Yahoo: Assad predicts disaster if West meddles in Syria

[visionary]

http://www.understandingwar.org/back...-targets-sunni

Syria Update: Assad Targets Sunni along Syria’s Coast

Recent violence against Sunni communities in Syria’s coastal region raises new concern over sectarianism in Syria. It also suggests to some that Assad will move to form an Alawi state. In fact, these events are perpetrated to demonstrate force and to drive a sectarian narrative that strengthens Assad’s base. Assad’s support in Qardaha has weakened, an influx of internally displaced persons has transfigured the coastal region, and there are opportunities to exploit these fluctuations in Assad’s position there.

Since May 6, the predominantly Sunni villages of Bayda and Baniyas have witnessed a sharp escalation in Sunni massacres. The pictures and videos emerging from Bayda are appalling. Entire families have been slaughtered, including countless children. According to testimonies from Bayda, some 400 people were killed and 300 disappeared; of those, roughly 200 were buried in a mass grave in the presence of the pro-regime militias on Saturday.

Of those buried, 150 were identified by name, while 50 bodies were difficult to identify because they were too disfigured or were of displaced persons from other areas. Similar numbers of people have reportedly been killed in the nearby city of Baniyas, and hundreds of residents have fled the area as the pro-regime militias continued to march from one Sunni village to another.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/13/s...ted-atrocities

Syria: Brigade Fighting in Homs Implicated in Atrocities

Human Rights Watch has reviewed graphic evidence that appears to show a commander of the Syrian opposition “Independent Omar al-Farouq” brigade mutilating the corpse of a pro-government fighter. The figure in the video cuts the heart and liver out of the body and uses sectarian language to insult Alawites. The same brigade was implicated in April 2013 in the cross-border indiscriminate shelling of the Lebanese Shi’a villages of al-Qasr and Hawsh al-Sayyed.

It is not known whether the Independent Omar al-Farouq Brigade operates within the command structure of the Free Syrian Army. But the opposition Syrian National Coalition and the Free Syrian Army leadership should take all possible steps to hold those responsible for war crimes accountable and prevent such abuses by anyone under their command. Any party with the power to do so should do all it can to keep weapons from reaching the brigade. Human Rights Watch repeated its call to the United Nations Security Council to refer the Syria situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to ensure accountability for all war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“One important way to stop Syria’s daily horrors, from beheadings to mutilations to executions, is to strip all sides from their sense of impunity,” said Nadim Houry, Middle East deputy director at Human Rights Watch. “These atrocities are shocking but so is the obstruction of some Security Council members that still do not support an ICC referral for all sides.”

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/nowsyria...-held-in-syria

Report: German journalist held in Syria

A German journalist is being held by Syrian forces in the northern battlefield city of Aleppo, a Berlin newspaper reported online Monday, citing his call for help via a mobile phone text message.

Armin Wertz, an Indonesia-based veteran reporter writing for German and Asian media, had entered the conflict-torn country from neighboring Turkey in early May, said the Tagesspiegel daily, for which he works on a freelance basis.

In a first SMS sent on May 5, Wertz had told a friend and colleague in Germany that he was being held by Syrian police in Aleppo, but asked that his detention not be made public.

The journalist had however followed up with a second text message Sunday, explicitly appealing for help.

The report said Wertz was expected to be transferred to the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, which is under the control of regime forces.

The Tagesspiegel said Wertz had not said what he was being accused of but that he had entered the country without a press visa.

http://www.frontlineclub.com/under-t...al-assignment/

In conversation with Paul Conroy - Under the Wire: Marie Colvin's Final Assignment

Paul Conroy first met Marie Colvin in March 2003 in Syria. He was attempting to smuggle himself across the Tigris on a raft made of tubes stolen from lorries, with the aim to get into Iraq to cover the final assault on Baghdad. A firm friendship was forged over their many shared interests: sailing, whiskey, and their extraordinary dedication to covering the atrocities of war.

Having worked together in Libya in 2011, they were a natural pairing for an assignment to Homs. They were determined to cover the Syrian regime’s brutal crackdown and the devastating impact this was having on civilians.

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/topic/syr...resident-obama

British PM talks tough action on Syria at press conference with President Obama

British Prime Minister David Cameron said he is not ruling out tougher action on Syria at a press conference with President Barack Obama.

Cameron, who is meeting with Obama in the White House at Washington DC, said there are plans to double non-lethal aid to Syrian opposition.

He discussed the EU arms embargo and appeared keen on arming the Syrian rebels by pushing for more flexibility. Cameron said that Britain is supporting Lebanon and Jordan deal with the influx of refugees.

Obama said the US is continuing its efforts to increase pressure on President Bashar al-Assad's government.

Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington DC, said that the White House administration is trying to build up the idea that they are considering arming rebel groups. She said the concern has been they do not trust the rebel groups there.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/nowsyria...-syria-breakup

Iran foreign minister warns of Syria breakup

Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi warned on Monday of the possibility of Syria breaking up and its conflict spilling across the Middle East unless a political solution can end the bloodshed.

"God forbid, if there was a void, or disintegration, in Syria, this crisis would spill over into all countries in the region," said Salehi, whose country is a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Instead, the Assad regime and its opponents should seek a political solution by setting up a transitional government until elections, he told reporters in Jeddah.

He also rejected foreign intervention in Syria, which is in its third year of conflict after protests against the regime in 2011 morphed into an armed rebellion.

"The Syrian people should have self-determination... It is not permitted that decisions made abroad get to be imposed on an ancient country and people like Syria," he said.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Mid...#axzz2T92rcPck

Syrian army takes villages near Qusayr: officer

WESTERN DUMAYNA, Syria: Syrian troops captured three villages in the strategic Qusayr area of Homs province on Monday, allowing them to cut supply lines to rebels inside Qusayr town, a military officer told AFP.

"The attack on the villages of Western Dumayna, Haidariyeh and Esh al-Warwar began this morning," the lieutenant colonel said on condition of anonymity.

"The fighting lasted for three hours until we established control over these villages, which are considered strategic because they lie on the road between the cities of Homs and Qusayr and will allow us to block supplies to the militants in Qusayr," he said.

Western Dumayna is some eight kilometres (five miles) north of the rebel-held town of Qusayr, which has been at the centre of fierce battles between opposition forces and the Syrian military, backed by pro-Damascus group Hezbollah.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/13/world/...nce/?hpt=wo_c2

Turkish government blames Marxists with Syrian connections for bombings

Rage grew in a Turkish town on Syria's border Monday in the aftermath of weekend bombings, as the government blamed Marxists with Syrian connections for the deadly attacks.

Gathered before the ruins left when two explosive-laden cars went off Saturday, residents of Reyhanli called on Turkey's government to step down, alleging that it has gotten their country too involved Syria's troubles.

Hours later, rescuers pulled out another corpse from the rubble and placed it in a black body back for transit, said CNN Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman. It brought the death toll to at least 47. Another 100 or so have been injured, authorities have said.

https://twitter.com/BBCiPannell

Expectations about Syria's future and prospects for talks barely hover above rock bottom as Obama & Cameron talk.
12:14 PM

https://twitter.com/pdanahar

The word among US's European allies is that Kerry is well ahead of the state department on his Syria peace conference worked up with Russia
2:08 PM

https://twitter.com/HannahAllam

State Dept: Kerry in contact w/stakeholders in region, Brahimi, Cameron in hopes of pulling off the Syria summit he and Lavrov announced. Kerry has said that this meeting is based on original Geneva mtg, same pool involved, but no final list of participants yet
1:47 PM

State Dept: Kerry, Ford focused on locking in participation of the opposition. Syrian opp has said they're encouraged by steps, will vote
1:48 PM

State Dept: Amb Ford was on a preplanned trip to deliver aid, has had sev conversations w/Syria opp to get them on board for talks w/regime
1:49 PM

https://twitter.com/HannahAllam

State Dept: We've seen reports of Assad success, do see progress by regime in some cases, why it's so important for us to aid the opposition
1:53 PM

State Dept: Assad has lost his legitimacy, steadfast in our belief that he has to go and working w/opposition and allies to do that. What happened to changing Assad's calculus, now calling for talks w/regime? State Dept: We've always thought political solution was best
1:56 PM

Q from AP: Only change in calculus is that Assad is gaining ground, no? State Dept: We're not ready to throw in our hat here.
1:56 PM

State Dept: It's likely this summit will happen past end of May now bec of all the players involved, determine right grp of participants
1:58 PM

Q from Reuters: Are you committing that a conference will happen? State: We are not naive about difficulties of pulling all sides together
2:02 PM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

Amazing video of a helicopter being shot down over Abu Dhoor airport in Idlib http://youtu.be/1hrCIjoelqg
2:16 PM

Fires erupt at the Shabibeh base after shelling it with mortars Idlib
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvAaD...ature=youtu.be …
2:20 PM

[China]

Video Of Syrian Rebel Eating Soldier’s Heart Goes Viral, Condemned By Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch has said that the extremely graphic video is further proof that Syria is descending into sectarian violence. WARNING: Graphic content.

In the video, Abu Sakkar, a founder of the rebel Farouq Brigade, begins cutting apart the body of a dead Syrian soldier.

Then, according to Reuters, he addresses the camera, saying: “I swear to God we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog.”

He eats the heart of the dead soldier, while the crowd behind the camera cheers “Allahu akbar” (“God is great”).

Click on the link for more

[visionary]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/0...94C0US20130513

Obama pushes for Syria talks but warns of huge challenges

President Barack Obama vowed on Monday to work to bring the Syrian government and rebels to the negotiating table in coming weeks but warned that a "combustible mix" of regional meddling and Islamist militancy would make it hard to halt the country's civil war.

Even as Obama backed a new joint U.S.-Russian effort to seek a diplomatic solution in Syria, he cited an array of obstacles to a credible peace process, including the involvement of Iran, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in the two-year-old conflict.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/13/politics/obama-syria/

Obama cautious on Syria, Britain ups urgency for peace

President Barack Obama was cautious on Monday about whether the international community could broker peace in Syria, while British Prime Minister David Cameron applied new urgency for diplomacy, saying the war-wracked country's history is being "written in the blood of her people."

Obama and Cameron appeared at a joint news conference at the White House where questions about Syria touched on accelerating peace efforts and whether Russia, a close ally of Damascus, would reverse course and put pressure on the regime of Bashar al-Assad to abandon power.

Obama said the political situation is complex and identifying any solution satisfactory to the groups comprising Syria's opposition and finding common ground on the scope and timing of transition away from al-Assad would be challenging.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/n...vancing-qusayr

Syria troops, Hezbollah advancing on Qusayr

Fierce clashes between rebels and fighters loyal to President Bashar al-Assad's regime raged on Thursday around insurgent-held Qusayr in central Syria, a monitoring group said.

An army officer told AFP the military seized control of Shumariyeh village near the town of Qusayr.

"The Syrian army seized back control of Shumariyeh in the Qusayr countryside, and troops are currently on their way to the village of Ghassaniyeh" which has been under rebel control for more than a year, the officer said.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tur...Iwyir8.twitter

Turkish fighter jet crashes near Syrian border, pilot dead

The pilot of a Turkish F-16 jet fighter, which was lost while flying over the Amanos Mountains in the southern province of Osmaniye near the Syrian border at around 2.15 p.m. today, has been found dead, according to Osmaniye Governor Celalettin Cerrah.

Hours ago, body parts of the plane and some pieces of glass were found at the Çarsık Plateau in the same area.

"The pilot of the crashed plane has been martyred," Anatolia news agency quoted the governor as saying.

The pilot was identified as Captain Hamza Gümüşsoy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...tide-in-syria/

Six ways Assad has turned the tide in Syria

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his forces “are beginning to turn the tide of the country’s war,” The Washington Post’s Liz Sly reported on Saturday from Beirut, explaining that Assad is “bolstered by a new strategy, the support of Iran and Russia and the assistance of fighters with Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.” Sly finds that “the pendulum is now swinging in favor of Assad.”

How are Assad’s forces doing it? Here are a few of the trends Sly found, plus one from another source:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/1...s-slowing.html

Weapons, ammunition shipments slowing to Syria’s moderate rebel factions

ABU DUHOR, Syria -- Disagreements among the countries backing the rebels in Syria have led to a drop in weapons shipments, leaving rebels vulnerable to a government military offensive.

The precise nature of the dispute is unclear, but one of the effects is that Saudi Arabia has stopped sending weapons via Turkey and has shifted its supply channels to northern Jordan. The result has been fewer guns and bullets for the rebels in northern and central portions of the country.

The lack of military supplies has shown in the rebels’ lackluster performance against a government offensive that now threatens the city of Qusayr, which has been in rebel hands for the past year. Several villages near Qusayr have fallen to government forces in recent weeks along a smuggling route that rebels had long used to move supplies and people into Syria from Lebanon.

Yazed al Hasan, a spokesman for the Farouq Battalions, a rebel group that began in the central Syrian province of Homs but whose influence now extends to the Turkish border, where it controls two crossing points, said the consequences of the drop in shipments from Turkey was clear.

“The shortage of ammunition means losing the Qusayr front,” he said. He said Farouq had more than 1,000 fighters in Qusayr, which is now largely surrounded by Syrian soldiers and pro-government militia. Last week, the U.S. State Department issued a statement expressing concern that the Syrian government had dropped leaflets telling “all civilians to evacuate or be treated as combatants.”

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

How Do You Say 'Quagmire' in Farsi?

For more than a year, leaders in Lebanon have anxiously eyed the murderous civil war in Syria, wondering whether it would leap across the border and engulf the small, fractious country. And yet, it is Lebanon that now has jumped decisively into the fray, with Hezbollah's help apparently crucial to the Syrian regime's strategy and survival.

Uniformed Hezbollah fighters openly patrol the northern reaches of Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, fighting on either side of the increasingly porous border with Syria. Rocket and mortar teams target Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters a few miles away, and Lebanese Hezbollah infantry fighters crisscross the "Shiite villages" surrounding the city of Qusayr just across the border in Syria, which now forms one of the pivot points of the conflict.

https://twitter.com/markito0171

Daraa Assad-forces looting & burning Khirbit Ghazaleh after rebels retreat from town & lost highway control- desaster
4:49 AM

https://twitter.com/NuffSilence

HUGE FSA convoy going after the corrupt Ghuraba Sham brigade. Finally, a house cleaning is in order: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=0IhwpPIlbOM
4:45 PM

https://twitter.com/cjchivers

Another school in Syria destroyed by government ordnance. (This one in Sarjah.) http://instagram.com/p/ZQ4cynIONE/
3:42 PM

Opposition boot prints on Syrian Air Force logo on fuselage of Mi-24 gunship. Taftanaz. http://instagram.com/p/ZQ9UEvIODx/
4:17 PM

Small girl living in cave to avoid government shelling. Syria. http://instagram.com/p/ZRAszKoOIY/
4:45 PM

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...8&l=ca46814456

Local Coordination committees in Syria

By the end of Monday, local coordination coomitttes documented 81 martyrs including 3 women, 4 children and 2 marturs under torture: 35 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its suburbs; 14 in Hama; 10 in Aleppo; 10 in Homs; 6 in Idlib; 4 in Daraa; and 2 in Deir Ezzor

[visionary]

http://beta.syriadeeply.org/2013/05/...mist-fighters/

Catholics Join Islamist Fighters

Visitors crossing from Turkey to Ras al-Ayn, a sleepy border town in eastern Syria, are now welcomed by the unlikeliest of characters: a Catholic member of what is considered an extremist Islamist rebel group.

Noam Moses Malkeh is an administrator at the gate that is controlled by the Islamist group Ghuraba al-Sham. A Ras al-Ayn native, Malkeh said he was one of seven people to first protest against Bashar al-Assad’s regime on April 8, 2011. When the battle came to his town, Malkeh, along with his brother Ziad, decided they had to play a role.

“Christians and Muslims share the same God and the same prophets, and we will all be judged by God in the end. Syrians are facing a common enemy today, and though we have different religions, we should all face the same dangers together,” he said.

Malkeh is definitely an outlier among Syrian Christians, who have largely remained neutral and shunned the opposition movement against the Assad regime.

“I’ve had my differences with the church and haven’t attended mass for over a decade,” he said. “The clergy neglected the needs of their flock before the revolution, and as we can see from their position today of either being silent or siding with the regime, it’s clear the church’s leadership doesn’t protect the interest of Christians nor promote the message of Jesus.”

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...ref=middleeast

A Jungle of Humanity — and Disorder

About 120,000 Syrians are calling the tents and trailers of the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan home, at least for the foreseeable future.

http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/aba...203122794.html

Abandoned arms as Syria rebels pull back near Qusayr

Abandoned machineguns and tunnels filled with mattresses and food are all that remains of the rebel presence in the Syrian village of Western Dumayna as the army tightens the noose around the adjacent town of Qusayr.

The village is one of three strategic settlements between Qusayr and the flashpoint central city of Homs that army commanders told AFP correspondents on the ground that they had recaptured on Monday.

"At around 9:00 am (0600 GMT) we staged simultaneous attacks on this village, Haidariyeh and Esh al-Warwar, which were under rebel control," a lieutenant colonel who led the assault said.

"After three hours of fighting, the issue was solved."

Western Dumayna lies some eight kilometres (five miles) north of Qusayr, which has been at the centre of fierce fighting between opposition forces and the army.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/id...30514?irpc=932

Qatar, allies tighten coordination of arms flows to Syria

Qatar, which has taken a lead in arming the Syrian opposition, is coordinating with the CIA and has tightened control of the arms flow to keep weapons out of the hands of al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters, according to rebels and officials familiar with the operation.

With Britain and France discussing lifting an EU ban on arming the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad, Western countries are concerned about making sure no arms end up in the hands of groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, which has pledged support for al Qaeda and which Washington considers a terrorist group.

Rebel fighters in Syria say that in recent months the system for distributing arms has become more centralized, with arms being delivered through opposition National Coalition's General Command, led by Selim Idriss, a general who defected to the opposition and is a favorite of Washington.

Qatar mostly sends arms to rebels operating in the north of Syria, while Saudi Arabia, another rich Gulf Arab kingdom, sends weapons to fighters operating in the south, several rebel commanders said.

"The Qataris are now going through the Coalition for aid and humanitarian issues and for military issues they are going through the military command," a commander in northern Syria interviewed from Beirut said.

"Before the Coalition was formed they were going through liaison offices and other military and civil formations. That was at the beginning. Now it is different - it is all going through the Coalition and the military command."

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/liveblog/topic/syria-153

24 minutes ago
Turkey's prime minister will push US President Barack Obama for more assertive action on Syria during a visit to Washington this week, days after car bombs tore through a Turkish border town in the deadliest spill-over of violence yet.

The bombings in Reyhanli, which killed 50 people on Saturday, and activists' reports of a massacre of Sunni Muslims in a Syrian coastal town have incensed Tayyip Erdogan, already
critical of the slow international response to the conflict.

The risk of Syria's chaos spreading will top the agenda in Erdogan's talks with Obama on Thursday, but the wide-ranging meeting with one of Washington's Middle Eastern allies is also expected to cover Turkey's nascent reconciliation with Israel and its deepening energy ties with Iraqi Kurdistan.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/lebanonn...ement-in-syria

US official condemns Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria

The US White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and Gulf Region on Tuesday condemned Hezbollah for its involvement in Syria.

“Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria, fighting on behalf of the [Bashar al-Assad] regime… risks drawing Lebanon into the conflict and is counter to the Lebanese government’s policies,” a statement issued by the US State Department quoted Dr. Philip Gordon as saying during his meetings with Lebanese officials.

“He reiterated the United States’ support for the principles of the Baabda Declaration and Lebanon’s dissociation policy,” it added in reference to the 2012 agreement among Lebanese leaders to avoid involvement in regional conflicts.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Mid...#axzz2THRCRwak

Arab League says Syria seat not given to opposition

The vacant Syrian seat at the Arab League has not been given to the opposition, even though its leader addressed the bloc's last summit, the League's secretary general said on Tuesday.

"The opinion was that if they (opposition) form a government, which they have not done yet, then they can become a representative," Nabil al-Arabi told reporters in Dubai.

He said the opposition chief had been invited to address the March summit in Doha by the meeting's Qatari host, not by the bloc.

"Yes, they were invited to address the summit, but until now, the opposition is not invited to meetings, because it has not formed a government," Arabi said.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middl...o7EhBg.twitter

Excitement fades to despair in rebel-held Syria as war grinds on

Before war came to Aleppo, Syria, Abu Anas was a well-to-do landscape architect who paid a considerable sum to send his children to private school. Now an opposition fighter, he spends his time away from the front line preparing his three sons, the oldest of which is 10, for the possibility of military service.

Abu Anas doesn't want any of his sons to join the fight until they are men, but he acknowledges they may not wait.

"I hope the revolution is victorious soon, but I think it could take up to 10 years," he says. "If I die before we obtain victory, my sons will be able to continue fighting," he says.

"I will not be happy if my children leave the school to fight, but what can I do? I hope it will not come to this, but if this does happen I will be proud of my sons. It means that my sons have learned a good lesson: not to let a dishonest person control the country."

http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/0...94D0B620130514

Syria peace talks look doomed in advance

If anyone saw last week's U.S.-Russian agreement to convene a peace conference on Syria as a potential breakthrough, Western leaders have been going out of their way to disabuse them.

International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi hailed the plan as the "first hopeful news" on Syria in a long time and deferred his own plans to resign after nine months of futile mediation.

He called the proposal "only a first step". But even its sponsors are dampening expectations that a civil war estimated to have killed 80,000 people can be doused soon, and pitfalls they cite in public are only a few of those lying in wait.

"I'm not promising that it's going to be successful," U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday. Obstacles include Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah, both of which support President Bashar al-Assad, as well as the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front on the rebel side, he added.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/nowsyria...-toll-assesses

94,000 dead in Syria conflict, revised NGO toll assesses

More than 94,000 people have been killed in more than two years of conflict in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a newly-revised toll on Tuesday.

The watchdog group said it revised the toll -- just two days after it announced a tally of 82,257 dead -- after receiving new information from regime-controlled Alawite areas of the Sunni-majority country.

"Based on this information, the number of martyrs and dead killed since the beginning of the Syrian revolution is more than 94,000," it said in a statement.

The group said it had received new figures from areas including Tartus and Latakia -- strongholds on the Mediterranean coast of the Alawite minority to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs.

http://www.thenational.ae/thenationa...-syrian-rebels

Saudis overtaking Qatar in sponsoring Syrian rebels

Last week, a 12-member delegation from the Syrian opposition visited Saudi Arabia, for an unprecedented two-day official meeting.

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

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

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

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/wo...ents.html?_r=0

Syria Gives Russia List of Envoys to Peace Talks

President Bashar al-Assad’s government has given Russia the names of officials who would attend international talks intended to end the war in Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday, even as representatives of both sides in Syria publicly expressed skepticism about the prospect of a political settlement.

Mr. Kerry, who arrived in Sweden to attend a meeting of Arctic nations, also spoke on Tuesday morning with the leader of the Free Syrian Army, Gen. Salim Idris, to discuss the proposed peace conference he unveiled last week after meeting in Moscow with President Vladimir V. Putin.

Neither side has publicly committed to attend the talks, nor has a date been set, though Mr. Kerry and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said they hoped to convene the conference within a month under the auspices of the United Nations.

“I keep hearing some people suggest somehow that the process is moving away, not closer,” Mr. Kerry said during remarks with Sweden’s prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt. “I just don’t agree with that. Enormous plans are being laid.”

“If President Assad decides to miscalculate again about that, as he has miscalculated about his own country’s future over the course of the last years, it is clear the opposition will be receiving additional support,” he said, suggesting that the flow of arms to the rebels would increase. “There will be additional efforts made and unfortunately the violence will not end.”

https://twitter.com/ZeinakhodrAljaz

Syria state agency: Syria wants details on US-Russia proposed conference before deciding on participation - Information minister
3:23 AM

Syria information minister: presidency is a decision "only for Syrian people and ballot box"
3:26 AM

https://twitter.com/THE_47th

Basically Assad, through his Minister of Information, has shoved his foot up any Russian/US effort for a political solution
3:28 AM

Info Minister has clearly said: Assad = Syria, we will not participate in any dialogue, nor sit at a table that touches this topic
3:29 AM

https://twitter.com/MahirZeynalov

Death toll in Syria-linked Hatay blasts rises to 51 while 13 suspects, all of them pro-Assad Turks, were taken into custody.
6:04 AM

https://twitter.com/HannahAllam

State Dept: We're appalled by video showing Syrian rebel eating organ of slain soldier. Rebel military command assured us they condemn it
1:41 PM

Q. This is a 'mainstream' not Islamist unit so what does that say about the rebels? State: All sectarian retribution unacceptable
1:42 PM

State Dept: Opposition contacts tell us that the Farouq commander shown in video had previously been 'ejected' from the group.
1:43 PM

Q. Are you confident all Nusra elements have been ejected from oppositin? State: No,but we're working w/ppl who do have that moderate vision
1:46 PM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters say they have liberated al-bahhariyah in al-ghoutah al-sharqiyah
1:09 PM

15 soldiers have defected from the central jail in Aleppo
2:14 PM

[Boss_Hogg]

More on the heart eating incident:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/14/world/...html?hpt=hp_t2

[visionary]

More on the heart eating incident:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/14/world/...html?hpt=hp_t2

Oh yeah, I forgot I read another article where someone interviewed the crazy guy.

http://world.time.com/2013/05/14/we-...trocity-video/

Exclusive: “We Will Slaughter All of Them.” The Rebel Behind The Syrian Atrocity Video

News sites around the world have shown Khalid al Hamad sink his teeth into what appears to be the lung of a dead Syrian government soldier. His fellow rebels have called for him to be arrested or killed for the act. Human rights groups have condemned him. But Al Hamad has no regrets.

In an interview conducted via Skype in the early hours of May 14 al Hamad explained to TIME what caused him to cut out the soldier’s organs: “We opened his cell phone and I found a clip of a woman and her two daughters fully naked and he was humiliating them, and sticking a stick here and there.”

Al Hamad, who is Sunni and harbors a sectarian hatred for Alawite Muslims, said he has another gruesome video of his killing a government soldier from the Alawite faith. (Syrian President Bashar al Assad is Alawite; the conflict in Syria is increasingly sectarian.) “Hopefully we will slaughter all of them [Alawites].

I have another video clip that I will send to them. In the clip I am sawing another Shabiha [pro-government militiaman] with a saw. The saw we use to cut trees. I sawed him in small pieces and large ones.” Al Hamad also explained that even though both sides of the conflict in Syria are using video clips of their own brutal actions to intimidate the other he believes that his clip would have particular impact on the regime’s troops. “They film as well but after what I did hopefully they will never step into the area where Abu Sakkar is,” he said, using his nom de guerre and referring to the part of Syria he currently controls.

He's a ****ing dangerous lunatic...but I do wonder how many more like him will show up if the war drags on for much longer.

[Boss_Hogg]

Oh yeah, I forgot I read another article where someone interviewed the crazy guy.

http://world.time.com/2013/05/14/we-...trocity-video/


He's a ****ing dangerous lunatic...but I do wonder how many more like him will show up if the war drags on for much longer.

I saw the unedited video, it's quite disturbing.

[visionary]

I saw the unedited video, it's quite disturbing.

I avoided it. I generally try not to watch any of the more gruesome videos out of Syria.
I saw way too many dead kids, close ups of people being gunned down during protests, and mutilated, blown up, charred bodies during the first year or so (and from Libya before that).

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/wo...anted=all&_r=0

An Atrocity in Syria, With No Victim Too Small

After dragging 46 bodies from the streets near his hometown on the Syrian coast, Omar lost count. For four days, he said, he could not eat, remembering the burned body of a baby just a few months old; a fetus ripped from a woman’s belly; a friend lying dead, his dog still standing guard.

Omar survived what residents, antigovernment activists and human rights monitors are calling one of the darkest recent episodes in the Syrian war, a massacre in government-held Tartus Province that has inflamed sectarian divisions, revealed new depths of depravity and made the prospect of stitching the country back together appear increasingly difficult.

Nadim Houry, the director of Human Rights Watch in Beirut, said he sensed “a complete disconnect between diplomacy and events on the ground.”

“The conflict is getting more visceral,” he said. Without concrete confidence-building measures, he said, and with more people “seeing it as an existential struggle, it’s hard to imagine what the negotiations would look like.”

The recent executions, reconstructed by speaking with residents and human rights monitors, unfolded over three days in two Sunni enclaves in the largely Alawite and Christian province, first in the village of Bayda and then in the Ras al-Nabeh district of the nearby city of Baniyas.

Government troops and supporting militias went house to house, killing entire families and smashing men’s heads with concrete blocks.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...&dlvrit=992637

U.N. General Assembly to vote on Syria resolution; Russia opposed

The U.N. General Assembly is set to vote on Wednesday on a draft resolution that condemns Syrian authorities and accepts the opposition Syrian National Coalition as party to a potential political transition.

Russia, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is opposed to the resolution, which was drafted by Qatar and other Arab nations and circulated among the 193 U.N. member states. Some Western diplomats said it was unlikely to win as many votes as a resolution that passed last year with 133 in favor.

No country has a veto in the General Assembly.

"I'm convinced a lot of countries voted for this text because they believed they were voting for the winning side," a senior western U.N. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in reference to the August, 2012 resolution. "They are not so sure anymore."

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video...gees-limbo.cnn

Syrian refugees stuck in limbo
Added on May 14, 2013

Ben Wedeman reports from Turkey on the growing fears of Syrian refugees.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/nowsyria...ace-conference

Russia calls on Syria opposition to back peace conference

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday called on the Syrian opposition to support Moscow and Washington in their efforts to work towards convening a peace conference to end the bloodshed in Syria.

"It is important for all participants to express articulate support for the Russian-US initiative to implement the Geneva communiqué," Lavrov was quoted as saying in the Swedish town of Kiruna by Russian news agencies.

Syria's key National Coalition opposition group is scheduled to meet in Istanbul on May 23 to discuss a Russia-US proposal for an international conference on a political solution to the Syrian conflict.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/nowsyria...-aleppo-prison

Fierce fighting erupts at Syria's Aleppo prison

Syrian troops backed by tanks and warplanes on Wednesday fought to repel an attack on the central prison in Aleppo after rebels blew up its walls in suicide car bombings, a watchdog said.

Around 4,000 prisoners including Islamists and common law criminals are held in the prison on the outskirts of the northern city, which is largely under rebel control, Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Regime forces fired tank shells and launched air raids around the jail to repel the rebel attack, igniting fire and damaging neighboring houses, the Observatory said.

It said a child was killed and seven members of a family were wounded in the bombings, it added, citing activists on the ground.

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/topic/syr...ell-al-jazeera

Explosion near the Opera House in the Syrian capital, sources tell Al Jazeera.

An explosion went off near the Opera House on Ummayad Sqaure, in central Damascus, early on Wednesday, sources told Al Jazeera.

According to reports that it was an improvised explosive device attached to a car.

There are no reports of casualties or damages.

A resident in the area told Al Jazeera that security forces temporarily closed road but that it has been reopened and that traffic is able to use the road again

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters 've liberated the new building of the central jail (Aleppo). fierce fighting is taking place in the old building
2:03 AM

https://twitter.com/pdanahar

Arab Dip told me: Rebels in Syria armed on whims of international diplomacy. Nusra gets funding from Saudi individuals so supply constant
3:31 AM

Dip's involved in syrian crisis say 30-40% of rebels claim affiliation with Nusra front but few believe its ideology, they just want guns
3:43 AM

https://twitter.com/And_Harper

No good news to report on the @refugees front w another 4,228 x'ing to safety of jordan in past 2 days. 535 others returned to Syria.
4:32 AM

https://twitter.com/NMSyria

Statement from the Free Syrian Army General Staff condemns the crime committed by FSA soldier eating enemy's heart.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater …
4:28 AM

The FSA has called for an investigation that will ultimately hold the soldier accountable for his crimes, and punish him accordingly.
4:34 AM

Breaking: Internet in Syria is offline once again as of 10:00AM local time. All domestic websites are offline as well. via @renesys
5:04 AM

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...3&l=3c0e4b16ca

Local Coordination Committees

By the end of Tuesday, Local committees documented 60 martyrs including 4 women, 10 children and 8 martyrs under torture: 20 martyrs were reported in Damascus Suburbs; 11 martyrs in Homs; 10 in Idlib; 9 in Hama; 9 in Aleppo; 4 in Deir Ezzor; 2 in Daraa; 2 in Raqqa; 1 in Lattakia, and 1 in Sweida

[visionary]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22536489

Syria rebels 'in assault on Aleppo prison'

The rebels apparently detonated two car bombs to blast through the walls of the prison, which holds 4,000 inmates including anti-government activists.

The opposition said government forces had counter-attacked using tank shells and air raids.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomac...spond-1.524151

Israel publicly warns Assad: If you attack us, we will topple your regime

"If Syrian President Assad reacts by attacking Israel…he will risk forfeiting his regime," a senior Israeli official told the New York Times on Wednesday.

The Times' White House correspondent Mark Landler wrote that the official contacted the newspaper on his own initiative.

Landler added that the official had been briefed in the last two days by other senior Israeli officials, who have intimate knowledge of the recent developments in Syria. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.

The official added that Israel is considering further strikes in Syria in order to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons into Hezbollah's hands.

"The transfer of such weapons to Hezbollah will destabilize and endanger the entire region,” the official said. "If Syrian President Assad reacts by attacking Israel, or tries to strike Israel through his terrorist proxies, he will risk forfeiting his regime, for Israel will retaliate."

“Israel has so far refrained from intervening in Syria’s civil war and will maintain this policy as long as Assad refrains from attacking Israel directly or indirectly,” the official added.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/ri...r-of-children/

Cannibalism in Syria: why is this a bigger story than the routine slaughter of children?

The revolution is not a dinner party, Chairman Mao famously said. Tell that to Khaled al-Hamad, the rogue rebel leader who had himself videoed biting into the heart he had just cut out of a Syrian regime soldier, now circulating wildly on the internet. We don't actually see him consume the organ, but he appears to tear off a chunk with his teeth.

Actually, Chairman Mao's dictum wasn't even honoured in China. During the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution, Red Guards in China's southern Guangxi province took rather literally the order to consume their capitalist reader enemies. According to investigative reports that leaked out in the 1990s, at least 137 people were eaten at banquets ordered by local officials. One woman was recorded by an internal inquiry as having torn the first strip from the roasted body of a school headmaster, her boyfriend's father, to prove that despite the personal connection she was as "Red" as the best of them.

There is a point to this. Mutilating your enemy's body and even eating his flesh are not, I think we can agree, good things, but they do have a long history. You can go back to the Iliad for the earliest great description of what happens when the bloodlust is up.

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

Senators introduce bipartisan bill to arm Syrian rebels

Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Bob Corker (R-TN) introduced a bill Wednesday to arm the Syrian rebels, the latest piece of legislation aimed at pressuring the Obama administration to intervene more aggressively in the protracted civil war. The bill provides lethal weapons to vetted members of the Syrian opposition and beefs up sanctions on weapons sales and petroleum sales to President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

In short, it has all the hallmarks of the bill Menendez introduced last week, but with a bipartisan sheen. As Andrew Tabler, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, described the Menendez bill last week, "If you want to pressure the president into acting, it's a pretty good bill ...The last time the Hill moved on Syria was sanctions on Syrian oil in the summer of 2011. That pressured the president to move, and this could too." Its new bipartisan gloss could give it that much more power.

The legislation is set to be taken up by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with a markup session scheduled for Tuesday, May 21.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...pons-good-guys

All sides in Syria have weapons 'except the good guys', says British official

All sides in the Syrian conflict have access to weapons "except the good guys," according to the official in charge of handling Britain's response to the crisis in Syria.

The head of the Syria team at the Foreign Office, publicly revealed for the first time how important weapons had become to Britain's private bargaining with the Syrian opposition. He suggested the opposition had insisted on getting access to arms before they agree to enter talks with the Assad regime.

Speaking at a meeting in the Commons, the official said: "We are trying to get the opposition to get involved in a negotiation with people they really don't want to negotiate with. The political reality is that in order to get them to the table we need to amend the arms embargo. It is that simple. They need an incentive."

He defended Britain's attempts to lift an EU arms embargo against Syria by claiming that the current restrictions were pushing Syria towards extremism. On Tuesday a video showing a rebel commander apparently biting the heart or lung of a dead government soldier raised more doubts about western backing of the Syrian opposition.

The official suggested that arms could be delivered to groups vetted against extremism and such abuses. "Everyone is getting arms except the good guys ... It means that people are becoming more and more radicalised," he said.

http://www.thenational.ae/news/world...#ixzz2TOCNFYWH

Syria rebels vow to punish atrocities after video outrage

Syria's internet, meanwhile, was down for the second time in a week while on the ground rebels launched an attack on the central prison in Aleppo, sparking fierce fighting with regime forces, a watchdog said.

The mainstream rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) issued its statement after a gruesome video of an alleged rebel fighter cutting out and apparently eating the organs of a regime soldier emerged online.

"Any act contrary to the values that the Syrian people have paid their blood and lost their homes (for) will not be tolerated, the abuser will be punished severely even if they are associated with the Free Syrian Army," the group said.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/orig...medium=twitter

Russian Embassy in Beirut Becomes Hub for Syria Diplomacy

Since the visit of Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov to Beirut on April 26, the Russian Embassy in the Lebanese capital appears to be a crisis management group charged with solving the Syrian file or a working group preparing for the second Geneva conference. This is the case for several reasons.

Russia’s diplomats have moved from Damascus to Beirut, as have a majority of the diplomatic missions to Syria. In Beirut, the Russians have been able to communicate and interact with external parties on the Syrian crisis more than they could in Damascus. Beirut was chosen over other capitals in states neighboring Syria to be the base of Russian diplomatic work in view of historical, geographical and personal considerations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/16/wo...imesworld&_r=0

U.N. Calls for Political Transition in Syria

As the bloodletting continued unabated in Syria, the 193-member General Assembly passed a nonbinding resolution on Wednesday calling for a political transition to end the civil war there, putting the onus on the government of President Bashar al-Assad to stop the killing.

But even as the vote was being tallied, members recognized that it, like every other diplomatic initiative, would probably fail to stem the violence or coax out a political solution. While the resolution passed 107 to 12, it fell far short of the 133 votes in support of a similar resolution last August. The 59 abstentions reflected the widespread sentiment that the new initiative might not help push both parties toward new peace talks in Geneva proposed by the United States and Russia.

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/topic/syr...-will-go-ahead

Kerry confident peace talks will go ahead

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday they believed they could pull off peace talks on Syria.

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters destroyed a military checkpoint in al-zallaqiyat (north-east of halfaya). +15 assad thugs were killed
1:27 PM

resistance fighters have liberated tall al-kharuf in the southern countryside of #Damascus. many assad thugs were killed
2:02 PM

resistance fighters have liberated a few places in salah al-din neighborhood in Aleppo city. some assad soldiers were killed
2:10 PM

jabhat al-nusrah blew up a military checkpoint in qizhil (west of homs city). many assad thugs were killed
2:37 PM

https://twitter.com/hhassan140

Needless to say UN GA resolution is symbolic - the world's action against the regime's atrocities blocked by Russia. Gentle reminder.
1:48 PM

Another positive thing about passing the resolution is that if it wasn't passed, it'd be a victory added to the regime's recent dip gains.
1:53 PM

(the sustainability of weapons and other support for Rebels) that's unfortunately changing - massive disruption of flow till Ruso-American conf. Weakening radicals yet no arms to moderates
1:57 PM

frustrating. Good to weaken radicals but they should support the others. For now, the US has no plan for that. Smothering only.
2:09 PM

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...9&l=4b6007079d

Local Coordination Committees in Syria

By the end of Wednesday the Local Coordination Committees were able to document 90 martyrs including 6 woman and 7 children: 28 martyrs were reported in Aleppo; 21 martyrs in Homs; 19 martyrs in Damascus and its suburbs; 7 martyrs in Hama; 5 martyrs in Idlib; 4 martyrs in Raqqa; 3 martyrs in Deir Ezzor; 2 martyrs in Daraa and one martyr in Qunaitra

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...&dlvrit=992637

Syrian rebels launch offensive in south to reverse losses

Syrian rebels said they attacked an important military base in the south and checkpoints in the city of Deraa on Thursday, trying to regain ground lost to President Bashar al-Assad's forces near the Jordanian border.

The rebels were thrown onto the defensive last week when Assad's troops retook the town of Khirbet Ghazaleh on the main north-south highway between Damascus and Jordan.

They said hundreds of fighters with rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns were brought in on Thursday to lay siege to the fortress-like headquarters of the Syrian army's 52nd Mechanised Brigade, one of the largest bases in Deraa province.

The base, almost 80 km (50 miles) south of Damascus, lies at the heart of a heavily fortified zone which has traditionally formed a southern line of defense protecting the capital.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...94F0UJ20130516

Russia: Iran must participate in proposed Syria conference

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Iran must take part in a proposed international conference to end Syria's civil war, but that Western states wanted to limit the participants and possibly predetermine the outcome of the talks.

"Among some of our Western colleagues, there is a desire to narrow the circle of external participants and begin the process from a very small group of countries in a framework which, in essence, would predetermine the negotiating teams, agenda, and maybe even the outcome of talks," Lavrov said in an interview posted on the Foreign Ministry website on Thursday.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/nowsyria...ssure-on-assad

Obama, Erdogan vow to up pressure on Assad

US President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to crank up pressure on Syria's President Bashar al-Assad Thursday, but offered no concrete new measures to do so.

Obama warned there was no "magic formula" to force Assad to leave power, as both the United States and Turkey want, but said he hoped a conference that Washington is organizing with Russia next month would be successful.

He gave no sign that he was ready to satisfy Turkish calls for Washington to overcome its reservations about directly arming rebels fighting Assad's regime.

"There is no magic formula for dealing with an extraordinary violent and difficult situation like Syria's," Obama said, after meeting Erdogan at the White House.

"If there was, I think the Prime Minister and I would already have acted upon it and it would already be finished," Obama said.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/da...ange-his-mind/

Obama ignored all his advisers on Syria – and he isn't going to change his mind

There’s a remarkable piece in the New Yorker about how President Obama is grappling with his wrenching dilemma over what to do about Syria. It’s one of those examples of American journalism that gives you a genuine feel for the atmosphere behind the scenes – and of how, in the words of one former US official, “all the options are horrible”.

That set me thinking about an incident that has been widely reported, but whose true significance might not have been fully appreciated. Last year, the entire US national security team came up with a unanimous recommendation. These people very rarely agree with one another, but they all told Obama that the time had come for America to arm the Syrian rebels. The degree of consensus was remarkable: Leon Panetta, then defence secretary, Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs, and General David Petraeus, then head of the CIA, all advised Obama to tip the balance of the war by sending weapons to carefully vetted units within Syria’s insurgency. And the President turned them down.

https://medium.com/syrian-uprising/f29cbccebaa5

The Wait

This is a guest post by @BigAlBrand who is an activist living in Homs, cradle of the Syrian revolution. He agreed to share some insights from his everyday life.

We each have a certain routine we live by most of our days, a routine that changes in every episode of our lives. School days have a routine different from college and work days. Life in a war zone has its own episodes of routine as well.

During the past two years, our lives changed dramatically. In cities like Homs, Daraa or Douma, that saw early clashes, it now feels a lot like living in a war zone . But in the past few months we have been in a new routine, which I can describe best in one word : Waiting.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/nowsyria...ss-lawyer-says

Security forces detain Syrian actress, lawyer says

A prominent Syrian actress and outspoken activist against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad was detained on Thursday, a human rights lawyer said.

"At noon today, the security forces detained the free actress May Skaf while she was on her way home in the Mashru Dummar neighborhood" of Damascus, Anwar al-Bunni reported on Facebook.

"Skaf made a mobile phone call to her son, to tell him her identity card had been taken from her by members of the security forces at a checkpoint," Bunni told AFP.

Her mobile phone has since been switched off, he added.

Skaf's "detention... confirms that the Syrian authorities... are seeking to silence the voices of cultural and political figures, to try and give credence to their narrative that the regime is fighting terrorism", Bunni said.

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/liveblog/topic/syria-153

about an hour ago
John Brennan, the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has, arrived in Israel on a surprise visit to discuss the situation in Syria, an official Israeli source said.

The CIA chief went straight into a meeting in Tel Aviv with Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon late on Thursday, the official said.

Private television station Channel 10 said that Yaalon reaffirmed during the talks that Israel "will not permit the transfer of weapons" from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters destroyed a military convoy, including 2 trucks & a bmp, near khanasir in Aleppo. assad soldiers were killed
11:36 PM

al-farouq brigades say they have liberated a military checkpoint (al-mahd) in hama (west of qal`at al-madiq) & seized weapons
2:16 AM

a report says assad's forces have left the 4th military detachment in daraa (between al-karak & umm al-walad)
2:34 AM

resistance fighters have liberated a rest house in brigade 52 in daraa
2:38 AM

resistance fighters have seized the water tank in brigade 52 in daraa
2:39 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

conflicting reports on the central jail in Aleppo. my activist & sham's reporter say resistance fighters liberated the new building. It seems the resistance fighters are still fighting assad's thugs in the old building of the central jail in Aleppo
6:05 AM

resistance fighters have liberated the town of al-qaysa in al-ghoutah al-sharqiyah
6:33 AM

resistance fighters destroyed 4 tanks & 2 bmp vehicles near the central jail in Aleppo
resistance fighters seized a bmp-1 & a truck near the central jail in Aleppo
11:53 AM

resistance fighters have liberated a military compound (232) in brigade 52
12:23 PM

resistance fighters say they didn't destroy the central jail in Aleppo for the sake of the prisoners
12:53 PM

https://twitter.com/WashingtonPoint

Obama "Assad need to go. He need to transfer power to the transition body"
12:54 PM

Erdogan: Syria was the number one issue we discussed. Tonight we gonna discuss Syria in more details
12:59 PM

Obama: we would've preferred Assad go 2 years ago, a year ago or 6 months ago. We have consistency saying he must go
1:23 PM

Note that PM Erdogan will have 2 hour private dinner w/pres Obama tonight, it's when, Erdogan says, will talk Syria in depth
1:25 PM

https://twitter.com/CFKlebergTT

In MFA statement Russia accuses "some of our Western colleagues" of trying to determine participants and maybe outcome of Syria conference.
1:41 PM

Meanwhile (PreviousTweet) France's Hollande says Russia must be persuaded to break it off with Syria's Assad.
1:44 PM

Obama said just now, after Erdogan meeting, that there's "evidence" of chem weapon use in Syria but "more specific information" needed.
1:46 PM

Obama "reserves the right" to resort to diplomatic and military options if there's conclusive proof Syria used chem weaps, he said just now
1:47 PM

https://twitter.com/Joyce_Karam

Breaking: US Treasury designates Syria Airline and Dunya TV as part of Assad support network.
3:04 PM

US Treasury designates Syria Arab Airlines,"for acting for or on behalf of Iran’s IRGC" in transporting weapons + ammunition to Assad.
3:10 PM

US sanctions target 3 entities in Syria today: Iran, Assad and Nusra.
3:15 PM

[visionary]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ut-window.html

Syrian rebels call off Aleppo prison siege after troops throw inmates out window

Forces belonging to the Free Syrian Army have managed to fight their way around the northern outskirts of the city, where the jail is situated, since seizing the nearby Rangers Academy three months ago.

They drove troops out of an unfinished extension to the prison earlier this week, and on Wednesday drove holes, including by blowing up two cars, in the wall surrounding the main compound where up to 4,000 prisoners are being held by several hundred troops.

But they failed to take the prison itself on Friday. "I saw ten bodies being thrown out today," said Anas, 30, a soldier speaking after withdrawing from the rebels' front line. "Yesterday, we attacked at about 5 o'clock, but when we began they started throwing bodies through the window.

"The bodies are still there, and we are close enough to smell them. We cannot get them because they are in the line of fire." He said the attack had stopped to prevent more prisoners being killed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...767_story.html

Syrian rebels demand weapons before talks

The Syrian opposition is demanding access to arms before planned peace talks next month, amid a growing consensus that it may take a shift in the balance of power on the battlefield before any meaningful negotiations can take place.

Khalid Saleh, a spokesman for the Syrian Opposition Coalition, said Thursday that his group is pushing for “serious arming” of the rebels ahead of the U.S.- and *Russian-backed negotiations. His comments come as European nations consider linking the lifting of an E.U. arms embargo to the talks.

Analysts and diplomats say that those [regime] gains may dim the chance of the regime taking part in substantive talks and that the opposition needs to be strengthened. Meanwhile, the opposition has jumped at the opportunity to leverage its long-standing demand for arms.

“We’re not going to sit at the table while Assad continues to kill, supported by Russia and Hezbollah,” Saleh said. “What we are asking for is arming the Free Syrian Army or Supreme Military Council — before the talks.”

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

Obama stays cautious on Syria after talks as Turkey presses for urgency

Barack Obama and Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan skated over major differences on how to deal with the Syrian crisis after a lengthy meeting at the White House on Thursday.

Obama, at a joint press conference in the Rose Garden, said there was "no magic formula" for resolving the conflict. He pinned hopes on an international conference proposed for Geneva next month that would bring together the Assad government and the rebels, in spite of widespread scepticism about the chances of it bringing about an end to the conflict.

Erdogan is pressing for more urgency and more positive action to bring the Syrian catastrophe to an end and is seeking the US and others in the international community to implement at the very least a no-fly zone to prevent Syrian jets and helicopters operating with impunity in rebel-held areas.

Erdogan said: "Our aim is to accelerate this process and I will be visiting other countries and my foreign minister will do the same just to see how we can speed things up to prevent the deaths of more people."

Erdogan, not wanting to embarrass Obama on his home soil, replied to press questions about the two different approaches by saying he preferred to look at the glass as "half-full rather than half-empty", focusing on what the two agreed on: that Assad needed to go.

Obama, asked by a Turkish journalist if he would still be talking about the Syrian tragedy next year, said: "We would have preferred Assad to go two years ago, last year, six months ago, two months ago. There has been consistency on the part of my administration that Assad lost legitimacy when he started firing on his own people and killing his own people who were initially protesting peacefully for a greater voice in their country's affairs. Obviously that has escalated over time. So the answer is the sooner the better.

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

The hard men on both sides prevail

BLACK flag flies over the governor’s headquarters in Raqqa, a city of 250,000 people in Syria’s north-east which is the biggest so far that the rebels have captured wholesale from President Bashar Assad’s regime. It is also a base for Jabhat al-Nusra (Victory Front), an extreme armed opposition group in Syria with which al-Qaeda in Iraq recently claimed to have merged.

But the group does not dominate Raqqa. At least four other rebel outfits, mainly Salafist ones whose members say they want to emulate the companions of the Prophet Muhammad, vie with a bunch of civilian councils for power over this tribal Sunni city, plastering its walls with rival graffiti. Yet in the eastern provinces as a whole, Jabhat al-Nusra has emerged as a hugely powerful presence. Among rebel fighters across the country it is probably the most effective single group.

Raqqa offers a snapshot of what is going on among the rebels elsewhere in Syria. The more moderate ones are now a minority. On one side they have been squeezed by Salafist factions, especially in the rebel-controlled east. On the other, they have been pushed back territorially by the regime as it regains ground in the more populated west of the country.

That is partly because Mr Assad’s allies, Iran and Hizbullah, the Lebanese Shia movement, have backed the regime with more dedication than the Gulf Arab and Western states have helped the opposition. As the civil war has dragged on, the rebels, hardened by war and seeing where their bread is buttered, have become more Islamist and extreme.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/nowsyria...ish-with-assad

Hollande: Russia must be convinced to 'finish with Assad'

French President Francois Hollande said Thursday that more efforts were needed to convince Moscow to drop its support for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

"We must have a frank discussion with Russia to convince it that it is in its interests, in the interests of the region, in the interests of peace, to finish with Bashar al-Assad," Hollande told a press conference.

Hollande said France was "involved" in efforts by Washington and Moscow to push for direct talks between the opposition and Assad's regime.

He said resolving the conflict "cannot simply be dealt with by two countries, it must be done by all of the international community."

https://twitter.com/DarthNader

Free women of Raqqa pic.twitter.com/b2kAZnN2Ig
3:33 PM

Nusra will have a hard time imposing their will on Raqqa. The people of Raqqa are known for their staunch secularism.
3:37 PM

Raqqa also counters hegemonic narrative of seculars siding with regime vs. Islamists opposing it. Seculars & Islamists alike with the rev.
3:44 PM

A revolutionary cemetery in Quseir pic.twitter.com/6gpJIAYhFz
3:51 PM

https://twitter.com/NMSyria

Mai Skaf has been released after being detained by regime forces this morning.
4:01 PM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters have liberated alanya area in khan al-asal (Aleppo)
3:59 PM

Fierce fighting is going on in idlib city. the water supply has been cut off. Resistance fighters are attacking 5 military checkpoints in idlib city
4:03 PM

+50 troops have defected in daraa http://youtu.be/omCeRhQNak8
4:04 PM

resistance fighters destroyed the military operations compound in brigade 52 in daraa
4:12 PM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

Intense clashes on the outskirts and inside Idlib city with reports of the liberation of the Kunsora checkpoint http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPric...ature=youtu.be
3:03 PM

Many regime soldiers arriving to the Idlib city hospital during heavy clashes at the city's checkpoints.
4:20 PM

The main checkpoints being targeted are the Bakfalon and Kunsuwora checkpoints.
4:21 PM

the clashes are concentrated at the south and west of the city.
4:26 PM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters have liberated the soap factory in al-qaboun neighborhood in Damascus city. the factory was a military complex
4:36 PM

reports say assad's thugs have burned & destroyed many houses in the town of khirbat ghazalah in daraa
4:40 PM

update: resistance fighters destroyed 4 tanks yesterday (Thursday) in al-ghoutah al-sharqiyah
5:08 PM

resistance fighters have liberated a military checkpoint in idlib city. details in the morning
5:09 PM

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...4&l=b955c109f4

Local Coordination Committees in Syria

By the end of Wednesday, the coordination committees have documented 110 martyrs, including 3 women, 7 children, and 1 martyr under torture: 60 martyrs were reported in Damascus and suburbs; 17 in Aleppo; 10 in Homs; 8 in Hama; 5 in Idlib; 5 in Daraa; 4 in Deir Ezzor; and 1 in Raqqa

[visionary]

http://racanarchy.com/2013/05/17/the...on-of-yabroud/

The Destruction of Yabroud

For almost a year now we have been hearing loud cries for a political solution in Syria. The goal, some would have you believe, is to end the conflict in a way that sheds the least amount of blood. It is really a simple premise, the Syrian people’s representatives will meet with the representatives of Assad’s government to come to an agreement that will end the loss of life in Syria and restore peace. While it sound’s great on paper I would like to demonstrate to you why a political solution will never truly materialize despite it’s good intentions.

Yabroud, Damascus is a small town North East of Damascus’ city center. During the last two years of revolution Yabroud has remained a bastion of non-violent resistance against the regime. Rallying against the regime and eventually succeeding in freeing themselves from Assad’s militants without shedding blood. The following video will demonstrate how beautifully Yabroud’s people have come together in order to improve their town and their country.

Yabroud remained peaceful, free, and flourishing for almost a year until the regime decided they wanted ‘their territory’ back.

This is a video from Yabroud today as Assad’s military attacks the peaceful town in order to reclaim it.

http://www.etilaf.org/en/newsroom/pr...-massacre.html

Warning of Imminent Hama Countryside Massacre

Assad forces are currently imposing a siege and communications blackout on the towns of Halfaya and Aqrab, near the Hama countryside. Civilians in those areas are now cut off from contact with the outside world, and lives are in extreme danger.

The Syrian Coalition calls on nations from around the world and international organizations to mobilize rapidly in order to rescue women, children and civilians from the military forces that have been bombarding Halfaya and Aqrab for nine days in preparation for the coming assault on the inhabitants.

The Syrian Coalition is afraid that Assad forces will take advantage of the global community's continued silence and the Arab world's inaction in order to commit another grisly massacre in Halfaya and the surrounding villages.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/wo...anted=all&_r=0

Russia Sends More Advanced Missiles to Aid Assad in Syria

Russia has sent advanced antiship cruise missiles to Syria, a move that illustrates the depth of its support for the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad, American officials said Thursday.

Unlike Scud and other longer-range surface-to-surface missiles that the Assad government has used against opposition forces, the Yakhont antiship missile system provides the Syrian military a formidable weapon to counter any effort by international forces to reinforce Syrian opposition fighters by imposing a naval embargo, establishing a no-fly zone or carrying out limited airstrikes.

“It enables the regime to deter foreign forces looking to supply the opposition from the sea, or from undertaking a more active role if a no-fly zone or shipping embargo were to be declared at some point,” said Nick Brown, editor in chief of IHS Jane’s International Defense Review. “It’s a real ship killer.”

Jeffrey White, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former senior American intelligence official, said Syria’s strengthened arsenal would “tend to push Western or allied naval activity further off the coast” and was also “a signal of the Russian commitment to the Syrian government.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...&dlvrit=992637

U.S. chides Russia over missiles as peace plans suffer

The United States chided Russia for sending missiles to the Syrian government as plans for a peace conference promoted by Washington and Moscow were hit by diplomatic rifts over its scope and purpose.

Sectarian bloodshed in neighboring Iraq during Friday prayers, a hacking attack on a Western newspaper by sympathizers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and defiant comments by a rebel commander filmed eating a slain soldier's flesh were all reminders of how the two-year-old civil war is metastising.

But the divisions among world powers that have prevented a coordinated resolution were also again on display, just 10 days after Russia and the United States agreed to bury differences and push for an urgent international conference to end the war.

The most senior U.S. military officer, General Martin Dempsey, described Russia's recent delivery of anti-ship missiles to Assad as "ill-timed and very unfortunate" and risked prolonging a war which has already killed more than 80,000 Syrians and which the U.N. said had driven 1.5 million abroad.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/op...?smid=tw-share

Can Obama Save Turkey From a Syrian Quagmire?

WHEN Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met President Obama at the White House on Thursday, the most pressing topic was the war in Syria. Turkey has not faced a threat on this scale since Stalin demanded territory from the Turks in 1945.

In 2011, the Turkish government severed all diplomatic ties with the government of Bashar al-Assad and began to support the Syrian opposition groups seeking to oust him. But, thus far, this policy has failed, and it has exposed Turkey to growing risks, most recently two deadly bomb attacks in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli that were most likely planted by pro-Assad forces in retaliation for Turkish support of the Syrian rebels.

Turkey’s blessing over the past decade has been its reputation as a stable country in an otherwise unstable region. In November 2012, the global ratings agency Fitch rated Turkish bonds investment-grade for the first time since 1994. The country’s improved international reputation has alleviated a chronic economic problem: lack of capital. A steady infusion of foreign investment for over a decade has ushered in phenomenal growth, at some points exceeding 8 percent annually, and propelled Turkey into the Group of 20 industrialized nations.

Turkey has become a majority middle-class society for the first time in its history, helping Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party win three successive elections since 2002.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/internat...-governor-says

Turkey arrests prime suspect over car bombings, governor says

Turkey has arrested one of the prime suspects responsible for the twin car bombings that killed at least 51 people in a city near the Syrian border, said the city's governor on Friday.

"We captured one of the chief actors involved in the incident at 11:40 pm last night," said Celalettin Lekesiz, governor of southeastern Turkey's Hatay city where the bombs went off.

"There are still two other major suspects at large," he added in televised remarks.

The man, who allegedly purchased the vehicles used in the bombings, was caught trying to cross the border into Syria along with his two accomplices.

With the latest arrest, Turkey now holds four people in jail while four others have been freed pending trial.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/nowsyria...er-syria-grows

Ban to meet Putin as pressure on Russia over Syria grows

UN chief Ban Ki-moon was to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday as global pressure grows on Moscow to end arms supplies to the Syrian regime and drop its support for President Bashar al-Assad.

Ban was to have separate talks with both Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi where the Russian leader has been based for the past week.

The UN leader told Russian news agencies as he entered the first talks with Lavrov that he intended to discuss "the political settlement in Syria," in comments translated into Russian.

The meetings come after French President Francois Hollande upped the pressure on the Kremlin on Thursday by saying more efforts were needed to convince Moscow to "finish with Bashar al-Assad."

Ban's mission and a May 10 visit to Sochi by British Prime Minister David Cameron follow Putin's May 7 talks in Moscow with US Secretary of State John Kerry during which the sides agreed to set up a new round of Syria negotiations within a matter of weeks.

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/...plains_himself

Syria’s lung-eating rebel explains himself

The shocking video of a Syrian rebel eating the lung of a pro-Assad fighter spread like wildfire across the Internet earlier this week. The rebel, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, has filmed a YouTube video explaining his actions.

"I am willing to face trial for my actions if Bashar and his shabeeha [militiamen] stand trial for their atrocities," he says. "My message to the world is if the bloodshed in Syria doesn't stop, all of Syria will become like Abu Sakkar."

The Syrian rebel, whose real name is Khalid al-Hamad, goes on to explain that he did what he did because of atrocities committed by pro-Assad fighters. He said that evidence taken from their cell phones showed how they raped women, killed children, and tortured men. In an article published this week by TIME magazine, the rebel fighter explained that he had a sectarian hatred of Alawites, and that he had made another video where he cuts up a pro-Assad fighter's body with a saw.

Abu Sakkar's actions not only created controversy among observers of the conflict, but also prompted the Syrian rebel leadership to take action. The Free Syrian Army's Military Council released a statement condemning Abu Sakkar's "monstrous act," and instructed field commanders to being an investigation "in which the perpetrator will be brought to justice."

http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/16/s...rture-chambers

Syria: Visit Reveals Torture Chambers

Government security branches in Raqqa city hold documents and potential physical evidence indicating that detainees were arbitrarily detained and tortured there while the city was under government control. Human Rights Watch researchers visited the State Security and Military Intelligence facilities in Raqqa, now under the de facto control of local armed opposition groups, in late April 2013.

Local opposition leaders with the support of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces and neutral international experts should safeguard potential evidence of torture and arbitrary detention in security forces centers in opposition-controlled areas, Human Rights Watch said.

“The documents, prison cells, interrogation rooms, and torture devices we saw in the government’s security facilities are consistent with the torture former detainees have described to us since the beginning of the uprising in Syria,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Those in control of Raqqa need to safeguard the materials in these facilities so the truth can be told and those responsible held accountable.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...technologyNews

Syria government supporters hack Financial Times

The Financial Times' website and Twitter feeds were hacked on Friday, renewing questions about whether the popular social media service has done enough to tighten security as cyber-attacks on the news media intensify.

The Syrian Electronic Army, an online group that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was behind the incident which followed a phishing attack on the company's email accounts, FT reported on its website.

The attack is the latest in which hackers commandeered the Twitter account of a prominent news organization to push their agenda. Twitter's 200 million users worldwide send out more than 400 million tweets a day, making it a potent distributor of news.

https://twitter.com/MahirZeynalov

Turkish intelligence are now closely monitoring Syrian refugees suspected of having links with the Syrian regime after Hatay blasts.
4:35 AM

Turkey retrieved phone conversations of Syria's intel and Hatay blasts suspects in Latakia. Shows strength of Turkish intel inside Syria
4:59 AM

Syrian refugees: Jordan: 473,587. Lebanon: 470,457. Turkey: 347,157. Iraq: 147,464. Egypt: 66,922.
7:05 AM

https://twitter.com/LeShaque

The Aleppo Sharia Court clamp downs on independent media activists in an effort to silence critics are typical Baathist behavior.
8:02 AM

https://twitter.com/AymanM

This @ForeignPolicy morning brief headline says it all:Obama rules out unilateral action in Syria as Russia ships advanced missiles to Assad
8:57 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters destroyed a big convoy, including 9 vehicles, in the southern countryside of Aleppo
9:04 AM

resistance fighters have started a military operation against assad's forces in ariha
9:19 AM

resistance fighters say they have liberated al-utaybah in al-ghoutah al-sharqiyah
10:28 AM

resistance fighters say they liberated 6 towns: talisiyah, ras al-ain, al-sha`thah, al-junaynah, al-qahirah, qasr al-makhram hama
10:51 AM

https://twitter.com/rozalinachomsky

resistance fighters say they destroyed 2 tanks in brigade 52 daraa
10:05 AM

resistance fighters say 27 military officers & soldiers have defected from brigade 52 daraa
10:59 AM

resistance fighters say they have destroyed the petrol station in brigade 52 daraa
11:00 AM

resistance fighters say they have destroyed the fire brigade station in brigade 52 daraa
11:01 AM

resistance fighters say they destroyed ammunition depots in brigade 52 daraa
11:03 AM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

FSA liberates Tlaisieh in Hama suburbs...stand on "Assad's Syria" writing... pic.twitter.com/UmL9V9m9Mn
4:30 AM

Airstrikes on Salqeen Idlib destroy 7 homes over their inhabitants...reports of more than 10 martyrs and 10s of injured.
7:34 AM

2nd Idlib massacre today...this one in the city of Saraqeb...martyr count is unknown as of now
http://youtu.be/bj1lKBiv-xo
1:51 PM

https://twitter.com/HannahAllam

State Dept: But we still remain concerned about any help to the Syrian regime, whether by Russians or anyone else.
1:26 PM

State Dept: We are always concerned about any transfer of weapons or assistance to Syrian regime. But still working w/Russia on peace conf
1:27 PM

State Dept: Mazen Darwish to be appear before Syrian court Sun, his NGO is only 1 w/UN consultative status.
1:35 PM

State Dept: OK we'll stop being 'too cute' about this. Yes, the peace conf location is Geneva, but announcement not ours to make
1:36 PM

https://twitter.com/JMiller_EA

Watch Yabroud, N. of Damascus, bombed today. If it's not invaded, it's proof that Assad likes to kill defiant civilians
5:08 PM

https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf

Update on Abu Dhoor airport:
The battle was named the battle of the trench because of the trenches the FSA had dug around the airport to help with their attacks. Heavy rains however have been falling for the past 2 days and the trenches were filled with water which limited their ability to move around.

The regime took advantage of this and attacked recovering the hangars that the FSA had previously controlled and built covers to prevent attacks all amid very heavy airstrikes. The FSA re-advanced into the airport and are now preparing to reclaim the hangars and the rest of the airport.
6:49 PM


A convoy headed to Sfeera in Aleppo has been completely destroyed by JAN include 6 transport vehicles and all soldiers inside.
8:03 PM

They also captured 2 vehicles and ammunition and weapons trucks.
8:04 PM

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...9&l=bdcdf01307

Local Coordination Committee in Syria

By the end of Friday, the local coordination committees documentated 113 martyrs between 7 women, 4 children and 1 martyr under torture: 39 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its suburbs; 17 martyrs in Idlib; 15 martyrs in Homs, including 3 unidentified martyred in Damascus suburbs; 14 in Deir Ezzor; 8 in Hama; 8 in Daraa; 8 in Aleppo; 2 in Raqqa; and 2 in Hassakeh

http://www.extremeskins.com/showthre...75#post9046975
At Least 63,416 people killed so far in Syria