"Abu Khaled al-Suri, who rebels said was serving as Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri’s representative in Syria, had long been on the radar of Western intelligence agencies. In 2002, Spanish officials described Suri, whose real name is Mohamed Bahaiah, as the courier for the late terrorist leader Osama bin Laden between Afghanistan and Europe. Charles Lister, an analyst with the Brookings Doha Center, said Suri’s activities in Syria had been a concern for the United States and its allies....
CIA-Duh, CIA-Duh, CIA-Duh, CIA-Duh. Sick of it.
Also Sunday, a car bomb exploded near a charity field hospital close to the Turkish border, wounding mostly medics and patients who had fled violence elsewhere in the country, activists and Turkish media said. Syria’s Foreign Ministry demanded dealing with ‘‘foreign-backed terrorism.’’ Damascus says the crisis in the country is caused by an international conspiracy against Syria. Since the rebel-on-rebel clashes began, government forces have chipped away at opposition-held areas."
They have rolled them back and out now.
"Kassab residents, speaking to Syrian television, said mortar shells and gunfire came from the Turkish border toward their village. A Syrian field commander on a government-organized trip told journalists in the nearby town of Badrousieh that gunmen began their attack ‘‘with clear support from the Turks.’’ Turkish officials rebutted the claims. ‘‘The allegations by some circles that Turkey is providing support to the opposition forces by letting them use its territory or through some other ways during the conflict . . . are totally unfounded,’’ the Turkish government said in a statement."
Wow. A flat-out, bald-faced lie from the Turks.
"In Turkey, the Syrians’ main opposition bloc said its president, Ahmad al-Jarba, made a rare visit to Syria on Tuesday, meeting with rebels fighting Assad’s troops in the coastal province of Latakia — including the recently captured Christian-Armenian town of Kassab."
Where a fresh batch of genocide has been reported.
Related: Syrian Insurgents Expand Seaport
Not for long.
Jihadi fighters withdraw from parts of north Syria
In an amateur video posted online by activists. The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other Associated Press reporting of the events.
And who could question that, 'eh?
Also Friday, the Lebanese Army said in a statement that three rockets fired from Syria struck the predominantly Shi’ite town of Brital, causing damage but no casualties.
In Beirut, security officials said shelling from the Syrian side killed two Syrian refugees in Lebanon, a 16-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy near the border with Syria, and wounded three. Syrian warplanes also fired several missiles Friday on the edge of the Lebanese border town of Arsal without causing casualties. Such air raids have happened before in the area."
"Syria reverses gains of rebels" Associated Press June 16, 2014
BEIRUT — Government forces flushed opposition fighters from their last redoubts in northwestern Syria near the Turkish frontier Sunday, capturing two villages and restoring government control over the border crossing, activists and state media said.
The military’s advances fully reversed the gains rebels had made during their three-month campaign in Latakia province, the coastal region that is the ancestral heartland of President Bashar Assad.
They couldn't hold the rocks on the beach or the forested area that lead to them?
The counteroffensive’s success is the latest blow to the rebels, who have suffered a string of bitter recent setbacks in Syria’s more than three-year-old civil war.
Islamic rebel factions launched their surprise assault in Latakia in March, pushing south from the Turkish border to seize a string of villages in the lush, mountainous terrain. The military, nervous about an incursion in a bastion of government support, dispatched reinforcements to blunt the rebel advance and eventually turn the tide.
On Sunday army troops backed by fighters from the Lebanese Shi’ite military group Hezbollah seized the seaside hamlet of Samra.
--more--"
Related: Syrian Spillover
It's Zaudi-$upplied.
Also see: In Lebanon, Sunni anger toward army is spreading
"Lebanon sends army to Syria border" by Hussein Malla | Associated Press March 18, 2014
LABWEH, Lebanon — The Lebanese army sent commandos to the tense border with Syria on Monday, as fears rose that the ongoing flight of rebels from one of their fallen strongholds into a flashpoint region of Lebanon would trigger violence.
Lebanon has been on edge since the Syrian town of Yabroud was taken by President Bashar Assad’s troops on Sunday. Its rebel defenders started pouring into the Lebanese Sunni-dominated town of Arsal, which is surrounded by Shi’ite villages guarded by pro-Assad Hezbollah militants.
Sectarian violence between Lebanon’s Sunnis and Shi’ites linked to Syria’s civil war has killed scores of people in recent months. The presence in the same area of Lebanon of Hezbollah and Sunni rebels — who had been fighting each other in Syria — risks a polarizing new flare-up.
Many Lebanese Shi’ites back Assad’s government, dominated by members of his minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam. Hezbollah has fought alongside Assad’s troops. On the other side, many Lebanese Sunnis back Sunni-dominated rebels.
On Monday, three rockets struck the predominantly Shi’ite towns of Labweh and Nabi Othman near Arsal, wounding at least one person and causing some damage, the army said. The rockets were fired from inside Syria, the army said....
Monday’s rocket barrage on the Shi’ite towns near Arsal appears to have sparked sectarian tensions in the area.
That tired and worn-out narrative of Jew$meCIA prop has been sooooo played!
Some angry Labweh residents claimed the rockets were fired from Arsal and closed off the main road between the two towns with sand barriers, guarded by dozens of Hezbollah fighters. They later closed other, smaller roads leading to Arsal, isolating the town from the rest of Lebanon.
Hezbollah fighters prevented journalists from entering Arsal. Only Lebanese troops were able to drive on the road.
Syrian rebels and their sympathizers are believed to have considerable power in Arsal....
Earlier in the day, Lebanese troops and commandos in desert camouflage patrolled the rugged border area on foot....
The fall of Yabroud, a smuggling hub for the rebels trying to overthrow Assad, was a major gain for Syrian government troops. It was also the Syrian opposition’s last stronghold in the vital border area. The campaign consolidated the government’s hold on the capital Damascus and the central Syrian city of Homs.
No sooner done when Turkey punches a hole in the border. Coincidence?
Yabroud’s fall came after months of fighting in the mountainous Qalamoun region between Assad’s forces and Hezbollah fighters on one side and the rebels, mostly Islamist militant groups, on the other.
A Lebanese militant Sunni group claimed responsibility Monday for a car bombing the previous night in Nabi Othman, a predominantly Shi’ite town in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley that also has a significant Christian community.
The Nusra Front in Lebanon said in a statement posted on its Twitter account that the attack was in revenge for Hezbollah’s support for Assad and ‘‘a quick response’’ for the fall of Yabroud into Syrian government hands.
"Terrorists" tweet?
--more--"
"Fueled by Syrian violence, tensions rising in Lebanon; Sunnis counter Hezbollah with own roadblocks" by Ryan Lucas | Associated Press March 19, 2014
BEIRUT — Sunni Muslim demonstrators used burning tires to close key roads across Lebanon on Tuesday to protest a blockade of their brethren by Shi’ite gunmen, officials said, as the country struggles to keep a lid on simmering sectarian tensions enflamed by the civil war in neighboring Syria.
Unfortunately, this is all turmoil generated by unmentioned outside forces.
In one of the most ominous signs, an AP reporter saw protesters marching among cars stopped at a Beirut roadblock and warning drivers with Shi’ite emblems on their vehicles that Sunnis would not be cowed by the powerful Shi’ite militant Hezbollah group. There was no violence, and all of the cars eventually moved on unscathed.
Lebanon, which is still haunted by its own 15-year civil war that ended in 1990, has been deeply polarized by the current conflict in Syria. Lebanese Sunnis largely support the predominantly Sunni opposition in Syria, while Shi’ites have backed President Bashar Assad’s government.
That dynamic has sent sectarian hatreds soaring in Lebanon, particularly since the country’s most powerful political and military force, Hezbollah, dispatched its fighters last year to Syria to bolster Assad’s forces. Many Sunnis also resent Hezbollah’s unmatched political and military position in Lebanon.
Against that backdrop, hundreds of angry young Sunni protesters forced roads to close Tuesday across the country to protest a dayslong Hezbollah blockade on the predominantly Sunni town of Arsal near the Syrian border.
The demonstrators blocked the highway linking Beirut with predominantly Shi’ite south Lebanon, the highway running from the Lebanese capital to the Syrian capital, the main road leading to north Lebanon, as well the main route from the town of Saadnayel in the eastern Bekaa Valley to the Baalbek region, a Hezbollah stronghold, according to security officials.
In Beirut, an AP reporter saw around 200 protesters blocking a major roadway between the city center and the predominantly Shi’ite southern suburbs.
In the Kaskas district of the capital, meanwhile, three protesters were wounded after the army opened fire to try to disperse the demonstrators, security officials said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
That Arsal is emerging as a sort of rallying cry for many Lebanese Sunnis is not a complete surprise.
The town has long been a friction point, serving as a haven for Syrian rebels and refugees, as well as a key transit point for weapons and fighters in the conflict next door.
Over the weekend, Hezbollah gunmen and local Shi’ites closed off Arsal’s only road to the rest of Lebanon by erecting a sandbagged checkpoint. The move came after residents of nearby Shi’ite areas blamed Arsal for rocket fire in recent days on their villages and a car bombing that killed three people.
But the blockade also appears to be aimed at containing a fresh influx of Syrian rebels and refugees into Arsal since Sunday, when President Bashar Assad’s troops and his Hezbollah allies captured the opposition stronghold of Yabroud just across the border.
Shi’ite gunmen made clear their intentions to keep Arsal sealed off Tuesday by opening fire at vehicles that tried to drive up toward the checkpoint from the town, deputy mayor Ahmad Fliti said.
The shooting heightened despair within Arsal, now home to 40,000 Lebanese and 52,000 Syrian refugees for whom the road is a vital lifeline.
Another 200 Syrian families arrived in Arsal over the past few days, fleeing fighting as Syrian troops seized Yabroud, said Lisa Abu Khaled of the UN’s refugee agency.
‘‘Everybody needs help. They need blankets and food. But we are currently facing a ticking bomb of contagious illnesses, a ticking bomb of hunger and a ticking bomb of people,’’ said Fliti.
It's the terrorists among you.
Lebanese aid organizations distributed a three-day emergency food supply to the neediest refugees on Monday, the UN’s Abu Khaled said. But she stressed that tens of thousands more were left to rely on dwindling stocks within the town.
‘‘Assistance will definitely be hindered without the reopening of the road. What is available in Arsal won’t be enough,’’ she said.
Across the border in Yabroud, the Syrian government took a small group of journalists, including an AP reporter, on a tour of the recently captured town.
Damage from the fighting was evident everywhere. Electricity wires were strewn across the road into town, windows were blown out and shop doors destroyed.
--more--"
"Syrian troops take village near Lebanon; Regime diplomats ordered to leave the United States" by Albert Aji | Associated Press March 20, 2014
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian troops pressed an offensive near the Lebanese border on Wednesday, capturing a village from rebels whose forces appear to be collapsing along a key central front, state media and activists said.
They reappeared on the northern beaches.
Ras al-Ayyn was the latest area in the Qalamoun region to fall to government forces backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters. On Sunday, they captured Yabroud, a town that had served for months as a main rebel logistics hub.
‘‘It was a fast and crushing operation,’’ an unidentified Syrian Army officer in Ras Al-Ayn said on state television. ‘‘The operation will continue day and night until all terrorists are wiped out,’’ he said, referring to the rebels. A brigadier general, also unidentified, told the Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV that ‘‘tens’’ of rebels were killed....
For months, Syrian troops have been on the offensive in the mountainous Qalamoun region, aiming to cut rebel supply lines crossing the porous Lebanese border.
Also Wednesday, Syria criticized Washington for ordering the closure of its diplomatic and consular missions in the United States, requiring all personnel who are not legal US residents to leave the country.
‘‘This American move reveals the real goals of America’s policies against Syria and the interests of Syrian citizens,’’ the Foreign Ministry said in a statement about Tuesday’s decision. ‘‘It forms another step of the American support to terrorism and to shedding blood in Syria.’’
The American order should not affect Syria’s mission at the United Nations, although the State Department imposed restrictions this month limiting its ambassador to New York.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry described the US order as an arbitrary act that it said came in violation of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations...
Damascus says it is facing a Western conspiracy because of its support for groups opposed to the United States and Israel.
Earlier in the day, Lebanese security officials said Lebanese government troops dismantled roadblocks and reopened a key road to a predominantly Sunni town near the Syrian border.
The officials said the road leading to the town of Arsal reopened Wednesday morning and that reinforcements secured the area. They spoke on condition of anonymity.
The development comes after days of high tension in the area, where Shi’ite Hezbollah gunmen and residents had blocked off the road to the Sunni town of Arsal.
The Shi’ites blamed the townspeople and Syrian rebels who fled to Arsal for recent rocket fire on their villages and a car bombing that killed three people. The standoff prompted Sunnis to close roads elsewhere around Lebanon on Tuesday.
Also Wednesday, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two rockets fell in the Qaa area, causing damage....
--more--"
Also see: 1 million Syrian refugees flooding Lebanon
“The Lebanese people have shown striking generosity but are struggling to cope.”
And they can thank the U.S. for it!
Syrian refugees struggle to get health care in Lebanon
They tried to sign up for Obummercare, but.... !!!!
Turns out the whole effort was a bad idea from the very beginning.
Israel says it targeted Hezbollah militants at Syrian border
Also see: 1 million Syrian refugees flooding Lebanon
“The Lebanese people have shown striking generosity but are struggling to cope.”
And they can thank the U.S. for it!
Syrian refugees struggle to get health care in Lebanon
They tried to sign up for Obummercare, but.... !!!!
Turns out the whole effort was a bad idea from the very beginning.
Israel says it targeted Hezbollah militants at Syrian border
The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. The Iran-backed group had vowed to retaliate after an alleged Israeli strike on one of its positions last week, its first attack on Hezbollah inside Lebanese territory since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
Hezbollah, which is estimated to have sent thousands of its fighters to Syria to back President Bashar Assad’s troops, may be attempting to revive support at home by provoking its traditional enemy Israel, analysts say....
WHAT CRAP!
The group is under pressure as it digs into a new battle, and there are unconfirmed reports that it has suffered heavy losses."
While on that border:
"Israel attacks Syrian positions in Golan Heights" by Isabel Kershner | New York Times March 20, 2014
JERUSALEM — Israeli airstrikes against several Syrian army positions across the decades-old cease-fire line in the Golan Heights on Wednesday came as a specific response to a bomb attack against Israeli forces along the frontier a day earlier, according to Israeli officials.
But for many here, the unusually sharp exchange signaled the possibility of a broader Israeli slide into the regional turmoil.
The airstrikes, against a Syrian army training facility, a military headquarters, and artillery batteries, were the first in Syrian territory that Israel has openly acknowledged since the Syrian civil war began three years ago.
Yeah, it's not the first time they have done an ACT of WAR!
The bomb attack on Tuesday that prompted the strikes was the first to cause Israeli casualties, wounding four soldiers, one severely. Both events raised the stakes along a frontier that has been mostly quiet for 40 years.
Yup, ISRAEL PUSHING FOR WAR!
The Syrian armed forces said in a statement quoted by the official Syrian news agency, SANA, that the airstrikes killed one person and wounded seven. The statement described the Israeli attacks as a breach of the separation-of-forces agreement that has been in place since the cease-fire that was reached after the 1973 war, which left a portion of the strategic Syrian plateau under Israeli control.
The statement added that the Syrian leadership viewed Israel’s “new aggression” as an attempt to divert attention from the recent victories of the Syrian army.
I don't think so; I think they just need to draw Muslim blood every few weeks like a drug addict craves their high.
--more--"
Also see:
Syrian army tightens grip on rebel border stronghold
Syrian army kills 175 rebels in ambush
Syria airstrikes kill 13, activists say
Also Sunday, a Spanish journalist kidnapped by militants from a breakaway Al Qaeda group in Syria crossed the border into Turkey, his newspaper reported.
The news of correspondent Marc Marginedas’s freedom came as his captors, fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, fled areas near the Turkish border, leaving behind at least two mass graves, with one containing 17 bodies, activists said.
Marginedas was abducted on Sept. 4 near the central Syrian city of Hama by Islamic State fighters.
He was ‘‘moved repeatedly’’ while in captivity, and his captors accused him of being a spy before his release, his newspaper El Periodico said.
Actually, I now assume western reporters are spies, especially when they make my agenda-pushing paper.
The newspaper did not elaborate on how Marginedas was released or whether a ransom was paid. It said he was undergoing medical tests in Turkey."
Forget him.
See:
2 captive journalists freed in Syria
Four French journalists held hostage in Syria are released
Nice NOC cover.
"Suicide bombers strike Kurdish town in north Syria" by Albert Aji and Bassem Mroue | Associated Press, March 12, 2014
DAMASCUS — Three suicide bombers....
The area has been the scene of heavy battles recently between Kurdish gunmen and members of the Al Qaeda breakaway group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant....
Related: Kurds Battle Al-CIA-Duh in Syria
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion immediately fell on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Militants from the group have been fighting Kurdish gunmen for months in northern Syria in battles that left hundreds of people dead.
The HALLMARK of a COVERT WESTERN INTELLIGENCE OPERATION by its AGENTS or ASSETS! Consider jwho is casting the suspicions!
Kurds have carved out their own territory in the country’s northeast, declaring their own civil administration in areas under their control amid the chaos of the civil war.
Everyone seems to be doing that nowadays!
But Kurdish militias continue to battle Islamic militant fighters in an offensive against jihadis that has accelerated in recent months.
Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, making up more than 10 percent ofthe country’s 23 million people.
Also on Tuesday, the Syrian government acknowledged that it had freed women prisoners in exchange for 13 Greek Orthodox nuns who had been held by Al Qaeda-linked rebels.
But they killed the patriarch.
But Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said the government freed only 25 prisoners and not the 150 reported by foreign mediators....
Qatari and Lebanese officials, who were mediating between Damascus and the rebels holding the nuns, said previously that 150 women prisoners were released early Monday.
Damascus typically does not comment on releases in exchange for people held by rebels.
Zoubi’s remarks were a rare acknowledgment that President Bashar Assad’s government made any concessions to the rebels fighting to oust him from power.
The nuns were captured in December as opposition fighters overran a Christian village north of the capital.
The women were held by the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front rebel group in Yabroud near the Syrian border with Lebanon.
In recent weeks, the town has been the scene of fierce fighting as Syrian government troops, backed by Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants, try to oust the rebels from the border area.
--more--"
Look at them trying to drag Christians and Catholics into the morass.
"Nuns released in Syrian prisoner deal" Associated Press, March 11, 2014
DAMASCUS — Syrian militants Monday released a group of Greek Orthodox nuns in exchange for dozens of women held in government prisons — a rare deal between Damascus and Al Qaeda-linked rebels that was mediated by Qatari and Lebanese officials.
The dramatic scene of the nuns being freed from vehicles in the dead of night along the Lebanese-Syrian border, bidding their captors a surprisingly friendly farewell, ended the women’s three-month ordeal.
Do I even need to type it?
This STINKS of a STAGED and SCRIPTED PUBLIC RELATIONS BIT!!
The nuns were captured as opposition fighters overran a Christian village and were held in a border town. They were released as government-backed forces battled their way into the strategic border town in which they were held.
It provided an unusual example of regional actors cooperating to reach across the Syrian civil war’s sectarian and ideological fault lines, which have sharply split the Middle East.
The energy-rich Gulf nation of Qatar, a chief backer of the rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, was involved in the mediation.
They seem to be involved in a lot of things.
Lebanon’s General Security Chief Major General Abbas Ibrahim, a powerful figure trusted by the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group and its Syrian government allies, was on hand to receive the nuns early Monday.
The 13 women said they were treated well by their captors, members of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.
Must be the "good" CIA-Duh and not ISIS.
In a separate development Monday, the international charity Save the Children released a report saying Syria’s health care system is on the brink of collapse, with medics forced to engage in ‘‘brutal medical practices’’ to save lives.
Thank you, U.S.!
The practices have included knocking out patients with metal bars because of lack of anesthesia or amputating infants’ limbs for lack of other ways to treat their injuries, the report said. Newborns die in hospital incubators during power outages, while millions of children have been exposed to deadly diseases, some of which are preventable with vaccinations and basic medical equipment.
All brought to them by Obummer's covert terrorist army, with the pharmaceuticals maybe making a buck off it!
The Damascus-based Greek Orthodox Patriarchate for Antioch and All The East hailed the nuns’ release Monday, saying their return to safety was ‘‘a message from heaven to all Christians to remain in this land [Syria] and coexist in complete harmony with Muslims.’’
Like they have for thousands of years? It's one reason I doubt the Jewish war narrative of sectarianism as promoted by my lying war rag.
The statement, carried by the Syrian official news service SANA, said the nuns will stay in the premises of the patriarchate and will return to Maaloula only after the town is ‘‘cleared of dirty terrorists.’’
Negotiations for the nuns’ release had been going on and off for weeks. Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah said in a statement carried by his country’s official news agency that the nation had been involved in the mediation since December.
Opposition activists said the nuns had been held in a villa in Yabroud, a strategic Syrian town near the border with Lebanon. The town has been under opposition control for much of the conflict.
In recent weeks, government forces have been on the offensive in the area. They’ve tightened the noose on the town in the past two days, increasing the pressure on the rebels to reach a deal.
Ibrahim, Lebanon’s general security chief, and Attiyah, Qatar’s chief diplomat, said Monday the Syrian government met a demand of the rebels to releasing more than 150 Syrian women held in prisons.
The report of the women’s release from government custody could not be independently confirmed, but Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said 150 women and three children were freed.
--more--"
Time for some Syrian exports:
"As the Syrian conflict continues to threaten the stability of its neighbors, atrocities continue within the country’s borders. The United Nations on Wednesday released a report on human rights violations in Syria during the six months to Jan. 20, detailing war crimes perpetrated by both sides.
Related: Making This Post About Syria Disappear
The report went further than the United Nations has done previously in assigning blame for the Aug. 21 chemical attack, which led the United States to threaten retaliatory military strikes against Damascus.
It has now been proven it was a false flag by the rebels -- if it even happened at all.
The available evidence indicated the perpetrators ‘‘likely had access to the chemical weapons stockpile of the Syrian military, as well as the expertise and equipment necessary to manipulate safely large amount of chemical agents,’’ it said.
Like I would believe any "evidence" cited by this hunk of shit I call a newspaper.
--more--"
Look at them trying to drag Christians and Catholics into the morass.
"Nuns released in Syrian prisoner deal" Associated Press, March 11, 2014
DAMASCUS — Syrian militants Monday released a group of Greek Orthodox nuns in exchange for dozens of women held in government prisons — a rare deal between Damascus and Al Qaeda-linked rebels that was mediated by Qatari and Lebanese officials.
The dramatic scene of the nuns being freed from vehicles in the dead of night along the Lebanese-Syrian border, bidding their captors a surprisingly friendly farewell, ended the women’s three-month ordeal.
Do I even need to type it?
This STINKS of a STAGED and SCRIPTED PUBLIC RELATIONS BIT!!
The nuns were captured as opposition fighters overran a Christian village and were held in a border town. They were released as government-backed forces battled their way into the strategic border town in which they were held.
It provided an unusual example of regional actors cooperating to reach across the Syrian civil war’s sectarian and ideological fault lines, which have sharply split the Middle East.
The energy-rich Gulf nation of Qatar, a chief backer of the rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, was involved in the mediation.
They seem to be involved in a lot of things.
Lebanon’s General Security Chief Major General Abbas Ibrahim, a powerful figure trusted by the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group and its Syrian government allies, was on hand to receive the nuns early Monday.
The 13 women said they were treated well by their captors, members of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.
Must be the "good" CIA-Duh and not ISIS.
In a separate development Monday, the international charity Save the Children released a report saying Syria’s health care system is on the brink of collapse, with medics forced to engage in ‘‘brutal medical practices’’ to save lives.
Thank you, U.S.!
The practices have included knocking out patients with metal bars because of lack of anesthesia or amputating infants’ limbs for lack of other ways to treat their injuries, the report said. Newborns die in hospital incubators during power outages, while millions of children have been exposed to deadly diseases, some of which are preventable with vaccinations and basic medical equipment.
All brought to them by Obummer's covert terrorist army, with the pharmaceuticals maybe making a buck off it!
The Damascus-based Greek Orthodox Patriarchate for Antioch and All The East hailed the nuns’ release Monday, saying their return to safety was ‘‘a message from heaven to all Christians to remain in this land [Syria] and coexist in complete harmony with Muslims.’’
Like they have for thousands of years? It's one reason I doubt the Jewish war narrative of sectarianism as promoted by my lying war rag.
The statement, carried by the Syrian official news service SANA, said the nuns will stay in the premises of the patriarchate and will return to Maaloula only after the town is ‘‘cleared of dirty terrorists.’’
Negotiations for the nuns’ release had been going on and off for weeks. Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah said in a statement carried by his country’s official news agency that the nation had been involved in the mediation since December.
Opposition activists said the nuns had been held in a villa in Yabroud, a strategic Syrian town near the border with Lebanon. The town has been under opposition control for much of the conflict.
In recent weeks, government forces have been on the offensive in the area. They’ve tightened the noose on the town in the past two days, increasing the pressure on the rebels to reach a deal.
Ibrahim, Lebanon’s general security chief, and Attiyah, Qatar’s chief diplomat, said Monday the Syrian government met a demand of the rebels to releasing more than 150 Syrian women held in prisons.
The report of the women’s release from government custody could not be independently confirmed, but Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said 150 women and three children were freed.
--more--"
Time for some Syrian exports:
"As the Syrian conflict continues to threaten the stability of its neighbors, atrocities continue within the country’s borders. The United Nations on Wednesday released a report on human rights violations in Syria during the six months to Jan. 20, detailing war crimes perpetrated by both sides.
Related: Making This Post About Syria Disappear
The report went further than the United Nations has done previously in assigning blame for the Aug. 21 chemical attack, which led the United States to threaten retaliatory military strikes against Damascus.
It has now been proven it was a false flag by the rebels -- if it even happened at all.
The available evidence indicated the perpetrators ‘‘likely had access to the chemical weapons stockpile of the Syrian military, as well as the expertise and equipment necessary to manipulate safely large amount of chemical agents,’’ it said.
Like I would believe any "evidence" cited by this hunk of shit I call a newspaper.
--more--"
Related:
"After weeks of deepening foreign frustration over missed deadlines and other delays, Syria turns over large quantity of mustard gas"
Syria quickens removal of its toxic weapons
Also see: Syrian Chemical Weapons Still Stuck in Port
"The Netherlands-based chemical weapons watchdog said more than 45 percent of raw materials for Syria’s poison gas and nerve agent program slated for destruction outside the country have been shipped out. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons announced two shipments were loaded onto cargo ships in recent days at Latakia port. Syria has missed several deadlines on a timetable agreed last year to eradicate its chemical weapons by June 30, but the government pledged to remove all chemicals by April’s end. The chemicals will eventually be transferred to a US ship, the MV Cape Ray."
Where they will be dumped into the ocean.
Interesting how that is where the fighting with Turkey is occurring right now, no?
Related: Keeping Track of Syria's Chemical Weapons
