• Iran-backed Hezbollah warns it may intervene in Syria war

    Bilal Hussein / AP

    Pro-Syrian-government fighters from Lebanon stand guard at the border of the two countries on April 12. The head of Lebanon-based Hezbollah has threatened that his heavily armed group, backed by Iran, may become further involved in the battle against forces trying to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

    By Zeina Karam, The Associated Press

    BEIRUT -- The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group said Tuesday that Syrian rebels will not be able to defeat President Bashar Assad's regime militarily, warning that Syria's "real friends," including his Iranian-backed militant group, were ready to intervene on the government's side.

    Hezbollah, a powerful Shiite Muslim group, is known to back Syrian regime fighters in Shiite villages near the Lebanon border against the mostly Sunni rebels fighting to topple Assad. The comments by Sheik Hassan Nasrallah were the strongest indication yet that his group was ready to get far more involved to rescue Assad's embattled regime.

    "You will not be able to take Damascus by force and you will not be able to topple the regime militarily. This is a long battle," Nasrallah said, addressing the Syrian opposition.

    Slideshow: Syria uprising

    /

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

    Launch slideshow

    "Syria has real friends in the region and in the world who will not allow Syria to fall into the hands of America or Israel."

    Hezbollah and Iran are close allies of Assad. Rebels have accused them of sending fighters to assist Syrian troops trying to crush the two-year-old anti-Assad uprising, which the U.N. says has killed more than 70,000 people.

    Deeper and more overt Hezbollah involvement in the Syrian conflict is almost certain to threaten stability in Lebanon, which is sharply split along sectarian lines, and between supporters and opponents of Assad. It also risks drawing in Israel and Iran into a wider Middle East war.

    Nasrallah said Tuesday there are no Iranian forces in Syria now, except for some experts who he said have been in Syria for decades. But he added: "What do you imagine would happen in the future if things deteriorate in a way that requires the intervention of the forces of resistance in this battle?"

    Hezbollah has an arsenal that makes the group the most powerful military force in Lebanon, stronger than the national army. Its growing involvement in the Syrian civil war is already raising tensions inside the divided country and has drawn threats from enraged Syrian rebels and militants.

    Nasrallah also said his fighters had a duty to protect the holy Shiite shrine of Sayida Zeinab, named for the granddaughter of Islam's Prophet Muhammad and located south of Damascus.

    He said rebels have captured several villages around the shrine and have threatened to destroy it.

    NBC's Chuck Todd examines the White House's response to allegations that Syria is using chemical weapons.

    "If the shrine is destroyed things will get out of control," Nasrallah said, citing the 2006 bombing of the Shiite al-Askari shrine in the Iraqi city of Samarra. That attack was blamed on al Qaeda in Iraq and set off years of retaliatory bloodshed between Sunni and Shiite extremists that left thousands of Iraqis dead and pushed the country to the brink of civil war.

    In recent weeks, government troops have overrun two rebel-held Damascus suburbs and a town outside the capital. They also have captured several villages near the border with Lebanon as part of their efforts to secure the strategic corridor running from Damascus to the Mediterranean coast, which is the heartland of the president's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

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  • Chopper carrying Israel's Netanyahu lands after drone spotted off coast

    By Paul Goldman and F. Brinley Bruton, NBC News

    TEL AVIV, Israel - A helicopter carrying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly forced to land in the north of the country after an unmanned drone was spotted trying to infiltrate Israel's airspace.

    The prime minister's helicopter took off after the drone was shot down, according reports in Haaretz and Ynetnews. 

    "The (unmanned aerial vehicle) was tracked by IDF ground and aerial surveillance for the duration of its flight path as it attempted to approach Israel's coast," the Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF, said in a statement.  "Israel Air Force aircraft intercepted the UAV and successfully downed the target five nautical miles off the coast of the northern Israeli city of Haifa."

    The IDF declined to confirm Israeli media reports that Netanyahu's helicopter landed, but the prime minister did issue a statement shortly after news of the incident was released.

    "I view with utmost gravity this attempt to violate our border. We will continue to do everything necessary to safeguard the security of Israel's citizens," the prime minister said in a statement. 

    The incident was the second time in seven months that a drone had been intercepted in Israeli airspace, the IDF said. It did not say where the drone originated, but during the 2006 Israeli war with Lebanon, Israeli jets intercepted two drones launched by Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant organization. 

    "UAVs pose a serious threat to the State of Israel's security. The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to violate Israel's sovereignty or harm its security," the IDF statement added. 

    The IDF said it was searching the area over which the drone was shot down on Thursday evening.

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  • Syria threatens military action in Lebanon

    Wael Hamzeh / EPA

    Supporters of the Salafist Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir take part in a rally showing solidarity with the Syrian people in Beirut, Lebanon, on Feb. 8.

    Syria warned it may strike at rebels hiding in neighboring Lebanon if the Lebanese army does not act, the state news agency SANA said on Friday, the second anniversary of the civil war.

    Syria's Foreign Ministry told its Lebanese counterpart late on Thursday that a "large number" of militants had crossed Lebanon's northern border into the Syrian town of Tel Kalakh over the past two days, SANA said.

    "Syria expects the Lebanese side to prevent these armed terrorist groups from using the borders as a crossing point, because they target Syrian people and are violating Syrian sovereignty," the diplomatic cable said.

    It said Syria's "patience is not unlimited," even though "Syrian forces have so far exercised restraint from striking at armed gangs inside Lebanese territory."

    Fighting near the border resulted in a large number of casualties, SANA said, before the gunmen retreated into Lebanon.

    Lebanon has a policy of "dissociation" from the two-year civil war in Syria but officials say they feel their country is increasingly at risk of being dragged into a conflict that the United Nations says has killed 70,000 Syrians.

    Threat to Lebanon's existence
    U.N. refugee agency chief Antonio Guterres said on Friday that the Syrian conflict threatens Lebanon's existence.

    "The international community should recognize that the Syrian crisis represents an existential threat to Lebanon and should show Lebanon ... much stronger support than has happened until now," he told reporters in Beirut.

    Lebanon, a nation of 4 million, fought its own devastating civil war from 1975 to 1990 and has sectarian tensions among Christians and Sunni and Shiite Muslims that have been heightened by the fighting in Syria.

    Tensions between Lebanese groups that support the Syrian opposition and those that support Syrian President Bashar Assad have been intensifying and have sometimes turned violent.

    The International Committee of the Red Cross appealed to foreign powers Friday to press combatants in Syria to halt attacks on civilians and aid workers, saying all sides were violating the Geneva Conventions. 

    "Many atrocities against civilians have been reported or witnessed over the past two years, and we have also seen indiscriminate attacks against civilians and the targeting of health-care personnel and aid workers," said Robert Mardini, head of ICRC operations for the Near and Middle East. 

    Meanwhile, European Union governments rejected a Franco-British push on Friday to lift an EU arms embargo to allow weapons supplies to Syrian rebels, voicing fears this could spark an arms race and worsen regional instability.

    France and Britain found little support for their proposal to ease the embargo at an EU summit in Brussels, EU diplomats said, although they asked the bloc's foreign ministers to look again at the issue next week.

    "Nobody really is interested (in lifting the embargo)," an EU diplomat said. "There is no prospect of change any time soon."

    EU governments want to support the rebels, but many expressed fears on Friday that allowing weapons to flow to them could lead to arms falling into the wrong hands -- especially Islamist militants in the rebel ranks -- and lead Assad's backers to step up arms deliveries to his government.

    European Council President Herman van Rompuy said leaders had asked their foreign ministers to look at the issue "as a matter of priority" at a March 22-23 meeting in Dublin. 

    Reuters

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  • Israel hits weapons convoy on Syria-Lebanon border

    Israeli forces conducted an airstrike on a convoy  the Syrian-Lebanese border Wednesday. NBC's Richard Engel joins Brian Williams with his analysis.

    By Ben Hubbard, The Associated Press

    BEIRUT — Israel's air force launched a rare airstrike on a military site inside Syria, the Syrian government and U.S. and regional security officials said Wednesday, adding a potentially flammable new element to regional tensions already heightened by Syria's civil war.

    Regional security officials said the jets targeted a site near the Lebanese border, and a Syrian army statement said it destroyed a military research center northwest of the capital Damascus. They appeared to be discussing the same incident.

    The strike, which occurred overnight Tuesday, appeared to be the latest salvo in Israel's long-running effort to disrupt the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah's quest to build an arsenal capable of defending against Israel's air force and spreading destruction inside the Jewish state from just over its northern border.

    The regional security officials said Israel had been planning in recent days to hit a Syrian shipment of weapons bound for Hezbollah, which is neighboring Lebanon's most powerful military force and committed to Israel's destruction. They said the shipment included sophisticated Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles whose acquisition by Hezbollah would be "game-changing" by allowing it to blunt Israel's air power.

    The strike may have halted that transfer.

    The Israeli military and a Hezbollah spokesman both declined to comment, and Syria denied the existence of any such shipment.

    U.S. officials confirmed the strike, saying it hit a convoy of trucks, but gave no further information.

    All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

    The strike follows decades of enmity between Israel and allies Syria and Hezbollah, which consider the Jewish state their mortal enemy. The situation has been further complicated by the civil war raging in Syria between the forces of President Bashar Assad and hundreds of rebel brigades seeking his ouster.

    The war has sapped Assad's power and threatens to deprive Hezbollah of a key supporter, in addition to its land corridor to Iran. The two countries provide Hezbollah with the bulk of its funding and arms.

    Many in Israel worry that has Assad's regime loses power, it could strike back by transferring chemical or advanced weapons to Hezbollah.

    Israel and Hezbollah fought an inconclusive 34-day war in 2006 that left 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis dead.

    While the border has been largely quiet since, the struggle has taken other forms. Hezbollah has accused Israel of assassinating a top commander, and Israel has blamed Hezbollah for attacks on Jewish sites abroad. In October, Hezbollah launched an Iranian-made reconnaissance drone over Israel, using the incident to brag about its expanding capabilities.

    Israeli officials believe that despite their best efforts, Hezbollah's arsenal has markedly improved since 2006, now boasting tens of thousands of rockets and missiles and the ability to strike almost anywhere inside Israel.

    Israel suspects that Damascus obtained a battery of SA-17s from Russia after an alleged Israeli airstrike in 2007 that destroyed an unfinished Syrian nuclear reactor.

    Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of the dangers of Syria's "deadly weapons" and warned that the country is "increasingly coming apart."

    The same day, Israel moved a battery of its new "Iron Dome" rocket defense system to the northern city of Haifa, which was battered by Hezbollah rocket fire in the 2006 war. The Israeli army called that move "routine."

    Syria, however, cast the strike in a different light, portraying as linked to the country's civil war, which  blames on terrorists carrying out an international conspiracy to destroy the country.

    A military statement read aloud on state TV Wednesday said low-flying Israeli jets crossed into Syria over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and bombed a military research center in the area of Jamraya, northwest of the capital, Damascus.

    The strike destroyed the center and damaged a nearby building, killing two workers and wounding five others, it said.

    The military denied the existence of any convoy bound for Lebanon, saying the center was responsible for "raising the level of resistance and self-defense" of Syria's military.

    "This proves that Israel is the instigator, beneficiary and sometimes executor of the terrorist acts targeting Syria and its people," the statement said.

    Despite its icy relations with Assad, Israel has remained on the sidelines of efforts to topple him, while keeping up defenses against possible attacks from the regime.

    Israeli defense officials have carefully monitored Syria's chemical weapons, fearing Assad could deploy them or lose control of them to extremist fighters among the rebels.

    President Barack Obama has called the use of chemical weapons a "red line" whose crossing could prompt direct U.S. intervention, though U.S. officials have said Syria's stockpiles still appear to be under government control.

    The strike was Israel's first inside Syria since September 2007, when its warplanes destroyed a site in Syria that the U.N. nuclear watchdog deemed likely to be a nuclear reactor. Syria denied the claim, saying the building was a non-nuclear military site.

    Syria allowed international inspectors to visit the bombed site in 2008 but it has refused to allow nuclear inspectors new access. This has heightened suspicions that Syria has something to hide, along with its decision to level the destroyed structure and build on its site.

    In 2006, Israeli warplanes flew over Assad's palace in a show of force after Syrian-backed militants captured an Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip.

    And in 2003, Israeli warplanes attacked a suspected militant training camp just north of the Syrian capital, in response to an Islamic Jihad suicide bombing in the city of Haifa that killed 21 Israelis.

    Syria vowed to retaliate for both attacks, but never did.

    In May 2011, only two months after the uprising against Assad started, hundreds of Palestinians overran the tightly controlled Syria-Israeli frontier in a move widely thought to have been facilitated by the Assad regime to divert the world's gaze from his growing troubles at home.

    Related:

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  • Report: Syrian rebels clash with Lebanon troops on border

    By NBC News wire services

    Lebanese troops clashed with Syrian rebels on the border between the two countries in what a security source told Reuters may have the first such incident between Lebanon's army and the rebels.

    The clash occurred Sunday when a Lebanese border patrol spotted the rebel fighters along the border and the rebels opened fire to prevent the patrol from approaching, the Lebanese military source told Reuters. He said there were no casualties.

    Although tensions have been high along various points of the Lebanon-Syria border, Sunday's incident may have been the first involving armed fighters.


    In late September, a security incident involving Syrian rebels at a Lebanese checkpoint was played down by local residents and officials but initial reports suggested that shots had been fired.

    The violence in Syria also spilled over to Turkey on Monday, as Turkey scrambled fighter jets after Syrian government forces bombed rebel positions in the frontier town of Ras al-Ain and stray shells flew into Turkish territory, Turkish security sources told Reuters.

    PhotoBlog: Turkey scrambles jets as Syrian government forces bomb border town

    Shells landed in the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar, which abuts Ras al-Ain, triggering panic, the sources told Reuters. It was not immediately clear whether the shells were fired by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad or by the rebels.

    Slideshow: Syria uprising

    Osman Orsal / Reuters

    A look back at the violence that has overtaken the country

    Launch slideshow

    Syrians risk lives in battle to protect nation's ancient sites

    The uprising against the Assad family’s four decades of rule began 20 months ago. Opposition activists say the fighting has resulted in the deaths of some 40,000 people, according to The Associated Press.

    Syria: No chemical weapons plan
    On Monday, Syria said that it would not use chemical weapons against its own people after the U.S. warned it would take action against any such escalation.

    The statements came amid media reports, citing European and U.S. officials, that Syria's chemical weapons had been moved and could be prepared for use in response to dramatic gains by rebels fighting to topple Assad.

    "Syria has stressed repeatedly that it will not use these types of weapons, if they were available, under any circumstances against its people," the foreign ministry said.

    Car bombs kill 34 in Syria suburb

    The opposition believe that Assad could turn to heavier weapons and some have suggested he might use chemical weapons. 

    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had earlier warned that Washington would take action if Syria used the weapons.

    "I am not going to telegraph any specifics what we do in the event of credible evidence that the Assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against their own people, but suffice to say, we are certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur," she said during a visit to Prague Monday.

    'Worst day in those people's lives'
    On Sunday, opposition activists said that dozens were killed and wounded when government forces pounded rebel-held suburbs around Damascus with fighter jets and rockets.

    The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave a preliminary death toll for Sunday's fighting of 140.

    Slideshow: Behind Syrian rebel lines

    Machine guns operated by motorcycle brakes? Get a glimpse at the rebels fighting against Assad's forces in Syria's mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area.

    Launch slideshow

    More Syria coverage from NBC News

    Activists said rocket fire struck towns close to the Damascus airport road, where rebels and the army had been locked in three days of clashes. Some described constant shelling, similar to carpet bombing, in towns like Beit Saham.

    "It was frightening because it was the first time we heard continuous shelling. Really powerful explosions, one after the other, were shaking the area. I could see fire coming up from the town," said Samir al-Shami, from the opposition's Syrian Youth Union, speaking by Skype.

    "This was the worst day in those people's lives," he added.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    More world stories from NBC News:

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  • Oasis of tolerance or 'Republic of Shame'? Two faces of gay life in Beirut

    Marwan Naamani / AFP - Getty Images, file

    Teddy, a Lebanese university graduate, performs a belly dance at a nightclub in Beirut, in this November 2007 file picture.

    By Shane Farrell

    BEIRUT, Lebanon – It is 2 a.m. in an abandoned theater in Hamra, a neighborhood in the Lebanese capital.  Men pack the room, their fists pumping the air in time with the thumping music.  A bare-chested dancer in tight-fitting shorts glides around the stage, reaching his hand around another man’s neck, pulling him close and stealing a kiss.

    These parties are popular with those who can afford the $33 entrance fee. For those looking for an alternative, around a dozen different bars and clubs aimed at gay men dot the city.

    Beirut has for decades been a haven for gay men and lesbians, luring people from throughout the region, including deeply conservative countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. But while the city’s image as an oasis of open-mindedness attracts foreigners - and sells newspapers - the liberal veneer disguises a conservative underbelly that recent police sweeps and reports of invasive “medical” tests have exposed.

    Family ‘would not accept it’
    Many gay men in Beirut carry on double lives despite living in what is considered to be the gay capital of the Middle East. 


    “I’m only out to my close friends,” said "Jad," 22, who asked that his real name not to be published. “My family is quite religious and would not accept it.  When I was younger my mother made it clear that she would disown me if I came out to her.”

    Indeed, while gay bars and clubs are common, homosexuality – or behavior deemed “contrary to nature” –  is illegal according to article 534 of the Lebanese penal code.

    Technically, this means that only those who have been proven to engage in such illegal acts are liable for arrest.  In practice, “people have been arrested just because a particular security officer thinks that person might be gay,” human rights lawyer Nizar Saghieh said.

    “Despite the façade of tolerance, the reality is that a negative stigma of homosexuality persists,” said Georges Azzi, co-founder of Helem, a non-profit group working on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues.

    The burden is heaviest for homosexual men who don’t have the right connections and cannot afford to pay off officials to avoid punishment.

    “Unless you know your rights or know someone in a position of power to help you, you’re in trouble,” said Rebecca Saade, who works on LGBT rights with an underground group that focuses on lesbians and transsexuals.

    Anwar Amro / AFP - Getty Images, file

    Lebanese demonstrators hold signs against "virginity tests" on women - and men suspected of homosexuality - during a protest in Beirut on August 11.

    Gay men who cannot afford to live outside of the family home are more likely to engage in sexual acts in places where they could be caught.

    An incident in July revealed the contradictory attitudes toward homosexuality in Lebanon. Leading local television station MTV released footage of several popular gay hangouts and police then raided two establishments and arrested patrons.

    “I think the internal security forces felt pressured to act and arrested people in these theaters because they felt no one would pay any attention or care,” Helem’s Azzi said. “The theater was in a poor neighborhood and the customers are on the lowest rung of Lebanese society, many of them were non-Lebanese Arabs.”

    A surprising watershed
    While a raid in Lebanon’s second city Tripoli went relatively unnoticed, journalists jumped on reports of a one in the outskirts of Beirut after it emerged that dozens of men arrested had been subjected to physical tests.

    The controversial procedure, which human rights lawyer Nizar Saghieh said has “no basis in science and is used as a tool of intimidation,” involves examining the anus for indications of sodomy.

    The test has been standard for many years, according to human rights lawyer Saghieh, but was never before brought into the media spotlight. He estimates some 100 to 200 procedures take place every year.

    Paradoxically, news that the men had been subjected to the invasive test jump-started a discussion on how homosexuals were treated in Lebanon.  Until then, the debate had focused whether to grant equal rights to homosexuals and revoke article 534, said Saghieh.

    Hundreds were rushed to emergency rooms after an explosion left a 15-foot crater in one of Beirut's nicest neighborhoods. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

    “But the debate was stagnant,” he added. “With the anal tests, the debate focused on a single aspect of how gays are treated and a lot of people, despite their view on article 534, felt the practice extreme.”

    Indeed, the media was almost unanimous in condemning the practice following the revelations over the summer. Many referred to the practice as “tests of shame.”  One major TV channel went so far as to call Lebanon a “Republic of Shame,” a term that gained traction across social networking sites.

    Following the furor, the Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi passed a decree calling for an end to the tests. Gay rights campaigners cheered the speedy policy change.

    “It is probably the biggest success story in terms of gay rights in the Arab world,” Saghieh said.

    Factbox: Political risks to watch in Lebanon

    Saade agreed that the government’s decision was significant.

    Still, it was just one victory in a long fight for equal rights in Lebanon, advocates said.

    “We have come a long way in the past decade or so, but at this point I think revoking law 534 remains a dream,” Saade said.

    Indeed, if you aren’t part of the wealthy and privileged Beirut elite, being gay in Lebanon can still prove treacherous.

    "Mazen," a 23-year-old who asked for his real name not to be used, said he’s been encouraged by signs that many people are becoming more accepting in Beirut.  But these changes are largely limited to the capital and have not reached his village in the south where homosexuality remains a major taboo.

    Syria may exploit instability in Lebanon: Clinton

    Like others in his position, he hides his sexual orientation from much of his family.

    “I have told a few cousins who are of similar age but I would never come out to my mother. She would be heartbroken, ashamed and make sure it stayed within the family,” he said.

    “If I came out to her, I think she would never speak to me again.”

    Shane Farrell is an NBC News contributor and a reporter at NOW Lebanon.

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  • US pledges to aid Beirut bomb probe amid Lebanon violence

    Hussam Shebaro / Reuters

    A Sunni Muslim gunman with a weapon rides a motorcycle through the streets of Kaskas in Beirut, Monday, after a night of tension.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has pledged to help Lebanon investigate Friday's deadly car bombing in Beirut, as parts of the city were engulfed in violence that some observers say heralds the spread of civil war from neighboring Syria. 

    She spoke with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Sunday to reiterate U.S. condemnation of the attack - which killed intelligence chief Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan - calling it "heinous", State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said.

    "The secretary emphasized the United States' firm commitment to Lebanon's stability, independence, sovereignty and security," Nuland said in a statement.

    PhotoBlog: Tension on Beirut streets as political crisis deepens

    "She noted the importance of political leaders working together at this sensitive time to ensure that calm prevails and that those responsible for the attack are brought to justice,” the statement said.

    Protesters rushed the prime minister's office Sunday in Lebanon, ripping up barbed wire and hurling rocks. The situation, which started as a peaceful protest, has become a standoff between protesters and the military. It has also triggered concern that Syria's civil war is spreading. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

    Nuland said Clinton and Mikati agreed that the United States "would provide assistance in the investigation of the bombing."

    Syria blamed by Lebanese opposition
    Opposition leaders and their supporters accuse Syria of being behind Friday's attack, and say Mikati is too close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which is part of Mikati's government.

    Thousands turned out Sunday in downtown Beirut's Martyrs' Square for Hassan's funeral, which also served as a political rally. Violence erupted after an opposition leader demanded that Mikati step down to pave the way for talks on the crisis.

    "The Syrian regime started a war against us and we will fight this battle until the end," said Anthony Labaki, a 24-year-old physiotherapist.

    Slideshow: Bombing in Beirut

    Mahmoud Zayyat / AFP - Getty Images

    Huge blast explodes in a central Beirut street injures dozens, kills at least eight.

    Launch slideshow


    Sunday's clashes fed into a growing political crisis in Lebanon linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria. Israeli news site Haaretz reported that the clashes "raised the specter of the nation once again becoming torn apart by civil war."

    A group marched to the prime minister's office, then overturned barriers, pulled apart barbed wire coils and threw steel rods, stones and bottle at soldiers and police.

    Security forces responded by shooting into air and firing teargas, forcing the protesters to scatter.

    "Lebanon is in the eye of the storm," said Fawaz A. Gerges, head of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics. "The fact that the protesters came close to storming the parliament shows how deep the crisis of the state is and how weak the leadership has become."

    Fire exchanged in southern Beirut
    On Sunday night, gunmen armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades exchanged fire in southern districts of Beirut, security sources told Reuters, and residents could hear the sound of ambulance sirens.

    There were no immediate reports of casualties from the clashes in the capital, but in the northern city of Tripoli a 9-year-old girl was killed by a sniper and several people were wounded in clashes.

    PhotoBlog: Violence erupts in Beirut after slain official's funeral

    Gunmen have been patrolling the streets in Tripoli, scene of previous clashes between Sunnis and Alawites sympathetic to different sides in the Syria war.

    Opposition leader Saad al-Hariri urged supporters to refrain from any more violence.

    "We want peace, the government should fall but we want that in a peaceful way. I call on all those who are in the streets to pull back," Hariri said on the Future Television channel.

    Sectarian tensions
    Sunday's events highlighted how the 19-month-old uprising against Assad has sharpened deep-seated sectarian tensions in Lebanon, which is still scarred from its 1975-90 civil war.

    Sunni-led rebels are fighting to overthrow Assad, who is from the Alawite minority, which has its roots in Shiite Islam. Lebanon's religious communities are divided between those that support Assad and those that back the rebels.

    Hassan, 47, was a senior intelligence official who had helped uncover a bomb plot that led to the arrest and indictment in August of a pro-Assad former Lebanese minister.

    A Sunni Muslim, he also led an investigation that implicated Syria and the Shiite Hezbollah in the 2005 assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, a former prime minister of Lebanon.

    Damascus and Hezbollah have condemned Hassan's killing.

    NBC's Paul Nassar describes the scene after a bomb killed 8 people in Lebanon Friday.

    But mourners at Martyrs' Square on Sunday accused Syria of involvement and called for Mikati to quit. One banner read "Go, go Najib" echoing the slogans of the Arab Spring.

    "We came for Lebanon's future," said mourner Rama Fakhouri, an interior designer. "And to show that we will not be scared."

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Crowds surround government office in Beirut as funeral protest turns violent

    Protesters rushed the prime minister's office Sunday in Lebanon, ripping up barbed wire and hurling rocks. The situation, which started as a peaceful protest, has become a standoff between protesters and the military. It has also triggered concern that Syria's civil war is spreading. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Violence erupted in downtown Beirut on Sunday as protesters tried to storm the offices of Prime Minister Najib Mikati after the funeral of an assassinated intelligence chief whose death they blame on Syria.

    Security forces shot into the air and police fired tear gas to repulse the hundreds of protesters who overturned barriers and threw stones and steel rods, witnesses said.

    Stephanie Gosk, NBC News correspondent in Beirut, reported that the protest had been peaceful but took a turn towards violence, with tear gas visible near Mikati’s offices.

    The clashes fed into a growing political crisis in Lebanon linked to the civil war in neighboring Syria.

    An angry crowd had marched on the prime minister's office after politicians at the funeral of Brigadier General Wissam al-Hassan, who was killed by a car bomb on Friday, called on Mikati to resign over the killing.

    The opposition and its supporters believe Mikati is too close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which is part of Mikati's government.

    Many of the protesters waved flags from the anti-Syrian opposition Future Movement - a mainly Sunni Muslim party - and Christian Lebanese Forces as well as black Islamist flags.

    They scattered after the security forces' action and there were no immediate reports of any casualties other than two people fainting.

    PhotoBlog: Violence erupts in Beirut after slain official's funeral

    Opposition leader Saad al-Hariri urged supporters to refrain from any more violence.

    "We want peace, the government should fall but we want that in a peaceful way. I call on all those who are in the streets to pull back," Hariri told supporters after the attack, speaking on Future Television channel.

    Hassan, 47, was a Sunni Muslim and senior intelligence official who had helped uncover a bomb plot that led to the arrest and indictment in August of a pro-Damascus former Lebanese minister.

    He also led an investigation that implicated Syria and the Shi'ite Hezbollah in the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri in 2005.

    Thousands of people had filled central Martyrs' Square for his funeral ceremony, accusing Syria of involvement in the killing and calling for Mikati to quit.

    One banner read "Go, go Najib" echoing the slogans of the Arab Spring.

    The violence broke out after Fouad al-Siniora, a former prime minister, said in a speech that the opposition rejected any dialogue to overcome the political crisis caused by the assassination unless the government first resigned.

    "No talks before the government leaves, no dialogue over the blood of our martyrs," Siniora said to roars of approval from the crowd.

    Journalist Antoun Issa, posting on Twitter, said army members were also caught by the tear gas.

    At the start of the funeral, senior politicians and the military and security top brass turned out at the Internal Security Force headquarters for a ceremony held with full military honors and broadcast live on national television.

    Hassan's wife and two sons, the youngest weeping, listened as he was eulogized by the head of police, Ashraf Rifi, and President Michel Suleiman.

    Suleiman said the government and people must work "shoulder to shoulder" to overcome the challenges posed by the killing.

    "I tell the judiciary do not hesitate, the people are with you, and I tell the security be firm, the people are with you, with you. And I tell the politicians and the government do not provide cover to the perpetrator."

    In keeping with custom for state funerals, church bells pealed as police officers carried the flag-draped coffins of Hassan and his bodyguard to the mosque on Martyr's Square through chanting crowds. Moslem prayers were broadcast by loudspeaker from the mosque.

    In the build-up the funeral, people at the square had said they saw Syria's hand in the bombing.

    “We blame Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria," said Assmaa Diab, 14, from the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, Hassan's home town. She was in the square with her sister and father.

    "He is responsible for everything - in the past, now, and if we don't stand up to him, the future," she said.

    The prime minister was also a focus of their anger.

    "We are here to tell Mikati we don't need him anymore and to tell Hezbollah we don't want any more of their games," said Hamza Akhrass, a 22-year-old student who from south Lebanon.

    "Mikati takes too much pressure for Syria."

    One banner read: "People want the overthrow of Najib".

    Mikati said on Saturday he had offered to resign to make way for a government of national unity but he had accepted a request by President Michel Suleiman to stay in office to allow time for talks on a way out of the political crisis.

    Sunday's events highlighted how the 19-month-old uprising against Assad in Syria has exacerbated deep-seated sectarian tensions in Lebanon, which is still scarred from its 1975-90 civil war.

    Sunni-led rebels are fighting to overthrow Assad, who is from the Alawite minority, which has its roots in Shi'ite Islam. Lebanon's religious communities are divided between those that support Assad and those that back the rebels.

    Mikati sought in vain to insulate the country from turmoil in its larger neighbor, which has long played a role in Lebanese politics. He himself said he suspected Hassan's assassination was linked to his role in uncovering Syrian involvement in the August bomb plot. 

    Reuters contributed to this report.

    NBC's Paul Nassar describes the scene after a bomb killed 8 people in Lebanon Friday.

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  • Lebanon leader points to Syria in bombing, as protests break out

    Slideshow: Bombing in Beirut

    Mahmoud Zayyat / AFP - Getty Images

    Launch slideshow

    By NBC News staff and wire services

    BEIRUT - Protesters burned tires and set up roadblocks around Lebanon on Saturday in a sign of boiling anger over the killings of a top security official and seven others, while Lebanon's prime minister said he suspected a Syrian connection in the bombing.

    At a press conference, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he suspected the bombing was related to the indictment in August of former minister Michel Samaha, a supporter of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, over a plot allegedly aimed at stoking violence in Lebanon.

    "I cannot separate in any way the crime that took place yesterday and the discovery of the conspiracy against Lebanon in August," he said. 

    Other Lebanese politicians have also accused Assad of being behind the attack, deepening fears that Syria's sectarian-tinged civil war is spreading to its neighbor. 

    NBC News producer Paul Nassar reported an unusual calm had swept over Beirut. 

    "The city is dead, absolutely quiet," Nassar, reporting from Beirut, said. "All the major shopping districts are closed -- this city would usually be brimming with activity, but now, nothing."

    Nassar added that the bomb was an especially devastating blow to the city because it came on the cusp of the major Islam holiday Eid, which starts next weekend.

    "Hotels that were close to capacity are now looking at 20 percent" of rooms full after tourists scrambled to cancel their reservations, Nassar reported.

    In the eastern Bekaa Valley region, the Lebanese army opened fire on a group who were blocking a road to protest the bomb attack, wounding two people.

    "The Lebanese army were trying to open the road and started firing their guns," a witness from the village of Bar Elias, told The Associated Press.

    Meanwhile, the Lebanese Cabinet held an emergency meeting as the country's opposition called for Mikati to resign. 

    The government declared a national day of mourning for the victims, who included Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, head of the intelligence division of Lebanon's domestic security forces. Dozens were wounded in Friday's blast in Beirut's mainly Christian Achrafieh neighborhood. 

    Many observers said the attack appeared to have links to the Syrian civil war, which has been raging for 19 months. Al-Hassan, 47, headed an investigation over the summer that led to the arrest of former Information Minister Michel Samaha, one of Syrian President Bashar Assad's most loyal allies in Lebanon. 

    Samaha, who is in custody, is accused of plotting a campaign of bombings and assassinations to spread sectarian violence in Lebanon at Syria's behest. Also indicted in the August sweep was Syrian Brig. Gen. Ali Mamlouk, one of Assad's highest aides. 

    Al-Hassan also played a role in the investigation of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri with a massive truck bomb. A U.N.-backed tribunal has indicted four members of militant group Hezbollah, which along with its allies, now holds a majority in Lebanon's Cabinet. Hezbollah denies involvement in Hariri's killing and has refused to extradite the suspects. 

    Al-Hassan's department also had a role in breaking up several Israeli spy rings inside Lebanon over the past few years, Lebanese officials said. 

    Lebanon's fractious politics are closely entwined with Syria's. The countries share a web of political and sectarian ties and rivalries, often causing events on one side of the border to echo on the other. Lebanon's opposition is an anti-Syrian bloc, while the prime minister and much of the government are pro-Syrian. 

    The civil war in Syria has laid bare Lebanon's sectarian tensions as well. 

    Many of Lebanon's Sunni Muslims have backed Syria's mainly Sunni rebels, while Shiite Muslims have tended to back Assad. Al-Hassan was a Sunni whose stances were widely seen to oppose Syria and Shiite Hezbollah, the country's most powerful ally in Lebanon. 

    Lebanon's top Sunni cleric, Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Kabbani, condemned the assassination, calling it a "criminal explosion that targets Lebanon and its people." He called for self-restraint saying that "the criminal will get his punishment sooner or later." 

    Police and army troops sealed off the site of Friday's blast as military intelligence agents investigated what was the deadliest bombing in Beirut in four years. 

    Sharbal Abdo, a Beirut resident who lives down the block from where the car bomb detonated, on Saturday brought his six-year-old son Chris and 12-year-old daughter Jane to see what happened the day before. They were both at school when the blast ripped through the area. 

    "They were very afraid yesterday, and cried a lot late into the night," Abdo said. "Today I decided to bring them here and show what happened. They need to face this situation. It may be their future." 

    On Friday, protesters in mostly Sunni areas closed roads with burning tires and rocks in Beirut, the southern city of Sidon, the northern city of Tripoli and several towns in the eastern Bekaa Valley. 

    The highway linking central Beirut with the city's international airport was closed, as well as the highway that links the capital with Syria, the officials said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. 

    Rafik Khoury, editor of the independent Al-Anwar daily, said the assassination was an attempt to draw Lebanon into the conflict in Syria, which has been the most serious threat to the Assad family's 40-year dynasty. 

    "The side that carried the assassination knows the reactions and dangerous repercussions and is betting that it will happen. Strife is wanted in Lebanon," Khoury wrote. 

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Beirut car bomb blast kills top intelligence official

    Hundreds were rushed to emergency rooms after an explosion left a 15-foot crater in one of Beirut's nicest neighborhoods. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Updated at 4:43 p.m. ET: BEIRUT, Lebanon -- A huge car bomb explosion in Beirut on Friday killed a top Lebanese security official whose investigations implicated Syria and Hezbollah in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri seven years ago.

    The rush-hour bomb in the center of the Lebanese capital killed eight people and wounded about 80 others, heightening fears that Syria's war is spilling over into Lebanon.

    Among the dead was Wissam al-Hassan, the head of a Lebanese intelligence agency who had also uncovered a recent bomb plot that led to the arrest of a pro-Syrian Lebanese politician, a Lebanese official said.

    NBC's Paul Nassar describes the scene after a bomb killed 8 people in Lebanon Friday.

    Al-Hassan was a close aide to Hariri, a Sunni Muslim who was killed in a 2005 bomb attack in downtown Beirut. Al-Hassan's investigation into Hariri's death uncovered evidence that implicated Syria and Hezbollah in the killing.

    Follow this story at BreakingNews.com

    It was also not clear if the explosion targeted any political figure in Lebanon's divided community but it occurred at a time of heightened tension between Lebanese factions on opposite sides of the Syria conflict.

     

    Ambulances rushed to the scene in the Ashafriyeh district, a mostly Christian area, as smoke rose from the area. 

    The explosion ripped through the street where the office of the anti-Damascus Christian Phalange Party is located near Sassine Square.

    Reuters

    Phalange leader Sami al-Gemayel, a staunch opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a member of parliament, condemned the attack.

    "Let the state protect the citizens. We will not accept any procrastination in this matter, we cannot continue like that. We have been warning for a year. Enough," said Gemayel, whose brother was assassinated in November 2006.

    Several cars were set on fire by the explosion and the front of a multi-story building was badly damaged. Residents ran about in panic looking for relatives while others helped carry the wounded to ambulances, Reuters reported. 

    Slideshow: Bombing in Beirut

    Reuters

    Huge blast explodes in a central Beirut street injures dozens, kills at least eight.

    Launch slideshow

    Pope tells Christians in Beirut: 'Be peacemakers'

    Security forces blanketed the area.


    Witness Danny Rizkallah told NBC News the blast took place close to the headquarters of a Lebanese opposition political party with links to Syria rebels and close to the scene of the 1982 assassination of then president-elect Bachir Gemayel. The affluent, largely Christian, district is also home to the American University of Science and Technology (AUST).

    He said he was having lunch nearby when the blast lifted him from his chair. “It was an incredibly powerful explosion,” he said. “I knew immediately it was a bomb because it has such a different sound to shelling.”

    “I rushed around the corner to see what happened there were lots of people injured by broken glass from the windows of nearby stores. It did a great deal of damage to nearby buildings and there was a lot of glass.

    Hasan Shaaban / Reuters

    Burning cars and damages are seen at the site of an explosion in Ashafriyeh, central Beirut, October 19, 2012.

    “For this to happen is shocking because we really thought this sort of thing had stopped in Beirut, and for it to happen in the Christian district is also very unusual. I really don’t know who is behind this, or why. Our politics is very messed-up.”

    The last bombing in Beirut was in 2008 when three people were killed in an explosion that damaged a U.S. diplomatic car. 

    U.S. officials are condemning the attack "in the strongest terms," calling the blast a terrorist attack.

    "We condemn this act of terrorism," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

    "There is no justification for such violence," she added. "We obviously express our heartfelt sympathies for the families and the loved ones of those who were killed and injured, and we stand by the people of Lebanon and renew our commitment to a stable, sovereign, and independent Lebanon."

    National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement there is "no justification for using assassination as a political tool." He says the U.S. will stand with the Lebanese government to bring to justice those responsible "for this barbaric attack."

    Sunni-Shiite tensions
    Tension between Sunnis and Shiites has been rumbling in Lebanon ever since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war but reignited after the Syria conflict erupted.

    It reached its peak when Hariri, a Sunni, was killed in 2005. Hariri supporters accused Syria and then Hezbollah of killing him -- a charge they both deny. An international tribunal accused several Hezbollah members of involvement in the murder.

    Clashes over Syrian conflict in Lebanon leave ten dead

    Hezbollah's political opponents, who have for months accused it of aiding Assad's forces -- have warned that its involvement in Syria could ignite sectarian tension of the civil war. 

    At least nine people die as Sunni Muslims and Alawites fight for a second day. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    However fighting had broken out this year between supporters and opponents of Assad in the northern city of Tripoli.

    Reuters, The Associated Press and NBC News' Paul Nassar contributed to this report.

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  • Israeli forces strike Gaza targets after rocket salvo

    By NBC News wire services

    Israel said it struck targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday after Palestinian militants fired rockets at southern Israel in what they said was a response to an Israel airstrike that wounded two militants and eight bystanders.

    Meanwhile, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing The Associated Press, said the Israeli air force flew mock raids over southern Lebanon after a mysterious unmanned aircraft was shot down over Israel over the weekend.

    An Iranian military official was quoted as saying Monday that the drone's incursion exposed the weakness of Israeli air defenses, but did not confirm or deny Israeli charges that Tehran and southern Lebanon-based Shiite militia group Hezbollah were behind it.

    Jamaluddin Aberoumand, deputy coordinator for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said the incident indicated that Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile defense system "does not work and lacks the necessary capacity," Fars news agency reported.

    Israeli officials says a drone missile they shot down may have been saying on crucial sites. NBC's Duncan Golestani reports.

    The Iron Dome system, jointly funded with the United States, is designed to shoot down short-range guerrilla rockets, not slow-flying aircraft. It intercepted more than 80 percent of the targets it engaged in March when nearly 300 rockets and mortars were fired at southern Israel, the Pentagon said at the time.


    The drone was first spotted above the Mediterranean near the Gaza Strip to the west of Israel, said military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich. An Israeli warplane shot it down above a forest near the occupied West Bank.

    Israeli parliament member Miri Regev, a former chief spokesman of the military, wrote on Twitter it was an "Iranian drone launched by Hezbollah."

    Israeli defense officials have not confirmed the charge.

    On at least one occasion, Iranian-backed Hezbollah has sent a drone into Israeli airspace. Also, in 2010, an Israeli warplane shot down an apparently unmanned balloon in the Negev near the country's Dimona nuclear reactor.

    More Middle East & North African coverage on NBCNews.com

    Sunday's flyover by Israeli jets appeared intended to demonstrate to Hezbollah that Israel retained air superiority, according to the AP.

    On Monday, the Israeli army said it had targeted "Hamas terror activity sites and terrorist squads responsible for the rocket fire"in Gaza, but gave no details.

    Gaza hospital officials said one Islamic Jihad militant thought to have been involved in the rocket attack had been wounded by Israeli tank fire east of the town of Rafah.

    Residents of the town of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip said an Israeli tank fired at the suspected launch area, slightly wounding four children and damaging a mosque minaret and a water tower.

    The Israeli army says 470 rockets have been fired from Gaza this year, 10 in October alone.

    Full international news coverage on NBCNews.com

    The armed wing of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist faction that controls the Gaza Strip, said it had carried out the latest rocket attack with the militant Islamic Jihad group.

    It was the first time since June that Hamas had acknowledged launching rockets at Israel.

    An Israeli military spokeswoman said some rockets had landed harmlessly near the border with the Gaza Strip.

    An Israeli air strike on Sunday was aimed at two Palestinian militants, one of whom was critically wounded, as was one of the bystanders.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Film protests: Pakistan added to growing no-go list for Americans

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Pakistan has become the third country in five days to be added to the State Department’s list of countries to which Americans should avoid traveling amid clear signs that anti-Western protests are likely to continue across the Muslim world.

    Officials late on Wednesday upgraded their ongoing caution about the travel risks in Pakistan, explicitly advising Americans to put off any non-essential travel to the country and “strongly” urging those already there to avoid protests and large gatherings.

    It followed similar warning on Tuesday against all travel to Lebanon and on Sunday against visiting Tunisia.

    Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

    K.M. Chaudary / AP

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

    Launch slideshow

    Thursday's warning came as hundreds of Pakistanis angry at a crude, provocative anti-Islam film made in California, clashed with police in the capital, Islamabad.

    A crowd of more than 1,000 tried to make their way to the U.S. Embassy inside, which is inside a guarded enclave that houses other embassies and government offices.

    Analysis: 'Manufactured outrage' behind Middle East protests

    Riot police used tear gas and batons to keep stone-throwing demonstrators away from the enclave, and hundreds of shipping containers were lined up to cordon off the area. Some protesters were students affiliated with the hardline Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami.

    There were smaller demonstrations in Indonesia, Iran and Afghanistan.

    Slideshow: Anger over film spreads throughout Muslim world

    Akhtar Soomro / Reuters

    Protests ignited by a controversial film that ridicules Islam's Prophet Muhammad spread throughout Muslim world.

    Launch slideshow

    The film’s vulgar depiction of Islam's Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, womanizer and child molester, has sparked angry demonstrations in dozens of countries, including an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which ambassador Chris Stevens was killed. In total, violence related to the film has left at least 30 people in seven countries dead.

    The demonstrations are expected to grow in Pakistan on Friday, the traditional day of prayer in the Muslim world. The Pakistani government called a national holiday for Friday so that people could come out and demonstrate peacefully against the film.

    That decision drew rare words of praise from the Pakistani Taliban, which is usually at war with the government.

    Meanwhile in Indonesia, the U.S. consulate in the country's third-largest city of Medan shut its doors Thursday for a second day because of demonstrations.

    Crowds of angry protesters showed up in Kabul, Afghanistan and Jakarta, Indonesia. The violent uprising followed a deadly weekend marking the deaths of eight International Security Assistance Force members. NBC's Atia Abawi reports.

    About 50 students from an Islamic university gathered in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province in Indonesia.

    They burned tires and forced a McDonald's restaurant to close. The door was later covered with a sign saying, "This must be closed as a symbol of our protest of the 'Innocence of Muslims' made in the U.S.," referring to the title of the film.

    In Iran, hundreds of students and clerics gathered outside the French embassy in Tehran to protest the publication of the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a French satirical weekly.

    Police are investigating a bomb blast in Peshawar, Pakistan. The explosion killed at least eight people and injured dozens. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    Protesters chanted "Death to France" and "Down with the U.S." and burned the flags of the United States and Israel. The demonstration ended after two hours.

    In Afghanistan, a few hundred people demonstrated in downtown Kabul against the film, chanting ant-American slogans before dispersing peacefully.

    The State Department currently has warnings in place for 32 countries, although many urge Americans simply to exercise caution when traveling there.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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