No one has rushed to help the people who rebelled, but, in a
typical fashion, many have rushed to take advantage of them: ideological groups
seeking to reintroduce themselves onto the scene, a former superpower that
wants to relive the glory of the old days, no matter how vicariously, neighboring
states that saw a chance to fight their brewing domestic wars abroad, and lonely
Arab men in search of cheap sex with desperate refugee women. The more things
change the more humanity proves to be as screwed up as we always knew her to be.
Monday
April 1, 2013
Today’s
Death Toll: 146 martyrs, including
5 women, 4 children and 2 martyrs under torture: 55 in Damascus and Suburbs; 31
in Homs; 25 in Idlib; 18 in Aleppo;10 in Hama; 6 in Deir Ezzor; and 1 in Daraa (LCCs).
Points
of Random Shelling: 291 points,
including 16 points shelled by warplanes, 4 points with Scud missiles, and 3
point using barrel bombs. Thermobaric bombs were used to shell Kafr Zeta and
Kafr Nabouda in Hama, and cluster bombs to shell Qara in Damascus Suburbs. In
addition, 107 points were shelled with mortar, 98 points with heavy caliber
artillery and 60 points with rockets (LCCs).
Clashes: 113. Successful rebel
operations included the liberation of a number of buildings in Jobar and Qaboon
in Damascus City, targeting the Damascus International airport with rockets, and
the headquarters of the 22nd Brigade in Otaibeh with missiles. In
Idlib, rebels targeted the reservoirs checkpoint with Grad missiles (LCCs).
News
March
bloodiest month so far in Syria uprising March was the bloodiest month
of the Syrian uprising, with more than 6,000 documented deaths, a
pro-opposition human rights group reported Monday. More than one-third of those
killed were civilians, including nearly 300 children, according to the Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights, a London-based organization with monitors in Syria.
Historic
Damascus synagogue damaged, looted The Jobar Synagogue, in the
neighborhood of the same name in northeastern Damascus, is a relic of the
area's once sizeable Jewish population. Tradition holds that the biblical
prophet Elisha built the first structure on the site over a grotto in which his
teacher, the prophet Elijah, had sought refuge.
Tit-for-tat
kidnappings bring Syria's war into Lebanese backyards In northern
Lebanon, the kidnapping of a member of the powerful Shiite Jaafar clan has
created yet another arena for Sunni-Shiite tensions fomented by Syria's unrest.
‘Iran's
Plan B is Alawite State If Syria’s Assad Falls’ A Syrian professor says
Iran hopes to fragment Syria and create an Alawite state to maintain power in
the region, Today’s Zayman reports.
Special
Reports
The
Kurdish Factor … last week’s reversal in Sheikh Maksoud suggests that
Erdogan’s recent overtures to Ocalan are already bearing fruit in his struggle
with Assad. Although the Kurdish groups in Syria are not very significant
militarily, their cooperation would free the Turkish government’s hands by
allowing it to increase its support for the rebels in Syria without fear that
the Assad regime could stoke the Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey in response. It
remains to be seen whether the Kurds’ newfound cooperation with the rebels in
Aleppo is part of a larger realignment by the P.Y.D. But if over the weeks
ahead government forces are pushed out of their remaining bases in Kurdish
areas, like oil-rich Hasakah in the northeast, then the fall of Sheikh Maksoud
on Friday will have marked the beginning of a dramatic shift in Syria’s civil
war.
Syria’s
Civil War: The Mystery Behind a Deadly Chemical Attack The
investigation, when it starts, will be hobbled by the passage of time.
According to a chemical weapons expert familiar with such inquiries, who spoke
on condition of anonymity over the telephone, the investigating team will
examine soil, air and oil samples taken from the blast site. It is unclear
whether they will have access to survivors (who probably bear little traces of
the chemicals so long after the attack) or to autopsy reports. But initial
assessments based upon body counts, photos and video footage taken at the
hospital after the attack seem to rule out nerve agents or mustard gas.
“Looking at the death rate relative to the number of people exposed, it
couldn’t have been a weaponized nerve agent,” says the expert. “And mustard gas
rubs off on whoever touches it, but you don’t see the medical personnel taking
additional protective measure when they treat the patients. So it’s pretty
likely it was something else.”
Syrian
Newspapers Emerge to Fill Out War Reporting Mr. Smesem has used the
paper to confront the mood of intimidation that he said had infected towns like
Binnish, where supporters of the fundamentalist Salafi movement leveraged their
success on the battlefield to take over the town council. In one editorial, he
criticized changes in the tone of the town’s weekly Friday protests since the
Nusra Front began organizing them. The very people who now shouted about
killing all the Alawites were once members of the Binnish Coordination
Committee who marched every Friday in support of civil society, he wrote. Now
Sham editors worry whether the new freedom of expression that has emerged in
the areas seized from government control will persist should the Assad
government fall.
Brides
for 'Sale' The offer comes via BlackBerry Messenger: "If you want
to marry a beautiful fair young Syrian woman, contact ..." and a number is
provided. As the conflict in Syria rages on, with no respite in sight,
desperation is hitting Syrians hard. And there are many around to take full
advantage of it.
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.”
Quickly Noted
* Much controversy surrounds what happened to Ghassan Saleh Zeidan, a
Druze Elder who went to the town of Hadar to mediate between Sunnis rebels and
the local Druze population. On the way there, Ghassan’s convoy was ambushed and
he was killed. Both the regime and rebels accused each other of perpetrating the
murder, albeit, in practice, the murder serves the regime’s agenda of fomenting
conflict between Sunnis and Druzes more than the rebels’ agenda which seeks to
entice the Druze to join the revolution. The man speaking here is Ghassan’s
brother. He accuses the pro-Assad Druze militias of shooting at their convoy,
and names their leaders who were present and ordered the shooting http://youtu.be/0x__lYWHeIY The events
took place in Quneitrah Province, where rebels formed a new division under Liwa
Al-Tawhid http://youtu.be/Tb5H6Bl-Q2M.
* On Saturday, Syria’s State TV denied reports of Bashar Al-Assad’s
death and promised that Assad would address the nation “within hours.” By dawn of
Tuesday April 2, Assad is still nowhere to be seen or heard. Rumors of his physical
demise might still prove to be false, but the truth of his political
irrelevance can now be seen by all.
Video Highlights
Aleppo City: Ansari Neighborhood removing the rubble
after an aerial raid http://youtu.be/uSOE5MWD0pc
Sheikh Maqsoud mass exodus following bombardment of the liberated neighborhood
by loyalists http://youtu.be/v2eCTKmK_XA
, http://youtu.be/gJpaKIQO4_E A loyalist
headquarters in Maksoud after its liberation, the headquarters were used by the
Mardel Clan, a small Sunnis ethnic group that has long been coopted by
the Assads http://youtu.be/St3w2LlPIFI
The pounding of the neighborhood continues http://youtu.be/Ac41IKcg3Pk
Damascus City: regime uses missile launchers to target restive communities
in Eastern Ghoutah http://youtu.be/XkRG0q6QJuA
Sounds of distant pounding http://youtu.be/z54vHteuqrk
Rebels in Otaibeh hunt down a pro-regime sniper http://youtu.be/xA2-tpNj_sU Rebels manufacture
their own mortars http://youtu.be/TSE7Gi7h8RQ
Homes in Jobar catch fire due to pounding http://youtu.be/pRiLLo1CQdQ
Damascus Suburbs: rebels from the town of Qarrah
dismantle a cluster bomb that failed to explode http://youtu.be/x65sAMggDXI In Daraya,
the pounding leave many homes on fire http://youtu.be/cjGviCgCiws
Homs City: the pounding of the neighborhood of Khaldiyeh
continues http://youtu.be/lQ2VyS-HzEI
Daraa: the liberation of the province continues with rebels now
laying siege to the headquarters of the 46th Regiment in the town of
Alma http://youtu.be/ayJfaboPYpQ , http://youtu.be/09kRwYkAKwY , http://youtu.be/4lVLwARGc2E
Idlib: clashes takes place on the outskirts of Maa’arrat
Al-Nouman http://youtu.be/-s1xgAfW488
, http://youtu.be/eeDxYEZYxo0 , http://youtu.be/iTQFX-SdGcw
Leaked video shows loyalist soldiers torturing a Sunni scholar http://youtu.be/Fy_b_IXbn7Q Another
leaked video from Idlib City shows a local loyalist militia leader cutting
the hair of a man and his wife whom he suspected of being sympathetic to the rebels
http://youtu.be/B-x3dW_2bcs
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