Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - A senior Hamas official Saturday called on Palestinians to take up arms to "defend" the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem after a rise in Jewish visitors to the flashpoint site.

"The only solution to defend the Al-Aqsa mosque and to prevent Israelis from carrying out their plans there is for West Bank and Jerusalem residents to take up arms," Mahmud Zahar said in an interview posted on the Islamist movement's website.

Tensions have been high in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem recently, with Palestinians and Israeli police clashing at the site, which is holy to both Muslims and Jews.

Zahar's call comes after numerous attacks on Palestinians were reported in the West Bank Friday as Israeli troops searched for the suspected Palestinian killers of a Jewish settler couple shot in front of their young children.

"Until now weapons have only served to protect the settlers and the occupiers," added Zahar, whose movement rules the Gaza Strip. "But we should not forget the West Bank has great human resources that can be mobilised at any moment."

"The image of Palestinians from the West Bank and Jerusalem throwing stones and Molotov cocktails has dealt a blow to the occupier," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month vowed "war" on stone-throwers.

His security cabinet broadened the rules under which they can be targeted by live fire, while setting minimum sentences and authorising larger fines for stone-throwing minors and their parents.

In short, the Pentagon’s contention that Russia and Iran have formed a Mid-East “nexus” isn’t akin to the Bush administration’s hollow, largely bogus attempt to demonize America’s foreign policy critics in the eyes of the public by identifying an “axis of evil.” Rather, the Pentagon’s assessment was an attempt to come to grips with a very real effort on the part of Moscow and Tehran to tip the scales in the Mid-East away from Riyadh and Washington.

Solidifying the Assad regime in Syria serves to shore up Hezbollah and presents Tehran with an opportunity to assert itself in the name of combatting terror. The latter point there is critical. The West has long contended that Iran is the world’s foremost state sponsor of terror, and the Pentagon has variously accused the Quds Force of orchestrating attacks on US soldiers in Iraq after cooperation between Washington and Tehran broke down in the wake of Bush’s “axis of evil” comment.

Indeed, Iran was accused of masterminding a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador at a Washington DC restaurant in 2011.

Now, the tables have turned. It is the US, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar who stand accused of sponsoring Sunni extremists and it is Iran, and specifically the Revolutionary Guard, that gets to play hero.

Of course this would be largely impossible without Moscow’s stamp of superpower approval. The optics around the P5+1 nuclear deal were making it difficult for Tehran to be too public in its efforts to bolster Assad. That doesn’t mean Tehran’s support for the regime in Syria hasn’t been well documented for years, it simply means that Iran needed to observe some semblance of caution, lest its role in Syria should end up torpedoing the nuclear negotiations. Now that Moscow is officially involved, that caution is no longer obligatory and Iran is now moving to support Russian airstrikes with an outright ground incursion (just as we’ve been saying for weeks [9]). Here’s WSJ [10]:

Yes, it certainly does "look like" that, and it wasn't hard to see this coming. Here's another excerpt from our recent analysis:

Make no mistake, this is shaping up to be the most spectacular US foreign policy debacle since Vietnam - and we don't think that's an exaggeration.

The US, in conjunction with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, attempted to train and support Sunni extremists to overthrow the Assad regime. Some of those Sunni extremists ended up going crazy and declaring a Medeival caliphate putting the Pentagon and Langley in the hilarious position of being forced to classify al-Qaeda as "moderate." The situation spun out of control leading to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths and when Washington finally decided to try and find real "moderates" to help contain the Frankenstein monster the CIA had created in ISIS (there were of course numerous other CIA efforts to arm and train anti-Assad fighters, see below for the fate of the most "successful" of those groups), the effort ended up being a complete embarrassment that culminated with the admission that only "four or five [11]" remained and just days after that admission, those "four or five" were car jacked [12] by al-Qaeda in what was perhaps the most under-reported piece of foreign policy comedy in history.

Meanwhile, Iran sensed an epic opportunity to capitalize on Washington's incompetence. Tehran then sent its most powerful general to Russia where a pitch was made to upend the Mid-East balance of power. The Kremlin loved the idea because after all, Moscow is stinging from Western economic sanctions and Vladimir Putin is keen on showing the West that, in the wake of the controversy surrounding the annexation of Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Russia isn't set to back down. Thanks to the fact that the US chose extremists as its weapon of choice in Syria, Russia gets to frame its involvement as a "war on terror" and thanks to Russia's involvement, Iran gets to safely broadcast its military support for Assad just weeks after the nuclear deal was struck. Now, Russian airstrikes have debilitated the only group of CIA-backed fighters that had actually proven to be somewhat effective and Iran and Hezbollah are preparing a massive ground invasion under cover of Russian air support. Worse still, the entire on-the-ground effort is being coordinated by the Iranian general who is public enemy number one in Western intelligence circles and he's effectively operating at the behest of Putin, the man that Western media paints as the most dangerous person on the planet.

As incompetent as the US has proven to be throughout the entire debacle, it's still difficult to imagine that Washington, Riyadh, London, Doha, and Jerusalem are going to take this laying down and on that note, we close with our assessment from Thursday:

Kabul (AFP) - President Barack Obama has promised a full investigation into an apparent US air strike on an Afghan hospital that killed 19 people, a bombing which the UN said could amount to a war crime.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said patients burned to death in their beds during a raid that continued for more than an hour early Saturday, even after US and Afghan authorities were informed the hospital had been hit.

"Twelve staff members and at least seven patients, including three children, were killed; 37 people were injured," the charity said. "This attack is abhorrent and a grave violation of international law."

The air raid came days after Taliban fighters seized control of the strategic northern city of Kunduz, in their most spectacular victory since being toppled from power by a US-led coalition in 2001.

Afghan forces, backed up by their NATO allies, claimed to have wrestled back control of the city.

But the defence ministry in Kabul said "a group of armed terrorists... were using the hospital building as a position to target Afghan forces and civilians".

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In this photograph released by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on October 3, 2015, Afghan MSF staff r …

MSF has denied any combatants were in the hospital.

The charity said that despite frantic calls to military officials in Kabul and Washington, the main building housing the intensive care unit and emergency rooms was "repeatedly, very precisely" hit almost every 15 minutes for more than an hour.

"The bombs hit and then we heard the plane circle round," said Heman Nagarathnam, MSF's head of programmes in northern Afghanistan.

"There was a pause, and then more bombs hit. This happened again and again. When I made it out from the office, the main hospital building was engulfed in flames.

"Those people that could had moved quickly to the building’s two bunkers to seek safety. But patients who were unable to escape burned to death as they lay in their beds."

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Afghan MSF surgeons work in an undamaged part of the MSF hospital in Kunduz after the operating thea …

US President Barack Obama offered his "deepest condolences" for what he called a "tragic incident".

"The Department of Defense has launched a full investigation, and we will await the results of that inquiry before making a definitive judgement as to the circumstances of this tragedy," Obama said in a statement.

NATO earlier conceded US forces may have been behind the bombing, after its forces launched a strike which they said was intended to target militants.

"The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility. This incident is under investigation," a statement said.

The incident has renewed concerns about the use of US air strikes in Afghanistan, a deeply contentious issue in the 14-year campaign against Taliban insurgents.

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Kunduz is facing a humanitarian crisis, with thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire between …

UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein called for a full and transparent probe, noting: "an air strike on a hospital may amount to a war crime."

"This event is utterly tragic, inexcusable and possibly even criminal," he said.

- 'Horrific loss' -

MSF said some 105 patients and their caregivers, as well as more than 80 international and local MSF staff, were in the hospital, the only one in the area that can deal with major injuries, at the time.

The charity said Afghan and coalition forces were fully aware of the exact location of the hospital, having been given GPS co-ordinates of a facility it said had been providing care for four years.

"We demand total transparency from Coalition forces. We cannot accept that this horrific loss of life will simply be dismissed as 'collateral damage'," said MSF president Meinie Nicolai.

MSF said its hospital, a key medical lifeline in northern Afghanistan, is not functional any more and all critical patients have been referred to other facilities.

"I can't confirm whether our Kunduz trauma centre will re-open, or not, at this stage," a spokeswoman for the charity said.

The development comes as Kunduz grapples with a humanitarian crisis, with thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire between government forces and insurgents. At least 60 people are known to have died and 400 to have been wounded in recent fighting.

The Taliban seized on the incident, saying "barbaric American forces... carried out deliberate air strikes on a civilian hospital".

In a statement it denied any of its fighters were being treated at the MSF clinic "because the prevailing military situation of Kunduz would not allow us to admit our patients to the said hospital".

The Islamists' offensive in Kunduz marks a major blow for Afghanistan's Western-trained forces.

US-led NATO forces ended their combat mission in Afghanistan last December, though a 13,000-strong force remains for training and counter-terrorism operations.

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Storms Batter and Flood Communities Up and Down the East Coast

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — While spared the full fury of Hurricane Joaquin, parts of the East Coast saw record-setting rain Saturday that shut down roads, waterlogged crops and showed little sign of letting up.

Much of the drenching was centered in the Carolinas, but coastal communities as far away as New Jersey were feeling the effects of unrelenting rainfall. Rain and flood warnings remained in effect for many parts of the East Coast through Sunday. At least five weather-related deaths have been reported.

President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in South Carolina and ordered federal aid to help state and local efforts.

Three people died in three separate weather-related traffic incidents in South Carolina since the heavy rains began, the state's highway patrol said, including two motorists who lost control of their cars and a pedestrian hit by a car.

Once the rain ends, the flood threat persists because the ground is too saturated to absorb water, meteorologists say. And high winds could topple trrees like the one that hit a vehicle near Fayetteville, North Carolina, killing a passenger. The storm also has been linked to a drowning in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Downtown Charleston was closed to incoming traffic Saturday as rain flooded roads and left some motorists stranded as flood waters engulfed their cars. At least two bridges were washed out in other parts of the state.

"Where we normally are dealing with flooding for a few hours, we're dealing with it in days here," Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen told The Associated Press. "We're seeing areas flood today that did not traditionally flood."

Several shelters were opened in coastal counties while health officials warned people not to swim or play in the flood waters. The South Carolina Emergency Management Division said its command center was open and running 24 hours a day for as long as the flood threat remains.

Inland areas of South Carolina also were battered by rain. In Columbia, which is in the middle of the state, business owners spent Saturday caulking and duct-taping windows and readying sandbags.

"I know it's going to be a sleepless night," said Kelly Tabor, owner of Good for the Sole shoe store.

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A couple takes photos as a wave crashes against a wall along The Battery in Charleston, S.C., Saturd …

The Greenville-Spartanburg Airport in South Carolina recorded 2.3 inches of rain Saturday, smashing the previous record of 0.77 inches set in 1961, according to John Tomko, National Weather Service meteorologist at Greenville-Spartanburg.

"This one is extraordinary in that it's such a prolonged event," he said.

In North Carolina, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler says farmers are starting to see the impact of the continuous rain on their crops. Apples in Henderson County are starting to split open because they're waterlogged and farmers can't get into the fields to harvest other crops.

"I had one farmer tell me this is like getting all of your cash assets, put them on a clothesline, waiting for the wind to blow them away," he said.

Flooded roads were closed throughout the mid-Atlantic region and power companies reported scattered outages in several states.

In New Jersey, storms dislodged an entire house from its pilings in a low-lying area of Middle Township in southern Jersey. No one was in the residence.

The National Weather Service in Greenville, South Carolina, said that "bursts of heavy rain are likely" in the Carolinas and parts of northern Georgia that could cause some rivers and streams to flood significantly.

The rain levels had the potential to be "life threatening and historic," the service said on its website.

Flood watches and warnings also are in effect in Delaware and parts of New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.

The weather service issued a warning for residents living along the coast to be alert for rising water. A combination of high water and high waves could result in beach erosion and damage to docks and piers.

Still, the Atlantic Seaboard was spared what could have been much worse damage had Hurricane Joaquin not continued on a path well off the U.S. coast. And some people found ways to enjoy the wet weather Saturday.

Steven Capito spent the day surfing by the Ocean View Fishing Pier in Norfolk, Virginia, where two- to three-foot waves crashed ashore. Ordinarily, he said waves from the Chesapeake Bay would barely lap his ankles.

"It's kind of a fun novelty to be out here in the bay," said Capito, who lives in Virginia Beach. "You only get to do it a couple of times a year and it's nice and warm."

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This story has been corrected to show that bridges were not washed out in Charleston.

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Smith reported from Charleston and Foreman from Charlotte, North Carolina. Contributing to this report were Associated Press journalists Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia, Brock Vergakis in Norfolk, Virginia; David Dishneau in Ocean City, Maryland; Bruce Shipkowski in Trenton, New Jersey, Chuck Burton in Charleston and Julie Walker in New York.

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A migrant waves from aboard a lorry on the access road to reach the ferry terminal in Calais, France, October 3, …

Lille (France) (AFP) - More than 100 migrants stormed the Channel Tunnel early Saturday, penetrating a third of the way through and attacking staff in an incident that halted overnight traffic.

The attempt to go through the tunnel from France to Britain came as the daily flow of thousands of migrants and refugees flocking to Europe's shores showed little sign of easing, with 168,000 migrants and refugees arriving in September alone, UN figures showed.

Most are seeking refuge in Germany or Sweden, but others have continued their journey to France in the hope of somehow crossing the Channel to reach England.

Traffic through the Channel Tunnel, which connects Britain and France, was halted for more than seven hours after a group of 113 migrants stormed into the tunnel in the hope of reaching the other side.

Train journeys resumed Saturday but with delays of up to three hours.

Eurotunnel, which operates the complex, said the incident was unprecedented, with migrants aggressively attacking its staff.

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Security agents escort migrants after their intrusion in the Eurotunnel site in Coquelles, northern …

"This has never been seen before, it was a determined and well-planned attack," a spokesman told AFP of the incident, which took place shortly after midnight (2230 GMT Friday) at the entrance to the tunnel near the northern French port city of Calais.

He said the group "ran through the terminal, pinning a number of staff members to the ground and throwing stones at them."

A police source told AFP that earlier Friday evening there had been a substantial movement of migrants through Calais and towards the tunnel entrance "in the presence of No Border militants" -- an activist group backing free movement in Europe.

As Europe struggles with its biggest migration crisis since World War II, thousands have made their way towards France's northern coast in the hope of finding passage across the Channel to England.

Fabienne Buccio, head of the Pas-de-Calais region, said the group had demonstrated "a certain level of aggressiveness" during the breach.

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Trucks are blocked on a highway near the Eurotunnel site in Coquelles, northern France, on October 3 …

- A determined attempt -

"Normally they stop before the security forces, but this time they wanted to get through," she told AFP, saying they had managed to get a third of the way through the tunnel, which stretches some 50 kilometres (30 miles).

Buccio said two police and four migrants sustained light injuries in the incident.

French border police were repairing a large breach of nearly 30 metres (yards) in one of the many fences around the site.

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Workers repair a fence securing the Eurotunnel terminal area on October 3, 2015 in Coquelles, near C …

Eurotunnel said it had closed the tunnel at around 12:30 am (2230 GMT on Friday) and services resumed by around 8:00 am.

Shortly afterwards, there was another attempt at Calais port when 300 migrants tried to get into the terminal through several different entrances as well as trying to board lorries, port security officials told AFP.

But they began to disperse when the police turned up around 10:30 am and blocked off the ring road leading to the port, an AFP correspondent said.

In August, the interior ministers of France and Britain signed an agreement to set up a new "command and control centre" to tackle smuggling gangs in Calais.

The move came after several weeks of attempts to penetrate the sprawling Eurotunnel site, the biggest of which was on August 3, when there were 1,700 attempts to get in.

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Migrants on a dinghy arrives at the southeastern island of Kos, Greece, after crossing from Turkey o …

Since then, major work to step up security has seen new barriers erected and more staff deployed along with sniffer dogs. The number of attempted break-ins has fallen to around 100 per night, police say.

Such attempts can be fatal: in the past three months, some 13 people have died while trying to reach the tunnel.

- 'Schengen's borders broken' -

Meanwhile at Hungary's Beremend crossing on the border with Croatia, buses were awaiting to pick up the new arrivals after 4,987 people crossed on Friday, taking to 300,159 the total number who have entered so far this year.

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Sunday, September 13. A father breaks down after reaching the Hungarian border from Serbia with his …

Similar scenes were playing out on Croatia's border with Serbia with buses waiting to ferry the new arrivals directly to the Hungarian border. Zagreb said it had logged 5,000 new arrivals on Friday, taking the total since mid-September to 100,066 people.

Hungary is attaching razor wire to a fence erected at its border with Croatia, in a possible prelude to sealing the frontier to thousands of migrants.

Austria said it registered 2,683 new arrivals on Friday and another 2,363 in the early hours of Saturday.

Tens of thousands of people marched in the Austrian capital Vienna on Saturday in solidarity with the migrants.

The rally attracted a crowd of 60,000 according to the organisers, 20,000 according to police figures.

"All the refugees are welcome. It doesn't matter which war, persecution or other cause has pushed them to flee," said a spokesman for the collective of pro-asylum groups that organised the show of support.

With little end in sight, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said she feared for Europe's borderless Schengen zone, urging countries to shore up their external frontiers.