Syrian Freedom - الحرية السورية

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, Associated Press – 17 minutes ago  BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops crushed pockets of rebel soldiers Tuesday on the outskirts of Damascus and the U.N. Security Council took up a draft resolution demanding that President Bashar Assad halt the violence and yield power.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the Security Council that action to end the violence in Syria would be different from U.N. efforts to pacify Libya.

“I know that some members here may be concerned that the Security Council is headed toward another Libya,” she said. “That is a false analogy.”

“It is time for the international community to put aside our own differences and send a clear message of support to the people of Syria,” Clinton said.

Russia, one of Assad’s strongest backers, has signaled it would veto any U.N. action against Damascus, fearing it could open the door to eventual international military involvement, the way an Arab-backed U.N. resolution led to NATO airstrikes in Libya.

However, the Arab League emphasized that international military action was not being sought.

“We are attempting to avoid any foreign intervention, particularly military intervention” in Syria, Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said. “We have always stressed full respect of the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian people.”

Russia has stood by Assad as he tries to crush an uprising that began nearly 11 months ago. In October, Moscow vetoed the first Security Council attempt to condemn Syria’s crackdown and has shown little sign of budging in its opposition.

Moscow’s stance is motivated in part by its strategic and defense ties, including weapons sales, with Syria. Russia also rejects what it sees as a a world order dominated by the U.S.

The diplomatic showdown came as Syrian government forces took back control of the eastern suburbs of the capital, Damascus, after rebel soldiers briefly captured the area in a startling advance last week.

The fact that rebels made it to the doorstep of Damascus, the seat of Assad’s power, was a dangerous development for the regime. The military launched a swift offensive Monday and on Tuesday crushed the remaining resistance in Zamalka and Arbeen.

But the suburbs were not entirely quiet. On a government-sponsored media trip, Syrian journalists heard at least seven explosions Tuesday from the eastern suburb of Rankous. It was not clear what caused the blasts.

Violence also was reported in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs in central Syria, a hotbed of opposition to the regime. Activist Mohammed Saleh said he heard hours of shelling and machine-gun fire, and thick black smoke was rising in the distance.

The smoke was believed to be from a pipeline that was struck, but details were not clear. Activists said regime forces’ fire hit the pipeline, but that could not be confirmed.

The U.N. estimated several weeks ago that more than 5,400 people have been killed in the Syrian government crackdown, but has not been able to update the figure. The death toll from Monday’s offensive was around 100 people, making it among the bloodiest days since the uprising began in March, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group.

Activists said Tuesday’s death toll was at least seven, although the LCC put the figure at up to 28. Syria prevents independent reporting, making it difficult to confirm events on the ground.

The bloodshed in Syria has increased in recent days as Western and Arab countries stepped up pressure on Russia over Security Council action.

The draft resolution demands that Assad halt the crackdown and implement an Arab peace plan that calls for him to hand over power to his vice president and allow creation of a unity government to clear the way for elections.

If Assad fails to comply within 15 days, the council would consider “further measures,” a reference to a possible move to impose economic or other sanctions.

A French official said the draft U.N. resolution has a “comfortable majority” of support from 10 of the Security Council’s 15 members, meaning Russia or China would have to use their veto power to stop it.

Russia had agreed to negotiate on the draft, said the official spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with department rules.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who was planning to attend the Security Council meeting, ruled out foreign military action.

“Things are very different from what happened in Libya,” he told French radio Europe-1 shortly before flying to New York on Tuesday. “For example, in Syria you have communities that are divided and any exterior intervention could lead to a civil war.”

The Syrian uprising, which began with mostly peaceful protests, has become increasingly violent in recent months as army defectors clash with government forces and some protesters take up arms to protect themselves.

The violence has inflamed the sectarian divide in the country, where members of Assad’s Alawite sect dominate the regime despite a Sunni Muslim majority.

Assad’s regime has warned that the turmoil will throw Syria into chaos, religious extremism and sectarian divisions, a message that resonates among Alawites and minority Christians who fear reprisals from the Sunni majority.

On Tuesday, Syrian reporters were taken north of Damascus to see the Sednaya Convent, believed to have been build in A.D. 547. The site was damaged by artillery fire Sunday, in an attack the government blamed on “armed terrorists.” No casualties were reported.

“Providence has salvaged this holy site,” said Sister Verona, the head of the Sednaya Convent.

Also Tuesday, army defectors gained full control of the central town of Rastan after days of intense clashes, according to a town activist who identified himself as Hassan. He refused to give his full name, fearing reprisal.

The town was taken by defectors twice in the past only to be retaken by Syrian troops. Rastan is the hometown of former Defense Minister Mustapha Tlass, who held the post for more than three decades, mostly under Assad’s father and predecessor, the late Hafez Assad.

AP writers Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow and Dale Gavlak in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/30/146093298/syrias-uprising-escalates-world-mulls-options

31/01/12 

A Free Syrian Army soldier walks through a crowd in Rastan. (AFP/YouTube)

The embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad no longer controls half of the country’s territory as it battles to crush a 10-month popular revolt, the head of the rebel army said on Tuesday.

“Fifty percent of Syrian territory is no longer under the control of the regime,” Colonel Riyadh al-Asaad, head of the Free Syrian Army, told AFP.

He added, however, that this did not mean rebel troops were in control of this territory.

Asaad, who is based in Turkey, said the FSA, emboldened by its growing ranks, was increasingly conducting guerrilla operations against regular army positions before withdrawing to safe positions.

“The operations carried out by the FSA amount to guerrilla operations that consist of carrying out quick attacks against regime forces and then making a tactical withdrawal to safe areas,” Asaad added.

He said the FSA, made up of army defectors and sympathizers, was now launching daily strikes against regime checkpoints and was managing to destroy military vehicles before retreating.

Asaad said the army for its part had launched a fierce assault in the last week in a bid to reclaim control of suburbs near the capital Damascus, as well as the central flashpoint city of Homs and the northwestern town of Edleb.

“The army believes… that if it manages to crush the revolt in those areas then this will put an end to the revolt nationwide,” Asaad said, adding that his troops were more determined than ever to continue the fight.

“The people and the FSA will continue to resist, the revolt will continue and the regime will collapse.”

He added that the morale of army troops was extremely low.

“That’s why they are bombing indiscriminately, killing men, women and children,” he said.

The regime’s crackdown against the revolt that erupted mid-March has left more than 5,400 people dead, according to the United Nations.

-AFP/NOW Lebanon

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gül (R) talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before their news conference in Istanbul in May 2010. (Photo: Reuters) 31 January 2012 / TODAYSZAMAN.COM, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has ignored repeated pleas from Turkey to reform, the Turkish president said, lamenting that Syria is now on a path of no return. “Some think that we want war in Syria. Turkey has done everything in its power for a transformation under the leadership of the president. We did everything except beg for it,” Gül told reporters in remarks published in Turkish newspapers on Tuesday. “We worked so hard [to convince Assad]. We told him that one day you will regret it, one day you will say, ‘I did this and that, but it will be too little, too late,” said Gül.

“We regret this, but Syria is unfortunately on a path of no return. The important thing is that this process is not dragged out. There is no [good] end for this. The end is certain. The question is how painful it will be,” the president also said.

The president said authoritarian rulers in the Middle East have two options, which he said are either carry out reforms or face foreign intervention. “If they do not do that and do not bring order to their lands, foreign intervention will be inevitable,” he said.

The president was also asked about the comments that the region has been dominated by Iran during the interview. He played down an alleged Turkey-Iran rivalry in the Middle East. “Of course, the region has some realities. … Iran’s hinterland is so broad. Ignoring this means lack of historical knowledge. … Just like we have [historical] ties [to some countries] in the region, Iran also has similar ties,” he said.

‘Freedom of the press requires careful protection’

Commenting on domestic issues, President Gül said freedom of the press is an asset of democracy that should be protected most meticulously while warning that failure to protect this freedom will undermine Turkey’s achievements in other fields.

“This [freedom of thought, freedom of the press and human rights] is the area that Turkey should protect most meticulously. If this area is sullied, no matter what you do in other fields, they [those accomplishments] will be of no value. We, the whole of Turkey, should pay close attention to this,” Gül told reporters.

The president’s remarks came in response to a question about journalists Nedim Şener and Ahmet Şık, who are in jail in connection with a case against Odatv and face charges over membership in Ergenekon, a shadowy crime network that has alleged links to the state and is suspected to plotting to topple the government. An İstanbul court decided last week to keep Şener and Şık in jail despite expectations about their release.

Gül indicated although he is not fully aware of the details of the case against Şık and Şener, his general position about freedom of the press is obvious as he has voiced his views on the trial of these journalists since the very beginning.

The president was referring to remarks published by the Milliyet daily before the beginning of the trial of Şık and Şener last year. Back then, Gül said: “When I follow the developments, I get the impression there are some developments that disturb the public’s sense of justice. I expect the judges and prosecutors to behave more responsibly in fulfilling their responsibilities and not to damage the honor and rights of the people.”

Gül was also asked about an investigation into the killing of 34 civilians in Turkey’s Southeast by a Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) airstrike in December.

Turkish warplanes mistakenly killed 34 smugglers in an operation that targeted outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists in Iraq in late December. The government later acknowledged that the victims were smugglers, not terrorists. The military issued a statement saying the warplanes had targeted the group based on intelligence that suggested a group of armed terrorists would be heading towards the Turkish border to stage attacks on the military.

“There are already four to five ongoing investigations into Uludere. There is ongoing, meticulous work. Many nongovernmental organizations, political parties and the Turkish Parliament’s Human Rights Investigation Commission all follow the developments — they come together [to discuss developments in the Uludere investigations]. I have of course received information from the chief of General Staff regarding the Uludere incident. We talked about the issue at length,” said Gül.

The president also commented on the French Senate’s vote on a controversial bill last week to make it a crime to deny the 1915 killings of Armenians was genocide and said France lost prestige with this move.

“This incident [the bill being passed] has echoed strongly in France and throughout the entire world. If you ask why this is so. It is because people may think differently on an issue. They may think in a way that is unacceptable — unthinkable — for us. We may think differently from them. The important thing is not to ban thought. Now, France has banned thought. It has banned thoughts that conflict with the official view of the state. In a way unexpected by the French, France has lost prestige,” explained Gül.

MONDAY, JANUARY 30,2012

 

The Free Syrian Army issued a video statement yesterday claiming control of Rastan, a city of 60,000 residents just north of Homs.

The statement, read by First Lieutenant Ibrahim Ayyoub , said that the Hamza Battalion, Khaled Brigade routed regime forces from several neighborhoods in the western side of Rastan and vowed to continue fighting until the remaining neighborhoods are liberated.

Al-Ayyam spoke with Major Ali Ayyoub of the battalion who confirmed their control over the western half of the city. “The Assad army is on the defensive now. They are stranded in a few pockets. They only move forward after they receive reinforcements and the Free Syrian Army is always there to intercept their movements.”

The Hamza Battalion claims it has destroyed four army posts, two tanks, and several other armored vehicles. Activists posted a video of a destroyed tank that corroborates at least part of the FSA’s claims. In the same video severe damage can be seen on the surrounding buildings. Still residents seemed buoyed by the successes of the FSA. They posted video of a protest held “under the protection of the Free Syrian Army.”

Activists in Rastan reported that the loyalist Syrian Arab Army shelled residential buildings killing five civilians and causing considerable damage. Power and communications in the city have been down since clashes began but food and medical supplies are still available despite attempts by regime forces to disrupt deliveries.

Maj. Ayyoub said that the international organizations need to add pressure on the regime to allow free flow of aid to affected cities. “I call on the UN,” he said, “I call on all international organizations to do everything they can to help us bring food and medical help to those who need it.”

Maj. Ayyoub refused to disclose how many FSA soldiers were participating in the defense of the city, citing security reasons, but puts the number in the hundreds. He said other battalions belonging to the Khaled Brigade are active in Rastan. He said the Syrian Arab Army has 3000 to 4000 soldiers around the city but he was optimistic, “we have not lost anyone in the past two days and we thank God for that.”

 By HARVEY MORRIS | January 31, 2012, 6:25 AM

ReutersSyrian protestors near Idlib on Friday displayed a caricature of Vladimir Putin attempting to revive Bashar al-Assad with a U.N. veto.

LONDON – Two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia is regaining a reputation in international diplomacy as the country that likes to say nyet.

Half a dozen senior Western and Arab ministers headed for New York on Tuesday to try to persuade the Russians to drop their opposition to a proposed United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Syria for a 10-month crackdown on protests that has cost 5,000 lives, according to U.N. estimates.

Moscow’s response looked like a foregone conclusion. Vitaly I. Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the U.N., insisted before the weekend (in the video clip below) that a draft resolution based on an Arab League plan for Syria was unacceptable. That was tantamount to threatening a veto that would kill the initiative if it went before the Council in its present form.

A clause in the U.N. draft that calls for a transfer of power in Damascus has emerged as a red line that Moscow is not prepared to cross.

As Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State, and other senior officials prepared to address the U.N. on Tuesday, Western diplomats in New York expressed frustration at the Russian stance. “It’s a cowardly and spiteful approach,” said a European envoy.

It is an approach that begs the question why Moscow is prepared to face the ignominy of appearing to support a regime that has attracted near-universal condemnation and that might, in any case, be on its last legs.

There are three central factors in play:

• Vladimir Putin, Russian prime minister, has made an increasingly assertive foreign policy part of his platform for elections in little over a month’s time that would return him to the presidency.
• Russia has close strategic and defense ties, including arms transfers, with Syria, a traditional regional ally.
• Moscow is seeking to obstruct what it perceives as a U.S.-directed world order in which Washington and its allies are seen as entrenching themselves in regions of vital strategic interest to Russia.

Mr. Putin lashed out at U.S. foreign policy, and attempts to “shunt” Russia aside, during a broadcast in December. “America doesn’t need allies, it needs vassals,” he asserted.

He almost certainly had Libya in mind. Russia reluctantly let through a U.N. resolution last March that imposed a no-fly zone over that country. Then, Western countries broadly interpreted the resolution in order to justify military strikes on the regime of Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi and to emerge as Libya’s liberators.

Moscow had defense ties with the Qaddafi regime, but in Syria the stakes are much higher. Western officials expressed outrage this month at reports that Moscow had signed a $550 million deal with Damascus for the supply of trainer aircraft.

Coming at the height of unrest in Syria, it was the latest in billions of dollars of defense contracts secured by Russian suppliers in a country where Russia maintains a naval base.

“This position is cynical but there are no idealists in the Middle East,” wrote Fyodor Lukyanov, Russian editor of Global Affairs Journal. “Everyone pursues their own interests, which are entirely different from what they declare.”

But the Russian interest goes well beyond the commercial. Moscow finds itself on the defensive in a frequently disorderly new world order in which Washington appears to call the shots.

Alexei Bogaturov, a senior member of the Russian foreign ministry’s Moscow State Institute of International Relations, recently lamented that a consequence of the breakup of the Soviet Union was that a check no longer existed on the foreign policy ambitions of the prevailing superpower.

Describing U.S. strategy as “coercion to partnership”, he wrote: “In the present international environment a country that the United States has for some reason found attractive as a ‘subordinate partner’ has little chance to avoid becoming one without risking its sovereignty and security.”

Moscow may be fighting a doomed rear-guard action against perceived U.S. hegemony. But Russia has a significant role as a spoiler. Together with China, and with the support of occasional allies such as South Africa and Brazil, it has succeeded in watering down U.N. action in a number of world crises.

Russian opposition to further sanctions against Iran, for example, forced the U.S. and Europe to go it alone.

On Syria, Moscow risks alienating traditional friends in the Arab world but that is trumped by its long-standing position that the U.N. should not interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states.

However, its own initiative on resolving the Syrian crisis seems to be foundering. Damascus has accepted a Russian invitation to attend peace talks in Moscow with the Syrian dissidents but the opposition Syrian National Council has said it will not attend.

Syria’s opposition called for a “day of mourning and anger” on Tuesday after almost 100 people, most of them civilians, reportedly died in spiralling violence ahead of a UN Security Council showdown

Image Credit: AFP A handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on January 29, 2012 shows a burnt bus at the scene of a blast blamed by the Syrian authorities on a “terrorist group” near a military barracks in Sahnaya on the outskirts of Damascus, in which six members of the security forces were killed, according to the agency. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in statements received in Nicosia, Cyprus on January 30 that rebel Syrian soldiers had “attacked a minibus carrying six security officers on their way to make arrests in Hirak, killing all of the passengers.”

Damascus: Syria’s opposition called for a “day of mourning and anger” on Tuesday after almost 100 people, most of them civilians, reportedly died in spiralling violence ahead of a UN Security Council showdown.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was leading a Western charge pressing Russia to back UN Security Council action to stop a crackdown on dissent the United Nations says has killed more than 5,400 people in the past 10 months.

“ 

It is time for all the members of UN Security Council to live up to their responsibilities instead of shielding those who have blood on their hands

 

”

British Prime Minister David Cameron

But Russia, which has veto power in the council, has objected to a resolution introduced by Morocco under which Syrian President Bashar Al Assad would accept a ceasefire and hand over power to a deputy ahead of talks.

Lack of swift action deplored

In a statement on its Facebook page, the opposition Syrian National Council deplored the international community’s lack of “swift action” to protect civilians “by all necessary means.”

On Monday, “the regime waged a bloody campaign of massacres and terrorism that killed 100 Syrians including women and children… in Homs, using tanks and heavy weapons to bomb neighbourhoods,” it said, referring to the central city.

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It called, in coordination with activists, for a “day of mourning and anger in the country to commemorate the victims of savage massacres,” urging mosques and churches to support the cause with prayer calls and ringing bells

The SNC, the most representative group opposed to Al Assad, reaffirmed the “people’s determination to fight for their freedom and dignity,” stressing they “will not give up their revolution, whatever the sacrifices.”

“The regime is taking advantage of the cover provided to it by some regional and international parties to escalate its crackdown,” it added, in a likely reference to Iran and Russia.

Monday’s upsurge in violence

An upsurge in violence on Monday, mostly in the flashpoint of Homs, killed almost 100 people, including 55 civilians, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The unrest, which also saw 25 soldiers killed, marked one of the bloodiest days of a revolt that erupted in March inspired by a wave of Arab uprisings that last year overthrew authoritarian leaders in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.

Amid the escalating violence which prompted the Arab League to suspend its observer mission to Syria, Clinton, the head of the League and the British and French foreign ministers headed to New York to push forward a UN resolution.

“The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the escalation of the Syrian regime’s violent and brutal attacks on its own people,” Clinton said in a statement announcing her trip to the UN.

“The Security Council must act and make clear to the Syrian regime that the world community views its actions as a threat to peace and security. The violence must end, so that a new period of democratic transition can begin.”

European Union leaders at a Brussels summit unanimously voiced outrage over the bloodshed in Syria. EU President Herman Van Rompuy called on the Security Council to “take long overdue steps to bring an end to the repression”.

Appalling

British Prime Minister David Cameron, citing reports that more than 400 children have been killed in the crackdown, said: “It’s frankly an appalling situation.”

“It’s time for all the members of the UN Security Council to live up to their responsibilities instead of shielding those with blood on their hands,” Cameron said.

yria’s foreign ministry fired back, saying “the aggressive American and Western statements against Syria are escalating in a scandalous manner,” and again blaming the recent violence on “armed terrorist groups”.

‘Pockets of resistence crushed’

Earlier Tuesday activists said Syrian troops were crushing pockets of resistance on Damascus’ outskirts as they advance into suburbs previously held by rebel forces.

Tuesday’s offensive comes hours before key UN talks over a draft resolution demanding President Bashar Al Assad step aside.

Government forces on Monday regained control of most of the capital’s eastern suburbs after dissident soldiers briefly captured the territory last week.

Intense shooting

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says “intense shooting” was heard in Zamalka and Arbeen as the tanks and troops advanced.

Meanwhile, army defectors gained full control of the central town of Rastan on Tuesday after days of intense clashes, according to a town activist who identified himself as Hassan.

He refused to give his full name, fearing reprisals.

UN draft resolution

Beirut: Syrian forces pushed dissident troops back from the edge of Damascus in heavy fighting Monday, escalating efforts to take back control of the capital’s eastern doorstep ahead of key U.N. talks over a draft resolution demanding that President Bashar Al Assad step aside.

Gunfire and the boom of shelling rang out in several suburbs on Damascus’ outskirts that have come under the domination of anti-regime fighters.

Gunmen - apparently army defectors - were shown firing back in amateur videos posted online by activists. In one video, a government tank on the snow-dusted mountain plateau towering over the capital fired at one of the suburbs below.

As the bloodshed increased, with activists reporting more than 40 civilians killed Monday, Western and Arab countries stepped up pressure on Assad’s ally Russia to overcome its opposition to the resolution.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the British and French foreign ministers were heading to New York to push for backing of the measure during talks Tuesday at the United Nations.

‘Status quo unsustainable’

“The status quo is unsustainable,” Clinton said, saying the Al Assad regime was preventing a peaceful transition and warning that the resulting instability could “spill over throughout the region”.

The draft resolution demands that Assad halt the crackdown and implement an Arab peace plan that calls for him to hand over power to his vice president and allow creation of a unity government to pave the way for elections.

If Al Assad fails to comply within 15 days, the council would consider “further measures,” a reference to a possible move to impose economic or other sanctions. British Prime Minister David Cameron called the situation in Syria “appalling” and appealed Monday to Russia to back the UN Security Council resolution.

“It is time for all the members of UN Security Council to live up to their responsibilities instead of shielding those who have blood on their hands,” Cameron said. Moscow, which in October vetoed the first council attempt to condemn Syria’s crackdown, has shown little sign of budging in its opposition.

Military intervention

It warns that the new measure could open the door to eventual military intervention, the way an Arab-backed UN resolution led to Nato airstrikes in Libya.

A French official said the draft UN resolution has a “comfortable majority” of support from 10 of the Security Council’s 15 members, meaning Russia or China would have to use its veto power to stop it.

The official said Russia had agreed to negotiate on the draft, but it was not yet clear if it would be willing to back it if changes were made. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with department rules.

The Kremlin said Monday it was trying to put together negotiations in Moscow between Damascus and the opposition. It said Al Assad’s government has agreed to participate” the opposition has in the past rejected any negotiations unless violence stops.

Western countries cited the past week’s escalation in fighting to pressure Moscow.

Russia

“Russia can no longer explain blocking the UN and providing cover for the regime’s brutal repression,” a spokeswoman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said, on customary condition of anonymity in line with policy.

The United Nations estimated several weeks ago that more than 5,400 people have been killed in Syria’s crackdown on the uprising against Al Assad’s rule, which began in March. It has been unable to update the figure, and more than 200 people have been killed in the past five days alone, according to activists’ reports.

Pro-Al Assad forces have fought for three days to take back a string of suburbs on the eastern approach to Damascus, mostly poorer, Sunni-majority communities.

In past weeks, army defectors - masked men in military attire wielding assault rifles - set up checkpoints in the communities, defending protesters and virtually seizing control.

Late Sunday, government troops retook two of the districts closest to Damascus, Ein Tarma and Kfar Batna, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the London-based head of the Syrian Human Rights Observatory, which tracks violence through contacts on the ground.

Damascus neighbourhoods pounded

On Monday, the regime forces were trying to retake the next suburbs out, pounding neighbourhoods with shelling and heavy machine guns in the districts of Saqba, Arbeen and Hamouriya, he said. At least five civilians were killed in the fighting near Damascus, according to the Observatory and another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees.

Regime forces also heavily shelled buildings and battled dissidents in the central city of Homs, one of the main hot spots of the uprising, activists said. The Observatory reported 28 killed in the city Monday. The Local Coordination Committees put the number at 27.

The reports could not be independently confirmed. Syrian authorities keep tight control on the media and have banned many foreign journalists from entering the country.

Atrocities

The Syrian Interior Ministry, in charge of security forces, said Monday that its three-day operation in the suburbs aimed to track down “terrorist groups” that have “committed atrocities” and vowed to continue until they were wiped out.

Damascus had remained relatively quiet while most other Syrian cities have slipped into chaos since the uprising began. Regime forces, backed by tanks and armored vehicles, heavily outgun and outnumber the defectors, organized into a force known as the Free Syrian Army.

However, the military can’t cover everywhere at once, and when it puts down the dissidents in one location, they arise in another.

The dissidents’ true numbers are unknown.

The result has been a dramatic militarisation of a crisis that began with peaceful protests demanding the ouster of the Al Assad family and its regime. The army defectors began by protecting protesters, but over the weeks they have gone more on the offensive. The dissidents have seemed increasingly confident in hit-and-run attacks. On Monday, they freed five imprisoned comrades in an assault on a military base in the northeastern province of Idlib, the Observatory and Local Coordination Committees reported.

Defectors

Other defectors attacked a large military checkpoint outside Hama, destroying several transport trucks and claiming to kill a number of troops, the two groups said. Six government soldiers were killed in an ambush on their vehicles in the southern region of Daraa, the state news agency SANA reported.

The Observatory reported two other soldiers and 10 defectors killed in fighting elsewhere. Attackers also blew up a gas pipeline near the border with Lebanon, SANA reported, the latest in numerous attacks on Syria’s oil and gas infrastructure. Because of the upsurge in violence, the Arab League halted a month-old observer mission, which had already come under heavy criticism for failing to stop the crackdown.

The League turned to the UN Security Council to throw its weight behind its peace plan, which Damascus has rejected. The move resembles the turn of events before last year’s Nato air campaign in Libya, when Western countries waited for Arab League support before winning UN cover for intervention. But so far, there has been little appetite for a similar campaign in Syria.

There is no clear-cut geographical divide between the regime and its opponents as there was in Libya, and the opposition is even more divided and unknown than it was in the North African nation.

Syria is intertwined in alliances with Iran, Hezbollah and Palestinian militant groups, and borders Israel - making the fallout from military action more unpredictable.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to urge the U.N. Security Council to support an Arab League peace plan for Syria, after Washington strongly condemned escalating violence by President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Clinton will join the foreign ministers of France and Britain at Tuesday’s Security Council session.  Western powers have been working on a draft resolution endorsing the Arab League plan, which calls for Assad to step aside as a way to resolve the crisis.

Syria has rejected the proposal as a violation of its sovereignty.

Clinton said in a statement Monday the Security Council “must act” by showing the international community views Syria’s crackdown on a 10-month opposition uprising as a threat to peace and security. 

She said the United States condemns what it calls “violent and brutal” Syrian government attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians in the past few days. 

British Prime Minister David Cameron urged Russia to back the draft resolution, saying it is time for Security Council members to stop “shielding those who have blood on their hands.”

Council members Russia and China vetoed a Western-backed resolution last October that would have condemned the Syrian government’s crackdown on the uprising.

But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Moscow “cannot support” the proposed resolution because it is biased against Mr. Assad’s government, a long-time Russian ally and buyer of Russian military supplies.

In an interview with Russia’s Interfax news agency, Gatilov also said the document “leaves open the possibility of intervention” in Syrian affairs, which Moscow has vowed to oppose. 

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the Moroccan-sponsored resolution backed by the West does not threaten sanctions or the use of force against the Syrian government, as some critics have alleged. A French diplomatic source told Western news agencies that at least 10 Council members support the draft. 

Russia also said Monday the Syrian government agreed to send a delegation to Moscow for proposed peace talks with the Syrian opposition.  But members of the opposition Syrian National Council quickly rejected the idea.  In a statement emailed to VOA, SNC member Ausama Monajed said the group “does not negotiate with terrorists.”

In fighting Monday, opposition activists said government troops re-took control of several Damascus suburbs and also clashed with rebels in the central province of Homs.  They said Monday’s violence across Syria killed at least 28 people, mostly civilians. 

The Syrian government accuses armed terrorists of driving the anti-Assad revolt and killing 2,000 security personnel. The United Nations estimated the death toll from the unrest at 5,400 earlier this month, before it stopped updating the figure because of difficulties in obtaining information

Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Burhan Ghalioun, head of the Syrian National Council said that everyone has only one chance left to save his country. (Reuters)

in

By AL ARABIYA WITH AGENCIES 
 

Damascus has slammed what it termed “aggressive” statements made by the United States and other Western nations ahead of a U.N. Security Council session on the spiraling violence in the country, as the Syrian opposition urged Russia stop covering for President Bashar al-Assad’s crimes.

“The aggressive American and Western statements against Syria are escalating in a scandalous manner,” said a foreign ministry statement distributed by the official SANA news agency.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday that Washington “condemns in the strongest possible terms the escalation of the Syrian regime’s violent and brutal attacks on its own people,” and demanded U.N. action as a government offensive was blamed for the deaths of dozens more civilians.

“The Security Council must act and make clear to the Syrian regime that the world community views its actions as a threat to peace and security,” she said, according to AFP.

And EU President Herman Van Rompuy said Europe was outraged “at the atrocities and repression committed by the Syrian regime.”

Citing figures of more than 5,000 killed and 400 children “murdered” in the repression, British Prime Minister David Cameron said: “It’s frankly an appalling situation.”

“Our message is clear, we will stand with the Syrian people,” he said. “And it’s time for all the members of the U.N. Security Council to live up to their responsibilities instead of shielding those with blood on their hands.”

“Today all 27 EU members backed that call for U.N. action in a move that was led by the UK,” he said. “It’s time for all the members of the Security Council to back that.”

Damascus described statements by the West as “ridiculous”, and insisted that recent events in the country should be blamed on “armed terrorist groups.”

The country “will continue to defend itself against terrorism and intends to foil this policy of sowing chaos adopted by the United States and the West,” the statement said.

Ghalioun urges Russia to stop backing Assad

Burhan Ghalioun, head of the Syrian National Council (SNC), said that everyone has only one chance left to save his country. He urged the Security Council members to vote in favor of a decision condemning the crimes of the Syrian regime, Al Arabiya reported.

Ghalioun said that Russia should not permit the Syrian regime to make use of its support at the Security Council in covering for its crimes against the Syrian people.

Russia has said it will use its veto against an Arab League-supported resolution calling for Syrian President Assad to accept a ceasefire and hand over power, which is due to come before the United Nations Tuesday.

Clinton is to join British Foreign Secretary William Hague and French counterpart Alain Juppe and the Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi at the Security Council session.

Washington hopes to convince Moscow not to stand in the way of the Arab League’s initiative calling for Assad to transfer power to help resolve a bloody, 10-month-old crisis in Syria, according to Reuters.

Russia has accused the United States and other NATO countries of distorting a March 2011 council resolution on Libya to launch a bombing campaign that helped rebels topple the government of Muammar Qaddafi last year.

U.S. diplomats are now trying to convince Moscow that the objective of the U.S.-backed measure on Syria is not to justify future military action to oust Assad but instead to show international solidarity with an Arab-led political solution to end his bloody crackdown on the opposition.

“We’re hoping that Russia will listen to those in the region,” the U.S. official told Reuters. “We’re trying to convince the Russians that investing in Assad is bad for them, and I think they’re coming around to that. Assad is falling.”

But the official also said that even as the United States focused on a diplomatic path, it had no intention of taking the military option off the table altogether.

Another senior U.S. official voiced doubt about a new Russian proposal for talks in Moscow to end the crisis. Russia said Assad’s government had agreed to the idea, but a major Syrian opposition body rejected any dialogue with him.

Street battles raise death toll

The diplomatic push came as street battles raged at the gates of Damascus, with Assad’s troops seeking to consolidate their grip on suburbs that rebel fighters had seized.

As many as 100 people have been killed by the fire of Syrian security forces across the country on Monday, including 56 in Homs, Al Arabiya reported citing activists at the Local Coordination Committees.

The White House said countries needed to accept that Assad’s rule was doomed and stop protecting him in the Security Council.

While insisting Assad was becoming “more and more desperate,” the first official acknowledged that the opposition remained militarily fragmented despite recent gains and was not ready to mount a Libya-style rebel campaign.

The new draft resolution, obtained by Al Arabiya, calls for a “political transition” in Syria. While it does not seek military action or U.N. sanctions against Syria, it says that the Security Council could “adopt further measures” if Damascus does not comply with the terms of the resolution.

Russia may feel that abstaining from a vote on the draft resolution, which would enable it to pass, would be tantamount to tacitly supporting the ouster of Assad, whose government is one of the Russian arms industry’s top customers.

Analysts say Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin — who is running again for president and bitterly criticized the council resolution authorizing the NATO campaign in Libya, which Russia let pass by abstaining — wants to look firm in the face of Western pressure.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-30/analyst-believes-syrian-leadership-in-death-throes/3800670?section=world

Posted By Josh Rogin Monday, January 30, 2012 - 5:15 PM 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will go the United Nations on Tuesday to press the Security Council to take action regarding Syria, in light of what the State Department is calling a “sharp escalation of regime violence.”

The Arab-European draft resolution was discussed on Jan. 27 behind closed doors at the U.N. Security Council and will see public debate on Tuesday. It calls on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power to his deputy and says additional measures will be taken if he doesn’t comply within 15 days. In anticipation of that debate, where Russia is expected to staunchly oppose any resolution calling for Assad’s departure, Clinton issued a new statement on the situation inside Syria that many saw as newly aggressive rhetoric from President Barack Obama’s administration.

“In the past few days we have seen intensified Syrian security operations all around the country which have killed hundreds of civilians. The government has shelled civilian areas with mortars and tank fire and brought down whole buildings on top of their occupants. The violence has escalated to the point that the Arab League has had to suspend its monitoring mission. The regime has failed to meet its commitments to the Arab League to halt its acts of violence, withdraw its military forces from residential areas, allow journalists and monitors to operate freely and release prisoners arrested because of the current unrest,” Clinton said in the statement.

“The Security Council must act and make clear to the Syrian regime that the world community views its actions as a threat to peace and security. The violence must end, so that a new period of democratic transition can begin,” she said. “Tomorrow, I will attend a United Nations Security Council meeting on Syria where the international community should send a clear message of support to the Syrian people: we stand with you. The Arab League is backing a resolution that calls on the international community to support its ongoing efforts, because the status quo is unsustainable. The longer the Assad regime continues its attacks on the Syrian people and stands in the way of a peaceful transition, the greater the concern that instability will escalate and spill over throughout the region.”

Clinton’s statement comes after weeks of careful planning inside the Obama administration on when and how to confront the escalating violence in Syria. National Security Council Senior Director Steve Simon had been leading a small interagency team to game out U.S. policy options, but now the administration’s policy machinery has kicked into full gear, meeting often to discuss a range of diplomatic maneuvers that could increase pressure on the Assad regime.

There’s no longer any expectation inside the administration that Moscow will support international action aimed at removing Assad from power, even by non-military means. But the U.N. confrontation is meant to isolate Russia diplomatically and make it clear that the Arab League and its Western friends have exhausted all diplomatic options before moving to directly aid the internal opposition, if that decision is ultimately made.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Monday that Clinton, Deputy SecretaryBill Burns, and Assistant Secretary Jeff Feltman have all been working the phones hard to build support for the U.N. resolution. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has been “unavailable” while traveling in Australia, even though Clinton has been trying to reach him all day.

“The message that we are sending, the message that the secretary will send tomorrow when she goes to New York, is that the Security Council now needs to act, because the spiral of violence is dangerous not only for Damascus, not only for Syria and all Syrians, but it’s also dangerous in the region, because obviously, you know, we’ve now got a cycle of violence that is quite worrying,” Nuland said.

“You think there is still a path out for the regime?” one reporter asked.

“Well, that’s obviously still on the table,” Nuland said. “It requires Assad to step aside. “