Syrian Army regains control of Damascus, but fighting flares in Aleppo
21 replies, posted
• Syrian Army forces have retaken districts of Damascus that had fallen to rebel control, and are going house-to-house searching for remaining rebel fighters.
• But the uprising in Damascus appears to have inspired rebels elsewhere in the country - heavy fighting has flared up in Syria's largest city, Aleppo, and multiple border crossings are now under rebel control.
• The Syrian government has said it would not use chemical weapons against the rebels, but would against any attempt at foreign intervention.
• Britain and France are pressing for more EU aid to help refugees arriving in Turkey, while the US has agreed to give Jordan $100 million to help refugees arriving there.
• The EU has also introduced new sanctions against Syria; any suspicious ships travelling through EU waters to Syria may face boarding and inspection.
[TABLE][TR][TD][url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18955114[/url]
[quote=BBC News][B]Syria says it will not use chemical weapons against its own people, but would do so against an external attack.[/B]
Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said the weapons, stored and secured by the armed forces, would never be used "inside Syria".
Earlier, the Arab League called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, offering him safe passage.
Rebels have told the BBC's Paul Wood, inside Syria, that they are encouraged by assassinations last week.
Four officials, including the defence minister and President Assad's brother-in-law, were killed in an attack in Damascus on 18 July.
Rebels from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) told our correspondent, who is undercover with them near Damascus, that the deaths were a severe blow to the government.
They said the once-feared secret police were now a spent force, and the government was relying entirely on a weakened military.
[B]'External aggression'[/B]
"Any chemical or biological weapons will never be used, I repeat, will never be used in the Syrian crisis, no matter what the internal developments in this crisis are," Mr Makdissi said, at a news conference broadcast on Syrian state TV.
"All varieties of these weapons are stored and secured by the Syrian armed forces and under its direct supervision, and will not be used unless Syria is subjected to external aggression."
Syria has never officially confirmed it has chemical weapons. It is not a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which outlaws production.
The West and Israel were deeply worried that Syria might use its stocks of chemical weapons, says the BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon.
On 16 July, the most senior Syrian politician to defect to the opposition told the BBC the government would not hesitate to use chemical weapons if it were cornered.
Nawaf al-Fares, Syria's former ambassador to Iraq, said unconfirmed reports indicated such weapons might have already been used.
However, the opposition has not reported any use of chemical weapons.
[B]Aleppo offensive[/B]
Meanwhile, Syrian government forces have retaken parts of Damascus that had fallen to the rebels.
Syrian state TV on Monday showed images of government forces going house-to-house and kicking down doors in Damascus, searching for any remaining rebel fighters.
Continued clashes are reported in the northern city of Aleppo.
Rebel launched a new offensive at the weekend, vowing to take the city completely and use it as a base for liberating the whole country.
Videos posted online on Monday showed jubilation by rebel fighters in the Sakhour district.
State TV played down the scale of the violence, saying troops were merely hunting down "terrorists".
The most senior Turkish diplomat remaining in Syria, the consul in Aleppo, has been withdrawn for consultations.
Turkey, which closed its embassy in Damascus earlier this year, did not say whether the consul would return.
[B]Diplomatic pressure[/B]
Arab League foreign ministers urged President Assad to resign rapidly, saying the opposition should form a transitional government.
EU foreign ministers have agreed to tighten sanctions and an arms embargo on the Syrian government.
EU member states will be required to send inspectors to board planes and ships on their territory believed to be carrying weapons or suspicious supplies to Damascus.
Britain and France have called for more EU aid to refugees from Syria.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said the EU should "step up our humanitarian assistance".
He also called for more support for the opposition, "including helping them prepare for Syria after Assad", Mr Hague said as he arrived for talks in Brussels.
Russian airline Aeroflot is to end flights to Damascus from 6 August, citing lack of demand.
On Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 19,106 people had been killed since March 2011. The UN said in May that at least 10,000 people had been killed.
Syria blames the violence on foreign-backed "armed terrorist gangs".
In June, the Syrian government reported that 6,947 Syrians had died, including at least 3,211 civilians and 2,566 security forces personnel.[/quote][/TD][TD][url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18950418[/url]
[quote=BBC News][B]Arab League foreign ministers have called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, as rebels tell the BBC they are encouraged by last week's assassinations in Damascus.[/B]
The rebels told the BBC's Paul Wood, undercover near the Syrian capital, that the deaths of four top officials were a severe blow to the government.
Our correspondent says Islamist rebels where he is are receiving weapons and money from outside.
Fighting continued overnight.
Government forces recaptured parts of Damascus, the suburbs of Barzeh and Mezzeh, which had fallen into rebel hands.
There and in other quarters, activists said a number of suspected rebels or sympathisers were summarily executed.
Syrian state TV on Monday showed images of Syrian forces going house to house and kicking down doors in Damascus, searching for any remaining rebel fighters.
Fighting was also reported in Syria's second city, Aleppo.
[B]'Transitional government'[/B]
After an emergency meeting in Qatar, Arab League foreign ministers called on President Assad to resign rapidly, and offered his family safe passage out of Syria.
They also called on the Syrian opposition to form a transitional government.
However, the BBC's Jim Muir, in neighbouring Lebanon, says the call appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
Mr Assad held a meeting with his new army chief of staff and gave him instructions, reportedly including a drive to crush armed rebels.
The meeting followed last week's attack in Damascus, in which four senior officials were killed in what the Syrian government described as a suicide blast.
Rebels outside Damascus, speaking to the BBC's Paul Wood, say the assassinations were a blow to the government.
They told our correspondent the once-feared secret police were now a spent force, and the government was relying entirely on a weakened military.
Our correspondent, who is near Damascus, says the rebels are divided, between the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Salafists (hardline Islamists).
The Salafists are better armed, he says, because they are receiving weapons and money from outside.
[B]Call for aid[/B]
Meanwhile, the EU is to tighten sanctions and an arms embargo against President Assad's government.
EU foreign ministers agreed to freeze the assets of 26 individuals and three firms close to the Syrian government.
They will be added to a blacklist which already contains the names of 129 people and 49 entities.
EU member states will also be required to send inspectors to board planes and ships believed to be carrying weapons or suspicious supplies to Damascus.
The inspections will only take place on the territory or in the territorial waters of EU states.
Britain and France are calling for more EU aid to refugees from Syria.
"We now have to step up our humanitarian assistance for the people fleeing across the borders," said UK Foreign Secretary William Hague.
The EU should also "give more practical support to the Syrian opposition, including helping them prepare for Syria after Assad," Mr Hague said as he arrived for talks in Brussels.
On Sunday, the US signed an agreement to give Jordan an additional $100m (£64m) to help refugees fleeing from Syria.
[B]Battle for control[/B]
The elite fourth division of the Syrian army, commanded by President Assad's brother Maher, led the attack on the Barzeh area of Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
In Mezzeh, government forces "executed" at least 20 men in the area, some activists told the Reuters news agency by telephone.
The battle for control of Aleppo is still going on.
State TV played down the scale of the violence, saying troops were merely hunting down "terrorists".
Rebel commanders have vowed to take it over completely and use it as a base for liberating the whole country, but state TV said many armed rebels had fled across the border to Turkey.
BBC sources in Syria also confirmed that rebels were now in control of the Bab al-Salam border crossing with Turkey. Turkey is not allowing non-Syrian nationals through so the border remains effectively closed.
There were also reports of violence in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour on Sunday. Witnesses told Reuters that it was being attacked with artillery and rockets from helicopter gunships.
On Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 19,106 people had been killed since March 2011. The UN said in May that at least 10,000 people had been killed.
Syria blames the violence on foreign-backed "armed terrorist gangs".
In June, the Syrian government reported that 6,947 Syrians had died, including at least 3,211 civilians and 2,566 security forces personnel.[/quote][/TD][/TR][/TABLE]
syria strong
oh no, more angry letters and possible boardings.
You win some you lose some, it isn't over yet.
Anyway, they will use chemical attacks against foreign forces? Seeing as Syria would very likely get the same treatment Libya got I don't think chemical weapons would be very effective against jet fighters.
Sometimes I wonder why we're living in a world where chemical weapons are banned because they might harm civilians, but nuclear bombs are good to go.
[QUOTE=sonerin;36897611]Sometimes I wonder why we're living in a world where chemical weapons are banned because they might harm civilians, but nuclear bombs are good to go.[/QUOTE]
A nuke radius can be predicted and controlled to a limited degree a chemical or biological attack cant
[QUOTE=Indyclone77;36897723]A nuke radius can be predicted and controlled to a limited degree a chemical or biological attack cant[/QUOTE]
Good point.
Let's build more nuclear bombs.
[QUOTE=sonerin;36897611]Sometimes I wonder why we're living in a world where chemical weapons are banned because they might harm civilians, but nuclear bombs are good to go.[/QUOTE]
Because telling countries to disarm themselves of nukes isn't exactly an easy task since, you know, the only thing that assures countries that they don't get nuked is to have nukes of their own.
They'd have to be bloody stupid to break the chemical warfare rules, and end up with every country cramming nukes up their ass.
[QUOTE=sonerin;36897611]Sometimes I wonder why we're living in a world where chemical weapons are banned because they might harm civilians, but nuclear bombs are good to go.[/QUOTE]
Who cares about countries having nukes? No one would dare use them.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;36897876]Who cares about countries having nukes? No one would dare use them.[/QUOTE]
Already has been used in the past. We probably never will use them against another nuclear country, but think of North Korea being ruled by nutsacks, a retaliation strike could be used if they decided to fuck with South Korea again or worse.
Or, as mentionned in the article, if a country like Syria decides to use chemical weapons against foreign troops.
[QUOTE=Indyclone77;36897723]A nuke radius can be predicted and controlled to a limited degree a chemical or biological attack cant[/QUOTE]
Actually no, fallout can travel in the skies through air currents and land onto other places that were not designated to be hit.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;36897876]Who cares about countries having nukes? No one would dare use them.[/QUOTE]
Unstable countries such as Iran, Pakistan and India would. I wouldn't be surprised if they sold nuclear weaponry to Al Qaeda and such.
[QUOTE=sonerin;36898864]Unstable countries such as Iran, Pakistan and India would. I wouldn't be surprised if they sold nuclear weaponry to Al Qaeda and such.[/QUOTE]
Pakistan and India have managed not to nuke each other thus far then I doubt it will happen soon.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;36900356]Pakistan and India have managed not to nuke each other thus far then I doubt it will happen soon.[/QUOTE]
If you put a bunch of monkeys in a room with nukes sooner or later they'll nuke Shakespeare
[QUOTE=Ylsid;36897866]They'd have to be bloody stupid to break the chemical warfare rules, and end up with every country cramming nukes up their ass.[/QUOTE]
Wouldn't happen. China and Russia wouldn't give a fuck and neither would most of the Middle East. No one would use anything WMDs against Syria in response, because they'd be demonized to hell and back and would do far more damage than some sarin gas or whatever.
No one is going to bother 'shoving nukes up their ass' because they gassed their own people. Military action? Yea. Nukes or chemical weapons? No.
Why haven't they just nuked this place? If they can't stop fighting like animals we should treat them as animals!
[img]http://arctic-eagle.com/theownzone/the_goatman_cometh.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=EA_GAM3R420;36901660]Why haven't they just nuked this place? If they can't stop fighting like animals we should treat them as animals!
[/QUOTE]
Agreed. When a dog bites you, you don't rehabilitate it, you put it down.
Syria knows it's bordering on having other country's swoop in and do the job themselves, so they'll threaten to use WMD's against them. And when that won't work they'll just threaten to use them on its own people, which I'm sure they've been doing all along anyway
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18964017[/url]
BBC has a video with the rebels. It shows them smuggling weapons in from Lebanon, and then talks to some of them.
Notably they say that, in order to defend Damascus, the regime has pulled a shitload of troops out from other areas, making them easy targets
[QUOTE=The Mighty Boat;36901695]Agreed. When a dog bites you, you don't rehabilitate it, you put it down.[/QUOTE]
I hope you don't own any animals.
It's an irrelevant point, but all this rebels vs. regime fighting going on is stroking my Jagged Alliance penis.
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