marine1
Honorary Master
I suggest as usual you are speaking crap. Post the stories. Links.
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The Syrian Conflict Thread
I suggest as usual you are speaking crap. Post the stories. Links.
killadoob
Honorary Master
It's not your thread, you just create it. Would you rather us start another thread to discuss the same issue? Israel is on topic, they did strike israel and then there has been a discussion about iran. Hardly going to get locked gary and when syria news pops up we will debate it. The same crowd generally chat about these issues so whats the issue?
Anyways no news on syria apart from turkey wanting to send in a team to investigate chemical weapon use.
OrbitalDawn
Ulysses Everett McGill
Yep. How do you reckon terrorism should be fought?
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Syria Troops take full control of strategic town
Syrian troops have taken full control of a town near the highway linking the capital Damascus with Jordan, a new advance in the regime's campaign to drive rebels from the strategic south, an activist group said Monday.
Rebels seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad are trying to carve a pathway from the Jordanian border through the southern province of Daraa, in what is seen as their best shot at capturing Damascus.
A few weeks ago, they scored significant gains, but have since suffered setbacks in a regime counteroffensive.
In recent days, regime troops and rebel fighters battled over Khirbet Ghazaleh, a town near the Damascus-Jordan highway.
Regime forces retook Khirbet Ghazaleh on Sunday and rebels withdrew from the area, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Troops reopened the highway, restoring the supply line between Damascus and the contested provincial capital of Daraa, he said. Regime forces were carrying out raids and searching homes in Khirbet Ghazaleh on Monday.
Damascus, still overwhelmingly under regime control, is the ultimate prize in a largely deadlocked civil war.
Rebels control large parts of the countryside in northern Syria, but those areas are further away from the capital than the Jordanian border.
Arab officials and Western military experts have said Mideast powers opposed to Assad have stepped up weapons supplies to Syrian rebels, with Jordan opening up as a new route.
The uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011 and escalated into a civil war. Over the weekend, the Observatory issued a new death toll, estimating that more than 80,000 Syrians have been killed, almost half civilians. In February, the U.N. said at least 70,000 Syrians were killed.
Western leaders are facing growing pressure to find a way to end the conflict - both because of the rising death toll and fears that neighboring Israel or Turkey could inadvertently get pulled deeper into it.
Turkey has blamed the Assad regime for twin car bombs Saturday that killed 46 people and wounded scores in a Turkish border town that serves as a hub for Syrian refugees and rebels.
Turkey signaled restraint Sunday, saying it won't be dragged into the quagmire, but tensions between the former allies are running high.
Earlier this month, Israel attacked suspected shipments of advanced Iranian missiles in Syria with back-to-back airstrikes. Israeli officials signaled there would be more such attacks unless Syria refrains from trying to deliver such "game-changing" missiles to ally Hezbollah, an anti-Israel militia in Lebanon.
For now, the West is placing its hopes on a diplomatic plan that ran aground in the past but now appears to have stronger Russian backing.
Last week, the U.S. and Russia agreed to revive the idea of negotiations between Syria's political opposition and members of the regime on a transitional government, accompanied by an open-ended cease-fire.
Through the conflict, Russia sided with Assad, sending him weapons and shielding him against Western attempts to impose international sanctions.
However, British Prime Minister David Cameron suggested en route to a White House meeting with President Barack Obama that Russia is ready to find common ground with the West. Cameron met last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the new Syria initiative.
"While it is no secret that Britain and Russia have taken a different approach to Syria I was very struck in my conversations with President Putin that there is a recognition that it would be in all our interests to secure a safe and secure Syria with a democratic and pluralist future, and end the regional instability," Cameron said late Sunday. "We have got a long way to go, but they were good talks."
Source : Sapa-AP /pk
Date : 13 May 2013 10:49
Syrian troops have taken full control of a town near the highway linking the capital Damascus with Jordan, a new advance in the regime's campaign to drive rebels from the strategic south, an activist group said Monday.
Rebels seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad are trying to carve a pathway from the Jordanian border through the southern province of Daraa, in what is seen as their best shot at capturing Damascus.
A few weeks ago, they scored significant gains, but have since suffered setbacks in a regime counteroffensive.
In recent days, regime troops and rebel fighters battled over Khirbet Ghazaleh, a town near the Damascus-Jordan highway.
Regime forces retook Khirbet Ghazaleh on Sunday and rebels withdrew from the area, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Troops reopened the highway, restoring the supply line between Damascus and the contested provincial capital of Daraa, he said. Regime forces were carrying out raids and searching homes in Khirbet Ghazaleh on Monday.
Damascus, still overwhelmingly under regime control, is the ultimate prize in a largely deadlocked civil war.
Rebels control large parts of the countryside in northern Syria, but those areas are further away from the capital than the Jordanian border.
Arab officials and Western military experts have said Mideast powers opposed to Assad have stepped up weapons supplies to Syrian rebels, with Jordan opening up as a new route.
The uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011 and escalated into a civil war. Over the weekend, the Observatory issued a new death toll, estimating that more than 80,000 Syrians have been killed, almost half civilians. In February, the U.N. said at least 70,000 Syrians were killed.
Western leaders are facing growing pressure to find a way to end the conflict - both because of the rising death toll and fears that neighboring Israel or Turkey could inadvertently get pulled deeper into it.
Turkey has blamed the Assad regime for twin car bombs Saturday that killed 46 people and wounded scores in a Turkish border town that serves as a hub for Syrian refugees and rebels.
Turkey signaled restraint Sunday, saying it won't be dragged into the quagmire, but tensions between the former allies are running high.
Earlier this month, Israel attacked suspected shipments of advanced Iranian missiles in Syria with back-to-back airstrikes. Israeli officials signaled there would be more such attacks unless Syria refrains from trying to deliver such "game-changing" missiles to ally Hezbollah, an anti-Israel militia in Lebanon.
For now, the West is placing its hopes on a diplomatic plan that ran aground in the past but now appears to have stronger Russian backing.
Last week, the U.S. and Russia agreed to revive the idea of negotiations between Syria's political opposition and members of the regime on a transitional government, accompanied by an open-ended cease-fire.
Through the conflict, Russia sided with Assad, sending him weapons and shielding him against Western attempts to impose international sanctions.
However, British Prime Minister David Cameron suggested en route to a White House meeting with President Barack Obama that Russia is ready to find common ground with the West. Cameron met last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the new Syria initiative.
"While it is no secret that Britain and Russia have taken a different approach to Syria I was very struck in my conversations with President Putin that there is a recognition that it would be in all our interests to secure a safe and secure Syria with a democratic and pluralist future, and end the regional instability," Cameron said late Sunday. "We have got a long way to go, but they were good talks."
Source : Sapa-AP /pk
Date : 13 May 2013 10:49
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Turkish PM: Syria trying to pull us into 'quagmire'
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Damascus of trying to drag his country into the Syrian "quagmire" after twin bomb attacks killed 46 people in a town on the border.
Turkey said Sunday it had arrested nine people over the twin car bombings that sowed death in Reyhanli the previous day, but the Syrian government denied any involvement.
Ankara said it was holding suspects who had confessed and accused Damascus of trying to drag Turkey into its civil war.
"They want to drag us down a vile path," Erdogan said at a rally in Istanbul, urging Turks to be "level-headed in the face of each provocation aimed at drawing Turkey into the Syrian quagmire".
The attacks were the deadliest incident in what observers see as an increasing regionalisation of the conflict that started in March 2011 and came as key brokers Washington and Moscow made an unprecedented joint push for peace talks.
Speaking during a visit to Berlin, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called the attacks a breach of Turkey's "red line" and warned that Ankara reserved the right to "take any kind of measure" in response.
Cranes were seen lifting debris from buildings destroyed by Saturday's blasts in Reyhanli, a major Turkish hub for Syrian refugees and rebels.
The attacks provoked a backlash against Syrian refugees as rampaging crowds wrecked dozens of cars, according to witnesses.
"I heard the first blast, walked out, thinking it was a missile being fired from Syria. Then I found myself on the ground, my arms and right leg hurting, my ears ringing. It must have been the second bomb," said Hikmet Haydut, a 46-year-old coffee shop owner who had minor injuries to his head and body.
"I am alive, but all I have is gone."
Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay told a news conference that nine people -- all Turks -- were detained for questioning and that some had confessed involvement in the attacks, which also left dozens wounded.
Interior Minister Muammer Guler said the explosives were smuggled into the area, then placed into Turkish vehicles with special compartments to conceal their deadly cargo.
-- "A spark transforms into a fire" --
The suspects were said to belong to a Turkish Marxist organisation with direct links to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Damascus rejected the allegations that it masterminded the attacks.
"Syria did not commit and would never commit such an act because our values would not allow that," Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi said.
"It is Erdogan who should be asked about this act... He and his party bear direct responsibility," he added.
NATO member Turkey distanced itself from its erstwhile ally soon after Assad started cracking down on pro-democracy protests in 2011.
Ankara has since become a rear base for the Syrian rebellion, and Damascus has already been blamed for a string of attacks on Turkish soil.
Can Dundar, a columnist at Turkey's Milliyet newspaper, argued it was too late to warn against attempts to drag Ankara into the conflict.
"Turkey seems to be sinking into the Syrian swamp... It has become a stakeholder in this civil war by directly supporting the opposition," he wrote.
The Syrian opposition National Coalition said the attacks were designed to drive a wedge between Turks and Syrians and called for more robust international action against Assad's regime.
Neighbours have been increasingly involved in or affected by the ever escalating conflict, which has already left more than 80,000 people dead, hundreds of thousands homeless and large parts of Syria's main cities in ruins.
In recent days, Israel is reported to have bombed Syria twice, Lebanon's Hezbollah militia has admitted it was fighting alongside regime troops and Jordan has warned that Syrians could soon account for 40 percent of its population.
Davutoglu said it was "not a coincidence" the Reyhanli bombings occurred as international diplomatic efforts to solve the Syrian crisis were intensifying.
The United States and Russia, one of the few remaining supporters of Assad's regime, pledged this month to relaunch efforts to solve the conflict.
Davutoglu also said Ankara was looking at "connections" between the Reyhanli attack and an assault on a Sunni district of Banias, a Mediterranean city in Syria, this month where rights groups say at least 62 civilians were killed.
Erdogan is due to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington on Thursday.
The West swiftly denounced the bomb attacks.
UN leader Ban Ki-moon said the perpetrators must be "brought to justice" and US Secretary of State John Kerry also condemned the "awful news".
But Ankara blamed the international community's silence for the failure to oust Assad.
"The latest attack shows how a spark transforms into a fire when the international community remains silent and the UN Security Council fails to act," Davutoglu said.
Erdogan has in recent weeks ramped up his rhetoric against Assad, calling him a butcher and accusing him of using chemical weapons in the conflict.
But German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere argued there were only "limited" options available to the international community.
"A military intervention would be very, very costly and would result in significant losses," he cautioned in an interview on German public television.
Source : Sapa-AFP /aw
Date : 13 May 2013 04:36
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Damascus of trying to drag his country into the Syrian "quagmire" after twin bomb attacks killed 46 people in a town on the border.
Turkey said Sunday it had arrested nine people over the twin car bombings that sowed death in Reyhanli the previous day, but the Syrian government denied any involvement.
Ankara said it was holding suspects who had confessed and accused Damascus of trying to drag Turkey into its civil war.
"They want to drag us down a vile path," Erdogan said at a rally in Istanbul, urging Turks to be "level-headed in the face of each provocation aimed at drawing Turkey into the Syrian quagmire".
The attacks were the deadliest incident in what observers see as an increasing regionalisation of the conflict that started in March 2011 and came as key brokers Washington and Moscow made an unprecedented joint push for peace talks.
Speaking during a visit to Berlin, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called the attacks a breach of Turkey's "red line" and warned that Ankara reserved the right to "take any kind of measure" in response.
Cranes were seen lifting debris from buildings destroyed by Saturday's blasts in Reyhanli, a major Turkish hub for Syrian refugees and rebels.
The attacks provoked a backlash against Syrian refugees as rampaging crowds wrecked dozens of cars, according to witnesses.
"I heard the first blast, walked out, thinking it was a missile being fired from Syria. Then I found myself on the ground, my arms and right leg hurting, my ears ringing. It must have been the second bomb," said Hikmet Haydut, a 46-year-old coffee shop owner who had minor injuries to his head and body.
"I am alive, but all I have is gone."
Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay told a news conference that nine people -- all Turks -- were detained for questioning and that some had confessed involvement in the attacks, which also left dozens wounded.
Interior Minister Muammer Guler said the explosives were smuggled into the area, then placed into Turkish vehicles with special compartments to conceal their deadly cargo.
-- "A spark transforms into a fire" --
The suspects were said to belong to a Turkish Marxist organisation with direct links to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Damascus rejected the allegations that it masterminded the attacks.
"Syria did not commit and would never commit such an act because our values would not allow that," Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi said.
"It is Erdogan who should be asked about this act... He and his party bear direct responsibility," he added.
NATO member Turkey distanced itself from its erstwhile ally soon after Assad started cracking down on pro-democracy protests in 2011.
Ankara has since become a rear base for the Syrian rebellion, and Damascus has already been blamed for a string of attacks on Turkish soil.
Can Dundar, a columnist at Turkey's Milliyet newspaper, argued it was too late to warn against attempts to drag Ankara into the conflict.
"Turkey seems to be sinking into the Syrian swamp... It has become a stakeholder in this civil war by directly supporting the opposition," he wrote.
The Syrian opposition National Coalition said the attacks were designed to drive a wedge between Turks and Syrians and called for more robust international action against Assad's regime.
Neighbours have been increasingly involved in or affected by the ever escalating conflict, which has already left more than 80,000 people dead, hundreds of thousands homeless and large parts of Syria's main cities in ruins.
In recent days, Israel is reported to have bombed Syria twice, Lebanon's Hezbollah militia has admitted it was fighting alongside regime troops and Jordan has warned that Syrians could soon account for 40 percent of its population.
Davutoglu said it was "not a coincidence" the Reyhanli bombings occurred as international diplomatic efforts to solve the Syrian crisis were intensifying.
The United States and Russia, one of the few remaining supporters of Assad's regime, pledged this month to relaunch efforts to solve the conflict.
Davutoglu also said Ankara was looking at "connections" between the Reyhanli attack and an assault on a Sunni district of Banias, a Mediterranean city in Syria, this month where rights groups say at least 62 civilians were killed.
Erdogan is due to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington on Thursday.
The West swiftly denounced the bomb attacks.
UN leader Ban Ki-moon said the perpetrators must be "brought to justice" and US Secretary of State John Kerry also condemned the "awful news".
But Ankara blamed the international community's silence for the failure to oust Assad.
"The latest attack shows how a spark transforms into a fire when the international community remains silent and the UN Security Council fails to act," Davutoglu said.
Erdogan has in recent weeks ramped up his rhetoric against Assad, calling him a butcher and accusing him of using chemical weapons in the conflict.
But German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere argued there were only "limited" options available to the international community.
"A military intervention would be very, very costly and would result in significant losses," he cautioned in an interview on German public television.
Source : Sapa-AFP /aw
Date : 13 May 2013 04:36
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Cameron to discuss Syria with Obama
British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Washington for talks with President Barack Obama on Monday, with Syria and an EU-US free trade deal set to top the agenda.
The premier, who last week held talks in Russia, a key Damascus ally, said there was a "very strong unity of purpose between Britain and America" that they should be working closely with rebels in Syria.
But there was also "a realization that it would be far better if what we could do is bring about a political transition through a greater engagement and agreement between America, Russia, Britain, France, other powers," he said.
The prime minister was also to voice his support for a planned peace conference announced by Russia and the United States last week, during a visit to Moscow by US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Cameron, whose recent diplomacy has attempted to inject further momentum into peace plans, said it was "no secret" that Britain and Russia disagreed on how to deal with the conflict in Syria, now in its third year.
But, he added: "I was very struck in my conversations with President (Vladimir) Putin that there is a recognition that it would be in all our interests to secure a safe and secure Syria with a democratic and pluralist future, and end the regional instability."
During his three-day visit, Cameron is to broach the idea of using next month's G8 summit in Northern Ireland to launch negotiations on a trade deal between the European Union and the United States.
In an article for the Wall Street Journal, Cameron argued that a trade deal would add 63 billion pounds (97 billion dollars) to the US economy and 10 billion pounds to the British economy.
"When times are tough, some want to put the barriers up, to look inwards, and to protect themselves from the world," he wrote.
"But Britain and America stand for a better way. We have a precious opportunity to transform the global economy - not by less openness and less free trade, but by more."
He is also to call on the US to support tough G8 action on tax evasion, an issue that was discussed at a weekend meeting of G7 finance ministers hosted by his chancellor George Osborne.
Cameron is likely to have to reassure Obama over Britain's future in the EU, as a row broke out within his Conservative party at home over Britain's membership of the bloc.
At he weekend, two senior cabinet ministers became the latest Tory figures to indicate they would vote to leave the EU, a prospect which dismays the US.Author: Helen Livingstone
Source : Sapa-dpa /pk
Date : 13 May 2013 11:14
British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Washington for talks with President Barack Obama on Monday, with Syria and an EU-US free trade deal set to top the agenda.
The premier, who last week held talks in Russia, a key Damascus ally, said there was a "very strong unity of purpose between Britain and America" that they should be working closely with rebels in Syria.
But there was also "a realization that it would be far better if what we could do is bring about a political transition through a greater engagement and agreement between America, Russia, Britain, France, other powers," he said.
The prime minister was also to voice his support for a planned peace conference announced by Russia and the United States last week, during a visit to Moscow by US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Cameron, whose recent diplomacy has attempted to inject further momentum into peace plans, said it was "no secret" that Britain and Russia disagreed on how to deal with the conflict in Syria, now in its third year.
But, he added: "I was very struck in my conversations with President (Vladimir) Putin that there is a recognition that it would be in all our interests to secure a safe and secure Syria with a democratic and pluralist future, and end the regional instability."
During his three-day visit, Cameron is to broach the idea of using next month's G8 summit in Northern Ireland to launch negotiations on a trade deal between the European Union and the United States.
In an article for the Wall Street Journal, Cameron argued that a trade deal would add 63 billion pounds (97 billion dollars) to the US economy and 10 billion pounds to the British economy.
"When times are tough, some want to put the barriers up, to look inwards, and to protect themselves from the world," he wrote.
"But Britain and America stand for a better way. We have a precious opportunity to transform the global economy - not by less openness and less free trade, but by more."
He is also to call on the US to support tough G8 action on tax evasion, an issue that was discussed at a weekend meeting of G7 finance ministers hosted by his chancellor George Osborne.
Cameron is likely to have to reassure Obama over Britain's future in the EU, as a row broke out within his Conservative party at home over Britain's membership of the bloc.
At he weekend, two senior cabinet ministers became the latest Tory figures to indicate they would vote to leave the EU, a prospect which dismays the US.Author: Helen Livingstone
Source : Sapa-dpa /pk
Date : 13 May 2013 11:14
Haldex
Expert Member
This looks like it could escalate out of control...
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Turkish Fighter Jet crashes near Syrian Border
A Turkish F-16 fighter jet crashed in south-eastern Turkey on Monday near the Syrian border, and its pilot is believed to have safely ejected, an army statement said.
"Radio communication was cut around 2:15 pm (1115 GMT) with the F-16 fighter plane on mission in the Amanos mountains," shortly after the pilot signalled he was about to eject from the aircraft, read the statement.
The governor of Osminaye province, Celalettin Cerrah, specified that the plane had gone down in the town of Yarpuz, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Syrian border.
The reasons for the crash were not specified.
The accident came two days after a twin car bombing killed 48 people in the town of Reyhanli, along the Syrian border, which Turkish authorities blame on groups close to the Damascus regime.
Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 13 May 2013 16:14
A Turkish F-16 fighter jet crashed in south-eastern Turkey on Monday near the Syrian border, and its pilot is believed to have safely ejected, an army statement said.
"Radio communication was cut around 2:15 pm (1115 GMT) with the F-16 fighter plane on mission in the Amanos mountains," shortly after the pilot signalled he was about to eject from the aircraft, read the statement.
The governor of Osminaye province, Celalettin Cerrah, specified that the plane had gone down in the town of Yarpuz, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Syrian border.
The reasons for the crash were not specified.
The accident came two days after a twin car bombing killed 48 people in the town of Reyhanli, along the Syrian border, which Turkish authorities blame on groups close to the Damascus regime.
Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 13 May 2013 16:14
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
US, Britain press Russia on Syria
The United States and Britain stepped up pressure on Russia over Syria on Monday, but President Barack Obama warned old suspicions could trample new "common ground" on the crisis.
Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron sought to build momentum behind a new US-Russia sponsored conference on Syria, now expected to take place in June, as they met at the White House.
"Syria's history is being written in the blood of her people, and it is happening on our watch," Cameron said.
"The world urgently needs to come together to bring the killing to an end."
Cameron, fresh from a trip to Russia, one of Assad's few remaining backers, said he believed Washington, London and Moscow had found "common ground" on the crisis, which has left tens of thousands dead.
Obama said Russia had an "interest as well as an obligation" to help end the violence, saying he had delivered a similar message to President Vladimir Putin, ahead of Secretary of State John Kerry's Moscow visit last week.
He also played on Russian pretensions to global leadership, to try to budge Putin, who he will meet at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland next month.
"Our basic argument is that as a leader on the world stage, Russia has an interest, as well as an obligation, to try to resolve this issue in a way that can lead to the kind of outcome that we'd all like to see over the long term."
But Obama warned it would be tough to keep Russia on board, saying: "I don't think it's any secret that there remains lingering suspicions between Russia and other members of the G8 or the West."
And Obama said that even with Russia aboard, the situation in Syria may simply be too severe to be solved, noting that Iran, Lebanese militia Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda-allied extremists were all involved.
"Once ... the furies have been unleashed ... it's very hard to put things back together."
Cameron was more optimistic, telling National Public Radio, that Kerry made a "real breakthrough" in getting Russia to agree to a conference, though admitted he and Putin had differences on Syria.
But he said the Russian leader was "keen now to move from the generalities of having a peace conference to talking through the specifics of how we can make (this) work."
Obama has resisted directly arming the Syrian opposition but -- with reports Syria has used chemical weapons, which would cross what the US leader has dubbed a "red line" -- is under increasing pressure to do so.
The president said last week that Washington had a moral and national security obligation to stop the slaughter in Syria, but said he wanted more concrete evidence that chemical weapons had been used.
Cameron and Obama met amid indications that Assad's regime may not be hustled swiftly out of power, as his army gained ground in the strategic central province of Homs.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog reported that the military, backed by the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, seized much of the strategically vital Qusayr area, which connects the capital Damascus to the coast.
In southern Daraa, which nurtured the Syrian uprising against Assad, the army secured control of the town of Khirbet Ghazaleh, on the route between Damascus and the Jordanian border.
The Observatory said Monday that it has now documented the deaths of some 82,257 people since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011, including 34,473 civilians.
Reverberations meanwhile mounted from a string of deadly bombings in the Turkish town of Reyhanli, which the Ankara government blamed on Damascus, further increasing regional tension.
Thousands of Turks took to the streets to urge their government to rethink its support for rebels fighting Assad, warning that the decision had provoked reprisals against Turkey, including the bombings, which killed 48 people.
In New York, the UN Security Council demanded that those behind the bombing be brought to justice and urged governments to support Turkey's investigation.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to meet Obama at the White House on Thursday, with Syria also topping their agenda.
In another sign of accelerating diplomacy, the Kremlin said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold talks on Tuesday with Putin amid concerns Moscow plans to deliver advanced missiles to the Damascus regime.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will visit Russia Friday to discuss Syria, Moscow said.
Arrangements for peace talks sponsored by Moscow and Washington, which the State Department said Monday would probably now take place in June, rather than this month as first hoped, remain unclear.
Syrian opposition forces said they will consult with backers Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey before deciding whether to take part in the talks.
Source : Sapa-AFP /pd
Date : 14 May 2013 03:29
The United States and Britain stepped up pressure on Russia over Syria on Monday, but President Barack Obama warned old suspicions could trample new "common ground" on the crisis.
Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron sought to build momentum behind a new US-Russia sponsored conference on Syria, now expected to take place in June, as they met at the White House.
"Syria's history is being written in the blood of her people, and it is happening on our watch," Cameron said.
"The world urgently needs to come together to bring the killing to an end."
Cameron, fresh from a trip to Russia, one of Assad's few remaining backers, said he believed Washington, London and Moscow had found "common ground" on the crisis, which has left tens of thousands dead.
Obama said Russia had an "interest as well as an obligation" to help end the violence, saying he had delivered a similar message to President Vladimir Putin, ahead of Secretary of State John Kerry's Moscow visit last week.
He also played on Russian pretensions to global leadership, to try to budge Putin, who he will meet at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland next month.
"Our basic argument is that as a leader on the world stage, Russia has an interest, as well as an obligation, to try to resolve this issue in a way that can lead to the kind of outcome that we'd all like to see over the long term."
But Obama warned it would be tough to keep Russia on board, saying: "I don't think it's any secret that there remains lingering suspicions between Russia and other members of the G8 or the West."
And Obama said that even with Russia aboard, the situation in Syria may simply be too severe to be solved, noting that Iran, Lebanese militia Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda-allied extremists were all involved.
"Once ... the furies have been unleashed ... it's very hard to put things back together."
Cameron was more optimistic, telling National Public Radio, that Kerry made a "real breakthrough" in getting Russia to agree to a conference, though admitted he and Putin had differences on Syria.
But he said the Russian leader was "keen now to move from the generalities of having a peace conference to talking through the specifics of how we can make (this) work."
Obama has resisted directly arming the Syrian opposition but -- with reports Syria has used chemical weapons, which would cross what the US leader has dubbed a "red line" -- is under increasing pressure to do so.
The president said last week that Washington had a moral and national security obligation to stop the slaughter in Syria, but said he wanted more concrete evidence that chemical weapons had been used.
Cameron and Obama met amid indications that Assad's regime may not be hustled swiftly out of power, as his army gained ground in the strategic central province of Homs.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog reported that the military, backed by the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, seized much of the strategically vital Qusayr area, which connects the capital Damascus to the coast.
In southern Daraa, which nurtured the Syrian uprising against Assad, the army secured control of the town of Khirbet Ghazaleh, on the route between Damascus and the Jordanian border.
The Observatory said Monday that it has now documented the deaths of some 82,257 people since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011, including 34,473 civilians.
Reverberations meanwhile mounted from a string of deadly bombings in the Turkish town of Reyhanli, which the Ankara government blamed on Damascus, further increasing regional tension.
Thousands of Turks took to the streets to urge their government to rethink its support for rebels fighting Assad, warning that the decision had provoked reprisals against Turkey, including the bombings, which killed 48 people.
In New York, the UN Security Council demanded that those behind the bombing be brought to justice and urged governments to support Turkey's investigation.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to meet Obama at the White House on Thursday, with Syria also topping their agenda.
In another sign of accelerating diplomacy, the Kremlin said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold talks on Tuesday with Putin amid concerns Moscow plans to deliver advanced missiles to the Damascus regime.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will visit Russia Friday to discuss Syria, Moscow said.
Arrangements for peace talks sponsored by Moscow and Washington, which the State Department said Monday would probably now take place in June, rather than this month as first hoped, remain unclear.
Syrian opposition forces said they will consult with backers Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey before deciding whether to take part in the talks.
Source : Sapa-AFP /pd
Date : 14 May 2013 03:29
Haldex
Expert Member
So how is Iran smuggling stuff to Syria through Iraq?
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Syria 'rebel heart-eating' video condemned
Human Rights Watch and the Syrian opposition National Coalition have condemned a gruesome video apparently showing a Syrian rebel fighter cutting out the heart of a regime soldier and eating it.
"International news agencies and social media websites have been circulating a video clip in which a person claiming to be a member of the rebels in Homs performs a horrific and inhumane act," the National Coalition said.
"The Syrian Coalition strongly condemns this act - if it is revealed to be true. The Coalition stresses that such an act contradicts the morals of the Syrian people, as well as the values and principles of the Free Syrian Army."
Human Rights Watch said the man depicted in the video appeared to be from a rebel brigade in central Homs province that fired indiscriminately at Lebanese villages earlier this year.
"It is not enough for Syria's opposition to condemn such behaviour or blame it on violence by the government," said Nadim Houry, Middle East deputy director at Human Rights Watch.
"The opposition forces need to act firmly to stop such abuses."
In the video, a man identified as Abu Sakkar, an alleged commander of the Omar al-Farouq al-Mustakila brigade, is shown standing over the body of a uniformed soldier.
"We swear to God we will eat your hearts and livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog," he says as he cuts out the heart in the amateur footage uploaded to YouTube.
"We are the heroes of Baba Amr," he says, referring to a rebel stronghold of the central city of Homs that has been flattened by President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
The man then stands up, raises his dagger in one hand and the heart in the other and raises it to his mouth before the video abruptly ends.
"The Syrian Coalition reiterates its condemnation of such an act and stresses that it is a crime, regardless of the perpetrator," the group said.
"The culprit will eventually be tried in court in front of an honest and fair judiciary."
The Syria conflict flared when forces loyal to Assad launched a brutal crackdown on Arab Spring-inspired democracy protests that erupted in March 2011.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based watchdog, says more than 80,000 people have since been killed, with numerous incidents of mass killings and other atrocities.
Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 14 May 2013 10:10
Human Rights Watch and the Syrian opposition National Coalition have condemned a gruesome video apparently showing a Syrian rebel fighter cutting out the heart of a regime soldier and eating it.
"International news agencies and social media websites have been circulating a video clip in which a person claiming to be a member of the rebels in Homs performs a horrific and inhumane act," the National Coalition said.
"The Syrian Coalition strongly condemns this act - if it is revealed to be true. The Coalition stresses that such an act contradicts the morals of the Syrian people, as well as the values and principles of the Free Syrian Army."
Human Rights Watch said the man depicted in the video appeared to be from a rebel brigade in central Homs province that fired indiscriminately at Lebanese villages earlier this year.
"It is not enough for Syria's opposition to condemn such behaviour or blame it on violence by the government," said Nadim Houry, Middle East deputy director at Human Rights Watch.
"The opposition forces need to act firmly to stop such abuses."
In the video, a man identified as Abu Sakkar, an alleged commander of the Omar al-Farouq al-Mustakila brigade, is shown standing over the body of a uniformed soldier.
"We swear to God we will eat your hearts and livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog," he says as he cuts out the heart in the amateur footage uploaded to YouTube.
"We are the heroes of Baba Amr," he says, referring to a rebel stronghold of the central city of Homs that has been flattened by President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
The man then stands up, raises his dagger in one hand and the heart in the other and raises it to his mouth before the video abruptly ends.
"The Syrian Coalition reiterates its condemnation of such an act and stresses that it is a crime, regardless of the perpetrator," the group said.
"The culprit will eventually be tried in court in front of an honest and fair judiciary."
The Syria conflict flared when forces loyal to Assad launched a brutal crackdown on Arab Spring-inspired democracy protests that erupted in March 2011.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based watchdog, says more than 80,000 people have since been killed, with numerous incidents of mass killings and other atrocities.
Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 14 May 2013 10:10
OrbitalDawn
Ulysses Everett McGill
Sjoh... :erm:
Haldex
Expert Member
Zombie apocalypse has started!
killadoob
Honorary Master
Generally car bombs are actually terrorists so i would imagine the rebels are bringing turkey into the crisis but turkey are so blinded they don't notice it.
Lightscribe
Banned
The bombs in Turkey were from Assad. Turkey is on the rebels' side.
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
UN Assembly expected to approve Syria Resolution
Diplomats say the U.N. General Assembly is expected to approve an Arab-backed resolution calling for a political transition in Syria and strongly condemning President Bashar Assad's regime for escalating the use of heavy weapons.
But the diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations have been private, said the resolution will not have as much support as the assembly's previous resolution on Syria last August.
The 193-member world body is scheduled to vote Wednesday morning on the resolution, which also condemns Syria's "gross violations" of human rights, assembly spokesman Nikola Jovanovic said Tuesday.
Russia has urged U.N. members to vote "no," and Argentina asked Qatar, the lead sponsor, to water down language welcoming the establishment of the Syrian National Coalition, the main opposition group, which it refused to change.
Source : Sapa-AP /pk
Date : 15 May 2013 09:09
Diplomats say the U.N. General Assembly is expected to approve an Arab-backed resolution calling for a political transition in Syria and strongly condemning President Bashar Assad's regime for escalating the use of heavy weapons.
But the diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations have been private, said the resolution will not have as much support as the assembly's previous resolution on Syria last August.
The 193-member world body is scheduled to vote Wednesday morning on the resolution, which also condemns Syria's "gross violations" of human rights, assembly spokesman Nikola Jovanovic said Tuesday.
Russia has urged U.N. members to vote "no," and Argentina asked Qatar, the lead sponsor, to water down language welcoming the establishment of the Syrian National Coalition, the main opposition group, which it refused to change.
Source : Sapa-AP /pk
Date : 15 May 2013 09:09
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Syria revels vow to punish those comitting atrocities
The Free Syrian Army vowed on Wednesday to punish those committing atrocities, as anger mounted at a video showing a rebel filmed apparently cutting out and eating the organs of a soldier.
"Any act contrary to the values that the Syrian people have paid their blood and lost their homes to will not be tolerated, the abuser will be punished severely even if they are associated with the Free Syrian Army," the main rebel group said in a statement.
The gruesome video has thrown the spotlight on war crimes allegations against the opposition and put the mainstream rebel leadership and its backers on the defensive.
The Free Syrian Army said field commanders had been instructed "to begin a prompt investigation into the matter in which the perpetrator will be brought to justice".
Investigations would also be held into whether the rebel in the video is a member of the Free Syrian Army or not, it said.
Time magazine reported that the Syrian rebel at the centre of the row has defended his actions as revenge for regime atrocities.
The magazine said it had talked by Skype with the fighter in the video, whom it identified as Khalid al-Hamad.
Hamad claimed he was driven to the gruesome acts by footage on the dead soldier's cellphone, showing him "humiliating" a naked woman and her two daughters.
The US news weekly said Hamad described participating in other acts of mutilating regime forces, including militiamen known as shabiha.
The video, in which Hamad leans over a uniformed body, cuts out organs and then holds one up to his mouth, has prompted an outcry around the world.
Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 15 May 2013 08:42
The Free Syrian Army vowed on Wednesday to punish those committing atrocities, as anger mounted at a video showing a rebel filmed apparently cutting out and eating the organs of a soldier.
"Any act contrary to the values that the Syrian people have paid their blood and lost their homes to will not be tolerated, the abuser will be punished severely even if they are associated with the Free Syrian Army," the main rebel group said in a statement.
The gruesome video has thrown the spotlight on war crimes allegations against the opposition and put the mainstream rebel leadership and its backers on the defensive.
The Free Syrian Army said field commanders had been instructed "to begin a prompt investigation into the matter in which the perpetrator will be brought to justice".
Investigations would also be held into whether the rebel in the video is a member of the Free Syrian Army or not, it said.
Time magazine reported that the Syrian rebel at the centre of the row has defended his actions as revenge for regime atrocities.
The magazine said it had talked by Skype with the fighter in the video, whom it identified as Khalid al-Hamad.
Hamad claimed he was driven to the gruesome acts by footage on the dead soldier's cellphone, showing him "humiliating" a naked woman and her two daughters.
The US news weekly said Hamad described participating in other acts of mutilating regime forces, including militiamen known as shabiha.
The video, in which Hamad leans over a uniformed body, cuts out organs and then holds one up to his mouth, has prompted an outcry around the world.
Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 15 May 2013 08:42
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Torture evidence found in Syrian Prisons
Rights activists have found torture devices and other evidence of abuse in government prisons in the first Syrian city to come under the control of the opposition, Human Rights Watch said in a report Friday.
Raqqa, in eastern Syria, was overrun in late February by rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad. The rebels facilitated the New York-based group's access to facilities that had belonged to a government security agency and military intelligence in late April.
The HRW said its researchers found physical evidence that Syrians were tortured, including with a device which former detainees said was used to stretch or bend victims' arms and legs. The group also found documents indicating Raqqa residents were detained for legal actions like demonstrating or helping the injured.
Rights groups and opposition activists have long claimed that civilians have been detained arbitrarily, tortured, and sometimes have disappeared since the uprising against Assad's regime began. HRW's findings appear to be one of the largest finds of physical evidence bolstering those claims to date.
"The documents, prison cells, interrogation rooms, and torture devices we saw in the government's security facilities are consistent with the torture former detainees have described to us," said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director for HRW.
HRW has been documenting abuses on both sides of Syria's civil war during the 26 months of conflict.
The group says abuses by the Assad regime remain far more deadly, systematic and widespread, including attacks on civilians with indiscriminate battlefield weapons such as widely banned cluster bombs. But the rights group also says rebel abuses have increased in frequency and scale in recent months.
In Raqqa, the group's researchers inspected the State Security and Military Intelligence branches and three other detention centers formerly managed by Criminal Security, Political Security, and Air Force Intelligence. Government forces abandoned all these institutions, which are now controlled by the rebels, the group said.
On the ground floor and in the basement of the State Security facility, HRW found "rooms that appeared to be detention cells," the report said. They also found a pile of documents, including what appeared to be lists of security force members who had worked there.
Four former detainees said that officers and guards in the facility tortured them, HRW said.
One of them, identified in the report as Ahmed, a 24-year-old student from Raqqa, told HRW that he and his brother had been detained April 7, 2012 in the city's Military Intelligence branch on charges of participating in peaceful demonstrations. The group said it gave only first names of former detainees in the report for fear their testimonies could subject them or their families to further government harassment.
Ahmed said he and his brother had been beaten and tortured with electricity shocks for several hours a day throughout five days of detention. He told HRW that intelligence officers and prison guards wanted him to give up the names of other protesters.
"The torture started in turns between my brother and me," Ahmed said. "They started torturing him with electricity for three, four hours, and then they threw him in a solitary cell. They wanted me to tell them who used to go out to demonstrate with me . and they would make me hear my brother's screams."
The interrogators also threatened to detain his mother. Ahmed told HRW that the possibility of his mother being harmed made him confess to anything.
"Whatever it is you want, I am with you," he said he had told the interrogators. "I will fingerprint a white piece of paper, and you write what you want."
Ahmed was ultimately tried in a military court in the northern city of Aleppo. He was released from a civilian prison in Raqqa June 8, 2012, following a court decision to sentence him to time served, the report said.
He joined the rebels after his release and has been with a Raqqa-based opposition group known as the Islamic Front for Unity and Liberation, HRW said.
In one method of torture the HRW report details, the victim is tied to a flat board, sometimes in the shape of a cross. In some cases guards stretched or pulled their limbs or folded the board in half so that their face touched their legs, causing pain.
The group also interviewed five people formerly held by Military Intelligence in Raqqa. They said security services questioned them about lawful activities, such as participating in anti-Assad demonstrations, providing relief assistance to displaced families, defending detainees, and providing emergency assistance to injured demonstrators.
Syria's conflict started as a peaceful uprising in March 2011. After months of nation-wide protests and street marches against Assad's rule, the revolt turned into an armed conflict when opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent.
At least 70,000 people have been killed, and millions forced out of their homes to seek shelter in neighboring countries or in other parts of Syria where fighting has subsided.
Source : Sapa-AP /mjs
Date : 17 May 2013 14:08
Rights activists have found torture devices and other evidence of abuse in government prisons in the first Syrian city to come under the control of the opposition, Human Rights Watch said in a report Friday.
Raqqa, in eastern Syria, was overrun in late February by rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad. The rebels facilitated the New York-based group's access to facilities that had belonged to a government security agency and military intelligence in late April.
The HRW said its researchers found physical evidence that Syrians were tortured, including with a device which former detainees said was used to stretch or bend victims' arms and legs. The group also found documents indicating Raqqa residents were detained for legal actions like demonstrating or helping the injured.
Rights groups and opposition activists have long claimed that civilians have been detained arbitrarily, tortured, and sometimes have disappeared since the uprising against Assad's regime began. HRW's findings appear to be one of the largest finds of physical evidence bolstering those claims to date.
"The documents, prison cells, interrogation rooms, and torture devices we saw in the government's security facilities are consistent with the torture former detainees have described to us," said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director for HRW.
HRW has been documenting abuses on both sides of Syria's civil war during the 26 months of conflict.
The group says abuses by the Assad regime remain far more deadly, systematic and widespread, including attacks on civilians with indiscriminate battlefield weapons such as widely banned cluster bombs. But the rights group also says rebel abuses have increased in frequency and scale in recent months.
In Raqqa, the group's researchers inspected the State Security and Military Intelligence branches and three other detention centers formerly managed by Criminal Security, Political Security, and Air Force Intelligence. Government forces abandoned all these institutions, which are now controlled by the rebels, the group said.
On the ground floor and in the basement of the State Security facility, HRW found "rooms that appeared to be detention cells," the report said. They also found a pile of documents, including what appeared to be lists of security force members who had worked there.
Four former detainees said that officers and guards in the facility tortured them, HRW said.
One of them, identified in the report as Ahmed, a 24-year-old student from Raqqa, told HRW that he and his brother had been detained April 7, 2012 in the city's Military Intelligence branch on charges of participating in peaceful demonstrations. The group said it gave only first names of former detainees in the report for fear their testimonies could subject them or their families to further government harassment.
Ahmed said he and his brother had been beaten and tortured with electricity shocks for several hours a day throughout five days of detention. He told HRW that intelligence officers and prison guards wanted him to give up the names of other protesters.
"The torture started in turns between my brother and me," Ahmed said. "They started torturing him with electricity for three, four hours, and then they threw him in a solitary cell. They wanted me to tell them who used to go out to demonstrate with me . and they would make me hear my brother's screams."
The interrogators also threatened to detain his mother. Ahmed told HRW that the possibility of his mother being harmed made him confess to anything.
"Whatever it is you want, I am with you," he said he had told the interrogators. "I will fingerprint a white piece of paper, and you write what you want."
Ahmed was ultimately tried in a military court in the northern city of Aleppo. He was released from a civilian prison in Raqqa June 8, 2012, following a court decision to sentence him to time served, the report said.
He joined the rebels after his release and has been with a Raqqa-based opposition group known as the Islamic Front for Unity and Liberation, HRW said.
In one method of torture the HRW report details, the victim is tied to a flat board, sometimes in the shape of a cross. In some cases guards stretched or pulled their limbs or folded the board in half so that their face touched their legs, causing pain.
The group also interviewed five people formerly held by Military Intelligence in Raqqa. They said security services questioned them about lawful activities, such as participating in anti-Assad demonstrations, providing relief assistance to displaced families, defending detainees, and providing emergency assistance to injured demonstrators.
Syria's conflict started as a peaceful uprising in March 2011. After months of nation-wide protests and street marches against Assad's rule, the revolt turned into an armed conflict when opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent.
At least 70,000 people have been killed, and millions forced out of their homes to seek shelter in neighboring countries or in other parts of Syria where fighting has subsided.
Source : Sapa-AP /mjs
Date : 17 May 2013 14:08
OrbitalDawn
Ulysses Everett McGill
Not really a surprise, is it?