YPG clears Serekaniye of armed groups: After YPG (People’s Defense Units) fighters cleared the Serekaniye city of armed groups, clashes in the region intensified near the Serekaniye border gate between Rojava and northern Kurdistan. Some of the members of the armed groups escaped to northern Serekaniye and others to Tel Xelef.
YPG took the control of the border gate and the region following a series of attacks against gang groups.
Turkish soldiers have been deployed in the northern side of the Turkish border.
In a written statement released today, YPG General Command said that Serekaniye has been cleared of gang groups following two days of fierce clashes with the Al Nusra Front and some other armed gang groups. YPG said that at least 15 members of the armed groups were killed and dozens of others were wounded in clashes since yesterday. YPG remarked that two Kurdish fighters, Rustem Eli (Qehreman) and Rubar Mihemed Emîn, lost their life in two days of clashes.
YPG remarked that some members of the group, those who failed to escape, laid their arms down and surrendered to YPG units.
Following a counter attack against armed groups, YPG surrounded and took the control of a military post and headquarters on the border line.
YPG has also taken the control of Emil Mislimin, the central position area of the Al Nusra Front and Heyet Al Seri, and another central location being used as the headquarters of Islamic state of Iraq and Bilae El ?am.
Following the attack on Emil Mislimin, where a commander of an armed group was killed, YPG rescued the 15 civilians abducted by gang groups.
According to the reports coming through, an armed group launched artillery attack from Tel Xelef in the afternoon, targeting Serekaniye after escaping from the YPG attack in the region.
On the other hand, separate clashes broke out today between YPG fighters and armed groups in the village of Til Elo in Girkê Legê’s Çelaxa region. Clashes are reported to be continuing.
In the meantime, YPG has found the identity cards of three Turkish citizens in Al Qaida affiliated Bilad el ?am’s headquarters it raided and searched after driving the groups from Serekaniye.
The id cards published by Anha news agency belong to Muhammed Emin Do?rucu and ?brahim Özden from Adana and Murat Koçak from Erzurum.
A Turkish citizen had been killed and a Turkish ambulance had been seized by YPG units in clashes with armed gang groups in previous months. One other id card previously found in Haseke belonged to a Turkish soldier, while three Al Qaida militants who were chased by security forces in Afrin had confessed that Turkish soldiers had warned them about not crossing Syrian territory.
Turkish army opens fire on Serekaniye
Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) Chief of the General Staff announced on its official website that Turkish military has opened fire on Serekaniye from the Cenkeser border post Wednesday afternoon in line with the rules of engagement.
Chief of the General Staff said that four houses and the police headquarters in Ceylanp?nar have been hit by the bullets fired from the area of clashes going on in Serekaniye since last night. It said that Nezir Atilla, the head of Ceylanp?nar’s Cumhuriyet neighborhood, has been slightly injured by a bullet, and that he is not facing a critical situation.
Not giving any information about the fact that the citizens in Ceylanp?nar were hit by bullets fired from the area of the Al Nusra Front, the General Staff remarked that TSK is opening fire on the area dominated by YPG (People’s Defense Units) members.
Members of an armed group have also launched an artillery attack on Serekaniye from Tel Xelef today afternoon.
A delegation of BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) deputies will go to Ceylanp?nar in the evening to make examinations in the district where local people are staging a march in solidarity with YPG units. Police and soldiers have surrounded the district with armored vehicles, having already intervened demonstrators with riot control vehicles and pressure water.
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Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: Hasakah province: Fighters from the YPG have taken over the Syrian-Turkish border crossing that linked the city of Ras al-Ein (Serekaniyeh) to Turkey. This came after violent clashes with Jabhat al-Nusra, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, and several other rebel factions who were in control of the crossing. Many rebels retreated, while others surrendered themselves to the YPG. The SOHR received reports indicating that the YPG will be giving residents of Ras al-Ein management and control of the border crossing, and that they are in the process of setting up a local committee for that purpose.
Aleppo province: The Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood was bombarded by regime forces, several people were injured. there are reports that rockets fell on the Masakin al-Sabil neighborhood, causing the injury of several people. 2 civilians were killed when a mortar was launched into al-Neel Street. 1 man died of wounds from a sniper shot yesterday while by the al-Hajz Garage cro…ssing between east and west Aleppo. 1 woman was killed by a sniper in the Saif al-Dawla neighborhood. 1 man from al-Sakhour neighborhood was killed by a fire that broke out in the Aleppo Central Prison, as reported by activists.
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al-Hasaka province: 9 combatants from the al-Nusra front and the Islamic state of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) were killed so far during the past 24 hours by clashes with the Kurdish Defense Units (YPG) in the Ras al-A’in city. 1 YPG fighter was killed by clashes in the al-Mahata neighbourhood, raising the size of human losses from the YPG to 2 casualties and 1 injury. Clashes are ongoing between the YPG and rebel fighters alongside al-Nusra front and the ISIS near a checkpoint by the Turkish borders. The Kurdish Defense units took hold of large parts of the Ras al-A’in city after violent clashes at night of yesterday with al-Nusra front, ISIS and rebel battalions. Most of the combatants of al-Nusra, the ISIS and rebel battalions withdrew to the areas of Tal Half, Asfar and Najar which are under rebel control. Activists from the city confirmed that the YPG took hold of all the headquarters in which the fighters were centralized and that the other side suffered human losses and detainment. Clashes started yesterday when the al-Nusra front and the ISIS attacked a YPG patrol and kidnapped 1 YPG fighter. Clashes lasted until night of yesterday but continued again because the ISIS and al-Nusra front refused a truce. The airforce carried out an air raid on the al-Shdadi city of Reef al-Hasaka which led to material losses and reports of several injuries.
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Reuters: Turkish agency warns of donor fatigue as Syria aid drops sharply
IHH, whose trucks ferry aid gathered in Turkey and abroad to Syria every day, said it was now delivering as little as a tenth of the aid it had been sending earlier in the year.
“The daily number of aid trucks delivered into Syria has dropped to just 5-10 from a previous 50-60,” IHH head Bulent Yildirim told a news conference in Istanbul.
“Why? Because we have been going on summer vacations while blood continues to be shed,” he said, complaining of falling donor interest in a conflict that has lasted 28 months, with no end in sight.
The number of people fleeing the Syrian war has risen to an average of 6,000 a day this year – a rate the world has not seen since the genocide in Rwanda nearly two decades ago, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday.
The United Nations says the conflict had killed about 93,000 people as of end-April, including more than 6,500 children.
Citing the United Nations, the IHH said in a report that 4.25 million people had been forced to leave their homes in Syria by fighting as of the end of June.
“We are starting a new aid campaign, reminding people that we have to look after all the 350,000 children who have lost their parents, with the aim of delivering 2,000 trucks of aid,” Yildirim said, without specifying a timeframe for that aid.
“Aid organisations gather at five-star hotels but when we go into Syria we can’t see them in the field … They should stop giving security concern as an excuse. We promise to handle the delivery of their aid if they have the intention to help.”
The IHH, one of the most active aid organisations in Syria, said it had spent 100 million lira ($52 million) on food, shelter, healthcare and other assistance for towns in Syria and refugee camps inTurkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
The IHH has also been involved in negotiations to release prisoners, including two Turkish journalists and Syrian citizens, held in Syria. It brokered the release of 48 Iranians held by Syrian rebels in exchange for more than 2,000 civilians held by the Syrian government in January.
The humanitarian group came to prominence in May 2010 when Israeli marines stormed its Mavi Marmara aid ship to enforce a naval blockade of the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip and killed nine Turks in clashes with activists on board.
Turkey, which shelters half a million Syrian refugees, has been one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s most vocal critics as the conflict threatens to spread over the border.
A man and a 15-year-old boy were killed by stray bullets shot from Syria in a Turkish border town and Turkish troops returned fire, officials said on Wednesday, in the most serious spillover of violence into Turkey in weeks.
(Writing by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Alistair Lyon)
Parliament queries British arms exports to Syria, Iran and others
LONDON – Britain has granted billions of pounds worth of military export licences for countries such as Syria, Iran and Libya despite proclaiming deep concerns about their human rights records, the British parliament said on Wednesday.
In a critical report, parliament’s Committees on Arms Export Controls said Britain had approved licences for weapons exports to 27 countries worth 12.3 billion pounds highlighting the “inherent conflict” between its arms exports policy and its human rights policy.
“The government should apply significantly more cautious judgements when considering arms export licence applications for goods to authoritarian regimes ‘in contravention of the government’s stated policy’,” said John Stanley, the chairman of the committees.
FINANCIAL COMMENTARIES AND GUIDESADVERTISEMENTPOWERED BYTop 10 Trading Mistakes with CFDs – Free 5 page guideDownload Free GuideBanned: the video that reveals the truth about BritainClick here to watchIt was not clear whether goods had actually been shipped to the countries for which arms export licences had been given.
Parts for bullet-proof vehicles and underwater listening devices were approved for export to Syriawhile Iran licences covered civil aircraft and a range of military electronic equipment including 80 million pounds’ worth of encryption devices and software.
Britain has long been at odds with Iran over its disputed nuclear programme, and with Syria, where it supports opposition groups seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
It says it observes United Nations and European Union trade sanctions on Iran, as well as EU measures against Syria that had included an arms embargo which lapsed in May, mainly because Britain and France wanted the option of arming Syrian rebels.
The high number and value of the arms export licences, details of which were released for the first time, were surprising given that the government has flagged serious human rights abuses in some of the countries, the report said.
It said such exports might contravene the government’s own policy not to supply goods to countries on its list of human rights concerns where any items exported “might be used to facilitate internal repression”.
The report gave details of 3,074 licences for the export of “strategic controlled goods”, which can have dual military and civilian use. The products covered by the licences ranged from communications equipment to body armour and sniper rifles.
It said it would scrutinise whether specific exports to countries such as China, Iran, Sri Lanka and Russia complied with the government’s export rules.
Prime Minister David Cameron’s official spokesman said the British government had one of the most rigorous arms export control regimes in the world.
($1 = 0.6613 British pounds)
(Reporting by William James; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Alistair Lyon)
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BBC: UN says Syria refugee crisis worst since Rwanda
The conflict in Syria has caused the world’s worst refugee crisis for 20 years, with an average of 6,000 people fleeing every day in 2013, the UN says.
UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres said refugee numbers had not risen “at such a frightening rate” since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
He was speaking to the UN Security Council, which also heard that 5,000 people are being killed each month.
UN aid chief Valerie Amos said at least 6.8 million Syrians needed urgent help.
Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are locked in a fierce battle with opposition fighters for control of the country.
There has been deadlock at the UN Security Council over the crisis, with Russia and China refusing to back action against Mr Assad proposed by the other veto powers, the US, Britain and France.
‘No empty warning’
Mr Guterres said two-thirds of the nearly 1.8 million refugees registered with the UN had fled Syria since the beginning of the year – an average of 6,000 a day.
“We have not seen a refugee outflow escalate at such a frightening rate since the Rwandan genocide almost 20 years ago,” he told a rare public briefing to the Security Council.
Mr Guterres said the impact of the refugee crisis on neighbouring countries was “crushing”, but said the acceptance of Syrians by countries such as Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq was “saving hundreds of thousands of lives”.
And he said the “danger that the Syrian conflict could ignite the whole region” was “not an empty warning”.
The UN last month said nearly 93,000 people had been killed since the uprising began in March 2011.
The UN’s assistant secretary general for human rights, Ivan Simonovic, told the meeting that some 5,000 lives were being claimed each month, demonstrating “a drastic deterioration of the conflict”.
“In Syria today, serious human rights abuses, war crimes and crimes against humanity are the rule,” he said.
Ms Amos said $3.1bn was still needed to provide aid in and around Syria for the rest of the year, and she accused both sides in Syria of “systematically and in many cases deliberately” failing in their obligation to protect civilians.
“We are not only watching the destruction of a country but also of its people,” she said.
Syria’s ambassador to the UN, Bashar Ja’afari, said his government was doing “everything possible… to meet the humanitarian needs and basic needs of its citizens”.