The world, led by the U.S., waited until the water was
muddy, now they want to do something! But most of their taboos remain
unchanged: no no-fly zone, no peacekeepers, but some arms to some rebels.
That’s a recipe for making things worse. A political process cannot take place
without a no-fly zone, so, arming the rebels without imposing a no-fly zone
will only lengthen the civil war and make it bloodier by drawing in more and
more actors from abroad to join both sides of the Divide. Arming the rebels can
help change the realities on the ground in their favor, and that is good, but
only a no-fly zone can help jump-start a real political process. That process
needs to take place inside the country, because it is not only about dialogue
between regime and opposition, but also about internal dialogue within each
camp, and about connecting with the grassroots. Should the world wait even
longer before grasping the need for this, even a no-fly zone will become moot,
because Syria as a viable state will have been made moot.
Wednesday
March 13, 2013
Today’s
Death Toll: 103 martyrs,
including 6 women and 5 children. 38 reported in Damascus and Suburbs, 26 in
Aleppo, 15 in Homs, 9 in Daraa, 8 in Hama (including 6 who were slaughtered in
Hamamiyat), 4 in Idlib, 2 in Deir Ezzor and 1 in Qunaitera (LCCs).
Points
of Random Shelling: 234 points. Aerial bombardments
counted in 7 points. Scud bombing counted in 1 point. Shelling using
Surface-to-Surface missiles counted for in 1 point. Shelling using cluster
bombs was recorded in Kafarsajneh in Idlib. Artillery shelling counted in 95
points. Mortar shelling counted in 87 points. Rocket shelling counted for 41
points (LCCs).
Clashes: 114. Successful rebel
operations include taking control over the National Hospital and the Blood Bank
in Alboukamal City, Deir Ezzor Province, liberating the Military Housing
Checkpoint in Khan Sheikh, Damascus Suburbs invading a loyalist checkpoint in
Adra, Damascus Suburbs and liberating 14 checkpoints in Jose village on the
Syrian-Lebanese border (LCCs).
News
Syrian
troops and rebels open new battlefront near Damascus (Reuters) - Heavy
fighting erupted in an area between Damascus and the Israeli-occupied Golan
Heights on Wednesday in what could be a new battlefront between Syrian troops
and rebels, opposition sources said. Rebel fighters attacked an army barracks
manned by elite Republican Guards and the Fourth Mechanised Division, headed by
President Bashar al-Assad's brother Maher, in Khan Sheih, 6 km (4 miles) from
the outskirts of Damascus, civilian activists and an opposition military source
said. Clashes intensified three days after Sunni Muslim rebels overran a
missile squadron in the area, killing 30 soldiers, mostly from Assad's minority
Alawite sect, the sources said. The region also hosts a Palestinian refugee
camp.
Conflict
in Syria creates wave of British jihadists: Over 100 UK Muslims thought to have
gone to fight in conflict Syria has replaced Pakistan and Somalia as
the preferred front line where Islamist volunteers can experience immediate
combat with relatively little official scrutiny, security agencies said. The
worrying development has been taking place as extremist groups, some with links
to al-Qa’ida, have become the dominant force in the uprising against the
Damascus regime.
Syria’s
Brotherhood calls for action amid escalating violence “We in the Muslim
Brotherhood in Syria declare the week following March 15 a national week of
solidarity with the Syrian people and their blessed revolution,” AFP quoted the
exiled opposition group as saying. “We call on the heroic Syrian people to
bring back to life all aspects of the uprising... inspired by the spirit of
real national unity, speaking in one voice,” a statement added
Russia
Condemns Talk of Arming Syria Rebels Russia's foreign minister has
condemned talk of arming the Syrian opposition, saying it is illegal under
international law. Russia's Sergei Lavrov spoke Wednesday in London following a
meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague. Britain and some other
countries have talked of lifting a European Union arms embargo to allow weapons
to be sent to opposition forces.
Moscow
flies more Russians home from Syria Moscow says it does not plan a mass
evacuation of the thousands of Russian living in Syria, but government planes
have now flown nearly 300 people to Russia this year to allow them to escape
the civil war there. The ministry said the plane had 76 Russians on board as
well as 27 citizens of neighboring countries, and that more such flights would
be conducted as necessary.
Syria's
children: even their first words are now shaped by war - A Save the Children
report released today states that children, some 2 million of them, are the
'forgotten victims' of Syria's war. When Sham, born during Syria’s
civil war, uttered her first word recently, it conveyed a great deal about how
devastated her country is. “Enfijar,” the toddler said. Explosion. “That’s why
we left, that’s why we ran,” said Sham’s mother Hamma in an interview with
international aid group Save the Children. “My daughter’s first word is
'explosion.' It is a tragedy. We felt constantly as if we were about to die.”
Sham (whose name was changed by researchers) is one of nearly 2 million
children who have become “forgotten victims” of Syria’s brutal civil war,
according to reports released this week by the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) and Save the Children. Though accurate statistics are notoriously
difficult to come by in war zones, the two reports together chart a slow march
toward crises in education, health, and violence – both conflict-related and
sexual – against Syrian children since the conflict began two years ago.
Child
soldiers increasingly recruited in Syria: charity Save the Children
said in a report marking two years of violence in Syria that two million
children were innocent victims of the bloody conflict that the United Nations
says has cost at least 70,000 lives. These children were struggling to find
enough food to eat and were therefore under constant risk of malnutrition and
disease, said the report, adding many were unable to go to school. Girls were
being forced into early marriage in an effort to protect them from the
perceived threat of sexual violence. "Children are increasingly being put
directly in harm's way as they are being recruited by armed groups and
forces," said Save the Children. "There is a growing pattern of armed
groups on both sides of the conflict recruiting children under 18 as porters,
guards, informers or fighters.
U.S.
foreign policy toward Syria is complex, serious and troubling There is
no doubt President Bashar al-Assad is a brutal dictator, and that the rebels
are trying to remove him from power. But we must also consider that at least
some of the rebel groups fighting to oust the tyrant are also radical
Islamists.
Al
Nusrah Front poised to take over last major city on Euphrates River The
Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, al Qaeda in Iraq's affiliate in
Syria, may be close to taking control of Deir al Zour, the last major city on
the Euphrates River in the west. The al Qaeda group's gains in the city take
place just days after jihadists announced the formation of the "Sharia
Committee for the Eastern Region" to govern areas under its control. The
Al Nusrah Front has seized control of several government installations in Deir
al Zour, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that closely track
the civil war, reported on its Facebook page.
Saudi
youth fighting against Assad regime in Syria: GlobalPost has learned that
hundreds of young Saudis are flocking to Syria in a 'holy war' against Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad. With the tacit approval from the House of
Saud, and financial support from wealthy Saudi elites, the young men take up
arms in what Saudi clerics have called a “jihad,” or “holy war” against the
Assad regime. Based on a month of reporting in the region and in Washington,
over a dozen sources have confirmed that wealthy Saudis, as well as the
government, are arming some Syrian rebel groups. Saudi and Syrian sources
confirm that hundreds of Saudis are joining the rebels, but the government
denies any sponsoring role.
Exclusive:
Gaza Salafists Take Fight To Syria I managed to reach the house of one
of the jihadist Salafist leaders in the Gaza Strip… he explained why the
members of the movement had moved to Syria to fight, saying, “They moved to
Syria because the jihad door in the Gaza Strip was closed, and the situation
was not taken into consideration, contrary to Syria, where it is open to jihad
and to fighting the enemy.” He refused to define what he means by enemy, and he
noted that after he was locked up more than once in the aftermath of Ibn
Taymiya Mosque incident, he sought to live a simple life and to keep his jihad
mission and vocation as a member of the Salafist jihad between God and himself…
Despite his reluctance to talk or to disclose the number of militants from Gaza
in Syria, he ultimately provided some information about their presence and
efforts against the regime in Syria, independent of the Free Syrian Army. The
militants joined Jabhat al-Nusra, which was formed in 2011 in Syria and was
classified by the US as a terrorist organization.
Syria
anti-regime protesters demonstrate against Al-Nusra Anti-regime
activists took to the streets of rebel-held Mayadeen in eastern Syria on
Wednesday for a third straight day to demand that jihadist Al-Nusra Front
fighters leave the town, a watchdog said. "For the third day in a row,
protests erupted in Mayadeen calling on the Al-Nusra Front to leave the
town," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Protests erupted
after the Islamist Al-Nusra Front -- blacklisted in December by the United
States as a "terrorist" organization -- set up a religious council in
the east of Deir Ezzor province, where Mayadeen is situated, to administer
affairs in the area.
Syria
denies reports of mass conscription The latest rumors fueled fears all
men 50 and younger could be drafted to help the government battle a rebellion
that has taken a heavy toll on the military.
France's
Fabius says Europe must drop Syria arms ban French Foreign Minister
Laurent Fabius kept up his push on Wednesday for Europe to ditch a ban on
supplying arms to Syria, saying stepping up help to the opposition was the only
way to end the bloody two-year-old crisis. "We must go further and allow
the Syrian people to defend themselves against this bloody regime. It's our
duty to help the Coalition, its leaders and the Free Syrian army by all means
possible," Fabius wrote in the daily Liberation newspaper.
UN
must refer Syria war crimes to ICC: Amnesty "How many more
civilians must die before the UN Security Council refers the situation to the
prosecutor of the International Criminal Court so that there can be
accountability for these horrendous crimes?" asked Ann Harrison, Amnesty's
deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.
UN
cuts Golan patrols as Syria war dangers mount The Philippine government
said it is reviewing its activities after the 21 troops were held for four days
by Syrian rebels. Austria has also raised concerns to the UN, diplomats said.
"There is a risk they will all leave. And if they all leave then the mission
is in definite crisis," said one senior UN diplomat. "There is a real
danger of the total unraveling of the force," added another senior
Security Council diplomat. The UN has "decided to restrict the movement of
UNDOF," said the UN diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity.
"They are no longer doing patrols. They have closed down some of the
observation posts." Shots were fired at one observation post after the
Filipinos were freed last Saturday, March 9.
Special Reports
Lebanon:
Sibling of Syria - With war in Syria threatening to spill over into Lebanon, we
examine the two countries' shared history. "For the first time
since 1970, when Hafez al-Assad came to power, up until now, Lebanon misses the
spirit of the ‘big brother’. The oppressive spirit that also brings our people
together. We can’t just wonder how the current situation in Syria would affect
life in Lebanon. This is a serious issue. And we need to think more about
it," says Nahla Chahal, a researcher and journalist."
How
the Muslim Brotherhood Hijacked Syria's Revolution: The shadowy Islamist group
that was all but destroyed in the 1980s is ruining the uprising against Bashar
al-Assad. No one in Syria expected the anti-regime uprising to last
this long or be this deadly, but after around 70,000 dead, 1 million refugees,
and two years of unrest, there is still no end in sight. While President Bashar
al-Assad's brutal response is mostly to blame, the opposition's chronic failure
to form a viable front against the regime has also allowed the conflict to drag
on. And there's one anti-Assad group that is largely responsible for this
dismal state of affairs: Syria's Muslim Brotherhood. Throughout the Syrian
uprising, I have had discussions with opposition figures, activists, and
foreign diplomats about how the Brotherhood has built influence within the
emerging opposition forces. It has been a dizzying rise for the Islamist
movement. It was massacred out of existence in the 1980s after the Baathist
regime put down a Brotherhood-led uprising in Hama. Since then, membership in
the Brotherhood has been an offense punishable by death in Syria, and the group
saw its presence on the ground wither to almost nothing. But since the uprising
erupted on March 15, 2011, the Brotherhood has moved adroitly to seize the
reins of power of the opposition's political and military factions.
Terrorism
and freedom fighting along the Syria-Iraq border: When some rebel groups kill
Syrian government soldiers, the US applauds. When others do the killing, it's
'terrorism.' Why? …the killing of Syrian soldiers by rebels is good,
right? Well, not exactly. Depending on who does the killing it can be labelled
as terrorism or the actions of a people striving to be free… [Nuland] appeared
to define terrorism as killing anyone not in the middle of an all-out battle.
"We’ve been pretty clear about calling out attacks against folks who are
not in the middle of a firefight all the way through this from both
sides," she said. By this definition, every drone assassination carried
out by the Bush and Obama administrations has been terrorism, as have the
frequent tactics of bombing or ambushing insurgents at home, in both Iraq and
Afghanistan. That's an absurd definition of terrorism. Usually governments say
absurd things when the policy being discussed is filled with contradictions.
Hugh
Segal: We must intervene in Syria to protect ourselves Syrian groups
that sought liberalization and democracy have been annihilated for want of
weapons and money, while the militias the West would never want to see take
over Syria have become the best-armed, most effective elements within the
rebellion. It is not too late to engage. A coalition composed of Arab and NATO
countries could still intervene decisively with a targeted air campaign,
reducing Assad’s military capabilities and giving the remnants of pro-democracy
forces a fighting chance. Western special forces units could also enter Syria,
link up with pro-democracy forces and provide an immediate counter to the
superior firepower of the Islamist groups. Turkey, NATO’s only Muslim country,
would be the logical leader for this operation (which would also suit U.S.
President Barack Obama’s preference for “leading from behind”). What Bosnia,
Afghanistan and Libya have taught us is not that interventions fail, but that
imperfect and messy results are still better than the alternative of no
engagement at all. The same countries that considered an al-Qaeda-controlled
Afghanistan an unacceptable risk to the West cannot be blind to the much
greater threat that an Islamist, unstable Syria would pose, not just to Israel,
but the entire region. This is no longer only about our moral responsibility to
protect Syria’s helpless civilians. It’s about protecting our allies, and
ultimately, ourselves.
A
Battle for Syria, One Court at a Time When members of a fledgling court
system in Aleppo, Syria, refused to hand over newly refurbished offices to the
head of a Shariah Board last month, four vehicles filled with heavily armed
fighters promptly roared through the fence surrounding the five-story concrete
building. The fighters, so-called Shariah Board police, knocked down one cleric
who objected, then carted off some 20 lawyers and other employees, whacking
some with rifle butts, according to four members of an Aleppo lawyers
association who spoke with witnesses. More than a simple turf war, the
confrontation was part of a secondary battle already playing out across Syria,
even with its civil war unresolved. It is the fight over who will shape Syria’s
future… “Syria right now is a jungle where everyone is competing to be the
power,” said Faraj, a young fighter. In many places, someone who was a baker or
a taxi driver now controls hundreds of men and uses them to run one or two
villages at his whim, he said. “Another six months of that and people are going
to want Assad back because they are fed up.”
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.”
Minorities, secularists, moderates and democrats have a right to fear
from the rise of Jabhat Al-Nusra and affiliated groups. In recently liberated
Raqqah City, members of Nusra circulated a pamphlet that described those who
believe democracy as “infidels.” That does not augur well, but it does show to
more and more people how dangerous this group is. The aura of saintliness and
sanctity is being undermined, and the people are not afraid to tell Al-Nusra
what they really think.
The problem is: it’s not just Al-Nusra, there are so many radicals now,
and, then, the pro-Assad militias, then foreign fighters on both sides. Turf
war is looming, and guns trump words.
Meanwhile, Jabhat Al-Nusra is taking control
of the southern parts of the country as well, including the border with Israel:
Tanks operated by rebels from Jabhat Al-Nusra take part in
pounding loyalist positions in the town of Saida, Daraa Province http://youtu.be/Gf7fcgMlkFs , http://youtu.be/mdbAD8CFOVk The
spokesman, who clearly identify that the tnaks belong to Al-Nusra, was the same
one relating the massacre against imprisoned regime loyalists that took place
in Al-Jamla region a few days ago, meaning that it was Al-Nusra who was responsible
for perpetrating it all along, contrary to what I thought at the time. This
also means that it was Al-Nusra who was holding the UN observers. It’s Al-Nusra
that is now controlling areas along the border with Israel.
This is how I covered
the massacre of Jamla at the time (March 4): After liberating a loyalist
checkpoint in the village of Jamlah, rebels executed their prisoners despite
heated protestations from some in their ranks http://youtu.be/T5Z0E1EIBbc The
fighters, however, are not affiliated with Jabhat Al-Nusra or any other Jihadi
groups, their rhetoric and their adherence to the independence flag indicate
that they are the “moderate” Islamists we hear so much about. There are no more
moderates in this fight. We have waited too long. http://youtu.be/Mly9pm9FeDA “Those who
don’t defect, will be killed” http://youtu.be/W7_qUMqtjcg
The incident took place on March 4.
The same man also shows us the havoc wrought by regime shelling of the
town of Kateebah http://youtu.be/dbxmHdeaB6k
And Khirbet Ghazaleh http://youtu.be/Ga1cHWj5uAs
And Western Ghariyeh http://youtu.be/rgBoljG4yn4
And the International Highway connecting Damascus and Amman http://youtu.be/UDBX3Ee0tGs The
significance of this is to note that now it is Jabhat Al-Nusra that is taking
control of the southwest parts of Syria, after taking control of much of the
East.
(Reuters) - One hot
night last summer, Rajaa Taher grabbed a few essentials and fled her home in
the Syrian village of Saqarja with her husband and children, escaping across
farmlands to Zayta just a few hundred meters away.
Taher, a Shi'ite,
said she was threatened by Sunni Muslim rebels battling President Bashar
al-Assad in the largely unmarked border region where Syria merges into Lebanon
- an old smuggling area where Syrians and Lebanese, Shi'ites and Sunnis once
lived together oblivious to national or sectarian boundaries.
Now the border
region has become one of many flashpoints in Syria's increasingly violent and
sectarian conflict, which threatens more and more to drag in its tiny neighbor
Lebanon, where many Sunnis back the revolt and many Shi'ites back Assad, a
member of the Alawite offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
If the bloodshed
seeps into Lebanon, where sectarian faultlines have been exacerbated by the
nearly two years of crisis in Syria, the countryside around Taher's village
nestled just north of Lebanon's Bekaa Valley may be one of the gateways for the
spread.
The area is of
strategic importance for the rebels who would be able to link Homs province in
Syria to Sunni areas inside Lebanon for weapons and fighters. It is important
for Lebanon's Shi'ite militants Hezbollah to stop the rebels from taking over
these Shi'ites villages as they will be a stone's throw away from Hermel, one
of the group's strongholds.
Already rebels
accuse Hezbollah of sending forces into the area to fight alongside Assad's
army - a charge the group denies, although it says there are Hezbollah members
living and fighting among the estimated 30,000 Lebanese nationals in two dozen
religiously mixed villages but with Shi'ites in the majority just inside Syria.
Taher and other
Shi'ite and Alawite villagers tell another story, saying Sunni rebels have
intimidated, expelled and killed Shi'ites as they seek to control territory
close to Syria's third largest city, Homs.
"We were
neighbors. We lived there together for years and years," said the
39-year-old woman, dressed in black like many others displaced from nearby
villages.
"Then they
sent us a message...that we are Shi'ites and we have no right to own land or a
house or anything and we have to leave. They burned the house. They took our
cows," she said.
"They took my
brother-in-law and we don't know what happened to him. We left the village when
they started calling from the mosque speakers for Jihad. We left under
bullets," she said tearfully, adding that her nephew was recently killed.
"What do they
want from us? We were all one family living together ... Do they hate us just
because we are Shi'ites?"
Video Highlights
In a response to the Grand Mufti’s recent call for Jihad, gets a death
fatwa from a defected member of the Syrian Sunni religious established, Sheikh
Anas Al-Suwaid http://youtu.be/gQCR3wf1SDs
The sheikh says that if the call for Jihad led to an increase in the number of
Shia fighters from Iran, Hezbollah going into Syria, then the blood of the
Grand Mufti will be forfeit.
Rebels from Liwa Al-Islam shows a mortar round made in Israel
claiming that it has confiscated it from the regular army, and using it to
bolster their claim of a secret agreement between Israel and Assad. This is the
kind of conspiracy theories now prevalent in rebel circuits http://youtu.be/ZQHT4jptJ9Y Rebels from
the same unit take control of the headquarters of the loyalist militias, Jaish
Al-Sha’bi, in the town of Adra, Damascus Suburbs, and confiscate the
ammunition http://youtu.be/vHeIAeewn9Y
Jaish Al-Sh’abi is a loyalist militias classified as a terrorist organization
by the U.S. Treasury Department. The Liwa used its own confiscated tanks to pound
the headquarters http://youtu.be/JvMXfooxNOI
, http://youtu.be/m88fHJML_Tc
Loyalist troops from 113th Battalion in Deir Ezzor Province destroyed their stockpile of rockets before giving up the site to rebels http://youtu.be/fadHGGwwmqY
Relief workers from a local volunteer organization, Rawafid, distribute
food rations in Deir Ezzor City http://youtu.be/wbpvMeC5uLQ
, http://youtu.be/K3FvuBFwmn4
This fire in Baramkeh Neighborhood in Central Damascus City is
the result of rebel pounding of the City by rebels. The rebels were aiming for
the military security complex in the neighborhood but missed. Their rockets
civilian targets: cars and dwellings http://youtu.be/IumCnj9qjkM
, http://youtu.be/spN8oQf22aA Nearby Fahhameh
was also targeted http://youtu.be/kigJzd7d2Ek
Meanwhile, regime forces keep pounding rebel stronghold in and around
the city of Damascus: Jobar http://youtu.be/jm_PLGAihtE
, http://youtu.be/NS-UxsYE0UE
Scenes from the battlefield that is the town of Daraya, Damascus
Suburbs http://youtu.be/A318LFTA15g ,
http://youtu.be/_VVLnuXNi6c , http://youtu.be/m28K4hnpv6g , http://youtu.be/eHWR1dIGs68 , http://youtu.be/BNEK6u5vhlg , http://youtu.be/vFqtEZPKjYE
In Daraa City, rebels pound loyalist troops headquarters at the main
Post Office http://youtu.be/2n34lIgmWyw
, http://youtu.be/FsNrtI7OVxo
, http://youtu.be/i8HhYZTLKqc
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