Syria warns West against intervention

22 January 2013 Last updated at 10:16
Russians flee Syrian conflict on planes from Beirut
It is feared Russians may face hostility over President Putin's support for the Assad government, if the opposition (pictured) prevails
Continue reading the main story

Syria conflict

• 'Islamic Syria'
  
• Rallying the faithful
  
• Life amid the conflict
  
• Under fire over the border
  

Scores of Russians are to be flown home after fleeing the violence in Syria - but Russia insists it is not the start of a mass evacuation.

Up to 150 people, who have left Syria for neighbouring Lebanon, are expected to board two flights from the Lebanese capital Beirut, starting on Tuesday.

Moscow has been one of President Bashar al-Assad's closest allies during the conflict in Syria.

But it has admitted making contingency plans for a possible future evacuation.

Such an operation would almost certainly involve the Russian navy, says the BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow.

Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

Russia's reputation among the opposition is bad since we officially support Damascus. So, Moscow is showing commendable forward-thinking”

End Quote Aleksey Malashenko Moscow Carnegie Centre
Russia has not renounced its support for Mr Assad, but has acknowledged he may not win.

The two countries have long had close ties and there are thought to be thousands of Russian citizens living and working in Syria.

A Russian diplomat told the AFP news agency: "This is not an evacuation. There is no pressure at all on Russians in Syria to leave the country, because there are many areas in Damascus which are completely safe and free from violence or any clashes.

"The issue is that the Russian airline is no longer flying to Damascus, so we are helping some 100, maximum 150 people to leave Syria via Beirut, which is very close," the unnamed diplomat said.

"We are simply helping people who have gone to the Russian consulate in Damascus requesting assistance."

He said, however, that the planes scheduled to leave on Tuesday and Wednesday would probably not be the last.

"It will be an ongoing operation. Whenever enough people request assistance at the consulate in Damascus, we will organise for new planes."
'Far from angels'
Russia's state-controlled Russian Channel One TV said most of the passengers were women and children, and there would be doctors and psychologists aboard the flights, which are provided by Russia's emergencies ministry.

Aleksey Malashenko, a member of the research council at the Moscow Carnegie Centre, said Russia was trying to protect its citizens who might be the victim of revenge attacks if the anti-Assad opposition prevails in the war.

"Assad's regime is tottering, and those who intend to take his place are far from being angels," he said.

"Russia's reputation among the opposition is bad since we officially support Damascus. So, Moscow is showing commendable forward-thinking by evacuating Russians."

26 January 2013 Last updated at 07:00










Syria conflict: Britain to provide extra £21m in humanitarian aid


Huge numbers of Syrians cross daily into the Al-Zaatari refugee camp in the Jordanian city of Mafraq
Continue reading the main story

Syria conflict

• 'Islamic Syria'
  
• Rallying the faithful
  
• Life amid the conflict
  
• Under fire over the border
  

The UK is to provide £21m in new humanitarian aid for people caught up in the crisis in Syria, the government has said.

International Development Secretary Justine Greening said the aid would "help deliver life-saving winter clothing, food and medicine".

Ms Greening is visiting Jordan where Syrian refugees are arriving in unprecedented numbers.

The extra funding means the UK has now provided £89.5m in aid for Syria.

On Friday, a UN official told the BBC there had been a huge leap in the numbers of Syrian refugees entering the country, which was putting a considerable strain on resources.

Some 6,400 Syrians have arrived at the main refugee camp in Jordan in the last 24 hours alone, fleeing the continuing fighting a well as food and fuel shortages, according to the UN.

The UN described the flow of people as "absolutely dramatic".
'Still not enough'
Speaking in Jordan, Ms Greening said: "My visit today has given me the chance to see first-hand the incredible generosity of spirit that ordinary Jordanians have shown in opening their homes to complete strangers in need.

"It's a story repeated in towns and villages in Syria's neighbours across the region, and I salute these ongoing efforts from governments and host communities alike. But we cannot and must not leave them to shoulder this response alone."

Continue reading the main story
Refugee numbers

• Jordan - 151,000 registered, 53,000 waiting to be registered
  
• Lebanon - 153,000, 67,000 waiting
  
• Turkey - 157,000
  

Just under half of the new British aid funding will go towards helping Jordan cope with the growing influx of people, particularly those who are most vulnerable in the winter conditions, Ms Greening said.

It will be channelled through agencies, aiming to reach people both in government and opposition-held areas.

Remaining aid will help restock medical facilities and treat tens of thousands of injured and sick people inside Syria. It will also be used to buy them vital supplies of bread and flour.

Ms Greening said the UK and a handful of others had "consistently led the way in responding to this crisis", but added the "vast majority are still not doing enough".

"This is simply not acceptable and it has to change," she added, calling for the international community to "get behind the UN and [turn] vague promises into actual support".
Refugees to double
The UN is due to hold a conference in Kuwait next week in an attempt to reduce a significant shortfall in aid pledges, as the humanitarian cost of the conflict intensifies.

It has warned the number of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries could double to 1.1 million by June if the civil war does not end.

The conflict in Syria began almost two years ago with demonstrations against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

The protests quickly turned violent as opponents of Mr Assad took up arms to try to resist a brutal crackdown by the authorities.

The conflict has left more than 60,000 people dead and two million internally displaced.

The UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR, said there were now more than 670,000 registered Syrian refugees and people awaiting registration in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt.

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1. 
   

Aleppo executions: 79 bodies pulled from Syria river


At least 79 Syrian men and teenage boys, each with a single bullet hole to the head, have been found dead in a river in Aleppo in the biggest mass execution of the country’s two-year civil war.





















By Ruth Sherlock, Bustan al-Qasr, Aleppo

6:54PM GMT 29 Jan 2013




Some of the bodies had been so recently killed that blood still flowed from their wounds. Others had clearly lain stagnant in the water for days, their bodies bloated and the skin disintegrating and grey.


The hands of each had been roughly tied with string or wire. Each had circular wound in their forehead or eye. The large exit wounds at the backs of their heads suggested they had been shot at close range.


Family members arrived in their hundreds to identify missing sons, saying many had disappeared after crossing from rebel-held territory in Aleppo into regime areas on the other side of the river.


It was impossible to be certain who was responsible for their deaths. But those identified, at least half the total by nightfall, were from rebel-held districts, and locals blamed government checkpoints on the other side of the river.


^{Families of the dead men and boys found in a stagnant canal in Aleppo search for their missing relations in a schoolyard (Alseeio Romenzi)}



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“These are my sons,” said Abu Mohammed, 73, as he shuffled towards the corpses laid out in rows in a schoolyard. A relative held his arm, as he stared at the exposed faces of the victims.

His legs buckled as he recognised the two young men, no older than 30 as his sons. They had travelled to central Aleppo, which is still in the hands of the Syrian government 20 days before.

“They thought they had nothing to fear from the government, so they went to renew their identity cards. But they didn’t come back. Now I have found them here.” The toll was at least 79, according to The Daily Telegraph’s count, the worst for any single find of victims summarily executed in Syrian violence chaos. There have been larger tolls but in more random rampages through villages, such as that of Houla, near Homs, last June.

Most of them were young men, some dressed in military fatigues, and others in civilian clothes. The corpses of two young boys, no older than 11 and 15, were among the dead.

They were pulled from a narrow, filthy strip of the Oweq River at a point where it edges on Aleppo’s rebel-held district of Bustan al-Qasr. The regime front line lay visible just a few hundred metres away on the other side of the water.

“We saw the first bodies at 8am in the morning, and we started to take them away,” said one local resident, who did not want to be named.

During the past month, the river had becoming a dumping ground for corpses, local residents said. Two bodies were pulled out last week. Unclaimed and without identity cards, the bloated corpses were left in the flower patch in front of one of the rebel hospital in case a passer-by should recognize them.

Tuesday’s discovery was on a different scale. Mamnoud Hassoun, 26, a rebel fighter, said there were still at least 30 bodies floating in the stagnant water further upstream, but it had become too dangerous to reach them: “It is hard to get the bodies because they are in the view of government snipers,” he said. “When the snipers saw there were Free Syrian Army pulling out the bodies they started shooting.”

Pick-up trucks, the Syrian revolution’s hearses, lined the road outside the school. Male relatives surrounded one that already contained its body, crying and angrily firing Kalashnikovs into the air.

Residents said that there had been an attempt by the government to reclaim Bustan al-Qasr the day before, and that in the fight rebels had killed several soldiers.

“When this happened, the loyalist militias that have formed checkpoints on the government side started arresting people whose identity cards showed they were from liberated areas,” said one, Wael Ibrahim, 30. “It is clear they were not being kept in a prison because they still have their belts on their clothes and these are removed usually before people are put in jail.”

Regime sources blamed the rebels for the deaths, saying those killed had been "abducted by terrorists" and that their relatives had been trying to negotiate their release. But that was not the story told by the relatives choosing the bodies for burial.

“I hope that Bashar al-Assad and all his family are killed in the same way, and that they go missing like dogs,” screamed one old woman, from the crowd.

Syria Is Being Destroyed, Says UN Envoy


After reports of dozens of executions in Aleppo, the UN's Syria envoy warns the country "is breaking up before everyone's eyes".


6:23am UK, Wednesday 30 January 2013



Video: The video was posted by an opposition group
Enlarge

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  The war in Syria has reached "unprecedented levels of horror" after evidence emerged of the massacre of dozens of men, the UN envoy for the country has said.
  
  Lakhdar Brahimi told the divided UN Security Council it must act now to prevent further atrocities like the apparent execution of at least 65 men found dumped in a river in Aleppo.
  
  Syrian rebels blamed president Bashar al Assad's government for the killings, but state media said an Islamist opposition faction was to blame.
  
  "Syria is breaking up before everyone's eyes. Only the international community can help, and first and foremost the Security Council," Mr Brahimi told the council's 15 ambassadors.
  
  More than 60,000 people have been killed in 22 months of conflict, according to the UN, which will seek £950m in humanitarian funding for beleaguered Syrians at a conference in Kuwait.
  
  Mr Brahimi said Mr Assad's government's legitimacy has been "irreparably damaged" but warned that it could still cling to power as both state and rebel forces commit "equally atrocious crimes".
  Fighting has devastated Aleppo since summer 2012
  He also warned of growing conflict "contamination" in neighbouring countries.
  
  The Security Council has been paralysed on Syria for more than a year. Russia and China have vetoed three western-drafted resolutions which would simply have threatened sanctions.
  
  Russia accuses the West of seeking regime change through force and insists it cannot make Mr Assad stand down. The US and its allies back the opposition stance that there can be no talks with the president.
  
  The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights opposition group said the Aleppo victims were found with their hands bound and a single bullet wound to the head - and that the death toll could climb to 80.
  Aleppo - Syria's most populous city - is far from Assad's Damascus base
  Hundreds of distressed people watched as muddied corpses were dredged from the Quweiq river.
  
  "The regime threw them into the river so that they would arrive in an area under our control, so the people would think we killed them," rebel fighter Abu Seif said.
  
  A government security official blamed "terrorists" - the regime term for the rebels - for the carnage.
  
  There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the official SANA news agency said the jihadist Al Nusra Front carried out the executions.
  
  Al Nusra, which has gained notoriety for its suicide bombings, has become a key fighting force, leading rebel attacks throughout the embattled country.
  
  Its suspected affiliation to the al Qaeda offshoot in Iraq have seen it added to the US list of terrorist organisations.
  
  =================================================
  
  Everything is linked to Al Qaeda but I believe it is Western interference which has escalated the demolition of so many Countries . An ancient Country like Syria has been destroyed, many thousands dead and millions homeless , for what???
  

Iran stepping up support for Syria, Hillary Clinton warns


Iran is stepping up its support for Bashar al-Assad, Hillary Clinton has warned, amid threats from Syria that they will retaliate over what it says was an Israeli air raid.








US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Photo: AFP





8:41AM GMT 01 Feb 2013




Israel maintained a stony silence over Syria's claims, as well as over separate reports that its jets had hit a weapons convoy near the Lebanon border.


Syria's foreign ministry said Israel "and the states that protect it" are responsible for the air strike, and "affirms Syria's right to defend itself and its territory and sovereignty," state news agency SANA reported.


It called on "all the competent UN bodies to take the necessary steps given this grave Israeli violation, and to guarantee that it will not happen again."


Mrs Clinton warned that Iran was stepping up its support for the Syrian president.


"The Iranians have made it clear for some time that keeping Assad in power was one of their highest priorities. We believe they have acted on that by sending in more personnel, not only to help Assad, but to support and advise military security forces," Mrs Clinton said in Washington.



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In her last media interview as secretary of state, Mrs Clinton said "the Iranians have been actively involved from the very beginning. It appears that they may be increasing that involvement and that is a matter of concern to us."

Mrs Clinton also noted that despite US efforts to bring Moscow on board to work for an international solution to the 22-month war in Syria that has claimed some 60,000 lives, Russia was continuing to prop up the regime.

"We have reason to believe that the Russians continue to supply financial and military assistance in the form of equipment to Assad," she said

The top US diplomat gave a grim assessment of the progression of the war, warning of "the dangers of an increasing civil war and a potential proxy war."

"The worst kind of predictions of what could happen, both internally and spilling over the borders of Syria are certainly within the realm of the possible now," she said.

Damascus's ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdel Karim Ali, stressed Syria's right to respond to "the Zionist aggression."

"The Israelis, and the United States behind them, along with their Arab and regional accomplices, realise that Syria, which defends its sovereignty and territory, may decide to respond by surprise to this aggression."

"It is up to the competent powers to choose the appropriate answer, and to determine the means and the place," Ali added in remarks to Lebanese website Al-Ahad, which is close to the powerful Shiite group Hizbollah.

Reaction from close Damascus ally Iran was strident.

Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian warned, without elaborating, that the "Zionist regime's attack on the outskirts of Damascus will have grave consequences for Tel Aviv," the ISNA news agency reported.

In the past, Tehran has said any Israeli attack on Syria would be considered an attack on Iran.

Russia's foreign ministry said it was "deeply concerned" but was still trying to verify Syria's allegations.

Late on Wednesday, Syria accused Israel of launching a dawn strike on a military research centre in Jamraya, near Damascus.

"Israeli fighter jets violated our airspace ... and carried out a direct strike on a scientific research centre in charge of raising our level of resistance and self-defence," the army general command said, saying two workers were killed.

The army denied separate reports citing security sources that an Israeli strike had targeted a weapons convoy from Syria near the border with Lebanon.

3 February 2013 Last updated at 14:53
President Assad accuses Israel of destabilising Syria



Syrian state TV broadcast this footage, saying it showed the aftermath of the air strike

Continue reading the main story

Syria conflict

• Dialogue bid open
  
• 'Islamic Syria'
  
• Rallying the faithful
  
• Life amid the conflict
  

Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad has accused Israel of trying to "destabilise" his country.

It was his first remarks on last week's reported Israeli air strike in Syria.

Syrian TV has shown images of the raid Damascus says Israeli jets carried out on a military research centre in Jamraya last Wednesday.

US officials said the air strike targeted a weapons convoy bound for Lebanon. The Israeli defence minister has hinted his country was responsible.

Ehud Barak told a security conference in Germany on Sunday that the strike was "proof that when we say something we mean it".

"We don't think [Syria] should be allowed to bring advanced weapons systems into Lebanon," he told the meeting of top international diplomats and defence officials.
'Bombardment'
President Assad said on Sunday that last Wednesday's raid "unmasked the true role Israel is playing, in collaboration with foreign enemy forces and their agents on Syrian soil, to destabilise and weaken Syria".

But he said, in a meeting with Saeed Jalili, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, that his country's military was able to confront "current threats... and aggression".


Continue reading the main story

• Q&A: Israeli 'strike' on Syria
  
• Analysis: Strike adds complexity to tense region
  

Syria's state al-Ikhbariya television showed what it said was the aftermath of the air strike at the research centre at Jamraya, north-east of Damascus. Footage of a damaged building and burnt out vehicles was combined with accounts from witnesses.

One said he broke his shoulder and suffered hand and leg injuries. "When the bombardment ended I tried to help the people who were injured," he was quoted as saying.

But a US official told the BBC last week that the target was a convoy carrying SA-17 surface-to-air missiles.

The BBC's Jim Muir, reporting from Beirut, says President Assad's comments, while signalling defiance, do not amount to a threat of imminent retaliation.

And he points out that the footage of a damaged building and wrecked military vehicles raises the possibility that an arms consignment for Hezbollah may have been at the Jamraya facility.

So the two rival accounts of the attack - that the target was a research facility or a convoy - may both be true, our correspondent adds.

Israel has repeatedly warned of the danger that Syria's chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Correspondents say Israel is also concerned the Shia militant group could obtain anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, thus strengthening its ability to respond to Israeli air strikes.

The White House last week also warned Syria against giving weapons to Hezbollah.

The latest developments come amid a vicious 22-month conflict between the Assad government and opposition rebels that has killed more than 60,000 people in Syria.

REBELS HAVE SAID THERE SHOULD BE RETALATION AGAINST ISRAEL

Badboy wrote:REBELS HAVE SAID THERE SHOULD BE RETALATION AGAINST ISRAEL

Let's hope now that Netanyahou is part of a coalition, he will not be so Gungho.

Syria War: 'Children Are Biggest Casualty'


Doctors in Aleppo tell Sky's Stuart Ramsay that children are being killed and injured in greater numbers than rebel fighters.


7:15am UK, Monday 04 February 2013



Video: Syrian Children 'Biggest Casualty'

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  By Stuart Ramsay, Chief Correspondent, in Aleppo
  
  The anguished cries of a little boy receiving treatment without anaesthetic for a shrapnel wound to the face fills the putrid air of a converted shop that is an Aleppo field hospital.
  
  The walls are splattered with blood. All around are shop fronts with medics working on the latest injured.
  
  A car pulls out and a young man shot in a drive-by attack staggers inside followed by his screaming mother.
  
  In rebel-held Aleppo, this is just another day. It isn't particularly busy. It is just constant.
  
  Medics, who have gone underground after their hospital was reduced to rubble by a targeted Syrian government bombing campaign, say children are being injured and killed in greater numbers now than the rebel fighters.
  
  Stuck inside this city the children are on the streets more than anyone else. Playing or scavenging amongst piles of rubbish for anything of value to take home, they are now the most vulnerable.
  Hamid Sakia was shot by a sniper while playing football
  A short distance away in another makeshift hospital room nine-year-old Hamid Sakia whimpers in pain; a sack of draining blood lies on the floor. He was shot by a sniper while playing football. He will lose his kidney. The medics are waiting for a surgeon to get enough anaesthetic to operate.
  
  He whispers a "Yes" as I ask him if it hurts. His mother looks on holding back tears. She buried her daughter this week. Her family is being torn apart.
  
  It is not about the lack of food or heating or supplies, she says.
  
  "What will happen in the future?" She asks: "What will happen? Everyone is scared."
  
  In a room next door, surrounded by seat cushions to try to keep the breeze from her skin, Aya Hussein stares motionlessly ahead. She is dreadfully burnt. Her tiny body a web of fierce welts caused by a fire when her apartment was hit by an artillery round.
  Aya Hussein was burned when she was hit by an artillery round
  The cushions are her treatment. This is life in Aleppo.
  
  This city is slowly being destroyed. There is barely a building unscarred by the bombing from fighter jets and artillery. A million plus people still live here amongst the ruins where shells and snipers are a constant.
  
  Cars cross the most dangerous parts of town protected by mud walls. You can hear the sniper rounds thudding into the barricade or whining over head as you pass.
  
  The dreadful sound of artillery rounds smashing into buildings never stops wherever you go.
  
  Once tree-filled parks are now open spaces. There is no heat or electricity in Aleppo so wood has become a precious commodity.
  
  In the markets there are plenty of local vegetables. But meat, gas, fuel and pretty much everything else comes from Turkey at a huge cost. Gas bottles are 15 times their proper cost.
  The city's scarred buildings
  People are living in battered apartment blocks. Theirs is a virtual twilight of dark stair wells and shuttered rooms.
  
  The artillery comes from the south so they huddle in north facing homes. But the shrapnel and the explosive power of the bombs means nowhere is truly safe.
  
  "I am hopeless. I can only trust in my God," 78-year-old Mahmoud tells me. He and his wife Emira are alone. Their family has fled, they depend on the handouts of neighbours. Their flat is freezing and bare.
  
  On the next storey Rada cuddles two of her six children. It is freezing inside and they have just a few scraps of food to eat.
  
  "My husband won't leave Aleppo. We want to stay here whatever happens. Our children are ill, they are frightened, but we have nowhere else to go," she says.
  
  The rebels and the government forces appear to have fought themselves to a standstill. In the middle a population is stuck, surviving but dying as well, every day.
  
  This is Aleppo.
  

6 February 2013 Last updated at 16:05








Suicide bombings hit central Syria town of Palmyra


Video footage purportedly
showed a large cloud of smoke rising from the town
Continue
reading the main story

Syria
conflict

• Dialogue bid open
  
• 'Islamic Syria'
  
• Rallying the faithful
  
• Life amid the conflict
  

Several people have been killed in
twin suicide car bombings in the central Syrian town of Palmyra, reports
say.

The official Sana news agency said the attack took place in a residential
area in Palmyra, a town about 220km (140 miles) north-east of Damascus.

One activist group said a military intelligence building had been targeted
and that at least 19 members of the security forces had died.

Meanwhile, heavy fighting has been reported in the east of the capital.

The local authorities closed Abbasid Square, a major roundabout, and Fares
al-Khouri Street after rebel fighters attacked army roadblocks with
rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, activists and witnesses said.

"The areas of Jobar, Zamalka, Zablatani and parts of Qaboun and the ring-road
have become a battleground," activist Fida Mohammad told the Reuters news
agency.

Other activists reported that a tank stationed at the al-Kabbas roadblock had
been destroyed, that chants of "God is Greatest" had been broadcast from mosque
speakers in Jobar, and that tanks stationed on the edge of the central district
of Medan had shelled southern areas.

Sana said the army was "continuing its operations against the terrorists in
Arbeen, Zamalka, Harasta and Sabina, destroying the criminal liars".

The violence is some of the worst to hit Damascus in several weeks.
'Retaliatory shelling'
The attack in Palmyra, which is known locally as Tadmor, occurred at about
06:00 local time (08:00 GMT), according to local activists.

The first bomber reportedly blew up his explosives-laden car next to back a
wall of the military intelligence compound in the town. The second assailant is
then said to have driven through the hole, detonating the bomb inside his
vehicle and destroying parts of the facility.

Video footage purportedly showed a cloud of smoke rising from the town.


The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based activist group,
said at least 19 members of the security services had been killed and many
others injured.

Abu al-Hassan, one of the local activists, told Reuters that tanks stationed
inside the intelligence compound had fired shells into an adjacent residential
district following the attack, killing several civilians.

The SOHR said eight civilians had been injured, some severely, by heavy
gunfire that followed the bombings.

Sana said several people had been killed and injured in the bombings, and
that they had caused huge material damage.

There were protests in Palmyra at the start of the uprising against President
Bashar al-Assad in 2011, but the army has since tightened control of the town,
which is situated near a major oil pipeline junction.

Situated at an oasis in the Syrian desert, Palmyra is known across the world
as the home of the monumental ruins
of a great Roman-era city that was one of the most important cultural cities
of the ancient world.

It is also the location of an infamous jail where thousands of people were
allegedly detained, tortured and executed after an uprising against the late
President Hafez al-Assad in the 1980s by the Muslim Brotherhood.

In a separate development, the head of the main opposition alliance said the
government had to start releasing detainees by this Sunday if it wanted to take
up his offer of talks with Vice-President Farouq al-Sharaa.

"I need all the women to be released. If any woman stays in prison I consider
the regime not responding for our initiative," Moaz al-Khatib, leader of the
National Coalition, told the BBC.

Last week, Mr Khatib announced he was "ready for direct discussions" as long
as two conditions were met - the release of the 160,000 people he said were
being held in prisons and intelligence facilities, and the resumption of the
issuing of new passports by Syrian embassies.

Damascus has not yet responded to the offer, but the pro-government al-Watan
newspaper said it was two years too late.

Syria: how jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra is taking over Syria's
revolution


Aleppo has been plunged into despair. Riven with war, life in Syria's most
populous city has become a dog-eat-dog existence: a battle for survival in a
place where the strong devour the weak.








A Syrian woman cries holding her
injured son in a taxi as they arrive at a hospital in northern city of
Aleppo. Photo:
AFP/GETTY





By Ruth Sherlock, Aleppo

6:21PM GMT 08 Feb 2013




Its luxuriant history is lost beneath uncollected litter on its pavements and
streets. Feral children play beside buildings shattered by shelling and air
strikes. There is no electricity, no heating; gunmen prowl the streets as night
falls. Some are rebels searching for government loyalists; others are criminals
looking to kidnap for ransom. Looting is rife.


It is here, behind the front lines of the war against Bashar al-Assad that a
new struggle is emerging. It is a clash of ideologies: a competition where rebel
brigades vie to determine the shape of post-Assad Syria.


And in recent weeks it is Jabhat al-Nusra, a radical jihadist group
blacklisted by the US as terrorists and a group that wants Syria to be an
uncompromising Islamic state governed by sharia, that is holding sway.



The group is well funded – probably through established global jihadist
networks – in comparison to moderates. Meanwhile pro-democracy rebel group
commanders say money from foreign governments has all but dried up because of
fears over radical Islamists.


The effect is changing the face of the Syrian revolution.



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The Nusra Front is known for some of the bravest fighters on the front lines.
But the fundamentalist movement is now focusing on highly effective humanitarian
programs that are quickly winning the loyalty of Aleppo’s residents.

Imbued with discipline borne of religious dogmatism it is catering to basic
needs in a city that lacks everything from working factories to courts.

Chief among hardships was the languishing supply of bread. It is a staple in
Syria – without it tens of thousands of the poor would starve.

When rebel fighters seized control of the grain stores around the city, the
supply of flour all but ceased. Locals accused rebels of the Free Syrian Army
(FSA) of raiding the stores and stealing the grain to sell. Spontaneous
pro-government protests erupted outside bakeries where families queued for
bread, sometimes for days.

One started within seconds of the Daily Telegraph’s arrival at a bread queue:
“Allah, Syria, Bashar! Everyone here loves Bashar al-Assad!” they screamed.

Then, in the past weeks, Jabhat al-Nusra – which is outside the FSA – pushed
other rebel groups out of the stores and established a system to distribute
bread throughout rebel areas.

In a small office attached to a bakery in the Miesseh district of Aleppo, Abu
Yayha studied a map pinned on the wall. Numbers were scrawled in pencil against
streets.

“We counted the population of every street to assess the need for the area,”
explained Mr Yahya. “We provide 23,593 bags of bread every two days for this
area. This is just in one district. We are calculating the population in other
districts and doing the same there.

“In shops the cost is now 125 Syrian pounds (£1.12) for one pack. Here we
sell it at 50 Syrian pounds (45p) for two bags. We distribute some for free for
those who cannot pay.”

The bakery works constantly. Inside, barrows filled with dough were heaved
onto a conveyor belt that chopped it into round and flat segments, before
pushing the dough into a giant oven. Workers packed the steaming flatbread in
bags.

_{Photo:
Alessio Romenzi}

“I am from Jabhat al Nusra. All the managers of all the bakeries are,” said
Abu Fattah, the manager. “This makes sure that nobody steals.”

Civilians waited outside the office to appeal to Mr Yayha: “If it wasn’t for
this bread, I would be forced to beg on the streets to feed my family. My
husband is wounded and cannot work,” said one woman.

Such a scene could be found in Lebanon or Gaza where the likes of Hizbollah
and Hamas have built up grassroots support by providing essential services to a
neglected population.

The Daily Telegraph gained rare access to Hajji Rasoul, the senior al-Nusra
commander – or “emir” – who heads the civil program. “We have enough bread to
help all the liberated areas,” he said. “We have put aside enough grain to last
eight months in Aleppo.

“We are subsidising farmers so that they can prepare for the harvest and
replenish the stores.”

Deeply conservative, Mr Rasoul faced forward in the front seat of the car and
turned the mirror to avoid an accidental glimpse of this female reporter. His
words were chosen carefully. Beyond the bread project, he said, the Nusra Front
was encouraging businessmen to reopen their factories – Syria’s economic
engines. They were even starting a project to clean Aleppo’s streets, he said.


He painted a picture far removed from his organisation’s blood-curdling
reputation. On global jihadist websites it has claimed responsibility for car
and suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of civilians as well as military
targets across Syria. For many Syrians Nusra is synonymous with al-Qaeda. Many
of their fighters are foreign jihadists; some fought with al-Qaeda in Iraq. Mr
Rasoul sought to deny that they were extremists: “There is a wrong image in the
West that Jabhat al-Nusra is Scarface. Jabhat al Nusra is human and we don’t
hate anyone. We don’t hate Christians.

“We are not al-Qaeda. Just because some of our members share in its ideas, it
doesn’t mean we are part of the group.”

Mr Rasoul would not be drawn on the Nusra Front’s exact plan for Syria’s
future. But in rebel-held Aleppo a new sharia court is fast becoming a central
power in the city. It is shared with the three other hardline Islamist groups
operating in rebel territory: Ahrar al-Sham, Fijr al-Islam and Liwa Tawhid,
though Jabhat al-Nusra takes the lead.

It refuses to employ judges who worked under the regime, choosing religious
leaders to pass judgments.

Some sharia rulings, such as cutting off a hand for theft, are not
operational in wartime. But locals complain of other rigid strictures being
enforced.

Several men before the court said that their charges included “drinking
alcohol” or “fraternising with women”. All this has angered many Aleppo
residents, most of whom are moderate Muslims.

“I was wearing a long coat, with wide jeans below it, and I was outside the
mosque,” said one woman. “One told me: 'my sister, your clothes are not Muslim
clothes. You should not put on make up and you should dress in black’.”

Other rebel groups are maintaining an increasingly strained unity – at least
while the battle against the Syrian regime continues. Most say the next battle
is against the Jihadists.

“When we started this fight against the regime it was to transform Syria into
a modern state. Al Jabhat want an Islamic revolution. But in Syria we are not
radical Islamists,” said Abu Obeida, the commander of a local Aleppan brigade.


Mr Obeida said groups like his were losing popularity, unable to match the
jihadists social programmes.

One resident said: “I don’t like Jabhat al-Nusra. But I am telling you that,
these guys will rule – for a time. It is a matter of how long before us Syrians
realise we need to take their destiny in their own hands.”

1. »
   

1. 
   

Syrian opposition willing to hold peace talks with Bashar al-Assad


Moaz Alkhatib, the Syrian National Coalition leader, has said he was willing
to hold peace talks with President Bashar al-Assad's representatives in
rebel-held areas of northern Syria.








The aim of the talks would be to
find a way for Mr Assad to leave power with the minimum of
bloodshed Photo:
REUTERS





11:38PM GMT 10 Feb 2013




The aim of the talks would be to find a way for Mr Assad to leave power with
the "minimum of bloodshed and destruction", Mr Alkhatib said in a statement
published on his Facebook page.


Mr Alkhatib, a moderate cleric from Damascus, made his offer as opposition
activists reported fighting had moved closer to central Damascus, following a
rebel push into the east of the capital last week.


"If the regime is so concerned about sovereignty and does not want to venture
out of Syrian territories, then there is a suitable solution, which is the
liberated land in northern Syria," he said.


"There is an important question. Will the regime agree to leave with the
minimum of blood and destruction?"


Mr Alkhatib last month offered to hold talks with Mr Assad's ceremonial
deputy Farouq al-Shara about an exit for Mr Assad if the authorities started
releasing tens of thousands of political prisoners jailed since the eruption of
the 22-month uprising.



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The United Nations said on Friday that it saw a glimmer of hope in Mr
Alkhatib's offer of talks.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said the
offer was "the most promising thing we've heard on Syria recently".

Mr Feltman said on Friday that international Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi
was exploring how to use Mr Alkhatib's offer to further the stalled bid to
broker peace.

Syria's uprising, which started as peaceful protests against four decades of
autocratic rule by Assad and his late father, has turned into a violent
sectarian conflict.

The war is pitting Mr Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia
Islam that has dominated Syria since 1960s, against the Sunni majority that had
led the protest movement.

Syrian Carnage at Turkey’s Doorstep Stirs Security Concerns


By Selcan Hacaoglu - Feb 12, 2013 11:25 AM GMT

• 
  
• 
  

Turkey is investigating a car-bomb attack near its border with Syria that left 14 people dead and heightened fears that the Syrian civil war may spill over into its neighbor.
The death toll from yesterday’s explosion at the Cilvegozu border crossing rose to 14, state-run TRT television said today, and more than two dozen were injured. Turkey’s Interior MinisterMuammer Guler called the blast an “act of terror.” The rebels seized the Syrian border post across from Cilvegozu in July.





Enlarge image
Syrian Carnage at Turkey’s Doorstep Stirs Security Concerns



Cem Genco/AFP/Getty Images
The death toll from yesterday’s explosion at the Cilvegozu border crossing rose to 14, state-run TRT television said today, and more than two dozen were injured.
The death toll from yesterday’s explosion at the Cilvegozu border crossing rose to 14, state-run TRT television said today, and more than two dozen were injured. Photographer: Cem Genco/AFP/Getty Images
Turkey is “vigilantly protecting its border with Syria,”Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his party’s lawmakers in parliament today. “Turkey will take the necessary steps”when investigations reveal more about the incident, he said.
The target of the attack was the motorcade of Syrian National Council leader George Sabra, Al Arabiya television said. Sabra was about to cross the border through Cilvegozu and escaped the attack when his motorcade stopped for a break, Today’s Zaman newspaper said, citing unidentified members of Syrian opposition groups.
Turkey has sided with the Syrian rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad, who has accused Turkey of providing them with military support. NATO missile-defense batteries have been deployed at Turkey’s request to reinforce security at its Syrian border.
Three suspects, thought to be Syrians, have been identified, Guler said. Authorities will deploy a mobile X-ray machine at the gate to boost security after the attack, the state-run Anatolia agency said, citing Customs and Trade Minister Hayati Yazici.
‘Question Marks’

Hursit Gunes, an opposition lawmaker, complained on Twitter that a court classified video footage of the explosion after his party petitioned to watch it.
Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay told a televised news conference that there were many “question marks” about the attack. “A vehicle with Syrian license plates with three people in it arrived from Syria and parked,” he said. “They left 20 minutes before the explosion.”
Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin said the vehicle parked some 20 meters (yards) away from the Turkish customs office and a Turkish army border unit.
‘Proxy War’

“There is a proxy war between Turkey and Syria,” said Nihat Ali Ozcan, a security analyst at the Economic Policy Research Foundation in Ankara. “This attack is a harbinger of more violence near or even inside Turkey as long as Assad remains in power.”
Assad’s agents, Syrian rebels, Kurdish militants and militants from the Islamist Al-Nusra Front are active just across the border, Ozcan said.
The attack coincided with a renewed offer by Syrian opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib, who said that he’s willing to meet Assad’s government in rebel-held areas in northern Syria. Syria’s government ignored his earlier offer, which set a condition that prisoners be released.




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12 February 2013 Last updated at 11:44

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Syria crisis: Rebels 'seize northern air base'


Activists said rebels had
captured useable fighter planes
Continue
reading the main story

Syria
conflict

• Dialogue bid open
  
• 'Islamic Syria'
  
• Rallying the faithful
  
• Life amid the conflict
  

Syrian rebels have captured a
military air base near the northern city of Aleppo, activists say.

Fighters took control of al-Jarrah base after days of clashes there with
security forces, reports said.

The reported capture comes a day after rebels in the north-east overran Syria
biggest hydro-electric dam, delivering a strategic blow to the government.

Turkey's prime minister meanwhile has said a deadly blast at a crossing with
Syria was caused by a car bomb.

At least 10 Syrians and three Turkish nationals died on Monday in the
explosion at the Cilvegozu customs post on the Turkish side of the border, in
the southern province of Hatay.

"A vehicle loaded with bombs was able to reach our customs gate because the
customs gate on the Syrian side is not working and is not being controlled,"
Tayyip Erdogan was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

Turkey is a staunch critic of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its
territory has been hit intermittently by Syrian shelling and gunfire.

It also provides shelter to tens of thousands of refugees, many of whom pass
through the Cilvegozu point.
Helicopters and
jets
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based activists group,
said rebels killed or held about 40 government troops as they took over
al-Jarrah air base.


AFP quoted SOHR director Rami Abdel Rahman as saying that, for the first
time, rebels captured usable MiG fighter jets, whereas previous air bases had
yielded only damaged aircraft.

Amateur video posted on the internet appeared to show rebels overrunning the
air base, with helicopters and fighter jets on the tarmac and in shelters.

Last month, rebels took control of the strategic Taftanaz military air base
in north-western Syria after weeks of fierce fighting with government
forces.

The base had been a logistically important supply centre and housed
helicopters which had been used to drop bombs on rebel-held areas in the north.


In another setback to the government, rebels took control of the Thawra dam
on the Euphrates in Raqa province on Monday.

The facility provides much of the electricity to the city of Aleppo, which
has been fought over to a stalemate between the government and rebel forces
since July.

The dam was reported to be still operational, with rebels under orders from
their commanders not to interfere with the workers there.

The facility, the result of a major industrial project with the Soviet Union
in the 1960s, holds huge symbolic value for the government. It lies on Lake
Assad and after the dam was built the town was renamed Thawra - Arabic for
revolution - in honour of the the coup which brought Hafez al-Assad to power in
1963.

20 February 2013 Last updated at 15:05

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Syria footballer 'killed in Damascus stadium attack'


Damascus has seen fighting
between rebels and troops for months
Continue
reading the main story

Syria
conflict

• Living in a Syrian battleground town
  
• Dialogue bid open
  
• 'Islamic Syria'
  
• Rallying the faithful
  

A Syrian footballer has been killed
in a mortar strike near a stadium in Damascus, the state news agency says.

Sana news agency says two shells landed near Tishreen stadium in Baramkeh
district, where Al-Wathba and Al-Nawair teams were preparing to train.

Several other players were injured in the attack "by terrorists", Sana
said.

It comes a day after state media said two mortars landed near Tishreen
presidential palace in another area of Damascus without reports of injuries.


Rebels and troops have been fighting in and around Damascus for months.

Opposition sources say more than 50 people were killed in Damascus suburbs on
Tuesday.

Elsewhere, at least 31 people were also killed on Tuesday in an army rocket
attack in Syria's second city, Aleppo, eyewitnesses and activists said, in one
of the deadliest incident in recent days.

The UN says about 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the
uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.
'Hit in neck'
Homs-based club Al-Wathba and Al-Nawair, from Hama, were getting ready to go
to the stadium when the shells struck, reports say.

The players, who were staying in a nearby complex, were hit by shrapnel, the
reports said.

AFP news agency quoted an unnamed sports official as saying four Al-Nawair
players were injured.

The dead footballer was named as Youssef Sleiman, who belonged to
Al-Wathba.

"We were collecting our things about to head to the stadium when we heard the
first explosion and the windows were blown off,'' Ali Ghosn, a 20-year-old
player, told the Associated Press.

"Youssef was hit in the neck. We ran out to the corridor when the second
explosion struck and I saw Youssef fall down bleeding from his neck,'' he
said.

A Lebanese judge meanwhile has recommended the death penalty for a former
pro-Syrian Lebanese minister for allegedly plotting attacks.

Michel Samaha is accused, along with Syrian security chief Ali Mamlouk, of
"transporting explosives from Syria to Lebanon in an attempt to assassinate
Lebanese political and religious leaders," according to a copy of the indictment
seen by AFP.

Mr Samaha, a member of parliament, was arrested in Beirut in August, while Mr
Mamlouk remains free.

The former minister's arrest came as a surprise in Lebanon, where the current
coalition government includes Syria's allies.

21 February 2013 Last updated at 14:40

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Syria conflict: Many dead in huge Damascus bombing





The BBC's Lina Sinjab in Damascus: "The damage affected many
civilian buildings"

Continue
reading the main story

Syria
conflict

• Living in a Syrian battleground town
  
• Dialogue bid open
  
• 'Islamic Syria'
  
• Rallying the faithful
  

A massive car bomb explosion in the
Syrian capital, Damascus, has killed at least 53 people and injured another 200,
reports say.

State media blamed "terrorists" for the blast, in a central district near the
headquarters of Syria's ruling Baath Party.

TV pictures showed images of bodies, wrecked cars and shattered windows.

The violence comes as Russia and the Arab League say they want to broker
direct government-opposition talks.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the war as "a road to
nowhere".

The opposition Syrian National Coalition is holding a two-day meeting in
Egypt to discuss a framework for a possible solution.

Some 70,000 people have died since the uprising against President Bashar
al-Assad began in March 2011, the UN says.
'Upside
down'
Police and witnesses said the blast was a car bomb. It went off in the
central Mazraa neighbourhood, close to the Baath offices and Russian embassy.


State and pro-regime TV showed pictures of dead bodies and destroyed cars.
State media said at least 53 were killed and another 200 injured in the blast.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, said at
least 42 had died, most of them civilians.

Surrounding roads are reported to have been closed off to traffic and
firefighters and medical staff were soon at the scene.

Images from state media showed
wounded Syrians reeling from the blast
Witnesses told AP news agency the car had exploded at a security checkpoint
between the Russian embassy and the Baath Party central headquarters.

"It was huge. Everything in the shop turned upside down,'' one local resident
said. He said three of his employees were injured by flying glass that killed a
young girl who was walking by when the blast hit.

"I pulled her inside the shop but she was almost gone. We couldn't save her.
She was hit in the stomach and head."

State media said the explosion had struck near a school and clinic and that
schoolchildren were among the casualties.

It seems to have been targeted at the Baath party offices, but also affected
residential areas, says the BBC's Lina Sinjab in Damascus. No group has yet
admitted to the attack.

Heavy fighting between government and rebel forces is continuing around the
city, with the government carrying out air strikes in the suburbs.

Shortly after the car bomb, two mortars were fired at a military headquarters
in Damascus, reports say.

And there have been two other explosions in the city, also at security
checkpoints, according to the SOHR.

The UK-based activist group is one of the most prominent organisations
documenting and reporting incidents and casualties in the Syrian conflict. The
SOHR says its reports are impartial, though its information cannot be
independently verified.
Opposition 'softens'
Mr Lavrov said the Kremlin and the Arab League wanted to establish direct
contact between the Syrian government and the opposition.

Speaking in Moscow, where he hosted league officials and several Arab foreign
ministers, the Russian foreign minister said that sitting down at a negotiating
table was the only way to end the conflict without irreparable damage to
Syria.

"Neither side can allow itself to rely on a military solution to the
conflict, because it is a road to nowhere, a road to mutual destruction of the
people," he said.

Mr Lavrov and Arab League General Secretary Nabil Elaraby said their priority
was to create a transitional government to navigate a way out of the
violence.

No conditions for the negotiations have been set, they said.

The proposal initially received a cool reception from the Syrian National
Coalition (SNC), with senior member Abdelbaset Sieda insisting Mr Assad and his
allies "must go first".

"After that we can discuss with others in the regime who didn't share in the
killing of our people," he said.

But the news agency Reuters says it has seen a draft SNC communique being
discussed in Cairo which demonstrates an apparent softening in the group's
stance.

The document reasserts the group's position that Mr Assad's apparatus cannot
be part of any political solution in Syria, but omits previous demands that Mr
Assad's regime must go even before any talks, Reuters says.

But that may still prove unacceptable in Damascus, says the BBC's James
Reynolds in Istanbul.

22 February 2013 Last updated at 23:12

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Syria conflict: 'Civilians killed' by Aleppo rockets


People searched for survivors
in the rubble in Aleppo
Continue
reading the main story

Syria
conflict

• Living in a Syrian battleground town
  
• Dialogue bid open
  
• 'Islamic Syria'
  
• Rallying the faithful
  

Three missiles have crashed into
residential areas of Syria's northern city of Aleppo, killing at least 12
civilians, activists say.

Video footage posted online claims to show the aftermath, with people
carrying away the wounded and a wide area reduced to rubble.

Activists say families are buried under the rubble in one neighbourhood.

Meanwhile, opposition politicians say they have agreed to form a government
for rebel-held areas.

Umbrella group the Syrian National Coalition, meeting in Cairo, said it would
meet again in Istanbul on 2 March to name a prime minister.

The UN estimates that about 70,000 people have died since the uprising
against President Bashar al-Assad's regime began in March 2011.
'Horrible sight'
The reasons for the latest attack are unclear, and it is also not clear who
launched the missiles.

Earlier this week, activists accused the government forces of targeting other
areas of Aleppo with Russian-made Scud-type missiles.

Video footage allegedly of the latest incident shows chaotic scenes, but the
darkness of the images makes it difficult to identify the type or size of the
rockets.

An activist called Baraa al-Youssef told Reuters news agency that 30 homes
had been destroyed by one of the rockets.

"Nothing can describe it, it's a horrible sight," he said.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12 bodies had been
recovered and more than 50 people had been wounded.
Risky proposition
In the early months of the uprising Aleppo, Syria's commercial capital, was
largely spared the violence.

But the course of the conflict dramatically shifted in summer 2012, and the
northern city become an intense battleground.

Many thousands have fled the violence, and in recent months the rebels and
government forces appear to have reached stalemate, neither side being able to
gain the upper hand.

Much of Syria is in a similar situation, and even areas controlled by the
rebels are subject to intense bombardment from the air.

The political opponents of Mr Assad mostly live in exile.

They have floated the idea of a transitional government ever since their
opposition coalition was formed in Qatar last November.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Cairo says it is a risky and complicated proposition,
and that is why it is taking so long.

If the transitional government fails to attract sufficient financial and
diplomatic support, and if it cannot operate inside rebel-held areas of Syria,
the coalition may lose its already shaky credibility, our correpondent adds.

But if the coalition does not try, it risks leaving those areas to slide
further into the hands of the radical Islamist factions that are making the
running on the ground, he says.

1. 
   

1. 
   

US and British plans to seize Syria's chemical weapons


British and American military commanders have drawn up plans to seize or
destroy Syria’s chemical weapons if the country slides into further chaos.








Syria's regime has fired at
least six Scud missiles on rebels, dramatically escalating the
conflict. Photo:
REUTERS






By Sean Rayment, Defence
Correspondent

9:00PM GMT 23 Feb 2013


228 Comments




They fear that nerve agents and chemical weapons held by forces loyal to
President Bashar al-Assad’s regime could fall into terrorists’ hands if the
government collapses entirely.


Senior officers have also held talks on a range of “rogue state” contingency
plans to prevent chemical, biological or nuclear weapons from being seized by
terrorists, which they fear could also happen if Pakistan or North Korea’s
regimes were to collapse.


Iran, which according to one senior British source is “bent on developing
nuclear weapons”, is also causing great concern to western governments.



British intelligence believes Syria has amassed an extensive arsenal of WMD
including nerve agents such as Sarin – one of the most deadly weapons ever
created – and chemical weapons such as mustard gas.


They have so far not been used and are currently considered to be well
guarded by the Syrian security forces.



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However militant Islamist groups are already inside Syria fighting against
the government and would be perfectly placed to raid WMD stockpiles, according
to intelligence sources.

Sources have said that the most likely option to prevent WMD falling into the
hands of extremists would be to destroy stockpiles in a series of air strikes.


Alternative options include the use of special forces and troops trained in
chemical warfare to secure WMD sites in Syria if and when the government
eventually collapses.

An RAF Regiment unit called the Defence Chemical Biological Radiological and
Nuclear Wing based at Winterbourne Gunner, Wilts, has already been warned that
it should be prepared to work alongside the SAS in securing WMD sites in the
Syria at short notice.

Last week a US-based body known as the Strategic Working Group began
rehearsing how WMD stockpiles would be secured in both the Middle East and the
Pacific in the event of an international emergency.

The group is composed of military personnel from the US Army, Marine Corps,
Navy as well as British and Australian officers and government officials.

The senior officers tested a variety of plans at a classified war gaming
session called Unified Quest 2013 at the US Army Staff College at Fort
Leavenworth in Kansas.

The scenario focused on a failed state that has lost control of its WMD
stockpiles, forcing the United States and other countries to intervene.

The location of the game was classified, but informed opinion suggested that
North Korea was the target country.

One source who took part in the war games said: “We need to have plans in
place so that we can properly prepare our soldiers for this job. It’s a
dangerous and messy business.

"Soldiers will be driving into potentially contaminated areas, possibly under
fire while handling hazardous material.”

MI5, Britain’s security service has repeatedly warned that it is “only a
matter of time” before extremist groups carry out a “chemical, biological or
radiological attack” on a western city.

Such an attack was also identified as a “Tier Two Priority Risk” in the 2010
National Security Strategy.

Defence sources said that one of the unintended consequences of the Arab
Spring was the huge volume of illicit weapons which have entered the illegal
arms market, increasing concerns about what could happen if Assad lost control
of his WMD.

A source said: “After Libya collapsed thousands of man portable air defence
weapons went missing and these can bring down an airliner.

"We know Syria has a pretty extensive armoury and a lot of chemical weapons.
We need to ensure these do not enter the terrorist food chain.”

Both British and US commanders agree that the West has paid “lip service” to
training troops in WMD scenarios and has focused almost solely on
counter-insurgency operations such as those undertaken in Afghanistan and Iraq.


One senior British source added: “Syria has a sizeable arsenal of chemical
weapons including nerve agents and mustard gas.

"Pakistan and North Korea have nuclear weapons and it is widely believed that
Iran also intends to develop a nuclear weapon.

“These are all unstable or unpredictable states and the potential for WMD
ended up in the hands of terrorists is very real. We need contingency plans to
deal with a wide variety of scenario

















In Syria




Damascus car bomb





Syria: the fight goes on






Scores of bodies after Syria massacre







Syria: airbase capture 'is rebel morale
boost'





Snow in the Middle East

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US set to send direct aid to Syrian rebels, says John Kerry


America is preparing for the first time to give direct assistance to rebel
forces fighting to overthrow the Syrian regime, following the lead of the UK and
France in a shift in tactics aimed at attempting to speed the end of the
country’s bloody two-year civil war.








Rebels fire a mortar at Kwiriss
airport in Al-Bab Photo:
AFP/GETTY





By Peter Foster, Jon Swaine in Washington and Ruth Sherlock


7:11PM GMT 27 Feb 2013




On Wednesday night reports claimed that the US proposals, which could be
announced as early as Thursday, went as far as offering food and medical aid but
stopped short of agreeing to provide items such as armoured vehicles, body
armour and night vision goggles to Syria’s opposition council.


However John Kerry, the new US secretary of state, signalled that Washington
would give its blessing should Britain and France choose to move ahead with such
plans.


In December, the Foreign Office signalled that it would seek to amend an arms
embargo on Syria to make it possible to send such equipment. Last night the
Foreign Office said it would increase its support for the Syrian opposition,
though it was not clear what form that support would take.


There was no indication that weapons would be supplied.


“We are examining and developing ways to accelerate the transition the Syrian
people seek and deserve,” Mr Kerry said in Paris, after meeting Laurent Fabius,
the French foreign minister.



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Mr Kerry spoke as senior international diplomats prepared to meet in Rome
today to discuss plans to break the deadlock in a conflict that is estimated to
have killed about 70,000 people.

Rebel activists said the proposal fell far short of the kind of concerted
intervention they say is needed to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

The Free Syrian Army said the Americans had been discussing increasing
support for the rebels, spurred by fears that the Jihadist Jabhat al-Nusra group
was gaining the upper hand in the revolution

“The Americans are now more open to the idea of arming the revolution,” said
Louay al-Mokdad, a spokesman for the rebel army. “They know that if they do
nothing it is Jabhat who will have more control. This new support means the FSA
will be more organised and stronger; it will help us to control the ground.”


Rebels in the besieged city of Homs said the promises were “too little, too
late”.

In Washington, activists who have lobbied for US support said the latest
promises fell well short of the action needed to topple Assad and ensure
moderate rebel groups won the day.

Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian dissident, said: “Bulletproof vests and night
vision goggles will help you become a more effective fighter, but they will not
protect you from MiGs, tanks and Scuds, or enable you to destroy them.”

The problem is there are so many different factions fighting Assad that even if he is toppled the same will happen as has happened to Iraq. Britain should stay out of it, why don't other Countries offer aid?

Croatian weapons in Syrian rebel hands

27 February 2013
Presseurop La Libre Belgique


"Croatia is breaking the arms embargo against Syria," reports Belgian daily La Libre Belgique, following up on revelations made by American blogger Eliot Higgins and an investigation by the New York Times. According to the news reports, a stock of Croatian weapons, dating from the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, was sold to Saudi Arabia before ending up being delivered to rebels close to the Free Syrian Army in December.
The revelations are embarrassing for Croatia, which is scheduled to join the European Union on July 1. La Libre Belgique explains that –

Croatia approved the European arms embargo and cannot, in theory, supply weapons to the forces fighting in Syria.

Europeans renewed the arms embargo on Syria for three months on February 18, the paper notes, but adds that "non-lethal material" can now be supplied to the Syrian rebels.
The Croatian Foreign Affairs Ministry, "has remained silent after denying to the American journalists that the weapons sales had taken place," the paper reports.

Syrian Civilians, Empowering Themselve






Mohamed Moussa, center, an English teacher who leads the new governing council in the town of Tilalyan, in northern Syria, with other members in February. As Syria’s civil war drags on, scores of such councils in rebel-held towns like Tilalyan are not only fighting deprivation but trying to set up courts, police forces and social services. Their efforts amount to Syria’s first experiments in self-government after decades of tyranny under the Assads.
Credit: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

Denmark: ‘Danish Muslims encouraged to join the holy war in Syria’

1 March 2013
Presseurop Jyllands-Posten


Jyllands-Posten, 1 March 2013Danish Salafists support the Al-Nusra Front, an armed group close to al-Qaeda, reports the daily, which launched an investigation following the death in Syria of Slimane Hadj, who was born to a Danish mother and an Algerian father.
In courses, videos and Internet communications, the Imam of the Quba Amager mosque, in southern Copenhagen, is encouraging young Danish Muslims to take part in the jihad in Syria.
On its website, the newspaper also reports that Salafist group Hjælp4Syrien.dk is collecting money, using a poster showing a young pistol-toting Muslim who is apparently willing to die for Alla
On the web

• Original article at Jyllands-Posten da
  

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in warning to British Government


Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian President, has warned Britain to keep out of the
conflict in Syria, accusing the Government of acting in "a naïve, confused, and
unrealistic manner."








President Bashar al-Assad
claimed the British Government is "determined to militarise the problem" in
Syria Photo:
REUTERS





By Edward Malnick

11:30PM GMT 02 Mar 2013


67 Comments




In an interview with The Sunday Times Assad said that for decades
Britain had played an "unconstructive" role in the Middle East, claiming that
the British Government was determined to arm his opponents.


The uprising in Syria erupted two years ago and has resulted in the deaths of
70,000 people and hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing to neighbouring
countries.


Britain has voiced support for the Syrian opposition involved in fighting
against the government but has not provided the rebels with weapons or
ammunition.


William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, however, has indicated that the UK
could send weapons to opposition groups in the future, and is expected to make a
statement in Parliament next week detailing aid, including civilian vehicles,
that will be sent to the rebels.


“We want to do more and we want to give more types of support and we’re
pushing to do that,” a Foreign Office spokesman said earlier this week.




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Britain has also pushed for the EU to review an arms embargo preventing
weapons from reaching the rebels.

In the interview Mr Assad said: "How can we expect to ask Britain to play a
role when it is determined to militarise the problem?

"How can you ask them to play a role in making the situation better, more
stable? How can we expect them to make the violence less while they want to send
military supply to the terrorists and don't try to ease the dialogue between the
Syrian(s)."

"There's no contact between Syria and Britain for a long time.

"You cannot separate the role from the credibility, and you cannot separate
the credibility from the history of that country.

"To be frank, Britain has played famously in our region (an) unconstructive
role in different issues, for decades, some say for centuries."

He added: "I think they are working against us, and they are working against
the interests of the UK itself.

"This Government is acting in a naïve, confused, and unrealistic manner. If
they want to play a role they have to change this, they have to act in a more
reasonable and responsible way."

The Syrian President's intervention came after John Kerry, the newly
appointed US Secretary of State, said the US was looking at ways to "accelerate
political transition" in Syria.

Speaking on his first overseas tour in his new role, he added: "The
opposition needs more help. We think it's very important that more of our
assistance gets to areas that have been liberated from the regime."

William Hague offers Syrian rebels armoured vehicles and body armour


Britain is to supply armoured vehicles and body armour to Syrian opposition
forces as it steps up efforts to end a humanitarian crisis of "catastrophic
proportions", William Hague has said.






































1:35PM GMT 06 Mar 2013




The Foreign Secretary said he had ordered "more active efforts" after
securing a relaxation of an EU arms embargo to allow the provision of non-lethal
military equipment to protect civilians.


Testing equipment to provide evidence of any use of chemical weapons by the
regime and training for armed groups in international human rights and legal
standards is also being sent.


He said £3 million had been allocated this month for the work with another
£10 million to follow - urging other countries to do the same.


"The Cabinet is in no doubt that this is a necessary, proportionate and
lawful response to a situation of extreme humanitarian suffering, and that there
is no practicable alternative," he said.


"All our assistance will be carefully calibrated and monitored as well as
legal, and will be aimed at saving life, alleviating this human catastrophe and
supporting moderate groups."



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It came as the number of refugees fleeing the country reached what he called
the "sad milestone" of one million refugees.
==========================
Trouble is, there are so many factions it is hard to tell who to support. Hague is playing a dangerous game, especially since there is to be a cut in the Armed forces and the famed Desert Rats are to lose their tanks.!!!