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SYRIA PRESIDENT DEFIED mounting international pressure to end the year-old crackdown on an uprising against him and said Tuesday he was determined to go on fighting what he called “foreign-backed terrorism.”
After a powerful American senator called for airstrikes on Syria, President Barack Obama said unilateral US military action against President Bashar Assad’s regime would be a mistake.
The United States said it is proposing a new United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an end to violence in Syria, first by government forces and then by opposition fighters.
Russia and China, powerful allies that have blocked a Security Council resolution against Syria, made clear they were still standing by the regime in Damascus.
“The Syrian people, who have in the past managed to crush foreign plots, … have again proven their ability to defend the nation and to build a new Syria through their determination to pursue reforms while confronting foreign-backed terrorism,” President Bashar Assad said, according to state news agency SANA.
The military crackdown has turned to southern Daraa province, where the uprising began a year ago. Troops shelled a village in Daraa and clashed with military defectors.
Activists said the military blasted a bridge and a tunnel near the border with Lebanon used as escape routes for the wounded and refugees fleeing central Homs province, an opposition stronghold which just endured a heavy monthlong offensive.
Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, described video that has emerged of torture victims allegedly shot secretly in the Military Hospital in Homs as “truly shocking.”
The video, broadcast this week on Britain’s Channel 4, shows wounded civilian victims blindfolded and chained to their hospital beds, some of them with clear torture marks on their bodies, allegedly at the hands of medical staff.
The international outcry against Syria has been growing louder by the day. On Monday, US Sen. John McCain called for airstrikes against the country, saying the United States has a moral and strategic obligation to force out Assad and his loyalists.
Obama has resisted calls to step into the turmoil in Syria to stop Assad’s bloody crackdown on protesters. He told a news conference Tuesday that the international community has not been able to muster a campaign against Syria like the one in Libya that ousted Gaddafi last year.
“For us to take military action unilaterally, as some have suggested, or to think that somehow there is some simple solution, I think is a mistake,” Obama said.
“What happened in Libya was we mobilised the international community, had a U.N. Security Council mandate, had the full cooperation of the region, Arab states, and we knew that we could execute very effectively in a relatively short period of time. This is a much more complicated situation.”
Obama’s strategy has been to use sanctions and international diplomatic isolation to pressure Assad into handing over power.
The top US commander in the Middle East said the advanced air defence weapons Russia has provided toSyria would make it difficult to establish a no-fly zone there as part of an effort to help the rebellion.
Marine Gen. James Mattis, head of US Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee it would take a significant military commitment even to create safe havens in Syria where aid could be delivered, as McCain suggested.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Assad, unlike his father and predecessor, will not escape punishment for the violence he has inflicted. Turkey and Syria, which share a border, were allies before the uprising began.
“I would like to remind Bashar Assad: his father was not made to account for what he did in this world, but his son will sooner or later account for what he did, for the massacre and the oppression,” he said.
“This time, the blood shed in Syrian cities will not go unpunished.” The father, Hafez Assad, died in office in 2000 after ruling Syria for nearly three decades.
The UN says more than 7,500 people have been killed since Syria’s uprising started in March 2011. Activists put the death toll at more than 8,000.
Clashes that broke out in the village of Hirak, where many dissident soldiers are believed to be operating, were some of the worst lately in Daraa province, birthplace of the uprising to oust Assad.
Explosions shook the village as shells slammed into residential areas suspected of sheltering defectors, and even mosques were targeted, according to activists. A 15-year-old boy and five soldiers were killed, they said.
“The clashes are very intense and have been going on since the morning,” said Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists on the ground.
A video posted online by activists shows what it said was the inside of the Abu Bakr al-Saddiq mosque in Hirak. There were images of rubble littering the mosque’s entryway, doors blown from their frames and shattered glass covering the floor.
An unidentified man on camera says a tank fired on the mosque after town residents sought refuge there. Another video shows men, women and children fleeing a building after it appears to be hit by a shell.
Abdul-Rahman said the army was fighting a large number of army defectors in Hirak.
He said the rebels ambushed an armored personnel carrier, killing five soldiers and wounding several. He and the Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said a 15-year-old boy was killed by snipers.
Activists and residents accuse the government of deploying snipers on rooftops in many cities to terrorize anti-government protesters. The circumstances of the teenager’s death were not immediately clear.
Syria has barred almost all foreign journalists and human rights groups throughout the uprising, making most events difficult to verify.
Security forces were conducting raids in pursuit of defectors and activists, making arbitrary arrests and burning homes in Hirak, the LCC said. The group reported at least 21 deaths across Syria today.
The operation in Daraa province began just days after Syrian forces captured a key rebel-held neighborhood in central Homs province, another opposition stronghold.
Government troops intensely shelled Homs for four weeks before they captured the Baba Amr neighborhood in the city of Homs, wresting it from rebels who had held it for months. Activists said hundreds were killed in the month long offensive, which was forcefully condemned around the world.
Observatory director Abdul-Rahman said Syrian forces Tuesday blasted a bridge and a tunnel near the border with Lebanon used to evacuate the wounded and refugees to Lebanon from Homs province.
A top Russian diplomat also said Moscow was sticking to its position on the Syria crisis and urged the West to press the opposition to stop fighting Assad’s regime. Both Russia and China fear a Security Council resolution condemning Syria could lead to military intervention against Assad, as it did last year against Gaddafi in Libya.
A special Chinese envoy to Syria arrived in Damascus Tuesday to press the regime for a cease-fire. Beijing remains firmly opposed to any foreign intervention in Syria.
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I’m appalled at the commissioner and the Gardaí in general. They’re so consumed by their own corruption they can’t escape their own deceit and lies
@kingstown: Same thing happening in Irish Army Air Corps but with a death toll of 25 (20 adults & 5 children). See http://www.accas.info for more.
@kingstown: she’s an embarrassment to her job and to her family.
Autocratic, ignorant, too much power, corrupt and a liar. Take note if you’re related to her. A bad human being.
@Chris Finn: forgot incompetent
The scariest thing is that some people want the Gardai to be armed.
Can you imagine.
Look at what they achieved when only armed with breathalysers. Give them guns and by lunchtime the same day all the violent crims in the country would be shot dead. Officially anyway. Lot of zombies walking about though.
@Cram Wood: Shot for no Road Tax, Comes to mind
@Cram Wood: These people are in courts daily giving evidence they swear to be nothing but the truth and judges jail people on their sworn evidence , from what I am seeing the Garda have a very occasional relationship with the truth.
@Cram Wood: of course they should be armed. A firearm is just another tool for their protection. Just like an Asp or pepper spray.
You know she’s in trouble when there’s so few negative comments about Alan Kelly under the article.
@Chris Mansfield: Kelly is Scu* full stop.
Good old AK47 saying Barrett’s done the country “Great service” which he has. Pity he wouldn’t do the same and fu€k right off. This goon should been locked up for he’s false allegations about those bomb treats.
@Honest John: what’s s bomb treat ???
@Philip Grant: Do try keep up …
@Willy Malone: ah a bomb threat….. Well that’s completely different to a bomb treat :-)
@Philip Grant: funny that you misspelt “a” when correcting someone on a spelling error!
@Philip Grant: Do grow up ….
@Honest John: fairplay john.i can’t stand that c u next Tuesday kelly
Law of the Interwens.
@Philip Grant: sometimes a joke falls flat and you have to explain. Don’t let this put you off
@Honest John: I would love to punch Kelly.
@Philip Grant: I thought the same, I was so concerned I called the guards to ask them if I needed the bomb squad to have a look through my sweets which I keep in a bedside locker. These bomb treats sound like they could be dangerous with the potential to blow my whole stash up.
Even worse I could have had one in mouth unknowingly. Noirin answered and she assured me that It was nothing to be concerned about, have a cup of tea, she said, the call only lasted a few minutes.
PAC is doing great work , keep it up bring Commissioner back and get the truth . After all the members of the PAC as politicians are used to WAFFLING and should get to the bottom of things quickly.
@PVD: Of course they will any day now before the Summer recess in the year dot.
The reason FF have not forced FGs hand on this issue is simple. Currently both can ill afford to face the electorate. Together they will command less than last election. Both know this and the farce will only end when FF feel they can do better .
@Willy Malone:
If there was a election now I think it would be FF with FG again. I can’t see that changing until we get a viable alternative
@Nick Allen: or until everyone 60 dies.
@Christopher Gardiner: over 60
You just couldn’t make it up…how is she still in a job? Sure you can’t believe a word out of her mouth.
Well done Mr Barrett for outing this,but I certainly wouldn’t have that cad Kelly in my corner.kelly is a ball of scutter.
Commiss is the wrong person for the job. Cultural change needed and I don’t think you can bring that if you have been surrounded by that culture for 30 years. I don’t think we can lay all the ills at her feet but nor do I think she can fix it either.
The review will be a whitewash as O’Toole helped appoint O’Sullivan AND she was also found guilty of abusing Whistle-blowers in Boston (USD3 million payout) AND she is only doing the review on a part-time basis. Another cover up by FG and you have to say it all stinks and ask what does O’Sullivan have over them and another scandal.
Would the crystal clear logic now being applied by Alan Kelly in his evaluation of Mr. Barratt’s trojan work at AGS HR Dept be possible if AK47 was on the front bench of Government?
Not likely!
What is becoming clear here is when folks with private sector senior management experience are hired for senior Public Sector roles, lids get lifted, skeletons get released from cupboards, concepts of transparancy, responsibility and accountibility come to the fore in organisations funded by the hard-pressed tax payer.
Alan Who? O yes the rather excitable has-been. Mr Kelly, it’s a shame the same can’t be said for you, the only service you did for this country was to remind us, never, ever to vote labour again.
Problem in the guards is only a reflection on how irish public care about corruption, there is always a willingness for us to bend the rules and public dont really care about corruption as after all the tribunals, banking failure, dob payments to lowry, the big guys know nothing is going to happen to them.
He’s done a better service to his country than you Alan Kelly!
How the head of HR if an organisation with a culture of corruption can been seen to be doing a great job is beyond me. He is responsible for staff and motivation and insuring correct policies are in place. This is all failing in the Gardai
@Nick Allen: the corruption in AGS goes back decades
@Nick Allen: depends what’s actually under his remit. Wasn’t one of his issues the fact that some of his departments were moved to another area?
@Nick Allen: if the upper ranks and the Commissioner herself are opposed to the civilian Head of HR, he can’t be effective. He is a recent arrival in an institutionally corrupt and malfunctioning organisation.
A new broom, unaffected by and not compromised by past and recent corruption needs to be broiught in to commence a process of radical change.
The Commissioner was fundamentally unreliable in her evidence on a matter where the evidence she gave was in her own self interest. She was factually inaccurate.
The current Commissioner is a symptom of a very sick, malfunctioning and corrupt organisation. She needs to be replaced.
“LABOUR’S ALAN KELLY” – stopped reading then
@eastsmer #IRExit: me too . No interest in SCU*.
Don’t often agree with Kelly, but this time he got it absolutely right.
@Pj Berry: I don’t need Kelly to tell me anything. If he told me the sky was blue I’d check myself. Thats what being a parasite does.
If I was Comissioner Noirin I’d hardly be worried about being waterboarded by Irish Water Ex pin up boy Alan Kelly. He defended that monstrosity through thick and thin. The PAC made up of these type of people is a totally wrong forum to investigate anything. It’s circling the wagons by Politicians who are just given a platform for soundbites for the perpetually fawning media in Ireland.It is ultimately a smokescreen this committee to prove to the great unwashed the Politicians are on top of matters.
I don’t like Alan Kelly, but I think he is right about this.
What is hypocritical though is his bit where he says “he believes that Barrett has paved the way and urges others who have concerns about garda management to speak out.”
What has been done by anyone in Government to ensure whistle blowers are protected? Absolutely nothing. To date, their claims have been roundly refuted first and then accepted and commended later when the wrongs can no longer be covered up. Where do we see a history of justice for whistle blowers where they are reinstated to their positions or careers in as far as is possible???
Easy for Kelly to encourage others when his neck is not on the line. Most whistle blowers lives are forever changed and their respective careers are over. No wonder many people keep their heads down, ignore and remain immune to wrong doing going on around them. (I’m talking mainly about public servant positions here.)
If we want to change that sad reality, Government need to create a culture where whistleblowers are commended (provided their claims are real), instead of being made out to be wrongdoers.
If Kelly had a history of pioneering something like this, his words would be more meaningful and less likely to dismissed as just soundbites.
@Ian Oh: it appears that everyone straight away believes that Barrett is the ” man from on high” in this case. Why should it be assumed that his story is more credible than that of O’Sullivan, we do not know what differences of opinion there is there, or what the relationship is like. I heard a Journalist sat the other day that O’Sullivan had a gang of officers in the Park that she possibly cannot trust. Well if that is the case, and you will have that in any organisation, who knows who is trying to knife who. Once anyone contradicts Her it is assumed that she is lying, let the drama play out and then we will have a result.
Yes exactly Alan Kelly,you dont know her so you are disrespecting the woman.(O’Toole)
You have an axe to grind over your failure to win in the last election.And anything you can do to cause trouble you will do.
Its sad that somebody like you can be so bitter.
O’Toole is a plant. She is far to near events to be believed. What is Alan Kelly up to anyway? I thought he had disappeared.
@Gus Sheridan: check O’Toole’s previous and then see what you think….l
Hes like the milky bar kid with brown envelopes
Why cant this toerag Kelly just bugger off. His opinion on everything carries as much value as a Zimbabwean Dollar.
It just amazes me to read the comments on this page, one would have to wonder what kind of people we have in Ireland. What are they thinking , and why are they all so much against Authority and Governments . Ye all seem to know everything about all things visible and invisible. No matter what Government of any sort does it seems to be wrong, we have turned into a very selfish race with the mentality, not around my place as regards factories, pylons , wind farms etc. It appears that they do not want to pay for anything either, no water charges . Something is going to have to give , we cannot continue whinging about everything. Don’t forget that the Gardai are doing a mighty job fighting crime on the streets , fighting a serious Drugs War against criminals who want to take over the streets.
@Eugene Comaskey: Yes lets all bury our heads in the sand and say everythings just dandy like yourself :)
@Eugene Comaskey: You obviously are terrified of people waking up. I have news for you. Get used to it. We haven’t even started holding this country to account like other countries. Advice. Don’t ever go to France. They have a far more educated electorate. You wouldn’t like the questions they ask.
Alan Kelly is a complete moron, the epitome of the opinionated rural TD who thinks he is royalty, to hear him now talk about ” the working man” is nauseating , the Labour mantra never hear when they are in power.
Alan Kelly is all about Alan Kelly, ask anyone who ever worked to him when he was a junior Minister.
In that case he’s done more than you alan ya parasitic f@@ker!!
Whatever Kelly’s motives are (and I’m not overly fond of him) he is redeeming some of his lost credibility by his tenacity in probing the truth of this debacle.
More TDs should be as vociferous in condemning the behaviour of the Gardai, if only to curb further corruption. It can’t continue…
@Peter Higgins: Are you for real. Not in a million years will I be bought over by his false concern. You must be very gullible. Labour will be delighted theres people with short memories like you.
Now where is a pistol and a bottle of whiskey?
To be quite honest I refused to read the article because anything to do with Alan Kelly is poison. He has nothing to say to me or the Irish People. Power hungry cowards have noting to say. They are despicable and they showed their true colours in power. Kelly is intoxicated with his own self importance. A good dig in the arrogant face I’d love to give him.
Finally, a Labour Party TD with a pulse. Stay alive Alan Kelly
@Dolly White: He is a parasite. You forget we saw him in power. He is a low life.
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