This November 18, 2002, image from the Al-Watan Kuwaiti newspaper shows Kuwaiti citizen Muhsin al-Fadhli, the alleged leader of Al-Qaeda's Khorasan Group (AFP Photo/)

Washington (AFP) - A US-led coalition air strike earlier this month killed the leader of an Al-Qaeda offshoot in Syria that American officials accuse of plotting attacks against the United States and its allies, the Pentagon said.

Muhsin al-Fadhli was killed in a "kinetic strike" on July 8 while traveling in a vehicle near the northwestern Syrian town of Sarmada, said Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

He did not confirm whether a drone or a manned aircraft had killed Fadhli, 34.

Fadhli was allegedly the leader of the Khorasan Group, a group of senior Al-Qaeda members who have traveled from Central Asia and elsewhere in the Middle East to Syria to plot attacks on the West.

The Kuwaiti-born militant was so trusted by the inner circle of late Al-Qaeda supreme leader Osama bin Laden that he was among the few who knew in advance about the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, according to US intelligence.

"His death will degrade and disrupt ongoing external operations of Al-Qaeda against the United States and its allies and partners," said Davis, who heads the Defense Department's press operations.

Counterterrorism expert Bruce Riedel, however, a former CIA analyst, called Fadhli's death a "serious but not fatal" blow to Al-Qaeda in Syria.

Davis said Fadhli was also involved in October 2002 attacks against US Marines on Kuwait's Failaka Island and on the MV Limburg, a French oil tanker.

He was reported to have been previously targeted in a US air strike in September, but his death was not confirmed by US officials at the time.

- Shadowy but lethal group -

Officials say Khorasan is part of Al-Qaeda's Syrian branch, Al-Nusra Front, though experts and activists cast doubt on the distinction between the two groups.

In a September interview, US President Barack Obama listed Khorasan among "immediate threats to the United States," warning that "those folks could kill Americans."

The US State Department had posted a $7 million reward for information leading to Fadhli's death or detention.

He was wanted by law enforcement authorities in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United States for terrorist activities.

The diminutive fighter -- US intelligence says he measured just five feet five inches (165 centimeters) -- fought alongside the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Pakistan, according to the State Department.

The US National Counterterrorism Center has said he had become Al-Qaeda's senior leader in Iran.

Fadhli was a major facilitator to late militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who once led Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and other fighters against US and multinational forces.

The US Treasury Department alleged that he provided financial and material support to Zarqawi's network and Al-Qaeda.

The UN Security Council's Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee cited him in 2005 for his role in planning, facilitating and financing Al-Qaeda attacks, which triggered a freeze on his assets and a travel ban.

Nablus (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian near the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank on Wednesday in clashes following an arrest raid, medical and security sources said.

The shooting came after weeks of low-level violence in the occupied Palestinian territories, and amid regular Israeli arrests in the West Bank.

Mohammed Alawneh, 22, was killed in clashes that followed raids and searches by Israeli soldiers on several houses in the village of Birqin, west of Jenin, the Palestinian sources said.

One Palestinian, identified as Mohammed Atiq, was arrested during the operation.

Afterwards, dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks at soldiers, and the army responded with tear gas and gunfire.

Alawneh was shot in the chest and died shortly after arriving at hospital in Jenin, the medical source said. He was to be buried later on Wednesday.

View gallery

Israeli soldiers duck from rocks thrown at them by Palestinians on April 24, 2015, near the Jewish H …

A military source told Israeli public radio that "the army and border guards carried out an operation in the village to arrest wanted Palestinians.

"Stones and Molotov cocktails were thrown and tyres were burned," and "forces used riot-dispersal means," including tear gas and rubber-coated bullets against the stone-throwers.

No live ammunition was used, the source said.

The nearby Jenin refugee camp is the scene of frequent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops, with the army carrying out regular raids to arrest suspected militants.

Last month, soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who opened fire at troops at a checkpoint in the Jordan Valley during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Also in June, a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli policeman in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem's Old City, before being shot and wounded.

Last week, Israel arrested five Palestinians suspected of involvement in the murder of an Israeli who was shot in his car in the occupied West Bank.

Wochit
Turkey Briefly Blocks Access to Twitter Over Bombing Images

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey briefly blocked access to Twitter on Wednesday to prevent images of Monday's deadly bombing from being broadcast and to stop Twitter users from calling for protests against the government, which they blamed for not doing enough to prevent the attack, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The dispute highlighted the tensions in Turkey after the suicide bombing Monday in the southeastern border city of Suruc, which killed 32 people and wounded scores. Turkish officials say the Suruc bombing is part of a retaliation campaign by the Islamic State group for the government's crackdown on its operations in Turkey.

Access to Twitter in Turkey was restored a few hours later Wednesday. A government official said Turkey had asked Twitter to remove 107 URLs with images of the bombing's aftermath. Twitter had removed about 50 of the URLs before it was blocked.

A Turkish government official said access to Twitter was restored after the company "removed malicious content, including hate speech, in line with the court order." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of rules that bar officials from speaking to journalists without authorization.

A court in Suruc issued a ban earlier Wednesday on the publication of images related to the bombing in the media, including on the Internet and on social media platforms, and ruled that access be barred to Internet sites not complying with the ban, Anadolu reported.

Authorities confirmed, meanwhile, that Monday's attack was a suicide bombing and identified the bomber as Seyh Abdurrahman Alagoz, a 20-year-old Turkish national who was confirmed through DNA testing.

View gallery

Family members and friends carry the coffin of Osman Cicek, 24, one of Monday explosion victims, in …

Anadolu said Alagoz' older brother ran a now-closed down tea house where IS was believed to have recruited followers. The location of the tea house was not disclosed. The two brothers had disappeared six months ago and had been reported as missing two months ago by their family, which lives in Adiyaman, the province north of where Suruc is located.

Anadolu said the two were wanted by authorities as "missing persons with possible terrorism traits."

Also Wednesday, a pro-Kurdish news agency said Kurdish militants have claimed an attack on two policemen who were found dead in their home in the town of Ceylanpinar, near the border with Syria, with gunshots in their heads. The Firat news agency said the attack was carried out in retaliation to the Suruc bombing to "punish" the policemen it claimed had collaborated with "IS gangs."

Turkish officials say they have detained more than 500 people suspected of working with IS in the last six months — including an investigation of IS recruitment networks in Turkey that this month netted 21 suspects.

Protests have erupted in Istanbul and other cities since the bombing Monday, with demonstrators blaming the government for the attack in city close to the border with Syria. On Tuesday, police detained some people before they could march to a local ruling party office in Istanbul. Protesters also threw fireworks as police officers attempted to disperse a crowd at a separate protest in Istanbul.

View gallery

Protestors shout slogans and hold a sign reading 'Goverment massacre in Suruc- killer goverment& …

Turkey has periodically blocked social media. The government ordered a temporary block on Twitter and YouTube earlier this year during a hostage crisis in an Istanbul courthouse. Those sites were also blocked last year after audio recordings of a secret Turkish security meeting that suggested corruption by government officials were leaked on social media. Turkey's highest court, however, overturned those bans, deeming them to be unconstitutional.

Previous moves by Turkish authorities to block the social media networks have provoked widespread criticism by Western governments and human rights organizations.

__

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

__

Follow Butler and Fraser at https://twitter.com/desmondbutler and https://twitter.com/suzanfraser

Reuters Videos
Greece faces next key bailout vote

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's liquidity-starved banks got a new cash injection from the European Central Bank on Wednesday, hours before a key vote in parliament on further economic reforms demanded by international creditors in return for a third bailout.

A European banking official told The Associated Press the ECB decided to increase emergency liquidity to Greek banks by 900 million euros ($980 million) — the second such cash injection in just under a week.

Fearing a run by depositors flocking to take their savings out of Greek banks, the government imposed capital controls more than three weeks ago, restricting daily withdrawals to 60 euros ($65) per account holder. Extra ECB liquidity means that Greek banks will still be able to hand out cash.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' radical left-led government faces its second crunch test in parliament in a week later Wednesday. Failure to pass the economic measures could undermine his coalition and trigger fresh fears over the country's future in the shared euro currency.

The vote on changes to Greece's judicial and banking sectors is one of the requirements that Greece's European creditors have insisted upon in order for negotiations on a third bailout for Greece worth around 85 billion euros ($93 billion) to begin.

After losing the support of a large chunk of his own party's lawmakers during a vote last week on a creditor-demanded austerity measures, Tsipras has to rely on support from pro-European opposition parties to pass measures.

View gallery

Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos speaks during a parliament committee in Athens, Wednesday, …

Many in Tsipras' Syriza party, including former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, voted against last week's austerity measures, which included big increases to sales taxes that took effect on Monday. If more than a handful of others join the dissent in Wednesday's vote, then Tsipras' government could be in trouble.

At least five Syriza lawmakers said Wednesday they would vote against the draft law — including the firebrand parliament speaker, Zoe Konstantopoulou. In a letter to Greece's president and Tsipras, Konstantopoulou protested that the measures constituted a "violent attack on democracy," arguing that lawmakers were being given very little time to study the nearly 1,000-page bill.

Negotiations with creditors are expected to start soon after the vote.

The Greek government hopes the new bailout talks can conclude before Aug. 20, when Greece must repay a debt worth more than 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) to the ECB.

Syriza's traditional trade union base is angry at what it sees as Tsipras' betrayal of his electoral mandate. A union representing civil servants is planning an anti-government protest outside parliament before Wednesday night's vote.

View gallery

Lawmaker Yanis Varoufakis, left, holds a glass of water as he passes by Panagiotis Lafazanis, a parl …

Tsipras has accused party critics of acting irresponsibly.

"I've seen a lot of reactions and heroic statements, but so far I haven't heard any alternative proposal," Tsipras told party lawmakers on Tuesday, according to a senior government official. The official asked not to be named, citing the sensitivity of the parliamentary vote.

Tsipras also said those supporting the country's exit from the eurozone or handing so-called IOUs to retirees "should come out and say it, instead of hiding behind the safety of my signature."

The reforms being considered Wednesday are aimed at reducing the country's court backlog and speeding up revenue-related cases. Lawmakers have also been called to approve reforms related to banking union mechanisms, aimed at reducing the risk for European governments from bank crises.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said planned pension spending cuts required "further study" before being submitted to parliament.

View gallery

People queue as they wait outside a National Bank branch to open in Athens, Greece July 20, 2015. Gr …

In Brussels, Pierre Moscovici, the European Union's top economy official, said he's hoping the bailout deal can be signed by mid-August, while accepting that Greece has to meet a "punishing" schedule. Moscovici said he welcomed the vote even though it did not include all details hoped for on reducing early retirement and farmers' taxation.

Greece has relied on bailout loans totaling 240 billion euros since 2010 after it was locked out of international money markets. In return for the cash, successive governments have had to enact harsh austerity measures to try to get public finances into shape. Though the annual deficit has been reduced dramatically, the country's debt burden has risen as the Greek economy has shrunk by around a quarter.

The European Union's statistics agency announced Wednesday that Greece was making some progress on the debt front at the start of 2015, progress that's going to have been badly impacted by recent events.

Following repayments to European creditors and the International Monetary Fund, Eurostat said Greece's debt fell to 301 billion euros at the end of the first quarter from 317 billion at the end of 2014. That took the country's debt burden down to 168.8 percent from 177.1 percent.

Greece's debt still remains the highest in the 19-country eurozone by a wide margin.

___

Nicholas Paphitis in Athens and Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.

(From L to R) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pose for a group picture at the United Nations building in Vienna, Austria July 14, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin Nouri

DUBAI, (Reuters) - Iran will not accept any extension of sanctions beyond 10 years, an official said on Wednesday, in the latest attempt by its pragmatist government to sell a nuclear deal with world powers to skeptical hardliners.

Abbas Araqchi, one of several deputy foreign ministers, also told a news conference Iran would do 'anything' to help allies in the Middle East, underlining Tehran's message that despite the deal Iran will not change its anti-Western foreign policy.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran, told supporters on Saturday that U.S. policies in the region were "180 degrees" opposed to Iran's, in a Tehran speech punctuated by chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel".

Under the accord, Iran will be subjected to long-term curbs on its nuclear work in return for the lifting of U.S., European Union and U.N. sanctions. The deal was signed by the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the EU.

The world powers suspected Iran was trying to create a nuclear bomb; Tehran said its program was peaceful.

The accord was a major success for both U.S. President Barack Obama and Iran's pragmatic President Hassan Rouhani. But both leaders have to promote it at home to influential hardliners in countries that have been enemies for decades.

Araqchi, Iran's senior nuclear negotiator, told the televised conference that any attempt to re-impose sanctions after they expired in 10 years would breach the deal.

He was referring to a resolution endorsing the deal passed by the U.N. Security Council on Monday.

The resolution allows all U.N. sanctions to be re-imposed if Iran violates the agreement in the next 10 years. If Iran adheres to the terms of the agreement, all the provisions and measures of the U.N. resolution would end in 10 years.

"WE ARE NOT ASHAMED"

However, the six world powers, known as the P5+1, and the European Union told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier this month that after 10 years they planned to seek a five-year extension of the mechanism allowing sanctions to be re-imposed.

Araqchi challenged this move, saying: "Our priority is our national interests, not UN Security Council's resolutions."

"The U.N. Security Council’s resolution says clearly that the timeframe of agreement is 10 years, and Iran’s case will be closed in the Security Council after that," Araqchi said.

"If the U.S. and any other member of P5+1 say they want to adopt a new resolution after 10 years allowing sanctions to be re-imposed, it is the breach of Vienna agreement and has no credibility."

Iran's foreign ministry said shortly after the passage of the resolution on Monday that the nuclear deal did not mean Tehran accepted "sanctions and restrictions imposed by the UNSC, the U.S., the E.U. or member countries."

On Monday, Araqchi told national television: "Whenever it's needed to send arms to our allies in the region, we will do so. We are not ashamed of it."

U.S. allies in the Gulf have cautiously welcomed the July 14 deal, but they accuse Tehran of interfering in Arab conflicts, such as Syria,and pushing hard for heightened regional influence.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in remarks published on Wednesday he will seek to reassure Gulf Arab officials at a meeting in Qatar in the next two weeks that Washington will work with them to push back against Iranian influence in the region.

"We have negotiated a nuclear deal for the simple reason that we believe if you are going to push back against Iran, it's better to push back against an Iran without a nuclear weapon than with one," the pan-Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat quoted Kerry as saying.

(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, Writing by William Maclean, Editing by Ralph Boulton)