SYRIA – NEWS

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OPPOSITION FIGHTERS DIG IN FOR THE LONG HAUL IN QUSAIR, WHILE FSA DISPATCHES REINFORCEMENTS TO GIVE THEM SUPPORT:

TIMELINE 23rd MAY 2013 14.20 GMT:

Despite claims by the Assad media that they control “80%” of Qusair and the Homs province Governor, Ahmad Munir Mohamad, saying today, Thursday, “Qusair will be announced a safe city in hours”, the situation on the ground seems far different from that.

According to reports from the city, the Opposition were surprised by the size and rapidity of the Assad regime advance but they have since dug in for the long haul and reinforced their positions in the northern districts, with every intention of staging a fierce resistance.

Between Qusair and Homs, Opposition fighters still control the former Dabaa airport and snipers from there attack any Government traffic on the road.

The city of Qusair is currently a huge battleground with streets of rubble and barricades everywhere.

The majority of the civilians remaining are reported to be elderly.

Shelling on Opposition held areas is almost constant. The Opposition field hospitals are working flat out with poor resources, trying to deal with the flow of dead and injured. This was the situation yesterday (English sub-titles), HERE:

Video recorded today, Thursday, shows Opposition fighters retaliating against advancing forces this morning, HERE:

So far in the battle for Qusair the Opposition have knocked out 9 x T-62 Syrian Army tanks and 1 x T-72.  There is a Government tank in flames, HERE:

Part of the Assad’s regime advantage in this attack has been the support of Hezbollah, the armed militia from Lebanon, who have more experience of street fighting than most members of the Syrian Army. 

However, reports emanating from Lebanon Hezbollah sources this morning are admitting that they have already lost 75 fighters in the battle for Qusair, indicating that resistance is far stronger than they anticipated.

The Syrian National Coalition (SNC) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA), have put out an urgent call for fighters across Syria to support their colleagues in Qusair and many units are on their way, like this one from the Tawheed Brigade leaving Aleppo, HERE:

Other FSA units in the surrounding area near Qusair are clearly active too, last night, shortly after midnight, regaining control of the Al-Sariyya border crossing into Lebanon.  Al-Sariyya links Al-Qusair with the town of Jousiyeh further to the south, ensuring that that Opposition fighters, weapons and ammunition can move more freely.

The fighting in Qusair has led to heavy clashes in the northern Lebanese town of Tripoli between the pro-Assad Alawite supporters and the Opposition–supporting Sunni communities for the 4th day running, leaving 18 dead and 190 wounded. Many Sunni young men are taking up arms and crossing the border to join the fight for the defence of Qusair.

Following the double car-bombing at the Hatay province border town of Reyhanli on May 11th, Turkey yesterday closed its last remaining frontier post shared with the Assad regime along the entire 900 kilometre Turkey – Syria border. All the other frontier posts are controlled by Syrian Opposition forces.

The border crossing at the Yayladagi gate, some 90 km (55 miles) from Reyhanli, will remain closed for at least a month, allowing them to install bomb detecting equipment.

Only Turkish citizens and non-Syrians transiting the country will be allowed through from the Syrian side.  Nobody will be allowed to cross from Turkey into Syria.

OPPOSITION FIGHTERS TAKE CONTROL OF ASSAD MILITARY BASE IN IDLIB, LEAVING A GRAVEYARD FOR 40 SOLDIERS AND NUMEROUS TANKS:

In Aleppo province, Opposition fighters surrounding the Mennegh airbase reported destroying a second helicopter this week and video released suggests they are well inside the grounds of the sprawling base, HERE:

Within Aleppo city itself, Opposition fighters have kept up their battle to take Aleppo Central Prison and are seen here firing rockets at buildings within the jail complex, scoring a number of direct hits, HERE:

Overnight in Idlib province FSA fighters scored another notable victory when, in the early hours of this morning, they took complete control of a “Vanguards” youth training camp at Al-Shebeeba.

The camp, which has been used by the Syrian Army as a base for tanks to shell local Sunni villages for months, killing and injuring hundreds,  is situated near the town of Al-Nayrab.

The battle was fierce, HERE:, 40 Syrian Army personnel and Shabiha reported killed and 14 Opposition fighters.

The youth camp also bizarrely contained a Ferris Wheel and swings and roundabouts as you can see from a tour of the site published this morning, HERE:  

A Government tank parked near the swing roundabout, burns fiercely HERE:

Another Assad tank strikes a mine as it tries to escape from the Youth camp to the nearby brickworks, HERE:

Judging from this gallery of photographs released this morning, the battle for the Youth Camp turned out to be something of a tank graveyard, HERE:

It is not yet completely clear whether the Opposition fighters also took the military base near the Youth Camp as well, or whether this battle is yet to come.

In Hama province Opposition fighters near Fanash Shamali attacked a Government position, HERE:

Also in the northern part of Hama province Government forces, it is claimed, executed 15 people yesterday in Halfaya, 5 of them from the same family.

IRANIAN DRONE SHOT DOWN OVER DAMASCUS WHILE MANY CIVILIANS CONTINUE TO DIE IN SENSELESS GOVERNMENT BOMBARDMENTS:

Around the Damascus suburbs and the Damascus countryside, a barrage of Government shells and mortars fell as usual. 11 people were reported killed in Sbeineh, 8 women from the same family and including 1 child, when surface to surface missiles fell on the town. 

Clashes were also reported in Bet Sahem, Barzeh and Sednaya, where Opposition fighters captured an observatory, HERE:

Opposition fighters are also reported to have shot down a drone over Al-Mliha district.  The drone appears to be of Iranian manufacture and to have Farsi markings, HERE:

Opposition forces also have the 39th Division under siege at Adra and here you can see them deploying their advanced “digger gun” to get a better shot,  HERE:

A huge explosion was reported in Damascus overnight, occurring either near Abbasid Square or Al-Midan, though details or the result of the explosion currently remain unclear.

Internationally, the countries making up the “Friends of Syria” group met in Amman, Jordan yesterday and urged all sides to come to the conference table at the proposed peace talks to be held in Geneva in June.

Both the UK and the US made it clear that there is no future in Syria for Bashar Assad and the Syrian Opposition SNC has made Assad’s resignation a condition of their participation in the talks.

The Western countries have also indicated that unless Assad sends representatives to talk “peace”, they will take further steps to support the Opposition. Al Jazeera has a report on the conference, HERE:

On the Jordan – Syria border, where there appears to be heavy fighting on the Syrian side, UN officials have expressed serious concern because the usual flow of 1,000 to 2,000 refugees a night has suddenly, for the last 4 days, reduced to around 20. At the moment there is no clear explanation for this.

Lastly, despite coming under shell fire mid-tune Opposition fighters in Deraa relax with a good sing-song, HERE:

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SYRIAN ARMY CLAIMS TO HAVE “DESTROYED AN ISRAELI VEHICLE” ON THE GOLAN, BUT DISMISSED BY ISRAEL AS “POOR PROPAGANDA”.

TIMELINE – 21st MAY 2013 13.18 GMT:

A report on the Syrian state media website, SANA, posted at lunchtime today, Tuesday, says that the Syrian Army has “destroyed an Israeli vehicle [which] entered from the occupied territories and exceeded the cease-fire line towards the village of Bir Ajam” near the Golan Heights.

The Syrian General Command statement went on to say, “The village is located in the liberated area of Syrian territories where there are armed terrorist groups,” adding that “The blatant aggression confirms again the involvement of the Zionist entity in the ongoing events in Syria and the direct coordination with the armed terrorist gangs”.

The Israeli Defence Force reported earlier this morning that one of it’s vehicles had been hit by gunfire coming across the border last night and that it had retaliated with shell fire on the source of incident, scoring a direct hit. It also said that none of its troops had been injured.

If the Syrian Army had indeed killed Israeli soldiers, it could expect a swift and powerful response from the Israeli Army. Israel has since confirmed that none of it’s vehicles have been “destroyed”.

EDITOR: You would not have thought that opening up another front in the Syrian conflict, this time with its powerfully superior armed neighbour Israel, would not be in Assad’s favour.

Perhaps he is calculating that if Israel strikes again, thereby justifying a Syrian/Hezbollah rocket strike on Tel Aviv, for example, his Arab and anti-Israel neighbours such as Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, who have been supporting the Syrian Opposition fighters, will be totally conflicted. In those circumstances a major Middle-East war looms.

Another attempt to link Israel with the Opposition fighters in Syria descended into farce yesterday, Monday, when pro-Assad websites were awash with photographs of a small and old jeep-based Israeli truck, apparently found by advancing Government troops in Qusair in Homs province.

SANA and Syrian state TV joined in on the hysteria saying “The seizure of an Israeli military vehicle which terrorists had been using in al-Qseir refutes the allegations made by Israel to justify its aggression on Syria and proves the scale of Israel’s military and intelligence involvements in the events in Syria”.

Warming to their exaggerated theme, the SANA report went on to say “The Israeli military support for the armed terrorist groups proves the involvement of Qatar, Turkey and Israel in the aggression on Syria which is waged through a single central operations room”.

Activists report that in fact the vehicle is most likely to have been brought to Qusair by Hezbollah to try and convince their fighters that by supporting Assad they are engaging in a “jihad” against their old enemy, Israel.

The old vehicle is believed to have been used by the Lebanese Army in South Lebanon after the withdrawal of the Israelis in the conflict between the two countries in 2000, but still has its original Israeli markings. One activist report even suggested that it had been used since in an Arabic film about events at the time.

An Israeli military spokesman said the vehicle was decommissioned a decade ago and dismissed the footage as “poor propaganda”.

The best comment on the “Israeli jeep” was posted by ‏@KarlreMarks on Twitter: “It gets worse, the Israeli jeep discovered in Qusayr was loaded with falafel and hummus recipes with all the wrong spices. #Syria”

As Opposition spokesmen pointed out, if Israel was helping the Free Syrian Army (FSA) with “weapons”, one decades old, delapidated “jeep”, formerly connected with their prison service, was not going to be of much strategic use!

FSA MOUNTING FIERCE DEFENCE OF QUSAIR AS ASSAD ARMY CLAIMS TO HAVE RETAKEN “60%” OF THE CITY:

In Qusair itself, the massive Syrian Army Assault and battle against Opposition fighters continues. There is now little doubt about the direct involvement of the Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah in support of the Syrian Army and Assad’s latest para-military group the “National Defence Force”.

Reports vary, but as many as 39 Hezbollah are said to have been killed in the fierce fighting in Qusair over the last 2 days and 70 wounded.

A number of funerals were reported in the Bekaa Valley in Hezbollah villages across the nearby border in Lebanon yesterday and Hezbollah controlled hospitals in Beirut put out calls for blood donations.

President Obama was concerned enough about the reports to telephone Lebanon’s President Michel Sleiman, urging him to control his borders and to attempt to restrain Hezbollah.

Many in Lebanon, including the former prime minister, Saad Hariri, believe that Hezbollah is out of control and effectively “running” the Lebanese state.

Increasingly the Syrian conflict is turning into a sectarian war between Sunni and Shia factions of Islam. The extreme Sunni faction, the Al-Nusra Front, has vowed to destroy important Shia shrines like the Sayyida Zainab in Damascus, the resting place of Prophet Mohammed’s grand-daughter.

The Al-Nusra Front fighters are just a 100 metres away and their threatening presence has already drawn in equally extreme Shia “jihadists” from Iraq and again is used by Shia Hezbollah to justify their reasons for supporting Assad. You can read more in this interesting article in the Telegraph, HERE:

Just to complicate matters further, the Telegraph also carries an article claiming that since a public declaration by Al Nusra of allegiance to Al Qaeda, many fighters have left them for less extreme factions, HERE:

Fighting has also broken out again in Tripoli, the northern city in Lebanon where there are clear divisions between Assad-supporting Alawites and Shia and their Sunni rivals who support the Syrian Opposition. The Lebanese army is trying to keep the 2 sides apart, but 3 deaths and 20 wounded have been reported in the last 2 days.

The Syrian Army claims that it has retaken “60%” of Qusair and that “local citizens lined the streets welcoming them back”.

The FSA, while admitting that they have lost 56 fighters in the battle, said that the situation was fluid with the Assad forces making gains and then the FSA recovering lost ground again.

Government airstrikes and shelling which preceded the ground assault is reported to have killed 52 civilians and wounded more than 100. A video of the appalling shelling is HERE:

Assad’s forces are said to have taken the eastern side of Qusair, including the main square and municipal buildings. The FSA and their allies continue to defend the north of the city fiercely and refuse to concede ground without an intense fight as can be seen (English sub-titles, click 2nd button on the right if not showing), HERE

The Assad army and Hezbollah are clearly not having it all their own way, losing several tanks and armoured vehicles to Opposition strikes, and many troops. The BBC has a video report, HERE:

Al JAzeera has another video report, HERE:

OPPOSITION FIGHTERS DESTROY HELICOPTER ON GROUND AS THEY POUND MENNEGH AIRBASE IN ALEPPO PROVINCE:

Elsewhere is Syria, Opposition forces are keeping up their attacks on Assad regime targets. In Aleppo province Opposition fighters are raining mortars and shells on the Mennegh airbase, HERE: scoring a direct hit on a helicopter parked on the ground, HERE:

In Aleppo city itself, intermittent exchanges are reported between the two sides around the Air Force Intelligence building and their are also unconfirmed reports that the Opposition have freed prisoners from the women’s prison, but no detail yet or video.

In Deraa province intense clashes are reported along the border with Jordan, particularly around the 27th and 28th border posts and within Deraa city itself, HERE:

UNHCR has reported that very unusually there have been no Syrian refugees crossing into to Jordan near the Za’atari refugee camp for the last 4 nights, suggesting that routes to the frontier have been blocked.

In the Damascus countryside intense shelling and mortar fire by the Government side has been reported today on the towns of Almleha, Shabaa and Yabroud. 4 days ago Yabroud was subjected to horrific bombing on residential areas, clearly documented in video, HERE:

The Damascus suburb districts of Barzeh and the Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee Camp are also under attack today.

In Deir Ez-Zour, heavy shelling is reported today on the city centre and in Homs province again heavy fighting is also being reported along the Syrian – Lebanese border where as many as 300 Lebanese Sunnis are said to have attempted to cross to support the FSA in Qusair and Homs city.

Lastly, despite everything, Opposition fighters still have a sense of humour it seems:

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ASSAD LAUNCHES MASSIVE AIR AND GROUND ATTACK AGAINST OPPOSITION HELD CITY OF AL-QUSAIR, STILL WITH ESTIMATED 20,000 INHABITANTS:

UPDATED TIMELINE – 19th MAY 2013 12.55 GMT:

The expected major Assad Government assault on the Opposition held city of Al-Qusair in Homs province, began in earnest at dawn this morning, Sunday, with a barrage of shells, mortars and jet rocket fire. At one point there were reports of 50 shells landing a minute.

Many homes have been demolished in the blasts or set on fire. This  video, published yesterday, gives a sense of the dire conditions, HERE:

Latest reports say that at least 32 people have been killed in the onslaught this morning and some medical facilities within the city have been destroyed. 

There are also unconfirmed reports that a Syrian Army ground force has already taken over a municipal building in downtown Qusair.

However, the brave Opposition fighters remaining (plus say unconfirmed reports, 20,000 citizens) continue to largely hold their ground so far, fighting battles currently on 9 fronts.

Opposition fighters have also fired 3 missiles this morning which landed on the Hezbollah controlled town of Hermel in the Beqqa Valley in Lebanon, from where Sunni villages in Homs province near the border have been previously shelled.

Yesterday, Saturday, Opposition fighters ambushed a Hezbollah unit trying to infiltrate into Qusair through orchards on the perimeter of the city.  According to this video (Arabic only) 10 Hezbollah militia were killed, recovering 9 dead bodies undercover of heavy shell fire, but leaving one in the possession of the Opposition fighters, HERE:

There are additionally reports of massive shelling on Homs city and clashes around many Opposition held districts.

IN ALEPPO COUNTRYSIDE OPPOSITION FORCES CONSOLIDATE THEIR POSITIONS NEAR INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AND PREPARE FOR “A GREAT BATTLE”:

In Aleppo province Opposition forces consolidated their hold on the countryside around the regional capital by driving the last remaining Government forces out of the town of Azzan yesterday.

Azzan and nearby Aziza, now both in Opposition hands, are crucial to the attacks on the Al-Nayrab military base and Aleppo International Airport, allowing them to tighten and strengthen the siege on those places.

In the city of Aleppo itself, the Opposition are continuing their assault on the Central Prison, the Ahrar al-Sham Brigade scoring direct hits with rocket fire, HERE:

In a video statement, the Al-Sham Front announced yesterday that it will be joining the fight to take the Air Intelligence Centre at Al-Lairamoon which, like the Central Prison, is in a northern suburbs of Aleppo city.

The Ahrar Souria Brigade has simultaneously called a “general mobilisation” of Opposition forces in Aleppo ahead of what it calls a “large scale battle”.

An Assad helicopter trying to drop ammunition to Government troops fails in the attempt as the parachute drifts away to Opposition held lines and the fighters carry off the spoils, HERE:

West of Aleppo at Khan Al-Assal, 20 Assad soldiers are reported to have defected and joined the Opposition side.

Similarly, it was also reported that a further 90 regular Army soldiers deserted at Albukmal which is east of Deir Ez-Zour.  Missile attacks on Deir Ez-Zour city itself are reported on the increase in the last 2 days, as seen in this video, HERE:

While in the oil fields not far from the city, a whole new and dangerous industry has grow up, setting fires underneath oil drums to refine crude oil and produce benzine which they resell for a small profit.  The Telegraph has a short report and video, HERE:

In Idlib province, where Opposition fighters have had the Abu Al-Duhur Military Air Base under siege for weeks, activists report that on Saturday they downed the 3rd Government helicopter over the base in a week with anti-aircraft fire.

The helicopter was attempting to land at the base and reportedly carrying food supplies and reinforcements for the besieged troops inside.

In Deraa province to the south of the country, Oppsition fighters fired mortars on Friday at a watertower manned by Government snipers, HERE:  Heavy fighting and clashes are also being reported across the city in the last 24 hours, HERE:

Also in Deraa province, unnamed gunmen kidnapped the elderly father, believed to be 84, of Dr. Faisal Meqdad, Syria’s deputy foreign minister.  Government forces have detained the relative of someone thought to be involved in the kidnapping, though the Free Syrian Army have denied any such involvement. 

According to activist sources, the kidnapping comes just 1 day after an undeclared mutial agreement on both sides to refrain from kidnapping activity.

IN HAMA PROVINCE ASSAD TROOPS GIVE UP ALAWITE VILLAGES AFTER WEEKS OF FIGHTING AND WITHDRAW TO NEARBY  CITY:

In Hama province the FSA is reported to have destroyed a BMP armoured vehicle at the Tal Milh checkpoint but the town of Halfaya has once again come under heavy shelling and air assault. Government forces are reported to be currently attempting to assault the town from 3 directions.

However, in Hama’s eastern countryside, Assad forces withdrew to the town of Al-Fan allowing Opposition fighters to take over the villages of Al-Tlessiyeh, Al-Shaatheh, Al-Qahira, Ras Al-Ein, Qasser Makhram, and Al-Jneineh after weeks of fighting.

Many of these were formally Alawite communities, but the residents fled as fighting began. 

The fighters completing the operation had previously taken the city of Raqqah and ae now engaging the Syrian Army further to the south.

In Damascus, a car bomb late on Saturday night in the Ruken al-Deen district, is reported to have killed between 3 and 7 people (depending on the source) and injured others. A number of the victims are believed to have been soldiers, as well as passing civilians.

The large explosion shook the area and there is video of burning vehicles, HERE:

A video recording of President Assad giving an interview to 2 journalists from the Argentinian newspaper, Clarin, has appeared online.  In it Assad “welcomes” the US/Russian initiative to hold a “peace conference” but reiterates that he has no intention of standing down and would only do so after an election, due in 2014, “voted him out of office”. 

Assad denied that his Army “used excessive force” and that the Syrian Government had “ever used chemical weapons” against its citizens.

Al Jazeera has a video report on this interview, HERE:  (EDITOR: I swear Assad’s ears are getting bigger – though he still does not seem to be listening!)

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ALEPPO PRISON ASSAULT BY OPPOSITION ON HOLD, AFTER REPORTS OF REGIME SOLDIERS THROWING PRISONERS FROM THE WINDOWS:

TIMELINE – 17th MAY 2013 12.05 GMT:

After launching a major attack on Aleppo Central Prison at dawn on Wednesday, Opposition fighters withdrew from the prison grounds yesterday, although fighting continues in the area.

After blowing up sections of the prison wall with car bombs, Opposition fighters took over a new extension being built in the prison and attacked regime troops stationed in the older buildings. The Assad Government launched airstrikes against Opposition fighters in the area and 6 were reported killed and 12 wounded.

This is a map of Aleppo Central Prison, courtesy @TaziMorocco. You can see a larger version. HERE:

According to a report in the UK’s Telegraph, one fighter said they had withdrawn because the Syrian Army started throwing bodies of prisoners from a window.

The fighter, known as Anas, said, “The bodies are still there, and we are close enough to smell them. We cannot get them because they are in the line of fire.” He said the attack had stopped to prevent more prisoners being killed.

A local FSA leader, Jaber Abu Madian, said the prison was for ordinary criminals, but in recent months political prisoners had also been taken there. He feared it was these men who were being killed. “We can hear shouts of ‘God is Great’ from inside when we begin opening fire,” he added.

The prison compound lies in a 500-metre long site in a valley stretching north from the city limits and yesterday mortar fire continued to be exchanged from both sides. SANA, the official state media claimed that the attack “had been repelled”. This video shows Opposition fighters within the prison grounds, HERE:

To the west of Aleppo, fierce fighting is also underway to take the district of Khan al-Assal, where the Government had claimed earlier this year that the Opposition had used “chemical weapons”.

A UN team was on standby in Cyprus to investigate this but the Assad Government called off the visit when the UN said it wanted to examine Opposition claims of Government attacks on them using similar banned weapons.

Opposition fighters in an industrial zone have already taken the Endoumie factory (noodle manufacturer), the al-Jerash buildings and the waterworks. Some reports say that Government forces have retreated to the centre of the town taking their dead and wounded with them.

So far 7 Opposition fighters have been reported killed in the fighting for the town and more than 16 injured. There are videos, HERE: and HERE:

The BBC has sent a team to Saraqab in Aleppo province and recorded convincing evidence of a chemical weapons attack there in April. One woman died. The video report (EDITOR: Some of it pretty grim), is HERE:

UP TO 50 MORE MASSACRED AND BURNT BODIES FOUND IN THE DAMASCUS SUBURB OF DOUMA:

Similarly, in the industrial area of the Damascus suburb of Qaboun, Opposition forces overran the Assaboun building, one of the most important staging posts for Assad troops in the area and formerly a soap factory. The building is alongside the Homs – Damascus main highway and a large amount of ammunition was also taken.

In the Damascus suburb of Douma, up to 50 burnt bodies were found this week, people who were believed to have been summarily executed by regime forces, though so far no identification has been possible. There is video (EDITOR: Though caution advised, pretty gruesome), HERE:

Heavy Government airstrikes are being reported this morning, Friday, on the Opposition held Damascus suburb of Barzeh but yesterday Opposition fighters are also said to have destroyed 4 tanks in East Ghouta, the Damascus countryside.

In Hama province, heavy shell and rocket fire, including cluster bombing, is reported on the town of Halfaya which the army is seeking to retake. The sound of shelling and fighting can be heard HERE: and a shell strikes the town’s Grand Mosque, HERE:

Opposition fighters say they have destroyed 2 BMP armoured vehicles and a tank as the Syrian Army attempts to enter Halfaya and also “re-liberated” the town of al-Sha`thah. Meanwhile, major battles are also being reported around Hama military airport.

In Homs province, the Syrian National Coalition is repporting that Government soldiers have executed and slaughtered 18 people in the village of Khirbet Suda with “guns and knives”.

In Idlib Opposition fighters have attacked several northern and western checkpoints on approaches to the city and a number of explosions have been heard across the provincial capital. There is video copy of the aftermath of attack, HERE:

HRW FINDS INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE IN RAQQAH PRISON, WHILE RUSSIA BEMUSED OVER REASONS FOR NOT SUPPLYING ASSAD WITH ARMS:

In Raqqah province, another 50 Syrian soldiers are reported to have defected to the Opposition side and Human Rights Watch (HRW), having investigated the contents of the Raqqah city prison captured in March this year, says it has found significant evidence of the use of torture by the Assad authorities.

HRW deputy Middle East director Nadim Houry, said “… documents, prison cells, interrogation rooms, and torture devices we saw in the government’s security facilities are consistent with the torture former detainees have described to us since the beginning of the uprising in Syria”.

One instrument of torture found was a cross-shaped folding contraption known as “bsat al-reeh” (flying carpet) which “former detainees have said has been used to immobilise and severely stretch or bend limbs”. You can read more HERE:

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights based in the UK, but with an extensive network of activists across Syria, says that the death toll in the massacre carried out in the Sunni suburbs of Banias in Latakia has risen dramatically.

Many people earlier listed as missing are now thought to have been summarily slaughtered in a Government led and Shabiha backed attack on the area.

The total number of civilians thought to have been murdered in Banias now stands at 145, consisting of 34 children, 40 women and 71 men.

On the international front, 3 more UN peacekeepers were detained by armed fighters in the Golan Heights, when their was command post was overrun and ransacked. Fortunately, they were released unharmed a few hours later.

Frantic engagement between Western leaders and Russia continues, with Ban Ki-Moon, the UN General Secretary, the latest leader to visit Moscow for talks. This morning, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said he did not understand why the West was making such a furor over the supply of weapons to the Assad regime on existing contracts, claiming they were only for “defensive use”.

The Israeli premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, in a visit to Moscow this week apparently warned President Putin not to supply Assad with advanced S-300 surface-to-air missiles that could take out other nation’s fighter jets or be supplied to Hezbollah.

However, there is also a separate report today that Russia has gone ahead and supplied Assad with a shipment of upgraded Yakhonts anti-ship missiles that would make any naval blockade of Syria more difficult, should that happen.

Also in a “muscle flexing exercise” Russia yesterday moved 6 more warships through the Suez canal to the waters of Syria, bringing its flotilla there to 12.

Despite the West’s best efforts to convince Russia otherwise, it seems determined to back Assad to the bitter end and not be complicit in the destruction of the Syrian dictatorship as it was over Libya.

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CANNIBALISTIC, ORGAN EATING OPPOSITION FIGHTER UNREPENTANT – FSA ISSUES POSTER FOR HIS ARREST “DEAD OR ALIVE”:

TIMELINE 15th MAY 2013 12.36 GMT:

Both inside and outside Syria on the international front, there has been worldwide revulsion at a video which went viral at the weekend showing cannibalistic behavior by an Opposition Commander.

The video, now confirmed as genuine, apparently shows a well-known Opposition commander in the Qusair, Homs area, Khalid al-Hamad, cutting out the organs of a dead Syrian soldier and eating part of one organ, while saying, “We will cut out and eat the hearts and livers of Bashar’s dogs”.

The organ was subsequently identified by a surgeon as the dead man’s lungs.

Al-Hamad says his actions were in revenge for pictures found on the dead man’s phone of a naked woman and her 2 daughters in which the soldier humiliates them.

He claims to have acted in a similar cannibalistic way before.

His actions have been condemned not only by the Assad Government, some of whose troops are almost certainly guilty of similar acts of barbarity, but by the FSA, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), Governments worldwide and Human Rights Watch.

The FSA’s Supreme Military Council, which claims to control “90% of the armed Opposition groups in Syria”, placed a poster on Facebook, calling for Al-Hamad’s arrest, “dead or alive”.

The SNC, which has been recently been running a series of workshops in northern Syria to teach Opposition fighters about Human Rights and the Geneva Convention on War protocols for the treatment of prisoners, also quickly distanced itself from the Opposition fighter’s actions.

In a Skype interview yesterday, Al-Hamad, who commands the Independent Omar al-Farouk Brigade, told Time magazine that, “Hopefully, we will slaughter all Alawites..”

You can read more of Al-Hamas’s interview with Time magazine, HERE:

DEATH TOLL FIGURES IN SYRIA, JUST 2 DAYS AFTER PREVIOUS ESTIMATES, REVISED UPWARDS BY 12,000 AFTER NEW INFORMATION ON ALAWITES KILLED:

Revised figures for those killed in Syria were released yesterday by the respected Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, just 2 days after it said total recorded deaths have reached 82,257.

The new figure has jumped 12,000 to a total of more than 94,000. The Observatory said that it had revised its figures after receiving new information from 8 sources in Government controlled areas around Latakia, Tartous and Homs, where the deaths of members of the Alawite community are much higher than previously recorded.

Recorded deaths of members of the Alawite community are now put at 41,000, though as the Observatory calculates that both sides are “discrete on their casualties”, the real total on deaths on all sides is likely to be in excess of 120,000 or even more.

OPPOSITION FORCES BREAK THROUGH INTO ALEPPO CENTRAL PRISON AND FIERCE FIGHTING UNDERWAY:

In Aleppo the Free Syrian Army and its allies have broken into the new buildings inside Aleppo Central Prison early this morning and are engaged in heavy fighting with Government units defending the old prison buildings. The assault came after suicide car bomb attacks blew up parts of the prison perimeter wall.

Around 4,000 prisoners including Islamists and common law criminals are usually held in the prison on the outskirts of Aleppo adjacent to Opposition held areas.

Assad Air Force jets are reported to have attacked Opposition areas around the periphery of the prison in order to try and eliminate the attackers. This and heavy shelling is reported to killed a child and wounded 7 members of the same family living near the jail and started fires in some residential buildings.

Mennegh airbase, also in Aleppo province, is currently coming under Opposition tank fire, HERE:

Opposition forces are also on the offensive in Idlib province where they have been targeting the main entrance to the Abu Aldhor Airport which has been under siege for some weeks now, HERE:

2 days ago, Monday, they also shot down with a missile or anti-aircraft gun, or a combination of both, a helicopter over the airbase attempting to resupply the troops inside. It falls to earth in a ball of flames, HERE:

In Deir Ez-Zour operations against the airport there are also continuing with this strike on a nearby artillery unit, HERE: The defection of 200 military personnel in the province is also reported, the FSA encouraging them to “go home to their families”.

In Hama province video emerged of this destruction of a T-72 tank, HERE:

And while there has been concern about the Government retaking the key strategic town on the main highway from Damascus to Deraa, Kherbit Ghazalah (scroll down -see report below), in the country’s southern Deraa province, latest reports suggest that Opposition forces still hold southern parts of the key town.

This recent map (May 12th) shows Opposition controlled areas (in Green – Government Red) in central and southern Syria. There is a larger version of the map, HERE:

In the central Homs province, things for the Opposition look far less certain, particularly around the strategic city of Qusair (see earlier reports below). Government sources say they took the villages of Western Dumayna, Haidariyeh and Esh al-Warwar on Monday in an attempt to cut off supplies to the Opposition fighters in Qusair itself.

In the abandoned village of Western Dumayna, which lies between Qusair and Homs, Government troops found abandoned machineguns and tunnels filled with mattresses and food.

The Opposition Syrian National Coalition has expressed fears about another massacre if Government forces break into Qusair where there are still thought to be as many as 25,000 civilian residents.

From Damascus this morning, Wednesday, there are reports of 2 explosions, 1 in Umayyad Square near the Opera House and another near the Imam-Al-Shaafi mosque in the Mezzeh district. Two women are reported seriously injured. The target in Umayyad Square was thought to be a military checkpoint.

23 Opposition Brigades, including the Al Nusra Front, are reported to have come together in a strategic alliance to try and retake the town of Otaiba from Government troops. The town lies just 3 kilometres (2 miles) northeast of Damascus international airport.

Otaiba was previously important to the Opposition side as it acted as a conduit for smuggling weapons from Jordan into the suburbs of Damascus itself.

After a 2 day black-out on May 7th and 8th, the Internet service in Damascus (including Government websites) went out again this morning, Wednesday, at 10.00 am local time.

This map, compiled to show Internet connectivity across Syria, shows that it is really ever only functional in Government controlled areas (shown in Green). The map does not take into account those with satellite access or to networks in other surrounding contries.

You can see a bigger version of the map, HERE:

Lastly, numerous meetings are being held around the world to try and facilitate a Russian and US sponsored “peace conference” on Syria, now scheduled for Geneva, Switzerland, in early June.

The Syrian National Coalition is meeting in Istanbul to decide on its own position, which until now has been that Assad must step down before any talks take place.

At the same time the Syrian Government has made it clear that they will not be dictated to and Syrian sovereignty is “not negotiable”, their choice of Government and President only being decided “by the ballot box”.

(EDITOR: Though they have done a very “good job” of ignoring the tens of thousands who have consistently democratically demonstrated to say they no longer want Assad.)

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CANNIBALISTIC, ORGAN EATING OPPOSITION FIGHTER UNREPENTANT – FSA ISSUES POSTER FOR HIS ARREST “DEAD OR ALIVE”:

TIMELINE 15th MAY 2013 12.36 GMT:

Both inside and outside Syria on the international front, there has been worldwide revulsion at a video which went viral at the weekend showing cannibalistic behavior by an Opposition Commander.

The video, now confirmed as genuine, apparently shows a well-known Opposition commander in the Qusair, Homs area, Khalid al-Hamad, cutting out the organs of a dead Syrian soldier and eating part of one organ, while saying, “We will cut out and eat the hearts and livers of Bashar’s dogs”.

The organ was subsequently identified by a surgeon as the dead man’s lungs.

Al-Hamad says his actions were in revenge for pictures found on the dead man’s phone of a naked woman and her 2 daughters in which the soldier humiliates them.

He claims to have acted in a similar cannibalistic way before.

His actions have been condemned not only by the Assad Government, some of whose troops are almost certainly guilty of similar acts of barbarity, but by the FSA, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), Governments worldwide and Human Rights Watch.

The FSA’s Supreme Military Council, which claims to control “90% of the armed Opposition groups in Syria”, placed a poster on Facebook, calling for Al-Hamad’s arrest, “dead or alive”.

The SNC, which has been recently been running a series of workshops in northern Syria to teach Opposition fighters about Human Rights and the Geneva Convention on War protocols for the treatment of prisoners, also quickly distanced itself from the Opposition fighter’s actions.

In a Skype interview yesterday, Al-Hamad, who commands the Independent Omar al-Farouk Brigade, told Time magazine that, “Hopefully, we will slaughter all Alawites..”

You can read more of Al-Hamas’s interview with Time magazine, HERE:

DEATH TOLL FIGURES IN SYRIA, JUST 2 DAYS AFTER PREVIOUS ESTIMATES, REVISED UPWARDS BY 12,000 AFTER NEW INFORMATION ON ALAWITES KILLED:

Revised figures for those killed in Syria were released yesterday by the respected Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, just 2 days after it said total recorded deaths have reached 82,257.

The new figure has jumped 12,000 to a total of more than 94,000. The Observatory said that it had revised its figures after receiving new information from 8 sources in Government controlled areas around Latakia, Tartous and Homs, where the deaths of members of the Alawite community are much higher than previously recorded.

Recorded deaths of members of the Alawite community are now put at 41,000, though as the Observatory calculates that both sides are “discrete on their casualties”, the real total on deaths on all sides is likely to be in excess of 120,000 or even more.

OPPOSITION FORCES BREAK THROUGH INTO ALEPPO CENTRAL PRISON AND FIERCE FIGHTING UNDERWAY:

In Aleppo the Free Syrian Army and its allies have broken into the new buildings inside Aleppo Central Prison early this morning and are engaged in heavy fighting with Government units defending the old prison buildings. The assault came after suicide car bomb attacks blew up parts of the prison perimeter wall.

Around 4,000 prisoners including Islamists and common law criminals are usually held in the prison on the outskirts of Aleppo adjacent to Opposition held areas.

Assad Air Force jets are reported to have attacked Opposition areas around the periphery of the prison in order to try and eliminate the attackers. This and heavy shelling is reported to killed a child and wounded 7 members of the same family living near the jail and started fires in some residential buildings.

Mennegh airbase, also in Aleppo province, is currently coming under Opposition tank fire, HERE:

Opposition forces are also on the offensive in Idlib province where they have been targeting the main entrance to the Abu Aldhor Airport which has been under siege for some weeks now, HERE:

2 days ago, Monday, they also shot down with a missile or anti-aircraft gun, or a combination of both, a helicopter over the airbase attempting to resupply the troops inside. It falls to earth in a ball of flames, HERE:

In Deir Ez-Zour operations against the airport there are also continuing with this strike on a nearby artillery unit, HERE: The defection of 200 military personnel in the province is also reported, the FSA encouraging them to “go home to their families”.

In Hama province video emerged of this destruction of a T-72 tank, HERE:

And while there has been concern about the Government retaking the key strategic town on the main highway from Damascus to Deraa, Kherbit Ghazalah (scroll down -see report below), in the country’s southern Deraa province, latest reports suggest that Opposition forces still hold southern parts of the key town.

This recent map (May 12th) shows Opposition controlled areas (in Green – Government Red) in central and southern Syria. There is a larger version of the map, HERE:

In the central Homs province, things for the Opposition look far less certain, particularly around the strategic city of Qusair (see earlier reports below). Government sources say they took the villages of Western Dumayna, Haidariyeh and Esh al-Warwar on Monday in an attempt to cut off supplies to the Opposition fighters in Qusair itself.

In the abandoned village of Western Dumayna, which lies between Qusair and Homs, Government troops found abandoned machineguns and tunnels filled with mattresses and food.

The Opposition Syrian National Coalition has expressed fears about another massacre if Government forces break into Qusair where there are still thought to be as many as 25,000 civilian residents.

From Damascus this morning, Wednesday, there are reports of 2 explosions, 1 in Umayyad Square near the Opera House and another near the Imam-Al-Shaafi mosque in the Mezzeh district. Two women are reported seriously injured. The target in Umayyad Square was thought to be a military checkpoint.

23 Opposition Brigades, including the Al Nusra Front, are reported to have come together in a strategic alliance to try and retake the town of Otaiba from Government troops. The town lies just 3 kilometres (2 miles) northeast of Damascus international airport.

Otaiba was previously important to the Opposition side as it acted as a conduit for smuggling weapons from Jordan into the suburbs of Damascus itself.

After a 2 day black-out on May 7th and 8th, the Internet service in Damascus (including Government websites) went out again this morning, Wednesday, at 10.00 am local time.

This map, compiled to show Internet connectivity across Syria, shows that it is really ever only functional in Government controlled areas (shown in Green). The map does not take into account those with satellite access or to networks in other surrounding contries.

You can see a bigger version of the map, HERE:

Lastly, numerous meetings are being held around the world to try and facilitate a Russian and US sponsored “peace conference” on Syria, now scheduled for Geneva, Switzerland, in early June.

The Syrian National Coalition is meeting in Istanbul to decide on its own position, which until now has been that Assad must step down before any talks take place.

At the same time the Syrian Government has made it clear that they will not be dictated to and Syrian sovereignty is “not negotiable”, their choice of Government and President only being decided “by the ballot box”.

(EDITOR: Though they have done a very “good job” of ignoring the tens of thousands who have consistently democratically demonstrated to say they no longer want Assad.)

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RECORDED DEATHS IN SYRIA PASS 82,000, 34,473 OF THEM CIVILIANS, INCLUDING 4,788 CHILDREN AND 3,049 WOMEN:

TIMELINE – 13th MAY 2013 12.45 GMT:

According to the London based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights deaths in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 have now exceeded 82,257, 42% of these being civilians including 7837 women and children.

Of the 82,257, the Observatory has recorded 12,916 Opposition fighters killed plus 1,924 Syrian Army defectors. On the Assad side, of the 82,257, 16,729 were Syrian Military personnel and 12, 000 Shabiha armed militia and informers.

The fate of another 10,000 people held in Assad regime jails and detention centres is unknown, as is the fate of 2,500 Syrian military prisoners taken by Opposition forces.

All the above data is based on documented figures.

The Observatory estimates that the true number of deaths in Syria so far exceeds 120,000.

SET BACK FOR OPPOSITION FORCES AS REGIME TROOPS RETAKE STRATEGIC TOWN ON DAMASCUS – DERAA HIGHWAY:

After retaking the important town of Khirbet Ghazaleh at the end of last week following a co-ordinated regime attack, Assad’s forces once again took complete control of the town again yesterday, Sunday. The town controls the junction from the main highway from Damascus to Deraa city and also the road to the Jordanian border and Amman.

Following the take over, house to house searches and arrests are being reported in Khirbet Ghazaleh and Government troops are said to have set fire to some houses, HERE:

On the Syrian state website, SANA, A military source was quoted as saying that the Damascus-Deraa international highway has become “safe” and the army have worked on clearing it of the “terrorists” completely.

After a number of rapid gains by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the southern province in March and April, this will be seen as a set-back for the Opposition, particularly as they receive weapons and training from across the nearby Jordanian border.

The Washington Post comments on a number of Assad regime gains and advances in recent weeks following a revised strategy and reorganisation, HERE:

Similarly in Hama province a heavy assault is underway on the Opposition held city of Hilfaya, with hundreds fleeing after reports of the execution of some residents as Government troops advanced into the suburbs using some citizens as human shields and commenced fierce shelling on others. Many civilians fled desperately across the Orontes river, HERE:

In Damascus Opposition forces fired mortars using captured weaponry at the regime stronghold of Mezze 86 and SANA, the state media, reported damage to buildings and injury to 2 women. There is an Opposition video (see after 0.13), HERE:

A Government airstrike on the town of Hazzeh in East Ghouta killed 7 and injured many more. Most of those killed were from the Jobar district, having already fled east from there seeking safety. The Opposition brigades in the eastern suburbs of Damascus joined together over the weekend to form the “United Army”.

The Assad regime also resumed its attempts to regain the Opposition stronghold of Daraya, the Damascus suburb holding out for months against repeated assaults, shelling and rocket attack.

As happens most days a convoy from Mezzeh airbase comprising tanks, armoured vehicles and troop carriers approached the suburb yesterday, Sunday, but was again repelled by Opposition fighters using home-made rockets and mortar bombs.

In Aleppo, Opposition “military police” seized a group holding Hezbollah flags and insignia, HERE:

There was also confirmation that a “friendly fire” strike by an Assad jet on an ammunition dump within Quwaires airbase, which continues to be under siege by Opposition fighters, resulted in a major explosion which killed or injured many Syrian Army troops.

In Deir Ez-Zour Opposition fighters continue to target strategic Government positions within the airport and over the weekend they struck the positions of the missile brigade there, again with home-made bombs. Positions within the airport have been used to shell local villages, including Tabiya, Abd and Bou-amr where landing shells have set crops on fire, and residential areas within the city.

In the Opposition held city of Raqqah to the north-east of Syria, Government jets struck an area near the Governor’s Place killing one citizen and destroying an ambulance.

A siege of the nearby 17th Division base continues, while jets also tried to destroy units of the Opposition holding the periphery of the site. Occasional Government pallet drops of ammunition and food are the only things sustaining the troops inside.

In Homs province reports on Saturday that the town of Abel, on the southern approaches to Homs city, had been recaptured by Opposition forces, were followed a few hours later by news that Government troops had retaken it yet again.

TWIN CAR-BOMBING IN TURKEY CAUSES ANTI-SYRIAN REFUGEE BACKLASH, WHILE AUTHORITIES ACCUSE ASSAD REGIME OF INVOLVEMENT:

After the twin bomb attack in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli, where the death toll has now reached 46 with more than 100 injured, the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accused Syria of trying to drag Turkey into the Syrian “quagmire”.

Syria’s Information Minister, Omran al-Zohbi, rejected the accusations, saying, “Syria did not commit and would never commit such an act because our values would not allow that.”

(EDITOR: It makes you weep, doesn’t it? Such fine values?)

Rather (too) rapidly, Turkey said it had arrested 9 suspects who had already “confessed” to the killings having smuggled explosives in from Syria and hidden them in special compartments fixed into 2 Turkish registered cars.

The suspects were said to be “members of the Turkish Marxist Party” and the authorities were apparently investigating links between the bombings and a Turkish Alawite national who is also said to have led the massacres near Banias in Syria last week, and the Assad regime.

The second bomb blast was apparently detonated remotely 15 minutes after the first explosion, HERE:

Angry locals have since trashed and vandalised dozens of cars belonging to Syrian refugees in the area and many Syrians are now in hiding. Al Jazeera has a video report, HERE:

On the international front David Cameron, the UK Prime Minister, after talking with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, about Syria, is on his way to the White House for further consultations with President Obama. Talks about international talks perhaps.

The Syrian National Coalition (SNC) is meeting in Istanbul on May 23rd to discuss whether they should take part in such an international conference. They also plan to elect a new president after the resignation of Moaz Khatib and to consider the fate of their first elected Prime Minister, Ghassan Hitto, who many consider is too close to Qatar and its influence.

On the Golan Heights, 4 Filipino UN peacekeepers were released by the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade after Qatar used its influence effectively to gain their release. The Philippines Government is considering withdrawing all 300 of its UN peacekeepers after the second kidnapping of its nationals this year.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a pro-Assad group that was driven out of the Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee Camp in Damascus by Opposition forces, says that, following the Israeli airstrike near Damascus earlier this month, it has been given the “green light” by President Assad to attack Israel from Syrian territory.

Israel remains on high alert particularly around its northern border with Lebanon and the Golan.

The last word, as many times before, to the good citizens of Kafranbel, Idlib province:

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AS ASSAD FORCES & HEZBOLLAH SURROUND QUSAIR, ACTIVISTS & UN FEAR ANOTHER MASSACRE:

UPDATED TIMELINE – 11th MAY 2013 17.55 GMT:

Concerns are growing that a Syrian Army build-up around the city of Al-Qusair in Homs province is going to lead to yet another massacre.

The city, controlled by Opposition forces since last year, has been besieged for weeks as the Syrian Army, desperate to secure the route from Damascus to Latakia, has built up an attack group of thousands of troops backed by tanks and other weaponry and supported by Shabiha and units of Hezbollah from nearby Lebanon.

According to an Army spokesman “Leaflets were dropped over Al-Qusayr asking civilians to leave the city, with a map of a safe route by which to evacuate, because the attack against the city is coming soon if the rebels do not surrender”.

An activist though, in Qusair, said he had visited 2 nearby villages and no leaflets had been seen.

At least 25,000 civilians are thought to be still in the city.

The activist, Hadi al-Abdullah, said, “What is more worrying than that is that there is no safe exit for civilians. All of us here in Al-Qusayr have been condemned by the regime to a slow death. Every time civilians try to leave the town, they are shot or shelled at the town’s edges by tanks or snipers. We are trapped — civilians, activists and fighters together”.

His fears have been echoed by Navi Pillay, the UN Hight Commissioner for Human Rights, who has expressed alarm at the huge military build-up around Qusair. In a statement she said, “I am… very concerned by reports my team in the region have received from a variety of sources that, as a result of a major military build-up by Syrian government forces and pro-government militias around the area of Al-Qusayr, near the border with Lebanon, the local civilian population is being increasingly displaced.

It appears likely that this is in preparation for a large-scale attack to uproot the armed opposition from Al-Qusayr, and local people clearly fear a possible repeat of last week’s killings of civilians [in Banias and Bayda]“.

The Assad regime has made capturing the key town a major objective and now has it surrounded on three sides. Latest reports from the area yesterday said that the city was being heavily shelled from surrounding villages now under the control of Hezbollah.

Two people were reported killed in yesterday’s shelling and 20 injured. In addition a mother and her child were killed at they attempted to flee from one village west of Homs to another, a journey that activists say is now fraught with danger. Anyone moving out of Sunni villages now seems to be a target for regime snipers.

Many civilians are now forced to live underground in shelters in miserable conditions, made worse since Hezbollah fighters destroyed the water refining plants at Ein Attanour and Qusair.

Despite the siege, the citizens of Qusair staged a joyful anti-Assad demonstration after prayers on Friday, HERE, and Opposition fighters held off the Syrian Army in clashes on the western and southern approaches to the city.

Al Jazeera has a video report, HERE:

Heavy shelling on Opposition areas from the Army stationed at the Military Academy was also reported in the nearby city of Homs.

110 anti-Government demonstrations were reported at 96 places yesterday, the largest held in Deir Ez-Zour, the Damascus Countryside and Raqqah.

There is additionally an unconfirmed report that another Government jet was downed on Thursday over the town of Jarba in Eastern Ghouta not far from the capital and 2 tanks plus an armoured vehicle captured at a checkpoint at Qalaboun, HERE:

Very latest reports this morning, Saturday, say that the Opposition in Homs province are not going down without a fight and that they have just recaptured the strategic village of Abel, which lies just 4 kilometres from the main Damascus highway.

Abel lies between Qusair and Homs and activists say its recapture will relieve the pressure on fighters moving between the 2 cities. Heavy fighting is also reported today in the Al-Khalidiya neighbourhood of Homs.

In Latakia province, Opposition fighters have been also holding their ground after the Syrian Army launched an all out attack on the Turkman mountain and the villages surrounding Nabi Younus on Friday.

Shells bombarded the towns of Zgharo and Ghmam while Assad ground troops tried to infiltrate the mountains through Khurbat Sulas. Opposition fighters succeeded in foiling the attempts to take over the area, forcing the Syrian Army to retreat with heavy casualties.

In Idlib province, following heavy shelling of Opposition strongholds, fighters retaliated by pounding a Government held position known as the Brick Factory near Binnish with home-made rockets.

40 KILLED IN ATTACK ON TURKISH BORDER CITY, AS WEST IN FLURRY OF DOUBTFUL MEETINGS WITH RUSSIA TO ORGANISE “PEACE CONFERENCE”:

Fierce fighting is reported this afternoon, Saturday, along the road linking Hama and Aleppo province which the Opposition took control of last Thursday. The road, known as the Desert Road, was the last significant road link remaining for the Government to resupply its units in Aleppo province.

2 explosions are also being reported this afternoon in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli, killing 40, according to latest reports and wounding more than 100. Reyhanli is a town of about 60,000 people and lies near the Cilvegozu crossing opposite Syria’s Bab al-Hawa border post.

The source of the explosions is now believed to be 2 car bombs which blew up near the town hall and the post office causing major damage.

Angry local people attacked cars with Syrian number plates, HERE:

There is video footage, in which a man blames “Assad”, HERE:

The explosions came after Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said yesterday, Friday, that they had evidence of the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime in Syria after blood tests on victims and examination of the remains of ordinance and would be sharing this with UN officials.

The “chemical weapons” debate hotted up this week after Carla del Ponte, who serves on the UN Human Rights committee of enquiry into Syria, said that there was testimony from victims that the Opposition had used chemical weapons.

This was denied by the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the USA, the UK and the committee to which Carla del Ponte belonged. The Committee Chairman said that they did not have sufficient evidence from either side to as yet be conclusive.

More and more it seems as though the West is keen to show Assad’s culpability for using chemical weapons, thereby justifying further action on their part to support the Opposition.

After the US met with Russia and agreed a “peace conference” on Syria, involving all sides, earlier this week, UK premier David Cameron met with President Putin in Russia yesterday to discuss the same subject.

Many experts believe that such a conference is not as easy as it looks, with Russia continuing to supply Assad with weapons and the West saying that Assad must step down before such talks can go ahead.

The body language between David Cameron and President Putin, in this BBC video report, suggests that real agreement may still be a long way off! HERE:

The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has also apparently booked a meeting with President Putin in Moscow in the next two weeks to try and persuade him not to supply Assad with advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems.

Russia claims that it is merely delivering arms for contracts that it signed “years ago”.

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INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS RESTORED AFTER 19 HOUR SHUTDOWN – WHAT WAS ASSAD UP TO?:

UPDATED TIMELINE – 8th MAY 2013 17.05 GMT:

At around 19.00 GMT (22.00 local time) yesterday, Tuesday, Internet monitoring companies noticed a severe dip in traffic emanating from Syria and 30 minutes later Syrian internet traffic stopped altogether.

After a 19 hour shutdown services were restored at 14.40 GMT (17.30 local time) this afternoon, Wednesday.

The last time this happened was over 3 days in November 2012.

Activists then anticipated some major military action that the Assad Government did not want the world to see, though there was after all no substantial evidence of that happening.

The Syrian Government then blamed “terrorists” for destroying Internet infrastructure.

Whether this was a deliberate action by the Assad regime this time is unknown. Some activists think the Government was upgrading their monitoring software.

Mobile phones and some landlines, though not all, were still working in Syria and users could still connect to the Internet by using dial-up via their phone lines.  Satellite Internet links were unaffected, though some users reported them as being extremely slow.

Syria Dial Up access was still available via: +46850009990 +492317299993 +4953160941030 User: telecomix password: telecomix OR +33172890150 login: toto password: toto

The state media, SANA, whose own international English and Arabic website was also offline (now restored), issued a statement saying, “Internet services and phone calls between provinces were cut off Tuesday evening because of a fault in optical fiber cables. Efforts are ongoing to fix the faults and to bring Internet and telephone services back up as soon as possible”.

Experts think that a problem with a “fiber optic cable” is unlikely to bring down the whole network as the Syrian system works through 4 providers and 3 submarine cables linked to other countries.  It begs the question – What was really going on?

Syria is ranked 176 out of 179 countries in the worldwide press freedom index by international press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

MAJOR BATTLE IN PROGRESS OVER STRATEGIC TOWN IN SOUTH CONTROLLING INTERNATIONAL HIGHWAY TO JORDAN:

Conflicting reports are emerging over the fate of the strategic town of Khirbet Ghazaleh in Deraa province which sits astride a cross roads on the Damascus to Amman in Jordan, main highway.

Yesterday, Reuters reported that Government forces had recaptured the town from Opposition fighters who had taken it 2 months ago and for all that time prevented Assad ground forces from resupplying their units in Deraa to the west, as well as blocking all traffic to Jordan.

A massive Government battle force had been pounding the town for weeks and moved yesterday to take over completely.

First reports said that 1,000 Opposition fighters had withdrawn, blaming Jordan and the local military council for failing to supply them with weapons and ammunition.

Abu Yacoub, commander of the Martyrs of Khirbet Ghazaleh brigade, told Reuters by telephone, “Assad’s forces started advancing from the north and west and I can still go back to Khirbet Ghazaleh but I cannot do anything. I can get a thousand fighters back but it is useless because I don’t have ammunition in my hands”. Abu Yacoub added that he had lost 35 fighters in two months.

Activists report that most civilians had fled Khirbet Ghazaleh because  fear was growing that the remaining residents would face summary execution by the Syrian Army.

Later reports this morning, Wednesday, suggest that Opposition fighters have received re-inforcements from elsewhere in Deraa province where they hold a 25 kilometre swathe of territory, and have regained some districts including Almahata, forcing Government troops to retreat to the northern entrances to the town. However, the situation remains confused.

Certainly, on Tuesday, Opposition fighters were well engaged in battles, as can be seen HERE:

In Deraa city itself, activists report the discovery of a mass grave containing the bodies of 12 people who appear to have been summarily executed.

Elsewhere across the country heavy fighting continues both in the countryside and cities. In Latakia province barrel bombs containing TNT were once again dropped on  the village of Salam, HERE: 

In Deir Ez-Zour heavy shelling has been reported on the districts of Sina’ah, the old airport, Sheikh Yassin and Hamidiyah, since early this morning.  A video has also emerged of regime forces destroying the Euphrates suspension bridge (scroll down – see report below), HERE:

In Homs, Opposition fighters have targeted the Military Academy, HERE: while Government troops backed by Hezbollah continue their assault on nearby Al- Qusair.

An Opposition field hospital, earlier full of injured people, was deliberately targeted by regime jets and completely destroyed.

In Damascus Opposition held districts have been subject to continuous shell, rocket and mortar bombardment.  Al – Qaboun was hit yesterday by an airstrike and in the southern neighbourhood of Moadamieh, 12 people were reported executed with knives by pro-Assad Shabha.

Heavy shelling on Moadamieh has also resulted in the destruction of a number of residential buildings.

ASSAD REGIME FORCES ON THE BACK FOOT IN ALEPPO AS OPPOSITION CONSOLIDATE THEIR POSITIONS:

In Aleppo province, Opposition fighters continue to make inroads into the Mennagh airbase, while the Syrian Air Force tries to destroy the incoming fighters by targeting their positions with war planes. 5 recent arial attacks have been recently reported and a Scud missile attack on Mennagh village.

A least one fighter aircraft was brought down by Opposition anti-aircraft fire early this morning, Wednesday, though it is not clear whether it was a helicopter, a MIG or an L39 trainer jet, as reports vary.

The L39s are the current  favourite of the regime apparently as they are easier to fly and low maintenance.

An interesting report here from the Institute of War Study (IWS) on the current state of Assad’s air assault and defence capabilities, HERE:

In Aleppo city itself, heavy fighting was reported yesterday and today around the International Airport and the adjacent Nayrab military base and also at the Hanano military base nearer the centre, with large explosions being heard across the area.

An unconfirmed report says that Government troops surrounded in both the Mennagh airbase and Aleppo Central Prison had offered to concede the territory if they were allowed to remove themselves to a safer place, but Opposition forces have refused to agree without a complete surrender.

Fierce fighting is also reported in Quneitra province along the Golan Heights border with Israel.  Several shells have landed in the Israeli side but so far, after comprehensive strikes against the Assad regime last week, no retaliatory shots have been fired.

The UN though has removed its “peacekeeping” troops from some positions after 4 of them, from the Philippines, were “kidnapped” by the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade. The Brigade, who captured 21 Filipino peacekeepers in March under similar circumstances and released them safely later, posted a photograph of the 4 on Facebook and said it had removed them from the area ” for their own safety”.

On the international front the UN has announced that 4.5 Syrians are now internally displaced within their own country, a fifth of the population. 

This does not include the 1.4 million who have crossed into Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.

John Kerry, US Secretary of State, and Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, after a meeting in Moscow agreed to convene an international conference, as early as the “end of this month”, to bring President Assad’s Government and his opponents to the negotiating table.

Kerry was kept waiting for three hours by President Vladimir Putin who also entered the talks before the announcement was made.

Finally, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) has at last taken to the air (EDITOR: Though don’t get too excited yet!), HERE:

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AFTER MASSACRES IN LATAKIA VILLAGES, SUNNI RESIDENTS BEING FORCED TO FLEE IN CLEAR POLICY OF “ETHNIC CLEANSING”:

TIMELINE 6th MAY 2013 11.55 GMT:

After 2 days of massacres on the Sunni populations of Bayda village and the Banias suburbs plus shelling, reports from Latakia province suggest that Syrian Army operations continued in the Sunni villages in the countryside around the city of Tartous. 

Activists reported yesterday, Sunday, that bombardment was continuing on the districts of Batraya and Rass Al-Naba’a, with summary executions being recorded at the Rass Al-Naba’a marble factory.

In the village of Bustan Islam, 70 people were reported arrested and many residents of Bayda, Bustan Islam and Marqab are missing, the villages and towns now almost completely deserted. 

Some residents of nearby towns report seeing trucks removing stolen furniture from the deserted areas and there are unconfirmed reports that some residents of Bayda have been forced to sign waivers “voluntarily” giving up ownership of their property.  A video showing the shelling on Rass al-Naba’a is HERE:

This video (in Arabic only – English sub-titles please – Someone?) claims to show a Syrian Army officer admitting the Bayda and Banias attacks and the plan to “cleanse” the area of Sunni residents, HERE:

ISRAELI SOURCES REPORT SYRIAN DOCTOR ADMITTING THAT 100 SYRIAN SOLDIERS WERE KILLED IN DAMASCUS AIRSTRIKE:

Although official Israeli Government sources, inline with their usual policy, have remained silent over yesterday’s airstrike against Syria, the Israeli media is claiming that the Israeli jets hit not only a chemical weapons research establishment but a warehouse storing Iranian  Fateh 110 rockets for delivery to Hezbollah.

Israeli media is also claiming, quoting a Syrian doctor at the Tishreen Hospital in Damascus, that as many as 100 of Syria’s elite troops, the Republican Guard, surrounding the facilities were also killed in the attack.

The United States was not told of the operation by Israel until the bombs were actually being dropped.

Both Egypt and the Arab League have condemned tha Israeli attack and the Syrian Information Minister, Omran al-Zoabi, accused Israel of co-operating with the Syrian Opposition and said “Israel’s aggression opens door to all possibilities”.  BBC footage obtained from Syrian state media shows a large devastated area, HERE:

Residents of Damascus continued to describe the explosions early on Sunday morning as the biggest they had ever heard since the conflict began, although Israel insists, and has apparently relayed through diplomatic channels, that it was not attacking Syria but only Hezbollah.  Al Jazeera has an additional video report, HERE:

A top Iranian general, Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, has “denied Western and Israeli media reports that an Iranian weapons depot has been targeted in Syria,” writing on the Revolutionary Guard website and saying “The Syrian government does not need Iran’s military aid”.

However, other media reports suggest that Iran now has at least 1,500 troops fighting in Syria, perhaps more and including Revolutionary Guards, members of its elite Quds Force, and intelligence officers and law enforcers.

Reports say they are being used mainly to train the Shabiha into a secondary fighting force and to provide military strategy.

Al Jazeera has a video report on the altered strategy now being employed by the Syrian Army, HERE:

OPPOSITION FIGHTERS MAKE FURTHER INROADS INTO MENNAGH AIRBASE IN ALEPPO PROVINCE AND EXPECT CONTROL SOON:

Meanwhile fighting across Syria continues with reports of Assad forces pounding once again the Damascus suburbs, including hitting the Yarmouk camp in the south-west with 3 surface to surface missiles which completely destroyed a residential building on Sunday evening, HERE:

Fierce fighting is also reported around the suburbs of Daraya, Jobar, Erbeen and this morning, Monday, around Barzeh.  Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters in Barzeh have picked up Hezbollah military communications on a frequency on their radios, HERE:

In Deraa province heavy fighting and shelling is reported today again at Khirbet Ghazaleh which controls the Damascus – Amman highway and is currently held by Opposition forces.

In Deir Ez-Zour province, Opposition fighters have downed a regime helicopter with anti-aircraft fire resulting in the death of between 6 and 8 Syrian soldiers, apparently including 2 officers.  Rather dark video footage shows the wreckage of the helicopter in the background and eventually the bodies of the Syrian soldiers in the back of a pick-up, HERE:

In Aleppo province latest reports suggest that Opposition forces are close to completely overrunning the Mennagh helicopter airbase after a continuous siege of 6 months.

On Sunday the Government forces were surrounded in the officer’s quarters and the remaining central command building. 

The Assad commander of the base, Ali Saleem Mahmoud, and some of his senior officers were reported killed Sunday as Opposition fighters increased their hold on the sprawling airbase, despite regularly air attacks on their positions from the Syrian Air Force.

The only way the besieged Government troops can get supplies is by air drops and unconfirmed reports claim that some of them were severely injured or killed when on one of the air raids against the invading Opposition fighters the Assad jets mistakenly targeted a building that was still occupied by regular troops in a “friendly fire” incident.

This video shows parachuted supplies being dropped by the Government side on Sunday, HERE:

On Saturday Opposition fighters gained control of a tank platoon position belonging to the 1st Army Division inside the airbase and more positive news is expected soon. Opposition operations at Quwaires airbase, also in Aleppo province continue.

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ISRAELI JETS MAKE 2nd STRIKE IN 3 DAYS ON SYRIAN MISSILES BOUND FOR HEZBOLLAH:

UPDATE: TIMELINE 5th MAY 2013 10.05 GMT:

In a second military strike against Syria in 3 days (and the 3rd this year), Israeli jets bombed the Jamraya scientific research establishment north-west of Damascus, causing what local residents described as a “mini-earthquake” and lighting up the night sky.  There is video footage, HERE:

Israeli sources say that they targeted a further supply of Fateh-110 missiles which were “on route from Iran to Hezbollah” in Lebanon.

The same facility was targeted previously on January 30th this year when a convoy delivering similar rockets to Hezbollah was also destroyed.

The “earthquake” nature of the blast suggests to some analysts that the Israeli rockets destroyed an underground bunker at the site. 

There are also reports that the Israelis blew up an ammunition store and a missile battalion on Mount Qassioun, facilities controlled by the 105 Battalion of the Syrian Republican Guard.

While admitting the attack on Jamraya, which occurred around 2.00 am this morning, Sunday, the Syrian State media, SANA, said, “The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army.” 

It is likely that there have been extensive casualties but the Assad regime has not admitted any at this stage. This is the 2nd Israeli strike in 3 days, the first occurring in the early hours of Friday morning with a similar target (scroll down – see report below).

A Damascus resident in talking to the media said, “Everything started to shake … Before hearing that big and huge explosions we heard a rocket passing by”. There are also unconfirmed reports that an Israeli jet was brought down in the attack, but so far no evidence of this has emerged.

The Free Syrian Army reacted cautiously to the reports saying, “We wonder why there are so many missiles and military installations around Damascus when they should be close to the ceasefire line with Israel on the Golan Heights. For us, the operations that we carry out every day are not related to Israeli attacks or anything else, and we will continue to fight until the fall of Assad”.

The Israeli Air Force is reported on high alert in case of any retaliation from Syria and another “Iron Dome” missile defensive shield battery is said to have been moved to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon in case of rocket attacks by Hezbollah units based on the other side of the Lebanese frontier.

A second video shows repeated explosions lighting up the night sky over the Syrian capital as the Israeli jets struck, HERE:

This is a map, courtesy of @raphael23, which shows the area which was attacked.  You can see the bigger version, HERE:

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