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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian army, backed by jets, launch Homs assault
2013-06-30
[Pak Daily Times] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
's forces launched a major offensive on Saturday against rebels in Homs, a centre of the two-year uprising, in their latest drive to secure an axis linking Damascus to the Mediterranean.

Activists said jets and mortars pounded rebel-held areas of the city, which have been under siege by Assad's troops for a year, and soldiers fought battles with rebel fighters in several districts.

"Government forces are trying to storm (Homs) from all fronts," said an activist using the name Abu Mohammad.

There were no immediate details on casualties but video uploaded by activists showed heavy kabooms and white clouds of smoke rising from what they said were rebel districts. Loud, concentrated rounds of gunfire could also be heard.

Syrian state media said the army was "achieving great progress" in Khalidiyah neighbourhood.

The attack on Homs city follows steady military gains by Assad's forces, backed by Lebanese Hezbollah krazed killers, in provincial Homs villages and towns close to the Lebanese border. Three weeks ago Hezbollah spearheaded the recapture of the border town of Qusair, a former rebel bridgehead for guns and fighters smuggled into Syria, and last week secured another border town, Tel Kalakh.

Those gains have consolidated Assad's control over a corridor of territory, which runs from the capital Damascus, through Homs, to the traditional heartland of his minority Alawite sect in the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean.

They have also alarmed international supporters of the rebels, leading the United States to announce it will step up military support. Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
has accelerated deliveries of sophisticated weaponry, Gulf sources say. The interventions by Sunni Moslem Saudi Arabia, a staunch backer of the mainly Sunni rebels, and Shi'ite Hezbollah highlight how the 27-month-old uprising has divided the Middle East along sectarian lines.

Gulf Arab States, Turkey and Egypt support the rebels while Shi'ite Iran and Hezbollah are actively helping Assad's military. Assad's family, which has dominated Syria for four decades, is from the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shia Islam.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in the civil war, which has driven 1.7 million refugees abroad and displaced another four million within Syria's borders.

Hopes of holding a U.S. and Russian-backed peace conference have faded, with rebels reluctant to negotiate while they are on the defensive militarily and tensions between Moscow and Washington exacerbating their deep differences over Syria. Despite losing ground around Damascus and Homs, rebels registered a symbolic victory on Friday when they overran a major military checkpoint in Deraa, the southern city where the uprising first erupted.
Posted by:Fred

#5  Raisin or Resin???

* ION BHARAT RAKSHAK > TWITTER: ASSAD OFFCIAL SAYS IRAN, RUSSIA, + CHINA SEND $500.0MILYUHN [US$6.0Bilyuhn per annum] PER MONTH IN THEIR CURRENCIES TO AVOID SANCTIONS.

* Earlier on BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Financial Times] RUSSIA, CHINA, + IRAN PRIOP UP SYRIA ECONOMY [aka Assad Regime-Govt]: GOVT OFFICIAL SAYS.

So it comes down to the KSA versus Same as per war $$$???

Posted by: JosephMendiola   2013-06-30 22:35  

#4  That's not vodka, Besoeker, that's raisin juice.
Posted by: Glenmore   2013-06-30 18:11  

#3  If not at the club, certainly at the maintenance shed.
Posted by: Besoeker   2013-06-30 14:12  

#2  think vodka's being served in the O-Club?
Posted by: Frank G   2013-06-30 14:10  

#1  I still wonder if it's Syrians doing that are doing the flying.
Posted by: Pappy   2013-06-30 13:56  

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