Iraq finds no arms in Syria-bound Iran jet

Iraq found no weapons in an Iranian cargo flight bound for Syria, Baghdad said, as Syrian jets bombed suburban Damascus despite a truce that was to end Monday. The Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority said it found only humanitarian aid, including food, medical supplies and tents, and let the plane continue after ordering it to land at Baghdad International Airport for inspection. The inspection was the second by Iraq's Shiite-led government this month of an Iranian cargo plane headed to Syria. The first one was Oct. 2. No weapons were found on that plane either. Iraq banned a North Korean plane from using its airspace Sept. 20 over suspicions it was carrying weapons to Syria. In recent months, the United States has accused Iraq of letting Iran fly weapons through its airspace to Syria, where the regime of President Bashar Assad, whose regime is controlled by an offshoot of Shiite Islam, is fighting a 19-month insurgency. A Western intelligence report last month said Iran's supply operation to Syria was bigger and more systematic than first thought, involving "tens of tons" of arms and military personnel on civilian aircraft almost daily. The report also said Iranian trucks were moving by land to Syria through Iraq. Iraqi officials denied the charges. Meanwhile, Syrian warplanes and artillery pounded opposition strongholds on the outskirts of Damascus, killing at least 56 people, and troops clashed with rebel fighters in other parts of the country, as a disregarded four-day truce was about to end. All told, at least 128 people were killed Sunday in widespread fighting in a number of flashpoint communities, including the northwestern province of Idlib, where at least 16 people were killed, including seven children and five women, the activist Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The activist Local Coordination Committees of Syria said at least 27 were killed in Idlib, most of them in a massacre in the limestone plateau village of Bara, 40 miles north of Hama and 50 miles southwest of Aleppo. Bara is located on the site of a "dead" or "forgotten" ancient city dating from the fourth century. The official Syrian Arab News Agency said "terrorist groups" violated the cease-fire for the third straight day in and around the cities of Deir Ezzor, Aleppo and Damascus. It said "our valiant armed forces" remained committed to the cease-fire. It said Syrian forces killed an al-Qaida terrorist in Aleppo. The reports and casualty figures could not be independently confirmed because of media restrictions in Syria. The fighting came on the third day of what was to be a four-day cease-fire between the regime and rebels to mark a key Muslim holiday. Both sides in the conflict were reported to have violated the truce, brokered by U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Thursday that if the cease-fire held, it was prepared to send 550 tons of emergency aid to about 13,000 Syrian families, representing some 65,000 people, in previously inaccessible areas. About 1.2 million people in Syria need emergency humanitarian aid, the refugee agency said. The last attempted cease-fire, beginning April 12, unraveled within days. The current truce, which unraveled within hours, was to have been for the usually joyous holiday of Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice. The important holiday, which ends Monday, is celebrated by Muslims worldwide to honor the willingness of Ibrahim, known in the Judeo-Christian tradition as Abraham, to sacrifice his son Ismail, or Ishmael, as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a sheep to sacrifice instead.