By Sylvia Westall

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The new head of the Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, once one of the strongest militias in the Syrian civil war, has urged fellow insurgents to fight on after a blast on Tuesday wiped out its senior leadership.

In a video on YouTube, Ahrar al-Sham said Hashem al-Sheikh, also known as "Abu Jaber", had been named its new leader and Abu Saleh Tahan its new military chief. Another video showed a man identified as Abu Jaber exhorting his men to fight on.

The explosion in northwestern Syria killed at least 12 including Ahrar al-Sham's former leader Hassan Aboud, said the group which is part of the Islamic Front alliance fighting both the Syrian army and the now dominant Islamic State movement.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group monitoring the conflict, said the blast killed 28 of Ahrar al-Sham's commanders, dealing a major blow to the organization that is believed to have received funds from Gulf states.

"Jihadi men of our nation ... do not let the crisis shake you or the calamity divide you," Abu Jaber said on the video while eulogizing the dead. "Rise, let us die for what they have died for," he said in a statement read from behind a desk.

Some 50 of the group's leaders had gathered at a house when the blast went off inside, according to the Observatory. There has been no claim of responsibility for the blast, which took place in Syria's Idlib province.

Some observers have described Tuesday's incident as a gas attack. Abu Baraa, a rebel figure from a group allied with Ahrar al-Sham, said a doctor who examined the bodies said there was little visible sign of external injuries.

The doctor saw bodies with frothing at the mouth and fluid coming from the eyes and noses, Abu Baraa said, adding the group had been meeting in a heavily fortified underground bunker.

"This was a highly sophisticated attack in a location that was very secure," he said. Photos posted on social media claiming to show the victims of the attack displayed bodies that did not appear to have significant external injuries.

Other reports suggested the victims had died from smoke inhalation. It was not possible to independently verify any of the reports or pictures or the cause of the deaths.

"CRIPPLING BLOW"

The Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said in a statement on Wednesday it had found "compelling evidence" that chlorine gas was used "systematically and repeatedly" as a weapon in northern Syria this year.

President Bashar al-Assad agreed to hand over his chemical weapons stocks for destruction as part of a deal that averted threatened U.S. military strikes, but the continued attacks have led to accusations he had not fully declared his arsenal.

The loss of its senior leadership has come at a significant time for Ahrar al-Sham, said Charles Lister, visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center.

"This potentially crippling blow comes during a period in which Ahrar al-Sham's senior officials have begun adopting more moderate stances in Syria, including considering joining larger moderate coalitions," he wrote in an analysis.

"The gutting of Ahrar al-Sham’s leadership will have major ripple effects in the opposition," researcher Aron Lund wrote on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Syria website.

"Unless Ahrar al-Sham somehow manages to recover and sustain its relevance as a major Islamist faction, the Islamic Front may now be beyond repair," he wrote.

Some supporters of the rival group Islamic State celebrated Aboud's death on social media, saying that Syria had been "cleansed" of his presence.

In January another senior Ahrar al-Sham leader was killed in a suicide attack. Abu Khaled al-Soury had fought alongside al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and was close to its current chief Ayman al-Zawahri.

Islamic State, also known as ISIL, had denied involvement in the January attack after being blamed for it.

Ahrar al-Sham, which has advocated sharia law in Syria, was once considered among the strongest insurgent groups in the civil war but has since been overtaken by Islamic State.

The radical Islamic State group has seized wide swaths of Syria and Iraq and views other Islamist groups as its rivals.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday as part of a tour of the Middle East aimed at building military, political and financial support to defeat Islamic State.

(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman and Ahmed Tolba in Cairo; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

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Jerusalem Violence Overlooked Amid Gaza Crisis

Tel Aviv (AFP) - Israel's army has launched five criminal investigations into incidents involving its forces during the Gaza war, a top legal official said on Wednesday, two weeks after a truce took hold.

The United Nations and international rights groups have condemned Israel for numerous attacks which resulted in heavy civilian casualties, in a conflict that killed more than 2,140 Palestinians.

The army is already looking into five cases, with dozens of others pending investigation, a top army legal official told foreign journalists at the defence ministry in Tel Aviv, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Among the cases being investigated are the shelling on July 24 of a UN school in the northern town of Beit Hanun that medics said killed at least 15 people, and the July 16 bombing of a Gaza City beach where four children died.

Both attacks were condemned by the UN and Israel ally Washington, although the US refrained from placing the blame squarely on Israel.

Other incidents being probed include the killing of a woman in southern Gaza after troops coordinated her exit from a combat zone, the alleged beating in detention of a prisoner, and the alleged theft of money by a soldier from a home.

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A Palestinian militant from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) gestures dur …

The army was "committed to examining all credible allegations of misconduct," the legal official said.

So far, the military has already dismissed seven other cases, two of which the official gave details on.

The first was an air strike that killed eight Al-Kaware family members on July 8, the first day of the war, and the second was a strike on a car the following day that reportedly killed a media worker.

"During armed conflict, the death of a civilian does not necessarily raise suspicion of misconduct, so when we receive complaints regarding these types of incidents... we need a more comprehensive factual understanding of the incident before we can decide whether to open a criminal investigation," the official said.

But Israeli rights group B'Tselem said such investigations lacked credibility.

"There is currently no official body in Israel capable of conducting independent investigations of suspected violations of international humanitarian law," B'Tselem said on its website.

The 50-day war between Israel and Hamas militants killed at least 2,143 Palestinians, nearly 70 percent of them civilians, and 73 people on the Israeli side.

The army had initially said 66 soldiers were among the dead but later corrected the number to 67.

The Palestinians have threatened Israel with action at the International Criminal Court over war crimes allegations, and Hamas has signed a proposal for Palestinians to join the body, potentially opening itself up to investigation.

What's more impressive than sharks with laser beams? Dolphins with nuclear missiles. And that's the newest member of Israel's navy. A Dolphin-class submarine, anyway.

Christened the INS Tanin, this Dolphin-class submarine is both the largest sub produced by Germany since WWII and the most expensive vehicles owned by the IDF. It's also widely regarded as among the most sophisticated, stealthy, and effective conventionally-powered (i.e. non-nuclear) submarines on the the planet.

The Tanin, which is just the fourth submarine in Israel's fleet, is an example of the slightly larger, slightly newer Dolphin 2 design, measures 225 feet in length with a 22 foot beam and 20 foot drought. Three diesel-electric motors generate 4,243 shp apiece, giving the Tanin a top speed of 25 knots underwater. A compliment of just 35 crewmen is all that is needed to operate the vessel. What's more, it's outfitted with an advanced air-independent propulsion system.

See, the until the advent of nuclear propulsion, submarines could only hold their breath (quite literally) for limited amounts of time. Their diesel engines required oxygen to run and once that supply ran out, the engines died. AIP technology, conversely, works like a hybrid car. Diesel engines recharge massive Li-ion batteries that power a silent propulsion system which is not limited by the need for oxygen, only by the capacity of the batteries.

And while the mascot isn't exactly terrifying, these dolphins pack a punch. They're equipped with room for up to 16 torpedoes and cruise missiles. Four enormous 650mm tubes can be used for anything from subsea mines to special forces infiltration vehicles.

More importantly, these tubes can launch SLCMs (sub-launched cruise missiles)—like thePopeye—which are capable of travelling more than 900 miles and are rumored to have been outfitted with 440-pound nuclear-tipped warheads. This would offer Israel a potent first strike capability as well as serve as a doomsday backup, giving Israel a chance to counter from offshore any inbound nuclear attack—sort of a way to just make things worse for an entire planet already enveloped in thermonuclear war.

"The submarine will amplify the capabilities of the IDF and the State of Israel's strength," Lieutenant General (res.) Ehud Barak, Israel's Minister of Defense, said during a press conference in 2012 during the initial purchase of the vessels from Germany at a cost of $1.27 billion. "The Navy has undergone strategic changes over the past few years that place it at the forefront of the battle over the safety of Israel, as the long arm of the IDF. The agreement reflects the strong relations with Germany and the German government's commitment to Israeli security."

By Darya Korsunskaya

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday Russia must maintain its nuclear deterrence to counter what he called growing security threats, after Moscow test-launched an intercontinental nuclear missile.

With ties between Moscow and the West frayed by the crisis in Ukraine, Putin also took greater control of a commission that oversees the defense industry and made a new call for Russia to become less reliant on imported Western equipment.

He said NATO was using rhetoric over the Ukraine crisis to "resuscitate itself" and noted that Russia had warned repeatedly that it would have to respond to such moves.

Shortly before he spoke, Russia successfully tested its new submarine-launched Bulava intercontinental missile, a 12-metre- long weapon that can deliver a nuclear strike with up to 100 times the force of the atomic blast that devastated Hiroshima in 1945.

"We need a reliable and complete assessment of the potential threats to Russia's military security. For each of these threats, a sufficient, adequate response should be found," Putin told a Kremlin meeting of government defense officials.

Russia Successfully Tests Nuclear Missile, Two Mor …Play video

"First of all, we are talking about creating a rational series of assault capabilities, including maintaining a guaranteed solution to the task of nuclear deterrence."

He said Russia must ensure it develops high-precision weapons in the next few years, although he also said, "Someone might want to start a new arms race. We are not going to take part in that, of course."

Naval Commander Admiral Viktor Chirkov said the Bulava's test launch had been carried out from the White Sea and that the missile had hit its target in Russia's far east.

"In October and November of this year, the naval fleet will carry out two more launches with two rocket cruisers equipped with ballistic missiles," Interfax quoted Chirkov as saying.

A Bulava missile weighs 36.8 tonnes, can travel 8,000 km (5,000 miles) and hold six to 10 nuclear warheads. Intended to become the cornerstone of Russia's nuclear forces by the end of the decade, its development had been delayed by numerous failed tests.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) chairs a Kremlin meeting on the development of the State Armame …

Russia is slated to spend over 20 trillion rubles ($536.81 billion) on the modernization of its army, which still largely relies on Soviet-era weapons and arms technologies.

Putin reiterated that Moscow would find ways to replace defense-industry imports it has lost because of European Union and U.S. sanctions imposed in the Ukraine crisis.

"We are not planning to intentionally stop cooperation with our foreign partners ... (but) our industry should be able to produce critically important equipment, components and materials," he said.

(1 US dollar = 37.2570 Russian rouble)

(Writing by Alexei Anishchuk and Thomas Grove; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Larry King)

Russia: We must have nukes to counter threats

After Moscow test-launches a nuclear missile, Putin urges his country again to reduce its reliance on Western equipment.
Blasts NATO

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A series of attacks, mainly car bombings targeting security forces and markets, killed at least 30 people Wednesday in Iraq's capital, authorities said.

The deadliest attack took place when twin car bombs hit a police checkpoint near a pet market, killing at least 19 people, officials said.

Police said the attack began when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a checkpoint manned by traffic police in the southeastern neighborhood of New Baghdad, killing five policemen and wounding nine.

Seconds later, a car bomb explosion near the market killed 14 people and wounded 35, police said. Several cars were damaged in the blasts.

Security forces sealed off all the roads leading to the attack site.

Wednesday night, police said a suicide car bomb hit a police post in Ghadeer district in southeastern Baghdad, killing six police officers and two civilians. A sticky bomb attached to a mini-bus also exploded in southeastern Baghdad, killing three passengers, police said.

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Civilians inspect the site a car bomb explosion in southeastern neighborhood of New Baghdad, Iraq, W …

Medical officials confirmed the casualties from all attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

The attacks come after the Islamic State group captured large swaths of territory in western and northern Iraq in a lightning offensive earlier this year, plunging the country into its worst crisis since U.S. troops left at the end of 2011.

Washington has urged Iraq's feuding factions to set aside their differences in order to confront the insurgency.

The country's once-dominant Sunni minority long has complained of being marginalized and discriminated against, and Sunni grievances with Baghdad are seen as one of the main factors fueling the rise of the Islamic State group.

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Associated Press writer Murtada Faraj contributed to this report.