The Syrian Crisis

[Armand2REP]

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

200 is the usual number in Jordon.

 

[IBSA]

FSA terrorist eats heart of Syrian soldier.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

FSA terrorist eats heart of Syrian soldier.

Is FSA guy an adherent of the Religion of Peace?

 

[amoy]

Friend? Enemy? Frenemy?

'Israel, Hezbollah, Iran are working with Assad' | JPost | Israel News

Saleh told Zaman that opposition forces had come in contact with several high ranking Syrian officials, who were persuaded to aid them in transfering weapons to the rebel fighters, and Israel acted accordingly in order to stop this transaction from occurring.

"This assault, of course, was intended to support the Assad administration," Saleh allegedly said. "It is obvious that Iran and Hezbollah are also included in the Syrian war," Zaman reported him as saying while hinting at Israel's cooperation.

 

[SajeevJino]

Time of some conspiracies

Rebel (FSA) leader: Israel wants to keep Assad in power​

Commander of rebel militia claims Israeli airstrikes in Damascus aimed at preventing weapons from falling into rebel hands, says Jerusalem cooperating with Iran, Hezbollah to keep Assad in power

The commander of a Syrian rebel militia is claiming that the alleged Israeli airstrikes in Damascus were meant to prevent rebels from seizing Assad's weapons caches, Turkey's Today Zaman reported Sunday.

Abdul Qader Saleh, commander of the Al-Tawhid Brigade, told the Turkish news agency Cihan that Bashar Assad's regime has in fact already been defeated and that Iran and Hezbollah , with Israel's backing, are preventing his downfall.


Rebel leader: Israel wants to keep Assad in power - Israel News, Ynetnews

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

Friend? Enemy? Frenemy?

'Israel, Hezbollah, Iran are working with Assad' | JPost | Israel News

Everyone Knows that Israel won't allow lethal weapons in Rebel or Terrorist Hands

 

[SajeevJino]

Turkish fighter jet lost near Syria in probable accident​

Turkish military says it has lost contact with fighter plane close to border with Syria

A military statement said Monday it lost contact with the F-16 jet over a mountainous area in Osmaniye province, which is close to the border with Syria. The plane had taken off from a base in northern Amasya province, some 450 kilometers (280 miles) away.

The statement said the pilot radioed in to say he was ejecting before contact was lost.

Turkey's NTV television said the pilot ejected safely from the plane. There was no confirmation of that report.

Turkish military says it has lost contact with fighter plane close to border with Syria | Fox News

Turkish fighter jet lost near Syria in probable accident - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

 

[pmaitra]

Commander of rebel militia claims Israeli airstrikes in Damascus aimed at preventing weapons from falling into rebel hands, says Jerusalem cooperating with Iran, Hezbollah to keep Assad in power

If this is true, I am pleased.

I don't think Israel is too interested in having a Wahhabi Nutjob Government in Syria.

 

[t_co]

If this is true, I am pleased.

I don't think Israel is too interested in having a Wahhabi Nutjob Government in Syria.

With a fundamentalist government already taking hold in Egypt, if Syria also falls, then Israel will face the exact same strategic situation it worked so hard to get out of during the 1979 Camp David accords. I don't think Israel will accept that outcome.

 

[sorcerer]

Syria mutilation footage sparks doubts over wisdom of backing rebels

Horrific video footage of a Syrian rebel commander eating the heart or lung of a dead government fighter has aroused furious international controversy, fuelling an already heated debate over western support for the armed uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The grisly film had been circulating for several days, attracting extensive comment on social media networks such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. But in the face of an often vicious propaganda war between the government and rebels, early doubts about the film's authenticity faded when the perpetrator, named as Khaled al-Hamad, admitted that he had mutilated the corpse of an unnamed soldier as an act of revenge.

"We opened his cell phone and I found a clip of a woman and her two daughters fully naked and he [the dead soldier] was humiliating them, and sticking a stick here and there," Hamad told the Time news website.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), an independent monitor, said: "The figure in the video cuts the heart and liver out of the body and uses sectarian language to insult Alawites [Assad's minority sect]. At the end of the video [the man] is filmed putting the corpse's heart into his mouth, as if he is taking a bite out of it."

Hamad, also known as Abu Sakkar, said he also had video footage of himself using a saw to cut a Shabiha government militiaman into "small and large pieces".

Yasser Taha, a fellow fighter, told the Guardian an unnamed female relative of Abu Sakkar had been raped and killed by government soldiers. Time said he had in fact eaten the dead man's lung, not his liver or heart.

The Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), the main western and Arab-backed anti-Assad political grouping, quickly condemned the incident as a crime and pledged to bring the perpetrator to justice.

Atrocities have been reported since the start of the Syrian conflict in March 2011, but few images have been as repulsive as this one. Film of prisoners apparently being buried alive turned out to have been faked, but other shocking footage proved genuine.

"It is not enough for Syria's opposition to condemn such behaviour or blame it on violence by the government," said Nadim Houry of HRW. "The opposition forces need to act firmly to stop such abuses."

The SOC said: "Such an act contradicts the morals of the Syrian people as well as the values and principles of the Free Syrian Army. The FSA has been [fighting] and continues to fight for the dignity of every Syrian striving for freedom.

"The FSA is a national army above all, formed to defend civilians and deliver the Syrian people from the mentality of revenge and crime. It completely rejects the ill-treatment of the wounded and the disfigurement of the dead."

The video is a blow to faltering western efforts to raise and mentor a credible opposition force to fight for democracy, in the event that the Assad regime falls.

International revulsion seems likely to affect discussions in western capitals about supporting the FSA. Britain and France have been seeking to amend or drop the EU arms embargo on Syria. The Obama administration has signalled that it may start openly supplying the rebels but has not done so yet. The CIA has reportedly been co-ordinating arms deliveries by anti-Assad Gulf states.

Opposition supporters complained that one savage act was getting massive global media coverage while the death of an estimated 80,000 people was being tolerated by the international community.

"This distressing incident is one example of warfare gone completely askew, but it clearly doesn't represent the Syrian opposition at large," said Julien Barnes-Dacey of the European Council for Foreign Relations in London. "It doesn't compare in scale with massacres and atrocities committed by the Syrian regime. But it does play into fears about where the conflict is going and whether arming the rebels is the right approach."

Sakkar was a well-known member of the Farouq Brigades, a unit that rose from the ruins of the Baba Amr suburb of Homs and became one of the rebels' best resourced fighting forces.

During the first 18 months of the war, the Farouq Brigades were seen as a cohesive militia with mainstream leanings, which could credibly fight under the banner of the FSA. Then and now, the FSA has struggled to assemble a command-and-control structure to control the large numbers of rebel-aligned groups, which mostly answer to local leaders.

"It highlights the fact that we are not talking about a centrally controlled and well-organised rebel force," Barnes-Dacey said. "These are rebels fighting in distinct areas according to their own needs and ambitions. Some are driven by a thirst for revenge, criminalisation, sectarianism "¦ These are the array of forces that have been unleashed in Syria today."

Farouq became established in Idlib, where it was backed by Qatar and at times Saudi Arabia. Late last year, Sakkar formed a splinter group, which he called the Independent Omar al-Farouq Brigade.

For the last six months this small unit has joined the fray in Qusayr, which borders Lebanon and is seen as a strategic crossroads by regime and rebels.

Sakkar's sectarian rhetoric has hardened considerably lately, and he has often been recorded denouncing Alawites and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militia that is heavily involved in battles near Homs.

Hamad told Time that Syria's revolution started peacefully. "They [the Alawites] were the ones who killed our children in Baba Amr and raped our women," he said. Then, referring to the recent massacre of Sunni villagers in Bayda, near Baniyas – attributed by rebels to the regime – he added: "They were the ones who slaughtered the children and women in Bayda. We didn't start it; they started it."

Swearing to avenge every death, he said:"Our slogan is, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/14/syria-mutilation-footage-rebels-eat

 

[t_co]

Syria mutilation footage sparks doubts over wisdom of backing rebels

Syria mutilation footage sparks doubts over wisdom of backing rebels | World news | The Guardian

Calling for the wholesale murder of an entire ethnic group, while commanding a military unit engaged in active combat against members of that ethnic group, makes you guilty of genocide, as defined by the UN.

I wonder if the US/UK/France will prosecute him? @W.G.Ewald

Of course, that bit of cannibalism at the end was just the cherry on top.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Calling for the wholesale murder of an entire ethnic group, while commanding a military unit engaged in active combat against members of that ethnic group, makes you guilty of genocide, as defined by the UN.

I wonder if the US/UK/France will prosecute him? @W.G.Ewald

Of course, that bit of cannibalism at the end was just the cherry on top.

Cannibalism with cherry on top. I'm not going to touch that one.:shocked:

 

[SajeevJino]

If fresh media reports are true, Russia, Syria's longtime supplier of military equipment, may soon provide Damascus – or already has – with advanced S-300 air defense systems, tipping the balance in the devastating 26-month conflict in the Middle Eastern country. But the "if" is a big one.

The missile batteries would give Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime a powerful weapon against foreign air strikes – one of the options being bounced around as a form of international intervention – and could fracture the fragile accord on Syria reached last week between Moscow and Washington, which hope to get the warring sides to negotiate.

But verifiable information about the S-300 deal is desperately scant: Was there a deal at all? What did it cover? Has any part of it been implemented? For now, what we know about the S-300 saga, from its origins to its implications, has been based on disappearing documents, anonymous sources, rumors, approximations and misunderstandings. Here, RIA Novosti tries to unravel the mess and answer some of the big questions.

Is there really a deal to sell Russian S-300 systems to Syria? How do we know?

Technically, it's all hearsay. The only solid piece of evidence was a 2011 annual report by S-300's manufacturer, the Nizhny Novgorod Machine Building Plant, which mentioned a contract for the missile systems for Syria. The report has since vanished from the plant's website, but was cited by the respected Vedomosti business daily at the time as saying that the contract was worth $105 million and that an unspecified number of S-300 systems were slated for delivery between 2012 and early 2013.

All other reports have been based on leaks by unnamed intelligence and diplomatic sources, including, most recently, in the prominent Russian daily Kommersant and the Wall Street Journal, which said last week that the deal includes four S-300 batteries and 144 missiles and has a price tag of $900 million, with deliveries to begin, possibly, by late summer. (One S-300 missile system is estimated by experts to cost some $115 million, plus $1 million or so per missile.)

Damascus has never commented on the deal, and neither has the Russian arms export monopoly Rosoboronexport. The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly said Russia is following through on existing contracts to supply defensive weapons, including air defense systems, to Syria, but never says what precisely they are. The lack of clarity leaves room for wild guesses: Maybe the S-300 deal was never in the cards. Or maybe a number of complexes have already been shipped over the past two years, as some media reports alleged in December.

- Who decides whether the deal goes through? Can the international community or any third parties affect the sale?

The deal is strictly between Moscow and Damascus – which is to say, it's all in the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin. International treaties on arms trade are few and far between, and tend to cover things like strategic weapons and cluster bombs, not air defense systems, however advanced they may be. Meanwhile, all attempts to ban arms sales to Syria via the UN Security Council have been blocked by Russia. Of course, there is behind-the-scenes haggling and arm-twisting, but that's unofficial.

Why are the S-300s dangerous? They've been on the production line since 1978 – aren't they outdated by now?

The S-300 systems have been modernized repeatedly to remain state-of-the-art airplane- and rocket-destruction machines. The S-300PMU2 Favorit can launch six missiles at once, each capable of destroying aircraft flying at several times the maximum speed of the F-16 and F-22 fighter jets – the staples of the Israeli and US air forces, respectively – as well as intercepting ballistic targets. They can be suppressed or sabotaged by ground troops, but it is a tricky task. All this is to say, that the risk and cost of air attacks against Syria would rise dramatically (more on that directly below).

Who are the targets?

Not the Syrian rebels – they have no aircraft. And though you can technically reprogram the S-300 to hit ground targets, that would be akin to hammering nails with a tablet computer, given the price of $700,000 to $1.2 million per missile. However, any attempts by foreign powers to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria, as was done in Libya in 2011, would end in what Igor Korotchenko, the editor of the Moscow-based National Defense magazine, described as "dozens of destroyed aircraft and coffins covered by star-spangled banners. Unacceptable."

What's the possible time frame? How long until Assad can shoot foreign fighter jets out of the sky?

The S-300 system deploys in five minutes – once it's paid for, produced, tested, shipped, and manned by trained personnel. Some of this poses little problem: The Syrian government seems to have enough money in its pockets, and shipping from St. Petersburg to the Syrian port of Tartus takes about two weeks. That is, of course, provided the cargo does not get arrested in Finland, or the ship denied entry to European ports because its insurance was revoked – both true stories that happened to Russian ships reportedly carrying arms to Syria.

Still, it would likely take a while before Damascus actually gets any missiles. The Wall Street Journal claims – citing US sources citing Israeli sources – that the shipments may begin arriving by August, while the London-based, Arab-language Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper said they are already in Syria, though still under Russian supervision. However, according to Russian arms experts, the manufacturer is unlikely to have ready-to-ship S-300 systems lying on the shelves: Whatever leftovers there were from a deal with Iran, scrapped in 2010, were long ago snatched up by other customers such as Algeria, according to Ruslan Pukhov of the Center for Analysis of Strategy and Technologies, a for-profit research group in Moscow. This means the systems would need to be produced and test launches conducted, a job that would take about a year, Pukhov said. Furthermore, dozens or even hundreds of staff would have to be trained to operate the complicated machinery, which should take about six months. This would push Assad's most optimistic deadline of owning fully operable S-300 complexes to November at best, with spring of 2014 being a more realistic estimate.

5 Questions on Russian S-300 Missile System Sales to Syria | Features & Opinion | RIA Novosti

 

[nrupatunga]

Britain salvages Syria parleys

The British prime minister David Cameron's weekend visit to Sochi and his meeting with President Vladimir Putin evidently injects new vitality into the Russian-American diplomacy over Syria earlier in the week when the US secretary of state John Kerry paid a "working visit" to Moscow.

Kerry's talks in Moscow left things hanging in the air and the disquieting signs were that the common ground reached in the talks with the Russian leadership would get eroded.
Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are plainly unhappy that the Obama administration could be shifting its stance apropos of the Russian argument that the Syrian dialogue should be "inclusive" and the regime headed by President Bashar al-Assad should be part of it.
There is criticism back home as well that Kerry conceded ground in the Moscow talks. Critics had some harsh things to say.
Enter Cameron. Of course, no one can question Britain's historical legacy in the Asia Minor, having godfathered the infamous Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. But Cameron came for a different purpose than picking up the thread of the imperial legacy, but playing a contemporaneous role over the Syrian crisis. He stepped in to hold the baby for the US. And he apparently did it with elan.
Despite the chill in Russia-UK ties, Putin warmed up to him. From Sochi Cameron headed for Washington to talk things over with Obama. Obama, Cameron and Kerry would put their heads together on Monday and come up with ideas on the modalities of shepherding the Syrian parties to the conference table.
The Kremlin expects a phone call from the White House early next week. Moscow is pleased that there is traction in the consultations. Indeed, when three out of five permanent members of the UN security council set their hearts on something, a new dynamics could develop even in a multipolar world.
But then, do not completely overlook the grit of the Turks, Saudis and Qataris (and the Iranians). After all, they didn't jump into the Syrian problem for the fun of it. They are stakeholders too and may not like to be treated as sidekicks.
Meanwhile, Cameron seized the good atmospherics in Sochi to canvass some business for the British energy companies. Putin announced the constitution of a joint working group on energy. To be sure, Cameron is looking for upstream business in the Russian energy sector and Moscow may accommodate British companies. BP already holds a 20% stake in Rosneft. The geopolitics of Syria, by the way, is also about the vast untapped energy reserves of the Eastern Mediterranean.

 

[SajeevJino]

2 mortar shells fired at Mount Hermon; site partially closed​

Explosions heard at Mount Hermon: At least 2 mortar shells land in Israeli territory; no injuries or damage were reported; IDF closes site to visitors, lodges complaint with Golan-based UN peacekeeping force

IDF soldier at Mount Hermon

According to assessments they were stray mortars mistakenly fired at Israel as part of the Syrian conflict between rebels and government forces. No injuries or damage were reported.

However, there is a fear that the Syrian Golan will become a lawless, no man's land, terror nest; presenting a direct threat to Israel as terrorists make the place their home.

Last week, two mortars fell in the Golan Heights; they were fired last Monday afternoon during battles between the Syrian army and rebels and exploded in an open area near the border fence in the southern Golan Heights region, near Ramat Magshimim. Another mortar landed in Syrian territory.

The IDF did not return fire, and amid heightened tensions following the alleged Israeli airstrikes in Syria, the IDF's Northern Command and Operations Directorate decided on Sunday to significantly downsize the annual military exercise that is scheduled to begin in the north of the country in the coming days.

On Tuesday, and additional mortar shell exploded in Israel, in this case as well no injuries or damages were sustained.


2 mortar shells fired at Mount Hermon; site partially closed - Israel News, Ynetnews

Israeli military: Syrian rockets hit Golan Heights - CNN.com

 

[rock127]

FSA terrorist eats heart of Syrian soldier.

IsFSA guy an adherent of the Religion of Peace?

Didn't you hear "Allah hu Akbar" chants in the video while he eats the dead soldiers heart???

This "Religion of peace" is still the same as the 7th century cannibal brutes, all they need is a chance to prove.

Now beaheading is a passe and now these live cannibal acts is their new terrorism.

 

[sorcerer]

Didn't you hear "Allah hu Akbar" chants in the video while he eats the dead soldiers heart???

This "Religion of peace" is still the same as the 7th century cannibal brutes, all they need is a chance to prove.

Now beaheading is a passe and now these live cannibal acts is their new terrorism.

C'mon its a religion of peace and a peaceful religion...You heard peaceful chanting while one brother of peace eats another human being.

 

[Razor]

Syrian rebel atrocity video: No apology for 'revenge', more clips promised

A chilling tape of a Syrian rebel apparently eating the lung of a slain government soldier has prompted calls on the opposition to prevent such abuses. However the fighter has also reportedly had support from within his ranks for his "act of revenge."

Human rights organizations, as well as his fellow rebels, have condemned the rebel.

However, Khalid Hamad, known by his war nickname Abu Sakkar, didn't seem to regret his behavior much, labeling it as revenge: "an eye for eye, a tooth for tooth."

In an interview with TIME magazine, he commented on his actions: "We opened his cell phone, and I found a clip of a woman and her two daughters fully naked and he was humiliating them, and poking a stick here and there."

Hamad says as a Sunni he hates Alawite Muslims, which once again signals of the increasingly sectarian side of the Syrian conflict. UN warned of it as early as in December last year.

"Hopefully we will slaughter all of [the Alawites]. I have another video clip that I will send to them. In the clip, I am sawing another shabiha [pro-government militiaman] with a saw. The saw we use to cut trees. I sawed him into small pieces and large ones," Hamad said in the interview. The rebel was initially reported to have taken out the liver and heart, but later it was concluded that it was a lung he was holding in his hands.

Syrian rebel atrocity video: No apology for 'revenge', more clips promised — RT News

 

[rock127]

C'mon its a religion of peace and a peaceful religion...You heard peaceful chanting while one brother of peace eats another human being.

It reminds me of these barbaric inhuman acts this so called "peaceful religion" did in India as well.

Below is a pic of their glorious past... truly a religion of peace which their saints spread with love...

 

[amoy]

Read more: Saudis overtaking Qatar in sponsoring Syrian rebels - The National

Saudi authorities had consistently declined to meet the opposition, despite repeated requests. This was partly because the kingdom has opposed Muslim Brotherhood dominance in the Syrian National Council and then the National Coalition, owing to the Brotherhood's alliance with Qatar and Turkey and opposition to inclusivity.

But last week, surprisingly, the Saudi foreign minister, Saud Al Faisal, met Syrian Brotherhood deputy leader Mahmoud Farouq Tayfour, in one-to-one talks.

The Brotherhood had previously been confident in its alliance with Qatar and Turkey, and saw no need to offer concessions to engage other countries, including Saudi Arabia. So this meeting, which came after an "eager appeal" from the Brotherhood, suggests a shift in regional dynamics.

Two separate sources close to the opposition say Mr Tayfour assured the Saudi minister that "Syria's Brotherhood will definitely not be like Egypt's Brotherhood".

Follow us: @TheNationalUAE on Twitter | thenational.ae on Facebook

 

[sorcerer]

Syria will attend peace conference, US says

"¢ Russia 'has been given names of Syrian officials to attend'
"¢ UN general assembly to vote on backing opposition
"¢ Footage of rebel atrocity fuels debate for west
"¢ Between 70 and 84 reported killed yesterday
==================================================


Kerry, Russian foreign minister meet on Syria

(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met late on Tuesday for a discussion focused on the war in Syria and plans for an international peace conference, a senior State Department official said.

Kerry updated his Russian counterpart on his discussions with the Syrian rebels and officials from countries involved in the talks and his plans to participate in a meeting in Jordan next week ahead of the international conference, a senior State Department official said.

Russia has been a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, blocking new sanctions against Syria at the United Nations and supplying the government with arms.

Kerry had said earlier on Tuesday he expected the proposed peace conference to be held in early June, and denied reports that the Damascus government did not plan to attend.

Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoabi said earlier in the day that Assad's government, fighting an insurgency that threatens to draw in Syria's neighbours, wanted specifics on such a conference before it decides whether to be part of it.

Kerry is visiting Sweden for a meeting of the Arctic Council, a grouping of eight nations with Arctic territory.

Kerry had said earlier the exact timing of the Syria peace negotiations was up to the United Nations, but that he expected it would take place in early June, noting that a great deal of work had already taken place.

"I have talked with almost all of the foreign ministers in the core group who will be meeting next week together in order to lay plans for this negotiation. The members of the opposition have been in touch," he said.

At his earlier news conference, Kerry reiterated the Obama administration's desire for a peaceful resolution to the two-year-long Syrian civil war, which has killed at least 82,000 people by an opposition estimate and could destabilise the wider Middle East.

Assad's departure has been a demand of the opposition since the revolt started and previous peace initiatives have foundered over the failure to settle on the president's future role.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Eric Beech)

Kerry, Russian foreign minister meet on Syria | Reuters