International interest in the Syrian civil war began to dwindle as soon as it became clear that the United States did not intend to attack President Bashar Assad’s regime for its use of chemical weapons against the rebels last August. But the massacres in Syria continue, and often spill over into neighboring countries. The attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut appears to be a direct result of the Syrian civil war and the fact that both Iran and Hezbollah are involved in the conflict in support of the regime in Damascus.

The organization which claimed responsibility for the attack, the Abdullah Azzam Shaheed Brigade, is a fanatic Sunni faction affiliated with Al-Qaida that has branches operating in Lebanon, Syria and Egypt. Azzam, a Palestinian from the Jenin area in the West Bank, was Osama Bin-Laden’s spiritual advisor in Pakistan and was killed in a car accident there in the late 1980’s.

The Azzam Brigades in Lebanon, a relatively small organization with mainly Palestinian operatives, has taken responsibility in the past for launching short-range Katyusha rockets into northern Israel.

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