Report: US prepares to arm Syrian rebels within a month

The US Central Intelligence Agency has started a weapons transfer to Jordan, from a range of classified warehouses, to prepare for arming select groups of Syrian rebels within a month, The Wall Street Journal cited US officials as acknowledging on Wednesday.

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Assad refuses to quit as foes advance in north Syria

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DAMASCUS: President Bashar Assad insisted he will not step down and blasted Britain’s support for his armed foes who reportedly killed dozens of soldiers on Sunday in attacks on a police academy in northern Syria.
“We are ready to negotiate with anyone, including militants who surrender their arms,” Assad told Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper, in a rare interview conducted last week at his Al-Muhajireen palace in Damascus.
“We can engage in dialogue with the opposition, but we cannot engage in dialogue with terrorists,” he said in the videotaped interview.
His offer of talks was aired as UN chief Ban Ki-moon and his Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said they were prepared to broker peace talks between the Assad regime and the opposition.

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Syria rebels kill 34 regime forces in academy attack: NGO

Syrian rebels killed more than 34 government forces in an attack Sunday on a police academy in the northern province of Aleppo and seized large parts of the facility, a monitoring group said.

They "seized control at dawn of large parts of the police academy" in Khan al-Assal, after eight days of fierce fighting for one of the regime's last bastions in the west of Aleppo province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"More than 34 regime forces were killed" inside the town's sprawling police academy, it said.

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A Syrian air force pilot explains why he bombed civilians

Since Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces began massacring civilians more than a year ago, a baffling question has hung over the conflict: How do they bring themselves to do it? There is probably no single answer. Some observers have suggested that members of Assad’s Alawite minority sect fear a mass revenge if they lose, for example. But one possibility may be that some rank-and-file Syrians don’t believe they’re killing civilians at all.
Syrian Air Force Capt. Roni Ibrahim’s MiG went down just outside the rebel-held northern Syrian town of al-Bab, where he’d released his bombs over the already-battered civilian neighborhoods as ordered. Rebels captured him and later brought him, black-eyed and terrified, to Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught, who asked the obvious question in the video embedded above: Why did you do it?

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Rebels forcing Syrian jets to bomb from high altitude: France

(Reuters) - Syrian rebels have acquired heavy weapons that have forced the government's air force to bomb rebel-held zones indiscriminately from high altitude, France's foreign minister said before meeting rebel groups on Wednesday.
Laurent Fabius, one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's harshest critics, made his comments ahead of a closed door conference in Paris with civilian members of rebel councils that run areas seized from central government control.
They included representatives from Maarat al-Numan, a town whose seizure last week cut the main route from Damascus to Aleppo.

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Who’s fighting whom in Syria?

Bill Webster/The Washington Post

The Alawites (12 percent of Syria’s population)


Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is struggling to maintain power as many of the country’s Sunnis have joined the rebellion and even as some members of his own Alawite sect are turning against him, as the Washington Post’s Liz Sly reported.
How many religious sects are there in Syria, and what do they all want?

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Civilian Brigades Are Helping Syrian Army Control Territory

At the western entrance to Jaramana [a southern suburb of Damascus], Wissam says goodbye to another visiting journalist, before — as he does every day — taking his position at a checkpoint made of sandbags piled haphazardly on the side of the road.

He is a young man, large and bearded. A few young men carrying Russian rifles had called him over. They had just finished their daytime duties and were spreading out under the orange trees — remnants of Damascus' fertile Ghouta valley — as night approached.
The trees were now surrounded by slum housing that resembled a cohesive cement jungle. This area was a hub for those emigrating from the countryside, inhabited by Christians and thousands of Druze citizens from Sweida. The city had been transformed into an unofficial barracks for minority groups, ranging from Alawites, Christians and Druze, to refugees from Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

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Pentagon Fears Syrian Rebel Weapons Pose Proliferation Risk

A screenshot from a video showing a Free Syrian Army soldier on a rooftop in Zabadani. The Pentagon fears that the weapons pipeline flowing from Persian Gulf states could pose a proliferation risk. Photo: Flickr/SyriaFreedom

The Pentagon insists that it’s not arming the Syrian rebels, merely helping out with the U.S. policy of providing humanitarian aid. But the weapons pipeline that Persian Gulf states have opened to the rebels, with U.S. assistance, could end up flooding the volatile Mideast with small arms, the Pentagon fears.
“We have broad-based concerns about the conflict in Syria, period,” said George Little, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, during a Monday briefing. “We have concerns about weapons proliferation inside Syria and yes, we do have concerns that some of those weapons could fall into the wrong hands.”
That may not be a hypothetical fear. Islamic militant factions within the Syrian rebel coalition appear to be benefiting from the arms pipeline, which runs principally from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. “The opposition groups that are receiving the most of the lethal aid are exactly the ones we don’t want to have it,” an anonymous official told The New York Times on Monday.

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FM Lavrov Denies Use of Russian-made Cluster Bombs in Syria

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied information from the leading human rights organization that Syrian authorities used Russian-made cluster bombs against rebels.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said earlier that during the ongoing conflict in Syria Russian-made RBK-250 series cluster bomb canisters with AO-1SCh fragmentation bomblets were used by the government troops against the rebel forces.
“There is no confirmation to this… There are loads of weapons in this region, including in Syria and other countries of the region, and arms are supplied there in large quantities and illegally,” Lavrov said.


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Islamic militants help seize missile base in Syria

BEIRUT — Fighters from a shadowy militant group with suspected links to al-Qaeda joined Syrian rebels in seizing a government missile-defense base in northern Syria on Friday, according to activists and amateur video.
It was unclear whether the rebels were able to hold the base after the attack, and analysts questioned whether they would be able to make use of any of the missiles they might have taken.
Nevertheless, the assault underscored fears of advanced weaponry falling into the hands of extremists, whose role in Syria’s civil war appears to be increasing.

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Syrian Rebels Capture 256 Government Soldiers in Idlib

Grainy video footage uploaded to YouTube on Oct. 9 shows purported Syrian rebel fighters with captured army tanks and guns in Khirbet al-Jouz. On Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 256 regime soldiers (not pictured) were captured. (YouTube.com)

Syrian rebel forces on Friday captured nearly 260 government soldiers in the restive northern part of the country after clashes in several towns in the area, said a pro-opposition group.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that rebels captured 256 regime soldiers throughout the week in the towns of Khirbet al-Jouz and Reef Jisr al-Shughour, both in Idlib province—one of the most hard-hit areas during the 19-month-long conflict.

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Syria: 106 soldiers killed by rebels

Beirut - Syrian rebels killed 14 soldiers in an attack on an army post in Daraa province on Friday, a watchdog said, a day after the army suffered 92 losses, its highest daily total in the conflict.

Six rebels were also killed in the attack on the army checkpoint at Khirba in the southern province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that fighting also raged in the northern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo.

The Britain-based watchdog said on Thursday had marked one of the deadliest days since an anti-regime revolt erupted in March last year, with at least 240 people killed across Syria, including the 92 soldiers, 67 rebels and 81 civilians.

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Syrian rebels kill 21 elite soldiers in Damascus suburbs

(Reuters) - Syrian rebels killed 21 elite Republican Guards on Thursday in an ambush on an army minibus in a suburb northwest of Damascus, opposition activists said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted a medical source and witnesses as saying the troops had been killed in Qudsayya, which has been shelled by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad after rebels moved into the area.
The Republican Guards are specifically entrusted with defending the capital, and the army stepped up operations in Qudsayya on Wednesday morning, Damascus residents said. They reported hearing loud explosions and said that a large military convoy was heading to the area.

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Syrian refugees in neighboring countries triple in three months

GENEVA, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The number of Syrians registered or awaiting registration as refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq is up to 311,500, compared to around 100,000 in June, a spokesman with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said Tuesday.
Adrian Edwards said the continuing rapid growth of refugee numbers underscores the urgency of last week's revised Syria Regional Response Plan, an appeal for 487.9 million U.S. dollars to help 710,000 Syrian refugees by the end of this year.
UN and its NGO partners presented the first plan for Syrian refugees with an appeal for 84.1 million U.S. dollars to address the humanitarian needs of some 98,000 refugees over six months. It was revised in June to seek 193.2 million U.S. dollars for a planned population of 185,000 people.


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The General's Gambit

On Jan. 8, 2008, Gen. David Petraeus's face was beamed onto a screen in the White House for a videoconference with President George W. Bush. The Iraq surge was beginning to wind down, and the general had an unusual proposal for the commander in chief.

"I've received three messages from Bashar al-Assad via Iraqi ministers stating that he'd like to meet," Petraeus told the president, according to a classified script for the presentation. "Stan McChrystal and I still want to go to Damascus to talk AQI only with Bashar al-Assad and solicit his help in stemming the flow of foreign fighters and taking on known AQ personalities who work in Syria."

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Syria's Assad tours Aleppo, orders more troops into battle: paper

BEIRUT | Tue Oct 2, 2012 10:01am EDT

(Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is visiting the city of Aleppo to take a first-hand look at the fighting between government forces and rebels and has ordered 30,000 more troops into the battle, a Lebanese paper said on Tuesday.
Al-Diyar newspaper, which is known for its pro-Assad stance, said the president had flown by helicopter at dawn from the presidential palace in Damascus to Aleppo.
It did not specify what day the trip started but said that Assad was still in Aleppo. The visit was decided on after reports that the situation in the city, Syria's largest and its commercial center, had become very serious.
"President Assad ordered units 5 and 6, estimated to be 30,000 soldiers and 2,000 personnel carriers, to move from Hama to Aleppo and to attack any occupied areas of Aleppo province from the Turkish border," it said.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the report. An employee of al-Diyar told Reuters it had a correspondent in the city. Syrian state media made no mention of any visit.

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Saudi Spending Millions on Syrian Rebels Training

Dozens of training camp running in rebels control area funded by Saudi government. These mans are train to fight President Bashar Al Assad's army.
According to media reports Syrian rebels (Free Syrian Army ) is getting all required assistance from Saudi and other middle east stats. Rebels are getting training in line of regular solider.
The operation comes with weighty foreign funding. Mostly from Saudi Arabia, tens of millions of dollars are being poured into the area to pay for weapons, training and support to FSA divisions, according to report published by Daily Telegraph.

 

My View: US and its middle east alliance should be careful as they have already burned their hands in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has proven more costly to US rather then Soviet Union.

Assad Is Confidence of His Victory

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad said that his goverment will not fall. Also slashed Gulf countries, which he accused of using their enormous oil wealth to try to drive him from power.
18 month Syrian upraise which has claimed nearly 30000 lives still going on.  Syrian government who are blaming western power for civil war has raised there finger on gulf countries also.
“They think that with their money, they can buy geography, history and a regional role,” Assad was quoted as saying. 
The Egyptian magazine said the Syrian president granted it an interview at his office in the Rawda neighborhood of Damascus. Syria’s information minister, Omran al-Zoubi, said Assad hadn’t given a formal interview to any Egyptian media. 

Syrian No Fly Zone Proposal

Syria No-Fly Zone Proposal Lacks Support 

A Syrian Air Force fighter jet launches missiles at El Edaa district in Syria's northwestern city of Aleppo, September 1, 2012.

 

For months, Syrian opposition forces fighting government troops have been calling - with very little success - for foreign military intervention.

But Western defense experts are debating whether the establishment of a no-fly zone over Syria might get more international support.

Analysts said it is essential to first define the parameters and goals of a no-fly zone - an airspace in which certain aircraft, especially military ones, are forbidden to fly.

Retired Navy Captain Ben Renda flew aircraft patrolling the no-fly zone over northern Iraq in the late 1990s, said "If the goal of the no-fly zone is to be another arm in the rebels' military game plan, that would not be received well."

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Syrian Blast Claimed 30

Syria Raises Death Toll In Aleppo Blast To 30

 

BEIRUT (AP) — The death toll from a car bomb in Syria's largest city has risen to 30, state media said Monday, as the new international envoy to the country said the Syrian people are desperate to see peace and stability.
The Sunday night blast ripped through the northern city of Aleppo, which has become one of the main battlegrounds of the country's civil war. Activists say at least 23,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted in March 2011.
On Monday, the new U.N.-Arab League envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, said he will travel to Syria this week to meet with regime officials as well as civil society.

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