous Nehme, who militants had snatched Saturday evening, the source said. Tannous was kidnapped from a taxi that was passing through embattled Bab al-Tabbaneh.
The sources added that Mawlawi received clear instructions from Nusra Front commander Abu Malek al-Talleh not to release the abducted soldier.
Militants affiliated with Mawlawi kidnapped a second soldier since fighting erupted in Tripoli two days ago, the Army said in a statement Sunday.
Fayez al-Amouri, a first adjutant from the Army’s border regiment, was kidnapped from his home in Bab al-Tabbaneh. According to security sources, Mawlawi has placed the halting of the Army's operation in Tripoli as a pre-requisite to the release of Amouri .
The fighting in Tripoli and the north has killed six civilians, 10 soldiers and 11 militants. At least another 48 people were wounded, including 26 civilians and 22 soldiers, in fighting so far, security sources said.
The security sources said that the Army command has made a decision to launch a “full-fledged and conclusive” operation against the militants, thus resorting to aerial attacks for the first time in the city.
Tripoli MPs and local officials called for an immediate ceasefire to the fighting in north Lebanon.
“We call for an immediate ceasefire in order to allow the evacuation of the wounded and the entry of humanitarian aid,” MP Mohammad Kabbara said on behalf of the handful of political and religious figures who met at his residence in Tripoli Sunday to discuss the crisis.
Education Minister Elias Bou Saab later announced that all public and private schools in Tripoli and Minyeh will be closed on Monday due to the deteriorating security situation.
The clashes in Tripoli, widely seen as a spillover of the crisis in neighboring Syria, were the worst in the mainly Sunni city for several months.
Meanwhile, the Nusra Front has delayed a deadline for the Lebanese Army to end its offensive against militants in Tripoli before killing one of the Lebanese soldiers it has been holding captive since August following clashes in the northeastern town of Arsal.
Lebanese troops battle north Lebanon militants for third day | News , Lebanon News | THE DAILY STAR
must everything on this forum devolve into stuff like this ? jeez, man.. try and have a conversion with someone with an opposing view and I got a "you defend killing children".. probe further and you have a "you're indian" as a response
