Let’s stop kidding ourselves, for the disintegration of
Syria to stop a no-fly zone is needed. Anything less will not do. You cannot
create a provisional government, or prepare people to handle the challenges of
local governance if the air is insecure. Rebels and activists have been trying
to do that for months now, and failing. Every potential success story in this
regard is being pounded into oblivion by helicopters, MiGs and now Scuds. So,
until the international community develops the will, the balls, the moral backbone
to do it, the bleeding and the disintegration will continue.
Thursday March
7, 2013
Today’s
Death Toll: 111 martyrs,
including 5 women, 8 children and 2 martyrs under torture. 23 martyrs reported
in Damascus and Suburbs, 23 in Aleppo, 18 in Homs, 17 in Idlib, 12 in Daraa, 9
in Deir Ezzor, 8 in Hama and 1 martyr in Raqqa (LCCs).
Points
of Random Shelling: 395 points.
Warplane shelling was reported in 19 points with the fiercest in Homs. 3 areas
were targeted using cluster bombs in each of Talbesa in Homs; Heesh and Sermeen
in idlib. 1 point was shelled using Surface- to- Surface missile. 5 points were
targeted by detonating barrels while mortar shelling was reported in 117 points
and artillery shelling in 147 points, 107 points were documented as targets of
missile launchers. In addition ,Launching of 6 Scud Missiles by the regime
Brigade located in Qutaifa was also documented (LCCs).
Clashes: 122. Successful rebel operations
include downing a MiG in areas south of Idlib Province. In Daraa, fierce
clashes were reported in the Golan, as FSA rebels succeeded in liberating Aljazeerah
Detachment. In Damascus Suburbs, the FSA managed to repel attempts made by
regime forces to storm Daraya as the siege enters its 115th consecutive day. In
Damascus City, rebels also fought off regime attempts to take back control of the
Jober-Abbasid Square Road considered to be the eatern gateway to the city. In
Besieged Homs, several regime attempts to invade rebel strongholds were repelled.
In Raqqa City, rebel forces continue their battle to assert their full control
over the city (LCCs).
News
In the video, a man who identified
himself as a captain in the Philippine battalion of the United Nations mission
that patrols the cease-fire line in the region said the group was “safe in this
place.” He said that the group had been rescued by “civilian people” during
bombing and artillery fire near a United Nations observation post close to the
village of al-Jamlah. Speaking in English, the captain said: “Civilian people
helped us, for our safety and distributed us in different places to keep us
safe. And they gave us good accommodation and gave us food to eat and water to
drink.”
Syria
rebels want troop pullback before freeing U.N. men "They will be
passed to safe hands when possible - because the area is surrounded and the
Assad regime is bombarding it," said Abu Essam Taseel, from the media
office of the "Martyrs of Yarmouk" rebel brigade which detained the
Filipino peacekeepers… Wednesday's detention of the peacekeepers by around 30
gunmen will also reinforce Western concerns that any weapons supplied to rebels
fighting to overthrow Assad could end up being turned against Western
interests.
Hezbollah
backs end of Syria suspension from Arab League The show of support is
the latest example of the Lebanese group's increasing intrusion into the
conflict on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad. A rise in clashes between
Hezbollah fighters and Syrian rebels along the border of Lebanon indicates that
the massive militia, which the U.S. designates a terror group, is getting more
active in defending its ally.
Germany
says EU right not to arm Syria rebels, risks too high "The
decision of the EU not to lift in total the embargo was wise and was right. But
it is necessary to show more flexibility and to understand that we have of
course to support the ... opposition in a responsible way," German Foreign
Minister Guido Westerwelle told reporters at a briefing in London. "We
have to avoid a conflagration in the whole region," he added.
Syria's
healthcare system in tatters, aid group warns Almost two years of
violence have devastated Syria’s once-extensive healthcare system and left many
Syrians unable to access even basic services, representatives of the
international aid group Doctors Without Borders said Thursday. “The situation
for Syrian civilians inside Syria is catastrophic,” Christopher Stokes, the
group’s general director, told reporters in a conference call. “The aid system
is way too limited, and the health system inside Syria has collapsed.”
Thousands
Flee Northern Syria After Latest Airstrikes A new flood of Syrian
refugees is streaming into southern Turkey after the Syrian air force bombed
the city of Raqqah, a provincial capital that the government lost control of
earlier this week. The Syrian rebels overran Raqqah, capturing several
high-ranking prisoners, including the provincial governor. Many residents
supported the rebels, but when the air strikes began, they packed in a hurry
and fled, believing it was safer to make a dash for the border than stay at
home.
Syria
opposition to pick interim PM next week Meeting to choose leader who
will oversee creation of interim government is to be held in Turkish city of
Istanbul.
Syria:
Israel Spy Devices Allegedly Found In Coastal Region Syrian authorities
have discovered Israeli spying devices that were apparently hidden in objects
that resembled rocks, Syria's state news agency said Thursday. SANA's report
said the devices are designed to photograph, register and transfer data. The
agency said the objects were uncovered in Syria's coastal regions, but gave no
further details. The Israeli military declined comment.
Special
Reports
There are so many things to hate about
Syria’s brutal civil war. But here’s a very small one to like: photos on
Facebook of Syrians transforming war’s leftovers into useful everyday objects.
It turns out that reclaimed bomb casings are great for making everything from
motorcycle frames to water storage tanks. This is a glimpse of what hope looks
like in the middle of one of the world’s bloodiest war zones...
The common man is paying the price for
a brutal regime, pathetic opposition and an international society that cares
only about its own national interests… Given the inhomogeneous societies of the
Levant, Al Assad’s intention might be to get the region involved in a grand
sectarian war. To survive, he may even decide to play his final card — starting
a regional war. On several occasions, he threatened to set the whole region on
fire should his regime collapse. His arsenal of Scud missiles with
approximately 700 warheads can hit deep inside Turkey. His arsenal of chemical
weapons is also frightening and, should he approach the end of his political
life, he might choose to use it. This is what many dub as the Samson Option —
the choice in the absence of choices.
Surely the present Assad regime reads
the splits about Syria policy on the U.N. Security Council, and the hesitancy
of the Obama Administration to involve itself deeply in the war by supplying
weapons to the opposition, in a similar way. “He’s not going to give up,”
Al-Abdallah said of Assad. “He’s not going to leave the country. He’s going to
stay until he dies or somebody forces him to leave power.”… This is no time to
yield the arguments about international justice to the pessimists. Syria proves
that stability built on cynicism and expediency is not stability at all.
Washington should also push back on
Baghdad's emerging narrative that Sunni protests in Iraq are simply
"spillover from Syria," as National Security Advisor Falih al-Fayadh
intimated on February 25. His statement that "the divisiveness in Syria
might affect the unity of Iraq" conceals the fact that Baghdad's own
failure to support sectarian reconciliation since 2009 has been a key driver of
Sunni unrest and should be corrected. The current wave of "preventive"
arrests in and around Sunni portions of the capital only increases the risk of
the spillover Fayadh warned against. The Sunni community would be reassured if
Baghdad dealt firmly with new Shiite vigilante groups such as the al-Mukhtar
Army, which seeks to exploit growing sectarian dread in the Shiite community by
threatening to purge Sunnis from mixed neighborhoods.
Islamic extremism is the top priority
for Fares and his secular-minded peers these days. He met with a local emir of
Jabhat Al Nusra, which the U.S. designated a terrorist organization with ties
to Al Qaeda in Iraq, a few weeks ago, and the emir said he wanted to raise
their flag at Kafranbel’s protests. Fares refused, and now the town holds two
protests each week. “They don’t like being called extremists but the truth is
they are,” Fares said. “They want to impose their views on everyone. They see
Islam through a pinhole and I see it through a window.” Fares said Jabhat Al
Nusra was gaining followers because it’s organized, and has an established
hierarchy that holds its members accountable, unlike the disorganized civilian
activists and the Free Syrian Army. Nusra also has access to weapons, and is
delivering much needed humanitarian aid, which the secular opposition can’t
match due to a lack of resources. The confrontation in Kafranbel today is in
the realm of ideas, and Fares hopes that it will remain that way. Nusra and
other extremist groups have a “totalitarian vision for Syria that is the same
as the regime’s and I fought the regime,” he said. Nusra and its followers deny
the existence of a revolution in Syria, Fares said, claiming that revolution is
“just a word invented by Che Guevara, and that we are in jihad. I’m not a
jihadist, I’m a revolutionary.”
Syria’s northern towns and villages,
with their complex ethnic and religious divisions, are a tinderbox for
internecine fighting. They contain fault lines between ethnic groups, Kurds and
Arabs, and among competing forces within each group — battle lines that could
trigger a disintegration of the Syrian state. Ras Al Ayn is a microcosm of
them, arguably the most complex town in the region.
Syria Deeply: As part of
our series of interviews with journalists covering the Syria crisis, we reached
out to ABC News correspondent and “Nightline” anchor Terry Moran, who reported
last month from the streets of Damascus. Here, he discusses the changes he saw
in the Syrian capital. “Part of the horror of what’s happening in Damascus,” he
says, “is just… the demoralization.”
Giulio Douhet, Hugh Trenchard, Billy
Mitchell, and Henry “Hap” Arnold were some of the greatest airpower theorists
in history. Their thoughts have unequivocally formed the basis of modern
airpower.1 However, their ideas concerning the most effective use of airpower
were by no means uniform and congruent in their determination of what
constituted a vital center with strategic effects. In fact the debate continues
to this day, and one may draw on recent conflicts in the Middle East to make
observations on the topic. Specifically, this article examines the actions of
one of the world’s largest air forces in a struggle against its own
people—namely, the rebels of the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
In the case of Syria the only realistic
option is to hasten Assad’s downfall through the provision of weapons and
training to the rebels and the use of Western airpower to create a no-fly zone
and to assist the rebels with close air support in their operations. Those
options may not seem very palatable (especially at a time when sequestration is
badly hurting military readiness) but unless the administration changes course,
the spillover and slaughter will continue to worsen.
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
Some of the captured UN observers are seen in this video saying they
are safe in and being held by civilians http://youtu.be/_6E-ATZa8qk
Brining down a MiG in Jabal Al-Zawiyeh, Idlib http://youtu.be/f1a18p1oLXQ Meanwhile
regime force pound nearby Heesh with explosive barrels http://youtu.be/XlT-TQn3w5A MiGs pound
the town of Saraqib http://youtu.be/IrmLwPCxvn0
Yarmouk Camp, Damascus City: this Palestinian woman, we are
told, discovers soon after her sister was killed in the pounding of the
neighborhood that her brother-in-law was a regime informant. She reports him to
the rebels and witnesses his execution http://youtu.be/DGC-_dujA5w
The pounding of the restive neighborhoods soon continues http://youtu.be/NHlezkWqp5g
Meanwhile, the pounding of rebel strongholds in Eastern Ghoutah
and adjacent neighborhoods in Damascus City continues http://youtu.be/GR5cwSpeEKw , http://youtu.be/bsRl9q32tEI
Rebels in Raqqah City show some of their prisoners: Sunni soldiers
from different provinces doing their compulsory service: http://youtu.be/Bq9ScGAJ-Ic
Rebels document signs of shelling of the historic temple of Bel in Palmyra
City http://youtu.be/A0O6n9N1I5E
The aerial pounding of rebel strongholds in Homs City continues http://youtu.be/NRZYoUQOZtQ , http://youtu.be/PpmpLNEDnTo , http://youtu.be/1kUEG1DVSQY , http://youtu.be/09bSwkGeo9M , http://youtu.be/OY96eZiX7DQ , http://youtu.be/E6-jn8RAneU
The aerial pounding of Deir Ezzor City continues http://youtu.be/dMKRJ0d8Ds8 , http://youtu.be/vkSON4w0zZo
The pounding of Daraa City continues http://youtu.be/HvAOIukSbko
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