Massacre about to occur in Jobar, big new terror rocket being used by Assad!

I am publish this report as I received it and without waiting for confirmation that a massacre is in progress or has already occurred, beyond the very powerful videos included in that report.

When someone reports a fire, you don't first send an investigator to see if the report is true, even through there are many false alarms. You send a fire truck.

#Jobar #Homs being bombarded intensely right now...fears it may turn into #BabaAmr or #DeirBaalbeh. PLEASE pray for them. :(

â?? Abdullah (@SyrianSmurf) January 20, 2013

I don't have a fire truck, or the means to stop this massacre, but I will do what I can to raise the alarm because these massacres could be stopped it the people of Earth decided to come to the aid of the Syrian people in a meaningful way.

The UN said that 60,000 Syrians had been slaughtered between March 2011 and the first of this year in President Bashar al-Assad's desperate attempt to cling to power. These were carefully vetted numbers, double checked. The real death toll is quite a bit higher. That's 600 * 100. Any way you slice it that's a lot of massacres, a few in the +300 people range, many more massacres of a hundred or so, and many, many where a few dozen were slaughtered. Since he is now killing them at the rate of 5,000 a month, that figure is now closer to 65,000.

So many massacres in fact that the MSM no longer feels they are worth reporting, let alone calling "BREAKING NEWS", but I still do. Human life is precious and the violent murder of a Syrian child is worth as much attention as that afforded to the children massacred in Newtown, CT.

Also, this morning we have reports that the Assad regime is using a new terror weapon to slaughter his people. It is a new massive rocket with a warhead larger than anything seen there before. It spread shrapnel over a radius of 500 yards. What makes it such a terror weapon and unusually deadly is that it is silent. Unlike the artillery, rockets and aircrafts that Assad has so far been using to bombard the neighborhoods, this one is silent, giving no time to move the children to the bomb shelters that parents are digging all across Syria.

Finally there is a new report from the French source Le Monde saying that Assad used non-lethal, but prohibited, chemical weapons in Homs on 23 December 2012.

And here is something else for the anti-interventionists to chew on. Al Jazeera is reporting that the Russians have offered to help transport French troops to Mali, showing for the hundredth time that the "anti-interventionists" stand is an opportunists one.

Women & children, hurt and shocked regimes new bombardment in Jobar | 20 January


Expect graphic violence below the fold. I am reporting on a massacre in progress after all

Massacre about to occur in Jobar. Donâ??t say we had no warning
20 January 2013
Just received this from a personal and trusted source

Personal note: This is a similar attack to what took place last year on besieged Baba Amr where Marie and Remi were also killed. During that time, March and April 2012, our village Jobar was stormed on land and people executed. Today, the same scenario of Baba Amr is repeated on Jobar that is held by the Free Syrian Army. So far confirmed personally, my fathers cousin Saâ??da Al-Akraa and her disabled daughter Rajaaâ?? Al-Akraa have been executed. Saâ??das elderly husband Abu Abdulhameed Al-Akraa and a couple of other men and women have been abducted, likely to be used as human shields to enter on land. We have lost touch with all family relations inside the village of Jobar, which lies right next to Baba Amr. Kafr Aya is an area housing thousands of displaced civilians from Baba Amr and Jobar and now has been shelled with a new massacre taking place. This is an urgent call for help, but little is expected to be done to save the remaining people besieged now.

========================================
========================================
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Syrian Revolution General Commission report:

Full-scale attack against Jobar, Sultaneyyeh, and Kufrayah village [southern part of Homs] â?? 20/1/2013
At least 17 martyred up until now â?? tens wounded by the continuous savage bombardment

The regimeâ??s forces extensively bombarded the districts of Jobar, Sultaneyyeh, and Kufrayah village using MEG23s, rocket launchers, artillery, and mortars. The northern part of Homs is being subjected to the heaviest attacks yet, and these aforementioned 3 areas are the ones being mainly targeted as the regimeâ??s forces attempt to invade the area, noting that Kufrayah and Jobar districts are packed with refugees and civilians. A massacre was committed in these few morning hours as 8 martyrs fell up until now and more than 80 civilians wounded, amongst them 30 in very critical conditions [most of them children and women]. The regimeâ??s forces have also killed a woman named Saâ??deh Al Akraa and her retarded daughter Rajaâ??a on the outskirts of Jobar district; her husband, Abu Abdul Hameed Al Akraa, an elderly man, got kidnapped by the regimeâ??s forces along with other men and was taken to an unknown location to the nearby orchards.

A plane similar to a civilian warplane flew on a very low altitude, noting that it has 4 engines and leaves no traces of smoke behind it.

Concerning the situation on ground, the regimeâ??s forces are spread on Al Tahweeleh road in every 4 meters and they set up barriers, attempting to completely suffocate and surround the area in order to invade it. 3 tanks were stationed in front of the barrier near a school there, reinforced by a bus loaded with Shabiha (thugs) and an armoured Shilka (anti-aircraft vehicle). The regimeâ??s forces have also spread in nearby Tal Al Shour area and snipers stationed themselves on the rooftops of high buildings, try to keep an eye on the soldiers on ground in order to protect them from any attack and observe the ground from above. 16 buses fully-loaded with shabiha (thugs) and regimeâ??s forces parked on the junction of Al Nuqairah all the way to Baher Al Nujoom area. 2 pick-up cars carrying rocket launchers and 4 armoured vehicles loaded with arms and Shabiha (thugs) headed to Bab Amr district on Al Jeser road. 3 rocket launchers were also spotted near the water reservoir in Al Hadeedeh village, extensively bombarding the districts of Jobar and Al Sultaneyyeh and the village of Kufrayah.

The medical cadre, headed by Doctor Muhammad Al Muhammad, and the media office in the area, sent urgent SOS calls to the Arab and international community and to all human rights organizations to immediately condemn these attacks being waged by the regime and to pressure it to halt this savagery against innocent civilians. Do note that this attack is a repetition of a similar attack carried out against Bab Amr district in February last year; thus, there are true fears that the regimeâ??s forces will renew these massacres by slaughtering civilians, noting that the area is packed with displaced civilians. The makeshift hospitalâ??s ability to deal with all those severely wounded civilians is nearly impossible since it is small, does not bear with the severity of the injuries due to the lack of needed medical aid/equipment, and do not bear with the huge number of the casualties being rushed in.

SOS call sent by Dr. Muhammad Al Muhammad from the makeshift hospital inside Al Sultaneyyeh district:

â??In the name of God we begin,
Tens of rocket and shells currently are hammering the districts of Jobar and Sultaneyyeh as a massive military campaign has been plotted by the regimeâ??s forces, who have been planning for this since weeks whilst the eastern and western worlds and many of our own people have let us down. We are warning the world that massive massacres shall be committed against us in Jobar, Sultaneyyeh, and Kufrayah as there are up to 35,000 civilians and displaced civilians inside.
-Dr Muhammad Al Muhammad.

â??Kufrayah village: massacre:



â??Jobar: SOS calls from makeshift hospital:



http://youtu.be/mrrN4XYlISU (Dr Muhammad sending SOS calls)
http://youtu.be/aFeQhfMY6U0 (Dr Muhammad sending SOS calls)

â??Jobar: bombardment:



http://youtu.be/XPFUNEX9Lpw (MEG bombardment)

â??Kufrayah: bombardment:





Rose Alhomsi
Independent Syrian activist. Also working with:
The Syrian Revolution General Commission: http://www.srgcommission.org/
Homs Free Congregation â?? Homs news: https://www.facebook.com/Homs.Free.Congregation
Hand in Hand for Syria â?? Charity: http://www.handinhandforsyria.org.uk/
Syrian Martyrs Stories: http://syrian-martyrs.com
Skype: rose.freedom.2011
Email: rose.alhomsi@gmail.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/tweets4peace
Blog: http://rosealhomsi.wordpress.com

The Columbus Dispatch wrote:

Report: Syria deployed chemicals
Sunday January 20, 2013 10:43 AM
PARIS â?? Syrian forces used nonlethal chemical weapons against rebels in the town of Homs in late December, according to intelligence service sources cited yesterday by the French daily newspaper Le Monde.

The weapons were used in four rockets fired on Dec. 23, according to unnamed sources in Western intelligence services cited by the newspaper.Le Monde suggested Western powers played down an isolated event in the hope it would not be repeated. The paper quoted French Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot as saying that the matter had been investigated but that the checks did not produce evidence.

A French diplomatic source said Lalliotâ??s response to Le Monde remained the official line.

The United Nations says 60,000 have been killed in the 22-month-old conflict.

2:40 PM PT From rosealhomci:

18++ The names+images that have arrived so far of the ongoing attack and massacre in Jobar and Kafr Aya, #Homs #Syria 20/01/2013
Names arrived to this moment from the current ongoing massacre in Jobar and Kafr Aya â?? 20/01/2013

Details of attack are here:

http://rosealhomsi.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/17-killed-now-including-2-relatives-and-over-30-injured-in-barbaric-attack-on-jobar-homs-syria/

Names of martyrs confirmed to this hour:

Isam Alsayed â?? male
304231_385175004911452_263056200_n (1)
Hamza Zakariya â?? male
19525_385167374912215_1046808318_n
Abdullah Albereni â?? male
Taha Alrastnawi â?? male
Abdulhaseeb Rifai Wazir â?? male, child
320942_385176978244588_290335491_n
Mahmoud Wazir â?? male
Ruqaya Hamish â?? female
Daughter of Ruqaya Hamish â?? female
Rehab Toron â?? female
Abdo Hamish â?? child, male
64221_385170304911922_1958299235_n
Rahaf Alshamali â?? female
Saber Hamish â?? baby, male, aged 40 days
67401_385171188245167_561857580_n (1)
Saber Hamish â?? male, grandfather of baby Saber Hamish
408291_385173528244933_1263696927_n (1)
Saâ??da Al-Akraa â?? female, elderly
Rajaaâ?? Al-Akraa â?? female, disabled
Mohamad Alshadeed - male
484773_385177398244546_348844877_n
Unknown martyr
Unknown martyr

Dozens of injured lie without aid in the field hospitals, death toll is in turn expected to rise.

New videos received in past hour:

Click here for a list of my other diaries on Syria

The significances of Obama's 2nd inaugural to me

I have been pretty hard on President Barack Obama in my diary in the past year and I will continue to be in the next year.

My next diary will call on him to veto the $500 million the UN is planning to give Syrian President Bashar Assad and a future diary, already in the works, will show, in the kind of detail I provided in Barack Obama's Courtship of Bashar al-Assad, how, while leading the most powerful nation in NATO, he hung back when it came to using that power in defense of the Libyan people,

But today I am cheering what may be his most important accomplishment -> getting elected to a second term.

It is most fitting that we celebrate President Barack Obama's second inauguration on the same day we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King.

The reason that I think this is so important, is that quite apart from Obama's various personal strengths and shortcomings as a leader, is that he is our first black president, and that is of historical importance.

I won't harp on the centrality of racism as a defect in a country largely built on the backs of black slaves and the land of the indigenous people. It should already be clear that after 200 years of so called democracy without a black president, there was glaring inconsistency.

Barack Obama's first term in the presidency changed that, but his second term seals the deal!

The election of a black president didn't signal an end to racism in this country, as some tried to claim. In fact, in some quarters, it became more virulent and entrenched, as an examination of some of the more extreme Republican tactics in the last election will quickly show.

With Obama's election to a second term it can truly said that the US finally elected a black president and the least that can be said about him is that he was no worst than any other president we've had and better than a lot, and the people have certified that by returning him to the White House for a second term.

Had he not been re-elected and instead the right-wing Republicans ruled the day, they would have continued to talk trash about Obama while they dismantled the good works he's done. I'm terribly afraid that the narrative they would have tried to create around the question of electing a black president would have been: "We tried that once. Remember..."

That can't happen now. We have a black president and in four more years we may have a woman president.

There have been many comparisons made between the Obama presidency and the Lincoln presidency, even I have made them in my diary before, and I would now like to make one more.

Lincoln's first term election got the ball rolling on ending slavery, and it ruptured the union.
His election to a second term ended slavery and saved the union.

In that sense, I think Lincoln's second presidential victory was more important than his first.

And so it is with Obama's.

Like Lincoln, he made the sometimes unsavory compromises necessary to win that crucial second term but he is free of those restraints now, What he does with it is up to him.

Libya: Saif Qaddafi's trial starts today

When Mummr Qaddafi was killed and his son captured, many anti-interventionists and Qaddafi supporters said his life was in danger too because he would not be safe in the hands of the Zintan Brigade.

Female deputies in #Libya #GNC formed bloc aimed at promoting women rights & ensuring fair representation on constitutional drafting commit.
— Gihan Badi (@GihanTadreft) January 16, 2013

The thuwar responded that they didn't think Saif Qaddafi would be safe in the hands of the International Criminal Court, because with his father dead, Saif was the most important remaining source about relations the Qaddafi regime had with certain international actors and they would want to see him silenced before he could testify in open court.

Saif Qaddafi has never left Libya in spite of the best efforts by the ICC to pry him loose, after 16 months he remains a prisoner in Libya and by all accounts, remains in good health.

Qaddafi supporters and their friends also said Saif Qaddafi couldn't get a fair trial in Libya. In fact they said that Libya didn't even have a functioning government, let alone a functioning judicial system, and yet, the Libyans have been trying people all along and today they begin the trial of one of the worst war criminals in North African history.

I don't think there is any serious doubt that Saif Qaddafi is guilty of ordering the mass murder of civilians and many other war crimes.

Are they sure they've got the right guy?

Other than that, I don't think there are too many facts in dispute, and a fair trial will certainly find Saif Qaddafi guilty.

Later, they can outlaw the death penalty.

The Libya Youth Movement has this report:

Libya tries Kadhafi son Seif on security charges
TRIPOLI — Slain leader Moamer Kadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam, wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity, appeared for the first time in a Libyan court on Thursday on charges of “undermining state security,” a judicial official said.

He was charged after a controversial June visit to Libya of an International Criminal Court team to help him prepare his defence against the charges of crimes against humanity in the conflict that overthrew his father.

Thursday’s trial was held behind closed doors in Zintan, a hilltop town southwest of Tripoli, where Seif has been in custody since his arrest in November 2011 in the wake of the uprising that ended Kadhafi’s 40-year rule.

“The first hearing in the trial of Seif al-Islam Kadhafi on charges of undermining state security was held on Thursday,” said deputy prosecutor general Taha Baraa in Tripoli.

The accusation was levelled against Seif after four ICC envoys travelled to Zintan in June and were detained for nearly a month, triggering a diplomatic row with The Hague-based court. They were finally allowed to return home in July.

The four included Australian lawyer Melinda Taylor who was accused of carrying a pen camera and attempting to give Seif a coded letter from his former right-hand man, Mohammed Ismail, who is wanted by Libyan authorities.

The other ICC staffers were Taylor’s interpreter from Lebanon, Helen Assaf, and two colleagues, Russian Alexander Khodakov and Spaniard Esteban Peralta Losilla.

All four have also been accused by Libya of undermining its national security.

Baraa said the trial was adjourned to May 2 as time was needed to inform the ICC staffers of the charges against them, and to “designate a lawyer for Seif.” More...

Reuters has this report:

Gaddafi's son appears in Libyan court for first time
By Ali Shuaib
TRIPOLI | Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:49am EST

Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam appeared in a court on Thursday for the first time since his capture more than a year ago, Libya's public prosecutor's office said.

The son of the former Libyan leader was in court in the western town of Zintan, where he is being held by former rebels, to face charges related to a visit by an International Criminal Court (ICC) lawyer last year.

"He is charged with involvement with the ICC delegation which is accused of carrying papers and other things related to the security of the Libyan state," Taha Baara, spokesman for the prosecutor, told Reuters.

The ICC lawyer, Australian Melinda Taylor, was herself arrested and held for three weeks after the meeting and has since said her detention proved that Saif al-Islam could not receive a fair trial for war crimes and instead should be tried in The Hague. More...

Coincidently, Juan Garrigues, research fellow at CIDOB, today published this assessment og Libyas militias and the Zintan Brigade in particular:

"In militias we trust: Libya’s conundrum (*)"
17 January 2013 / Opinión CIDOB, n.º 174

Uthman Mleghta, commander of the powerful al Qaaqa brigade from the Nafusa Mountains town of Zintan, rejects being described as a qatiba (militia). On a recent foreign NGO’s visit to his heavily guarded headquarters in Tripoli, Mleghta presented his “group’s” activities, including a newly launched print newspaper and an education programme for Libyan youth.

But his visitors were more interested in al Qaaqa’s security role. Al Qaaqa is responsible for, among others, controlling the border pass with Tunisia, guarding certain oil fields and the protection of some high profile Libyan politicians. When asked about al Qaaqa’s well-armed fighters, Mleghta matter-of-factly answered “we are the army”.

The rapid disintegration of Muammar al Gaddafi’s armed forces and police meant that the militias born out of the revolution were the only ones equipped to fill the security vacuum left behind. This scenario led to a number of the cities or towns seeing their militias play key roles in the revolution, gaining significant influence.

Zintan, the small town in the Nafusa mountains where al Qaaqa hails from and where Saif al Islam Gaddafi is being held, went from being politically insignificant to being awarded the Defence ministry portfolio of the last transitional government, assigned to Zintani commander Osama al-Juwali.

Today, many foreign commentators portray Libya as a country in chaos overrun by uncontrolled militias. The death of US Ambassador Chris Stevens after the attack on the US consulate in Bengasi in September served to consolidate this image.

Indeed insecurity is on the rise in the east, where a spell of attacks has targeted high-ranking security officials and international objectives in Bengasi. And this year has seen serious conflict in Beni Walid over tribal tensions and in desert towns such as Kufra and Sebha over the control of lucrative narco-trafficking routes through Libya’s porous southern borders. With growing tensions and shifting alliances in the Sahel after the military intervention in Mali, these conflicts could flare up again.

But much of the country is safe and reasonably well functioning especially in view of the power vacuum left behind after the collapse of Gaddafi’s 42-year regime. In Tripoli and other cities and towns, many militias have assumed roles like patrolling neighborhoods and directing traffic with responsibility. Tripoli is today a bustling Arab city where the streets are full of small businesses and young Libyan men and women mingle freely in packed coffee shops.

This said, most militias, in fact, resist any kind of government control and many have justly gained bad reputations for looting and torturing or even killing civilians. In June, Human Rights Watch estimated that there were still some 4.000 illegal detainees in the hands of militias in both formal and secret detentions centers. Most concerning are these groups’ increasing ties to Libya’s economy and politics, through their control of strategic points such as airports, oil fields, national borders and even international hotels in Tripoli.

Throughout the last year, Libya’s transitional authorities –weakened by their lack of democratic legitimacy- have struggled dealing directly with these militias. But since November, Libya has a government born out of July’s democratic elections.

One of the first important decisions the new government has made has been to dissolve the Supreme Security Committee, a body set up by the Interior Ministry to bring militias under some kind of centralized control, or at least, coordination. By all accounts, the Committee failed and was used by Islamist elements to infiltrate the security forces.

Abdulrazag Elaradi, a former National Transitional Council from the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood, argues that despite the risks that militias present, Libya will persevere “because soft power has won out”. The collective sacrifices from the revolution have instilled a sense of responsibility whereby dialogue has served to prevent serious conflict, or at least quell it. One experienced international aid worker spoke of an incident in which two opposed militias exchanged blows while holding weapons in their other hands.

But many Libyans seem concerned. On the 28th of December, some 2.000 people protested in the streets of Bengazi demanding militias to disband or join the army. The protest came after the drive by shooting of Faraj al-Dreisi, the city’s police chief. More...

While on the subject, National Geographic has an interesting on Libya in their February issue:

New Old Libya
For decades Libyans lived under a dictator who twisted their past. Now they must imagine their future.
By Robert Draper
Photograph by George Steinmetz
The bronze likeness of Muammar Qaddafi’s nemesis was lying on his back in a wooden crate shrouded in the darkness of a museum warehouse. His name was Septimius Severus. Like Qaddafi, he was from what is now Libya, and for 18 years bridging the second and third centuries A.D. he ruled the Roman Empire. His birthplace, Leptis Magna—a commercial city 80 miles east of what the Phoenicians once called Oea, or present-day Tripoli—became, in every meaningful way, a second Rome. More than 1,700 years after the emperor’s death, Libya’s Italian colonizers honored him by erecting a statue of the imposing, bearded leader with a torch aloft in his right hand. They installed the statue in Tripoli’s main square (now Martyrs’ Square) in 1933—where it remained for a half century, until another Libyan ruler took umbrage.

“The statue became the mouthpiece of the opposition, because he was the only thing Qaddafi couldn’t punish,” says Hafed Walda, a native Libyan and professor of archaeology at King’s College London. “Every day people would ask, ‘What did Septimius Severus say today?’ He became a figure of annoyance to the regime. So Qaddafi banished him to a rubbish heap. The people of Leptis Magna rescued him and brought him back home.” And that is where I found him, reposing in a wooden box amid gardening tools and discarded window frames, awaiting whatever destination the new Libya might have in store for him. More...

Click here for a list of my other diaries on Libya

Syria: FSA begins final push to free Aleppo

There were two major explosions at Aleppo University that killed 87 people, including many students, yesterday. The Assad regime blamed "terrorists" but many observers on the ground said that the explosions were caused by rockets that came from government planes.

Aleppo University has become a symbol of resistance in a city that has been locked in a stalemate between opposition fighters and Assad forces for many months now.

The Free Syrian Army launched a campaign to take the city on the last day of August. The Assad regime vowed to make quick work of them. Now the FSA controls most of the city but the Assad regime still controls the skies.

With that control he has been able to deliver "Death from Above" to every part of the city, attacking bread lines 24 times, and he has been able to turn what is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world into a pile of rubble. Put it another way:

Assad has been pounding cities that go back to the stone age, back to the stone age.
Assad's area of control in Aleppo has been constantly shrinking and yesterday the Russians announced the closure of their consulate in Aleppo, a sure sign that change is in the air.

Today the opposition forces have announced the start of a final push that they say will completely liberate Aleppo.

Below the fold is some more info on this:



The Independent reported on the attack on Aleppo University:

Up to 83 people killed as Syrian students taking exams are caught in blasts
While many students had stopped going in for classes, they were sitting exams at the time
Loveday Morris | Beirut | 15 January 2013
Twin explosions struck a university campus in Aleppo today as students gathered for mid-term exams, killing as many as 83 people in one of the bloodiest single incidents in the struggle for control of Syria's biggest city.

The blasts – the cause of which remains unclear – came just minutes apart this afternoon. Both sides traded blame, with activists saying the destruction had been caused by a regime airstrike and Syrian state television claiming "terrorists" had fired rockets at the campus.

The frontage of the university's agriculture building was ripped off by the explosions, while tangled, smoking car wrecks lay smouldering in the rubble-strewn street. Footage from the scene showed the moment the second explosion hit, with students screaming and fleeing in panic.

Aleppo has been convulsed by violence since the summer, when rebels launched an offensive to seize the city – once Syria's commercial capital – hoping to gain a foothold in the north. In recent months the fighting has reached a stalemate, but airstrikes continue to terrorise citizens while grinding street battles show no sign of let-up.

Activists on the ground and the London-based Syrian Obser- vatory for Human Rights said the death toll in the explosions had climbed to 83, while Mohammed Wahid Akkad, the governor of Aleppo, said 82 had died and at least 160 were injured. More...

Agence France-Presse has these futher details:

Each side blamed the other for two explosions on Tuesday at Aleppo University which killed at least 87 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Rebels and some people who said they witnessed the blasts said a regime warplane fired rockets at the university, which some said had been a symbol of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.

"I saw the plane twice fire rockets at the university. I heard two explosions," a 25-year-old minibus driver who crosses the city daily and who gave his name as Abu Mohammed told AFP.

"People started running, they tried to help, putting injured people in small trucks. There were maybe 20 bodies on the ground, many of them with their limbs blown off."

But the government in Damascus said the massacre was caused by "terrorists", its term for the rebels.

NPR has this report on life in Aleppo:

As Syrian Rebels Reopen Bakeries, Bread Crisis Starts To Ease
by Kelly McEvers
January 16, 2013 6:04 PM

In Syria, the staple of most meals is a thin, round, flat bread that we would probably call pita.

Back in November, as fierce fighting raged across Syria, people started to run out of this bread. Government forces were attacking bakeries in rebel-held areas and cutting off electricity so mills couldn't grind flour. By late last year, Syrians were desperate.

But now, the crisis has been somewhat alleviated — by Aleppo's transitional revolutionary council, a group the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist organization. It's basically a group of civilian leaders trying to solve Aleppo's problems.

Raafat al Rifai is a journalist, but he's also on the council. He has taken up residence in an abandoned bank on the outskirts of the city. There's no electricity. It's dark and cold. All he has are cigarettes.

Pretty soon after we sit down, some guys come to the door. They tell Raafat they need bread.

There are four main grain compounds in Aleppo province, Raafat tells me. These compounds grind grain into flour and store the flour in silos. Back in November, they all shut down.

Rebel fighters, known as the Free Syrian Army, or FSA, along with civilian leaders, went and convinced the two of compounds to re-open, Raafat says. With aid money they'd collected, the council helped the compounds get fuel for generators. And they offered protection. More...

Agence France-Presse is reporting:

Syria rebels planning to break Aleppo deadlock
by Marc Burleigh
01/17/2013 11:13 AM

ALEPPO, Syria - Rebels trying to break a months-long deadlock in their battle for Syria's second city Aleppo say they are cutting supply routes ahead of simultaneous assaults on regime bases.

"The FSA (the rebel Free Syrian Army) is making new steps to liberate the city," Hajji Anadan, the non-military chief of the Al-Tawheed Brigade headquartered in Aleppo, told AFP in an interview on Wednesday, January 16.

"We are focusing on military areas around Aleppo, the airports and the bases. And, thanks to God, we are surrounding them and step by step we will liberate them."

The rebels are fighting regime troops at a base defending Aleppo's international airport, a strategic facility in the southeast of the city.

"Base 80 is surrounded by the FSA. We are planning a big attack on that and on other bases, coordinated and simultaneous attacks," Anadan said, without giving details.

"The FSA is surrounding the city and is moving on the airports. It is cutting off the routes so the army can't get supplies or munitions," he said.

"Nobody is bringing support for the army."

The main city in Syria's north, Aleppo had around five million residents before the civil war upended their lives in July. Many were forced to flee their homes as vicious fighting erupted and the rebels grabbed eastern districts.

For more than three months now, neither side has been able to get the upper hand, and the city has become divided, with abandoned neighbourhoods separating the warring sides and checkpoints screening vehicles. More...

Aleppo university when (2nd?) explosion occurs


Click here for a list of my other diaries on Syria

NOT BREAKING NEWS: Just another massacre in Syria

There were two major explosions at Aleppo University that killed 87 people, including many students, yesterday. The Assad regime blamed "terrorists" but many observers on the ground said that the explosions were caused by rockets that came from government planes.

Aleppo University has become a symbol of resistance in a city that has been locked in a stalemate between opposition fighters and Assad forces for many months now.

The Free Syrian Army launched a campaign to take the city on the last day of August. The Assad regime vowed to make quick work of them. Now the FSA controls most of the city but the Assad regime still controls the skies.

With that control he has been able to deliver "Death from Above" to every part of the city, attacking bread lines 24 times, and he has been able to turn what is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world into a pile of rubble. Put it another way:

Assad has been pounding cities that go back to the stone age, back to the stone age.
Assad's area of control in Aleppo has been constantly shrinking and yesterday the Russians announced the closure of their consulate in Aleppo, a sure sign that change is in the air.

Today the opposition forces have announced the start of a final push that they say will completely liberate Aleppo.

Below the fold is some more info on this:



The Independent reported on the attack on Aleppo University:

Up to 83 people killed as Syrian students taking exams are caught in blasts
While many students had stopped going in for classes, they were sitting exams at the time
Loveday Morris | Beirut | 15 January 2013
Twin explosions struck a university campus in Aleppo today as students gathered for mid-term exams, killing as many as 83 people in one of the bloodiest single incidents in the struggle for control of Syria's biggest city.

The blasts – the cause of which remains unclear – came just minutes apart this afternoon. Both sides traded blame, with activists saying the destruction had been caused by a regime airstrike and Syrian state television claiming "terrorists" had fired rockets at the campus.

The frontage of the university's agriculture building was ripped off by the explosions, while tangled, smoking car wrecks lay smouldering in the rubble-strewn street. Footage from the scene showed the moment the second explosion hit, with students screaming and fleeing in panic.

Aleppo has been convulsed by violence since the summer, when rebels launched an offensive to seize the city – once Syria's commercial capital – hoping to gain a foothold in the north. In recent months the fighting has reached a stalemate, but airstrikes continue to terrorise citizens while grinding street battles show no sign of let-up.

Activists on the ground and the London-based Syrian Obser- vatory for Human Rights said the death toll in the explosions had climbed to 83, while Mohammed Wahid Akkad, the governor of Aleppo, said 82 had died and at least 160 were injured. More...

Agence France-Presse has these futher details:

Each side blamed the other for two explosions on Tuesday at Aleppo University which killed at least 87 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Rebels and some people who said they witnessed the blasts said a regime warplane fired rockets at the university, which some said had been a symbol of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.

"I saw the plane twice fire rockets at the university. I heard two explosions," a 25-year-old minibus driver who crosses the city daily and who gave his name as Abu Mohammed told AFP.

"People started running, they tried to help, putting injured people in small trucks. There were maybe 20 bodies on the ground, many of them with their limbs blown off."

But the government in Damascus said the massacre was caused by "terrorists", its term for the rebels.

NPR has this report on life in Aleppo:

As Syrian Rebels Reopen Bakeries, Bread Crisis Starts To Ease
by Kelly McEvers
January 16, 2013 6:04 PM

In Syria, the staple of most meals is a thin, round, flat bread that we would probably call pita.

Back in November, as fierce fighting raged across Syria, people started to run out of this bread. Government forces were attacking bakeries in rebel-held areas and cutting off electricity so mills couldn't grind flour. By late last year, Syrians were desperate.

But now, the crisis has been somewhat alleviated — by Aleppo's transitional revolutionary council, a group the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist organization. It's basically a group of civilian leaders trying to solve Aleppo's problems.

Raafat al Rifai is a journalist, but he's also on the council. He has taken up residence in an abandoned bank on the outskirts of the city. There's no electricity. It's dark and cold. All he has are cigarettes.

Pretty soon after we sit down, some guys come to the door. They tell Raafat they need bread.

There are four main grain compounds in Aleppo province, Raafat tells me. These compounds grind grain into flour and store the flour in silos. Back in November, they all shut down.

Rebel fighters, known as the Free Syrian Army, or FSA, along with civilian leaders, went and convinced the two of compounds to re-open, Raafat says. With aid money they'd collected, the council helped the compounds get fuel for generators. And they offered protection. More...

Agence France-Presse is reporting:

Syria rebels planning to break Aleppo deadlock
by Marc Burleigh
01/17/2013 11:13 AM

ALEPPO, Syria - Rebels trying to break a months-long deadlock in their battle for Syria's second city Aleppo say they are cutting supply routes ahead of simultaneous assaults on regime bases.

"The FSA (the rebel Free Syrian Army) is making new steps to liberate the city," Hajji Anadan, the non-military chief of the Al-Tawheed Brigade headquartered in Aleppo, told AFP in an interview on Wednesday, January 16.

"We are focusing on military areas around Aleppo, the airports and the bases. And, thanks to God, we are surrounding them and step by step we will liberate them."

The rebels are fighting regime troops at a base defending Aleppo's international airport, a strategic facility in the southeast of the city.

"Base 80 is surrounded by the FSA. We are planning a big attack on that and on other bases, coordinated and simultaneous attacks," Anadan said, without giving details.

"The FSA is surrounding the city and is moving on the airports. It is cutting off the routes so the army can't get supplies or munitions," he said.

"Nobody is bringing support for the army."

The main city in Syria's north, Aleppo had around five million residents before the civil war upended their lives in July. Many were forced to flee their homes as vicious fighting erupted and the rebels grabbed eastern districts.

For more than three months now, neither side has been able to get the upper hand, and the city has become divided, with abandoned neighbourhoods separating the warring sides and checkpoints screening vehicles. More...

Aleppo university when (2nd?) explosion occurs


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