TRIPOLI: Three people died and 23 were wounded during fierce clashes on Saturday between Lebanese Sunni Muslims hostile to Syria’s regime and Alawites who support it, a Lebanese security official said.

“A Sunni and an Alawite were killed and 23 people were wounded in clashes that continued since Friday between people from the neighbourhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tebbaneh” in the northern city of Tripoli, the official told AFP.

A 17-year-old girl died of her wounds later.

Ten soldiers were among those wounded in the fighting, among them a sergeant whose wounds were critical, the official added.

The two sides fired guns and rocket-propelled grenades at each other in the bloodiest clashes since last June when six people were killed in the wake of demonstrations against the Syrian government.

Hezbollah — one of Assad’s biggest supporters — has not involved itself in any of these clashes yet. That could change though as tensions grow grow in Lebanon in light of the growing reality that Assad’s days in power could be numbered.

Iranian-born actress Golshifteh Farahani is one of these women. Her determination to stand up for women’s rights in light of the outrageous actions taken by theocratic regimes to curb them were enough to get her banned from returning home to Iran. Despite this though, thousands of people all over the world, including many Iranians, have come to her defense. I encourage you to like her page on Facebook and take part in the discussion…or thank her for her courage on Twitter.

You are a hero, Golshifteh. With your actions you are reminding the most ignorant and hateful of people that they do not have the right to control you or any other woman. You are your own person and have every right to reject their insane beliefs.

By the way, my fellow American readers — you may know Golshifteh from the movie “Body of Lies”, which stars Russel Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio. She is the first Iranian to star in a Hollywood film and, in my opinion, did a great job playing “Aisha”, a nurse from Amman, Jordan.

I watched this documentary after writing my previous post about some of my predictions for 2012. As more news comes in, it is reinforcing my thoughts that the situation in Balochistan is going to be one of the year’s big events, possibly even eclipsing the Taliban-related headlines.

Balochistan is a region that reaches from Pakistan into Iran and Afghanistan.

One conflict TheSpec mentioned was the ongoing violence in Pakistan’s Balochistan Province, which has seen militant attacks by ethnic separatists intensify as the Taliban insurgency further north begins to fade. This predication — that Balochistan and the battles taking place inside of it could take more headlines next year — are already beginning to come true. On Friday evening, a powerful car bomb in Quetta, Balochistan’s capital, killed 13 people outside the home of a former government minister. Shortly after, the Baloch Liberation Army — one of the main militant groups operating in the region — claimed the attack as its first-ever suicide bombing. If confirmed, that would mark a serious escalation of the insurgency…which already stepped up its attacks a few months back when another bomb devastated a hotel south of Quetta.

Another issue the article takes up are the drug cartel battles that have rocked Mexico these last few years. The author points out the rising violence SOUTH of Mexico, in countries like Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. I agree that this is a growing problem, but it should also be noted that violence along the border between Mexico and the United States is actually falling. Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez are nowhere near as dangerous as they used to be and most of the killings and the gruesome ways they are perpetrated have moved south into Mexico’s heartland. In the meantime, Honduras and the other countries in “The Northern Triangle” have become some of the most violent places on earth. Even further south, Venezuela is deteriorating into levels of violence 4 or 5 times that of Iraq, even as neighboring and war-weary Colombia finds itself closer to peace.

There are other issues mentioned too, including the military build-up and rivalry between India and China, battles on the Thai-Cambodia border, and the fate of the Euro. All of these are growing problems, and any of them could become in the next big news alert in the months ahead. It will be interesting to see how things go in 2012.

Despite all this, Syrians have shown the world their dedication. After taking to the streets in March they have continued their anti-regime demonstrations for the rest of 2011 — nearly 10 months later — bringing the year to a close with a show of strength and propelling their country into a new year that might be remembered as the year the murderous Assad Dynasty finally came to an end.

That end needs to come soon…because Assad might end up ruling over cities with nothing left but ruins and dead bodies. As he refuses to let go of his regime and the protesters refuse to go back to the old days of his rule, something will have to give eventually. I cannot say for sure that Assad will fall, but I CAN say that the world will be a better place if the protesters — with whatever flaws they may have — can emerge victorious.

A few years ago, I remember hearing about the horrific violence in Iraq regularly, on a daily and sometimes hourly basis, and feared a day like December 15th, 2011, could never come. I had hope for the Iraqi people though and I am proud to say I was not the only one who felt that way, in spite of all the negativity. Christopher Hitchens was one such person who believed that Iraq was not lost…and he was right.

Shortly after the Iraqi people took control of their country, Hitchens passed away after an 18-month struggle with throat cancer. His death ended a life of tremendous accomplishment and leaves behind a legacy of inspiration. As I write this, I that inspiration reaches through to me.

In the past 10 years, Afghan Shiites have largely escaped the vicious sectarian violence that has gripped neighboring Pakistan, which has found itself faced with suicide bombings, massacres, and target killings that rival the conflict in Iraq — when that country was faced with the worst of its problems, between 2006 and 2008. The extremists, though, have decided to bring the atrocities into the mosques of Afghanistan and remind the Shia of their “heretic” status.

The aftermath of a suicide bombing at the gates of a Shia shrine in Kabul, Afghanistan

On Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated a belt packed with explosives at the entrance to a Shia shrine in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing scores of people and wounding well over a hundred others as ceremonies commemorating the Ashoura holiday were underway. Moments later, another blast went off next to a mosque in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, leaving four people dead. Now, a Sunni extremist group that has been behind much of Pakistan’s sectarian violence is claiming responsibility, adding an even more bizarre angle to an already disturbing event.

From the Guardian:

The unprecedented sectarian attack which killed 55 Shia worshippers in Kabul is likely to have been the work of  al-Qaida or a group closely associated with it, security sources and analysts believe.

A spokesman for an obscure Pakistani extremist group called Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al Almi claimed responsibility in a phone call to Radio Mashaal – a Pashto language radio station.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al Almi is a small faction based in Pakistan’s tribal area and is considered an even more radical offshoot of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, (LeJ), a murderous anti-Shia group founded in 1996. Both groups act as surrogates for al-Qaida.

The Taliban was quick to distance itself from Tuesday’s bombing and the Afghan Taliban has generally avoided sectarian violence. The Pakistani Taliban, however, has its roots in anti-Shia violence, and LeJ acted as the training ground for its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud.

Sectarian violence is not something that Afghanistan needs right now. Afghans are a proud people and need to be strong enough to keep the ugly hatred of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi well outside of their borders.

He will be uploading the show shortly after we complete it, and I will be posting the link here on my site as well. We both will be looking forward to some feedback.

THE HAGUE: Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has arrived at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague after being flown from Ivory Coast.

The charges were allegedly committed between December 16, 2010 and April 12, 2011. The ICC has been investigating unrest after last year’s disputed elections.

The transfer comes just two weeks before legislative elections. Laurent Gbagbo had been under house arrest in Korhogo in the north of Ivory Coast since April when he was ousted. He will be the first former head of state to be tried by the ICC since it was set up in 2002. The ICC opened an investigation last month into killings, rapes and other abuses committed during the four-month conflict in Ivory Coast which began when Gbagbo refused to give up power to Alassane Ouattara in a presidential election last year.

The wreckage of the UN Headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, after a massive suicide bombing

For me, it is shocking how someone can be so consumed by anti-Americanism. It’s definitely fair enough to criticize the United States for invading Iraq and sticking out an increasingly difficult 10-year occupation of Afghanistan, but should a fair-minded person deny that Al-Qaeda “resistance” fighters and the Taliban routinely and deliberately target civilians? I don’t think so, because even if the US and the CIA were evil enough to invent such groups from their imagination and set off the bombs themselves (which my friend believes), it has done nothing to further their case for remaining in the Middle East, *especially* Iraq. Anyone who is unable to see the connection between Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi’s ferocious car bombings that swept Iraq for years and the plummeting support for President Bush and US involvement in the conflict is delusional

I was having this discussion with my friend at about the same time that chaos was breaking out in Northeastern Nigeria, where squads of suicide bombers and other attackers leveled a police headquarters, burned down churches, and started a series of shootouts that left scores of people dead and hundreds more maimed. Nigeria, of course, is hardly a country that is under “occupation” like Iraq is, but the fundamentalists who want to “resist” the central government look like they are ready to start massacring people anyway.

It is never right to make excuses for cruel and evil people like Zarqawi and the Boko Haram group in Nigeria, which claimed responsibility for the attacks in that country. Denying their existence is even worse. It is insulting to the victims whose lives they extinguish by the thousands and furthers anti-Western vitriol that they thrive on.