Russian submarine fires cruise missiles at jihadi targets in Syria

A still image taken from a video footage and released by Russia's Defence Ministry on September 22, 2017, shows a missile hitting a building which Defence Ministry said was an Islamic State target in Syria. Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS TV

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian submarine fired cruise missiles at jihadi targets in Syria’s Idlib province on Friday, the Russian Defence Ministry said, saying it had targeted Islamist militants who had tried to trap a group of Russian military policemen earlier in the week.

The strike, launched from the Mediterranean by Russia’s ‘Veliky Novgorod’ submarine, was part of a counter-offensive against a jihadi attack on government-held parts of northwest Syria near Hama on Tuesday.

The Russian Defence Ministry on Wednesday said 29 Russian military policemen had been surrounded by jihadis as a result of that attack and that Russia had been forced to break them out in a special operation backed by air power.

On Friday, it said in a statement it had fired Kalibr cruise missiles at the same jihadis from a distance of 300 kilometers (186.41 miles) striking command centers, armored vehicles and the bases of jihadis who had taken part in the original attack.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Defying Trump, Iran says will boost missile capabilities

Defying Trump, Iran says will boost missile capabilities

By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin

LONDON (Reuters) – Iran will strengthen its missile capabilities and will not seek any country’s permission, President Hassan Rouhani said on Friday in a snub to demands from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Rouhani was speaking at a military parade where an Iranian news agency said one of the weapons on display was a new ballistic missile with range of 2,000 km (1,200 miles), capable of carrying several warheads.

The Tasnim news agency, which quoted the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace division, Amirali Hajizadeh, gave few other details of the missile.

At the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump said Iran was building its missile capability and accused it exporting violence to Yemen, Syria and other parts of the Middle East.

He also criticized the 2015 pact that the United States and six other powers struck with Iran under which Tehran agreed to restrict its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions.

In a speech broadcast on state television, Rouhani said: “We will increase our military power as a deterrent. We will strengthen our missile capabilities … We will not seek permission from anyone to defend our country.

“All countries in the world supported the nuclear deal in the United Nations General Assembly this year … except the United States and the Zionist regime (Israel),” Rouhani said.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said that the agreement must be changed or the United States could not stick with it. Iran has said its nuclear accord cannot be renegotiated.

The prospect of Washington reneging on the deal has worried some of the U.S. allies that helped negotiate it, especially as the world grapples with North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile development.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said tensions on the Korean peninsula underlined the importance of the Iranian deal, and that China would continue to support it.

Trump put Iran “on notice” in February for test-firing a ballistic missile and imposed new economic sanctions in July over its missile program and “malign activities” in the Middle East.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that the U.S. imposition of unilateral sanctions on Iran was “illegitimate and undermines the collective nature of international efforts.”

(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Ex-Nusra vows to fight on in Syria, denounces de-escalation deal

Smoke rises from an emergency service point after an airstrike at the rebel-held village of Maar Zita in Idlib province, Syria April 27, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The former al Qaeda branch in Syria has pledged to keep fighting government forces and their Russian and Iranian allies, and denounced ceasefire talks in Kazakhstan.

Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed on Friday to deploy observers on the edge of a “de-escalation” zone in Syria’s Idlib province, which is largely under the control of Islamist insurgents.

While they hailed the agreement as a breakthrough after months of talks in the Kazakh capital Astana, they gave few details. The move falls under a broader deal in which they would set up four such zones across Syria.

The de-escalation plan has eased fighting in parts of western Syria between rebel factions and government forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

But the ex-Nusra Front said the Astana process amounted to the surrender of rebel-held pockets, and what had started with a ceasefire would “end with restoring Bashar’s rule to the areas”.

The group cut ties with al-Qaeda last year, rebranded, and now spearheads the Tahrir al-Sham jihadist alliance, controlling parts of the northwestern Idlib province, on the border with Turkey.

At least two million people live in Idlib, the largest populated area held by rebels – including some nationalist Free Syrian Army factions that have taken part in the Astana talks.

Idlib’s has population ballooned as thousands of civilians and fighters have left areas the Syrian army seized, with the help of Russian jets and Iran-backed militias.

UPPER HAND

Tahrir al-Sham criticized FSA rebels who have attended the Astana meetings, which began with Moscow-led diplomatic efforts separate from U.N.-based peace talks in Geneva.

“We fear the day will come when those factions will line up alongside Russian warplanes and fight those who reject Assad and his regime,” it said in its statement.

Bouthaina Shaaban, a senior aide to Assad, said on Friday that attempts to divide Syria had failed, and repeated the government’s vow to take back the entire country, including “Idlib and other areas”.

Assad has gained the military upper hand against an array of rebel groups, including some that have received backing from the United States, Turkey and Gulf monarchies.

Damascus views any presence of Turkish forces as illegitimate, Syrian state news agency SANA cited a foreign ministry source as saying on Saturday.

“The deal for Idlib is temporary. Its main goal is reviving the old Damascus-Hama-Aleppo road…and for all kinds of traffic to flow to Aleppo,” the source said. The government took full control of Aleppo city, east of Idlib, last year in a major blow to rebels.

Critics have described the de-escalation plan as de facto partitioning of Syria after years of multi-sided conflict. Moscow, Tehran, and Ankara deny this and say the zones will be temporary, although they could extend beyond the initial six-month term.

(Reporting by Ellen Francis; Editing by Andrew Bolton)

Turkey begins trial of hunger striking teachers amid protests

Riot police detain protesters during the trial of two Turkish teachers, who went on a hunger strike over their dismissal under a government decree following last year's failed coup, outside of a courthouse in Ankara, Turkey, September 14, 2017. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

By Ece Toksabay

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish police used tear gas to disperse protesters outside a courthouse in Ankara on Thursday at the start of the trial of two teachers who have been on hunger strike since losing their jobs in a crackdown following last year’s failed coup.

Literature professor Nuriye Gulmen and primary school teacher Semih Ozakca have been surviving on liquids and supplements for six months, and doctors have described their condition as dangerously weak.

They were detained in May over alleged links to the militant leftist DHKP-C group, deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey.

Neither they nor their original lawyers were in court at the start of the hearing. The gendarmerie said the defendants might try to escape from the courtroom, despite their weakened state, and arrest warrants were issued this week for 18 of their lawyers.

Police attempted to break up the protests using tear gas, and riot police were present inside and outside the building. At least 20 protesters were detained, being dragged along the ground in the process.

“The first obstacle before a fair trial was the detention of their lawyers, which also served as a veiled intimidation attempt at the judges trying them. Now they are not brought to court, in an open breach of their right to defend,” said Baris Yarkadas, a lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

At least a hundred lawyers were present at the courthouse to defend the teachers, along with CHP parliamentarians and the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

The teachers have said their hunger strike aimed to draw attention to the plight of roughly 150,000 people suspended or sacked since last July’s failed putsch, which President Tayyip Erdogan blames on followers of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Gulen denies any involvement.

Last month, the European Court of Human Rights rejected a request by the two teachers to order Ankara to release them on health grounds.

Since the failed coup attempt, some 50,000 people including journalists, opposition figures, civil servants and others have been detained in the crackdown.

Rights groups and Turkey’s Western allies accuse the government of using the coup as a pretext to muzzle dissent.

Ankara says the purges are necessary due to the gravity of the threats it faces.

(Writing by Ece Toksabay and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Barzani vows to press on with Kurdish referendum, defying Iraq parliament

Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani sits with Kirkuk Governor Najmaldin Karim (R) during his visit in Kirkuk, Iraq September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Ako Rasheed

By Ahmed Rasheed and Raya Jalabi

BAGHDAD/ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraq’s Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani vowed on Tuesday to press ahead with a referendum on Kurdish independence on Sept. 25 despite a vote by Iraq’s parliament to reject the move.

Earlier the parliament in Baghdad authorized the prime minister to “take all measures” to preserve Iraq’s unity. Kurdish lawmakers walked out of the session before the vote and issued statements rejecting the decision.

Western powers fear a plebiscite in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region – including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk – could ignite conflict with the central government in Baghdad and divert attention from the war against Islamic State militants.

Iraq’s neighbors – Turkey, Iran and Syria – also oppose the referendum, fearing it could fan separatism among their own ethnic Kurdish populations.

“The referendum will be held on time… Dialogue with Baghdad will resume after the referendum,” Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said in a statement on his ruling party’s official website after the vote.

Barzani told a gathering of Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen in Kirkuk that the referendum was “a natural right”, according to a tweet from his aide Hemin Hawrami. Barzani also said Kirkuk should have a “special status” in a new, independent Kurdistan.

Iraqi lawmakers worry that the referendum will consolidate Kurdish control over several areas claimed by both the central government in Baghdad and the autonomous KRG in northern Iraq.

“UNCONSTITUTIONAL”

“This referendum lacks a constitutional basis and thus it is considered unconstitutional,” the parliamentary resolution said, without specifying what measures the central government should take to stop Kurdistan from breaking away.

Mohammed al-Karbouli, a Sunni Muslim lawmaker, said: “Kurdish lawmakers walked out of (Tuesday’s) session but the decision to reject the referendum was passed by a majority.”

A senior Kurdish official dismissed the vote as non-binding though an Iraqi lawmaker said it would be published in the official gazette after approval from the Iraqi presidency.

The KRG has said it is up to local councils of disputed regions in northern Iraq to decide whether to join the vote.

Kirkuk, an ethnically mixed city, voted last month to participate in the referendum, a move that stoked tensions with its Arab and Turkmen residents, as well as with Baghdad.

Kurdish peshmerga forces took control of the Kirkuk area and other areas claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurds after Islamic State militants overran about a third of Iraq in 2014 and Baghdad’s local forces disintegrated.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the Kurds were continuing to “illegally export” Kirkuk’s oil, and he called for urgent talks.

“I call upon the Kurdish leadership to come to Baghdad and conclude a dialogue,” Abadi said.

A Kurdish delegation met officials in Baghdad for a first round of talks in August concerning the referendum. An Iraqi delegation was expected to visit the Kurdish capital of Erbil in early September for a second round of talks, but the visit has yet to happen with less than two weeks before the vote.

Kurds have sought an independent state since at least the end of World War One, when colonial powers divided up the Middle East after the collapse of the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire and left Kurdish-populated territory split between Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed and Raya Jalabi; Writing by Ulf Laessing and Raya Jalabi; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Rights groups target police, spy chiefs globally under new U.S. law

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro (Dmitry) Firtash arrives at court in Vienna, Austria on February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo

By Michael Kahn and Warren Strobel

PRAGUE/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Police and spy chiefs from China to the Middle East, a Ukrainian oligarch and a former president of Panama are among the people a coalition of human rights groups wants targeted for sanctions under an expanded U.S. law aimed at curbing rights abuses and corruption worldwide.

The coalition, in documents to be made public on Wednesday, submitted 15 cases to the U.S. State Department and U.S. Treasury, urging them to investigate using the law, called the Global Magnitsky Act.

The law, which then-President Barack Obama signed in December 2016, expands the scope of 2012 legislation that froze the assets of Russian officials and banned them from traveling to the United States because of their links to the 2009 death in prison of a whistleblower, Sergey Magnitsky.

“The cases we have elected to highlight come from every region of the world, and involve horrific stories of torture, enforced disappearance, murder, sexual assault, extortion and bribery,” the coalition of 23 groups said in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The groups said their information came from first-hand accounts of victims and their attorneys, investigative journalism and reports by non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

(http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/sites/default/files/Global-Magnitsky-2017.pdf)

Police chiefs, public prosecutors and heads of security services in Bahrain, China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Central Asian countries where prisoners were tortured, executed or died in custody are on the list compiled by the groups, which are coordinated by Washington-based Human Rights First.

Among them are Chinese Deputy Minister of Public Security Fu Zhenghua and Beijing’s Municipal Public Security Bureau deputy head Tao Jing. The groups accuse the two officials of bearing “command responsibility” for actions of forces under their control in the torture and 2014 death of human rights activist Cao Shunli.

Cao’s lawyer has said she was denied medical treatment until she was seriously ill, which the Chinese government denies.

Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch indicted by a U.S. court in 2013 on bribery and other charges, is on the list. He denies wrongdoing and is fighting extradition from Austria.

Lanny Davis, an attorney for Firtash, in a statement said the allegations were false and that any sanctions “cannot be justified,” adding: “The constant repetition of false accusations on the Internet doesn’t make them true.”

Another target is former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli, who is jailed in Florida facing extradition to Panama on charges he conducted illegal surveillance and stole state funds while in office. Martinelli has repeatedly denied the charges.

ROBUST IMPLEMENTATION?

President Donald Trump, a Republican who did not stress global human rights as a foreign policy priority during his presidential campaign or early months in office, told Congress in April that he was committed to “robust and thorough implementation” of the Magnitsky law.

His administration has yet to impose sanctions or travel bans under it, but an official said the process of identifying potential targets “is both internal and external. We have received nominations from multiple sources including the United States Congress and NGOs.”

“Evidence permitting, our objective is to leverage the global reach of this authority and pursue geographically diverse ‘tranches’ of targets on an ongoing basis,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Acting on the recommendations could pose risks for Trump if targeted governments retaliated. Washington needs Beijing’s help in pressuring North Korea to halt its missile and nuclear tests, for example.

The original Magnitsky legislation strained relations between Moscow and Washington. Magnitsky, a tax accountant and lawyer, was arrested in 2008 shortly after accusing Russian officials of involvement in fraud, and died in prison nearly a year later while awaiting trial.

William Browder, whose Russian hedge fund employed Magnitsky as a lawyer, spearheaded an international campaign to push through the original Magnitsky Act, which now covers 44 Russians. He said travel bans and asset freezes are effective.

“It creates a very devastating consequence because people who thought they could act with absolute impunity no longer have that comfort,” Browder said.

The human rights coalition also hopes that pressure from politicians such as Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, the authors of the original legislation and the update, will spur the Trump administration into action.

McCain, in a statement to Reuters, said the role of NGOs is crucial, and envisioned under the new law. “I will continue working to ensure the administration enforces the law and utilizes this powerful tool to advance freedom and justice around the world,” he said.

Rob Berschinski, a former Obama administration official who led the efforts at Human Rights First, said, “Our process is designed to assist the government, but also to remove any excuse around whether it has the ability to levy sanctions. Now the question is simply one of political will.”

The Global Magnitsky Act requires the Trump administration to report to Congress by Dec. 10 on sanctions it has imposed under the law.

(Reporting by Michael Kahn in Prague and Warren Strobel in Washington; Editing by John Walcott, Grant McCool and Andrea Ricci)

Hezbollah declares Syria victory: report

Hezbollah declares Syria victory: report

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian government’s powerful Lebanese ally Hezbollah has declared victory in the Syrian war, dismissing remaining fighting as “scattered battles”, a pro-Hezbollah newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The comments by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah mark one of the most confident assessments yet by the government side as it regains swathes of territory in eastern Syria in a rapid advance against Islamic State.

Referring to President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents, Nasrallah said “the path of the other project has failed and wants to negotiate for some gains”, the al-Akhbar newspaper cited him saying at a religious gathering.

“We have won in the war (in Syria)…and what remains are scattered battles,” said Nasrallah, whose Iran-backed group has sent thousands of fighters to Syria to support Assad.

A source familiar with the contents of Nasrallah’s speech confirmed al-Akhbar’s report.

Backed by Russia and Iran, Assad has crushed numerous pockets of rebel-held territory in the western Syrian cities of Aleppo, Homs and Damascus over the last year, and he appears militarily unassailable in the six-year-long conflict.

Ceasefires brokered by Russia, Turkey, Iran and the United States in remaining rebel-held areas of western Syria have freed up manpower on the government side, helping its advance east into the oil-rich province of Deir al-Zor.

The eastward march to Deir al-Zor, unthinkable two years ago when Assad seemed in danger, has underlined his ever more confident position and the dilemma facing Western governments that still want him to leave power in a negotiated transition.

Government forces last week reached Deir al-Zor city, the provincial capital on the Euphrates River, breaking an Islamic State siege of a government-held enclave and a nearby air base.

In a televised speech last month, Assad said there were signs of victory in the war, but that the battle continued.

U.S.-backed militia fighting under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have in recent days launched a separate offensive against Islamic State in Deir al-Zor province.

The SDF, which is dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia, is also waging a campaign to capture Raqqa city from Islamic State. It has avoided conflict with the Syrian government.

(Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

U.S.-backed forces, Syrian army advance separately on Islamic State in Deir al-Zor

U.S.-backed forces, Syrian army advance separately on Islamic State in Deir al-Zor

By John Davison

BEIRUT (Reuters) – U.S.-backed militias and the Syrian army advanced in separate offensives against Islamic State in eastern Syria on Saturday, piling pressure on shrinking territory the group still holds in oil-rich areas near the Iraqi border.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed alliance of mostly Arab and Kurdish fighters, launched a new operation against the jihadists in the north of Deir al-Zor province that aims to capture areas north and east of the Euphrates river.

Syrian government forces and their allies, backed by Russia and Iran, meanwhile seized an oilfield from militants on the other side of the Euphrates and recaptured part of a road linking Deir al-Zor to areas held by IS further downstream.

The advances against Islamic State in territory it has held for years as part of its self-declared caliphate will likely bring U.S.-backed forces and the Syrian government side into closer proximity.

A U.S. warplane shot down a Syrian army jet near Raqqa in June and the SDF accused the Syrian government of bombing its positions, showing the risk of escalation between warring sides in a crowded battlefield.

The Syrian conflict, which started as a popular uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011, has drawn the military involvement of most world powers. Peace talks have repeatedly failed to bring an end to the war.

The SDF operation in Deir al-Zor province aims to capture areas in its northern and eastern countryside and advance toward the Euphrates, the Deir al-Zor Military Council, which is fighting as part of the SDF, said in a statement.

“The first step is to free the eastern bank of the Euphrates and the areas Islamic State still holds,” Ahmed Abu Kholeh, head of the military council, told Reuters after the announcement.

“We’re not specifying a timeframe but we hope it will be a quick operation,” he said.

Abu Kholeh would not say whether there were plans to advance on Deir al-Zor city itself. “We don’t know how the battles will go after this,” he said.

He said SDF fighters did not expect clashes with Syrian government forces as they advance, but if fired upon “we will respond”.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported SDF forces had advanced against IS in Deir al-Zor’s northwestern countryside, seizing several hilltops and a village.

SYRIAN ARMY TAKES OILFIELD

Syrian government forces and their allies meanwhile recaptured from militants the Teym oilfield southwest of Deir al-Zor city, on the other side of the Euphrates, state TV reported.

They also seized part of a main highway running from Deir al-Zor downstream to the city of al-Mayadeen, to which many Islamic State militants have retreated, the British-based Observatory said.

That advance would help block potential IS reinforcements from al-Mayadeen, it said.

The Syrian army this week advanced quickly, backed by Russian air strikes, to reach a government-held enclave of Deir al-Zor that was besieged for years by Islamic State. Government forces are still fighting to reach a nearby air base, which the militants still surround.

Islamic State in Syria still holds much of Deir al-Zor province and half the city, as well as a pocket of territory further west near Homs and Hama.

But the group has lost most of its self-declared caliphate which from 2014 stretched across swathes of Syria and Iraq, including oil-rich Deir al-Zor.

The SDF is still battling to eject the jihadists from the remaining areas they hold in Raqqa, once their Syria stronghold.

Talks between Russia, Iran and opposition backer Turkey in Astana are to take place next week, possibly followed by a separate track at the United Nations in Geneva in October or November.

Assad’s government has participated in previous rounds from a position of power as Damascus has clawed back much territory, including the main urban centers in the west of the country and increasingly eastern desert held by IS.

(Reporting by John Davison in Beirut and Rodi Said in Syria; Editing by Dale Hudson)

EU must be part of U.S. Middle East peace push, Ireland says

FILE PHOTO: Ireland's Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon Carbery Coveney attends informal meeting of European Union Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Tallinn, Estonia September 7, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo

By Robin Emmott

TALLINN (Reuters) – Israelis and Palestinians will face more unrest over the next year without a revival of a long-fractured Middle East peace process that the European Union must be part of, Ireland’s foreign minister said on Friday.

Simon Coveney, who met Israeli and Palestinian leaders less than a month after taking up his post in June, is leading the charge to involve the EU in a fresh attempt at peace talks and overcome divisions that have weakened the bloc’s influence.

Speaking to EU foreign ministers at a meeting on Middle East policy in Tallinn on Thursday, Coveney said the bloc had a duty to make its voice heard in any new U.S. initiative as the Palestinians’ biggest aid donor and Israel’s top trade partner.

“My concern is that it will be a much more difficult political challenge in a year’s time or in two years’ time,” Coveney told Reuters.

“If you look at cycles of violence in Gaza, for example, without intervention and new initiatives in my view, we are heading there again,” he said, describing the Israel-Palestinian situation as an “open sore” that could erupt at any time.

Coveney said EU governments had to pull together and keep the focus on a two-state solution.

“Now is the time for the European Union … to become more vocal,” said Coveney, who met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in July.

Coveney has also met Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s Middle East envoy, and said it was crucial that the EU sought to influence U.S. plans that are being drawn up by Greenblatt and Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner.

Coveney said the European Union had a right to be heard because EU governments and the European Commission spend 600 million euros ($724 million) a year on aid to the Palestinians and on projects with Israel.

“We cannot simply wait for the U.S. to take an initiative on their own, we should be supportive of them and helping them to shape it and design it in a way that is likely to have international community support,” he said, although he added he still did not know what the U.S. proposals would look like.

“In the absence of the U.S. being able to bring forward a new initiative, I think the EU will have to do that itself.”

Hurdles for the European Union include its range of positions, ranging from Germany’s strong support for Israel to Sweden’s 2014 decision to officially recognize the state of Palestine, something Ireland considered three years ago.

Coveney said the European Union is also perceived by some in Israel as being too pro-Palestinian, partly because of the EU’s long-held opposition to Israeli settlements.

But Coveney said the European Union could build trust with Israel by deepening ties in trade, science, scholarships for students and to pursue what he called “a positive agenda”.

The EU aims to hold a high-level meeting with Israel to broaden trade and other economic links later this year, although a date is still pending. It would be the first such meeting since 2012.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Alison Williams)

Israel hits Syrian site said to be linked to chemical weapons

By Sarah Dadouch and Jeffrey Heller

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel attacked a military site in Syria’s Hama province early on Thursday, the Syrian army said, and a war monitoring group said the target could be linked to chemical weapons production.

The air strike killed two soldiers and caused damage near the town of Masyaf, an army statement said. It warned of the “dangerous repercussions of this aggressive action to the security and stability of the region”.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war, said the attack was on a facility of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre, an agency which the United States describes as Syria’s chemical weapons manufacturer.

It came the morning after U.N. investigators said the Syrian government was responsible for a sarin poison gas attack in April.

Syria’s government denies using chemical arms. In 2013 it promised to surrender its chemical weapons, which it says it has done.

The Observatory said strikes also hit a military camp next to the center that was used to store ground-to-ground rockets and where personnel of Iran and its ally, the Lebanese Hezbollah group, had been seen more than once.

An Israeli army spokeswoman declined to discuss reports of a strike in Syria.

Syria’s foreign ministry has sent letters to the U.N. Security Council protesting at Israel’s “aggression” and saying anyone who attacked Syrian military sites was supporting terrorism, Syrian state TV reported.

In an interview in Israel’s Haaretz daily last month on his retirement, former Israeli air force chief Amir Eshel said Israel had hit arms convoys of the Syrian military and its Hezbollah allies nearly 100 times in the past five years.

Israel sees red lines in the shipment to Hezbollah of anti-aircraft missiles, precision ground-to-ground missiles and chemical weapons.

ISRAELI SIGNAL?

The reported attack took place on the 10th anniversary of Israel’s destruction of a nuclear reactor in Syria.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to address the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 19, and is widely expected to voice Israel’s concern over what it sees as attempts by Iran to broaden its military foothold in Syria and threats posed by Hezbollah

Israeli officials have said that Russia, another Assad ally, and Israel maintain regular contacts to coordinate military action in Syria.

Some Israeli commentators saw the latest strike – a departure from the previous pattern of attacks on weapons convoys – as a show of Israeli dissatisfaction with the United States and Russia.

Last month, Netanyahu met Russian President Vladimir Putin, but came away without any public statement from Moscow that it would curb Iranian influence.

Hezbollah and Israel fought a brief war in 2006 in which more than 1,300 people died. Both have suggested that any new conflict between them could be on a larger scale than that one.

Hezbollah has been one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s most important allies in the war and last month its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said he had recently traveled to Damascus to meet the Syrian president.

Israel is conducting military exercises in the north of the country near the border with Lebanon.

Yaakov Amidror, a retired Israeli general and former national security adviser, told reporters he assumed Thursday’s strike was linked to Nasrallah’s visit to Damascus.

“Weapons systems have been transferred from this organization (the Scientific Studies and Research Centre) into the hands of Hezbollah during the years,” he said.

HEZBOLLAH

In May, an official in the military alliance backing Assad said that Hezbollah drew a distinction between Israel striking its positions in Syria and at home in Lebanon. “If Israel strikes Hezbollah in Lebanon, definitely it will respond,” the official said.

The Syrian army statement said the Israeli strike came at 2.42 a.m. (2342 GMT) from inside Lebanese airspace. It said it had been launched in support of Islamic State.

Jets flying over Lebanon overnight broke the sound barrier and Lebanese media reported that Israeli warplanes had breached Lebanese airspace.

The Observatory reported that seven people were killed or wounded in the strike.

“The factory that was targeted in Masyaf produces the chemical weapons and barrel bombs that have killed thousands of Syrian civilians,” Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, said in a tweet.

The strike sent a message that Israel would not let Syria produce strategic weapons, would enforce its own red lines, and would not be hampered by Russian air defense systems in Syria, he added.

The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria said on Wednesday a government jet dropped sarin on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province in April, killing more than 80 civilians, and that government forces were behind at least 27 chemical attacks.

(Reporting by Angus McDowall and Sarah Dadouch in Beirut and Jeffrey Heller, Ori Lewis, Dan Williams and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; writing by Angus McDowall; editing by Angus MacSwan and Andrew Roche)