Save Syria's Children Now

More than 2 million Syrians have fled their country,
according to the United Nations refugee agency. With nowhere to go
and often with just the clothes on their backs, many end up in
refugee camps that are both overcrowded and overwhelmed.

There are 4 million Syrian children are suffering as a result of a horrific
conflict – one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time -
which is now stretching into its third year. Two million people
have fled to neighboring countries, but many more remain in
dire need of assistance.

Many
organizations are offering supplies, shelter and medical care for the
people displaced by the crisis and you can help.

Save the Children is helping the children in this crisis with temporary
learning facilities, child friendly spaces and programs to help them
cope with their trauma. They are also providing necessities like food,
blankets and clothing to refugee families. You can support their Syria
Children in Crisis fund by donating online or by calling
1-800-728-3843.

http://www.savethechildren.org

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In this undated picture posted on the Facebook page of a militant group, a militant fighter exercises at an unknown training camp in Syria.

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Russia blocks U.N. action against Syria air attacks (AFP)

The Associated Press, United Nations
Friday, 20 December 2013
Russia objected to a proposed U.N. Security Council statement
expressing outrage at Syrian government airstrikes, especially
this week’s indiscriminate use of heavy weapons in Aleppo that
have killed more than 100 people, U.N. diplomats said Thursday.
The statement, proposed by the United States, required approval
from all 15 council members.
Diplomats said Russia, the most important ally of Syrian
President Bashar Assad, wanted all references to the regime
stripped from the statement so the U.S. decided to drop it. The
diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the
statement was circulated privately.
The statement would also have condemned violence by all
parties in Syria and expressed deep concern at the escalating
level of violence in the Syrian conflict, including the use of Scud
missiles and “barrel bombs” in Aleppo.
Russia and China, which also supports the Assad government,
have vetoed three resolutions that would have pressured Assad
to end the violence. They were backed by the U.S. and its
Western allies who support the opposition.
Kurtis Cooper, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United
Nations, said the United States is “very disappointed that a
Security Council statement expressing our collective outrage at
the brutal and indiscriminant tactics employed by the Syrian
regime against civilians has been blocked.”
“These barrel bombs - and the explosive materials contained
within them - further underscore the brutality of the Assad
regime and the lengths they will go to attack and kill their own
people, including women and children. ... And regime air raids in
and around Aleppo have continued unabated,” Cooper said.
“Surely, at a minimum, the Security Council should be able to
condemn such barbarities.”
Before Russia’s objection was made known, Syria’s main
opposition group in exile, the Western-backed Syrian National
Coalition, criticized the Security Council for considering “a mere
press statement” to protest “the latest act of terror” in Aleppo.
The coalition also accused the council of failing “to take any
steps to eliminate the use of conventional weapons that are
being used as weapons of mass destruction on a much larger
scale.”
In a withering air assault this week, the Syrian government has
pummeled opposition-held neighborhoods in the northern city
of Aleppo, leveling apartment buildings and flooding hospitals
with casualties.
Rebels say the unusually intense airstrikes in Aleppo have
prompted civilians to flee to the countryside and could portend a
government ground offensive against the opposition-held half of
the city, which has been divided for a year and half by grueling
fighting.
The government launched the campaign five weeks before peace
talks are scheduled to begin on Jan. 22 in Montreaux,
Switzerland, sparking speculation that Assad may be trying to
strengthen his position on the ground and expose opposition
weaknesses before sitting down at the negotiating table.
The proposed U.S. statement would have welcomed the Jan. 22
conference aimed at ending the Syrian conflict and reiterated the
council’s call for greater access for humanitarian workers to
deliver desperately needed aid.

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Syria: No one can stop Assad from election run (Al Arabiya)

The Syrian government said Thursday that nobody can prevent
the country’s embattled President Bashar al-Assad from running
for re-election next year.
“Nobody has the right to interfere and say he must run or he
should not run,” Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad told
Agence France-Presse, shortly after Russia criticized statements
that he wanted to seek another term.
“President Assad in my opinion should be a candidate but he
will decide when the time comes for him to decide,” he said.
“I shall ask the opposition: why a Syrian national does not have
the right to be a candidate? Who can prevent him? Any Syrian
national can be candidate,” added Muqdad.
“The ballot boxes will decide who will lead Syria... President
Assad enjoys a big majority while [France’s] President [Francois]
Hollande has only 15 percent support of the French people,” he
argued.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russia issued rare criticism of its ally Assad
concerning the 2014 presidential election.
“Exchanging such rhetorical statements just makes the
atmosphere heavier and does not make the situation calmer,”
Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told Russia’s Interfax
news agency.
Bogdanov added that Assad and all parties should steer clear of
fanning tensions ahead of the Geneva II peace talks to take
place in Switzerland in January.
“We believe that ahead of the peace talks there should be no
statements which someone may not like and can cause emotions
and a reaction in response,” he added.
While the Syrian opposition insists on Assad’s ouster, the Syrian
government has repeatedly said he would run in 2014 polls.
Assad himself said in a television interview in October: “I don’t
see any reason why I shouldn’t run in the next election.”

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Chinese Ship to Help Protect US Vessel Destroying Syria's Chemical Weapons

"China has decided to send a military ship to participate in the protection mission for the
shipping of Syrian chemical weapons," Reuters quoted ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying
as saying.
She described it as an "important move" to show China’s support.
The chemicals will be destroyed on board the US ship, although there is no agreement yet on
where the ship will anchor.

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Syria: Militants Boats, Vehicles Destroyed, Gunmen Killed

TEHRAN (FNA)- Units of the Syrian armed forces on Thursday targeted militants in a
number of cities and areas, killing scores of them and destroying their hideouts and
vehicles.

A military source said that a number of militants were killed and injured as their cars were
destroyed in al-Zarzor, al-Nakarin, North al-Nayrab, in the vicinity of al-Kindi hospital, Aleppo
central prison, the industrial area, West of the thermal station, Rasm Bakro, Deir Hafer, Manbej,
Tal Ref'at, Andan, Haritan, Mayer and Tallet al-Ghali.
The source added that cars for militants loaded with weapons and ammunition were destroyed
at the entrance of Kafr Hamra, Kafr Obeid, Kafr Naha, Kassarat al-Wadihy and Hilan. All
militants inside the cars were killed.

All members of militant groups were killed and eliminated in the youth housings, Hanano,
Qadi Askar, al-Fardous, al-Salehin and al-Ma'adi.
A militants' infiltration attempt from al-Amerieh to the neighboring safe areas was thwarted.
Dozens of militants were also killed and injured in successful military operations targeted the
gunmen's hideouts in Bselia groves and surrounding al-Arba'en Mountain in Idlib countryside.
Boats for militants destroyed, gunmen killed and injured in Homs
A military source said that army units on Thursday destroyed a number of boats used by the
militant groups in their terrorist acts in Kissin Gulf in al-Rastan, Homs countryside.
According to the source, a number of militants were killed and wounded while they were
trying to sneak between al-Ghasebieh and al-Khaledieh in al-Dara al-Kabira villages in Homs
countryside.

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Abuse 'rife in secret al-Qaeda jails in Syria' (BBC)

                    Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) vehicle pictured 
Torture and summary executions are rife in secret prisons in Syria run by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), Amnesty International says.

A new report says al-Qaeda affiliate had committed serious rights abuses, including some amounting to war crimes.

Isis is one of the main jihadist groups fighting government forces, and has a strong presence in the north of Syria.

The rights group says "the people of al-Raqqa and Aleppo are suffering under a new form of tyranny imposed by Isis".

"Those abducted and detained by ISIS include children as young as eight who are held together with adults in the same cruel and inhuman conditions," said Amnesty's regional director Philip Luther.

'Reign of terror'
The report alleges that in areas they control, ISIS forces had committed numerous serious rights abuses, including some that amount to war crimes, such as abductions, arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment, and unlawful killings.

Continue reading the main story
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He shouted at the boy to come forward, ordered him to lie on the ground and he whipped him with a cable around 30 to 40 times”

Former detainee at Sadd al-Baath
Ten former detainees interviewed by an Amnesty researcher in the past month recounted "a shocking catalogue of abuses", the report said, including being flogged with rubber generator belts or cables, tortured with electric shocks or forced to adopt a painful stress position in which their wrists were secured together over one shoulder.

Some of those held by ISIS were suspected of theft; others of "crimes" against Islam, such as smoking, alcohol consumption or sex outside marriage, the report added. Others were seized for challenging ISIS's rule or because they belonged to rival rebel groups.

Amnesty said it was told that several children had received severe floggings. Two detainees described how they had seen a 14-year-old get more than 90 lashes during interrogation at Sadd al-Baath, an ISIS prison beside a dam on the Euphrates river at al-Mansoura.

Amnesty said the local Sharia court judge at Sadd al-Baath invariably appeared wearing an explosives belt and had "instituted a reign of terror over its detainees".

Former detainees accused him of presiding over grotesquely unfair trials lasting no more than a few minutes, and of handing down death penalties which were subsequently carried out.

"After years in which they were prey to the brutality of the Assad regime, the people of Raqqa and Aleppo are now suffering under a new form of tyranny imposed on them by ISIS, in which arbitrary detention, torture and executions have become the order of the day," Mr Luther said.

'Significant advances'
Raqqa, a city sheltering around a million people, is under the full control of ISIS.

Smaller but better funded than other rebel groups, it has historically been made up of foreign jihadists from Arab countries - particularly Iraq, but also Libya, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia - Russia's north Caucasus, and Europe.

But activists from Raqqa told the BBC's Newsnight that it was now attracting more and more Syrian recruits.

In the past few months, ISIS has made significant advances, largely at the expense of rebel brigades affiliated to the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, and controls a wide swathe of northern Syria close to the Turkish border.

Amnesty called on the international community to help to block the flow of arms to Isis and other armed groups implicated in war crimes and serious rights abuses.

It also renewed its appeal to the Syrian government to "end its violations of human rights and international law, including the use of torture in its own detention centres".

The United Nations says more than 100,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011. More than nine million others have been forced from their homes.

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The death of Dr Abbas Khan shows how Syria's President Assad shares power with ruthless and erratic henchmen (The Independent)

From child torture to sarin gas, the security services’ methods have dictated the war

Why did Dr Abbas Khan die? Nobody takes seriously the obvious lie that he committed suicide four days before he was to be released from prison. Who gave the orders for his murder? And why?

It would be difficult to think of a more self-destructive act by the security services of the Syrian government and leads to questions about who really holds power in Damascus. Just at the moment when President Assad’s government is seeing the first signs of being reengaged by the US and West Europeans there is an atrocity for which it will be blamed.

Napoleon famously said that battles go to those who make the least mistakes and recently the Syrian opposition has been making more mistakes than the government.  Western governments have been appalled to see al-Qa’ida affiliates and equally sectarian Sunni brigades backed by Saudi Arabia assume the dominant role in the rebel military forces. The former US ambassador to Damascus, Ryan Crocker, said there would have to be confidential contacts between the US and the Assad government about how to deal with al-Qa’ida. Exiled opposition members are reportedly being told by Western diplomats that the deposition of President Assad will not be the objective of the peace talks in Geneva on 22 January. Just as Assad’s government wants to give an impression of moderation by releasing Abbas Khan, his death is announced. A PR coup turns into a self-inflicted wound. But in some ways it is not so surprising, though it remains shocking, when one considers the Syrian government’s recent history.

Most striking is the attack with Sarin gas on rebel controlled districts in Damascus for which it is difficult to think of any explanation other than that it was carried out by the Syrian armed forces. It is beyond belief that bands of rebel gunmen would be able to obtain or make the poison gas in quantity and then simultaneously release it different parts of Damascus amid their own supporters and to do this, moreover, without anybody finding out. The use of sarin against civilians might have precipitated foreign and primarily American military intervention. Close air support by the US air force is the one development that might have led to the opposition winning a purely military victory. As well as being a horrific crime the use of poison gas was an act of extraordinary stupidity since it almost led to an American, British and French air assault. Mr Assad was only saved because of the popular determination in the US and Britain not to see a repeat performance of the Iraq and Afghan wars.

In many respects the excessive and self-defeating use of violence by the state has been one of the main motors driving the Syrian civil war from its beginning in 2011. There are deep social and economic frustrations behind the Syrian revolt, but the trigger for explosion of dissent was the arrest and alleged torture of children in Deraa. The head of local security responsible for their mistreatment was not court-martialled. Brutal collective punishment created martyrs, delegitimised the government and ultimately turned peaceful protests into an armed revolt. The government claimed – and probably came to believe – that armed militants were there from the beginning but if the aim of some of the opposition was to provoke the state security forces into an excessive response then they succeeded beyond their dreams.

Power in Syria is in the hands of the Presidency and the security services. The rest of the government scarcely matters in terms of determining security policy. Where else could the prime minister of a country defect and officials smoothly say this did not matter because he had no power? Real power-sharing with the opposition in Syria will have to include deconstructing the security forces.

As the revolt gathered pace in the summer of 2011 the International Crisis Group published a report entitled “The Syrian Regime’s Slow Motion Suicide”. It concluded that “the security services brutal and often erratic performance has created more problems than it has solved, as [their] violence almost certainly has been the primary reason behind the protest-movement’s growth and radicalisation.” The same mindless and uncontrolled violence by the security services probably explains the death of Dr Abbas Khan.

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Syrian refugees pose in the snow in front of their makeshift home in Ankara. (ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images)

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Russia signals to Syria's Assad to stay silent on re-election (Reuters)

A man walks through a graveyard that was damaged by what activists said was shelling from forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the Kadi Askar neighbourhood of Aleppo, December 14, 2013.
(Reuters) - A Russian diplomat signalled on Thursday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should refrain from statements suggesting he might seek re-election because it could fuel tension before planned peace talks.

Russia has been Assad's most important international ally during Syria's civil war, but the remarks by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov to Interfax news agency appeared to be a rare public criticism of Assad by Moscow.

Assad told Syria's Al Mayadeen television in October that he had no intention of quitting, despite pressure to do so from the United States and rebels fighting government forces. He also saw no obstacles to being nominated for a new term.

"Such rhetorical statements affect the atmosphere and do not make the situation any calmer," Bogdanov was quoted as saying.

Looking ahead to an international peace conference which is planned on Syria next month in Geneva, he said: "Our position is that ahead of the start of negotiations, there should be no remarks that could displease anyone or provoke emotions and a response. They should rather be avoided."

Bogdanov has been involved in preparations for the peace talks that are due to start in Geneva on Jan 22.

Russia has blocked Western-backed efforts to condemn Assad at the U.N. Security Council or to push him out of power. Moscow says it is not trying to prop up Assad but that his departure cannot be a precondition for peace moves.

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