Saturday 21 January 2012

Global Day of Rage for Syria – 21/01/2012: 
Syrians killed: 6,597
Children killed: 446
Females killed: 305
Injured: +35,000
Missing: +65,000
Protestors killed under torture: 402
Protestors currently incarcerated: +212,000
Syrian refugees since March: +19,727
Refugees in Turkey: 10,227
Refugees in Lebanon: +5,500
Refugees in Jordan: +4,000

 The Global Day of Rage for Syria 21/1/2012

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: The death toll of people killed yesterday was 16 martyrs for whom the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has records and the circumstances of death. A 29-year-old man, from Maarat Al-Numaan, was killed by a sniper’s bullet near the sugar factory of Khan Sheikon. 5 people were killed in gunfire: 3 people in Homs and 2 people in the city of Al-Bukamal in Deir Ezzor. There were 2 martyrs in the city of Al-Dameer and Douma in Rif Dimashq Governorate. One person died in Hama from injuries sustained on Thursday 19 January 2012.

Also, the Syrian security authorities have handed the dead bodies of 6 people, who were went missing on Wednesday 18 January 2012, were handed to their parents in the rural area of Idlib. And a sergeant major was assassinated in the city of Daraa.

Syrian Uprising 2011 Information Centre: Summary (21/01/2012): Very bloody day for Syria – around 60 dead bodies were found in the National Hospital in Idlib, plus 14 bodies of prisoners were in the bus that was allegedly “bombed” between Idlib and Ariha. 5 martyrs fell in Duma when the funeral was attacked and there were hours of fighting between the Free Syrian Army and Assad’s forces. More martyrs have also fallen in Homs, Muaret Nu’man and Mayadin. The Syrian National Council have officially asked that the Syrian case be referred to the UN Security Council while the Arab League will listen to the report of it’s observer mission tomorrow. Syria – Saturday 21/01/2012 – Google Maps

Duma (21/01/2012): This is the funeral of Muhammad Maddah in the Damascus suburb of Duma. Respect to the brave people. 4 of the mourners have fallen as martyrs.
 Duma, 21/01/2012

DLIB (21/01/2012): This morning, state media and other sources reported a bomb attack on a police bus killing at least 13 prisoners. However doctors have cast doubt on this story saying the bodies of the “victims” had been dead for many days. When people went to the National Hospital in Idlib to identify the martyrs they found several dozen more bodies, as you can see in this video. The people inside the Hospital were then attacked by security forces, who have now deployed around the hospital to prevent the corpses being identified and taken away by the families.

 Idlib, 21/01/2012, (WARNING: GRAPHIC)
English Speakers to Help The Syrian Revolution: DOUMA: Damascus Suburbs: Distressing 18+ video, the terrible injuries are evidence that nail bombs were used in the city today….the worst of inhumane brutality….There were many injuries as well as the 5 martyrs named below. From latest reports, the firing in many parts of the City has stopped…. at least for now… but the city remains sealed off with no entrance or exit.
 21/1/2012

TCK Kurdish Youth: Aktham Abbas in the hands of the rebels:

 Aktham Abbas
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NOW! Lebanon
[local time]  20:54 A key Syrian opposition activist, Suhair al-Atassi, has left her homeland and is living in France, an online newspaper reported Saturday.
 19:44 A Syrian refugee in Lebanon, identified as Khalil Hassan, was arrested by the Lebanese General Security on Saturday, Lebanon’s Coordination Commission to Support the Syrian Revolution said in a statement.
 19:26 Syrian security forces killed three members of a “terrorist group” overnight as they tried to enter the country from neighboring Lebanon, the official SANA news agency said on Saturday.
 18:09 Fifty-one dead people were found in Syria’s Edleb National Hospital, Al-Arabiya television reported on Friday.
 17:54 The rebel Free Syrian Army, whose forces are present in Zabadani northeast of Damascus, fears a government offensive on the city after its forces withdrew several days ago, a spokesperson said on Saturday.
 17:07 Opposition Syrian National Council leaders on Saturday pressed the Arab League to turn the Syria crisis over to the UN, but the League looked set to extend its own mission, criticized for its failure to stem 10 months of killing.
 14:13 Qatar, which has called for Arab troops to deploy in crisis-hit Syria, is a “tool” being used by the United States against Damascus, Syrian state newspaper Ath-Thawra newspaper alleged on Saturday.
 14:05 Clashes erupted on Saturday between the Syrian army and defectors in Jisr al-Shoghour near the Turkish-Syrian border, Al-Jazeera reported.
 13:10 At least 14 were killed on Saturday after their bus exploded in northwestern Syria, Al-Jazeera reported.
 11:18 A 14-year-old Lebanese boy was shot and fatally wounded after gunmen opened fire on a fishing boat on the maritime border with Syria on Saturday, his father and a local official told AFP.
 10:21 The General Guide of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood Mohammad Ridah al-Shaqfa denied that a meeting took place between the Islamist group and Iranian officials.
 10:14 Syrian security forces have killed 2 people on Saturday, Al-Arabiya quoted the General Commission of the Syrian Revolution as saying.
 8:09 The US State Department said Friday it is considering closing its embassy in Damascus over growing safety concerns as the death toll mounts in the Syrian regime’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
 7:55 The State Department said Friday it is looking into reports of the possible arrest of a US citizen in Syria.
 7:43 French journalist Gilles Jacquier was killed in Syria due to a “blunder” by the main opposition army group, Le Figaro newspaper said on Friday, but a Syrian opposition spokesperson denied the charge.
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 Arabs running out of options on Syria violence www.firstpost.com

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BBC: Syria unrest: Deadly blast hits police detainee van

At least 14 people died after a van carrying prisoners was blown up on a road in north-west Syria, reports say.

The official Sana news agency said the police van was attacked by an “armed group” on the Idlib-Ariha highway.

Opposition groups confirmed the attack but did not say who carried it out.

Rights activists also said 30 unidentified corpses had been discovered at the National Hospital in Idlib and at least six people died elsewhere.

The casualties were in Douma, Deir Ezzor and Homs, said the Local Coordination Committees.

The van attack came as the Arab League hears a report by monitors observing implementation of its peace plan.

The league is due to decide whether to extend its mission in the coming days.

The 165-strong mission expired on Thursday with no sign of a halt to the government’s crackdown on protesters.

Analysts say the league is expected to renew the mission for another month.

‘Ambulance attacked’

The reports said Saturday’s van attack happened in the Mastoumeh area in Idlib province.

Sana said 26 prisoners and six police were injured.

An ambulance which came to the aid of victims was also attacked, the agency added.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the van had been hit by several roadside bombs.

No-one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Protesters in Damascus

Later six women were killed in protests against the attack in the city of Idlib, opposition sources said.

Meanwhile at least three soldiers have been killed in clashes near the Turkish border, also in Idlib province, and witnesses said a Lebanese fisherman was shot dead by Syrian gunmen near the maritime border with Syria.

The UN Security Council was told earlier this month that 400 people had been killed during the monitors’ first 10 days in Syria.

The UN had previously said that more than 5,000 had died since protests against President Bashar al-Assad erupted last March.

The government in Damascus says that some 2,000 members of the security forces have also been killed combating “armed gangs and terrorists”.

In a separate development, the US says it is considering closing its embassy in Damascus because of increasing safety concerns.

Officials in Washington say they are talking to the Syrian authorities, as well as to the British and Chinese governments, who have embassies nearby. But no final decision had been taken.

‘No appetite’

The conclusions reached by the Arab League mission’s head, Sudanese Gen Mohammed al-Dabi, had been due to be discussed by a committee of ministers on Saturday, but unconfirmed reports say ministerial talks will not now be held earlier than Sunday.

The panel is chaired by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad al-Thani, whose country has previously suggested sending Arab peacekeepers to Syria.

Damascus has firmly rejected the idea.

It appears that there is no clearly thought out alternative to the monitoring mission, and no appetite – as yet – for a radical change of course, the BBC’s Jon Leyne in Cairo says.

League officials have already hinted that the most likely outcome will be to renew the mission for another month, possibly doubling the number of observers on the ground.

Meanwhile the opposition Syrian National Council presented the league with a formal request to refer the crisis to the UN Security Council.

Last week, the head of the Arab League’s Cairo operations room, Adnan al-Khudeir, said the observers would remain in 17 difference places around Syria until the final decision is made.

Although the mandate of the observer mission came to an end formally on Thursday, the agreement covering it provides for an extension for a second month if both sides agree.

So far there has been no suggestion from Damascus that the monitors should be withdrawn.

Newsnight: Jeremy Paxman has a report on the Free Syrian Army operations inside Damascus. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b019x49t/Newsnight_20_01_2012/
Newsnight: 20/01/2012 www.bbc.co.uk

There have been more protests in Syria against the rule of President Assad, and one pro-Assad demonstration inside Damascus.

Protests after Friday prayers have become a regular weekly event.

But Newsnight’s Tim Whewell, who has just returned from the country, has discovered something more: armed opponents of president Assad’s regime established inside the Syrian capital. Secret filming finds armed activists in Damascus

Reuters: Syria seizes Lebanese boat, family says man killed

(Reuters) – Syrian forces killed a Lebanese fisherman and wounded another when they seized a boat suspected of smuggling off the Lebanese-Syrian coast on Saturday, a relative said.

Syria’s state news agency SANA said the sailors were smugglers and that Syria’s naval patrol tried to stop the boat but was fired on by other nearby Lebanese vessels. It said two of the men on the seized boat were wounded by friendly fire.

The border areas between Lebanon and Syria are known for smuggling, and Syrian security services have become especially sensitive to contraband runs since a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad erupted 10 months ago.

Syria complains that its neighbors are not clamping down on smuggling of weapons they say are destined for insurgents.

Residents in Lebanon’s northern coastal town of Arida said they heard gunfire offshore but did not see who was shooting. They said they later saw a Syrian boat towing the Lebanese fishing boat toward the nearby Syrian port of Tartous.

Syrian authorities did not report any deaths to SANA but the agency said two wounded sailors were in hospital. It said a third man had been “turned in to concerned authorities.”

“The port patrol warned the infiltrating boat to stop more than once but the crew did not obey orders and instead threw their cargo overboard and tried to escape toward northern Lebanon,” SANA said.

Lebanese security sources confirmed the seizure of the boat but declined to give details of any casualties.

Ahmed Hamad told Reuters his wife had crossed into Syria and had found their 16-year-old son Maher Hamad dead in a Syrian state hospital. He said a second fisherman had been wounded and the third was being interrogated by Syrian security forces.

Dozens of angry residents and relatives of the fishermen tried to block the Arida border crossing, where they attacked a Syrian truck, smashing its windows, and burned tires.

Security forces prevented the crowd from entering Syria, witnesses said.

GUARDIAN: Syria unrest: bomb attack on police truck kills at least 14
Syria’s official news agency blames ambush on van transporting prisoners in north west of the country on ‘terrorists’
Image released by Sana, Syria’s official news agency, shows the damaged police truck near Idlib. Photograph: Sana Handout/EPA

At least 14 people have been killed in a bomb attack on a police truck in northwestern Syria near the Turkish border, state media and opposition activists said.

The official Sana news agency blamed the ambush, in which 26 others were wounded, on “terrorists”.

The violence broke out on the Idlib-Ariha highway in Jisr al-Shughour, an area that has seen fierce fighting between Syrian soldiers and army defectors.

Four bombs that exploded in “two phases” hit the truck, which was transporting prisoners. The attackers then targeted an ambulance that arrived to assist the wounded, according to Sana reports.

Six policemen accompanying the prisoners were wounded, some of them in critical condition, it said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based opposition activist group, confirmed the attack but put the death toll at 15 prisoners. Director Rami Abdul-Rahman said the truck was hit by several roadside bombs, but it was not clear who was behind the violence.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but members of the so-called Free Syrian Army are known to be active in the area.

Dozens of people have also been reported wounded in heavy clashes between Syrian troops and defectors in the Jabal al-Zawiya region, along the Turkish border.

The clashes come a day before Arab League monitors are due to decide whether to extend their mission for another month. The UN estimates about 5,400 have been killed in the 10-month uprising against President Bashar Assad.

CNN: More violence in Syria amid Arab League diplomacy

Damascus, Syria (CNN) – Deaths mounted and violence raged across Syria on Saturday as Arab League diplomats prepared to discuss extending its monitoring mission.

The number of people found dead in Syria has risen to at least 54 on Saturday, said the Local Coordination Committees in Syria, an opposition activist group.

They include 30 unidentified corpses found at the National Hospital in Idlib and at least 13 victims of a bus explosion. Deaths occurred in other locations, including Douma, Deir Ezzor in the east and Homs in the west, the LCC said.

For more than 10 months, Syria has been engulfed an anti-government public uprising and a brutal security crackdown against protesters. The United Nations last month estimated well over 5,000 deaths since mid-March. Opposition groups estimate more than 6,000 people have died.

While activists blame the violence on the President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the government says terrorists have been responsible for the bloodshed.

Both sides reported the deadly bus bombing transporting prisoners in Idlib province, in northwestern Syria.

The LCC said the bus went over a mine, killing at least 13 people and wounding many more. The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported that “an armed terrorist group” was responsible for the attack, killing 14 people and wounding 26 others.

Security forces fired on people Douma attending a funeral, the LCC said. The Free Syrian Army, resistance movement comprising military defectors, clashed with security forces in the city, a suburb of Damascus.

The forces also fired machine guns in Homs’ neighborhoods, the LCC said.

The security forces also fired at activists and residents near the National Hospital in Idlib and made arrests, the LCC said.

Another activist group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said loyalist forces using heavy automatic weapons and army defectors battled in the Idlib town of Karf Nabl in the Zawiya Mountains. In the nearby village of Ibleen, security forces made a wave of arrests and detained four relatives of Hussein Harmoush, a founder of the Free Syria Army.

Demonstrations have been reported across the country, including one in Latakia, on the western coast, and another in Daraa, in the south.

The purpose of the Arab League’s month-long mission was to determine whether the government was adhering to an agreement to end the violence. The mission was scheduled to end Thursday but the group was negotiating an extension.

A few Arab League members were to meet Saturday, led by a Qatari representative, before the full body meets Sunday in Cairo to discuss the monitors’ final findings.

The Arab League has called on the al-Assad regime to stop violence against civilians, free political detainees, remove tanks and weapons from cities and allow outsiders, including the international news media, to travel freely around Syria.

The head of the Arab League mission, Sudanese Lt. Gen. Mohammad Ahmad al-Dabi, will submit a report from the field and the monitors’ recommendations to the full body Sunday. Al-Dabi will meet with Secretary-General Nabil el-Araby in Cairo, SANA reported.

Arab League official Ali Jaroush said the mission has gained momentum and that there is “a general inclination” to extend it for another month, SANA reported.

The opposition Syrian National Council has weighed in over the report about the mission. It is demanding that the report document “the atrocities committed by the Syrian regime against civilians in all cities and towns,” the group said in a statement.

“The report must contain clear language indicating genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed by the regime against unarmed civilians.”

The SNC says said it plans to demand that the issue be referred to the U.N. Security Council “for a resolution to establish a safe zone and impose a no-fly zone in Syria. The resolution must also call for the establishment of an oversight body empowered to use force to prevent the Syrian regime from continuing to kill and torture its civilian population.”

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alJazeera:  Watch Zeina Khodr’s latest report on Syria, covering the latest violence in Idlib and the opposition’s call for the Arab League to refer Syria to the UN. http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/syria-jan-21-2012-2125
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Russia, which has weapons contracts with Syria worth $5 billion, is increasingly resisting international pressure to punish its ally. Yesterday it did not deny a report of a recent arms shipment.
 Why Russia is willing to sell arms to Syria www.csmonitor.com

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 Out of jail, lifelong dissident joins Syria revolt – CBS News www.cbsnews.com:

One of Syria’s most prominent dissidents, who worked for years against the Assad family regime, stepped out of prison two months ago to discover that his country was aflame with the revolution he long hoped for.Jailed since 2005, Kamal al-Labwani had heard hints about what was happening on the outside the past year from visitors and even from guards. But prison authorities kept him and other prisoners under an information blackout — no newspapers or TV news over the past 10 months when hundreds of thousands of Syrians were taking to the streets nearly daily despite a relentless and bloody crackdown, demanding President Bashar Assad’s ouster. [...]

The Obama administration will close the U.S. embassy in Damascus, Syria, by the end of this month unless the embattled Syrian government agrees to provide more security, officials said.

 U.S. may close embassy in Syria www.washingtonpost.com
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 On the front lines in Syria, women’s role is still undefined – The National

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Reuters: Syria rebels retreat after seizing area near capital

Syrian rebels seized parts of the town of Douma near the capital Damascus on Saturday and then withdrew to their hideouts, activists said.

Night-time gunbattles and explosions rocked Douma, 14 kilometres (9 miles) northwest of the capital, activists said. Douma has been a centre of protests in the 10-month revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighters retreated to their hideouts once they had pushed state forces outside of Douma.

“It seems they chose not to hold on to the territory, most likely because it could offer the regime an excuse to storm the area,” Rami Abdelrahman told Reuters.

The fighting posed no direct threat to Damascus itself but may be seen as too close for comfort to the government, which has launched a heavy crackdown since unrest began in March.

One resident told Reuters the move marked the first time rebels, who call themselves the Free Syrian Army, held territory in Douma for an extended period of time.

“No one can get in or out of Douma right now. This is the first time the rebels do anything more than hit-and-run attacks. Tonight they started making barriers in the streets,” an activist living in Douma told Reuters by Skype.

The fighting began on Saturday afternoon, after security forces killed four people when they fired on a funeral march for a slain protester. Ensuing clashes left dozens wounded, activists said.

Activists on Skype from Douma and the neighbouring town of Harasta said troops were gathered outside the rebellious suburb.

Another resident in Douma told Reuters she had not heard of the temporary takeover of the suburb but had heard a large explosion.

“One of the explosions was so loud it felt like the whole city shook,” another activist told Reuters on Skype.