Protests in Syria

[High_Gravity]

Syria: Protesters Killed, Including 2 Children

BEIRUT — Syrian security forces fired on anti-government demonstrations across the country on Friday, killing at least nine people – including two children – as the regime tries to choke off a 9-month-old uprising, activists said.

Some of the worst violence was reported in Homs, a city in central Syria that has emerged as the epicenter of the revolt against President Bashar Assad.

"The earth was shaking," a Homs resident told The Associated Press by telephone, saying explosions and cracks of gunfire erupted in the early morning. "Armored personnel carriers drove through the streets and opened fire randomly with heavy machine guns."

He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Despite the relentless bloodshed, Assad has refused to buckle to the pressure to step down and has shown no signs of easing his crackdown. The United Nations estimates more than 4,000 people have been killed in the military assault on dissent since March.

Two boys, ages 10 and 12, were hit by stray bullets Friday near government checkpoints in Homs, according to activists.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the 10-year-old was shot as he crossed the street in the Bab Sbaaa neighborhood. The 12-year-old was struck as he walked in a crowd exiting a mosque, Abdul-Rahman said.

Anti-government demonstrations traditionally peak after Friday's midday prayers, although witnesses say there appeared to be a concerted effort to prevent any gatherings this week. Troops were deployed heavily and, in many cases, locked down areas before prayers even began.

Security forces also reportedly fired on protests in the Damascus suburbs, the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, Idlbi province near Turkey and elsewhere.

In the southern town of Daraa, activists said telephone and Internet lines were cut.

The reports could not be confirmed because Syria has banned most foreign journalists and prevented independent reporting. Accounts from activists and witnesses, along with amateur videos posted online, provide key channels of information.

The death toll was compiled from reports by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and an activist coalition called the Local Coordinating Committees.

Assad is under growing international pressure to curb the bloodshed.

Turkey, the Arab League and the European Union have imposed sanctions aimed at squeezing the ailing economy.

On Friday, Turkey urged Assad to punish his security forces and accept an Arab League observer mission if he is "sincere" in his repudiation of violence against civilians.

"If he is sincere he will punish the security forces, he will accept the Arab League observers and help change the atmosphere," Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Friday. "He still has the opportunity to do this."

Turkey, meanwhile, moved to suspend a 2008 free trade agreement with Syria, which will lead to the imposition of taxes of up to 30 percent on some Syrian goods, authorities said.

The move – like most of the economic measures taken against Syria – is likely to hit the Syrian business class, which until now has been one of the main props of the regime.

Syria already unilaterally suspended the free trade agreement, but Turkey's Cabinet needed to approve the suspension so it can collect the taxes.

Syria: Protesters Killed, Including 2 Children

You know Assad's in trouble when Iran steps back from supporting him.

The writing is on the wall, Assad should step down now before he becomes the next Gaddafi or Saddam.

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria: Major Battle Between Troops And Defectors As Municipal Vote Starts

BEIRUT (AP) - Fierce clashes between Syrian troops and army defectors spread to new areas Monday after a major battle in the south raised new fears the 9-month-old conflict was spiraling toward civil war, activists said.

The uprising against President Bashar Assad has grown increasingly violent in recent months as defecting soldiers fight back against the army and once-peaceful protesters take up arms to protect themselves against the military assault.

The U.N. says more than 4,000 people have been killed since March. The revolt has raised concerns of a regional conflagration, given Syria's strategic role in the Middle East with alliances in Iran and with the Shiite militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says new clashes between soldiers and defectors were reported Monday in the northwestern region of Idlib, and that fighting continued for a second day in the southern province of Daraa.

Also Monday, Syria's state media reported that voting started in scheduled municipal elections, but witnesses say turnout was low. The opposition does not consider the vote a legitimate concession by the regime because it coincides with the deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters.

Since the uprising began, Assad has made several gestures of reform. But after nine months, the opposition is demanding nothing less than the downfall of the regime.

It is almost impossible to verify events in Syria, because the regime has banned most foreign journalists and prevented local reporters from moving freely. Accounts from activists and witnesses, along with amateur videos posted online, provide key channels of information.

On Sunday, army defectors set several military vehicles ablaze in a prolonged battle in Daraa province. Sunday also marked the start of calls for a general strike in Syria to push the government to stop its bloody crackdown. The strike was open-ended, until the regime pulls the army out of cities and releases detainees.

Because of the restrictions placed on reporters, it was difficult to gauge how many people were abiding by the strike. But activists said few people were out in Daraa on Monday.

Assad has refused to buckle under Arab and international pressure to step down and has shown no sign of easing his crackdown. Economic sanctions, however, could chip away at the regime in the long-run and erode his vital support base in the business community.

Syria: Major Battle Between Troops And Defectors As Municipal Vote Starts

 

[JStone]

Syria: Protesters Killed, Including 2 Children

Syria: Protesters Killed, Including 2 Children

You know Assad's in trouble when Iran steps back from supporting him.

The writing is on the wall, Assad should step down now before he becomes the next Gaddafi or Saddam.

Did Assad's father step down after slaughtering 20,000 Syrians in Hama? Like father, like son

 

[High_Gravity]

You know Assad's in trouble when Iran steps back from supporting him.

The writing is on the wall, Assad should step down now before he becomes the next Gaddafi or Saddam.

Did Assad's father step down after slaughtering 20,000 Syrians in Hama? Like father, like son

You have a point.

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria Death Toll Passes 5,000, 11 Killed In Latest Attacks

(Reuters) - More than 5,000 people have been killed in nine months of unrest in Syria, the U.N. human rights chief said, as an insurgency began to overshadow what had initially been street protests against President Bashar al-Assad's 11-year rule.

Navi Pillay reported the death toll to the U.N. Security Council as 1,000 higher than the previous toll just 10 days ago. It includes civilians, army defectors and those executed for refusing to shoot civilians, but not soldiers or security personnel killed by opposition forces, she said.

The Syrian government has said more than 1,100 members of the army, police and security services have been killed.

Syria's actions could constitute crimes against humanity, said Pillay, issuing a fresh call for the council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court.

"It was the most horrifying briefing that we've had in the Security Council over the last two years," British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said after the session, which was arranged despite opposition from Russia, China and Brazil.

The sharp rise in the death toll is bound to lend weight to those arguing for increased international intervention to stop the bloodshed in Syria.

Assad, 46, whose minority Alawite family has held power over majority Sunni Muslim Syria for four decades, faces the most serious challenge to his rule from the turmoil which erupted in the southern city of Deraa on March 18.

A violent security crackdown failed to halt the unrest -- inspired by popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya -- which turned bloodier in the last few months as defecting soldiers join armed civilians in fighting back in some areas.

DAWN BLOODSHED

In the latest violence around dawn on Tuesday, security forces shot dead 11 people and wounded 26 others in Idlib, a northern protest hotbed, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

At the flashpoint central province of Homs, an explosion set a gas pipeline on fire on Monday, the second reported pipeline blast in the area in a week. "The fire lit the night sky," said a resident who gave his name as Abu Khalaf.

State news agency SANA said the pipeline, near the town of Rastan, supplied gas to an electricity power plant.

SANA also said border guards foiled an attempt by "an armed terrorist group" to cross into Syria from Turkey on Monday, the second such reported incident in a week. It said they shot dead two of the 15-strong group.

The Observatory said a pro-Assad armed group was holding 17 workers seized in Homs on Saturday.

Despite the spiraling violence, Syrian authorities held local elections on Monday as part of what they say is a reform process, but Assad's critics described the voting as irrelevant.

Monday was also the second day of the opposition's "Strike for Dignity," but its success was hard to gauge in some cities where violence has kept many residents in their homes.

Though the strike has found support in protest strongholds around the country, it has not taken hold in central parts of the capital Damascus or the business hub of Aleppo.

Syria has barred most independent journalists, making it hard to assess conflicting accounts of events there.

Syria Death Toll Passes 5,000, 11 Killed In Latest Attacks

 

[High_Gravity]

Razan Ghazzawi, U.S.-Syria Blogger, Arrested

BEIRUT -- Syrian security forces fired on a funeral procession in a restive northwestern border region, killing two people and raising Tuesday's death toll to at least 28, activists said.

The flare-up of violence in Idlib province highlighted how Syria's uprising, which earlier this year involved mostly peaceful demonstrations in small towns and cities, has become a virtual insurgency in the countryside along the Turkish border.

In Damascus, a prominent U.S.-born Syrian blogger and press freedom campaigner was charged Monday by Syrian authorities with trying to incite sectarian strife, her organization said.

The Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression in the Arab World said Tuesday that Razan Ghazzawi also was charged with spreading false information and weakening national sentiment – a charge often leveled against those who challenge the Syrian regime.

The charges could carry a prison sentence of up to 15 years. The statement issued Tuesday by the SCM, where Ghazzawi worked, said she denied the charges.

She was arrested Dec. 4 at the border while on her way to Jordan for a conference on press freedom.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and other Syrian activists said thousands of people were taking part in the funeral in the city of Idlib of civilians killed there earlier in the day when the gunfire erupted.

Regime forces swept through villages in the area near the Turkish frontier and attacked infiltrators at the border, and anti-regime fighters staged a retaliatory ambush and assassinated a senior officer earlier Tuesday, the reports and Syrian media said.

Military defectors known as the Free Syrian Army have found shelter alongside thousands of Syrian refugees on the Turkish side, making use of mountainous terrain, local smuggling networks and support among villagers on the Syrian side to stage cross-border attacks.

President Bashar Assad's forces have responded with stepped-up border patrols and reprisal raids on villages where anti-regime protests have been frequent.

The bloodshed in Syria, which the U.N. said Monday has left at least 5,000 dead, has resulted in increasing pressure on the Assad regime, including sanctions by the United States, the E.U. and the Arab League.

Some key nations have resisted the measures. Russia's foreign minister on Tuesday rebuffed calls for Moscow to back the sanctions and slammed the West for ignoring violence by the Syrian opposition.

The deadliest incident in the past two days took place in two villages near the Turkish border early Tuesday, after security forces entered and shot two civilians dead, said Rami Abdul-Rahman of the British-based Syrian Observation Center.

Residents of Maaret Musreen and Kfar Bahmoul responded by closing a main road to the Syrian troops, who then opened fire at random, he said, killing 11 civilians died and wounding 26.

The observatory said security forces also killed three other people in the provincial capital of Idlib and two in the central province of Homs.

The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, gave a similar death toll.

"These are intentional killings by the terrorists gangs of the regime," said Abu Mohammed, a resident of the nearby town of Maaret al-Numan, said.

Razan Ghazzawi, U.S.-Syria Blogger, Arrested

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria: Deadly Attack By Rebel Troops

BEIRUT — Syrian army defectors killed at least 27 government forces in clashes in the southern province of Daraa on Thursday, activists said. It was one of the deadliest spates of attacks by rebel troops since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's authoritarian regime began nine months ago.

Citing witnesses on the ground, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three separate clashes erupted at dawn in Daraa, where the uprising began in March.

Attacks by army defectors have been escalating in recent weeks, raising concerns the country is headed toward civil war. Sanctions by Western powers and the Arab League have added to the growing pressure on Assad from within Syria.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday's attacks. But the Free Syrian Army, a Turkish-based defector group, has in the past claimed similar attacks.

The Obama administration is predicting Assad's downfall. State Department official Frederic Hof told Congress on Wednesday that Assad's repression may allow him to hang on to power, but only for a short time.

"Our view is that this regime is the equivalent of dead man walking," said Hof, the State Department's point man on Syria. He said Syria was turning into "Pyongyang in the Levant," a reference to the North Korean capital. He said it was difficult to say how much time Assad has left in power but added: "I do not see this regime surviving."

In an apparent bid to promote defections, Hof warned Syrian troops and Assad's top aides that their president may be setting them up for possible war crimes or criminal charges by claiming in an interview with ABC News last week that the army was not his to command.

"It's difficult to imagine a more craven disclaimer of responsibility," Hof told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "Perhaps it is a rehearsal for the time when accountability will come."

The U.N. raised its death toll for the Syrian uprising substantially this week, saying more 5,000 people have been killed since the start. Assad's regime is growing more isolated with the mounting international sanctions to punish his regime for its bloody crackdown that has mostly targeted unarmed, peaceful protesters.

Also Thursday, Human Rights Watch issued a report alleging that dozens of Syrian military commanders and officials authorized or gave direct orders for widespread killings, torture, and illegal arrests during the wave of anti-government protests.

The 88-page report by the New York-based group is based on more than 60 interviews with defectors from the Syrian military and intelligence agencies. It identifies 74 commanders and officials behind the alleged abuse.

"Defectors gave us names, ranks, and positions of those who gave the orders to shoot and kill, and each and every official named in this report, up to the very highest levels of the Syrian government, should answer for their crimes against the Syrian people," said Anna Neistat, associate director for emergencies at Human Rights Watch.

All of the defectors interviewed said their commanders gave standing orders to stop the overwhelmingly peaceful protests throughout the country "by all means necessary." They understood the phrase as an authorization to use lethal force, especially because they had been given live ammunition instead of other means of crowd control.

About half the defectors interviewed by HRW said the commanders of their units or other officers also gave them direct orders to fire at protesters or bystanders and reassured them that they would not be held accountable.

The report quotes defectors as saying that in some cases, officers themselves participated in killings. It said the abuses constitute crimes against humanity and that the U.N. Security Council should refer Syria to the International Criminal Court.

Syria: Deadly Attack By Rebel Troops

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria: 'Shoot to Kill' Commanders Named

(London) – Former Syrian soldiers identified by name 74 commanders and officials responsible for attacks on unarmed protesters, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The report names commanders and officials from the Syrian military and intelligence agencies who allegedly ordered, authorized, or condoned widespread killings, torture, and unlawful arrests during the 2011 anti-government protests. Human Rights Watch has urged the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and impose sanctions against the officials implicated in abuses.

The 88-page report, “‘By All Means Necessary!’: Individual and Command Responsibility for Crimes against Humanity in Syria,” is based on more than 60 interviews with defectors from the Syrian military and intelligence agencies. The defectors provided detailed information about their units’ participation in attacks, abuses against Syrian citizens, and the orders they received from commanders and officials at various levels, who are named in the report.

“Defectors gave us names, ranks, and positions of those who gave the orders to shoot and kill, and each and every official named in this report, up to the very highest levels of the Syrian government, should answer for their crimes against the Syrian people,” said Anna Neistat, associate director for emergencies at Human Rights Watch, and one of the authors of the report. “The Security Council should ensure accountability by referring Syria to the International Criminal Court.”

Human Rights Watch: Syria: 'Shoot to Kill' Commanders Named

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria: Arab League Deal Signed

BEIRUT — Syria signed an Arab League initiative Monday that will allow Arab observers into the country, on a day when activists said more than 100 people were killed, making it one of the bloodiest days in the nine-month uprising.

Activists reported up to 70 army defectors were killed by security forces who fired at them as they were deserting their military posts near the Turkish border. At least 30 other people died in other incidents across the country, the activists said.

Syria has placed severe restrictions on journalists, and the reports by the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Syrian Revolution General Commission activist group could not be independently confirmed.

The signing at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo followed increasing world pressure on Syria alongside a wave of armed clashes between Syria's military and defectors from the army, raising fears of an imminent civil war.

The regime's acceptance of observers after weeks of delays came after a warning from Arab leaders that they would turn to the U.N. Security Council for action to try to end President Bashar Assad's crackdown that the U.N. says has killed at least 5,000 people.

The U.N. General Assembly on Monday condemned human rights violations by Assad's government, calling for an immediate end to violence and implementation of the Arab League plan "without further delay." The vote on the nonbinding resolution was 133-11 with 43 abstentions.

By signing, the Syrian regime stands to gain more time and to avert – for now at least – the possibility of wider international involvement in the crisis. But critics were skeptic the regime would actually allow the observers full, unrestricted access to trouble spots and said it was likely a delaying tactic.

Burhan Ghalioun, the leader of Syria's main opposition group the Syrian National Council, accused the Assad regime of lying and said the signing was "worthless" in light of the brutal crackdown under way daily in Syria.

"The Syrian regime is maneuvering and wants to buy time," he said in Tunisia, where the group has been holding a three-day conference aimed at unifying Syria's fragmented opposition.

Ghalioun called for Arab military intervention to protect Syrian civilians and the creation of humanitarian corridors to deliver aid.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem rejected accusations of Syrian stalling tactics and said the delay was caused by the Arab League's refusal until now to accept amendments Syria requested. He did not say what they were.

"The signing of the protocol is the beginning of cooperation between us and the Arab League, and we will welcome the Arab League observers," he told reporters in Damascus.

He said that the observers will have a one-month mandate that can be extended by another month if both sides agree. The observers will be "free" in their movements and "under the protection of the Syrian government," he said, but will not be allowed to visit sensitive military sites.

The Arab League's plan calls for removing Syrian forces and heavy weapons from city streets, starting talks with opposition leaders and allowing human rights workers and journalists into the country, along with Arab League observers. Despite agreeing last month to the initiative, Syria then posed conditions that the Arab League said made implementation impossible.

Syria: Arab League Deal Signed

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria Troops Attack Northwest Town, Killing At Least 100: Reports

BEIRUT — Government forces surrounded residents of a restive Syrian village in a valley and killed all those trapped inside – more than 100 people – in a barrage of rockets, tank shells, bombs and gunfire that lasted for hours, a witness and two activist groups said Wednesday.

The attack on Tuesday pushed the death toll for two days of violence across Syria to more than 200, and was one of the deadliest single events of the entire nine-month uprising against President Bashar Assad's authoritarian rule.

The White House reacted by renewing its call for Assad to step down, saying his regime does not deserve to rule.

The offensive targeted the village of Kfar Owaid, about 30 miles from the northern border with Turkey. It is part of the rugged mountainous region of Jabal al-Zawiyah, which has been the scene of clashes between troops and army defectors and intense anti-government protests for weeks. Syrian troops began attacking the region on Saturday, residents said.

"It was an organized massacre," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the British-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "The troops surrounded people then killed them."

Syrian officials have not commented on the allegations.

The White House said Assad's regime has no credibility and has "flagrantly violated" its commitment to end violence. The statement said the Obama administration is deeply disturbed by continued reports of government-backed violence against the Syrian people.

One villager who is an anti-government activist told The Associated Press by telephone that scores of residents and activists fled Tuesday morning to the nearby Budnaya Valley, where they were completely surrounded by troops. The forces bombarded them with tank shells, rockets and heavy machine gun fire. The man, who identified himself only as Abu Rabih for fear of government reprisal, said troops also used bombs filled with nails to increase the number of casualties.

"What happened yesterday was a crime against humanity," Abu Rabih said. He said 110 people were killed in the attack and 56 of the dead were buried in Kfar Owaid on Wednesday. Others were buried in villages nearby.

According to activists, all of those in the valley were unarmed civilians and activists, there were no armed military defectors among them.

Abu Rabih said the Jabal al-Zawiyah region has been under intense attack by government forces since Saturday.

Assad agreed Monday to allow foreign monitors under an Arab League plan aimed at stopping the bloodshed. But the huge toll from the crackdown on Monday and Tuesday has reinforced opposition suspicions that Assad is just playing for time to stall a new round of international condemnation and sanctions. The crackdown has already left Assad internationally isolated and under tremendous pressure from the Arab world as well as the west.

The Arab League plan calls for Syria to halt its crackdown, open talks with the opposition, withdraw military forces from city streets and allow in human rights workers and journalists

Despite intensified violence, the Arab League appeared to be going ahead with its plans to send the monitors.

Syria Troops Attack Northwest Town, Killing At Least 100: Reports

 

[High_Gravity]

Arab League Syria Observers Head To Country, Day After Regime Troops Kill 200

BEIRUT (AP) - Arab League delegates traveled to Syria Thursday to arrange the deployment of foreign monitors under a plan aimed at ending the regime's deadly 9-month-old crackdown on dissent. They arrive in the midst of a new international uproar over activist reports that government troops killed more than 200 people in two days, with Turkey condemning President Bashar Assad over the "bloodbath."

The opposition suspects Assad's agreement to allow hundreds of Arab League monitors in after weeks of stalling is only a tactic to buy time and ward off a new round of international sanctions and condemnation.

"The Syrian regime has exploited signing the Arab League initiative to escalate the brutal military campaign against revolting towns and cities," said Burhan Ghalioun, leader of the Syrian National Council, Syria's main opposition group.

In a statement, Ghalioun called on the U.N. to "urgently intervene" to stop the bloodshed, saying the Arab peace initiative was no longer enough.

Fresh raids and gunfire by government forces on Thursday killed at least 19 people, most of them in the central city of Homs and northern Idlib province, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees.

Activists have accused government troops of a "massacre" on Tuesday in Kfar Owaid, a village in the rugged mountains near Syria's northern border with Turkey. A witness and activist groups said military forces surrounded about 110 unarmed civilians and trapped them in a valley, then proceeded to systematically kill all of them in an hours-long barrage with tanks, bombs and gunfire. No one survived the onslaught, the activists said.

Turkey, which before the uprising was a close ally of Syria, said the violence flew in the face of the spirit of the Arab League deal that Syria signed and raises doubts about the regime's true intentions.

"We strongly condemn the Syrian leadership's policies of oppression against its own people, which are turning the country into a bloodbath," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. It added that that no administration "can come out a winner from a struggle against its own people."

On Wednesday, the Obama administration said it was "deeply disturbed" by Tuesday's attack on Kfar Owaid and accused the government of continuing to "mow down" its people. The French foreign ministry said everything must be done to stop this "murderous spiral."

The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have died since March as Syria has sought to put down the uprising - part of the Arab Spring protests that have toppled long-serving, unpopular leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

Activists said given the high death toll of the past few days, the Syrian government appears to be furiously trying to control the situation on the ground before the full Arab League monitoring team arrives.

Indeed, activists said government forces appeared to have gained full control of the rebellious Jabal al-Zawiya region, where Kfar Owaid is located, as of Wednesday evening.

Many of them blamed the Arab League for giving the Syrian regime a lifeline and a chance to kill more people and called for nationwide protests on Friday against the observer mission. "Protocol of death, a license to kill," was the slogan for the planned protests, a reference to the protocol of the Arab League plan signed by Syria this week.

In addition to the monitors, the Arab League plan calls for Syria to halt its crackdown, open talks with the opposition, withdraw military forces from city streets and allow in human rights workers and journalists. The 22-member Arab League has also suspended Syria's membership and leveled economic and diplomatic sanctions.

Sameer Seif el-Yazal, the assistant Arab League secretary general who is leading the advance team to set up the monitoring mission, said they will work with the Syrians on defining locations to send the observers. An observer team of around 20 experts in military affairs and human rights will head for Syria on Sunday, led by Lt. Gen. Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa of Sudan.

"We will carry out some necessary preparations to receive the mission on the ground including housing, transportation and communications and security," el-Yazal told reporters in Cairo before leaving for Damascus.

Another team of 100 observers will leave for Syria within two weeks, according to the Arab plan. A total of 500 observers are planned.

That attack on Kfar Owaid was among the deadliest so far in Syria. The mountainous region of Jabal al-Zawiyah has been the scene of clashes between troops and army defectors, as well as weeks of intense anti-government protests.

"Thousands of soldiers and special forces have deployed, there are tanks and checkpoints every few meters, snipers everywhere," an activist in Kfar Owaid told The Associated Press by telephone Thursday,

He said he was on the run and spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his own safety.

Arab League Syria Observers Head To Country, Day After Regime Troops Kill 200

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria: Twin Suicide Bomb Blasts Rip Through Damascus, Killing At Least 30 People

DAMASCUS, Syria — Twin suicide car bomb blasts ripped through an upscale Damascus district Friday, targeting heavily guarded intelligence buildings and killing at least 40 people, Syrian authorities said.

The blasts came a day after an advance team of Arab League observers arrived in the country to monitor Syria's promise to end its crackdown on protesters demanding the ouster of President Bashar Assad. Government officials took the observers to the scene of the explosions and said it backed their longtime claims that the turmoil is not a popular uprising but the work of terrorists.

The blasts were the first such suicide bombings in Syria since the uprising began in March, adding new and ominous dimensions to a conflict that has already taken the country to the brink of civil war.

"We said it from the beginning, this is terrorism. They are killing the army and civilians," Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad told reporters outside the headquarters of the General Intelligence Agency, where bodies still littered the ground. State TV said initial investigations indicated possible involvement by the al-Qaida terror network.

Alongside him, the head of the observer advance team, Sameer Seif el-Yazal, said, "We are here to see the facts on the ground. ... What we are seeing today is regretful, the important thing is for things to calm down."

An opposition leader raised doubts over the authorities' version of events, suggesting the regime was trying to make its case to the observers.

Omar Idilbi, a member of the Syrian National Council, an umbrella group of regime opponents, called the explosions "very mysterious because they happened in heavily guarded areas that are difficult to be penetrated by a car."

"The presence of the Arab League advance team of observers pushed the regime to give this story in order to scare the committee from moving around Syria," he said, though he stopped short of accusing the regime in the blasts. "The second message is an attempt to make the Arab League and international public opinion believe that Syria is being subjected to acts of terrorism by members of al-Qaida."

The blasts went off outside the main headquarters of the General Intelligence Agency and a branch of the military intelligence, two of the most powerful of Syria's multiple intelligence bodies. Outside the two buildings, mutilated and torn bodies lay amid rubble, twisted debris and burned cars in Damascus' upscale Kfar Sousa district. Bystanders and ambulance workers used blankets and stretchers to carry bloodstained bodies into vehicles. All the windows were shattered in the nearby state security building, which was targeted by the other bomb.

The two blasts went off within moments of each other at 10:15 local time (0815GMT) Friday, a weekend day, echoing across the city.

"The explosions shook the house; it was frightful," said Nidal Hamidi, a 34-year-old Syrian journalist who lives in Kfar Sousa. He said gunfire was heard immediately after the explosion and said apartment windows in a 200-yard (meter) radius from the explosions were shattered.

A military official told reporters that more than 40 people were killed and more than 100 wounded. He spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity in accordance with military rules. Earlier, state TV said most of the dead were civilians but included military and security personnel.

Maj. Gen. Rustom Ghazaleh, who heads the targeted military intelligence department, said the attacks were proof of a foreign project to strike at Syria. "We will fight this project until the last drop of blood," he declared.

A Syrian military official said the explosion targeting the military intelligence building, the bigger of the two blasts, weighed more than 660 pounds (300 kilograms) and gouged a crater into the ground that was 2 yards deep and 1.5 yards wide. It killed 15 people, among them a retired brigadier general.

The blasts came as the Syrian government escalated its crackdown ahead of the arrival Thursday of the Arab League observers. More than 200 people were killed in two days this week.

David Hartwell, Middle East political analyst at IHS Jane's in London, said the timing "is certain to be viewed with suspicion by the opposition."

Syria: Twin Suicide Bomb Blasts Rip Through Damascus, Killing At Least 30 People

 

[Alien786]

I think , President Assad will face the same fate as of Gadhafi

 

[High_Gravity]

I think , President Assad will face the same fate as of Gadhafi

I hope so.

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria: Army Withdraws Tanks From Homs After Days Of Attacks

BEIRUT -- Syria's army suspended days of punishing attacks on the restive city of Homs and began withdrawing its tanks Tuesday just as Arab League monitors visited the area, activists and officials said. Huge crowds poured into the streets shortly after the pullback, shouting defiantly that they will not be cowed by the crackdown.

Amateur video showed tens of thousands flooding the streets of the city, which had been under siege for days, to march in a funeral. They carried the open casket overhead with the exposed face of an older man with a white beard.

"Listen Bashar: If you fire bullets, grenades or shells at us, we will not be scared," one person shouted to the crowd through loudspeakers. Many were waving Syria's independence flag, which predates the 1963 ascendancy of President Bashar Assad's Baath party to power.

About 60 Arab League monitors – the first Syria's regime has allowed in during its nine-month crackdown on an anti-government uprising – began work Tuesday. They are there to ensure compliance with the League's plan to halt violence against mostly unarmed, peaceful protesters and the pullback in Homs was the first tangible sign Assad was implementing any of the terms.

After signing on to the plan early last week, Assad's regime had only intensified the violence, rather than easing up, and it was condemned internationally for flouting the agreement. Government troops killed hundreds in just the past week. On Monday, security forces killed at least 42 people, most of them in Homs.

Amateur video released by activists showed residents of Homs' tense Baba Amr district speaking to the Arab monitors.

"We are unarmed people who are dying," one resident shouts to an observer. Seconds later, shooting is heard from a distance as someone else screams: "We are being slaughtered here."

In another exchange, a resident tells a monitor: "You should say what you just told the head of the mission. You said you cannot cross to the other side of the street because of sniper fire."

The observer points to the head of the team and says: "He will make a statement." The resident the repeats his demand, and the monitor, smoking a cigarette, nods in approval.

The British-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said as the monitors visited Homs, tens of thousands of protesters gathered in some neighborhoods to "reveal the crimes committed by the regime."

Later, the Observatory said some 70,000 protesters tried to enter the tightly secured Clock Square as security force fired tear gas and later live bullets to prevent them from reaching the city's largest square. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said security forces were shooting at protesters trying to reach the central square.

The Arab League plan demands the government remove its security forces and heavy weapons from city streets, start talks with opposition leaders and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country. Before Tuesday's redeployment of at least some tanks, there had been no sign that Assad was implementing any of the terms, much less letting up on his brutal crackdown.

Homs, Syria's third largest city, has a population of 800,000 and is at the epicenter of the revolt against Assad. It is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of the capital, Damascus. Many Syrians refer to Homs as the "Capital of the Revolution."

Opposition activist Mohammed Saleh said the heavy bombardment of Homs since Friday stopped in the morning and tanks were seen pulling out. Another Homs-based activist said he saw armored vehicles leaving early on a highway leading to the city of Palmyra to the east. He asked that his name not be made public for fear of retribution.

"Today is calm, unlike pervious days," Saleh said. "The shelling went on for days, but yesterday was terrible."

The British-based Observatory said some army vehicles pulled out of Homs while other relocated in government compounds "where (they) can deploy again within five minutes."

Syria: Army Withdraws Tanks From Homs After Days Of Attacks

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria: Protesters Killed By Security Forces

HOMS, Syria — Syrian security forces opened fire Thursday on tens of thousands protesting outside a mosque in a Damascus suburb, close to a municipal building that members of the Arab League monitoring mission were visiting. Activists said at least four people were killed.

The ongoing violence, and new questions about the human rights record of the head of the Arab League monitors, are reinforcing the opposition's view that Syria's limited cooperation with the observers is nothing more than a farce for President Bashar Assad's regime to buy time and forestall more international condemnation and sanctions.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said about 20,000 people were protesting outside the Grand Mosque in the Damascus suburb of Douma when troops opened fire. Some Arab League monitors were visiting a municipal building close to the mosque, he said.

The 60 Arab League monitors, who began work Tuesday, are the first Syria has allowed in during the nine-month anti-government uprising. They are supposed to ensure the regime complies with terms of the Arab League plan to end Assad's nine-month crackdown on dissent. The U.N. says more than 5,000 people have died in the uprising since March.

The plan, which Syria agreed to on Dec. 19, demands that the government remove its security forces and heavy weapons from cities, start talks with the opposition and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country. It also calls for the release of all political prisoners.

Syria has allowed the monitors in, released about 800 prisoners and pulled some of its tanks from the city of Homs. But it has continued to shoot and kill unarmed protesters and has not lived up to any other terms of the agreement.

Syria's top opposition leader, Burhan Ghalioun, told reporters in Cairo after meeting Arab League Chief Nabil Elaraby that the aim of the mission is not only to observe, but to make sure that the Syrian government is "stopping the killing and shooting." He added that the Syrian government is holding more than 100,000 detainees, "some of them held in military barracks and aboard ships off the Syrian coast." He added: "There is real danger that the regime might kill them to say there are no prisoners."

State-run TV said monitors also visited the Damascus suburb of Harasta, the central city of Hama and the southern province of Daraa, where the uprising against Assad began in March.

The Observatory said a total of 16 people have been shot by security forces and killed so far on Thursday, most of them in several suburbs of Damascus. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said 28 people were killed. The differing death tolls could not be immediately reconciled as Syria bans most foreign journalists and keeps tight restrictions on the local media.

Leading opposition members are calling on the Cairo-based Arab League to remove the Sudanese head of the monitoring mission because he was a senior official in the "oppressive regime" of President Omar al-Bashir, who is under an international arrest warrant on charges of committing genocide in Darfur.

The head of the mission, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, is a longtime loyalist of al-Bashir and once served as his head of Sudanese military intelligence.

Amnesty International said under al-Dabi's command, military intelligence in the early 1990s "was responsible for the arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearance, and torture or other ill-treatment of numerous people in Sudan."

In Germany, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle demanded "unhindered access" for the Arab League observers to all key points in Syria, his ministry said Thursday. That includes not just cities such as Homs, but "also the possibility to speak unhindered with representatives of the opposition, civil society and with prisoners of the regime," a ministry statement said.

Westerwelle "expects from the observer mission a thorough approach and a clear, unvarnished picture of the situation," it added.

The Syrian government organized a tour to the restive central city of Homs, where one team of monitors has been working for the last three days. A Syrian official in Homs said six observers were there on Thursday.

Syria: Protesters Killed By Security Forces

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria Frees 755 Detained During Protests

(BEIRUT) — The Syrian government released Wednesday 755 prisoners detained over the past nine months in the regime's crackdown on dissent as observers toured a flashpoint city to see whether authorities were complying with an Arab plan to stop the bloodshed that has killed thousands.

The prisoners' release, reported by the state-run news agency SANA, followed accusations by Human Rights Watch that Syrian authorities were hiding hundreds of detainees from the observers now in the country.

The New York-based group said the detainees have been transferred to off-limits military sites and urged the observers to insist on full access to all sites used for detention.

HRW's report, issued late Tuesday, echoes charges made by Syrian opposition members that thousands of detainees were being transferred to military sites ahead of the observers' visit.

Syrian officials have said the Arab League monitors will have unrestricted access to trouble spots but will not be allowed to visit sensitive military sites.

"Syria has shown it will stop at nothing to undermine independent monitoring of its crackdown," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. She said it was essential for the Arab League "to draw clear lines" regarding access to detainees, and be willing to speak out when those lines are crossed.

SANA said the prisoners released Wednesday did not include those with "blood on their hands."

Last month, Syrian authorities released 2,645 prisoners in three batches but activists and critics say thousands more who were picked up in the past months remain in jail.

The Arab observers kicked off their one month mission in the violence-wracked country with a visit on Tuesday to Homs — the first time Syria has allowed outside monitors to the city at the heart of the anti-government uprising.

A local official in Homs told The Associated Press that a team of four observers were in the city on Wednesday as well, touring various districts. He declined to give his details and spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Read more: Syria Frees 755 Prisoners Detained in Crackdown - TIME

 

[JStone]

Antioch, Syria was once a stronghold of Christianity. It was one of the earliest visits the Apostle Paul made 2000 years ago when he received a message from Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, according to the Gospels.

islime is the ruination of syria

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria Protests: Death Toll Increases During Clashes

BEIRUT, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Clashes erupted in Syria on Friday as hundreds of thousands filled the streets to demonstrate against the government of President Bashar al-Assad and activists said at least 10 people were shot dead.

Demonstrators determined to show the strength of their movement to Arab League monitors deployed in hotspots across the country threw rocks at security forces in the Damascus suburb of Douma where troops tear-gassed the chanting crowds.

Five people were shot dead in the city of Hama and five in the city of Deraa in the south.

"Five were martyred today and at least 20 wounded when the Syrian security forces opened fire," the British-basedd Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported, referring to Hama.

It said security forces fired at tens of thousands of protesters in the northern province of Idlib, wounding 25.

At least two dozen were injured in the Damascus suburb of Douma, activists said. One report said army defectors in Douma were engaged in armed clashes with troops. There were no further details.

Some 250,000 gathered after Friday's Muslim prayer in the northern province of Idlib at 74 different locations, according to the Observatory, an opposition network relaying activist reports.

"This Friday is different from any other Friday. It is a transformative step. People are eager to reach the monitors and tell them about their suffering," said activist Abu Hisham in Hama.

In Homs, the city at the centre of nine months of revolt, Al Jazeera television showed a huge crowd of dancing protesters who appeared to be in the thousands.

"Revolution, revolution Syria, revolution of glory and freedom Syria," they shouted.

In the Damascus suburb of Barzeh, where large crowds had also gathered, protesters held up signs saying "The Monitors are witnesses who don't see anything," and shouted, "Bashar we don't want you, Syrians raise your hands."

Activists in the city of Idlib said the army had put its heavy weapons out of sight.

"Security forces have moved some of their tanks out of the neighbourhood streets and have put them behind buildings further out," said Manhal, a member of the local coordination committee. "They have also moved the tanks out of main streets. Some of them they moved into dugouts."

Syria Protests: Death Toll Increases During Clashes

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria Crisis: In Neighboring Beirut, A Daily Struggle For Credible Information

BEIRUT -- Shortly after midnight one night last week, two 20-something Syrians huddled over a computer, trying to sort out exactly what had happened that day at Damascus University.

Online reports suggested that three students had been shot at the school. Syrian State TV, meanwhile, put the number at five and implied that the shooter was a disaffected member of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

This seemed suspiciously convenient, in the opinion of the two Syrians, who had friends attending the university and who asked not to be identified by name. Currently living in Beirut, both are refugees of a sort: One had come to the city to escape compulsory military service, the other had fled his hometown in Syria after receiving threatening phone calls.

As they sat in a small basement studio in East Beirut, scouring the few accounts of the shooting in secure online chat rooms and speaking with friends on Skype, useful information was proving difficult to find.

"We don't know anything," the young man who had fled threats in Damascus said in frustration. "Maybe tomorrow we will know something about what happened today."

Every day in Beirut, there is a struggle to find reliable information about Lebanon's troubled neighbor next door, where a deadly anti-government uprising is now in its tenth month.

The United Nations recently estimated that at least 5,000 protesters have been killed since March, and the Assad regime has all but banned foreign journalists from visiting the country.

Throughout the crisis, dozens of journalists, activists and Syrian dissidents have used Beirut as an observation post of sorts, hoping to snare glimpses and the occasional firsthand account of what most outside observers judge to be a brutal and unrelenting crackdown by the military forces of President Bashar al-Assad.

The Assad regime, for its part, claims that it is engaged in a struggle for survival against Islamist militants conducting a proxy war on behalf of Sunni nations like Saudi Arabia. The state maintains that it is responding to "terrorist armed groups" that have killed more than 1,000 of its security forces.

Independently verifying any of this -- the death tolls, accounts of individual incidents, even fundamental questions about how Syrian society at large views the uprising -- has proven virtually impossible, or exceedingly dangerous.

Only a handful of independent journalists have seen the situation firsthand, having braved Syrian border patrols and overnight motorcycle rides to have themselves illegally smuggled into the country. Their accounts of besieged towns like Homs and Idlib are consistently dire, describing protesters being attacked by the government, dwindling medical supplies and food, and a growing armed insurgency that threatens to reshape the uprising, if not completely overwhelm it.

The few reporters who have been let into the country officially have found themselves closely chaperoned by government minders.

This leaves those in Beirut, and the rest of the world, to siphon whatever information they can get second- and thirdhand.

"It's very frustrating," says Shakeeb al-Jabri, a Syrian activist in Beirut who has taken on a role as a media coordinator for the revolution. "For me, as someone who is supposed to always be in the know, it's frustrating to not have good information. So I can only imagine what it's like for the journalists."

Al-Jabri, 30 years old, is one of a handful of individuals who are central to the dissemination of information about Syria within Beirut. He and a few others work to confirm reports of clashes and body counts, for distribution to reporters and activist groups.

He spends almost his entire day online, chatting with activists and residents he trusts in hotbed Syrian cities like Homs and Hama and relaying their accounts on his Twitter page.

Like many others who funnel information out of Syria, al-Jabri insists that he will not pass along news about any incidents unless he finds video or has multiple dependable sources. Some reports can never be confirmed. (A week after the incident at Damascus University, al-Jabri told The Huffington Post that the shooting itself "has been confirmed, but the details are still sketchy.")

Syria Crisis: In Neighboring Beirut, A Daily Struggle For Credible Information