… Great balls of fire cover
the skyline of Damascus as MIGs pound restive suburbs, and the skyline of Aleppo
as rebels bring MIGs down to earth, capturing the essence of the current
stalemate.
Monday October
15, 2012
Today’s
Death toll: 100. The Breakdown: toll includes 7 children and 3
women. 34 reported in Damascus and suburbs, 29 in Aleppo, 15 in Deir Ezzor, 5 in
Idlib, 4 in Daraa, 4 in Raqqah, 4 in Homs, 3 in Hama, 2 in Lattakia. Other Developments:
Local rebels downed 3 planes: 2 in Aleppo and 1 in Alboukamal and destroyed
a loyalist military convoy on the road between Aleppo-Raqqah (LCC).
News
Special
Reports
There are now tens of thousands of
Syrian children – both in and outside the country – whose memories don’t extend
back far enough to remember a time before the war.
Most of the arms shipped at the behest
of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government
of Bashar al-Assad are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more
secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster, according to American
officials and Middle Eastern diplomats.
If hard evidence emerges of the Shiite
militant group's involvement, it would increase tensions in Lebanon where armed
partisans on opposite sides live in close proximity.
Turkey has twice turned to NATO for
support in the face of attacks from Syria. But the transatlantic alliance has
responded with words rather than deeds. To preserve its credibility in Turkey
and the region, NATO should offer radar aircraft and/or rapid reaction forces.
Of course, Obama is not solely
responsible for this mess. But his serial miscalculations have had the
consistent if unintended effect of enabling Syria’s Bashar al-Assad — first to
avoid international isolation, then to go on slaughtering his own population
with impunity.
…rebels attack many points at the same
time, while the Syrian military is only able to focus its counterattacks on a
few points at any given moment. For the regime, this is a losing proposition in
the long run. Bashar al-Assad still has a large, well-armed military, and the
Iranians and Russians will likely keep restocking his arsenals for a while. But
unless he can create a counter-swarm of his own, his days are numbered.
To Ammar Abdulhamid - a
prominent opposition member in the United States who is adjunct fellow at the
Foundation for Defence of Democracies - exile is the wrong place to look for
Syrians around whose charisma, political ingenuity and force of intellect an
opposition will somehow coalesce. "Syria's future leaders are in
Syria," he says. "The political process will be determined by Syrian
actors, despite all the dabblers and the dabbling taking place."
Oct. 15 - Clusters bombs were
discovered outside of Damascus and in several Syrian cities --- suggesting to
many that the government is intensifying its efforts to beat back the
insurgency.
Arabic
Press (Prepared by Steven Miller, FDD Research Associate)
The Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights reported that the Syrian government traded two prisoners from al-Raqqah
Province, who had been sentenced to death, in exchange for the son of Dr. Ali
al-Shuaibi, a tribal leader who has mediated with the opposition on behalf of
the government. Syrian National Council member Mohamed Sarmini said that a
helicopter delivered the two detainees to the rebels in al-Raqqah, but they
were in poor-health after being subjected to severe torture, and would be moved
out of Syria for treatment. In response to the reports, Free Syrian Army chief
of staff Ahmed Hijazi said that FSA leadership did not have any specific
information about the exchange, but he did not rule out that it had been
coordinated by militias or regional leaders on the ground in al-Raqqah, who are
not required to clear such operations with FSA leadership beforehand. Hijazi
also noted that this was not the first exchange between the rebels and the
regime, claiming that there have been many previous swaps.
Ammar Abdulhamid & Khawla
Yusuf: The
Shredded Tapestry: The State of Syria Today
Video Highlights
The pounding of Damascene suburbs of Eastern remains quite intense: Kafar
Batna http://youtu.be/m0eWe2ogGmY
, http://youtu.be/emjkdFCmkas
Pounding by MIGs is really indiscriminate, the victims shown here are
pro-Assad militias http://youtu.be/oKvP_aCMy94
, http://youtu.be/RUjJc70nHn0
MIG brought down by rebels in Aleppo Province http://youtu.be/pFPGT1yBIk0
Deir Ezzor City remains under siege and under shelling by tanks http://youtu.be/Ol2XC242w68
Activist Suheir Al-Atassy joins the ranks of opposition figures
who are paying visits to liberated areas in Syria alongt he border with Turkey.
She visits the town of Tal Abyad in Raqqah Province, and is given an official
reception by local rebels http://youtu.be/PwOyIuMrjBA
, http://youtu.be/GIE8Lel9Cpg
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