Today’s Death Toll: 143 (including 10 children and 7 women)

85 in Damascus and Suburbs, 24 in Aleppo (most in Maysar neighborhood), 14 in Hama (7 in Kafranboudeh), 9 in Daraa, 4 in Homs, 3 in Idlib, 2 in Raqqa and 1 in Deir Ezzor.

Points of Random Shelling: 337

26 by warplanes, 7 by Cluster Bombs, 3 by Phosphorus Bombs, and 7 by barrel bombs. Artillery shelling was reported in 125 points, mortar shelling in 114 points and missile shelling in 62 points.

Clashes: 122

Rebels downed 3 jets in Manbej (Aleppo), Eastern Ghoutah (Damascus) and Hama Suburbs. In Raqqah City, they gained control of a gas station in Hamra area after a 3-day siege, meanwhile, 21 members of regime forces defected in the Karama neighborhood. In Qalamoun region, Damascus, rebels liberated the headquarters of the 413^th Battalion after fierce clashes with regime loyalists. They also completed their liberation of Regiment 14 and the fuels storage facilities in the city of Nabek, and liberated the suburb of Bahdaliyah. In the town of Zabadani, Damascus, rebels also managed to take control of a number of checkpoints destroying 5 military vehicles in the process. In Daraa, rebels gained control of Al-Gharbi checkpoint in Basr Al-Harir after fierce clashes (LCCs).

News

Envoy: 2013 could bring 100,000 deaths in Syria

Russia Sends Another Naval Ship to Syria

Israeli crosses border into Syria Kfar Qassem resident said to be mentally unstable crosses border in Golan Heights with apparent aim of urging Assad to stop killing his people

Special Reports

In Syria, What’s Left Behind?
War is in many ways about things that are left behind—people, items, ideas, innocence. It ages children before their time, turns neighbors into enemies (or family), it destroys communities and leaves scars that may or may not show. The confidently authoritarian Syria that existed before March 15, 2011 has eroded, its brutal decades-old secular pan-Arab regime is fighting for its existence. It will likely eventually go the way of other brutal decades-old secular pan-Arab regimes, like Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s Tunisia and Muammar Qaddafi’s Libya, to be replaced by a more religiously conservative, Sunni Muslim power structure of some sort.

Syria Civil War: Gravediggers Have No Time To Wait For The Dead
Gravediggers at the cemetery in the northern Syrian town of Azaz no longer wait for bombs to fall before they break the ground. The dead come too fast… “We know the plane is coming to hit us, so we’re being prepared,” said Abu Sulaiman, one of a few men digging at the Sheikh Saad cemetary. “Massacres are happening. We’re putting every two or three bodies together. We’ve been working and digging since 6 in the morning. We’re going to dig 10 new graves today,” he said.

Today’s Death Toll: 399 (including more than 20 children and 20 women)

227 in Homs 220 of them were field executed in Deir Baalbah, 62 in Damascus and Suburbs (10 of them in Nashabiya), 40 in Aleppo (13 in Tal Rifaat ), 22 in Deir Ezzor including 15 unidentified bodies, 17 in Daraa, 14 in Hama, 10 in Idlib, and 5 in Raqqa.

Points of Random Shelling: 399

34 by warplanes, 2 points by Phosphorus bomb, 3 by vacuum bombs, 5 by cluster bombs, 152 by heavy caliber artillery, 124 by mortar and 80 by missile and rockets.

Clashes: 112

In Damascus, rebels shelled several military centers inside Mazzeh Military Airport using domestically-manufactured rockets, they also managed to repel an attack by regime forces on the town of Darayya. In Daraa, rebels repelled an attack on the town of Basr Al-Harir (LCCs).

Bassem al-Sayid, son of acting Minister of State, Muhammad Turki Al-Sayid, was martyred on Friday in the town of Sarmada, Idlib, while fighting for the rebel group, Jundullah. His death comes as more and more family members of the official establishment come out against Assad and his lot, including in recent days Assad’s own sister-in-law, Rasha Al-Akhras.

News

Deadly day in Syria as diplomats talk At least 399 people were killed Saturday, the opposition Local Coordination Committees said… The figure includes 201 people who a captured Syrian soldier said had been executed in Deir Balbah, outside of Homs, after Syrian forces won a battle there, an LCC spokesman said.

Assad’s forces seize Homs district from rebels: activists The army moved into Deir Ba’alba, a neighborhood on the northeastern edge of Homs, they said, leaving the rebels controlling just the central neighborhoods around the old city and the district of Khalidiyah, immediately to the north.

Insisting on Assad’s Exit Will Cost More Lives, Russian Says Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said on Saturday that there was “no possibility” that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria could be persuaded to leave and that the opposition’s insistence on his departure as a precondition for peace talks would only cost “more and more lives of Syrian citizens” — suggesting slender hope for a breakthrough in negotiating an end to a conflict that has already killed more than 40,000… “He has repeatedly said, both publicly and privately, including during his meeting with Lakhdar Brahimi not long ago, that he has no plans to go anywhere, that he will stay in his post until the end, that he will, as he says, protect the Syrian people, Syrian sovereignty and so forth,” Mr. Lavrov said. “There is no possibility of changing this position.”

Syria opposition leader rejects Moscow invitation for peace talks Moaz Alkhatib, whose National Coalition opposition group has been recognized by most Western and Arab states, demands Moscow apologize for supporting Assad’s regime.

Assad is panicking, Russia is frustrated – and Asma’s cousin calls for blood While a vehement letter by a member of Assad’s family spreads across the Arabic web, a resolution for the strife in Syria has no end in sight.

Syria doomed to “hell” without political deal: envoy U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said in Moscow that responsible people inside and outside Syria should “help the Syrians stop their descent into more and more bloodshed, into more and more chaos and perhaps a failed state”.

Syrian refugee influx could break Lebanon and Jordan, UN envoy warns Lakhdar Brahimi said: “If you have a panic in Damascus and if you have 1 million people leaving Damascus in a panic, they can go to only two places, Lebanon and Jordan.” Both those countries could break if faced with half a million refugees, he said on Saturday after meeting the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow. “If the only alternative is really hell or a political process, then we have got, all of us, to work ceaselessly for a political process,” he said.

Syrian airline cancels flight to Aleppo Syria’s national airline canceled a flight to Aleppo on Saturday because of fighting near its international airport, while the United Nations’ top envoy to the country said it faced “hell or a political process” but gave no sign a truce was in sight. The two developments underscored just how far international efforts to end the violence in Syria have fallen behind developments on the ground, more than 21 months into the conflict.

Blood spattered on the bricks where Syria bomb falls Blood was spattered on the bricks that littered the area around the bomb site. A child’s teddy bear lay in the wreckage and nearby cars were marked by shrapnel and bullet holes. A bulldozer cleared the heavy rubble while young boys dug through the debris with their hands, hoping to find people still alive amid the broken bed frames and crushed furniture.

Special Reports

‘Til death do us part: Marriage destroyed by war
(CNN) — For the third time, Mahmoud Al-Qassab lowers the body of one of his children into the ground. He steps back as neighbors and relatives shovel dirt over his teenage daughter’s grave. He does not cry or wail. “I thank God this is my third martyr: Ahmed, Abdullah and now her. I thank God, and I will not say anything against his fate,” Mahmoud told an activist filming the small funeral. Just a few months ago, 18-year-old Ayat Al-Qassab sang and danced with her mother and aunts as they dressed the bride in her wedding gown. Now, her shattered and bloodied body lies in a grave below the crumbling, bullet-ridden buildings of Homs… A 120 mm rocket fired into the family home struck Ayat in the head, killing her and her unborn child instantly. Ayat’s father, who was standing nearby, was hit in the shoulder and wounded.

Persona non grata in Beirut
The sudden departure from Beirut of the Syrian interior minister, Mohammad al-Shaar, was a sign of how much has changed in the Syrian-Lebanese relationship. Shaar allegedly took to the skies after being warned by the Lebanese that Interpol might issue an arrest warrant for him, and that Lebanon would have to implement it.

U.S. impotence on Syria
… the crisis is the result of the brutality and ruthlessness of ruler Bashar al-Assad and the family clique around him, and their supporters in Iran and Russia. But it is also reflects a massive failure of Western — and particularly American — leadership, the worst since the Rwandan genocide two decades ago.

Syria’s war creates concern for its neighbor
The more than 40,000 refugees might be tucked into a barbed-wired corner of the high desert, but their arrival – and their country’s turmoil – is being felt all the way to Amman. The effects on Jordan’s economy and on its royal family’s always-precarious grip on power could be serious, especially now, as protests unfurl in a country outraged by the government’s decision to chop fuel subsidies – a necessary action for it to secure $2 billion (1.5 billion euros) in loans from the International Monetary Fund.

Today’s Death Toll: 117 (including 5 women and 9 children)

42 in Damascus and suburbs, 23 in Daraa including 6 field executed in refugee camp and 5 in Izra’, 18 in Hama including 7 in Halfaya, 14 in Aleppo, 10 in Homs including 7 in Houla, 5 in Deir Ezzor and 5 in Idlib.

Points of Random Shelling: 274

Clashes: 133

Rebels liberated the check point at Tal Alnasr in Deir B’alba and too control of Al-Ishara Batallion in Homs. In Deir Ezzor, they took control of a military industrial complex. In Hama, they liberated a number of towns and villages including Kafar Naboda, Karnaz, Breidij, Kafar Zeita, Jabin, Alzaka, Alhamamyat, Heyalin, Ellatamneh and Halfaya, and are currently trying to liberate Morek (LCC).

News

Syria conflict turns ‘overtly sectarian,’ U.N. reports

U.N. condemns rights abuses in Iran, North Korea and Syria

Putin Defends Position on Syria and Chastises U.S. on Libya

Activists scoff at Putin’s remarks on Syria

As Last Member of NBC Team Escapes Syria, More Details on Hostage Drama Emerge

Russian Speakers Become Prey in Syrian Conflict

AP source: Syria again using Scud missiles on foes

Syria Unleashes Cluster Bombs on Town, Punishing Civilians

Post-ABC poll: U.S. involvement in Syria In general, Americans widely oppose U.S. military involvement in Syria, but majorities support establishing a no-fly zone and direct action rises if chemical weapons are used by the government.

War in Syria: Clashes ease at Damascus Palestinian refugee camp Some of the more than 100,000 residents who fled the brutal violence in the Syrian capital of Damascus began to trickle back on Thursday as the fighting subsided.

Wounded Presage Health Crisis for Postwar Syria Four-month-old Fahed Darwish suffered brain damage and, like thousands of others seriously hurt in the civil war, he will likely need care well after the fighting is over. That’s something doctors say a post-conflict Syria won’t be able to provide. Making things worse, there has been a sharp spike in serious injuries since the summer, when the regime began bombing rebel-held areas from the air, and doctors say a majority of the wounded they now treat are civilians.

Living Conditions Difficult in Rebel-Held Syria The crude oil they’re using to heat one room in the house is expensive. So is the gasoline for the car that Hassan needs for his work as a driver. Food is five times more expensive than last summer, when it was already high.  A week ago, the electricity the 40,000 townspeople rely on for most heat was cut and now they are struggling to keep the bitter winter cold at bay. Hassan and his family only use one room now to eat and sleep – the rest of the house is frigid.

Special Reports

The Salafi Emirate of Ras Al-Ain
The city, as many Kurdish cities, acted as a sanctuary, free from the spread of the Assad regime’s forces. Today, Ras al-Ain is under the grip of jihadis and young men with black beards and black flags circling the streets under the banner of the FSA. Tunisians, Moroccans, Afghanis, Iraqis, Saudis, and Syrians are in the squares, raising the Turkish flag alongside the black flag, and the flag of independence. They distribute bags of rice, flour, and sugar to poor and terrified residents, after seizing many grain warehouses, with the goal of garnering local support and using residents under the guise of freedom and toppling the regime.

Could an Alawite State in Syria Prevent Post-Assad Reprisals?
What remains unanswered is whether the Alawites could survive as a military power in the mountains. Landis says that would depend on two factors:  “Whether Iran is willing to continue to invest and support them militarily by sending weapons and money, and whether the Sunni Arabs overcome their deep factionalism and unify.”

Local Opposition Councils Act As Government In Parts Of Syria
Now that the U.S. and more than 100 other countries have recognized Syria’s opposition coalition, the dynamics are changing for local councils in provinces under rebel control. These councils are going to get money and become humanitarian aid organization and now they have to figure out how to deliver 1,200 tons of bread a day for a population of 6 million people in Aleppo province. Melissa Block talks to Deborah Amos.

Iliana Mourad: ‘Schizophrenic Life’ in Syria
“In Syria, life can be schizophrenic at times. I was travelling with colleagues outside Damascus one day. We were riding in office vehicles, and on one side of the road we could see people shooting while on the opposite side others were going about their normal business as if nothing was happening. It was like a sci-fi movie.”

Syria Deeply

Conversations: On Aleppo University
As part of our effort to highlight civilian stories, below is a conversation between Syria Deeply and a law student at Aleppo University. He stopped going to class after the regime crackdown on student protests earlier this year. The student, originally from Raqqa, allowed us to reveal his full name but Syria Deeply decided to keep it private. Last week his classmate was abducted by regime agents after speaking to the press, revealing his true identity.

What Order?

Syrian Revolution Digest – December 19, 2012 

While world leaders keep foraging for a policy, Syria’s increasing refugees are foraging for the basics of life: food, shelter and security. Where does the buck stop in our contemporary world? Where do we go to plead our case with a reasonable expectation of a just hearing?

Has the Arab Spring Lived Up to Expectations?

My contribution to a just released briefing by Woodrow Wilson Center.

For those who expected a fast and smooth transition to liberal democratic norms, the Arab Spring has certainly failed to deliver. But for those who simply wanted to push their countries into taking one important and necessary step in the right direction by breaking the prevailing political stalemate in their societies, then, the Arab Spring has definitely lived up to expectations.

The fear barrier is now broken; the anciens régimes are gone; and pent-up political forces, with their good, their bad, and their downright ugly, have been released. The Islamists might have the upper hand at this stage on account of their stronger organizational capabilities, but the more secular elements are not giving up and have, in fact, made it clear that they, too, have strong grassroots connections and support—and not only among minority communities but within the larger Arab Sunni community as well.

No longer can any of the sides dismiss the other as irrelevant. The choices confronting all are now stark and clear: accommodation, civil war, or civil war eventually ending in accommodation. A return to the autocratic past with one side dominating the other and imposing its ways is not feasible. Each side of the divide has enough regional and international backers to ensure the near impossibility of such an outcome. The sooner the representatives of the different political forces realize this, the better for all. For only when accommodation is reached can democracy finally begin to take root in our region.

Video Highlights

Leaked video from the Damascene suburb of Daraya shows wounded loyalist militias receiving treatment in the field, before being forced to withdraw with their tanks when MiGs showed up to bomb rebel positions http://youtu.be/uuIWEk6UT_4

Another leaked video documents the use of missile launchers by pro-Assad militias http://youtu.be/4xsjog7ZZP8

Rebels take a stand in Yarmouk Camp in Damascus City http://youtu.be/8Ly_9baT4u4 In Ain Terma, pro-Assad militias pound the community with tanks http://youtu.be/EgR2CePNc1g Residents of nearbyMleihah evacuate their town http://youtu.be/rMtNuJvJOfc As MiGs continue their raids on the region of Eastern Ghoutah: Hamouriyeh http://youtu.be/8lhjVXWhiNw Kafar Batna http://youtu.be/VyTitCfcSAY

Mysterious!

Syrian Revolution Digest – December 18, 2012 

Call it a civil war wrapped in a revolution wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a guess – it’s all that and more, I profess. It’s a holy war slowly morphing into an unholy descent into hell. Not that anyone can really tell how it will all end.

Today’s Death Toll: 128 (including 11 children and 9 women)

42 in Damascus and Suburbs (including 4 in Tal Mneen), 21 in Daraa (including 5 executed publicly in the Naziheen Refugee Camp), 16 in Hama, 14 in Homs (including 3 were publicly executed in Al-Nuqeira), 13 in Aleppo, 12 in Idlib, 9 in Deir Ezzor, and 1 in Hassakeh.

Points of Random Shelling: 242

Clashes:143 

Rebels managed to liberate the town of Hilfaya in Hama Province, and were joined by many defectors from the loyalist militias. In Damascus, rebels took complete control of District of Hajal Al-Aswad (LCC).

Video Highlights

Leaked video documents use of missile launchers by pro-regime militias in the battles in the Eastern Ghoutah Region, Damascus http://youtu.be/PW83A_CIr_A Another leaked video documents the use of heavy artillery in pounding the town of Zabadanihttp://youtu.be/zSqNk9f2c2I

Meanwhile, MiGs keep pounding Eastern Ghoutah: Douma http://youtu.be/mmyaZowElkU ,http://youtu.be/Dmw_ZncTTaE Kafar Batna http://youtu.be/B57IV4iJSQQ Arbeen http://youtu.be/GQu6ta6VldQ Harasta http://youtu.be/412LWvVDxpw Hamouriyeh http://youtu.be/32WgVSY2Fx4 and helicopters keep dropping explosive barrels: Saqba http://youtu.be/Go2HS6eKTfA Dead and wounded in Arbeen http://youtu.be/WjTgPFBFtUE

To the West, the town of Moadamia was also pounded http://youtu.be/yMYpzHXU4U4

In Damascus City, the pounding of Yarmouk Camp continues http://youtu.be/omBVykFCL3w MIGs took part http://youtu.be/1HDbAWpVntQ

In Hama, rebels celebrate the liberation of the town of Kafar Zeitah http://youtu.be/6ezfrAnk1xw