Tag Archives: Bashar al-Assad

Aleppo rebels outgunned but confident as siege bites

Damage of Aleppo

By Tom Perry and Ellen Francis

BEIRUT (Reuters) – A senior rebel commander said on Friday that Syrian government forces would never be able to capture Aleppo’s opposition-held east, more than three weeks into a ferocious offensive, but a military source said the operation was going as planned.

Russian air strikes were proving of little help to government ground forces in urban warfare, the deputy commander of the Fastaqim rebel group in Aleppo said. While air strikes have pounded much of the city, they have avoided frontlines where the sides are fighting in close proximity, apparently out of fear they could hit the wrong side, he said.

The rebels were well prepared for a siege imposed this summer, and preparations for a counter attack were under way, Melhem Akidi told Reuters.

“Militarily there is no danger to the city of Aleppo,” he said, adding: “The more dangerous thing is the daily massacres by the regime that are targeting not just the people but the foundations of life in Aleppo.”

However, the Syrian military source and a second pro-government military source in the field said the campaign was on course, reiterating denials that civilians were being targeted.

“The accomplishments so far are moving according to the plan, and we are working according to gradual steps,” said the second source, a non-Syrian and part of a regional alliance fighting in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

The assessments, on the eve of a meeting between U.S. and Russian foreign ministers in Switzerland to try to resume their failed efforts to find a diplomatic solution, point to a protracted battle for Aleppo.

Syria’s biggest city before the war has been divided into areas controlled by the government and rebels for several years. The rebel-held east is the last major urban stronghold of the nationalist rebels fighting Assad, and recapturing it would be a major strategic prize.

The Syrian army, supported by Iranian-backed militias and Russian air power, announced a major offensive to capture the rebel-held part of the city on Sept. 22, unleashing firepower not previously seen in the 5-1/2-year long war.

The onslaught has killed several hundred people and flattened many buildings. Hospitals have also been hit, leading the United States and France to accuse Russia and the Syrian government of war crimes.

Moscow and Damascus say they are only targeting militants.

ONSLAUGHT THREATENS BREAD SUPPLY

A member of Aleppo’s opposition city council told Reuters fuel reserves used to operate bakeries could run out in a month if the siege persists. A mill was bombed on Wednesday, another threat to the city’s bread supply, he said.

The air strikes have been accompanied by ground assaults by government forces, including Shi’ite militias from Iraq and Lebanon. Their clearest advance so far is the capture of ground to the north of Aleppo, including the Handarat camp.

The army has also reported gains in the city center itself. The rebels have consistently said these have been repelled. A Syrian military source said the army had gained control over several industrial facilities and an agricultural college located in northeastern Aleppo on Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group monitoring the war, said the government advances so far did not match the intensity of the firepower unleashed.

The bombardment was expected to bring “much greater results”, Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said.

Syria’s civil war has killed 300,000 people and left millions homeless while dragging in regional and global powers and allowing for the expansion of jihadist groups including Islamic State, which controls wide areas of the east.

While Assad is backed by Russia, Iran and an array of Shi’ite militias from Arab neighbors, the Sunni rebels seeking to oust him are backed by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies.

LITTLE HOPE FOR PEACE TALKS

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Saturday, possibly joined by ministers from Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

American officials have voiced little hope for success, however, and Lavrov said on Friday he had “no special expectations” for the talks.

Kerry broke off talks with Lavrov last week over the Aleppo offensive. The resumption of negotiations, despite the fighting, was a sign of the lack of options facing Western nations over the Syria conflict, where they worry increased arms supplies for the rebels could end up in the hands of jihadist groups.

The Syrian government and its allies have been steadily encircling the rebel-held east of Aleppo this year, first cutting the shortest route to nearby Turkey, before fully blockading the city this summer.

Assad said this week capturing Aleppo would be a springboard for pushing militants to neighboring Turkey, a major sponsor of the rebellion.

He has offered the Aleppo rebels an amnesty if they lay down their arms, though they have dismissed it as a trick.

ALEPPO “STEADFAST”, FUEL RUNNING OUT

Akidi, speaking from Aleppo, said he was “certain that nobody would be able to storm” the east, which he said could not be compared to other less populous and less well-armed areas that have been captured from rebels by the government.

“Everyone who stayed in Aleppo, which was under threat of siege for a long time, has prepared for steadfastness,” he said.

He also noted the proximity of nearby insurgent strongholds west of Aleppo and in Idlib province, and what he described as the government’s “fragile” hold over an important access point on the city’s southern periphery. “I do not rule out that the revolutionaries will be able to break the siege soon,” he said.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report on Thursday that 406 people had been reported killed and 1,384 wounded in eastern Aleppo from Sept. 23 until Oct. 8. In government-held western Aleppo, which is frequently targeted by rebel shelling, 91 people including 18 children were killed over a similar period.

Muhammad Sandeh, of the opposition city council, said a fuel reserve controlled by the council could dry up in eastern Aleppo in a month or less if the siege persists.

“There are enough bakeries, but there isn’t enough flour or fuel,” Sandeh told Reuters from Aleppo. “The families get half of their bread needs,” he said. The air strike on a mill on Wednesday had severely reduced bread supply, he said.

Water supplies have also been affected by the violence.

OCHA said the situation had improved slightly after the parties reached an Oct. 10 agreement to protect water stations from the conflict.

Ibrahim Abu al-Laith of the Civil Defence rescue service that operates in rebel-held areas said that even after pumping stations were repaired and the water returned, it couldn’t reach residents due to a lack of fuel.

Fuel is the lifeline of the eastern districts, he said.

“Ours is running out.”

(Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Pravin Char)

Air strikes pound rebel-held Aleppo districts

A destroyed neighborhood in Aleppo

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Dozens of air strikes hit rebel-held areas of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo overnight, a monitor and defense worker said, continuing a fierce air campaign by Syrian government and allied forces since a ceasefire broke down almost a week ago.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens of air strikes hit the rebel-held half of the divided city, the target of a fresh offensive announced by the Syrian army on Thursday.

Aleppo has become the main battle ground of a conflict now in its sixth year. Capturing rebel districts of Syria’s largest city, where more than 250,000 civilians are trapped, would mark the biggest victory of the civil war for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

Bebars Mishal, a civil defense worker in rebel-held Aleppo, said the bombardment continued until 6 a.m. (0300 GMT).

“It’s the same situation. Especially at night, the bombardment intensifies, it becomes more violent, using all kinds of weapons, phosphorous and napalm and cluster bombs,” Mishal told Reuters.

“Now, there’s just the helicopter, and God only knows where it will bomb. God knows which building will collapse,” he said.

Another civil defense worker, Ismail al-Abdullah, said the overnight bombardment had been less intense than it had been in the past few days and the morning was relatively quiet.

The Observatory said it had documented the deaths of 237 people, including 38 children, from air strikes on Aleppo city and the surrounding countryside since last Monday when the ceasefire ended. Of those documented deaths, 162 were in rebel-held east Aleppo city.

Civil defense workers say about 400 people have died in the past week in the rebel-held parts of the city and surrounding countryside.

Rescue efforts have been severely hampered because bomb damage has made roads impassable and because civil defense centers and rescue equipment have been destroyed in raids.

Civil defense worker Ammar al Selmo said rescuers have only two fire trucks and three ambulances left in Aleppo and that three fire trucks, two ambulances and three vans had been hit in the past week.

“We are trying to respond … but we don’t know what tomorrow will bring,” Selmo said, speaking from Gaziantep, Turkey after recently leaving east Aleppo.

Brita Hagi Hassan, president of the city council for opposition-held Aleppo, said the bombardment over the past three days has been exceptional.

“The planes are not leaving the skies at all … Life in the city is paralyzed. Everyone is cooped up in their homes, sitting in the basements. These missiles are even targeting the basements and shelters that we’d set up to protect people,” he said from the Aleppo countryside. Hassan has been unable to get back into east Aleppo for several weeks because of the siege.

On Saturday a pumping station providing water for rebel-held eastern Aleppo was destroyed by bombing.

“People are now relying on water from the wells, and that water is not suitable for drinking. It was being used for other things, like washing, cleaning and so on. Now, the people are relying on it as drinking water,” Hassan said.

Selmo said eight people died on Monday in air strikes on east Aleppo and the surrounding countryside.

REBELS EVACUATED

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Syria’s civil war and 11 million driven from their homes.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. But it looks like there’s more killing, more bombardment, more blood on the horizon,” Hassan said.

In Homs, a second group of Syrian rebels began to be evacuated from their last foothold in the city on Monday, state news agency SANA said.

The Observatory said around 100 fighters were in the group scheduled to leave to the northern Homs countryside.

The first batch of around 120 fighters and their families left on Thursday. The evacuations are part of the Syrian government’s attempts to conclude local agreements with rebels in besieged areas that have resulted in rebels being given safe passage to insurgent-controlled areas.

(Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Ellen Francis; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Rescuers say toxic gas dropped on Syrian town where Russian helicopter shot down

Video of people affected by chemical attack

By Lisa Barrington

BEIRUT (Reuters) – A Syrian rescue service operating in rebel-held territory said on Tuesday a helicopter dropped containers of toxic gas overnight on a town close to where a Russian military helicopter had been shot down hours earlier.

The opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) accused President Bashar al-Assad of being behind the attack. Assad has denied previous accusations of using chemical weapons.

A spokesman for the Syria Civil Defence said 33 people, mostly women and children, were affected by the gas, which they suspect was chlorine, in Saraqeb, in rebel-held Idlib province.

The group, which describes itself as a neutral band of search and rescue volunteers, posted a video on YouTube apparently showing a number of men struggling to breathe and being given oxygen masks by people in civil defense uniforms.

“Medium-sized barrels fell containing toxic gases. The Syrian Civil Defence was not able to determine the type of the gas,” said the spokesman.

The Syrian government and its Russian allies were not immediately available for comment.

Later, state news agency SANA said rebels had fired rockets armed with toxic gas on the government-held old quarter of Aleppo city, killing five people and causing eight breathing difficulties. It gave no further details. Rebels have denied previous accusations of using chemical weapons.

The SNC said of the reported use of poison gas in Saraqeb: “After shelling, besieging and killing civilians and perpetrating war crimes on them, the Assad regime has resorted once again, and in breach of UN resolutions 2118 and 2235, to using chemical substances and toxic gases.

“The daily reality confirms that all the international agreements and previous security council decisions, be they about chemical weapons or otherwise, are meaningless for the Assad regime.”

The Civil Defence spokesman said it was the second time Saraqeb had been hit by toxic gas. The group was aware of around nine suspected chlorine gas incidents across Idlib province since the conflict began, he said.

The U.S. State Department said it was looking into the reported use of chemical weapons in Saraqeb.

“I’m not in a position to confirm the veracity of (the reports),” said spokesman John Kirby. “Certainly, if it’s true, it would be extremely serious.”

Monitors at the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks violence on all sides in the civil war, said barrel bombs fell on Saraqeb late on Monday, wounding a large number of citizens.

Russia’s defense ministry said a Russian helicopter was shot down near Saraqeb during the day on Monday, killing all five people on board, in the biggest officially acknowledged loss of life for Russian forces since they started operations in Syria.

DENIALS

The helicopter came down roughly mid-way between Aleppo and Russia’s main air base at Hmeimim in the western province of Latakia, near the Mediterranean coast.

Russian air power began supporting Syrian President Bashar al Assad late last year, an intervention which tipped the balance of the war in Assad’s favor, eroding gains the rebels had made that year.

No group has claimed responsibility for downing the Mi-8 military transport helicopter.

Government and opposition forces have both denied using chemical weapons during the five-year-old civil war. Western powers say the government has been responsible for chlorine and other chemical attacks. The government and Russia have accused rebels of using poison gas.

U.N. investigators established that sarin gas was used in Eastern Ghouta in 2013. The United States accused Damascus of that attack, which it estimates killed 1,429 people, including at least 426 children. Damascus denied responsibility, and blamed rebels.

Later that year the United Nations and the Syrian government agreed to destroy the state’s declared stockpile of chemical weapons, a process completed in January 2016.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed in late 2015 that sulfur mustard, commonly known as mustard gas, had been used for the first time in the conflict, without saying which party in the many sided conflict it thought had used it.

(Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Editing by Samia Nakhoul and Robin Pomeroy)

Assad tasks minister with forming new government: Syria state media

Syrian's President Bashar al-Assad

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad tasked Electricity Minister Emad Khamis with forming a new government on Wednesday, state news agency SANA reported, without giving an immediate reason for the formation of a new cabinet.

SANA gave no details on why Khamis would replace Wael al-Halaki as prime minister, or whether Halaki would be included in the new administration or had left government. Halaki himself replaced a prime minister who defected to the opposition.

The Damascus-based government controls most of the war-torn country’s major population centers in the west, with the notable exceptions of Idlib, which is held by insurgents, and Aleppo, where it controls half of the city.

Kurdish forces are in control of vast areas along the Turkish border, and Islamic State holds Raqqa and Deir al-Zor provinces in the east.

Parliamentary elections were held in government-controlled areas in April, which the opposition said were meaningless.

Syria’s conflict, which began as a peaceful uprising against Assad, is now in its sixth year and has drawn in military involvement from regional and world powers and allowed for the growth of Islamic State.

Damascus formed a new government more than a year into the war in 2012, but its prime minister at the time, Riad Hijab, fled Syria soon afterwards. Hijab is now a prominent member of the main Syrian opposition that attended failed peace talks this year.

Assad ally Russia said last week there were U.S. proposals to incorporate parts of the opposition into the current Syrian government. Washington denied any such proposals and insists Assad must leave power.

The war has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced more than 11 million, half Syria’s pre-war population.

It has damaged the economy, causing the Syrian pound to lose more than 90 percent of its value.

(Reporting by John Davison and Lisa Barrington; Editing by Alison Williams)

Syrian Opposition Rejects Russia’s Peace Plan; Syrian Forces Take Down ISIS Siege

On Wednesday, Russia drafted a peace proposal to solve the Syrian crisis, but it was rejected by Syrian opposition forces due to the fact that the draft made no reference to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stepping down – a key opposition demand.

“The Syrian people have never accepted the dictatorship of Assad and they will not accept that it is reintroduced or reformulated in another way,” Monzer Akbik, member of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, told Reuters.

Reuters and the Associated Press were able to receive the drafted documents that stated the Kremlin asked for Damascus and unspecified opposition groups to agree on launching a constitutional reform that would take approximately 18 months. Afterward, there would be an early presidential election. However, the document does not bar Assad from participating in the election or relieving him of his position during the 18 month reform.

Russia denied that any such document is being prepared before the Vienna meeting this week where world leaders will discuss international peace talks for a second time.

Russia began intervening in the Syrian conflict six weeks ago when rebels were getting closer to taking over government-held areas. Since then, the Kremlin has stepped up its airstrike campaign and diplomatic efforts.

A member of the coalition’s political committee, Hadi al-Bahra, stated that in order for there to be peace, any talks will have to have more assurances and guarantees. He added that there could not be any elections under the current system.

“How can the elections be fair when the citizens inside Syria are afraid of retaliation from the security services of the regime?” he said.

Meanwhile in Syria, Fox News reported that Syrian government forces were able to take down an ISIS siege that was attempting to take over a Syrian military air base. ISIS has been attempting to take over this specific base since 2013. Between the troops in the Syrian base, the new forces that launched the large-scale offensive, and the Russian airstrikes, state TV reports confirmed that dozens of ISIS fighters were killed and hundreds of extremist bodies were found around the base. The breaking of the siege marks the first major achievement by Assad’s soldiers since Russia began their airstrikes in September.

Russian Forces in Syria to Boost Bashar al-Assad’s Regime

The European Union’s (EU) foreign policy chief reported to Al Jazeera that Russia is increasing its military force in Syria to prevent the “imminent” fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The report comes after the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policies, Federica Mogherini, had a conversation with Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. Lavrov told Mogherini that the military support Russia has provided Syria was to prevent the collapse of the Syrian state.

“His fear is of a complete collapse of the state structures in Syria,” Mogherini said. “This could be one of the reasons Russia is talking in this way, but it could also be willingness to show that Russia is an important, substantial player.”

Most analysts believe that Russia’s increase in military power will end any prospect of Assad being overthrown by rebel forces as well as consolidate the de facto partitioning of Syria. In the recent past, Assad’s military has nearly fallen to rebel advances.

Approximately two thirds of Syria is controlled by mostly Islamist rebels, including Syrian fighters backed by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, or the Islamic State, and it doesn’t seem like Russia will be able to retake the territory unless it deploys ground troops.

Russia has stated many times that its military presence in Syria is to fight the Islamic State, but many world leaders, including the United States, are still uncertain. Former U.S. ambassador, Robert Ford, believes Russia’s main goal is to boost Assad.

“Why would you put the air units in Latakia instead of Damascus if you want to fight the Islamic State?” Ford said. “Why do you send anti-aircraft equipment when the Islamic State doesn’t have any air force?

“So it seems to me that this is designed to help Assad first,” Ford added.

Islamic Extremists Take Over Syrian Christian Town

Islamic forces in Syria have killed a relative of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who had been commanding troops protecting a Christian city.

A coalition of Islamic extremist groups overran the defenses of the Christian town of Kassat, killing Christians they found in their path and chanting & praising Allah as they took control of the town.

A student from the town that is now living in the United Arab Emirates told the Wall Street Journal that most of the Christians have fled to a church in the nearby village of Latakia.

“They receive food from the Armenians that are living there,” the unnamed student told the WSJ.

Islamic extremists in Syria have been attempting to exterminate the Christian population in Syria during the civil war.  Christians had made up 8 percent of Syria’s population before the Civil War began.

UN Official Says Evidence Against Assad Growing

An official with the United Nations says evidence is growing against Syrian President Bashir al-Assad.

Navi Pillay, head of the U.N.’s human rights office, said a panel investigating the abuses in the Syrian civil war has found “massive evidence” showing the crimes were initiated at the highest levels of the Syrian government including the head of state.

Pillay later denied knowing the names on the investigator’s secret list of suspects but her remarks about a head of state being involved goes against all previous U.N. investigations into war crimes. Investigators, who work independently of Pillay’s office, have previously said evidence points to high levels of the government but did not implicate al-Assad.

The U.N. Human Rights Office says that accountability for war crimes should be part of any agreement ending the civil war.

The question about al-Assad remaining in power is a point of contention between the United States and Russia as the superpowers work to bring the sides of the war to the peace table.

Russia Beginning Preparations For Post-Assad Syria

European allies of the U.S. are reporting that Russia has quietly begun to make plans on dealing with a post-Assad Syria.

Russia has been a staunch supporter of the Syrian president throughout the civil war and has blocked United Nations actions against Syria on multiple occasions. Now, sources say the Russians are telling other diplomats they are not fixated on Assad.

“The Russians say they are not married to Assad,” a European diplomat told Fox News. “They are looking for true alternatives to Assad.”

The Russian Embassy in Washington declined to comment on Fox’s report repeating their believe that the Syrian people should decide Syria’s destiny.

Western government and Russia have been trying to get both sides of the Syrian civil war to the bargaining table but have acknowledged that it is unlikely to take place before the end of the year.

Syria Goes Dark

Most of Syria is in darkness after a rebel artillery attack destroyed a gas pipeline feeding a major power plant.

Residents of Damascus say the entire city is without power while officials with the Bashir al-Assad administration have said the power outage is nationwide.

“A terrorist attack on a gas pipeline that feeds a power station in the south has led to a power outage in the provinces, and work to repair it is in progress,” Electricity Minister Imad Khamis told Syria’s state TV.

Khamis said it could take two days to restore the power.

The two sides in the civil war have been invited to a conference in Geneva to try and end the fighting but the government’s refusal to have President Bashir al-Assad step down is seen as an ongoing block to peace.