A  powder keg waiting to explode is the way many perceive the Mideast. The  events in the region could set off in many people's estimates a cascade  that could emesh the US of A in more military action.

Syria:  A  new offensive erupted on Tuesday morning when rebels launched an  assault before dawn on a major air force intelligence unit in Aleppo's  Zahraa district.

Rebels  armed with rocket propelled grenades attacked Aleppo's main military  court as well as a police station and a branch of the ruling Baath Party  in the city's southern Salhin district.

The  Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that government  troops bombarded Aleppo’s districts of Firdoss, Al-Mashhad and Ansari  were bombarded through the night by, the watchdog said.

Fighting  also flared in the district of Salaheddin, the rebels' main bastion in  Aleppo, which was strafed by government helicopter gunships, according  to the Syrian Revolution General Committee, a network of activists on  the ground.

A security  official in Damascus told AFP on Monday that the army had regained some  of Salaheddin but it was facing “a very strong resistance”. The rebels,  however, denied that the army had advanced even “one metre”.

http://telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9440280/Syria-rebels-launch-new-offensive-in-battle-for-Aleppo.html

The  Syrian government's assault on Aleppo appeared to have stalled on  Tuesday night as rebels claimed new victories against the increasingly  demoralised troops of Bashar al-Assad.

Rebels now believe they  can capture the country's biggest city within days despite being  outgunned. On Tuesday they stormed a number of bases including police  stations in Aleppo suburbs, killing as many as 40 members of the  security forces, following their capture of a key checkpoint on the road  to the Syrian border the day before.

State media meanwhile said  troops were still "pursuing terrorists" in the suburb of Salaheddin,  which on Monday it claimed to control, as well a list of other  districts.

http://telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9442506/Syria-governments-Aleppo-assault-stalls.html

Egypt: Egypt's  new Muslim Brotherhood president has made a key overture to its  neighbour Israel, writing its president a letter in the Islamist  leader's first official contact with the Jewish state.

The  unexpected gesture was seen as a response to critics who predicted that  the Muslim Brotherhood would abandon Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel  in pursuit of a policy of Islamic radicalism.

President Mohammed Morsi replied to a letter of congratulations on his election by the Israeli president, Shimon Peres.

Significantly,  he also referenced Israeli security concerns in a conscious attempt to  address an issue that Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has  repeatedly emphasised must be the hinge on which a peace deal with the  Palestinians is built.

“I am  looking forward to exerting our best efforts to get the Middle East  peace process back to its right track in order to achieve security and  stability for all peoples of the region, including (the) Israeli  people,” he said.

http://telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/9442362/Muslim-Brotherhood-makes-overture-to-Israel.html

Iraq: Bombings  and clashes killed 23 people in Iraq on Tuesday, security and medical  officials said, after al-Qaeda's Iraq front group announced a new  offensive in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The  latest violence brings the number of people killed in attacks across  the country in July to at least 280, according to an AFP tally based on  security and medical sources.

An  interior ministry official said two car bombings in Baghdad's central  Karrada area, one of them a suicide attack, killed 12 people, among them  seven police, and wounded 47, among them 10 police.

A medical official put the toll at 19 killed, including five police, and 50 wounded, among them 10 police.

The interior ministry official also reported another suicide bombing as well as armed clashes.

A  health ministry official at the scene of that attack, which was also in  central Baghdad, said he saw the bodies of seven interior ministry  special forces personnel and two civilians.

The  interior ministry meanwhile said in a statement on its website  referring to one of the Baghdad attacks that its "forces thwarted a  terrorist attack targeting the anti-terrorism directorate," which was  aimed at freeing detainees.

Three  attackers entered the directorate after setting off a bomb followed by a  car bomb at the gate, but guards killed two of them and no detainees  were freed, it said, adding that a lieutenant colonel was killed and two  guards wounded.

http://telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/9442810/23-dead-in-attacks-across-Iraq.html

From the Cornfield, the US of A presidential election may very well be decided on what happens in The Mideast.