Protests in Syria

[Katzndogz]

That's where you are wrong. Assad as dictator protected his own interests above that of Iran, just like his father did. Just like all the other despots being replaced in the middle east did. These dictators are being replaced by the muslim brotherhood that IS Iranian power.

Unlike the United States, both China and Russia have serious bloody muslim insurgencies going on and they are not hiding it by coming up with the religion of peace nonsense. Because they do not have religion of peace propaganda shoved at them, they would not assume the peaceful intent, nor support a pan islamic caliphate with one huge army under the control of the Ayatollahs.

Russia has a large naval base in Tartus, Syria. If Iran, through the muslim brotherhood, topples the Syrian government it will have that base at their disposal. Russia is showing every indication of keeping out of this conflict and letting the parties fight it out between them knowing that whoever wins, everyone but Iran loses. But, there will be fewer of either.

 

[logical4u]

U.S. Embassy In Syria Closed: Reports

U.S. Embassy In Syria Closed: Reports

Grav,what's the point or authority of the UN if Russia,China or the US for that matter can veto whenever it suits them,even if everyone else there wants the opposite?????????Totally Pointless Organisation or United Nothingness.stavros

I think the UN is a sad hypocritical joke, its just a stage for tin pot dictators from third world shit holes to be able to get out there and insult Western nations and beg for money.

That was a great line.

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria Forces Attack Homs, UN Condemns 'Appalling Brutality'

AMMAN/BEIRUT, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Syrian forces bombarded opposition-held neighbourhoods of the city of Homs with rocket and mortar fire on Thursday, activists said, as divided world powers struggled to find a way to end the violence.

The United Nations chief condemned the ferocity of the government assault on Homs, heart of a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad that broke out nearly a year ago and is getting bloodier by the day.

"I fear that the appalling brutality we are witnessing in Homs, with heavy weapons firing into civilian neighbourhoods, is a grim harbinger of things to come," U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told reporters after briefing the Security Council.

Activists and residents report hundreds of people killed over the last week as Assad's forces try stamp out opposition in Homs, and as dawn broke on Thursday, rocket and mortar fire rained down again on Baba Amro, Khalidiya and other districts. Armoured reinforcements also poured into the eastern city.

Concern was growing over the plight of civilians and the United States said it was considering ways to get food and medicine to them - a move that would deepen international involvement in a conflict which has wide geopolitical dimensions and has caused division between foreign powers.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said before flying to Washington for talks on Syria that Turkey, which once saw Assad as an ally but now wants him out, could no longer stand by and watch. Turkey wanted to host an international meeting to agree ways to end the killing and provide aid, he said.

"It is not enough being an observer," he told Reuters, though Russia and China have warned against "interference".

Foreign ministers of the Arab League, which the U.N.'s Ban said was planning to revive an observer mission it suspended last month because of the violence, are due to meet in Cairo on Sunday. They may want to hear other governments' ideas by then.

U.S. officials said they expected to meet soon with allies to discuss ways of helping Syrian civilians. And China, cool to Western lobbying for international involvement, nonetheless reported its first formal contact with the Syrian opposition.

Syria Forces Attack Homs, UN Condemns 'Appalling Brutality'

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria Crisis: Bombs Hit Security Headquarters In Aleppo

BEIRUT — Two explosions struck security compounds in the Syrian city of Aleppo on Friday, killing 25 people and wounding 175, state media reported, in a major city that has largely stood by President Bashar Assad in the nearly 11-month-old uprising against his rule.

The blasts come as escalating violence between regime forces and an increasingly militarized opposition has raised fears the conflict is spiraling toward civil war.

A Syrian offensive aimed at crushing rebels in the battered city of Homs continued Friday, with soldiers who have been bombarding the city for the past six days making their first ground move to seize one of the most restive neighborhoods.

State TV blamed "terrorists" for the blasts in Aleppo – the first significant violence in Syria's largest city – saying they were proof the government is facing a violent enemy. Anti-Assad activists accused the regime of setting off Friday's blasts to discredit the opposition and avert protests that had been planned in the northern city on Friday.

Along with the capital Damascus, Aleppo is Syria's economic center, home to the business community and prosperous merchant classes whose continued backing for Assad has been crucial in bolstering his regime. The city has seen only occasional protests.

Three earlier bombings in Damascus in December and January that killed dozens prompted similar exchanges of accusations. Nobody has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.

Outside one of the compounds hit, the Military Intelligence Directorate, a weeping correspondent on state-run TV showed graphic footage of at least five corpses, collected in sacks and under blankets by the side of the road.

Debris filled the street and residential buildings appeared to have their windows shattered. But the location did not appear to be closed off, as local residents milled around the site, with few uniformed police around. No emergency vehicles or ambulances were visible in the footage and there was no sign of wounded, as earth-moving equipment was seen clearing the rubble.

The presenter said the blast went off near a park and claimed children were among the dead, although none were seen in the TV footage.

The second blast went off outside the headquarters of a police force in another part of the city. State television cited the Health Ministry as saying 25 people were killed in the two blasts and 175 were wounded.

Mohammed Abu-Nasr, an Aleppo-based activist, blamed Assad's regime for the explosions, insisting the opposition would not carry out bombings in residential areas.

"The opposition and the Free Syrian Army don't kill civilians," Abu-Nasr said, referring to the force of army defectors that frequently attacks regime military forces.

Abu-Nasr said the blasts came on a day when activists were planning wide protests in the city after the Friday prayers. "Despite the blasts, we will go out and protest today," he said.

So far, Assad's opponents have had little success in galvanizing support in Aleppo, in part because the business leaders have long traded political freedoms for economic privileges. The city of around 2 million also has a large population of Kurds, who have mostly stayed on the sidelines of the uprising since Assad's regime began giving them citizenship, which they had long been denied.

The Aleppo blast was the latest in a string of bombings that the regime has sought to blame on the opposition, which denies any role. On Jan. 6, a suicide attack in the capital Damascus killed 26 people. Two weeks earlier, 44 people were killed in twin suicide bombings that targeted intelligence agency compounds in Damascus.

Assad's crackdown has killed more than 5,400 people since the uprising began in March.

The regime's crackdown on dissent has left it almost completely isolated internationally. But Assad has political backing from Russia and China, which delivered a double veto over the weekend that blocked a U.N. resolution calling on him to leave power.

On Friday, Saudi King Abdullah said the failure of the U.N. to take action has shaken the world's confidence in the international organization. The speech was his first public comment on Syria. Saudi Arabia and five other Gulf countries have pulled their ambassadors from Syria to protest the violence by regime forces.

The assault on Homs began last Saturday after unconfirmed reports that army defectors and other armed opponents of Assad were setting up their own checkpoints and taking control of some areas.

Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed in the past week in Homs from relentless shelling and gunfire on several rebellious neighborhoods in the city, an operation activists said aimed to soften up the areas before moving in.

On Friday, soldiers backed by tanks pushed into the neighborhood of Inshaat. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said troops were going house to house detaining people. Inshaat is next to Baba Amr, a neighborhood that has been under rebel control for months. Activists said at least four people were killed in the shelling in Baba Amr on Friday.

"They are punishing the residents," said the Observatory's chief Rami Abdul-Rahman, who added that food supplies were dwindling in the area.

Troops shelled parts of the city with tanks and heavy machine guns through the night until daylight Friday, said Majd Amer, an activist in Khaldiyeh, one of the targeted districts. He said troops nearby appeared to be preparing to move into Khaldiyeh as well.

Mohammed Saleh, a Syria-based activist, said the regime appears to be trying to take over rebel-held areas in Homs and the northwestern restive province of Idlib before Feb. 17, when Assad's ruling Baath party is scheduled to hold its first general conference since 2005.

The conference is expected to move on reforms that Assad has promised in a bid to calm the uprising. During the conference, Baath party leaders are expected to call for national dialogue and announce they will open the way for other political parties to play a bigger role in Syria's politics.

The opposition has rejected such promises as insincere and said it will not accept anything less than Assad's departure.

Syria Crisis: Bombs Hit Security Headquarters In Aleppo

 

[High_Gravity]

In Rare, Blunt Speech, Saudi King Criticizes Syria Vetoes

The king of Saudi Arabia inserted himself directly into the Syria crisis on Friday, castigating Russia and China for vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution over the weekend aimed at ending the Syrian government’s deadly repression of a nearly year-old uprising.

“We are going through scary days and unfortunately what happened at the United Nations is absolutely regrettable,” King Abdullah said in a short nationally televised address.

The Saudi king rarely speaks so publicly and bluntly, and his remarks appeared to reflect new concern in Saudi Arabia about the deepening sectarian parameters of the conflict in Syria, where a majority of the population are Sunnis and the government of President Bashar al-Assad is controlled by the minority Alawites, a heterodox Muslim sect. Saudi Arabia considers itself the spiritual beacon of Sunni Islam.

King Abdullah did not single out Russia and China by name, but he was clearly referring to both countries, which used their veto powers as permanent Security Council members to derail a resolution that supported the Arab League’s proposal to resolve the conflict in Syria. The resolution would have required, among other things, that Mr. Assad turn over some powers to a vice president.

Both Russia and China have been loyal supporters of Mr. Assad but they also value their relationships with many other countries in the Arab world, so the Saudi king’s remarks amounted to a further sign that those relationships have suffered some damage.

“No matter how powerful, countries cannot rule the whole world,” the king said in his speech, as translated by Agence France-Presse. “The world is ruled by brains by justice, by morals and by fairness.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/11/w...-saudi-king-criticizes-syria-vetoes.html?_r=1

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria Crisis: Turkey Inches, Somewhat Reluctantly, To The Forefront

WASHINGTON -- When Turkey's Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, arrived in Washington late last week, he came with a clear and direct message about the deteriorating situation in Syria.

"We have to focus on how to make humanitarian access possible for the Syrian people," he said at one of a series of public events and private meetings with journalists he held on Friday. "What we need today is to send a strong message to the Syrian people that they are not alone, to the Syrian regime that they cannot use these measures forever, to international community that we have solidarity with the Syrian people."

As a major Middle Eastern power that shares its longest -- and now increasingly porous -- border with Syria, Turkey has the most to lose from seeing the Syrian crisis unfold unabated. There are already thousands of Syrian refugees in Turkey, many of them military defectors, and willingly or not, Turkey has become a base for the nascent Free Syrian Army.

On Monday, Davutoglu will meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, where he is expected to discuss possible next steps in mitigating the Syrian crisis. With a possible United Nations resolution blocked by Russia and China, Clinton and others have said they hope that some sort of international body could be formed to expedite assistance to the Syrian opposition.

Most analysts expect that the Americans will seek to put the Turks at the forefront, at least rhetorically, of any plans that emerge in the coming days, a process that has already seen Vice President Joe Biden laud Turkey for being "a real leader" on the issue.

But, as Davutoglu indicated in his appearances last week, any course of action -- especially one that might lead to increased regional strife or even military intervention -- comes with a strong dose of discomfort or even disappointment.

After all, Turkey has long prided itself on being a regional peacemaker and a beneficent bridge between East and West. Just last year, it described its regional foreign policy as "zero problems with neighbors" -- a project that included a determined, and briefly flourishing, effort to open trade and diplomatic relations with the Assad regime.

Much of that is now in tatters as the region seems increasingly on the verge of division along old Cold War lines and sectarian ones -- Syria's allies in Iran, Lebanon and Iraq are Shia, while Turkey and the Arab League leaders are Sunni. Davutoglu said on Friday that Turkey has repeatedly sought to avoid such a fragmentation, but analysts say that, by taking stronger actions against Assad's regime, the country risks firmly implanting itself on one side of the growing divide.

"I think ambivalence is the right way to put it," said Bulent Aliriza, the director of the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, of Turkey's reluctant entrance into the Syria fray. "Even if, subjectively, Turkey rejects that split and doesn't want to be defined as the Sunni part of a Western-led conflict, nonetheless, objectively, it is in danger of being seen as such by the Shia bloc."

In his meeting with reporters on Friday, Davutoglu showed signs of diverging with some of outsiders' most ambitious plans for Syria. He shrugged off questions about arming the opposition, and reiterated that Turkey was not yet prepared to support a role for NATO.

"There should not be something like the Libyan case," he said, referring to last year's full-scale military intervention in which Western air power was utilized to end the reign of Muammar Gaddafi. "We don't want anything based on a military presence or a clash," he added.

And in one important break from the stated goals of the Americans, Davutoglu even signaled that Turkey might be satisfied with a resolution to the crisis that does not involve the complete dismantling of the Assad regime, even though Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already called for the president to step down.

"We will have a strategy for the future: a new Syria, a free Syria," Davutoglu said. "This is our strategic objective. We are not there to talk about regime change, but that the Syrian people should decide for themselves, not Bashar Assad on his own."

Indeed, people close to Davutoglu say that even as he prepared to propose a new international body to take steps in Syria, he agonized over the exact language used to describe it -- "friends" or a "coalition" or a "contact group" each bringing with it different levels of implied action or force.

"I think the Turks are petrified about this turning into something much bigger than it already is," said Joshua Walker, a Turkey expert at the German Marshall Fund. "They're worried that Syria is the igniting flame for something growing along sectarian lines. If Syria goes down the same path, this can ignite nasty things in Lebanon, nasty things in Iraq, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia -- it's a regional problem that makes it so dangerous for Turkey."

Walker also pointed out that Turkey faces domestic limitations to its role in Syria as well, because much of the country would be opposed to wider intervention.

Syria Crisis: Turkey Inches, Somewhat Reluctantly, To The Forefront

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria Crisis: Arab States Call For International Peacekeepers, Security Forces Bombard Homs

AMMAN/BEIRUT Feb 13 (Reuters) - Syrian forces bombarded districts of Homs and attacked other cities on Monday after Arab states pledged support for the opposition battling President Bashar al-Assad and called for international peacekeepers to be sent to the country.

Tank fire was concentrated on two Sunni Muslim neighbourhoods that have been at the forefront of an 11-month-old uprising against Assad, activists said.

"Mortar rounds and bombardment from BTRs (infantry fighting vehicles) are heavily hitting Baba Amro. We do not have numbers for any casualties because there is no communication with the district," activist Mohammad al-Hassan told Reuters from Homs.


Activists said 23 people were killed on Sunday, adding to a toll of more than 300 since the assault on Homs began on Feb. 3.

The renewed barrages served as an emphatic response to Arab League moves to boost the opposition campaign against Assad, who is resisting calls to step down after 11 years of authoritarian rule.

Meeting in Cairo on Sunday, Arab League ministers proposed a joint United Nations-Arab peacekeeping force for Syria and pledged to provide political and material aid to the opposition.

However, the plan faces all kinds of obstacles. World powers are divided over how to resolve the crisis and Russia and China, who vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria on Feb. 4. are unlikely to welcome foreign intervention.

In Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was studying the Arab proposal for a peacekeeping mission but wanted more details. He said violence should end before any such mission takes place and international pressure should focus on the Syrian opposition as well as the government.

"In other words, it is necessary to agree to something like a ceasefire but the tragedy is that the armed groups that are confronting the forces of the regime are not subordinate to anyone and are not under control," Lavrov said.

China's Foreign Ministry on Monday backed what it termed the Arab League's "mediation" but offered no clear sign of support for its call for peacekeepers.

"Relevant moves by the United Nations should be conducive towards lessening tension in Syria, pushing political dialogue and resolving differences, as well as maintaining peace and stability in the Middle East, rather than complicating things," ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told a regular news briefing.

Russia and China were both heavily criticised by the West for blocking the draft U.N. resolution that backed an Arab League call on Assad to step down.

But the United States and European powers are reluctant to get dragged in militarily, fearing this would be more risky and complicated - given Syria's position along crisscrossing fault lines of Middle East conflict -- than the NATO-led air support that helped Libyan rebels oust Muammar Gaddafi last year.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Monday any peacekeeping troops in Syria should come from non-Western countries. "I don't see the way forward in Syria as being Western boots on the ground in any form, including in any peacekeeping form," he told reporters in South Africa.

Syria Crisis: Arab States Call For International Peacekeepers, Security Forces Bombard Homs

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria Crisis: Arab Nations Reportedly Consider Arming Opposition

BEIRUT Feb 14 (Reuters) - Government forces and opponents of President Bashar al-Assad clashed in cities and countryside across Syria on Tuesday and Arab officials confirmed that regional governments would be ready to arm the resistance if the bloodshed did not cease.

The western city of Homs, heart of the uprising against Assad's 11-year-rule, suffered a bombardment of pro-opposition neighbourhoods for the 11th day running.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 20 people killed across Syria on Tuesday, including opposition supporters, civilians, and five government soldiers shot in clashes with rebel fighters in Qalaat al-Madyaq town in restive Hama area.

With Assad seemingly oblivious to international condemnation of his campaign to crush the revolt, Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia prepared for a new resolution at the United Nations in the next few days which would support a peace plan forged at a meeting in Cairo on Sunday.

But Arab League diplomats said that arming the opposition forces was now officially an option.

A resolution passed at the meeting urged Arabs to "provide all kinds of political and material support" to the opposition.

This would allow arms transfers, they confirmed to Reuters.

"We will back the opposition financially and diplomatically in the beginning but if the killing by the regime continues, civilians must be helped to protect themselves. The resolution gives Arab states all options to protect the Syrian people," an Arab ambassador said in Cairo.

The threat of military support was meant to add pressure on the Syrian leader and his Russian and Chinese allies but it also risks leading to a Libya-style conflict or sectarian civil war.

"I suspect we will see a further militarisation of this conflict, with potentially quite widespread and dangerous consequences," said analyst Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center.

Smuggled guns are already filtering into Syria but it is not clear if Arab or other governments are behind the deliveries. Weapons and Sunni Muslim insurgents are also crossing from Iraq into Syria, Iraqi officials and arms dealers said.

Assad, whose Alawite-minority family has ruled the mainly Sunni Muslim country for 42 years, is trying to stamp out pro-democracy demonstrations and insurgent attacks. He dismisses his opponents as terrorists backed by enemy nations in a regional power-play and says he will introduce reforms on his own terms.

Syria Crisis: Arab Nations Reportedly Consider Arming Opposition

 

[Katzndogz]

Arming terrorists is a capital idea.

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria: President Bashar Assad Sets Referendum On New Draft Constitution

BEIRUT -- Syrian President Bashar Assad ordered a referendum for later this month on a new constitution that would allow political parties other than his ruling Baath Party, the centerpiece of reforms he has promised to ease the crisis, even as the Syrian military on Wednesday besieged rebellious areas.

The opposition quickly rejected the move, saying that the regime was stalling and that Syrians in the uprising would accept nothing less than Assad's ouster. The referendum call also raises the question of how a nationwide vote could be held at a time when many areas see daily battles between Syrian troops and rebel soldiers.

Amendments to the constitution once were a key demand by the opposition at the start of Syria's uprising, when protesters first launched demonstrations calling for change. But after 11 months of a fearsome crackdown on dissent that has left thousands dead and turned some cities into war zones, the opposition says Assad and his regime must go.

"The people in the street today have demands, and one of these demands is the departure of this regime," said Khalaf Dahowd, a member of the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria, an umbrella for several opposition groups in Syria and in exile.

Top Syrian ally Russia has presented Assad's promises of reform and dialogue as an alternative way to resolve Syria's bloodshed after Moscow and Beijing earlier this month vetoed a Western- and Arab-backed resolution at the U.N. Security Council aimed at pressuring Assad to step down.

The referendum, announced on Syrian state TV, was set to take place Feb. 26. The current Syrian constitution enshrines Assad's Baath Party as the leader of the state. But according to the new draft, obtained by The Associated Press, "the state's political system is based on political pluralism and power is practiced democratically through voting."

The draft also says the president can hold office only for a maximum of two seven-year terms. Assad, who inherited power from his father, has been in power for nearly 12 years. His father, Hafez, ruled for 30 years.

The vetoes at the U.N. infuriated the West and Arab states, which are now considering giving greater support to the Syrian opposition. Russia says it rejects any U.N. calls on Assad to step aside because they would prejudice attempts to find an internal solution – even as the opposition says that promises of reform and dialogue are a dead end.

In the Netherlands, Russia's foreign minister said he will meet his French counterpart in Vienna on Thursday and discuss a plan to rework the U.N. Security Council resolution.

Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday he could not comment on the French plan without having seen the language of the proposed resolution. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said earlier Wednesday that his country is trying to rework the resolution to overcome Russian resistance. France has been on of the harshest critics of Assad's crackdown.

Lavrov praised the referendum call, saying "a new constitution to end one-party rule in Syria is a step forward ... It is coming late unfortunately but better late than never." He said the international community should press on the opposition to enter negotiations with Assad.

The Syrian revolt started in March with mostly peaceful protests against the Assad family dynasty, but the conflict has become far more violent and militarized in recent months as army defectors fight back against government forces.

Many observers fear it is taking on the dimensions of a civil war. U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay told the General Assembly this week that more than 5,400 people were killed last year alone, and that the number of dead and injured continues to rise daily in Syria.

Wednesday's referendum announcement came during one of the deadliest assaults of the uprising. The government has been shelling the rebellious city of Homs for more than a week, and the humanitarian situation was deteriorating rapidly. Activists say hundreds have been killed, and there was no way to treat the wounded.

The violence continued Wednesday. Thick black smoke billowed out of what appeared to be a residential area of Homs in amateur video posted online, after an attack on an oil pipeline that runs through the city.

Activists accused regime forces of hitting the pipeline. It runs through the rebel-held neighborhood of Baba Amr, which has been shelled by regime troops for the past 12 days, according to two activist groups, the Local Coordination Committees and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The state news agency, SANA, blamed "armed terrorists" for Wednesday's pipeline attack. It said the pipeline feeds the tankers in the Damascus suburb of Adra, which contribute in supplying gasoline to the capital and southern regions.

Syria: President Bashar Assad Sets Referendum On New Draft Constitution

 

[JStone]

Syrians protest against one dictator in favor of, what, a new dictator?

 

[High_Gravity]

Syrians protest against one dictator in favor of, what, a new dictator?

Probably.

 

[High_Gravity]

Homs Shelling: Syria Troops Target Restive Central City, Activists Say

BEIRUT — Syrian troops intensively shelled rebel-held neighborhoods in the restive central city of Homs Friday and killed at least five people, activists said. Britain and France urged the opposition to unite and said it needs more international support to resist the deadly government crackdown.

Activist groups said tens of thousands of protesters poured into the streets after Friday prayers from Daraa in the south to Aleppo and Idlib in the north and Deir el-Zour in the east to areas around the capital Damascus. The Local Coordination Committees said security forces opened fire on some protests.

"What is happening in Syria is appalling," British Cameron Prime Minister David Cameron told a joint news conference in Paris with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "I'm not satisfied that we are taking all the action we can." The two leaders spoke a day after the U.N. General Assembly condemned human rights violations by President Bashar Assad's authoritarian regime.

"We cannot bring about a Syrian revolution ... if the Syrian revolution does not make an effort to rally together and organize so that we can better help them," Sarkozy said. He insisted, however, that "the revolution will not be brought about from outside, it will be brought about from the inside."

Cameron said Britain and France are working "to see what more we can do" to help the Syrian opposition.

In a joint statement, Cameron and Sarkozy pledged that their countries "will continue to increase their engagement with the Syrian opposition, including encouraging the opposition to work together and to support the vision of an inclusive, prosperous and free Syria. "

They urged the European Union to adopt new sanctions against the regime by Feb. 27 and offer "substantial" aid to Syria if and when Assad leaves.

Cameron also said Britain is sending food rations for 20,000 people and medical supplies for those affected by fighting in Homs and elsewhere in Syria.

The aid will include emergency drinking water and essential household items for refugees forced to leave their homes because of fighting in areas where humanitarian agencies are struggling to work freely amid government restrictions on movement.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said shells slammed into the Homs neighborhoods of Baba Amr, Bayadah, Khaldiyeh and Inshaat, killing at least five people. Syrian troops have been attacking the neighborhoods since Feb. 4. Amateur videos showed at least one tank shelling Baba Amr from close by.

Homs, a province in central Syria that stretches from the border with Lebanon in the west to the frontiers with Iraq and Jordan in the east, has been one of the key centers of the 11-month-old uprising against Assad. As the uprising has become more militarized in recent months with army defectors battling regime forces almost daily, the rebels have taken control of small parts of the province including neighborhoods in the city of Homs and the nearby town of Rastan.

The Observatory said security forces opened fire at protesters in the Damascus neighborhood of Mazzeh, killing one person and wounding 12. The group said another protester was shot dead in the province of Aleppo. It added that one of the biggest protests was in the southern village of Dael, where more than 10,000 marched calling for Assad's downfall.

The Observatory also reported clashes between troops and defectors in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, saying one civilian and one of the regime forces were killed.

State-run news agency, SANA, quoted Assad as telling visiting Mauritanian Prime Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf that political reforms in Syria "will move in parallel with restoring security and stability." It was another clear sign that Assad's regime will continue in its crackdown.

In neighboring Lebanon, security officials said two Lebanese farmers were wounded in the border village of Qaa after they were hit by bullets coming from the Syrian side.

On Thursday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon accused the Syrian regime of committing "almost certain" crimes against humanity. The U.N. General Assembly also overwhelmingly voted for a resolution that strongly condemns human rights violations by Assad's government. According to the U.N., more than 5,400 people have been killed since March in the regime's bloody crackdown.

The 193-member U.N. General Assembly voted 137-12 on the Arab-sponsored resolution calling on Assad to hand power to his vice president and immediately stop the crackdown. There were 17 abstentions.

Though there are no vetoes in the General Assembly and its resolutions are nonbinding, they do reflect world opinion on major issues. Russia and China, who recently vetoed a similar resolution in the U.N. Security Council, voted against the General Assembly measure along with North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and others who heeded Syria's appeal against the measure.

Thursday's high number of "yes" votes was the strongest international condemnation so far of Assad.

"Today, the U.N. General Assembly sent a clear message to the people of Syria: The world is with you," U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said. Assad "has never been more isolated. A rapid transition to democracy in Syria has garnered the resounding support of the international community. Change must now come."

Homs Shelling: Syria Troops Target Restive Central City, Activists Say

 

[Ropey]

Syrians protest against one dictator in favor of, what, a new dictator?

Probably.

IMO?

An Arab dictator in control of Arabs. Not a Shia dictator in control of Arabs.

 

[High_Gravity]

Syrians protest against one dictator in favor of, what, a new dictator?

Probably.

IMO?

An Arab dictator in control of Arabs. Not a Shia dictator in control of Arabs.

Thats basically whats going to happen, and thats gonna piss Iran off because with Assad in power they have a direct link all the way through to Lebanon.

 

[JStone]

Syrians protest against one dictator in favor of, what, a new dictator?

Probably.

IMO?

An Arab dictator in control of Arabs. Not a Shia dictator in control of Arabs.

Can you say when shiite/sunni rabs have ever not had a dictator in the last 1400 years or not been at war with each other? I didn't think so.

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria Homs Opposition Die Without Food, Medicine And Supplies

BEIRUT, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Struggling to survive after two weeks of withering bombardment by Syrian forces, people in the Baba Amro district of Homs are packed four or five families to a house, relying on collected rain water and watching their wounded friends and relatives die for lack of medicines, residents say.

Some say starvation is a real threat and accuse the world of abandoning them to army shelling which they say has killed dozens of people and wounded 2,000 in the rebel stronghold of an 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

With no chance to flee, many families have abandoned their houses on the outskirts and retreated further into the heart of the battered neighbourhood in the central western city of Homs, cramming dozens of people into small houses and apartments.

Those who survive the shelling face shortages of food and water which they say have been deliberately aggravated by government snipers shooting at water tanks. They are terrified to leave their homes and shelters.

"We are collecting rain water in jars and casseroles," said Abu Bakr, a resident of Baba Amro sheltering with 25 people in a two-room house.

"We take turns in sleeping -- some during the day and others during the night because we do not have enough space," he said.

Women who recently gave birth are unable to feed their babies because their breast milk has dried up from shock, he said. "Some women have volunteered to breast feed those babies but until when? Their lives are in danger."

The shelling destroyed many houses in the poor neighbourhood of 80,000 people and the few field hospitals erected months ago are in ruins, activists say. At least two doctors and two nurses were killed in the shelling, leaving Baba Amro with just two or three doctors, they say.

"FRIENDS AND RELATIVES DYING"

Some houses were turned into makeshift hospitals but the lack of medical supplies and staff mean there is little help for the wounded.

"We are watching the wounded die. All we are doing is using pieces of clothes to cover their wounds then watch them die," said another resident of Baba Amro, who declined to be named.

"We have lost many people and every day we have friends and relatives dying before our eyes, there is nothing we can do."

The government says it is fighting armed militants intent on overthrowing Assad who are funded and armed from abroad while the residents say the crackdown is aimed at crushing pro-democracy protesters and those opposed to Assad.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told Reuters that it was negotiating with Syrian authorities and opposition fighters on a "cessation of fighting" to bring life-saving aid to civilians hardest hit by the conflict.

Diplomatic sources said the ICRC was seeking a two-hour halt of hostilities in hotspots including Homs, a major industrial centre and Syria's third largest city, next to Damascus and Aleppo.

In some areas of Homs, the Free Syrian Army rebels set up checkpoints to try and block access to soldiers and Shabbiha militia loyal to Assad.

In Baba Amro, where many residents are farmers and traders, the massed troops on the outskirts of the district mean farmers are prevented from harvesting their crops.

"If people do not die of the shelling they will die of starvation soon," said an activist, who used the name Marx.

Syria Homs Opposition Die Without Food, Medicine And Supplies

 

[Ropey]

Syria Homs Opposition Die Without Food, Medicine And Supplies

BEIRUT, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Struggling to survive after two weeks of withering bombardment by Syrian forces, people in the Baba Amro district of Homs are packed four or five families to a house, relying on collected rain water and watching their wounded friends and relatives die for lack of medicines, residents say.

Some say starvation is a real threat and accuse the world of abandoning them to army shelling which they say has killed dozens of people and wounded 2,000 in the rebel stronghold of an 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

With no chance to flee, many families have abandoned their houses on the outskirts and retreated further into the heart of the battered neighbourhood in the central western city of Homs, cramming dozens of people into small houses and apartments.

Those who survive the shelling face shortages of food and water which they say have been deliberately aggravated by government snipers shooting at water tanks. They are terrified to leave their homes and shelters.

"We are collecting rain water in jars and casseroles," said Abu Bakr, a resident of Baba Amro sheltering with 25 people in a two-room house.

"We take turns in sleeping -- some during the day and others during the night because we do not have enough space," he said.

Women who recently gave birth are unable to feed their babies because their breast milk has dried up from shock, he said. "Some women have volunteered to breast feed those babies but until when? Their lives are in danger."

The shelling destroyed many houses in the poor neighbourhood of 80,000 people and the few field hospitals erected months ago are in ruins, activists say. At least two doctors and two nurses were killed in the shelling, leaving Baba Amro with just two or three doctors, they say.

"FRIENDS AND RELATIVES DYING"

Some houses were turned into makeshift hospitals but the lack of medical supplies and staff mean there is little help for the wounded.

"We are watching the wounded die. All we are doing is using pieces of clothes to cover their wounds then watch them die," said another resident of Baba Amro, who declined to be named.

"We have lost many people and every day we have friends and relatives dying before our eyes, there is nothing we can do."

The government says it is fighting armed militants intent on overthrowing Assad who are funded and armed from abroad while the residents say the crackdown is aimed at crushing pro-democracy protesters and those opposed to Assad.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told Reuters that it was negotiating with Syrian authorities and opposition fighters on a "cessation of fighting" to bring life-saving aid to civilians hardest hit by the conflict.

Diplomatic sources said the ICRC was seeking a two-hour halt of hostilities in hotspots including Homs, a major industrial centre and Syria's third largest city, next to Damascus and Aleppo.

In some areas of Homs, the Free Syrian Army rebels set up checkpoints to try and block access to soldiers and Shabbiha militia loyal to Assad.

In Baba Amro, where many residents are farmers and traders, the massed troops on the outskirts of the district mean farmers are prevented from harvesting their crops.

"If people do not die of the shelling they will die of starvation soon," said an activist, who used the name Marx.

Syria Homs Opposition Die Without Food, Medicine And Supplies

Thankfully the modern world doesn't have tribal warfare to deal with. Well, not our own. Some choose to emigrate and bring it here.

That's another ball of wax though.

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria Crisis: Homs Shelling Kills 2 Western Journalists

BEIRUT (AP) — A French photojournalist and an American working for a British newspaper were killed Wednesday by Syrian government shelling of the opposition stronghold of Homs, France's government said.

Activists said at least two other Western journalists were injured in barrages that claimed at least 19 lives.

In Paris, French government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse said those killed were French photojournalist Remi Ochlik and American veteran war reporter Marie Colvin, who was working for Britain's Sunday Times. France's Foreign Minister, Alain Juppe, said the attacks show the "increasingly intolerable repression" by Syrian forces.

The Syrian military has redoubled its attacks on Homs in the past few days, aiming to retake neighborhoods that have come under control of the opposition and armed rebels — many of them military defectors. The seizure of territory and nearly daily clashes between the rebels and regime forces have pushed Syria to the brink of all-out civil war.

The Obama administration opened the door slightly Tuesday to international military assistance for Syria's rebels, with officials saying new tactics may have to be explored if President Bashar Assad continues to defy pressure to halt a brutal crackdown on dissenters that has raged for 11 months and killed thousands.

The White House and State Department said they still hope for a political solution. But faced with the daily onslaught by the Assad regime against Syrian civilians, officials dropped the administration's previous strident opposition to arming anti-regime forces. It remained unclear, though, what, if any, role the U.S. might play in providing such aid.

A Homs-based activist, Omar Shaker, also said two other Western journalists were wounded. including a photographer for the Sunday Times and a Spanish reporter.

There was no immediate comment from the Sunday Times or Ochlik's photo agency.

He said the journalists were killed when several rockets hit a garden of a house used by activists and journalists in the besieged Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr, which has come under weeks of heavy bombardment by forces from Assad's regime. At least 19 people were killed in Wednesday's shelling, including the journalists, activists said.

Shaker said the bodies were taken to a makeshift hospital in Baba Amr.

The U.N. estimates that 5,400 people have been killed in repression by the regime of President Bashar Assad against a popular uprising that began 11 months ago. Syrian activists, however, put the death toll at more than 7,300.

He added that intense Syrian troops shelling with tanks and artilleries began at 6:30 a.m. and was continuing hours later. He said the apartment used by journalists was hit around 10 a.m.

An amateur video posted online by activist showed what they claimed were bodies of two people in the middle of a heavily damaged house. It said they were of the journalists. One of the dead was wearing what appeared to be a flak jacket.

In Geneva, the International Red Cross said it was holding talks with members of the opposition Syrian National Council. The ICRC called Tuesday for a daily two-hour halt to fighting in Syria so it can bring emergency aid to affected areas and evacuate the wounded and sick.

Head of ICRI operations for the Middle East, Beatrice Megevand-Roggo, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the ICRC had almost no contacts with opposition figures inside Syria.

The journalists' deaths came a day after a Syrian sniper shot dead Rami al-Sayyed, a prominent activist in Baba Amr who was famous for posting online videos, Shaker and the Local Coordination Committees activist group said.

Syria Crisis: Homs Shelling Kills 2 Western Journalists

 

[Ropey]

Iran sent two warships steaming through the Suez Canal to Syria Monday — boosting embattled President Assad’s regime and flexing military might amid rumors of a looming Israeli attack.

Iran also launched military exercises in the central desert to improve the protection of its nuclear sites.

“The grandeur and mightiness of the country’s Armed Forces is a deterrent element against enemies’ recent aggressions and threats,” Major Gen. Mohammad Ali Jaffari told Iran’s Fars news agency.

Iran insists it is enriching uranium for the generation of civilian power generation, but U.S. experts believe the nuclear program is gearing up to make weapons.

Israel says it won’t wait for a weapon to appear before striking Iran’s nuke facilities

Joining the geopolitical chess match, China’s influential People’s Daily warned Monday that any Western support for Syria’s rebels would stir up a “large-scale civil war.”

China and Russia are Syria’s last powerful allies.

Syrian security forces have killed at least 5,000 people in the sputtering yearlong uprising against Assad’s rule, human rights groups say.

Iran dispatches warships through Suez Canal to aid Syrian dictator Bashar Assad* - NY Daily News