A Syrian family who fled the violence in their village, set up a fire inside their tent at a camp in the Syrian village of Atma, near the Turkish border with Syria, Sunday, 4 November, 2012. Photograph: Khalil Hamra/AP Photograph: Khalil Hamra/AP
A Syrian family who fled the violence in their village, set up a fire inside their tent at a camp in the Syrian village of Atma, near the Turkish border with Syria, Sunday, 4 November, 2012. Photograph: Khalil Hamra/AP Photograph: Khalil Hamra/AP
It is important that the Geneva Declaration be turned into a resolution from the security council to gain the power to enable it to become an applicable political project.
Al-Jazeera reported that Lavrov dismissed the need for a resolution, saying “some countries which participated in Geneva don't speak with the government but only with the opposition and encourage them to fight till victory and this has very negative implications”.
Terrorists on Monday detonated an explosive device planted under a car in Mezzeh Jabal 86 area in Damascus, killing 11 citizens and injuring tens, including women and children.
A source at al-Muwasat hospital told Sana that it received the bodies of eight martyrs killed in the bombing and 31 injured people who are currently receiving treatment.
A source in Yousef al-Azmeh hospital said that the hospital received the bodies of three martyrs and 24 injured people, most of them critically injured.
Sana's correspondent who visited the bombing site said the explosion caused significant damage to the area which is heavily populated, and that a large number of cars and shops were destroyed and infrastructure and utilities were also damaged.
A handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency ) shows Syrians inspecting the site of an explosion in the Mezzeh district of the capital Damascus on 5 November, 2012. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Photograph: -/AFP/Getty Images
The UK strongly condemns the planting of improvised explosive devices in the Gudaibiya and Adliya areas of Bahrain this morning that resulted in the deaths of two civilians and seriously injured another. I offer my sincere condolences to all those affected.
There is no place in Bahraini society for any such acts of violence and all political societies in Bahrain should condemn the use of violence unequivocally. All parties should urgently enter into a constructive dialogue, without pre-conditions, to resolve ongoing tensions.
Syrian TV is reporting an explosion in a loyalist area of Mezzeh, Damascus. TV footage (WARNING: graphic) shows a decapitated corpse being carried away. An activist group said via Skype:
FSA claimed responsibility for the blast that targeted a group of shabiha.
Electricity and communications cut off in parts of Mazzeh after explosion in the predominantly loyalist 86 area.#Damascus#Syria
More than 20 rebel fighters were killed by a fighter jet air-strike on the town of Harem, a rebel leader in the town was also seriously injured and is thought to be dead. The rebels are now bombarding the al-Tarem neighbourhood of Harem, which is considered the regime and pro-regime stronghold in the town.
AFP, citing Palestinian sources, reports that 30 people have been killed in 24 hours in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, south of Damascus, including seven when mortar landed on a minibus. Both sides are blaming the other for the minibus attack. From AFP:
“All night through to Monday, the residents heard deafening sounds of shelling, but this morning there are many people in the streets, the shops are open and traffic is normal,” a resident told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The day before, 24 people were killed when at least 10 shells fell on a southern part of the camp, according to a Facebook page called “Yarmuk Camp News” run by local residents, which listed the names of the victims.
A suicide car bombing has killed at least 50 members of the Syrian security forces in Hama province, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It said:
At least 50 regular soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber from the [al-Qaida inspired] al-Nusra front detonated a car bomb next to a regime checkpoint in the al-Ziyara village, in Sahl al-Ghab (Ghab plains). Activists from the area reported that the operation was in coordination with other armed rebel groups.
It is important that the Geneva Declaration be turned into a resolution from the security council to gain the power to enable it to become an applicable political project.
Al Jazeera reported that Lavrov dismissed the need for a resolution, saying “some countries which participated in Geneva don't speak with the government but only with the opposition and encourage them to fight till victory and this has very negative implications”.
Five people were martyred including three children and a woman on Monday when terrorists targeted a mini-bus of public transportation with a mortar shell in Thalathen street (thirty street) in al-Yarmouk Camp, Damascus.
An official source in Damascus Hospital said that bodies of a women and three children were transferred to the hospital in addition to five injured, one of them is in a critical condition, adding that the injured are getting the suitable care.
On the other hand, Palestine Hospital received a martyrs' body, in addition to five injured people due to the terrorist act.
A rocket fell near a minibus in the the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, killing at least five civilians and wounded others, activists say. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three children and a woman were killed. Another activist group said via Skype that seven people were killed in total. A video (WARNING: graphic) has been posted of the minibus.
Opposition politician Matar Matar of Shia party al-Wefaq told Reuters he doubted opposition activists were behind the attacks, noting that leading Shia clerics had called on followers to avoid escalating the conflict with the government. He said:
This incident is strange - why would anyone target workers? I'm worried that police and military are losing control of their units or it is (preparation) before declaring martial law.
Maryam al-Khawaja, acting head of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, told al-Akhbar:
As always, we condemn all acts of violence and call for an independent investigation into the bombings. There has been so much lying that we cannot trust anything this government says.
Bahraini policemen search for evidence at the scene of an explosion that killed an Asian man in Manama, Monday, 5 November, 2012. A series of bomb blasts in Bahrain's capital killed at least two people, authorities said. Photograph: Hasan Jamali/AP Photograph: Hasan Jamali/AP
An 18-year-old Syrian refugee has been killed in a "mass brawl" at a refugee camp in Turkey, the Trend news agency reports. It says the reason for the brawl is unknown.
We never hold secret discussions with anyone over the fate of a third-party country, and there was no secret discussion with the US or with anyone else about Bashar al-Assad.
In other comments today, to an Egyptian newspaper, Lavrov said Moscow is supplying arms to Syria under Soviet-era commitments meant for defence against external threats, not to support Assad. He told Ahram:
We do not side with any faction in Syria's internal battle. As for the Russian-Syrian technical military cooperation, it aims to support Syria's defence capabilities in the face of external political threat, and not to back Bashar al-Assad ...
It was the Soviet Union that supplied Syria with main weapons but at present we are in the process of finalising the implementation of our commitments which are linked primarily to the supply of some air defence systems. These military exports are of a defensive nature and do not conflict with international treaties.
Activists are reporting heavy fighting between rebels and government troops backed by Palestinian fighters in the capital Damascus. From AP:
Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says the fighting is concentrated in the southern neighborhood of Tadamon and the outskirts of the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk.
Damascus-based activist Abu Qais al-Shami told the Associated Press via Skype that the fighting began last night and went on continuously into Monday. He said regime forces are backed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command led by Ahmed Jibril, a staunch supporter of President Bashar al-Assad.
Severe clashes were reported between the Free Syrian Army and the regime's army in Tadamon neighbourhood and Yarmouk camp with machine guns. Severe artillery shelling was also reported in Tadamon neighborhood and Yalda.
This video purports to show the effects of shelling in Tadamon overnight.
Riyad Hijab: 'Bashar thinks he can settle this militarily'
In an interview with the Telegraph, Riyad Hijab, the former Syrian prime minister, claims that Bashar al-Assad has no interest in a peaceful resolution to the crisis (thanks to sjxt btl for highlighting this). Hijab said:
Bashar really thinks that he can settle this militarily … Bashar used to be scared of the international community – he was really worried that they would impose a no-fly zone over Syria. But then he tested the waters, and pushed and pushed and nothing happened. Now he can run air strikes and drop cluster bombs on his own population … My brief was to lead a national reconciliation government. But in our first meeting Bashar made it clear that this was a cover. He called us his 'war cabinet'.
It is no longer acceptable, under any pretext, to continue with the absence of a unified and effective political leadership for the revolution. All political parties must come together as quickly as possible to reach the proper political representation of the revolution …
Any formation of a new political entity must aim to represent the revolution and prioritise securing organised military support for the rebels and for relief efforts, despite personal loyalties and interests …
We clearly announce that interventions in the affairs of our revolution, as stated in Hillary Clinton's remarks, are unwelcome. It is on the international community to reconsider its defeatist policy against supporting the Syrian people and the rebels, which has lengthened the age of the regime and has extended the time for Syrians to be killed, increasing the complexity of the crisis and ultimately leading to extremism as a reaction.
The Syrian National Council, has voted to broaden its membership to include more activists and political groups from inside the country, an organiser told AP.
Anas Abdah, an organizer of an SNC conference in Doha, says a majority of 222 delegates approved the additions, nearly doubling the size of the group's general assembly to some 420.
The vote comes as an alternative opposition grouping, the Syrian National Initiative, in which the SNC would have a lesser role is being backed by the US and others to create a more representative leadership.
Syrian regime opponent Abdulbasit Sieda (centre) talks with fellow participants ahead of the general assembly of the Syrian National Council meeting in Doha on 4 November 2012. Photograph: Faisal al-Tamimi/AFP/Getty Images Photograph: FAISAL AL-TAMIMI/AFP/Getty Images
Five homemade bombs have exploded in the Bahraini capital Manama killing two Asian men, the ministry of interior (MOI) says. A third man was seriously injured. The MOI report says:
An initial investigation has revealed that a bomb exploded when one of the deceased men kicked the device in Qudaibiya. He died at the scene. The second man was injured in an explosion near the Awal Cinema in Manama and was pronounced dead at the hospital. An explosion in Adliya seriously injured the third man who is an Asian cleaner.
The MOI has advised people "not to touch strange objects".
The apparently co-ordinated explosions point to escalating levels of violence by government opponents in the nearly 21-month uprising against the Gulf nation's western-backed rulers. Most of the violence directed at the government has taken place away from authorised marches and protests but last week Bahrain banned all opposition rallies, prompting concern from the international community. More than 55 people have been killed in Bahrain's unrest.
Washington’s Plan A, which was to create the SNC [Syrian National Council], went down in dust. By all accounts, Clinton cannot even stand to hear the name, SNC, uttered any longer.
Plan B was to set up the US office in Istanbul to meet and take the measure of Syrian militia leaders and local co-ordinating committee directors. The militia leaders scared Washington and the CIA. The word got out that they were “penetrated” by al-Qaida and Salafi types.
Plan C is now in the making. It is to return to the educated Syrians in the hope of doing a little shake-and-bake. Clinton is reconstituting some sort of US-friendly leadership drawn from elements of the old SNC with generous add-mixtures of Co-ordinating Committee types, some government defectors, and others who will join. It sounds as if the SNC is boycotting. Michel Kilo has said he will not join. Others are also taking a wait-and-see attitude.
The object of this exercise seems to be to glue some sort of US-friendly educated elite on to the military effort that looks too Islamist for Washington’s taste and not very human-rights observant.
Landis compares the initiative with "US and British efforts of the 1950s to stop Syria from slipping into the hands of the USSR, Nasser and the leftist Ba'athists".
Good morning. Welcome to Middle East Live. Here is a round-up of the latest developments.
Syria
Sharp disagreements have emerged at a Syrian opposition conference in Qatar meant to forge a more cohesive leadership. The Syrian National Council has balked at a plan backed by western powers that would dilute the SNC's influence. But with international pressure mounting, it also suggested it was willing to negotiate a compromise that would give it more influence in a new leadership team. The SNC is due to decide on Wednesday whether to accept a plan proposed by a prominent dissident, Riad Seif, to set up a new leadership group of about 50 members. The SNC would get about 15 seats, while military commanders and local leaders in rebel-held areas would win wider representation. SNC chief Abdelbaset Sieda said he and others in the group no longer trusted promises of international support linked to restructuring of the opposition. He said:
We faced this situation before, when we formed the SNC. There were promises like that, but the international community in fact did not give us the support needed for the SNC to do its job.
It is important that the Geneva Declaration be turned into a resolution from the security council to gain the power to enable it to become an applicable political project.
Al-Jazeera reported that Lavrov dismissed the need for a resolution, saying “some countries which participated in Geneva don't speak with the government but only with the opposition and encourage them to fight till victory and this has very negative implications”.
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