Recent events regarding Syria and Turkey

[Haykakan]

Re: Recent events regarding Syria and Turkey

Welcome back Herman. I have enjoyed your posts and found them to be informative. Cant help you with this translation though.

[HermanGerman]

Re: Recent events regarding Syria and Turkey

Ar-Raqqa, Syria - Living under al Qaeda (ISIL) reign of fear [November 06, 2013]

Raqqa was, a matter of months ago, one of Syria's most liberal cities. Now locals call it Tora Bora. They say it's as if the Taliban of Afghanistan have taken over. After months of bombardment and a chaotic lack of control by weak and divided moderate rebels, al Qaeda have found a broken society, made it their home, and imposed on it hardline Islamist law.

Each morning, activists told us, they seem to awake to a more conservative city. The "Bayanaat" or rulings sometimes appear on town walls. Many limit women's rights -- to walk alone, to style or show their hair. Other edicts come by word of mouth -- no smoking, no cameras. Behind them are often foreign jihadists from the al Qaeda linked militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

The fear that now grips the city can be felt in the shocking bruises on Adnan's body. Adnan, whose name has been changed out of fears for his safety, was behind some graffiti in Raqqa that told ISIS to get out. They caught him filming too, and dragged him into the burned-out ruins of a church they had torched and labeled as a new ISIS base.

Adnan was then taken to a nearby basement where the torture started. "Every 15 minutes, someone poured water on me, electrocuted me, kicked me, then walked out," he said. But his own pain, he said, he could handle, as his body eventually went numb. It was hearing the pain and the screams of other prisoners he knew that was the hardest. "When a person is tortured in front of you, you feel responsible. That's the hardest. One guy still inside used to call me Dad as I taught him about democracy," he said.

One ISIS video -- part of a high-definition, heavily produced social media channel that displays their ideals and exploits -- shows their militants driving through Raqqa at night. They pass a poster, put up by ISIS, encouraging women to wear the Islamic hijab or partial veil, to "cover their beauty".

The militants' goal, though, is reaching a cafe where they tell patrons smoking will be banned. Another video shows them burning not only marijuana, but also large numbers of cigarette cartons. Another shows an ISIS teacher -- his face blurred -- with a group of schoolchildren, all wearing ISIS's distinctive black headbands.

It is extraordinarily dangerous to film inside Raqqa. Activists have been beaten and jailed by ISIS for doing so. But CNN has gathered rare video from some activists and from ISIS's own websites that paint a chilling picture of the rapid lurch towards radical Islamist ideology in a city now under ISIS control.

Dozens of interviews with activists and Syrians have also detailed the story of a city where women -- along with the previously liberal lifestyle of an entire town -- are being rapidly suppressed by militants bent on establishing an Islamic caliphate across northern Syria.

One female activist said: "They are closing hair salons, women can't go out at certain times. They spat on one girl for disobedience. It's like Afghanistan. Now people call Raqqa Tora Bora." The speed of change has overwhelmed many who notice that the city is becoming quieter and more conservative each week.

ISIS first came into town on May 15, and swiftly executed men they accused of working for the government. At first, they seemed an Islamist but better-organized alternative to the rebels who had failed to bring governance or peace to the city for months. But slowly a broader agenda emerged and began to gather pace each week, activists told CNN.

Rebels who opposed ISIS were at first jailed, sparking protests. Yet ISIS became increasingly uncompromising in their grip on the town. Rules for social conduct in Raqqa, some written and some not, have emerged in the past few weeks. They have yet to reach the extent of those seen in the nearby town of Jarablus -- where one poster recently warned thieves would have their hand chopped off -- but locals fear that could come soon.

Anti-ISIS dissent has been silenced in Raqqa, and many activists and locals we spoke to have fled the town. Some stay and spray-paint graffiti declaring that ISIS and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are the same, or telling ISIS to get out.

Locals note the irony in the fact that ISIS beats them for this graffiti, just in the same way that the government was accused of torturing young people for anti-government graffiti in the southern town of Daraa -- an incident that began the revolution in March 2011. For many, ISIS is now something worse than living under Israeli occupation.

Source: CNN

[Eddo211]

Re: Recent events regarding Syria and Turkey

You gotta give it to the Turks....they always have known how to pull the strings of Muslim moderates and Muslim Extremists at the same time while blackmailing the West.

[HermanGerman]

Re: Recent events regarding Syria and Turkey

Video footage allegedly showing Iranian special forces in Syria/Southern Aleppo governorate.
After having seen a report broadcasted on German public TV-channel ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen - Second German Television) I searched and found the YouTube page of the Syrian "rebel"-group ("David brigade") mentioned in the German report . The report is about video footage recently uploaded on social media allegedly showing Iranian special forces in the southern part of the Aleppo governorate. The rebel group's name is David brigade or Daoud Brigade. I also found some interesting other videos in Farsi. Some of you guys understand Farsi so here we go:

Lets start with the German report (ZDF):

According to this report the video footage has been made by the Iranian camerman "Hadi Bakhbani" who accompanied the Iranian special forces.
The cameraman died during a mission, killed by Syrian rebels. The rebels found the video footage in the camera and uploaded them in several social media.


Video showing a conversation in Farsi of members of an Iranian special force (Original video footage uploaded by "David brigade"):

[HermanGerman]

Re: Recent events regarding Syria and Turkey

Another interesting video supposedly showing the mentioned rebel group attacking and probably killing Shiites/Hezbollah fighters.
The location is not clear, it could be on Syrian but also on Libanese soil.

[HermanGerman]

Re: Recent events regarding Syria and Turkey

Syria: New Video of ISIL Cult of Death (Nov. 12, 2013)

According to the ISIL (Al-Qaeda) members seen in the video, the killed persons are alleged to be Iranian and Hezbollah-fighters. ISIL has issued an urgent warning not to side with the Syrian government or one will share the same fate as the killed and beheaded people seen in the video. ISIL is active in nothern Syria. More information are not yet available.

EDIT: According to a Syrian source the men seen in the video are part of the Al-Qaeda groups active in Aleppo, northern Syria.

The guy at the beginning could have been killed in the meanwhile. According to Syian-Documents (see link below) this guy named Abu Muhammad al-Shishani, a leader of ISIL, might have been shot by a female fighter of YPG (Kurdish militia group)

http://www.documents.sy/image.php?id=2452&lang=en

Graphic content, viewer discretion is advised!

The guy at the beginning could have been killed in the meanwhile. According to Syian-Documents (see link below) this guy named Abu Muhammad al-Shishani, a leader of ISIL,
might have been shot by a female fighter of YPG (Kurdish militia group)

http://www.documents.sy/image.php?id=2452&

[HermanGerman]

Re: Recent events regarding Syria and Turkey

Syria - Rebels behead one another - ISIL might have beheaded Ahrar Al-Sham commander

Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) have publicly displayed in Aleppo what they claim was the decapitated head of an Iraqi Shiite pro-regime
militiaman, amid claims the dead man was actually a rebel fighter.A YouTube video emerged Wednesday purporting to show militants from ISIS displaying the man’s severed
head in front of a small crowd in the city of Aleppo.The contents of the video could not be independently verified, but the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
said that while ISIS militants were responsible for the grisly incident, they had in fact killed an anti-regime rebel from an Islamist militia.The Observatory said the man was
wounded in recent fighting near Aleppo, and was overheard by ISIS militants muttering prayers to the Imams Ali and Hussein, who are venerated by Shiites, while under the
influence of anesthetic and awaiting an operation.The Observatory speculated that the man was merely repeating the last thing he heard before being wounded near Base 80,
namely the battle cries of Iraqi and Lebanese Shiites fighting alongside the regime.Pro-opposition sources claimed that he was from the Ahrar al-Sham network of rebels,
and had in fact been wounded in battle. One Salafist commentator maintained that his head remained in the possession of ISIS.

Source: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Mid...#ixzz2kZD5V6Ov

The video mentioned in the article showing the ISIL "freedom fighters" with the head of the decapitated alleged rebel commander, Aleppo/Syria.
Graphic content, viewer discretion is advised!

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1d4_1384385178

[HermanGerman]

Re: Recent events regarding Syria and Turkey

Al Qaeda's message to US and UK:"You're next!" [Oct.14, 2013]

Multi-national militants fighting in a Western-backed insurgency to topple the government in Syria have announced their plans to take the war to the United States and Britain.
In a video posted on the Internet obtained through Vice News , the foreign militants said the United States and the UK would be the next targets of their militancy.
Syria's war has taken on an increasingly sectarian nature, and the rebellion is now dominated by factions affiliated either directly or ideologically with al-Qaeda, including the assorted al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and Jabhat al-Nusra factions.
Though there are surely Syrian extremists fighting in these groups, large numbers of them are foreigners, and their motivations don't begin or end at the Syrian border.
One hundred British nationals have reportedly joined the militant groups in Syria, joining other from the US, Canada, France, Russia, and the Netherlands.
German intelligence authorities have recently warned that German citizens are heading for Syria in increasing numbers and are able to integrate quickly into the foreign-backed militant groups in Syria.
On May 18, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that militants from 29 different countries are now fighting against the government in different parts of the country.
The war in Syria started in March 2011, when pro-reform protests turned into a massive insurgency following the intervention of Western and regional states.
Since the start of the war al-Qaeda affiliated groups have been emerging under different names in Syria, fighting at the side of the US-backed opposition which is leading one of the bloodiest conflicts in the recent history.
According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have been killed and millions displaced due to the turmoil that has gripped Syria for over two years.

[HermanGerman]

Re: Recent events regarding Syria and Turkey

Епископ армянской ортодоксальной церкви в Сирии отец Армаш Талибендаян об атаке террористов на детей

Корреспонденты ANNA News взяли интервью у епископа армянской ортодоксальной церкви в Сирии отца Армаша Талибендаяна и попросили рассказать об атаке террористов на детей у школы при христианской ортодоксальной церкви 11.11.2013г.

[Haykakan]

Re: Recent events regarding Syria and Turkey

'MEDIA IGNORE CHRISTIANS KILLED IN SYRIA'

http://www.panorama.am/en/politics/2013/11/25/randy-short/

09:38 25/11/2013 " INTERVIEWS

Press TV has conducted an interview with Dr. Randy Short, political
commentator from Washington, about the targeting of Christians in Syria
by foreign-backed Takfiri terrorist groups that include a massacre
of 45 Christians, women and children, in the remote village of Sadad;
atrocities ignored by Western mainstream media.

- First of all, why is it that Christians let alone Muslims are
becoming the victims of terror by the insurgents?

- This is a design. I need to make it clear that the Saudis who are
supporting this strongly, are equal-opportunity Christian killers.

They are killing them in Saudi Arabia - the Ethiopians working who
are there are persecuted.

These Christian minorities have been persecuted all over the
Middle East. And the United States is equally guilty because their
intervention in the region for the last 12 years has made life hard
for Christian minorities.

And then there is the ignorance in the Western world particularly
in the United States that imagines only Muslims in the Middle East,
which gives them a justification to support Christian Zionism and the
persecution of all Muslims at the expense of Muslims and Christians
who happen to live in the Middle East.

And the media of course is controlled by Zionists, many of them
happen to be in that persecuted minority group that has Israel. Of
course, they don't want to alert people who happen to be Christian
to understand that they're helping kill Christians because that gets
into a long discussion going way back that's not pleasant for them.

-Where is the situation in Syria heading? Who has the upper hand in
Syria now?

- The government has the upper hand; however, the government is
besieged. The government is being persecuted. It's facing all sorts
of things that are being done to break the backs of the Syrian people
who recognize that Bashar (President al-Assad) is going to be the
head of state and only negotiated peace is the answer.

But you have spoilers like Saudi Arabia; spoilers like the United
States and Turkey... who are generating all this violence. They need
to leave this alone and let negotiations take place.

War is what makes money; it allows people to grab and to take things
that are not theirs.

But the government of Syria remains strong. They've defeated the odds;
they've embarrassed Obama - shown him to be a buffoon in terms of
getting his agenda across in Syria....

And Saudi Arabia is failing and it's falling apart on the inside
as it turns on its own immigrants who make the empire run for the
handful that take from everyone else.

Source: Panorama.am