Nov 27/12 #Syria
FSA fresh from Bukamal and Al Mayadeen victories with some of the equipment captured. They are moving west towards Deir Ezzor.
Source: youtu.be
#Syria 10/08/12 East Ghouta FSA (Ansar Al Islam and Farouk brigades) capture mobile SAM amongst other equipment
Source: youtu.be
15/09/12
#Syria, Rastan’s Al-Farouq Brigades Show Off Their Latest Loot - Tanks
This rather interesting video from Rastan, Homs has been posted on You tube and shows the Al-Farouq Brigades showing off the weapons and equipment they’ve captured from the Syrian Army
The video starts with around 50 men armed with what appears to be the usual variety of FSA small arms watching a T-62 tank being driven past, followed by the increasingly ubiquitous truck mounted DShK heavy machine gun, the current popular choice for firing at helicopters. What’s quite interesting is many of the men are wearing the same dark green shirts, with some sort of logo, probably their brigade logo
Source: brown-moses.blogspot.co.uk
Top U.S. admiral: Arming the Syrian rebels would help oust Assad #Syria
Posted By Josh Rogin - Friday, March 2, 2012 - 1:55 PM
If the international community gave the Syrian rebels arms, communications equipment, and intelligence, that would help speed President Bashar al-Assad’sremoval from power, the top U.S. military official in Europe said Thursday.
Navy Admiral James Stavridis, Commander of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander-Europe, told the Senate Armed Services that NATO is not doing any “detailed planning” for ways to aid the Syrian opposition or protect Syrian civilians. But under intense questioning from the committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Stavridis admitted he believed that giving material aid to the rebels would help them get better organized and push forward the process of getting the Assad to step down.
“Yesterday the secretary-general of NATO, Mr. Rasmussen, told The Cable, quote, ‘We haven’t had any discussions about a NATO role in Syria and I don’t envision such a role for the alliance,’” McCain said, referring directly to our Feb. 29 exclusive interview with Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
“Is it true that NATO is doing no contingency planning of any kind with respect to Syria, including for the provision of humanitarian and medical assistance?” McCain asked Stavridis.
“We’re not doing any detailed contingency planning at this point, senator, and there’s a reason for that. Within the NATO command structure, there has to be an authorization from the North Atlantic Council before we can conduct detailed planning,” Stavridis said. The North Atlantic Council is the body charged with making NATO policy decisions.
After getting Stavridis to confirm he believes the Syrian crisis is now an armed conflict between government and opposition forces, McCain then asked Stavridis if the provision of arms, communication equipment, and tactical intelligence would help the Syrian opposition to better organize itself and push Assad from power.
“I would think it would. Yes, sir,” Stavridis replied.
McCain contrasted NATO’s reluctance to intervene in Syria with previous NATO missions to halt massacres in Bosnia and Kosovo. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) seconded that comparison at the hearing.
“This does remind me of experiences we had in Bosnia and Kosovo in the ’90s,” Lieberman said. “It actually took quite a while for us to build the political will, both here and in Europe, to get involved there. And while we were doing that, a lot of people got killed, and the same is happening in Syria now. I hope it doesn’t take us so long.”
Just down the hall from the SASC hearing, two top State Department officials were giving an entirely different take on the efficacy of arming the rebels. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman and Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the administration just doesn’t think that arming the Syria rebels is a good idea.
“We’ve been very hesitant about pouring fuel onto a conflagration that Assad himself has set,” Feltman testified Thursday. “So we’re very cautious about this whole area of questioning and that’s why we have worked with this international consensus on political tracks, on economic tracks, on diplomatic tracks, in order to get to the tipping point we were talking about earlier.”
As Ben Smith in Politico reported Thursday, the Syria issue has divided Congress on traditional party and ideological lines — lines that were muddled during the debate over intervention in Libya because of internal Republican disagreement. Most GOP senators and leading congressmen, along with all the GOP presidential candidates, are urging the Obama administration to begin directly aiding the Syrian rebels now.
Leading congressional Democrats, to the extent they have commented on the issue, have been more reluctant to get more involved in the Syria crisis. House Armed Services Committee ranking Democrat Adam Smith (D-WA) told reporters Thursday, “If there is something we can do that will make an immediate difference that is not overly risky in terms of our own lives and cost, we should try. Right now I don’t see that we have that type of support for something inside of Syria.”
“It is critical that we all proceed with extreme caution and with our eyes wide open,” SFRC Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) said at the Thursday hearing. “There are serious questions to be answered about the Free Syrian Army, but it is not too soon to think about how the international community could shape its thinking or encourage restraint.”
The debate in Congress over aiding the Syrian rebels will ramp up next week, with a March 6 SASC hearing with Central Command chief Gen. James Mattis and a March 7 SASC hearing with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey.
Source: foreignpolicy.com
We’ll help rebels overthrow Syrian murderers: Hague’s warning to dictator Assad over escalation in violence #Syria
By TIM SHIPMAN, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR Last updated at 9:24 AM on 7th February 2012 The Foreign Secretary announced plans for a dramatic escalation of support for the rebels as Syrian government forces launched yet another bloody attack on the rebel city of Homs, killing 50 more. Mr Hague ruled out British military action but said the UK is poised to provide ‘strategic communications’ equipment to help different rebel groups work together against the ‘murderous’ regime in Damascus. Panic: A hospital in the rebel-held city of Homs under attack yesterday Pledge: Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced the UK is poised to provide ‘strategic communications’ equipment to help different rebel groups work together against the murderous’ regime in Damascus Diplomatic sources compared the situation to the war in Libya and said Britain will seek to provide radios and mobile phones and work with Turkey and other neighbouring nations to allow rebels to broadcast radio programmes into Syria. The UK will also back fresh European Union sanctions later this month designed to ‘fracture the regime’. That will see a new crackdown on activities by the Syrian Central Bank and imposing travel bans and asset freezes on regime officials to encourage them to abandon Assad. Mr Hague recalled the British ambassador to Syria yesterday for talks as violence erupted again, which prompted the U.S. to withdraw all its embassy staff for security reasons. Yesterday Syrian forces bombarded Homs, in the west of the country, killing 50 people in a sustained assault on several districts. That followed a massacre of more than 200 people by tanks and artillery on Friday night, bringing the total death toll since last March to more than 5,400. Yesterday’s assault saw government troops deploy multiple rocket launchers, as well as tanks and machine guns. Eyewitnesses said government forces deliberately targeted a makeshift medical clinic and residential areas. Local man Hussein Nader said: ‘They want to drive the Free Syrian Army out. Rockets are falling seconds apart on the same target.’ Activists said an explosion ripped through an oil pipeline feeding a main refinery in Homs, the second attack on the pipeline in a week. They added that the opposition-held town of Zabadani, near the Lebanese border, also came under fire. With violence raging, Syria’s ambassador in London was called into the Foreign Office for a carpeting. In a statement to the Commons, Mr Hague denounced Russia and China after they vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the violence. Standing guard: A member of the Free Syrian Army watches over anti-regime protesters holding a demonstration in the city of Idlib Defiance: Protesters dance on the streets during a demonstration in Idlib, Syria Anti-regime protesters play drums and wave a revolutionary flag during demonstrations in Idlib Western diplomats are furious with Russia and China, arguing that they bent over backwards in rewriting the resolution so it could not be construed as a precursor to military action – and they still refused to sign it. Mr Hague accused Russia and China of ‘betraying the Syrian people’. He said: ‘The human suffering in Syria is already unimaginable and is in grave danger of escalating further. ‘They chose to side with the Syrian regime and implicitly to leave the door open to further abuses by them. They did so while President Assad’s tanks were encircling Homs and shells were pounding the homes of Syrian civilians.’ Mr Hague said the Assad regime cannot survive. ‘This is a doomed regime as well as a murdering regime,’ he told MPs. ‘There is no way it can recover its credibility internationally or with its own people.’ Casualties: YouTube footage shows the bodies of three people reportedly killed in shelling on Rastan in the central province of Homs. Hons: A destroyed armoured military vehicle lies abandoned in the streets following clashes between President Bashar al-Assad forces and the Free Syrian Army In a bid to shame Russia and China, the UK and other countries are planning to pass a resolution condemning the violence in the UN’s General Assembly, where vetoes cannot be used. The UK will also beef up a diplomatic team under Francis Guy, who is an unofficial ambassador to the Syrian opposition, to ‘intensify’ those contacts. The team will work to get the Syrian opposition groups to agree a common platform, just as rebels did in Libya. The Foreign Secretary said: ‘There is no limit on what resources we can provide. We have provided training in documentation of human rights abuses, in strategic communications and so on. We may be able to do more in the future.’ Mr Hague also announced plans for a new contact group to help the Arab League plan to end the bloodshed It will see the EU, the Arab League and other countries come together to ‘co-ordinate intensified diplomatic and economic pressure on the regime, and to engage with Syrian opposition groups committed to a democratic future’.
Britain is to send equipment to help the opposition oust Syrian dictator Bashar Assad after William Hague said there was ‘no limit on what resources we can provide’.
Source: Daily Mail
#Syria’s most senior defector: Assad’s army is close to collapse
Bashar al-Assad’s army is close to a collapse that could plunge the Middle East into a “nuclear reaction”, its most senior defector has told The Sunday Telegraph.
8:00AM GMT 05 Feb 2012
In his first full-length newspaper interview, General Mustafa al-Sheikh, who has taken refuge in Turkey, gave an apocalyptic insider’s view of the state of the regime – despite its attempt to reassert control this weekend.
He said only a third of the army was at combat readiness due to defections or absenteeism, while remaining troops were demoralised, most of its Sunni officers had fled, been arrested, or sidelined, and its equipment was degraded.
“The situation is now very dangerous and threatens to explode across the whole region, like a nuclear reaction,” he said.
The failure of President Assad to keep a tight grip even on the towns and suburbs around Damascus, some of which have driven out the army for periods in recent weeks, has led to a reassessment of his forces’ unity.
When Gen Sheikh fled over the border from his town in the north of the country in the second half of November, he thought the army could hold out against a vastly outnumbered opposition for a year or more. Now, he said, attacks by the rebels’ Free Syrian Army were escalating as the rank and file withered away due to lack of belief in the cause.
The Assads’ increasing reliance on loyalists from their own Alawite minority meant Sunni officers had fled, were under house arrest or at best marginalised and distrusted.
“The army will collapse during February,” he said. “The reasons are the shortage of Syrian army personnel, which even before March 15 last year did not exceed 65 per cent. The proportion of equipment that was combat ready did not exceed that, due to a shortage of spare parts.
“The Syrian army combat readiness I would put at 40 per cent for hardware and 32 per cent for personnel.
“They are sending in elements from the Shabiha (militia) and the Alawite sect to compensate, but this army is unable to continue more than a month. Some elements of the army are reaching out to the FSA to help them to defect.”
Gen Sheikh is not an impartial observer. He is negotiating with the Syrian National Council and the FSA over his future role in the offensive against President Assad. Even now, few analysts or diplomats would agree with his view, believing that the regime, though weakened, has the resilience to cling on to power for months, if not years.
“That the government’s days are numbered can no longer be in serious doubt, but just how many it has left remains an open question,” Yezid Sayigh, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment, wrote this week . “The regime cannot win, but it certainly can resist and prolong the conflict.”
Gen Sheikh said he had battled with his conscience before fleeing, mindful of his 37 years’ service and of possible retribution against his extended family. He said the final straw had been a sexual assault by soldiers who took turns to attack a young bride at a village near the town of Hama. He believes the army has become a ‘crazy killing machine’, and that without a solution within a fortnight, “the whole region will flare up”.
“The region is strained to the limits because of the role of Iran,” he said. “The Syrian regime has helped transform it into a base for Iranian conspiracies.”
He said that some of the possible solutions – buffer zones, humanitarian corridors – were no longer relevant, even in the unlikely event of United Nations security council backing.
“There is no time,” he said. “There is a serious acceleration under way due to the collapse of the army and the security system.
“We want very urgent intervention, outside of the security council due to the Russian veto. We want a coalition similar to what happened in Kosovo and the Ivory Coast.”
Source: telegraph.co.uk
Syrian opposition abroad to boost aid to rebel army #Syria
PARIS | (Reuters) - A leading Syrian opposition group based abroad is ready to give money and equipment to rebels in Syria fighting President Bashar al-Assad as they work towards creating an organized command structure, a senior group member said on Friday. After months of distant relations, the Syrian National Council (SNC) and rebel Free Syria Army (FSA) struck a deal earlier this month to reorganize loosely-structured units fighting under the FSA umbrella. Council spokeswoman Bassma Kodmani said that with defections from Assad’s forces increasing, the uprising that began with street protests 10 months ago had taken on irreversible military dimensions and it was now the SNC’s duty to assist the rebels. “The SNC is now mapping who the groups are on the ground in Syria and Turkey,” she said. “We have military experts, former Syrian military, who are mapping where they are and linking them into some form of command chain.” The SNC will not help provide arms since it opposes attacks on individual targets or buildings, but will contribute funds or find financiers to keep the FSA afloat, Kodmani said, without specifying how much money would be offered. Kodmani was speaking to reporters in Paris, where she is a lecturer and runs the Arab Reform Initiative think-tank. The SNC has no single base, but has most often held talks and meetings in Paris and Istanbul. She said the rebels numbered between 20,000 and 30,000 in Syria and about 300 in neighboring Turkey. “They need communications equipment, bullet-proof vests and non-offensive equipment to make sure they are integrated with each other. If they are left isolated, they will transform into militias.” INTERNAL REBEL TENSIONS Kodmani said one of the main problems in making the FSA a coherent force would be managing tensions between those that had defected early on in the uprising such as Colonel Riad al-Asaad and more senior officers such as General Mostafa al-Sheikh, who defected this month. She said another high-ranking general had also defected to Turkey but his identity had yet to be revealed. “It’s necessary to make sure the FSA’s action can be organized with a strategic objective,” said Kodmani, one of several candidates in an SNC leadership contest to be decided next month. “The main weakness is that it has no territory. There is no Benghazi, but there are pockets,” she said, referring to last year’s Libyan insurgency that swept to Tripoli, toppling dictator Muammar Gaddafi, from a rebel bastion in the east. Fighting edged closer to Damascus this week. Clashes between rebels and security forces in the Damascus suburb of Douma raged throughout Thursday, and violence erupted anew in Homs on Friday after reports of a sectarian massacre. Kodmani said the Syrian government was losing its grip in some regions and would struggle to reassert it in cities such as Hama and Homs, twin pillars of the anti-Assad uprising. The U.N. Security Council was to meet on Friday to weigh the next move on Syria with a Western-Arab draft resolution to be circulated among members for a vote foreseen next week. The draft, obtained by Reuters, calls for a “political transition” but not for U.N. sanctions against Damascus, something Russia has said it would not support. “We need a serious Security Council resolution that says the council looks to blame the regime and then sets a period of time after which it will take other measures,” Kodmani said. She said the SNC had asked U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to allow it to represent the Syrian people at the talks. “I think the Arab League has the clout to convince the Russians to change their position,” she said. (Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Source: reuters.com
