Al Qaeda's Zawahri calls for kidnap of Westerners

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri has called on Muslims to kidnap Westerners, join Syria's rebellion and to ensure Egypt implements sharia, SITE Monitoring reported on Saturday, citing a two-part film posted on Islamist websites.

The Egypt-born cleric, who became al Qaeda leader last year after the death of Osama bin Laden, spoke in a message that lasted more than two hours.

"We are seeking, by the help of Allah, to capture others and to incite Muslims to capture the citizens of the countries that are fighting Muslims in order to release our captives," he said, praising the kidnapping of Warren Weinstein, a 71-year-old American aid worker in Pakistan last year.

Zawahri's message was first released on Wednesday, SITE said, just two weeks after the cleric issued a filmed statement calling for more protests against the United States over a California-made film mocking the Prophet Mohammad.

In his new message, he called on Muslims to ensure Egypt's revolution continued until sharia law was implemented and urged fellow Muslims to join the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

The release of his message had been delayed, he said, because of the "conditions of the fierce war" in Afghanistan and Pakistan where he said U.S.-led forces had intensified a bombing campaign.

U.S. President Barack Obama, whom Zawahri described as a "liar" and "one of the biggest supporters of Israel", has stepped up the use of unmanned drones to target militants in both countries as well as in Yemen.

"A LICENCE TO KILL"

In a further attack on Western governments and international institutions, Zawahri accused world powers of giving Syrian President Assad "a license to kill" his opponents.

"The U.N., Kofi Annan and the Arab League give the al-Assad regime one opportunity after another to end the rising of jihadi, popular resistance against his oppression, injustice, corruption and spoiling," SITE reported Zawahri as saying.

Syria's anti-government rebels include Islamist groups that draw on foreign fighters.

"I incite Muslims everywhere, especially in the countries that are contiguous to Syria, to rise up to support their brothers in Syria with all what they can and not to spare anything that they can offer," he said.

Zawahri, who led the Egyptian Islamic Jihad movement before joining al Qaeda, called on President Mohamed Mursi, the country's new Islamist leader, to explain his policies on Israel, Egyptian Christians and sharia law.

Islamist militants want Egypt to introduce sharia and to tear up a 1979 peace treaty with Israel and were dismayed when Mursi said he would appoint a Coptic Christian vice president.

"The battle in Egypt is very clear. It is a battle between the secular minority that is allied with the church and that is leaning on the support of the army, who are made up by (former President Hosni) Mubarak and the Americans ... and the Muslim ummah (nation) in Egypt that is seeking to implement sharia," he said.

(Reporting By Angus McDowall; Editing by Myra MacDonald and Andrew Osborn)

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European Parliament visit to Iran canceled

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Iran has canceled a European Parliament delegation visit to Tehran after the group asked to meet two Iranian activists awarded a top EU rights prize, a parliament spokeswoman said on Saturday.

The decision came after senior officials at the parliament, which on Friday awarded its Sakharov prize for human rights and freedom of thought to human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and filmmaker Jafar Panahi, said they wanted the delegation to meet the two activists.

"After hearing the new conditions, the Iranians decided to cancel," European Parliament spokeswoman Satu Helin told Reuters. The delegation was set to travel to Tehran from October 27 to November 2.

Iran's Mehr news agency quoted an Iranian parliamentary official as saying the European delegation had stated as a "precondition" a visit with Sotoudeh and Panahi.

"The European parliamentary delegation wished to visit two Iranian political prisoners and give them a prize," said Hossein Sheikholeslam, international affairs adviser to Iran's parliament, according to Mehr. "Iran did not agree with this condition."

Ties between Iran and Europe have become increasingly strained over Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

But meetings between European and Iranian parliamentary delegations were meant to keep open another line of communication, including with civil society - even though the European Parliament has little influence over dealings with Tehran.

Western countries accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear bomb; Tehran denies this and says its program is for peaceful purposes only.

(Additional reporting By Yeganeh Torbati in Dubai; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

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Syria bombards major cities, weakening truce: activists

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Opposition activists in Syria said forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had renewed their heavy bombardment of major cities on Saturday, further undermining a truce meant to mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha religious holiday.

The bombardment came on the second day of the truce called by international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who had hoped to use it to build broader momentum to end the 19-month-old conflict which has killed an estimated 32,000 people.

"The army began firing mortars at 7 a.m. I have counted 15 explosions in one hour and we already have two civilians killed," said Mohammed Doumany, an activist from the Damascus suburb of Douma, where pockets of rebels are based. "I can't see any difference from before the truce and now," he said.

Heavy machine gunfire and the sound of mortar bombs could be heard for the second consecutive day along the Turkey-Syria border near the Syrian town of Haram, a Reuters witness said.

Activists in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor and in Aleppo, where rebels control roughly half of Syria's most populous city, said that mortar bombs were being fired into residential areas.

Residents in Damascus aired footage of fighter jets which they said were bombing the suburbs of Erbin and Harasta.

The Syrian army said it had responded to attacks by insurgents on its positions on Friday, in line with its earlier announcement that it would cease military activity during the holiday while reserving the right to react to rebel actions.

A statement from the General Command of the Armed Forces detailed several ceasefire violations in which it said "terrorists" had fired on checkpoints and bombed a military police patrol in Aleppo.

More than 150 people were killed on Friday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based opposition organisation with a network of sources within Syria.

Most were shot by sniper fire or in clashes, the Observatory said, highlighting a temporary drop-off in the civil war's intensity in which Assad's forces have been conducting daily airstrikes and heavy artillery raids in most cities.

Forty-three soldiers were killed in ambushes and during clashes, it said, while state TV reported a powerful car bomb which had killed five people in Damascus.

TRUCE BREACHES

Violence had initially appeared to wane in some areas on Friday but truce breaches by both sides swiftly marred Syrians' hopes of celebrating Eid al-Adha, the climax of the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca, in peace.

Brahimi's ceasefire appeal had won widespread international support, including from Russia, China and Iran, President Assad's main foreign allies.

But there are few signs that either side in the conflict has respected the truce. A Reuters cameraman in the Turkish border village of Besaslan in southern Hatay province said he could hear the sound of a helicopter circling on the Syrian side of the border.

Turkish ambulances were ferrying wounded people from an unofficial border crossing for treatment in Turkey.

The war in Syria pits mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against Assad, who is from the minority Alawite sect which is distantly related to Shi'ite Islam. Brahimi has warned that the conflict could suck in Sunni and Shi'ite powers across the Middle East.

Brahimi's predecessor, former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, declared a ceasefire in Syria on April 12, but it soon fell flat, along with the rest of his six-point peace plan.

Divided international powers have been unable to stop the violence with the West condemning Assad but blaming Russia, Iran and China for supporting Damascus.

Russia's deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov tweeted on Saturday that "Westerners" in the United Nations Security Council had prevented the body from condemning a bomb attack in Damascus on Friday, which the Syrian government blames on rebels it labels as "terrorists."

"(The Syria opposition's) course for continuation of violence is self-evident," Gatilov said.

(Reporting by Oliver Holmes, Mert Ozkan in Besaslan, Gleb Bryanski in Moscow and Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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Double Baghdad blasts kill 13 over Eid holiday

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two blasts hit a Baghdad Shi'ite neighborhood and a bus full of Iranian pilgrims on Saturday, killing at least 13 people on the second day of the Islamic Eid al Adha religious festival.

Sunni Islamist insurgents and al Qaeda's Iraq wing often target Shi'ites in an attempt to stir up the kind of sectarian tensions that dragged the country close to civil war in 2006-2007 though bombings and attacks have eased.

In one attack on Saturday, a roadside bomb planted near an open-air market killed seven people, including three children at a playground. Another blast killed six people when it hit a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims to a Baghdad shrine, police and hospital officials said.

"We heard an explosion, we rushed out, I saw children running, some with wounds and crying. We evacuated some of the injured people. Mothers were running to the place to find their children," Abu Ahmed, one witness said.

Police said blast on the Iranian pilgrims came from a bomb that had been attached to their bus. It exploded around 300 meters from a police checkpoint, sending the bus out of control before it flipped over on its side.

Insurgents have carried out at least one major attack a month since the last U.S. troops left in December. Iraqi officials worry Syria's crisis is bolstering Iraqi insurgents as Islamist fighters cross into the neighboring country.

The monthly death toll from attacks in Iraq doubled in September to 365, the highest number of casualties in two years, including a series of bombings targeting Shi'ite neighborhoods that killed more than 100 people.

Security officials had said they believe insurgents would try to carry out a large attack during the religious holiday, which started on Friday.

Car bombs exploded and mortars landed around the Shi'ite neighborhood of Shula, northwestern Baghdad, on Tuesday killing 8 people and wounded 28, and another person was killed by a mortar round in Kadhimiya area.

(Reporting by Raheem Salman; writing by Patrick Markey)

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Italy's Berlusconi says plans to stay in politics

ROME (Reuters) - Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, reacting to a Milan court's conviction for tax fraud, said on Saturday he would stay in politics.

Berlusconi told an Italian television interviewer that he felt "obliged to stay in the field" in order to protect other Italians from what he called judicial injustices.

But it was not clear if Berlusconi, now a member of the lower house of parliament, meant he would run for high office again or just stay on as an unelected political force of the center-right.

"There will be consequences," Berlusconi said, referring to his jail sentence on Friday - which will not be enforced until his appeals are exhausted.

"I feel obliged to stay in the field to reform the justice system so that what happened to me does not happen to other citizens," he told Italy's Channel Five television, part of his Mediaset empire.

The move came as a surprise because last Wednesday Berlusconi said he would not run in next year's elections as the leader of his People of Freedom (PDL) party, ending almost 19 years as the dominant politician of the center-right.

The court sentence included a five-year ban on running for political office but since the sentence does not become executive until all appeals are exhausted, Berlusconi can run for parliament in the next national elections in April.

The 76-year-old billionaire media magnate, who was convicted three times during the 1990s in the first degree before being cleared by higher courts, has the right to appeal the ruling two more times before the sentence becomes definitive.

Berlusconi has often accused magistrates of waging a political war against him.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

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Capture of Libyan town smacks of revenge, not reconciliation

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Hours after taking control of Bani Walid, a former stronghold of Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan militias from the rival city of Misrata fired ferociously at its empty public buildings.

Fighters yelling "Allahu akbar (God is greatest) and "Today Bani Walid is finished" sought to make their mark with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades on a town they say still provides a refuge to many of the overthrown Libyan leader's followers.

The chaotic, vengeful scenes demonstrated the weakness of the new government's authority over former rebel militias which owe it allegiance but essentially do what they like.

A sign on a bank building that bore the Gaddafi-era name for Libya, "The Great Arab Socialist People's Republic", was scarred with bullet holes. The central streets were empty except for the fighters who filled them with their violent celebration.

"The Gaddafi fighters are out of Bani Walid, they have gone," said Ali Mahmoud, a Misrata fighter in a pickup truck at a central Bani Walid roundabout, patriotic music blaring.

"Some people here still wanted Gaddafi, we have to show them that he is finished."

After days of shelling that sent thousands of families fleeing from the hilltop town in scenes reminiscent of last year's war, militias aligned with the defense ministry, a grouping known as Libya Shield, seized Bani Walid on Wednesday.

The latest fighting, in which dozens of people were killed and hundreds wounded, erupted over a government demand that Bani Walid hand over those who had kidnapped and tortured Omar Shaaban, the former rebel fighter who had caught Gaddafi hiding in a drain in his hometown of Sirte last year.

Shaaban, from Misrata, a city that underwent a harsh siege by Gaddafi's forces, died in a Paris hospital last month from injuries inflicted during two months of captivity in Bani Walid.

The United Nations had called for restraint as militias gathered menacingly around Bani Walid, whose residents had baulked at turning over the wanted men to unruly armed groups, while Libya's justice system remains in disarray.

"There are some wanted people in Bani Walid, and we do want to hand them over but they also have rights," said Murad Mohammed, a student and Warfala tribe member living in Benghazi.

"So do you expect us to give them to militias who do not have legitimacy?"

Many people in Bani Walid belong to the powerful Warfala tribe, which was mostly loyal to Gaddafi.

The town and its now-displaced inhabitants, long isolated from the rest of Libya, fear retribution and wonder what fate awaits them in the post-Gaddafi era.

A disquieting example is offered by Sirte, whose residents feel neglected by Libya's new rulers, saying they are paying the price for being the last bastion of Gaddafi, who was killed there on October 20, 2011. His death has yet to be investigated.

Days later, Sirte residents were blaming vindictive rebels for some of the destruction visited on their city.

While the government has set up committees to tackle security, services and the return of refugees to Bani Walid, militia commanders say they will stay to keep the town "secure".

"Such groups have a background and a certain vision of what Libya should be and it doesn't always necessarily match that of the elected officials at the (ruling) General National Congress," said Claudia Gazzini of the International Crisis Group.

"This risks pushing back the reconciliation attempts that could have been fostered better in a peaceful manner between Bani Walid and the rest of Libya."

"KIDNAPPED CITY"

Bani Walid's predicament underlines the challenge Libya's new rulers face in reconciling groups with long-running grievances and embracing those who chose not to back the revolt - whether out of fear, or because they supported Gaddafi, or because they were benefiting in some way from his rule.

The government knows it must now strike the right balance and not risk storing up trouble for the future.

With 70,000 people, Bani Walid, some 170 km (105 miles) south of Tripoli, was one of the last towns to surrender to rebels last year. Gaddafi's now-captured son Saif al-Islam staged a last stand there before fleeing into the Sahara.

In January, the town grabbed headlines when fighters threw Tripoli's men out of the city, installing its own local council.

In July, fighters from Misrata threatened to attack it after two journalists from their city were detained.

While Misrata fighters have complained at what they call Bani Walid's continued defiance and its alleged harboring of former Gaddafi loyalists, townsfolk there say they have been unfairly tarred with the "pro-Gaddafi" brush.

"Bani Walid became a centre for those who were wanted for justice to escape," government spokesman Nasser El-Manee told a news conference. "We can say that they kidnapped the city."

Rights groups have voiced concern over the conditions of some detention centers run by militias, especially in Misrata.

Some have said this month's assault amounted to revenge by Misrata, whose fighters have been quick to retaliate, sometimes brutally, against towns that have been seen as loyalist. Many of the militias attacking Bani Walid were from Misrata.

"The other problem here is that we have a military action to free men who were arbitrarily detained by Bani Walid, but at the same time we have the same situation in other cities, Misrata first of all," Gazzini said.

"I feel that the congress has sort of followed this intense lobbying attack by the Misratans and by groups of Bani Walid revolutionaries who were kicked out of Bani Walid," she said.

"Now what we are hearing from these spokesmen that they want to take the glory for this inglorious operation."

ACTS OF REVENGE

Army officials said they had freed several detainees in Bani Walid and captured some fighters who used to belong to a brigade commanded by Gaddafi's son Khamis.

Human rights groups have urged the authorities to make clear that looting, beatings and destruction will be prosecuted.

"The government and forces under its command should protect residents in Bani Walid and reject acts of revenge," said Fred Abrahams, special adviser at Human Rights Watch.

"There is an urgent need to stop destruction of the town and begin reconstruction, as well as to prosecute those who broke the law," he said in a statement.

Residents fleeing Bani Walid spoke of no water or power and little food and medicine in the town. There were unconfirmed reports of militiamen entering suburbs with bulldozers.

As in Sirte, many in Bani Walid may feel resentment, believing they have been the victims of collective punishment.

"Where is the international community?" Bani Walid tribal elder Mohammed al-Shetawi said by phone after leaving the town.

"Where is the United Nations and the European Union and the other people in the world, why have they forgotten us?"

Benghazi congress member Saleh Gaouda said the priority of the authorities was to give Bani Walid residents the security to be able to return to their homes.

"It is important to make people inside Bani Walid believe in February 17th," he said, referring to the name given to the 2011 rebellion against Gaddafi. "This can be done through the media, talking, giving them a chance to be part of society."

(Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian in Bani Walid, Ghaith Shennib in Benghazi; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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Belgian prosecutors study murder of Exxon executive

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian prosecutors are investigating the murder of a British oil executive who was shot and killed in unexplained circumstances in front of his wife as they walked to their car after dinner at an Italian restaurant in Brussels.

Nicholas Mockford, who worked for U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil, was shot on October 14 after an evening meal, but prosecutors declined to say if they were investigating the case as a possible contract killing.

A woman who lived opposite where the couple had parked their car told Reuters she had heard three shots and then called the police. When she went out to investigate, she recognized Mockford's wife as a customer of her husband's hairdresser.

"She was clearly shocked and she said that they had demanded money, money, car, car. Those were the words she heard. One would imagine it was a car-jacking," she said.

Police initially suspected Mockford had been killed in a failed car hijacking, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters, though the couple's Lexus sports utility vehicle had not been taken after the shooting.

Marcello Minacapelli, the owner of the Italian restaurant, said the couple, who were not regulars, had left at about 10 p.m. on the Sunday evening, but he had not seen the incident.

Brussels prosecutors said they were not prepared to comment further on the details or circumstances of the case until the perpetrators were caught.

Mockford, 59, was a manager within the chemicals arm of ExxonMobil and had worked over a period of 38 years in Britain, Belgium and Singapore.

ExxonMobil Belgium confirmed he had worked as a department head at its office in Machelen, on the outskirts of Brussels.

"Of course we are all shocked," a company spokesman said. "There is no indication that the incident was work-related."

No one was willing to comment when Reuters called Mockford's family home in Grimbergen, an affluent town just north of the capital Brussels.

Britain's Foreign Office confirmed that a British national had been killed and that it was providing consular assistance.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop and Robert-Jan Bartunek; Editing by Rex Merrifield and Giles Elgood)

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Shot Pakistani girl "will rise again": father

BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) - The father of a Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating girls' education said on Friday she would "rise again" to pursue her dreams after hospital treatment.

Malala Yousufzai, 15, was flown from Pakistan to Britain for specialist treatment after the October 9 attack, which drew widespread international condemnation.

The father Ziauddin Yousufzai and other family members arrived in Britain on Thursday to help her recovery.

"They wanted to kill her. But she fell temporarily. She will rise again. She will stand again," he told reporters, his voice breaking with emotion.

Malala has become a powerful symbol of resistance to the Taliban's efforts to deny women education. Public fury in Pakistan over her shooting has put pressure on the military to mount an offensive against the radical Islamist group.

"When she fell, Pakistan stood ... this is a turning point," her father said. "(In) Pakistan for the first time ... all political parties, the government, the children, the elders, they were crying and praying to God."

The Taliban have said they attacked her because she spoke out against the group and praised U.S. President Barack Obama.

A cheerful schoolgirl who wants to become a politician, Malala Yousufzai began speaking out against the Pakistani Taliban when she was 11, around the time when the government had effectively ceded control of the Swat Valley to the militants.

She has been in critical condition since gunmen shot her in the head and neck as she left school in Swat, northwest of Islamabad.

She could be at risk of further attack if she went back to Pakistan, where Taliban insurgents have issued more death threats against her and her father since she was shot.

"It's a miracle for us," her father said. "She was in a very bad condition ... She is improving with encouraging speed."

British doctors say Malala has every chance of making a good recovery at the special hospital unit, expert in dealing with complex trauma cases. It has treated hundreds of soldiers wounded in Afghanistan.

Dave Rosser, the hospital's medical director, said she would be strong enough to travel back to Pakistan in a few months' time but it was unclear whether the family would choose to do so.

"She's certainly showing every intention of keeping up with her studies," Rosser added.

Malala's father said he and his family cried when they were finally reunited with her on Thursday.

"I love her and of course last night when we met her there were tears in our eyes and they were out of happiness," he said, adding that Malala had asked him to bring school textbooks from Pakistan so she could study.

"She told me on the phone, please bring me my books of Class 9 and I will attempt my examination," he said.

"We are very happy ... I pray for her."

(Writing by Maria Golovnina; editing by Andrew Roche)

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Fighting ruptures ragged Syrian ceasefire

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Fighting in Syria killed several people on Friday as a ceasefire brokered by international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to mark a holy Muslim day frayed almost before it had begun.

The Syrian military had said it would hold fire for four days following Brahimi's ceasefire appeal, which had won widespread support, including from Russia, China and Iran, President Bashar al-Assad's main foreign allies.

The U.N.-Arab League envoy had hoped to build on the truce to calm a 19-month-old conflict that has killed an estimated 32,000 people and worsened instability in the Middle East.

Violence appeared to wane in some areas, but violations by both sides swiftly marred Syrians' hopes of celebrating Eid al-Adha, the climax of the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca, in peace.

"We are not celebrating Eid here," said a woman in a besieged Syrian town near the Turkish border, speaking above the noise of incessant gunfire and shelling. "No one is in the mood to celebrate. Everyone is just glad they are alive."

Her husband, a portly, bearded man in his 50s, said they and their five children had just returned to the town after nine days camped out on a farm with other families to escape clashes.

"We have no gifts for our children. We can't even make phone calls to our families," he said, a young daughter on his lap.

The imam of Mecca's Grand Mosque called on Arabs and Muslims to take "practical and urgent" steps to stop bloodshed in Syria.

The Syrian conflict has aggravated divisions in the Islamic world, with Shi'ite Iran supporting Assad and U.S.-allied Sunni nations such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar backing his foes.

"The world should bear responsibility for this prolonged and painful disaster (in Syria) and the responsibility is greater for the Arabs and Muslims who should call on each other to support the oppressed against the oppressor," Sheikh Saleh Mohammed al-Taleb told worshippers during Eid prayers.

LOWER TOLL

For some in Syria, there was no respite from war, but by mid-afternoon only seven people had been killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, far below the 140 it reported on Thursday, when combat went on into the night.

Four people were killed by tank fire and snipers in Harasta, a town near Damascus, activists said. Gunfire and explosions echoed over Douma, just east of the capital. Rockets killed one person in the besieged Khalidiya district of Homs.

Heavy clashes erupted at a checkpoint near the army barracks of Mahlab in the northern city of Aleppo. Rebels again attacked an army base at Wadi al-Daif, near the Damascus-Aleppo highway.

There was shooting at security checkpoints near Tel Kelakh, on the Lebanese border, and clashes in the town itself.

Heavy machinegun fire and mortar explosions were audible along the Turkey-Syrian border near the Syrian town of Haram, a Reuters witness in the Turkish border village of Besaslan.

Rebels in the northern town near the Turkish border said a sniper had killed one of their fighters early on Friday.

"We don't believe the ceasefire will work," rebel commander Basel Eissa told Reuters. "There's no Eid for us rebels on the front line. The only Eid we can celebrate will be liberation."

Assad himself, who has vowed to defeat what he says are Islamist fighters backed by Syria's enemies abroad, was shown on state television attending Eid prayers at a Damascus mosque.

The prime minister, information minister and foreign minister, as well as the mufti, Syria's top Muslim official, were filmed praying alongside the 47-year-old president.

Assad, smiling and apparently relaxed, shook hands and exchanging Eid greetings with other worshippers afterwards.

MILITARY STALEMATE

Protests against him burst out in March last year, inspired by Arab uprisings elsewhere, but repression by security forces led to an armed insurgency, plunging Syria into a civil war which neither side has proved able to win or willing to end.

Syria's military announced conditional acceptance of a ceasefire on Thursday night, warning it would respond to any attacks or moves to use the truce to reinforce rebel positions.

"On the occasion of the blessed Eid al-Adha, the general command of the army and armed forces announces a halt to military operations on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, from Friday morning ... until Monday," the army said.

A commander from the rebel Free Syrian Army had said his fighters would also honor the ceasefire but demanded Assad meet opposition demands for the release of thousands of detainees.

Some Islamist militants, including the Nusra Front, rejected the truce. Many groups were skeptical that it would hold.

"We do not care about this truce. We are cautious. If the tanks are still there and the checkpoints are still there then what is the truce?" asked Abu Moaz, spokesman for Ansar al-Islam, a group whose units fight in and around Damascus.

The war in Syria pits mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against Assad, from the minority Alawite sect which is distantly related to Shi'ite Islam. Brahimi has warned that the conflict could suck in Sunni and Shi'ite powers across the Middle East.

Brahimi's predecessor, former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, declared a ceasefire in Syria on April 12, but it soon became a dead letter, along with the rest of his six-point peace plan.

(Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Alison Williams)

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Ivory Coast illegally arrested, tortured more than 200: Amnesty

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Police and soldiers in Ivory Coast have illegally detained and tortured more than 200 people including supporters of former President Laurent Gbagbo, following a series of armed attacks that began in August, Amnesty International said on Friday.

U.N. investigators said earlier this month that exiled members of Gbagbo's former government and military living in neighboring Ghana were behind the raids, which have targeted police and army installations as well as key infrastructure.

Gbagbo is awaiting trial in The Hague accused of crimes against humanity related to a brief war last year that erupted after he refused to accept the election victory of rival Alassane Ouattara in a late 2010 poll.

More than 3,000 people were killed in the conflict.

"While acknowledging that the ... government is facing a wave of attacks, we are very worried that the current arrests and repression stem from a willingness for reprisals and revenge," Amnesty West Africa researcher Gaetan Mootoo said.

Ivory Coast's government rejected the accusations made in a statement released by Amnesty on Friday.

"These are not at all the practices of our government. We do things legally," government spokesman Bruno Kone told Reuters.

"There have been attacks, and it is our mission to protect Ivorian citizens and stop this. This is what we are doing," he said.

Leading members of Gbagbo's FPI political party who have remained in Ivory Coast deny being involved in the violence and complain that Ouattara's government is using the attacks as an excuse for a crackdown on the opposition.

Two of the FPI's top officials have been arrested, and the party says dozens of rank-and-file members have been rounded up.

Amnesty researchers identified detention sites, including a military barracks in the commercial capital Abidjan, where those arrested were brought and often held incommunicado.

"We were able to meet dozens of detainees who told us how they have been tortured by electricity or had molten plastic poured on their bodies. Two of them have been sexually abused," Mootoo said.

Serge Herve Kribie, who was arrested by the army in the town of San Pedro on August 21, was stripped naked, tied to a pole, and subjected to electric shocks, Amnesty said. He died a few hours later, the group said.

A police officer also died as a result of torture, the researchers said.

Some detainees have been held for months with no contact to their families or lawyers, Amnesty said. Others have been held for ransom by security personnel who released them in exchange for cash, it said.

"More than 18 months after the arrest of Laurent Gbagbo in April 2011, it's high time for President Alassane Dramane Ouattara to go beyond promises and put the respect of human rights at the top of his government's agenda," Amnesty said.

(Reporting By Joe Bavier; Editing by Pravin Char)

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