Afrasianet - Three Lebanese soldiers were killed overnight by a group of gunmen near the Syrian border, the army said on Tuesday, in the deadliest such attack since the start of the Syrian uprising.

"Around 3:30am, an army position in the Wadi Hmayyed-Arsal was attacked by an armed group in a black Jeep," an army statement said.

"The soldiers at the checkpoint faced off against the attackers, clashes ensued and three soldiers were killed," it added.

"Searches are continuing in the area for the armed men who escaped into the neighbouring field," the statement said.

A security source earlier said the attack had taken place east of Arsal, a town in northeastern Lebanon where most residents support the Syrian uprising.

In a statement, President Michel Sleiman condemned the attack as "part of a series of terrorist, criminal acts that seek to instigate discord in the country."

And Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced the "aggression" and talked of the "difficult circumstances" through which Lebanon was passing.

Since the start of the rebellion against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad more than two years ago there have been outbreaks of deadly violence on the Lebanese border.

Two Lebanese soldiers were killed in Arsal in February when an army patrol was ambushed while chasing a wanted man. The incident sharply raised tension between residents and the army.

Lebanon is deeply divided over the war in Syria, and the majority Sunni Muslim village of Arsal is a particular flashpoint as refugees and fighters hostile to the Assad regime traverse the border.

Three mortar shells fired from Syria on Monday killed at least one woman near the eastern Lebanese town of Hermel, a bastion of the Hezbollah movement, a security official said.

On Tuesday, two more hit the area. The first lightly wounded two people on the outskirts of the town, and the second injured on person inside the town, the source said.

The powerful Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah is actively involved in the Syrian conflict, fighting alongside troops against rebels. It is currently engaged in fighting rebels in the central town of Qusayr and has lost dozens of its men.

Since the start of the Syria conflict in March 2011, a number of rockets and mortar shells have struck Lebanese territory.

On two occasions, the rebel Free Syrian Army claimed responsibility for the attacks in response to Hezbollah's involvement.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has promised "victory" to his supporters in the battle taking place, notably in Qusayr.

On Monday, rockets fell for the first time in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of the Shiite movement.

The Syrian crisis is also spreading in northern Lebanon, where fighting between Sunnis and Alawites, the sect to which Assad belongs, killed 31 people last week.

The Syrian regime is led by the Alawite minority community, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, while the majority of the country's population are Sunnis.

-Agencies-

Afrasianet - Tribal gunmen kidnapped on Monday a Swiss man working for the International Committee of the Red Cross in southern Yemen, a local pro-government militia leader said.

The gunmen who belong to Al-Marakisha tribe kidnapped the man in the city of Jaar, in Abyan province, said Hussein al-Wahayshi, a local commander of the Popular Resistance Committees.

Gunmen from the same tribe briefly held two Indian ICRC staff last week.

Witnesses said the gunmen intercepted a car transporting the Swiss man and forced him to step out before they took him to an unknown destination.

Wahayshi said two Yemenis, including the driver, accompanying the Swiss man were ordered by the captors to leave. Gunmen beat them when they attempted to block the kidnapping, he added.

On Wednesday, armed tribesmen briefly held two Indian ICRC employees in Jaar and led them to a mountainous region, before they released them after Wahayshi's paramilitary group intervened.

Marakisha gunmen last Monday snatched two Egyptian technicians working at a cement factory in Abyan. They have not yet been released.

Hundreds of people have been abducted in Yemen over the past 15 years, almost all of who have been freed unharmed.

Most kidnappings of foreigners are carried out by members of Yemen's powerful tribes who use them as bargaining chips in disputes with the central government.

-Agencies-

Afrasianet - Suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen on Wednesday shot dead three air force generals from a strategic south Yemen air base used by US soldiers last year to train local forces in combating terrorism, the army said.

"Three pilot officers were martyred this morning by unknown gunmen... as they were heading to work in Al-Anad air base," said the defence ministry on its website 26sep.net.

The ministry said that the officers were met "by a barrage of gunfire from two men on a motorbike".

It identified them as three of the "most qualified pilots" -- General Mohsen al-Meqdad, General Nasser al-Ban, and General Talal Shehab.

A military official at the base had said that "gunmen shot dead three pilots ... north of Huta (the provincial capital) as they were heading towards Al-Anad air base," adding that the killers were "suspected of belonging to Al-Qaeda."

The victims were earlier reported to be colonels.

The military official said that two gunmen carried out the attack using Kalashnikov assault rifles.

Another army official said the officers trained pilots at the base, built by the British who ruled south Yemen until it became independent in 1967.

Officials said last year that Al-Anad air base was being used by US soldiers to train local forces in the fight against terrorism.

Western diplomats at the time said American experts were helping the army in the battle against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Al-Qaeda was driven out of most of its strongholds across south Yemen in an army offensive backed by US drone strikes last year. The weakened militants have withdrawn to mountainous regions in several provinces.

At the peak of the offensive in May and June 2012, AQAP -- classified by Washington as the global network's deadliest branch -- published a list of names of Yemeni pilots based at Al-Anad which it vowed to target for conducting air strikes against its hideouts.

Many officials named have since been killed. The names of the three generals killed on Wednesday were not on the list, however.

In October 2012, the army foiled a car bomb attack on Al-Anad targeting American soldiers, military officials said.

Police and army officers come under frequent attacks, with authorities blaming Al-Qaeda for the assaults which are usually carried out by gunmen on unregistered motorbikes.

In a bid to clamp down on the increasing number of such attacks, authorities earlier this year launched a campaign ordering unlicensed bikes off the streets.

Despite being weaker, Al-Qaeda continues to launch hit-and-run attacks on government and civilian targets across Yemen.

Residents said militants linked to the Ansar al-Sharia group have been distributing posters and leaflets in several towns across Lahij and Hadramawt provinces in the southeast, threatening members of the security forces and urging jihad (holy war).

"Ansar al-Sharia are coming," read graffiti scrawled in Huta.

AQAP is led by Nasser al-Wuhayshi who in July 2011 reaffirmed its allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri, head of the worldwide Al-Qaeda network, after US forces in May killed its founder, Osama bin Laden.

-Agencies-

State television says Israel targeted military base on the outskirts of Damascus; no comment from Israeli army.

Syrian state television has reported that a series of heavy explosions in the capital were caused by Israeli rocket strikes.
SANA said the blasts early Sunday morning targeted a military research centre on the outskirts of the capital. The research centre in Jamraya was the target of an earlier Israeli strike in January.
"The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army," Syrian television said, referring to recent offensives by the forces of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, against the armed opposition.
The agency did not say whether there were any wounded or dead.
Video footage uploaded onto the Internet by activists showed a huge ball of fire rising into the night sky.
A Damascus resident described the blasts to Al Jazeera, saying they felt like "an earthquake" and "unprecedented".
There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials on Sunday's explosions.
"We don't respond to this kind of report," an Israeli military spokeswoman told the Reuters news agency.
The US State Department had no immediate comment and the Israeli embassy in Washington declined comment.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based watchdog group, has also reported several explosions in the capital and its surrounding countryside.
The Syrian state media claims, reported by the Reuters news agency, come after Israel confirmed that its air force hit a shipment of missiles in Syria bound for Hezbollah.
Israel has repeatedly warned that it is prepared to resort to force to prevent Syrian weapons, including chemical weapons, from reaching Hezbollah or groups.
US president Barack Obama said on Saturday, before the latest incident, that it was up to Israel to confirm or deny any strikes, but that the US coordinates very closely with Israel.
"The Israelis, justifiably, have to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah," Obama told the Spanish-language TV station Telemundo.
In recent days, there were signs of mounting tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
In a warning to Israel earlier this week, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said his militia "is ready and has its hand on the trigger" in the event of an Israeli attack on any targets in Lebanon.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, called up several thousand reservists earlier this week for what it called a "surprise" military exercise on its border with Lebanon.

Source:
Al Jazeera And Agencies