Syria Update

A military commander of Lebanon's Hezbollah was killed in fighting near the Syrian capital and has been buried in his southern Lebanese hometown of Kfar Sir, residents said Monday.
"Hezbollah military commander Hossam Ali Nisr, aged 33, was buried on Saturday. He was defending Sayyida Zeinab," which houses a Shia shrine southeast of Damascus, "when his group was attacked and he was killed," one resident told AFP, without giving a date.
[AFP]

 The Syrian army has recaptured rebel-held positions in Latakia, home province of President Bashar al-Assad, state-run SANA news agency reported on Monday quoting a military source.
"The army retook control of the Nabi Ashia mountain range and adjoining areas in the north of Latakia province," the source said, of villages seized in early August by rebels trying to topple Assad.
On Sunday state television reported that the army had reclaimed rebel-held villages in the coastal province, hinterland of Assad's minority Alawite community.
[AFP]

The largest shipment of emergency aid to so far be sent to Syria this year is set to depart from Dubai on Sunday.
A convoy consisting of 33 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) lorries loaded with essentials such as shelter and cooking equipment will depart over a three-day period and be driven from Dubai through to Saudi Arabia, where it will be stored at a UNHCR warehouse before being sent to Syria.
Pallets of aid supplies from a vast stockpile in a Dubai warehouse were being loaded onto vehicles on Sunday.
With clipboard in hand, senior logistics officer for the UNHCR, Soliman Daud was there to oversee the process.
"It's meant to go inside Syria for those who are trapped by the conflict inside Syria. We expect these items to help 125-thousand people inside Syria. So it's one of the biggest convoys that we are organising for this year," he said.
The UN refugee agency has struggled to meet the needs of the more than 1.9 (m) million Syrian refugees and 4.2 (m) million internally displaced persons that have been one of the results of the ongoing bitter and bloody conflict.
Unrest in Syria began in March 2011 and later exploded into a civil war in which so far more than 100-thousand people have been killed.
[AP]

Syria Update

An armed group has expelled rebel Free Syrian Army fighters from their positions in the northern city of Raqqa, a watchdog reported on Wednesday.
"Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have taken  control of the positions of the Ahfad al-Rasul brigade in Raqqa," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
For more than a week, clashes have pitted jihadists against the Ahfad  al-Rasul brigade, a part of the mainstream Free Syrian Army. The fighting between the two rebel groups erupted when ISIS attacked Ahfad al-Rasul positions in the city, according to the Observatory and brigade officials.
"They wanted to take our munitions and weapons," an official from Ahfad al-Rasul told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"ISIL wants to control the whole city," said the Observatory's head, Rami Abdel Rahman.
[AFP]

Syria's government said on Thursday that it has nothing to hide from a UN team of chemical weapons inspectors that it expects to visit the war-ravaged country in the coming days.
"The negotiations between Syria and the UN ended positively and the team is expected in Syria in the coming days," a foreign ministry official told AFP.
"There were no difficulties in the negotiations and Syria said it is ready to give the team all the facilities it needs to carry out its mission," the official said, adding "Syria has nothing to hide."
The announcement comes a day after the United Nations said a team of inspectors led by Swedish arms expert Ake Sellstroem would soon depart for Syria after getting the green light from Damascus.

 [Al jazeera]

Battle for control in Syria

Syria Update.

Iran has agreed to supply Damascus with $3.6bn in oil in exchange for the right to invest in the country, Syria's state news agency SANA said on Tuesday.
"An agreement was signed on Monday in Tehran... by the Iranian and Syrian central banks, granting Syria a credit line worth $3.6bn," it reported. The deal stipulates that Syria will pay back the cost of the oil loan "through Iranian investments of various kinds in Syria", said SANA.
[SANA]

.................
Syrian army retakes another district of Homs says state television after taking most of the Khaldieh neighbourhood in recent days.
Syrian state television showed pictures of Homs on Tuesday saying that that the government army had regained control of the Al Matahen district of the devastated city. The Syrian army made gains in the Khaldieh after launching an offensive in the area on July 27. Rebels had held Khaldieh for more than a year.
[Syria State Television]

Syria Update

The Syrian opposition will form a provisional government in the second half of August after months of failed efforts, Syrian National Coalition (SNC) chief Ahmad Jarba said on Tuesday.

"I expect a government in exile to be formed around 10 days after Eid al Fitr," the Muslim feast that falls on August 8 or 9, he told AFP in Doha, which he is visiting to seek support. "There are several candidates" for the post of prime minister, he added, saying one "will be chosen by consensus or through election."
The opposition has struggled to put forward a united front during the country's more than two years of conflict. The last attempt to form a provisional government collapsed earlier in July  when rebel prime minister Ghassan Hitto resigned after nearly four months of failed efforts.
[AFP]

..............

The Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) jointly appealed to warring parties in Syria to observe a ceasefire during next week's feast of Eid al-Fitr. 

In their statement released on Tuesday, the Arab League's Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi and his OIC counterpart Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu appealed for "a ceasefire and a cessation of violence in all its forms for the duration of the holy Eid al-Fitr holiday".
They said such a ceasefire would give "the Syrian people the chance to celebrate this important religious occasion, and to perform its rituals in peace and security".
[AFP]

..........

The United Nations' food agency said  that 600,000 Syrians could not receive aid this month as spiralling violence prevented convoys from reaching them. Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the World Food Programme, told reporters on Tuesday that the agency had aimed to reach a total of three million people in Syria in July, but had succeeded in getting supplies to only 2.4 million.

"Rising violence in many parts of Damascus and Homs, and a proliferation of checkpoints around the main cities have hit the flow of food distribution," she
said.
[AFP]
.........

Media and financial information firm Thomson Reuters has become the latest victim of hacking by the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), which often posts messages supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The account as of late Monday was marked as "suspended".

Thompson Reuters confirmed that its account had been hacked and said it was investigating the incident.

"Earlier today @thomsonreuters was hacked. In this time, unauthorised individuals have posted fabricated tweets of which Thomson Reuters is not the source," a company spokesperson said in a statement.

"The account has been suspended and is currently under investigation."

At least 150 Syrian regime forces have been killed in Khan al-Assal

At least 150 Syrian regime forces have been killed in Khan al-Assal, a town in Aleppo province at the centre of an alleged chemical weapons strike, monitors said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said on Firday that at least 10 people were reported killed in regime shelling of the northwestern province of Idlib.
Observatory director Rami Abdul Rahman also told the AFP nes agency at least 10 people had been killed and 50 wounded, several critically, in a rocket attack on the Bab Nairab suburb of Aleppo city.
Elsewhere in Syria, the London-based Observatory reported 10 people killed and several wounded in regime shelling of the Idlib village of Basamis. (al-jazeera)

Syria update

At least 2,014 people, most of them fighters on both sides, have been killed in Syria's civil war since the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan began on July 10, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP on Thursday.
"More than 1,323 of the dead were pro- and anti-regime fighters," said the watchdog, adding that an additional 105 of those killed were children.
[AFP]

A 15-year-old Turkish boy died late on Wednesday from injuries sustained last week when he was hit by stray bullets from Syria during clashes between armed Kurds affiliated with Democratic Union Party and Syrian rebels near the Turkish border, hospital sources said.
Ahmet Gunduz died in hospital in the capital Ankara after being struck by gunfire on July 16 in the small southeastern town of Ceylanpinar, which lies across the border from the northern Syrian town of Ras al-Ain.
[Reuters-AFP]

 According to this video, it is claimed that Syrian forces are shelling Khaleed Ibn Al Waleed Mosque. The mosque in Homs is under attack for the fourth week. Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lMdTR7b7iqM

Syrian Kurdish group aims for independent local administration

By Erika Solomon and Isabel Coles

BEIRUT/ARBIL, Iraq | Fri Jul 19, 2013 8:01am EDT

(Reuters) - A Syrian Kurdish group said on Friday it aims to set up an independent council to run Kurdish regions until Syria's civil war has ended, a move likely to alarm Syrian rebels and neighboring Turkey, both wary of a possible Kurdish state.

Kurdish militias have seized control of districts in northern Syria in the past year since President Bashar al-Assad's forces focused elsewhere, and are now seeking to consolidate those gains despite deep divisions in their ranks.

Syria's two-year conflict has pitted the Kurds against Assad's forces at times, and against the rebels seeking to oust him at others.

Divided between Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria, the Kurdish people are often described as the largest ethnic group without a state of their own. Kurdish militants and the government in Turkey have begun peace talks to end a conflict in the country's southeast that has claimed 40,000 lives.

The Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is proposing a local authority in northeastern Syria, is the strongest local Kurdish group due to its well armed and effective militias. It is believed to be linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a group seeking autonomy in Turkey.

Saleh Muslim, the head of the PYD, said the proposals were under discussion by Kurdish groups.

"This is not a call for a separation it is just that for a year now we have been on our own in our own territories and people have needs, they want some kind of administration to run their issues, they cannot be left like that."

He said once an agreement is reached an election will be held within three to four months to chose administration officials. He expected a final decision in a week or two.

"This administration will be like a temporary government," PYD spokesman Nawaf Khalil told Reuters from his home in exile in Germany. "We need to protect our borders and our people, we need to do something to improve the economic situation.

"We also militarily have to face both Assad's regime and the rebels and the Turks. And we hope to try to improve our relationships with all of these neighbors."

KURDISH ENTITY

Rebels accuse the PYD of working with Assad and have sporadically fought the Kurds.

The rebels oppose a separate Kurdish entity, as does their ally and neighbor Turkey, which believes the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria could embolden home-grown PKK militants. Mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey is strategically located on the country's borders with Syria, Iraq and Iran.

The Kurdish militias, who have allowed both Assad's and rebel forces to move through their territories, insist they are anti-Assad but do not want their region to suffer the sort of military devastation that has leveled many opposition areas across Syria.

There have been talks since last month between the PYD and its main rival, the Syrian Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-S), under the auspices of Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdish region. But the two sides have yet to reach an agreement.

The PYD's opponents have played down the possibility of reaching an agreement but other political leaders have pushed for a deal, citing their concerns over intensifying clashes between the Kurds and the rebels in northeastern Syria.

"The recent fighting proved that the burden is on our shoulders," said Aldar Khalil of the Higher Kurdish Council, a group formed by Barzani to unite Syrian Kurdish parties,

"We are currently discussing a transitional administration. After that, we want to hold elections within three months. We must all take part," he said.

PYD militias have been engaged in fierce battles this week with al Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels in northeastern Syria and seized the town of Ras al-Ain, which borders Turkey.

The PYD militias are also fighting the rebels for control of local oil fields, highlighting a struggle not only to establish dominance in the region but to assert control of the area's natural resources.

MILITIAS A STICKING POINT

A PYD source said that political leaders are already circulating a list of names to run the proposed administration.

Hamid Darbandi, a Kurdish Iraqi official, said that the PYD's proposal had still not been agreed by other parties. Another senior source, who asked not to be named, said a deal for governance in the area was necessary.

"The Syrian government is no longer capable of providing services and security," the source said. "It may be necessary for these Kurdish groups to develop arrangements and institutions to deliver basic services and security, and also prevent the extremist (rebel) groups from terrorizing the population."

PYD spokesman Khalil said his group also hoped to develop a draft for a transitional constitution in the region and put it to a referendum. But he denied this would lead to separation.

"It will be a framework for local administration. It is not uncommon for different regions in a country to have varying sets of laws and governance," he said.

The main sticking point between the PYD and its rivals, according to sources at the talks in Arbil, is the issue of who would run armed forces in the region.

The PYD says its militias should control armed protection, warning of a factional conflict within Syria's civil war if other parties are allowed to maintain their own militias. It has argued that other groups' fighters should be absorbed within its ranks, but other units have rejected this.

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Kurdish-Islamist fighting spreads to Syrian oil fields

(Reuters) - Kurdish fighters have seized control of a Syrian town on the border with Turkey and are battling Islamist rebel groups linked to al Qaeda for control of oilfields in the northeast of the country.
The fighting is further evidence that the conflict between rebels and President Bashar al-Assad's forces that has engulfed Syria since early 2011 has splintered into turf wars that have little to do with ousting him.
In southern Syria, attacks by rebels on gas and fuel pipelines that supply power stations caused widespread electricity outages, Syria's official news agency said.
Across the border in Jordan, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited a refugee camp and was told by angry Syrians that the United States should set up a no-fly zone and safe havens in Syria to protect them.
The capture of Ras al-Ain by the Democratic Union Party (PYD), a Syrian Kurdish party with links to Kurdish militants in Turkey, rang alarm bells in Ankara.
The Turkish government fears the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria could embolden home-grown militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is fighting for autonomy in Turkey.
In a statement late on Wednesday, the Turkish military said Ras al-Ain had fallen under the control of the PYD, which it described as a "separatist terrorist organization". Fighting in the town had now stopped.
Turkish troops had shot at PYD fighters in Syria after two rocket-propelled grenades fired from Syria struck a border post on the Turkish side of the frontier.
It was the second time in as many days the military has answered in kind after several stray bullets from Syria struck the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar on Tuesday. The military has now strengthened security along that part of the border.
FIGHTING SPREADS
Clashes in Ras al-Ain between Kurdish militias, who broadly support an autonomous Kurdish region, and Islamist fighters of the Nusra Front broke out on Tuesday after Nusra fighters attacked a Kurdish patrol and captured a gunman, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Observatory, a pro-opposition monitoring group, said fighting had now spread deeper into the largely Kurdish province of Hassakeh and battles were raging around the Rumeilan oil field, about 200 km (125 miles) east of Ras al-Ain.
The field had mostly been shut down, opposition activists said, but a few of its pipelines may still be supplying refineries in the government-held cities of Homs and Baniyas.
Since March 2011, when the uprising against Assad began, Syria's overall oil production has fallen by nearly 60 percent to 153,000 barrels per day last October, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates.
The Observatory said at least 29 people had been killed since fighting between Islamists and Kurds erupted on Tuesday.
Kurdish units have seized an oil field area called Suwaidiya 20 and there are clashes in Suwaidiya oil region 3, according to the Observatory.
It said the Nusra Front and others al Qaeda-linked fighters were shelling Ras al-Ain from nearby positions
"Part of the reason for the spread is just anger at the Kurdish consolidation of control in Ras al-Ain, it's like revenge and punishment," said one activist who works with the rebels and who asked not to be named.
GROWING STRUGGLE
"But I also believe there this is part of a growing struggle for control of oil and gas in the region and the rebels are using this as an opportunity."
Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for the Kurdish PYD, said the Kurds would fight back to maintain the autonomous zone they had set up in the area.
"We fought hard to drive out the repressive regime and its army and we liberated the area from oppression. We will not allow either regime control or these al Qaeda-linked groups.
"What is pushing them to fight us is their antagonism against our autonomous rule in Kurdish areas. I believe their other goal is Rumeilan because it is an important oil resource."
The fighting indicated the collapse of a deal, negotiated by prominent Syrian opposition leader Michel Kilo, under which both sides in the area had cooperated peacefully for months.
Visiting a camp that holds 115,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan near the Syrian border, Kerry heard refugees vent their anger at the world's failure to end a war that has claimed more than 90,000 lives.
He told them Washington was considering various options, including buffer zones for their protection, but that the situation was complex and much was still under consideration.
"What are you waiting for?" a Syrian woman, who did not give her name, asked Kerry at the United Nations' Zaatari refugee camp. "At least impose a no-fly zone or an embargo."
In London, sources told Reuters that Britain had abandoned plans to arm the rebels and now believed Assad might survive in office for years.
The sources also said a peace conference to try to end the conflict might not happen until next year if at all.
"Britain is clearly not going to arm the rebels in any way, shape or form," said one source.
The reason for the shift was the largely hostile public opinion and fears that any weapons supplied could fall into the hands of Islamists.
"It will train them, give them tactical advice and intelligence, teach them command and control. But public opinion, like it or not, is against intervention," the source said.
In southern Syria, the Observatory reported heavy shelling in the Damascus countryside. There were also further shelling of the city of Homs, where fighting has raged for the past three weeks. Clashes erupted in the towns of Deraa and Quneitra in southern Syria, the Observatory said.
(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Jordan; Anfrew Osborn, Guy Faulconbridge and Paul Taylor in London,; Writing by Giles Elgood, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/18/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE96H0IZ20130718

Kurds seize town on Syrian-Turkish border

(Reuters) - A Syrian Kurdish party with links to Kurdish militants in Turkey has seized control of a Syrian town on the Turkish border after days of clashes with Islamist fighters, the Turkish military said.
The capture of Ras al-Ain by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) will fuel Ankara's fears that the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria could embolden homegrown militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting for autonomy in Turkey.
Turkey's foreign minister voiced concern at the spillover of violence from Syria and again urged the U.N. Security Council, which has yet to reach a consensus on the war, to take action.
In a statement late on Wednesday, the military said the town of Ras al-Ain in northeast Syria had fallen under the control of the PYD, which it described as a "separatist terrorist organization". Fighting in the town has stopped, it said.
Turkish troops shot at PYD fighters in Syria in line with their rules of engagement after two rocket-propelled grenades fired from Syria struck a border post on the Turkish side.
The return fire was the second time in as many days that the military had answered in kind. Stray bullets from Syria struck the police headquarters and several homes in the adjacent Turkish town of Ceylanpinar on Tuesday.
A Turkish citizen was killed and a 15-year-old boy seriously wounded by the stray fire, in the most serious spillover of violence into Turkey from Syria in weeks. Earlier, officials said the boy had died of his wounds, but later they said he was still in a critical condition and had been moved to Ankara.
The military said it had strengthened security along that part of the border with armored vehicles.
The clashes between Kurdish fighters, who want an autonomous region within Syria, and Islamist Arab fighters from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front started on Tuesday after Nusra fighters attacked a Kurdish patrol, according to an anti-government Syrian activist group.
Clashes between Kurds affiliated with the PYD and Syrian and foreign fighters opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have erupted since Kurds began asserting control over parts of the northeast from late last year.
PEACE PROCESS
Turkey, with its own large Kurdish minority, has been watching closely, concerned that a Kurdish power grab to the south could strengthen PKK militants in Turkey with whom it has embarked on a peace process. Developments in Syria could threaten that process, which is already under pressure amid an increase in militant activity in Turkey.
On Thursday, the PKK accused Ankara of being behind the violence in Ras al-Ain.
"Turkey is directly behind the attacks, particularly in Serekaniye," the PKK said in a statement published by the Firat news agency which has close links to the militants. Serekaniye is the Kurdish name for Ras al-Ain.
"This fact alone shows how much the revolution in Rojava frightens those who are anti-Kurdish," it said, referring to the Kurdish region in northeastern Syria.
Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party, the BDP, has accused Ankara of directly backing Nusra and affiliated groups. Turkey is one of the strongest backers of Syria's anti-Assad rebels, though it has tried to distance itself from groups like Nusra.
Nihat Ali Ozcan, an expert on the PKK and security at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) think-tank, said the events in Syria would likely embolden the PKK.
"Firstly, there will be a psychological effect, and as the PKK watches these developments they will make more maximalist demands from the government. They will sit down to negotiations with the government as a much stronger actor," Ozcan said.
"The PKK has gained an important resource in the area, it has gained depth and will also make economic gains. This is good news for the PKK," he said.
Turkey's foreign minister expressed concern over the events.
"This illustrates a striking picture of how much the crisis in Syria can affect us and our citizens," state-run broadcaster TRT quoted Ahmet Davutoglu as saying in Ankara on Wednesday.
Turkey, which has the second largest army in NATO, is reluctant to act unilaterally in Syria, although it has scrambled warplanes along the border as gunfire and shelling hit its soil. Turkey hosts around 500,000 Syrian refugees.
(Additional reporting by Gulsen Solaker; Writing by Jonathon Burch, Editing by Gareth Jones)
 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/18/us-syria-crisis-turkey-idUSBRE96H0TU20130718

Syria's Assad may cling on, Britain will not arm rebels: sources

(Reuters) - Britain has abandoned plans to arm Syrian rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad and believes he might survive in office for years, sources familiar with government thinking say.
The sources also told Reuters that a peace conference to try to end the conflict - now in its third year - might not happen until next year if at all.
"Britain is clearly not going to arm the rebels in any way, shape or form," said one source, pointing to a parliamentary motion passed last week urging prior consultation of lawmakers.
The reasons for the shift were that British public opinion was largely opposed, and there were fears that any weapons Britain supplied could fall into the hands of Islamist militants.
"It will train them, give them tactical advice and intelligence, teach them command and control. But public opinion, like it or not, is against intervention."
The British position amounted to one of the gloomiest assessments of the rebels' prospects yet.
It was Prime Minister David Cameron who led the charge earlier this year for the European Union to drop an arms embargo on Syria, which London and Paris had argued was one-sidedly penalizing the anti-Assad opposition.
The involvement of Iran and Hezbollah had shifted the balance of power on the battlefield in Assad's favor, the sources said, giving him less incentive to negotiate, and the West had no strategy to end the conflict soon.
"The Western assessment has changed," said one source. "We thought Assad could only hold on for a few months. We now think he can last a few years."
Hobbled by debt and defense budget cuts at a time when the United States, Britain and NATO allies are withdrawing forces from Afghanistan, the West says it wants to help the rebels topple Assad.
But it finds its options limited.
Forces loyal to Assad have made gains in recent months, while rebel groups have been plagued by infighting between Islamist militants linked to Al Qaeda and the more moderate Free Syrian Army. The longer the conflict drags on, the greater the influence the West thinks the Islamists will have, the sources said.
U.S. efforts to arm the rebels have stalled in Congress. Britain publicly says it is not ruling out arming the opposition but has privately done so, the sources said.
Only a dramatic shift in the situation such as "widespread use of chemical weapons" might force a rethink, another source said, refusing to be drawn on whether a collapse in attempts to broker a political solution might also be a tipping point.
Britain has said it believes there has so far been only small-scale use of chemical weapons.
Political realities mean any British decision to arm the rebels would need to be endorsed by a vote in parliament anyway.
John Baron, a lawmaker from Cameron's ruling Conservatives who tabled the motion requiring the government to give parliament such a vote, said he thought a majority of lawmakers opposed sending weapons to the rebels. The government would lose such a vote if one were held today, he said.
He said the vote may have been one factor which persuaded the government to back away from arming the opposition.
"The foreign secretary has formally said that no options are off the table," he said. "But what we do know is that Number 10 (the prime minister's office) has been keen to explore the possibility of arming the rebels."
Any move to arm the rebels would increase the violence and suffering, he said, adding the government had not adequately explained how it would stop arms from falling into the hands of extremists on the rebel side.
While Gulf allies like Saudi Arabia might be willing to supply arms to the rebels, and France might quietly channel some weapons, the first source said they were unlikely to provide "game-changing" weapons.
"If you give arms to General (Salim) Idriss, how sure can you be that they won't end up in the wrong hands and be used to shoot down a Western civilian airliner?" the source said.
France's foreign minister said on Thursday Paris had still not decided whether to arm the rebels.
"There are certain conditions that need to be met before eventually sending weapons," Laurent Fabius told reporters. "For now France has not modified its position. We have the ability to do it, but we haven't delivered any lethal weapons."
The newly-elected president of the Syrian National Coalition Ahmad Jarba is due in Paris for talks over the next week.
NO SILVER BULLET
The West's efforts to end the conflict were being pursued "on different tracks", added another source.
But nothing was happening on any of them.
"If there is a silver bullet we don't know what it is," the source said. "All the options are horrific."
Sources said Britain was unwilling to publicly disavow the option of arming the rebels because keeping the option open might help persuade Assad to sit down for peace talks.
"None of us can foresee exactly how this crisis will develop," British Foreign Secretary William Hague told lawmakers this week. "We have taken no decision, but we have not ruled anything out."
Russia - Assad's most powerful foreign backer - and the United States want peace talks in Geneva to try to agree a ceasefire and the makeup of a transitional government. The sources said the initiative had stalled and there was a risk such talks would never happen.
"We'd hope they would happen this year," said one. "It's an aim that's realistic. But it could be next year. It's been drifting. We can't drag it out indefinitely."
Imposing a no-fly zone was a non-starter. "It would need boots on the ground to enforce it and would be horrendously expensive," the source said.
Iran's decision to pour money and men into Syria to support Assad had made things even harder, another source said, adding there were perhaps as many as 10,000 Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas and Iranian fighters inside Syria including members of the elite Qods brigade of the Revolutionary Guards.
Hezbollah openly boasts of its presence in Syria but Iran denies it has troops on the ground.
"Assad cannot score a decisive victory, but he can score tactical victories, as he did in Qusair and as he may do in Homs," said the first source.
"The opposition still controls significant swathes of territory along the borders that he cannot recover, and they can hop over the border and regroup."
(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington and John Irish in Paris; Editing by Andrew Roche)
 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/18/us-syria-crisis-britain-idUSBRE96H16K20130718

Syrian helicopter fired rockets at a pro-rebel region of eastern Lebanon.

A Syrian military helicopter fired rockets at a pro-rebel region of eastern Lebanon in the early hours of Thursday, a security source told AFP.
"A military helicopter violated Lebanese airspace and fired four rockets at 01:30 am (2230GMT) in the Arsal area, two of which exploded, causing damage," the source said on condition of anonymity.
The attack did not cause any injuries.
Arsal is a Sunni neighbourhood in eastern Lebanon that is broadly sympathetic to the Syrian uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, and has become a transit point for Syrian refugees, as well as rebels and their weapons.
The area has been targeted on multiple occasions by Syrian regime forces, including in a June 12 attack that hit the centre of Arsal.
That raid prompted a rare warning from the Lebanese army, which threatened to respond if the attacks continued.
[AFP]

Syrian refugees demand help from Kerry at Jordan camp

(This story contains material from a member of the pool of State Department correspondents in Jordan, of which Arshad Mohammed of Reuters is a member.)
By Arshad Mohammed
(Reuters) - Syrian refugees angrily told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday that the United States should set up a no-fly zone and safe havens in Syria to protect them.
Visiting a camp that holds roughly 115,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan about 12 km (eight miles) from the Syrian border, Kerry spent about 40 minutes with half a dozen refugees who vented their frustration at the international community's failure to end Syria's more than two-year-old civil war.
He told them Washington was considering various options, including buffer zones for their protection, but that the situation was complex and much was still under consideration.
"Where is the international community? What are you waiting for?" a Syrian woman, who did not give her name, told Kerry at the United Nations' Zaatari refugee camp. "We hope that you will not go back to the States before you find a solution to the crisis. At least impose a no-fly zone or an embargo."
Waving a pen in the air and tapping it on the table, the woman referred to the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ends in three weeks. She said: "Mr. Secretary, if the situation remains unchanged until the end of Ramadan this camp will become empty. We will return to Syria and we will fight with knives.
"You, as the U.S. government look to Israel with respect. Cannot you do the same with the children of Syria?"
NOT "CUT AND DRY"
Kerry made an aerial tour of the tents and pre-fabricated, container-like homes that form by far the biggest camp for Syrians in Jordan. Meeting refugees afterward in a fenced-off administrative section, he acknowledged the anger.
"They are frustrated and angry at the world for not stepping in and helping," Kerry told reporters.
"I explained to them I don't think it's as cut and dry and as simple as some of them look at it. But if I were in their shoes I would be looking for help from wherever I could find it."
Kerry did not enter the area of the vast camp where the refugees live, but kept to the adjacent, fenced-off administrative area where humanitarian officials work and live. The half dozen refugees came to meet Kerry in a conference room within the administrative zone.
"We are not satisfied with the American answer. We never were. We just need ... action," a second woman told reporters after meeting Kerry.
During the meeting, Kerry told the refugees that many young Americans had died or lost their limbs "fighting for the freedom of Iraq" and "fighting for the freedom of Afghanistan".
After the request for buffer and no-fly zones, Kerry said: "A lot of different options are under consideration. I wish it was very simple. As you know, we've been fighting two wars for 12 years. We are trying to help in various ways, including helping Syrian opposition fighters have weapons.
"We are doing new things. There is consideration of buffer zones and other things but it is not as simple as it sounds."
(Editing by Alastair MacDonald)

Britain's outgoing army chief: no-fly zone over Syria would be unsuccessful without establishing ground control

Britain's outgoing army chief has warned that attempts to impose a no-fly zone over Syria would be unsuccessful without establishing ground control, in an interview published in Thursday's Daily Telegraph.
Britain is at the forefront of international efforts to topple the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, and has promised to supply rebels with equipment to protect them against chemical weapons attacks.
But in his interview with the Telegraph, general David Richards said: "If you wanted to have the material impact on the Syrian regime's calculations that some people seek, a no-fly zone per se is insufficient.
"You have to be able, as we did successfully in Libya, to hit ground targets. You have to take out their air defences."
Richards stressed that a "ground control zone" would need to be established and that tanks and armoured personnel carriers would have to be "taken out".
"If you want to have the material effect that people seek you have to be able to hit ground targets and so you would be going to war if that is what you want to do," he added.
A lack of international consensus and the splintered nature of rebel forces made it difficult to forge a military solution, the 61-year-old general added.
Richards retires on Thursday after a military career spanning more than 40 years.
[AFP]

Outspoken Assad supporter assassinated in Lebanon

BEIRUT (AP) -- Gunmen burst into the first floor apartment of a pro-government Syrian journalist Wednesday, killing him in a hail of nearly 30 bullets in a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon.

The pre-dawn assassination of Mohammed Darrar Jammo is the latest in a series of brazen attacks that have shown the growing vulnerability of the Shiite militant group, which has found itself increasingly on the defensive at home over its decision to back President Bashar Assad in the civil war raging next door.

Violence linked to Syria's war is increasingly washing across Lebanon, threatening to unleash large-scale fighting in a deeply fragmented country that is being constantly tested with ever deepening polarization over the conflict in Syria.

In recent months, violence has become more recurrent and geographically widespread, extending to predominantly Shiite neighborhoods that had been relatively immune from attacks plaguing other, mostly border areas.

On Tuesday, a roadside bomb struck a Hezbollah convoy near the Syrian border, wounding two, and last week a car bombing in south Beirut wounded 53 people in the heart of the militant group's bastion of support. Rockets have recently hit the Hezbollah stronghold south of the Lebanese capital.

The attacks come as no surprise. Although there have been no credible responsibility claims, Syria-based extremist Sunni groups have interpreted Hezbollah's moves in Syria as a declaration of war against their sect and have threatened to retaliate inside Hezbollah-controlled areas in Lebanon.

"It is still the beginning of a probably tough road ahead" for Hezbollah, said Kamel Wazne, founder and director of the Center for American Strategic Studies in Beirut. Such attacks, however, will not change the group's ideology or direction, but "will actually strengthen their resolve to continue what they started," he said.

Jammo, a 44-year-old journalist and political commentator, was one of Assad's and Hezbollah's most vociferous defenders. In frequent appearances on television talk shows, he would staunchly support the Syrian regime's strong-armed response to the uprising and in at least one case shouted down opposition figures, calling them "traitors."

His hard-line stance earned him enemies among Syria's opposition, and some in the anti-Assad camp referred to Jammo as "shabih," a term used for pro-government gunmen who have been blamed for some of the worst mass killings of the civil war.

On Wednesday, he was gunned down with automatic rifles shot at close range in his apartment in the coastal town of Sarafand, a stronghold of Hezbollah, where he lived with his Lebanese wife. The perpetrators got away.

Lebanon's state news agency published a photo Wednesday of a shirtless Jammo lying on a blue sheet soaked with blood, his chest riddled with bullet wounds. Bullet holes were clearly visible in the walls inside the house.

Hezbollah condemned the attack, saying it showed the "bankruptcy" of Sunni extremist groups fighting in Syria. In a statement, it said that the crime should serve as an "alarm bell" for Lebanese authorities "to find the most appropriate way to confront these terrorist groups before it is too late."

Assassinations of politicians, army officers and journalists who support Assad's regime are common in Syria, but the killing of a well-known Syrian in Lebanon is rare.

Syria's conflict has cut deep fissures through Lebanon and exposed the country's split loyalties. Many Lebanese Sunnis support the overwhelmingly Sunni uprising against Assad, while Shiites generally back Hezbollah and the Syrian regime.

Clashes between pro- and anti-Assad groups in Lebanon have left scores of people dead in recent months, and the violence has escalated as Hezbollah's role fighting alongside the Syrian regime has become public. The group was instrumental in helping secure a regime victory in the strategic town of Qusair near the border with Lebanon last month.

Naufal Daou, a member of the anti-Hezbollah political coalition in Lebanon, said that by defying the will of the Lebanese people, Hezbollah finds itself facing a real dilemma "inflicted on itself by its stubbornness ... and insistence to attach Lebanon's fate to that of rogue states and dying political regimes."

The slide in Lebanon toward violence is taking place amid a dangerous political void. Politicians have been unable to form a new government since outgoing premier Najib Mikati resigned in March. Parliament extended its mandate by a year and a half in June, skipping scheduled elections largely because of the instability in the country.

The country appears to be headed toward a security vacuum in September, when the term of army commander Gen. Jean Kahwaji expires. Politicians are divided over whether parliament should meet to extend his mandate.

Analysts say Hezbollah is unlikely to be affected by the wave of attacks targeting its strongholds.

"Hezbollah is very good at taking punches," said Wazne. He said the group feels stronger and more assured now that Assad has regained the momentum against rebels fighting to topple him, largely after the fall of Qusair.

Hezbollah's hard-core Shiite supporters are likely to rally further around the group following such attacks.

In other developments Wednesday, Kurdish gunmen captured most of a Syrian town near the border with Turkey after a day of fighting against jihadi groups in the area, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Such clashes have been common over the past months in rebel-held areas in northern Syria.

The Observatory said the fighting in the town of Ras al-Ayn between the pro-government militia of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, and members of al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant left at least 11 dead people dead, including nine extremists.

Stray bullets from the fighting killed a 17-year-old in a Turkish town, a Turkish official said. Turkey's military said it fired into Syria in retaliation for the killing.

The fighting broke out Tuesday after the Islamic fighters attacked a Kurdish patrol in the area, capturing a Kurdish gunman. Wide clashes broke out later in the day after the two extremist groups rejected a truce offer, according to the Observatory.

Syrian TV reported Wednesday that a car bomb went off near a mosque in the Damascus suburb of Kanakir, killing three people and wounding 10 others, including women and children.

---

Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, contributed to this report.

Stray bullets from Syria kill two in Turkish border town

(Reuters) - A man and a 15-year-old boy were killed by stray bullets shot from Syria into a Turkish border town, officials said on Wednesday. Turkish troops returned fire, in the most serious spillover of violence in weeks.
The Turkish military said it acted in accordance with its rules of engagement after bullets fired from the adjacent Syrian town of Ras al-Ain hit police headquarters in the southeastern Turkish town of Ceylanpinar and houses in the town's center.
The incident, which took place on Tuesday, underscores growing concern that Syria's more than two-year-old civil war is dragging in neighboring states.
Kurdish fighters have been battling Islamist rebels in Ras al-Ain since Tuesday. Ceylanpinar is only meters (yards) across the frontier.
The boy underwent surgery after being hit in the head by a bullet, but died of his wounds on Wednesday. Security sources said clashes were still ongoing.
A local government official was lightly wounded by one bullet, the Turkish military said, but made no mention of any other casualties and gave no further details of any targets it had struck inside Syria.
Turkish troops have stepped up return fire into Syria in recent weeks due to what officials have said was heightened tension along the border and increased activity by smugglers, many of them armed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said Kurdish armed men had taken control of most of Ras al-Ain from Islamist rebel fighters from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
The clashes between Kurdish fighters, who generally support the creation of an autonomous region within Syria, and Islamist Arabs started on Tuesday after Nusra fighters attacked a Kurdish patrol and took a gunman hostage, the Observatory said.
Clashes between Kurds affiliated with the Democratic Union Party (PYD), a Syrian Kurdish party with links to Kurdish militants in Turkey, and anti-Assad Syrian and foreign fighters have erupted since Kurds began asserting control over parts of the northeast from late last year.
KURDISH PEACE PROCESS
With its own large Kurdish minority, Turkey has been watching closely, worried the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria could further embolden militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighting for autonomy in Turkey.
The PKK called a ceasefire earlier this year but a recent increase in militant activity in southeastern Turkey is fuelling fears that a peace process with Ankara could unravel. Kurdish politicians in Turkey have expressed concern the government has not been enacting reforms to fulfill its side of the bargain.
On Wednesday, Turkey's main pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) issued a statement expressing concern over what it called Ankara's support for Nusra and other affiliated groups, and said such support was leading to instability in the region and was contrary to peace efforts with the PKK.
Turkey has emerged as one of the strongest backers of the Syrian rebels fighting to overthrow Assad, giving them shelter on its soil, but denies arming them. However, like its allies, Ankara has tried to distance itself from groups like Nusra.
Ras al-Ain, also known by its Kurdish name Serekani, and Ceylanpinar were once a single town under the Ottoman Empire before they were split after World War One, and both have Arab and Kurdish communities.
In the worst example of the spillover of violence into Turkey, 52 people were killed when twin car bombs ripped through Reyhanli, another border town, on May 11. Turkey accused Syria of involvement in the attacks but Damascus has denied any role.
Turkey, which is sheltering around 500,000 Syrian refugees, has become one of Assad's most vocal critics and has scrambled war planes along the border as stray gunfire and shelling hit its soil.
(Additional reporting and writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Robin Pomeroy)

more fighting in Aleppo city

Opposition fighters in Syria say they have captured most parts of Nawa city in Deraa province.
Meanwhile, there has been more fighting in Aleppo city, where opposition fighters say they have made gains.
Al Jazeera's Mohammad Vall reports.

Syria rebels reinforce key suburb in Damascus battle

(Reuters) - Syrian rebels poured reinforcements into a key Damascus suburb on Tuesday in an attempt to push back government troops who have renewed their campaign to secure the capital and build on battlefield gains elsewhere in the country.
Fighting centered on Qaboun, a rebel-held district where Syrian troops backed by tanks and artillery had made inroads on Monday as part of efforts to consolidate control over Damascus, President Bashar al-Assad's power base.
After two years of rebel gains in a war that has cost more than 90,000 lives, the tide has turned somewhat for Assad's forces, allowing them to seize the city of Qusair last month and press on with a campaign to link Damascus to Assad's coastal strongholds.
In facing down the mainly Sunni rebels seeking to oust him, the Syrian leader has received important backing from Shi'ite Iran and from Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon as the war takes on an increasingly sectarian aspect.
At the same time, the rebels are plagued by infighting between Islamist groups and members of the more liberal Free Syrian Army, which is backed by the West and some Arab nations.
The increasingly fragmented and brutal nature of the war was illustrated by an incident in Homs province, where gunmen loyal to Assad shot dead at least six mediators sent to try to reconcile warring sectarian groups in an area where opposing sides had until now been able to coexist.
Residents said the killings on Monday evening in the village of Hajar al-Abyad highlighted the growing challenge of mediating between towns held by rebel groups and those controlled by pro-Assad militias known as "shabbiha".
In a separate incident near the Turkish border in the north, Islamist rebel fighters from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front clashed with Kurdish armed men, who generally support the creation of an autonomous region within Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition monitoring group, said the fighting broke out after Nusra fighters attacked a Kurdish patrol and took a gunman hostage.
The Kurds said they had killed eight Nusra Front militants in what they said was a territorial dispute.
PRESSING CAMPAIGN
Assad's forces are pressing their campaign at a time when the Free Syrian Army has yet to receive weapons promised by Washington but delayed by objections by U.S. lawmakers.
A U.S. official said on Monday that the Obama administration had made progress in overcoming these concerns but some details remained unresolved.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers fear the weapons could end up in the hands of Islamist militants, and would not be enough to tip the balance against the better-equipped Syrian government anyway.
Britain, meanwhile, said it would give Syrian rebels equipment to protect themselves against chemical and biological weapons as "a matter of special urgency".
Britain has said forces loyal to Assad have made limited use of chemical weapons, which the Syrian government denies.
In an attempt at unity, the Syrian opposition now intends to create a 10-member executive council that can to draw together disparate factions into a more structured army with better financing and weapons, Michel Kilo, a senior opposition figure, told Reuters in Paris.
In Damascus, the latest fighting comes almost a year after one of the rebels' most spectacular attacks in the capital - a bomb attack last July 18 which killed several of Assad's most senior security officials and led some commentators to predict Assad would soon fall.
Abu Nidal, a rebel spokesman in Damascus, said on Tuesday that his fighters were trying to prevent the army advancing further into Qaboun, which it entered on Monday.
"Rebel reinforcements are entering the area," he told Reuters by Skype. "We expect the army to advance further into the area but they will be stopped."
The intensity of the fighting could be seen in footage posted on the internet by opposition activists.
The amateur video showed a large grey plume of smoke rising from a densely built residential area of Damascus. Mount Qasioun, which overlooks the capital, can be seen in the background.
Text accompanying the footage posted on Tuesday said the smoke came from a ground-to-ground missile fired into Qaboun.
ARMY CHECKPOINT
Elsewhere in the city, nine people including a child were killed at an army checkpoint, the Observatory said in a statement. Quoting activists in the area, the British-based group said they were all shot in the head.
It added that mortar bombs were being fired by the army into the southern district of Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp on the edge of central Damascus that has fallen in and out of government and rebel control during the past year.
Activists and residents said also that at least five mortar shells hit the Damascus neighborhood of Masaken Barze, injuring several people.
Clashes and bombardment were reported by activists in nearly every province on Tuesday, from central Homs city to the northwestern farming province of Idlib to the eastern desert city of Deir al-Zor.
In the south of Syria near the Israeli border, the Observatory reported clashes between rebels and government forces in the village of al-Qahtaniya.
"Initial reports indicate that several fighters in the regime forces were killed, and some armored vehicles were destroyed," the Observatory said.
(Editing by Giles Elgood)

Car bomb kills women and children in Syria's south

(Reuters) - A car bomb killed several civilians, including women and children, in a town south of Damascus on Wednesday, Syrian state television said.
The car was parked near the Amari Mosque in Kanaker, the channel reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, quoted activists as saying seven people had died.
The small town is under the control of President Bashar al-Assad's forces but there are rebels in the surrounding area. The province around Damascus has seen intense fighting during the two-year conflict.
Syria's civil war started with pro-democracy protests that were suppressed by government forces. An ensuing civil war has killed 90,000 people and drawn in regional powers hoping to sway the outcome of the conflict.
Assad's forces, spurred on by a series of recent battleground victories, have staved off rebel advances near Damascus and further south of the capital, in areas near the Jordanian border. Insurgents have used car bombs to target areas they are not able to push into with ground forces.
(Reporting by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Israel: Suspects from Syria enter Israel army post

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Two Syrian suspects briefly infiltrated an unmanned Israeli military post on the border between Syria and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, the military said Wednesday.

When Israeli troops approached the post, they were fired upon from inside Syria, prompting the soldiers to return fire, the army said. The suspects later left the post, it added. The incident took place late Tuesday, the army said.

It was not the first time suspects from Syria have tried to overrun unmanned Israeli posts since Syrian fighting erupted in 2011. Israel has been wary of Syrian violence spilling across the border into Israeli-controlled territory.

Syrian mortar shells have landed inside Israeli-held areas, but Israel believes them to be errant shots. Israel has occasionally accused Syria of aiming at Israeli targets, and Israeli troops have returned fire.

On Tuesday, the military said a number of what appeared to be mortar shells struck the Golan Heights, causing no damage.

Israel is believed to have carried out four airstrikes in Syria in recent months against weapons thought to be destined for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.