Sunday, August 11, 2013
Syrian
Sunday, August 11, 2013 by DXTR corporation
Syrian regime takes over crucial city of Qusayr; rebels say war's not over
By Saad Abedine and Holly Yan, CNN
June 5, 2013 -- Updated 2355 GMT (0755 HKT)
Free Syrian Army fighters move
through a hole in a wall in Khan al-Assal on Monday, July 22, after
seizing the town. Tensions in Syria flared in March 2011 during the
onset of the Arab Spring, escalating into an ongoing civil war. Click
through to view the most compelling images taken since the start of the
conflict.
HIDE CAPTION
Syrian civil war in photos
- NEW: More than 1,000 civilians are injured; many remain trapped, group says
- NEW: Hezbollah in Syria is "blatant" violation of Lebanon's sovereignty, White House says
- NEW: Some surprised by how U.S. wants more evidence on use of sarin gas, diplomat says
- NEW: Rockets fall on Alawite communities in Homs
State-run TV credited an offensive "that led to the annihilation of a number of terrorists," the government's term for rebels.
"Our heroic armed forces
are always determined to confront any aggression that our beloved
homeland may face in the future," an anchor on Syrian state television
said.
The Syrian opposition acknowledged the report.
Growing concern for besieged Syrian city
U.N.: War crimes happen daily in Syria
Who are the Syrian rebels?
Video evidence of Syria using sarin gas?
"Yes, dear brethren, this
is a battle that we lost, but the war is not over yet," said the Homs
Revolution News, which is associated with the Local Coordination
Committees of Syria, an opposition activist network.
One dissident group said
Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite militia backed by Iran and the
Syrian government, was instrumental in the siege's success.
"Hezbollah fighters took
control of Al-Qusayr city after the regime forces covered their night
attack with heavy bombing ... and continued into the morning," the
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Eleven of the regime's
security forces were killed and 25 others were injured in the Qusayr
fighting overnight and on Wednesday, the Observatory group said. There
were also reports of deaths among Hezbollah fighters Wednesday morning.
The Syrian Network for
Human Rights reported that more than 1,000 civilians in Qusayr were
injured, almost 600 of them unable to walk. Many are trapped in narrow
areas near the city, the network said.
The government's capture
of Qusayr came on the day that U.S., Russian and U.N. officials met in
Switzerland to plan an international conference on the Syrian crisis.
After Wednesday's meeting, the United Nations' special representative
for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, told reporters that the conference wouldn't
happen in June as previously expected but could take place in July.
The loss of what had
been a rebel stronghold near the Lebanese border represents a blow to
rebels' efforts to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and may portend
heightened sectarian tensions.
That echoes what rebels
have been predicting for weeks: that a government takeover of Qusayr
could lead to a new level of sectarian warfare between Sunnis -- who
dominate Syria's population -- and Shiites and Alawites. Al-Assad's
family, which has ruled Syria for 42 years, belongs to the Alawite sect.
"If Qusayr falls at the
hands of the regime, there is no way to stop the acts of reprisal, and
that retribution will (reach) another level," rebel spokesman Col. Abdul
Hamid Zakaria told the Al-Arabiya TV network last month.
"This will lead to Shiite and Alawite towns to be completely wiped out of the map."
Indeed, video appeared Wednesday
on YouTube showing what the poster said were Free Syrian Army fighters
launching rockets at two Shiite villages, inhabited mostly by Assad
loyalists, in an overwhelmingly Sunni region in the northeastern
province of Aleppo.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday,
rockets fell on the mostly Alawite neighborhoods of Ekrema and Zahraa
in the city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory group said.
Last week, Brig. Gen. Salim Idris of the rebel Free Syrian Army asked the public to "excuse (the) FSA" for any retaliation.
"We are being subjected to genocide conducted by Hezbollah," he told Al Arabiya.
France has said that
Hezbollah sent as many as 4,000 fighters to Syria to bolster al-Assad's
forces. The Lebanese militants "produced major results," particularly in
the battle for Qusayr, said Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East
Center at the London School of Economics.
The Obama administration condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the takeover of Qusayr, press secretary Jay Carney said.
"It is clear that the
regime could not contest the opposition's control of Qusayr on its own
and is depending upon (Hezbollah) and Iran to do its work for it in
Qusayr," Carney said in a statement.
Hezbollah's "involvement
in Syria and the Syrian regime's cross border attack today on Arsal
represent blatant violations of Lebanon's sovereignty and a deliberate
threat to Lebanese stability. The United States firmly supports
Lebanon's security, stability and sovereignty," Carney added.
Lebanon's leaders call for a policy of disassociation from the Syrian conflict, Carney said.
Arab League
Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby condemned any form of foreign
intervention in Syria, especially Hezbollah, but he expressed
frustration.
"You could say the Arab
League has not succeeded to stop the conflict. But also the United
Nations -- with all its powers -- could not do anything!" he said. "The
international community has not succeeded in stopping the violence or
the humanitarian catastrophe which the Syrian people are experiencing."
Qusayr's importance
Qusayr's location has made it a crucial battleground for regime and rebel forces.
The government's control
of the city helps secure a critical link between the capital, Damascus,
and Alawite strongholds such as Tartus and Latakia, said Charles
Lister, an analyst at IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre.
He said the rebels' loss
will likely spark a rise in cross-border attacks on Shiite towns in
eastern Lebanon and possible attacks on Hezbollah forces farther inside
the country.
Idris of the FSA has
said that the Syrian rebels will hunt Hezbollah down in Lebanon and "in
hell, if they have to," over the Shiite militia intervention in Syria.
Nasrallah's deputy,
Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, responded by saying that his party can protect its
Shiite supporters in Lebanon and they "will punish the murderers who
attack Lebanon's sovereignty."
A Syrian helicopter
fired five missiles into Kherbet Dawoud, near the Lebanese town of
Arsal, which is largely Sunni and has served as a refuge for people who
fled Qusayr; no casualties were reported, the Lebanese Army Information
Directorate said Wednesday.
Lebanon's National News
Agency reported that clashes were occurring in Tripoli between residents
of rival areas of the city -- the Bab-al-Tibbaneh neighborhood, which
is dominated by Sunnis, and the adjacent Jabal Mohsen neighborhood,
which is dominated by Alawites.
"The Syrian conflict is
no longer an internal struggle between Assad and the internal
opposition," Gerges said. "It's an open-ended war by proxy -- Iran,
Hezbollah and Syria, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, plus Russia and the
United States."
Shortly after the Syrian regime seized Qusayr, Iran sent congratulations.
No Geneva conference in June
Brahami, after
Wednesday's meeting with U.S. and Russian officials in Geneva, told
reporters that "it will not be possible to hold the conference (on
Syria) in June."
The talks, slated to be
held in Geneva, would have brought together officials from Assad's
regime and members of the Syrian opposition to discuss a political
solution.
The three parties
organizing the talks -- the United States, Russia and the United Nations
-- have agreed the conference will be sponsored by the U.N. secretary
general and will meet again in Geneva on June 25 to discuss details,
Brahami said.
Officials will look at "windows of opportunities to hold the conference as soon as possible, hopefully in July," he said.
Al-Assad told Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV on May 30 that his government agreed in principle to participate in the talks.
Syria's main rebel
umbrella group, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and
Opposition Forces, has demanded al-Assad step aside in order for it to
take part in the talks.
Meanwhile, sarin gas has
been used several times in the Syrian civil war, including at least
once by the Assad regime, France's foreign minister said Tuesday, citing
results from test samples in France's possession.
The evidence of chemical
weapons in Syria poses a real problem for Russia's continued support of
the Assad regime, a diplomatic source said.
Some in the
international community have been surprised by the U.S. reaction that
evidence needs to be expanded and corroborated, but a U.N. commission
for chemicals could be called upon to go to Syria to take its own
samples and conduct an investigation, the official diplomatic source
said.
Stark choice for residents
More than 70,000 Syrians
-- most of them civilians -- have been killed in the two-year conflict,
according to the United Nations.
In Qusayr alone, about
1,500 people are reported to be in need of medical care. Some residents
escaped the violence by digging holes and hiding in them, refugees told
U.N. staff.
Most of those who fled Qusayr to Lebanon are women and children.
"Those we have spoken to
say it is unsafe to flee with men, who are at heightened risk of being
arrested or killed at checkpoints along the way," said Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the U.N.'s refugee agency.
Fleming said one woman
told the agency that Qusayr residents face a stark choice: "You leave
and risk being killed ... or you stay and face a certainty of being
killed."
But thousands of residents remain in Qusayr, their futures unknown.
Source: CNN News International
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