US, Iraq work together to combat Syria spillover effects
US to provide Iraq with shared intel and F-16 jets.
Jerusalem Post - WASHINGTON - The United States and Iraq agreed on Thursday to boost cooperation to keep Iran from flying weapons over Iraq to Syria, and to curb the radicalization of young Iraqis and other spillover effects from the Syrian conflict.
US help for Iraq will include intelligence- and information-sharing in the short term, followed by a planned sale of a $2.6 billion integrated air defense system and F-16 fighter jets, a senior US official said.
The agreement came during talks in Washington led by Secretary of State John Kerry and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, which took place amid a period of escalating bloodshed that has taken the monthly death toll in Iraq to its highest levels in five years. Read More
Car bomb kills at least 20 in Hezbollah area of Beirut
Al Arabiya - At least 20 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded when a car bomb exploded on Thursday in the stronghold of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group in the southern Beirut district.
Al Arabiya correspondent said the death toll is likely to rise as rescue teams continue to uncover more bodies.
Buildings were damaged and many cars in the area were destroyed. The blast sent a column of black smoke over the densely populated area in the south of the Lebanese capital, Reuters reported.
The blast took place in the Rweiss district, a heavily Shiite district that is one of Hezbollah’s bastions of support.
A Sunni Islamist group calling itself the Brigades of Aisha claimed responsibility for the explosion, according to Reuters.
“This is the second time that we decide the place of the battle and its timing...And you will see more, God willing,” said a masked man, flanked by two others brandishing rifles, in a video statement addressed to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
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