As the U.S. seems to be inching its way towards providing military
assistance to rebel groups, the importance of having an overarching strategy
that goes beyond throwing weapons at the problem is now more urgent than ever. Since
the main challenge ahead is now clearly more about putting pieces of the puzzle
back together than managing a top-down transition, the U.S. needs to come up
with a sophisticated strategy for working with local councils and local rebel
groups to develop micro transition plans that can ensure rapid stabilization of
their areas. The U.S. should also work with the Syrian National Coalition to develop
a more detailed bottom-up vision for managing the transition period ahead.
Monday February
25, 2013
Today’s
Death Toll: 135 martyrs,
including 8 children and 12 women and 1 martyr under torture: 40 martyrs in
Damascus and Suburbs, 25 in Aleppo, 21 in Idlib, 14 in Raqqa, 14 in Homs, 10 in
Deir Ezzor, 7 in Daraa, 3 in Hama and 1 in Hasakeh (LCCs).
Points
of Random Shelling: 384 points,
including 26 points that were shelled by regime warplanes, 4 points using Scud
missiles, 2 points using surface-to-surface missiles, 3 points using barrel
bombs, 3 point with vacuum bombs, 157 points using heavy caliber artillery, 93
points with mortars and 99 with rockets (LCCs).
Clashes: 162, with the fiercest clashes
took place in Damascus and Suburbs (LCCs).
News
Syria opposition to
join Rome talks after foreign aid pledge The Syrian opposition has
agreed to attend an international summit in Rome, after the US and UK
"promised specific aid" to the Syrian people. The group had
previously announced it would boycott the talks because of "the world's
silence" over the violence. US Secretary of State John Kerry and British
Foreign Minister William Hague earlier confirmed there would be more support
for Syria's opposition.
Syria
rebels fight for key Aleppo buildings Rebels launch new offensive for
government complex housing a police academy
Syria
opposition chief: no contact yet about government talks "We have
not been in contact yet, and we are waiting for communication with them,"
Syrian National Coalition leader Moaz Alkhatib told reporters in Cairo after
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said Damascus was ready to talk. Alkhatib
also said opposition visits to the United States and Russia had been delayed
"until we see how things develop". But he added: "We will go to
any place that could lead to the removal of the suffering of our people."
Kerry
Vows Not to Leave Syria Rebels ‘Dangling in the Wind’ “We are determined
that the Syrian opposition is not going to be dangling in the wind wondering
where the support is or if it’s coming,” Mr. Kerry said at a news conference in
London. “And we are determined to change the calculation on the ground for
President Assad.”
UN
Security Council has ‘failed’ Syria: rights chief “Two important
situations, Darfur in 2008 and Libya in 2011, have been referred” by the
Security Council,” Pillay said, but it had not done the same for Syria,
“despite the repeated reports of widespread or systematic crimes and violations
by my office,” and a wide range of other sources, she said. The ICC can only
probe war crimes if asked to by the Security Council.
UN
Staffer Missing on Israel-Syria Border U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo
del Buey would not say whether the missing person was a military or civilian
member of the international or local staff. "We can confirm that a staff
member is not accounted for and we are in touch with the relevant parties to
determine what has happened," del Buey said. "We have no further
comment at this time."
Photographer
Killed in Syria Spoke of Adrenaline Olivier Voisin listed work in 15
countries, half of them war zones. He described the rush of bearing witness to
a conflict that otherwise could go unrecorded. On Sunday, the 38-year-old
French freelance photographer became the 23rd journalist killed in fighting in
Syria after he died of shrapnel wounds sustained days earlier.
Turkey,
Qatar denounce Syria's war on own people Turkey and Qatar accused Syria
on Monday of attacking Syrian towns with bombs, shells and Scud missiles and
called at the main U.N. human rights forum for perpetrators of atrocities to be
brought to justice. Britain and Switzerland urged the United Nations Security
Council to refer war crimes in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC)
for prosecution.
Special
Reports
The number of Jihadist groups flooding
into Syria two years after the start of the uprising is threatening to eclipse
the power of mainstream opposition groups as well as the authority of the Free
Syrian Army. One of the increasingly influential groups, Jabah al Haq (The
Front for Justice) [Correction: the name is Jabhat Al-Haq which means
The Front for Truth], told Sky News that Jihad is spreading across North Africa
and the Middle East and will not stop at Syria but will include Jordan,
Lebanon, Iraq and even Israel.
Estimates of the size of the al Nusra
organization vary, but they may now account for up to a quarter of the
opposition fighters in Syria. The al Qaeda presence is stronger around Aleppo
and the north than around Damascus, but it is becoming a national phenomenon.
Without doubt, they are among the most effective fighters in the resistance to
the Assad regime and the most willing to use multiple simultaneous suicide
bombings, an al Qaeda trademark. Al Qaeda in Iraq has a wealth of experience in
developing large sophisticated bombs—experience that has been exported into
Syria.
Five Syrian women tell their personal
stories of revolt and war. Filmed mostly by the women themselves over a period
of seven months in 2012, this documentary provides unique insights into how
Syria's conflict has transformed their lives. This film was transmitted on BBC
Arabic as 'Souriyyat', and on BBC World News in a two-part series entitled
'Inside Syria'.
Typhoid and hepatitis outbreaks are
spreading. An estimated 70,000 people are dead, and another 850,000 are
refugees. After covering the battle for Damascus for a month, photographer
Goran Tomasevic of Reuters declared the situation a “bloody stalemate.” “I
watched both sides mount assaults, some trying to gain just a house or two,
others for bigger prizes, only to be forced back by sharpshooters, mortars or
sprays of machine-gun fire,” Mr. Tomasevic, a gifted and brave photographer,
wrote in a chilling first-hand account. “As in the ruins of Beirut, Sarajevo or
Stalingrad, it is a sniper’s war.”
Nearly two years after the start of
Syria's popular uprising, the conflict has evolved into a slow-moving, brutal
civil war with many players and no clear end in sight. Multiple rebel groups
across the country continue to fight President Bashar al-Assad's forces, using
any weapons they can get their hands on. While the rebels are using many modern
weapons, they've also come up with their own makeshift solutions. In these
weapons workshops, anti-aircraft guns are welded to pickup trucks and armor
shields are attached to machine guns and cars. Mortar shell nose cones are
turned on lathes and explosives are mixed by hand. Homemade grenades are
launched by jury-rigged shotguns or giant slingshots in the urban battlefields
of Aleppo and Damascus. Gathered here are a few examples of the hand-built
munitions of the Syrian rebels.
The weapons began reaching rebels in
December via shipments shuttled through Jordan, officials said, and have been a
factor in the rebels’ small tactical gains this winter against the army and
militias loyal to Mr. Assad. The arms transfers appeared to signal a shift
among several governments to a more activist approach to assisting Syria’s
armed opposition, in part as an effort to counter shipments of weapons from
Iran to Mr. Assad’s forces. The weapons’ distribution has been principally to
armed groups viewed as nationalist and secular, and appears to have been
intended to bypass the jihadist groups whose roles in the war have alarmed
Western and regional powers… Washington’s role in the shipments, if any, is not
clear… But one senior American official described the shipments as “a maturing
of the opposition’s logistical pipeline.” The official noted that the
opposition remains fragmented and operationally incoherent, and added that the
recent Saudi purchase was “not in and of itself a tipping point.”
My
new paper, prepared for a briefing in Washington, D.C. that took place on
January 15, 2013, is now out and is titled “Syria
2013: Rise of the Warlords.” It should be read in conjunction with my
previous briefing “The
Shredded Tapestry,” and my recent essay “The
Creation of an Unbridgeable Divide.”
Video Highlights
Rebels bring down a helicopter gunship over Minnigh Airport,
Aleppo http://youtu.be/_y0-qQomARI
The pounding of rebel strongholds in Eastern Ghoutah, Damascus, continues,
using missiles, heavy artillery and MiGs: Douma http://youtu.be/hj9XJcuSqdM Jisreen
http://youtu.be/JDWSH9RbEsA Arbeen
http://youtu.be/HJ0Skrm_OgQ
Tanks take part in pounding rebel strongholds in Damascus City: Jobar
http://youtu.be/edo3YC1UnJ8 , http://youtu.be/xf6sbMVykXg Clashes
between rebels and loyalists continue at night http://youtu.be/iGofhWsD3yM , http://youtu.be/8EdmObCKF2k
The pounding of rebel strongholds along the border with Lebanon,
Damascus: Boucain http://youtu.be/rYrhNpKh3vU
Madaya http://youtu.be/oZvXMGHqfO0
, http://youtu.be/GZubaTJFdUk
The pounding of Deir Ezzor City continues http://youtu.be/KWHT5-wp_Dg
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