Bomb blasts bring death to Syria's Aleppo

How easy people forget.




View PostWidow's Son, on 07 June 2009 - 10:56 PM, said:
The Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland was established in 1899 to campaign for a permanent homeland for the Jewish people. At that time, Palestine was a distant and neglected province of the Turkish Empire with a Jewish population of approximately 50,000.

Theodor Herzl (Hebrew: בנימין זאב הרצל‎, Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl, Hungarian; Herzl Tivadar) (May 2, 1860 — July 3, 1904) was an Austria-Hungarian journalist and the father of modern political Zionism. As the Paris correspondent for Neue Freie Presse, Herzl followed the Dreyfus Affair, a notorious anti-Semitic incident in France in which a French Jewish army captain was falsely convicted of spying for Germany. He witnessed mass rallies in Paris following the Dreyfus trial where many chanted "Death to the Jews!" Herzl came to reject his early ideas regarding Jewish emancipation and assimilation, and to believe that the Jews must remove themselves from Europe and create their own state.

In 1896, Herzl's book Der Judenstaat (German, The Jewish State) was published in Leipzig and Vienna by M. Breitenstein's Verlags-Buchhandlung. It is subtitled with "Versuch einer modernen Lösung der Judenfrage", "Proposal of a modern solution for the Jewish question", and originally called "Address to the Rothschilds" referring to the Rothschild family banking dynasty which was very influential in the realization of a Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael.

Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild (8 February 1868 – 27 August 1937), a scion of the Rothschild family, was a British banker, politician and zoologist. As an active Zionist and close friend of Chaim Weizmann he worked to formulate the draft declaration for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

In the Summer of 1914 Great Britain, France, and Russia went to war against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey. In October 1916 Great Britain, France, and Russia were at the brink of defeat at World War I. Germany offered Great Britain peace terms. Jewish business leaders in Europe and the United States spotted an opportunity to make a deal with the British government. They guaranteed Britain to bring the United States into the war for the promise of Palestine.

The Mandate document as ratified by the League of Nations in 1922 included the text of the Balfour Declaration word for word.

Chaim Azriel Weizmann, Hebrew: חיים עזריאל ויצמן‎, (27 November 1874 – 9 November 1952) was a Zionist leader, President of the World Zionist Organization, and the first President of the State of Israel. He was elected on 1 February 1949, and served until his death in 1952. Weizmann was also a chemist who developed a new process of producing acetone through bacterial fermentation. He founded the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.

During the next 30 years London became the center of the World Zionist Movement. In the Zionist Federation's home at 77 Great Russell Street the Jewish Agency established its main political office and conducted government negotiations whilst the Zionist Federation secured Jewish and general support as well as financial assistance for the movement.


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Mossad, Blackwater, CIA Led Operations in Homs

Israa Al-Fass

“The crisis is at its end” is no longer a relieving statement made by some political analysts, as the crisis is really close to its end. Baba Amro is now under the control of the Syrian army… and so are the armed groups of which a big number escaped to the Lebanese borders dubbing their retreat “tactical”.

Around 700 Arab and Western gunmen surrendered in Baba Amro, well-informed sources told Al-Manar website, adding that “huge and critical surprises will be uncovered in the coming few days… such as the kinds of arms seized, as well as the military tactics the armed groups followed, and the sides that supervised the operations.”

The sources further assured to the news website that the security operation in Homs will be over in a maximum of five to eight days.

Weapons from Israel used for First Time in Baba Amro

For his part, Syrian expert is strategic affairs Salim Harba pointed out that Baba Amro neighborhood and the areas surrounding it were emptied from the armed groups’ organizational as well as command structures with minimum army and civilian casualties, as the area was mainly concentrated by gunmen.

Speaking to Al-Manar website, Harba said that “the captured gunmen held Arab nationalities, including Gulf, Iraqi, and Lebanese… among them were also Qatari intelligence agents and non-Arab fighters from Afghanistan, Turkey, and some European countries like France.

“The Syrian army also uncovered tunnels and equipments there,” he added, pointing out that “advanced Israeli, European, and American arms that have not yet been tested in the countries of manufacture, in addition to Israeli grenades, night binoculars, and communication systems were confiscated by the security forces.”

Harba went on saying that “communication stations where established on the Lebanese borders to oversee the military operations in Baba Amro, and to ensure contact between field commanders and a coordination office led by members of information in the Qatari capital Doha.”

He clarified that “the escape of British journalists from Homs through the Lebanese-Syrian borders was the result of this coordination.”

In parallel, the Syrian strategic expert revealed that “the communication stations were being operated by Lebanese figures; some of them were members of the Future parliamentary bloc,” and considered that “these figures worked on transforming Wadi Khaled region into a strategic depth for Baba Amro.”

Mossad, Blackwater Directed from Qatar Operations in Homs

Additionally, Salim Harba revealed to Al-Manar website that “a coordination office was established in Qatar under American-Gulf sponsorship. The office includes American, French, and Gulf –specifically from Qatar and Saudi Arabia- intelligence agents, as well as CIA, Mossad, and Blackwater agents and members of the Syrian Transitional Council.”

“Qatar has also made deals with Israeli and American companies to arm the armed groups, and Gulf countries have been financing the agreements,” he added.

The Syrian expert pointed out that “the significance of the security operation in Homs is due to the high expectations that regional and international sides had from the armed gangs in Baba Amro … they wanted Homs to be turned into a new Benghazi.”

Indicating that the operation was implemented with high professionalism and accuracy, Harba reassured that documents will be exposed at the right time.

“The authority will not reveal everything it has now… the Syrian security forces have documents and confessions that could harm everyone who conspired against Syria, and could make a security and political change, not just on the internal Syrian level, but also on the regional level,” he assured.

In the same context, Harba considered that all the conferences and meetings by what he referred to as the “enemies of Syria” were aimed at paving the way for an American initiative under a “humanitarian” title.

He concluded: “At the end, the US will submit to the Russian initiative after it realized that confrontations will only result in its defeat, and that the Syrian regime is still strong enough to deal with any conspiracy.”



Translated by Sara Taha Moughnieh
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Fri, Feb 10 08:08 AM EST 1 of 19 By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Dominic EvansAMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Twin bomb blasts hit Syrian military and security buildings in the northern city of Aleppo on Friday, killing 25 people in the worst violence to hit the country's commercial hub in the 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.Mangled, bloodied bodies as well as severed limbs lay on the pavement outside the targeted buildings, as shown in live footage on Syrian television, which consistently portrays the revolt against Assad as the work of foreign-backed "terrorists."No one claimed responsibility for the attacks in Syria's second city, as officials put the total death toll in the two blasts at 25. But they came as Assad's forces grow more ferocious in operations to stamp out the popular uprising.On another front, army tanks massed outside opposition neighborhoods in the western city Homs on Friday morning after a week of bombardments that have killed dozens of civilians and drawn condemnation from world leaders.Activists in Homs said shelling resumed sporadically in the morning and they feared a big push was imminent to storm residential areas of the city that has come to symbolize the plight of the anti-Assad movement.The unrelenting bloodshed only highlighted the difficulties that Western and Arab powers faced in trying to resolve the crisis in a country which has a key place in the strategic balance in the volatile Middle East.Bolstered by Russian support, Assad has ignored appeals from the United States, Turkey, Europeans, fellow Arabs and other governments to halt the repression and to step down.Foreign ministers of the Arab League, which suspended a monitoring mission in Syria last month because of the violence, will discuss a proposal to send a joint U.N.-Arab mission to Syria when they meet in Cairo on Sunday, a League official said.EU URGES RUSSIAThe European Union's foreign policy chief added her voice to international calls for Russia, Syria's strongest ally, to support a United Nations resolution demanding Assad halt the crackdown. But Russia, with a recent history of sending tanks into its own rebel cities, has said no one should interfere in the country's affairs."My message to my Russian colleagues is that they too need to recognize the reality of the situation on the ground and we can't go on simply allowing this to happen," the EU's Catherine Ashton said during a visit to Mexico.But having ruled out intervening military, as NATO did decisively in Libya nearly a year ago, the foreign powers arrayed against Assad have few good cards to play.Many analyst believe that although the uprising has evolved from peaceful street demonstrations into an armed insurgency, Assad can count on a powerful military and a certain degree of popular support to survive for several months before he might join the list of deposed Arab leaders like Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak.The fragmented leadership of the revolt also poses problems for those who would support it.SEVERED LIMBSThe Aleppo blasts contrasted with the carnage in Homs that has gripped world attention in recent days and played into the government narrative that it is only defending the state against violent foes.In a live television report, a correspondent lifted blankets and plastic sheets which had been laid over corpses on the pavement to show a body with its head blown off. Other bloodied human remains included a limbless torso and a severed foot."We apologize for showing these pictures, but this is the terrorism which is targeting us," the reporter said.Private Addounia Television said 11 civilians and security force members were killed in the explosion at a military security building and six more at a base for security forces. State television later quoted the Health Ministry saying a total of 25 were killed and 175 wounded in the two blasts.A concrete wall around one building was badly damaged and its windows were blown out. At least one car appeared blackened and destroyed and several more were damaged.The TV reporter said children were among the dead, showing a single roller skate left on the pavement."Is this the freedom of Hamad and Erdogan?" one man shouted, referring to Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim and Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who have led the chorus of regional criticism against Assad. "Hamad, you dog," he said.Aleppo, Syria's main commercial city close to the northern border with Turkey, had been spared most of the bloodshed which has hit other parts of the country during the uprising against 42 years of dynastic Assad family. But it has seen increasing protests and violence in recent weeks.AWAITING AN ONSLAUGHTMeanwhile in besieged Homs, activists said shelling began again in the morning. Outgunned rebels loosely grouped under the Free Syrian Army were preparing to counter an onslaught.In a message of defiance during the overnight lull, activists staged a rally against Assad in the Homs neighborhood of al-Bayada. YouTube footage showed hundreds of youths holding hands and dancing to the tune of a songs chanted by Abdelbasset Sarout, a 22-year-old soccer star turned activist."You oppressor, go ... Great Homs, Syria will be free," Sarout sang from a makeshift stage while white and green rebel flags fluttered overhead.Activist Mohammad Hassan said the brief respite in the shelling had allowed him to leave his basement and survey the extent of the damage: "There isn't one street without two buildings or more that are badly damaged from the shelling," he said by satellite phone.Artillery barrages had been directed at Baba Amro, Inshaat, Khalidiya and other districts of the city where rebels have been lying low while mounting hit-and-run guerrilla attacks on the rear of Assad's troops, he said."Four tanks or armored vehicles were destroyed today on the edge of Baba Amro and some bread and medical supplies were delivered there for the first time in days by activists who crossed from Brazil Street," Hassan said.Witnesses said makeshift hospitals in Homs were overflowing in the besieged areas with the dead and wounded from nearly a week of government bombardments and sniper fire.Medical supplies and food were running out and, in the streets, some of the wounded had bled to death as it was too dangerous for rescuers to bring them to safety.The Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group in Homs, put the death toll on Thursday alone as high as 110 by nightfall, though it remains impossible to verify such accounts.(Writing by Angus MacSwan; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)===========Bombings hit Syria, Saudis push for peace at U.N.Fri, Feb 10 23:39 PM EST 1 of 11 By Khaled Yacoub OweisAMMAN (Reuters) - Violence flared across Syria, including bomb attacks that killed at least 28 people in Aleppo, while at the United Nations diplomats said a new effort was afoot to gain backing for an Arab peace plan to end 11 months of bloodshed in the country.The two Aleppo bombings on Friday were the worst attack to hit the country's commercial hub during the revolt against the 42-year dynastic rule by the family of President Bashar al-Assad.Mangled bodies and severed limbs lay on the pavement outside the military and security service buildings that were targeted - as shown in live footage on Syrian television, which has consistently portrayed the revolt against President Assad as the work of foreign-backed "terrorists".No one claimed responsibility for the Aleppo bombings but they took place as Assad's forces grow more ferocious in operations to crush the uprising. Some opposition figures accused the government of manipulating events to discredit them.Friday saw more unrest across the country, with activists reporting that security forces opened fire in Latakia, in the town of Dael in Deraa province, and elsewhere to break up demonstrations taking place after weekly Muslim prayers.In Damascus, members of the Free Syrian Army fought for four hours with troops backed by armored vehicles who had entered al-Qaboun neighborhood in the north of the capital during a protest one mile from the main Abbaside Square, activists said.The rebels said they had sustained several casualties but it was not known if any had died of their wounds.In the western city of Homs, where a week of bombardments has killed dozens of civilians and drawn condemnation from world leaders, four people were killed in the opposition-held neighborhoods of Baba Amro and Bab Sebaa, the activist Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.Troops also opened fire as worshippers left a mosque in Homs after Friday prayers.Activists in Homs said shelling started up again in the morning and they feared a big push was imminent to storm residential areas of the city that has come to symbolize the plight of those opposing the Assad government."The carnage in Homs continues and the martyrdom of the Syrian people continues," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said. "Not only are we seeing an army that is massacring its own people, but for the Syrian army hospitals and doctors have become systematic targets for repression."SAUDI PLAN AT UNITED NATIONSAt the United Nations, Saudi Arabia circulated a draft resolution backing an Arab peace plan for Syria among members of the U.N. General Assembly on Friday after a similar text was vetoed in the Security Council last week by Russia and China, diplomats said.The new draft appeared as two advisers to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon repeated a warning that Syrian government attacks on civilians could amount to crimes against humanity.Like the failed council resolution, the assembly draft "fully supports" the Arab League plan floated last month, which among other things calls for President Assad to step aside.Russia and China cast their vetoes in the council last Saturday saying the draft there was unbalanced and failed to blame Syria's opposition, along with the government, for violence that has killed over 5,000 people, according to U.N. figures.There are no vetoes in the General Assembly. The 193-nation body's resolutions have no legal force, unlike those of the Security Council, but were the Syria text to pass it would add to pressure on Assad and his government.The assembly is due to discuss Syria on Monday, when it will be addressed by U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay. Diplomats said the resolution was not expected to be voted on then, but that there could be a vote later next week.The assembly draft, seen by Reuters, broadly follows the one voted down in the council. While calling for an end to violence by all sides, it lays blame primarily on the Syrian authorities, whom it strongly condemns for "continued widespread and systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms."The draft urges accountability for those guilty of human rights violations, but makes no specific mention of the International Criminal Court, to which Pillay has said Syrian officials should be sent. Only the Security Council can refer Syria to the court - an unlikely move given its divisions.In one addition to the council text, the assembly draft invites Secretary-General Ban to appoint a special envoy for Syria - a proposal that Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby put to the U.N. chief earlier this week.In a statement, Francis Deng, Ban's adviser on prevention of genocide, and Edward Luck, his adviser on the responsibility to protect, said they were alarmed by Syrian security forces' "indiscriminate fire" on densely populated areas of the city of Homs.Reiterating a warning from last July, they said such attacks could constitute crimes against humanity under international law. "The presence of armed elements among the population does not render attacks against civilians legal," they said.(Additional reporting By Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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Syrian troops attack Deraa, day after referendum offer
Thu, Feb 16 02:59 AM EST
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By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian troops attacked Deraa on Thursday to try to stamp out rebels in the border city where the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule began last March, residents and opposition activists said.

The attack, a day after Assad said he would hold a referendum and elections, followed a push against rebels in the major cities of Hama and Homs in an apparent drive to crush the 11-month uprising against his rule.

Assad's offer of a referendum on a new constitution in two weeks' time, leading to multi-party elections within 90 days, drew scornful rejections from the opposition and the West.

France said it was negotiating a new U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria with Russia, Assad's ally and main arms supplier, and wanted to create humanitarian corridors to ease the plight of civilians caught up in the violence.

An authoritative Chinese newspaper, apparently responding to criticism of China and Russia for vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution urging Assad to step down, said on Thursday that meddling in Syria by foreign powers risked stirring up a hornets' nest of bloodshed and instability in the region.

The commentary in the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, carried an author's pen name that is often used to state Beijing's foreign policy stance.

"The political ecology in the Middle East is extremely frail, a tangled mess of thousands of years of ethnic and religious conflict," the commentary said.

World powers must realize this and handle bloodshed in Syria and Middle East tensions with a sense of realism, the paper said, adding that the spread of conflict would be a "catastrophe" in a crucial phase of global economic recovery.

"The Middle East is the world's most important fuel depot. If gripped by chaos, oil prices would skyrocket, shocking the stock market, financial systems and economies," the paper said.

Washington's aim was to install a friendly government in Syria to counter the influence in the region of Iran, it said.

The Chinese foreign ministry said later that Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun would visit Syria on Friday and Saturday.

In Deraa, a city on the Jordanian border, the sound of explosions and machinegun fire echoed through districts under attack by government troops, residents said.

"The army bombardment started around dawn and after that exchanges of fire occurred," Hussam Izzedine, a member of the Syrian human rights organization Sawasiah, told Reuters from Deraa. "Demonstrations have resumed and the Free Syrian Army has been providing security for protests in some parts of the city," he added.

There was no comment from Syrian authorities, who tightly restrict media access to the country.

An army offensive last April put down large demonstrations in Deraa, which had been provoked by the arrest of several women activists and the detention of schoolboys who had written freedom slogans on walls, inspired by other Arab Spring revolts.

The military has also begun a new offensive in Hama, a city with a bloody history of resistance to Assad's late father Hafez al-Assad, and opposition activists said shelling and sniper fire had killed at least five people and wounded 50 in 36 hours.

The state news agency said security forces "chased and fought with an armed terrorist group in the Hamidiya neighborhood of Hama that has been terrifying citizens" and arrested some of its members, who had automatic rifles and rocket propelled grenades.

Artillery shelled parts of Homs on Wednesday for the 13th day in a row. The Local Coordination Committees, an activist group, said at least four people were killed by army fire concentrated on Baba Amro district, a Sunni neighborhood.

In Damascus, troops killed at least two youths when they swept into the Barzeh district, searching houses and making arrests, residents said.

NO REGIME CHANGE

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told French radio "The idea of humanitarian corridors that I previously proposed to allow NGOs to reach the zones where there are scandalous massacres should be discussed at the Security Council."

He said a U.N. General Assembly vote on Thursday on a non-binding resolution on Syria would be "symbolic." It follows a February 4 veto by Russia and China of a draft Security Council resolution that backed an Arab League call for Assad to quit.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said "If the plan is to use the Security Council and United Nations to adopt some language to help legitimize regime change, then I'm afraid international law does not allow this and we cannot support such an approach."

Diplomats said Arab delegations had rejected proposed Russian amendments which would weaken the Assembly resolution.

The Arab League wants a joint U.N.-Arab peacekeeping force to be deployed in Syria and has adopted a resolution that would allow its members to arm Syrian rebels.

Libya's interim leader, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, said the exiled opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) would be allowed to open an office in Tripoli. "We support the Syrian people and their aspirations," he said.

Syrian state media said on Wednesday a draft constitution to be put to a vote on February 26 would establish a multi-party system in Syria, under Baath Party rule since 1963. Parliamentary elections would follow within 90 days of its approval.

The constitution would allow the president to be elected for two seven-year terms. Assad's late father Hafez was president for 29 years and was succeeded by his son when he died in 2000.

Melhem al-Droubi, a member of the SNC and the Muslim Brotherhood, told Reuters Assad must resign now. "Bashar al-Assad has increased the killing and slaughter in Syria. He has lost his legitimacy and we aren't interested in his rotten constitutions, old or new," he said.

The United States also dismissed the referendum plan.

The Syrian leader dismisses the revolt as the work of terrorists backed by a conspiracy of enemy nations.

Thousands of civilians have been killed since the uprising began in March, inspired by other Arab revolts. The government says more than 2,000 soldiers and police have been killed.

(Writing by Angus MacSwan in Beirut; editing by Tim Pearce)

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New York Times reporter Anthony Shadid dies in Syria
Fri, Feb 17 08:44 AM EST
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By Mary Slosson

(Reuters) - Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times foreign correspondent Anthony Shadid died on Thursday in Syria of an apparent asthma attack, the newspaper reported.

Shadid, 43, was on a reporting assignment in eastern Syria when he died, according to an obituary posted on the Times web site. It said Shadid was carried across the border into Turkey by Times photographer Tyler Hicks.

The paper said Shadid, who was the paper's Beirut bureau chief, had been reporting inside the country for about a week without the knowledge of the Syrian government, which attempts to tightly control foreign press coverage.

"Anthony died as he lived - determined to bear witness to the transformation sweeping the Middle East and to testify to the suffering of people caught between government oppression and opposition forces," Executive Editor Jill Abramson said to Times staff in an internal e-mail, according to the paper.

Shadid twice won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, once in 2004 and again in 2010, both for his coverage of the Iraq War.

In 2011, Shadid was captured by Libyan government forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi along with three of his Times colleagues while covering the uprising there, but he was released about a week later.

"RIP Anthony Shadid, a truly great journalist and a great colleague," said Stephen Farrell, who was captured in Libya with Shadid, in a message on Twitter on Thursday.

Hicks told the Times that Shadid suffered a severe asthma attack triggered by the horses used by their Syrian guides.

The pair had snuck into Syria by crawling under a barbed-wire fence in the mountainous northwestern corner of the country, Hicks told the Times.

Shadid was considered an authoritative voice on Middle Eastern conflicts who wrote with an incisive writing style that captured the nuances of region's complexity.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Peter Bohan)
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February 17, 2012
Postscript: Anthony Shadid, 1968-2012
Posted by Steve Coll

Anthony-Shadid-1968-2012.jpg

Anthony Shadid’s third book, “House of Stone,” is due to be published in several weeks. It is described by the publisher as a “a memoir of home, family and a lost Middle East.” The project, when Shadid talked about it occasionally, was more personal than that sort of subtitle can easily convey. Shadid grew up in Oklahoma, in a family of Lebanese origin. He attended the University of Wisconsin and went into newspaper work. Like many American writers whose families arrived here from somewhere else, he was drawn gradually to the landscape of his family’s origins. “House of Stone” tells the story of Shadid’s efforts to rebuild—and excavate the history of—a family property in Lebanon. When he spoke about that project, and the life he had forged in Lebanon to carry it out, he mentioned a theme that was always present in his newspaper correspondence: that the “zone of crisis” frame that so often surrounded reporting from the Middle East was frustrating and inadequate. The Arab world, like any other, was not best understood by focussing exclusively on its wars and conflicts (although he did not shy away from any of those, or whitewash their ugliness), but through its longer, subtler narratives of family, time, and transition. “House of Stone” is such a narrative.

Shadid, who died on Thursday at the age of forty-three, apparently of an asthma attack, while covering the conflict in Syria for the Times, was over the last decade or more the most intrepid, empathetic, fully engaged correspondent working in the Middle East for American audiences. He had many gifts and was an exceptionally graceful, easy, and generous man, but among the qualities that distinguished his work was the sheer commitment of it. When he came to the Washington Post about a decade ago to serve as a correspondent, I was working as an editor at the paper. I asked a standard job-interview question about his goals in the years ahead, and he provided one of the most striking, emphatic answers I can recall from countless discussions of that type: He intended to move to the Middle East, to chronicle in every dimension possible the upheavals in Arab societies that would inevitably follow the September 11th attacks, and to do nothing else, professionally. If we, the Post, would facilitate this ambition, he would be grateful, but that was the only job he was interested in or would be for years to come, he said. It is rare for anyone—never mind a writer—to possess such clarity. And Shadid carried out his plan exactly as he said he would, just not for the full measure of years that we would have wished.

There are other great Middle East correspondents working today—Robert F. Worth of the Times, for example—but none with Anthony’s personal story and outlook, which flowed into his story choices, sentences, and techniques. Journalists recognize each other’s signatures and tricks. One of Anthony’s was to frame a story around the proprietor of a single café, bookstore, or university department. It’s not easy to bring a passive character and setting of that sort to life, but Anthony did it again and again. Reading the whole body of his work was like reading a linked series of stories about a world of (usually) men bathed in cigarette smoke, hyped up on coffee, and ready to talk about why the world is the way it is. Like a great short-story writer, Shadid’s use of these characters was neither too heavy nor too light; he let them breathe and speak, and they allowed the reader to join in, to slip inside worlds and ways of thinking normally closed off.

In 2003, the Iraq war was brewing and Shadid wanted to be in Baghdad, working independently, when it began. Shadid was married at the time, with a small daughter at home. (Later, that marriage would end; he was married a second time, to Nada Bakri, with whom he had a son.) As the “shock and awe” bombing began and the future of Saddam Hussein’s regime fell into doubt, he arranged a conference call to explain, as a low-key country lawyer might, why he should be allowed to remain on the ground and assume the risks ahead. He persuaded; his work from Iraq was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the first of two he won during his career, and became the basis for his second, excellent book, “Night Draws Near.” The foreboding and ambivalence that the characters he wrote about expressed was striking at the time, but as the years have passed and Iraq’s initial crisis has yielded to the ambiguous mess we know today, it is evident that the middle-class, unofficial, urban Iraqis he chronicled had envisioned their own future very accurately. As in so many other cases, Shadid was willing to sit still, away from the main story, and listen. He will be missed; his work is irreplaceable.

Read remembrances of Anthony Shadid by Jon Lee Anderson, George Packer, and Dexter Filkins.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/02/postscript-anthony-shadid-1968-2012.html#ixzz1mj5J2MdV

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Syrian forces fire on anti-Assad crowd in capital
Sat, Feb 18 10:37 AM EST
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By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Angus MacSwan

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian security forces fired on a huge protest against President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Saturday, soon after a Chinese envoy had appealed for a halt to 11 months of violence, opposition activists said.

The shooting took place at the funerals of three youths killed on Friday in an anti-Assad protest that was one of the biggest in the capital since a nationwide uprising started.

"They started firing at the crowd right after the burial," said a witness, speaking to Reuters in Amman by telephone.

People tried to flee and seek shelter in alleyways, he said.

The opposition Syrian Revolution Coordination Union said the gunfire near the cemetery had killed one mourner and wounded four, including a woman who was hit in the head. A shopkeeper told Reuters many protesters were arrested.

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For graphic of Homs http://link.reuters.com/tuc56s

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Up to 30,000 demonstrators had taken to the streets in the capital's Mezze district, near the headquarters of Airforce Intelligence and that of the ruling Baath Party, witnesses said.

Footage of the funeral broadcast on the Internet showed women ululating to honor the victims. Mourners shouted: "We sacrifice our blood, our soul for you martyrs. One, one, one, the Syrian people are one."

YouTube footage from another Damascus suburb, Douma, showed several thousand protesters at the funerals of two people said to have been killed there by security forces. The bodies were carried though a sea of mourners waving pre-Baath Syrian flags.

Assad described the turmoil racking Syria as a ploy to split the country.

"What Syria is facing is fundamentally an effort to divide it and affect its geopolitical place and historic role in the region," he was quoted by Syrian state television as saying after meeting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun.

CHINESE SUPPORT

Zhai appealed for an end to violence from all sides, including the government and opposition forces. But his comments for the most part amounted to a show of support against world condemnation of Assad's crackdown on the popular uprising.

The envoy said China backed Assad's plan for a referendum on February 26 followed by multi-party elections to resolve the crisis. The opposition and the West have dismissed the plan as a sham.

"China supports the path of reform taking place in Syria and the important steps that have been taken in this respect," he said.

The Chinese Embassy said Zhai held separate meetings with moderate opposition figures Qadri Jamil, Louay Hussein and Hassan Abdulazim, but gave no details.

"We told the Chinese envoy that most of the opposition accept a dialogue if that dialogue is serious and responsible, meaning that the Syrian authorities would implement what is agreed. But the problem with dialogue is that the authorities have lost credibility," Hussein told Reuters.

Beijing and Moscow have been Assad's most important international defenders during the crackdown which has killed several thousand people and divided world powers. The United Nations, the United States, Europe, Turkey and Arab powers want Assad to step down and have condemned the ferocious repression.

Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on February 4 calling on Assad to quit and also voted against a similar, non-binding General Assembly resolution on Thursday.

BOMBING THE OPPOSITION

In other strife across the country, government forces bombarded the opposition stronghold of Homs on Saturday.

A blanket of snow covered Homs, strategically sited on the road between Damascus and the commercial hub Aleppo, as rockets and artillery pounded mainly Sunni Muslim rebel districts.

The troops were close to Baba Amro, a southern neighborhood that has been target of the heaviest barrages since the offensive began two weeks ago, activists said.

"There is no electricity and communications between districts are cut, so we are unable to get a death toll. There is no fuel in most of the city," activist Mohammad al-Homsi said from Homs.

The military has also opened a new offensive in Hama, a city with a bloody history of resistance to Assad's late father Hafez, who died in 2000 after 30 years in power.

Assad, who belongs the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, in a majority Sunni country, says he is fighting foreign-backed terrorists.

The uprising began with civilian protests in March, but now includes a parallel armed struggle led by the loosely organized Free Syria Army, made up of army deserters and local insurgents.

Syria's other significant ally is Iran, itself at odds with the West.

An Iranian destroyer and a supply ship sailed through the Suez canal this week and are believed to be on their way to the Syrian coast, a source in the canal authority said.

Iraq said on Saturday it had reinforced security along its Syrian border to prevent arms smuggling after reports that fighters and weapons were crossing into Syria.

"Necessary measures have been taken to consolidate control over the borders with Syria which is witnessing turbulence that encourages infiltration and all kinds of smuggling, especially arms," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office said.

Iraq's Shi'ites fear that if Assad fell, hardline Sunnis could come to power, a shift which could threaten their newly-acquired dominance since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

The West is concerned that the conflict is sliding towards a civil war that could spread across the region's patchwork of ethnic, religious and political rivalries.

But it has ruled out Libya-style military intervention, instead imposing sanctions and urging a fragmented opposition, which includes activists inside Syria, armed rebels and politicians in exile, to present a common front against Assad.

Tunisia, which is hosting a meeting on Syria next week, said on Friday Arab countries would encourage the opposition to unite before they would recognize them as a government-in-waiting.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Abbas and Dominic Evans in Beirut; Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

=============

Humanitarian corridors in Syria: Way out of crisis or way in for invaders?
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Published: 19 February, 2012, 04:26
Edited: 19 February, 2012, 10:59

Black smoke is seen from a Homs refinery (Reuters / Mulham Alnader / Handout)
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TRENDS: Syria unrest

TAGS: Arms, Conflict, Meeting, Military, NATO, UN, Russia, Protest, Politics, Europe, China, Opposition, Syria, Turkey

Europe seeks to bring relief to the Syrian people by creating humanitarian corridors, a seemingly noble idea aimed at winning Russian and Chinese support in the UN Security Council. But some are calling the plan a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

­The call for supply routes bringing humanitarian aid to Syrian cities first surfaced last November, and is back on the table as of this week.

“The idea of humanitarian corridors that I previously proposed, which would allow NGOs to reach the zones where scandalous massacres are taking place, should be discussed at the Security Council,” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Wednesday.

Paris suggested creating a safe passage for relief organizations, either with Syrian approval or under an international mandate – hence the need for UNSC approval.

Damascus is currently stretched thin on forces, and hardly has any to spare on guarding aid convoys. But allowing foreign troops on its territory is also not an option, as was shown in the recent refusal to allow entry to Arab League peacekeepers.

The Security Council could establish the corridors through a resolution, and mandate that they be guarded by some government or organization. But Russia and China, who both have veto power, said they will not allow passage of any resolution they see as unbalanced.

Both Russia and China oppose any UN resolution that could later be used by NATO as permission for military action, as happened in Libya. “Libya offers a negative case study. NATO abused the Security Council resolution about establishing a no-fly zone and directly provided firepower assistance to one side in the Libyan war," said China’s biggest Communist newspaper, The People's Daily.

Juppe’s plan so far has only received backing from the European parliament. Its President, Martin Schulz, said the body “wants to see humanitarian corridors to be put into place and shelters provided for the growing numbers of displaced people.”

Not everyone seems to be sold on the idea, however. NATO would be the first choice for guarding duty, but its Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen stated the alliance has “ no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria." He also reiterated that “a regional solution” should be found for the conflict.

This passes the ball to the Arab League, though Syria’s lack of trust in some League members like Qatar and Saudi Arabia could get in the way. Damascus suspects the two Sunni monarchies of fueling the unrest in Syria in a bid to oust the Shia Alawite minority from power, so Syrian acceptance of their troops on its soil is unlikely.

And Lebanon and Turkey, the two countries that could easily deliver aid into Syrian territory, aren’t in a hurry to do so. Turkish press recently reported that Ankara would prefer an aid corridor going through the Mediterranean Sea and supported by the British military base in Cyprus, rather than through Turkey’s southeastern territories.

Turkey’s reluctance to act directly against Syria is understandable. Joining the international choir calling on President Assad to step down and suggesting an internationally protected zone for the Syrian opposition on its territory is one thing. Invading its neighbor and facing possible military retaliation from Syria – and perhaps its close ally Iran as well – is a bit too risky, even for a NATO member. Especially if retribution may come indirectly – through support of Kurd separatists waging a guerrilla war on Turkish troops.
­Secret war already being waged inside Syria?

­Asia Times' roving correspondent Pepe Escobar told RT that installing a humanitarian corridor is akin to telling a government "Look, you are illegitimate and incompetent – now we would like to take care of your people."

“And on the ground of this corridor there will be all kinds of things happening like weapons smuggling, intelligence operatives penetrating and coordinating with local people,” he added.

Escobar also noted that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are basically the only ones pushing for the humanitarian corridor.

“The ones that are really involved are Saudi Arabia and Qatar. They are selling this idea to the US, Britain and France.”

The journalist also said there will not actually be a humanitarian corridor, but just a pretext to be on the ground and to influence action inside Syria much more than is currently possible.

But in addition to any questions raised by the proposed humanitarian corridors, Escobar said a secret war is already being waged against Syria.

“There is already a foreign military intervention going on. Do not forget that NATO have a command and control center in Hatay province, Southern Turkey, very close to the Turkish-Syrian border. This is a conduit for intelligence going back and forth across borders, and weapons, of course – and these weapons are being financed basically by the GCC, especially the Saudis and the Qataris actively involved – with the intelligence as well as with monitors and trainers on the ground.”

He added that there is another conduit through the Lebanese border – the Syrian National Council.

“They are supported directly by Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron, by the Turkish government and the Qataris. And there is also the Free Syrian Army – which even non-biased analysts in Europe say is not free and is not an army: it’s a bunch of guerrillas infiltrated by people affiliated with Al-Qaeda and Salafi Jihadists.”

Escobar concluded that humanitarian corridors or not, the foreign interference is already there.

“Now this is a shadow war doubled with a civil war,” he said.

Earlier there had been speculation that Syrian rebels had been trained by US and NATO forces in southern Turkey. According to former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds speaking to Turkey’s Daily Milliyet newspaper, the US had been involved in smuggling weapons across the Turkish border from the Incirlik military base. Qatar and Saudi Arabia have also reportedly offered financial support to the Syrian opposition by offering to help them replenish their dwindling weapons supply. There have also been reports of British and Qatari troops directing rebel ammunition deliveries and tactics in the bloody battle for Homs.

===============
Kurdish influence on discussions of post-Asad Syria state structure through federalism demands sd not be underestimated, via
Sherko Abbas: Syria's Kurds are looking to form a federal entity
Raneem Muhammad of Washington

GMT 10:28:00 2012 Monday, 20 February

Kurdish demonstration against al-Assad in Syria in the framework Sherko Abbas

The head of the Kurdistan National Assembly in Syria Sherko Abbas to establish a federal system of guarantees for the Kurds the right to self-determination up to the formation of a government similar to Iraqi Kurdistan, and pointed out that the Syrian Kurds continue discussions with the Syrian National Council for the development of a political vision that ensures the right of Kurdish nationalism.

Washington: The head of the National Council of Kurdistan in Syria Sherko Abbas, in an exclusive interview with "Elaph" from his headquarters in the U.S. capital: "We made ​​the federal our interpretation of the principle of" right to self-determination for the Kurdish people in Syria and from our point of view that the federal system the federal is the best formula for the modern Syria. "

He declined Sherko Abbas Arabism of Syria, stressing that "the Kurds are national second in terms of population size and geographic expansion, they do not form part of the Arab nation," adding that the insistence of Democrats Syrians Arabism error will reap nothing but problems such as existing with the Baath regime.

The Chairman of the Kurdistan National Assembly in his speech to the Syrian Kurds continue discussions with the Syrian National Council for the development of a political vision that ensures the right of the Kurdish national self-determination, adding that "the Kurds will not agree to get out of the" born without Homs, "as happened to them after the revolution of Colonialism France, where he was the Constitution of the post-independence free from any right to them. "

Abbas acknowledged that the interactions Kurdish Kurdish in Syria increased the deterioration of the situation of Kurds in Syria, but he attributed the condition to the dispersion of the role of the Syrian intelligence service, said: "No one can escape from the Kurds is the responsibility of the deteriorating political conditions and the expansion of their differences."

Consider the multiplicity of authorities and political parties, the Kurdish political state of nature: "The effects of the Kurdish parties (KDP, the Patriotic Union, the Workers Party) in the entire Kurdish national movement," the Syrian "natural, as are the effects of Syrian policy in neighboring Lebanon."

And winked in the direction of the Muslim Brotherhood, when he mentioned in his reply to a question by "Elaph" Some Kurds believe the latter is worse than Bashar al-Assad, "saying:" Some Kurds have different views on various issues, and this difference of opinion is the basic principle of democracy " .

Sherko Abbas stressed that "his party to consider all the forces and parties from the perspective of all eyes, one eye on the issue of Kurdish nationalism because it is our legitimate right, internationally, and the other over the approaching of democracy and human rights and civil liberties."

The following is the text of the interview:


You came from Iraqi Kurdistan recently ... What was the nature of the visit?

Our visit to South Kurdistan (Iraqi Kurdistan) was at the invitation of the Office of the presidency of the region to attend a conference Erbil community Kurdish Syrian in 28 to 29 January 2012, where he held a conference under the auspices of President Massoud Barzani, who delivered a welcoming speech, and emphasized the lack of intervention or interference leadership of the region on Syria or the Syrian flag, but it will support as agreed upon by the Syrians themselves, one issue of freedom everywhere. So the visit was targeted and concise and short-term.

Is it a meeting of all the Syrian Kurdish political parties?

Conference was not for all the Syrian Kurdish parties, where some stayed outside the conference, and efforts are under way to achieve all of its presence in the conference is coming, God willing.

What you have heard from the viewpoint of the Government of Iraqi Kurdistan to the Syrian crisis?

Kurdish government in the territory of South Kurdistan is trying as much as possible to stay in the neutral position, because the objective and subjective conditions imposed by certain rules in any game is a regional, political, economic, and we appreciate it.

Is there a split between President Talabani and Barzani to the Syrian crisis?

There is no split to the Syrian crisis between the Democratic Party of Kurdistan, headed by Mr. Barzani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, headed by familiarity Jalal Talebatta, the president of Iraq, even eagerness, Mr. Prime Minister Barham Saleh party familiarity with Jalal Talabani, to accompany Mr. Barzani in his presence to the Conference of the Kurds Syria .

It is known that the leaders in Iraqi Kurdistan are calling for dialogue with Bashar al-Talabani, in particular? Do you agree?

Kurds Kaahdhm always prefer dialogue to quarrel with the authoritarian regimes in the Kurdish nation, wars have dire consequences, including the Kurds have suffered too long, but do not know whether the benefit of dialogue with the regime of Bashar al-Assad after all that has happened?

According to many observers that the Kurds in Syria, is enthusiastic about the revolution against Bashar al-... Why is it Khalavkm with the Syrian National Council?


Kurds are the first rose on the Assad regime in 2004, and since then, providing enormous sacrifices, so far have been numerous and successive demonstrations in major cities on the island and fastest mountain and the Kurds, where the majority of Kurds live. The Kurds have proven that they are part of this revolution are also their contribution to the big day in Friday "popular resistance" in various parts where they are located. There are points of agreement are many with the Syrian National Council, and the debate being on the right of national Kurdish in Syria the future, and enrollment Kurds to any window Syrian opposition related to this point, because it is basic and very important, as it will not accept the Kurds to get out of "born without Homs", as them after the revolution the French colonization, as was the Constitution of the post-independence free from any right to them.

What do you want them to do They claim to democracy to ensure that the rights of everyone in the end?

Is it democratic rights achieved the Basque people in Spain or the Irish people in Britain or France in the Corsican people, or the Kurdish people in a democracy, Mustafa Kemal in Turkey? Democracy does not mean for other ethnic or religious components to the same rights in a practical ... Should be continued dialogue between Syrian Kurds and their brethren from different directions and boring and the bees to reach a just solution to the status of Syria.

Some of the Kurds in Syria, said the Muslim Brotherhood worse than the regime of Bashar al-Assad ... Do you agree with that?

Some Kurds have different views on various issues, and this difference of opinion is the basic principle of democracy, and not agree on everything. We look at all the forces and parties from the perspective of all eyes, one eye on the issue of Kurdish nationalism because it is our legitimate right, internationally, and the other over the approaching of democracy, human rights and civil liberties. And so on about the "Muslim Brotherhood" as well.

Frankly you are interested in a federal system similar to Iraqi Kurdistan?

Yes, we made ​​our interpretation of the federal principle of "right to self-determination for the Kurdish people in Syria," Since the formation of the National Council of Kurdistan - Syria in 2006, and we have a project for a federal Syria published in some websites. It is our view that the federal system, "Federal" is the best formula for the modern Syria, for many reasons, including the mosaic composition of the national and sectarian and religious in the country. It has proven its success as a federal politician in many large and small countries in the world, but also in socialist systems, as is the case in democratic systems ancient ... Will accept our brothers in humanity and our partners in the homeland of the Druze, Alawites, or to govern anymore by the majority Sunni? Federal impose itself as a must in the future, Syria.

Means the Government and the Parliament and the President under a federal entity?

Of course, the federal entity includes these things, but vary the degree of enjoyment from country to country according to the Federal Constitution, and the extent of absorption of its authors to the idea of federalism.

For the differences we come to the Kurdish Kurdish Do you bear the responsibility for the deterioration of the Kurdish situation because of that?


Yes, can not one of Kurds to evade responsibility for the deterioration of their political and expansion of their differences, but we must not lose sight of the continuation of the totalitarian regime's authoritarian Syria for nearly half a century, and this constitutes a significant impediment to the natural growth of political movements in general.

Is said to be the cause of the differences Kurdish Kurdish in Syria is the multiplicity of authorities between Erbil and Turkey?

The effects of the Kurdish parties (KDP, the Patriotic Union, the Workers Party) in the entire Kurdish national movement, "the Syrian" natural, as are the effects of Syrian policy in the neighboring country of Lebanon, especially during times of crisis and in an atmosphere of war. But there are differences is essential, purely internal, related to personal conflicts and disagreements between the narrow partisan Syrian Kurdish leaders, classic, and should not overlook the role of Syrian intelligence in fueling these rivalries and vandalism continued in the Kurdish political life.


Reported that the Kurds will meet in Washington to heal the rift between them? Is this true? And when?

I've met Kurdish Syrians previously in Washington, at the invitation of the founders of this Council in particular, because the Washington Center is very important centers of the international resolution, it is most important at all at this stage of human history, but they met in Europe, too, several times, even if there a democratic system in Syria met in Qamishli or fastest or Afrin ... The presence of Syria's Kurdish communities with a large force upon certain conditions, sometimes in meetings, sometimes far away, or close to Syria. The last meetings in the capital of the province of South Kurdistan, in the city and Lear ee (Erbil) ... in a free and democratic Iraq ... However, the conference here and there, as is the Syrian opposition conferences, related to subjective and objective conditions of the Kurdish political ferment, and not to be held in places often.

Do you reject Arab identity of Syria?

We believe that "Syria" name is well known and large in the history of the region co-exist in which the components of national and many religious, since time immemorial in the foot, and that the first republic in this country called "Syrian Republic" For that reason exactly, but this did not prevent from becoming a Republic, Syrian founding member of the Arab League and Arab people in Syria is part of the Arab nation, but do the Kurdish people, which is a national second in the country in terms of population size and geographic expansion, part of the Kurdish nation or the Arab nation? This is what needs to be clarified for those who insist on the Arab identity of Syria ... I've tried to deny the Ba'athists national existence of the Kurdish people, and they regard from Syria, "Syrian Arab Republic" was not only the harvest of the problems, and our hope is that the Democrats is not the Syrians the same mistakes.

============

شيركو عباس: أكراد سوريا يتطلعون لتشكيل كيان فيدرالي
رنيم محمد من واشنطن

GMT 10:28:00 2012 الإثنين 20 فبراير
11

تظاهرة كردية في سوريا ضد الأسد وفي الإطار شيركو عباس

دعا رئيس المجلس الوطني الكردستاني في سوريا شيركو عباس الى تأسيس نظام فيدرالي يضمن للأكراد حق تقرير المصير وصولاً إلى تشكيل حكومة غرار كردستان العراق، ولفت إلى أن أكراد سوريا يواصلون النقاش مع المجلس الوطني السوري لوضع رؤية سياسية تضمن حق القومية الكردية.

واشنطن: قال رئيس مجلس الوطني الكردستاني في سوريا شيركو عباس، في حديث خص به "إيلاف" من مقر إقامته في العاصمة الأميركية: "نحن جعلنا من الفيدرالية تفسيرنا لمبدأ "حق تقرير المصير للشعب الكوردي في سوريا ومن وجهة نظرنا هذا النظام الفيدرالي الاتحادي هو أفضل صيغة لسوريا الحديثة".

ورفض شيركو عباس عروبة سوريا، مشدداً على أن "الأكراد يشكلون القومية الثانية من ناحية الحجم السكاني والتوسع الجغرافي وهم لا يشكلون جزءاً من الأمة العربية"، معتبراً أن إصرار الديمقراطيين السوريين على العروبة خطأ لن يحصدوا منه سوى المشاكل كما هو الحال قائم مع نظام البعث.

ولفت رئيس المجلس الوطني الكردستاني في حديثه إلى أن أكراد سوريا يواصلون النقاش مع المجلس الوطني السوري لوضع رؤية سياسية تضمن حق القومية الكردية في تقرير مصيرها، مضيفاً أن "الأكراد لن يقبلوا أن يخرجوا من "المولد بلا حمص"، كما حدث لهم بعد الثورة على الاستعمار الفرنسي، حيث جاء دستور ما بعد الاستقلال خالياً من أي حق لهم".

واعترف عباس أن التجاذبات الكردية الكردية في سوريا زادت من تردي اوضاع أكراد سوريا، لكنه أرجع تشتت حالتهم الى دور المخابرات السورية، قائلاً :" لا يستطيع أحد من الكورد التهرب من مسؤولية تردي أوضاعهم السياسية واتساع رقعة خلافاتهم".

وإعتبر تعدد المرجعيات السياسية للأحزاب السياسية الكردية حالة طبيعية:"إن تأثيرات الأحزاب الكوردستانية (الديمقراطي الكوردستاني، الاتحاد الوطني، وحزب العمال) في مجمل الحراك الوطني الكوردي "السوري" طبيعي، كما هي تأثيرات السياسة السورية في البلد الجار لبنان".

وغمز في اتجاه الاخوان المسلمين، حين ذكر في رده على سؤالٍ لـ"إيلاف" إن بعض الأكراد يعتبرون الجهة الأخيرة أسوأ من بشار الأسد،"، قائلاً: "بعض الكورد لهم آراء مختلفة في شتى المسائل، وهذا الاختلاف في الرأي هو الأصل في الديمقراطية".

وشدد شيركو عباس الى أن :"حزبه ينظر إلى كل القوى والأحزاب من منظار ذي عينين، الأولى عين على القضية الكوردية القومية لأنها حقنا المشروع دولياً، والأخرى على مدى اقترابها من الديمقراطية وحقوق الإنسان والحريات المدنية".

وفيما يلي نص الحوار:


قدمتم من كردستان العراق مؤخراً ... ما كانت طبيعة الزيارة؟

زيارتنا لجنوب كوردستان (كوردستان العراق) كانت تلبية لدعوة من مكتب رئاسة الإقليم لحضور مؤتمر أربيل للجالية الكوردية السورية في 28-29 كانون الثاني 2012، حيث عقد هذا المؤتمر تحت رعاية السيد الرئيس مسعود بارزاني، الذي ألقى كلمة ترحيبية، وأكد على عدم تدخله أو تدخل قيادة الإقليم في الشؤون السورية أو الكوردية السورية، إلا أنه سيدعم ما يتفق عليه السوريون بأنفسهم، فقضية الحرية واحدة في كل مكان. ولذا كانت الزيارة محددة الهدف ومختصرة وقصيرة الأمد.

هل هو اجتماع لكافة الأحزاب السياسية الكوردية السورية؟

لم يكن المؤتمر لكافة الأحزاب الكوردية السورية، حيث بقي بعضها خارج المؤتمر، والمساعي جارية لتحقيق حضورها جميعاً في مؤتمرٍ قادم، إن شاء الله.

ماذا سمعتم من وجهة نظر لحكومة كوردستان العراق تجاه الأزمة السورية؟

الحكومة الكوردية في إقليم جنوب كوردستان تحاول قدر الإمكان البقاء في وضع حيادي، لأن ظروفها الموضوعية والذاتية تفرض عليها قواعد معينة في أي لعبة إقليمية، سياسية أو اقتصادية، ونحن نقدر ذلك.

هل هناك انقسام بين الرئيس طالباني وبرازاني تجاه الأزمة السورية؟

ليس هناك أي انقسام تجاه الأزمة السورية بين الحزب الديموقراطي الكوردستاني الذي يرأسه السيد البارزاني وبين الاتحاد الوطني الكوردستاني الذي يرأسه المام جلال الطالباتي، رئيس العراق، بل حرص السيد رئيس وزراء الإقليم برهم صالح من حزب المام جلال الطالباني مرافقة السيد البارزاني في حضوره إلى مؤتمر الكورد السوريين.

من المعروف ان القادة في كردستان العراق يدعون الى الحوار مع بشار لا سيما طالباني؟ هل انتم توافقون؟

الكورد كعهدهم دائماً يفضلون الحوار على الشجار مع الأنظمة المستبدة في الأمة الكوردية، فالحروب لها نتائج رهيبة، وقد عانى منها الكورد طويلاً، ولكن لا ندري هل ينفع الحوار مع نظام بشار الأسد بعد كل ما جرى؟

يرى العديد من المراقبين إن الأكراد في سوريا غير متحمسين للثورة ضد بشار... لماذا هل هو خلافكم مع المجلس الوطني السوري؟


الكورد هم أول من انتفض على نظام الأسد في عام 2004، ومنذ ذلك الحين يقدمون التضحيات الجسام، وقد جرت حتى الآن مظاهرات عديدة ومتتالية في المدن الرئيسية في الجزيرة وكوباني وجبل الأكراد، حيث تعيش غالبية الكورد. ولقد أثبت الكورد أنهم يشكلون جزءا من هذه الثورة اليوم أيضاً بمساهمتهم الكبيرة في جمعة "المقاومة الشعبية" في شتى الأنحاء التي يتواجدون فيها. هناك نقاط اتفاق عديدة مع المجلس الوطني السوري، والنقاش يجري حول الحق القومي الكوردي ضمن سوريا المستقبل، وانتساب الكورد إلى أي إطار سوري معارض متعلق بهذه النقطة، لأنها أساسية وهامة جداً، إذ لن يقبل الكورد أن يخرجوا من "المولد بلا حمص"، كما حدث لهم بعد الثورة على الاستعمار الفرنسي، حيث جاء دستور ما بعد الاستقلال خالياً من أي حق لهم.

ماذا تريدون منهم أن يفعلوا فهم يدعون الى الديموقراطية التي تكفل في النهاية حقوق الجميع؟

وهل حققت الديموقراطية حقوق شعب الباسك في اسبانيا أو الشعب الايرلندي في بريطانيا أو الشعب الكورسيكي في فرنسا، أو الشعب الكوردي في ديموقراطية مصطفى كمال في تركيا؟ فالديموقراطية لا تعني حصول سائر المكونات الاثنية أو الدينية على ذات الحقوق بشكل عملي... لا بد من استمرار الحوار بين الكورد وإخوتهم السوريين من مختلف الاتجاهات والممل والنحل للتوصل إلى حل عادل لوضعهم السوري.

يعتبر بعض من الأكراد في سوريا ان الإخوان المسلمين أسوأ من نظام بشار الأسد... هل تتفق مع ذلك؟

بعض الكورد لهم آراء مختلفة في شتى المسائل، وهذا الاختلاف في الرأي هو الأصل في الديمقراطية، وليس الاتفاق على كل شيء. نحن ننظر إلى كل القوى والأحزاب من منظار ذي عينين، الأولى عين على القضية الكوردية القومية لأنها حقنا المشروع دولياً، والأخرى على مدى اقترابها من الديمقراطية وحقوق الإنسان والحريات المدنية. وقس على ذلك بخصوص "الإخوان المسلمين" أيضاً.

بصراحة هل ترغبون في نظام فيدرالي على غرار كوردستان العراق؟

نعم، نحن جعلنا من الفيدرالية تفسيرنا لمبدأ "حق تقرير المصير للشعب الكوردي في سوريا" منذ تكوين المجلس الوطني الكوردستاني – سوريا في عام 2006، ولدينا مشروع لسوريا فيدرالية منشور في بعض المواقع الالكترونية. ومن وجهة نظرنا هذا النظام الفيدرالي "الاتحادي" هو أفضل صيغة لسوريا الحديثة، لأسباب عديدة منها التكوين الفسيفسائي القومي والطائفي والمذهبي في البلاد. ولقد أثبتت الفيدرالية نجاحها كنظام سياسي في العديد من البلدان الكبيرة والصغيرة في العالم، بل في النظم الاشتراكية أيضاً، كما هو الحال في النظم الديمقراطية العريقة... فهل سيقبل إخوتنا في الإنسانية وشركاؤنا في الوطن من العلويين أو الدروز أن يحكموا بعد الآن من قبل أكثرية سنية؟ الفيدرالية تفرض نفسها كحل لا بد منه في سوريا المستقبل.

يعني حكومة وبرلمان ورئيس تحت كيان فيدرالي؟

بالطبع يتضمن الكيان الفيدرالي هذه الأمور، ولكن تتفاوت درجة التمتع بها من دولة إلى أخرى حسب الدستور الاتحادي، ومدى استيعاب واضعيه لفكرة الفيدرالية.

لنأتي إلى الخلافات الكردية الكردية هل تتحملون مسؤولية تردي الأوضاع الكردية بسبب ذلك؟


نعم، لا يستطيع أحد من الكورد التهرب من مسؤولية تردي أوضاعهم السياسية واتساع رقعة خلافاتهم، ولكن يجب أن لا يغيب عن البال استمرار النظام الشمولي الاستبدادي في سوريا لما يقارب نصف قرنٍ من الزمن، وهذا يشكل عائقاً كبيراً أمام نمو طبيعي للحركات السياسية عامة.

يقال إن سبب الخلافات الكردية الكردية في سوريا هي تعدد المرجعيات بين اربيل وتركيا؟

إن تأثيرات الأحزاب الكوردستانية (الديمقراطي الكوردستاني، الاتحاد الوطني، وحزب العمال) في مجمل الحراك الوطني الكوردي "السوري" طبيعي، كما هي تأثيرات السياسة السورية في البلد الجار للبنان، وبخاصة أثناء الأزمات وفي أجواء الحروب. ولكن هناك خلافات غير أساسية، داخلية بحتة، تتعلق بالصراعات الشخصية والخلافات الحزبية الضيقة بين الزعامات الكوردية السورية الكلاسيكية، ويجب عدم غض النظر عن دور الاستخبارات السورية في تأجيج هذه التناحرات والتخريب المستمر في الحياة السياسية الكوردية.


تردد ان الاكراد سيجتمعون في واشنطن لراب الصدع بينهم؟ هل هذا صحيح؟ ومتى؟

لقد اجتمع الكورد السوريون سابقاً في واشنطن، بدعوة من مؤسسي هذا المجلس بالذات، لأن واشنطن مركز هام جداً من مراكز القرار الدولي، بل هو من أهمها على الإطلاق في هذه المرحلة من تاريخ البشرية، ولكنهم اجتمعوا في أوروبا أيضاً، ولعدة مرات، ولو كان هناك نظاما ديمقراطيا في سوريا لاجتمعوا في القامشلي أو كوباني أو عفرين... إن تواجد جاليات كوردية سورية كبيرة ذات ظروف معينة تفرض عليها أحياناً اللقاءات في أماكن بعيدة أحيانا،ً أو قريبة من سوريا. وكان آخر اللقاءات في عاصمة إقليم جنوب كوردستان، في مدينة هه ولير (أربيل)...في العراق الحر الديمقراطي... إلا أن عقد المؤتمرات هنا وهناك، كما هي مؤتمرات المعارضة السورية، متعلق بالظروف الذاتية والموضوعية للحراك السياسي الكوردي، وليس بأماكن عقدها في غالب الأحيان.

هل ترفضون عروبة سوريا؟

نحن نؤمن بأن "سوريا" اسم معروف وكبير في التاريخ لمنطقة تتعايش فيها مكونات قومية ودينية عديدة، منذ زمن سحيق في القدم، وإن أول جمهورية في هذه البلاد سميت بـ"الجمهورية السورية" لهذا السبب بالضبط، ولكن هذا لم يمنع من أن تصبح الجمهورية السورية عضواً مؤسساً في الجامعة العربية، والشعب العربي في سوريا جزء من الأمة العربية، ولكن هل الشعب الكوردي، الذي يشكل القومية الثانية في البلاد من حيث الحجم السكاني والتوسع الجغرافي، جزء من الأمة الكوردية أم الأمة العربية؟ هذا ما يجب توضيحه لأولئك الذين يصرون على عروبة سوريا...لقد حاول البعثيون إنكار الوجود القومي للشعب الكوردي، فجعلوا من سوريا "جمهورية عربية سورية" ولم يحصدوا من ذلك سوى المشاكل، وأملنا هو أن لا يقع الديمقراطيون السوريون في الأخطاء ذاتها

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21 Feb 2012 AFP

Iraq border town aims to repay debt to Syrians

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By Azhar Shallal

AL-QAIM, Feb 21, 2012 (AFP) - Residents of Al-Qaim, an Iraqi town near the Syrian border, aim to repay a debt to Syrians who provided them with supplies, fighters and weapons when the region was facing US forces in 2005.

"The brothers in Syria stood with the Iraqis ... when US forces surrounded us in 2005, and opened their border and their hearts to us," Sheikh Mohammed al-Karbuli told AFP.

"They delivered us everything we needed -- food, medicine, men and weapons ... from several places in Syria," so we must "pay back to them the gratitude and charity in their ordeal," he said.

Abdel Nasser Mohammed al-Qaraghuli, who lives between Al-Qaim and the Syrian border, said that "we send them simple medical supplies now, and collect financial contributions from the wealthy people and we send (the contributions) to them."

Al-Qaim, a town of about 137,000 people, is located in Anbar province some 340 kilometres (210 miles) west of Baghdad.

There are families and tribes, including major ones such as Al-Rawiyin, Al-Aniyin, Al-Karabla, Albu Mahal, and Al-Salman, in the area that have ties by blood and marriage to those in Syria.

Tribal leaders say that relationships with Syrians extend to the towns of Deir Ezzor, Homs and Idlib.

"I sent $2,000 so far to help injured people in Syria," tribal elder Abu Mujahid al-Luhaibi said, adding that "we send money to the families that we know through intermediaries."

Karbuli said that "what is happening for the Syrian people now in Homs, Damascus, Deir Ezzor and other cities is an insult to dignity."

"The tribal leaders in Anbar especially must ... help our brothers in Syria," he said.

Since March last year, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has carried out a bloody crackdown on an uprising against his rule in which more than 6,000 people have been killed, according to a toll by rights activists.

While there are still regular civilian protests that turn deadly in Syria, the focus has shifted to armed conflict with regime forces.

Syria shares a roughly 600-kilometre (372-mile) border with Iraq, more than half of it with the Sunni-majority Anbar province, which was once an insurgent stronghold.

Assad is a member of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, while the majority of Syrians, and of his opponents, are Sunni Muslims.

Iraq's interior minister said in an interview with AFP that jihadists are moving from Iraq to Syria and arms are also being smuggled across the border to opponents of Assad's regime.

A statement released on Saturday by the Iraqi premier's office meanwhile said that Iraq is taking measures to secure its border with Syria against weapons smuggling and the unauthorised movement of people.

A group of people in Al-Qaim this month announced the formation of the "Army of Free Iraqis" to provide assistance in Syria.

The group said in a statement that its "work will focus on controlling the border and searching with volunteers for any strange or suspicious movements by the Iraqi government toward assisting the Syrian government."

The group's leader, Abu Yasser, told AFP that "we will go immediately to fight in Syria if it is shown that the Iraqi government sends fighters to fight with the regime there."

Abu Yasser, whose face was masked, travelled in a three-vehicle convoy with 12 men armed with automatic weapons.

Al-Qaim is also preparing for the possibility of receiving Syrian refugees.

Bilal al-Ani, the head of a local rights group, said that if Syrian refugees came to Al-Qaim, "we will receive them and provide them with all the necessary things and all that they want."

Karbuli stressed that "if the government objects to opening camps, our houses are open to them."

str-mah/wd/bpz

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Red Cross seeks Syria ceasefires; more than 60 killed
Tue, Feb 21 12:56 PM EST
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By Mariam Karouny and Stephanie Nebehay

BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) - Syrian government forces killed more than 60 people on Tuesday in assaults on villages and an artillery barrage in the restive city of Homs, activists said, and the Red Cross called for daily ceasefires to let in urgently needed aid.

Activists said at least 30 people died in the bombardment of the Baba Amro neighborhood of Homs city, and at least 33 were killed when forces trying to crush opposition to President Bashar al-Assad stormed villages in northern Idlib province.

In Damascus, security forces opened fire on demonstrators overnight, wounding at least four, activists said. Violence in has hit the capital over the past week, undermining Assad's assertion that the 11-month-old uprising against his rule is limited to the provinces and the work of saboteurs.

Activist accounts of the violence could not be confirmed. The government bars most foreign journalists from Syria.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had asked authorities and rebels to agree daily ceasefires so life-saving aid can reach civilians in hard-hit areas including Homs.

"It should last at least two hours every day, so that ICRC staff and Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers have enough time to deliver aid and evacuate the wounded and the sick," ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said.

Western and Arab powers that are openly seeking Assad's downfall are preparing for the inaugural meeting of a "Friends of Syria" contact group in Tunisia on Friday.

Russia and China back Assad's own program for reforms, which includes plans for a referendum on Sunday on a new constitution which would lead to elections in 90 days. Assad says this should satisfy demands for more democracy; his opponents say the proposals are a sham.

Russia said it would not attend the "Friends of Syria" meeting because the Syrian government would not be represented. The Russian Foreign Ministry suggested the U.N. Security Council should send a special humanitarian envoy to Syria.

Russia and China have faced Western and Arab criticism for blocking U.N. action against Syria. A former Syrian Defence Ministry auditor who defected in January told Reuters Moscow's arms sales to Damascus - nearly $1 billion last year - had increased since the start of the uprising.

Lebanon, which has tried to distance itself from the turmoil across its border, will also stay away from the Tunis meeting, its foreign minister said.

Activists said government forces launched the artillery attack on Homs after rebel fighters holding the opposition Baba Amro district blocked troops from entering.

"Several shells are falling each minute," activist Nader al-Husseini told Reuters from the district, adding that at least two children were among the victims.

Another activist in the city said: "We have now at least 30 killed. One family is among them." A third said: "Others are still buried. Today the shelling is very fierce."

The British-based opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces had stormed villages in Idlib province in the north of the country.

"The army stormed the village of Abdita and chased people in Iblin and Balshoon. They killed 33 people. All are civilians," the group said.

Activists in Homs said government forces backed by armour have been closing in on Baba Amro, a mainly Sunni Muslim neighborhood, since the offensive on the city began on Feb 3.

Much of the opposition to Assad comes from the Sunni majority, while much of his support comes from minorities including his Alawite sect, raising worries that violence could take on a sectarian slant and draw in neighboring countries.

Tanks are deployed in the Inshaat district next to Baba Amro, opposition sources said. The Observatory said a convoy of more than 50 armored vehicles was seen heading from Damascus towards Homs.

A city of one million people on the Damascus-Aleppo highway, Homs has been at the heart of the uprising against Assad's 11-year rule. Residents say they are running short of medicine and food, and are massed together in crowded homes to seek shelter.

Government curbs on access make it hard to verify details of fighting there but international rights and aid organizations say hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks in Homs.

UNDER FIRE IN DAMASCUS

Assad says the revolt is the work of foreign-backed terrorists. Until recently it was limited mainly to the provinces, but anti-government rallies have drawn crowds in Damascus in recent days. On Monday night at least four people were wounded when security forces opened fire, activists said.

"There were hundreds of demonstrators at the main square of Hajar al-Aswad (neighborhood) and suddenly buses of security police and shabbiha (pro-Assad militia) turned up and started firing into the crowd," activist Abu Abdallah said by telephone.

Footage posted on YouTube, purportedly taken before the shooting, showed a crowd marching in Hajar al-Aswad carrying placards in support of besieged Homs and singing "Eyes are shedding tears for the martyrs among Syria's youth."

Elsewhere, an activist group in Kfar Tkharim near the Turkish border said rebel fighters had killed five soldiers and captured two in an ambush on a government column.

An activist in al-Qusair, about 32 km (20 miles) southwest of Homs and close to the Lebanese border, said five people were killed and eight wounded when the northern part of the town came under heavy fire from army mortars and T-72 tanks.

"People in that area are hiding in their homes, they can't leave. Others are resisting. Those who are farther away are fleeing the town. Some people are so scared they're trying to leave anyway even if they are close to the fire," Abu Ansa told Reuters by telephone.

Activists in the western city of Hama said troops, police and militias had set up dozens of roadblocks, cutting neighborhoods off from each other.

Ahmad Ramadan, a leader of the opposition Syrian National Council, said Assad loyalists killed his brother Mahmoud when they riddled his car with gunfire in his home city of Aleppo.

"The regime has been accusing Mahmoud of sending food and medicine to Homs and he was receiving daily threats. He was hit in the head and neck and died immediately," Ramadan told al-Jazeera Arabic news channel.

MESSAGE TO CHINA, RUSSIA

Western and Arab nations who want Assad to relinquish power are preparing an explicit gesture of support for his opponents.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Friends of Syria meeting would show that his government was increasingly isolated and offer support for "the brave Syrian people."

"We'll send a clear message to Russia, China and others who are still unsure about how to handle the increasing violence but are up until now unfortunately making the wrong choices," Clinton said in Mexico at a meeting of the G20 world powers.

However, it was unlikely the Western and Arab nations will formally recognize the Syrian opposition during the meeting.

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who has sharpened his criticism of Assad, condemned the Syrian leader's plan for a referendum on a new constitution, saying Sunday's vote would be held "while the souls of corpses and the dust settle in Homs."

One firm ally of Assad is Iran. Iranian television reported on Monday that two Iranian warships had docked in Syria to provide training for Syrian naval forces. Washington said on Tuesday it had no indication that the report was true.

(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans and Erika Solomon in Beirut, Shaimaa Fayed in Cairo; Writing by Angus MacSwan in Beirut; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Who are Syria's Druze?

Phil Sands and Racha Makarem
Feb 22, 2012

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The Druze, officially known as Al Muwahhidun Al Duruz, are a monotheistic religious community found primarily in Syria (700,000), Lebanon (400,000), Israel (100,000) and Jordan (20,000).
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■ Syria's Druze community: A silent minority in no rush to take sides

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The sect, which emerged in the 11th century as an offshoot of Shia Ismailism, follows an eclectic set of beliefs incorporating elements from various religions and philosophies.

In Syria, most Druze live in the Jabal Al Druze - also known as the Jabal Al Arab - a rugged and mountainous region in the south-west of the country, which historically provided them with a refuge from persecution. More than 90 per cent of the area is Druze inhabited, with 120 villages exclusively Druze.

The Druze have always played a more significant role in Syrian politics than their demographic weight would suggest. Despite numbering little more than 100,000 in 1949, or roughly three per cent of the population, the Druze had a major part in the struggle against French colonialism, contributing much of the military force behind the Great Revolt of 1925-1927 and suffering 55 per cent of all Syrian casualties.

Their chieftain, Sultan Pasha Al Atrash, had turned down an offer of Druze autonomy from France with the words "Religion is to God, country is for all", joining the Sunni Muslim revolutionaries who made up most of the other anti-French rebels.

Adib Al Shishakli later underlined the importance of the Druze during his rule of Syria (1949 to 1954) when, seeking to enforce central control over a fractured country, he sent a powerful modern army in a bloody campaign to crush Druze rebels: "My enemies are like a serpent: the head is the Jabal Al Druze, the stomach Homs, and the tail Aleppo. If I crush the head the serpent will die."

Shishakli was assassinated in Brazil on September 27, 1964 by a Druze in revenge for that attack.

Under both president Hafez Al Assad and his heir, Bashar, the Druze enjoyed a certain amount of protection and preferential treatment, although their community remained largely impoverished farmers or state employees living on meagre salaries, with many young Druze emigrating from Syria in search of opportunities.

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Syria's Druze community: A silent minority in no rush to take sides

Phil Sands
Feb 22, 2012

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The Syrian regime and its opponents both court the small but still influential Druze community. Phil Sands, Foreign Correspondent reports
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■ Who are Syria's Druze?

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Syria unrest
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Bashar al Assad

DAMASCUS // As an increasingly bloody revolt spreads in Syria, the Druze heartland is eerily calm.

In other provinces, scores of protests take place every week and deadly confrontations between the security forces and an increasingly armed opposition are commonplace.

Yet in Sweida, 100 kilometres south of Damascus, demonstrations are rare and, when they do happen, are usually small.

About 500,000 in number and concentrated in the rocky mountainscape of the Jabal Al Arab, the Druze are among the smallest of Syria’s minority groups, fewer than the Alawites, Kurds or Christians.

But their reputation for rebellion against central authority and for wielding an influence in Syrian political life disproportionate to their numbers means their support is avidly sought by both Bashar Al Assad and the president’s opponents.

Druze activists and political figures are playing a prominent role in the uprising as members of the two major opposition political blocs, the Syrian National Council and the National Coordination Committees. Druze dissidents have also been instrumental in leading anti-regime demonstrations.

However, in the struggle for Druze support, it is the regime that for the moment remains on top, according to both critics and supporters of the government in the Druze community. Sweida is still seen as a bastion of at least tacit support for Mr Al Assad’s regime, 11 months into an uprising against his rule.

“When it comes to organising big protests, we’ve failed,” said one Druze activist from Sweida. “The uprising here is limited to the intellectuals. We’ve not been successful in getting it out into the wider community.”

Sweida’s silence, according to activists, analysts and Syrian Druze on both sides of the political divide, is the result of a variety of factors, from mundane practical problems to the long-harboured fears of a minority terrified by the prospect of rule by Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority.

For opposition Druze trying to organise street marches in Sweida City, the provincial capital, gathering people in one place has been a constant logistical challenge. There are none of the mosques that have provided a rallying point elsewhere.

"There's nowhere we can legitimately meet in large numbers," said a protester from the city. "The security forces can usually break up any group before it gets big enough to have real strength, they can stop us in ones and twos on the way to a protest, which is much easier for them than stopping hundreds or thousands already in a protest.

Widespread emigration by young Druze, desperate to escape the unemployment and lack of opportunity that bedevil the Jebal Al Arab, also means that men aged 16 to 35, the nucleus of the uprising elsewhere, are relatively few in number.

Those who stay instead of moving elsewhere in Syria or going abroad have, activists say, been drafted into pro-regime militia, known as shabbiheh, with salaries and promises of comfortable government sinecures.

Pro-regime residents are also quick to inform the authorities if they see anything resembling the start of a protest, dissidents say.

“The regime created a weakened and divided society. It made a very hostile environment in Sweida where each family informs on the others and even within families there is physical fighting between regime supporters and dissidents,” said a veteran Druze political activist.

Two major fears cloud the political horizon for the Druze: Islamist extremism and the violence that would accompany any rebellion.

“Lots of people are very unhappy with the regime. They’re angry with the security services, the neglect, poverty and corruption, and they’d like to see a change,” said a protest organiser from Sweida.

Yet those frustrations are not enough to get residents on to the streets.

“If we try to encourage them to take a stand, they’ll either say ‘You’ll bring the tanks here and disaster on to our heads’ or ‘the Muslims will take over and force our women to cover their heads’.”

Widely circulated comments attributed to a Sunni cleric in the neighbouring province of Deraa, where the revolt began, fuelled the sense of alarm. The remarks suggested that Sunni men should feel free to rape Druze women.

Opposition groups insist this was part of a dirty tricks campaign by the regime. By portraying the the uprising as a revolt by Sunni extremists, authorities hoped to foment sectarianism and keep minority groups on side.

A supporter of Mr Al Assad, in his twenties and from a relatively wealthy Druze family, confirmed that fears of religious persecution run deep.

“It started as a political crisis but now this is a sectarian crisis,” he said of the uprising. “Muslims have an intolerant mentality. They do not want us, or the Christians or the Alawites, to live freely. Our freedom is protected by the president.”

The president and his wife, Asma, paid a low-key visit to poor villages in rural Sweida last March, days before the uprising erupted in Deraa. He was already on record as saying that the Arab Spring would not spill over into Syria. Nevertheless, analysts and Syrian Druze say that trip was designed to shore up support in a key area.

Druze are quick to mention Adib Al Shishakli when explaining their support for Mr Al Assad. Shishakli, a Sunni from the central city of Hama, ruled Syria in the early 1950s and sent the military to bombard the Jebel Al Arab and assert central control over the newly independent country.

Druze religious leaders have refused to back protesters. They side with Mr Al Assad and, like him, give warning of a “foreign conspiracy”. Early in the uprising, activists in Sweida held meetings with Druze sheikhs including the three most powerful, Hamoud Al Hinnawi, Hussein Jabour and Ahmed Hajari, to solicit their support.

“They were all with the regime, we couldn’t get them even to be impartial,” said an influential opposition figure involved in the talks. “One of them told us that he would not send shabbiheh [thugs] against us but was unsatisfied with our protests. That was the most positive response we got.

“The other meetings were very bad. One sheikh said, ‘there are 100 dogs [protesters] in Sweida and if they were killed the city would be a better place’.”

In private, according to a number of Druze in Sweida, low-ranking religious figures have been threatened by their superiors with an Islamic version ofexcommunication for supporting protesters or allowing followers or family members to demonstrate.

Under Druze custom, anyone censured this way is considered beyond God’s reach when they die, a powerful disincentive for the devout.

Security forces have not killed any demonstrators in Sweida. Activists say is part of a deliberate effort to avoid any action that might spark a revolt. Detained protesters say that in comparison with Sunni prisoners, they were given preferential treatment in jail and during interrogations.

Growing use of violence by the opposition is also working against efforts to get more Druze to support the revolt.

“For as long as the uprising remains peaceful we have a chance of convincing the Druze to join the protests. But they are put off when they see armed opposition in other places,” said a Druze opposition figure from Sweida.

Nonetheless, some activists say the regime’s grip on the Druze is weakening and that a tipping point may not be far off, as heavy-handed tactics fuel support for the protests and the government’s failure to bring an end to the uprising erodes confidence in the leadership.

A series of recent arrests in Sweida province, including of Ziaa Al Abdullah, a leading Druze activist only recently freed after months in jail, has added to a sense the authorities are struggling to prevent a wider rebellion on the Jabal Al Arab.

“There are 4,000 people now in Sweida who will openly admit to being opposition, which is much more than six months ago,” said a leading opposition figure in the province. “And there are many people who are privately with us, or who give large amounts of money and medicine to the cause – Druze have been giving secret support to the protesting villages in Deraa since the start.”

When a series of high-profile Druze prisoners were freed last month, families from Sweida, outlying villages and Druze neighbourhoods in Damascus came to pay their respects, in what locals said was a deliberate sign of defiance of the authorities.

In another incident recounted by Sweida residents, a former senior army officer and a Druze, mistakenly jailed for standing near a protest, refused to leave prison when pardoned unless all of the political detainees picked up with him were also freed. The demand was met.

"Families here are very proud and hot blooded so when one group joins the protests, the others will not want to be left out or be called cowards, so momentum could build quickly," an activist said. "Already we see the mood is beginning to change. People are talking more openly. They are losing their patience with with the shabbiheh.

Walid Jumblatt, the mercurial, high-profile Lebanese Druze political leader, has once again turned against Mr Al Assad after voicing support for him before the uprising started. Last month, he urged Syria’s Druze not to join security units that are attacking and killing protesters.

Of the 2,000 security personnel the authorities say have been killed since March, 100 have been Druze, a disproportionate number that suggests Druze security officers are playing a prominent role in confronting the uprising.

On February 7, an elderly man died in a town 20 kilometres north of the city of Sweida during a confrontation between security forces and protesters who had raised aloft the green, black and white independence flag that has become an opposition standard.

According to activists' accounts of the incident in Shahba, which could not be independently confirmed, shabbiheh attacked the group of 300 demonstrators, who then sought refuge in a house where it became plain that one of them required medical treatment after being shocked with a cattle prod. While trying to negotiate the injured activist’s passage to a hospital, a village notable and go-between suffered a fatal heart attack.

The incident, if independently corroborated, seems unlikely to ignite a greater rebellion. Yet were persecution like it to become a common occurrence, the Druze would be pushed past a threshold, according to community activists.

“One day the shabbiheh or security will kill someone here and then the place will explode in their faces,” said one local opposition figure. “The pressure is building all the time, they cannot keep Sweida or the Druze out of the uprising for ever.
-

“If we try to encourage them to take a stand, they’ll either say ‘You’ll bring the tanks here and disaster on to our heads’ or ‘the Muslims will take over and force our women to cover their heads’.”

Widely circulated comments attributed to a Sunni cleric in the neighbouring province of Deraa, where the revolt began, fuelled the sense of alarm. The remarks suggested that Sunni men should feel free to rape Druze women.

Opposition groups insist this was part of a dirty tricks campaign by the regime. By portraying the the uprising as a revolt by Sunni extremists, authorities hoped to foment sectarianism and keep minority groups on side.

A supporter of Mr Al Assad, in his twenties and from a relatively wealthy Druze family, confirmed that fears of religious persecution run deep.

“It started as a political crisis but now this is a sectarian crisis,” he said of the uprising. “Muslims have an intolerant mentality. They do not want us, or the Christians or the Alawites, to live freely. Our freedom is protected by the president.”

The president and his wife, Asma, paid a low-key visit to poor villages in rural Sweida last March, days before the uprising erupted in Deraa. He was already on record as saying that the Arab Spring would not spill over into Syria. Nevertheless, analysts and Syrian Druze say that trip was designed to shore up support in a key area.

Druze are quick to mention Adib Al Shishakli when explaining their support for Mr Al Assad. Shishakli, a Sunni from the central city of Hama, ruled Syria in the early 1950s and sent the military to bombard the Jebel Al Arab and assert central control over the newly independent country.

Druze religious leaders have refused to back protesters. They side with Mr Al Assad and, like him, give warning of a “foreign conspiracy”. Early in the uprising, activists in Sweida held meetings with Druze sheikhs including the three most powerful, Hamoud Al Hinnawi, Hussein Jabour and Ahmed Hajari, to solicit their support.

“They were all with the regime, we couldn’t get them even to be impartial,” said an influential opposition figure involved in the talks. “One of them told us that he would not send shabbiheh [thugs] against us but was unsatisfied with our protests. That was the most positive response we got.

“The other meetings were very bad. One sheikh said, ‘there are 100 dogs [protesters] in Sweida and if they were killed the city would be a better place’.”

In private, according to a number of Druze in Sweida, low-ranking religious figures have been threatened by their superiors with an Islamic version of excommunication for supporting protesters or allowing followers or family members to demonstrate.

Under Druze custom, anyone censured this way is considered beyond God’s reach when they die, a powerful disincentive for the devout.

Security forces have not killed any demonstrators in Sweida. Activists say is part of a deliberate effort to avoid any action that might spark a revolt. Detained protesters say that in comparison with Sunni prisoners, they were given preferential treatment in jail and during interrogations.

Growing use of violence by the opposition is also working against efforts to get more Druze to support the revolt.

“For as long as the uprising remains peaceful we have a chance of convincing the Druze to join the protests. But they are put off when they see armed opposition in other places,” said a Druze opposition figure from Sweida.

Nonetheless, some activists say the regime’s grip on the Druze is weakening and that a tipping point may not be far off, as heavy-handed tactics fuel support for the protests and the government’s failure to bring an end to the uprising erodes confidence in the leadership.

A series of recent arrests in Sweida province, including of Ziaa Al Abdullah, a leading Druze activist only recently freed after months in jail, has added to a sense the authorities are struggling to prevent a wider rebellion on the Jabal Al Arab.
-
psands@thenational.ae

===================

FEBRUARY 21, 2012, 5:54 P.M. ET

Iraqi Tribes in Bind Over Syria Arms
Locals Sympathize With Anti-Assad Fighters but Fear Weapons Trade Will Reinvigorate al Qaeda

Article
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more in Middle East »
BY SAM DAGHER

RABIAH, Iraq—Many Iraqis in the tribal region that runs through this border town share family ties, tribal bonds and sympathies with opposition fighters just over the border in Syria. But their leaders worry that an expanding cross-border arms trade here is re-energizing a radical group they say they have only just brought under relative control—al Qaeda in Iraq.

Weapons and ammunition are already flowing in small quantities from this Sunni majority area to Syrian fighters who are arming up against President Bashar al-Assad, according to local officials and tribesmen. These people said that some Sunni-majority regional powers, including Saudi Arabia ...

==========
FWIW=For What It's Worth
Sunni Extremists May Be Aiding Al Qaeda’s Ambitions in Syria, Analysts Say
By ERIC SCHMITT and THOM SHANKER
Published: February 15, 2012

WASHINGTON — Sunni extremists, including fighters linked to Al Qaeda’s franchise in neighboring Iraq, are likely responsible for two big recent bombings in the Syrian capital as well as attacks on Friday in Aleppo, the country’s largest city, American officials said Wednesday.
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As the violence in Syria escalates, several analysts said, Al Qaeda is seeking to exploit the turmoil and reinvigorate its regional ambitions after being sidelined in the initial popular uprisings of the Arab Spring a year ago.

The precise role of the Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda in Syria is unclear. Some intelligence officials and diplomats in Washington, Baghdad and Beirut, Lebanon, said the Qaeda franchise was responsible for the deadly bombings in Aleppo last week and in Damascus, the capital, on Dec. 23 and Jan. 6, which killed scores of people. But they acknowledged that they did not have the forensic or electronic intercept evidence to prove it.

Other officials said Sunni fighters loosely affiliated with Al Qaeda but not directly controlled by the terrorist group may also have been involved, operating in common cause with but independently of pro-democracy forces seeking to topple the embattled government of President Bashar al-Assad.

“It appears to be a very complicated mixture of networks that are fighting the Syrian government, including individuals associated with Al Qaeda in Iraq,” said Seth G. Jones, a political scientist at the RAND Corporation and the author of the coming book “Hunting in the Shadows: The Pursuit of Al Qa’ida Since 9/11.”

Other experts agreed, saying Sunni extremists — some of whom have returned from Iraq to fight in Syria — also have the expertise to carry out large-scale bombings.

“There are plenty of people with that kind of know-how in Syria,” said Andrew Tabler, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the author of a recent book on Syrian-American relations. “The Assad regime helped invent the car bomb, and they have used it brilliantly to pursue their foreign policy goals. It could be Al Qaeda or simply those with a similar background carrying it out.”

Or as Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, put it during Senate testimony on Tuesday, “Those who would like to foment a Sunni-Shia standoff — and you know who they are — are all weighing in in Syria.”

The Syrian government has always argued that it was fighting foreign terrorists, including some from Al Qaeda, a charge dismissed as propaganda by the Syrian activists leading the uprising.

But some American officials now say Al Qaeda in Iraq, whose membership has declined substantially in recent years, is trying to take advantage of the violence in Syria and perhaps even hijack the popular uprising against the Syrian government.

Al Qaeda was caught off guard by the Arab Spring’s largely nonviolent, secular revolutions fueled by social media. The death of Osama bin Laden in May dealt the organization another major blow, and it has been seeking a foothold ever since.

“It comes as no surprise that Al Qaeda’s Iraq affiliate, through its networks in Syria, might attempt to seem relevant by going after the Assad regime,” said an American official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the assessment contained classified information. “It is opportunism, plain and simple.”

Indeed, Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Bin Laden as the leader of Al Qaeda worldwide, issued a statement on Saturday urging Muslims in the region — he specifically mentioned Iraq — to support the uprising, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist communications.

The debate over Al Qaeda’s role in Syria came as the United States government on Wednesday offered to help any post-Assad government secure Syria’s stockpiles of chemical weapons and portable antiaircraft missiles.

With violence rising and the political outcome wholly uncertain, American officials acknowledged that the effort to secure Syria’s unconventional weapons remained speculative.

1
But the high-level comments underscored concerns that the chaotic situation in Syria may offer opportunities for terrorist organizations to acquire chemical weapons or a type of shoulder-launched missile sought by militants to shoot down commercial airliners.
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The American intelligence community is monitoring Syria’s weapons stockpiles, officials said, even as it attempts to increase its efforts to gather information about and assessments of the opposition militia leadership.

“We would certainly be prepared to work with any successor government to help them secure control of those weapons with a goal to destroying them,” said Thomas Countryman, the assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation.

“First priority: to secure. Second priority: to destroy,” he said during a breakfast meeting with reporters. “How exactly you do that in a situation in which the new government has not firmly established its authority or its security control over the country is only speculative at this point.”

A similar American effort is securing and destroying the Qaddafi government’s stockpile of chemical weapons in Libya.

But there is a significant difference: Libya had signed an international chemical weapons treaty, and thus had declared the location and size of its stockpiles. Syria has not signed the convention, although American officials said they had a fairly clear idea of where the Assad government stored its chemical weapons.

The United States also hopes to replicate in Syria its efforts to help the new Libyan government account for an estimated 20,000 shoulder-launched antiaircraft missiles held by the Qaddafi government before it fell, a project in which the United States is enlisting the assistance of Libya’s neighbors. A significant number of those Libyan missiles were destroyed, and an additional 5,000 have been tallied, Mr. Countryman said.

Syria’s stockpile of shoulder-launched, antiaircraft missiles is believed to number in the tens of thousands, an arsenal that “we don’t wish to see to fall into terrorist hands,” Mr. Countryman said.

He also said Iran and Russia were continuing to supply Syria with conventional armaments that could be used against militia forces and civilians opposing the Assad government. He did not provide details on the types of weapons.
2

Next Page »

Neil MacFarquhar contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.
============

Assad forces try to bomb Homs into submission
Wed, Feb 22 13:27 PM EST
image

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Angus MacSwan

(Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces rained rockets and bombs down on opposition-held neighborhoods of the city of Homs on Wednesday, reducing buildings to rubble and killing more than 80 people, including two Western journalists.

The barrages marked an intensification of a nearly three-week offensive to crush resistance in Homs, one of the focal points of a nationwide uprising against Assad's 11-year rule, and prompted further international condemnation.

More than 60 bodies, both rebel fighters and civilians, were recovered from one area of Homs' Babo Amro neighborhood after an afternoon bombardment, adding to 21 killed earlier in the day, activists said.

"Helicopters flew reconnaissance overhead then the bombardment started," Homs activist Abu Abei told Reuters.

Videos uploaded by opposition activists showed smashed buildings, deserted streets, and doctors treating wounded civilians in primitive conditions in Baba Amro, the main target of Assad's wrath.

"President Assad wants to finish the Homs situation by Sunday to prepare for the constitutional referendum. Then he will turn to Idlib," a Lebanese official who is close to the Syrian government told Reuters in Beirut.

The devastation has caused outcry but Wednesday's carnage only showed how helpless Western powers are in their efforts to stop the bloodshed.

The United States, which so far has been against military intervention in Syria, hinted however that if a political solution to the crisis was impossible it might have to consider other options.

The worsening humanitarian situation in Homs and other embattled towns is bound to dominate "Friends of Syria" talks in Tunis on Friday involving the United States, European and Arab countries, Syria's neighbor Turkey and other nations clamoring for Assad to halt the bloodshed and relinquish power.

In an effort to bring relief to starving and bloodied civilians in Homs, the International Committee of the Red Cross was in talks with the Syrian government on Wednesday to arrange a pause in the fighting.

Russia, Assad's main arms supplier and seen as retaining some leverage over him, said it was seeking safe passage of aid convoys to civilians trapped in the violence. France also appealed to Assad to halt the onslaught to allow safe passage for aid.

U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos will head to Syria soon in an attempt to secure access for aid workers seeking to deliver emergency relief to people trapped in the country's conflict zones, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

THAT'S ENOUGH

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the deaths of the two journalists, French photographer Remi Ochlik and American Marie Colvin of Britain's Sunday Times, an assassination and said the Assad era had to end.

"That's enough now," Sarkozy said. "This regime must go and there is no reason that Syrians don't have the right to live their lives and choose their destiny freely. If journalists were not there, the massacres would be a lot worse."

The two foreign journalists were killed when the house in which they were staying after sneaking over the Lebanese border into Homs was hit by rockets.

The last dispatch from Colvin -- a veteran war reporter who wore a trademark black eye-patch since being wounded in Sri Lanka in 2001 -- described the misery inside Babo Amro.

Women and children were crammed together into a basement, huddled in fear and a two-year-old child had died in front of her, she reported on British radio.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights said government forces killed a total of more than 80 civilians in Homs on Wednesday, mostly in bombardments on Baba Amro, a Sunni Muslim district opposed to Syria's Alawite ruling class.

Several hundred people have been killed in the daily bombardments by the besieging forces using artillery, rockets, sniper fire and Soviet-built T-72 tanks.

Residents fear Assad will subject the city to the same treatment as his late father Hafez inflicted on the rebellious town of Hama 30 years ago, when 10,000 were killed.

Ground forces have held off from entering opposition areas as fighters allied to the opposition are ready to take them on.

The army is preventing medical supplies from going in and electricity is cut off 15 hours a day, activists say. Hospitals, schools and most workplace and shops are shut and government offices have also closed.

As the Lebanese official explained it, Assad wants to batter Homs into submission before a referendum this Sunday on a new constitution leading to multi-party elections as a way to resolve the crisis.

His plan has the support of his allies Russia and China but Western powers have dismissed it as a joke under the present circumstances and the Syrian opposition has called for a boycott.

RED CROSS APPEAL

The ICRC issued a public appeal on Tuesday to Syrian authorities and rebels to agree on a two-hour truce each day to allow life-saving supplies to reach civilians and to evacuate the growing number of wounded from Homs and elsewhere.

ICRC spokeswoman Carla Hadda said she was unable to say if and when a deal might be clinched.

"The situation is difficult and we are worried it is deteriorating," she told Reuters on Wednesday. "Everybody is focused on Homs but we shouldn't turn a blind eye to what is happening in other areas."

Army bombardments on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, north of Homs on the Damascus-Aleppo highway in Idlib province, killed two people on Wednesday, the London-based Syrian Network said.

Elsewhere in Idlib, seven people, including a five-year-old boy, were killed by gunfire during security force raids into villages of the northwestern province of Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A senior official of the opposition Syrian National Council said it wanted a minimum of three entry points for aid to enter Syria -- from Lebanon into Homs, from Jordan into Deraa and Turkey into Idlib.

Basma Kodmani, speaking to reporters in Geneva after talks with the ICRC, said Russia should put pressure on Assad to agree.

In Moscow, Russia said it was working on ensuring the secure

transit of humanitarian aid but safe corridors themselves were not a good idea because they might lead to further violence.

"It's logical to consider that if something goes wrong, the use of force would be permitted," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told reporters in Moscow.

"This would only aggravate the conflict."

In Washington, officials stressed the Obama administration was still seeking a negotiated solution but also hinted it could reconsider its stance on not arming Syria's opposition.

"We don't want to take actions that would contribute to the further militarization of Syria, because that could take the country down a dangerous path. But we don't rule out additional measures," White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Tuesday.

Analysts says Assad sees himself as in a fight for survival. Although some say the support around him is crumbling and the military is tiring, others say he could hang on for many months more before he joins Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia's Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali on the list of deposed Arab leaders, if he does at all.

There are also fears the revolt could flare into a religion-based civil war and spread across the volatile Middle East -- considerations that make arming the rebels a tricky proposition.

In a chilling example of the repression, activists also said troops and militia loyal to Assad summarily executed 27 young men on Tuesday in northern villages.

Several YouTube videos taken by local activists in the northern Idlib area, which could not be independently confirmed, showed the bodies with bullet wounds to the head or chest and hands tied lying dead in streets.

(Additional reporting by Erika Solomon and Mariam Karouny in Beirut, John Irish in Paris; Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Peter Millership)

======

‘Fatwa on Syria’ by 107 scholars
Declaration
http://www.islam21c.com/editorials/2407-fatwa-on-syria-by-107-scholars
Feb 21 |00:00
Last Updated on Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:07

What is happening in our beloved Syria – oppression, persecution, and the spilling of the blood of innocent people by a tyrannical regime and its allies is a crime that will never be forgotten. God is certain to make the shedding of the blood of innocent people a disgrace for those who participate in the regime’s crimes or remain silent

More than one hundred Islamic scholars representing various Islamic trends have issued a statement denouncing the Syrian regime and forbidding continued service in the Syrian army and security forces. They have also called on all Arab and Muslim states to withdraw their ambassadors from Syria and put pressure on the states which are continuing to support President Bashar al-Assad's regime, especially Russia and China.

107 of the most well-known Muslim scholars from various countries, representing various Islamic groups and organizations have signed the statement which was issued on Tuesday 7th February 2012 / 15th Rabi' al-Awwal 1434. They include Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, Dr. Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, and Shaikh Rached Al-Ghannouchi of Tunisia.

Shaikh Dr. Haitham al-Haddad also joins these scholars in signing this declaration as well as calling on the scholars of the United Kingdom to join the signatories. (Those interested in signing the declaration should contact MRDF via e-mail and we will add their names.)

The scholars call on Muslims and free people all over the world to support the Free Syrian Army and at the same time call on the Free Syrian Army to be disciplined in order not to stray from its mission to protect the Syrian people - they should steer clear of harming innocent people and carrying out revenge attacks.

The scholars also announced their support for any sincere effort to curtail the bloodshed in Syria and to protect the Syrian people from a prolonged civil war which could destroy the country. Such support, they said, is a fundamental Islamic requirement. They said that they supported the holding of free elections which would express the will of the people.

TEXT OF THE STATEMENT

All praise be to God Almighty, the praise that is due to Him in all situations. Peace and blessings be upon Prophet Muhammad and his household.

What is happening in our beloved Syria – oppression, persecution, and the spilling of the blood of innocent people by a tyrannical regime and its allies is a crime that will never be forgotten. God is certain to make the shedding of the blood of innocent people a disgrace for those who participate in the regime’s crimes or remain silent, as well as for individuals, organizations and states that support it.

With every day that passes, scores – sometimes hundreds – of people die and many times that number are injured. Families are made homeless, women are raped and sanctities are violated. The security forces commit these crimes without shame or hesitation whilst the world meets to merely discuss the situation.

The signatories of this statement reaffirm the absolute prohibition of bloodshed in the Quran and the Sunnah, and the sanctity of all the rights which Islamic law grants and protects. In the Quran God associates shedding the blood of innocents with unbelief,

“Believers, never invoke any deity side by side with God, and do not take any human being’s life – [the life] which God has willed to be sacred – except for a just cause, and do not commit adultery.[1]

God promises murderers eternal hellfire, damnation, and a painful torment, and He decreed that whoever kills a person will have been considered as having killed all of mankind. Whoever saves the life of a person will be considered to have saved all of humanity. He commanded support for the weak and the oppressed. In light of this we affirm the following:

1. It is forbidden for members of the Syrian army, the security forces or other groups to kill citizens or discharge weapons in their direction. They must disobey orders to do so, even if that means being killed. Indeed, they should desert their positions. Those who have already killed people should remember that killing twice doubles the crime and that on the other hand, the gates of divine forgiveness are open. In the story of the man who killed ninety-nine people there is a lesson to all. They should not make light of murder, but neither should they think that murders they have previously committed seal the gates of repentance and forgiveness. It is better for them to be murdered than to be a murderer. It is infinitely better for anyone to meet God as a martyr than a murdering criminal.

We hereby rule that it is not permissible to remain in service in the Syrian army and the security forces in the current circumstances. It is a duty to desert the forces and to stand against them.

2. We call for the support and the strengthening of the Free Syrian Army. Members of the regular army
and security forces should join it in order to protect civilians, cities, and public institutions. We also call on Muslims and on the free world to support and assist this army in any way possible, materially and morally, in order for it to carry out its mission and to organise its ranks.

3. It is a duty to support the revolutionaries in Syria in all their material and psychological requirements, so that they can successfully complete their revolution and attain their rights and their freedom.

4. We call on Arab and Islamic states to take a firm stand with those states which support the Syrian regime, in particular Russia and China, and we call on Muslim peoples and their institutions to send messages of protest to the representatives of these two states and to demonstrate in front of their embassies all over the world. They should be told that they must not turn the blood of innocent people in Syria into a tool to strengthen their economic and military presence in the world. These states must realise that the future in the region belongs to the people. Whoever places his hopes on repressive tyrannical regimes prepared to kill their own people will certainly be disappointed. Their end is near. The people will not forget the shameful stances of those who stood against them and supported their oppressors.

5. We call on the revolutionaries in Syria and the Syrian National Council to stand united and to set aside any differences they may have amongst themselves, currently, or in the future. They should harbour sincere intention to build their future state on the basis of justice and the preservation of rights and freedoms. They should create civil institutions to preserve national unity and foster reconciliation steering clear of individual, class, or regional interests.

They also need to protect the ethnic and religious minorities which have lived for more than a thousand years as part of the Syrian people, and who have along with the majority, all the rights of citizenship. Only the regime and its institutions have responsibility for the horrific crimes which have been committed (and not the minorities they may belong to).

6. We announce that popular committees to support the Syrian revolution are being formed all over the world especially in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Such committees will also help Syrian refugees and those who have been forced out of their homes who need food, clothing, and medicine.

We pray that God grant the Syrian people immediate relief, preserve their unity, and return to them a state of security and stability under a just government which is committed to the preservation of people’s rights and freedom.

Name


Country

Sheikh Dr. Yusuf Al Qaradawi


Qatar

Sheikh Dr. Ali Jumua


Egypt

Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayya


Mauritania

Sheikh Dr. Rachid Ghanouchi


Tunisia

Sheikh Sadiq Al-Ghiryani


Libya

Sheikh AbdulMajeed Az-Zindani


Yemen

Sheikh Dr. Mahmoud AlMeera


Syria

Dr. Issam Al Basheer


Sudan

Sheikh Dr. Khalid Al Mathkour


Kuwait

Sheikh Nasr Fareed Wasil


Egypt

Dr AbdulWahhab Delami


Yemen

Sheikh Dr. Ali Qurra Daghi


Qatar

Ustadh Dr. Naser Bin Sulayman Al Umar


Saudi Arabia

Dr. Muhammad Farooq Al Batal


Syria

Sheikh Muhammad Ezziddeen Tawfeeq


Morocco

Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Raysooni


Morocco

Ustadh Dr. Saud Al Faneesan


Saudi Arabia

Dr Ajeel Al Nashmi


Kuwait

Ustadh Dr. Muhammad Ahmad As-Saleh


Saudi Arabia

Ustadh Dr. Muhammad Uthman Saleh


Sudan

Ustadh Dr. AlHabr Yusuf


Sudan

Ustadh Dr. Ghaith Mahmoud Al Fakhiri


Libya

Dr. AbdulLateef Al-Mahmoud


Bahrain

Dr. Muhammad Al Huwari


Germany

Dr. Safwat Hijazi


Egypt

Ustadh Dr. AbduRahman AbdulHameed Ahmad
Al-Birr


Egypt

Sheikh Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar Al Mahdi


Egypt

Sheikh Muhammad Hassaan


Egypt

Sheikh Abu Ishaaq Al Huwaini


Egypt

Sheikh Majd Ahmad Makki


Syria

Ustadh Dr. Shaker Theeb Fayyadh


Jordan

Ustadh Dr. Sharaf Al Qudhah


Jordan

Ustadh Dr. Ali As-Sawwa


Jordan

Dr. Muhammad Ali Al Juuzu


Lebanon

Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Al Umari


Lebanon

Sheikh Ahmad Qatarji


Lebanon

Sheikh Dr. Hamza Abu Fares


Libya

Ustadh Dr. Tareq As-Suwaidan


Kuwait

Dr. Khaled Al-Ujaimi


Saudi Arabia

Dr. Awadh Al-Qarni


Saudi Arabia

Dr. Ali Badahdah


Saudi Arabia

Dr. Abdullah Wakeel Ash-Sheikh


Saudi Arabia

Dr AbdulMajeed An-Najjar


Tunisia

Dr. Salman Bin Fahd Al-Oadah


Saudi Arabia

Dr. Saeed Bin Naser Al-Ghamdi


Saudi Arabia

Dr. Muhammad Bin Mousa Ash-Shareef


Saudi Arabia

Dr. Muhsin Al Awaji


Saudi Arabia

Dr. Yusuf Ash-Shubaili


Saudi Arabia

Dr. Yahya Ibraheem Al-Yahya


Saudi Arabia

Dr. AbdulAzeez bin Fozan Al-Fozan


Saudi Arabia

Dr. Saleh Ad-Darweesh


Saudi Arabia

Dr. Muhammad Ali Al-Mansouri


UAE

Dr. AbdulHameed Al-Kumaiti Ash-Shamsi


UAE

Dr. Muhammad AbduRazzaq As-Siddeeq


UAE

Dr. Ahmad Saleh Al-Hamdi


UAE

Dr. Jasem Yaseen Al-Muhalhil


Kuwait

Dr. Nabeel Al Awadhi


Kuwait

Dr. Shafi Al Ajami


Kuwait

Dr. Nayyif Al Ajami


Kuwait

Dr. Yusuf As-Sanad


Kuwait

Dr. Badr Ar-Rakhees


Kuwait

Dr. Salem Ash-Shimmari


Kuwait

Dr. Tareq At-Tuwari


Kuwait

Dr. AbdulHayy Yusuf


Sudan

Dr. Ali Al Sallabi


Libya

Dr. Salem Ash-Sheikhi


Libya

Dr. Salem Jabir


Libya

Dr. Usamah Al Sallabi


Libya

Dr. Muhammad Abu Sudra


Libya

Dr. Nader Al Umrani


Libya

Dr. Muhammad Hamdawi


Morocco

Dr. Abdullah Al-Bukhari


Morocco

Dr. AbdulMunim At-Tamsamani


Morocco

Dr. Muhammad Bulouz


Morocco

Dr. Mawlay Umar Bin Hammad


Morocco

Sheikh Abdullah Wild Aal Salim


Mauritania

Sheikh Muhammad Fadhil Wild Muhammad Al
Ameen


Mauritania

Sheikh Muhammad Mukhtar Wild Ambalah


Mauritania

Sheikh Muhammad Hassan Ad-Diddo


Mauritania

Dr. Muhammad Al-Ahmari


Qatari

Dr. Saleh Yahya Sawwab


Yemen

Dr. Saleh Abdullah Adh-Dhibyani


Yemen

Dr. Adil Al Maawdah


Bahrain

Dr. Adnan Al-Qattan


Bahrain

Dr. Mamoun Mubayidh


Germany

Dr. Hassaan As-Safadi


Germany

Dr. Mutaz Faisal


Germany

Ustadh Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Zayyid


Egypt

Ustadh Dr. Sameer Al-Arky


Egypt

Dr. Ali Ad-Deenary


Egypt

Dr. Abdullah Hussain Barakat


Egypt

Sheikh AbdulKhaliq Hassan Ash-Shareef


Egypt

Ustadh Dr. Jamal AbduSattar Muhammad


Egypt

Sheikh Ahmad Haleel


Egypt

Dr. Jaber Tayyi Yusuf


Egypt

Ustadh Dr. Salahuddeen Sultan


Egypt

Dr. Nashaat Ahmad Muhammad


Egypt

Dr. Ayman Salah Ahmad Muhammad


Egypt

Dr. Muhammad Yanbou


Egypt

As-Sayyid Jameel Muhammad


Egypt

Dr. Ibraheem Mustafa Abu As-Saud


Egypt

Dr. Faraj AbdulHaleem Qindeel


Egypt

Dr. Al Husaini Mussali As-Sayyid


Egypt

As-Sayyid Mahmoud AbduRahman


Egypt

Dr. Yasir Fath Antar


Egypt

Dr. Ghazi At-Taubah


Kuwait

Sheikh Sulaiman Al Baraheem Ar-Rushoodi


Saudi Arabia

Shaikh Dr. Haitham al-Haddad


United Kingdom

Notes:
Sources: www.islam21c.com
Islam21c requests all the readers of this article, and others, to share it on your facebook, twitter, and other platforms to further spread our efforts.

[1] Al-Quran 25: 68


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Turning the jihad tap 'on' and 'off'...
written by Abdullah, February 23, 2012
Coming from the West, we had always been taught by scholars, that in issuing a fatwa the key component is to understand the contextual situation on the ground instead of extrapolating or making assumptions. Hence, the rationale behind such variant fatwas found in different lands. Therefore, its surprising that only 3 Syrian scholars have signed this recent fatwa addressed to the people of Syria and the amount of political overtones it contains.

Also, the statement from the fatwa: "It is a duty to support the revolutionaries in Syria in all their material and psychological requirements" is a very strong statement, considering there are 'revolutionaries' active in all parts of the world . We've been told not support militant Islamic political groups due to their links to al-Qaeda (which mass-media admits is active in Syria) and for which many have been persecuted in the 'War on Terror' and which scholars have also denounced along with all militant Islam. However, now that its 'politically acceptable' by the West it's all good? smilies/smiley.gif

Seems like scholars, just like the olden days, get used to control the masses. Only difference is we see it in front of our own eyes and are too stupid to realize it.

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@least something is being done
written by Amirah, February 23, 2012
while there's a lot to criticize in the above, there's no doubt that it is something good. let Muslims a over make it known that we are against the killing of our brothers and sisters anywhere in the world. Or do we claim 'victims' only when the atrocities are committed by the west?

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odd fatwa
written by abu abdullah, February 22, 2012
Salam alaikum - while i would applaud the general sentiment behind the fatwa, nowehere in the solutions does it mention Islam. almost as though the fatwa has been written with an eye to appeasing the West.

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Really?
written by Realist, February 22, 2012
At least someone is speaking out finally and the scholars have moved (scholars are inheritors of Prophets).

We call on Arab and Islamic states..


Which islamic state are they refering to?

Where is the call to mobilise the muslim armies? Are you kidding yourself? You will never get support from other tyrants and western govts without them having their own agenda for our muslim lands.
It's time we all, including scholars realised that we need to call for the implementation of Allah's laws which has been absent for decades! This is the real solution to these problems!

All the time in the statement it mentions people, people, people these are not just people these our brothers and sisters in Islam why arent scholars saying fight for muslims, sounds like a letter authorised by the muslim hating west!

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It's about time
written by Fahd, February 22, 2012
Assalam Aleykum warahmatuLLAHI wabarakatuH... It's about time something is done infant this decision has come very late....our brothers n sisters in Syria are bein tortured, raped, killed and kidnapped everyday and the rest of the Arab world is waiting for the kuffar to intervene and help! Have they ever helped any other country without hidden intentions and agenda? Why the kuffar and not the Arab world? The Arab world should cut social ties with Russia and china for supporting the Kaffir who is still clinging to the presidency in Syria...

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...
written by Abdullah, February 22, 2012
Can someone please explain to me, why the people in the picture are doing sujood to the coffins? This is not from the sunnah. maybe I've missed something otherwise can you please get the picture down. Also I'm not sure we have any true scholars in the UK, but again if someone can clear my misconception that would be great.


Jazakallah khair

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Fatwa of Politics
written by Awab Navi, February 22, 2012
Please learned "SCHOLARS" abstain from issuing FATWAS OF POLITICS.

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Fatwa against those who have become friends of the Jews & Christians
written by Awab Navi, February 22, 2012
Allah says in the Quran not to take the Jews and Christians as friends (or protectors) and that those who take them as friends become one of them. So how about a Fatwa against those regimes who are MOST FRIENDLY with the USA? Will THIS be forthcoming from these LEARNED SCHOLARS? Let's wait and see just how HONEST and COURAGEOUS these LEARNED "SCHOLARS" are.

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Signature Endorsement of Fatwa
written by Ustaadh Dr Muhammad Shaheed Satardien, February 22, 2012
Ustaadh Dr Muhammad Shaheed Satardien Ireland
agrees with the statement and signs the Fatwa.
Jazaakumullah

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Devoid of Grey Matter
written by Hussain Ali, February 22, 2012
Salam.
Mashallah very quick to take a position on Syria which one does not even understand fully and yet not an iota of any meaningful stands on the Jewish Zionist Entity for Palastine, Lebanon and Syria.
Muslims are either brain dead or Munafiqs hiding within us. Sura e Munafiqoon was not only for the sahaba at the time of the Holy Prophet. There are munafiqs even present amongst us as at the present time.

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Dr
written by Abu Hisham, February 22, 2012
Alhamdulillah for this guidance, which may give some clarity to those in Syria who are uncertain what to do. However, it shows an unawareness of the dangers it invites when it says in Clause 2: "We also call on ... the free world to support and assist this army in any way possible". Once the US and European armies become involved the number of deaths from this conflict will double or triple as will the material damage. Clause 4 ignores the fact that it is the Russian and Chinese vetoes that have so far protected the Syrian people from indiscriminate aerial bombing by the US and friends, which would have caused that death and destruction. It shows awareness, in Clause 5 of the disaster that has befallen the people of Libya as a result of the lack of organisation, single-mindedness, discipline, and concern for human rights among the revolutionaries there - but gives no guarantee that things will be any better in Syria.
May Allah help the people of Stria and all Muslims all over the world who sincerely wish to live according to His guidance in all respects.

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"Friends of Syria" to demand ceasefire
Fri, Feb 24 04:30 AM EST
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By Lin Noueihed and John Irish

TUNIS (Reuters) - Western and Arab nations meeting on Friday will demand that Syria implement an immediate ceasefire to allow aid in for desperate civilians in the absence of an international consensus on intervention to end a crackdown on an 11-month-old revolt.

Foreign ministers from more than 50 countries will attend the first meeting of the "Friends of Syria" group in Tunis, amid a surge in government attacks on the city of Homs and mounting world outrage over violence that has claimed thousands of lives during the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday Syria's opposition would ultimately arm itself and go on the offensive if diplomacy failed to resolve the crisis.

But with moves for tough action in the U.N. Security Council stymied by Russian and Chinese vetoes and a lack of appetite for military action to end Assad's crackdown, delegates are expected to focus on finding ways to ferry medicine and food to stranded civilians and to evacuate casualties stuck in the fighting.

A draft declaration from the meeting, obtained by Reuters on Thursday, called on Syria to implement an immediate ceasefire to allow the United Nations access to Homs, and to let agencies deliver aid to civilians affected by the violence.

U.N. humanitarian envoy Valerie Amos was expected to attend the meeting, along with representatives from the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), which is already working with the Syrian authorities and opposition to arrange daily ceasefires to allow in humanitarian aid.

In a sign the international community is seeking ways around the Security Council deadlock, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said he would dispatch former U.N. chief Kofi Annan to Syria as a joint U.N.-Arab League envoy.

Addressing her comments directly to Russia and China, Clinton told reporters in London: "The strategy followed by the Syrians and their allies is one that can't stand the test of legitimacy or even brutality for any length of time.

"There will be increasingly capable opposition forces. They will from somewhere, somehow, find the means to defend themselves as well as begin offensive measures."

Asked about the possibility of military action to try to end the bloodshed, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said France could not act without Security Council backing.

"Our priority is to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance," he told reporters in London. "We want also tomorrow to reaffirm the unity of the international community to exert maximum pressure on the regime ... There is no military option at the moment on the table."

HARSH REALITIES

Those views were echoed in the draft communique, which did not mention any foreign military intervention along the lines of the NATO bombing campaign that helped force out Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.

Instead, it called for a ratcheting up diplomatic pressure on Assad to step down and endorsed an Arab League plan that sees him handing power to a deputy as a prelude to elections.

The wording of the draft reflected a harsh reality: there is little the outside world can or will do to stop the violence as long as Russia and China, both of which declined invitations to the Tunis meeting, reject Security Council resolutions.

Another problem facing world powers is divisions within the Syrian opposition, which they will seek to overcome before offering full backing.

The draft stopped short of fully endorsing the main opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people but proposed that it be recognized as "a legitimate representative of Syrians seeking peaceful democratic change."

A lack of unity within the Syrian opposition and fears that the country is sliding toward civil war have left even Assad's harshest critics reluctant to directly arm Syrian rebels in the absence of any moves towards a Libya-style military campaign.

Syrian opposition figures said they expected support to be financial, technical and logistical, allowing them to buy satellite phones and equipment to improve coordination on the ground or to independently smuggle in small arms.

In a sign that there would be no let up in diplomatic pressure on Assad, Turkey said it would host the next "Friends of Syria" meeting.

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN HOMS

The "Friends of Syria" meeting takes place as Syria's military pounded rebel-held Sunni Muslim districts of Homs for the 21st day, despite international protests over the death toll of more than 80 on Wednesday, including two Western journalists.

Residents of Homs fear Assad will subject the city to the same treatment his late father Hafez inflicted on the rebellious town of Hama 30 years ago, when thousands were killed.

The revolt against Assad has taken a sectarian slant as most of the protesters trying to topple him are Sunnis, who make up 74 percent of Syria's 22 million population. Assad is from the minority Alawite sect and critics say he has filled senior posts with Alawites to impose his rule.

U.N. investigators said Syrian forces had shot and killed unarmed women and children, shelled residential areas and tortured wounded protesters in hospital under orders issued at the "highest levels" of the army and government.

In their report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, they called for the perpetrators of such crimes against humanity to face prosecution and said they had drawn up a confidential list of names of commanders and officials alleged to be responsible.

The commission found that the Free Syrian Army, which is made up of thousands of troops who have defected and that has begun to coordinate with the exile-led SNC, had also committed abuses, "although not comparable in scale."

Syrian authorities have not responded, though they rejected the commission's previous report in November as "totally false."

Western diplomats said it had not yet been possible to extract the bodies of Marie Colvin, an American working for Britain's Sunday Times, and French photographer Remi Ochlik.

Two journalists wounded in the same attack were also awaiting evacuation from the Baba Amro neighborhood of Homs which has seen some of the worst bombardment.

The army is blocking medical supplies to parts of Homs and electricity is cut off for 15 hours a day, activists say.

The SNC has said it will call on the "Friends of Syria" to push for the creation of three humanitarian corridors -- one from Lebanon to Homs, one from Turkey to Idlib and one from Jordan to Deraa. It will also call for safe areas for refugees to be established in border areas.

An earlier French proposal to set up humanitarian corridors met with little enthusiasm as it would require military force to keep the areas safe and open.

However, SNC spokeswoman Basma Kodmani said if Russia could persuade Assad to allow safe passage to humanitarian convoys it would avert the need for military intervention.

Russia, which has resisted piling political pressure on Assad, has said it was willing to consider a humanitarian arrangement with the agreement of Assad.

In the midst of the diplomatic deadlock and with the situation worsening inside Syria, this may be the most that the "Friends of Syria" can hope to immediately achieve. That may not be enough to prevent Syria, a country located at the heart of the Middle East, from sliding into a civil war.

"Militarisation has begun in Syria. We are worried about this issue, that if Syrians lose hope in the U.N. and the Arab League they will arm," said Abdel Baset Sieda, a senior SNC official in Tunis for the meeting.

"It is a dangerous issue and if it drags Syria into civil war this will suck in the neighbors."

(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans in Beirut, Khaled Oweis in Amman, Lou Charbonneau at the United Nations, Arshad Mohammed and Myra MacDonald in London; Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Ralph Gowling)

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Syria conflict worries Beirut, reopens divisions
Fri, Feb 24 03:19 AM EST

By Angus MacSwan

BEIRUT (Reuters) - People in the Lebanese capital Beirut are watching anxiously as the increasingly bloody conflict in neighboring Syria unfolds, fearing it could spill over the border and bring a return of the violence that tore their own country apart for so long.

Beirut has undergone a renaissance since the days when Muslim and Christian factions, as well as Palestinian guerrillas, clashed over a Green Line and foreign interlopers(One that interferes with the affairs of others, often for selfish reasons; a meddler.) imposed their will with troops, tanks and warplanes.

The bars and restaurants of Hamra and Gemmayzeh are buzzing every night with crowds of young professionals and students.

But memories of the car bombs, massacres and kidnappings are still fresh and opinions on Syria vary across Beirut's patchwork of religious communities and alliances, all colored by people's own loyalties and experience of war.

In the poor

St Michel district, home to Muslim refugees from the 1975-90 civil war, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad is a hero.

"He is at war with the United States and Israel. They support the opposition," said Ramha al-Hassan, a Sunni Muslim woman stopping to buy bread at a shop in a scruffy street of crumbling houses and overhanging electrical wires.

She said her brother and three of his children were killed in 1983 when the U.S. battleship New Jersey, anchored off Beirut, shelled their home in the mountains. Her mother was killed by Israeli bombs.

Assad wins the approval of some for his support for the anti-Israeli Hezbollah movement, an important political, military and social player in Lebanon though deemed a terrorist organization by the United States and Europe.

"Sure Assad is good," said Shi'ite shopkeeper Belal Assayed, 39. "The main reason for the problem is that Bashar is a supporter of Hezbollah. If he stops support for the resistance, the Americans and the Saudis will leave him alone."

Two of his nephews were killed by Israeli warplanes in the 2006 war in south Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel, he said.

Assayed feared a spillover as the situation gets worse.

"People are divided, who is for, who is against. Nobody here likes war. Lebanon was destroyed by war."

Hussein Jaber, a 46-year-old Shi'ite laborer, held a similar view.

Speaking in his house in St. Michel while his mother served Turkish coffee and pineapple juice, he said: "The war will reflect on Lebanon. A war of religion, Shi'ite against Sunni. I'm definitely afraid for our country."

His friend Ali Rajeb, a 60-year-old cobbler, shared his admiration for Assad.

Asked about the killing of hundreds Syrian civilians by his security forces, he said: "They are killing terrorists. If a foreigner comes to your home to kill you, what would you do? Israel bombed Lebanon and nobody asked why."

The two men said they got their information from Hezbollah TV. They also watched the Gulf-based al Jazeera, whose coverage is not favorable to Assad, but said it was "full of lies."

Such views counter the Western picture of the Syria conflict. Assad has drawn international condemnation, including a United Nations resolution, for the ferocity of his crackdown on the near year-long uprising against his rule.

Several thousand people have been killed and the world has watched in horror as his forces bombard neighborhoods of Homs to crush the opposition or fire on unarmed demonstrators.

Still, Lebanese opinions are forged by bitter memory.

In Hadi Nasrallah street in the Shi'ite southern suburbs, whole new apartment blocks have been built to replace those flattened by Israeli air strikes in 2006. Yellow Hezbollah flags fly from buildings and posters of slain Hezbollah leaders decorate the roads.

"People are divided pro-Assad and anti-Assad but here in this suburb, people support him because he supported us in the war against Israel," said teacher Fadia Khalil, speaking in her comfortably furnished apartment.

Hezbollah was formed in the 1980s to fight the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon, which lasted until 2000.

Khalil feared the history of factional fighting could repeat itself.

"In Tripoli, the war has already begun between Alawites and Sunnis. We are afraid of this all over Lebanon."

She was referring to clashes in the northern Lebanese town of Tripoli earlier this month pitting Assad supporters from his minority Alawite sect against Sunnis, whose co-religionists in Syria form most of the population and the base of the anti-Assad movement.

At least two people were killed as gunmen took cover at street corners and fired automatic rifle and rocket-propelled grenades in scenes reminiscent of Beirut's dark days.

CHRISTIAN VICTIMS

There are still many scores to settle.

In the Christian suburb of Furn al-Shubak, no love is lost for Assad. The Syrian president's father Hafez intervened in the civil war with troops who stayed in Lebanon until 2005.

"The Syrian army destroyed our homes and killed our families here," said Tony Haddad, a 42-year bank employee. "Hafez al-Assad and Bashar al-Assad are like each other."

"For us here, we are not afraid of Hezbollah because we the Christians are strong, we can face it. When Syria is weak, Hezbollah is weak and Hezbollah cannot do anything with us," he said.

He blamed Syria for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri by a car bomb in downtown Beirut in 2005. Hariri was the driving force behind the reconstruction of the city from the ruins of the civil war.

Haddad also angrily recalled the murder of President-elect Bashir Gemayel, of the Christian Phalangist party, killed by suspected Syrian agents in 1982.

"Definitely I'll be very happy when Assad falls because he has killed so many people. How can he stay in power?"

Joe Khuyra, 32, standing at the door of his Bravo Shoes and Bags store, took a different view.

"If the Syrian president falls, it would be a disaster for Lebanon. The group that was fighting Assad will transfer to Lebanon to fight Hezbollah here."

Still, said Khuyra, who lived through the civil war as a small boy, there were some advantages from the crisis. Syrian money was pouring into Beirut and so were Syrian workers, who could be hired cheaply.

Further complicating the mix is the fact that Syria's Christian minority mostly support the secular Assad government and fear for their own position if the revolution wins.

All this puts the Lebanese government in a delicate bind. Syria long dominated Lebanese politics and still wields influence through allied Muslim and Christian politicians.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati has tried to avoid taking sides in the conflict and Lebanon was one of the few countries not to vote for the U.N. resolution condemning Assad. Hezbollah, Syria's main Lebanese ally, has a place in the government.

The opposition Future Movement led by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri - son of the murdered Rafik - supports the uprising.

Veteran politician and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who was close to Syria in the past, has been a vocal critic of Assad, calling on him to relinquish power.

He has urged Russia and China, Syria's allies, to drop their support for him.

This week Jumblatt joined a demonstration in downtown Beirut in a show of solidarity with the uprising. Soldiers had to step in to prevent any trouble as a counter-demonstration in support of Assad took place nearby.

(Editing by Alistair Lyon and Andrew Heavens)

==========

Syrian rebels get arms from abroad: source
Fri, Feb 24 11:46 AM EST
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By Lin Noueihed and John Irish

TUNIS (Reuters) - Foreign powers are turning a blind eye to weapons purchases by Syrian exiles who are already smuggling light arms, communications equipment and night vision goggles to rebels inside Syria, a Syrian opposition source said on Friday.

Syrian opposition supporters were also trying to bring anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons to the Free Syrian Army rebels, and to get retired Syrian officers into the country to help coordinate military opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.

The source was speaking at a meeting of Western and Arab nations which will demand that, in the absence of international resolve to intervene to end Assad's crackdown, Syria allow aid to be delivered to civilians caught in fighting.

"We are bringing in defensive and offensive weapons... It is coming from everywhere, including Western countries and it is not difficult to get anything through the borders," the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"There is not a decision by any country to arm the rebels but countries are allowing Syrians to buy weapons and send them into the country."

Foreign ministers from more than 50 countries were in Tunis for the first meeting of the "Friends of Syria" group, against the backdrop of a surge in government attacks on the city of Homs and mounting world outrage over violence that has claimed thousands of lives during the uprising.

Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said an Arab force should be created to impose peace and open humanitarian corridors in Syria, while Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby urged the UN Security Council to appeal for a ceasefire.

In Homs, Syrian government artillery fire killed five people in the city's Baba Amro district, opposition activists said, as the bombardment of opposition-held neighborhoods entered its fourth week on Friday.

"Baba Amro is being hit with 122mm artillery directed at it from surrounding villages. A father and his 14-year-old son were among those killed. They were trying to flee the shelling when shrapnel hit them in the street," Mohammad al-Homsi said.

Activists said Syrian security forces also lined up and shot dead at least 18 people in a village in the central western Hama province. A video uploaded by activists showed people wrapping the bloodied bodies of children and at least four adults. Several had been shot through the head.

LIMITED OPTIONS

With moves for tough action in the U.N. Security Council stymied by Russian and Chinese vetoes and a lack of appetite for military action to end Assad's crackdown, delegates in Tunis have limited options.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told Reuters: "It is very important that the first contact group is taking place today because it sends a message to the Syrian people that we support them in their struggle for freedom."

An updated draft declaration from the meeting called on Syria to "immediately cease all violence" to allow the United Nations access to Homs, and to let agencies deliver aid to civilians affected by the violence.

The "Friends of Syria" pledged, in the latest version of the draft seen by Reuters, to deliver humanitarian supplies within 48 hours if Syria's government "stopped its assault on civilian areas and permitted access."

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was trying to arrange daily ceasefires to allow in humanitarian aid, but Syria had not replied to its request.

In a sign the international community is seeking ways around the Security Council deadlock, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said he would dispatch former U.N. chief Kofi Annan to Syria as a joint U.N.-Arab League envoy.

HARSH REALITIES

The draft communiqué did not mention any foreign military intervention along the lines of the NATO bombing campaign that helped force out Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.

Instead, it called for further diplomatic pressure on Assad to step down and endorsed an Arab League plan that sees him handing power to a deputy as a prelude to elections.

The group will also commit to enforce sanctions aimed at pressuring Syrian authorities to halt violence, according to the draft declaration.

These include travel bans, asset freezes, a halt to purchases of Syrian oil, ceasing infrastructure investment and financial services relating to Syria, reducing diplomatic ties and preventing arms shipments to the Syrian government.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the European Union, which has already imposed sanctions on Syrian officials, businesses and oil exports, would freeze assets of the Syrian Central Bank from Monday.

But the wording of the Tunis draft reflected a harsh reality: there is little the world can do to stop the violence as long as Russia and China, both of which declined invitations to the Tunis meeting, reject Security Council resolutions.

Another problem facing world powers is divisions within the Syrian opposition, which they will seek to overcome before offering full backing. The main opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) attended the Tunis talks but the mainly Syrian-based National Coordination Body said it was not taking part.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said London would now treat the SNC as "a legitimate representative of the Syrian people." But the draft offered a weaker endorsement, proposing only that the SNC be recognized as "a legitimate representative of Syrians seeking peaceful democratic change."

It committed the group to "increase its engagement" with the Syrian opposition while urging it to create a mechanism for disparate groups to coordinate, and to agree on principles that would lay the foundations for a future Syrian government.

A lack of unity within the Syrian opposition and fears that the country is sliding toward civil war have left even Assad's harshest critics reluctant to directly arm Syrian rebels in the absence of any moves towards a Libya-style military campaign.

In a sign of continued diplomatic pressure on Assad, Turkey said it would host the next "Friends of Syria" meeting.

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN HOMS

U.N. investigators said Syrian forces had shot and killed unarmed women and children, shelled residential areas and tortured wounded protesters in hospital under orders issued at the "highest levels" of the army and government.

In their report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, they said they had drawn up a confidential list of names of commanders and officials alleged to be responsible.

The commission found that the rebel Free Syrian Army had also committed abuses, "although not comparable in scale."

Western diplomats said it had not yet been possible to recover the bodies of Marie Colvin, an American working for Britain's Sunday Times, and French photographer Remi Ochlik, who were killed in Homs on Wednesday.

Two journalists wounded in the same attack were also awaiting evacuation from Homs, where activists say the army is blocking medical supplies and electricity is cut off for 15 hours a day.

(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans in Beirut, Khaled Oweis in Amman, Lou Charbonneau at the United Nations, Arshad Mohammed and Myra MacDonald in London)

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Syria referendum goes ahead amid military onslaught
Sun, Feb 26 13:48 PM EST
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By Alistair Lyon

BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 31 Syrian civilians and soldiers were killed on Sunday in bloodshed that coincided with a vote on a new constitution that could keep President Bashar al-Assad in power until 2028.

Assad's opponents see the referendum as a sick joke given Syria's turmoil. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a military bombardment of opposition districts in Homs had killed nine civilians while rebels had killed four soldiers in clashes.

The British-based Observatory said eight civilians and 10 members of the security forces were killed in violence elsewhere in Syria, scene of what has become an increasingly militarized revolt against four decades of Assad family rule.

Voting took place in the referendum on a new constitution, which Assad says will lead to a multi-party parliamentary election in three months. The result is expected to be announced on Monday. Western powers described the vote as a sham.

"What should we be voting for, whether to die by bombardment or by bullets? This is the only choice we have," said Waleed Fares, an activist in the Khalidiyah district of Homs, where bombardment is now in its fourth week.

"We have been trapped in our houses for 23 days. We cannot go out, except into some alleys. Markets, schools and government buildings are closed, and there is very little movement on the streets because of snipers," he said.

He said another besieged and battered district, Baba Amro, had had no food or water for three days. "Homs in general has no electricity for 18 hours a day." Tight curbs on independent reporting in Syria make witness reports hard to verify.

The Interior Ministry acknowledged obliquely that security conditions had disrupted voting, saying: "The referendum on a new constitution is taking place in a normal way in most provinces so far, with a large turnout, except in some areas."

The Syrian government, backed by Russia, China and Iran, and undeterred by Western and Arab pressure to halt the carnage, says it is fighting foreign-backed "armed terrorist groups."

"NO DESIRE FOR REFORM"

Prime Minister Adel Safar, asked about opposition calls for a boycott, said this showed a lack of interest in dialogue.

"There are some groups that have a Western and foreign agenda and do not want reforms in Syria and want to divert Syria's steadfastness," he told reporters in Damascus.

"We are not concerned with this. We care about ... spreading democracy and freedom in the country," Safar said.

"If there was a genuine desire for reform, there would have been movement from all groups, especially the opposition, to start dialogue immediately with the government to achieve the reforms and implement them on the ground."

The outside world has been powerless to restrain Assad's drive to crush the 11-month-old revolt, which has the potential to slide into a sectarian conflict between Syria's Sunni Muslim majority and the president's minority Alawite sect.

Unwilling to intervene militarily and unable to get the U.N. Security Council to act in the teeth of Russian and Chinese opposition, Western powers have imposed their own sanctions on Syria and backed an Arab League call for Assad to step down.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned on Sunday of the perils of any foreign intervention.

"I think there is every possibility of a civil war. Outside intervention would not prevent that, it would probably expedite it," she told BBC television in an interview.

"We have a very dangerous set of actors in the region: al Qaeda, Hamas and those who are on our terrorist list claiming to support the opposition. You have many Syrians more worried about what could come next ...

"If you bring in automatic weapons, which you can maybe smuggle across the border, what do they do against tanks and heavy artillery? There is such a much more complex set of factors."

Speaking in Rabat, Clinton later appealed to "those who are supporting the Syrian regime" to use their influence persuade Damascus to allow access for humanitarian assistance in areas affected by the violence.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Sunday's referendum was "nothing but a farce."
Farce: A light dramatic work in which highly improbable plot situations, exaggerated characters, and often slapstick elements are used for humorous effect.
Shame: Something false or empty that is purported to be genuine; a spurious imitation.
"Sham votes cannot contribute to a solution of the crisis. Assad needs to put an end to the violence and clear the way for a political transition," he said in a statement.

HARROWING CONDITIONS

The military onslaught on parts of Homs has created harrowing conditions for civilians, rebels and journalists.

A video posted by activists on YouTube showed Mohammad al-Mohammad, a doctor at a makeshift clinic in Baba Amro, holding a 15-year-old boy hit in the neck by shrapnel and spitting blood.

"It is late at night and Baba Amro is still being bombarded. We can do nothing for this boy," said the doctor, who has also been treating Western journalists wounded in the city.

American correspondent Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed in the bombardment of Homs last week and two other Western journalists were wounded. The group is still trapped there despite Red Cross efforts to extricate them.

The International Red Cross and Syrian Arab Red Crescent could not get into Baba Amro on Sunday and were still negotiating with Syrian authorities and opposition, the ICRC said.

Syrian authorities had not responded to a request for a ceasefire to allow the wounded to be evacuated, it added, and conditions were worsening by the hour.

In Hama, another city with a bloody record of resistance to Baathist rule, one activist said nobody was taking part in the referendum. "We will not vote on a constitution drafted by our killer," he said by satellite telephone, asking not to be named.

If the constitution is approved in the vote, a foregone conclusion, it would drop an article making Assad's Baath party the leader of state and society, allow political pluralism and enact a presidential limit of two seven-year terms.

But the limit will not be enforced retrospectively, meaning that Assad, already in power for 11 years, could serve another two terms after his current one expires in 2014.

Dozens of people lined up to vote in two polling stations visited by a Reuters journalist in Damascus. "I've come to vote for President Bashar, God protect him and give him victory over his enemies," said Samah Turkmani, in his 50s.

Another voter, Majed Elias, said: "This is a national duty, whether I agree or not, I have to come and vote."

This is Syria's third referendum since Assad inherited power from his late father. The first installed him as president in 2000 with an official 97.29 percent 'Yes' vote. The second renewed his term seven years later with 97.62 percent in favor.

(Corrects name of organisation in paragraph 27)

(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Mariam Karouny, Erika Solomon and Dominic Evans in Beirut, Christian Ruettger in Berlin and Arshad Mohammed in Rabat; Editing by Maria Golovnina)

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Syria splits along sectarian lines, shaking Mideast

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/03/02/140681/syria-splits-along-sectarian-lines.html#storylink=cpy
By David Enders and Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers

NEAR QUSAYR, Syria — Resting in a safe house south of the shell-battered city of Homs, Syrian rebel Abu Abdo at first framed the conflict convulsing his country as a war between the Sunni Muslim majority and the authoritarian regime of President Bashar Assad.

Then the leather-jacketed member of the local Free Syrian Army added, "The majority of the Shiites and Alawites are with the government."

Abdo's comments underscored how sectarian divisions are hardening a year after the outbreak of the uprising against Assad, whose scorched-earth crackdown on what began as peaceful protests for democratic reform has ignited a Sunni-dominated insurgency that's drawing in Sunni jihadis from beyond Syria's borders.

More ominously, the sectarian hatred is bleeding into a region seething with political and religious tensions. Outraged by a death toll estimated at more than 7,500 mostly Sunni Syrians — and apparently frustrated by the lack of action taken by a 60-nation "Friends of Syria" conference in Tunisia last month — Sunni regimes, led by Saudi Arabia, have publicly called for providing arms to the insurgents, whose nominal leaders are based in Sunni-governed Turkey.

Lebanon and majority-Shiite Iran — one of Assad's main arms suppliers — are standing firmly by the Syrian leader, whose regime and security forces are run by his minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiism. Iraq, where the 2003 U.S.-led invasion replaced a minority Sunni dictatorship with majority Shiite rule, has withheld criticism of Assad and declined to back an Arab League peace plan calling for him to step down.

The alignments appear to be confirming the worst fears of politicians, experts and the region's people: Syria has become the latest battleground in the centuries-old feud between Islam's main branches, with the violence threatening to evolve into a proxy conflict between the branches' rival standard-bearers, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

It also could reignite sectarian mayhem in adjacent Lebanon, fuel the Shiite-Sunni tensions wracking Iraq and inflame instability elsewhere. That could include the tiny Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain, the headquarters of the U.S. 5th Fleet, where the Saudi-backed Sunni monarchy has been persecuting majority Shiites who are demanding democratic reform.

"It's the proverbial gathering storm," said a senior Middle Eastern diplomat in Washington, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the issue. "It's not about Syria. It's about the Shias and Sunnis."

"Sectarian tension currently runs high in Syria," Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al Maliki, who's a Shiite, said in a Saudi newspaper interview published Thursday. "Syria is on our borders and if a sectarian civil war erupts there, it will be moved directly to Iraq and other countries such as Jordan and Lebanon."

A Sunni member of the Iraqi Parliament, Mudher al Janabi, said: "The Iraqi government cannot abandon Assad. ... The sectarian bond is too strong."

The United States has aligned with the Sunnis, and not only because of what the Obama administration decries as Assad's wanton slaughter of civilians. Assad's fall also would deal a strategic blow to Iran by eliminating its only Arab ally and closing the conduit through which Tehran transships missiles that Hezbollah, the Shiite militia movement that dominates Lebanon, aims at Israel.

Abdo, the rebel fighter, who used a nom de guerre, said the Homs region began growing more polarized soon after the anti-Assad protests erupted last March. Minority populations fled mixed villages in an echo of what occurred around Baghdad as Iraq's civil war escalated in 2005.

"It began two or three months after the start of the revolution," he recounted. "If the Sunnis are the minority in a place, they leave. If they are the majority, they stay."

On the battlefield, rebels trade sectarian barbs over the radio with the Syrian army, saying things such as, "(expletive) Hassan Nasrallah," the charismatic leader of Hezbollah.

The tensions are palpable along Lebanon's northern border with Syria. After crossing into Lebanon's Bekaa Valley earlier this week, the first question a group of Syrian refugees asked a Lebanese man they encountered was, "Are you Sunni?"

Predominantly Sunni northern Lebanon, where animosity over the Syrian army's 1976-2005 occupation lingers and Sunnis and Alawites clashed last month, is a bulwark of support for the Syrian rebels. Sympathizers harbor refugees and smuggle humanitarian aid and light weapons to the disparate groups of military deserters and civilians that make up the Free Syrian Army.

"The Hezbollah mindset, the Iranian mindset, the Alawite mindset is not just based on existence only. It's based on killing the other, exterminating the other," said Imad Khalid, a Sunni cleric in Wadi Khalid, near the Syrian border.

"If I was in charge, I'd not fight against Israel. For now my enemy is Hezbollah, my enemy is Iran and what Bashar Assad is doing."

Amin Taba, a Beirut-based Syrian activist who sends humanitarian aid into Syria, said that in the uprising's early days, the pro-democracy marches included Sunnis and Alawites, as well as Christians. But the longer the conflict rages, he said, the deeper the Sunni-Shiite chasm will grow.

"Because of the situation, people are going to resort to mullahs," he said.

The divisions also are hardening across the region, with Sunni Arab governments, eager to eliminate Iran's chief Arab ally, making it clear that they intend to intensify their backing of the opposition.

"We cannot abandon our religious and moral position towards the situation in Syria," Saudi King Abdullah told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a telephone conversation Feb. 22, according to Saudi Arabia's official news agency.

Two days later, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal said he thought that arming the rebels was "an excellent idea" because "they have to protect themselves."

On Monday, denouncing Assad, Kuwait's Parliament also recommended arming his opponents. The same day, the tiny Persian Gulf oil sheikdom of Qatar, which played a central role in arming the Libyan rebels who toppled Moammar Gadhafi, indicated that it would do so.

"We should do whatever necessary to help them, including giving them weapons to defend themselves," said the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al Thani. "This uprising in Syria now (has lasted) one year. For 10 months, it was peaceful. Nobody was carrying weapons, nobody was doing anything. And Bashar continued killing them."

In an apparently coordinated move, the Paris-based Syrian National Council, the internationally recognized opposition coalition, said Thursday that it was forming a military council to unify the Free Syrian Army under a single command that would help funnel weapons to the rebels.

Murhaf Jouejati, a member of the Syrian National Council's foreign relations bureau who teaches at the National Defense University in Washington, told McClatchy that he thinks that the Saudis and Qataris are more likely to provide money for arms purchases than actual weapons.

"I think they are going to facilitate this, certainly, by providing money for the Free Syrian Army to buy its equipment where it can," Jouejati said. He noted that arms are "plentiful on the black market," including guns being sold by Syrian troops, an estimated 80 percent of whom are Sunni conscripts.

Some experts worry that Iran could step up its support for Assad as the Saudis and other Sunni Arab regimes intensify their backing for the rebels. That could include aiding Bahrain's Shiite opposition — which has resisted Iranian help so far — and instigating the restive Shiite majority in Saudi Arabia's oil-producing Eastern Province.

"This portends very bad things for the region," said Vali Nasr, a former State Department adviser who teaches at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

"If this gets worse and becomes a full-scale civil war ... this will spill over. Other countries are vulnerable ... and could end up having a bigger, broader conflict in the Gulf between Saudi Arabia and Iran."

(Enders is a McClatchy special correspondent. Landay reported from Washington. Special correspondent Sahar Issa contributed to this article from Baghdad.)

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/03/02/140681/syria-splits-along-sectarian-lines.html#storylink=cpy

=================


'Rebels could use UN chief's words as excuse for free-for-all'
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Published: 03 March, 2012, 06:27
Edited: 03 March, 2012, 16:40

Bashar Ja'Afari, Syrian ambassador to the United Nations (AFP Photo / Mario Tama)
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TRENDS: Syria unrest

TAGS: Arms, Conflict, Meeting, Military, UN, Politics, Opposition, Syria

Syria's Ambassador to the UN Bashar Jaafari condemned comments made by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, warning that they could be “interpreted by the armed groups as a legal cover to be able to act in a criminal fashion.”

­Jaafari, addressing the UN General Assembly after Ban, said the Secretary General's speech was “aggressive, virulent and slanderous.”

“He said during his statement, that the Syrian government had failed in its responsibilities with regards to defending its people. I feel that this is a double injustice,” Jaafari asserted. He insisted that the UN resolution on Syria passed two weeks ago was unfair, unilateral, subjective and “completely unrelated to what is going on the ground in Syria.”

In his speech, Ban called on the Syrian government to immediately give humanitarian workers access to the country, noting that the Assad government should let UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amosinto into Syria to assess the situation. Earlier she was denied permission from the government to enter the country. Jaafari answered the demand, saying that his country had accepted a visit by Amos “in principle” and had not refused her access. According to Jaafari, the country was waiting to set a date for the visit.

He also insisted that most of Syria is “living normally,” and that the government was sparing no effort to secure a normal life for its people, and to keep all the necessary services working. While admitting that the humanitarian situation has worsened in many areas of the country, Jaafari said the main reasons were the armed assaults, vandalism and unilateral sanctions imposed by some countries. The resulting combination, he maintianed, is a disastrous effect on everyday life in Syria.
­‘Sea of lies’ about Syria

Ban said that the civilian losses have been heavy, referring to the unrest in Homs this week.

“We continue to receive grisly reports of summary executions, arbitrary detentions and torture,” he noted. “This atrocious assault is all the more appalling for having been waged by the government itself, systematically attacking its own people.”

In response to Ban's accusations, the Syrian representative said there has been “a sea of lies” circulating about his country. In his view, the UN chief’s report is more likely to strengthen tensions than to help solve the situation. He also blamed the UN for using reports from “countries which are open enemies of Syria,” thus showing a certain “duplicity” in their calls for dialogue between the government and opposition.

Jaafari also pointed out that weapons manufactured in Israel were found in Homs following the rebels' retreat, noting that a number of states are openly admitting to supplying arms to insurgent groups in Syria.

He slammed Libya for offering $100 million to help the Syrian opposition. He also harshly criticized the Saudi Arabian UN envoy, who in his speech said that what was happening in Homs resembles the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia of the 1990s, calling the comparison “shameful.”
­‘Things have got very hard on both sides’

­Middle East expert Tariq Ali said both sides of the conflict were to blame.

“It seems to me that things have got very hard on both sides,” he noted to RT. “The Assad regime carries on as if it doesn’t realize how hated it is by some sections of the population, and the opposition, which is armed now increasingly by the West via its conduits in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, are turning nasty.”

He said it would not be of help to anyone for Syria to go on like this, with minorities, Christians and other groups being targeted by the so-called liberation forces.

“What it suggests is a negotiated settlement and for people to push for both sides to sit around the table.”

Ali pointed to the fact that Saudi Arabia and Qatar, both staunch supporters of the Syrian opposition, were themselves hardly shining examples of democracy.

“And if what they want to do to Syria is what they’ve just done to Libya, then one has to say that the replacement for Assad will not be any different, except it will be a different group of people carrying out repressive activities,” he added.

But Ali didn’t spare criticism of the Assad regime either.

“In my opinion, of course, the Assad family, father and son, are responsible for a great deal of bloodshed in Syria.”

He supported the idea of Assad leaving power to be replaced by an interim leader that could negotiate with the opposition.

===

Reidar Visser : Significant broadening of FSA if genuine RT @abuhatem First Alawite battalion of Free Syrian Army, Idlib http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5Ew2dDtAEk&feature=share
Short for Syria under French mandate 1920-1945. At times subdivided (Aleppo, Jazira, Druze & Allawi statelets)

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Pentagon chiefs say U.S. should not act alone in Syria
By Laura Rozen | The Envoy – 3 hrs ago


Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and CJCS Gen. Martin Dempsey testified on Syria to the Senate Armed Services panel …Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and top general Martin Dempsey, testifying to the Senate Armed Services panel Wednesday, cautioned that military intervention in Syria would be a risky and very complicated endeavor, but said it's a future possibility. But they stressed that the United States should not act alone.

Facing tough questions from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who called earlier this week for U.S. airstrikes against the Bashar al-Assad regime, Panetta said the United States should consider acting only as part of an international coalition.

"What doesn't make sense is to take unilateral action at this point," Panetta said. "As secretary of defense, before I recommend we put our sons and daughters in uniform in harm's way, I've got to be very sure what the mission is, if we can achieve that mission, at what price and whether it will make matters better or worse."

"Can you tell me how much longer the killing would have to continue in order to convince you that military measures of the kind we are proposing be considered?" an impatient McCain fired back. "What's wrong with your statement is American leadership. America should lead, it should be building the international coalition."

The defense chiefs said they had provided assessments of the situation on the ground in Syria to the administration, but had not yet been tasked by the president with drawing up full-fledged options for possible military intervention there.

Questioning from Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Jack Reed, a former Army Ranger and West Point graduate, gave the U.S. defense chiefs a chance to elaborate on the complexities of such an intervention and the reasons to proceed extremely cautiously.

Syria, "unlike Iraq, has no natural safe haven areas," Reed said. "The notion that we can in a few hours or days quickly go in and establish superiority and stop the fighting is not accurate."

After acknowledging the many challenges, Dempsey said, "But I want to be clear: We can do it. It's not a question of 'can we do it;' it's 'should we do it.'"

The hearing comes as the United Nations humanitarian chief Valerie Amos was able to enter Syria Wednesday and travel to the besieged city of Homs and its most devastated neighborhood, Bab Amr.

The International Committee of the Red Cross also said it was able for the first time to get into the Bab Amr neighborhood, after days of being blocked by Syrian regime forces. But upon its arrival, it found that almost all of the residents had fled.

===========

Syria's Assad meets Annan, but gives little ground
Sat, Mar 10 18:57 PM EST

By Alistair Lyon

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan held blunt talks with Bashar al-Assad this weekend but appeared to be making little headway, as the Syrian president blamed political bloodshed on "terrorists".

Annan on Saturday made proposals on stopping the violence between security forces and the opposition in the year-old revolt against Assad, access for humanitarian agencies, release of detainees and the start of political dialogue.

The talks were "candid and comprehensive", a spokesman quoted Annan as saying. He was to meet Assad again on Sunday before leaving Syria for Qatar.

Assad told U.N./Arab League envoy Annan Syria was "ready to make a success of any honest effort to find a solution for the events it is witnessing", state news agency SANA reported.

"No political dialogue or political activity can succeed while there are armed terrorist groups operating and spreading chaos and instability," he said.

Thousands have been killed in Syria since a popular uprising against Assad erupted a year ago.

While Annan and Assad discussed the crisis, Syrian troops were assaulting the northwestern city of Idlib, a rebel bastion.

"Regime forces have just stormed into Idlib with tanks and heavy shelling is now taking place," said an activist contacted by telephone, the sound of explosions punctuating the call.

Sixteen rebel fighters, seven soldiers and four civilians were killed in the Idlib fighting, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which said 15 other people, including three soldiers, had been killed in violence elsewhere.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who met Annan in Cairo earlier in the day, told the Arab League his country was "not protecting any regime", but did not believe the Syrian crisis could be blamed on one side alone.

He called for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid access, but Qatar and Saudi Arabia sharply criticized Moscow's stance.

"LICENCE FOR BRUTALITY"

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who has led calls for Assad to be isolated and for Syrian rebels to be armed, said a ceasefire was not enough. Syrian leaders must be held to account and political prisoners freed, he declared.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said shortcomings in the U.N. Security Council, where Russia and China have twice vetoed resolutions on Syria, had allowed the killing to go on.

Their position, he said, "gave the Syrian regime a license to extend its brutal practices against the Syrian people".

Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which are both ruled by autocrats and espouse a strict version of Sunni Islam, are improbable champions of democracy in Syria. Riyadh has an interest in seeing Assad fall because this could weaken its Shi'ite regional rival Iran, which has been allied with Syria since 1980.

International rifts have paralyzed action on Syria, with Russia and China opposing Western and Arab calls for Assad, who inherited power from his father nearly 12 years ago, to quit.

Lavrov told Arab ministers a new U.N. Security Council resolution had a chance of being approved if it was not driven by a desire to let armed rebels take over Syria's streets.

The United States has drafted a fresh resolution, but the State Department said on Friday it was not optimistic its text would be accepted by the Council.

France says it will oppose any measure that holds the Syrian government and its foes equally responsible for the bloodshed.

Despite their differences, Lavrov and Arab ministers said they had agreed on the need for an end to violence in Syria.

They also called for unbiased monitoring of events there, opposition to foreign intervention, delivery of humanitarian aid and support for Annan's peace efforts.

AL QAEDA

Annan later met Hassan Abdulazim, a veteran opponent of Assad.

"Violence should stop and detainees should be released in order to negotiate a transitional period," Abdulazim said after the meeting. "In the light of violence, killings, arrests and threats there will not be any solution for the crisis."

The exiled opposition Syrian National Council ruled out talks while Assad is in power.

"Negotiations can never take place between the victim and torturer: Assad and his entourage must step down as a condition before starting any serious negotiations," it said.

The United Nations estimates Syrian security forces have killed over 7,500 people. Syria said in December that "terrorists" had killed more than 2,000 soldiers and police.

A Russian diplomat said this week Assad was battling al Qaeda-backed militants, including 15,000 foreign fighters who would seize cities if Syrian troops withdrew.

The Syrian opposition denies any al Qaeda role in the uprising, but Islamists are among rebels who have taken up arms against Assad under the banner of the Free Syrian Army.

Qatar's Sheikh Hamad chided Russia for accepting the Syrian government's portrayal of insurgents as armed gangs.

"There are no armed gangs, the systematic killing came from the Syrian government side for many months. After that the people were forced to defend themselves so the regime labeled them armed gangs," he told the Arab League meeting.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet Lavrov in New York on Monday when the Security Council holds a special meeting on Arab revolts, with Syria likely to be in focus.

Arab diplomats said Syria had begun pre-emptively withdrawing ambassadors from Europe because it feared EU members would expel them in response to Assad's crackdown.

(Editing by Andrew Roche)

===============

Russia says Syrian ceasefire must be simultaneous

13 Mar 2012 11:07

Source: reuters // Reuters

MOSCOW, March 13 (Reuters) - Armed opponents of the Syrian government should stop fighting at the same time as government forces and face equal demands to withdraw from their positions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday, a day after disagreeing with Western leaders on how to end the violence.

"This must be simultaneous. There must not be a situation where it is demanded that the government leave cities and towns and this is not demanded of armed groups," Lavrov said.

"A unilateral withdrawal of government forces is absolutely unrealistic." (Reporting by Nastassia Astrasheuskaya, Writing by Steve Gutterman, Editing by Thomas Grove)
====
Violence across Syria; U.N. awaits response from Damascus
Tue, Mar 13 09:15 AM EDT
image
1 of 6

By Oliver Holmes and Erika Solomon

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian forces killed dozens of people near a mosque in the city of Idlib, opposition activists said on Tuesday, and rebels killed at least 10 troops in an ambush in the same area, focus of the latest government crackdown.

Video footage showed the bloodied bodies of several unidentified men strewn on the floor of the mosque. An unseen voice said it was impossible to move them due to heavy shelling.

Army defectors ambushed a checkpoint in Idlib region in the northwest, killing the 10 soldiers and possibly more, while rebels also killed 12 members of forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in the southern town of Deraa, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Fighting was reported, too, in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor and in Syria's third largest city Homs, as a year-long uprising against Assad's authoritarian rule increasingly resembles a full-blown civil war.

Speaking after meeting opponents of Assad in Turkey, U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said he was expecting to hear later on Tuesday the response from Syria to "concrete proposals" he had made to end the escalating violence.

The Syrian parliament said Assad, who has promised reforms short of his resignation, had ordered a legislative election for May 7. It would be held under a new constitution, approved by a referendum last month which the opposition and their Western and Arab backers dismissed as a sham.

Despite mounting international pressure on him in the form of sanctions, Assad has significant allies, notably in Iran. And world powers remained at odds over how to tackle the crisis, with Russia and China continuing to back the Syrian leader.

As growing numbers of refugees seek to flee the fighting, advocacy group Human Rights Watch said Syrian forces were laying landmines near the borders with Lebanon and Turkey, along routes used by the civilians to escape the mayhem.

Idlib province borders Turkey and has become a hiding place for rebels, drawing regular army reprisals.

An activist in the city of Idlib, speaking by telephone, said security forces had killed 11 people trying to leave the area two days ago and dumped them in al-Bilal mosque.

More bodies were brought to the mosque on Monday, but when locals went to inspect the corpses, they too came under fire, pushing the death toll above 50, he said. Another activist contacted by Reuters confirmed the killings.

"When people came from the neighborhood early this morning, the security forces also started firing at them. In total, about 45 people were massacred," said the man, who like many in Syria gave only his first name, Mohammed, for fear of reprisals.

Activists said the bodies of six other people were found in the nearby village of Maarat Shureen.

Reports from Syria cannot be independently verified as the authorities deny access to rights groups and journalists.

WAITING ON DAMASCUS

Following meetings with Assad at the weekend in Damascus, former U.N. chief Annan held talks in Ankara with the Syrian National Council (SNC) - a fractious assortment of Assad opponents whose leadership lives abroad.

"I am expecting to hear from the Syrian authorities today, since I left some concrete proposals for them to consider," Annan told a subsequent news conference.

"Once I receive their answer we will know how to react."

Annan has not disclosed what his proposals entailed, but a diplomatic source said the U.N. envoy had told Assad he wanted an immediate cessation of hostilities, humanitarian access to the conflict zones and political dialogue.

SNC leader Burhan Ghalioun said the aim remained to secure a political and diplomatic solution, otherwise foreign governments would deliver on promises to supply weapons to rebel forces.

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Qatar have called for arms to be sent to help in the fight Assad, who is a member of the minority Alawite sect and is allied to Shi'ite Iran.

Syria lies in a pivotal position, bordering Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Iraq and Lebanon. Its 23-million-strong population comprises a mix of faiths, sects and ethnic groups, and analysts say the gathering conflict could destabilize the entire region.

While the rebels have only light weapons, the army has repeatedly used tanks, mortars and artillery, and has regularly shelled built-up areas, apparently indiscriminately.

"I have heard shelling in the Old City since 8 this morning," one activist in the city of Homs told Reuters. "There is gunfire everywhere," he added, asking to be referred to only as Sami for fear of arrest.

More than 8,000 people have died in the Syrian uprising, including many women and children, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, president of the U.N. General Assembly, said on Monday.

The Syrian government says more than 2,000 police and regular army soldiers have been killed by "armed terrorist groups", blaming foreign interference for the unrest. It has not given any figures for civilian deaths.

Human Rights Watch said anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines of Russian origin had been found near Syria's borders, with indications they had been planted by the army this year.

Syria, like Russia, the United States and over 30 other states, has not signed up to a global ban on landmines.

"Any use of anti-personnel landmines is unconscionable," said Steve Goose, Arms Division director at HRW. "There is absolutely no justification for the use of these indiscriminate weapons by any country, anywhere, for any purpose."


========
(Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

======
A journey into Syria's nightmare
Wed, Mar 14 13:17 PM EDT

By Zohra Bensemra

(Reuters) - Zohra Bensemra is a news photographer for Reuters. Based in Algiers, she traveled on assignment to Syria in February. This is her account of that journey:

The contact from Syria called: "Be ready in 30 minutes," he said. "If you want to go, we have to go now."

From the moment we left our Turkish hotel near the border, my colleague and I traveled on dirt roads used by smugglers and farmers around Syria's northern frontier. The highways were busy with soldiers and shabbiha, irregular pro-Assad fighters.

Unlike in Libya, where clear frontlines divided rebels from Muammar Gaddafi's army, in Syria, frontlines cut through villages and criss-cross farmlands in a treacherous maze. One village might be pro-Assad, the president's picture hanging in every window, the next a solidly rebel-held town, another a mixture of communities where you could not trust your neighbor.

In Libya, miles divided the warring parties. In Syria, enemies are yards apart. The war is being fought from house to house. Not knowing the local terrain, we were completely dependent on our rebel guides to keep us alive.

As we approached the border, we abandoned the car driven by one guide and took a tractor that was waiting. It had rained. The fields were muddy. Our guide tried to smooth over footprints we left in the churned soil, for fear of leaving traces.

We reached a waterway we had to cross. The only way over was to sit, packed tight with all our heavy equipment, in what looked like a metal basin that might be used by peasant women to wash laundry. We worked our way over by pulling on a rope.

By the time we reached the far side, it was getting dark.

After spending the night with a family, a car came to sneak us into a village near Idlib where we would be based for five days. We heard shelling overnight. We waited.

DESTRUCTION

Next morning, they took us to another village. The fighting - presumably including the shelling we had heard - was over when we arrived. But smoke was still rising from some buildings as we entered through back roads.

Local people kept approaching us: "Come and see my father, he was killed!" one would say; "Come down this road, there are two bodies!"; "Come and see my house that was destroyed."

The shelling seemed to have been indiscriminate. Houses in different parts of town had been hit. It was as if a blind man had been firing the guns and could not see or did not care where the shells fell.

Local people took us to a house where they said a woman of 70 had died. A shell had hit it. The mirror in her bedroom was spattered in blood, and flesh. It was as if she had exploded.

We went to the mosque. Two bodies were there, covered in a green and white mat. One had no head. Knowing no media would publish the most horrific of the images, I later filed only pictures giving a sense of the scene.

Victims of the violence had been buried in a garden that had been transformed into a makeshift graveyard. It was too dangerous for people to go to the cemetery.

UNDER ATTACK

From the moment we had crossed the border from Turkey, the terror was palpable in the faces of our guides, of all the villagers.

Yet we did not get a real taste of what it meant to be under attack, to be the target, until the next day when a rebel came to take us to a village near Aleppo where a Turkish truck had been attacked by pro-Assad forces a day earlier.

The village was home to both rebels and shabbiha, agents working for the Assad government. We were bundled from safe house to safe house. We could see snipers across the street. As we left the village, we came across an army patrol.

Our guide panicked and reversed the car. It drew attention. A shot rang out. We veered off down a side road. Before we knew it, we were under heavy fire. Rockets whizzed above our heads and assault rifles rattled in our direction. But we drove slowly, afraid to speed up lest we draw more attention.

Finally, we stopped in an olive grove, where we lay face down in the mud. We could hear shelling, far away and close by. Dusk was falling and we could make out the red tracer of anti-aircraft fire lighting up the sky. They were firing heavy weaponry at journalists. We were not armed. Nor was our guide.

Finally, we got back in the car, hiding all our equipment in the boot for fear it would give away our profession if we were stopped. Our guide drove along dirt tracks, phoning rebels at each turn to find out which roads and which houses were safe.

He took us to one house.

"I have to get you out of this village tonight," the guide said. "They know you are here and they will raid houses tonight, looking for journalists. Don't run. Walk as normal."

We were so afraid, it was hard to go slow.

After a stop at another house, we came to another owned by a man whose sympathies for the rebels he kept secret and who, as a result, was believed to be above suspicion by the authorities.

Five minutes after we went inside, we heard vehicles outside, driving down the road, soldiers knocking on doors.

My colleague was with the men of the family. I was in a room with two other women, and several children playing on the floor. The women agreed that if the soldiers came in they would tell them I was a deaf-mute, to conceal my North African accent.

Our hosts brought me coffee and tried to chat. But all I could think of was what would happen if the army raided this house. That this entire family would be killed because of us.

The knock on the door never came.

Finally, we heard the patrol pass into another neighborhood. Only 20 minutes had passed but it felt like a lifetime.

PERSONAL CONFLICT

I have covered so many wars in so many countries. In Iraq, you could always have got unlucky and caught up in a suicide bombing. In Lebanon, there had been safe areas and risky ones. In Libya, for the most part, it was clearer who was fighting and who was a non-combatant. In Syria, the war that I witnessed was different: It was one fought among civilians, among neighbors.

We left Syria by another smugglers' route, through muddy farmlands. I had not washed nor changed my clothes throughout the five-day trip. Only once we were in Turkey did we begin to unwind. When we did, our journey into Syria seemed surreal, the fear we had felt under fire, hunted down, like a dream.

As we began to make arrangements to fly home, we received an e-mail; the man who had lent us his home for five days in that rebel village had been killed in Idlib, by shabbiha, it said.

Conditions for our work had been so tough in Syria, that it had been hard to capture many of the striking, bold images that make for the most arresting photography. This man had risked his life so that we could make at least a simple record of the fear that Syrians, whichever side they are on, are living with every day.

(Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Alix Freedman)

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Lebanese cleric gives voice to Sunni Islamists

16 Mar 2012 17:57

Source: reuters // Reuters

By Mariam Karouny

SIDON, Lebanon, March 16 (Reuters) - A protest by bearded Sunni Islamists in the heart of Beirut has catapulted a relatively unknown cleric onto Lebanon's national stage and highlighted divisions in the country over the Syria crisis.

The softly spoken Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, from the southern coastal city of Sidon, brought hundreds of supporters into the centre of the capital two weeks ago in the first such protest by Salafist Sunnis against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

Assad's year-long crackdown against a mainly Sunni uprising in neighbouring Syria has deepened sectarian divisions in Lebanon, pitting many Sunni Muslims who support the rebellion against Hezbollah and other Shi'ite groups who back Assad.

Until Assir emerged, the voices against Assad had been mostly muted and limited to the northern city of Tripoli, where Sunni movements have a strong presence.

But the Sidon cleric told Reuters he wanted to change that by sending out a message from the heart of the capital.

"The massacres committed against our people in Syria exceeded all expectations," he said. "I was troubled that Beirut looked like a city that supports Bashar al-Assad. That is why we had to come to Beirut."

His Beirut gathering attracted Lebanese pop star Fadel Shaker, who kissed Assir's forehead and called him a "Sunni lion". On Sunday he was due to led another rally, this time in the Bekaa Valley.

"The Sunnis have finally found a man to unite them and break the fear barrier," said Omar Bakri, a Lebanese Islamist militant leader who also attended Assir's rally.

Assir's strident opposition to Assad contrasts with the position of Lebanon's government, led by by Sunni businessman Najib Mikati, who has sought to distance his fragile country of just 4 million people from the turmoil next door.

Many anti-Assad politicians urged the government to take a stronger stance.

FEUD WITH HEZBOLLAH

Although he has attracted the support of Salafists, conservative Sunni Islamists who call Shi'ite infidels, Assir said he did not consider himself to be one.

Unlike many religious leaders in Lebanon Assir, born in 1968, does not come from a religious family. His father was a singer until the 1990s when Assir convinced him and his brother to stop singing and playing music because it is forbidden in conservative Islam.

"Family-wise I have faced some difficulties. The whole family atmosphere was an atmosphere of singing and I wanted to be religious, but slowly I have managed to overcome it," said the bespectacled cleric, who has three children and two wives.

"My dad went to Haj, he prays now with us in the mosque," he said with a smile.

Sunni Islamist movements are usually strong among poor and deprived people but Assir also has wealthy backers who he says have funded him and the mosque he leads in a Sidon suburb.

What started as a small mosque is now a three-storey building that receives up to 2,500 people on Friday prayers and offers religious classes to 400-500 people. His $150,000 office, facing the mosque, was a gift from one of his rich supporters.

Sidon connects Beirut to southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, and the port city is known as "the gate of the south".

While Assir does not hide his disagreement with Hezbollah and its ally Iran, he stresses that his ideas are not based on sectarian differences. He says his mother is a Shi'ite believer and she practices her belief freely.

"I am in feud with Hezbollah (only) politically. I refuse to call them Hezbollah (the party of God) because this means that others are party of Satan and I reject that," he said.

But he said Hezbollah, the only militia in Lebanon not to disarm after the 1975-1990 civil war, needed to reassure its Sunni Muslim rivals.

"Many Sunnis are scared," he said pointing to Hezbollah's considerable military arsenal, which the Shi'ite group says it needs to retain to defend Lebanon against Israel.

Hezbollah and Israel fought a month-long war in 2006, but two years later its supporters battled supporters of Sunni political leader Saad al-Hariri in worst sectarian clashes since the end of the civil war.

While Sunni Muslims have no military power to match Hezbollah, Sunni Islamist fighters including Arab veterans from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have always found haven in Lebanon, especially in Palestinian refugee camps off-limits to security forces and in the northern Sunni city of Tripoli.

Assir says his support for Syria's uprising is mainly because most Syrians are Sunni Muslims, rising up against an Alawite leader.

Asked whether he would take the same position if Assad were Sunni and the majority of the Syrians were Alawites he said: "We are against injustice...but would my reaction be the same? I would be lying if I say yes." (Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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Twin bombings in Damascus kill at least 27, almost 100 hurt
Sat, Mar 17 15:37 PM EDT
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By Dominic Evans and Crispian Balmer

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two explosions struck the heart of Damascus on Saturday, killing at least 27 people in an attack on security installations that state television blamed on "terrorists" seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Cars packed with explosives targeted the criminal police headquarters and an air security intelligence centre at 7.30 a.m. (0530 GMT), television said, shredding the facade of one building and sending debris flying through the streets.

Gruesome images from the sites showed what appeared to be smoldering bodies in two separate vehicles, a wrecked minivan smeared with blood, and severed limbs collected in sacks.

At least 27 people were killed and 140 wounded, an interior ministry statement said.

"We heard a huge explosion. At that moment the doors in our house were blown out ... even though we were some distance from the blast," said one elderly man, his head wrapped in a bandage.

No one claimed responsibility for the detonations, which followed a series of suicide attacks that have struck Damascus and Syria's second city Aleppo over the past three months.

The explosions came two days after the first anniversary of the uprising, in which more than 8,000 people have been killed and about 230,000 forced to flee their homes, according to United Nations figures.

They also coincided with a joint mission by the Syrian government, the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation that was due to start assessing humanitarian needs in towns across Syria which have suffered from months of unrest.

One source involved in the mission said team members were still gathering in Syria and it was not immediately clear if they would begin their work this weekend as previously planned.

DEATH AND TORTURE

Violence was reported elsewhere in Syria on Saturday.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of contacts within Syria, said the body of an old man was found on Saturday, a day after he was arrested during raids in the northern region Jabal al-Zawiyah.

It added that five people died in the eastern town of Raqqa, including three who were wounded a day earlier. One person was shot dead by security forces during the funeral of two people killed on Friday.

The Avaaz campaign group said it had evidence of 32 children being tortured last week in the central city of Homs, posting footage on the Internet of the infants in hospital. It said some had broken bones, badly cut fingers and gunshot wounds.

Syria denies accusations of brutality and says it is grappling with a foreign-backed insurgency. Reports from the country cannot be independently verified as authorities have barred outside rights groups and journalists.

The U.N.-Arab League envoy for Syria, Kofi Annan, warned on Friday that the crisis could spill over into neighboring countries and urged international powers to lay aside their differences and back his peace initiative.

While the West and much of the Arab world have lined up to demand that Assad steps down, his allies Russia, China and Iran have defended him and cautioned against outside interference.

"The stronger and more unified your message, the better chance we have of shifting the dynamics of the conflict," an envoy said, summarizing Annan's remarks to a closed-door meeting of the 15-nation Security Council.

Turkey said on Friday it might set up a "buffer zone" inside Syria to protect refugees fleeing Assad's forces, raising the prospect of foreign intervention in the revolt, although Ankara made clear it would not move without international backing.

AL QAEDA

Diplomats have said that without a swift resolution, Syria will descend into a full-blown civil war.

Syria lies in a pivotal position within the Middle East, bordering Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Iraq and Lebanon, and its 23-million-strong population comprises a combustible mix of faiths, sects and ethnic groups.

"I think that we need to handle the situation in Syria very, very carefully," Annan told reporters in Geneva on Friday.

"Yes, we tend to focus on Syria but any miscalculation that leads to major escalation will have impact in the region which would be extremely difficult to manage," he said.

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, in a video recording posted on the Internet last month, urged Muslims around the region to help Syrian rebels. Syria has previously blamed al Qaeda for at least some attacks on its territory and has vowed to respond with an iron fist.

Annan presented Assad with a six-point peace proposal at talks in Damascus last weekend. Envoys said he told the Security Council on Friday that the response to date was disappointing.

Assad insists the Syrian opposition stop fighting first, while the United States, Gulf Arabs and Europeans have demanded that Assad and his much stronger forces make the first move. Russia wants both sides to stop shooting simultaneously.

Annan will send a team to Damascus early next week to discuss a proposal to deploy international monitors in the country, his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi has said.

(Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Car bomb hits Aleppo; police crush Damascus march
Sun, Mar 18 08:24 AM EDT
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By Erika Solomon and Laila Bassam

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A car bomb hit Syria's second city Aleppo on Sunday, a day after blasts killed 27 in Damascus, and security forces arrested and beat activists at a rare anti-government protest in the capital.

Residents told the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights they saw bodies in the streets of Aleppo, but neither the opposition group nor official media gave numbers of casualties. The Observatory said the blast had been close to a state security office.

State news channel Syria TV said the "terrorist" explosion had been between two residential buildings in the al-Suleimaniya district of Aleppo, behind a post office building.

The opposition reported heavy raids by security forces and fighting with rebels in northern and southern Syrian provinces and suburbs of Damascus.

In the capital, as crowds gathered for memorials to victims of Saturday's car bombs, security forces broke up an opposition march of more than 200 people when protesters began shouting "the people want to topple the regime".

The phrase has echoed through the wave of Arab uprisings that began last year and has toppled autocratic rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

"They were walking through an area in central Damascus, near SANA (the state news agency). At first they shouted slogans against violence and the police didn't do anything, but as soon as they started to call for regime change the police rushed in and started beating people with canes," said Rami Abdelrahman, from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

DIALOGUE

The protest, which called for non-violent resistance to the government, had been led by moderate opposition leaders previously tolerated by the government because of their calls for dialogue and rejection of foreign intervention.

Activists said the Sunday march aimed to commemorate the peaceful roots of Syria's uprising, which has been overshadowed by a growing armed insurgency against state security forces.

Security forces arrested Mohammed Sayyed Rassas, a leader of the National Coordinating Body for Democratic Change (NCB), an opposition group which had visited China and Russia in attempts to promote dialogue between Assad and the opposition.

Most opposition groups have rejected the NCB over its insistence on non-violence and its stance against foreign intervention, arguing the government's fierce crackdown has made arming the uprising inevitable.

Police also briefly arrested Fayyez Sara, who headed the Committee to Revive Civil Society, other activists said.

Syrian government forces have crushed a rebel stronghold in the central city of Homs and have been pounding rebel strongholds in northern Idlib.

"It's clear that the battle is finishing in the regime's favor overall," said a Lebanese official close to Assad's government.

"On the security level there is a long and difficult struggle for the regime and it is obvious this will take a long time to finish ... We will see many more explosions like those we saw yesterday but in general they have finished off the military fight and they don't have much more to do."

DAMASCUS MEMORIAL

The United Nations says more than 8,000 people have been killed by security forces in the crackdown on a revolt against four decades of rule by the Assad family.

The struggle has become increasingly bloody as peaceful protest has given way to rebellion by armed groups. Authorities say they are fighting foreign militants who have killed more than 2,000 members of the security forces.

Heavy fighting raged in the northwestern province of Deir Ezzor and military vehicles were torched, activists said on Sunday.

Rebels also blew up a bridge in southern Deraa, birthplace of the uprising, the Observatory said. The bridge had been used to transport supplies to security forces who surround the city.

The Observatory said security forces raided the town of Artouz, a Damascus suburb, looking for wanted men. The Local Coordination Committee said residents there could hear heavy gunfire.

In central Damascus, crowds of Syrians gathered at the sites of the two car bombings outside security bases on Saturday.

The state news channel Syria TV showed footage of charred apartments, shattered windows and debris.

Dozens of people waving Syrian flags gathered to pray for the victims.

"Whatever they want to do we won't be afraid," said one woman speaking to the channel. "We won't be afraid, we are with President Assad ... those who don't love Damascus should leave."

(Additional reporting by Laila Bassam; editing by Andrew Roche)

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Syrian capital sees heaviest fighting of uprising
Mon, Mar 19 11:22 AM EDT
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By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN (Reuters) - Rebels fought government forces in Damascus on Monday, in the most violent gun battles the Syrian capital has seen since the start of the year-long revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, opposition activists said.

The clashes near the centre of Assad's power base appeared to be an attempt by rebels, who have been forced out of Homs and Idlib and came under attack in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor on Monday, to show they still pose a serious challenge.

Fighting erupted after midnight in the upmarket al-Mezze district when up to six rebels fired a rocket propelled grenade at the house of an army general, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Quoting local residents, he said the gunmen then took refuge in a building where they battled soldiers, gunfire echoing throughout the neighborhood. Official Syrian news agency Sana said three rebels and one member of the security forces died.

The armed confrontation came just two days after a double car bombing killed at least 27 people in the heart of the city, in a sign that the capital might be slowly sinking into mayhem.

"These clashes were the most violent and the closest to the security force headquarters in Damascus since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution," said SOHR's Rami Abdulrahman.

Video footage showed the top two floors of an unidentified apartment bloc scorched by fire, its walls and stairway pitted with bullet holes and shrapnel.

Reports from Syria cannot be independently verified because the authorities have barred access to rights groups and journalists.

The latest violence coincided with the arrival in Damascus of a team of five experts, sent by the U.N.-Arab League envoy for Syria, Kofi Annan, to discuss proposals to deploy international monitors in Syria.

A separate team of experts from the United Nations and the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, led by the Syrian government, also started a mission to assess humanitarian needs, a source close to the mission said on Monday.

The group is due to visit areas hit by the uprising including the central city of Homs, scene of a month-long siege and military bombardment in February, and Deraa, where the revolt against Assad erupted a year ago.

EASTERN FORCE

Assad is fighting for the survival of his family dynasty, which has ruled Syria for more than four decades, and has rejected calls from much of the West and the Arab world to stand aside.

His troops have launched crackdowns in recent weeks, winning back much lost ground, but the violence has not abated and analysts warn the uprising could degenerate into civil war, pitting Assad's minority Alawite sect against the Sunnis, who make up 75 percent of the 23-million-strong population.

Witnesses said pro-Assad forces stormed the eastern tribal Sunni Muslim city of Deir al-Zor on Monday to seize areas previously held by the Free Syrian Army - a lightly armed and disparate resistance force led by army defectors.

At least one civilian, named as 60-year-old Adnan Khalifa, died in the assault, residents told Reuters.

"I heard the sound of several explosions. They could be tanks firing their guns or rebels using dynamite to try and slow down their advance," Tareq, one of the residents, said, speaking by phone from the city, which lies on the road to Iraq.

SANA reported that 13 civilians were shot dead by opposition "terrorists" near Syria's third largest city Homs on Sunday and said rebels had also destroyed a railway bridge linking Damascus to the southern Deraa region.

Damascus residents told Reuters that the fighting in Mezze included an attack by rebels near the home of Assef Shawkat - Assad's brother-in-law and deputy chief-of-staff of the armed forces. It wasn't immediately clear if he was the prime target.

HUMANITARIAN HOPES

The United Nations says more than 8,000 people have been killed and some 230,000 forced to flee their homes, including at least 30,000 who have escaped abroad. The government says about 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed.

Turkey has raised the prospect of setting up a "buffer zone" in Syria to protect those trying to flee. Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Department said on Monday 279 Syrians had crossed the border between March 18-19, bring the total number of Syrian refugees in the country to 16,446.

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, speaking in Moscow where he met Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said the humanitarian situation in Syria was likely get worse, underlining the need for "urgent measures" to ease the crisis.

The ICRC's Jakob Kellenberger told reporters he hoped Russia would help persuade Assad to allow more access for humanitarian aid to the worst affected areas.

"During the meeting, the ICRC received positive indications of support on its operational priorities and its initiative of a two-hour cessation of fighting on a daily basis," ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan told Reuters in Geneva.

Russia is a long-time ally of Damascus and has also been one of its top arms suppliers.

In a report published on Monday, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said arms deliveries to Syria surged 580 percent from 2007 to 2011 compared with the previous five years, with Russia supplying 78 percent of those imports.

(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans in Beirut, Steve Gutterman in Moscow and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Giles Elgood/Janet McBride)

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