The Syrian Crisis

[abhi_the _gr8_maratha]

Asian Defence News: Syrian army sniper kill 2 Syrian Rebels by direct hits

 

[nrupatunga]

I think britanistan needs another spanking like it got from Iran.

Please elaborate as to which incident you are referring to where iranians hit out brits.

P.S. am yet to watch the video you posted, as youtube is blocked in my office..

 

[nrupatunga]

Syrian election vote counting begins

Bashar al-Assad set to win an overwhelming victory in poll called a charade by the opposition.

Election officials have started counting votes in a Syrian presidential election expected to deliver an overwhelming victory for President Bashar al-Assad but which his opponents have called a charade

State-run media reported that voting closed at midnight on Tuesday and that officials began the process of checking the number of votes against lists of registered voters to ensure the numbers matched.

The poll was the first election in Syria for nearly 50 years, though Assad and his father Hafez have previously renewed their mandates in referendums.

Rebel fighters, the political opposition in exile, Western powers and Gulf Arabs say no credible vote can be held in a country where swathes of territory are outside state control and millions have been displaced by conflict.

State television said voting had been extended for five hours past the original deadline "because of the massive influx of voters".

Voting only took place in government-controlled territories, meaning those displaced by fighting or living in rebel-held areas were unable to take part.

The opposition dismissed the vote as a "farce" that would prolong the country's three-year conflict. The vote excluded regime opponents from running.

The US called the election a disgrace, saying Assad "has no more credibility today than he did yesterday."

Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from the Al Masnaa border crossing in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, said: "The opposition says this is a farce, they don't recognise these elections. They say there is no way it could be legitimate while civil war is raging in the country, while it's being organised by the same president they want to overthrow."

Syrian television showed Assad casting his ballot at a school in the Damascus neighbourhood of al-Maliki. He was accompanied by his wife, Asma.

Assad faces two practically unknown competitors - Maher al-Hajjad and Hassan al-Nuri.

Nuri, who studied in the US and speaks English, told the AFP news agency he expected to come second after Assad.

Both he and Hajjar only lightly criticised Assad's rule for fear of being linked to an opposition branded "terrorists" by the regime. The two men instead focused on corruption and economic policy.

The vote took place as the war continued, with the air force bombarding rebel areas in Aleppo and fierce fighting in Hama, Damascus, Idlib and Daraa.
Observers from countries allied to the regime - North Korea, Iran and Russia - supervised the election, while a security plan was reportedly put in place in Syrian cities to prevent possible attacks against voters and polling stations.

Which of the election was stage-managed more?? Syrian elections or egyptian elections?? If syrian elections was a " farce" wasn't the egyptian election also one??

 

[SajeevJino]

Two Syrian mortar shells land in Golan Heights​

At least two mortar shells were fired on Wednesday night from Syria into the Israeli Golan.

The Iron Dome missile defense system was activated for the first time in northern Israel to intercept the two shells. At least two intercepting misiles were fired towards the Syrian border, but were "called off" in-flight by the Iron Dome's operators when it was made clear the shells were going to fall in open fields.

The falling shells caused fires in several spots in the area between Alonei HaBashan and Ein Zivan in the Goland Heights. Firefighters were called at the scene and put out the fires.

In addition, Syrians shot machine gun fire, hitting Israeli territory at the northern Golan.

No one was hurt in any of these incidents.

Israeli defense sources believe this was celebratory fire from Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces, who were rejoicing at Assad's election victory. Unlike the mortar shell fire last week, when a shell exploded near an IDF post on Mount Hermon and the IDF responded with artillery fire, this time the army did not respond.

Two Syrian mortar shells land in Golan Heights - Israel News, Ynetnews

 

[SajeevJino]

.

There is No Surprise in Syrian Presidential Election ..Assad wins by 88% of Votes

.

 

[pmaitra]

Earlier:

Christians flee Syria's Kessab, Twitter cries atrocities, Armenia accuses Turkey

[TWEET]450639036018077697[/TWEET]
[TWEET]448182080560574464[/TWEET]
[TWEET]448268066829262848[/TWEET]

Now, good news:

Syrian forces expel rebels from Christian town of Kessab on Turkish border

The Armenian government called on the UN to protect Kessab, evoked the Armenian genocide of 1915, and accused Turkey of allowing jihadists to cross the border to attack Kessab, blaming it for the civilian deaths. Moscow also joined calls at the UNSC to evaluate the situation and offer solutions on how to protect the some 2,000 Christian Armenians that inhabit Kessab.

Ankara slammed any accusations of its complicity and condemned the allegations as "confrontational political propaganda," although Turkey downed a Syrian military jet on March 23, just ahead of an escalation in tensions between Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Syrian government. Turkey claimed the jet was violating its airspace.

In response, Damascus accused Ankara of "blatant aggression," saying the fighter jet had been over Syria. The Syrian pilot said a Turkish aircraft fired a missile at him while he was pursuing jihadist militants within Syrian territories, SANA news agency reported.

[HR][/HR]

This is why NATO is a threat to world peace. NATO members sponsor terrorism and coup d'etats and no one can counter them.

 

[Kaalapani]

AWDNews - Clinton : I was Mistaken about Syria

After three years of advocating Islamic rebellion in Syria , Clinton admits that she underestimated the propinquent danger of radical Islamists




Clinton said the problem in Iraq has been exacerbated by Syria's civil war, which has created problems not just for Syria but for the whole region but she did not explain why she was advocating the Islamist rebellion in Syria for more than three bloody years.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Sunday that a militant group in Syria and Iraq that gained control of key Iraqi cities last week may try to create an Islamist state.

"I could not have predicted the extent to which ISIS [the Islamist State of Iraq and Syria] could be effective in seizing cities in Iraq and trying to erase boundaries to create an Islamist state," Clinton told Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass during a conversation hosted by CFR in New York. Referring to the conflict in and around Syria, she said, "Now the wicked problem has gotten even wickeder."

ISIS, a radical jihadi group disavowed by al Qaeda as too extreme, has gained control of large areas of Iraq and Syria over the last year and this week seized the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tikrit.

"In addition to the formation of a well-armed, incredibly tough-fighting force by ISIS and other jihadist groups, you have at least 1,000 foreign fighters, primarily from Europe but also at least some from the U.S., who are getting combat battlefield experience and becoming even more extreme," she said of the situation in Syria.

Clinton said that as secretary of state, she thought that the U.S. should have considered arming Syrian rebels.

"With respect to Syria, I felt quite strongly that we needed to see if it were possible to vet, train and equip moderate opposition figures," she said. "Because when this started, there was truly a citizen's uprising. You had people taking arms who were pharmacists or professors or students, and they had no training."

But, as she wrote in her new memoir, Hard Choices, she was overruled on the issue by President Barack Obama, who was wary of engagement in Syria after the backlash to the Iraq war.

Clinton is currently on a nationwide book tour, which many speculate may be the unofficial start to her possible bid for the presidency in 2016.

 

[nrupatunga]

Syria Hands Over Remainder of Its Declared Chemical Weapons

The last of Syria's acknowledged stockpile of chemical weapons has been handed over to Western governments for destruction, the organization charged with overseeing the elimination of such weapons said Monday. The final eight percent of the 1,300-ton stockpile, which included mustard gas and raw materials for making sarin nerve gas, was loaded onto ships in the Syrian port of Latakia, said Ahmet Uzumcu, the director general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Uzumcu acknowledged that it is possible Syria has avoided declaring some part of its arsenal. "I can't say that Syria doesn't have any chemical weapons anymore," he said. However, he added that is true for any country that his organization cooperates with, and President Bashar Assad's declared arsenal was close to estimates made by external security analysts and experts. Syria's government agreed to surrender its arsenal last fall when the U.S. threatened punitive missile strikes after a deadly chemical attack on a rebel-held suburb of Damascus.

@SajeevJino Will israel accept atleast now accept that you have nukes.

 

[nrupatunga]

dupilcate double post

 

[JBH22]

Exciting videos about SAA snipers. ek like to baanta hai bhai log

 

[SajeevJino]

@SajeevJino Will israel accept atleast now accept that you have nukes.

wait still we have game with iran nukes
And Pakistani aka KSA nukes

 

[nrupatunga]

Exciting videos about SAA snipers. ek like to baanta hai bhai log

Who is actually filming this? Are the rebels filming the deaths of their own rank and providing them to regime forces or the other way round??

But good sniper kill anyways.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

@Kaalapani do you think AWDnews could have found a less flattering photo of Hillary? :shocked:

 

[BridgeSeller]

Who is actually filming this? Are the rebels filming the deaths of their own rank and providing them to regime forces or the other way round??

But good sniper kill anyways.

It's the rebels filming this and uploading to Liveleak along with the bloody gory aftermath and the Syrian army stealing, sanitizing it and uploading it to youtube.
I have seen all of the originals on liveleak.And it's not like the rebels are going to file for the copyright violation.

 

[nrupatunga]

Destroying Syria's Chemical Weapons Hailed a 'Milestone' : Kerry

Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday the United States has finished eliminating Syrian President Bashar Assad's declared chemical weapons arsenal aboard the U.S. cargo vessel MV Cape Ray in international waters. Kerry hailed the destruction of the stockpile as a "milestone," adding that it comes ahead of the one-year anniversary of a horrific chemical weapons strike in the suburbs of Damascus that U.S. officials say was carried out by the Assad regime.

In a statement, Kerry said "(n)o one can or ever will wipe away that memory" of the August 21, 2013, attack that U.S. officials say killed 1,426 people, including hundreds of children. "The images of children suffering at the hands of a monster's illicit arsenal reminded all the world why these weapons have long been shunned by the civilized world and revealed for any who still doubted the true face of Assad."

Syria agreed to give up its chemical arsenal last fall when President Barack Obama threatened missile strikes in retaliation for the Damascus attack. "Today we mark an important achievement in our ongoing effort to counter the spread of weapons of mass destruction by eliminating Syria's declared chemical weapons stockpile," Obama said in a written statement Monday.

 

[kseeker]

Syria rebel leader 'killed in suicide blast' - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

Aboud, seen here in an interview in 2013, was reported killed in the attack [Al Jazeera]

The leader of the Ahrar al-Sham rebel group has been killed along with at least 20 of his commanders in a suicide attack on a high-level meeting in Syria's Idlib province, reports say.

Local activist sources said Hassan Aboud was killed on Tuesday as he met other Ahrar leaders in the village of Ram Hamdan.

Ahrar has about 20,000 fighters, was part of the Islamic Front alliance formed to counter the Islamic State group, and has been involved in battles against both the Asad government and the Islamic State.

Another of the group's leaders, Abu Khaled al-Suri, was killed by the Islamic State earlier this year.

It is not known who staged the attack.

Ahrar advocates for an Islamic state which protects the rights of women and religious and ethnic minorities, and disagrees with the approach of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera in 2013, Aboud said he would fight for his rights and dismissed talks in Un-brokered Geneva between the Syrian government and the exiled rebel umbrella Syrian National Coalition

"We see Geneva as a tool of manipulation - to derail the Syrian revolution away from its goals and objectives ... Whatever outcome the conference may yield, will be binding on the Syrian National Coalition only.

"For us, we will continue to fight for our revolution until we restore our rights."

However, the rise of the Islamic State after the Geneva talks gave the civil war a new dimension, with Ahrar fighting not only the government but other rebel groups.

 

[nrupatunga]

Chemical Weapons Watchdog Finds Evidence of Chlorine Gas Attacks in Syria

A toxic chemical, almost certainly chlorine, was used "systematically and repeatedly" as a weapon in attacks on villages in northern Syria earlier this year, the global chemical weapons watchdog said Wednesday. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said that a report by a fact-finding mission it sent to Syria based its conclusion on dozens of interviews with victims, physicians, eye-witnesses and others. The report does not apportion blame for the chlorine attacks on three villages in northern Syria, OPCW spokesman Michael Luhan said.

The report was not immediately published in full. Chlorine is a toxic industrial gas that is not specifically classified as a chemical weapon. The attacks earlier this year came as Damascus and the OPCW were involved in a complex mission to remove Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons and precursor chemicals from the country. The OPCW said the fact finding mission would continue its work as there was "a spate of new allegations" of chlorine attacks in Syria in August.

 

[nrupatunga]

US House approves Obama plan to arm, train Syrian rebels

The Republican-controlled House voted grudgingly to give the administration authority to train and arm Syrian rebels on Wednesday as President Barack Obama emphasized anew that American forces "do not and will not have a combat mission" in the struggle against Islamic State militants in either Iraq or Syria.

The 273-156 vote crossed party lines to an unusual degree in a Congress marked by near ceaseless partisanship. Top Republican and Democratic leaders backed Obama's plan seven weeks before midterm elections, while dozens of rank-and-file lawmakers in both parties opposed it.

The provision was added to spending legislation that will ensure the federal government operates normally after the Sept. 30 end of the budget year. Final approval is expected in the Senate as early as Thursday.

Even supporters of the military plan found little to trumpet. "This is the best of a long list of bad options," said Rep. Jim Moran.

One Republican supporter noted the measure includes strict limits on Obama's authority. "Members on both sides of the aisle are very concerned that too much of Congress' war making power has gone to the president," said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma.

Obama's remarks and similar comments Wednesday by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi seemed designed to reassure liberal lawmakers that the new military mission would be limited.

In a statement after the vote, Obama said the House "took an important step forward as our nation unites to confront the threat posed" by the Islamic State group, showing bipartisan support for a "critical component" of his strategy against the extremists.

A day earlier, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, drew widespread attention when he told Congress he might recommend the use of U.S. ground combat forces if Obama's current strategy fails to stop the militants.

Across the political aisle from the president and Pelosi, Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California swung behind the plan. Yet many other Republicans expressed concerns that it would be insufficient to defeat militants who have overrun parts of Syria and Iraq and beheaded two American journalists.

In all, 85 Democrats and 71 Republicans voted to deny Obama the authority he sought. The measure passed on the strength of 159 votes from Republicans and 114 from Democrats.

Republican lawmakers took solace in the short-term nature of the legislation. It grants Obama authority only until Dec. 11, giving Congress plenty of time to return to the issue in a post election session set to begin in mid-November.

While the military provision was given a separate vote in the House — to tack it onto the spending bill — it seemed unlikely there would be a yes-or-no vote in the Senate on Obama's new military strategy to train rebel forces in Saudi Arabia to be used in conjunction with potential U.S. airstrikes.

Instead, the Senate is likely to vote only once on the legislation that combines approval for arming and training rebels with the no-shutdown federal spending provisions.

Officials put a $500 million price tag on Obama's request to train and equip rebels. The cost generated virtually no discussion among lawmakers, who focused instead on the possible consequences of a new military mission not long after America ended participation in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Testifying before a Senate Committee, Secretary of State John Kerry said the forces seeking to create an Islamic state " must be defeated. Period. End of story."

There was little, if any dissent on that, but debate aplenty about the best way to accomplish it.

"We simply don't know if somewhere down the line it will turn our guns back against us," said Rep. Loretta Sanchez giving voice to a fear that rebels seeking the removal of Syrian president Bashar Assad would eventually prove unreliable allies.

Rep. Tom McClintock expressed a different concern. "Committing insufficient force in any conflict is self-defeating, and airstrikes alone cannot win a war," he said.

Dempsey's day-old remarks had staying power.

U.S. troops "will support Iraqi forces on the ground as they fight for their own country against these terrorists," Obama told officers in Florida at U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military efforts in the Middle East. He added, "As your commander in chief, I will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another ground war in Iraq."

Vice President Joe Biden said in Iowa that Gen. Dempsey's "conclusion is that it is not needed now." Biden added: "We'll determine that based on how the effort goes."

Pelosi said the House action "is not to be confused with any authorization to go further. ... I will not vote for combat troops to engage in war."

In Baghdad, Iraq's new prime minister told The Associated Press in an interview that his government wants no part of a U.S. ground combat mission. "Not only is it not necessary; we don't want them. We won't allow them," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said.

The measure also renews the charter of the Export-Import Bank, which helps finance purchases of U.S. exports. That postpones until next June a battle between tea party forces opposing the bank and business-oriented Republicans who support it.

The legislation also includes $88 million to combat the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa.

The bill passed on a vote of 319-108.

 

[arpakola]

Prejudice on SYRIA ..

 

[arpakola]

delete please