Tuesday 28 August 2012

 the al-Dmeir and al-Maliha towns. 6 civilians, including a child, were killed by bombardment on the Zamalka, A’in Tarma, A’rbin, al-Qatifa and Hamouriya towns in Reef Dimashq. 2 civilians were killed in the city of Harasta that witnessed bombardment and gun fire. 2 civilains wereshot dead by regime forces in al-Thiyabiya and Dareyya. At least 27 civilians were killed by the IED attack on the funeral procession in Jaramana, the funeral was for 2 pro-regime civilians who were killed by IED attacks targeting their cars the night before.

**10 unidentified civilians were killed in Reef Dimashq, the SOHR is working on obtaining their information. 4 were killed by the bombardment on Irbeen; 6 were killed by regime fire in Dareyya**

- In Idlib Province 25 civilians were killed. 21 civilians (19 men and 2 women) were killed by bombardment on the Kafranbel town. 3 were killed by bombardment on Ariha, Ma’arat Masreen and Nahliya. A child was martyred by wounds he received earlier from bombardment on the city of Ma’aret al-Nu’man in Reef Idlib.

- In Damascus Province 21 civilians were killed. 13 civilians from the Jobar neighbourhood were killed: 10 civilians were killed in the neighbourhood by gunfire and bombardment; 3 from Jobar were killed by the regime bombardment on the town of Ein Terma, Reef Dimashq. A civilian from the al-Mazza neighbourhood was shot by sniper fire in the Ein Tarma town in Reef Dimashq. 3 civilains were summarily executed in the Hajar al-Aswad and al-Qadam neighbourhoods. The bodies of 4 men were found in the al-Qadam neighbourhood in Damascus.

**2 unidentified bodies were found in the Barzeh neighbourhood of Damascus**

- In Hama Province 16 civilians were killed. 7 men were killed by regime forces’ gunfire in the villages of al-Shari’a and al-Tweini in Reef Hama. 5 civilains, including 3 children, were killed by the bombardment on the village of Shahrazad. 1 civilian from the village of Souha was shhot by a military checkpoint. 1 civilian was killed by the bombardment on the Kreim village in Sahl al-Ghab. A father and his son were killed by pro-regime gunmen in Qal’at al-Madiq, Reef Hama.

-In Homs Province 7 civilians were killed. 4 civilians, including a child and woman, were killed by bombardment on the al-Khadliya neighbourhood. 2 were killed by bombardment on the neighbourhoods of Homs al-Qadima. 1 was killed by pro-regime gunmen in the city of Homs.

- In Aleppo Province 8 civilians were killed. A child died from wounds he received earlier by sniper fire. 4 civilians, including a woman and child, were killed by bombardment on the al-Maysar neighbourhood in the city of Aleppo. 1 was shot by pro-regime gunmen in the Maysaloon neighbourhood. 1 died from wounds he received earlier by sniper fire in the Seif al-Dawla neighbourhood.

- In Deir Izzor Province 7 civilians were killed. 4 were killed in the city of Deir Izzor, 1 was identified by his relatives after his corpse was found several days ago, 2 others were shot by sniper fire, 1 died from wounds he received earlier by sniper fire in the al-I’mal neighbourhood. A civilian died from wounds he received earlier by bombardment on the al-Bukamal city. A civilian from the town of al-A’shara was found dead near the al-Furat river. A child was killed from wounds received during the bombardment of the Bal’oom neighbourhood of al-Mayadeen city.

- In Dera’a Province 4 civilians were killed. A woman was killed by bombardment on the Mahja town. 1 was shot by regime forces’ sniper fire in the Mahja town. 1 was killed by bombardment on the Tsil town in Reef Dera’a. 1 civilian from the town of al-Sanamein was tortured to death.

- In Latakia Province a civilian was killed by bombardment on the al-Hafa town in Reef Latakia.

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13 Rebel Fighters:

- In Idlib Province 5 rebel fighter were killed during clashes with regime forces in the city of Ariha.

- In Damascus Province 7 rebel fighters were shot by regime forces in the Jobar neighbourhood.

- In Aleppo Province a rebel fighter was killed during clashes with regime forces in the al-Itha’a neighbourhood.

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A defected soldier died from wounds he received earlier in Reef Dera’a.
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At least 32 regime forces were killed during the explosion of machinery and clashes in the provinces of Aleppo, Idlib, Homs, Hama, Reef Dimashq, Damascus and Dera’a.

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Turkey is only increasing the suffering of the Syrian refugees, who have been forced to flee their country because of the brutality of the regime and for fear for their lives. They have sought refuge in Turkey in hopes that this country would respect their rights as humans and refugees, since Turkey is signatory to the international treaties and conventions that guarantee the rights of refugees (See: the United Nations Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, particularly article 23 regarding the freedom of movement).We at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights urge the Turkish authorities to revoke this law immediately, and to give the Syrian refugees in its jurisdiction, especially the activists among them, their freedom of movement and residence. We also urge other rights organisations and the international community to pressure the Turkish government into revoking this, that is considered a blatant infringement on the rights of all Syrian refugees in Turkey, who have already suffered enough physical, mental, and economic pains.

• Syrian military helicopters have dropped leaflets over Damascus and its suburbs urging rebels to hand over their weapons or face ‘inevitable death’, AP reports.

• A resident of Darayya – the scene of a massacre at the weekend – has told the Guardian that troops demanded hospitality in people’s homes, and then killed their hosts.

• Seven people are reported to have been killed in Jaramana district of Damascus when a car bomb exploded at a funeral for two government supporters.

• Air strikes have hit Kanfranbel, in Idlib province, reportedly killing at least 15 people.

• The pace of Syrian refugees arriving in Za’atri camp, in northern Jordan, has doubled, with 10,200 arriving in the past week, heralding what could be a bigger mass movement, the UN refugee agency has warned.

• China is hosting Egypt’s newly elected president, despite its uneasiness with the Arab Spring revolution that helped bring him to power.

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BBC: Deadly car bomb at Syria funeral

Twelve people are killed by a car bomb at a funeral in the Jaramana suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus, state TV says.

Injuries were also reported, with state media saying 48 people were wounded.

The funeral was for two supporters of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, according to a UK-based opposition group.

Activists estimate over 20,000 people have died since March 2011, with over a million thought to be displaced.

The two who were being buried had reportedly been killed in a bomb attack on Monday.

A taxi had been used to carry the bomb, according to state-run news agency Sana.

The suburb of Jaramana where the blast occurred is predominantly populated by Christians and Druze, who follow an offshoot of Shia Islam.

Pictures of the aftermath of the bombing showed several destroyed vehicles and damage to surrounding buildings.

Government offensive

Violence continued across Syria on Tuesday, with reports of shelling around Damascus and fighting in the northern province of Idlib.

Several districts to the east of Damascus came under heavy attack, activists said, as government forces step up efforts to clear the area of anti-government forces.

Opposition fighters regrouped there after the regime claimed to have expelled them from the capital a month ago, the BBC’s Barbara Plett reports from neighbouring Lebanon.

Anti-regime forces have been using guerrilla-style hit-and-run tactics in the capital since then, our correspondent adds.

Over the weekend, more than 200 people were reported killed in the town of Darayya near Damascus, the latest in a series of mass killings which have shocked Syrians.

Clashes were also reported on Tuesday in Idlib province, with activists saying 13 people had been killed by an air strike in the town of Kafr Nabl.

Refugee influx

Meanwhile, the number of refugees fleeing into Turkey from Syria could reach 200,000, the UN’s refugee agency has warned.

In the past two weeks, 5,000 people have been crossing the border every day, compared with 500 a day earlier in the month, according to the UNHCR.

The flow of refugees into Turkey has increased significantly in recent weeks, the UNHCR says

The Turkish authorities are planning to set up extra camps for the refugees but have warned they may soon run out of space.

Turkey already plays host to almost 80,000 Syrian refugees and has called on the international community to help share the burden.

Turkish officials have suggested the UN may need to create safe zones in Syria to cope with the influx.

The rate of arrivals at the Zaatari camp in northern Jordan has also doubled over the past week, according to the UNHCR.

The agency says it has also noted an increase in the number of unaccompanied children arriving in Jordan.

“Some children report that their parents have died, or are staying behind in Syria to look after relatives, or are working in other countries,” UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

Analysis

In the latest battle for Damascus, the regime has unleashed overwhelming force to try to inflict a definitive defeat on the armed opposition in the capital.

Its indiscriminate bombardments and sweeping ground assaults also appear aimed at sending a message of deterrence to the sympathetic communities who host the rebels. The risk is that this will only breed greater hatred for the state amongst these working-class Sunni districts, rather than turn them against the fighters.

The rebels have adopted guerrilla tactics that are almost impossible for a conventional army to counter, and they’re still mounting attacks more than a week after the military offensive was launched. In such an uneven battle the rebels win by not losing, and the regime loses by not winning.

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Reuters: Syria refugee exodus raises pressure for buffer zone

Syria’s refugee exodus is accelerating and up to 200,000 people could settle in Turkey alone if the conflict worsens, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, increasing pressure for creation of a buffer zone inside Syria.

Turkey has floated the idea of a “safe zone” to be set up for civilians under foreign protection as fighting has intensified in a 17-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

Up to 5,000 refugees a day have been crossing into Turkey over the past two weeks while the pace of refugees arriving at a camp in northern Jordan has doubled, heralding what could be a much bigger movement there, the U.N. refugee agency said.

Although there is no sign divided world powers are ready to back a buffer and no-fly zone, as rebels and aid organizations would like, U.N. Security Council foreign ministers are expected to discuss the idea at a meeting on Thursday.

While Turkey could in theory create a buffer zone itself, it has said it is reluctant to go it alone.

Already hosting more than 80,000 refugees, Turkey has warned it could run out of space if the number goes above 100,000.

“We are already looking at potentially up to 200,000 and are working with the Turkish government to make the necessary plans,” Sybella Wilkes, spokeswoman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told Reuters in Geneva.

Turkey fears the presence of refugees fleeing a conflict with a sectarian dimension could worsen its own tensions as well as straining resources.

Turkey will open four new camps for Syrian refugees by next week, bringing its capacity to 120,000 people, its disaster management agency said, but thousands remain stuck inside Syria.

“We will be asking the United Nations to be more active in terms of helping the Syrians on their side of the border,” said one Turkish official, who declined to be named. He complained that Turkey had received little help so far.

Relations between Turkey and Syria have deteriorated sharply during the uprising. Syria accuses its neighbor, hosting rebel forces, of backing ‘terrorist’ infiltration and shot down a Turkish plane in June.

FIGHTING WORSENS

The refugee flow to Turkey has grown as fighting has worsened around Syria’s biggest city, Aleppo, split between rebels and Assad’s forces in a street-by-street battle that has ground on for weeks.

Heavy fighting has also returned to districts around Damascus, one month after rebels were driven back from the centre of the capital. Twelve people were killed by a car bomb at a funeral in Damascus on Tuesday, state television said. Activists said the attack targeted Assad supporters.

At least 18,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million Syrians are in need of aid or assistance, the United Nations says. More than 200,000 refugees have registered in neighboring countries, though significantly more have left Syria.

At the Azaz-Kilis crossing, the main route into Turkey from Aleppo, Syrians described dire conditions for refugees still trapped on the other side of the border.

“We saw people sitting on the street and sleeping. They don’t have a toilet. It’s very bad … No food. Children in the street,” said Juma’a Handawi, shortly after crossing.

Pick-up trucks crammed with people, mattresses, clothes and wooden furniture ferry refugees to the border. Rebel fighters draped with ammunition belts and carrying automatic rifles loiter among women and children waiting to cross.

Ankara fears a mass influx on the scale of the 1991 Gulf War, when half a million people poured into Turkey.

OBSTACLES AT U.N.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who will chair Thursday’s U.N. meeting, said on Monday a no-fly zone may become an inevitability if refugee numbers continue to soar, while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Turkey this month that all measures including a no-fly zone were on the table.

But no U.N. Security Council member has formally proposed such a measure and there are legal and practical obstacles to establishing such a zone, diplomats say, as well as strong opposition from Russia and China.

“At the moment we’re not expecting much,” said one French diplomatic source of the meeting on Thursday.

Many of the refugees in Turkey and other neighboring states have been housed in schools and sports centers but, with the academic term due to begin, they are being moved on.

Refugees sheltering at schools in Marj, a town in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, were told to find somewhere else to stay after the education ministry ordered all schools to be cleared by September 2 for the registration of students, a local official said.

Men, women and children stood in the street in front of one school with their bags and suitcases, some unsure where to go.

“I will look for a house to rent and if we can’t find one, we will have to go back to Syria, and whatever will happen is going to happen,” said Abu Amar, who fled from fighting in the Damascus district of Kafr Souseh last month.

Activists said the new wave of refugees to Jordan may have been caused by shelling on houses in the southern town of Busra al-Sham that killed at least 15 women and children last week.

Jordan called for help with the refugee influx.

“We are being burnt by the impact of this crisis in a direct manner,” Minister of State for Information Samih Maaytah told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Afif Dab in Lebanon, John Irish in Paris; Writing by Nick Tattersall and Dominic Evans; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)

Aleppo’s ancient city a victim of Syrian war: ALEPPO, Syria – Ruled successively by Hittites, Greeks, Romans and Ottomans, Aleppo’s ancient city has survived violent change over thousands of years. But the modern weaponry of Syria’s escalating civil war is proving too much.

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Telegraph: British doctor travels to Syria to provide medical help on her holiday

A British doctor has used her summer holiday to travel to war-torn Syria and provide medical help to victims trapped in the conflict.

Rachael Craven, 42, usually works as anesthetist for the National Health Service in Bristol. But she has spent the past two weeks in a war zone, treating casualties in a secret hospital that is being run by humanitarian aid agency Medicine San Frontier inside northern Syria.

Operating without the permission of the Syrian government and fearing it could come under attack by regime artillery the hospital is in the guise of a civilian home.

“Luckily it is not like a house in the UK that is furnished with carpets. This had marble floors; the kitchen is a sterilisation room and the living and reception rooms have been turned into the operating theatres and recovery rooms,” said Dr Craven. “The courtyard is the emergency room”.

She was part of a team of local doctors and foreign staff that worked around the clock to treat the constant stream of patients. Snatched moments of rest were taken on the exposed hospital rooftop.

“We slept on the roof. Accommodation is a premium in northern Syria because of the influx from Aleppo. Any house has three or four families staying with them already,” said Dr Craven. “We were at risk of shelling but so far it is a relatively safe area. I think a bigger is when the rain starts!”

The hospital was nearly always full, with patients sometimes spilling out on mats laid on the balconies. “Every few days we would have a mass casualty event. Either when a battle had taken place near us and we saw a lot of rebel casualties, or after shelling attacks where the victims were civilians,” said Dr. Craven.

Close to the end of her stay an artillery barrage hit a village bazaar where locals had been gathering supplies: “The local field clinic took care of most of the casualties in the market, but it was an hour before anybody checked the nearby basement where fifteen children had been playing. Shrapnel had come in through the ground level windows.

“The children were all from one extended family and were from two to 18 years old. Five were killed outright; a few were taken to a local clinic and the rest were brought to us. One was dead on arrival, another died with us, we were able to do surgery on two, and two were sent to Turkey,” said Dr. Craven.

For the past seven years Dr Craven has been using her annual leave to volunteer with MSF in some of the world’s most galling humanitarian tragedies and dangerous conflict zones. She has worked in Congo, Indonesia, Haiti after the earthquake and in Libya in the city of Misurata when it was besieged.

Syria was one of the most difficult operations yet. The whole medical team and hospital equipment had first to be smuggled across an international border and there no escape route should the hospital come under attack.

“There was one occasion when there was a push by government forces and we were aware that a set of tanks were heading very close to us. We were on standby to evacuate, but we had a patient who was critical and could not be transferred. It is not something they really cover in medical training in the UK, the decision of where take a patient into theatre and so commit the rest of your team to stay [in a dangerous situation].

“Every day you had a mental tally in your head of which patients would have to come with you is you had to evacuate. We had one ambulance and one car that we could use,” said Dr. Craven.

Working conditions were extremely difficult, with the medical staff having to adapt to a back-to-basics approach. “You can’t have ventilators and other similar equipment because of things like electricity. It was not uncommon for the operating theatre to be plunged into darkness and then you lose your oxygen and that is dangerous. You need solid simple tools,” said Dr. Craven.

Dr Craven said the hospital also depended on the “exceptional” local staff, who have been working for several months without a break, often treating victims that are their friends or relatives, and on the “amazing spirit” of villagers near the hospital: “If we were ever shot of blood the imam would put out a message at evening prayer and there would be a queue of volunteers”.

Now back at work at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, Dr Craven said that she was likely to use her remaining two weeks of holiday to return to Syria: “It brings a whole new perspective on life and work at home”.