Posts tagged syria
Escenarios Regionales
Reflecting on the world of today
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Jordan is routinely and unlawfully rejecting Palestinian refugees, single males, and undocumented people seeking asylum at its border with Syria. President Obama should seek assurances from King Abdullah II that Jordan will not reject any asylum seekers at its border with Syria. The risks to their lives in Syria are too serious to send anyone back at the present time.
Photo: Syrian refugees fleeing violence in their country cross into Jordanian territory, near Mafraq on February 18, 2013. © 2013 Reuters
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“A Humiliating Situation”: Syrian Refugees in Lebanon
Meet some of the more than 120,000 Syrian refugees living in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon while their country is at war. Families are living in camps, unfinished houses, and abandoned buildings; most are not getting adequate aid.
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Syria crisis: Food aid ‘cannot reach a million people’
One million Syrians are going hungry and helpless due to the 22-month civil conflict in the country, the UN says.
The World Food Program (WFP) says it is helping 1.5 million Syrians, but continued fighting and an inability to use the port of Tartus to deliver food mean many people are not receiving aid.
The UN estimates that more than 60,000 people have been killed in the uprising, which began in March 2011.
Rebels have gained control of swathes of northern Syria in recent months.
The increasingly dangerous situation meant the WFP had pulled its staff out of its offices in Homs, Aleppo, Tartus and Qamisly, said agency spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs.
Late 2012 saw a sharp rise in the number of attacks on WFP aid trucks, said the agency, which has also been hit by fuel shortages.
Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency said the number of refugees fleeing the violence in Syria had leapt by nearly 100,000 in the past month.
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Air strike aftermath in Syria - Rough Cuts
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s air force continued launching strikes across Syria on Thursday. The U.N. estimates more than 60,000 people have been killed since the civil war began there. (January 3, 2013)
More than 60,000 people have died in the Syrian uprising and civil war, the United Nations said on Wednesday, dramatically raising the death toll in a struggle that shows no sign of ending.
Dozens were killed in a Damascus suburb when a government air strike turned a petrol station into an inferno, incinerating drivers who had rushed there for a rare chance to fill their tanks, activists said.
“I counted at least 30 bodies. They were either burnt or dismembered,” said Abu Saeed, an activist who arrived at the area an hour after the raid occurred at 1:00 PM (1100 GMT) in Muleiha, a suburb on the eastern edge of the capital.
U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said in Geneva that researchers cross-referencing seven sources over five months of analysis had listed 59,648 people killed in Syria between March 15, 2011 and November 30, 2012.
“The number of casualties is much higher than we expected and is truly shocking,” she said. “Given that there has been no let-up in the conflict since the end of November, we can assume that more than 60,000 people have been killed by the beginning of 2013.”
In Focus: Syria’s Long, Destructive Civil War
Twenty-one months after the conflict in Syria began as a popular uprising, rebel forces are making gains, tactics are changing, and the threat of chemical warfare has made an appearance. Syrian rebels reached a level of cooperation, forming a single entity — the Syrian National Coalition. The alliance has received recognition from Arab states and support from NATO members in its goal of unseating Syria’s President, Bashar al-Assad, and replacing his government. But U.S. intelligence reports have noted activity within Syrian government-controlled chemical weapons facilities, and President Barack Obama has warned that the use of such weapons against rebels would cross a “red line.” There are signs that al-Assad’s hold on power is slipping as rebels gain ground and support, and even Russia, a longtime ally, has reportedly sent ships to the Syrian coast for a possible evacuation of Russian citizens. Collected here are images of this bloody conflict from just the past few weeks.
See more. [Images: AP, Reuters, Getty]
Would the Syrian rebels have proven a better choice for Time’s ‘Person of the Year’?
Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad have dropped incendiary bombs on populated areas, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday, calling on the authorities to stop using a weapon that causes “especially cruel human suffering.”
CARETAKER A rebel fighter carried his son after Friday prayers in Aleppo, Syria. (Photo: Odd Andersen / AFP-Getty via The Wall Street Journal)
This amazing photograph.
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Western powers are whipping up fears of a fateful move to the use of chemical weapons in Syria’s civil war as a “pretext for intervention”, President Bashar al-Assad’s deputy foreign minister said on Thursday.
He spoke as Germany’s cabinet approved stationing Patriot anti-missile batteries on Turkey’s border with Syria, a step requiring deployment of NATO troops that Syria fears could permit imposition of a no-fly zone over its territory.
“Syria stresses again, for the tenth, the hundredth time, that if we had such weapons, they would not be used against its people. We would not commit suicide,” Faisal Maqdad said.
READ ON: Syria says chemical scare “pretext for intervention”
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The Arab Spring, the Syrian civil war what they mean for the conflict in Gaza
A lot has happened since the 2008/09 Gaza conflict. While the rebellion in Syria means the Jewish state can expect little substantial interference from one of its long-time adversaries, the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010 means Israel can also expect little public support from Turkey. Here’s a look at the geopolitical situation in the region today.
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On Friday, more than 11,000 refugees fled Syria in a single day. Today we present photographer Matilde Gattoni’s portraits of the swallows of Syria, female refugees seeking safety in Lebanon from the violence of their homeland.
Pictured: Rasha, 27, from Soran Jdeideh. Aside from her husband and two children, all of Rasha’s family is still in Syria, including a brother who is serving in the Army. She is concerned he might get killed by the Free Syrian Army in her village. “As a Syrian, personally, I don’t know what freedom is,” she said. She does not want to return to Syria.
While much recent media attention has been focused on Hurricane Sandy and America’s presidential election, Syria’s horrific civil war continues. In some places, it has worsened. Aerial bombardment of civilian neighborhoods, deadly sniper fire, brutal street fighting, assassinations, and summary executions have become the norm in Syria. Cease-fire agreements have collapsed, rebel forces remain disorganized, foreign intervention is still hamstrung, and no path to peace appears to be forming yet. Britain is now reportedly looking for options to circumvent an arms embargo in order to supply rebels with weaponry. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad remains defiant, stating in an interview with Russia Today that he planned “live and die in Syria,” adding, “I am tougher than Gaddafi.” Collected here are images of this bloody conflict from just the past few weeks.
See more. [Images: AP, Reuters, Getty]
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Sooner rather than later there will be change, a transition. Our only hope is that this happens before more blood is shed, and before Syria self-destructs more than it already has.
(via shortformblog)
In Focus: Destruction Comes to Aleppo
Warfare and chaos have come to the ancient streets of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. Rebel groups battling Syrian government forces moved into the metropolis in recent weeks, in an effort to liberate it from the control of Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. Fierce street battles and air attacks followed, leaving behind a shattered city, strewn with charred rubble and bodies in many places. An estimated 30,000 Syrians have already been killed in the past 18 months of civil war, and as many as 700,000 will have fled the country by the end of 2012, according to the United Nations.
See more. [Images: AP, Reuters]
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Child refugees describe life in Syria – video interactive
Save the Children filmed the accounts of six Syrian children living with their families in a refugee camp in the north of Jordan. Over 65% of camp inhabitants are children, many of whom are traumatised by the violence they have witnessed in Syria. The children describe hearing bombs dropping above their heads and the sadness of losing family members in the conflict.
