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Subscribe to RSSFrom the front line in what looks ever more like a fight for Syria's capital Damascus, members of the Free Syrian Army appear to be closing in on President Assad's stronghold, at a terrible cost to both sides. NBC's Bill Neely reports.
BEIRUT - Syrian attack helicopters bombarded a suburb of Damascus on Monday and Turkey said it had scrambled warplanes near the border in the north, as a 16-month conflict entered a more violent phase and diplomacy appeared to have failed.
Fighting has come to the gates of the capital in recent weeks and is also raging throughout the country as the battle to unseat President Bashar al-Assad increasingly takes on the character of an all-out civil war, fueled by sectarian hate.
Syrian government forces have launched an assault on Douma, a city on the edge of Damascus where troops stormed a rebel stronghold two days ago leaving bodies rotting in the streets of the nearly abandoned town.
"The bombardment of Douma continued today using helicopters. Some activists entered the city today and they saw at least seven decaying bodies in the streets under the sun. One man had been executed inside his house," said Mohamed Doumany, an activist who fled the city two days ago and was now nearby.
"There is huge destruction in the city, which is almost empty. Only a few of its people remain inside," he told Reuters by Skype.
Annan: Nations back Syria transition plan
Diplomats from the West and Arab states who oppose Assad met the Syrian leader's allies Russia and China on Saturday in Geneva under the auspices of peace envoy Kofi Annan. But they made no progress persuading Moscow and Beijing to sign up to a statement calling for Assad to leave power, leaving the effort to forge an international consensus in tatters.
Turkey said on Monday it had scrambled six F-16 fighters in response to three separate incidents of Syrian helicopters approaching the border. Turkey also scrambled fighters on Saturday and has moved guns and soldiers toward the frontier.
Warning: This report contains graphic images. Shocking video has emerged of the moment a funeral procession was hit by an explosion in Damascus, killing dozens of people. NBC's Bill Neely reports.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Syrian opposition figures gathered in Cairo that their struggle to unseat Assad would end in victory.
"The Assad regime's guns, tanks, weapons have no meaning in the face of the will of the Syrian people. Sooner or later the will of the Syrian people shall reign supreme. And you will lead this process," he said.
Former Assad ally
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, a former ally of Assad who has turned decisively against him, says Turkish military rules of engagement have been changed and any Syrian forces approaching the border and deemed threatening will be targeted.
The Syrian government tightly controls access, making it difficult to verify accounts of fighting on the ground.
Syrian rebels: 170 regime tanks mass near major city
Anti-Assad activists said there were heavy clashes in Deir Ezzor province near the Iraqi border where villages were under army fire. Rebels destroyed two tanks, they said.
In rural areas near Aleppo south of the Turkish border there were clashes following explosions inside the city overnight. Forested areas near the border were on fire, activists said.
Syrian artillery pounded the village of Talbiseh near Homs on Monday, targeting an area near the mosque. Video footage posted on YouTube showed a blast hitting the mosque's slender minaret, engulfing it in a cloud of grey smoke and dust.
A bomb targeting Syria's highest court has exploded in Damascus. NBC's Bill Neely reports.
Other footage showed high explosive rounds slamming into an unseen target behind the mosque every minute.
Security forces were also shelling towns in the province of Deraa, near the Jordan border, activists said.
Fragmented opposition
Also on Monday, the head of the Arab League called for the fragmented Syrian opposition to unite and said a U.N.-brokered plan for a transitional government in Syria fell short of expectations.
Speaking at the start of a two-day conference that brought together some 250 members of the Syrian opposition, Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby urged them not to waste the chance presented by the meeting to overcome their differences and band together to help lift Syria out of its crisis.
VIDEO: War in Syria edges closer to Assad
"There is an opportunity before the conference of Syrian opposition today that must be seized, and I say and repeat that this opportunity must not be wasted under any circumstance," he said. "The sacrifices of the Syrian people are bigger than us and more valuable than any narrow differences or factional disputes."
More than one year into the Syrian revolt, the opposition is still hobbled by infighting, although in general the disparate groups agree that Assad should have no role in a transitional period. One main sticking point is how to achieve a peace plan that would end the bloodshed and Assad's authoritarian rule. While some activists have called for international intervention in Syria, others have rejected the idea.
The failure of diplomacy to have any measurable impact on a conflict that the United Nations says has killed more than 13,000 people is testing the patience of countries in the region, especially Turkey, which reacted with fury 10 days ago when Syria shot down one of its warplanes.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
I see big trouble brewing. I can not understand how those oppressive dictator guys can't see the writing on the wall.
What do you mean by "dictator"? According to Hillary, Assad is a "reformer".
Hillary never said Assad was a" reformer". neither for his beast of a father or for him..Your comment wins the George Orwell misinformation award for today!!.But Turkey sees the light!! and we must be thankful for that..even if we have to be VERY suspicious of what they say and do on other matters!!
bart martin-3773750
You write:
"Hillary never said Assad was a" reformer". neither for his beast of a father or for him..Your comment wins the George Orwell misinformation award for today!!"
Mmmmm...wrong answer...try again.
Parting gifts are available at the back door ...on your way out.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/syrian-president-assad-regarded-reformer-clinton-says
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/03/hillary-clinton-says-no-syrian-intervention-because-killer-assad-is-a-reformer/
Best Wishes,
AJ
It doesn't really matter who says it; it's still clearly wrong.
Unless you count his reforming his nation from a repressed authoritarian hellhole to a violent, burnt-out hellhole. THAT'S change you can believe in!
If Assad is overthrown, it will be chaos for a few years like Libya!
Ultimately Saudi Sunni extremists will take over like in Egypt!
So what? I would greatly prefer the chaos of trying to form a government like Libya or an "extremist government" like Egypt to a campaign of mass murder and oppression.
Syria doesn't want to take things too far with Turkey. Turkey is a formidable opponent, and Syria would have to be crazy to want to engage them in a shooting war.
Turkey has its own Kurdish problems and issues with Israel even, the EU does not even want it and Iran is looks at it with suspicion - how far this country has fallen. Bombs on demascus by Turkey will equal bombs in Istabul by Syria and they have chemical weapons too... so please -- Syria will reign supreme and the rag tag terrorist that hate Americans, Christians, and Jews will be liquidated.
Very true. Oh, and about your "handle" -- I agree that "illegals" should leave the North American continent. EVERYONE of European descent is here ILLEGALLY, because we sure as hell didn't invite any Spanish, French, English, Dutch, German, Italian, or any other Europeans here. Y'all just decided to take over our home without our permission.
Agnon Mema, why do you have to try and sneak these discussions into every topic. This is about Syria. You are talking about events that took place roughly 120 years ago. Nobody here had anything to do with it directly so you are preaching to empty seats.
While we are on the topic, to be honest this stuff is thrown into the media so much in movies, songs, plays, and the news that at this point I have to admit that I really dont care anymore. I have just plain run out of white guilt.
Please stay on topic or find a topic that revolves around what you wish to speak about.
Turkey is a joke and it can't handle Kurdish problems on its own!
Turks can join Sunni Saudis and their Arab seventh century desert dancers by weeping, screaming, shouting, inventing stories and more!
US, Britain, and many European nations are in a economic mess due to greedy Saudi and oil companies high oil price manipulations using Iraqi wars as an excuse.
PIIGS and heavy US debts are due to Iraqi and Afghan wars!
Even imposing sanctions on Iranian oil by some meaningless inventions like in Iraq and manipulating oil prices from $40 in 2009 to current $100 levels is having its impact.
Too many wars are bad for a nation including the US.
There are times when we have to focus inside instead of taking sides as Saudis want in Syria, Iran and other places.
Syria, Iran and many other ME Muslims nations' Shiites vs Sunni battles are not our problems. Let them handle them for a change like in Bahrain.
George-3715504 and Jonathan-1982062,
Just adding to your comments. It has been reported that Syria is now arming the PKK, the Kurdish group that has launched strikes against Turkey.
to the muslims the russians and the chinks chinese are killing the syrian people.
yes yes - and the Americans have killing HUNDREDS of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis in the last 10 years----
Real classy Racist comment Buchumlai..... Suppose the Russians and chinks as you call them decided to say that it was the "we are better than everybody else crackers in the USA that was doing the killing!" How would that play on "FIXED NEWS"???
These dramas are being hyped up to draw NATO forces into saving autocratic, despotic, seventh century deseret mindset bigoted Sunni Saudi, Kuwaiti, UAE from taking too much troubles in Syria, Iran and other places.
These very barbarians and Islamic religious Nazis showed Saddam and Iraq on the map!
Bush and co attacked them. After all they or relations of Hillarys, Libermanns, Romneys, McCains did not go to wars. But it was the poor soldiers who got maimed and dead for saving these Sunni Saudi and co beasts. Here again, trillion dollars of our tax monies went down the Iraqi drains.
Same jokes are being repeated in Syria and Iran.
Sunni Saudis, oil companies and their lobbyists are doing similar dances as during Iraqi wars and now they are showing Syria and Iran!
While Sunni Saudis and co will get us busy in those places, these Saudis, UAE, Kuwait and oil companies will start manipulating oil prices. Here these seventh century desert bigoted barbarians are experts.
Then media will take single pieces and show how prosperous they are! Their treatments of minorities, women and all those are forgotten!
Human rights, children and women are for somewhere else!
All three of you comments tells me , you all been listening to our news media too ;long . and to you IllegalsGoHome So what if Turkey as a bad asssss , they need to stay away from other people bus. they been arming these Alqada thugs with the help of the US and funded by the Saudis and Qataris . and to you BUCHUMALI the Russians and the Chinese !! that's real funny man . how many times you see these two countries going and interfering in other countries bus . Try NATO and the Gulf states . and while you at it check on Libya and see how many civilians dying every day . where are NATO now . They already got the Oil so they do not care about all these civilians dying every day . you that's what's wrong with now . people like you all three are in the congress and controlling our troops , these people do not car about anything but the money they get from these rich countries . its sad .
You're awfully critical of NATO, turn, but I suppose you have a right to be.
Curious thing is, you're so sensitive to casualties in Libya long after the revolution is over (exactly how many people are dying every day? Go ahead and tell me), but don't care at all about the civilians killed by the Syrian army, or the people being tortured by the Syrian government, or the civilians just having to live everyday under his oppressive regime.
Of course, your go-to line is "Assad protects the Christians", but since when are Christians more important than Muslims? No matter how many times I ask, you never answer.
SF accountant Sorry buddy , The Jews that's the only people we care about , hey buddy how about these innocents Muslim getting killed in Yemen and Bahrain , and off course the Christians in Africa , i do not see Hillary and McCain jumping up and down to help any body there , off course in Yemen we are doing the bombing . and if you listen to reporter on top of the page , NBC reporter telling you that the rebels has killed thousands of Syrian troops , I know you always want proofs . well listen to the report on the top of the page , where it says ,, rebels edging toward Assad or something like that , So and you cronies you want Assad to sit there and let these thugs kill his troops and his civilians , Where do you people come from ??? Sorry I know tea party , Right Bush people and Dick Cheney , they have the right to kill people but the other side not suppose to defend them self's . SF I told before I do not even know why i answer you , I figures one day you might try to get some truth into your life .
No one is much bothered by the Sunni extremist inspired killings, rapings, bombings and genocides of Christians in Darfur, Sudan, Nigeria and now Kenya!
Egypt is now embarking on Sunni Salaffi, MB version of Islam. See the cruel jokes that will be going on there!
There are limits to being sold dirt cheap without having a broad and open mind.
About Russia and China, they will enjoy one more Iraqi "mission accomplished" and Afghanistan in Syria and Iran.
With allies like Saudis and Pakis one does not need many enemies. Russia and China will keep away and enjoy Hillary, Libermanns, McCains, Romney dances along with Turks, Saudis and co!
You answer with diversions about others being killed elsewhere my turn, but that's not an answer. If you'd prefer the government focus on a different massacre, fine, whatever, but that's not what you're saying. You're deliberately ignoring the atrocities Assad has caused and standing up for his right to kill his own people. You take his government's words over anyone else's and ignore the blatant and severe human rights violations his regime has enacted in the "defense" of his country.
The closest thing to a legitimate defense you provide is talking about the rebels killing soldiers. Is that seriously the best you have? Killing enemy soldiers in a martial conflict isn't an atrocity, or a war crime, or even a human rights violation. That's the explicit and legitimate objective of every rebel. Come on turn, even I could come up with a stronger rebuke of the rebel forces.
This isn't about Assad "defending" anything except his corrupt power structure. The suffering he has inflicted upon his own people far exceeds anything the rebels have done or could hope to do to the civilians caught in the conflict.
As for why you answer me, I assume it's for the same reason you still take up the cause of Assad and Quaddafi despite their monstrous acts and their rapid declines, wasting your time posting your complaints as they become more and more obviously wrong and irrelevant: you're quite invested emotionally or personally in this conflict, and I consistently challenge your right to be. That just tends to provoke a response.
"No one cares about any of the camel kissers."
Well, you're obviously wrong, but feel free to wallow in your apathy.
Kind of weird that you still find time with all your not caring to leave posts about it, but whatever.
13,000-14,000 dead over the past 15 months.
800 killed just over the last week or so.
Where the hell is what's his name?
Where the hell is that Nobel Peace prize
laureate, who plays golf every day? What's his name...?!
You know, that Hussein guy who can't remember
his own birthday...
Is he in George Clooney's house again, trying to hear about the problems of the little guy? You know, trying to be in touch with the real people?
Is he getting advice from him on how to explain to the American people
why his administration's lawyers argued before the supreme court that
Obama-Care is a tax, but on television he keeps on telling the American people
that it's not a tax?
What is he doing about the economy, or about
this massacre going on in Syria? Or didn't he have time to ask George Clooney
what to do about those things?
y should the usa get do some thing ??? did you not see what the pre said from egypt terrorists
Hmmmm, if not for your naming Obama, I would have sworn you were talking about ROMNEY. Interesting that Obama's healthcare ideas are "evil" -- when they are the same as Romney's.
who cares you muslim terrorists are trying to take over i know whats comming you will shut down oil to the USA just like your best guy from egypt my gov dont know but i do so again i dont care if you guys get killed and i hope my usa dont help you terrorists ---- muslum brother hood lol just call it what it is so dont anser me i dont care and i will not read @!$%# you put down i know whats up ..
Maybe, but you really don't know how to write? You should limit yourself to just writing, "USA! USA!". we get the point you're a major league xenophobe. You got it, boy!
Yes, sertox, you "know what's up", sure you do. Too bad you don't know what's going down. sertox seems to have skipped the 4th through 12th grades -- and gone straight to hillbilly Faux News patriot.
Middle east wars, massive wildfires, hurricanes sooner than we normally have them, killer tornadoes. I remember reading about all these things coming together towards a certain time...........hmmm!!!
I don't understand why the world wants the terrorists to take over.
Your terrorist is always someone else's Freedom Fighter.
ya Agnon Taliban's were our freedom fighters before they became terrorists , Saddam was our friend before he became the devil himself , Rumsfeld was wondering , is that the same guy he was hugging couple years before when Saddam attacked the Iranians to please the Saudies , Qatari , Kuwaitis and all these no good Gulfs states , Assad was our friend when he went to help us in Desert storm , no he is the murderer that ally ti Iran and does not like Israel , Huuummmm , Qaddafi was a good man according to McCain , just couple of months before he became an evil man and McCain want to take him out , thank God McCain did not become the president , or we might be invading Mexico and Canada and every country that Sarah sees from her back yard .
It really comes down to who you hate more. "Terrorists" (depending on your person definition for terrorist adjusted for your own moral compass) or dictators (that defintion doesn't vary so much).
Me, I hate dictators more. A terrorist might be able to kill a few people at random. A dictator can ruin or destroy the lives of millions.
So take your pick.
So much for all that expensive talk in Geneva - not worth a kangaroo's fart. Hilarity could only have been fooling herself because the Russians and Chinese do not care what any of her clan says.
So go to the Russians and Chinese and threaten them with war if they don't get their noses out of Syria. See how effective that is -- and then get back to us with how they laughed at you.
Bashar al-Assad was left facing the biggest test of the 15-month uprising against his rule on Thursday
night as the Turkish army began gathering on the Syrian border and rebels
struck again at the heart of Damascus. In a major escalation of tensions
between the two former allies, Turkey sent anti-aircraft guns and trucks
carrying multiple-rocket launchers to reinforce its southern border following
Syria's 'hostile' shooting down of a Turkish fighter jet. Meanwhile, huge twin
bomb blasts struck the Syrian capital, near the Palace of Justice - the third
major attack on a city which had, until recent days, escaped the worst of the
anti-regime violence. Saturday, Turkey will join its western
allies in a UN-sponsored conference in Geneva to discuss Mr Assad's future.
Britain and other western countries are increasingly convinced that Russia can
finally be persuaded to support them in pushing for the Syrian president to
step down.
The Weekly World Watch has been going since October 2003. When did the WWW first mention a
Syrian war coming before the Russian invasion? It was on January 4th
2004. The Weekly World Watch slide back then reads “God has used Syria in the
past to punish Israel but there is no mention of Syria in Ezekiel 38. Perhaps
Syria has already been defeated when all the other nations converge on Israel?”
Since then the picture has become ever clearer with many hundreds of slides
tracking the situation with Syria and developing the scriptures to show that
Damascus will indeed fall before Russia invades. Nearly 10 years later it is
astounding to see that we are now on the very brink of these verses quoted so
often coming to pass. There will surely be no excuse when Christ himself
returns in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Jeremiah 49: 24-25 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail. How is the city of praise
not left, the city of my joy!
Isaiah 17:1-3 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts.
Can you say "no fly zone"?
Allen go back to your church sorry to your temple , Man where you all people come from , are you telling the lord going to destroy Damascus which have hundreds of thousands of Christians living there , for the sake of Israel where these Jews do not even believe in him , you know that's what wrong with the US now , we are brained washed by these Conservatives preachers to believe that Israel now is the same Israel in the Bible , and that the Jews are god chosen people , we the Christians followed his son and believed in him , they crucified him , But they are still God's chosen people . Hey allen I think you are a Jew , But if you are not , you should become one , you and all of these fake Christians that believe that we have to protect and defend Israel no matter what they do , even when they are trying to destroy the holiest church in Jerusalem. LORD HAVE MERCY ON US . So that's why we want to attack Iran and Syria and that's why we attacked Iraq , because they do not like Israel , the country that keep threatening every body in that region .
you must have itchy ears
Isaiah 30:10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
Ooh, holy burn!
These people have been spoon fed Islam (the religion of hatred and intolerance) since the day they were born. Anyone really expecting a different outcome? At least it's mostly Muslim killing Muslim. Mohammed would be so proud!
And I thought that the Syrian army had finally found an enemy it could defeat - the Syrian people. And now it looks like armed civilians and some defectors will kick the Syrian Army's Assad.
"I fear not the onslaught of my enemies, but pray I survive the torrents as I cross the rivers of their blood."
I wrote the above quote when ole son of Texas, Bulldog Bush went to Iraq. I'm thinking it may be fitting one day soon. I keep praying not.
Such a pleasant place ....
Shut the American factories down in China and Russia and I bet they change their toon really fast. None of the worlds politicians can ever do anything without taking a year to decide what to do.