Syrian Freedom

#Syria refugee tally tops 1.5 million, UN says

More than 1.5 million Syrians have fled their conflict-ravaged homeland, the UN’s refugee agency said Friday, warning that the real figure could be even higher as the tally only reflected those who register with aid groups.

Dan McNorton, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told reporters that close to 250,000 Syrians were being registered each month.

“Refugees tell us the increased fighting and changing of control of towns and villages, in particular in conflict areas, results in more and more civilians deciding to leave,” McNorton said.

“Over the past four months we have seen a rapid deterioration when compared to the previous 20 months of this conflict,” he added.

McNorton underlined that the actual number of refugees was likely to be even higher than 1.5 million.

“This is due to concerns that some Syrians have regarding registration,” he said, explaining that rumors circulating among exiles about the supposed security risks of signing up for refugee status put some people off.

He said aid agencies were working to encourage waivers to register in order to be able to receive official help, even as UNHCR struggles to keep up with the rising numbers and needs.

“The increasingly widening gap between the needs and resources available is a growing challenge,” he said.

“UNHCR continues to respond to the emergency needs of those in desperate need inside Syria and neighboring countries,” he added.

Syrians have surged out of their country since March 2011, when a crackdown on protests against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad heralded the start of an armed rebellion.

Numbers ballooned as the conflict morphed into an increasingly sectarian civil war, and the total topped a million in March this year.

Most have fled to neighboring Jordan, where close to 474,000 have been registered by UNHCR or are waiting registration, and to Lebanon, with over 470,000.

Some 347,000 are in Turkey, over 147,000 in Iraq and close to 67,000 in Egypt, according to UNHCR’s latest data.

In addition to the refugees, the United Nations has said that more than 4.25 million Syrians are displaced within their homeland.

That means that, all told, over a quarter of Syria’s pre-war population of 22.5 million have been forced to quit their homes since the conflict began.

The death toll has surpassed 90,000, according to the UN.

AFP - 05/17/2013

Syria army warns civilians to leave Al-Qusayr

Syria’s army has dropped leaflets over Al-Qusayr in central Homs province, warning civilians to leave ahead of an attack that will be launched if rebels holding the town do not surrender, a military source said on Friday.

“Leaflets were dropped over Al-Qusayr asking civilians to leave the city, with a map of a safe route by which to evacuate, because the attack against the city is coming soon if the rebels do not surrender,” the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Troops backed by fighters from the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah have advanced throughout the area around Al-Qusayr, which fell to the rebels more than a year ago.

Activists said Al-Qusayr is surrounded by government forces on three sides, and that approximately 25,000 residents are believed to still be in the city.

The area has been a strategic boon to the rebels, who used it as a base from which to block the main road from Damascus to the coast, impeding military movement and supply chains.

It is also important because of its proximity to Lebanon.

The regime has made recapturing it a key objective. President Bashar al-Assad reportedly said last month that fighting in the area was the “main battle” his troops were waging.

Activists say regime forces there are backed by fighters from Hezbollah, as well as members of the National Defense Force, a pro-regime militia.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said at least 72 people were killed throughout the country in violence on Thursday, including 33 rebels, 21 civilians and 18 soldiers.

AFP - 05/10/2013

#Syria rebels reject Lebanon Salafists’ Jihad call

Syria’s main rebel Free Syrian Army on Wednesday rejected calls for Jihad by radical Sunni sheikhs from neighboring Lebanon.

“Our official position as the Supreme Military Command of the Free Syrian Army… is that we thank them but we reject any calls for Jihad in Syria,” FSA political and media coordinator Louay Almokdad told AFP.

“We reject any presence of foreign fighters, regardless of where they are from. We have said that what we are missing in Syria is weapons, not men,” he added.

Thousands of foreign fighters have joined Syrian rebels pitted against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Two Lebanese Salafist sheikhs have called on their followers to join rebels fighting in Syria and to support Sunni residents of the embattled central province of Homs.

Their calls come after Syria’s opposition and a monitoring group accused Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah of fighting in Homs alongside troops loyal to Assad’s regime.

In a speech on Monday, controversial Lebanese Salafist leader Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir announced the establishment of “free resistance battalions” in Sidon, the southern city where he is based.

“There is a religious duty on every Muslim who is able to do so… to enter into Syria in order to defend its people, its mosques and religious shrines, especially in Qusayr and Homs,” he told supporters.

Known for his hostility to Hezbollah, Assir said his call comes after Shiite group chief Hassan “Nasrallah and his shabiha [pro-Assad militia] have taken the decision to enter into these areas in order to massacre the oppressed people there”.

04/24/2013 - AFP

25 Jan 2013: U.N. urges #Syria’s neighbors to keep open borders to exodus

(Reuters) - The United Nations on Friday urged Syria’s neighbors to keep open their borders to civilians fleeing the intensifying conflict and said that the refugee exodus into Jordan was “absolutely dramatic”.

More than 30,000 Syrians have arrived in Jordan’s main Zaatri camp this year, including 4,400 on Thursday and another 2,000 overnight, it said. Most were fleeing fighting in the southern area of Deraa, food and fuel shortages and high prices.

Turkey has said that camps are filling up as soon as they are built and officials in Jordan said this week it would keep its borders open but wanted other countries to help it boost its ability to cope with the influx.

“It is just absolutely dramatic the inflow of people that continues into Jordan,” Melissa Fleming, chief spokeswoman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a news briefing in Geneva.

Jordan now hosts more than 206,000 Syrians who have registered as refugees or await processing, while the government says that more than 300,000 Syrians are actually in the country.

A further 30,000 Syrians could be preparing to head to Jordan, according to the UNHCR’s latest assessment.

Across the region, 678,540 Syrian refugees had registered or were being processed as of Tuesday, according to UNHCR figures for Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and North Africa.

“It is fast approaching 700,000,” spokeswoman Sybella Wilkes told Reuters. “It is a challenge on every border the number of people that are arriving and crossing borders every day.”

Fleming said the UNHCR commended the Jordanian, Lebanese and Turkish governments for keeping their borders open and urged them to continue to do so.

Refugees report fighting in Deraa and its suburbs but the UNHCR was not in a position to assess military activities, she said. Water and electricity are only available for intermittent periods in parts of southern Syria.

Some 25,000 to 40,000 Syrians are reported to be massed in northern Syria along Turkey’s border, awaiting entry into the country which has 15 refugee camps and is building a further five, Fleming said.

“They are building camps as fast as they can and they are letting people in as soon as the camps are ready,” she said.

What began as a mostly peaceful movement against President Bashar al-Assad has killed more than 60,000 people in 22 months, devastated the economy and left 2.5 million people inside the country hungry, according to the U.N.

Ted Chaiban, UNICEF director of emergency programs who was in Syria last week, said food, basic medicines and drinkable water were getting harder to find, while families were living 20 to a room with minimal shelter and clothing in cold weather.

22 Jan 2013 Evacuation of Russians from #Syria reflects Moscow’s doubts about Assad’s grip on power

Edlib News Network ENN/Associated Press - In this citizen journalism image taken on Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013 and provided by Edlib News Network, ENN, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, relatives and mourners prepare to bury body of a Free Syrian Army fighter, Fouad Mohammed, who was injured during the battle of Taftanaz air base earlier this month, during his funeral, at Binsh village in Idlib province, north Syria.

MOSCOW — The Kremlin’s evacuation of Russians from Syria on Tuesday marks a turning point in its view of the civil war, representing increasing doubts about Bashar Assad’s hold on power and a sober understanding that it has to start rescue efforts before it becomes too late.

By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, January 22, 2:49 PM

The operation has been relatively small-scale, involving under 100 people, mostly women and children — but it marks the beginning of what could soon turn into a risky and challenging operation. Analysts warn that rescuing tens of thousands of Russians from the war-stricken country could quickly become daunting as the opposition makes new advances in the battle against the Syrian president.

“It’s a sign of distrust in Assad, who seems unlikely to hold on to power,” said Alexei Malashenko, a Middle East expert with the Carnegie Endowment’s Moscow office.

Russia has been Assad’s main ally, pooling together with China at the United Nations to block international sanctions against his regime. But it has increasingly distanced itself from the Syrian ruler, signaling it is resigned to the prospect of him losing power.

On Tuesday, four buses carrying about 80 Russians crossed into Syria, the first evacuation organized by Moscow since the start of the conflict nearly two years ago. Russia said a day earlier that about 100 of its citizens in Syria would be taken to Lebanon and flown home.

Malashenko said that the evacuation reflected a strong concern in Moscow that Assad’s fall would put Russians in grave danger. “There is a strong likelihood that Assad’s foes could unleash a massacre of those whom they see as his supporters,” he said.

In addition to tens of thousands Russians permanently living in Syria, most of whom are Russian women married to Syrian men and their children, there is also an unspecified number of diplomats and military advisers along with their families. The evacuees were permanent residents not connected to the embassy.

Georgy Mirsky, the top Middle East expert with the Institute for World Economy and International Relations, a government-funded think-tank, warned that Russians in Syria are facing growing risks.

“Many are reluctant to leave, hoping that the situation could somehow stabilize,” he said. “But Aleppo is already half-ruined, and it will soon come to that in Damascus too. Sooner or later, Assad is going to lose.”

Russia could rely on Assad to provide a military escort for caravans of refugees, but such protection may not be reliable enough with the Syrian army’s resources drained by the need to battle rebels all around the country.

Refugee convoys could make an easy target for the rebels when they try to move to neighboring Lebanon for a flight home. Direct Russian flights to Syrian airfields also would be a risky option with rebels possessing portable anti-aircraft missiles.

“That’s why they sent the planes now without waiting until the eleventh hour when rebels come close to victory,” Mirsky said.

Alexander Golts, an independent Moscow-based military analyst, said that if Russia sees Assad’s defeat as imminent, it would have to quickly organize a massive air bridge to take its citizens home. He said that such an effort would be extremely challenging and require sending troops to protect an air base in Syria that would be chosen for the evacuation to make sure that no rebels armed with anti-aircraft weapons are in close vicinity.

Even now, with Assad’s forces in control of the area around Damascus, Russian planes flew to Beirut in a clear move to reduce security risks, Golts said.

A Russian navy squadron, currently in the Mediterranean, is scheduled to conduct maneuvers off Syria’s shores later this month. It includes four landing ships capable of carrying several hundred marines and armored vehicles.

Golts said that that the marines on board the vessels could be deployed to protect an airfield in Syria if Moscow decides to launch a massive evacuation effort.

“Under the most favorable circumstances, it will be barely enough to take control of an air base and ensure its relative security,” Golts said. Protecting the area around the base chosen for evacuation is essential to reduce risks posed by portable anti-aircraft missiles, which rebels already used to down Syrian military aircraft.

The Russian government has given no signal that such an operation could be in the making.

Russian officials have said that both planes and navy ships could be involved in the evacuation of Russian citizens. Russia has a navy base in the Syrian port of Tartus, the only such outpost outside the former Soviet Union, which could be used for loading the evacuees on sea vessels.

Officials haven’t given any indication yet that the landing vessels now in the Mediterranean could take any evacuees on board. And after the ships head home after the maneuvers, it would take weeks for another squadron to reach the Mediterranean.

A mass evacuation of Russians from Syria would face other logistical challenges.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that it has contingency plans to evacuate Russians, but it has admitted that only a few thousand of tens of thousands of Russians have left their contact details at the Russian consulate.

Golts said that if the escalating fighting forces Russians to flee Syria en masse, they will have to get to the planes themselves through the war-torn country. “It’s hard to imagine how they could organize military protection for convoys,” he said.

#Syria rebels fight for strategic town in Hama province, Fight for Damascus Camp,Lebanon border post taken

Rebels thrust into a strategic town in Syria’s central Hama province on Thursday, activists said, pursuing a string of territorial gains to help cut army supply lines and cement a foothold in the capital Damascus to the south.

They have made a series of advances across the country, seizing several military installations and more heavy weaponry, hardening the threat to President Bashar al-Assad’s power base in Damascus 21 months into an uprising against his rule.

Rebels said a day earlier they had captured at least six towns in Hama province. On Thursday heavy fighting erupted in Morek, a town on the highway that runs from Damascus north to Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and another battleground.

The opposition-linked Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels were trying to take checkpoints in Morek, one of which they had already seized, and described the town as a critical position for the Syrian army.

“The town of Morek lies on the Damascus-Aleppo road … it has eight checkpoints and two security and military headquarters. If the rebels were able to control the town they would completely sever the supply lines between Hama and Damascus to Idlib province,” the group said in an email.

Idlib is in the rebel-dominated north bordering on Turkey.

The British-based Observatory has a network of activists across the country. Activist reports are difficult to verify, as the government restricts media access into Syria.

Fighting in Hama could aggravate Syria’s sectarian strife as it is home to many rural minority communities of Alawites and Christians. Minorities, and particularly the Alawite sect to which Assad himself belongs, have largely backed the president. Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority has been the engine of the revolt.

“Rebels are trying to take Mohardeh and al-Suqaylabiya, which are strongholds of the regime and are strategic. The residents are Christian and the neighboring towns are Alawite. The rebels worry security forces may be arming people there,” said activist Safi al-Hamawi, speaking on Skype.

He said the opposition feared skirmishes that had previously been largely Sunni-Alawite could spread into a broader sectarian conflict.

“I think it is still unlikely, because the residents have tried to maintain neutrality, but if the battle became a sectarian clash, it could be a catastrophe. Christians and Muslims could suddenly find themselves enemies.”

U.N. human rights investigators said on Thursday that Syria’s conflict was becoming more “overtly sectarian”, with more civilians seeking to arm themselves and foreign fighters - mostly Sunnis - flocking in from 29 countries.

“They come from all over, Europe and America, and especially the neighboring countries,” said Karen Abuzayd, one of U.N. investigators, told a news conference in Brussels.

The deepened sectarian divisions may diminish prospects for post-conflict reconciliation even if Assad is ousted, and the influx of foreigners raises the risk of fighting spilling into neighboring countries riven by similar communal fault lines.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Assad’s main ally and arms supplier, warned that any solution to the conflict must ensure government and rebel forces do not merely swap roles and fight on forever. It appeared to be his first direct comment on the possibility of a post-Assad Syria.

The West and some Arab states accuse Russia of shielding Assad after Moscow blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions intended to increase pressure on Damascus to end the violence, which has killed more than 40,000 people. Putin said the Syrian people would ultimately decide their own fate.

FIGHTS FOR DAMASCUS CAMP

Assad’s forces have been hitting back at rebel advances with bouts of heavy shelling, particularly along the eastern ring of suburbs outside Damascus, where rebels are dominant.

A Syrian security source said the army was planning heavy offensives in northern and central Syria to stem rebel advances, but there was no clear sign of such operations yet.

Rebels seized the Palestinian refugee district of Yarmouk earlier this week, which put them within 3 km (2 miles) of downtown Damascus. Heavy shelling and fighting forced thousands of Palestinian and Syrian residents to flee the Yarmouk area.

But rebels said on Thursday they were negotiating to put the camp - actually a densely packed urban district - back into the hands of pro-opposition Palestinian fighters. There are some 500,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants living in Syria, and they have been divided by the uprising.

Palestinian factions, some backed by the government and others by the rebels, had begun fighting last week, a development that allowed Syrian insurgents to take the camp.

Despite warnings of continued violence, a video released by activists on Thursday showed dozens of people returning to Yarmouk. Most of the people in the footage were men, suggesting entire families may not be venturing back yet.

“There are still negotiations going on between the Palestinians and the rebels. The rebels want control of the checkpoints to be sure they can keep supply routes open to central Damascus,” said a rebel who asked not to be named.

“Palestinians want their fighters to run the checkpoints so the army will stop attacking and people can go home. But we are worried there are government collaborators among them.”

The fighter said rebels were looking to ensure their Palestinian allies could keep open access for rebels in Yarmouk, which they have described as a gateway to central Damascus.

LEBANON BORDER POST TAKEN

Elsewhere, Syrian insurgents took over an isolated border post on the western frontier with Lebanon earlier this week, local residents told Reuters on Thursday.

They said around 20 rebels from the Qadissiyah Brigade overran the post at Rankus, which is linked by road to the remote Lebanese village of Tufail.

Video footage downloaded on the Internet on Thursday, dated December 16, showed a handful of fighters dressed in khaki fatigues and wielding rifles as they kicked down a stone barricade around a small, single-storey army checkpoint.

“This is the end of you, Bashar you dog,” one of the fighters said. The remains of two army trucks, which the rebels said had been blown up, stood nearby on a single track dirt road crossing a flat brown plain between snow-capped mountains.

The rebels already hold much of the terrain along Syria’s northern and eastern borders withTurkey and Iraq respectively.

Syrian Interior Minister Ibrahim al-Shaar arrived in Lebanon on Wednesday for treatment of wounds sustained in a bomb attack on his ministry in Damascus a week ago.

Lebanese medical sources said Shaar had shrapnel wounds in his shoulder, stomach and legs but they were not critical.

The Syrian opposition has tried to peel off defectors not only from the army but from the government as well, though only a handful of high-ranking officials have abandoned Assad.

But the conflict has divided many Syrian families. Security forces arrested on Thursday an opposition activist who is also the relative of Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa, the Syrian Observatory said. The man was arrested along with five other activists who are considered pacifists, it said.

Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim who has few powers in Assad’s Alawite-dominated power structure, said earlier this week that neither side could win the war in Syria. He called for the formation of a national unity government to solve a crisis that has killed more than 40,000 Syrians.

(Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

BEIRUT | Thu Dec 20, 2012 9:10am EST

Defecting #Syrian Officer: Chemical Weapons Already Transferred to Hezbollah

09/12/12

The Syrian army has already used a small amount of chemical weapons in a battle near Baba Amr.

By: Yori Yanover

Photo Credit: zaman-alwsl.net

The Syrian news website zaman-alwsl.net conducted an interview with a defecting Major in the Chemical Warfare Corp of the Syrian army, who revealed the following:

The Syrian army has already used a small amount of chemical weapons in a battle near Baba Amr.

In November large arsenals of chemical weapons was transfer from storage facilities on Mount Qassioun near Damascus, which is under the control of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence, to several airports in Syria, in order to load them onto planes for bombing rebel targets.

The Aldemir military airport, on the otskirts of Damascus, is designated as the main base of operations from which aerial bombing with chemical weapons will be carried out.

A large part of Syria’s chemical weapons has been removed from storage at Mount Qassioun and transferred by civilian cars chauffeured from Hezbollah soldiers to Hezbollah strongholds in southern Beqaa Valley in eastern Lebanon.

The Syrian army is being aided by Iranian and North Korean experts in treatment and usage of its chemical weapons.

Over the past month and a half the Syrian army has been testing its chemical weapons in the area of Al Muslemia, east of Aleppo, under the guidance of Iranian experts.

Syria’s civil war spills into Lebanon, 4 dead

By BARBARA SURK, Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s civil war spilled over into neighboring Lebanon once again on Sunday, with gun battles in the northern city of Tripoli between supporters and opponents of President Bashar Assad’s regime that left four dead.

Nine Syrian judges and prosecutors also defected to the opposition. It was the latest setback for the regime which in recent weeks has seen a tough rebel challenge in its seat of power, Damascus, and has lost two airbases to opposition fighters.

In Lebanon, fighting between pro-and anti-Assad gunmen flared as bodies of three Lebanese who fought in Syria’s civil war were brought back home for burial, the state-run National News Agency said.

Four people were killed and 12 were wounded in the gunfights, the agency said.

Syria civil war has often spilled into neighboring countries including Turkey, Lebanon and Israel, raising concerns of a wider war in the volatile region.

Lebanon, which Syria dominated for decades, is particularly vulnerable to getting sucked into the crisis. The two countries share a porous border and a complex web of political and sectarian ties.

Syria’s opposition is dominated by members of the Sunni Muslim minority. Assad’s regime is predominantly Alawite, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Tripoli has been the scene of frequent sectarian clashes between the Alawite and Sunni Muslim communities. Last week, the Lebanese army sent additional troops to Tripoli to try to prevent clashes that broke out over reports that 17 Lebanese men were killed after entering Syria to fight alongside the rebels.

In Syria, fighting between opposition fighters and regime troops was concentrated in northern Idlib province, in the Damascus suburbs and in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, according to the Britain-based opposition activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. At least 21 people were killed in fighting Sunday, said the group, which relies on reports from activists on the ground.

The defecting judges posted a joint statement online urging others to join them and break ranks with Assad’s regime. There have been a series of high-level defections over the past year, including Assad’s former prime minister.

The Observatory said the latest defectors came from the northern city of Idlib.

_____

Associated Press Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan contributed to this report.

Lebanon: Lebanon snipers open fire in Syria-linked clashes

07/12/12

Source: Agence France-Presse
Country: Lebanon, Syrian Arab Republic (the)

12/07/2012 17:45 GMT

TRIPOLI, Lebanon, Dec 7, 2012 (AFP) - Snipers in the north Lebanese city of Tripoli on Friday fired across a street-turned-frontline that divides two districts wracked by deadly sectarian clashes, an AFP correspondent said.

On Tuesday, intermittent clashes erupted in between the city’s Bab al-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen districts, pitting Sunnis against Alawites belonging to the same religious community as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

A total of 13 people — including a 13-year-old and an 11-year-old — were shot dead by snipers across Syria Street dividing the neighbourhoods.

The majority of Tripoli’s residents are Sunni Muslim and support the anti-Assad revolt in neighbouring Syria. A minority of Alawites support the regime, and fear potential sectarian violence should Assad fall.

Tensions in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second city, remained high on Friday as snipers held their positions, occasionally opening fire.

The death toll reached 11 by Thursday evening, while two other civilians were killed overnight, a security official[…]

Lebanon requests bodies of citizens killed fighting in #Syria

04/12/12

The 22 men were killed in an ambush as they were fighting alongside rebels in Syria

Beirut: Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour on Monday requested that Damascus repatriate the bodies of the Lebanese nationals killed fighting alongside rebels in Syria, a diplomatic source told AFP.

The foreign minister communicated the request to Ali Abdul Karim Ali, Syria’s ambassador to Lebanon, who promised he would deliver an answer on the matter by the following day.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najeeb Mikati meanwhile asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to aid in the return of the bodies.

On Friday, 22 young men, including a Palestinian, from the Lebanese city of Tripoli were killed in the Syrian border town of Tal Kalakh, according to a Lebanese official and an Islamist leader.

A Lebanese security source said the men “went to Syria to fight with the rebels and were all killed in an ambush in Homs province,” which borders Lebanon.

The source said 14 of the bodies had been delivered to a Syrian hospital by government troops.

The majority of people in the predominantly Sunni port city of Tripoli back the rebellion fought mainly by their co-religionists against Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, who belongs to the Alawite sect of Shiite Islam.

Clashes erupt almost daily along the Syrian border, pitting Lebanese Shiite militiamen with close ties to Hezbollah against anti-Al Assad rebels, according to local residents and activists.

#Syria, Tension Builds As Damascus Readies For Attack

04/12/12

Sky’s Foreign Affairs Editor, traveling by road

from Beirut to Damascus, reports on the

increasing tension in the Syrian capital.

Tim Marshall

Foreign Affairs Editor

By Syrian standards the drive from Beirut to Damascus was relatively uneventful.

There was a four-hour wait at the Lebanon/Syria border, then eight checkpoints to go through between the border and the capital.

Driving through the southern suburbs we lost count of the explosions we heard, a fighter jet screamed past us overhead, and a helicopter was up as we came into the city centre.

So far so, so less violent than last Thursday and Friday when rebel militias attacked the capital from four directions in what appeared to be an attempt to enter the centre.

Among the militia is thought to be the now much feared Nursa Front, a jihadist group with many foreign fighters in its ranks.

Then, the airport was closed, the highway to it cut, and the internet taken down as government troops repelled the assault.

The road from Beirut to Damascus The route from Lebanon’s capital to Damascus in Syria

One source here said the militia casualties were heavy with dozens of rebels being killed along the airport road alone. We can’t confirm this.

The airport has now reopened but the runways are empty as international airlines need more assurances that the area is safe.

Several sources say that Thursday’s attack on the capital was by far the best planned and most ambitious in the 22-month civil war.

During the summer there was a serious assault on Damascus, but this most recent battle appeared to involve more, and better trained, rebels who have clearly got hold of heavier weapons than they had before.

The capital is extremely tense. People are wondering when then next attack will come and from which direction.

The rebels appear to have come to the decision that without bringing the war to the heart of Damascus they will continue to struggle to bring down the government.

Hariri meets #Syrian opposition delegation

04/12/12

Former Pr.Minister Saad Hariri meets a Delegation of Syrian National Coalition opposition Headed By Sheikh Ahmed Maaz Khatib. Tuesday, December 04, 2012 (The Daily Star/DalatiNohra,HO)

BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri met Tuesday with a delegation from the Syrian National Coalition headed by Sheikh Amhad Moaz al-Khatib, a statement from Hariri’s press office said.

Hariri voiced full solidarity with the Syrian uprising against the Assad regime and hailed the opposition for uniting its ranks.

“Lebanon is looking forward to the day when the Syrian people’s wishes for a democratic regime and for oppression to end come true,” said Hariri.

Hariri said that supporting the Syrian opposition is a national duty and that such support will continue despite the difficult challenges faced by the Syrian rebel forces. “Standing by the opposition and the the Syrian National Coalition is a national duty that stems from our Arab sense of responsibility,” Hariri said.

The delegation, which visited Lebanon’s Future Movement head at his Saudi Arabia residence, included top leaders from the Syrian opposition.

#Syria U.N. seeks government help for Syrian refugees

Children of Syrian refugees ride on a motorcycle in Masharih Al-Qaa in Bekaa Valley October 17, 2012. (REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir)Nov 23/12 By Olivia Alabaster

BEIRUT: The U.N.’s refugee agency has met with the Social Affairs Ministry to seek authorization to turn abandoned public buildings into collective shelters for the growing number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

The matter was described as an “urgent priority” for the body, according to Friday’s edition of the latest weekly report.

There are now 128,841 displaced Syrians in Lebanon, either registered or having embarked upon the process of registration, with nearly 7,000 registered in the last week alone.

Yet there are possibly tens of thousands more unregistered refugees living in the country.

Some 2,450 refugees arrived in Lebanon over the last week, with the majority entering through official border crossings at Masnaa in east Lebanon and the Bekayaa/Aboudieh point in north Lebanon.

However, the flow of refugees across the border at Wadi Khaled was relatively slow this week, the report states. “The main reasons behind this continue to be prohibitive bribes and targeted shootings on the Syrian side hindering access to Lebanon,” it read.

The government’s Higher Relief Committee will soon resume joint registration of refugees, alongside the UNHCR, the report added.

The government announced several weeks ago that it would waive the $200 residency renewal fee for Syrians, but this has yet to be implemented.

The report stated that the “UNHCR continues to follow up with the General Security Office on the previously announced commitments to waive renewal fees and to regularize [the status of] those refugees who crossed through unofficial border crossings.”

After the issue of shelter, ensuring refugees are sufficiently prepared for winter is one of the main concerns of the UNHCR and the local and international organizations working alongside it.

The most noticeable gap in this sector “remains the provision of aid to newly arrived families and Lebanese families returning from Syria to Lebanon.”

5 Nov 2012 #Syrian workers now drawing hostility from Lebanese hosts

By David Enders | McClatchy Newspapers

BEIRUT — Syrians have long come to Lebanon in search of better job opportunities, but the sudden increase in their numbers as they flee the war in their homeland has exacerbated tensions with their Lebanese hosts.

Nadim Houry, the deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa for the advocacy group Human Rights Watch, said he’d documented growing harassment of Syrian workers in Lebanon.

“We’ve seen the army and the police detaining and roughing up a number of Syrian workers. Most recently, the Lebanese army beat up 72 workers; most of them were Syrian,” Houry said. “The Lebanese army rounded up the migrant men in the neighborhood and decided to ‘teach them a lesson’ instead of doing police work.”

The United Nations has registered more than 80,000 Syrians as refugees in Lebanon, a number that, since most refugees don’t register, only partly accounts for the migration. Syrian license plates have become ubiquitous, especially since the rebellion spread this summer from rural areas to the richest districts of Aleppo and Damascus, the country’s largest city and its capital, respectively.

“I’ve met some people who went back to their communities to help – some of them even picked up weapons – but they’ve come back to Lebanon because they ran out of money,” Houry said.

Syria’s hand in Lebanese politics, along with atrocities committed while Lebanon was under Syrian occupation, created a long-standing animus that’s been projected onto vulnerable Syrians here in the past. But as the Syrian government has threatened to destabilize Lebanon because of support here for the rebellion that’s seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, Syrian workers find themselves trying to keep a low profile while facing a dilemma: Before the civil war, Syrian workers in Lebanon generally planned for a future in Syria with the money they saved here. Now more and more are considering moving their families to Lebanon to escape the uncertainty in Syria, a dynamic that could quickly bring an even greater number of Syrians to this small country of about 4 million.

“Initially, many Lebanese sympathized with the uprising, and that sympathy continues, but that sympathy hasn’t translated into sympathy for the workers. So we’re still seeing some of the violations we saw before, like random xenophobic violence, but now we’re seeing it in greater numbers,” Houry said.

Kidnappings of Lebanese citizens in northern Syria, followed by retaliatory kidnappings of Syrians in Lebanon, have added to the tensions, as did the assassination in Beirut last month of a general whose death was widely blamed on the Syrian government.

Syrian workers have seen their wages drop as their Lebanese bosses realized they had few other options and would work for less.

“Syrian male workers in Lebanon have often been double victims,” Houry said. “First they were victims of the Syrian regime’s neglect for years, which pushed them into dangerous low-paying jobs in Lebanon in the construction industry and other things.”

Few Syrians were willing to discuss the situation in their home country. They avoid talking politics. Those who agreed to be interviewed asked that their surnames be withheld.

On the roof of the building where he shares a small apartment with other Syrian workers, Mohammed said he tried to keep a low profile. Still, he was assaulted during a recent wave of kidnappings; a great irony, because those who attacked him were supporters of the Syrian government.

“I’m pro-regime,” he said. “Some of the people who hit me were people that have known me for four years.”

But the danger here is less severe than it is in Syria.

Another man, also named Mohammed, said he’d stopped going back to visit his family in northern Syria because it wasn’t safe there and that the rest of his family was planning to come to Lebanon. He said that even if the government fell, he wasn’t sure when he’d return because he expected further instability.

“Some of my cousins were here before the revolution, but after it began all of them came,” Mohammed said. “Maybe I would live there after the regime falls, but at least I will be able to visit. I’m not afraid, but it is dangerous there. Lebanon is safer; if I go to Syria I might just disappear.”

The tension is being felt not only by construction workers and other laborers. College graduates, another demographic that historically has frequently left Syria seeking work, now also find themselves with fewer options. Tension between the Syrian government and Arab Persian Gulf countries over support for the rebels who are fighting the Syrian government has led to more restrictive visa policies for Syrians in the Gulf.

2 Nov 2012 #Syria : Freed Lebanese journalist Fidaa Itani returns to Beirut

Released journalist Fidaa Itani smiles upon his arrival at Beirut airport, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012. (The Daily Star/Hasan Shaaban)

BEIRUT: A Lebanese journalist who was held for six days by Syrian rebels returned to Beirut Thursday and urged Lebanese authorities to work on winning the release of the nine Lebanese held by Syrian rebels since May.

Hugging his 10-year-old daughter, Fidaa Itani told reporters at Rafik Hariri International Airport that while he was released from imprisonment, nine Lebanese are still kidnapped.

“Something serious should be done, not only on the official level for these nine,” he said.

Itani said that as a witness to Arab uprisings, particularly the one in neighboring Syria, he believes that the Syrian revolution has witnessed an “unsatisfactory development” over the past three months.

Itani, who works for LBCI and is a staunch supporter of the rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad, was reporting from Azaz, in the Syrian district of Aleppo, when he was put under house arrest by rebels.

The Free Syrian Army Azaz Northern Storm Brigade said Saturday they were holding the journalist in order to keep secret their tactics for the revolution. Meanwhile, nine of 11 Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped by rebels in May in Azaz are still being held.

Itani said he does not mind going back to Syria again, but said that the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria should apologize for arresting him.

Itani said he was imprisoned for six days, reversing earlier remarks he made when he was still held by rebels, in which he said that he was “free” with the FSA.

Receiving Itani at the airport was Information Minister Walid Daouk, the journalist’s relatives and colleagues.

The information minister congratulated Itani for his safety. “We had six annoying days and our thoughts were with him and with the Lebanese detained since six months.”

He said that the ministerial committee tasked with following up on the case of the nine kidnapped Lebanese is doing its best to secure their release.

“The president, prime minister and foreign minister are accompanying the committee’s work to win their release as soon as possible.”

Itani crossed into Turkey late Wednesday night and headed to the Lebanese Embassy in Ankara where he was received by the charge d’affaires. He then traveled to Istanbul, where he boarded a plane to Beirut.

President Michel Sleiman said he was pleased by the release of Itani and expressed hope that this would be a prelude for the release of all remaining Lebanese held in Syria. Sleiman said he wished efforts to free those most recently kidnapped in Aleppo, as well as teenager Samer Naim would intensify, a statement from his office said.

Naim, 16, was arrested by Syrian authorities in September. His relatives and residents of the Akkar village of Tal Andeh blocked the international highway to Syria after a promise to release him Thursday did not materialize.

For his part, Prime Minister Najib Mikati congratulated Itani for his safe return. Addressing his Twitter followers, Mikati said he is continuing efforts to secure the release of all the remaining kidnapped Lebanese in Syria.