Saturday 11 February 2012
February 12, 2012 by sks
Filed under News, Syria, Syrian Revolution
Sherzad Rashid of the Kurdish Democratic Yekiti Party was buried today. The Syrian Observatory spoke to Muhadin Sheikh Ali from the Party for an opinion about who was responsible for his death. He did not accuse anyone of the assassination, but he spoke of some sides trying to create problems in the Kurdish streets by pointing fingers. Our condolences go to his family.
Syrian Uprising 2011 Information Centre: SUMMARY (11/02/2012): At least 67 martyrs have fallen as Homs, Zabadani, Madaya and Rankous are under shelling. Assad’s forces attacked Musayfirah in Daraa province where 10 martyrs fell and dozens were arrested. Tafas and Tasil are also still under attack. Meanwhile, a Brigadier General, head of the military hospital, was assassinated by gunmen outside his house in Damascus. The video of the day is Aleppo – Afrin which shows the funeral of Dr. Shairzad Rashid, a murdered activist of the Kurdish Democratic Party. Syria – Saturday 11/02/2012 – Google Maps
Homs (11/02/2012): This is Insha’at area in Homs. If you look at the map you can see it is next to Baba Amru. It is generally seen as an area where rich people live although, as you can see, neither rich nor poor are left there now. Dozens of families fled after 7 days of shelling. Assad’s forces spared no effort to loot and destroy everything they could find.
Homs (Insha’at) 11/02/2012
Alaa Saraqbi, 39 years old from Dumayr, Damascus Countryside. He was married with 3 kids. Alaa was shot dead on 06/01/2012 while helping another martyr.
Martyrs 2
ALEPPO (11/02/2012): The funeral of Friday’s martyrs in the Fardous district of Aleppo. Yesterday was a bloody day for Aleppo – the regime says 28 died in the 2 bomb attacks mostly civilians while another 9 martyrs were killed by the bullets (or knives) of security forces, 4 of them in this area. ”Greetings Baba Amru, your blood is precious to us.”
Aleppo (Fardous) 11/02/2012
HOMS (11/02/2012): 1 week ago the Homs neighbourhood Khaldiyeh was the scene of a massacre – a heavy bombardment that killed dozens of people (more than 150 martyrs have been identified with dozens of others remaining unidentified). Today they are holding a funeral for a massacre that took place in another area – the brutal slaughter of an entire family in Sabeel neighbourhood by the regime’s thugs. The murder took place on 5th Feb but they could only retrieve the bodies yesterday.
Homs – Khaldiyeh 11/02/2012
Video of the al-Sabeel massacre - https://www.youtube.com/
+18.
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NOW! Lebanon
[local time] 22:29 The Syrian army is trying to raid the Homs neighborhood of Bab Amr amid violent shelling, the General Commission of the Syrian Revolution said on its website.
22:19 Saturday’s death toll in Syria has risen to 67 people, the General Commission of the Syrian Revolution said on its website.
21:11 Syrian security forces have entered Zabadani on Saturday evening, an activist told Al-Arabiya television.
20:38 Saturday’s death toll in Syria has risen to 54 people, the General Commission of the Syrian Revolution said on its website.
20:20 Syria’s ambassador to Kuwait left the country on Saturday following a decision taken by Gulf states to expel Syrian envoys, Al-Arabiya television reported.
20:04 Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jihad Makdisi said on Saturday that Damascus “understands” Lebanon’s adopted policy of disassociation regarding the Syrian situation, but added that Damascus hopes for “positive disassociation,” the National News Agency reported.
19:13 Saturday’s death toll in Syria has risen to 46 people, among them 20 killed in Homs, the General Commission of the Syrian Revolution said on its website.
18:56 Syria has asked Tunisia and Libya to close their embassies in Damascus in a tit-for-tat move after they both expelled Syria’s envoys, a Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Saturday.
17:09 Syrian forces raided the Daraa village of Mseifra, killing 16 people, Al-Jazeera television reported.
15:52 Jihadists are moving from Iraq to Syria, as are weapons being sent to opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Iraq’s deputy interior minister told AFP on Saturday.
14:55 Saturday’s death toll in Syria has risen to 35 people, among them 19 killed in Homs, the General Commission of the Syrian Revolution said on its website.
14:29 The Syrian army shelled Zabadani on Saturday, Al-Arabiya quoted activists as saying.
14:13 The Syrian army shelled mosques in Duma, Al-Jazeera quoted activists as saying on Saturday.
14:12 The Syrian authorities opened water dams located on the Turkish border to “drown refugee camps,” Al-Jazeera television reported on Friday.
13:41 Arab recognition of the opposition Syrian National Council is imminent, SNC member Ahmed Ramadan said in Qatar on Saturday, ahead of key talks in the Egyptian capital on the crisis.
13:15 ”An armed terrorist group” gunned down a Syrian general in Damascus on Saturday, the official SANA news agency reported, saying he was in charge of a military hospital in the capital.
12:35 The Syrian security forces’ gunfire killed 23 people, Al-Arabiya quoted activists as saying.
12:34 Turkey plans to lodge a formal request with the United Nations for a humanitarian operation to help Syrians suffering a “humanitarian tragedy” in their country, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Saturday.
12:24 Tensions escalated Saturday as forces stepped up security in Aleppo, activists said, a day after car bombs killed at least 28 people in the first such attacks on Syria’s second city in a year-old uprising. 12:10 Diplomats said that Saudi Arabia distributed to the UN General Assembly members a draft resolution “supporting the Arab peace plan for Syria,” Reuters and the Kuwaiti news agency (KUNA) reported on Saturday.
12:04 The Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda carried out two recent bombings in Damascus and was likely behind suicide bombings Friday that killed at least 28 people in the Syrian city of Aleppo, McClatchy Newspapers reported.
11:15 The Syrian army prevented families from fleeing some neighborhoods in Homs, Al-Arabiya reported on Saturday.
11:10 A family of 19 was killed in Syria’s Wadi al-Arab on Friday, Al-Arabiya reported on Saturday.
11:05 Dozens were killed in the Syrian army shelling of Homs, Al-Arabiya reported on Saturday.
10:47 Syrian security forces’ gunfire killed 14 on Saturday, Al-Jazeera quoted activists as saying.
10:01 The Syrian army’s shelling of Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr killed six, Al-Jazeera quoted activists as saying.
9:13 The Syrian army shelling of Homs’ neighborhood of Baba Amr injured four on Saturday, Al-Arabiya reported.
8:35 United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Friday that he “firmly condemns” car bombings that targeted security forces in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.
8:16 US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, has posted declassified photographs on his social networking website Facebook that the State Department said Friday shows an army attacking a civilian area in the city of Homs.
8:04 The world must stand united in demanding a halt to violence in Syria and for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, the European Union’s top diplomat Catherine Ashton said Friday.
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BBC: Syria unrest: Arab League set to discuss next move
Arab foreign ministers are meeting in Cairo on Sunday to decide their next move after a resolution on Syria failed in the UN Security Council last week.
Officials say the ministers could discuss a joint observer mission with the UN and recognition of the main opposition group.
Syrian government forces have continued to bombard Homs and entered the town of Zabadani on Saturday.
Activists say at least 35 people died, while a general was killed in Damascus.
Brig-Gen Dr Isa al-Kholi , the head of a Syrian military hospital, was shot dead by members of an “armed terrorist group” as he left his home in the north of the city, the state news agency said.
It is believed to be the first assassination of a senior officer in the capital since the uprising began.
Draft resolution
Foreign ministers from the Arab League are due to meet on Sunday afternoon.
Officials said the ministers were expected to discuss a joint Arab-UN observer mission to replace the Arab League monitors who left in January because of continuing violence.
Formal recognition of opposition group the Syrian National Council could also be discussed, but there was not full agreement on this, an unnamed official told reporters.
The league meeting will be preceded by a meeting of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), which expelled Syria’s ambassadors from its member countries during the week.
GCC and Arab League member Saudi Arabia is also circulating a draft resolution at the UN General Assembly, similar to the one vetoed in the Security Council by China and Russia.
The draft resolution “fully supports” the Arab League peace plan published last month, which called on President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power to his vice-president, and make way for the rapid formation of a national unity government including the opposition.
The General Assembly is scheduled to discuss Syria on Monday, when it will be addressed by the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, but no vote on the resolution is expected by then.
There is no power of veto at the General Assembly but its resolutions have no legal force, unlike those of the Security Council.
‘Rare ceasefire’
After a week under shellfire and virtual siege, conditions in the western city of Homs are reported to be getting desperate, with basic supplies running low.
More than 400 people are reported to have been killed in Homs in the past week
Saturday’s fatalities were reported in the Baba Amr district – a centre of anti-government protests – but residents said there had also been explosions and heavy gunfire in the neighbouring area of Inshaat.
Activists say more than 400 people have been killed since security forces launched an assault on opposition-held areas in Homs last Saturday.
Meanwhile, government forces have entered the mountain town of Zabadani, outside Damascus.
Exiled opposition leader Kamal al-Labwani told Reuters news agency a rare ceasefire had been agreed in the town, whereby rebel forces could withdraw if they gave up weapons and armour captured from the government.
Human rights groups say more than 7,000 have died throughout Syria since March. The government says at least 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed combating “armed gangs and terrorists”.
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Reuters: Syrian forces shell Homs ahead of Arab meeting
Syrian forces bombarded districts of the city of Homs in their drive to crush a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, ahead of a meeting of Arab foreign ministers due to discuss setting up a joint observer mission with the United Nations.
The Local Coordination Committees, an activists’ organization, said that according to a tally from doctors at makeshift hospitals, at least 31 people were killed on Saturday in the latest attacks in a week-long government siege of Homs, Syria’s third largest city, which has been at the heart of an uprising that broke out 11 months ago.
“Tens of shabbiha (militiamen loyal to Assad) along with army snipers and two tanks have deployed at the citadel and they are bombarding Old Homs with mortar rounds and anti-aircraft guns,” activist Malek Mohammad said by satellite phone from the city, 140 km (88 miles) north of Damascus.
Mohammed Hassan, another opposition campaigner in Homs, told Reuters by telephone that a 55-year-old woman was among those killed by shellfire on the Baba Amro district.
Assad has dispatched loyal forces into cites and towns across Syria to put down the uprising, drawing armed resistance, defections by soldiers from the Sunni Muslim majority, and international outrage at a crackdown that has killed thousands of civilians.
Ministers from the Arab League, which suspended Syria in response to the crackdown, meet in Cairo on Sunday to discuss forming a joint U.N.-Arab monitoring team to Syria in place of an Arab League observer mission that was suspended last month.
An official source at the League said another proposal called for the appointment of a U.N.-Arab League envoy to deal with Syria, adding that some states may also propose the Arab League formally recognize the opposition Syrian National Council.
AVOIDING A BLOODBATH
In a rare sign of compromise, Assad’s forces entered the besieged town of Zabadani in the mountains near the border with Lebanon after agreeing a ceasefire with rebels, according to Kamal al-Labwani, an opposition leader in exile.
Under the agreement, reached after a week-long tank and artillery bombardment that killed at least 100 in the town of 20,000, rebel forces were being allowed to leave if they gave up weapons and armor seized from government forces, Labwani said.
“Cooler heads in the military somehow prevailed over whoever has been issuing orders to shell Zabadani with heavy artillery. In the end it was in the interest of the two sides to prevent a bloodbath,” Labwani said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that three people had been killed in the bombardment on Saturday.
On Friday, suicide car bombings targeting security forces killed at least 28 people in Syria’s second city of Aleppo, so far on the sidelines of the uprising, authorities said.
Assad has ignored repeated international appeals to halt his crackdown.
However, the world remains divided over how to end the conflict. A week ago, Russia and Chinavetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution sponsored by Western and Arab states that backed an Arab League call for Assad to step down.
Sunni Muslim power Saudi Arabia, which has grown increasingly assertive in its efforts to isolate Assad, has circulated a similar draft for the U.N. General Assembly, where resolutions are non-binding but there is no power of veto.
RUSSIAN OPPOSITION
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Saturday that Moscow could not support a move resting on “the same unbalanced draft resolution text.”
The dispute brings no relief to Homs, where activists say the government offensive on mostly Sunni Muslim rebel-held areas has killed at least 300 people in the past week.
Food and medical supplies were running low in blockaded areas and many people were trapped in their homes.
YouTube footage provided by activists showed a doctor at a field hospital next to the body of the woman of 55 reportedly killed on Saturday. “Shrapnel hit her in the head and completely drained her brain matter,” he says.
Witness accounts could not be independently confirmed as Syria restricts access by most foreign journalists.
The 46-year-old Assad belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam that has dominated the majority Sunni country since his late father took control in a 1970 coup.
In Damascus, gunmen shot dead a senior Syrian military doctor outside his home in northern Damascus on Saturday, the state news agency SANA said.
It blamed an “armed terrorist group” for the assassination of Brigadier-General Issa al-Khouli, whom it described as a doctor and hospital director. He was the most senior figure to have been reported killed in Damascus.
His killing followed a four-hour clash in the capital on Friday night pitting Free Syrian Army rebels against troops backed by armored vehicles who had entered the neighborhood of
al-Qaboun, activists said. ID:nL5E8DACME]
AMBUSH
The British-based Observatory said 10 soldiers had been killed in an ambush by army defectors using roadside bombs and hand grenades on Friday in the rebellious Idlib region.
In Douma, south of Damascus, an officer and eight soldiers defected along with a tank after clashes between army deserters and security forces, it said.
Opposition to Assad has evolved from pro-democracy street protests to armed insurrection over the past 11 months. World powers fear a slide into civil war with knock-on effects for Syria’s neighbors - Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon.
Gulf Arab states, the United States, Europe and Turkey hope diplomacy can force Assad out and have ruled out military action of the kind that helped oust Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi last year.
Assad can count on the support of Russia, Syria’s main arms supplier and an ally stretching back to the Soviet era, as well as Iran. Moscow, which is keen to counter U.S. influence in the Middle East, insists foreign powers should not interfere.
The U.N. assembly is due to discuss Syria on Monday and vote
later in the week on the draft resolution, which “fully supports” an Arab League plan floated last month.
Ayham Kamel, an analyst at Eurasia Group, said the Russian and Chinese vetoes showed that change in Syria was not imminent. As rebel forces lacked structure and a unified command, Assad would keep the military edge but find it hard to crush rebels.
“In the next few months, Syria will transition from civil conflict into civil war. Assad’s power and control over the country will diminish and civilian casualties on both sides are expected to rise,” Kamel said.
Highlighting the danger of the conflict spilling over borders, supporters and opponents of Assad fought in the streets of Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli on Saturday, a security source said. Two people were killed and eight wounded, some of them soldiers who had been deployed to halt the fighting.
(Additional reporting by Ayman Samir in Cairo, Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations and Gleb Bryanski in Moscow; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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Wolf Blitzer interviews U.S. Ambassador
