Assad’s amnesty deal could
free up to 7,000 prisoners, we are told, leaving 150,000 to go. How generous is
the Lord! How widespread the rejoicing!
Tuesday April
16, 2013
Death
Toll: 119 martyrs, including 19 women, 21
children, and 3 under torture: 49 in Aleppo most in Sakhour neighborhood; 19 in
Damascus and Suburbs; 16 in Daraa; 14 in Idlib; 8 in Raqqa; 5 in Homs; 5 in Deir
Ezzor; and 3 in Hama (LCC).
News
Rebels
push Assad's army away from vital north Syria highway The two
sides are struggling for control of a highway that serves as the main route
into Aleppo, Syria's largest city, after President Bashar al-Assad's forces
broke through a six-month rebel blockade of two bases near the road. Rebels are
determined to re-establish the blockade of the bases, located outside the town
of Maarat al-Nuaman in Idlib province, because a government advance could upset
the balance of power in the heart of the rebel-held north. No side now fully controls
the highway.
UN
agencies call for end to Syria 'carnage' Leaders of five UN agencies in
rare joint appeal urge international community to find a political solution to
conflict.
Syrian guns fall silent to allow Aleppo's dead to be collected Red Crescent workers and members of an opposition local council drove into the edge of the working class al-Sakhour district in north Aleppo to pick up the mostly civilian dead, many of them hit by army sniper fire, as fighters from the two sides looked on, activists and rebel military sources said. The opposition Aleppo Media Centre said the majority of the bodies, which included children, had already decomposed. Some had been lying in the streets and between buildings for months. Three bodies were found with their hands tied and four were burnt beyond recognition, the monitoring group said.
Syrian guns fall silent to allow Aleppo's dead to be collected Red Crescent workers and members of an opposition local council drove into the edge of the working class al-Sakhour district in north Aleppo to pick up the mostly civilian dead, many of them hit by army sniper fire, as fighters from the two sides looked on, activists and rebel military sources said. The opposition Aleppo Media Centre said the majority of the bodies, which included children, had already decomposed. Some had been lying in the streets and between buildings for months. Three bodies were found with their hands tied and four were burnt beyond recognition, the monitoring group said.
Syria's
Assad cuts jail terms, activists not satisfied The move reduced
prison terms of inmates held for both crimes and misdemeanors and also cut by a
quarter the jail terms of "Syrians who had joined the terrorists" -
the term used by the government to describe the rebels trying to topple Assad…
Syrian opposition leader Moaz Alkhatib said the reductions would be seen as a
positive gesture only if the women and children among the detainees were
released in the coming days. "We want an amnesty on crimes and the release
of all innocents of which there are more than 160,000. Most importantly among
them are the women and children. If this happens we will say it is a token of a
Syrian solution," he wrote on his Facebook page.
Turkey
Holds 10 Suspected of Arming Syria Islamist Rebels-Media The
suspects were arrested in Konya province, some 250 km south of the capital
Ankara, after police were tipped off that a "radical Islamist group'' was
persuading young men to join the Syrian insurgents, Turkey's private Dogan News
Agency said. According to the report, the men were also suspected of supplying
handguns and rifles to the rebels, who have been fighting to overthrow Assad in
a civil war that started as a peaceful street uprising two years ago. Konya
police declined to comment on the detentions.
NPR
website defaced by hackers supporting Syria: Syrian Electronic Army posts
messages in support of President Bashar Assad The group tweeted
that it would not say why it attacked @NPR. "They know the reason and that
is enough," it said… A subsequent Twitter exchange suggested that it had
to do with coverage of the conflict in Syria by NPR reporter Deborah Amos who
"has told of the hard toll the fighting there is taking on the Syrian
people," the blog post said.
Special
Reports
In
rebel fighter's personal story, the arc of Syria's war When The Monitor
first met Syrian rebel fighter Abu Omar last July, he was buoyant and
determined to bring down the Assad regime. Now his outlook is a bit more grim.
Syria’s
Forgotten Front Israel and the Syrian opposition don’t have much
in common, but they do share some important mutual enemies, namely Hezbollah
and Iran, both of which are fighting furiously to save Bashar al-Assad’s
government. This convergence of interests provides an opening for America to
quietly strike a deal between Israel and the leadership of the Syrian
opposition: Israel should agree to refrain from arming proxies inside Syria to
protect its border; and the Syrian opposition should work to keep extremist
groups like Hezbollah and Jabhat al-Nusra and other affiliates of Al Qaeda far
away from the Israeli frontier. This would demonstrate the Syrian opposition’s
bona fides to potential Western supporters and dissuade Israel from intervening
or arming allies in Syria.
Syria Is
Complicated -- Simultaneous Conflicts Always Are The war in
Syria is so enduring and vexing precisely because it is such a multi-layered
conflict, comprising at least six separate battles taking place at the same
time, argues Rami G. Khouri.
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
* Yesterday, I put the wrong
link for Moaz Al-Khatib’s speech. Sorry. Here is the correct link http://youtu.be/aeL0nJ415gc.
Video Highlights
In cooperation with the local chapter Red Crescent, a ceasefire
was observed in certain parts of Aleppo City to allow for rebels to retrieve
the bodies of dead civilians strewn in the streets. Most were in various
degrees of decomposition. The dead were victims of pro-Assad snipers http://youtu.be/9ZJ7lowPSGI
Rebels in Marrat Al-Numan, Idlib, repel an offensive by
pro-Assad militias http://youtu.be/DCGhcPZ4VE8
, http://youtu.be/TWkTxFYew6M
Fighters in nearby Babouline do the same http://youtu.be/GfIsNe7A0x8
Pounding of neighborhoods on the outskirts of the Kurdish-majority city
of Qamishly in Syria’s northeastern parts leave many dead http://youtu.be/CWSaUrqb3lY
Amidst growing concerns over the possible use of chemical weapons by
pro-Assad militias, activists in the Kurdish majority town of Efrin,
Aleppo Province, organize a small workshop to inform people on how they could
protect themselves of treat the aftermath of exposure http://youtu.be/Uy9z-DbnYD4
This video purports to show a Jordanian intelligence officer declaring
his defection and his decision to join Jabhat Al-Nusra and its fighters in
Syria. The officer says that he made his decision after he was tasked with monitoring
the activities of JAN http://youtu.be/EoH_gWD8Ybs
Rebels in the town of Tabqa, Raqqah Province, bring down a MiG
fighter http://youtu.be/xd6Z0F-Hpdg
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