{"id":17025,"date":"2012-12-17T14:01:31","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T19:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=17025"},"modified":"2012-12-17T14:01:31","modified_gmt":"2012-12-17T19:01:31","slug":"news-round-up-17-december-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/news-round-up-17-december-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"News Round Up (17 December 2012)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mazout prices have shot above 100 pounds a liter, as sanctions and violence take their toll on Syria. The pound has dropped in value rising above 90 per dollar again. Farouq al-Sharaa, Syria’s vice president called for<\/a> a settlement of the uprising that would lead to the formation of a “national unity government with broad powers.” He claimed that neither side could prevail militarily. A series of bombings in Iraq targeting ethnic minorities and Shiite pilgrims, killed 17<\/a> and wounded dozens.<\/p>\n

A reporter friend, present at the Morocco, Friends of Syria Conference, writes:<\/p>\n

As the conference was taking place, I was in touch with a number of anti-government civilians and Free Army fighters who all expressed displeasure with the decision [to declare the Nusra Front a terrorist organization], saying while they might have ideological differences with Al-Nusra, they are happy to fight alongside them as effective fighters making a solid contribution to toppling Assad. I would add that \u00a0in follow up conversations, this sentiment has even extended to distinct lack of trust towards Americans and derision toward the coalition supposedly representing them \u00a0– as, in the words of one civilian: “another U.S. plot.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Syrian jet fires rocket at Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus<\/a> – Thousands flee and dozens feared dead after attack on Yarmouk camp as Palestinians in Syria are caught up in civil war. At least one rocket from a Syrian air force jet has killed and wounded dozens of Palestinians in the largest refugee camp in Damascus. Palestinians in Syria had enjoyed the protection of the government for much of the past 40 years. However their loyalties have been tested as the civil war has intensified. The large majority of the Palestinian population in Syria is Sunni, as is the opposition movement which is attempting to oust the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, whose Alawite sect is aligned to Shia Islam.<\/p>\n

Roughly half of Syria’s Palestinian refugees are thought to remain supportive of the regime, while the other half have grown hostile to it as the 21-month crisis has escalated.
\nThe attack is believed to have occurred after sporadic fighting inside the camp over the past fortnight between rebel units and Palestinian factions loyal to Assad, headed by Ahmed Jibril, a veteran local leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine general committees.<\/p>\n

<\/object>
\nCrossTalk on Sunni-Shia Conflict: House Divided w. Landis, Moufid Jaber, and Alireza Nader<\/p>\n

Patrick Cockburn<\/strong><\/span> writes that “The victims have not been identified” in reference to beheading posted to YouTube that went viral recently.\u00a0 One of the two Alawite officers to have their heads chopped off has now been identified as<\/span> Brigadier General Fouad Abdel Rahman – GRAPHIC pic.twitter.com\/EqtUXn68<\/a>. He is from a village named Qarfais near Jable on the coast.<\/p>\n

Was there a massacre in the Syrian town of Aqrab?<\/a>
\nAlex Thomson, All Channel 4 News blogs
\nFriday 14 Dec 2012<\/p>\n

….We do not say what follows is the truth. But we can say it is the first independently observed story of Aqrab from the first outside journalist to reach this area.<\/p>\n

We interviewed three key eye-witnesses in three separate locations. They could not have known either of our sudden arrival, nor did they know the identities of the other two eye-witnesses.<\/p>\n

What is striking is that their accounts entirely corroborate each other, to the last detail. And their accounts are further backed up by at least a dozen conversations with other Alawites who had fled from Aqrab….<\/p>\n

All three agree \u2013 as do the rebels \u2013 that rebels attacked Aqrab on Sunday 2 December. Madlyan says: \u201cThey had long beards. It was hard to understand what they said. They weren\u2019t dressed like normal Syrians.\u201d<\/p>\n

I press her and she is adamant that their Arabic was not from Syria.<\/p>\n

The youth Ali told us: \u201cThey all had big beards and came in four or five cars, from the direction of al-Houla.\u201d<\/p>\n

They all insist, as did everybody else we met, that the rebels from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) corralled around 500 Alawite civilians in a large red-coloured two-storey house belonging to a prominent businessman called Abu Ismail.<\/p>\n

They then say they were held \u2013 around 500 men, women and children \u2013 in this building until the early hours of Tuesday 11 December. Nine days.<\/p>\n

In that time they say almost no food was delivered, and women were hitting their own children to try and stop them crying. When it rained, they were holding rags out of the window to soak up and drink the moisture.<\/p>\n

Hayat says that the rebels told everybody: \u201cWe are your brothers from al-Houla and al-Rastan, your Islamic brothers. We won\u2019t hurt you.\u201d…<\/p>\n

At that point, shooting broke out, the rebels firing through the windows and shouting that they had booby-trapped the building. The eye-witnesses say that the shooting died down at about midnight, after which a deal was done. In screaming night-time chaos and intermittent shooting, three vehicles took around 70 of the prisoners to safety in the nearest village a mile away…..<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To the beach: Assad prepares for last stand in home town
\nUzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv<\/p>\n

Video: Syrian support for Jubhat al-Nusrah and opposition to Western intervention<\/a>
\nby Aljazeera on December 15, 2012<\/abbr><\/p>\n

<\/object>
\nUS Jubhat Al-Nusrah “Terrorist” Label Backfires 12-14-12 Syria Protesters “A
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Danger rising that extremists could seize Syria\u2019s chemical weapons<\/a>
\nCraig Whitlock and Carol Morello DEC\u00a016 – Wash Post<\/p>\n

The Syrian military is losing control of bases, including sites where chemical arms were produced in the past.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Former US Official Urges Military Intervention in Syria<\/a>
\n\"\"[Fred Hof, a former US State Department official who works on Syria, arrives at the headquarters of the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow, June 8, 2012. (photo by REUTERS\/Maxim Shemetov)]
\nBy: Barbara Slavin.<\/p>\n

He said the US provision of so-called non-lethal assistance, including communications gear, to the rebels had been significant in preventing the \u201cSyrian revolution from being strangled in the cradle\u201d and that US officials had gained crucial knowledge over the past 20 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI presume that the US government has done all of its due diligence and knows how to do this,\u201d Hof said of his recommendation that weapons now be sent. \u201cI suspect the provision of nonlethal assistance has been a good laboratory for figuring out how to get things into Syria \u2014 who\u2019s reliable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later Thursday, at an appearance at the Atlantic Council, Hof said that while he wished diplomatic efforts would end the conflict without US intervention, \u201cguns will likely decide the outcome and those who want to influence and shape the outcome must get into the arena. This is not about messaging; this is about doing.\u201d He also clarified that he meant providing Russian and other former East bloc weapons, not American arms.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No water, power, cash: Syria rebels run broke town<\/a>
\nBy By KARIN LAUB | Associated Press <\/abbr><\/cite><\/p>\n

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