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60 Shiites Killed in Syria as West Seeks Solution
 [An Nahar] At least 60 Shiite villagers died in festivities with rebels in eastern Syria while twin suicide kabooms hit Damascus as the West moved to support the opposition following battlefield losses against pro-regime forces.Despite Tuesday's attacks, Bashir al-Assad's regime, dominated by his Alawite sect of Shiite Islam, appears to have gained the upper hand against mainly Sunni Musselmen rebels, buoyed by military support from its allies, Hizubllah and Iran. With regime forces gaining ground, La Belle France said the nearly 27-month conflict, which is estimated to have killed at least 94,000 people, is at a "turning point" and that it is time to review whether to arm the opposition. The issue of military support is likely to top the agenda when U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... meets in Washington with British counterpart William Hague on Wednesday. "Armed Shiite villagers attacked a nearby rebel post yesterday and killed two. Today (Tuesday) rebels attacked the village and took control of it, killing 60 Shiite residents, most of them fighters," Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Agence La Belle France Presse. The festivities came in the majority Sunni village of Hatlah, in eastern Deir Ezzor province. At least 10 rebels were also killed in the fighting on Tuesday, and Shiite residents of Hatlah were fleeing following the violence, Abdul Rahman said. Earlier in Damascus, two suicide kabooms left at least 14 people dead and 31 maimed, and caused widespread damage in the Marjeh neighborhood, state media and the rights Observatory said. The Observatory said one of the blasts "was caused by a jacket wallah who went kaboom!inside the cop shoppe". Syria's cabinet denounced the attack, saying "armed terrorist groups and those behind them have failed completely because of the victories achieved by our brave army". Forces loyal to President Assad, including thousands of Hizbullah fighters, have overrun rebel fighters in central Syria in the past week, including in the strategic town of Qusayr. "There are lessons to be drawn from what happened in Qusayr and what is happening in Aleppo," said French foreign ministry front man Philippe Lalliot. "We are at a turning point in the Syrian war. What should we do under these conditions to reinforce the opposition armed forces? We have had these discussions with our partners, with the Americans, the Saudis, the Turks, many others. "We cannot leave the opposition in the current state." Plans to bring together members of Assad's regime and the opposition at talks in Geneva have so far failed to come to fruition, and Hague at the weekend warned that regime gains on the ground raised new hurdles. U.S. President Barack Obama I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go... has asked his national security team to "look at all options" to end the fighting, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki reiterated Tuesday, adding however there would be no American "boots on the ground". Damascus has also benefited from political support on the international stage from Russia, which supplies it with weapons and has blocked U.N. Security Council resolutions condemning it. But Russian President Vladimir Putin  ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...said on Tuesday that he always believed that Assad should have implemented political reforms that could have averted the bloodbath. In Aleppo province, the army launched multiple attacks on rebel positions, including areas of the Minnigh airbase held by myrmidons, the Observatory said. "Parts of Minnigh military airbase were shelled by regime forces.... Rebels are in control of large swathes of the airbase." A military source told AFP heavy festivities were raging at the base for a third day, but denied any part of the airport was under rebel control. Regime forces shelled the opposition-controlled villages of Deir Hafer and Al-Bab, and hit the myrmidon stronghold of Marea with rockets, the Observatory said. Posted by: Fred 2013-06-13 |
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