No Way Out!

Under Assad rule we do have much corruption in the judicial system, as is the case in other sectors, but the legal code itself is not all that bad. An upgrade is surely needed, but a return to Sharia rule, as so many are advocating today, sounds more like a downgrade to my secular ears. But if that’s what Islamists want, that’s what they should get. There is absolutely no problem in their desire to apply sharia law to themselves. The problem lies in their burning desire to apply it even to those who reject it, under the faulty understanding of democracy as majority rule, individual rights notwithstanding. Irrespective of how and why our revolution started two years ago, the issue of identity, individual, communal, regional, is now at stake, and while it is quite obvious that the common identity we thought we had, Syrian, and the one we do indeed have, human, is not enough to inspire mutual confidence and trust and prevent our internecine strife, geography tells us that our destinies will remain interlinked for the rest of time whether we liked or not. Sooner or later we have to work things out, none of us will be moving to the stars anytime soon.  

 

Today’s Death Toll: 132 martyrs, including 6 women, 13 children, and 1 martyr who died under torture: 37 martyrs in Damascus and Suburbs, 35 in the massacre committed by the regime’s army in the area of Tal Barak in Hasakeh, 18 in Daraa, 11 in Aleppo, 6 in Raqqa, 6 in Hama, 5 in Idlib, 1 in Quneitra, 1 in Deir Ezzor, and 1 in Jableh (LCCs).

Points of Random Shelling: 358. 27 locations were bombed by warplanes; 3 sites were subjected to Scud missile attacks; and 4 locations were hit by surface-to-surface missiles. 5 locations were subjected to cluster bombing: Najiyeh, Kafr Zeta, Marjeh, Saraqeb, and Taftanaz. 106 locations were shelled using mortars; 124 locations were artillery-shelled; and 90 locations were subjected to rocket attacks (LCCs).

Clashes: 145. Successful operations include downing two warplanes: in southern Homs and in Hama. FSA rebels also sealed off the road linking Hassakeh and Qamishly, and established multiple checkpoints along the road (LCCs).

 

News

Seeking to Aid Rebels in Syria, France Urges End to Arms Embargo “We want Europeans to lift the arms embargo,” President François Hollande of France told reporters as he arrived in Brussels for a European Union summit meeting. Echoing earlier comments by his foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, Mr. Hollande said: “We are ready to support the rebellion, so we are ready to go this far. We must take our responsibilities.”

Syria’s historic treasure trove in ‘unpublicized’ danger Over 12 museums have been looted; all six of the UNESCO World Heritage sites have been damaged; historical sites, including Bosra, Krak des Chevaliers, Palmyra, Apamea, have been destroyed while surrounding areas have become a stage for war. Aleppo’s medieval Citadel, Great Mosque and the Ottoman Souq have all become a battlefield.

Watch: Damascus synagogue in ruins Syrian opposition releases further documentation of synagogue damaged in early March, allegedly by mortar shells fired by Assad’s army; former chief rabbi of Syria ‘chilled’ at the damage

Two years later, Syrian revolutionaries reflect on their cause, the costs The popular unrest following the first protests in March 2011 has challenged the dynastic dictatorship that has ruled Syria for years. Today, Syria is being torn apart by a civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people and forced more than one million Syrians to flee the country. The conflict threatens to spill across borders to destabilize neighbors in an already turbulent Middle East. The opposition says Friday (March 15) marks the second anniversary of the beginning of the uprising.
Special Reports

Three items on Syria from Foreign Policy Research Institute: In this essay, Gary Gambill, an analyst of Syrian and Lebanese politics, provides an in-depth look at Syria’s Druze and ponders whether they will turn to the rebels or back the regime. In this essay, Adam Garfinkle, editor of The American Interest magazine, suggests it may be best – at this point — for the US to stay out of Syria, having earlier supported a more activist policy to help oust the regime. In this audio file of a recent session of Geopolitics with Granieri, “Syria: Where Do We Go from Here?”, FPRI Senior Fellow Barak Mendelsohn takes questions on the latest developments in Syria.  There is no good solution in sight, he says, but he does help to clarify the policy dilemmas.

Courts Become A Battleground For Secularists, Islamists In Syria Powerful Islamist brigades are competing with pro-democracy civilians to shape Syria’s future. One battlefront is in the courts. In many areas in northern Syria, Islamists have set up religious courts that deliver rulings under Shariah, or Islamic law — a fundamental change in Syria’s civil legal system… There is also a fear that Islamist radicals may kick out the old form of dictatorship but replace it with an Islamist version. In the northern city of Raqqa, militants posted leaflets announcing that anyone who supports democracy is an infidel, a serious charge in any Islamic court.

Syria’s bloody anniversary THE means to prevent this implosion are the same that could have stopped the ignition of the civil war: aggressive intervention by the United States and its allies to protect the opposition and civilians. This would not require ground troops, only more training and the supply of heavy weapons to the rebels, and airstrikes to eliminate the regime’s warplanes, missiles and, if necessary, chemical weapons. The recognition of an alternative government led by the civilian Syrian National Coalition would send the message to wavering regime supporters that it was time to defect and would help to isolate al-Qaeda before it is too late.

In Syrian Clash Over ‘Death Highway,’ a Bitterly Personal War Since late last spring, antigovernment fighters have wrested much of northern Syria from Mr. Assad’s control, overrunning military checkpoints and several bases, and pushing the army back. But the rebel tide, largely led in northwestern Syria by Islamic groups, moves slowly, checked by weapon shortages and by a lingering archipelago of government positions where the army and loyalist militias have settled in with powerful weapons, equipped for a long fight. Each of these military positions, and the roads between them, have become minifronts, an almost uncountable set of bloody battlefields where rebels try to silence government outposts, which are mostly arrayed around Syria’s main cities.

The tough lessons from an invasion a decade ago do not apply today The Syrian leader’s slaughter of his own people carries dangerous messages for the region and imperils a civilised international order. There comes a point where humanitarian imperatives must trump hard-headed calculations of narrow interests… What is required now… is a display of the energetic US diplomacy that has been woefully absent during most of the fighting. Where was Hillary Clinton? Where is John Kerry? Or, indeed, where is Mr Obama? Where is the high-level demarche that tests to destruction Moscow’s declared desire to halt the bloodshed by backing a settlement? What about gathering support at the UN for humanitarian corridors? If Vladimir Putin needs to be flattered and bribed, so be it. And, yes, Mr Assad should be offered dirty guarantees of safe passage. A big diplomatic push might fail. If it does, the US and Europe will have to think hard about providing arms to the rebels. But Mr Obama could at least make the effort. Iraq was a painful demonstration of American hubris. Syria should not pay the price of US timidity.

Two Years Later: What the Syrian War Looks Like What does the Syrian war look like? It looks like shells that crash and thud and thump into residential streets, sometimes with little warning. It looks like messy footprints in a pool of blood on a hospital floor as armed local men, many in mismatched military attire and civilian clothing, rush in their wounded colleagues, or their neighbors… What does the Syrian war look like? Above all, it looks like the names and faces of the seventy thousand people the United Nations says have been killed in the two years since the uprising began. The real figure is likely much higher. The U.N. number is of those whose names or faces are known, and doesn’t include the countless others who are still missing, who may be in mass graves. At least seventy thousand people dead. That means seventy thousand individuals, each part of a family, each family part of a community, each community part of a country. That is what the Syrian war looks like.

My new paper, prepared for a briefing in Washington, D.C. that took place on January 15, 2013, is now out and is titled “Syria 2013: Rise of the Warlords.” It should be read in conjunction with my previous briefing “The Shredded Tapestry,” and my recent essay “The Creation of an Unbridgeable Divide.”

 

Video Highlights

The oldest synagogue in Damascus City is hit during regime shelling of Jobar Neighborhood http://youtu.be/nqgWJSkzwSU

Rebels in Damascus Suburbs, take loyalists prisoners in the town of Khan Shaikh http://youtu.be/Vv5vSe6QNfU

Islamist Rebels rig a car in preparation for an attack on a loyalist militia position in Kneiseen http://youtu.be/F3EL1373wCw

The battle for Daraa City intensifies as rebels seek to liberate the entire southern parts of Syria and complete their siege of Damascus http://youtu.be/_EmnYqbKgTY , http://youtu.be/hYZfjwsGwOw

The battles around the town of Heesh, Idlib intensify http://youtu.be/u-fNs9L39xs The pounding of nearby Bsheiriyeh by regime forces intensifies as well http://youtu.be/LUyhogiHQk8 , http://youtu.be/O6P3NVQbw_E , http://youtu.be/9HW2-T9JSbU

Free for All!

The world, led by the U.S., waited until the water was muddy, now they want to do something! But most of their taboos remain unchanged: no no-fly zone, no peacekeepers, but some arms to some rebels. That’s a recipe for making things worse. A political process cannot take place without a no-fly zone, so, arming the rebels without imposing a no-fly zone will only lengthen the civil war and make it bloodier by drawing in more and more actors from abroad to join both sides of the Divide. Arming the rebels can help change the realities on the ground in their favor, and that is good, but only a no-fly zone can help jump-start a real political process. That process needs to take place inside the country, because it is not only about dialogue between regime and opposition, but also about internal dialogue within each camp, and about connecting with the grassroots. Should the world wait even longer before grasping the need for this, even a no-fly zone will become moot, because Syria as a viable state will have been made moot.

 

Today’s Death Toll: 103 martyrs, including 6 women and 5 children. 38 reported in Damascus and Suburbs, 26 in Aleppo, 15 in Homs, 9 in Daraa, 8 in Hama (including 6 who were slaughtered in Hamamiyat), 4 in Idlib, 2 in Deir Ezzor and 1 in Qunaitera (LCCs).

Points of Random Shelling: 234 points. Aerial bombardments counted in 7 points. Scud bombing counted in 1 point. Shelling using Surface-to-Surface missiles counted for in 1 point. Shelling using cluster bombs was recorded in Kafarsajneh in Idlib. Artillery shelling counted in 95 points. Mortar shelling counted in 87 points. Rocket shelling counted for 41 points (LCCs).

Clashes: 114. Successful rebel operations include taking control over the National Hospital and the Blood Bank in Alboukamal City, Deir Ezzor Province, liberating the Military Housing Checkpoint in Khan Sheikh, Damascus Suburbs invading a loyalist checkpoint in Adra, Damascus Suburbs and liberating 14 checkpoints in Jose village on the Syrian-Lebanese border (LCCs).

 

News

Syrian troops and rebels open new battlefront near Damascus (Reuters) – Heavy fighting erupted in an area between Damascus and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Wednesday in what could be a new battlefront between Syrian troops and rebels, opposition sources said. Rebel fighters attacked an army barracks manned by elite Republican Guards and the Fourth Mechanised Division, headed by President Bashar al-Assad’s brother Maher, in Khan Sheih, 6 km (4 miles) from the outskirts of Damascus, civilian activists and an opposition military source said. Clashes intensified three days after Sunni Muslim rebels overran a missile squadron in the area, killing 30 soldiers, mostly from Assad’s minority Alawite sect, the sources said. The region also hosts a Palestinian refugee camp.

Conflict in Syria creates wave of British jihadists: Over 100 UK Muslims thought to have gone to fight in conflict Syria has replaced Pakistan and Somalia as the preferred front line where Islamist volunteers can experience immediate combat with relatively little official scrutiny, security agencies said. The worrying development has been taking place as extremist groups, some with links to al-Qa’ida, have become the dominant force in the uprising against the Damascus regime.

Syria’s Brotherhood calls for action amid escalating violence “We in the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria declare the week following March 15 a national week of solidarity with the Syrian people and their blessed revolution,” AFP quoted the exiled opposition group as saying. “We call on the heroic Syrian people to bring back to life all aspects of the uprising… inspired by the spirit of real national unity, speaking in one voice,” a statement added

Russia Condemns Talk of Arming Syria Rebels Russia’s foreign minister has condemned talk of arming the Syrian opposition, saying it is illegal under international law. Russia’s Sergei Lavrov spoke Wednesday in London following a meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague. Britain and some other countries have talked of lifting a European Union arms embargo to allow weapons to be sent to opposition forces.

Moscow flies more Russians home from Syria Moscow says it does not plan a mass evacuation of the thousands of Russian living in Syria, but government planes have now flown nearly 300 people to Russia this year to allow them to escape the civil war there. The ministry said the plane had 76 Russians on board as well as 27 citizens of neighboring countries, and that more such flights would be conducted as necessary.

Syria’s children: even their first words are now shaped by war – A Save the Children report released today states that children, some 2 million of them, are the ‘forgotten victims’ of Syria’s war. When Sham, born during Syria’s civil war, uttered her first word recently, it conveyed a great deal about how devastated her country is. “Enfijar,” the toddler said. Explosion. “That’s why we left, that’s why we ran,” said Sham’s mother Hamma in an interview with international aid group Save the Children. “My daughter’s first word is ‘explosion.’ It is a tragedy. We felt constantly as if we were about to die.” Sham (whose name was changed by researchers) is one of nearly 2 million children who have become “forgotten victims” of Syria’s brutal civil war, according to reports released this week by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children. Though accurate statistics are notoriously difficult to come by in war zones, the two reports together chart a slow march toward crises in education, health, and violence – both conflict-related and sexual – against Syrian children since the conflict began two years ago.

Child soldiers increasingly recruited in Syria: charity Save the Children said in a report marking two years of violence in Syria that two million children were innocent victims of the bloody conflict that the United Nations says has cost at least 70,000 lives. These children were struggling to find enough food to eat and were therefore under constant risk of malnutrition and disease, said the report, adding many were unable to go to school. Girls were being forced into early marriage in an effort to protect them from the perceived threat of sexual violence. “Children are increasingly being put directly in harm’s way as they are being recruited by armed groups and forces,” said Save the Children. “There is a growing pattern of armed groups on both sides of the conflict recruiting children under 18 as porters, guards, informers or fighters.

U.S. foreign policy toward Syria is complex, serious and troubling There is no doubt President Bashar al-Assad is a brutal dictator, and that the rebels are trying to remove him from power. But we must also consider that at least some of the rebel groups fighting to oust the tyrant are also radical Islamists.

Al Nusrah Front poised to take over last major city on Euphrates River The Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, al Qaeda in Iraq’s affiliate in Syria, may be close to taking control of Deir al Zour, the last major city on the Euphrates River in the west. The al Qaeda group’s gains in the city take place just days after jihadists announced the formation of the “Sharia Committee for the Eastern Region” to govern areas under its control. The Al Nusrah Front has seized control of several government installations in Deir al Zour, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that closely track the civil war, reported on its Facebook page.

Saudi youth fighting against Assad regime in Syria: GlobalPost has learned that hundreds of young Saudis are flocking to Syria in a ‘holy war’ against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. With the tacit approval from the House of Saud, and financial support from wealthy Saudi elites, the young men take up arms in what Saudi clerics have called a “jihad,” or “holy war” against the Assad regime. Based on a month of reporting in the region and in Washington, over a dozen sources have confirmed that wealthy Saudis, as well as the government, are arming some Syrian rebel groups. Saudi and Syrian sources confirm that hundreds of Saudis are joining the rebels, but the government denies any sponsoring role.

Exclusive: Gaza Salafists Take Fight To Syria I managed to reach the house of one of the jihadist Salafist leaders in the Gaza Strip… he explained why the members of the movement had moved to Syria to fight, saying, “They moved to Syria because the jihad door in the Gaza Strip was closed, and the situation was not taken into consideration, contrary to Syria, where it is open to jihad and to fighting the enemy.” He refused to define what he means by enemy, and he noted that after he was locked up more than once in the aftermath of Ibn Taymiya Mosque incident, he sought to live a simple life and to keep his jihad mission and vocation as a member of the Salafist jihad between God and himself… Despite his reluctance to talk or to disclose the number of militants from Gaza in Syria, he ultimately provided some information about their presence and efforts against the regime in Syria, independent of the Free Syrian Army. The militants joined Jabhat al-Nusra, which was formed in 2011 in Syria and was classified by the US as a terrorist organization.

Syria anti-regime protesters demonstrate against Al-Nusra Anti-regime activists took to the streets of rebel-held Mayadeen in eastern Syria on Wednesday for a third straight day to demand that jihadist Al-Nusra Front fighters leave the town, a watchdog said. “For the third day in a row, protests erupted in Mayadeen calling on the Al-Nusra Front to leave the town,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Protests erupted after the Islamist Al-Nusra Front — blacklisted in December by the United States as a “terrorist” organization — set up a religious council in the east of Deir Ezzor province, where Mayadeen is situated, to administer affairs in the area.

Syria denies reports of mass conscription The latest rumors fueled fears all men 50 and younger could be drafted to help the government battle a rebellion that has taken a heavy toll on the military.

France’s Fabius says Europe must drop Syria arms ban French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius kept up his push on Wednesday for Europe to ditch a ban on supplying arms to Syria, saying stepping up help to the opposition was the only way to end the bloody two-year-old crisis. “We must go further and allow the Syrian people to defend themselves against this bloody regime. It’s our duty to help the Coalition, its leaders and the Free Syrian army by all means possible,” Fabius wrote in the daily Liberation newspaper.

UN must refer Syria war crimes to ICC: Amnesty “How many more civilians must die before the UN Security Council refers the situation to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court so that there can be accountability for these horrendous crimes?” asked Ann Harrison, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

UN cuts Golan patrols as Syria war dangers mount The Philippine government said it is reviewing its activities after the 21 troops were held for four days by Syrian rebels. Austria has also raised concerns to the UN, diplomats said. “There is a risk they will all leave. And if they all leave then the mission is in definite crisis,” said one senior UN diplomat. “There is a real danger of the total unraveling of the force,” added another senior Security Council diplomat. The UN has “decided to restrict the movement of UNDOF,” said the UN diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity. “They are no longer doing patrols. They have closed down some of the observation posts.” Shots were fired at one observation post after the Filipinos were freed last Saturday, March 9.

Photo Essay”: Daily Life in Syria’s Civil War

 

Special Reports

Lebanon: Sibling of Syria – With war in Syria threatening to spill over into Lebanon, we examine the two countries’ shared history. “For the first time since 1970, when Hafez al-Assad came to power, up until now, Lebanon misses the spirit of the ‘big brother’. The oppressive spirit that also brings our people together. We can’t just wonder how the current situation in Syria would affect life in Lebanon. This is a serious issue. And we need to think more about it,” says Nahla Chahal, a researcher and journalist.”

How the Muslim Brotherhood Hijacked Syria’s Revolution: The shadowy Islamist group that was all but destroyed in the 1980s is ruining the uprising against Bashar al-Assad. No one in Syria expected the anti-regime uprising to last this long or be this deadly, but after around 70,000 dead, 1 million refugees, and two years of unrest, there is still no end in sight. While President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal response is mostly to blame, the opposition’s chronic failure to form a viable front against the regime has also allowed the conflict to drag on. And there’s one anti-Assad group that is largely responsible for this dismal state of affairs: Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood. Throughout the Syrian uprising, I have had discussions with opposition figures, activists, and foreign diplomats about how the Brotherhood has built influence within the emerging opposition forces. It has been a dizzying rise for the Islamist movement. It was massacred out of existence in the 1980s after the Baathist regime put down a Brotherhood-led uprising in Hama. Since then, membership in the Brotherhood has been an offense punishable by death in Syria, and the group saw its presence on the ground wither to almost nothing. But since the uprising erupted on March 15, 2011, the Brotherhood has moved adroitly to seize the reins of power of the opposition’s political and military factions.

Terrorism and freedom fighting along the Syria-Iraq border: When some rebel groups kill Syrian government soldiers, the US applauds. When others do the killing, it’s ‘terrorism.’ Why? …the killing of Syrian soldiers by rebels is good, right? Well, not exactly. Depending on who does the killing it can be labelled as terrorism or the actions of a people striving to be free… [Nuland] appeared to define terrorism as killing anyone not in the middle of an all-out battle. “We’ve been pretty clear about calling out attacks against folks who are not in the middle of a firefight all the way through this from both sides,” she said. By this definition, every drone assassination carried out by the Bush and Obama administrations has been terrorism, as have the frequent tactics of bombing or ambushing insurgents at home, in both Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s an absurd definition of terrorism. Usually governments say absurd things when the policy being discussed is filled with contradictions.

Hugh Segal: We must intervene in Syria to protect ourselves Syrian groups that sought liberalization and democracy have been annihilated for want of weapons and money, while the militias the West would never want to see take over Syria have become the best-armed, most effective elements within the rebellion. It is not too late to engage. A coalition composed of Arab and NATO countries could still intervene decisively with a targeted air campaign, reducing Assad’s military capabilities and giving the remnants of pro-democracy forces a fighting chance. Western special forces units could also enter Syria, link up with pro-democracy forces and provide an immediate counter to the superior firepower of the Islamist groups. Turkey, NATO’s only Muslim country, would be the logical leader for this operation (which would also suit U.S. President Barack Obama’s preference for “leading from behind”). What Bosnia, Afghanistan and Libya have taught us is not that interventions fail, but that imperfect and messy results are still better than the alternative of no engagement at all. The same countries that considered an al-Qaeda-controlled Afghanistan an unacceptable risk to the West cannot be blind to the much greater threat that an Islamist, unstable Syria would pose, not just to Israel, but the entire region. This is no longer only about our moral responsibility to protect Syria’s helpless civilians. It’s about protecting our allies, and ultimately, ourselves.

A Battle for Syria, One Court at a Time When members of a fledgling court system in Aleppo, Syria, refused to hand over newly refurbished offices to the head of a Shariah Board last month, four vehicles filled with heavily armed fighters promptly roared through the fence surrounding the five-story concrete building. The fighters, so-called Shariah Board police, knocked down one cleric who objected, then carted off some 20 lawyers and other employees, whacking some with rifle butts, according to four members of an Aleppo lawyers association who spoke with witnesses. More than a simple turf war, the confrontation was part of a secondary battle already playing out across Syria, even with its civil war unresolved. It is the fight over who will shape Syria’s future… “Syria right now is a jungle where everyone is competing to be the power,” said Faraj, a young fighter. In many places, someone who was a baker or a taxi driver now controls hundreds of men and uses them to run one or two villages at his whim, he said. “Another six months of that and people are going to want Assad back because they are fed up.”

My new paper, prepared for a briefing in Washington, D.C. that took place on January 15, 2013, is now out and is titled “Syria 2013: Rise of the Warlords.” It should be read in conjunction with my previous briefing “The Shredded Tapestry,” and my recent essay “The Creation of an Unbridgeable Divide.”

Minorities, secularists, moderates and democrats have a right to fear from the rise of Jabhat Al-Nusra and affiliated groups. In recently liberated Raqqah City, members of Nusra circulated a pamphlet that described those who believe democracy as “infidels.” That does not augur well, but it does show to more and more people how dangerous this group is. The aura of saintliness and sanctity is being undermined, and the people are not afraid to tell Al-Nusra what they really think.

The problem is: it’s not just Al-Nusra, there are so many radicals now, and, then, the pro-Assad militias, then foreign fighters on both sides. Turf war is looming, and guns trump words.

Meanwhile, Jabhat Al-Nusra is taking control of the southern parts of the country as well, including the border with Israel:

Tanks operated by rebels from Jabhat Al-Nusra take part in pounding loyalist positions in the town of Saida, Daraa Province http://youtu.be/Gf7fcgMlkFs , http://youtu.be/mdbAD8CFOVk The spokesman, who clearly identify that the tnaks belong to Al-Nusra, was the same one relating the massacre against imprisoned regime loyalists that took place in Al-Jamla region a few days ago, meaning that it was Al-Nusra who was responsible for perpetrating it all along, contrary to what I thought at the time. This also means that it was Al-Nusra who was holding the UN observers. It’s Al-Nusra that is now controlling areas along the border with Israel.

This is how I covered the massacre of Jamla at the time (March 4): After liberating a loyalist checkpoint in the village of Jamlah, rebels executed their prisoners despite heated protestations from some in their ranks http://youtu.be/T5Z0E1EIBbc The fighters, however, are not affiliated with Jabhat Al-Nusra or any other Jihadi groups, their rhetoric and their adherence to the independence flag indicate that they are the “moderate” Islamists we hear so much about. There are no more moderates in this fight. We have waited too long. http://youtu.be/Mly9pm9FeDA “Those who don’t defect, will be killed” http://youtu.be/W7_qUMqtjcg The incident took place on March 4.

The same man also shows us the havoc wrought by regime shelling of the town of Kateebah http://youtu.be/dbxmHdeaB6k And Khirbet Ghazaleh http://youtu.be/Ga1cHWj5uAs And Western Ghariyeh http://youtu.be/rgBoljG4yn4 And the International Highway connecting Damascus and Amman http://youtu.be/UDBX3Ee0tGs The significance of this is to note that now it is Jabhat Al-Nusra that is taking control of the southwest parts of Syria, after taking control of much of the East.

In volatile border region, fear grips Syria’s minority
(Reuters) – One hot night last summer, Rajaa Taher grabbed a few essentials and fled her home in the Syrian village of Saqarja with her husband and children, escaping across farmlands to Zayta just a few hundred meters away.

Taher, a Shi’ite, said she was threatened by Sunni Muslim rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad in the largely unmarked border region where Syria merges into Lebanon – an old smuggling area where Syrians and Lebanese, Shi’ites and Sunnis once lived together oblivious to national or sectarian boundaries.

Now the border region has become one of many flashpoints in Syria’s increasingly violent and sectarian conflict, which threatens more and more to drag in its tiny neighbor Lebanon, where many Sunnis back the revolt and many Shi’ites back Assad, a member of the Alawite offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

If the bloodshed seeps into Lebanon, where sectarian faultlines have been exacerbated by the nearly two years of crisis in Syria, the countryside around Taher’s village nestled just north of Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley may be one of the gateways for the spread.

The area is of strategic importance for the rebels who would be able to link Homs province in Syria to Sunni areas inside Lebanon for weapons and fighters. It is important for Lebanon’s Shi’ite militants Hezbollah to stop the rebels from taking over these Shi’ites villages as they will be a stone’s throw away from Hermel, one of the group’s strongholds.

Already rebels accuse Hezbollah of sending forces into the area to fight alongside Assad’s army – a charge the group denies, although it says there are Hezbollah members living and fighting among the estimated 30,000 Lebanese nationals in two dozen religiously mixed villages but with Shi’ites in the majority just inside Syria.

Taher and other Shi’ite and Alawite villagers tell another story, saying Sunni rebels have intimidated, expelled and killed Shi’ites as they seek to control territory close to Syria’s third largest city, Homs.

“We were neighbors. We lived there together for years and years,” said the 39-year-old woman, dressed in black like many others displaced from nearby villages.

“Then they sent us a message…that we are Shi’ites and we have no right to own land or a house or anything and we have to leave. They burned the house. They took our cows,” she said.

“They took my brother-in-law and we don’t know what happened to him. We left the village when they started calling from the mosque speakers for Jihad. We left under bullets,” she said tearfully, adding that her nephew was recently killed.

“What do they want from us? We were all one family living together … Do they hate us just because we are Shi’ites?”

 

Video Highlights

In a response to the Grand Mufti’s recent call for Jihad, gets a death fatwa from a defected member of the Syrian Sunni religious established, Sheikh Anas Al-Suwaid http://youtu.be/gQCR3wf1SDs The sheikh says that if the call for Jihad led to an increase in the number of Shia fighters from Iran, Hezbollah going into Syria, then the blood of the Grand Mufti will be forfeit.

Rebels from Liwa Al-Islam shows a mortar round made in Israel claiming that it has confiscated it from the regular army, and using it to bolster their claim of a secret agreement between Israel and Assad. This is the kind of conspiracy theories now prevalent in rebel circuits http://youtu.be/ZQHT4jptJ9Y Rebels from the same unit take control of the headquarters of the loyalist militias, Jaish Al-Sha’bi, in the town of Adra, Damascus Suburbs, and confiscate the ammunition http://youtu.be/vHeIAeewn9Y Jaish Al-Sh’abi is a loyalist militias classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. Treasury Department. The Liwa used its own confiscated tanks to pound the headquarters http://youtu.be/JvMXfooxNOI , http://youtu.be/m88fHJML_Tc

Loyalist troops from 113^th Battalion in Deir Ezzor Province destroyed their stockpile of rockets before giving up the site to rebels http://youtu.be/fadHGGwwmqY

Relief workers from a local volunteer organization, Rawafid, distribute food rations in Deir Ezzor City http://youtu.be/wbpvMeC5uLQ , http://youtu.be/K3FvuBFwmn4

This fire in Baramkeh Neighborhood in Central Damascus City is the result of rebel pounding of the City by rebels. The rebels were aiming for the military security complex in the neighborhood but missed. Their rockets civilian targets: cars and dwellings http://youtu.be/IumCnj9qjkM , http://youtu.be/spN8oQf22aA Nearby Fahhameh was also targeted http://youtu.be/kigJzd7d2Ek

Meanwhile, regime forces keep pounding rebel stronghold in and around the city of Damascus: Jobar http://youtu.be/jm_PLGAihtE , http://youtu.be/NS-UxsYE0UE

Scenes from the battlefield that is the town of Daraya, Damascus Suburbs http://youtu.be/A318LFTA15g , http://youtu.be/_VVLnuXNi6c , http://youtu.be/m28K4hnpv6g , http://youtu.be/eHWR1dIGs68 , http://youtu.be/BNEK6u5vhlg , http://youtu.be/vFqtEZPKjYE

In Daraa City, rebels pound loyalist troops headquarters at the main Post Office http://youtu.be/2n34lIgmWyw  , http://youtu.be/FsNrtI7OVxo , http://youtu.be/i8HhYZTLKqc

Holy Shit!

Battle fatigue on part of pro-Assad troops and militias coupled with the call to Jihad might just act as prelude for the introduction of foreign Shia militias, and perhaps for official Iranian intervention similar to the old Syrian intervention in Lebanon. The Islamic Reformation has found its new theater of operations. The plot thickens, and the blood flows.

 

Today’s Death Toll: 103 martyrs, including 5 women, 2 children, and 1 martyr under torture: 50 martyrs in Damascus and suburbs including 30 FSA rebels, 16 in Aleppo, 12 in Daraa, 11 in Hama, 6 in Homs, 2 in Idlib, 1 in Quneitera, 1 in Hassakeh and 1 in Lattakia (LCCs).

Points of Random Shelling: 276 points. Aerial bombardments in 21 points. Scud bombing in 2 points. Shelling using Surface-to-Surface missiles in 2 points. Shelling using Thermobaric bombs in Raqqa city. Artillery shelling in 96 points. Mortar shelling in 90 points. Rocket shelling in 65 points (LCCs).

Clashes: 135. Successful operations include liberation of the Industrial Institute in Deir Ezzor City, repelling attempts by regime forces to retake Barzerh Neighborhood in Damascus City (LCCs).

 

News

In Secular Syria, Top Muslim Cleric Picks Sides In Civil War Hassoun’s decree struck many Syrians as very strange because Assad’s government has long dismissed the uprising as the work of jihadis. The regime has often claimed that extremists from abroad have been inciting violence within Syria. In addition, the Assad regime has long championed itself as secular. The Baath Party, to which Assad belongs, has ruled Syria for over 40 years, sometimes acting in ways that were hostile to religiosity.

Syria’s Assad running out of troops to fight rebels Jeffrey White with the Washington Institute reports that an estimated 40 government soldiers are killed every day. Mr. White’s just toured Syria, and his estimate comes from the country’s funeral data. “In [the funeral worker’s] view, the army was exhausting itself,” Mr. White said, in The Guardian. Mr. White also confirms what the United Nations just reported — that Syria’s government has been increasingly relying on armed militia groups for aid.

Signs of Strain on Syria’s Military Build The government has long lacked enough reliably loyal troops to blanket contested areas with patrols or take them with ground operations, so instead has relied on indiscriminate air strikes and artillery attacks that have pushed the death toll well above 70,000, according to United Nations estimates. Now, to fill the gap, the government is increasingly relying on paramilitary groups, according to analysts and a recent United Nations report.

Syria’s Children Risk Becoming ‘Lost Generation,’ UNICEF Warns “Millions of children inside Syria and across the region are witnessing their past and their futures disappear amidst the rubble and destruction of this prolonged conflict,” UNICEF chief Anthony Lake said in a report published two years to the day after the Syrian conflict began. The Geneva-based agency pointed out that nearly half of the four million in dire need of aid inside Syria are under the age of 18, and 536,000 of them are children under the age of five.

Britain could sidestep EU ban on arming Syria rebels: PM Asked by a parliamentary committee whether Britain would veto the arms embargo when it comes up for renewal in three months’ time, Cameron said he would “like to continue with an EU approach.” “I hope that we can persuade our European partners if and when it becomes necessary (to provide weapons) they’ll agree with us,” he told the House of Commons Liaison Committee. “But if we can’t, then it’s not out of the question we might have to do things in our own way. It’s possible. “We are still an independent country, we can have an independent foreign policy.” Pressed on whether Britain could sidestep the arms ban, Cameron said: “If for instance we felt that action needed to be taken to help bring about change in Syria, to help end this appalling bloodshed, and if we felt our European partners were holding that back, then we’d have to change the approach.”

Israel’s Peres urges Arab intervention in Syria Israel’s Shimon Peres called Tuesday for Arab intervention “to stop the massacre” in Syria as he delivered the first speech by an Israeli head of state to the European Parliament in almost three decades. The free world “cannot stand by when a massacre is carried out by the Syrian president against his own people and his own children. It breaks all our hearts,” he said. Saying “the intervention of Western forces would be perceived as foreign interference,” Peres said the best option to end two years of tragedy in Syria “might be achieved by empowering the Arab League, of which Syria is a member, to intervene.” The 22-member Arab League pulled out its observer mission to Syria after only a month in January last year amid controversy after failing to halt the regime’s campaign against the rebels. “The Arab League can and should form a provisional government in Syria to stop the massacre, to prevent Syria from falling to pieces,” Peres told the 754-member European Parliament. “The United Nations should support the Arab League to build an Arab force in blue helmets,” he said. Asked at a news conference immediately afterwards whether he was indeed calling for military intervention by an Arab force, Peres said he did mean “a force” but that its actions could be as a peacekeeping force and “not necessarily military”.

Fearful Syrian voters will keep Assad in power: Qassem Sheikh Naim Qassem, who predicted a year ago that Assad would not be dislodged from power, said the Syrian leader would win a vote because his supporters understood that their communities’ very existence depended on him. “I believe that in a year’s time he will stand for the presidency. It will be the people’s choice, and I believe the people will choose him,” said the bearded, turban-wearing Shi’ite cleric, speaking carefully and deliberately. “The crisis in Syria is prolonged, and the West and the international community have been surprised by the degree of steadfastness and popularity of the regime.”

Syria crisis: Clashes as rebels target Baba Amr in Homs For a third day, rebel forces tried to regain control of the Baba Amr neighbourhood; pro-regime troops responded with artillery attacks. There have also been clashes on the key road between Damascus and the airport, as well as in the city of Aleppo.

U.N.: Both Syrian rebels and government forces guilty The Syrian war has never been a simple fight between good rebels and evil government forces, and the United Nations has said so several times in the past. But this week, U.N. investigators released a particularly detailed and horrific report that slams both sides, accusing rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad of murder, rape, torture and forced disappearances. Government forces and the rebels have violated international humanitarian law in the two-year war, said Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria. “The war displays all the signs of a destructive stalemate,” he told the U.N. Security Council this week.

France says Syria balance of power must be changed “France is thinking – although it is a European decision – of going further in lifting the embargo,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told a parliamentary committee. Just days after EU governments agreed a hard-fought compromise on a limited easing of the arms embargo to help Assad’s opponents, Fabius said there would be steps taken to go further. He did not give more details. “You will ask me is that not contradictory with finding a political solution, but we don’t think so,” he said. “If we want President Bashar al Assad to shift then he must be made to understand that he cannot win through military force. There is a new balance of power that has to be created.”

UN peacekeepers held in Syria ‘reach Israel’ UN peacekeepers held by rebels for several days in southern Syria and freed at the weekend crossed into Israel from neighbouring Jordan last night, a military spokeswoman said. The spokeswoman would not comment, however, on a report by an Israeli newspaper that Israeli troops had later escorted the 21 Filipino peacekeepers back to their base along the Syrian frontier with the Golan Heights, which are occupied by Israel.

 

Special Reports

Commentary: Saudis Gain Upper Hand on Syria’s Battlefields

With Al-Assad driven out, the Saudi-based, fundamentalist Wahhabi Sect that had been established among the Syrian tribes can, the reasoning goes, secure the continuation of Sunni domination there. That would protect the security of the Kingdom and the wealth and power of all of the other rulers along the Gulf… The Saudis may be able to get the Russians to bend. Saudi Arabia has the means to make life for the Russians dangerous. Wahhabi cadres operating in the Moslem regions of Russia are already starting uprisings. Once-peaceful areas in Russia are no longer safe, and Moscow has not figured how to deal with the problem. Is Russia prepared to sacrifice its own stability to save Al-Assad? The Saudis are in a position to force Putin to consider seriously the answer to that question.

My new paper, prepared for a briefing in Washington, D.C. that took place on January 15, 2013, is now out and is titled “Syria 2013: Rise of the Warlords.” It should be read in conjunction with my previous briefing “The Shredded Tapestry,” and my recent essay “The Creation of an Unbridgeable Divide.”

 

Video Highlights

This leaked video from the majority-Alawite village of Al-Amriyeh in North Homs shows a regime representative reading a list of names of people who will be given weapons by the regime. The scuffle that ensures when he is done reading the names reflects the anger of people whose name was not on the list. The video basically corroborates the existence of a policy calling for arming Alawite and Shia villages to use them as part of popular militias to help regime operations in their areas http://youtu.be/pl5M5vD_lzU

The town of Maarbah in Daraa Province comes under intense shelling http://youtu.be/gzX5jswSDSk

Aerial raids on the town of Heesh, idlib Province, intensifies http://youtu.be/7RIca7s-ciw Scenes from the clashes around Heesh http://youtu.be/SWjpx7aci3

In Damascus City, Jobar Neighborhood and surroundings come under renewed shelling and bombardment http://youtu.be/t2At2q1TGzA , http://youtu.be/Ctx4CGjJCIw

In Mazzeh Neighborhood, regime forces destroy homes near the Mazzeh Military Airport http://youtu.be/HBWmA3K7n3o

In Western Ghoutah, Damascus, rebels attack a loyalist outpost and take it over. We see them here pulling the dead bodies of regime loyalists from under the rubble in preparation or mass burial http://youtu.be/zJ5_s31VV7Y

Rebel strongholds in Homs City come under renewed pounding: Bab Houd http://youtu.be/DFmhtR07sA0 Khaldiyeh http://youtu.be/LbL99v1QZJw Rebels attack loyalist outpost near Baba Amr http://youtu.be/kQnSyEmj0fY

An Alawite opposition figure claim on Al-Arabiya TV that the number of Alawite soldiers and officers who have been killed since the beginning of the Revolution is around 40,000. No independent confirmation is available http://youtu.be/h8-UhLVPLMI

Date of incident: 26-1-2013
Documented by the Syrian Network for Human Rights
The location of Menbaj city on the map:
http://www.worldmapfinder.com/GoogleMaps/Ar_Asia_Syria_Manbij.html

 

The following is an eyewitness account of a media activist known as Abu Riyad , who was present during the shelling and is still alive.

“At approx 4pm, we were distributing aid to displaced civilians, when we heard the sound of a rocket and an explosion. Following this, people started to shout and run in the streets and we saw the airplane which launched the rocket. It was very far and too high to be caught by camera. We ran to the location of the shelling, which was the street of a public park and the shelling was close to the fence of the park, therefore, the open area lessened the extent of destruction. The rocket was dropped on an Arabic home which was completely destroyed, in addition to five other homes surrounding it, and it was clear that the shelling was done by an interstitial missile, not an explosive barrel due to the extent of destruction. This missile caused severe destruction over 100m in diameter and minor destruction over 200 diameters. Glass, doors and windows of shops were severely damaged, and the high pressure caused a truck on the side road to topple over, additionally, the cars were also destroyed and approx 10 shops were completely demolished.

18 people were killed, including a whole family ( Taha, Mohammad, Reem, Israa, Raghad and their mother Nozha) in addition to this,  approx 16 people were injured and were taken to hospital.”

The eyewitness can be contacted by voice and video on the following Skype account: msyria89

We were able to document the deaths of 19 civilians, including one family made up of a mother and 4 children. We also documented approx 50 injured people including 10 children who were less than 4 years old.

Names of the victims of the massacre: 

1. Rami Babensi – 22 years

2. Mohammad Sabahi – 12 years

3. Mohammad Makhlouf – 20 years

4. Basam AlHamam – 20 years

5. Ahmad AlShaher – 40 years

6. Ayman Darwish – 13 years

7. Siham Al Khalaf – 45 years

8. Fiddah AlShalash – 50 years

9. Zakaria Hunaifi – 25 years

10. Mohammad Qurrah Muhammad – 12 years

11. Bassam Hammam – a second year student in the college of chemistry

12. Nuzha AlHammam – 31 years – married to Khaled AlHamdouni

13. Taha Khaled AlHamdouni

14. Reem Khaled AlHamdouni

15. Raghad Khaled AlHamdouni

16. Israa Khaled AlHamdouni

17. Huda Qurrah Mohammad – 4 years

18. A 3 year old child whose name was not identified

19. An unidentified martyr

 

Attachments: 

When the civilians heard the sound of the airplane, a few activists used their cameras to film the airplane which enabled them to document the shelling.

The airplane which shelled the city:

http://youtu.be/CZSt4WqKV4A

The moment during which the missile was dropped

http://youtu.be/CZSt4WqKV4A

http://youtu.be/CZSt4WqKV4A

The martyrdom of a whole family

http://youtu.be/STISQkAI8vU

Children martyrs who died due to the shelling

http://youtu.be/ASwaVmTdEc0

http://youtu.be/eh-r08wAoEg

Footage of the incident and victims

http://youtu.be/STISQkAI8vU

http://youtu.be/STISQkAI8vU

http://youtu.be/ASwaVmTdEc0

http://youtu.be/eh-r08wAoEg

An injured child who is now in turkey, he has not be identified yet:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=420393344705532&set=a.389346417810225.92523.387744874637046&type=1&theater

A few images of the missile shelling on the city

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=321980471254248

Please note that there were no clashes prior to the shelling, the free Syrian army was not present in the area and the airplane only targeted civilians.

The paramedics or civil defence teams which belong to the Syrian government did not come to the scene of shelling to aid the Syrians or save the wounded or injured.

Additionally, the Syrian government or the Syrian parliament did not open an investigation or any sort of questioning as if nothing had happened.

According to the seventh session/ paragraph 100 in the Rome statute, murder is a crime against humanity. Also, according to the eighth session, murder is a war crime.

All paragraphs in the seventh and eighth sessions are present in this massacre.

Based on this information, the Syrian government is considered responsible for the systematic killing and torture of Syrian citizens. No government in the world has the right to kill civilians.

 

—

الشبكة السورية لحقوق الإنسان 

Syrian Network for Human Rights 

https://www.facebook.com/syrianhr