Yahoo: Assad predicts disaster if West meddles in Syria

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middle...839513109.html

Syria's deputy oil minister 'defects'

Abdo Hussameldin, Syria's deputy oil minister, has announced his defection in a video, the authenticity of which could not be immediately confirmed.

If confirmed, Hussameldin would become one of the highest ranking civilian official to abandon President Bashar al-Assad since the uprising against his rule erupted a year ago.

"I Abdo Hussameldin, deputy oil and mineral wealth minister in Syria, announce my defection from the regime, resignation from my position and withdrawal from the Baath Party. I join the revolution of this dignified people," Hussameldin said in a YouTube video.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/Syria

7 hours 6 min ago

Hicham Hassan, an ICRC spokesman in Geneva, has just been speaking with Al Jazeera about the Syrian Red Crescent's visit to Bab Amr earlier today.

The team that went in spent around 45 minutes inside the neighbourhood of Baba Amr

The objective was to go and see if people ... still need help. The main comment that we got was that the vast majority of people had left Bab Amr. It happens so that today the ICRC and the Syrian Red Crescent were in a village called Abel, that's 10km away from Homs city.

Today we managed to assess that 450 families, the majority of them came from Baba Amr. Two days ago, same, around 250 families. There are many other families that are scattered around other neighbourhoods in Homs, for example Inshaat, which was equally affected by the violence, along with other areas. And this is what we're trying to continue to look for those families and others who are affected.

6 hours 26 min ago
UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos has said that the Syrian city of Homs had been "completely devastated" and heard gunfire there during a visit on Wednesday, her spokeswoman has told the AFP news agency.

Amos was also stopped from going into areas still held by the opposition after Syria's foreign minister had told her she could go to any part of the country, UN humanitarian affairs spokeswoman Amanda Pitt said.

[AFP]

5 hours 54 min ago -

A US House of Representatives committee has voted to impose new sanctions on Syria's energy sector and called for referring its president, Bashar al-Assad, to a war crimes tribunal.

The legislation would help bring about Assad's downfall by "tightening the financial noose around Assad's neck - already tied very tight by the Obama Administration," said Representative Howard Berman, a Democrat who co-sponsored it.

The bill must pass the entire House and Senate before President Barack Obama would decide whether to sign it into law. The outlook for passage in the House is good, considering it has bipartisan support; the chief House sponsors are House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Democrat Eliot Engel. In the Senate, similar measures have been proposed by a Democrat, Kirsten Gillibrand.

Concerns about impact on energy prices could slow the measure down, as has happened before with similar sanctions legislation aimed at Iran. If sanctions crimped Syrian oil sales, that could further tighten world oil supplies, boosting oil prices.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...eat-Assad.html

Syria: diplomats fear rebels cannot defeat Assad

President Bashar al-Assad could survive for some time and the West does not have a "clear mechanism" for removing Syria's regime, senior Western diplomats conceded on Wednesday.

Officials in Western and Arab League governments concede that the regime is unlikely to collapse inwardly.

The leadership is encouraged, they say, by its ability to crush the uprising in key locations such as Homs, and retain its control of the two major cities, Damascus and Aleppo, even if this has come at the cost of some 7,000 lives.

"The regime thinks it can still win, it sees everything through the security prism," said Mr Collis.

---------- Post added March-7th-2012 at 09:50 PM ----------

https://twitter.com/#!/libyansrevolt

Defected Syria Minister: Russia and China, your actions have proven that you cannot be any further than friends of the Syrian people. Your actions have proven that you are accomplices to murdering of our civilians with the regime. We have incriminating proof of this support which will go through the necessary channels.

My final message is to my colleagues, I've worked in system for 30yrs but will not finish my time with this murder. Defected Syria Minister: My advice to my colleagues, after one year of silence through this murder you must leave this sinking ship
9:25 PM

Main problem is that there's nowhere really safe inside Syria for them to defect to.



Interesting idea, although I think Russia's bridges are burned with the people in the Middle East and Syria especially for a while.

http://blogs.cfr.org/danin/2012/03/0...nan-to-moscow/

To Resolve Syria, Send Annan to Moscow

The key to ending the bloodshed rests more in Moscow than in Damascus as I suggested in early February. Russia provides Assad the critical support that allows the Syrian dictator to survive. Russia has protected Assad diplomatically twice so far, vetoing UN Security Council resolutions critical of Assad. More importantly, Russia provides the Assad regime the arms that it uses to kill Syrians and destroy their towns.

According to the Moscow defense think tank CAST, Russia sold Syria nearly $1 billion worth of weapons in 2011, with some $4 billion remaining in outstanding contracts. The former chief auditor for Syria’s defense ministry, who defected in January, claims that Russia has stepped up its arms supplies to Damascus since the unrest in Syria broke out. Russian arms manufacturers have reportedly increased production to meet the Syrian demand.

****! This isn't good.
And this started hours ago.
I wonder why there's so much less news coming out of Syria lately.
https://twitter.com/#!/WashingtonPoint

Acc.Syrian srcs: battle began in idleb and regime tries to take back Baba Ranjit, encircling each city w/reinforcements from Tartous, Lattakia
5:59 PM

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/#!/NMSyria

LCC: Wednesday's death toll in Syria has risen to 57, among them women and children, from all over the country.
12:01 AM

BreakingNews: Dummar bridge that leads to Qudseya and the Hameh areas of Damascus closed after regime forces stormed through.
12:20 AM

WARNING: Massive arrest campaign in Hameh suburb in Damascus, Syria. Qudseya All roads leading in or out have been closed off.
12:24 AM

BreakingNews: Homes and shops in the Hameh suburb of Damascus are being raided by security forces. Massive arrests.
12:35 AM

Damn, they must have a lot of political prisoners with all these arrests going on for a year now.



http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03...hts-committee/

Syria may remain on UN humn rights committee

PARIS — UN cultural agency UNESCO is set to condemn Syria at its executive board meeting but fall short of Western and Arab hopes of expelling it from its human rights committee, according to a draft resolution.

The UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) executive board, which includes the United States, France and Russia, elected Syria to two panels in November, including one that judges human rights violations.

In the latest international effort to isolate Damascus over its violent crackdown on domestic unrest, a group of Western and Arab nations had pressed for Syria’s expulsion from the UN cultural agency’s human rights committee.

The resolution, submitted by countries including Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Britain and Denmark, condemns Damascus for “the continued widespread and systematic violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities.”

Map of Syria
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/wor...ria/index.html


https://twitter.com/#!/SumayyaForSyria

Brave Homsi woman tells her horrifying tale that ultimately ends w/ her being raped by 5 Assad thugs http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=4iUJsQoAPuY This is Syria

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/0...t-elusive-man/

Meet Syria's wealthiest and most elusive man

https://twitter.com/#!/AmalHanano

When they left, it was their home. When they returned, this is what they found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=DMsB-50xgjw#! Inshaat Homs

[YOUTUBE]DMsB-50xgjw#[/YOUTUBE]

[visionary]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/08/world/...html?hpt=wo_c2

More Syrians die; diplomatic efforts ongoing

At least 56 people were killed in Syria Thursday as former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan cautioned against outside military intervention, saying it could worsen an already precarious situation.

But, Annan told the Arab League summit in Cairo, "the violence and killings must stop immediately."

Annan, the special joint envoy to Syria for the United Nations and the Arab League, began a visit to the region in Cairo Wednesday. The U.N. said he will visit Damascus Saturday "to seek an urgent end to all violence and human rights violations and to initiate efforts to promote a peaceful solution."

"I hope that no one is thinking very seriously of using force in this situation," Annan said Thursday. "I believe any further militarization would make the situation worse. We have to be careful not to introduce a medicine worse than the disease."

Meanwhile, shelling and explosions rocked several Syrian cities early Thursday and there were reports of violence in several locations as the Syrian regime continued assaults against opposition strongholds.

The death toll included 47 people slain in the city of Homs, according to the Local Coordination Committees, a Syrian-based opposition activist network. Also included were two children and one woman, the LCC said.

Security forces attacked a funeral procession in the Damascus neighborhood of Mazzeh and targeted the car carrying the body, the network said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another opposition group, said those arrested numbered in the dozens.

Violent clashes were reported in Idlib province, and more than 50 young men were arrested in a "detention campaign" in Hama, the LCC said.

Two blasts rocked the town of Izaz near the Syrian-Turkish border Thursday morning, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The blasts were followed by fierce clashes between government soldiers and soldiers that had defected.

Shelling and rocket attacks were also reported in the Homs neighborhoods of Bab Tadmur and Jib al-Jandali Thursday, the fifth day in a row of government attacks there, the group said.

Interesting that they would be attacking those neighborhoods.
They're in central Homs and I haven't heard much about them before.
I wonder if they're trying to move towards Homidiya and the other main opposition controlled districts north of there.



http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/Syria

1 hour 36 min ago

The United States said on Thursday that it would contribute $2m more in international humanitarian aid for strife-torn Syria, and urged Damascus to allow aid workers to access civilians in need.

US deputy secretary of state for population, refugees and migration Kelly Clements announced the fresh funds at an aid coordination meeting in Geneva on Syria, where a brutal crackdown by the ruling regime has taken thousands of lives and caused humanitiarian crises across the country.

"The money will go towards providing emergency medical care, as well as the delivery of water, food, blankets, heaters, and hygiene kits to Syrian civilian." he said.

"Safe access to affected areas, in order to identify the greatest needs and deliver needed assistance, is still not permitted by the Syrian regime," said Clements, according to a statement issued by the US embassy to the United Nations.

Hmmm. I wouldn't mind seeing some celebrities and businessfolk chip in a bit.
I wonder if this stuff is actually getting there anytime soon, or if we're waiting for some greenlight from the regime to send it.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...ow_633315.html

Arm the Free Syrian Army Now

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8270QD20120308

Turkey, Tunisia oppose non-Arab intervention in Syria

"Turkey is against the intervention by any force which is from outside the region. Such an intervention could be subject to exploitation," Gul said, without elaborating.

"It is not possible for any regime to go on through the use of violence and ... dictatorship... The decision to use the armed forces against the people has transformed the issue... into one of international interest," he said.

Turkey, a Muslim member of NATO with the second largest army in the alliance, has been coordinating closely with the Arab League to forge a regional response to the Syrian crisis.

Gul's comments echo concerns among some Arab countries that foreign intervention in Syria, located at the heart of the Middle East, could complicate and prolong the conflict.

Marzouki said Tunisia would be willing to send forces to Syria as part of an Arab peacekeeping operation mooted at the first "Friends of Syria" conference, which the North African country hosted last month, but warned against military intervention.

Marzouki, who has offered Assad asylum in Tunisia as part of an effort to end the violence quickly, said the best solution remained a negotiated exit for the Syrian leader followed by a transition to democracy.

"What we need now is to continue political efforts, especially with our Russian and Chinese friends as they can play a role in convincing the Syrian regime that this game is over," Marzouki said.

What we need now is someone who's willing to step forward and ****ing do something useful.
Not offer empty promises and play unwinnable games with China, Russia, and Assad.
If you don't want outside intervention, listen to what the Syrian people are saying and get off your ass!


http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetai...?newsId=273560

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has signaled that the government could seek permission from Parliament to deploy troops in Syria in the event of ongoing violence in the country escalating to the point where it will undermine Turkish national security.

En route to Nakhichevan after a diplomatic visit to the Netherlands on Wednesday, Davutoğlu said Turkey is currently placing emphasis on finding a diplomatic solution to quell the violence in Syria, which has been continuing for over a year, but has not ruled out other options.

“Turkey is ready to discuss every option in order to protect its national security,” Davutoğlu emphasized, responding to a question on whether the government would seek parliamentary authorization to deploy Turkish troops in Syria.

http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetai...?newsId=265105

Syrian troops on the Turkish border opened fire in sustained bursts on Wednesday, residents of Turkish villages close to the frontier said, a day after Syrian authorities said they had repelled an armed incursion from Turkey.

Rebel soldiers said their Free Syrian Army, some of whose officers are based in Turkey, had clashed on Tuesday with Syrian government troops near the Turkish frontier, but they denied their forces had moved into Syria from Turkey, whose government has denounced its former ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"We heard heavy gunfire," Abu Fahd, a villager in the Turkish border village of Guvecci, told Reuters by telephone, adding that it came from the Syrian side of the frontier. "The rattle and sounds were heard until early dawn."

Another man in the village, Abu Yousef, said he saw firing coming from Syrian army positions and believed they had been aiming at people trying to cross the border: "The Syrians were firing close to the border from sniper posts on the hillside."

https://twitter.com/#!/shadihamid

Turkish president's statement against non-Arab intervention in Syria suggests he is open to Arab intervention: http://reut.rs/A4wwY3
10:02 AM

There's now enough support from Turkey, France & Arab nations to pursue military option in Syria. One decisive factor is missing: the US.
10:05 AM

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ia-rebels.html

Britain considering 'non-lethal' help for Syria rebels

Mr Hague told MPs at the Foreign Affairs committee that Britain would "continue to offer help to peaceful Syrian opposition groups – practical assistance."

"I also don't rule out giving more non-lethal help, but we haven't countenanced doing that beyond groups that are, so far, located outside Syria and are trying to pursue a peaceful, democratic transition," he added.

Mr Hague said there would be "logistical difficulties" in providing such help to groups inside Syria and admitted there were fears that equipment could end up in the hands of al-Qaeda militants.

Talk to Avaaz and others maybe?


https://twitter.com/#!/BreakingNews

United Nations readying food stocks for 1.5 million people in Syria as part of aid contingency plan - @Reuters
5:31 AM

Who are they going to give it to?
They aren't even allowed to go near opposition areas.
It's a good step forward though.
Especially if they are able to get it to people who have been displaced.



http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...17848338242310

Local Coordination Committees in Syria

The number of martyrs of Syria thus far is 62, including entire families, 52 in Homs, including 44 executed, 3 in Deir Ezzor, 2 in each of Idlib and Daraya in Damascus Suburbs, and a martyr in each of Daraa, Aleppo and Hama
11 minutes ago

[visionary]

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...17848338242310

Homs: Rastan: A massive exodus of families is taking place while security reinforcements reach the city 4 minutes ago

https://twitter.com/#!/tweets4peace

Oh my God. Breaking: multiple missile launchers have been placed around Al rastan now. Ya Allah another Baba Amr?! Please no!!!!
12:37 PM

https://twitter.com/#!/DamascusSYR

FSA clashes with Assad thugs in Bab Sbaa', Homs http://youtu.be/VXv8hzor4pU
12:39 PM

[YOUTUBE]VXv8hzor4pU[/YOUTUBE]



https://twitter.com/#!/NMSyria

BREAKING : 3 Syrian lieutenants have defected from the army and are now in Turkey.
12:40 PM

https://twitter.com/#!/Bambuser_Alert

LIVE NOW: Demos in different parts of Syria. All videos here: http://bambuser.com/broadcasts?broad...bs=middle-east
1:04 PM

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terro...-Syria-s-Assad

Russia says it won't offer asylum to Syria's Assad

But that doesn't mean that President-elect Vladimir Putin will soften Russia's opposition to intervention in Syria, as the US had hoped.

https://twitter.com/#!/ArabSpringFF

Good evening. What a crazy, long and rewarding day today has been. More great news to come out of Syria soon.
1:07 PM

Interesting....



http://www.economist.com/node/21549999

Picking up the pieces

The opposition struggles to respond to the regime’s offensive

[visionary]

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/liveblog/Syria

7 hours 26 min ago

The Syrian army on Thursday sent further troop reinforcements to the northwestern province of Idlib, where activists said they fear an assault similar to the one that devastated the Baba Amr neighbourhood of Homs.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the troop build-up appeared to indicate a major military operation was imminent given reports in the official press of "armed terrorist groups" in the region.

Milad Fadl, a member of the opposition Syrian Revolution General Commission, said tanks and troops were deploying heavily around the Jabal al-Zawiya district of the province.

"Large numbers of residents from eight villages in that area have fled," Fadl told AFP, adding that residents of the city of Idlib itself were also leaving.

"The government troops have asked members of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) to surrender their weapons through messages on mosque loudspeakers or through local officials," Fadl said.

"I expect the army to first storm Idlib and then decide from there what to do."

I wonder if they're trying to secure the province now in case Turkey decides to make a move.
Also Idlib is where most defections seem to tae place, so maybe they're trying to cut down on them.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8270N220120308

"I was devastated by what I saw in Baba Amr yesterday," Amos told Reuters TV after leaving a meeting with ministers in Damascus.

"The devastation there is significant, that part of Homs is completely destroyed and I am concerned to know what has happened to the people who live in that part of the city."

https://twitter.com/#!/LccSy
Night Protest in Jobar Damascus
[YOUTUBE]cJvWVP0cq3U[/YOUTUBE]

Damascus: Jobar: Regime forces fired heavy and random gunfire at protesters in Alloush Squarep 3 hours ago

Night Protest in Banyas
[YOUTUBE]ZuY9AIb3FbE[/YOUTUBE]

Banyas: A powerful explosion heard from an unknown source is reported in the city right now 1 hour ago

https://twitter.com/#!/ArabSpringFF

AJA report on the defections today. 3 Imads (1 rank higher than Maj. Gen.), 4 colonels and more, inc. a female officer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rILxYvyxpQE
5:21 PM

This is the most major defection in the army so far. Imad is a very high rank, look at the ranks. Must make a video. http://pic.twitter.com/YCZpduHn
5:24 PM

We need to see a video, but they just recently defected. Hopefully it will come tomm. to put further pressure on the regime.
5:30 PM

I hope so, this article says that they are under Turkish observation http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...82717V20120308 but different details than AJA report.
5:42 PM

https://twitter.com/#!/ArabSpringFF

Today Barzeh, a neighborhood in Damascus city was stormed by Assad forces with anti-aircraft weapons and mass arrests were carried out.
5:33 PM

This Thursday there were so many women protesting in Damascus that sometimes they outnumbered men. They are much braver than men.
5:44 PM

Protest in Damascus near the Russian embassy. Women outnumbering men. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6Um..._wV5qPKM2bc%3D

[YOUTUBE]R6UmUmhuadU[/YOUTUBE]


https://twitter.com/#!/7__r

Assad's forces stormed Barzeh in central Damascus. They set fire on properties and demolished walls that had anti-Assad graffiti on it.
6:11 PM

[visionary]

http://www.brookings.edu/articles/20...ria_hamid.aspx

Who Will Save Syria?

The Syrian opposition has issued unambiguous calls for foreign military intervention. This is no Western imposition. It is Syrians—like Libyans before them—who are pleading that the West do more, not less.

Already, military intervention enjoys considerable Arab and Muslim legitimacy. The Turks, Qataris, Tunisians and Saudis have all called for various degrees of intervention, whether through “safe zones,” peacekeeping forces or arming the Syrian rebels. But these countries cannot do it on their own. They are waiting for the United States to lead efforts to assemble a coalition that can intervene effectively and then help stabilize Syria after hostilities cease.

No doubt the risks of intervention are considerable. But so too are the risks of not intervening.

The second step would be the designation of liberated zones—particularly those along the border with Turkey—as safe havens, as was done in Bosnia during the 1990s.

To protect these areas, air power and some special forces, preferably soldiers from Arab nations or Turkey, would be needed. The goal would not necessarily be regime change but rather to demonstrate international resolve, encourage regime defections and compel the Syrian government to alter its calculations about the use of force.

Currently, President Bashar Assad believes he can outlast the opposition and ultimately obliterate it through sheer force and brutality. Helping the rebels peel off large pieces of territory would demonstrate to Assad that he cannot win militarily, breathing new life into diplomatic efforts or—at the very least— securing cease-fire agreements around key population centers.

None of this, though, will be possible without U.S. support and leadership. Despite budgetary constraints, this is not the time for the Obama administration to shrink from the challenge at hand. Even if the United States insists on “leading from behind,” it still needs to lead.

https://twitter.com/#!/HRSyria

Alwite defectors are estimated at 200 FSA members, more Alawite defection help the community from any future sectarian conflicts!
6:07 PM

https://twitter.com/#!/lizsly

The revolt in Syrian Kurdistan goes largely unnoticed but Kurds cd tip balance of the country's unresolved revolution http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...9yR_story.html
8:38 PM

https://twitter.com/#!/hlk01

@lizsly mm shame he doesn't realize most Kurds in Syria ARE sunnis. That report is ill informed sorry.
9:00 PM

Really fascinating article.
There's a lot of information in there to process though.
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/pos...yrian_uprising

Islamism and the Syrian uprising

https://twitter.com/#!/Joyce_Karam

Wow. Avi Dichter, former director of Israel Shin Bet, releases youtube video in solidarity with people of Syria: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITZbr...layer_embedded

http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebels-...013616879.html

Syrian rebels reject Annan's call for dialogue

Kofi Annan, the U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria, said he would urge President Bashar al-Assad and his foes to stop fighting and seek a political solution, drawing angry rebukes from dissidents.

"The killing has to stop and we need to find a way of putting in the appropriate reforms and moving forward," Annan said on Thursday in Cairo ahead of his trip to Damascus on Saturday.

"We reject any dialogue while tanks shell our towns, snipers shoot our women and children and many areas are cut off from the world by the regime without electricity, communications or water," said Hadi Abdullah, contacted in the city of Homs.

Another activist told Reuters Annan's call for dialogue sounded "like a wink at Bashar" that would only encourage Assad to "crush the revolution".

Two rebel groups later said four more high-ranking military officers had defected over the past three days to a camp for Syrian army deserters in southern Turkey.

Lieutenant Khaled al-Hamoud, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army (FSA), told Reuters by telephone the desertions brought to seven the number of brigadier generals who had defected

https://twitter.com/#!/SyrianForChange

You would have be insane to not want a peaceful transfer of power in Syria. But you are even more insane if you think assad will allow one.
11:58 AM

Absurd logic: a civil war in Syria would be terrible, so let's make sure only one side has decent weapons.
12:58 PM

My point is diplomacy must be accompanied by a credible threat. Otherwise there's no incentive for assad to step down.
10:55 PM

If Syria were merely a political stalemate with violent potential, not wanting to inflame the situation would be understandable.
11:39 PM

But assad has no qualms about using heavy weapons to silence an unarmed population. How would arming FSA be 'inflammatory'?
11:41 PM

https://twitter.com/#!/WashingtonPoint

After 12 hours, still cant believe Annan uttered today: "I hope no one is seriously thinking of using force in this situation."
11:39 PM

[visionary]

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/liveblog/Syria

4 hours 57 min ago

Radwan Ziadeh, a visiting scholar at the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University and a member of the Syrian opposition, discusses the impending visit to Syria by special envoy Kofi Annan.

[YOUTUBE]2foW7WSvKws[/YOUTUBE]

4 hours 12 min ago

n a curtain-raising press conference in Cairo on Thursday, Annan said the solution to a year of violence would be political and "Syrian-led". He warned other countries against "militarising" the conflict by intervening with force or arming the rebels, who are already engaged in a guerilla war with the government's forces.

2 hours 9 min ago

In an interview with Al Jazeera, US Senator John McCain slammed special envoy Kofi Annan's emphasis on dialogue with Bashar al-Assad's government, saying it made him "wonder what planet Mr. Kofi Annan is on".

McCain has called for military intervetion in Syria by a coalition of Arab and Western nations similar to the one that acted on UN authority in Libya. He opposes unilateral action.

59 min 37 sec ago

China will dispatch a high-ranking diplomat for a week-long tour on Sunday to explain the country's cease-fire plan for Syria.

Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Zhang Ming will visit Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France

28 min 37 sec ago
The UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation condemned Syria on Thursday for its crackdown on a year-long uprising but did not expel Damascus from its human rights committee as some Western and Arab countries had demanded, diplomatic sources said.

"The United States is profoundly disappointed that this resolution does not call for the outright removal of Syria from the Committee on Conventions and Recommendations - something for which we have repeatedly called for," said Ambassador David Killion, the US ambassador to UNESCO.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...df76c88f1544f2

The leader of Syria's main opposition group says he rejects calls by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan for dialogue between the government in Damascus and the opposition.

Burhan Ghalioun says calling for dialogue while President Bashar Assad is massacring his own people is "disappointing."

Ghalioun says a political settlement without military pressure on Assad is unrealistic.

https://twitter.com/#!/NMSyria

BreakingNews: Heavy gunfire and Assad forces deployment in the Khaldiyeh neighborhood of Homs. BabaAmr all over again...?
4:05 AM

Kaldiyeh is in the bottom middle of the upper section of Homs.
I'm not sure if it has many FSA fighters to defend it though, just a lot of protesters who come out every day.
Homidiya to the south of it though has a lot of FSA guys with some heavier weapons...so I'm not sure how security forces or the military could get to it.

[visionary]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/08/opinio...html?hpt=wo_c1

Why U.S. shouldn't rush to war in Syria

Wesley Clark brings up some good points, although nothing too new.
And some of his assumptions are most likely likely incorrect.
Also remember that he was against going into Libya...until Obama decided to intervene.
But of course we do have to and should have been for a while now considering the things he's mentioned.


http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=wo_c1#...syria-homs.cnn

No end in sight to Homs violence

Added on March 9, 2012
CNN's Nic Robertson says the Syrian regime is pressing its offensive in Homs despite calls for an end to the violence.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/09/world/...html?hpt=wo_c1

Valerie Amos, the U.N. humanitarian chief, said she submitted a proposal to Syria for "unhindered" aid worker access and asked the government to respond urgently.

She completed a two-day visit to Syria that focused on urging "all parties to agree on arrangements for humanitarian organizations to reach people in areas affected by fighting and violence."

She met with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem and other government officials in Damascus and visited displaced Syrians on the Turkish side of the border.

"We have agreed on a joint preliminary humanitarian assessment mission to areas where people urgently need assistance," she said of her talks with al-Moallem

On Friday, thousands took to the streets as part of weekly anti-government protests, which have been routinely targeted by security forces since the uprising began last year.

Violence raged. At least 62 people have been killed in Syria on Friday, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria says. The toll includes the deaths of 20 members of two families in an Idlib province town and 22 people in Homs. The other deaths were in Idlib, Damascus, Daraa, Hama, Latakia and Aleppo.

Videos posted on YouTube Friday from Homs purported to show 30 Syrian tanks moving toward the Sunni-dominated neighborhood of Asheera, which the opposition claims has been repeatedly shelled in recent days. Syrian forces were storming villages in the provinces of Hama and Idlib amid heavy gunfire to chase down military defectors, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition rights group.

Japan was the latest Friday to add its name to a growing list of countries that have moved to freeze Syrian assets as part five of series of sanctions aimed at putting a stranglehold on al-Assad's ability to finance attacks.

It also said it was freezing the assets of two of Syria's leading military figures: Jamea Jamea, a branch chief of Syria's military intelligence in Deir Ezzor; and Khayrbik Nasif Muhammad, the deputy of national security affairs.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...sj_share_tweet

BEIRUT—In a surge of defections from Syria's army, 15 officers, including high-ranking brigadier generals, joined the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and fled to Turkey on Thursday and Friday, senior rebel officers said. Meanwhile, the head of Syria's main opposition group said Arab states had committed funding to help equip the growing rebel army.

At least 50 officers have defected from the army over the past week, senior rebel leaders said on Friday, in an apparent response to a stepped-up military campaign that has widened from the central city of Homs to the northern province bordering Turkey. Turkey's state-run Anadolu ...

https://twitter.com/#!/CFKlebergTT

Attempts to bring aid to Homs not doing much, activist in city tells me. Trucks still don't get to some areas, no food or medicine.
10:01 AM

"Aid isn't what we need the most, we need support for FSA," activist in Homs tells me. "This regime will just kill us again."
10:02 AM

At least 62 killed in Syria today, LCC activists say. Report 27 killed in "massacre" in village Ain Larouz in idlib.
10:26 AM

At least 22 killed in Homs today, LCC activists say. Attacks on civilian housing as well as protest reported.
10:27 AM

I wonder what the overall death toll is right now.
Pretty sure it's over 10,000 at this point.

Interesting:
http://www.understandingwar.org/repo...med-opposition

Syria's Armed Opposition

---------- Post added March-9th-2012 at 11:35 AM ----------

Funeral Protest in Kafar Sousah

[YOUTUBE]t45uFxlNIhQ[/YOUTUBE]


Demonstration in Arbeen, Damascus
[YOUTUBE]1HIj1Y-mU84[/YOUTUBE]


https://twitter.com/#!/hominoid555

Local Coordination Committees in Syria The number of martyrs of Syria until the moment reached 70, including two women and 10 children
11:25 AM

The FSA kidnapped 35 troops at a checkpoint in Daraa and seized 100 AK47 a mortar b7 and two armoured vehicles syria yesterday!
11:17 AM

I haven't seen this elsewhere, but it's fairly impressive if it's true.


I'm seeing a lot of reports of arrests in Kurdish areas.
It seems the government is cracking down on them now.

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middle...234161309.html

Annan to meet with Syrian president

Kofi Annan, the UN and Arab league envoy to Syria, will meet President Bashar al-Assad, the country's president, on Saturday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said.

On Friday, Ban said Annan's first trip to Damascus since being named as the international envoy will last about 24 hours.

"He will come out of Damascus Sunday, he will engage with opposition leaders outside of Syria," Ban told reporters, giving the first official confirmation that his predecessor as UN secretary general would meet face-to-face with Assad.

Ban said that Annan would go from Damascus to other countries in the region, but did not give details.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...17848338242310

Local Coordination Committees in Syria

Friday has ended with 85 martyrs, including two women and 10 children, 33 martyrs in Idlib including 25 martyrs who were killed in Ain Larouz massacre, 26 martyrs in Homs, 7 martyrs in Yabroud in Damascus Suburbs 6 martyrs in Daraa, 6 martyrs in Hama, two martyrs in Damascus 3 martyrs in Aleppo and one martyr in each of Bokamal and Lattakia
3 hours ago

Protest in Bayada Homs
[YOUTUBE]gEf7yqq9PBI[/YOUTUBE]


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...71R_story.html

A year into the uprising in Syria, senior U.S. intelligence officials described the nation’s president, Bashar al-Assad, on Friday as firmly in control and increasingly willing to unleash one of the region’s most potent militaries on badly overmatched opposition groups.

The officials also said Assad’s inner circle is “remaining steadfast,” with little indication that senior figures in the regime are inclined to peel off, despite efforts by the Obama administration and its allies to use sanctions and other measures to create a wave of defections that would undermine Assad.

Personal Post Assad “is very much in charge,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official responsible for tracking the conflict, adding that Assad and his inner circle seem convinced that the rebellion is being driven by external foes and that they are equipped to withstand all but a large-scale military intervention.

“That leadership is going to fight very hard,” the official said. Over the long term, “the odds are against them,” he said, “but they are going to fight very hard.”

The comments, provided by three intelligence officials on the condition of anonymity to share candid assessments, were the most detailed to date by U.S. analysts on the status of the uprising, which began last March.

The officials said the regime’s tactics have taken a more aggressive turn and released newly declassified satellite images on Friday showing what officials described as “indiscriminate” artillery damage to schools, mosques and other facilities in the beleaguered city of Homs in recent weeks.

Guess it's just a matter of time until he agree to step down then....oh...right.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...71R_story.html

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday she will continue her diplomatic push with her Russian counterpart at the UN on March 12. “I talked with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a few days ago about our hope that Russia will play a constructive role in ending the bloodshed and working toward a political transition in Syria,” Clinton said in remarks to reporters, describing the “intense” diplomatic effort under way.

“We continue to urge the international community to come together to take action” on humanitarian relief and a political transition, Clinton said.

Syria is now “topic one, two and three” in talks with Russia, State Department Spokesman Victoria Nuland said yesterday. Still, she added that the administration isn’t optimistic about winning Moscow’s approval for the latest U.S.- backed UN resolution. Russia, along with China, has already vetoed two resolutions aimed at censuring Assad.

“We are frankly not overly optimistic that an agreed text will be reached in the near future,” she said yesterday.

The UN diplomats, who weren’t authorized to speak on the record, said efforts to get Russia to sign on to the latest Syria resolution have died after three days of meetings, in part because of how much the text was watered down in the attempt to win Moscow’s support. As a result, they said, Clinton and Lavrov will have little to work toward at their Monday meeting.

The hope that the presidential election victory of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin might lead to a change of policy on Syria has dissipated, they said.

How many times are we going to rely on Russia for something that we ought to know they won't do?
It seems like ever since Putin has been in office, we've constantly expected one thing or another from Russia only to be let down.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/wo...ed=1&ref=world

The official, Valerie Amos, the under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, told reporters in Turkey that the government of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, was still considering her proposal to allow relief teams from United Nations organizations to help cope with the deprivations from the uprising against him.

“The Syrian government have asked for more time to look at the agreement,” said Ms. Amos, who also visited border camps in southern Turkey that are hosting more than 11,000 Syrian refugees.

Ms. Amos said that the Syrian government had agreed to a “limited assessment” of affected areas by United Nations agencies and the Syrian authorities, which she said “would give us some information about what is happening in the country.”

[visionary]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/10/world/...html?hpt=hp_t1

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan met with al-Assad in Damascus in negotiations aimed at pushing the Syrian leader to order a ceasefire and begin talks with the opposition.

Al-Assad told Annan that he was ready to find a solution but that such an effort would first require a look at reality on the ground and not relying on what "is promoted by some regional and international countries to distort the facts and give a picture contrary to what Syria is undergoing."

He also reiterated that "political dialogue or action cannot take place or succeed if there are terrorist armed gangs on the ground that are working on spreading chaos and target the stability of the homeland," the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said.

At least 31 people died Saturday, according to the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a network of Syrian activists. Among them were 16 Free Syrian Army fighters who died in an ambush in Jisr al-Shagur, not far from the northern city of Idlib.

Activist Abdel Aziz told CNN that Idlib was suffering the kind of heavy shelling the world had seen in the besieged city of Homs.

He estimated shelling every two minutes and that many residences and buildings had been damaged or destroyed. He also reported that security forces were searching house to house to arrest activists.

"The number of tanks is much greater than defectors," Aziz said. "This scenario is very similar to what happened in Homs."

Violent clashes between government forces and defected soldiers erupted in the town of Daraya, opposition activists said.

And in the Daraa village of Jezah, "the regime's army is indiscriminately bombing the city with anti-aircraft missiles. They village is under siege in all directions," said the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, a network of opposition activists.

https://twitter.com/#!/alexrossiSKY

On Turkish-Syrian border activists tell me dozens have been killed in heavy shelling by Assad forces in Idlib
11:09 AM

Refugees keep coming across border but activists claim it is becoming more difficult to escape fighting because of govt checkpoints
11:10 AM

https://twitter.com/#!/Samsomhoms

Shelling continues on KaramZeitoun Rifaai and parts of BabaAmr until this very moment in Homs
11:02 AM

Human rights lawyer Omar Qandaqji imprisoned @ checkpnt in Inshaat Homs as families returned; he's lawyer of many revo's Detained
11:17 AM

Situation in Insha'at district is better than before.Sniping & shelling stopped,but the destruction is indescribable.
11:47 AM

Damage in Insha'at neighborhood of Homs due to shelling and raids by government forces

Wow
[YOUTUBE]pKay4fiaecg[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]exf_vbZHWyY[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]AIfvP-oTPh8[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]7vjg20MDDHc[/YOUTUBE]





https://twitter.com/#!/SeekerSK

Idlib: Al Abrar Mosque has been destroyed due to army shelling
11:20 AM

More from Nir Rosen, who has been one of the most thorough reporters in Syria and who has written lengthy articles detailing the opposition there.
http://www.lineofdeparture.com/2012/...-and-far-away/

But to get back to your question, I’ve been struck by how little sign there was of foreign fighters, of Al Qaeda, in a place I was expecting that to happen. We just haven’t seen any evidence of it except for the three suicide attacks.

Now, I have seen Syrians who went to Iraq in 2003. But we have to make a real distinction between these guys and those who fought there in 2004 or 2005.

In 2003, you have many Arab volunteers flocking to Syria. They weren’t inspired by any Islamist ideology but rather something more like Arab nationalism.

Nir Rosen: They came in February or March and they stayed for usually about a month. Once they realized that it was actually dangerous, they all went back home.

The journalists who died were in a neighborhood that was being shelled day after day. They had terribly bad luck and were killed, but I don’t believe it was deliberate. I also don’t believe that it deserved as much attention. And I can tell you from speaking to people in Homs shortly thereafter, one leader of the revolution there told me that the media care more about the deaths of a few westerners than they do tens of thousands of Syrians.

Nir Rosen: Yeah, so this is perceived by the American and Saudi governments to be an opportune time to weaken Iranian influence in the region. And they will, of course. This is an opportunity that they won’t miss.

I don’t believe that they’ve started to arm the insurgents yet. That’s based on my own contacts with the insurgents and my knowledge of how they get their weapons. It would take a certain assistance – well, I want to be careful on how I say this.

The insurgency believes that if they receive certain kinds of weapons, they wouldn’t even need air strikes. They would be able to fully liberate large parts of Syria.

Carl Prine: You mean, like anti-tank missiles.

Nir Rosen: Exactly. They want TOWs or missiles like the kinds Hizb’Allah used against Israeli tanks in 2006. They want sniper rifles.

Carl Prine: Night vision goggles.

Nir Rosen: Yeah. And I agree with them. I think that if they had these weapons they would clearly be able to deny the regime access to half the country. The revolution would spread like ink blots from there.

But he also says though that without military intervention that takes out the regime, it will likely turn into a civil war and the country will be very chaotic for years.
He surmises that military intervention is very unlikely though.

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/#!/Thanku4theAnger

Breaking: MASSIVE defection in Aleppo to form the Free of the North Brigade of the Free Syria Army ... Allahu Akbar http://is.gd/DEOD5Q
12:52 PM

Video of defection today of 3 Lt Colonels and a Captain and joining the Free Syria Army http://is.gd/xQUs5g\
4:37 PM

[YOUTUBE]4aKqgRQjDwk[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]hWBF-060bqE[/YOUTUBE]


http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middle...628794169.html

Al Jazeera's Sue Turton, reporting from Beirut, said the shelling of Idlib occured just "a few hours after Kofi Annan touched down in Damascus".

"The bombardment carried on for hours and from what we understand it is still continuing with tanks trying to push into the city reinforced by foot soldiers," she said.

"We are now hearing of fierce fighting between the government troops and the Free Syrian Army."

Armed opposition fighters dashed through the streets of Idlib, taking cover behind the corners of buildings in clashes with the troops.

Wounded fighters were pulled into trucks to be sped to clinics for treatment.

A group of men used shovels to destroy speed bumps along one street to allow ambulances and other rescue vehicles to drive faster.

Military reinforcements have been pouring into Idlib this week, including dozens of tanks and armoured personnel carriers.

https://twitter.com/#!/LeShaque

BREAKING Major clashes have broken out in Sheikh Maksood in Aleppo. Still identifying the combatant parties.
4:16 PM

Aleppo combatants possibly Kurds vs. security forces. Still confirming combatants. Clashes ongoing.
4:18 PM

Major clashes in two Kurdish areas in Aleppo. Clashes also reported in other Kurd neighborhoods but not still confirming.
4:28 PM[

Reports that electricity has been cut to several areas of Sheikh Maksood and Achrafieh in Aleppo.
4:46 PM

https://twitter.com/#!/flaviajackson

Annan describes talks with Assad as "candid and comprehensive." They meet resume discussions tmrw then Annan heads to Qatar
3:47 PM

Annan "put several proposals on table" to Assad about ending violence and inclusive political process. Doesn't sound like he was receptive.
3:49 PM

[visionary]

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...17848338242310

Idlib: Binnish: The number of martyrs in the city has risen to 13 and many injuries were reported including some critical conditions due to the regime's army shelling, that is stationed in the Military Residence on Idlib-Aleppo highway at the southern-western side of it.

A group of soldiers defected with two tanks and joined the Free Syrian Army. Also, the residents of the city fled to the other side of the city to escape the shelling

Binnish is the town where Ivan Watson from CNN reported a few weeks back.
There was an article on CNN about them.


Check for other updates here:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...8242310&type=1

or here:

https://twitter.com/#!/LccSy



https://twitter.com/#!/LeShaque

It seems the residents of Sheikh Maksood in Aleppo have turned every garbage can and every stone into an obstacle for vehicles.
5:23 PM

Shabbiha critically wounded a Kurdish citizen journalist (girl btw) earlier today.
5:28 PM

When the people tried to help her they were attacked. Now things have escalated. There are clashes in Ashrafie and Sh. Maksood
5:29 PM

Reports that the FSA have blown up an army checkpoint near Sheikh Maksood to alleviate some of the pressure off the neighborhood.
5:52 PM

https://twitter.com/#!/LeShaque

Reports that the sounds of gunfire erupted in Damascus after the FSA attacked an army barracks near "Souq AlHal."
6:12 PM

Both Damascus and Aleppo are on fire tonight. So much for the "sleeping giants."
6:12 PM

Mohsen Battalion reports it has successfully liberated a school formerly occupied by Assad's soldiers in Mohsen, Deir Ezzor.
6:46 PM

Nightly protest by Kurd activists in Sheikh Maksood, Aleppo http://youtu.be/f5Oy6mLEEmQ
7:05 PM

Kurd activists set up neighborhood watch groups in anticipation of invasion by Bashar forces | http://youtu.be/UieVJ63mLos
7:06 PM

https://twitter.com/#!/DSyrer

Kurdish LCC Aleppo erects barriers to prevent the entry of security forces into Sheikh Maqsood
7:51 PM

https://twitter.com/#!/CitizenGeo

Gule Selmo, a Kurdish journalist & RonahiTV reporter, was reportedly attacked in Aleppo by regime thugs. In ICU now
7:22 PM

https://twitter.com/#!/tweets4peace

This is what they did to our local hospital in Insha'at [Homs], Alhikme hospital, full video showing destruction. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrqiu3x5O0I
8:28 PM

[visionary]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17330105

Syria crisis: Annan to renew talks with Assad

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, on a two-day peace mission to Damascus, is due to hold a second round of talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

On the first day of talks, President Assad rejected any political dialogue while "armed terrorist groups" were operating in the country.

Mr Annan is trying to arrange a ceasefire and gain greater access for humanitarian aid agencies.

He will later travel on to neighbouring countries, the UN says.

Diplomatic sources say his first port of call may well be Turkey, which has taken a tough line against President Assad's deadly crackdown.

Fighting on Saturday left at least 63 people dead, activists said, with heavy shelling reported in the northern town of Idlib.

https://twitter.com/#!/NMSyria

BreakingNews: Gunfire and attempts to storm the Achrafiyeh neighborhood in Aleppo, Syria by security forces loyal to Assad.
11:04 PM

Assad seems to be cracking down on Aleppo a lot lately.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...83R_story.html

Talk of military aid rises as hopes fade for peaceful Syria solution

The Obama administration and its allies and international partners have begun serious discussions about potential military involvement in Syria, even as they continue to press for nonviolent solutions to the carnage there.

With little progress made in the two weeks since 70 countries and international institutions pledged in Tunis to concentrate their efforts on humanitarian and diplomatic fronts, there is a growing willingness to consider additional options.

Possibilities include directly arming opposition forces, sending troops to guard a humanitarian corridor or “safe zone” for the rebels, or an air assault on Syrian air defenses, according to officials from the United States and other nations opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

But the governments remain deeply divided over the scope of any intervention, how and when it would happen, and who would participate. With Russia still opposed to a U.N. mandate, many question the legitimacy of any military options under international law.

U.S. officials say their strategy remains focused on humanitarian aid and organizing the Syrian opposition. But hopes are fading that the opposition will provide a united front sufficient to merit international recognition, as happened in Libya, or that Assad can be persuaded to yield.

Qatari Prime Minister Hamad Bin Jasim al-Thani told the Cairo gathering that “the world’s patience and our patience has run out.” The Saudi Arabian foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, dismissed the prospect of more “hollow resolutions and . . . spineless positions,” al-Jazeera reported from Cairo.

There is widespread agreement that the threat to regional and international stability increases with each day that passes, as more civilians are killed in ever-more brutal ways, with no progress toward a peaceful transition.

[visionary]

Not to make things more confusing or anything but....

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/qat...kQqH58.twitter

Five-point plan to end Syria crisis

The Ministerial Council of the Arab League headed by Qatar yesterday convinced Russia of the need to help end violence in Syria with Moscow eventually agreeing to a five-point plan to defuse the Syrian crisis.

The meeting was held in Cairo and was attended by Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Later, Lavrov met the Arab League representatives in a separate conclave on the sidelines of the League’s Ministerial Council meeting.

The Council meeting was chaired by the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani.

The two leaders later addressed a joint news briefing in the presence of the Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Al Arabi, and gave details of the plan.

The five-point plan, according to Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem, includes putting in place a neutral ‘security monitoring’ mechanism in Syria and providing humanitarian aid to all Syrians in need of help.

The initiative includes steps to be taken to ensure cessation of violence irrespective of its source (whether by the government or by the opposition).

The initiative says a straight ‘no’ to foreign intervention and stresses the need to provide support to Kofi Annan, the Joint UN-Arab League Special Envoy on Syria to launch a political dialogue between the Syrian regime and the opposition.

Meanwhile, the shelling of Homs continues
[YOUTUBE]vWAeJ0ZxvUg[/YOUTUBE]


As does the equally brutal assault upon villages and the main city of Idlib in the north.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalis...-gunships.html

Dispatch: Syrians flee Assad's helicopter gunships

The smuggler’s radio crackled into life as shadowy figures emerged from a thicket on the Syrian side of the river, faintly illuminated by a full moon whose light barely penetrated the cloud and drizzle.

The men were army deserters escaping Bashar al-Assad’s Syria with the help of rebel sympathisers, and smugglers who demanded hard cash in return for arranging the dinghy that ferried them across

“I had to get out, I had no weapon to fight with and if they caught me they would have cut off my head,” said Abdul, a gangly 18-year-old who stepped out of a dinghy to be embraced by a fellow rebel.

Like scores of other refugees interviewed by The Sunday Telegraph last week - villagers and townspeople, soldiers and civilians, doctors and activists - they brought with them stories of an unfolding horror in the north of Syria.

In a frightening escalation of the Assad regime’s war on its people, helicopter gunships now hang in the air above the countryside, shooting at civilians on the move, or turning their fire on rebel villages - in addition to the armoury of tanks and artillery already punishing those who dared to oppose.

Witnesses who crossed into Turkey last week described the killing of 82 people in Idlib province in six major incidents over recent days; the total figure across the whole area is likely to be far higher. One terrified man had counted up to 40 bodies after helicopters and infantry attacked his village, just a few miles from the border.

And so do the efforts of the opposition fighters
https://twitter.com/#!/javierespinosa2

"we are collecting ammunition and weapons, this is not over, we´ll be back in Bab al Amar" 1 FSA wounded staying in Lebanon
1:53 AM

More on the shelling in Homs from that video.
This is aparently from the same neighborhood.
http://bambuser.com/v/2460507
live footage of the shelling of Karm-al-Zaytoun, Homs.

[visionary]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/11/world/...html?hpt=hp_t3

Annan optimistic, but says Syria peace deal will be tough to reach

"It's going to be tough, it's going to be difficult but we have to have hope," Annan said Sunday of talks the day before that he had earlier described as candid and comprehensive.

On Saturday, Annan proposed a cease-fire, the release of detainees and allowing unfettered access to agencies like the Red Cross to deliver much needed aid, a U.N. statement said.

Annan, a former U.N. secretary-general, also proposed a start to an inclusive political dialogue that would "address the legitimate aspirations and concerns of the people."

He was scheduled to meet with al-Assad for a second time on Sunday before leaving to meet with the emir of Qatar, whose prime minister on Saturday called for military invervention in Syria.

Opposition groups reported violent clashes between Syrian government forces and defectors and said Syrian forces shelled a bridge over the Assi River west of Rastan. The bridge had been used by residents trying to flee the city, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The attack destroyed the bridge, the group said.

At least 25 people died Sunday in places such as Idlib, Aleppo, Latakia, Homs and the Damascus countryside, opposition activists said.

And in a phone call with a Binish town elder, a major general in al-Assad's military demanded the people of Binish hand over weapons used by defected soldiers and the rebel Free Syrian Army within 24 hours -- or the town will be bombed and stormed early Monday morning, according to the Binish Coordination Committee, part of the LCC.

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_t3#...yria-annan.cnn

Tanks trump talk in Syria

Added on March 10, 2012

CNN's Nic Robertson reports on Special Envoy Kofi Annan's visit with Syria's Assad.

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/liveblog/Syria

7 hours 11 min ago -

Al Jazeera's Sue Turton in Beirut just reported the following update on the situation in Idlib:

News coming out of (Idlib) is that people that have been injured are stranded because they can’t get to medical treatment because there are Syrian soldiers stopping them. We’re hearing the main hospital is now in the hands of the Syrian soldiers. There are aircraft overhead and as I said tank shelling is still going on in that city. Electricity has been cut, communication lines have been cut, they really do seem to be trying to cut off the city completely and shelling it into submission.

The Free Syrian Army are saying that they just got 1,000 fighters in (Idlib) and that it just seems to be a matter of time really before they are crushed in that place.

4 hours 9 min ago

As the fighting in Syria continues, the government is preparing to receive its third shipment of diesel from one of country's allies, Venezuela. The shipments are part of a 2010 agreement where Venezuela receives Syrian products like olive oil.

2 hours 32 min ago

Ahead of his meeting with the Syrian president on Sunday, Kofi Annan met with the Grand Mufti of Syria Ahmed Hassoun (centre) and Orthodox Patriarch Hazim (right) in Damascus.

Following his press conference with the religious leaders, Annan said the situation was "so bad and so dangerous" that all Syrians bore a responsibility to "help heal and reconcile this nation".

27 min 35 sec ago

Mouna Ghanem, one of the opposition leaders who met with Kofi Annan, told Al Jazeera on the phone from Damascus:

This was the first meeting with Mr. Annan for us, and with other groups.

We provided him with our perspectives and our ideas about the best way to solve the situation and also we submitted to him our proposal a mediation group, of international personalities to work for peace building and democracy building as well.

Also we explained to him the situation on the ground and the necessity to work to stop the violence immediately, and also to find ways to solve the armed conflict on the ground.

We [Her group] think that the fragmentation or division in the opposition in the international community. We think once there's an agreement in the international community on how to solve the situation.

This problem was created by some countries who contributed to this division.

https://twitter.com/#!/ArabSpringFF

Back from detention by security forces. Was taken in a random arrest on my way back home.

The security forces just roamed around and grabbed anyone that looked like a protester. Once in detention they make you reveal everything. The security forces make you give all details on yourself and your family. Names, addresses, telephone and mobile numbers. They beat you up with sticks, belts, whips, electric cable and sharp objects. You can always hear screams of pain. Because it was a random arrest, the sec. forces tried to make things up like "We saw you in an illegal protest, we have videos" No you don't. The security forces steal everything from you. Your mobile, watch, belt, shoes. I won't reveal any more details for the safety of my family.

One of the main things sec. forces do is psychological torture. When you are questioned, you can hear torture screams, then it's your turn. The worst thing they security thugs do is strangulation. They grab your throat so hard that you can't breathe and feel sick. When they used the electrical cable, I would be a bit happy as my body would go numb. They would whip me and I wouldn't feel it, so I wouldn't shout in pain. This made them hit me harder and harder, and suddenly there was so much pain as the numbness went away.

I worry what they will do to the 500 children still in jail. Hamza was arrested and he came back with his body burnt and the security forces cut off his penis. He was only 15 years old. I'm also worried about the women that are in jail, as the regime could do much worse things to them. The life of the revolution and our country is much more important than our lives. In 100 years every protester today will have died, but what will never die is freedom and democracy for beautiful Syria. We will never surrender. Even if you kill every single Syrian on the planet, we will still continue.

https://twitter.com/#!/ArabSpringFF

The first defection of a Christian officer to the FSA. Now the FSA is made up of all groups. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6aH_6lt6IY
8:27 AM

His name is Ilyas Ilyas and he defected in Idlib.

Important video. Heavy gunfire in the central Tijara area of Damascus at 11 AM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ESDgT89ddY

AJA: Clashes have been taking place between Assad forces and the FSA in Rukn-al-din and revolution street in the heart of Damascus.
11:10 AM

Rukn al-Din, where clashes between the FSA are taking place, is only 4KM from the Presidential palace. A few months ago FSA was 8KM away.
11:16 AM

https://twitter.com/#!/DavidKenner

Annan met with veteran opposition leaders; seems to be writing local coordination cmtes/FSA out of the picture. http://bit.ly/zEXm4h
11:25 AM