http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g-Jwsmo35fsWkEtVc16SRxIOlzTQ?docId=CNG.36c7489af2e159ad15db4efc71c29397.911
Khatib went on to demand that Russia offer a public apology to “the people of Syria” for opposing UN Security Council actions aimed at installing the rebels as the new government.
Syria jihadists accuse US of keeping Assad in power
BEIRUT — Syrian jihadist group the Al-Nusra Front, blacklisted by Washington as a terror outfit, has accused the United States of seeking to keep President Bashar al-Assad in power.
"The continued US and international support for prolonging the regime's lifespan by giving extensions (for a political transition), sending observers and trying to negotiate peace is clear to everyone," the group's leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, said in a voice recording posted online.
"The United States is expressing its failure in the region by putting the Al-Nusra Front on its terror list (merely) for helping the (Syrian) people," he added.
Washington formally designated Al-Nusra as a "foreign terrorist" organisation earlier this month.
Jawlani said the blacklisting had prompted "popular anger among Muslims," including "condemnation from 100 organisations."
In his message, entitled "People of Syria, we sacrifice our souls for you," Jawlani told Syrians: "We have offered you our blood in defending your religion and your lands, and will continue to sacrifice ourselves one after the other."
Al-Nusra has claimed responsibility for the majority of deadly suicide bombings in Syria's 21-month conflict, including an attack on the interior ministry in Damascus on December 12.
Its fighters have also played a major part in battlefield gains made by the rebels in the northwest in recent months.
The mainstream armed opposition National Coalition, recognised by Washington as sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people, called on December 12 for a review of the US blacklisting.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/12/28/syrian-rebels-siege-airbase/1795899/
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels stepped up their siege of a government helicopter base and clashed with soldiers near Aleppo's international airport on Friday, part of an effort to chip away at the air power that poses the biggest challenge to their advances against the regime of President Bashar Assad.
That airborne threat came into stark relief the same day, when a government airstrike on a northern town killed 14 people — most of them women and children, activists said. More than 21-months into Syria's conflict, the Assad regime is counting more than ever on its air force to block rebel gains.
Rebels in the north, a region largely clear of government troops, realize this and have launched campaigns to seize all the area's airports, hoping such a move will protect their forces and the civilians who back them.
This push in many ways represents the mismatched nature of Syria's civil war, with numerous but lightly armed rebels fighting a highly sophisticated army, albeit one badly weakened by defections.
Rebels say they have surrounded four airports in the northern province of Aleppo. In recent days, they have posted dozens of videos online showing fighters shooting mortars, homemade rockets and sniper rifles at targets inside the bases.
It remains unclear whether rebels will be able to seize any of the bases soon, but they have managed to stop air traffic at one and limit movement at others by firing on all approaching aircraft with heavy machine guns.
"The airports are now considered the most important thing the rebels can focus on because all of the strikes now come from the air," said Aleppo activist Mohammed Saeed via Skype.
Saeed said clashes between rebels and government soldiers raged until Friday morning around the Mannagh helicopter base near the Turkish border. He said other rebel groups continued to hold positions around the Kuwiras military airport southwest of the city of Aleppo and clashed with soldiers near Aleppo's international airport and neighboring Nerab military airport.
Rebels have numerical superiority and support from most of the population in the far north, making it easy for them to surround and cut the ground supply lines to government military bases.
But Assad's forces still control the air, responding to rebel gains with airstrikes on their positions or residential areas, a tactic rebels consider collective punishment against civilians who back the revolt.
The rebels remain largely helpless against regime airpower, and credible reports of them shooting down government aircraft are rare. But many groups now have heavy caliber anti-aircraft guns they say act as a deterrent to low-flying aircraft.
Activist Hazem al-Azazi said via Skype that rebels have surrounded the Mannagh airport near the Turkish border and have stopped helicopter traffic in and out of the base for about a week.
On Friday, a government helicopter tried to drop food and ammunition to troops in the base, but the supplies fell to rebels, he said. The day before, a group of rebels sneaked into the base and destroyed two tanks. One rebel was killed and four injured before they got out, he added.
The fall of any of Aleppo's airports would give a psychological boost the areas rebels and give them greater freedom of moment since ground forces often shell from inside the airports.
It would not, however, stop the airstrikes, most of which are carried out by jets from the central province of Hama or near the capital Damascus.
The airstrike on Friday killed 14 people in the town of al-Safira south of Aleppo, activists said.
The town, frequently hit by airstrikes, sits next to a large military complex with factories, air defense and artillery bases. Rebels have been attacking the base for weeks, and activists say the regime has been striking the town in revenge.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead included two women and eight children.
An Aleppo activist who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons provided names of the dead and said the town was hit because of the rebel attacks on the nearby base.
A video posted online that purported to show the site of the strike showed a large area covered with the rubble and the walls sheared off of a row of buildings nearby.
The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting.
Activists also reported large clashes near Damascus and in the southern town of Busra al-Harir. They also said rebel forces seized the al-Tanak oil field near the Iraqi border to the east.
International diplomacy has failed to slow Syria's crisis, which anti-regime activists say has killed more than 40,000 people since March 2011.
Also on Friday, Russia's foreign minister said Moscow had proposed talks with the main Syrian opposition coalition, even though it has criticized Western countries for recognizing the group.
Sergey Lavrov told reporters that Russia has contacted the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces through the Russian Embassy in Egypt to suggest a meeting with coalition leader Mouaz al-Khatib.
Al-Khatib criticized the invitation.
"If we don't represent the Syrian people, why is he inviting us?" he said in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV, calling Assad's ouster "a main condition in any negotiations."
"The Syrian people haven't heard one fair word from Russia to the Syrian people, especially to the children, innocent people and civilians who are killed every day with Russian weapons," he said.
Russia is one of Assad's strongest backers, although top officials have recently expressed some resignation to the idea that he could fall. Still, Russia opposes international calls for his ouster and wants a negotiated solution to the conflict.
The international envoy charged with pushing to end the civil war is due to meet Russian officials in Moscow this weekend.
During a visit to Damascus this week, Lakhdar Brahimi called for a transitional government.
The rebels have rejected his plan, and the Syrian government has not commented.
and......
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/12/28/syrian-rebels-spurn-russian-call-for-peace-talks/
Syrian Rebels Spurn Russian Call for Peace Talks
Insist Assad's Ouster a Precondition to Any Negotiations
by Jason Ditz, December 28, 2012
Syrian rebel leader Mouaz al-Khatib has publicly condemned the Russian Foreign Ministry for offering to organize peace talks aimed at ending the civil war, insisting that no talks were possible until Russia forcibly removed Bashar Assad from power.
Khatib went on to demand that Russia offer a public apology to “the people of Syria” for opposing UN Security Council actions aimed at installing the rebels as the new government.
Russian officials have opposed calls for the international community to impose regime change on Syria, insisting that the solution should come from negotiations among Syrian factions.
To that end Russian officials are continuing to endorse the Geneva plan for a transition, which was agreed to in late June. Rebels have repeatedly condemned the plan, because it does not guarantee them full control over the nation.
Iraq caldron continues to boil as does the Libya caldron....
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=56218
Protesters shut down Libya oil terminal
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Demonstrators demanding jobs, health benefits enter Zueitina oil terminal, pressured manager to stop operations.
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Middle East Online
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TRIPOLI - Libyan demonstrators have forced a major oil terminal in the east of the country to halt operations for four days in a row, the deputy oil minister said on Wednesday.
"The management of the Zueitina oil terminal and harbour decided to shut down operations on Saturday to avoid any risk," Omar Shakmak said.
He said the decision was made after protesters demanding jobs and health benefits entered the terminal and pressured a manager to stop operations.
Demonstrations continued on Wednesday drawing up to 120 people, he said.
"We have no losses other than production," Shakmak added, noting that Zueitina pumps roughly 60,000 barrels of crude per day.
Analysts estimate 20 percent of Libyan oil exports depart from the port.
The Zueitina oil terminal lies 145 kilometres (90 miles) south of Benghazi, cradle of the 2011 insurrection that toppled dictator Moamer Gathafi.
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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/12/2012122875346526845.html
Iraq mass protests mount pressure on Maliki | |
Tens of thousands of Sunni Muslims take part in largest day yet in week of rallies against allegedly sectarian policies.
Last Modified: 28 Dec 2012 23:38
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| Tens of thousands of Iraqis have taken part in protests along a major western highway and in other parts of the country in fresh rallies against the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Massive demonstrations took place along a major highway near the city of Fallujah on Friday, declaring the day a "Friday of Honour".
The rallies appear to be the largest yet in a week of demonstrations, intensifying pressure on the Shia-led government.
In the northern city of Mosul, around 3,000 demonstrators took to the streets to denounce what they called the sidelining of Sunnis in Iraq and to demand the release of Sunni prisoners. As in protests earlier in the week, demonstrators there chanted the Arab Spring slogan: "The people want the downfall of the regime." Thousands also took to the streets in the northern Sunni towns of Tikrit and Samarra, where they were joined by legislators and provincial officials, said Salahuddin provincial spokesman Mohammed al-Asi. Protests erupted last week after Iraqi authorities detained 10 bodyguards of the finance minister, who is from Anbar and is one of the government's most senior Sunni officials. Many Sunnis accuse Maliki of marginalising the country's religious minority group by refusing to share power and depriving them of equal rights. The main highway at Ramadi, 100km west of Baghdad, was barricaded for a fifth day, disrupting transit of government supplies along a key trade route to and from Jordan and Syria. Protesters were, however, letting most trucks, carrying private goods, pass along another road through Ramadi. Anti-terrorism laws At a conference in Baghdad, Maliki warned against a return to sectarian conflict and cautioned that the country is close to returning to the "dark days when people were killed because of their names or identities." He also used the occasion to take a jab at the protesters in Anbar. "Nations that look for peace, love and reconstruction must choose civilized ways to express themselves. It is not acceptable to express opinions by blocking the roads, encouraging sectarianism, threating to launch wars and dividing Iraq," he said. "Instead we need to talk, to listen to each other and to agree ... to end our differences." Activists want changes to laws on terrorism that they say penalise Sunnis. While demands so far focus on the anti-terrorism laws which Sunnis say are being used against them, one lecturer in law at Baghdad University said Sunnis might be emboldened to call for regional autonomy in Anbar and other provinces in the northwest where they are in a majority - a status similar to that of the Kurds, who won Western-backed autonomy from Saddam in 1991.
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War waste and Taliban attacks in Afghanistan - 2014 withdrawal beckons and both of these concerns will increase.....
http://www.stripes.com/news/us-scraps-entire-fleet-of-afghan-cargo-planes-1.202220
KABUL — The U.S. military is scrapping the Afghan air force’s entire fleet of Italian-made cargo planes, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
U.S. and Afghan officials told the paper that the Afghan military isn’t expected to have an independent and fully functioning air force until around 2017, well after the withdrawal of most U.S. and international troops.
On the west end of Kabul International Airport, twin-engine C-27As sit side by side, sunlight reflecting off their gray wings and the green, black, and red of the Afghan flag emblazoned on their tails. For more than a year, though, most of the planes had been little more than expensive aviation exhibitions, unable to fly due to lack of spare parts and maintenance.
Now, despite spending nearly $600 million on the program, the U.S. is canceling the contract for the aircraft and disposing of all 16 planes delivered to the Afghan Air Force, the Journal reported.
Alenia Aermacchi North America, a unit of Italian defense conglomerate Finmeccanica SpA, failed to meet the requirements of their contract to maintain the fleet, according to an email from U.S. Air Force spokesman Ed Gulick, who was quoted in the Journal.
“This decision comes after failed attempts by the contractor to generate a sufficient number of fully mission-capable aircraft that would provide an effective airlift capability for the AAF,” Gulick said in the email.
An Alenia representative was quoted in the Journal as saying the company had not received word of the decision and that the program had recently shown improvement.
“It’s all a bit surprising that this decision is being made now when the [remediation] plan is being fully implemented,” the representative said.
The entire fleet of C-27As was grounded in December 2011 and even recently only four to six planes have been able to operate at any one time, Afghan Air Force spokesman Col. Mohammad Bahadur said in an interview with Stars and Stripes.
“The basic problem is that these airplanes were purchased without spare parts,” Bahadur said. “For a small part, you need to wait for weeks or months.”
For the Afghan military, still struggling to operate independently, the lack of cargo aircraft has been a blow to an already shaky logistics system. The Afghan security forces have leaned heavily on their fleet of Russian helicopters and Cessna 208 planes. But those aircraft struggle to keep up with demand, especially on longer routes, such as the roughly 300-mile haul between the capital and Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second city and still a major center for fighting.
Shortages of fuel and parts are epidemic for Afghan troops, whose Humvees and pickups often lie dormant for days; many units complain of a shortage of ammunition.
The U.S. is set to deliver four C-130s, four-engine cargo planes that are the workhorses of the U.S. Air Force, to the Afghan Air Force in 2013, said Ministry of Defense spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi said in an interview with Stars and Stripes.
“A military that doesn’t have a plane is like a man without legs,” Azimi said.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2012/12/201212265051674374.html
Deadly blast targets US base in Afghanistan | |
At least four killed and seven wounded after car bomber attacks Forward Operating Base in Khost city, officials say.
Last Modified: 26 Dec 2012 12:18
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| At least four people have been killed and seven wounded after a car bomber attacked a US base in Khost city in eastern Afghanistan, officials say. Sediq Sediqqi, the Afghan interior ministry spokesman, said on Wednesday the attack was a suicide car bombing and happened near the entrance of Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost, a Taliban flashpoint that borders Pakistan.
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