Big Changes Ahead in Syria

[jimmy olsen]

Another step forward toward Civil War

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44752904/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/#.TolxZnJSQ-o

'Brink of civil war': Syrian opposition asks world for help

After months of protests, disparate Assad opponents come together

msnbc.com news services
updated 17 minutes ago

AMMAN — Syrian dissidents on Sunday formally established a broad-based national council designed to overthrow President Bashar Assad's regime, which they accused of pushing the country to the brink of civil war. Syrians took to the streets in celebration, singing and dancing.

The announcement of the Syrian National Council at a news conference in Istanbul appeared to be the most serious step yet to unify a deeply fragmented opposition. It follows five days of intense battles between the Syrian military and army defectors in the country's central region that raised the specter of all-out armed conflict.

Prominent Syrian opposition figure Bourhan Ghalioun, who read out the founding statement of the SNC at the news conference in Istanbul, accused the regime of fomenting sectarian strife in Syria to maintain its grip on power.

"I think that this (Assad) regime has completely lost the world's trust," he said. "The world is waiting for a united Syrian (opposition) that can provide the alternative to this regime, so that they can recognize it," he added.

"The council denounces the (regime's) policy of sectarian incitement ... which threatens national unity and is pushing the country to the brink of civil war," said Ghalioun, a respected and popular opposition figure who is also a scholar of contemporary oriental studies at the Sorbonne in Paris.
Story: From peaceful protest to civil war? Violent turn may foretell future of Syrian uprising

The statement issued in Istanbul rejected foreign intervention that "compromises Syria's sovereignty" but said the outside world had a humanitarian obligation to protect the Syrian people.

"The council demands international governments and organizations meet their responsibility to support the Syrian people, protect them and stop the crimes and gross human rights violations being committed by the illegitimate current regime," the statement said.

It said that protesters should continue to use "peaceful means" to topple the Syrian leader.

The declaration and support for the National Council was a significant show of unity from the Syrian opposition after six months of mostly non-violent protests against Assad have begun to be overtaken by more violent resistance.

Armed insurgents, mostly in the central Homs region and in the northwestern province of Idlib near Turkey, have been so far outgunned.

In forming a national council, the Syrians are following in the footsteps of Libyan rebels, who formed a National Transitional Council during the uprising that ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The Libyan council won international recognition and has now become the main governing body that runs the country.

Groups of Syrians poured into the streets in southern and central regions of the country to celebrate the announcement.

Cleric's son killed
The official Syrian news agency said Saturday government forces had regained control of the central town of Rastan, after the most prolonged fighting yet between the army and insurgents who are led, according to residents, by army defectors.

But underlining the more violent turn, Syrian authorities said that the 21-year-old son of Syria's top Sunni Muslim cleric was assassinated Sunday. It was the first attack against the state-backed Sunni clergy who have been a base of support for Assad's ruling Alawite elite for decades.

The cleric, Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddine Hassoun, is considered a close supporter of Assad's regime and has echoed its claims that the unrest in Syria is the result of a foreign conspiracy.

In Istanbul, the National Council said that the uprising must remain peaceful but that military assaults on numerous towns and villages, torture and mass arrests were driving Syria "to the edge of civil war and inviting foreign interference."

While few expect a Libya-style intervention in Syria, the declaration was nonetheless a way for the opposition to shake off its image of in-fighting and lack of cohesive leadership.

Although the mass demonstrations in Syria have shaken one of the most authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, the opposition has made no major gains in recent months. It holds no territory and still has no clear leadership.

The Syrian opposition consists of a variety of groups with differing ideologies, including Islamists and secularists, and there have been many meetings of dissidents claiming to represent Syria's popular uprising since it erupted seven months ago. But the new council is the broadest umbrella movement of revolutionary forces formed so far.

'Political vacuum'
Members said it includes representatives from the Damascus Declaration grouping, a pro-democracy network based in the capital; the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic political party banned in the country; various Kurdish factions; and the grass-roots Local Coordination Committees, which have led protests across the country; as well as other independent and tribal figures.

"The fact that Islamists, secular figures and activists on the ground are now on one council is a significant," a diplomat in the Syrian capital Damascus said.

"But they still have to demonstrate that they could be politically savvy and able to fill any political vacuum. They need a detailed action plan beyond the generalities of wanting a democratic Syria."

The United Nations says 2,700 people, including 100 children, have been killed in six months of protests against Assad, whose Alawite minority sect — a Shiite offshoot — dominates the mostly Sunni Muslim country of 20 million.

The 46-year old president, who inherited power from his father in 2000, blames the violence on armed gangs backed by foreign forces, while his officials say 700 police and soldiers have been killed, as well as 700 "mutineers."

The government has dismissed the opposition organizing outside Syria as a foreign conspiracy to sow sectarian strife.

France has already publicly supported the National Council, but it has not yet won endorsement from the United States or Syria's powerful neighbor Turkey, which has been enraged by what it describes as brutal killings south of its border.

Assad has relied on Russia and China, which have major oil concessions in Syria and do not want to see Western influence in the Middle East spread, to block western proposals for United Nations Security Council sanctions on Damascus.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

[11B4V]

Another step forward toward Civil War

Most likely

[jimmy olsen]

Assad 

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/over-10-000-soldiers-have-deserted-syria-army-says-high-ranking-defector-1.387494

Over 10,000 soldiers have deserted Syria army, says high-ranking defector

Colonel Riad Assaad says defectors carrying out guerilla-style attacks on security police who enforce loyalty to Assad regime.

By Reuters and DPA Tags: Syria Bashar Assad

Colonel Riad Assaad, a high-ranking defector from the Syrian military, told Reuters on Friday that more than 10,000 soldiers have deserted the Syrian army and defectors are attacking security police who enforce loyalty to President Bashar Assad.

Guerrilla-style attacks were concentrating on Military and Air Force Intelligence, secret police personnel entrusted with preventing mutiny in the military, who have been behind some of the biggest attacks on pro-democracy protesters, Colonel Assaad told Reuters.

"They have a major role behind the military units and on roadblocks to shoot soldiers who disobey orders," Asaad said by telephone from an undisclosed location on the Syrian-Turkish border. Insurgent operations had "improved markedly in quality" in the last week, he said.

Asaad said fighting had also taken place with army forces but that defectors had been trying not to engage the military to help rally support for their cause.

The military and security apparatus has remained mostly under Assad's control but army deserters, many of whom have reportedly defected because they refused to shoot at demonstrators, have formed a rebel unit called the Syrian Free Army under the command of Asaad, a 50-year-old Air Force officer from Idlib near the border with Turkey.

"Morale in the army is low and defections are mounting all over Syria, although many soldiers are waiting because the regime will kill them or kill their families if they leave," Asaad said.

"Our goal is to protect the peaceful demonstrations and bring down the regime," he said, adding there were more than 10,000 defectors out of the 200,000-member army.

Asaad declined to estimate how long Assad could hold on to power but said international support for the rebels, off the table for now, would help "bring down the regime very quickly."

Syrian troops backed by tanks and artillery advanced in the city of Rastan, near Homs, on Saturday after four days of clashes with army defectors, activists said.

"The city is almost destroyed from the shelling of the army," an anti-government activist who lives in Lebanon said.

"So far we have 10 army defectors killed and a number were wounded," he said.

Syrian exiles said there were about 2,000 defectors in the city.
Government troops have been fighting army defectors in Rastan in the first prolonged armed confrontation since protests erupted against Assad six months ago.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets across Syria on Friday demanding the removal of President Bashar Assad, as fighting continued between loyalist forces and insurgents in the centre of the country, according to activists.

Foreign journalists are barred from Syria, where the regime has killed an estimated 2,700 people during a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, according to opposition activists and rights groups.

[mongers]

Syria edging towards civil war ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-middle-east-16763954

[Scipio]

Syria edging towards civil war ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-middle-east-16763954

They let an Ortho priest get killed.  That's not good for Assad.

[KRonn]

Syria edging towards civil war ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-middle-east-16763954

Seemed to have been going that way for a while. I'm a bit surprised that all out civil war hasn't really happened yet.

[Razgovory]

The edge of civil war must be pretty fucking big.  They've been on the edge of Civil War for that last eight months.

[KRonn]

The edge of civil war must be pretty fucking big.  They've been on the edge of Civil War for that last eight months.

Dissention is widespread but not really powerful enough for open fighting, but still is strong and tenacious enough to keep dissent going. Probably more of the Army to defect, including influential commanders, and/or larger civilian factions with more political clout need to start going against Assad, which would likely push things over the edge pretty quick.

[AnchorClanker]

I'll pre-empt CdM putting the words in my mouth and say that it's a damn pity that there isn't a sensible Hashemite in charge in the Levant.   

[mongers]

I'll pre-empt CdM putting the words in my mouth and say that it's a damn pity that there isn't a sensible Hashemite in charge in the Levant.   

I guess 'we' picked the wrong families to rule. 

Incidentally I was talking with some Bahrainis in London the other day and that was the point the woman was making, 'you' just chose some arbitrary family to rule over 'us'. I thought it rather brave of them discussing these matters in public.