01/08/2013 - #Syria - Damascus Outskirts - Harasta - FSA in action
#Syria Nov 17/12 Warning graphic: Harasta, Damascus Suburbs, 9 people were killed due to shelling on Harasta, and victims include 4 children and 4 women.
Jordanian Soldier Killed On Border As Hope For #Syria Truce Slim
22/10/12
By: Al Bawaba News
Fighting flared up Monday in Syria with new attempts of the army to remove the rebels from their strongholds, as an Arab diplomat expected there are slim chances of achieving a cease-fire this week.
On Sunday, after talks in Damascus with President Bashar al-Assad, the UN and Arab League envoy and Lakhdar Brahimi called on the belligerents to “unilaterally” cease fire “from today or tomorrow “for the Muslim feast of Eid Al-Adha, which is celebrated from October 26 to 29.
He stressed that it was a “personal initiative” and not a detailed plan of peace to stop the bloodshed that killed 34,000 people, according to an NGO.
On his part, Deputy Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmad bin Hilli said Monday that “unfortunately, the hope of establishing a truce in Syria for the holiday is weak.”
“The signs on the ground and the reaction of the Syrian government (…) do not show a real willingness to respond positively to this initiative,” he said.
Echoing these remarks, the Syrian regime’s troops, backed by tanks, have been trying to retake control on several towns, which fell into the hands of rebels in Idleb, Aleppo (north), in the province of Damascus, Deraa (south ) and Homs (center), said the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR).
Loyalist forces also bombarded with artillery Harasta twon where rebels are holed up near the Syrian capital, and tried to take it by storm, the NGO said in the wake of a new suicide car bomb in Damascus that killed at least 13 people.
In the province of Idleb (northwest), fighting took place near the military base in Wadi Deif, besieged for days by rebels, added the NGO.
This base is located on the eastern outskirts of the strategic town of Maaret al-Noomane, bombed since the dawn by the regime forces. Taken on October 9, this achievement helped the rebels to cut the main road used by the army to send reinforcements to the north.
Elsewhere, a Jordanian soldier was killed during clashes with Islamist militants trying to cross the border with Syria , confirmed Monday the Jordanian Minister of Information. Samih Maaytah said that it was the first death recorded in the ranks of the Jordanian army since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, in March 2011.
Political efforts
During the talks with Mr. Brahimi, Assad reiterated that any political initiative should be based on the “halt of terrorism (..) with the commitment of some countries involved to cease hosting, supporting and arming terrorists in Syria ”
In a related development, the Special Representative of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Bogdanov, was on Monday in Iran to discuss Syria. Tehran and Moscow support the Assad regime and reject any foreign interference in the country.
#Syria, Hundreds of soldiers launch assault in Damascus
07/09/12
Government forces shelled the southern outskirts of the Syrian capital on Friday, while soldiers stormed a nearby town and dozens of bodies were found across the province, witnesses and a rights group said.
Witnesses told AFP that the southern suburb of Tadamun and neighboring Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmuk came under heavy shelling.
On the outskirts of Damascus, government troops stormed the town of Babila, where Free Syrian Army rebels were entrenched, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
In another grisly find of the almost 18-month conflict, residents recovered a total of 45 bodies in two towns on the outskirts of Damascus, the Britain-based monitoring group said.
It said at least 23 bodies, including those of women and children, were found in the eastern suburb of Zamalka on Thursday, while another 22 were discovered in Qatana in the countryside southeast of the capital.
Zamalka has been a hotbed of anti-government protests, sparking repeated raids by the army and clashes with rebel fighters.
Opposition activists blamed pro-government forces for the killings in Zamalka, accusing President Bashar al-Assad’s regime of a “new massacre.”
On Friday, the bodies of 16 men were found in Harasta, also in Damascus province, some of them with signs of having been tortured, the Observatory said, adding that at least 14 people were killed in violence early on Friday.
Two children were killed in shelling in the town of Albu Kamal on the Iraqi border while two rebel fighters were killed by mortar fire in the eastern city of Deir az-Zour, it said.
A raid by security forces on Al-Qazzaz district of southeast Damascus, in which troops rounded up dozens of suspected militants, sparked clashes with rebel fighters, the group added.
A total of at least 153 people were killed in violence across Syria on Thursday – 83 civilians, 24 rebels and 46 soldiers, the Observatory said.
-AFP
05/09/12
#Syria, Despite heavy rains and power outages from the city came out are free Harasta in a mass rally demanding Freedom and dropping Alnza
07/03/12 #Syria Harasta, Damascus. Smoke rises over Ghouta as a result of shelling. The following is a translation of the cameraman’s words:
It is not Grozny, that was destroyed by Russians .. It’s not Baghdad, that was destroyed by the Tartars and then the Americans .. It is not Leningrad that was destroyed by the nazis, it is east Ghouta in Syria. Destruction, smoke and fire, all the people are fleeing .. but we will stay and defend until victory.
