As calls for Jihad and counter-Jihad proliferate, and an all
against all holy war unfolds, Syria disintegrates.
Monday March
11, 2013
Today’s
Death Toll: 121 martyrs,
including 8 women and 5 children: 36 martyrs in Damascus and suburbs, 31 in
Aleppo, 17 in Homs, 14 in Deir Ezzor, 14 in Daraa, 4 in Idlib, 3 in Hama, and 1
in Jableh (LCCs).
Points
of Random Shelling: 308 points. Aerial bombardment
counted in 17 points. Scud bombing in 3 points, Shelling using
Surface-to-Surface missiles in 7 points. Shelling using cluster bombs recorded
in Busra Harir, Daraa. Artillery shelling in 102 points. Rocket shelling
counted for 78 points, while mortar shelling counted in 102 points (LCCs).
Clashes: 159. Successful rebel
operations include the liberation of the towns of Karnaz, Tal Jadid and Hammamiyat
in Hama Province, and shelling the vicinity of the Military Security and Air
Force Intelligence headquarters in Deir Ezzor. FSA rebels also seized control
over the main road in Busr Al-Harir and targeted few locations where regime
forces were stationed. In Aleppo, the FSA targeted a regime checkpoint manned
by pro-regime thugs in Tal Shuoaib area near Nairab Camp and killed several
regime soldiers (LCCs).
News
Deadly
abuses intensify in Syria as war worsens: U.N. The Syrian government
has stepped up indiscriminate, heavy bombardments of cities while rebels are
executing prisoners condemned in their own makeshift courts without due
process, U.N. investigators said on Monday. The independent investigators said
they were looking into 20 massacres committed by one or the other side and hundreds
of "unlawful killings", cases of torture and arbitrary arrests since
September in the two-year-old conflict… "In a disturbing and dangerous
trend, mass killings allegedly perpetrated by Popular Committees have at times
taken on sectarian overtones," the 10-page U.N. report said. "Some
appear to have been trained and armed by the government."… "We are
not saying that it is a sectarian war but we call attention to sectarian
elements in the present conflict," Pinheiro said. Foreign fighters from
more than a dozen countries are estimated to comprise less than 10 percent of
the opposition forces fighting the Assad government, he said. "We don't
want to contribute to a paranoia that Syria is being invaded by foreign
fighters. But they have a lot of skills and have been very successful in
spreading acts of terror inside Syria," said Pinheiro.
Turkey
Links Syria to Deadly Car Bombing at Border Turkey's interior minister
blamed Syria's intelligence agencies and its army for involvement in a car
bombing at a border crossing last month that killed 14 people, after he
announced Monday that police detained five suspects. Four Syrians and a Turk
are in custody in connection with the Feb. 11 attack at the Bab al-Hawa
frontier post. No one has claimed responsibility, but a Syrian opposition
faction accused the Syrian government of the bombing, saying it narrowly missed
13 leaders of the group.
EU
Foreign Ministers Split on Arms to Syria The ministers were sharply
divided, with Britain and Italy joining France in supporting eventual military
aid for the opposition while Germany, Sweden and others see that as moving in
the wrong direction. Sweden's Carl Bildt warned that a military solution
carries the risk of "the devastation of the region." On her way into
the meeting, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she supports a
political solution.
Supporting
Assad is a ‘religious obligation:’ Syria’s Grand Imam Supporting Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad is a “religious obligation” of all Muslims, whether
they live inside or outside of Syria, the country’s supreme religious ruling
body said Monday. The state television quoted Grand Mufti Shiekh Ahmad
Badreddine Hassoun as urging all Arabs and Muslims to fight so called “enemies
of Syria.” The Assad government had recently claimed in an interview with The
Sunday Time that it was the last "secular" state in the Middle East,
reiterating that radical Islamists would come into power if the Alawite
president was overthrown.
"Now he is much more the 'boss'
than before, though he of course could not do without his military and security
supporters," Nikolaos van Dam, a Dutch diplomat and leading expert on
Syria, told AFP. "He will fight until death if necessary," said van
Dam, author of "The struggle for power in Syria." "There is too
much at stake here, not only for him, but for his Alawite followers and the
Alawite community as well." The Alawites are an offshoot of Shiite Islam,
while the rebels in Syria are mostly Sunni. "The future may hold a long
and ferocious civil war," van Dam added… "He seems both more erratic
and more delusional, still convinced he can win militarily," said
Berlin-based Volker Perthes, who heads the German Institute for International
and Security Affairs. Steeped in the "anti-imperialist" ideology of
the Baath party which has ruled for 50 years, Assad believes Syria is the
target of a foreign conspiracy because his government supports movements
fighting Israel, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah. He also believes that control
over Syria's main cities - chiefly Damascus - and the west of the country will
give him cards to play in any future negotiations led by the United States and
Russia.
Special
Reports
there is no reason why a government,
as opposed to an opposition, could not be the interlocutor with
regime-designated negotiators in talks aimed at producing the peaceful,
managed, and complete regime change transition agreed to by the five permanent
members of the UN Security Council at Geneva last year. British and American
reluctance on this score has less to do with who does the talking and the
implications for continuity of government than it does with their own
preparedness to take the next step on Syria.
Today a political order is needed to
manage the multiple identities of the Middle East—Syria included. It must not
impugn them, suppress them or pretend they don't exist. Orientalists, Arabists
in particular, should stop railing [3] against the pre-modern heritage of the
region. They would serve their fields by admitting that tribal, sectarian, and
ethnic identities matter in the Middle East, trump all others, and deserve
consideration in any thoughtful reflection on the region’s troubles. Absent
that, no sense of meaningful civic identities, or genuine "citizenship"
can ever develop, and Syria will prove a mere passageway to the impending
unraveling of other Middle Eastern states.
The Syria Trust for Development was
beginning to play an important role in Syria, when the Syrian uprising took
place: an excerpt from a study of Syrian civil society on the eve of revolution
that helps us to understand some of the deeper changes that were under way.
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.”
Onward Holy Soldiers!
In a statement read by Sheikh Mamdouh Junaid, the League of Syrian
Ulema (Sunni religious scholars) responded to yesterday’s call for Jihad
issued by Syria’s Grand Mufti with a call of their own. Today’s call was for
Jihad against “Assad and his sect,” and threatened the international community
that if it fails to intervene to stop Assad’s sectarian war against the “Syria’s
Sunni people,” it will be considered a culprit http://youtu.be/lHKdR5D4MZY.
Yesterday’s call for Jihad by the Grand Mufti was not just aimed
at Syrians, but at all Arab and Muslim nations. Many activists fear that the
call is meant as a prelude for inviting Iran to officially send troops to
defend the regime. In my recent paper “Syria
2013: Rise of the Warlords,” I actually predicted that Assad will
resort to recruiting Shia fighters from other countries, including in South Asia.
This development might be around the corner now. The Assads are not planning to
give up despite their recent setbacks.
Activists today posted today a video showing Syrian TV running
an actual Jihadi song titled “We will wage our battle against them.” If the
video is not actually fake and meant as a joke, it would be the most surreal
development to have taken place so far http://youtu.be/rLlpsDLrGVQ.
Social media is picking it and describing as real.
Reports from Qardaha now explain that the weekend clashes
happened when officials showed up to seek over 2,500 young Alawite men who are
dodging the draft. Certain Alawite cans in Latakia may not be willing to directly
challenge the Assads, but they are becoming increasingly reluctant to see their
children being drafted and forced to fight against rebels, even as rebel groups
inch their way towards Latakia City. If Alawite youths are to fight, they might
as well fight to safeguard Alawite strongholds, rather than engage in a battle to
safeguard Assads’ hold over Sunni-majority areas.
Still, an Alawite youth movement based in Turkey, the Coalition of
Alawite Youth Against Bashar Al-Assad, issued a statement today promising
to provide shelter and compensation for all Alawite youths willing to leave
Syria in order to avoid the draft.
Meanwhile, a group of Alawite sheikhs from Latakia, where most
Anti-Assad Alawite clans are based, came up with a 10-point plan to stop
the current conflict. In the preamble, the sheikhs refer to a conspiracy against
homeland, accuse all actors of working for their own private interests, and a
accuse the opposition of being “weak,” “unable to lead the society,” and does
not “represent the will of the Syrian people.” For its part, the regime is
described as having become “weak and unable to manage the crisis to get Syria
to the safe side.” This is not exactly an endorsement of the revolution, nor is
it a reflection of a popular move among Alawites, but it does capture the mood
within a certain small segments of the Alawite community.
The points: 1) A cease fire observed by all, 2) all non-Syrians
should leave the country, 3) A committee of wise men should be established to oversee
the implementation of the plan, 4) No more political kidnappings, 5) Assad
should declare that he will not run for reelection and the date for the presidential
elections should be moved forward to the last quarter of 2013, 6) all exiles
should be allowed to return, 7) A representative national reconciliation committee
should be established, 8) Syrian should
transition to a civil state with equal rights for all within a year, 9) the transitional
period should be supervised by a joint civilian and military council whose members
will not be allowed to run or occupy any position in the future, 10) no
political party will be allowed to impose its ideology on the state, and the army
should not dabble in politics.
Judging from comments on social media sites run by the opposition, the
plan seems to have come too late to be taken seriously at this stage.
Video Highlights
Missile hit the recently liberated neighborhood of Baba Amr,
Homs City http://youtu.be/8WNgCm-Q0b4
Tanks heads towards Baba Amr to take part in the shelling http://youtu.be/7Vn2zDHTMQs Missile
launchers positioned inside Homs University are used in pounding Baba Amr http://youtu.be/EozPmjG-1nY The launchers
as tehy enter the university grounds http://youtu.be/C2jz1ES_2Go
MiGs take part in the pounding http://youtu.be/PJR9oX52u4g
Member of Jabhat Al-Nusra carried out a suicide operation against
a checkpoint at Mashtal checkpoint, Damascus http://youtu.be/_3fW77WQ8To
Rebels bring down a Sukhoy warplane in the Raqqa countryside http://youtu.be/SiUYdw2iQgk
Another video produced by the Russians covering the tank assault on the
town of Daraya in Damascus Suburbs http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=437792469635518
The view from the rebels’ perspective http://youtu.be/jl4Qx7GluMU
Heavy clashes in Daraa City http://youtu.be/Uf8Ck526Mh4
, http://youtu.be/9cbV567yzJ8 , http://youtu.be/DwXq2gdqNsg , http://youtu.be/rS75XcGg8f0
Heavy clashes take place in Rushdiyeh, Deir Ezzor http://youtu.be/Bz0CKaQ3KWE , http://youtu.be/5KL1Wq5L_eI
The towns of Eastern Ghoutah, Damascus Suburbs, continue to be
the target of warplanes and missile attacks: Saqba http://youtu.be/4Pmp5wVheuk Arbeen
http://youtu.be/vF791qGyDsE
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