Monday 1 October 2012
October 2, 2012 by sks
Filed under News, Syrian Revolution
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: Final death toll for Monday 1/10/2012: Approximately 210 Syrians were killed. The dead include: 117 unarmed civilians (13 of them children), 34 rebel fighters, 7 defected soldiers and 48 regular soldiers.
**The SOHR documented on this day the death of 6 civilians (1 man, 2 women and 3 children) who were killed a week ago by the regime bombardment on the Safbat village, Reef Idlib.
We also documented the earlier deaths of 7 people as a result of the gunfire and bombardment in Aleppo, and 3 civilians by regime gunfire in the city of Deir Izzour. **
-38 civilians were killed in Reef Dimashq. 15 in Harasta city by gunfire and the military operation on the city. 9 were killed in the city of Douma, they include a 10 year old child. 3 men, 1 unidentified, were killed by the bombardment on the town of Saqba. 4 were killed by the bombardment on the town of Irbeen, al-Maliha and Ein terma. 4 civilian men were killed by regime fire in al-Thiyabiya, Yabrud and al-Maliha. A young man from the town of Zabadani was tortured to death after being detained by regime forces. An unidentified body was found in the town of Mou’adamiya.
-In Idlib province 28 civilians were killed. 21 civilians, including 8 children, were killed by the bombardment on the town of Salqin. 3 people, including a child, were killed by the regime bombardment on Taftanaz, Zeredna and Ma’arat al-Nu’man. A young man died of wounds from the bombardment of Saraqeb 2 days ago. 1 civilian was killed by pro-regime gunmen. 1 civilian from the town of Jozef was killed by a sniper in Damascus. 1 civilian died of wounds from the earlier bombardment on Sarmin.
-In Aleppo 29 civilians were killed. 20 civilians, several where women, were killed by the regime bombardment on several districts of Aleppo city. The bodies of 2 civilians were found by the Mengh military airport, the bodies had marks from torture. 1 civilian died of wounds in the town of Bayanoun.
*There have been reports of 12 civilian deaths by the bombardment on the Masaken Hanano and al-Masharqa neighbourhood of Aleppo*
-In Dera’a province 10 civilians were killed. 4 were killed by the bombardment on Tafas, they include a woman and her father. 2 were killed by regime fire in al-Maliha al-Gharbiya and Elma. A woman and a child were killed by the bombardment on the al-Faqir village. 1 civilian and a child were killed by the bombardment on the al-Na’ima village.
-In Homs province 2 were killed. 1 was killed by bombardment on the al-Sam’lil village at midnight of Sunday-Monday. 1 was killed by bombardment on the al-Qseir area earlier this morning.
-In Hama province 2 were killed after midnight of Sunday-Monday. 1 was shot by regime forces in the Tariq al-Bab neighbourhood. A woman was killed by bombardment on the Oum Meel village, east of Reef Hama.
- In Deir Izzor province 4 civilians were killed. An old man was shot by a sniper by the al-Madalji round point, Deir Izzor city. 1 was summarily executed in the al-Qusour neighbourhood. A woman was killed by the bombardment on Deir Izzour city. 1 civilian died of earlier wounds.
- In Dera’a province 6 were killed. 4 civilians,including a woman and her father, were killed by bombardment on the Tafs town. A youth was shot by regime forces when they stormed the al-Mleiha al-Gharbiya town. A child was killed by the bombardment on the village of al-Faqir. A young man from the al-Sad neighbourhood of Dera’a city died from wounds he received 5 days earlier.
-In Damascus 2 civilians were killed. 1 civilian from the Mezzeh neighbourhood was tortured to death after being detained by regime forces. 1 was shot by regime forces in the Jobar neighbourhood.
-In Latakia province 1 civilian was killed by the bombardment on the al-Qantara village, Reef Latakia.
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34 Rebel fighters:
Reef Dimashq: 14 rebels killed. 6 rebels were killed in Douma. A rebel leader was killed in clashes in the town of Shab’a. 7 rebels were killed in the eastern Ghouta.
Dera’a province: 10 rebel fighters were killed. 1 was killed by bombardment on the Tafs town. 1 was killed during clashes with regime forces in the al-Na’ima town. 6 rebel fighters were killed during clashes by the Syrian-Jordanian borders. 1 was killed by clashes in the Tariq al-Sad neighbourhood of Dera’a. A rebel fighter from the al-Sad neighbourhood of Dera’a city died from wounds he received 5 days earlier.
Aleppo province: 3 rebel fighters were killed , 1 in the Arqoub neighbourhood, 2 in clashes in the western reef.
Idlib province: 3 rebels were killed by clashes on the edge of the Kafartkharim town. 4 rebel fighters from the province were killed in Damascus, Reef Dimashq, Aleppo and Ariha.
Latakia province: a rebel fighter was killed during clashes with regime forces in Reef Latakia.
Homs province: 2 were killed. A rebel was killed in the al-Sekhna village. 1 rebel died of wounds from earlier clashes by the al-Yunsiya checkpoint.
Deir Izzor province: 1 rebel was killed during clashes with regime forces in the city.
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A defected officer was killed by bombardment on the Masaken Hanano neighbourhood in the city of Aleppo. In Reef Dera’a a defected lieutenant and a defected colonel were killed during clashes. 3 defected soldiers were killed in Reef Dimashq. A defected soldier from Dera’a was tortured to death.
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At least 48 regime forces, including 5 officers, were killed by the targeting of vehicles, IED attacks, and clashes in the provinces of Aleppo, Deir Izzour, Latakia, Idlib, Homs and Dera’a.
- The Secretary-General met on Monday with Mr. Walid Al-Moualem, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Syrian Arab Republic.
- The Secretary-General raised in the strongest terms the continued killings, massive destruction, human rights abuses, and aerial and artillery attacks committed by the Government. He stressed that it was the Syrian people who were being killed everyday, and appealed to the Government of Syria to show compassion to its own people.
- The Secretary-General noted that reduction of violence could prepare the Government for a political process. He expressed deep frustration that, after 19 months of repression and fighting, the situation was still getting worse.
- The Secretary-General and Foreign Minister discussed the growing humanitarian crisis inside Syria, and which was spilling over into neighbouring countries to an alarming degree.
- Asked about Egyptian proposals concerning how to address the crisis in Syria, the Spokesperson said that, during the past week, the Secretary-General spoke with many leaders, including the President of Egypt, and discussed the situation in Syria with them. He heard suggestions on the way forward from a number of countries. All such initiatives need to be coordinated carefully with the Joint Special Representative for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, who also met with a large number of leaders over the past week.
- Asked when the Secretary-General last spoke to President Bashar al-Asssad, the Spokesperson said that was a long time ago, but he added that, in addition to meeting with the Foreign Minister on Monday, the Secretary-General met with Syria’s Prime Minister in Iran last month.
NOW! Lebanon
[local time] 
21:32 Syrian rebels claimed on Monday to have seized an undisclosed number of missiles from the army’s arsenal in the east of Damascus province.
21:12 Shelling targeted the Syrian area of Rankos near Damascus, Al-Arabiya television quoted activists as saying.
20:37 Syria’s foreign minister accused the United States and its allies on Monday of supporting terrorism in Syria but said his government remains open to a political settlement of its civil war.
19:14 UN chief Ban Ki-moon called Monday on the Syrian government to show “compassion” to its people in the midst of an increasingly vicious civil war against armed rebels.
18:04 Monday’s death toll in Syria has risen to 115 people, Al-Arabiya televison quoted activists as saying.
16:20 Monday’s death toll in Syria has risen to 95 people, Al-Arabiya television quoted activists as saying.
16:01 Ten people were killed by the Syrian regime forces’ shelling of a bakery in the Aleppo neighborhood of Al-Mashariqa.
14:31 The number of Syrians fleeing the conflict in their homeland and seeking refuge in Turkey has climbed close to the 100,000 threshold, Turkish authorities said Monday.
14:15 Monday’s death toll across Syria has reached 87 people, Al-Arabiya quoted activists as saying.
14:14 Syrian rebels and loyalist troops on Monday clashed again in the main souq of the northern city of Aleppo, days after it was ravaged by a fire sparked by earlier fighting, an AFP correspondent said.
13:02 Syria’s Monday death toll has increased to 64, Al-Arabiya quoted activists as saying.
12:46 The US wants to oust the Damascus regime by raising fears overs its chemical weapons stockpiles, creating a scenario similar to that which led to the invasion of Iraq, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said in an interview broadcast Monday.
11:53 Syrian regime forces destroyed a number of houses in Al-Tadamoun neighborhood in Damascus, Al-Jazeera quoted activists as saying.
11:50 Syrian security forces killed 10 people at a mosque in Hanano in Aleppo, Al-Arabiya quoted activists as saying.
10:16 A military air strike on the town of Salqeen in Syria’s mostly rebel-held province of Idlib on Monday killed 21 people, including eight children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
9:57 Syrian forces have killed at least 47 people on Monday, Al-Jazeera reported, adding that 30 of them were in Edleb’s Seqleen.
7:30 MORNING LEADER: A suicide bomber blew up a car in the Kurdish city of Qamishli on Sunday, state television said, in the first such attack in Syria’s mainly Kurdish northeast, which has largely kept out of the conflict between rebels and the regime.
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Reuters: Syria pushes world refugee total towards record: U.N.
GENEVA – With tens of thousands fleeing Syria every month, the number of refugees worldwide in 2012 is set to be the highest this century, a senior United Nations official said on Monday.
Antonio Guterres, the body’s High Commissioner for Refugees, told his UNHCR agency’s executive committee that its ability to cope was being stretched to the limit.
“Already in 2011, as crisis after crisis unfolded, more than 800,000 people crossed borders in search of refuge — an average of more than 2,000 refugees every day,” the former Portuguese prime minister said.
That total had been the highest since the turn of the century “and so far this year more than 700,000 people have fled from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Sudan and Syria”, Guterres said.
Last Friday, another UNHCR official said the total from Syria could reach 700,000 this year, nearly four times its earlier estimate as government troops battle rebels across the country.
About 294,000 refugees fleeing 18 months of fighting have already crossed into Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey, or await registration there, Panos Moumtzis told a news briefing.
He said 100,000 people had fled Syria in August, 60,000 in September and at the moment 2,000 or 3,000 were crossing daily into neighbouring countries.
The new refugees are joining some 42 million around the globe who have fled across borders to escape violence. Many of these have been in temporary shelter provided by the UNHCR for a decade or more, some for even longer.
Amid the global economic crisis and with budgets of governments stretched, Guterres told the executive committee that the cost of helping refugees was escalating fast while long-lasting crises like Afghanistan and Somalia continued.
“We are at a moment when the demands on us are rising while the means available to respond have remained at a similar level to last year,” he said.
“Our operations in Africa, in particular, are dramatically underfunded. At this moment, we have no room for unforeseen needs, no reserves available. In today’s unpredictable operating environment, this is a cause for deep concern.”
(Reporting by Robert Evans; Editing by Robert Woodward)
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Guardian: Syria tells US and its allies to stop ‘interfering’ in its civil war
Syrian forces are uprooting thousands of people and then demolishing their homes in part of a flashpoint city that has been the center of an anti-government rebellion, according to residents there.
Tanks and bulldozers have been tearing down houses in the Mesha Alarbeen district of the city of Hama, the site of intense fighting during an uprising against the Syrian government.
The displacement and demolition has conjured fears of something that happened in the western city 30 years ago.
The Hama Massacre of 1982 is fresh in the minds of Syrians. Acting under orders from Hafez Assad — the father of the current Syrian president — the Syrian military brutally suppressed a revolt in Hama. Estimates of the number of casualties vary from 3,000 to 40,000. A 1983 Amnesty International report put the death toll on both sides as between 10,000 and 25,000.
Read more: Syrian children’s horror stories released
Once again, Hama is a stronghold of anti-government activists who have roiled the country for the past 18 months. Security forces rolled in with tanks and bulldozer
“So far they have razed 120 buildings,” Osamah, a Hama resident who visited the neighborhood on Sunday, told CNN.
The neighborhood had been “the main gathering place” for those “peaceful and militant” who oppose President Bashar al-Assad’s government, according to Osamah.
That is until last June, when the security forces decided to enter the district and completely take it over, several activists said.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported a “massive presence of terrorist armed gangs that threaten” the people of Hama. Other SANA articles referenced how security forces had found large amounts of weapons in the area.
Read more: Fresh attacks, but few answers in Syria
The government has consistently referred to anti-government forces as terrorists.
“The security forces started using artillery fire to shell several positions in the neighborhood,” Abdallah — another resident — told CNN from Meshaa Alarbaeen.
“Some of the poorest people live here. The security forces targeted their homes indiscriminately. They really tried to make life impossible for the residents.”
Read more: Syria explained: What you need to know
A few weeks ago, security forces allowed the bulldozers to enter the district.
Several amateur videos purportedly shot over the past two weeks support the activists’ claims. They show bulldozers flattening entire blocks while operating under the watchful eyes of security forces.
Eyewitnesses said security force members have been going building-to-building asking people to evacuate their homes.
“Most of the residents have left their homes. The majority of them went to neighboring areas in the province. Some are still sleeping in the streets, and only a few of them remain in their homes,” Abdallah said.
Another resident reached by phone Sunday said she’s been living on the street, along with her two kids, for five days after her husband was detained by authorities and her home was burned. She did not want to be named for safety reasons.
Read more: Syrian novelist pens 100 days of horror
Some Shabiha — gangs loyal to the regime — resort to other extreme tactics to intimidate those who do not want to leave their homes.
“A few days ago, a regime loyalist gang stormed one of the activists’ homes and brought out his wife, undressed her and made her stand on tank as it drove through the neighborhood,” Khaled, an eyewitness told CNN.
Residents said the anti-government sentiment is only growing, even after the razing of homes and intimidation of residents.
“The government wants to deny the activists popular support through leveling Meshaa Alarbaeen,” Osamah said. “But this incident has only fueled more anger here.”
