Syria Superthread [merged]

[a_majoor]

An interesting and revealing look at the Chemical weapons inspectors who are "policing" Syria's weapons stockpile and equipment:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/weapons/the-dark-side-of-the-nobel-peace-prize-winning-chemical-weapons-inspectors-16028898?click=pm_news

The Dark Side of the Nobel Peace Prize-Winning Chemical Weapons Inspectors

Announced today, the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize went to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is supposed to investigate suspected chemical weapons makers and stop the proliferation of these terrible agents. But the organization's record isn't as rosy as it might appear.
By Joe Pappalardo

October 11, 2013 2:30 PM

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is the world's darling organization. It received the Nobel Peace Prize, and its inspectors are in Syria on a mission to dismantle the Assad regime's chemical weapons. What could be the problem with a group like that?

Well, sorry to say, things are not all that squeaky clean when it comes to this organization. The group is not all that effective, it serves as a get-out-of-jail card for the worst chemical weapons offenders, and it is even a likely conduit for spies seeking access to the world's chemical manufacturing plants.

What Is the OPCW?

The organization was formed in 1997 as part of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), an agreement between nations to rid themselves of chemical weapons stockpiles. As of last month, Syria became the 190th signer of this convention (of course, this was only after the Assad regime reportedly gassed Syrian rebels, killing more than 1500 people in one attack alone). The OPCW is the investigative arm of the treaty. It can look and report, but only with the host country's permission and without any tools of enforcement. Their inspectors are supposed to be given access to all declared sites.

Who Watches the Watchmen?

The OPCW can't force itself into a country, but it is authorized to conduct so-called challenge inspections, which occur when one CWC signer accuses another of cheating at an undeclared site, and a team of specialists is then authorized to go to the suspected site to look around. But such a snap inspection has never happened. And even if the OPCW tried, a two-thirds majority vote by its governing council could block the inspection. And who is on that 41-seat council? According to the OPCW website, "Each State Party has the right, in accordance with the principle of rotation, to serve on the Council." So the nations with chemical weapons, none of which wants these challenges to happen, could block any challenge. Right now, the Council includes nations that are not known for their human rights or sensible policies on weapons proliferation, including Sudan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, Libya, Russia, and Serbia. This is why people complain that verification is nearly impossible, especially because chemical weapons manufacture is easy to mask as peaceful industrial chemistry.

Furthermore, the OPCW seems easy to dupe. Libya, for example, declared itself to be chemical weapons—free, and the disarmament community rejoiced and used the regime as an example of the CWC's success. But after the United States and European powers helped Libyan rebels throw off the Gaddafi regime, the new government disclosed three clandestine chemical weapons manufacturing plants and many chemical weapons and precursor chemicals.

Foxes in the Henhouse?

With the OPCW's access to sensitive chemical sites, the fear is that the OPCW serves as an easy way to conduct espionage on the United States and Europe. This is not an idle fear. There's been at least one fox found in the henhouse: Iran is a member of the OPCW. It joined in 1997, and since then has been accused of failing to disclose its full chemical weapons arsenal. Nevertheless, Iranians sit on the council and offer support staff to serve as investigators. Even worse, the Iranians have tried to slip in staff members who previously have been sanctioned as chemical weapons proliferators. In 2009 the French discovered that one of the Iranian OPCW inspectors was employed by Melli Agrochemical Company, a pesticide maker that is under United Nations sanction for buying nerve agent precursors on behalf of Iran's defense ministry.

And according to diplomatic cables stolen and released by WikiLeaks, the OPCW has become a farce when it comes to making a recalcitrant member behave. "Of course," one cable from 2010 says, "the two U.S. 90-day CW destruction progress reports will provide Iran ample opportunity for political theater." Translation: Iran and other nations justify their own lack of progress on chemical weapons destruction by citing the reports, which say that the U.S. itself is behind schedule.

It's not just Iran that has trouble with the OPCW. The United States has limited OPCW inspectors on its own sites. "The Department of Defense has been criticized for narrow, legalistic, and at times confrontational behavior on the part of inspector escorts, and for failing to deliver equipment and training courses promised to the OPCW," reads one paper for the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Even more troubling, the U.S. is implementing legislation passed in October 1998 that contains three unilateral exemptions and restrictions on inspections and oversight.

The idea that foreign governments could get access to chemical plants, pilfer proprietary information, and use some of the information to advance thier own weapons programs is not far-fetched, as the Iranian example shows. Concerns such as this have impeded the 15-year CWC's implementation, especially when it comes to surveying the civilian chemical industry in many nations.

The OPCW can only be strengthened by the Nobel Peace Prize, and its goal of stemming the flow of chemical weapons certainly makes the world feel safer. Unfortunately, the organization has a way of bettering the positions of those nations that build stockpiles of chemical weapons. When the Assad regime signed the CWC, they are the ones who felt safer.


Read more: The Dark Side of the Nobel Peace Prize Winning Chemical Weapons Inspectors - Popular Mechanics
Follow us: @PopMech on Twitter | popularmechanics on Facebook
Visit us at PopularMechanics.com

 

[tomahawk6]

http://www.armytimes.com/article/20131017/NEWS08/310170015/State-TV-Top-Syrian-army-general-killed-battle

BEIRUT — A top Syrian army general has been killed in fighting with rebels, state-run Syrian television reported Thursday, as the country’s deputy prime minister floated Nov. 23-24 as possible dates for talks on a political solution to the conflict.

The television report said Gen. Jameh Jameh was killed while on duty in eastern Syria. It said Jameh, who was the head of the military intelligence directorate in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, was killed by rebels in the provincial capital that carries the same name.

Jameh was one of the most powerful Syrian army officers in the country and played a major role in Lebanon when Damascus dominated its smaller neighbor.

The TV report did not say when Jameh was killed. It said he died “while he was carrying out his mission in defending Syria and its people.”

The city of Deir el-Zour has witnessed clashes between troops and rebels for more than a year.

Meanwhile, Qadri Jamil, the Syrian deputy prime minister, said Thursday that “we are closer than ever” to talks in Geneva. “In our contact with the (Russian) Foreign Ministry, we were informed about the approximate and hypothetical dates for holding it,” he said.

Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency quoted him as saying “the conference will be held on the 23rd and 24th of November.”

Alexander Lukashevich, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, would not confirm or deny that the dates were being considered.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday that efforts are intensifying to try to hold the Geneva meeting in mid-November. Ban did not provide specific dates, and it’s not clear whether the schedule provided by Jamil has been agreed to by any other parties.

The talks have been put off repeatedly, in part because of fundamental disagreements over the fate of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, the main alliance of political opposition groups, has said it will only negotiate if it is agreed from the start that Assad will leave power at the end of a transition period. Many rebel fighters inside Syria flatly reject negotiating with Assad’s regime

The regime has rejected such a demand, saying Assad will stay at least until the end of his term in mid-2014, and he will decide then whether to seek re-election. The regime has said it refuses to negotiate with the armed opposition.

The United States and Russia have been trying to bring the Damascus government and Syria’s divided opposition to negotiations in Geneva for months, but the meeting has been repeatedly delayed. It remains unclear if either side is really willing to negotiate while Syria’s civil war, now in its third year, remains deadlocked.

Also Thursday, the international agency overseeing the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile said that inspectors have so far found no “weaponized” chemical munitions, or shells ready to deliver poison gas or nerve agents, and that Syria’s declarations up to now have matched what inspectors found.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations are working to verify Syria’s initial declaration of its weapons program and render production and chemical mixing facilities inoperable by Nov. 1. Their work on the ground involves smashing control panels on machines and destroying empty munitions.

The team has visited 11 of more than 20 sites since Oct. 1 and carried out destruction work at six. “Cheap, quick and low-tech. Nothing fancy,” OPCW spokesman Michael Luhan said of the work.

In the next phase, the work gets more complex and dangerous when actual chemical weapons have to be destroyed — in the midst of full-blown war. Negotiations are still underway as to how and where that will happen.

Syria’s revolt began in March 2011 with largely peaceful protests against the Assad regime before eventually turning into a civil war. The conflict has killed more than 100,000 people, forced more than 2 million to flee the country and left some 4.5 million others displaced within the country.

It has also proven difficult and dangerous for journalists to cover, and press freedom advocate groups rank Syria as the most dangerous country in the world for reporters. Dozens of journalists have been kidnapped and more than 25 have been killed while reporting in Syria since the conflict began.

On Thursday, Sky News Arabia said that a team of its reporters had gone missing in the contested city of Aleppo. The Abu Dhabi-based channel said it lost contact on Tuesday morning with reporter Ishak Moctar, a Mauritanian national, cameraman Samir Kassab, a Lebanese national, as well as their Syrian driver whose name is being withheld at his family’s request.

Sky News Arabia chief Nart Bouran says the crew was on assignment primarily to focus on the humanitarian aspects of the conflict in Aleppo. The channel appealed for any information on the team’s whereabouts and for help to ensure the journalists’ safe return.

 

[CougarKing]

Assad retaliates for the killing of the general mentioned in the above post:

Yahoo News

Jets bomb Syrian city after intelligence general killed

By Dominic Evans

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian air force jets bombarded the eastern city of Deir al-Zor on Friday after heavy overnight clashes and the killing of one of President Bashar al-Assad's top military intelligence officers, activists said.

General Jama'a Jama'a was shot dead on Thursday by snipers in the midst of a battle with rebels including forces linked to al Qaeda, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

His death, celebrated by rebels and opposition activists, marked a significant setback for Assad's bid to retain a hold over the city, capital of the eastern oil-producing province.

A death notice published on Facebook said Jama'a's body was being flown back for burial on Friday in his home village of Zama in the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean - the heartland of Assad's Alawite sect.

(...)

 

[OldSolduer]

This has turned into a dogs breakfast.....it's been one since Obama decided that the Syrian government needed a hand slapping.... :facepalm:

 

[The Bread Guy]

Canada gives some vehicles a lift - but not quite into Syria - more from the CF/DND Info-machine:

At the request of the United Nations (UN), Canada provided military airlift this week to support the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), whose members are presently operating in Syria.

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) contributed a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) CC-177 Globemaster III aircraft from 8 Wing Trenton, Ontario, to deliver 10 armoured civilian vehicles to the OPCW. These vehicles, donated by the United States (U.S.), will be used by the OPCW to safely transport their members, along with UN personnel involved in verifying and destroying Syria’s chemical weapons.

“Canada is committed to assisting the UN and the OPCW in their efforts to ensure the elimination of chemical weapons in Syria,” said the Honourable Rob Nicholson, Minister of National Defence. “This airlift mission by the RCAF is just another fine example of the capability of the CAF and their readiness to respond rapidly whenever called upon.”

The 10 armoured civilian vehicles were airlifted from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S. to Lebanon. The vehicles were transported via two flights over a three-day period, starting last Thursday. Another agency is now responsible for moving the vehicles from Lebanon to Syria to assist the work of the OPCW and UN. This aircraft and CAF personnel were not part of any operations in Syria ....

 

[57Chevy]

                                          Article from the StarTribune is shared with provisions of The Copyright Act

Norway rejects US request to destroy Syria's chemical weapons arsenal
Associated Press   25 Oct

OSLO, Norway — Norway has turned down a U.S. request to receive the bulk of Syria's chemical weapons for destruction because it doesn't have the capabilities to complete the task by the deadlines given, the Norwegian foreign minister said Friday.

Boerge Brende said Norway hadn't been able to identify a port that could receive the weapons and didn't have the capacity to treat some of the waste products resulting from the destruction of the munitions.

In a webcast news conference, Brende said both the U.S. and Norway agreed there was no point in continuing "the evaluation of Norway as a place for this destruction."

Brende said the U.S. is looking at other alternatives but didn't give details.

Norway earlier this week said it was one of the nations that had been asked to take part in the destruction of 50 metric tons of mixed chemicals in the form of mustard gas and some 300-500 metric tons of materials needed to make nerve agents.

The U.S. and Russia set a mid-2014 deadline for the destruction of Syria's arsenal, which Brende said was too tight for Norway.
                                                      ___________________________________________


Having no idea of the actual numbers involved, nor of the weapons and/or systems these chemicals were (or may have been) employed in,
setting a deadline by both the US and the RF was a mistake in the first place.

It hampers possible introductions of new (or improved) disposal procedures and methods, and the increased stress of the time factor could
create an unsafe working environment.

IMO The deadline should have been based on percentages rather than the totality of stocks.

 
 

 

[a_majoor]

More on the disintigration of Syria, as various rebel factions fall on each other. This is an inadvertent variation of the Bush doctrine, while George W Bush thought that establishing a democracy in the heart of the Middle East would destabilize the existing order by inspiring others to throw off their authoratarian governments, this Administration seems content to allow regime change as a result of anarchy or Islamist takeovers (although the end state will in no way result in a peaceful and democratic Middle East).

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/10/26/syria-obamas-rwanda-moment/

Syria: Obama’s Rwanda Moment

Besides the main battle in Syria—the rebels against Assad—there is also a nasty little war emerging among the rebels themselves, with the Kurds and moderates squaring off against the radical Islamists. Reuters reports:

Kurdish militants seized a Syrian border post on the frontier with Iraq early on Saturday, fighters and monitors said, after three days of clashes with an al Qaeda-linked group which had held the crossing since March.

The armed Kurdish group YPG told Reuters fighting carried on through the day and a senior security official on the Iraqi side of the crossing said he could hear gunshots, mortar fire and shelling.

The Yarubiya post and surrounding areas in the northeast were taken from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant rebel group, who had seized it from the army, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

There may come a time when a civil war between relatively organized factions turns into a generalized condition of anarchy and banditry over much of the country. With no political solution on the horizon, it’s hard to see anything good coming of it.

Future historians are likely to regard this as President Obama’s Rwanda moment: the United States chose not to make a difference back when it could have done with relative ease, and then watched in horror as a great tragedy unfolded. And just as the Rwanda massacre touched off a series of wars and mass murders that drew in neighboring states and is still convulsing the region after two decades of war, so the Syria disaster is likely to have horrible repercussions for many years to come.

There is, however, one difference between Rwanda and Syria. Because of geography, Syria is almost infinitely more important to the United States and its allies than Rwanda was. This time we didn’t just miss an opportunity for a humanitarian intervention; we missed a major strategic call to action.

 

[tomahawk6]

Actually Syria may well be the Vietnam of our islamist enemies.Let them kill each other.Like moths drawn to a flame.

 

[CougarKing]

The IDF strikes...

RT link

Israeli planes strike Syrian military base - US official confirms to media
Israeli warplanes struck a Syrian air defense base near the port city of Latakia on Thursday, US official have confirmed to media.

An Obama administration official told AP that the attack happened overnight on Thursday, but provided no details. Another security official told the news agency that it took place in the Syrian port city of Latakia, and that the targets were Russian-made SA-125 missiles.


Another US official told CNN that the Israelis believed the base near Snobar Jableh, south of Latakia, had sensitive and sophisticated missile equipment that may have been transferred to the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

Earlier, Dubai-based broadcaster al-Arabiya reported two attacks carried out by the Israeli Air Forces – one in Latakia and the other one in Damascus.


Neither the Syrian nor Israeli governments have commented on the alleged attacks.

A spokesman for the Israeli Defense Ministry declined to speak on the matter.


"We're not commenting on these reports," he told Reuters.

However, an Israeli official speaking anonymously to the news agency said he was inclined to believe that Israel had carried out a strike, although he was not entirely certain. 

The Lebanese military said it observed six Israeli jets flying over Lebanese territory on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Israeli jets frequently fly over Lebanon, but such high numbers have in the past been an indication of a military strike against Syria. 

Earlier in the day, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said there was a series of explosions at a Syrian air defense base in the Mediterranean coastal province of Latakia.

"Several explosions were heard in an air defense base in the Snubar Jableh area," SOHR director Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding that the reason for the blasts remains “unclear.”

No casualties have been reported.


(...)
Published time: October 31, 2013 19:37

 

[tamouh]

Two interesting news on Syria:

1. Report of Polio outbreak
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24854920

"Europe could be at risk from polio following a recent outbreak in Syria, according to infectious disease experts.

Two doctors in Germany have written to the Lancet journal warning that the cases in Syria - which had been free of wild poliovirus since 1999 - could endanger neighbouring regions.............."


2. Interesting report on KSA training an army for Gen. Idris , rebel commander:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/07/syria-crisis-saudi-arabia-spend-millions-new-rebel-force

"Saudi Arabia is preparing to spend millions of dollars to arm and train thousands of Syrian fighters in a new national rebel force to help defeat Bashar al-Assad and act as a counterweight to increasingly powerful jihadi organisations. ..............."

 

[a_majoor]

In another interesting development (although still more of a "what if"), it seems that Hamas has fallen out with Hezbollah and their Iranian paymasters, and are on the side of the rebels. Will this mean they will start recruiting, training and arming the Palestinians in the refugee camps in Syria (and there are a lot of Palestinians and camps in Syria...). This gives Qatar the ability to create a sort of Foreign Legion from scratch to deal out death and destruction for the Sunni side of the religious wars.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentaryanalysis/hezbollah-vs-hamas

Hezbollah vs. Hamas
Hezbollah's involvement in Qusayr could drag Lebanon into a broader conflict

Clashes erupted in Beirut Wednesday night between Palestinians and members of the Amal Movement, MTV television station reported. The clashes took place in the Farhat neighborhood near the Cité Sportive stadium, during which two hand grenades were used. 

Without proper contextualization, this incident could be seen as just another insignificant fight between two armed groups. But it happened shortly after Jabhet al-Nusra declared the beginning of its operations against Hezbollah in Beirut and the Beqaa. Meanwhile, various sources reported that Hezbollah has asked Hamas to leave Dahiyeh (the southern suburbs of Beirut) after it became known that Hamas has been fighting alongside the Free Syrian Army in Qusayr.

Hamas' alliance with Hezbollah and the Assad regime in Damascus has always given Hezbollah a certain control over the Palestinian camps in Lebanon – but things are drastically different now. Hamas is no longer an ally of Assad or Hezbollah, the organization has shifted alliances and Hamas is now Qatar's best friend and beneficiary.

Of course, that Hamas is now actually fighting Hezbollah in Syria is hardly surprising news. Sources close to Hezbollah in Lebanon report that most of Hezbollah’s casualties in Qusayr occur by mines which Hezbollah and Hamas used against Israeli forces – both groups were trained by the same army after all. The same sources also mentioned that cluster mines are behind most of Hezbollah’s losses.

Although Hamas’ leadership in Lebanon officially denied being asked to leave the southern suburbs by Hezbollah, many doubt this actually occurred. Hamas did not and will never declare its military involvement in Syria, as the organization has always been good at playing both sides carefully. Hamas never clearly and officially cut ties with Iran, yet its leadership's new ties to Qatar are a poorly-kept secret.

After Khaled Meshaal and other Hamas officials were forced to flee the group’s headquarters in Syria, Meshaal has since stationed himself in Qatar, making the small Gulf city-state Hamas' new headquarters. Moreover, in October 2012 Qatar pledged to give Hamas $400 million USD in support, which constitutes a critical funding stream that will supplement major subsidies from Iran.

Hamas' loyalty is now with Qatar, and the Gulf state is clearly supporting and funding Syrian rebels, particularly Islamist ones. It is only normal that Hamas, being the best trained military faction in the region besides Hezbollah, will be asked to join the rebels in Syria.

But this also means that Hezbollah is facing a new danger in Lebanon, and Wednesday night's news shows that Palestinian camps could again be used to partake in a conflict on Lebanese soil, this time against Hezbollah.

So here we have two supposedly resistance groups fighting each other, politically and most probably militarily. Their fight in Syria will soon move into Lebanon, and when Jabhat al-Nusra decides to launch its attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon, it will come as no surprise if Hamas and other Islamist groups in the Palestinian camps carry it out.

Now that the Lebanese parliament has decided to extend its term for at least 15 months, a new government will probably not be formed anytime soon unless PM-designate Tammam Salam submits to Hezbollah's demand that it maintains control over government and state institutions. This means that Hezbollah is not only still a part of the Lebanese state, it has also managed to maintain its control over Lebanon's institutions.

Therefore, all of Lebanon's institutions and sectors will be a target to whoever wants to attack or pressure Hezbollah.

When Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah officially declared his organization’s military involvement in Syria, inviting his opponents to fight him there, Nasrallah’s message was that Lebanon as a state does not matter and it only exists to serve Hezbollah and Iran's interests. Hence, Lebanon is forced to join Hezbollah in its battle in Syria.

Hezbollah is determined to win the Qusayr battle no matter the consequences, and they are now sending better-equipped and trained troops to Qusayr. Nasrallah has no choice in Qusayr but victory, in order to justify the huge number of casualties coming from Syria every day. Hezbollah's losses in Qusayr are damaging its reputation of invincibility, and winning (like the “divine” victory of 2006) has now become simply non-negotiable.

However, what does victory mean at this point? Winning the battle in Qusayr may mean losing a bigger war. Even if Hezbollah manages to take over Qusayr, they do not have the power or ability to hold it. Eventually, Hezbollah will be chased back into Lebanon. There are no borders or functioning state institutions to stop their return.

But, Hezbollah has set a dangerous new precedent with its campaigns into Syria by dragging Lebanon into the neighboring conflict. According to Hezbollah’s ideological and military training – losses, no matter how big, are irrelevant if they result in victory. This mentality is sure to prolong the conflict, something Hezbollah strives on.

This time, however, is different. Hezbollah has positioned itself, through a calculated sectarian approach, as the enemy of all Sunni Islamists who are taking over most of the region. No matter how strong they are or how costly and long the conflict will drag on, Hezbollah is determined to plow ahead. Yet today they are facing all the Sunnis in the region including Hamas, and Hezbollah will eventually lose the bigger battle as a result.

As a small, sectarian state, Lebanon will be the biggest loser in this broader regional divide. Therefore, the only choice left for Lebanon is to keep Hezbollah out of any state institution. They cannot be part of the government or parliament anymore. Hezbollah today is an occupying force in Syria, and if they remain in control of Lebanon's institutions, it means that Lebanon will be regarded as an occupying state. Lebanon must therefore change by exercising its real independence.

Hanin Ghaddar is the Managing Editor of NOW.  She tweets @haningdr

 

[tamouh]

In another interesting development (although still more of a "what if"), it seems that Hamas has fallen out with Hezbollah and their Iranian paymasters, and are on the side of the rebels. Will this mean they will start recruiting, training and arming the Palestinians in the refugee camps in Syria (and there are a lot of Palestinians and camps in Syria...). This gives Qatar the ability to create a sort of Foreign Legion from scratch to deal out death and destruction for the Sunni side of the religious wars.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentaryanalysis/hezbollah-vs-hamas

I believe Hamas had already broken ties with Iran when Mursi was elected as President in Egypt. The story you've quoted are of typical clashes that occur on daily basis in Lebanon. Qatar is still recovering from Mursi's outcast by the Saudis, and they are probably a little bit more busy now trying to convince FIFA they can still host he World Cup in the midst of 45 C temperatures.

 

[tomahawk6]

Hamas and Hezbollah are tied at the hip with Iran.Morsi's overthrow by the Army was a setback for the MB.

 

[57Chevy]

                                            Article is shared with the provisions of The Copyright Act

So they claim.

Syrian rebels claim they captured government drone, reveal images found inside
NBC News By David R Arnott

Syrian rebels this week showed off a miniature drone that they claim to have brought down using frequency interference.

Fighters from the Free Syrian Army told Reuters that the unmanned, remote-controlled aircraft belonged to President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

The rebels released a series of aerial photos that they said had been taken from a camera mounted on the drone. The images show the widespread destruction in the rebel-held city of Homs.

More than 100,000 people have died since the Syrian conflict started two and a half years ago, the United Nations says.


Other photos at link.

 

[George Wallace]

:

Words can not express my feelings on this barbarian act:


LINK

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Syrian rebels accidentally decapitate the wrong man, ask for public for ‘understanding and forgiveness’
National Post
Richard Spencer,
Friday, Nov. 15, 2013 

Militant Islamist rebels in Syria linked to Al-Qaeda have asked for “understanding and forgiveness” for cutting off and putting on display the wrong man’s head.

In a public appearance filmed and posted online, members of Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham, one brandishing a knife, held up a bearded head before a crowd in Aleppo. They triumphantly described the execution of what they said was a member of an Iraqi Shia militia fighting for President Bashar Al-Assad.

But the head was recognised from the video as belonging to a member of Ahrar Al-Sham, a Sunni Islamist rebel group that often fights alongside ISIS though it does not share its Al-Qaeda ideology.

After inquiries, an ISIS spokesman admitted he was Mohammed Fares, an Ahrar commander reported missing some days ago. This could not be independently confirmed, but in an earlier video of a speech by Mr Fares he bears a close resemblance to the severed head in the later video. The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, which monitors deaths in the Syrian conflict, and several activists on social media, said that ISIS misunderstood comments that the man made referring to the Imams Ali and Hussein, the founding fathers of Shiism.

The ISIS spokesman, Omar Al-Qahtani, made reference to a story in which Mohammed said Allah would forgive a man who killed a believer in error. He said that Mr Fares had been injured and, thinking he had been captured by members of the Shia militia against which he was fighting, asked them to kill him in terms misunderstood by the ISIS members when in fact he meant taking him to hospital.

It is thought he was wounded in the battle for Base 80, a military zone being fought over near Aleppo. The mistake, of a sort commonly cited as an argument against the death penalty around the world, is also indicative of the chaos within rebel ranks, particularly since the rise of ISIS over the summer. Several other Islamist groups have formed alliances without its participation, but it continues to exercise control over large areas of northern Syria.

Its ferocity has given rise to an exodus of moderate and secular activists, and brought to an end an uneasy truce between the Free Syrian Army and Kurdish militias, the most prominent of which has in the last month taken on ISIS and driven them out of a number of towns in the north-east.

Meanwhile, Mr Assad’s forces have used the internal rifts in their enemies’ ranks to make progress on a drive south-east of Aleppo. This week, a group of Islamist rebels put out an appeal for a mass mobilisation against the advance, while there are repeated rumours that major Islamist militias which do not support Al-Qaeda are about to declare a common front.

Mr Qahtani said the incident would be investigated by the appropriate judicial authorities.

 

[a_majoor]

Beat me to that one!

While Jihadist groups like ISIS are militarily stronger than most of the other FSA, tribal militia and assorted Islamic/Sunni/"Moderate" groups, this sort of barbaric conduct won't win them lots of support, and they will probably divert even more of their strength to occupying and pacifying their newly conquered territories. Pretty much a win-win for the Syrian Army; they get more points for their own propaganda and PSYOPS, and face an increasingly fragmented opposition. I also imagine the Syrians will focus on FSA and other, "lesser" groups since the Salafist and other extremist forces will be busy alienating their captive population, who will probably come to view the Syrian army as their "liberators".

 

[CougarKing]

The issue of the disposal of Syria's chem. weapons in the news again:

Defense News

US Offers Ship, New Systems to Destroy Syrian Chemical Weapons at Sea

WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials said Thursday that the US government has offered to send about 100 Defense Department civilians and a merchant ship to the Mediterranean to assist in the destruction of the “hundreds of tons” of chemical weapons precursor materials in Syria, but that discussions about how to do so are ongoing.

Last winter, recently departed Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter was tasked with looking for ways that DoD could help destroy Syrian chemical weapons stocks, which resulted in a rapid acquisition effort to build a mobile platform that could destroy the materials without having to ship them overseas.

The result was the construction of three field deployable hydrolysis systems (FDHS) the Pentagon plans on mounting in the hold of the Military Sealift Command ship Cape Ray, in order to destroy the chemical weapons at sea.

The FDHS is capable of breaking down the mustard gas and sarin precursor materials, transferring them into an inert liquid, a senior defense official said.

“We think this is a relatively low-risk operation” another senior Pentagon official told reporters on Thursday, adding that “absolutely nothing will be dumped at sea.” Instead, the liquids will be stored and kept on the ship until they can take them to a commercial waste-treatment facility.

(...)

 

[larry Strong]

The issue of the disposal of Syria's chem. weapons in the news again:

Defense News

Wonder how good that will go over, with the tree huggers et al?




Larry

 

[CougarKing]

The Islamists gaining strength in Syria... 

Islamists seize Free Syrian Army arms depots

Beirut (AFP) - The largest Islamist rebel force in Syria seized arms depots belonging to the mainstream Western-backed Free Syrian Army on Saturday, a watchdog said, highlighting tensions among rebel groups.

"After combat that lasted all night, fighters from the Islamic Front captured (FSA) general staff positions near the Bab el-Hawa border crossing (with Turkey) and seized their arms depots," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Observatory said the arms had been brought across the border from Turkey...


Agence-France-Presse

 

[a_majoor]

In a way, I think letting sitting back and letting ISIS and similar Salafi/Jihadi groups win might be a better long term strategy for us. They will neutralize the Iranians in Syria and probably take on Hezbollah in Lebanon, disrupting or eliminating the Sunni Arc from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean sea, unless Iran can mobilize far more resources to keep its position (and given the current strained financial position, it is not clear if they can, or what they will have to give up to do so). I would not say it is out of the question that these groups would mobilize (or have mobilized by their sponsors, which is almost the same thing) an army of displaced Muslim Brotherhood members and Palestinians to take the fight into Iran (and of course the greater Middle East's moderate Shia governments as well).

As spillover from this, radicals will also be moving into places like Chechnya, the 'Stans and Xinjiang, giving the Russians and Chinese some pretty major headaches and taking thier attention away from other things. This will give the West a bit of a breather and a chance to reorganize and sort out the real roots of the financial crisis (excessive debt and overspending). Mobilizing technologies like fracking and energy conservation to eliminate or drastically reduce Western dependance on ME and Russian oil and natural gas will be a two-fer; we eliminate a large source of their income and their ability to destabilize foreign markets and economies, while becoming self sufficient with our own, low cost energy.

Of course the Islamists will also be hostile to the West, and try to carry the battle to us as well, but as Maritime Powers, we can contain them in Eurasia, and their overall resources are so much smaller than the Western world's that they will only be able to use a small fraction of the effort they will be putting into cleansing the Islamic world of "apostates" and attacking other enemies closer to home, leaving us with a fairly managable defense problem.