LATEST: Jabhat al-Nusra Detains Military Council Commander in Daraa Province
SUNDAY FEATURE
Learning About a Child Killed in a Regime Airstrike
State media and opposition activists reported civilian deaths in both regime- and insurgent-held areas of Aleppo on Saturday, in the 21-month battle for control of Syria’s largest city.
State news agency SANA said insurgent mortar strikes on the al-Aziziyeh neighborhood in Aleppo, including on the Faculty of Economics of Aleppo University, killed 12 people.
Opposition outlets said Syrian air forces dropped barrel bombs on the Jandoul and Baedeen roundabouts and killed four people in the Karam Al Afandi area. Warplanes also barrel-bombed Mare, north of Aleppo:
Insurgents have been pressing Syrian forces from the northwest, capturing a series of buildings — including the Palace of Justice — in the Zahra and Layramun areas and besieging the command-and-control center in an Air Force Intelligence headquarters.
State media countered on Saturday that the Syrian military had made gains east of Aleppo near the Sheikh Najjar industrial area.
Jabhat al-Nusra Detains Military Council Commander in Daraa Province
The Islamist faction Jabhat al-Nusra Front, has detained the head of the Military Council in Daraa Province.
No reason for the arrest of Captain Ahmad Naameh was given.
Naameh travelled from Jordan to Daraa last week, amid an insurgent advance in the area. He declared in a video, “Who is going to rule Syria? Not the extremists… who behead people… No, it will be the Free Syrian Army, which is well organised, and which believes in democracy, democratic rule, and the civil state.”
A video appeal for Jabhat al-Nusra and the Free Syria Army to avoid conflict after the arrest has been released.
Residents in Eastern Lebanon Fight Syrian Insurgents
Residents of the east Lebanon border village of Arsal fought with Syrian insurgents on Sunday.
Three Lebanese men were lightly wounded and two others likely kidnapped in the mountainous region of Rahwa, which separates Arsal from Syria. Arsal officials contacted Syrian opposition groups in the area to secure the release of the two kidnapped men.
The reasons behind the clashes were not immediately clear.
On Saturday, Hezbollah fighters and Syrian insurgent fought on the outskirts of Brital in eastern Lebanon.
Report: 3 Killed in Gas Pipeline Blown Up by Regime Airstrike
Opposition activists report that three civilians have been killed in a gas pipeline explosion, triggered by a regime airstrike, in Naseeb on the Syria-Jordan border:
“Moderate” Insurgents of Harakat Hazm Show Off Another US-Made Anti-Tank TOW Missile
The insurgent faction Harakat Hazm shows off another US-made anti-tank TOW missile, this time in the Sheikh Najjar area, east of Aleppo:
State media have claimed regime gains near Sheikh Najjar in recent days.
Last month, Harakat Hazm was the first group to post a video of the TOW weaponry, and the faction and its commander were subsequently portrayed as the “moderation” insurgency now being supported by the US Government.
See High-Profile PR Boost for Insurgent Group Receiving US-Made Anti-Tank Missiles
The TOWs have been seen in the hands of three different groups in both northwest and southern Syria. Washington has not indicated whether it provided the missiles, although US officials in the region have endorsed the deliveries.
Lebanon Sends 49 Back to Syria in 1st Deportation of Conflict
Lebanese General Security repatriated 49 Syrians and Syrian Palestinians who were arrested in Beirut’s Rafiq Hariri International Airport for possession of false documentation on Sunday.
The group was received by a detachment from Syrian General Security in the town of Jdaidet Yabous, across the border from Masnaa in eastern Lebanon.
Supreme Court Approves 2 Challengers to Assad in Presidential Election
The Supreme Constitutional Court has approved two challengers — Maher Abdul-Hafiz Hajjar and Hassan Abdullah al-Nouri — to President Assad in the June 3 Presidential election.
Hajjar and al-Nouri were the first two applicants last week.
Businessman Al-Nouri is a former MP, Minister of State for Administrative Development Affairs, and Secretary of the Damascus Chamber of Industry. He is now head of the National Initiative for Adminstration and Change in Syria.
Hajjar is a communist who formed the Popular Will Party in Aleppo.
Al-Nouri is the head of the National Initiative for Adminstration and Change in Syria.
Twenty-one other applicants were rejected.
The Court statement did not give a reason for the rejections, although the applicants had to get the support of 35 MPs to make the ballot. It said the 21 had the right to appeal between Monday and Wednesday and called on them not to speak to the meida.
Iran: “Free Elections Only Way to End Syria’s Crisis”
Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has said the only resolution for the Syrian crisis is June’s Presidential election.
“The sole diplomatic solution for the establishment of peace and stability in Syria is the holding of free elections,” Larijani said in a meeting with Mexico’s Ambassador to Iran on Saturday.
Larijani did not explain how the process — certain to put President Assad back in office, despite calls for a transitional governing authority by the opposition and the international community since 2012 — would be “free”.
Although 23 people have registered to run in the election, almost all are little-known and few are likely to obtain the backing of the 35 MPs necessary for inclusion on the ballot.
Most significant challengers to Assad are excluded from candidacy because of a new elections law. In addition, many displaced Syrians will be unable to vote in June.
(Cross-posted from Iran Daily)
Assad: Humanitarian Aid is “Top Priority” for Regime
President Assad has said humanitarian assistance is a “top priority” for the Syrian state.
Meeting members of the Higher Committee for Relief on Saturday, President al-Assad said it was necessity to double efforts “catering to the needs of all citizens who have been driven out of their homes due to terrorist crimes”. He cited responsibility for civilians “in the areas to where they fled due to terrorist acts, and also in the areas blockaded by terrorists”.
Assad did not mention civilians in the areas blockaded by the Syrian military, at least in the account provided by State news agency SANA.
The United Nations has criticized the regime for failing to allow emergency assistance through border crossings to at least 1.4 million displace Syrians.
On Saturday, the State newspaper al-Thawra responded by calling for the resignation of UN humanitarian head Valerie Amos. It said she had brough “together an entire anthology of false and hypocritical terms that we find in Western rhetoric” and written “her report with the approval of Western capitals”.
In an allusion to the dispute with the UN, Assad added a caveat to “the importance of delivering aid without delay and continuing field work with all concerned bodies domestically and abroad to ease relief operations” — it must be done “without compromising national sovereignty”.
