Syria warns West against intervention

Syria's Assad Gloats Over Morsi's FallSyria's President welcomes the end of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt as he fight rebels in his own country.10:05pm UK, Wednesday 03 July 2013 Bashar al Assad has been fighting predominantly Sunni rebels for two years
Mohamed Morsi is Muslim Brotherhood leader
EmailSyrian President Bashar al Assad has hailed the fall of "political Islam" in Egypt as he fights an armed opposition movement at home.

"What is happening in Egypt is the fall of what is known as political Islam," Assad said in an interview with Syrian state newspaper Ath Thawra, excerpts of which were posted on an official Facebook page.

"Anywhere in the world, whoever uses religion for political aims, or to benefit some and not others, will fall.

"You can't fool all the people all the time, let alone the Egyptian people who have a civilisation that is thousands of years old, and who espouse clear, Arab nationalist thought.

"After a whole year, reality has become clear to the Egyptian people. The Muslim Brotherhood's performance has helped them see the lies the (movement) used at the start of the popular revolution in Egypt."

Egypt's President, Mohamed Morsi - who was forced from power by a military coup just a year after being elected - had recently called for a "holy war" in Syria during a rally he attended with Sunni leaders.

The two-year uprising against the rule of Assad's family - which is largely secular but from the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam - has largely pitted rebels from the country's Sunni majority against the regime.

There is long-standing animosity between Damascus and the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Mr Morsi is a leader, and membership in the group has been punishable by death in Syria since the 1980s.

Assad's late father, Hafez al-Assad, used the military to crush an armed insurgency against his rule led by the Muslim Brotherhood, killing many thousands in the conservative city of Hama.

The city became a centre of the demonstrations against the younger Assad in March 2011.

The Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood today plays a key role in the exiled opposition National Coalition, which is recognised by more than 100 states and organisations as legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

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Eddie Izzard Meets Syria's Child RefugeesAs an ambassador for UNICEF UK, comedian Eddie Izzard witnesses the hardships faced by Syrian families who have fled to Iraq.7:13am UK, Monday 08 July 2013 Video: Izzard Witnesses Plight Of Refugees
Enlarge EmailBy Eddie Izzard, Ambassador for UNICEF UK

Most Brits would think of Iraq as one of the most dangerous places on Earth. But it's here, in the searing summer heat, that seven-year-old Nisreen from Syria has been forced to seek refuge.

Like millions of other Syrian children, Nisreen has lost everything she ever knew. With bombings in her region and a breakdown of security, a group of men almost succeeded in kidnapping her from her home in Syria.

Her mother, Dala, took immediate action. She picked up her and her two-year-old brother and fled, leaving behind her friends, family and school.

Dala told me Nisreen's story from their basic shelter near Dohuk in northern Iraq. It's converted from an animal barn and they share it with two other families.

I've travelled to the region with UNICEF UK to report on the Syria refugee crisis for Sky News.


There are huge numbers of Syrian refugees who need vital aid

I had heard about horrific conditions facing children in Syria and in neighbouring countries like Jordan and Lebanon, but the hardship faced by Syrian refugees in Iraq is an untold story.

Every Syrian child has been touched by this conflict and in every refugee family there is a story of tragedy - of children who have lost their childhood.

The number of refugees pouring into Iraq from Syria has tripled over the past six months, and the number is expected to more than double again by the end of the year - to 350,000.

For those who managed to escape Syria, life as a refugee remains incredibly difficult. Nisreen is still out of school and has become ill from the effects of the extreme heat and dust.

I also met children like 11-year-old Ahee who lives in a tent in the Domiz refugee camp not far from Nisreen's shelter.


The Dohuk refugee camp in northern Iraq

With summer temperatures peaking at 45 degrees and a camp once designed for 10,000 now crammed with 45,000, she is facing the real risk of dehydration and disease outbreak.

Children are struggling to get access to clean water and vital schooling. Ahee and her family don't wash regularly as they can't afford to waste a drop.

UNICEF is working night and day to get vital aid to Syrian children and their families - like vaccinations and medical supplies.

In the last year they've supplied 10 million people in Syria and the region with clean drinking water, and they are doing everything they can to get as many children into school as possible.

However, the numbers of refugees are huge and resources are stretched to the limit.

UNICEF has only around a third of the money it needs this year to get aid to children like Nisreen and Ahee who need it and desperately requires more funds to carry out its vital work.

If we don't act now, Syria's children are at risk of becoming a lost generation.

:: Nisreen is not the seven-year-old girl's real name, but has been used to protect her identity.

Army chief: We risk war with Syria
Britain has to be prepared to “go to war” if it wishes to restrain the Syrian regime by implementing no-fly zones and arming the rebels, the outgoing head of the armed forces warns today.
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By Con Coughlin, Defence Editor and Robert Winnett, Political Editor
10:08PM BST 17 Jul 2013
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, General Sir David Richards said that “if you want to have the material impact on the Syrian regime’s calculations that some people seek” then “ground targets” would have to be “hit”.

The Chief of the Defence Staff also warns that the Government needs to clarify its “political objective” in Syria before a coherent military plan for dealing with the Assad regime can be recommended.

Last month, David Cameron and Barack Obama indicated that they would look at military measures after evidence emerged showing that the Syrian regime was using chemical weapons against its citizens.

However, in recent days, the Prime Minister’s enthusiasm for further intervention appears to have waned following private warnings from Sir David and Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6, about the implications of being drawn further into the Syrian civil war.

Sir David today steps down as the country’s most senior military officer and in an interview with this newspaper he sets out his concerns about the complexity of the situation in Syria.

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“There is a lack of international consensus on how to take this forward,” he said. “We are trying to cohere the opposition groups, but they are difficult to cohere because there are many different dimensions to them.

“So it is work in progress, so I am very clear in my military advice to the government that we need to understand what the political objective is before we can sensibly recommend what military effort and forces should be applied to it.”

He added: “That is something we debate a lot, from the Prime Minister downwards. We also need to do this with our allies. Allies have different views on the way ahead. Understandably there is a great reluctance to see Western boots on the ground in a place like Syria.”

The chief of the defence staff also warns that simply introducing a no-fly zone on its own would not prove effective and that other military measures would be required.

Sir David, 61, said: “If you wanted to have the material impact on the Syrian regime’s calculations that some people seek, a no fly zone per se is insufficient.

“You have to be able, as we did successfully in Libya, to hit ground targets.

“You have to establish a ground control zone. You have to take out their air defences. You also have to make sure they can’t manoeuvre – which means you have to take out their tanks, and their armoured personnel carriers and all the other things that are actually doing the damage.

“If you want to have the material effect that people seek you have to be able to hit ground targets and so you would be going to war if that is what you want to do.”

He added: “That is rightly a huge and important decision. There are many arguments for doing to but there are many arguments for not doing so too.”

The country’s most senior military officer described the situation as “highly complex” and suggested that the focus of Government action was also on ensuring the conflict did not “spread” to neighbouring countries.

“We are looking at Syria much more from a regional perspective and making sure that as awful as things are there it doesn’t spread materially to other countries like Lebanon and Jordan,” he said.

At the recent G8 summit in Northern Ireland, the Prime Minister won plaudits for appearing to persuade Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, to back a peace conference to resolve the Syrian crisis. Mr Cameron had previously warned that those who failed to stand up to the Assad regime were “stained” by the blood of children who had died.

However, he is facing increasing opposition within the Conservative Party over any move to arm the Syrian rebels amid fears that the equipment could fall into the hands of terrorists.

In today’s interview, Sir David, who today ends a military career spanning more than 40 years, also speaks of his pride of what has been achieved in Afghanistan ahead of the withdrawal of combat troops next year. He said it had been a “good war” and that members of the military who have died in the conflict “should be very proud of what they have achieved.”

“I see myself as a moral soldier,” he said. “I do not associate the military with wars and bloodshed in a narrow sense. I actually associate the military with doing good, with bringing down tyrants, with releasing people’s ambitions for their children.”

“Most people feel better as a result of what the British and their allies have done. Only history will determine the success or otherwise of some of these ventures. But it is military force that has enabled these things to happen - and we only do as our democratically-elected government asks of us.”

He also lauded the success of the mission in preventing any terrorist attacks being plotted from Afghan soil against Britain since 2001.

The chief of defence staff says that although combat troops will be removed from the country next year, the military will have a “residual” role in Afghanistan for many years to come. This will be decided by his successor and the National Security Council in the autumn.

“If we lost the confidence of the Afghan people because we reneged on the promises we have made then I think we would have cause to worry about that,” he said.

Sir David leaves the military following a bitter row over defence spending which has been heavily cut by the Coalition.

The recent Spending Round – which set expenditure for the 2015-16 financial year – was not as brutal as expected for the military with spending frozen. However, Sir David warns that any further cuts will undermine the country’s security strategy.

U.S. Military Intelligence Warned No Quick Fall for Assad

By Terry Atlas - Jul 21, 2013 5:00 AM GMT+0100.
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The U.S. military intelligence agency warned the Obama administration early in the Syrian uprising that dictator Bashar al-Assad would be able to hold onto power for years even in the face of widespread opposition, the deputy head of the Defense Intelligence Agency said.

The DIA predicted Assad would remain in power until at least the start of 2013, a classified assessment more pessimistic than the early public statements by administration officials.

David Shedd, No. 2 in the Defense Intelligence Agency, said yesterday that the Syrian civil war is now likely to continue for years, whatever Assad’s fate. The country faces the prospect of “unfathomable violence” and growing power there by Islamic radicals, including those allied with al-Qaeda, he said.

“My concern is that it can go on for a long time, as in many, many months to multiple years,” he said, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado. “And the civilian casualties, the enormous flow of refugees and the dislocation and so forth and the human suffering associated with it will only increase in time.’‘

The United Nations estimates that more than 93,000 people have died in Syria’s civil war, which began with peaceful protests in March 2011. The fighting has sent hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing into neighboring countries such as Lebanon and Jordan.

Speaking Up

Shedd said he was among intelligence officials who spoke up to say that it was unlikely the Assad regime would collapse any earlier than the start of 2013.

Administration officials didn’t share that kind of timeline when speaking publicly about the inevitability of Assad’s downfall. In February 2012, President Barack Obama skirted the time element by saying that the fall of the regime was not a matter of if, but of when.

Shedd yesterday didn’t publicly predict whether Assad would remain in power or be forced out, perhaps fleeing to continue the fight from an enclave held by loyalists.

“I think if Bashar Assad were to succeed, he will be a more ruthless leader who will live with a legacy of tens of thousands of his civilians killed under him,” Shedd said. “If he loses, and let’s pretend goes to an enclave inside there, I think there will be ongoing civil war for years to come.’‘

His comments reflect the kind of dire outlook being presented to Obama, who has been reluctant to have the U.S. drawn more deeply into the conflict. Shedd said that, absent increased outside involvement to shift the course of events in Syria, the war will settle into a deadly stalemate.

Sectarian Conflict

Shedd described what has become an open-ended sectarian conflict between Syrian Sunnis and Shiites, fueled by outside players such as Iran, Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia and al-Qaeda. Sunni Persian Gulf nations, the U.S., U.K. and France are providing aid to the opposition. Russia supports the Syrian government.

There are 1,200 opposition factions in Syria, which highlights what has been the administration’s concern about being able to sort out secular moderates from radical Islamists for aid, Shedd said. The radicals, such as the al-Nusra Front, are the most effective opposition fighters, he said.

“It’s very clear that over the last two years they have grown in size, they’ve grown in capability and ruthlessly have grown in effectiveness,” he said of the radical Sunni Islamist elements of the opposition. “Their ability to take the fight to the regime and Hezbollah in a very direct way has been, among those opposition groups, the most effective one.”

In recent weeks, fighting has broken out between radical and mainstream elements of the Sunni-dominated opposition as they compete for power in a country increasingly splintered among rival factions.

On the other side, Assad’s allies, Shiite Iran and Hezbollah, appear to be fully committed to ensuring the survival of his regime, Shedd said. Syria is a key ally for Iran and a gateway for its shipments of arms to Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which both the U.S. and Israel regard as a terrorist group.

“I do not believe that Iran feels it can lose that territory,” Shedd said.

Syrian Sunnis fear Assad regime wants to 'ethnically cleanse' Alawite heartland

Homs land registry fire and handing out of arms to villagers fuel concerns that an Alawite-Shia enclave is being formed in Syria
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Martin Chulov and Mona Mahmood

The Guardian, Monday 22 July 2013 20.06 BST



Children in Homs. The city, once a place where Sunnis co-existed with Christians and Alawites, is increasingly segregated. Photograph: Yazan Homsy/Reuters


Sunni residents in the heartland of Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect say they are being repeatedly threatened and forced to flee their homes, amid fears that the likely fall of the nearby city of Homs will lead to widespread sectarian cleansing in parts of Syria.

Communities of Sunnis that live in the country's coastal stretch and along the so-called Alawite spine that runs south-east towards Damascus claim evidence has emerged of attempts by the Assad regime to reshape the area's fragile ethnic mix – moves that go far beyond consolidating security in loyalist areas.

Concerns are particularly focused on Homs, Syria's third city, which western observers believe is likely to fall to the regime military and Hezbollah by the end of the summer, in what would be the most striking gain yet by resurgent pro-Assad forces during the civil war.

All property records for Homs were destroyed in a fire earlier this month at the office of the city's land registry and residents fear they can no longer enforce a claim to their land and homes.

"What else could be going on?" asked one resident who refused to be identified. "This is the most secure area of the city and it is the only building that has been burned. A conspiracy is underway."

Former staff at the office say the records existed only on paper and had not yet been digitalised. Eyewitnesses in the Bab al-Hood district where the building is located, and several employees, reported seeing flames on the higher floors of the building on 5 July, where the files were archived, while regime forces were positioned on lower floors.

Homs and the surrounding province is seen as essential to the war in Syria and to any plan to create a safe haven for Alawites if the Syrian state collapses, as it geographically links largely Alawite areas on the Syrian coast and Shia areas in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. Both Hezbollah and Iran are strongly linked to the Assad regime, and by proxy the Alawites, and have played an increasingly direct role in the war in recent months – a push that coincides with a turnaround in the fortunes of the battle-worn Syrian military.

Homs, long a place where a Sunni majority lived in co-existence co-existed with minority Christian and Alawite communities, has now been a city of cantonments for almost 18 months: Alawite areas are surrounded by security walls that are off-limits to opposition areas. The countryside to the north and east, where Sunni and Alawite communities live nearby each other, has been volatile for much of the past year, with massacres documented in Sunni communities in Houla, Banias and Hoswaie.

The apparent cleansing is not all one way though. North of Latakia, Alawites have been chased out of their villages near the Turkish border by opposition groups, which in that area are dominated by jihadists.

In Homs city, Sunni districts of Ashere, al-Khoder, Karm al-Zaitoun and Bab al-Sebaa have largely been emptied and replaced by Alawite families, numerous local leaders claim.

"There have been obvious examples of denominational cleansing in different areas in Homs," said local activist, Abu Rami. "It is denominational cleansing; part of a major Iranian Shia plan, which is obvious through the involvement of Hezbollah and Iranian militias. And it's also part of Assad's personal Alawite state project."

Over the past six months, diplomats in the region have claimed that contingency planning for a rump state to protect Syrian Alawites has involved diplomatic contact being made by senior Syrian officials with enemy states.

A mediator – a well-known diplomatic figure – is understood to have been asked by Assad to approach the former Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, late last year with a request that Israel not stand in the way of attempts to form an Alawite state, which could have meant moving some displaced communities into the Golan Heights area.

A source aware of the talks said that Lieberman had not rebuffed the approach but had first sought information on the whereabouts of a missing Israeli airman shot down over Lebanon, Ron Arad, as well as three Israeli soldiers captured in the Lebanese village of Sultan Yacoub in 1982, and the remains of Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy intelligence officer who was caught and executed in Damascus.

The Syrian military's recent advances on the battlefield appear to have reduced the urgency in preparations for the collapse of the Syrian state. But nonetheless, some Alawites fear the war has already irreversibly changed Syria – and that some communities can no longer co-exist.

'Struggle of existence'

"To strangers, Alawites would condemn the idea of an Alawite state," one regime supporter said. "And tell you that this is a national Syrian cause. But deep in the community there are fears of identity and people are starting to discuss the fact that they might have to retreat into a denominational Alawite state. They believe that this is a struggle of existence."

Walid Jumblatt, the leader of Lebanon's Druze community, said: "The crucial point was when the battle of Homs started and it quickly became clear that the regime wanted to clear the whole route to Damascus and beyond. The religious cleansing started soon after. There was a massacre in Banias and others elsewhere. I had heard that the Sunnis had been told to move and that this whole area might end up as an enclave."

Residents of Alawite strongholds in Tartus and Latakia confirmed that arms had been offered to them three times since the uprising began in March 2011.

"There was one [supply run] in 2012 and two months ago," one Alawite said. "Now every household in the Alawite villages across the coast receives a government-sponsored package of an AK‑47, two hand grenades and ammunition. If you joined a 'public resistance movement' you'd receive a lot more."

"In certain strategic villages ... weapons are placed in the village square, as public property," the Alawite figure added. "It is a community that is so morally lacerated that it has commonised evil."
Syrians in Homs above a banner of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, left, and Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah. Photograph: Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty
All around the strategically crucial north-east of Syria, Alawites and Sunnis alike are talking of a rush to arm communities amid sharply rising fear and intimidation.

An Alawite student at Damascus University said: "Seven months ago, most of my relatives were volunteering with the air force intelligence or military intelligence.

"They would go on night raids or roadblocking around Banias or al-Saha [a Sunni area in Tartous] or Mintar [south of Tartus].

"My cousin told me that if you get really involved then the amount of weapons they're willing to give you is enormous. My [other cousin] has got everything other than tanks at his farm," he said.

A lawyer in Tartus, which is still home to large numbers of Sunnis, said: "In Tartus City there haven't been actual ethnic-cleansing incidents, but there are tens of thousands of refugees and the wide spread of arms among Alawites gives an eerie feeling of an approaching massacre."

Despite the fact that they are completely unarmed, Sunni districts are seeing heavier security, he said.

"The general mood among pro-Assad people started to include the possibility of the fall of Damascus, which leaves them under the rule of the FSA [Free Syrian Army rebels] and the Sunnis ... and for the majority of people here it is better to live in an Alawite state, which they feel should include Homs."

Captain Juma, a former Syrian military officer who defected seven months ago after helping build walls around Alawite communities in Homs, said: "The Syrian regime is using a few military men who served during the civil war in Lebanon as military advisers and they came up with this plan of isolating Alawite villages and Sunni districts. A plan they executed in Lebanon is now history repeating itself."

In Homs city, Abu Ahmed, a commander of the FSA-aligned al-Farouq brigade, said: "The regime is encouraging Alawite families in the Homs countryside who have friction with Sunnis to head to Alawite districts in the city. We are pretty sure that the regime wants to take Homs city and countryside and make it just for Alawites.

"Nine months ago, the regime created the National Defence Army, which is Shabiha [loyalist militia of Shia and Alawite] volunteers," he said. "They are the most bloody killers, even more brutal than the army."

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/07/2013721142316300543.html

A long Article but well worth the read/

EU-Syria: Let’s not shut our eyes on refugees



1 August 2013
Dagens Nyheter Stockholm

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The Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, near the Syrian border.
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Even though the European Union is gradually building a common and coherent policy on granting asylum, Europe is still extremely difficult for refugees to access. The Syrian drama presents the chance to be more welcoming, argues Dagens Nyheter.

Dagens Nyheter

The flood of refugees sweeping across Sweden is less significant than what the Office for Migration had forecast. Nearly 45,000 people from around the world have requested asylum in Sweden this year – 9,000 fewer than expected. Even the assumptions for next year have been cut back by 3,000 to 48,000.

This decrease in the number of refugees would have been good news if it was the result of a more peaceful, more democratic world. However, the origin of these new statistics seems rather to reflect rather the EU’s tightening of controls at its borders. Between Greece and Turkey, above all.

The situation of the Syrian refugees seems particularly disastrous. Antonio Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has called it the world’s worst humanitarian crisis since the Rwandan genocide. At the moment, almost 1.8 million Syrian refugees are living in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. The Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, which opened its doors at the beginning of July of last year, today counts more than 144,000 residents, making it the fourth-largest city in the country.

Good intentions, little action

The refugees are often greeted with generosity and compassion. The longer the conflict lasts, though, the greater will be the pressure on the countries neighbouring Syria. In an interview with British newspaper The Guardian, Guterres states that the massive influx of refugees in the region risks not only a humanitarian crisis, but also poses a threat to global peace and security.

And what is Europe doing? At the moment, far too little. But it’s not for a lack of good intentions.

All EU member countries are committed to observing the Geneva Convention, which protects individuals fleeing from war and persecution. In June, the European Parliament adopted a slate of measures to provide for a common asylum system, which should enter into force in autumn 2015. We may hope that it would lead, ultimately, to an improvement in how refugees are received, particularly in terms of legal certainty.

The EU even has a common regulatory framework for managing large-scale humanitarian crises. Thus, following the war in the former Yugoslavia in 2001, it reached an agreement on legislation to grant temporary protection in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons.

Simplifying entry

The snag is that refugees who wish to seek asylum have to do so within European borders, but those who admit they intend to seek asylum are not granted entry. In the early 2000s, there were still some openings. But, while several European countries allowed claimants to initiate asylum procedures from their respective embassies, these routes are now closed, and refugees have been forced to enter the EU illegally. Some do manage to cross the border, but they are relatively few. So far, the EU has welcomed nearly 43,000 refugees from Syria. Tuesday, in the pages of the Dagens Nyheter, the European Commissioner [for Internal Affairs] Cecilia Malmström expressed her concern at the unwillingness of member states to welcome more refugees. “Not a lot of people raised their hands,” she explained, when the United Nations High Commission for Refugees appealed to EU member countries a few weeks ago to take in 12,000 refugees from camps in countries neighbouring Syria.

It is high time for European leaders to review their way of thinking. If humanitarian reasons do not suffice, perhaps the risk of rising tensions in the Middle East can firm up their commitment. Legal entry into the EU should be simplified, for example, by allowing the embassies to issue humanitarian visas, to let refugees explain the reasons for their asylum request.

The EU should collectively manage its responsibility towards the Syrian refugees. If not today, at a time where nearly two million people from a country close to Europe have fled their homes, then when?

Middle East








Deadly explosions hit Syria's Homs













Forty people killed and 160 people wounded in blasts in city's district of Wadi al-Dhahab, Syrian Observatory says.



Last Modified: 01 Aug 2013 15:53

















































Forty people were killed and at least 160 people were wounded in explosions at a weapons cache in the central Syrian city of Homs, an activist group opposed to President Bashar al-Assad said.

The blast occurred in the south-eastern district of Wadi al-Dhahab on Thursday, which the army has taken over, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The group has a network of sources in the opposition and state security forces.

The Observatory said the casualties were soldiers and civilians and that some of the wounded were in a critical condition.

Activists told Al Jazeera that the explosions were a result of rebel shelling of the Wadi al-Dahab area. One activist said the blasts were "massive" and were heard from kilometres away. He could not confirm the target was the city's arms depot.

Genocide in Syria as 1,300 people including hundreds of women and children are wiped out in nerve gas attack say Syrian rebels as Hague warns use of chemical weapons would mark 'shocking escalation'

Activists claim 1,300 killed in government rocket strike on residential area
Chemical warheads hit suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar
They hit just before dawn as families lay sleeping

A UN team is in Syria to probe chemical weapons use by President Assad

Hague says they should be given access to site to verify claims

Claims come as refugees flood into Iraqi Kurdistan


By Sam Webb

PUBLISHED:09:11, 21 August 2013| UPDATED:16:08, 21 August 2013






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The world has looked on in horror as graphic images showing the aftermath of a deadly poison gas attack in the suburbs of Damascus earlier today - believed to have killed 1,300 people - have emerged.


Syrian activists accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces of launching a nerve gas attack on sleeping families earlier today in what would be by far the worst reported use of poison gas in the two-year-old civil war.

Activists said rockets with chemical agents hit the Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar before dawn.


While these pictures of dead children are graphic, disturbing and undoubtedly the worst so far to have emerged from the conflict, MailOnline has made the decision to publish them in order to raise awareness of the plight of innocent people.
Scroll down for video




Innocent: The dead bodies of Syrian children after an alleged poisonous gas attack fired by regime forces






Slaughter: Syrian activists inspect the bodies of people they say were killed by nerve gas in Damascus






The activists said at least 213 people, including women and children, were killedy in a nerve gas attack by President Bashar al-Assad's forces








Bodies of people, including children, activists say were killed by nerve gas

The accounts could not be verified independently and were denied by Syrian state television, which said they were disseminated deliberately to distract a team of United Nations chemical weapons experts which arrived three days ago.

Al Jazeera’s Nisreen El-Shamayleh, reporting from neighbouring Jordan, said there were videos allegedly showing both children and adults in field hospitals, some of them suffocating, coughing and sweating.

'We have been receiving reports that the doctors in the field hospitals do not have the right medication to treat these cases and that they were treating people with vinegar and water,' she said.


Meanwhile, fighting in strife-hit country has fuelled a mass exodus of refugees into Iraq and risks exploding into a full-blown side conflict as Kurdish militias battled against al-Qaida-linked fighters in the northeast.

The U.N. team is in Syria investigating allegations that both rebels and army forces used poison gas in the past, one of the main disputes in international diplomacy over Syria.

Syria must allow the UN inspectors immediate access to investigate claims that chemical weapons were used in the attack, William Hague has demanded.

The Foreign Secretary said that uncorroborated reports of toxic agents being used would mark a 'shocking escalation' if they are verified and warned that those who use them 'should be in no doubt that we will work in every way we can to hold them to account'.

Mr Hague said: 'I am deeply concerned by reports that hundreds of people, including children, have been killed in air strikes and a chemical weapons attack on rebel-held areas near Damascus.  






VIDEO: Nerve gas attack near Damascus kills 213. Graphic content









Victim: A Syrian girl receiving treatment at a makeshift hospital, in Arbeen, Damascus






A Syrian boy is comforted as waits to receive treatment at a makeshift hospital in the aftermath of the poison gas attack






These horrendous pictures were provided by citizen journalists in Syria




A boy who survived what activists say is a gas attack cries as he takes shelter inside a mosque in the Duma neighbourhood of Damascus





'These reports are uncorroborated and we are urgently seeking more information. But it is clear that if they are verified, it would mark a shocking escalation in the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

'Those who order the use of chemical weapons, and those who use them, should be in no doubt that we will work in every way we can to hold them to account.

'I call on the Syrian government to allow immediate access to the area for the UN team currently investigating previous allegations of chemical weapons use. The UK will be raising this incident at the UN Security Council.'


A nurse at Douma Emergency Collection facility, Bayan Baker, said the death toll, as collated from medical centres in the suburbs east of Damascus, was 213.

'Many of the casualties are women and children. They arrived with their pupil dilated, cold limbs and foam in their mouths. The doctors say these are typical symptoms of nerve gas victims,' the nurse said.




Many women and children were among the dead. The area reportedly bombed is residential




Grim toll: Fighting in Syria has killed an estimated 100,000 people so far

Extensive amateur video and photographs purporting to show victims appeared on the Internet. A video puportedly shot in the Kafr Batna neighbourhood showed a room filled with more than 90 bodies, many of them children and a few women and elderly men.

Most of the bodies appeared ashen or pale but with no visible injuries. About a dozen were wrapped in blankets.

Other footage showed doctors treating people in makeshift clinics. One video showed the bodies of a dozen people lying on the floor of a clinic, with no visible wounds.

The narrator in the video said they were all members of a single family. In a corridor outside lay another five bodies.

A photograph taken by activists in Douma showed the bodies of at least 16 children and three adults, one wearing combat fatigues, laid at the floor of a room in a medical facility where bodies were collected.

Khaled Omar of the opposition Local Council in Ain Tarma said he saw at least 80 bodies at the Hajjah Hospital in Ain Tarma and at a makeshift clinic at Tatbiqiya School in the nearby district of Saqba.

'The attack took place at around 3:00 a.m. (local time). Most of those killed were in their homes,' Omar said.




Activists say most of those killed were in their homes




Heartbreak: Relatives and activists inspect the bodies of the dead






British Foreign Secretary William Hague says the gas attacks are a 'shocking escalation'



Syrian state television quoted a source as saying there was 'no truth whatsoever' to the reports.

Syria is one of just a handful of countries that are not parties to the international treaty that bans chemical weapons, and Western nations believe it has caches of undeclared mustard gas, sarin and VX nerve agents.

Assad's officials have said they would never use poison gas - if they had it - against Syrians. The United States and European allies believe Assad's forces used small amounts of sarin gas in attacks in the past, which Washington called a 'red line' that justified international military aid for the rebels.

Assad's government has responded in the past with accusations that it was the rebels that used chemical weapons, which the rebels deny.

Western countries say they do not believe the rebels have access to poison gas. Assad's main global ally Moscow says accusations on both sides must be investigated.




Desperate: Syrian refugees cross into Iraq at the Peshkhabour border point in Dahuk






Around 30,000 Syrians, the vast majority of them Kurds, have fled the region over a five-day stretch and crossed the border to the self-ruled Kurdish region of northern Iraq





Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby today called for United Nations inspectors to immediately investigate reports of the chemical attack.

'The secretary general said in a statement he was surprised this deplorable crime would happen during the visit of a team of international investigators with the United Nations who are already tasked with investigating chemical weapons use,' the official news agency MENA said.
'He called on the inspectors to head immediately to the eastern Ghouta (suburb of Damascus) to determine what happened.'
The timing and location of the reported chemical weapons use - just three days after the team of U.N. chemical experts checked in to a Damascus hotel a few miles to the east at the start of their mission - was surprising.

'Logically, it would make little sense for the Syrian government to employ chemical agents at such a time, particularly given the relatively close proximity of the targeted towns (to the U.N. team),' said Charles Lister, analysts at IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre.

'Nonetheless, the Ghouta region (where the attacks were reported) is well known for its opposition leanings.


Authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan have imposed a quota in an effort to limit the flood of refugees



Jabhat al-Nusra has had a long-time presence there and the region has borne the brunt of sustained military pressure for months now,' he said, referring to a hardline Sunni Islamist rebel group allied to al Qaeda.

'While it is clearly impossible to confirm the chemical weapons claim, it is clear from videos uploaded by reliable accounts that a large number of people have died.'

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said dozens of people were killed, including children, in fierce bombardment. It said Mouadamiya, southwest of the capital, came under the heaviest attack since the start of the two-year conflict.

The Observatory called on the U.N. experts and international organisations to visit the affected areas to ensure aid could be delivered and to 'launch an investigation to determine who was responsible for the bombardment and hold them to account'.


Exodus: The Syrians are fleeing into the Duhok region in north-west Iraq

Meanwhile, about 35,000 refugees, believed to be mainly Syrian Kurds, have entered Iraq since last Thursday, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said.

UNHCR officials told an internal U.N. meeting in Baghdad on Monday that up to 100,000 Syrian refugees could be expected to flee to Iraq within the next month, if the current pace continued, U.N. sources said.

Fleeing bombardments and sectarian tensions in parts of northern Syria including Aleppo and Efrin, they arrive exhausted, with many children dehydrated from walking in the scorching heat.






Amateur video shows bombing in Mua'dameyet Al Sham







U.S. 'OPPOSES INTERVENTION BECAUSE OF FEARS OVER SYRIAN REBELS'



The U.S. opposes even limited military intervention in Syria because it believes rebels fighting the Assad regime wouldn't support American interests if they seized power today.


The Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Martin Dempsey, says the U.S. is capable of eliminating Syrian President Bashar Assad's air force and shifting momentum back toward the opposition.


But he says this would commit the U.S. to another war and offer no peace strategy in a nation plagued by ethnic rivalries.


Dempsey says Syria is not about choosing between two sides. It means choosing one among many and that side must be ready to promote U.S. interests. He said: 'Today, they are not.'


Dempsey's assessment came in a letter to Rep. Eliot Engel of New York. A copy was obtained by The Associated Press.
..

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2398691/Syria-Nerve-gas-attack-near-Damascus-kills-1-300-including-women-children.html#ixzz2ccKbIUjl

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

There are harrowing photos but they didn't come out, if some kind soul wants to print them, feel free.

Syria: One Million Children Have Fled ConflictThe UN says children make up half of the refugees who have fled to neighbouring countries after two years of civil war in Syria.5:50am UK, Friday 23 August 2013 Video: One Million Children Flee Syria
Enlarge EmailOne million children have fled war-torn Syria and another two million have been displaced by the civil war, the UN has revealed.

Children make up half of all refugees from more than two years of conflict in the country, according to latest figures.

Most have found a haven in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq or Egypt, but they are increasingly fleeing to North Africa and Europe.

Anthony Lake, head of UN children's agency Unicef, said in a statement: "This one millionth child refugee is not just another number.

"This is a real child ripped from home, maybe even from a family, facing horrors we can only begin to comprehend."


A girl carries a baby boy in a refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon

The UN's most recent figures show that some 740,000 Syrian refugees are under the age of 11.

Antonio Guterres, UN high commissioner for refugees, said: "What is at stake is nothing less than the survival and wellbeing of a generation of innocents.

"The youth of Syria are losing their homes, their family members and their futures. Even after they have crossed a border to safety, they are traumatised, depressed and in need of a reason for hope."

More than two million children have been driven from their homes in the face of the civil war.

The UN said that more than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which started as a crackdown on protests against the regime of President Bashar al Assad in March 2011.

According to the organisation's human rights division, some 7,000 of the dead were youngsters.

The UN also warned the refugee children face the threat of child labour, early marriage and the potential for sexual exploitation and trafficking.

More than 3,500 children in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq have crossed Syria's borders unaccompanied or separated from their families.

Home»News»World News»North America»USAUS 'positioning forces' for possible action against Syria
The Pentagon is moving forces into place in case President Barack Obama opts for military action against Syria, as US security advisers prepare to meet to discuss how to tackle an apparent chemical attack in Damascus.

A boy who survived an alleged gas attack takes shelter inside a mosque in the Duma neighbourhood of Damascus Photo: REUTERS
By AP and Reuters
3:30AM BST 24 Aug 2013
Amid calls for military intervention after the Syrian regime carried out an alleged chemical weapons attack this week, US commanders have prepared a range of "options" for Mr Obama if he chooses to launch an attack on the Damascus regime, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said aboard his plane en route to Malaysia.

But he declined to provide any details on the positioning of US troops and assets.

"The Defence Department has a responsibility to provide the president with options for all contingencies," Mr Hagel said.

US media reported warships had been sent to the region for possible cruise missile attacks or other action but Mr Hagel declined to comment on the accounts.

"The president has asked the Defence Department for options. Like always, the Defence Department is prepared and has been prepared to provide all options for all contingencies to the president of the United States," he said.

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"And that requires positioning our forces, positioning our assets, to be able to carry out different options – whatever options the president might choose."

He also did not comment on a report from CBS News that the Pentagon was making "initial preparations" for a cruise missile attack.

Separately, a US official said Mr Obama's security advisers will convene at the White House this weekend to discuss US options, including possible military action, against the Syrian government over an apparent chemical weapons attack earlier this week.

If Mr Obama takes part in the high-level meeting as appears likely, it would be his first full-scale session with top foreign policy aides since Wednesday's mass poisoning in a Damascus suburb.

US newspapers also have suggested disagreements within the administration over the risks of another American military intervention in the Middle East.

The Pentagon chief and other defence officials made clear no decision had been taken on whether to employ military force against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Mr Hagel, who visited US Marines in Hawaii on Thursday before setting off on a week-long tour of Southeast Asia, said he expected American intelligence agencies to "swiftly" assess whether the Syrian government indeed used chemical weapons.

He said the US government would work closely with its allies.

"The international community should and will act in concert on these kinds of issues," Mr Hagel said.

Edited by Bonnie Malkin

Iran leader condemns chemical weapons use in Syria

Published August 24, 2013
Associated Press




TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's new president has condemned the use of chemical weapons in Syria's civil war without blaming a side for it.

The comments by President Hasan Rouhani on Saturday, broadcast by Iranian state television, come as his government is a major backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

It also follows comments Wednesday by Iran's foreign minister, who blamed Syrian rebels for the use of chemical weapons.

In his speech at the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Rouhani spoke about how Iran previously was the victim of chemical warfare during its 1980s war with Iraq. The president said the death of innocent people through the use of chemical weapons was "very distressing."

Rouhani did not elaborate on what his government knew about the chemical weapons use in Syria.

THERE HAVE BEEN EXPLOSIONS OUTSIDE LEBANONESE MOSQUES THAT HAVE CONDEMNED THE CHEMICAL ATTACKS.

Badboy wrote:THERE HAVE BEEN EXPLOSIONS OUTSIDE LEBANONESE MOSQUES THAT HAVE CONDEMNED THE CHEMICAL ATTACKS.

Hi Badboy, it appears the EU is all for taking action, Obama is very reluctant Iran condemns the deaths of so many children but is not blaming either the rebels or Assad. Russia has urged Assad to allow UN inspection . The situation is bad and if Assad's Government was not responsible for the chemicals you would think he would go on T.V to deny it....the fact that he hasn't is significant.

Syrian state TV says soldiers find poison gas in tunnels used by rebels
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U.N. chief warns of serious consequences if chemical weapons used in Syria
A lot riding on U.N. team now in Syria: ex-top weapons investigator
1 of 11. An activist wearing a gas mask is seen in Zamalka area, where activists say chemical weapons have been used by forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad in the eastern suburbs of Damascus August 22, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Bassam Khabieh

By Oliver Holmes

BEIRUT | Sat Aug 24, 2013 12:47pm EDT

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian state television said soldiers found chemical weapons on Saturday in tunnels that had been used by rebels, deflecting blame for a nerve gas attack that killed hundreds this week and heightened Western calls for foreign intervention.

The United States said it was realigning naval forces in the Mediterranean to give President Barack Obama the option of attacking Syria, and a senior U.N. official arrived in Damascus to seek access for inspectors to the gas attack site.

Opposition accounts that between 500 and well over 1,000 civilians were killed by gas fired by pro-government forces, and video footage of victims' bodies, have stoked demands abroad for a robust, U.S.-led response after 2-1/2 years of international inaction on a conflict that has killed 100,000.

International medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Saturday that three hospitals it supports in Damascus reported receiving 3,600 people displaying neurotoxic symptoms within less than three hours on Wednesday.

Of those patients, 355 died, and it had sent 7,000 vials of atropine, a nerve agent toxicity antidote, to the area, it said.

In an attempt to strengthen government denials, state news agency SANA said soldiers "suffered from cases of suffocation" when rebels used chemical weapons against them in the Damascus suburb of Jobar.

It said clashes were still raging in the area but that the army had advanced and found "chemical agents" in rebel tunnels.

State television said rebels used poison gas "as a last resort" after government forces made "big gains" in Jobar.

But footage did not appear to show evidence of chemical weapons. It showed five blue and green plastic drums, normally used to transport oil, lined against a wall in a room, as well as several rusty mortar bombs and grenades.

Next to them were several rolls of tape, rope and some gas canisters, normally used for domestic ovens. Gas masks were seen near some vials labeled "atropine".

The presenter said that these images were proof that the rebels had used chemical weapons but did not say which of the items contained them.

Activists say President Bashar al-Assad's forces fired nerve gas projectiles into Jobar and other suburbs before dawn on Wednesday. Later in the week, activists crossed front lines around Damascus to smuggle out tissue samples from victims.

Leader of the opposition Syrian National Coalition Ahmad al-Jarba and the head of the rebel Free Syrian Army General Salim Idriss denied on Saturday that rebels had used chemical weapons.

At a press conference in Istanbul Idriss said the rebels would respond to the attack but would not commit "similar crimes", referring to chemical weapons.

Jabra said the "most important cause" of the attack was the lack of action by the international community, the West in particular, and its silence.

INTELLIGENCE EVIDENCE

Obama has long been hesitant to intervene in Syria, wary of its position straddling fault lines of wider sectarian conflict in the Middle East, and he reiterated such reluctance on Friday.

But, in a development that could raise pressure on Obama to act, American and European security sources said U.S. and allied intelligence agencies had made a preliminary assessment that chemical weapons were used by pro-Assad forces this week.

Major world powers - including Russia, Assad's main ally which has long blocked U.N.-sponsored intervention against him - have urged the Syrian leader to cooperate with a U.N. inspection team that arrived on Sunday to pursue earlier allegations of chemical weapons assaults in the civil war.

U.N. High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane arrived to Damascus on Saturday to press for access to areas of Damascus suburbs said to have been targeted on Wednesday.

"The solution is obvious. There is a United Nations team on the ground, just a few kilometers away. It must very quickly be allowed to go to the site to carry out the necessary tests without hindrance," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Saturday during a visit to the Palestinian territories.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle of Germany said it expected Russia to "raise the pressure on Damascus so that the inspectors can independently investigate".

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, Assad's most powerful Middle East ally, acknowledged on Saturday for the first time chemical weapons had killed people in Syria and called for the international community to prevent their use.

CONFLICTING VIEWS

Among the military options under consideration are targeted missile strikes on Syrian units believed responsible for chemical attacks or on Assad's air force and ballistic missile sites, U.S. officials said. Such strikes could be launched from U.S. ships or combat aircraft capable of firing missiles from outside Syrian airspace, thereby avoiding Syrian air defenses.

Obama's caution contrasted with calls for action from NATO allies, including France, Britain and Turkey, where leaders saw little doubt Assad's forces were behind the chemical attack.

While the West accused Assad of a cover-up by preventing the U.N. team from heading out to Damascus suburbs, Russia said the rebels were impeding an inquiry and that Assad would have no interest in using poison gas for fear of foreign intervention.

Igor Morozov, another senior pro-Kremlin lawmaker, told Interfax news agency, "Assad does not look suicidal. He well understands that in this (chemical attack) case, allies would turn away from him and ... opponents would rise. All moral constraints would be discarded regarding outside interference."

Alexei Pushkov, pro-Kremlin chairman of the international affairs committee in Russia's lower house of parliament, said, "In London they are 'convinced' that Assad used chemical weapons, and earlier they were 'convinced' that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It's the same old story."

Russia said last month that its analysis indicated a projectile that hit the city of Aleppo on March 19 contained the nerve agent sarin and was most likely fired by rebels.

(Additional reporting by Megan Davies in Moscow, John Irish in Paris, Madeline Chambers in Berlin, Yeganeh Torbati in Dubai, Asli Kandemir and Dasha Afanasieva in Istanbul and Washington bureau; Writing by Mark Heinrich; Editing by Louise Ireland

Did Assad's ruthless brother mastermind alleged Syria gas attack?

Shadowy figure of Maher al-Assad could have been involved in alleged atrocity that hit rebel-held district of Damascus
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Martin Chulov

The Observer, Saturday 24 August 2013 21.43 BST



A Syrian man weeps over the body of a relative killed in what rebels claim was a regime-led chemical attack on civilians. Photograph: Ammar Al-Arbini/AFP/Getty


He hasn't been seen for over a year, remaining in the shadows while Bashar al-Assad has been the public face of Syria.

But Maher al-Assad has in many ways played a more decisive role in the country's civil war than his elder brother, commanding its most formidable military division as it claws back losses and leading the defence of Damascus against an opposition that remains entrenched on the capital's outskirts. The question many Syrians are asking, after last week's revelations of an apparent chemical attack on civilians in rebel-held areas, is what role the president's brother may have played in the atrocity.

Maher has remained a senior member of the Ba'ath party's central committee and a central pillar of a police state that, despite the ravages of war and insurrection, remains one of the most effective in the world.

As the trajectory of Syria's war has wobbled throughout the past year, opposition gains in parts being offset by regime advances elsewhere, the 4th Armoured Division Maher commands has been a chief protagonist on behalf of the regime.He has acted as division commander since at least 2000, and at the same time leads Syria's other premier fighting force, the Republican Guards. Both units have been at the vanguard of the war since its earliest days, and were active again last week as loyalist forces launched their biggest operation yet to root out rebel groups from the capital.

It was while this operation was under way that thousands of residents of east Ghouta were exposed to what scientists increasingly believe was a nerve agent, possibly sarin. Attempts to pin down who was responsible for the attack are now the subject of a global intelligence effort that has already started to zero in on loyalist military units as the likely suspects.

In the days since, Syria has persistently denied having used its stocks of sarin to shell the area.

The 4th division has remained relatively unaffected by desertions and defections that plagued other divisions in the first 18 months of the war. Until about then — 18 July last year — Maher was visibly in charge. Frontline troops saw him often, especially in the hotspots of what was then more an insurrection than the full-blown civil and proxy regional war it is now.

In Deraa he personally led a siege by 4th division troops in March 2011, in response to a spark of defiance by a group of schoolboys, who wrote on a mosque wall calling for Bashar to leave. The division left an unambiguous calling card.

"He came to see us one weekend down there," said a former 4th division conscript who fled to Istanbul soon afterwards. "He told us not to shoot at the men with guns, because they were with us. He told us only to shoot at people without guns, that they were the terrorists.

"It took me a while to protest at that. He made us shoot at their hearts and heads. And anyone that was shooting high and wide [deliberately] would be beaten, or killed."

In Jordan's Zaatari refugee camp, only nine kilometres south of Deraa, which is now home to a sizeable chunk of the city's residents, Maher's name is spoken of with visceral anger.

"His brother is a puppet for Maher and the Iranians," said Khaled Othman, a plumber from the city, standing in the flap of a UN supply tent. "Maher is the devil. He personally tried to annihilate us just because we defied him. He took pleasure in it, along with his closest officers. Did you see the video of him in the prison?"

The refrain is commonly asked in communities that support the Syrian opposition. It refers to a prison revolt in 2008 that Maher was asked to put down; a task he carried out with brutal efficiency, killing many who had taken guards and soldiers hostage, then filming the bodies with his camera phone.

The phone video is often showed by supporters of the Assad regime as purported evidence of the strength of the brothers. But between the statesman and the general, it has been Maher who has inspired more fear — and speculation.

His last appearance in public was several weeks before an explosion in a meeting room in central Damascus killed security chief, and the Assads' brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, who had married their sister, Bushra. Also killed that day was the defence minister and several other members of the inner sanctum.

Rumours have circulated since that Maher was also in the room at the time and was wounded. Last year Abdullah Omar, a former press officer in the presidential palace who defected in September, said he had seen Maher visit the palace and he had appeared to have lost part of a hand and leg.

The suggestion has not since been confirmed. Turkish officials believe that the younger Assad was wounded that day — one of the few times that the opposition has got so close to the seat of power. "But he is alive and functioning," said one senior Turkish diplomat. "And the 4th division is still one of their better units."

In Lebanon, where in more settled times leaders from all sides of politics beat a regular path to Damascus, there has been nothing from Maher for more than a year.

"We know his wife is in Dubai along with Bushra," said the leader of one political bloc. "And we know that Bashar will have a hard time keeping him in his box. If they think they are winning, they will behave without any restraint. And if they did the chemical attack, he won't be far away from it."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/08/24/syria-rebels-chemical-weapons/2695243/


The latest News , too long to copy and paste.!!! 

War in Syria: Crime without punishment?



23 August 2013
The Guardian London

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With the apparent chemical weapons attack of August 21, the Syrian conflict has reached a new low. European voices are now leading calls for military intervention. But none of the options looks likely to prevent a "regional war in freefall," writes The Guardian.

The Guardian

There is next to no doubt that chemical weapons were used in Ghouta in eastern Damascus, and that, unlike previous alleged attacks, they produced mass casualties. Whether the death toll is in the hundreds or over a thousand, as the rebels claim, this is one of the most significant chemical weapons attacks since Saddam Hussein's on the Kurds in Halabja 25 years ago, and an unmistakable challenge to the vow [US President] Barack Obama made a year ago that, if proved, the use of chemical or biological weapons would "change my calculus".

Nor is there much doubt about who committed the atrocity. The Syrian government acknowledged it had launched a major offensive in the area and they are the only combatant with the capability to use chemical weapons on this scale. Western intelligence officials have calculated it would need an invasion force of 60,000 troops to secure the 12 chemical weapons depots at Bashar al-Assad's disposal. A lot of sarin, if indeed that was the agent used, is needed to kill that number of people. The sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway killed 13 people.

That leaves the question why. In defending their client state from the accusation, Russia called the attack a pre-planned provocation, occurring as it did within only five miles of the hotel where UN inspectors had arrived to investigate previous alleged incidents. There are four possible causes: a Syrian commander acting on his own, which is unlikely; an order from Mr Assad in the knowledge that Mr Obama would not respond; or a decision to up the firepower against the rebels who, despite losses in Qusair or Homs, still control about half of the country. The fourth possible cause is that this was an attack which went wrong, killing many more than intended.

Read article in full at The Guardian en

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Original article at The Guardian en
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Rumours of western boots in Syria

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has spoken of a need for "a response force" if the alleged chemical attack against a suburb of Damascus on August 21 is proven to have been launched by the Syrian government, reports Le Figaro. The minister ruled out, however, any ground intervention.

The conservative daily also reveals that an "anti-Assad offensive" is underway in the south of Syria –


A first group of 300 men, no doubt supported by Israeli and Jordanian commandos, as well as by CIA men, is said to have crossed the border on August 17. A second was to have joined them on August 19. According to military sources, the Americans, who don't want to put soldiers on Syrian soil or arm rebels partly controlled by radical Islamists, have been discreetly training hand-picked Free Syrian Army fighters for several months now in a boot camp set up in the Jordanian-Syrian border.

http://news.sky.com/story/1133285/syria-un-inspectors-find-valuable-evidence

This is the latest news , I'm just wondering if it was Russia supplying the chemical weapons which is the reason they are so reluctant to admit they exist.

No good options against Assad’



27 August 2013

Comment

A week after hundreds of civilians were massacred in a chemical weapons attack east of Damascus, the US and Europe seem to be preparing for military action against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. While morally justified, any action must be carefully considered beforehand, warns the European press.


By allowing the UN through to inspect the scene of the massacre, “Syria’s president will be gambling that allowing the inspectors in will deepen divisions over the appropriate response to his apparent use of weapons of mass destruction. But this is a gamble he cannot be allowed to win,” writes the Financial Times. In an editorial titled “The moral case for intervention in Syria”, the British newspaper argues that any action against the al-Assad regime will have to be carried out based on specific evidence and with broad international support. It believes, however, that


Intervention is not about entering Syria’s civil war. It is about sending a message to rogue states that the use of WMD will not be tolerated. Military action bears risks. There are no good options to resolve the threat that Mr Assad poses to his own people and the wider world. But to do nothing would be the worst one of all.


“Failing to react firmly to the Syrian chemical incident would pave the way for the savagery of our era to spread around the world,” adds editor-in-chief and director of Le Monde, Natalie Nougayrède.


Acting in a well targeted, prompt and precision manner would not end up precipitating a bout of western military adventurism. But only if the follow-up is well thought through. That would be a moment of truth for Russian diplomacy, which could find it very difficult to respond to American warships. This action would lay down a red line marking a threshold of one of the most intangible principles on which the community of nations and international security is based. This crime certainly calls for a clear and determined response.


“Hard evidence is a prerequisite to any military intervention,” warns La Libre Belgique, "merely to convince a very reluctant public, both in the United States and in Europe.” In an editorial entitled “Strike in Syria? Facts first”, the daily notes that


At the time this editorial was being written, just one clutch of presumptions is pointing the finger at the Damascus regime. That is far from enough in a country that has four intelligence services, militias, rebels, and has been the subject of many foreign interventions. Caution, here, is not a mark of weakness. It is the first stage.


In Germany, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung notes that “it is Washington above all that will decide on a military response against Assad.” And this time, unlike during the intervention in Libya, which Germany did not support, “Berlin will probably stand alongside the Americans.” After all, the daily observes, “the situation has now changed, with less than four weeks to go before the elections.” And unlike in 2011, the foreign minister will not be able to stand on the sidelines.


Gaddafi had just been overthrown, and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe had been applauded by German diplomats for his stance during the war in Libya – an affront to the master of the corps. This would surely not happen a second time to Westerwelle and Merkel. But this does not mean, of course, that Berlin will play any active role in a military intervention.


Revista 22 asks simply, what good would come out of a military intervention in Syria? Researcher Laura Sitaru believes that “any international military intervention would only fuel the conflict and increase the number of the dead. The same holds true for not intervening.” That is why


to avoid the huge errors of previous interventions in the Middle East, it is necessary to look further ahead and ask: what are the issues involved in intervention, and above all, what are the limits of international involvement? What is really expected from it, then? To topple the Assad regime? And afterwards? What part of Syria’s future will the international community take responsibility for? What type of intervention does it want: military, humanitarian, political? And what are the regional risks of such an intervention?

So looks like we're going to bomb Assad even tho no-one can really prove who used what on those poor people.

Let's wait and see Assad move hundreds of children into a bombing area so he can show the pics of what the West have done to his people.  It's been done in the past and will be again.

I feel for all those innocent people but I don't think the West can take on all the problems of the Middle East.

Why has nothing ever been done about Mugabe....he's done some atrocious things to innocent people.

ETA....let's see some of our MP's find some backbone and vote a clear NO NO NO!

Angelina wrote:So looks like we're going to bomb Assad even tho no-one can really prove who used what on those poor people.

Let's wait and see Assad move hundreds of children into a bombing area so he can show the pics of what the West have done to his people.  It's been done in the past and will be again.

I feel for all those innocent people but I don't think the West can take on all the problems of the Middle East.

Why has nothing ever been done about Mugabe....he's done some atrocious things to innocent people.

ETA....let's see some of our MP's find some backbone and vote a clear NO NO NO!

Hi Angelina, Cameron is bl***y useless, jumps on every bandwagon and I sincerely hope that the US sees common sense and backs off. .

Hackers: Pro-Assad Group Targets US WebsitesThe Syrian Electronic Army claims to have hacked Twitter, tweeting: 'Hi @Twitter, look at your domain, its owned by #SEA :)'1:02am UK, Wednesday 28 August 2013 The hackers infiltrate outlets it perceives to be aligned against Mr Assad
EmailPro-Assad regime hackers claim to have targeted leading US media websites, shutting down the New York Times for 30 minutes.

The Syrian Electronic Army said it had hacked sites belonging to Twitter and the Huffington Post, making them unstable, as well as closing down the NYT.

The NYT attributed the meltdown to a "malicious external attack".

When users attempted to visit www.nytimes.com, the only message that appeared was "Hacked by the SEA".

Meanwhile, Twitter spokesman Jim Prosser confirmed that site technicians were "looking into claims" it had been hacked by the SEA.

The SEA boasted in a tweet: "Hi @Twitter, look at your domain, its owned by #SEA :)"


The boasting tweet from the SEA hacking group

While the Twitter site continued to function as normal, the SEA claimed to have changed domain details, redirecting social media traffic to its own server.

The shadowy hacker collective has also claimed to have changed domain details belonging to the Huffington Post news site.

The latest attacks come weeks after the Twitter feed of the Associated Press news agency was targeted.

The feed falsely reported that Barack Obama was injured in an attack on the White House.

The Washington Post website was also hacked this month in an attack blamed on the same group.

The SEA infiltrates organisations it perceives to be aligned against the Assad government.

The string of cyber attacks comes as US leaders have publicly discussed the possibility of launching an attack against the Assad government.

The potential for military action comes amid claims Mr Assad deployed chemical weapons on the Syrian people, two years into the nation’s civil war.

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Home»Finance»News by Sector»Energy»Oil and GasSaudis offer Russia secret oil deal if it drops Syria
Saudi Arabia has secretly offered Russia a sweeping deal to control the global oil market and safeguard Russia’s gas contracts, if the Kremlin backs away from the Assad regime in Syria.

OPEC raised production by 400,000 barrels per day to 29.7m Photo: AP
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
12:00PM BST 27 Aug 2013
The revelations come amid high tension in the Middle East, with US, British, and French warship poised for missile strikes in Syria. Iran has threatened to retaliate.

The strategic jitters pushed Brent crude prices to a five-month high of $112 a barrel. “We are only one incident away from a serious oil spike. The market is a lot tighter than people think,” said Chris Skrebowski, editor of Petroleum Review.

Leaked transcripts of a closed-door meeting between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan shed an extraordinary light on the hard-nosed Realpolitik of the two sides.

Prince Bandar, head of Saudi intelligence, allegedly confronted the Kremlin with a mix of inducements and threats in a bid to break the deadlock over Syria. “Let us examine how to put together a unified Russian-Saudi strategy on the subject of oil. The aim is to agree on the price of oil and production quantities that keep the price stable in global oil markets,” he said at the four-hour meeting with Mr Putin. They met at Mr Putin’s dacha outside Moscow three weeks ago.

“We understand Russia’s great interest in the oil and gas in the Mediterranean from Israel to Cyprus. And we understand the importance of the Russian gas pipeline to Europe. We are not interested in competing with that. We can cooperate in this area,” he said, purporting to speak with the full backing of the US.

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The talks appear to offer an alliance between the OPEC cartel and Russia, which together produce over 40m barrels a day of oil, 45pc of global output. Such a move would alter the strategic landscape.

The details of the talks were first leaked to the Russian press. A more detailed version has since appeared in the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir, which has Hezbollah links and is hostile to the Saudis.

As-Safir said Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord. “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” he allegedly said.

Prince Bandar went on to say that Chechens operating in Syria were a pressure tool that could be switched on an off. “These groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role in Syria’s political future.”

President Putin has long been pushing for a global gas cartel, issuing the `Moscow Declaration’ last to month “defend suppliers and resist unfair pressure”. This would entail beefing up the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), a talking shop.

Mr Skrebowski said it is unclear what the Saudis can really offer the Russians on gas, beyond using leverage over Qatar and others to cut output of liquefied natural gas (LGN). “The Qataris are not going to obey Saudi orders,” he said.

Saudi Arabia could help boost oil prices by restricting its own supply. This would be a shot in the arm for Russia, which is near recession and relies on an oil price near $100 to fund the budget.

But it would be a dangerous strategy for the Saudis if it pushed prices to levels that endangered the world’s fragile economic recovery. Crude oil stocks in the US have already fallen sharply this year. Goldman Sachs said the “surplus cushion” in global stocks built up since 2008 has been completely eliminated.

Mr Skrebowski said trouble is brewing in a string of key supply states. “Libya is reverting to war lordism. Nigerian is drifting into a bandit state with steady loss of output. And Iraq is going back to the sort of Sunni-Shia civil war we saw in 2006-2007,” he said.

The Putin-Bandar meeting was stormy, replete with warnings of a “dramatic turn” in Syria. Mr Putin was unmoved by the Saudi offer, though western pressure has escalated since then. “Our stance on Assad will never change. We believe that the Syrian regime is the best speaker on behalf of the Syrian people, and not those liver eaters,” he said, referring to footage showing a Jihadist rebel eating the heart and liver of a Syrian soldier.

Prince Bandar in turn warned that there can be “no escape from the military option” if Russia declines the olive branch. Events are unfolding exactly as he foretold.

War in Syria: Where are all the intellectuals?



29 August 2013
NRC Handelsblad Amsterdam

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In the past, writers, philosophers and other western thinkers mobilised to demand their governments act – or not – during international crises. Why are they so silent about Syria, as the conflict escalates and the prospect of military intervention looms? Excerpts.

Hubert Smeets

There was a time that intellectuals around the world formed a united front whenever a global situation required it. The standard procedure was as follows. Two or more thinkers would draft an appeal to the United Nations or some other authority, circulate the text among their fellow intellectuals and then print the final version in the French newspaper Le Monde. This appears to be a thing of the past as far as Syria is concerned.

Two years ago, in June 2011, seven writers and thinkers still took the trouble to urge the Security Council to adopt a resolution which would facilitate intervention in Syria. “It would be tragic and morally unacceptable if this resolution is not discussed or is simply binned under the threat of a veto or blank vote.” Signatories: Umberto Eco, David Grossman, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Amos Oz, Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie and Wole Soyinka. All writers and one Nobel prize winner.

Nine months later, almost 50 global personalities tried again, this time in connection with Syria. The German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, ex-president Richard von Weizsäcker, the novelists Eco and Grossman, once again, and 40 others wrote that the discord in the international community had given the Assad regime the false idea that “violent reppression is an acceptable way to get things done”.

Since then the silence has been deafening. However, the French are keeping up the pressure. In their country the issue has become subject of an important public debate. The philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy is voicing his objections, just as in 2011 when the focus was on Libya, along with his compatriots, André Glucksmann and Bernard Kouchner (a former minister of foreign affairs).

In October last year this trio argued in Le Monde that France and America should take military action to avoid the Syrian rebels adopting an even more anti-western stance. “Enough excuses. Enough cowardice. The democratic future of Syria requires us to respond decisively,” wrote Lévy, Glucksmann, Kouchner and a fourth intellectual in Le Monde.

‘Obscene line of reasoning’

Lévy referred to the Russian and Chinese vetoes as “shameless”

Lévy and Kouchner spoke out again last week. Lévy referred to the Russian and Chinese vetoes as “shameless” on television on the 22th of August. When asked about the assessment that Assad would be succeeded by Islamists, he stated, “Against the backdrop of gassed children, that is an obscene line of reasoning”. On the radio Kouchner said, “We have wasted a lot of time. Although it is now more difficult, we have to do something. Some kind of face-saving gesture”.

Diametrically opposed opinions are also being voiced. For example in France where Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is honorary chairman of the National Front, yesterday sneered at his compatriots who wanted to go to war “from the comfort of their Parisian bistros.”

This approach is derived from the hyper-Realpolitik approach of the American conservative commentator Daniel Pipes (son of the famous historian and Russia expert Richard Pipes). Pipes argues in favour of support for Assad and compares this choice with the allied coalition in the Second World War. As he wrote five months ago, “Stalin was much more of a tyrant than Assad,” but, after 1941, it was “essential to keep German troops involved in the Eastern front” and therefore to support the Soviet Union.

In an article in the right-wing newspaper The Washington Times he dreams of a situation in which “Tehran and the rebels and Ankara fight each other to the point of mutual exhaustion.” Pipes recalls the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), claiming that [former Iraqi president] Saddam Hussein started the Gulf war and was more brutal. However, [former Iranian Supreme Leader] Ayatollah Khomeini was “ideologically more dangerous and aggressive,” Pipes claims and then proceeds to quote an apocryphal wisecrack by Henry Kissinger. “It is a shame both cannot lose”.

However, this attitude which Lévy regards as “obscene” does not explain why the French philosopher is failing to mobilise so few supporters. The Canadian historian and former politician Michael Ignatieff made an attempt two weeks ago in the Boston Review.

Western Realism

Ignatieff is himself an advocate of intervention. “It is a mess. We need to proceed with care. However, the international community has a huge responsibility to prevent the worst from happening after Assad's fall”, he said to the Canadian Globe and Mail newspaper in March.

However, Ignatieff is able to analyse why risk-avoiding behaviour in the West is now being referred to as “Realism” with a capital “R”. In the Boston Review he compares the Syrian crisis with the crisis in Bosnia two decades ago. According to him, there are two crucial differences.

Intervention requires more than just compassion for the victims

In the 1990s, Russia was on its knees and China's growth was only just beginning. “Neither of them stood in the way of intervention. The Syrian crisis is now exposing the contours of an entirely different world.” The second difference that is preventing action being taken is equally important. Intervention requires more than just compassion for the victims. It requires “being able to identify with an issue that the democratic electorate in the West can really take to heart”, Ignatieff asserts.

“The Bosnians understood that. They came across as supporters of European values, for example via Mo Sacirbey, their minister of foreign affairs, who had an excellent command of English. Although the bombardment of Sarajevo and the fall of Srebrenica were the reasons for intervention, the ideological foundation had already been laid.”