SYRIA: Cleric vows suicide bombings if U.S. or Europe attack.
Syria’s top Sunni Muslim cleric has warned Western countries against military intervention in Syria and threatened to retaliate with suicide bombings in the United States and Europe if his country comes under attack.In a speech late Sunday, Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddine Hassoun, a state-appointed cleric and loyalist of President Bashar Assad, said: “I say to all of Europe, I say to America: We will set up suicide bombers who are now in your countries, if you bomb Syria or Lebanon. From now on, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
LIBYA: Gadhafi loyalists pose “fierce” threat.
The commander of NATO’s air campaign in Libya has said that hundreds of organized fighters loyal to Moammar Gadhafi pose a “resilient and fierce” threat in the two remaining pro-Gadhafi strongholds and are exploiting the urban settings to complicate the alliance’s mission to protect civilians.
In Sirte and Bani Walid, pro-Gadhafi snipers on rooftops and loyalist gunmen in pickups are terrorizing residents, killing some and intimidating many others, said Lt. Gen. Ralph J. Jodice II of the U.S. Air Force.
Jodice said a mix of African mercenaries and Gadhafi loyalist troops have sustained command-and-control and supply lines in staunch defense of the cities.
BAHRAIN: Political reforms shot down as too weak.
Officials in violence-wracked Bahrain began work Monday on proposed political reforms that include boosting the powers of parliament, but the steps were dismissed by opposition leader Sheik Ali Salman as too little after more than eight months of clashes in the Gulf kingdom. The package of changes would transfer some new powers to elected lawmakers, but leaves intact the sweeping controls of Sunni rulers.
Denver Post wire services
