The Syrian Crisis

[W.G.Ewald]

Israel seeks breathing space by stoking Syria crisis: Iran MP


PressTV - Israel seeks breathing space by stoking Syria crisis: Iran MP

Clowns, all.

 

[rock127]

Clowns, all.

These "Clowns" would get their hands on nukes soon if not stopped in time.

Nukes in the hands of "Clowns" would be extremely dangerous.

 

[amoy]

Nyet! Now Russia Won't Sell Badass Missile to Syria | Danger Room | Wired.com

It's unclear how formidable those air defenses actually are. (For a sober, wonky exploration of the subject, Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies has you covered.) What's very clear is that the S-300 would be an instant upgrade. It ranges 125 miles a shot; and can shoot down missiles as well as fighter planes. However unenthusiastic the U.S. military is about a no-fly zone right now, confronting the S-300 would make it instantly worried about losing many, many pilots. "This is a system that scares every Western air force," Lexington Institute defense analyst Dan Goure once remarked.

This is getting to be something of a pattern with the Russians and American adversaries. In 2010, thanks in part to American entreaties, Russia canceled a long-planned sale of S-300s to Iran. Had the Russians gone through with the deal, the Israeli and-occasionally-American planning for a bombing run on Iran would be immediately become more complicated. (So, kind of a mixed blessing?) The Iranian misfortune now extends to Iran's proxy in Damascus, although who knows if Assad ever actually had a deal for the air-defense missiles — Syria has tried and failed to buy S-300s for decades.

 

[SajeevJino]

''We've made it crystal clear that we prefer that Russia would not supply them assistance,'' Kerry said during a news conference with Italy's new top diplomat. ''That is on record. That has not changed.''

Kerry declined to denounce the reported agreement between Russia and Syrian President Bashar Assad directly, but his warning to Russia was unmistakable.

If you can't speak from strength, just shut up, John.

He can Sir...It's not Hagel ..It's Kerry

 

[SajeevJino]

Just 200?

2 weeks ago I posted a news which says 20,000 US troops might be involved in Syria.

US plans to Invade Syria via Jordan with 20,000 soldiers

Yes..Currently 200 of them operating there ..Can mulls upto 20K if needs

 

[SajeevJino]

Syria has tried and failed to buy S-300s for decades.

Sounds Good ...Thanks to Putin

 

[The Last Stand]

Sounds Good ...Thanks to Putin

Usually, Putin wouldn't want to miss out on a nice business deal.

He's co-operating with the UN? :shocked:

Anyways, excellent news.

 

[SajeevJino]

Israeli PM to Visit Russia
Over Weapons Supply to
Syria

Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will
visit Russia to discuss the supplying of
Russian weapons to Syria, a high-ranking
source in Jerusalem told RIA Novosti on
Saturday.
"Netanyahu plans to visit Russia. The
main theme [of discussions] will be the
export of weapons to Syria," the source
said on condition of anonymity, since the
Israeli authorities have not yet officially
announced the visit.
Netanyahu plans to come to Russia for
talks with Russian President Vladimir
Putin, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov
said, adding that the date is being agreed
upon.
A source in diplomatic circles told RIA
Novosti that the Israeli prime minister
expects to travel to Sochi at the beginning
of next week. "The visit is currently at
the active planning stage," the source
said.


en.ria.ru/russia/20130511/181086934/Israeli-PM-to-Visit-Russia-Over-Weapons-Supply-to-Syria.html

 

[SajeevJino]

Usually, Putin wouldn't want to miss out on a nice business deal.

He's co-operating with the UN? :shocked:

Anyways, excellent news.

I think Putin not going to with Arabs ..He is on the Zion Track

 

[Raj30]

Blasts in Turkish town Reyhanli on Syria border

BBC News - Blasts kill dozens in Turkish town Reyhanli on Syria border

Car bombs have killed 40 people and injured 100 in the Turkish town of Reyhanli, near the Syrian border, Turkey's interior minister says.

Muammer Guler told Turkey's NTV that two bombs had gone off in the town near the town hall and post office.

Video from the scene showed injured people being carried to safety in rubble-strewn streets, amid shattered buildings and twisted wrecks of cars.

The town is an entry-point for refugees from the war in Syria.

Continue reading the main story
"
Start Quote

We stand with the people of Turkey"

William Hague
UK foreign secretary
Local people attacked cars with Syrian number-plates and Syrian refugees after the attack, according to local media.

Emergency services looked for possible victims buried under the debris.

No group said they had carried out the attack.

'So many'
It appears that the bombs went off 15 minutes apart and video posted on Turkish media shows people running to help victims of the first when there is the sound of a second explosion.

"I was sitting in my pharmacy and suddenly we heard a massive explosion," eyewitness Ismail Akin told Reuters news agency.

"When I looked from my window I saw wounded people and dead bodies."

Another witness, Hayrullah Bal, said: "We were a bit far away from the explosions, it suddenly happened and everybody started to run. It was so strong that all the windows shattered."

Continue reading the main story

Residents carried injured survivors to safety
Continue reading the main story
1/5
'All necessary measures'
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country would protect itself.

Mr Davutoglu, who was visiting Berlin, said: "There may be those who want to sabotage Turkey's peace, but we will not allow that.


"No-one should attempt to test Turkey's power. Our security forces will take all necessary measures."

He added that the blasts had taken place to deflect attention from efforts to solve the Syrian crisis.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague sent a message of solidarity to the people of Turkey.

"Appalling explosions in Reyhanli, Turkey," he wrote on Twitter. "My thoughts are with family & friends of the victims. We stand with the people of Turkey."

The border area of Reyhanli has itself been attacked in recent months.

In February, an explosion near the town killed 17 people and wounded 30.

Five people were killed last October when a mortar round hit the Turkish border town of Akcakale.

The Turkish government has been a key supporter of the Syrian opposition, and has allowed rebels as well as refugees on to its territory.

But tensions in the Reyhanli area have been high for several weeks, reports say, with clashes between Turkish and Syrian youths.

 

[lookieloo]

Re: Blasts in Turkish town Reyhanli on Syria border

Uh oh... Normally, I don't go in for false-flag conspiracy speculation; 9/11 was simply too big to be faked (would have required too many people to be involved). This, on the other hand, is just the sort of thing that a few discrete individuals could pull-off and strikes me as implausibly stupid on Assad's part.

As to who might want to give NATO casus belli here... it's a pretty long list: Most of the Arab countries, the US, the Kurds, the FSA, Turkey itself, perhaps a few European countries... and least we forget everyone's favorite scapegoat since the middle-ages... Israel.

 

[pmaitra]

Multiple Syria related threads merged.

 

[sorcerer]

A parched Syria turned to war, scholar says, and Egypt may be next

Prof. Arnon Sofer sets out the link between drought, Assad's civil war, and the wider strains in the Middle East; Jordan and Gaza are also in deep trouble, he warns Some look at the upheaval in Syria through a religious lens. The Sunni and Shia factions, battling for supremacy in the Middle East, have locked horns in the heart of the Levant, where the Shia-affiliated Alawite sect has ruled a majority Sunni nation for decades.

Some see it through a social prism. As they did in Tunis with Muhammad Bouazizi — an honest man who couldn't make an honest living in this corruption-ridden part of the world — the social protests that sparked the war in Syria started in the poor and disenfranchised parts of the country.

And others look at the eroding boundaries of state in Syria and other parts of the Middle East as a direct result of the sins of Western hubris and Colonialism.

Professor Arnon Sofer has no qualms with any of these claims and interpretations. But the upheaval in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East, he says, cannot be fully understood without also taking two environmental truths into account: soaring birthrates and dwindling water supply.


Over the past 60 years, the population in the Middle East has twice doubled itself, said Sofer, the head of the Chaikin geo-strategy group and a longtime lecturer at the IDF's top defense college, where today he heads the National Defense College Research Center. "There is no example of this anywhere else on earth," he said of the population increase. Couple that with Syria's water scarcity, he said, "and as a geographer it was clear to me that a conflict would erupt."
Arnon Sofer, a longtime professor at the IDF's National Defense College, sees a link between the war in Syria and the water shortages there (Photo credit: Moshe Shai/ Flash 90)

The Pentagon cautiously agrees with this thesis. In February the Department of Defense released a "climate-change adaptation roadmap." While the effects of climate change alone do not cause conflict, the report states, "they may act as accelerants of instability or conflict in parts of the world." Predominantly the paper is concerned with the effects of rising seas and melting arctic permafrost on US military installations. The Middle East is not mentioned by name.

But Sofer and Anton Berkovsky, who together compiled the research work of students at the National Defense College and released a geo-strategic paper on Syria earlier in the year, believe that water scarcity played a significant role in the onset of the Syrian civil war and the Arab Spring, and that it may help re-shape the strategic bonds and interests of the region as regimes teeter and borders blur. Sofer also believes that a "Pax Climactica" is within reach if regional leaders would only, for a short while, forsake their natural inclinations to wake up in the morning and seek to do harm.

Syria is 85 percent desert or semi-arid country. But it has several significant waterways. The Euphrates runs in a south-easterly direction through the center of the country to Iraq. The Tigris runs southeast, tracing a short part along Syria's border with Turkey before flowing into Iraq. And, aside from several lesser rivers that flow southwest through Lebanon to the Mediterranean, Syria has an estimated four to five billion cubic meters of water in its underground aquifers.

From 2007-2008, over 160 villages in Syria were abandoned and some 250,000 farmers relocated to Damascus, Aleppo and other cities. The capital, like many of its peer cities in the Middle East, was unable to handle that influx of people. Residents dug 25,000 illegal wells in and around Damascus, pushing the water table ever lower and the salinity of the water ever higher.

For these reasons the heart of the country was once an oasis. For 5,000 years, Damascus was famous for its agriculture and its dried fruit. Since 1950, however, the population has increased sevenfold in Syria, to 22 million, and Turkey, in an age of scarcity, has seized much of the water that once flowed south into Syria.

"They've been choking them," Sofer said, noting that Turkey annually takes half of the available 30 billion cubic meters of water in the Euphrates. This limits Syria's water supply and hinders its ability to generate hydroelectricity.

In 2007, after years of population growth and institutional economic stagnation, several dry years descended on Syria. Farmers began to leave their villages and head toward the capital. From 2007-2008, Sofer said, over 160 villages in Syria were abandoned and some 250,000 farmers – Sofer calls them "climate refugees" – relocated to Damascus, Aleppo and other cities.

The capital, like many of its peer cities in the Middle East, was unable to handle that influx of people. Residents dug 25,000 illegal wells in and around Damascus, pushing the water table ever lower and the salinity of the water ever higher.

This, along with over one million refugees from the Iraq war and, among other challenges, borders that contain a dizzying array of religions and ethnicities, set the stage for the civil war.

Tellingly, it broke out in the regions most parched — "in Daraa [in the south] and in Kamishli in the northeast," Sofer said. "Those are two of the driest places in the country."

Professor Eyal Zisser, one of Israel's top scholars of Syria, agreed that the drought played a significant role in the onset of the war. "Without doubt it is part of the issue," he said. Zisser did not believe that water was the central issue that inflamed Syria but rather "the match that set the field of thorns on fire."

Rebel troops transporting two women to safety along the Orontes River, which has shrunk in recent years and grown increasingly saline (Photo credit: CC BY FreedomHouse)

Since that fire began to rage in March 2011, the course of the battles has been partially dictated by a different sort of logic, not environmental in nature. "Assad is butchering his way west," Sofer said. He believes the president will eventually have to retreat from the capital and therefore has focused his efforts on Homs and other cities and towns that lie between Damascus and the Alawite regions near the coast, cutting himself an escape route.

Sofer and Berkovsky envision several scenarios for Syria. Among them: Assad puts down the rebellion and remains in power; Assad abdicates and a Sunni majority seizes control; Assad abdicates and no central power is able to assert control. The most likely scenario, Sofer said, was that the Syrian dictator would eventually flee to Tehran. But he preferred to avoid that sort of micro-conjecture and to focus on the regional effects of population growth and water scarcity and the manner in which that ominous mix might shape the future of the region.

Writing in the New York Times from Yemen on Thursday, Thomas Friedman embraced a similar thesis, noting that the heart of the al-Qaeda activity in the region corresponded with the areas most stricken by drought. Sofer published a paper in July where he laid out the grim environmental reality of the region and argued that, as in Syria, the conflicts bedeviling the region were not about climate issues but were deeply influenced by them.

Egypt, Sofer wrote, faces severe repercussions from climate change. Even a slight rise in the level of the sea – just half a meter – would salinize the Nile Delta aquifers and force three million people out of the city of Alexandria. In the more distant future, as the North Sea melts, the Suez Canal could decline in importance. More immediately, and of greater significance to Israel, he wrote that Egypt, faced with a water shortage, would likely grow more militant over the coming years. But he felt the militancy would be directed south, toward South Sudan and Ethiopia and other nations competing for the waters of the Nile, and not north toward the Levant.

The Nile River, the lifeblood of Egypt's 82 million people (Photo credit: CC BY Simona Scolari, Flickr)

As proof that this pivot has already begun, Sofer pointed to Abu-Simbel, near the border with Sudan. There the state has converted a civilian airport into a military one. "The conclusion to be drawn from this is simple and unequivocal," he wrote. "Egypt today represents a military threat to the southern nations of the Nile and not the Zionist state to the east."

The Sinai Peninsula, already quite lawless, will only get worse, perhaps to the point of secession, he and Berkovsky wrote. Local Bedouin will have difficulty raising animals in the region and will turn, to an even greater degree, to smuggling material and people along a route established in the Bronze Age, through Sinai to Asia and Europe.

Syria, even if the war were swiftly resolved, is "on the cusp of catastrophe." Jordan, too, is in dire need of water. And Gaza, like Syria, has been battered by unchecked drilling. The day after Israel left under the Oslo Accords, he said, the Palestinian Authority and other actors began digging 500 wells along the coastal aquifer even though Israel had warned them of the dangers. "Today there are around 4,000 of them and no more ground water. It's over. There's no fooling around with this stuff," he said.

Only the two most stable states in the region – Israel and Turkey – have ample water.

Turkey is the sole Middle Eastern nation blessed with plentiful water sources. Ankara's control of the Tigris and the Euphrates, among other rivers, means that Iraq and Syria, both downriver, are to a large extent dependent on Turkey for food, water and electricity. That strategic advantage, along with Turkey's position as the bridge between the Middle East and Europe, "further serves its neo-Ottoman agenda," Sofer said.

He envisioned an increased role for Turkey both in the Levant and, eventually, in central Asia and along the oil crossroads of the Persian Gulf, pitting it against Iran. Climate change, he conceded, has only a minor role in that future struggle for power but it is "an accelerant."

Israel no longer suffers from drought. Desalination, conservation and sewage treatment have alleviated much of the natural scarcity. In February, the head of the Israel Water Authority, Alexander Kushnir, told the Times of Israel that the country's water crisis has come to an end. Half of Israel's two billion cubic meters of annual water use is generated artificially, he said, through desalination and sewage purification.

For Sofer, this self-sufficiency is an immense regional advantage. Israel could pump water east to Jenin in the West Bank and farther along to Jordan and north to Syria. International organizations could follow Israel's example and fund regional desalination plants, which, he noted, cost less than a single day of modern full-scale war.

Instead, rather than an increase in cooperation, he feared, the region would likely witness ever more desperate competition. Sofer said his friends see him as a sort of Jeremiah. But the Middle East, he cautioned, is a region where "leaders wake up every morning and ask what can I do today to make matters worse."

Source:Indian Strategic Studies: A parched Syria turned to war, scholar says, and Egypt may be next

 

[sorcerer]

Under the black flag of al-Qaeda, the Syrian city ruled by gangs of extremists
Under the black flag of al-Qaeda, the Syrian city ruled by gangs of extremists - Telegraph

The black flag of al-Qaeda flies high over Raqqa's main square in front of the smart new governor's palace, its former occupant last seen in their prison. Their fighters, clad also in black, patrol the streets, or set up positions behind sandbags.
The Islamists smashed up one of the two shops that sold alcohol. That much was pretty inevitable, the locals agreed. The other off-licence had already closed, as had the casino on the outskirts of town.

They brought in a radical cleric from Egypt to preach Friday prayers, and set up a sharia court in the city's new sports centre with the support of other brigades. They had their fiefdom — an entire city to run only 60 miles from Nato'S border.

Then, one night, 10 men came for Nagham and Nour al-Rifaie, two teenage sisters from a well-known liberal family. They were at home with a family friend, Yusra Omran, 30, and their male cousin, 32.
"All these guys came in with guns and wearing masks and with handcuffs," said Nagham, 19, a civil engineering student. "They started searching everything, and shouting. "They were saying, 'Put on more clothes than you are wearing, put on a headscarf.' I just said I'm wearing clothes and I'm not putting on a headscarf'."

The men took them to the sports centre. There the girls were charged with being alone with a man and interrogated.

"The guy with us was so mean," Miss Rifaie said. "He was speaking in a horrible way, as if he was disgusted to be with us."

In Raqqa, a once conservative but by all accounts not religious city, the triumph of al-Qaeda's Syrian arm, Jabhat al-Nusra, would seem to be complete.

Little known a year ago but suspected of having being founded by al-Qaeda in Iraq, they have grown in stature, leading many of the rebels' most successful recent battles. Last month they publicly declared their loyalty to al-Qaeda's supreme leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Their new-found power is such that it is changing international calculations over the conflict. After first being discouraged from action by their presence in rebel ranks, Britain now has a revised diplomatic strategy. David Cameron put it to Russia's president Vladimir Putin on Friday and will discuss it this week with a nervous President Obama in Washington.

Mr Cameron's officials now feel Jabhat al-Nusra has to be defeated by actively supporting the less militant rebels, including with arms. Many of Jabhat's rival militias are being marginalised in cities like Raqqa across the north. On Tuesday, Britain will seek to have Jabhat al-Nusra added to an official list of sanctions at the United Nations. In taking Raqqa two months ago al-Qaeda achieved its greatest coup in the war to date: it was the first provincial capital to fall outright to the rebels, and allowed Jabhat to assume a leadership role over a large swathe of north-eastern Syria, to the Iraqi border.

To many in it is a welcome development. "Jabhat are excellent for us," said Abdullah Mohammed, a man from the nearby village of Mansoura. They deal with us according to Islamic rules, so there are no problems. They are honest and they run everything pretty well."

As a police officer, Mr Mohammed said he was in a position to know the difference between life under al-Qaeda and the Assad regime. He was in prison when the revolution broke out – he had stopped a car for jumping a red light and found to his cost it was being driven by a regime official.

He said he was in a cell with four members of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority sect, and when the protests started the guards were taken away to fight and the Alawite prisoners turned into guards.

Other locals too, particularly shopkeepers, say the all-pervasive corruption of the Assad era has vanished with the regime's men. "I like Jabhat," said Ahmed al-Hindy, who runs an optician's shop. "They are better than the regime, at any rate." Part of it is money. Jabhat al-Nusra has always been well-funded compared to other militias – most people assume due to wealthy backers in the Gulf, though few have been able to track down the lines of the money supply.

Now they have control of good sources of income and can pay salaries. From the city's main flour mill, they supply the all-important bakeries, and they have seized some of them too. At night, long queues of women form to buy their daily ration under the watchful eyes of Jabhat guards.

They have also taken the oilfields in neighbouring Deir al-Zour province. Production is hardly booming, but they are able to sell enough on the local market to keep cash rolling in.

It is not all plain sailing, though. Even in Raqqa, no single militia is all-powerful, even Jabhat, and they depend on an alliance with Ahrar al-Sham, another radical Islamist group.

They also have to deal with a slew of other brigades with a variety of ideologies.

The dynamic of Jabhat's rise is being challenged out of both envy and fear, leading to clashes.

Two senior rival militiamen have been assassinated in the last 10 days: Abu Awad of the Farouq Brigade, and, on Thursday, the head of the Ahfad al-Rasool, Abu al-Zein. In both cases the method was the same – three men in black and masks drove up to the victims' cars, shot them, then sped off.

Some say it could be a leftover squad of Assad's Shabiha, but members of their militias point out both were known for support for a civil state, not an Islamic one.

Another militia leader, Abu Deeb of the Lions of Islam, was arrested after a fight on Tuesday with Jabhat al-Nusra that brought the city to a brief standstill. Different explanations have been given, but Abdullah al-Khalil, the civilian who heads the town's interim administration, said it was over control of the town's largest bakery.

"After Assad falls, there will be a second revolution, against Jabhat al-Nusra," said Amar Abu Yasser, a battalion leader with the Farouq Brigade. The Farouq was once the most famous brigade in the Syrian revolution, spreading its power from its base in Homs across the north of the country, where it still operates several of the border crossings to Turkey, including Tal Abyad, the nearest to Raqqa.

But its power and influence has been severely curbed by Jabhat al-Nusra. Abu Azzam, the Farouq head at Tal Abyad, survived an assassination attempt when a bomb was placed under his car.
"The problem is due to ideology," said Mr Abu Yasser, until two years ago a student of Arabic literature, now a tough, bearded warrior in fatigues and a black turban. "There is a conflict between the black flag and the revolutionary flag." The green, white and black banner with three red stars made famous by the revolution still flies in Raqqa, but in a secondary place.

"It is not wise to try to make an Islamic state here," he went on. "There are Christians, Alawites, Druze living here. It will just be a big problem."

He also said Jabhat al-Nusra was not as honest and Muslim as it seemed. He claimed it had stripped the town's factories and smuggled their goods, including nearly 200 tons of sugar, to Turkey for profit.

Jabhat has withdrawn into itself as tensions rise, and particularly since the declaration of obedience to al-Qaeda was issued, which confirmed its status as an internationally proscribed terrorist group.

It no longer gives interviews or defends itself from such allegations, and has banned its men from talking to foreign journalists.

Those its men stop at checkpoints in the city are accused of being "foreign spies". Some locals regarded as fanciful the idea that Farouq and other group would ever again have the strength to rise up and throw out Jabhat. But most proclaimed defiantly that Syria would not become a radical Islamic state.

"This is all just for the war," said Mr al-Khalil, the town leader, who is happy to cooperate with Jabhat as he tries to re-establish schools and keep the water running.

A former human rights lawyer once jailed by the regime, he said he could tolerate the black flags for now. "But I think the modern Islamic project will win in the end," he added, using a phrase commonly used to refer to a civil state with a Muslim ethos, like booming Turkey next door. He added a refrain repeated now across rebel Syria: it will be harder to keep the Islamists out if the West does not come to the aid of this "modern" project.

As a follower of Abu Deeb, the arrested militia leader put it: "This is a pact with the devil. We would rather ally with Obama than Jabhat."

At first glance, Jabhat have tried to play safe. A small but visible minority of women go without the hijab, or headscarf. The town's handful of Christian families have stayed put, for now: the churches are closed, but untouched.

But it may have made a major strategic error with its announcement of loyalty to al-Qaeda. It did not cause a big stir in the West, where the link had been assumed, but it shocked many who had begun to tolerate Jabhat's presence.

Their main Islamist allies, Ahrar al-Sham, immediately denounced it. "It was like a thunderbolt," said Abu Abdullah, 40, an Ahrar al-Sham fighter outside their main base, largely abandoned after being hit by Assad missiles. "It really surprised me and is unacceptable. Our goal is just to liberate Syria. We don't care about other countries – we don't want to go and fight in Iraq or anywhere."

Then there was the arrest of Nagham al-Rifaie, Nour, 18, and their cousin and friend. That was a "what the hell?" moment, said Mohammed Shuaib, a student who has helped found a human rights discussion group, Haquna. It led a 500-strong protest to the sharia court the morning after the arrest.

But by then the girls were already free. What happened is a glimmer of hope to men like Mr Shuaib.

On arrival at the court, the girls were told they would immediately face two judges, local worthies brought in by the ruling Islamist alliance. It was one o'clock in the morning. Nagham was told to put a headscarf on. Again she refused.

"They said to me, 'It's a sharia court, you can't go in without a headscarf'. I said, 'That's fine by me!'

"So we stood before the court with no headscarves on."

One of the judges, a teacher called Mohammed al-Omar, referred them to the charge sheet. "He said, 'It says you were alone with a man, what do you say.' I said, 'It is none of their business.'

"And he said, 'I agree'."

The girls were freed immediately. They asked who the men who arrested them were, but no one was able to provide an answer. Whether the rest of Raqqa will escape so lightly, the girls could not say. "Things will become difficult, that's sure," said Miss Rifaie, sitting in a coffee shop last week with her father, himself a human rights activist, the two girls the only women present. "The problem is with the people. Because of the regime, if someone speaks to them who has power, they just sit there. But my father has taught me to have opinions. So I cannot stop."

 

[sorcerer]

Syria's civil war spills into Turkey after two deadly car bombs

Syria's civil war spilt over into southern Turkey on Saturday when two car bombs exploded in the heart of the border town of Reyhanli, killing at least 40 people. was the bloodiest incident on Turkish soil since the start of Syria's uprising in 2011. While stopping short of a blunt accusation, the government pointed the finger at President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"With their secret services and armed groups, they are certainly one of the usual suspects to instigate and carry out such an outrageous plot," said Bulent Arinc, the Turkish deputy prime minister.

One bomb exploded outside the town hall; the second detonated 15 minutes later beside a post office. The two blasts inflicted a scene of devastation in the commercial centre of Reyhanli, a town of 60,000 people, filling the streets with rubble, reducing buildings to twisted wrecks, and leaving bodies lying amid smoking debris.

A matter of hours later, there was a third explosion on the edge of the town, although there were reports of it being unrelated.

Reyhanli is in Hatay province near the Cilvegozu frontier crossing with Syria. The adjacent Syrian province of Idlib has experienced heavy fighting between rebels and the Assad regime, causing thousands of refugees to flee over the border, raising tensions with the Turks.

After the explosions, Turks vented their anger by vandalising cars with Syrian number plates and attacking some refugees.

Aref al-Karez, a 22-year-old Syrian, was a few streets away when the first bomb exploded. He said that some Turks went "crazy", adding: "Any people from Turkey that caught a Syrian person, there was a fight."
Police fired guns in the air as they tried to restore order. Mr Karez said that he was staying in his apartment in the town and was too afraid to go out. "No Syrians are walking the roads," he said. He had planned to leave Reyhanli and travel to another town, but Mr Karez said that no Turkish taxi driver would take him.

Mr Karez said that large numbers of people were crossing the border between Syria and Turkey illegally, suggesting that the attackers might have followed this route.

"A lot of people get into Turkey – I don't have a passport, I don't have anything, I just go over the border," he said. "I think intelligence agents from the regime got into Turkey, took a bomb, and put it in the cars." Another Syrian, who gave his name only as Mahmoud, said that tensions had been rising between Turks and refugees in Reyhanli for several weeks before the bombs. A few days ago, a young Syrian man had burned the Turkish national flag in the town's main square.

Mahmoud was collecting the names of those killed. The youngest identified victim was Noora Ladh, a five-year-old Syrian girl who was in the town as a refugee.

Turkey has openly supported the Syrian rebels, allowing them bases to arm, train and recruit. In the past, Syrian forces have fired artillery shells and mortar bombs over the border, killing five Turks in the village of Akcakale last October. If yesterday's incident was the work of the Assad regime, however, it would mark its first use of car bombs.

"We know that the Syrian refugees have become a target of the Syrian regime," said Mr Arinc. "Reyhanli was not chosen by coincidence".

In the past, Turkey has retaliated for cross-border shelling by bombarding Syrian territory. Mr Arinc promised that Turkey would "do whatever is necessary" in response to yesterday's attack.

Ahmet Davutoglu, the foreign minister, reinforced that message during a visit to Berlin, saying: "There may be those who want to sabotage Turkey's peace, but we will not allow that."

As a member of Nato, Turkey would be entitled to summon the aid of its allies, including Britain. However, Turkey's armed forces are far more powerful than Syria's.

Turkey is also the target of an insurgency waged by guerrillas from the Kurdish minority. They have carried out many bombings in the past, raising the possibility that Kurdish rebels might have planted the latest bombs.

The Syrian National Coalition, an opposition alliance, implicitly blamed President Assad, saying the "heinous terrorist acts" were designed to "take revenge on the Turkish people and punish them for their honourable support for the Syrian people".

Syria's civil war spills into Turkey after two deadly car bombs - Telegraph

 

[amoy]

Russia's Mediterranean Task Force to Include Nuclear Subs – Navy Chief | Defense | RIA Novosti

Where will this task force be deployed? Tartous Syria? That's the only naval base now of Russia in MED.

MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – Russia's Mediterranean task force will comprise 5-6 warships and may be enlarged to include nuclear submarines, Navy Commander Adm. Viktor Chirkov said on Sunday.

"Overall, already from this year, we plan to have 5-6 warships and support vessels [in the Mediterranean Sea], which will be replaced on a rotating basis from each of the fleets – the Black Sea, Baltic, Northern and, in some cases, even the Pacific Fleet. Depending on the scope of assignments and their complexity, the number of warships in the task force may be increased," Chirkov told RIA Novosti.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier said a decision to deploy a permanent task force in the Mediterranean to defend Russia's interests in the area had been made.

The Russian navy commander also said nuclear submarines could be deployed in the Mediterranean, if necessary.

 

[amoy]

Russia's Mediterranean Task Force to Include Nuclear Subs – Navy Chief | Defense | RIA Novosti

Where will this task force be deployed? Tartous Syria? That's the only naval base now of Russia in MED.

MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – Russia's Mediterranean task force will comprise 5-6 warships and may be enlarged to include nuclear submarines, Navy Commander Adm. Viktor Chirkov said on Sunday.

"Overall, already from this year, we plan to have 5-6 warships and support vessels [in the Mediterranean Sea], which will be replaced on a rotating basis from each of the fleets – the Black Sea, Baltic, Northern and, in some cases, even the Pacific Fleet. Depending on the scope of assignments and their complexity, the number of warships in the task force may be increased," Chirkov told RIA Novosti.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier said a decision to deploy a permanent task force in the Mediterranean to defend Russia's interests in the area had been made.

The Russian navy commander also said nuclear submarines could be deployed in the Mediterranean, if necessary.

 

[amoy]

Yahoo! News UK & Ireland - Latest World News & UK News Headlines

Tunisian Foreign Minister Othmane Jarandi told AFP on Saturday that some 800 Tunisians are fighting in Islamist rebel ranks in Syria and said the country would work to repatriate its citizens taken prisoner there.

"We don't have exact numbers, since several people left the country illegally, but the most accurate estimate is a maximum of 800," fighting in Syria, he said.
Tunis has been criticised by non-government organisations and the opposition since diplomatic relations with Damascus were severed in February 2011, and has been accused of abandoning Tunisians in Syria to their fate.

"The repatriation of Tunisians can be facilitated by the embassy in Lebanon after the government makes contact with the Syrian authorities about imprisoned Tunisian citizens," Jarandi said.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Russia's Mediterranean Task Force to Include Nuclear Subs – Navy Chief | Defense | RIA Novosti

Where will this task force be deployed? Tartous Syria? That's the only naval base now of Russia in MED.

Tartus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tartus hosts a Soviet-era naval supply and maintenance base, under a 1971 agreement with Syria, which is still staffed by Russian naval personnel. Tartus is the last Russian military base outside the former Soviet Union, and its only Mediterranean fueling spot, sparing Russia's warships the trip back to their Black Sea bases through straits in Turkey, a NATO member.[8]

Russian naval facility in Tartus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Russian naval facility in Tartus is a military installation of the Russian Navy located in the port of the city of Tartus, Syria. In Russian official usage it is a Material-Technical Support Point (Russian: Пункт материально-технического обеспечения, ПМТО) and not a "base". Tartus is the last Russian military facility outside the former Soviet Union,[2] and its only Mediterranean repair and replenishment spot, sparing Russia's warships the trip back to their Black Sea bases through the Turkish Straits.[3]

Tartus hosts a Soviet-era naval supply and maintenance facility, under a 1971 agreement with Syria, which is still staffed by Russian naval personnel. Currently in 2012, the facility hosts the Amur class floating workshop PM-138, capable of providing technical maintenance to Russian warships deployed in the Mediterranean Sea.[4]

The Russian naval facility can only accommodate four medium sized vessels if both of its 100 meter long floating piers located on the inside of the northern breakwater are operational. It is not capable of hosting any of the Russian Navy's current major warships which range in length from the 129 meter Neustrashimyy frigate through the 163 meter Udaloy destroyer, and much less cruisers such as the 186.4 meter Slava class, the 252 meter Kirov class, and the 305 meter Kuznetsov class. The facility can and has supported auxiliary vessels which are smaller than the warships.

 

[pmaitra]

Syria denies involvement in Turkey car bombs

DAMASCUS, Syria: Syria on Sunday rejected Turkey's allegations that it was behind two car bombs that killed 46 people in Turkey and wounded dozens more.

Information minister Omran al-Zoubi told a news conference that "no one has the right to make false accusations." He says that "this is not the behavior of the Syrian government."

Zoubi's comments were the first official Syrian response since Saturday's bombings in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli, near Syria.

The Syrian minister alleged that Turkey is responsible "for all that happened in Syria and what happened in Turkey yesterday," but did not explain.

He also launched one of the harshest personal attacks on Turkey's prime minister by an Syrian official so far, demanding that Recep Tayyip Erdogan "step down as a killer and as a butcher."

Source: Syria denies involvement in Turkey car bombs - The Times of India