PYD: On the ground activities in western Kurdistan and Syria: Wednesday, 23 October 2013
- People Protection Units (YPG) campaign
- Armed groups affiliated to Islamic State of Iraq and Sham & Al-nusra front
- Shame wall between Rojava and north Kurdistan
- Hundreds of people come back to their homes in Rojava
- Cultural & educational activities
Details
People Protection Units (YPG) campaign
Media center for the people protection unit, YPG, issued a statement about the bombing carried out by armed groups in Demhat martyr camp outside Tirbespîyê. Two YPG members lost their life, together with two members of a cultural association, one civilian from northern Kurdistan (southeast Turkey) and one civilian from west Kurdistan (northern Syria).
The statement assured that YPG are capable to push back all attempts of aggression against our people and that they will prevail.
The statement added that this was a desperate attempt since the radical islamist groups experienced heavy losses during the Eid celebration.
“We emphasize again that we are able to break down all these attempts which are targeting our people and we are going towards victory” the statement concluded.
Armed groups affiliated to Islamic State of Iraq and Sham & Al-nusra front
Sere Kanye (Ras al Ayn) – The ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Sham) and the Al-nusra front attacked Alqutaina village and kidnapped 24 civilians, brutally tortured them, stole and vandalized property of the people in the village on Saturday.
Efrin (Afrin) – YPG killed 11 ISIS members in Qastal Jindo village and 2 others around Mariamin village.
Gere Spi (Til Ebyed) – 2 ISIS members were killed in clashes around Avdiko village. Meanwhile, the mercenary groups shelled Girê spî with heavy artillery.
Shame wall between western Kurdistan (northern Syria) and north Kurdistan (Southeast Turkey)
Qamishlo – Condemning the shame wall between Rojava and north Kurdistan which is getting built by AKP Turkish government, thousands of Kurds from Qamishlo and Nusaibin city have walked down toward the boarder. They have assured that they don’t approve of the wall and the Kurdish people will never be seperated. While the Kurdish people were walking towards the boarder in Nusaibin city, the Turkish police confronted them be teargas and water cannons to disperse them.
Hundreds of people come back to their home in Rojava
Efrin (Afrin) – In the recent days, hundreds of people have come back from Turkey to the Efrin region due to dire living conditions.
It is noteworthy that they mentioned that they were blackmailed by Turkish army guards and smugglers together. Turkish guards refused to let them through the border and smugglers were asking them for money to let them cross.
Cultural & educational activities
Gerke Lage – The civil society movement held its first establishing meeting in Gerke Lage and Rumilan.
The movement consisted of: Teachers union, SZK (Kurdish Language Institution), contractor union, health council, real estate dealers, and shops owners. The meeting ended with the election of three persons to coordinate their activities.
Tirbespîyê (al Qahtaniye) – SZK held a meeting with regards to enter the Kurdish language into the preparatory and secondary school curriculum.
The art and education institution organized a seminar about education, specifically woman’s right to education. Dozens of women attended the seminar.
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Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: Damascus: A large explosion was heard in the Dummar area, initial reports indicate that it was targeting a regime checkpoint on the entrance to Mashrou’ Dummar; reports of killed and injured regular soldiers.
Flames were seen in the al-Ghasoola area, by the Damascus International Airport, explosions were also heard in the area; initial reports indicate that it was the result of rebel bombardment, causing the explosion of a gas pipe.
5 civilians, including a choir member in the Church o Lady of Damascus, were killed by mortar shells launched into the Abbasiyeen square and the Qassa’ neighbourhood.
Idlib province: Reports of several people injured as a result of regime bombardment on parts of Kensafra town, The following rebel groups: al-Shahid Mohammad Qadro battalions, Mujahidi Jisr al-Shughour, Jund Allah, Saif al-Islam, and Zeid Ibn Haritha have united under the title of al-Shura council of Mujahideen in Jisr al-Shughour.
BBC: Explosion near airport in Damascus
An explosion near the airport in Syria’s capital, Damascus, has been followed by a blackout in parts of the country, state media say.
Power was reportedly cut after rebel artillery hit a gas pipeline.
Residents say the entire capital has been plunged into darkness, while officials have described the power cuts as countrywide.
Many parts of Syria have been struck by major power cuts since the start of the country’s civil war.
“A terrorist attack on a gas pipeline that feeds a power station in the south has led to a power outage in the provinces, and work to repair it is in progress,” Syria’s state news agency SANA quoted Electricity Minister Imad Khamis as saying.
President Bashar al-Assad calls his opponents foreign-backed “terrorists”.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said opposition shelling was aimed at the town of Ghasula, around 2km (1.2 miles) from the airport.
“It is likely this was a large-scale operation planned well in advance,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Activists say a huge fire was seen blazing near the airport. It is unclear whether anyone was hurt.
Continue reading the main storySyria’s chemical weapons
- Syria believed to possess more than 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents and pre-cursor chemicals, including blister agent, sulphur mustard, and sarin nerve agent; also thought to have produced most potent nerve agent, VX
- US believes Syria’s arsenal can be “delivered by aircraft, ballistic missile, and artillery rockets”
- Syria acceded to Chemical Weapons Convention on 14 September; it signed Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention in 1972 but never ratified
Meanwhile the SOHR says a car bomb has hit a military checkpoint in a western suburb of Damascus, causing multiple casualties among security forces.
Damascus ‘co-operating’The head of the body tasked with destroying Syria’s chemical arsenal has said that Damascus is due to hand over its disarmament plan on Thursday.
In a press conference on Wednesday, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said it expected Syria’s initial declaration within the next 24 hours.
The OPCW and the UN have had a team of 60 experts and support staff in Syria since 1 October.
They have said that the Syrian government has been co-operating with the watchdog’s work.
The OPCW’s mission to rid Syria of chemical weapons was set up by a UN resolution.
It followed international outrage at a chemical weapons attack near Damascus in August.
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Reuters: Much of Syria blacked out by rebel attack on gas pipeline
“A terrorist attack on a gas pipeline that feeds a power station in the south has led to a power outage in the provinces and work to repair it is in progress,” Electricity Minister Emad Khamis told state news agency SANA.
A resident in the centre of Damascus who asked to remain anonymous said “the whole city just went dark” and she could see the glow of a fire near the international airport and hear heavy machinegun fire.
FINANCIAL COMMENTARIES AND GUIDESADVERTISEMENTPOWERED BYUse our free pension annuity calculator and get a quote in secondsClick to calculateBanned: the video that reveals the truth about BritainClick here to watchThe Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that reports on abuses and battlefield developments using sources on both sides of Syria’s civil war, said the explosion was caused by rebel artillery that hit a gas pipeline near the airport.
The Observatory said the rebel shelling was aimed at the town of Ghasula, a few miles (km) from the airport. It said residents of other areas of Syria, including coastal cities in the west and parts of Aleppo province in the north, were also experiencing power cuts.
Rebels have been trying to push into the capital, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for four decades.
More than 100,000 people have been killed since government forces moved to crush a pro-democracy uprising in March 2011. Millions have been displaced in the ensuing civil war.
(Reporting by Oliver Holmes; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)
Syrian army siege east of capital tightens as food, supplies dwindle
BEIRUT – Syria’s army has sealed the few remaining smuggling routes into the besieged eastern suburbs of Damascus, activists and aid workers said on Wednesday, tightening a chokehold on rebel-held areas near the capital.
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Guardian: Syria deadline for chemical weapons destruction will be met, says OPCW
The world’s chemical weapons watchdog says it is confident that Syriawill meet an important early milestone in its disarmament, the 1 November deadline for destroying all equipment used in the production and mixing of poison gases and nerve agents.
Michael Luhan, a spokesman for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said the Syrian government had provided complete co-operation with the 27 weapons inspectors in the country.
Luhan said the inspectors had visited 18 of the 23 chemical weapons sites declared by Damascus, and that a complete, official, inventory of all Syria’s chemical weapons, munitions, and production facilities, was expected to be delivered to the OPCW headquarters in the Hague in the next 24 hours.
Furthermore, he said Syria was expected to meet next Friday’s deadline laid down by the OPCW executive council for the destruction of all equipment involved in the production and mixing of chemical weapons as well machinery used for filling munitions with mustard gas, sarin or other poison agents.
“We are confident we are going to be able to meet that deadline,” Luhan said. “What it means is that they will no longer have the capability to produce any more chemical weapons. They will no longer have working equipment to mix or fill chemical weapons into munitions.”
He said that “low tech, quick and cheap” methods were being used, such as filling equipment with concrete, smashing it, sometimes using heavy vehicles. He could not give details on which techniques were used where.
According to an OPCW timetable backed up by a UN security council resolution passed last month, Syria must complete the destruction of its entire arsenal by the middle of next year. Norway has confirmed it is considering a request to accept the bulk of the stockpile for destruction on its territory.
Norway‘s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Ragnhild Imerslund, told the Associated Press that her country would not accept filled munitions but might accept mixed chemicals and precursors for nerve agents.
The UN has informed Norway that Syria has 50 tons of mustard gas and up to 500 tons of nerve agent precursors.
Imerslund said Oslo was consulting environmentalists, military and legal experts and others over the decision. No destruction sites had yet been chosen.
Luhan would not comment on Norway’s announcement but said the OPCW executive council would make a decision about a destruction plant at a meeting in the Hague mid-November.