Syrian air force bombs hospital in north, say activists.

Syrian air force bombs hospital in north, say activists.

Syrian warplanes have bombed one of the main hospitals serving
 rebel-held territory in the north of the country, according to
activists and video footage. (File photo: Reuters)

Beirut | Reuters | 12 Sep 2013 :: Syrian warplanes have bombed one of the main hospitals serving rebel-held territory in the north of the country, according to activists and video footage.

Eleven civilians, including two doctors, were killed in the strike against the hospital on Wednesday in the town of al-Bab, 30 kilometers northeast of Aleppo city, the opposition Aleppo Media Centre said on Thursday.

Video footage posted on YouTube showed the limp body of a young child being carried out of the hospital by a man. Another boy lies on the floor, blood on his head and dust covering his body.

In the video, dust fills the air. Rubble and smashed up air conditioning units lie on the floor.

The Aleppo Media Centre said that the emergency and radiology departments were destroyed in the attack.

Syrian jets have bombed civilian schools, hospitals and bakeries - illegitimate targets under the laws of war - during the two-and-a-half--year conflict which started with pro-democracy protests against four decades of Assad family rule.

More than 100,000 people have been killed and divided world powers have been unable to halt the violence.

The government has not commented on the strike but state news agency SANA said on Thursday that the army had killed 14 “terrorists” - a term it uses for rebels - north of al-Bab in an operation on a militant convoy.

Israel confirms testing missile jointly with US.

Israel confirms testing missile jointly with US.

Press Tv | 03 Sep 2013 :: Israel says it has successfully conducted a joint missile test with the United States in the Mediterranean Sea, amid high tensions in the region over a possible attack on Syria.

According to the Israeli Ministry of Military Affairs, an Ankor-type radar missile was launched on Tuesday in the joint test with the US. 

Israeli media say the missile was fired to simulate ballistic missiles such as Shahab and Scud. 

This is while the US Navy says it has fired no missiles. 

Earlier in the day, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had detected two “ballistic targets” fired toward the eastern part of the Mediterranean from the sea’s central part. 

The launch of the ballistic objects was detected at 10:16 Moscow time (06:16 GMT) by a radar system in the southern Russian city of Armavir, a Defense Ministry spokesman was quoted by Russia’s Ria Novosti as saying. 

Tensions are running high as Washington is pushing for military action against Syria over the alleged use of chemical weapons by Syrian government forces in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21. 

Damascus has vehemently denied the accusations, saying the chemical attack was carried out by the militants themselves as a false-flag operation. 

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011. According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies - especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey - are supporting the militants operating inside Syria. 

On July 25, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said more than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria since the outbreak of the foreign-sponsored militancy in the country. (Courtesy:Press Tv)

Fears Growing as Syrians Wait for U.S. Attack.

Fears Growing as Syrians Wait for U.S. Attack.

BEIRUT | Lebanon  | 30 Aug 2013 ::  In a narrow alley in the old city of Damascus, a shopkeeper who opposes the Syrian government spent Thursday as usual, drinking coffee with the other merchants who keep him company in place of long-vanished tourists. But the calm on the cobblestone street, he said, could hardly mask the fear and ambivalence over an American military strike.

“Disorder, revenge. Sectarian violence,” he said in a text message, ticking off what he sees as the worst potential consequences of the missile strikes that American officials have threatened against President Bashar al-Assad’s government, which they blame for a deadly chemical attack last week.

In Damascus, as people stock up on food and water and the government closes central streets and moves troops and matériel into residential areas and schools, even staunch supporters of the uprising against Mr. Assad are divided on the looming attack.

Many here feel even a limited strike threatens to inject a new, unpredictable dynamic into a civil war that has largely spared their storied city. And some opponents of the government are loath to see direct American military intervention in their fight, fearful it will hijack and discredit the uprising they have waged for more than two years at great cost.

Though some called early on for NATO intervention, others said they wanted support and arms from Washington — not an attack by the American military.(Copy from:The New York Times)

Car Bomb Kills Ten, Wounds Dozens in Pro-Assad Syrian Suburb.

Car Bomb Kills Ten, Wounds Dozens in Pro-Assad Syrian Suburb.

DAMASCUS | Syria | 25 Jul 2013 :: A powerful car bomb exploded in a suburb of the Syrian capital Thursday, killing 10 people and wounding dozens of others, Syria’s state-run news agency said.

The explosion in Jaramana, just few kilometers (miles) southeast of Damascus, came as the United Nations’ top official said more than100,000 people have been killed in the ongoing civil war gripping Syria.

The state news agency SANA reported that the explosion caused heavy damage to nearby buildings and destroyed many cars. It said 62 people were wounded.

Jaramana, a neighborhood that overwhelmingly supports the government of President Bashar Assad, has been targeted by a series of explosions before. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-government activist organization, said the blast killed seven and wounded more than 30. It said the blast caused heavy material damage and started a fire.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.

More than 100,000 people have been killed since the Syrian conflict started in March 2011, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday, calling for a political solution to end the conflict. So far, however, the violence in Syria has defied all international attempts for a political solution.

The conflict began largely as peaceful protests against Assad’s rule. It escalated into a civil war after opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent.

Meanwhile, the Syrian government lashed out Thursday at the U.S. decision to send arms to rebels fighting troops loyal to Assad, saying Washington is unsuitable to act as a broker at any peace negotiations in Geneva.

“The American intensions seek to continue the cycle of violence and terrorism in Syria in order to destabilize security and stability in the region,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The U.S. government opposed providing any lethal assistance to Syria’s rebels until last month, but is moving ahead now with sending weapons to vetted rebels after securing the approval of the House and Senate Intelligence committees.

The White House acknowledged that momentum in the conflict has shifted as the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group and Iran have helped Assad’s forces.

President Barack Obama and his national security team still have yet to say publicly what weapons they’ll provide the Syrian opposition and when they’ll deliver them. There has also been concern in the West that U.S. weapons could end up in the hands of al-Qaida-linked groups.

At the same time, the U.S. and Russia have been working to set up a peace conference in Geneva to try to end the civil war. No official date has been set for the conference as the opposition refuses to attend any talks that are not about Assad’s departure. Government officials say participation in the conference should be without preconditions.

“Washington’s decision to send arms to terrorists in Syria confirms that the American administration is not fair in efforts to find a political solution and hold an international conference in Geneva,” said Syrian state TV, citing an unnamed Foreign Ministry official. Assad’s government routinely refers to opposition fighters as terrorists.(Courtesy:Epoch Times)

Syrian President: Opposition Failed to Oust Regime.

BEIRUT | 04 Jul 2013 :: Syria’s President Bashar Assad claimed in an interview published Thursday that his opponents have “used up all their tools” and failed to overthrow his regime. The remarks came as Western-backed Syrian opposition figures gathered in Turkey for talks on electing a new leadership.

In comments to the state-run Al-Thawra newspaper, Assad rejected the idea that what has been happening in Syria since more than two years is a revolution. Instead, he insisted it is a conspiracy by Western and some Arab states to destabilize his country.

In the same interview, Assad praised this week’s massive protests by Egyptians against their Islamists leader and said the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi meant the end of “political Islam.”

In Syria, more than 93,000 people have been killed since the crisis erupted in March 2011. The conflict began as peaceful protests against Assad’s rule, then turned into civil war after some opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent. Millions of Syrians have been forced to flee their homes.

Throughout the crisis, Assad has insisted that his government is not faced with a popular rebellion, but a Western-backed conspiracy against Syria, accusing the rebels fighting to topple his regime of being terrorists, Islamic extremists and mercenaries of the oil-rich Arab Gulf states that are allies of the United States.

“The countries that conspire against Syria have used up all their tools and they have nothing left except direct (military) intervention,” Assad said in the interview, adding that such an intervention would not happen.

The comments coincided with a meeting of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition in Istanbul in the second attempt in as many months by Assad’s opponents to unify their ranks.

The opposition bloc is mostly made up of exiled politicians with little support from Syrians trying to survive the third summer of conflict in the country that has been devastated by the fighting.

Sarah Karkour, a spokeswoman for the SNC, said that acting leader George Sabra and senior opposition figures Louay Safi and Mustafa Sabbagh are topping the list of candidates for the new leadership, including an interim government.

In late May, the opposition leaders met for more than a week in Istanbul, but failed to elected new leaders or devise a strategy for possible peace talks that the U.S. and Russia have been trying to convene in Geneva.

Assad has repeatedly dismissed his political opponents as foreign-directed exiles who don’t represent the people of Syria. He has also shrugged off calls to step down, saying he will serve the rest of his term and could consider running for another one in next year’s presidential elections.

The paper, Al-Thawra, also quoted him saying his opponents failed because they tried to bring religion onto the battlefield. Assad insisted he still enjoys the support of the majority of Syrians, who have stood against Islamic radicals who have emerged as the most effective force on the opposition’s side.

Members of Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority have dominated the rebel ranks, while Assad’s regime is mostly made up of Alawaites, an offshoot sect of Shiite Islam.

“Whoever brings religion to use for political or factional interests will fall anywhere in the world,” Assad said in the interview, again citing Morsi’s overthrow by the military in Egypt.(Courtesy:Epoch Times)