Beirut (AFP) - Syria's best-known mosaic museum in the northern rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan has been seriously damaged in a regime barrel bomb attack, according to archaeological experts.

The Association for the Protection of Syrian Archaeology said the museum "suffered serious damage caused by two explosive-packed barrels dropped on Monday by Syrian army helicopters."

The non-governmental organisation published pictures of the museum, located in an ancient Ottoman caravanserai, showing entire walls once covered with mosaics collapsed into rubble.

It said that several mosaic panels had been damaged in the eastern portico of the museum, including at least two that were knocked off their display by the force of the blast.

Other pieces were damaged by shrapnel and the pictures published by APSA on its website showed large holes gouged into an oval mosaic with a zig-zag pattern.

The museum building and surrounding complex, including a historic mosque, were also badly damaged, according to the APSA, with pictures showing several pillars destroyed and sections of roof that had caved in.

View gallery

The museum in Maaret al-Numan on June 16, 2015 following reported air strikes by Syrian government f …

Reached by phone in Damascus on Saturday, the head of Syria's antiquities, Maamoun Abdulkarim, acknowledged the damage at the museum, but declined to say who was responsible.

This is "a new tragedy for Syrian heritage", said Abdulkarim and called for the country's museums to be "neutral zones" in the war.

"No one, from any side, should harm that which forms our country's history," he said.

The United Nations last year warned that nearly 300 sites of incalculable value for Syria and human history have been destroyed, damaged or looted in the country's conflict.

The warning, based on satellite imagery, followed repeated statements of concern from archaeologists and other experts about the damage being done to Syria's historic sites and the rise in looting of antiquities.

More than 230,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government demonstrations before spiralling into a war after a regime crackdown.

A roadside bomb killed at least 14 members of an Afghan family, including women and children, in the country's volatile south Saturday, officials said, in the first major attack in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the Marja district of Helmand province, a hotbed of Taliban insurgents who are intensifying their annual summer offensive.

The militants had recently rebuffed requests from senior Afghan clerics to halt attacks during the fasting month of Ramadan even as a surge in violence has sent civilian casualties soaring.

"Fourteen civilians were killed and five others wounded in an IED (improvised explosive device) blast in Marja district of Helmand province. All of them were from the same family," Helmand deputy governor Mohammad Jan Rasolyar told AFP.

He said their vehicle struck the IED just before Iftar, the evening meal when Muslims break their fast during Ramadan, which began on Thursday.

Helmand police chief Nabi Jan Mullah Khel claimed a higher toll, saying 16 family members were killed as they were returning to their home in Marja two days after fleeing a possible military offensive in the area to flush out insurgents.

Haji Fateh Mohammad, a tribal elder from the region, said he counted 15 bodies as he helped retrieve them from the twisted carcass of the vehicle.

Marja district in Taliban-infested Helmand province was the focus of a major US-led military offensive designed to clear out the insurgent group in early 2010.

View gallery

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during a press conference at the presidential palace in Kabul o …

- Surging civilian casualties -

The insurgents launched a countrywide offensive in late April, stepping up attacks on government and foreign targets in what is expected to be the bloodiest fighting season in a decade.

The Taliban, who promised to "safeguard" civilian lives during their offensive, are known to distance themselves from attacks that result in high civilian casualties.

But the surge in insurgents attacks has taken a heavy toll on ordinary Afghans, according to the UN mission in Afghanistan.

Almost 1,000 civilians were killed during the first four months of this year, a sharp jump from the same period last year, it said.

Afghan authorities have repeatedly tried to jumpstart talks with the Taliban in the hope of ending the 13-year conflict, but the militants have set tough conditions, including the withdrawal of all foreign troops in Afghanistan.

NATO's combat mission formally ended in December but a small follow-up foreign force of about 12,500 mainly US troops has stayed on to train and support local security personnel.

President Ashraf Ghani's government has drawn criticism for failing to end growing insurgent attacks, which critics partly blame on political infighting and a lengthy delay in appointing a candidate for the crucial post of defence minister.

Ghani last month nominated Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, a top official in the government body overseeing the country's peace process, for the job.

The post had been left vacant for months due to disagreements between Ghani and his chief executive and former presidential election rival, Abdullah Abdullah, but Stanekzai is expected to be confirmed by Afghanistan's parliament soon.

The Afghan government and the US-led international coalition fighting the Taliban are also keeping a wary eye on the Islamic State group, which has grabbed large swathes of Syria and Iraq in a brutal offensive.

The Islamic State group is in an "initial exploratory phase" in Afghanistan, the US Pentagon said in a recent report to Congress, noting the Taliban retained its resilience in the war-torn country.

On Tuesday the Taliban warned IS's leader against waging a parallel insurgency in Afghanistan, after a string of defections and reported clashes with militants loyal to the Islamic State group.

Mali's Tuareg-led rebels sign landmark peace deal

View Gallery

Bamako (AFP) - Mali's Tuareg-led rebel alliance signed a landmark deal on Saturday to end years of unrest in a nation riven by ethnic divisions and in the grip of a jihadist insurgency.

The Algiers Accord aims to bring stability to the country's vast northern desert, cradle of several Tuareg uprisings since the 1960s and a sanctuary for Islamist fighters linked to Al-Qaeda.

The agreement had already been signed in May by the government and loyalist militias but the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), a coalition of rebel groups, had been holding out until amendments were agreed.

Cheers broke out as Sidi Brahim Ould Sidati, a member of the Arab Movement of Azawad, put his name to the document on behalf of the CMA in a televised ceremony at a packed conference hall in the capital Bamako.

"Trust me -- we will make sure that no one is disappointed. We will build a brotherly Mali together," President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita told an audience of northern community leaders and international sponsors.

"Today is a great day for all us children of Mali."

View gallery

Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (L) embraces Mahamadou Djery Maiga, the vice-president a …

Ramtane Lamamra, the foreign minister of Algeria, which has been leading international efforts to mediate the peace talks, hailed "a new beginning, a new opportunity and a new destiny for this great Malian nation".

- 'Moments of doubt' -

The peace accord, hammered out over months under the auspices of the UN, calls for the creation of elected regional assemblies but stops short of autonomy or federalism for northern Mali, known by locals as Azawad.

The Malian government and several armed groups signed the document on May 15 in Bamako, in a ceremony spurned by the CMA.

The rebels finally agreed to commit on June 5 after winning a stipulation that its fighters be included in a security force for the north, and for residents of the region to be represented better in government institutions, among other concessions.

View gallery

French and Malian soldiers patrol next to the Djingareyber Mosque on June 6, 2015 in Timbuktu (AFP P …

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon congratulated the signatories and mediation team pledging his support for its implementation.

"The ultimate responsibility for peace lies with Mali and the Malians, and the Secretary-General urges all parties to continue to work in good faith to advance progress, and to fully implement the provisions of the ceasefire," his spokesman said in a statement.

Mongi Hamdi, the head of MINUSMA, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, warned that there would still be "moments of doubt and discouragement, tensions and distrust" on the path to peace.

"The international community will always be with you but cannot make peace for you," he said, urging the opposing sides to show "good faith and goodwill" in implementing the accord.

Mali was shaken by a coup in 2012 that cleared the way for Tuareg separatists to seize towns and cities of the north, an expanse of desert the size of Texas.

View gallery

Representatives of the Azawad Movement attend the signing of the ammended version of the Algerian Ac …

Al-Qaeda-linked militants then overpowered the Tuareg, taking control of the region for nearly 10 months until they were ousted in a French-led military offensive.

- Hard work ahead -

The country remains deeply divided, with the Tuareg and Arab populations of the north accusing sub-Saharan ethnic groups in the more prosperous south of marginalising them.

Mali has attempted repeatedly over recent decades to bring stability to the north, but each agreement has foundered with the resumption of ethnic violence.

Mahamadou Djeri Maiga, a senior CMA spokesman, said international mediation efforts had "paid off" but warned that the hard work lay ahead.

View gallery

Malian Armed Forces soldiers patrol with the French military on June 6, 2015 in Timbuktu, as part of …

"We are for peace, but what we want is that the agreement is actually implemented on the ground," he told AFP.

"Everyone must respect its commitments... We want peace, we don't want what has happened with previous agreements."

With most Malians fasting in daylight hours during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the rebels were due to dine with Keita at the presidential palace after nightfall, the presidency said.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is due to travel to Bamako on Monday to support the peace agreement, a member of his entourage announced.

"He is going there to demonstrate the presence and support of France for the agreement, which is indispensible for the return of peace and development in Mali," the source said.

Baghdad (AFP) - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi rose from obscurity to lead the world's most infamous and feared jihadist group, but shuns the spotlight for an aura of mystery that adds to his appeal.

The Islamic State group released a slew of photos and videos documenting its offensive that overran a third of Iraq last June, and the many atrocities it carried out.

But it is extremely rare for them to feature Baghdadi, who is known as Caliph Ibrahim by his followers and has a $10 million US bounty on his head.

IS declared a cross-border Islamic "caliphate" a year ago this month, after which a man identified as Baghdadi appeared in a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, ordering Muslims around the world to obey him.

The video of the appearance in Mosul -- which showed a man with a black and grey beard wearing a black robe and matching turban -- is the only one IS has released of Baghdadi, along with just a handful of audio messages.

"It is rather remarkable that the leader of the most image-conscious terrorist group is so low key in terms of his own publicity," said Patrick Skinner, an analyst with the Soufan Group intelligence consultancy.

Baghdadi has been reported wounded in air strikes multiple times during the past year, but the claims have never been verified, and his apparent survival has added to his mystique.

"He has an element of mystery about him and seems to have achieved a lot more in real terms" than "old guard" jihadists such as Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, said Aymenn al-Tamimi, a fellow at the Middle East Forum.

- Reviving jihadist fortunes -

IS released audio recordings attributed to the jihadist chief in the aftermath of the reports, with him apparently vowing that the "caliphate" would expand in one and calling for Muslims to move to it in another.

"The element of mystery also comes out in how he has so far survived multiple attempts to take him out in air strikes etc., ultimately emerging unscathed from the rumours that he had been incapacitated," Tamimi said.

Baghdadi revived the fortunes of Iraq's struggling Al-Qaeda affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), turning it into the independent IS group that is arguably the most brutal, powerful and wealthiest jihadist organisation in the world.

ISI was on the ropes when Baghdadi took over in 2010, but the group has bounced back, expanding into Syria in 2013 and then launching its sweeping offensive in Iraq last year.

Baghdadi "and his circle made a very, very strategic plan and then they went out and executed that plan; that inspires loyalty and confidence," said Skinner.

That IS is a much more active and brutal group than other jihadist organisations adds to Baghdadi's appeal and credibility.

According to an official Iraqi government document, Baghdadi was born in Samarra in 1971 and has four children with his first wife -- two boys and two girls born between 2000 and 2008.

- 'Behind the scenes' -

An Iraqi intelligence report indicates that Baghdadi, who it says has a PhD in Islamic studies and was a professor at Tikrit University, also married a second woman, with whom he had another son.

Baghdadi apparently joined the insurgency that erupted after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, at one point spending time in an American military prison in the country's south.

In October 2005, American forces said they believed they had killed "Abu Dua", one of Baghdadi's known aliases, in a strike on the Iraq-Syria border.

But that was apparently incorrect, as he took the reins of ISI in May 2010 after two of its chiefs were killed.

Baghdadi's path to jihadist leader differed sharply from that of Osama bin Laden, who had huge wealth to rely on to help build Al-Qaeda, appeared in far more videos and was internationally known long before the September 11 attacks on the United States.

"His rise to fame really doesn't compare to other more publicised terror leaders. (Bin Laden) was famous by his name, and he made a show of his piety and low-key demeanour," Skinner said.

"Baghdadi seriously worked behind the scenes and then exploded into publicity when he was announced as the leader, but even then he didn't do publicity stunts," he said.

"He avoids the spotlight, and when he releases a speech, it is about the caliphate and its enemies, not himself."

Related Video: