Syrian army starts crackdown in northern town

Source: Al Jazeera English

Last Modified: June 10 2011 10:52

Syrian state television says the country's army has begun operations in Jisr al-Shughur, a restive northern town near the Turkish border.

The government said the operation on Friday aimed to restore security in the town, where authorities said 120 security personnel were killed by "armed groups'' last week.

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Reporting from Yayladagi in Turkey, Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught said the military operation had been building for sometime. "They (State TV) are also saying that armed gangs are burning the fields around Jisr al-Shugur. Whoever is doing it, that will provide a smokescreen for whatever is going to happen inside, but there is no question that the crackdown that the Syrian government is planning is going to be immense.

"We have had reports from inside Syria about tanks moving there... some of the villages have nearly emptied of population, people are bracing themselves for some sort of conflict. People have erected barricades where they can. The Syrian military, of course, is very well equipped, very well armed, so some kind of showdown is imminent in this area," she said.

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/201161064328691559.html

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Syrian Battalion Leader Hussein Harmoush Announces Split From Army 06/09/2011 (English Subtitles)

Friday, June 10, 2011 - 13:38 - Syria
A new video has been published with English subtitles apparently showing a defected officer from the Syrian army saying he and other soldiers have joined the uprising for democracy after being unable to continue following order to kill unarmed protestors:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLAa9NSC9fo

Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the footage, but is working to directly contact the man on the video who gives his name as Hussein Harmoush, an officer in the 11th Battalion.

“I announce my split from the Syrian army and I am joining the Syrian youth alongside a number of the free Arab Syrian army. Our current aim is the protection of the protestors who are asking for freedom and democracy,” says the man on the video.

He gives three reasons for splitting from the military: The mass killings of Syrians; the raids on peaceful villages; the killing of women and children, especially what he calls the “massacre” in Jisr al-Shughour last Saturday.

The man calls on soldiers to “protect civilians and property as well as the government buildings from the criminal elements led by Bashar al Assad and his regime,” while assuring the people of Syria that “the free soldiers have vowed to protect the students of freedom and democracy in our beloved Syria.”

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/syria-jun-10-2011-1438

demonstrators and turned their guns on loyalist army units.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/world/middleeast/11syria.html

The unrest in Jisr al-Shoughour has taken on critical importance for both the Syrian government and its opponents: reports say that soldiers there have defected to the opposition, refused to fire on civilian demonstrators and turned their guns on loyalist army units. While many of the soldiers who defected have apparently fled the town, some civilians remain. And although the Syrian government blamed armed gangs and terrorists for the violence, it appears determined to punish the residents still in Jisr al-Shoughour.

“A big number of soldiers and officers refused to shoot at civilians,” said Sami, a 25-year-old protester in Damascus whose two uncles and grandmother fled there from Jisr al-Shoughour on Wednesday. He said his relatives “confirmed to me that some soldiers began to fight each other in groups and that there are no ‘armed gangs.’ “

Tanks and armored personnel carriers moved to the edge of the town on Thursday night, and soldiers appeared to be pitching tents, said one resident reached by telephone. Many women and children had fled but those residents who remained, another said, were being stopped at checkpoints ringing the town. A few thousand men were holed up, awaiting what appeared to be an imminent assault.

The violence has provoked fresh international condemnation. On Thursday, the United Nations Security Council continued debate on a resolution, circulated by France and Britain, condemning the Syrian government for using force against civilians, though the measure faced stiff resistance from China and Russia. In Geneva, Navi Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, called on Syria to stop the “assault on its own people.”

If so, I expect it'll make Libya look tame and simple by comparison. Smack in the middle of the Middle East w/ borders on Isreal, Iraq and Turkey, and old ally of Iran, this could turn into a serious powder keg and drag all sorts of strange bed-fellows into the different sides of the conflict. Interesting times we live in, for sure.

Why should the US get to have all the fun destroying cities.

Doubtful.

Your post is ridiculous.

By SELCAN HACAOGLU AND ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press – 1 hr 23 mins ago

YAYLADAGI, Turkey – Elite Syrian forces moved swiftly through the country's restive north on Friday, raining tank shells on rebellious towns, torching farmland and shooting protesters who tried to tear down a poster of President Bashar Assad, activists and refugees said. At least 32 people were killed, activists said, and undaunted protests extended to every major city.

The leader of neighboring Turkey, angered by violence that has sent more than 4,000 Syrians streaming across the border, accused the Assad regime of "savagery."

Backed by helicopters and tanks, the troops responsible for most of Friday's violence were believed to be from an elite division commanded by Assad's younger brother, Maher. The decision to mobilize his unit against the most serious threats to the 40-year Assad regime could be a sign of concern about the loyalty of regular conscripts.

Syrians who escaped from the town of Jisr al-Shughour into Turkey said the army came after police turned their guns on each other and soldiers refused orders to fire on protesters last week. Syrian state television has said 120 officers and security personnel were killed by gunmen. A man who remained behind said the few residents left were hoping barricades of burning tires could hold off the reinforcements surrounding them.

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110611/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria

Here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/jun/10/syria-military-jisr-al-shughour-interactive

http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/06/20116113333680638.html

Syria has warned the United Nations that a European draft resolution condemning the country for its deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters would only embolden "extremists and terrorists".

"It is important that the Security Council should not intervene in the internal affairs of Syria, which is a founding member of the United Nations," Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moualem told the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon in a letter obtained by Reuters news agency on Friday. "We are quite certain that any resolution that is adopted by that body under any heading will only exacerbate the situation and send a message to those extremists and terrorists to the effect that the deliberate destruction that they are wreaking has the support of the Security Council," he said.

The Syrian response came as UN Security Council diplomats met in New York in another attempt to break their deadlock on a draft resolution that would not impose sanctions on Syria but would condemn it for the crackdown and suggest Syrian security forces might be guilty of crimes against humanity.

Al-Moualem offered no apology for the crackdown, which rights groups say has killed over 1,100 civilians since March. He said Damascus had no choice but to press ahead to ensure "the security of the nation and the population".

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