UEFA chief Platini vows to help young Syrian refugees

June, 16, 2013 by AFP

Michel Platini, president of European football’s governing body UEFA, visited Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan on Sunday, home to tens of thousands of Syrians, and vowed to help youths there.

“I am proud to see how UEFA is supporting football in Asia and helping youths in the camp overcome this difficult stage of their lives,” Platini was quoted as saying by state-run Petra news agency.

“Using football to create social change is still our objective. We will work hard to continue to back our efforts.”

As temporary home to more than 160,000 Syrians, Zaatari’s population is the equivalent to the kingdom’s fifth largest city, according to the United Nations.

More than 60 percent of the Syrian refugees are under 18.

Petra said a sports committee of Syrian refugees told Platini that “it is important to hold regular football matches in the camp”.

Platini and FIFA vice president, Jordan’s Prince Ali, toured the camp and met UN officials, and the UEFA chief also met King Abdullah II, a palace statement said.

Jordan says it currently hosting more than 500,000 Syrian refugees.

Source: now.mmedia.me

June 4, 2013 Syrian rebels attack regime posts in Qusair

Some of the heaviest fighting in Syria is taking place in and around Qusayr near the Lebanese border. The regime offensive to take control of the twon is now in its third week. Thousands of residents remain trapped in the city, but the Syrian government says humanitarian workers can only enter once the fighting is over. Al Jazeera’s Nadim Baba reports.

Source: youtube.com

NGO: 28 Syrian rebels killed in assault on village - #Syria

Syrian regime troops repulsed a rebel assault on a village loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in central Homs province, killing at least 28 of the attackers, a watchdog said on Sunday.

“The number of rebels killed yesterday [Saturday] in an ambush and clashes with regime forces on the outskirts of Kafr Nan rose to 28,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP the rebels, who control Rastan and much of Houla, the towns on either side of the village of Kafr Nan, launched an assault on Saturday.

Regime troops pushed back the attack on the village, mostly inhabited by members of the Alawite community — the offshoot branch of Shiite Islam to which Assad belongs.

Rebels also attacked a nearby regime checkpoint outside the town of Talbisseh, in the north of Homs province.

“At least six regime forces were killed but the rebels were not able to seize control of the checkpoint,” the Observatory said.

Abdel Rahman said rebel fighters appeared to be “opening these battlefronts in northern Homs to relieve pressure of the town of Qusayr,” where the regime launched an assault two weeks ago.

The battle for the rebel stronghold, near the border with Lebanon in southern Homs, continued on Sunday, with the Observatory reporting a continued flow of reinforcements to the regime lines.

Aid groups have expressed concern about thousands of civilians believed to be trapped in the city, with no way to escape.

Around 1,500 wounded people are also thought to be trapped inside the embattled town, a strategic prize because of its proximity to the Lebanese border and the route between Damascus and the coast.

AFP - 06/02/2013

Q&A with Syrian artist Khaled Akil - #Syria

Your Middle East’s managing editor caught up with celebrated Syrian artist Khaled Akil who currently resides in Istanbul. Akil paints a grim picture of his beloved Syria and says the problem is no longer political.

Adam Hedengren: You left Aleppo 7 months ago, why did you decide to leave? 

Khaled Akil: At some point, you need to look after your own future, taking into consideration that the war in Syria is designed to kill Hope, Soul and moreover Humanity. I decided to leave in order to protect what is left of my own humanity and self-esteem, I wanted to feel free to tell the story of one of the greatest cities in the world: Aleppo, to tell our own story through our own perspective, to tell what I lived there and what I truly believe.

Syria was, is and will not be the suitable and free place to speak freely anymore.

AH: You now live in Istanbul, is it possible for you to form a “normal” life there, having the realities of the war in your homeland so close?

KA: I believe that one of the hardest things you can experience is to leave your beloved people “behind” in the middle of war, I use the word “behind” in purpose because you never know if they would make it there or not, you leave them surrounded by death, horror and hatred, sometimes I think if they manage to live, would they be able to defend their own worth, would they be able to heal their wounds?

I feel guilty all the time, guilty when I turn on the light while they had no electricity for more than 15 days, guilty when I eat while they didn’t and still don’t have bread to survive sometimes, and of course guilty when I think about smiling or having a normal life, I witnessed part of the horror in Syria and I know what it means, unfortunately I can assure you now that I can tell the difference between the Kalashnikov’s, PKC’s, and RPG’s sounds!

AH: This is a difficult one to answer; where do you see Syria in a year?

KA: I don’t see “Syria” anymore, I mean I don’t see the beautiful and peaceful Syria anymore, how could this great civilization produce that much brutality and anger if I don’t even say envy in some cases, this is not the Syria I used to know and these fighters, thieves and low people “from both sides” are not the Syrians I used to live with, that is why I have no projections or even hope in the next Syrian generation.

We should see the reality, the problem is no longer political, it is just like what I kept on saying in my previous exhibition “The Unmentioned”, the problem is basically social, sexual, religious lately transformed into political, it is not about Assad or Freedom anymore…

It is all about people putting their country on sale and waiting for the best price… Unfortunately, we lost Syria…

Adam Hedengren
May 30, 2013 - yourmiddleeast.com

Turkish troops come under fire on Syrian border - #Syria #Turkey

An armored vehicle belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces has come under fire while patrolling an area near the Syrian border, Doğan news agency has reported.

Three to five people from Syrian territory opened fire on the military vehicle at around 1:10 p.m., the Turkish military said.

The people who opened fire ran away farther into Syrian territory after Turkish forces immediately fired back.

No casualties were reported.

Turkish citizen killed at Syrian border

The incident came hours after a Turkish citizen was killed by gunfire coming from the Syrian side of the border formed by the Asi River, in what was reportedly a confrontation related to smuggling.

The person killed was involved in smuggling, and was heavily wounded at the site when officials tried to take him to a nearby hospital to receive treatment, Anatolia news agency reported. He died on the way to Antakya state hospital.

The Hatay Governor’s Office released a statement following the incident, suggesting the likely cause was a confrontation over debts.

05/30/2013 - Hurriyet Daily News

10 dead in fuel tank explosion near Turkey-Syria border - #Syria

At least 10 people were killed on Friday in an explosion after alleged smugglers set a fuel depot on fire in response to a police crackdown, a local official said.

The suspects set ablaze an illegal fuel depot located in the basement of a three-story building in a small village near Turkey’s border with Syria, triggering a strong explosion that also wounded nine people.

Among the wounded were three suspected smugglers as well as several security officers, Anatolia news agency reported.

The suspects were trying to elude a crackdown by security forces who raided their shelter after a tip-off, Hatay city governor Celalettin Lekesiz was quoted as saying by Anatolia.

Since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, security along the lengthy border has weakened, with border towns becoming a hub for fuel smugglers, who can sell Syrian oil at a much higher price inside Turkey.

The explosion came days after twin car bombs rocked a border town in the same region on Saturday, killing 51 people. Official reports did not establish a connection between the incidents.

Those bombings were the deadliest case of what observers see as an increasing regionalization of the Syrian conflict that started in March 2011 and has taken 94,000 lives according to rights groups.

Ankara has sided with the rebels fighting to topple the Damascus regime and shelters around 400,000 refugees as well as army defectors along its frontier.

AFP - 05/17/2013

Syrian regime in control of Kherbet Ghazaleh - #Syria

Syrian troops have taken control of a town near the main road linking the capital, Damascus, with Jordan, an advance in the regime’s campaign to drive rebels from the south, an activist group has said.

Rebels seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad are trying to carve a pathway from the Jordanian border through the southern province of Deraa in what is seen as their best chance of capturing Damascus.

A few weeks ago they scored significant gains but suffered setbacks after the regime launched a counteroffensive.

In recent days, regime troops and rebel fighters have battled over Khirbet Ghazaleh. Regime forces retook the town near the Damascus-Jordan road on Sunday and rebels withdrew from the area, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Troops reopened the road, restoring the supply line between Damascus and Deraa city, the contested provincial capital, he said. Regime forces were carrying out raids and searching homes in Khirbet Ghazaleh on Monday.

Damascus, still overwhelmingly under regime control, is the ultimate prize in a largely deadlocked civil war. Rebels control large parts of the countryside in northern Syria, but those areas are further away from the capital than the Jordanian border.

Arab officials and western military experts have said Middle Eastern powers opposed to Assad have stepped up weapons supplies to Syrian rebels, with Jordan opening up as a new route.

The uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011 and escalated into a civil war. Over the weekend, the Observatory issued an estimated death toll of more than 80,000, with almost half of them civilians. In February, the UN said at least 70,000 Syrians had been killed.

Western leaders face growing pressure to find a way to end the conflict – because of the rising death toll and fears that neighbouring Israel or Turkey could inadvertently get pulled deeper into it.

Turkey has blamed the Assad regime for twin car bombs on Saturday that killed 46 people and wounded scores in a border town that serves as a hub for Syrian refugees and rebels.

Turkey said it would not be dragged into the quagmire but tensions between the former allies run high.

This month Israel launched back-to-back air strikes in Syria against what it said were shipments of advanced Iranian missiles. Israeli officials signalled there would be more attacks unless its neighbour refrained from trying to deliver such “game-changing” missiles to its ally Hezbollah, an anti-Israel militia in Lebanon.

For now, the west is placing its hopes on a diplomatic plan that previously ran aground but now appears to have stronger Russian backing.

Last week the US and Russia agreed to revive the idea of negotiations between Syria’s political opposition and members of the regime on a transitional government, accompanied by an open-ended ceasefire.

05/13/2013 - Guardian

Syrian Army attacking rebel zones on the outskirts of Damascus - #Syria

Syria’s army sent shells smashing into rebel zones on the outskirts of Damascus Sunday while a Palestinian camp south of the capital was rocked by fresh fighting, a watchdog said.

“Regime troops shelled Daraya, Beit Sahm, Mleha and Moadamiyat al-Sham,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, referring to rebel-held towns dotted around the edges of Damascus.

The Britain-based monitoring group, which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers inside Syria, also reported fierce clashes between insurgents and the army in Daraya, southwest of Damascus, and in the Barzeh district of northern Damascus.

It said fighting erupted during the night in Yarmouk, a Palestinian camp in southern Damascus, that has been the scene of violent clashes in past months, and which was bombed by regime warplanes in December in an assault that send tens of thousands of residents fleeing.

01/13/2013

Source: aljazeera.com

48 Iranians freed by #Syria rebels in prisoner swap

Syrian rebels on Wednesday freed 48 Iranians they had been holding for months in a swap for 2,130 prisoners detained by the Syrian regime, according to a Turkish charity, a rebel spokesperson and Iranian state television.

Iranians released by Syrian rebels arrive at a hotel in Damascus January 9, 2013. Forty eight Iranians released by Syrian rebels in exchange for the release of more than 2,000 civilian prisoners held by the Syrian government arrived at the Sheraton hotel in central Damascus on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said. The men were accompanied by the Iranian ambassador to Syria and arrived in six small buses, looking tired but in good health. Credit: Reuters/Khaled al-Hariri


“This is the result of months of civil diplomacy carried out by our organization,” a spokesman for the Turkish charity the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), Serkan Nergis, told AFP in Turkey.

The regime’s prisoners exchanged for the Iranians were of several nationalities, including Turks, he said.

A spokesperson for the rebel Free Syrian Army, Ahmed al-Khatib, confirmed the deal, telling AFP in Beirut by telephone it was worked out through Turkish and Qatari mediation with Iran lobbying ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Iranian television made no mention of the swap deal, saying only that “the 48 Iranian pilgrims were released.”

The Iranians counted several Revolutionary Guards members, according to the rebel group which snatched them in Damascus in early August and threatened them with execution.

The rebels released a video on August 5 showing the captives and Iranian military identification cards taken from them.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on August 8 admitted there were Revolutionary Guards in the group, but claimed they were “retired.”

Salehi had said all 48 had been on a religious pilgrimmage to a Shiite shrine in southeast Damacus, rejecting suspicions the Iranians had been providing military support to Assad’s forces.

Wednesday’s prisoner release was not immediately confirmed by Turkish or Syrian officials.

Separate to the abduction, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards acknowledged on September 16 that members of its Quds Force, an elite external operations unit, had been dispatched to Syria.

But Guards commander General Mohammad Ali Jafari told journalists the Quds deployment was there only to “counsel” Syrian forces fighting insurgents, and not for combat.

Salehi’s foreign ministry days later stressed that Jafari’s admission did not in any way mean that Iran had a “military presence” in Syria.

Iran has said it is providing only economic and humanitarian aid to Syria’s regime, which it sees as part of a regional “resistance” to Israel.

The United States and its Western allies believe that Iran is also providing weapons, snooping technology and military personnel skilled in hunting down and suppressing opposition members.

01/09/2013

Source: afp.com

Syrian Air Force shells settlements near Turkish border - #Syria

About 50 Syrians were brought to Turkish hospitals on Saturday after aircraft belonging to Syrian government forces shelled settlements near the border between the two nations.

Seven of the wounded died, Dognap news agency reported.

The bloodshed that has killed some 44,000 people continues unabated in Syria.

Activists said at least 13 people, including seven children aged five and under, were killed in an air strike on the town of Safari southeast of Aleppo city.

Video footage released by the activists showed several collapsed concrete buildings and at least 20 people searching through the rubble for survivors.

In Aleppo, Syria’s northern commercial hub, clashes took place between rebel fighters and army forces around an air force intelligence building in the Zaire quarter, a neighbourhood that has been surrounded by rebels for weeks. 

December 29, 2012

Source: reuters.com

Head of Syrian military police defects - #Syria

The head of Syria’s military police has defected from the army and declared allegiance to the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to a video and a Syrian security source.

The high-level defection, while not a strategically significant development in the 21-month-old conflict, will be a blow to morale for Assad’s forces, which are hitting back at a string of rebel advances across the country.

“I am General Abdelaziz Jassim al-Shalal, head of the military police. I have defected because of the deviation of the army from its primary duty of protecting the country and its transformation into gangs of killing and destruction,” the officer said in a video published on YouTube.

A Syrian security source confirmed the defection but played down its significance.

“Shalal did defect but he was due to retire in a month and he only defected to play hero,” the source said.

Wearing a camouflage uniform with red officer insignia on the shoulder, Shalal spoke from a desk in a room in an undisclosed location. Some rebel sources said he had fled to Turkey. It was not clear when Shalal had changed sides. “The army has destroyed cities and villages and has committed massacres against an unarmed population that took to the streets to demand freedom,” he said. “Long live free Syria.”

 Wed Dec 26, 2012 5:43am EST

Source: reuters.com

Syrian warplanes bomb town next to Turkish border - #Syria

Syrian warplanes bombed the town of Azaz close to the Turkish border on Sunday, destroying at least five homes, causing hundreds of people to flee and stirring panic at a Syrian refugee camp just inside Turkey, Turkish officials said.

Most of the bombs hit the centre of Azaz, around three kilometers (two miles) from the Turkish border in an area dominated by Syrian rebels, but at least one landed 500 meters from Turkish soil, one official said.

“It is very close to the Turkish border … There was also some bombing in the centre of Azaz. Around 500 people were trying to come into Turkey,” he said.

Asked if there had been any response from the Turkish military, which has frequently scrambled fighter jets along the border and fired back in kind when stray Syrian shells hit its soil, the official said: “Not yet.”

Explosions could be heard several kilometers inside Turkish territory, unnerving people in a refugee camp in the Turkish town of Kilis where some fear they could still be a target of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

“The Assad warplanes followed the refugees … They fired rockets and people were very scared, they felt they would be massacred,” a Syrian rebel fighter told Reuters after speaking to his brother inside the camp.

Turkey is loath to be drawn into a regional conflict but frequent proximity of Syrian air raids to the border is testing its pledge to defend itself from any violation of its territory or any spillover of violence from Syria.

NATO last week accepted Turkey’s request to deploy Patriot anti-missile batteries along the border to reinforce its air defenses against possible attack from Syria. The United States, Germany and the Netherlands are to send six Patriot batteries in all.

Several Scud missiles fired at rebels by Syria have landed “fairly close” to the Turkish border, NATO’s top military commander said on Friday, explaining why Patriot batteries are being stationed in Turkey.

Turkey is a staunch supporter of the uprising against Assad and has harbored both Syrian refugees and rebels.

Sun Dec 16, 2012 11:39am EST

Source: reuters.com

‘To make their voices heard’ painting by Smiling-Raven Two young Syrian boys, their faces painted in the colours of the pre-Baath Syrian flag, attending an anti-regime demonstration. The most abhorrent in the Syrian struggle for freedom, dignity and justice is the suffering of children. Syrian’s children are suffering from trauma and torture. Thousands of them have been killed. Many more have been maimed. They suffer so much; every day they are being killed or injured. While Syrians flee in thousands to neighboring countries like Turkey and Jordan, orphans have become the most heart-breaking symbol of the genocide wrought by Assad.
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‘To make their voices heard’ painting by Smiling-Raven

Two young Syrian boys, their faces painted in the colours of the pre-Baath Syrian flag, attending an anti-regime demonstration.

The most abhorrent in the Syrian struggle for freedom, dignity and justice is the suffering of children. Syrian’s children are suffering from trauma and torture.

Thousands of them have been killed. Many more have been maimed. They suffer so much; every day they are being killed or injured.

While Syrians flee in thousands to neighboring countries like Turkey and Jordan, orphans have become the most heart-breaking symbol of the genocide wrought by Assad.

Source: my.deviantart.com

Russia, Turkey discuss new ideas on #Syria - Kremlin

06/12/12

Putin said new ideas emerged at talks in Turkey

* Spokesman says unclear whether ideas acceptable to Syrians

* Russia says it opposes forced removal of Assad

By Alexei Anishchuk

ASHGABAT, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Russian and Turkish diplomats will soon start working on new ideas for ending the conflict in Syria which emerged in talks between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

Putin and Erdogan agreed to differ on Syria at Monday’s talks in Istanbul but Russia has distanced itself from President Bashar al-Assad and tried to position itself for his potential exit from power.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed diplomats would discuss what Putin said were “some new, fresh ideas” but gave no details.

“It was agreed that these ideas will be discussed in more detail by our diplomats in the very near future, in order to understand how viable they are and how great their potential to resolve (the Syrian crisis),” Peskov said.

“It is still unclear to what degree they might be acceptable to the sides in Syria itself,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a summit of the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States in Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat.

Russia has shielded Assad by blocking, along with China, three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at pushing him out or pressing him to end violence that has killed more than 40,000 people since a crackdown on protests began in March 2011.

Turkey - worried about Syria’s chemical weapons, a growing refugee crisis, and Syrian support for Kurdish militants - has backed the Syrian opposition and led calls for international action against Assad.

After talks with Erdogan, Putin said Russia and Turkey still disagreed about how to end the crisis in Syria.

Russian officials have repeatedly said Moscow is not insisting Assad remain in power, but that his fate must not be decided by foreign governments or other external forces, including the U.N. Security Council.

“The exit or the continuation of the Assad regime is absolutely not a must,” Peskov said.

“But we cannot say, sitting in Ankara or London or Qatar, that Assad must go. That cannot be, it is not viable - such decisions could potentially lead to a worsening of the situation,” he said.

Putin, who returned to the presidency in May, has made Syria a showcase of what he says is the determination to protect the principle of non-intervention in sovereign states.

Russia has warned the West it would not allow a repeat in Syria of last year’s events in Libya, where NATO military intervention helped rebels to topple dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

But the talk of considering fresh ideas suggested Russia is looking for ways to end the diplomatic deadlock or at least cast itself as part of a solution, and position itself for the possibility of Assad’s exit.

“Russians are now looking beyond Assad,” said Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center think-tank.

“I don’t think they will change their position on the basic issues such as ‘regime change’ or outside intervention but I think they will be looking at the day after, what happens when the government falls,” he said.

Putin’s Middle East affairs envoy, Mikhail Bogdanov, met the U.S. ambassador to Moscow at the request of the United States on Tuesday and the British ambassador on Wednesday, Russian’s Foreign Ministry said. The focus was on Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian situation but details were not announced.

Russia has stepped up meetings with Syrian opposition groups, seemingly hedging its bets.

“I would not rule out that behind the scenes, (Russia) could be trying to find a way to solve ‘the Assad problem’,” a Western diplomat said.

That could be easier said than done.

“Russia’s influence over Assad has been widely exaggerated,” Trenin said. “The Russians have very unfortunately manoeuvred themselves into a situation in which they are considered to be responsible for Assad without any real influence over him.”

Source: reuters.com