Reuters
Syrian army planes bomb northern town killing 21
At least 21 people were killed and around 100 wounded overnight when Syrian army planes bombed a town in northern Syria that is controlled by Islamic State militants, a group monitoring the war said.
Syrian military helicopters dropped barrel bombs and warplanes launched air strikes on al-Bab which lies northeast of the city of Aleppo, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday.
One of the 21 killed was a child and the death count was expected to rise as some of the wounded were in a serious condition, said the Observatory, which gathers information from a variety of sources in Syria.
U.S-led warplanes have also been hitting Islamic State targets in Syria in a campaign which Washington says is not coordinated with Damascus. The Syrian army previously hit an area near al-Bab in September, saying it had "eliminated a number of terrorists" shortly after U.S.-led strikes started.
There was no immediate report on the latest strikes on Syrian state media.
Since the U.S.-led forces started strikes on Syria more than a month ago, Syria's military has ramped up its own air raids, concentrating on the west of the country and at times targeting territory held by Western-backed rebel fighters.
The U.S.-led strikes have mainly focused on Syria's north and east where Islamic State and other militant Islamist groups hold territory in areas bordering Turkey and Iraq.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/11/0 ... 7X20141109
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ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD
Re: ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD
Author: Anthea » Sun Nov 09, 2014 9:58 am
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Re: ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD
Author: Anthea » Sun Nov 09, 2014 10:23 am
I know what the Syrian people want
They want
PEACE
They do NOT want armed militants - Islamic and otherwise - in their towns and cities making them targets for American and Syrian bombing campaigns
They do NOT want foreign invaders - because that is exactly what most of the militant groups are - dividing their communities with their lies and promises and recuiting innocent Syrian youths
I am sure most Syrians know about:
Maronite Syrian Massacre 1860
In 1860 a series of massacres was carried out in Syria, under the patronage of the Turks. The desultory skirmishing of Druzes and Christians culminated in civil war throughout the Lebanon. Far and wide the Christian towns and villages were burnt, and thousands of Christians slaughtered. It was, to some extent, a general stand-up fight between rivals. British sympathy was largely with the Druzes. French sympathy and considerable support were on the side of the native Christians. The Druzes were almost uniformly victorious, and the carnage was frightful; but in almost every engagement Turkish troops were spectators. They gave moral support, and often practical assistance, to the Druzes during the battles; they invariably joined in the work of plunder, and they alone were guilty of unspeakable atrocities on women and children. On these points the testimony of missionaries, consuls, commanders, and ambassadors was unanimous.
In 1517 the shadow of the Turk first fell upon Syria. Selim I conquered the country, and since then, with one short interval, it formed a part of the Ottoman Empire. Wealth decreased and the taxation of industry increased, commerce dwindled, and the existence of the constantly diminishing Christian population was made unspeakably miserable. It sometimes happened that Christian rayahs lived so happily under Muhammedan rulers that they forgot for the time their status of degradation and badge of inferiority ; but the Turkish master brought with him Turkish manners, in addition to the standard ascendency of his religion.
During the weary centuries that Syria was under the heel of the Turk, the pashas, agas, kaimakams, and the entire horde of hungry officials, looked upon the Christians as their natural prey, and dealt with them unchecked and unquestioned by any authority. The only limit to their rapacity consisted in the practical limitations of their victims' resources. The life of the rayah was deplorable. He lived because he had made his choice between death and tribute. This was his official position in a Muhammedan state. But besides this he was constantly loaded with contumely. If by industry, or good luck, he happened to have wealth he was plundered. If he tried to conceal his treasure he was beaten on the feet till he disclosed it. Whatever his merit, he was not permitted to ride on a horse, or even on a donkey. When he met a Turk in the street he was obliged to leave the side path and step into the slush in the centre. He was obliged to wear black clothes and blackhead gear,while the Turks dressed in gay silks and golden embroideries. He was obliged to speak to a Turk with bated breath, and if by inadventence he raised his voice he was struck on the mouth. He dared not live in a house as high as that of his Muslim neighbours, or wear arms for protection, or have his seal engraved in the common Arabic character, and when he died it was not permissible to carry his corpse past a mosque.
In regard to the massacre of the eleven thousand Christians in Syria in 1860, the officials of the Porte at Constantinople formed a conspiracy for the blotting out of the Christian name in those parts, they appointed their own creatures to the governments of Damascus, Beirut, Sidon, and furnished them with soldiers, who were posted as garrison in the chief towns inhabited by Christians, under pretense of defending them against the Druses.
When all was ready the savage Druses of Hauron were summoned, and they and their brethren of Lebanon and Anti Lebanon immediately set themselves to burning the villages and killing the people without any provocation. They put to death every male, even the infants at the breast, and enslaved as many of the women and girls as they chose.
The Turkish garrison at first simply looked on; then they urged the Christians to take refuge in the castles on condition of delivering up whatever weapons they might possess. They swore by the Koran that no harm should be done them. But no sooner were they thus entrapped than the Druses were called in and every one of these helpless victims was shot down or his throat cut in cold blood.
The streets of Deirel Kamr, Ilosbayan, and Zahlah flowed with human gore, in which men waded ankle deep. The worst scenes occurred in Damascus, the center of Moslem fanaticism. Here the pasha himself directed the operations, and after the butchery of the Christians and the plunder of their property, their quarter of the city was set on fire and burned down.
The proceedings were the same in the entire series of massacres with little variation in detail. Soldiers arrived to protect the Christians, and made great professions of friendship. Generally large sums of money were given to the officer in command to secure his friendship, and much kindness was shown to the men. When the enemy arrived at a town, the Turks generally encouraged the Christians to show signs of resistance. Then they induced them to enter the Serai, and give up their arms. At Rasheiya the best of the arms were immediately selected by the Druzes; the remainder were despatched on mules, ostensibly for Damascus, but as no guard accompanied the mules, the whole of the arms were taken possession of by the mob of Muhammedans. The defenceless Christians were then left; like a flock of sheep penned in a fold, without food or drink, or place to rest on, for a few days. Then a message was proclaimed to them that they were about to be delivered. While they were in a delirium of joy, the soldiers suddenly appeared, and drove them 'with blows, and stabs, and execrations, into the centre of the court. The soldiers then stood around, and the Druzes rushed in with a yell. As soon as the work of slaughter was over the soldiers seized the distracted women, who were reserved for a worse fate than the men. With the Turks there was neither modesty nor mercy, and often when they had publicly dishonoured young girls, they deliberately cut their throats.
The fighting, when fighting was to be done, was left to the Druze in the mountains, but the brutalities that followed the carnage were chiefly the work of Turks.
On May 26, 1860, Consul-General Moore reported an outbreak between the Druzes and Christians near Beyrout, and for weeks the slaughter of the Christians proceeded steadily and methodically throughout the country and provincial towns, and in regular order reached the capital, Damascus, on July 9.
It is customary to speak of the terrible slaughter at Damascus as an incident in the war between the Druzes and Maronites. Nothing could be more remote from the truth. The Damascus Christians were in no way connected, either by kinship or clanship, with the mountain tribes, and they had taken no part, directly or indirectly, in the bloody work that day by day rolled nearer to their gates. They had no quarrel with the Druzes, and there were few Druzes in Damascus, or near it, to attack the Christians.
The Damascus massacre followed the outlines of those that had preceded it, but it was "intended that it should be more thorough." The program was simple. All the married men and women were to be slaughtered, and all the young boys were to be taken and circumcised, while the young girls were to be taken directly into the harems of their captors. Christianity was to be blotted out in Damascus. The Muslems believed they were carrying out the wishes of their Government, when in reality they were carrying out the wishes of TURKEY
Perhaps after reading this you will realise how evil turks are and how much Syrians HATE Turks
Everyone should be working together to rid Syria of these militant groups
The trouble is where will the militants go
Erdogan would not want people in Turkey he could not control
Perhaps Iraq will have to divide along religious grounds and the Islamic State militants could remain with their fellow Sunnis - the current Iraqi government has made little attempt to heal the divisions - in fact the Shia Militiamen seem to be making matters much worse
They want
PEACE
They do NOT want armed militants - Islamic and otherwise - in their towns and cities making them targets for American and Syrian bombing campaigns
They do NOT want foreign invaders - because that is exactly what most of the militant groups are - dividing their communities with their lies and promises and recuiting innocent Syrian youths
I am sure most Syrians know about:
Maronite Syrian Massacre 1860
In 1860 a series of massacres was carried out in Syria, under the patronage of the Turks. The desultory skirmishing of Druzes and Christians culminated in civil war throughout the Lebanon. Far and wide the Christian towns and villages were burnt, and thousands of Christians slaughtered. It was, to some extent, a general stand-up fight between rivals. British sympathy was largely with the Druzes. French sympathy and considerable support were on the side of the native Christians. The Druzes were almost uniformly victorious, and the carnage was frightful; but in almost every engagement Turkish troops were spectators. They gave moral support, and often practical assistance, to the Druzes during the battles; they invariably joined in the work of plunder, and they alone were guilty of unspeakable atrocities on women and children. On these points the testimony of missionaries, consuls, commanders, and ambassadors was unanimous.
In 1517 the shadow of the Turk first fell upon Syria. Selim I conquered the country, and since then, with one short interval, it formed a part of the Ottoman Empire. Wealth decreased and the taxation of industry increased, commerce dwindled, and the existence of the constantly diminishing Christian population was made unspeakably miserable. It sometimes happened that Christian rayahs lived so happily under Muhammedan rulers that they forgot for the time their status of degradation and badge of inferiority ; but the Turkish master brought with him Turkish manners, in addition to the standard ascendency of his religion.
During the weary centuries that Syria was under the heel of the Turk, the pashas, agas, kaimakams, and the entire horde of hungry officials, looked upon the Christians as their natural prey, and dealt with them unchecked and unquestioned by any authority. The only limit to their rapacity consisted in the practical limitations of their victims' resources. The life of the rayah was deplorable. He lived because he had made his choice between death and tribute. This was his official position in a Muhammedan state. But besides this he was constantly loaded with contumely. If by industry, or good luck, he happened to have wealth he was plundered. If he tried to conceal his treasure he was beaten on the feet till he disclosed it. Whatever his merit, he was not permitted to ride on a horse, or even on a donkey. When he met a Turk in the street he was obliged to leave the side path and step into the slush in the centre. He was obliged to wear black clothes and blackhead gear,while the Turks dressed in gay silks and golden embroideries. He was obliged to speak to a Turk with bated breath, and if by inadventence he raised his voice he was struck on the mouth. He dared not live in a house as high as that of his Muslim neighbours, or wear arms for protection, or have his seal engraved in the common Arabic character, and when he died it was not permissible to carry his corpse past a mosque.
In regard to the massacre of the eleven thousand Christians in Syria in 1860, the officials of the Porte at Constantinople formed a conspiracy for the blotting out of the Christian name in those parts, they appointed their own creatures to the governments of Damascus, Beirut, Sidon, and furnished them with soldiers, who were posted as garrison in the chief towns inhabited by Christians, under pretense of defending them against the Druses.
When all was ready the savage Druses of Hauron were summoned, and they and their brethren of Lebanon and Anti Lebanon immediately set themselves to burning the villages and killing the people without any provocation. They put to death every male, even the infants at the breast, and enslaved as many of the women and girls as they chose.
The Turkish garrison at first simply looked on; then they urged the Christians to take refuge in the castles on condition of delivering up whatever weapons they might possess. They swore by the Koran that no harm should be done them. But no sooner were they thus entrapped than the Druses were called in and every one of these helpless victims was shot down or his throat cut in cold blood.
The streets of Deirel Kamr, Ilosbayan, and Zahlah flowed with human gore, in which men waded ankle deep. The worst scenes occurred in Damascus, the center of Moslem fanaticism. Here the pasha himself directed the operations, and after the butchery of the Christians and the plunder of their property, their quarter of the city was set on fire and burned down.
The proceedings were the same in the entire series of massacres with little variation in detail. Soldiers arrived to protect the Christians, and made great professions of friendship. Generally large sums of money were given to the officer in command to secure his friendship, and much kindness was shown to the men. When the enemy arrived at a town, the Turks generally encouraged the Christians to show signs of resistance. Then they induced them to enter the Serai, and give up their arms. At Rasheiya the best of the arms were immediately selected by the Druzes; the remainder were despatched on mules, ostensibly for Damascus, but as no guard accompanied the mules, the whole of the arms were taken possession of by the mob of Muhammedans. The defenceless Christians were then left; like a flock of sheep penned in a fold, without food or drink, or place to rest on, for a few days. Then a message was proclaimed to them that they were about to be delivered. While they were in a delirium of joy, the soldiers suddenly appeared, and drove them 'with blows, and stabs, and execrations, into the centre of the court. The soldiers then stood around, and the Druzes rushed in with a yell. As soon as the work of slaughter was over the soldiers seized the distracted women, who were reserved for a worse fate than the men. With the Turks there was neither modesty nor mercy, and often when they had publicly dishonoured young girls, they deliberately cut their throats.
The fighting, when fighting was to be done, was left to the Druze in the mountains, but the brutalities that followed the carnage were chiefly the work of Turks.
On May 26, 1860, Consul-General Moore reported an outbreak between the Druzes and Christians near Beyrout, and for weeks the slaughter of the Christians proceeded steadily and methodically throughout the country and provincial towns, and in regular order reached the capital, Damascus, on July 9.
It is customary to speak of the terrible slaughter at Damascus as an incident in the war between the Druzes and Maronites. Nothing could be more remote from the truth. The Damascus Christians were in no way connected, either by kinship or clanship, with the mountain tribes, and they had taken no part, directly or indirectly, in the bloody work that day by day rolled nearer to their gates. They had no quarrel with the Druzes, and there were few Druzes in Damascus, or near it, to attack the Christians.
The Damascus massacre followed the outlines of those that had preceded it, but it was "intended that it should be more thorough." The program was simple. All the married men and women were to be slaughtered, and all the young boys were to be taken and circumcised, while the young girls were to be taken directly into the harems of their captors. Christianity was to be blotted out in Damascus. The Muslems believed they were carrying out the wishes of their Government, when in reality they were carrying out the wishes of TURKEY
Perhaps after reading this you will realise how evil turks are and how much Syrians HATE Turks
Everyone should be working together to rid Syria of these militant groups
The trouble is where will the militants go
Erdogan would not want people in Turkey he could not control
Perhaps Iraq will have to divide along religious grounds and the Islamic State militants could remain with their fellow Sunnis - the current Iraqi government has made little attempt to heal the divisions - in fact the Shia Militiamen seem to be making matters much worse
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
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Re: ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD
Author: Anthea » Mon Nov 10, 2014 11:41 am
Al Arabiya
Lebanon army arrests Syria rebel commander
The Lebanese army on Sunday arrested a Syrian rebel commander who was trying to enter Lebanon using fake documents, a security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“The army arrested a commander of the (rebel) Free Syrian Army from the Qalamun area” near Lebanon, the source said.
“He was trying to enter Lebanon using a fake Lebanese ID. The vehicle he was travelling in was stopped at a checkpoint in the Wadi Hmeid area” near the Syrian border, he added.
Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, a military spokesman confirmed the arrest.
The official National News Agency identified the Syrian as Colonel Abdullah al-Rifai and said he is a top leader of the rebel military council in Qalamun, Syria.
Rebels in the Qalamun region have battled both the Syrian army and Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters into Syria to back President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
In August, jihadists streamed across the border from Syria and fought fierce battles with the Lebanese army in the frontier town of Arsal.
They are still holding 27 Lebanese police and soldiers they took hostage during the clashes, having executed three of them.
The August fighting erupted after the Lebanese army arrested and jailed a jihadist-linked Syrian fighter.
Lebanon is sharply divided over the war in neighboring Syria, and has regularly seen deadly battles linked to the conflict next door.
Most Sunnis support the revolt seeking Assad’s ouster, while most Shiites back Damascus and its ally Hezbollah.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/mi ... nder-.html
Lebanon army arrests Syria rebel commander
The Lebanese army on Sunday arrested a Syrian rebel commander who was trying to enter Lebanon using fake documents, a security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“The army arrested a commander of the (rebel) Free Syrian Army from the Qalamun area” near Lebanon, the source said.
“He was trying to enter Lebanon using a fake Lebanese ID. The vehicle he was travelling in was stopped at a checkpoint in the Wadi Hmeid area” near the Syrian border, he added.
Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, a military spokesman confirmed the arrest.
The official National News Agency identified the Syrian as Colonel Abdullah al-Rifai and said he is a top leader of the rebel military council in Qalamun, Syria.
Rebels in the Qalamun region have battled both the Syrian army and Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters into Syria to back President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
In August, jihadists streamed across the border from Syria and fought fierce battles with the Lebanese army in the frontier town of Arsal.
They are still holding 27 Lebanese police and soldiers they took hostage during the clashes, having executed three of them.
The August fighting erupted after the Lebanese army arrested and jailed a jihadist-linked Syrian fighter.
Lebanon is sharply divided over the war in neighboring Syria, and has regularly seen deadly battles linked to the conflict next door.
Most Sunnis support the revolt seeking Assad’s ouster, while most Shiites back Damascus and its ally Hezbollah.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/mi ... nder-.html
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Anthea - Shaswar
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Re: ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD
Author: Anthea » Mon Nov 10, 2014 12:49 pm
CBS News
Syrian government strikes ISIS-controlled town in Syria
BEIRUT - Syrian government helicopters and warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes overnight on a northern town controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), killing at least 21 people, activists said Sunday.
The air raids struck the town of al-Bab in Aleppo province late Saturday and lasted through early Sunday morning. The Aleppo Media Center activist collective and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights both reported the attacks.
Ful Article:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/syrian-gove ... -in-syria/
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Re: ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD
Author: Anthea » Mon Nov 10, 2014 10:31 pm
BBC News
Syria conflict: Assad 'to study' UN truce plan for Aleppo
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said he will study a UN proposal for "local ceasefires" in the war-ravaged northern city of Aleppo.
The UN's Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura had called for "freeze zones" to halt fighting and improve aid.
Mr Assad's office said it was "worth studying" to return security to Aleppo.
Syria's civil war has hit Aleppo hard. It is split into rebel and government-controlled areas and has seen regular air raids, killing many civilians.
More than 200,000 people have lost their lives in the civil war, which is in its fourth year.
'Freeze zones'
Mr de Mistura conveyed the ideas to Mr Assad during talks in the Syrian capital, Damascus, in the envoy's second visit to the country since his appointment in July.
Local ceasefires or "incremental freeze zones" have had some effect in other areas of Syria and Mr de Mistura earlier indicated Aleppo would be a good candidate.
The state news agency Sana quoted Mr Assad's office as saying that the president "considered the de Mistura initiative worth studying and trying to work on in order to attain its aims to return security to the city of Aleppo".
Aleppo has been racked by fighting since July 2012. For the past year it has witnessed almost daily government air force raids, with many civilian casualties.
Previous UN envoys have failed to negotiate a full ceasefire between the government and rebel groups.
The government is battling against an increasingly fragmented uprising.
As well as fighting the government, rebel groups such as the Nusra Front and Islamic State (IS) have also been fighting among themselves.
The conflict broadened this year with a US-led coalition launching air strikes in Syria, mainly targeting IS fighters.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29991667
Syria conflict: Assad 'to study' UN truce plan for Aleppo
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said he will study a UN proposal for "local ceasefires" in the war-ravaged northern city of Aleppo.
The UN's Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura had called for "freeze zones" to halt fighting and improve aid.
Mr Assad's office said it was "worth studying" to return security to Aleppo.
Syria's civil war has hit Aleppo hard. It is split into rebel and government-controlled areas and has seen regular air raids, killing many civilians.
More than 200,000 people have lost their lives in the civil war, which is in its fourth year.
'Freeze zones'
Mr de Mistura conveyed the ideas to Mr Assad during talks in the Syrian capital, Damascus, in the envoy's second visit to the country since his appointment in July.
Local ceasefires or "incremental freeze zones" have had some effect in other areas of Syria and Mr de Mistura earlier indicated Aleppo would be a good candidate.
The state news agency Sana quoted Mr Assad's office as saying that the president "considered the de Mistura initiative worth studying and trying to work on in order to attain its aims to return security to the city of Aleppo".
Aleppo has been racked by fighting since July 2012. For the past year it has witnessed almost daily government air force raids, with many civilian casualties.
Previous UN envoys have failed to negotiate a full ceasefire between the government and rebel groups.
The government is battling against an increasingly fragmented uprising.
As well as fighting the government, rebel groups such as the Nusra Front and Islamic State (IS) have also been fighting among themselves.
The conflict broadened this year with a US-led coalition launching air strikes in Syria, mainly targeting IS fighters.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29991667
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Re: ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD
Author: Anthea » Mon Nov 10, 2014 11:19 pm
The government is battling against an increasingly fragmented uprising.
This is now the main problem that Syria has to deal with
It would appear that almost everyone connected to the rebel group - wants to to break away and start their own group
Egos abound in Syria - and most of those egos belong to Islamic extremists
These groups are ever fluctuating - and ever expanding
The only thing that the vast majority of groups (possibly all extremist groups) have in common is that they are Sunni
In both Iraq and Syria the Sunnis have been victimised by the Shia governments
In my valued judgement the only solution is to allow the Sunnis an independent state of their own
I think that the antagonism between the Sunni and Shia has gone on far too long - there has been far too much bloodshed - there is no longer any way to reconcile their differences
Permanent separation is the only way forward and the only way to prevent the conflict flaring up again
Other than allowing the Sunnis to have an independent state - I cannot see any other solution
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Re: ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD
Author: Anthea » Tue Nov 11, 2014 4:44 pm
Heroic young boy runs through sniper fire in Syria, pretends to get shot, then rescues terrrified girl as bullets hit the floor around them
Video shows young Syrian boy being fired at by snipers
Boy seems to fake being hit, before he gets up again
He grabs hand of a girl from behind a car, and the pair run back
Video, uploaded yesterday, has already been viewed 500,000 times
By Sara Malm for MailOnline
A young Syrian boy has been hailed a hero after a video showing him running through sniper fire to save a girl emerged online.
The one-minute clip shows the boy running from the left side of the frame and coming under fire as he dashes towards a car-wreck.
As he runs shots are fired at him and he appears to fake being shot in the chest and falling over.
The video has not been independently verified, but it is believed to be from Yabroud, a countryside town 50 miles from Damascus.
Yabroud was the last rebel stronghold held by the FSA on the Lebanese border before it fell to Assad's forces in March 2014
The video, which was uploaded yesterday, has already had nearly 500,000 views.
It was later re-published on YouTube by Sham News Network, which is run by activists based in Damascus.
Several YouTube comments claim the video is fake, but experts told The Telegraph they have no reason to doubt its authenticity.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -them.html
Anthea: It is terrible if true that someone would shot at children
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Re: ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD
Author: Anthea » Tue Nov 11, 2014 5:40 pm
ABC News
UN Syria Envoy Calls for Truce in Aleppo
The United Nations envoy to Syria called Tuesday for a truce in the northern city of Aleppo as a possible step to a wider resolution of the country's civil war, though activists cast doubt on the plan.
U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura spoke at a news conference in the capital, Damascus, as part of his three-day visit to Syria.
His public call for a cease-fire came a day after Syrian President Bashar Assad said the suggestion was "worth studying."
Previously, pro-government Syrian media lashed out at de Mistura, accusing the envoy of overstepping his bounds for suggesting local truces.
The envoy called the situation urgent.
"Aleppo is not far from a possible collapse," he said. A truce would be a "building block for a political process."
Aleppo is the last major city where rebels hold large areas, but they are under attack from advancing government forces. The Islamic State group is trying to take nearby rebel-held communities and activists fear they will try advance on Aleppo.
Parts of rebel-held areas pulverized and abandoned after thousands were killed in government bombings, and rebels are divided into squabbling factions.
Many activists said the envoy's efforts may be too late because of the damage done in three years of war. But Mohammed al-Shafi, an activist from Aleppo, said if the government agreed to a truce, residents would pressure rebels to follow suit.
"People in Aleppo are tired, everybody runs all day just to find bread. They only have food aid, donated baskets," he said.
Aleppo's rebels have so far not issued a unified statement on the U.N. envoy's proposal. Only Tuesday did 14 rebel groups there announce a joint operations command, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
Activist Ahmad Hamed also hoped a truce would be "the beginning of the end" of the conflict, though he said he feared it could allow government forces to regroup and tempt Islamic State fighters to barrel into Aleppo.
"Of course, the Islamic State won't agree to a truce," Hamed said.
———
Hadid reported from Beirut
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wir ... o-26827036
UN Syria Envoy Calls for Truce in Aleppo
The United Nations envoy to Syria called Tuesday for a truce in the northern city of Aleppo as a possible step to a wider resolution of the country's civil war, though activists cast doubt on the plan.
U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura spoke at a news conference in the capital, Damascus, as part of his three-day visit to Syria.
His public call for a cease-fire came a day after Syrian President Bashar Assad said the suggestion was "worth studying."
Previously, pro-government Syrian media lashed out at de Mistura, accusing the envoy of overstepping his bounds for suggesting local truces.
The envoy called the situation urgent.
"Aleppo is not far from a possible collapse," he said. A truce would be a "building block for a political process."
Aleppo is the last major city where rebels hold large areas, but they are under attack from advancing government forces. The Islamic State group is trying to take nearby rebel-held communities and activists fear they will try advance on Aleppo.
Parts of rebel-held areas pulverized and abandoned after thousands were killed in government bombings, and rebels are divided into squabbling factions.
Many activists said the envoy's efforts may be too late because of the damage done in three years of war. But Mohammed al-Shafi, an activist from Aleppo, said if the government agreed to a truce, residents would pressure rebels to follow suit.
"People in Aleppo are tired, everybody runs all day just to find bread. They only have food aid, donated baskets," he said.
Aleppo's rebels have so far not issued a unified statement on the U.N. envoy's proposal. Only Tuesday did 14 rebel groups there announce a joint operations command, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
Activist Ahmad Hamed also hoped a truce would be "the beginning of the end" of the conflict, though he said he feared it could allow government forces to regroup and tempt Islamic State fighters to barrel into Aleppo.
"Of course, the Islamic State won't agree to a truce," Hamed said.
———
Hadid reported from Beirut
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wir ... o-26827036
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Re: ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD
Author: Anthea » Wed Nov 12, 2014 11:05 pm
BBC News
Syria crisis: Assad holds on in war without end
By Jeremy Bowen
The teacher, quite a young woman, was neatly dressed in a long coat and skirt, with her hair covered by a plain, tightly wrapped white scarf.
She doesn't want me to identify her because it could lead to trouble. She works at a school in Qaboun, a suburb of Damascus that is controlled by a rebel faction loyal to the Free Syrian Army.
I managed to cross from government-controlled Damascus to meet them last summer. Their commanders were bearded, pious Muslims who said they condemned the brutality of the jihadists.
They said they were prepared to die to destroy President Bashar al-Assad and his regime, and wanted to build a state modelled on 21st Century Turkey, under a government with a distinct Islamist flavour.
Playground deaths
I could see the teacher was working hard to keep her voice steady as she described what happened when two bombs hit her school last week during morning break.
The 15 who died and the others who were horribly injured were all boys because it was their turn to go out to play in the warm autumn sun.
The teacher, a devout Muslim, was saying the prayer for those who are about to die as the smoke cleared and she saw the boys she had sent out for their break lying dead, dying or injured near the school entrance.
After the first explosion, far enough away not to hurt them, they had been running to get inside as they had been taught.
She had sent two 11-year-olds out of the class earlier that morning for being disruptive. They could not read or write because they had missed four years of school. They lay dead on the playground together, and later that day were buried side by side.
The teacher told me she still hadn't cried, although sometimes she shakes with cold.
"What have the children done to deserve this?" she said, in a voice that was never raised, but always full of anger. "They don't have weapons."
She said she did not know who fired the fatal shells. Like many Syrians, she has been disgusted by behaviour on every side of the war.
"It's President Assad's duty to leave the children out of this war. He needs to stop shelling the schools - but both sides need to stop attacking the children. They have nothing to do with this war. Adults started the fighting - and they can carry on - but they can't use their children to further their aims."
'Dinosaur era'
Is there a way to end the war in Syria? Not at the moment, or in the foreseeable future.
That is extremely bad news for the teacher, and every Syrian caught in the nightmare of a fourth year of bloodshed.
The UN estimates that nearly 200,000 people have been killed. Almost 11 million Syrians, virtually half of the population, have been forced to leave their homes. Of those, more than three million have fled the country.
In the year or so after a series of local uprisings in March 2011 escalated quickly into a shooting war, President Assad's opponents hoped it would end with the rapid collapse of the system that his father had established in 1970.
Presidents in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen had been forced out. In Libya, Muammar Gaddafi had been killed.
President Assad was never as unpopular as the leaders who were deposed in 2011, but many Syrians were fed up with repression and corruption.
He had enemies, and at first demonstrators called for the reforms that he had often promised and never delivered - and sometimes were shot by the security forces.
But President Assad has survived, and that would have been impossible without a degree of popular support. For his supporters, and others who just wanted a quiet life, the so-called "Arab Spring" has been a cruel joke.
About six weeks ago the Syrian army recaptured Adra, a satellite town outside Damascus. Many supporters of the president lived there, mostly people with state jobs who had been given cheap housing as a perk.
Adra was damaged badly in the battle to eject a coalition of armed rebels, dominated by the Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate.
Mohammad Raja Mahawish, a 40-year-old surveyor, was held in the cellar of his block of flats with his wife, children and 60 others for 22 days after the rebels seized the town almost a year ago.
Standing in the dank basement room where he was effectively imprisoned, Mahawish condemned the uprisings of 2011.
"The Arab Spring," he said, "was used to fool people and caused a lot of problems in our country. Householders lost their properties, so did factory owners, people who were dreaming of a bright future for their children, good schools, university degrees, marriage, all gone… During these last three to four years, we were taken back to the dinosaur era."
Even the dinosaurs, he said, were more civilised than the rebels. Before he left Adra with his family and neighbours, Nusra and its allies, he said, had imposed a reign of terror.
"Imagine being in a situation where at any time someone can kill you, your children and your wife, or rape her."
Soldiers' loyalty
President Assad has had some bad moments. He has lost control of large swathes of the country. But his regime has been surprisingly resilient.
It has had military, diplomatic and financial support from Iran, Russia and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. But just as importantly, it has kept the support of most of Syria's minorities and enough of the majority Sunni Muslims to survive.
That has helped deliver the loyalty of most of the armed forces, another crucial factor. Wholesale defections were often predicted in the first few years of fighting, but never happened.
In the warren of passages, sandbagged walkways and burnt-out cellars on the front line in Damascus, battle-hardened Syrian soldiers fight a war of attrition with armed rebels.
Capt Yaroub Issa, commander of a special forces unit, reeled off where he had been - a year-and-a-half in Idlib, Khan el Asal and Aleppo for seven months, and the suburbs of Damascus for the last 16 months.
The soldiers echoed the voices of the regime. A man in combat gear wearing a black full-face balaclava, on guard at a spy hole in a wall of sandbags facing rebel positions 10m (33ft) away, blamed a foreign conspiracy for Syria's troubles - just like President Assad.
"The country was running just fine," he said. "Their aim is simply to divide Syria into parts to help Israel. We are against this plan and conspiracy, we will keep resisting until our last drop of blood."
He brushed my words aside when I told him that I'd met rebel fighters in the positions facing him, in Qaboun, who had said that they were fighting for freer lives.
"These people have been fooled, they've been brainwashed under the veil of religion, and they use it as an alibi."
What is important is not the truth or otherwise of his views - which I have heard from many other Syrian soldiers in other places.
The point is that Yaroub Issa and other soldiers believe in the regime enough to be prepared, in the fourth year of war, to fight, if necessary, to the death.
Opposition divided
Many of the Syrian officers I've met have been Alawites, from the president's own sect. But in every unit there have also been Sunnis.
The regime has been stronger than many expected, which has helped it to survive. But another reason for the long war has been the disunity of the rebels.
An effective and influential alliance of secular, moderate Islamist rebels never emerged. They blamed the West for failing to support them properly. But they were never able to come up with a coherent way to appeal to millions of Syrians locked in their own personal struggles to survive the war.
President Assad's message has been consistent. He argued from the start that the uprising against him was a foreign conspiracy, a cynical alliance of jihadists and friends of Israel who wanted to destroy the Syrian state because it had dared to defy them.
The president's version of events was rejected and ridiculed by countries who demanded his removal, including the US, Britain, France and Saudi Arabia.
But as jihadist groups turned on more moderate rebel forces, and began to dominate the fight against the regime, his argument that Syrians had a choice between his secular regime and religious extremists seemed more convincing at home.
Opponents of the regime say that he worked from the beginning to create the stark choice between the regime and the jihadists, the reality he claimed existed from the start of the fighting.
His method, they say, was to target more moderate rebels and keep the pressure off the jihadists, first from al-Qaeda and now from the group that calls itself Islamic State.
The UN has another ceasefire plan, but it is at a very early stage. Diplomatic attempts to stop the war, or even slow it down, have failed. Syria's connections with the rest of the Middle East, and the rivalries of big powers left no room for diplomacy.
Syria never had a straightforward civil war. But now it is at the centre of an international conflict.
All of Syria's neighbours have become involved, in one way or another. One person in four in Lebanon is now a Syrian refugee.
The fighting here has merged with a renewed sectarian war in Iraq.
The regional superpowers are involved, Iran for the government, Saudi Arabia against it.
The Russians support President Assad, and the Americans, now bombing the jihadists, oppose him.
The war is changing, morphing into an even more grotesque shape, but it shows no signs of ending.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30011154
Syria crisis: Assad holds on in war without end
By Jeremy Bowen
The teacher, quite a young woman, was neatly dressed in a long coat and skirt, with her hair covered by a plain, tightly wrapped white scarf.
She doesn't want me to identify her because it could lead to trouble. She works at a school in Qaboun, a suburb of Damascus that is controlled by a rebel faction loyal to the Free Syrian Army.
I managed to cross from government-controlled Damascus to meet them last summer. Their commanders were bearded, pious Muslims who said they condemned the brutality of the jihadists.
They said they were prepared to die to destroy President Bashar al-Assad and his regime, and wanted to build a state modelled on 21st Century Turkey, under a government with a distinct Islamist flavour.
Playground deaths
I could see the teacher was working hard to keep her voice steady as she described what happened when two bombs hit her school last week during morning break.
The 15 who died and the others who were horribly injured were all boys because it was their turn to go out to play in the warm autumn sun.
The teacher, a devout Muslim, was saying the prayer for those who are about to die as the smoke cleared and she saw the boys she had sent out for their break lying dead, dying or injured near the school entrance.
After the first explosion, far enough away not to hurt them, they had been running to get inside as they had been taught.
She had sent two 11-year-olds out of the class earlier that morning for being disruptive. They could not read or write because they had missed four years of school. They lay dead on the playground together, and later that day were buried side by side.
The teacher told me she still hadn't cried, although sometimes she shakes with cold.
"What have the children done to deserve this?" she said, in a voice that was never raised, but always full of anger. "They don't have weapons."
She said she did not know who fired the fatal shells. Like many Syrians, she has been disgusted by behaviour on every side of the war.
"It's President Assad's duty to leave the children out of this war. He needs to stop shelling the schools - but both sides need to stop attacking the children. They have nothing to do with this war. Adults started the fighting - and they can carry on - but they can't use their children to further their aims."
'Dinosaur era'
Is there a way to end the war in Syria? Not at the moment, or in the foreseeable future.
That is extremely bad news for the teacher, and every Syrian caught in the nightmare of a fourth year of bloodshed.
The UN estimates that nearly 200,000 people have been killed. Almost 11 million Syrians, virtually half of the population, have been forced to leave their homes. Of those, more than three million have fled the country.
In the year or so after a series of local uprisings in March 2011 escalated quickly into a shooting war, President Assad's opponents hoped it would end with the rapid collapse of the system that his father had established in 1970.
Presidents in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen had been forced out. In Libya, Muammar Gaddafi had been killed.
President Assad was never as unpopular as the leaders who were deposed in 2011, but many Syrians were fed up with repression and corruption.
He had enemies, and at first demonstrators called for the reforms that he had often promised and never delivered - and sometimes were shot by the security forces.
But President Assad has survived, and that would have been impossible without a degree of popular support. For his supporters, and others who just wanted a quiet life, the so-called "Arab Spring" has been a cruel joke.
About six weeks ago the Syrian army recaptured Adra, a satellite town outside Damascus. Many supporters of the president lived there, mostly people with state jobs who had been given cheap housing as a perk.
Adra was damaged badly in the battle to eject a coalition of armed rebels, dominated by the Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate.
Mohammad Raja Mahawish, a 40-year-old surveyor, was held in the cellar of his block of flats with his wife, children and 60 others for 22 days after the rebels seized the town almost a year ago.
Standing in the dank basement room where he was effectively imprisoned, Mahawish condemned the uprisings of 2011.
"The Arab Spring," he said, "was used to fool people and caused a lot of problems in our country. Householders lost their properties, so did factory owners, people who were dreaming of a bright future for their children, good schools, university degrees, marriage, all gone… During these last three to four years, we were taken back to the dinosaur era."
Even the dinosaurs, he said, were more civilised than the rebels. Before he left Adra with his family and neighbours, Nusra and its allies, he said, had imposed a reign of terror.
"Imagine being in a situation where at any time someone can kill you, your children and your wife, or rape her."
Soldiers' loyalty
President Assad has had some bad moments. He has lost control of large swathes of the country. But his regime has been surprisingly resilient.
It has had military, diplomatic and financial support from Iran, Russia and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. But just as importantly, it has kept the support of most of Syria's minorities and enough of the majority Sunni Muslims to survive.
That has helped deliver the loyalty of most of the armed forces, another crucial factor. Wholesale defections were often predicted in the first few years of fighting, but never happened.
In the warren of passages, sandbagged walkways and burnt-out cellars on the front line in Damascus, battle-hardened Syrian soldiers fight a war of attrition with armed rebels.
Capt Yaroub Issa, commander of a special forces unit, reeled off where he had been - a year-and-a-half in Idlib, Khan el Asal and Aleppo for seven months, and the suburbs of Damascus for the last 16 months.
The soldiers echoed the voices of the regime. A man in combat gear wearing a black full-face balaclava, on guard at a spy hole in a wall of sandbags facing rebel positions 10m (33ft) away, blamed a foreign conspiracy for Syria's troubles - just like President Assad.
"The country was running just fine," he said. "Their aim is simply to divide Syria into parts to help Israel. We are against this plan and conspiracy, we will keep resisting until our last drop of blood."
He brushed my words aside when I told him that I'd met rebel fighters in the positions facing him, in Qaboun, who had said that they were fighting for freer lives.
"These people have been fooled, they've been brainwashed under the veil of religion, and they use it as an alibi."
What is important is not the truth or otherwise of his views - which I have heard from many other Syrian soldiers in other places.
The point is that Yaroub Issa and other soldiers believe in the regime enough to be prepared, in the fourth year of war, to fight, if necessary, to the death.
Opposition divided
Many of the Syrian officers I've met have been Alawites, from the president's own sect. But in every unit there have also been Sunnis.
The regime has been stronger than many expected, which has helped it to survive. But another reason for the long war has been the disunity of the rebels.
An effective and influential alliance of secular, moderate Islamist rebels never emerged. They blamed the West for failing to support them properly. But they were never able to come up with a coherent way to appeal to millions of Syrians locked in their own personal struggles to survive the war.
President Assad's message has been consistent. He argued from the start that the uprising against him was a foreign conspiracy, a cynical alliance of jihadists and friends of Israel who wanted to destroy the Syrian state because it had dared to defy them.
The president's version of events was rejected and ridiculed by countries who demanded his removal, including the US, Britain, France and Saudi Arabia.
But as jihadist groups turned on more moderate rebel forces, and began to dominate the fight against the regime, his argument that Syrians had a choice between his secular regime and religious extremists seemed more convincing at home.
Opponents of the regime say that he worked from the beginning to create the stark choice between the regime and the jihadists, the reality he claimed existed from the start of the fighting.
His method, they say, was to target more moderate rebels and keep the pressure off the jihadists, first from al-Qaeda and now from the group that calls itself Islamic State.
The UN has another ceasefire plan, but it is at a very early stage. Diplomatic attempts to stop the war, or even slow it down, have failed. Syria's connections with the rest of the Middle East, and the rivalries of big powers left no room for diplomacy.
Syria never had a straightforward civil war. But now it is at the centre of an international conflict.
All of Syria's neighbours have become involved, in one way or another. One person in four in Lebanon is now a Syrian refugee.
The fighting here has merged with a renewed sectarian war in Iraq.
The regional superpowers are involved, Iran for the government, Saudi Arabia against it.
The Russians support President Assad, and the Americans, now bombing the jihadists, oppose him.
The war is changing, morphing into an even more grotesque shape, but it shows no signs of ending.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30011154
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Re: ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD
Author: Anthea » Wed Nov 12, 2014 11:40 pm
The Russians support President Assad, and the Americans, now bombing the jihadists, oppose him.
The Americans should not have supported and armed the rebel groups in the first instance
Any sensible person would have realised that there was a possibility of the rebel groups using those weapons against the Syrian population
America and intelligence see example below:
A survey found that 51 percent of respondents believe that stormy weather can interfere with cloud computing
Half of the Americans are CRAZY
Now that the jihadist groups have broken away from American control - America has started bombing them
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Re: ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD
Author: Anthea » Thu Nov 13, 2014 12:06 am
Reuters
Kurds block an Islamic State supply route to Syria's Kobani
Kurdish forces blocked a road Islamic State militants use to resupply their forces in a Syrian town on the Turkish border, a town official and a monitoring group said on Wednesday, the first major gain against the jihadists after weeks of violence.
Iraqi-Kurdish peshmerga forces crossed into Kobani on Oct. 31 to help the besieged Kurdish YPG and YPJ fighters in the town. The combined forces have now cut off the road which leads south east to the village of Hilnij, the sources said.
Despite having limited strategic significance, the battle in Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, has become a powerful symbol in the fight against Islamic State. The hardline Sunni Muslim group has captured large expanses of Iraq and Syria and declared an Islamic "caliphate".
Idris Nassan, a local official in Kobani, said by telephone that anti-IS forces had taken the strategic hill of Mistanour and the road which runs along the side of the hill.
"ISIS was using this road for ammunition and fighters," he said, using a former name for Islamic State. He added that peshmerga forces had been focusing artillery strikes on IS positions on the outskirts of Kobani like Mistanour over the past week, to halt IS shelling on the town.
Reuters was unable to reach Islamic State fighters in Kobani. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Kurdish forces had not taken Mistanour hill but had started fighting on the road to Hilnij, preventing IS fighters from using it to resupply.
Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga have helped forces in Kobani take some villages around Kobani but the lines of control in the town remain the same.
The town has become a test of the U.S.-led coalition's ability to halt the advance of the hardline insurgents. It is one of the few areas in Syria where it can co-ordinate air strikes with operations by an effective ground force.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/11/1 ... FZ20141112
Kurds block an Islamic State supply route to Syria's Kobani
Kurdish forces blocked a road Islamic State militants use to resupply their forces in a Syrian town on the Turkish border, a town official and a monitoring group said on Wednesday, the first major gain against the jihadists after weeks of violence.
Iraqi-Kurdish peshmerga forces crossed into Kobani on Oct. 31 to help the besieged Kurdish YPG and YPJ fighters in the town. The combined forces have now cut off the road which leads south east to the village of Hilnij, the sources said.
Despite having limited strategic significance, the battle in Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, has become a powerful symbol in the fight against Islamic State. The hardline Sunni Muslim group has captured large expanses of Iraq and Syria and declared an Islamic "caliphate".
Idris Nassan, a local official in Kobani, said by telephone that anti-IS forces had taken the strategic hill of Mistanour and the road which runs along the side of the hill.
"ISIS was using this road for ammunition and fighters," he said, using a former name for Islamic State. He added that peshmerga forces had been focusing artillery strikes on IS positions on the outskirts of Kobani like Mistanour over the past week, to halt IS shelling on the town.
Reuters was unable to reach Islamic State fighters in Kobani. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Kurdish forces had not taken Mistanour hill but had started fighting on the road to Hilnij, preventing IS fighters from using it to resupply.
Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga have helped forces in Kobani take some villages around Kobani but the lines of control in the town remain the same.
The town has become a test of the U.S.-led coalition's ability to halt the advance of the hardline insurgents. It is one of the few areas in Syria where it can co-ordinate air strikes with operations by an effective ground force.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/11/1 ... FZ20141112
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Re: ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD
Author: Anthea » Thu Nov 13, 2014 12:12 am
Al Jazeera
Syrian rebels reject UN's Aleppo truce plan
FSA commander says proposal only serves Assad regime, amid reports of fresh violence and arrest of prominent dissiden
The opposition-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Aleppo has rejected a UN truce proposal that seeks to suspend fighting in Syria's second city, a day after the government hinted at considering it.
Zaher al-Saket, FSA military commander in the city, said on Wednesday that the proposal only serves the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, and pledged that his troops would continue their fight.
"First I would like to say that we completely reject this so-called freeze plan and truce," he said in an interview with Al Jazeera.
"We learned not to trust the Assad regime because they are cunning and only want to buy time. We saw what happened in Homs and we will never accept the same scenario in Aleppo."
The news came as forces loyal to Assad dropped a barrel bomb on Wednesday on Aleppo's al-Marjeh neighbourhood, according to activists.
Images from the aftermath of the reported strike showed men digging through a rubble of a building.
There was no immediate report on casualties from the attack.
Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy to Syria, said on Tuesday the Syrian government had responded with "constructive interest" to the UN proposal.
De Mistura set out the plan last month that would allow humanitarian aid through, and will lay the groundwork for peace talks.
As he continues to press for a diplomatic solution, there is no sign of let-up in fighting on the ground.
Syrian state media reported on Wednesday that two rockets were fired at a school in the central province of Hama, killing seven children.
Opposition leader detained
Separately Syrian authorities detained a prominent Damascus-based writer and dissident, Louay Hussein, as he was trying to leave the country at the Syria-Lebanon border bound for Spain.
Hussein is a longtime opposition activist and the leader of Building the Syrian State.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported on Wednesday Hussein's arrest, saying he was taken to the justice palace in Damascus.
Human rights groups said the government has rounded up tens of thousands of Syrians, many of whom disappear in custody never to be seen again.
A UN panel last year accused Assad's government of committing a crime against humanity by making people systematically vanish.
More than 195,000 people have been killed in Syria since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011, with successive attempts at internationally backed negotiations failing to yield a peace deal.
Nearly 10 million people have been displaced by Syria's civil war, and more than three million have fled the country.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeas ... 29558.html
Syrian rebels reject UN's Aleppo truce plan
FSA commander says proposal only serves Assad regime, amid reports of fresh violence and arrest of prominent dissiden
The opposition-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Aleppo has rejected a UN truce proposal that seeks to suspend fighting in Syria's second city, a day after the government hinted at considering it.
Zaher al-Saket, FSA military commander in the city, said on Wednesday that the proposal only serves the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, and pledged that his troops would continue their fight.
"First I would like to say that we completely reject this so-called freeze plan and truce," he said in an interview with Al Jazeera.
"We learned not to trust the Assad regime because they are cunning and only want to buy time. We saw what happened in Homs and we will never accept the same scenario in Aleppo."
The news came as forces loyal to Assad dropped a barrel bomb on Wednesday on Aleppo's al-Marjeh neighbourhood, according to activists.
Images from the aftermath of the reported strike showed men digging through a rubble of a building.
There was no immediate report on casualties from the attack.
Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy to Syria, said on Tuesday the Syrian government had responded with "constructive interest" to the UN proposal.
De Mistura set out the plan last month that would allow humanitarian aid through, and will lay the groundwork for peace talks.
As he continues to press for a diplomatic solution, there is no sign of let-up in fighting on the ground.
Syrian state media reported on Wednesday that two rockets were fired at a school in the central province of Hama, killing seven children.
Opposition leader detained
Separately Syrian authorities detained a prominent Damascus-based writer and dissident, Louay Hussein, as he was trying to leave the country at the Syria-Lebanon border bound for Spain.
Hussein is a longtime opposition activist and the leader of Building the Syrian State.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported on Wednesday Hussein's arrest, saying he was taken to the justice palace in Damascus.
Human rights groups said the government has rounded up tens of thousands of Syrians, many of whom disappear in custody never to be seen again.
A UN panel last year accused Assad's government of committing a crime against humanity by making people systematically vanish.
More than 195,000 people have been killed in Syria since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011, with successive attempts at internationally backed negotiations failing to yield a peace deal.
Nearly 10 million people have been displaced by Syria's civil war, and more than three million have fled the country.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeas ... 29558.html
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Re: ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD
Author: Anthea » Thu Nov 13, 2014 12:24 am
"We learned not to trust the Assad regime because they are cunning and only want to buy time. We saw what happened in Homs and we will never accept the same scenario in Aleppo."
We all saw what happened in Homs - and how the armed rebels moved in and turned a fairly non-violent protest into an armed insurrection - and made Homs a target for the Syrian government
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Re: ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD
Author: Anthea » Thu Nov 13, 2014 11:13 am
CNN
Child fighter tormented by ISIS
By Arwa Damon
Gaziantap, Turkey (CNN) -- Just two weeks ago, Yasir was regularly strapped into an explosive vest and handed a pistol, an AK-47 and a radio to stand guard at an ISIS base in the eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor.
Yasir -- not his real name -- is just 15 and an ISIS child soldier. When we first met, he was clearly nervous, his hands slightly quivering as he picked up his cup of tea.
Understandable, given all he has been through and the twisted mental maze he is trying to navigate.
Yasir had followed his father to be with the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front. When ISIS took over their area, father and son swore allegiance to ISIS.
"I spent a month without seeing my family or anyone that I knew," Yasir recalls. "It was forbidden to see or speak to anyone."
He says there were about 100 children and for a month they were kept isolated from all that they knew and loved, and not allowed even to see or speak to their families.
Rather, they were entrenched in intense religious indoctrination. There were daily lessons on the violent and radical version of Islam practiced by ISIS.
Rigorous military training was also a daily feature of their lives. He says: "We used to crawl under webbing. There was fire above it, and we would be firing our weapons. We would jump through large metal rings and the trainers would be firing at our feet and telling us if we stop we will be shot."
He says the trainers would have them run for 2 kilometers. "I was very careful not to stop running, I didn't stop, even if I was exhausted, out of breath, I didn't stop."
ISIS posts videos and pictures on the Internet bragging about its so-called "cubs of the Islamic State."
While there are no firm numbers on how many children are part of ISIS, the United Nations says there are confirmed reports of children as young as 12 undergoing military training.
Yasir admits he missed his parents. It was the first time he had stayed away from them, but he says he and the other boys would laugh, joke and talk about their training.
After a month he was sent home and began to regularly report for duty.
"When we arrived they gave us guns and the explosive belt and the radio," he says. "We would get calls from the checkpoints alerting us [when] the ISIS VIPs were coming. Anyone who wasn't a VIP, we would pick up our guns and stop them."
But his mother would beg him to leave.
Yasir says: "She would say that I am too young. 'Please leave, you have nothing to do with this.' I would tell her that this is the jihad that we all must do."
He says the first time he saw a beheading he didn't eat for two days, repulsed by the scene but not the actual act.
He admits he was afraid the explosive belt he wore would accidentally detonate if he was hit by shrapnel.
He also felt proud, strong and filled with a sense of purpose.
But his father realized he had to save his son and himself. He decided to defect and tricked Yasir into leaving with him for Turkey.
Yasir says: "I was asking him 'why are you doing this? What happened?' My father turned to me and said they are not on the right religious track."
The Yasir we met appears to have a gentle demeanor, but he's clearly confused, struggling to define what is right and wrong, and wrest himself from the psychological damage ISIS has done.
He initially says he wants to go back to ISIS because his friends are there, and he defends some of the strict interpretations of Islam, but he also says: "I am discovering over time they have no religion."
Toward the end of our interview, he tells us he regrets having joined them.
Yasir has a chance to emerge from the hold of ISIS, to return to the Arabic and math-loving schoolboy he was before the war.
But that is not the case for the other children firmly in the grasp of ISIS, living under their rule, easily manipulated and lured toward the terrorist organization.
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/12/world ... hpt=imi_c1
Child fighter tormented by ISIS
By Arwa Damon
Gaziantap, Turkey (CNN) -- Just two weeks ago, Yasir was regularly strapped into an explosive vest and handed a pistol, an AK-47 and a radio to stand guard at an ISIS base in the eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor.
Yasir -- not his real name -- is just 15 and an ISIS child soldier. When we first met, he was clearly nervous, his hands slightly quivering as he picked up his cup of tea.
Understandable, given all he has been through and the twisted mental maze he is trying to navigate.
Yasir had followed his father to be with the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front. When ISIS took over their area, father and son swore allegiance to ISIS.
"I spent a month without seeing my family or anyone that I knew," Yasir recalls. "It was forbidden to see or speak to anyone."
He says there were about 100 children and for a month they were kept isolated from all that they knew and loved, and not allowed even to see or speak to their families.
Rather, they were entrenched in intense religious indoctrination. There were daily lessons on the violent and radical version of Islam practiced by ISIS.
Rigorous military training was also a daily feature of their lives. He says: "We used to crawl under webbing. There was fire above it, and we would be firing our weapons. We would jump through large metal rings and the trainers would be firing at our feet and telling us if we stop we will be shot."
He says the trainers would have them run for 2 kilometers. "I was very careful not to stop running, I didn't stop, even if I was exhausted, out of breath, I didn't stop."
ISIS posts videos and pictures on the Internet bragging about its so-called "cubs of the Islamic State."
While there are no firm numbers on how many children are part of ISIS, the United Nations says there are confirmed reports of children as young as 12 undergoing military training.
Yasir admits he missed his parents. It was the first time he had stayed away from them, but he says he and the other boys would laugh, joke and talk about their training.
After a month he was sent home and began to regularly report for duty.
"When we arrived they gave us guns and the explosive belt and the radio," he says. "We would get calls from the checkpoints alerting us [when] the ISIS VIPs were coming. Anyone who wasn't a VIP, we would pick up our guns and stop them."
But his mother would beg him to leave.
Yasir says: "She would say that I am too young. 'Please leave, you have nothing to do with this.' I would tell her that this is the jihad that we all must do."
He says the first time he saw a beheading he didn't eat for two days, repulsed by the scene but not the actual act.
He admits he was afraid the explosive belt he wore would accidentally detonate if he was hit by shrapnel.
He also felt proud, strong and filled with a sense of purpose.
But his father realized he had to save his son and himself. He decided to defect and tricked Yasir into leaving with him for Turkey.
Yasir says: "I was asking him 'why are you doing this? What happened?' My father turned to me and said they are not on the right religious track."
The Yasir we met appears to have a gentle demeanor, but he's clearly confused, struggling to define what is right and wrong, and wrest himself from the psychological damage ISIS has done.
He initially says he wants to go back to ISIS because his friends are there, and he defends some of the strict interpretations of Islam, but he also says: "I am discovering over time they have no religion."
Toward the end of our interview, he tells us he regrets having joined them.
Yasir has a chance to emerge from the hold of ISIS, to return to the Arabic and math-loving schoolboy he was before the war.
But that is not the case for the other children firmly in the grasp of ISIS, living under their rule, easily manipulated and lured toward the terrorist organization.
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/12/world ... hpt=imi_c1
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Re: ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD
Author: Anthea » Thu Nov 13, 2014 3:29 pm
Syria rebels' aliases grow into new personalities
At the hair salon on her wedding day, a fellow bride turned to Tuqaa Afash and asked who her fiance was.
"Abdulkareem Laila," Afash said, expecting that in the tight-knit village on the outskirts of Aleppo, the woman would recognize his name.
"I don't know him," the woman said.
Afash tried again. "Abu Firas," she said.
"You're Abu Firas' fiancee?" the woman asked excitedly, as if referring to a celebrity. "Everyone was wondering who his fiancee would be. The girls were gossiping about it at school."
Her fiance was no longer Abdulkareem, the quiet young man who couldn't find a job after graduating and spent months traveling from village to village as a freelance sociology teacher.
Now he was Abu Firas, spokesman for the Islamic Front, one of the largest rebel groups in Syria, meeting with top-level commanders, visiting front lines and disseminating news about the opposition in the hope of showing that the "revolution" is not over.
For Syrian activists and rebels such as Abu Firas, the noms de guerre they adopted at the beginning of the uprising in 2011 out of fear of the country's notorious intelligence service have eclipsed not just their real names but also much of their former identities — even as they now live beyond the reach of the Syrian secret police.
Just as the conflict has stagnated, so too have they become stuck in these personas, unable to return to their previous lives or otherwise move on from a war that has left Syrians struggling to adapt to their new reality.
Even his mother, Khadija, now calls him Abu Firas, correcting herself with a smile when she occasionally refers to him by his given name.
Afash, who is now his wife, said, "It's like they have two personalities."
It was six months into the Syrian uprising, a time when the conflict was marked by protests and not battles. Abu Firas was at an Internet cafe uploading cellphone videos from that day's demonstrations.
Suddenly security officers pulled up outside. He slipped out just as they were about to raid the cafe but, in his haste, left his ID card behind. On his way home to Anadan he skirted government checkpoints, fearful that his name was already on the wanted list. That night he chose his "activist name."
"We considered many options; this was the most musical-sounding," said Abu Firas, now 28.
Other than liking the rhythm of the name, which means "father of Firas," he said it was also different from any name in his extended family, thus avoiding the risk that any similarity would bring.
In early 2012, when he began appearing on TV, in effect placing himself on a government hit list, he continued using the nom de guerre. By that point, the name had already become well known among Syrians and international viewers of pan-Arab satellite channels.
"If I came out under my real name, that former persona, Abu Firas, would die," he said. "I worked months to establish that name and to be known as a trusted source in Aleppo."
In an uprising that has failed to create any enduring political figures or leaders, these media activists have become the stars of the opposition. Whereas Abu Firas' townspeople never knew the boy next door, they have gotten to know him as a voice of a revolution gone awry.
His mother isn't sure what to think of the changes in her son.
"Abdulkareem's personality was that he used to go to the mosque and he used to teach," she said. "Now he's Abu Firas, I don't know ..." her voice cracked suddenly and she stopped speaking, instead throwing her hands up.
She looked down at her lap. The war has taken away her shy son Abdulkareem, named after her father. And then there are the more permanent losses: Her older son, Mamoon, was killed late last year in a clash with government forces.
Abu Firas shakes his head when asked whether he would name his son Firas. He plans to name him after his fallen brother.
"Qusai was born from a tragedy and deprivation, from a revolution, from death, from chemical weapons and siege," said Qusai Zakarya, an activist from the town of Muadhamiya, on the outskirts of Damascus. "So he has a strong presence inside me. It's not just a nickname."
Zakarya, 28, whose real name is Kassem Eid, created his alias in 2011 by combining the names of a beloved uncle and an actor who starred in a Syrian soap opera considered groundbreaking in its portrayal of Syrian corruption.
But it wasn't until the summer of 2013, after a chemical weapons attack on Muadhamiya and other Damascus suburbs, that the nom de guerre took over his identity. One of the few residents fluent in English, he accompanied a United Nations team investigating the Muadhamiya attack. Soon he became the voice of the town, especially as a government-imposed siege began to claim the lives of residents.
This year, he was finally able to leave Syria, but the new identity has remained with him.
America's U.N. ambassador, Samantha Power, used his testimony under the name Qusai Zakarya to explain her vote in the Security Council to refer the Syrian conflict to the International Criminal Court. Under that name, he has also appeared as part of a U.N. panel about life under siege and has met with diplomats from the United States, France, Britain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
He traveled across America on a speaking tour, during which he had trouble checking into hotels because his reservations were under his nom de guerre but he presented identification with his real name.
"It's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," he said, also comparing it to the Hulk and his alter ego, Bruce Banner. "Sometimes I have to wonder, am I thinking as Qusai or as Kassem?"
As a young man in Damascus, he was a romantic who liked to play soccer and listen to music. He used to binge-watch "Man v. Food" and follow that with episodes of binge-eating shawarma and sweets.
As Qusai Zakarya, he is far from the obscurity, and simple pleasures, of his previous life.
"If you Google Qusai you find hundreds of pages," he said. "If you Google Kassem you find nothing."
Tony al-Taieb speaks of his two names in the third person, as if he is watching the identities fight for dominance over a host body.
Like others, the media activist used his real name in the first few months of the uprising, believing it would be a speedy affair like those in Egypt and Tunisia. But as it became clear that it would be a prolonged struggle — and he started receiving death threats on Facebook — he chose an alias.
The 23-year-old, who comes from a prominent and wealthy Aleppo family with multiple business interests, likes to bandy about words such as "marketing" and "branding," even when speaking of war. He crafted his pseudonym with much the same approach.
A Sunni Muslim whose real name is Qusai Hayani, he chose the name Tony in hopes of encouraging his many Christian friends to join the opposition. Taieb was the surname of a protagonist in an Egyptian film, "I Want My Rights," that came out after that country's uprising.
"Qusai lived a really fancy life with lots of luxuries and being spoiled," he said. "Tony lived a poor life in a war zone under constant threat."
Living in opposition-held areas of Aleppo, he inhabited the persona of Tony al-Taieb fully, only briefly slipping back to his former self in rare visits to his family in one of the city's toniest neighborhoods. But when he left Syria to establish a base for his media company in neighboring Turkey, he was confronted with the need to reconcile the identities.
"It's like a piece of shrapnel in your mind that keeps bothering you: 'Who am I?'" he said, sitting at a Starbucks and alternating between coffee and a cigarette. "This shrapnel came when I came to Gaziantep and things began reminding me of my old life: the fancy life, the girls, the bright lights, things that had nothing to do with my life of destruction, my life as Tony."
Even as he insists he has made peace with his dual identities, saying that "Qusai and Tony are the same person," he continues to struggle with who he is. As a founder and CEO of the Syrian Media Group, which oversees various opposition news services and radio stations, he is Tony al-Taieb on his business cards.
"That's it — Tony," he said, unprompted. "I've become Tony."
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