Al-Qaeda leader urges rival Syria groups to unite

The leader of al-Qaeda has urged jihadis in Syria to unite, an appeal likely aimed at rival affiliates of his terror network fighting there to oust President Bashar Assad.
 
Ayman al-Zawahri said fighters must "rise above organizational loyalties and party partisanship" and unite behind the goal of setting up an Islamic state.
 
However, he suggested he will not impose unity, saying in an audio message Friday that "what you agree upon will also be our choice."
 
Two al-Qaeda-linked groups have emerged in Syria's civil war  Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. The first is commanded by a Syrian, the second by an Iraqi, but both are loyal to al-Zawahri.
 
Al-Zawahri also urged Syrian regime opponents not cut deals with Westerns and secular groups.

On the field:

Two mortar shells hit Syria's capital Saturday near a hotel where international chemical inspectors and United Nations staff are staying, state media and a hotel guest said.           

An 8-year-old girl was killed and 11 people were hurt in the blasts in the upscale Abu Roumaneh area of Damascus, the SANA news agency said. One shell fell near a school and the other on the roof of a building.               

The girl was in her family car near the school when she was killed, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based activist group monitoring the fighting.          

The blasts damaged several cars and shattered nearby windows. One resident was seen sweeping debris on a sidewalk, near where twisted metal pieces from the wreckage had been heaped in a small pile.                 

The blasts struck some 300 meters (1,000 feet) away from the Four Seasons Hotel where the chemical inspectors and U.N. staff are staying. A U.N. employee staying there said it did not appear that the hotel was affected by the twin explosions. The hotel remained open after the blasts, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

On the economic level:        

Syria's government has agreed a 2014 budget of 1.39 trillion pounds ($8.18 billion), state news agency SANA said on Saturday, a marginal increase on this year's spending despite the economic devastation wrought by more than two years of civil war.          

The agency gave no breakdown of spending, which it said was 7 billion pounds higher than the 2013 budget, but it quoted Prime Minister Wael al-Halki as saying it would focus spending on education, health and agriculture sectors.          

Syria's 2-1/2 year civil war has ruined the country's economy, causing tens of billions of dollars of damage and depriving it of crucial tourism and oil export revenues.            

Figures released by the Central Bank showed its foreign reserves fell by more than a third in the first 10 months following the outbreak of protests against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.         

But Syria has received extensive financial support from its ally Iran, including billions of dollars in credit facilities to buy oil products, to help shore up its finances.

         

AP/LBCI/REUTERS