Syrian Protesters Now Are Armed....Oh, and Syrian Troops Are Under Iranian Command

Syria is spiraling downward quickly as the protesting movement in the country, ordinary citizens across the country, are now being armed and there are even reports that the protesters now have anti-tank weapons. At the same time, more information is coming out that it is Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders that are directing the efforts of Syrian troops and security forces.

From the report at DEBKA:

For the first time in the anti-Assad uprising, elements of Syria's popular protest movement are turning to armed revolt on lines similar to those marking the Libyan conflict. Wednesday, April 27, armed civilians were seen for the first time, some openly carrying anti-tank weapons, in the Daraa district of the South and Banias and Jableh on the coast, the primary targets of the regime's armored-backed offensive on the six-week old protest movement.

debkafile's military sources report that these dissidents resorted openly to arms after discovering that Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) officers were masterminding the brutal crackdown against them, lending the Assad regime the experience they had gained in crushing the 2009 anti-regime opposition in Tehran.

Okay, so let's set the stage....Iranian commanders order Syrian tanks into a Syrian city's fringe and as the tanks enter a dark street, two anti-tank weapons are fired by protesters hitting both tanks and killing four or five Syrian tank crew members. Let's just say that happens...can you imagine what is going to happen next?

This situation in Syria makes Libya look like a game of kickball. We also have to consider how much is going down in Syria that isn't not being reported or discovered. I'm sure the Iranians are taking some frustrations out that they have with their own unrest on the Syrian people.

At the same time, this must be encouraging for Israel...if Assad's military is so inept that they need Iranians to come in and take up leadership roles, imagine what the Syrian army command is like.

Syrian protesters gain anti-tank guns. Iranian officers direct Assad's troops


For the first time in the anti-Assad uprising, elements of Syria's popular protest movement are turning to armed revolt on lines similar to those marking the Libyan conflict. Wednesday, April 27, armed civilians were seen for the first time, some openly carrying anti-tank weapons, in the Daraa district of the South and Banias and Jableh on the coast, the primary targets of the regime's armored-backed offensive on the six-week old protest movement.

debkafile's military sources report that these dissidents resorted openly to arms after discovering that Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) officers were masterminding the brutal crackdown against them, lending the Assad regime the experience they had gained in crushing the 2009 anti-regime opposition in Tehran.
At the UN Security Council Tuesday night, US ambassador Susan Rice directly accused President Bashar Assad of mustering Iranian assistance to repress Syrian citizens "through the same brutal tactics that have been used by the Iranian regime."
Our Washington sources report that the US, Britain, France and other European countries are not waiting for the Security Council to condemn Syria. As an American official put it, "in the near future," the US plans to issue a series of sanctions against heads of the Assad regime and its security agencies. There is also talk of war crimes charges against the president's brother Maher Assad who is in command of the military assault on the protesters.
In Syria meanwhile, Western military sources predict that the next stage of the Syrian crisis will see protesters-turned-rebels shooting at the military tanks and armored vehicles spearheading the assaults by commando units on foot in the towns under siege, while snipers pick off demonstrators or ordinary passers-by from the rooftops.

In the first two days of the military operation, the tanks have been rolling through the streets sowing panic and fear in targeted cities and providing cover for the soldiers shooting civilians at random. Disabling the tanks, the protesters believe, will disarm that tactic, which has been directed first against the million inhabitants of Daraa and its outlying towns in the Horon province Tuesday, April 26.
There, under tank cover, small elements of the 132nd Brigade of the Fourth Division commanded by Mahar Asasad are holding Daraa under virtual lockdown, having cut off essential supplies of food and water, electricity and external communications.

Still, the town refuses to be broken or starved into submission.
Tuesday night, small units of foot soldiers protected by tanks were on standby night outside Banias and Jableh and Wednesday morning, elements of the 47th Brigade of the Fourth Division were poised to follow a tank charge into Hama.
If Assad loses his tanks, he will need to deploy many more soldiers to shoot the protesters off the streets and carry out mass arrests and so increase the hazards of defections, mutiny and the army's breakup.
For Damascus, the Syrian ruler is pursuing a different tactic. To conceal the massive military involvement in the crackdown from the capital's population, thousands of undercover soldiers were told to remove their uniforms and issued with black coveralls without insignia for raids on the Damascus suburb of Duma and protest centers elsewhere in the capital. They are intended to look like policemen.

Syria Sends Tanks Into Key Protest City of Daraa, 25 People Killed

The Syrians are trying some major brutal moves to try and finally stop the people of the country from continuing their rising up against the Assad government when yesterday, they attacked the city of Daraa with a huge troop force along with plenty of tank support. When the dust settled, at least 25 protesters lay dead.

From the report at Breitbart:

Syrian troops backed by tanks have moved into the flashpoint town of Daraa, killing at least 25 people, witnesses said, as Damascus was accused of choosing the military option to crush dissent.

The Syrian army, however, insisted it had been invited into the southern town at the request of citizens to hunt "extremist terrorist groups".

Witnesses said troops also launched assaults on the Damascus suburbs of Douma and Al-Maadamiyeh, as a leading Syrian rights activist accused the regime of going for the "military solution" to end six weeks of dissent.

The United States, which has repeatedly condemned Syria's repression, was considering sanctions against Damascus.

"The United States is pursuing a range of possible policy options, including targeted sanctions, to respond to the crackdown and make clear that this behaviour is unacceptable," said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor.

It has now become more than evident that the Middle East's and north Africa's bloodbath against civilians is NOT Libya, it is Syria and this is the shaky ground that Obama placed himself on when he rationalized the Libya operation as being that of protecting innocent civilians. More people have died in Syria than in Libya yet Obama's administration's answer to Syria's action is some strong words and perhaps some sanctions...not bombs and predator drones like in Libya.

I, personally, cannot come up with the reason for Obama's continued support of Syria - it's definitely linked to his hands off approach to the revolution that happened in Iran. I don't see a particular affection for Shias by Obama but it is becoming clear that our President certainly will go a long way to stay out of a confrontation with the Iranians. If I had to make a guess, Syria is off limits for American intervention because Obama doesn't want to jeopardize the leverage he is setting up against Israel. He has been successful in assisting the Egyptians turning a complete about face and more or less becoming an Israeli enemy now and he needs the Syrians to be well entrenched military on Israel's other border.

Either way, since Obama made the fatal mistake of detailing his reasons for intervention in Libya, he now is left holding the bag regarding Syria. But hey, when you have the main stream media in your hip pocket, it's not like you'll have to answer for it.

Tanks storm Syrian flashpoint, 25 dead: activists


Syrian troops backed by tanks have moved into the flashpoint town of Daraa, killing at least 25 people, witnesses said, as Damascus was accused of choosing the military option to crush dissent.

The Syrian army, however, insisted it had been invited into the southern town at the request of citizens to hunt "extremist terrorist groups".

Witnesses said troops also launched assaults on the Damascus suburbs of Douma and Al-Maadamiyeh, as a leading Syrian rights activist accused the regime of going for the "military solution" to end six weeks of dissent.

The United States, which has repeatedly condemned Syria's repression, was considering sanctions against Damascus.

"The United States is pursuing a range of possible policy options, including targeted sanctions, to respond to the crackdown and make clear that this behaviour is unacceptable," said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor.

Monday's assault began at dawn with 3,000 to 5,000 army and security forces swooping on Daraa, with tanks taking up position in the town centre and snipers deploying on rooftops, activists said.

The operation came less than a week after President Bashar al-Assad signed a decree to abolish nearly five decades of draconian emergency rule in a bid to placate protesters demanding political reform and the fall of the regime.

Activist Abdullah Abazid told AFP Syrian forces pounded Daraa with heavy artillery and that "at least 25 martyrs have fallen".

"There are still bodies sprawled in the streets," he said by telephone, with the sound of loud explosions and gunfire in the background.

A group of activists said in a statement "more than 25 people fell but no one could reach them because of the heavy shelling" and that only seven bodies were retrieved, including a father and his two sons.

The army disputed these reports, with a military official saying the troops entered Daraa "in response to calls for help from" citizens to rid them of "extremist terrorist groups" behind a spate of killings and sabotage.

The official, quoted on state television, said troops backed by security forces clashed with gunmen and the confrontations led to "a number of martyrs in the ranks of the army and the security forces".

Activists said troops fired anti-aircraft guns and seized at least two mosques as well as the cemetery where scores of people killed in anti-regime protests are buried.

"The minarets of the mosques are appealing for help. The security forces are entering houses. There is a curfew and they fire on those who leave their homes. They even shot at water tanks on roofs to deprive people of water," said a witness.

A huge crackdown was also reported in Douma, a large suburb in northern Damascus, and nearby Al-Maadamiyeh, said activists and residents reached by telephone.

"The situation is dramatic. Patrols man each alleyway and prevent people from going out even to buy bread," one resident said.

Security forces "surrounded a mosque and are firing indiscriminately. Streets are cut off from each other and Douma is isolated from the outside world," an activist said.

Some 390 people have been killed in security crackdowns since the protests erupted, rights activists and witnesses say.

Amnesty International said tanks were used to shell civilian buildings in Daraa, commenting: "The Syrian government's brutal reaction to its people's demand for change has reached a new and outrageous low."

"President Bashar al-Assad must call a stop to this now. He must pull back his army from Daraa immediately and ensure that basic services to the city are restored," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Director.

Assad signed decrees on Thursday scrapping repressive emergency rule, abolishing the state security court that has tried scores of regime opponents, and one to "regulate" protests.

A day later, tens of thousands of people swarmed cities and towns to test the government's sincerity, but scores were killed by security forces, activists and rights groups have said.

Prominent rights activist Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that Monday's crackdown showed Damascus had decided to crush the protests militarily.

"It is clear that the Syrian authorities have taken a decision for a military and security solution," said Abdel Rahman, who heads the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay denounced the killings from Geneva saying "we are seeing such disregard for human life by Syrian security forces".

So far, Washington has not threatened to recall its ambassador to Syria, a post filled in January after a six-year absence, as President Barack Obama sought to court Damascus as part of a broader Middle East diplomatic push.

"Having an ambassador in Syria has allowed us to be in Syria, basically, in the presence of the government to make our views known directly and not be a long distance (away)," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Britain, France, Germany and Portugal were meanwhile seeking a UN Security Council condemnation of the violence and an independent probe into the killings.

Bloodbath Between Syria’s Various Sects Would Likely Follow If Basher Assad Is Overthrown

''Bloodbath' Would Follow Overthrow Of Assad In Syria' -- Jerusalem Post

Observers tell the 'Post' that like Iraq, Syria’s diverse sects could turn on each other once the regime is gone.

The overthrow of Syrian dictator Basher Assad is not yet imminent, but should it occur, a bloodbath between Syria’s various sects would likely follow, leading Israeli experts on Syria told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

As in neighboring Iraq, Syria’s diverse population – made up of Sunni Muslims, Druse, Kurds and other groups, who are ruled by the minority Alawites – could, upon the collapse of the Assad regime, turn on each other in a bloody civil conflict.

Read more ....

My Comment: The first sect that would be targeted would be the minority Alawites .... and as for the rest .... it all depends on their past history and geography.

Report Says Syria Is Torturing Anti-Government Protesters

Once again I ask the question of President Obama...if the people of Libya were in such danger by Moammar Ghaddafi's regime that you needed to insert American warplanes into that conflict, then why haven't you done the same in Syria where MORE people have been killed by the Assad regime and now reports are floating around that protesters are being tortured after arrest?

Perhaps Obama's silence on Syria is part of his hands off policy towards Iran where the President said and did nothing during the revolution attempt in Iran last year. Perhaps Syria's Assad conforms more to what Obama feels is a "true" Islamic state than Libya. I don't know but the inconsistency is glaring.

From the report at Family Security Matters:

Syrian security and intelligence services have arbitrarily detained hundreds of protesters across the country, subjecting them to torture and ill-treatment, since anti-government demonstrations began in mid-March 2011, according to a human rights organization. Yesterday, thousands of anti-government protesters occupied the center of Syria's third largest city, Homs, insisting they will not leave until they bring down the country's leadership.

A human rights observer stated that security forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had fired shots at the protesters, but Syria's interior ministry claims the current civil unrest amounts to armed insurrection.

Earlier, funerals were held for some of those killed in Sunday's violence in the city, with crowds calling for the end of Assad's Ba'ath Party regime.

At least eight civilian were killed in Homs on Sunday after Assad's soldiers fired on crowds protesting the death of a tribal leader while in government custody.

One other scenario for the hands off stance by the Obama administration is their emerging policy on Israel. With the changes occurring in Egypt, the pressure on Israel to succumb to a radically one-sided agreement for peace in the Middle East is increasing - if Obama wants that pressure on Israel to grow so that the Palestinians will get their state, then the Egyptian situation is good and the last thing he would want would be a change in Syria where they are committed to the fall of Israel.

You doubt that? Well, then I ask you to name one action or even one statement by Barack Hussein Obama that has come down against a single enemy of Israel. How would Israel's security situation now look if Obama had stood by Mubarak and ensured the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt and now, if he were to step in and see what we could do to overthrow Assad in Syria? If that had all happened, Israel would be looking at only border threats from Hamas and Hezbollah. But no, as it seems to be turning out, Israel will now face a viable military threat on each and every one of its borders.

Syrian Government Torturing Protesters, Journalists


Syrian security and intelligence services have arbitrarily detained hundreds of protesters across the country, subjecting them to torture and ill-treatment, since anti-government demonstrations began in mid-March 2011, according to a human rights organization. Yesterday, thousands of anti-government protesters occupied the center of Syria's third largest city, Homs, insisting they will not leave until they bring down the country's leadership.

A human rights observer stated that security forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had fired shots at the protesters, but Syria's interior ministry claims the current civil unrest amounts to armed insurrection.

Earlier, funerals were held for some of those killed in Sunday's violence in the city, with crowds calling for the end of Assad's Ba'ath Party regime.

At least eight civilian were killed in Homs on Sunday after Assad's soldiers fired on crowds protesting the death of a tribal leader while in government custody.

The protesters says the occupation of the city center will continue until their demands are met. The protesters' demands include the immediate end of the military's enforcement of Syria's longstanding emergency laws and the release of political prisoners. The security and intelligence services, commonly referred to as mukhabarat, have also arrested lawyers, activists, and journalists who endorsed or promoted the protests.

"Syrian authorities should immediately stop the use of torture and free arbitrarily detained demonstrators, activists, and journalists," Human Rights Watch said in a press statement. "The government of President Bashar al-Assad should order prompt and impartial investigations into serious abuses against detainees and ensure all those responsible are brought to justice."

"There can be no real reforms in Syria while security forces abuse people with impunity," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "President al-Assad needs to rein in his security services and hold them to account for arbitrary arrests and torture."

Most detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported being forced to sign confessions without being allowed to read them, as well as pledges not to participate in future protests. Some also had to provide detailed personal information about themselves and their families, including family members' addresses and places of employment. None were allowed to have any contact with relatives or lawyers while in detention, and their families were not informed of their whereabouts.

Forced Confessions

Most of those detained following protests told Human Rights Watch that they were forced to sign and put their fingerprints on papers without being allowed to read the document. A teenager from Douma detained for two days by the mukhabarat -- he was blindfolded and so did not know which security branch -- told Human Rights Watch: I asked, "What is this paper?" and one of the security men grabbed my head, and pushed my mouth open, and the other one squeezed my tongue with something that felt like pliers and started pulling it. And when I refused to sign it, one of the interrogators took a hammer and started pounding on my toes. In the cell, they also beat me on the face with their Kalashnikovs [AK-47 assault rifles].
Another detainee, a non-Syrian Arab, told Human Rights Watch that he signed and put his fingerprints on a piece of paper after each day of interrogation: "I never saw what I signed," he said. "My eyes were blindfolded. And I was afraid so I did not even dare ask read it." A Western detainee recalled that the security services made him sign two pieces of paper but would not let him read them.

Syria's security services have also arbitrarily arrested and tortured activists, writers, and journalists who have reported on or expressed support for the anti-government protests, detaining at least seven local and international journalists since protests began on March 16.
A Syrian writer described how security services "kidnapped" him off the street in Damascus after he spoke about Syrian protests and the government response in the media. "I saw a white unmarked van on the street, and when I came directly beside it, the sliding door opened and three big men grabbed me," he told Human Rights Watch. "They did not say anything to me, just grabbed me." On the way to what he later learned was a State Security building, his captors beat and kicked him. During interrogation they also beat him: "They brought a whip and started to beat my shoulders, legs and arms. They were cursing me and accusing me of things."

A non-Syrian Arab journalist told Human Rights Watch that he was beaten during interrogation.
State Security also arrested one of the lawyers who represented the protesters detained at the March 16 demonstration calling for the release of political activists. He spent a week at the State Security detention facility in Damascus, where the security personnel on several occasions beat, threatened, and humiliated him. He spent most of his time handcuffed and hooded. Before being transferred into a cell, he was held for four days in an unheated corridor, apparently because the cells were jammed. The lawyer said that throughout his detention he heard sounds of beatings and screams of other detainees.

All former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch described appalling detention conditions, with grossly overcrowded cells where at times detainees could only sleep in turns and suffered various forms of humiliation and verbal abuse. One person detained at State Security in Damascus said he shared a 30-square meter cell with about 75 other people.

Syrian Soldiers Who Refused To Fire On Protesters Shot Dead By Security Forces

Not good. Not good at all ... if you are a member of the Syrian army right now. In the Syrian city of Banias, Syrian soldiers confronted a crowd of protesters and when they were ordered to fire live ammunition into the crowd, they refused. Well, enter the security forces already in attendance at the same protest....those security forces then fired upon the refusing soldiers killing and wounding them.

Now these reports need to be scrutinized for accuracy but I certainly wouldn't call this outlandish accusations considering what has been going on in Syria.

From the article at The Guardian:

Syrian soldiers have been shot by security forces after refusing to fire on protesters, witnesses said, as a crackdown on anti-government demonstrations intensified.

Witnesses told al-Jazeera and the BBC that some soldiers had refused to shoot after the army moved into Banias in the wake of intense protests on Friday.

Human rights monitors named Mourad Hejjo, a conscript from Madaya village, as one of those shot by security snipers. "His family and town are saying he refused to shoot at his people," said Wassim Tarif, a local human rights monitor.

Footage on YouTube shows an injured soldier saying he was shot in the back by security forces, while another video shows the funeral of Muhammad Awad Qunbar, who sources said was killed for refusing to fire on protesters. Signs of defections will be worrying to Syria's regime. State media reported a different version of events, claiming nine soldiers had been killed in an ambush by an armed group in Banias.

But hey, don't forget...Hillary Clinton is backing Assad...he's the "reformer" she adores.

The surprising scenario in Syria is that even after all of the bloodshed and the blatant use of force by Assad, the whole scene shows no signs of abating. The protests continue and actually have spread.

Syrian soldiers shot for refusing to fire on protesters


Syrian soldiers have been shot by security forces after refusing to fire on protesters, witnesses said, as a crackdown on anti-government demonstrations intensified.

Witnesses told al-Jazeera and the BBC that some soldiers had refused to shoot after the army moved into Banias in the wake of intense protests on Friday.

Human rights monitors named Mourad Hejjo, a conscript from Madaya village, as one of those shot by security snipers. "His family and town are saying he refused to shoot at his people," said Wassim Tarif, a local human rights monitor.

Footage on YouTube shows an injured soldier saying he was shot in the back by security forces, while another video shows the funeral of Muhammad Awad Qunbar, who sources said was killed for refusing to fire on protesters. Signs of defections will be worrying to Syria's regime. State media reported a different version of events, claiming nine soldiers had been killed in an ambush by an armed group in Banias.

Activists said not all soldiers reported dead or injured were shot after refusing to fire. "We are investigating reports that some people have personal weapons and used them in self-defence," said Tarif.

The reports came as a leading Syrian opposition figure said pro-government gunmen had attacked two villages close to Banias, 25 miles south of Latakia, which has become the latest focus of violence since protests on Friday. Haitham al-Maleh told AP attackers were using automatic rifles in Bayda and Beit Jnad.

Human rights organisations said at least five protesters in Banias had been killed since Sunday including one on Tuesday. In Bayda witnesses reported that security thugs had beaten up men in the central square, and rights groups said hundreds of people had been arrested, including students who took part in an unprecedented rally at Damascus University on Monday.

Violence in the port cities of Banias and Latakia has become increasingly messy as locals report the involvement of pro-government thugs and private militias. One witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said "shabiha" (pro-government thugs) had attacked in cars decorated with photos of the president, Bashar al-Assad, on Sunday. Residents of Banias said there was a shortage of bread, and electricity and communications were intermittent.

Syria's leading pro-democracy group, the Damascus Declaration, urged the Arab League to impose sanctions on the regime and said the death toll from more than three weeks of unrest had topped 200.

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest against Assad's authoritarian rule. Assad blames the violence on armed gangs and has vowed to crush unrest. He has made a series of overtures to appease anger, including sacking officials and granting Syrian nationality to thousands of Kurds, a long-ostracised minority. But the gestures have failed to satisfy protesters, who demand political freedoms and an end to the decades-old emergency laws that allow the regime to arrest people without charge.

On Tuesday Human Rights Watch condemned security forces for barring access to medical care. UK citizens were warned against "all but essential" travel to Syria and all travel to Banias, where residents are now holding a three-day strike.

Just Who Is the Opposition To Assad In Syria? Would It Surprise You If One Was...(wait for it)...The Muslim Brotherhood

We've been watching the bloodbath going on in Syria as President Assad tries to put down some pretty pesky protests across the country and believe me, I would LOVE to see Assad fall (I'd actually really like to see him hung from a crane) but if you dig more into what exactly is going on in Syria, you'll find the same damn scenario that we have found in Egypt and other countries going through violent change - the opposition is no better than that in power...and sometimes might be worse.

One of the major opposition forces to Assad's Bathist party and rule is none other than The Muslim Brotherhood - I know, you are probably wondering where in the HELL these guys AREN'T!

From the report at The Jerusalem Post:

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad faces the most serious challenge of his 11-year rule from a wave of protests calling for public freedoms and an end to corruption.

Opposition parties are banned in Syrian under emergency law introduced when the Baath Party seized power in 1963.

Although dozens of parties exist, including leftist, secularist, Islamist and Arab nationalist parties, decades of repression have forced them underground or into exile, leaving formal opposition weakened and fragmented.

The most influential opposition groups are the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, Kurdish nationalists, and an alliance of liberal, leftist, Islamist and Kurdish figures who produced the 2005 Damascus Declaration calling for peaceful reform in Syria.

Here is a summary of Syrian opposition groups and figures, in Syria and in exile:

MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

- Membership of the Muslim Brotherhood was made a capital offense in Syria in 1980. Two years later, the late President Hafez al-Assad put down an armed uprising by the Brotherhood in the city of Hama. Human rights groups said at least 20,000 people were killed.

The group's leader, Mohammad Riad Shaqfa, operating from exile, says the Brotherhood seeks non-violent democratic change to replace autocratic rule with a plural system where it can present an Islam-based manifesto to a free vote. It says it does not want an Islamic state in Syria.

The only advantage to seeing some of these opposition parties become successful in Syria would be to break the alliance and influence that Iran has on Syria - that would be a big plus. Syria is a major key player for Iran's goals for destroying Israel as Syria has always played big brother to the misfits at Hezbollah. At the same time, the Syrians offer up a fairly well trained military to the Iranians.

At the same time, as you read the article, you see that the nutjobs seeking power in Syria are a disaster in waiting. Any way you skin it, it means bad news for Israel unless somehow miraculously the Kurdish forces or the secularists were to prevail.

Syrian President Assad's emboldened opponents


AMMAN - Syria's President Bashar al-Assad faces the most serious challenge of his 11-year rule from a wave of protests calling for public freedoms and an end to corruption.

Opposition parties are banned in Syrian under emergency law introduced when the Baath Party seized power in 1963.

Although dozens of parties exist, including leftist, secularist, Islamist and Arab nationalist parties, decades of repression have forced them underground or into exile, leaving formal opposition weakened and fragmented.

The most influential opposition groups are the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, Kurdish nationalists, and an alliance of liberal, leftist, Islamist and Kurdish figures who produced the 2005 Damascus Declaration calling for peaceful reform in Syria.

Here is a summary of Syrian opposition groups and figures, in Syria and in exile:

MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

- Membership of the Muslim Brotherhood was made a capital offense in Syria in 1980. Two years later, the late President Hafez al-Assad put down an armed uprising by the Brotherhood in the city of Hama. Human rights groups said at least 20,000 people were killed.

The group's leader, Mohammad Riad Shaqfa, operating from exile, says the Brotherhood seeks non-violent democratic change to replace autocratic rule with a plural system where it can present an Islam-based manifesto to a free vote. It says it does not want an Islamic state in Syria.

KURDISH PARTIES

- Kurdish groups have sought civic rights for Kurds in Syria, and won a pledge from Assad last week that tens of thousands of stateless Kurds would be granted citizenship.
But authorities have countered efforts to organize Syria's minority Kurds into an effective political force by jailing Kurdish leaders and trying to appease Kurdish tribes. Charismatic Kurdish leader Mishaal al-Tammo was jailed for three and half years in 2009 for "weakening national morale". Habib Ibrahim, a former political prisoner, is taking a more active role as protests against Assad's rule intensify.

OPPOSITION FIGURES (in Syria)

- RIAD TURK is the leading opponent of the Baath Party's monopoly on Syria's political system.

Turk has spent 25 years in jail, including 17 in solitary confinement. During the Damascus Spring, a period dominated by calls for democratic reform that lasted almost a year after Bashar succeeded his father in 2000, Turk warned that Assad would not hesitate to use repression to crush Syria's democrats.

- AREF DALILA is a former dean of economics at Damascus University who has campaigned for decades for a democratic alternative to the Baath Party. He was jailed from 2001 to 2008 after he criticized a cellphone concession granted to Assad's cousin, tycoon Rami Makhlouf, who in the eyes of protesters is a symbol of corruption in Syria.

- ANWAR BUNNI is scion of a political family known for unflinching opposition to the Baath Party's monopoly of power. Bunni, a human rights lawyer from the city of Hama, championed the cause of Syria's political prisoners before being sentenced to five years in jail 2005 for "weakening national morale".

- HAITHAM MALEH is a former judge who challenged the Baath Party takeover of the judiciary and professional unions. Jailed for six years in the 1980s, Maleh was sentenced again last year but released last month under an amnesty for prisoners over 70.

- AHMAD TUMEH is a physician and respected civic figure from the province of Raqqa, one of the areas hardest hit by a water crisis over the last six years that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Tumeh was one of a group of 12 who were arrested in 2007 and jailed for two and a half years after they tried to revive the Damascus Declaration.

- FAWAZ TELLO was jailed five years for his role in the Damascus Spring. An engineer by training, Tello has been working quietly since his release in 2006 to further the cause of human rights in Syria and strengthen the democratic movement.

OPPOSITION FIGURES (in exile)

ABDELHALIM KHADDAM, a former vice president who resigned and defected from the Baath Party in 2005, has said Assad's promises of reform do not go far enough and called for the creation of a new constitution based on a parliamentary democracy.

But opposition figures distrust Khaddam because of his decades of service in the Baath Party, and massive wealth he accumulated while he was in office.

RIFAAT AL-ASSAD turned against his brother, President Hafez al-Assad and lives in exile in Spain. Rifaat, now a wealthy businessman, has loyalists among Syria's Alawite minority but his role in crushing the 1982 Hama uprising, where forces under his command killed thousands, means he has limited influence among majority Sunnis.

MAAMOUN AL-HOMSI, a former member of parliament and businessman now based in Canada, was jailed for five years in 2001 for taking part in the Damascus Spring. He has said he expects Assad to replace Syria's emergency law with equally draconian anti-terrorism legislation.

EMERGING FIGURES IN CURRENT PROTESTS

MOUAZ AL-KHATIB is head of the independent Islamic Civilization society. Seen as an enlightened religious figure, Khatib has moved to assure Syria's minorities that the diversity of the country would be respected if Assad falls.

"We call for freedom for every person. For every Sunni, Alawite, Ismaili and Christian, whether Arab or a member of the great Kurdish nation," Khatib told protesters this month.

MONTAHA AL-ATRASH is a leading member of the human rights organization Sawasiah. Her stature as daughter of Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, who led a revolt against French colonial rule, helped elevate her as a spokesperson for non-violent democratic change. She has publicly questioned official assertions that Assad was the only person qualified to rule Syria.

SUHAIR AL-ATASSI played a key role in a March 16 protest in Damascus seeking the release of political prisoners and 15 children arrested in the city of Deraa for writing slogans on walls inspired by the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions.

She was arrested by secret police at the protest, two days before the eruption of the Deraa uprising, which later spread across the country. She was released earlier this month.

Syrian Security Forces Attack City of Banias, Armed Protesters Retaliate Killing 9 Soldiers

Syria continues to heat up on more and more fronts and in the city of Banias, Syrian security forces descended upon the city firing at will at anything that moved killing four people. Later in the day, armed residents set up an ambush and it a Syrian army patrol, killing 9 soldiers including at least one commander.

From the report at DAWN:

Syrian government forces killed at least four people and wounded 17 when they strafed a residential area of the coastal town of Banias with gunfire for hours on Sunday, witnesses told AFP.

Nine soldiers including two officers were later killed and several soldiers wounded when their patrol was ambushed near the northwestern coastal town, the official SANA news agency reported, updating a previous toll.

The latest deadly violence came one day after mourners in the southern town of Daraa, epicentre of more than three weeks of pro-democracy protests, buried around 20 demonstrators killed by security forces.

In Banias, the civilian toll was at least four dead and 17 wounded on Sunday from shooting by security forces in the neighbourhood of Ras al-Nabee, where the Al-Rahman mosque has been a focal point of anti-regime demonstrations.

“The army and security forces and gunmen besieged the town from all sides and fired without interruption for several hours,” a university professor told AFP.

“(President) Bashar al-Assad is sending us a message: punish those who dare demand freedom with death,” he said.

Last I checked, Hillary Clinton has said that nothing would be done about Syria because Assad is considered a "reformer." Yeah right.

I am a bit surprised that Assad hasn't put more of a handle on this situation - the man is ruthless and this attack on this city is evidence of that but it appears that over the years he has pissed off more people that we might have believed.

Deadly clashes hit Syrian town of Banias


DAMASCUS: Syrian government forces killed at least four people and wounded 17 when they strafed a residential area of the coastal town of Banias with gunfire for hours on Sunday, witnesses told AFP.

Nine soldiers including two officers were later killed and several soldiers wounded when their patrol was ambushed near the northwestern coastal town, the official SANA news agency reported, updating a previous toll.

The latest deadly violence came one day after mourners in the southern town of Daraa, epicentre of more than three weeks of pro-democracy protests, buried around 20 demonstrators killed by security forces.

In Banias, the civilian toll was at least four dead and 17 wounded on Sunday from shooting by security forces in the neighbourhood of Ras al-Nabee, where the Al-Rahman mosque has been a focal point of anti-regime demonstrations.

“The army and security forces and gunmen besieged the town from all sides and fired without interruption for several hours,” a university professor told AFP.

“(President) Bashar al-Assad is sending us a message: punish those who dare demand freedom with death,” he said.

The gunfire came from the Alawite neighbourhood of Al-Quz, two witnesses said, with one adding that it was “a real massacre with snipers shooting to kill.” A rights activist said the shots were aimed at the mosque and left “four dead and 15 wounded.” State news agency SANA had said before revising its toll upwards that a security officer was killed and another critically wounded in apparent retaliation.

“At 4:00 pm, an army unit between Latakia and Tartus was ambushed by an armed group by the roadside in trees and buildings,” the agency quoted an official as saying.

“One officer was killed and another critically wounded, and several soldiers were also wounded. The armed forces are hunting down the elements of this armed group to arrest them and bring them to justice.” Banias residents on Saturday had reportedly agreed to stage a rooftop protest at 10:00 pm to call for the fall of the regime, but by 8:30 all land lines and cell phones were cut.

A witness said residents had set up checkpoints to guard their neighbourhoods against unrest.

All of the witnesses and activists who spoke to AFP requested anonymity, citing security concerns.

Five people had already been wounded earlier on Sunday in Banias in a drive-by shooting reportedly by plainclothes government agents in the Mediterranean town, according to a witness.

Seven cars “carrying people sent by the regime arrived in front of the Abu Bakr al-Sidiq mosque and their occupants opened fire” during morning prayers, the witness said.

The perpetrators quickly took flight, although witnesses were able to record the licence plates of some of their vehicles.

“The people behind this shooting are regime thugs and their names are known to us,” the witness said, and added that peaceful demonstrations had also been held in Banias on Saturday afternoon.

Anti-regime demonstrations and clashes with security forces raged across the country on Friday leaving 28 dead, including 26 in Daraa, according to an updated toll by six Syrian rights groups.

And on Saturday security forces shot at protesters in Daraa, wounding two people, an activist said, as a huge crowd buried the dead from the previous day.

The organisations on Sunday voiced their “concern at the determination of Syrian authorities to continue violating essential rights and freedoms.”An unprecedented opposition movement erupted in Syria on March 15 challenging the regime of Assad, who has been in power since 2000, to introduce major political reforms.

Assad, who has made only one public address since the start of unrest, on Sunday told Bulgaria’s visiting foreign minister that “Syria was on the road to general reforms,” SANA reported.

Since the political unrest erupted, the authorities have been pinning responsibility for protest-related violence on “armed groups,” and the interior minister warned on Saturday that he would act firmly.

Assad last month ordered a legal committee to draft new legislation to replace emergency laws, in force since 1963, which give security services great leeway to crush dissent. – AFP

Syrian Protests Spread To 25 Cities, 50 Protesters Killed In One Day

Good old Assad in Syria has a real mess on his dirty blood-stained hands and it appears to be getting worse. Much worse. Yesterday, as many as 50 Syrian protesters were shot dead in the riots that are now taking place in 25 Syrian cities.

From the report at DEBKA:

The pro-democracy, anti-Assad days of rage spread dramatically across Syria Friday, April 8, flaring in 25 cities and seriously shaking Bashar Assad's 11-year old grip on power for the first time since the movement began three weeks ago. At least 50 people were killed – 30 demonstrators and 20 security officers - and hundreds injured - many of them in the southern town of Daraa, the epicenter of the opposition movement.

There, around 100,000 protesters gathered from villages around the town and managed to drive Assad's security forces into retreat. Four Damascus suburbs were the scene of demonstrations as well as, for the first time, Tartous, Abu Kemal and Hamma. Kurdish cities were also aflame with protest.
To topple Assad, the Sunnis, who are 76 percent of the Syria's population of 26 million, must join the protest movement en masse. Friday, they began hitching their support to the protest movement in sunstantial numbers for the first time.

Outbreaks in Hamma, where 29 years ago Bashar Assad's father put down an uprising by slaughtering 25,000 Sunnis, indicate that the Sunni population has crossed the fear threshold which kept it docile under Assad rule.

But don't worry folks, Assad has NO problem with the number of Syrians he needs to kill in the process of trying to restore order. But what he is finding out is that the people in Syria are not backing down like those in Tehran's protests.

At last check, the death toll of civilians in Syria far surpasses those of what went down in Libya...but to date, I have heard nothing but support from the Syrian government from Hillary Clinton. Let's review...the U.S. decided to take military actions against Ghadaffi because he MIGHT kill civilians yet the U.S. has done nothing in Syria where Assad IS killing civilians.

Everyone got that now?

More than 50 killed as protests spread to 25 Syrian towns


The pro-democracy, anti-Assad days of rage spread dramatically across Syria Friday, April 8, flaring in 25 cities and seriously shaking Bashar Assad's 11-year old grip on power for the first time since the movement began three weeks ago. At least 50 people were killed – 30 demonstrators and 20 security officers - and hundreds injured - many of them in the southern town of Daraa, the epicenter of the opposition movement.

There, around 100,000 protesters gathered from villages around the town and managed to drive Assad's security forces into retreat. Four Damascus suburbs were the scene of demonstrations as well as, for the first time, Tartous, Abu Kemal and Hamma. Kurdish cities were also aflame with protest.
To topple Assad, the Sunnis, who are 76 percent of the Syria's population of 26 million, must join the protest movement en masse. Friday, they began hitching their support to the protest movement in sunstantial numbers for the first time.

Outbreaks in Hamma, where 29 years ago Bashar Assad's father put down an uprising by slaughtering 25,000 Sunnis, indicate that the Sunni population has crossed the fear threshold which kept it docile under Assad rule.

Until this Friday, the heads of Syrian Revolution 2011, the front established by opposition groups and the Muslim Brotherhood, instigated a campaign of passive resistance. They told the population, for example, to stop paying their electricity bills, an act of protest that has caught on in Syria's big cities. Furthermore, the important port-town of Latakia split down the middle between two opposing camps – the 300,000 members of the ruling Allawite sect fear to venture into the districts populated by the town's 400,000 Sunnis – and vice versa.

Army control was reduced to keeping open the road linking the Syria's main import and export port facilities to the highway out of the city.
The disturbances Friday did not reach the center of Damascus or Aleppo, a Sunni city of 2.8 million inhabitants which is Syria's economic hub. Major outbreaks there would drive a big crack in Assad's hold on power..

The Syrian ruler has poured substantial armed strength into the city, cutting its Internet links and arresting thousands of people suspected of opposition ties. But he faces a huge problem. He can't trust the Sunni rank and file to obey orders to suppress a large-scale Sunni insurrection in Aleppo - only the Alawite units which owe loyalty to the president and the Assad clan. He must therefore rely on the support of the 4th Army Division and the security and intelligence services and they may be too thin on the ground to shoulder the task. He dare not try and loose Sunni troops on the protesters of Aleppo for fear they join the protesters.

Raw Video: Deadly Day of Protests in Syria - “Friday of Steadfastness”

Gunfire erupted after prayers in the southern city of Dara’a on Friday as security forces across Syria moved to counter a third week of protests against the government of President Bashar al-Assad..

There were conflicting reports of the number of dead in the town as well as who was shooting.

Wissam Tarif, director of a Syrian human rights group, said a doctor and medical student in Dara’a told him that 18 protesters had been killed in the clashes. Nine were shot in the head, he said. A Facebook group monitored by human rights activists in Syria said 24 had been killed in Dara’a and another 20 wounded.

Syrian state media said it was 19 security officers who had been killed and blamed gunmen who “opened fire on a group of citizens, security forces and police as worshippers left Friday prayer.” But video footage reportedly from Dara’a showed several dead and wounded men, none in uniforms.

The clash began as security forces on the bridge tried to keep two groups of protesters from joining together, the resident said. Chants of “Peaceful, peaceful!” rose through clouds of tear gas and the sounds of gunfire.

In a separate incident, state television reported that unidentified gunmen opened fire on an ambulance as it transported an injured man to the hospital in Dara’a, killing the driver.

More than 10,000 protesters took to the streets of several cities, including the capital, Damascus, and a suburb where at least 15 protesters were killed last Friday in clashes with security forces. Protest organizers had called for demonstrations against Mr. Assad’s administration in several provinces in what they dubbed a “Friday of Steadfastness.”

Iranians Arms Shipment Headed For Syria Is Seized At Turkey Airport

For the umpteenth time in the past few months, the Iranians continue to try and supply terror networks and rogue regimes around the world with weapons and fortunately, many of these have been seized in the process. The latest is a cargo plane that made a stop in Turkey - the cargo was supposed to be "spare auto parts" headed for Syria but that's not what the Iranians were sending to Syria and then probably on to Hezbollah.

From the article at Family Security Matters:

Turkey has seized a secret shipment of Iranian weapons heading to Syria, documents submitted to the U.N. Security council and obtained by Reuters reveal. The discovery was made while officials were inspecting an Iranian cargo plane that had landed at Turkey’s Diyarbakir Airport on a technical stop, carrying what it declared as “spare auto parts”.

The search, which uncovered 60 Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles, 14 BKC/Bixi machine guns, nearly 8,000 rounds of BKC/AK-47 ammunition, 560 60-mm mortar shells, and 1,288 120-mm mortar shells, is the latest in a series of Iranian violations of their U.N. weapons-trading embargo. Colombia's Nestor Osorio, who oversees the Iran sanctions committee, called the increase in sanctions violations a “matter of serious concern”.

The U.N. report, however, leaves a number of critical questions about the latest seizure in Turkey unanswered.

The first is regarding the ultimate destination of the weapons cargo. The plane’s documents mention only that it was headed to Aleppo, Syria. However, it is plausible that they may have been ultimately destined for Latakia – a major flashpoint in the destabilizing protests facing embattled president Bashar Assad, and a place the Reform Party of Syria (RPS) has suggested the Syrian regime might try and instigate sectarian violence.

Now, you can see from the article that some are believing that this shipment was meant for the area of protests in Syria and that could be true but that does speak to the lack of arms in Syria...I find it hard to believe that Syria is sitting around with no arms to send to their security forces in that trouble spot.

But this is just further evidence of the type of sabotage that the Iranians continue to do - we had the report of Iranian arms seized on their way to the Taliban in Afghanistan and then a few weeks later we have the Iranian arms on a ship that was headed for Hamas in Gaza that the Israelis seized. I wonder what the Iranians would say if an American freighter landed in their port with a dozen containers of weapons earmarked for the Green Revolution fighters?

Iranian Weapons Seized in Turkey


Turkey has seized a secret shipment of Iranian weapons heading to Syria, documents submitted to the U.N. Security council and obtained by Reuters reveal. The discovery was made while officials were inspecting an Iranian cargo plane that had landed at Turkey’s Diyarbakir Airport on a technical stop, carrying what it declared as “spare auto parts”.

The search, which uncovered 60 Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles, 14 BKC/Bixi machine guns, nearly 8,000 rounds of BKC/AK-47 ammunition, 560 60-mm mortar shells, and 1,288 120-mm mortar shells, is the latest in a series of Iranian violations of their U.N. weapons-trading embargo. Colombia's Nestor Osorio, who oversees the Iran sanctions committee, called the increase in sanctions violations a “matter of serious concern”.

The U.N. report, however, leaves a number of critical questions about the latest seizure in Turkey unanswered.

The first is regarding the ultimate destination of the weapons cargo. The plane’s documents mention only that it was headed to Aleppo, Syria. However, it is plausible that they may have been ultimately destined for Latakia – a major flashpoint in the destabilizing protests facing embattled president Bashar Assad, and a place the Reform Party of Syria (RPS) has suggested the Syrian regime might try and instigate sectarian violence.

Another critical and related question to consider is whether the growing number of Iranian weapons-trading infractions, which include, notably, Israel’s March 15th seizure of a boatload of Iranian weapons it claims were furnished for militants in Gaza, are actually a case of Iran increasing efforts to arm its assets by proxy, or whether its rivals are getting better at policing Iranian exports. In this case, the seizure of arms reflects very well on Turkish officials, who have garnered considerable criticism from both US and European officials for their inability to fully implement financial sanctions on Iran.

Finally, remaining unclear from the UN report is whom the crew of the Iranian cargo plane were and what their ties to groups in both Iran and Syria may be. According to Turkish officials they “denied any knowledge about the prohibited items on board, as well as the identity of the consignor or consignee.” Based on this Newsmax report Thursday, they have been released and allowed back to Tehran.

Syria....a Middle East Uprising That We Actually CAN Support

This is a great article regarding the uprising and protests in Syria and how in the aftermath of the same scenario happening in Egypt and Libya, where the alternative to the standing regimes is as bad if not worse, in Syria there truly is an uprising that we in the West can and should support.

From the article at Family Security Matters:

THE ANTI-REGIME protests in Syria are a welcome departure from the grim choices posed by Egypt and Libya because supporting the protesters in Syria is actually a good idea.

Assad is an unadulterated rogue. He is an illicit nuclear proliferator. Israel’s reported bombing of Assad’s North Korean-built, Iranian-financed nuclear reactor at Deir al-Zour in September 2007 did not end Assad’s nuclear adventures. Not only has he refused repeated requests from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect the site, commercial satellite imagery has exposed four other illicit nuclear sites in the country. The latest one, reportedly for the production of uranium yellowcake tetroflouride at Marj as Sultan near Damascus, was exposed last month by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.

Assad has a large stockpile of chemical weapons including Sarin gas and blister agents. In February 2009 Jane’s Intelligence Review reported that the Syrians were working intensively to expand their chemical arsenal. Based on commercial satellite imagery, Jane’s’ analysts concluded that Syria was expending significant efforts to update its chemical weapons facilities. Analysts claimed that Syria began its work upgrading its chemical weapons program in 2005 largely as a result of Saddam Hussein’s reported transfer of his chemical weapons arsenal to Syria ahead of the US-led invasion in 2003.

If the Assad regime is overthrown, it will constitute a major blow to both the Iranian regime and Hezbollah. In turn, Lebanon’s March 14 democracy movement and the Iranian Green Movement will be empowered by the defeat.

One thing I'd like to add to all of this - the American people have a vested interest in seeing Assad taken out. Over a major stretch of the Iraq War, when our young soldiers and Marines battled al Qaeda in Iraq, Bashar Assad made it very easy for jihadis from north Africa as well as Saudi Arabia to enter the battle using his border with Iraq. If you recall, there was even a U.S. operation that crossed the border into Syria at one point to take out a known weapons and jihadi runner.

So once again, we have a regime in an islamic country that Barack Hussein Obama SHOULD be working to remove (just like the revolution a year and a half ago in Iran) but he is not. Hillary Clinton over the weekend mentioned that Assad is using more force than she would like to see but that Assad was off limits because he is a "reformer." A reformer? Hmmmm....

The Syrian Spring


Amidst the many dangers posed by the political conflagration now engulfing the Arab world, we are presented with a unique opportunity in Syria. In Egypt, the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak has empowered the Muslim Brotherhood. The Sunni jihadist movement which spawned al-Qaeda and Hamas is expected to emerge as the strongest political force after the parliamentary elections in September.

Just a month after they demanded Mubarak’s ouster, an acute case of buyer’s remorse is now plaguing his Western detractors. As the Brotherhood’s stature rises higher by the day, Western media outlets as diverse as The New York Times and Commentary Magazine are belatedly admitting that Mubarak was better than the available alternatives.

Likewise in Libya, even as US-led NATO forces continue to bomb Muammar Gaddafi’s loyalists, there is a growing recognition that the NATO-supported rebels are not exactly the French Resistance. Last Friday’s Daily Telegraph report confirming that al-Qaeda-affiliated veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are now counted among the rebels the US is supporting against Gaddafi, struck a deep blow to public support for the war.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s admission Sunday that Gaddafi posed no threat to the US and that its military intervention against Gaddafi does not serve any vital interest similarly served to sour the American public on the war effort.

After al-Qaeda’s participation in the anti-Gaddafi rebellion was revealed, the strongest argument for maintaining support for the rebels became the dubious claim that a US failure to back the al-Qaeda penetrated rebellion will convince the non-al-Qaeda rebels to join the terrorist organization. But of course, this is a losing argument. If supporting al-Qaeda is an acceptable default position for the rebels, then how can it be argued that they will be an improvement over Gaddafi?

THE ANTI-REGIME protests in Syria are a welcome departure from the grim choices posed by Egypt and Libya because supporting the protesters in Syria is actually a good idea.

Assad is an unadulterated rogue. He is an illicit nuclear proliferator. Israel’s reported bombing of Assad’s North Korean-built, Iranian-financed nuclear reactor at Deir al-Zour in September 2007 did not end Assad’s nuclear adventures. Not only has he refused repeated requests from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect the site, commercial satellite imagery has exposed four other illicit nuclear sites in the country. The latest one, reportedly for the production of uranium yellowcake tetroflouride at Marj as Sultan near Damascus, was exposed last month by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.

Assad has a large stockpile of chemical weapons including Sarin gas and blister agents. In February 2009 Jane’s Intelligence Review reported that the Syrians were working intensively to expand their chemical arsenal. Based on commercial satellite imagery, Jane’s’ analysts concluded that Syria was expending significant efforts to update its chemical weapons facilities. Analysts claimed that Syria began its work upgrading its chemical weapons program in 2005 largely as a result of Saddam Hussein’s reported transfer of his chemical weapons arsenal to Syria ahead of the US-led invasion in 2003.

The Jane’s report also claimed that Assad’s men had built new missile bays for specially adapted Scud missiles equipped to hold chemical warheads at the updated chemical weapons sites.

As for missiles, with North Korean, Iranian, Russian, Chinese and other third-party assistance, Syria has developed a massive arsenal of ballistic missile and advanced artillery capable of hitting every spot in Israel and wreaking havoc on IDF troop formations and bases.

Beyond its burgeoning unconventional arsenals, Assad is a major sponsor of terrorism. He has allowed Syria to be used as a transit point for al-Qaida terrorists en route to Iraq. Assad’s Syria is second only to Iran’s ayatollahs in its sponsorship of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders live in Damascus. As Hezbollah terror commander Imad Mughniyeh’s assassination in Damascus in February 2008 exposed, the Syrian capital serves as Hezbollah’s operational hub. The group’s logistical bases are located in Syria.

If the Assad regime is overthrown, it will constitute a major blow to both the Iranian regime and Hezbollah. In turn, Lebanon’s March 14 democracy movement and the Iranian Green Movement will be empowered by the defeat.

Obviously aware of the dangers, Iranian Revolutionary Guards forces and Hezbollah operatives have reportedly been deeply involved in the violent repression of protesters in Syria. Their involvement is apparently so widespread that among the various chants adopted by the protesters is a call for the eradication of Hezbollah.

MENTION OF Lebanon’s March 14 movement and Iran’s Green Movement serves as a reminder that the political upheavals ensnaring the Arab world did not begin in December when Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire in Tunisia. Arguably, the fire was lit in April 2003 when jubilant Iraqis brought down a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad.

The first place the fire spread from there was Syria. Inspired by the establishment of autonomous Kurdistan in Iraq, in May 2004 Syria’s harshly repressed Kurdish minority staged mass protests that quickly spread throughout the country from the Kurdish enclaves in northern Syria. Assad was quick to violently quell the protests.

Like Gaddafi today, seven years ago Assad deployed his air force against the Kurds.

Scores were killed and thousands were arrested. Many of those arrested were tortured by Assad’s forces.

The discrimination that Kurds have faced under Assad and his father is appalling. Since the 1970s, more than 300,000 Kurds have been stripped of their Syrian citizenship. They have been forcibly ejected from their homes and villages in the north and resettled in squalid refugee camps in the south. The expressed purpose of these racist policies has been to prevent territorial contiguity between Syrian, Iraqi and Turkish Kurds and to “Arabize” Syrian Kurdistan where most of Syria’s oil deposits are located.

The Kurds make up around 10 percent of Syria’s population. They oppose not only the Baathist regime, but also the Muslim Brotherhood. Represented in exile by the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria, since 2004 they have sought the overthrow of the Assad regime and its replacement by democratic, decentralized federal government. Decentralizing authority, they believe, is the best way to check tyranny of both the Baathist and the Muslim Brotherhood variety. The Kurdish demand for a federal government has been endorsed by the Sunni-led exile Syrian Reform Party.

This week the KNA released a statement to the world community. Speaking for Syria’s Kurds and for their Arab, Druse, Alevi and Christian allies in Syria, it asked for the “US, France, UK and international organizations to seek [a] UN resolution condemning [the] Syrian regime for using violence against [the Syrian] people.”

The KNA’s statement requested that the US and its allies “ask for UN-sponsored committees to investigate the recent violence in Syria, including the violence used against the Kurds in 2004.”

The KNA warns, “If the US and its allies fail to support democratic opposition [groups] such as the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria and others, [they] will be making a grave mistake,” because they will enable “radical groups to rise and undermine any democratic movements,” and empower the likes of Hezbollah and Iran.

Led by Chairman Sherkoh Abbas, the KNA has asked the US Congress to hold hearings on Syria and allow representatives of the opposition to state their case for regime change.

Opponents of regime change in Syria argue that if Assad is overthrown, the Muslim Brotherhood will take over. This may be true, although the presence of a well-organized Kurdish opposition means it may be more difficult for the Brotherhood to take charge than it has been in Egypt.

Aside from that, whereas the Brotherhood is clearly a worse alternative in Egypt than Mubarak was, it is far from clear that it would be worse for Syria to be led by the Brotherhood than by Assad. What would a Muslim Brotherhood regime do that Assad isn’t already doing? At a minimum, a successor regime will be weaker than the current one. Consequently, even if Syria is taken over by jihadists, they will pose less of an immediate threat to the region than Assad. They will be much more vulnerable to domestic opposition and subversion.

EVEN IF Assad is not overthrown, and is merely forced to contain the opposition over the long haul, this too would be an improvement over what we have experienced to date. In the absence of domestic unrest, Assad has been free to engineer and support Hezbollah’s coup d'etat in Lebanon, develop nuclear weapons and generally act as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s sub-contractor.

But now, in a bid to quell the anti-regime protests, Assad has been forced to deploy his military to his own towns and villages. Compelled to devote his energies to staying in power, Assad has little time to stir up fires elsewhere.

The first beneficiary of his weakness will be Jordan’s King Abdullah who now needs to worry less about Assad enabling a Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood-instigated civil war in Jordan.

Depressingly, under the Obama administration the US will not lift a finger to support Syrian regime opponents. In media interviews Sunday, not only did Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rule out the use of force to overthrow Assad, as his troops were killing anti-regime protesters, Clinton went so far as to praise Assad as “a reformer.”

The US retreat from strategic rationality is tragic. But just because President Barack Obama limits American intervention in the Middle East to the places it can do the most harm such as Egypt, Libya and the Palestinian conflict with Israel, there is no reason for Israel not to act independently to help Assad’s domestic opponents.

Israel should arm the Kurds. Israeli leaders and spokesmen should speak out on behalf of Syria’s Kurds from every bully pulpit that comes their way. Our leaders should also speak out against Assad and his proliferation of missiles and weapons of mass destruction.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should ask the UN to speed up the release of the indictments in the investigation of the late Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman should call on the UN to behave honestly and indict Assad for ordering Hariri’s murder.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak should release information about Syria’s transfer of weapons to Hamas and Hezbollah. The government should release information about Syria’s use of terror against the Druse. Netanyahu must also state publicly that in light of the turbulence of the Arab world generally, and Assad’s murderous aggression against his own people and his neighbors specifically, Israel is committed to maintaining perpetual sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

We are living through dangerous times. But even now there is much we can do to emerge stronger from the political storm raging around us. Syria’s revolt is a rare opportunity. We’d better not squander it.

The Streets Are Running Red With Blood In Syria

Anti-Assad Syrian protesters shout slogans outside a mosque after Friday prayers in Damascus, Syria, Friday, March 25, 2011. - Photo by AP.


Syria is fast becoming the most deadly of all of the Middle East uprising to date and it looks like it will only get worse. There is one unofficial report that 20 people were killed just today in one city in Syria and the way it is panning out across the area, that report more than likely is true.

From the article at DAWN:

In the southern city of Deraa, which has been in revolt for a week, gunfire and tear gas scattered a crowd of thousands after people lit a fire under a statue of late president Hafez al-Assad, whose son Bashar has ruled since his death in 2000.

Al Jazeera aired comments by a man who said security forces had killed 20 people on Friday in the nearby town of Sanamein.

In Hama, in the centre of the country, where the elder Assad put down a revolt in 1982 at a cost of many thousands of lives, residents said people streamed through the streets after weekly prayers chanting “Freedom is ringing out!” — a slogan heard in uprisings sweeping the rest of the Arab world.

The same chant had earlier marked funeral processions in Deraa for some of the at least 37 people killed on Wednesday, when security agents attacked pro-democracy groups at a mosque.

In all, 44 deaths have been reported in the past week in Deraa.

Security men, on alert across the country during weekly prayers at mosques, quickly stifled a small demonstration in the capital Damascus. They hauled away dozens among a crowd of some 200 who chanted their support for people of Deraa.

The other day I blogged about Syrian President Assad calling in the Revolutionary Guard from Iran to assist and I couldn't quite understand why...well, I'm not beginning to see that Assad must have had intelligence that this thing was going to blow sky high and he was facing a serious large scale uprising.

You'll notice in the article a reference to how ruthlessly Assad's old man was when he put down an uprising...it appears that the apple didn't fall far from the tree in that family.

Protests spread against Assad rule in Syria


DAMASCUS: In the southern city of Deraa, which has been in revolt for a week, gunfire and tear gas scattered a crowd of thousands after people lit a fire under a statue of late president Hafez al-Assad, whose son Bashar has ruled since his death in 2000.

Al Jazeera aired comments by a man who said security forces had killed 20 people on Friday in the nearby town of Sanamein.

In Hama, in the centre of the country, where the elder Assad put down a revolt in 1982 at a cost of many thousands of lives, residents said people streamed through the streets after weekly prayers chanting “Freedom is ringing out!” — a slogan heard in uprisings sweeping the rest of the Arab world.

The same chant had earlier marked funeral processions in Deraa for some of the at least 37 people killed on Wednesday, when security agents attacked pro-democracy groups at a mosque.

In all, 44 deaths have been reported in the past week in Deraa.

Security men, on alert across the country during weekly prayers at mosques, quickly stifled a small demonstration in the capital Damascus. They hauled away dozens among a crowd of some 200 who chanted their support for people of Deraa.

In Tel, near Damascus, about 1,000 people rallied and chanted slogans calling relatives of Assad “thieves”.

DERAA VIOLENCE

In Deraa itself, a bastion of the Sunni majority which resents the power and wealth amassed by the Alawite elite around Assad, a Reuters correspondent saw thousands rally unchallenged until the sound of heavy gunfire sent them running for cover.

Unrest in Deraa came to a head this week after police detained more than a dozen schoolchildren for writing graffiti against the government. In Damascus, a couple of protests by a few dozen people shouting slogans were broken up last week.

Among the targets of the crowd’s anger on Friday was Maher al-Assad, a brother of the president and head of the Republican Guard, a special security force, and Rami Makhlouf, a cousin who runs big businesses and is accused by Washington of corruption.

Allied with Shia, non-Arab Iran against the Western powers and neighbouring Israel, Assad’s Syria sits at the heart of a complex web of conflict in the Middle East.

His anti-Israel stance has protected him against some of the criticism aimed, for example, at Egypt’s deposed leader Hosni Mubarak, who defended a peace treaty with the Jewish state.

Demonstrators in Deraa turned that hostility to Israel against the government on Friday, highlighting the use of force against them and the failure of the Assads to take back the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in a 1967 war.

“Maher, you coward!” they chanted. “Send your troops to liberate the Golan!”

In Deraa, before the Friday midday prayers which are the high point of social interaction in much of the Arab world, a procession of cars coursed through the streets honking horns and raising pictures of the president. There were also pro-Assad congregations in other parts of the city.

Minarets in Deraa echoed throughout the morning with the calls of imams to the faithful to attend funerals of some of the civilians killed, most of them when security forces fired on demonstrators in the mainly Sunni Muslim city on Wednesday.

A Facebook page called Syrian Revolution called on people to gather on the “Friday of Dignity” after prayers, “in all mosques, in all provinces, in the biggest squares”.

Bashar al-Assad promised on Thursday to look into granting Syrians greater freedoms in an attempt to defuse the outbreak of popular demands for political freedoms and an end to corruption.

He also pledged to look at ending an emergency law in place since 1963 and made an offer of large public pay rises.

Syrian security forces pulled out on Thursday from the mosque where several people were killed. People later converged on the mosque to celebrate its “liberation”, setting off fireworks and honking car horns.

POSSIBLE REFORMS

As an aide announced Assad would study a possible end to 48 years of emergency rule, a human rights group said a leading pro-democracy activist, Mazen Darwish, had been arrested.

On Jan. 31, Assad had said there was no chance political upheavals then shaking Tunisia and Egypt would spread to Syria.

The Baath Party, which has ruled Syria tightly since a 1963 coup, would draft laws to provide for media freedoms, and look at allowing other political movements, Assad’s aide said. The party would also seek to lift living standards.

Assad, who has strengthened Syria’s ties with Iran, has come under criticism for his handling of the protests. The United States described the shootings of protesters as “brutal”.

Syrian Security Forces Kill Six Protesters Outside of Mosque

Things are certainly heating up in the Syrian protests and this morning, Syrian security forces lit up the day by shooting and killing six of the protesters.

From the report at The Telegraph:

Syrian security forces killed at least six people during an attack at a mosque in the southern city of Deraa, in the deadliest crackdown yet on recent protests challenging President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

Residents said that before the attack on the Omari mosque in the city's old quarter late on Tuesday, electricity was cut off in the area and telephone services were severed.

Deraa has been the focal point of recent demonstrations against the repressive rule of Assad. Cries of "Allahu Akbar (God is the greatest)" erupted across neighbourhoods in Deraa when the shooting began.

The attack brought to 10 the number of civilians killed by Syrian forces during six days of demonstrations calling for political freedoms and an end to corruption in the country of 20 million people.

The ruling Ba’ath party has banned opposition and enforced emergency laws since 1963.

Let's see here...we have a dictator in Bashar Assad, a bit like Moammar Ghaddafi in Libya. And the Syrian forces are killing civilians like Libyan forces were doing. Check. Human rights organizations are crying out that Syria is using excessive force in putting down the demonstrations like they did in Libya. Check. So, is there a no fly zone on tap for Syria? Is Barack Obama going to fire off 200 Tomahawk missiles on Damascus? LOL Not bloody likely.

Syrian forces kill mosque protesters as violence escalates


Syrian security forces killed at least six people during an attack at a mosque in the southern city of Deraa, in the deadliest crackdown yet on recent protests challenging President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

Residents said that before the attack on the Omari mosque in the city's old quarter late on Tuesday, electricity was cut off in the area and telephone services were severed.

Deraa has been the focal point of recent demonstrations against the repressive rule of Assad. Cries of "Allahu Akbar (God is the greatest)" erupted across neighbourhoods in Deraa when the shooting began.

The attack brought to 10 the number of civilians killed by Syrian forces during six days of demonstrations calling for political freedoms and an end to corruption in the country of 20 million people.

The ruling Ba’ath party has banned opposition and enforced emergency laws since 1963.

Assad's government, which is facing the biggest challenge to his rule since succeeding his father Hafez al-Assad in 2000, blamed an "armed gang" for the violence.

Those killed included Ali Ghassab al-Mahamid, a doctor from a prominent Deraa family, who went to the mosque to help victims of the attack.

"Dr Mahamid was shot by a sniper. The phone networks have been disrupted but we got through to people near the mosque on Jordanian mobile phone lines," said one resident of Deraa, which is on the border with Jordan.

A political activist, who also declined to be identified, said: "The old quarter is in total darkness and it is still difficult to know exactly what happened."

It was not immediately clear whether the protesters had any weapons.

The attack occurred a day after the UN. Office for Human Rights said the authorities "need to put an immediate halt to the excessive use of force against peaceful protesters, especially the use of live ammunition".

The protesters, who erected tents in the mosque's grounds, said earlier they were going to remain at the site until their demands were met.

The mosque's preacher, Ahmad Siasneh, told Arabiya television on Tuesday that the mosque protest was peaceful.

Protesters also gathered in the nearby town of Nawa.

On Tuesday, Vice President Farouq al-Shara said Assad was committed to "continue the path of reform and modernisation in Syria", Lebanon's al-Manar television reported.

A main demand of the protesters is an end to what they term repression by the secret police, headed in Deraa province by a cousin of Assad.

Authorities arrested a leading campaigner who had supported the protesters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It said Loay Hussein, a political prisoner from 1984 to 1991, was taken from his home near Damascus.

Syria has been under emergency law since the Ba’ath party took power in a 1963, banning any opposition and ushering in decades of economic retreat characterised by nationalisation.

Assad has lifted some bans on private enterprise but has ignored demands to end emergency law, curb a pervasive security apparatus, develop rule of law, free political prisoners, allow freedom of expression, and reveal the fate of tens of thousands of dissenters who disappeared in the 1980s.

He has emerged in the last four years from isolation by the West over Syria's role in Lebanon and Iraq and backing for mostly Palestinian militant groups.

Assad strengthened Syria's ties with Shi'ite Iran as he sought to improve relations with the United States and strike a peace deal with Israel to regain the occupied Golan Heights, lost in the 1967 Middle East war.

Limited economic liberalisation in the last decade has been marked by the rise of Rami Makhlouf, another cousin of Assad, as a business tycoon controlling key companies.

Makhlouf, under US sanctions for what Washington deems public corruption, has been a target of protesters' anger. They describe him as a "thief". He says he is a legitimate businessman helping to bring economic progress to Syria.

The Syrian protesters have been encouraged by recent successful demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt.

Whoa! Syria Uses Iranian Revolutionary Guards To Attack Protesters

Many might have thought that Syria's leader, Bashar Assad, might be immune from the wave of uprisings in Middle East countries but think again...and now, good old Assad has decided to pull out all of the stops and have the Iranians come to his rescue as he apparently has ordered Iranian Revolutionary Guards to attack the protesters in the streets.

From the article at World Tribune:

Iran's elite military units have been deployed to attack protesters of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Opposition sources said Iran has sent units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to attack thousands of anti-Assad protesters in the city of Dera. They said IRGC transported hundreds of commandos via helicopter in what could mark the prelude to massive bloodshed.

"The IRGC landed before the killings, which means this is an intentional operation to massacre wholesale the people of Dera," the Reform Party of Syria said. "If true, the Syrian security in Dera has been penetrated."

Five protesters were killed by Syrian troops in Dera on March 18. The protesters flooded the streets of the southern city after Friday mosque prayers and were met by anti-riot and security forces armed with firearms and water cannons and supported by helicopters.

Now, I haven't a clue why Assad felt the need to call the Revolutionary Guard into this - for crying out loud, Syria has one of the better armies in the Middle East and some pretty damn nasty security forces as well - so, I can only guess that either the protesting side has a shit pot full of people or Assad thinks he can save some face for his troops if the people are all killed by "foreigners" but it really doesn't make that much sense to me.

But it does bring up an interesting spin on what's going down in the region - why would the U.S. agree to bomb Libyan targets and not Syrian targets when it is proven that Assad has brought in outside armies and forces to kill his own people? And could someone make the case that Iran has declared war on the Syrian people?

It's about time that the world gets to see the real Assad...a butcher and scoundrel - yeah, he's the same one that Nancy Pelosi raced over to try and become friends with. That one.

Iran's IRGC attacks anti-Assad protesters in Syria


LONDON — Iran's elite military units have been deployed to attack protesters of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Opposition sources said Iran has sent units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to attack thousands of anti-Assad protesters in the city of Dera. They said IRGC transported hundreds of commandos via helicopter in what could mark the prelude to massive bloodshed.

"The IRGC landed before the killings, which means this is an intentional operation to massacre wholesale the people of Dera," the Reform Party of Syria said. "If true, the Syrian security in Dera has been penetrated."

Five protesters were killed by Syrian troops in Dera on March 18. The protesters flooded the streets of the southern city after Friday mosque prayers and were met by anti-riot and security forces armed with firearms and water cannons and supported by helicopters.

Tribal leaders in Dera have warned that they intend to destroy all military and security facilities unless the Assad regime withdraws its troops. In their statement, the leaders were not identified.

"If our demands are not met, all security centers in the region, including Military Security, Political Security, National Security, and Air Force Security may be burned to the ground," a tribal statement said.

The sources said the Assad regime has been bolstered by both IRGC and the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah. They said both foreign forces were providing anti-riot, armored and air support for Assad's military and security agencies.

Dera marked the bloodiest response by the government to the growing protest movement in Syria. Other anti-regime demonstrations were reported in Banias, Damascus and Homs.

The Assad regime has acknowledged the killing of protesters in Dera. The Interior Ministry has pledged to investigate.