I fear that by the time any agreement on Syria is reached in
international policy circles, unfolding events on the ground will have rendered
it completely irrelevant. The turtle of disintegration is about to cross the
finish line, but the rabbit of intervention is still foraging for carrots.
Tuesday February
26, 2013
Today’s
Death Toll: 111 martyrs,
including 13 children, 4 women, and 5 martyrs under torture: 51 martyrs in
Damascus and Suburbs, 50 in Aleppo, 11 in Idlib, 10 in Hama, 7 in Homs , 6 in
Deir Ezzor, 4 in Daraa, 1 in Raqqa and 1 in Swaida (LCCs).
Points
of Random Shelling: 374 points, including
20 points that were shelled by regime warplanes, 3 points using Scud missiles,
4 points with barrel bombs, 6 points with cluster bombs, 2 point with Thermobaric
bombs, 150 points using heavy caliber artillery, 98 points using rockets and
rocket shelling in 91 points across Syria (LCCs).
Clashes: 154, with the fiercest clashes
were reported in Damascus and Suburbs where FSA rebels successfully liberated
the Operations Command Building in the Police Academy in Khan Aasal. In Aleppo,
FSA rebels continued their shelling of the local Police Academy setting parts
of it on fire. In Hama, rebels targeted the 47th Brigade using mortar shells. And
in Daraa, rebels liberated a police station located on the Jordanian-Syrian
borders (LCCs).
News
U.S.
considers direct aid to Syrian rebels The Obama administration is
moving toward a major policy shift on Syria that could provide the rebels with
equipment such as body armor, armored vehicles and possible military training
and could send humanitarian assistance directly to Syria’s opposition political
coalition, according to U.S. and European officials.
Rome talks unlikely
to break Syria conflict deadlock Whatever exactly emerges from the
Friends of Syria meeting in Rome on Thursday, one thing is clear: the
parameters of the Syrian conflict - a brutal, slow-moving slugging-match on the
ground, and deadlocked international diplomacy - have not changed, nor are they
likely to for some time.
Ballistic
missile strikes on Aleppo signal new escalation in Syria war The Syrian
government denied this week that it is using Scuds in its battle to crush the
revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, in which as many as 70,000 people
have been killed. But military experts say all the available evidence,
including the scale of the devastation from the explosions and the sightings —
captured on video — of missiles being fired from bases outside Damascus shortly
before the blasts, points to them being Scuds. The Russian-designed missiles
carry about 2,000 pounds of explosives and are manufactured by Syria using
parts imported from Russia, North Korea and Iran. The Obama administration also
thinks the missiles are most likely Scuds.
Will
Kerry Convince Ankara on Syria? Although the two countries have closely
coordinated on Syria in the past, differences have started to emerge on how the
crisis should end, a fact that will no doubt focus added attention on the talks
Kerry has with his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu.
Russia
wants U.S. to urge Syria rebels into peace talks The crisis in Syria
made up "the bulk of the conversation" between Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at talks in
Berlin on Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. After
talks she characterized as "really serious and hard-working", Moscow
and Washington sounded a rare note of accord over efforts to launch talks to
end the nearly two-year-old conflict, in which 70,000 people have been killed.
Displacement
in Syria giving way for serious gender-based crimes, warns UN official “This
displacement is not only about loss of homes and economic security. It is also,
for many, accompanied by gender-based crimes, deliberate victimization of women
and children and a frightening array of assaults on human dignity,” the
Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Erika Feller, told the Human Rights
Council in Geneva. “Reports are revealing that the conflict in Syria is
increasingly marked by rape and sexual violence employed as a weapon of war to
intimidate parties to the conflict destroying identity, dignity and the social
fabrics of families and communities.”
Syria
needs grow, rebel-held north out of reach: U.N. The rebel-held north of
Syria remains largely out of reach to aid operations, even though they have
been stepped up elsewhere in the country torn by civil war, U.N. humanitarian
chief Valerie Amos said on Tuesday. "We are watching a humanitarian
tragedy unfold before our eyes," Amos told a news briefing. "We must
do all we can to reassure the people that we care and that we will not let them
down."
Syria:
Unlawful Missile Attacks Kill More Than 140 The Syrian government
launched at least four ballistic missiles that struck populated areas in the
city of Aleppo and a town in Aleppo governorate during the week of February 17,
2013. The attacks killed more than 141 people, including 71 children, and
caused immense physical destruction.
Syria
troops, rebels battle in Aleppo's old city The rebels seized the
centuries-old Umayyad Mosque, which for months has been used as a military
encampment and checkpoint by regime forces, after a day of fighting, Aleppo
activists said. The mosque sits near the medieval citadel, the city’s signature
landmark and a strategic site high above the surrounding neighborhood, which
remains in the hands of the military.
Special
Reports
Several rebel commanders and fighters
told Reuters that a shipment which reached Syria via Turkey last month
comprised shoulder-held and other mobile equipment including anti-aircraft and
armor-piercing weapons, mortars and rocket launchers. Rebels told Reuters the
weapons, along with money for cash payments for fighters, were being
distributed through a new command structure, part of a plan by foreign backers
to centralize control over rebel units and check Islamists linked to al-Qaeda.
However, in a sign of the difficulty in uniting disparate fighting groups, some
rebels said they had turned down the arms and refused to submit to the new
command.
Is this John Kerry, now traveling in
Europe and soon the Middle East for consultations about Syria, or is it Warren
Christopher, who embarked on a similar mission 20 years ago to bring the
bloodshed in Bosnia-Herzegovina to an end? The parallels between the two
missions are striking -- and we should hope that Kerry has learned the lessons
from Christopher's tragically failed bid.
With security concerns and
bureaucratic hurdles keeping most international aid workers from actually
entering this war-torn country, NGOs rely on Syrians like Mahmoud to make the
hazardous trek across the border to assess the needs for assistance and deliver
aid to the local population. Syrian "implementing partners" pick up
the supplies at warehouses in southern Turkey, near the border, and drive them
into Syria -- avoiding major highways to mitigate the risk of being attacked by
a plane or helicopter. "The roads are bad because there are many parts of
the road that are destroyed because of the shelling," Mahmoud said.
Though Western and Iranian officials
will not discuss Syria when they sit down for talks on Iran’s nuclear program
in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, Iran’s ability to shape that conflict will hang over
the negotiations, strengthening both Tehran’s perception of its position and
the West’s resolve to deny Iran meaningful sanctions relief.
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
A video found on the mobile of an Assad supporter captured by rebels during
a battle in Daraa Province shows pro-Assad troops torturing two
detainees to death and beyond, including cutting off their genitals (gruesome) http://youtu.be/oRvN3v01oiA
This just released video shows the prisoner exchange that took place a
few weeks ago involving Iranian hostages held by rebels http://youtu.be/_1H6fjKzG_8
These videos are from February 12, they take us on a tour of Al-Jarrah
Airport, Aleppo, after its liberation by rebels http://youtu.be/YXkoqFnkAJ0 , http://youtu.be/1jt65bMim10
In Damascus Suburbs, pro-Assad militias continue their pounding of
rebel strongholds: Moadamiyeh http://youtu.be/w1CQx3aOzr0
, http://youtu.be/wKZSxXfIxGI Daraya
http://youtu.be/T3UHp1jx6Vs
In Damascus City: Jobar locals rush to put out a fire started by
a missile attack http://youtu.be/T4k0hDSC6TA
, http://youtu.be/uOhEDFQe-NQ Yarmouk
http://youtu.be/tnTdipCsJtA
The pounding of Daraa City by pro-Assad militias continues http://youtu.be/BL8lNSBedyo
In Idlib, the pounding of the town of Ariha by pro-Assad
militias continues http://youtu.be/r078Dyu73HY
No comments:
Post a Comment