TODAY’S SYRIA LIVE COVERAGE
By Scott Lucas + Joanna Parasczuk (EAworldview) – Watch Video’s + Pictures by using the link at the very bottom.
29.9.2013 – Syria Today: Britain Delays US Plans for Airstrikes / LATEST: Videos: Dramatic Footage Of Regime Shells Hitting Jouret Al Shayyah, Homs
Latest Developments: Syrian Refugees Protest Outside Closed Turkish Border Crossing / UN Secretary-General: Inspectors finish Friday, leave Syria on Saturday
*UN Investigators begin 3rd day at sites of chemical weapons attacks / *Britain inserts key clause into motion for Thursday’s parliamentary debate, effectively saying no military operations before the UN inspectors report
Videos: Dramatic Footage Of Regime Shells Hitting Jouret Al Shayyah, Homs
Dramatic footage from Thursday showing the moment regime shells hit the Jouret Al Shayyah neighborhood in Homs. The regime has not yet managed to gain control over all of Homs, despite diverting considerable efforts into attempting to do so.
Video: Insurgent Guards Aleppo School With SA-16 Surface To Air Missile Launcher
Footage posted Thursday shows an insurgent guarding a school against air attacks with a SA-16 (Igla-1E) surface to air missile launcher.
Video: Syrian Refugees Protest Outside Closed Turkish Border Crossing
Footage from Thursday shows a Syrian refugees protesting after Turkish authorities close the border crossing.
Assad “Ready to Face Any Attack and Save the Homeland”
According to Al-Akhbar, President Assad has told Syrian officials:
Since the start of the crisis, as you know, we have waited for our true enemy to reveal itself. I know that your morale is good and that you are ready to face any attack and to save the homeland
It’s a historic confrontation from which we will emerge victorious.
Video: Formation Of New FSA Al Farouq Battalion In Nawa, Dara’a Province
Footage from Thursday shows the announcement of the formation of a new Free Syrian Army battalion, the Farouq Battalion.
Video: Insurgents In Deir Ez Zor Use Homemade Rockets To Target Military Airbase
Footage posted on Thursday shows insurgents from the Assalah Wa Tanmiya Front target the military airbase in Deir Ez Zor:
Picture: Children in Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan, Making Mud Models of Their Old Homes
SYRIA CHILDREN ZAATARI CAMP — USED 29-08-13
UN Secretary-General: Inspectors Finish Friday, Leave Syria on Saturday
News on Wednesday claimed Ban had said the inspectors would work until Sunday. However, subsequent reports indicated that the US had rejected an extension of inspections over the weekend.
Russian Navy To Send Additional Vessels To Eastern Mediterranean
Russian news agency Interfax reports that the Russian Navy is to send two additional vessels to the Eastern Mediterranean.
Interfax cites a Russian naval source as saying that the “prevailing situation in the Eastern Mediterranean has required that we make some adjustments to our fleet. In the next few days, it should be extended by the addition of a large anti-submarine vessel from our Northern Fleet. Later, it will be supported by the Black Sea guided missile cruiser Moskva, which is currently completing a task in the North Atlantic and will begin the transatlantic crossing towards the Straits of Gibraltar”.
The source added that the missile cruiser Varyag would replace the Pacific Fleet’s anti-submarine ship Vice-Admiral Panteleev.
Earlier this week, ITAR-TASS reported that the Moskva— the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet —had called at the Venezuelan port of La Guaira for a business visit, accompanied by the Northern Fleet’s large anti-submarine ship “Vice-Admiral Kulakov”. In July, the Moskva took over command of the Russian Navy’s 16 ships in the Mediterranean.
UN Investigators Begin 3rd Day at Sites of Chemical Weapons Attacks
Jeremy Bowen of the BBC:
Activists said the inspectors were en route to Douma and had passed through al-Mleha.
Video: Civilian Casualties As Massive Explosion Rocks Raqqa
Activists in Raqqa reported a massive explosion in the town this morning, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries. This footage shows some of the aftermath.
Videos: Heavy Regime Shelling On Mt. Arbaeen, Ariha, Idlib
Footage from Thursday morning shows smoke rising after a heavy regime shelling on Mt. Arbaeen in Ariha, the town in Idlib Province captured by insurgents. The regime continues an offensive to try to retake the strategic town.
State Media: “All Is Well In Tartous Port”
In one of several stories this morning pushing the line that Syrians are getting on with their normal lives, Syrian State media is reporting that all operating as normal in the port of Tartous.
State outlet SANA quotes the Director General of the Tartous Port Company as saying that “there is no truth to reports of hostile channels that the commercial ships have left the port…the navigation movement at the port proceeds as usual.”
Syrian Deputy FM: West Encouraging Terrorists To Use Chemical Weapons
Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Fayssal Mikdad, has accused the West of “encouraging terrorists” to use chemical weapons, warning that this “Western policy means that such weapons will be used soon by the same terrorist groups they have supported against the European peoples”.
Mikdad further claimed that Damascus has given UN inspectors “proof of the use of chemical weapons by the armed terrorist groups in all sites.”
Casualties
The Local Coordination Committees claim 104 people were killed on Wednesday, including 72 in Aleppo Province — with 55 in a claimed mass killing in Sfera.
The Violations Documentation Center put the number of dead at 71,513 since the conflict began in March 2011, an increase of 48 from Wednesday. Of the dead, 54,012 are civilians, a rise of 31 from yesterday.
Thursday Summary
On a busy Wednesday — including a statement by President Obama and renewed UN inspections of the sites of last week’s chemical attacks — the most significant development was Britain’s retreat from immediate military action, even as the US hinted that this was still possible.
The British Government, facing opposition from Parliament to the airstrikes, inserted a key clause into its motion for Thursday’s debate — it effectively said there would be no military operations before the UN inspectors put forth their findings:
The United Nations Security Council must have the opportunity immediately to consider that briefing and that every effort should be made to secure a Security Council Resolution backing military action before any such action is taken.
Given that the UN has asked for at least four more days for investigation and analysis — and the Assad regime, sharply reversing its earlier hindrance of the inspections, has suggested an even longer process — the British Government has moved the window for airstrikes to next week.
In his interview with the US Public Broadcasting Service, Obama maintained the line that no decision had been made about force; however, his State Department indicated earlier Wednesday that Washington would act outside the UN inspections and Security Council deliberations.
Spokeswoman Marie Harf said that there was no point in seeking a vote in the Council, even on a British resolution, because of Russian intransigence: “The situation is so serious that it demands a response.”
Harf’s statement was soon followed by signals of a breakdown of talks among the five permanent members of the Council over the British resolution, seeking authorisation for the use of force, with Russia making clear its objections and likely veto.
However, the US appears to have cornered itself with the declaration that any operation would be multi-lateral — thus raising the significance of the British shift — and Obama put on another restraint, at least publicly, with the description of the airstrikes as limited and even symbolic:
If we are saying in a clear and decisive but very limited way, we send a shot across the bow saying, stop doing this, this can have a positive impact on our national security over the long term.
About the Author – Joanna Paraszczuk, Scott Lucas Joanna Paraszczuk is EA WorldView’s Managing Editor.
http://eaworldview.com/2013/08/syria-today-britain-delays-us-plans-for-airstrikes/