By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press 

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — The main Syrian opposition bloc on Monday broadened its ranks to include more activists and political groups from inside the country, officials said, in the face of intense U.S. pressure to create a more representative and cohesive leadership that could work with the West.

The decision by the Syrian National Council, which is dominated by exiles and academics, appeared to be an attempt to deflect at least some of the international criticism that has labeled the group ineffective and incapable of forming a united front with other opposition forces.

Washington and other foreign backers say they can’t boost aid to Syrian rebels unless the opposition is united and represents more diverse groups within Syrian society, including those fighting on the ground in Syria. Many in the opposition feel abandoned by the international community and say they’re not getting the money and weapons they need to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The U.S. has sharply criticized the SNC — one of the largest and most important of several opposition groups —and is pushing for a major leadership shakeup. It is backing a plan to form a new 50-member leadership group in which the SNC would play a diminished role.

Syria’s bloody 20-month conflict, which activists say has killed more than 36,000 people, is stuck in a military stalemate rebel fighters blame on a lack of strategic weapons, such as anti-aircraft missiles.

In Syria on Monday, activists reported clashes between rebels and regime troops backed by Palestinian fighters near the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk on the outskirts of Damascus.

Syria’s half a million Palestinians initially tried to stay out of the conflict. In recent months, many started to support the uprising, while members of a small militant group backed by the regime are fighting alongside Assad’s forces.

With the battle for control of Syria almost certainly to be decided on the battlefield, the political opposition led by exiles like those in the SNC is being further sidelined, and critics say the group’s leaders are out of touch with those risking their lives in Syria.

Since the group’s founding a year ago, the U.S. and others have urged the SNC to forge a more cohesive coalition with more representatives from inside Syria.

The SNC’s vote Monday to broaden its ranks, on the second day of a five-day SNC conference in Doha, was aimed at deflecting such criticism. A majority of 222 delegates voted to add several dozen more groups, nearly doubling the size of the SNC’s general assembly to some 420, said Anas Abdah, an organizer of the conference. The expansion added more women, activists from inside Syria and representatives of local councils, he said.

Abdah said the majority “of the people who were added to this are people who belong to groups and alliances that were formed (in Syria) during the time of the revolution.”

The SNC’s most crucial decision of the conference is whether to accept the U.S.-backed plan that would have the group become part of a new opposition leadership team.

The plan, proposed by Riad Seif, a prominent Syrian dissident, is supported by the U.S., conference host Qatar and Turkey, among the most prominent backers of the Syrian uprising, according to SNC officials.

Seif’s plan would allot only 15 seats in the new leadership group to the SNC, and give wider representation to military commanders and local councils in Syria.

The SNC has pushed back against the idea, but will only make a decision Thursday. SNC members appear divided over the issue.

Abdel-Rahman al-Haj, who oversaw Monday’s restructuring of the SNC, said rejecting Seif’s plan is a possibility, despite what he said is perceived as intense international pressure on the SNC to go along.

Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

26/10/12

Activist say #Syrian army fire is heard in Haresta near #Damascus today

06/09/12

By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press  

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops recaptured from rebels Thursday a border town used by refugees to cross to Jordan, activists said, an apparent bid by the regime to stem the flood of Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war.

Damascus meanwhile accused Cairo of stirring up violence in the country, as Syria lengthens the list of other Arab countries that it blames for its unrest. Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi called this week for Syria’s president to step down in an indication of the increasing isolation of Damascus in the Arab world.

In the latest clashes, hundreds of Syrian soldiers backed by 20 tanks assaulted Tel Chehab, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and local activist Mohammed Abu Houran said. Rebels fought back but were pushed out.

A Jordanian army officer living just across the border said by telephone that he had heard heavy shelling starting early in the morning, but that it had subsided by midday. “It sounded like the shelling came from tanks and armored vehicles,” said the officer, who cannot be identified under standing army regulations. “God help the Syrian people.”

The activists did not have any figures for casualties, but Abu Houran said that at least 2,000 refugees were waiting in the town for the chance to cross the border. Most of them were staying in two schools.

Syrian rebels, who claim to hold over half of the country’s territory, had been in control of Tel Chehab for months. Abu Houran said that the town had faced repeated government assaults in the past.

An amateur video posted online by activists showed tanks and trucks full of soldiers passing through the town of Yadouda on their way to nearby Tel Chehab. The authenticity of the video could not be independently confirmed.

The Observatory, which has a network of activists throughout Syria, said troops were raiding homes in Tel Chehab and detaining people. It added that smoke was billowing from parts of the town.

Abou Houran said the regime was apparently trying to cut the route for refugees who have been fleeing their country’s civil war in increasing numbers. More than 100,000 Syrians left in August alone, the highest over the past 18 months, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said.

More than 160,000 Syrian refugees now live in Jordan, and their number is increasing by the thousands every day. About 8,000 live in a newly set up camp on the border, while the rest are scattered across the country.

Activists say nearly 5,000 people were killed in August, the highest monthly total since the crisis began in March last year. Activists say 23,000 have died altogether.

Also Thursday, Syria’s Foreign Ministry harshly attacked Egypt’s Morsi, saying his calls for Syria’s President Bashar Assad to step down constitute “blatant interference in Syrian internal affairs and an explicit attack on the Syrian people’s right to choose their own future without any foreign interference.”

It added that Morsi’s remarks were “media provocation that aims to enrage the current violence in Syria” and that he is a “part of the current bloodshed in Syria.”

Morsi said in remarks addressed to Assad on Wednesday: “I tell the Syrian regime that there is still a chance to halt the bloodshed.” He added: “Don’t listen to the voices that tempt you to stay (in power) because you will not be there for much longer. There is no room for further delaying a decision that will stop the bloodshed.”

A war of words between Cairo and Damascus has escalated since Aug. 30, when Morsi said at a summit of emerging nations in Tehran that Assad’s “oppressive” regime has lost its legitimacy and that the world must stand behind the Syrian rebels. Damascus then added Egypt, alongside Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, to the list of nations it says have stirred up unrest inside Syria.

Activists also reported violence in other parts of the country Thursday, including in the Damascus neighborhoods of Qadam and Tadamon as well as the suburb of Sayeda Zeinab, just south of the capital. The Observatory said troops shelled some areas in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in the capital.

Other clashes and shelling were reported in the northern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, the central regions of Homs and Hama and eastern district of Deir el-Zour on the border with Iraq.

Syrian Health Minister Saad Abdul-Salam al-Nayef meanwhile said that the war has killed scores of people working in the medical sector and caused damage to the country’s health infrastructure.

He was quoted by the state-run Tishrin daily as saying during a meeting with President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Peter Maurer that 42 medics have been killed and 52 others wounded over the past 18 months. He says 13 were kidnapped.

The minister said 38 hospitals, 272 ambulances, and 156 health care centers were damaged by the violence.

Minister of Electricity Imad Khamis was quoted as saying that more than 100 of the ministry’s staff have been killed during the conflict.

Associated Press writers Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria contributed to this report.

PARIS (Reuters) - Activists have gone on hunger strike to denounce what they say is the international paralysis over Syria and the inability of President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents to unite.

The group, made up of Syrians and other nationalities, began the hunger strike in Turkey at the end of August. The movement has since spread to countries including France, the United States and Jordan.

About 40 are on hunger strike, with a further 12 suspending their action until later this month, the group said.

They want the International Criminal Court to open a case against Assad, European Union governments to close all Syrian diplomatic missions and that Egypt to consider refusing Suez Canal entry to any ship deemed to be transporting military aid to the Syrian government.

“The time now is extremely sensitive. I think we now need support from governments and people around the world,” said group spokesman Ahmed Naji.

“All these crimes and massacres are being done with the indifference of the international community,” said Naji, a former travel insurance executive who fled Syria to Jordan and then Paris in early July.

The activists, who mostly met through social media networks, say their demands must be met by September 20 or their movement will intensify.

Naji said more Syrians and other nationals had indicated they planned to join the strike which would seek to set up permanent camps at prominent landmarks to gain publicity.

(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Alison Williams)

09/08/12

#Syria, Ugarit Rastan Homs, an activist, Walid Ebeid in the hole left by the bombing 

Syrian rebels drew criticism for images like this one from Aleppo on Tuesday in which they dragged a suspected pro-government militiamen into the street.

02/08/12

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syria’s rebels shelled an airport near Aleppo on Thursday in what was described as one of the first known instances of insurgents using captured heavy weapons, as opposition activists warned that fighting for the city, the country’s main commercial center, would likely intensify.

A Syrian activist said President Bashar al-Assad’s army appeared to be preparing for an all-out assault.

 “We have seen military reinforcements making their way to Aleppo,” said Abou Firas, an activist in Aleppo using a satellite Internet connection because telephone and Internet service from the city was cut off. “We were worried about massacres but now we are issuing a warning about a war of extermination to be launched by the regime.”

The news about the government reinforcements could not be independently confirmed because of restrictions on reporters. It came after the battle for Aleppo intensified on Wednesday when United Nations observers there reported that Syrian jets had fired rockets into contested neighborhoods and that rebels had commandeered tanks and other heavy weapons.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, said the rebels had put the captured armor to use, shelling a military airport near Aleppo.

A video forwarded by Mr. Firas, purportedly from a highway between Aleppo and the coast, showed a convoy of nearly a dozen tanks, gas tankers, and several pick-up trucks carrying armed soldiers.

It was not clear when the video was shot, but before earlier ground assaults, the Syrian government has cut off communication in what appears to be an effort to keep rebels — who have become extremely savvy with YouTube videos and Skype — from broadcasting the army’s attacks.

 By Thursday afternoon in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Internet was coming back online gradually. Clashes continued, especially in the southwest of Aleppo, where rebels and Syrian troops have been engaged in a bitter battle for control.

 Some reports from Turkey also suggested that government forces were trying to cut rebel supply lines, with fighting raging in a rebel-held town near the Turkish border.

On Wednesday, hours after President Assad urged his forces to step up the fight, opposition leaders said they had found dozens of bodies in a suburb of Damascus in the aftermath of the Syrian Army’s house-to-house search for rebel fighters and activists. This claim of a new massacre came as the rebels faced severe criticism themselves for what appeared to be their brutal summary execution, one day earlier, of suspected pro-government gunmen on the streets of Aleppo, recorded and uploaded on the Internet.

Videos purported to have been taken in the Damascus suburb, Jdeidet Artouz, showed bodies lined up under bloodstained sheets, as a narrator gave an estimated count that continued rising: 37, 42, and then even more.

“I counted 52 bodies,” said Abu Abdullah, a resident who said he had helped move the dead to a local mosque before burial. “I’m really shocked. Why here?”

The bodies were found near an area where rebels said fighting had flared in the past week. But analysts said the bodies appearing outside Damascus in a town also filled with refugees — along with reports of renewed fighting in the capital and an escalation of combat in Aleppo, Syria’s largest metropolis and commercial center — all suggested that the 17-month-old conflict was becoming increasingly intense and bitter, with more front lines and more bloodshed.

“It’s a rapid escalation,” said Andrew J. Tabler, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Once you start using fixed-wing aircraft and you have a city under full revolt, it’s clear that the Assad regime is not going to stop and is not breaking. We’re entering a new phase of this conflict.”

Aleppo, which for much of the anti-Assad uprising had been relatively stable, now is the site of the most vicious fighting. For nearly two weeks, the Syrian Army has been battling rebel troops for control of the city, and for the first time, the United Nations said on Wednesday what rebels had been saying for days: the Syrian Army was using jet fighters in its arsenal of heavy weapons aimed at crushing the opposition. And they are not just flying, as in the past; now, according to the United Nations monitor mission in Syria and videos showing flashes of light bursting from dark jets, they are firing.

“Our observers confirmed fighter aircrafts firing rockets and cannons — heavy machine-gun fire,” said Sausan Ghosheh, a spokeswoman for the United Nations monitor mission.

Mr. Tabler noted that the Syrian warplanes were not yet dropping bombs. But the calculated escalation in the use of jets seemed to be part of a concerted effort by Mr. Assad to rally his supporters by making clear that he would not limit his military effort. In rare published remarks seemingly designed to marshal government forces and dissuade anyone thinking of defecting, he called on Syria’s military to show “more readiness and continued preparations” to confront “internal agents” seeking to destabilize his battered country, according to the official SANA news agency.

This week, it has become increasingly clear to outside military analysts that the fighting is likely to drag on in Aleppo. Helicopters thwacked overhead Wednesday as clashes broke out around several more police stations, which have become a focal point for rebels seeking to hold neighborhoods or gain ground.

Taxi drivers skittered down streets charging four or five times the usual fare, while residents said water, food and electricity seemed ever scarcer.

With the rebels now possessing tanks — United Nations observers did not have information on how many, or where they might be deployed — the conflict seems to be moving ever further away from the six-point plan for peace outlined by Kofi Annan, the special Syria envoy for the United Nations and the Arab League, whose plan seems increasingly irrelevant. Instead of steps toward a cease-fire, both sides appear to be rushing into the breach of civil war.

Opposition figures drew special attention to the bodies in Jdeidet Artouz — sending an alert to reporters with a link to live-streaming video of a mass funeral procession and mass burial — just one day after rebels in Aleppo caused an outcry among rights groups and others over their videotaped public executions of men identified as pro-government militiamen.

Those executions attracted hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, and were cited by Russia, the Syrian government’s most important foreign backer, as evidence of brutality by Mr. Assad’s armed adversaries, whom he calls terrorists.

“Bloody reprisal of the opposition forces over the government supporters in Aleppo proves that human rights are violated by both sides,” said Gennady Gatilov, the deputy Russian foreign minister, in a Twitter message.

01/08/12

ACTION NEEDED: Lebanese authorities about to deport Syrian activists Tarek AlHamwi and Faisal AlSaour back to #Syria. #Lebanon

Reckless Activists Who Can Damage Revolutions Via Social Media

@flashNewsPlus, Activists Joanne & Niddal Binni, on twitter have  turned against the mainstream of Syrian Revolution . They Have about 17,000 followers. If every follower tweep their messages there will be a potentiality  of it reaching to millions. They are spreading messages  that the Revolution now has been hijacked by Radical Islamists with the support of the  Muslim Brotherhood, who dominate SNC, whom,  in return are funded and supported by  Qatar and Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia  and the  West. All this  for geopolitical interest on Syria .

The reason for this 180 degree shift of theirs could be interpreted into many assumptions. This could be motivated from many reasons BUT absolutely NOT coming from integrity and genuine beliefs of what their messages reflect.

The Following two facts  proves  aforementioned statement, please be patient :

1) Joanne convinced me ( basically used me )  to create the SyrianCalvary FaceBook page last 2012 EASTER to support the Syrian Revolution on Easter. Later after Easter passes she told me her whole motivation of her was to see if radicals Islamists would come out and stop us or defame her views. Basically experiment and test the Revolution. Fortunately the outcome of the page,  was 49 few followers, and actually mostly Muslims,  and no one said or commented anything except some tweeps asking about the definition of the page title. However, I deleted the page,  see photo from Google search in the end. My point is Joanne is a Staunch Spiritual Religious person herself which I have no problem with it,  but she is a one who doesn’t want to understand other cultures aspirations and wants of Freedom, or understand the true meaning of it, therefore that makes her same as any other radical Muslim.

2) Last year both Niddal and Joanne, proposed and agreed a Libya style NoFlyZone enforced by NATO. Based on this and along with other proud to be with Free Syria tweeps  led  #NATO4Syria and #NoFlyZone tweeting campaign, . Now  Niddal contradicts this by stating that the conspiracy behind hijacking of this Revolution is the West. How is the West when NATO till now doesn’t want even to budge for intervention after all that campaigns we did??

These are facts states that both activists messages don’t genuinely represent their views other than some other unclear interests or motifs.

However, what message comes out from Joanne or Nidal ( @FlashNewsPlus ) has an impact on global transmission of ideas and opinions:  when 17,000 followers  Re-tweet a message, this will very well may transmit to millions .

I need help to fight this crappy sectarian theories that defame Syria Revolution. I know it from my bones and it is absolute fact that the Syrian Revolution is not hijacked at all;  but ONLY the West’s delay of the intervention or the support to Syrians will only be the reason to expose the Syrian Revolution to further portrayals of  false theories and misleading global opinions.

This Blessed Syrian Revolution still represents all people of Syria. However, the more lingers on the more it will be exposed to be  filled with many negative views and factors that  could blur its essence in media.

I’ve been fighting since 2011 April on Social Networks, I still will continue , because I love Syria and her people , they are my family, it is my homeland,  but I need help .

One thing I agree with Niddal when he tweeted  this

 “Remember, 3rd World War will  not be shed with Nuclear Missiles , it  will be shed by Media and  Social Media “

Toronto Canada

by Hagop Alsoury

07/01/12 #Syria Alawite activists flee to Turkey

Syrian activists are coming under attack from a new Trojan, based on a commercial spyware application.

Targeted attacks surreptitiously install the BlackShades Trojan onto compromised machines, an advisory by the EFF and Citizen Lab warns. The Trojan is been distributed in via compromised Skype accounts of Syrian activists in the form of a “.pif” file purporting to be an important new video that is actually a malicious executable file. Opening the file on a Windows machine drops a key-logger onto infected machines.

The use of remote surveillance software against activists has been going on amidst the conflict in Syria since February, if not earlier.

Previous attacks have involved a phishing campaign targeting the YouTube or Twitter credentials of high profile Syrian opposition figure and malware tainted files posing as documents regarding the foundation of a Syrian revolution leadership council. Another attack punted infected documents supposedly detailing a plan to assist the city of Aleppo.

Most of these attacks have pushed the Dark Comet Trojan while other less commonplace attacks have featured the Xtreme Trojan. Successful attacks allow hackers to attackers to plant key-loggers or extract data from infected machines. Other attacks include remote desktop remote desktop viewing, webcam spying, audio-eavesdropping and more.

Dark Comet has also been pushed through attacks supposed offering a Skype encryption add-on. In reality, Skype traffic is already encrypted and the supposed utility is secretpoliceware designed to get around this technology to spy on activists. Another attack punting the Xtreme Trojan was seeded using the Skype accounts of recently arrested activists.

All these attacks, as well as the most recent BlackShades assault, are blamed on the Syrian government.

For more details, check the following:

Citizen lab – Syrian Activists Targeted with BlackShades Spy Software

EFF - Fake Skype Encryption Tool Targeted at Syrian Activists Promises Security, Delivers Spyware

CNN Tech - Computer spyware is newest weapon in Syrian conflict

EFF - New Trojan Spread Over Skype as Cat and Mouse Game Between Syrian Activists and Pro-Syrian-Government Hackers Continues

There are increasing calls for international intervention in Syria after this weekend’s massacre in Houla, where Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces murdered more than 100 civilians. Obstacles to intervention remain, however, especially concern that the opposition to Assad’s regime is dominated by religious fundamentalists. Until recently, for example, the Syrian National Council, a group of exiled opponents of the regime, was led by Burhan Ghalioun, whose unwillingness to counter the Muslim Brotherhood was widely viewed in the West as a troubling sign of Islamist influence.

But a confidential survey of opposition activists living in Syria reveals that Islamists are only a minority among them. Domestic opponents of Assad, the survey indicates, look to Turkey as a model for Syrian governance — and even widely admire the United States.

Pechter Polls, which conducts opinion surveys in tough spots in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, completed the Syria opposition poll in December 2011. Respondents were contacted over a secure Skype connection by someone they could trust — all native Syrians — who asked them to fill out a short questionnaire anonymously in Arabic. Interviewers were selected from different social and political groups to ensure that respondents reflected a rough cross-section of overall opposition attitudes. To ensure confidentiality, the online survey could be accessed only through a series of proxy servers, bypassing the regime-controlled Internet.

Given the survey’s unusual security requirements, respondents were selected by a referral (or “controlled snowball”) technique, rather than in a purely random fashion. To be as representative as possible, the survey employed five different starting points for independent referral chains, all operating from different locations. The resulting sample consisted of 186 individuals in Syria identified as either opposition activists themselves (two-thirds of the total) or in contact with the opposition.

What do these “inside” opposition supporters believe? Only about one-third expressed a favorable opinion of the Muslim Brotherhood. Almost half voiced a negative view, and the remainder were neutral. On this question, no significant differences emerged across regions.

Most of the survey’s questions asked, “On a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 means the most negative and 7 the most positive, how would you rate your opinion of X?” Answers of 1 to 3 were considered negative, 4 as neutral, and 5 to 7 as positive.

While many respondents supported religious values in public life, only a small fraction strongly favored Shariah law, clerical influence in government, or heavy emphasis on Islamic education. A large majority (73%) said it was “important for the new Syrian government to protect the rights of Christians.” Only 20% said that religious leaders have a great influence on their political views.

This broad rejection of Islamic fundamentalism was also reflected in the respondents’ views on government. The poll asked each respondent what country he or she would “like to see Syria emulate politically,” and which countries the respondent “would like to see Syria emulate economically.” The poll listed 12 countries, each with a scale of 1 to 7. Just 5% had even a mildly positive view of Saudi Arabia as a political model. In contrast, 82% gave Turkey a favorable rating as both a political and economic model (including over 40% extremely favorable). The U.S. earned 69% favorable ratings as a political model, with France, Germany and Britain close behind. Tunisia rated only 37% and Egypt 22%.

Iran was rated lowest of any country included in the survey, including Russia and China: Not even 2% of respondents had positive views of Iran as a political model. Fully 90% expressed an unfavorable view of Hezbollah, including 78% with the most negative possible attitude.

One of the surprises in the results is the scope of the opposition’s network inside Damascus, despite their difficulties in demonstrating publicly. One-third of the respondents, whether activists or sympathizers, said they live in the Syrian capital. (To protect their privacy, the survey did not ask for more precise identification.)

This “inside” opposition is well-educated, with just over half identifying as college graduates. The ratio of male to female respondents was approximately 3 to 1, and 86% were Sunni Arab.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, they were ambivalent about Syrian Kurdish demands for “political decentralization” (like autonomy). Views of “Kurdish parties” were evenly divided among negative, neutral and positive. (Such feelings are evidently mutual: In the six months since the survey was completed, Syrian Kurdish organizations have increasingly decided to go their own way, separate from the other opposition groups.)

Based on a statistical analysis of the survey, most secularists among the respondents prefer weak central government, presumably as a way to safeguard their personal freedoms. On the other hand, the one-third of respondents who support the Muslim Brotherhood also tend to have a favorable view of Hamas, despite the latter movement’s previous association with the Assad regime.

The survey demonstrates that the core of the Syrian opposition inside the country is not made up of the Muslim Brotherhood or other fundamentalist forces, and certainly not of al Qaeda or other jihadi organizations. To be sure, a revolution started by secularists could pave the way for Islamists to win elections, as has occurred in Egypt. But the Syrian opposition is solidly favorable to the U.S. and overwhelmingly negative toward both Hezbollah and Iran.

David Pollock is the Kaufman fellow at The Washington Institute and a consultant to Pechter Polls.

05/21/12 #Syria Activists placing cameras in Homs, to record the shelling