ARCAMAX RELIGIOUS NEWS

Rockets from Gaza hit deep into Israel
GAZA (UPI) -- Palestinian militants fired two rockets far into southern Israel Thursday as cross-border tensions escalated and Israel responded with airstrikes in Gaza.

One of the Soviet-style BM-21 Grad rockets, fired from a truck-mounted multiple-rocket launcher, struck north of the industrial port city of Ashdod, about 20 miles south of Tel Aviv, and the other exploded near Yavneh, about 15 miles south of Tel Aviv, Israel said.

At least five mortar shells and two Qassam rockets struck Israeli territory overnight, and another rocket hit near the coastal city of Ashkelon, 8 miles north of the Gaza Strip border, Israel said.

Islamic Jihad, a militant organization whose stated goal is to replace Israel with a Palestinian Islamic state, claimed responsibility for the latest rocket fire.

Israel's airstrikes targeted smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border, as well as one of its training camps inside Gaza, said Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza.

One of the strikes hit a power transformer, causing blackouts in the area, Gaza witnesses said. Medical workers reported no casualties, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

The Israeli military, which confirmed the airstrikes, said an attack on a rocket launcher struck "a group of terrorists preparing to launch rockets at Israeli territory."

Hamas said Wednesday night it wanted to "restore calm" and indicated it was backing off from escalating attacks, Israeli media network Arutz Sheva reported.

Before leaving for Moscow Wednesday night, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Israel had "set a clear policy on security, the essence of which is a vigorous response to any attempt to harm Israeli citizens, and systematic and assertive preventive measures against terrorism."

Both sides claimed they were retaliating and not seeking an escalation in the conflict.

Israeli police raised the alert level to its highest position throughout the country in light of the attacks and following a Jerusalem bomb explosion Wednesday that left a woman dead and at least 24 other people injured.

The bomb exploded at a crowded bus stop near Jerusalem's main bus station in the worst attack in Jerusalem in four years, Israeli officials said.

The decision to elevate the alert came after a meeting of the country's top security, Israel Radio reported.

The woman killed in Wednesday's bomb blast was a 56-year old British tourist, police said. Thirteen victims remained hospitalized in the capital, including a 14-year-old girl suffering from serious head injuries.

Islamic Jihad praised the Jerusalem bombing, as did the Popular Resistance Committees, another militant group that is considered close to Hamas



Copyright 2011 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 03/24/2011

80 said killed in Syrian crackdown
DARAA, Syria (UPI) -- Pro-democracy activists in Syria said Thursday some 80 people were killed in an attack by Syrian security forces on a mosque in the southwestern city of Daraa.

A graphic amateur video claims to show five or six people dead after the security forces allegedly attacked protesters who had taken refuge in a mosque.

The video, posted on YouTube and viewed by United Press International, shows a street littered with blood-covered bodies of mostly young men who appear to have been shot. Several other men appear to be caring for a wounded man also lying on the street while still other men stand and watch. Noise sounding like gunfire can be heard in the background.

Among the dead was Ali al-Mahameed, a doctor whom witnesses said was shot while tending to the injured, The New York Times reported.

It was not known how many people were wounded in the attack.

The protesters had called for political freedoms and an end to corruption. They had vowed to remain in the Omari mosque until their demands were met.

Following the attack, security forces launched an assault on the surrounding neighborhood where they believed demonstrators were hiding, witnesses said.

Wednesday's violence represented a dramatic escalation in events following nearly a week of protests in the southern Syrian city, the Euronews channel reported.

The city near Jordan, on the Damascus-Amman Highway about 60 miles south of the capital, was the scene of a week of pro-democracy demonstrations and was in lockdown Thursday night, witnesses said. Communications were limited.

Government-controlled Syrian Television described the mosque incident differently, saying four people died due to an attack on an ambulance by "an armed gang" during a police raid. The report showed guns, grenades, ammunition and money it said had been taken from the mosque after the alleged raid.

The official Syrian Arab News Agency said the gang had killed a doctor, a medical worker and a driver in an ambulance and "security forces faced down those aggressors and managed to shoot and wound a few of them."

The mosque's imam, Ahmed al-Sayasna, told the al-Arabiya news channel no weapons were in the mosque, which he said was now under police control.

Pro-democracy protests around Syria were called for Friday.

In Washington, the State Department said the United States was "deeply troubled by violence and civilian deaths in Daraa at the hands of security forces."

A department statement condemned "the Syrian government's use of violence, intimidation and arbitrary arrests in Daraa to hinder the ability of its people to freely exercise their universal rights."

It called on Syria to "exercise restraint and refrain from violence against peaceful protesters."

Copyright 2011 by United Press International