Syrian Freedom

#Syria - Top envoy Brahimi meets Syria’s Assad

Joint UN-Arab League representative meets with Syrian president after dozens are killed in air strike on a bakery queue.

Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, has met with Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, in Damascus, a day after an air strike killed dozens of civilians in Hama province.

“I had the honour to meet the president and as usual we exchanged views on the many steps to be taken in the future,” Brahimi told reporters at his hotel in Damascus on Monday.

“Assad expressed his views on the situation and I told him about my meetings with leaders in the region and outside,” said the veteran Algerian diplomat, who took over his present task from former UN chief Kofi Annan.

Assad described his meeting with Brahimi as “friendly and constructive”, according to state television.

“The government is committed to ensure the success of all efforts aimed at protecting the sovereignty and independence of the country,” Assad said. State news agency SANA said Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, his deputy Faisal Muqdad and presidential advisor Buthaina Shaaban all attended Assad’s meetings with Brahimi.

Brahimi arrived in Syria on Sunday from neighbouring Lebanon. He had last visited the country on October 19.

Bakery air strike

On Sunday, anti-government activists in the town of Halfaya said that at least 90 people had been killed in an air strike on a bakery in the central Syrian town.

Halfaya was seized by rebels few days ago as part of a campaign to push into new territories in the 21-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

Mousab al-Hamadee, an activist in the suburbs of Hama, told Al Jazeera that Halfaya and nearby towns have witnessed heavy shelling since rebels began advancing in the province.

Samer al-Hamawi, an activist in the town, said that more than 1,000 people had been queueing at the bakery. Shortages of fuel and flour have made bread production erratic across the country, and people often wait for hours to buy loaves.

“We hadn’t received flour in around three days so everyone was going to the bakery today, and lots of them were women and children,” Hamawi said.

‘Terrorist attack’

Syrian state media, however, disputed that account, saying instead that a “terrorist” group had carried out the attack.

SANA, the country’s official news agency, citing residents of the town located in the central province of Hama, said: “An armed terrorist group attacked the town of Halfaya committing crimes against the population, killing many women and children.”

The report added that the Syrian army intervened during the assault and “killed and wounded many terrorists”, a term Syrian officials and state media use to refer to rebels fighting to oust the Assad government.

“Terrorists then shot video images to accuse the Syrian army when the international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi arrived in Syria,” the agency said.

The opposition Syrian National Council blamed the international community for “being responsible for this massacre… by not supporting the Syrian people”.

Both sides in the Syrian conflict have been accused by rights groups of carrying out attacks that could amount to war crimes, including summary executions and attacks on civilians.

12/24/2012

November 2012 - #Syria - American meets Free Syrian Army, An inside look at the values and ideologies of the Free Syrian Army

Turkey: NATO should view #Syria as attacking it

By Selcan Hacaoglu

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey said Monday it would push NATO to consider Syria’s downing of a Turkish jet as an attack on the whole military alliance.

The announcement came on the eve of a meeting by NATO’s governing body to discuss the incident. Despite deep frustration among many NATO countries over the conflict in Syria, where the opposition says President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on an increasingly armed popular uprising has killed 14,000 people, it’s highly unlikely the military alliance will take armed action against the Arab state.

The unarmed RF-4E reconnaissance jet was shot down a mile (1.6 kilometers) inside international airspace on Friday, and two Turkish pilots are still missing, the Turkish government says.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc also said for the first time that Syrian forces had opened ground fire on a CASA search and rescue plane shortly after the downing, but did not say if that plane was hit.

Arinc said Turkey retained its right to “retaliate” against what he called a “hostile act,” but he added, “We have no intention of going at war with anyone.”

Turkey will push NATO to consider the armed attack under Article 5 in a key alliance treaty, Arinc said. Article 5 states that an attack against one NATO member shall be considered an attack against all members.

The North Atlantic Council - which includes ambassadors of the 28 NATO countries - works by consensus and all members must approve any action. The meeting Tuesday comes after Turkey requested it under Article 4 of the treaty, which allows a NATO ally to request such a consultation if it feels its territorial integrity or security has been threatened.

Asked if Turkey will insist on the activation of Article 5 of NATO, Arinc said, “No doubt, Turkey has made necessary applications regarding Article 4 and Article 5.”

The prospect of Western military intervention in Syria remains remote, despite all the tough talk.

Such action is unlikely to get the support of either the U.N. Security Council or the Arab League, and outside intervention without the blessing of both of those bodies is all but unthinkable. And there is little appetite among the NATO countries - of which the U.S. is the largest - for another war in the Middle East.

Arinc further strongly denied Syrian claims that the downed plane was shot by anti-aircraft fire while flying low inside Syrian airspace.

The deputy premier admitted the jet mistakenly strayed into Syrian airspace when it was flying at an altitude of 200 feet and at a speed of 300 knots, but said it left the Syrian airspace after warning from Turkish radar operators and that it received no warning from Syrian forces during its five-minute flight inside Syrian territory.

Arinc reiterated Turkey’s insistence that the plane was not spying on Syria but just testing Turkey’s radar capabilities.

“There is no doubt that Syrians deliberately targeted our plane in international airspace,” Arinc said, accusing Syria of acting in a “cold-blooded” manner.

#Syria Turkey to convene emergency Nato meeting

Image 1 of 2

By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent

6:41PM BST 24 Jun 2012

The Turkish government brushed off protestations in Damascus that Friday’s incident was an accident, accusing Syria of deliberately bringing down the F-4 Phantom both in international airspace and without warning.

Bringing a potentially dangerous international dimension to the stand-off, Turkey took the highly unusual step of invoking Article IV of Nato’s founding charter as it sought Western backing for whatever response it chooses to make.

Article IV allows a Nato member to call for an emergency meeting of the whole alliance if it feels that its “territorial integrity, political independence or security” has been threatened. It has only been invoked once before, when Turkey, fearing a backlash by Saddam Hussein, successfully petitioned the alliance to station anti-missile batteries on its soil in the weeks before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Nato said its governing body would meet on Tuesday to discuss how to respond.

Underlining Turkish anger, Ahmet Davutoglu, the country’s foreign minister also said that a formal protest would be lodged with the United Nations Security Council.

Turkey’s robust response was welcomed by Britain and some of its European allies. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, described the incident as “outrageous” and warned Syria that it would face serious consequences.

“The Assad regime should not make the mistake of believing that it can act with impunity,” he said. “It will be held to account for its behaviour. The UK stands ready to pursue robust action at the United Nations Security Council.”

European Union foreign ministers, who will meet on Monday to discuss the incident, were similarly direct in the criticism of Syria. Giulio Terzi, Italy’s foreign minister, said the shooting down of the jet was a “further extremely serious and unacceptable action by the Assad regime.”

But there were calls for caution too, with Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister, saying: “Everything must be done to ensure that there won’t be any further escalation in the already tense region.”

Turkey has not yet revealed what measures it will take against Syria, nor what role Nato should play in them.

Diplomats suggested that Turkey would be more likely to seek political backing from Nato allies for whatever diplomatic or military steps it chooses to take.

There has been no suggestion that Turkey would invoke Article V of the Nato charter, which states that an attack on one member should be regarded as an attack on all, and could lead to military action by the entire alliance. The United States remains the only country to invoke the clause, doing so the day after the 9/11 attacks and paving the way for the Nato mission in Afghanistan.

Any attempt by Turkey to follow suit, even if it wanted to, would struggle to win UN legitimacy because Syria could mount an argument that it acted in self-defence.

The details of the incident remain in dispute. Turkey admitted that the aircraft had briefly and inadvertently entered Syrian territory. But Mr Davutoglu said the plane was shot down in international airspace and accused Syria of breaking all conventions over how to respond to an encroachment of his territory.

Syria neither made any attempt to communicate with the Turkish fighter, nor did it scramble its own air force, he said.

“According to our conclusions, our plane was shot down in international airspace, 13 nautical miles from Syria,” he said.

“The plane did not show any sign of hostility towards Syria and was shot down about 15 minutes after having momentarily violated Syrian airspace.

“The Syrians knew full well that it was a Turkish military plane and the nature of its mission.”

But Syria insisted that it had acted within its rights, and denied accusations that it had seen Turkish markings on the fighter.

“What happened was an accident and not an assault as some like to say, because the plane was shot while it was in the Syrian airspace and flew over Syrian territorial waters,” said Jihad Makdissi, the Syrian foreign ministry’s spokesman.

Turkey said the wreckage of the plane had been identified - within Syrian waters - but that it lay thousands of feet below the surface of the sea. Both pilots are still missing, raising public anger in Turkey.

Whatever the truth of the case, the incident will give Western powers greater justification to pursue Syria through the Security Council. Russia has twice blocked resolutions seeking to impose sanctions on the Assad regime, but has conspicuously refrained from making any official comment about Friday’s incident.

Turkey could also use the loss of its fighter to renew its case for the imposition of an internationally-policed buffer zone in Syrian territories along the border.

Western powers toyed with the idea in the past, but chose instead to support a UN-backed ceasefire plan brokered by Kofi Annan, the international envoy to Syria.

But with that plan considered to have failed after a surge of violence in Syria, Western states are looking for alternatives and could be persuaded to back the Turkish idea, analysts said.

Annan warns #Syria of grave concern, West pulls envoys

U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan is seen as he makes his way to meet with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus May 29, 2012. Assad met peace envoy Annan on Tuesday, the state news agency SANA said, amid an outcry over a massacre of civilians that U.N. observers attributed at least partly to the army but the government blamed on Islamist militants. At right is Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad. REUTERS-Stringer

U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan returns to the hotel after meeting with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus May 29, 2012. Assad met peace envoy Annan on Tuesday, the state news agency SANA said, amid an outcry over a massacre of civilians that U.N. observers attributed at least partly to the army but the government blamed on Islamist militants. REUTERS-Khaled al-Hariri

U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan (2nd L) returns to the hotel after meeting with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus May 29, 2012. Assad met peace envoy Annan on Tuesday, the state news agency SANA said, amid an outcry over a massacre of civilians that U.N. observers attributed at least partly to the army but the government blamed on Islamist militants.REUTERS-Khaled al-Hariri

By Joseph Logan

BEIRUT | Tue May 29, 2012 9:11am EDT

(Reuters) - Peace envoy Kofi Annan expressed “grave concern” to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday and Western nations threw out its envoys to protest against a massacre of 108 civilians, many of them children, in the town of Houla.

France, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia said they were expelling the Syrian envoys from their capitals in a move that was coordinated with the United States and underlined Assad’s diplomatic isolation.

The killings in Houla drew a chorus of powerful condemnation from around the world, with the United Nations saying entire families had been shot dead in their homes.

“Bashar al-Assad is the murderer of his people,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told Le Monde. “He must relinquish power. The sooner the better.” His Australian counterpart Bob Carr said: “This massacre of more than 100 men, women and children in Houla was a hideous and brutal crime.”

Assad’s government late on Monday denied having anything to do with the deaths, or even having heavy weapons in the area.

Western countries that have called for Assad to step down were hoping that the Houla killings would tip global opinion, notably that of Syria’s main protector Russia, towards more effective action against Damascus.

Annan drew up a peace plan backed by the United Nations and the Arab League to steer a way out of the 14-month-old uprising against Assad. But six weeks after it was agreed by Damascus and the rebels, the bloodshed has barely slowed.

Annan told Assad of the “grave concern of the international community about the violence inSyria, including in particular the recent events in Houla”, his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said in a statement after two hours of talks in Damascus.

“He conveyed in frank terms his view to President Assad that the six-point plan cannot succeed without bold steps to stop the violence and release detainees, and stressed the importance of full implementation of the plan.”

“HIDEOUS CRIME”

Carr said Syria’s expelled charge d’affaires in Canberra was told to “convey a clear message to Damascus that Australians are appalled by this massacre and we will pursue a unified international response to hold those responsible to account”.

Germany Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle urged the U.N. Security Council to revisit the situation in Syria.

The U.N. human rights office in Geneva said fewer than 20 of the 108 dead in Houla were killed by artillery and tank fire - weaponry that lightly-armed rebels do not have in their arsenal.

Survivors told U.N. investigators that most of the others had been shot by pro-Assad shabbiha militia, who in the past have intimidated and assaulted hotbeds of opposition to Assad.

“Almost half of the ones we know of so far are children - that is totally unpardonable - and a very large number of women as well,” said spokesman Rupert Colville. “At this point, it looks like entire families were shot in their houses.”

The report contradicted an open letter sent by Syria to the U.N. Security Council on Monday saying: “Not a single tank entered the region and the Syrian army was in a state of self-defense …

“The terrorist armed groups … entered with the purpose of killing and the best proof of that is the killing by knives, which is the signature of terrorist groups who massacre according to the Islamist way.”

Gruesome video footage distributed by opposition activists has helped to shake world opinion out of growing indifference to a conflict in which more than 10,000 have been killed.

RUSSIA SAYS BLAME SHARED

But Russia, which with China has twice vetoed U.N. Security Council resolutions on Syria but on Sunday backed a non-binding Council text criticizing the use of artillery and tanks in Houla, insists that rebels share the blame for the massacre.

Russia long saw Assad’s late father as the best defender of its interests in the region, and leases a major naval base in Syria. It has suggested that foreign countries are undermining Annan’s plan by supporting the opposition.

“We are alarmed that some countries … are starting to use this event as an excuse to put forth demands of the need for military action in an attempt to put pressure on the U.N. Security Council,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists in Moscow.

“We are troubled by the ceaseless attempts to frustrate Kofi Annan’s peace plan.”

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told reporters in Damascus late on Monday: “Syria has not committed a single violation of Annan’s plan or the initial understanding between Syria and the United Nations.

“At the same time, the other party has not committed to a single point. This means that there is a decision by the armed groups and the opposition not to implement Annan’s plan and to make it fail.”

He said he expected Annan to pressure the foreign states backing what Syria describes as a “terrorist” conspiracy funded abroad.

Sunni Muslim Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and Qatar favor arming the mostly-Sunni rebels fighting Assad, whose ruling cadre are mostly Alawites, members of an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

(Writing by Kevin Liffey)

Syrian opposition calls for emergency UN meeting over Hama attacks #Syria

Syria’s main opposition group on Thursday called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting after reports that up to 70 people died in an explosion in Hama.

Syria: Massive explosion in Hama 'kills 70'

Up to 70 people have been killed in an attack on a house in Hama, according to Syrian activists.

By Ruth Sherlock, Beirut and agencies

2:00PM BST 26 Apr 2012

“We are calling for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council so that it can issue a resolution to protect civilians in Syria,” the Syrian National Council said in a statement.

“Hama in recent days, and following a visit by UN observers, witnessed a series of crimes … that left more than 100 people dead and hundreds wounded because of heavy shelling.”

Smoke plumes rose over the southern Hama district of Masha at-Tayyar, with buildings flattened by the force of the blast. Footage on You Tube showed panicked crowds scrambling over the collapsed remains of buildings, carrying the semi-naked bloodstained body of a young girl. Ash-covered men dug through the piles masonry in search of people trapped below.

Government media and opposition activists blamed each other for the explosions which ripped through the working-class district on Wednesday afternoon. Syria’s state television network said 16 people, including women and children, had died in the blast in a house that was being used as a bomb factory by “armed terrorist groups”.

Activists speaking to the *Daily Telegraph* from close to the scene blamed the blast on Syrian military troops that they said were stationed nearby.

“It was a missile shot by Battilion 47, which is situated near that district,” said Mousab al-Hamadee, a member of Hama’s Local Coordination Committee for the opposition. “They thought that some defectors were hiding in that part of the city.”

Describing a the bloody scene Hamadee said that many of the victims of the blast were families who had fled the violence in neighbouring Homs and had been living in the district as refugees. Activists put the body count as high as 68, including 13 children and 16 women, with more bodies still under the rubble.

Footage of the sweeping damage, including large craters in the ground looked difficult to achieve with conventional government shelling.

Activists claimed they had heard sounds resembling those of an incoming missile and suggested it may have been a Scud attack. “We heard the hiss of the rocket before it hit,” said al-Hamadee.

With foreign journalists restricted from working in Syria, it is impossible to independently determine the veracity of either claim. Opposition figures inside Hama called on the two UN Observers stationed in the city to visit the scene of the attack that comes just days after reports of heavy shelling of the city that is said to have killed at least 30 civilians.

A video emerged on Thursday which purportedly shows a man being buried alive by security forces, allegedly for sending material to foreign news agencies. The authenticity of the video could not be confirmed, but claims of attacks, execution and the torture of captives continue to be made on a near daily basis by both the government and the opposition. Fighting between military troops and rebel militias has continued across the country, only declining slightly in the face of peace envoy Kofi Annan’s truce.

Frustrated by the slow decline in civilian deaths since the initial fifteen UN monitors arrived in Syria, the Syrian National Council declared that an emergency UN Security Council meeting was necessary “so that it can issue a resolution to protect civilians”.

Syrian opposition meeting in Istanbul marred by dissent #Syria

Afp 27/03/12

Haitham al-Maleh, (Photo: Reuters).

The Syrian National Council (SNC) main opposition group unveiled a proposal to lay the foundations of a new Syria to some 400 opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime’s crackdown on dissenters has claimed almost 10,000 lives in a year, according to monitors. The participants met behind closed doors at a hotel outside Istanbul.

The SNC text highlighted human rights and respect for minorities — an important concept in a country with multiple ethnic and religious factions living in fear of a civil war.

One of the main objectives of the meeting was to put up a united front prior to Sunday, when the second international conference of the “Friends of Syria” takes place, bringing together most Western and Arabic countries. “We are holding this meeting as a preparation for the next conference,” said Halit Hoca of the SNC.

But unity proved elusive.

The National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, which groups Arab nationalist parties, Kurds and socialists, shunned the gathering. Also absent also were a small group of intellectuals, including the prominent Michel Kilo.

Dissent broke out among participants from the start of the meeting with human rights activist Haitham al-Maleh withdrawing from the talks and accusing the SNC of not respecting others and imposing its will.
“I think most (members of the SNC) do not want to cooperate with others,” al-Maleh told journalists. “I want to see that they really want to practice democracy, but until now they are behaving line the Ba’ath party” of Assad, he said.

Al-Maleh, one of the main figures in the anti-regime movement, was one of the eight executive committee members of the SNC before he resigned on March 14, along with two others, Kamal al-Labwani and Catherine al-Telli.

The Kurdish National Council, the main group representing Syria’s four million Kurds, also walked out of the meeting. “We need a specific solution for the Kurdish matter in this paper… They (SNC) said maybe we will discuss this later,” said Talal Ibrahim Pach al-Milli.

Ammar Qurabi, leader of the liberal National Movement for Change, said he would not sign the declaration on the future of Syria as he found too “general.” “We staged the revolution against the regime because it didn’t allow us to speak freely, but now in this conference for the opposition I couldn’t speak freely,” he said.

The SNC’s executive committee member Bassma Qodmani called on the opposition factions not to sacrifice their “absolutely crucial objective” for organisational concerns that he said were “secondary.”

The 10 members of the executive committee of the SNC and leaders of various opposition factions outside the SNC will meet Wednesday to continue discussions on reorganising the opposition, said Ahmad Kamel from the SNC press office.

Turkey has become a safe haven for Syrian opponents since the anti-regime protests broke out last year, leading to the deaths of at least 9,100 people according to monitors.

Rockets hit Homs opposition as Arab ministers meet #Syria

Demonstrators gather during a protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Homs February 10, 2012. REUTERS-Handout

Syrian security inspect the site of an explosion in Syria's northern city of Aleppo February 10, 2012. REUTERS-SANA

People walk amidst chunks of concrete strewn on the ground after an explosion in Aleppo in this still image taken from video on February 10, 2012. REUTERS-Syrian TV via Reuters TV

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Angus MacSwan

AMMAN/BEIRUT | Sun Feb 12, 2012 8:33am EST

(Reuters) - Sporadic rocket and gunfire broke a respite in Syrian government attacks on opposition-held districts of Homs city on Sunday as Arab League officials in Cairo discussed ways to halt the crackdown and shift President Bashar al-Assad from power.

The activist Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four people were been killed in Baba Amro on Sunday morning and at least 34 rockets had rained down on the neighborhood.

Earlier, traumatized residents had straggled from their homes after Syrian forces eased a week-long bombardment that has killed hundreds and caused a humanitarian crisis.

A few families were allowed to leave mostly Sunni Muslim opposition districts where people had been trapped indoors for days by relentless artillery and sniper fire, residents said.

International efforts to resolve the crisis, the longest of the Arab Spring revolts which saw the overthrow of leaders in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia last year, picked up in Cairo.

The Arab League meeting opened with the resignation of the Sudanese general who led the monitoring mission to Syria, Mohammed al-Dabi. He had been a controversial figure because of his country’s own poor human rights record.

The League proposed that former Jordanian foreign minister Abdel Elah al-Khatib, the U.N.’s troubleshooter for the Libya crisis last year, was made special envoy for the Syria crisis.

The League, which suspended Syria over a crackdown that has killed thousands since March, was also to discuss a possible joint United Nations-Arab monitoring team to replace a League mission called off last month as violence intensified.

A Syrian opposition leader said Gulf ministers would also discuss a proposal to recognize the exiled Syrian National Council (SNC) in a move to further isolate Assad.

Senior SNC official Abdel Baset, who has been meeting Arab ministers and officials, said ministers were also expected to discuss proposals for a “Friends of Syria” contact group of Arab, Western and other countries to press for action over Syria. The plan was proposed by France and the United States.

HOMS UNDER FIRE AGAIN

In Homs, shelling had eased during Saturday night and Sunday morning before Assad’s forces renewed their rocket barrages.

About 15 families were allowed to leave the battered Baba Amro and Inshaat neighborhoods, opposition campaigner Mohammad al-Hassan told Reuters by telephone from Homs.

Electricity and telephone lines were working in several districts of Homs after being cut off more than two weeks ago.

YouTube footage showed several thousand people rallying in Deir Baalba district. Youths with their arms around each others’ shoulders danced and waved the green and white flags of the republic overthrown by Assad’s Baath Party in a 1963 coup.

“God damn your soul, to hell with you Bashar. Our martyrs are going to heaven, Hafez and Bashar,” they chanted, referring to the president - in power for 11 years - and his late father.

The Assad family, from the minority Alawite sect, have ruled Sunni-majority Syria for 42 years.

The opposition Local Coordination Committees cited doctors at makeshift hospitals as saying at least 31 people were killed in Homs on Saturday before the shelling eased off.

REGIONAL TINDERBOX

World powers are divided over how to end the conflict which threatens to blow open the complex ethnic, religious and political faultlines across the Middle East.

On February 4, Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution sponsored by Western and Arab states that backed an Arab League transition plan calling for Assad to step down.

Diplomats at the United Nations say Saudi Arabia, a Sunni power irked by Assad’s alliance with its Shi’ite regional rival Iran, has floated a similar draft for the U.N. General Assembly, where resolutions are non-binding but cannot be vetoed.

But a Saudi foreign ministry official denied on Sunday that Riyadh had formally submitted any such measure. “No provision of any draft resolution on behalf of the Kingdom has been presented to the General Assembly,” he told the state news agency SPA.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Saturday that Moscow would not back any “unbalanced” text in the assembly similar to the one it blocked in the Security Council.

On Friday, Saudi King Abdullah said the Russian and Chinese veto of the Syria resolution was an “unfavorable” move.

Meanwhile Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri urged Syrians not to rely on the West or Arab governments in their uprising.

“You know better what they are planning against you. Our people in Syria, don’t depend on the Arab League and its corrupt governments supporting it,” Zawahri said in a video recording posted on the Internet on Sunday.

He described Assad as a butcher and urged Muslims in Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan to come to the aid of Syrian rebels.

In Syria’s northern town of Aleppo, mourners gathered for the funerals of 28 soldiers and civilians killed in bomb attacks on two military and security facilities on Friday.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing but the Assad government has blamed previous such attacks in Damascus on al Qaeda. It characterizes its opponents as foreign-backed “armed terrorists.”

Speaking at the funerals, Ahmed Badr al-Din Hassoun, mufti of Syria, appealed to the opposition to end its campaign.

“Enough. Enough. Enough. Why, brothers in the opposition, do you want to burn down your country? Why do you want to shed blood?” he said.

He also urged Assad to stamp out corruption, saying “this way it will not remain a pretext for those who want to destroy this nation.”

COMPROMISE

In a rare show of compromise, government forces and rebels struck a truce in the town of Zabadani near the Lebanese border after a week of shelling by the military.

Under the agreement, reached after a week-long tank and artillery bombardment that killed at least 100, rebel forces were allowed to leave if they gave up weapons and armor seized from government forces, said Kamal al-Labwani, an opposition leader in exile.

Assad has sent his forces into cities and towns across Syria to put down the uprising and as it evolves from pro-democracy street protests to armed insurrection, world powers fear a slide into civil war with knock-on effects for Syria’s neighbors.

Gulf Arab states, the United States, Europe and Turkey hope diplomacy can force Assad out and have ruled out military action of the kind that helped oust Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi last year.

Assad can count on the support of Russia, Syria’s main arms supplier and an ally stretching back to the Soviet era, as well as Iran. Moscow, which is keen to counter U.S. influence in the Middle East, insists foreign powers should not interfere.

(Additional reporting by Ayman Samir in Cairo and Erika Solomon in Beirut; Editing by Alistair Lyonand Louise Ireland)

#Syria forces bombard Homs, U.N. condemns “appalling brutality”

Damaged houses are seen in the Sunni Muslim district of Bab Amro in Homs in this handout picture received February 8, 2012. REUTERS-Mulham Alnader-Handout

Supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gather on a Damascus street, to welcome Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, February 7, 2012, in this handout photograph released by Syria's national news agency SANA. REUTERS-SANA

Smoke rises from the suburb of Erbeen in Damascus, January 29, 2012. Around 2,000 Syrian troops backed by tanks launched an assault to retake Damascus suburbs from rebels on Sunday, activists said, a day after the Arab League suspended its monitoring mission in Syria because of worsening violence. REUTERS-Handout

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Angus MacSwan

AMMAN/BEIRUT | Thu Feb 9, 2012 4:29pm GMT

(Reuters) - Syrian forces bombarded opposition-held neighbourhoods of the city of Homs with rocket and mortar fire on Thursday, activists said, as divided world powers struggled to find a way to end the violence.

The United Nations chief condemned the ferocity of the government assault on the heart of a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad that broke out nearly a year ago and is getting bloodier by the day.

“I fear that the appalling brutality we are witnessing in Homs, with heavy weapons firing into civilian neighbourhoods, is a grim harbinger of things to come,” U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said after briefing the Security Council in New York.

Activists and residents report hundreds of people killed over the last week as Assad’s forces try stamp out opposition in Homs and as Thursday dawned, rocket and mortar fire rained down again on Baba Amro, Khalidiya and other districts. Armoured government reinforcements also poured into the eastern city.

A Syrian doctor, struggling to treat the wounded at a field clinic in a mosque, launched an emotional video appeal over the Internet for the world to stop the killing and send aid.

Concern was growing over the plight of civilians and the United States said it was considering ways to get food and medicine to them - a move that would deepen international involvement in a conflict which has wide geopolitical dimensions and has caused division between foreign powers.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said before flying to Washington for talks on Syria that Turkey, which once saw Assad as an ally but now wants him out, could no longer stand by and watch. Turkey wanted to host an international meeting to agree ways to end the killing and provide aid, he said.

“It is not enough being an observer,” he told Reuters, though Russia and China have warned against “interference”.

Foreign ministers of the Arab League, which the U.N.’s Ban said was planning to revive an observer mission it suspended last month, are due to meet in Cairo on Sunday. They may want to hear other governments’ ideas by then.

China, cool to Western lobbying for international involvement, nonetheless reported its first formal contact with a Syrian opposition figure who visited Beijing last week.

HOMS UNDER FIRE

The Syrian Revolution Coordinating Commission said at least 30 civilians in Homs were killed in bombardments on Thursday morning on mainly Sunni Muslim neighbourhoods that have been the focus of attacks by the government forces led largely by members of Assad’s Alawite religious minority.

Such sectarian divisions have been coming to the surface as killings have increased on either side of the conflict.

The main street in Baba Amro was strewn with rubble and at least one house was destroyed, according to YouTube footage broadcast by activists from the district who said troops had used anti-aircraft cannon to demolish the building.

The video showed a youth putting two bodies wrapped in blankets in a truck. What appeared to be body parts were shown inside the house.

Hussein Nader, an activist in Baba Amro, told Reuters: “Silence reigns for four to five minutes, then another barrage of tank fire or rockets or mortar rounds comes in.”

“Whole houses have come down and we do not know how many more have been killed. They are not advancing and it seems that they are content by continuing to shell Baba Amro until every inhabitant is killed.”

A doctor, his name given only as Mohammed, broadcast a cry for help on YouTube from his makeshift surgery in a mosque.

Standing next to a bloody body on a table, he said: “We appeal to the international community to help us transport the wounded. We wait for them here to die in mosques. I appeal to the United Nations and to international humanitarian organisations to stop the rockets from being fired on us.”

The Syrian Human Rights Organisation (Sawasiah)said this week’s assault on Homs had killed at least 300 civilians and wounded 1,000, not counting Thursday’s toll. International officials have estimated the overall death toll in Syria since last March at more than 5,000.

Activists said neighbourhoods of Homs remained without electricity and water and basic supplies were running low.

There was no comment from the Syrian authorities, who have placed tight restrictions on access to the country and it was not possible to verify the reports of local activists.

Mazen Adi, a prominent Syrian opposition figure in Paris, said rebels loosely organised under the Free Syrian Army were fighting back and staging hit-and-run guerrilla attacks against government forces in Homs.

“The regime cannot keep tanks for long inside opposition neighbourhoods because they will be ambushed,” he said.

The role of the FSA, largely made up of soldiers who have defected from the government forces, highlighted the slide in the uprising against the Assad family’s 42-year dynastic rule from civilian demonstrations to armed insurgency over the past few months. The Assad government contends it is fighting foreign -backed “armed terrorists”.

VOLATILE MIX

Syria’s position at the heart of the Middle East, allied to Iran and home to a volatile religious and ethnic mix, means Assad’s international opponents have ruled out the kind of military action they took against Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.

Russia and China, which let the United Nations support the air campaign in Libya, provoked strong condemnation from the United States, European powers and Arab governments when they vetoed a resolution in the Security Council last week that called on Assad to step down.

Moscow, for whom Syria is a buyer of arms and host to a Soviet-era naval base, wants to counter U.S. influence and maintain its traditional role in the Middle East.

For both Russia and China, Syria is also a test case for efforts to resist international encroachment on sovereign governments’ freedom to deal with rebels as they see fit.

Campaigning for next month’s presidential election that he is certain to win, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, said: “Help them, advise them, limit, for instance, their ability to use weapons but not interfere under any circumstances.”

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in a phone conversation that the search for a solution should continue but that foreign interference was not an option.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy also spoke to Medvedev on Wednesday night and said that despite their differences, it was necessary to maintain pressure on Assad’s government so that the repression ended.

“(Sarkozy) asked that Russia give its total support to the Arab League to convince Assad to step aside, to avoid a civil war that threatened Syria and the stability of the region and to allow an orderly political transition,” Sarkozy’s office said.

The U.N.’s Ban said it was more urgent than ever to find common ground. In an implicit criticism of the Assad government, he said: “Such violence is unacceptable before humanity … We have heard too many broken promises, even within the past 24 hours.”

In Washington, officials said the United States planned to meet soon with its allies to discuss ways to halt the violence and provide humanitarian aid to civilians under attack.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the talks, which would include the opposition Syrian National Council, were aimed at helping the process “move toward a peaceful, political transition, democratic transition in Syria”.

Any international move to bring in humanitarian aid could open a dangerous and complicated new chapter in the crisis, with air drops seen as expensive and ineffective and any land routes open to attack from Syrian forces. But the White House stressed it was not actively considering military intervention.

Gulf ministers delay #Syria meeting to Sunday

(AFP)

8 February 2012

RIYADH — Gulf foreign ministers have rescheduled their meeting on Syria to Sunday in Cairo, a Gulf Cooperation Council official said on Wednesday.

“The meeting which was set to take place in Riyadh on Saturday will now be held in Cairo on Sunday ahead of the Arab League ministerial meeting” in the Egyptian capital, the GCC official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

Members of the six-nation GCC on Tuesday decided to recall their envoys from Damascus and expel Syrian ambassadors from their countries in protest at Syria’s lethal crackdown on dissent.

Oman had said earlier this week that the GCC ministerial meeting would be held on Saturday in Riyadh.

The Arab League, which has suspended an observer mission in Syria because of the upsurge in the violence, was originally due to meet on Saturday but delayed the session to allow the Gulf states to convene beforehand.

The League has put forward a plan for President Bashar al-Assad to hand power to his deputy and for the formation of a unity government ahead of polls.

Tea with the Free #Syria Army, and our government minder

Tea with the Free Syria Army, and our government minder

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