Battles in Damascus, rebels claim Syria borders

Battles in Damascus, rebels claim Syria borders

www.reuters.com

Rebels battled deep into Damascus and seized control of parts of Syria's borders on Thursday, pressing on with their advance after the assassination of Bashar al-Assad's top security officials brought their 16-month uprising to a head.

Government forces unleashed helicopter gunships and artillery against their own capital. Damascus residents told of buildings in flames and corpses in the streets.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Opposition fighters clashed with regime forces on Thursday in the Syrian capital of Damascus for the fifth straight day. This seems to be the end of yet another dictator. Hopefully people can see what ruthless and primitive regimes muslim people have in the middle east. Lets hope syria will not turn into another Iran and muslim religious state.


www.reuters.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

More details here............................blogs.reuters.com...

I'm seeing all this and thinking it looks pretty close to over now if Assad hasn't got a pretty radical change in strategy in mind or a very big surprise coming from outside his borders...which is possible. Anyone remember Prestina? This could be close to over or it could be just starting.

I'm also thinking it'll be about 24hrs to see....after that, as they have the border crossings, I think it'll all have changed too much for him to get back.

I hope the rebels are gooooood custodians of Chemical Weapons in MASSIVE quantities in terms of a rebel army walking into the stock piles......and I sure hope they have some idea of how to run a nation. Thats one hell of a country to imagine falling to tribal issues and other internal strife. (Personally, I hope Assad destroys the stuff or somehow makes it all inaccessible. I can think of a few ways...but we'll see what happens to that very BIG collection of nightmare.


By the way... This can't become like Iran. The whole thing here is, it's changing to the opposite. This is one of the last Shia controlled Governments on Earth. Iran is the last major one. It's almost all Sunni now, world wide. That war is almost over, at this point.....and I don't feel a bit good about what we've helped them do here.

There has been absolutely no honor in this and for the love of everyone, I hope Assad gets a better fate than Gaddafi did.

The free syrian army in action shooting wildy at anything.

Can't wait to see them in power.

Documentary Film Footage of Syria Uprising for Freedom and Democracy - filmed on July 18, 2012 Free Syria Army on Edge of Damascus Prepare to Block Highway into City 7-18-12 18 7 Damascus أوغاريت دمشق _ قطع المتحلق الجنوبي الجيش الحر على تخوم العاصمة

reply to post by skuly


The Jcb is in the right place, the battle is in a construction area by the looks of it ,a handy piece of machinery in a firefight ,,Plenty of traffic too? must be going to the mall
Edit : ok ,its

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I think you're right. This might be closer to the end than most people think. Here are some maps to ponder. The first was provided by Agent_USA_Supporter.


The reddish areas are where most of the heaviest fighting has been taking place.



This next one you'll notice that the colored areas represent most of the major population centers in Syria.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Are there actually any chemical weapons in Assads arse enal?

Originally posted by TruthxIsxInxThexMist
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

Are there actually any chemical weapons in Assads arse enal?

Not sure if this proves it or not:

www.bbc.co.uk...

The most senior Syrian politician to defect to the opposition has told the BBC the regime will not hesitate to use chemical weapons if it is cornered.

Nawaf Fares, ex-ambassador to Iraq, said unconfirmed reports indicated such weapons might have already been used.

Although i'll be the first to say this is not concrete proof.

Originally posted by TruthxIsxInxThexMist
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

Are there actually any chemical weapons in Assads arse enal?

As much as that has seemed fun for fodder recently, if one blocks out the last 15 months of search results from Google or another that allows date blackout on searching, you'll find by results that the whole question wasn't really in dispute until quite recently. They didn't sign the treaty, it hasn't been illegal for them to develop or make them, unlike the many other nations we've hounded into the dirt for the same thing. Those nations DID sign treaties about it and so having them was different. Syria has had them since the early 80's.

Syrian Chemical Weapons Program

It's all been pretty much in the open and just kinda accepted by everyone, since they don't do anything with them. It's made a balance to Israel's nukes as well, so regional powers have been a little happier I believe. I'm betting that's been part of the reasoning for never making a big deal of this. They tried their hand at building a reactor awhile back and Israel made a smoking hole of it. They tested their limits....... The whole fact it's existed for 30 years is why I've called BS from the start about THIS being a valid reason for any of what has happened here.

reply to post by TruthxIsxInxThexMist


This report from US Department of State is from 2002.

Syria, through foreign assistance, is seeking to expand its chemical weapons program, which includes a stockpile of nerve agent. We believe that it is developing biological weapons and is able to produce at least small amounts of biological warfare agents. Syria is also pursuing assistance from North Korea and firms in Russia for its missile development programs. The country has become a major transshipment point for goods and technology going to Iraq.

US Department of State International Information Programs

Take a quick look at the report and note the countys listed in it,

Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya and North Korea it's like a hit list.

Three down two to go.

Here's a screenshot of my Google Earth push-pins to show the spots named in the article linked to in the OP. Abu Kamal and Jarablus and Bab al-Hawa.
(oops, need to scroll over to the right a bit)
Abu Kamal on the Iraq border and the Euphrades R.
Jarablus on the Turkey border and the Euphrades R.
Bab al-Hawa on the Turkey border where the major land route is through a pass from the Idlib province.

reply to post by skuly

Biological changes everything, in my view. Atrocity becomes threat to global security in the time it takes to board an international flight. I haven't seen anything in my wanderings for information to confirm the Bio side...but if those exist, I'd be curious to see where the Seal and other top special operations teams are sitting this evening. I'm guessing, within helicopter distance of those sites. Chemical? No.....Bio? In they'd go. Someone would. They'd have to.

*
You know...It's probably totally unrelated but it just popped into my mind as one of those stray pieces that never fit. Weren't American Special Forces and Russian Spetsnaz Soldiers doing some joint training thing in Colorado just before the NATO summit? I know they weren't doing anything to the extent of first reported by some but I seem to recall the problem was in degree of activity, not the fact a joint training event was happening.

It had just occurred to me though, bio weapons would be such a high level threat in chaos like may happen here, even Russians and Americans would likely run joint efforts if only for the single missions it took to secure that specific stuff. Russia is being hit by some of the radicals too from time to time..........then, well, yeah.. We had just been training.

Those who oppose the 'Bloodshed' of Assad, Support the Rebels? Hypocrisy

As someone who has never been to Syria, Nor lived under Assad rule, i shan't claim much, those who garner knowledge from the Media, regardless of the "reliability" are gaining knowledge through a biased based Media system,

those who claim the urgency of Assad being overthrown so innocent people shan't be destroyed, must claim likewise of the "Rebels"

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

It's not hard to make simple bio-weapons as the text below show but if a lab ever
makes one thats spreads like a cold and is as deadly as ebola then it won't matter
how big you'r army is.

This is from a paper from 1997 about WNDS and the terrorist threat.

In a 1966 experiment that proved the ease with which terrorists could contaminate portions of the American populace, government personnel clandestinely released "harmless bacteria" into the New York subway system.[12] The contamination was distributed throughout major portions of the subway system by air turbulence created by the trains themselves. This experiment preceded the Aum Shinrikyo attack on Tokyo's subways by almost 30 years.

The technology for producing biological weapons is available to terrorists now: a US neo-Nazi group (the Order of the Rising Sun) produced 80 pounds of typhoid bacillus in 1972, and in 1984 Paris police raided an apartment rented by the Baader Meinhof gang and found flasks of Clostridium botulinum culture.[13] More recently, Japanese police found 160 barrels of peptone (a growth media for bacteria) along with Clostridium botulinum when they raided an Aum Shinrikyo compound near Mount Fuji.[14] Tricothecene mycotoxins (e.g., "yellow rain") can be produced simply using a corn meal slurry and the appropriate strain of fungus.

Bacillus anthracis represents an almost ideal pathogenic microorganism for terrorists. It is a bacteria, and therefore is cultivated more easily than a virus such as Ebola. Furthermore, it forms spores possessing incredible durability in the soil, which creates the possibility of long-term contamination of an area. Its incubation period is long enough to allow terrorists to escape undetected, but short enough to prevent effective vaccination of victims already infected. The World Health Organization and the US Congressional Office of Technological Assessment have determined in separate studies that, effectively dispensed, 30 to 50 kilograms of Bacillus anthracis could kill up to 100,000 people.

Terrorists, WMD, and the US Army Reserve

reply to post by skuly

It's not hard to make simple bio-weapons as the text below show but if a lab ever makes one thats spreads like a cold and is as deadly as ebola then it won't matter how big you'r army is.

Well, That is true and I suppose your point is what forms some of the core of the whole national defense plan.

Bio is just insanity. Idiots handling it won't live to disperse it.... Even some of the most expert people in the most advanced labs in the world have made just one minor goof..and that's about it. We all see stories in the news every so often...

I think Nation-States pretty well realized around the height of the cold war what you point out. it's uncontrollable, undefendable and totally unpredictable for ultimate outcome. Odds are VERY good that anything worth using is going to eventually come around and kill those who thought they were so clever by making it. I really doubt Syria has true Bio-weapons in a deployable form. At most..maybe B-IV labs with samples and vats of goo for use some day..maybe..which would be a world apart from usable to rebels, right?

*I'm really looking for reasons they wouldn't have them. Bio is just too bad to consider losing to theft..

reply to post by CountDrac


That is the problem, do we need another country that will vote in Muslim Brotherhood leadership?

reply to post by SLAYER69


The rebels claim to have taken over the country by 60% which is why i added that picture in the thread i posted to show that was a lie.

Its pretty clear the FSA are Terrorists, and have taken over only the outskirts of city limits using tunnel networks.

Originally posted by Agent_USA_Supporter
reply to post by SLAYER69

 

The rebels claim to have taken over the country by 60% which is why i added that picture in the thread i posted to show that was a lie.

Its pretty clear the FSA are Terrorists, and have taken over only the outskirts of city limits using tunnel networks.

Ok two things.

1.) Source to your claims that the rebels are claiming to have 60%

AND

2.) Your source to them using tunnel networks.

Please.

reply to post by CountDrac


Funny isn't reuters a propagandist cheering new source? since the way i am hearing it the borders were captured by a few Mujahideen then after they did that.

Iraq border guards witnessed the FSA seize a border outpost, detain a Syria army lieutenant colonel & then cut off his arms & legs

And a few ATS users support the Mujahideen ?