Human Rights Watch said Friday that Syrian opposition fighters committed “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” in an Aug. 4 assault, killing at least 190 civilians as the rebels began a large-scale offensive to take back government-controlled areas in Latakia province, where many members of President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect live in rural villages.
The report said it is not clear what role, if any, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) — the armed wing of the main opposition coalition that is openly supported by the United States, Britain, France and Sunni Muslim Gulf states — played in the offensive.
“We woke up around 5 a.m. to the sound of gunfire coming closer to us. We started to run away, but as we were running we saw some people getting killed in front of us,” New York–based Human Rights Watch (HRW) quoted a resident of the village Abu Makkeh as saying. “I was fleeing with my mother, father — there were about eight of us, including my brother’s newborn daughter. Three neighbors died right in front of me. We walked into the fields nearly three kilometers (1.5 miles) to get to safety.”
The high civilian death toll and the nature of the wounds — gunshots and stabbings — as well as the presence of 43 women, children and elderly among the dead, suggest that armed rebel groups intentionally or indiscriminately killed residents, HRW said. More than 200 hostages were taken during the offensive, according to the rights group.
Syria’s mainly Sunni Muslim rebels have been battling for two and a half years in an attempt to overthrow Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shia Islam and makes up about 12 percent of Syria’s 23 million people. The conflict erupted in 2011 with a violent crackdown on peaceful protests against four decades of Assad family rule.
On October 04 2013 23:18 hooahah wrote: Putin nominated for a Noble Peace Prize...what a joke
The peace prize became a joke when Obama got it.
Let's not forget about such champions of peace and human rights as Anwar al-Saddat, Henry Kissinger or Yasser Arafat. Apparently if you ever signed a peace accord that's good enough for a peace prize whether you're a dictator, a terrorist or a war criminal.
LONDON — A Syrian government official said on Thursday that long-postponed peace talks under international auspices — known in diplomatic shorthand as Geneva II — could be held in late November, raising speculation about who would attend and who would represent the fractured Syrian opposition, which is seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
The official, Qadri Jamil, a deputy prime minister, said in Moscow that the discussions could be held in Geneva on Nov. 23, according to SANA, the official Syrian news agency. Some reports from Moscow quoted him as saying the talks could extend into Nov. 24. His remarks were the first to publicly mention a specific date.
Very precise strike though the Syrian Air Force supposedly lacks guided munitions. I wonder if there was an intelligence leak somewhere along the lines.
man these rebels go through so much ammo without once looking where they are shooting, spray and pray, spray and pray except for the darwin winner there with the light machine gun who is physically picking it up to shoot and raising his profile instead of letting it rest on the ground. . no wonder in a straight up fight Western troops just shred terrorists.
They are mostly teenagers fighting a well trained and well equipped enemy that appears to be fortified on a hill above them. Its real easy to run that mouth while you sit in your safe computer room. I'd like to see you stick your head out.
On October 29 2013 12:20 heliusx wrote: They are mostly teenagers fighting a well trained and well equipped enemy that appears to be fortified on a hill above them. Its real easy to run that mouth while you sit in your safe computer room. I'd like to see you stick your head out.
Nothing wrong with his statement, these rebels are inefficient whether Sub40APM is sitting in the safety of his room or not
On October 29 2013 11:57 Sub40APM wrote: man these rebels go through so much ammo without once looking where they are shooting, spray and pray, spray and pray except for the darwin winner there with the light machine gun who is physically picking it up to shoot and raising his profile instead of letting it rest on the ground. . no wonder in a straight up fight Western troops just shred terrorists.
Yep, one may wonder why they don't use at least small mirrors sticky-taped to their guns to aim properly. It would be such a cheap and easy fix...
Israeli planes strike Syrian military base, U.S. official says
(CNN) -- Israeli warplanes struck a military base near the Syrian port city of Latakia this week, an Obama administration official told CNN on Thursday.
An explosion at a missile storage site in the area was reported in the Middle Eastern press, but an attack has not been confirmed by the Israeli government.
The target, according to the Obama administration official, was missiles and related equipment the Israelis felt might be transferred to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. The official declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information.
There was some confusion about the timing of the attack, with some reports saying it happened Wednesday, and others saying Thursday.
When asked for comment, an Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman told CNN: "We don't refer to foreign reports." Israel has been accused several other times this year of launching airstrikes inside Syria, including once in January. In the January incident, a U.S. official said Israeli fighter jets bombed a Syrian convoy suspected of moving weapons to Hezbollah. Syrian rebels warn against talks with regime Israel's military did not comment on any of the allegations at the time, but has long said it would target any transfer of weapons to Hezbollah or other groups designated as terrorists, as well as any effort to smuggle Syrian weapons into Lebanon that could threaten Israel.
Thursday's reports of a blast come amid a Syrian civil war in which Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim militant group, has been helping Syrian government forces. Syria's government is led by Bashar al-Assad, a member of the Shiite offshoot Alawite sect; the rebels and other militants fighting al-Assad's forces and Hezbollah are largely made up of Sunni Muslims. The Syrian conflict began in March 2011 after government forces cracked down on peaceful protesters during the Arab Spring movement and is now a full-blown civil war. The United Nations estimates that more than 100,000 people have died in the conflict.
International inspectors are trying to ensure that Syria eliminates its chemical weapons stockpile by the middle of next year. Syria agreed to the program under international pressure earlier this year. One of the monitoring groups, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said Thursday that Syria has destroyed all its declared chemical weapons mixing, filling and production facilities, and all of the chemical weapons at 21 inspected sites have been placed under seal. The watchdog body's announcement of the facilities' destruction meant that Syria met a key deadline in the elimination program.
(Reuters) - Syria's armed forces said on Friday they had captured a strategic northern town at the eastern gates of Aleppo, the former commercial hub long the scene of fierce fighting between government and rebel fighters.
The town of Safira lies on a road the army said would be used to send in medicine and supplies to government-controlled areas of Aleppo, mired in a bloody stalemate for over a year. It is also the site of a chemical weapons installation under government control and cleared of equipment.
The capture of Safira is significant in that it marks a rare victory for Assad's forces near the mostly rebel-held north. Opposition groups confirmed the army's seizure of the city, southeast of Aleppo.
"Our heroic armed forces gained full control over the town of Safira after a series of strategic operations... The importance of this new success for our armed forces is due to its strategic importance at the eastern gates of Aleppo," a spokesman for the Syrian army said in a televised statement.
The conflict in Syria, now more than 2-1/2-years old, has long been in stalemate but Assad's forces have been making slow advances in the center of the country and near the capital since they captured a strategic border town near Lebanon with the help of the Lebanese Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the government had seized the town on Friday morning after more than three weeks of fighting.
The main Western-backed Syrian opposition group says it intends to join peace talks with the Syrian government, if conditions are met.
After a vote early Monday in Istanbul, the Syrian National Coalition agreed to attend a proposed peace conference with President Bashar Assad's government. The U.S. and Russia are trying to convene the talks in Geneva by the end of this year.
But according to a coalition statement, the group says representatives would attend only if the Syrian government allowed the creation of humanitarian corridors to reach besieged areas and if it released detainees, especially woman and children.
Excerpts of the statement were released by the office of Monzer Azbik, chief of staff to coalition chief Ahmad al-Jarba. The opposition group's vote to attend the Geneva talks came on the second day of ongoing meetings in Istanbul.
The coalition statement made clear that the decision did not remove its demand that Assad step down in any transitional government.
"Bashar Assad will have no role in the transitional period and the future of Syria," it said.
The coalition is also expected during its ongoing meetings to approve a list of cabinet of ministers presented by interim prime minister, Ahmad Toumeh, who was elected in September.
The statement on the Geneva talks followed a deal Sunday to ease a blockade on a rebel-held town near the Syrian capital, allowing food to reach civilians there for the first time in weeks, activists said.
EPT
