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— Los Angeles Times staff

SAUDI ARABIA: Stopping militant passions

Why do young Saudi men keep popping up to do bad things in dangerous places?

Saudi militants are instigating terror and death from Yemen to Europe and from Iraq to Pakistan. The Saudi government has been attempting to calm jihadist passions by enrolling extremists in reform schools and silencing radical preachers. There has been progress, but the kingdom’s ultra-conservative brand of Wahhabi Islam keeps churning out those with masked faces and crisscrossed bandoliers.

Tariq Alhomayed, editor of the English-language daily Asharq Al-Awsat, explored the problem Saudi Arabia and the Arab world face in an opinion piece headlined: "Saudi Youth and Terrorism: When Will It End?"

“The ideological war in Saudi Arabia [against extremism] continues to be fought but below the expected level, even though the Saudi media is fiercely in opposition to extremism and the extremists, and there is a social aversion to Al Qaeda, the takfiris, and those who support them,” writes Alhomayed. “But despite this we continue to witness the destruction of our youth.”

He adds: “We should blame ourselves.”

Read the rest of the story here.

-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: The aftermath of a suicide bombing in Baghdad. Credit: Reuters

SYRIA, LEBANON: Nests of spies uncovered in the Middle East

Alleged spy Roxana Saberi has been released from an Iranian prison, but intrigue continues to plague the region with Syria confirming the arrest of two British citizens on terrorism charges and Lebanon reeling from the discovery of an Israeli spy network.

The 36-year old mother of four, Maryam Kallis, and 28-year-old Yasser Ahmed were arrested eight weeks ago by Syrian plainclothes intelligence officers, according to their families. On Sunday, the Syrian embassy in London confirmed the arrests (in Arabic), accusing the two Britons of working with a terrorist group connected to Al Qaeda.

“The Syrian Authorities arrested Mrs. Kallis and Mr. Ahmed in Damascus on the 17 March 2009, and the interrogations indicated that both Ms. Kallis and Mr. Ahmed are working for a terrorist network related to the Al Qaeda organization and other members of the network were also arrested by the Syrian Authorities,” read a statement released by the embassy.

JORDAN: Al Qaeda-linked group accused in attack on choir

An Al Qaeda-linked group was allegedly responsible for a violent attack on a Christian choir group in the Jordanian capital of Amman last July, authorities revealed Tuesday.

The incident took place in a downtown Amman neighborhood. A gunman opened fire on a bus full of tourists, wounding six, including four Lebanese musicians from a university choir.

After months of investigation, a group of 12 Jordanians of Palestinian origin were put on trial Tuesday on charges that included July's shooting.

Their indictment alleged that the group's mastermind, Shaker Khatib, was trained by a Lebanese offshoot of Osama bin Laden's organization.

EGYPT: Movie star facing death threats for criticizing Hamas

Egyptian movie star Adel Imam has sparked a fuss by criticizing Hamas and holding it partially responsible for the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. His criticism of the Palestinian militant group has spurred radical Islamist leaders to issue a fatwa calling for Imam's execution.

Earlier this month, Imam told the independent daily al-Masry al-Youm:

“The Egyptian leadership warned the Palestinian leaders against Israeli attacks; however, they did not pay attention and fought a disproportionate war. It is better that Hamas stops what it is doing because Israel will not respond with flowers.”

Imam also criticized pro-Hamas demonstrations that erupted around the Arab world blaming Egypt for the blockade suffered by Hamas.

SYRIA: Notorious Islamist leader 'captured or killed'

Lebanon’s most notorious Islamic militant might have been captured or killed in Syria, according to a statement posted Monday on a website used by violent extremists.

Shaker Abssi, the leader of the Al Qaeda-inspired Fatah al Islam, might have been detained by Syrian authorities, but was most likely killed, said the statement reported by the U.S. monitoring service, SITE Intelligence Group:

"We don't know his fate, but we believe he probably was martyred, but we don't have solid evidence."

Abssi, a onetime leftist Palestinian guerrilla turned Islamic militant, had been on the run since his group was defeated in September 2007 by the Lebanese army at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. The battle, which lasted for more than three months, led to the deaths of more than 400 people, including dozens of Palestinian civilians, 168 soldiers and 220 militants, according to officials.

The statement earlier this week said Abssi and two other members of his group were ambushed in Jermana, a small town south of Damascus, while trying to link up with veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan insurgencies.

EGYPT: Former militant condemns Zawahiri as 'bloodthirsty'

Al Qaeda second in command Ayman Zawahiri is a bloodthirsty militant who exerts all possible effort to justify the killing of innocent civilians, according to his former partner with whom Zawahiri co-founded a notorious Islamic militant organization in Egypt three decades ago.

“Zawahiri finds it legitimate to kill anybody whose country fights Muslims,” said Sayed Imam, an iconic ideologue of the Egyptian group Islamic Jihad, on Monday in his new jailhouse treatise quoted in the independent daily Al Masry al Youm. Imam added that Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri are “bloodthirsty and remain determined to commit mass killings.”

The scathing treatise, published in sequels in the local press, seeks primarily to renounce violence and bash Al Qaeda. In today’s installment, Imam, who is serving a 25-year sentence, tears apart the logic of the religious fatwas Al Qaeda uses to rationalize the killing of civilians. 

“The killing of civilians in blocks, trains, markets, mosques or elsewhere is a declaration of impotence to face armies of enemy states and cowardice. Their impotence drew them to kill civilians who Islamic Sharia said should not be killed,” said Imam.

LEBANON: How the head of an Al Qaeda-inspired group fled the country

He has become a local Osama bin Laden, planning bomb attacks from his secret hideout and hurling threats against the Lebanese army through voice recordings.

But the mystery of his disappearance might be close to an end. In the last few days, new clues about the whereabouts of Shaker al-Abssi, the leader of an Al Qaeda-inspired group were revealed across the Lebanese media.

The 53-year-old Palestinian guerrilla allegedly managed to cross the Lebanese border into Syria after staying incognito for months at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, media reports and security officials said. 

Abssi, along with hundreds of Islamic fighters, engaged in fierce battles against the Lebanese army during the summer of 2007 before being crushed at the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in northern Lebanon. Almost 400 people, including militants and soldiers, were killed.

Authorities first believed that Abssi died during the battles after his wife and other clerics who had known him identified one of the corpses found in the battlefield as his. But DNA tests showed that the body in question did not belong to Abssi.

SYRIA: After years on the outs, Damascus and Beirut now partners

For more than three years, Lebanese officials and political leaders accused Syria of fostering instability in Lebanon. According to the Lebanese, Syria was plotting bomb attacks. Syria was dispatching “terrorists."  Syria was manipulating Lebanese politics.

Er, never mind.

Lebanon’s attitude toward the Syrians has now changed. And dramatically.

On Monday, Lebanon’s Interior Minister Ziad Baroud made a landmark visit to Damascus to discuss common security challenges facing both countries, especially the danger coming from radical Islamist groups. 

Baroud and his Syrian counterpart, Bassam Abdul-Majid, agreed to set up a commission "to put into place the basis of coordination in the fight against terrorism and crime," the two said in a statement read out to reporters after their meeting. 

The commission will be also tasked with “finding a joint mechanism for controlling the borders,” according to Syria’s official news agency, SANA.

SYRIA: Islamist radicals admit to Damascus bombing

The captured daughter of the head of an Al Qaeda-inspired group said her father received financial support from Saudi Arabian nationals as well as the main U.S.-backed Sunni Arab faction in Lebanon.

Wafa Abssi, daughter of the fugitive leader of Fatah al Islam, Shaker Abssi, was shown with other members of the radical Islamist group on Syrian state television Thursday confessing that they helped carry out a recent deadly attack in Damascus.

The Sept. 27 blast killed 17 people in a Shiite neighborhood of the Syrian capital and was the first such attack in decades to hit Syria.

Wafa Abssi, who wore a black headscarf, accused the Future Movement, the main Western-backed Lebanese Sunni political faction, of channeling funds to her father's militant group via a private bank.

In the summer of 2007, Fatah al Islam fought a fierce battle with the Lebanese military in a Palestinian refugee camp north of Lebanon. The clash claimed the lives of about 400 people, including Islamist fighters and soldiers. The group was blamed recently in Lebanon for recent bomb attacks against the Lebanese army.