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Tweet from @AlArabiya_Eng
Iraq's armed forces shell regions inside Syria
Iraq's armed forces shell regions inside Syria
The Syrian Crisis
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amoy
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A Shiite triad - someone reported back in October 9, 2011
Continue reading at NowPublic.com: Unacceptable: Iraq and Iran back Syria Assad | NowPublic News Coverage Unacceptable: Iraq and Iran back Syria Assad | NowPublic News Coverage
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Syrian President Assad Blasts British Government
The British government is "shallow and immature" and has for centuries played an "unconstructive" role in the Middle East, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview with the Sunday Times.
"To be frank, Britain has played famously in our region an unconstructive role in different issues, for decades, some say for centuries," Assad said. "How can we expect to ask Britain to play a role while it's determined to militarize the problem?"
He ruled out any suggestions that Britain could help resolve the ongoing conflict in Syria, saying "We do not expect an arsonist to be a firefighter."
"How can you ask them to play a role in making the situation better, more stable, how can we expect them to make the violence less when they want to send the military supply to the terrorist?" he added.
Syria has been locked in an increasingly bloody civil war since demonstrations broke out against President Assad in March 2011. According to UN estimates, at least 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Western states have been calling for Assad to step down. However, Russia and Iran insist that President Assad's exit cannot be a precondition for a deal to resolve the country's crisis.
Syrian President Assad Blasts British Government | World | RIA Novosti
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Those regions have always been in trouble even without/before the British. Especially the Middle East!
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Syrian troops destroy ancient synagogue
Video posted by rebels shows heavy damage to 2,000-year-old Jobar Synagogue, one of Syria's holiest sites for Jews
استهدا٠أقدم معبد يهودي بالعالم ÙÙŠ ØÙŠ جوبر"Ž - YouTube
One of the oldest synagogues in the world was partially destroyed by Syrian government shelling, according to a video posted to YouTube overnight Friday.
The Jobar Synagogue, located in a suburb of Damascus, is approximately 2,000 years old, and is said to have been built on top of a cave where the prophet Elijah concealed himself from persecution.
Syrian rebel sources reported that regime troops had fired mortars at the building. The video, uploaded by the Syrian opposition's military council, appears to show that portions of the building and roof were blown off, with debris seen on the ground in front of the synagogue. The condition of the inside of the building is unclear from the video.
An inscription in English reads, "Shrine and synagogue of prophet Eliahou Hanabi since 720 B.C.," although the actual date of founding is disputed. One of the earliest mentions of the synagogue is in the Talmud, which states that Rabbi Rafram bar Pappa prayed there.
The synagogue is one of Syria's holiest sites for Jews.
Syria's Jewish community faced rampant discrimination after the establishment of Israel. With Jewish property rights severely limited, the synagogue was taken over and converted to a school for Palestinian refugees.
The nearly two-year-old civil war in Syria has caused damage to six World Heritage sites, according to Al Arabiya. UNESCO called for the protection of the country's cultural heritage sites last March, expressing "grave concern" at the time.
The UN estimates that nearly 70,000 people have died in the fighting between Assad regime forces and Syrian rebels.
Syrian troops destroy ancient synagogue | The Times of Israel
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Iraq intervening in Syria: opposition
A key Syrian opposition group on Sunday accused the government in Baghdad of intervening in the country and "attacking the Syrian people," a day after clashes were reported near the border.
"After the Iraqi government headed by (premier) Nuri al-Maliki gave political and intelligence support to the Syrian regime... the Baghdad regime has moved on to a new level of intervention in Syrian affairs," the Syrian National Council said.
It charged that Baghdad was "attacking the Syrian people, their basic rights and their territorial sovereignty."
An Iraqi official said on Sunday that one Iraqi soldier was killed and three people including a soldier were wounded inside northern Iraq during a gunfight near a border post the day before.
The casualties were caused by "fighting at the Yaarubiyeh border crossing inside Syria" between regime forces and rebels on Saturday, defence ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari told AFP.
Four Syrian soldiers were also treated at an Iraqi hospital after the clash, Askari added.
The SNC called on the Arab League and the United Nations to condemn Baghdad for what it called an attack "on Syrian sovereignty," saying
the international community should "at the very least condemn this aggressive behaviour."
Baghdad has pointedly avoided calling for the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is locked in a bloody civil war with rebels opposed to his regime, and has instead urged an end to violence by all parties.
But US officials have repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to halt Iranian flights to Syria via Iraqi airspace, which they say are transporting weapons to Assad's forces.
As the violence has escalated in Syria, the country's crisis has spilled over into neighbouring countries Lebanon and Iraq.
Iraq intervening in Syria: opposition | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR
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Attackers 'kill Syrian soldiers' in Iraq
Amateur video showed a statue of Hafez Assad, the former president and father of the current president, being pulled to the ground
At least 40 Syrian soldiers and several Iraqis have been killed in western Iraq, officials in Baghdad say.
They were among a group who fled across the border into Iraq at the weekend to escape an attack by rebel fighters.
They were being driven to the border in Anbar province when they were attacked by unidentified gunmen, officials said.
Inside Syria, opposition activists said rebels had overrun the northern city of Raqqa, in what would be one of their biggest victories of the conflict.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebels had "near-total control" of Raqqa after days of fierce fighting.
Video footage showed residents pulling down a statue of Hafez Assad, the previous president and father of the current President Bashar-al Assad.
Raqqa has been a refuge for hundreds of thousands of Syrians who fled the violence in other parts of the country; many others have fled to neighbouring countries.
Some 70,000 people have died in the conflict which began with the uprising against President Assad's rule two years ago.
'Near-total control'
The group of Syrian soldiers and government employees had entered Iraq through the Yaarubiyeh border in the northern Nineveh province over the weekend, as anti-government rebels launched an attack on the area.
They were being taken to the al-Waleed border crossing further south in Anbar when they were ambushed at Akashat, a senior Iraqi official told Reuters.
"Gunmen set up an ambush and killed 40 of them, plus some Iraqi soldiers who were protecting the convoy," he added.
The identity of the gunmen is not known.
They appeared to have been well-prepared for the assault, having with them roadside bombs, automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, officials said.
Iraq and Syria share a 600km (372 mile) border, and the government in Baghdad has often expressed concern that the violence in Syria could spill over into its own territory.
Anbar is a province dominated by Sunni Muslims who have been protesting for more than two months against the Shia-led government they accuse of trying to marginalise them.
The province has seen the formation of the Free Iraqi Army, a group openly supporting its fellow Sunnis in the rebel Free Syrian Army which is fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad, whose own Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shia Islam.
BBC News - Attackers 'kill Syrian soldiers' in Iraq
Revenge is a dish best served hot...
Amateur video showed a statue of Hafez Assad, the former president and father of the current president, being pulled to the ground
At least 40 Syrian soldiers and several Iraqis have been killed in western Iraq, officials in Baghdad say.
They were among a group who fled across the border into Iraq at the weekend to escape an attack by rebel fighters.
They were being driven to the border in Anbar province when they were attacked by unidentified gunmen, officials said.
Inside Syria, opposition activists said rebels had overrun the northern city of Raqqa, in what would be one of their biggest victories of the conflict.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebels had "near-total control" of Raqqa after days of fierce fighting.
Video footage showed residents pulling down a statue of Hafez Assad, the previous president and father of the current President Bashar-al Assad.
Raqqa has been a refuge for hundreds of thousands of Syrians who fled the violence in other parts of the country; many others have fled to neighbouring countries.
Some 70,000 people have died in the conflict which began with the uprising against President Assad's rule two years ago.
'Near-total control'
The group of Syrian soldiers and government employees had entered Iraq through the Yaarubiyeh border in the northern Nineveh province over the weekend, as anti-government rebels launched an attack on the area.
They were being taken to the al-Waleed border crossing further south in Anbar when they were ambushed at Akashat, a senior Iraqi official told Reuters.
"Gunmen set up an ambush and killed 40 of them, plus some Iraqi soldiers who were protecting the convoy," he added.
The identity of the gunmen is not known.
They appeared to have been well-prepared for the assault, having with them roadside bombs, automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, officials said.
Iraq and Syria share a 600km (372 mile) border, and the government in Baghdad has often expressed concern that the violence in Syria could spill over into its own territory.
Anbar is a province dominated by Sunni Muslims who have been protesting for more than two months against the Shia-led government they accuse of trying to marginalise them.
The province has seen the formation of the Free Iraqi Army, a group openly supporting its fellow Sunnis in the rebel Free Syrian Army which is fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad, whose own Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shia Islam.
BBC News - Attackers 'kill Syrian soldiers' in Iraq
Revenge is a dish best served hot...
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Liberation of 1st Provincial Capital Raqaa
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US Officials Pushing Russia on Syrian Arms Sales
US officials are renewing criticism of Russia over the delivery of weapons to Syria, with US Secretary of State John Kerry openly chastising Russia Monday for the shipments and lawmakers calling on the Pentagon to halt business with Russian state-owned arms dealer Rosoboronexport.
"The bad actors, regrettably, have no shortage of their ability to get weapons from Iran, from Hezbollah, from Russia, unfortunately, and that's happening," Kerry told a news conference in Saudi Arabia after meeting with that country's foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal.
The sale of Russian weapons to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has been a source of bilateral tension between Moscow and Washington, with US officials accusing Russia of arming a regime the United States says is killing its own citizens in Syria's raging civil war.
Russia, however, has insisted that the deliveries are legal under international law and that it is not supplying Syria with offensive weapons. Moscow has also questioned the composition and goals of the various armed groups fighting the Assad regime.
Kerry's comments came on the heels of a letter from US Sens. John Cornyn and James Inhofe urging new US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel abide strictly by a statute prohibiting the Pentagon from doing business with Rosoboronexport, according to the Washington-based nonprofit Human Rights First.
The lawmakers wrote to Hagel last week to express their "opposition to any continuation" of the Pentagon's "business relationship with Rosoboronexport," saying that such dealings would constitute a "direct subversion of existing law by the Department of Defense," Human Rights First said in a statement.
Neither lawmaker's office provided a copy of the letter upon request Monday, though a spokesman for Cornyn said he was aware of the correspondence.
The US Army has ordered hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of transport helicopters from Rosoboronexport, but US lawmakers inserted a ban into the 2013 US military budget prohibiting the Pentagon from engaging in business with the arms suppliers.
The budget, however, allows the Pentagon chief to use a "national security waiver" in order to do business with the state-owned firm.
A Pentagon spokeswoman told RIA Novosti that she could not immediately confirm whether Hagel had received the letter and whether Hagel would consider halting the Defense Department's contracts with Rosoboronexport.
At their inaugural meeting last week, Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, spent the bulk of their time together discussing Syria, State Department officials said. And US President Barack Obama placed a call to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to discuss the deadly civil war as well.
"The two presidents agreed on the need to advance a political transition to end the violence [in Syria] as soon as possible and the importance of Secretary Kerry and Foreign Minister Lavrov continuing their engagement on Syria," the White House said in a statement.
Washington has consistently maintained that it does not intend to arm the Syrian rebels, though it says that some of its allies in Europe and the Middle East have chosen provide weapons to the opposition forces.
Former Pentagon official Michael Rubin, a resident scholar specializing in Middle East issues at the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington, described the White House's Syria policy "more geared to rhetoric than action" and said Obama's national security team is unlikely to take a hard line with Moscow on the issue.
Andrew Kuchins, director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told RIA Novosti on Monday that he has seen no evidence that Moscow might cave to the West's pressure and cease delivering arms to the Assad regime.
"It's not beyond the pale to imagine that Moscow could want to make a positive gesture toward the Obama administration," Kuchins said, "but I think they'd have to make the judgment that to do this, Assad really is done."
US Officials Pushing Russia on Syrian Arms Sales | World | RIA Novosti
pmaitra
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Syrian rebels detain UN troops
Around 20 UN peacekeepers in a Syrian-controlled area of the disputed Golan Heights are held by rebels who claim the UN, the US and President Bashar Al Assad are all "agents of Israel."
Full article and video: Video: Confused scenes on Golan Heights as Syrian rebels detain UN troops - Telegraph
Around 20 UN peacekeepers in a Syrian-controlled area of the disputed Golan Heights are held by rebels who claim the UN, the US and President Bashar Al Assad are all "agents of Israel."
Full article and video: Video: Confused scenes on Golan Heights as Syrian rebels detain UN troops - Telegraph
pmaitra
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Syria world's top destination for jihadists, says William Hague, as aid promised
Syria has become the "top destination for jihadists" across the world, William Hague said on Wednesday, announcing that Britain will give the opposition "non-lethal" military equipment for the first time.
Source: Syria world's top destination for jihadists, says William Hague, as aid promised - Telegraph
Syria has become the "top destination for jihadists" across the world, William Hague said on Wednesday, announcing that Britain will give the opposition "non-lethal" military equipment for the first time.
Source: Syria world's top destination for jihadists, says William Hague, as aid promised - Telegraph
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20 UN peacekeepers taken hostage by Syrian rebels in Golan Heights
Syrian rebels have seized twenty UN peacekeepers in the Golan Heights on the border between Syria and Israel. The United Nations Security Council demands the convoy's immediate release.
A young fighter saying he was from the "Martyrs of Yarmouk" said the peacekeepers would not be set free until Syrian government forces withdrew from the village of Jamlah, a mile east of the ceasefire link with the Israeli-occupied Golan, Reuters reports.
"If no withdrawal is made within 24 hours we will treat them as prisoners," he said, claiming the UN forces had collaborated with Syrian government troops to drive the fighters out of the village.
After a video appeared on YouTube showing several armed-rebel fighters standing in front of two white armored vehicles bearing the UN inscription with at least five peacekeepers inside, the UN confirmed the incident.
UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey told reporters that "approximately 30 armed fighters stopped and detained about 20 peacekeepers within the area of limitation."
"The UN observers were on a regular supply mission and were stopped near Observation Post 58, which had sustained damage and was evacuated this past weekend following heavy combat in close proximity, at Al Jamlah," the United Nations said in a statement issued in New York.
The UN Security Council demanded the peacekeepers immediate release. Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said the seizure of the UN observers showed "gross disrespect for the United Nations."
"Right now there are negotiations between UN representatives and the captors and we hope that the [UN] personnel will be released immediately as the UNSC demands," Churkin said.
Mentioning an attack on Monday which killed 48 Syrian servicemen and nine Iraqi law enforcers, Churkin said the Golan incident showed "some people are trying very hard in order to extend the geography of the Syrian conflict."
Human Rights watch said it was investigating the same rebel brigade for its role in a videotaped execution of detained Syrian soldiers posted on the Internet on Tuesday.
The capture of the UN observers points to how the situation on the ground in Syria is getting out of control and all sides are unable to control armed groups on the ground, Karl Sharpo, a Middle East blogger, told RT. He further warned that that there is no way of knowing whose hands outside aid will end up.
"The lines on the ground are very fluid, distinctions don't really apply and you can't make sure the weapons end up in the intended sites. Again if you look at the fact at what this incident illustrates is the lack of control that any military authority on the ground for the opposition or an outside political authority, doesn't exercise the control it says it does," Sharpo said.
The incident follows a statement on Wednesday by the Arab League offering military support to the Syrian rebels. Previously the League had only offered to support the Syrian opposition via humanitarian and diplomatic assistance.
Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elarby told a press conference the Syrian Opposition Coalition had been formally invited to send a representative to attend a league meeting to be held in Doha in April.
The UK Foreign Secretary William Hague also announced on Wednesday that Britain will increase non-lethal aid to anti-government forces in Syria. The $19.5 million dollar package will include armored vehicles, body armor, search and rescue, disease prevention and communication equipment.
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced last week that any decision to send aid to rebel fighters would intensify the two year Syrian civil war by encouraging "extremists to seize power by force."
Shortly after Israel warned the UN Security Council it could not be expected to "stand idle" as the Syrian civil war expands beyond its borders, while Churkin said that armed groups operating out of the Golan were undermining regional security.
"It's of course something very dangerous they are doing by staging armed activity from that area. It's something which can undermine security between Syria and Israel. So whoever is supporting that kind of activity or approving it tacitly is playing a very dangerous game," Churkin warned back on Monday.
20 UN peacekeepers taken hostage by Syrian rebels in Golan Heights — RT News
IBSA
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After this I hope UN perceives one time by all that this rebels are nothing more than bandits and stops to negotiate with them.
But no, UN has no balls and will do nothing. It will continue treating rebels as being worthy of consideration.
But no, UN has no balls and will do nothing. It will continue treating rebels as being worthy of consideration.
IBSA
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Syrian state media says authorities have discovered Israeli spying devices in coastal region
By Associated Press,
Updated: Thursday, March 7, 3:00 PM
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian authorities have discovered Israeli spying devices that were apparently hidden in objects that resembled rocks, Syria's state news agency said Thursday.
SANA's report said the devices are designed to photograph, register and transfer data. The agency said the objects were uncovered in Syria's coastal regions, but gave no further details.
The Israeli military declined comment.
State-run TV aired footage of an object consisting of what looked like a camera and a satellite dish, and other objects that resembled rocks. Plastic boxes resembling batteries and cables were shown lined up in a room.
Lebanon also discovered similar devices in recent years, and said the objects were planted by Israel.
Syrian state media says authorities have discovered Israeli spying devices in coastal region - The Washington Post
By Associated Press,
Updated: Thursday, March 7, 3:00 PM
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian authorities have discovered Israeli spying devices that were apparently hidden in objects that resembled rocks, Syria's state news agency said Thursday.
SANA's report said the devices are designed to photograph, register and transfer data. The agency said the objects were uncovered in Syria's coastal regions, but gave no further details.
The Israeli military declined comment.
State-run TV aired footage of an object consisting of what looked like a camera and a satellite dish, and other objects that resembled rocks. Plastic boxes resembling batteries and cables were shown lined up in a room.
Lebanon also discovered similar devices in recent years, and said the objects were planted by Israel.
Syrian state media says authorities have discovered Israeli spying devices in coastal region - The Washington Post
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Kerry is a tool. Obama should explain to the American people why US is supporting FSA.
Kerry Says He's Confident Arms Are Reaching Syrian Rebels : The Two-Way : NPR
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Arab League Recognizes SNC as Legitimate Syrian Government
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nrupatunga
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What about france, even they were supposed to recognise the rebels, right??
Anyways saudis and their gang recognising anyone or not hardly makes any difference. It's the west that is important. If saudis really care, let them fight openly.
Anyways saudis and their gang recognising anyone or not hardly makes any difference. It's the west that is important. If saudis really care, let them fight openly.
