North Korea denies aiding Syria in fight against rebels.

North Korea denies aiding Syria in fight against rebels.

SEOUL | 15 Nov 2013 ::  North Korea denied it was sending military aid to the Syrian government, one of its few close allies, in its battle against rebel forces after media reports said that Pyongyang had sent advisors and helicopter pilots.

"Some foreign media are floating misinformation that the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) supplied war equipment to Syria, its airmen are directly involved in air-raids on insurgent troops in Syria," the North's state run KCNA news agency said late on Thursday.

The Jerusalem Post reported in October that 15 North Korean helicopter pilots were operating in Syria "on behalf of President Bashar Assad's regime" and said the report had been confirmed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Other reports have identified North Korean artillery officers as being in Syria, although they were said not to be directing fire.

North Korea has long-standing ties with Syria and constructed a plutonium reactor there that was destroyed by an Israeli strike in 2007. It also has links with Syria's chemical weapons program.

Under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States, Assad agreed to destroy all Syria's chemical weapons after Washington threatened to use force in response to a sarin gas attack that killed hundreds of people on August 21.

Japanese media reports in August said Turkey had intercepted a shipment of gas masks and small arms from North Korea to Syria.

The North is under United Nations sanctions for its nuclear weapons and missile program and its role in proliferating nuclear and missile technology.(Courtesy: Dawn)

Reports: Syria chemical attack responders die.

Reports: Syria chemical attack responders die.

Despite seemingly overwhelming evidence, the Syrian government continues to deny that it used chemical weapons.

USA TODAY | 23 Aug 2013 :: Some first responders to a reported chemical attack in Syria have died after treating victims, providing more evidence that a weapon of mass destruction was used, opposition forces said Thursday.

"Some of them came down with similar symptoms and passed away," said Khaled Saleh, a spokesman for the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army, which the United States has provided with non-lethal aid. Saleh said at least six doctors died after treating victims. "We don't have the (total) number of dead first responders yet," he said.

Despite seemingly overwhelming evidence, the Syrian government continues to deny that it used chemical weapons. Three dozen countries, including the U.S., have now called for a United Nations investigation.

Saleh said he learned Thursday that one of the people he had been in touch with Wednesday who was treating people injured in the attack had later passed away.

Between 800 and 1,700 people died Wednesday after a rocket attack on the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, according to the Syrian opposition, which reported receiving victims in area hospitals and finding more bodies in house-to-house searches Thursday.

Dan Layman, a spokesman for the Syrian Support Group, which supports the Free Syrian Army in Washington, said doctors, nurses and first responders had reported Wednesday that they'd experienced secondary symptoms while working with victims.

"The doctor I was talking to yesterday said the residue on the victims and their clothing was making the doctors get dizzy and have trouble breathing and (they) had to pour water on their faces and had to step out of the room," Layman said.

Layman said he learned Thursday that two of those nurses died.(Courtesy:USA TODAY)Read More>>>

Arms Shipments Seen From Sudan to Syria Rebels.

Arms Shipments Seen From Sudan to Syria Rebels.

13 Aug 2013 :: Syrian rebels, frustrated by the West’s reluctance to provide arms, have found a supplier in an unlikely source: Sudan, a country that has been under international arms embargoes and maintains close ties with a stalwart backer of the Syrian government, Iran.

In deals that have not been publicly acknowledged, Western officials and Syrian rebels say, Sudan’s government sold Sudanese- and Chinese-made arms to Qatar, which arranged delivery through Turkey to the rebels.

The shipments included antiaircraft missiles and newly manufactured small-arms cartridges, which were seen on the battlefield in Syria — all of which have helped the rebels combat the Syrian government’s better-armed forces and loyalist militias.

Emerging evidence that Sudan has fed the secretive arms pipeline to rebels adds to a growing body of knowledge about where the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria is getting its military equipment, often paid for by Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Saudi Arabia or other sympathetic donors.

While it is unclear how pivotal the weapons have been in the nearly three-year-old civil war, they have helped sustain the opposition against government forces emboldened by aid from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.

Sudan’s involvement adds yet another complication to a civil war that has long defied a diplomatic resolution. The battle has evolved into a proxy fight for regional influence between global powers, regional players and religious sects. In Sudan’s case, it has a connection with the majority Sunni rebels, and a potentially lucrative financial stake in prosecuting the war.(Copy From:The Times of Israel )

Syrian rebels claim they killed 40 Hezbollah, Iranian fighters.

Syrian rebels claim they killed 40 Hezbollah, Iranian fighters.

Opposition says it detonated a car bomb next to a building packed with foreign pro-Assad forces; no official confirmation

Add capSyrian citizens gather near damaged cars that were
 burned after a car bomb exploded in the suburb of Jaramana,
Damascus, Syria, on Thursday, July 25, 2013
. (photo credit: AP Photo/SANA)tion

12 Aug 2013 :: Syrian rebels claim to have killed at least 40 Hezbollah militants and Iranian agents in Damascus over the weekend.

According to their reports, rebels belonging to the Free Syrian Army detonated a car packed with explosives next to a compound belonging to the government defense apparatus, where the pro-Assad fighters were gathered. Members of the Shabiha, the regime’s civilian-clad enforcement apparatus, were reportedly also at the compound when the blast occurred.

FSA reports indicate the incident took place in the al-Shaghour neighborhood within Damascus’ walled old city, which was once a heavily Jewish area. But according to Al Arabiya, state television broadcast images of the blast, claiming it was a roadside bombing that did not take place in the heart of the city.

There has been no independent verification of the claims.

The attack comes during another bloody weekend in Syria. Opposition activists said Saturday that government warplanes bombed a predominantly Sunni village in northwestern Syria, killing at least 20 people as government forces pushed to retake territory in the region along the Mediterranean coast.

The rebel capture last week of 11 villages in the regime stronghold of Latakia province along the coast was a symbolic blow to Assad, whose troops have otherwise been making gains in central Syria. Assad’s forces are trying to retake those villages, which are predominantly populated by members of Assad’s Alawite sect.(Courtesy:The Times of Israel)

Syrian rebels seize arms depot near Damascus.

Syrian rebels seize arms depot near Damascus.

Groups reportedly capture anti-tank weapons and ground-to-ground missiles; UN: 400,000 people in imminent danger in Homs

The Times of Israel | 03 Aug 2013 :: Syrian rebels captured an arms depot near Damascus Saturday, seizing anti-tank weapons, ground-to-ground Grad missiles, and a variety of other ammunition, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted by AFP.

The monitoring watchdog said several groups, including the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, were behind the capture.

Liwa al-Islam, Al-Nusra Front, Al-Tawhid battalion, the Maghaweer [rebel commando force] and the Qalamun Martyrs’ battalion… captured an ammunitions depot near the village of Qaldun in the Qalamun area” northeast of the capital, the Britain-based Observatory said.

On Thursday, rebels sent a wave of rockets slamming into regime strongholds in the central city of Homs on Thursday, triggering a succession of massive explosions in a weapons depot that killed at least 40 people and wounded dozens, an opposition group and residents said.

The attack — one of the most potent against pro-government districts in the area — overshadowed a rare trip by President Bashar Assad to a former opposition bastion outside the capital, Damascus, during which he defiantly vowed in front of troops to defeat the rebels fighting to topple him.

The huge explosion in the Homs district of Wadi Dahab delivered a jolt to Assad’s regime, which for weeks has been boasting of achievements against the rebels in the strategic Homs region and the suburbs of Damascus.

The UN on Saturday warned against a dire situation in Homs where “some 400,000 civilians [are] now displaced in the district of Al Waer, living in partially constructed buildings, schools and other public buildings. In recent days the situation in Al Waer has worsened, with reports of intense daily clashes, and rocket and mortar strikes causing many casualties.”

UNICEF Executive-Director Anthony Lake cautioned in a statement that the organization “has been aiding partners to distribute nutrition and basic hygiene supplies while striving to maintain sufficient water for the innocent people caught up in the fighting…but new checkpoints are preventing more supplies from entering the area. Water and electricity is still available for now but vegetables, milk and other essentials are in increasingly short supply.”

Lake said he feared that without safe access, the situation will deteriorate further.

The 28-month Syrian civil war has claimed the lives of over 100,000 people, according to the latest UN figures.(Courtesy:The Times of Israel)

Syrian rebels, al-Qaida fighters battle in Aleppo .

Former allies have turned against each other and are fighting for control of a key checkpoint in the northern city

Buildings damaged by Syrian government airstrikes
 and shelling, in the Salah al-Din neighborhood of Aleppo

BEIRUT | AP | 13 Jul 2013 ::   Activists say Syrian rebels and fighters from an al-Qaida-linked group have turned their guns on each other and are fighting for control of a key checkpoint in the northern city of Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Saturday’s clashes are focused on the strategic checkpoint in Aleppo’s Bustan al-Qasr district.

The checkpoint is the only gateway between rebel-held eastern districts and the city’s western areas, controlled by President Bashar Assad’s troops.

Earlier this week, al-Qaida-linked militants seized the checkpoint and closed it for several days, cutting the flow of food supplies to the city and triggering the confrontation.

Residents angry over the blockade have staged protests against the anti-Assad forces as food prices soar in Aleppo at the start of the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan.(Courtesy:The Time of Israel)

Powerful blast rocks Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut.

Powerful blast rocks Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut.

At least 53 wounded in apparent car bomb attack; Syrian rebels recently threatened Lebanese militia, but lawmaker blames Israel

BEIRUT  | AP | 09 Jul 2013 ::  A car bomb rocked a stronghold of the Shiite militant Hezbollah group south of the Lebanese capital Tuesday, wounding at least 53 people and setting several cars ablaze in the most serious knock-on effect from Syria’s civil war on its smaller neighbor since the Syrian crisis began, officials said.

The powerful blast struck a bustling commercial and residential neighborhood as many Lebanese Shiite Muslims began observing the holy month of Ramadan, and is the worst explosion to hit Beirut’s southern suburbs in years. While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, there have been growing fears in Lebanon that Hezbollah could face retaliation for its now overt role fighting alongside President Bashar Assad’s troops inside Syria, including, activists say, in the embattled city of Homs near the Lebanese border.

The bombing also is likely to inflame already simmering tensions in Lebanon itself, where deadly clashes between Shiites and Sunnis have grown increasingly common as the civil war in Syria has taken on ever darker sectarian overtones. Some Sunnis in Lebanon, many of whom support Syria’s rebels, have expressed growing resentment over what they see as Hezbollah’s unchecked power in the country.

Tuesday’s blast struck the area of Beir el-Abed, and was most likely caused by a car bomb, officials said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. They said it went off in the parking lot near the Islamic Coop, a supermarket usually packed with shoppers, and a petrol station.

“The explosion was so strong I thought it was an Israeli air raid,” said Mohammad al-Zein, who lives near the blast site. “My wife was sleeping in bed and all the glass fell on her, injuring her in the mouth, arms and legs.”

Another resident said that he was fasting on the first day of Ramadan and was on his way to shop for the evening meal that would break his daylong fast.

“I was riding my motorcycle on my way to a sweets shop and then there was this massive explosion that knocked me off and I fell on the ground,” said a 52-year-old employee of a private company. He declined to be named out of security concerns.

Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said 53 people were wounded. He said most of injuries were light, and that many of them were caused by breaking glass.

The parking lot where the bomb went off is a few hundred meters (yards) away from what is known as Hezbollah’s “security square,” where many of the party’s officials live and have offices. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah received dignitaries there before the 2006 war. The area was bombed byIsrael in that conflict and Nasrallah has gone underground since then, only rarely appearing in public and never for more than few minutes, fearing Israeli assassination.

“This (blast) is a message, but we will not bow,” said Ziad Waked, a municipal official speaking to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television.

With smoke still hanging in the air after the bombing, a group of about 100 outraged Hezbollah supporters stormed through the area, carrying aloft pictures of Nasrallah, shouting in support of their leader and chanting sectarian slogans.

Hezbollah operatives fired in the air to disperse people who attacked the interior minister with stones after he inspected the scene of the blast, trapping him for 45 minutes in a building before he was escorted through a backdoor.

“The Shiite blood is boiling,” the Hezbollah supporters shouted.

Minister Marwan Charbel is seen by some Shiites as sympathetic to hardline Sunni cleric Ahmad al-Assir, who was agitating against Hezbollah for months and is now on the run.

Tuesday’s explosion is one of the biggest in the capital’s southern suburbs since the end Lebanon’s 15-year civil war in 1990, and a major breach of a tightly controlled, high security area.(Courtesy:The Times of Israel)Read More>>>