Iraq & Syrian Civil Wars - Page 179

The number of Syrian refugees registered in Lebanon has exceeded one million, in what the UN refugee agency calls a "devastating milestone" for a small country with depleted resources and brewing sectarian tension.

Refugees from Syria, half of them children, now equal a quarter of Lebanon's resident population, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement, warning that most of them live in poverty and depend on aid for survival.

UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres described the figure as "a devastating milestone worsened by rapidly depleting resources and a host community stretched to breaking point".

"Tiny Lebanon has now become the country with "the highest per capita concentration of refugees worldwide," and is "struggling to keep pace", Guterres said in a statement.

"The influx of a million refugees would be massive in any country. For Lebanon, a small nation beset by internal difficulties, the impact is staggering," he said.

(Reuters) - Islamist rebels in Syria have retaken a town from President Bashar al-Assad's forces, activists said on Friday, in part of an offensive along a stretch of the main highway linking Damascus to the northern city of Aleppo.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels killed 18 soldiers and disabled two tanks in the fight for the northern town of Babolin.

The rebel assault coincided with a two-week-old offensive further west in the coastal province of Latakia, a heartland of Assad's minority Alawite sect, where fighters seeking to overthrow him have seized a border crossing and several villages.

Assad's army, backed by local militia and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, has made steady gains around Damascus and in the Lebanese border areas, but his forces remain stretched and rebels have sought to seize the initiative elsewhere.

NEWS DESK-Fighters with the Women’s Defense Units (YPJ) have killed 35 members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) in clashes in two villages near Kobanê.

According to a statement from the YPG Press Center the clashes took place in the villages of Beyada and Zormexar. ISIS forces attacked both villages at 22:30 local time yesterday evening (Thursday, April 3rd), where they encountered resistance from fighters with the YPJ. In the clashes that followed at least 35 ISIS members were killed – including two Saudis and one Tunisian – while many more were wounded. A large numbers of the bodies have been recovered by the YPJ.

The YPJ also recovered a Kalashnikov, a pistol, 37 Kalashnikov clips and 12 cartridge belts.

The ISIS – with from Turkey and the Gulf monarchies – have been attacking areas under control of the Kobanê Canton since the beginning of March, while avoiding any engagement with regime forces. The attacks are being launched on three different fronts from the East, West and South. According to both the YPG and the Rojava government the goal of the attacks is to occupy the Kobanê region.

On April 06 2014 12:39 zlefin wrote:
This war has gone on too long; it needs to be ended I think.
Are there any prospects for a partial peace settlement?

Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons in Damascus two weeks ago, a senior Israeli defense official said Monday.

The opposition in Syria reported two incidents in which the Assad regime used chemical weapons – both in Damascus and both two weeks ago.

The Israeli security establishment has strong evidence pointing to the use of chemical materials in the Harasta neighborhood of eastern Damascus on March 27. The material is thought to be a neutralizing chemical that wounds people for several hours but is not fatal.

During a press conference Monday on the disarmament of Syrian chemical weapons, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said that the Syrian regime has destroyed all its chemical manufacturing lines, and apparently most of its ammunition designated for activating chemical weapons. Ya'alon explained that 60 percent of Syria's chemical materials have already been removed as part of the agreement with the West.

Green light from al-#Zawahiri to launch a full war against #ISIS. al-#Jawlani orders his fighters to kill any #ISIS member they capture.