Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The War for Idlib!

The Assads keep mixing tactics, as the world keep mincing words, and opposition groups keep crossing their fingers.  

Tuesday 13, 2011

Today’s death toll: 41, mostly in Idlib Province. 7 loyalists were also killed in an operation organized by local insurgents. The operation came in retaliation for the loyalist raid on M’arr Masreen and Kafar Yahmoul which left 11 dead. The death toll also includes 6 who died in Idlib City when loyalists opened fire on a funerary procession. Neighborhoods in Homs City, the town of Qseir as well as the town of Khirbet Ghazaleh in Deraa/Hauran Province, all witnessed heavy shelling by loyalist forces. 

Links

Note: Numerous reports are coming from a number of regions in Idlib and Homs regarding activities by fake defectors said to be organizing fake units affiliated with the FSA, or operating under the name of already established FSA units. These fake units are said to be engaged in various activities meant to terrorize the local populations, including robberies and random killings. The aim seems to be to undermine the growing popularity of the FSA among local communities, to dissuade straddlers from crossing the divide and joining the revolution, and to further consolidate the hold of the Assads on minority populations. In several locations, real FSA units have adopted the responsibility of maintain law and order including confronting and dismantling these fake units, nonetheless, the development further complicates the already chaotic scene unfolding in the central and northern Syria.

All that talk about a Turkey-sponsored buffer zone that has been in the headlines over the last few weeks must have made the Assads nervous. The province that Idlib already straddling the borders with Turkey has been seething for months, and despite the best efforts of the regime and its relative success in controlling the known checkpoints, not to mention the city of Jisr Ashougour, most communities remain beyond is control, and gorilla warfare has been going on for weeks. Today marked a major escalation though, and might signal a temporary shift in focus for the Assads.

As the Assads wait for the international community to get preoccupied with some matter elsewhere on the planet before moving on with their plans to pacify the city of Homs, a process that is bound to involve multiple mass murders and is bound to leave thousands of fatalities, the pacification of Idlib must have seemed like the right thing to do at this stage as it is unlikely to get the same notice as the invasion of Homs City. The targets are much smaller and scattered, and the massacres that will be taking place will prove more difficult to document, and hence unlikely to attract the same level of attention as a full-scale assault on Homs City.

So, for now, Idilb, and to an extent Rural Damascus and Deraa might bear the brunt of Assad’s wrath.

Be that as it may, the massacres continue.

Featured Videos

Insurgents destroy an army tank in Homs City http://youtu.be/VUiny3T61jg

Brigadier General Ahmad Muhammad Al-Shaikh declares his defection in Idlib alongside other mid-ranking officers, and joins the Free Syrian Army http://youtu.be/eGAW-6_QNxs  More defections http://youtu.be/Iy4bofz7wRc , http://youtu.be/X2zKCk7W1dc

And children continue to be targeted in Homs City http://youtu.be/NmSkvbDt6-c And people keep getting killed by snipers throughout the city http://youtu.be/Gv9707_dkbI A Christian fatehr is killed alongside his daughter at a loyalist checkpoint in Bab Al-Sibaa, loyalist bullets can’t tell the difference between Christians and Muslims http://youtu.be/qJjVy6flyGs Protesters hid the bodies in the local church waiting for family members to come and claim them http://youtu.be/JnE0wJmeAcQ Bab Al-Sibaa comes under fire http://youtu.be/V4xPUMXA1wU , http://youtu.be/c0Is6KSkWUc , http://youtu.be/M6PaW_MnYZo Bayadah the aftermath of pounding http://youtu.be/u6nHIeuDANM A wounded child http://youtu.be/QcgsNgUbLXE In Bab Houd, nighttime protesters come under RPG fire RPG http://youtu.be/z0i7VBDsxLA Khaldiyeh Neighborhood comes under fire at night http://youtu.be/8d41UtG7jQw , http://youtu.be/RoYlNEl38GE

Inhabitants of Qseir send food supplies to help the inhabitants of Homs City http://youtu.be/nMegpedzAXQ

Protesters in Idlib City try to save the wounded in the aftermath of a loyalist attack http://youtu.be/bUAPa3HW_8s , http://youtu.be/Wv1Q0Mhn6QI

Loyalists rob stores that observed the general strike http://youtu.be/xKcxDjFzwbU

Inhabitants of the town of Jarjanaz in Idlib province stage mock elections in which they drop ballots saying “Leave” “We love freedom” and “Child killer” http://youtu.be/5C9P4bIXPTw

Students at the University of Aleppo continue to defy authorities http://youtu.be/V5Ds2peX_io

The Damascene suburb of Douma comes under fire at night http://youtu.be/Tp9ow1AI6LI

Hama City comes under fire at night http://youtu.be/OVKru9EJLQ0

December 13




HAMA: Martyrs Aqeerabat http://youtu.be/8wP6jM7zbek Funerals Morek http://youtu.be/uWZa7lpqh6w Kafrenboudeh http://youtu.be/IJRGKgVH254 The strike continues Hama City http://youtu.be/YHv3Tiaiyu0 Demonstrations took place in Taybat Al-Imam http://youtu.be/0WDN-k6Doa0 Ellatamneh http://youtu.be/IRbA3j4STvk Hama City (Hamidiyeh) http://youtu.be/2jW52229trc (Bab Qibli) http://youtu.be/VNgitJY4iJw Khattab http://youtu.be/gCVUfVWJSdo



ALEPPO: Demonstrations took place in Marei http://youtu.be/i957t7jHTGk Anadan http://youtu.be/BWzgWpYk_UA

DEIR EZZOR: Demonstrations took place Qrayah http://youtu.be/Ol9p8YCcXSU

HASSAKEH: Demonstrations took place Dirbasiyeh http://youtu.be/4GJaOGTmdyI

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