Syria warns West against intervention

SAUDIS TO FINANCE REBEL ARMY AND PAY SALARIES,SISCUSSED ON SKY PRESS REVIEW.

By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent

11:45PM BST 22 Jun 2012





The loss of one of the Turkish Air Force's F-4 Phantom marked the most dangerous development yet in Syria's 15-month uprising and left Western powers scrambling over how to respond.


Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, flew home from Brazil to hold an emergency briefing with his intelligence and military chiefs after radio and radar contact was lost with the aircraft as it conducted a mission close to the Syrian coast.


"Following the evaluation of data provided by our related institutions and the findings of the joint search and reduce efforts with Syria, it is understood that our plane was downed by Syria," his office said in a statement.


Mr Erdogan promised that Turkey's response would be both "decisive" and carried out with "determination". Although he did not divulge what steps he was contemplating, a senior member of his ruling party had earlier declared that if the aircraft was shown to have been shot down by Syria it would amount to a "declaration of war".


Syria confirmed that it had brought down the aircraft, saying in a statement: "Our air defences confronted a target that penetrated our air space over our territorial waters pre-afternoon on Friday and shot it down. It turned out to be a Turkish military plane."

TURKISH PRESIDENT TO MET MILITARY LEADERS TO DISCUSS RESPONCE TO INCIDENT.

What to do about Syria

by Joseph Farah

There’s a certain eery consistency to the Obama administration’s foreign policy.

It’s always wrong.

U.S. support for the rebellion in Syria is a sad illustration.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I have always been a staunch critic of Bashar al-Assad and his tyrant father before him. But, in the Middle East, the choice is often between bad and worse. And, predictably, Barack Obama has chosen worse by siding with Islamists over the authoritarian dictator with plenty of faults of his own.

For Americans, our prime concern should be humanitarian in a conflict like this. While Syria is an anti-Semitic and anti-Israel police state, what will inevitably follow the fall of Assad will make the current regime look like a benevolent picture of stability by comparison.

Syria is the home of one of the largest Christian populations in the Middle East. That is largely due to the Christian refugee crisis that was brought about largely due to the turmoil in Iraq since the U.S. intervention there. While Assad is a bad actor, he has been tolerant of religious minorities, including Christians. In fact, Assad, an Alawite, is part of a religious minority himself.

But if the Assad regime falls, it will mean genocide for the Christian community. In fact, the escalating rebellion is already taking its toll on Syrian Christians.

This hits home for me as the descendant of Christians who fled Syria and Lebanon long ago, as Islam gained more and more influence.

The radical Islamists who form the vanguard of this rebellion are forcing Christians to flee their homes as they advance and intensify their fight to topple Assad.

At least 9,000 Christians from the western Syrian city of Qusayr were forced to seek refuge after an ultimatum from a local military chief of the armed opposition, Abdel Salam Harba, reports the Fides news agency.

In the latest outburst of violence, a Christian man was shot dead by a sniper in Qusayr, which neighbors the restive city of Homs.

There have been reports that some mosques in the city have announced from the minarets: “Christians must leave Qusayr within six days.”

Two Catholic priests who fled Qusayr confirmed to the news agency that they heard the ultimatum “with their own ears” repeated from the minarets.

“The situation is unsustainable in the area and exposed to total lawlessness,” Fides sources on the ground say. They also fear that the fate of Christians in Qusayr could soon affect the 10,000 believers who live in other villages in the area.

The areas controlled by the opposition are witnessing the rise of radical forms of Sunni Islam with the extremists not willing to live in peace with the Christians. Many of these gangs and armed groups operate independently of the Free Syrian Army, which officially rejects such kinds of discrimination against minorities.

Two generations of the Assad regime have guaranteed secular rule in Syria, protecting Christians from discrimination and guaranteeing their rights.

Last week, an armed group broke into and desecrated the Greek-Catholic church of St. Elias in Qusayr.

“It is the first time in the ongoing conflict that such an episode has occurred in which sacred symbols are deliberately hit,” a local source told Fides.

Some 2 million Christians make up about 10 percent of the country’s population with most belonging to the denomination of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch.

The chaos and sectarian violence in post-Assad Syria “will be confessional [religious], and war in the name of God is far worse than a political struggle,” Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Yonan warned last October, just seven months into the uprising. “And this is what we fear.”

A similar situation has already unfolded in Iraq, where violence has caused more than one-half of the country’s 1.5 million Christians to flee since the beginning of the American-led invasion in 2003. More than 70 churches have been bombed in Iraq during the past eight years, many by al-Qaida insurgents. One of the most serious incidents took place in October 2010, the so-called Black Sunday Massacre, when terrorists opened fire on a service in Baghdad’s Our Lady of Deliverance Chaldean Catholic Church, killing 53 Assyrian Christians.

After the fall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, about 10,000 Christians have been forced to leave. The trouble is there’s no place for Christians to go in the Middle East. While Jordan is still hospitable, it may also be the next domino to fall to the Muslim Brotherhood revolution sweeping through the region – with the support of the Obama regime.

Is this what Christian America wants to see?

Interventionism in the Middle East is often a bad idea. But it’s worse when the U.S. intervenes on the wrong side.

http://www.wnd.com/2012/06/what-to-do-about-syria/

Good article Anna-Esse.....look what happened in Libya!!!!

There is a terrible intolerance among Middle Eastern Countries to Religion and it the innocents who are suffering with the slaughter indiscriminate.

We know that Russia is arming Assad, who is arming the Rebels?

I doubt the U.S. or Britain will intervene this time, look at Libya, Afghanistan and Pakistan ....al queda seem to be springing up everywhere , just what is their aim.?

I feel so sorry for innocents and the destruction of their villages, who knows how it will all end.

Panda wrote:
Good article Anna-Esse.....look what happened in Libya!!!!

There is a terrible intolerance among Middle Eastern Countries to Religion and it the innocents who are suffering with the slaughter indiscriminate.

We know that Russia is arming Assad, who is arming the Rebels?

I doubt the U.S. or Britain will intervene this time, look at Libya, Afghanistan and Pakistan ....al queda seem to be springing up everywhere , just what is their aim.?

I feel so sorry for innocents and the destruction of their villages, who knows how it will all end.

And look at Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood, who would be a lot worse than anything that went before.

AnnaEsse wrote:

Panda wrote:
Good article Anna-Esse.....look what happened in Libya!!!!

There is a terrible intolerance among Middle Eastern Countries to Religion and it the innocents who are suffering with the slaughter indiscriminate.

We know that Russia is arming Assad, who is arming the Rebels?

I doubt the U.S. or Britain will intervene this time, look at Libya, Afghanistan and Pakistan ....al queda seem to be springing up everywhere , just what is their aim.?

I feel so sorry for innocents and the destruction of their villages, who knows how it will all end.

And look at Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood, who would be a lot worse than anything that went before.

We certainly stirred up a Hornet's nest invading Libya , the damage was terrible and nothing acheived. Now with the carnage in Syria, so many people have turned for refuge to Turkey which has proved to be humanitarian and help a lot. So syria shoots down Turkey's fighter plane and what will be the
repercussion of this senseless act.

24 June 2012 Last updated at 19:56

Turkey has called a meeting of Nato member states to discuss its response to the shooting down of one of its warplanes by Syrian forces on Friday.

Ankara has invoked Article 4 of Nato's charter, under which consultations can be requested when an ally feels their security is threatened, officials say.

Earlier, Turkey's foreign minister said the F-4 Phantom was in international airspace when it was shot down.

Syria has insisted the jet was engaged while it was inside its airspace.

It has also said no act of hostility was intended, noting that as soon as the military discovered the "unidentified" aircraft was Turkish its navy joined efforts to rescue the two crew members.

But Turkey's Nato allies condemned Syria for the act.

"The United States condemns this brazen and unacceptable act in the strongest possible terms," said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"It is yet another reflection of the Syrian authorities' callous disregard for international norms, human life, and peace and security".

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said the Syrian military's actions were "outrageous" and underlined "how far beyond accepted behaviour the Syrian regime has put itself".

Protest note
Continue reading the main story
Analysis

Jonathan Marcus

BBC Diplomatic Correspondent

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turkey's decision to call a Nato meeting to discuss the downing of one of its warplanes by Syrian air defences is a measure of the seriousness of the situation. But it also sends a signal that, for now, Ankara is looking for a concerted diplomatic response rather than taking military action of its own.

Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty allows for countries to consult together whenever "in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened".

Turkey might have sought such consultations at earlier stages in the Syrian crisis, prompted for example by the flood of refugees across its borders or shells fired by Syria landing on its territory.

Nato's deliberations will raise the pressure on the Syrian regime, but it is hard to see them having any practical effect in terms of convincing President Bashar al-Assad to relinquish power.

The Turkish foreign ministry said it knew the coordinates of the jet, which was in Syrian territorial waters at a depth of 1,300m (4,265ft), but has not yet found it.

The coast guard is still searching for the crew in the Mediterranean Sea, though hopes are fading of them being found alive.

The government has also issued a diplomatic protest note to Syria.

Nato spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said the North Atlantic Council, the principal political decision-making body within the military alliance, would meet in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss the incident.

"Turkey has requested consultations under Article 4 of Nato's founding Washington Treaty," she told Reuters.

"Under article 4, any ally can request consultations whenever, in the opinion of any of them, their territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened."

Turkey wants to be sure of the strongest backing once it decides its official response, reports the BBC's Jonathan Head in Istanbul.

The government has promised that it will be strong, decisive and legitimate, and that it will share all the information it has with the public.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu became the first senior Turkish official to challenge Syria's account of the downing of the jet.

After lengthy meetings with military chiefs, he told TRT state television that the unarmed jet had "momentarily" entered Syrian airspace by mistake on Friday but had left when it was shot down 15 minutes later.

"According to our conclusions, our plane was shot down in international airspace, 13 nautical miles (24km) from Syria," he said.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the aircraft was unarmed, and on a routine training mission
According to international law, a country's airspace extends 12 nautical miles (22.2km) from its coastline, corresponding with its territorial waters.

Mr Davutoglu also insisted that the jet had not been on a "covert mission related to Syria" but had instead been carrying out a training flight to test Turkey's radar capabilities.

He said the plane had not "shown any hostility", been clearly marked as Turkish, and that he did not agree with the Syrian military's statement that it had not known to whom it belonged.

'Unidentified target'

The Turkish military said it lost radio contact with the F-4 Phantom at 11:58 (08:58 GMT) on Friday while it was flying over Hatay province, about 90 minutes after it took off from Erhac airbase in the province of Malatya, to the north-west.

Later, the Syrian military said an "unidentified air target" had penetrated Syrian airspace from the west at 11:40 local time (08:40 GMT), travelling at very low altitude and at high speed.

It said that in line with the laws prevailing in such cases, Syrian air defences engaged the craft, and scored a direct hit about 1km (0.5 nautical miles) from its coastline.

It burst into flames, and crashed into the sea at a point 10km (5 nautical miles) from the village of Om al-Tuyour, off the coast of Latakia province, well within Syrian territorial waters, the statement added.

Relations between Nato-member Turkey and Syria, once close allies, have deteriorated sharply since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011. More than 30,000 Syrian refugees have fled the violence across the border into Turkey.

breaking news......

Almost 40 Syrian soldiers - including a general and two colonels - have defected to Turkey, according to Turkish state television.
Reports said that the general, two colonels, two majors, one lieutenant and 33 soldiers had arrived in Turkey but did not give any more details.

Another channel, CNN Turk, also reported the defections, adding that they had arrived with members of their families, making a total of 224 individuals.

The reported defections come a day before an emergency Nato meeting to discuss the shooting down of a Turkish warplane by Syrian forces.

On Thursday a Syrian pilot landed his Russian-made MiG-21 fighter at an airfield in Jordan before defecting.

More follows ...

5:41am UK, Tuesday June 26, 2012

The Syrian army and police were given direct orders from the "highest levels" to attack villages, kill the local population or force them to flee, Sky News has been told.
Sky's chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay has been inside Syria to speak to some of the large number of military and police prisoners being held by the Free Syrian Army opposition force in the north of the country.

They told him the security forces were being lied to about who they were being sent to kill.



One prisoner told Ramsay, who has now crossed the border back to Turkey, that troops were carrying out random shelling.

"Old people are dying, young people are dying," he said. "It's not a war – it's just random shelling and many people are suffering."

Another inmate said: "We had the idea that (opposition forces) were there to terrorise people, to kill children, to kill females and to kill everybody around, but… we noticed that the opposite was what was actually happening."

Another described the Free Syrian Army as people with "honour and dignity" who are "fighting for a proper reason".

The prisoners, who appear to be well treated, were told through an interpreter that they were under no obligation to speak to Sky News.

Jun 26, 8:13 AM EDT


Turkey threatens Syria with retaliation over jet







ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey warned Tuesday that any Syrian military unit approaching its border will be treated as a direct threat, a serious escalation in tensions days after Syria shot a Turkish military plane out of the sky.

Turkey's NATO allies expressed solidarity with Ankara and condemned the Syrian attack but made no mention of any retaliatory action against Syria.

"The rules of engagement of the Turkish Armed Forces have changed," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised speech. "Any military element that approaches the Turkish border from Syria and poses a security risk and danger will be regarded as a threat and treated as a military target."

"No one should be deceived by our cool-headed stance," Erdogan added. "Our acting with common sense should not be perceived as a weakness."

Syria insists the Turkish military plane violated its air space on Friday. Turkey says although the RF-4E reconnaissance jet had unintentionally strayed into Syria's air space, it was inside international airspace when it was brought down over the Mediterranean by Syria. Its two pilots are still missing.

The head of the NATO military alliance called the downing of the jet unacceptable Tuesday after Turkey briefed NATO's North Atlantic Council on the incident. The talks were held under Article 4 of NATO's founding treaty, which allows a NATO member to request consultations if its security has been threatened.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance condemned the Syrian attack "in the strongest terms" and expressed solidarity with Turkey but did not speak of any possible armed action against Syria.

The Syrian opposition says Syrian President Bashar Assad's crackdown on an increasingly armed popular uprising has killed some 14,000 people since it began in March 2011.

"It's my clear expectation that the situation won't continue to escalate," Fogh Rasmussen told reporters after Tuesday's meeting. "What we have seen is a completely unacceptable act and I would expect Syria to take all necessary steps to avoid such events in the future."

Erdogan said Syria shot down the unarmed plane in international airspace without warning in a `deliberate' and `hostile' act. He said border violations in the region were not uncommon and Syrian helicopters had violated Turkish airspace five times recently without a Turkish response. The two countries share a 566-mile (910-kilometer) border.

Syria said the downing was an accident caused by the "automatic response" of an officer commanding an anti-aircraft position who saw an unidentified jet flying at high speed and low altitude.

Erdogan said Syrian forces also fired on a CASA-type search-and-rescue plane on Friday following the downing of the jet. It was not clear if the second plane was hit.

The downing of the jet has aggravated tense ties between the two neighbors.

Turkey has repeatedly called on Assad to step down as 33,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey, fleeing a government crackdown on a popular uprising. The country is also hosting civilian opposition groups as well as members of the Free Syrian Army, which is fighting against the Syrian regime.

"We will continue to support the struggle of our brothers in Syria at any cost," Erdogan said. Turkey, however, denies harboring armed Syrian rebels.

The public anger in Turkey is largely muted and Huseyin Celik, a senior member of Erdogan's ruling party, said party members are against going to war.

Fogh Rasmussen declined to answer a question about how long the Turkish jet loitered in Syrian air space before heading out to sea again, saying he didn't want to discuss details.

Fogh Rasmussen has repeatedly said NATO would need a clear international mandate and regional support before it embarked on a mission in Syria. Last year, NATO launched air attacks on Libyan government targets only after receiving such a mandate from the U.N. Security Council, along with backing from the Arab League.

But in Syria's case, the Arab League hasn't been able to agree on the need for military intervention. And Russia and China - both veto-wielding members of the Security Council - have consistently shielded Assad's regime from international sanctions over its violent crackdown on protests. They have called on neighboring countries to refrain from provocative actions that could spark a wider war.

--

Lekic reported from Brussels. Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara contributed.

TURKISH TROOPS WILL SHOT AT ANY SYRIAN TROOPS APPROACHING THE BORDER,I WONDER WHEN THE FIRST SHOOTING WILL BE.
COULD WW111 START THERE?

Jun 27, 9:34 AM EDT




By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press









BEIRUT (AP) -- Gunmen raided the headquarters of a pro-government Syrian TV station early Wednesday, killing seven employees, kidnapping others and demolishing buildings, officials said. The government blamed terrorists and described the killings as a "massacre."

An Associated Press photographer who visited the Al-Ikhbariya station's compound said five portable buildings used for offices and studios had collapsed, with blood on the floor and wooden partitions still on fire. Some walls had bullet holes.

Al-Ikhbariya is privately owned but strongly supports President Bashar Assad's regime. Pro-government journalists have been attacked on several previous occasions during the country's 15-month uprising.

"What happened today is a massacre," Information Minister Omran al-Zoebi told reporters. He blamed terrorists - the same word the government uses for rebels.

Rebels deny they target the media.

Much of the violence that has gripped Syria over the past 15 months has been sanctioned by the government to crush dissent. But rebel fighters are launching increasingly deadly attacks on regime targets, and several massive suicide attacks this year suggest al-Qaida or other extremists are joining the fray.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday she has "great hope" that a meeting of world powers Saturday in Geneva can be a turning point in the Syria crisis.

But the U.N. gave a dire assessment of the crisis Wednesday, saying the violence has worsened since a cease-fire deal that was supposed to go into effect in April, and the bloodshed appears to be taking on more dangerous, sectarian overtones.

Syria severely restricts the media in the country, making it difficult to gain a credible account of events on the ground. Assad denies that there is any popular will behind the uprising, saying terrorists are behind a conspiracy to destroy the country.

Al-Zoebi, the information minister, said gunmen stormed Al-Ikhbariya's compound in the town of Drousha, about 20 kilometers (14 miles) south of the capital Damascus, and detonated explosives. He said the attackers killed seven people and kidnapped others.

In comments broadcast on state-run Syrian TV, he said the killings amounted to "a massacre against the freedom of the press."

Most news organizations in Syria are either state-run or private bodies that carry the government's point of view. Most of the private TV stations and newspapers are owned by politicians or wealthy businessmen who have close links to the regime.

An employee at the station said several other staffers were wounded in the attack, which happened just before 4 a.m. local time. He said the gunmen kidnapped him along with several station guards. He was released but the guards were not.

The employee, who did not give his name for fear of repercussions, said the gunmen drove him about 200 meters (yards) away, then he heard the explosion from the station being demolished.

"I was terrified when they blindfolded me and took me away," the man said by telephone.

Earlier this month, two Al-Ikhbariya employees were shot and seriously wounded by gunmen in the northwestern town of Haffa while covering clashes between government troops and insurgents.

Hours after the attack, the station was still on the air, broadcasting a rally in Damascus' main square against the station raid.

Also Wednesday, Burhan Ghalioun, the former leader of Syria's main opposition group, said he briefly entered rebel-held areas in the north of the country in a rare trip by the exiled political opposition to the country. Ghalioun told Al-Jazeera TV that the areas he visited in Idlib province are ruling themselves, without any regime presence.

Ghalioun, former head of the Syrian National Council, did not say when the visit happened.

"I went to see the war that the Syrian regime is staging," Ghalioun said. "The regime continues to shell and kill." Ghalioun said he spoke with wounded Syrians including some who lost limbs and others who were paralyzed.

He added that he was able to drive about freely and that "part of the country is liberated."

Activists reported violence throughout Syria on Wednesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist network, said at least 10 government soldiers were killed in an ambush in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour.

The group said that rebels on Tuesday were able to shoot down a helicopter gunship in Idlib province. Amateur videos showed a helicopter burning in a field but the report could not be independently confirmed.

In neighboring Turkey, some 30 more Syrian soldiers defected with their families overnight, the country's state-run Anadolu news agency reported Wednesday. It was not clear if the group included any senior officers.

Assad's regime has suffered an embarrassing string of high-ranking defections this week, with dozens of soldiers, including senior officers, reported to have fled to Turkey.

---

Associated Press writer Albert Aji contributed to this report from Damascus, Syria.

© 2012 The Associated

Jun 27, 6:19 PM EDT


Syria violence escalates as US seeks turning point

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY
Associated Press




Documents
Indictment of Monzer al-Kassar


Latest Syria News
Syria violence escalates as US seeks turning point
Report: Syria may have mistaken Turkish jet's ID

Rebel-held Syrian town struggles to keep the peace

Syrian civilians hit hard by spreading violence

2 months later, massacre haunts Syrian town









BEIRUT (AP) -- Gunmen attacked a pro-government TV station Wednesday near the Syrian capital, killing seven employees in the latest barrage of violence as world powers prepared for a high-level meeting that the U.S. hopes will be a turning point in the crisis.

Invitations to Saturday's gathering in Geneva were sent by special envoy Kofi Annan to the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - including Syrian allies Russia and China - but not to major regional players Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The absence of those two countries, as well as the lack of any appetite for international military intervention, could make it difficult for the group to find the leverage to end the bloodshed in Syria. An effort by Annan to broker a peace plan failed earlier this year.

Diplomatic hopes have rested on Russia - Syria's most important ally and protector - agreeing on a transition plan that would end the Assad family dynasty, which has ruled Syria for more than four decades. But Moscow has rejected efforts by outside forces to end the conflict or any plan to force regime change in Damascus.

The United Nations said Wednesday that the conflict, which began in March 2011 as part of the Arab Spring that swept aside entrenched leaders across the region, is descending into sectarian warfare.

President Bashar Assad has so far appeared largely impervious to world pressure and he has warned the international community from meddling in the crisis, which has seen a sharp escalation in violence in recent months. He said this week that his country is in "a genuine state of war," an increasingly common refrain from the Syrian leader.

Assad denies there is any popular will behind the uprising, which is in its 16th month, saying terrorists are driving a foreign conspiracy to destroy the country. Activists say more than 14,000 people have been killed in the violence.

An Associated Press photographer said the attack on the Al-Ikhbariya TV station in the town of Drousha, about 20 kilometers (14 miles) south of the capital Damascus, left bloodstains on the ground and bullet holes in the walls. The attack heavily damaged five portable buildings used for offices and studios.

Al-Ikhbariya is privately owned but strongly supports the regime.

"What happened today is a massacre," Information Minister Omran al-Zoebi told reporters. He blamed terrorists - the same term the government uses for rebels.

The rebels deny they target the media. Activists blamed the attack on elite Syrian troops who defected from the regime Tuesday. The allegation could not be independently confirmed.

Several other staff members of the TV station were wounded in the attack, which happened just before 4 a.m., an employee said. He added that the gunmen kidnapped him along with several station guards. He was released but the guards were not.

The employee, who did not give his name for fear of retribution, said the gunmen drove him about 200 meters (yards) away and he then heard an explosion from the station.

"I was terrified when they blindfolded me and took me away," the man said by telephone.

Hours after the attack, the station was still on the air, broadcasting news of a rally in a Damascus square by people protesting the raid.

Earlier this month, two Al-Ikhbariya employees were shot and seriously wounded by gunmen in the northwestern town of Haffa while covering clashes between government troops and insurgents.

Much of the violence that has gripped Syria in the uprising has been sanctioned by the government to crush dissent. But rebel fighters are launching increasingly deadly attacks on regime targets, and several massive suicide attacks this year suggest al-Qaida or other extremists are joining the fray.

On Wednesday, the U.N. gave a grim assessment of the crisis, saying the violence has worsened since April, when the cease-fire brokered by Annan was supposed to go into effect. There also were signs the bloodshed is descending into sectarian warfare.

"Where previously victims were targeted on the basis of their being pro- or anti-government, the Commission of Inquiry has recorded a growing number of incidents where victims appear to have been targeted because of their religious affiliation," a panel of U.N.-appointed human rights experts said in a report released in Geneva.

Sectarian warfare is one of the most dire scenarios in Syria, which for decades managed to ward off the kind of bloodshed that has long bedeviled Iraq and Lebanon.

Sunnis make up most of Syria's 22 million people, as well as the backbone of the opposition. But the Assads and the ruling elite belong to the tiny Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, which has bred deep resentments.

Several notorious attacks during the uprising appeared to have sectarian overtones - including the Houla massacre in May, when more than 100 people were killed in a collection of villages in central Syria.

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who heads a U.N. panel conducting an international investigation of allegations of human rights abuses in Syria, called the country a "crime scene."

He said the probe into the Houla massacre concluded that forces loyal to the regime "may have been responsible" for many of the deaths. Investigators have said pro-regime, Alawite gunmen known as shabiha were believed to be responsible for at least some of the killings.

Houla leans toward the opposition, and most of the victims were women and children who were slain in their homes, the report said.

"The manner in which these killings took place resembles those previously and repeatedly documented to have been committed by the government," Pinheiro told the U.N.'s top human rights body in Geneva.

A final position on who was responsible for the massacre would require more work, Pinheiro said. But he said interviews conducted by the commission "indicated that government forces and shabiha have committed acts of sexual violence against men, women and children."

The U.N.'s deputy envoy for Syria, Jean-Marie Guehenno, told the Human Rights Council that the violence has "reached or even surpassed" levels seen before the April 12 cease-fire.

Fayssal al-Hamwi, the Syrian ambassador in Geneva, said the allegations against the government are "quite fantastic." Calling the council meeting blatantly political, he said he no longer wished to participate and strode out in protest.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she has "great hope" that the Geneva meeting can be a turning point in the crisis.

Annan "has developed his own very concrete road map for political transition" from the Assad regime, Clinton said. "We believe it embodies the principles needed for any political transition in Syria that could lead to a peaceful, democratic and representative outcome reflecting the will of the Syrian people."

Annan, who represents the U.N. and the Arab League, said he sent invitations to Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - plus Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar, and the European Union.

The absence of Iran and Saudi Arabia is significant because they support opposing sides of the conflict. Iran is one of the regime's top allies, and Saudi Arabia backs Syria's opposition. Annan gave no reason for not including the countries, although the U.S. has been adamantly opposed to Iran taking part.

Iran's U.N. ambassador, Mohammad Khazaee, said the way to resolve the Syrian crisis is "cooperation among everybody, especially the major players in the region, based on a fair approach on the issue."

Russia, which along with China has twice protected Assad's regime from U.N. sanctions and continued to provide it with weapons, has argued that the West should raise pressure on the Syrian opposition to sit down for talks with the government. Moscow has argued that the Syrians themselves must determine the country's future and warned that it would firmly oppose any document urging Assad to step down.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said the Geneva meeting "should be aimed at mobilizing resources that foreign players have to create conditions needed to start an all-Syrian political process, not to predetermine its direction." He warned against using the conference to "justify any future unilateral actions."

The meeting comes also at a time of regional tensions. Syria shot down a Turkish military plane last week, saying it violated Syrian airspace.

Turkey denies that, but both sides have appeared keen to avoid escalating the matter. On Wednesday, al-Zoebi, the Syrian information minister, told Turkish TV that Syrian forces may have mistaken the plane for an Israeli aircraft. Syria and Israel are enemies.

---

Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut, John Heilprin and Frank Jordans in Geneva, Matthew Lee in Helsinki, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.

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The United Nations and Arab League envoy to Syria is to convene a high-level meeting in Geneva amid the worsening situation in the Middle East.

The deputy for envoy Kofi Annan said he would hold an "action group on Syria" for June 30, seeking to find a "common position on proposed outcomes".

Jean-Marie Guehenno said the six-point plan forged by Mr Annan "is clearly not being implemented."

Mr Guehenno's statement to the UN Human Rights Council comes amid a report by UN investigators on the growing numbers of Syrians are being targeted in the country's conflict on account of their religion.

UN investigators said they suspect pro-government forces of many of the 108 killings committed in the massacre in the Syrian town of Houla in May.

The report said: "The Commission of Inquiry (COI) is unable to determine the identity of the perpetrators at this time, nevertheless the COI considers that forces loyal to the government may have been responsible for many of the deaths."

The council was also told that the foreign-backed Syrian armed opposition has tortured and executed soldiers amid an increasing use of improvised explosive devices in the conflict.

Meanwhile, Syrian president Bashar Assad has admitted his country is in state of war with rebel fighters and ordered his new cabinet to crush the anti-regime uprising.

The official Sana news agency quoted him as saying: "When one is in a state of war, all our policies and capabilities must be used to secure victory."

In the days before Mr Assad's comments, Sky's Stuart Ramsay spent time with Free Syrian Army (FSA) opposition fighters in the mountainous Bdama region near the Turkish border.

It is set to become the next battleground between the two sides and the FSA claims to have up to 2,000 men in the area, many of them from a non-military background who are being trained by defectors.

Ramsay said: "It's still pretty ragtag stuff but there's a semblance of a fighting force of sorts.

"They're certainly better organised than they have been in the past."


Turkey's prime minister has been fiercely critical of Syria

The US said a "desperate" Mr Assad was slowly losing his grip on power, citing recent defections and fighting raging increasingly close to Damascus.

As Mr Assad was addressing his cabinet, Turkey vowed to retaliate against Syria for the downing of one of its jets and Washington offered new support to its Nato ally after the incident.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said: "It is clear, however, that Assad is desperate to hang on to power at all cost, as evidenced by his continued use of air power and Shabiha gangs (pro-regime militia)."

On Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan backtracked after earlier saying his country had changed its rules of engagement and would treat any Syrian security threat as a military target.

Mr Erdogan said Turkey had no intention of attacking Syria.

The shooting down of the Phantom F-4 fighter jet had split Moscow and the West, with Nato condemning Syria and Russia saying the incident should not be seen as intentional.

Mr Erdogan, once a close ally of Mr Assad and now one of the Syrian leader's biggest critics, admitted the Turkish plane had violated Syrian airspace but said it was only for a short time and "by mistake", insisting that it was not in Syrian airspace when it was shot down.

Damascus has defended shooting down the jet, saying it was a response to "a gross violation" of its sovereignty.

After a request from Turkey, Nato’s secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen hosted talks with ambassadors of the alliance's 28 members in Brussels.

"Allies have expressed their strong support and solidarity with Turkey," Mr Rasmussen said.

"We consider this act to be unacceptable and condemn it in the strongest terms."

==============================================

Breaking News, A huge blast in Damascus has just been reported .

CNN) -- A day after attackers bombed a pro-government TV station, massive explosions shook the heart of Damascus near the Justice Ministry, the state-run media said.

Two blasts occurred in a parking lot Thursday outside the Palace of Justice, which houses the ministry, Syrian state TV said. The Local Coordination Committees of Syria confirmed the blast and said it occurred in the Marja neighborhood of central Damascus.

At least three people were injured and 20 cars were damaged, state TV said.

TV video showed heavy smoke rising above buildings in Damascus. Firefighters battled a blaze at the site of the explosion.

Photos: In Syrian hospital, no escape from war


Witness to war in Syria
Deadly TV station bombing in Syria
Unsettled neighbors
al-Assad: Syria 'in a state of real war' On Wednesday, bombers killed at least seven people in the headquarters of al-Ikhbaria, near Damascus, killing three journalists and four security guards, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported. The attackers also ransacked and destroyed studios, the news outlet said.

There have been a flurry of attacks in Syria's major cities of Damascus and Aleppo in recent months, strikes that President Bashar al-Assad's regime has blamed on terrorists. Opposition groups have said the government itself has been behind such attacks to discredit the anti-regime forces.

Nationwide Thursday, at least 80 people were killed, the LCC said. They include 32 in the Damascus suburbs and 17 in Homs.

After more than 15 months, unrest in the Arab nation shows no sign of abating. Internationally, tension rose last week after Syria shot down a Turkish jet, an act deplored by NATO and many Western nations.

World diplomats have been working to end the intensifying violence and restore peace.

An emergency meeting has been set for Saturday in Geneva, Switzerland, to deal with the crisis. Kofi Annan, the United Nations' and Arab League's special envoy for Syria, is gathering world diplomats with the goal of agreeing on a plan to end the violence in Syria that has left thousands dead.

The meeting will bring together top diplomats of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States -- and Turkey. Envoys from the United Nations, European Union, and Arab League also were invited.

Turkey moves forces to Syrian border amid tensions, official says

The meeting of the group, dubbed The Action Group for Syria, comes at a critical time for the country, which has been mired in an uprising since March 2011 that has pitted al-Assad's forces against rebels calling for his ouster.

A peace plan hammered out by Annan fell apart this month after both sides -- the Syrian government and the rebels -- accused the other of failing to abide by the terms to end the killing.

CNN can not independently confirm the reports of casualties or violence because access by international journalists to Syria has been severely restricted.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is among those attending the Geneva meeting.


Turkey says Syria fired at second plane
NATO, Turkey slam Syria over downed jet
Syrians afraid of the unknown She agreed to the meeting after speaking with Annan, who has "been working with key member states on a political transition plan," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters Wednesday.

"The secretary spoke to him yesterday and told him that we like and accept his transition plan, and we think it can form the good basis not only for a meeting -- the kind of meeting that he's been looking for to show international unity -- but also to help the Syrian people move forward," Nuland said.

Russia has opposed the idea that other countries dictate a political transition, insisting it is a decision for the Syrians themselves. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, briefing reporters in Moscow, said a transitional period is "necessary for settling the Syrian crisis and establishing stable and generally acceptable rules and norms, which will satisfy all the Syrian groups."

Turkey moving toward 'hard power' over Syria?

"The people of Syria must choose the content of the transitional period, its mechanism or mechanisms, within the national dialogue of the government and all the opposition groups," Lavrov said. "These terms were agreed to when the Kofi Annan plan was given support."

Iran has not been invited to the meeting. The United States was against Iran's presence despite Annan's and Russia's positions that Tehran must be involved in helping forge peace in Syria.

Lavrov says Iran is an "influential player in this situation" and it's a "great mistake" to exclude them.

"It has been said publicly in Washington that the U.S. is categorically against Iran's participation," Lavrov said. "This is a manifestation of a double standard. When the Americans needed to settle some issues related to the security of their troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, they initiated contacts with Iran and agreed on something without any hesitations."

Annan also declined to invite Saudi Arabia, which backs the opposition. Russia did not want Saudi Arabia at the meeting.

Annan sent invitations to the five permanent members of the Security Council -- China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States -- and to Turkey. Kuwait, Qatar and Iraq, who chair relevant Arab League committees, were invited on behalf of the league. The Arab League and U.N. secretaries-general and the European Union's foreign policy high representative also were invited.

As for the use of outside force, Lavrov said military intervention in Syria could result in a catastrophe, and he doubts "any member of NATO has an appetite" for repeating its military operation in Libya.

The Geneva meeting will come one day after Clinton meets with Lavrov in St. Petersburg.

While in St. Petersburg, Clinton also plans to discuss Russian arms sales to al-Assad's regime, the State Department official told reporters this week.

A shipment of refurbished Russian helicopters headed for Syria had to turn around and return to Russia after its British insurance company dropped coverage on the ship carrying helicopters.

Russia and China, permanent members of the Security Council, have major trade deals with Syria. Both countries vetoed a U.N. resolution calling for an end to the violence and a transition of powe

Syrian Mortars Hit Lebanon, UN Considers ExitSyrian artillery blasts villages in Lebanon as the UN considers pulling its monitors out of the troubled country.11:08am UK, Saturday 07 July 2012 UN observers at the scene of a bomb blast on Damascus' outskirts in June
Ban Ki-moon wants to focus on political talks
EmailArtillery being blasted out of Syria has hit villages in neighbouring Lebanon, leaving at least three people dead.

Two women and a man died and scores more have been wounded after opposition forces crossed the border. Reuters news agency has reported that mortar bombs fell on farms between three and 12 miles into Lebanon.

The Syrian uprising began 16 months ago. Some 14,000 people are thought to have been killed and there have been fears the bloodshed would spill into Lebanon.

A team of about 300 UN representatives in Syria monitoring the situation have been hampered by the intense violence.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has now said in a report submitted to the organisation's Security Council that there would be benefits to temporarily reducing the force.

They were sent to watch the situation in the country as part of international envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan.

However, violence has intensified in the country in spite of the ceasefire agreed in April.


Mr Assad has been widely criticised for attacks by his troops on civilians

Mr Ban wrote that without confidence in the political process, there was little more that observers could do to achieve a cessation of violence.

The council is expected to meet on Wednesday to review the mission's mandate, which expires on July 20.

Mr Annan is expected to attend, and according to the report he will soon return to Syria and other countries in the region.

Meanwhile, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has urged world governments to pressure Russia and China to use UN veto powers to force Syria's President Bashar al Assad into abiding by a ceasefire and the transition strategy.

Russia and China, which have twice blocked UN attempts to sanction Syria, did not attend the meeting in Paris where Mrs Clinton was speaking.

An international gathering of key opposition figures from the Friends of Syria group in the French capital was boosted on Friday as it emerged that a military commander and friend of Mr Assad has fled Damascus.

Manaf Tlas, a brigade commander in Syria's Republican Guard, was said to be on his way to the city.

"I can confirm that he has defected and is on his way to France," French foreign minister Laurent Fabius told delegates.

More than 15,000 people are reported to have been killed in Syria since the uprising began more than a year ago.

7 July 2012 Last updated at 12:34 Share this pageEmail Print Share this page

At least three people have been killed and nine injured in northern Lebanon in shelling from across the Syrian border, local officials and residents say.

The attacks took place in the Wadi Khaled region, where both Syrian armed rebels and civilians have taken refuge from the violence at home.

There have recently been clashes between armed men on the Lebanese side and the Syrian military.

There are fears the Syrian conflict will spread to neighbouring countries.

'Panic and fear'

The first artillery shells from across the border landed on farm buildings early on Saturday, killing one woman, local residents say.


Two more people were killed in the second strike just hours later.

Children are believed to be among the injured, with the Lebanese National News agency reporting that local residents were fleeing their villages "in a state of panic and fear".

It was not immediately clear whether the victims were Lebanese or Syrian nationals and whether the buildings were hit deliberately or caught in crossfire during a battle between the Syrian army and opposition fighters, the BBC's Richard Colebourn in Beirut reports.

The border area has become increasingly volatile in recent weeks, and fears are now growing that Lebanon could be sucked into the 16-month Syrian conflict.

Like Syria's other neighbours - Turkey, Iraq and Jordan - Lebanon has absorbed thousands of refugees fleeing from the violence

Jul 8, 2:04 AM EDT


Clinton warns that Syrian state risks collapse

By BRADLEY KLAPPER







TOKYO (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says time's running out on Syrian peace hopes and warns that the Syrian state could collapse.

Speaking in Japan, Clinton said Sunday that U.N. mediator Kofi Annan's acknowledgement that his peace plan is failing "should be a wake-up call for everyone."

She says last month was the deadliest for the Syrian people in the 16-month revolt against President Bashar Assad (bah-SHAR' AH'-sahd). Clinton adds that the opposition "is getting more effective in defense of themselves and going on the offensive against the Syrian military."

Clinton says Assad's regime must acknowledge that its days are numbered.

She says there's "still a chance to save the Syrian state from a catastrophic assault that would be very dangerous not only to Syria, but to the region."

© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

July 2012 Last updated at 12:04 Share this pageEmail Print Share this page


UN and Arab League envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, has said he has held "very candid and constructive" talks with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

He told reporters they had "agreed an approach" to end the violence, and he would share this with rebel groups.

Mr Annan admitted on Saturday that the international community's efforts to find a political solution to the escalating violence had not succeeded.

A ceasefire was supposed to begin in mid-April as part of his peace plan.

Opposition activists said security forces were shelling parts of the cities of Deir al-Zour, Deraa, Homs, Aleppo and Damascus on Monday. More than 100 people were killed on Sunday, mostly civilians, they added.

'No guarantee'

After his meeting with President Assad, Mr Annan told reporters in the Syrian capital that they had "discussed the need to end the violence, and ways and means of doing so".

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The president shouldn't run away from challenge and we have a national challenge now in Syria”
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Bashar al-Assad

Syrian President

"We agreed an approach which I will share with the armed opposition," he added. "I also stressed the importance of moving ahead with a political dialogue, which the president accepts."

"President Assad reassured me of the government's commitment to the six-point plan which, of course, we should move ahead to implement in a much better fashion than has been the situation so far."

A Syrian foreign ministry spokesman, Jihad al-Makdisi, echoed Mr Annan's comments, writing on Twitter that the talks had been "constructive and good".

Discussions focused on the implementation of the peace plan, Mr Makdisi added.

Mr Makdisi said both men considered the recent Action Group on Syria meeting in Geneva an important step towards creating an environment for national dialogue and a political solution to the crisis.

The Action Group urged all parties to recommit to a sustained cessation of armed violence and the immediately implementation of Mr Annan's initiative. It also called for the creation of a transitional government formed on basis of mutual consent, which could include officials serving under President Assad and opposition members.

Mr Annan will later fly to Tehran, where he is expected to brief the Iranian government on the outcome of the Action Group meeting, to which it was not invited following objections by the US.

The former UN secretary general spent the night at the hotel in Damascus, where unarmed UN military observers have been staying since suspending their ceasefire monitoring mission last month because of the continuing violence.

Peaceful protests have been continuing in Syria alongside the growing armed conflict
"Clearly, we have not succeeded. And maybe there is no guarantee that we will succeed," the former UN secretary general said in an interview with Le Monde published on Saturday.

He said criticism of the international community's failure to negotiate a political solution had too often focused on Russia, which has opposed foreign intervention.

"Russia has influence, but I don't think that events will be determined by Russia alone."

Moscow has continued to supply weapons to Damascus, noting that there are no UN sanctions prohibiting the trade.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have called for the arming and financing the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), while the US has said it is providing "non-lethal" aid, such as communications assistance. Neighbouring Turkey has meanwhile allowed the FSA to operate from its territory.

"All these countries say they want a peaceful solution, but they undertake individual and collective actions that undermine the very meaning of [UN] Security Council resolutions," Mr Annan added in his Le Monde interview.

On Friday, he recommended to the UN Security Council that the UN Stabilisation Mission in Syria (UNSMIS), whose 298 military observers and 112 civilian staff are monitoring the implementation of his peace plan, should instead focus on political mediation.

'Very good plan'

With his ceasefire in ruins, Mr Annan is now focusing on trying to win agreement on some kind of political transition, says the BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon.

President Bashar al-Assad: "To stay in this position, in this situation, you must have support"
The opposition insists any transition must include Mr Assad's departure from power, something he again ruled out in an interview with German television on Sunday.

"The president shouldn't run away from challenge and we have a national challenge now in Syria," Mr Assad told ARD.

"The president shouldn't escape the situation, but from the other side you can stay as president, stay in this position only when you have the public support."

Mr Assad also insisted that the fight against "terrorism" had to go on, blaming Western and Arab support for the opposition for undermining Mr Annan's initiative.

"The biggest obstacle is that many countries do not even want this plan to succeed so they offer political support and continue to provide the terrorists in Syria with arms and money."

The UN says at least 10,000 people have been killed since pro-democracy protests began in March 2011. In June, the Syrian government reported that 6,947 Syrians had died, including at least 3,211 civilians and 2,566 security forces personnel.

A delegation of Syrian opposition figures is visiting Moscow to discuss international efforts to find a political solution to the violence.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is holding talks with Abdulbaset Sayda, head of the Syrian National Council.

Mr Lavrov's deputy said Russia wanted to move the opposition "towards realistic and constructive positions".

Later, international envoy Kofi Annan will brief the UN Security Council on how he plans to revive his peace plan.

Mr Annan held talks with officials in Baghdad and Tehran on Tuesday, and reiterated his view that Iran - Syria's closest ally - had a role to play in resolving the conflict, despite US objections.

The former UN secretary general also said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had proposed altering his peace initiative so the most violent areas would be pacified first.

"He made a suggestion of building an approach from the ground up in some of the districts where we have extreme violence to try and contain the violence in these districts and, step by step, build up and end the violence across the country," Mr Annan told reporters in Tehran.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
We try to move the Syrian opposition figures toward realistic and constructive positions that can help end the bloodshed”
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Mikhail Bogdanov

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister

His plan currently calls for an immediate nationwide ceasefire.

'Revolution'

Ahead of his meeting with Mr Lavrov on Wednesday, Mr Sayda said he would try to persuade Russia to end its support of President Assad's government.

"The events in Syria are not disagreements between the opposition and the government but a revolution," he told a joint news conference. "It is similar to what happened in Russia when it finished with the previous regime and set upon the path of democratic development."

Mr Lavrov said he welcomed the opportunity to have direct discussions with opposition figures "at this crucial time for Syria", before stressing that he wanted to once again clarify Russia's position.

"Sometimes your organisation has questions about what we are doing and we want to clear up these questions so there are no doubts."

Russia wanted to understand if there was a "prospect" of the deeply divided opposition factions uniting and creating a platform for dialogue with the government, he added.

Earlier, Mr Lavrov's deputy, Mikhail Bogdanov, said he would "try to move the Syrian opposition figures towards realistic and constructive positions that can help end the bloodshed".

The opposition has insisted that President Assad must step down as part of any agreement on a transition, something Russia has rejected.

UN deadline

The talks come as a deadline approaches for the UN Security Council to decide whether to renew the mandate of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS), whose 298 unarmed military observers and 112 civilian staff are monitoring the implementation of Mr Annan's plan, under which a ceasefire was supposed to begin in mid-April.

Kofi Annan said Iran had a role to play in ending the Syria conflict, despite US objections
The observers suspended their work on 16 June because it was too dangerous.

Mr Annan admitted on Saturday that his peace plan had not succeeded, adding: "Maybe there is no guarantee that we will succeed."

On Tuesday, Russia circulated a draft resolution to UN Security Council diplomats that would extend the observer mission beyond the end of its mandate on 20 July.

The resolution contains no threat of sanctions against Syria and reportedly suggests that UNSMIS should focus on trying to achieve a political solution.

Correspondents say the draft is unlikely to satisfy the US and European countries, who have called for a resolution under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which would allow the Security Council to authorise sanctions and military intervention.

The UN says at least 10,000 people have been killed since pro-democracy protests began in March 2011. In June, the Syrian government reported that 6,947 Syrians had died, including at least 3,211 civilians and 2,566 security forces personnel

By Sam Kiley, defence and security editor

Hundreds of tonnes of Syria's stockpile of deadly nerve gas could fall into the hands of terrorist groups if the regime of Bashar al Assad falls apart amid widening concerns that Israel could go to war to try to stop this 'Doomsday threat'.

According to Middle Eastern and other intelligence sources, Syria has the biggest stockpiles of the nerve gasses: VX and Sarin as well as mustard gas, in the Middle East.

Investigations by Sky News have identified four sites where the agents are produced: Hama, Latakia, Al Safira, near Aleppo and at the Centre D'Etude et Recherche Scientifique laboratories in Damascus.

Storage sites have also been found at Khan abu Shamat, Furqlus, Hama, Masyaf, Palmyra.

Biological weapons are believed to be stored at Cerin while there are also numerous 'dual use' civilian pharmaceutical laboratories which are capable of producing bio-weapons such as botulism and anthrax.

Al Qaeda-related groups are known to be operating inside Syria. Its leadership has frequently extolled members or followers to try to get hold of chemical weapons.

Much of the fighting in Syria's civil war has centred on Hama, Latakia, and in the suburbs of the capital - making the storage and production sites of chemical weapons vulnerable to being overrun by rebels.

The deadly chemical weapons have been successfully 'weaponised'. This means that conventional artillery and missile warheads have been fitted with delivery systems for VX gas. These include Scud B, C and D missiles.

These rockets are capable of hitting any location inside Israel and, Sky sources said, they are capable of spreading VX gas in bomblets similar to those seen in cluster munitions.

Syria has backed the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah for decades. In 2006, Israel launched a bloody invasion of Lebanon in response to Hezbollah rocket attacks.

Today, intelligence sources say that they conservatively estimate that Hezbollah has a stockpile of more than 40,000 new missiles.

Israel is deeply concerned that Assad may deliberately give Hezbollah chemical weapons - or that they could end up in the hands of other terror groups. In either case, this could lead to a regional war, Danny Yatom, the former head of Mossad warned.


Israel is worried President Assad may give chemical weapons to Hezbollah

"The conventional wisdom should be that we cannot exclude a non-conventional attack on Israel. We would have to pre-empt in order to prevent it. We need to be prepared to launch even military attacks... and military attacks mean maybe a deterioration to war," he told Sky News.

Yatom is part of Israel's security establishment, but not part of the administration. Usually vocal on any issue perceived to be a threat to Israel, recently, officials have been publically muted on Assad's Syria.

This is mainly because while Assad is a sworn enemy of Israel, which occupies the Syrian Golan Heights, he has headed a stable regime.

There are widespread fears that a Gaddafi-style collapse of Syria into chaos, would mean that chemical weapons would spread around the globe.

The weaponisation means they can be moved easily and Sky sources in the region said that the Assad regime had dispersed the weapons to "dozens of different sites and into perpetually mobile columns".

Major general Yair Naveh, the deputy chief of staff of the Israeli Defence Force, recently warned a private congregation at a Jerusalem synagogue that Syria's chemical weapons posed a mortal threat to the Jewish State.

"As for Syria, we all hear the news ... (if) Syrians ... behave this way to their people it is clear ... how they will behave towards us - to our sons - when they get the opportunity against us, with the largest chemical weapons arsenal in the world, with missiles and rockets that cover all of Israel".

Western leaders have been criticised for their 'failure' to intervene in Syria with a no-fly zone and the sort of campaign which helped topple Muammar Gaddafi in Libya last year.

Syria, with 100,000 men dedicated to its air force and air defence forces, has built up a formidable ability to keep enemy aircraft out of its territory in recent years.

In May, 12,000 special forces commandos spent almost a month training for the sort of scenario now presented by Syria.

But a Pentagon study suggested that 75,000 troops would be needed to secure Assad's chemical weapons arsenal. There seems little prospect of the US committing that kind of force, given tensions with Iran over its nuclear weapons programme.

"The truth is that no one has much of a clue what to do about Syria - it's too well defended and too full of weapons of mass destruction to mean that there can be any meaningful military intervention. The Syrians may be doomed if Assad stays, and lots of others if he falls," said one senior intelligence official in the region.

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Article:
Chemical Weapons: What Are They? Chemical Weapons: What Are They?
Updated: 6:32pm UK, Monday 09 July 2012

:: VX Nerve Agent (Purple Possum)

VX agent was accidentally discovered in 1952 by a man called Dr. Ranajit Ghosh, a chemist who was developing pesticides. His discovery was so toxic it was sent to research facility Porton Down for evaluation as a weapon.

VX agent is odourless, tasteless and has the consistency of engine oil. Victims suffer violent contractions and paralysis of their muscles, including seizure of the diaphragm which asphyxiates the casualty.

The US produced large amounts of VX in 1961. Iraq admitted to the United Nations it had researched VX, but claimed it had been unable to ‘weaponise’ it.

A worldwide programme of disposal of VX has been in place since 1997 under a United Nations arms agreement which bans the production and stockpiling of chemical weapons.



:: Sarin Nerve Agent

Sarin is an odourless, colourless liquid estimated to be 500 times more poisonous than cyanide. It is classified as a weapon on mass destruction by the United Nations.

Inhalation or absorption through the skin causes paralysis, permanent brain damage and death. Sarin vapour alone, if strong enough, can penetrate the skin.

Initial symptoms of exposure to Sarin include a running nose, tightness in the chest and constricted pupils, followed by difficulty breathing, nausea and dribbling from the mouth.

If the victim is not treated they lose control of their bodily functions. The casualty will then suffer uncontrollable twitching and muscle spasms leading to death.

In 1995, members of the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo sect released sarin on the Tokyo Metro killing 13 people in a terrorist attack designed to topple the Japanese government.



:: Mustard Agent

In its impure form, this yellow-brown chemical has an odour similar to mustard plants, hence the name.

These so-called mustard agents have previously been deployed on the battlefield using artillery shells and aerial bombs. They have also been sprayed from aeroplanes in the same way as pesticides.

Mustard agents are regulated under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention as substances with no use other than in chemical warfare.

The compound has an extremely powerful blistering effect on the skin of its victims. It can take 24 hours for symptoms to appear so victims are sometimes unaware they have been affected and fail to seek medical attention.

The chemical’s vapour can easily penetrate clothing. Casualties experience intense sore eyes, itching and skin irritations along with large blisters of yellow fluid.

Mustard agent was used effectively in World War One by Germany against British soldiers in 1917. A few months later the Allies seized German stockpiles of the chemical and used them against the German army.

Jul 11, 10:25 PM EDT


By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
Associated Press















ISTANBUL (AP) -- The Syrian ambassador to Iraq has defected, denouncing President Bashar Assad in a TV statement Wednesday, becoming the most senior diplomat to abandon the regime during a bloody 16-month uprising.

Nawaf Fares, a former provincial governor, is the second prominent Syrian to break with the regime in less than a week. Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass, an Assad confidant and son of a former defense minister, fled Syria last week, buoying Western powers and anti-regime activists, who expressed hope that other high-ranking defections would follow.

The high-level defections could be a sign that Assad's tightly wrapped regime is unraveling, but it was too early to be certain. There have been thousands of defections in the past, mostly low-level army conscripts, but until now no one as senior as the general and the ambassador had fled.

In a statement broadcast on the Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera, Fares said he was resigning and joining the opposition. Wearing a dark suit and reading from a prepared text in what appeared to be a large office, Fares harshly criticized Assad.

"I'm announcing from this moment on that I'm siding with the revolution in Syria," he said, according to the Al-Jazeera translation into English. He called on all Syrians to abandon Assad.

"Where is the honor in killing your countrymen? Where is the national allegiance? The nation is all the people, not one person in particular," he said. "The allegiance is to the people, not to a dictator who kills his people."

It was not known where or when Fares recorded the statement.

Appointed to the Baghdad post four years ago, Fares was the first Syrian ambassador to Iraq in 26 years. Like Tlass, he is a member of the privileged Sunni elite in a regime dominated by Assad's minority Alawite sect.

Khaled Khoja, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council who is based in Istanbul, said Fares was "moving toward Turkey." Asked for details, Khoja said the information came from his own sources on the ground in Iraq.

There was no immediate comment from either Iraq or Syria. An operator who answered the phone at the Syrian Embassy in Baghdad said there was nobody at the embassy. When asked if the ambassador is currently in Iraq, the operator said he did not know.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. had no confirmation of the defection as of Wednesday afternoon. But he said recent high-level defections from the Assad regime were "a welcome development."

"That is an indication of the fact that support for Assad is crumbling," Carney said.

State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said that if true, Fares would be the first senior diplomat from the regime to defect.

The conflict in Syria has defied every international attempt to bring peace. Although the Assad government's crackdown has turned the Syrian president into an international pariah, he still has the support of strong allies such as Russia, Iran and China.

A prominent Syrian opposition leader said Wednesday during a visit to Moscow that Russia's resistance to international intervention in the conflict was bringing misery and "suffering" to the violence-torn country.

Two Syrian opposition delegations visited Moscow this week, raising hopes that Russia could be pushed to accept the ouster of Assad. But Syrian National Council head Abdelbaset Sieda said he saw "no change" in Moscow's stance after meeting with officials including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

"The Syrian people are suffering because of Russia, because of the position it has taken, because of its veto in the U.N. Security Council," Sieda said at a news conference. "The current regime uses Russian weapons against its own people."

Activists estimate 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising began, and as the conflict continues, the rebellion appears to be getting more and more radicalized and violent, making any peaceful resolution or transfer of power a long-shot.

International envoy Kofi Annan urged the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to send a message to the Syrian government and the opposition that there will be "consequences" if they don't comply with demands for an immediate cease-fire, a U.N. diplomat said.

Russia and China, veto-wielding council members, have blocked repeated attempts by the United States and its European allies to even threaten "consequences" - a diplomatic code word for sanctions.

The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because Annan's videoconference briefing from Geneva was at a closed session, said the council should insist on implementation of its resolutions, which included a strong endorsement of his six-point peace plan.

That plan calls for an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of heavy weapons from populated areas by the Syrian government, to be followed by an opposition cessation of hostilities.

The U.N. sent a 300-strong unarmed observer mission for 90 days to oversee the cease-fire and monitor implementation of the Annan plan. But it was forced to withdraw from key conflict areas because of escalating fighting and the council must decide what to do about extending its mandate, which expires on July 20.

Another U.N. diplomat said U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told the council the observers should remain and the U.N. should decide on their deployment. A third diplomat said the peacekeeping department plans to temporarily withdraw half of the 300-member mission, on 48-hour standby to return if conditions change.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because Annan spoke behind closed doors.

Annan also said Wednesday that Assad has discussed the possibility of forming a transitional Syrian government. An international conference in Geneva last month proposed having a transitional framework.

Annan said the Syrian leader during recent talks in Damascus "did offer a name" of someone who could serve as an interlocutor for the regime as it explores ways of forming a transitional government with the opposition. Annan, the U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria, told reporters in Geneva that he was now considering the person whom Assad proposed, but he did not identify who it is.

He spoke Wednesday after a videoconference session with the U.N. Security Council in New York.

Also Wednesday, a Greek Orthodox priest said a group of Christians trapped in the besieged, bombed-out Syrian city of Homs has been evacuated after a deal between the army and rebels. The priest, Maximos al-Jamal, said 63 people were taken out to safety over the past 24 hours.

Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Syria's population, say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence sweeping the country of 22 million people. They are fearful that Syria will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Muslim groups.

Homs, Syria's third-largest city, has a substantial Christian population and has been one of the hardest-hit regions during the uprising. Rebels control several neighborhoods, which has sparked several rounds of intense attacks by government troops over the past months.

Syrian Christians have largely stuck by Assad, fearing the strength of Islamist hard-liners in the uprising against his rule.

"I stayed inside Hamidiyeh to protect the churches from looting. I saved 14 icons from the St. George church which has been destroyed," said Jihad Akhras, who was among those who were evacuated Wednesday.

He said the situation inside Hamidiyeh and Bistan al-Diwan was "tragic" with barely enough food for those who remain trapped there.

---

Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Mark Lavie in Cairo and Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad contributed to this report.

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EmailMore than 200 people have been killed after Syrian government forces attacked a village in the province of Hama, opposition activists say.

Tremseh was first shelled by Syrian troops and then stormed by the Shabiha pro-government militia, activists quoted local residents and witnesses as saying.

The Revolution Leadership Council of Hama told Reuters that most of the dead were civilians.

UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman said: "Government troops bombarded the village using tanks and helicopters."

Some victims died in the shelling while others were executed later, according to the activists.

Hama resident Rami Abo Adnan told Sky News: "Most of them were slaughtered by knife, including women and children. Burning bodies were found.

"The shelling is ongoing and the numbers of the murdered is increasing."

It is impossible to independently verify the death toll as the movement of journalists is restricted in Syria.

Details of the alleged massacre emerged as Russia refused to support the threat of further sanctions against Syria.

Britain, the United States, France and Germany have proposed a UN Security Council resolution that would give President Bashar al Assad a 10-day deadline to halt military actions otherwise he would face penalties under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.

"We are definitely against Chapter VII. Anything can be negotiated but we do not negotiate this. This is a red line," Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN Igor Pankin told reporters after the Security Council talks.

The 15-member council must decide the future of the UN monitoring mission to Syria, known as UNSMIS, before July 20, when its 90-day mandate expires.

Russia has proposed extending the mission for 90 days, but Western nations have suggested just 45 days.

More to follow...
Article:
Russia Treads Carefully Over Syria Russia Treads Carefully Over Syria
Updated: 3:50pm UK, Wednesday 11 July 2012

By Sam Kiley, Defence and Security Editor

Russia is sending a warship to protect its interests in Syria while simultaneously blocking the export of 36 fighter jets.

The Kremlin offers to host an international meeting on the crisis in the country but torpedoes United Nations resolutions calling for Bashar Assad to step down.

Pragmatist or spoiler? The truth is: both.

Russia has no vested interest in the demise of the Assad regime.

Syria has been its seventh biggest arms customer spending $1.7bn (£1.1bn) between 2000 and 2010 with another $4bn (£2.6bn) reportedly in the pipeline.

Syria imports $1.1bn (£710m) worth of goods from Russia every year. The Russians have $19.4bn (£12.5bn) invested in the nation - much of it in the oil and gas sectors.

Perhaps more important to Russia is its naval facility at Tartus, its only port outside the former Soviet Union.

The Russian destroyer Smetlivy is heading for Syria with an escort of three landing ships, according to Reuters. Its mission will be to secure the port whatever unfolds beyond its chain fenced perimeter.

Tartus has been dredged recently to allow bigger ships to dock there - perhaps even Russian nuclear submarines.

With growing ties between Nato in the traditional areas of Soviet influence - notably Georgia and Montenegro - and Nato plans to base missile defences in eastern Europe, Russia sees its warm-water port in Syria as a major strategic asset it will never be prepared to lose.

But Russia does not want to have to defend it, whoever rules Syria, and is gingerly reaching out to the Syrian opposition.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met the leader of the Syrian National Council, Abdel Basset Sayda, on Tuesday as part of attempts to build a forum for talks about Syria that would include Iran.

Mr Sayda told him that Moscow needed to understand his country was in the throes of a revolution.

"The events in Syria are not disagreements between the opposition and the government but a revolution," Mr Sayda told Lavrov and ruled out talks that involved any member of the Assad regime.

Russia has proposed extending the 300-person UN military observer mission to Syria beyond the end of its mandate on July 20 but without any threat of sanctions against Syria.

This has angered western nations - who also reject any role for Iran, Syria’s biggest backer, in future talks.

But Kofi Annan, the UN special envoy to Syria has repeatedly said that Iran will have to play a role in talks about Syria - adding grist to the Russian mill.

"Iran can play a positive role," Mr Annan said after meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.

"There is a risk that the situation in Syria gets out of hand and spreads to the region."

That is the crux. Assad may be widely detested. He may be ordering the mass slaughter of his own people. But if he fell quickly there is no guarantee that the region would stabilize nor that Syria could avoid a long running sectarian civil war pitting Sunni against Alawite and Christian minorities.

Military intervention by the West is almost inconceivable. Syria has state-of-the-art air defences which would tear into the most modern squadrons - and half a million men under arms.

The unspoken truth, whatever the public rhetoric, is that officials from Beijing and Moscow to Tel Aviv and Washington acknowledge that Mr Assad is perhaps the least terrible prospect for their own strategic interests.

So, for the time being, whether it's western refusal to engage with Iran, or Russian refusal to get tough with Syria, the diplomatic effort is both pragmatic, and a spoiler - and no use to the Syrian people themselves.

Panda

This quote from your previous post:

"Where is the honor in killing your countrymen? Where is the national allegiance? The nation is all the people, not one person in particular," he said. "The allegiance is to the people, not to a dictator who kills his people."

I saw this on the news this evening and I thought it's first time I have heard anyone speaking sense about this whole affair.

If something is not done to halt the fighting I am wondering if the US will go in.