Qatar’s Karma: Intel Chief and U.S.-trained Syria Rebels Recruiter killed by Al-Qaeda

May 16, 2013 (TSR) – Qatar’s intelligence chief has died of his wounds after the Sunday car bomb blast in Somalia, Lebanese ad-Diyar newspaper reports.

“This person worked as a coordinator recruiting Yemenis and sending them to Syria after being trained by U.S. Special Forces in Qatar,” the newspaper added.

Around 11 people were killed in Somalia’s capital Sunday when a suicide attacker from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shebab insurgents rammed a car laden with explosives into a convoy carrying officials from Qatar, police said.

“Several people have been killed, the blast was big … the number of those killed is around 11,” police official Mohamed Adan said.

The blast is the latest in a string of bloody attacks in the seaside capital, where al-Qaeda linked al-Shebab insurgents have vowed to topple the government and have set off several bombs and launched guerrilla-style strikes.

The car exploded close to a police station at the central K4 roundabout, a busy part of Mogadishu where many people gather to drink tea at roadside stalls.

“I saw eight bodies including a woman, some of them were burned very badly by the fire from the explosion,” said eyewitness Ali Yusuf. “It was a terrible sight.”

Reports say that the armored car hit in the attack had been damaged with its back windows blasted out. Other police officials said that at least 10 people had been killed.

A second bomb hidden by the roadside and remotely detonated was set off around the same time in the Daynille district of Mogadishu targeting passing security forces, but injured no one, police added.

The attack on Sunday comes after a week-long major security operation in the capital, with police closing down roads and searching cars for explosives.

Qatar’s prime minister has consistently called for widespread support for the foreign-backed militants fighting government forces in Syria.

In a press conference last April with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani claimed that Qatar started supporting the Syrian rebels after it became “frustrated” and gave up hope of reforms by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

But, Merkel stressed that Germany will not arm the militants in Syria.

”We want a political solution. We, the German Federal Republic, will not deliver arms to the rebels. Also, we are not gally allowed to send arms into areas of conflict”, Merkel explained.

Merkel also reiterated the need for a solution and above all for political talks. She said her meeting with the visiting prime minister had covered how to achieve conditions for that.

“The issues are anything but simple, the possibility of the destabilization of a whole region is however a given,” she warned.

Qatar has also been very generous with the income from its gas wealth and has already transferred five billion dollars to Egypt.

In return, Morsi’s new government gave Qatar a number of assurances, including “technical support” for the Syrian opposition, the rotation — possibly to a Qatari citizen — of the Arab League Secretary General post, and “Egyptian approval of Qatari nominees on behalf of the Arab group in several international and regional forums.”

Egypt has also given Qatar a number of perks, such as excluding Qatari investments from laws governing foreign ownership. Qatar is today the Muslim Brotherhood’s banker and personal financier, bankrolling its budget and investing heavily in the group’s projects. Meanwhile, the richer nations of United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are skeptical, apprehensive and will continue to wonder what exactly Qatar wants from the Brotherhood.

Saudi prince confessed at Davos to arming Syria terrorists

“By interfering in Syria’s affairs, Qatari officials want to prove their “service” to the United States and the scheduled negotiation between Syrian groups was canceled due to their intrusions, “Sharif Shehadeh said to Al-Alam in February this year.

“Upcoming talks between oppositions and the Syrian government were to take place in the coming days, but they were canceled due to Qataris conspiracies”, he said then.

He pointed to the rising expectations of opposition groups and said, Qatar had discouraged Moaz Al-Khatib, head of the Syrian National Opposition Coalition, to engage in talks with the government.

However, al-Khatib’s tone has change after admitting that there are many rifts within the Syrian opposition and now wants direct negotiations with the Assad government.

The Syrian MP said, “There is a simple principle for talks in Syria and that is, no one imposes any preconditions or a certain form of dialogue on the other party. Besides, issues such as national security, sovereignty of Syria and foreign interventions are considered as redlines and are not negotiable”.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of security personnel, have been killed in the violence.

The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.

Shehadeh rejected accusations about Iran, Iraq and Lebanon’s involvement in the Syrian crisis, and said, “These claims are just tricks for supporting foreign interventions in Syria”.

Syria is a proxy war for the U.S. and Israeli regime.

The Zionist regime got involved directly by attacking Syria after failing to overthrow the government of President Assad militarily and through terrorist plans.

In an interview with the Al Alam News Channel, Salim Harba, a Syrian strategic affairs expert, noted that enemies are put in a bottleneck after the beginning of a political process in Syria, besides the Zionist regime has encountered a political confusion after sustaining defeat in the Gaza war and holding an unsuccessful election.

The Zionist regime’s attack in February, was in fact, with the help of the U.S., Turkish, and Qatari spying apparatuses, had been planned the attack 10 days before a Tel Aviv meeting early this year, for which the White House had shown a green light.

“The Zionist regime had repeatedly tried to aid armed people to dominate research centers in Syria. But it failed, however, and eventually attacked Syria directly” the Syrian expert added.

He noted “this invasion shows the political, security and military attempts at the regional and international levels have faced an actual defeat”.

The Syrian analyst stressed that Syria reserves the right to respond to this assault at proper time and place, and with appropriate tactics and techniques through sea, land, or air.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.

The Syrian government has said that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and that a very large number of the militants operating in the country are foreign nationals. Qatar, Turkey and a number of western and Arab countries are supporting and arming the militants.

Several international human rights organizations have accused the foreign-sponsored militants of committing war crimes.

Asserting that this invasion has targeted the axis of resistance in the region, Salim Harba emphasized that “Syria will either respond to this action directly or its allies will not leave the assault unanswered”.

He warned that Syria’s response to this assault will be very harsh, since many of the Zionist regime’s military or research targets, such as “Technion”, the research and industrial university in Haifa, or “Ta’a”, the aviation industry center, “Raphael”, the military corporation, “Tadira” or the  Israeli Dimona nuclear plant are in Syria’s spitfire range.