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Target Syria NWO's next acquisition The Middle East- WW III - Muslim Civil War

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March 27, 2024, 12:55:24 pm Mark says: Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked  When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of "bringing red cows" to the Holy Land.
December 31, 2022, 10:08:58 am NilsFor1611 says: blessings
August 08, 2018, 02:38:10 am suzytr says: Hello, any good churches in the Sacto, CA area, also looking in Reno NV, thanks in advance and God Bless you Smiley
January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018
October 17, 2017, 01:25:20 am Christian40 says: It is good to type Mark is here again!  Smiley
October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?
September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
September 14, 2017, 08:06:04 am Psalm 51:17 says: bro Mark Hunter on YT has some good, edifying stuff too.
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Author Topic: Target Syria NWO's next acquisition The Middle East- WW III - Muslim Civil War  (Read 44528 times)
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« Reply #300 on: January 09, 2013, 10:21:41 am »

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4330267,00.html

Officials 'concerned' about Syrian uranium stockpile
US, Mideast officials fear Iran could be trying to seize uranium stockpile left over from Syrian nuclear program

Ynet Published:  01.09.13

Nuclear experts in the US and Middle East have raised concerns about the security of up to 50 metric tons of unenriched uranium in Syria, the Financial Times reported Tuesday.

Such a stockpile could be a vital resource to building a nuclear bomb and could have disastrous implications if seized by Iran.

Not much is known about the Syrian nuclear program, and the country denied ever having had one. But intelligence data collected at the time indicated that President Bashar Assad regime’s was close to completing a nuclear reactor at Al-Kibar, in the east of the country, when it was reportedly destroyed by Israeli jets in September 2007.

Intelligence officials have long believed that the reactor was familiar in its design to the Yongbyon facility in North Korea, which aided Syria with its program. By comparing the two reactors, experts have concluded that Al-Kibar would have required about 50 tonnes of natural uranium fuel to become operational.

Government officials and nuclear experts have recently told the Financial Times that there were legitimate concerns about a uranium stockpile of such magnitude which may have remained in Syria. According to experts, such a stockpile would be enough to provide weapons grade fuel for five atomic devices.

“There are real worries about what has happened to the uranium that Syria was planning to put into the Al-Kibar reactor shortly before the reactor was destroyed in 2007,” David Albright, the head of the US-based Institute for Science and International Security think-tank told the Financial Times.

“There’s no question that, as Syria gets engulfed in civil war, the whereabouts of this uranium is worrying governments. There is evidence to suggest this issue has been raised by one government directly with the IAEA.”
 
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« Reply #301 on: January 11, 2013, 11:51:21 am »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20984142

11 January 2013

Rebels 'take control of key north Syria airbase'

Rebel are reported to have taken control of a strategic military airbase in north-western Syria after weeks of fierce fighting with government forces.

Online videos appeared to show rebels celebrating inside Taftanaz airport, alongside tanks and helicopters.

Helicopters based there have been used to attack rebel-held areas.

Meanwhile, talks in Geneva between the UN envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, and senior US and Russian diplomats ended without a breakthrough.

Mr Brahimi had wanted to discuss with the US Deputy Secretary of State, William Burns, and Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, how to implement the plan proposed by the Action Group for Syria in June, which called for an immediate cessation of violence and the establishment of a transitional government.

A joint statement read by Mr Brahimi after Friday's meeting stated that all sides had stressed there could be no military solution to the conflict, and underscored the necessity to reach a political solution.

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« Reply #302 on: January 15, 2013, 09:34:08 am »

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4332009,00.html

Syria: Worst is yet to come
Analysis: Increased involvement of armed jihadi groups in civil war may lead to ethnic cleansing in post-Assad Syria

Riccardo Dugulin Published:  01.14.13

Reports linked to the online portal of the "revolution coordination page of Midan area" indicate that the Russian journalist Anhar Kochneva is in the hands of jihadist elements operating in Syria. Her captors have expressed multiple times their willingness to execute her. Following her capture, Mrs. Kochneva may or may not be arbitrarily killed, yet what remains certain is that the situation which is rapidly developing in Syria leaves no room for doubt. Regardless of the mounting number of innocent deaths, the gruesome crimes committed by government forces and the fierce fighting that has been taking place between opposition groups and loyalist units, it is certain that the worse is yet to come for the Syrian people and for the neighboring countries. This assertion is conceivable as a close look at all the likely outcomes of the present crisis do not indicate any strong probability for peace and stability in the Near East.

President Barak Obama may have decided to bless the Syrian opposition with the White House recognition, while other European governments are also in the process of doing so, yet the problem regarding the nature of the multiple movements fighting regime forces is today impossible to ignore. Recent reports and articles have pointed at the growing role played in logistical coordination and combat operations by al-Qaeda-linked jihadi groups. The infamous Jabhat al-Nusra is gaining international notoriety by having been the first opposition force listed as a terrorist organization by the United States since the beginning of hostilities in 2011.

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« Reply #303 on: January 15, 2013, 01:48:31 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/explosions-kill-52-syrian-university-exams-begin-175829230.html

.
Explosions kill 52 at Syrian university as exams begin
By Mariam Karouny | Reuters – 1 hr 47 mins ago.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two explosions tore through one of Syria's biggest universities on the first day of student exams on Tuesday, killing at least 52 people and wounding dozens, a monitoring group said.
 
Bloodshed has disrupted civilian life across Syria since a violent government crackdown in early 2011 on peaceful demonstrations for democratic reform turned the unrest into an armed insurgency bent on overthrowing President Bashar al-Assad.
 
More than 50 countries asked the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday to refer the crisis to the International Criminal Court, which prosecutes people for genocide and war crimes. But Russia - Assad's long-standing ally and arms supplier - blocked the initiative, calling it "ill-timed and counterproductive.
 
Each side in the 22-month-old conflict blamed the other for Tuesday's blasts at the University of Aleppo, located in a government-held area of Syria's most populous city.
 
Some activists in Aleppo said a government attack caused the explosions, while state television accused "terrorists" - a term they often use to describe the rebels - of firing two rockets at the school. A rebel fighter said the blasts appeared to have been caused by "ground-to-ground" missiles.
 
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said at least 52 people were killed and dozens wounded, but it could not identify the source of the blasts.
 
"Dozens are in critical condition. The death toll could rise to 90," the Observatory said in a statement, citing doctors and students.
 
State television - which did not give a death toll - showed a body lying on the street and several cars burning. One of the university buildings was damaged.
 
Video footage showed students carrying books out of the university after one of the explosions, walking quickly away from rising smoke. The camera then shakes to the sound of another explosion and people begin running.
 
If confirmed, the government's report of a rocket attack would suggest rebels in the area had been able to obtain and deploy more powerful weapons than previously used.
 
The nearest rebel-controlled area, Bustan al-Qasr, is more than a mile away from the university.
 
Activists rejected the suggestion that insurgents were behind the attack, however, and instead blamed the government.
 
"The warplanes of this criminal regime do not respect a mosque, a church or a university," said a student who gave his name as Abu Tayem.
 
GRINDING TOWARD STALEMATE
 
The rebels have been trying to take Aleppo - once a thriving commercial hub - since the summer, but have been unable to uproot Assad's better-armed and more organized forces.
 
International efforts to find a political solution to Syria's civil war have similarly resulted in stalemate, even as the conflict's death toll has surged above 60,000.
 
The crisis has driven hundreds of thousands of people to flee the country, many to neighboring Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, where a fire at a camp in the country's southeast killed a pregnant Syrian woman and her three children on Tuesday.
 
Inside Syria, neither the military nor the insurgents have been able to sustain clear momentum.
 
The rebels remain poorly equipped and disorganized compared with Assad's forces, despite winning support from some regional powers like Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
 
The government also benefits from superior air power, used to pummel rebel-held areas around Damascus and elsewhere.
 
Rebel efforts to assault the capital also appear to have ground towards an stalemate. A witness in a rebel-controlled district of Damascus said on Tuesday the front line between the two sides was quiet.
 
The streets were still full of civilians, the witness said, despite the sound of shells hitting nearby buildings. He said people were walking around, buying sweets and sandwiches.
 
(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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« Reply #304 on: January 18, 2013, 11:51:52 am »

Surprise, surprise... Shocked

http://news.yahoo.com/video-game-puts-players-shoes-syrian-rebels-211756960.html

Video game puts players in shoes of Syrian rebels

1/17/13

BEIRUT (AP) — A new video game based on Syria's civil war challenges players to make the hard choices facing the country's rebels. Is it better to negotiate peace with the regime of President Bashar Assad, for example, or dispatch jihadist fighters to kill pro-government thugs?
 
The British designer of "Endgame: Syria" says he hopes the game will inform people who might otherwise remain ignorant about the conflict.
 
Views differ, however, on the appropriateness of using a video game to discuss a complex crisis that has killed more than 60,000 people since March 2011. Computer giant Apple has refused to distribute the game and some consider the mere idea insulting. Others love it, and one fan from inside Syria has suggested changes to make the game better mirror the actual war.
 
The dispute comes amid wider arguments about violent video games since last month's shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 20 children and six adults dead. This week, the National Rifle Association revised the recommended age for a new shooting game after criticisms by liberal groups.
 
Tomas Rawlings, who designed the Syria game, said he got the idea while watching TV pundits debate the possible consequences of directly arming Syria's rebels, which Western nations have declined to do. He said he thought a game could explore such questions by allowing players to make choices and see their consequences.
 
"For those who don't want to read a newspaper but still care about the world, this is a way for them to find out about things," said Rawlings, the design and production director of U.K.-based Auroch Digital.
 
In the simple game, which took about two weeks to build, the player assumes the role of the rebels seeking to topple Assad's regime. The play alternates between political and military stages. In each stage, the player sees cards representing regime actions and must choose the rebel response.
 
The choices seek to mirror the real conflict. The regime may get declarations of support from Russia, China or Iran to boost its popularity while the rebels receive support from the United States, Turkey or Saudi Arabia - reflecting the foreign powers backing the two sides.
 
In battle, the regime may deploy conventional military forces like infantry, tanks and artillery as well as pro-government thugs known as shabiha. The rebels' choices include sympathetic Palestinian or Kurdish militias, assassins or jihadist fighters known as muhajideen.
 
Some of the rebels' strongest attacks also kill civilians, reducing rebel popularity and seeking to reflect the war's complexity.
 
All along, the player is given basic information about the conflict, learning that Islamists once persecuted by the regime now consider the fight a holy war and that the shabiha are accused of massacring civilians.
 
The game ends when one side loses its support or the sides agree to a peace deal. The player is then told what follows. The longer the fighting lasts, the worse the aftermath, as chaos, sectarian conflict and Islamic militancy spread.
 
The lasting impression is that no matter which side wins, Syria loses.
 
Rawlings said that's the game's point.
 
"You can win the battle militarily but still lose the peace because the cost of winning militarily has fractured the country so much that the war keeps going," he said. "You can also end the war so that there is less of that."
 
The game was released on the company's website and as a free download from Google for Android devices on December 12. Rawlings submitted the game to Apple to distribute via its App Store but the company rejected it.
 
Apple declined to comment, but Rawlings's rejection referred to a company guideline for mobile apps: " 'Enemies' within the context of a game cannot solely target a specific race, culture, a real government or corporation, or any other real entity."
 
Rawlings is modifying the game, though he worries it will weaken it.
 
"It will still be the same overall experience, but it will reduce the value of the game to inform people," he said.
 
News of the game was greeted with a mix of interest and outrage online. Some complained that players can't take the regime side, while others found it wrong to make a game about a brutal war.
 
"Rawlings has mistakenly understood the Syrian war as a nonchalant 'experience' that people can play while waiting for the train to work," said Samar Aburahma, a university student of Palestinian descent in San Francisco who refused to try the game. "It is beyond insulting to Syrians, especially given the fact that war is ongoing."
 
Others find it a valuable, if limited, approach to the conflict.
 
Andrea Stanton, a religious studies professor at the University of Denver who studies Syria, said she responded emotionally to the game.
 
"It isn't really a fun game to play," she said, noting that she was angry when she lost and felt dread when the frequency of deadly regime airstrikes went up as the game progressed - as it has in the real conflict.
 
"This a very sobering game in that you sense how quickly the military stakes escalate and how little the political phase has to do with actual Syrians," she said.
 
She is organizing a campus activity for students to play and discuss the game.
 
"I think it is very valuable for teaching and getting people to experience a sense of the limited options the rebels face," she said.
 
It is unclear how many people have played the game. Google says it has been downloaded as many as 5,000 times from its site, and Rawlings says more have played online. He guesses more than 10,000 people have tried it.
 
Few in Syria are likely to have played it, since fighting has made the Internet and even electricity rare in some parts of the country.
 
One 18-year-old Syrian gamer liked the game so much, however, that he sent Rawlings a list of suggestions for improvement.
 
Reached via Skype, he said the jihadist fighters should be called Jabhat al-Nusra, after an extremist rebel group that the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization.
 
He also pointed out that few rebel groups have tanks, as they do in the game, and suggested new rebel tactics.
 
"Car bombs are used lots in Syria, so that would make the game more realistic," he said.
 
He said he hoped the game would help people understand the situation.
 
"I wish there were a 3D strategy game about Syria so you could feel the destruction on the ground," he said.
 
The player, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said his feelings playing the game often mirror his feelings about the war. He wants peace but can't imagine the rebels accepting a negotiated solution given how many people have died.
 
"Right this second, I want the war in Syria to stop, but when you see what is happening on the ground there is no way to make peace," he said. "When I play the game like a rebel, I have to reject the peace."
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« Reply #305 on: January 26, 2013, 08:20:38 pm »

ATTACK ON SYRIA 'IS ATTACK ON IRAN'

Issuing Tehran's strongest warning to date, a top Iranian official said Saturday that any attack on Syria would be deemed an attack on Iran, a sign that it will do all it can to protect embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made his comments as Syrian troops conducted offensive air raids against rebels and discovered a trio of tunnels they were using to smuggle weapons in their fight to topple Assad.

rest: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_SYRIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-01-26-14-55-01
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« Reply #306 on: January 27, 2013, 02:43:42 am »

I have little doubt, if it were not for Iran supporting Syria, Assad and his thugs would have already been overthrown.

But what I still am scratching my head over is why there is such hesitance to confront Iran directly. There is SO much evidence against them, far more than on Iraq or Egypt, and yet they seem like they don't want to touch Iran at all. It begs the question why? As it is, Iran is the last major bad guy in the whole region, as far as antagonistic countries go. All the others have been put down and regimes changed. And Iran remains as defiant and aggressive as ever.

Are there that many ties to other issues with Iran that is making the rest of the world hesitate? Ties with Russia or China stopping them? Just seems strange, unless they plan on dealing with them after Syria.

The thing is, if in fact we who believe are "taken up" before the actual 7 years tribulation starts, then I suspect we may not see enough details to get an idea how it all will proceed. It may still be just a back and forth stage when we leave. God knows.

There's a lot of stuff mentioned in scripture about the end times that we won't experience or be aware of, so it's still, "This is the day which the Lord hath made..."
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« Reply #307 on: January 27, 2013, 05:39:03 am »


http://www.timesofisrael.com/assad-i-will-win-even-if-damascus-is-destroyed/

Assad: ‘I will win, even if Damascus is destroyed’

Fighting words between Assad and the international envoy

Quoting French sources, A-Sharq Al-Awsat quotes an exchange between Syrian President Bashar Assad and the international envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi.

According to the daily, Brahimi told Assad that he could not remain in power and that the opposition could defeat him, but the cost may be the complete destruction of Damascus. To that, Assad reportedly answered “I will win the war, even if Damascus is destroyed.” The daily also reports a power outage which left Damascus and its environs in dark “for the first time since the start of the crisis.”













   "The burden of Damascus.

        Behold, Damascus is taken away from [being] a city,

        and it shall be a ruinous heap . . ."
        (Isaiah 17:1  KJV)


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« Reply #308 on: February 02, 2013, 07:12:42 am »

'Turkish FM slams Israel for strikes, Syria for inaction'

Davutoglu questions why Assad didn't "throw a pebble when Israeli jets were playing with the dignity of his country," suggests failure to respond is due to "secret agreement" with Israel, according to 'The Hurriyet.

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=301846
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« Reply #309 on: February 09, 2013, 07:45:18 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebels-shut-down-key-damascus-highway-144354177.html

2/8/13

Syrian rebels shut down key Damascus highway

BEIRUT (AP) — Rebels pushed forward in their battle with the Syrian army in Damascus on Friday, clashing with regime soldiers in contested neighborhoods in the northeast and shutting down a key highway out of the capital with a row of burning tires, activist said.
 
In Geneva, the U.N. refugee agency said there has been a huge increase in the number of people fleeing Syria, with 5,000 refugees crossing the borders daily into neighboring countries. Agency spokesman Adrian Edwards said Friday the mass exodus "is really a full-on crisis right at the moment."
 
The latest fighting in Damascus, some of the heaviest to hit the city since July, began Wednesday with a series of rebel attacks on regime checkpoints along the main road from Damascus to northern Syria. Opposition fighters and government forces have been clashing in the area since, and regime troops have also responded by shelling a number of rebel-held districts nearby.
 
The violence has brought the civil war that has destroyed entire neighborhoods of other Syrian cities closer to the heart of the capital, which has mostly been spared heavy fighting. Still, the offensive did not appear to be coordinated with rebels on other sides of Damascus and it was unclear whether the rebels would be able to hold their ground.
 
Both the rebels and the regime of President Bashar Assad consider the fight for Damascus the most likely endgame in a civil war that has already killed more than 60,000. The government controls movement in and out of the heavily defended city with a network of checkpoints, and rebels have failed so far to make significant inroads.
 
A spokesman for one of the opposition groups fighting in the area said the rebels sought to open a path for a future assault on the city.
 
"This is not the battle for Damascus. This battle is to prepare for the entry into Damascus," he said via Skype, giving only his nickname of Abu al-Fida for fear of reprisals.
 
The fighting revolved around the capital's main highway heading toward the country's north. Abu al-Fida said one checkpoint on the highway changed hands twice on Thursday but was securely in rebel hands Friday. He said rebels were within a half-kilometer (half-mile) from Abbasid square and were firing mortars at a military base near the landmark plaza.
 
Online videos showed a row of burning tires laid across the highway, blocking all traffic. Smoke rose from a number of areas nearby, reflecting clashes and government shelling.
 
The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to activist reports.
 
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported clashes in Jobar and shelling and airstrikes on the nearby areas of Zamalka and Qaboun. Rebels also battled government troops in the southern neighborhood of Yarmouk, as well as in the rebel-held suburbs of Daraya and Moadamiyeh, where six people died in a government shell attack, it said.
 
Also Friday, the Observatory said 54 were killed, including 11 women, in a bombing at a bus stop near a military factory earlier in the week.
 
Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said an explosive-laden mini-bus blew up at a bus stop near the factory in Buraq, near the central city of Hama, while workers were waiting for rides home. The factory makes military supplies, but not weapons, he said.
 
The area is government-controlled, which is why reports on the blast were slow to emerge.
 
"These people work for the Ministry of Defense, but they are all civilians," he said, adding that no one from the military was killed in the blast.
 
Facebook pages for nearby villages posted names of the dead and pictures of mass graves. A page for the nearby town of Salmiyeh listed more than forty residents it said were killed in the blast.
 
Syria's state news agency reported the explosion on Wednesday evening, saying "terrorists" detonated a car bomb near a factory. It did not say what the factory produced or specify the number of dead and wounded. The regime refers to rebels fighting to topple the Assad regime as terrorists.
 
No one has claimed responsibility for the blast, which resembled others in recent months that appeared to target buildings associated with Syria's military and security services.
 
Some of the bombings have been claimed by an al-Qaida-linked group fighting alongside the rebels, Jabhat al-Nusra, which the U.S. had designated a terrorist organization.
 
As the situation in Syria has worsened, foreign jihadists have flocked to Syria to join what they consider a holy war to replace Assad's regime with an Islamic state in Syria. Most of the foreign fighters are Arabs from Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and other countries.
 
Late Thursday, the chief of the Netherlands' top intelligence agency warned that dozens of Dutch citizens are fighting with Syria's rebels and could return home battle-hardened, traumatized and radicalized.
 
General Intelligence and Security Service chief Rob Bertholee told the Dutch show Nieuwsuur that hundreds of people from around Europe and dozens from the Netherlands have travelled to Syria to join rebels fighting Assad.
 
He said propaganda romanticizing the civil war is helping draw foreigners into Syria's maelstrom of violence.
 
Syria's crisis began with peaceful protests in March 2011 and evolved into a civil war as the opposition took up arms to fight a government crackdown on dissent. The U.N. said last month that more than 60,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
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« Reply #310 on: February 10, 2013, 01:47:06 pm »

http://debka.com/article/22752/

Israel Air Force now holds key to fate of Damascus, Assad regime
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report February 9, 2013

The Syrian rebels’ hyped up “Great Confrontation” to capture Damascus the capital has ended in a draw with Bashar Assad’s army like all their previous offensives in recent months. They failed to break through to the heart of the capital past the powerful Syrian army’s 4th Division standing in their path under the command of Gen. Maher Assad, the president’s brother. The rebels also lost their position on the Damascus-Aleppo highway. But amid heavy battles with the division's troops, the rebels are still clinging to the southern suburbs of Damascus.

The Syrian capital (1.9 million inhabitants) is therefore the second city after Aleppo (2.3 million) to be divided between the combatants.
debkafile’s military sources report that, notwithstanding the bitter fighting, the flow of refugees fleeing Syria has slowed down substantially, as many choose life in war zones over the wretched conditions prevailing in Turkish, Lebanese and Jordanian refugee camps, where rudimentary essentials such as food, clean water, heating and basic medical services are lacking for the hundreds of thousands of dispossessed Syrians. Adding to these horrors, some Syrian families are said to be selling their daughters for food.

The Syrian outward refugee movement now tends to be internal, people in embattled areas seeking asylum in regions outside the war zones, such as the Druze Mountains southeast of the Golan and Kurdish areas in the north.

Since the Israeli air strike on the Syrian military complex of Jamraya on Jan. 30, Syria’s warring sides have been looking over their shoulders to assess Israel’s moves before embarking on the next stage of their contest because of two considerations:

1.  debkafile’s military sources report that when the rebels first looked like breaking through to the heart of Damascus in the early part of their offensive – and so forcing Syrian President Bashar Assad to flee the capital – he ordered his army’s 4th Division tanks and short-range surface missiles to be armed with chemical weapons. They were to be used if the city’s defenses were breached. This would have made the battle for Damascus the first Syrian war engagement to deploy chemical weapons in combat.
The only military force close enough to prevent this happening and destroying the forces wielding chemical arms was the Israel Air Force. Its intervention would have been critical in giving the rebels victory.

2.  Ever since the Jamraya episode, Lebanon military sources report Israel Air Force fighters and surveillance planes are conducting over flights almost every day.
According to our military sources, the Israeli aircraft are densely deployed over Syria’s borders with Israel, Jordan and Lebanon, to guard against two eventualities, which the Netanyahu government is bound to preempt:

a)  Information has reached US and Israeli intelligence that Bashar Assad has vowed to his close circle that he will make Israel pay for Jumraya.

b)  Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has directed the Syrian ruler to make every possible effort to transfer to Hizballah in Lebanon the batch of Iran-supplied sophisticated weapons stored in Syria. This directive was handed to Assad by Iran’s National Security Director Saeed Jalilee when they met in Damascus last Sunday, Feb. 3.
All the parties concerned understand that Israel is just as determined to block this transfer as Tehran and Damascus are resolved to get it through.

In view of these challenges and their potential for an armed clash, Israel is keeping an eagle eye on every twist and turn of Assad’s forces in Damascus for any indications of the onset of chemical warfare or traffic on the move toward the Lebanese border with Hizballah’s weapons.
The Syrian ruler for his part is busy hatching schemes for keeping this arms traffic out of the electronic sight of the Israel Air Force, whereas the Syrian rebels are laying plans for provoking a clash between the Syrian army and the Israeli air force to provide them with an opportune moment for bringing their “great confrontation” in Damascus to a successful conclusion.
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« Reply #311 on: February 10, 2013, 04:22:00 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-discuss-iran-syria-palestinians-obama-115835152.html

2/10/13

Netanyahu to discuss Iran, Syria, Palestinians with Obama

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Iran's nuclear ambitions, the civil war in Syria and stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts will top the agenda of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
 
"It is a very important visit that will emphasize the strong alliance between Israel and the United States," Netanyahu, who has had a testy relationship with Obama, told his cabinet.
 
The White House announced on Tuesday that Obama plans to visit Israel, the West Bank and Jordan this spring, raising prospects of a new U.S. push to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts frozen for the past two years.
 
The White House gave no exact dates for the trip, Obama's first to Israel since taking office. Israel's Channel 10 television station cited unnamed sources in Washington last week saying the visit to Israel would start on March 20.
 
In public remarks at the cabinet session, Netanyahu put Iran at the top of his list of talking points with Obama and referred only in general terms to peace efforts with the Palestinians, stopping short of setting a revival of bilateral negotiations as a specific goal of the visit.
 
"The president and I spoke about this visit and agreed that we would discuss three main issues ... Iran's attempt to arm itself with nuclear weapons, the unstable situation in Syria ... and the efforts to advance the diplomatic process of peace between the Palestinians and us," Netanyahu said.

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« Reply #312 on: February 12, 2013, 09:45:02 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/rebels-capture-air-northern-syria-090813741.html

2/12/13

Rebels capture air base in northern Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — Rebels captured a military air base in northern Syria on Tuesday, their second major strategic victory in as many days, activists said.
 
The assault on the Jarrah airfield in Aleppo province comes a day after opposition fighters seized the nation's largest dam, an iconic industrial symbol of the four-decade rule of President Bashar Assad's family. The rebels have had their biggest success in Syria's civil war in the northeast, and the twin victories appeared to indicate they were solidifying their control of large swaths of the country's once heavily-contested north.
 
The director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said that after days of sporadic clashes around the Jarrah airfield, rebels launched a major assault on the base on Monday and had overrun the facility by Tuesday morning.

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« Reply #313 on: February 12, 2013, 12:22:17 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/syria-death-toll-likely-approaching-70-000-says-175206931.html

2/12/13

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

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The death toll in Syria is likely approaching 70,000 with civilians paying the price for the U.N. Security Council's lack of action to end the nearly 2-year-old conflict, the U.N. human rights chief said on Tuesday.
 
Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, repeated her call for Syria to be referred by the 15-member council to the International Criminal Court to send a message to both parties in the conflict that there would be consequences for their actions.
 
Pillay told a council debate on protection of civilians in armed conflict that the death toll in Syria was "probably now approaching 70,000."
 
On January 2 Pillay said more than 60,000 people had been killed during the revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which began with peaceful protests but turned violent after Assad's forces tried to crush the demonstrations.

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« Reply #314 on: February 13, 2013, 10:29:25 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/lebanese-prevent-tankers-crossing-syria-170224988.html

2/13/13

Lebanese prevent tankers from crossing into Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese protesters closed two major roads in northern Lebanon Wednesday to prevent fuel tankers from crossing into Syria, Lebanon's state-run news agency and security officials said.
 
The National News Agency said the protesters blocked the roads leading to Arida and Dabousiyeh border crossing points. Witnesses said the roads were blocked for hours with rocks and barriers, but then protesters reopened the roads for civilian cars and other vehicles other than trucks.
 
The protesters claim some diesel exported to Syria is being used by regime tanks in the country's nearly two-year-old civil war that has killed nearly 70,000 people.
 
The protests in predominantly-Sunni northern Lebanon came a day after the energy ministry denied reports that government-owned refineries were sending diesel to Syria. The ministry said private companies were sending fuel to Syria.
 
Syria is suffering a major crisis of gasoline and diesel. Oil pipelines have been repeatedly targeted and people have been forced to wait in line for hours in line to get gasoline or diesel for heating or generators needed because of widespread power outages.
 
Later Wednesday, security officials said a police force had to escort 22 tanker trucks driving from the southern Lebanese refinery of Zahrani toward northern Lebanon for fear they might be attacked.
 
They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
 
Many in Lebanon fear Syria's civil war could spill across the border.
 
Lebanon and Syria share a complex web of political and sectarian ties and rivalries which are easily enflamed. Lebanon, a country plagued by decades of strife, has been on edge since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad began in March 2011. Deadly clashes between pro- and anti-Assad Lebanese groups have erupted on several occasions.
 
Many among Lebanon's Sunni Muslims have backed Syria's mainly Sunni rebel forces, in which radical Islamists have become increasingly active. Lebanese Shiite Muslims, including the militant Hezbollah, have leaned toward Assad, whose tiny Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
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« Reply #315 on: February 14, 2013, 09:48:17 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebels-capture-oilfield-northeast-131953267.html

Syrian rebels capture oilfield in northeast
Associated Press – 2/14/13

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian activists say rebels have 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.

http://news.yahoo.com/fighting-rages-around-syrian-airport-3rd-day-120959804.html

Fighting rages around Syrian airport for a 3rd day
Associated Press – 2/14/13

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian activists say rebels are battling President Bashar Assad's forces for control of the main airport in the northern city of Aleppo.
 
The director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdul-Rahman says regime warplanes on Thursday were pounding rebel positions near Aleppo's international airport, trying to counter recent rebel advances in the area.
 
Opposition fighters have been attacking the airfield for weeks, and took over most of the "Brigade 80" military base protecting it on Wednesday.
 
Abdul-Rahman said fierce clashes Thursday were taking place around the airport, which remains in regime hands. He says there are also reports of heavy fighting at another nearby military air base called Nairab.
 
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« Reply #316 on: February 14, 2013, 02:42:03 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/britain-warns-syria-jihadist-threat-europe-173530672.html

Britain warns of Syria jihadist threat to Europe

2/14/13

LONDON (Reuters) - The longer Syria's conflict goes on, the greater the risk it will breed a new generation of battle-hardened militants who will pose a threat to Britain and other countries in Europe, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Thursday.
 
Hague aimed his comments at Russia, which has had its own problems with attacks by Islamist militants, and has along with China repeatedly blocked U.N. Security Council action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
 
Assad is locked in an almost two-year war with rebels that has killed nearly 70,000 people and has become a magnet for foreign jihadists intent on replacing Assad's mostly secular rule with a radical Islamic state.
 
Hague said Britain had not lost faith in the Arab Spring revolutions that in the last two years have deposed four autocratic leaders, but warned that Syria was the most acute case of the movement being "hijacked" by militants.

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« Reply #317 on: February 16, 2013, 02:58:58 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-state-news-agency-says-power-outage-plunges-185733479.html

2/16/13

Syrian state news agency says power outage plunges Damascus and southern Syria into darkness

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian state news agency says power outage plunges Damascus and southern Syria into darkness.
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« Reply #318 on: February 18, 2013, 02:37:45 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-minister-says-ready-talk-armed-groups-162431425.html

2/18/13
Syrian government ready to talk with armed groups: minister

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria is prepared to talk to armed opposition groups, the minister for national reconciliation said on Monday, the first time the government has offered to hold direct negotiations with rebel forces it long dismissed as terrorists.
 
It was not clear if the comments by Ali Haidar, who is not in President Bashar al-Assad's inner circle of decision-makers, reflect a substantive change in policy.
 
Assad said in January that there would be no dialogue with people he called traitors or "puppets made by the West".
 
The political chasm between the government and rebels and a lack of opposition influence over rebel fighters has allowed fighting to rage on for 23 months in Syria. The United Nations says almost 70,000 people have been killed.
 
An international diplomatic deadlock has prevented effective intervention.
 
Syrian authorities have given no formal response to several offers of talks by the main opposition coalition. Haidar said last week that Damascus had not received an invitation to talks.
 
"We, the government and me personally, will meet, without exceptions, Syrian opposition groups inside and outside (Syria)," he said on Monday during a parliamentary session.
 
"The president of the country has said that we will try with everyone that is against us politically. And even those who use arms - we must try with them," he said, without giving details.
 
He cautioned that any "preparatory talks" were different to the National Dialogue, a reconciliation proposal by Assad that officials have said should be held in Damascus and only with members of the opposition "without blood on their hands".
 
"With regard to negotiations, the door is open," Haidar said.
 
George Sabra, a vice-president of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, said guidelines which the coalition's politburo will present for discussion in a full assembly on Thursday spelled out that there would be no dialogue before Assad and his closest entourage step down.
 
"(The guidelines stipulate) no formal and informal talks with the Syrian regime if Bashar al-Assad and his team is still in power," Sabra told Reuters at a conference in Stockholm.
 
"They have to leave power. Then we can start the dialogue, with the others which didn't give any orders to kill people, to damage the country."
 
The Lebanese newspaper Al-Safir said that recent visitors to Damascus had portrayed Assad as confident of ultimate success, although he said the battle was not yet over.
 
"Even if we are convinced of the certainty of our victory, and reassured by what has been achieved militarily and politically, that does not mean that everything is finished," they quoted him as saying, according to the paper.
 
"We still have a great deal of work in front of us - political, and in confronting the ... terrorist groups," it cited Assad as saying.
 
International Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi called on Sunday for talks at United Nations offices between the opposition and an "acceptable delegation" from the Damascus government on a political solution to the war.
 
(Reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut and Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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« Reply #319 on: February 18, 2013, 05:27:32 pm »

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/02/damascus-holds-its-breath-as-syrian-civil-war-reaches-its-door/
2/18/13

Damascus Holds Its Breath as Syrian Civil War Reaches Its Door

Damascus is quiet tonight — too quiet.
 
We arrived a few hours ago in this tense and troubled city — 5 million people hunkered down as the terrible war that is tearing this country apart has now arrived in major battles raging in the suburbs.
 
This war is far from over — and it is far from clear who will win — but we already know who the losers are: the people of this ancient land.
 
From Beirut, Lebanon, we drove into Syria along a heavily guarded route, passing checkpoint after checkpoint after checkpoint.
 
It is now a lifeline as Damascus — the stronghold of the government of President Bashar Assad — becomes a city under siege.
 
Tonight, just a few miles from here, the war raged on.
 
It is a dirty war, in a crucial country.
 
The chaos engulfing Syria threatens to spill over into Iraq on one side, and Israel and Lebanon on the other. That is a nightmare scenario for the U.S.
 
The United Nations now estimates that 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting — but no one really knows.
 
A U.N. commission today called for war-crimes investigations of both sides: Assad’s government, which has sought to crush the rebellion by any means necessary; as well as the rebels, many of whom are increasingly seen by ordinary Syrians as warlords, gangsters and religious fanatics who regularly post videos of beheadings and other atrocities on YouTube.
 
Syria’s many minorities live in terror of a jihadist takeover of their country.
 
Before we came here, we visited Christian refugees from Syria who had fled to Beirut.
 
They said they’d been forced out of their villages by Muslim fundamentalists — ethnically cleansed. They’d supported the rebellion at first, but not now. They have lost their homes, their communities, their way of life.
 
“We lived freely as Christians,” said one man, putting up Christmas trees and decorations. “But now we are being targeted.”
 
It is a dirty war with no end in sight.
 
We have come to this country with the permission of the government, which wants the other side of the story here told.
 
There is no doubt the rebellion has changed.
 
Ordinary Syrians increasingly just want the war to stop and now dread the chaos that has been unleashed.
 
Assad himself seems to know this. The man that the U.S. government has said must go told a group of visitors today: “We are sure we will win.”
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« Reply #320 on: February 19, 2013, 10:24:44 am »

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-4346099,00.html

2/17/13

Rebels: 1,000 Hezbollah fighters invaded Syria

Fourteen Hezbollah men killed in past two days in battles over control of villages near Lebanon border


Hezbollah's involvement in the Syrian civil war continues to grow. Syria's main opposition group claimed Sunday that no less than 1,000 Hezbollah men have entered Syria in the past 24 hours.

"It's a coordinated ground invasion," the Free Syrian Army spokesman said. "Hezbollah has started a war against us."

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« Reply #321 on: February 20, 2013, 09:38:53 am »

http://www.debka.com/article/22775/

Assad’s troops retreat from Golan, leaving Islamist rebels to confront Israel
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report February 19, 2013, 12:50 PM (GMT+02:00)

President Bashar Assad has evacuated most of the troops of his 5th Army Division from their permanent bases on the Golan opposite Israeli forces and transferred the unit along with its artillery to Damascus, debkafile’s military sources report.
The Syrian ruler’s step had three purposes:

1. To reinforce his Damascus defenses;

2. To carve out a buffer zone along the Israeli border and leave it under rebel control.

3. To provide the jihadists fighting in rebel ranks with access to the Israeli border fence. Senior officers in the IDF’s northern command believe it is just a matter of time before these al Qaeda-associated fighters hurl themselves at the border fence to break through, or target Israeli military targets from across the Syrian border. 

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« Reply #322 on: February 20, 2013, 11:43:11 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/insight-battle-damascus-frozen-bloody-070258764.html

2/20/13

Insight: Battle for Damascus: frozen but bloody

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Rebel fighters in Damascus are disciplined, skilled and brave.
 
In a month on the frontline, I saw them defend a swathe of suburbs in the Syrian capital, mount complex mass attacks, manage logistics, treat their wounded - and die before my eyes.
 
But as constant, punishingly accurate, mortar, tank and sniper fire attested, President Bashar al-Assad's soldiers on the other side, often just a room or a grenade toss away, are also well drilled, courageous - and much better armed.
 
So while the troops were unable to dislodge brigades of the Free Syrian Army from devastated and depopulated neighborhoods just east of the city centre - and indeed made little effort to do so - there seems little immediate prospect of the rebels overrunning Assad's stronghold. The result is bloody stalemate.
 
I watched both sides mount assaults, some trying to gain just a house or two, others for bigger prizes, only to be forced back by sharpshooters, mortars or sprays of machinegun fire.

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« Reply #323 on: February 20, 2013, 10:19:37 pm »

It's only a matter of time before the other networks line up...

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/nightline-anchor-terry-moran-reports-inside-syria-abc-141224415--abc-news-topstories.html

"Nightline" Anchor Terry Moran Reports from Inside Syria for ABC News

2/19/13

"Inside Syria: The Battle for Damascus" Reports to Air Across ABC News Broadcasts and Platforms Beginning February 18

"Nightline" anchor Terry Moran takes a rare journey into Syria's embattled capital of Damascus to give viewers a close-up view of what is happening inside the war-torn country. His reports will cover why the outcome of Syria's civil war matters to the stability of the region and the national security of the United States. Syria is certain to be one of the main issues on the agenda for President Obama's trip to the Middle East next month and Secretary of State John Kerry has said he will be discussing Syria's civil war during his first overseas trip in the coming weeks.
 
Moran will report " Inside Syria: The Battle for Damascus" for all ABC News broadcasts and platforms. His first report aired Monday, February 18 on "World News with Diane Sawyer."
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« Reply #324 on: February 21, 2013, 11:52:04 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/explosion-central-damascus-casualties-reported-092416397.html

2/21/13

Car bomb kills over 50 near Damascus ruling party office

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A car bomb killed more than 50 people and wounded 200 in central Damascus on Thursday when it blew up on a busy highway close to ruling Baath Party offices and the Russian Embassy, state media and activists said.
 
Syrian television showed charred and bloodied bodies strewn across the street after the blast, which it described as a suicide bombing by "terrorists" battling President Bashar al-Assad. It said 53 people were killed.
 
Central Damascus has been relatively insulated from almost two years of unrest and civil war in which around 70,000 people have been killed across the country, but the bloodshed has shattered suburbs around the capital.
 
Rebels who control districts to the south and east of Damascus have attacked Assad's power base for nearly a month and struck with devastating bombs over the last year.

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« Reply #325 on: February 21, 2013, 04:52:03 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/major-bombings-since-syrian-uprising-began-2011-152822221.html

2/21/13

Major bombings since Syrian uprising began in 2011

BEIRUT (AP) — A list of some of the major bombings in Syria since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March 2011.
 
Feb. 21, 2013: A car bomb explodes at a security checkpoint near the headquarters of the ruling Baath party in the heart of the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing at least 53 people, according to Syrian state media.
 
Jan. 16, 2013: Three car bombings in the northern city of Idlib kill 22 people. State media said attackers targeted a major highway and a traffic circle; anti-regime activists say the bombers were targeting security vehicles near the local security headquarters.
 
Jan. 15, 2013: Twin blasts rip through a university campus in the northern city of Aleppo, killing more than 80 people, mostly students, in the government-controlled part of the city.
 
Dec.12, 2012: A car bomb targets the Interior Ministry in Damascus, killing several people and wounding more than 20, including the interior minister.
 
July 18, 2012: A blast at the Syrian national security building in Damascus during a meeting of Cabinet ministers kills the defense minister and his deputy, who is also Assad's brother-in-law, and wounds the interior minister. Rebels claim responsibility for the blast.
 
May 10, 2012: Twin suicide car bombers blow themselves up outside a military intelligence building in Damascus, killing at least 55 people.
 
April 27, 2012: Suicide bomber in Damascus kills at least nine people, most of them security officers.
 
March 17, 2012: Blasts kill at least 27 people near the intelligence and security buildings in the capital.
 
Feb. 10, 2012: Two suicide car bombers hit security compounds in the industrial center of Aleppo, killing 28 people.
 
Jan. 6, 2012: Blast at an intersection in Damascus kills 25 people, many of them policemen.
 
Dec. 23, 2011: Back-to-back car bombs near Syria's intelligence agencies killed at least 44 in the first major attack in the capital seven months after the uprising erupted.
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« Reply #326 on: February 21, 2013, 08:00:47 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/plan-ahead-syria-transition-u-senator-rubio-says-215924606.html

Plan ahead for Syria transition, U.S. Senator Rubio says

2/21/13

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States must ensure that a new Syrian leadership is well armed and can run the country after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said on Thursday.
 
The Florida Republican, who is seen as a rising star on the right flank of his party, and who gave the Republican response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, spoke about Syria and Iraq during a visit to Israel.
 
"Our hope is to continue to ... (identify) responsible actors that will be responsible not just in this conflict but in the aftermath of this conflict and empower them so that they will become the best-organized, the best-funded, the best-armed, the best-equipped and the most capable post-Assad force on the ground in Syria," Rubio, 41, told a news conference.
 
He added that there should not be a repeat of the situation in Libya where rival militias wreaked havoc because no single force had been supported to take control after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.
 
"Our hope is to learn ... from the Libyan experience where that didn't happen. We had all these dispersed militias (which) to this day have not come under central control," Rubio said.
 
Prospects of a negotiated peace in Syria have receded as the war becomes more overtly sectarian, making Western powers more wary of supporting the largely Sunni Muslim, and increasingly radicalized, rebellion.
 
After almost two years of unrest and civil war, some 70,000 people have been killed across Syria. The bloodshed has devastated the economy and left 2.5 million people hungry.
 
Rubio was an active campaigner for Mitt Romney's failed bid to unseat U.S. President Barack Obama, who won a second term in November.
 
Rubio nevertheless spoke in support of Obama's upcoming trip to the region towards the end of March and said there was cross-party support on foreign policy issues.
 
"I think what's most important about the President's visit is that he'll send a very clear signal that despite our many differences on many issues in the United States, there is a clear bipartisan support for a number of principles in foreign policy," Rubio said.
 
He outlined those issues as the perceived Iranian nuclear threat, the security of Israel and peacemaking with the Palestinians.
 
(Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Michael Roddy)

1The 5:1  But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
1Th 5:2  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
1Th 5:3  For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.


Jer 6:13  For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
Jer 6:14  They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

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« Reply #327 on: February 22, 2013, 12:34:00 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/russia-accuses-u-double-standards-over-syria-100757839.html

2/22/13

Russia accuses U.S. of double standards over Syria

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the United States on Friday of having double standards on Syria, saying it had blocked a U.N. Security Council statement condemning a car bomb attack in Damascus.
 
Washington denied it had blocked the statement and said it had only asked for balance. The disagreement was likely to sour the atmosphere before Lavrov meets newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry next week in Berlin.
 
Lavrov told a news conference Washington had disappointed Moscow by blocking a statement condemning "terrorist attacks" near the Russian embassy in Damascus that killed more than 50 people and that Washington was threatening international unity in the "war on terror".
 
"We believe these are double standards," Lavrov said after talks with China's foreign minister.

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« Reply #328 on: February 23, 2013, 04:17:12 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/battle-syrias-aleppo-airport-intensifies-131106416.html

2/23/13

Battle for Syria's Aleppo airport intensifies

BEIRUT (AP) — The battle for Syria's second-largest airport intensified Saturday as government troops tried to reverse recent strategic gains the rebels have made in the northeast in their quest to topple President Bashar Assad.
 
Assad's forces have been locked in a stalemate with rebels in Aleppo since July when the city, the largest in Syria, became a major battlefield in the 2-year-old conflict the United Nations says has killed at least 70,000 people. For months, rebels have been trying to capture the international airport, which is closed because of the fighting.
 
Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group, said the current fighting was focused on a section of a highway linking the airport with Aleppo, the commercial hub of the nation.
 
The rebels have cut off the highway, which the army has been using to transport troops and supplies to a military base within the airport complex. Rebels have made other advances in the battle for the airport in recent weeks, including overrunning two army bases along the road to the airport.

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« Reply #329 on: February 24, 2013, 04:54:52 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-takes-case-syria-europe-mideast-081456688.html

2/24/13

US Moves to Salvage Syrian Opposition Talks

The U.S. is frantically trying to salvage a Syrian opposition conference that John Kerry plans to attend this week during his first official overseas trip as U.S. secretary of state.

A senior Obama administration official said Sunday that Kerry has sent his top Syrian envoy to Cairo in hopes of convincing opposition leaders that their participation in the conference in Rome is critical to addressing questions from potential donors and securing additional aid from the United States and Europe.

Some members of the sharply divided Syrian Opposition Council are threatening to boycott Wednesday's meeting, which is the centerpiece of Kerry's nine-nation tour of Europe and the Middle East
.

According to the official, U.S. envoy Robert Ford will say that the conference is a chance for foes of Syrian President Bashar Assad to make their case for new and enhanced aid — and get to know America's new chief diplomat, who has said he wants to propose new ideas to pressure Assad into leave power.

The official was not authorized to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

If the meeting with Kerry were to be postponed, the official said the delay would likely hurt chances for short-term boosts in U.S. aid or shifts in Syria policy, which is now focused on providing non-lethal and humanitarian assistance to the opposition.

The U.S. is concerned that the same kind of infighting that doomed the Syrian National Council may be hindering the SOC, the official said.

In addition to Ford's trip to Cairo, the top U.S. diplomat for the Mideast, Elizabeth Jones, planned to head to Rome on Monday to add her voice to the argument to opposition members there.

Kerry is on a self-described "listening tour" of Europe and the Mideast, chiefly focused on ending the crisis in Syria.

The former Democratic senator from Massachusetts has said he wants to discuss fresh proposals to ratchet up the pressure on Assad and make way for a democratic transition. Violence in Syria has killed at least 70,000 people.

Kerry has not elaborated on those plans, but there is internal debate in the Obama administration about stepping up aid to the rebels, perhaps to include lethal military assistance
.

Key to increasing pressure on Assad will be Russia, which has staunchly resisted efforts to push Assad out, to the increasing anger and frustration of the United States and its allies in Europe and the Middle East.

Kerry will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the second stop of his trip, in Berlin on Tuesday, and hopes to get a better idea of what Moscow may be willing to support. However, two officials traveling with Kerry said they did not expect any breakthroughs in the German capital.

In London, his first stop, Kerry was expected to be asked by the British about the administration's views on Britain's dispute with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. London is looking to Washington to support a referendum next month on the islands' future. Residents are expected to vote widely in favor of remaining part of Britain.

Senior officials traveling with Kerry would not discuss possible outcomes or the vote, and the U.S. position remains that it is up to Britain and Argentina to work out a resolution. Argentina claims the islands as the Islas Malvinas.

Britain asserted control of the South Atlantic islands by placing a naval garrison there in 1833. Britain and Argentina fought a brief war in 1982 after Argentina invaded the islands. More than 900 people died, most of them Argentines.

After Britain and Germany, Kerry's 10-day trip will take him to France, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

In addition to Syria, he will focus on conflicts in Mali and Afghanistan, and on Iran's nuclear program.

In Germany, Kerry will discuss trans-Atlantic issues with German youth in Berlin, where he spent time as a child as the son of an American diplomat posted to the divided Cold War city.

In Paris, Kerry plans to discuss France's intervention in Mali.

Despite the numerous Middle East stops, Kerry will not travel to Israel or the Palestinian territories. He will wait to visit them when he accompanies Obama there in March.
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