Iran nuclear talks...
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/19/2013 07:20 -0500
If Iran’s willingness was all it took to “prove” that, it should’ve been apparent quite awhile ago, since by all accounts Iran was willing to sign the deal at the last meeting, and it was only France that killed the pact at the last moment, with an eye toward selling arms to Saudi Arabia.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously claimed Kerry was visiting on Friday of this week, the usual cap off to Iran talks where he tries to placate Israel and gives Netanyahu a chance to condemn diplomacy in general.
Two Dozen Killed In Iranian Embassy Bombing In Beirut, Iran Accuses Israel Of Orchestrating Attack
When all else fails, and/or when the president is caught in yet another major scandal, there is only one way out: war. As many expected, but as nobody knew what shape the latest provocation would take, overnight at least 23 were killed and dozens hurt after a twin bomb attack shook the Iranian embassy in Beirut. AsNBC reports, a local al Qaeda affiliate, the Abdullah Azzam brigades, claimed responsibility for the explosions – the latest sign that Syria’s civil war is spilling over the border into Lebanon. Burning cars, bodies and pools of blood littered the front of the embassy building, in the Hezbollah-dominated south of the city. The Zahraa hospital nearby told AFP that it had received the bodies of five people and was treating at least 35 others for wounds. Lebanese media broadcast harrowing images from the scene of the blast, with charred bodies on a street lined by blazing cars and strewn with the rubble.
The horrifying scene looked something like out of Beirut in the 1980s:
Burning cars, bodies and pools of blood littered the front of the embassy building, in the Hezbollah-dominated south of the city.Eyewitnesses described charred bodies and a large crater.Security camera footage indicated the first blast was carried out by suicide bomber who rushed toward the walls of the embassy, while the second was caused by a nearby car bomb, officials told Lebanese media.One explosion blew out the large black main gate of the Iranian mission, damaging the three-story facility, Reuters said.Lebanon's Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil told Reuters that at least 23 people were killed and 146 wounded, but the toll was changing rapidly as emergency workers and bystanders picked through the wreckage of burning vehicles."At one entrance of the Iranian embassy I counted six bodies outside. I saw body parts around and thrown two streets away," Reuters television cameraman Issam Abdullah said from the scene."There is huge damage, it looks like it is a car bomb. One car is twisted there. There were two Mercedes cars badly damaged," he added.Activist Ahmad Yassine posted pictures of the aftermath of the explosion to Twitter, showing burning vehicles and bystanders picking through the wreckage.The area is home to a number of foreign embassies, including those of Egypt, Kuwait and China.
And while Al Qaeda was quick to take the blame, Iran had other thoughts, and its foreign ministry promptly accused Israel of carrying out the deadly attack.
In other words, the CIA-funded Al-Qaeda groups originally in Syria, are now operating in neighboring countries where they are blowing up Israel's enemies at Netanyahu's bidding, while taking responsibility and keeping the spotlight away from the Israeli state. What can possibly go wrong with such a strategy clearly designed to push the middle east back to the brink of war?
Kerry: Iran Must Finalize Deal to Prove Nuclear Program Is Peaceful
Refuses to Discuss Details of Negotiation
by Jason Ditz, November 18, 2013
In comments today, Secretary of State John Kerry urged Iran to agree to finalize a P5+1 deal on their civilian nuclear program, insisting that such a deal would “prove to the world this is a peaceful program.”
If Iran’s willingness was all it took to “prove” that, it should’ve been apparent quite awhile ago, since by all accounts Iran was willing to sign the deal at the last meeting, and it was only France that killed the pact at the last moment, with an eye toward selling arms to Saudi Arabia.
France went on record with a series of “demands” for Iran to meet before they’d agree to a deal, but mysteriously they were the exact same things the pact was already reported to include. Kerry provided no details on the dispute, however, saying he didn’t believe the deal should be negotiated in public.
The IAEA has repeatedly confirmed the non-diversion of nuclear materials from any of Iran’s civilian programs to any non-declared purposes, and Iran has repeatedly ruled out producing nuclear arms. The US refusal to believe Iran reflects long-standing hostility between the two nations more than any real evidence that anything is even theoretically untoward about Iran’s program.
Kerry Postpones Israel Visit Amid Rising Tensions
Israel Refuses Comment on Rumors Visit Would Be Cancelled Outright
by Jason Ditz, November 18, 2013
Rumors of Secretary of State John Kerry’s next visit to Israel being cancelled remain up in the air, but the visit is at the very least postponed, according to State Department officials.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously claimed Kerry was visiting on Friday of this week, the usual cap off to Iran talks where he tries to placate Israel and gives Netanyahu a chance to condemn diplomacy in general.
With Israel and the US increasingly at odds, Kerry’s visit has been postponed indefinitely, with officials saying he was likely to visit at some point after Thanksgiving, but no specific date was yet set.
Israel declined comment on rumors in their media that the visit was cancelled outright, saying that if the State Department was cancelling the visit it was up to them to say something.
Washington and Moscow may sound upbeat about the prospects of a signed interim deal at the next round of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the six powers in Geneva Wednesday, Nov. 20. However, according to DEBKAfile’s intelligence and Iranian sources, the way ahead is still bristling with mines, more so even than the first round.
Both sides have toughened their positions. In Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif face threats against yielding to Western demands. On the other side, Washington accuses France and Israel of obstructionism to get its proposal removed from the table.
Our Iranian sources have obtained exclusive access to the decision reached early Monday, Nov. 18, at an all-night conference in the bureau of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This meeting delineated Iran’s ultimate line in Geneva as being consent to idle for six months the few thousand new extra-fast IR2 centrifuges enriching uranium up to 20 percent, after which work would resume in full. Tehran draws the line completely at halting construction of the heavy water plant in Arak.
Iran’s leaders are convinced that the “modest’ sanctions offered by Washington – and which the US denies are worth $40 bn as Israel has calculated – can be substantially sweetened when it comes to the point. The ayatollah, after seeing that the country is broke from the figures shown him by Rouhani and Zarif, accepted the urgency of relaxing banking and financial restrictions, as Zarif had demanded of the Americans. This relaxation alone would put $100 bn in Iran’s coffers. This amount would keep the economy ticking over for a year and give the Islamic regime another lease of life to calm a populace ready to kick back over economic hardships.
About to mark his first 100 days in office, Rouhani badly needs to show he can make good on his pre-election pledges of economic improvements.
Responding to the complaints of hard-liners at home, Foreign Minister Zarif took up a tough negotiating stance in a comment he made Sunday, Nov. 17: “Not only do we consider that Iran’s right to enrich is non-negotiable,” he said, “but we see no need for that to be recognized as a right” because this right is inalienable and all countries must respect that.
Both he and Rouhani fear their own heads will roll if they are shown yielding to the West on uranium enrichment or the reduction of stocks.
Zarif therefore tried his hand at a formula that would not require Iran to renounce enrichment while at the same time obtaining sanctions relief: The two sides will announce an interim accord has been reached in Geneva that covers certain issues and leaves some disputed items unresolved. Implementation must go forward without delay on the agreed items.
The Iranian foreign minister explained to the Obama administration in the quiet bargaining leading up to the formal Geneva conference that a deal must be struck and implemented without delay to head off domestic opposition to any understanding he might conclude with Washington.
Administration officials were about to concede on this point to the Iranian negotiators when they ran into French resistance.
Sunday, Nov. 17, the day he arrived in Israel for a three-day state visit, French President Francois went into conference with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, after which he laid out four points, “which for us are essential to guarantee any agreement:"
1) All of Iranian nuclear installations must be placed under international supervision right now.
2) 20-percent enriched uranium enrichment must be suspended.
3) Existing stocks must be reduced.
This can only be done by exporting a part of this stock or placing it under international control.
4) Construction of the Arak (heavy water) plant to be halted.
Netanyahu, for his part, criticized the emerging deal, without citing the US role, as a permit for Iran to continue manufacturing enough fissile material for assembling a nuclear bomb at three weeks to 26 days’ notice. A good deal, in his view, would dismantle Iran’s capacity to achieve this quantity of fissile material. He repeated that Israel would not be bound by a bad deal and reserved the right to self defense, by itself.
Yakov Amidror – until recently Netanyahu’s national security adviser - said that the Israeli Air Force had for years been practicing long-range flights in preparation for covering the 2,000km distance to Iran for a potential air strike on its nuclear facilities.
In an interview run by the Financial Times Monday, he said that these drills must show up on any Middle East radar screen. Amidror went on to say: We aren’t America, which obviously has greater capabilities than we do, but we still have sufficient to stall the Iranian program for a long time.
DEBKAfile’s military sources add: Amidror’s remarks followed the latest US intelligence report which evaluates Israel’s capacity in a lone attack on Iran to stall Iran’s nuclear program for seven to 10 years.
Iran FM Sees Ways Around Sticking Points in Nuclear Talks
Confident a Deal Can Be Reached
by Jason Ditz, November 17, 2013
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, says he remains confident that a deal can be reached in the next round of nuclear talks with the P5+1, scheduled to begin later this week in Geneva.
Most of the broad issues were already settled in the last talks, and one of the last sticking points was a French objection to including a clause in the text’s preamble recognizing Iran’s right to enrich uranium.
Zarif sees a pretty easy work-aroundfor that, saying the right to civilian enrichment is “self-evident” as part of the right to civilian nuclear technology in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and that there is no real need to mention it one way or the other in the deal’s text.
Iran has long insisted that it will not abandon civilian enrichment, needing a reliable supply of fuel for its Bushehr power plant and the Tehran Research Reactor. The deal they are negotiating will reportedly limit the scope of that enrichment, however, with an eye toward keeping their stockpile from getting too big.
US officials have at time conceded the right to civilian enrichment, while at other times insisting no right exists, or that Iran simply forfeited the right because Israel doesn’t like them. In years past it was believed Iran was willing to eschew the enrichment so long as a reliable overseas supply was guaranteed, but in absence of such guarantees, and after years of growing doubts about the reliability of nations like the US and France upholding their end of the pact, that likely is no longer an option.
Report: Iran Deal Will Limit Uranium Stockpile, Halt Arak Construction
Proposal Also Includes Daily Inspections
by Jason Ditz, November 17, 2013
Specific details are emerging of the P5+1 deal with Iran which was nearly signed last weekend and which many believe will be finalized in the Geneva talks later this week.
The deal is said to include a full halt of construction at the Arak Heavy Water Reactor, the planned successor to the Tehran Research Reactor. Infrastructure will continue to be built around the site pending an eventual settlement of the matter of the reactor’s waste, which includes plutonium. It is believed an eventual deal will involve sending the waste abroad.
The deal will also place a significant limits on uranium enrichment, calling for Iran to complete its shutdown of 19.75% enriched uranium, and freezing its stockpile of 3.5% enriched uranium to current levels, meaning Iran could only produce more to the extent it is being used at the Bushehr power plant.
The deal on inspections is also said to go much farther than simply the ratification of the additional protocol to Iran’s nuclear safeguards agreement. The inspections cover myriad sites across Iran, and will include daily inspections of some of those sites.
The additional inspections were pushed apparently by the US, with an eye toward placating Israel, though that doesn’t appear to have worked. Though Iran is reportedly open to the idea, daily inspections seem ridiculously unnecessary, and will likely test the IAEA’s resources in the nation.
Report: Israel, Saudis Plotting Joint Attack Plan Against Iran
Both Oppose Diplomacy, Plan War to 'Object' to Deal
by Jason Ditz, November 17, 2013
Israel and Saudi Arabia have both made no bones about their opposition to diplomacy with Iran, but a new report from the Sunday Times is suggesting that the two have been plotting in secret to start a war shortly after the conclusion of a deal between Iran and the P5+1.
“Once the Geneva agreement is signed, the military option will be back on the table,” warned a diplomatic source familiar with the planning, which is said to include a joint Israeli-Saudi attack on Iran.
There have been other reports about the two nations plotting an alliance to attack Iran for months now, but never anything this specific, nor anything to suggest that such an attack may well be imminent.
Israel has long coveted access to Saudi airspace for any potential attack on Iran, though the Saudis have denied any plan to do so. The P5+1 will no doubt object to any attack that comes as a follow-up to their diplomacy, though both nations are apparently counting on their considerable lobbying powers to prevent the fallout from being too serious.
Hollande Assures Israel: France Will Oppose Iran Deal
Issues 'Demands' for Iran
by Jason Ditz, November 17, 2013
French President Francois Hollande has promised that going into this week’s P5+1 talks with Iran his government will continue to hold up Israel’s position of oppositionto a deal on the nation’s nuclear program.
“France will not give way on nuclear proliferation” insisted Hollande, and during talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli PM insisted his government doesn’t intend to abide by any deal made with Iran at any rate.
During their joint news conference, Hollande pushed the idea that France had “four demands” that they were holding out for before they would consider making a deal with Iran.
Ironically, the demands centered around ending 19.75% uranium enrichment, stopping construction at Arak, and increasing inspections, the exact things that the deal was already said to include, and which France blocked last time.
Netanyahu: Deal Would Allow Iran to Get Nuke in Three Weeks
Israeli PM Continues to Condemn Diplomacy
by Jason Ditz, November 17, 2013
Officials and analysts have been putting out “Iran X From Nuclear Weapon” stories where X is some amount of time for decades now, but as officials have tried to ratchet up the tension in recent months, X keeps getting smaller and smaller, and less and less credible.
Today, Benjamin Netanyahu got the figure down to three weeks, playing up the idea that Iran would retain “breakout capability” under the deal with the P5+1 and could whip up a bomb in a matter of weeks.
The claim is, of course, ridiculous, and the faulty calculation rests on the notion that Iran will retain a certain amount of civilian enrichment capability to produce 3.5 percent uranium, which fuels the Bushehr Power Plant. The idea, then, is that Iran’s ability to produce 3.5 percent uranium, on top of its existing stockpile of 3.5 percent uranium, would get them to enough fissile material for a single bomb.
Which ignores that one can’t build a nuclear weapon out of 3.5 percent uranium, and ignores Iran’s lack of warheads, and a lot of other things. Like all the other already missed predictions, Netanyahu’s is meant to scare people more than offer a sincere assessment.
But scaring people is getting harder and harder as Netanyahu’s shrill proclamations continue to miss the mark and Iran’s reformist government moves toward rapprochement with the world. Israel remains opposed to any deal, and is continuing to argue that civilian enrichment amounts to an existential “threat to the Jewish people,” an argument which seems aimed at excusing his ongoing plots to attack Iran in the event that diplomacy succeeds.
Afghanistan......
US-Afghan Troop Talks at ‘Profound Impasse’ Days Before Vote
US Still Demanding Right to Unilaterally Raid Afghan Homes
by Jason Ditz, November 17, 2013
With a vote by the Loya Jirga on the question of Afghan support for a continued US military presence beyond 2014 just days away, Afghan officials say that the text still isn’t finalized and is at a “profound impasse” over the issue of US troops raiding Afghan homes.
Night raids and other forcible entry by occupation forces has been hugely controversial during the 12 years of war, but US officials insist they need to retain the right to launch such raids in at least some cases.
That’s a deal-breaker for the Karzai government, which has campaigned against such raids for years, and likely a deal-breaker for the Loya Jirga okaying any pact at all.
The Afghan government says the plan now is to present two separate plans to the jirga, one as the US demands it and one without the disputed clause. It is expected the jirga will reject the US version, but it may also reject the alternative amid the controversy.
US officials downplayed the significance of the dispute, saying they didn’t consider the disagreement an “impasse” and refusing to comment on the issue outright, insisting they are “not negotiating in public” and the Afghans weren’t supposed to tell the media about the dispute at all.
Iraq......
Bombs Rattle Baghdad, Tuz Khormato: 54 Killed 116 Wounded
by Margaret Griffis, November 17, 2013
At least 54 Iraqis were killed and 116 more were wounded, mostly in Baghdad and the mixed city of Tuz Khormato.
In Baghdad, a car bomb targeting a police patrol instead killed three bystanders and wounded 11 more in the Baghdad al-Jadida neighborhood. Two people were killed and five more were wounded in a blast in Karrada. In Doura, three people were killed and 12 more were wounded when a bomb exploded. Soldiers killed three militantsplanting a bomb in Shakhat. A bomb left at a Husseiniya car shop killed one person and wounded another. In Ghadeer, a bomb wounded a person. A bomb in northern Baghdad killed four people and wounded 11 more. Several more bombs were found and defused.
A series of bomb blasts and suicide attacks also plagued Tuz Khormato, mostly in the Askari district. At least two suicide bombers killed 21 people and wounded another 40 in separate attacks. More suicide bombers may have been killed in the premature explosion of a car bomb.
Three people were killed and nine more were wounded in a bombing in Sadr City.
A bomb in Radwaniya killed three people and wounded 10 more.
Militants attacked a Sahwa leader’s home in Madaen, where they killed his brother and wounded a guard. Two of the militants were killed and two more were wounded.
A bomb killed two soldiers and wounded five more in Tarmiya.
An I.E.D. in Shura left two soldiers dead and two more wounded.
A civilian as shot dead while traveling to Jbela.
In Shirqat, gunmen wounded three people, including a civilian.
A bomb in Ramadi wounded two policemen.
A roadside bomb wounded a policeman in Falluja.
Two brothers were kidnapped in Zab.
In Kirkuk, clashes left one gunman dead.
Syria.......
The leader of one of Syria’s most prominent rebel units died early Monday of wounds sustained during a strike by government forces last week, his group said, dealing another blow to fighters reeling from a series of recent battlefield losses.
The death of Abdul-Qadir Saleh, founder of the Tawhid Brigade, followed advances by President Bashar Assad’s troops against rebels on two key fronts: the capture of a string of opposition-held suburbs south of Damascus and the taking of two towns and a military base outside the northern city of Aleppo.
An ongoing offensive meanwhile is driving hundreds of refugees into neighboring Lebanon, as government forces seek to dislodge rebels from a mountainous area that stretches north of the Syrian capital. A total of 6,000 have crossed to a Lebanese border town over the last three days, the U.N. says.
The Tawhid Brigade is one of Syria’s best known and powerful rebel groups, with an estimated 10,000 fighters, and is particularly strong in Aleppo province. Under Saleh’s command, the group last year spearheaded a rebel push that seized large sections of the provincial capital Aleppo.
On Thursday night, a government air strike hit its command post in Aleppo province, according to local activists and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The 34-year-old Saleh was severely wounded and later died in a hospital in Turkey, said a brigade spokesmen who goes by the name of Akram al-Halaby. Many rebels do not use their real names, fearing they or their families will be identified and targeted by security forces.
The strike also killed a senior brigade officer, Abu Tayeb, and wounded another spokesman, Saleh Anadan.
Saleh was buried in his hometown of Marea in Aleppo province, al-Halaby told The Associated Press. The brigade’s political chief, Abdul-Aziz Salameh, who was lightly wounded in Thursday’s shelling, was appointed to succeed Saleh, he said.
Salameh himself announced Saleh’s death in a video uploaded to YouTube by the group. Flanked by somber looking men, some in military fatigues and others in robes typical of conservative scholars, he urged fighters to close ranks.
"Our martyrs are in heaven and yours are in hell," he said, addressing Assad’s forces.
The Tawhid Brigade was once part of the mainstream Free Syrian Army, considered to be the military wing of Syria’s exiled Western-backed opposition. But in September, the brigade broke away and later formed the Islamic Authority, a coalition of Islamic rebel groups, including one linked to al-Qaida.
Saleh’s trajectory reflected that of many ordinary Syrians who joined the armed uprising against Assad’s rule. He was a married merchant who took part in peaceful demonstrations that began in March 2011. After a violent crackdown by security forces, Syria’s conflict became an armed uprising and Saleh turned to guns.
He founded the Tawhid - or Monotheism - Brigade some 10 days before rebels overran and seized parts of Aleppo, al-Halaby said.
A video uploaded to social media networks in 2012 shows Saleh speaking as a bomb or shell hits near a building in Aleppo, causing him to briefly flinch. His comrades call on him to rush inside for protection, but he stands outside, saying: "Nobody dies until God gives him his life, and his date of death."
His death was the latest setback for the rebels.
Elsewhere in Syria, they are on the defensive in a high-stakes battle in Qalamoun, a mountainous area that stretches north of the Syrian capital along the Lebanese border.
It appears to be part of a long-anticipated government offensive aimed at cutting supply routes to rebel-held areas around Damascus, and cementing Assad’s hold on a key corridor from the capital to the coast.
The fighting has centered around the town of Qara lying on the main highway leading from Damascus to the central city of Homs.
Anti-government activists said clashes were still ongoing Monday, with Syrian forces firing rockets toward the town from nearby areas.
Since fighting began Friday, around 1,500 families fled into neighboring Lebanese town of Arsal, said Lisa Abou Khaled, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency. The UNHCR said in a statement that 6,000 individuals have arrived in the last three days.
The newest Syrian refugees in Arsal were sleeping in two wedding halls, a mosque and an empty building, Abou Khaled said. Others were staying with host families or in nearby tin shack settlements.
The new refugees join an estimated 1.4 million Syrians - 800,000 of whom are registered refugees already in the country, Lebanese officials estimate.
In Damascus, a government official said at least three civilians were killed and more than a dozen others wounded by mortar rounds that slammed into several districts, including one that landed in the city’s landmark Umayyad Square, killing one man.
Also on Monday, Islamic rebels shuttered the only link by which civilians could move across divided Aleppo, leading to hardship among residents, the Aleppo Media Center and other activists in the city said.
The Islamic Authority closed down the checkpoint, known as Garage al-Hajez, to stop residents from smuggling in cigarettes and fuel from government-held western districts, where such goods are cheaper, to the eastern rebel-held side. The measure left people stranded on both sides because they were not informed of the closure.
Until the closure, thousands of people crisscrossed the city every day through that crossing for work and to buy supplies.
The death of Abdul-Qadir Saleh, founder of the Tawhid Brigade, followed advances by President Bashar Assad’s troops against rebels on two key fronts: the capture of a string of opposition-held suburbs south of Damascus and the taking of two towns and a military base outside the northern city of Aleppo.
An ongoing offensive meanwhile is driving hundreds of refugees into neighboring Lebanon, as government forces seek to dislodge rebels from a mountainous area that stretches north of the Syrian capital. A total of 6,000 have crossed to a Lebanese border town over the last three days, the U.N. says.
The Tawhid Brigade is one of Syria’s best known and powerful rebel groups, with an estimated 10,000 fighters, and is particularly strong in Aleppo province. Under Saleh’s command, the group last year spearheaded a rebel push that seized large sections of the provincial capital Aleppo.
On Thursday night, a government air strike hit its command post in Aleppo province, according to local activists and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The 34-year-old Saleh was severely wounded and later died in a hospital in Turkey, said a brigade spokesmen who goes by the name of Akram al-Halaby. Many rebels do not use their real names, fearing they or their families will be identified and targeted by security forces.
The strike also killed a senior brigade officer, Abu Tayeb, and wounded another spokesman, Saleh Anadan.
Saleh was buried in his hometown of Marea in Aleppo province, al-Halaby told The Associated Press. The brigade’s political chief, Abdul-Aziz Salameh, who was lightly wounded in Thursday’s shelling, was appointed to succeed Saleh, he said.
Salameh himself announced Saleh’s death in a video uploaded to YouTube by the group. Flanked by somber looking men, some in military fatigues and others in robes typical of conservative scholars, he urged fighters to close ranks.
"Our martyrs are in heaven and yours are in hell," he said, addressing Assad’s forces.
The Tawhid Brigade was once part of the mainstream Free Syrian Army, considered to be the military wing of Syria’s exiled Western-backed opposition. But in September, the brigade broke away and later formed the Islamic Authority, a coalition of Islamic rebel groups, including one linked to al-Qaida.
Saleh’s trajectory reflected that of many ordinary Syrians who joined the armed uprising against Assad’s rule. He was a married merchant who took part in peaceful demonstrations that began in March 2011. After a violent crackdown by security forces, Syria’s conflict became an armed uprising and Saleh turned to guns.
He founded the Tawhid - or Monotheism - Brigade some 10 days before rebels overran and seized parts of Aleppo, al-Halaby said.
A video uploaded to social media networks in 2012 shows Saleh speaking as a bomb or shell hits near a building in Aleppo, causing him to briefly flinch. His comrades call on him to rush inside for protection, but he stands outside, saying: "Nobody dies until God gives him his life, and his date of death."
His death was the latest setback for the rebels.
Elsewhere in Syria, they are on the defensive in a high-stakes battle in Qalamoun, a mountainous area that stretches north of the Syrian capital along the Lebanese border.
It appears to be part of a long-anticipated government offensive aimed at cutting supply routes to rebel-held areas around Damascus, and cementing Assad’s hold on a key corridor from the capital to the coast.
The fighting has centered around the town of Qara lying on the main highway leading from Damascus to the central city of Homs.
Anti-government activists said clashes were still ongoing Monday, with Syrian forces firing rockets toward the town from nearby areas.
Since fighting began Friday, around 1,500 families fled into neighboring Lebanese town of Arsal, said Lisa Abou Khaled, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency. The UNHCR said in a statement that 6,000 individuals have arrived in the last three days.
The newest Syrian refugees in Arsal were sleeping in two wedding halls, a mosque and an empty building, Abou Khaled said. Others were staying with host families or in nearby tin shack settlements.
The new refugees join an estimated 1.4 million Syrians - 800,000 of whom are registered refugees already in the country, Lebanese officials estimate.
In Damascus, a government official said at least three civilians were killed and more than a dozen others wounded by mortar rounds that slammed into several districts, including one that landed in the city’s landmark Umayyad Square, killing one man.
Also on Monday, Islamic rebels shuttered the only link by which civilians could move across divided Aleppo, leading to hardship among residents, the Aleppo Media Center and other activists in the city said.
The Islamic Authority closed down the checkpoint, known as Garage al-Hajez, to stop residents from smuggling in cigarettes and fuel from government-held western districts, where such goods are cheaper, to the eastern rebel-held side. The measure left people stranded on both sides because they were not informed of the closure.
Until the closure, thousands of people crisscrossed the city every day through that crossing for work and to buy supplies.
Four Generals Among 31 Syrian Soldiers Killed in Rebel Bombing
Bomb Hit Base, Collapsing Building
by Jason Ditz, November 17, 2013
A rebel bombing destroyed a Syrian army transport base in Harasta, on the outskirts of Damascus today, killing at least 31 soldiers within, including three generals and a brigadier-general.
The bombing leveled the building, and raised speculation about whether the rebels had infiltrated the military outright, or had possibly dug a tunnel underneath the building to fill with explosives.
Rebel mouthpiece the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the death toll included only the night shift, and if the bomb was detonated just an hour earlier the toll would likely have been around 200.
A faction within the Free Syrian Army calling itself the Direh al-Aasmeh Brigade took credit for the attack, and issued a video showing the building’s collapse.
Evening Fred,
ReplyDeleteWow wars and rumors of wars. Dang Israel, what a nasty little country I hope Karma comes and visits them soon. I think Iran can take them and the Saudis too but it's just a hunch that decades of sanctions have led them to design good strategies and weapons for defense. I know I would have put a whole lot of effort into that after the US pushed Iraq into attacking. Plus I expect they had a hand in Hezbolla's sucessful defense and also are helping Syria out.
But on to important stuff, man bitcoin is on a tear. Wonder how far it goes before it has a decent sized correction, $1,000? Was $780 a few minutes ago.
Evening Kev - Bitcoin definitely in a manic phase of the mania it has become ( I was reading a ZH piece noting it had crossed 600 , when I checked MT Gox's site , it was about 780 ! ) Some kind of ten day period ( basically has doubled in that span ! ) BitCoin will rise until it stops rising - when , ya got me ! We shall see a correction - to what degree , who knows ? Lol Just enjoy the ride .......
ReplyDeleteI am beginning to think in the " New Normal " , the saying should be " A War A Day Keeps The Doctor Away ! " Lots of death dealing , death dealers , politicians making macho decisions using soldiers as pawns in geopolitical chess or checkers ( depending on whom is making the moves ......
Iran could hold their own in a fair fight ( soldier vs soldier. ) Of course , a soldier or tank or even a jet is no match for nukes ! So , I don't see the iranian people faring well if War breaks out.....France , Israel maybe even the Saudis at this point have nukes and won't hesitate to use them - to keep the middle east safe from.....wait for it.........the non existent Iranian nuclear threat !