Damascus rises: Heavy fighting erupts in Syrian capital as multiple districts fall to rebel control - Polidicks

[url]http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/07/2012715182544651595.html[/url] [quote=Al Jazeera]Heavy clashes between rebels and regular troops have erupted in Damascus in the "most intense" fighting in the capital since the start of the anti-regime revolt in Syria 16 months ago, a monitoring group has said. "The regular army fired mortar rounds into several suburbs" where fighters of the Free Syrian Army are entrenched, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday. "They have never been this intense," Abdel Rahman told the AFP news agency. He said the fighting was heaviest in the Tadamon, Kfar Souseh, Nahr Aisha and Sidi Qadad neighbourhoods. "The security forces are attempting to take control of these neighbourhoods, but so far they have not succeeded," he added. The Local Co-ordination Committees activist network said plumes of black smoke were billowing out of Tadamon and that loud explosions were heard in Nahr Aisha. The Observatory earlier said violence across Syria on Sunday killed at least 55 people, including a girl who died along with three other people when the army rained shells on the town of Rastan, a rebel stronghold in the central province of Homs.[/quote] [url]http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/16/uk-syria-crisis-idUKBRE8640R320120716[/url] [quote=Reuters]Opposition fighters battled Syrian government forces in Damascus into the early hours of Monday in what residents described as the fiercest fighting yet inside the capital. Activists said the fighting spread from the south of the city to a second area as night fell. At least five people were killed and dozens wounded, locals said. The spread of fighting came as U.N. peace mediator Kofi Annan was due to fly to Moscow for a two-day visit in which he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin who has resisted Western calls to increase pressure on Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. Numerous Damascus residents contacted by Reuters said they could hear loud explosions, persistent gunfire and sirens wailing overnight, and described the fighting as the worst so far of the 17-month uprising against Assad. Thick black smoke was visible above the Damascus skyline in live Internet video links. Government troops closed the airport road, activists said. "I can't believe it, it sounds incredibly close. I hear shooting and other stuff, like blasts. I can hear the sounds of ambulances rushing past. I am so afraid. People may die tonight," said a resident contacted by telephone in a district close to the fighting. Activist Samir al-Shami, who spoke to Reuters by Skype from Damascus, said the fighting was under way in the al-Tadamon district in the capital's south, after sustained battles began at nightfall on Saturday in the nearby Hajar al-Aswad district. "There is the sound of heavy gunfire. And there is smoke rising from the area. There are already some wounded and residents are trying to flee the area," he said, using Skype to show live video images of smoke visible over the skyline. "There are also armoured vehicles heading towards the southern part of the neighbourhood," he said. Another activist reached by Skype said the fighting later spread to al-Lawan, a neighbourhood on the south-western outskirts of the capital. A third activist, who also asked not to be identified, said: "We've been expecting things to worsen in Damascus after the army crushed the rebellions in some of the suburbs, like Douma outside the capital. There were thousands of fighters in some of those suburbs. Some of them were killed but a lot of them fled and they've been heading to the capital itself." Some residents said the fighting eased slightly as the night wore on but many protests in support of the opposition were staged in the poorer neighbourhoods of Damascus. One local, who gave his name as Tarek, said residents set tyres ablaze to distract the security forces and relieve pressure on the fighters in Tadamon. The government restricts access to the country by independent media, making verification of events difficult. Annan is travelling to Moscow days after opposition reports of a new massacre prompted a fresh wave of denunciations in the West where there are hopes Putin might ease his support for Assad. But Moscow has shown no public sign of wavering in its backing for its last major Arab ally, a customer for its arms and host to a Russian naval support base. Along with China, Russia has blocked tougher U.N. Security Council action and the West has shown no appetite for the kind of intervention it undertook last year when NATO helped topple Libya's Muammar Gaddafi. Annan said on Friday he was "shocked and appalled" at the government for breaking a promise not to use heavy weapons in populated areas, and that it was confirmed that helicopters and artillery had fired on the village of Tremseh. Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi criticised Annan for jumping to conclusions by accepting opposition reports of the incident last week. "What happened was not a massacre ... what happened was a military operation," Makdissi told a news conference in Damascus. "Government forces did not use planes, or helicopters, or tanks or artillery." U.N. observers returned to the village on Sunday to gather more evidence at the site after finding signs that artillery was used but inconclusive evidence of the scale of the killing. The Syrian government said it killed several dozen enemy fighters in battle in Tremseh but denied accusations that it carried out a massacre or that its forces used heavy weapons. Opposition footage of the incident on the Internet has shown bloody corpses of men, but not women or children, making it difficult to determine whether those killed were fighters. Sander van Hoorn, a Dutch journalist who reached Tremseh, said by Twitter that he had counted 30 graves in the town and had seen clear evidence of shelling, including of a school used as a shelter by refugees. He said the evidence on the ground clearly contradicted the government's assertion that no heavy weapons were used. But he also said he had not yet seen signs of a massacre like one that took place in the city of Houla in May, when the United Nations says 34 women and 49 children were among 108 people killed.[/quote]

why are they still calling this a revolt

Bittersweet news. I just hope Syrians get what they want out of this awful conflict.

[QUOTE=Ezhik;36788716]why are they still calling this a revolt[/QUOTE] Uh. Because they're revolting against the government?

[QUOTE=Sir_takeslot;36788878]Uh. Because they're revolting against the government?[/QUOTE] It's a revolution. A revolt is a different thing.

You think they might be a bit pissed at us if/when they overthrow Assad? I mean we DID completely ignore their cries for help, didn't we?

[QUOTE=Nikota;36788890]It's a revolution. A revolt is a different thing.[/QUOTE] They're the exact same thing. They have the exact same meaning.

Casualties are light on both sides because both sides are rubbish at fighting.

[QUOTE=Simplemac3;36788927]You think they might be a bit pissed at us if/when they overthrow Assad? I mean we DID completely ignore their cries for help, didn't we?[/QUOTE] They already hate the UN so probably yeah :v:

[QUOTE=Nikota;36788890]It's a revolution. A revolt is a different thing.[/QUOTE] Irrelevant, really. Doesn't matter what you call it, it's a conflict of the people aggressively against their government. Revolution, revolt, rebellion. All the same thing. History just likes to label 'revolutions' as successful and 'rebellions' as unsuccessful while revolts jump from each to the other. But it's essentially the same damn thing - a conflict between the people and the government.

I wish Russia and China would stop shielding the lunatics running this country.

[QUOTE=Simplemac3;36788927]You think they might be a bit pissed at us if/when they overthrow Assad? I mean we DID completely ignore their cries for help, didn't we?[/QUOTE] They'll be pissed at Russia. Nato and most of the UN have been trying to intervene, but Russia and China have vetoed any intervention plans because they can still sell arms to syria.

Good, the West was made it clear we intend to leave them to be slaughtered whether they fight back or not.

[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;36790026]Good, the West was made it clear we intend to leave them to be slaughtered whether they fight back or not.[/QUOTE] What the fuck is with people and the West taking any sort of action? Minimal support was given by America through NATO during the Libyan crisis, just as people wanted. Then morons like you begin to bitch about our nearly non-existent presence. Fighting breaks out in Syria, so the US sits back and watches because 'that's what the people want', so we're to blame for not interceding. It's a lose-lose situation. We try to help, people complain. We stay silent, people complain.

America needs to go back to isolationism and just fulfill its mandates to NATO and UN when called upon. Then when or if the world needs their help, they can be the heroes again and not be called douchebags.

[QUOTE=G3rman;36790915]America needs to go back to isolationism and just fulfill its mandates to NATO and UN when called upon. Then when or if the world needs their help, they can be the heroes again and not be called douchebags.[/QUOTE] We're tied at the moment.

[QUOTE=Simplemac3;36788927]You think they might be a bit pissed at us if/when they overthrow Assad? I mean we DID completely ignore their cries for help, didn't we?[/QUOTE] So? They're free and they did it themselves, they may be pissed but it'll get them more respect and co-operation from governments then Libya is going to be receiving.

[B]Update:[/B] The uprising has continued to spread. When I posted the OP, it was only districts in southern Damascus that were under rebel control, but the frontline has now reached the district of Midan, [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/16/syria-fighting-damascus-live?newsfeed=true]described by the Guardian[/url] as "central" Here's a hella rough map I've shat out. Pink is Damascus city limits, green is roughly the area reportedly outside Syrian Army control. The red dot north of Mezzeh is Assad's presidential palace, because why not [t]http://imgkk.com/i/ih8r.png[/t] [editline]16th July 2012[/editline] This is reportedly the largest army presence in Damascus since the start of the war, and they have shelled areas of the capital for the first time

Wow, its really amazing that they've managed to make this much progress in the face of heavy weapons, and without the air support that the Libyans had

And another domino begins to tumble...

[QUOTE=Nikota;36788890]It's a revolution. A revolt is a different thing.[/QUOTE] -snip- I'm wrong, but so are you, sorta. A revolt is the actual rise against the authority, a revolution is what happens if the ruling authority is overthrown. This isn't a revolution until the rebels win. A revolution is also a sudden, radical, or complete change. However, this meaning isn't intended when talking about rebellion because the other definition covers that.