Syrian 'Rebels'?
Russia Warns War Is Coming To Syria.....How far will it spread?(WND).Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is preparing a major offensive in the coming days against the opposition targeting his regime, an informed Syrian government source confirmed.
The source told WND yesterday Assad was warned by Russia that if the coming counterinsurgency targeting the opposition is not successful in the next 4-6 weeks, Syria should be prepared for a war.
The source did not say whether the possibility of war referred to a Russian expectation of international intervention in Syria.
The information comes after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday accused Russia of sending helicopter gunships to Syria for use in crackdowns on rebel positions across Syria.
“We have confronted the Russians about stopping their continued arms shipments to Syria,” said Clinton. “They have, from time to time, said that we shouldn’t worry – everything they are shipping is unrelated to their [the Syrian government's] actions internally. That’s patently untrue.”
Continued Clinton: “And we are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria, which will escalate the conflict quite dramatically.”
Also yesterday U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland echoed concerns by UN envoy Kofi Annan that a so-called massacre is being organized against the Syrian opposition.
“The United States joins joint special envoy Kofi Annan in expressing deep alarm at reports from inside Syria that the regime may be organizing another massacre,” Nuland said. “People will be held accountable.”
A previous attack against civilians in the Syrian neighbourhood of Houla saw 108 people, including 49 children, reportedly executed at close range on May 25. The international community quickly blamed Assad’s forces for the massacre.
This past weekend, Germany’s leading daily, the Frankfurter “Allgemeine Zeitung,” quoted sources claiming the Houla massacre was actually committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants.But underscoring the gap of information on the ground, many news media reports
at first claimed the civilian deaths in Houla were caused by mortars and
shelling by Assad’s forces.
Two days later, much of the news media
changed its tune, parroting a U.N. report that says most of the 108 victims of
the Houla massacre were shot at close range, some of them women, children and
entire families gunned down in their homes.Survivors and witnesses cited
by the U.N. blamed the house-to-house killings on pro-government thugs known as
shabiha.Largely unreported is Syria’s claim that an armed terrorism
element is behind the massacre.
Middle East security officials told WND
Syria has sent information to the U.S., U.N. and other international bodies
indicating the house-to-house slaughter was carried out by a group affiliated
with al-Qaida that came from North Africa.
According to Syria, the jihad
organization entered Syria via Turkey, where the militants were first armed.
Syria did not blame Turkey directly for the massacre, the security officials
said. The Syrian report stated Turkey likely believes the al-Qaida elements were
going to fight Assad’s regime.For months now, Turkey has been hosting
the Syrian opposition and agitating for international military intervention
against Damascus.Two weeks ago one Egyptian security official told WND
there is a growing collaboration between the Syrian opposition and al-Qaida as
well as evidence the opposition is sending weapons to jihadists in
Iraq.An Egyptian military attaché detailed the alleged collaboration
between al-Qaida and the U.S.-aided opposition in Syria that operates under the
banner of the National Free Army.
The purported cooperation extends to
recent suicide attacks and bombings in Damascus and in the embattled Syrian city
of Homs.The military official told WND that Egypt has reports of
collaboration between the Syrian opposition and three al-Qaida
arms:
•Jund al-Sham, which is made up of al-Qaida militants who are
Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese;
•Jund al-Islam, which in recent years
merged with Ansar al-Islam, an extremist group of Sunni Iraqis operating under
the al-Qaida banner;
•Jund Ansar al-Allah, an al-Qaida group based in
Gaza linked to Palestinian camps in Lebanon and Syria.
The Arab League,
which has condemned Syria, previously privately recognized an armed terrorist
element agitating against Assad’s regime.A leaked Arab League dispatch,
posted in February by the Anonymous group, said Arab League monitors on the
ground in Syria several times witnessed an “armed entity” provoking Syrian
forces and placing civilian lives in danger.
That section of the
classified report read: “The Mission determined that there is an armed entity
that is not mentioned in the protocol. … In some zones, this armed entity
reacted by attacking Syrian security forces and citizens, causing the Government
to respond with further violence. In the end, innocent citizens pay the price
for those actions with life and limb.”Hmmmm..........Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaida, Turkey......Erdogan......Barack Hussein Obama.Read the full story here.
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