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61 Syrians Detained in Jordan

Jordan police on Tuesday were detaining 61 Syrians who were traveling in three trucks near the southern town of Maan, an Islamist stronghold, a statement said.

"A police patrol in Maan governorate seized today three trucks carrying 61 Syrians, who are now in detention. The drivers were arrested too," a Public Security Directorate statement said.

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36 Dead as Syria Warplane Hits Capital for 1st Time and Rebels Assassinate General

A Syrian fighter jet hit targets inside Damascus for the first time on Tuesday, a watchdog said, as air strikes pounded rebel bastions around the country and an air force general was shot dead.

The warplane dropped four bombs on the east Damascus neighborhood of Jobar, near the opposition-held suburb of Zamalka, where rebel fighters were locked in fierce clashes with the army, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

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Israel Army Arrests 5 Palestinians in Southern West Bank

Israeli troops arrested five Palestinians in the southern West Bank overnight, including two men with ties to the radical Islamic Jihad movement, witnesses told AFP on Tuesday.

During a pre-dawn raid in Beit Ummar village just north of Hebron, troops arrested Wahid Abu Marya, 45, who spent years in Israeli prisons over his ties to Islamic Jihad, witnesses said.

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Iran Asks Iraq Not to Search Syria-Bound Planes

Tehran on Tuesday asked Iraq not to stop and search its Syria-bound aircraft despite U.S. pressure to do so, after Baghdad inspected Iranian planes twice this month.

"The Iraqi government should resist such pressures and do not allow such acts to take place in the future," said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast.

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New Libya PM Presents 30-Member Cabinet

Libya's new Prime Minister Ali Zeidan on Tuesday presented his 30-member cabinet to the national assembly for approval in the hope of forming a coalition government after his predecessor failed.

Zeidan told the General National Congress, in a televised address, that he had included the main political parties in his line-up, among them the liberal National Forces Alliance and the Islamist Justice and Construction Party, while some top posts were given to independents.

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Turkey Says 'No Point' in Dialogue with Syria

Turkey is ruling out any dialogue with the Syrian regime, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Tuesday, a day after Moscow called for negotiations with Damascus as the only way to end the escalating conflict.

"There is no point in engaging in dialogue with a regime that continues to carry out such a massacre against its own people, even during (the Muslim festival of) Eid al-Adha," Davutoglu said at a news conference.

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'War of Extermination' in Syria, Says Qatar PM

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani has accused the Syrian regime, with the complicity of the international community, of waging a "war of extermination" against its people.

Sheikh Hamad in an interview with Al-Jazeera satellite channel late on Monday took issue with U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who earlier in the day had characterized the deadly conflict ravaging Syria as a "civil war."

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NGO: Syria Rebels Clash with Army, Palestinian Fighters

Fierce clashes broke out before dawn Tuesday in a major Palestinian refugee camp south of Syria's capital, pitting rebels against troops backed by pro-regime Palestinian fighters, activists and a watchdog said.

The fresh violence came after the feast of Eid al-Adha came to a close on Monday, with 560 people, including 235 civilians, reported killed during a failed ceasefire attempt over the four-day Muslim holiday.

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Libya Army Has 'No Control' in Bani Walid, Says Defense Minister

Libya's defense minister said Monday that the army has no control over Bani Walid, one of the last bastions of Moammar Gadhafi's regime, and that armed groups there prevent families from returning home.

"The chief of staff has no control over the town and therefore armed men are able to prevent families from coming back," Osama al-Jueili told journalists in Tripoli, adding that "gunmen" hold a checkpoint leading to the town.

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Syrian Rebels 'Buying Arms from the Regime'

The Syrian regime may be their sworn enemy, but rebels fighting to bring down President Bashar Assad say they pay hard cash to government agents for guns and bullets.

For Syria's plethora of armed opposition groups, obtaining weapons is a constant struggle. Furious with the West for failing to provide heavy weaponry, they say they have little choice but to line Assad's coffers.

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