Yahoo: Assad predicts disaster if West meddles in Syria

[visionary]

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/n...bc-austin-tice

US journalist missing in Syria

Unidentified gunmen kidnapped a US journalist on Thanksgiving Day. More than a month later, he remains missing.

American James Foley, 39, was last seen on Nov. 22 in Idlib Province. Idlib has been the scene of heavy fighting in recent months between Syrian rebels and government forces.

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters destroyed a tank & a bmp vehicle in the town of busr al-harir in daraa
3:51 AM

assad's thugs bombed 2 bread bakeries in al-ma`damiyah (ma`damiyat al-sham). some people were killed & injured
3:56 AM

a report says a military copter was shot down near saraqib in idlib
4:00 AM

resistance fighters seized a tank near taftanaz military airport. some troops have defected
4:09 AM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

FSA reach the walls of Taftanaz airport in Idlib. There are 2 martyrs already. One from the village of Ta`oom and another is non-Syrian.
1:14 AM

The FSA is negotiating the surrender of some of the regime forces inside Taftanaz airport right now.
4:38 AM

Regime forces at the Taftanaz airport refused to surrender...let it be known...they had a chance! FSA now shelling the airport with tanks.
5:02 AM

Besides the tank and its crew that defected earlier, an army carrier and its crew just defected at Taftanaz airport.
5:20 AM

50 regime soldiers and 4 ranked officers have been killed at the Taftanaz airport.
5:21 AM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

4 main battles now ongoing in Idlib. Wadi Aldayf and Hamdiyeh bases; Taftanaz Airport; Jisr Alshughoor; and Alrami in Jabal Alzawiyah.
5:30 AM

re: the clashes in Alrami. Alrami is the last remaining town in JabalAlzawiyah with regime presence. FSA is taking down the chkpts there now
7:45 AM

Ahrar Alsham announce they have shot down a MiG near Taftanaz 5 mins ago. For those counting...thats the 3 aircraft near the airport today!
8:15 AM

FSA tanks now inside the Taftanaz airport.
8:18 AM

A building inside the Taftanaz airport has been completely destroyed by the FSA.
8:29 AM

https://twitter.com/abuhatem

Spent the day in 'Azaz with the Kurdish Salah al Din Brigades of the Free Syrian Army. Very secular moderate men. pic.twitter.com/VpeyZ4C2
9:19 AM

The Kurdish FSA told me they are the key to protecting minorities in Syria and when the regime falls they will protect the Alawis w/ guns.
9:19 AM

We saw many Kurds from Afreen in Syria and could see Afreen but PKK has it totally taken over.
9:19 AM

Kurds in FSA warned if secular fighters like them aren't armed by the west then al-Qaeda will take place of void and are now.
9:20 AM

The FSA I was with were so secular many drank very open minded and hate Ikhwan, Jabhat Nusra, and other Islamist extremists but no support.
9:24 AM

https://twitter.com/mpoppel

REU: SYRIA DEATH TOLL IS ABOVE 60,000, UN HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF SAYS, CITING FIVE-MONTH "EXHAUSTIVE" STUDY
9:36 AM

https://twitter.com/AlexanderPageSY

UPDATE: 19 confirmed dead in air raid on Petrol station in mleha area of Damascus Syria (reported 30 is false)
9:17 AM

CONFIRMED: entire building brought down just now by air strike killing 9 civilians in Madamiyah area of Damascus
10:14 AM

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?p...17848338242310

Local Coordination Committees in Syria

The number of martyrs in Syria has risen to 151 martyrs so far (including children and women), 115 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its Suburbs (70 of them in Meliha, 35 in Mouadhamiya, 8 in Deir Asafeer and 4 in Hajar Aswad), 5 martyrs in Homs, 6 martyrs in Idlib, 5 martyrs in Daraa, 5 martyrs in Aleppo, 1 martyr in Swaida, 1 martyr in Hama and 1 martyr in Deir Ezzor

[China]

Saudi religious leader calls for gang rape of Syrian women

A prominent Saudi cleric has issued a fatwa (a religious ordinance) that calls for the gang rape of Syrian women. Expressing frustration that the “warriors of Islam” fighting in Syria may be getting weary for the lack of sexual pleasure, the religious leader issued a decree that promotes hours-long “intercourse marriages.”

The cleric, Muhammed al-Arifi, who is a leading jihadist religious figure, made it clear that his edict called for the gang rape of Syrian women and girls. He specified that the “intercourse marriages” last only a few hours “in order to give each fighter a turn.” As to who is an eligible bride, the cleric approves any girls or women over the age of 14 who are widowed or divorced. Yes, you read that right. Any girls over the age of 14.

Muhammed al-Arifi has come under fire for advocating for violence against women in the past. A few weeks ago, he was banned from entering Switzerland or participating in the Swiss Central Islamic Council .

Click on the link for the full article

[visionary]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...efc_story.html

Turkish villagers take in Syrian refugees that humanitarian groups don’t serve

It was dinnertime at the dilapidated four-room house where at least 75 members of the Jasem family have been living since they fled the flooded cave in Syria where they first sought shelter when their village was shelled, and Hasnan Jasem was planning to serve potatoes and bread. Nothing else, just potatoes and bread.

The refrigerator was almost bare. It held only a small bowl of dried yogurt that a neighbor had brought, half a stuffed baby eggplant left over from breakfast and a bowl of parsley the family had picked in a field. On the kitchen counter were six loaves of bread and two big bowls of fried potato slices. That was it, for 75 people, or 80 — they really hadn’t counted.

https://twitter.com/THE_47th

Follow the @TheMoeDee who's saying it like it is, from the middle of liberated Syrian land refugee camps.
11:01 AM

MT @NMSyria: Follow @YasoorHoms, @yasmeenmobayed @AmalHanano, @abuhatem @TheMoeDee, @KenanFreeSyria who r all btwn Turkey & Syria right now
10:59 AM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

my friends are fighting inside the airport. The brigades themselves announced that they just now controlled 70%
3:18 PM

Reports saying that the FSA is destroying all the buildings in the airport and the heli-pads and runways. This is to prevent the regime from using them IN CASE they retake the airport again..
3:49 PM

FSA using loudspeakers at Taftanaz airport asking soldiers to defect and they will be welcomed with peace http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WATtE...ature=youtu.be
2:59 AM

https://twitter.com/AlexCrawfordSky

60,000 est dead now. 'Collectively we have fiddled at the edges while Syria burns,' - Navi Pillay, UN Human Rights commissioner
12:38 AM

Pillay; 'Failure of international community, in partic the security council, to take action to stop blood-letting shames us all.'
12:40 AM

UN Human rights commissioner Navi Pillay: 'The number of casualties is much higher than we expected and is truly shocking'
12:41 AM

https://twitter.com/ranoosh726

Imagine every seat in this 60,000-person capacity stadium occupied. Now imagine all of them dead. This is Syria. pic.twitter.com/g9dFPCQn
12:57 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters have killed the military commander of taftanaz military airport
2:41 AM

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?p...17848338242310

The Local Coordination Committees in Syria

By the end of Wednesday, the LCC was able to document 207 martyrs, including 6 women and 8 children. 141 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its suburbs, including 47 martys in Mleiha, 32 martys in Mouadamieh, and 8 martyrs in Deir Al-Asafeer; 17 martyrs were reported in Aleppo; 14 in Daraa; 15 in Idlib; 7 in Hama; 5 in Homs; 4 in Deir Ezzor; 2 in Raqqa; and 2 in Sweida.

http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...=1#post9046975
At least 45,925 people killed so far in Syria

[visionary]

http://turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com/p...ria_death_toll

How did the U.N. come up with its new Syria death toll?

Syria's suffering now has an official number: 59,648.

That's the death toll that Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, assigned to the Syrian government's bloody political crackdown and the resulting civil war, over a period ranging from March 15, 2011, to November 30, 2012.

The precise number is, of course, an educated guess, but that figure has almost certainly passed the 60,000 mark in the new year, Pillay said.

The real number, according to Pillay, is probably even higher than that, given the fact that much of the Syrian carnage has played out in dark places, beyond the prying eyes of witnesses. "The number of casualties is much higher than we expected, and is truly shocking," she said today.

In fact, the number -- which is significantly higher than previous, informal U.N. estimates of about 40,000 dead -- has caught many top U.N. officials by surprise.

So, how then, did the U.N. human rights office, which has virtually no presence on the ground in Syria, come up with that figure?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9020DI20130103

Analysis: Soaring Syria death toll brings intervention no closer

The death toll in Syria now exceeds 60,000, the United Nations says. Another 100,000 may die this year, warns U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. About 220 were killed on Wednesday alone.

"When numbers get serious, they leave a mark on your door," goes a song by American musician Paul Simon.

But in Syria those bloody notches show no signs of braking a headlong struggle to the death watched from afar by divided outside powers, most of whose leaders seem convinced that the risks of direct intervention outweigh any possible rewards.

Syrians realize they are essentially on their own, and 21 months after the start of protests against President Bashar al-Assad inspired by Arab revolts elsewhere, some of the civilians caught up in what has become a civil war are near despair.

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/6...ia-war-tourism

Bored Japanese Trucker Gets Kicks from Syria War Tourism

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middle...=MasterAccount

Fighting rages for control of Syrian air base

Rebels have stormed parts of Taftanaz military airport in Syria's northwest Idlib province, but state media reported on Thursday that the fighters had been repelled by troops.

A rebel speaking from near the Taftanaz base overnight said the base's main sections were still in loyalist hands but fighters had managed to infiltrate and destroy a helicopter and a warplane on the ground.

Rami Abdulrahman, head of the opposition-aligned Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which monitors the conflict from Britain, said as many as 800 fighters were involved in the assault, including Islamists from Jabhat al-Nusra, a powerful group that Washington considers terrorists.

Taftanaz is mainly a helicopter base, used for missions to resupply army positions in the north, many of which are cut off by road because of rebel gains, as well as for dropping crude "barrel bombs" of explosives on rebel-controlled areas.

Rebels have been besieging air bases across the north in recent weeks, in the hope it will reduce the government's power to carry out air strikes and resupply regime-held areas.

Near Minakh, another northern air base that rebels have surrounded, government forces have retaliated by regularly shelling and bombing nearby towns.

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters have started their battle against al-jarrah military airport in the eastern countryside of aleppo
3:51 AM

heavy clashes continue in the towns of busr al-harir & al-yadoudah in daraa. some homes were destroyed
3:59 AM

resistance fighters have destroyed a tank in the town of busr al-harir in daraa
4:08 AM

https://twitter.com/LccSy

The Free Syrian Army Shooting Down a MiG Warplane in Deir Ezzor http://fb.me/2mNp5VE4T
10:27 AM

https://twitter.com/AlexanderPageSY

Former 15 year military advisor and Syrian Interior Minister Mohammad al Shaar has confirmed dead with funeral procession Damascus
11:24 AM

---------- Post added January-3rd-2013 at 11:57 AM ----------

Saudi religious leader calls for gang rape of Syrian women

A prominent Saudi cleric has issued a fatwa (a religious ordinance) that calls for the gang rape of Syrian women. Expressing frustration that the “warriors of Islam” fighting in Syria may be getting weary for the lack of sexual pleasure, the religious leader issued a decree that promotes hours-long “intercourse marriages.”

Click on the link for the full article

https://twitter.com/ahmed

As I said yesterday, the fatwa is fake. It first appeared on pro-Assad websites https://twitter.com/ahmed/status/286545030905225218 …

I despise @MohamadAlarefe, but he did not issue this fatwa. It is a fake fatwa that first appeared on pro-Assad sites alternet.org/world/saudi-re…
3:56 AM

From a liberal Saudi activist.

[visionary]

http://www.necn.com/01/03/13/NH-pare...blockID=819787

NH parents of journalist missing in Syria make appeal to captors

The parents of a New Hampshire journalist who has been missing in Syria since he was kidnapped more than a month ago are appealing to his captors for any information about his health and welfare.

The parents of 39-year-old James Foley say he was kidnapped in northwest Syria by unknown gunmen on Thanksgiving.

In a news conference outside their Rochester home Thursday, John and Diane Foley said their son had been in Syria a year. They said they have not received any information about him in six weeks.

They asked his captors to show compassion and to contact them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/wo...ah-.html?_r=1&

Hezbollah Chief Urges Lebanon to Help in Syrian Crisis

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, openly urged the Lebanese government on Thursday to take a more active role in finding a political solution to the civil war in neighboring Syria and to open its border to refugees to avert further bloodshed.

Mr. Nasrallah, the head of the Shiite militant movement in Lebanon, addressed a ceremony in the town of Baalbek, near the Syrian border, by video link, underscoring the urgency of the need for a resolution. “I call on the Lebanese government to develop its position on the Syrian crisis,” Mr. Nasrallah said, speaking in observance of Arbaeen, the end of a 40-day mourning period for the death of a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. “Lebanon must exert pressure for a political solution and a political dialogue in Syria. If military operations continue in Syria, it will be a long and bloody battle.”

Mr. Nasrallah has only occasionally commented on events in Syria during speeches.

After the Syrian uprising started in March 2011, the prime minister of Lebanon, Najib Mikati, declared that the country would pursue a line of “disassociation” from either side, a position apparently aimed at keeping the fighting from spilling across the border. Nevertheless, there have been occasional flare-ups inside Lebanon and episodes of cross-border shelling.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9020PO20130103

Car bomb hits Damascus petrol station, 11 killed

At least 11 people were killed and 40 wounded when a car bomb exploded on Thursday at a petrol station in the Syrian capital Damascus, opposition activists said.

The petrol station was packed with people queuing for fuel that has become increasingly scarce during the country's 21-month-long civil war, the activists said.

The bombing took place in the Barzeh al-Balad district, whose residents include a mix of majority Sunni Muslims and several other religious and ethnic minorities.

The semi-official al-Ikhbariya television showed footage of 10 burnt bodies and Red Crescent workers searching for victims at the site

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

AMAZING footage of a regime tank exploding inside the Taftanaz airport https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=uEGyL0BEoVY … Idlib
1:48 PM

Another massacre in the village of Qmainas in Idlib...at least 7 martyrs...many more injured.
1:50 PM

Waking up to 2 massacres in Idlib....God knows how many more elsewhere...
1:56 PM

Details of the Qmainas massacre:

Shabiha reinforcements arrived from the coastal cities of Syria to the Mastoomeh checkpoint in Idlib. There were women and children working in the fields nearby tending to their olive trees. The took them to another location. There they were physically tortured, then executed in front of each other. 5 children and 2 women. When the people risked their lived to get their bodies, they shelled the village leaving several with serious injuries.
2:28 PM

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?p...17848338242310

Raqqa: The FSA gains control of Safeeh Oil Field and arrests 15 soldiers and 2 officers
3:10 PM

https://twitter.com/NMSyria

FSA Military Council: Regime air defense has withdrawn from Abbasiya in Damascus's suburbs.
3:18 PM

https://twitter.com/abuhatem

If U.S. wants to cheaply help Syria and the seculars it should fund the national coalition and push it to fund local councils.
3:17 PM

From what I have seen from the few people I talked to the National Coalition is actually working and funding people inside Syria.
3:18 PM

Syrian revolution has much that makes you hopeful to be honest especially after Bashar but it's a huge lie not to say A LOT of huge problems
3:20 PM

Every single person I met swore to God that they never wanted to take arms and worked very hard to keep the revolution peaceful.
3:47 PM

One man Fahd told me the turning point for him was when his best friend was killed in a protest, he ran home and bought a gun that day.
3:48 PM

https://twitter.com/abuhatem

Most; but not all, religious clerics I met in the revolution advocated the idea of a general pardon when regime falls said is Islamic concpt
3:24 PM

Cleric in Idlib sharia court said accused gets 3 judge, a sheikh and a human rights activist give advice and every accused given a lawyer.
3:27 PM

Idlib sharia court sheikh told me in every single case the accused got a lesser penalty than the people wanted and courts are getting heat.
3:27 PM

Idlib sharia court told me ideally that if there is 1% chance that the accused didn't do the crime he is let go even if 99% said he did.
3:28 PM

All 3 judges in the sharia court must agree that the accused did the crime for the punishment to stick. I don't think there is an appeals ct
3:28 PM

https://twitter.com/abuhatem

I met one FSA fighter from Liwa Tawhid Idlib he said he was a Salafi Islamist when in Syria he then left to Turkey and now is for secularism
3:45 PM

The guy from Liwa Tawhid Idlib told me he is a devout Muslim but admired how Turkey gave equal rights to Alawis, Sunnis, and all.
3:45 PM

His friend from Liwa Tawhid Idlib also who was an early guy who took arms and nice guy was opposite - very Islamist with conspiracy theories
3:46 PM

The point is all these fighters are all random guys who were in Syria who took guns they have stories, lives, histories, all different.
3:46 PM

https://twitter.com/javierespinosa2

1 FSA contact from Idlib:"regime launched a large missile,we believe is a Scud, against Shulah village near Taftanaz"
3:44 PM

https://twitter.com/THE_47th

Reports of massive explosion in Hameesh gas station in Barzeh, where lines of cars had 2 wait hrs 4 gas. Bodies laying everywhere.
4:09 PM

https://twitter.com/NMSyria

At least six confirmed dead and dozens injured after a car bomb exploded outside a gas station in Barzeh. Damascus
4:06 PM

Activists: Reports that a Syrian fighter jet has defected to Turkey, escorted by Turkish air force.
6:02 PM

https://twitter.com/eman_cipation_

We're expecting close to 300 people at this Sunday's Syrian Orphans brunch. Admission is $40 and all money goes to the org. Do the math
9:41 PM

http://www.lccsyria.org/10770

Local Coordination Committees in Syria

By the end of Thursday the LCC managed to document 170[2] martyrs (including 14 children and 10 women), 74 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its Suburbs (20 of them in Douma), 26 martyrs in Idlib (7 of them in Qemnas), 21 martyrs in Aleppo, 16 martyrs in Daraa, 12 martyrs in Homs, 10 martyrs in Deir Ezzor, 7 martyrs in Hama and 6 martyrs in Raqqa

http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...=1#post9046975
At least 46,097 people killed so far in Syria

[visionary]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...-up?CMP=twt_gu

Syria rebels' arms supplies and finances drying up despite western pledges

Despite widespread pledges of support from western and Arab states, the main Syrian opposition coalition says it has still not seen any significant increase in funding or arms supplies.

Members of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, formed in November, say that there is still no sign of western capitals relaxing their ban on delivering weapons to the rebels and that even Gulf Arab governments, which helped arm opposition groups last year, are supplying less with every passing week.

"The supplies are drying up. It is still Syrian ex-pats – individuals - who are providing the funding by and large," said a Syrian businessman who has helped to fund the opposition since the uprising began 22 months ago.

As a result, he said, the fragmented rebel forces have changed strategy, giving up hopes of a sweep through the country, and focusing instead on a gradual war of attrition: besieging isolated government military bases to stop the regime using planes and helicopters against them and ultimately to capture weapons, to compensate for the meagre supplies from abroad.

https://twitter.com/And_Harper

Situat'n deteriorates w 1,818 x'ing 2 jo last nite. Youngest only 1 day old. Eldest 87 yo. All aid agencies need immediate support
1:14 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

reports say assad's forces (3rd division) have executed +200 officers, troops & civilians in al-qatifah (al-qalamoun)
1:14 AM

15 troops have defected from taftanaz military airport
1:00 AM

resistance fighters wiped out a military checkpoint & closed the road between nawa & al-sheikh miskin in daraa
1:22 AM

resistance fighters continue to besiege 3 airports in aleppo, taftanaz military airport, deirezzor airport & damascus airport
4:08 AM

resistance fighters seized a bmp vehicle in busr al-harir (daraa) http://youtu.be/NTBXuz9qKh4
4:14 AM

https://twitter.com/Fixer_Turkey

After Turkey opened Syrian borders to media members, the smugglers became jobless and now working as fixers and make money of Kidnapping etc
10:10 AM

Any journalist would like to go to Syria from Turkey should use Kilis border (Bab al Salame) Not Rehyanli border, Bab al hawa
10:17 AM

At bab al Salame Syrian rebels are better organized and help foreign journalists and find them Fixer even if they need
10:18 AM

https://twitter.com/THE_47th

Assad's Presidential Office Chief of Staff is dead. FSA say they sniped him, State Media say he died of a heart-attack. I say **** Assad.
10:30 AM

https://twitter.com/freeCritic2000

Our mission in Old Aleppo to retrieve the hospital equipment was a success & nobody was hurt - though it was close pic.twitter.com/pbHhVtXX
2:14 PM

The frontline is currently at edge of Grand Ummayad Mosque. This is closest I could get without getting shot. pic.twitter.com/n4AiLehN
2:24 PM

Rebels explained that they try to prevent looting. In a luxurious rug store they placed all rugs in locked room pic.twitter.com/ilgNpOlF
2:28 PM

Some alleys are open to snipers so we have to run through. My friend slipped & fell but we pulled him & ran pic.twitter.com/Nql3tnJJ
2:33 PM

Back at the centre things get emotional. I bid everyone farewell as I get ready to leave Aleppo city. We hesitantly promise to meet again
2:37 PM

https://twitter.com/freeCritic2000

Before i leave Syria I have one last place to visit. The town of Al-Bab my father's birthplace. I met my relatives whom I never met before
2:48 PM

Arrived in Albab in the dark with no address only a name. I ask around & they direct me to a shop which supposedly belongs to a relative.
2:50 PM

I meet a large man. We introduce each other in the dark. He is my father's cousin. We hug strongly & tears run on our cheeks.
2:54 PM

In the dark i am whisked from house 2 house. Meet father's cousins & aunts. People kiss me & search to find & show me old pics. V Emotional
2:59 PM

I spend night there. No electric but they've a luxury we take for granted. Hot hoter. Haven't felt it for days. Candle light shower it is
3:04 PM

https://twitter.com/KurtPelda

Spent a few days in Halfaya, Hama province, and spoke to several eye witnesses of the attack on the bakery on 23rd December.
2:51 PM

The pattern of impacts leaves little doubt that this was an air attack as described by the witnesses.
2:57 PM

Among the witnesses there were also two wounded women. The weapons used were four unguided air-to-ground rockets. The bakery in Halfaya was on the ground floor of the municipal building. The jet made two rounds before attacking, according to witnesses. Unable to verify the number of casualties of the Halfaya bakery massacre but counted almost 100 fresh graves on the cemetery.
3:03 PM

Next military target was 300 metres away, so this appeared to be a deliberate attack on the people queuing in front of the bakery.
3:08 PM

One rocket hit the people right in front of the Halfaya bakery. The walls of the building were splashed with blood and rotting human flesh.
3:20 PM

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...8AJ1FK20130105

Syrian army rockets rebellious Damascus district

The Syrian army fired rockets at a Damascus district on Saturday, trying to drive out insurgents fighting their way closer to the seat of President Bashar al-Assad's power.

As fighting that has killed 60,000 persists in the 21-month uprising turned civil war, Syria's deputy foreign minister visited Iran on Saturday, seeking to maintain the support of Assad's main regional ally.

Iran's Fars news agency said Faisal al-Makdad would meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials.

Government forces fired rockets at Jobar, a Sunni enclave close to the centre of Damascus, a day after bombarding Daraya, a suburb in the east and part of a crescent of rebel-held areas on the outskirts, said Housam, an activist in the capital.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/05/world/...war/index.html

Syrian rebel leader talks victory and squalor

Opposition fighters are celebrating success in Syria's north but enduring cruel squalor in and around Damascus, where government forces are cutting off food and medical supplies, a rebel leader said Saturday.

Syrian rebels chipped away at President Bashar al-Assad's air power in Idlib province Saturday as 800 fighters pummeled Taftanaz airbase for the fourth day with anti-aircraft guns and tanks.

They have taken control of 70% of the heliport, rebel leader Capt. Islam Aloush said from Damascus. Militia members killed the head of the base, he said. "There are still about 30 snipers and a few dozen regime forces, but the fight is closing in on them."

Al-Assad's forces use the base mainly to launch copter attacks on nearby towns. Syrian warplanes dropped cluster bombs on Taftanaz in a raid that led to the destruction of several buildings, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said Saturday.

Since the push on Taftanaz began, they have exacted retribution on the nearby city of Binnish, where amateur video posted on the Internet has shown dozens of smoke plumes marking where ordnance has struck.

"The trouble with Idlib is that it has many military airports." Aloush said his Liwaa Islam militia and other groups want to knock the bases "to minimize the reach of the regime's warplanes."

http://world.time.com/2013/01/03/syr...#ixzz2H7fHZeJt

Syria’s Rising Death Toll: The Darkness Before the Dawn or Sign of a Grinding Stalemate?

At least 60,000 Syrians have been killed in the country’s civil war since March 2011, U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay reported Wednesday. Despite that death toll, which Pillay described as “truly shocking,” U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned last weekend that the increasingly sectarian conflict could claim a further 100,000 lives in the coming year without necessarily producing a decisive outcome.

Brahimi warned that the war “presents a grave danger not only to the Syrian people but to the neighboring countries and the world,” and he predicted that left unresolved, the conflict would turn Syria into an equivalent of Somalia — a failed state carved into fiefdoms run by local warlords.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/wo...ion.html?_r=1&

Rebellion at Stalemate, Waiting for Undecided Syrians to Make a Move

At his government office in the Syrian capital, Damascus, the civil servant avoids discussing what Syrians call “the situation.” But he quietly ponders his own private endgame, toying with defecting to the rebels, yet clinging to his post, increasingly sure there are no fighters worth joining.

A multilingual former military officer, he says he is among many friends and colleagues who feel trapped: disenchanted with President Bashar al-Assad, disgusted by the violence engulfing Syria and equally afraid of the government and the rebels, with both sides, as he puts it, ready to sacrifice “the innocents.”

Mr. Assad remains in power in part because two years into the uprising, a critical bloc of Syrians remains on the fence. Among them are business owners who drive the economy, bankers who finance it, and the security officials and government employees who hold the keys to the mundane but crucial business of maintaining an authoritarian state. If they abandoned the government or embraced the rebels en masse, they might change the tide. Instead, their uncertainty contributes to the stalemate.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9030W920130104

U.S. missile teams in Turkey, missiles come later

U.S. soldiers who will man Patriot anti-missile batteries to protect Turkey from the spillover of Syria's civil war began arriving in the country on Friday, the U.S. military said, but the missiles themselves are due later.

Turkey formally asked NATO for the missiles in November to bolster security along its 900-km (560-mile) border with Syria, which has been torn by a 21-month insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad.

Turkey repeatedly has scrambled fighter jets along the frontier and responded in kind when Syrian shells came down inside its borders, fanning fears that the civil war could spread to destabilize the region.

About 400 U.S. personnel and equipment from the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Artillery, based at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, will arrive in Turkey over the next several days by U.S. military airlift, the U.S. European Command said on its website.

No U.S. Patriot missiles arrived on Friday, however, according to a military source, and it will be several weeks before the missiles, supplied by Germany and the Netherlands, get to Turkey.

The U.S. troops, who began arriving at Incirlik air base in Turkey, will man two U.S. Patriot batteries out of a total of six batteries that have been promised by NATO allies.

https://twitter.com/freeCritic2000

I wake up early as I've appointment with trusted driver to take me to Turkey. Have to say goodbye to new found family. We make same promise
3:07 PM Jan 4

I go on quick tour of Albab. Sadly it's had its fair share of damage too. Counted around a dozen of damaged buildings pic.twitter.com/jwzeGLU9
3:10 PM Jan 4

On way to Turkey we make brief stop in Azaz. Driver shows me site where rocket hit 2 days ago. It's only a farmhouse pic.twitter.com/UN2PIMhY
3:17 PM Jan 4

Just before it gets dark I'm back to where it all begun few days ago. Border crossing between Turkey & beloved Syria pic.twitter.com/jVNlzLDw
3:24 PM Jan 4

https://twitter.com/AlexanderPageSY

Assad expected to give a speech within the coming days where he will introduce information around his possible let go of presidency
6:41 PM

Assad's speech will mention conditions on which he would officially hand over presidency based on a Russian, regional agreement.
7:00 PM

Sources from inner circle describe Assad as being the thin line in either going all the way or finding an acceptable way out
7:19 PM

On my part I say, anything that doesn't include Assad stepping down right now will be rejected by Syria'ns whatever the gains.
7:21 PM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

200 soldiers defect in Damascus and its suburbs https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=jU5VDkEHPu8
11:13 PM Jan 4

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters destroyed a tank in the town of busr al-harir in daraa
3:07 AM

jabhat al-nusrah fighters say they blew up a military checkpoint & the military security compound in al-nabk
3:30 AM

resistance fighters destroyed a tank & seized a military pick up truck in the town of taibat al-imam in hama
3:56 AM

assad's forces have abandoned a military checkpoint in the town of taibat al-imam in hama
3:59 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters say they have liberated al-andalus area in beit sahem (damascus countryside)
4:28 AM

resistance fighters have killed an infamous assad sniper in al-huwaiqah neighborhood in deirezzor city
4:43 AM

resistance fighters say they have liberated the 'technical services' compound in deirezzor city
4:47 AM

resistance fighters say they control ghurbah area in al-sayyidah zaynab
5:34 AM

https://www.facebook.com/note.php?no...83063045054169

The LCC was able to document 129 martyrs [Friday] (including 16 children and 4 women), 70 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its Suburbs, 18 martyrs in Aleppo, 9 martyrs in Homs, 8 martyrs in Hama, 7 martyrs in Deir Ezzor, 6 martyrs in Raqqa, 6 martyrs in Idlib and 5 martyrs in Daraa

http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...=1#post9046975
At least 46,226 people killed so far in Syria

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9040A420130105

Syria's Assad to give speech on Sunday: state television

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will deliver a speech on Sunday, state media said, in what will be his first major public statement for weeks on the uprising against his rule.

Syrian television said Assad, who has vowed to crush armed rebels fighting to topple him, would speak about "developments in Syria and the region".

http://news.sky.com/story/1033348/sy...nto-black-hole

Syria: How Activist Vanished Into 'Black Hole'

Zed always knew the Syrian secret police would come for him, he just did not know the date. It was December 15, 2012.

Zed, committed to peaceful change in Syria, has been one of the bravest and most outspoken activists in the opposition movement, and one of the few prepared to show his face on the foreign media.

Last year he told me: "I know eventually they will bring me in, but what can I do, we have to change this system by peaceful means."

And then last month he stopped responding to emails, and calls to his mobile went unanswered.

When I was in Damascus in December I called a few times. To my shame I did not follow up on his unexplained silence and have found out later than I should that he has vanished into the secret police system.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/orig...#ixzz2H9X4b5O0

Assad Speech Reportedly to Propose Settlement Initiative for Syria

According to sources, it is expected that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- in the next few days -- will deliver a speech that includes a new proposal to resolve the crisis in Syria. The same sources revealed that the initiative includes a type of roadmap to a solution, according to the following steps:

First, an agreement on a comprehensive and mutual ceasefire, with a mechanism for monitoring the ceasefire handled by international observers.

Second, the establishment of a coalition government in Syria, with equal representation among three parties: the current regime, the armed opposition, and independents. The initiative gives the aforementioned government broad powers, without including any provisions to restructure the Syrian army, the police or the security forces, which fall outside the quotas of government formation.

Third, the establishment of a constituent committee for writing a new Syrian constitution.

Fourth, the election of a Syrian parliament through internationally monitored free elections.

This information indicates that the speech announcing the initiative will not in any way address the issue of President Assad's departure as part of the transitional phase. Determining his fate would be left to the ballot boxes in the upcoming presidential elections, which are scheduled for the early summer of 2014.

https://twitter.com/tweets4peace

Tesneen village is near Talbiseh+Alrastan cities [Homs], it is made up of a mix of both Sunni&Alawites who lives together for years Today regime forces and their shabeeha thugs gathered from near the village and within the village in very large numbers. They began to attack village using tanks, this led to 1 confirmed martyr Khaled Hajaq, civilians began fleeing from the area.

According to eyewitness videos to follow, FSA helped evacuate the remaining families and they are filmed safe in hiding. The area was then stormed on land with most families fleeing but the eyewitnesses say entire families were killed. Regime is still present inside with its tanks and forces and sectarian thugs so no one can go in to confirm deaths. This comes in an attempt for regime forces to capture surrounding villages to the FSA held populated Talbiseh & Alrastan.
2:56 PM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters destroyed 2 tanks & a bmp & killed many assad troops in ma`damiyat al-sham. +15 troops were arrested
1:38 PM

menneg military airport: assad's troops are hiding in the headquarters building syria
3:01 PM

resistance fighters say they have liberated a military checkpoint on deirezzor - al-hasakah road & arrested 3 assad troops
3:32 PM

brigadier general mustafa al-hajji has defected in hama
3:44 PM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

Reports that the only resistance from regime forces at Taftanaz airport now is coming from 2 BMPs, 2 Shilkas, and light machine guns.
2:43 PM

At Wadi Aldayf they are inside the base pretty much. At Hamdiyeh they destroyed the ckpts leadin up to it..currently shelling it
2:47 PM

Almost all the planes inside the Taftanaz airport are now non-functional due to FSA shelling on the airport.
4:07 PM

https://twitter.com/AlexanderPageSY

Assad's speech planned to take palce Sunday morning just by Ummayad Square at the Nobles Palace of central Damascus
6:49 PM

Assad's confirmed speech in coming hours will not be the surprise that people expect, a deal has be agreed on but no step down till 2014
6:42 PM

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?p...17848338242310

With the end of Saturday, the Local Coordination Committees were able to confirm 79 martyrs, including 6 children and 10 women. 35 martyrs were reported in Damascus and Damascus Suburbs, 18 in Daraa, 8 in Idlib including 6 members from the same family in Qimnas, 5 in Hama, 5 in Homs, 4 in Aleppo and 4 in Deir Ezzor.

http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...=1#post9046975
At least 46,305 people killed so far in Syria

[visionary]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...ech?CMP=twt_gu

Syria's Bashar al-Assad calls on foreign countries to end support for rebels

Bashar al-Assad has pledged to continue fighting "terrorist" violence and urged foreign countries to end support for his enemies while also offering a national dialogue and a constitutional referendum to end Syria's bloody crisis.

The Syrian president used an hour-long speech in Damascus on Sunday to propose what he called a comprehensive plan that included an "expanded government". But there was no sign he was prepared to step down as the first stage of a political transition – a demand of all opposition groups. "I will go one day, but the country remains," he said.

The Syrian leader referred repeatedly to plots against his country and the role of al-Qaida, long-portrayed as the leading element in what began as a popular uprising in March 2011. Syria was not facing a revolution but a "gang of criminals", he said.

"We are now in a state of war in every sense of the word," the president told supporters. "This war targets Syria using a handful of Syrians and many foreigners. Thus, this is a war to defend the nation."

It was hard to see how his latest speech offered even a glimmer of hope for a way out of the bloody impasse between the regime and rebels in a conflict that the UN said last week had claimed 60,000 lives over 21 months.

http://www.thenational.ae/thenationa...arat-brutality

Assad offers only more of the same - mukhabarat brutality

The world still blinks every time that Bashar Al Assad speaks, as if it has not learnt anything from 21 months of violence.

In his speech yesterday - his ninth since the uprising began - the dictator offered a plan that would include a lengthy, complicated process of gradual change and "truth and reconciliation". That would, in theory, lead to a new coalition government and a new constitution.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/wo...ents.html?_r=0

Assad, in Speech, Says Syria ‘Accepts Advice but Not Orders’

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, sounding defiant, confident, and, to critics, out of touch with the magnitude of his people’s grievances, proposed on Sunday what he called a plan to resolve the country’s 21-month uprising with a new constitution and cabinet.

But he offered no new acknowledgment of the gains by the rebels fighting against him, the excesses of his government or the aspirations of the Syrian people. Mr. Assad also ruled out talks with the armed opposition and pointedly ignored its central demand that he step down, instead using much of a nearly hourlong speech to justify his harsh military crackdown.

Mr. Assad waved to a cheering, chanting crowd as he strode to the stage of the Damascus Opera House in the capital’s central Umayyad Square — where residents said security forces had deployed heavily the night before. In his first public speech since June 2012, he repeated his longstanding assertions that the movement against him was driven by “murderous criminals” and foreign-financed terrorists, and appeared to push back hard against recent international efforts to broker a compromise.

Yet Mr. Assad’s speech appeared unlikely to satisfy even those among his opponents who reject the armed rebellion, since it made no apology for the arrests of peaceful activists or for airstrikes that have destroyed neighborhoods. Mr. Assad gave no sign of acknowledging that the movement against him was anything more than a foreign plot or had any goals other than to inflict suffering and destroy the country.

“They killed the intellectuals in order to afflict ignorance on us,” Mr. Assad said. “They attacked the infrastructure in order to make our life difficult, they deprived children from school in order to bring the country backward.”

He added: “The enemies of the people are the enemies of God, and the enemies of God will burn in hell.”

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

from ahrar al-zawiyah brigade: resistance fighters seized ammunition http://youtu.be/aAz5JkoquN0
1:48 AM

resistance fighters are attacking al-jarrah military airport in maskanah (aleppo). 6 troops have defected
2:38 AM

resistance fighters destroyed a military checkpoint in al-ghoutah al-sharqiyah (near thameco medical company) & arrested 14 troops
3:07 AM

resistance fighters say they have liberated 'an officers' hotel' near the police academy in khan al-asal (aleppo)
4:11 AM

https://twitter.com/WilliamJHague

AssadSpeech beyond hypocritical. Deaths, violence and oppression engulfing Syria are his own making, empty promises of reform fool no one
6:38 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters liberated a military checkpoint between deirezzor & al-hasakah http://youtu.be/bGXJLxyBm9w
6:21 AM

resistance fighters have repulsed an attack on bustan pasha neighborhood in aleppo city. 7 assad troops were killed
6:52 AM

resistance fighters destroyed a tank & a bmp in deirezzor city. they also blew up an ambulance carrying assad troops
6:59 AM

resistance fighters say 3 soldiers have defected from the police academy in khan al-asal (aleppo)
7:56 AM

jabhat al-nusrah says resistance fighters have fired 10 rockets on al-jarrah military airport. some buildings were destroyed
8:02 AM

https://twitter.com/MajdArar

600 prisoner, 200 of them army officers are kept in AFI HQ cellars; just meters away frm where Assad made his speech today Damascus
9:07 AM

https://twitter.com/nanoushxOx

I can't wait for the day when Assad is at the hands of the Syrian people BEGGING for his life. I hope they record it all on video
9:07 AM

https://twitter.com/tweets4peace

From the martyrs are 8 summarily executed and burnt in Tesneen village Homs and 5 in Aleppo, passengers hit with mortar shell
9:22 AM

https://twitter.com/samersniper

I hope that wasn't a Scud missile, because A HUGE EXPLOSION has just shaken the whole city of Homs
11:15 AM

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9050CD20130106

U.S. dismisses Assad speech, says he must step aside to allow transition

The U.S. State Department dismissed a speech by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Sunday as a meaningless attempt to retain power in his war-torn country and urged the beleaguered strongman to step down.

Assad's speech "is yet another attempt by the regime to cling to power and does nothing to advance the Syrian people's goal of a political transition," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland in a statement.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/06/wo...iew/index.html

Morsy backs Syrian calls for al-Assad to face war crimes trial

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy supports calls by people in Syria for President Bashar al-Assad to be tried for war crimes, he told CNN on Sunday in an exclusive interview.

"The Syrian people through their revolution and through the movement will -- when the bloodshed stops -- move to a new stage where they will have an independent parliament and a government of their choosing," Morsy, Egypt's first freely elected leader, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in Cairo. "And then they will decide what they want to do to those who committed crimes against them. It is the Syrian people who decide."

Asked about Syria, Morsy repeated his previous calls for al-Assad to leave power.

Asked whether he thought the Syrian leader should be tried before the International Criminal Court for war crimes, Morsy said, "It is not I who want this, but the Syrian people who want this."

https://twitter.com/AmbassadorRice

Assad's speech today was delusional & utterly meaningless.
5:10 PM

https://twitter.com/NMSyria

Activists: FSA has sent reinforcements, including captured tanks, to fortify position at military airport in Deir Ezzor.
6:53 PM

In Deir Ezzor, the FSA surrounded the Political Security branch building and destroyed several pieces of military equipment.
6:12 PM

In Damascus, the FSA managed to block an attempt by regime forces to storm eastern Ghouta by a road through Hatitet al-Turkman. The FSA destroyed more than 15 military vehicles and 4 tanks during their clashes with regime forces in eastern Ghouta.
6:14 PM

On Sunday, FSA also seized a large amount of ammunition and other supplies on an agricultural road connecting Soqailbiya & Tal Burhan. Hama
6:14 PM

Damascus - Two mortar shells have landed in the Qazzaz neighborhood, destroying one car and causing damage to two homes.
6:15 PM

http://www.lccsyria.org/10782

Local Coordination Committees in Syria

The LCC managed to document 101 martyrs in Syria on Sunday, including 2 children and 10 women: 28 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its Suburbs, 22 in Aleppo, 14 in Daraa, 13 in Homs (most of them in Tasneen), 10 in Hama, 10 in Deir Ezzor, 3 in Idlib and 1 in Lattakia

http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...=1#post9046975
At least 46,406 people killed so far in Syria

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middle...004953919.html

Syrian opposition rejects Assad's peace plan

Syrian opposition groups have rejected a new peace initiative by President Bashar al-Assad that includes a national reconciliation conference and a new government and constitution.

Assad was speaking on Sunday in a rare address to the nation, his first since June, demanded that Western countries stop funding and arming rebels and said he is ready to hold a dialogue with those "who have not betrayed Syria".

He spoke in a hall at the Opera House in central Damascus, and the audience frequently broke out in cheers and applause.

The Syrian opposition, including rebels on the ground, were quick to reject Assad's proposal.

Louay Safi, a member of the Syrian National Coalition opposition bloc, dismissed the address to the nation as "empty rhetoric”.

"He did not offer to step down, which was a precondition to start any negotiation," Safi told Al Jazeera.

"He has shown that he is a dictator that we cannot negotiate with. I think he has no desire to relinquish power. He wants to crush the opposition and he hopes he can stay over for the next 40 years like his father did."

http://www.economist.com/blogs/pomeg...risis?fsrc=rss

Brazen Bashar

BASHAR ASSAD'S ever-rarer speeches have become rather predictable. On January 6th Mr Assad, in his first speech in six months, blamed Syria's problems on "terrorists" backed by the West, appeared defiant over the current state of affairs, and ignored demands that he step down. At no point during the long and rambling address did the president acknowledge his increasingly tenuous grip on power.

Instead Mr Assad stressed the less savoury aspects of Syria's uprising, which started peacefully in March 2011 before transforming into an armed conflict. He emphasised the presence of extremists and criminals among the opposition—in reality, they make up a small percentage of the rebels—and blamed outsiders for fuelling the war. China and Russia were singled out for their support, which has included vetoes at the United Nations Security Council and, in Russia’s case, military assistance. But the president's defiant stance may make it more difficult for those countries to continue to stand in the way of international action.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/orig...sis-egypt.html

Syrian Refugee Crisis Spills Over Into Egypt

When Hazem learned last month that the Syrian military would draft him on New Year’s Day, he did not wait around to see whether the regime would keep its word. The 23-year-old law student from Damascus drove to the Lebanese border, bribed a soldier and hopped on one of the next planes from Beirut to Cairo. In doing so, he joined tens of thousands of his compatriots — including his brother, who had previously fled conscription — who have fled the fighting at home for countries increasingly far from Syria.

The vast majority of the 576,000 Syrian refugees registered or awaiting appointments with the UN’s refugee agency are concentrated in nations bordering Syria — particularly Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon — but thousands more are seeking refuge in Egypt and other North African countries. Across the region, thousands remain unregistered.

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters have liberated a military checkpoint in ain isa (al-raqqah)
6:31 AM

al-farouq brigades say 9 troops have defected in talkalakh
7:47 AM

resistance fighters say they control all the town of busr al-harir in daraa. 10 assad troops were arrested
9:36 AM

resistance figters seized weapons & ammunition in al-raqqah's countryside http://youtu.be/ezdc0wSshFE
10:01 AM

resistance fighters have liberated sayyiduna yusuf mosque in khan al-asal (aleppo)
10:37 AM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

Activists in Raqqa saying the FSA found 60 stinger launchers and missiles hidden in a base they liberated. Not confirmed yet.
1:44 PM

Black cloud of smoke over the town of Mastoomeh Idlib after the regime entered and began burning the homes.
1:30 PM

Near the town is a large checkpoint called Mastoomeh that shells the entire Jabal Alzawiyah area even reaching Maarat Al-Nouman. I think the only reason they chose is it is for its proximity.
1:40 PM

BREAKING After the regime entered Mastoomeh in Idlib there are unconfirmed reports of a massacre in the town with an estimated 60 martyrs!
8:39 PM

https://twitter.com/NMSyria

BREAKING: Deaths reported after a blaze erupted at the Tal Abyad refugee camp for displaced Syrians in al-Raqqa.
12:36 AM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

A regime helicopter attempted to land in Taftanaz airport and the FSA shot it down. Idlib
4:20 AM

https://twitter.com/Basma_

Fire broke out last night in a tent in Akcakale Syria refugee camp in Turkey, killing a 5-y-o child and wounding five others
4:21 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters destroyed 2 tanks in the town of busr al-harir in daraa
4:29 AM

resistance fighters have seized a tank near ma`arrat al-nu`man city
5:11 AM

http://www.lccsyria.org/10786

Local Coordination Committees in Syria

By the end of Monday the LCC managed to document 72[1] martyrs (including 7 children and 3 women), 29 martyrs were reported in Aleppo, 26 martyrs in Damascus and its Suburbs, 5 martyrs in Daraa, 4 martyrs in Raqqa, 3 martyrs in Hama, 2 martyrs in Homs, 1 martyr in Idlib and 1 martyr in Hasaka

http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...=1#post9046975
At least 46,477 people killed so far in Syria

[visionary]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/08/world/...war/index.html

Syrian minister: Enemies 'brainwashed' slain rebel son

A Syrian Cabinet minister confirmed the death of his rebel son, and, without a trace of grief, coldly rejected the young man's embrace of the opposition, according to a state news report.

"I disapprove and condemn whatever my son did," said Mohammad Turki al-Sayyed, minister of state for the People's Assembly Affairs, who acknowledged the death of his son, Bassim. "I said it before and I disavow him again, fully even after his death."

Al-Sayyed's statement, reported by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, illustrates the collapse of Syrian family stability during the 22-month old conflict, now a full-blown civil war. The United Nations says more than 60,000 people have died in the carnage, which shows no signs of stopping.

As for Bassim al-Sayyed, one activist wrote on his Facebook page that he joined demonstrators at the start of the uprising in 2011. He later joined the Free Syrian Army and was killed in the fighting.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...e-camp-jordan/

Riot breaks out in Syrian refugee camp in Jordan

Syrian refugees in a Jordanian camp attacked aid workers with sticks and stones on Tuesday, frustrated after cold, howling winds swept away their tents and torrential rains flooded muddy streets overnight.

Police said seven aid workers were injured.

The refugees may be about to face even deeper misery with warnings of a major snowstorm threatening Jordan and Turkey— the two countries with the largest Syrian refugee populations.

“It is hell — boiling hot in the summer and freezing cold now,” lamented Ahmed Zibi, 45, who said he spent the night watching over his five children when his tent collapsed. “Rain flooded the tent and its shafts submerged and collapsed on us.”

https://twitter.com/Bint_Althowra

Taybet El Imam Hama is under heavy shelling this morning, MIGS are dropping bombs on my Family. F%!? Russians.
2:29 AM

FSA remains "stuck" in Taybet el Imam as Assad Army is shelling from Christian Village called Mhaardeh.
2:37 AM

Taybet El Imam FSA cannot retaliate as they might impact Mhaardeh civilians ( Christian neighboors)
2:39 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters are attacking deirezzor military airport. thick smokes are coming out of the airport
7:14 AM

resistance fighters have liberated the national hospital in harasta (damascus countryside)
10:50 AM

resistance fighters blew up a building occupied by assad troops in al-jabilah neighborhood in deirezzor city. troops were killed
10:59 AM

resistance fighters have liberated a building & a school near deirezzor military airport
11:01 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters say they damaged a military copter in menneg military airport
11:37 AM

resistance fighters liberate the political [military] security compound in harasta http://youtu.be/OZqT3n4GVXE
11:41 AM

resistance fighters say they have seized about 100 guns & 50 ammunition boxes in the political security compound in harasta
11:54 AM

resistance fighters are attacking the airforce defense compound in maliha (damascus countryside)
12:02 PM

https://twitter.com/Basma_

In the past 24 hours, two children in Syria refugee camp in Jordan froze to death, while a child in refugee camp in Turkey burned to death
4:25 PM

https://twitter.com/OmarShakir91

Breaking, Clashes between FSA & Assad's forces near of Nayrab military airport Aleppo
4:35 PM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

36 martyrs confirmed by name in the Mastoomeh Idlib massacre. Many more martyrs couldn't be reached due to regime presence.
2:26 PM

All martyrs were lined up and executed...either shot or burned. Mastoomeh Idlib
2:31 PM

The 36 martyrs from the massacre do not include the 17 that were killed yesterday and their bodies discovered today
2:33 PM

Reports that the number of martyrs from the Mastoomeh massacre have reached 71.
4:03 PM

Several soldiers and regime officers defect from the Hamdiyeh base south of MaaratAlNouman
4:47 PM

https://twitter.com/arwaCNN

just spoke 2 activist in aleppo who says that bread crisis is over bc nusra front took over distribution & was able 2 bring in flour
4:45 PM

also says that nusra has been able 2 provide cooking gas 2 families in aleppo
4:48 PM

nusra front may B branded "terrorists" by US but on ground, in aleppo they R best fighting force & it seems able 2 help provide 4 the ppl
4:50 PM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters repulsed another attack on darayya (they damaged a tank & a bmp vehicle today)
12:05 PM

jabhat al-nusrah says resistance fighters damaged 2 warplanes in kowaires military airport. ferocious clashes continue
12:09 PM

resistance fighters seized a tank in busr al-harir (daraa) http://youtu.be/ta3TuyasysE
12:11 PM

resistance fighters have liberated 3 military checkpoints in al-zabadani
12:23 PM

resistance fighters have destroyed a military checkpoint near darayya. heavy clashes are going on now on damascus - daraa motorway
6:24 PM

https://twitter.com/Visionaryck

WATCH: FSA targeting civilian aircraft carrying ammunition to Deir Ezzor military airport. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo4dN...ature=youtu.be
6:08 PM

Keep in mind - It's a civilian plane but it's being used to transfer ammunition. There aren't civilians on board.
6:08 PM

http://www.lccsyria.org/10790

Local Coordination Committees in Syria

With the end of Tuesday, the Local Coordination Committees were able to confirm 118[6] martyrs, among them 3 children and 3 women. 47 martyrs were reported in Idlib; most of them in Al-Mastumeh, 35 in Damascus and its Suburbs, 15 in Deir Ezzor, 9 in Aleppo, 6 in Homs, 3 in Daraa and 1 in Hama

http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...=1#post9046975
At least 46,593 people killed so far in Syria

[visionary]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/09/world/...oner-exchange/

Syrian government to release 2,100 prisoners in exchange for 48 Iranians

A prisoner exchange involving thousands of Syrian and Turkish captives and at least 48 Iranians was underway Wednesday morning in Damascus, according to a Turkish charity organization that has been involved in previous prisoner swaps in Syria.

"They are being handed over right now. We have teams on the ground in Damascus. They are at various police stations handling the exchange," said Huseyin Oruc, deputy president of the Humanitarian Relief Foundation, an organization widely known by its Turkish acronym IHH.

"We also have a team handling the handover of the 48 Iranians from the opposition. There are Turks and Syrians being released," Oruc told CNN in a phone interview.

The Syrian government was releasing 2,130 civilians, including 73 women, in exchange for the release of 48 Iranian prisoners held by rebels, IHH President Bulent Yildirim said, according to the semi-official Turkish Anatolian Agency.

A Syrian rebel spokesman said this may be the biggest prisoner exchange the rebels have conducted with their government adversaries since the start of the Syrian conflict almost two years ago.

"I myself went to two exchange negotiations," said Louai Miqdad, a spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army. "This is bigger."

https://twitter.com/Turk4Syria

IHH says their negotiations have led to the following result: rebels wil release 48 Iranians, regime will release 2130 civilians.
3:06 AM

Among the 2130 people that the regime has promised to free are 73 women & 4 Turkish citizens.
3:08 AM

It is expected that the prisoner exchange takes place today. I will give an update when it happens.
3:13 AM

Some prisoners have already been released this morning by the regime.
3:50 AM

Regime made promises to release these numbers of prisoners in each province:

Damascus 1183, Lattakia 90, Tartous 10, Aleppo 170, Deyr Ez-Zor 55, Idlib 75, Hama 132, Sweida 55, Dara 47, Homs 104, Hasaka 3.
4:00 AM

https://twitter.com/hhassan140

Assad seems releasing batch of prisoners. The four "Freedom Brides" released from prison pic.twitter.com/YotCrRoM, v @Basma_. Others to follow
4:23 AM

https://twitter.com/MahirZeynalov

For Syrian regime, 2,130 Syrians are equal to 48 Iranians.
4:28 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

clashes in taftanaz military airport - LIVE at http://bambuser.com/v/3279777
5:15 AM

resistance fighters have entered taftanaz military airport
5:18 AM

resistance fighters destroyed a bmp vehicle in taftanaz military airport
5:25 AM

liberation of wadi obaid oil field in al-raqqah http://youtu.be/wD2iEsv8mdI
5:28 AM

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures...USRTR3BJAH#a=1

The snipers of Syria

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9080MD20130109

Winter storm brings devastation to Syria and neighbors

The worst winter storm in two decades has hit the eastern Mediterranean this week, bringing destruction and death to Syria and its neighbors who are already dealing with a refugee crisis from the country's civil war.

Opposition activists in Syria, where war has forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and cut off access to food, fuel and power for cities and towns, say dozens of people have died there in four days of relentless extreme weather.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/09/opinio...eda/index.html

Terrorist group fills power vacuum among Syria rebels

In the midst of the struggle against Bashar al-Assad's government stands Jabhat al-Nusra, recently designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization.

A new report by the Quilliam Foundation in London says the organization is the most effective arm of the Syrian insurgency and now fields about 5,000 fighters against the Assad regime.

Practically speaking, the terrorist designation means little that is new for the immediate struggle in Syria. Shortly after al-Nusra claimed credit for one of its early suicide bombings in January 2012, the Obama administration made known al-Nusra's connection to al Qaeda in Iraq, a group with which I was intimately familiar in my capacity as an analyst and targeting officer at the Central Intelligence Agency.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...8AJ1FK20130109

U.N. envoy says 40 years of Assad family rule is "too long"

Syrians believe 40 years of Assad family rule is too long, the international mediator for Syria said, the closest he has come to calling directly for President Bashar al-Assad to quit.

The remarks by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi cast doubt on the future of his peace plan, the only major diplomatic initiative to end a war the United Nations says has killed 60,000 people.

He appears to have been pushed to take a firmer stance by a speech Assad delivered on Sunday, which was billed as a new peace proposal but offered no concessions and included a vow never to talk to foes he branded terrorists and Western puppets.

"In Syria, in particular, I think that what people are saying is that a family ruling for 40 years is a little bit too long," Brahimi told Britain's BBC in an interview aired on Wednesday.

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters have destroyed a tank in taftanaz military airport
5:48 AM

resistance fighters destroyed a tank in the town of busr al-harir in daraa
7:01 AM

update: resistance fighters have liberated most of taftanaz military airport. assad snipers are in the headquarters building
8:56 AM

resistance fighters seized a bmp vehicle in taftanaz military airport. many assad troops were killed
8:58 AM

resistance fighters say they killed +15 assad troops & destroyed a tank in old aleppo
11:46 AM

resistance fighters killed many assad troops & destroyed a tank & a bmp-1 in darayya
11:55 AM

https://twitter.com/tweets4peace

My friend is finally out of prison!! :') thanks for all you're prayers she's now free and safe.
11:01 AM

https://twitter.com/agh_yan

@tweets4peace great news indeed.My cousin was also part of the swap so family is very happy
12:25 PM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

A man who claims to be an eyewitness to the prisoner swap is saying that all the prisoners released were held at the "Palestine branch" or at the "Air Force Intelligence Branch" He also says that the prisoners are in very bad health. Many of them bleeding. Many cant walk on their own. He says they weren't all released and some will be released tomorrow.
12:58 PM

https://twitter.com/HannahAllam

State Dept: Most of the 48 Iranians held captive and in prisoner swap today were Revolutionary Guard.
1:02 PM

https://twitter.com/alihashem_tv

As I said earlier, four Turkish soldiers were released in the swap deal that saw 48 Iranians and more than 2000 pro opposition Syrian freed
1:14 PM

https://twitter.com/tweets4peace

Cousin(head of battalion)told me once caught an Alawite Assad lieutenant&tried to swap with prisoners, regime said kill him/don't want him
1:54 PM

Also the recent regime pilot caught by battalion in Damascus & tried to do swap but refused by regime.
1:55 PM

Hope today is a massive massive wake up call to all Assad soldiers and thugs - he doesn't care about you at all/he uses you.
1:56 PM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

The FSA have the final building in Taftanaz surrounded. All the soldiers and pilots and regime officers are in there now.
2:07 PM

many chances were given...i doubt they would allow defections now...
2:11 PM

https://twitter.com/NMSyria

Please keep in mind, that even after the release of 2,100+ prisoners, there are still more than 140,000 imprisoned individuals in Syria.
1:59 PM

Activists reporting that all military aircraft at Taftanaz military airport have been destroyed.
2:03 PM

Children pose for photos in the flooded Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. pic.twitter.com/oLSRWjwP
2:28 PM

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9090K420130110

Syria's rebels form their own secret police

Just the mention of the word would send shivers down the spine of Syrians: "mukhabarat", or secret police.

Abuses by President Bashar al-Assad's feared security units were among the reasons Syrians took to the streets in March 2011, leading to an uprising that has become a civil war.

But now some of the rebels fighting Assad say they have set up a mukhabarat of their own to "protect the revolution", monitor sensitive military sites and gather military information to help rebels plan attacks against government forces.

However, the organization appears to operate independently from the main opposition Syrian National Coalition and the Free Syrian Army, effectively answering to itself.

Haji was careful to distinguish between its methods and those of the secret police under Assad, saying he was aware of the feared reputation of the government's internal spy services.

"Our work is organized, we have an internal law and we are committed to international laws and human rights," he said, speaking briefly over Skype.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...8AJ1FK20130110

Syria denounces peace envoy who hinted Assad must go

Syria denounced international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi as "flagrantly biased" on Thursday, casting doubt on how long the U.N.-Arab League mediator can pursue his peace mission.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry was responding to remarks by Brahimi a day earlier in which he ruled out a role for President Bashar al-Assad in a transitional government and effectively called for the Baathist leader to quit.

https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss

Story for journos near or in Syria. Report on how Jabhat al-Nusra is controlling cotton fields.
4:15 PM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters killed +30 assad troops & destroyed a tank near aqraba (damascus countryside)
3:48 PM

resistance fighters are about to liberate the last building in taftanaz military airport. i'll upload videos in the morning
3:52 PM

resistance fighters have started 'the battle for al-ramousah' in aleppo. there are 4 military buildings in the area
4:10 PM

update: resistance fighters killed +15 assad troops & destroyed a tank & a bmp in khan al-wazir in aleppo city
4:13 PM

update: 5 troops have defected from menneg (meng) military airport in aleppo. some assad troops were arrested
5:05 PM

https://twitter.com/AhmadElKhalaf

25 Assad Pilots have just been detained by the FSA in Taftanaaz Idlib
5:21 PM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

Reports that the FSA at Taftanaz airport have killed 400 regime soldiers including 75 high-ranking officers during the clashes. Idlib
7:26 PM

CNN video about a young Syrian girl who lost her leg during a missile strike...I met this same girl during my last trip http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/wor...te-sharifa.cnn
8:59 PM

https://twitter.com/And_Harper

Heavy snow x jordan incl. at Zaatri. Some tents collapsed due to weight snow/ice. Despite reports, no confirmed deaths due to cold.
10:48 PM

https://twitter.com/tweets4peace

A lady from America collected a couple of thousand dollars went to Turkey bought aid for some families and it made a difference
10:23 AM

https://twitter.com/Dr_mz13

Dr. Abbas Khan,a UK doc went to Syria to help the injured.He is being held by Syrian regime. Please pray for his release! @FreeDRABBASKHAN
10:25 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

a report says assad's beasts have burned a family in a car in jam`iyat al-zahraa (aleppo city)
9:26 AM

resistance fighters attacked a military checkpoint & seized a tank near the town of mahaja in daraa. assad troops were killed
3:13 AM

brigadier general hussein al-darkal has defected
3:20 AM

resistance fighters have seized an ammunition depot in taftanaz military airport
5:10 AM

resistance fighters destroyed a tank near the town of busr al-harir in #daraa. heavy clashes continue
8:48 AM

http://www.lccsyria.org/10794

Local Coordination Committees in Syria

By the end of Wednesday the LCC managed to document 92 martyrs (including 9 children and 4 women), 29 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its Suburbs, 27 martyrs in Aleppo, 14 martyrs in Hama, 7 martyrs in Idlib, 8 martyrs in Homs, 4 martyrs in Daraa and 3 martyrs in Deir Ezzor

http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...=1#post9046975
At least 46,685 people killed so far in Syria