By focusing on the Center, Assad has run the risk of losing
the Periphery and it’s happening faster than anyone had thought. Now the rebels
are moving to take Aleppo City, and they are organized. Soon the Center itself
will not be able to hold. Yeats predicts the rest.
Saturday July 21, 2012
Today’s Death toll: 140. The Breakdown:
The toll includes 18 defectors, 11 children and 6 women. 35 in Homs, 31 in
Damascus City and Suburbs, 22 in Idlib, 18 in Aleppo, 13 in Daraa, 11 in Deir
Ezzor, 8 in Hama, 1 in Hassakeh and 1 in Lattakia.
Cities & Towns Under
Shelling: Harasta, Arbeen,
Moadamiyah, Haran Al-Awameed, Zabadani, Madaya, Eltal, Dmeir, Hameh, Yelda,
Rankous, Qarrah (Damascus Suburbs), Sit Zeinab, Al-Qadam, Modan, Al-Hajar
Al-Aswad, Yarmouk, Kafar Sousseh, Mazzeh, Qaboun, Barzeh (Damascus City), Daraa
City, Khirbet Al-Ghazaleh, Tafas, Bostra Al-Sham, Na’eemah, Mseifrah, Jimreen,
Hraak (Daraa), Rastan, Talbisseh, Houla, Tal Kalakh, Al-Qusayr, Al-Hosn, Old
Homs (Homs Province), Hreitan, Elbab, Eizaz, Marei, Bayanoun (Aleppo Province),
Haffeh, Jabal Al-Akrad (Lattakia), Deir Ezzor City, Mouhassan, Albou Kamal
(Deir Ezzor Province), Kafar Zeiteh, Hawash, Shahshabo, Hama City (Hama
Province), Jabal Al-Zawiyeh, Maar’at Al-Nouman, Saraqib, Maar Shoureen (Idlib)
Rebel groups in the north are
moving in to take Aleppo City, having established their control over the most
of the rural and suburban areas. Kurdish groups have established their control
over their own areas. After seizing most of the border checkpoints with Turkey and
Iraq, rebel groups launched attacks on the international airports of both Damascus
and Aleppo. Assad continues to withdraw more forces from Daraa province to help
with the battles in Damascus.
News
Op-Eds & Special
Reports
Syria
rebels' gains in Damascus surprise even them The
uprising enters a crucial phase as the rebels face the challenge of trying to
seize the capital despite a shortage of weapons and lack of unity among
themselves… Echoing the sentiments of the more cautious activists and
observers, Ammar Abdulhamid, a U.S. based-Syrian human rights activist and
fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote in one of his daily
roundup emails last week, "Something is definitely looming in Syria, but
it's not end game. It's more like the end of Round One."
The
Syrian Endgame There are no guarantees. But in almost
every scenario, the violence will persist.
A
sequel to a nightmare for Iraqi refugees living in Syria For
some Iraqi refugees living in Syria, it feels like a sequel to a nightmare.
Tens of thousands of Iraqis fled to Syria during the brutal sectarian war that
followed the U.S.-led ouster of Saddam Hussein.
As
Chaos Grows in Syria, Worries Grow on the Sidelines The
fall of the Assad government would remove Shiite Iran’s last and most valued
foothold in the Arab world, and its opening to the Mediterranean. It would give
Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab states their long-sought goal of countering
Iranian influence in the region, finally splitting the alliance between Tehran
and Damascus that has lasted for decades. And it would further erode Iran’s
role as a patron of the Middle East’s revolutionaries, a goal that moderate
Arabs and the United States have long sought.
US
must work 'outside UN' to aid Syrian rebels Richard
Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations think tank and an
experienced former US diplomat, said failure to agree a UN resolution does not
preclude Western nations from pushing for Assad's exit through other means…
"The United States and other like-minded governments should not equate the
United Nations with multilateralism, nor should they see the UN as having a
monopoly on legitimacy," Haass, who succeeded George Mitchell as the US
special envoy for Northern Ireland, wrote in an article on the think tank's
website.
Syria
endgame: who and what will emerge from the ruins? Bashar
al-Assad is finished – that is a given. But 40 years under a corrupt regime
that ruled by fear has left a dangerous vacuum
Damascus
chaos strikes fear in Assad’s Alawite bastion It
remains unclear if the fear that has eclipsed the mood of defiant confidence in
Tartous will last or be a passing panic. But more and more cars with Damascus
plates are arriving, and Alawites from the shaken capital say the message is
clear. “The (bomb attack) was a strike to the core. If they were able to get to
the inner circle, what else is there?”
The
battle for Syria is a battle for the entire Middle East If
Assad falls, the area will lose a brutal dictator and Iran a pivotal ally. It
could mark the end of an entire political culture
Robert
Fisk: Sectarianism bites into Syria's rebels The
deathwish of fighters in Damascus terrifies many who oppose Assad
Digital
Globe image purports
to show Damascus rubble from battles and smoke rising
from a building on the feeder exchange. (AP)
Situation in the Kurdish Regions
After
largely sitting on the sidelines of the Syrian revolution, political groups
from Syria's Kurdish minority in the northeastern region appear to have moved
decisively to claim control of several Kurdish-populated towns.
The
Kurdish Coordination Committee, an opposition group, said the towns of Amouda
and Qobani are under the control of a group called the Free Kurdish Army.
Opposition groups told Syrian officials and security forces to withdraw from
the town.
The
towns are near the Turkish border. The Free Kurdish Army, formed from the
political Democratic Union Party, has historic links to the Kurdistan Workers'
Party, or PKK.
The
PKK, regarded as a terrorist organization by Turkey and the United States, has
been fighting the Turkish government for Kurdish autonomy. There was no
immediate comment from Turkey about the development. Turkey has been critical
of the al-Assad regime and is hosting Syrian opposition groups and sheltering
thousands of Syrian refugees.
Rebels
are working to wrest control of Qamishli, the largest of the Kurdish cities,
from the government. Clashes between Free Syrian Army rebels and regime forces
were taking place near the city's Central Prison, the LCC said.
The
Kurdish Coordination Committee reported fighting between Kurdish rebels and
security forces in Malikiye, located east of Qamishli across from the Turkish
border city of Cizre.
The moves described above come on the heels of an agreement
reached between PYD (or the Democratic Union Party) and the KNC (the Kurdish
National Council) recently reached in Irbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, under the
patronage of Mesud Barazani, President of Iraqi Kurdistan. Considering the
close ties between President Barzani and the Turkish PM, it seems that this
move reflects a Turkish policy of encouraging the establishment of a Kurdish
buffer zone to shield Turkey from any future instability in Syria along the
long border that separates the two countries.
Turkey will still to deal with parts of its borders in the
northwest, where Sunni Arabs make up the majority. Turkey also need to deal
with the increasing competitions over control of Haffeh and Jabal Al-Akrad
districts in Lattakia province, where Kurds, Turkmen, Sunni Arabs and Alawites
are vying for control.
Still, if the Kurdish parties managed to reach compromises
with the local Arab tribes, including those who were forced to move into their
territories as a result of Baath Party’s Arabization policies of the late 1960s
and ‘70s, then the move highlighted above would indeed be quite positive as it
will ensure the rapid stabilization of certain regions in Syria, ad might
inspire similar pragmatism elsewhere.
Ferry Biedermann, who covered Syria between 1999 and 2010 as
a correspondent for The Financial Times, gets it right:
…the
question is what the right prism might be through which to see the Syrian
situation. Since the outbreak of the civil unrest, many new narratives have sprung
up: the opposition is dominated/infiltrated/co-opted by Al Qaeda and other
fundamentalists; Saudi Arabia and its allies are stoking the unrest; the regime
is being propped up by Iran; the only alternative to the Assads is chaos and
the slaughter of minorities, etc.
There
may be grains of truth in some or all of the above statements but they do not
represent a fundamental narrative of what has been, and is now, happening in
Syria. That is, simply put, that a sectarian minority of the population has been
ruling the country for almost half a century, empowered by its strong,
post-colonial position in the armed forces. It has co-opted some in the
majority but that support is now crumbling with each new massacre. It has also
co-opted other minorities by playing on, often justifiable, fears of
marginalisation. The ruthless way it has ruled and the nature of the
traditional opposition, often Sunni sectarian and Muslim fundamentalist, make
compromise unlikely.
Oversimplified
and schematic though this narrative may be, it offers the advantage of clarity
and pointing a way forward. Rather than count on the regime and its inner
circle to give up, international efforts should be aimed at ensuring that
Syria's revolution does not become the zero-sum game that politics and power in
the region so often end up as.
Minorities,
notably Alawites and Christians, should be reassured that their safety and
their interests will be safeguarded in a post-Assad Syria. This can be done
both by direct international commitments and by wresting guarantees from the
opposition, now that it still badly needs international support.
Even
while Russia blocks co-ordinated international action, the West should stop
equivocating and put forward a clear narrative that tells the regime that its
time is up. An amicable or at least peaceful transfer of power is a shameful
fantasy perpetuated by people in Syria and outside it who have no interest in
change or who feel powerless to enable it.
Aleppo
|
Colonel Abdel Jabbar Muhammad Al-Aqeidi, leader of the Military
Council for the Province of Aleppo issues a call for general mobilization and
says that the liberation of Aleppo City is unfolding. He vows that all
religious and national minorities will be protected and that those who harm
members of any community will be held accountable. He also calls on colleagues
to defect http://youtu.be/set3WVqkv40
Spokesman for the Al-Tawhid Brigade issues a similar call http://youtu.be/r9L3QJj0AKc
Rebels establish control over the town of Bayanoun http://youtu.be/dgirPWBrbi4 But the
liberation does not stop the pounding http://youtu.be/Hkloh7cJI-4
In Aleppo City, members of the newly formed Al-Tawhid
Brigade enter the recently liberated neighborhood of Sakhour http://youtu.be/iEiplw0BCg0 , http://youtu.be/ptnn21akRx0
Damascus
|
In Damascus City, tanks storm into Midan District
http://youtu.be/s1zPNMHLevI , http://youtu.be/pU4_pAiHya8 Burnt out
cars and dead bodies line the streets http://youtu.be/D1VsyAaefg4
The destruction in some quarters was massive http://youtu.be/h2Z1yBBF-_4 , http://youtu.be/1gPigs2XzAQ Pro-Assad
militias stormed Naher Eisheh http://youtu.be/yTQUv-qgwIk
Helicopter gunships pounded Tadamon and adjacent neighborhoods http://youtu.be/vh5HqajnHvI
In the Suburbs, the pounding of Zabadani continues http://youtu.be/nu6ew0SmdCg , http://youtu.be/1cSS-PhstW0 , http://youtu.be/Vxy_FafSN64 Nearby Madaya
is also pounded http://youtu.be/jR3Sk66OI5g
Harasta and other towns in Eastern Ghoutah
get pounded by helicopter gunships http://youtu.be/wIigCiLIhRs
Ground battles in the area usually end up in favor of the rebels: he bodies in
this video belong to pro-Assad militias http://youtu.be/zzoIbMoDviU
The town of Eltal has fallen to the rebels, who
proceed to take control of the local political security apparatus and to imprison
and torture its staff http://youtu.be/tJIs83gUw1Y
In the Qalamoun Region, the town of Al-Qarrah
was also pounded wit helicopter gunships http://youtu.be/G-TEH-41lGE
The suburb of Moadamiyah was pounded again today http://youtu.be/bP41HMwykUY
Homs
|
In Rastan, people keep pulling bodies from under the
rubble http://youtu.be/8E7u1EV92_8
Two martyred children http://youtu.be/kws4iOHAH4A
An old woman takes her last breaths in the arms of her husband http://youtu.be/ptnn21akRx0
Talbisseh, Houla were also pounded. But it’s the pounding of
Old Homs that remains the most intense: Jouret Al-Shayah http://youtu.be/IcVZDZZr73c , http://youtu.be/JWoIe5cmtvc
Deir Ezzor
|
Local activists claim that this video shows victims of a
poison gas attack in Deir Ezzor City http://youtu.be/fWES4qT-uiA
Daraa
|
Loyalist troops pull out of the town of Marrabah http://youtu.be/NT-bcASUl5g
The pounding of Daraa City resumes http://youtu.be/kws4iOHAH4A
Mseifrah was among other
towns that were pounded by helicopter gunships http://youtu.be/7ryEiPAMFLw
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