The Syrian Conflict Thread

Assad 'sure of victory' over Rebels

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he was "sure of victory" over rebels fighting to topple him, in an Army Day message carried by state media on Thursday.

"If we in Syria were not sure of victory, we would not have had the will to resist nor been able to persevere in the face of more than two years of aggression," he said.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 01 Aug 2013 09:04
 
Arms Depot Blast in Homs kills 22

At least 22 people were killed in an ammunitions depot blast Thursday in a government-held area of Homs in central Syria apparently sparked by rebel rocket fire, a monitoring group said.

"At least 22 people, including civilians, were killed and dozens wounded, some seriously, when an ammunitions depot blew up in the pro-regime Wadi al-Zahab district after rocket fire, most probably by rebels," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

It said the depot was operated by pro-regime militias.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 01 Aug 2013 16:30
 
[video=youtube;86KWQtUF1iY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86KWQtUF1iY[/video]
 
[video=youtube;4YW8WFQ8Zl8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YW8WFQ8Zl8[/video]
 
Jordan foils bid to smuggle arms from Syria

Jordanian border guards have foiled an attempt to smuggle large amounts of weapons and drugs into the kingdom from Syria, the army said Friday.

"Forces of the frontier guard yesterday evening (Thursday) seized large quantities of munitions and different types of drugs during an attempt to smuggle them into the kingdom," the army said in a statement.

The statement, carried by the official Petra news agency, did not specify the number or types of weaponry seized, or the nationalities and number of smugglers.

Government weekly Al-Rai cited border guard chief Hussein Zoyud as saying "a group of men implicated in this arms smuggling attempt were arrested, and an inquiry is now under way".

On June 6, Jordanian border guards again intercepted a large haul of weapons being smuggled in from Syria.

Jordan has tightened its borders, arresting and imprisoning dozens of jihadists trying to cross into its war-torn neighbour.

Amman denies accusations by the embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that it has opened up its borders to jihadist fighters.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 02 Aug 2013 09:38
 
Well i am beginning to think for the first time in 2 years, countries are waking up and they are beginning to see assad may have been right about extremists from the very beginning.

If syria falls into the hands of extremists, wow i really hope assad keeps up his good work and hezbollah need to ensure lebanon is also secure as they are doing. Those christians 2 million of them wow i really hope for their sake assad manages to keep protecting them as he has been since the beginning.

I wonder if the UN team concludes the rebels are the ones using chemical weapons what would happen from there?
 
Syria Ballistic Missiles killing children: Human Rights Watch

Ballistic missiles used by the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad are killing many civilians, including children, an international rights group said on Monday.

These missiles "are hitting populated areas, causing large numbers of civilian deaths, including many children", said Human Rights Watch, which has investigated nine ballistic missile strikes that killed at least 215 people in six months.

Among those killed in nine attacks from February to July, 100 were children, said HRW, which has visited seven of the sites.

Such missiles have what the group described as a wide-area effect, and when used in populated areas cannot distinguish between civilian and military targets.

The New York-based watchdog said "military commanders, as a matter of policy, should not order the use of ballistic missiles in areas populated by civilians".

But the repeated use of such missiles in areas populated by civilians "strongly suggests that the military wilfully used methods of warfare incapable of distinguishing between civilians and combatants, a serious violation of international humanitarian law".

Many such missiles are being launched by the 155th Brigade in the Qalamun area northeast of Damascus, said HRW, echoing claims made by activists.

Citing the Military Balance 2011 publication of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the group said the Syrian army stockpiles Scud missiles, variants of Scud missiles, SS-21 Tochka missiles, and Luna-M missiles.

HRW meanwhile cited the testimonies of activists and residents at the sites of several ballistic missile attacks.

After one such strike on Al-Nairab in the northern city of Aleppo, an activist who spoke to HRW said a whole family had been killed.

"He said that Hassan Yassin, his wife, and their seven children, all minors, died in the attack. Yassin and his family were at home during the attack, he said," the group reported.

Syria's war has killed more than 100,000 people , most of them civilians, the UN says. Millions more have been forced by violence to flee their homes.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 05 Aug 2013 08:33
 
Gary what do you guys call it again, collateral damage if i am not mistaken hey?

If the west would just help assad and get rid of the extremists assad would be more than likely get to the peace table. He said fromt he start extremists were operating in the country, nobody believed him and still people want him to be removed even though the removal of assad will lead to a country run by al queda.
 
killadoob said:
Gary what do you guys call it again, collateral damage if i am not mistaken hey?

If the west would just help assad and get rid of the extremists assad would be more than likely get to the peace table. He said fromt he start extremists were operating in the country, nobody believed him and still people want him to be removed even though the removal of assad will lead to a country run by al queda.
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The same extremists Assad who used to facilitate their transit into Iraq to unleash the same barbarity there :erm:
 
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Alan said:
The same extremists Assad used to facilitate their transit into Iraq to unleash the same barbarity there :erm:
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Assad worked With al queda? The people who pulled off 911? Please i would like something to back up the claim. Assad does not work with al queda nor do i know of any other extremist organization, hamas perhaps but let's be honest hamas are nothing like al queda. Could you post more about what you said alan, no idea who or what you are talking about.

When was this? Assad and iraq are buddies so why would he want to unleash terror on his own people essentially. It is al queda unleashing hell in iraq.
 
killadoob said:
Assad worked With al queda? The people who pulled off 911? Please i would like something to back up the claim. Assad does not work with al queda nor do i know of any other extremist organization, hamas perhaps but let's be honest hamas are nothing like al queda. Could you post more about what you said alan, no idea who or what you are talking about.

When was this? Assad and iraq are buddies so why would he want to unleash terror on his own people essentially. It is al queda unleashing hell in iraq.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/world/africa/07iht-syria.1.7781943.html

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2007/05/iraqi_official_/
 
Alan said:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/world/africa/07iht-syria.1.7781943.html

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2007/05/iraqi_official_/
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Your nytimes post has only one source, not credible in my opinion.
Your second again is the only source i can find.

Now your links are rubbish and let me link something, your links claim he wants to help saddam and blah blah which makes no sense he is essentially shia which means the shia government are friends with him and iran as well as lebanon.

http://www.worldsecuritynetwork.com...n/Syria-Turns-Over-a-Top-Insurgent-Iraqis-Say

Alan come at me with proper links, not once BS stories bro. I can do exactly the same. Nytimes is honestly a freakin joke bro. Assad would never support sunni extremists.

http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/syria-stops-insurgents-on-iraq-border
Now i can find other sources for that so your two links with one source paint a totally different picture. US and syria worked together alan.
 
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killadoob said:
Your nytimes post has only one source, not credible in my opinion.
Your second again is the only source i can find.
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Unfortunately my direct line to Assad is down so I can't upload a vid of him confirming it too me personally :erm:

But yeah "the national security advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki" is not a credible source. After all Assad is basically Shia so they must be "buddies".

From 2009

For two years, Syrian personnel facilitated the activities of foreign jihadists and Saddam loyalists with the implicit approval of Damascus. The regime had two major incentives.

First, in the same way the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia disposed of its most fervent jihadists by sending them to Afghanistan during the 1980s to fight and die against the Soviets, Iraq was a fortuitous outlet for Syria's own Islamist opposition, based mainly in and around Aleppo, in the country's northwest corner. The strategy was, at best, a short-term success. Syria will now be forced to contend with battle-hardened jihadists returning from Iraq. The Saudis experienced a similar "blowback" when it struggled to digest returning Saudis from the Afghanistan war against the Soviets.
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Syria's Achilles Heel

What may ultimately doom the jihadist and Baathist operatives in Syria is the domestic headache they give Damascus. Just as Saudi Arabia suffered the effects of jihadists returning from the Afghanistan front in the 1980s, a new generation of foreign fighters driven out of Iraq may yet challenge the Syrian regime.

However, the Islamist opposition has been down this road before. The late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad brutally crushed a challenge to the regime from the Muslim Brotherhood in 1982 in the town of Hama, killing some 20,000 people. Thus, as journalist Thomas Friedman wrote in his book From Beirut to Jerusalem, those who seek to challenge the Syrian regime should be prepared to play by "Hama Rules," which would prompt Damascus to neutralize the Islamists whenever they pose a threat to the regime's survival.

Syria's role in the Iraqi insurgency consists of an alliance with jihadists and insurgents, but the longer these militants are forced to cool their heels in Syria, the more likely they are to become a thorn in the side of the Syrian regime. The more Damascus perceives foreign jihadists and Iraqi insurgents as threats, the easier it will be for Washington and Baghdad to coerce Damascus to shut down the Syrian border as a transit route for violence in Iraq.
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http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/827/syrias-role-in-the-iraq-insurgency
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Socialist_Ba'ath_Party_–_Iraq_Region

Read a bit more there alan. Of course iraqi extremists driven out of iraq would cause trouble for syria. I just don't believe syria funded the al queda attacks on the US and iraqi people were syrian funded, saudi funded yes. Remember qwhen saddam fell the minority no longer ruled and the majority ruled, so the sunni people didn't really take well to the shia rise and then terrorism was the result funded by saudi arabia and qatar. Anyways i wish you could give me links that i could find other sources or stories.

Al queeda have never been syria funded, they have been saudi funded.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13920512001149

Interesting but not unexpected considering the sunni element. they were driven out of iraq into syria, yes but syria never sent them back in to fight, they did it on their own accord.
 
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Syria Rebels overrun key Aleppo Air Base

Rebels seized control of a key air base in Aleppo province Tuesday, marking another major advance after overrunning a string of villages in Latakia province, the heartland of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect.

The rebel successes come after a string of battlefield setbacks in recent months at the hands of regime forces in the central city of Homs and in the town of Qusayr in Homs province.

"The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (jihadist group) and other opposition groups took total control at dawn today of Minnigh air base," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syrian state television only gave a veiled recognition of the rebel assault and said loyalist troops were fighting on.

It first cited an unnamed media source as saying: "The airport in question is empty of all military apparatus and planes, and is not in use."

Shortly afterwards, the broadcaster said "the heroes of our armed forces in Minnigh airport and nearby areas are resisting the terrorists".

Analysts say the rebels are trying to clear northern Syria of remaining regime positions, even as the army is attempting to drive the opposition out of the country's centre.

This presages a possible de facto division of Syria into rebel and regime-held areas, with the Kurds also trying to set up an autonomous area in parts of the north, according to analysts.

The Britain-based Observatory and analysts said the progress in Latakia and Aleppo was largely thanks to cooperation between jihadist and local rebel groups, who have often been at loggerheads despite sharing the goal of toppling Assad.

The takeover comes a day after the rebels on Monday launched a fresh assault spearheaded by a Saudi jihadist who "blew himself up in an armoured vehicle at the entrance to the headquarters of the Minnigh air base," said the group.

"The victory again underlines the leading strategic impact being played by militant Islamists, particularly in northern Syria," said London-based Charles Lister of IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre.

The analyst described the capture of the base as a "morale boost" for jihadists and for Syria's rebels as a whole.

Minnigh is located north of Aleppo city, near the Turkish border.

As the battle for Minnigh entered its final hours, regime forces launched air attacks on several rebel-held towns in Aleppo's countryside, the Observatory said.

In Aleppo city, army shelling on a souk (market) in the opposition-held Sukkari neighbourhood left at least five dead, among them two children and two women, said the Observatory.

"These were revenge attacks... The only means the regime has at its disposal is the shelling of civilian targets from far away," said Yehya Naanaa, who heads Aleppo province's opposition council.

Despite the violence, the rebel takeover of Minnigh "lifted the spirits" of people in Aleppo, Naanaa said via the Internet.

Elsewhere, at least 13 Al-Nusra Front jihadists were killed in a regime counter-attack on an arms depot seized two days ago by Liwa al-Islam and other rebel groups in Qalamun near Damascus, said the Observatory.

Rebels meanwhile pressed an advance in the mountains of Latakia in coastal Syria, according to the Observatory.

In what the Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman described as a "clear advance", Latakia's local rebels alongside the jihadist Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in three days overran 11 villages.

A security source downplayed the advance there, however, saying that only two villages remain in rebel hands after the army counter-attacked.

"The reason the rebels advanced was because members of the pro-regime militia who were surveying the area were bribed to leave" their hilltop position, the source told AFP.

The fighting is concentrated in the mountainous Jabal al-Akrad and Jabal Turkman areas, which are home to a mixed population of Sunnis and Alawites.

The Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam, and Assad hails from the Latakia town of Qardaha.

Italy's foreign ministry meanwhile said Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, an Italian Jesuit priest who had hoped to negotiate with jihadists in Syria, has "apparently been kidnapped".

Known for his opposition to the Assad regime, Dall'Oglio had reportedly gone to meet with commanders of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to try to negotiate peace between Kurds and jihadists and to plead for the release of activists kidnapped by the group.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 06 Aug 2013 13:30
 
Unconfirmed reports have emerged detailing a new massacre in which 450 Kurds - including 120 children - were allegedly slaughtered by al-Qaeda-linked rebels fighting against the Syrian government. The report has sparked international concern.

“The task of tackling the terrorist threat is becoming more and more urgent,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday, in reference to the report. The current turn of events “makes the Geneva-2 conference even more pressing. The longer we wait, the more innocent civilians will die,” the FM added.

According to Iranian TV channel Al-Alam, militants from the Jabhat al-Nusra Front attacked the town of Tal Abyad on Monday, killing 120 children and 330 women and elderly near the Turkish border.

The channel also ran horrific uncensored footage from the scene - the authenticity of which can’t be independently verified at this moment. For ethical reasons, RT will refrain from airing the video.

Neither the Syrian government nor the opposition has confirmed the report. RT contacted a number of sources, including several Kurdish interviewees, who testified that increased fighting has been taking place in their areas.

RT’s Irina Galushko spoke to Kurdish journalist Barzan Iso, who confirmed that “Al-Qaeda started attacking Kurdish villages on the 19th of July. After these attacks they kidnapped many Kurds. We don’t have a specific statistic,” he said, alluding to the fact that many of the areas are dominated by Jabhat al-Nusra and al-Qaeda-linked militants who do not allow Kurds to gain access and investigate.

Iso explained the Kurds’ non-allegiance to either side of the Syrian conflict: “Since the beginning of the events in Syria, the Kurds tried not to be a part of the civil conflict…there are non-Muslim Kurds, as well as Alawite Kurds – that’s why they tried to be away from [it]. But now, some of the opposition groups are using al-Qaeda and al-Nusra to attack Kurds. The main cause is that they have the mentality of radical nationalists. That’s why they are using al-Qaeda as an umbrella to attack the Kurdish people.”

Iso claims that when he spoke to members of the Syrian National Coalition, a group of opposition forces, it readily blamed the killing of Kurds on the idea that Kurdish independence was never a good idea.

“The al-Nusra militants and other rebel forces surrounded the village,” Yasin Tarbush, the relative of one of the Kurdish attack victims, told RT. “They started going door to door, entering every house. If there were any men, they killed them and took the women and children hostage.”
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http://rt.com/news/syria-kurds-massacre-lavrov-132/
 
62 Syria Rebels dead in Army Ambush near Damascus

Troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad killed at least 62 rebels in an ambush Wednesday near the capital Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"At least 62 rebels fell as martyrs, most of them youths, and eight others are missing after an ambush by regime forces at dawn near the industrial city of Adra," at the northeastern entrance to the capital, the monitoring group said.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 07 Aug 2013 11:13
 
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