LATEST: At G20, Ban Ki Moon Promotes Political Solution To Syria Crisis
Key Developments:
Political
*Senators Will See CIA Video Showing Victims Of Damascus Chemical Weapons
*Top European Officials Warn Against Military Intervention
*Senate Foreign Relations Committee Approves Resolution Authorizing Force In Syria
Military
*Jabhat Al Nusra Claim Responsibility For Assassinating Army Commander In Aleppo Province
*Russian FM To Meet His Syrian Counterpart In Moscow On Monday
*Syrian Army General To Voice Of Russia: We’re Ready For A Strike
At G20, Ban Ki Moon Promotes Political Solution To Syria Crisis
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called on leaders at the G20 summit in St Petersburg to “push even harder” to for a political solution to the Syria crisis.
Ban told UNTV that, “the current situation caused by the allegation of chemical weapons use and deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria urgently requires world leaders to focus their political will to address this issue”.
Lakhdar Brahimi, the Joint Special Representative of the UN and the League of Arab States for Syria, said the crisis had reached an “urgent” stage and added that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov might organize a special meeting on Syria.
Senators Will See CIA Video Showing Victims Of Damascus Chemical Weapons Attacks
Senators are to view a video, produced by the CIA, that shows the effects of the August 21 chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told reporters on Thursday.
Feinstein said she asked the CIA for the video to show what the effects of the attack on victims and to explain how the intelligence community determined that chemical weapons were used.
Feinstein said that the video, which shows some of the victims of the attacks explains “”hat pinpointed eyes mean, what the convulsions mean, a number of aspects.”
She added: “It’s horrendous.So we are having that DVD multiplied, and we’re going to get it out to every member of the Senate and possibly members of the House so that they can, at their leisure, go through it.”
Médecins Sans Frontières Surgeon Killed
A Syrian surgeon working for Médecins Sans Frontières, Dr. Muhammad Abyad, has been killed in northern Syria.
MSF said Abyad’s body was found on Tuesday in Aleppo province. The circumstances of the death remain unclear.
Top European Officials Warn Against Military Intervention
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned against military intervention in Syria on Thursday.
Van Rompuy described the regime’s chemical weapons attack near Damascus on August 21 as “abhorrent” and a crime against humanity, but he said, “There is no military solution….”Only a political solution can end the terrible bloodshed, grave violations of human rights and the far-reaching destruction of Syria.”
Van Rompuy continued, “While respecting the recent calls for action, we underscore at the same time the need to move forward with addressing the Syrian crisis through the U.N. process.”
Video: Syrian Soccer Star Turned Insurgent Abdul Basit Sarut Sings In Homs
Footage posted Wednesday shows Abdul Basit Sarut, once famous for being Syria’s under-23 goalie, singing in support of the opposition from Homs.
Last year, Sarut put his professional career as a soccer player on hold to help with the opposition in their demonstrations against the Syrian government in Homs.
This Al Jazeera video report, from November 2012, shows Sarut explaining his choice.
Video: Regime Helicopters Drop Barrel Bombs On Saraqib, Idlib
Footage from Thursday shows regime helicopters dropping explosive barrel bombs on Saraqib in Idlib Province. Saraqib is a short distance from Ariha, which the regime recaptured from insurgents earlier this week. As the linked map shows, Saraqib like Ariha is a key location on the road to Aleppo. The regime does not yet have full control over that road, which means it is unable to guarantee the safety of its supply convoys traveling along it.
Russian FM To Meet His Syrian Counterpart In Moscow On Monday
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is to meet his Syrian counterpart, Walid Al Muallem, in Moscow on Monday for talks, Interfax reports.
Putin’s Press Secretary:”Serious Disagreements” Between Obama And Putin
There are “serious disagreements” between U.S. President Obama and his Russian counterpart, even though relations between the two leaders are “constructive”, Putin’s Press Secretary Dmitri Peskov told reporters at a press briefing at the G20 Summit on Thursday, according to Interfax.
RIA Novosti has more details of the press conference, citing Peskov as repeating Moscow’s line that “credible and legitimate evidence” that Assad used chemical weapons was an essential prerequisite of a strike against him.
“Russia encourages our partners to look at the situation very seriously and objectively from all sides and not rush to adjust the facts for some need, for whatever reasons,” Peskov said.
Peskov also commented on Syrian support for Assad: “It can hardly be possible to say unequivocally that the majority of the population does not support the government. Neither London, Washington nor Moscow can evaluate it, as we don’t have enough data.”
Group’s Execution of 7 Regime Soldiers Becomes “Brutality” Throughout Insurgency
C.J. Chivers of The New York Times, using the testimony of a former opposition fighter and video, describes an incident in which a small insurgent group captured and executed seven soldiers:
Known in northern Syria as “the Uncle” because two of his deputies are his nephews, [Abdul Samad] Issa leads a relatively unknown group of fewer than 300 fighters, one of his former aides said….
A trader and livestock herder before the war, Mr. Issa formed a fighting group early in the uprising by using his own money to buy weapons and underwrite the fighters’ expenses.
His motivation [for the executions], his former aide said, was just as the poem he recited said: revenge.
What is even more interesting, however, is how The New York Times extrapolates this one incident and a small faction into extremism through the insurgency, “Brutality of Syrian Rebels Posing Dilemma in West”.
Reports That Regime Is Bombarding Kuwairis Military Airbase With Barrel Bombs
Activists in Syria are reporting that regime helicopters are dropping explosive barrels bombs around Kuwairis military air base in Aleppo Province.
The move indicates that the regime is concerned that it may lose the base, which insurgents have been trying to capture for months now. Early last month, insurgents dealt the regime a blow by capturing the key Menagh airbase in Aleppo Province.
The capture of the Kuwairis base would also be a great loss for the regime, and would reduce the regime’s ability to bomb targets in the Aleppo countryside. The airbase is home to the 3rd Flying Training Squadron, which has L-39ZA Albatross jet trainer aircraft used for aerial bombardments during the conflict.
Moscow Denies Reports That Aircraft Carrier To Be Sent To Syria
The Russian Ministry of Defense on Thursday denied reports that Moscow is sending the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov to Syria.
The Ministry said that the aircraft carrier was currently doing routine work in the Barents Sea and that there were no plans to send it to Syrian waters.
The denial comes after reports on Wednesday that Rossiskaya Gazeta had cited a Russian naval source as saying the aircraft carrier was being sent to the Russian naval base at Tartous, Syria.
Syrian Army General Tells Voice Of Russia: We’re Ready For A Strike
The Russian media on Thursday are highlighting comments by Mohammad Issa, who told Voice of Russia that the Syrian military are ready for any U.S. strike.
Issa said that the Syrian military were fully prepared and that several army units had been moved to strategically important locations, and that medical supplies had been transferred to “towns and villages”.
Jabhat Al Nusra Claim Responsibility For Assassinating Army Commander In Aleppo Province
Islamist faction Jabhat Al Nusra have issued a statement claiming responsibility for the assassination of a Syrian Army commander, whom they name as Hassan Khashir, on August 27. The statement says that Khashir was the head of the national defense forces in Aleppo and that the assassination took place near the village of Kharbeh As-Samin as he fled from Khanasser to Al Hamam.
According to the statement, Jabhat Al Nusra planted explosive devices in the car used by Khashir, which exploded, “ripping his body to pieces and his car into parts, and spewing the car engine about five meters away from the car wreckage, from the force of the blast”.
The statement includes two photographs, one claiming to be of the car after the blast and the other an image of Khashir, which appears to have been Photoshopped so that it looks like Khashir is sitting near a wall with images of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and Hezbollah leader Nasrallah.
Media Continue To Put Out Misleading Info on Deaths from Chemical Weapons
Some media outlets continue to make a fundamental mistake in reporting the death toll from the August 21 chemical weapons attacks, falsely claiming that estimates “vary widely”.
The Los Angeles Times, in an article publicized by The Guardian, is the latest to put out the misleading story:
Congress to authorize a military strike against Syria, the [Obama] administration has asserted that the government of President Bashar Assad killed 1,429 people, including at least 426 children, in an Aug. 21 attack on the suburbs of Damascus.
But Britain and France have cited far lower numbers of confirmed deaths, raising questions about the intelligence the White House is using to make its case to launch missile strikes against Syria….
British intelligence organizations said last week that they believed at least 350 people had been killed. French intelligence said Monday that it had confirmed at least 281 deaths through open-source videos, although its experts had created models that were consistent with as many as 1,500 deaths.
In fact, both Britain and France said their numbers are only part of the casualties. The British used the figure provided by Medecins Sans Frontieres — based on reports from some, but not all, of the hospitals near Damascus who treated victims — and the French made clear that the total from videos was not a portion of the estimate from “models” but from local sources and activist groups used by the Americans for their 1,429 figure.
The Local Coordination Committees reported on August 21 that at least 1,360 people died in the regime’s attacks. The 1,429 figure may reflect subsequent fatalities, or it may be a slight confusion with the casualty total from all of Syria on the day of the chemical assault.
James Miller has more in a commentary on Dissected News.
Interfax: Syrian Air Defenses Can Destroy All Enemy Planes, Tomahawks
Russian news agency Interfax on Thursday issues a warning, in the form of an interview with an “informed military source in Moscow”, who says that Syria’s air defenses are “almost 100% certainly” capable of taking down enemy planes and U.S. Tomahawk missiles.
The source, who is later identified as “one of former heads of the Joint CIS Air Defense System”, says that, “Syria’s air defense system is very effective, in that it has been constructed in the image and likeness of the former Soviet Union’s air defense system.”
Children Protest In Muadamiyyeh Ash-Sham: Assad Killed My Family
Footage from Thursday shows young children in Muadamiyyat Ash-Sham, the city in West Ghouta hit by one of the August 21 chemical weapons attacks, protesting against the lack of international support.
Russia: Insurgents Responsible for March 19 Chemical Weapons Attack
Trying to counter claims of the Assad regime’s responsibility for the chemical weapons attacks near Damascus on August 21 that killed at least 1,360 people, the Russian Foreign Ministry has declared that inquiries into an incident in Khan al-Assal on March 19 indicate insurgents used sarin.
The Ministry said that the munitions in the attack near Aleppo did not belong to standard Syrian army ammunition, and that the shell carrying the substance was similar to those made by an insurgent group.
The regime and insurgents have long blamed each other for the deaths at Khan al-Assal. Russia has maintained for months that the opposition is responsible.
A United Nations team, after months of attempts with the Assad regime, was on the verge of examining the site when the August 21 chemical attacks overtook its effort.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also blamed the West over its current allegations against the Syrian military: “Massive stove-piping of various information [is] aimed at placing the responsibility for the alleged chemical weapons use in Syria on Damascus, even though the results of the UN investigation have not yet been revealed.”
Casualties
The Local Coordination Committees claim 72 people were killed on Wednesday including 25 in Damascus and its suburbs, 18 in Aleppo Province, and 11 in Idlib Province.
The Violations Documentation Center put the number of dead at 72,163 since the conflict began in March 2011, an increase of 73 from Wednesday. Of the dead, 54,439 are civilians, a rise of 48 from yesterday.
Thursday Summary
By a 10-7 vote, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved a resolution authorizing force in response to the use of chemical weapons by the regime in Syria.
The approval clears the way for a vote on the resolution by the full Senate next week.
The outcome still poses problems for the Obama Administration. On the one hand, it sets limits on any operations, with a 90-day time limit and no use of ground troops.
On the other, Committee member John McCain, who ran against Obama for the Presidency in 2008, said he could not vote for the resolution as it stood because it did not go far enough with military action.
Meanwhile, the parallel committee in the House of Representative questioned Secretary of Chuck Hagel,and Secretary of State John Kerry.
The committee chair, Republican Ed Royce, challenged the Administration, “Over a year ago President Obama drew, in his words, a red line, yet only last week did the administration begin to consult with Congress on what that means.”
