http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition...itary-1.40262510,000 Soldiers defect
For the first time, I'm feeling like this could be it for Assad. Just a month ago organized military defections were a rarity.
I hope this will end very soon in a positive way. 2011 has been a strange year. Stay strong freedom fighters
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition...itary-1.40262510,000 Soldiers defect
For the first time, I'm feeling like this could be it for Assad. Just a month ago organized military defections were a rarity.
Still not enough for convential warfare. Remember, we´re talking about 300,000 strong Syrian army. Although its true that majority of operation is under command of all-Alawite Republican guard and 4th armored division led by Maher al-Assad because they lacked in numbers they had to call in conscripts and NCOs from other units which are sunnis and thats when defections got more serious. Still, even though it is enough for waging a guerilla warfare as they do now and have hidden presence in several major cities (especially in Homs, Rastan, Idlib, Damascus countryside) when they tried to openly control some territory in Rastan they were crushed by overwhelming force. They lack in arms, they have no APCs, no air force, organizational structure in making etc. With time and more sectarian violence between sunnis and Alawites more and more will defect, maybe even whole units and than Bashar is done for. If not by internal and international pressure than by military means in civil war which would destroy Syria.
Syria unrest: Jabal al-Zawiya 'massacres'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16287450In recent days, human rights groups and opposition activists say some 200 people have been killed by Syrian security forces in the hills and villages of the north-western province of Idlib.
Most of those killed in the Jabal al-Zawiya area, 40km (25 miles) south-west of the provincial capital Idlib, have reportedly been army defectors.
In what activists say was one of the deadliest massacres of the nine-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, up to 70 soldiers were mown down by machine-guns on Monday after hundreds fled their positions between the villages of Kafrouaid and Kansafra.
Survivors said they had been attempting to reach Turkey, not far away to the north-west, where other defectors have formed the Free Syrian Army, a rebel group that has mounted increasingly deadly cross-border raids.
The man who has been appointed to head the Arab League delegation to Syria
http://www.petra.gov.jo/Public_News/...e=Home>ype=1
used to be the Sudanese representative in Darfur?
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/egyp...arfur-1.259007
the Arab League hasn't exactly changed has it?
Five Iranians abducted in Syria: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...164970,00.html
Blasts in two security sites in Damascus: http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-e...ascus-1.403125
Suicide bombers ..
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/bombs-hit-s...091411924.htmlSuicide bombers hit two security service bases in Damascus on Friday killing many civilians and some soldiers, state television reported, in the first attacks of their kind in a quarter of a century.
The bombings in the heart of the capital came as an advance team was in the city to prepare the logistics for an Arab League observer mission to oversee a plan to end nine months of unrest that have killed more than 5,000 people, according to a UN toll.
"Several soldiers and a large number of civilians were killed in the two attacks carried out by suicide bombers in vehicles packed with explosives against bases of State Security and another branch of the security services," state television said.
"Initial inquiries hold Al-Qaeda responsibility," the television added, after AFP correspondents heard two large explosions.
Witnesses said the bombers struck in the Kfar Suseh neighbourhood of Damascus. A car tried to ram its way into a State Security compound, while another car exploded in front of a security service building in the same area.
of course is not. Osama is dead. No more Al Qaeda. Did you just justify suicide bombers? So they are OK if it is for the right cause?
As far as I am concerned they are friken idiots that are destroying their country for the benefit of external factors. Good on them!
Salafist extremists making suicide attacks against the Assad regime is no surprise. After all, it's a secular regime.
Edit: And why could it not be AQ related? AQ is/was never OBL. It is an ideology, a franchise and in some places a loose network of jihadists.
AQ is just a shadow of its former self with most of its shura biting dust. As a matter of fact only minority of jihadi terror groups were part of AQ and many of those who supposedly were part of AQ were just associates (like al-Shabaab) which didnt take any orders from AQ shura.
As for this attack its kind of interesting that first car bomb exploded in tightly controlled Damascus first day AL observers arrived.