http://www.debka.com/article/22499/Israeli-warplanes-fly-over-Golan-as-Hizballah-fighters-pour-into-Syria
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/03/syria-military-council-aleppo-rebels
Rebel groups are accusing Syria's military council of infighting and nepotism and a failure to lead in the wake of a video that shows an opposition unit killing around two dozen captured regime soldiers.
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/11/03/rebels-attack-syrian-airbase-ahead-of-opposition-conference-in-qatar/
The continued fighting comes a day before the start of a international conference in Qatar,set up primarily by the United States, who hand-picked dozens of Syrian opposition activists to lead a united political opposition in Syria, replacing the defunct Syrian National Council.
and....
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/11/02/rebel-council-hold-syrian-fighters-accountable-for-war-crimes/
The video showed eight detainees executed in Saraqeb, in the Idlib Province, and early reports suggested it was the result of a Free Syrian Army (FSA) attack on the town. The FSA is now trying to pin it on a Salafist faction, however, and is denying responsibility.
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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/20121121292692705.html
Israeli warplanes fly over Golan as Hizballah fighters pour into Syria
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report November 4, 2012, 9:23 PM (GMT+02:00)
Chinese Katyushas used by Hizballah against Syrian rebels
Israeli warplanes flew over the divided Golan Sunday, Nov. 4, in a show of strength and as a deterrent against the Syrian civil war seeping across the border, DEBKAfile’s military and Western intelligence sources report. In Paris, President Francois Hollande vowed Sunday that “France would oppose with all its strength any bid to destabilize Lebanon. Lebanon must be protected.”
He spoke regardless of the 5,000 Lebanese Shiite Hizballah fighters who have poured into Syria from their Beqaa Valley stronghold of al-Harmel to fight Bashar Assad’s war. Our sources reveal that these Lebanese fighters have now advanced 50-60 kilometers deep into southwestern Syria, up to the outskirts of the embattled town of Homs.
On the Golan, further to the east, Israel’s chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz visited the IDF contingent stationed there to reinforce the message broadcast by the IAF.
Hizballah is now openly flaunting the presence of its regular troops in Syria. They are armed with heavy artillery and Chinese WS-1 multiple-launch rocket systems made in Iran. These “Katyushas,” shoot 302mm rockets at targets up to 100 kilometers away and can operate in the rugged mountain terrain of Lebanon, Syria and Israel and in harsh weather conditions, including snow.Hizballah fighters are reported by our sources to have already used this weapon with deadly effect in a battle with Syrian rebels over the town of Quseir opposite the Lebanese Beqaa Valley. It ended in Hizbalah’s capture of the town.
On the Golan, further to the east, Israel’s chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz visited the IDF contingent stationed there to reinforce the message broadcast by the IAF.
Hizballah is now openly flaunting the presence of its regular troops in Syria. They are armed with heavy artillery and Chinese WS-1 multiple-launch rocket systems made in Iran. These “Katyushas,” shoot 302mm rockets at targets up to 100 kilometers away and can operate in the rugged mountain terrain of Lebanon, Syria and Israel and in harsh weather conditions, including snow.Hizballah fighters are reported by our sources to have already used this weapon with deadly effect in a battle with Syrian rebels over the town of Quseir opposite the Lebanese Beqaa Valley. It ended in Hizbalah’s capture of the town.
Coordination is tight: Hizballah forces on the ground get in touch with Iranian command headquarters in Beirut and Damascus to call up Syrian helicopters for air cover.
The Hizballah commander in Syria is Ibrahim Aqil, a veteran of the Hizballah militia and one of the most trusted by Hassan Nasrallah and Tehran.
Aqil took part in the 1983 assault on US Marines Beirut headquarters in which 241 American troops were killed, the highest death toll in a single event after World War II. In the year 2000, Aqil, then commander of the southern Lebanese front against Israel, orchestrated the kidnap from Israeli territory and murder of three Israeli soldiers, Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Sawad.
Hizballah’s expeditionary force in Syria has been assigned three missions:
The Hizballah commander in Syria is Ibrahim Aqil, a veteran of the Hizballah militia and one of the most trusted by Hassan Nasrallah and Tehran.
Aqil took part in the 1983 assault on US Marines Beirut headquarters in which 241 American troops were killed, the highest death toll in a single event after World War II. In the year 2000, Aqil, then commander of the southern Lebanese front against Israel, orchestrated the kidnap from Israeli territory and murder of three Israeli soldiers, Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Sawad.
Hizballah’s expeditionary force in Syria has been assigned three missions:
1. To seal off the routes used by the rebels to smuggle fighters and arms from Lebanon into Syria, most of which run through the Beqaa Valley. This mission is near completion.
2. To defend the clusters of Syrian Alawite and Shiite villages in the area of Hizballah control.
3. To provide a strategic reserve force for the Syrian units defending the main hubs of Syrian highways running west to east from the Mediterranean coast to the Syrian-Iraqi border and crisscrossed from north to south by the route running from the Turkish border up to Damascus. Control of these hubs makes it possible for the Syrian army to move military forces between the different warfronts at high speed.
2. To defend the clusters of Syrian Alawite and Shiite villages in the area of Hizballah control.
3. To provide a strategic reserve force for the Syrian units defending the main hubs of Syrian highways running west to east from the Mediterranean coast to the Syrian-Iraqi border and crisscrossed from north to south by the route running from the Turkish border up to Damascus. Control of these hubs makes it possible for the Syrian army to move military forces between the different warfronts at high speed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/03/syria-military-council-aleppo-rebels
Jihadist killing of captives widens the split among rebel fighters in Syria
A video showing the shooting of regime troops after they had been taken prisoner angered rebels who say foreign Islamists are being favoured with arms and funds
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A rebel fighter in Aleppo, Syria. Islamist groups say the military council is refusing to support them. Photograph: Narciso Contreras/AP
Rebel groups are accusing Syria's military council of infighting and nepotism and a failure to lead in the wake of a video that shows an opposition unit killing around two dozen captured regime soldiers.
Armed opposition units across the Aleppo hinterland say the western-backed council is failing in its bid to create a co-ordinated opposition army, partly because of its refusal to deal with Islamist-leaning Syrian groups.
The groups say the military council's favouritism towards some units means other militias are unwilling to act with discipline or to be held accountable. The disturbing scenes of the captured regime troops being killed, shortly after their post near Damascus was overrun, have angered rebel units in the north.
"We have to show we are different from the regime," said Sheik Omar Othman from the Islamist-leaning Liwat al-Tawheed unit in Aleppo. "Because they do it, it means that we don't."
Syrian Islamist groups have been at the vanguard of the fighting in Aleppo for the past three months, but are not able to match the better-armed and funded global jihadist units, who are increasingly taking centre stage in the war for the north of the country.
"This will soon mean that Jabhat al-Nusraf (an al-Qaida-aligned group) will be the only group capable of mounting the lethal operations on bases and security headquarters," said a leader of Liwat al-Tawheed, which has been a key player in the fighting in Aleppo. "It already means that we can't win without them."
Islamist groups in Aleppo say that they aim to do no more than oust the Assad regime. Most of their clerics and leaders reject the ideology of the jihadists, who openly view the battle in Syria as a vital phase of a global sectarian war.
With Aleppo effectively locked in stalemate since mid-August, commanders from Liwat al-Tawheed and other units in and around Syria's second city have been travelling to near the Turkish border to meet military council leaders. "They say, 'join us, or we won't give you anything'," said Othman. "We are not opposed to doing that if it means that we get a share of the weapons that they are distributing.
"But their aim is to keep everything away from us. That's a problem when we're doing the fighting."
The military council is comprised of defected senior officers who have until recently remained in exile in a refugee camp in southern Turkey. They have access to weapons, sourced primarily from Qatar, and to funds from across the Sunni Arab world.
Under pressure from the Obama administration, some military council officers have since established a small base just across the Turkish border and are attempting to form a centralised command and control structure to unite the deeply fragmented rebel groups.
One of the council's senior officers, Brigadier Mustafa Sheikh, travels frequently to Idlib province, warning communities against supporting Islamists. Another officer regularly offers the same warning near Azaz in Aleppo province.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton last week also reiterated a warning to rebel groups to be careful from whom they accept help.
The pleas appear to be falling on deaf ears. "Tell the Americans 'thanks for the binoculars'," said an Aleppo rebel leader, Haji Tal-Rifat.
Islamist and non-Islamist rebel leaders here say that they are being forced to accept the help of the highly motivated jihadist groups, the predominantly Syrian Jabhat al-Nusraf, and the foreigner group known as al-Muhajirin, because no other assistance is coming their way.
Foreign fighters who embrace the al-Qaida worldview are increasingly travelling to Aleppo province, where they are forming training camps and leadership groups and are readily joining the front lines. The foreigners are also taking increasingly prominent fighting positions in non-jihadist units, which claim to be continually low on weapons and ammunition.
Rebel officers interviewed by the Observer over the past week say that few recent large attacks against the Syrian military or regime targets have taken place without the presence of several al-Muhajirin members.
"They are fighting here and they are dying here," said one rebel officer. "Sometimes we don't even know their names when we bury them, because they give us an alias when they arrive.
"I know we are playing with fire," he said. "But tell me, what would you do if you were in my position?"
Another Liwat al-Tawheed commander said enough ammunition was arriving from Turkey to keep the battle going, but not enough to win it.
"Compare what we have to what al-Nusraf are getting. They are not getting weapons from outside, but they are buying them in Syria with large amounts of cash. They are very well supplied and they are not saying where they are getting the money from."
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http://news.antiwar.com/2012/11/03/rebels-attack-syrian-airbase-ahead-of-opposition-conference-in-qatar/
Rebels Attack Syrian Airbase Ahead of Opposition Conference in Qatar
Many doubt the legitimacy of the US setting up an interim government, especially with the help of states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar
by John Glaser, November 03, 2012
Syrian rebels on Saturday attacked a strategic airbase in an attempt to disrupt strikes by warplanes and helicopters that give the Assad regime a major edge in the 19-month conflict.
The continued fighting comes a day before the start of a international conference in Qatar,set up primarily by the United States, who hand-picked dozens of Syrian opposition activists to lead a united political opposition in Syria, replacing the defunct Syrian National Council.
The Obama administration denies it is sending any arms to the Syrian rebels; official policy is to send non-lethal aid. But they do admit that US allies like Saudi Arabia and Qatar are sending in weapons, and the CIA has been reported to have helped facilitate the delivery of those weapons to Syria.
The problem thus far has been that much of that aid has gone into the hands of extremists. Foreign jihadist fighters, many of whom have committed war crimes and are linked with al-Qaeda, have been increasingly flooding into Syria and the great bulk of the rebel fighters across the country are Islamists seeking to set up an Islamic state post-Assad that will potentially be exlusivist towards the country’s many ethnic and religious sects.
The influence of the Syrian opposition’s other primary backers – Saudi Arabia and Qatar – should be enough to establish that US meddling in setting up a potential interim group is unlikely to produce a democratic, rights-conscious replacement for Assad.
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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/201211451113205735.html
| Syrian opposition meets for key conference | |
Hundreds of opposition leaders and rebel commanders to meet in Qatari capital in attempt to reorganise leadership.
Last Modified: 04 Nov 2012 11:29
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| Leaders of the Syrian opposition are due to hold a conference in the Qatari capital to reorganise their ranks, in the latest attempt to form a unified political and military anti-government front. The meeting comes as violence continues in Syria, with an armed rebel brigade claiming responsibility for an explosion in the Syrian capital, while anti-government rights groups said that fresh clashes had occurred elsewhere in Damascus.
The US is pushing a proposal suggesting a new leadership, with fewer Syrian exiles and more military commanders, be elected at the meeting in Doha, to be held over five days, beginning on Sunday.
There remain serious doubts, however, over whether the divided and ideologically diverse factions can form a unified structure that the international community can engage with. Hundreds of figures from the Syrian opposition are taking part in the conference, all seeking a way to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and end the 19-month conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people. There will, however, be some notable absentees, including the National Co-ordination Body, a rival to the Syrian National Council (SNC), and the National Democratic Front. 'Syrian National Initiative' The key issue will be whether the SNC, which consists largely of Syrian exiles and academics, will back a US initiative to set up a new 50-member leadership team with more representatives from inside Syria.  The US-backed initiative was put forward by Riad Seif, a veteran Syrian opposition figure who has emerged as a strong candidate to lead a transitional government in Syria. The SNC's current leadership would be included in some form, but its influence would be significantly diluted under the new plan. In addition to the leadership body, the proposal would establish a military council, a judicial committee and a transitional government to be made up of technocrats. Burhan Ghalioun, a senior SNC member, said on Saturday that the group is willing to consider the idea, but has not made a decision on it yet. Potential members of the new leadership will discuss the initiative during Thursday's session of the conference.
"We have agreed to attend the meeting, but there is no agreement to adopt the initiative as it is," Ghalioun told the Associated Press news agency.
Foreign officials, particularly from the United States, have long complained that the lack of a cohesive and unified opposition group has held back more robust foreign involvement in the campaign to topple President Assad and his government. The SNC has been plagued from the start by infighting, splits and frustrations over its failure to broaden its membership. An opposition meeting in Cairo earlier this year descended into chaos, shouting matches and walkouts. "We are hopeful that if this leadership structure can emerge in a new and enhanced way, it will be an organisation that the international community can work with to better direct assistance, humanitarian assistance, non-lethal assistance, and other kinds of assistance," Victoria Nuland, a US State department spokesperson, said on Friday. She said the US also hopes this new body will encourage more defections and give the Russians and Chinese, who have both vetoed previous UN Security Council initiatives on Syria, "an address" where they can seek answers to questions about a post-Assad future. Rebel fighters' inclusion There are also issues to be dealt with in the matter of including more rebel fighters into the opposition's leadership structure. Rebel fighters remain split into multiple brigades of military defectors and Syrian civilians who took up arms as the movement against Assad grew more violent. Many brigades are led by prominent local figures who are little known outside of their areas. The Free Syrian Army is an amalgam of such groups, and itself lacks a single unified command structure. Rebels have also set up local civilian councils to run affairs in towns and neighborhoods under their control, and finding a way to represent them in the opposition leadership could be difficult.
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and....
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/11/02/rebel-council-hold-syrian-fighters-accountable-for-war-crimes/
Rebel Council: Hold Syrian Fighters Accountable for War Crimes
Rebel Factions Trade Blame for Summary Executions Video
by Jason Ditz, November 02, 2012
The Syrian National Council (SNC), one of the top rebel factions in exile, has condemned yesterday’s video showing fighters summarily executing captured soldiers, and has called on the rebel factions to hold fighters to account for violations of international law.
The video showed eight detainees executed in Saraqeb, in the Idlib Province, and early reports suggested it was the result of a Free Syrian Army (FSA) attack on the town. The FSA is now trying to pin it on a Salafist faction, however, and is denying responsibility.
The SNC’s calls to hold the killers responsible is going to add to tension among the rebel factions, as the Obama Administration has announced that the SNC is no longer part of the rebellion and has promised to appoint new rebel leaders, though there is serious doubt as to whether the US can just do that.
The UN has also expressed concern about the executions, saying that assuming the video is genuine it is almost certainly a prosecutable war crime and will be addressed at some point in the international court.
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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/20121121292692705.html
| Syria airstrikes leave 'scores dead' in north | |||||
Bombing of Harem town reported to have left 70 people dead, amid reports of atrocities committed by rebels in Idlib.
Last Modified: 02 Nov 2012 22:05
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Syrian army warplanes have launched airstrikes in the north of the country, leaving scores of people dead, activists have said.
The Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition activist network, said on Friday that 70 people had been killed in the offensive in the town of Harem in Idlib province.
Syrian government have also intensified air strikes on Eastern Ghouta in the suburbs of the capital Damascus, an activist told the AFP news agency.
Moaz al-Shami said President Bashar al-Assad's forces had resorted to heavy aerial bombardments after failed attempts by ground troops to seize back the suburbs.
State media has said the military is "cleansing" what it describes as terrorists from the area.
"The regime has tried to control the Eastern Ghouta several times and each times it had to withdraw because the rebels slipped away then came back to attack its forces," Shami said. "Now it is trying to annihilate it from the air."
Activists reported the deaths of seven people in airstrikes in the suburb of Douma, amid clashes in the city.Rebels advance In Idlib province, the Syrian army was reported to have abandoned its last base near the town of Saraqeb, after a fierce assault by rebels, further isolating the strategically important second city from the capital. Opposition activists said on Friday government troops left the town and surrounding areas "completely outside the control of regime forces". The UN said the rebels appeared to have committed a war crime after seizing the base.
Several were shown in video footage apparently being shot after they had surrendered. "The allegations are that these were soldiers who were no longer combatants," UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said in Geneva. "And therefore, at this point it looks very likely that this is a war crime, another one. "Unfortunately this could be just the latest in a string of documented summary executions by opposition factions as well as by government forces and groups affiliated with them, such as the shabbiha [pro-government militia]." 'Violations damage revolution'
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Syrian Rebel Bloc Not Comfortable With Obama Picking Their Leaders'These Dictates Are Not Acceptable to the Syrian People Anymore'
by Jason Ditz, November 01, 2012
The rebel Syrian National Council (SNC) has responded negatively to yesterday’s comments from Obama Administration officials for allowing so many exiles in their group’s leadership positions, and rejected the idea that the US government would begin handpicking leaders for them next week at a conference in Qatar.
“These dictates are not acceptableto the Syrian people anymore,” insisted Zuhair Salem, an exiled spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Syrian faction, which is a significant portion of the SNC.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested yesterday that the SNC should be pushed out of the rebellion entirely, saying they “can no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition” and that fighters inside the country are the real leadership.
Interestingly, though the US claimed the exiles are “extremists” threatening the rebellion, a shift toward fighters on the ground would almost certainly mean a dramatic shift in favor of sectarian fighters, who have been the main recipients of Western aid.
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West backs Qatari plan to unify Syrian opposition
Britain and US behind drive to create council to represent Syrian rebels, but Russia and main exile opposition group oppose it
A Syrian army tank after clashes between Free Syrian Army fighters and forces loyal to Assad near Aleppo. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters
Britain, the US and other western powers are backing a new attempt to create a single coherent Syrian opposition that could take part in peace talks with President Bashar al-Assad's regime or, if talks fail, provide a channel for greater military support to the rebels.
The plan, to be launched in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday, will bring the external opposition together with the revolutionary councils leading the insurrection inside Syria, behind a common programme for a democratic transition. The Syrian National Initiative (SNI) will create a council of about 50 members chaired by Riad Seif, a Sunni businessman who left Syria in June after being imprisoned by the regime.
The Doha initiative has been organised by the Qatari government and has drawn support from the US, Britain and France. Russia, however, opposes the plan, arguing it reneges on an earlier international agreementto pursue the formation of a new government by "mutual consent" of the parties to the conflict. The leadership of the main exile opposition group, the Syrian National Council (SNC), has also criticised the plan, in which its influence will be diluted, and it is not yet clear which of the divided rebel forces inside Syria will turn up on Thursday, or whether they will agree on the common platform once they arrive in Doha.
"It could go as promised, or it could be a train wreck," said Salman Shaikh, the head of the Brookings Institution Doha Centre, which had helped arrange earlier opposition discussions that paved the way for the Doha meeting. Shaikh has argued that Syria's collapse as a nation statecan only be avoided by unification of the rebels coupled with "a unified, controlled flow of weapons and other support to the Syrian opposition" to prevent a power vacuum and a "free for all".
The US and its western European allies have so far avoided supplying weapons to the rebels, although US intelligence appears to have played a role in trying to control the flow of arms coming from Qatar and other Gulf opponents of the Assad regime. Observers say that if the Doha initiative is successful, Washington's policy might change, allowing heavier weapons to be supplied to the opposition, whoever wins the US election on Tuesday.
A western official insisted on Friday that the primary goal of a unified opposition would be to engage in peace talks with the regime about a transition, and so the Doha plan was a way of implementing the June Geneva agreement, rather than a substitute for it, as Moscow had alleged.
The risks that have so far prevented direct western intervention were made clear on Friday with the emergence of a video apparently showing the execution of captured government soldiers in Idlib province. A rebel fighter from the province, Abu Abdul Rahiem, said the killings took place in al-Nayrab to the west of Saraqeb, on the highway between Aleppo and Damascus, which the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) claimed to have captured on Friday. He claimed the executions were carried out by a Salafist extremist group, operating outside the command structure of the FSA.
"Assad's soldiers were inside a military camp in the town. Fighters from the Salafi Dawood brigade overran the camp and captured the soldiers. Initially there were only 10 of them so they could not take the soldiers captive, and had to kill them immediately. No trial could be held because the fighting was still going on. This is guerrilla warfare," Rahiem told the Guardian.
"We do not wish to turn Syria into another Afghanistan, but we can't stop these extremists groups. We are really worried about the future of Syria. We need weapons and media support, but there is nothing on the ground."
Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN human rights council, said the video still had to be verified, but added: "The allegations are that these these were soldiers who were no longer combatants. And therefore, at this point it looks very likely that this is a war crime, another one."
Washington's decision to swing its support behind the Doha initiative marked a decisive break with the SNC after months of mounting frustration over the exile group's failure to unite the internal and external opposition.
"We've made it clear that the SNC can no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition," the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said on Wednesday. "They can be part of a larger opposition, but that opposition must include people from inside Syria and others who have a legitimate voice that needs to be heard."
SNC leaders dismissed the Doha plan. The group issued a statement saying that any attempt to create new bodies to replace the SNC "are an attempt to undermine the Syria revolution by sowing the seeds of division".
The SNC will hold a congress of its own starting on Saturday in Doha, aimed at restructuring the organisation and electing a new leadership. That new leadership will have to decide by Thursday whether to take up about 15 seats on the 50-member SNI council which have been reserved for it.
"The SNC has not been able to provide a broad-based platform," Shaikh said. "They've been asked to cut themselves down to size. Fifteen seats would still leave them the biggest single group by far. Most other groups will be represented by just one person."
A western official said: "It is important for the SNC to know that there will be very little tolerance for them if they try to play the spoilers at the Thursday meeting."
The official said that the Qatar government had made great efforts to ensure that the internal opposition, including the revolutionary councils, would take part in the meeting. Western observers are also due to attend, including the British envoy to the Syrian opposition, John Wilkes, but have not played a central role in the organisation.
"The Qataris have played their cards close to their chest and its not clear they want the same things as us," the western official said.
China Proposes New Syria PlanCalls for Transitional Government Body
by Jason Ditz, November 01, 2012
The Chinese government has presented a new plan to end the ongoing Syrian Civil War, presenting the plan yesterday to UN Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who is clearly open to suggestion after last week’s Eid al-Adha ceasefire collapsed.
The Chinese plan calls for the establishment of a “transitional” government and for both sides to agree to a ceasefire in several phases, taking a region-by-region approach to ending the escalating violence.
Chinese officials say the proposal is a continuation of their stance that a political transition, and not a violent internationally-backed civil war, is the preferred vehicle for regime change in the nation.
China has stood with Russia on most UN resolutions on Syria, opposition NATO calls for resolutions that could potentially lead to foreign invasion. Western officials have yet to comment on the prospect of the new Chinese plan, though it will likely have some sort from the Syrian government simply because they need continued Chinese support diplomatically.
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