TINJAUAN 1WC'sChannel 2012: (AssociatedPress. 45 minit yang lalu) Asap naik ke atas Damsyik selepas serangan berat sebagai perang saudara menghantar lebih ramai pelarian ke negara-negara jiran. US mengenakan, sekatan yang sebahagian besarnya simbolik menentang rejim (1WC'sChannel REVIEW 2012: (AssociatedPress. 45 minutes ago) Smoke rises over Damascus after heavy shelling as the civil war sends more refugees to neighboring countries. The U.S. is imposing more, largely symbolic sanctions against the regime). (Aug. 10)
WORLD News ‘Iran cuba untuk menenangkan
BEIRUT (AP) - Ketika tentera Syria bergelut untuk memacu pemberontak dari bandar yang terbesar di negara ini, rejim utama sekutu Iran cuba hari ini untuk memulakan proses politik alternatif untuk menangani krisis.
Iran berkumpul pelbagai negara-negara yang terdiri daripada penyokong kuat Damsyik ceruk negara-negara DUNIA yang jauh dari perang saudara Syria. Forum sehari mungkin mengakibatkan di mana-mana konsensus antarabangsa, tetapi ia menunjukkan keazaman Iran berdiri oleh Presiden Bashar Assad sebagai tenteranya cuba untuk menghancurkan kebangkitan yang berusia 17 bulan.
Pada hari Khamis, pemberontak Syria berkata mereka adalah rendah pada peluru tetapi masih mampu untuk meletakkan rintangan terhadap serangan darat rejim di bandar Aleppo, pusat pertempuran selama lebih daripada 2 minggu.
Tehran di bilkan persidangan Khamis sebagai satu cara untuk memberi tumpuan kepada dialog - satu alternatif kepada inisiatif yang diterajui oleh Barat yang memanggil untuk Assad untuk memberi kuasa. Iran telah berkata pada masa lalu bahawa pengkritik rejim Syria gagal mengambil kira keganasan akaun oleh pemberontak.
"Iran kecam terhadap pembunuhan rakyat dan rakyat yang tidak bersenjata di sisi mana-mana," kata Menteri Luar Iran Ali Akbar Salehi di perhimpunan itu. Beliau juga memberi amaran bahawa menghantar senjata kepada pembangkang hanya akan menyemarakkan lagi krisis, dan beliau menuduh pemberontak menggunakan orang awam sebagai "perisai manusia."
Pemberontak Syria minggu lalu memintas bas yang membawa 48 rakyat Iran di pinggir bandar Damsyik dan merampas mereka. Pemberontak mendakwa lelaki adalah anggota tentera, termasuk beberapa ahli-ahli berkuasa Pengawal Revolusi Iran, yang berada di "misi peninjauan" untuk membantu tindakan keras Assad.
Iran, bagaimanapun, berkata 48 adalah jemaah melawat tempat suci Syiah di Damsyik. Salehi berkata Rabu bahawa beberapa jemaah ahli-ahli bersara tentera dan Pengawal Revolusi. Sunni Muslim yang amat sangat pemberontak telah turut merampas 11 jemaah Syiah Lubnan yang diadakan di utara Syria sejak Mei.
Salehi berkata kira-kira 30 buah negara menghadiri mesyuarat itu, termasuk Rusia dan China, serta Benin, Cuba dan Mauritania. Mesyuarat telah dipanggil pada notis yang singkat, dan kebanyakan negara-negara yang diwakili di peringkat duta.
Rusia pada masa lalu telah menyarankan Barat untuk membenarkan Tehran untuk mengambil bahagian dalam perbincangan antarabangsa mengenai bagaimana untuk menyelesaikan krisis Syria, dengan alasan bahawa republik Islam boleh memainkan peranan yang penting. Moscow telah menjadi pelindung utama dan sekutu rejim Assad, perisaian daripada sekatan PBB ke atas tindakan keras kejam pemberontakan yang telah berkembang menjadi perang sivil yang besar-besaran.
Amerika Syarikat menolak perhimpunan Iran. "Kami rasa kelakuan Iran di Syria adalah merosakkan," kata jurucakap Jabatan Negara Patrick Ventrell. "Ia hanya sukar bagi kita untuk membayangkan bahawa selepas meletakkan usaha yang begitu banyak ke dalam menjaga Assad berkuasa . . . bagaimana mereka boleh menjadi seorang pelakon yang membina dalam memudahkan penyelesaian politik kepada krisis."
Pada hari Khamis, tentera kerajaan dan pemberontak bertempur dalam benteng pembangkang Aleppo, sebuah bandar 3 juta orang. Agensi berita negeri mendakwa Rabu bahawa daya Assad, kita dapat kembalikan kuasa kejiranan Salaheddine, kawasan pemberontak utama di Aleppo. Tetapi aktivis berkata telah pemberontak masih meletakkan pergaduhan di sana pada hari Khamis.
"Peperangan masih berlaku di jalan-jalan Salaheddine dan di kawasan kejiranan lain di Allepo," kata jurucakap pemberontak Abdel Azziz Salameh memberitahu The Associated Press. "Pejuang kami mempunyai kekurangan peluru tetapi mereka telah tidak ditarik balik."
Rejim telah cuba untuk memacu pemberontak Aleppo untuk 2 minggu. Tetapi serangan ke atas kedudukan pemberontak dari tanah dan udara yang melepuh muncul hanya perlahan-lahan jauh di genggaman pembangkang pada kubu.
Aktivis berasaskan Aleppo Mohammad Saeed berkata tentera telah menggunakan pesawat pejuang dan kereta kebal untuk bandar Hreitan dan Tel Rifat utara dari Aleppo, di mana kebanyakan pemberontak berhimpun di bandar. "Mereka akan cuba untuk memotong barisan utama dari Tel Rifat Aleppo," kata Saeed.
Aleppo memegang kepentingan besar simbolik dan strategik. Kira-kira 25 batu (40 kilometer) dari sempadan Turki, ia telah menjadi tiang sokongan rejim semasa pemberontakan. Satu kemenangan pembangkang di sana akan membolehkan akses yang lebih mudah untuk senjata dan pejuang dari Turki, di mana pemberontak ramai adalah berdasarkan. Hubungan rapat Syria dengan Iran dan Hezbollah kumpulan Islam militan di Lubnan bermakna bahawa konflik mempunyai potensi untuk menarik negara jiran. Pada hari Khamis, pegawai Lubnan menangkap Michel Samaha, bekas menteri Lubnan dan ahli parlimen, yang merupakan salah satu Penyokong kuat Lubnan rejim Syria.
Samaha sering muncul di stesen TV tempatan sebagai seorang penganalisis dan bercakap di dalam memihak kepada rejim itu. Isterinya, Gladys, memberitahu media tempatan bahawa agen-agen keselamatan menendang di pintu depan awal Khamis dan menarik Samaha dari katil. Dia memanggil dia ditangkap tahanan politik yang semata-mata kerana kedudukan politik beliau.
Tetapi pegawai Lubnan berkata bahawa dia telah ditangkap kerana sebab-sebab "keselamatan". Mereka bercakap mengenai yd tidak mahu dikenali kerana mereka tidak dibenarkan bercakap kepada media. Juga Khamis, Assad dilantik perdana menteri baru untuk menggantikan yang berpaling tadah kepada jiran Jordan minggu ini. Negeri-agensi berita yang dikendalikan SANA berkata beliau dilantik Menteri Kesihatan Wael Nader al-Halqi, ahli parti Baath yang memerintah Sunni dari wilayah selatan Daraa, tempat kelahiran pemberontakan.
Al-Halqi menggantikan Riad Hijab, yang Pembelotan adalah satu tamparan yang menghina kepada rejim. Seperti hampir semua defectors menonjol setakat ini, Hijab adalah ahli Sunni majoriti Syria - mazhab Islam yang membentuk batuan dasar pemberontakan.
Namun, kuasa kekal diadakan rapat dalam golongan dalaman Assad dan kepimpinan yang paling ketara dikuasai oleh ahli-ahli mazhab Alawite minoriti elit pemerintah, sebuah cabang Syiah Islam.
AP penulis Zeina Karam di Beirut dan Nasser Karimi di Tehran, Iran, menyumbang kepada laporan ini.
WORLD News ‘Iran tries to calm Syria crisis
as violence rages’ . . .
BEIRUT (AP) - As Syrian forces struggled to drive rebels from the country's largest city, the regime's key ally Iran tried Thursday to start an alternative political process to address the crisis.
Iran gathered an array of nations ranging from strong supporters of Damascus to far-flung nations a world away from the Syrian civil war. The one-day forum is unlikely to result in any international consensus, but it shows Iran's resolve to stand by President Bashar Assad as his forces try to crush the 17-month-old uprising.
On Thursday, Syrian rebels said they were low on ammunition but still managed to put up resistance against a regime ground offensive in the city of Aleppo, a center of fighting for more than two weeks.
Tehran billed Thursday's conference as a way to focus on dialogue - an alternative to Western-led initiatives that call for Assad to give up power. Iran has said in the past that the Syrian regime's critics fail to take into account violence by the rebels.
"Iran is against the killing of unarmed people and citizens by any side," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said at the gathering. He also warned that sending weapons to the opposition will only fuel the crisis, and he accused rebels of using civilians as "human shields."
Syrian rebels last week intercepted a bus carrying 48 Iranians in a Damascus suburb and seized them. Rebels claimed the men are military personnel, including some members of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, who were on a "reconnaissance mission" to help Assad's crackdown.
Iran, however, says the 48 were pilgrims visiting a Shiite shrine in Damascus. Salehi said Wednesday that some of the pilgrims are retired members of the army and Revolutionary Guard. The overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim rebels have also seized 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who have been held in northern Syria since May.
Salehi said some 30 countries attended the meeting, including Russia and China, as well as far-off Benin, Cuba and Mauritania. The meeting was called at short notice, and most countries were represented at the ambassador level.
Russia in the past has urged the West to allow Tehran to take part in international discussions on how to settle the Syrian crisis, arguing that the Islamic republic could play an important role. Moscow has been the main protector and ally of Assad's regime, shielding it from U.N. sanctions over its brutal crackdown on an uprising that has evolved into a full-blown civil war.
The U.S. dismissed the Iranian gathering. "We think the Iranian behavior in Syria is destructive," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said. "It's just hard for us to imagine that after putting so much effort into keeping Assad in power ... how they can be a constructive actor in facilitating a political solution to the crisis."
On Thursday, government troops and rebels clashed in opposition bastions of Aleppo, a city of 3 million people. The state news agency claimed Wednesday that Assad's force had regained control of the Salaheddine neighborhood, the main rebel area in Aleppo. But activists said rebels were still putting up a fight there on Thursday.
"The battle is still going on in the streets of Salaheddine and in other neighborhoods in Allepo," rebel spokesman Abdel Azziz Salameh told The Associated Press. "Our fighters have a shortage of ammunition but they have not withdrawn."
The regime has been trying to drive rebels out of Aleppo for two weeks. But the blistering attacks on rebel positions from the ground and the air appear to be only slowly chipping away at the opposition's grip on its strongholds.
Aleppo-based activist Mohammad Saeed said troops were using warplanes and tanks to shell the towns of Hreitan and Tel Rifat north of Aleppo, from where most of the rebels converged on the city. "They are trying to cut the main lines from Tel Rifat to Aleppo," Saeed said.
Aleppo holds great symbolic and strategic importance. Some 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the Turkish border, it has been a pillar of regime support during the uprising. An opposition victory there would allow easier access for weapons and fighters from Turkey, where many rebels are based.
Syria's close ties to Iran and the Islamic militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon mean that the conflict has the potential to draw in the country's neighbors. On Thursday, Lebanese officials arrested Michel Samaha, a former Lebanese minister and parliament member, who is one of the most ardent Lebanese supporters of the Syrian regime.
Samaha often appeared on local TV stations as an analyst and spoke out in favor of the regime. His wife, Gladys, told local media that security agents kicked in the front door early Thursday and pulled Samaha from his bed. She called his arrest a purely political detention because of his political position.
But Lebanese officials said only that he was arrested for "security" reasons. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media. Also Thursday, Assad appointed a new prime minister to replace the one who defected to neighboring Jordan this week. State-run news agency SANA said he appointed Health Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi, a Sunni member of the ruling Baath party from the southern province of Daraa, the birthplace of the revolt.
Al-Halqi replaces Riad Hijab, whose defection was a humiliating blow to the regime. Like nearly all prominent defectors so far, Hijab is a member of Syria's majority Sunnis - the Muslim sect which forms the bedrock of the uprising.
Still, power remains closely held within Assad's inner circle and the most significant leadership is dominated by members of the ruling elite's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
AP writers Zeina Karam in Beirut and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
Tawaran Syria Bashar Rejim Assad susulan Aleppo
dari Free Syrian Army . . .
Free Syrian Army telah mendakwa lebih daripada 52 tangki telah bergolek ke dalam daerah Salah al Deen pada pinggir Aleppo sebagai pasukan kerajaan melancarkan satu serangan untuk merebut kembali kawalan bandar.
Aktivis berkata pertempuran itu tertumpu di pinggir bandar selatan dan barat. Terdapat banyak laporan serangan senjata dan berat - terdapat juga tuntutan bahawa rejim itu menggunakan gunships helikopter dalam serangan tersebut. Orang awam terperangkap dalam pertempuran tersebut melarikan diri ke bahagian utara bandar. Kumpulan hak asasi manusia bimbang pembunuhan beramai-ramai kini berlangsung. Beribu-ribu tentera kerajaan telah berkumpul di sekitar bandar lebih 48 jam yang lepas.
Serangan balas oleh kuasa Presiden Bashar al Assad, datang selepas beberapa hari pertempuran sengit di mana Free Syrian Army telah mengambil kawalan ke atas beberapa kawasan kejiranan. Aleppo, bandar ke-2 Syria yg terbesar, ia adalah penting untuk rejim itu untuk memastikan ia di bawah kawalan kerana ia adalah pusat komersil negara dan sehingga baru-baru ini batuan dasar sokongan untuk Encik Assad.
FSA (Free Syrian Army) dan kumpulan militia yang lain telah menggali diri mereka dalam persediaan untuk berperang. Sebuah kerajaan yang pro-Syria setiap hari berkata bahawa pasukan kerajaan telah menjangkakan "ibu kepada semua pertempuran". Rakyat Syria telah meninggalkan pusat Aleppo selepas serangan. Bulan Sabit Merah Antarabangsa telah digantung operasinya di Aleppo kerana keganasan yang semakin meningkat.
Terdapat juga laporan yang berjuang di bandar utama lain di seluruh negara. Keadaan tidak menentu telah menyebabkan lebih banyak orang awam yang melarikan diri untuk kehidupan mereka tetapi mencapai keselamatan yang berbahaya. Seorang budak lelaki berusia 8 tahun dipanggil Bilal telah dikebumikan di Jordan. Ibunya mendakwa beliau telah ditembak di samping cuba untuk menyeberangi sempadan.
Beliau berkata: "Tentera Syria mula merakam pada kami. Kami memasuki sempadan Jordan, mereka selamatkan dia tetapi dia telah mati Dia ditembak di kepala dan peluru menumbusi lehernya." Menurut PBB, lebih daripada 120,000 orang telah melarikan diri dari pertempuran tersebut ke negara-negara jiran tetapi angka itu dijangka meningkat.
Tetapi terdapat tanda-tanda rejim itu menjadi lemah. Satu lagi penyeberang berprofil tinggi telah melarikan diri ke Turki. MP Ikhlas al-Badawi kini menggesa orang lain untuk melakukan perkara yang sama. Beliau berkata: "Saya telah berpindah ke Turki dan berpaling tadah dari rejim zalim ini . . . kerana penindasan dan penyeksaan yang ganas terhadap negara menuntut hak sekurang-kurangnya."
Sementara itu, Setiausaha Luar William Hague telah bertemu dengan Setiausaha Agung PBB Ban Ki-Moon untuk membincangkan krisis itu. Beliau telah menggesa Encik Assad untuk menghentikan pertempuran. Dalam perkembangan berasingan, terdapat juga pengesahan bahawa Turki, Qatar dan Arab Saudi menyediakan perisikan dan senjata kepada pemberontak.
Syria Bashar Assad Regime Bids To Retake Aleppo
from Free Syrian Army . . .
The Free Syrian Army has claimed more than 52 tanks have rolled into the district of Salah al Deen on the edge of Aleppo as government forces launch an assault to retake control of the city.
Activists say the fighting is concentrated in the southern and western suburbs. There are numerous reports of heavy shelling and gunfights - there are also claims that the regime is using helicopter gunships in the assault. Civilians caught up in the fighting are fleeing to northern parts of the city. Human rights groups fear a massacre is unfolding. Thousands of government troops have massed around the city over the last 48 hours.
The counter offensive by President Bashar al Assad's forces comes after several days of intense fighting in which the Free Syrian Army has taken control of a number of neighbourhoods. Aleppo, the second city is Syria's largest; it is vital for the regime to keep it under its control as it is the commercial centre of the country and was until recently a bedrock of support for Mr Assad.
The FSA and other militia groups have been digging themselves in preparation for the fight. A pro-Syrian government daily said that government forces were expecting the "mother of all battles". Syrian people leave the centre of Aleppo after shelling. The International Red Crescent has suspended its operations in Aleppo because of the escalating violence.
There have also been reports of fighting in other major cities around the country. The volatile situation has caused more civilians to flee for their lives but reaching safety is hazardous. An eight year old boy called Bilal has been buried in Jordan. His mother claims he was shot whilst trying to cross the border.
She said: "The Syrian army started shooting at us. We entered the Jordanian border, they rescued him but he was dead. He was shot in the head and the bullet left through his neck." According to the UN, more than 120,000 people have now fled the fighting to neighbouring countries but that figure is expected to rise.
But there are signs the regime is weakening. Another high-profile defector has fled to Turkey. The MP Ikhlas al-Badawi is now urging others to do the same. He said: "I have crossed to Turkey and defected from this tyrannical regime . . . because of the repression and savage torture against a nation demanding the minimum of rights."
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary William Hague has met UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to discuss the crisis. He has called on Mr Assad to stop the fighting. In a separate development, there has also been confirmation that Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are providing intelligence and weapons to the rebels.
Keadaan di Syria kira-kira sepatutnya menjadi Syria yang menunjukkan pembaharuan dan perubahan: Keadaan di Syria telah bertukar menjadi perang proksi, yang melibatkan beberapa pemain, seperti Amerika Syarikat, UK, Turki, tidak lagi pejuang dari bangsa yang berbeza, termasuk dari Mesir, Libya, dan Jordan, dengan kecerdasan Jerman memetik penglibatan al-Qaeda dan wang yang telah disediakan oleh Arab Saudi dan Qatar. Beberapa pemerhati berkata, Syria telah menjadi adegan " Syria: A Small Scale WORLD War".
The situation in Syria was supposed to be about Syrians demonstrating for reforms and change: The situation in Syria has turned out into a proxy-war, involving several players, such as the US, UK, Turkey, not to mention fighters from different nationalities, including from Egypt, Libya, and Jordan, with German intelligence citing al-Qaeda's involvement and the money that is being provided by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Some observers say Syria has become the scene of a "Small-Scale WORLD War".
Syria: Small Scale WORLD War . . .
Heavy Shelling in Syria As More Flee Country . . .
