Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 

Hunger and Fear Spread in Syria, as Rebels Advance Closer to Free Damascus of the Assad Regime

December 14, 2012 

 

 

In Syria, hunger spreads as war intensifies

By Erika Solomon

Fri Dec 14, 2012 6:36am EST

BEIRUT (Reuters) -

Desperation for food is growing in parts of Syria, where fist fights or dashes across the civil war front lines have become part of the daily struggle to secure a loaf of bread.

Conditions are especially dire in the northern city of Aleppo, where civilians enduring incessant clashes and air raids in rebel-held districts say hunger is a new threat to survival in the 20-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

"I went out yesterday and could not get any bread. If only the problem was just lack of food - there is also a huge shortage of fuel, which the bakeries need to run," said Ahmed, a resident of the battle-scarred Salaheddine district.

"A few days ago, the bakery workers had no fuel so they tried to sell off packets of flour," he said.

"People started getting into fist fights over the flour. Some days, rebels have to fire in the air to stop the fighting."

With rebels closing in on Damascus, and Western and Arab states endorsing a new opposition coalition, Syria appears near a critical point in the conflict. A top diplomat in Russia, one of Assad's closest allies, acknowledged on Thursday that the Syrian leader's foes were gaining ground and might win.

But violence is still taking a terrible toll, with daily death tolls usually exceeding 100 and sometimes 200 in recent weeks. More than 40,000 have already died in the struggle.

The World Food Programme (WFP) says as many as a million people may go hungry this winter, as worsening security conditions make it harder to reach conflict zones.

People In Need (PIN), a Czech group working in northern Syria, says the crisis may deepen if no other international aid group can consistently provide relief in the area.

WORRIED FACES

PIN estimates that only 1 to 2 million people remain of Aleppo's original 4 million inhabitants. Hundreds of thousands may be in need in Aleppo alone, said PIN's Michal Przedlacki.

"It was bad when I started in Aleppo a month ago, but that has been nothing like the past week. I have watched the situation visibly worsen - more people look thin, you can see the worry in their faces," he told Reuters by Skype.

With winter's arrival, the outlook is increasingly bleak in Syria's war zones, particularly rebel-held areas where residents say state-subsidized flour and fuel are not coming through.

More than 2.5 million people have fled their homes to safer areas within Syria, while more than half a million have registered as refugees abroad.

Many more Syrians are without work and often have to decide between buying heating fuel or food. Some families chop up trees or even furniture for firewood, residents say.

Bread queues can wrap around city blocks and last for hours. A week ago, residents in rebel-held parts of Aleppo formed bread lines at 2 a.m. for bakeries that opened eight hours later.

This week, Przedlacki said, people were in line by around 10 p.m., prepared to wait a full 12 hours for bread.

"People even risk their lives - we've seen people run across the front lines just to try to get a nutrition packet from us for their children," he said.

The WFP says it had to reduce the size of its food rations due to funding constraints. It reckons 2.5 million people need help and says it reached only 1.5 million of them in November.

The U.N. agency relies on the local Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) to distribute its aid, and activists say they rarely see the group distributing in rebel-held areas. WFP and SARC say violence has constrained their ability to get to those in need.

Some locals accuse SARC, which has ties to the government, of limiting aid to rebel-held areas, essentially helping the army enforce collective punishment. But others blame the rebels, who say distrustful fighters sometimes attack the SARC convoys.

ROCK BOTTOM

Przedlacki said his aid group could only help about 1,000 to 1,500 families. Relief supplies from the Turkish Red Crescent rarely penetrate deep inside Syria, as border areas swelling with refugees were also suffering, he added.

"About 30 percent of families in rebel areas are in dire need of food aid in Aleppo. Another 10 percent hit rock bottom already. They have nothing left to sell for food," he said.

Syrians say prices in some places have soared 300 to 500 percent. In Aleppo, activists said bread made with subsidized flour now sells for 75 lira ($1), up from 15 lira a few weeks ago. Unsubsidized bread, at 120 lira last week, is now over 200.

That is a hefty, if not impossible, sum for many.

"I've seen people selling jewelry, carpets, television sets or whatever they can to help themselves," said Abu Ahmed, a frequent visitor to Aleppo, speaking by telephone.

Even in calmer areas still held by the government, signs of strain are growing. Bread lines in Damascus last for hours and many leave empty-handed. Beggars are a common sight.

Fayyaz, a grocer in the capital's wealthy Malki district, where Assad himself lives, says basic goods are often missing from his shelves. Food costs have shot up 20 percent in the past week alone, he said, piling on misery after increases of 50 to 80 percent earlier in the year.

"If it's not milk, it's bread or eggs. My shelves always seem half-full," said the young shopkeeper, speaking by Skype.

The reality in places such as the rebel-held parts of the cities of Homs and Aleppo is even grimmer.

Despite the hardships, activists in northern Syria say many poor residents will not make the trek to refugee camps on the border. They said conditions in the cold, muddy tents were too bad for the harsh northern winter. Others simply couldn't afford the fare to send their families, PIN's Przedlacki said.

"The only reason we haven't seen people dying of hunger already is because of the incredible support of other Syrians, sharing their food and homes," he said.

Hunger could intensify, he warned, if international aid groups did not establish a presence in rebel-held areas.

"If aid continues to be prevented from crossing to the other side of the front line, every Syrian civilian who survives this crisis will be a witness to how the world has compromised the humanitarian principles it claims to be observing."

(Editing by Alistair Lyon)

 

Fear grips civilians as war laps closer to Syrian capital

Fear grips civilians as war laps closer to Syrian capital | Reuters

Thu Dec 13, 2012 6:11am EST

DAMASCUS (Reuters) -

As Syrian rebel fighters edge closer towards central Damascus, displaced families who first flocked to the capital to escape the civil war elsewhere fear they will lose their safe haven.

There is scant evidence that forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are regaining control. Rebels now hold a near continuous arc of territory from the east to the southwest of his capital.

Um Hassan, a grandmother who until recently lived in the outskirts of Damascus, gave her daughter's family refuge after they fled their bombed-out rural home town last month.

But before long rebels took over Um Hassan's neighborhood, a push which was inevitably followed by army bombardment and this week the entire family had to move to another suburb.

The grandmother, daughter, son-in-law and two girls found a place with one bedroom and a living room. Um Hassan cleans houses for around $15 a day to supplement the shared rent.

"We escape from one place and trouble follows. I don't know where we can keep running to," she told Reuters.

Almost every family in the capital is now doubling up with relatives or friends displaced elsewhere. For them, the city is their final refuge from countrywide fighting and bombardment, but now Damascenes themselves are bracing for the worst.

This week, rebels clashed with government forces right in the centre of the capital, exchanging machinegun fire and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) through the streets of Rawda, a ritzy district near the Central Bank.

"Can you imagine? RPGs fired in a tiny alley? They want Damascus completely destroyed?" said a witness, who withheld his name for safety reasons.

Rebels have also announced that Damascus International Airport is now a military target and clashes on the road to the airport, a 25 minute drive from the city centre, are frequent.

At least 40,000 people have been killed in Syria's uprising, which started in March 2011 with street protests which were met with gunfire by Assad's security forces, and which spiraled into the most enduring and destructive of the Arab revolts.

Perhaps most alarming for Damascenes is that rebels keep promising that the final battle for the capital is imminent.

A video posted on YouTube titled "Stages of Zero Hour: Are You Ready?" calls for civil disobedience and general strikes to pressure army troops to abandon their posts and join the rebels.

The video does not specify "Zero Hour", but say it will be announced through social media, TV channels and mosques.

GARRISON TOWN

Once a thriving metropolis with tourists wandering through its Old City and couples sitting in its cafes, Damascus now resembles a garrison town preparing for disaster.

Last month, the army placed new missile batteries on the Qasioun mountains, which overlook the capital, and opposition activists say more batteries are deployed within Damascus' centre, including one inside the Old City's medieval citadel.

Day and night, Damascenes can hear the thunderous sound of bombardment aimed at rebel-held and contested neighborhoods.

The city's streets have now turned into a labyrinth of checkpoints and road blocks, with several major roads permanently closed off to traffic by concrete barriers.

Vigilant armed men in civilian clothing stand guard at every turn. It is not unusual for them to open fire at the slightest perception of a threat, shooting their Russian-made assault rifles as pedestrians duck for cover.

And, desperate to flush out rebels, Assad's forces have been strangling their strongholds, preventing much needed supplies from entering even though civilians still live there.

Um Hassan lived through this hardship before she moved.

"(Security forces) don't let anything in. No fruit and vegetables, no flour for the bread oven, no baby milk. When the water delivery came, they made the driver empty his entire tank on the street," she said, referring to the checkpoints that still surround Husseiniyeh, the suburb where she once lived.

"Often, they didn't let us out, so we couldn't go to work."

Her tales echo those of many of the estimated 2.5 million Syrians who have fled their homes across the country.

NO ONE IS IMMUNE

Even the privileged in Damascus are not immune to worsening bread and heating oil shortages - or to the general malaise.

At a recent gathering of the well-heeled women in the affluent Malki neighborhood, one said she now skimps on heating, turning it on only for an hour or two per day, even in the harsh December weather.

"I'll wear four or five layers in the house, no problem. What can we do? We can't find any heating oil," she said.

When available, heating oil is almost 20 times more expensive than it was before the crisis.

Another woman, the wife of a retired merchant, said her family had been trying in vain to find bread for several days.

She said she could not even find non-subsidized bread, which sells at 150 Syrian pounds ($2) a dozen flat loaves. The price at government-subsidized bakeries is only 15 pounds but there is no guarantee you'll get any even after queuing for hours.

One mother said it was the emotional well-being of her adult children that kept her up at night.

"They used to love their jobs and they were talking about starting a business together," she said, referring to the office jobs her college-educated daughters had.

"Now, they're without work. They sit at home with nothing to do. They're trying to move abroad, but no one gives them visas.

"All I can hope for is that they will meet good men and start their lives in a better place."

(This story was reported by a visiting journalist in Damascus whose name has been withheld for security reasons)

(Editing by Oliver Holmes and Alistair Lyon)

 

U.S. defense chief orders Patriot missiles to Turkey

U.S. defense chief orders Patriot missiles to Turkey | Reuters

By Phil Stewart

 Fri Dec 14, 2012 4:50am EST

INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey (Reuters) -

 U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed an order on Friday to send two Patriot missile batteries to Turkey with 400 American personnel to operate them, in a move by NATO members to bolster Turkey's defenses against the threat of Syrian missiles.

The order was signed shortly before Panetta arrived on an unannounced visit to Turkey to meet American troops stationed at the Incirlik Air Base, the last stop on a week-long trip that took him to Afghanistan and Kuwait.

"The purpose of this deployment is to signal very strongly that the United States, working closely with our NATO allies, is going to support the defense of Turkey, especially with potential threats emanating from Syria," spokesman George Little said.

NATO-member Turkey has repeatedly scrambled jets along the countries' joint frontier and responded in kind when shells from the Syrian conflict came down inside its borders, fanning fears that the civil war could spread to destabilize the region.

The widely expected U.S. move follows similar steps by Germany and the Netherlands, which also said they will send two Patriot batteries. The three countries are the only NATO nations with the most modern type of Patriots.

Little declined to say where the U.S. batteries would be located and said the systems would be deployed to Turkey for an unspecified amount of time.

"We expect them to be deployed in the coming weeks," Little said.

NATO approved Turkey's request for air defense batteries on December 4, in a move meant to calm its fears of coming under missile attack, possibly with chemical weapons, from Syria.

The Patriot system is designed to intercept aircraft or missiles. NATO says the measure is purely defensive, but Russia, Syria and Iran have criticized the decision, saying it increases regional instability.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Russia positions itself for fall of Syrian regime

Friday - 12/14/2012, 7:08am ET

ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) --

Syria's most powerful ally and protector, Russia, began positioning itself Thursday for the fall of President Bashar Assad, saying for the first time that rebels might overthrow him and preparing to evacuate thousands of Russian citizens from the country.

The head of NATO echoed the Russian assessment, saying the Syrian government is near collapse following a nearly two-year conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people and threatened to ignite the Middle East. Assad appears to be running out of options, with insurgents at the gates of the capital and the country fracturing under the weight of a devastating civil war.

"An opposition victory can't be excluded, unfortunately, but it's necessary to look at the facts: There is a trend for the government to progressively lose control over an increasing part of the territory," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Moscow's Middle East envoy, said during hearings at a Kremlin advisory body.

Still, Bogdanov gave no immediate signal that Russia would change its pro-Syria stance at the U.N. Security Council, where Moscow has shielded Damascus from world sanctions.

The U.S. commended Russia "for finally waking up to the reality and acknowledging that the regime's days are numbered," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

"We call on Russia to work with us ... work with the various stakeholders in Syria to start moving towards a transitional structure, and we would like to have their help in doing that," she added.

Russia's acknowledgment that Assad could lose the fight is an embarrassing blow to the regime, which describes the rebels as terrorists sent from abroad with no popular support.

But the rebels have made significant gains in recent weeks, seizing large swaths of territory in the north and expanding their control on the outskirts of the capital, pushing the fight closer to Assad's seat of power.

The opposition still faces enormous obstacles, however, including the fact that some of its greatest battlefield successes are by extremist groups the West does not want to see running Syria -- something that could hamper international support.

On Wednesday, the U.S., Europe and their allies recognized the newly reorganized opposition leadership, giving it a stamp of credibility even though it remains to be seen if the new bloc holds much sway with the fighters on the ground.

At the same time, the regime has come under fresh condemnation as Western officials raise concerns that Assad might use chemical weapons against rebels in an act of desperation. The U.S. and NATO also say Assad's forces have fired Scud missiles at rebel areas.

"We can't confirm details of the missiles, but some of the information indicates they were Scud-type missiles," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday in Brussels. "In general, I think the regime in Damascus is approaching collapse. I think now it's only a question of time."

Syria denied the Scud allegations. The government also has been careful not to confirm it has chemical weapons, while insisting it would never use such weapons against its own people. Syria is believed to have a formidable arsenal of chemical weapons, including sarin and mustard gas, although the exact dimensions are not known.

At Thursday's hearings in Moscow, Bogdanov said the Foreign Ministry is preparing evacuation plans for thousands of its citizens, most of whom are Russian women, married to Syrian men, and their children.

"We are dealing with issues related to the preparation for evacuation," Bogdanov said. "We have mobilization plans. We are finding out where our citizens are."

Russia's ties to Syria date back to Assad's father, Hafez, who ruled from 1971 until his death in June 2000. In the last four decades, Russia has sold Syria billions of dollars' worth of weapons. A change in power in Damascus could not only cost Russia lucrative trade deals, but also reduce Russia's political and strategic interests in the Arab world.

Those interests include a naval facility at the Syrian port of Tartus -- the only naval base Russia has outside the former Soviet Union.

The Russians also strongly oppose a world order dominated by the United States, and they are keen to avoid a repeat of last year's NATO air campaign that led to the ouster of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, a former ally of Moscow.

Bogdanov's remarks will likely be seen in Damascus as a betrayal of longstanding ties. There was no immediate reaction from the Syrian regime.

Abu Bilal al-Homsi, an activist based in a rebel-held neighborhood of Homs in central Syria, said he is encouraged by Bogdanov's comments because Russia is in a position to know about the strength of Assad's forces.

"The Russians know his capabilities and his military force. Russia knows what warplanes and what weapons he has," Abu Bilal said via Skype. "The Free Syrian Army is on the verge of strangling Damascus, and this indicates that the regime is reaching an end," he added, referring to the main rebel fighting force.

Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of the magazine Russia in Global Affairs, agrees the Russian stance may reflect new information about the situation on the ground.

"A public statement like that appears to indicate that the balance is shifting," he said.

Analysts say that by backing Damascus, Russia has lost any chance of holding any influence in a post-Assad Syria. Now, Lukyanov says, the Kremlin wants to distance itself from the crisis even though Moscow believes the violence will continue after Assad's fall.

"If Syria plunges deeper into violence after the regime's fall, Russia would say: We have warned you that it would happen."

Meanwhile, violence was escalating in and around the capital.

Syrian state TV said that a car bomb went off Thursday in Jdeidet Artouz, a suburb southwest of Damascus, killing eight people.

In an online video that activists said showed the bomb's aftermath, dozens of people scrambled over piles of rubble looking for survivors. When two men dragging a woman away accidentally lifted her shirt, someone yelled to them, "Cover her! Cover her!" Other men pulled a wounded man from the rubble, his face covered in blood and his clothes gray with dust.

A bomb near a school in the Damascus suburb of Qatana killed 16 people, at least half of them women and children, the state news agency SANA reported.

The blasts were the latest in a string of similar bombings in and around Damascus that have killed dozens of people in the last two days, state media said.

The government blames the bombings on terrorists, the term it uses to refer to rebel fighters. While no one has claimed responsibility for the bombs, some have targeted government buildings and killed officials, suggesting that rebels who don't have the firepower to engage Assad's elite forces in the capital are resorting to guerrilla measures.

Similar attacks hit four sites Wednesday in and around Damascus. Three bombs collapsed walls of the Interior Ministry building, killing at least five people. One of the dead was a parliament member, Abdullah Qairouz, SANA reported.

Assigning responsibility for the blasts remains difficult because rebels tend to blame attacks that kill civilians on the regime without providing evidence, while competing groups often claim successful operations.

The conflict began amid the Arab Spring in March 2011 as peaceful protests against the Assad family dynasty, which has ruled Syria for four decades. But a ferocious crackdown on demonstrators led many to take up arms against the government, and the uprising soon transformed into a civil war.

As the death toll mounted, Assad, a 47-year-old eye doctor by training, has become a global pariah. Russia, China and Iran are among his last remaining allies.

On Thursday, Bogdanov warned that it would take the opposition a long time to defeat the regime and said Syria would suffer heavy casualties.

"The fighting will become even more intense, and you will lose tens of thousands and, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of people," he said. "If such a price for the ouster of the president seems acceptable to you, what can we do? We, of course, consider it absolutely unacceptable."

___

AP writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Ben Hubbard and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed to this report.