Russia’s Foreign Minister says Assad insists on staying in
power. Indeed, Assad underscored his determination today by having his militias
perpetrate a new massacre against 220 residents of Deir Baalbah. Meanwhile, the
self-appointed "heroes" and “guardians” of the revolution, the brave
men of Jabhat Al-Nusra were busy fighting against immorality in Aleppo City by
emptying Arak bottles into the drains of history, the same drains where their
ideas will follow one day. As for Russian officials, it is about time they
learned some necessary humility and began coping with blowbacks stemming from
their idiotic and murderous policies in our region. While so many leftwing and
Islamist pundits keep focusing on America’s alleged role in our misery, it is
Russia’s all too real role that is now coming into sharp focus. In fact, it is
insisting on Assad’s staying in power and backing that up with weapons and
vetoes that has cost us so many lives.
Saturday December
29, 2012
Today’s
Death Toll: 399, including
more than 20 children and 20 women: 227 in Homs 220 of them were field executed
in Deir Baalbah, 62 in Damascus and Suburbs (10 of them in Nashabiya), 40 in
Aleppo (13 in Tal Rifaat ), 22 in Deir Ezzor including 15 unidentified bodies,
17 in Daraa, 14 in Hama, 10 in Idlib, and 5 in Raqqa. Points of Random Shelling:
399: 34 by warplanes, 2 points by
Phosphorus bomb, 3 by vacuum bombs, 5 by cluster bombs, 152 by heavy caliber
artillery, 124 by mortar and 80 by missile and rockets. Clashes: 112. In Damascus, rebels shelled several military centers
inside Mazzeh Military Airport using domestically-manufactured rockets, they
also managed to repel an attack by regime forces on the town of Darayya. In
Daraa, rebels repelled an attack on the town of Basr Al-Harir (LCCs).
Bassem
al-Sayid, son of acting Minister of State, Muhammad Turki Al-Sayid, was martyred
on Friday in the town of Sarmada, Idlib, while fighting for the rebel group, Jundullah.
His death comes as more and more family members of the official establishment come
out against Assad and his lot, including
in recent days Assad’s own sister-in-law, Rasha Al-Akhras.
News
Deadly
day in Syria as diplomats talk At least 399 people were killed
Saturday, the opposition Local Coordination Committees said… The figure
includes 201 people who a captured Syrian soldier said had been executed in
Deir Balbah, outside of Homs, after Syrian forces won a battle there, an LCC
spokesman said.
Assad's
forces seize Homs district from rebels: activists The army moved into
Deir Ba'alba, a neighborhood on the northeastern edge of Homs, they said,
leaving the rebels controlling just the central neighborhoods around the old
city and the district of Khalidiyah, immediately to the north.
Insisting
on Assad’s Exit Will Cost More Lives, Russian Says Russia’s foreign
minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said on Saturday that there was “no possibility”
that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria could be persuaded to leave and that
the opposition’s insistence on his departure as a precondition for peace talks
would only cost “more and more lives of Syrian citizens” — suggesting slender
hope for a breakthrough in negotiating an end to a conflict that has already
killed more than 40,000… “He has repeatedly said, both publicly and privately,
including during his meeting with Lakhdar Brahimi not long ago, that he has no
plans to go anywhere, that he will stay in his post until the end, that he
will, as he says, protect the Syrian people, Syrian sovereignty and so forth,”
Mr. Lavrov said. “There is no possibility of changing this position.”
Syria
opposition leader rejects Moscow invitation for peace talks Moaz
Alkhatib, whose National Coalition opposition group has been recognized by most
Western and Arab states, demands Moscow apologize for supporting Assad's
regime.
Assad is panicking, Russia is frustrated - and Asma's cousin calls for blood While a vehement letter by a member of Assad's family spreads across the Arabic web, a resolution for the strife in Syria has no end in sight.
Assad is panicking, Russia is frustrated - and Asma's cousin calls for blood While a vehement letter by a member of Assad's family spreads across the Arabic web, a resolution for the strife in Syria has no end in sight.
Syria
doomed to "hell" without political deal: envoy U.N.-Arab
League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said in Moscow that responsible people inside and
outside Syria should "help the Syrians stop their descent into more and
more bloodshed, into more and more chaos and perhaps a failed state".
Syrian
refugee influx could break Lebanon and Jordan, UN envoy warns Lakhdar
Brahimi said: "If you have a panic in Damascus and if you have 1 million
people leaving Damascus in a panic, they can go to only two places, Lebanon and
Jordan." Both those countries could break if faced with half a million
refugees, he said on Saturday after meeting the Russian foreign minister,
Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow. "If the only alternative is really hell or a
political process, then we have got, all of us, to work ceaselessly for a
political process," he said.
Syrian
airline cancels flight to Aleppo Syria's national airline canceled a
flight to Aleppo on Saturday because of fighting near its international
airport, while the United Nations' top envoy to the country said it faced
"hell or a political process" but gave no sign a truce was in sight. The
two developments underscored just how far international efforts to end the
violence in Syria have fallen behind developments on the ground, more than 21
months into the conflict.
Blood
spattered on the bricks where Syria bomb falls Blood was spattered on
the bricks that littered the area around the bomb site. A child's teddy bear
lay in the wreckage and nearby cars were marked by shrapnel and bullet holes. A
bulldozer cleared the heavy rubble while young boys dug through the debris with
their hands, hoping to find people still alive amid the broken bed frames and
crushed furniture.
Special
Reports
(CNN) -- For the third time, Mahmoud
Al-Qassab lowers the body of one of his children into the ground. He steps back
as neighbors and relatives shovel dirt over his teenage daughter's grave. He
does not cry or wail. "I thank God this is my third martyr: Ahmed,
Abdullah and now her. I thank God, and I will not say anything against his
fate," Mahmoud told an activist filming the small funeral. Just a few
months ago, 18-year-old Ayat Al-Qassab sang and danced with her mother and
aunts as they dressed the bride in her wedding gown. Now, her shattered and
bloodied body lies in a grave below the crumbling, bullet-ridden buildings of
Homs… A 120 mm rocket fired into the family home struck Ayat in the head,
killing her and her unborn child instantly. Ayat's father, who was standing
nearby, was hit in the shoulder and wounded.
The sudden departure from Beirut of
the Syrian interior minister, Mohammad al-Shaar, was a sign of how much has
changed in the Syrian-Lebanese relationship. Shaar allegedly took to the skies
after being warned by the Lebanese that Interpol might issue an arrest warrant
for him, and that Lebanon would have to implement it.
… the crisis is the result of the
brutality and ruthlessness of ruler Bashar al-Assad and the family clique
around him, and their supporters in Iran and Russia. But it is also reflects a
massive failure of Western — and particularly American — leadership, the worst
since the Rwandan genocide two decades ago.
The more than 40,000 refugees might be
tucked into a barbed-wired corner of the high desert, but their arrival - and
their country's turmoil - is being felt all the way to Amman. The effects on
Jordan's economy and on its royal family's always-precarious grip on power
could be serious, especially now, as protests unfurl in a country outraged by
the government's decision to chop fuel subsidies - a necessary action for it to
secure $2 billion (1.5 billion euros) in loans from the International Monetary
Fund.
To make things clear, leader of the Syrian National Coalition (abbreviated
as SOC: Syrian Opposition Coalition, to distinguish it from its predecessor:
the Syrian National Council), Moaz Alkhatib, did not reject the Russian
government invitation to Moscow outright, he simply laid certain conditions,
including: Russian government should offer an apology to the Syrian people for
standing by Assad for so long, the Russian government should recognize SOC, and
the initial meeting should take place in an Arab country.
To the Russians, this reply smacked of a political lack of experience,
but to the Syrians, Alkhatib’s primary audience, this was exactly what they needed
to hear. Alkhatib follow up to Moscow’s criticism connected him even more to
the larger grassroots and further legitimated his position as a leader.
Perhaps, it should be Alkhatib himself who should lead the transitional government
as well. Too many changes at the helm of the opposition will only confuse
people, and Alkhatib is steadily showing that he can connect to the grassroots.
Mr. Alkhatib is himself a technocrat (a chemical engineer) and is such he should
be capable of leading a technocratic transitional government.
As for Russian officials, it is about time they learned some necessary humility
and began coping with blowbacks stemming from their idiotic and murderous policies
in our region. While so many leftwing and Islamist pundits keep focusing on America’s
alleged role in our misery, it is Russia’s all too real role that is now coming
into sharp focus. In fact, it is insisting on Assad’s staying in power and
backing that up with weapons and vetoes that has cost us so many lives.
Video Highlights
First video from Deir Baalbah, site of a new massacre by
pro-Assad militias that claimed the lives of over 22o people by early counts http://youtu.be/n-Paele3-uc With the
assault in Deir Baalbah, the encirclement of restive neighborhoods of Old Homs
is now complete, pro-Assad militias intensify the pounding: Khaldiyeh http://youtu.be/r-V3vSF_pqA , http://youtu.be/v0lqXHXxris , http://youtu.be/69qttG3EWsw , http://youtu.be/zcg_ayHb1hg
Aerial attack on Nashabiyeh in Damascus leaves many dead http://youtu.be/8Voay4emp80 , http://youtu.be/TfZhMjDHhLo A similar
attack on Douma leaves many dead as well, including children http://youtu.be/XAj7IMfj54g The raid on
Douma http://youtu.be/r1gwEUTe0s0 The
suburb of Saqba was also targeted among other communities of Eastern
Ghoutah http://youtu.be/hP7_mHQ2CLI The
town of Yabroud to the north, also comes under attack http://youtu.be/IedIIG8-Lgk
Rebels strike the Damascus International Airport with homemade rockets
http://youtu.be/NEYczLkAjpA
In Aizaz, Aleppo, locals pull the body of a dead boy from under
the rubble in the aftermath of an aerial raid http://youtu.be/Lr0IDDs1-_w The attack http://youtu.be/qoOy0aK2Yt8
In Aleppo City, rebels try to take down a helicopter http://youtu.be/Ckqhz0sYj9I
Rescuing the children from under the rubble in Karnaz, Hama http://youtu.be/6gA3c6j2A6Y , http://youtu.be/thw-ljhoUtQ The attack
as seen from outside the city http://youtu.be/LPZlHeX15xA
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