LATEST: Syrian National Coalition Calls For Restraint In Kurdish Majority Town Amuda Following Clashes
The Syrian military has made another notable advance — three weeks after re-claiming the strategic town of Qusayr in the south — taking control of Tal Kalakh (pre-conflict population: 55,000), on the border with Lebanon.
Unlike the battle for Qusayr, which lasted three weeks, the regime forces moved into Tal Kalakh with little resistance. Accounts differ on the capture.
Patrick Cockburn of The Independent, effectively embedded with the Syrian military, said 39 local officers of the Free Syrian Army surrendered without incident.
Activists of the US-based Syrian Support Group claim that, after two FSA soldiers surrendered and were freed — encouraging others to come forward — 15 insurgents were executed and their bodies burnt. The activists declare that the Syrian military and pro-regime militia then carried out house-to-house searches, arresting some civilians.
What appears to be beyond dispute, however, is that insurgent factions are not only on the defensive but retreating from positions in the south. In contrast to the foreign weapons reaching the insurgency in the north across the Turkish border, opposition fighters near the Lebanese and Jordanian borders claim that few supplies — reflecting the tension between the US and other countries over whether to provide military equipment overtly — are reaching them.
Cockburn points to the military reality: “The cache of [insurgent] weapons on show by the army –– a few mortar bombs, rockets and explosives –– were not very impressive.”
However, instead of noting the issue over supply of weapons to the insurgetns, he offers a different narrative of local people leading the way to deals allowing the regime to re-take towns:
Peace did not break out all of a sudden and it had been preceded by a series of local ceasefires and negotiations arranged by leading local townspeople. Monsignor Michel Naaman, a Syriac Catholic priest in Homs, who has often taken part in mediating such agreements said that “older people in the town had seen much of it damaged and did not want it destroyed”….
The only way to bring the political temperature down is by local ceasefires and peace deals. The government is gaining ground this year as the rebels did in 2011 but nobody is going to win on the battlefield.
Syrian State TV reporting on the regime advance into Tal Kalakh:
Latest Updates, From Top to Bottom
Syrian National Coalition Calls For Restraint In Amuda
In the wake of recent violent clashes in the majority Kurdish town of Amuda on the Turkish border — see EA’s special report — the Syrian National Coalition urged both sides on Friday to exercise restraint.
“We urge the people of Amuda to calm the tensions and to prosecute those responsible for violating the laws in order to prevent similar actions from occurring in the future…The Syrian Coalition condemns any behavior that restricts fundamental liberties and infringes on people’s freedom of expression, assembly and peaceful protest. Demonstrations are an important way to protest government actions and they must remain peaceful. Any violations of the peaceful nature of these protests will be tried and prosecuted,” the Istanbul-based Coalition said in a statement.
Footage: Friday Protests In Binnish, Kafr Zita, Ltamenah, Deir Az-Zur, Aleppo
Footage of Friday protests in Binnish, in Idlib province in northwestern Syria; Kafr Zita and Al Lataminah in Hama province in northern Syria; Deir Az Zur in eastern Syria; and Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.
Protest in Al Lataminah. The first placard reads “We Call On The FSA To Liberate Talkalakh and Al Qusayr From The Persians And The Shabiha”:
Protest in Binnish:
Protest in Kafr Zita. Protesters are waving opposition flags and a white flag that appears to be the inverse of the black Islamic State of Iraq and As-Sham banner:
The main protest in Deir Az Zur, in the Al Hamidiya neighborhood in the city center. The atmosphere appears rather festive, and there are women and a large number of children in the crowd, including some with opposition flags painted on their faces. One woman is wearing a Palestinian-style kaffiyeh:
In this protest in Aleppo’s As-Sukkari district, some demonstrators wave Jabhat Al Nusra flags.
This protest is in the eastern Tariq Al Bab distort, where an attack on a bakery last August left several people — including at least three children — dead. Many protesters here are seen with Islamic State of Iraq and Jabhat Al Nusra flags:
In the Bustan Al Qasr district in southern Aleppo, there are more opposition flags to be seen, and a child performs a solo number:
Yalla Souriya blog shares this photograph of Friday’s protest in Bustan Al Qasr
State TV Broadcasts “Confession” By Opposition Fighter
Syrian State TV on Thursday broadcast what it said was a confession by an opposition fighter, named as Basel Mohammad Al Ali.
Ali “confessed” to receiving assistance from Israel via the Golan Heights and of working with Jabhat al Nusra to target the al-Ikhbaria channel.
It is not clear under what circumstances Ali’s “confession” was taped.
This is not the first time that Syrian State TV has aired “confessions” from detainees. In May, State TV broadcast what it said was a confession by citizen journalist Ali Mahmoud Othman, who was arrested in March.
Russian FM: Arming Syrian Opposition Contradicts Geneva-2 Conference
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that plans to arm the Syrian opposition contradict the very idea of the Geneva-2 peace conference.
Speaking to reporters during talks with his Moroccan counterpart, Saad al-Othman, Lavrov said:
“The opposition, who are supported by the West and several regional countries, announced that they will not attend the conference until the regime agrees to capitulate, and until they have achieved a military balance in the field. The recent stepping up of activity to increase arms to the opposition can mean only that this preliminary condition is supported by the West and other countries, who are preparing to provide such arms to the opposition, which contradicts the very idea of the conference, which should begin without preconditions.”
RIA Novosti later quoted Lavrov as urging the UN Security Council to investigate reports that the Syrian opposition had received “contraband weapons” from Libya.
“If this is true, then it is a gross violation of the UN Security Council’s complete embargo on weapons from and to Libya,” Lavrov said, addng that the US and other media had reported that shipments of weapons were being purchased and shipped to Syria via the Persian Gulf.
Footage: Badr Martyrs Brigade Undertake Reconstruction in Al Ashrafiya, Aleppo
As fighting between insurgents and regime forces continues in Aleppo’s northern district of Al Ashrafiya, footage posted on Friday shows the Revolutionary Council of the Badr Martyrs Brigade engaged in a different sort of battle — that for hearts and minds of local residents.
See our separate analysis this morning of the importance of “reconstruction” for both insurgents and the Assad regime.
The Badr Martyrs Brigade has posted footage of its members undertaking reconstruction work in the city, working with local residents to undertake jobs like repairing a mosque ahead of Ramadan, repairing electricity cables and clearing up debris caused by regime shelling. The group is also involved in repairing and widening roads.
Map of Al Ashrafiya:
Video: Repairing an electricity cable:
Video: Expanding the Bukhari Mosque ahead of Ramadan, after insurgents claim that most of the neighborhood’s mosques have been destroyed or damaged in regime shelling:
Video: Clearing up rubble:
UN Chemical Weapons Inspectors In Turkey
UN inspectors are in Turkey to gather information about possible use of chemical weapons in Syria having been blocked from entering the country.
The team of inspectors has been on standby in Cyprus since April and its leader, Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom, met Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday. Sellstrom is expected to deliver an interim report in July, although the UN has admitted it may just be oral and – since it is impossible for him to make definitive conclusions about the samples he has received – is likely to be inconclusive.
How the CIA Vets “Moderate” Insurgents
The satirist Karl reMarks describes how the CIA will establish which insurgents are moderate before finally distributing military equipment to them:
CIA Agent: Come in please, I’m agent Johnson and this is agent Johnson. And you are?
Syrian rebel: Mohamed Asa’ad.
CIA Agent: Asa’ad? Like the president?
Syrian rebel: No, no, in Arabic it’s different, it’s Asa’ad, not Assad.
CIA Agent: It sounds the same to me.
Syrian rebel: No, it’s Ayen, not A, say Ayen. Asa’ad.
CIA Agent: Assad.
Syrian rebel: No, you’re not doing it right. Asa’ad.
CIA Agent: ok, never mind, I’ll call you Mohamed. Would you like a beer?
Syrian rebel: No, thank you.
CIA Agent: Is that for religious reasons?
Syrian rebel: No, but it’s 9 in the morning and I have a long day ahead.
Casualties
The Local Coordination Committees claim 91 people were killed on Thursday, including 45 in Damascus and its suburbs and 18 in Daraa Province.
The Violations Documentation Center reports that 64,832 people have been slain since the start of the conflict in March 2011. Of these, 49,702 were civilians.
