WORLD News ‘Syrian rushes troops to Aleppo to fight rebels’

WORLD News ‘Tentera Syria bergegas ke Aleppo untuk melawan pemberontak’

By Mardiana hamden | earthWatch REVIEW2012: 26, July, 2012

BEIRUT (AP) - Puluhan tangki kerajaan berhimpun di bandar terbesar di Syria Rabu sebagai Presiden Bashar Assad marshaled tenteranya untuk menghapuskan pemberontak bertarung 5 hari untuk merebut Aleppo daripada genggaman rejim.

Sebagai pertempuran berlarutan di Aleppo, Turki berkata bahawa ia telah dimeteraikan sempadan untuk berdagang dengan Syria, secara berkesan menamatkan hubungan sekali bernilai $ 3 bilion, tetapi akan menyimpan sempadan yang terbuka kepada orang awam yang melarikan diri daripada keganasan atau mencari bekalan. Sementara itu, 2 lagi diplomat Syria berpaling tadah dalam tanda terbaru keretakan dalam jawatan tertinggi dalam rejim Assad.

Jalan-jalan pertempuran sengit telah berlarutan di Aleppo sejak Sabtu lalu sebagai pemberontak telah perlahan-lahan ditolak melalui kawasan kejiranan yang mesra di pinggir bandar ke arah pusat purba. Walaupun rejim telah membawa senjata api yang unggul, termasuk serangan helikopter dan jet pejuang, pasukan masih belum mengusir pemberontak tanpa bantuan tambahan.

"Kami menjangkakan serangan yang besar ke atas Aleppo," aktivis tempatan, Mohammed Saeed berkata melalui Skype, menjelaskan bahawa kira-kira 80 kereta kebal telah dikesan di kawasan luar bandar yang diheret oleh trak flatbed ke arah bandar. "Orang ramai bimbang mereka mungkin akan dilanda dengan serangan rawak dan melarikan diri."

Serangan pemberontak yang serupa di Damsyik minggu lepas telah mengambil hari untuk kerajaan untuk mengawal, dan hanya kemudian dengan bantuan bombardments meriam dan helikopter. Utara Syria, terutamanya wilayah Idlib berhampiran Aleppo, telah menyaksikan beberapa pertempuran yang paling berat dan steadiest antara tentera kerajaan dan pemberontak, dan swathes besar desa adalah di bawah kawalan pembangkang.

Namun manakala Setiausaha Negara Amerika Syarikat Hillary Rodham Clinton menyuarakan keyakinan Selasa dalam pendahuluan pemberontak dan meramalkan penubuhan akhirnya kawasan-kawasan perlindungan yang selamat, pejuang pembangkang masih belum memegang mana-mana wilayah terhadap serangan rejim bersepadu.

Ini adalah berbeza sama sekali dengan pemberontak Libya, tahun lepas yang dapat mewujudkan kawasan dibebaskan di timur negara mereka yang terbukti penting untuk pertempuran berjaya mereka untuk menggulingkan diktator lama Moammar Gadhafi. Walau bagaimanapun, pegangan pemberontak Syria atas wilayah adalah lemah. Mereka tidak mengawal mana-mana kawasan bandar utama, dan adalah tidak disokong oleh kapal terbang perang NATO cara Libya.

Manakala pasukan pemerintah Syria diregangkan nipis dengan berjuang mengambil tempat di seluruh negara di bandar-bandar seperti Homs dan Hama di tengah-tengah Syria, Deir el-Zour di barat, Daraa di wilayah selatan dan Idlib di utara, mereka boleh mengalahkan mana-mana serangan pemberontak tunggal dengan menumpukan kekuatan mereka, kerana mereka kini muncul dilakukan dengan Aleppo sejak pacifying Damsyik.

Namun, walaupun tentera Syria kuat 300,000 orang yang kuat berpegang teguh dalam pertempuran menentang pemberontak, terdapat tanda-tanda keretakan di kalangan elit rejim dengan rentetan pembelotan profil tinggi baru-baru ini.

Lamia al-Hariri, duta Damsyik ke Cyprus dan Abdel suaminya Latif Dabbagh, bekas duta ke Emiriah Arab Bersatu meninggalkan jawatan mereka, mengikut jejak langkah duta ke Iraq, Tambang Nawaf, yang berpaling tadah, 2 minggu lebih awal.

SNC ahli Shadi al-Khesh di Abu Dhabi ibu Negara UAE berkata Rabu bahawa diplomat Syria yang lain dijangka untuk berhenti jawatan mereka tidak lama lagi, walaupun dia tidak mampu untuk menyediakan spesifik. "Saya fikir anda akan melihat kecacatan diplomat Syria yang banyak," katanya.

Lewat Selasa, komander tertinggi tentera dan rakan rapat Assad mengesahkan Pembelotan beliau. Brig. Jeneral Manaf Tlass, anak bekas Menteri Pertahanan, berkata dalam siaran video pada Al-Arabiya TV bahawa Syria mesti bekerja bersama-sama membina sebuah negara baru. Ia adalah penampilan pertama beliau awam sejak beliau meninggalkan Syria awal bulan ini.

Dalam 1 lagi tamparan hebat kepada rejim itu, Turki dimeteraikan sempadan dengan Syria untuk berdagang, walaupun ia akan terus dibuka untuk orang Syria yang melarikan diri atau mencari bekalan, kata menteri ekonomi Turki. Zafer Caglayan menambah bahawa keselamatan yang semakin merosot di sebalik penutupan sempadan di mana Turki sekali mengeksport makanan dan bahan binaan ke seluruh Timur Tengah, walaupun jumlah trafik telah menurun 87 peratus sejak konflik Syria bermula Mac 2011.

"Kami mempunyai kebimbangan yang serius ke atas keselamatan trak Turki mengenai kemasukan mereka dan kembali dari Syria," katanya, sambil menambah bahawa 3 lintasan sempadan adalah di tangan pemberontak. Perlindungan Syria mencari atau pembekalan semula masih dibenarkan.

Sekutu Syria sebelum kebangkitan anti-Assad bermula 16 bulan yang lalu, Ankara telah bertukar menjadi pengkritik yang keras regim di Damsyik telah dikejar tindakan keras berdarah pemberontakan. Sekarang, wilayah Turki sepanjang 911 kilometer (566 batu) sempadan negara digunakan sebagai alasan pementasan untuk pejuang pemberontak serta syurga bagi beribu-ribu pelarian melarikan diri keganasan bahawa aktivis mengatakan telah membunuh 19,000 orang setakat ini.

Walaupun Moscow, sekutu terdekat antarabangsa Syria, seolah-olah kehabisan kesabaran dengan rejim Assad apabila ia memberi amaran kepada Damsyik lewat Selasa terhadap apa-apa penggunaan senjata kimia. Kenyataan Kremlin mengingatkan Syria obligasi antarabangsa berikutan pengumuman rejim Assad awal minggu ini bahawa ia mempunyai senjata kimia dan akan menggunakannya dalam kes pencerobohan asing.

Amaran Rusia mencerminkan ijazah yang kerengsaan dengan Assad dan diikuti sebelum kemarahan Rusia ke atas penggunaan tangan berat berkuat kuasa dan pada kadar yang perlahan pembaharuan. Walau bagaimanapun, dalam ucapan Rabu, Menteri Luar Russia, Sergei Lavrov telah kembali dalam peranan lamanya pertahanan Syria, mengkritik usaha Eropah yang baru untuk menguatkuasakan sekatan senjata sebagai "sekatan unilateral" dan "sekatan."

Di Damsyik, komander baru untuk 300 anggota PBB pemerhati daya, Leftenan Jeneral Babacar Gaye, dan rasmi PBB bagi operasi pengaman, Ladsous Herve, menilai prospek bagi pelan damai Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) yang telah banyak diabaikan oleh kedua-dua belah pihak .

Separuh daripada pasukan 300-anggota pemerhati PBB, yang bertujuan untuk memantau gencatan senjata yang tidak wujud, telah meninggalkan negara ini. "Saya fikir diplomat mempunyai optimistik dan yang jenaka tidak, saya fikir kita perlu berharap," Ladsous kepada pemberita. "Kami berharap bahawa keuntungan keseluruhan proses daya tarikan, bahawa lingkaran keganasan syaitan boleh terhenti, dan bahawa beberapa penyelesaian politik dan pertama-tamanya beberapa dialog politik boleh memulakan."

Associated Press penulis Suzan Fraser dari Ankara, Bassem Mroue di Beirut, Natalya Vasilyeva di Moscow dan Adam Schreck di Dubai menyumbang kepada laporan ini.

WORLD News ‘Syrian rushes troops to Aleppo 

to fight rebels’

BEIRUT (AP) - Dozens of government tanks converged on Syria's largest city Wednesday as President Bashar Assad marshaled his forces to stamp out a five-day rebel fight to wrest Aleppo from the regime's grasp.

As the fighting raged in Aleppo, Turkey said that it had sealed its border to trade with Syria, effectively ending a relationship once worth $3 billion, but would keep the frontier open to civilians fleeing the violence or in search of supplies. Two more Syrian diplomats, meanwhile, defected in the latest sign of cracks in the upper echelons of the Assad regime.

Fierce streets battles have raged in Aleppo since Saturday as rebels have slowly pushed through friendly neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city towards its ancient center. Although the regime has brought in its superior firepower, including attack helicopters and fighter jets, its forces have yet to drive out the rebels without additional reinforcements.

"We are expecting a big attack on Aleppo," local activist Mohammed Saeed said via Skype, explaining that some 80 tanks had been spotted in the countryside being hauled by flatbed trucks towards the city. "People are worried they might be hit by random shelling and are fleeing."

A similar rebel assault in Damascus last week took days for the government to control, and only then with the help of artillery bombardments and helicopters. Northern Syria, especially the province of Idlib near Aleppo, has seen some of the heaviest and steadiest fighting between government forces and the rebels, and large swathes of the countryside are under opposition control.

Yet while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed confidence Tuesday in the rebel advances and predicted the eventual establishment of safe havens, the opposition fighters have yet to hold any territory against a concerted regime assault.

This is in stark contrast to Libya's rebels, who last year were able to create a liberated area in the east of their country that proved key to their successful battle to oust longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. However, the Syrian rebels' hold over territory is tenuous. They do not control any major urban areas, and are not backed by NATO's war planes the way the Libyans were.

While Syrian government forces are stretched thin by fighting taking place across the country in cities like Homs and Hama in central Syria, Deir el-Zour in the west, Daraa in the south and Idlib province in the north, they can defeat any single rebel assault by concentrating their forces, as they now appear to be doing with Aleppo since pacifying Damascus.

Yet even as Syria's powerful 300,000-man-strong military holds fast in the battle against the rebels, there are signs of cracks among the elites of the regime with a string of recent high profile defections.

Lamia al-Hariri, Damascus' envoy to Cyprus and her husband Abdel Latif Dabbagh, the former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates left their posts, following in the footsteps of the ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Fares, who defected two weeks earlier.

SNC member Shadi al-Khesh in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi said Wednesday that other Syrian diplomats are expected to quit their posts soon, though he was unable to provide specifics. "I think you will see many Syrian diplomats defect," he said.

Late Tuesday, a top military commander and close friend of Assad confirmed his defection. Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass, son of a former defense minister, said in a video broadcast on Al-Arabiya TV that Syrians must work together to build a new country. It was his first public appearance since he left Syria earlier this month.

In another blow to the regime, Turkey sealed its border with Syria to trade, though it will remain open for Syrians fleeing or seeking supplies, Turkey's economy minister said. Zafer Caglayan added that the deteriorating security was behind the closure of a border through which Turkey once exported food and construction materials to the entire Middle East, though the volume of traffic had dropped 87 percent since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011.

"We have serious concerns over the safety of Turkish trucks regarding their entry and return from Syria," he said, adding that three border crossings were in rebel hands. Syrians seeking refuge or to resupply would still be allowed in.

A Syrian ally before the anti-Assad uprising began 16 months ago, Ankara has since turned into a harsh critic the regime in Damascus has pursued its bloody crackdown on the revolt. Now, Turkish territory along the of the countries' 911-kilometer (566-mile) border is used as a staging ground for rebel fighters as well as a haven for thousands of refugees fleeing violence that activists say has killed 19,000 people so far.

Even Moscow, Syria's closest international ally, seemed to be running out of patience with the Assad regime when it warned Damascus late Tuesday against any use of chemical weapons. The Kremlin statement reminding Syria of its international obligations followed the Assad regime's announcement earlier this week that it has chemical weapons and would use them in case of foreign aggression.

Russia's warning reflected a degree of irritation with Assad and followed earlier Russian rebukes over the heavy-handed use of force and slow pace of reforms. In remarks Wednesday, however, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was back in his old role of Syria's defender, criticizing new European efforts to enforce an arms embargo as "unilateral sanctions" and a "blockade."

In Damascus, the new commander for the 300-member UN observer force, Lt. Gen. Babacar Gaye, and the U.N. official for peacekeeping operations, Herve Ladsous, were assessing the prospects for a U.N. peace plan that has been widely ignored by both sides.

Half of the 300-member U.N. observer force, meant to monitor the non-existent ceasefire, has left the country. "I think diplomats have to be optimistic and that's no joke, I think we have to hope," Ladsous told reporters. "We have to hope that the whole process gains traction, that the vicious circle of violence can cease, and that some political solution and first and foremost some political dialogue can get started."

Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser from Ankara, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Natalya Vasilyeva in Moscow and Adam Schreck in Dubai contributed to this report.

1WC'sChannel REVIEW 2012: Syria's rebels claim the regime has moved its chemical arsenal to airports near the country's borders, in a move they say is to intimidate foreign powers. Sources in Damascus, though, claim the lion's share of the stockpiles are stored securely in Syria's less-turbulent south. William F. Engdahl, the author of "Myths, Lies and Oil Wars" talks to RT. He says the hype over Syria's chemical weapons may be a part of America's plan to topple inconvenient dictators.

TINJAUAN 1WC'sChannel 2012: pemberontak Syria mendakwa rejim telah pindahkan senjata kimia ke lapangan terbang berhampiran sempadan negara, dalam usaha mereka berkata adalah untuk menakut-nakutkan kuasa-kuasa asing. Sumber di Damsyik, walaupun mendakwa bahagian singa timbunan stok yang disimpan dengan selamat di selatan Syria kurang bergelora. William F. Engdahl, pengarang "Mitos, Lies dan Perang Minyak" ceramah kepada RT. Beliau berkata gembar-gembur terhadap senjata kimia Syria mungkin menjadi sebahagian daripada rancangan untuk menyusahkan menggulingkan dictator.

1WC'sChannel REVIEW 2012: Moscow has hit out at Washington over its comments on last week's blasts in Damascus which killed President Assad's key aides. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the US practically justified terrorism. (TINJAUAN 1WC'sChannel 2012: Moscow telah melanda di Washington lebih komen pada letupan minggu lepas di Damsyik yang membunuh pembantu utama Presiden Assad. Menteri Luar, Sergey Lavrov berkata Amrika Syarikat praktikal mewajarkan keganasan).