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File: A Syrian army soldier steps out from the burned court building that was set on fire by Syrian anti-government protesters, in the southern city of Daraa. Pic: AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File
SYRIA’S ARMY SAID today it had seized the rebel stronghold Yabrud, where it is backed by Lebanon’s Hezbollah and pro-regime militias, dealing the opposition a heavy symbolic and strategic blow.
An army statement said:
After a series of special operations, the Syrian Arab army, in coordination with the (paramilitary) National Defence Forces, returned security and stability to the town of Yabrud and its surroundings in northern Damascus province.
State television broadcast images of dead fighters, and its correspondent on the ground said traffic was moving normally along the nearby highway that links the capital Damascus to Syria’s third city Homs.
“This new success… is an important step towards securing the border area with Lebanon, and cutting off the roads and tightening the noose around the remaining terrorist cells in Damascus province,” the military added.
Clashes
South Korean students hold candles for the children in Syria during a candle light vigil. Pic: AP Photo/Lee Jin-man
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an NGO, said Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement had led the Yabrud operation.
Opposition sources said civilians and activists in the town had fled overnight into neighbouring Lebanon.
Syrian state television said the army was targeting “groups of terrorists” fleeing Yabrud between the village of Fleita in Syria and the town of Arsal just across the border in Lebanon.
The fall of Yabrud comes after months of Syrian army operations in the strategic Qalamoun region, north of Damascus, where the town is situated.
Late last year, the army captured a string of nearby towns – Qara, Deir Attiya and Nabuk – as it extended its control in a southern sweep along the Damascus-Homs highway.
It then turned it sights to Yabrud, which has been a rebel bastion since early in the Syrian uprising that began in March 2011.
Key strategic prize
In addition to its symbolic importance, the town is a key strategic prize because of its proximity to the highway and the Lebanese border, across which rebels have smuggled fighters and weapons.
The capture of the town, and continuing army operations in the surrounding area, will sever important supply lines for the rebels as they face several army advances on different fronts.
The town’s seizure is also likely to place new pressure on Lebanon’s Arsal, just across the border, which is hosting at least 51,000 Syrian refugees, many from the Qalamun region.
Sunni Arsal is largely sympathetic to the Sunni-led uprising, and rebel fighters are believed to have bases in areas around the town, which are regularly targeted by Syrian war planes.
Yabrud was once home to some 30,000 residents, around 90 percent Sunni Muslim and 10 percent Christian.
On Sunday, hundreds of Damascus residents took to the streets, celebrating the army’s capture of Yabrud.
Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah is a staunch ally of the Syrian regime and its Al-Manar television channel reported live on Sunday from Yabrud, interviewing fighters.
Syrian refugee Um Raad, 30, from Daraa, holds her 6 day-old son, Abdullah, at the Moroccan field hospital in Zaatari refugee camp. Pic: AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon, File
Anniversary
The town’s fall comes a day into the fourth year of Syria’s conflict, which has killed more than 146,000 people.
The UN’s refugee agency says nine million Syrians have been forced from their homes, creating the world’s largest displaced population.
More than 2.5 million Syrians have become refugees in neighbouring countries, and in excess of 6.5 million people are displaced inside the country.
The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr Eamon Gilmore TD, has condemned the growing humanitarian crisis in Syria and neighbouring countries.
“For three long years, the Syrian people have been subjected to the most appalling suffering as a result of a simple, peaceful demand for greater political and economic freedoms,” he said.
Only a negotiated outcome can bring an end to this conflict. I urge all sides to accept the proposals of Joint Special Representative Brahimi for the renewal of fully inclusive peace talks within the Geneva II framework.
Ireland has already committed over €26 million in humanitarian relief to Syria since the beginning of this conflict.
- © AFP, 2014 – Additional reporting Aoife Barry
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It is not meant to work it is just a way of gathering money.
it has been proven that the amount of money raised from taxation of cigarettes goes nowhere near covering the medical costs of smoking in our hospitals. We would be far better off financially with a huge decrease in smokers and the consequent reduction in tax. The one in two people who die from smoking are an incredible financiak drain on our health system. As a result I believe thst your comment that “it is not meant to work, that it’s just a way of gathering money” to be totally incorrect
What’s your source for this proof?
You’re completely wrong anyway
The medical costs of smoking are about 6 per cent of the value of the tobacco taxation. Smokers are absurdy overtaxed in the western world:
2 things wil come from this, 1. The person wil try quit or, 2. Buy the cigarettes on the black market.
That’s my thoughts also. So glad I’m a non smoker.
Been using the black market for the last 2 years and will continue to do so now that the trade will go up a gear. God bless them all.
I don’t think it does. I come from a household were both parents smoke and neither my brothers or I smoke. I think its hitting elderly people who have smoked all their lives and just can’t seem to give them up. its not fair on those people to constantly target them every budget day. why not increase the cost of junk food and fizzy drinks? in the long run they will cause as much of a strain on the HSE with diabetes, heart disease etc?
Let’s just be clear about one thing: smoking does NOT cause a strain on the HSE; quite the opposite in fact. We all have to die of something, and we smokers typically die comparatively quickly of heart attacks or cancer, without going through long chronic illnesses which affect the elderly (e.g. Alzheimer’s).
Coupled with that, we smokers typically die in our 60s, just when our productivity declines and we have stopped earning income tax and started drawing our pensions.
With the extortionate tax take on every pack, smokers contribute massively to the economy, while minimising the drain on public resources in later life.
I like to think of us as the most patriotic kinds of modern-day heroes.
and to add to that, many of us smokers have vhi so we are paying twice (or three times) for the health service. one through General taxation then through our insurance and thirdly through tobacco duties
Interesting argument Jim have you any peer reviewed study to back this up? It doesn’t sound very true but interesting none the less. I would say however there is lots to live for beyond mid sixties and a massive contribution to the economy and society still possible.
Jim, you’re an idiot. Let me say that again. You’re an idiot. Smokers don’t have some sort of special quick death, they die as slowly and painfully (and more expensively) as non smokers.
Not every smoker will be lucky enough to die suddenly of a massive heart attack in their 40s (as you appear to want/believe). Many more will have heart attacks, be patched up, develop heart failure, and live a restricted life, unable to work, on multiple medicines.
Not every smoker will get lung cancer (also a horrible way to die. Most will get bronchitis or emphysema, be short of breath, unable to play with grandchildren, rely on inhalers and oxygen therapy.
Then there’s people like you Jim, who develop strokes and brain damage as a result of smoking. They mightn’t die suddenly, but live out 10 or 15 years with an arm paralysed, or in a nursing home, unable to care for themselves. Smoking causes dementia.
And I will only just mention the legs being amputated, the increased risk of all cancers, including breast cancer, bowel cancer, throat cancer. None of these will kill you quickly. With advances in medicine you might survive, just after months of surgery, chemo and radiotherapy.
the assumption is that because smokers die younger they can have an overall reduced costs to the health system across their full life.
The tax take from tobacco is just covering the costs of dealing with smoking illness. It is not the government taking from from smokers it is ensuring that smokers don’t push the costs of dealing with their ill health onto society.
The government have been taking in roughly 2 billion in tax from tobacco and spending 2 billion on dealing with smoking related illness.
There is also a case that because smokers die young they deprive society of their productive capacity and, while covering the costs, are primary consumers of health care services.
And many smokers often live to a ripe old age and die of natural causes and many health freaks also die of so called smoking related diseases.
@Catriona That’s moronic. Tax fizzy drinks and junk food. Who is that going to hit the most ???? The poor. Great idea that.
It would be fine if smokers died promptly. Unfortunately they tend to be creaking doors. Costing the state a fortune…
Raise it all you want on fags but leave my wine alone….
Funny thing is that alcohol consumption costs more to the government in relation to health care. So why are they fixated on cigarettes?
Very good researched article.
I don’t think anyone cares what James Riley thinks or proposes. The man has already proved himself to be a spectacular fcuk up.
“lovely fags”. Ya raise the price,think I give a fck. Black market all the way baby. And you can bring in all the laws you want,whats next,it’s only legal to smoke in your bedroom with the curtains pulled and the pillow on top of your head.
I gave up smoking 8 years ago, not because of the price, I just wanted to live a longer healthier life, so far so good. Best decision I ever made.
Good man john.. Off them 2 years now also..
Very good, John Mulligan. There is however no scientific evidence that people extend their life expectancy after smoking cessation. You may live a healthier life but not a longer life, according to the controlled trials:
https://cfrankdavis.wordpress.com/2014/10/24/lifestyle-improvements-dont-work/
all raising the tax on fags does if make people illegal fags.. you want to see tax from fags raise drop the price
when I started smoking they were 90p for a pack of 10. Now they’re €10 a pack of20 and I still smoked. Only when my daughter arrived last year did I quit.
arrived from where
F J D, when a man and woman are very much in love, they cuddle together sometimes, and sometimes a baby gets made inside the woman’s belly and then she become a mammy. Hope this cleared it up for you!
Mind. Blown.
When you’ve had to watch both your parents slowly die of emphysema from smoking all their adult lives it puts you right off tobacco. I’d love to get through to people that they might as well throw a tenner in the fire and inhale the smoke. It’s a horrible, dirty addiction. Truly the native Americans revenge on the White man
The increases in price have made it extremely difficult for young people to start smoking and the rate of smoking in under 25′s has plummeted… It strikes me as if those numbers would have made plenty of sense above.
I quit just over a year ago, not because of the price, but I’ve saved over 3k in the meantime that used to go on smokes… Best decision I ever made.
Not true Ciaran. Roll ups and black market tobacco are readily affordable considering also the addictive nature. The numbers of school children taking up smoking are still very high.
I think the ‘marketing’ psychology aspects are likely to have (are having) much greater impact. Plain packaging and moving tobacco sales to pharmacies (only) would make a much bigger reduction than the tax.
As a former Smoker no matter how much they put on a pack of cigarettes people will continue to buy them. People who smoke will give them up when they are ready not when the government keep hiking them up in price. But what makes me laugh about this story is that in one part of it, it states that IRELAND is a high income Country obviously who ever wrote this is either in a good paying job or has not notice how high the tax is on everything in this country.
We are a high income country I tell you. Coming from working in south Sudan last week I can confirm it. We are also a highly unequal country. The decisions of successive troika party governments over the last decade have exacerbated it.
Tell us all about the Sudan Kev.
Taxing something cos its bad for never worked . If people want to smoke they’ll smoke weither it’s cheap or not
Smuggler’s dream
Does FG/LAB know anything other than TAX?
I think it’s grossly unfair how much preferential treatment smokers get. In this social justice society I’m surprised to see the warriors are not clamoring for equality for the drunks and the obese. Why should smokers get a special tax? Alcoholic and obese lives matter too. Equality for all!
It’s all smoke and mirrors !
The government dont want people to stop smoking infact they rely on the people to keep it up. They choose something they people have an addiction to an keep adding they cut onto it claiming it will make people stop although anyone with half a brain will notice thats not how addictions work. The government know this well and rely on those with addictions who cant give it up and keep upping the price on them, same with alcohol and even with the proposed tax on sugary drinks. If the government was really concerned about people giving up smoking they would provide much more education into smoking and the effects for young children in schools or something better than giving a doctor 55 euro to be given some leaflet that is somehow magically break my addiction.
As a small country we should be the first country in the world to ban cigs.
Its brings in 2 bill but that’s what it costs to treat smokers for a variety of illnesses.
Sure we would have some smuggling but over time the customers would reduce and it would reduce drastically the teen customer.
Other countries would follow.
Also the majority of smokers would probably thank us for it.
Let get it done set a date and do it.
If you want to ban smoking Bill Clear, you would need to start lobbying your local FG TDs and MEPs who are supporting the provisions of TTIP in the EU parliament. If this treaty is passed, then banning smoking would allow every tobacco company in the US to sue our arses off in perpetuity. How much will that cost?
Ah yes, Prohibition, that ALWAYS works doesn’t it? It’s remarkable how some people can’t earn from the past or the present.
*learn, obviously.
Ah yeah that’ll work. Anyway I’m going back to bed. Those yokes I had didn’t mix well with the massive spliff I had before I went to bed. If I can’t sleep I’ll snort a line or two before the match coybig!
Just raise the age allowed buy them by 1 year every year, and in 40 years they will be completely gone.
Give gardai powers to spot check age cards for people smoking on the street etc. If they are serious about becoming a smoke free society then do something radical with zero tolerance
There’s a lot more important things the Gardai need to get their act together over besides smoking.
Can I sue vehicle manufacturers and their filthy deadly diesel and petrol engines and fossil fuel providers both of which are extremely more toxic than cigarette smoke?.
Lad, do you really need the failures of Prohibition explained to you? That’s a stupid idea that will lead to an even more unsafe product being sold by criminal enterprises.
You can hike it up as much as you like. The black market is booming. So the more that the government put on the cigarette’s the less likely people are going to buy them from a shop. Why haven’t they put the price up on alcohol? Oh yeah because they all drink themselves, open bar at the Dail. From a non smokers view, what’s the point, if people want to smoke they are going to do so no matter what the price is and especially if they can buy them at half price from the black market. If the government really wanted to help stop people smoking at bus stop’s, the entrance into a building. As someone that has severe lung problem’s and will likely need a transplant in the near future I hate having to stand at the bus stop with my oxygen on my back only to have people both in front and behind me smoking. So ban place’s rather than putting the price up.
Every single year for the week running up the budget there are scare stories about the price of a pack cigarettes being increased to €10, €12, €15 etc.
Then when budget day arrives, 5-10c gets added on and everyone is thinking “we got away nicely with that”.
Every single year.
They should put a fiver on a pack of 20. Absolutely disgusting habit, always try to stay well clear of smokers. The stink off them turns my stomach
Increasing the price of tobacco is sure to increase the incentive of smokers to quit. Banning smoking in pubs was a fantastic idea and a spectacular success. The vast majority of addicts would like to quit and would appreciate any assistance in doing so.
I just made a cup tea and there’s no fcking sugar.
Is nearly imagine the tax intake on fags must be down as the tax increases just fuels the black market cigs
I’m not a smoker myself but anyone I know who is gets the cheap ones I think they are €5 a packet
As an ex smoker who finally kicked the habit my view is that an increase in price might reduce consumption in the very short term. Smokers are addicted to smoking just like other drug users and will pay the price demanded or buy smuggled tobacco products.
I don’t smoke so I think they should put any increase in excise duty on cigarette exclusive and leave diesel and alcohol alone
If you didn’t drive, would you be all for raising the price of diesel?
Exactly. As long as it doesn’t effect me I don’t care.
For the first time ever I am considering purchasing from criminals. I can’t be the only one.
Never worry about the price in the shop. Al ways buy my tobacco on the black market.
There’s always a way to avoid the extortionate government rip off on smoking.
The poor man’s friend.
If it was to increase all the money collected should go straight to health care..and not into the government pocket
yes
No
If the government was serious about getting people to stop smoking they would be made so expensive that people simply couldn’t afford them, they would also need to have stiff penalties for smugglers. but the government makes too much money in taxes to go down that route.
tax the fancy alcohol that only the elite drink.
I think it’s a complete waste of time. .I also cannot understand why the only pleasure left to some people cannot be left alone. people the world over make the decision to smoke or not. and it only seems to be a vendetta on irish people .
It’s a vendetta on the people all over Europe, not just the Irish. And the master puppet is the pharmaceutical giants:
https://cfrankdavis.wordpress.com/2014/11/08/anti-smoking-experts-paid-by-big-pharma/
It was health worries that persuaded me ultimately to give up smoking but the price of them definitely helps to keep me off them…I am using the money I would have spent on cigarettes to save for a first holiday in years!!
The most disgusting habit! Increase them by more than 50 cent I say!! The higher the better. Cancer sticks!
No, it just makes them buy the dried poo bulking agent type of Chinese illegal cig then…
What’s this deficit levied against?
The cost of treating tobacco related illnesses?
I quit smoking almost 2 years ago. I now use a vapouriser. Saving a fortune and still get to enjoy nicotine and far better health. Vaping is the reason smoking rates are currently dropping. If you’re a smoker, ignore the scare stories from Pharma and tobacco companies and clueless “public health” commentators and give vaping a try. Incredible health and financial gains.
Impose a specific health levy on each packet of cigarettes.
Take strong enforcement against illegal cigarette smokers.
Nope it doesn’t deter me, I want off of them but the price isn’t the reason.
Another way to discourage young people from smoking might be to inform them of the unethical way the tobacco industry works? An informed appeal to people’s sense of intelligence against an industry that promotes ill health and addiction might work better than the ‘just say no’ campaign?
Same argument applies to the use of illegal drugs. What smart young person would want to benefit criminals and terrorists once they are aware of who benefits most from that trade, I think?
Me and my other half are off the fags just over a great now.. the main reason is because they were too expensive! if they were priced like mainland European countries I am pretty sure we would still be smoking
because it is an addictive drug a price increase will only impact on a small number of smokers.
the money raised is just about covering the costs to the health system of dealing with smoking related illness so the tax on cigarettes shouldn’t even be looked at as a deterrent.
It’s a way of making sure that smokers don’t push the cost of dealing with their life choices on the rest of society.
The best way to reduce smoking is social norms i.e. how it is no longer normal to smoke in busses, cinemas, pubs.
The first group to attack smoking and smokers in this way were the nazis.Their leader Hitler was the first European leader to go off on a gallop after a group of people and single them out for extermination. If a country can’t be smoker friendly then they should consider that we defeated Hitler and the Nazis and the day a smoker allows a Nazi to enforce their ludricious law they will feel they can take more. Get smoker friendly or leave our country Nazis!
Maybe Dan is unaware of ‘ Policy Recommendations for Tobacco Taxation in the European Union- Integrated Research Findings from the PPACTE project’ – http://www.tri.ie
Smokers stink. It should be banned everywhere.
Does it put people off?
Smoker rates in the late 80s were almost 40%. They are now less than 20%. Cancer, emphysema are known side effects since the 60s.
Different people react differently but it absolutely helps reduce the number of people taking up smoking.
An “margadh dubh” abu!
How come people can’t figure out that VAT increasing from 21% to 23% is not a 2% increase?
It is an increase of 9% in the tax take.
As follows:
If you have 21 litres of water and add 2 litres of water to make a total of 23 litres of water, what percentage increase in water was added?
Then govt tell you VAT receipts are up 9% and make believe in a phantom recovery.
have your say