The Syrian Conflict Thread

[LazyLion]

Syria Renews Assault on Central Homs

Syrian warplanes bombed the central city of Homs on Thursday, with insurgents and troops battling on the ground as regime forces pressed an assault on rebel-held neighbourhoods, an NGO said.

"Warplanes carried out two raids against the Khaldiyeh neighbourhood of Homs, and both Khaldiyeh and the Old City were under heavy rocket fire producing the sound of explosions and plumes of smoke," the Syrian Observatory for Human Right said.

"Sporadic clashes were ongoing between rebels and regime forces on the outskirts of Khaldiyeh," the watchdog added.

Regime forces began a campaign to retake several rebel-held neighbourhoods of Homs, often dubbed the capital of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, on Saturday.

The neighbourhoods being targeted have been under siege by regime troops for more than a year, and many civilians have fled, but concerns have been raised about those who remain.

On Tuesday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed fears for 2,500 civilians "trapped" in the city, which is home to a patchwork of religious communities.

Ban called on "the warring sides to do their utmost to avoid civilian casualties and to allow immediate humanitarian access, as well as opportunities for trapped civilians to leave without fear of persecution".

Elsewhere in the country, the Observatory said an aide to the labour minister was injured by an explosive device planted in his car in the Baramkeh district of Damascus.

The group, which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers on the ground, also reported shelling on the Palestinian Yarmuk refugee camp in the capital.

In southern Daraa province, the group said six people were killed in shelling on the town of Sheikh Miskeen.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 04 Jul 2013 09:56

 

[LazyLion]

Homs puts Syrian Poltical Solution at Risk

Syria's main opposition said Thursday that the fall of the city of Homs to regime forces could scupper any hope of a political solution to the civil war.

The fall of rebel strongholds in Homs, a symbol of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule, would make any talks with the regime unpalatable to too many Syrians, spokesman Khaled Saleh said.

"Homs could pose a risk to any political solution," he said at a meeting of the Syrian National Coalition in Istanbul held to appoint a new leadership.

"If Homs falls, it will be very difficult for us to explain to the families of tens of thousands of dead Syrians why we negotiated with a regime that shows us day after day that it doesn't want a political solution and that it only wants to kill more Syrians."

The central city of Homs has paid an enormous human and material price for the uprising against Assad's regime that began in March 2011 and has since evolved into fully-fledged civil war.

Regime warplanes were bombing Homs Thursday as part of an assault by loyalist forces to recapture rebel-held neighbourhoods in Syria's third largest city.

Saleh's remarks will throw into further doubt a peace conference hosted by the United States and Russia dubbed "Geneva 2" due to take place later this year.

On Thursday, the coalition also began the process of selecting a new leader from five official candidates who include interim president Georges Sabra and the former president of the Syrian National Council (SNC) Burhan Ghalioun.

The liberal faction headed by veteran dissident Michel Kilo put forward Ahmad Assi Jarba as a candidate, and the secretary general of the coalition Mustafa al-Sabbagh and a spokesman, Louay Safi, will also stand.

Saleh emphasised the new leader would have to heal rifts in the fractured coalition.

"We are at a critical juncture in the revolution," he said. "The coalition knows it is important to respond to the challenges with which we are confronted."

Under pressure from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other regional powers, the opposition agreed at a previous meeting to accept new groups under the umbrella of the coalition, lessening the influence of a strong Muslim Brotherhood faction backed by Doha.

Syria's main opposition has faltered since the departure of Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib in May in protest at the world's "inaction" over Syria's civil war.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 04 Jul 2013 16:39

 

[za1]

Infighting between opposition syrian rebels and Islamic factions in syria:

(Reuters) - Rebels clashed with an opposition unit linked to al Qaeda in northern Syria, activists said on Saturday, in a deadly battle that signals growing divisions among rebel groups and rising tensions between locals and more radical Islamist factions.

.........The latest internecine clashes happened in the town of al-Dana, near the Turkish border, on Friday, local activists said. The opposition group known as the Free Youths of Idlib said dozens of fighters were killed, wounded or imprisoned.

A report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group, said that the bodies of a commander and his brother, from the local Islam Battalion, were found beheaded. Local activists working for the British-based group said the men's heads were found next to a trash bin in a main square.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/06/us-syria-crisis-infighting-idUSBRE96506Z20130706

 

[killadoob]

Yup but they have been fighting for awhile now, al nusra were assassinating the free syrian army weeks ago already. Power, it's all that matters.

 

[Lightscribe]

Infighting between opposition syrian rebels and Islamic factions in syria:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/06/us-syria-crisis-infighting-idUSBRE96506Z20130706

Hard at work building the caliphate. Watch the amount of revolts between sides, once a single ME/North African caliphate is established. A world caliphate will simply mean constant war, on every inch of soil on the planet.

The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the new al Qaeda franchise announced by the head of global network's Iraq leader, has been quickly working to cement power in rebel-held territories of northern Syria in recent months.

...

ISIS units are believed to be buying up land and property in some parts of Idlib and Aleppo province, and they also have tried to control supplies of wheat and oil in other rebel areas.

...

Islamist groups that support al Qaeda posted statements on Facebook and Twitter saying that they had not started the clashes and had not tried to impose their will on locals.

"The Islamic State has been running many missionary activities in al-Dana, through religious guidance and counseling and posting road signs that exhort the virtues of morality, while also working to keep the city safe and offer conflict resolution," a statement in the name of ISIS read.

The Free Youth Movement of Idlib, an activist group, lambasted both the Qaeda militants and the local rebel group that fought them.

"The two sides are fighting over power, as if the regime had already fallen ... Do not paint one side as better than the other" it said.

"These fighters were part of two groups who are battling on the front line, but they are doing it for personal glory and worldly aims. Martyr after martyr from both groups are falling each day on the front lines... God keep us away from chaos and temptation."

 

[Alan]

It sounded like the most far-fetched propaganda claim - a Syrian rebel commander who cut out the heart of a fallen enemy soldier, and ate it before a cheering crowd of his men.The story turned out to be true in its most important aspect - a ritual demonstration of cannibalism - though when I met the commander, Abu Sakkar, in Syria last week, he seemed hazy on the details.
"I really don't remember," he says, when I ask if it was the man's heart, as reported at the time, or liver, or a piece of lung, as a doctor who saw the video said. He goes on: "I didn't bite into it. I just held it for show."

The video says otherwise. It is one of the most gruesome to emerge from Syria's civil war. In it, Abu Sakkar stands over an enemy corpse, slicing into the flesh."It looks like you're carving him a Valentine's heart," says one of his men, raucously. Abu Sakkar picks up a bloody handful of something and declares: "We will eat your hearts and your livers you soldiers of Bashar the dog."

Then he brings his hand up to his mouth and his lips close around whatever he is holding. At the time the video was released, in May, we rang him and he confirmed to us that he had indeed taken a ritual bite (of a piece of lung, he said). Now, meeting him face-to-face, he seems a bit more circumspect, though his anger builds when I ask why he carried out this depraved act."I didn't want to do this. I had to," he tells me. "We have to terrify the enemy, humiliate them, just as they do to us. Now, they won't dare be wherever Abu Sakkar is."He is 27, a stocky, tough-looking Bedouin from the Baba Amr district of Homs, with a wild stare and skin burned a dark brown by the sun. He tells me the story of his involvement in the revolution, leading to his current notoriety. Abu Sakkar fought with the Farouq Brigade before starting his own
Before the uprising, he was working as a labourer in Baba Amr. He joined the demonstrations when they started in the spring of 2011. Then, he says, a woman and child were shot dead at a protest. His brother went to help. He, too, was shot and killed.

In a YouTube video from June 2011, Abu Sakkar can be seen at the front of a crowd waving olive branches to greet deserting army officers. He took up arms against the regime, one of the first to join a new organisation called the Free Syrian Army (FSA). In February 2012, he was fighting with the Farouq Brigade, and they tried, and failed, to stop the regime taking Baba Amr. When the FSA fled Baba Amr, he started his own brigade, the Omar al-Farouq. They saw bitter fighting in Qusayr. Along the way, he lost another brother, many relatives, and countless of his men. His parents were arrested and he says the police rang him so he could hear them being beaten. "Put yourself in my shoes," he says. "They took your father and mother and insulted them. They slaughtered your brothers, they murdered your uncle and aunt. All this happened to me. They slaughtered my neighbours."

He goes on to talk about the man whose flesh he held in his hands: "This guy had videos on his mobile. It showed him raping a mother and her two daughters. He stripped them while they begged him to stop in the name of God. Finally he slaughtered them with a knife... What would you have done?" "If we don't get help, a no-fly zone, heavy weapons, we will do worse - you've seen nothing yet” Well, perhaps not make a meal of my enemy, I think. At the time, Abu Sakkar's men greeted what he did with cries of "God is Great". Now the fighters looking after him while he recovers from an injury just seem a bit embarrassed. Abu Sakkar says the dead soldier was an Alawite or Shiite militiaman. "He was insulting us. He was shouting, 'Oh Ali, Oh Hussein, Oh Haydar [Shia slogans],'" he says. "In the beginning, when we captured an Alawite fighter, we would feed him, make him feel comfortable. We used to tell him we were brothers. But then they started raping our women, slaughtering children with knives." A man in the room interrupts to say the Alawites are not proper Muslims. This war is becoming increasingly sectarian.

Abu Sakkar shows me scars from 14 different bullet wounds on his body. "We're under siege, it's been two years now," he says. "Videos from the Shabiha [government militia] show many more terrible things than what I did. You weren't too bothered. There wasn't much of a media fanfare. You didn't care. You suffer a fraction of what we suffered and you'll do what I did and more."


He continues: "Qusayr was destroyed, Baba Amr destroyed, Homs was entirely destroyed. No-one cares. See how the refugees are living? Would you accept your parents living the same way? The Syrian people refuse to be humiliated. We are defending the Islamic nation and this is how the Arabs and the West treat us? What did the West do? Nothing." Is the West asking me now to fight Abu Sakkar and force him out of the revolution?”

Finally, he adds: "If we don't get help, a no-fly zone, heavy weapons, we will do worse [than I did]. You've seen nothing yet." So Abu Sakkar has become the "cannibal rebel" - a handy symbol for all those who, like the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, oppose arming the Syrian rebels. Standing next to an uncomfortable looking David Cameron, Mr Putin told a G8 summit news conference: "These are people who don't just kill their enemies, they open up their bodies, and eat their intestines in front of the public and the cameras. Are these the people you want to… supply with weapons?" It is possible that Abu Sakkar was mentally disturbed all along. Or perhaps the war made him this way. War damages men - and Syria is no different. As the poet W H Auden wrote: "Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return."

Gen Salim Idris: Why do our friends in the West focus on this?
I asked the Free Syrian Army's chief of staff, Gen Salim Idris, why Abu Sakkar hadn't been arrested. His answer tells you a lot about the reality of how the war is being fought on the rebel side. "We condemn what he did," said the general. "But why do our friends in the West focus on this when thousands are dying? We are a revolution not a structured army. If we were, we would have expelled Abu Sakkar. But he commands his own battalion, which he raised with his own money. Is the West asking me now to fight Abu Sakkar and force him out of the revolution? I beg for some understanding here." Abu Sakkar seems unsure how to respond to his notoriety. He is, by turns, sheepish, nervous, angry and bitter. He definitely has the look of a man who has seen too many bad things. At the end of our interview he says he is an "angel of death" coming to cash in the souls of the enemy.

After the video became public, his men filmed him making a statement. (Not for nothing has this been called the YouTube war.) In this video, Abu Sakkar is in a freshly pressed uniform, jauntily smoking a cigarette in a way that lends a slightly absurd air to the whole performance. He says he's willing to stand trial - but only if President Bashar Assad does too.

There's no immediate prospect of either men facing their accusers. Nor of peace talks, or even of a ceasefire. And so Syria's descent into madness continues.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23190533

 

[killadoob]

This is old news, happened weeks ago.

There won't be peace in syria, the rebels once he is gone will fight each other for power, we have seen it over and over and over and over, yet naive people think once assad is gone syria will magically become a peaceful nation and the radical rebels group will magically become peaceful.

 

[LazyLion]

Syria Forces take Rebel Area of Homs

A Syrian official says the army has recaptured the rebel-held district of Khaldiyeh in the central city of Homs.

The official from Homs province said Monday that government troops were still "cleaning" out rebel-held pockets. He requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

A Khaldiyeh-based activist however says rebels are still holding on but are under heavy fire. He requested anonymity for fear of government reprisals.

Earlier this week, Syrian forces took over a series of buildings in Khaldiyeh, but rebels said they had not advanced further.

Clashes have raged for 10 days to seize opposition pockets in the strategic city of Homs. It is part of a broader push by President Bashar Assad's forces to retake territory seized by rebels in the two-year uprising.


Source : Sapa-AP /pk
Date : 08 Jul 2013 11:06

 

[killadoob]

They need to help assad, get the rebels and radicals out of the country. Then then the Free syrian army and assad can talk peace. If that does not happen the rebels are fighting a losing battle unless somehow there is a no fly zone and they get outside help, not weapons.

We know once assad is gone the fighting will rage on between the different groups.

 

[LazyLion]

Wounded Dying for lack of Medicine in Homs

People wounded in fighting between rebels and regime troops in the central Syria city of Homs are dying for lack of medical equipment, a watchdog said on Tuesday.

"The army's continuous bombardment over the past 11 days has made the critical humanitarian situation in rebel areas of Homs even worse," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"An unknown number of rebels and civilians wounded in recent days are dying from their injuries, because there is no medical equipment to treat them," he added.

Khaldiyeh and the Old City neighbourhoods of Homs have been under tight army siege for more than a year and since late June have come under steady shell and rocket fire as well as air strikes in a withering offensive by the regime.

"The little medical equipment the rebels could get into these areas was coming through underground tunnels. Now, these have been bombed too," Abdel Rahman said.

Activists on the ground confirmed the shortage of medical care.

"The medical community in the besieged areas of Homs is suffering from shortages," said Homs-based activist Yazan.

Large quantities of medical supplies, Yazan told AFP via the Internet, had been used up due to the increased number of injuries caused by the shelling.

"This campaign on Homs has been the fiercest" since the start of the siege on the city's rebel areas more than a year ago, he added.

Witnesses and activists have said Syria's forces have been joined in the assault aimed at driving rebels out of the centre of the city by fighters from the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.

At the start of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, Homs was dubbed "the capital of the revolution" when it was shaken by widespread protests calling for regime change.

Now, the rebels are caught in a small segment of the city, barely covering some two square kilometres (miles) in the centre.

Early Tuesday, the army shelled the rebel zones as fresh fighting erupted in the streets, said the Observatory.

The UN has said more than 2,500 civilians are trapped in Homs' besieged areas.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria's 27-month war, most of them civilians, says the group.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 09 Jul 2013 10:18

 

[LazyLion]

Blast rocks Hezbollah strongold in Beiruit

An explosion Tuesday rocked Beirut's southern suburbs, a hotbed of the Shiite Hezbollah movement, a security source said.

Initial reports indicated that the explosion, which was heard across the capital, targeted a Hezbollah religious centre in the Beir al-Abed area, the source said.

Black smoke was seen billowing over the area where the blast took place.

Hezbollah has cordoned off the area, but a resident said the blast shook buildings and shattered glass across the southern suburbs.


Source : Sapa-dpa /pk
Date : 09 Jul 2013 10:26

 

[Hosehead]

They need to help assad, get the rebels and radicals out of the country. Then then the Free syrian army and assad can talk peace. If that does not happen the rebels are fighting a losing battle unless somehow there is a no fly zone and they get outside help, not weapons.

We know once assad is gone the fighting will rage on between the different groups.

No. Assad is just as complicit of the worst atrocities as the FSA . It's just that now Assad can play the Good Guy Assad card, sit back and blame the worst elements of the FSA for the carnage. The inherent problem is that under the umbrella of the FSA are so many different warring, barbaric groups answerable to no one but themselves. Only once the most problematic these have been identified and neutralised can there be any acknowledgement of a TRUE FSA rag tag brigade of various factions. Meanwhile Assad must go, regardless. He must be removed from Syria immediately. Then when the more conservative elements of the FSA remain there can be Peace talks or they can just duke it out until the dominant Party wins.

 

[killadoob]

I am not saying assad is a good person but he ran a secular country, the uprising was exactly like egypt. Supporters for pro and anti assad but when the anti assad supporters got out of hand he was accused of killing his own people, he said terrorists were the cause at the time but the media disregarded it as lies. Egypt on the other hand say the same thing and act the same way and they are believed.

Assad cannot leave syria, he needs to stay and get rid of the radical movements who are currently killing each other while fighting assad. If assad leaves now i can guarantee you al nusra will slaughter the opposition and you will have a radical sunni movement in power, possibly with access to chemical weapons and from there they will move into lebanon. Assad has said all along terrorist and radicals have been in the country since the uprising. Similar to what we are seeing in egypt. The radical supporters are violent, same thing happened in syria but assad was accused of slaughtering innocent woman and children exactly what the pro morsi guys are now claiming in egypt.

I don't support assad but i would support assad over sharia law governments/movments who may slaughter the Christians assad is currently protecting. Assad at this point is the only hope for syria. Help him remove and al nusra/ al queda and then try get peace talks going. right now assad is the good guy in syria, he is the one to back.

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/06/19/309834/alnusra-assassinates-fsa-officers/
http://www.cadenagramonte.cu/englis...ccuses-al-nusra-front-of-killing-60-civilians

Whether this is true i don't know but i know al nusra are savages and they are beyond radical. You want these people to take over syria? They killed a christian priest for no reason, imagine the christians assad is protecting, they will be massacred by alnusra

 

[za1]

Car bomb in hezbollah controlled area of Beirut.

More than likely due to hezbollah involvement in syria, so now the *** has hit Lebanons capital:

A car bomb has wounded at least 37 people in Dahiyeh in southern Lebanon, a stronghold for the Lebanese Shia Hezbollah group.

Al Jazeera's Nour Samaha, reporting from Beirut said that the blast occurred in the car park of a supermarket in the Bir el Abed neighbourhood on Tuesday.

It is understood that the attack was in response to Hezbollah's involvement in the war in neighbouring Syria, where its fighters are battling against Sunni Muslim rebels trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

The Lebanese Red Cross confirmed that the explosion had injured 37 people, but some people had were light wounds.

Reuters news agency had reported medics as saying that several people were killed in the bombing. However, no deaths had been confirmed by officials.

Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut, said that the area was generally a busy part of the city, but it was even more crowded on Tuesday because it was the last day before Ramadan.

Rockets fired

She said that the blast added to the tight sectarian and political divide in Lebanon over the war in Syria.

“Hezbollah is very clear about fighting by the side of Assad,” Amin said.

“Lebanon is vulnerable to what’s happening in Syria because it has so many groups; Sunni, Shias, Druzes and Christians.”

Amin said that the attack was the second to hit the predominantly Shia south of Beirut this year, following rocket strikes in May.

On Monday, two rockets fired from inside Syria hit the eastern Lebanese city of Hermel, a majority Shia Hezbollah bastion in the Bekaa valley, without causing casualties, a security source told the AFP news agency.

"Rockets fired from Syrian territory landed this afternoon on the city of Hermel, causing no injuries," the source said on condition of anonymity.

Eastern Lebanon has seen repeated rocket attacks in recent weeks.

Officially neutral in Syria's conflict, Lebanon is deeply divided into pro- and anti-Assad camps.

Hezbollah and its allies back Assad, while the Sunni-led opposition supports rebels are seeking his removal.

 

[killadoob]

Za1 can you explain to me what hezbollah's role in syria is and why are hezbollah are fighting. I would just like to see if you know.

Tell me what towns are hezbollah fighting and trying to keep under control? I know you think hezbollah are terrorists but al queda are terrorists and car bomb specialists. I will tell you their role as soon as you put forward what you think they are doing and why they are fighting.

Actually can anyone tell me why hezbollah are fighting alongside assad and do you believe they are fighting for assad because they support him?

 

[Grant]

Dozens hurt as car bomb hits Hezbollah Beirut stronghold

A car bomb exploded on Tuesday in a Beirut stronghold district of the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group that has been fighting in Syria's civil war, wounding at least 38 people, a hospital official told Reuters.Sectarian tensions in Lebanon have been high following the intervention of the Shi'ite Hezbollah in support of President Bashar al-Assad's forces fighting a two-year revolt led by Syria's Sunni Muslim majority.
Lebanon's Sunni Muslims mostly support the rebels in Syria, while Shi'ites have largely supported Assad, who is part of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

Sunni Muslim militant groups have threatened to attack against Hezbollah following its military intervention in Syria.Hajje Alia, a 35-year-old woman clad in a floor-length black robe, said: "We have been expecting explosions in this holy month of Ramadan from the Takfiris (Sunni militants) who are trying to stop us from carrying out our Jihad (Holy war) duties alongside our Syrian brothers, but nothing will stop us, not even 1,000 explosions."
Another woman, Um Ali Jaber, 60, who lives in a building opposite the blast said: "We expected the Takfiris to carry out an attack against us at the start of Ramadan."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/09/us-lebanon-explosion-idUSBRE96807Z20130709

 

[Grant]

Was not sure where this belonged, in the Syria thread or out on it's own.
Seeing this did not take place within Syria's borders I figured it deserved it's own place.

 

[killadoob]

Was not sure where this belonged, in the Syria thread or out on it's own.
Seeing this did not take place within Syria's borders I figured it deserved it's own place.

No but it is directly related to the conflict so it will just disappear, we are already discussing it in the syrian thread, gary posted an article earlier on it but i understand why you feel it isn't syria worthy .

 

[marine1]

As long as they are fighting between themselves and leaving Israel alone I'm happy

 

[Grant]

No but it is directly related to the conflict so it will just disappear, we are already discussing it in the syrian thread, gary posted an article earlier on it but i understand why you feel it isn't syria worthy .

I missed the post in the syria thread.

maybe a mod can delete this thread - I cannot.