UN blacklists terrorist al-Nusra front, Turkey seizes sarin with militants & foreigners fighting in Syria

UN Blacklists Terrorist al-Nusra Front Active in Syria

Al Manar

The UN Security Council blacklisted the terrorist al-Nusra Front on Thursday as an alias of al-Qaeda movement in Iraq.

The US mission to the United Nations told media outlets that none of the 15 council members objected to blacklist al-Nusra.

The UN decision will subject the group to sanctions including an arms embargo, travel ban and assets freeze, diplomats said.

Last month, al-Nusra pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri. It is one of the most effective forces fighting the Syrian government taking advantage of internationally banned chemical weapons.

The group claimed responsibility for the fatal bombings targeting civilians and government institutions across Syria, and its militant mercenaries have joined other Syrian insurgent brigades.

Syria had urged the UN Security Council in late April to list the radical group al-Nusra Front as a terrorist one, but Britain and France countered with a proposal to list it as an alias of al-Qaeda instead.

Videos of executions and torture arried out by al-Nusra militiamen have become increasingly common in online media.

Syria was hit by a violent unrest since mid-March 2011, where the Syrian government accuses foreign actors of orchestrating the conflict, by supporting the militant opposition groups with arms and money.

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Two Bahraini Soldiers Fighting for Al-Nusra Front Killed in Syria

Al Manar

Following the uproar caused by the death of the Bahraini Abdol Rahman Adel Hasan Hamad (19 years old) who was fighting for Al-Nusra Front in Syria, social networks have circulated news about the death of Bahrainis killed in Syria as they were fighting for Al-Nusra front.

Abdol Aziz al-Othman, 17 years, and Abdol Rahman al-Othman, 21 years, from Bahraini town of Aarad, were killed in last October in Syria during the army clashes with the militant groups.

Social networks circulated the news and clarified that the two killed belong to the Bahraini Defense forces.

A photo posted on social networks showed Abdol Aziz al-Othman wearing the Bahraini Defense forces uniform standing by gunmen in Syria.

As was the case when Bahraini former deputies met the opposition militants in Syria, the Bahraini regime still refuses to comment on the news, although Al-Nusra Front has been blacklisted Thursday by the United Nations as a terrorist group.

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Turkey seizes sarin in homes of anti-Syria militants, reports say

Press TV

Turkish security forces have confiscated two kilograms of the nerve agent sarin after raiding the homes of militants from the terrorist al-Nusra Front fighting against Syria, Turkey’s media report.

Several Turkish newspapers reported on Thursday that two kilograms of sarin gas as well as heavy weapons were discovered during raids on the homes of 12 members of the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front in Turkey’s southern city of Adana, located some 150 kilometers (93 miles) from the border with Syria.

The terrorists, who were allegedly planning a large attack in the city, were formally detained on the order of Adana’s top court, Turkish media reported without clarifying their charges.

Turkish authorities have not confirmed the media reports yet.

Adana’s governor Huseyin Avni Cos has denied the confiscation of sarin.

The incident took place weeks after two car bomb attacks killed 52 people and injured over a hundred others in the border town of Reyhanli in Turkey’s southern province of Hatay on May 11. Turkish protesters blamed Ankara for the attacks due to its support for the armed groups inside Syria.

On May 5, the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria also said it found testimony from victims and medical staff that showed foreign-backed militants had used the nerve agent in Syria. Sarin has been classified as a weapon of mass destruction in UN Resolution 687.

On March 19, over two dozen people were killed and many others injured when militants fired missiles containing a chemical substance into a village near the northwestern city of Aleppo, according to a report by Syria’s official news agency SANA.

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UK Foreign Office confirms Briton killed in Syria

Press TV

The UK Foreign Office has confirmed that a Briton fighting alongside foreign-backed militants was killed in Idlib, Syria.

The 23-year-old man, named as Ali Almanasfi, was among three Westerners who were ambushed by Syrian government forces in their car while traveling through the northwestern province on Thursday.

Syrian state-run television reported that a 33-year-old American woman, identified as Nicole Lynn Mansfield, and the two others were members of al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front.

The TV footage showed a black car covert in bullet holes and three bodies laid out with multiple gunshot wounds. It also showed a cache of weapons, a computer, a hand-drawn map of a government installation, and a flag belonging to the terrorist group.

“We understand that a British National has been killed in Syria. Their family have been informed and we are providing consular assistance,” said a Foreign Office spokesperson.

Britain has played a major role in fanning the flames of unrest in the Arab country by arming and training militants fighting against the Syrian government.