05/10/12

#Syria,  Assad tank destroyed in DEIR AL ZOUR

06/08/2012 #Syria: Mother from Deir Ezzor lost all her sons, one after another.

Bassem, Bassam and Fayez were all killed at once..

After 3 months, she lost their other brother Abood …

and after 10 days, she lost Faisal and Fawaz ..

It is to be noted that her eldest son was killed in Sidnaya Prison at the time of the late criminal Hafez Assad.

07/08/2012 Deir Ezzor, #Syria: Liberation of the Military Security Headquarters in Mayadeen in Deir Ezzor

29/07/2012 Deir al Zour, #Syria *EXTREMELY GRAPHIC!!* : Massacre in Deir al Zour @UN

Translation: 

Real massacre in Deir al Zour. Children and women. These are the body parts of the children and women. Deir al Zour 29th July 2012. These are the women’s body parts. She is no more than 19 yrs old. This is the other part of a woman. A full day we could not manage to enter the location. These are children under 10. Look at this, you are the Muslims. The arabs. God is great. God is greater than you Bashar. These are kids for god’s sake. I hope that will happen to your kids Bashar. This is Deir al Zour. I ask every muslim to speak their mind.

(14/07/2012) *Graphic Warning* Deir Ezzor, #Syria: Children killed by regime shelling.

Watch video here.

(08/07/2012) Deir Ezzor, #Syria: Martyrs Nasr Walid Al-Hiwan and Abdel Ghaffour Hammoud Al-Sheikh in Mayadeen

(08/07/2012) Deir Ezzor, #Syria: Child Martyr Mohammad Abdeljabar Al-Turki in Al-Ashara

Ban Ki-moon calls for an expanded observer mission, saying Damascus has failed to adhere to agreed peace plan.

Unverified video shows what appears to be protesters surrounding UN observer vehicles in Damascus on Wednesday

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has called for a UN observer mission in Syria to be expanded, even though he says Damascus has failed to adhere to a ceasefire central to an agreed peace plan.

In a report to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Ban called for 300 unarmed observers to be sent on a three-month mission, and also said it was “critical” for Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president, to carry out his commitments.

The council called for Ban to report back when it passed a resolution on Saturday which sent an advanced party of 30 unarmed military observers to Syria.

His report, obtained by the AFP news agency, said that even though Syrian troops have not withdrawn from cities and violence has escalated since the ceasefire began, “an opportunity for progress may now exist, on which we need to build”.

The 300 observers would deploy over several weeks and go to about 10 different parts of Syria to monitor the fragile cessation of hostilities which officially started on April 12.

They would also monitor the implementation of UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan, which Syrian authorities have agreed to support.

Ban said the proposed mission would “greatly contribute to observing and upholding the commitment of the parties to a cessation of armed violence in all its forms”.

The report will be discussed by the Security Council on Thursday and diplomats said a resolution allowing the full observer mission could be ready by early next week if there is agreement among the 15 members.

‘Intense shooting’

Meanwhile, a Syrian activist group says clashes between troops and army defectors in an eastern city have left at least one person dead.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Thursday’s clashes in Deir el-Zour also wounded three civilians.

Activists say Syrian troops also shelled rebel-held areas in the central city of Homs and the nearby town of al-Qusair, which borders Lebanon.

The observatory says intense shooting and explosions could be heard in Homs’ al-Qarabis and Jurat al-Shayah neighbourhoods.

Al Jazeera is unable to independently verify reports of violence, as the Syrian government has placed strict restrictions on reporting.

The UN says well over 9,000 people have been killed in Syria since an uprising against Assad broke out in March 2011.

Activists says scores have died since the ceasefire started.

Ban said violence “dropped markedly” when the ceasefire began, but that Syria “has yet to fully implement its initial obligations regarding the actions and deployments of its troops and heavy weapons, or to return them to barracks”.

“Violent incidents and reports of casualties have escalated again in recent days, with reports of shelling of civilian areas and abuses by government forces,” he said.

‘Partial’ action

Ban said only “partial” action has been taken on other parts of the Annan plan. “While difficult to assess, it does not amount yet to the clear signal expected from the Syrian authorities,” he said.

The UN secretary-general said it was “critical” for Assad to fully carry out his promise to “cease troop movements towards population centres, cease all use of heavy weapons in population centres, and begin the pullback of military
concentrations in and around population centres”.

At the moment there are six observers in Syria, led by a Moroccan colonel. The full mission would be led by an officer of at least the rank of major general.

Ban said the team has so far been refused permission to go to Homs, with Syrian officials claiming “security concerns”.

The mission went to Deraa, the revolt’s epicentre, on Tuesday, where “it enjoyed freedom of movement” and “observed no armed violence or heavy weapons”.

But Ban confirmed violent incidents when the UN observers went to Arbeen, in the Damascus suburbs, on Wednesday.

“A crowd that was part of an opposition demonstration forced United Nations vehicles to a checkpoint. Subsequently, the crowd was dispersed by firing projectiles,” said the report.

“Those responsible for the firing could not be ascertained by the United Nations military observers.”

One UN vehicle was slightly damaged, but no injuries were observed by the team.

Ban said the new mission, to be known as the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) would include political, human rights, civil affairs, public information, public security, gender and other advisers.

However, it would not carry out humanitarian assistance duties.

By ANNE GEARAN, AP National Security Writer – 37 minutes ago 

BRUSSELS (AP) — Despite oft-repeated U.S. demands that Syrian President Bashar Assad step aside, the Obama administration’s policy now reflects a consensus that Assad has a firm hold on power and that nothing short of an outside military strike will dislodge him quickly.

With rebel forces poorly armed and disorganized, efforts to pay them by Arab Gulf states failing, and sectarian divisions looming in Syria, the U.S. and its allies seem prepared to leave Assad where he is. Even if he could be ousted, the near future in Syria would involve civil war among ethnic groups now under Assad’s boot, or a slow and bloody war with rebels or proxy fighters armed from the outside.

The U.S. has edged toward supplying the rebels with communications gear and other nonlethal aid but has ruled out either a military assault or a supply of heavy weaponry for rebel forces.

“We are at a crucial turning point,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday.

Either a United Nations-brokered cease-fire takes hold “or we see Assad squandering his last chance before additional measures have to be considered,” Clinton said.

But even as she suggests further action, as she has many times before, Clinton is not expected to announce a shift in the U.S. stance during a diplomatic huddle on Syria in Paris on Thursday.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said late Wednesday he believes there is an opportunity for progress in Syria and recommended the Security Council approve a 300-strong U.N. observer mission.

In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, Ban told the council he will consider developments on the ground, including consolidation of the cease-fire, before deciding on when to deploy the expanded mission, which is larger than the 250 observers initially envisioned. The Security Council was scheduled to discuss Ban’s letter and recommendations at a closed meeting Thursday morning.

The United States backs the cease-fire between Assad’s forces and rebels, but the deal also represents recognition that Assad remains in control of the armed forces and holds the power to suspend attacks on civilians and rebels.

The week-old cease-fire was supposed to allow greater humanitarian and other relief to enter the country.

Syria has violated key provisions. Tanks, troops and widely feared plainclothes security agents continue to patrol the streets to deter anti-government protests, while the regime resumed its assault on rebellious Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, over the weekend after only a brief lull.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes broke out Thursday in Deir el-Zour, near the border with Iraq, killing one civilian and wounding three others. Syrian troops also began shelling rebel-held neighborhoods in Homs early Thursday, according to the Observatory.

U.S. officials regularly say Assad is no longer a legitimate leader, but they hold no direct leverage to make him leave, or even make him listen to international condemnation.

“Assad must step down,” U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said this week. “I mean, we continue to take that position. At the same time, I think, we believe that we have to continue to work with the international community to keep putting pressure on Assad.”

Even relatively harsh new sanctions on Syria are a tacit admission that Assad isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. And the rebels are no closer to ridding the country of him despite 13 months of fighting and 9,000 mostly civilian deaths.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said Wednesday that his country was observing the cease-fire plan laid out by special envoy Kofi Annan.

In a meeting in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, Moallem said the Syrian government would “honor and implement” its commitment to withdraw the army from cities and would cooperate with United Nations observers arriving in the country.

The U.N. insists the fragile truce is holding even though regime forces have been hammering Homs with artillery for days.

The Obama administration recently signed off on $12 million in enhanced communications, medical and other assistance to the opposition, but it is unclear what goods are making their way into Syria and by what means.

International sanctions on Assad’s regime have depleted its foreign currency reserves by half — and Damascus is actively trying to evade them, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Tuesday as he opened a Paris meeting of some 57 countries, including Arab League states, to reinforce sanctions and denounce Assad. Clinton will attend a smaller gathering of “core” nations addressing the Syrian problem, also in Paris, diplomats said.

At a larger gathering two weeks ago, Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Arab states pledged donations from a multimillion-dollar fund designed to prop up Syrian rebels and entice defections from Assad’s army. Washington seized on the plan as a path forward even though the U.S. disagrees with Arab states that want to give weapons to the badly outgunned rebels.

Syrian opposition members and international officials say no money has been sent yet, in part because the Arab governments stepped into a logistical thicket when they began trying to figure out how to route the money to the right people.

There’s no way to monitor where the money goes as the country veers toward civil war. Because the rebels hold no territory and struggle even to maintain communications inside and outside Syria, there is no clear way to deliver the money.

The U.S. and other nations have tried a variety of ways to get Assad to ease a crackdown on antigovernment demonstrators inspired by last year’s Arab revolutions. The U.S. has long since given up hope that Assad would negotiate with protesters and peacefully give up power. But from the start last year, the U.S. rejected any call for a direct military response like the one mounted a year ago in Libya.

The reasons are simple and, like the current U.S. stance, they reflect the reality of Assad’s entrenched family dynasty.

Syria’s military is vastly more powerful and better-equipped than Libya’s was and is arrayed throughout cities and towns. Any air assault by the U.S. or other outsiders would probably kill many civilians.

The assault would have to be broad and sustained to knock out Syria’s heavy artillery and other defenses. That indicates a longer and far more expensive operation than the one in Libya, which was undertaken with NATO help.

Despite widespread disgust and anger at Assad, there is no international mandate for forcibly removing him. Syria was never the outcast that Libya under Moammar Gadhafi became, and it maintained trading and diplomatic relationships around the globe.

European countries are unlikely to get militarily involved without the United States, and Turkey has backed off from talk of creating buffer zones along the Syrian border. Any foreign military action could provoke anger from Russia and China, and open hostility from Iran, whose personnel have actively supported Assad’s government.

Russia and China have twice shielded Syria from U.N. sanctions over the crackdown.

Associated Press writers Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, Jamey Keaten in Paris and Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to this report.

Annan says #Syria has accepted his plan to end violence

Two large suburbs of Damascus came under heavy tank bombardment on Wednesday following renewed Free Syrian Army attacks on forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, opposition activists said.

Nazem Najar, 12, recovers in a hospital after being wounded by a Syrian Army sniper, in the northern Syrian city of Idlib, Wednesday, March 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

(AP) GENEVA - The Syrian government will allow the United Nations to assess the basic medical needs of Syrians in four areas where opposition forces have clashed with government troops and to also carry out a preliminary humanitarian needs assessment, officials said Friday.

But the rare access to strife-torn areas of Syria gained by two U.N. agencies for health and population needs depends on the cooperation of local medical students, Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid workers and other non-government organizations to conduct the survey.

A third U.N. agency, for humanitarian needs, announced Friday it had gained access for its own preliminary assessment.

For the past year, Syria’s government has engaged in a bloody crackdown on a popular uprising inspired by the Arab Spring movements in other countries in the region. The U.N. says more than 7,500 people have been killed. Activists put the death toll at more than 8,000.

World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic says a “very preliminary and basic survey” overseen by his agency and the U.N. Population Fund will be carried out next week with the cooperation of Syria’s health ministry.

Medical students and aid workers will fan out in four areas affected by the crisis: the rebellious city of Homs, the southern town of Daraa where protests began, the northeastern city of Deir al-Zour and rural parts of the capital Damascus, he told reporters in Geneva.

“It is very difficult to assess needs and provide an independent evaluation in order to get a clear overview of the situation and the needs on the ground,” Jasarevic said. “The results will be analyzed by a technical committee composed of most of the agencies of the health sector.”

In particular, he said, local aid workers say they already know there is a critical lack of medical help ranging from not enough ambulances to sparse medicine and other supplies, particularly for trauma care and chronic diseases.

The U.N. health agency says that since the start of the crisis last year its office in Syria has been providing the nation’s health ministry and the Red Crescent with ambulances, surgery supplies, and equipment such as ventilators and incubators for newborn babies.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which has been negotiating for access in Syria, said Friday it has gained permission to take a “first step” toward providing badly needed medical help, food and basic supplies.

After a three-day tour of Syria that included Homs and parts of its devastated suburb of Baba Amr, OCHA head Valerie Amos said in Ankara, Turkey, that she was “horrified by the destruction.”

“Almost all the buildings had been destroyed and there were hardly any people left there,” she said.

Amos said in a statement provided to reporters in Geneva that she is “extremely concerned as to the whereabouts of the people who have been displaced from Baba Amr.”

She said her meetings with Syrian government ministers ended with an agreement for “a joint preliminary humanitarian assessment mission” that would be done in areas where people most urgently need help.

“While this is a necessary first step, it remains essential that a robust and regular arrangement be put in place, which allows humanitarian organizations unhindered access to evacuate the wounded and deliver desperately needed supplies,” she said. “A proposal has been submitted to the government of Syria, and I ask them to consider this matter with the utmost urgency.”