Assad forces bombard northern towns as 170 tanks mass near major city, Syrian rebels say
Source: MSNBC
ANTAKYA, Turkey - Syrian helicopter gunships reportedly bombarded a strategic town in northern Syria overnight and tanks moved close to the commercial hub and its largest city Aleppo, rebel fighters said on Friday.
Meanwhile, anti-regime groups reported what one called a "hideous massacre" in Douma, outside of Damascus, and distributed a video and photograph purportedly showing the aftermath of a killing that left more than 50 dead, including women and children. Journalists do not operate freely in Syria so there was no way of confirming the report.
A senior rebel officer said around 170 Syrian tanks had assembled at an infantry school near the village of Musalmieh northeast of the city of Aleppo, just 19 miles from the Turkish border but were keeping well clear of new Turkish air defenses installed to curb Syrian action near its frontiers.
"They're either preparing to move to the border to counter the Turkish deployment or attack the rebellious (Syrian) towns and villages in and around the border zone north of Aleppo," General Mustafa al-Sheikh, head of the Higher Military Council, a grouping of senior officers who defected from Assad's forces, told Reuters by telephone from the border.
Read more: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/29/12479205-assad-forces-bombard-northern-towns-as-170-tanks-mass-near-major-city-syrian-rebels-say?lite
Syrian Groups Say Bloody Day Left High Toll of Civilians
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syria's opposition on Friday reported the deadliest 24-hour period in the entire uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and said rebel fighters had seized two Syrian generals, one of them the highest-ranking officer to fall into insurgent hands.
Accounts of the intensified mayhem in Syria came as Kofi Annan, the special envoy for the United Nations and the Arab League, prepared to convene a high-level meeting in Geneva that includes the five permanent members of the Security Council to rescue his sidelined Syrian peace plan from total irrelevance. Mr. Annan told Reuters television that he was optimistic that the meeting, to be convened Saturday, would be a success.
In advance of that meeting Russia, the Syrian government's most important backer, called Friday for new cease-fire mechanisms and the synchronized withdrawal of all armed combatants from Syria's populated battle zones.
Only then, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement, could talks begin "through which the Syrians themselves would set the agenda and the time frame for a transitional process." Russia has opposed any proposal that would impose a political solution on the Syrians from the outside
more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/world/middleeast/activists-report-deadliest-day-in-syria-conflict.html
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Some are ready to feel their oats and demand no oil for blood;
Iraq’s Maliki warns of wars over Exxon deal with Kurds
Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki believes a contract between US oil giant ExxonMobil and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region is dangerous and could lead to wars, his spokesman said on Tuesday.
ExxonMobil signed an oil exploration deal with the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq covering six areas, including two that are said to be outside the region and claimed by both Baghdad and Kurdistan
The premier “sent a message to American President Barak Obama last week urging him to intervene to prevent ExxonMobil from going in this direction.” Exxon and Kurdistan inked the exploration deal on October 18. Baghdad has since said the deal is frozen, which Kurdistan has denied.
Iraqi Kurdistan has been locked in a standoff with Baghdad for months, one of a series of intertwined political crises which have escalated into calls for Maliki to be removed from power.
http://www.yalibnan.com/2012/06/19/iraqs-maliki-warns-of-wars-over-exxon-deal-with-kurds/
A Rand MacNally moment if ever there was one
