Inaction is what often lies at the heart of our greatest
catastrophes. But politicians often favor it, because it is easier to justify,
and when the time to face the consequences comes, they can always shift the
blame. There will be plenty of shifting gymnastics over the next few months and
years, as things spiral out of control in Syria.
Thursday March
28, 2013
Today’s
Death Toll: 141 martyrs, including
6 women, 4 children and 3 under torture: 51 in Damascus and Suburbs, 12 fell
during the pounding of the Faculty of Architecture in Damascus University; 42
in Daraa; 12 in Aleppo; 15 in Homs; 5 in Deir Ezzor; 5 in Idlib; 5 in Hassakeh:
3 in Quneitra; and 3 in Hama (LCCs).
Points
of Random Shelling: 278 points. Aerial bombardment
by warplanes counted in 18 points. Shelling using Surface-to-Surface missiles
recorded in Daeel, Daraa. Explosive barrels used in 5 points. Shelling using
cluster bombs recorded in Qarah and Yabroud in Damascus Suburbs. Vacuum bombs recorded
in Qusair, Homs. Mortar shelling counted in 103 points. Artillery shelling
counted in 91 points. Rocket shelling counted for 60 points on various parts of
Syria (LCCs).
Clashes: 126. Successful rebel
operations included the complete liberation of the town of Da’el, and targeting
loyalist barracks in Khirbet Ghazaleh in Daraa Province. In Damascus, rebels
shot down a cargo plane in Damascus International Airport which, they say, was being
used by Iranians to funnel weapons to the Assads. In the town of Skeilabiyeh, Hama Province,
rebels pounded the headquarters of a loyalist militia killing several. Similar operations
took place in Qamhaneh and Tel Ataman (LCCs).
News
Syrian
Students Killed in Attack on University Cafeteria The main rebel
fighting group denied responsibility, asserting that it would never target a
school filled with students, and suggested that Mr. Assad’s agents had carried
out the attack to inflame passions against the two-year-old rebellion in Syria.
The attack at the outdoor cafe, near the civil engineering faculty building,
was one of the deadliest to afflict an affluent enclave of Damascus that had
been relatively insulated from much of the fighting. An orange-and-yellow
awning that had shielded cafe tables was drooped and riddled with holes. Pools
of blood congealed on the concrete patio, littered with upended plastic chairs
and packs of Gauloises and Winston cigarettes.
American
who fought with Al Qaeda against Syria's Assad arrested in Virginia Eric
Harroun, 30, who left the Army in 2003 on full disability pay after a truck
accident, was charged with conspiring to use a rocket-propelled grenade while
fighting with the al-Nusrah Front, an organization also known as Al Qaeda in
Iraq. Harroun, who was in Syria or Turkey when he spoke to FoxNews.com by
Skype, was nabbed shortly after flying in to Dulles International Airport after
a voluntary interview with FBI agents, according to a criminal complaint filed
Thursday.
Iran,
Syria and North Korea Stall Arms Treaty The three countries, often
isolated as international pariahs for their arms and human rights records, used
their rejection of the treaty to lash out at what they see as their unfair
treatment. Achieving consensus among all 193 member states of the United
Nations is considered a monumental task, but it was hoped that it would work in
this case because so many countries supported the idea of trying to regulate
the $70 billion annual industry which causes so much death and destruction
around the world.
Syria MP: Insurgents Control
Large Parts of Daraa "Syria is no longer going through a crisis.
It is plunged in total war. Terrorism has spread in Syria and so has chaos.
This is reality, and all Syrians know it," Walid al-Zohbi told parliament
in a session broadcast live on state television. "This is also happening
in all towns and villages in Daraa province, which is torn from east to west
after the army withdrew from many positions," he said. "They may have
pulled out for tactical reasons, we don't know. But at any rate, terrorists
from al-Nusra Front have taken their place," he added of a jihadist group
with roots in Iraq, classed by Washington as "terrorists". Some MPs
called out and tried to silence Zohbi, but he refused to be interrupted. "There
are people who send reports claiming the Daraa highway has been secured, but
it's not true. The area stretching from Khirbet Ghazaleh to the border crossing
is under the control of armed groups," Zohbi said.
Turkey
foreign ministry denies forcibly deporting Syria refugees Turkey's
foreign ministry denied forcibly deporting Syrian refugees from a camp on the
border after Wednesday's clashes with Turkish military police, and said about
50-60 had returned to Syria voluntarily. "Some people have returned since
last night, the numbers are closer to 50 or 60, and yes some of these may have
been involved in the provocations from yesterday but they returned of their own
free will," foreign ministry spokesman Levent Gumrukcu said on Thursday.
Officials:
Arms Shipments Rise to Syrian Rebels A carefully prepared covert
operation is arming rebels, involving Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar,
with the United States and other Western governments consulting, and all
parties hold veto power over where the shipments are directed, according to a
senior Arab official whose government is participating. His account was
corroborated by a diplomat and two military experts.
Assad
Sends Letter to Emerging Powers Seeking Help to End Syrian War In a
letter addressed to the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South
Africa — the so-called BRICS group of developing nations, which convened a
summit meeting in Durban, South Africa — Mr. Assad framed his request as a plea
for assistance in the fight of good against evil. He depicted the opposition
forces as terrorists bent on destroying Syria with help from a conspiracy of
hostile Arab and Western countries. “You, with all the huge political, economic
and cultural weight you represent that seeks to consolidate peace, security and
justice in the troubled world of today, are called upon to exert all possible
efforts to end the suffering of the Syrian people,” Mr. Assad said in the
letter, as reported by SANA, the official Syria news agency. He called the
BRICS group “a just force that seeks to spread peace, security and cooperation
among countries away from hegemony, its dictates and oppression which have
lasted for decades upon our peoples and nation.”
Syrian opposition coalition opens embassy in
Qatar In a diplomatic blow for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,
Syria's opposition coalition has opened its first embassy - in the Qatari
capital Doha.
France
says too early to send arms to Syria rebels France and Britain are both
pressing for the relaxation of an arms embargo on Syria so that arms can flow
to outgunned rebels waging a two-year-old uprising against Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad. The embargo expires on June 1 and both countries say it should
be allowed to lapse. But Hollande said that before arms were delivered to
Syria, guarantees were needed they would not fall into the hands of Islamist
fighters. "We will not do it as long as we cannot be certain that there is
complete control of the situation by the opposition," Hollande said during
an interview on France 2 television.
Israel
sends more medics to border with Syria as more wounded Syrians cross, seek
Israeli aid A military official said on Thursday there have been
"numerous incidents" in recent months in which Syrians wounded in the
fighting in their country arrived at the frontier for first aid from Israeli
medics. Eleven of them were taken and treated at Israeli hospitals, including
one who died from his wounds on Wednesday. Others returned home after their
conditions have improved.
Hungry
Aleppo residents rely on charity for food The UN World Food Programme says
"humanitarian needs are growing in Syria, with serious bread and fuel
shortages across the country". "In some areas, the prices of most
essential items have risen by 200 percent, and the Syrian pound has been
devalued by around 80 percent," the WFP added. According to the Syrian
Arab Red Crescent, "2.5 million Syrians inside the country need food
assistance".
Chechen
commander forms 'Army of Emigrants,' integrates Syrian groups The
creation of the Army of the Emigrants and Helpers was announced on March 26 by
Kavkaz Center, a propaganda arm of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, an al
Qaeda-linked jihadist group in Russia's Caucasus. "In March 2013, a unit
of Mujahideen of Kataeb al Muhajieen, or Brigade of Emigrants, under the
command of Abu Omar al Chechen was joined by several brigades of Syrian
Mujahideen, including Kataeb Khattab, or the Brigade of Khattab, and Jaish
Muhammad, or the Army of Muhammad, after which it was decided to reorganize the
structure of Kataeb," Kavkaz Center reported. "As a result, Jaish al
Muhajireen wa Ansar, or the Army of Emigrants and Helpers, was created,"
Kavkaz Center continued.
Russia
to block Syrian opposition at UN Russia said Thursday it will strongly
oppose any bid to give Syria's UN seat to the rebel coalition fighting
President Bashar al-Assad. Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said recognizing
the Syrian National Council would "undercut the standing of the UN." Churkin
reaffirmed Russia's condemnation of the Arab League for naming the coalition as
the legitimate government and said the League was now playing a
"negative" role in the two-year-old Syrian conflict. The Arab League
on Tuesday recognized the coalition and diplomats say Arab nations are now
planning a campaign to give Syria's place at the 193-member United Nations to
the opposition. No formal move is expected however before the new UN General
Assembly year starts in September. Russia, Assad's main international backer,
is a current member of the General Assembly's credentials committee, which
would make a recommendation to the full assembly on Syria's membership. "We
will oppose it very strongly, but you know I don't think it is going to
happen," Churkin told reporters.
Special
Reports
In
Syria, the Rebels Have Begun to Fight Among Themselves “The problem is
that they have forgotten that we are all fighting Bashar,” Abu Mansour said of
the Jabhat. “They want an Islamic emirate. They say that they are Islamists and
we are apostates, but we will not accept that they have any sway or authority
over us or others. May God heal Abu Azzam, that is the main thing, but in every
province now, we will fight them.”
Video: Agony in Aleppo: a city abandoned by
the world? In the first of a Channel 4 News series charting Syria's
descent in the face of civil war, German filmmaker Marcel Mettelsiefen's spends
several weeks in Aleppo witnessing a civilian population isolated and under
siege.
The
Arab League Actually Does Something: Once a laughingstock, the Arab world’s
political body is closing ranks against Bashar al-Assad. The
declaration "affirms every state's right, according to its desire, to
present all kinds of measures for self-defense, including military ones, to
support the steadfastness of the Syrian people and the Free Army."
A
new Syria must have U.S. support Yet absent a nonsectarian government
in Syria, one dedicated to protecting vulnerable populations and serving as an
alternative to Assad, the likelihood of state failure and sectarian chaos in
Syria will continue to grow. As hard as the challenges are now, they could soon
become unmanageable. A credible alternative to Assad is desperately needed. It
will not happen without U.S. encouragement and support.
Elliot
Abrams: Syria’s European Jihadis The facts are pretty clear: There are
hundreds and hundreds of European Muslims now fighting in Syria. When I met
recently in Washington with the top civil servant in one of Europe’s foreign
ministries, this was his greatest fear: What will they do when they come
“home,” their fighting skills now honed through months of combat alongside
other jihadis from Libya, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and many other
countries?
We hate to break it to the
Administration's Boswells, but Mr. Obama has owned the Syria debacle from Day
One of the uprising, and even before it. The President came to office
determined to improve relations with the Syrian dictator. That effort was
unofficially led by then-Senator John Kerry, who once praised Mr. Assad as a
man who had been "very generous with me." It took five months for the
Administration to call for Mr. Assad to go, though it has since done nothing to
make that happen… Nobody is arguing for American boots on the ground, but the
sooner Mr. Assad falls the easier it will be to prevent the various nightmare
scenarios that are becoming more likely. Among those scenarios: the
disintegration of the Syrian state into warring ethnic enclaves; revenge
killings amounting to genocide against Mr. Assad's Allawite sect; the spillover
of war into Lebanon, Jordan or Iraq; the further empowerment of al Nusra and
similar jihadists; the seizure by parties unknown of Syria's chemical weapons
stocks; or the breakout of a pan-regional Shiite-Sunni conflict. Mr. Obama may
imagine that his only foreign policy problems are those he chooses to touch. If
he were Prime Minister of New Zealand, that might be true. But that's not how
the world works. Sooner or later the world's biggest problems always land on an
American President's desk. The catastrophe in Syria is unfolding on his watch,
and history will judge him not merely on how he acts, but on how he has refused
to act.
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
* When Syrian MPs feel free to speak out on such
critical issues as the security of the country, and when they are willing to
say that the country is witnessing a civil war and that the army seems
incapable of prevailing, then, yes, the end is nigh.
* Yes, there are hundreds of European Jihadis now fighting
in Syria, and heavens only know what they will do upon their return home. Most
would probably resume their erstwhile lives, but there will always those few
who would turn completely to the darkside. Why is anyone surprised? Why couldn’t
European leaders foresee the easily foreseeable? And how long do they think
they can protect their countries and societies from the impact of mayhem
unfolding in Syria? The price if inaction will hunt us all. The Onion’s mock-editorial
by Bashar Al-Assad drives
the point home.
Video Highlights
Speech of opposition leader Mouaz Al-Khatib at the recent Arab Summit
in Doha, with English subtitles http://youtu.be/JnNLK82neGo
Rebels down a civilian plane as it attempted to land in Damascus
International Airport claiming that it was carrying weapons from Iran to
the regime. The plane crashed and burnt and the ensuing fire damaged other
planes on the tarmac http://youtu.be/ebsm3DpdPwc
Rebels storm the Microbus station at the Abbasid Square at the
outskirts of Damascus City. The station serves as the main public
transport hub connecting Damascus and central and northern parts of the country
http://youtu.be/7CcbMn3JGrs , http://youtu.be/Hsm-f6o3gvw
In the town of Al-Otaibeh, Eastern Ghoutah, rebels consolidate
their hold on the town by pounding the last of the loyalist militias positions http://youtu.be/seVITfZTE-Y
To the West, loyalist pounding of the town of Zabadani intensifies
http://youtu.be/exUcMlU89QI , http://youtu.be/3NI8YIY4EBU
This leaked video shows pro-Assad militia members torturing a captive
from Daraa Province who remains defiant http://youtu.be/2ismcHXMKIM
Chechen and Syrian Jihadis in Aleppo Province form a new fighting brigade,
Jaish Al-Muhajireen wa Al-Ansar (Army of Migrants and Supporters) http://youtu.be/1PO427sH_fs More on this
development here.
In order to dispel rumors of his death, Syrian TV showed Bashar
Al-Assad holding a meeting with a group of ministers in what seems to be an
underground bunker due to the lack of any windows http://youtu.be/2_qLLUf5vFc Rumors of his
assassination persist nonetheless, as people believe this to be old clips. Some
activists produced this video clip claiming that it shows that the website of the
loyalist Addounia TV briefly published a report then removed it claiming
that Assad was transported to Russia for treatment http://youtu.be/TyinUAFHgYA The video could
be faked of course. But this is where the conversation on social media is at.
Russian TV airs a reportage about the Shia militia, Abul Fadel Abbas,
made up of Iraqis, Lebanese and Syrian recruits fighting rebels in the southern
neighborhoods of Damascus City under the guise of protecting Shia shrines. Naturally,
the reporters describe rebels as terrorists and portrays the militia in heroic
terms http://youtu.be/T5jxhwMc7Xw
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