The Syrian Conflict Thread

[LazyLion]

More than 115,000 killed in Syria's war

At least 115,206 people have been killed in Syria's devastating 30-month conflict, most of them fighters from both sides, a monitoring group said on Tuesday.

"The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the deaths of 115,206 people from the start of Syria's revolution on March 18, 2011 to September 30, 2013," the Britain-based group said.

Among the dead were 47,206 fighters loyal to President Bashar al-Assad's regime and 23,707 rebels seeking his ouster.

Of those, 28,804 were regular troops, another 18,228 were pro-regime militiamen and "informants" and 174 were members of the pro-Damascus Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, the group said.

On the rebel side, 17,071 were civilians who picked up weapons to join the insurgency, 2,176 were army defectors and 4,460 were either foreign or unidentified fighters killed in battle.

Another 41,533 civilians lost their lives in the war, among them 6,087 children and 4,079 women, said the Observatory.

The group also said it has documented the deaths of an additional 2,760 unidentified victims, who it was not possible to identify as either civilians, rebels or regime forces.

The figures exclude people being held by the regime, who activists have said number in the tens of thousands.

"It also excludes more than 3,000 regime troops held prisoner by the opposition factions," added the Observatory, which relies on a network of activists, lawyers and medics on the ground for its information.

Syria's conflict broke out in March 2011, when peaceful protests calling for political change were met with a massive crackdown on dissent.

It has since developed into an all-out war that has forced millions of people to flee their homes, the United Nations says.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 01 Oct 2013 15:22

 

[LazyLion]

Russia says Assad coult talk to more moderate rebels

Russia said on Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could engage in peace talks with the more moderate elements of the armed opposition at a meeting in Geneva next month.

"I do not rule out that the armed opposition, if it does not stand for extremist or terrorist views, could very well be represented," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters.

"By the way, this is something that President Assad has said as well."

World powers agreed last month to schedule the first direct negotiations between Assad's regime and the rebels in Geneva in mid-November.

The so-called Geneva 2 talks follow a failed round of negotiations between world powers over the crisis in the same city in June 2012.

Russia has backed Assad's government throughout the 30-month conflict and is the chief architect of a Syrian chemical weapons disarmament plan that was backed by the United Nations Security Council following the August 21 nerve agent attack near Damascus.

This year's Geneva meeting has been repeatedly delayed because of disagreements between Moscow and the West about who should be party to the talks.

Lavrov stressed that it was up to Western and Arab governments to make sure that representatives of the armed opposition agreed to attend the Geneva meeting despite growing differences among their ranks.

But he questioned whether the West could manage to do this by November.

"Until recently, we expected our Western partners, who committed themselves to bring the opposition to the conference, that they would be able to do this fairly quickly," Lavrov said.

"But they did not manage to do it quickly. I do not know if they will manage to do it by the middle of November."


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 01 Oct 2013 13:55

 

[LazyLion]

Chemical disarmament team crosses into Syria

A chemical weapons disarmament team crossed into Syria from Lebanon Tuesday to begin evaluating the country's arsenal of the banned weapons, an AFP correspondent said.

The 20-member team was en route to Damascus, where they will begin an inspection mission before the arms are turned over for destruction under a UN Security Council resolution adopted last week.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 01 Oct 2013 13:45 OrigID : LP143565

 

[LazyLion]

At least 41 killed in Syria Kurd-Jihadist fighting

At least 41 fighters have been killed in violent clashes pitting Kurds against jihadists and Islamist rebels in northeastern Syria, a monitoring group said on Wednesday.

Kurdish fighters from several villages in oil-rich Hasake province are engaged in combat against Al-Qaeda affiliated groups the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Al-Nusra Front, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 16 Oct 2013 13:24

 

[LazyLion]

Syria peace talks in doubt over opposition rifts

The UN-Arab League envoy for Syria says peace talks are in doubt unless a "credible opposition" takes part, overcoming rifts among its factions, as dozens are killed in a truck bombing in the Syrian city of Hama.

Lakhdar Brahimi refused to give a firm date for a new round of talks in Geneva as he spoke to reporters in Cairo Sunday alongside Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, who had said preparations were under way for November 23.

Brahimi cautioned that the meeting would only go ahead in the presence of a "credible opposition representing an important segment of the Syrian people" opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.

"There is an agreement to attempt to hold Geneva 2 in November, but the date has not been officially set," he said. "The final date of the conference will be announced at a later time... and we hope it will take place in November."

Both officials acknowledged the obstacles to a peace conference as Arab and Western diplomats -- including US Secretary of State John Kerry --were preparing for a Friends of Syria meeting with opposition leaders on Tuesday in London.

Brahimi is on the first leg of a Middle East tour aimed at drumming up support for the initiative to end the 31-month conflict that has killed more than 115,000 people.

The veteran troubleshooter said he would also travel to Qatar, Turkey, Iran, Syria and then Geneva for talks with Russian and US representatives.

Al-Watan, a pro-Damascus newspaper, said Brahimi would visit Syria next week.

Washington and Moscow have been trying to organise the conference on the heels of a landmark deal they reached for Syria to destroy its chemical weapons by mid-2014.

The Geneva initiative was first announced last year, but it has been repeatedly postponed amid opposition wrangling and a dispute over which countries, including Iran, should participate.

Syria has heavily criticised Brahimi, especially after he suggested a transitional government be set up and given full powers until elections, following his last visit in late 2012.

Al-Watan said Damascus was ready to welcome him as long as "he works as a mediator, not as a party in the international conflict over Syria".

But Syria has consistently refused to enter negotiations that demand Assad quit power as a condition.

Meanwhile, the National Coalition umbrella opposition group said its members would decide in the coming days whether to attend the Geneva talks, while the Syrian National Council, a key component of the bloc, has threatened to quit if they do.

But even if the Coalition attends the Geneva meeting, it is unclear whether it can enforce any agreement, after dozens of rebel brigades have in recent weeks rejected the umbrella group.

On the ground, a truck bomb killed at least 43 people -- including 32 civilians -- in the regime-held central city of Hama, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

State media put the toll at 37, including two children.

The Observatory said a man detonated the truck laden with explosives at a checkpoint near an agricultural vehicles company on the road linking Hama to Salamiyeh, and that regime troops were among the dead.

Assad's father and predecessor Hafez al-Assad brutally put down a Muslim Brotherhood uprising in Hama city in 1982, killing between 10,000 and 40,000 people.

Sunday's attack came a day after rebels from the Al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group linked to Al-Qaeda, set off a car bomb and launched a an assault on a checkpoint near Damascus, killing 16 soldiers.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos has called for a ceasefire in the embattled Damascus suburb Moadamiyet al-Sham, where thousands of people "remain trapped".

The southwestern district was one of a number of suburbs hit in an August 21 sarin gas attack, blamed by the opposition on the regime, which led to the deal to dismantle Syria's chemical arsenal.

In the north, the air force carried out new strikes on rebels around Aleppo central prison, which they are trying to wrest from government control, said the Observatory.


Source : Sapa-AFP /gm
Date : 21 Oct 2013 06:12

 

[LazyLion]

Russia says Syrian rebel threats against talks 'outrageous'

Russia on Monday described as "outrageous" a threat by powerful rebel groups in Syria against those who attend peace talks on the conflict backed by Moscow and Washington.

"It is outrageous that some of these extremist, terrorist organisations fighting government forces in Syria are starting to make threats... against those who have the courage" to attend the so-called Geneva 2 conference, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in televised comments.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 28 Oct 2013 11:02

 

[LazyLion]

Syrian chemical arms production equipment destroyed: Watchdog

All of Syria's declared chemical arms production equipment has been destroyed ahead of a key Friday deadline, the world's chemical weapons watchdog said.

"Syria has completed rendering inoperable its chemical weapons production and assembly installations," the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said in a statement on Thursday.

Inspectors had until Friday to visit all of Syria's chemical sites and destroy all production and filling equipment in accordance with a timeline laid down by the Hague-based OPCW and backed by a UN Security Council resolution passed last month.

The resolution, which requires Syria's chemical arsenal completely destroyed by mid-2014, was agreed by the US and Russia to avert military strikes on Syria after deadly chemical weapons attacks outside Damascus in August, which the West blamed on President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"The joint OPCW-UN Mission has inspected 21 of the 23 sites declared by Syria, and 39 of the 41 facilities located at those sites," the watchdog said, adding that two sites could not be visited for security reasons.

"But Syria declared those sites as abandoned and that the chemical weapons programme items they contained were moved to other declared sites, which were inspected," the OPCW added.

"The Joint Mission is now satisfied that it has verified - and seen destroyed - all of Syria's declared critical production and mixing/filling equipment," it said.

OPCW Director General Ahmet Uzumcu has submitted his first monthly report on Syrian disarmament to the organisation's Executive Council, which is to meet to discuss it on November 5.

In it, Uzumcu says that Syria provided information on 41 chemical weapons facilities at 23 sites, including eight mobile filling units, according to a copy seen by AFP.

Syria said it had approximately 1,290 tonnes of chemical weapons and 1,230 unfilled chemical munitions, meaning shells, rockets or mortars.

"In addition, the Syrian authorities have reported finding two cylinders not belonging to them, which are believed to contain chemical weapons," the document said, without elaborating.

It also said that Syria has named a deputy foreign minister as pointman for the disarmament programme. Syria's deputy foreign minister is Faisal Muqdad.

The OPCW said that it had so far received four million euros ($5.5 million) in contributions to the destruction programme, from Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the US.

Other countries have pledged 2.7 million euros, while President Assad has said the programme will cost around one billion dollars overall.

A first monthly report of the inspectors, covering their work on the ground since October 1, has been sent to the UN Security Council by UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

The OPCW's Executive Council will use the Syrian declaration to decide by November 15 on "destruction milestones" for Syria's arsenal.

Syria has also sent in a declaration of its chemical weapons activities and facilities, meeting its obligations as a new state party to the Chemical Weapons Convention.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 31 Oct 2013 12:38

 

[LazyLion]

Syrian Envoy says no peace talks without opposition

UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Friday that a proposed Geneva peace conference to end the war in Syria could not be held without the participation of the opposition.

"If the opposition does not participate there will be no Geneva conference," Brahimi said at a news conference in Damascus before returning to Beirut as part of a regional tour to try to garner support for the US and Russian backed peace initiative.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 01 Nov 2013 09:41

 

[ponder]

Those nasty Israelis are at it again!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24998618

25 November 2013 Last updated at 00:21 GMT

The victims of Syria's war finding care in Israel

By Kevin Connolly
BBC Middle East correspondent, Tzfat

In the maternity unit at the Sieff Hospital in the Israeli city of Tzfat, the safe arrival of every baby feels like a minor miracle.

But on the day we visited, there was one little boy among the row of newborns who will one day have quite a story to tell. That is, if his parents ever decide to tell him.

The child's name has to be withheld: publishing any kind of information which could identify him might put him in danger when he goes back to his home village - which is in Syria.

His mother's name or any personal information that might identify her can't be published either. She looked tired but happy when we met her, quick to praise the kindness of the Israeli medical staff who had treated her.

She was already in labour when she went to her local clinic in her home village in Syria - but they told her that they could not treat her.

Her worried husband knew that it was possible to get her treated in Israel - and so the couple began a dangerous race to the frontier in a country at war and a desperate race against time.

She had to be taken to a point inside Syria from where she could be seen by Israeli soldiers patrolling the fence that marks the old ceasefire line between the two countries that dates back decades.

A military ambulance then took her to hospital - she made it time.

System of transfer

The humanitarian chain that got the woman from her home village under heavy shellfire to the boundary fence and then to hospital links guides in Syria to Israeli Army paramedics on the frontier, to the doctors and nurses in Tzfat.

For the woman, every step in the process worked perfectly, perhaps because it has become a well-trodden path.

She was the 177th person to make to the journey to the emergency room in what has become one of the most extraordinary subplots of Syria's agonising civil war.

Syria and Israel regard each other as enemies. A state of war has existed between them for decades.

And yet, since the first patients arrived around nine months ago, the informal system of patient transfer has become so well-established that some patients have even arrived with letters of referral written by doctors in Syria for their Israeli counterparts.

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I expect they will reflect on what was their experience here and that they will reflect differently on what the regime tells them about Israelis and Syrians being enemies”

Human dramas

Dr Oscar Embon, the director of the Sieff Hospital, says simply: "Some beautiful relationships have started between the staff at the hospital and the people that we treat. Most of them express their gratitude and their wish for peace between the two countries."

The Israelis say they are treating everyone who needs treatment. That often means women and children but it is possible that among the young men who have been patched up, there may well be fighters loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, or jihadist rebels who in other circumstances would attack Israeli targets if they could.

Dr Embon says that policy of not discriminating between the sick and the hurt is entirely consistent with what he sees as the values of his country and the ethics of his profession.

He told me: "I don't expect them to become lovers of Israel and ambassadors for what we do here, but in the interim I expect they will reflect on what was their experience here and that they will reflect differently on what the regime tells them about Israelis and Syrians being enemies."

Israel's help for the Syrian patients is politically interesting, of course - this is the Middle East, after all.

But even if you only spend a few hours in the hospital at Tzfat, you get a sense that there are powerful human dramas being played out in the treatment room.

Most of the patients, though, won't talk about what they have been through - they are too frightened about what would happen to them back in Syria if it emerged they had been to Israel.

Forming relationships

At the centre of the system is an Israeli Arab social worker who asked us to refer to him only by his first name, Faris.

He calms the fears of disoriented patients who are shocked to find themselves suddenly being treated in an enemy state.

He organises charity collections to provide them with toiletries and toothbrushes.

And he listens to their stories.

The hospital treats any Syrian case - from pregnant women to injured rebel or government fighters
The job Faris does is tough at the best of times - imagine having to explain to a young boy blinded in an explosion that he will never see again - but with the Syrian patients, it feels even more difficult because they go home as soon as they have been treated.

And once they cross back onto the Syrian side of the boundary fence, all contact with them will be lost between the old enmities of the Middle East and the dangerous chaos of civil war.

Faris acknowledges that the regular partings from men, women and children he has helped through dark moments are tough for him as well as for them.

He looks tired when we meet but says he sleeps well knowing that he has been given a chance to do some good.

"When people come here for two months," he told me, "a relationship starts between you and them and becomes stronger. Then they go home and the sad thing is you can't be in contact with them because their villages are 'enemy' villages."

Such is the grinding misery of Syria's civil war, though - and the growing problems in the healthcare system there - that it seems every week will bring Faris and the medical staff at the hospital new patients and new problems.

The Syrians who go home cannot be too open about the help they have received in Israel - merely admitting having been here could put them in danger.

But somehow word is spreading and it seems likely that as long as the civil war goes on, the tide of injured seeking help will continue to rise.

 

[LazyLion]

TURKISH JET DOWNS SYRIAN WARPLANE NEAR BORDER
by Desmond Butler and AlberT Aji

Turkish fighter jets shot down a Syrian warplane Sunday after it violated the country's airspace, Turkey's prime minister said, in a move likely to ramp up tensions between two countries already deeply at odds over Syria's civil war.

A spokesman for Syria's military confirmed the incident, denouncing it as a "blatant aggression." The unnamed spokesman quoted on Syrian state TV said the plane was hit while pursuing gunmen near the border, and that the pilot safely ejected from the aircraft.

Turkey, a NATO member that once enjoyed good ties with Syria, has emerged as one of the strongest critics of Syrian President Bashar Assad and is now one of the main backers of the 3-year-old rebellion against him. Hostilities have flared along the border on several occasions, although the exchanges of fire have generally been brief and very limited in scope.

Despite protestations from Syria, there was little indication either side wanted the confrontation to escalate.

In a statement, the Turkish military said a Syrian MiG-23 entered Turkey's airspace near the Hatay border zone after ignoring four warnings to turn back. One of two Turkish F-16s conducting a patrol in the area then fired a missile that struck the Syrian jet, which crashed 1,200 meters (yards) inside Syrian territory near the town of Kassab, the military said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking at a rally in northwestern Turkey a week ahead of local elections, congratulated the military, and said the strike should serve as a warning against further incursions.

"If you violate our border, our slap will be hard," he said.

The Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV, which has a network of reporters around Syria, reported that the pilot of the downed warplane landed in the village of Bahluliya in Latakia province. It gave no further details.

Syrian rebels launched an offensive in the Kassab area of Latakia near the Turkish border on Friday. The rugged hills near the frontier have been engulfed in heavy fighting since then.

On Sunday, activists and state media reported clashes near the town, and said both sides were dispatching reinforcements. Syrian officials said the opposition fighters were coming from inside Turkey.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported clashes between troops and rebels led by fighters from the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front near Kassab and a strategic hill known as "Observatory 45." It added that some of the shells fired by Syrian troops fell on the Turkish side of the border.

Syria's Foreign Ministry said Sunday that the Turkish government has launched over the past two days an "unprecedented and absolutely unjustified military aggression against the sovereignty of the Syrian territories in the Kassab."

It said that "this aggression aimed to cover the entry of armed groups into Syria and was part of the aggressive policies of the government of Recept Tayyip Erdogan."

This is not the first time that the Turkish military has downed a Syrian aircraft near the border.

In September, a Turkish fighter jet shot down a Syrian military helicopter after it entered Turkish airspace. The helicopter strayed 2 kilometers (more than 1 mile) into Turkish airspace, but crashed inside Syria after being hit by missiles fired from the jet, Turkish officials said at the time.

Turkey changed its rules of engagement in 2012 after Syria shot down a Turkish military plane, declaring that any Syrian military element approaching the Turkish border would be treated as a legitimate target.


Source : Sapa-AP /mm
Date : 23 Mar 2014 19:48

 

[Fudzy]

How big is the Syrian airforce? I'm surprised they still have one.

 

[LazyLion]

How big is the Syrian airforce? I'm surprised they still have one.

A bit bigger than the rebel's air force!

 

[lived666]

In related news, Rebel forces hit closer to home as Assad cousin killed in Syria's Latakia, Hilal al Assad founded the National Defence Army, a group of pro-government civilians fighting alongside the Syrian army.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middl...-killed-syria-latakia-201432320159865701.html

 

[Lightscribe]

Democracy, dictator style...

Syria's Assad says war turning in his favour

By Mariam Karouny

BEIRUT Sun Apr 13, 2014 7:01pm BST


(Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday that Syria's three-year conflict was at a "turning point" due to his forces' military gains against rebels, state media said.

Assad's allies have portrayed him as confident and in control and they expect him to run for and win a presidential election in July - a turnaround from last year when he looked on the verge of defeat as rebels advanced towards Damascus, struck in the heart of the capital and took control of key areas.

Addressing graduate students and staff of the political science department in Damascus University: "(Assad) pointed out that there is a turning point in the crisis in Syria in terms of the continuous military achievements ... by the army and armed forces in the war against terror and in ... terms of national reconciliation," state news agency SANA reported.

In recent months, government forces, backed by Lebanon's Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah fighters, recaptured several rebel-held areas and border towns, closing off rebel supply routes from Lebanon and securing the main highway leading north from Damascus towards central Syria, Homs and the Mediterranean.

The government has also struck localised truces in districts in and around Damascus, ending sieges on rebel-held areas, many of which lasted for more than a year, causing severe hunger and death.

"PARODY"

Assad is preparing to run for a third term in an election expected in July which international powers that back the rebels have described as a "parody of democracy".

Last week, a former Russian prime minister quoted Assad as saying that he expected much of the fighting to be over by the end of the year. On the same day, the leader of Hezbollah was quoted as saying that the president no longer faced a threat of being overthrown.

The civil war, which started as a peaceful protest movement, has killed over 150,000 people, forced millions more from their homes, and seen the government lose control of swathes of northern and eastern Syria to Islamist rebels and foreign jihadis.

Assad has used tanks and warplanes to attack rebel-held areas and his opponents have accused him of using poison gas to force civilians in rebel-held territories to submission.

On Sunday, opposition activists said at least 20 people were killed when warplanes attacked Douma, a town near Damascus. A day earlier, rebels and the government blamed each other for an alleged poison gas attack on Kfar Zeita village in the central province of Hama that they said wounded scores of people.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told ABC's "This Week" that the attack was so far "unsubstantiated".

"But we've shown, I think, in the past, that we will do everything in our power to establish what has happened and then consider possible steps in response."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/04/13/uk-syria-crisis-assad-idUKBREA3C0K520140413

 

[Lightscribe]

Russian language classes to be compulsory in secondary schools in Syria

Russian language classes will be compulsory at all secondary schools in Syria, Sergei Stepashin, the president of the Russian Association of International Cooperation, said on Thursday, TASS reports.

"Following a recent visit to Syria by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, Syria's leaders passed a resolution introducing Russian language classes as a compulsory course in the secondary school curriculum. They are pressing us in Ukraine but Syria is an opposite example," he said at a meeting of the Committee for CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots of the Russian State Duma.

Syria, in his words, had always been Russia's ally. Moreover, "it has been our outpost in the Middle East," he added.

http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_...ompulsory-in-secondary-schools-in-Syria-4924/

Outpost = Colony

 

[LazyLion]

SYRIA ELECTIONS A 'FARCE': NATO HEAD

NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen dismissed presidential elections in Syria as a "farce" Tuesday, saying they did not meet international standards.

"The Syrian presidential election is a farce," Rasmussen said as he went into a NATO defence ministers meeting.

The vote "does not fullfil international standards for free, fair and transparent elections and I am sure no (NATO) ally will recognise the outcome of these so-called elections," he said.

President Bashar al-Assad is expected to win a crushing victory over two little known challengers in the elections which the Syrian opposition have also condemned as a "farce."

There was no voting in the roughly 60 percent of the country outside the control of Assad's government, which includes large areas of second city Aleppo.

The latest figures put the number of dead in the Syrian conflict at more than 160,000, with no end seemingly in sight.


Source : Sapa-AFP /ar
Date : 03 Jun 2014 12:32

 

[Taranis]

SYRIA ELECTIONS A 'FARCE': NATO HEAD

NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen dismissed presidential elections in Syria as a "farce" Tuesday, saying they did not meet international standards.

"The Syrian presidential election is a farce," Rasmussen said as he went into a NATO defence ministers meeting.

The vote "does not fullfil international standards for free, fair and transparent elections and I am sure no (NATO) ally will recognise the outcome of these so-called elections," he said.

President Bashar al-Assad is expected to win a crushing victory over two little known challengers in the elections which the Syrian opposition have also condemned as a "farce."

There was no voting in the roughly 60 percent of the country outside the control of Assad's government, which includes large areas of second city Aleppo.

The latest figures put the number of dead in the Syrian conflict at more than 160,000, with no end seemingly in sight.


Source : Sapa-AFP /ar
Date : 03 Jun 2014 12:32

If NATO doesn't like a country then their elections are automatically rejected.

Note that NATO countries refused to let Syrian expats vote. Why is this?

 

[Taranis]

Outpost = Colony

They have a naval base there.

 

[Lightscribe]

They have a naval base there.

Ooohhhh I see now, yes that's a great reason to make Russian language classes, compulsory at all secondary schools in Syria.

 

[Lightscribe]

If NATO doesn't like a country then their elections are automatically rejected.

Note that NATO countries refused to let Syrian expats vote. Why is this?

Please supply proof of what you are saying, in each of the two sentences.