ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD

[Anthea]

NBC News

Syria, ISIS Have Been 'Ignoring' Each Other on Battlefield, Data Suggests
Cassandra Vinograd and Ammar Cheikh Omar

Syria's military and ISIS may be sworn enemies but instead of wiping each other off the battlefield they have been delicately dancing around each other, according to new data exclusively obtained by NBC News.

Both sides in the bloody conflict appear to be eliminating smaller rivals ahead of a possible final showdown.

Around 64 percent of verifiable ISIS attacks in Syria this year targeted other non-state groups, an analysis of the IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center's (JTIC) database showed. Just 13 percent of the militants' attacks during the same period — the year through Nov. 21 — targeted Syrian security forces. That's a stark contrast to the Sunni extremist group's operations in Iraq, where more than half of ISIS attacks (54 percent) were aimed at security forces.

"In Iraq, it's a very clear insurgency: them against the Iraqi state," said Matthew Henman, head of JTIC. "In Syria, it's a different situation because you have such a proliferation of competing, non-state armed groups in the country in addition to Assad."

Syrian President Bashar Assad has been accused of encouraging the rise of Islamist extremist groups, like ISIS, in order to discredit opposition to his rule. He lashed out at the suggestion in a recent interview with Paris Match, describing ISIS as an enemy and saying that the "army is winning" its fight against terrorists.

However, JTIC's data shows that his counterterrorism operations — more than two-thirds of which were airstrikes — skew heavily towards groups whose names aren't ISIS. Of 982 counterterrorism operations for the year up through Nov. 21, just 6 percent directly targeted ISIS.

Henman said the figures suggest ISIS and Assad's security forces have embraced the "clever strategy" of mostly "ignoring each other."

For now, ISIS appears focused on emerging as the dominant Islamist, non-state actors and operating in areas where Assad's troops have largely withdrawn. Assad is focused on destroying opposition to his rule from the same groups ISIS wants to dominate — and engaging more in recent months with ISIS as that comes to pass.

"They both recognize there's a mutual benefit in crushing other groups," Henman said. That's because eventually ISIS is going to have to take on Assad's government — and both sides want the battlefield to be clear of other potential competitors.

"It's a confrontation that's coming — and both sides know it," he added.

Just ask Abu Hafs, a local ISIS leader from Aleppo who is intent on expanding the militants' Islamic state —or caliphate.

"We are not ignoring the Syrian regime but we are focusing on the rebel areas," he explained to NBC News. "You can't jump to step two. You have to do the first step first. To fight successfully against Bashar Assad's regime, we must first take over the rebel areas."

That doesn't mean his fighters haven't directly fought the regime. Abu Hafs said they had "achieved great victories," such as taking over the Tabqah military airport.

"We are fighting for the expansion of the Islamic caliphate area to include all the liberated areas and also the regime areas," he added.

For the year until November 21, ISIS carried out at least 923 verifiable attacks in Syria — an average of 2.84 per day. During that time period, ISIS attacks resulted in the deaths of 4,990 militants — including its own fighters.

Analysis of the JTIC database on a regional level showed that there were 238 counterterrorism operations in Aleppo for the year through Nov. 21 — but just 14 of those targeted ISIS. In the militants' stronghold of Raqqa, there were 22 counterterrorism operations but just half targeted ISIS.

Some rebels suspect coordination between the Syrian regime and ISIS. Yusuf Abu Abdullah, one of the leaders of the Al-Mujaheddin Army in Aleppo, said when his fighters have attacked regime bases, they have come under separate attacks from ISIS. That's forced them to withdraw and battle the other militants instead of Assad's forces.

"Most of the front lines between ISIS and the regime are very quiet — you wouldn't even hear the sound of firing," he said. "The exact opposite is on our frontlines, which are very dangerous and where the fights don't stop for 24 hours."

If ISIS was interested in fighting the regime, he said, they would have gone to Aleppo — a city besieged by Assad's forces. Instead, they chose to fight for Kobani where there is no Syrian army presence.

"Kobani revealed ISIS and showed to the world that this terrorist organization doesn't seek to fight the regime, but is trying to kill the rebels and end the Syrian revolution, Abu Abdullah said.

Signs are emerging that the final showdown may soon be approaching. In the past several weeks, Assad's forces have been stepping up their attacks against ISIS. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had documented more than 2,000 regime airstrikes around Syria in the past 50 days. It said Wednesday that nine airstrikes hit an ISIS regional office in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor.

The information provided from the IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center Database was mined from open sources and double-sourced wherever possible to ensure the greatest level of accuracy. It does not include information from social media that cannot be verified through conventional and trusted news sources.

PLEASE follow the link below for Graphs and Videos:

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-t ... ts-n264551

[Anthea]

Reuters

Islamic State orders wifi cut during prayers: Syria monitor
Reporting by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Mark Heinrich

Islamic State militants have ordered shopkeepers to shut down their wireless Internet during prayer times in the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor, a group monitoring the Syrian conflict said on Thursday.

It was a further example of Islamic State imposing controls on public life as it seeks to build what it describes as a caliphate in the heart of the Middle East. The ultra-radical insurgents hold large tracts of territory in Syria and Iraq and are the target of a U.S.-led bombing campaign in both countries.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights cited an Islamic State document obtained by activists which said: "All shopkeepers must stop broadcasting wireless Internet during prayer times." Muslim prayers are performed five times a day.

The document was issued by the self-declared authorities of Islamic State in the city that control public behavior, according to the Observatory, which tracks the war using a network of sources on the ground.

Islamic State controls most of Deir al-Zor province as well as Raqqa province to the northwest. In Raqqa it has outlawed music and images of people being posted in public and runs nearly everything from bakeries to schools, courts and mosques.

The Observatory reported on Sunday that Islamic State in Deir al-Zor had already ordered cafe owners to shut down their Internet overnight to prevent details of its military movements being communicated. Internet coverage is already patchy in contested parts of Syria, now in its fourth year of civil war.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/ ... Y220141211

Not a big deal America are restricting internet sites and spying on everyone who uses it - the only difference is that America are much more secretive about it

[Anthea]

CNN

Kurdish women a force to be reckoned with for ISIS
By Ivan Watson and Gul Tuysuz

Derik, Kurdish-controlled northern Syria (CNN) -- Don't be fooled by the pretty songs the women sing in their downtime -- these women are among ISIS' most deadly enemies.

Brandishing Kalashnikov assault rifles and wearing military fatigues, the women perform military parade drills at a memorial ceremony for slain fighters in a dusty lot in northern Syria.

"Our martyrs do not die. They live on in memory!" their Kurdish commander, dressed in green camouflage and wearing a pistol on her belt, declares as the scores of uniformed female militants stand at attention.

Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG), they have fought the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on the ground for more than a year.

They are fighting and bleeding on the front lines of the battle to keep the terror group out of Kurdish-controlled parts of northern Syria -- and to keep this Kurdish movement's ideology, which was founded partly on a pillar of gender equality, intact.

"We as women defend and protect our people," said Hadiye Yusuf, the female co-president of the largest of the three Kurdish enclaves in northern Syria, in an address at the memorial ceremony.

"We carry weapons to protect our homes and avoid becoming slaves of ISIS," she added.

The fiercely secular YPG stands in sharp contrast to its bitter enemy, which has kidnapped thousands of women and hid them from public life in the areas that they control -- a chilling reminder of what could await Kurdish women if the war against ISIS is lost.

Assistance from the U.S.

It was only recently that the YPG started to receive help from the United States in the form of weapons drops and airstrikes designed to blunt the advance of ISIS, which now controls large parts of Syria and Iraq.

The much-needed aid was a surprising turn of events for the YPG -- a group that includes many fighters who have long battled Turkey, a key partner in the American-led NATO alliance.

But it wasn't until jihadist militants mounted a relentless siege of Kobani, the Syrian border town within sight of international television cameras, that much of the world realized ethnic Kurds were an effective fighting force within Syria.

'Statelets' within a country

As much of the rest of Syria ripped itself apart in a vicious civil war, Syria's Kurdish minority spent three years quietly building a series of mini-states in the north of the country.

They refer to these three enclaves as Rojava. Until recently, some outside observers saw them as something of a success.

"They tried to run them as pretty autonomous statelets that were actually rather admirable in some ways. They included many different ethnic groups, faith groups, and they tried to be inclusive," said Hugh Pope, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, a conflict mediation organization.

Bulletins pasted on walls on the streets of one Kurdish-controlled town urge business owners to post signs in the three official languages of Rojava: Kurdish, Arabic, and Syriac -- an ancient Christian language spoken in the Middle East for nearly 2,000 years.

"The municipality will help in preparation and translation," said the bulletins, printed by the municipality of Derik. "Our language is our identity, our history, our existence and our dignity."

Quiet enclaves

In some ways, the Kurdish-controlled zone feels a world away from many other battle-scarred towns in northern Syria.

These areas have barely been targeted by the Syrian government airstrikes and barrel bombs that pummel rebel-held cities and towns, killing at least 182 civilians last week alone, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Unlike the atmosphere in territory controlled by Islamist militias, women in Rojava walk freely on the streets, their hair and faces uncovered.

And everywhere, there are posters and graffiti celebrating the bravery and martyrdom of Kurdish fighters from the YPG.

YPG separate from PKK, leaders say
Anthea: I believe this as much as I believe in Father Christmas and the tooth fairy

At the conclusion of the memorial ceremony last weekend, female fighters -- as well as the mothers and widows of YPG members killed fighting ISIS -- chanted "Biji sera Apo," or "Long Live Apo."

Apo is the nickname of Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. For 30 years, militants from this Marxist-inspired Kurdish separatist movement fought a guerrilla war against the government in nearby Turkey. To this day, Turkey, as well as its NATO allies the United States and the European Union, officially label the PKK a terrorist organization.

YPG leaders insist the PKK is a fraternal, though distinctly separate organization.

The YPG's iconography and membership suggest otherwise.

Ocalan's portrait sits at the center of many posters of slain YPG fighters. In addition, during two trips CNN journalists made to Rojava, CNN encountered at least a dozen armed Kurdish militants of Turkish origin.

In an interview with CNN, Yusuf, the enclave co-president, said in her youth she had been a PKK fighter, before eventually becoming an activist in a women's association.

The Syrian Kurds' close links to the PKK put Rojava at odds with the Kurdish zone's neighbor to the north: Turkey.

That left the enclave of Kobani vulnerable when ISIS mounted its assault last month.

"When push came to shove in Kobani, the YPG fighters were terribly exposed and have been dealt very cruel blows," said the ICG's Hugh Pope.

More than 200,000 refugees fled across the border to Turkey to escape the ISIS advance. Meanwhile, Kobani's Kurdish defenders were pushed back almost to the border fence with Turkey in their grim struggle against the jihadi offensive.

American airstrikes, and a series of weapons and ammunition air drops, succeeded in loosening the ISIS siege. But the U.S. move to help the Syrian Kurds strained relations with Turkey, whose president called the American aid drops "a mistake."

Military action unites Kurds

While the Syrian Kurds have become a point of tension between two NATO allies, they are also enjoying soaring popularity among Kurds scattered across different countries in the Middle East.

Last August, YPG fighters mounted a daring rescue operation across the border into neighboring Iraq. They evacuated thousands of Iraqi Kurds from the Yazidi religious group, who were trapped by ISIS on a barren mountain.

Over the last month, the YPG's defense of Kobani has electrified and united Kurds often fractured by linguistic and political divisions.

But the popularity has come at great cost.

Hundreds of YPG members have been killed, and many more wounded, in the war against ISIS.

At the memorial ceremony, a widow named Khalisa Gharzi sat with her daughter and son, watching the speeches.

She was in the final month of her pregnancy with her daughter Zhanda last year when her husband Ramadan was killed in a battle with ISIS.

Gharzi said her husband's body, when it was recovered, had been mutilated -- one of his ears was severed.

"I am angry and sad about what happened to him, but I'm still proud because he was a fighter," Gharzi said. "If I didn't have these children, I myself would go and fight. Because this is a just war."

Not far away, her 3-year-old son Hogur played next to rows of female fighters who sat on the parade ground clutching their rifles.

The boy was dressed in the green camouflage uniform of a future Kurdish fighter.

http://us.cnn.com/2014/10/29/world/us-n ... index.html

[Anthea]

Associated Press

UN still struggling to move aid into Syria
By DEB RIECHMANN

The U.N.'s decision in July to begin moving aid into war-torn Syria without the consent of President Bashar Assad was heralded as unprecedented. It was the first time that humanitarian need trumped a nation's sovereignty.

Five months later, aid workers are dismayed that more trucks loaded with U.N. aid aren't moving into Syria, where civilians are dodging bullets and barrel bombs in the crossfire of a war that has killed 200,000. Despite their disappointment, they still want the U.N. Security Council next week to renew a resolution that permits the U.N. aid to move through four border crossings — two in Turkey, one in Jordan and one in Iraq — without Assad's blessing.

The U.N. humanitarian office has said that if security allowed, U.N. aid trucked through the four crossings could reach 2.9 million people, complementing the much higher levels of cross-border aid that non-governmental organizations have been moving into the country for years. So far, the number of people who have benefited from aid delivered under terms of the resolution is in the hundreds of thousands, not millions.

"While some progress has been made, over 12 million people still urgently need help," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wrote late last month. "Nearly 5 million of them live in areas that remain hard to reach despite the additional access granted through Resolution 2165, and only a portion are receiving humanitarian assistance."

He said the resolution had enabled U.N. agencies and partners to reach more places where assistance is urgently needed. But "needs continue to rise and the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate."

Before the resolution was adopted, the U.N. and its partners were getting aid to 38 hard-to-reach areas a month. Since its adoption, an average of 66 of these areas are reached each month.

Resolution 2165, which was approved for six months, is set to expire on Jan. 9. U.N. diplomats say they hope to vote on renewing it for a full year next week.

A half dozen aid officials and workers told The Associated Press in interviews that the cross-border U.N. aid has been slowly increasing. They say it is hampered by fighting, militant roadblocks, bureaucratic and logistical delays, poor coordination and — in some cases — the aid community's fear of angering the Syrian government because it needs its help with other projects in the country.

The aid workers all spoke on condition of anonymity because they said speaking publicly would make them targets for extremist militants and potentially damage their working relationships with the U.N.

One aid official, who coordinates work in several countries in the region, said that since the resolution was adopted, the U.N. had moved about 420 truckloads of aid through border crossings in Turkey and Jordan compared to the 688 truckloads of aid his organization had moved in the same time period through Turkey alone.

The aid workers said northeast Syria was especially difficult to reach because roads from warehouses are controlled by armed militant groups. They spoke of problems with the road at the Jordanian crossing but said Saudi Arabia had financed improvements. They recounted situations where aid was stolen or resold by militants or government forces, hospitals and ambulances bombed and shipments stopped before they could ever reach their destinations.

Many areas that are controlled by Islamic State militants or government forces remain impossible to penetrate or are too dangerous to visit. Sixty-nine humanitarian aid workers have been killed since 2011, including three who were beheaded by IS this year. Twenty-seven U.N. staff members are detained or missing.

Before the civil war started in March 2011, an estimated 22 million people lived in Syria. Now, nearly half are displaced — 7.6 million have fled their homes but still live inside Syria and more than 3.2 million have become refugees in other countries.

"The Syrian crisis is the largest and most complex humanitarian crisis of our time," Nancy Lindborg, assistant administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development, told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee panel this week. "Millions of families have been torn apart, pushed out of ancestral homes and forced to flee unspeakable horrors in search of safety and dignity.

"The Assad regime has waged a cruel and unrelenting campaign of bloodshed and starvation against its own people for almost four years."

The U.N. says parties to the conflict continue to restrict access to besieged areas. No more than two besieged areas have been reached in any month since the adoption of Resolution 2165, and only one location has been reached in each of the past two months.

The moderate Syrian National Coalition doesn't want to see the resolution just renewed. It wants to see it strengthened to make sure the Assad government faces consequences for noncompliance.

Abrahim Miro, the coalition's finance minister, said recently in Istanbul that Resolution 2165 was not solving the problem and aid still was not reaching areas held by forces fighting IS and the Assad government. He accused Assad of using humanitarian aid as a "political tool" and argued that better coordination with the opposition would allow more aid to flow into areas it holds.

"If some NGOs drop let's say 50 tons of flour in a certain city, the price of bread goes down for three days and then it goes up. This volatility is making people very tired," Miro said. "We need people to have the aid as soon as possible, and that is unfortunately not happening at the time being."

http://news.yahoo.com/un-still-struggli ... 41554.html

[Anthea]

Reuters

Islamic State beheads four men for blasphemy in Syria: monitor
Reporting by Sylvia Westall; editing by Ralph Boulton

Islamic State's self-declared police force in western Syria decapitated four men after accusing them of blasphemy, a rights group monitoring the Syrian conflict said on Saturday.

The men were beheaded in the countryside east of the city of Homs by the militant group's "Islamic Police", the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Observatory, which monitors the conflict using sources on the ground, reported a similar killing on Tuesday, when Islamic State beheaded a man in a town square in the north of the country.

Residents and activists say Islamic State has beheaded and stoned to death many people in areas it controls in Syria and Iraq for actions they see as violating their reading of Islamic law, such as adultery, homosexuality, stealing and blasphemy.

They have also killed rival fighters by similar methods off the battlefield and have set up patrols to police public behavior in their bid to establish a caliphate.

The Observatory also reported on Saturday that Islamic State had stoned a man and a woman to death for adultery in Manbij town in northern Syria after Friday prayers.

The group, which is the target of U.S.-led air strikes in both countries, has also killed a smaller number of foreign captives.

The Observatory said last month that Islamic State had killed 1,432 Syrians off the battlefield since the end of June when it declared a caliphate in the territory under its control.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/ ... 6S20141213

[Anthea]

UPI

Infamous Syria rebel warlord blamed for killing, wounding 900 civilians in five-month period

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Friday that notorious Syrian rebel warlord Khaled Hayani's Badr Martyrs group was responsible for killing more than 200 and wounding another 700 civilians between July and December.[/b]

A notorious Syrian rebel warlord is responsible for killing or wounding upward of 900 civilians in a five-month period, a London-based monitoring group claimed Friday.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors casualties on both sides of the Syrian conflict, Khaled Hayani (also known as Saraj Hayani) directed a Martyrs of Badr battalion to fire on regime-controlled areas of Aleppo between July and Dec. 10, 2014, resulting in 203 civilian deaths.

The dead, which reportedly included 42 children and more than 25 women, were killed by shelling, IEDs, gas cylinders and mortars. Hayani's fighters are also believed to be in possession of 20 "Hell Cannons" and more than 250 gas cylinder bombs.

The human rights monitoring group called Friday for accountability, suggesting that Hayani -- as well as President Bashar al-Assad -- be referred to the International Criminal Court and, failing that, be tried before a proposed special international court inside Syria.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/ ... 418417604/

Anthea: I expect America are funding them - they keep funding the murdering Syrian rebels

[Anthea]

AFP

Twenty-one rebels and nine members of Syria's regime forces were killed north of Aleppo on Sunday in fierce fighting for control of a key insurgent supply route, a monitor said.

The battle for Handarat hill comes as the United Nations tries to broker a ceasefire deal between rebels and the regime in Syria's second city.

"Nine regime fighters and 21 rebels have been killed and regime forces have made an advance at Handarat," said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

Handarat is just north of Aleppo, which has been divided since a rebel offensive in summer 2012 between loyalist sectors in the west of the city and insurgent-held territory in the east.

Keeping control of the strategic hill is vital for the rebels as it overlooks their main supply line from Turkey.

"If regime forces seize control of the entire region, the rebel sector of Aleppo would be under total siege," Abdel Rahman said.

Syria's state news agency SANA, quoting a military source, said the army backed by pro-regime militiamen had taken Al-Maleh farms in Handarat's west and part of the southwest.

"A large number of terrorists were eliminated," SANA said of the rebels battling to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura in October announced a plan for a "freeze" in fighting in Aleppo.

On Saturday, his deputy Ramzi Ezzedine Ramzi arrived in Syria to push for a truce in the country's former commercial capital, spokeswoman Juliette Touma said.

At the start of the week, De Mistura held what Touma called "constructive" talks on Aleppo with rebel groups in Gaziantep in Turkey.

Elsewhere in Syria, loyalist forces on Sunday battled jihadists from Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syria franchise, in the northwestern province of Idlib, the Observatory said.

The fighting broke out after the jihadists assaulted an army post, killing 12 soldiers, it said. Eight attackers were also killed.

http://news.yahoo.com/syria-rebels-batt ... 46218.html

[Anthea]

The Associated Press

Islamic fighters capture 2 army bases in northwest Syria
By BASSEM MROUE

BEIRUT — Al-Qaida-linked and other Islamic fighters captured two key Syrian army bases on Monday in the northwestern province of Idlib after two days of intense battles with government troops that killed dozens on both sides, activists said.

The fall of the two bases - Wadi Deif and Hamidiyeh, both located near the town of Maaret al-Numan - is a significant blow to the Syrian army, which had managed to hold on to them for more than two years, repelling repeated attacks by an array of opposition groups.

The battles for "these two bases were exhausting the rebel factions," said Hussam Abu Bakr, a spokesman for the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham group, one of the strongest rebel factions in northern Syria. He said his group captured Hamidiyeh base.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and an Idlib-based activist who goes by the name of Mohammed al-Sayid said members of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and other rebel factions captured the Wadi Deif base Monday morning and the nearby Hamidiyeh base in the early afternoon.

Abu Bakr told The Associated Press via Skype that government forces first withdrew from Wadi Deif to Hamidiyeh and then from Hamidiyeh to the nearby village of Bsida.

Then, the rebels captured Bsida, forcing government forces to gather in the village of Maar Hattat, which is now being besieged, said Abu Bakr. "There are more deaths and more prisoners every hour," he added.

Link to Full Article:

http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east ... a-1.319435

[Anthea]

CNN

U.N. official: We have 'run out of words' to describe conflict in Syria
By Lorenzo Ferrigno

A top United Nations official on Monday told the Security Council she has "run out of words" to describe the worsening situation in Syria.

"Every time we use a new figure in relation to the Syrian crisis, we say that it is unprecedented. We have run out of words to fully explain the brutality violence and callous disregard for human life which is a hallmark of this crisis," Valerie Amos, the U.N. chief for humanitarian affairs said.

Nearly 200,000 people have been killed in the 3-year Syrian conflict and one million injured, Amos said, describing a war zone with three combative parties fighting each other with no regard for the thousands of civilians and children caught in the middle.

The Syrian government has used barrel bombs in densely populated areas and "arbitrarily detained" citizens and subjected them to serious beatings and torture. Armed opposition groups have taken locals hostage and killed civilians by using explosive mortar and car bombs. ISIS has committed "mass victimization" of civilians, including murder, enslavement, rape, displacement and torture, Amos said.

All parties involved in the conflict "continue to violate the most basic of laws with devastating consequences," she said.

The under-secretary general described a particularly horrible situation for the country's children.

Reports of children being publicly executed, crucified, beheaded and stoned to death -- particularly by ISIS -- has increased in recent months. Other children, sometimes as young as 5 years old, are being trained at military camps, Amos said.

"This conflict is not only shattering Syria's present, it is also destroying its future," she added.

Locations traditionally identified as safe havens in conflict areas -- such as hospitals, schools and U.N. relief vehicles -- have not been exempt from attacks.

70 medical facilities across the country have been attacked over the last nine months, 60 by government forces, Amos said, citing statistics from Physicians for Human Rights. 150 medical personnel, including 97 in the line of duty, were killed over the same time period.

While opposition groups have blocked medical supplies from entering besieged cities, the government "continues to withdraw medicines, medical equipment and supplies, including for surgical intervention, such as antibiotics and injectable medicines from U.N. convoys," she said.

Besieged cities are largely in deadlock.

"No one allowed out; no aid allowed in. For years," Amos said before describing a new tactic in one besieged town: "Tiny amounts of aid allowed in, giving people hope, but so little it can only help a fraction of those in need. People's hopes raised and then dashed. Time and time again."

The U.N. has identified air bombs, car bombs or mortar attacks on or near schools at least 35 times since February, resulting in the death of at least 105 children, Amos said.

Amos urged the Security Council members to ensure all parties in Syria follow what they have outlined in resolutions: end indiscriminate use of weapons, protect children from violations, lift sieges on city and allow unhindered humanitarian assistance.

"Even in war, there are rules," she said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/15/world ... index.html

[Anthea]

Reuters

Female fighters battle for freedom and equality in Syria: TRFN

TIL KOCHER, Syria (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Every night before 27-year-old Arin goes to bed, she hangs her Makarov, a Russian semi-automatic pistol, from a steel coat rack by the entrance to her one-bedroom apartment in a small, dusty town on the Syrian border with Iraq.

The pistol was an award for her success on the front line in the battle to protect Kurdish areas of northeastern Syria and is a far cry from her life a year ago when she was working as a nurse in Cologne in Germany.

"This is a bloody war," Arin, using only her combat name, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the almost deserted apartment block in Til Kocher in northeastern Syria.

"But we need to fight it, we need to protect our women and children or nobody else will defend us."

Arin is one of thousands of young Kurdish women who have taken up arms in the past two years, with Kurds, Syria's largest minority group, largely left to their own devices by President Bashar al-Assad's forces battling Islamic State militants who have seized large areas of Iraq and Syria.

About 7,500 women are estimated to have joined the Women's Protection Unit, or YPJ, many as volunteers, which was set up in 2012 as part of the People's Defense Unit (YPG), the Kurds' dominant fighting unit in the northern Syria region of Rojava.

Their aim is to fight any group that threatens Kurdish inhabited areas of Rojava and the YPG has taken defacto control over a sizable chunk of Syria's predominantly Kurdish north.

While female fighters are common within the ranks of Kurdish forces, a women's only combat unit is unusual for the Muslim world where some Islamic traditionalists are of the view that women should not engage in combat.

Like the followers of Islamic State, many Kurds are Sunni Muslims but this band of young female fighters hope their frontline role will help put women on an equal footing with men.

FIERCE FIGHTERS

"We want to set an example for (both) the Middle East and the West. We want gender equality for all," said one of the six other women in Arin's unit who all live in the same, small apartment.

When asked for their full names, the women declined, preferring to be known and addressed by their noms de guerre.

David L. Phillips, director of a program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights in New York, said these women were making a mark.

"(They) are some of the fiercest and most effective fighters. Many of them are widowed, and strongly motivated on the battlefield by their personal loss," he said.

Human Rights Watch has reported serious human rights abuses by the Syrian government and other opposition fighters in the Syria and also said Kurds in parts of northern Syria have carried out arbitrary arrests and failed to investigate the killings and disappearance of political opponents.

Arin, who was born and raised in Germany, said she was awarded her pistol after she killed 20 Islamic State militants, earning her the reputation among her colleagues as one of the most dangerous snipers in the group.

Born in Cologne of Kurdish parents, Arin graduated from nursing school and was working there when the Syrian conflict started, rising a pro-democracy movement which grew into an armed uprising and inflamed regional confrontations.

Some 200,000 people have died during the four-year conflict, according to the United Nations.

"I had a good life, I liked living there," Arin said, dressed in a dark green camouflage uniform with baggy trousers, but she felt she had to do something as the news became worse.

"I remember watching television when I saw women and children slaughtered by Daesh (Islamic State), and I couldn't stand it anymore," she added, using a term for Islamic States that is widely viewed as derogatory.

LOYALTY AMONG COMRADES

Last year she traveled to Syria to join the YPJ and now heads her unit, which originally had 20 members, mainly from Syria and Turkey. Today only seven survive.

She was reluctant to give too many details about the group's combat operations or to comment on any links between the YPJ and the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, an organization fighting for Kurds in Turkey that is designated a terrorist group by the United States and European Union.

Syrian Kurds have an ambiguous relationship Assad, who has mostly left the Kurds alone while focusing firepower on insurgents fighting to unseat him. The Syrian Kurds have denied cooperating with Assad.

When they're not fighting, the unit of seven women try to avoid talking about war. They cook and laugh as if they were living an ordinary life but their lives are far from normal.

Arin hasn't talked to her parents since she left Germany.

"I don't call them, it's better this way," she said, adding that she might call then one day, once the war is over. "My life is here with these brave women. They are my family."

Her loyalty to her fellow soldiers is typical of YPJ members who boast to live by a code of honesty, morals and justice, addressing each other as Haval, the Kurdish word for comrade and friend.

The schedule of Arin's unit is always tight, starting with breakfast at 8 a.m. every day and strategy meetings.

Nisan, a 24-year-old combatant, spread a gray plastic table cloth on the floor. She lost her right finger while fighting in Rabia, the Iraqi town adjacent to Til Kocher, in August.

Rangin, another sniper, came in with breakfast: tomatoes, olives, goat cheese, and homemade bread.

After breakfast, the unit's phone rang.

Orders were given and three women grabbed their combat gear, ready to jump in a car waiting for them outside to take them to Jezza, a town close to Kobani near the Turkish border and one of the most violent flashpoints in the war.

"We are going to fight the Daesh, take care," Arin said as she closed the door behind her.

(Reporting by Benedetta Argentieri, Editing by Maria Caspani and Belinda Goldsmith)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/ ... D020141216

[Anthea]

US strikes in Syria ease Islamic State pressure on moderate rebels
By Mousab Alhamadee and Roy Gutman

ISTANBUL — Assisted by intelligence from moderate rebel fighters on the ground, the U.S. carried out remarkably accurate airstrikes against Islamic State targets north of Aleppo over the weekend that destroyed bases hidden in farm buildings and killed dozens of militants, rebel officials and local activists said Tuesday.

But because the airstrikes were not coordinated with the U.S.-backed rebels and caught them by surprise, the rebels were unable to advance on the ground, the officials and activists said.

“The rebels didn’t advance,” said one rebel official. “Each party remains where it is.”

“Had there been coordination, there could have been an advance,” a second rebel official told McClatchy. He added: “We’re still wondering what is U.S. strategy against the Islamic State in Syria. They seem in no rush to solve the problem.”

These and other rebel officials insisted on anonymity so as not to jeopardize their relationship with the U.S. government.

There was no question, however, that the airstrikes — the U.S. Central Command said three airstrikes were carried out against 10 targets — also benefited rebel forces.

In the village of Dabiq, north of Aleppo, the airstrikes leveled a large chicken coop that was being used as a headquarters for Islamic State fighters and severely damaged a house that fighters used as a dormitory, local activists said.

In the village of Tel Male, near the city of Mari’e, airstrikes severely damaged buildings near an Islamic State base, they said. They said many fighters were killed, and the wounded filled hospitals in Al Bab and Minbij, both occupied by the Islamic State.

The first rebel official, who has an overview of the entire battlefield in northern Syria, estimated that 30 Islamic State fighters were killed in the airstrikes, 10 of them in the chicken coop. He said the Islamic State, wary of U.S. airstrikes, now houses no more than 10 people in any front-line position.

The rebel official said the strikes limited the Islamic State’s ability to move in the area and may head off what commanders fear are synchronized offensives by the Islamic State and the Syrian government.

He said the Islamic State had brought reinforcements into the area in apparent preparation for an attack. The airstrikes sent the message that “advancing is not allowed,” the official said.

“There were positive results,” said Gen. Abduljabbar al Akidi, a former head of the Aleppo Military Council who now leads rebel units fighting in the Kurdish enclave of Kobani, a different theater. “We welcome strikes against IS anywhere. Our reservation is that they aren’t hitting the regime at the same time.”

Government aircraft Tuesday intensified the air assault on civilian targets, including schools in almost all parts of Syria, media activists said. According to their reports, seven children died at a school in Douma, in the countryside near Damascus, and seven children were killed in the village of Sfuhan, near Idlib in northern Syria. Syrian government aircraft also bombed Raqqa, the unofficial capital of the Islamic State, and killed 20 people, all civilians, Al-Jazeera television network reported.

Rancor over the U.S. failure to coordinate with pro-Western forces on the ground dates back to late September, when the U.S. mounted airstrikes in northern Syria against the Nusra Front, the Qaida affiliate in Syria that moderate rebels see as an ally in their battle against the Syrian government.

Moderate rebel commanders warned then that the strikes against Nusra would win it sympathy from Syrian fighters and the public. Last month, Nusra took advantage of the backlash and ousted two pro-Western forces from Idlib province and captured their U.S.-provided weapons.

Last week, Nusra led the charge to seize two regime military bases in Hama province, another advance for a radical force that now appears to be on a roll.

http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east ... s-1.320960

[Anthea]

Why is America supporting rebels

All they are doing is making matters worse for the Syrian people

The rebel factions are the reason many Syrian town have been targeted by the Syrian Regime

Homs is a stark examble of what happens when rebel groups move in

Some Homs residents protested against the government - it was initially a series of non-violent protests - it involved a lot of singing and a few burnt-out cars

Enter armed rebels - those armed rebels were the direct cause of Homs being targeted by the government forces

America should have learnt it's lesson after supporting the Islamic State while it was in it's embryotic state

I wonder exactly what America would do if some of it's towns were invaded by non-American rebel forces

WHAT DO YOU THINK AMERICA WOULD DO ???

[Anthea]

NBC News

WHO: Syria Approves Aid Deliveries for Trapped Civilians in Aleppo

Syria's government has approved the delivery of medicine and surgical supplies to three areas of the country aid workers were previously unable to reach regularly — including opposition-held Aleppo, the World Health Organization said Monday. Trapped civilians have been denied life-saving medical assistance because all sides in Syria's three-year civil war have prevented medicine from crossing the front lines fearing it could be used to help wounded enemy fighters.

Elizabeth Hoff, the WHO's Syria representative, said the government has promised access to Aleppo, the besieged Damascus district of Mouadamiya, and Eastern Ghouta, outside the capital. "It is something that we have been negotiating, after the constraints we've had, we have had top level meetings. We see a positive outlook," Hoff said. "We have actually got promises to deliver to Aleppo and the hard to reach areas around Aleppo. This will happen this week." The United Nations says 4.7 million Syrians live in areas that are hard to reach, including at least 241,000 people who remain besieged by either government or opposition forces.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/syrias ... po-n273636

[Anthea]

I wish the Americans would STOP supporting the rebels and jihadists who have made parts of Aleppo a target for government forces

America should help to get rid of the murdering rebels - they would not be happy if parts of America were invaded by jihadists and other countries were arming and supporting the rebels

[Anthea]

Reuters

Syria ready to discuss Russia peace plan talks, opposition dismissive
By Oliver Holmes and Omar Fahmy

Syria said on Saturday it was willing to participate in "preliminary consultations" in Moscow aimed at restarting talks next year to end its civil war but the Western-backed opposition dismissed the initiative.

Two rounds of peace talks this year in Geneva failed to halt the conflict which has killed 200,000 people during more than three years of violence and there was little sign of the latest move gaining traction.

Syrian state television quoted a source at the foreign ministry saying: "Syria is ready to participate in preliminary consultations in Moscow in order to meet the aspirations of Syrians to find a way out of crisis."

But there are many obstacles to peace. The most powerful insurgent group, the hardline Islamic State, controls a third of Syria but has not been part of any initiative to end the fighting.

Other rebel factions are not unified.

The opposition is also suspicious of Russian-led plans as Moscow has long backed President Bashar al-Assad with weapons.

Hadi al-Bahra, head of the Turkey-based opposition National Coalition, met with Arab League Chief Nabil Elaraby in Cairo on Saturday and told a news conference "there is no initiative as rumoured".

"Russia does not have a clear initiative, and what is called for by Russia is just a meeting and dialogue in Moscow, with no specific paper or initiative," he was quoted by Egyptian state news agency MENA as saying.

The opposition said after the failed "Geneva 2" talks in February that Damascus was not serious about peace.

Syrian state news agency SANA said on Saturday the Moscow talks should emphasise a continued fight against "terrorism", a term it uses for the armed opposition.

Members of Assad's government say the opposition in exile is not representative of Syrians and instead says a small group of opposition figures who live in Damascus, and are less vocal against the president, should represent the opposition.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this month that he wanted Syrian opposition groups to agree among themselves on a common approach before setting up direct talks with the Damascus government.

But Lavrov did not specify which opposition groups should take part.

Syria's civil war started when Assad's forces cracked down on peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011.

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