The Rebel Moment!

Coming under increased scrutiny, rebels prove no less fractious than the traditional political opposition. Much of their fractiousness, however, can be traced back to continued dabbling by said opposition, as well as the shifting demands and whims of external sponsors. Still, and so many reporters embedded with them have reported, the rebels’ daily experiences with death and suffering make them far more reliable as partners, especially when they work in cooperation with local political activists.

Sunday October 7, 2012

Today’s Death toll: 121. The Breakdown:  toll includes 7 children and 3 women. 62 in Damascus and Suburbs (38 found field-executed in Hameh), 23 in Aleppo, 15 in Homs, 8 in Idlib, 7 in Hama, 3 in Daraa and 3 in Deir Ezzor (LCC).

News

Turkey fires artillery into Syria after shelling

Mitt Romney: 'I would arm the Syrian rebels'

Wider war feared between Turkey and Syria

Car bomb near police headquarters in Damascus

Syria rebels braced for long haul in Aleppo

Turkey backs veteran Syrian politician as Assad replacement

Syrian rebels reportedly capture President Bashar Assad's cousin

Special Reports

Syria’s Up-and-Coming Rebels: Who Are the Farouq Brigades?

Amid the hodgepodge of groups that make up the armed opposition to Bashar Assad, one organization is coming dramatically to the fore

Border villages front lines in Syria war

Across from Hermel and inside Syrian territory, a string of villages inhabited by Lebanese Shiites has been clashing with majority-Sunni villages that back the opposition in the countryside of Qusayr, on the outskirts of Homs. There have been a series of tit for tat kidnappings between the groups, and some have suggested that Hezbollah is providing military support to the Shiite villagers.

No-Fly Time in Syria

Allowing Syria’s chaos to continue will damage too many strategic American interests and, perhaps more importantly, squander an opportunity to affect precisely the kind of change that will make the world a safer place as America’s ability to “police it” inevitably fades.

Palestinians escaping Syria find little relief in Lebanon

People whose lives have been decimated by conflict should receive as much assistance as we can give them. Yet Palestinian refugees from Syria, escaping the same violence, destruction and dangers and seeking the same protection, relief and refuge as their Syrian counterparts, are being excluded on grounds of nationality.

Ammar Abdulhamid & Khawla Yusuf: The Shredded Tapestry: The State of Syria Today

Rania Abouzeid offers another great article on rebel groups in Syria. With this report, yesterday’s diagram by the Turkish newspaper Hurrieyt, the New Republic article on rebel groups, the study on armed opposition prepared by Joseph Holliday of the Institute for the Study of war, and my recent report and op-ed, a good and accurate picture of rebel groups is finally emerging.

Video Highlights

Shelling leaves many children dead in Ma’arrat Al-Nouman, Idlib Province http://youtu.be/lfHeK0iJYjw

MIGs continue to pound the suburbs of Eastern Ghoutah, Damascus Province: Hamouriyeh http://youtu.be/1AvX77CjehU Pulling the dead from under the rubble http://youtu.be/NeL2H6cidso Kafar Batna http://youtu.be/0DXpODoI76Q , http://youtu.be/avwawbqV3v4 , http://youtu.be/OYYC1MU_aTM Saqba http://youtu.be/F5KxHYXM39M The nearby neighborhood of Al-Qadam inside Damascus City is also targeted http://youtu.be/U8hUBAihkwY

A video showing Kurdish fighters training to defend Kurdish-majority towns in Syria, to which they refer as Western Kurdistan http://youtu.be/LKU79Uuegys