Yahoo: Assad predicts disaster if West meddles in Syria

[visionary]

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headline...tack-in-egypt/

Ahmadinejad Missed in Shoe ‘Attack’ in Egypt

Video captured what appeared to be a man using a shoe to try and strike Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today as the Iranian president greeted a crowd in Egypt.

The video, uploaded to YouTube by the Anadolu Agency, a Turkish news service, shows Ahmadinejad in a crush of people smiling and shaking hands until a bearded man comes in the frame holding a shoe high over his head. The shoe comes down twice in Ahmadinejad’s direction, but too far from the Iranian leader to pose a threat.

Several men then turn on the shoe-brandishing attacker and Ahmadinejad is quickly hustled to a waiting car. Anadolu reported the man was Syrian and accused the Iranian president of “killing his brothers.” Iran has supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in that country’s ongoing, bloody civil war.

http://www.france24.com/en/20130205-...key-idlib-city

Syria rebels tighten noose around key Idlib city

In Syria's war-torn Idlib province, rowdy children leap around about a rifle-shot's distance away from a regime checkpoint, playing next to armed rebel fighters in green gardens.

Insurgents have tightened their noose around the city of Jisr al-Shughur, held by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, but refrain for now from staging further attacks, and an eerie calm prevails in surrounding villages.

In the hilltop hamlet of Ayni Seda, residents live as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. But below, trucks and troops pass over Jisr al-Shughur's Roman-era bridge that straddles the Orontes River.

Villagers come and go nonchalantly, in the line of sight of regime snipers and artillery gunners taking cover behind sandbags that dot the roofs of houses in the centre of town.

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

Large fire erupts at Bakhsheen refugee camp in Turkey. The fire is spreading from tent to tent. It is unknown if there are any injuries. the refugee camp is in Bohşin Köyü in Hatay, Turkey
7:24 AM

People need to realize that the regime does NOT = Assad. Assad stepping down or getting AIDs will not mean the end of the regime... We've seen this so many times before...when Asif Shawkat was killed...when Riad Hijab defected...it didn't change a thing.

Its either we take out the ENTIRE regime...or we're stuck in the same hole we were in when we first started.
9:29 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters destroyed an ammunition depot in jisr al-shughour city
4:20 AM

resistance fighters have liberated the areas around al-muhallab barracks in aleppo city
4:36 AM

resistance fighters are attacking assad's forces in al-muhallab military barracks in aleppo city
5:51 AM

resistance fighters blew up regiment 138 in khan al-sheikh (damascus countryside). details later
1:26 PM

resistance fighters have liberated an infamous military checkpoint between halfaya & latamnah in hama.
1:41 PM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters have liberated a military field near the town of nasib in south
1:59 PM

resistance fighters are attacking the central jail in al-raqqah city
2:01 PM

assad's forces are now in the south eastern side of al-safirah area in aleppo. jabhat al-nusrah fighters are attacking the convoy
3:36 PM

resistance fighters have liberated tal al-siwan & tal al-kurdi (adra al-balad, damascus countryside)
5:00 PM

a fierce bloody war is going on now near the towns of al-safirah & umm amoud (aleppo). assad's forces may enter al-safirah today
5:49 PM

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

Local Coordination Committees in Syria

With the end of Tuesday the LCC managed to document 113[109] martyrs (including 6 women and 11 children), 41 martyrs were reported in Aleppo, 41 martyrs in Damascus and its Suburbs, 9 martyrs in Daraa, 4 martyrs in Homs, 4 martyrs in Idlib, 4 martyrs in Raqqa, 3 martyrs in Hama, 2 martyrs in Deir Ezzor and 1 martyr in Lattakia

http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...=1#post9046975
At least 50,351 people killed so far in Syria

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/heavy-clashes-...3Rpb25z;_ylv=3

Heavy clashes frighten residents in Syria capital

Syrian rebels and regime forces fought their most intense clashes in weeks inside the heavily guarded capital of Damascus on Wednesday, activists said, with the sounds of shell blasts echoing through the downtown area and keeping many children home from school while residents hid in their houses.

The opposition fighters blasted army checkpoints with rifles and anti-aircraft guns while government forces shelled the eastern and southern suburbs, trying to repel a new insurgent effort to push the civil war into the heart of the capital, the anti-regime activists said.

Although bordered by rebellious suburbs that have seen fierce fighting, widespread clashes have remained mostly on the capital's edges, saving it from the destruction that has ravaged other major cities such as Aleppo and Homs.

http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/02/0...iy-explosives/

Syrian refugees arrested with instructions for DIY explosives

Nine Syrian refugees found to be in possession of videos and documents showing how to prepare explosives and detonators were arrested last night in Benghazi.

Security forces arrested the Syrians in a house-raid, after a tip-off from Baraka police station about a quarrel between Libyans and Syrians in the local area, according to Libyan news agency LANA.

The men, who included a Syrian army officer, have not been named and will be detained pending further investigations

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters destroyed 2 tanks in al-kiswah
3:54 AM

resistance fighters blew up the military security & state security buildings in palmyra city. many assad troops were killed
4:12 AM

resistance fighters say they have destroyed a tank in jobar neighborhood in damascus city
4:30 AM

resistance fighters seize a tank in al-tabqa http://youtu.be/YiLqa1gvRsk
4:40 AM

resistance fighters say they blew up the last military checkpoint on 30th street in damascus city
5:05 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters have destroyed the tower in menneg military airport in aleppo
5:11 AM

resistance fighters have destroyed a military checkpoint & liberated harmalah ibn al-walid mosque in jobar neighborhood in damascus
5:30 AM

20 troops have defected to resistance fighters in palmyra
5:56 AM

resistance fighters have destroyed a military checkpoint in zamalka
6:00 AM

resistance fighters say they destroyed a military checkpoint near zamalka bridge (damascus countryside)
8:16 AM

[visionary]

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/po...g2OOeE.twitter

State Department won’t disperse aid through the Syrian opposition

The State Department and USAID are increasing their humanitarian aid for Syria but have no intention of moving any of that money through the Syrian opposition coalition, as several senators have called for.

U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, Assistant Secretary for Populations, Refugees, and Migration Anne Richard, and USAID Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Nancy Lindborg just returned from a trip to Turkey, Jordan, and Kuwait. In Kuwait, they pledged $155 million of additional U.S. humanitarian aid to help alleviate the suffering caused by the Syrian civil war, bringing the total U.S. aid commitment to $365 million.

Richard and Lindborg said on a Wednesday conference call with reporters that State and USAID don't work through government structures and therefore won't be dispersing any of that aid through the Syrian opposition coalition, which President Barack Obama has recognized as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

http://live.reuters.com/Event/World_News/62679375

Iran's Salehi thinks Syrian govt ready to talk to opposition -MENA

CAIRO, Feb 6 (Reuters) - The foreign minister of Iran said on Wednesday he believed that the Syrian government was ready to negotiate with the opposition and that the two sides would have to sit together for talks, the Egyptian state news agency MENA reported.

"I think that the Syrian government is ready to negotiate with the opposition," Ali Akbar Salehi told MENA. Opposition leader Moaz Alkhatib has made a conditional offer to talk to Syria's rulers about trying to end Syria's conflict

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters have destroyed a tank in daraa al-balad
7:24 AM

5 soldiers have defected in al-sheikh maqsoud neighborhood in aleppo city
11:20 AM

resistance fighters destroyed a tank & a pick up truck on al-ramousah motorway in aleppo
11:23 AM

https://twitter.com/BigAlBrand

I support Muaz Al Khatib's move despite what SNC think about it. I believe it's the right thing to do.
4:16 PM

https://twitter.com/TaziMorocco

Syrian Opposition Leader Alkhatib demands government release all women prisoners by Sunday as conditions of talks offer (BBC Arabic)
4:26 PM

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/syria-oppositi...220243569.html

Syria opposition demands all women prisoners freed by Sunday

Syrian opposition leader Moaz Alkhatib said the Syrian government had until Sunday to release all women detainees, otherwise he would regard his offer for dialogue as rejected by President Bashar al-Assad, BBC Arabic said.

On its website, BBC Arabic quoted Alkhatib as saying in an interview that "the initiative would be broken" if the detainees were not released.

"Women must be released by the coming Sunday," he said. "If any woman stays in prison, I consider the regime not responding."

http://www.thenational.ae/news/world...st-join-forces

Morsi: Syrian rebels must join forces

Syria's fragmented opposition groups must unify if they are to bring about democracy, Egypt's president Mohammed Morsi yesterday told a summit of leaders from Islamic states.

The Syrian civil war was a central issue on the first day of the meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Cairo, with Mr Morsi warning that rebel factions should align with the National Coalition, which is recognised by the international community.

They should "coordinate with this coalition and support their efforts for a unified approach", he said.

"The Syrian regime must draw lessons from history: it is the people who remain," added Mr Morsi. "Those who put their personal interests above the interests of their people will end up leaving."

The meeting gathers the leaders of 26 of the OIC's 57 states, and the focus on Syria added to the tension surrounding the historic visit of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Cairo, the first visit by an Iranian leader to the country since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.

The gathering was expected to issue a resolution calling for "serious dialogue" between the opposition and the president, Bashar Al Assad, and declaring the "main responsibility for the continued violence falls on the Syrian government", according to a leaked document.

http://www.thenational.ae/news/world...#ixzz2KBZv9gDq

Syrian rebels are forging child soldiers into 'killing machines'

Bored at home and eager to join their older brothers and fathers on the front line against Bashar Al Assad's army, Syrian teenagers are joining the rebel cause, oblivious to international laws prohibiting child combatants.

"When they arrive here, they are children. By the time they leave, they are killing machines," said Abdel Razzaq, a 38-year-old former army sergeant who trains the boys.

"I train them not to be scared of war and not to hesitate when the time comes to kill," he said, speaking of his latest group of 20 volunteers, aged 14 to 18.

"There are no more adult men in the villages. Now it's the children who come for military training," said Abdel Razzaq.

Ugh. Although considering the numbers of children (and not just teens) killed by sniping, bombing, shelling, and countless massacres (deliberately targeted at children) in a way they're already part of the war whether they are trained to fight and kill or not.
That doesn't mean it's any less disturbing though.


http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-881644.html

Killed By the Regime: Aleppo's River of the Dead

Last week, dozens of corpses were found on the shore of the Quweiq River in Aleppo, Syria. Many appear to have been students at a nearby university who were murdered by the regime after traveling to the city for exams.

The men from the collection point for the nameless dead always come during the morning. They descend from a major intersection in the Bustan al-Qasr district to the small Quweiq River and bring the bodies that have washed up overnight to a courtyard, where they are wrapped in white sheets and photographed before being left there for a day. This is the place where people looking for missing relatives come to find them.

For weeks now, the river has brought new bodies almost every night. The corpses arrive without any identification and the hands are generally tied together with plastic strings. The men have all been shot.

The week before last, the river carried three bodies on some days, and seven on others. Last Monday there were five, but on Tuesday there were almost 80. There had been heavy rain in the night, the river level had risen, and now corpses were lining the muddy river bank.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/...po_827398.html

Arab Idol's Syrian contestant disappears in Aleppo

Damascus: A Syrian singer auditioning for the Arab Idol music show has disappeared after heading to the battered city of Aleppo in northern Syria, the MBC TV said in a statement posted on its website Wednesday.

Without revealing the young man's name, the MBC said the Syrian singer had auditioned for the program in the Lebanese capital Beirut and performed a number of national songs in a "superb voice."

The Saudi-funded station said the man had asked for a three day "emergency" visit to Aleppo, where he hails from, and was given the consent by the producer on condition to return within three days as the program's new season is set to start soon.

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

I know its not the big story right now but the Wadi Aldayf battle has intensified now with the FSA calling this the final stage. Idlib
5:19 AM

This is probably the best time to attack Wadi Aldayf since the road from the south is blocked...and all the northern checkpoints surrounded.
5:20 AM

https://twitter.com/And_Harper

Exodus continues frm syria w 1,742 (IOM) x'ing to jordan by 4am. Aged 85 yrs 2 only 20 days. Looks like 2,000 will b reached again today.
11:19 PM

http://www.lccsyria.org/10914

The Local Coordination Committees in Syria

By the end of Wednesday, the Local Coordination Committees were able to confirm 162[156] martyrs including 5 women, 7 children and one martyr who died under torture. 77 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its suburbs; 30 in Aleppo; 15 in Daraa; 13 in Homs; 8 in Hama; 7 in Deir Ezzor; 3 in Idlib; 1 in Lattakia; 1 in Raqqa and 1 in Sweidaa

http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...=1#post9046975
At least 50,507 people killed so far in Syria

[visionary]

So the now it comes out that the State Department, the Pentagon, and the CIA all wanted to arm the rebels in Syria and Obama overruled all of them? (not to mention our allies in the Gulf and Europe). Sometimes I really have to wonder what the hell we are doing....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...c30_story.html

Pentagon leaders favored arming Syrian rebels

The Pentagon’s top leaders said Thursday that they favored supplying weapons to rebels locked in a grinding civil war with the Syrian government, a position that put them directly at odds with the White House.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made only a brief mention of their views on Syria while testifying at a Senate hearing on the attacks against the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, last year.

But their surprise remarks underscored sharp divisions within the Obama administration over its policy toward Syria, where an estimated 60,000 people have died since an uprising began two years ago against President Bashar al-Assad. The statements also marked a rare public instance in which the Pentagon’s leaders publicly voiced disagreement with the White House.

At the tail end of a line of questioning about Benghazi, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked Panetta and Dempsey whether they supported a plan “that we provide weapons to the resistance in Syria.” The plan, he said, was floated last summer by then-CIA Director David H. Petraeus and endorsed by another heavyweight in the administration at the time, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“We do,” Panetta replied.

“You did support that?” McCain asked again.

“We did,” added Dempsey, who was sitting next to Panetta. Neither elaborated on their positions.

On the other hand....this is intriguing and may be a sign in some shift in thinking from someone.
http://www.businessinsider.com/syria...13-2?0=defense

Non-Radical Syrian Rebels Recently Received A Ton Of Foreign Weapons

Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels have recently received a big boost in the form of of heavy weapons, James Miller of EA WorldView reports.

Last month Eliot Higgins of the Brown Moses blog reported that the weapons — including several kinds of rocket-propelled grenades [RPGs], rocket and grenade launchers, and recoilless rifles — seem to have originated from the former-Yugoslavia.

Around Jan. 1 the weapons began appearing in the Daraa Province at the Jordan border, and this week Higgins reported that the weapons have spread northward to the Damascus, Hama, and Aleppo regions as well as Deir Ez Zor in the east.

From Miller:

While foreign weapons have been seen in Syria, we have not encountered them on this scale. All this suggests a new, organized, and well-funded effort is under way to ensure that "moderate" fighters are capturing territory and weakening the Assad regime.

The influx of weapons has apparently made a big difference on the ground as opposition fighters have captured ground from Daraa city to Damascus to both the south and north of Aleppo city.

Interesting. Most heavier weapons have so far come from large defections, succesful operations, and raids on bases and depots.



http://www.economist.com/news/middle...ningintheflood

Drowning in the flood

THE governments of countries abutting Syria have long worried that the civil war there may spill over the border, stirring strife across the region. Whereas refugees were leaving Syria last year in a steady trickle, now they have become a flood. In the past few weeks as many as 5,000 people a day have been coming over. Entire villages are emptying out. The office of the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) previously said it reckoned 1m people would have fled Syria by June. But already more than 700,000 have done so—and that includes only those who have been registered. The UNHCR will have to reassess an already dire situation.

I think the number for Egypt is significantly larger than that if you count unregistered Syrians. Also there's been a huge amount of refugees in Libya for a year or so now as well.




https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters destroyed a tank & killed +20 assad troops in al-qadam neighborhood in damascus city
10:55 AM

resistance fighters destroyed a tank near jobar neighborhood in damasus city http://youtu.be/DiifnWXp9UI
11:00 AM

jabhat al-nusrah fighters say they destroyed +5 tanks in the south-eastern countryside of aleppo. clashes continue near al-safirah
11:10 AM

resistance fighters have liberated a military checkpoint near al-hamidiyah military base in idlib
11:16 AM

resistance fighters (re-)liberated al-alam military checkpoint in al-tabqa http://youtu.be/_9wnlFyZkbA
11:33 AM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

Every day acres and acres of olive and peach trees in Idlib are burned...for no reason whatsoever...
12:52 AM

Checkpoints and bases still surrounded and being shelled by the FSA. Clashes renewed at Wadi Aldayf. Expect great news soon.
4:21 PM

[visionary]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...2e2_story.html

Why did Mr. Obama overrule his advisers on Syria?

WE NOW know that President Obama’s national security team overwhelmingly supported providing arms to the rebels in Syria. On Thursday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told a Senate committee that he and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, backed a plan that would have vetted, trained and armed selected opposition groups, which have been pleading for such U.S. support for more than a year. According to the New York Times, the strategy was developed by former CIA director David H. Petraeus and supported by former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton.

As we have frequently argued, the rationale for such action is compelling. Syria’s civil war, which has killed more than 60,000 people, grows steadily worse and more dangerous for the United States and its allies. An opposition that once was a peaceful pro-democracy movement has been all but overtaken by jihadist organizations, including an al-Qaeda affiliate, that receive ample funding and weapons supplies from abroad.

As Obama administration officials have frequently said, the longer Bashar al-Assad’s regime survives, the worse the outcome will be for Syria, its neighbors — all of which are U.S. allies — and the United States. Failure to back more moderate forces, which have been chronically short of effective weapons, will prolong the war and could leave the United States and its allies confronting a postwar Syria in which they have no friends and al-Qaeda and other extremists are ascendant.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...2e2_story.html

Ground War: Syria’s Rebels Prepare to Take a Province from Assad

It was pomegranate season when the battle for Wadi Deif began in mid-October. Like so many rebel offensives, the fight for the Syrian military base, just east of the devastated city of Maaret Numan and one of the last major loyalist outposts in the vast northern province of Idlib, soon sputtered for the usual reasons — the rebels’ lack of coordination, lack of ammunition and heavy weapons and the strength of regime reinforcements backed by airpower and artillery.

The pomegranate trees in many of the abandoned, rubble-strewn, hollowed-out homes in the adjacent frontline village of Marshamsheh are now denuded, their branches bare, but the rebels hope that before the first buds of new foliage sprout, the base will be theirs.

The Islamist Vanguard

It is a highly ambitious plan, but that’s not the only thing that sets it apart. The offensive is overseen by a council of religious clerics, a Sharia court led by Jabhat al-Nusra, the militant group designated a terrorist organization by the U.S but widely respected by rebels for its disciplined fighting prowess.

The court has knitted together dozens of groups from across Idlib province, extracting a sworn pledge from each brigade leader that he will work with the other groups under the direction of the court and will not compete with his counterparts for any ghanaim, or spoils of war, from the outposts if they fall.

It’s not the first time Jabhat al-Nusra has taken the organizational lead in a fight in Idlib. In coordination with the Salafist Ahrar al-Sham brigades, it shepherded the final two-week phase in the months-long battle for the strategically important Taftanaz military airport that fell to the rebels in mid-January.

The participation of other groups in those final stages of the fight was only at Jabhat’s invitation. Jabhat al-Nusra also established a committee that first itemized and then distributed the war spoils. Still, the sheer scale of Marakit il Bina il Marsoos, its multiple fronts, and the pledges to the Sharia court mark it as a new battlefield experiment the rebels hope will be emulated by others if it is successful.

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/topic/syr...-long-time-ago

Ban: Bashar 'could have stopped this violence a long time ago'

Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations, has criticised Bashar al-Assad, Syrian president, for using allegations of terrorism as a justification for the shelling of villages and civilian deaths.

Speaking to journalists on Thursday, the UN chief said:

He could have stopped this violence a long time ago and this political dialogue could have commenced a long time ago ... But he has been continuously killing ... That's why people, out of frustration, out of anger, they have been fighting against their own government.

https://twitter.com/JShahryar

So everyone on Obama's national security team wanted US to get involved in Syria... And he overruled them all.
2:26 PM

https://twitter.com/farGar

Kevin Costner was shooting film next to Syrian artist Khaled Al Khani, they asked Kevin what he thinks of Syria & if he'd take a pic w them
7:38 PM

Kevin replied, "Syria..Syria where her citizens have been fighting for freedom for 2 years? Of course I will. It's the least I can do"
7:39 PM

https://twitter.com/weddady

The conclusion of nearly 2 years of bloodshed in syria: world's priority is to contain the conflict, not to depose Assad's regime.
10:12 PM

I'm indifferent to the clamor about the rise of islamist radicals in Syria because it's a vacuum the world created for them to fill.
10:12 PM

for a year and a half we were told Syria had a formidable air defense network deterring any action over it. Israel showed it to be hallow
10:20 PM

two years into a war that could have been avoided in Syria: don't let others think for you. use logic & common sense.
10:32 PM

The more the world sticks to its short-sighted strategy, the more Syria will atomize & more likely the violence will go beyond its borders
10:34 PM

https://twitter.com/Syrian_Scenes

A Pentagon, CIA, _and_ State plan. The enormity of what's required to get all three on the same page. And to overrule them anyway.
11:04 PM

https://twitter.com/fpleitgenCNN

Gun fire ringing out over Homs tonight. Large parts of city are still in opposition hands.
4:13 PM

We were in Homs, Baba Amr today and could not find a single house that was not damaged from fighting.
4:15 PM

Hearing artillery shells drop and a lot of gunfire in Homs this morning. Started very early.
12:11 AM

http://www.lccsyria.org/10922

Local Coordination Committees in Syria

By the end of Thursday the LCC managed to document 161 martyrs (including 13 women, 8 children and 1 martyr under torture), 68 martyrs were reported in Hama (most of them were martyred due to explosion in Salamiya), 33 martyrs in Damascus and its Suburbs, 28 martyrs in Homs, 14 martyrs in Aleppo, 6 martyrs in Daraa and 2 martyrs in Raqqa

(and 10 in Idlib that seem to have been mistakenly left out in the final update.)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?p...17848338242310



http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...=1#post9046975
At least 50,668 people killed so far in Syria

[visionary]

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/...all-get-along/

Hind Aboud Kabawat: A place where Syrians all get along

Much of the commentary about Syria’s civil war suggests that the country is about to disintegrate into competing sectarian fiefdoms, each dominated by jihadists with a radical Islamist agenda. But during my own recent trip to one of Syria’s “liberated” villages, I saw little evidence that post-Assad Syria will be a failed state, nor even an Islamist one.

Kafarnabel is a small Sunni village in northern Syrian, near the Turkish border. Like many Syrian areas that are controlled by anti-Assad rebels, Kafarnabel no longer has any real top-down government. But rather than fall into chaos, it has become a case study in how free Syrians can run bakeries, provide schooling, maintain security and, most importantly, conduct friendly, civil, co-operative relations with neighbouring communities — even those populated by Alawite Muslims.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...ow_assad_obama

Arm the Syrian Rebels. Now.

Until recently, among President Barack Obama's most senior advisors on national security, an ironclad consensus reigned: Arm the Syrian rebels. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Feb. 7, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, affirmed that they both supported the call by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and David Petraeus, former director of the CIA, to provide lethal support to the Syrian opposition.

What were the arguments that convinced Obama to overrule his advisors? We may never know, but one thing is clear: They were not based on a sober reading of the situation on the ground in Syria, where U.S. policy is caught in a contradiction between word and deed. Though the president has repeatedly called for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's ouster, he has proposed no credible plan for achieving that goal.

Last week, for instance, Obama stressed that the United States had "joined with nations around the world in calling for an end to the Assad regime." No sooner had he made this statement, however, than he dispatched Vice President Joseph Biden to attempt -- once again -- to engage Russia on a solution to the conflict. But reliance on mediation from Moscow -- with its emphasis on an Assad-led transition -- has proved to be fundamentally flawed. Assad will never preside over his own removal.

The diplomatic back and forth has come at the expense of decisive steps toward regime change. Obama has been right, after a decade of war, to ask hard questions about whether greater U.S. involvement can really work in the interests of either Syria or the United States. But his hands-off policy has now proved to be self-defeating. In the absence of American assistance, the rebels' momentum has stalled, and the battles for Damascus, Aleppo, and Syria's other strategic centers have devolved into a grim stalemate.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Mid...#axzz2KLDCR5km

White House defends decision not to arm Syrian rebels

The White House Friday said it had been motivated by shielding Syrian civilians, Israelis and its own security, when President Barack Obama nixed an administration plan to arm Syrian rebels.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said during a congressional hearing Thursday that he backed plans to arm and train vetted rebel groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad's forces, in an initiative also supported by former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and ex-CIA chief David Petraeus.

But White House spokesman Jay Carney argued Friday that the problem in Syria was not a lack of weapons, hinting that rebels were getting sufficient supplies from other regional powers and Assad was getting help from outsiders like Iran.

Carney said that the US priority was to ensure that weapons provided by Americans did not end up in the wrong hands and to create more danger for "the US, the Syrian people or for Israel."

It really pisses me off when Obama and his people act like they know better than Syrians do what's best for them.
It's somewhat shocking just how arrogant the whitehouse has behaved on the Syria issue.
Very troubling to be honest. I hope we put that attitude behind us soon.
It's has earned us much hated from people who respected and admired us.
It will take a lot to earn back the respect and trust...although with many it may be too late now for that.


http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/...scus.html#2033

2033 GMT: FSA's Thoughts on Negotiating with Assad. The Aleppo Media Center has interviewed Free Syrian Army leader Colonel Aqidi. They asked him whether he will accept the plan, proposed by National Coalition leader Moaz al-Khatib, to negotiate a political settlement with the regime. The video (Arabic) can be viewed here, but Zilal, a super-activist, has provided this overview of Aqidi's answers:

They ask the man what he thinks about the initiative of Moaz al-Khatib, head of the opposition National Council.

He answers that, as military elements, they do not want to take part in poltical affairs and that they trust Moaz al-Khatib and his patriotism, although he may have introduced the initiative for talks incorrectly.

The man says that they accept the initiative if it will include the departure of the regime in all its aspects and the removal of all who committed crimes against Syrian people.

The man also says also that they are sure that this regime will not consider this initiative. Thus, they will continue in the revolution until the regime is toppled....

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/09/wo...=tw-share&_r=0

GENEVA — Syria’s conflict is now driving 5,000 people to seek safety in neighboring countries every day, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday, reporting a surge in their numbers in January.

“This is a full-on crisis,” Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the agency, told journalists in Geneva, reporting a 25 percent increase in the number of Syrian refugees registered in the region in January.

The surge brought the numbers this week to 787,000, an increase of more than 50 percent since mid-December, Mr. Edwards said. The numbers now include 260,943 in Lebanon, the first country to exceed a quarter of a million Syrian refugees; 242,649 in Jordan; 177,180 in Turkey; and 84,852 in Iraq.

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

Regime tank and vehicle destroyed in Heesh Idlib as they were attempting to support Wadi Aldayf and Hamdiyeh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HHxO...ature=youtu.be
4:48 AM

Intense shelling on Hass Idlib now led the several martyrs and tens of injuries. Hass is now a point of major clashes.
5:31 AM

Massacre in MaaratAlNouman Idlib! Small infants being removed from the rubble
7:40 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters have liberated most of al-tadamon neighborhood in damascus city
8:59 AM

heavy clashes are going on now in palmyra city. reports say resistance fighters have attacked the airport
9:08 AM

https://twitter.com/Joyce_Karam

Fair to say neither John Kerry nor Susan Rice have position on arming Syria rebels. Being "against external intervention" is inconclusive
2:05 PM

https://twitter.com/Brown_Moses

Looking at these new weapons entering the country I think someone already is
2:36 PM

https://twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain

We now know that even Director of Nat'l Intel Gen Clapper supports arming the rebels- literally everyone in gov't resp for nat'l security
2:50 PM

https://twitter.com/mviser

"This is a new administration," Kerry says of White House disagreements over arming Syrian rebels. "We are evaluating."
3:01 PM

[visionary]

http://www.lccsyria.org/10927

Local Coordination Committees in Syria

By the end of Friday the LCC managed to document 121 martyrs ;including 2 women, 9 children and 1 under torture; 42 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its suburbs; 32 in Aleppo; 21 in HOms; 12 in Daraa; 8 in Idlib; 3 in Hama; 2 in Deir Ezzor; and 1 in Raqqa.

http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...=1#post9046975
At least 50,789 people killed so far in Syria



http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...e2a_story.html

Obama unlikely to reconsider arming Syrian rebels despite views of security staff

President Obama is unlikely to shift his stance against the expansion of a U.S. role in Syria’s civil war, despite a death toll topping 60,000 and acknowledgment that key members of his national security staff favored a plan first proposed in June to arm the Syrian rebels.

U.S. officials said that the issue was shelved in October after an extended “red team” analysis by the CIA concluded that the limited-range weaponry the administration was comfortable providing would not have “tipped the scales” for the opposition.

President Obama is unlikely to shift his stance against the expansion of a U.S. role in Syria’s civil war, despite a death toll topping 60,000 and acknowledgment that key members of his national security staff favored a plan first proposed in June to arm the Syrian rebels.

U.S. officials said that the issue was shelved in October after an extended “red team” analysis by the CIA concluded that the limited-range weaponry the administration was comfortable providing would not have “tipped the scales” for the opposition.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newswee...-s-rebels.html

Did the CIA Betray Syria’s Rebels?

In mid-August, a well-connected Syrian activist drove to the border city of Gaziantep in southern Turkey to meet two officers from the CIA. The officers had set up shop in a conference room at a luxury hotel, where representatives from a handful of opposition groups lounged in the lobby, waiting for their turn at an audience.

The activist, who had been a journalist before the conflict, came with three colleagues from Aleppo, the Syrian commercial capital that had recently turned into the main theater of the war. Inside the room, two casually dressed Americans were rolling up maps from the previous meeting. The Americans introduced themselves as CIA officers and said they were there to help with the overthrow of Syria’s authoritarian president, Bashar al-Assad.

The activist declined to be named for this article, because he didn’t want to be connected publicly to U.S. intelligence. He is respected in Aleppo, and I first met him, in another southern Turkey hotel, at a State Department–funded training seminar for activists, where he was a keynote speaker. According to the activist, the officers questioned the group about creeping Islamism in the rebel ranks. Were Aleppo rebels supportive of democracy? Hostile to the West? What about al Qaeda? Then the officers asked how they could help.

The activists wanted armed support for the rebels in Aleppo—in particular, surface-to-air missiles—but the officers explained that America worried such weapons could fall into the hands of extremists. “Let’s leave military matters aside,” one of the officers said. The group made a list of things like satellite phones and medical supplies, and the officers promised to be back in touch soon. “We are here to help you bring down Assad,” one of the officers repeated.

However, in the months since, that activist, as well as many senior figures in the rebellion, have begun to suspect that the United States has no intention of living up to its promises. In a turn of events resonant of Iraq, many who had once been eager to work with the Americans feel betrayed, and some see meetings like those in Gaziantep as little more than a hostile intelligence-gathering exercise.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/09/wo...war.html?_r=3&

A Faceless Teenage Refugee Who Helped Ignite Syria’s War

In a listless border town, the teenager goes unnoticed, one of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled the Syrian civil war, dashing across villages and farms to land in Jordan, just five miles from home.

But this young man carries a burden — maybe an honor, too — that almost no one else shares.

He knows that he and his friends helped start it all. They ignited an uprising.

It began simply enough, inspired not so much by political activism as by teenage rebellion against authority, and boredom. He watched his cousin spray-paint the wall of a school in the city of Dara’a with a short, impish challenge to President Bashar al-Assad, a trained ophthalmologist, about the spreading national revolts.

“It’s your turn, doctor,” the cousin wrote.

http://www.france24.com/en/20130209-...de-airbase-ngo

Syria warplanes hit rebels inside airbase: NGO

Syrian warplanes launched air strikes within the Menegh military airbase in the northern province of Aleppo on Saturday after rebels stormed parts of the regime garrison, a watchdog said.

The fierce retaliation came after the insurgents, who have been attacking the base daily for months, succeeded in breaking into several areas, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

The airbase is less than 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the border with Turkey, a key backer of the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Insurgents have also been launching protracted assaults on the Nayrab military airport just outside the second city of Aleppo and Kweyris airbase elsewhere in the largely rebel-held province.

Regime forces, meanwhile, carried out air raids on the southern district of Qadam in Damascus and across the eastern outer belt of the capital, where rebels have their rear bases, the Observatory said.

Warplanes also raided rebel positions across the southern outskirts of Damascus as the military presses a major offensive against rebel zones in efforts to break a stalemate in the two-year uprising.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...e79_story.html

Syria’s Druze minority is shifting its support to the opposition

Members of Syria’s Druze community, a small but significant religious minority, are joining the opposition in bigger numbers, ramping up pressure on the beleaguered government of President Bashar al-Assad, according to opposition activists and rebel military commanders.

As the Syrian conflict has devolved into a bloody sectarian war, with many Sunni Muslims backing the opposition, some of the country’s minorities, including the Druze and Christians, have largely sat on the sidelines.

Assad has managed to maintain the support of many of his fellow Alawites, who adhere to an offshoot of Shiite Islam, and keeping the support of the minority groups has been a key goal of his government, which has tried to portray the conflict as a foreign plot rather than a homegrown challenge to its authority.

“The Assad government is trying to keep the Druze and other minority communities at bay to make sure they don’t side with the opposition,” said Farid Khazen, a Lebanese parliamentarian and professor of Middle East politics at the American University of Beirut.

The Druze community in Syria numbers only around 700,000, out of a total population of some 21 million, and has a history of rebelling under authoritarian leaders, rising up during the rule of the Ottomans as well as the French. Although there are communities scattered across the country, the bulk of the Druze, whose secretive religion is an offshoot of Islam, live in the mountainous region of southeast Syria.

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters blew up a military checkpoint in shamdin square (rukn al-din, damascus). +10 assad troops were killed
12:44 AM

resistance fighters have liberated the officers' houses in adra (damascus countryside)
4:58 AM

resistance fighters have entered menneg (meng) military airport (aleppo) and liberated 2 detachments
5:04 AM

resistance fighters have captured 12 assad troops in the old airport neighborhood in deirezzor city
5:16 AM

jabhat al-nusrah declares responsibility for blowing up 2 military compounds in palmyra city. +100s of assad troops were killed
5:39 AM

https://twitter.com/Basma_

Here is Assad's cabinet after today's government reshuffle: Prime Minister: Wael al-Halaqi Defence (cont) http://tl.gd/l032ql
11:21 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters have destroyed 2 bmp vehicles near ma`arrat al-nu`man city
5:50 AM

resistance fighters have liberated a petrol station near the airforce security building in al-tabqa (al-raqqah)
5:55 AM

+80 troops have defected in al-zabadani
10:30 AM

resistance fighters have liberated a military checkpoint in al-sadd neighborhood in daraa city
11:04 AM

resistance fighters have liberated a military checkpoint in al-qadam neighborhood in damascus city
11:43 AM

https://twitter.com/MajdArar

Most of my friends & acquaintances are either detained, killed or in hiding. Just heard of a new one killed under torture. Damascus
1:05 PM

https://twitter.com/abuhatem

This is child abuse - Syrian child sings to large crowd praising 9/11, says Bin Laden the leader, kill all Shia/Alawis https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=puQQYsKXxjc
2:48 PM

Jabhat al Nusra in the background....



https://twitter.com/NMSyria

GRAPHIC: Video claims to show Suqoor Al-Sham members beheading soldier by hacking at his neck with a small knife.
3:08 PM

[visionary]

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

Local Coordination Committees LCC

By the end of Sutarday, The Local Coordination Committess could document 169 martyrs, including 14 children, 10 women and 2 martyrs under torture: 60 in Aleppo most of them were field executed in Jneid; 57 in Damascus and its Suburbs; 14 in Homs [14] and Daraa [14]; 12 in Deir Ezzor; 5 in Hama; 4 in Idlib; 2 in Lattakia and 1 martyr in Raqqa

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9190BI20130211

Opposition "would talk to Assad in northern Syria"

Syrian National Coalition leader Moaz Alkhatib said on Sunday he was willing to hold talks with President Bashar al-Assad's representatives in rebel-held areas of northern Syria to try to end a conflict that has killed about 60,000 people.

The aim of the talks would be to find a way for Assad to leave power with the "minimum of bloodshed and destruction", Alkhatib said in a statement published on his Facebook page.

Sources in the coalition, an umbrella group of opposition political forces, said that Alkhatib, a moderate cleric from Damascus, met international Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi in Cairo on Sunday.

Brahimi played a main role in organizing meetings between Alkhatib and the foreign ministers of Russia and Iran, Assad's main supporters, in Munich last week.

The sources said that in their talks on Sunday the two men addressed the question of whether the coalition would formally endorse Alkhatib's peace initiative.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which controls a large bloc within the Islamist-dominated coalition, is against the initiative.

But the Brotherhood, the only organized political force in the opposition, is unlikely to challenge Alkhatib's authority directly, with his initiative gaining popularity in Syria, the sources said.

I still don't think he's being completely serious in the first place.
None of the demands or deadlines he's made have been followed by the government and they were pretty obviously not going to be anyway.
There's been no indication whatsoever that the regime or any of their allies are interested in discussing Assad's departure, in fact they've stated it isn't up for discussion many times.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...d=pm_world_pop

Iran and Hezbollah build militia networks in Syria in event that Assad falls, officials say

Iran and Hezbollah, its Lebanese proxy, are building a network of militias inside Syria to preserve and protect their interests in the event that President Bashar al-
Assad’s government falls or is forced to retreat from Damascus, according to U.S. and Middle Eastern officials.

The militias are fighting alongside Syrian government forces to keep Assad in power. But officials think Iran’s long-term goal is to have reliable operatives in Syria in case the country fractures into ethnic and sectarian enclaves.

A senior Obama administration official cited Iranian claims that Tehran was backing as many as 50,000 militiamen in Syria. “It’s a big operation,” the official said. “The immediate intention seems to be to support the Syrian regime. But it’s important for Iran to have a force in Syria that is reliable and can be counted on.”

Iran’s strategy, a senior Arab official agreed, has two tracks. “One is to support Assad to the hilt, the other is to set the stage for major mischief if he collapses.”

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/...=MasterAccount

Can dialogue end Syria's crisis?

Moaz al-Khatib, the head of the Syrian National Coalition has intensified his push for talks with President Bashar al-Assad's government, despite criticism and opposition from his colleagues in the coalition.

He went as far as as identifying Farouk al-Sharaa, Syria's deputy president, as the figure with whom he would like to begin talks.

On Tuesday al-Khatib, who met a number of western officials in Germany, said:

"Since the start of the conflict, Farouq al-Sharaa knew that things were not going the right way. Just because Sharaa is part of the regime doesn't mean we can't talk to him. I'm asking the regime to commission Sharaa, if the regime accepts, for talks with us. Where's the problem with that?

"The issue is now in the state's court to accept negotiations for departure, with fewer losses. The regime must take a clear stand and we say we will extend our hand for the interest of people and to help the regime leave peacefully."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...return-bombing

Homs' displaced residents begin to return after year of sustained bombing

A year after this city captured the world's attention as the victim of the worst shelling that Syria's civil war had yet seen, Homs has become a – relatively – safe haven. Hundreds of families who fled to other Syrian cities in fear last February have loaded their belongings and returned. Civilians from Aleppo and Deir el-Zour – where fighting is still intense – are moving to Homs because they have heard it is more livable.

"It's the only case I know of in Syria where people are returning after a long period of displacement. Homs may be quieter than Damascus", Khaled Erksoussi, the head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent's emergency response team told me in the capital before I set off on the 100-mile drive north. He was right. The boom of heavy shelling, promptly followed by the screeching of birds in panic, repeatedly fills the Damascene sky. It was in full and murderous throat again when I returned.

Yet for 24 hours in Homs I heard only a few explosions, apparently directed towards targets beyond the ring road. In the city centre the street markets are thronged with shoppers. Groups of students wander in and out of the university, or stand around chatting. Checkpoints at several cross-roads create minor traffic jams but the soldiers seem relaxed and perfunctory as they check ID cards and car-boots, no doubt happy to be assigned to minor tasks rather than be sent to risky, remote areas. Homs even boasts a number of armed women in uniform who have volunteered for a newly created home guard.

Depends on where you are and what you want and are willing to ignore.
A good portion of Homs city is destroyed.
Now if you want to hang out in the mainly unscathed pro-regime areas of Homs and pretend things are normal, you should be fine.



https://twitter.com/And_Harper

Flood of @refugees frm syria contimues w 1,709 x'd last nite to jordan 6am. Aged 85 yrs to 20 days. We need Kuwaiti pledges realized ASAP!
11:32 PM Feb 9

https://twitter.com/IssuesWaTissues

In many besieged areas in Syria, people are asking scholars if it's halal to eat the meat of CATS. That is how hungry they are. Ya Allah..
5:57 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters have destroyed a military checkpoint in al-zabadani
5:29 AM

resistance fighters killed +50 assad troops & destroyed many military vehicles on damascus - homs motorway (near al-nabk)
5:31 AM

resistance fighters have liberated an artillery brigade in the town of al-tabqa (al-raqqah)
6:08 AM

a colonel & +20 assad troops have defected in the town of al-tabqa (al-raqqah)
6:15 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

just in: resistance fighters have liberated the airforce security complex in al-tabqa (al-raqqah)
9:16 AM

resistance fighters liberated the municipal building in al-tabqa (al-raqqah) http://youtu.be/9OTqESpgKWM
9:19 AM

resistance fighters killed +20 assad troops & destroyed a tank & a bmp-1 near the town of hamamiyat in hama
9:37 AM

resistance fighters have liberated +90% of the town of al-tabqa in al-raqqah
9:39 AM

resistance fighters destroyed 2 tanks between aleppo airport & al-safirah
9:46 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters destroyed a tank in al-hamidiyah military base (idlib)
9:48 AM

resistance fighters have destroyed 2 tanks in palmyra city. they are about to liberate a military checkpoint near nazim school
11:32 AM

good news: resistance fighters have liberated the euphrates dam & arrested +60 assad troops
11:55 AM

resistance fighters have captured a colonel & chief of the political security branch in al-tabqa (al-raqqah)
1:01 PM

[visionary]

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

Local Coordination Committees in Syria

With the end of Sunday, the Local Coordination Committees were able to confirm 126 martyrs, including 11 women and 9 children. 38 martyrs were reported in Damascus and Damascus Suburbs, 33 in Aleppo, 24 in Deir Ezzor, mostly were field executed in Jubeileh neighborhood; 9 in Homs; 12 in Daraa; 5 in Hama; 4 in Idlib and 1 in Raqqa

http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...=1#post9046975
At least 51,084 people killed so far in Syria



http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/11/world/...ast/index.html

Blast kills 12 at Turkish customs gate on Syrian border

A mysterious blast ripped through a busy Turkish customs gate on the border with Syria on Monday, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens, the Turkish government said.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, chief spokesman for the government, said a minivan traveling from Syria to Turkey exploded. He declined to call it a terrorist attack, saying the investigation was still ongoing.

"The type of explosive could not be determined as of this time," Arinc said.

"In situations like this all possibilities are considered."

There is no question, however, that this was one of the deadliest blasts to hit Turkey in years.

Amateur video of the explosion aftermath showed bystanders running amid scattered shrapnel, burned-out cars and ambulances, screaming in panic and pain.

Bystanders carried a bleeding man from smoking wreckage near the traffic booths where Turkish border officials normally processed transiting cars and cargo trucks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/wo...wanted=1&_r=2&

Damascus on Edge as War Seeps Into Syrian Capital

Unkempt government soldiers, some appearing drunk, have been deployed near a rebel-held railway station in the southern reaches of this tense capital. Office workers on 29th of May Street, in the heart of the city, tell of huddling at their desks, trapped inside for hours by gun battles that sound alarmingly close.

Soldiers have swept through city neighborhoods, making arrests ahead of a threatened rebel advance downtown, even as opposition fighters edge past the city limits, carrying mortars and shelling security buildings. Fighter jets that pounded the suburbs for months have begun to strike Jobar, an outlying neighborhood of Damascus proper, creating the disturbing spectacle of a government’s bombing its own capital.

On Sunday, the government sent tanks there to battle rebels for control of a key ring road.

In this war of murky battlefield reports, it is hard to know whether the rebels’ recent forays past some of the capital’s circle of defenses — in an operation that they have, perhaps immodestly, named the “Battle of Armageddon” — will lead to more lasting gains than earlier offensives did. But travels along the city’s battlefronts in recent days made clear that new lines, psychological as much as geographical, had been crossed.

“I didn’t see my family for more than a year,” a government soldier from a distant province said in a rare outpouring of candor. He was checking drivers’ identifications near the railway station at a checkpoint where hundreds of soldiers arrived last week with tanks and other armored vehicles.

“I am tired and haven’t slept well for a week,” he said, confiding in a traveler who happened to be from his hometown. “I have one wish — to see my family and have a long, long sleep. Then I don’t care if I die.”

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/topic/syr...age-arab-world

Qatar's prime minister says the Syrian regime is presenting a shameful image of the Arab world

Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani on Monday condemned the Syrian regime, saying President Bashar al-Assad's government was projecting the Arab world in a negative manner.

"We should not kill them and allow for their blood-shed as does the Syrian regime currently presenting to the world a shameful image of the Arab world - one difficult to remove from memory," the prime minister told the first conference of the Council for Arab and International Relations, an independent body based in Kuwait.

"Thousands of innocents are killed with tanks and airplanes; children are left homeless and women are widowed and tents are filling with refugees and all of this is for what? So that one person can remain in power," Thani told the gathering.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/11/s...manitarian-aid

Syria: Authorize Cross-Border Humanitarian Aid

Syria should urgently agree that humanitarian aid may be brought into the country across all of its borders, including from Turkey. Syria’s allies, including Russia, should press Syria to consent to such transfers, Human Rights Watch said. Donors should not wait for Syria’s go-ahead, but instead should immediately expand support to non-governmental organizations already able to deliver aid from Turkey into opposition-held areas of Syria.

While there have been obstacles to delivering aid throughout Syria, reaching areas held by the opposition has been particularly difficult. On January 31, 2013, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid said publicly that it was unable “to reach the vast majority who are in need in the opposition-held areas,” and called urgently for agreement to allow cross-border transfers, noting that “there is no time to lose.”

“Thousands of Syrians face horrendous living conditions because aid is simply not reaching them,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.“A simple word from the Syrian government could make reaching those in need much easier – but even without it there is more donors can do.”

http://brownpanther01.wordpress.com/...-in-salamiyah/

The forgotten revolution in Salamiyah

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...sc=tw&cc=share

Will Syria Become An Islamist State?

The author, a Syrian citizen living in Damascus, is not being identified by NPR for security reasons. Many Syrians interviewed for this piece asked that their full names not be used, for their safety.

In most every Arab country where there's been an uprising in the past couple of years, Islamists have gained influence or come to power. Is the same thing destined to happen in Syria if President Bashar Assad's secular government is ousted?

Syrians may not know the answer, but they certainly are talking about it.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/...ebels-in-Syria

Obama's hidden nonplan to arm rebels in Syria

Last week, the world was given an invaluable peek into an internal debate of the Obama administration over whether to intervene in Syria.

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

Syrian minister offers to meet opposition leader overseas

The Syrian government is ready to send a minister abroad for talks with Moaz al-Khatib, leader of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, who recently threw rebel politics into turmoil by coming out in favour of dialogue with the regime.

"I am willing to meet Mr Khatib in any foreign city where I can go in order to discuss preparations for a national dialogue", Ali Haidar, the minister for national reconciliation, told the Guardian. His remarks were the most positive response the Syrian government has yet given to the opposition leader's surprise change of line.

Exiles and their affiliated armed groups have long said they would never talk to the regime unless Assad first left office. Their leader's switch has been severely criticised by some of his colleagues because the coalition's charter states it will not talk to the regime except about its departure.

In explaining the purpose of the national dialogue, Haidar raised the prospect of a genuine contest for a multi-party parliament and for the presidency when Bashar al-Assad's mandate runs out next year.

https://www.facebook.com/Obeida.N/posts/491349427598984

Syria/Turkey border blast today targeted a meeting of SyrianNationalCouncil officials and FSA Joint Military Leadership.

SNC delegation, which was saved by a slight delay in arrival at the border for the meeting, included George Sabra, Farouk Tayfour, Abdelahad Steifo, Abdelbaset Saida, Ahmed Ramadan, Salem Almeslet, Jamal Alward, Bashar Alheraki, Yassein Najjar and Mohammed Sarmini.

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/wor...re-project.cnn

Can Syrian town's truce hold?

Added on February 11, 2013CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports on a shaky cease-fire in a small Syrian town bloodied by street fighting.

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters confirm the liberation of an infamous military checkpoint (al-harsh) in daraa city
4:17 AM

resistance fighters destroyed 5 tanks near the town of telaran in aleppo
5:14 AM

resistance fighters blew up a military barracks in jobar (damascus) http://youtu.be/-ROdeFSmDNM
8:14 AM

resistance fighters liberated a military complex in jobar (damascus) http://youtu.be/BDzgL-LBYCA
8:15 AM

resistance fighters have entered kowaires military airport in aleppo. videos later
8:34 AM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

The Tarraf checkpoint in Hamdiyeh base is being stormed by the FSA now. MaaratAlNouman Idlib
10:09 AM

unfortunately theres not much to report [from the base at Wadi Al Dayf]...although I should note that no food or ammunition has arrived to the base in over 2 weeks...it shouldnt be too long now hopefully.
10:29 AM

I thought today was the deadline given by Khatib for negotiations...agreeing to extend that makes him look weak...
11:38 AM

Waleed Daaboul and his wife and 2 kids, from Idlib city, were martyred in the Bab Alhawa explosion. Waleed Daaboul was the main supervisor of the Bab Alhawa refugee camp.
12:13 PM

Al-Islam Brigade announce that they now control the Jarrah airport in Aleppo Syria completely.
12:21 PM

https://twitter.com/Turk4Syria

It is now confirmed that Assad attacked Turkey today, but his supporters in Turkey will probably now say that Turkey deserves it.
1:00 PM

[visionary]

http://www.voanews.com/content/un-ch...g/1601787.html

UN Chief: Syria 'Self-Destructing'

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says Syria is "self-destructing" and is calling on the Syrian government and the U.N. Security Council to take action.

In a lecture Monday to the Council of Foreign Relations in New York, Mr. Ban said, nearly two years into the crisis, the world no longer counts the days in hours, "but in bodies."

"Another day, another 100, 200, or 300 are dead. Fighting rages, sectarian hatred is on the rise. The catastrophe, the catalogue of war crimes is mounting. Sexual violence is widespread. The destruction is systematic. Syria is being torn apart, limb by limb."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...91A0MU20130212

Syrian rebels prepare for push on eastern oil city

Syrian rebels are launching a major operation to take control of the strategic eastern city of Deir al-Zor after pushing out government forces from oil-producing areas around it, a rebel commander said.

If they seize the city, the rebels will control a whole province for the first time in the 22-month-old Syrian uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

Ibrahim Abu Baker, leader of the powerful Al-Qadisiyah Brigade, said his rebel force, along with Islamists from Jabhat al-Nusra and Arab fighters, had surrounded Deir al-Zor on four sides in the build-up to the operation.

"The countryside is liberated, what is left of the province (of Deir al-Zor) is the city itself," he told Reuters from the province via Skype. "All brigades are taking part in this... We are in charge of the eastern side of the city."

http://www.ustream.tv/alexanderpage

https://twitter.com/AlexanderPageSY

I'm broadcasting crossing Syrian border live on Ustream. Come watch and chat! 09:44 http://ustre.am/DXDd
2:44 AM

Bab al Hawa (Turkey/Syria) closed off due to yesterday's explosion
3:09 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters liberated the industrial institute in deirezzor city http://youtu.be/Ss3Mh-Xn0hw
4:30 PM

resistance fighters control all the oil fields in al-hasakah
4:47 PM

resistance fighters have started a major attack on aleppo & al-nayrab airports & brigade 80 in aleppo
12:42 AM

an official statement on the liberation of al-tabqa city in al-raqqah http://youtu.be/ZZCCImclrP4
12:51 AM

resistance fighters say they destroyed 2 military checkpoints in the countryside of homs
1:21 AM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

Jarrah airport after it was liberated by Ahrar Alsham...check out the planes they got now!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=lcvMosvvJH4
2:25 AM

https://twitter.com/Turk4Syria

1- The car that exploded yesterday was placed at the parking lot about 20 minutes before the explosion. The 3 suspects left the car...
3:13 AM

2- ...2 suspects go back to Syria in a different car. The 3rd suspect comes back to do something in the car. He then leaves too.
3:15 AM

3- The car bomb either had a timer or was detonated from a distance with a wireless mechanism.
3:18 AM

4- 13 people were killed, thee of them Turkish citizens. The other ten were Syrians. 27 wounded, with 13 of them in a critical condition.
3:20 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters have destroyed some military copters in al-nayrab military airport in aleppo
3:59 AM

resistance fighters are attacking al-sahwa military base in daraa
4:03 AM

jabhat al-nusrah fighters say they are attacking the last military checkpoint in al-shidadi city in al-hasakah
4:06 AM

http://www.lccsyria.org/10940

Local Coordination Committees in Syria

Within the end of Monday the Coordinating Committees was able to document 109 martyrs, including 15 children and 9 women and martyr under torture: 41 martyrs in Aleppo, 33 martyr in Damascus and its Suburbs,10 martyrs in Idlib, 10 martyrs in Homs, 8 martyrs in Daraa, 5 martyrs in Deir Azzor, and two martyrs in Hama

http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...=1#post9046975
At least 51,193 people killed so far in Syria

[visionary]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...adb_story.html

What path now for Syria?

Syrian opposition fighters appear to be making significant gains on the battlefield this week, following an offer by their top political leader for negotiations with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

This military and diplomatic news may appear positive. But Syrian sources caution that the battlefield advances may accelerate movement toward a breakup of the country, as Alawite supporters of the regime retreat to their ancestral homeland in the northwestern region around Latakia. And there’s no sign that either Assad or his Russian patrons are paying any more than lip service to a political settlement.

One potential game-changer is a request for U.S. help in training elite rebel units, which has been drafted by Brig. Gen. Salim Idriss, the new commander of the opposition Free Syrian Army. In a letter dated Feb. 4, he seeks U.S. assistance in “training for: (1) special operations; (2) international humanitarian law; and (3) . . . in chemical weapons security.”

Idriss requested various supplies for these elite units, including: “(1) combat armor; (2) night vision goggles; (3) hand held monocular and longer range spotting equipment; (4) strategic communications; (5) winterization packs; and (6) tactical communications.”

http://www.thenational.ae/news/world...#ixzz2Kkw6ibxM

Syria's Al Qaeda-linked militants gain hearts by providing food

With little international aid reaching Syria's besieged population, Islamist militants such as the Al Qaeda-linked group Jabhat Al Nusra are building support by providing food and other items in scant supply after two years of civil war.

By distributing fresh vegetables, bread, cooking oil, water and blankets to Syrians in rebel-held areas, the Al Nusra fighters - considered one of the most effective rebel groups but blacklisted as terrorists by the US - have exploited an opportunity to boost their popularity for when the regime of Bashar Al Assad falls.

"It's a way for them to win hearts and minds even if people don't agree with their ideology," said Aaron Y Zelin, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, referring to the group's end goal of creating a strict Islamist state.

"They are essentially trying to build a constituency and build support within society."

Mr Zelin said it's difficult to tell whether the support is simply tied to the provision of services, "but this is very important ... even if it is just soft support it is still significant."

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article..._battle_royale

Syria's Battle Royale

In recent days, fighting has erupted in and around the Syrian capital. The intensification of violence suggests that what many have dubbed "the grand battle for Damascus" is gathering force -- a major rebel offensive that has been in the works for several months may soon begin.

This isn't the first time the rebels have made a bid to capture the Syrian capital. In less coordinated efforts in July and December, rebel forces advanced in several neighborhoods and even took restive towns surrounding Damascus. However, lacking adequate supplies and overpowered by the regime's air force and artillery, their advances were repelled or contained. The battle for Damascus is likely to see more such fluctuations -- buildups of rebel forces followed by regime counterattacks, with civilians caught in the middle.

It's a common misconception that Damascus has been immune to the political upheaval that has swept the country since March 2011. True, President Bashar al-Assad can count on a large base of support: state bureaucrats, employees of state-owned and regime-favored companies, relatives of members of the security forces, members of the country's religious minorities, and middle- and upper-class Sunni urbanites. The regime has taken care to maintain the loyalty of Damascus: Its Sunni merchant class benefited under former President Hafez al-Assad's rule for remaining loyal during the Islamist insurrection of the 1970s and 1980s, and from Bashar's liberalization policies in the 2000s.

But many of the outlying towns that have been incorporated into the capital's urban fabric have wholeheartedly joined the revolution. For instance, Christian and Alawite dissidents -- arguably a minority within their communities -- drove to Daraya and Douma to join demonstrations (the slain activist and filmmaker Bassel Shehade was among them). Inside the city, the conservative, middle-class neighborhoods of Barzeh and Midan -- whose residents did not benefit from the regime's largesse and from the growth of the previous decade -- also joined the uprising. The same goes for the poor Sunni area of Qaaboun, where protesters have long been coming out en masse.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...91A0MU20130213

Syrian air base falls, Assad forces under pressure

Syrian opposition fighters captured a military airport near the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday in another military setback for President Bashar al-Assad's forces which have come under intensifying attack across the country.

The airport is the latest military facility to fall under rebel control in a strategic region situated between Syria's industrial and commercial center and the country's oil- and wheat-producing heartland to the east.

The opposition said an army base situated near Aleppo Airport, which is both civilian and military, was overrun by rebels seeking to neutralize Assad's air power, which has been instrumental in preventing the rebels from taking over major urban centers.

The Syrian authorities have banned most independent media from the country, making verification of events on the ground difficult.

A Middle East-based diplomat following the military situation said the opposition "appears to be making significant advances" in Aleppo and along the Euphrates River to the east.

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/po...toric_on_syria

Obama softens his rhetoric on Syria

In his State of the Union speech Tuesday evening, U.S. President Barack Obama significantly scaled down his rhetoric on the Syria crisis, lowering the high expectations he set only a year ago.

"We will keep the pressure on a Syrian regime that has murdered its own people, and support opposition leaders that respect the rights of every Syrian," Obama said Tuesday.

But in his 2012 State of the Union Address, Obama made a bold prediction that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government would quickly come to the realization that change in Syria was inevitable.

"As the tide of war recedes, a wave of change has washed across the Middle East and North Africa, from Tunis to Cairo; from Sana'a to Tripoli. A year ago, Qaddafi was one of the world's longest-serving dictators -- a murderer with American blood on his hands. Today, he is gone," Obama said last year. "And in Syria, I have no doubt that the Assad regime will soon discover that the forces of change cannot be reversed, and that human dignity cannot be denied."

He now seems have some doubt.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...prss=rss_world

Syrian rebels loot artifacts to raise money for fight against Assad

To the caches of ammunition and medicines that they lug each day from this border city back into their homeland, Syrian rebels have added new tools to support their fight against President Bashar al-
Assad: metal detectors and pickaxes.

The rebels, struggling to finance their effort, have joined an emerging trade in illicitly acquired Syrian artifacts and antiquities, selling off the country’s past as the war for its future intensifies.

“Some days we are fighters; others we are archaeologists,” Jihad Abu Saoud, a 27-year-old rebel from the Syrian city of Idlib, said in an interview in this northern Jordanian city. Saoud claimed to have recently uncovered tablets from the Bronze Age city of Ebla inscribed in the Sumerian script.

Since the onset of the conflict in Syria, the international community has expressed alarm over the fate of the country’s diverse heritage landmarks and stunning archaeological sites, as rebel and government forces have transformed historical treasures such as the 1,000-year-old Aleppo souk and the crusader castle Crac des Chevaliers into theaters of war.

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters blew up a military checkpoint on al-ramousah motorway in aleppo syria
8:46 AM

resistance fighters have liberated brigade 80 near aleppo airport
8:47 AM

resistance fighters killed assad troops & destroyed a tank near the town of telaran in aleppo
9:12 AM

resistance fighters have liberated al-yarmouk school in daraa
11:20 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters liberated 2 military checkpoints on the airport road (aleppo) http://youtu.be/rqfIofsQvW4
4:50 PM

ahrar al-sham brigades destroyed a tank near the town of al-hamamiyat in hama
4:55 PM

resistance fighters seized weapons & ammunition in al-jarrah military airport http://youtu.be/mHS9mXNyLMw
4:59 PM

resistance fighters have liberated a military checkpoint & killed +15 assad troops in al-jizah in daraa
5:59 PM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

Over 100 soldiers defect in Damascus suburbs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efA0w88wWK4
5:48 AM

4 airports have liberated so far: Hamdan in DeirEzzor, Marj Alsultan in Damascus suburbs, Taftanaz in Idlib, and Aljarrah in Aleppo.
4:13 PM

The airports that are currently surrounded are: Nayrab, Aleppo int., Kwairis, Deir Ezzor, Minnegh, Damascus int., and Abu Dhoor.
4:14 PM

https://twitter.com/NMSyria

@MidaniBatman along with two other Syrian-American activists and Matthew Van Dyke will be personally delivering the aid to Syria.
10:28 PM

https://twitter.com/MidaniBatman

Hey guys. I’m going to Aleppo and Idlib. I will bring aid in. Support the campaign please. http://Gofundme.com/humanityoverpolitics
11:06 PM

https://twitter.com/pdanahar

8 checkpoints later & I'm back in Damascus for 1st time in 9 months. Doesn't feel like it's about to fall into FSA's arms anytime soon
10:10 AM

Every checkpoint from Beirut border was relaxed & cursory. Saw smoke prob, from artillery, which had landed in Daraya on outskirts Damacus
10:13 AM

Lots of checkpoints in Damascus causing traffic jams but city is busy, lots of people, lots of cars doesn't feel like its undersiege at all
10:15 AM

It's now dark in Damascus. The streets have largely emptied out & I can hear regular thumps of artillery fire in the distance.
12:13 PM

Watching from Damascus hard not to conclude subtext of Obama's 1 line on Syria was "Woh! That's a big problem...let us know how it goes"
1:09 AM

https://twitter.com/NMSyria

American fighting along with Jabhet el-Nusra checks out the remains of a downed helicopter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=GbelEGX9ukE
12:56 AM

http://www.lccsyria.org/10944

The Local Coordination Committees in Syria

At the end of Tuesday, the Local Coordination Committees were able to document 136 martyrs in Syria, including 11 children, 5 women, and 3 martyrs under torture: 47 martyrs in Damascus and its Suburbs; 32 martyrs in Aleppo; 20 martyrs in Homs; 14 martyrs in Daraa; 11 martyrs in Deir Ezzor; 9 in Hama; 1 in Hasakeh; 1 in Idlib; and 1 in Hasakeh.

http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...=1#post9046975
At least 51,329 people killed so far in Syria

[visionary]

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Pol...#axzz2KnbHiEbE

Lebanon protesters block fuel tankers from entering Syria

Protesters blocked the international highway in Arida, north Lebanon, Wednesday to prevent fuel tanker trucks from crossing into Syria, a day after the Energy Ministry denied that state refineries were exporting kerosene and red diesel to the war-torn country.

Residents of the border town of Arida blocked the international highway around 8 a.m., the National News Agency said.

Television footage showed dozens of truckers stranded on the road leading to the Arida border crossing.

One protester, who identified himself as Abu Thaer, argued that the fuel was bound for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“We will not allow the trucks to enter Syria because fuel is going to the Syrian regime to kill the Syrian people,” Abu Thaer told LBCI.

Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Abu Thaer said the protesters would keep the highway blocked until midday Wednesday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21424563

Lasting scars of Syria's assault on Baba Amr

One year ago this month, the Syrian army launched one of the most intense assaults of the conflict, with the bombardment of the Baba Amr district of Homs. The operation was meant to crush the rebel Free Syrian Army there, but thousands of civilians bore the brunt of the attack which lasted for more than three weeks.

The BBC's Paul Wood, who was one of the few foreign journalists in Baba Amr at the time, visited refugees who fled the siege which came to be seen as a turning point in the war.

"Freedom isn't worth this," said a woman quietly, peering out through the steady rain at refugee children jumping over puddles in the Lebanese border town of Arsal.

Living in freezing "temporary" shelters of breeze block and tin, or squeezing several families into one borrowed room, thousands of Syrians are now entering their second year as refugees here.

Some are from Baba Amr in Homs. A small enclave of defiance, it briefly came to exemplify the hopes of the revolution. But Baba Amr was crushed in 25 days of shelling that began in February 2012.

I was there during the assault, part of a small BBC team. At the time, everyone in Baba Amr told us they were convinced the bombardment would bring help from the outside world.

Reading this article brings back too many memories just from watching a lot of it at the time.
The international community never should have let the siege go forward.
That was when the regime realized they could do what they wanted without interferenece.
After Baba Amr everything got much more brutal in Syria.
After Baba Amr the massacres started, people became more desperate, and the extremists and bombings started becoming the more prevalent.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...91B19C20130213

Russian arms exporter says supplies to Syria will go on

Russia will continue deliveries of arms to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his armed forces, the head of the state weapons exporter said on Wednesday, despite the Middle Eastern country's civil war.

Russia supplied nearly $1 billion's worth of arms to Syria in 2011 and has long been an ally of Assad.

"We are continuing to carry out our obligations on contracts for the delivery of military hardware," Rosoboronexport director Anatoly Isaikin told a news conference.

Two ships carried arms in January to Syria's Tartous port, where Russia has a repair and maintenance facility, following naval training exercises in the Mediterranean, Itar-Tass reported earlier this month.

Isaikin said Russia's deliveries included anti-missile air defence systems but not attack weapons such as planes or helicopters. The exports did not contravene international law or U.N. Security Council resolutions, he said.

Moscow has blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at putting pressure on Assad. It says his departure must not be a precondition for negotiations to settle the almost two-year-old conflict that has killed more than 60,000 people.

At the conference, Rosoboronexport announced a new $12.9 billion record for 2012 arms exports.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...91B19C20130213

Syria death toll likely near 70,000, says U.N. rights chief

The death toll in Syria is likely approaching 70,000 - up almost 10,000 from the start of the year - and civilians are paying the price for the U.N. Security Council's lack of action to end the conflict, the U.N. human rights chief said on Tuesday.

Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, repeated her call for the 15-member council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court to send a message to both parties in the conflict that there will be consequences for their actions.

The death toll in Syria is "probably now approaching 70,000," Pillay told a council debate on protection of civilians in armed conflict.

On January 2, Pillay said more than 60,000 people had been killed during the revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which began nearly two years ago with peaceful protests but turned violent after Assad's forces tried to crush the demonstrations.

"The lack of consensus on Syria and the resulting inaction has been disastrous and civilians on all sides have paid the price," she said. "We will be judged against the tragedy that has unfolded before our eyes."

https://twitter.com/hhassan140

Syria National Coalition statement: Qatar handed over embassy to the coalition & appointed Nizar Hiraki as ambassador.
2:19 AM

Nizar Hassan Hiraki is from Deraa, he has undergraduate diploma in electric engineering but he has a lot of experience in Syrian prisons.
2:20 AM

Nizar Hassan Hiraki is a senior member of Syrian Gathering for Reform, a coalition of 24 Islamist parties, including Brotherhood.
2:22 AM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

5 confirmed martyrs in the massacre at Albasheeriyeh JisrAlshughoor Idlib...3 of them are children.
5:07 AM

Re: the rumors floating around that Jabhat Alnusra used a suicide bomber at the Hamdiyeh base near MaaratAlNouman..here is what happened.

The FSA units there prepared a BMP that can be controlled from a distance and filled it with explosives from undetonated MiG shells. The BMP exploded at the entrance of the Tarraf checkpoint, which is part of the Hamdiyeh base, taking out a BMP and a tank.

There are now intense clashes at the checkpoint as the FSA fighters prepare to storm the Tarraf Checkpoint. Jabhat Alnusra is not involved at the Albunyan Almarsoos battle in MaaratAlNouman Idlib at this time
6:20 AM

https://twitter.com/AlexanderPageSY

CONFIRMED: 100s of refugees throw stones at SA Red Crescent vehicles which arrived for first time at Atmeh refugee camps
11:22 AM

Refugees at Atmeh camps chanted "we don't want your aid, give it to Assad" upon Syrian Arab Red Crescent's arrival
11:24 AM

Because the SA Red Crescent is government run and seen as a tool of the regime.


https://twitter.com/pdanahar

Life in Damascus city center goes on but you don't have to go to far towards that horizon to find the war in Syria pic.twitter.com/mnDawNXA
2:14 AM

A drive around the suburbs of Damascus reveals some pockets flattened by artillery fire. Roads across city choked by checkpoints.
8:41 AM

Saw over hundred queuing for bread outside Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, roads into which were blocked off by checkpoints.
8:45 AM

Darkness falls and the thud of artillery fire starts to get more regular in Damascus Syria
11:49 AM

https://twitter.com/Basma_

Russian media is quoting Russian foreign ministry on meeting btw Syria FM Walid Muallem &opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib in Moscow "soon"
12:19 PM

OK, now I'm starting to worry. What the **** is Khatib up to?




https://twitter.com/clancycnn

Syria Dep. For. Min. Mekdad tells CNN's @FPleitgenCNN "we have already won" -- blames opposition for civilian deaths.
1:05 PM

Not exactly promising for any hopes of genuine 'dialogue'.

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/us....html?hp&_r=1&

Kerry Says Trip Will Focus on Finding Syria Solution

Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday that he planned to use his first foreign trip to advance new ideas about how to persuade President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to yield power and agree to a political transition.

Mr. Kerry’s itinerary has not been formally announced, but he is expected to go to Europe and the Middle East later this month.

Though the United States has sought to encourage a negotiated handover of authority to a transitional government, Mr. Assad’s determination to cling to power has proved to be a major, and so far insurmountable, impediment.

“I believe there are additional things that can be done to change his current perception,” Mr. Kerry said. “My goal is to see us change his calculation.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...91A0MU20130213

Syrian troops bombard rebel posts around capital

President Bashar al-Assad's forces bombarded the southeast of Damascus with air strikes and artillery on Wednesday to try and dislodge rebel fighters who have gained a foothold in the Syrian capital, opposition activists said.

A Middle East diplomat following the military situation described battles in and around Damascus as a "major engagement", with fighting going back and forth between the two sides.

"The opposition is hitting Damascus from a multiple of directions and the regime is trying to stop it," he said.

Jets bombed Jobar, a neighborhood adjacent to the main Abbasid Square, and the suburb of Daraya on the highway to Jordan to the south, sources in the capital said.

The two areas are part of interconnected Sunni Muslim districts in and around Damascus that have been at the forefront of the 22-month uprising against four decades of family rule by Assad and his father.

Rebels entered Jobar last week after breaching the army's defense lines at the ring road and overrunning several army and pro-Assad militia positions in the district.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-...e-in-war-zone/

Video: Syria's youngest talk about life in war zone

The sound of explosions can be heard in the background as the footage opens to a room filled with young people.

"When the shelling starts we don't hear the explosions as much, so we feel safer," says 14-year-old Mariam. "But when the shelling is heavy we feel only God can protect us."

Between images of the children playing--with hula hoops, computer games and, in one case, a bullet--the young subjects give their personal accounts of war. They speak candidly, and without tears, about witnessing brutal massacres, the deaths of classmates and dreaming about bombs.

Turkieh, an 8-year-old with bouncy curls and a bright pink sweater, is calm as she recounts the loss of her mother.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...medium=twitter

Iranian General Is Killed in Syria

A senior commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, Gen. Hassan Shateri, was assassinated in Syria on Tuesday, underlining Iran's continuing involvement in the Syrian conflict.

https://twitter.com/NMSyria

Iranian embassy in Beirut confirms the assassination of ex-senior commander of Revolutionary Guard.
5:24 PM

Iranian officials are claiming that "Zionists" assassinated their representative in Lebanon today.
5:31 PM

https://twitter.com/And_Harper

1,615 so far but hundreds more rept'd at border & attempting to x. Cldy & windy. Aged 87 yrs to only 5 days. pic.twitter.com/qrAcrLdH
11:00 PM

https://twitter.com/abuhatem

Don't forget to donate to Atmeh camp even if you donate $1. I was here a month ago these people are living in hell: http://www.razoo.com/story/Sending-L...ral_code=share
11:03 PM

Atmeh camp is ignored by the UN who says they can't help w/o Assad permission. U.S. doesn't fund it either. We must. http://www.razoo.com/story/Sending-L...ral_code=share
11:03 PM

The world has ignored Atmeh camp causing small non-profits to have to donate to these people who are suffering, help: http://www.razoo.com/story/Sending-L...ral_code=share
11:03 PM

Can you donate just $10 to Syrian refugees - it will support one refugee family for 1 day. http://www.razoo.com/story/Sending-L...ral_code=share
11:32 PM

http://www.lccsyria.org/10948

Local Coordination Committee in Syria:

By the end of Wednesday the LCC managed to document 190[9] martyrs, including 10 women,12 children and 2 who were torture to death, 55 martyrs in Aleppo; 37 martyrs in Damascus and its suburbs including 14 in Jobar; 28 martyrs in Idlib; 19 in Dier Ezzor; 16 in Homs; 14 in Daraa; 11 in Hama; 14 in Raqqa; 4 in Latakkia; and 1 in Hassakeh

http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...=1#post9046975
At least 51,528 people killed so far in Syria

[visionary]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-...position-says/

Syria rebels capture town near oil field, battle for control of Aleppo airport, opposition says

Syrian activists said Friday that rebels had captured a town and a nearby oil field after a three-day battle with regime forces in the energy-rich northeast.

The director of the Britain-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said the rebels captured the town of Shadadah in the Hasaka province on Thursday.

The fighters also took control of most of a nearby oil field, although there was still sporadic gunfire in the area, Abdul-Rahman said.

Reuters quoted the Observatory as saying militants from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front played a pivotal role in the victory to capture Shadadah, and that 100 Syrian soldiers had been killed in the battle, along with about 30 of the militants.

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters have destroyed a bmp-1 & an armored vehicle in khan shaykhoun in idlib
6:53 AM

jabhat al-nusrah fighters say they have liberated a school occupied by assad troops in al-shidadi city. the whole city is free
6:58 AM

resistance fighters have destroyed ammunition depots & buildings in brigade 113 base in deirezzor
7:01 AM

resistance fighters have destroyed a tank in the town of umm amoud in aleppo. a fierce war continues
7:33 AM

resistance fighters have liberated the old airport neighborhood in deirezzor city
11:31 AM

https://twitter.com/Avend93

The fighting has started in Eshrefiye in Jan 31 when FSA tried to enter and control on the main checkpoints in the neighborhood. Regime forces resisted, then succeeded to get out the FSA from the neighborhood and to control on more areas in the neighborhood
12:11 p.m.

After attacking the neighborhood brutally by using MIGs, 22 civilians killed & dozen more injured. All Kurds.
12:13 p.m.

The YPG then vowed revenge against regime thugs after the Kurdish casualties, Feb 8 PYD-Regime fighting officially started.
12:16 p.m.

The Kurdish forces have attacked regime chekpoints/security centers, killed many of regime thugs and still having 40 soldiers as captives.
12:19 p.m.

Right now, there is undeclared truce between them.
12:20 p.m.

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

Just in case you didn't see it yet...here is the video of the MiG that was shot down near KhanSheikhoon Idlib http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOhTX...ature=youtu.be
5:33 a.m.

The FSA in MaaratAlNouman shoot down a 2nd MiG today!!! This makes it 3 planes in Idlib today already!
9:02 a.m.

Picture of the 2nd plane that was shot down today in MaaratAlNouman Idlib pic.twitter.com/XwbfMyjh
9:05 a.m.

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

One of the pilots from the planes was captured in the village of Balla`ah in the MaaratAlNouman countryside. Idlib
12:38 p.m.

Several tanks in Heesh headed towards Hamdiyeh base destroyed with landmines!!! Awesome video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4mC5GIr4Ao Idlib
1:10 p.m.

KhanSheikhoon has been under siege for over 6 months now. It is surrounded by 19 diff ckpts and bases
1:26 p.m.

Morek was retaken by the regime a little over a week ago...they stood their ground for weeks but couldn't hold it.
1:30 p.m.

https://twitter.com/NMSyria

Syrian rebels have captured one of the richest oil fields in Al-Raqqa, northestern
3:04 p.m.

Also, I believe a total of 7 warplanes have been shot down by the FSA today.
3:04 p.m.

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters liberated an airforce defense base in daraa http://youtu.be/PeAgJYxk00g
3:39 p.m.

the liberation of al-sahwa military base in daraa http://youtu.be/qaNWEluFvM4
3:41 p.m.