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Subscribe to RSSThe Syrian intelligence chief has died from wounds suffered in a bomb attack Wednesday in Damascus. Funerals were held for three other members of president Assad's inner circle who were killed in the blast. Lindsey Hilsum, Channel Four Europe reports.
The U.N. Security Council voted Friday to maintain its observer mission in Syria for a "final" 30 days, the BBC reported.
The vote came after hours of negotiations among the members, the report said. Russia initially threatened to veto the resolution.
The Security Council's decision comes as fighting is engulfing areas of Damascus. Thousands of Syrian refugees are pouring into neighboring countries, the BBC reported.
Following the vote, Britain's UN ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, said: "We have said clearly that it is a final extension unless there is a change in the dynamic on the ground, and in particular that there should be a cessation of use of heavy weapons and that there should be a sufficient reduction in the violence to enable UNSMIS [the observer mission] to carry out its mandate."
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned against Western powers taking action against Syria beyond the Security Council's authority.
According to the BBC, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "In the opinion of the Russian president, any attempts to act outside the UN Security Council will be ineffective and only undermine the authority of this international organization."
Syrian troops fought on the corpse-strewn streets of the capital and at far-flung border posts on Friday to reverse gains by rebels, who have advanced relentlessly in the 48 hours since several members of President Bashar Assad's closest circle were assassinated.
Russia will be big loser if Assad falls, analysts say
Assad's intelligence chief on Friday became the fourth member of that circle to die of wounds sustained in Wednesday's bomb attack, which has transformed the 16-month conflict.
Since then, rebels have pushed deep into the heart of the capital and seized control of other towns. On Thursday, they captured three border crossings with Iraq and Turkey, the first time they have held sway over Syria's frontiers.
Assad has not spoken in public since Wednesday.
The next few days may be critical in determining whether Assad's government can recover from the bombing, which wiped out much of his command structure and destroyed his clan's aura of invulnerability.
Regional and world powers are now bracing for the last phase of the conflict, hoping to lever Assad out of power without unleashing a sectarian war that could spill across borders in one of the most volatile parts of the world.
A Western diplomat said it was understood that the Syrian leader had phoned the head of a U.N. observer mission after Wednesday's blast, saying he would accept an international peace plan if the West forced the opposition to halt attacks. The mission head, General Robert Mood, was not available to comment.
Diplomacy has failed to keep pace with events. A day after Moscow and Beijing vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have allowed sanctions, the Security Council approved a 30-day extension of Mood's small, unarmed mission, the only outside military presence on the ground.
In at least one apparent success for Assad's forces, state television said troops had cleared the central Damascus district of Midan of "mercenaries and terrorists." It aired footage of dead men in T-shirts, some covered in blood, others burned.
Opposition activists and rebel sources confirmed Friday that they had withdrawn from that district after coming under heavy bombardment, but said they were advancing elsewhere.
"It is a tactical withdrawal. We are still in Damascus," Abu Omar, a rebel commander, said by telephone.
One resident of a Palestinian refugee camp in the south of the city said the area nearby had a stench of corpses.
He said: "Tens of cars are burned, I saw at least eight bodies in the streets and people are trying to cover them with blankets."
Assad's forces also tried to recapture the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Syria and shelled the Abu Kamal crossing with Iraq on the Euphrates River highway, among the most important trade routes in the Middle East. The rebels said they still held the crossings, which they captured on Thursday.
A Reuters photographer at the scene said Iraqi forces had sealed off their side of the checkpoint with concrete walls.
The Syrian side had been burned and looted and a senior Iraqi interior ministry official said it appeared to be in rebel hands. Iraqi officers said it was quiet after clashes overnight.
The surge in violence has trapped millions of Syrians, turned sections of the capital into ghost towns and sent tens of thousands of refugees fleeing to neighboring Lebanon. The U.N. refugee agency said it had heard banks had run out of cash.
"We have figures that there could be anywhere from 9,000 to 30,000 that have fled across the border into Lebanon just in the last 48 hours," UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told the BBC.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
We are determined to start a war , only this time the Russians are determined to join us , we are trying with NATO and these no good Gulf states to get rid of a country leader , simply because our allies do not like him , Well you mark my word , Its going to be nasty this time and our allies not going to like it .
What do you mean "start a war"? The war is coming to a climax, and we're not involved. If we wanted to start a war, Obama had lots of chances, and he missed all of them. The Russians aren't going to declare war, and our allies are fully on board with what timid measures we've actually taken (which have been almost exclusively diplomatic). I have no clue what you're going on about.
By continuing to blame the revolution on a foreign conspiracy, dismissing hundreds of thousands of his fellow citizens as "bandits, Zionists and al Qaeda," Assad is taking a page out of the handbook of Gadhafi and likely will end up like Gadhafi
Do you people agree that Syrian rebels are backed by Sunni Saudi inventions like al-Qaida, MB and other label Islamic militants?
Those who talk big about human rights, innocents being killed and labels assigned to enemies, should remember Bahrain, Darfur, S. Sudan, Nigeria, Pakistan and other places.
Followers of Islamic cult, especially Sunni Saudi inspired Islamic radicals and militants (al-Qaida, Salaffi, Wahhabi, MB and other label ones), are fast marching backwards to their seventh century desert tribal days of rapings, lootings, killings and genocides of non-Muslims and Muslims.
These Sunnis, especially Salaffis, Wahhabis are so bigoted Islamic religious Nazis that they can't even tolerate a far better leader like Assad, just because he belongs to a different sect.
My turn: "WE are determined to start a war"? Looks to me thst one has been going on there for about a year and a half - with no American boots in battle there.
It's an election year. Obama is fighting for his political life, a war is not on his agenda.
Russia is a blowhard. They threaten at the microphone. They will not send in the troops.
This thing is taking on the appearance of the proverbial "beginning of the end".
No, we are not determined to start a war, we are determined to stay out, troopwise that is.
my turn:
who is "we"
and what is "our allies"
(think about that)
did any one check with you on anything?
no
So you should say "they"
You are not part of their program
here's the real "play" ----- "pay your taxes you shivering little mutt"
pototbabou we as Hillary McCain and Lieberman and all these hawks here , they are serving the Alqaida masters ( The Saudies and Qataris ) , and my little brother mutt , like or not they go to war , Its your assss and mine , not theirs . and you bare right , they did not check with me on that one , or in Iraq nor Libya , but hell I am paying for it and your assss tooooooo .
Just check all languages of the UN, human rights groups, media and other Saudis, oil companies and their lobbyists' dancers!
If atrocities and barbarism on girls, children and women are the criteria, then the most despotic, autocratic and bigoted Sunni Saudi ruler with his 5000 princes and princesses, Kuwaiti, UAE and other Arab League Sunni rulers and their rich sheiks are the biggest culprits in the history.
In killing of opponents again, these people have established world records.
What human rights Sunni Saudi, Kuwaitis, UAE and their agents like al-Qaida, MB and other label groups are talking of?
Look at Darfur, S. Sudan, Nigeria, Bahrain (reverse of Syria), Turkey (Kurds no one cares as they don't have monies to flash around), Mali (even the other Muslim sects like Sufis are not tolerated), Pakistan.
If the US, Britain and others support such Sunni bigoted barbarians and beasts who treat girls and women as cheap sex slaves, then one can only conclude that Saudis, oil companies and their lobbyists determine what to see, how to lecture and where and when to act.
Rest like “human rights”, “killing of children and women”, “militants”, “terrorists”, “WMDs”, “chemical weapons” and so on are a pure hoax.
Similar hoaxes were played each time before Iraqi wars on directions of Saudi, oil companies and their lobbyists.
Now none of them are looking into Iraq, where at least a million have been killed and devastated.
Let there be some changes in the dancers by Saudis, oil companies and their lobbyists' agents like Bushes, McCain, Libermanns, UN, human rights groups, Red Crosses and others instead of repeating broken Iraqi war records.
What a friggin joke. Maintaining "peace keepers" in the middle of a civil war. What is the purpose?
"observer mission" so the headline reads
purpose? $$$$
Agreed. U.N. "observers" are a joke. They just sit and watch.
What jokes these UN obervers, human rights groups and others are talking.
Do they function where al-Qaida, MB, Taliban and other Sunni militant groups operate?
Sunni Saudis and their Sunni Arab League pals just marched their soldiers to put down and kill Shiites peaceful protestors in Bahrain.
Saudis and their Sunni Arab League brave seventh century dancers got busy in Syria. Their agents like al-Qaida and MB started doing damages and inventing stories all around at the same time.
The brave Sunni Saudis and co could not send their brave soldiers to Syria. Instead they became serious about "human rights" and "killing of women and childrem."
They sent their human rights observers to Syria to monitor the "human rights" violations.
Only seventh century desert mindset bigoted Saudis can do these: their human rights observers were headed by a Sudanese Gen, who was responsible the genocides of 300000 Christians in Darfur!
Later Sunni Saudis roped in NATO "ally" Turkey to do the dirty jobs for them. Islamic fundamentalist Ergodan started inventing his seventh century stories on Syria.
Just wait and watch for more seventh century desert dances by Saudis and their pals! They have lots of monies to flash and throw around!
Larry; Yeah, it is kind of a joke, I agree with you there. Nonetheless, it does show to me that there is still some thread of humanity amidst the inhumanity.
They are not peace keepers , most of the time these observers are military spies to check the strength of a country before NATO decide to invade , they did that in every country , Just ask Mr. Scott Ritter .
That would actually make the UN far more useful and competent than I believe to be possible, so on those grounds - and due to a complete lack of evidence for your claim - I have to assume you're making that up.
My turn: Dude, we are not going in. Read my 1.4 above. And if they are spying, then - good - they would then be doing something useful.
I've never heard so much fear-mongering war-encouraging propaganda...and I thought the crap about Iraq, Iran, Libya, ON AND ON was bad! I wish these tools in our government would get a taste of what it's like to have their lives destroyed by thugs, rapists, gangs, and all around criminals. They're playing with some pretty dang hot fire, and they will get burned, whether it's in this life or the next. Mark my words, our children and grandchildren will pay dearly for what we're doing over there. I'm sick and tired of coups being the standard mode of operation, LEAVE OTHER COUNTRIES THE F ALONE!
No.
Not that I favor military solutions to problems, or support invading other countries, but we can't just "leave other countries alone". No nation exists in a vacuum. We must interact with other countries, we must teach, we must question, and we must learn.
And occasionally, we must lock up a bloody-fisted tyrant in chains and haul him to the International Criminal Court. It's all part of the system, and ultimately humanity is better off for it.
SF Accountant: You are right. That is what separates us from the beasts. Lose our humanity and we might as well crawl around on our bellies.
Nato will not invade or cause a war with Russia and china. Nato is a defense! The worse is yet to come. Russia and China will declare war on Syria when Assad falls. For quite some time now, Russia and China has been on the wrong side of this Syrian issue.
Why would Russia, much less China, declare war on a liberated Syria? They might want their port, but not enough to take on the job of running an entire middle eastern country with few natural resources worth leeching. That's putting aside the actual geopolitics of conducting that war in the face of the world and on Turkey's doorstep.
Critical times hard to deal with, will be here.
"the Syrian leader had phoned the head of a U.N. observer mission after Wednesday's blast, saying he would accept an international peace plan if the West forced the opposition to halt attacks."
Why, I DO believe he just might be serious this time!
Rebels flooding your capital is a great motivation for "compromise".
Let see, if Assad fails, that will make Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Afganistan, Libya, Lebanon, Somalia, Iran, the Sudan, and much of Iraq as countries in the Middle East that are, or in the process, of morphing into fundamentalist rule. NOW, who do the fundamentalists hate more, the Russians and Chinese or the USA and Israel, and WHERE do you think they are going to buy their weaponry?
If Assad holds on, because he has the guns, and missles, from mother Russia that's the way it works. If you want to take on the bigger man, be prepared to get knocked down by the bigger man.
SF Assad did not call or contact anybody , damn it quit listening to AlJazeera and CNN and Hillary , Syrian Troops are moping the streets with these thugs in Damascus . Believe or not Assad was too nice , because these thugs have bunch of Christian hostages there still using them as human shields not the Syrian troops , you all so FING blind , keep on believe in in these thugs and the Saudis and Qataris , you saw what happened to the first time dealing with these murderers .
western media is far more honest and reliable than Assad's state news that claim they hadn't kill anyone (it was terrorists group that killed protesters and children in torture chambers) my way you remind me of a Gadhafi supporter who claimed that Gadhafi was winning the war even after the freedom fighters took libya's capital and Gadhafi was on the run, running like a rat, Assad is also on the run running like a rat he is, but it may take a while longer for the freedom fighters in syria b/c they didn't get the support from the UN like in libya, but they are gaining and will soon catch or kill Assad
A Western diplomat said it was understood that the Syrian leader had phoned the head of a U.N. observer mission after Wednesday's blast, saying he would accept an international peace plan if the West forced the opposition to halt attacks.
Freedom fighters are not falling for this (Gadhafi's playbook) trap which would result in Assad doing the opposite and increasing his genocide (fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me) Assad would only take advantage of the creasefire to slaughter citizens more harshly
I listen to John McCain last night on a cnn problem (usually don't have time to watch cnn tv) John McCain (even though I'm not a republican) talked with alot of sense, he even criticized his own party for not stepping up to the plate to support the growing freedom movement in the middle east, he was right, that we kinda turn a blind eye to Assad's genocide when we should have been more helpful like setting up a safe zone and arming the freedom fighters. He couldn't get congress to support him b/c of his own party. Though I didn't vote for McCain in the first election, I found him to be a compassionate man that really cares for the people of syria and wanted U.S. to support syria more strongly. It is like Assad telling the UN "sticks and stones may broke my bones, but words will never hurt me. And that is all the UN has done for syrians, tough talk but allowing Assad's genocide to continue
Sounds like rebels are winning without any visible outside help.
No need for US or any one else to get envolved, after all.
However, like in all revolutions, this rebel force consits of ceveral very different organizations, who will be at each others throats the moment Assad is down.
Then it might turn out to be a good idae for US to get involved and make sure that the power goes to someone at least remotely semi-democratic. It might turn out that US, Russia and China will each have some organization within the rebel force to bet on.
That work is bound to get extremely messy, and no one is looking forward at doing it. That's why everyone is OK with the revolutiongoing on for as long as possible.
Syrians are still on their own.
Oh come on folks, a good war only increases the odds that the incumbent will retain power! It's not funny, when the government has all the weapons to ensure their continued supremacy! That's why we have to UN all bark, and no bite! Entice the US into another worthless war! [:-(]
U.N.(United Numbskulls) are more than worthless, they are costing the U.S., Big Bucks. We put the most money into this money pit. We put the most boots on the Ground. Why? Other than another means for the Military Industrial Complex to cash in, again and again? We've got to dump the U.N. like a Bad Cold. It's been worthless since the Day they opened their Doors on U.S. soil.
Shiites vs Sunni battles are not ours.
Let them keep fighting and killing each other.
Even if Sunni Saudis and their seventh century desert mindset brigades like al-Qaida, MB, and others win in Syria, next they will pounce on Iran.
It will be unending Islamic religious mad battles as they have been doing since centuries.
If we intervene on Saudis side, and determine winners as in Iraq, we will be losers in the long run!
Sunni Saudi Islamic religious mad bigotes are most ungrateful backstabbers. Just examine their roles impartially on Iraqi wars and their actions.
U.N. to Assad: "We want you to stop shelling your population centers."
Assad: "What will you do if I don't?"
U.N.:"We'll write you a letter. A very nasty letter."
Outrageous war propaganda. Assad is defending his nation against Saudi, Qatari and British sponsored jihadist Jacobins whose agenda is a pogrom against Christians in Syria! But there's another motive: the call is out world-wide for the restoration of Glass-Steagall, to separate the speculators from depositor's money, and stop the bailouts! The London-based financial oligarchy, mother of the LIBOR swindle, faces life in prison and the end of their evil empire! These bastards want to distract us from the plain evidence of their crimes, and stop the drive to bring them to justice, by launching World War III!
Want to fight back? Visit larouchepac.com
Richard Burden: We'll have an easier time bringing Glass-Steagall back, than convincing LaRouche's "depraved" that Furtwangler (with umlaut) is the epitome of music. My tastes in music may align with LaRouche's, but I have serious doubts that those who thrill to good symphonic renditions have much in common with the people they rule.
If, according to LaRouche, the minds of "the People" are the "Enemy Within", then who's the Enemy Without? You can't have a fight of one: D.T. Suzuki asked, "What is the sound of one hand clapping? Well, I tried it, and at best it's a "whoosh"; not a connection of any substance; rather, it is a feeble enactment of 'blowing in the wind'.
The Mind must be cultivated; else it sprouts weeds galore. Weeding ourselves of our fantasies of World Domination would include weeding out those whose intentions are to have power over us, to the exclusion of any concern for us. The quintessential benchmark of our paradoxical existence rests upon the following axiom: "Love seeks to empower others; whereas Control seeks power over others."
We don't live in or at either of these polarizations (Love/Control); indeed, we cannot, and be rational. For the last 50 years what has been "bred out of humanity" is the power of critical thinking.
You can thank Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell for putting this anti-regulatory political anti-thinking machine into place, back in 08/1971, followed by decades (two generations) of avoidance of Reality. Its resolutely money-sponsored, greed-prone, morally disintegral legislative/corporate/financial backers have altered the course of the World; reducing the potential of Humanity to a wasteland of propagandized, dumbed down, litigious, bling-addicted, "me" oriented fools who've risen to the top, pouring oil on troubled waters....
What do I think about what's happening in Syria? I'm for the freedom of the people to do and be, to the best of their potential. That is and always will be their right as human beings. What do I think about the current state of affairs, there? I think that the People are being horrifically manipulated.
I cannot listen to any more "opinions" from this or that power, group, or faction, without wondering if all have take leave of their senses. Syria, like every other place on Earth, is inhabited by Nature, including human beings. Ideologies do not bear their pain. Why look to ideologies for answers?
UN on an "observation mission"
u-tube has got that covered
What a worthless piece of tax payers @!$%#