The Syrian Crisis

[amoy]

They may be fighting for Syria, not Assad. They may also be winning: Robert Fisk reports from inside Syria - Middle East - World - The Independent
Death stalks the Syrian regime just as it does the rebels. But on the front line of the war, the regime's army is in no mood to surrender – and claims it doesn't need chemical weapons

Such access to the Syrian army was almost unimaginable just a few months ago and there are good reasons why. The army believe they are at last winning back ground from the Free Syrian Army and the al-Nusra Islamist fighters and the various al-Qa'ida satellites that now rule much of the Syrian countryside. From Point 45 they are scarcely a mile and a half from the Turkish frontier and intend to take the ground in between. Outside Damascus they have battled their way bloodily into two rebel-held suburbs. While I was prowling through the mountaintop positions, the rebels were in danger of losing the town of Qusayr outside Homs amid opposition accusations of the widespread killing of civilians. The main road from Damascus to Latakia on the Mediterranean coast has been reopened by the army. And the line troops I met at Point 45 were a different breed of men from those soldiers who became corrupted after 29 years of semi-occupation in Lebanon, who fell back to Syria without a war to fight in 2005, the discipline of the soldiers around Damascus a joke rather than a threat to anyone. Bashar's Special Forces now appear confident, ruthless, politically motivated, a danger to their enemies, their uniforms smart, their weapons clean. Syrians have long grown used to the claims by Israel – inevitably followed by the Washington echo machine – that chemical weapons have been used by Bashar's forces; as an intelligence officer remarked caustically in Damascus: "Why should we use chemical weapons when our Mig aircraft and their bombs cause infinitely more destruction?" The soldiers up at Point 45 admitted the defections to the Free Syrian Army, the huge losses of their own men – inevitably referred to as "martyrs" – and made no secret of their own body counts for battles lost and won.

 

[amoy]

Syria is being destroyed while Assad displays remarkable staying power | World news | guardian.co.uk

It is one of the enduring features of the Syrian crisis that Bashar al-Assad has proved far more resilient than many imagined. Journalists and commentators have spent the past two years negotiating a landscape strewn with propaganda, illusions and substantial doses of wishful thinking, finally to grasp that he has real staying power.

The president still has loyal, powerful allies, as Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, made clear on Tuesday. Lebanon's Shia militia, he pledged, would stand by its fellow stalwart of the "axis of resistance". Russia and Iran – "real friends" – would not let Assad fall.

Syria illustrates a sort of Middle Eastern Murphy's law – anything that can make things worse invariably happens: massacres, refugees fleeing to Jordan, tensions in Lebanon and Iraq, the use of chemical weapons, the risk of conflict with Israel. Most days see scores or more dead so that a revision of the UN's estimate of 70,000 fatalities seems long overdue. Diplomacy is non-existent. No one believes in a negotiated solution. Syria is being destroyed.

It would be wrong to describe the mood in Damascus as upbeat – it is a tense and frightened city that resounds constantly to the noise of war. But there is a sense in Syrian government circles that their arguments are starting to hit home.

 

[sorcerer]

Thousands flee Syrian city of Banias fearing new 'massacre'

Thousands of Sunni Muslims have fled the Mediterranean city of Banias, amid fears up to 60 people have been killed by Syrian government gunmen in the area.


By Associated Press

2:09PM BST 04 May 2013

The violence in the Syrian coastal region shows the sectarian nature of the two-year conflict that has killed thousands and sent more than a million Syrian refugees to neighbouring countries.

Around 4,000 people fled the predominantly Sunni southern parts of Banias, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human rights, amid fears pro-government gunmen "might commit a massacre".

It said at least 10 people, including children, were killed on Friday and the number could be as high as 60.

The Syrian Observatory posted online a video showing the bodies of 10 people it said were killed inhe Ras al-Nabaa district of the city.

The reported exodus comes after claims that at least 50 people were killed in the nearby village of Bayda.

Syria's crisis, that began in March 2011 with pro-democracy protests and later turned into a civil war that has killed an estimated 70,000 people, has largely broken along sectarian lines.

The Sunni majority forms the backbone of the rebellion, while Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, anchors the regime's security services and the military's officer corps. Other minorities, such as Christians, largely support Assad or stand on the sidelines, worried that the regime's fall would bring about a more Islamist rule.

Syria's mountainous coastal region is the Alawite heartland, although it is also dotted with Sunni villages

Also on Saturday, President Bashar al-Assad visited a Damascus campus, his second public appearance in a week.

The report said Mr Assad inaugurated a statue dedicated to "martyrs" from Syrian universities who died in the country's uprising and civil war.

A photograph posted on Assad's Facebook page showed him surrounded by bodyguards as young men, who appeared to be students, waved at him.

The Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, reported violence in other areas including the Qusair region in the central province of Homs near the border with Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials confirmed that an air strike against Syria earlier on Friday was targeting a shipment of advanced missiles believed to be bound for the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah, an ally of the Assad regime.

 

[sorcerer]

Israeli jets hit missile shipment from Syria to Hezbollah

Israeli jets have struck an alleged shipment of advanced missiles in Syria that they say was being sent to the Lebanese organisation Hezbollah, in the latest dangerous escalation of a two-year war.

The airstrike, conducted by Israeli jets which infringed Lebanese air space to fire missiles across the Syrian border, follows several days of incursions by Israeli planes over Lebanon.

Confirming the air raid, sources in Israel say it was approved at a security cabinet meeting on Thursday night chaired by the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Borrowing the phrase used by Barack Obama to describe any confirmed use of chemical weapons, Israeli officials said they had hit "game-changing" weapons.

Contradictory details emerged about the attack, with some sources saying a convoy had been struck and others a warehouse. It appears that the target was either anti-aircraft weapons or long-range ground-to-ground missiles.

The airstrike came amid an Israeli reserve mobilisation and exercises on its northern border. It was the second Israeli strike this year against Syria, aimed at disrupting arms transfers to Hezbollah, which is an ally of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.

While Israel has stoked fears in recent weeks that the conflict in Syria could lead to the proliferation of chemical weapons, a senior Israeli defence ministry analyst said after the airstrike that Syria's chemical weapons stocks remained controlled by the regime. "Syria has large amounts of chemical weaponry and missiles. Everything there is under [Assad government] control," defence ministry strategist Amos Gilad said in a speech.

Israel has become increasing active in the debate over intervention. It was an Israeli military official who first claimed publicly that western intelligence agencies had evidence of chemical weapons used by the Assad regime.

The raid will be seen not only in terms of its targets, but in its wider significance for the Syria debate. The military correspondent of Israeli newspaper Haaretz argued yesterday: "It will serve the arguments of those who support intervention – opponents of Obama who will be able to argue that the president is demonstrating weakness and appeasement at a time when smaller nations dare to act in Syria."

Obama is considering how to respond to the first uncorroborated suggestions that chemical weapons might have been used in the Syrian civil war. He has described the use of such weapons as a "red line" and the administration is weighing its options, including possible military action.

Netanyahu has repeatedly warned in recent weeks that Israel would be prepared to take military action if chemical weapons or other arms were to reach Hezbollah that would upset the balance of power. Hezbollah, which is allied with Iran, fought an inconclusive war with Israel in 2006 and has been accused of rearming with missiles.

Qassim Saadedine, a commander and spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army, said: "Our information indicates there was an Israeli strike on a convoy that was transferring missiles to Hezbollah. We have still not confirmed the location."

A rebel from an information-gathering unit in Damascus that calls itself "Syrian Islamic Masts Intelligence" said the convoy carried anti-aircraft missiles: "There were three strikes by Israeli F-16 jets that damaged a convoy carrying anti-aircraft missiles heading to the Shia Lebanese party [Hezbollah] along the Damascus-Beirut military road."

But Saadedine said he did not think the weapons were anti-aircraft. "We have nothing confirmed yet, but we are assuming that it is some type of long-range missile that would be capable of carrying chemical materials," he said.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

^^
Similar to attack four months ago.

Israel admits Syria air strike targeting Hezbollah-bound missiles - The Globe and Mail

 

[SajeevJino]

woo another strike over Syrian Military complex ..another attack two days after Army convoy attack in Syria


will update after get a News sources

 

[SajeevJino]

Syria: Israel bombed research
center near Damascus, other
targets

Two days after attack on Hezbollah-
bound arms convoy, powerful blasts hit
outskirts of Syrian capital; US official
tells NBC News Israeli fighter jets
bombed military research facility north
of Damascus early Sunday; Syrian rights
group says ammunition depot, missile
brigades also hit


Powerful explosions struck the outskirts of
Damascus early on Sunday, sending
columns of fire into the night sky, and
Syrian state television said Israeli rockets
had struck a military facility just north of
the capital.



Syria: Israel bombed research center near Damascus, other targets - Israel News, Ynetnews

 

[SajeevJino]

Bring on DFI

some uncleared reports says Israel nukes Syria

but isn't clear

and Assad declare war over Israel and asked Immediate ceasefire to Rebels focus over Israel

also reports claim Israeli ground forces moving to Syrian soil


Assad "to declare war" on Israel following fresh airstrikes - The Commentator


found only one link will update details later

 

[nrupatunga]

Israel's northern front isn't quiet anymore: Will Damascus retaliate?

The reason for the attack was a shipment of Iranian-made Fateh-110 missiles that was on its way to Lebanon. The disturbing thing about these missiles is not their range, but their accuracy.

Of course, the sequence of attacks — the one near Damascus last night was the third this year — heightens the risk of a response from Syria or Hezbollah. The first time, Damascus complained and promised an appropriate military response. The second time, it simply ignored the attack. As Israeli activity in its territory become harsher, Syria faces an urgent dilemma.

The question is how far Israel intends to go in this effort, and whether Syria will eventually decide to respond despite the regime's fear that a conflict with Israel could lead to its final collapse.

The Israeli media is only quoting the foreign press because all the decisions here are made under a heavy cloak of censorship.

 

[nrupatunga]

Israeli strikes in syria

If israel could strike so far within syria (dier al-zour), it shows the dominance of israeli airpower over its neighbors

 

[nrupatunga]

[tweet]245589835774042113[/tweet]

-----------------------------------------
There are unconfirmed reports that israeli planes used lebanon airspace to enter syria

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
FWIW

Israeli jet shot down over Damascus

An Israeli warplane was shot down by Syrian air-defense units during a raid near Damascus early Sunday, Hezbollah's Manar television station reported, citing security sources in the Syrian capital

 

[nrupatunga]

EDIT: Fake pic

 

[amoy]

EDIT: Fake pic

which is fake? Israeli jet shot down?

Sent from my 5910 using Tapatalk 2

 

[nrupatunga]

@amoy No idea if israeli jet was shot down, but i had posted a pic of a downed jet which was initially claimed to the israeli jet shot down. But later the pic was mentioned was fake one. hence deleted the pic posted.

 

[nrupatunga]

As per haaretz paper

Iran's ground forces commander, General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, was quoted on Sunday saying that the Islamic Republic would support Syria's army with assistance in training, Al Arabiya reported. "As a Muslim nation, we back Syria, and if there is need for training we will provide them with the training, but won't have any active involvement in the operations," the Iranian IRNA news agency quoted him saying. (Haaretz)

So iran has abandoned basher assad. So he is alone now. Can the rebels win atleast now???

If true, what happened to iran?? All that bravado, where did it go.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT: Link for above news

 

[SajeevJino]

Syrian deputy FM: Israeli strike a 'declaration of war'​

Official says purported attack 'proof' of links between Israel, Syrian insurgency; UK foreign secretary pledges 'respect' to Israel's commitment to own security

A Western intelligence source said on Sunday that the strike targeted Iranian-supplied missiles to Hezbollah. "In last night's attack, as in the previous one, what was attacked were stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hezbollah," the source said.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials on Sunday's explosions. "We don't respond to this kind of report," an Israeli military spokeswoman told Reuters.

The Jewish state has repeatedly made clear it is prepared to use force to prevent advanced weapons from Syria reaching Lebanon's Shiite Muslim Hezbollah terrorists, who fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006. Assad and Hezbollah are allied to Iran, Israel's arch-enemy.

US President Barack Obama said Saturday, before the overnight attack, that it was up to Israel to confirm or deny any strikes, but that the US coordinates very closely with Israel.

"The Israelis, justifiably, have to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah," Obama told the Spanish-language TV station Telemundo.

Syrian deputy FM: Israeli strike a 'declaration of war' - Israel News, Ynetnews

 

[amoy]

As per haaretz paper

So iran has abandoned basher assad. So he is alone now. Can the rebels win atleast now???

If true, what happened to iran?? All that bravado, where did it go.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT: Link for above news

What makes u think Iran has abandoned B Assad? can such a rhetoric be just Iranian usual posturing "we're not directly engaged on the ground" just like Russians?

From what I saw Assad regime seems doing better now. No doubt both sides are busy making intl psyops on social media. Pro-Assad gets particularly active recently highlighting the gvnmt is gradually gaining an upper hand.

Q: Will Israeli attacks help al Assad to score more by projecting this war as a Muslim-vs-Israel one?

Sent from my 5910 using Tapatalk 2

 

[SajeevJino]

There are unconfirmed reports that israeli planes used lebanon airspace to enter syria

Yes ..Israeli fighters used Lebanon Airspace to attack Syrian targets ..US already says that and Lebanon also lodge complaint about Air Space Violation by IDF

An Israeli warplane was shot down by Syrian air-defense units during a raid near Damascus early Sunday, Hezbollah's Manar television station reported, citing security sources in the Syrian capital

BS ..No Israeli Fighters entered Syrian Airspace ..then how they shoot down at Damascus

 

[SajeevJino]

Bring on DFI

some uncleared reports says Israel nukes Syria

but isn't clear

Peoples in Syria seen a massive cloud and quoted that was a Nuke ...but that's not a Nuke and No official confirmation which kind of Missile used to penetrate the Target ..some news sources quoted minor EQ at the blast time

and Assad declare war over Israel and asked Immediate ceasefire to Rebels focus over Israel

also reports claim Israeli ground forces moving to Syrian soil


Assad "to declare war" on Israel following fresh airstrikes - The Commentator


found only one link will update details later

Still no News about Ground Preparation..but some sources says IDF calls their reserves and they are in Northern Frontier ..Declaration of WAR by Syria is Confirmed by Israeli Sources ..and IDF ready to face any attacks from Syria

 

[amoy]

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