PHOTO: The Latest from Azaz & Fight Between Islamic State of Iraq and Other Factions
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The Latest from Azaz & Fight Between Islamic State of Iraq and Other Factions
Latest information from Azaz, the town near the border with Turkey taken over by Islamic State of Iraq and As-Sham today after a fight with the Northern Storm Brigade of the Free Syrian Army….
Liwa al-Tahwid of the Syrian Islamic Liberation Front, which is associated with FSA, has arrived with a force from Aleppo to confront ISIS.
The nearby border Bab al-Salam border post is still held by the Northern Storm Brigade and Liwa al-Tawhid.
An EA correspondent predicts:
ISIS will surrender. Liwa al-Tahwid cannot let go control of this strategically important place, which is needed to supply Aleppo city and its suburbs.
Aleppo Province ISIS stands alone against a huge force, in fact the biggest force in Aleppo Province. They can’t afford to pick a fight.
I tend to believe the arrogant ISIS commanders have greatly overestimated their power and capabilities, and didn’t think this through.
They will make a deal. If they really try to resist Tahwid, they’ll die.
Meanwhile, journalist Hassan Hassan gives this account of the conflict:
The clashes started in Azaz Ahli Hospital after ISIS objected to the presence of a German doctor with Doctors Beyond Borders.
Asifat Al Shamal [Northern Storm Brigade] refused to let him go. ISIS shot dead two Asifat fighters. Clashes started in hospital & spread out.
Asifat Al Shamal wasn’t expecting a fight. ISIS used heavy weapons. Asifat withdrew to the crossing. ISIS attacked but Asifat withheld it….
Asifat suggests ISIS members were divided over the reaction. A Kuwaiti fighter tried to calm down the situation but others were ruthless.
Battle Eases in Azaz — Truce Between Islamic State of Iraq and Free Syrian Army?
Its getting quiet in Azaz. Seems there are attempts to mediate & stop fighting btwn ISIS & FSA. Final death toll not known yet. #Syria
— Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) September 18, 2013
At Least 6 Killed in Azaz as Islamic State of Iraq Takes Over
Journalist Jenan Moussa updates on the fight between insurgent factions for Azaz, near the Turkish frontier, and the nearby border crossing:
Activist in Azaz tells me: 6 killed, 25 injured &70 missing in continuous clashes btwn AlQaeda linked ISIS group and FSA. ( not final nbs)
— Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) September 18, 2013
Eye witnesses: 'its a matter of time before FSA collapses &AlQaeda linked ISIS controls Bab ElSalamah border post on #turkey #Syria border.
— Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) September 18, 2013
ISIS In Control Of Border Town Azaz After Clashes With FSA
Activists are reporting clashes between fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Ash Sham and the Free Syrian Army in the border town of Azaz in Aleppo Province.
Journalist Jenan Moussa reports that Azaz is now under control of ISIS, though the Bab As Salam border crossing itself is still controlled by the Free Syrian Army:
Syrian Border town of Azaz in now under control of AlQaeda linked ISIS. Major major development. @Akhbar #Syria
— Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) September 18, 2013
Moussa said that the Syrian revolution flag of the FSA is still flying at the border crossing but that it is not certain whether the FSA can retain control of Bab As Salam.
An eyewitness in Azaz told Moussa that groups are shooting at each other in the center of the town with anti aircraft guns.
Three FSA fighters have died in the clashes, according to the Aleppo Media Center (AMC), among them Hazem Al Azaizy, the head of the AMC, who was killed by an ISIS sniper.
The AMC have reported on the clashes on their Facebook page here (WARNING – LINK CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGE)
Earlier on Wednesday, AMC reported that their activists had heard sounds of the clashes between ISIS and the FSA can be heard from the Turkish side of the Bab As Salam border crossing. Ambulances were taking the wounded to the nearby Kilis Hospital in Turkey.
AMC has some details on how the clashes started. They say that media activists said Wednesday’s fight clash began after ISIS fighters tried to detain a German physician working in a hospital in Azaz
Videos: In Aleppo, Free Syrian Army Bear Hands Out Candy To Children
If you go down in the Al Rashideen neighborhood of Aleppo today, you’ll never believe your eyes.
In fact, if you go down in the Al Rashideen neighborhood of Aleppo today, you’re going to get quite a surprise.
Why?
According to footage uploaded by activists, today’s the day that the FSA bear is having a picnic.
Well, to be more accurate, the FSA’s Liwa Al Ansar has mobilzed a giant bear to hand out candy bars to local schoolchildren…
Video: Insurgents Seize 2 Regime Checkpoints on Outskirts of Hama City
Reports Of Mass Killing Near Ariha [UPDATED]
Reports are circulating from activists of a mass killing in Kafr Zeeba near Ariha in Idlib Province. So far, most reports are saying that retreating pro-regime militias or Syrian Arab Army forces shot and killed civilians in the village.
Latest massacre in #Kafarzeeba near #Ariha in #Idlib. 24 civilians including children were field executed and burned! #Syria #ThisIsIdlib
— Abdullah (@SyrianSmurf) September 18, 2013
Regime forces are executing anyone they see for no particular reason. #Kafarzeeba #Idlib #Syria
— Abdullah (@SyrianSmurf) September 18, 2013
UPDATE: An EA correspondent tells us that the village is surrounded by Syrian Arab Army forces and it and the surrounding area is under regime control. Free Syrian Army fighters in the area are surrounded by regime forces. It is unlikely that civilians in the village will be able to get video of the mass killing out.
We are waiting for more information.
Video: Devastation In Daraya After Heavy Regime Strikes, Shelling
This footage from Wednesday shows a small part of the extensive devastation in residential areas of Daraya, in the Damascus suburbs, following heavy regime airstrikes and shelling.
Even after the August 21 chemical weapons attacks, Assad’s forces have not yet succeeded in taking control of the Damascus suburbs. Yet, even if the regime does manage to overrun these opposition-controlled areas, the question remains — how will the Assad regime govern towns like these, whose infrastructure has been damaged beyond repair, whose civilians have mostly fled, and those who remain alive were pro-Opposition?
Video: Air Raids, Mortar Shelling In Deir Ez Zor
Regime MiG warplanes have carried out several raids in Deir Ez Zor city on Wednesday, while regime forces are shelling the city with mortars.
This footage shows a black plume of smoke rising after two rockets hit the Al Hamidiyah neighborhood:
In Moadamiyyah Ash Sham, A Local Man Curses Assad
A rare clip of one of the civilians trapped in Moadamiyyah Ash Sham — the site of one of the August 21 chemical attacks and which has been under continual heavy bombardment including with air strikes and artillery fire since then.
The man expresses pain at the desperate situation in the city and curses Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
Ryabkov To Meet Assad In Damascus
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov is to meet Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in Damascus later on Wednesday, Interfax reports.
Earlier on Wednesday, Ryabkov said that talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al Muallem had gone well. RIA Novosti quoted Ryabkov as saying:
Talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs were very businesslike, detailed, and focused on the specifics of those matters that the OPCW must implement in the coming days and weeks… The Syrian side has a responsible approach to these issues, the most important of which is the provision of initial data for the OPCW about its chemical program in Syria, regarding stocks of relevant substances and where they are stored.
Russian Deputy FM Says Moscow “Disappointed” With UN Inspections
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who is in Damascus for meetings with the Syrian government, told RIA Novosti on Wednesday that Moscow is “disappointed” with the “politicized, one-sided” UN inspections in Syria:
We are disappointed, to say the least, with the approach shown by the UN Secretariat and the UN inspectors who were in Syria, who prepared the report selectively and in an incomplete manner, without regard to the circumstances to which we have repeatedly pointed out, without collecting materials from the other three episodes, which they were urged to do by the Syrian side, and which we urged them to do…
Without a complete picture of what’s going on here, it is impossible to describe the findings, arrived at by the UN experts led by Åke Sellström, as anything but politicized, biased and one-sided arrived at by the UN experts.
Immediately after the Assad regime’s chemical weapons attacks of August 21, Moscow tried to deflect attention by pointing to a March 19 incident in Khan al-Assal near Aleppo, in which at least 26 people died.
The regime and the insurgency accused each other of responsibility for an attack which may have involved chemical weapons.
UN inspectors were in Damascus, preparing to go to Khan al-Assal and two other sites of alleged incidents, when the August 21 attacks took at least 1,360 lives near the capital.
Video: In Moadamiyyah, West Ghouta, Regime Airstrikes, Shelling Continue As Regime Forces Try To Storm Town
The regime continues its offensive against the Damascus suburbs, with more airstrikes on Wednesday morning in the West Ghouta town of Moadamiyyah Ash Sham, one of the sites hit by the August 21 chemical weapons strikes. The town has suffered daily shelling since August 21, and those civilians who remain in the town are suffering from shortages of basic items because of a months-long siege by the regime.
Also on Wednesday, activists report fierce regime artillery shelling on Moadamiyyah amid violent clashes on the northern front as regime forces continue their attempts to storm the town.
Activists said that the shelling is coming from the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Armored Division base near the village of Al Horjelah, southeast of Moadamiyyah.
Casualties
The Local Coordination Committees claim 70 people were killed on Tuesday, including 34 martyrs in Damascus and it suburbs.
The Violations Documentation Center puts the number of dead at 73,329 since the conflict began in March 2011, an increase of 92 from Tuesday. Of the dead, 55,052 are civilians, a rise of 42 from yesterday.
Wednesday Summary
SUMMARY: The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — US, Britain, France, Russia, and China — have begun talks on a Western-drafted resolution to take over and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons.
Tuesday’s hour-long meeting was marked by disagreement over the wording of the proposal. The US-British-French draft includes a demand for action under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, with use of force and non-military measures, if the Assad regime does not comply with the plan.
Moscow, which launched the proposal for the handover of chemical weapons in exchange for a suspension of the threat of US airstrikes, objects to the provision.
“The resolution of the Security Council will not contain any reference to Chapter VII,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
Lavrov went farther in suggesting that insurgents carried out the chemical weapons attacks near Damascus on August 21: “We have the most serious reasons to suggest that this was a provocation. Some of our partners have stated dogmatically that only the regime could use chemical weapons … but the truth should be ascertained.”
The five delegations will convene again on Wednesday, diplomats said, but it is unclear when a vote on the resolution will take place.
In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry maintained, after a closed-door briefing of legislators, “It is important that that threat of force stay on the table in order to guarantee the compliance of the Assad regime. So we will continue to press this issue.”