SANA via EPA

Syrian army soldiers taking position in the Jarba area in rural Damascus, Syria, in this photo released May 13 by the official Syrian Arab News Agency.

News analysis

DAMASCUS, Syria – It's early Friday morning, a holy day in Syria's capital. But war is no respecter of dawn or devotion; dense smoke is rising from several suburbs and the birdsong is punctured by the thud of falling artillery shells.

This is Damascus today; a city filled with the noise of war. MiG warplanes swoop overhead en route to rebel targets, mortars land amid dense housing, tanks rumble through suburban streets and, now and again, suicide bombers detonate their vehicles in the hope of killing President Bashar Assad's men. 

But there is a difference in the war here today, from when I last visited four months ago.

Assad's men appear to be winning, in Damascus at least.

I walked through a suburb where the front line has been pushed back 600 yards by government troops. That may not seem much, but when every 50 yards can cost scores of men's lives, even a modest advance can be significant. 

The smoke from the shelling is further away from the city than before. Rebels are less able to launch attacks on the city center. In their stronghold of Jobar, a suburb of Damascus, which they have held for months, there are now around 200 rebels who are surrounded by government forces pounding them relentlessly.

Much of the fighting on Assad's side is now being done by the militia men of the National Defense Force. They are part time soldiers, trained and armed in 40 days. Their motivation is simple and strong: to defend their districts and to drive out rebels they see as Islamist extremists.

It's thought there are around 50,000 militia soldiers. They know their ground and are proving more adept at urban, street fighting than a regular army trained in national warfare and tank battles.    

Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad tells me "momentum is absolutely on our side…We have new tactics, new ways of dealing with armed groups. Now we know the art of fighting them."

It's a pattern repeated in many areas of Syria. In the country's third largest city, Homs, a key suburb, Wadi Sayeh, was retaken by Assad's men. In the South, rebels withdrew hundreds of men from one town because they couldn't be resupplied with ammunition from Jordan. In areas of the North, rebels are running low on arms and ammunition because some donors can't afford to keep paying for munitions two years into the war.

So is this a tipping point in the war?

No.

Does it mean Assad will win?

No.

It all depends on what you mean by winning. 

‘Winning’ by not losing
The former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said that rebels in a guerrilla war only have to avoid losing to win. But in Syria that maxim might equally apply to the government. 

After Tunisia's leader fell in days, Egypt's in weeks, Libya's in months, the world assumed Assad would fall quickly. It's now been years. And he's still there.

He's there partly because of Russian and Iranian help. He receives a steady supply of weapons from both. 

The latest report in the New York Times suggests Russia has now given Syria advanced anti-ship cruise missiles, in order to deter the West from mounting a blockade or no-fly-zone against the country. Russia is also gathering a flotilla of warships near Syria in a show of strength and support for its ally, before next month's planned peace talks in Geneva. Russia's more conventional weapons stocks have been supplying the guns of the government for two years.

Syria's armed forces are also being bolstered by men from the Lebanese organization Hezbollah, men trained and in many cases, practiced in urban warfare. 

Ward Al-Keswani/Reuters

Free Syrian Army fighters carry their weapons while walking down a debris-filled street in the al-Ziyabiya area in Damascus on May 5.

Rebels losing propaganda war
There is an ebb and flow to most wars. At the moment the government has the flow and rebels are on the ebb. 

They are losing ground in the propaganda war, too. Several times this week they have posted brutal videos on the Internet, demonstrating their ruthlessness.

In one, an Islamist fighter, from the Jabhat al-Nusra group that is affiliated with al-Qaeda, appears to publicly executes 11 men kneeling in front of him. Before shooting each of them once in the head, he accuses the men of being soldiers responsible for a massacre. It's one of two brutal execution videos posted by the Al-Nusra group in recent days. Another,video widely circulated in Syria, appears to show a rebel fighter from Homs cutting a hole in a dead soldier’s chest, removing the heart and appearing to take a bite.  

It may be an ancient tactic of war, to dehumanize and terrify your enemy, but the rebels are making many in the outside world queasy and ready to question whether they are worthy of further support. Memories of smiling, flag waving, peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators have dimmed.

And the opposition’s lack of organization is becoming a real problem.

There is, arguably, no such thing as the Free Syrian Army. Aid organizations say they have to deal with around 300 different rebel groups, many loosely grouped under the umbrella of the FSA. Many others are rivals of the FSA, like the al-Nusra group. An “army” is usually something with a command structure and a unified organization. The FSA appears to be nothing of the kind.

As for a political opposition to Assad, the Syrian National Coalition is far from a united coalition. Politicians in the West are frustrated by the apparent inability of the “opposition” to provide a credible alternative to the Assad government.

What international ‘policy’?
All those issues have left supporters of Syria's initial revolution in a quandary.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

/

A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

Launch slideshow

The U.S., Britain, France and others are now seriously considering sending weapons to certain, vetted, rebel groups. But which ones? Would the apparent heart-eater's group qualify? How can Europe or America guarantee that the arms they ship will not end up in the hands of Islamists who later turn them against the West? Just remember Benghazi and the murder of a U.S. Ambassador happened in a Libyan city the West began a war to save.

The American administration seems to be indecisive in the face of a seemingly insoluble crisis, haunted by intervention in Iraq, talking about an ever thickening red line on the use of chemical weapons, but concerned about arming the wrong people a year too late. 

Britain and France are pushing for the arming of rebels, while Germany and Austria are pointing to what they see as the folly of doing so. 

Qatar and Saudi Arabia are pouring arms into Syria, money that is making the Islamists of al-Nusra the most effective fighting force on the rebel side. The Gulf States have no interest in the victory of "freedom and democracy" in Syria. As Sunni Muslim states, they want to weaken Shia-dominated nations like Syria and Iran. For many in Saudi Arabia, the advance of a Salafist-Islamist group like the black flagged Nusra Front is an added bonus.

More losers, than winners
Syria's is now more than a sectarian conflict. It's a regional conflict in microcosm, where Iran and Saudi Arabia face off, where Russia and the West arm wrestle, where Israel and Turkey spar for regional dominance and where Syrians die in the tens of thousands.

My old notebook records a death toll of 8,000. That seemed astonishingly high to me, just a year ago. Now it is ten times that and I'm no longer surprised. In fact the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K. based organization that tracks the death toll, now puts it at more than 90,000.

Syria's story today is one of massacres and executions, gruesomely recorded for history on video, of ruthless attacks by both sides, of MiG warplanes bombing men with mortars and machine guns, a chronicle of death foretold, everywhere.

President Assad may be "winning" the war now, whatever winning means. Rebels may "win" in the end by seeing him leave office. But nobody is really winning.

This is, and has been for months, an unwinnable war, deadlocked and deadly. Neither side can break through and neither side will give up. 

Today in Syria, there are only losers.

Related links: 

'Sheer savagery': Syrian rebel rips out soldier's heart, Human Rights Watch says

Syria denies blame for Turkish border bomb blast that killed at least 46

NBC News coverage of Syria 

FSB via AFP - Getty Images file

A handout photo taken early on May 14 and released by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) shows a man, identified as Ryan C. Fogle being questioned after his arrest.

The U.S. diplomat who Russia claims tried to recruit one of its intelligence officials to spy for the CIA has left Moscow, Kremlin-loyal TV reported on Sunday.

A Russian NTV broadcast appeared to show the U.S. embassy employee, Ryan Christian Fogle, moving through security at the Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow on Sunday, according to reports from the Associated Press and the BBC.

Fogle’s flight left on Sunday, according to the reports.

It was unclear where Fogle was heading. The U.S. Embassy has refused to comment on details of the case.

Fogle, who reportedly was wearing a blond wig, carrying cash, and had technical equipment when arrested, was briefly detained last week by Russian authorities. Russia declared Fogle "persona non grata" and ordered his expulsion last Tuesday.

The Russians identified him as the third secretary of the political division of the U.S. Embassy. The State Department said only that an officer at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow had been detained and released.

The Russian security service, known as the FSB, released to Russian media photographs of the American’s arrest and what it said were items he had with him, including two wigs, a torch, a compass and a wad of 500-euro notes, each worth $650.

Russian television also displayed a letter it said was found on Fogle, printed in Russian, that offered $100,000 for a potential CIA recruit.

After the decision to expel Fogle was made, the Russians then revealed a person they purport is the CIA station chief in Moscow.

According to a NBC News translation of FSB's statement on Fogle's arrest, American intelligence has made multiple attempts lately to recruit employees of Russian law enforcement agencies and special divisions, the Russians claim.

Related:

'Spirit of the Cold War': Russia says US diplomat was trying to recruit for CIA

This story was originally published on Sun May 19, 2013 4:15 PM EDT

Lawahez Jabari / NBC News

Ahmed Jawabreh, 14, was arrested in the middle of the night for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli soldiers in the West Bank refugee camp where he lives and wasn't released for another 18 days. His was only one of a recent wave of arrests of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities, human rights groups say.

TEL AVIV – Ahmed Jawabreh, 14, was asleep in his home in early April at the al-Arub refugee camp near Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, when Israeli soldiers came looking for him. He had been anticipating exams at school in the morning, not a knock at the door at 3:30 a.m.

Ahmed was arrested that night for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli soldiers in the camp earlier in the day and wasn’t released for another 18 days, when a judge ordered that a fine of $1,100 be paid and that Ahmed be placed under house arrest.

His was only one of a recent wave of arrests of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities, human rights groups say. According to Defence for Children International (DCI), an independent non-governmental organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, since the beginning of this year there has been a 17 percent increase in arrests of Palestinian children. An average of 198 children were arrested each month in 2012; that average has risen to 232 arrests during the first three months of 2013, DCI reported.  

Human rights groups say that in Hebron in particular – where Ahmed was detained – there are clear violations of international law on a daily basis, with children as young as 8 being held for violations ranging from throwing stones to being in restricted areas illegally. On March 20 alone, Israeli soldiers arrested 27 children in Hebron.

Reports of this spike in arrests come on the heels of a UNICEF study released in February which estimated around 700 Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 17 are detained each year. Over the past decade, the report said, around “7,000 children have been detained, interrogated, prosecuted and/or imprisoned within the Israeli military justice system – an average of two children each day.”

'Prevalence of minors'
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) said in a statement that there has been an increased threat to Israeli civilians and security forces recently in the form of “popular violence and rioting in Judea and Samaria [also known as the West Bank],” and that there was “a prevalence of minors taking part in such riots.”

The statement added: “It should be noted that these arrests do take place at night in order to prevent large-scale riots that would ultimately escalate the situation.”

Under Israeli military criminal law it is possible to arrest and put on trial anyone 12 years or older. Statutes in that law also state that anyone throwing stones on "a fixed target" can face a term of up to ten years, and that throwing a stone "on a moving target" can be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

Beyond the immediate concern about abuses carried out against minors like Ahmed, the consequences of imprisoning and convicting young people in this way are widespread and long-term, said Khaled Quzmar, a lawyer with DCI.

"(A) big number of those children end up leaving school or are recruited by the Israeli forces to collaborate with them following threats during investigations,” he said. “They threaten them with imprisonment if they did not collaborate."

In Ahmed's case, the soldiers were accompanied by an Israeli TV crew filming the arrest for a documentary. During the filming, Ahmed is seen begging to be allowed to take his exams in the morning. The soldiers are polite but still handcuff and blindfold him.

Ahmed, who says he admitted to throwing stones only after being mistreated, said the soldiers beat him after the cameras were turned off.

His mother thought the arrest could have been handled differently.

“They could've asked me,” she said. “I would've taken him to the police station. But not at 3:30 in the morning – to take a child from his bed!"

In 2009, the IDF established a juvenile court with special provisions for trying minors in criminal cases. The minor is given a court-appointed defense attorney and a parent or relative is required at the hearing. Minors have the right to be informed of their rights prior to an investigation, the IDF says.

However, UNICEF reported minors are often held without a parent or legal guardian present, they are often not provided with legal counsel and in some cases they are handcuffed, blindfolded and confined inside checkpoint containers.

Ahmed’s version echoes UNICEF’s findings.

"I was left outside in the sun in the daytime and in the cold at night. I was beaten many times. I was screaming," he said. "In the end I admitted to throwing two stones." 

NBC News' Marian Smith contributed to this report.

Related:

• Resistance through reality TV? Young Palestinians battle to become 'President'
• UN suspends aid in Gaza after protesters storm headquarters
• Obama visits a Bethlehem in midst of change, Islamization

DUBAI — Iranian authorities executed two men on Sunday convicted of working for Israeli and U.S. spy agencies, Iran's Fars news agency reported.

Mohammad Heidari, accused of passing security-related information and secrets to Israeli Mossad agents in exchange for money, and Kourosh Ahmadi, accused of gathering information for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, were hanged at dawn, it said. 

The sentence for their execution was handed down by Tehran's Revolutionary Court and confirmed by the country's Supreme Court.

The report did not say when the pair were arrested nor when their trial took place.

Iran has in the past said it had successfully detected and dismantled spy networks operating inside the country. It has blamed the assassinations of scientists associated with its disputed nuclear program on Western spy agencies, especially Mossad.

The United States has denied any role in the killings. Israel has not commented. 

Related:

• Who's who in Iran's presidential race
• Group: Iran jails, intimidates journalists as election looms

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired a projectile into waters off its eastern coast Sunday, a day after launching three short-range missiles in the same area, officials said.

North Korea routinely test-launches short-range missiles. But the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing recent tension, including near-daily threats by North Korea to attack South Korea and the U.S. earlier this year. North Korea protested annual joint military drills by Seoul and Washington and U.N. sanctions imposed over its February nuclear test.

The fourth launch occurred Sunday afternoon, according to officials at Seoul's Defense Ministry and Joint Chiefs of Staff. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing department rules, refused to say whether it was a missile or artillery round.

On Saturday, North Korea fired two short-range missiles in the morning and another in the afternoon. The U.S. responded by saying threats or provocations would only further deepen North Korea's international isolation, while South Korea called the launches a provocation and urged the North to take responsible actions.

The North has a variety of missiles but Seoul and Washington don't believe the country has mastered the technology needed to manufacture nuclear warheads that are small and light enough to be placed on a missile capable of reaching the U.S.

U.S. officials said the North has recently withdrawn two mid-range "Musudan" missiles believed to be capable of reaching Guam after moving them to its east coast during the recent tensions.

The Korean Peninsula officially remains in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. South Korea's Defense Ministry said Sunday it has deployed dozens of Israeli-made precision guided missiles on front-line islands near the disputed western sea boundary as part of an arms buildup begun after a North Korean artillery strike on one of the islands in 2010 killed four South Koreans.

Associated Press writer Sam Kim contributed to this report.

BERLIN – Germans are world-famous for their efficiency, a stereotype both mocked and admired by their economically ailing European neighbors.

But this hard-won reputation is now under threat after a catalog of calamities affecting major construction projects.

Perhaps worst of all is what should already be the main airport for the capital, Berlin, which has been dubbed the “eternal” construction site by the U.K.-based Economist magazine and a “fiasco” by French newspaper Le Figaro.

Udo Steffens, president of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, noted sadly that the international press had been asking, “What is it about Germany, this very efficient and effective economic power, are they not able to build a simple airport?"

It was supposed to open in October 2011 but is now not expected to be finished until 2014 at the earliest. Some staff who were hired for the opening have already been laid off.

Markus Schreiber / AP

A fence shields the main terminal of the unfinished Willy Brandt Airport near Berlin. It was supposed to have opened in late 2011 but now isn't expected to open until at least 2014 -- the cost having doubled to nearly $6 billion.

Then there’s Hamburg’s billion-dollar concert hall, ten times over budget and expected to open seven years late in 2017.

And in Stuttgart, angry protests over the demolition of the old train station to make way for a new one put officials into a costly spin.

They went back to the planning table, but after much discussion came back with a final design that was more expensive and much the same, according to a planning expert.

Germans are starting to worry they are becoming something of a laughingstock, with the airport’s woes the chief embarrassment.

"The entire republic, if not the entire world, is joking about the Berlin airport delay," said Ramona Pop, a Green Party leader in Berlin.

The cost of the Willy Brandt Airport -- named after the former German chancellor and Nobel Peace Prize winner -- has more than doubled to nearly $6 billion. The head of Brandt’s foundation has complained that the great man’s name “shouldn't be associated with the planning errors.”

It was supposed to have opened in late 2011 to cater for 30 million passengers a year, but today its visitors are mostly construction inspectors and safety experts.

The new terminal is up and the runway is being used by budget airlines from nearby Schönefeld Airport.

However, the fire protection system was installed incorrectly and there has been concern about an apparent shortage of check-in counters.

Additionally, a court has questioned the safety of future flight routes that pass over a nuclear reactor, while another ruled the "noise protection is insufficient."

The delays are hurting the 150 shops and restaurants that were supposed to open in the terminal.

"Our store interior, worth approximately $70,000, is fully in place at the terminal and collecting dust," said Markus Heckhausen, general manager of lifestyle store Ampelmann.

"We constantly renew our designs and in three to four years, the store furniture will probably be out of date," he added.

Gregor Klaessig invested $550,000 in his Fish&Chips restaurant, hired staff and purchased kitchenware. With no income in sight, the staff had to be laid off.

"I am shocked and have lost all faith in politicians," he said.

As for the concert hall, city officials in 2001 confidently predicted they would build the Elbe Philharmonic by 2010 at a cost of about $105 million.

Euroluftbild / EPA

The illuminated terminal of the Willy Brandt Airport in October 2012. Managers are reportedly spending $6,000 per day on electricity because they are unable to turn off the lights at the facility.

After a series of planning and construction failures, it has turned into a financial sinkhole with an estimated bill of more than $1 billion and a new opening date of 2017.

Stuttgart’s new train station, meanwhile, was supposed to be a major new transportation hub for southwestern Germany.

But when demolition work began on the old station in the fall of 2010, more than 50,000 people demonstrated against the project and dozens were injured when police used water cannons to break up the protest.

Officials’ efforts to handle the uproar were hardly a model of efficiency, according to one expert.

"If you look at what happened in Stuttgart, there was a huge round of mediation and participation, but the final result was the same project with a few modifications and even more expensive than it was before," said Professor Oliver Ibert, a planning expert at Free University Berlin.

But Ibert said the current furor would eventually die down.

"When the airport is open … I'm pretty sure the public discussion will be much calmer than it is today," he said.

After all, few remember that the beautiful Neuschwanstein Castle -- the model for Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland Park, California -- actually bankrupted Bavaria’s King Ludwig II in 1884.

It attracts some 1.3 million visitors a year, although they soon discover it was never actually finished and only a few rooms are decorated.

Related:

Full Germany coverage from NBC News

KAIROUAN, Tunisia - Supporters of the hard-line Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia clashed with Tunisian police on Sunday after the government banned its annual rally, saying it posed a threat to society. 

Ansar al-Sharia, which openly supports al Qaeda, is considered the most radical of the hardline Islamist groups to emerge in Tunisia since a 2011 revolution overthrew secular dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

The annual rally, expected to have drawn tens of thousands of members, was due to have been held in the central city of Kairouan, and supporters there threw stones at police, who fired teargas in response, a Reuters witness said.

Police also prevented the group holding a smaller religious meeting in the Ettadamen district of Tunis on Sunday, prompting clashes with the Salafists, who chanted: "The rule of the tyrant should fall," another Reuters witness said.

Police there fired teargas and shots into the air and to disperse some 500 protesters throwing stones at officers.

Military aircraft were patrolling the skies over the district.

Ansar al-Sharia said police had arrested its spokesman Saifeddine Rais. It was not immediately clear where or when he had been arrested, but a security source confirmed he had been detained.

The Interior Ministry said on Friday it had banned the gathering of the group, "which has shown distain for state institutions, incited violence against them and poses a threat to public security." 

Hardline Islamist Salafists are seeking a broader role for religion in Tunisia, alarming the secular elite which fears their agenda is to impose strict views on people and compromise individual freedom, women's rights and democracy.

Tunisian police blamed a Salafist for the assassination of secular opposition politician Chokri Belaid on February, which provoked the biggest street protests in Tunisia since the overthrow of Ben Ali.

Related:

• Nervous smiles as Tunisia enters new democratic era

• Tunisia recovers $29 million from wife of ousted leader Ben Ali

• Young jobless man sets himself alight in Tunisia

Sana / Reuters

Syria's President Bashar Assad (R) sits during an interview with journalists from Argentina in Damascus in this handout photograph distributed by Syria's national news agency SANA on Saturday.

LIMA - Proposed peace talks for Syria would not curb "terrorism" in the country and it is unrealistic to think they would succeed, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview published in an Argentine newspaper on Saturday. 

Speaking in Syria with the newspaper Clarin, Assad said he was doubtful that mediation the United States and Russia have proposed could settle a deadly conflict that has convulsed the country for two years. 

"There is confusion in the world between a political solution and terrorism. They think a political conference will halt terrorists in the country. That is unrealistic," he said in reference to insurgent groups seeking to unseat him. 

Rebels demanding Assad's resignation have also voiced skepticism about the proposed peace talks. 

Assad reiterated he would not resign and said peace talks would not make sense because the opposition was too fragmented to negotiate an agreement. 

"No dialogue with terrorists," he said.

Videotaped excerpts of the interview were posted on Clarin's website. 

The Syrian conflict started with mainly peaceful demonstrations against Assad, but turned into a civil war in which the United Nations says tens of thousands of people have been killed. 

Slideshow: Syria uprising

/

A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

Launch slideshow

Islamist militants have emerged as the most potent of the anti-Assad rebels. 

On Friday, the outlook for talks appeared to hit snags. 

The United States chided Russia for sending missiles to the Syrian government, while France made clear it would oppose any meeting if Assad's regional ally Iran were invited. 

Russia's position is that Tehran should be part of any solution. 

Related: 

• NYT: Entire families executed in ruthless Syrian massacre

• 'Sheer savagery': Syrian rebel rips out soldier's heart, Human Rights Watch says

• NYT: Russia sends advanced missiles to aid Assad in Syria

AP

Zohra Shahid Hussain was a senior member of former Pakistani cricket star Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.

ISLAMABAD - Gunmen killed a senior female politician from a reformist party in Pakistan on Saturday night, the latest violent incident in a bloody election campaign and one that set off a war of words between two major opposition parties. 

It was not immediately clear who killed Zohra Shahid Hussain, a senior member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. The PTI has promised to reduce endemic corruption in the nuclear-armed nation of 180 million people.

Around 150 people were killed in the run-up to national elections held last week, which handed a landslide victory to opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and his PML-N party. 

It marked the first time an elected government replaced another one in a nation that has been run by military leaders for more than half its history. 

Results from a handful of constituencies are still awaited amid accusations of vote-rigging. The shooting came hours ahead of re-polling in a key area beset by allegations of voting fraud. 

'Shockwaves '
The PTI's leader, former international cricket star Imran Khan, immediately blamed the killing on the Muttahida Quami Movement. The MQM has a stranglehold on politics in Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi. 

"Her death has sent shockwaves across the rank and file of the party," Khan said in a statement. 

Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images

Activists of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) mourn the death of Zohra Shahid Hussain, vice president of the women's wing of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the province of Sindh, outside the hospital in Karachi on Saturday.

Police said that two gunmen shot Hussain dead outside her home in an upscale neighborhood of Karachi, he said. 

"I hold (MQM leader) Altaf Hussain directly responsible for the murder as he openly threatened PTI workers and leaders through public broadcasts," he added in a tweet. 

"I also hold the British government responsible as I had warned them about British citizen Altaf Hussain after his open threats." 

MQM leader Hussain is wanted on murder charges in Pakistan and leads his party remotely from exile in England. His party is designated a terrorist organization by Canada, a charge it strongly denies. 

In recent days he gave a speech which many Pakistanis felt was an incitement to attack political rivals. The British police have been flooded with complaints demanding an investigation. 

Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.

Launch slideshow

The MQM leader insisted his words were taken out of context. MQM leaders held a press conference within hours of Hussain's death to disclaim responsibility and demand a retraction from Khan. 

Khan's election campaign electrified many Pakistanis, pushing the PTI from a marginal party with no seats in the legislature to become Pakistan's third largest party. 

National polls held a week ago gave the MQM 18 out of 19 national assembly seats in its power base in Karachi. Repolling is due to be held Sunday in the final constituency, thought to be a stronghold of PTI, after many polling stations failed to open on election day. 

The steamy port city of Karachi is Pakistan's financial heart and home to 18 million people. It typically sees about a dozen murders a day, a deadly combination of political killings, attacks by Taliban and sectarian militant groups, and street crime.

Related:

• At least 18 slain as blasts rip through 2 mosques in Pakistan village

• Explosion on bus kills 19 in Pakistan's tribal region

• The ex-cricket star vs. the comeback kid: Who will be nuclear-armed Pakistan's next leader?