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Friday, July 20, 2012

Syria crisis: Assad forces retake Midan and border crossing

• Free Syrian Army withdraw from Damascus district
• Thousands of Iraqis evacuated from Syria
• Intelligence chief Hisham Bekhtyar died of wounds
• Bid to extend Unsmis after veto by Russia and China

11.53am: Sander van Hoorn, one of the few international journalists reporting from Damascus, describes the scene at the funeral of defence minster Dawoud Rajha, who was killed in Wednesday's attack.

11.31am: The UN refugee agency says it fears for the safety of 88,000 Iraqi refugees in Syria, after a family of seven was found shot dead in a Damascus apartment.

Agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming says the family was "murdered" by unknown assailants and three other Iraqi refugees were killed by gunfire last week, AP reports.

She told reporters Friday in Geneva that thousands of refugees, mainly Iraqi, who have been living in the Damascus suburb of Seida Zeinab have fled their homes due to violence and "targeted threats."

Fleming said the agency was told that Iraq sent two planes to retrieve its citizens living in Syria, and plans to send more.

11.27am: Rebels have confirmed they have withdrawn from the Midan district of Damascus, Reuters reports.

"It is a tactical withdrawal. We are still in Damascus," Abu Omar, a rebel commander, said by phone, adding that President Bashar al-Assad's forces backed by armoured vehicles subsequently entered deep into the district and are now in control of its main market area.

11.19am: Interesting remark from Peter Harling of the International Crisis Group, quoted by Roula Khalaf in the Financial Times (subscription):

The regime is shedding layer after layer of what made it a state. The risk now is that it will just shed that last layer that still makes it different from a large militia.

11.07am: From Paris, our correspondent Kim Willsher clarifies the Russian ambassador's remark about President Assad being ready to step down "in a civilised manner" (see 9.47am).

Ambassador Alexandre Orlov was speaking on French RFI radio this morning. When asked if it was over for Assad, he said:

I share your view ... I believe it is difficult for him to remain after everything that has happened ... and he has accepted this in some way.

There was the meeting of the action group in Geneva on June 30 and its communiction that looked ahead to a transition to a more democratic regime. This communication was accepted by Bashir al Assad. He named his representative for discussions about this.

He has accepted he has to go, but to go in a civilised way.

11.03am: The Free Syrian Army is said to be in control of Yarmouk Palestinian camp in Damascus. This is not independently confirmed.

10.56am: Iraq is evacuating hundreds of its citizens from Damascus by air because clashes between Syrian soldiers and rebels have left land routes too dangerous, AP reports citing officials.

Iraqi Airways Capt Saad al-Khafaji said 750 Iraqis have been flown out of the Syrian capital since Thursday. Two more flights of evacuees were expected Friday.

Over the last 24 hours, an estimated 3,000 Iraqis have poured over the main border crossing between Iraq and Syria. Rebels seized control of at least one crossing on Thursday.

Mohammed Fathi, a spokesman for Iraq's western Anbar province, said the Red Cross was setting up tents and distributing medical supplies for refugees Friday at the al-Walid crossing, an estimated 600 kilometers (373 miles) from Baghdad.

10.53am: Yesterday saw the highest total of deaths in Syria since the uprising began, according to activists.

The Local Coordination Committees, which documents civilian deaths, said 217 civilians were killed on Thursday.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented 206 civilian deaths, plus at least 98 deaths among the regime's forces. The highest civilian tolls were in Damascus countryside (54) and Deir Azzour (51), it said.

As usual, it is difficult to verify these figures because of the Syrian government's restrictions.

10.35am: Turkish journalist Mehmet Aksakal claims the Syrian army has retaken control of at least one Turkish/Syria border point taken by rebels on Thursday.

Speaking by phone from the border area he said:

Yesterday, Bab al-Hawa was under the control of the FSA for a few hours. The senior officers ran away. But later on the Syrian government attacked back, at the border gate, and rebels pulled back. It is unclear what's going on at the gate now because the gate is closed.

It looks like the border is controlled by the Syrian military again, but there are still clashes going on around the border. For a few hours it was under the control of rebels.

Aksakal said it was possible that the checkpoint would fall again to the rebels because the Syrian military is spread thinly in the area.

They are busy fighting in other areas. If they don't send some help the rebels will attack again. But it is really hard to say what will happen.

Yesterday video of the Bab al-Hamal crossing showed rebels tearing down a placard of Bashar al-Assad.

The rebels who have been involved in the clashes are local groups, loosely tied to the Free Syrian Army, he said.

When we ask them where they bring weapons from they say we get them from the Syrian army when we clash with them.

None of the FSA members has so far confirmed that weapons are being smuggled across the border.

There are two main borders between Turkey and Syria, where most of the trade and passengers cross: one between Kilis in Turkey and the rebel controlled town of Azzaz; and another between Cilegozu in Turkey and Bab al-Hawa where rebels were filmed yesterday.

This Google maps shows the main border points into Turkey.

The Cilegozu border has been closed for two weeks, while fighting has raged between rebels and Syrian army in Azzaz, according to Aksakal.

He said there were also many smaller border points into Kurdish areas that don't tend to be used for international crossings. Most have been closed for months.

Jarablus, another border crossing towards the east, is under Kurdish control, he said. Last month the Syrian government withdrew about 95% of the Syrian soldiers stationed in Kurdish areas, Aksakal claimed.

But last week the Syrian army attacked Jarablus with helicopters. Eight rebels and two Syrian soldiers were bought to hospital in Turkey, Aksakal reports.

The Kurdish area is free of the Syria government, he claimed.

Within the last week up to 5,000 refugees have crossed the border. They included at least three generals and other officers.

10.14am: Despite the Russian ambassador's remark (see 9.47am), Assad may not be willing to go after all:

10.07am: Hezbollah's al-Manar TV reports that Hisham Ikhtiar, chief of the Syrian national security bureau, has died. He was said to have been injured in the blast that targeted other senior officials on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, funerals are said to be taking place for other victims of the blast, though apparently they are not being televised in Syria.

9.47am: The Russian ambassador in Paris is reported as saying that President Assad is ready to step down, but "in a civilised manner".

9.40am: Dutch journalist Sander van Hoorn is tweeting from Damascus:

9.30am: Egypt: Omar Suleiman, the former Murabarak regime's intelligence chief – often referred to as "torturer-in-chief" – is to be given a military funeral. Suleiman died in the US yesterday while having medical tests.

The Egypt Independent reports:

The Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafi Nour Party confirmed that they would attend Suleiman's funeral, while the Salafi Front's spokesperson called on people not to attend the funeral or pray for Suleiman.

Salafi Front spokesperson Khaled Saeed told the privately owned Al-Watan newspaper that Suleiman was a criminal who corrupted the nation.

The acting head of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, Essam al-Erian, tweeted, "He left our world [taking with him] great secrets."

"I can say nothing at the moment of death except: To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return," he added.

On Twitter, Sarah Carr posted this six-word epitaph:

8.40am: Syrian state-run TV says government troops have recovered full control of the Midan district of Damascus, AP reports.

Damascus activist Khaled al-Shami, said rebels carried out a "tactical" retreat early Friday to spare civilians further shelling after five days of intense clashes between opposition fighters and regime forces.

8.21am: (all times BST) Welcome to Middle East Live.

Here's a roundup of the latest developments on Syria:

• Rebel fighters took over the country's border crossings into Turkey and Iraq as diplomacy reached a dead end. The capture of the crossings – reportedly including all into Iraq – appeared to represent a dramatic new challenge to Bashar al-Assad's control and will likely prove crucial in funnelling arms and supplies into besieged rebel areas.

• A senior Iraqi government official said Iraqi border forces had witnessed the executions of several Syrian army soldiers at the hands of the rebels, according to the New York Times. Iraqi officials confirmed the seizures of four crossings and said the frontier was shut and additional Iraqi troops sent there as a precaution, it said.

• The UK, US and France rounded on Russia and China following the veto of a UN draft resolution on fresh Syrian sanctions, lambasting the move as "inexcusable" and accusing Moscow of buying time for Assad to "smash the opposition". Britain's foreign secretary, William Hague, condemned the two countries vetoing the resolution as "inexcusable and indefensible".

• The security council is due to vote on a UK tabled proposal to extend the UN's monitoring mission in Syria for another 30 days. Russia said it is willing to back extending the mission for 45 days under another draft tabled by Pakistan. Both proposals are expected to be put to a vote later today.

• "This is a battle that looks, unfortunately, as if it's going to be decided by brute force rather than negotiations that the international community had hoped," says Ian Black in a new Guardian video. Martin Chulov warns of the dangers of more violence if, and when, the regime falls.

• In Damascus rebels torched the main police headquarters as law and order continued to break down in the capital. The battle for parts of the capital raged into the early hours of Friday, with corpses piled in the streets. In some neighbourhoods, residents said there were signs the government's presence was diminishing.

• Assad has amassed up to $1.5bn (£950m) for his family and his close associates, according to analysts, despite moves in London, Switzerland and the US to freeze the assets of his regime. Many of Assad's assets are held in Russia, Hong Kong and a range of offshore tax havens to spread the risk of seizure, according to London-based business intelligence firm Alaco.

• About 20,000 Syrians have travelled across the main border crossing into Lebanon over the past 24 hours, a Lebanese security source working at the border told Reuters. The number of Syrians, many of them day-workers, who travel through the official Masnaa border crossing usually hovers around 5,000 per day, the source said. The US government has mapped the unfolding refugee crisis.

Matthew Weaver
Brian Whitaker

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