Thursday 25 October 2012
October 26, 2012 by sks
Filed under News, Syria, Syrian Revolution
Fifteen people killed in Syrian attack: Syrian army deadly attack on the city of Aleppo killed 15 and injured over 15
Fifteen people died and more than fifteen others were injured in Syrian army shelling in in the city of Aleppo on Thursday.
Early Thursday morning, a group affiliated to Free Syrian Army attempted to enter the densely Kurdish populated E?refiye Neighborhood. After the group was prevented from the area by YPG (People’s Defence Units) and Public Peace forces, the neighborhood was in the afternoon targeted by a bombardment of the Syrian army. Five howitzers were dropped on the neighborhood in the attack in which eight Kurds, one Turkman,three Arabs and three others lost their lives and over 15 people, including ANF reporter Cudî Ronahî and Ronahi Tv reporter Kendal Welat, suffered injuries.
The Syrian army attacks on Kurds have increased in the month of October in which 30 people were killed in the attacks of the Syrian military.
Fifteen people were killed and nineteen others were injured in four separate attacks of the Syrian army in October. Three of these attacks targeted passenger buses travelling from the west Kurdistan city of Afrin to Aleppo.
The biggest attack against Kurds in Aleppo was carried out on 6 September when 20 people lost their lives and 54 others were injured.
Around 600 thousand Kurds live in the Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maksoud and E?refiye in Syria’s second largest city Aleppo. Security in both neighborhoods is ensured by West Kurdistan People’s Defence Units (YPG) forces.
After the attack, the Syrian army declared ceasefire on the occasion of the muslim feast of sacrifice.The ceasefire will come into effect on Friday morning and continue till 29 October Monday.
ANF / ALEPPO: http://en.firatajans.com/index.php?rupel=article&nuceID=5273
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For those who understand Arabic here are calls from a jihadi ‘opposition group’ for an Islamic state, against democracy and a peaceful movement, and calling for weapons etc in Syria, dated September 2012, uploaded by a political group https://www.facebook.com/nosratalsham.menlobnan active in Syria.
Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7JR6uJh_yI.
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Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: Preliminary death toll for Thursday 25/10/12: More than 120 Syrians were killed so far today. The dead include: 57 unarmed civilians (5 children) , 25 rebel fighters, a defected solider and no less than 38 regime forces. 57 Unarmed Civilians:
- In Aleppo province 20 were killed. 3 were killed by bombardment on the neighbourhoods of al-Sukari and al-A’weija of Aleppo city. 1 died of wounds he received earlier by bombardment on the Tariq al-Bab neighbourhood. 15 civilians, including 10 Syrian kurds, were killed by bombardment from an unknown source on the al-Ashrafiya neighbourhood of Aleppo city. In Reef Aleppo 1 died of wounds he received earlier by bombardment on the al-Mansoura village. 1 was shot by a military checkpoint in the Khan al-A’sal town.
- In Idlib province 8 civilians, including a woman and child, were killed by bombardment on the Khan Sheikhoun city from the al-Khazanat military checkpoint.
- In Dera’a province 1 was shot by regime forces in the Deir A’ds village of Reef Dera’a.
- In Deir Izzor province a child was martyred by bombardment on the Deir Izzor city.
- In Latakia province 1 was tortured to death after detainment by regime forces in the Qneins area of Latakia city.
- In al-Raqqa province a woman died of wounds she received earlier by bombardment on the al-A’li Bajliya village of Reef al-Raqqa.
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25 Rebel Fighters:
- In Aleppo province 10 rebel fighters were killed during clashes with regime forces in the city of Aleppo.
- In Reef Dimashq 6 rebel fighters were killed. 3 were killed by clashes and bombardment on the Douma city. 3 rebel fighters were killed during clashes with regime forces in the A’rbin town.
- In Homs province a rebel fighter died of wounds he received earlier by regime gun fire.
- In Idlib province 2 rebel fighters were killed during clashes with regime forces in Reef M’aret al-Nu’man and Salqin.
- In Dera’a province 4 rebel fighters were killed. A rebel commander was killed in the al-Na’ima town by a regime ambush on the Dera’a al-Na’ima- Oum al-Mayathen road. A rebel commander was killed during clashes in the al-Ksara area. A rebel fighter was killed by a regime ambush in the al-Sanamein town. 1 died of wounds he received during clashes with regime forces in the M’arba town.
- In Deir Izzor province 2 rebel fighters were killed udirng clashes with regime forces in the al-A’mal neighbourhood of Deir Izzor city.
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- The corpse of the father Fadi Hadad, priest of the Marelias church, was found in the Qatana city after he was kidnapped by unknown gunmen days earlier. He was known for his national reconciliation role in the area.
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- A defected soldier was killed during clashes with regime forces in Reef Dimashq.
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- At least 38 regime forces were killed by IED attacks and clashes in several Syrian province: 2 in al-Hasaka, 4 al-Raqqa, 7 Aleppo, 6 Idlib, 13 Reef Dimashq, 6 Damascus.
NOW! Lebanon
[local time] 
22:00 The United States expressed hope Thursday that Syria and rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad will respect a UN-backed ceasefire due to start Friday.
21:17 An explosion rocked Al-Safsaf neighborhood in Homs, as heavy gunfire from the Syrian regime forces targeted Bab Houd neighborhood in the city, activists said.
20:54 Thursday’s death toll in Syria has risen to 77 people, Al-Arabiya television quoted activists as saying.
20:09 The United Nations is not certain that a ceasefire announced by the Syrian government and rebels will start on Friday, but it has humanitarian workers ready to move in if fighting halts, UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky said.
19:05 The UN’s refugee agency said Thursday it is ready to send emergency aid to thousands of Syrian families in previously unreachable areas if a proposed ceasefire holds.
19:02 A Greek Orthodox priest who tried to negotiate the liberation of a Christian doctor in Damascus province was found dead on Thursday, residents and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
18:39 Russia on Thursday accused Washington of “coordinating” deliveries of arms to Syrian rebels, despite assurances by the State Department that the United States provides no lethal assistance.
18:29 Syrian rebels agreed to a truce with regime forces during the Eid al-Adha holiday, but say they will still respond to regime attacks, AFP reported Thursday.
18:06 The Syrian regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad agreed to truce for the Eid al-Adha holiday from Friday morning, AFP quoted the Syrian army as saying.
18:03 A You Tube video purportedly filmed on Thursday shows the town of Duma near Damascus being shelled.
17:59 Thursday’s death toll in Syria has risen to 46 people, Al-Arabiya television quoted activists as saying.
17:25 Sixteen people, including women and children, who had been summarily executed were discovered near the Pulman Garage in Deir az-Zour, activists said.
16:40 Nine regime troops defected from the Syrian Army’s 46th unit in Al-Atareb in Aleppo, activists said.
15:32 Syrian regime forces killed 23 people so far across Syria on Thursday, activists said.
14:32 Scores of Syrian regime troops raided Al-Mouhajirin in central Damascus, activists said.
13:53 The rebel Free Syrian Army clashed with regime forces in Aleppo’s Al-Siryan, activists said.
13:29 Syrian rebel forces took over a strategically important Kurdish neighborhood in Aleppo and seized a military post in the country’s northeast on Thursday, residents and a watchdog said.
11:50 Crimes against humanity are taking place in war-ravaged Syria, UN rights investigators said Thursday as they vowed to identify those behind the atrocities and seek a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
11:03 International rights groups on Thursday urged Syria’s Bashar al-Assad to release peaceful activists, journalists and aid workers as part of an amnesty and to allow UN monitors inside prisons.
9:53 The rebel Free Syrian Army shot down a regime forces helicopter in the town of Maarat al-Numan in the Edleb district, Al-Jazeera reported.
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Reuters: Damascus shelled hours before scheduled truce
Damascus residents reported artillery barrages by Syrian troops hours before Friday’s scheduled start of a ceasefire to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
They said that on Thursday night troops stationed on a mountain overlooking the Syrian capital targeted Hajar al-Aswad, a poor neighborhood inhabited by refugees from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
“Consecutive artillery volleys from Qasioun shook my home,” said Omar, an engineer who lives in al-Muhajereen district on a foothill of the mountain.
On Thursday a Free Syrian Army commander gave qualified backing to the truce, proposed by U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, but he demanded that President Bashar al-Assad free detainees. An Islamist group said it was not committed to the truce, but may halt operations if the army did.
Brahimi proposed the temporary truce to stem, however briefly, the bloodshed in a conflict which erupted as popular protests in March last year and has escalated into a civil war which activists say has killed more than 32,000 people.
The fighting pits mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against Assad, from the Alawite faith which is linked to Shi’ite Islam, and threatens to draw in regional Sunni Muslim and Shi’ite powers and engulf the whole Middle East, Brahimi has warned.
“On the occasion of the blessed Eid al-Adha, the general command of the army and armed forces announces a halt to military operations on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, from Friday morning … until Monday,” an army statement read on state television said.
It reserved the right to respond if “the armed terrorist groups open fire on civilians and government forces, attack public and private properties, or use car bombs and explosives”.
It would also respond to any reinforcement or re-supplying of rebel units, or smuggling of fighters from neighboring countries “in violation of their international commitments to combat terrorism”.
Qassem Saadeddine, head of the military council in Homs province and spokesman for the FSA joint command, said his fighters were committed to the truce.
“But we not allow the regime to reinforce its posts. We demand the release of the detainees, the regime should release them by tomorrow morning,” he said.
Abu Moaz, spokesman for Ansar al-Islam, said the Islamist group doubted Assad’s forces would observe the truce, though it might suspend operations if they did.
“We do not care about this truce. We are cautious. If the tanks are still there and the checkpoints are still there then what is the truce?” he said of the organization, which includes several brigades fighting in the capital and Damascus province.
Brahimi’s predecessor, former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, declared a ceasefire in Syria on April 12, but it soon became a dead letter, along with the rest of his six-point peace plan.
Violence has intensified since then, with daily death tolls compiled by opposition monitoring groups often exceeding 200.
UN SEES AID WINDOW
U.N. aid agencies have geared up to take advantage of any window of opportunity provided by a ceasefire to go to areas that have been difficult to reach due to fighting, a U.N. official in Geneva said.
“UN agencies have been preparing rapidly to scale up especially in areas that have been difficult to reach due to active conflict and which may become accessible as a result of these developments,” he told Reuters.
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said that it had prepared emergency kits for distribution for up to 13,000 families – an estimated 65,000 people – in previously inaccessible areas including Homs and the northeastern city of Hassaka.
“We and our partners want to be in a position to move quickly if security allows over the next few days,” UNHCR Syria Representative Tarik Kurdi in Damascus said in a statement.
The U.N. World Food Programme has identified 90,000 people in 21 hotspots from Aleppo to Homs and Latakia in need food parcels and will try to reach them through local agencies, the U.N. official said.
ALEPPO FIGHTING
On Thursday rebels seized two northern districts in Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, activists said.
“We have just liberated Ashrafiyeh and the Syriac quarter,” a rebel fighter said, referring to areas which had been held by Kurdish militias and troops loyal to Assad.
[SKS comment - see the news above. The Kurdish area was first attacked by 'FSA' who were held back by the Kurdish forces, and then the Kurds were attacked by the regime using helicopter fire. 15 people died]
Rebels were still fighting around the Rahman Mosque district and trying to besiege a security building, he added.
Activists said at least 14 people were killed. It was not clear if the dead were fighters or civilians.
Later on Thursday activists reported that the Aleppo districts of al-Shaar, Bani Zeid and Saladin had come under army bombardment.
They also said there had been heavy fighting in the last few hours near Tel Kalakh, situated near the Lebanese border west of Homs where the army had used heavy artillery to hit the Sunni rebel stronghold.
In Geneva, Carla del Ponte, a former United Nations war crimes prosecutor, vowed on Thursday to bring to justice high-level Syrian political or military figures who may have ordered or committed war crimes.
Del Ponte, who has joined a team of U.N. human rights investigators on Syria, said she would help compile evidence which could be used in an international tribunal or Syrian national court.
(Writing by Dominic Evans; Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman; Editing by Stephen Powell)
Russia suggests U.S. coordinating arms supplies to Syria rebels: MOSCOW – Russia on Thursday accepted a U.S. statement that it has not supplied Stinger missiles to Syrian rebels, but suggested the United States is coordinating supplies of some other weapons to President Bashar al-Assad’s foes…
U.N. chief says important all sides adhere to Syria Eid truce: UNITED NATIONS – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed on Thursday a planned ceasefire in Syria for the Eid al-Adha holiday and said it was important that Syrian government troops and armed opposition groups adhere to the truce, his spokesman said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed on Thursday a planned ceasefire in Syria for the Eid al-Adha holiday and said it was important that Syrian government troops and armed opposition groups adhere to the truce, his spokesman said.
Syria’s army command announced a ceasefire earlier on Thursday to mark the Muslim holiday but said it reserved the right to respond to any rebel attack or moves to reinforce President Bashar al-Assad’s armed foes. It said military operations would cease from Friday to Monday.
A Free Syrian Army commander gave qualified backing to the truce, proposed by U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, but demanded Assad free detainees. An Islamist group said it was not committed to the truce, but may halt operations if the army did.
Ban’s spokesman Martin Nesirky said it was in everybody’s interest that the fighting stops on Friday. Activists say more than 32,000 people have been killed in the 19-month conflict, which began as popular protests and escalated into civil war.
“It’s important that all sides will adhere to this. We all understand that there is a lack of trust between parties and therefore we all understand that we cannot be sure what will transpire,” Nesirky told reporters.
“We would simply, fervently hope the guns do fall silent, that there is a suspension in the violence so that humanitarian workers can help those who are most in need,” he said. “The world is now watching to see what will happen on Friday.”
The fighting pits mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against Assad, from the Alawite faith which is linked to Shi’ite Islam, and threatens to draw in regional Sunni Muslim and Shi’ite powers and engulf the whole Middle East, Brahimi has warned.
The U.N. Security Council backed Brahimi’s proposed ceasefire on Wednesday, but has been deadlocked over taking any stronger action to try and end the conflict.
The United States and European council members blame Russia, a staunch ally and key arms supplier for Assad’s government, and China for the council’s inaction on the conflict. Moscow and Beijing have vetoed three resolutions condemning Assad and reject the idea of sanctioning his government.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Vicki Allen and Stacey Joyce)
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BBC: Syria army ‘to observe ceasefire’ over Eid al-Adha
Syria’s military says it will adhere to a four-day ceasefire to begin on Friday for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
The truce will begin at 0600 (0400GMT), reported Syrian TV, adding the army would retaliate against rebel attacks.
The truce was proposed by UN and Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who hopes it will lead to a peace process.
The news came as rebels said they had advanced into several central areas in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and a key battleground in recent months.
Scepticism
Mr Brahimi has travelled across the Middle East over the past two weeks to promote his plan, and on Wednesday won the support of the UN Security Council.
On Thursday, a statement from the Syrian armed forces carried by state media said: “Military operations will cease across the entire Syrian territory as of 06:00 (03:00GMT) on 26 October until 29 October.
“Syrian armed forces will, however, reserve the right to reply to terrorists attacks, attempts of armed groups to reinforce or resupply, or attempts to infiltrate from neighbouring countries.”
Qassem Saadeddine, a spokesman for the joint command of the Free Syrian Army, the main armed rebel group, said his fighters would back the truce.
“But we will not allow the regime to reinforce its posts,” he told Reuters news agency.
‘War crimes’
The US welcomed the ceasefire, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he hoped it would lead to political negotiations.
The uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s government started in March 2011.
Activists say more than 35,000 people have been killed since then, while the UN estimates that at least 20,000 have died.
Rebel fighters had reportedly moved in, although there were also reports of continuing fighting.
“The centre of the city is right now in the hands of the Free Syrian Army,” an activist going by the name of Marwan told the BBC World Service.
He said the rebels had placed snipers on rooftops to try to prevent government troops retaking the area.
A rebel spokesman was quoted as saying opposition fighters had also taken the south-western neighbourhoods of Salah al-Din and Suleiman a-Halabi.
Meanwhile in Geneva, an expanded team of UN human rights investigators said it had sought a meeting with Mr Assad.
Carla del Ponte, a former UN prosecutor who led the case against former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic and recently joined the Syria commission, said she saw parallels with her earlier work.
“The similarity of both is that we are handling the same crimes: crimes against humanity and war crimes, for sure,” she said.
“My main task will be to continue the inquiry in the direction of determining the high-ranking political and military authorities responsible for these crimes.”
SYRIA CEASEFIRE ATTEMPTS
- Arab League: Observers deployed in late December to oversee compliance with a peace plan that included an end to violence, the withdrawal of troops from the streets and the release of political prisoners. But the monitoring mission was suspended after little more than a month as fighting continued.
- Kofi Annan: Six-point plan for Syria included the withdrawal of troops and heavy weapons from urban areas, and an open-ended ceasefire that was meant to take effect on 12 April and lead to peace talks. But neither side fully adhered to the plan and violence continued to escalate.
- Lakhdar Brahimi: New UN-Arab League envoy toured the Middle East in October, seeking support for a ceasefire over the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which starts on 26 October. The ceasefire, backed by the UN Security Council, is designed to kick-start political reconciliation.
Analysis: Sebastian Usher Arab affairs analyst, BBC News
The apparent withdrawal of Syrian forces from key Christian and Kurdish neighbourhoods in Aleppo may be a sign that the government is coming to accept that it cannot hold the centre of the city. It is not, however, a fatal blow to its hold on Aleppo. It may even be a tactical retreat, potentially drawing rebel fighters into a trap. But it may be a concession that supply lines to its forces in the centre of Aleppo have increasingly been cut off by the rebels.
That would leave Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with a dilemma. His government’s tactic in recent months has been to bomb and shell areas held by the rebels – with military helicopters and fighter jets being used. This firepower far exceeds what the rebels possess, for now.
But if the government now uses such force against the areas of Ashrafiyeh and al-Seryan, it would be a risky strategy as they contain mainly Christians and Kurds – who have not yet thrown in their lot with the rebels. The alternative, though, might mean giving up on Aleppo altogether – a defeat the government would have deemed unthinkable six months ago.
