WASHINGTON: US envoys last week raised concerns with Damascus about Islamic fighters transiting Syria to enter Iraq, the State Department said Monday, following a report that increasing numbers of foreign combatants are making the crossing. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman and National Security Council official Daniel Shapiro raised the concerns Thursday during their second visit to Damascus since President Barack Obama's inauguration, the State Department said. "We continue to have very deep concern about this issue of the flow of foreign fighters going into Iraq via Syria," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly.He urged Syria "to take immediate and decisive action, including better screening of individuals entering Damascus airport, increased security on the Iraq-Syria border, better cooperation with the government of Iraq and denying foreign fighter facilitators safe haven within Syria." The administration last week renewed sanctions against Syria, accusing Damascus of supporting Mideast terrorism and undermining Iraqi stability.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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