Syria Disintegrating: Part 2

[Viking]

[tim mode] Not looking good. [/tim]

Actually looking good. I'm all for giving the islamists as much spent ammunition as the FSA is willing to shoot at them. Think of this as the FSA's anti islamist bona fides.

[mongers]

[tim mode] Not looking good. [/tim]

Actually looking good. I'm all for giving the islamists as much spent ammunition as the FSA is willing to shoot at them. Think of this as the FSA's anti islamist bona fides.

Even when they lose to the islamists?

[Viking]

[tim mode] Not looking good. [/tim]

Actually looking good. I'm all for giving the islamists as much spent ammunition as the FSA is willing to shoot at them. Think of this as the FSA's anti islamist bona fides.

Even when they lose to the islamists?

When the choice is A) Lose to the Islamists or B) Help the Islamists win then I don't really see much choice being involved and go with what is right rather than what works (given that obviously nothing is working).

[jimmy olsen]

And just when you think it can't get much worse...

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/15/19486654-pakistani-taliban-we-sent-hundreds-of-fighters-to-syria?lite

Pakistani Taliban: 'We sent hundreds of fighters' to Syria

REUTERS/Yazan Homsy

A general view shows damaged buildings on a deserted street in the besieged area of Homs on July 13, 2013.
By Mushtaq Yusufzai, Producer, NBC News

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Leaders of the Pakistani Taliban claim to have sent "hundreds of fighters" to Syria to support local mujahideen forces in their struggle against President Bashar Assad.

Senior commanders in the militant Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, a group considered close to al-Qaeda, said they were sending fighters on the request of their "Arab friends."

"When our Muslim brothers sought our help, we sent hundreds of fighters to fight alongside their Arab friends," a senior Tehrik-e-Taliban commander said Sunday, on the condition of anonymity.

"We will soon issue videos of our fighters winning goods and properties of the enemy in Syria," he added.

Another commander for the group, that is known to host foreign militants in the lawless tribal regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, said that they were bound to help because Syrian fighters had supported them in Pakistan.

"We have established our own camps in Syria, but some of our people go and then return after spending some time fighting there," he added. 

The militant group is led by Hakimullah Mahsud – who the FBI offered a $5 million reward for on their Most Wanted Terrorist list.
Slideshow: Syria uprising

A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

Launch slideshow

However, senior Pakistani government and military authorities challenged the group's claims.

"How can they claim to be sending fighters to Syria when they failed to resist Pakistani security forces and surrendered their strongholds in the tribal areas," a senior military official in Peshawar said.

He added that they wanted to get international attention.

Their claims come as an increasing number of foreign fighters enter the two-year-old conflict that has killed more than 90,000 people, according to the United Nations.

Guerrillas from the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah have recently helped forces loyal to Assad recapture important regions in central Syria.

Troops backed by tanks and artillery also moved into a rebel-held district of Damascus on Monday, stepping up efforts to drive opposition fighters from the capital and build on battlefield gains elsewhere in the country, a rebel commander told NBC News.

[Sheilbh]

When the choice is A) Lose to the Islamists or B) Help the Islamists win then I don't really see much choice being involved and go with what is right rather than what works (given that obviously nothing is working).

Surely you need to define what someone's trying to achieve to measure whether it's working. With the exception of Cameron's desperate desire to don a keffiyah and ride on Damascus I'm not sure you can say nothing's working.

Interesting side detail, apparently the Australians are really worried at the number of Australian Muslims going to fight in Syria. It's estimated at a few hundred now (from around 500 000) which is tiny but disproportionate compared to estimates of around 100 French or British Muslims fighting over there, from far larger populations.

[Agelastus]

Interesting side detail, apparently the Australians are really worried at the number of Australian Muslims going to fight in Syria. It's estimated at a few hundred now (from around 500 000) which is tiny but disproportionate compared to estimates of around 100 French or British Muslims fighting over there, from far larger populations.

Wikipedia claims the "largest and highest profile" group of Muslims in Australia are Lebanese.

Given the history of Syria under the Assads concerning Lebanon over the last few decades that's likely to produce an abnormally large proportion of Australia's muslims who have enough of a grudge or history or family connections to actively go and fight.

Possibly for both sides, in fact; do the Australians know which side the majority of their errant citizens are fighting on?

[Viking]

Interesting side detail, apparently the Australians are really worried at the number of Australian Muslims going to fight in Syria. It's estimated at a few hundred now (from around 500 000) which is tiny but disproportionate compared to estimates of around 100 French or British Muslims fighting over there, from far larger populations.

Wikipedia claims the "largest and highest profile" group of Muslims in Australia are Lebanese.

Given the history of Syria under the Assads concerning Lebanon over the last few decades that's likely to produce an abnormally large proportion of Australia's muslims who have enough of a grudge or history or family connections to actively go and fight.

Possibly for both sides, in fact; do the Australians know which side the majority of their errant citizens are fighting on?

First of all, most of the lebanese are christian arabs. Second most of the muslims are sunnis. There are shiites but they live in specific neighborhoods. So ASIO knows who they are fighting for if they know their address.

[Agelastus]

First of all, most of the lebanese are christian arabs.

As Wikipedia says in the very next line - although the proportion is apparently 6:4 in favour of Christian Lebanese. That fails to fit most laymen's definitions of "most".

Still, thanks for confirming the accuracy of that part of Wikipedia's article...

Second most of the muslims are sunnis. There are shiites but they live in specific neighborhoods. So ASIO knows who they are fighting for if they know their address.

Good to hear.

[mongers]

The West should prepare for Assad's victory in Syria

By Con Coughlin World Last updated: July 24th, 2013

This morning's report that hundreds of former Syrian rebels are laying down their arms and taking up the government's offer of an amnesty is further evidence of what I have been saying (and writing) for months: President Bashar al-Assad is winning Syria's brutal civil war.

Ever since Assad's forces turned the tide of the conflict by retaking the strategically important town of Qusayr on the Lebanese border earlier in the summer, there has been an almost immutable momentum building in favour of the regime gaining the upper hand in the conflict.

A combination of the deep divisions with the rebel ranks, with the Syrian Free Forces declaring war on their al-Qaeda allies (a civil war within a civil war), together with the tangible support Assad has received from his Iranian and Russian allies, means that the rebel cause is now all but lost. No wonder some of the rebels have decided they are fighting for a lost cause, and have decided it is no longer worth risking their lives.

Moreover, as General Sir David Richards, the former head of Britain's Armed Forces, explained in my valedictory interview with him for the Telegraph last week,  calls by the likes of David Cameron and William Hague to arm the rebels now seem likely to fall on deaf ears.

Apart from the fact that establishing a no-fly would be tantamount to a declaration of war on Damascus, the possibility that sophisticated Western weaponry might fall into the hands of Islamist militants has been sufficient to dissuade most Western governments for pursuing that particular course.

The result is that the rebels are now accusing the West of betrayal, and the Assad regime, as Mr Cameron warned at the weekend, grows stronger by the day. It is now simply a question of time before Assad declares victory, and the rebels are left to lick their wounds.

Consequently I believe the time has now come for Western leaders to get their collective heads around the idea that Assad is going to emerge victorious from his brutal assault on his own people, with all the implications that will have for the future.

........

Rest of article here:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/concoughlin/100227893/the-west-should-prepare-for-assads-victory-in-syria/

[Ed Anger]

 

[DGuller]

Allahu Akbar!

[citizen k]

Syria footage sheds light on Iran's involvement

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24748143

Footage from Syria appears to show the extent of Iran's involvement in the conflict-ridden country.

The regime in Tehran says it is assisting Damascus by sending advisers from its elite Revolutionary Guards.

But when some rebels captured a video camera, belonging to an Iranian cameraman who had been embedded with the Revolutionary Guards, the scope of Iran's covert activities in Syria became clear.

Yalda Hakim reports.

[Razgovory]

Neat.

[PDH]

Syria was a lot neater when it was invaded in 1941. 

[Viking]

Syria was a lot neater when it was invaded in 1941.

Moshe Dayan's lost left eye begs to disagree with you.


As for the the IRG, at least they managed to die without all those fucking "allahu ackbars".... but then again, the reporter does point out that it was a trap.