[Al Ahram] Several hundred Ethiopian troops crossed on Saturday into southern and central Somalia, local elders said, but Addis Ababa dismissed the reports as "absolutely not true."
"There are several hundred Ethiopian troops here in lorries and some armoured vehicles too," said elder Abdi Ibrahim Warsame, speaking by telephone from Gurel town, in Somalia's central Galgudud region.
Ethiopian forces were also reported in the Hiran region at the town of Beletweyne, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) into Somalia, an area contested by Islamist Shebab rebels and pro-government militia.
"They are here, the Ethiopian soldiers in trucks have reached Beletweyne with many forces," said elder Ahmed Liban. "The Shebab in the area are pulling back, away from them." But Ethiopia dismissed the reports outright.
"It is absolutely not true, there are absolutely no troops in Somalia," said Ethiopian foreign ministry front man Dina Mufti. "People are simply speculating."
Small numbers of Ethiopian forces have been reported operating in Somali border regions in the recent past, but witnesses said the scale of troop movements was this time far larger.
If confirmed, it would be Addis Ababa's first large scale incursion since it invaded Somalia in 2006 with US backing.
Ethiopia pulled out three years later after failing to restore order in its lawless neighbour, which has lacked a functioning government for two decades.
The Galgudud area is largely under the control of an anti-Shebab militia called Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa, factions of which have close ties with Ethiopia.
Ethiopian soldiers were reported to be up to 50 kilometres (30 miles) inside Somalia in that area.
Hardline Shebab beturbanned goons control much of southern Somalia, but are battling both the Western-backed government in Mogadishu and Kenyan troops in the far south, who crossed the border last month to attack rebel strongholds.
African Union officials and members of the regional peacekeeping body, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), held talks this week on bolstering the 9,700-strong AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
But no decision for Ethiopia to join Ugandan and Burundian forces in the mission had been made, Dina said.
"There is an intention on the part of IGAD members to bolster peacekeeping forces, because as you know the regional countries are working on increasing the numbers of AMISOM," Dina said.
"As to Ethiopian (troops) there is nothing that has been decided."
The humanitarian crisis in central and southern Somalia sparked by years of conflict and extreme drought is the worst in the world, the United Nations ...Parkinson's Law on an international scale... said Friday, with nearly 250,000 people facing imminent starvation.
Although the UN downgraded three famine alerts Friday to emergency levels, three other famine zones remain, and aid agencies warn that conflict is hampering access to those in need.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011 00:00 ||
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Ethiopian troops have crossed the border into Somalia in significant numbers, eyewitnesses say.
They say they saw at least 20 vehicles carrying Ethiopian troops.
A few hundred soldiers were seen in Gurel town in Galgudud region and there were other sightings around Beledweyne.
Ethiopian authorities have denied the incursion. Their soldiers have not been in Somalia in large numbers since 2009 when they withdrew after a controversial three-year presence.
These reports come as Kenyan troops continue their efforts to defeat fighters of the Islamist group al-Shabab in the south of Somalia.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/20/2011 00:00 ||
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Abdullah al-Senussi was labelled the "the executioner" by the International Criminal Court, but for the families of his victims he will always be known as "the butcher".
With the capture of Col. Muammar Gaddafi's intelligence chief and brother in law, it has ended the hunt for one of the most feared and obdurate men of one of the world's most repressive regimes.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC prosecutor, wants him for his role in attempting to violently crush the Benghazi popular protests in February this year. let the Libyans give him a LOT swifter justice
But Senussi's association with the worst excesses of the Libyan regime stretch back to the early days of Col. Gaddafi's dictatorial rule.
Most notorious for Libyans is the allegation that he gave the order for the massacre of 1,200 political inmates in Abu Salim prison in 1996.
After riots broke out over prisoner's demands for better food and sanitation, Libyans believe Senussi gave the order to guards stationed on the grated ceilings of the cells to fire, murdering the men inside. "I was just taking orders"
"weren't you in charge?"
"Yes, but if I wasn't I would be getting those same orders from some other sadistic bastard"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/20/2011 17:36 ||
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#1
They should do something creative for this one.
[Iran Press TV] Two protesters have been rubbed out after snipers fired live ammunition at demonstrators in Egypt's northern city of Alexandria.
Witnesses said that the victims died in the early hours of Sunday as police forces fired rubber bullets and threw tear gas canisters at the demonstrators who were staging a protest rally in front of Alexandria's Security Directorate, DPA reported.
The development came after at least one person was killed and close to 700 others injured on Saturday after festivities erupted between police forces and protesters in Tahrir Square in the country's capital Cairo.
The country has been swept with rallies against the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF)'s failure to live up to its promise of handing over power to a civilian government in the aftermath of the country's February revolution.
Egyptian Islamic and liberal opposition groups also staged a mass rally in Cairo on Friday to protest at the ruling junta's plans to change the constitution with the aim of empowering the Army with legal safeguards.
Earlier this month, Egypt's Deputy Prime Minister Ali al-Silmi showed a draft of a revised constitution to political groups in the North African country. The draft would give the army exclusive authority over its internal affairs and budget and would also shield the forces from legal scrutiny.
The opposition and democracy campaigners protested at the prospect.
Protesters have also criticized the head of the council Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi for his reluctance to implement sweeping changes and dismantle elements of the former regime.
The military rulers have promised to hold presidential elections by late next year.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Saif Al-Islam Qadaffy told Rooters on Saturday that he was feeling fine after being captured by some of the fighters who overthrew his father and he said injuries to his right hand were suffered during a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... air strike a month ago.
Asked by Rooters correspondent Marie-Louise Gumuchian on the plane which flew him to the town of Zintan if he was feeling all right, Qadaffy said simply: "Yes."
Reluctant to speak at length, the London-educated 39-year-old son of Muammar Qadaffy was asked about bandages on the thumb and two fingers of his right hand. "Air force, air force," he said. Asked if that meant a NATO air strike, he said: "Yes, One month ago."
Aides to Qadaffy had said his motorcade was caught by a NATO air strike as he tried to flee the pro-Qadaffy stronghold of Bani Walid, near Tripoli, on Oct. 19, the day before his father was captured and killed in his home town of Sirte.
After the brief exchange with the heavily bearded prisoner, Libyan Rooters journalists who have met Saif al-Islam said they had no doubt that was indeed him - though he repeatedly declined to confirm his identity outright.
So great was the crowd which thronged the Soviet-built cargo aircraft that flew him up from the desert town of Obari that his captors removed four other prisoners and other people from the plane, leaving Saif al-Islam still on board on the tarmac.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Thousand of activists keep descending onto Tahrir Square to overwhelm police who bombarded a small group of protesters with tear gas this morning: each side escalated in numbers and police escalated with violence
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Yemen's embattled President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... said on Saturday he would hand the country over to the military if he were to step down as demanded by the opposition. ... the army being controlled by his kids...
"We... are ready to make sacrifices for the country. But you will always be there, even if we step down," Saleh told loyalist troops, in statements carried by the official Saba news agency.
The news agency said Saleh made the remarks during an inspection of the Elite Republican Guards, an elite army corps led by Saleh's son Ahmed.
Saleh, who has been in power in Sanaa since 1978, has come under mounting domestic and international pressure to step down in line with a Gulf-brokered peace blueprint.
Saleh has welcomed the plan but has yet to formally endorse it.
His remarks came ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting due on Monday to discuss Saleh's refusal to hand over power under the Gulf plan in return for immunity from prosecution.
The council unanimously passed Resolution 2014 on October 21 condemning attacks on demonstrators by Saleh's forces and strongly backing the Gulf Cooperation Council plan.
Several hundred demonstrators have been killed in Yemen since anti-government protests broke out in late January.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] A large number of Yemeni army personnel have joined anti-regime protesters amid the cheers of revolutionary forces in the capital, Sana'a, Press TV has learned.
The troops defected from the Republican Guard and the Central Security forces to join the popular revolution that has been demanding the ouster of President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
The anti-government protesters welcomed the troops and called on all other regime forces to join the revolution.
Army defections continue as embattled Saleh refuses to step down despite mounting pressure at home and from the international community.
On Saturday, Saleh stated that he would hand over power to the military if he had to heed opposition demands for his resignation.
The United Nations ...Parkinson's Law on an international scale... Security Council is scheduled to discuss Saleh's refusal to loosen his three-decade grip on power under a plan proposed by the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council.
The initiative gives Saleh immunity from prosecution in return for quitting power, a plan which has infuriated demonstrators demanding Saleh's prosecution.
Protesters want the Saudi and US-backed dictator to stand trial in an international court for the killing of hundreds of protesters since the outbreak of the anti-regime demonstrations in the country in late January.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart... tens of thousands of Yemenis once again erupted into the streets over the past two days to demand an end to the deadly crackdown on popular protests.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Four men appeared in a London court on Saturday charged with terrorism offences after being jugged as part of a major police investigation linked to Pakistain. That'd be Nigel, Ian, Cecil and Clive, of course...
The men, from the central English city of Birmingham, were jugged on Tuesday in a counter-terrorism operation which has seen eight others already charged, including three who are alleged to have been plotting a suicide kaboom in Britannia.
Khobaib Hussain, Ishaaq Hussain and Shahid Kasam Khan, all 19, and Naweed Mahmood Ali, 24, are accused of fundraising for the purposes of terrorism, travelling to Pakistain for training and travelling abroad to commit acts of terrorism. Oh. Sorry. My mistake. Y'gotta admit, it could happen to anybody...
They were remanded in jug following a hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court and will appear again at Kingston Crown Court on Dec. 9, the Press Association reported.
Police said their arrests had been pre-planned and not made in response to any immediate threat to public safety.
Britannia's security services have been on high alert since four British jacket wallahs killed 52 commuters on three trains and a bus in London on July 7, 2005. A similar attack failed two weeks later when the bombs did not explode.
The government said in July that the threat level had been downgraded by one notch to "substantial", the third highest of five categories, meaning an attack is a "strong possibility".
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"Breaking: convert to Islam arrested while making bombs"
Breaking, hell. More like dog bites man.
Posted by: Barbara ||
11/20/2011 21:08 Comments ||
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#2
Muhammad, no one gets arrested here for praying too loudly or singing too loudly in the choir. Making a bomb is like saying "I wanna do 20 years the hard way."
#3
I have a feeling that the authorities have been watching him for a while, now. If someone does something questionable, a little red flag goes up. When they start getting too many little red flags...
[Dawn] Security forces killed a suspected krazed killer in North Wazoo Agency, while a girls school was blown up in Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central and a college damaged in Swabi on Friday.
Officials in Miramshah said a suspected krazed killer was killed and another injured during a clash with security forces in Speenwam area of North Waziristan Agency.
They said the clash occurred after suspected snuffies attacked security forces, injuring two personnel, adding that the forces returned fire killing one krazed killer and injuring another.
Officials said gunship helicopters came into action after the clash and bombed positions of suspected snuffies in the area.
A government primary school for girls was blown up in Salarzai tehsil of Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central early on Friday.
Officials said explosives planted by eight hard boyz in the Danqol village school went kaboom! completely destroying the building.
They said the kaboom didn`t cause any damage to human life, adding that the school`s watchman was not present on the premises when the explosives went off.
Officials said hard boyz had blown up 105 schools in the agency since 2007.
After the kaboom, the Danqol peace committee began a search operation for cut-thoats. Also, the political authorities tossed in the clink many suspects under the Territorial Responsibility Clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation.
The kaboom occurred a day after the visit of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar corps commander to the agency. The corps commander had announced that the agency had been completely cleared of hard boyz and that solid steps would be taken for revival educational activities there.
Also in the day, a shop allegedly selling narcotics was blown up in the Siddiqabad locality near Khar on Friday.
Security forces fired gunshots in the air after the incident. However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... no arrests were made by night.
COLLEGE TARGETED: A homemade bomb planted by suspected hard boyz went kaboom! near the boundary wall of a private college in the wee hours of Friday.
The kaboom damaged the boundary wall and caused no damage to human life, said police.
It was the second blast of its kind in the last two months.
Earlier, a private school on Swabi-Jahangira Road was targeted when a bomb went kaboom! at its main entrance, damaging a small part of the building and injuring watchman.
Police claimed to have tossed in the clink two suspects but refused to reveal their names.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Not too many more girls' schools can even be left in Bajaur, no?
#4
We mods can usually catch it, but if we're not around, schtuff like this should be left in a note at the O-Club (where we're usually ... er, napping waiting to spring into action).
[Dawn] A suspected bad boy who went kaboom!" in Bloody Karachi during a raid by security forces was carrying a US and a Pak passport, authorities said on Saturday. Bet he wasn't named 'Bob' or 'Kevin.'
According to a statement by Pakistain's paramilitary Rangers, the dead man has been identified as Moeed Abdul Salam. Toldja so.
He detonated an bomb on Thursday when troops raided his apartment in Gulistan-e-Johar. Which brings up something I've been wondering about: If people from Texas are nicknamed 'Tex,' are people from Minnesota nicknamed 'Minnie'?
Post-mortem tests on Salam's body confirmed the man died due to the kaboom of a hand grenade, it said, adding "documents used for acts of terrorism were also recovered" from his possession.
The US Embassy could not immediately confirm the development.
The Rangers' statement said Salam had divorced his wife a month ago and was living with four children, who were unharmed.
How lovely -- he went a-jihading with children.
According to Salam's passport, he had traveled to many countries, the statement said.
Bloody Karachi is home to around 18 million people and is the capital of Sindh province. Several al Qaeda and Taliban operatives have been captured or killed there in recent years.
This article starring:
Moeed Abdul Salam
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Moeed Abdul Salam, rest in peace pieces.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
11/20/2011 5:54 Comments ||
Top||
HT to Weasel Zippers
At least two rocket-propelled grenades hit a building belonging to the ruling Baath party in Damascus on Sunday, residents said, in the first insurgent attack reported inside the Syrian capital since an eight-month uprising began against President Bashar Assad. "Syrian Free Army" - deserters and ?
"Security police blocked off the square where the Baath's Damascus branch is located. But I saw smoke rising from the building and fire trucks around it," one witness, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
"The attack was just before dawn and the building was mostly empty. It seems to have been intended as a message to the regime," he said. Should have leave a bunch of broken pencils. That would've been a "message" too
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/20/2011 10:55 ||
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The Arab League has rejected a Syrian request to change plans to send a monitoring mission to Syria. The League rejected Assad's approach in a letter from its Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby to Syria's foreign minister. The League wants to send 500 monitors to Syria to assess the situation there.
The League's letter stated, "The additions requested by the Syrian counterpart affect the heart of the protocol and fundamentally change the nature of the mission."
An Arab League source said the mission's visit is now "in question" because it cannot take place unless the Syrian government signs a protocol with the League. It is not clear what action the League will now take.
[Emirates 24/7] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... was quoted on Saturday as saying he would press on with a crackdown against anti-government unrest in his country despite increased pressure from the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... to end it.
"The conflict will continue and the pressure to subjugate Syria will continue," he told Britannia's Sunday Times newspaper. "However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... I assure you that Syria will not bow down and that it will continue to resist the pressure being imposed on it."
In video footage on the newspaper's website, Assad said there would be elections in February or March when Syrians would vote for a parliament to create a new constitution and that would include provision for a presidential ballot
"That constitution will set the basis of how to elect a president, if they need a president or don't need him," he said. "They have the elections, they can participate in it. The ballot boxes will decide who should be president."
The Arab League, a powerful political group of Arab states, set a deadline on Saturday for Syria to comply with a peace plan, involving a military pullout from around restive areas, and threatened sanctions if Assad failed to halt the violence.
However, you can observe a lot just by watching... activists from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12 non-combatants were killed in raids by government forces on Saturday while two army defectors died when they clashed with the army in Homs, which has become a centre of armed revolt against more than 40 years of Assad family rule.
Asked if his forces had been too aggressive, Assad told the newspaper mistakes had been made but these were the fault of individuals, not the state.
"We, as a state, do not have a policy to be cruel with citizens," he said.
The United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... says 3,500 people have been killed during the crackdown on the protests which began in March, but Assad disputed this and put the number killed at 619. He told the paper that 800 government forces had been killed.
"DAILY OBSESSION"
"My role as president, this is my daily obsession now, is to know how to stop this bloodshed caused by armed terrorist acts that are hitting some areas," he said.
Syria has come under growing international pressure to stop the crackdown. Britannia, a strong critic of Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... , said on Friday senior figures including Foreign Secretary William Hague would meet Syrian opposition representatives in London next week.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another James Baker ... has expressed fear that Syria could be slipping into civil war but said the international community was reluctant to intervene as it had in Libya.
Assad said the vaporous Arab League's intervention could provide a pretext for Western military action and repeated a past statement that such a move against Syria would create an "earthquake" across the Middle East.
"If they are logical, rational and realistic, they shouldn't do it because the repercussions are very dire. Military intervention will destabilise the region as a whole, and all countries will be affected," he told the Sunday Times.
The newspaper said Assad had promised to personally fight and die to resist foreign forces.
Assad also vowed to prevent further attacks by the Free Syrian Army, which opposition sources said had killed or maimed at least 20 security police in an assault on an Air Force Intelligence Complex near Damascus two days ago.
"The only way is to search for the armed people, chase the armed gangs, prevent the entry of arms and weapons from neighbouring countries, prevent sabotage and enforce law and order," he told the paper.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] At least 17 people were killed across Syria on Saturday, activists said, as an Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... deadline for Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... to stop its lethal crackdown on dissent was set to expire.
Among the dead were four intelligence agents killed by gunnies who raked their car with gunfire and two mutinous soldiers who died in festivities with regular troops as the military raided the central town of Shayzar after a heavy shelling, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
The latest bloodletting came just hours before the 2200 GMT deadline from the vaporous Arab League as world pressure mounted on Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... 's regime to stop the violence which the U.N. says has killed more than 3,500 people since mid-March.
With rebel troops inflicting mounting losses on the regular army, Turkey and the United States both raised the specter of civil war and Russia called for restraint.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague was to meet rebel leaders in London on Monday.
After talks with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... in Moscow, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said: "It is indispensable to increase international pressure.
"We have tabled a resolution at the United Nations ...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas... . We hope it will find as wide support as possible."
Russia has staunchly resisted any attempt to internationalize the crisis, fearing it could clear the way for a Libya-style military intervention under a U.N. mandate.
In October, both Russia and China vetoed a Western-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution that would have threatened Assad's regime with "targeted measures" over its crackdown.
"We are calling for restraint and caution. This is our position," Putin said a day after his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, had likened the situation in Syria to a civil war.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as America's Blond Eminence and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Charles Evans Hughes ... and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu both warned that the risk of civil war was real, amid growing losses among regular troops at the hands of mutineers.
"I say there is a risk of transforming into civil war," Davutoglu told Agence La Belle France Presse, pointing to the upsurge in attacks by army defectors.
Clinton told NBC news: "I think there could be a civil war with a very determined and well-armed and eventually well-financed opposition that is, if not directed by, certainly influenced by defectors from the army."
The Arab League said it was examining a Syrian request to make changes to a proposal to send 500 observers to Damascus to help implement a peace deal agreed earlier this month.
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi was to meet aides at 16:00 GMT and later issue a statement concerning sending an observer mission to Syria, Arab officials said.
Syria has been told by its Arab peers to stop the lethal repression against protesters by midnight (22:00 GMT) on Saturday or risk sanctions, and the Arab League has already suspended it from the 22-member bloc.
As the clock ticked, there was further bloodshed in Syria and troops pressed on with their repression, activists said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 non-combatants were killed in violence on Saturday, seven of them in Kfar Kharim in Idlib province in the northwest, close to the Turkish border.
It quoted a mutinous officer as saying that two army deserters "were killed in festivities with regular troops in Qusayr" in the restive central Homs province.
Also in central Syria "deserters raked with gunfire a car carrying four members of the air force intelligence near the village of Al-Mukhtara on the Salmiyeh-Homs road killing everyone on board," the Britannia-based watchdog said.
Earlier, troops stormed the central town of Shayzar, the Local Coordination Committees, an opposition umbrella group, reported.
On Friday, government forces killed at least 15 people as protesters defied a massive security force presence to urge nations to expel Syrian ambassadors to further isolate Damascus, activists said.
The Organization of the Islamic Cooperation said it will convene an emergency meeting next Saturday at its Saudi headquarters to urge Syria to "end the bloodshed."
OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said he "rejects foreign intervention in Syria" but warned that further unrest threatens regional stability as well.
Elsewhere, dozens of people rallied outside the U.S. consulate in west Jerusalem in support of the Assad regime, denouncing what they called a "conspiracy" against Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Attacks on Saturday the town of Shezar in the central province of Hama and the restive Jabal al-Zawiya region near the Turkish border came a day after Syria agreed in principle to allow Arab observers into the country to oversee a peace plan proposed by the 22-member Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees said that land and cellular telecommunications as well as electricity have been cut in the Jabal al-Zawiya region where army defectors have been active for months.
Syria's acceptance came on Friday after surprisingly heavy pressure from the vaporous Arab League, which brokered the plan and this week suspended Syria from the 22-member organization for failing to abide by it. On Wednesday, the league gave Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... three days to accept an observer mission or face economic sanctions.
The latest attacks came amid building international pressure on Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... An official at Britannia's Foreign Office said Foreign Secretary William Hague intends to meet opposition representatives in London on Monday.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter awoke groggily, his hand still stuck in the Ming vase... French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe called on the U.N. Security Council to strengthen sanctions against Assad's regime. However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... Russia, which holds veto power in the council, urged caution in moving against Damascus.
In Washington, State Department front man Mark Toner said the U.S. has seen no signs that Syria's government will honor the Arab League proposal. Violence has escalated in Syria over the past week, as army dissidents who sided with the protests have grown more bold, fighting back against regime forces and even assaulting military bases. Activist groups said security forces on Friday killed at least 16 anti-government protesters.
Also Saturday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, commenting on the deteriorating relations between his country and its southern neighbor, accused Syria of not fulfilling promises for reform or to stop the bloodshed. "In the past nine years, it was Syria and the Syrian people -- rather than Turkey -- that had benefited from the Turkish-Syrian friendship," Erdogan said. "Unfortunately, the Syrian administration has acted in a reluctant and insincere manner in keeping its promises."
"If there is a change of policy, it is not by Turkey but by Syria. Syria has not kept its promises to Turkey, to the Arab League or to the world. It made promises but did not fulfill them. It has not acted in a sincere trustworthy manner," he said.
The attacks on Jabal al-Zawiya came two days after an army force in the nearby area of Wadi al-Deif came under attack by army defectors, a clash that lasted four hours and left an unknown number of casualties among troops loyal to Assad, said an activist said.
The activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said troops fired from heavy machine guns mounted on armored personnel carriers on the attackers.
The Arab League observer mission aims to prevent violence and monitor a cease-fire that Damascus agreed to last week, but has been unwilling -- or unable -- to implement.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] "What is taking place in Syria is genocide. There is calamity everywhere in that country. Shelling, massacres and endless violations, but calamity is also affecting us as a splintered opposition." With this statement, and in a lamenting tone, Mohamed Maamoun Al-Homsi, a leading figure in the Syrian opposition, began his interview with Ahram Online.
Al-Homsi called for uniting all tracks of the opposition under one umbrella, namely to save Syria. He asserted that the opposition Syrian National Council, which is popular in the media, does not represent the demands of the Syrian street through what he called "the revolution's constitution".
It naturally "prioritises protection for civilians, imposing a no-fly zone, imposing restrictions and international and regional isolation against the regime, and working towards overthrowing the regime, even through war whereby all Arab regimes would provide assistance -- even with weapons -- in order to put an end to this bleak reign."
Al-Homsi, a former Syrian MP, sought asylum in Leb, and as pressure mounted on him he left to Cairo, also as an exile. "Every minute that passes and Bashar's regime is still in power is like a knife held to the throat of the homeland, slaughtering deaders, and no one is helping," he said. "Arab efforts are too slow, and even worse, the Syrian National Council, headed by Borhan Ghalyoun, is now saying it does not want anyone to interfere. The opposition has become a council for rhetoric not action."
Al-Homsi believes that Assad's regime is propped up by Iran and Hizbullah, followed by several Iraqi political players, including Prime Minister Nouri Al-Malki and Shia leader Moqtada Al-Sadr. "I consider Syria as under Iranian occupation and what is needed is for an international force to end this occupation," he argued.
He criticised the Syrian National Council once again by describing it as a velvet glove, and that it was chosen in a selective, non-objective manner. "How can Abdel-Rahman Eissa, a leading voice in the opposition with a long history, be left out while they bring in figures who only recently joined the opposition ranks?" he pondered.
He added: "Is it reasonable that, after all these images, we talk about a fact-finding mission? Does what is taking place in Homs, Latakia, Hama, Deraa and Deir Al-Zur really need a fact-finding mission? The regime has lost its legitimacy, but unfortunately these committees claim that it is still legitimate. Then there is international support from Russia and China who are readily willing to use their veto power to benefit Assad.
As for Iran and its lies and acrobatics, it will lose this regime and with it Tehran's influence in the region, which we view as an invasion of the Arab nation and Shia occupation of Syria and Gulf states under the label of the Persian Gulf. Also, support for a criminal regime by providing it with supplies and provisions; we are the victims of this brutality."
Al-Homsi believes that the Syrian regime's chances of survival are very slim. "It has destroyed the Arab initiative at the outset, and continues with its allies to challenge our revolution," he said, adding that the Arabs must shoulder their humanitarian and historic responsibility towards the people of Syria.
In the past few days, senior military leaders joined the Free Syrian Army, which has carried out selective strikes against the regular army, the Arab Syrian Army. Al-Homsi said that deserting officers "must have realised the truth and are honest men of this revolution, but without Arab support they will be wiped out by the regime and the Iranian weapons in its possession.
We do not support chaos resulting from foreign intervention or arming the military, but in the end we want an army that is able to safeguard and defend the revolution instead of expanding the circles of battles and violence."
Bassma Kodmani, a member of the Syrian National Council, agrees with Al-Homsi that the opposition should close ranks and suggested that no one should be excluded. Qadmani added that the upcoming opposition conference is the umbrella that everyone should gather under, to agree on the principles of the Syrian Revolution Constitution, "so that we are able to catch up with the train of the Arab Spring, instead of each political faction finding a separate role to play," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011 00:00 ||
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