Saturday, August 16, 2014

Syria Updates ( August 16 , 2014 ) - ISIS and Assad squeezing the FSA at Aleppo ........Nice round up from Syria Direct from 8/14/14 on the state of play on the battlefield .....

Rebels ask for Iraq-style strikes in Syria

Syrian opposition asks world to help it fight the Islamic State group and Syrian government after US strikes in Iraq.

Last updated: 16 Aug 2014 16:33
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Syria's opposition has called for international intervention targeting the Islamic State group, just days after the US began limited strikes against fighters from the same group in neighbouring Iraq.
Earlier, US officials had asked the Syrian opposition to call on the international community to hit the group and help rebels eliminate the self-declared jihadists, Al Jazeera learned from sources inside the opposition.
The Syrian National Coalition (SNC), the main political opposition bloc, and the leadership of the Free Syrian Army, who made the appeal at a press conference in Gaziantep, Turkey on Saturday, also called for help fighting the Syrian army.
"The entire world is invited to intervene in a quick and effective way in order to support the fighters of the Free Syrian Army, who are fighting the gangs of terrorism," said Hadi al-Bahra, the president of the SNC.
"I call on the UN, and all countries that believe in freedom, including the US, to deal with the situation in Syria the same way they have dealt with the situation in Kurdistan, Iraq," Bahra said.
"The reasons are the same, the enemy is the same," the head of the SNC added.
The plea came as the US was hitting Islamic State targets in Iraq, and a day after the UN Security Council unanimously  adopted a resolution that aims to weaken the Islamic State and the Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's Syria branch.
Commenting on the resolution, the Syrian Coalition's representative at the UN, Najib Ghadbian, said: "The Syrian Coalition calls for targeted air strikes in Syria. Strikes should be backed up by an intensive train and equip programme for the moderate Syrian opposition forces that have been effectively fighting ISIS [Islamic State] for over a year."
Another member of the coalition told Al Jazeera that the group was "getting different promises" from the US.
RELATED: Who can stop the Islamic State's advance?
The Islamic State, an al-Qaeda splinter group, has in recent months seized swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate.
In Syria, the group enforced its rule in the province of Raqqa and other eastern parts of the country through conducting public executions and imposing strict social codes that have many residents living in fear. Others have fled.
Opposition activists who stood up to the rule of the group have been met with a brutal crackdown. Many of those activists had been campaigning for the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad since 2011.
Opposition politicians in exile have expressed dismay as to why three years of bloodshed has not led to the same rapid response by the international community as the escalating crisis in Iraq.
The Islamic State's swift push to the borders of Iraq's autonomous ethnic Kurdish region and towards Baghdad prompted President Barack Obama to authorise airstrikes on the group's strongholds earlier this month.
Since then, US military aircraft have carried out several bombings and air-dropped food and water to help tens of thousands of civilians fleeing the fighters' advance.
On Saturday morning, the US launched more attacks on positions belonging to the Islamic State in northern Iraq, according to the Kurdish news agency Roodaw.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
















Tweets of the day..... note the clamor for military action against ISIS

+ 1 to Alexblx.....


  •  2m
    's US > 'outgunned by ourselves - yellow tanks now used in North by '





    •  Retweeted by 
     10h
    US asked rebels to call on international community to hit Islamic State targets, sources told us. Appeal expected today in Istanbul


     Retweeted by 
     1h
    When Obama says "no military solution" in Syria, it's a straw man. Argument is that military component is needed for a *political* solution.



     Retweeted by Al-Monitor
     · 2h
    army orders village of to evacuate: mayor




     · 10m
    "HOT words & COLD deeds- Bomb - but not too much. Help the Kurds - a little". 's "strategies so (cont)



     Retweeted by Liz Sly
     · 17h
    Ongoing ISIS offensive in N poses an existential threat to the future of ’s military opposition. HUGELY significant days ahead


     · 3h
    The FSA on the verge of defeat in Aleppo. Good account of the threat to moderate Syrian rebels by


     · 12h
    The rumored arms the |n rebels will receive will be the arms that will keep them alive until their battle with is over. No more!



     Retweeted by Syria Pulse
     · Aug 14
    getting closer to rebel held Not clear where residents would fleet to at this stage







    And from before....


    http://syriadirect.org/rss/1495-syria-direct-news-update-8-14-2014






    SYRIA DIRECT: NEWS UPDATE 8-14-2014


    Regime takes Mleiha
    Regime forces recaptured the majority of the strategic East Damascus town of Mleiha from rebels after managing to break through their defenses on Wednesday, Syrian opposition media and Hezbullah's agency al-Manar reported on Thursday.
    The capture of Mleiha after more than four months of combat was confirmed by opposition media, including the pro-opposition Sham News Network, which reported that the rebels withdrew after being exposed to “extremely violent bombing that continued day and night...with all types of weapons, including warplanes, helicopters, surface-to-surface missiles, artillery, and rockets,” adding that rebels “are now reordering their ranks in order to repulse Assad's forces.”
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bu_xzdrCIAEHnkL.jpg:largeMleiha August 14, 2014.
    Regime units are pursuing remaining rebel forces in the farms located north of Mleiha.
    Rebels had broken the regime-imposed siege around Mleiha last week. On Monday of this week, government forces pushed back, launching a series of airstrikes against Mleiha and surrounding the town again.
    As of June 2014, more than 5,000 families had fled Mleiha, nearly emptying the town of its inhabitants, while remaining residents staunchly supported the opposition even in the face of starvation and constant attacks.
    "Legendary resistance," and "the battle for Mleiha...heroism and sacrifice" were some of the slogans residents wrote on signs to raise fighters' morale during a regime assault this past April.
    Mleiha is considered strategic because it is the gateway into rebel-held East Ghouta and is located on the road to the Damascus International Airport.
    Qalamoun still in play as rebels seek to advance
    Syrian military forces supported by Hizbullah fighters attempted to stem a rebel advance Thursday in the Qalamoun mountains, engaging in firefights with rebels around the Shiite-majority town of Nahla and dropping barrel bombs and artillery in the vicinity of Ras al-Maara.
    The fighting follows an apparent takeover by rebels—including the Islamic Front and Jabhat a-Nusra—of two regime checkpoints and four barracks in Ras al-Maara Tuesday, according to the opposition Qalamon Media Center, and supported by a video posted online by anti-regime Orient News.
    By contrast, regime-affiliated newspaper al-Wahda said Wednesday that “Syrian army units killed terrorists during their attempt to penetrate...Ras al-Maara.”
    The rebel takeover of checkpoints in Ras al-Maara, if proven correct, could pave the way for an advance eastwards towards the strategic city of Yabrud.
    Yabrud looks over the M5 highway, which connects Damascus with central and northern Syria and is critical to regime supply lines and operations. A joint regime-Hezbullah 33-day offensive succeeded in routing rebel forces from Yabrud on March 16.
    IS captures symbolic town in Aleppo
    The Islamic State (IS) reportedly captured the town of Dabiq in northern Aleppo from rebels Wednesday night, according to the local pro-opposition news agency Akhtarin City.
    Dabiq is symbolically important because it is associated in Islam with the Armageddon. The name of the new IS magazine which releases information about its victories and spreads its ideology is called “Dabiq” and the town’s capture may be used to attract new fighters.
    An IS-affiliated Twitter account first announced the IS victory in Dabiq Wednesday afternoon, but the news was not independently verified until later.
    “IS soldiers control the village of Dabiq in the northern countryside,” account said. Twitter suspended the account later that day.
    In total, IS killed an estimated 40 fighters and took nearly 50 other rebels prisoner on Wednesday, reported the monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
    Also on Wednesday, the IS captured the nearby town of Akhtarin from non-IS Islamist rebels after clashes in the morning.
    IS attacks last regime post in A-Raqqa
    Clashes broke out between IS and regime forces around the government-controlled Tabqa Military Airport in A-Raqqa province Wednesday night, according to the monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Thursday.
    Tabqa is the last regime-held outpost in A-Raqqa after IS captured the regime military base known as Brigade 93 last week and Division 17 in late July. The eponymous provincial capital has been the center of IS power since it captured the city in late 2013.
    Pro-regime media acknowledged the battle for the airport on Wednesday, with pro-government Syrian newspaper al-Watan reporting the fighting as ongoing.
    IS has slowly been consolidating its control over the north-central Syrian province since it began capturing heavy weaponry from Iraq in June and transporting it back to A-Raqqa.
    Meanwhile, the regime launched air raids around the airport on Wednesday targeting IS fighters,reported pro-opposition news network a-Dorar that night.
    The Tabqa airport is located approximately 60 kilometers west of A-Raqqa city on the Euphrates River.




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