Revolutionaries Protect UN Observers from Syrian Army Attacks
Syrian Revolution News Round-UP 7 Day 429
Revolutionaries of the city of Khan Sheikhoun in the province of Idlib secured the delivery of the six UN observers who were targeted by regime forces yesterday to a UN convoy. The revolutionaries intervened to protect the observers after regime forces targeted their convoy after committing a massacre in their presence. Regime forces continued to shell Khan Sheikhoun after the observers left triggering a massive exodus. UN observers visited the Damascus suburb of Kesweh for less than five minutes, and also visited the towns of Korin and Fayloun in the province of Idlib where regime forces opened AA gun fire at residential areas in their vicinity. Assad’s forces killed at least 40; 26 fell in the province of Homs, including 21 in the massacre of the neighbourhood of Shammas in the city of Homs where regime forces targeted unarmed civilians.
Syrian Kurds in Exile Prepare for National Unity Conference
16/05/2012 By ROZH AHMAD – LONDON, England – Dr. Jawad Mella, president of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNC) and Western Kurdistan Government in Exile (WKG), confirmed that a National Unity Conference is being planned for Kurdish political parties and organizations currently active in Syria. In an exclusive interview, Dr. Mella told Rudaw that they are inviting Kurdish parties from across the political spectrum in Syria. The announcement comes amid the violence and instability that continues to haunt the country.
“The Kurdish nation cannot afford to be part of a civil war that has nothing to do with the Kurdish question,” Dr. Mella said. “Kurds do not want bloodshed … all we want is the simple right to self-determination. This is what the Kurdish nation desires most as their very basic democratic right.”
Syrian Kurdish dissident: Break Syria into pieces / Call for Israel Solidarity
By JONATHAN SPYER – 05/16/2012 Jerusalem Post – Sherkoh Abbas, a veteran Kurdish dissident, calls for dismantling the country into ethnicity based areas.
Sherkoh Abbas, a veteran Syrian Kurdish dissident, called on Israel this week to support the break-up of Syria into a series of federal structures based on the country’s various ethnicities. Speaking from Washington, Abbas was also critical of US attempts to induce Syrian Kurds to join and work with the main opposition body, the Syrian National Council. Abbas, who heads the Washington- based Kurdistan National Assembly, said that dismantling Syria into ethnic enclaves with a federal administration would serve to “break the link” between Syria and the Iran-led “Shi’a crescent.”
ASSAD & THE PALESTINIANS : It’s complicated
Alex Rowell and Luna Safwan, May 13, 2012 NOW LEBANON
Against the overwhelming condemnation directed by the international community at the Syrian regime for its bloody crackdown on domestic opponents, President Bashar al-Assad has always had one trump card with which to rally supporters to his side: his proclaimed devotion to Palestine. “Who, more than Syria, has offered to the Palestinian cause?” he asked in a speech in January. His allies in Lebanon also routinely reach for the same defense: “Can anyone say that the Syrian regime […] did not support the resistance in Palestine?” asked Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah in February. Even British MP George Galloway recently reiterated his admiration for the regime he describes as “the last castle of Arab dignity,” praising the government’s “[refusal] to cut their relationship with the Palestinian revolution and its resistance.”
Many Palestinians in Lebanon, however, appear to remember things a little differently.
To read more: http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=395569&MID=11&PID=2#ixzz1v13qQuTM
Assad Commits a Massacre in Khan Sheikhoun and Hezbollah Units Occupy Border-Villages
Syrian Revolution News Round-up / Day 428
Hezbollah units marched into Syrian territory and invaded the villages of Safsafa, Masriya, Swadiya, Zeeta, and Matraba around the city of Qasir in the province of Homs. They arrested more than 70 Syrians and set up checkpoints assisted by Assad regime forces. Hezbollah also raided parts of the villages of Nizariya and Zira’a and the city of Qasir under the cover of heavy fire and shelling, and burnt many houses. UN observers travelled to the city of Kafarzeita in the province of Hama and left immediately without even entering the city. Another observers’ convoy visited the city of Khan Sheikhoun in the province of Idlib where they monitored the funeral procession for yesterday’s victims. Regime forces shelled the funeral procession and the UN observers’ cars pushing them to escape, and causing the death of at least 28 civilians and the injury of dozens.
THE TRUE ARABELLION STANDS ON SIDE OF THE SYRIAN OPPOSITION / Tunisian Islamists Join Jihad Against Syria’s Assad
GMT 5-14-2012 – (Reuters) – The first that Tunisian schoolteacher Mokhtar Mars heard of his brother fighting alongside rebels in Syria was a phone call from a foreign number, telling him Houssein was dead. “We got an anonymous call telling us he had been martyred. Just three words. We tried to call back but there was no answer,” said Mars, 40, sitting on a mattress along a wall of what was his younger brother’s room, bereft of other belongings.
“The last call we got from him in February was from Libya. He said he was there to study … Then all contact was broken. We tried to call the number he used but there was no answer.” Houssein Mars, 34, is one of at least five Tunisians, all from the southeastern town of Ben Guerdane on the border with Libya, who are believed to have been killed in Syria. Two of their families agreed to be interviewed, as did the family of a sixth man, from the same town, whose fate is not known.
Syria’s brutal dictator will stay without Western intervention
By Mufid Abdulla – KURDISTAN TRIBUNE – 15.5.2012 - Not a single day passes without bloodshed and tragedy in Syria. Syria is bleeding profusely and its people are dying on an hourly basis. The nature of the dictator and the brutality of the system have been so equipped as to resist any opposition for a long time. The peaceful demonstrations of the Syrian people have been met with bullets. The people of Syria have had no choice other than to act in self-defense, as we have seen in Hama where the armed resistance has continued for some time.
Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood is Gaining Influence Over Anti-Assad Revolt
ISTANBUL By Liz Sly – Washington Post 14.5.2012 - After three decades of persecution that virtually eradicated its presence, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood has resurrected itself to become the dominant group in the fragmented opposition movement pursuing a 14-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. Exiled Brotherhood members and their supporters hold the biggest number of seats in the Syrian National Council, the main opposition umbrella group. They control its relief committee, which distributes aid and money to Syrians participating in the revolt. The Brotherhood is also moving on its own to send funding and weapons to the rebels, who continued to skirmish Saturday with Syrian troops despite a month-old U.N.-brokered cease-fire.
Syrian Revolution News Round-up – Day 425 : Regime Improvises More Explosions in Aleppo
The Assad regime’s attempts at misleading the UN observers continued as it improvised another explosion in the city of Aleppo at the Baath Party headquarters. On the other hand, state television announced that a bus carrying 1200 kg of explosives, enough to kill 500 people, was intercepted after an army officer tipped the authorities; the officer has not divulged his source of information. UN observers have inspected the intercepted bus and explosives.
Jihadists Seize Christian Village in Syria, Expel Its Residents
5-12-2012 - (AINA) – Armed jihadist seized control of Qastal al-Burg village on Thursday, May 10, and ordered its 10 Christian families to leave, according to a report published by UPI on its Arabic language website.
A resident of the village, who did not wish to be identified, said “armed jihadist (expiatory) group came to the village and ordered us to leave our homes empty handed.” The armed group, he further stated, “have exercised their control over all the houses, and occupied the church and made it as their command control center.” – Qastal al-Burg village is in the province of Hama and is 48 kilometers northwest of Hama.
Translated from Arabic by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi.
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