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Subscribe to RSSFuel is in short supply in Syria, and bread costs 20 times what it did several months ago. Still, the rebels are advancing. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
NORTHERN SYRIA -- Syrian rebels who were in control of swathes of the countryside north of the key city of Aleppo told NBC News on Sunday they were besieging a large base full of government soldiers.
Rebels told NBC News producer Ghazi Balkiz that a large government base nearby was under attack. "We can hear bombs going off right now," he said.
"In this area, the rebels control the countryside and open roads, and the Syrian army only controls the bases and the skies," he said on the telephone from an area north of the country's commercial capital. "In a 20-mile radius there are three bases, and the rest is controlled by rebels."
A Syrian army soldier who had defected to the rebels told NBC News that morale among the pro-Assad forces was very low.
The NBC News team in Syria did not release details of its exact location for safety reasons.
The news of rebel advances came after a newly formed joint command of rebel groups said it had chosen a former officer to head a new Islamist-dominated command. This was part of a Western-backed effort to put the opposition's house in order as President Bashar Assad's army takes hits that could usher his downfall.
The rebel groups chose Brigadier Selim Idris, one of hundreds of officers who have defected from Assad's army, as its head, opposition sources in Turkey said on Saturday.
Idris, whose home province of Homs has been at the forefront of the Sunni Muslim-led uprising, was elected by 30 military and civilian members of the joint military command after talks attended by Western and Arab security officials in the Turkish city of Antalya.
Nearly two years into the civil war in Syria, 41,000 people have been killed. Although the rebels have more control now, they fear chemical warfare. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
The unified command includes many with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and to Salafists, who follow a puritanical interpretation of Islam. It excludes the most senior officers who have defected from Assad's military.
Syria rebels warn civilians Damascus airport is now a 'legitimate target'
Rebel advances
On the Damascus battlefront, Assad's forces used multiple rocket launchers on Saturday against several suburbs that have fallen to rebels who have fought their way to the edge of the city's international airport, where foreign carriers have suspended all flights.
Rebels, who have overrun several army bases near Damascus over the last month, appeared to be holding their ground, encircling a main military base in the northeastern suburb of Harasta, known as "idarat al markabat," near the main highway to Aleppo, according to opposition campaigners.
"The fighters made slight progress today. They captured a weapons depot and got to a tank repair facility in the base, but all 20 tanks inside were inoperational," Abu Ghazi, a rebel who was speaking from the area, told Reuters.
"The weather cleared and MiG fighters hit rebel positions around the base. Rocket launchers did not stop for the last three days. The site is crucial for the regime," he added.
Indeed, the state of the weather is key for rebels, according to NBC News' Balkiz.
"The rebels love it when it is overcast (because) aircraft can't bomb because they don't have the visibility," he said.
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A look back at the violence that has overtaken the country
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Critical times hard to deal with, will be here.
Yep. And it looks pretty bad in Syria too.
GM Bill,
It seems that everywhere in the ME is in pretty bad shape. I surely hope the US stays as far out of this as possible and my concerns over UN (read US involved actions) are creeping towards some type of military action with the Patriot system in border area of Turkey/Syria.
@jack,
The Patriot missiles are NATO-owned and will be deployed under the control of NATO crews and officers. Any command to use them will either come from Turkey as a response to a direct threat against Turkey or as a NATO response to the use of chemical weapons by Assad. While the US is a strong voice in NATO, it is the NATO high command that made the decision to deploy Patriots and it will be a NATO decision to use them. (Turkey is a NATO member and already has deployed older Hawk missiles along the border.)
Thanks Chris but did you see the NBC article on Thursday stating there are 400 US and UN troops with those Patriot batteries? That is my concern.
Hello folks, Chemical Weapons are a new excuse for aggression against Syria. They are now saying the rebels who many are just outside mercenaries, are united under one flag, what a farce! The elite, using their western lap dogs are using the tried and true WMD gambit. This was an old worn out ruse used against Iraq even before the lies about the Libyan Jamahiriya. Did not the Bush Jr. Administration, Tony Blair, and their circle of war criminals-in-office not lie to the entire international community and say that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program and weapons of mass destruction in 2003? What happened to those WMDs? This is not something that can easily be scoffed at. More than one million Iraqis died over the lies conjured by the Anglo-American duo. Not to mention the ecological damage and the intellectual genocide perpetrated against Iraq’s intelligentsia and professional class. Those were all lies to induce the support of the sheeple.
Well then Mr. President, you and NATO should start by arresting those US, British, and Israeli officials who okayed and used WMDs against civilians in Iraq, Lebanon, and Gaza. Remember the white phosphorous in Fallujah? The US and British military forces attacked an entire civilian population with their arsenal of chemical weapons in 2004.
It is funny how the resistance in Fallujah was also called an insurgency back then too. So the US and UK considered Iraqis fighting two invading armies an “insurgency” while they consider foreign-backed militias in Syria as “rebels” and “freedom fighters.” An Orwellian world it is indeed.
Syria will not use any chemical or biological weapons against its own people. The Obama Administration and company are just recycling the same lines that were used months earlier against Damascus.
In 2011, were not similar charges put forward against another Arab country? Were they not claiming that the late Moammar Gadhafi would use chemical weapons against his own population? Was it not claimed even earlier that Gadhafi and the Libyan military had brought in black-skinned African mercenaries to kill Libyan citizens? Or that Libyan jets were killing Libyan protesters? What happened to the genocide in Benghazi? Now there is nothing but silence and lost memories. Claims were made, morality and responsibility were invoked, and then a rising Arab country was bombarded. An engine of economic progress in Africa was halted in its tracks overnight and an entire society robbed.
Let us be clear, Syria threatened to use chemical weapons against any invading force on July 23, 2012. Firstly, the statement was made in a defensive context. Secondly, it was directed against military threats. This is very different from planning on using chemical weapons against your own citizens, specifically civilians.
As for Israel it is also guilty of the same war crimes. Jacob Edery, an Israeli cabinet minister, even admitted in 2006 that Tel Aviv used white phosphorus after the Red Cross and human rights organizations levied charges against Israel about using chemical weapons on civilians. It is not Damascus, but Tel Aviv that is the home of pundits and officials who frequently speak about “Doomsday weapons” and the “Samson Option” when referring to their nuclear WMDs.
Anyone that thinks that the US government has the best interests of the Syrian people at heart needs a history lesson. Better yet, they need to look at how Obama’s partners in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the feudal Arab petro-sheikhdoms are treating their own people. These feudal desert dictatorships answer their own protestors, who are demanding for democracy and basic civil rights, with bullets and tank fire. This is pure and unadulterated hypocrisy the entire world is witnessing first hand.
The noose is being tightened around Syria. All the talk about chemical weapons is being used to justify the deployment of NATO’s missiles on the borders of Syria. The deployment of the Patriot missiles comes at a time when there are reports that there is a new aggressive push to rearm the anti-government forces in Syria. A “no-fly zone” or, as it is called in US/NATO doublespeak, a “humanitarian corridor” around Aleppo and Syria’s northern border territories is on the Obama Administration’s wish list. So the plot thickens and Democracy Inc. reinvents its brand with new marketing. And the sheeple chant USA, USA, USA!
Folks, WW III is not going to happen! The people perpetrating these false flag events will be held accountable! Behold, the end of the cycle is here and there is no room for the warmongering mentality!
“Don’t you love farce?
My fault, I fear.
I thought that you’d want what I want -
Sorry, my dear.
But where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns.
Quick, send in the clowns.”
“Don’t bother they’re here!”
War is peace....Freedom is slavery....Ignorance is strength."~ George Orwell, 1984
The Wall Street Corrupted Corporate Media just keeps pushing their Disinformation & Propaganda and Obama will get his next UN "Not War" at "Our" Expense and "Their" Profits just you wait and see!
A few days ago Obama was threatening Syria over their "WMD" and then the Pentagon says "No evidence" of mixing the chemicals. Then suddenly once again the "Syrians" were / are cooking "Dope" according to Obama's "Pinata"!
Now suddenly the Syrian Rebels (Al Qaeda) controls all of the Northern (Turkish Border) Countryside. Soon it will be back to Syria attacked Turkey! Ask yourself "How" could that be if Al Qaeda controls all of that territory?
Give US a break....This endless Disinformation & Propaganda is being spewed forth by Wall Streets Corporate Media just to justify another "False Flag Operation". While "we" are supporting and encouraging Al Qaeda to attack "Targets of Opportunity" at every Opportunity in Syria which admittedly includes Civilians at the Air Port and Syria's Chemical Weapons Facilities....Then we threaten Assad if he tries to move those same said weapons.
Psst before you jump of the WMD Band Wagon remember "Israel" and Turkey own or have access to Nuclear Weapons and just "Chemical weapons)!
So far Turkey is the "Admitted" Aggressor against Syria by supporting Al Qaeda in Syria, which is against the NATO Treaty and we have NO BUSINESS getting involved supporting Al Qaeda first in Libya now in Syria! The Russians and the Chinese have already said "They" will get involved if we attack Syria!
NATO's Patriot move is step to involvement in Syria: Russia......http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-nato-russiabre8b60o3-20121207,0,7630851.story
What is Syria worth to you Arm Chair Chicken Hawks?
New York City or maybe LA? How about Houston or Seattle or Miami? The one place you can bet your last dollar won't go up in a "Mushroom Cloud" will be Washington DC so maybe it is time to "Rush" DC!
This nonsense just proves once again that it is the Time to get US out of NATO and these Endless UN Globalists "Not Wars".....Let US stop letting the Tail Wag the Dog and if Wall Street want to start another "Not War", let "Them" Pay for it this time!
Folks this has all been planned since the False Flag Attack on America on 09/11/2001 (if not before) and we need to Wake Up and run the Social Not Liberals, the Wall Street Weasels and the Corporate Welfare RATS out of Our Government!
Don't believe....Watch Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Wesley Clark (a TRUE American Hero) play "Connect A Dot" with 9/11 and lay out EXACTLY what the Military / Corporate Plutocracies plans always where ......http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw&feature=g-all-f
Then Watch this new PBS Documentary........http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l-8PFk8j5I and ask yourself why?
If you cannot understand the "Truth" of Wall Streets New Military Plutocracy that is now Controlling America it is because you intentionally choose not to....
Remember only you can say NO to more False Flag Operations in the name of Quarterly Profits!
It is time to stop the "War On America" (oops Terror).....Let US put an End to these UN Globalist "Not Wars" for Wall Streets and the Military Industrial Corporations Wagging the Dog!
Impeach Obama in 2012 for Criminal Conspiracy to Cover Up the Murder of an American Ambassador, Secret CIA Prisons and Supporting Al Qaeda in Benghazi-Gate!
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever." ~George Orwell,
TrustVerify
Hello folks, Chemical Weapons are a new excuse for aggression against Syra :
Listen obama has all ready backtracked on actions when he and clinton said that if assad MOVED chemicals weapons we would act, well he did and reports he is mixing them right now...Now the new "dont do it is" USE them..
this guy is afraid of his own shadow and his handlers (valerie jarrod) has assured obama that assad wouldn't dare use them.. well desperate people with nothing to lose and facing prison.
Nice post MUW! Excellent commentary! It's always nice to hear from those that are awake!
TrustVerify ....Thanks! Never forget there are a lot of US out there and we just got to keep chipping away at their 911 Corporate Plutocracy Propaganda Disinformation and Fantasies!
Here is another US Officer who is still keeping his Oath. U.S. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell....http://www.infowars.com/video-whats-really-going-on-in-syria/
Want the "Truth"? Search for it yourself, you will not find it in the Corporate Controlled News!
Want to stick your head into the sand....Pray Wall Street doesn't catch you napping...For those who are "asleep" will be the "Victims" not the "Saviors" in World War III!
None are so hopelessly enslaved, as those who falsely believe they are free. The truth has been kept from the depth of their minds by masters who rule them with lies. They feed them on falsehoods till wrong looks like right in their eyes.~Johann von Goethe
We should be selling weapons and ammo to both sides if we aren't already.
They always have!
One quick note about nerve gas and sarin in particular that the media seems to be missing time after time: The reason for the concern is a little complicated, but very important.
Nerve gases are usually stored in at least two parts. Sarin, the nerve gas of choice in the Middle East is stored as four chemical components. This is done for three reasons: a) nerve gases are incredibly corrosive and chemically active while the component chemicals are far less corrosive, b) once mixed the "precursor" chemicals have a short lifetime (about 2-3 months) and the actual binary chemicals about 2-3 weeks. c) none of the precursors or original chemicals are as unsafe to handle as the nerve gas.
So the routine is this. The basic chemicals are usually stored in separate locations so that they cannot be mixed "casually" by some unauthorized person. This was done in Syria. The weapons are tested for dispersal characteristics by dropping them on a grid. This has been done in Syria and confirmed by spy satellites. The first indication was that the four remotely stored chemicals have been brought together at one location. This was confirmed by spy satellite. And now the two precursor chemicals have been mixed. This has been confirmed by spy satellites and presumably HUMINT sources. The mixed precursor chemicals are now ready to be put into bombs, rockets, or artillery shells. And they will only be good until mid-February. If the two precursor chemicals are not used by then, they will have degraded to the point that they are unusable.
The actual putting of the precursor chemicals into weapons would only take a few hours and would probably be undetectable to spy satellites. At that point the weapons would bew somewhat unstable and would last only another 2-3 weeks before they would have to be unloaded and fresh precursor chemicals loaded. The unloading and reloading is a very dangerous and difficult process and is probably beyond the capabilities of Assad's forces who have lost much of their technical support to the rebels.
The binaries (what the precursor chemicals are called once loaded into weapons) mix together after weapons release. In bombe it is done by a tiny turing propeller on the front and rear. In artillery shells and unguided rockets it is doneby centrifugal force from the weapon's stabilizing spin. In guided rockets, it is done mechanically near the apogee.
What this means right now is that Assad has committed his forces to mix the precursors. This means that he has until about mid-February to use them or lose them. If he does not use them, they could well fall into rebel hands, but would not be usable because the rebels lack the delivery systems. Only the base chemicals would be of any use to terrorists. The precursor chemicals have too short a shelf life to be useful to terrorists.
That said, nerve gas is not very effective against groups like the rebels. It was intended to be used against large troop concentrations in the open, then quickly disperse so that the ground can be occupied by friendly troops. The rebels tend to operate in very small groups and inside buildings. This means that only a few would be killed at a time, and that the sarin would not disperse in an urban area like it would in the open, probably not reaching all the intended targets. Because of this, sarin is more of a "terror weapon" than an actual threat to the rebels.
I hope this helps people to understand some of the decisions going on right now and why the Obama administration was warning Assad. Assad's problem right now is that if there is even a suspicion that sarin has been used, Turkish-based Patriot missiles will be used to shoot down anything that flies over Syria. Period.
I hope they use chemical weapons. Whoever wins this is still going to want to destroy the US. Let them cut their numbers down some. I wish all these middle east countries had nukes.They would use them on themselves and Israel and then we could just nuke every city and town over there and be done with it once and for all. To bad thats not going to happen because it would be sweet!
President Obama is "evolving" again.
Currently President Obama isn't doing any calculus, but massaging the rhetoric.
We cannot afford to have President Obama continue to sing and dance, as he is doing with the fiscal cliff. As time passes, we run out of plausible options as the situation worsens.
When Stupid people vote, you get a Stupid President. Enjoy.
Chris, that was a very good analysis of how those weapons work. But, it is not known for sure if Syria has any advanced chemical delivery systems. The older style systems require the chems be mixed first, then loaded. Thats why they have such a short active lifespan. In the newer systems there is a "membrane" that seperates the chems. After launch the centrifugal force splits the membrane and mixes the chems at that point. Even with the membrane they do not have all that long a life since they can be corrosive, at least to some extent, by themselves. It might also be worth noting that at least some of Syrias chems are close to 40 years old. Personnaly, I wouldn't touch those regardless of precautions.
So the Rebals have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood? From the Frying Pan into the Fire. They were better off with Assad. Now the women haters will take over. Islam will Rule the country. You asked for it, you got it. Look at what is happening today in Egypt with Morsi. This is why we should stay the HELL out of those countries. They all want to go back to the stone Age and we should let them. Good Luck with your Sharia Law people, because you are going to need it. Especially the Women. The women should make a run for the border now.
It seems to me that the Syria Rebels---God be with them---don't need the UN, with Russia's support.etc etc
They are doing it themselves, thank God. The question is: Are Saddam's WMDs in Syria or Iran now?
But it would now be the intent of Saddam's WMD's.
The Syrian rebels are those from inside Syria and those Syrians from outside but there is a great problem with Al Qaeda rebel fighters- calling themselves Al Nusra, they are the Libyan AQ veteran rebel fighters, AQ affiliated Jama'al Al-Islamiya terrorists freed by Pres.Morsy in July,2012 and for Eid (remember Amb.Stevens+ 3 other Americans),Saudis,Lebanese,Tunisians, Qataris and if they get their hands on any Sarin nerve agent,mustard gas etc. people will be in trouble (innocents) The Palestinians are fighting for Assad (PFLP) while Hamas/MB fighting with rebels (question not of allegiances but of money-Qatari money/Meshaal).In the meanwhile Turkey is getting the Patriot missiles from Germany and ever increasing German soldiers, Netherlands and their soldiers to man the Patriots. Syria is Hell on Earth- everything is in ruins- refugees to Turkey ,Jordan and Lebanon over 200,000 and rising. Muslim Brotherhood has the majority in the new Syrian National Committee- it bodes very ill for Christians,Syriacs,Kurds,Alewis, seculars.
Suburbs.
The only concern for the US should be safeguarding the chemical weapons so they don't fall into terrorist hands. Had we not allowed them to develop one to begin with (Iran comes to mind) we would not have this problem today.