An award-winning Japanese journalist dies after a gunfight between Syrian forces and rebels in Aleppo while she was travelling with the Free Syrian Army.

Mika Yamamoto, a 45-year-old award-winning video journalist working for Tokyo-based independent news wire Japan Press, was fatally wounded in the fighting, a Japanese foreign ministry official said.

In a telephone interview with a Japanese TV news programme, fellow Japan Press reporter Kazutaka Sato, who was travelling with Yamamoto, said it appeared she was shot by government forces.

“We saw a group of people in camouflage fatigues coming toward us. They appeared to be government soldiers. They started random shooting. They were just 20, 30 metres away or even closer,” said Sato.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the clash occurred in the Suleimaniya district of Aleppo, the scene of heavy fighting between government and rebel forces.

Pioneer

Japan Press was not immediately available for comment. Its website said Yamamoto reported from Afghanistan under the Taliban and covered the 2003 Iraq war from Baghdad.

Ms Yamamoto’s Iraq reporting won a Vaughn-Ueda prize given by the Japanese Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association and modelled on the US Pulitzers media awards.

In April 2003 she narrowly escaped a US tank attack on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, Jiji news agency said, while news agency Kyodo described her as a “pioneer video journalist”.

Ms Yamamoto is the first Japanese killed in the current armed conflict in Syria, the ministry official said.

“It is extremely regrettable that a Japanese reporter was gunned down and killed,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said at a daily news briefing.

“We reproach such an act and offer our heartfelt condolences to those left behind.”

Disappearances

The Syrian activist group also said that a Lebanese journalist, a Turkish journalist and an Arab journalist, whose nationality it did not identify, had disappeared in Aleppo.

According to the Reporters Without Borders organization, Syria and Somalia rank as the world’s most dangerous countries for media this year, with five journalists and three media assistants killed in Syria by early August and eight journalists killed in Somalia.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, battling a 17-month-old uprising against his family’s 42-year rule, has used fighter jets and helicopter gunships to pound rebel strongholds, often in cities. Insurgents in turn have stepped up their own attacks, hitting tanks, military convoys and security buildings.

At least 18,000 people have now been killed in Syria since the anti-Assad revolt began.

11/08/2012 Salaheddin, Aleppo, #Syria *MUST WATCH*: Assad sniper shoots at an unarmed civilian; civilian tries to flee but sniper eventually shot him down with a few more bullets in him, leaving him to die on the street.

16/08/2012  Bab al-Nasr, Aleppo, #Syria: Elderly man weeps as he is shot by a regime sniper in the arm

15/08/2012 Damascus, #Syria *GRAPHIC*: Martyrs executed by the regime forces’ direct gunfire in Qaboun

13/08/2012

Syrian forces committed a “massacre” in suburban Damascus on Monday, a day after 110 people died across the country, opposition activists said.

Regime forces killed at least 10 people at the entrance of Jdeidet Artouz early Monday, but residents are unable to reach the bodies because “regime forces have been firing at anything that moves,” the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said. The LCC reported 17 people killed throughout Syria on Monday.

Similar tales of horror have emerged across the country.

On Sunday, the besieged Syrian city of Homs faced new terror as pro-regime forces executed 10 young men in the dissident stronghold, opposition activists said.

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad stormed the Shammas neighborhood of Homs and gathered 350 young men in the square of a mosque, said the Syrian National Council, an umbrella opposition group.

10/08/2012 Idlib, #Syria *GRAPHIC*: Martyr Mohammad AbdelHameed Ali was murdered by shooting from the regime’s army.

09/08/12

WHAT ASSAD’S ARMY DOES TO CIVILIAN CHILDREN!  WHAT IF THIS WERE YOUR CHILD?

#Syria #Homs #Talbiseh
Do you know why or how this little child got hurt?
He was selling vegetables on the road. A Shabiha member attacked the boy so this little young man feared his sisters’ lives so he went to protect them. The daemon shot him in his stomach.

26/07/2012 Zahraa, Aleppo, #Syria: According to witnesses’ testimony 

We saw a car passed before our house just half an hour ago. And after sometime we heard sounds of gunshots, around 12 shots. Sound was interrupted and not continuous indicating a sound made by guns. We also saw smoke rising from Al-Zahra institution near the area of Al-Neft School, yet we never hear sounds of explosion. We saw a car set on fire and burned with smoke coming out of the car , the car was clearly exposed to fire shots. We found charred bodies burned and according to another witness nearby the place, one more car, white in color was filled with people who were arrested and were screaming and calling for help. They were also burned and killed. We opened the trunk of the car to find 3 more charred bodies. The number of charred bodies found is around 9! 

This is the video of 3 martyrs:

Syrian rebels are readying themselves to battle government forces for control of Aleppo

27/07/2012

Syrian forces have renewed their assault on the northern city of Aleppo, firing from helicopter gunships on rebel-held areas.

The US state department has said it fears Syrian government forces are preparing to carry out a massacre.

The pro-government al-Watan newspaper has warned that the mother of all battles is about to start.

Rebels in Aleppo, Syria’s most populous city, have been stockpiling ammunition and medical supplies in preparation.

Syrian troops fired from helicopter gunships on south-western neighbourhoods of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told the AFP news agency.

A convoy of tanks from Idlib province, near the border with Turkey, arrived in Aleppo overnight and was attacked by rebels, the Observatory said.

At least 34 people were killed in the city on Thursday, activists said, as artillery and helicopter gunships attacked rebel targets.

Residents flee

The US state department said the deployment of tanks, helicopter gunships and fixed-winged aircraft around Aleppo suggested an attack was imminent.

But the US would not intervene, said state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, except by continuing to channel non-lethal assistance such as communications equipment and medical supplies to the rebels.

The BBC’s Ian Pannell, near Aleppo, says thousands of people have already left as fears grow that an intense battle looms.

Talal al-Mayhani, an activist with connections to the rebel movement in Aleppo, said the battle for the city was likely to play out in a similar way to an earlier battle in the capital Damascus.

There, rebels took control of large parts of the city before being forced to withdraw in the face of a government offensive.

Foreign journalists operate under heavy restrictions in Syria so claims made by either side are difficult to verify.

Continue reading the main story‘Lessons from Balkans conflict’

A Syrian MP from Aleppo has fled to Turkey, Turkey’s state-run Anatolia news agency says.

Ikhlas Badawi, a mother of six, said she was defecting in protest at the “violence against the people”.

Meanwhile, another defector, Gen Manaf Tlas, has put himself forward as a possible figure to unite the fractious opposition.

In an interview with a Saudi newspaper, Asharq al-Awsat, he said: “I am discussing with… people outside Syria to reach a consensus with those inside.”

However, some in the opposition regard Gen Tlas - who fled earlier this month - as a compromised figure too close to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said the world must apply the lessons learned from the Bosnian conflict in the 1990s.

He was speaking in Srebrenica, where a UN peacekeeping force failed to stop the killing of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in 1995.

“I do not want to see any of my successors, after 20 years, visiting Syria, apologising for what we could have done now to protect the civilians in Syria - which we are not doing now,” Mr Ban said.

The head of UN peacekeeping operations, Herve Ladsous, defended the decision to reduce the number of observers in Syria.

“We found ourselves with too many people and not enough to do,” he said.

Speaking in Damascus, he said there was “no plan B” beyond Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan.

Repeated diplomatic attempts to stop the violence have foundered, with the UN Security Council bitterly divided.

The Syrian government has said its forces are trying to dislodge the “remnants of mercenary terrorist groups”.

More than 16,000 people have been killed in Syria since the start of anti-regime protests in March 2011, activists say.

Russian president Vladimir Putin (left) greets UN envoy Kofi Annan at the start of a meeting concerning a peace plan for Syria at the Kremlin in Moscow yesterday. Clashes in Damascus between rebels and state forces raged for a third day, in the fiercest fighting to hit Syria’s seat of power since the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad began 17 months ago.Photograph: Sergei Karpukhin

MICHAEL JANSEN

UN HUMANITARIAN chief Valerie Amos yesterday warned combatants involved in the Syrian conflict to avoid loss of civilian life or face prosecution for war crimes as fierce fighting continued for the third day in Damascus.

Baroness Amos observed: “As the International Committee of the Red Cross has now described the situation as an armed conflict, international humanitarian law applies across Syria in areas where there is fighting.”

Shooting was reported in the capital near the central bank in Seven Springs Square, often the site of pro-regime demonstrations, and at the headquarters of the ruling Baath party in the al-Mazra’ah area. Firing erupted on Baghdad Avenue, and rebels claim to have shot down one of the helicopters overhead.

The army was said to have deployed artillery against rebel strongholds in the capital’s outskirts where dissidents established a presence many months ago. The escalation followed the declaration on Monday night by the rebel Free Syrian Army of “Damascus Volcano”, an all-out offensive against government troops. Rebel spokesman Col Qassim Saadeddine announced, “The battle for Damascus has begun.” A diplomat in Damascus said this operation has started ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan when anti-regime protesters can be expected to take to the streets.

This battle commenced on the southern edge of the capital and has spread to the northeast and centre. A main focus has been the Midan district, where troops have surrounded rebels and refuse to allow them to retreat to less densely populated areas. Shooting has been heard in Palestinian camps where rebels retreating from the besieged Tadamon quarter have sought refuge.

The rebels also announced they launched attacks on government troops in traditional hot spots Homs, Hama and Idlib, and threatened to block main internal and international routes. The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, an influential component of the ex-patriate Syrian National Council, urged Syrians to seize “this historic moment” by giving support to the rebels. “Prepare to become soldiers in this decisive battle. You will secure victory with your own two hands,” stated the movement, outlawed in Syria since 1963.

The opening of the offensive has been timed to coincide with the UN Security Council’s consideration of a draft resolution, proposed by Britain, the US, France and Germany. It would extend the deployment of the UN monitoring mission in Syria for 45 days and place implementation of the peace plan proposed by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan under chapter seven of the UN charter which authorises military action as well as sanctions if threats are posed to international peace and security.

Although the US says it favours sanctions not military action, Moscow distrusts Washington which used a similar resolution to lead Nato intervention in the Libyan conflict. During talks in Moscow with Mr Annan, Russian president Vladimir Putin pledged to “do everything” to support the Annan peace plan but would not back the western draft. Mr Annan, who warned the “crisis is in a key turning point”, said he hoped discussions would continue and send a message to Syria. Ahead of this encounter, Moscow declared its intention to veto the resolution. Russia has circulated its own draft extending the mandate of the monitors.

In spite of a last-minute appeal from UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, China is likely to support Russia in the vote, scheduled for today. China’s People’s Daily editorialised, “The life of Syria’s current political leadership can only be determined by the Syrian people.”

(05/07/2012) Al Jamilieh, Aleppo, #Syria: Security forces blocked the main road after some clashes where two hand grenades exploded amongst security forces of the Assad Regime. A hero from the Free Syrian Army was arrested. Shooting continued for around 10 minutes before the roads were cut off. People are now filled with fear and panic.

06/30/12 #Syria Security forces shoot at a protest in Salamiyeh, 1 dead, 17 injured, thanks @abuhatem 

http://youtu.be/oVd7-85GBVY

06/25/12 #Syria Regime armour firing in Kafarnabouza, Hama

06/08/12 #Syria Shooting at protest in Aleppo

05/27/12 #Syria Security forces open fire at demonstrators in Damascus