The Syria Analysis Thread

Randall McMurphy Thursday 15 Aug 2013

Washington Post’s website hacked; some stories redirected to Syrian Electronic Army site

Niccolo and Donkey Tuesday 20 Aug 2013

Syrian Kurds continue to flee to Iraq in their thousands

Syrian Kurds continued to stream into the Kurdish north of Iraq on Sunday in numbers not seen since the civil war began.

The flow of arrivals – around 20,000 since Thursday, with many more en route – is drawing Iraq's Kurdish communities ever closer to the growing regional crisis.

Thousands of efugees stranded on the border are mainly women, children and the elderly, Save the Children said.

About 7,000 refugees were taken to an emergency camp, but thousands were still waiting to be registered at the border, and the influx showed no signs of slowing down, the charity warned. Over the next few days, the aid agency was expected to distribute more than 40,000 litres of water at the border crossing.

"This is an unprecedented influx of refugees, and the main concern is that so many of them are stuck out in the open air at the border or in emergency reception areas with limited, if any, access to basic services," Alan Paul, Save the Children's emergency team leader said.

For more than two years the war has raged without serious impact on Kurdish communities in Turkey and northern Iraq. All the while, most Syrian Kurds have endeavoured to remain neutral as rebel groups, backed by increasing numbers of jihadists, have battled the regime of Bashar al-Assad and his backers.

Kurds and mainstream rebel groups had largely managed to hold an uneasy truce in the northeast of the country, which was shattered in recent months when jihadists attacked Kurdish communities near the Turkish border.

The area is a vital corridor for jihadists from Iraq, who are taking a more prominent role in Syria 's eastern desert areas, which border with Iraq's Anbar province where a revitalised Sunni insurgency is raging.

Villages in Efrin, Hassake and Qamishly are defended by well-armed Kurdish militias. However, communities are steadily being ravaged by the fighting and chilled by the realisation that security in Syria's northeast is likely to deteriorate further. Kurds account for about 95% of the new arrivals, the UN estimates. Some Arab Muslim and Christian families are also among them.

Longface Wednesday 21 Aug 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23724039

BBC distorts Nasr-Allah's speech. In fact he said anyone who accuses Sunnis is a an Israeli. Western media is trying to paint Hezbollah and allies as the instigators of the sectarian conflict.

Niccolo and Donkey Wednesday 21 Aug 2013

Longface Angocachi Powerful Male Mohel President Camacho SteamshipTime Powerful Male Mohel

And here we go!

Syria conflict: chemical weapons blamed as hundreds reported killed

Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed in an apparent gas attack on rebel-held parts of eastern Damascus that is thought to be the most significant use of chemical weapons since thousands of Kurds were gassed by Saddam Hussein in Halabja 25 years ago.

Medics, as well as opposition fighters and political leaders, said the death toll had reached 1,400 and was likely to rise further with hundreds more critically wounded in districts besieged by the Syrian military. Other estimates put the current toll at between 200 and 500. None of the figures could be independently verified.

The Syrian government acknowledged it had launched a major offensive in rebel-held districts in the east of the capital – described by pro-regime media as the biggest since the start of the civil war – but strongly denied using chemical weapons during the attack.

"These are lies that serve the propaganda of the terrorists," a Syrian official said, referring to the armed opposition. "We would not use such weapons."

However, George Sabra, the head of the main Syrian opposition group, laid the blame squarely at the Assad regime, saying the scenes of widespread death "constitute a turning point in the regime's operations".

"This time it was for annihilation, rather than terror," he said.

Location of Wednesday's attack. Credit: Guardian graphics

International reaction intensified throughout the day. The UN security council called an emergency session and the White House formally requested the UN to investigate the attack. William Hague, the foreign secretary, said the UK was "deeply concerned".

A UN inspection team arrived in Damascus this week to look into earlier claims of chemical weapon use, but was granted permission to enter Syria with a limited mission to investigate only three specific sites. An expanded mandate to investigate Wednesday's attack in eastern Ghouta – only 10 miles from the team's hotel – must be sought by the UN secretary general and then approved by Syria.

The US moved quickly to make the request. The White House said: "For the UN's efforts to be credible they must have immediate access to witnesses and affected individuals, and have the ability to examine and collect physical evidence without any interference or manipulation from the Syrian government. If the Syrian government has nothing to hide and is truly committed to an impartial and credible investigation of chemical weapons use in Syria, it will facilitate the UN team's immediate and unfettered access to this site."

Rescuers and victims said the shelling of eastern Ghouta started shortly after 2am and targeted three districts, Ein Tarma, Zermalka and Jobar, all rebel strongholds for the past year.

"It was around 2.30am Wednesday when we received calls from Zemalka and Jobar," said a Free Syria Army (FSA) officer, Captain Alla'a al-Basha, who has documented previous alleged chemical attacks in the area.

"The FSA members were asking for more forces to evacuate the civilians as the shells were coming in at around five per minute. As soon as I and my team arrived at the scene, I saw bodies scattered in the streets. I saw whole houses – none of their residents were alive. When I got there, I could smell what seemed to be burning sulphur and something like cooked eggs. The smoke was not pure white.

"Most of the victims were shivering and they turned yellow in colour. I saw a woman who was tearing at her clothes as she could not breath. The number of the casualties that we were able to document so far is 1,228 martyrs. The doctors think that more than 20 shells were fired with fatal gases.

"Most of the victims did not appear to be injured but died out of suffocation. I held a young boy whose body was like a piece of wood and his colour was very blue. He did not have any wound."
By Wednesday night, more than 120 videos had been uploaded to the internet, most depicting scenes of men women and children in respiratory distress, on watery floors, and doctors describing the victims' symptoms. Other videos showed scores of bodies wrapped in white shrouds, or lying on grey concrete.

White foam was bubbling from the mouth and nostrils of many victims. Some writhed in distress, apparently struggling to breathe.

Bob Dylan Roof Wednesday 21 Aug 2013

Assuming this is true, how is this automatically the last straw for Assad when the Opposition Activists (hat tip New York Times for Al Qaeda's more palatable nom de guerre) have been slaughtering Kurds and Christians by the hundreds, if not thousands?

Niccolo and Donkey Wednesday 21 Aug 2013

The story is coming on the heels of the Kurds fleeing Syria to Iraq in safety due to al-Qaida vs. Kurd fighting in the Northeast.

anyway :

However, several impartial experts have cast doubt on the narrative behind the footage, noting its all too convenient emergence just as UN inspectors enter the country.

“Firstly, the timing is odd, bordering on suspicious,” writes BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner . “Why would the Assad government, which has recently been retaking ground from the rebels, carry out a chemical attack while UN weapons inspectors are in the country?”

His suspicions are shared by Swedish diplomat and former UN weapons inspector Rolf Ekeus, who told Reuters , “It would be very peculiar if it was the government to do this at the exact moment the international inspectors come into the country….at the least, it wouldn’t be very clever.”

Swedish chemical weapons expert Ake Sellstrom, who is leading the current UN inspection in Syria, told Swedish broadcaster SVT that the high number of those killed and wounded sounded “suspicious.”

Charles Lister, an analyst at IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center, told the Jerusalem Post that the timing of such an attack is confusing. “Logically, it would make little sense for the Syrian government to employ chemical agents at such a time, particularly given the relatively close proximity of the targeted towns (to the UN team),” he said.

It is important to stress that none of the individuals casting doubt on the alleged “gas attack” are Bashar Al-Assad supporters. Indeed, the BBC has been quite rigorous in pushing the narrative that FSA rebels are grass roots freedom fighters, largely downplaying the huge numbers of foreign jihadists that have entered the country under the banner of Al-Qaeda.

As we reported earlier today , evidence strongly suggests that previous chemical weapons attacks in Syria were carried out by FSA rebels and then blamed on Assad, in an attempt to fulfil Barack Obama’s “red line” for US military intervention.

Niccolo and Donkey Wednesday 21 Aug 2013

The Russians aren't buying this provocative stunt...............

Russia suggests Syria ‘chemical attack’ was ‘planned provocation’ by rebels

Reports by “biased regional media” about alleged chemical weapons use near Damascus might be “a provocation planned in advance,” says Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich.

“It draws attention to the fact that biased regional media have immediately, as if on command, begun an aggressive information attack, laying all the responsibility on the government,” Lukashevich said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Russian Foreign Ministry, citing its sources, said that a homemade rocket carrying unidentified chemical substances had been launched from an area controlled by the opposition.

“A homemade rocket with a poisonous substance that has not been identified yet – one similar to the rocket used by terrorists on March 19 in Khan al-Assal - was fired early on August 21 [at Damascus suburbs] from a position occupied by the insurgents,” Lukashevich said.

Earlier on Wednesday, conflicting reports emerged of recent chemical weapons use in Syria. This comes on the same day that the UN inspectors arrive in Damascus to investigate allegations of use of toxic arms. The casualty figures range from dozens to almost 1,300 deaths.

The Russian diplomat stated that it seems as though it was “ a provocation planned in advance. ” The “ criminal action ” near Damascus coincided with the beginning of UN experts’ work in Syria - which speaks in favor of such a conclusion.

.......

In Moscow’s view, the latest possible “provocation” might be the opposition’s attempt to get support from the UN Security Council and undermine the Geneva peace talks on Syria.

Russia believes the incident should be thoroughly investigated by professionals. It urged everyone who has influence on armed extremists to do everything possible to finally put an end to such provocations involving chemical poisonous substances.

Meanwhile, Washington said it has no independent verification about the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The US is planning to consult the UN Security Council about the allegations, Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters, as cited by Reuters.

The chief UN chemical weapons investigator Ake Sellstrom discussed the alleged chemical attack with the Syrian government. The organization’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was shocked by the report of the alleged attack, his press office said.

UN Security Сouncil gathered for an emergency meeting on alleged Syria gas attack at 1900 GMT on Wednesday.

The UK, one of the five permanent members of the body, will demand that the UN team of investigators gets “ unrestricted access ” to the area of the alleged attack, Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters.

If reports are verified, it would mark “ a shocking escalation ” of the use of chemical weapons in Syria,” he said, adding that “ we are determined the people responsible will one day be held to account. ”

Randall McMurphy Wednesday 21 Aug 2013

Nic,
This Human Events thread suggests that 'false flag' narrative is going more mainstream. We are witnessing a major breakdown in control of the narrative.

Apocales Thursday 22 Aug 2013

This would require the people doing the investigation(s) to be impartial, which isn't the case.

supplanter Thursday 22 Aug 2013

American, Israeli And Jordanian Troops And CIA Agents Have Entered Syria, Le Figaro Reports

We have yet to see secondary confirmation of the following breaking news from the second largest French newspaper, Le Figaro, but if accurate, it means the Nobel Peace Prize winning president has just engaged in yet another unsanctioned by Congress war.
From Le Figaro , google translated :

According to our information, the regime's opponents, supervised by Jordanian, Israeli and American commandos moving towards Damascus since mid-August . This attack could explain the possible use of the Syrian president to chemical weapons.

According to information obtained by Le Figaro , the first trained in guerrilla warfare by the Americans in Jordan Syrian troops reportedly entered into action since mid-August in southern Syria, in the region of Deraa. A first group of 300 men, probably supported by Israeli and Jordanian commandos, as well as men of the CIA, had crossed the border on August 17 . A second would have joined the 19. According to military sources, the Americans, who do not want to put troops on the Syrian soil or arming rebels in part controlled by radical Islamists form quietly for several months in a training camp set up at the border Jordanian- Syrian fighters ASL, the Free Syrian Army, handpicked.

...

According to this expert on the region, the idea proposed by Washington would be the possible establishment of a buffer zone from the south of Syria, or even a no-fly zone, which would cause opponents safely until the balance of power changes. This is the reason why the United States has deployed Patriot batteries and F16 in late June Jordan.

More here .

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-...nd-cia-agents-have-entered-syria-le-figaro-re

The Syria Analysis Thread

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