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A pair of suicide bombers rammed their explosives—laden cars into military targets in Egypt’s volatile Sinai on Wednesday, killing at least six soldiers and wounding 17 people, security officials and a military spokesman said.
One of the two bombings in the town of Rafah brought down a two—story building housing the local branch of military intelligence, while the other struck an army checkpoint.
The near—simultaneous attacks nudged the violence in the strategic Sinai Peninsula closer to a full—blown insurgency, compounding Egypt’s woes at a time when the country is struggling to regain political stability and economic viability more than two years since longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a popular uprising.
The attacks also came less than a week after a suicide car bombing targeted the convoy of Egypt’s interior minister, who is in charge of the police, shortly after he left his home in an eastern Cairo district. Mohammed Ibrahim, the minister, escaped unharmed, but the blast caused extensive damage in the area. An al—Qaida—inspired group based in Sinai claimed responsibility for that bombing.
Wednesday’s attack on the intelligence building in Rafah collapsed the entire structure and buried an unspecified number of troops under the rubble, two security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The second attack targeted an armored personnel carrier deployed as part of an army checkpoint not far from the intelligence headquarters, the officials added. The officials said the remains of the two suicide bombers have been recovered.
Chief military spokesman, Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali, said the attacks killed six soldiers and wounded 17 people 10 soldiers and seven civilians, including three women. The security officials said the blast at the intelligence building also badly damaged five houses nearby.
Egypt’s official MENA news agency later reported that following the attacks, authorities ordered the closure of the Rafah border crossing, which links Egypt to the Gaza Strip.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday’s attack.
Militants in Sinai, some with links to al—Qaida, have been targeting for months Egyptian forces in the strategic peninsula bordering Gaza and Israel. Their attacks have become much more frequent and deadlier since the ouster this summer of Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s Islamist president. After Mubarak’s ouster, Morsi became the country’s first democratically elected president in 2012 but he was deposed in July by the military after days of massive street protests against him.
Earlier this week, the Egyptian military launched a major offensive against the militants in the northern region of Sinai.
Officials have described the offensive, which started on Saturday, as the biggest sweep of the area in recent years, aiming to weed out al—Qaida—inspired groups that have taken control of villages in northern Sinai.
Five days of military operations so far have left 29 Islamic militants dead and the military has boasted of capturing weapons caches, missile launchers, and dozens of vehicles and fuel storage sites. Some 30 militants were arrested during raids mostly low—level operatives.
One officer and two soldiers have also been killed in the operation since Saturday.
On Monday, Egypt’s state news agency MENA cited unnamed senior security officials as saying at least six militant groups with an estimated 5,000 members operate in Sinai. The militants use mountains in north and central Sinai as hideouts, where the rugged terrain is difficult to search.
But the repeated security operations have increased tension with local residents, who accuse authorities of randomly targeting homes and arresting innocent people.


Syria .....

Syria's Assad marks birthday as strike threat recedes
Bashar Al-Assad had surprisingly risen to power in 2000 following the death of ex-president Hafez Al-Assad, his father
AFP , Wednesday 11 Sep 2013
Al-Assad
Syrian President Bashar Assad listens during an interview with PBS host Charlie Rose, not pictured, at the presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2013 (Photo: AP)
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    • Syria's President Bashar al-Assad marks his 48th birthday on Wednesday with the threat of US-led strikes against his regime in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack apparently receding.
    A Syrian pro-regime site called on residents of the capital Damascus to demonstrate their support for Assad by joining a convoy of cars in the Mazzeh district to honour him.
    Assad, a British-trained ophthalmologist who has three children, succeeded his father Hafez, who died in 2000.
    He came to the position of heir unexpectedly, after his brother Bassel was killed in a car accident.
    Once considered a potential reformer, who discussed the need for political and economic openness after he took office, Assad has responded with an iron fist to an uprising that began in March 2011.
    More than 110,000 people have been killed in the violence that erupted after his forces cracked down on demonstrators calling for his ouster, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
    He marks his birthday as the threat of imminent US-led strikes against his regime appears to have waned.
    The strikes, which were intended to punish the regime for allegedly using chemical weapons on August 21, appear to be on hold as a Russian proposal that Syria hand over its chemical weapons is discussed.
    Inside Syria, Assad is believed to have a firm grip on his regime, more than two years after the uprising began.
    "He is even more the 'boss' than before, even if he can't act without the support of the military and security apparatus," according Nikolaos van Dam, a Dutch diplomat and author of a book on Syria.
    "He listens to his advisors, but he takes the decision by himself," adds an expert based in Beirut.
    Assad's confidantes include his brother Maher al-Assad, a colonel who heads the division in charge of Damascus, as well as his wife Asma.
    His inner circle also includes his uncle and cousin Mohammed and Rami Makhlouf, two businessmen, and Hafez Makhlouf, his security chief in Damascus.
    Most of his inner circle, like Assad, hails from the Alawite minority, although his wife Asma is a Sunni Muslim.
    But he also counts Druze among his closest advisors, including minister of presidential affairs Mansour Azzam and Louna al-Shibi, a former journalist.
    Others close to him include Alawite Hussam Sukkar, a general and his presidential security advisor, and two senior Sunni intelligence officials -- General Ali Mamluk, who heads national security, and General Rustom Ghazaleh, head of political security.