A coalition statement said Tuesday’s shooting is under investigation.

NATO did not release the nationality of the service member shot, or say whether others were wounded.

The shooting was the latest case of so-called “green-on-blue” attacks in which Afghan soldiers or insurgents disguised in their uniforms shoot at U.S. or NATO troops.

So far this year more than 25 coalition troops have been killed in such attacks. That compares with 11 fatal attacks and 20 deaths the previous year. In 2007 and 2008 there were a combined total of four attacks and four deaths.

The deluge, the worst since 2009 when hundreds died in rampaging flash floods, was set off by the seasonal monsoon that overflowed major dams and rivers in Manila and surrounding provinces.

The capital and other parts of the country already were saturated from last week’s Typhoon Saola, which battered Manila and the north for several days before blowing away Friday. That storm was responsible for at least 53 deaths.

“It’s like a water world,” said Benito Ramos, head of the government’s disaster response agency. He said the rains flooded 50 percent of metropolitan Manila on Monday evening, and about 30 percent remained under waist- or neck-deep waters Tuesday.

He urged residents in areas prone to landslides and floods to stay in evacuation centers. Because the soil is saturated, even a little rain could be dangerous, he added.

“Now that it’s getting dark, I would like to repeat, if the rains are heavy you should be at the evacuation centers,” he said, warning that rescue operations are more difficult at night and could put responders at risk.

Manila’s weather bureau said a tropical storm off eastern China had intensified monsoon rains in the Philippines, which were forecast to last until Thursday.

In Manila’s suburban Quezon City, a landslide hit a row of shanties perched below a hill, burying nine people, according to Ramos.

Army troops and police dug frantically to save those buried, including four children, as surviving relatives and neighbors wept. All the victims were recovered, some whose bodies were found near an entombed shanty’s door as they apparently tried to flee.

“My wife, children and grandchild are down there,” a drenched Jessie Bailon told The Associated Press while watching rescuers dig into a muddy mound where his shanty once stood.

National police chief Nicanor Bartolome went to the scene and ordered all other slum dwellers to be evacuated from the still-soggy area.

TV footage showed rescuers dangling on ropes to bring children and other residents to safety from flooded houses across the city. Many residents trapped in their homes called radio and TV stations desperately asking for help.

“We need to be rescued,” Josephine Cruz told DZMM radio as water rose around her house in Quezon City, saying she was trapped in her two-story house with 11 other people, including her 83-year-old mother. “We can’t get out because the floodwaters are now higher than people.”

ABC-CBN TV network reported receiving frantic calls from people whose relatives were trapped in the deluge, many without food since Tuesday morning. They included a pregnant woman with a baby who wanted to be rescued from a roof and about 55 people who scrambled to the third floor of a Quezon city house as water rose below them.

Vehicles and even heavy trucks struggled to navigate water-clogged roads, where hundreds of thousands of commuters were stranded. Many cars were stuck in the muddy waters.

The government suspended work and classes Tuesday and Wednesday. Some shopping malls opened with limited grocery supplies that were quickly picked up by shoppers waiting in long lines.

The La Mesa dam, which supplies water to the capital of 12 million people, spilled excess water early Tuesday into the rivers flowing into Quezon City, as well as the neighborhoods of Malabon, Valenzuela and Caloocan, where several villages were submerged.

Along the swollen Marikina River, nearly 20,000 residents have been moved away from the riverbanks but many others asked to be rescued. Mayor Del de Guzman pleaded for patience and said overwhelmed rescue teams would try to reach everyone.

President Benigno Aquino III called an emergency meeting of Cabinet officials and disaster-response agencies. He ordered officials to make sure all residents were accounted for in flooded villages and discussed how flooded hospitals could be helped in case they were hit by power outages.

The Philippine Stock Exchange in the flooded financial district of Makati was closed. Also closed was the U.S. Embassy along Manila Bay in the historic old city, which was flooded last week when a storm surge pushed the water over the seawall.

In 2009, massive flooding spawned by a typhoon devastated Manila and surrounding areas, killing hundreds. The state weather bureau said that the current flooding was not as severe and that the weather may start to improve later this week.

The seemingly intractable, 17-month-old conflict in Syria has defied all international attempts to calm the bloodshed. But rebels and activists said Friday they have had enough of diplomacy and appealed to the international community to send weapons.

“The warplanes and helicopters are killing us, they’re up there in the sky 15 hours a day,” said Mohammad al-Hassan, an activist in Aleppo’s main rebel stronghold of Salaheddine.

“It’s warplanes against Kalashnikovs, tanks fighting against rifles,” he said. “I don’t know how long this situation can be sustained.”

As Syrian soldiers bombarded rebel positions in Aleppo from the ground and air, diplomats said former Algerian foreign affairs minister and longtime U.N. official Lakhdar Brahimi has emerged as a strong candidate to replace Kofi Annan as peace envoy to Syria.

Annan announced his resignation last week, ending a frustrating six-month effort that failed to achieve even a temporary cease-fire as the country descended into civil war. Activists say some 20,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Also Friday, the U.S. announced sanctions on Hezbollah for providing support to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime — a symbolic move, as Washington already has designated the Lebanese militant group a terrorist organization.

Still, the sanctions emphasized how Syria’s close ties to Hezbollah — and to the group’s patrons in Iran — mean that the conflict has the potential to escalate dramatically.

The relentless violence triggered a fresh wave of civilians streaming across the border into neighboring Turkey. Turkish officials said more than 1,500 Syrians arrived over the past 24 hours, increasing the number of refugees in Turkey to about 51,500.

The regime has been trying to drive rebels out of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, for more than two weeks. The state news agency claimed Wednesday that Assad’s forces had regained control of the Salaheddine neighborhood, the main rebel area in Aleppo. But activists said rebels were still putting up a fight there on Friday despite being low on ammunition.

Aleppo holds great symbolic and strategic importance. Some 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the Turkish border, it has been a pillar of regime support during the uprising against the Assad regime. An opposition victory there would allow easier access for weapons and fighters from Turkey, where many rebels are based.

An Aleppo-based activist said government forces were shelling rebel-controlled areas in the southwestern part of Aleppo and in the northeast. Towns and villages in Aleppo suburbs were “at the mercy” of fighter jets and helicopters strafing the area, he said.

“Soon there will be nothing left to destroy in Aleppo … The regime is using air power without shame,” he said, asking that his name not be used out of fear for his personal safety.

Protesters across many parts of the country rallied after midday prayers Friday, urging the international community to arm the opposition fighters.

“Give us anti-aircraft guns. Where is your conscience?” read a small poster held by a protester in the village of Kfar Zeita in the central Hama province.

But there has been deep reluctance to openly arm the fighters, out of fears that it could escalate the violence and because the rebel Free Syrian Army is not a unified group. Many rebel groups operate largely independently of each other, in many cases sharing only the goal of toppling Assad.

On Friday, Britain’s government said it is giving an extra 5 million pounds (US$7.8 million) worth of aid — but no weapons — to Syria’s opposition.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said the funds would pay for items including satellite phones, power generators and medical kits.

Britain has previously given 1.4 million pounds (US$2.2 million) worth of nonlethal support to Syria’s opposition. The United States has earmarked a fund of $25 million to spend on nonlethal communications assistance.

The activists, from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as well as Syria’s Local Coordination Committees, also reported shelling Friday of several areas just outside Damascus, where rebels also were active. Residents reported hearing loud blasts in Damascus from the shelling on the outer edges of the city, the activists said.

Thirty-one coalition service members have now died this year at the hands of Afghan forces or insurgents disguised in Afghan uniforms, according to NATO — a dramatic rise from previous years.

The assaults have cast a shadow of fear and mistrust over U.S. efforts to train Afghan soldiers and police more than 10 years after the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban’s hardline Islamist regime for sheltering al-Qaida’s leadership. The attacks also raise further doubts about the quality of the Afghan forces taking over in many areas before most international troops leave the country in 2014.

Friday’s deadly shooting took place in the volatile Sangin district of Helmand province, said U.S. military spokeswoman Maj. Lori Hodge. Sangin was a Taliban stronghold for years and has one of the highest concentrations of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, in the country.

A U.S. Defense Department official confirmed that the dead Americans were Marine Special Operations Forces. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the family notification process was not complete.

Sangin’s district chief and the Taliban both identified the gunman as Asadullah, a member of the Afghan National Police who was helping the Marines train the Afghan Local Police.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said by telephone that the attacker joined the insurgency after the shooting.

“Now, he is with us,” Ahmadi said.

The district chief, Mohammad Sharif, said the shooting happened at a police checkpoint after a joint meal and a security meeting. The meal took place before dawn because of Ramadan, the month in which Muslims abstain from food during daylight hours.

Compared to the 25 attacks this year that have killed 31 foreign troops, there were 11 such attacks and 20 deaths in 2011, according to an Associated Press county. Each of the previous two years saw five such attacks.

The NATO coalition says it takes the rise in “green-on-blue” attacks seriously but insists they are not a sign of trouble for the plan to hand over security to Afghan forces.

“We are confident that those isolated incidents will have no effect on transition or on the quality of our forces,” said Brig. Gen. Gunter Katz, a spokesman for NATO troops.

On Tuesday, two gunmen wearing Afghan army uniforms killed a U.S. soldier and wounded two others in Paktia province in the east. And on Thursday, two Afghan soldiers tried to gun down a group of NATO troops outside a military base in eastern Afghanistan. No international forces died, but one of the attackers was killed as NATO forces shot back.

Last year, a U.S. Army team led by a behavioral scientist produced a 70-page survey that revealed both Afghan and American soldiers hold disturbingly negative perceptions of the other.

According to the survey, many Afghan security personnel found U.S. troops “extremely arrogant, bullying and unwilling to listen to their advice” and sometimes lacking concern about Afghans’ safety in combat. They accused the Americans of ignoring female privacy and using denigrating names for Afghans.

American troops, in turn, often accused Afghan troops and police of “pervasive illicit drug use, massive thievery, personal instability, dishonesty, no integrity,” the survey said.

U.S. military officials have downplayed that survey.

The U.S. hopes the Afghan Local Police, a village defense force backed by the national government, will become a key force in fighting the insurgency.

Just last month, a coalition statement touted the Marines’ work training the Afghan Local Police in Sangin, describing a new academy in an Afghan National Police compound near a Marines base.

“During the three-week course, future police train in the basics of patrolling, vehicle and personnel searches, checkpoints, escalation of force, detainee procedures, marksmanship and Afghan law,” the statement said. “After completing training, the new ALP are stationed at patrol bases in their hometowns.”

Meanwhile Friday, Britain said one of its soldiers died the previous day from wounds he received in a shooting while on patrol in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province. Nineteen coalition troops have been killed in Afghanistan this month.

Elsewhere in Helmand province, six Afghan civilians were killed when their car hit a roadside bomb, one of thousands planted by insurgents across the volatile region. Helmand police official Mohammad Ismail Khan said the bomb killed three children, two women and a man.

The U.S. government identified four Americans who were killed along with an Afghan civilian in a twin suicide attack in eastern Kunar province on Wednesday: USAID foreign service officer Ragaei Abdelfattah, Air Force Maj. Walter D. Gray, of Conyers, Ga.; Army Maj. Thomas E. Kennedy, of West Point, N.Y.; and Command Sgt. Maj. Kevin J. Griffin, of Laramie, Wyo.

The Taliban also claimed responsibility for that attack.

NATO said it is investigating the cause of the crash. The coalition had no immediate comment on the insurgents’ claim that they shot down the helicopter.

Officials in Kandahar province said the helicopter went down in the north of the province. Kandahar is a traditional Taliban stronghold and the spiritual birthplace of the hardline Islamist movement that ruled Afghanistan before being ousted in 2001 by the U.S.-led alliance for sheltering al-Qaida’s terrorist leaders.

Among the dead were seven American service members, three members of Afghan security forces and one Afghan civilian interpreter, said Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for the coalition.

He said the aircraft was a UH-60 Black Hawk but declined to give any details of the aircraft’s mission

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said insurgent fighters shot down the helicopter in Kandahar province on Thursday morning.

“Nobody survived this,” Ahmadi told The Associated Press by phone.

The helicopter went down in Kandahar’s Shah Wali Kot district, which lies in the northern part of the province, a spokesman for the provincial government said.

“We don’t know if it was shot down by the Taliban, or if it had mechanical problems,” said the spokesman, Ahmad Jawed Faisal.

Thursday’s crash is the deadliest since a Turkish helicopter crashed into a house near the Afghan capital, Kabul, on March 16, killing 12 Turkish soldiers on board and four Afghan civilians on the ground, officials said.

In August last year, insurgents shot down a Chinook helicopter, killing 30 American troops, mostly elite Navy SEALs, in Afghanistan’s central Wardak province.

At least 221 American service members have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year.

The United States had no information suggesting that the insider attacks were the work of foreign intelligence services, a senior U.S. defense official said. Instead, he said attacks typically are carried out by Afghans acting on their own, although some might have had help, on occasion, from insurgent networks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence information about the attacks.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai summoned members of his national security council to the palace for an unscheduled meeting to discuss cases where members of the Afghan security forces or militants wearing their uniforms have turned their weapons on foreign troops. So far this year, there have been 32 insider attacks against coalition forces, resulting in 40 deaths, according to the NATO military alliance. That’s up from 21 attacks for all of 2011, with 35 killed.

“The reports presented by the security officials in this meeting blamed the infiltration by foreign spy agencies into Afghan security force ranks as responsible for the rise in the individual shootings,” Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Faizi said.

He said the foreign agencies were trying to undermine confidence in the Afghan security forces.

“The investigation done so far shows there’s definite infiltration by foreign spy agencies,” Faizi told a small group of international journalists he invited to the palace to discuss the national security council meeting.

Asked if the foreign spy agencies suspected included those from neighboring countries, Faizi said, “Neighboring countries included, but I don’t want to name any country.”

In the past, intelligence agencies in neighboring Iran and Pakistan have been accused of enabling Afghan insurgents to destabilize the country.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official denied the country’s involvement in the killings. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the agency’s policy.

Iran also has denied allegations that it supports the Taliban.

The U.S.-led coalition has said only about 10 percent of the attacks were related to infiltration by the Taliban insurgency, but that analysis was done before the latest furious spate of seven attacks in 11 days.

Faizi said an Afghan investigation into the killings revealed a strong foreign connection. “That brings us to this conclusion that the foreign spy agencies are involved,” he said.

He cited physical evidence collected from gunmen who were interrogated after some of the shootings, adding that the spy agencies apparently were using Taliban fighters or sympathizers as infiltrators.

“There are letters. There are papers that are authorizing them to do different things. There are telephone calls,” Faizi said, without disclosing details of the investigation’s findings.

Faizi said the foreign spy agencies were instigating insider attacks to undermine confidence in the Afghan forces, but he didn’t elaborate about why they would want to do that other than to say that they feared a strong Afghan security force.

On Monday, President Barack Obama expressed deep concern about the insider attacks and discussed the problem Monday with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, who was already in Kabul to talk to American and Afghan officials about how to halt the killings.

Dempsey has acknowledged that efforts launched a year ago to improve the vetting of Afghan recruits have yet to solve the problem.

Earlier this year, the U.S. commanders assigned some troops to be so-called “guardian angels” — watching over their comrades in interactions with Afghan forces and even as they sleep.

The U.S. also started allowing Americans to carry weapons in several Afghan ministries and started evaluating such visits to Afghan government offices with a stricter eye to security. And earlier this month, U.S. officials ordered American troops to carry loaded weapons at all times in Afghanistan, even when they are on their bases as a precaution against such insider attacks.

Faizi said Karzai’s national security team decided at the meeting to further tighten the recruitment and vetting process and strengthen intelligence units within the defense and interior ministries.

The team also decided to investigate the cause of every insider attack and develop cultural training for police and soldiers to prevent personal disagreements between Afghan and NATO forces that have led to some of the shootings. The national security team also said a more comprehensive questionnaire would be introduced to screen recruits and officials will do more to check on members of the security forces with ties to Pakistan or Iran.

“They will study every single case of every individual who is either in the army or the police who has family either in Iran or Pakistan,” Faizi said.

This is not a new procedure but one that should command greater attention, he said.

“There are some individuals within the Afghan security forces who still have families either in Pakistan or Iran, so there is still a connection between them and their families in those countries,” he said.

The shooting appears to have been a case of a confused gunbattle that broke out on a rural road just south of Mexico City.

The Navy said Friday the embassy personnel were heading down a dirt road to a military installation when a carload of gunmen opened fire on them and chased them, along with a Navy officer accompanying them.

Alerted to the gunfire, a federal police patrol vehicle came to the scene and apparently opened fire. The statement does not make clear whose bullets injured the U.S. workers.

Prosecutor Eric Maillaud said British police have reported that 50-year-old Saad al Hilli may have been feuding with his brother, Zaid, over money. But he did not know if this was linked to British media reports of a possible disputed inheritance. A family friend said the father of the two men died recently — while public records showed the brother had left the victim’s small aeronautics design firm.

Two young sisters survived the deaths of their parents and an older woman in the family car late Wednesday, as well as a French cyclist whose body was found nearby. The children, apparently the only witnesses to the shootings on an isolated Alpine road, were under police and consular protection Friday. With the killer or killers still at large, the two children’s security was reinforced Friday.

For the first time in nearly two days, police lifted a roadblock leading to the pitted, single-lane road running along a clear mountain stream. Broken glass and skid marks marred the small parking area where the family was found. A sign noted the area’s status as a national hunting and animal reserve, mapping out nearby trails.

Maillaud said that the 4-year-old girl who survived the shooting of her family in the French Alps could not help their investigation because she was hiding under her mother’s legs during the killings. She was found in the backseat of the car early Thursday, some eight hours after the crime scene was discovered.

But the girl, Zeena al Hilli, was lucid enough to be able to confirm to French police that her father and mother were among the victims killed inside the car. Her 7-year-old sister, who was shot in the shoulder and survived, was found bloodied and battered outside the vehicle. Fifteen bullet casings were scattered around the car.

The older girl is in the hospital where she has been put into an “artificial coma” to aid her recovery, French authorities said.

The 4-year-old said she didn’t recognize the third victim inside the car, an older woman, who was confirmed by the prosecutor to be a Swedish national. The investigation is looking into establishing the woman’s identity, and whether or not she is related to the al Hilli family. Sweden also confirmed one of the victims was Swedish. French authorities found a Swedish passport that apparently belonged to the older woman, born in 1938, as well as an Iraqi passport.

The dead cyclist, officials say, had no links to the family killed in a wooded area up a mountain road from the village of Chevaline, near bucolic Lake Annecy.

Maillaud said the BMW station wagon in which three of the bodies were found was registered to a British man born in Baghdad in 1962. Saad al Hilli had lived in Britain since at least 2002, and his family had been in France since August.

Maillaud revealed further details about the killings: About 25 gun cartridges were found inside the family vehicle and all those killed were found with at least three bullet wounds, each with one single shot to the head.

Investigators are looking for a green or dark colored 4×4 vehicle and a motorbike in connection with Wednesday’s killings, both seen by a witness shortly after the massacre.

The prosecutors also said they could face problems in finding a suitable carer for the two children. He said that police will not give the children to the “first person who shows up with the name of al Hilli.”

The case has taken international ramifications with links tying the slain family to Britain, Iraq, Sweden and Spain.

Public records identified al Hilli as a mechanical engineer and his LinkedIn page described him as an aerospace consultant.

British media, citing neighbors in the British village of Claygate, identified al Hilli’s wife as Iqbal or Ikbal. There appeared to be some confusion over the girls’ names: U.K. media outlets gave various names and spellings for the 7-year-old and the 4-year-old.

Maillaud has declined to confirm any identities, pending results of DNA and fingerprint tests.

Saad al Hilli’s father died recently in Spain, family friend Mae Faisal El-wailly told The Associated Press. She described the family as wealthy and well-traveled.

Peter Ricketts, the British ambassador to France, said Friday that the elder girl was in serious but stable condition, and that both sisters would be looked after by British consular staff until the family could go to France. Britain’s Foreign Office said diplomats had contacted relatives.

“The younger girl, who is not physically hurt but deeply, deeply shocked, has British consular staff with her — English-speaking, friendly faces to be with her alongside the French authorities, which I think is what everybody would expect,” he told BBC television.

According to public records, Zaid al Hilli is between 50 and 54 years old, and resigned last year from his brother’s company, Shtech Ltd., which specialized in computer-aided aeronautic design. His whereabouts were unclear, and police in the southern England county of Surrey have refused to comment beyond saying that they’re cooperating with French authorities.

Shtech had only modest assets, with a net worth of 8,331 pounds (roughly $13,000.)

The French cyclist was identified as Sylvain Mollier, 45, from nearby Grenoble. His wife had called police after Mollier failed to return from a ride.

Autopsies were planned on Friday at the nearby Grenoble Medical-Legal Institute.

A French police officer will travel to Britain following the opening of an official judicial investigation in France Friday.

If confirmed, Lazcano’s death would be a huge victory for Mexican law enforcement, and mark the end of a founder of one of the world’s bloodiest cartels.

The navy said Monday there were “strong indications” that one of two men killed in the shootout Sunday was Lazcano, known as “El Lazca.” But it added that more forensics tests the body would have to be carried out to confirm the identification.

“Information was obtained after the first forensics tests were carried out that yielded indications that suggest that one of the bodies is Heriberto Lazcano,” the navy’s statement said.

“The Navy Department is coordinating efforts with Coahuila state, and will be awaiting the conclusions of the forensics examination in the case,” the statement said.

The Zetas cartel that Lazcano helped found with other deserters from an elite army unit has carried out some of Mexico’s bloodiest massacres, biggest jail breaks and fiercest attacks on authorities.

Lazcano, who is also known as “El Verdugo” (the Executioner) for his brutality, is suspected in hundreds of killings, including the June 2004 slaying of Francisco Ortiz Franco, a top editor of a crusading weekly newspaper in Tijuana that often reported on drug trafficking. Ortiz Franco was gunned down in front of his two young children as he left a clinic.

The United States has offered a $5 million reward and Mexico an additional $2.3 million for information leading to Lazcano’s arrest.

The Sunday shootout came in the rural area of Progreso, Coahuila, about 80 miles (125 kilometers) west of the Texas border, near Laredo.

The navy said it received complaints about armed men in the area and sent out a patrol to check out the reports. Gunmen tossed grenades at the patrol from a moving vehicle, wounding one of the marines. His injuries were not life-threatening.

Two of the gunmen were killed in the ensuing shootout, the navy’s statement said. In the gunmen’s’ vehicle, authorities found a grenade launcher, 12 grenades, what appeared to be rocket propelled grenade launcher and two rifles.

Under Lazcano’s leadership, the Zetas recruited more hit men, many of them former Mexican soldiers, and hired “kaibiles,” Guatemalan soldiers trained in counterinsurgency, transforming what had been a small group of assassins into a ruthless gang of enforcers for the Gulf cartel. The Zetas also were in charge of protecting the Gulf cartel’s drug shipments.

The Zetas finally split from their former bosses in 2010 and have since been fighting a vicious battle for control of the drug business in northeastern Mexico, the traditional home base of the Gulf cartel. The result has been a surge of drug-related killings.

Lazcano “is credited with strengthening the organization … he created a new structure of regional cells that specialize in specific crimes,” Mexican federal prosecutors say in their profile of Lazcano.

The Zetas also earned notoriety for brutality by becoming the first to publicly display their beheaded rivals, most infamously two police officers in April 2006 in the resort city of Acapulco. The severed heads were found on spikes outside a government building with a message signed “Z” that said: “So that you learn to respect.”

Even with the death of Lazcano, the Zetas apparently would still be run by a ruthless capo, Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, who has a reputation for being even more brutal than Lazcano. Officials say Trevino Morales, also known was “Z 40,” has taken on a greater leadership role and has even been reported to have replaced Lazcano as operational chief.

The report of Lazcano’s death came just hours after the navy nabbed a suspected Zetas regional leader accused of involvement in some of the country’s most notorious crimes in recent years.

Navy spokesman Jose Luis Vergara said Salvador Alfonso Martinez Escobedo was arrested Saturday in Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas. The official said Martinez is believed to have masterminded the massacre of 72 migrants in the northern state of Tamaulipas in 2010.

The man known as “Squirrel” also has been linked to the escape of 151 prisoners in 2010 from a jail in the city of Nuevo Laredo, the recent flight of 131 prisoners in the city of Piedras Negras and the killing of U.S. citizen David Hartley in 2010 on Falcon Lake, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border.

The death of Hartley drew wide attention as it appeared Hartley and his wife, Tiffany, were on a personal trip when he was shot by Mexican criminals on Sept. 30, 2010. The Hartleys were using personal watercraft on Falcon Lake when David Hartley was shot in the head and fell into the water.

The navy is also blaming Martinez for the killing of the Tamaulipas state police commander and chief investigator on the case, an attack that hampered the investigation.

The navy said Martinez is also a suspect in dozens of killings of people who were buried in mass graves at the same site of the 2010 massacre of migrants. Nearly 200 bodies were discovered in April 2011 in the town of San Fernando, close to the U.S. border. Those two crimes have been the most fatalities since Mexico’s federal government launched an armed offensive against drug traffickers in December 2006.

Syria branded the incident piracy and Russia called the search illegal, saying it endangered the lives of Russian citizens aboard the plane.

The accusation by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan contradicted denials by both Russia and Syria that anything illegal had been aboard the Airbus A320 that was intercepted over Turkish airspace late Wednesday.

“Equipment and ammunitions that were being sent from a Russian agency … to the Syrian Defense Ministry,” were confiscated from the jetliner, Erdogan told reporters in Ankara. “Their examination is continuing and the necessary (action) will follow.”

He did not provide details, but Turkish media said the seized cargo included missile parts as well as radio receivers, antennas and other military communications equipment.

“As you know, defense industry equipment or weapons, ammunitions … cannot be carried on passenger planes,” Erdogan said. “It is against international rules for such things to pass through our air space.”

Erdogan refused to say how — or from whom — Turkey had learned that the twice-weekly scheduled flight would be used to transport military gear to Syria.

“As you will appreciate, those who gave the tip, which establishments, these things cannot be disclosed,” he said.

The United States said it backed Turkey’s decision to intercept the plane.

“Any transfer of any military equipment to the Syrian regime at this time is very concerning, and we look forward to hearing more from the Turkish side when they get to the bottom of what they found,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

She declined to comment on Turkish reports that the intelligence on the plane’s contents had come from the United States. The plane was allowed to continue to Damascus after several hours, without the cargo.

Turkish-Syrian relations have plummeted over the conflict in Syria, which has expanded into a civil war that threatens the stability of the Middle East. Syrian opposition activists estimate more than 32,000 people have been killed since March 2011, when the uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime began.

Turkey has called for Assad to step down, while Damascus accuses Turkey of supporting the rebels. The two neighbors have traded artillery fire over Syria’s northern border throughout the past week.

Hours before Erdogan’s statement, Russian Ambassador Vladimir Ivanovsky held talks with Turkish officials at the Foreign Ministry.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said the Kremlin was concerned that the lives and safety of the 35 passengers, including 17 Russian citizens, had been endangered.

“The Russian side continues to insist on an explanation for the Turkish authorities’ actions toward Russian citizens and on the adoption of measures to avoid such incidents in the future,” Lukashevich said in a statement.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said the pilot of the Syrian Air jetliner had been warned of Turkey’s intention to ground it as he approached from the Black Sea and he was given the opportunity to turn back, but declined.

Rejecting claims that passengers were ill-treated, the ministry said those on board were allowed to leave the plane if they wanted and that there was a medical crew and ambulances on standby. It also said the pilot did not provide a passenger list and therefore Turkish officials did not know there were Russians on board until after the plane landed.

Separately, the Foreign Ministry said it had submitted a formal protest note to Syria for the violation of civil aviation rules and declared Syrian air space unsafe for Turkish planes.

In Damascus, Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdessi rejected the Turkish accusations as “absolutely untrue,” saying the plane was not carrying ammunition or any illegal cargo. Turkey’s decision to force the plane to land amounted to piracy, said Transportation Minister Mohammad Ibrahim Said.

The general manager of the Syrian Civil Aviation Agency also blasted Turkey’s forced landing of the plane, calling it “contrary to regulations and aviation norms.”

The plane’s pilots were not asked to land but were surprised by the Turkish F-16 fighter jets that intercepted the flight, the official, Ghaidaa Abdul-Latif, told reporters in Damascus.

A Syrian Air engineer who was aboard, Haithan Kasser, said armed Turkish officials entered the plane and handcuffed the crew before inspecting packages that he said contained electrical equipment.

The Moscow airport that cleared the Syrian plane for takeoff denied it carried any forbidden cargo.

“No objects whose transportation would have been forbidden under aviation regulations were on board,” said Vnukovo Airport spokeswoman Yelena Krylova, ITAR-Tass reported. She said all documentation was in order, though she would not say who sent the cargo.

Meanwhile, family and supporters of two journalists believed to be detained in Syria appealed in Istanbul for their release. Arzu Kadoumi said her husband Bashar Fahmi, a reporter for Al-Hurra network, and his Turkish cameraman, Cuneyt Unal, had been missing for 53 days.

Inside Syria, battles continued in the southern Idlib province that abuts the Turkish border as rebels sought to consolidate control of a strategic town on the country’s main north-south highway. Rebels said they captured Maaret al-Numan on Wednesday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes continued Thursday after rebels attacked a military convoy and nearby army checkpoints. The fighting killed more than a dozen people, the Observatory said.

The Observatory also said eight people were killed and another eight wounded when unknown gunmen fired on their bus near the coastal city of Tartous. Syria’s state news agency SANA said the men were Syrian workers returning from Lebanon.

In the southern province of Daraa, gunmen shot dead the brother of a member of Syria’s parliament while raiding his home, the Observatory and SANA said. The parliament member, Khalid al-Abboud, regularly defends the Syrian regime on TV.

The Observatory said gunmen also killed the son of another legislator, Mohammed Kheir al-Mashi, at his home in Idlib province.

The activist claims could not be independently verified because of restrictions on reporting in Syria.

Meanwhile, state-run Syrian TV reported an explosion in the capital Thursday night near the Ministry of Education and the Military Court. A Syrian official said the blast wounded two people.

Preliminary results gave Bersani 60.8 percent of the vote compared to Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi’s 39.1 percent, with two-thirds of the votes counted.

Even before the results were released, Renzi conceded the victory to Bersani in a Twitter message, writing: “It was the right thing to try, it was beautiful to do it together. Thank you all from the heart.”

The primary had been closely watched since the Democratic Party has a significant lead in the polls over former Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right People of Freedom party, which has been in chaos following the media mogul’s 2011 downfall, a series of corruption scandals within party ranks and Berlusconi’s indecision over whether to run for a fourth term.

The 2013 general election — expected in March or April — will decide if Italy continues on the same path to financial health charted by Premier Mario Monti, appointed last year to save Italy from a Greek-style debt crisis. The former European commissioner was named to head a technical government after international markets lost confidence in then-premier Berlusconi’s ability to reign in Italy’s public debt and push through structural reforms.

Monti has ruled out running for office but has said he would be willing to stay on in some capacity if he could be of service. Some commentators have floated the idea of Monti taking over the largely ceremonial role as Italian president, while others say his talents would be put to better use as treasury minister.

Nearly all polls had projected Bersani would beat Renzi, who campaigned on an Obama-style “Let’s change Italy now” mantra that attracted many disgruntled Italians back to politics. Renzi used his youth — he’s 37 — to bolster his call for Italy’s entire political class to be “scrapped.”

Bersani, by contrast, is 61 and a veteran of previous center-left governments, where he has served as transport and industry minister. In his victory speech, Bersani made clear his new job running for premier would begin Monday with a trip to Libya, Italy’s former colony, to meet with the government.

“I want Italy to retake its place in political, moral, cultural and economic terms in the Mediterranean,” Bersani said to cheers.

But even in defeat, Renzi won a victory of sorts for having changed the Italian left — perhaps forever, analysts said. Renzi’s perceived liberal conservative leanings within the center-left, while alienating the movement’s hard-core communists, attracted Italians young and old who might otherwise never have voted, much less for a center-left candidate. He liked to say that he offered a different vision for the party, a different model.

“Even if he loses, as I think he will, he had an important renovation function within the party,” Rome resident Pietro Marucci said Sunday as he voted for Renzi.

Renzi’s style — moving around Italy in a motor home to meet crowds, addressing supporters in just a shirt and tie, no jacket — drew inevitable comparisons to President Barack Obama. But some analysts said he was simply not yet ready for the job of running Italy, and that his relaxed, fresh approach to politics isn’t what Italy needs as it navigates through a grinding recession and near-record high unemployment and tries to tackle its enormous public debt of €2 trillion ($2.5 trillion).

“Italy certainly badly needs new faces, fresh faces,” noted columnist Massimo Franco said. “But I think that between Renzi and Bersani, the big problem is also experience.”

It remains to be seen what, if any, role Renzi will play in the campaign for general elections and how Bersani will try to capitalize on the support Renzi generated. In his speech, Bersani made clear he understood Renzi’s base, saying that starting Monday he would give “new space” to the younger generations in the party.

Berlusconi had largely stayed out of the public spotlight for the past year — until recent weeks, when he announced he was thinking about running again, then changed his mind, then threatened to bring down Monti’s government, and then went silent about his political plans.

His waffling has thrown his People of Freedom party into disarray, disrupting its own plans for a primary which is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 16.

A poll published Friday gave the Democratic Party 30 percent of the vote if the election were held now, compared with 19.5 percent for the upstart populist movement of comic Beppe Grillo. Berlusconi’s party was in third with 14.3 percent. The poll, by the SWG firm for state-run RAI 3, surveyed 5,000 voting-age adults by telephone between Nov. 26 and 28. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.4 percentage points.

It’s been quite a turnabout both for Berlusconi’s once-dominant movement and the Democratic Party, which had been in shambles for years, unable to capitalize on Berlusconi’s professional and personal failings.