13 bodies found bound, hands tied in Syria

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By the CNN Wire Staff


http://i.imgur.com/J5XIz.jpg

(CNN) -- As world anger mounted toward the Syrian regime after the Houla massacre last week, Russia and China staunchly renewed their opposition to military intervention in the volatile nation.

"China opposes military intervention and does not support forced regime change," said Liu Weimin, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman. "The fundamental route to resolving the Syrian issue is still for all sides to fully support Annan's mediation efforts and push all the relevant parties to carry out diplomatic dialogue."

"One cannot take decisions on military operations in Syria by being guided by only emotions," Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported, quoting Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov.

More than 100 people, including many children, died in Houla on Friday, a suburb of the anti-government bastion of Homs in western Syria.

A small number of the victims in Houla were killed by shelling, artillery and tank fire, while the majority appeared to have been executed, said Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. human rights office. Government forces were involved in the massacre, he said Tuesday, but the regime blamed the violence on terrorists and pledged to conduct an investigation.

The carnage prompted worldwide anger at the Syrian regime, however. And, politicians in the West and the Arab world began to rethink the need for tougher action to confront the Bashar al-Assad regime..

Among the ideas are more aid to opposition politicians and fighters, and outside military help, such as airstrikes, safe zones and no-fly zones. Tougher sanctions and political settlements that would lead to al-Assad's departure are also on the table.

But Russia said the U.N. Security Council statement Sunday condemning the incident was for now "a strong enough signal to the Syria parties."

"We believe that considering any new measures to affect the situation would be premature for the Security Council," Gatilov said, according to Interfax news agency. He was commenting on German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle's call for a new Security Council session.

"It is necessary to provide a chance for the Kofi Annan plan's implementation, and it is important for all foreign players, including our Western partners, to have the necessary effect on the opposition. We deem it inappropriate when the opposition's leadership represented by the Syrian National Council openly calls for armed combat until the U.N. gives the green light to armed intervention."

Denisov, responding French President Francois Hollande's statement that a military option can't be ruled out, said, "the Russian position is not formed on the basis of emotions, which our respected French partners have unfortunately not escaped in the formulation of their position." He was quoted by the Russian news outlet RIA Novosti.

The "question of internal interference" is not being driven by "analysis and a calculated approach," Denisov said.

"The question that always arises in such situations is -- what next?"

China urged the warring sides in Syria to resume diplomatic dialogue and support a peace plan by international envoy Kofi Annan. China and Russia have vetoed U.N. Security Council resolutions condemning President Bashar al-Assad's regime for attacks on protesters.

The renewed support from Beijing and Moscow come as Syrian regime forces battled with rebels in various areas Wednesday, including the capital of Damascus and the provinces of Damascus countryside, Aleppo and Hama, and observers found more than a dozen corpses in Deir Ezzor.

Intense shelling destroyed homes in Homs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based opposition group. Shelling was also reported in the cities of Douma, Haish and Kafromah, the group said.

At least 13 people were killed Wednesday, including five in Douma, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said. The LCC also said regime forces launched tear-gas grenades at Aleppo University students and made arrests.

Meanwhile, the head of the U.N. observer mission said 13 bodies were discovered Tuesday night in the area of Assukar, 30 miles east of Deir Ezzor in the eastern part of the country.

"All the bodies had their hands tied behind their backs and some appear to have been shot in the head from a short distance," according to a statement from the office of Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, chief military observer and head of the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria.

Mood called the act "appalling and inexcusable" and urged "all parties to exercise restraint and end the cycle of violence."

The Houla carnage prompted international outrage and assertions that the incident could lead to a new chapter or a "tipping point" in the Syrian crisis. As the killings mounted on Wednesday, diplomats continued their consultations.

U.N. and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Tuesday. Annan renewed his appeal for the regime to stop violence against its people. He expressed the international community's concerns about the Houla massacre and other attacks and urged adherence to his six-point peace plan to end the conflict.

The U.N. Security Council, the regime and opposition groups have backed Annan's peace plan, which called for a cease-fire on April 12. The observer mission was formed to monitor the cease-fire and the government's adherence to the plan. However, violence persists, with more than 12,000 dead since March 2011, according to the British Ambassador to the U.N. Mark Lyall Grant. Other estimates from the United Nations and opposition groups range from 9,000 to 14,000 dead.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, the deputy joint special envoy on Syria, will update the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday as international outrage over the massacre continues.

Also, Annan met with the prime minister and foreign minister of neighboring Jordan on Wednesday about the Syrian crisis, his spokesman said.

"It is important to find a solution that will lead to a democratic transition in Syria and find a way of ending the killings as soon as possible. And in that context, I am very grateful for the support I am receiving from the government of Jordan and other governments around the world. With goodwill and hard work, we can succeed," Annan said.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it placed sanctions on on the Syria International Islamic Bank Wednesday for acting on behalf of the Commercial Bank of Syria, Syria's largest commercial bank, and providing services to the Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank -- both already under U.S. and international sanctions.

The department said the government of Qatar is taking similar actions against the Syrian International Islamic Bank.

"We commend the Government of Qatar for its important regional and international role in maintaining economic pressure on the Assad regime," the Treasury Department said.

About a dozen nations -- including the United States -- have said they are expelling Syrian envoys in a coordinated action over the killings, and the action spurred talk about options to deal with the al-Assad regime.

Turkey is the latest country to take action against Syrian diplomats.

It told envoys to leave the country within 72 hours, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. They include the charge d'affaires in the Turkish capital of Ankara and all the other diplomatic personnel at the embassy.

"It is out of the question to remain silent and unresponsive against this action that is in the character of a crime against humanity. This fatal crime against humanity that those who massacre civilian people ... cannot remain unpunished. It is the joint responsibility of the international community to show the necessary reactions as one voice, in unity against this shameful crime," the ministry said.

The Netherlands, Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Bulgaria, Canada and the United States also announced that they are expelling some Syrian diplomats.

In retaliation, Syrian state television reported that Damascus has expelled the Dutch charge d'affaires in Damascus, giving her 72 hours to leave the country.

Russia called the expulsions of Syrian diplomats "counterproductive."

"The most important channels, along which it could be possible to share views and exert a constructive influence on the Syrian government for its encouragement to further steps to fulfill Kofi Annan's peace plan, turned out to be sealed off," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Wednesday, according to Itar-Tass news agency.

"We are doing our best to alleviate tensions between the Syrian warring parties and in this respectr we are maintaining intensive contacts not only with the Syrian government, but also with various opposition groups, including those who are not quite sympathetic to us."

CNN cannot confirm death tolls and reports of violence from Syria because the government limits access by foreign journalists.

[Godfather]

Aaaaand China and Russia still say we can't help. So we won't. Awesome.

[Arkady Renko]

I'm afraid the carnage will continue for a long time still. The Assad crew will go on fighting until the bitter end because there's no middle ground between them and the opposition. If Assad loses, his best bet is exile in lifelong fear of assassins or extradition, but he's much more likely to be executed by the opposition ASAP. The opposition are in a similar place. if they were to surrender, they'd probably all be murdered anyway. So I guess the decisive factor will be when things get bad enough for China and Russia to feel obliged to drop their vassal/customer because he's more hassle than he is useful for.

[Acid Trip]

I'm afraid the carnage will continue for a long time still. The Assad crew will go on fighting until the bitter end because there's no middle ground between them and the opposition. If Assad loses, his best bet is exile in lifelong fear of assassins or extradition, but he's much more likely to be executed by the opposition ASAP. The opposition are in a similar place. if they were to surrender, they'd probably all be murdered anyway. So I guess the decisive factor will be when things get bad enough for China and Russia to feel obliged to drop their vassal/customer because he's more hassle than he is useful for.

Nice analogy.

[Godfather]

:wha: What a joke.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Ian Black, Middle East editor - The Guardian


Russia has made clear that it will block UN support for foreign military intervention in Syria, scotching slim hopes that the massacre of more than 100 people at Houla would break the impasse in the international response to the continuing violence.

Moscow's crucial support for Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, has not changed after confirmation from a UN human rights body that 108 people, including 49 children under the age of 10, were killed in the weekend incident near Homs, mostly in summary killings by the feared shabiha militia, linked to the Assad regime.

"We have always said that we are categorically against any intervention in the Syrian conflict from the outside, as this would only worsen the situation and would lead to unpredictable consequences both for Syria itself and the region on the whole," said Gennady Gatilov, Russia's deputy foreign minister.

UN security council pressure on Syria was "premature," Gatilov said, adding that Russia would use its veto to block any initiatives on foreign military interference.

In another atrocity the bodies of 13 men were found near Deir al-Zor. The men had their hands bound and some appeared to have been shot in the head. It was not clear whether this was linked to Syrian state media reports of an "armed terrorist group" blowing up a nearby oil pipeline. General Robert Mood, head of the UN monitors, called it an "appalling and inexcusable act". The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights meanwhile reported 39 further deaths in attacks across Syria on Wednesday. The toll included 15 government soldiers.

In continuing reverberations from the Houla killings, Turkey and Japan announced on Wednesday that they were expelling Syrian diplomats, following similar action by Britain, France, the US, Canada and others on Tuesday. Syria said it was expelling the Dutch charge d'affaires after its own ambassador to the Netherlands was declared persona non grata. Al-Ba'ath, a government paper, scorned what it called "ugly, bloody and dramatic shows".

Britain and other EU countries are now pushing the UN human rights council, meeting in Geneva on Friday, to demand an independent investigation, complete with forensic experts, into the Houla killings. Syria, which denies responsibility, says it is conducting its own inquiry, which is due to be completed this week.

Jean-Marie Guéhenno, deputy to Kofi Annan, the joint UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, briefed the UN security council in New York on Wednesday after Annan met Assad in Damascus on Tuesday.

Annan described Syria as being at a "tipping point". But diplomats said they did not expect him to propose drastic changes to his failing six-point peace plan.

Guéhenno reportedly told the council by video link from Geneva that engagement between the Assad regime and the opposition was now impossible.

The most immediate question is whether the 300-strong UN supervision mission in Syria (UNSMIS) will be reinforced amid signs that the US is doubtful on the grounds that its presence has not reduced violence over the last six weeks. Its current mandate expires on 30 July. But no one has come up with an alternative diplomatic strategy.

Western efforts remain focused on trying to persuade Russia to exert pressure on Assad, despite repeated pronouncements such as Gatilov's and Moscow's characterisation of the worldwide expulsion of Syrian diplomats as counterproductive.

Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, is due in Paris for talks on Friday amid hopes he can be persuaded to revive the idea of hosting a Moscow conference for representatives of the Syrian government and opposition as part of the political process at the heart of the Annan plan.

China, like Russia a veto-wielding permanent member of the security council, has also repeated its opposition to foreign military intervention and forced regime change. A foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing said: "The fundamental route to resolving the Syrian issue is still for all sides to fully support Annan's mediation efforts and push all the relevant parties to carry out diplomatic dialogue."

The Russian and Chinese positions opposing any UN action were the main item on the website of Sana, Syria's official news agency on Wednesday.

Friday's session of the UN human rights council is being convened at the urgent request of Qatar and Turkey. Its conclusions are non-binding but a call for an independent investigation into the Houla killings would mean added international pressure on Damascus.

In another development on the diplomatic track, Syria's honorary consul in California, Hazem Chehabi, resigned, saying he could not continue in his post after the "barbaric" massacre in Houla. Defections from the Syrian government have been rare over the last 14 months.

The US treasury announced that it was imposing sanctions on a leading Syrian bank as it sought to step up economic pressure on the Assad regime.

[Southern Belle]

It's pathetic and disturbing.

[Richard Cranium]

BEIRUT, Lebanon, May 29 (UPI) --

A senior Iranian military commander's reported admission that Iranian forces are operating in Syria to stiffen the embattled regime of President Bashar Assad underlines how bad things are for Syria's divided opposition.
This and reports that Russian and North Korean arms are reaching Damascus could propel Assad's leading Arab foes, the monarchies of the Persian Gulf led by Saudi Arabia, to step up clandestine shipment of arms and ammunition to Syrian rebels.

The rest of the story,

The main arms pipeline to the rebels is through northern Lebanon, a region dominated by Sunnis with close ties to their co-religionists in neighboring Syria.

They're the majority in Syria and constitute the main driving force behind the revolution that will shortly enter its 15th month with Assad's opponents dangerously divided.

On Monday, Ismail Gha'ani, a top commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Iranian's regime's Praetorian Guard, was quoted as saying in an interview with Iran's semi-official Isna news agency that, not only were Iranian forces in Syria, they were preventing Assad's forces from slaughtering civilians.

"If the Islamic Republic was not present in Syria, the massacre of people would have happened on a much larger scale," he said.

"Before our presence in Syria, too many people were killed by the opposition but with the physical and non-physical presence of the Islamic Republic, big massacres in Syria were prevented."

Isna carried the interview over the weekend but abruptly withdrew the item without explanation, apparently after it was picked up by Western news outlets -- or maybe because of Friday's massacre at Houla was blamed on Assad's regime.

The apparent admission by Gha'ani was given added weight because he's deputy commander of the elite al-Quds Force, the IRGC's clandestine arm which operates outside Iran.

This force has long operated in Lebanon with Tehran's prized Arab surrogate, Hezbollah, and waged a covert campaign against the Americans in Iraq.

The number of Revolutionary Guards deployed in Syria isn't known, although Western intelligence sources say it's considerable.

Al-Quds Force's long-elusive commander, Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, is reported to have traveled secretly to Damascus in January to meet Assad and his senior commanders.

Suleimani, who masterminded al-Quds Force operations in Iraq and covert activities throughout the Persian Gulf and Lebanon, is a key figure in Iranian policymaking, particularly in security matters.

Syria's a vital component of Iran's expansionist ambitions into the Arab world, whether in the gulf or the Levant, where Tehran can carry its conflict with Israel right to its doorstep through Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Tehran seems prepared to go to almost any lengths short of all-out war with Israel or the United States to keep Syria within its orbit.

So sending someone of Suleimani's status and reputation for covert operations to Damascus would seem to underline Tehran's determination to keep Assad's minority regime in power at almost any cost.

Suleimani, a combat veteran of Iran's 1980-88 war with Iraq, took command of the al-Quds Force in the late 1990s and has become a powerful figure in the upper echelons of the Tehran regime.

Western officials say his trip to Damascus signaled an escalation in Iranian support for Assad, which for months after the revolution broke out March 15, 2011, was limited to Revolutionary Guard advisers and counterinsurgency technology.

The United States, along with its allies, would like to see regime change in Damascus and end Syria's alliance with Iran, forged in 1980 by Assad's late father, Hafez Assad.

He was feuding with Saddam Hussein at the time and saw an alliance with the infant Islamic Republic, then about 18 months old following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, as a strategic asset against the Baghdad regime.

The Americans, then, probably view the growing al-Quds Force profile in Syria and Suleimani's Machiavellian hand there as an escalation of Iran's backing for Damascus, crimping any hopes of getting rid of Assad soon.

Whether that will translate into more robust U.S. support for the Syrian rebels isn't clear.

But the changing perceptions among Israeli leaders about what's happening in Syria are instructive.

A couple of months ago Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was confidently predicting Assad's imminent downfall now, senior military officers and the intelligence community expect Assad to stay in power for the foreseeable future.