Monday 17 September 2012

The Syrian air force jet roared over, making people crane their necks and flinch at the same time.

A small dot – a bomb – detached from the plane as it disappeared over the buildings on the horizon.

We counted to five before it hit, a deafening explosion that rattled the windows. A large black cloud billowed up, blotting out the sky at the end of the road.

It was noisy chaos when we got there.

A crowd of dozens quickly became a couple of hundred as men ran in from side streets to help. A white pick-up truck was enveloped in flames. A circle of scorched earth, 30-40m across, radiated out from it. Weeds on the edge of the blackened concrete were still burning too.

A plump woman in a headscarf and floral robe – her housedress – was pulling a small boy along by the hand. “Abdo, Abdo.” She called out, the name of a man who ran to scoop up the child.

“Abdo, my family is dead.”

She was barefoot, fleeing what remained of her home in a three storey apartment block. Part of the block’s facade had gone, the roof collapsed. There were still people inside.

‘No choice’

Men climbed up the outside of the building, scrambling over the steep slope of the fallen roof. They searched frantically for a gap in the masonry, tugging at lumps of rubble.

Black smoke filled the street. A man shouted, pointing to the building: “Civilians! Bashar, you pig! You enemy of God!”

The crowd began a defiant chant of “God is great”. Then all at once they stopped and people ran in all directions.

“Tayara! Plane!” the man next to me screamed. We jostled, stumbling over rubble and twisted metal, trying not to trip over each other in our panic to get away.

When the plane did not return, the crowd came back to watch the rescue once again. Most of the outer wall on the top floor had disappeared. We were looking into someone’s front room.

From the gloom in the back, a Free Syrian Army fighter emerged carrying two little girls in pyjamas, a third following. The girls were dazed and covered in dust but uninjured. The chant of “God is great” resumed louder.

Before the girls could be brought down, the crowd started to shift uneasily. There was a crackle of automatic fire from the fighters on the ground. They might have been shooting, hopelessly, at an approaching plane, or in the air to get people moving. Either way, something was coming this time.

Diving into the nearest cover – a garage with a thick concrete roof – we saw the silvery outline of a drone flying high, not a jet coming in fast and low.

People drifted back to the apartment block but we decided it was time to leave. We learned later that 10 people were killed there.

They included a three-year-old boy and his mother, buried in the rubble. Two girls, aged 10 and 12, died playing in the street.

Days later I met 10-year-old Rana, one of the three girls pulled alive from the wreckage of the building. The three-year-old was her nephew.

His mother – her aunt – and an uncle were among the dead. She was still in shock from the loss and from the whole terrifying experience.

She was playing a computer game – “Zouba” – when the bomb hit. “The lights went out, then the roof collapsed,” she said.

“I started screaming and didn’t stop until a Free Army fighter came through a hole and took me out after half an hour. My two friends were coughing and screaming as well.”

Her father, Abu Hassan, his head bandaged, was angry at the regime but also at the rebels. They had, he said, put an anti-aircraft gun on the next building.

“I told the commander to remove it. He promised he would do it by the end of the day but after two hours the airstrike happened.”

He went on: “I am not against the Free Syrian Army but I told them that gun would get hit. I told him, ‘The FSA will hide and they will get us’.”

The rebels says they have no choice but to fight and often to do it from residential areas. They tried to hide their positions, said a local commander, Mudar al-Najar, but they were plagued by informers.

And, he said, the regime was happy to kill civilians “deliberately”, hitting hospitals and bread queues in Aleppo.

“They do it on purpose to push the people away from us,” he said.

“This regime doesn’t know how to fight. It knows only how to kill. They don’t confront us man to man. They attack only from a distance with artillery and airstrikes.”

‘What do I do?’

It is many months now since the Syrian regime started sending fast jets against its own people in an attempt to suppress the rebellion. This escalated further what is now best described as a civil war.

Planes have been used since the beginning in the battle for Aleppo. When the jets start to bomb, it can go on for hours. Each low pass overhead is a nerve-shredding experience.

In rebel-held parts of the city, they have endured six weeks of it.

“MiGs,” people cry out as the planes pass overhead, though the aircraft we saw were some kind of training fighter, Czech-made LAM 39s we were told later.

After we left the neighbourhood where the airstrike killed 10 people, we watched from a distance as a jet did return finally to drop another bomb.

The plane’s wings were still see-sawing slightly after releasing its payload. It flew so low I felt I could have seen the pilot had I not flung myself to the ground.

The jet then made a slow 180-degree turn to come back and strafe the area where it had dropped the bomb.

A thumping sound filled the air. A panicky voice came from a Free Army commander’s radio: “The plane is coming. I have only a Russian [a Kalashnikov]. What do I do?”

The commander answered: “Aim your gun at the plane and say ‘God is great’. Say ‘God is great’ on it while you fire.”

Fighting alone

The Free Army in Aleppo has no shoulder launched ground to air missiles. The planes make almost leisurely turns over the city to come back again and again. The pilots don’t act as if they believe they are at any risk of being shot down.

Free Army commanders say the outside world – especially Western and Arab governments – bear ultimate moral responsibility for this. Everywhere we went, people were bitter.

“I want to ask you a question,” said the commander I’d spoken to about the FSA’s share of the blame for civilian casualties.

“Why is the whole world watching and doing nothing? The dead are laying in the streets. We bury people in gardens. Why is the world protecting Bashar?”

Western governments don’t want to step into Syria, fearful of the many ways that could go wrong. They are all the more reluctant after the last week’s turmoil elsewhere in the Middle East.

In Aleppo, the Free Army claim to be inching forward in a grossly uneven fight against artillery and air power. For the time being, at least, they have no illusions that anyone is coming to help.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19618777

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UK FCO: Discussing British policy towards Syria with UK Syrian Community

Special Representative to the Syrian Opposition Jon Wilks welcomed the UK’s Syrian Community to discuss British policy towards Syria at the Foreign Office today.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said:

“Jon Wilks and Jon Davies, Additional Director of Middle East and North Africa Directorate at the FCO, met members of the UK’s Syrian Community, including representatives from Syrian opposition groups, to discuss the UK’s policy towards Syria and new ways the UK could help the Syrian people.

“Speaking at the meeting Jon Wilks said, ‘I welcome this opportunity to reach out to the Syrian community in the UK; we want to work with them in seeking a political solution to the crisis in Syria.’

“The UK is committed to working to end the violence and to supporting Syria to make a political transition to a more democratic and stable future. The UK has provided £30.5m in humanitarian aid to address the Syrian people’s urgent humanitarian needs. We are also providing £7.5 million of non-lethal aid to the Syrian people and opposition. We encourage the opposition to increase their efforts to win the trust of the Syrian people by communicating a vision ofa political future that is inclusive, representative and where the rights of all Syrians are protected.”

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NOW! Lebanon
[local time]   21:39 Monday’s death toll in Syria has risen to 115 people, Al-Arabiya television quoted activists as saying.
 20:44 Syrian rebels destroyed two regime checkpoints located on the airport road in Damascus, Al-Jazeera television quoted activists as saying.
 20:22 Monday’s death toll in Syria has risen to 99 people, Al-Arabiya television quoted activists as saying.
 20:20 The international peace envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi will travel to Turkey on Tuesday to visit a refugee camp near the Syrian border.
 20:15 Syrian rebels took control of the Tal Al-Abyad, Slouk and Al-Zaidy areas located along the Turkish border, activists said.
 19:27 President Bashar al-Assad’s government forces have stepped attacks on civilian areas in Syria, a UN envoy said Monday, warning that the conflict had now become stuck in a “grim spiral of violence.”
 18:32 Syrian forces said they had secured a flashpoint district of Aleppo city on Monday after a week of fighting, although an AFP correspondent said some parts were still unsafe for residents to return.
 17:02 Monday’s death toll in Syria has risen to 60 people, Al-Arabiya television quoted activists as saying.
 15:47 The top US general on Monday discussed the Syrian crisis with officials in Ankara, as Turkey’s premier criticized Washington for inaction over the conflict.
 15:36 Monday’s death toll in Syria has risen to 50 people, Al-Arabiya television quoted activists as saying.
 14:00 Monday’s death toll in Syrian has reached 30 people, Al-Arabiya quoted activists as saying.
 13:44 Serious human rights violations have soared dramatically in Syria in recent weeks, the head of a UN commission tasked with probing the abuses said Monday.
 13:42 The UN Security Council should refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court, an international rights watchdog said on Monday.
 13:13 Syrian security forces’ shells targeted the neighborhood of Al-Hajar al-Aswad in Damascus, Al-Jazeera quoted activists as saying.
 12:05 Syrian security forces clashed with members of the Free Syrian Army in the neighborhoods of Al-Midan and Al-Aarqoub in Aleppo, Al-Jazeera reported.
 12:04 Syrian regime air raids targeted some of Aleppo’s neighborhoods for the first time, Al-Jazeera reported.
 11:52 Fighting raged in Syria’s second city Aleppo on Monday amid a disputed claim that the army had managed to seize the strategic district of Midan from rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
 11:04 The international peace envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, was to hold talks in Cairo on Monday with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi following his trip to Damascus, the organization said on Monday.
 10:35 UN investigators say they will not publish names of suspected Syrian war criminals, AFP reported.
 9:53 The foreign ministers of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey are to hold their first high-level meeting on the Syria conflict on Monday in Cairo, Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported.
 9:06 Twelve people were killed on Monday across Syria, Al-Jazeera quoted activists as saying.
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Reuters: West’s rebel worries leave Syria strategy struggling

WASHINGTON – France may be considering arming Syria’s rebels but the U.S. and other Western powers have yet to find opposition figures they genuinely trust as they worry over growing jihadi and sectarian forces. | Video

The attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya’s Benghazi that killed its ambassador and anti-American demonstrations elsewhere this week over an obscure video that ridiculed the Prophet Mohammad might have noSyria links but will make nervous governments even more cautious.

Western officials say there is little doubt a growing number of foreign jihadi fighters are entering the fray, although it is far from clear whether any have direct links to Al Qaeda. But It is just one worry amongst many.

“This is not a situation where the U.S. can do much to shape what happens,” says Mona Yacoubian, a former State Department official and now fellow and Syria expert at the Stimson Centre. “There has always been a lot of caution within the Obama Administration on Syria and if anything things are getting more complicated.”

Working with Libya’s initially notoriously disorganized rebels, officials complained, was hard enough; but the opposition to Syrian President Bashar al Assad seems even more diffuse.

That makes policy-making much more complicated and supplying weapons, or even choosing who to talk to, more of a gamble.

“We badly need to identify some political and military leaders who can make clear that they seek a political settlement to bring all fighting to an end,” said one Western official on condition of anonymity. “Without that the blood letting reinforces the worst aspects of sectarianism and makes a soft landing ever less likely.”

Western states have been on a concerted offensive to push opposition figures towards greater unity, facilitating meetings that range from foreign-based conferences to Internet chats and small border gatherings.

But, beyond pushing in humanitarian aid they fear there is a limited amount they can do to change the situation on the ground.

“It’s a very difficult situation, and the lack of coherence of the opposition is probably the biggest single challenge,” says Melissa Dalton, a senior Pentagon adviser on Syria and the Middle East currently on sabbatical as a visiting fellow at the Centre for New American Security.

“Given everything that is at stake, the United States clearly cannot do nothing. But there are no good scenarios arising from this conflict, and so the most important strategy for the United States to pursue is mitigating the risks to its interests.”

That meant to prioritize tracking Syria’s chemical weapons, ensuring militant groups inspired by Al Qaeda were unable to set up safe havens and preventing weapons from falling into the wrong hands, she said. It also meant avoiding doing anything to make matters worse.

DITCHING SNC FOR FSA

Current and former Western officials say their countries have lost confidence in the Syrian National Council (SNC), the largely foreign-based body initially courted as a government in waiting. With some of its meetings dissolving into fisticuffs, it is increasingly both too chaotic, too sectarian and simply lacking in a significant support.

The main focus of political and diplomatic effort, they say, is now the Free Syrian Army (FSA), particularly as its fighters prove increasingly successful at ousting Assad’s forces from significant portions of the country. But even the FSA, they worry, may be a unified body in little more than name.

After a sluggish start, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been overseeing cross border movements from a secret liaison center in Turkey. Ankara denies any direct involvement in channeling of arms across the frontier. U.N. diplomats say Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been transferring weapons to rebels.

Western states have so far restricted themselves to “nonlethal” support such as body armor, radios and medical equipment although a French diplomatic source said early this month that Paris was considering giving heavy weaponry.

Those with knowledge of events say the United States and other Western intelligence agencies are already trying to vet those receiving arms channeled across the Turkish border. Should France choose to supply arms, it could expect warnings from Washington if it dealt with those about whom the U.S. had concern.

But knowing conclusively who anyone is along the chaotic border, experts say, can be all but impossible.

In principle, the FSA remains commanded by former Syrian force colonel Rian al-Assad, an early defector who first announced the rebel group’s existence to the world more than a year ago. But in reality, there are growing suspicions that his influence and that of the rest of the group’s leadership may be collapsing on the ground.

Kept cloistered by their Turkish military hosts, some Syria experts say the FSA’s headquarters now amounts to little more than a media center. The real emerging power bases seem to be within Syria, particularly in cities such as Aleppo and Idlib where Assad’s forces have ceded some ground.

“CHAOTIC FREE FOR ALL”

“Every group is sending people (separately) to Turkey to ask for weapons,” says Joseph Holliday, a former U.S. Army intelligence officer and Syria expert now a fellow at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington DC, describing the situation as a “free for all”". “Countries, organizations or just wealthy individuals are talking to these individual groups and giving what support they want to people that they want.”

Dealing with so many players was itself a challenge for organizations such as the U.S. State Department more used to working on a national level, he said.

Some groups are already accused of reprisal killings, a worrying sign for foreign powers who believe agreement with some of the minority Alawite regime may ultimately prove vital.

Any offer of lethal support, some argue, should bring with it signed assurances of commitment to a peaceful post-war transition. But holding the rebels to account afterwards might prove impossible.

In a potential sign of further escalation, France, which has a colonial history in Syria and showed itself in Libya to be an increasingly assertive Mediterranean power, has also voiced support for a Turkish suggestion of militarily protected “humanitarian zones”.

But as well as worries that any such action would simply further inflame the situation, the United States in particular worries that even enforcing a no-fly zone could require it to move forces currently arrayed against Iran.

Washington is also unpleasantly aware that as things stand, any such move would be in the face of angry Russian and probably also Chinese opposition – as well as one of the most militarily challenging battles of recent decades. The downing of a Turkish jet earlier this year showed Assad retained a sophisticated air defense system.

The opposition, however, says Western reticence is already costing lives. Last week in Istanbul, two senior Aleppo rebels accused the outside world of simply watching “like a movie” while thousands died.

“There’s a lot of frustration with the West,” says former U.S. Army intelligence officer Holliday “they think we encouraged them to rise up and then didn’t do anything to support them.”

(Reporting By Peter Apps)

China says solution to Syria crisis must be led by its people:

(Reuters) – Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told a representative of a Syrian opposition group on Monday that the political solution to the crisis in Syria must be led by its people, and repeated Beijing’s rejection of external intervention.

China has been keen to show it does not take sides in Syria and has urged the government there to talk to the opposition and take steps to meet demands for political change. It has also said a transitional government should be formed.

Yang told Hasan Abdul-Azim, the general coordinator of Syria’s National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, that “the current situation in Syria is getting more severe, but the use of force will not solve the problem and the correct direction of a political solution cannot be shaken”, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.

“The aspirations and choice of the Syrian people should be fully respected, the political transition process must be led by the Syrian people and cannot be imposed from outside,” Yang was quoted as telling Abdul-Azim.

Yang called on all parties in Syria to cooperate with the mediation efforts of international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and reiterated Beijing’s stance rejecting all forms of violence, according to the foreign ministry.

Abdul-Azim told Yang of his group’s proposal for a ceasefire, which include the release of prisoners, the granting of humanitarian access and a “four-point proposal” for the start of a political transition, the foreign ministry said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s envoy, Bouthaina Shaaban, visited in August when China repeated a call for talks between the Syrian government and opposition.

Both China and Russia have vetoed proposed U.N. Security Council resolutions intended to put pressure on Assad. China has repeatedly said it opposes forceful foreign intervention and called for a political solution in Syria.

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee and Aileen Wang; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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Guardian: Tony Blair says west must ratchet up pressure on Assad

17 Sep 2012: Former prime minister tells Today programme it would be ‘very tragic if we lost sight of what was happening in Syria’