2 Days of Syria Violence Leave 150 Dead

[웃 910]

2 Days of Syria Violence Leave 150 Dead

Security forces pursuing anti-government activists and army defectors shot dead at least 47 people in Syria on Tuesday, pushing the toll for two days of violence to nearly 150 even as the regime prepared to allow in foreign monitors under an Arab League plan aimed at stopping the bloodshed.

Syrian state television showed pictures of military maneuvers and said they were meant to show its forces are ready to "repulse any aggression the enemies of our nations might think about."

Activist groups said about 100 people were killed on Monday, the same day Syria agreed to the monitors after weeks of stalling. About 70 of the dead were said to be army defectors. The groups said Tuesday's toll was at least 47 and possibly as high as 62.

The opposition is deeply skeptical that the agreement to allow the monitors in is anything other than stalling for time as international pressure on President Bashar Assad grows. The huge toll for two days of violence, among the highest since March, has reinforced that skepticism.

Commenting on the agreement to allow monitors, the U.S. said it will judge Syria by its actions.

"We've seen too many broken promises from the Syrian regime. So we're really less interested in a signed piece of paper than we are in actions to implement commitments made," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday night.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 47 people were killed throughout the country on Tuesday. Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, put the toll at 62.

The deadliest incident was in the town of Kfar Owaid in the northwestern province of Idlib where activists said troops attacked with heavy machine gun fire or shells and killed at least 23 people, said the observatory. The LCC put the death toll in the town at 25.

"The violent shelling of the town continues," the LCC said in a statement.

The Syrian conflict has become increasingly militarized in recent weeks, with clashes nearly ever day between army defectors and troops. The northern province of Idlib has witnessed some of the most intense clashes. On Monday, security forces killed up to 70 army defectors as they were deserting their military posts in Idlib near the Turkish border, activists said.

The Arab League plan calls for removing Syrian forces and heavy weapons from city streets, starting talks with opposition leaders and allowing human rights workers and journalists into the country, along with observers from member countries.

Assad's regime accepted the monitors after Arab leaders warned they would turn to the U.N. Security Council to try to end the crackdown that the U.N. says has killed at least 5,000 people since March.

In Cairo, an Arab League official said an advance team will arrive in Syria on Thursday to prepare for an observer mission. The advance team will be led by the Arab League's assistant secretary-general Sameer Seif el-Yazal.

He said 500 observers will eventually deploy around the country in small groups of at least 10.

Syrian state TV said the country's air force, air defense units and naval forces conducted military maneuvers with warplanes, helicopters, surface-to-air and ground-to-sea missiles. The TV, which did not say when the maneuvers were conducted, showed warplanes and helicopters firing missiles at targets in a desert area. It also showed surface-to-air missiles hitting targets in the air.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Has anyone noticed how the Arabs are mum on this? The civil war in Syria has been going on now for nigh a year and the Arab League has done a big nothing. And when is the last time you saw Arabs protesting the 4,000+ deaths in Syria since this started? If they had it would have been all over the news but not a peep can be heard from them. Funny how that works.

Edited December 20, 2011 by Why_Me

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Has anyone noticed how the Arabs are mum on this? The civil war in Syria has been going on now for nigh a year and the Arab League has done a big nothing. And when is the last time you saw Arabs protesting the 4,000+ deaths in Syria since this started? If they had it would have been all over the news but not a peep can be heard from them. Funny how that works.

Aside from the fact that you've somehow completely missed the extensive news coverage of the Arab League peace initiative to stop the violence in Syria, didn't you even bother to read the OP before you commented ?

From the article:

Security forces pursuing anti-government activists and army defectors shot dead at least 47 people in Syria on Tuesday, pushing the toll for two days of violence to nearly 150 even as the regime prepared to allow in foreign monitors under an Arab League plan aimed at stopping the bloodshed.

...

The Arab League plan calls for removing Syrian forces and heavy weapons from city streets, starting talks with opposition leaders and allowing human rights workers and journalists into the country, along with observers from member countries.

Assad's regime accepted the monitors after Arab leaders warned they would turn to the U.N. Security Council to try to end the crackdown that the U.N. says has killed at least 5,000 people since March.

In Cairo, an Arab League official said an advance team will arrive in Syria on Thursday to prepare for an observer mission. The advance team will be led by the Arab League's assistant secretary-general Sameer Seif el-Yazal.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Aside from the fact that you've somehow completely missed the extensive news coverage of the Arab League peace initiative to stop the violence in Syria, didn't you even bother to read the OP before you commented ?

From the article:

So 9 months and over 4,000 deaths later the Arab League is sending some observers in?

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

So 9 months and over 4,000 deaths later the Arab League is sending some observers in?

So you didn't read the article.

Even the U.S. State Department has had to grudgingly admit:

U.S. calls Arab League Syria plan "best opportunity"

[Pooky 3,828]

So you didn't read the article.

Even the U.S. State Department has had to grudgingly admit:

U.S. calls Arab League Syria plan "best opportunity"

Mainly because the Russians and the Chinese will continue to ensure that the Arab League initiative is the only opportunity.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Mainly because the Russians and the Chinese will continue to ensure that the Arab League initiative is the only opportunity.

Russia and China are still pretty pissed off about what happened after the U.N. Security agreement on Libya. So they're not too inclined to agree to anything that could possibly encourage/enable military intervention in Syria.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Russia and China are still pretty pissed off about what happened after the U.N. Security agreement on Libya. So they're not too inclined to agree to anything that could possibly encourage/enable military intervention in Syria.

It wouldn't have anything to do with Russia having a naval base in Syria wouldn't it? If Russia has their head any further up Assads ####### they would have to fight for air.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartus

Tartus hosts a Soviet-era naval supply and maintenance base, under a 1971 agreement with Syria, which is still staffed by Russian naval personnel. The base was established during the Cold War to support the Soviet Navy's fleet in the Mediterranean Sea.[7] During the 1970s, similar support points were located in Egypt and Latakia, Syria. In 1977, the Egyptian support bases at Alexandria and Mersa Matruh were evacuated and the ships and property were transferred to Tartus, where the naval support base was transformed into the 229th Naval and Estuary Vessel Support Division. Seven years later, the Tartus support point was upgraded to the 720th Logistics Support Point.[8]

In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and its Mediterranean fleet, the 5th Mediterranean Squadron which was composed of ships from the Northern Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet, ceased its existence. Since then, there have been occasional expeditions by Russian Navy vessels and submarines to the Mediterranean Sea. The naval logistics support base in Syria is now part of the Black Sea Fleet. It consists of three floating docks of which one is operational, a floating workshop, storage facilities, barracks and other facilities.[8]

Since Russia forgave Syria of three-fourths, or $9.6 billion, of its $13.4 billion Soviet-era debt and became its main arms supplier in 2006, Russia and Syria have conducted talks about allowing Russia to develop and enlarge its naval base, so that Russia can strengthen its naval presence in the Mediterranean.[9] Amid Russia's deteriorating relations with the West, because of the 2008 South Ossetia War‎ and plans to deploy a US missile defense shield in Poland, President Assad agreed to the port’s conversion into a permanent Middle East base for Russia’s nuclear-armed warships.[10][11] Since 2009, Russia has been renovating the Tartus naval base and dredging the port to allow access for its larger naval vessels.[12]

On September 8, 2008, ten Russian warships docked in Tartus.[13] According to Lebanese-Syrian commentator Joseph Farah, the flotilla which moved to Tartus consisted of the Moskva cruiser and four nuclear missile submarines.[14] Two weeks later, Russian Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said the nuclear-powered battlecruiser Peter The Great, accompanied by three other ships, sailed from the Northern Fleet's base of Severomorsk. The ships would cover about 15,000 nautical miles (28,000 km) to conduct joint maneuvers with the Venezuelan navy. Dygalo refused to comment on reports in the daily Izvestia claiming that the ships were to make a stopover in the Syrian port of Tartus on their way to Venezuela. Russian officials said the Soviet-era base there was being renovated to serve as a foothold for a permanent Russian navy presence in the Mediterranean.[15][16]

In 2009, RIA Novosti reported that the base would be made fully operational to support anti-piracy operations.[17] It would also support a Russian naval presence in the Mediterranean as a base for "guided-missile cruisers and even aircraft carriers".[18]

In late November 2011, Pravada and Reuters announced that a naval flotilla led by the aircraft carrier Kuznetsov was on its way to the naval base in Tartus as a show of support for the al-Assad regime.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

It wouldn't have anything to do with Russia having a naval base in Syria wouldn't it? If Russia has their head any further up Assads ####### they would have to fight for air.

Russia is playing The Great Game just as Western powers are playing it. It's not about protecting Assad; Russia is concerned with protecting Russia's interests. The U.S. has its Middle East clients, and Russia has theirs.

However, the alternate resolution that Russia proposed to the U.N. Security Council is a clear sign that it does not want to be perceived as backing Assad - it wants to position itself to be able to do business with Assad's opponents in the future, if they manage to topple his regime.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Russia is playing The Great Game just as Western powers are playing it. It's not about protecting Assad; Russia is concerned with protecting Russia's interests. The U.S. has its Middle East clients, and Russia has theirs.

However, the alternate resolution that Russia proposed to the U.N. Security Council is a clear sign that it does not want to be perceived as backing Assad - it wants to position itself to be able to do business with Assad's opponents in the future, if they manage to topple his regime.

If and when Assad goes down, Syrians are going to remember what and how Russian screwed them. And when Assad does go down the pipeline of arms to Hezbollah is going to slow down to a trickle.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

If and when Assad goes down, Syrians are going to remember what and how Russian screwed them. And when Assad does go down the pipeline of arms to Hezbollah is going to slow down to a trickle.

I bet Wikipedia has a page on the main opposition groups in Syria, and which one is likely to gain power if/when Assad is overthrown.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I bet Wikipedia has a page on the main opposition groups in Syria, and which one is likely to gain power if/when Assad is overthrown.

Whoever gains power in Syria will be a Sunni, not a Shia. Assad and his minority thugs are Shia, not Sunni. The cancer known as Hezbollah is Shia and backs Assad as does Iran. Shia is going down quicker than a $20 crack h0 and the Sunni's in Syria will be in power...which is a good thing.

Edited December 21, 2011 by Why_Me

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Whoever gains power in Syria will be a Sunni, not a Shia. Assad and his minority thugs are Shia, not Sunni. The cancer known as Hezbollah is Shia and backs Assad as does Iran. Shia is going down quicker than a $20 crack h0 and the Sunni's in Syria will be in power...which is a good thing.

Don't worry, Israel will start kvetching about the new Syria soon enough...