June 2012
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Syrian rebels in Turkey doubtful over new Arab...
Jonathon Birch Reuters
ANTAKYA, Turkey (Reuters) - Syrian rebels resting and recovering from wounds in Turkey say that far from receiving a host of heavy weapons to take the fight to government forces, they feel forgotten by their Western and Arab backers.
Some rebels and opposition figures inside and outside Syria say there has been an upsurge in recent weeks of heavier weaponry being smuggled...
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Why the West misreads Putin on #Syria
By Michael Weiss
It’s impossible to understand Vladimir Putin by thinking like a Western politician
The Western psyche finds it difficult, if not quite impossible, to understand how Eastern tyrannies think. During the Cold War, this handicap was known as “mirror-imaging”: trying to guess what the Soviets would do by imagining what we would do in the same circumstances....
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#Syria military on the verge of ‘disintegration’
ANKARA
Military mobilization in Aleppo can be a ‘red line’ for Turkey, says Clinton. AP Photo
Turkey believes that the recent wave of bloody attacks on civilians by Syrian forces is a clear indication of the disintegration of the military and a loss of control, expressing its concerns that a massing of the Syrian military near Aleppo could result in massive migration toward the Turkish...
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Analysis - #Syria firestorm proving too fierce for...
By Matthew Tostevin
JOHANNESBURG | Wed Jun 13, 2012 4:54pm BST
(Reuters) - Scarred by his failure to stop Rwanda’s genocide nearly two decades ago, Kofi Annan faces another bloody debacle on his watch as his mediation efforts founder in Syria.
Steeped in a culture of seeking consensus even when it looks unlikely, the soft-spoken former U.N. secretary-general is again at the point...
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Is #Syria in a civil war?
(CNN) — The U.N. peacekeeping chief says Syria is now in a civil war.
Some experts agree with U.N. official Herve Ladsous that the war-torn country has reached that chilling milestone. Others say the country is hurtling in that direction. The conflict began in March 2011 when a fierce Syrian government crackdown on peaceful protesters morphed into a bloody government uprising.
Stephen...
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Aid workers hurt in #Syria explosion
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has revealed three aid workers suffered minor injuries in Syria when an explosion hit their convoy.
The group said the two Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers and one ICRC staff member were travelling with other aid workers from Aleppo to Idlib when the blast hit their marked vehicles.
A spokesman for the ICRC in Geneva said the aid workers...
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Hostages exchanged at Lebanon - #Syria border
Violent tensions in northern Lebanon have been running high between supporters and opponents of the regime in Syria. (Reuters)
Gunmen freed six Syrians and a Lebanese on Tuesday, following the release of another Lebanese man kidnapped in the same region, a security official told AFP.
The day before, a Lebanese captured by the same gunmen was released in a conciliatory gesture to start the...
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US accuses Russia of sending attack helicopters to...
The United States is worried Russia may be sending Syria attack helicopters and views Russian claims that its arms transfers to Syria are unrelated to the conflict there as “patently untrue,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on today.
The comments came as the Pentagon found itself on the defensive for doing business with Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, given...
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#Syria crowd blocks UN vehicles
Angry crowds have blocked UN observers from reaching an embattled rebel-held town in Syria, hurling stones and metal rods at the monitors’ vehicles.
Their vehicles came under fire as they drove away from Haffa, but the source of the gunfire was not clear, the UN said. None of the observers was injured.
Meanwhile, Syrian forces pounded the eastern city of Deir el-Zour with mortars as...
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Syrian rebels’ arsenal includes remote-controlled...
By Austin Tice | McClatchy Newspapers
KAFER ZAITA, Syria — Late in the afternoon on the second day of the intense fighting that raged in Kafer Zaita for much of last week, a massive explosion rocked the small northern town. “Abdullah,” who commands a small unit of rebel fighters, smiled. “I was waiting for that,” he said. “We just sent them a little gift.”
“They” were the army forces who for...
