Our Father who art somewhere else, like, perennially, give
us this day our daily bread, preferably un-dipped in our blood, and deliver us
from evil, hopefully, NOW. Let our will be done, for once.
Video Highlights
Saturday December
23, 2012
Today’s
Death Toll: 208, including dozens of
children and women: 106 in Hama including 94 due to the massacre at the bakery
in Hilfaya, 51 in Damascus and Suburbs, 32 in Aleppo including 13 in Sfeira, 7
in Homs, 6 in Daraa, 2 in Deir Ezzor, 2 in Raqqa, 1 in Lattakia and 1 in Idlib.
Note: the toll will likely increase as we receive more updates on the
death toll of the Hilfaya Bakery Massacre. Points
of Random Shelling: 316. Clashes: 156. In Deir Ezzor,
rebels blocked a military convoy and gained control of an armored vehicle on
the main highway to Deir Ezzor City. In Idlib, helicopters shelling civilians in
the town of Binnish were blocked. IN Hassakeh, rebels liberated the town of Tal
Barak. In Damascus, rebels gained control of the checkpoint at Sahaba Mosque in
Tishreen neighborhood and detained several members of the popular committees,
recently designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. In Aleppo, rebels gained
control of Tal Annajar Battalion near Manag Airport. Finally, in Hama, they
liberated the Meleh checkpoint in Bseireen (LCC).
News
Syria's
war-battered pound floats on rebel funds In Syria's eastern town of
Deir al-Zor, a rebel commander flush with cash was swapping his dollars for
Syrian pounds to pay fighters battling President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Money
changers said that influx of foreign currency earlier this month helped push
the pound's black market rate in the impoverished town up by at least 10
percent. Hundreds of kilometers away in Damascus, panicked Syrians bracing for
more violence sold pounds for dollars, driving the pound, which has lost half
its value since the anti-Assad uprising erupted in March last year, the other
way. The events at opposite ends of the country illustrate the contrasting
pressures on a currency whose sharp decline has been cushioned by factors
including central bank intervention, flows of cash from Assad's friends and
foes abroad, and even long term hopes for a wave of foreign investment if Assad
were to fall.
Christians
jingle grieving bells across war-torn Syria “This is the darkest, most
devastating Christmas Syria has ever seen,” said a Syrian mother. She said the
probability of Christians attending church services is very slim, as Syrians
don’t have the energy, good health and means to get groomed when bread, gas,
and electricity have become their wish for Christmas. Christians in the country
are concerned about attending church as they’ve done in the previous years, as
two Christian towns in Hama were threatened by armed fighters demanding the
Christian groups turn away from supporting the Assad regime…. Christians in
Syria are known to be supporters of the Assad regime, fearing massacres
targeting Christian in the case of Islamist groups taking over the country.
Syria
Jets Kill Tens As International Envoy Visits It was unclear from the
videos if the building was indeed a bakery. Nearly all the dead and wounded
appeared to be men, some wore camouflage, raising the possibility that the jet
had targeted a rebel gathering. The attack appeared to be the government
response to a newly announced rebel offensive seeking to drive the Syrian army
from a constellation of towns and village north of the central city of Hama.
Halfaya was the first of the area’s towns to be “liberated” by rebel fighters,
and activists saw Sunday’s attack as payback.
The Russian Conundrum
Russian
military presence in Syria poses challenge to US-led intervention Advisers
deployed with surface-to-air systems bolster President Assad's defences and
complicate outcome of any future strikes
Special
Reports
Representation on Aleppo's
Transitional Revolutionary Council will be determined partially by the number
of each community's residents killed in the uprising and the level of
destruction there.
Christians, who make up about 10
percent of Syria's population of more than 22 million, say they are
particularly vulnerable to the violence that has been sweeping the country
since March 2011. They are fearful that Syria will become another Iraq, with
Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Islamic groups.
There are no shellings or air raids to
interrupt the daily calm. Families pack the cafes lining the town’s seaside
corniche, usually abandoned in December to the salty winter winds. The real
estate market is brisk. A small Russian naval base provides at least the
impression that salvation, if needed, is near. Many of the new residents are
members of the Alawite minority, the same Shiite Muslim sect to which Mr. Assad
belongs. The latest influx is fleeing from Damascus, people who have decided
that summer villas, however chilly, are preferable to the looming battle for
the capital.
19 RIMA DALI, BASSEL KHARTABIL
For
insisting, against all odds, on a peaceful Syrian revolution
With
Syria mired in sectarian mayhem, a few brave souls still stand as a testament
to the possibilities -- and the extraordinary costs -- of nonviolent revolution.
When dictator Bashar al-Assad's artillery laid waste to entire neighborhoods
this spring, Rima Dali, a volunteer for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, strode
alone into a busy Damascus street with a sign bearing a simple message:
"Stop the killing. We want to build a country for all Syrians." She
repeated her act of silent defiance the next week, and even more onlookers
gathered to cheer her on -- a sign that the spirit of peaceful protest that
sparked Syria's uprising in early 2011 endures even after a bloody year and a
half of civil war. Dali, a 33-year-old law school graduate, was arrested for
her activism, but she has refused to be cowed, either by the Assad regime's
intimidation or by the spread of extremism within the ranks of the armed
rebellion. "We look for hope, day in, day out," she said after her
release from jail.
Defending
Free Speech in the Digital Age
Not
all those who have publicly defied Assad have been so fortunate. Bassel
Khartabil is, or was, a young computer engineer living in Damascus whose
innovative programming skills helped integrate Syria into the online community
-- fostering an open-source community in a country long on the margins of the
Internet’s youth culture. He was hauled off by Assad's security forces in
March, and despite a "#FREEBASSEL" campaign launched by his friends,
he has not been heard from since. "The people who are in real danger never
leave their countries," he tweeted weeks before his arrest. "They are
in danger for a reason and for that they don't leave."
Video Highlights
In Homs City, locals claim that regime planes were used to drop
poisonous bombs on restive neighborhoods. The gasses caused respiratory problems,
paralysis and temporary blindness http://youtu.be/uLc4zoAmbRE
, http://youtu.be/iq8LgUbory4 , http://youtu.be/i5p1AJvQq4I
Gathering the victims of the “Bakery” Massacre at Hilfaya. The massacre
was caused by an aerial raid against the town, the bombing killed many local
rebels as well as civilians lining up to buy bread http://youtu.be/utdgr_sicmg , http://youtu.be/UP7lCVQJ1p4 , http://youtu.be/3WtkTserk7Y , http://youtu.be/GaVK0qoOdj4 , http://youtu.be/wctOAC3Tdww , http://youtu.be/YJXZApRkEdY , http://youtu.be/y2lI7DM-mOI , http://youtu.be/QeQ1gG9SB40 , http://youtu.be/cogCoh1ZEJg The development
took place as battles in Hama countryside intensified over the last few days,
following a rebel push to liberate various towns and block the main highway connecting
the central parts of the country to Damascus and the coastal regions.
Time Magazine is right in questioning
this account, videos seem to support an attack against a rebel gathering which
comes as part of a government counter-offensive against rebels. Pro-regime
forces have made a habit of targeting bakeries, events that have been documented
many times before. This may not have been such an incident, but the development
was a massacre by any measure. Embellishment was not really necessary.
Mourek in Hama comes under intense shelling http://youtu.be/0QMTVB7fKgM
Rebels and loyalists clash in Boustan Al-Qasr Neighborhood in
Aleppo City http://youtu.be/qT9JMqlj3Vo
, http://youtu.be/2uZRT6cSr-k
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