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Sunday, August 26, 2012

630 Slaughtered in new massacre in Syria

FINALLY!! #UN chief Ban Ki-moon calls #Daraya massacre "an appalling and brutal crime" | #Syria live blog: aje.me/PVEXK7
— mapsgal (@mapsgal) August 27, 2012

In the wake of President Obama's warning to the Assad regime that using "a whole bunch of chemical weapons" would be a "redline" that might cause him to rethink his approach of not interfering with the on-going carnage in Syria, the regime has slaughtered 630 civilians in Daraya, Syria this week without using any chemical weapons at all, according to a reports from the Local Coordinating Committee.

Daraya had been known for its peaceful resistance to the regime. Things didn't descend into chaos after the regime completely withdrew its security forces from the community several months ago. Instead, community activists and volunteers started running this community of 200,000 in the shadow of Damascus with a quiet efficiency that completely unnerved the regime. Without the regime forces, there were no ethnic clashes and very little crime. This was the regime's response to their non-violent opposition. All men found of "fighting age" were slaughtered but women and children weren't spared. They too were killed in large numbers.

These murders were predicted. They could have been prevented.

This is a massacre that the world let happen!

Obama's Treasury and Commerce departments are denying the opposition security software that is a matter of life and death to them!

Obama's CIA is even stopping the opposition from getting effective anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons from anyone!

President Obama, Don't stop others from helping these people defend themselves!

Not a single condemnation of the #Daraya Massacre yet by any country ...
— The Revolting Syrian (@YallaIr7al) August 27, 2012

If 440 PIGS were slaughtered in America or anywhere else today, the world would have reacted with more concern. #Syria #Daraya
— Arab Fury (@Arab_Fury) August 26, 2012

Never again say "Never Again." Don't tell that Lie!
We can't say we weren't warned!

Asma: girl who warned about a massacre in #Daraya after Houla Massacre. Killed in the very massacre she warned about. twitter.com/RazanSpeaks/st…
— Razan Saffour (@RazanSpeaks) August 27, 2012

We saw it coming. We just didn't do anything,

"#Assad forces have launched a campaign of arrests & residents are anxious & afraid that there will be another civilian massacre" in #Daraya
— ???? ????????? (@GreenQuran) August 25, 2012

We watched it happen on Twitter and YouTube.

I can hear the bombing.. i can see the smoke.. and i can't help #Daraya
— Free Didi (@kdana64) August 25, 2012

God have mercy on the souls of those being butchered in #Daraya as I type this. And no mercy on those who witness this massacre in silence.
— The Revolting Syrian (@YallaIr7al) August 25, 2012

and elsewhere in Syria, the carnage goes on!

THEIR SCREAMS OF PAIN AND FEAR ARE DEAFENING AND HEARTBREAKING … BUT IS ANYONE LISTENING? Aleppo (Qady Al Asker): Aug 26, 2012 - Is anyone willing to help these children? Or are they resigned to a fate of more shelling only to end up dead or severely injured and back in dirty, understaffed and undersupplied make-shift clinics?

Thanks @LccSy

***HORRIFYING & EXTREMELY GRAPHIC*** THIS IS THE FINAL IMAGE HIS PARENTS WILL HAVE OF HIM. Daraa (Busr Al Sham): Aug 26 2012 - Words cannot describe this scene. It’s not out of a horror moive. It’s not your imagination. The first boy in the opening scenes is a real human. He was horrifically killed when a Russian made and supplied helicopter fired rockets into his home, tearing the top part of his skull off and covering him in dust, thus making this little child appear out of some horror movie.

But this is not a horror movie. This child was a son to loving parents. He went to school. He had dreams. He used to play in the streets like all kids. Yet this is how he will be remembered by his family. This is how the world (that cares to look) will see him.

If we, working collectively, can not stop the carnage that is going on in Syria, or if we refuse to, we have signed our own Death Warrant as a species on this planet.

The Christian Science Monitor is reporting today:

'Atrocity on a new scale'? Syrians piece together story of Daraya massacre
The Syrian opposition is disseminating video footage from the town of Daraya this weekend that tells of a government massacre that may have left more than 600 people dead.
By Arthur Bright, Staff writer / August 27, 2012

New video footage has provided graphic evidence of a massacre reportedly committed by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Damascus suburb of Daraya. If reports from the London-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights of more than 300 dead are confirmed, "it would be an atrocity of a new scale" in the Syrian conflict, a British diplomat warned.

Over the weekend, activists posted multiple bloody videos of the victims of what they say was a coordinated massacre of citizens of Daraya – mostly young men of fighting age, although women and children were killed as well – that began on Friday.

“The Assad forces killed them in cold blood,” Abu Ahmad, a resident of Daraya, told The New York Times. “I saw dozens of dead people, killed by the knives at the end of Kalashnikovs, or by gunfire. The regime finished off whole families, a father, mother and their children. They just killed them without any pretext.”

The Local Coordination Committees activist group said that some 150 bodies were found Saturday night in the basement of a mosque in what seems to be the largest single killing site, though additional sites continue to be found – another 15 bodies were found in the basement of a home on Sunday. The LCC puts the death toll for the week in Daraya at more than 630.

“Daraya, a city of dignity, has paid a heavy price for demanding freedom,” the group said in a statement, adding: “The death toll has doubled in the past few days due to field executions and revenge killings.” More...

The Economist has this report:

The devastation of Daraya
Aug 27th 2012, 13:20

IT IS difficult to distinguish one gruesome day from the next in Syria until the devastation of a town is so great that it earns itself a place on the conflict’s increasingly bloody timeline: the assault in February on Homs’s Baba Amr district, the Houla massacre in May, and now Daraya.

The small town on the southwestern edge of the capital Damascus was shelled for several days last week before President Bashar Assad’s forces stormed in on August 25th, carrying out house-to-house raids and executing men on the spot. At least 200 bodies were found on Saturday, often in basements of houses; more than 350 were killed over the past week. Video footage and photographs from local activists show bloodied corpses laid out in the yard of a mosque, before being lowered into mass graves.

The massacre is part of an intensified offensive by the regime to reassert control in Damascus and beyond. Having failed to stamp out the rebels despite resorting to ever more shelling and aerial bombing, Mr Assad appears to be targeting his efforts more specifically on areas held by or harbouring rebels in an attempt to turn the local populations against the fighters. That may work in some areas of Aleppo, the country’s commercial capital, where although many locals hate the regime there is less support for the opposition fighters. But in smaller towns like Daraya, residents reached by Skype on Sunday put the blame squarely on the regime.

Rebel fighters here apparently withdrew from the town to avoid the regime’s wrath, although some may have simply melted back into the civilian population. But any such efforts were futile: the regime sees all young men as a threat, as the fact that the majority of the dead were young men shows. The UN accuses both sides of war crimes, but says that those committed by the government far outweigh those of the rebels. Increasingly, ordinary Syrians are bearing the brunt of the violence. Saturday was the bloodiest day yet, adding to a death toll of 4,000 so far in August.

In Daraya, Syrians are mourning not just the devastation in one town but the increasingly dark fate of the uprising. For months the place was a beacon of non-violent resistance. As other parts picked up arms, protesters in Daraya offered roses and water to the soldiers stationed in their hometown. To no avail. Ghiyath Matar, a young activist committed to non-violent protest, was arrested and tortured to death; others were shot on the spot. Daraya embodies the sad trajectory of Syria’s uprising, in which the regime’s violence has transformed hopeful protests into a destructive civil war. It will be just one of many places to pay dearly.

From the National we have this very important report:

Daraya: the defiance that led to the Syrian massacre of hundredsPhil Sands
Aug 27, 2012

DAMASCUS // For a rather non-descript town of drab cement block buildings on the southern outskirts of Damascus, Daraya in two short months acquired a significance far exceeding its size or the apparent ordinariness of its neighbourhoods.

Until the start of last week's all-out assault by regime loyalists, which culminated with the alleged massacre of at least 300 people, the community took up the task of governing themselves - a highly emblematic piece of defiance against a regime that has long warned chaos and Islamic extremism would engulf areas outside of its strict control.

Rather than sliding into anarchy after security forces withdrew entirely from the town this summer, Daraya had instead been run with a certain quiet efficiency by opposition activists and volunteers drawn from the town's 200,000 or so population.

There was no state police in the area, but traffic flowed freely and residents reported little crime. Modest rebuilding projects to repair damage from previous army operations had been carried out, paid for by local donations.

Stores and wood workshops were open, an independent community newspaper was being published and volunteer street cleaners swept and washed down roads. People even queued politely at the local petrol station.

With no security forces on hand to make arrests, activists would stand at major intersections and hand out leaflets designed to educate residents on the key principles of the revolution, as drawn up by committees of local men and women.

The leaflets said there must be equality between all religious and ethnic groups in the new Syria and stressed the importance of ensuring justice and rejecting revenge in dealing with regime officials. They also spelt out that with new freedoms would come enormous responsibilities and duties for every citizen, including caring for the environment and conserving scarce water resources.

Daraya was one of a growing number of places living on the fraying edge of central authority in Syria, but its slide out of the government's grasp was made all the more remarkable by its proximity to the very centre of power. More...

Not surprisingly, the Assad regime has made its own claims that these people were killed by anti-government forces and have produced video propaganda promoting these lies. Here is one such report from the pro-Assad Dunya TV's Michellen Azer that is well critiqued in the subtitles:

In #Syria, childhood no longer exists. The regime has extinguished the dreams of our children (picture from #Daraya) twitter.com/FidaaZaanin/st…
— FiDaa ??????? (@FidaaZaanin) August 27, 2012

2:21 PM PT: So many people ask me what I think should be done that i decided to elevate this from a comment to the main body.

The US should not act as a filter for weapons reaching the opposition.

From the NY Times we have this story about our country's input into this crisis under Obama's leadership:

A small number of C.I.A. officers are operating secretly in southern Turkey, helping allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government, according to American officials and Arab intelligence officers.

From the Australian, we have more details about what the American role really amounts to:

the CIA has blocked shipments of heavy anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, which rebel units of the Free Syrian Army have long said are vital to their efforts to overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. At the same time they have approved supplies of AK-47 Kalashnikov rifles, and just over a month ago gave the green light to a shipment of 10,000 Russian-made rocket-propelled grenades.

This is a disgusting policy. What does that make the United States if not accessories to these murders?

So I guess the first thing I want done is for Mr Obama stop this shameless policy of promoting endless war in Syria while at the same time denying the Free Syrian Army the weapons they need to win.

Is he so afraid of what Israel will say if he allows the FSA to get manpads that he is willing to see thousands get slaughtered from the air between now and the election?

Clearly nobody is even considering a no-fly zone, so I find this policy of denying the people being slaughtered the tools with which to defend themselves absolutely criminal.

I hope there is a charge of accessory-to-a-warcrime, and it won't just be the Russians who will be looking at it.

8:36 PM PT: One Kossack, in justifying Obama's policy of imposing the US as a "filter" to make sure no one supplies the Free Syrian Army with effective weapons against armor and aircraft said:

We don't want weapons to wind up in enemy hands and it is probable that at least some of the FSA groups are allied to Al Qaeda. Just because someone is Assad's enemy does not mean it is in our national interest for them to have heavy weapons.

Another Kossack wrote a dairy that expressed much the same sentiment:

Why is the Obama administration trying to limit who gets arms and block heavy arms from being delivered to the rebels in Syria?

Because most of the arms the rebels have are not secure. There is no organized command structure, alliances between groups are very fluid, and cash is king - almost all the arms in rebel hands are up for sale.

The idea being defended is that these items have a dual use. Yes they could be used to save the people being slaughtered from the air, but they could also be used to challenge our air superiority and endanger us in other ways.

So since we don't directly suffer from the slaughter in Syria, but we may suffer if these weapons should fall into the wrong hands, we should stop them from getting the weapons if we can.

This is the same "dual-use" mentality imperialist powers always exercises where they have that control.

With the Iraq sanctions it meant: We know you need chlorine to purify the water but you could make chemical weapons with it so sorry the children will have to die. Or we know you need anti-biotics to fight diseases but they could also be used in a bio attack, so sorry.

Israel uses the same self-serving "logic" to deny Gaza even the most basic building materials.

The US policy, Obama's policy, the one these Kossacks seem to be defending is precisely the policy that will cost the most Syrian lives. It is a policy of allowing them just enough weapons to continue the fight [ AK-47s and RPG] while denying them the weapons [heavy anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons] they need to win the fight.

A long civil war in Syria suites US imperialism just fine. First, they really don't want to see Assad go. Obama thought he was on the verge on doing a peace deal with Assad, and he was helping with intel. But they would like to see Assad weakened. And if Assad does have to go, they want to have a say in picking the next king, and they don't have that clout with the FSA yet, so continuing the war gives them time and space to maneuverer.

Of course, that also means that the slaughter of Syrians continues, but US imperialism never worried about that. Didn't in Vietnam or Iraq or now with the drone strikes everywhere. In Syria, the US isn't even doing the killing directly, we're just blocking help from getting to them.

Still, its a lousy, blood-soaked, Machiavellian, imperialism policy and I'm just sorry to see so many Kossacks lining up behind it.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Special message from Syrian children to Obama

Special message from Syrian children to @barackobama #Assadcrimes #Syria twitter.com/mannoush/statu…
— Mouna Hashem ??? ?† (@mannoush) August 25, 2012

In Syria yesterday, the slaughter of Syrians by Syrians reached a new daily high of 440 souls. A great many of them were children and most of the adults were also victims and still no international force is intervening and even trying to save innocence Syrian lives. In Syrian the non-interventions can claim a complete political victory. No one is lifting a finger to help these poor people.

Overwhelmingly, this killing is coming from the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad which has been using tanks, long range artillery, rockets from helicopters, snipers, jet planes dropping cluster bombs and 500lb bombs on civilian targets in opposition areas regardless of whether there is armed opposition in those areas. His targets have included, people in breadlines ( four times), hospitals, mosques, civilian housing, rescue operations and funerals.

A growing number of reports are making it clear that with regards to the military assault by the Syrian government on its people, we can not talk of "collateral damage," the slaughter of non-combatants is intentional. Bashar al-Assad is using his well financed death machinery to massacre whole communities for their political opposition to him and except for some jihadists and Libya revolutionaries, nobody is trying to help them.

For the non-interventionists, this may be their masterpiece.

The rate at which the Assad regime has been slaughtering Syrians has increased sharply since 20 August when US President Barack Obama told Bashar al-Assad that it would take nothing less than the use of chemical weapons and not just a small amount but "a whole bunch," to shake his non-interventionist stance.

On 19 August, the day before Obama made his comments, which some including this diarist likened to a "green light" to Assad's violence, 130 Syrians died in the violence, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, on 21 August, after Obama told Assad that chemical weapons was the redline, SOHR reported 250 killed that day. Not too long ago it was news that the daily Syrian death toll was consistently breaking the hundred a day mark. Now it has been more than two hundred a day everyday since Obama warned Assad that "a whole bunch of chemical weapons" was the redline.

Even so, yesterday's total represents a new one-day record. I wonder how many Syrians a day he can slaughter without having to use a whole bunch of chemical weapons? Shall we all just watch and see?

Jamie Allinson has an article on New Left Project that I think clarifies some things:

Syria: Neither Riyadh nor Tehran but Popular Revolution

Just as the Assad regime in Syria approaches what appears to be its terminal decomposition, prominent figures on the Anglophone left are hurrying to defend it—or at least to oppose its opponents. The anti-anti-dictatorship crowd includes not only sub-Ickean conspiracists such as Michael Chossudovsky but also people one would have expected to know better, such as Tariq Ali, George Galloway and John Rees. Some of the arguments are expressed in more inflammatory style than others—such as Galloway’s claim that the Syrian uprising is a ‘massive international conspiracy’—but they follow a similar line. This is that: the Syrian revolution, whether it has popular roots or not, has now become a purely military endeavour of Sunni supremacists acting as the catspaws of a Saudi-Qatari-U.S. (perhaps also Franco-Zionist) effort to topple Assad, the last redoubt of the anti-imperialist forces in the region. This externally funded rebellion represents an extension of the U.S. imperial project launched after the 9/11 attacks, embracing the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. Stories of Syrian government atrocities in the Western media are the counterparts of the lies circulated in 2002-3 about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, and therefore must be discredited. The only solution to be hoped for is a negotiated peace (a prospect also raised by parts of the Syrian opposition) leaving some remnant of the Ba’ath regime in place, thereby denying the U.S. and its co-conspirators the prize of a pliant regime on Israel’s front-line and a significant weakening of the Iranian position. These arguments are not made solely by Anglophone commentators: outside of Egypt’s revolutionary currents, they are extremely common on the Arab left. One need only glance at the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar to find the Arab revolutions damned tout court as examples of “Political Sunnism”.

Is any of this true? The situation in Syria is both extremely violent and extremely complicated and difficult for even those within the country to grasp, let alone those outside of it. Nonetheless, information is available if one is ready to consult people within Syria or those who have reported from there recently—a step rarely taken by those proposing the anti-anti-Assad argument. Let us take the claims in turn.

'Massive international conspiracy'?

The charges laid by, amongst others, Charles Glass and Patrick Seale, are that the Free Syrian Army is trained, funded and armed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia (leading to an increase in Islamist influence within its ranks) as the co-conspirators of the USA and Turkey. These arms and funds, it is claimed, are flowing largely through the contact points established between FSA-held territory and the Turkish border in the north. It is this weaponry that accounts for the recent boldness of the rebels, and the likely demise of the current regime will be a victory for the suppliers of this ordinance and not the Syrian people.

There are elements of truth to this story. It is no secret that the U.S., and its more vociferous junior imperial partner, wants rid of Assad and in this aim they are joined by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the GCC more generally. The Saudis and Qataris are providing money, and in some cases materiel, to those bits of the FSA of which they approve. Nor is it any revelation that Western (and Turkish) agencies are attempting to broker the flow of these resources into the country and thereby exercise influence over the revolutionary situation. In any revolution, anywhere, now or in the future, outside powers will try to do this. Where this line of argument goes very wrong is in claiming that the Syrian revolution, as a result of these attempts, now consists of ‘sundry’ elements working for Western intelligence agencies and abetting the recolonisation of the country.

First, the weaponry and funding in question is not very much, and not for everyone. One can spot images of FSA anti-aircraft guns or cannon but very rarely. These are also most likely to have been taken with defectors of the defeat of a regime garrison. The regime’s advantage in airpower and ground armour is overwhelming: the FSA’s resources bear no comparison. One would expect a massive international conspiracy worth its salt to furnish its fifth column with some serious anti-tank and anti-aircraft weaponry. Such munitions are not evident. Most of the FSA’s light arms seem to come from the Syrian army itself, through defection or purchase with money from Syrian exile businessmen in the Gulf. Here is an example of FSA members having taken Rastan in July, disabling at least two armoured vehicles visible in the video:

The regime armour appears to have been hit with improvised bombs, as described in other reports. The fighters have kalashnikovs and body armour but no heavy weaponry and certainly no mortars or rocket batteries. An example of the motivations and desires of FSA fighters is given in this video:

Defecting out of horror at the regime’s repression, these men seem desperate for weaponry and support from outside. The provision of such support, especially were it to entail Western air superiority, would indeed endanger the autonomy of the revolution—but the fact they are asking for it indicates that the conspiracy is perhaps not so massive or effective after all. If you were comprehensively funding and arming a rebel force to topple your well-armed enemy, would you leave its fighters to rely on the goodwill of local villagers for food?

Belief in a massive international conspiracy, rather than a popular revolution, also forestalls understanding of why Assad’s forces are doing so badly. The Syrian army numbers about 300,000 and it is an actual army, not a group of men in the woods. Yet it cannot be used, because most of the soldiers are unreliable. The core shock troops—their loyalty solidified by sectarian or clan identity—can be sent to dispatch the FSA forces, but governing the subdued areas is almost impossible, as the regular troops are likely either to defect or simply not to do their duty. This form of rebellion should also be counted part of a revolutionary process that has been going on since March 2011. The defection of Manaf Tlass and Riad Hijab and the bomb attack killing several high-ranking security officers indicates that the rot has set in even at the core of the regime.

Morphed into civil war?

Yet, are these not simply manoeuvres in a civil war, the form into which the Syrian revolution has now ‘morphed’ ? Denunciations of the ‘militarization’ of the Syrian revolution, and calls simply to stop the violence, come long and hard from certain quarters of the Western left. And indeed, the economic power of the working class (at best only scantily visible in the Syrian revolution) provides a firmer basis for revolutionary strategy than solely armed contest with the state. There is no doubt that what Syria is now undergoing is a civil war, albeit one in which the dynamics of a revolutionary process are still present. Nor is the military strategy of the FSA uncontested within the ranks of the opposition themselves. However, absent in the jeremiads against the Syrian revolutionaries for their resort to arms is any understanding of the origins of this development.

The revolution was inspired by and followed the model of Tunisia and Egypt. Even the initial slogan of ‘the people demand the fall of the regime’, daubed on a wall in Dera’a, consciously emulated Tunisia. Every such unarmed protest was suppressed with the uttermost violence. The Free Syrian Army was formed out of armed detachments protecting demonstrations, only really beginning in earnest last summer. The Syrian regime has been ‘militarized’ for decades. If it persists in some form, the solution favoured by some on the left, the Syrian people will continue to suffer its violence. They are not to be condemned for fighting back.

Nor is the revolution over in the form of demonstrations, strikes, and popular self-management. This is a crucial factor in considering the role of foreign intervention: arms and funds are entering Syria from outside but this remains within a context of surprisingly robust popular mobilizations. One must remember that tens of thousands have been killed by the regime, many more arrested and tortured, demonstrations are attacked with live fire, residential districts shelled, and all this for a year and a half. It would be no surprise if Syrian revolutionists disappeared completely from the streets. They have not: indeed, the increased military victories over the regime go in tandem with the appearance of mass opposition in Aleppo and Damascus. To take a few examples from the recent offensives in those cities...

A demonstration in Rukn Al-Din, Damascus, on 19 July:

And on the 20th, also in Damascus. You will note the ‘militarization’ of the situation at 4:36 when regime snipers open fire:

Here are demonstrations from Aleppo, from a Kurdish district a few days later—when watching the scenes of fighting from that city, it is worth remembering that this is what the Assad forces are fighting to destroy:

Here is a round-up of the demonstrations in Aleppo on 29 June:

The armed attacks on the infrastructure of the security state are also being carried out with popular participation, as shown in this recording of the storming of a Political Security office in the village of Al-Tal:

There have been several attempts at igniting general strikes against the Assad regime, in the hope of repeating the contribution of the Egyptian and Tunisian labour movements to dispatching the dictators in those countries. So far, these attempts have not succeeded, partially because of the deep imbrication of the Communist parties and official union organisation and partially because of the extent of repression. However, strike days have been observed in several cities on several occasions—here is film of a strike of mini bus drivers in the outskirts of Damascus on 8 June:

The Turkish-based Syrian National Council is rightly considered by the anti-anti-Assad campists to be a pro-intervention outfit greatly influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood and its Qatari sponsors. However, this body seems neither representative nor respected on the ground. Illuminating dispatches from the towns of Saraqeb and Taftanaz reveal elements of popular power in areas liberated from the Assad regime. The Local Co-ordinating Committees, composed of activists directing demonstrations, have in some cases merged with local committees formed to take over state functions. Thus in Taftanaz, Anand Gopal writes of how
'To fill the vacuum, citizens came together to elect councils—farmers formed their own, as did merchants, laborers, teachers, students, health-care workers, judges, engineers, and the unemployed. In some cases, the councils merged with pre-existing activist networks called local coordinating committees. They in turn chose delegates to sit on a citywide council, which in Taftanaz and surrounding towns was the only form of government the citizenry recognized.'
In Saraqeb
'the committee’s nine members are each tasked with a different role – there’s a media liaison, finance officer, military liaison, political officer, revolutionary courts representative, services coordinator, medical services, donations officer, and demonstrations coordinator. They are rotating, elected posts of three months’ duration. “There is no leader in the group,” said “al-Sayed,” one of the nine representatives who requested anonymity. “We want to get rid of this idea.”'
These are not isolated organisations – the committees elect delegates to regional bodies, which then constitute the Syrian Revolutionary General Command.

The committees are not to be mistaken for Soviets. Like their (now largely defunct) counterparts in the earlier phases of the Tunisia and Egyptian revolutions, they reflect local hierarchies, connections, jealousies and rivalries.

However, in a society in the throes of revolutionary upheaval (to which the anti-anti-Assadites blind themselves) class conflict is laid bare and questions of the reconstitution of social order are invariably raised. Thus, in the town of Binnish near Taftanaz, Gopal reports how farmers and consumers agreed food prices through the mechanism of their council on the grounds that “we have to give to each as he needs.” The account continues:
'It was a phrase I heard many times, even from landowners and merchants who might otherwise bristle at the revolution’s egalitarian rhetoric—they cannot ignore that many on the front lines come from society’s bottom rungs. At one point in March, the citywide council enforced price controls on rice and heating oil, undoing, locally, the most unpopular economic reforms of the previous decade. '
Similar dynamics seem to have emerged in Aleppo, where according to a report in the Guardian:
'the wealthy…[view]the rebels as a sort of unwelcome peasant army. “If I were to generalise I would say the middle class and upper class don’t want the rebels. They want everything to be how it was so they can trade and go to coffee shops,” one English-speaking resident, who lives in a regime area, said via Skype'.
Certain of the local committees, it seems, have even taken up Gramsci’s strictures on the role of the revolutionary press, printing their own newspaper (Revolutionary Words) featuring reports from the literal front-lines, and articles on revolutionary history—in the words of one of its editors: “This is not an intellectual’s revolution… This is a popular revolution. We need to give people ideas, theory.”

A “sectarian gang”?

The presence of these local committees, and their character, should not be taken as an argument that the Syrian workers’ republic is nigh. Rather they indicate that the dynamics in Syria are those—complicated, bloody, messy—of an actual revolutionary process and not simply an extrusion of armed gangs operating at the behest of external enemies. One of the commonest arguments being put about is precisely that claim, accompanied by the assertion that to the extent that the uprising enjoys any support, this is on the basis of a violent sectarianism that renders the revolutionaries as bad as (if not worse than) the regime. This fact, it is alleged, is being concealed by a complicit and war-hungry Western media.

The uprising, exactly because it is a popular one, carries with it many of the prejudices and discursive ticks of the provincial, most often Sunni, centres in which it has found its base. Arabic-speaking readers will have noticed the prevalence of religious slogans (“God is great”, ‘We obey you o God”, “the Friday of Confidence in the Victory of God” and so forth) in the videos I have posted above. Some of these may reflect ideological commitment: more likely, as Anand Gopal writes , these slogans are “typically part performance vocabulary, part unifying norm in a riven society, part symbolic invocation of guerrilla struggle in a post-Iraq War world, and part expression of pure faith.” It seems very odd that people who accepted, for example, the legitimacy of Hizbullah’s struggle against Israel now demand that the Syrian revolutionaries abjure such language. George Galloway’s statement that a “jihadist, extremist, Islamist” current is waiting to take over in Syria seems an especially quick turnaround and a very sloppy use of language. There are, it seems, groups operating under the al Qaeda franchise in Eastern Syria where the border with Iraq allows for a reverse version of the guerrilla smuggling practiced against the U.S. occupation. However, evidence that these are a predominant force within the variegated groups fighting under the banner of the FSA has yet to be presented.

More...

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Assad's Redline and Obama's Greenlight!

My Monday diary, UPDATED: #Obama "green lights" #Assad's slaughter in #Syria, has been roundly condemned among Kossacks here, earning it an unprecedented 31 donuts.

However, it has been much appreciated by others much closer to the struggle and shared, liked or tweeted more than 200 times and the idea is finding resonance among Syrian activists as exampled by the articles below.

I am currently working on a follow up piece on the Obama - Assad connections which will contain new information and will be published simultaneously with the release of new documents on this question by WikiLeaks.

Expect It!

From Ammar Abduhamid's Syrian Revolution Digest we have:

Redline and Greenlight!

President Obama's coldly articulated redline regarding the use of chemical weapons might just translate into a greenlight for more frenzied killing sprees by Assad and his militias.

Monday August 20, 2012

Cities & Towns Under Shelling: Harasta, Arbeen, Moadamiah, Harran Al-Awameed, Deir Al-Asafeer, Ain Terma, Zabadani, Madaya, Eltal, Dmeir, Hameh, Yelda, Rankous, Qarrah (Damascus Suburbs), Sit Zeinab, Al-Qadam, Midan, Tadamon, Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, Yarmouk, Kafar Sousseh, Mazzeh, Qaboun, Barzeh, Salhiyeh, Ruknaddine, Dafelshawk (Damascus City), Daraa City, Khirbet Al-Ghazaleh, Tafas, Bostra Al-Sham, Na’eemah, Mseifrah, Jimreen, Hraak (Daraa), Rastan, Talbisseh, Houla, Tal Kalakh, Al-Qusayr, Al-Hosn, Al-Ghanto, Al-Bouaydah, Old Homs (Homs Province), Hreitan, Elbab, Eizaz, Marei, Bayanoun, Dar Azzah, Manbij, Anadan (Aleppo Province), Haffeh, Jabal Al-Akrad (Lattakia), Deir Ezzor City, Mouhassan, Albou Kamal (Deir Ezzor Province), Kafar Zeiteh, Hawash, Shahshabo, Hama City (Hama Province), Jabal Al-Zawiyeh, Ma’rrat Al-Nouman, Saraqib, Maar Shoureen, Ariha, Kafroumah, Al-Rami, Khan Shaikhoon (Idlib).

News
Obama warns Syria chemical weapons use may spark US action

In his recent White House press briefing, President Obama said that he had not "ordered military engagement" in Syria, but noted that he might change his "calculus" should "we see a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around, or being utilized," by the Assad regime, as this development, for him, as he pointed out, would constitute a "redline."

By framing things this way at a time when Assad's MIGs, helicopter gunships, missiles and heavy artillery are pounding residential neighborhoods and civilian installations, including schools and hospitals, in villages, towns and cities all across Syria claiming hundreds of lives every day, President Obama's redline will most likely be taken by Assad as greenlight for sticking to his bloody tactics to the bitter end. After all, he was just told by the most powerful man in the world that he has no plans to stop him.

President Obama, a Nobel Prize laureate, also showed more concern for the regional ramification of using biological weapons than for the humanitarian cost involved. He said: "It doesn't just include Syria. It would concern allies in the region, including Israel, and it would concern us."

Why President Obama would be so callous about the tragedy unfolding in Syria is beyond me. Why slaughter would be deemed tolerable if it happened one way and not another remains an enigma. Be that as it may, President Obama has just told millions of Syrians that their suffering simply does not concern him, that his cold calculus does not leave much room for compassion.

Coming from the most powerful man in the world, the man who just last year invoked the Responsibility to Protect to stop carnage in Libya, this is an unfathomable and cynical abdication of moral responsibility. The Syrian people who dared yearn to be free will pay dearly for it. But down the road, so will America, and so will the rest of the world.

For devoid of her moral compass, America will be no different than Russia and China - just another cynical superpower in it for herself, and nothing more. American exceptionalism will come to an end. Many in America and across the world would rejoice, but the world will be left leaderless, and without any reliable mechanism for collective decision-making and consensus building. This will not be a better world, as so many envision, but a cold dark one, filled with conflicts, suffering and tumult.

Syria will be forgotten then, but her torn pieces will continue to bleed. By the time, the world grasped that Syria is nothing less than its beating heart, it will be too late.

Meanwhile, thank you Mr. President, and Happy Eid to you too.

Antakya, Turkey
His blog also allows for comments so I invite all those who read me the riot act to go there and tell him the same thing.

Also we have this from the Guardian:

Susan Ahmad, a Damascus suburbs-based activist told the Guardian via Skype [that she] was furious about Obama's warning on chemical weapons, as she felt it gave a green light for the Assad regime to go on killing, as long as such weapons were not used.

It was shocking, just chemical weapons are the red line? What about killing all these numbers of people? Every day we have about 200 killed in Syria - they don't form a red line? Assad is actually killing people using helicopters, using airplanes, using tanks, using snipers ...so it's okay? All the world is okay with everything going on here? People are getting killed just because they say "We don't want Bashar al-Assad anymore". They're getting killed just because they're at home when that shell came on their roof. All of this these things don't form actually red lines, just chemical weapons? For God's sake, it doesn't make sense.

And this from Dr. L. Brnd on Ynet News:

Obama just gave Syria Green Light for "limited" chemical use

Our boob in the White House, choosing his words carefully, just said his "red line" for "possible action" would be if the US sees "a whole bunch of chemical weapons being moved or utilized". ONLY IF THERE IS "A WHOLE BUNCH". Let me translate here from American English to Standard English - "a whole bunch" means "a lot, a large number, many, massive or extensive", In other words, as long as Assad only unleashes a LIMITED chemical attack, either on his people or on Israel - say one or two or twenty nerve gas bombs - Obama's "red line" will not have been crossed, and he will order no action against Syria whatsoever. However, if and only if "a whole bunch" of nerve gas weapons are used to attack Syrian rebels or Israeli cities, thern Obama will merely consider any actions that could be "possible" [e.g., forty lashes with a wet noodle]. This sickening prevarication, unprecedented cowardice by a US President on chemical weapons since the end of WW2, constitutes a virtual green light to Assad that a limited nerve gas attack will not cause a US reaction - and by inference - will not result in the US supporting an israeli retaliatory reaction either. This means that Obama has received intel that Syria is preparing a "limited" chemical weapons attack, and that he doesn't want to see it explode into an all-out regional war, so he's taking the US out of the equation. The suddenness of the Obama press conferfence and its disturbing content means that a chemical attack by Assad forces is imminent. Israel must make IMMEDIATELY clear that ANY use of chemical weapons against Israel will result in an all-out WMD retaliatory response against Syrian cities, bases and leadership - a border-to-border take out of Syria as a viable nation. Permenently. This kind of threat from the US and its allies has kept chemical weapons from being used against Israel or anybody since WW2 ended. Obama has just withdrawn this threat, except for "a whole bunch of" chemical weapons. Israel is on its own, and should prepare to destroy Syria and its allies in Lebanon and Iran with an all-out nuclear strike at any use of chemical weapons against Israelis by the Assad regime. Whether our boob in the White House likes it or not - he's notgoing to help anyway, as long as its not "a whole bunch". Watch for the political firestorm caused in the US by Obama's remarks

From EAWorldView we have this report on Syria:

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Nationwide Battle
Thursday, August 23, 2012 at 4:14 | James Miller

Fighting on Wednesday near Albu Kamal, in northeast Syria near the Iraq border

See also Syria Snap Analysis: New Patterns in a Bloodier Conflict Wednesday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 230 Dead Inside, More Fighting in Lebanon

1944 GMT: Syria. Some of our readers and Twitter followers have been asking us about Austin Tice, an American journalist who was covering the conflict in Syria. Tice's Twitter account went dark last week, and while initially the lack of Tweets was unnoticed, in recent days it has caused concern.
EA has contacted Tice's editor, and she has just shared with us an article explaining that Tice is missing.

His subsequent silence didn’t raise immediate alarm because he’d planned to leave that week, on a journey to the Lebanese border that often takes days because of the fighting en route. The Damascus suburb where he was last known to have been has faced heavy bombardment in recent days that has made communications difficult.

Tice’s family and colleagues are concerned for his safety and are asking anyone with knowledge of his whereabouts to come forward.
"We understand Austin’s passion to report on the struggle in Syria, and are proud of the work he is doing there. We trust that he is safe, appreciate every effort being made to locate him, and look forward to hearing from him very soon,” Tice’s parents, Marc and Debra, said in a statement from Houston, his hometown.
Tice’s editors said they were working with U.S. government agencies and Syrian intermediaries to retrace his movements. Colleagues praised Tice’s work, saying his experience as a Marine gave him particular insight into the capabilities of both government and rebel forces as the uprising spiraled into a civil war.

1930 GMT: Syria. The violence in Damascus has reached into the night. Each of these videos was reportedly posted at dusk or after nightfall. While the videos have not been independently corroborated, each generally matches eyewitness reports:
A helicopter fires on the Al Asali district (map):

Shells fall and smoke billows in Nahr Eshe (map):

A fire burns in Darayya after shells fall (map):

1846 GMT: Syria. Damascus has been a hot-zone of violence today. Al Jazeera English speaks with a resident:

"There are major clashes in many areas of Damascus and the province," said a Damascus resident and anti-regime activist who gave her name as Samara.
"Parts of Damascus look like Gaza, with the army deployed on the outside, setting up major checkpoints, but unable to get in," she told AFP via Skype.
"Fear is everywhere."

The LCC reports that battles are raging in parts of the city.

Heavy shelling by mortars and helicopters targeting Hujerah, and fierce clashes are reported in the area and nearby Ghurba and Shuhada streets between the Free Syrian Army and regime forces

(map).
Beyond the reports of fighting between the FSA and the military, the LCC reports shelling in, "Daraya, Mouadamiyeh Al-Sham, Hameh, Qudsaya and Fardous neighborhood" (map).
Sorting these reports, nearly all suburbs northwest and southwest of Damascus have reportedly been shelled, and there are reports of heavy fighting in south-central Damascus.
1823 GMT: Syria. Zabadani has been surrounded, and shelled nearly every day, for weeks on end. The city, some 20 kilometers northwest of Damascus (map), was one of the first areas that the Free Syrian Army controlled this past winter, but the FSA has not had a significant presence there for months.
The video shows heavy gunfire and shelling, reportedly today. It matches eyewitness reports:

1812 GMT: Syria. Back from a meeting to find this video, from Amnesty International's fact-finding mission in Aleppo city in the first half of August. The conclusion, the civilians are caught in the middle of a war, and the international community has failed to stop a humanitarian crisis in Syria:

1601 GMT: Syria. The Guardian has spoken to a resident of Damascus and reports that 11 more people may have been executed by the regime in Kafer Souseh, adding evidence to my earlier assessment that this may be the new pattern, at least in Damascus:

As usual today started with shelling, mortar shelling , tank shelling and helicopter shelling in several areas in Damascus and Damascus suburbs ...
Today it [Kafr Sousseh] was targeted with shelling, also a raid of the neighbourhood. Military and Shabiha (pro-Assad militia) raided the neighbourhood and started looking for activists, all kinds of activists, civil activists, media activists. Unfortunately, today 11 people were killed in Kafr Sousseh in extra-judicial executions ...They are being killed and executed on the ground in front of their families ...
We are witnessing an escalation here in the number of casualties. So many people are dying under shelling, in extra-judicial executions .....

1546 GMT: Syria. The blogger Brown Moses, who has been very busy today, has written about an interesting Tweet sent from Al Mayadeen News, what many consider to be a pro-regime news group.

The Tweet was immediately deleted, but not before one of his followers took a screenshot. It apparently reads "There's a water tank above, I just want them to tell the plane about it so he/they [rebels] won't hit it. They've got anti-aircraft too. Maskaneh, Aleppo countryside". THE_47th and other opposition activists claim this is evidence that Al Mayadeen journalists are providing details of the FSA positions to the Syrian Air Force, with the Al Mayadeen network putting out a Tweet claiming they were hacked...
This seems to imply the reported on the ground was trying to send a private message, and accidentally Tweeted it on the main Al Mayadeen Twitter account, which he must have access to.

The Tweet was quickly deleted by Al Mayadeen, because they claim they were hacked. Who you believe seems to hinge on the debate about how quickly Al Mayadeen could be hacked and then recover in time to delete the Tweet.
1442 GMT: Syria. A quick rundown of the headlines:
The AFP reports that the Syrian Army has recaptured 3 predominantly Christian neighborhoods in Aleppo, all three of which fell to the Free Syrian Army over the weekend.
Syrians insurgents have captured a series of security bases and police stations in Albukamal, in Deir Ez Zor province, and have at least partial access to many of the border crossings with Iraq. As we've been discussing, the Free Syrian Army has won a series of victories in the region, and recently repelled a regime counterattack on FSA positions Deir Ez Zor. The FSA may be close to taking Albukamal, which may be a precursor to an more gains in the east.
The LCC reports that 115 have been killed by regime forces so far today:

62 martyrs were reported in Damascus and it's suburbs including "21 in Mouadamiyeh, 15 in Daraya, 10 in Kafarsoseh and 6 in Barzeh", 17 in Aleppo, 13 in Daraa, 6 in Homs, 5 in Hama, 5 in Deir Ezzor, 4 in Idlib, 2 in Safeta in Tartous, and 1 in Hasakeh.

The number is a mix of insurgents and civilians, and does not include regime losses. Syrian state media has also stopped running reports of regime casualties.
This number is also striking for 3 reasons. It suggests that the battle for Aleppo may be heating again, the numbers in Daraa fit the pattern of escalation we've been describing for days, and most of the casualties in Damascus, the epicenter of the latest violence, is on the western edge of the city - Kafer Souseh, Mouadamyah, and Darayya.
This number is also very high for this hour of the day.
1430 GMT: Syria. An ugly video...
An anti-opposition Youtube account posts this video (really two clips edited together), claiming to show the Free Syrian Army having executed 16 prisoners in Douma, an embattled suburb of Damascus. The first clip shows the Free Syrian Army in possession of the prisoners, and the second clip shows them dead. Warning - graphic.

We've contacted Dsyrer who has helped provide this context:

The group in the video is the "Brigade Of The Capital's Shield" ???? ??? ???????, which is based in the Damascus suburbs.
I can at least identify the first part - note that they're defined as security officers here, not government supporters.

Dsyrer also found a link to the original "prisoner" video. The blogger Brown Moses also helped us find this video of the prisoners

Brown Moses also helped us discover an additional video, reportedly showing the prisoners, posted by a Youtube channel that has also posted 3 different versions of the video showing the bodies.
The bodies in the second clip appear real (notice whole chunks of flesh missing) and some of the men appear to be the same across the two videos (the man in the "Coca Cola" shirt, and the man in the light blue being two that we identified.
In other words, it's very possible that this accusation is accurate.
The oldest date of the prisoners of all the videos we linked to above was reportedly taken on August 14th, and the oldest video of the bodies was uploaded on August 18th. There may also be some confusion about exactly where these were reportedly taken, though "near Damascus" is consistent from all the videos.
We shared the video with the spokesperson for the Local Coordination Committees, Rafif Jouejati, who had not seen it. While she maintained that this accusation, ""could just as easily be regime disinformation," she also stated that the LCC "condemns crimes against humanity and appeals to all Free Syrian Army Battalions to sign and adhere to the code of conduct."
James Miller takes over today's live coverage. Thanks to Scott Lucas for writing so much this morning.
1120 GMT: Egypt. A Cairo court has ordered the detention of the chief editor of the daily newspaper el-Dustour, Islam Afifi, pending trial in mid-September on charges of insulting President Morsi and “spreading lies".
1059 GMT: Syria. Reporters Without Borders summarises the reports of the death of Mosaab Mohamed Saeed Al-Odaallah, a journalist working for the arts and culture section of the Government newspaper Tishreen. The opposition claims that the reporter was killed by regime soldiers after they entered his home in the southern Damascus district of Nahar Aisha. A relative said the murder was targeted reprisal for Al-Odaallah's supposed support for the challenge to President Assad.
Al-Odaallah reportedly used a pseudonym for his independent accounts that were critical of the regime crackdown.
Al-Odaallah is the tenth professional journalist killed since the start of the conflict in March 2011 and the second in three days, following the shooting of Japanese reporter Mika Yamamoto in Aleppo.
1045 GMT: Syria. Burning regime vehicles near Albukamal in the northeast, where battles reportedly were waged on Wednesday for control of a military base and airfield:

1025 GMT: Bahrain. Nabeel Rajab, the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, has appeared before an appeals court again today. After repeated delays in issuing a verdict, the court dropped the charge of “libeling the citizens of the town of Muharraq over Twitter”, for which Rajab was serving a three-month sentence.
Rajab has served most of that term, however, and last week he was given three years in prison on charges of participation in illegal marches.
Meanwhile, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights reports that 13 leading activists, sentenced in June 2011 to terms up to life in prison, have informed authorities that they will start a series of protest actions including a hunger strike if increased restrictions are not removed by Thursday.
The prisoners, who include figures such as Ebrahim Sharif and former BCHR President Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, claim that calls to families and lawyers, access to newspapers, and exercise in open air have been curbed.
1022 GMT: Turkey. Amid increasing violence in Hakkari Province in the southeast, officials say Turkish troops have killed 16 members of the Kurdish insurgency PKK, in an operation targeting fighters who launched a bomb attack on a military convoy that killed five soldiers.
1012 GMT: Syria. Amnesty International, in a 11-page report based on first-hand investigations in early August, has claimed "horrific levels of violence" against civilians in Aleppo.
Most of the blame for the 30 attacks recorded is placed on regime forces, who "have often failed to distinguish between opposition fighters and civilian residents [in attacks which] appeared to have been randomly directed at neighbourhoods which are under the de facto control of opposition fighters and/or where opposition fighters are based or operate from, rather than at specific military objectives".
Amnesty claims a "sharp increase in extrajudicial and summary executions of civilians not involved in the conflict by government forces", citing the dumping of bodies, usually handcuffed and shot in the head, near the headquarters of Air Force Intelligence.
The organisation also expresses "growing concern about increased abuses, including unlawful killings and ill-treatment of captives, by opposition fighters belonging to a plethora of armed opposition groups, including the Free Syrian Army".
Amnesty has posted a video summarising the report, including incidents such as the slaying of 10 members of a single family.
0409 GMT: Syria. Al Jazeera English's Zeina Khodr reports from Aleppo city, where "the line between rebel and government has blurred", "the fabric of society has been torn apart", and some foreign fighters have appeared in the insurgency:

0400 GMT: Syria. We have posted a snap analysis by James Miller, "New Patterns in a Bloodier Conflict":

The battle lines have not shifted much this week, at least not in Aleppo, Idlib, or Damascus, but the Free Syrian Army has held its ground in many areas, has gained territory in Deir Ez Zor, and is beginning to show the first signs of a potential threat to the military in Daraa Province. The regime's brutal response to this growing threat is, perhaps, the most desperate strategy that we have seen yet, perhaps evidence that the regime is nervous that it is losing momentum.

0122 GMT: Syria. An account of the attack on a Damascus suburb by a resident, Nizar Hazim:

The shelling against Kafarsouseh started at 6 in the morning today. The shelling was coming from tanks based at Damascus highway called al-Mutahelq al-Janoubi. The tanks were shooting also at Nahr Aisha, which is a neighbouring district and al-Qadam district.

The shooting lasted for almost two hours, it included mortars which were coming from Mezzeh airport. Soon afterwards, the Syrian army started a big campaign of raids against the house in Kfar Sousseh. As a result of the raids, people in Kafarsouseh found 24 bodies.
All these bodies were executed by gunshots to the head from close distance. We still have some missing people whom we can't find. We were targeted by the Syrian army because Kafarsouseh is the front for Darayya and al-Mouadamiyeh districts. These two districts are the base for the FSA. When they want to do any attack against the Syrian army in the heart of Damascus, they come to Kafarsouseh to launch their attack and then pull out soon after to the groves al-Bassateen. The Syrian army is taking revenge on us but I can assure you all these people who have been executed today are civilians, none of them are FSA.
0055 GMT: Syria. Back from a vacation break to find this account from a resident of al-Herak in Daraa Province, Muhammed Abu Houran, to Mona Mahmood of The Guardian this afternoon:

Yesterday morning the Syrian army began its campaign against al-Herak in Deraa. They launched a vicious raid against the people who were still in their houses, though most of the people had left the town earlier.

The Syrian army executed any men they found in these houses soon after arresting them. Most of the men who were executed were found in deserted houses. From yesterday until now, fires are still burning --- there is not enough water to put them out.
After three days of fierce battles here, the FSA had to leave its positions as it had run out of ammunition. As soon as the FSA pulled out, field executions were carried out and houses were burned and destroyed. The FSA was able to keep only the southern part of Deraa under its control after long battles that lasted from dawn to the evening – almost 16 hours.
After that, the FSA got more ammunition from neighbouring towns and was able to attack some of the armoured vehicles of the Syrian army. Battles continued till 12 midday today in which the FSA was able to recover some other parts of the town that had been taken by the Syrian army....
We have had 107 martyrs in the last three days, Most of them are civilians. Forty-five of the bodies were executed. There were 13 bodies which were charred completely and today we found another nine charred bodies. We could not identify them at all. They were in the districts which were under the control of the Syrian army yesterday. Most of the executed bodies were slain by knives, and luckiest ones executed by gunshot....
<=
Originally there were 40,000 people in al-Herak but now only 4,000 people are left here. They have been under a tough siege for three months so far --- they can't flee the town....
People now are eating a local sweet named Hallawa. Bread is missing completely. Al-Herak is an agricultural town but the Syrian army is blocking the way to get to the farms. The farmers themselves do not dare to come inside the town.

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