Excerpts:Saudis jail 13 for plan to attack US forces. Unknown gunmen fire at
Israel border patrol.Israel Navy arrests 7 Palestinian fishermen off Gaza.
Israel military unit combs Lebanese border area. 2 internal Lebanese groups
clash. Increasing IS threats to Iraq October 22, 2014


+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 22 Oct.’14:”Saudi jails 13 for plan to attack
U.S. forces, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT:Saudi jails 13 for plan to attack US forces

QUOTE: The defendants were among 41 people who allegedly belonged to the
cell”

A Saudi court has sentenced 13 people, including an Afghan and a Qatari, to
between 18 months and 30 years in prison for plotting an al-Qaeda attack
against US forces.

The defendants were convicted of “forming a terrorist cell” to target
American forces in Qatar with hand grenades, rockets and other weapons,
official media said after Tuesday’s verdicts.

They also planned to attack U.S. forces in Kuwait, the Saudi Press Agency
(SPA) reported.

The group intended to send someone to Iraq to learn how to make vehicle
bombs that could target foreign soldiers, it said.

A specialized terrorism court sentenced the Qatari to 30 years in prison,
while the Afghan received five years.

Eleven Saudis were jailed for between 18 months and 25 years.

The defendants were among 41 people who allegedly belonged to the cell.

SPA did not say when the operation was to take place but authorities in 2011
established specialized tribunals to try Saudis and foreigners accused of
belonging to al-Qaeda or of involvement in deadly attacks in the kingdom
from 2003-2006.

The Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper identified the Qatari as the “emir of the
cell.”

The latest convictions come with Qatar and Saudi Arabia participating
alongside several other Arab states in US-led air strikes against Islamic
State group extremists in Syria.

American warplanes have also bombed IS in Iraq, reportedly flying out of air
bases including Ali al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait and al-Udeid Air Base in
Qatar, which is also home to a vital US air combat command center for the
region.



+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 22 Oct.’14:”2 Israeli Soldiers Wounded by
Gunfire from Egypt”,Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Unknown gumen fire at Israel border patrol

QUOTE: 2 female Israeli soldiers were wounded[22 Oct.] when unidentified
gunmen in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula fired shots and an anti-tank missile at
their vehicle near the border.”

FULL TEXT:Two female Israeli soldiers were wounded on Wednesday[22 Oct.]
when unidentified gunmen in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula fired shots and an
anti-tank missile at their vehicle near the border, the army said.

The incident took place along a section of the border which lies some 60
kilometers (37 miles) south of the Gaza Strip, army spokesman Lieutenant
Colonel Peter Lerner said.

"About 2pm (1100 GMT), we had shots and an anti-tank missile fired at a
vehicle that was on the border," Lerner told reporters, saying that two
soldiers who were patrolling the border had sustained light-to-medium
injuries.

The army confirmed the soldiers were members of the all-women Caracal
battalion, which is responsible for defending the Israel-Egypt border.

Lerner said it was not immediately clear who had carried out the attack,
which took place near the border community of Ezuz, and that searches were
under way to ensure that none of the gunmen had managed to cross the border
into Israel.

"IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is currently trying to gather intelligence to
determine who carried out this activity."

The Sinai Peninsula has seen a significant increase in attacks by militants
targeting Egyptian security forces and the Israeli border after the army
overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July last year.

+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 22 Oct.’14:”Israel Navy Arrests 7 Palestinian
Fishermen Off Gaza”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Israel Navy arrest 7 Palestinian fishermen off Gaza
QUOTE:”Boats has strayed beyond permitted fishing limit
EXCXERPT:Israel's navy arrested seven Palestinian fishermen off northern
Gaza on Wednesday, officials on both sides said, with the army claiming
their boats had strayed beyond the permitted fishing limit.

"The Israeli navy arrested seven fishermen from one family in Sudaniya in
the sea off northern Gaza," the head of the Gaza fishermen's syndicate,
Nizar Ayash, told AFP.

The army confirmed the arrest of seven fishermen on two boats, saying they
had strayed beyond the six-nautical mile fishing limit imposed as part of
Israel's naval blockade.

"This morning, two vessels sailed beyond the permitted fishing zone," a
spokeswoman told AFP, saying troops had fired warning shots to halt them
that were ignored.

Troops then fired rubber bullets towards the boats, wounding one of the
fishermen "very lightly," she said. All seven were taken for questioning.

According to the terms of an August 26 truce agreement which ended a deadly
50-day war between Israel and Hamas militants, Gaza fishermen are permitted
to trawl the waters up to six nautical miles off the shore.

SourceAgence France Presse




+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 22 Oct’14:”Israeli Soldiers Perform Combing
Operation Near Wazzani”
SUBJECT:Israel military unit combs Lebanese border area
QUOTE: they also used sniffer dogs during the wide combing operation”
FULL TEXT:An Israeli military unit combed on Wednesday[22 Oct.] the area at
the eastern bank of Wazzani River, the state-run National News Agency
reported.

NNA said the 40-member patrol was protected by three Merkava tanks.

The soldiers combed the area stretching from the western side of the town of
Ghajar to the Wazzani park, it said.

They also used sniffer dogs during the wide combing operation that lasted
around an hour as helicopters and drones flew overhead, the agency added.

On Tuesday[21 Oct.], NNA said that an Israeli army patrol crossed the
technical fence near the so-called Wazzani Fort and stayed in the area for
three hours.

The eight-member patrol, which was backed by a Humvee, reached the banks of
Wazzani River and monitored the area for three hours, NNA added.


+++SOURCE:”Naharnet (Lebanon) 22 Oct.’14:”Report: Clashes between
Palestinian Group Nusra Front in Bekaa”
SUBJECT: 2 internal Lebanse groups clash
EXCERPTS:Clashes erupted between the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and al-Nusra Front in the Eastern
Mountain range along the border with Syria, media reports said on
Wednesday[22 Oc,].

Al-Liwaa newspaper reported that various kinds of machinguns, rockets and
arms were used during the battles in the Qusaya area in the eastern Bekaa
valley, where the PFLP-GC has a military base.

The state-run National News Agency reported that the clashes were
accompanied by the firing of eight flare bombs by the Israeli army, which
lit up the sky above its spying station in Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh) on
the outskirts of Qusaya.

No further details were available.

This is the first such report on clashes between the Palestinian group and
Islamists from al-Nusra Front.

The PFLP-GC, the most radical Palestinian faction whose command is based in
Damascus with unlimited support from Syria, has maintained military bases in
the eastern Bekaa Valley as well as in the hills of Naameh south of Beirut
for the last 23 years.

The PFLP-GC is the only Palestinian faction that maintains significant
military positions outside the 12 Palestinian camps in Lebanon.





+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 22 Oct.’14:”Consumed by Islamic State Iraq’s Anbar
province a key battleground again”, Reuters
SUBJECT : Increasing IS threats to Iraq
QUOTE:”In recent weeks the world has watched Kobani But the radical
jihadists have for longer been engulfing another strategically more vital
target –Iraq’s weatern Anbar prvince and its road to Baghdad”
FULL TEXT:BAGHDAD — In recent weeks, the world has watched the battle to
save Syria's border town of Kobani from Islamic State (IS). But the radical
jihadists have for longer been engulfing another strategically more vital
target — Iraq's western Anbar province and its road to Baghdad.

The vast desert region — where Sunni tribes rose up in 2006 and 2007 to
drive out Al Qaeda with the Americans — has throughout 2014 been parcelled
up, city by military camp, before the Iraqi government and US forces could
act.

Now Anbar's largest airbase Ain Al Asad, the Haditha Dam — a critical piece
of infrastructure — and surrounding towns are encircled by IS to the west
from the Syrian border and to the east from militant-controlled sections of
Ramadi.

IS has grown so strong over the last year that "they are like an octopus
stuck to your face", said a Baghdad-based foreign diplomat.

Within IS’ grasp: an open route from the Syrian border all the way to
Baghdad.

Gateway to Baghdad



The town of Amiriya Fallujah — 40 Kilometres southwest of Baghdad — was
encircled by IS tanks and armoured vehicles for almost a week.

General Faisal Zobaie, police commander for the town and who fought Al Qaeda
in 2007 in Fallujah, told Reuters how he scrambled to reach the Americans
and ask for air strikes to hit the massed fighters surrounding his
community.

He said he had met US diplomats and officers at a meeting in Baghdad days
earlier who had urged the fighters to flush out IS fighters so the US
military could bomb them.

So last Tuesday night, surrounded, Zobaie frantically called and texted
Iraqi politicians and civilians whom he thought might link him to US
military command. By the time Zobaie reached US contacts, the IS fighters
had hidden in neighbouring villages and concealed their weapons.

Within days the community had been reinforced with an army unit. Even with
that, an IS suicide bomber in a Humvee infiltrated the town and killed a
brigadier general on Sunday. For the,

moment, a road south had been cleared. But IS still flanks the town to the
north and has proven its ability to retake ground.

Zobaie says he has begged the Iraqi government and the US military to arm
his policemen so they can fight back.

“I swear I’ll take back Fallujah if they give us the weapons,” he said.

============
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA