Skip to main content

Syria civil war: clashes continue in Damascus – as it happened


Summary


Good morning and welcome to today’s Middle East live blog. Here are the headlines:
Syria

• Twenty-one people have been killed so far in fighting across Syria today, including 12 in Raqqa and nine in Idlib, according to opposition group the Local Co-ordination Committees. The LCCs said there were also “fierce clashes” in the Damascus suburb of Zabadany this morning, and several people were wounded by tank and mortar fire in the suburb of Abadeh. The group reported that 130 people were killed yesterday, including 48 in Aleppo, in the north-west of the country, and 40 in Damascus and its suburbs. The Syrian Network for Human Rights, another activist group, said 132 people had been killed yesterday. Their reports cannot be verified because most media are banned from Syria.

• The activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saidthat the opposition had taken an air defence base on the outskirts of Daraa, in the south west near the border with Jordan, after days of fighting. Its report cannot be verified because most media are banned from Syria. The New York Times has the full story here.

• Al Jazeera has denounced threats made against its presenters and correspondents by Syrian regime supporters on social media in recent weeks. "Al Jazeera prides itself on honest and objective reporting,” Ibrahim Helal, director of news for Al Jazeera Arabic, said. “People who feel Al Jazeera does not reflect their point of view have no basis for any argument when they use threats of intimidation and violence through social media portals like Facebook and Twitter. The fact that our staff have been targeted with messages of hate has no place in any plural society.” The TV station said it had initiated a legal case against those who made threats.

• An interview with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is to be broadcast tomorrow, according to the president's YouTube channel. Assad speaks in public relatively rarely.
Israel

• Israeli troops have shot dead two Palestinian youths in the occupied West Bank, medical officials said on Thursday, as confrontations entered a third day following the death of a prisoner in an Israeli jail. The Israeli army said troops fired on Palestinians who threw firebombs at a guard post after dark on Wednesday near Tulkarm in the northern West Bank. One body was swiftly recovered and a second was found in the early hours of Thursday. The upsurge in violence comes just days before the US secretary of state, John Kerry, is scheduled to visit Jerusalem and Ramallah in the hope of making progress towards reviving peace negotiations that broke down in 2010. Read more here.
Egypt

• Egypt's planning minister said this morning that the government expects to reach a final agreement with the International Monetary Fund over a $4.8bn (£3.2bn) loan within two weeks, the state news agency Mena reported. Ashraf al-Araby also said that Cairo had not requested an increase in the amount of the loan, needed to avert a deepening economic crisis.


12.06pm BST
Syria


The Syrian government is sending members of its irregular militias for guerilla combat training at a secret base in Iran, Reuters reports, in a move to bolster its armed forces drained by two years of fighting and defections, according to fighters and activists. The news agency writes:


The discreet programme has been described as an open secret in some areas loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, who is trying to crush a revolt against his family's four-decade hold on power.

Reuters interviewed four fighters who said they were taken on the combat course in Iran, as well as opposition sources who said they had also been documenting such cases.

Israel's intelligence chief and a western diplomat have said Iran, Assad's main backer, is helping to train at least 50,000 militiamen and aims to increase the force to 100,000 - though they did not say where the training occurred.

No one at Iran's foreign ministry was available for comment, but Iranian officials have repeatedly denied military involvement in the Syrian conflict, saying they have only provided humanitarian aid and political support for Assad.

A Syrian government security source, who declined to be named, denied that Syria was sending fighters to Iran. "We train our own special forces for this type of combat," he said. "Since 2006 we have had units trained in guerilla warfare, why would we need to send people to Iran?"

But if the reports by Syrian fighters are true, the move to train combatants in Iran suggests that their country's increasingly regionalised conflict has grown well beyond - and could even outlast - a battle for power between Assad's circle and the opposition.

The fighters also appear to come largely from minority groups that have supported Assad against the mostly Sunni Muslim-led uprising. Such a move could exacerbate the dangerous sectarian dimensions of a conflict that has turned into a civil war that has cost the lives of more than 70,000 people.


12.52pm BST


My colleague Mona Mahmood has been speaking to Ammar Muhsin, a resident of Latakia and Assad supporter. Latakia, on the west coast of Syria, is viewed as one of Assad’s biggest support bases and strongholds.

Muhsin was damning about the rebels, saying:


Revolution in Syria is different to anywhere else in the world. It is the revolution of those who were unemployed and now can work as rebels and fight against their people. It is the revolution of criminals who were wanted by the law and now are imposing their own law on the ground through weaponry.

He said the people who supported the rebels did so for financial reasons: “This is not an oil state and most of the people have low incomes; they support the rebels for the sake of money, not for freedom or democracy.”

Muhsin asked why the rebels were strongest near the borders with Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. “If these neighbouring states closed their borders with Syria for a single month, Syria would clear out all these terrorists.”

He said he was living in Aleppo when the war began.


I was working in a factory making biscuits in Aleppo and my monthly salary was 22,000 Syrian pounds ... The terrorists blew it up and I lost my job.

I went back to work in my hometown Latakia selling fruit, but the problem is when I send pick-ups loaded with fruit to other cities and towns, they get looted and their drivers are kidnapped. Is this freedom?

He said Latakia’s population of 1 million had now ballooned to 4 million with people coming in from Aleppo, Damascus, Hassaka, Riqa and Homs.

And he asked of the Syrian National Coalition, the umbrella group backed by the west, and its president:


I do not know who Moaz al-Khatib is. Who are the National Coalition? Who is the Syrian opposition? How they became our representatives, I do not know.

Muhsin said Bashar al-Assad was a “wise and merciful man” and he hoped he would stay in power for ever.


If terror continues like this in Syria, soon we will be like Libya or Egypt. Can you tell me: when Saddam left, what did Iraq get? Only car bombs and people looking for visas to flee. Libya now has a tribal war after Gaddafi ...

I hope that President Bashar will not step down, otherwise Syria will be a piece of meat surrounded by thousand dogs and Syria would be lost.


12.58pm BST


Syrian state media has criticised Jordan for hosting the US-backed training of Syrian rebels, and warned that Amman risks falling into the "volcanic crater" of the Syrian conflict.

The warning was broadcast by state radio and appeared in a front-page editorial in the newspaper al-Thawra.

US and other western and Arab officials say Jordan has been hosting training camps for Syrian rebels since last October, the Associated Press reports. Officials say these rebels are intended to fill a security vaccuum near the border with Jordan and act as a counterbalance to the increasingly powerful Islamist factions among the rebels, such as Jabhat al-Nusra.

Al-Thawra warned:


Despite the official Jordanian denial of a lot of statements and information, some of them are authenticated, yet its attempt to put out the flames of this leaked information doesn't allow it to move on with the game of mystery to the end because it is getting closer to the volcanic crater.

Updated at 12.59pm BST


2.09pm BST
Israel/Palestine


Thousands of Palestinians have taken to the streets of the West Bank today in outrage at the deaths of two Palestinian protesters killed in clashes with Israel and a third Palestinian who died of cancer in an Israeli prison. In Gaza, militants fired a rocket that landed in southern Israel, causing no casualties. More details soon ...


2.22pm BST
Syria


Time magazine has posted a gallery of photos of female Free Syrian Army troops. The magazine says the women are members of the FSA’s only “all-female fighting unit”. Benifet Ikhla, a 27-year-old widow with six children, told the magazine: "I fight for life and freedom, I fight to prove that woman and man are equal."Time magazine's feature 'The Women Warriors of the Free Syrian Army'. Photograph: Time


2.52pm BST


Some 56 people have been killed in fighting across Syria today, according to the Local Co-ordination Committees, a Syrian opposition group. Twenty of these were killed in Aleppo, and 12 in Damascus and its suburbs, the group said.

This dramatic video, uploaded today, purports to show shelling in the Barzeh area of the capital.

This video, also uploaded today, purports to show war-damaged buildings in the suburb of Yalda.

And this one, also uploaded today, purports to show similar damage in the area of Sedy Meqdad.

These videos and reports cannot be verified because most media are banned from Syria.


4.02pm BST
Summary


Here is a summary of today’s key events.
Syria

• Some 79 people have been killed in fighting across Syria today, according to the Local Co-ordination Committees, a Syrian opposition group. Thirty-one of these were killed in Aleppo, and 21 in Damascus and its suburbs, the group said. Videos purported to show damage to buildings in the capital. These videos and reports cannot be verified because most media are banned from Syria.

• The Syrian government is sending members of its irregular militias for guerilla combat training at a secret base in Iran,Reuters reports, in a move to bolster its armed forces drained by two years of fighting and defections, according to fighters and activists. Meanwhile Syrian state media has criticised Jordan for hosting the US-backed training of Syrian rebels, and warned that Amman risks falling into the "volcanic crater" of the Syrian conflict.

• A pro-Assad resident of the president’s coastal stronghold Latakia spoke to the Guardian to damn the rebels as “criminals” and “terrorists” and ask of the western-backed opposition group the Syrian National Coalition: “How they became our representatives, I do not know.”
Israel/Palestine

• Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of the West Bank in outrage at the deaths of two Palestinian protesters killed in clashes with Israel and a third Palestinian who died of cancer in an Israeli prison. In Gaza, militants fired a rocket that landed in southern Israel, causing no casualties.

Popular posts from this blog

Study Abroad USA, College of Charleston, Popular Courses, Alumni

Thinking for Study Abroad USA. School of Charleston, the wonderful grounds is situated in the actual middle of a verifiable city - Charleston. Get snatched up by the wonderful and customary engineering, beautiful pathways, or look at the advanced steel and glass building which houses the School of Business. The grounds additionally gives students simple admittance to a few major tech organizations like Amazon's CreateSpace, Google, TwitPic, and so on. The school offers students nearby as well as off-grounds convenience going from completely outfitted home lobbies to memorable homes. It is prepared to offer different types of assistance and facilities like clubs, associations, sporting exercises, support administrations, etc. To put it plainly, the school grounds is rising with energy and there will never be a dull second for students at the College of Charleston. Concentrate on Abroad USA is improving and remunerating for your future. The energetic grounds likewise houses various

Best MBA Online Colleges in the USA

“Opportunities never open, instead we create them for us”. Beginning with this amazing saying, let’s unbox today’s knowledge. Love Business and marketing? Want to make a high-paid career in business administration? Well, if yes, then mate, we have got you something amazing to do!   We all imagine an effortless future with a cozy house and a laptop. Well, well! You can make this happen. Today, with this guide, we will be exploring some of the top-notch online MBA universities and institutes in the USA. Let’s get started! Why learn Online MBA from the USA? Access to More Options This online era has given a second chance to children who want to reflect on their careers while managing their hectic schedules. In this, the internet has played a very crucial in rejuvenating schools, institutes, and colleges to give the best education to students across the globe. Graduating with Less Debt Regular classes from high reputed institutes often charge heavy tuition fees. However onl

Sickening moment maskless 'Karen' COUGHS in the face of grocery store customer, then claims she doesn't have to wear a mask because she 'isn't sick'

A woman was captured on camera following a customer through a supermarket as she coughs on her after claiming she does not need a mask because she is not sick.  Video of the incident, which has garnered hundreds of thousands of views on Twitter alone, allegedly took place in a Su per Saver in Lincoln, Nebraska according to Twitter user @davenewworld_2. In it, an unidentified woman was captured dramatically coughing as she smiles saying 'Excuse me! I'm coming through' in the direction of the customer recording her. Scroll down for video An unidentified woman was captured dramatically coughing as she smiles saying 'Excuse me! I'm coming through' in the direction of a woman recording her A woman was captured on camera following a customer as she coughs on her in a supermarket without a mask on claiming she does not need one because she is not sick @chaiteabugz #karen #covid #karens #karensgonewild #karensalert #masks we were just wearing a mask at the store. ¿ o