Syria rebels lay down arms under Homs withdrawal deal

May 4, 2018 By administrator

Syrian rebels lay down arms

Opposition fighters have surrendered government institutions and a strategic highway. The Syrian regime’s latest offensives in Homs and Eastern Ghouta have dealt a fatal blow to the country’s rebel movement.

Rebels in three Syrians towns in the central province of Homs on Friday surrendered arms to regime forces as part of a withdrawal deal with Damascus.

The rebel-held towns of Talbisseh, Rastan and al-Houla have been evacuated under the agreement. Opposition fighters who wish to leave will be able to join civilians being transported to Jarablus, an opposition enclave in the Aleppo province, according to the Syrian government.

However, some rebels have refused to be party to the withdrawal deal. Instead, they shelled government positions on Thursday.

Under the deal, government institutions will be returned to Syrian authorities along with a strategic highway that connects the cities of Homs and Hama.

Consolidating territory

Over the past year, regime forces have made territorial gains with the help of Russia’s military. Damascus has negotiated similar withdrawal deals following bloody campaigns that have cost hundreds of civilian and rebel lives.

Last week, Damascus negotiated a deal that saw rebel groups withdraw from Eastern Ghouta near the capital, considered one of the last opposition strongholds. Similar deals are underway in besieged Damascus suburbs, including the Beit Sahm, Babil and Yalda districts.

As the Syrian conflict winds down, Damascus is attempting to consolidate territory across the country in a bid to secure its interests in future peace talks. The government’s latest offensives in Homs and Eastern Ghouta have dealt a fatal blow to the opposition movement.

More than 350,000 people have been killed and more than half Syria’s population displaced since 2011, when government forces launched a brutal campaign against protesters calling for President Bashar Assad to step down.

Since then, the conflict has transformed into a multi-front war drawing in global super powers, regional players and non-state actors.

ls/msh (Reuters, AFP)

Breaking: Rebels strike western Syria’s primary power grid to leave millions without electricity

February 14, 2018 By administrator

BEIRUT, LEBANON (2:05 A.M.) – The rebel force in northern Hama fired several missiles at one of Syria’s most important power plants tonight, resulting in a number of powerful explosions that could be heard throughout the government and rebel held towns in the area.

According to a local NDF source, the Islamist rebels scored several direct hits on the Mhardeh Power Plant from their positions in Al-Lataminah and Kafr Zita.

As a result of this attack, the Mhardeh Power Plant was badly damaged, leaving millions of Syrians without power along the coast.

In particular, the Mhardeh Power Plant feeds electricity to millions of Syrians living in the densely populated provinces of Hama, Tartous and Latakia.

Repair units have been unable to reach the Mhardeh Power Plant because of the ongoing missile strikes around the predominately Christian town of Mhardeh

Syrian rebels begin 1st evacuations from Damascus district

May 8, 2017 By administrator

Syrian rebels and their families began evacuating from a district of Damascus for the first time on Monday, May 8 bringing the government closer to recapturing all of the capital, AFP said.

The evacuation began days after regime backers Russia and Iran and rebel supporter Turkey signed a deal to implement “de-escalation zones” where the government and opposition will halt hostilities.

Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Monday rejected any role for United Nations or international forces in monitoring the zones.

The deal to evacuate Barzeh district mirrors similar agreements for opposition-held territory elsewhere, allowing fighters safe passage in exchange for surrender.

“Armed men and some of their families have begun leaving Barzeh on 40 buses heading towards northern Syria,” state television said.

It added that the evacuation would continue for five days, but that rebel fighters who chose to stay could do so if they register with the government.

The channel did not specify how many people were expected to leave, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said up to 1,500 people — mostly rebels — would leave Barzeh today and head to the northwest province of Idlib.

The evacuation deal was struck late Sunday night, and dozens of people gathered in Barzeh from Monday morning.

An AFP photographer saw rebel fighters carrying light weapons looking on as children and women in brightly-coloured headscarves pulled shabby suitcases and duffel bags.

A source from the pro-government National Defence Forces said rebel fighters would be allowed to take their “personal weapons” with them.

Negotiations were ongoing for a similar deal in the district of Qabun, in Damascus’s northeast, which forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have been shelling heavily for weeks.

“We are working on Qabun and there is the Yarmuk camp, where talks are underway for the evacuation of armed groups,” Muallem said during a news conference Monday.

Horrific Details Emerge of the Aleppo Turkish Rebels Human Organs trade across the border with Turkey,

December 29, 2016 By administrator

After the liberation of Syria’s second-largest city of Aleppo from jihadists, horrific details of their rule continue coming to light: local residents have revealed to Sputnik Arabic the mechanisms of a well-established network of organ traders and their price list.

Amid so much western fuss concerning the so-called “Russian atrocities” during the liberation of Aleppo, local residents of the liberated city sat down with Sputnik Arabic to reveal for the first time the horrific details of the jihadists’ rule.

They spoke of a massive illegal human organ trade across the border with Turkey, set up by the militants. Civilians learned to fear the local emergency vehicles as they sped around the city hunting for potential donors. One of the “patients” happened to be 60-year-old Abu Mohammad. “We were shelled from a grenade launcher and immediately afterwards rebels came in an emergency vehicle.

They ended up stealing one of my kidneys and part of my spleen,”

he told Sputnik. He further described the mechanism of the traders’ operations: a team of rebels wait for an explosion and immediately afterwards pounce on the wounded and dead. Some of those wounded could have been later returned home, he said. Alia has been residing in the Bustan al-Qasr district of Aleppo which was under control of Al-Nusra Front. Once she was offered to undergo treatment in a Turkish clinic as none of eastern Aleppo’s clinics had enough medication.

“There was a huge market on the border with Turkey where virtually anything was on sale, including women and children. A dead body was selling for 25,000 Turkish lira (TRL), the equivalent of $50, a body of an injured person was selling for 150,000 TRL ($290),” she told Sputnik.

“Every day those wounded at war are sent to hospitals and are regarded as potential donors,” she said.

According to statistics, there have been 18,000 documented cases of illegal removal of human organs in the north of Syria. However the majority of these secretive crimes will remain that way, as people are afraid to openly speak about them.

A group of forensic experts from Aleppo told Sputnik that it was pretty easy to obtain a human organ in the city. It is located not far from the Syrian-Turkish border which could be easily crossed from the districts which were under control of the rebels. Many foreigners who were allegedly offering humanitarian aid have flooded the city through that border. In fact, these were predominantly mafia who, together with foreign medics, were hunting for human organs and sending them across the border. Doctor Bagjat Akrush told Sputnik that many Syrian medics have been involved in this criminal industry under the cover of the war. It was most active in the hot spots in the north and east of Syria and in the refugee camps.

The governments of many countries have taken part in these crimes either directly or covertly and have done nothing to stop it. The doctor said that the majority of these crimes have been committed in the north of the country and children were among those suffered. Up to 100,000 children in the refugee camps on the Turkish territory are facing the same very danger, he said. Up to 80 percent of refugees in these camps are women and children who have been on sale for almost three years. And it is no secret that the Turks are also involved in it.

The war in Syria made it possible for criminals to get very cheap human organs, Akrush went on. They choose a victim through a medical organization, desirably a healthy one as the organs of a diseased man are not that in-demand. Then the organs are sent across the border.

Turkey & Saudi supported Syrian rebels guilty of war crimes: Amnesty International

July 5, 2016 By administrator

AP photo

BEIRUT – Agence France-Presse,

Islamist rebels and jihadists in Syria are guilty of war crimes, Amnesty International said in a report on July 5, accusing them of “a chilling wave of abductions, torture and summary killings.”

The London-based rights group named five Syrian anti-regime factions operating in northern Syria: al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front, hardliner Ahrar al-Sham, Nureddin Zinki, the Levant Front and Division 16.

The groups have detained and tortured lawyers, journalists, and children — among others — for criticizing them, committing acts seen as immoral, or being minorities, the report said. “Many civilians live in constant fear of being abducted if they criticize the conduct of armed groups in power or fail to abide by the strict rules that some have imposed,” said Philip Luther, head of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program.

“In Aleppo and Idlib today, armed groups have free rein to commit war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law with impunity,” he added.

The report is based on 24 accounts of abduction by anti-regime groups between 2012 and 2016 and another five cases of torture.

Halim, a humanitarian worker, was kidnapped and tortured by Nureddin Zinki rebels in Aleppo city until he confessed to a crime.

“When I refused to sign the confession paper the interrogator ordered the guard to torture me,” he said.

“He then started beating me with cables on the soles of my feet. I couldn’t bear the pain so I signed the paper,” Halim said.

Jihadist and hardline religious groups operate their own religious courts which punish crimes such as apostasy or adultery with death.

Saleh was held by al-Nusra in late 2014, and was told by his guard that five women accused of adultery would “only be forgiven by death.”

He said he later watched a video showing al-Nusra militants publicly killing one of women execution-style.

Amnesty said it documented violations in Idlib, which is held by al-Nusra and its allies, and Aleppo.

Syria’s conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests but has since broken down into all-out war, leaving more than 280,000 people dead.

Rights groups have accused both the regime of Bashar al-Assad and anti-government factions of indiscriminate attacks, torture and detention.

Amnesty called on world powers to “pressure armed groups to end such abuses and comply with the laws of war.”

The report said regional powers must also stop providing weapons or other forms of support to any factions involved in war crimes or other violations.

It said some of the accused groups “are believed to have the support of governments such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the U.S.”

Syrian rebels may have committed war crimes in Aleppo – Amnesty

May 13, 2016 By administrator

Syrian rebels may have committed war crimes in their bombardment of a Kurdish-controlled area of Aleppo, killing dozens of innocent civilians, according to Amnesty International.

The rights watchdog says it has collected eyewitness testimony and videos which suggest that at least 83 civilians – including 30 children – were killed in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood of Aleppo, a city split between government and rebel control. The killings reportedly took place between February and April.

“Armed groups surrounding the Sheikh Maqsoud district…have repeatedly carried out indiscriminate attacks that have struck civilian homes, streets, markets and mosques, killing and injuring civilians and displaying a shameful disregard for human life,” Amnesty said in a Friday statement.

The organization’s deputy Middle East director, Magdalena Mughrabi, said the attacks “may amount to war crimes,” Reuters reported.

“By firing imprecise explosive weapons into civilian neighborhoods the armed groups attacking Sheikh Maqsoud are flagrantly flouting the principle of distinction between civilian and military targets, a cardinal rule of international humanitarian law,” Mughrabi said.

The violence is part of intense fighting in the region between the Kurdish YPG militia – which is backed by the US in the fight against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) – and rebel groups, some of which are backed by foreign countries via Turkey.

The YPG and its allies have been battling insurgents, including some Islamist groups, in the northern Aleppo province for several months. Shellings of Sheikh Maqsoud, which has a large Kurdish population, have intensified since February.

Both sides have accused the other of killing civilians.

Rebels claim the YPG wants to take control of a road which provides access from Turkey to Aleppo’s rebel-held areas. They also say the YPG is working in cahoots with the Syrian government – a claim which the YPG denies.

The YPG currently holds and uninterrupted 400km (250 mile) stretch of territory along the Syria-Turkey border. Turkey, which is fighting Kurdish militants in a controversial operation in the country’s southeast, views any YPG expansion with concern.

But despite any disapproval from Turkey, the YPG has been praised for its efforts against IS militants in Syria. The militia has been the most effective partner on the ground in the US-led campaign against IS, seizing large areas from the group last year.

Terrorist State of Turkey strikes against Kurdish rebels, “After Ankara False-Flag operation”

March 14, 2016 By administrator

f56e6d44814ed9_56e6d44814f18.thumb Turkey has begun security operations against Kurdish rebels in the country’s south-east and in Iraq as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed a crackdown on terror after Sunday’s attack in Ankara that killed at least 37 people, BBC News reports.

According to the source, a curfew was declared in three towns in south-east Turkey, while warplanes struck PKK camps in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Eleven warplanes carried out air strikes on 18 targets including ammunition dumps and shelters in the Qandil and Gara sectors, the army said. The PKK (the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party) confirmed the attacks. Meanwhile curfews have been imposed in two mainly Kurdish towns in south-eastern Turkey, Yuksekova and Nusaybin, as security operations are carried out against Kurdish militants, Anadolu news agency reports.

As reported earlier, at least 37 people were killed and some 125 civilians wounded in a blast in the center of Ankara on Sunday. The car bomb blasted at a bus stop near one of Ankara’s central squares.
No group has admitted carrying out the attack in Ankara, yet government sources have cast suspicion on the PKK.

Earlier unnamed officials said the female bomber was a member of the PKK from the eastern town of Kars who joined the group in 2013.

Obama administration abandons Pentagon program to train Syrian rebels

October 9, 2015 By administrator

Friday, October 9, 2015 7:40 AM EDT
The Obama administration has ended the Pentagon’s $500 million program to train and equip Syrian rebels, administration officials said on Friday, in an acknowledgment that the beleaguered program had failed to produce any kind of ground combat forces capable of taking on the Islamic State in Syria.
Pentagon officials were expected to officially announce the end of the program on Friday, as Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter leaves London after meetings with his British counterpart, Michael Fallon, about the continuing wars in Syria and Iraq.

From Armenian Genocide To Kurdish Rebels, Turkey Is A Nation In Denial

September 10, 2015 By administrator

Anti-PKK protests in Ankara

By Worldcrunch

ISTANBUL — One of the most distinguishable qualities of Turkey’s Sunni Muslim majority is their penchant for jumping. Jumping one step forward from where they’re supposed to be, jumping one paragraph below the one they should actually read, jumping just clear of the matter they should consider or the historical issue at hand.

They can’t, for example, discuss Armenian genocide. Because it’s not possible to talk about the period when the genocide was planned and practiced. They always jump to what happened after because that is where Armenian acts of revenge can be found. They rationalize the mass organized slaughter and deportation of people from their homeland by saying, “but, but…” and talking about “Armenian gangs” and their actions. Somehow, though, there is never consideration for how and why these gangs were formed in the first place.

I start with Armenian genocide because I don’t think the handling of the Kurdish issue is isolated from that. In fact, I don’t think any issue in Turkey is isolated from that. This is our national style.

The objection, “but the PKK!,” the acronym for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, comes the second the Kurdish issue is mentioned. This is how the majority and the government rationalizes dealing with and talking about this persecuted minority. Because the PKK considers murder part of politics. The PKK kills people and does things that many supporters of equal citizenship and civil rights for Kurds find deplorable.

Denying the facts

But most of the people who blindly hold anti-Kurd views and who fail to consider why there is a militant faction of Kurds simply don’t want to accept the truth. They would have to do something about if they accepted the truth. They would have to share life in this country with the Kurds as equal citizens, an idea that disturbs them. The Sunni majority doesn’t want to lose its dominance.

What are these unacceptable truths that make them jump?

First: The truth that the Kurds are oppressed in this country. Why should they be oppressed? Why is this an unchangeable situation? The majority doesn’t have an answer. Neither does the state. “It is like that. You will be oppressed. Who will we oppress if not you?”

Second: The majority of Kurds consider the PKK the “armed organization of the Kurds.” There is a bond between them that can’t be severed by speaking about the crimes and wrongdoings of the PKK, no matter how justified the criticism. The majority and the state have burned their villages, which only further convinces these people that they should have an armed organization.

Am I going too far? Excuse me if I go back to the Armenian genocide again. Memories from that time push a threatened and oppressed people to prioritize how they can survive. Most of the surviving Armenians who managed to escape were from areas where they could arm and defend themselves.

Can the Kurds, who were siding with the oppressors back then, forget this? What do the state’s actions regarding Kobane, Tal Abyad and Carablus tell the Kurds? The message is clear: “We can have you killed for our own benefit. We can turn a blind eye to your women being kidnapped and sold as slaves. We can take your land from you.” For those who might have doubts, check to see that Qandil is being bombed again.

Turkey’s self-created monster

The Kurdish belief that they need an army is a direct consequence of actions by both the state and the Sunni majority more generally. Because too many Kurds who tried to create change through politics and not arms wound up dead or in jail.

Burning down villages and forests were important counter-guerrilla methods of the state in the 1990s. These methods alone must have gained the PKK a few thousand militants. This also caused domestic migration and created a poor and angry young generation in the cities. This message from the Turkish government was, “I can burn your village. I can burn your forests. I can kill your cattle. You will not make a peep. You will move to the ghettos of the city and become beggars, street vendors and porters.” The Kurds preferred to make a peep. Is that so strange, so unexpected?

Read the full article: From Armenian Genocide To Kurdish Rebels, Turkey Is A Nation In Denial
Worldcrunch – top stories from the world’s best news sources

TURKEY claim 390 Kurdish PKK rebels killed in two weeks of raids

August 9, 2015 By administrator

PKK Fighters

About 390 fighters of the Kurdish guerrilla Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were killed and 400 others injured in two weeks of raids of Turkish airstrike against rebel bases in northern Iraq, said Sunday the Turkish government agency Anatolia.
The agency, which it was not possible to confirm the information, assured that at least four leaders of the movement and approximately 30 women rebels were killed in the (…)