Tuesday 14 February 2012
February 14, 2012 by sks
Filed under News, Syrian Revolution
Syrian Uprising 2011 Information Centre: SUMMARY (14/02/2012): At least 44 martyrs including 3 who died under torture. The 10-day bombardment of Homs continued. Hama, Idlib, and the town of Atareb in Aleppo province also came under attack and heavy shelling. Several martyrs also fell in Bukamal when Assad’s forces opened fire at a mosque and in the street. Meanwhile, there are reports of arrests and looting by Assad’s forces in Zabadani in breach of the ceasefire deal with the FSA. Speaking of the FSA be sure to check the video in “Idlib – Saraqib” to see how strong they are in parts of Idlib. Today we salute the revolutionaries of Bahrain, abandoned by the world but still defiant 1 year on. Syria – Tuesday 14/02/2012 – Google Maps
Derbassieh 14-2-2012
UPDATE (14/02/2012): 39 martyrs are reported so far today. Homs is still under bombardment while 3 farmers were abducted and killed in the town of al-Qusayr. Idlib has come under shelling from the tanks deployed around it while Assad’s forces have attacked the town of Atareb in Aleppo province, Hamidiyeh neighbourhood in Hama, several towns around Damascus and the towns of Taybah and Namar in Daraa. The video shows the martyr Iyad al-Hassib, one of 4 martyrs killed when Assad’s forces fired indiscrimately in the eastern city of al-Bukamal on the border with Iraq.
Bukamal 14/02/2012
IDLIB (13/02/2012): The video shows 9 unidentified bodies dumped in Majdaliyeh village in Jabal az-Zawiyah yesterday – most of them were tied up and were shot in the head. 4 martyrs were also killed in Balshoun village during a raid by Assad’s forces including the head teacher of the village school and one of his teachers. Idlib province – home to 1.5 million people – has lost more than 950 martyrs since the start of the uprising (only Homs and Hama have lost more).
Jabal az-Zawiyah 13/02/2012 (WARNING: GRAPHIC)
UPDATE (14/02/2012): This is Baba Amru for a tenth day. Meanwhile the tortured body of a martyr was found dumped on the Damascus-Amman highway in Daraa province. 8 martyrs are already being reported – in Homs and in Daraa (where several martyrs have died from injuries previously received).
Baba Amru, Homs 14/02/2012
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NOW! Lebanon
[local time] 
20:15 The Syrian National Council, the main opposition group against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, said it will meet Wednesday in Doha to choose a new leader or extend the term of current head Burhan Ghalioun.
20:07 Syrian security forces’ gunfire killed 42 people on Tuesday, Al-Arabiya quoted activists as saying.
17:40 Haurani fled Syria to escape a lethal crackdown in his country, joining some 3,000 compatriots who have taken shelter in Jordan. His brother, who stayed behind, was killed by Syrians forces over the weekend.
16:42 State media reported on Tuesday that Syria rejected allegations of crimes against humanity, according to AFP.
16:21 Cut off by a relentless barrage of government shelling, activists in the besieged Syrian city of Homs have reverted to the age-old practice of using carrier pigeons to communicate with each other.
15:45 Syrian security forces stormed Artouz in the Damascus district on Tuesday, Al-Jazeera quoted activists as saying.
15:16 The Syrian army raided some of Hama’s neighborhoods on Tuesday, Al-Jazeera quoted activists as saying, adding that fatalities were reported.
15:05 Syria’s Tuesday death toll has risen to 29 people, most of them killed in Homs, activists told Al-Jazeera.
14:32 China will not protect the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Premier Wen Jiabao said Tuesday, after Beijing drew international ire for vetoing a UN resolution on the country.
14:21 German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday theEU backs the Arab League’s “firm stance” on Syria and will support it through further sanctions, ahead of talks with the head of the pan-Arab body.
14:16 Iraq’s Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi is concerned about the “catastrophic” crisis in Syria, which he believes could lead to civil confrontations, a Tuesday statement from his office said.
13:34 The bodies of 24 people, nine of which were civilians, were found Tuesday in Edleb, activists told Al-Jazeera.
13:23 France is looking at all the options proposed by the 22-member Arab League at the United Nations to deal with Syria’s deadly clampdown on protesters, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
13:20 Shelling in Syria’s Homs has left at least six civilians dead, AFP quoted an NGO as saying.
12:14 The death toll in Syria has risen on Tuesday to nine people, activists told Al-Jazeera television station.
12:08 Syrian army tanks have stormed the city of Abu Kamal amid heavy gunfire, activists told Al-Jazeera.
11:22 Activist said that 100,000 civilians are trapped under the shelling in the Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr, Al-Arabiya reported.
9:23 Gunmen “stormed” the home of Bahrain’s charge d’affaires in Damascus and stole property, prompting the kingdom to urge Syria to protect its envoys, Bahrain state news agency BNA reported Tuesday.
9:05 Three people were killed and 12 other were injured by Syrian security forces during their helling of the Homs neighborhood Baba Amr, Al-Arabiya reported.
8:07 A top Chinese official and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held “frank and in-depth” talks on Syria by telephone Monday as Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping began a visit to the United States.
8:02 US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron renewed their condemnation of Syria’s brutal crackdown on Monday, the White House said.
8:00 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday lashed out at an escalating Syrian military crackdown as she welcomed a fresh chance to put international pressure on Damascus at talks soon in Tunis.
7:55 The White House said Monday it was considering whether a peacekeeping force could work in Syria, but warned a “disgusting” government crackdown there meant there was no peace to keep.
7:27 Syrian troops battered Homs on Tuesday in some of the heaviest shelling of the central flashpoint city for days, a monitoring group said.
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BBC: China’s Wen Jiabao: ‘No protection’ for Syrian government
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says Beijing will “absolutely not protect any party” in the conflict in Syria.
Speaking after talks with EU chiefs in Beijing, he said China would “continue to play a constructive role”.
China and Russia vetoed a UN resolution on Syria 10 days ago, sparking claims from the UN rights chief that action against protesters has intensified.
Meanwhile activists say the city of Homs, under heavy attack for more than a week, is suffering fresh bombardment.
The Local Co-ordination Committees group said that the shelling was “brutal” and was the worst for several days.
On Monday the United Nations’ human rights chief, Navi Pillay, said the veto by China and Russia had encouraged President Bashar al-Assad’s government to carry out indiscriminate shelling of civilians in Homs.
In a special session of the UN General Assembly, Ms Pillay accused the Syrian government of launching an all-out assault to crush opposition dissent.
She said that at least 300 people had been killed in the assault on Homs, and that the number of dead and injured continued to rise every day.
‘Middle East stability’Mr Wen’s comments came as he addressed a joint news conference in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.
He insisted that China remained committed to peace in Syria.
“What is most urgent and pressing now is to prevent war and chaos so that the Syrian people will be freed from greater sufferings,” he said.
“This accords with the fundamental interests of the Syrian people and also will contribute to the peace and stability of the entire Middle East region.
“To achieve this objective, China supports all efforts consistent with the UN charter purposes and principles, and we are ready to strengthen communication with all parties in Syria and the international community and continue to play a constructive role.
“China will absolutely not protect any party, including the government of Syria.”
Mr Van Rompuy said all UN Security Council members should act on Syria.
‘Further sanctions’Meanwhile German Chancellor Angela Merkel has praised the Arab League’s stance on the Syria crisis.
Speaking as she welcomed the organisation’s Secretary General, Nabil al-Araby, to Berlin, she said the league’s “firm” position “clearly points out the human rights violations committed by the Assad government”.“The European Union supports this position and we will underline it through further sanctions,” she said.
Mr Araby said that the killings in Syria should stop “right now”, and said that the “winds of change” that had swept through the Arab countries in the past year had been about people demanding what Europeans had had for a long time: liberty, democracy, social justice, dignity and good governance.
Human rights groups say more than 7,000 have died throughout Syria since last March. The government says at least 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed combating “armed gangs and terrorists”.
However, Syria restricts access to foreign media and it is not possible to verify casualty figures.
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Reuters: Conflict flares across Syria, Arabs mull arms support
Government forces and opponents of President Bashar al-Assad clashed in cities and countryside across Syria on Tuesday and Arab officials confirmed that regional governments would be ready to arm the resistance if the bloodshed did not cease.
The western city of Homs, heart of the uprising against Assad’s 11-year-rule, suffered a bombardment of pro-opposition neighborhoods for the 11th day running.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 20 people killed across Syria on Tuesday, including opposition supporters, civilians, and five government soldiers shot in clashes with rebel fighters in Qalaat al-Madyaq town in restive Hama area.
With Assad seemingly oblivious to international condemnation of his campaign to crush the revolt, Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia prepared for a new resolution at the United Nations in the next few days which would support a peace plan forged at a meeting in Cairo on Sunday.
But Arab League diplomats said that arming the opposition forces was now officially an option.
A resolution passed at the meeting urged Arabs to “provide all kinds of political and material support” to the opposition.
This would allow arms transfers, they confirmed to Reuters.
“We will back the opposition financially and diplomatically in the beginning but if the killing by the regime continues, civilians must be helped to protect themselves. The resolution gives Arab states all options to protect the Syrian people,” an Arab ambassador said in Cairo.
The threat of military support was meant to add pressure on the Syrian leader and his Russian and Chinese allies but it also risks leading to a Libya-style conflict or sectarian civil war.
“I suspect we will see a further militarization of this conflict, with potentially quite widespread and dangerous consequences,” said analyst Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center.
Smuggled guns are already filtering into Syria but it is not clear if Arab or other governments are behind the deliveries. Weapons and Sunni Muslim insurgents are also crossing from Iraq into Syria, Iraqi officials and arms dealers said.
Assad, whose Alawite-minority family has ruled the mainly Sunni Muslim country for 42 years, is trying to stamp out pro-democracy demonstrations and insurgent attacks. He dismisses his opponents as terrorists backed by enemy nations in a regional power-play and says he will introduce reforms on his own terms.
While the uprising initially involved rallies by civilians, armed insurrection by the Free Syrian Army, made up largely of army defectors, is increasingly coming into play.
The government says at least 2,000 members of its military and security forces have died and the United Nations says its forces have killed several thousand people.
CITIES UNDER THE GUN
In Homs, a strategic city on the highway between Damascus and commercial hub Aleppo, the pro-opposition neighborhood of Baba Amro was struck at dawn by the heaviest shelling in five days, the Syria Observatory for Human Rights said.
Six people were killed, it said, adding to an estimated toll of more than 400 since the assault began on February3
“They are hitting the same spots several consecutive times, making venturing out there impossible. The shelling was heavy in the morning and now it is one rocket every 15 minutes or so,” activist Hussein Nader said by satellite phone.
Another opposition activist, Mohammad al-Homsi, said the humanitarian situation was getting worse, with food and fuel short and prices soaring. Army roadblocks had been set up around opposition districts, Homsi said from the city.
In Rankous, a rural town near Damascus, many residents had fled from government shelling, activist Ibn Al-Kalmoun said. Bombardments were also reported in the town of Rastan.
In other action reported by activists, security forces and army defectors clashed in the countryside near Aleppo, where the government appears to have strong support. Three people were killed there.
Two people were killed in a skirmish between rebels and government forces in Albu Kamal, Deir Azzour province, they said, and arrests campaigns continued in Jabal al-Zawiya region.
Foreign media have to rely on unverified activists’ accounts because the Syrian government restricts access. But reports from neutral international organisations confirm a general picture of widespread violence.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry rejected criticism from U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, who in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Monday accused Assad of launching an indiscriminate attack on civilians.
“The High Commissioner become a tool in the hands of some countries that are targeting Syria and are ignoring the terrorist crimes committed by armed groups,” it said.
DIPLOMATIC THRUST
At the United Nations, diplomats said a draft General Assembly resolution, supporting the Arab League plan and calling for the appointment of a joint U.N.-Arab League envoy on Syria, could be put to a vote on Wednesday or Thursday.
The resolution, seen by Reuters, is similar to a Security Council draft vetoed by Russia and Chinaon February 4 that condemned the Assad government and called on him to step aside.
There are no vetoes in General Assembly votes and its decisions are not legally binding.
An Arab League proposal for a joint Arab-U.N. peacekeeping mission be sent to Syria elicited a guarded response from Western powers, who are wary of becoming bogged down militarily in Syria. It was rejected out of hand by the Assad government.
Russia, Assad’s main ally and arms supplier, also showed little enthusiasm, saying it could not support a peacekeeping mission unless both sides stopped the violence first.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Washington that the peacekeeper proposal would be tough to get through, given Russian and Chinese support for Damascus.
The Syria conflict, one of a series of revolts in the Arab world which saw the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya toppled last year, is shaping up to be a geopolitical struggle reminiscent of the Cold War.
Russia wants to retain its foothold in the region and counter U.S. influence. Assad is also allied toIran, which is at odds with the United States, Europe and Israel.
The Arab drive against Assad is led by Sunni-ruled Gulf states, who also see Shi’ite Iran and its shadowy nuclear program as a threat.
(Reporting Edmund Blair, Yasmine Saleh and Ayamn Samir in Cairo, Erika Solomon in Beirut, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman and Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations; Writing by Angus MacSwan in Beirut; Editing by Myra MacDonald)
Rebellious Syrian towns surrounded and struggling
When the gunfire fades between rebels and government troops in the besieged town of al-Houla, it is replaced by an even more frightening sound – the shelling of Homs, heart of the Syrian uprising, 20 km (15 miles) away.
“We are scared of becoming like Homs,” says Hamza, an activist contacted by phone from Beirut during one of the few hours al-Houla had electricity and a phone connection.
“But everyone is too scared to leave because our neighborhoods are surrounded by checkpoints and snipers. We are in an open-air prison.”
Al-Houla is one of many rebellious towns surrounded by President Bashar al-Assad’s troops. Cut off and struggling to get food and water, they fear being forgotten as international media attention focuses on Homs. The city of 1 million in the centre of Syria has faced 11 days of sustained shelling, killing hundreds of people.
Ever since rebels announced they had “liberated” several protest hotspots last month, security forces have intensified their crackdown on the 11-month uprising against four decades of Assad family rule.
They have surrounded areas of revolt with troops and armored vehicles and cut communication lines.
In al-Houla, Hamza said, government forces fire rockets randomly when residents try to organize flash protests in some of the town’s cramped concrete alleyways.
Soldiers have also used megaphones to hector residents. “They blast songs praising Assad over the speakers really loudly whenever residents try to protest or mourn the death of a resident. Other times they shout threats about how the rebels are traitors and we have to sit inside and listen,” Hamza said.
Activist accounts are difficult to verify as Syria has restricted access to journalists. It has become increasingly difficult to contact residents directly as telephone, Internet and mobile phone connections are usually cut off.
Only activists who have smuggled in sophisticated communications equipment are able to access the Internet.
But the sense of isolation described by Hamza is repeated in accounts of other towns cut off by Assad’s troops.
Activist Abu Omar had recently fled Rankous, 45 km (27 miles) outside Damascus. “The people in Rankous have no way to communicate, they are surrounded by tanks and troops, their phone lines don’t work and I fear that while everyone focuses on Homs they will be crushed and forgotten by the world,” he said.
Only 40 to 50 families remained, he said, while thousands of people had fled daily rocket and gunfire.
“The people still inside need help, their situation is dire,” he said. “We can only send in a few people each night to smuggle in whatever food and water they can carry with them. Many people are suffering because they’ve run out of their medications for things like diabetes or heart problems.”
SMUGGLING BREAD, MILK AND MEDICINE
From the snow-frosted mountain resort of Zabadani, an activist on Skype said troops broke a deal with rebels who held the town and sent reinforcements on Sunday to take over.
“They promised to stop shelling us if we would let them have the media victory of patrolling the central streets. For a few days they stuck to it, but yesterday they sent heavy deployments through the town,” said the activist, who is a doctor and asked not to be named.
Dozens were arrested, he said, including wounded people he was treating at a makeshift clinic, suspected of being rebels.
The armed rebels and army deserters who call themselves the Free Syrian Army have begun to overshadow what started as peaceful protests last March. Syria says it is fighting foreign-backed “terrorists” who are trying to destabilize the country.
Short-lived victories that saw rebels seizing towns like Rankous and Zabadani close to the capital have now given way to “tactical retreats” as tank-backed troops encircled the towns.
Like al-Houla, residents in Zabadani have resorted to smuggling to bring in bread, milk and medicine, activists say. They say they use secret mountain paths and wait for the cover of darkness to sneak in and out.
The doctor said that despite the hardships, he will stay in his hometown. He hoped the rebels would eventually be able to fight back.
“Now the rebels are planning revenge, I’ve already heard three loud explosions. I have faith they will eventually tire out Assad’s forces and succeed,” he said. “We are outgunned but unlike Assad’s gangs we have something to fight for.”
(Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Myra MacDonald)
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Guardian: Syria faces humanitarian crisis, UN told – video
The UN general assembly debates fears that the failure to take action on Syria has emboldened the Assad regime. The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, says she is appalled by the ongoing onslaught on Homs. Syria’s UN ambassador blamed al-Qaida for the loss of life
Bombardment of Homs continued for the 11th day in a row, with activists describing this morning’s shelling as the worst in five days.
• The violence in Syria today has not been confined to Homs: activistshave reported clashes in the town of Altarib, near Aleppo, in the north-west of the country.
