The Syrian Conflict Thread

Did anyone watch crosstalk?

Basically it was funny as usual but the pro rebel guy was saying if Assad is removed the situation will get worse not better. Now that is saying something. I just have this feeling the US are going to do something drastic in the next few weeks. August they will get involved.

At this point the rebels have no hope unless the US ignores everyone like they did in iraq and enforces a no fly zone and bombs syria. Nothing anti west but assad is nailing these rebels and without intervention they can't do anything. Obama can't get the fly zone due to russia and china so it's going to have to be the usual ignore everyone else and do what we think. Somebody who is backing the regime change needs more than armed rebels to beat assad. Doesn't help that the rebels are killing each other.
 
Rebels Sieze Key Northern Town

Syria's rebels on Monday seized the strategic town of Khan al-Assal, a regime bastion situated in the northern province of Aleppo, a monitoring group said.

Khan al-Assal was the last regime bastion in the west of Aleppo province, which lies on the Turkish border, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The town lies on a conduit linking the province to the west of Aleppo city where rebels have stepped up their bids to break a year-long stalemate and to take control of areas still under regime control.

Large swathes of northern and eastern Syria are in rebel control, while much of central and southern Syria is squarely in regime hands.

"Opposition fighters have taken control of the town of Khan al-Assal, which is strategically located in the west of Aleppo province," said the Observatory.

The rebel Ninth Division also announced it had captured Khan al-Assal in an online video.

"We the leadership of the Ninth Division announce that the town of Khan al-Assal has been completely liberated," a rebel commander said in a video posted on Youtube.

The Ninth Division is also fighting in western Aleppo city, where rebels launched in June a bid to take over areas still under regime control.

The Britain-based Observatory, meanwhile, reported continued clashes on the southern outskirts of Khan al-Assal.

The rebels had tried for several months to advance on Khan al-Assal.

The town's biggest battle took place in March, when the rebels took control of the police academy there, and temporarily seized several other positions.

The rebels lost some 200 men in an eight-day battle at the time.

On March 19, the regime and the opposition exchanged blame for a chemical weapon attack in Khan al-Assal that killed some 30 people, according to Observatory, regime and other tolls released at the time.

Meanwhile in Damascus, the loyalist air force staged two air strikes against the eastern district of Jobar, home to sizeable pockets of resistance to the army.

Clashes and shelling on southern Damascus also raged on, said the Observatory, adding that the tightly controlled entrance to the Palestinian Yarmuk camp had been closed.

The closure comes a day after the opposition National Coalition accused the army of using chemical weapons in shelling Yarmuk.

Monday's violence comes a day after at least 232 people were killed across Syria, said the Observatory, adding the toll was one of the highest in the conflict.

Some 100,000 people have been killed in Syria's war since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad erupted in March 2011, according to Observatory figures.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 22 Jul 2013 14:43
 
US general lays out military options in Syria

The top US general has informed Congress of options for military intervention in Syria, but stressed that the decision of whether to go to war was one for civilian leaders.

In a non-classified letter made public Monday, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey set out five options -- from nonlethal intelligence and weapons training to a boots-on-the-ground plan to "assault and secure" the Syrian regime's chemical weapons.

Saying he was mindful of ongoing deliberations over whether to intervene militarily against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, Dempsey wrote that such a decision is "a political one that our nation entrusts to its civilian leaders."

But his letter -- which was addressed to Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin -- also detailed risks, such as the empowering of extremists and retaliatory strikes by the regime.

It also carried an ominous warning for a nation weary of war after more than a decade of armed conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Once we take action, we should be prepared for what comes next," he wrote. "Deeper involvement is hard to avoid."

The United States is currently providing humanitarian assistance and non-lethal aid to rebel groups battling to oust Assad.

President Barack Obama's administration promised an expansion of military aid to Syria's rebel forces in June after accusing the regime of using chemical weapons, but such aid has yet to be disbursed.

Beyond training, Dempsey said the United States could conduct lethal stand-off strikes that would degrade the regime's air defenses as well as ground, missile and naval forces.

Such an option would require hundreds of aircraft and ships and, "depending on duration, the costs would be in the billions."

Another option, one backed by hawkish Senator John McCain, is the establishment of a no-fly zone to prevent the regime from using its aircraft to bomb rebel areas.

A deeper commitment would be establishing buffer zones or so-called humanitarian corridors to protect areas such as those along the borders with Turkey and Jordan, where hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled.

Such a move could reduce human suffering, but would require lethal force to defend the zones from regime attacks -- and would likely cost more than $1 billion a month.

The most aggressive plan would entail "thousands of special operations forces and other ground forces... to assault and secure critical sites" that contain Syria's chemical weapons.

Obama and lawmakers including McCain have consistently shied away from plans requiring US ground forces in Syria.

Instead of looking at the options in isolation, Dempsey advocated a regional approach that isolates the conflict, prevents further destabilization and weapons proliferation, and helps develop a moderate opposition.


Source : Sapa-AFP /dm
Date : 23 Jul 2013 01:01
http://tribune.com.pk/story/580766/us-general-lays-out-military-options-in-syria/
 
Instead of looking at the options in isolation, Dempsey advocated a regional approach that isolates the conflict, prevents further destabilization and weapons proliferation, and helps develop a moderate opposition.
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Assad is now becoming an Iranian proxy, Tello said, while Mamoun Abu Nawar, a Jordanian military analyst, said the Syrian leader was forced to bow to the will of Tehran.

"He can no longer call a division head and tell him to bomb the hell out of this neighborhood or that. His command has been eroded and the command structure is now multinational," Abu Nawar said.

A diplomat in the region put it more bluntly: "Whether Assad stays or goes is becoming irrelevant. The conflict is now bigger than him, and it will continue without him. Iran is calling the shots."

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/An...zbollah-Syrias-Assad-risks-irrelevance-320532
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When the Arab Spring swept across the Middle East in 2011, Iran declared that the pro-democracy uprisings were inspired by its own 1979 revolution, which ended thousands of years of monarchy.

Egypt's overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak drew the most direct comparisons. Both revolutions put power in the hands of long-suppressed Islamist parties with grass roots support. Both nations toppled secular autocrat rulers with close ties to the West and strong armies. The climax of Egypt's revolution even fell on the anniversary of Iran's, February 11, 2012.

...

In May, a group of 45 Egyptian officials toured Iran's historic sites for five days at the invitation of Iran, according to Iranian newspapers, which quoted an Egyptian official saying it was "time for Egypt to move forward its ties with Iran."

Iran, with a new president, Hasan Rouhani, slated to take office next month, will have to recalibrate its approach to the interim rulers of Egypt or its next government.

But the message from Iran's ruling clerics on the chaos in Egypt is already sinking in with many constituents.

"These events show that Western-style democracy doesn't work in the Middle East," wrote Reza, an Iranian man, in the commentary section of the website Iran Diplomacy, affiliated with the country's foreign ministry. "Thank God we have stability here."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324260204578587981868698680.html
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Not for long, according to "stan" this and "stan" that, socialist Pepe Escobar, "the pipelines follower".

War against Iran, Iraq AND Syria?

Amidst the incessant rumble in the (Washington) jungle about a possible Obama administration military adventure in Syria, new information has come to light. And what a piece of Pipelineistan information that is.

Picture Iraqi Oil Minister Abdelkarim al-Luaybi, Syrian Oil Minister Sufian Allaw, and the current Iranian caretaker Oil Minister Mohammad Aliabadi getting together in the port of Assalouyeh, southern Iran, to sign a memorandum of understanding for the construction of the Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline, no less.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-04-230713.html
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Russia: Al-Qaeda-linked extremists hold 200 Kurdish civilians hostage as ‘live shield’ in Syria

Al-Qaeda-linked extremists have taken and continue to hold hostage about 200 Kurdish civilians, including women and children, using them as live shields in north-eastern Syria, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has stated.

Civilians remain hostage after Syrian Kurds clashed with Al-Qaeda linked militants in the north-eastern Syrian towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain, along the Syrian-Turkish border over the weekend.

"In these areas, there has long been confrontation between the troops of the international extremists affiliated with al-Qaeda and local Kurdish militias who stood up to protect their homes from attacks by radical Islamists," Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on its website.

Syrian Kurd fighters captured a rebel leader, or emir, identified as Abu Musab. In response, Al-Qaeda extremists abducted 500 civilians, including woman and children.

“They started to kill innocent people by cutting off their heads,” the statement read. “Kurds had to free Abu Musab in exchange for an agreement to release hostages.”

Despite the Kurdish fighters agreed to release Abu Musab in exchange for people, about 200 people are still in the hands of extremists. The commander was freed as agreed.

The Kurdish gunmen have been fighting to expel al-Qaeda militants from the northeastern province of Hassakeh over the past week, with the battle significantly intensifying over the weekend.

The clashes between the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jahbat al-Nusra erupted in the city of Ras al-Ain in the northern province of Hasakeh on July 16, when at least four militants were killed.

The Kurds issued a “victory message,” celebrating the “liberation” of Ras al-Ain, claiming to hold control over the entire city as well as the headquarters of the Islamist combatant groups there.

On Saturday evening, the fighting spread to the city of Tal Abyad.

"Moscow strongly condemns the atrocities of international terrorists in northeastern Syria and the excesses and abuses perpetrated by extremists against a peaceful Kurdish population which is not involved in the ongoing political and military conflict in Syria," the Ministry said.

The city of Ras al-Ain is home to some 50,000 people including a mix of Kurds, Arabs, Christians, and Yezidis – a Kurdish religious minority.

London-based RT contributor Afshin Rattansi says Western powers supporting organizations like al-Qaeda-linked Jahbat al-Nusra are to be blamed for the situation in northern Syria.

“There has been a discrimination of Kurds in that region, but now we have a situation where the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Britain are actively supporting al-Qaeda-linked organizations that are ransacking and murdering women and children - certainly over the past 48 hours,” he said. “All we are hearing from London and Washington are talks about a no-fly zone and arming the very people who are killing women and children there. And from Turkey, certainly the Turkish right wing has brought ideas of invading Syria from the north to kill more Kurdish people.”

Rattansi says the UN Security Council (UNSC) should look closely at the situation there.

“Russia and China should bring this up at the UNSC. Otherwise, the prospect for these 200 hostages is pretty grim,” he said.
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1200 rebel groups :eek: wow, killing innocent people. The US wants to go to war? Obama should be backing assad not these fractured rebels groups. They said iraq was opening Pandora's box but it will be syria.

They cannot even guarantee the chemical stockpile safety.

What happens when assad falls, who takes over, who runs the country? Nothing will change.
 
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The UN has been notified of 13 alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria, UN envoy on the Middle East peace process, Robert Serry, told the organization’s Security Council. Serry added that UN leader Ban Ki-moon is "gravely concerned" about reports of chemical arms use, which is now being “studied.” The UK, France, and the US have provided information on chemical weapons attacks, which they say were launched by the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. However, a Russian report forwarded to the UN says that opposition rebels fired a shell containing sarin near Aleppo on March 19. The news comes just before a meeting between the head of the UN’s chemical weapons investigation team, Ake Sellstrom, and UN disarmament chief Angela Kane with President Assad. The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday in Damascus
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Listen to them drums beating. Well things are going to get insane in the next month or so. Those Christians being protected by assad are going to be dead shortly. Slaughtered not killed during a conflict.
 
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MCain threatens An intelligent man, see when stupid people are in power stupid things happens.

The House and Senate Intelligence Committees have given a green light to arm Syrian rebels, as their concerns were alleviated. But a top US general warned that high costs of military options could reach billions.

Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest-ranking American military advisor, wrote that a no-fly zone over Syria would cost the US between $500 million and $1 billion a month to maintain, and may be ineffective because the Syrian army relies on artillery, not air support, to fight the insurrection.

In the meantime, US President Barack Obama will continue with the plan to arm Syrian rebels after several congressional concerns were alleviated, Reuters quoted officials as saying. "We believe we are in a position that the administration can move forward,"House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said.

The House and Senate intelligence committees gave a green light to send CIA weapons shipments to opposition fighters in Syria, Washington Post reported, adding that the US will use the money already in the CIA’s budget and transfer it to the Syria operation. The plan was announced last month by the Obama administration and involves giving small arms and ammunition to some of the 1,200 groups of Syrian rebels, some of which have known affiliations with al-Qaeda.

The infrastructure is already in place and arms are expected to start coming in the next several weeks.

Dempsey’s letter, dated July 19 and made public July 22, was written in response to a contentious meeting with Senator John McCain, who accused Dempsey of withholding information during a previous meeting with the Senate Armed Services Committee. McCain has threatened to place a hold on Dempsey’s nomination for another two-year term as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs unless the general provides more details on hypothetical military action.
Scenarios outlined by Dempsey included: Train, Advise and Assist the Opposition; Conduct Limited Stand-off Strikes; Establish a No-Fly Zone; Establish Buffer Zones; Control Chemical Weapons.

The chairman warned that any decision would need to be weighed carefully and treated as “no less than an act of war.”

McCain and the other Senate Armed Services Committee members previously pressed Dempsey to consider the “costs, benefits and risks associated with training and arming vetted elements of the Syrian opposition? In your view, could such action alone be sufficient to adequately build the military capability of the moderate opposition in Syria and create the necessary conditions for the administration’s stated policy objective - Bashar Assad’s departure and a negotiated solution to the conflict in Syria - to succeed?”

Dempsey pushed lawmakers to consider the long-term consequences any military action would mean.

“Risks include the loss of US aircraft, which would require us to insert personnel recovery forces,” he replied. “It may also fail to reduce the violence or shift momentum because the regime relies overwhelmingly on surfaces fires - mortars, artillery and missiles.”

He reminded the committee that virtually every scenario “could also average well over one billion dollars a month” and could provide aid to al-Qaeda or other radical groups. Along with this came a warning of no guarantee that Syrian chemical weapons would be put under an American safeguard.

“Should the regime’s institutions collapse in the absence of a viable opposition, we could inadvertently empower extremists or unleash the very chemical weapons we seek to control,” he wrote. “It would be inappropriate for me to try to influence the decision with me rendering an opinion in public about what kind of force we should use.”
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Dempsey threatened if he does not shut up and go along with an incredibly dumb plan.
 
UN Chemical Weapons Inspectors Arrive in Damascus: AFP

Two senior UN inspectors tasked with examining claims that chemical weapons have been deployed in Syria's civil war arrived in Damascus on Wednesday, an AFP photographer reported.

Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom and Angela Kane, the UN high representative for disarmament, arrived at a hotel in the Syrian capital. They were scheduled to hold talks with regime officials regarding access to areas of the country in order to pursue their investigations.

Syria's regime and rebels fighting to topple it have accused each other of using chemical weapons in the drawn-out conflict which has seen more than 100,000 people killed.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 24 Jul 2013 11:24
 
killadoob said:
MCain threatens An intelligent man, see when stupid people are in power stupid things happens.

Dempsey threatened if he does not shut up and go along with an incredibly dumb plan.
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Get your facts straight.

Dempsey’s letter, dated July 19 and made public July 22, was written in response to a contentious meeting with Senator John McCain, who accused Dempsey of withholding information during a previous meeting with the Senate Armed Services Committee. McCain has threatened to place a hold on Dempsey’s nomination for another two-year term as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs unless the general provides more details on hypothetical military action.
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Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) had harsh words this week for the White House with regards to the Obama administration’s consistent inching towards a war in Syria.

Lawmakers in the United States continue to debate what role the US should take in the increasingly bloody Syrian civil war, but Sen. Paul said during a speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention on Monday that President Barack Obama is asking for the American military to open up a front without waiting for congressional approval.

“Even if you believe we should arm Islamic fighters in Syria, shouldn't, at the very least, Congress vote on the matter?” Paul asked of the crowd. “The Constitution is very clear. Congress is to declare war, not the President.”

“Nevertheless, President Obama is moving ahead with plans to get involved in the Syrian civil war, without the authorization of Congress,” he said.
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http://rt.com/usa/rand-paul-syria-stalemate-540/

Watch the speech, absolutely outstanding. Nothing anti west, if anything it is extremely pro american. Anti obama yes.
 
From your link:
“Last week I was told by the administration, you know what their goal is in Syria? To fight to a stalemate,” Paul said on Monday. “I’ve told them I’m not sending my kids or your kids or any American soldiers to fight for stalemate. When we fight, we fight to win, we fight for American principles, we fight for the American flag and we come home after we win.”
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Stalemate is good. Keep the radicals busy there. As shown previously in this thread, al queda linked fighters are already setting up businesses and buying property in Syria. There's no dislodging them ever. Sinai will be the forward base in the push against Egypt.

From the comments:
Anonymous user 24.07.2013 18:25

RT - Just so you know, Rand is a joke for us. Even people in Kentucy are embarrassed by him.
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Syrian Troops Advance in Central City

Syrian government troops gained ground in clashes Friday in two rebel-held neighborhoods in the central city of Homs, edging closer to a historic mosque and closing in on opposition fighters in the area, state TV and activists said.

The advance came amid a wide offensive by President Bashar Assad's forces, launched in late June, to try to recapture rebel areas in Homs, Syria's third largest city.

With about 1 million residents, Homs lies along a main artery linking the capital, Damascus, with regime strongholds on the Mediterranean coast to the west. It has played a key role in the country's civil war, now in its third year, and the struggle for control of Homs has also underscored the conflict's increasingly sectarian undertones.

Activists, who consider Homs "the capital of the revolution," say the regime wants to capture the entire city to include it in a future Alawite state - stretching from Homs to the coast - where Assad could possibly make his last stand. Assad is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, while most of the rebels fighting to topple his regime are Sunnis.

In recent weeks, Assad's troops have captured several nearby rebel-held areas, including the towns of Qusair and Talkalkh near the border with Lebanon.

State TV said Friday that troops advanced in Homs' northern neighborhoods of Khaldiyeh and Jouret el-Shayah.

The report said the government forces were getting close to Khaldiyeh's 13th-century mosque of Khalid Ibn al-Walid, famous for its nine domes and two minarets. On Monday, government troops shelled the mosque, damaging the tomb of Ibn al-Walid, a revered figure in Islam, inside it.

An activist in the city who only identified himself as Abu Bilal for fear of government reprisals said the troops were now about 50 meters (yards) from the mosque, which has been badly damaged in recent fighting. "Resistance cannot stand up to tanks, warplanes and mortars," Abu Bilal said, speaking from the city via Skype.

In Damascus, officials said pro-government troops were advancing in battles with rebel forces in the now mostly empty Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. Clashes in the camp, which has mostly been under rebel control since last year, broke out earlier this week.

Since the start of the unrest, Syria's half-million Palestinians have struggled to remain on the sidelines but many were eventually split between pro-and anti-Assad groups. In particular, young Palestinian refugees joined the rebels in the fight against Assad's regime.

Thousands of the camp's residents have fled to escape the fighting and have gone to other areas in Syria or to neighboring Lebanon.

Anwar Raja, a spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, which is pro-Assad, said Friday that the Palestinians who are fighting with government forces want to "cleanse the camp of terrorists' gangs" and bring back its residents.

Khaled Abdul-Majid of the Popular Struggle Front, another pro-government faction, said the Palestinian fighters, known as Palestinian Popular Committees have captured nearly a third of the mostly empty camp.

Meanwhile, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian warplanes bombed an office of the main al-Qaida-linked rebel group in the northern city of Aleppo.

The strike late Thursday at the local headquarters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant killed six members of the jihadi group, said the Observatory, which has a network of activists on the ground.


Source : Sapa-AP /nsm
Date : 26 Jul 2013 14:48
 
150 Regime Forces killed in Khan Al-Assal Battle : NGO

At least 150 Syrian regime forces died in fighting with rebels for the control of Khan al-Assal, a key town in the northern Aleppo province, a monitoring group said Friday.

More than 50 of those killed were executed by rebels after the fall of Khan al-Assal on Monday, while the rest died fighting for the regime's last bastion in the west of Aleppo province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Thirty of those killed in both the executions and fighting were officers, the Observatory said.

Rebels had for months tried to take Khan al-Assal, a strategically located town in the west of Aleppo province.

It finally fell into rebel hands on Monday but fighting continued on its edges the next day, said the Observatory.

Amateur video filmed by rebels and distributed by the Observatory showed the bodies of dozens of regime forces in a building that had been the site of a battle.

"Mass graves for Bashar (al-Assad's) army," says one unidentified fighter, referring to the Syrian president, as a cameraman walks through the complex filming the corpses.

"These are Assad's dogs," the unidentified cameraman adds.

Khan al-Assal is located that leads to the western part of Aleppo city, where rebels have stepped up their bid to break a year-long stalemate in fighting with the army.

The mainstream rebel Ninth Division claimed responsibility for taking Khan al-Assal in a video statement distributed on Monday.

But footage distributed on Friday by the Observatory said jihadists including Al-Nusra Front were behind the takeover.

Fierce fighting raged in March in Khan al-Assal during eight days in which 200 rebels and government forces were killed but the insurgents seized the police academy and briefly controlled other positions.

Both sides have also traded accusations that chemical weapons were used in Khan al-Assal and killed around 30 people, according to a toll released in March by the Observatory and the regime.

Elsewhere in Syria opponents to Assad's regime held protests on Friday calling for his ouster, as they have done once a week for more than 28 months, said the Observatory.

Protesters gathered in several Syrian towns and cities, under the slogan of "Friday of the Unsheathed Sword of God".

The slogan refers to a name given to Khaled Bin Walid, a companion of Prophet Mohammad, whose mausoleum in the central city of Homs was bombarded and destroyed this week.


Source : Sapa-AFP /nsm
Date : 26 Jul 2013 16:04
 
Worries Mount as Syria Lures West’s Muslims

WASHINGTON — A rising number of radicalized young Muslims with Western passports are traveling to Syria to fight with the rebels against the government of Bashar al-Assad, raising fears among American and European intelligence officials of a new terrorist threat when the fighters return home.
More Westerners are now fighting in Syria than fought in conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia or Yemen, according to the officials. They go to Syria motivated by the desire to help the people suffering there by overthrowing Mr. Assad. But there is growing concern that they will come back with a burst of jihadist zeal, some semblance of military discipline, enhanced weapons and explosives skills, and, in the worst case, orders from affiliates of Al Qaeda to carry out terrorist strikes.

European and other Western intelligence agencies are rushing to work together to track the individuals seeking to cross the border into Syria from Turkey, though several American officials expressed frustration that Turkey is not taking more aggressive steps to stem the flow of Europeans going to fight in Syria.
Hans-Peter Friedrich, Germany’s interior minister, is pushing for an European Union-wide registry for all foreigners entering the bloc as one of the measures that will help better track returning radicals.

Eric Harroun, 30, a former Army soldier from Phoenix, was indicted in Virginia by a federal grand jury last month on two charges related to allegations that he fought alongside the Nusra Front. In February, he bragged about his involvement, posting a photo on his Facebook page saying, “Downed a Syrian Helicopter then Looted all Intel and Weapons!”

About 30 French citizens have returned from the front lines in Syria, according to Mathieu Guidère, a professor at Université Toulouse II and an expert on Islamic terrorism. He said most had been stopped by the domestic intelligence service and held for lengthy questioning under a law passed last year that allows charges to be brought for having traveled to terrorist training camps or combat zones where terrorist groups are involved.

Some returned because they were unable to reach the front or find fighters to arm them or train them, Mr. Guidère said. Many end up lost among the refugees on the Turkish and Jordanian borders, and after waiting around for a while come home. Others are rejected by the Free Syrian Army, which does not want them, he said. Many who end up staying join the Nusra Front, which often divides them into groups by nationality.

Recently, the Dutch authorities arrested a 19-year-old woman suspected of recruiting young Dutch Muslims to fight with Islamic extremists in Syria.

In April, the Belgian authorities raided 48 homes across the country and detained six men implicated in what prosecutors described as a jihadist recruitment drive for the insurgency in Syria. Some of the men have since been released, Eric Van Der Sypt, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor, said by telephone on Friday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/28/w...-lures-wests-muslims.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
 
Syria Army recaptures Homs Area from Rebels

Syrian forces seized full control of a key rebel-held area in the western city of Homs Monday after two months of fierce fighting, state media reported.

The military had "completely restored security and stability to the Khalidiyeh neighbourhood," the state-run news agency, SANA, reported.

State television said large numbers of "terrorists," a term used by the government to refer to rebels, were killed while trying to flee.

It said the fall of Khalidiyeh "is a prelude" for taking back Homs province after it fell in the hands of "foreign militants."

Homs, dubbed the flashpoint of the Syrian Revolution in 2011, is Syria's third-largest city and links Damascus with the coast.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the pro-opposition, Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog, said fierce fighting continued in the southern parts of Khalidiyeh.

The rebel Free Syrian Army also said it killed 13 Syrian soldiers in an ambush at the southern part of Khalidiyeh.

The government reports on Khalidiyeh came two months after government troops with the help of Hezbollah fighters took control of al-Kussair, another key rebel-held town in the same province, which borders Lebanon.

According to UN estimates, the 28-month-old Syrian war has killed more than 100,000 people.

Hundreds of thousands have also been displaced, many to neighbouring countries. In Jordan, officials said Monday that Syrians now account for about one-fifth of the country's population.

The Public Security Department said it had registered 1.3 million Syrians living in Jordan, a country of 5.5 million people.

If Jordan's Syrian refugee influx remain at levels that have seen more than 70,000 flee into the country each month this year, officials expected Syrians to account for more than 40 per cent of the kingdom's population by early 2014.

UN officials marked the first anniversary of the opening of the Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan, calling on the international community to step up relief efforts to assist 1.8 million people who have been driven into neighbouring countries since the onset of the conflict.

The UN refugee agency warned that despite ongoing support, basic aid such as food, health care, sanitation and education in the camp and elsewhere remained "severely underfunded."

"This is a solemn milestone, but we hope it serves as a reminder to the international community that this crisis is growing and ongoing and over a million lives are depending on basic assistance," agency representative Andrew Harper said.

The United Nations is set to appeal for billions of dollars in additional aid next month to meet the needs of a regional refugee community expected to surpass 3 million by the end of the year.


Source : Sapa-dpa /ma
Date : 29 Jul 2013 17:32
 
At least 12 dead when Syrian Forces shell Mosque in Homs

At least 12 people were killed Tuesday when Syrian government forces shelled worshippers as they were leaving a mosque after morning prayers, activists close to the opposition said.

Shells hit near Al-Houssami Mosque in Dablan in the central province of Homs, wounding more than 30 people, said Omar Homsi, a Homs-based activist.

He said that as ambulances rushed to help the injured, Syrian troops carried out a second round of shelling that caused more casualties.

Meanwhile, the Britain-based, pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a family of seven, including four children, were killed by a government shell as they fled Khalidiyeh, a neighbourhood in the city of Homs. The area has fallen into government control Monday, according to state media.

Homs, dubbed the flashpoint city of the Syrian Revolution in 2011, is the country's third-largest city. It links the capital, Damascus, with the coast.

The fall of Khalidiyeh came two months after government forces recaptured al-Kussair, another key rebel-held area in the same province, which borders Lebanon.

According to UN estimates, the 28-month-old Syrian conflict has killed more than 100,000 people.


Source : Sapa-dpa /pk
Date : 30 Jul 2013 09:04
 
Philippines set to keep troops in the Golan Region

The Philippines said Wednesday it would likely keep its 340 soldiers in the Golan Heights as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force, amid improved security for the troops.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters the UN was close to fulfilling three conditions on upgrading safety set by the Philippines that would allow the Filipino soldiers to stay beyond August 11.

"The conditions look fine to me," del Rosario said, adding he had recommended to President Benigno Aquino that they stay for at least another six-month mission.

"I still have to go back to the president for his blessing but I don't think it will be a problem."

The Philippines is one of the major contributors to the UN Golan force, which has been monitoring a ceasefire between Syria and Israel there since 1974.

Other countries have pulled out their contingents as violence from the Syrian civil war has spilt over into the area.

The Philippines said in May that it was considering withdrawing, after two groups of Filipino troops were briefly kidnapped by Syrian rebels in separate incidents.

Both groups were released unharmed, but the wounding of another Filipino soldier from shelling in June added to the security concerns.

Del Rosario said one of the three conditions set by the Philippines was that the total peacekeeping force return to its regular strength of 1,250 soldiers.

Another was extra military equipment for the soldiers, and the third was that the Philippines be able to review the mission every six months.

Del Rosario said he was confident the numbers in the peacekeeping force would climb to 1,250 by October.

Fiji has already emerged in recent months as a saviour for the peacekeeping force, agreeing to deploy 562 soldiers.

Del Rosario also said the UN had committed to the extra military equipment. And he said the Philippines was allowed to review its mission every six months, rather than annually, until at least 2015.

The Philippines was due either to extend its mission, or withdraw, on August 11.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 31 Jul 2013 09:04
 
At least 12 people were killed Tuesday when Syrian government forces shelled worshippers as they were leaving a mosque after morning prayers, activists close to the opposition said.
Click to expand...

Sounds like rubbish to me, the government is always killing innocent people, activists close to the opposition are always saying that sort of thing but it's growing old now. Assad has actually done extremely well. Kicking rebel ass while ensuring the 2 million Christians are well protected. Sadly there are so many rebels groups the government can't protect everyone. Seems odd assad would target his own people while protecting so many Christians. Why does he protect the christians but kill his own people, makes no sense.

When the assad government activists or the people inside the government claim the rebels slaughtered an entire village no one believes that.
 
Fighting rages for town in chemical weapons row

Syrian troops attacked rebel positions outside Khan al-Assal on Wednesday as they seek to recapture the northern town at the centre of rival chemical weapons accusations, a watchdog said.

Fierce fighting erupted on the outskirts of the town, which the rebels seized on Monday of last week inflicting heavy losses on the army, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The army lost 150 soldiers over two days, 50 of them summarily executed after their capture in an act condemned by the mainstream opposition leadership.

The government has been keen to recapture the town, the last to fall out of its control in the western half of Aleppo province.

The town was the scene of what both the government and the opposition say was a chemical weapons attack that killed 30 people on March 19.

The Syrian government says the rebels carried it out, and its ally Moscow says it has concrete proof.

The opposition says President Bashar al-Assad's regime was behind it and Washington has said it has seen no firm evidence of rebel responsiblity.

The Damascus government has pressed for Khan al-Assal to be the primary focus of a planned UN inquiry into a total of 13 allegations of chemical weapons use during the 28-month conflict.

The rebels' capture of the town last week came as two UN envoys visited Damascus to thrash out the ground rules for UN weapons inspectors. They came away with an agreement but UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said he is still reviewing the details.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 31 Jul 2013 10:08
 
Good they must take it back so the UN folks go in and determine what happened.

No idea why they are condemning the death of military personal, even if executed, assad isn't having issues killing/executing the opposition. So in terms of war that is how it goes when dealing with extremists elements.
 
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