Speaking with Taraf daily’s Ambrin Zaman, Muslim repeated his recent remarks againstTurkey and stated Ankara government is unfortunately backing al-Qaeda- affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra bandits to fight the Kurds.
“They (al-Nusra members) are crossing Syria into Turkey and out easily and receive arms and ammunition from Turkey, he added, lashing out at Turkey for remaining silent in the face of the events.”
Answering a question why PYD is rapping Turkey while it already announced Ankara has accepted the reality of the Syria Kurds, Muslim stated Turkey is not honest in its stances and is seeking to weaken the PYD and Syria Kurds.
Muslims, however, announced negotiation door for Turkey to talk to the PYD is open and he will visit Turkey whenever invited.
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PYD Info: A Kurdish organization has gathered 7 ton of medical supplies for Rojava. The shipment has been handed over to the Kurdish Red Crescent.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: Final death toll for Saturday 21/09/2013; More than 100 were killed in Syria. The dead include: 19 civilians, 22 rebel fighters, 22 regular soldiers, 2 defected soldiers, 11 unidentified rebel fighters, 17 combatants from the NDF and popular defence committees, 1 al-Nusra fighter and 7 non-Syrian fighters (2 Eritrean) from the ISIS and al-Nusra front.
– In Dera’a 4 civilians and 7 rebel fighters were killed. 1 child from the al-Sheikh Muskin was killed by regime bombardment on the town. 1 man and 1 woman from al-Sheikh Muskin were shot, activists accused regular forces of shooting and summarily executing them. 1 man from the Nawa city was tortured to death in regime prisons. 3 rebel fighters were killed by clashes in Reef Idlib, the Ghadir al-Bustan village of al-Qneitra and the Jobar neighbourhood of Damascus. 4 rebel fighters were killed by clashes in the A’dwan village and al-Sheikh Sa’d town.
– In Idlib 3 rebel fighters were killed. 1 from M’aret Musrin city was killed by clashes in the perimeter of the al-Buhouth al-A’lmiya (scientific research) building in the al-Rashidein neighbourhood of Aleppo city. 2 rebel fighters (1 from M’ardabsa and 1 from al-Habit town) were killed by clashes with regular forces in Hama.
– In Damascus 3 civilians were killed. 1 woman from al-Qaboun died of wounds received days earlier by regime bombardment. A Palestinian man died of wounds received days earlier by regime bombardment. 1 man from Jobar was tortured to death in regime prisons.
– In Reef Dimashq 6 rebel fighters were killed. 1 from M’adamiyat al-Sham died of wounds received earlier by clashes with regular forces. 1 from Douma and 3 from Daraiya were killed by clashes in Douma and Daraiya. 1 from Yabroud was killed by regime bombardment on the city.
– In Aleppo 9 civilians and 1 rebel fighter. 1 woman was killed by regime bombardment on the al-Ansari al-Sharqi neighbourhood. 1 man from the al-Zira’a neighbourhood of Reef al-Safira was killed by regime bombardment on the village. 1 man was shot by sniper at the Karaj al-Hajz crossing of Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood. 2 men from al-Safira city were killed by regime bombardment on areas of the city. 2 men were found dead in a well in the Oum O’beida village of Reef al-Saifra, activists accused regular forces of executing them and throwing them in the well. 2 men were killed by bombardment on the regime-held al-A’ziziya area. 1 rebel fighter from the Tariq al-Bab neighbourhood was killed by clashes with regular forces in the Karm al-Jabal neighbourhood.
– In Homs 1 civilian and 3 rebel fighters were killed. 1 woman from al-Rastan city was killed by regime bombardment on the city. 2 rebel fighters from Talbisa city were killed by clashes with regular forces in Reef Talbisa city. 1 from the Ghernata village was killed by clashes with regular forces in the northern Reef.
– In Hama 2 men and 1 rebel fighter were killed. 1 man was killed by regime bombardment on the Kafrzeita area. 1 man from Halfaya died of wounds received earlier by sniper fire on the road to al-A’rid village. 1 rebel fighter was killed by clashes with regular forces on the Tal Melh road of western Reef Hama.
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– 7 civilians, 2 rebel fighters and 1 defected soldier were documented as killed earlier.
– Reports that 2 corpses were found in a well in the Oum O’beida village of Reef al-Safira, activists accused regular forces of executing them and throwing them in the well.
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– 2 defected soldiers were killed. 1 defected lieutenant from the Jbab town of Dera’a was killed by clashes with regular forces in the al-Rafid town of al-Qneitra. 1 defected soldier from Hama was killed by clashes with regular forces in Reef Homs.
– 4 fighters (2 Eritrean fighters from the ISIS and al-Nusra, 1 al-Nusra fighter and 1 rebel commander) were killed by clashes with YPG fighters in Reef al-Hasaka.
– 11 unidentified rebel fighters were killed by clashes in several provinces.
– 5 non-Syrian fighters from the ISIS and al-Nusra were killed by clashes with regular forces and NDF combatants in several areas.
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– 17 combatants from the NDF and the popular defence committees were killed by clashes and attacks on checkpoints in several areas.
– At least 22 regular soldiers were killed by gunshots, clashes, bombardment and IED attacks on machineries in several provinces: 10 Aleppo, 2 Homs, 1 Hama, 1 Idlib, 3 Dera’a, and 5 in Damascus and Reef Dimashq.
al-Hasaka province: Violent clashes broke out between the YPG from one side and the ISIS and al-Nusra from the other in the perimeter of the Jafa village near the A’louk town, reports of human losses from both sides.
Hama province: The al-Hola area was bombarded by regular forces which led to several injuries and house damages. Military helicopters dropped explosive barrels on the Kafrzeita town which led to several injuries and house damages along with regime bombardment on areas of the town and the villages of al-Tawba and Beit al-Ras which led to several injuries. Regular forces stormed several civilian houses in the al-Andalos neighbourhood of Hama city after midnight, reports that several civilians were detained. The airforce carried out an air raid on areas in the villages of al-Jalma and Tal Meleh, and the agricultural fields in between al-Latamna and Kafrzeita, along with helicopter bombardment on the area with reports of several injuries in Tal al-Melh. Clashes broke out in the perimeter of the Tal Melh, Tal O’thman, al-Hamamiyat and the al-Mghaiyet checkpoints after military reinforcements arrived to the Mharda city.
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Firat: YPG sends units to ?dlib upon demand by local people
The attacks of al-Qaeda linked groups in the West Kurdistan territory is primarily harming civilians who are suffering killings, torture, massacre and being displaced from their homelands by radical Islamist jihadist groups.
People’s Defense Units (YPG) have sent units to the town of Atma in ?dlib province for the protection of local people who called for YPG’s help against al-Qaeda affiliated gang groups in the region.
Following clashes which lasted till Saturday morning, YPG fighters seized the armed groups’ two headquarters in the town and repulsed them from the region.
Clashes have reportedly ceased after YPG seized the headquarters of the groups.
Reuters: Syrian army kills 15 in Sunni village: activists
BEIRUT – Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed at least 15 people overnight in a Sunni Muslim village north-west of the city of Hama, activists said on Saturday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a woman and two children were among those killed in the attack in the village of Sheikh Hadid by soldiers and pro-Assad militia.
The British-based group, which monitors violence in Syria through a network of activists and medical and security sources, said the killings followed attacks by rebels on military checkpoints in the area over the previous two days.
It said 26 people – 16 soldiers and 10 members of the pro-Assad National Defence Force – were killed when rebels attacked a nearby checkpoint on Thursday. There was also fighting in the village of Jalma, two miles south of Sheikh Hadid, on Friday, it said.
The opposition Shaam News Network put the death toll in Sheikh Hadid in the dozens, but gave no details.
More than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war, which grew out of a 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. The conflict pits mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against a president whose Alawite faith is an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.
The war has divided the Middle East along sectarian lines, with Shi’ite Iran and Shi’i’te fighters fromIraq as well as Lebanon’s Hezbollah backing Assad. Sunni Muslim rulers in Turkey and the Gulf support the rebels, who have been joined by Sunni Islamist fighters from across the region.
The United States and Russia, who back opposing sides in the war, agreed one week ago on a timetable for dismantling Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal after an attack in Damascus suburbs last month which killed hundreds of people.
But the accord has done nothing to stem the fighting with conventional weapons.
Rebels seized several villages south of Aleppo on Saturday as part of their efforts to cut Syria’s biggest city off from Assad’s forces and stop supplies and reinforcements from Damascus.
Internet video footage showed rebels from the Tawhid brigade firing a tank and a truck-mounted machine gun at army positions near the Sheikh Said suburb south of Aleppo.
(Reporting by Dominic Evans; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Syria details part of chemical arsenal, more to come
THE HAGUE/BEIRUT – Syria gave details of some of its chemical weapons to the OPCW arms watchdog at The Hague on Friday but needs to fill in gaps by next week to launch a rapid disarmament operation that may avert U.S. air strikes. | Video
At the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the U.N.-backed agency which is to oversee the removal of President Bashar al-Assad’s arsenal, a spokeswoman said: “We have received part of the verification and we expect more.”
She did not say what was missing from a document one U.N. diplomat described as “quite long”. The OPCW’S 41-member Executive Council is due to meet early next week to review Syria’s inventory and to agree on implementing last week’s U.S.-Russian deal to eliminate the entire arsenal in nine months.
The timetable was set down by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a week ago in Geneva when they set aside sharp differences over Syria to agree on a plan to deprive Assad of chemical weapons and so remove the immediate threat from Washington of launching military action.
That plan set a rough deadline of Saturday for Syria to give a full account of the weapons it possesses. Security experts say it has about 1,000 tonnes of mustard gas, VX and sarin – the nerve agent U.N. inspectors found after hundreds were killed by poison following missile strikes on rebel-held areas on August 21.
Kerry said he had spoken to Lavrov by telephone on Friday. They had agreed to continue cooperating, “moving not only towards the adoption of the OPCW rules and regulations, but also a resolution that is firm and strong within the United Nations“, Kerry told reporters in Washington.
One Western diplomat warned on Friday that a failure by Assad to account for all the suspected stockpile would cause world powers to seek immediate action at the U.N. Security Council to force Damascus to comply.
If there were gaps in the documentation, the diplomat said, “this matter is going to go straight to the Security Council”.
The United States and its allies said the U.N. inspectors’ report this week left no doubt Assad’s forces were responsible for the August 21 killings. Assad, however, has blamed the rebels and Moscow says the evidence of responsibility is unclear.
The Syrian government has accepted the plan and has already sought to join the OPCW. For Assad, the Russian proposal to remove chemical weapons provided an unexpected reprieve from the military action which President Barack Obama had planned after the August 21 attack. For Obama, it solved a dilemma posed when he found Congress unwilling to support war on Syria.
Once the OPCW executive has voted to follow the Lavrov-Kerry plan in a meeting expected early next week, the Security Council is due to give its endorsement of the arrangements – marking a rare consensus after two years of East-West deadlock over Syria.
However, Russia, which has as veto, remains opposed to attempts by Western powers to have the Security Council write in an explicit and immediate threat of penalties – under what are known as Chapter VII powers. It wants to discuss ways of forcing Syrian compliance only in the event Damascus fails to cooperate.
Obama has warned that he is still prepared to attack Syria, even without a U.N. mandate, if Assad reneges on the deal.
REBEL TROUBLES
Syria’s rebels, who have been fighting to end four decades of Assad family rule since 2011, have voiced dismay at the U.S.-Russian pact and accuse their Western allies of being sidetracked by the chemical weapons issue while Assad’s forces use a large conventional arsenal to try to crush the revolt.
That may see the official opposition look more to its Arab and Turkish supporters for help [ID:nL5N0HF1BW].
It may also hamper Western – and Russian – efforts to bring the warring parties together for a peace conference. Moscow and Washington have said progress on removing chemical weapons could pave the way for a broader diplomatic effort to end a conflict that has killed well over 100,000 and destabilized the region.
The increasing bitterness of the fighting, especially along sectarian lines, and also a fragmentation into rival camps, particularly on the rebel side, will also hamper negotiations.
On Friday, al Qaeda-linked fighters and a unit of Syrian rebels declared a truce after two days of clashes in the town of Azaz near the Turkish frontier that highlighted divisions in the opposition, in which hard line groups are powerful.
Assad’s army, backed by Shi’ite regional power Iran and dominated by officers from Assad’s Alawite religious minority, has mobilized militia and fighters from the Lebanese Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah. Alawites are a Shi’ite offshoot.
Most rebels are from Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority. But factions have split as foreign fighters driven by jihad have flocked to the country, often at odds with local Syrians. Ethnic Kurds in the north have fought both sides.
Fighters from an al Qaeda affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant had fought with the Northern Storm Brigade, a group that controls the border.
The Syrian National Coalition, a council of political exiles who work with the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), accused the jihadist group on Friday of “aggression towards Syrian revolutionary forces and its indifference to the lives of the Syrian people”.
“ISIS no longer fights the Assad regime. Rather, it is strengthening its positions in liberated areas, at the expense of the safety of civilians.
“ISIS is inflicting on the people the same suppression of … the Assad regime,” it said in a statement, attacking the group for this week’s fighting at Azaz.
While some tensions stem from contrasting ideological outlooks, most rebel-on-rebel fighting is more about control of territory and the spoils of war.
In other parts of Syria, al Qaeda-affiliated forces have enticed rebels to join them. Hundreds of rebels, including entire brigades, have pledged allegiance to ISIS and its domestic branch the Nusra Front in northern and eastern Syria, activists and Islamist sources said on Friday.
Washington says the chemical weapons deal has restarted talk of a second peace conference in Geneva. The first round of peace talks in June 2012 failed to end hostilities, but its supporters say it created the framework for an eventual settlement.
Last year’s Geneva agreement aimed to create a transitional government with full executive powers agreed by both the Damascus administration and the Syrian National Coalition (SNC).
But the plan leaves out major players on the ground whose role has grown since. Pro-Assad militias, Kurdish militant groups, al Qaeda-linked rebels and other Islamist brigades that do not pledge allegiance to the FSA are not part of the deal.
“Let’s be clear on this, Geneva 2 will not stabilize Syria,” said Lebanon-based political scientist Hilal Khashan. “It will open a new chapter in the Syria conflict.”
He said that even if the SNC and the government agreed on a transition government, jihadist groups will continue to fight and Kurdish militants will seek autonomy.
Khawla Mattar, spokeswoman for U.N. Syrian envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, said that the onus is on the SNC to be representative of Syrian society: “The Coalition … have to bring the widest representation of Syrian society.”
(Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Washington, Sami Aboudi in Dubai, Erika Solomon in Beirut, Sara Webb in Amsterdam, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and David Stamp)
Here’s a roundup of today’s developments on the crisis in Syria
• Syria has submitted details of its chemical weapons stockpiles to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, the organisation told Reuters. “We have received part of the verification and we expect more,” an OPCW spokesman said.
• Syria deputy prime minister Qadri Jamil has tried to deny telling the Guardian that Syria will call for ceasefire at the planned Geneva 2 peace conference. The Guardian stands by its interview and has released an audio recording of Jamil making the remarks.
• Rival rebel groups fighting for control of the strategic town of Azaz have agreed a truce. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis), which has links to al-Qaida, seized the northern town on Wednesday from the larger Western-backed Free Syrian Army. The two sides have agreed to exchange prisoners and hand back property.
• Syria’s main political opposition group the Syria National Coalition has condemned Isis accusing it of contradicting the principles of the revolution. It said it rejected the group’s extremist ideology and atrocities against civilians.
• Iran’s new president Hassan Rouhani has put his government forward as a peace broker in the Syrian conflict. Writing in the Washington Post on the eve of his trip to the United Nations in New York, Rouhani said:
We must join hands to constructively work toward national dialogue, whether in Syria or Bahrain. We must create an atmosphere where peoples of the region can decide their own fates. As part of this, I announce my government’s readiness to help facilitate dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition.
• French President Francois Hollande suggested for the first time that Paris could arm Syrian rebels in a “controlled framework,” given that they were now caught between the Syrian government on one side and radical Islamists on the other. Noting that Russia was supplying arms to the Syrian government, Hollande, said France could provide arms to rebels, “but we will do it in a broader context with a number of countries and in a framework that can be controlled because we cannot accept that weapons could fall into the hands of jihadists that we have fought against here.”