Greece arrests four over foiled Belgium terror attacks

At least four people were arrested in Athens on Saturday (Jan 17) as part of a probe into an extremist cell that was dismantled in Belgium this week before it could carry out any attacks, a Greek police source said.
Greece's anti-terror police were seeking to determine whether those arrested included Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the 27-year-old suspected mastermind of the cell who according to media reports may have been planning the foiled attacks from Greece.

The arrests took place in the Pangrati district of the Greek capital in the middle of the day, the source said. Several mobile phones were also seized.

European nations have arrested dozens of Islamist suspects in the wake of the Belgian anti-terror raids, during which two suspects were killed.

Belgium said the cell was planning to kill police officers.

Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan descent, is a notorious extremist who spent time in Syria. His alleged involvement comes at a time of heightened fears in Europe about the threat posed by young Europeans returning home after fighting alongside extremist groups in the Middle East.

- AFP/fl

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/greece-arrests-four-over/1597312.html

17/1/15

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• Deaths in Belgium 'anti-terror raid' (Two suspects killed and one injured in police raid)

Deaths in Belgium 'anti-terror raid' (Two suspects killed and one injured in police raid)

Two people have been killed in a "counter-terrorism" raid in Verviers in eastern Belgium and the security alert level has been raised in the country, according to a Belgian prosecutor.

Magistrate Eric Van der Sypt told reporters in Brussels on Thursday that the suspects were on the verge of committing a major attack, and that they immediately opened fire on security forces.
He said in an emergency news conference that raids were under way in the Brussels region and Verviers.

"Belgium's terror alert level was raised to its second highest level," he said.

Local media reports said there were no casualties among the security forces involved.

Police closed the streets around the building where the operation was taking place, national La Libre newspaper said.

'Gunshots and explosions'

Witnesses said gunshots and several explosions were heard on a residential street in Verviers near the railway station.

"I heard a sort of explosion, followed by several gunshots," one local told RTBF.

"For the moment, I cannot tell you any more because I do not dare go out to see what is happening."

Another local resident was quoted as saying that "machineguns were firing for about 10 minutes".

The incident comes a week after the deadly attacks in Paris that killed 17 people, including journalists and police officers.

Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch claimed responsibility for the attacks in Paris on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher supermarket.

Belgian investigators said earlier on Thursday they were probing whether an arms dealer sold weapons used in the Paris attacks, after Amedy Coulibaly, one of the Paris gunmen, sold the man a car belonging to his partner Hayat Boumeddiene.

There was no immediate confirmation of any link between the Coulibaly investigation and Thursday's raid.

The man, Neetin Farasula, from the airport city of Charleroi in French-speaking southern Belgium, is in detention on suspicion of a possible link to the weapons used in the Paris attacks.

Belgian prosecutors are working with French authorities to find out any "possible link" to last week's attacks, the AFP news agency said. [aljazeera.com]
15/1/15
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EU leaders assess security following Paris attack

In the wake of the massacre Wednesday in Paris, European security officials are re-visiting their plans for countering what they see as a growing jihadist threat and what to do with young disaffected Muslim men either returning from combat in the Middle East or radicalized  via the Internet by militant groups fighting there.

They warn though there is no such thing as absolute security.

While a massive manhunt continued for the two suspects – French-born Algerians Chérif and Saïd Kouachi – broader questions are being raised already over how the attack could have happened despite a robust intelligence and surveillance system in France.

France’s Prime Minister Manuel Valls told reporters Wednesday in the French capital that even with good intelligence services there is a “no zero risk.”  He also emphasized that several terror plots had been thwarted in recent months.

What is alarming, though, to security officials and analysts is how the Kouachi brothers managed to secure the automatic weapons, and possibly a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and plot the assault without triggering preventive action by French authorities.

Both suspects had well-known militant histories stretching back to at least 2005. Chérif was convicted in 2008 in a case connected to jihadist recruitment of fighters against Americans in Iraq, serving 18 months of a three-year prison sentence. And in 2010, he was arrested again – although not charged – for alleged involvement in a failed plot to help an Algerian Islamic militant escape from a French jail, according Le Monde newspaper.

Analysts are asking, if French intelligence can’t stop known militants from launching murderous attacks, how can authorities hope to counter threats from those who are not known yet?

According to Claude Moniquet, director of the European Strategic and Intelligence Center, a Brussels think tank, an urgent task will be to establish whether the assailants, who were skilled with their weapons and tactics, had gained training and combat experience overseas. “I suspect they had training elsewhere, but an investigation will have to establish these details,” he said.

If it emerges the pair did travel to the Mideast, alarm bells will ring even louder.

An estimated 1,000 French militants have either left to fight for jihadist groups in Syria or already returned. At least 3,000 Europeans are believed to have volunteered to fight with Islamic militant groups in Syria.

In the summer European security ministers adopted an action plan to tackle the security threat they believe these fighters pose to their home countries.

Some of the measures are not known but those that are aim at identifying militants already in Syria and those likely to enlist. The plan included greater intelligence-sharing procedures among European Union countries, according to the bloc’s counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove.

At a press conference to announce the action plan he said that not all of the returnees “intend to carry out attacks, but some of them will.”

In November, EU security ministers met again to discuss tightening security checks on their borders and the sharing of passenger records. But European right-to-privacy rules and European Parliament objections are delaying some of the surveillance measures the ministers are keen to implement. Security officials say they need quickly to require all airlines to include passenger data in a digital system, allowing European intelligence agencies to know the name of every person who enters, leaves or crosses the EU.

The European Commission will submit new proposals to fight terrorism in the next few weeks, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Thursday. “I know from experience that one should not react on the moment to such events given the risk of doing either too much or too little,” he said. But he noted further measures were needed.

EU states have been toughening their own national anti-terror laws. In a bid to curb the flow of French militants to Syria, the French government introduced legislation a few months ago making it easier to detain suspects at airports and to confiscate their passports.

European governments have increased their intelligence endeavors by working with Muslim communities and mosque leaders to discourage recruits from heading out and by monitoring social media sites in an effort to identify those who have gone to join militant fighters in the Middle East.

Last year, the then counterterrorism chief of London’s Metropolitan Police appealed to Muslims across the UK to help stanch the flow of young Britons heading to Syria. At least 500 British Muslims are thought to have gone to Syria. Commander Richard Walton admitted that authorities are “desperate” to obtain further assistance.

Britain’s interior minister Theresa May Thursday chaired an emergency meeting of the British government’s COBRA security committee to review what had happened in France and to decide whether there needed to be any changes in UK security plans. The panel ordered a ramping up of border security. “Following the attacks we took the precautionary step of increasing security at the French-UK border,” she told reporters in London.

And British politicians appealed for Muslim communities to be more vigilant for jihadist outliers. But critics warn there are risks in targeting local Muslim communities and making them feel under pressure to collaborate with authorities. The effort can come off as discrimination, further alienating young and disaffected Muslims and presenting recruitment opportunities for militants.

In the UK, police have been aggressively using counter-terrorism legislation to detain and question anyone, even without reasonable cause for suspicion. More than 60,000 people were detained for up to nine hours in 2012 and 2013 but all those stops and interrogations resulted in just 24 terrorism-related arrests.

Asim Qureshi, research director of CagePrisoners, a civil libertarian campaigning group, says the approach is too intrusive. He told the Al Jazeera news network, “For example, they get asked, ‘what type of Muslim are you? What are your foreign policy opinions? What are your views on Palestine?’ None of those questions pertain to whether that person poses a credible risk to UK security.”

European leaders and their advisers have also been delving into the question of what to do with fighters who have returned from the Middle East. Should they be arrested and prosecuted for fighting in a foreign war, if there are laws available to do so? Is it better to monitor returnees, rather than risk further radicalization in jail? Should returnees be required to go through de-radicalization programs? None of the individual states of the bloc have found answers to those questions, so an EU consensus remains far off.
Source: VOANews.com - sofiaglobe.com
8/1/15

La communauté internationale appelle la Corée du Nord à "cesser de jouer avec le feu"...

Alors que la Corée du Nord a annoncé ces dernières heures qu'elle était désormais en "état de guerre" avec la Corée du Sud, la communauté internationale, inquiète, a multiplié, samedi 30 mars, les déclarations d'appel au calme.

Immédiatement après la diffusion du communiqué nord-coréen, les Etats-Unis ont déclaré prendre au sérieux ces menaces. "Nous avons eu connaissance d'une nouvelle déclaration, non constructive, de la Corée du Nord. Nous prenons ces menaces au sérieux et restons en contact étroit avec nos alliés sud-coréens, a déclaré Caitlin Hayden, porte-parole du Conseil national de sécurité de la Maison Blanche. Mais nous rappelons aussi que la Corée du Nord est une habituée de la rhétorique et des menaces bellicistes, et l'annonce faite aujourd'hui s'inscrit dans la continuité de ces pratiques." Le Pentagone a fait savoir qu'il renforçait ses défenses sur la côte Ouest des Etats-Unis.


La Russie, de son côté, a appelé les deux Corées et les Etats-Unis à faire preuve d'une "retenue et d'une responsabilité maximales sur le sort de la péninsule coréenne". "Nous désapprouvons toute déclaration ou initiative qui, d'une façon ou d'une autre, mène à l'escalade de la tension, a indiqué dans un communiqué le ministère des affaires étrangères. Nous sommes en contact permanent avec nos partenaires engagés dans les négociations à six sur le nucléaire nord-coréen (les deux Corées, la Chine, les Etats-Unis et le Japon) afin d'empêcher que la situation ne sorte du cadre politico-diplomatique."

La France s'est elle aussi dite "vivement préoccupée par la situation dans la péninsule coréenne" et a appelé la Corée du Nord à "s'abstenir de toute nouvelle provocation". "La France demande instamment à la Corée du Nord de remplir ses obligations internationales, notamment dans le cadre des résolutions pertinentes des Nations Unies et de reprendre rapidement le chemin du dialogue", a ajouté le porte-parole du ministère des affaires étrangères, Philippe Lalliot, dans un communiqué.

Le ministre allemand des affaires étrangères Guido Westerwelle a de son côté enjoint la Corée du Nord à cesser de jouer avec le feu, estimant "sérieuse" la menace pesant actuellement sur la région, dans une tribune au journal Bild. "Le jeu irresponsable de la Corée du Nord avec le feu doit cesser, écrit le chef de la diplomatie allemande, qui se déclare "très inquiet". Même si les images et les paroles qui nous viennent de Corée du Nord semblent sorties d'une autre époque, elles constituent une menace sérieuse pour la paix dans toute la région."

http://www.lemonde.fr/asie-pacifique/article/2013/03/30/la-communaute-internationale-appelle-la-coree-du-nord-a-cesser-de-jouer-avec-le-feu_3150988_3216.html#ens_id=1545482&xtor=RSS-3208
30/3/13
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• Λευκός Οίκος: Εχουμε συνηθίσει τις φιλοπολεμικές ανακοινώσεις της Β. Κορέας......ΣΕ ΕΤΟΙΜΟΤΗΤΑ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΠΡΟΣΤΑΣΙΑ ΤΩΝ ΗΠΑ ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ ΣΥΜΜΑΧΩΝ....

Ο Λευκός Οίκος ανακοίνωσε σήμερα ότι λαμβάνει πολύ σοβαρά υπόψη του τις πρόσφατες απειλές της Βόρειας Κορέας και ταυτόχρονα προειδοποιεί ότι η Πιονγκγιάνγκ έχει ιστορικό φιλοπόλεμης ρητορικής.

Σήμερα, η Βόρεια Κορέα κήρυξε τη χώρα σε "κατάσταση πολέμου" με τη Νότια, μία ημέρα μετά την υπογραφή από τον βορειοκορεάτη ηγέτη Κιμ Γιονγκ-ουν διατάγματος με το οποίο τίθενται σε επιφυλακή οι πυραυλικές μονάδες της χώρας για να επιτεθούν σε αμερικανικές στρατιωτικές βάσεις στο έδαφος της Νότιας Κορέας.

"Έχουμε δει νέες και μη εποικοδομητικές ανακοινώσεις από την Βόρεια Κορέα. Λαμβάνουμε αυτές τις απειλές σοβαρά υπόψη μας και παραμένουμε σε στενή επαφή με τους νοτιοκορεάτες συμμάχους μας", δήλωσε η Κέιτλιν Χέιντεν, εκπρόσωπος του Συμβουλίου Εθνικής Ασφαλείας του Λευκού Οίκου.

"Αλλά θα θέλαμε να παρατηρήσουμε ότι η Βόρεια Κορέα έχει ιστορικό φιλοπόλεμης ρητορικής και απειλών και ότι η σημερινή ανακοίνωση είναι στο ίδιο πνεύμα", πρόσθεσε η ίδια.

Το Πεντάγωνο έστειλε στη Νότια Κορέα ένα ζεύγος βομβαρδιστικών Β-2, των γνωστών Στέλθ, τα οποία μπορούν να φέρουν πυρηνικές κεφαλές και θεωρούνται αιχμή του δόρατος της αμερικανικής πολεμικής ισχύος.

Σύμφωνα με τους αμερικανούς αξιωματούχους, στόχος είναι, αφενός να καθησυχαστούν οι σύμμαχοι των Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών, η Νότια Κορέα και η Ιαπωνία, από τις συνεχιζόμενες απειλές της Βόρειας Κορέας, και αφετέρου να αναγκαστεί η Πιονγκγιάνγκ να επανέλθει στο τραπέζι των συνομιλιών για τα πυρηνικά.

"Παραμένουμε πλήρως έτοιμοι και ικανοί να υπερασπιστούμε και να προστατεύσουμε τις ΗΠΑ και τους συμμάχους μας. Εξακολουθούμε να λαμβάνουμε επιπρόσθετα μέτρα κατά της βορειοκορεατικής απειλή, περιλαμβανομένου του σχεδίου μας να αυξήσουμε τον αριθμό των αμερικανικών πυραύλων ανάσχεσης και των ραντάρ εντοπισμού και έγκαιρης προειδοποίησης", δήλωσε η ίδια.

Την ίδια ώρα, έκκληση στη Βόρεια Κορέα "να απέχει από κάθε νέα πρόκληση", έκανε σήμερα το Παρίσι.

"Η Γαλλία είναι έντονα προβληματισμένη από την κατάσταση στην κορεατική χερσόνησο", αναφέρει σε Δελτίο Τύπου ο εκπρόσωπος του υπουργείου Εξωτερικών, Φιλίπ Λαγιό.

Από την πλευρά του, ο γερμανός υπουργός Εξωτερικών, Γκίντο Βέστερβέλε, κάλεσε σήμερα την Πιονγκγιάνγκ να σταματήσει να παίζει με τη φωτιά.

http://www.ethnos.gr/article.asp?catid=22769&subid=2&pubid=63804980
30/3/13

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• North Korea’s ‘State of War’ May Be Mistranslation - Report....

MOSCOW, March 30 (RIA Novosti) – Recent media reports that North Korea had declared a “state of war” with South Korea might have been based on a mistranslation, Russian media reported on Saturday.

International media reported the North Korean statement, published on the country's state news agency KCNA, as reading that North Korea “is entering a state of war” with South Korea, and that all issues between the neighboring countries will be handled in accordance with wartime protocol.

On Saturday, the AFP news agency cited the same North Korean statement as saying "The long-standing situation of the Korean peninsula being neither at peace nor at war is finally over."

Later on Saturday, however, Russian media reported that a faulty translation might have been to blame for this apparent uptick in bellicose rhetoric.

The North Korean original statement apparently stressed that the country would act "in accordance with wartime laws" if attacked, and that "from that time, North-South relations will enter a state of war."

North and South Korea are not technically "at peace" since no peace treaty was signed following the Korean War in 1953. The Demilitarized Zone between the countries is the most heavily armed border in the world.

On March 11, South Korea and the United States began annual large-scale military exercises, codenamed Key Resolve. The drills involve 10,000 South Korean and 3,500 US troops.

Prior to the exercises, Pyongyang threatened the United States with a preemptive nuclear strike amid warnings that it plans to terminate the Korean War Armistice Agreement.

It warned of retaliatory countermeasures if the United States and South Korea went ahead with the drills.

The United States on Thursday dispatched two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers on an “extended deterrence” practice run over South Korea.

US officials said the exercise should serve “to demonstrate very clearly the resolve of the United States to deter against aggression on the Korean Peninsula.”

North Korea responded on Friday by placing its strategic rocket forces on standby to strike US and South Korean targets.

Russian media reported that South Korean news agency Yonhap had cited unnamed military sources as saying that “no special deployments of North Korean forces had been observed, despite this threatening rhetoric.”

There has been no further clarification from North Korea.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20130330/180342459.html
30/3/13

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• Seúl no detecta movimientos en el norte pese a las amenazas....

Seúl no detectó movimientos inusuales en las tropas de Corea del Norte, después de que el país comunista asegurara haber entrado en un "estado de guerra" en un nuevo episodio de su endurecida campaña de amenazas.

Las Fuerzas Armadas surcoreanas, que desde hace semanas mantienen una estrecha vigilancia sobre Corea del Norte debido a las repetidas amenazas del régimen de Kim Jong-un, no han detectado en las últimas horas acciones de relevancia en el país vecino, indicó una fuente militar a la agencia local Yonhap.

El Ministerio de Defensa de Seúl, por su parte, emitió un comunicado en el que denunció la "ofensiva" retórica norcoreana como una serie de "amenazas inaceptables" que "perjudican la paz y la estabilidad en la península de Corea" y reiteró su compromiso de responder con dureza a un hipotético ataque del vecino.

"Nuestro Ejército mantiene una completa preparación para no dejar puntos ciegos en la protección de la vida y la integridad de los ciudadanos" de Corea del Sur, expuso Defensa en un comunicado.

Por su parte el Ministerio de Unificación surcoreano, encargado de las relaciones con el Norte, restó importancia al último anuncio norcoreano, que enmarcó en la reciente campaña de amenazas verbales del país comunista.

En un despacho de la agencia estatal KCNA, Corea de Norte aseguró que ha entrado en "estado de guerra" y advirtió de un "combate a gran escala" fuera de la región.

Desde que el pasado día 7 el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU ampliara las sanciones a Corea del Norte por su última prueba nuclear de febrero, el régimen de Kim Jong-un ha dirigido amenazas casi a diario a Corea del Sur y EEUU.

Entre ellas, destaca la amenaza de un ataque nuclear preventivo a Corea del Sur y a EEUU, que el régimen comunista reiteró ayer.

EEUU se compromete a defender a Corea del Sur ante un hipotético ataque del Norte desde la Guerra de Corea (1950-53), que finalizó con un armisticio que hasta hoy sitúa en estado técnico de guerra a los dos lados de la península.

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2013/03/30/internacional/1364627382.html
30/3/13

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• DPRK calls nuclear test "self-defense" against U.S. hostility

• N Korea threatens ‘stronger’ measures than nuclear test

• USA und Südkorea starten dreitägiges Manöver

 

 

N Korea threatens ‘stronger’ measures than nuclear test

SEOUL — North Korea’s state media said yesterday that its authoritarian regime may do something “stronger than a nuclear test” to respond to what it called signs that it is about to be attacked by the United States.
North Korea routinely warns its people that the US and South Korea are on the verge of invading it.

But yesterday’s statement adds to a series of criticisms and warnings directed at the US that have escalated steadily over the past two weeks.

The statements, which began soon after the United Nations Security Council imposed new penalties on Jan 22 on North Korea for violating a missile ban by launching a rocket in December, have been taken by outsiders as confirmation of widely held expectations that Pyongyang will soon test a nuclear explosive for the third time.
North Korea detonated nuclear explosives after being penalised for rocket launches in 2006 and 2009.
Yesterday’s statement, attributed as a commentary by the Korean Central News Agency, is notable chiefly because it went beyond the previous criticism of sanctions to allege that the US is planning a nuclear attack with the help of South Korea.
“The DPRK has drawn a final conclusion that it will have to take a measure stronger than a nuclear test to cope with the hostile forces’ nuclear war moves that have become ever more undisguised,” the statement said.
“This is the demand of the people. There is no other option for the DPRK but to fight it out.”
DPRK is the abbreviation for the country’s full name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, in an interview published by a Seoul newspaper yesterday, suggested that North Korea may try to detonate two or more explosives at the same time.
Analysts suspect that North Korea may attempt to detonate an explosive made from highly enriched uranium for the first time after its previous plutonium bomb tests. 
 .todayonline.com
5/2/13
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Related:

• Η Πιονγιάνγκ απείλησε τον κόσμο με πυρηνικό πόλεμο

• USA und Südkorea starten dreitägiges Manöver

• Sanctions mean declaration of war: Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)

Turkish PM slams Israel over Syria attack

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of waging "state terrorism" after it struck targets in Syria.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Israel of waging "state terrorism" as he condemned the air
strike on Syria as an unacceptable violation of international law.
"Those who have been treating Israel like a spoilt child should expect anything from them, at any time," said Erdogan on Sunday.
"As I say time and again, Israel has a mentality of waging state terrorism. Right now, there is no telling what it might do and where it might do it," he told reporters.

Erdogan, a harsh critic of the Jewish state, was speaking after Israel's outgoing Defence Minister Ehud Barak implicitly confirmed that it had staged Wednesday's bombing raid which Damascus said targeted a military complex near the capital.
"We cannot regard a violation of air space as acceptable. What Israel does is completely against international law... it is beyond condemnation," Erdogan said.
"I am worried that in a situation like this, any scenario can play out in the future."
Earlier on Sunday, Barak refrained from a direct confirmation as he brought the issue up at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
"I cannot add anything to what you have read in the newspapers about what happened in Syria several days ago," Barak told participants.
But he added: "It's another proof that when we say something we mean it. We say that we don't think that it should be allowable to bring advanced weapon systems into Lebanon, the Hezbollah from Syria, when [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad falls."
According to US officials, Wednesday’s attack hit a convoy of anti-aircraft weapons inside Syria bound for the Lebanese Hezbollah group but Israel has not publicly acknowledged the air strike.
The Syrian military said the target of Israeli jets was a scientific research centre. The facility is in the area of Jamraya, northwest of the capital.
'Destabilising Syria'
Following Barak's comments, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused Israel of trying to destabilise Syria and said Damascus was able to confront "current threats ...and aggression" against it.
Syria's state news agency SANA said Assad made the remarks in a meeting with Saeed Jalili, Iran's national security council secretary, at meeting in Damascus. It was Assad's first reported response to the attack.
Since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict, Israeli leaders have repeatedly expressed fears that if Syria were to disintegrate, Assad could lose control of his chemical weapons and other arms.
Purported images of the targeted site, aired by Syrian state television on Saturday, show destroyed cars, trucks and military vehicles. A building has broken widows and damaged interiors, but no major structural damage.
Meanwhile, Syrian opposition leaders and rebels on Friday slammed Assad for not responding to the air strike, calling it proof of his weakness and acquiescence to Israel.
On Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is in the process of forming a new ruling coalition, said his new government would have to deal with weapons "being stockpiled near us and threatening our cities and civilians" - an apparent reference to the deteriorating situation in Syria.
Barak said "Hezbollah from Lebanon and the Iranians are the only allies that Assad has left".
He said in his view Assad's fall "is coming imminently" and when it happens, "this will be a major blow to the Iranians and Hezbollah."
"I think that they will pay the price," he said.
.aljazeera.com
3/2/13
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Related:

• Any attack on Syria will be taken as an attack on Iran - Tehran aide

• Syria warns Israel of 'surprise' retaliation

Any attack on Syria will be taken as an attack on Iran - Tehran aide

Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser on international affairs to the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamanei, warned Saturday that any attack on Syria will be taken as an attack on Iran or its allies, according to the Reuters news agency.

Tehran has already made strongly-worded warnings against an overthrow of al-Assad, who’s engaged in a large-scale armed struggle against the opposition forces that are doing their utmost to come to power.

The conflict in Syria has been raging since March 2011.

According to the United Nations, over 60,000 have already fallen victim to the fighting.

The government in Damascus claims that they have to deal with resistance by heavily-armed gunmen, relying on outside support.

Voice of Russia, Reuters

.ruvr.ru

26/01/13

Syrian rebels burn and plunder religious sites – Human Rights Watch

Syrian rebels have looted and burned minority religious sites in Northern Syria, US-based Human Rights Watch says. The attacks highlight the increasingly sectarian nature of the conflict as the bloodshed continues unabated.
The three incidents took place in November and December of last year in religiously mixed areas.
Rebels looted two Christian churches in separate villages in the relatively peaceful western governorate of Latakia, local witnesses told the rights watchdog.
They also destroyed a Shiite ‘husseiniya’ – a religious site devoted to Hussein, a martyr in Shiite tradition – in Idlib governorate.
In all three cases, Human Rights Watch found evidence showing the attacks on the religious sites were directly connected to the areas coming under the control of the armed rebels.

After rebels took control of Jdeideh village in Latakia on December 11, a local resident told the group gunmen broke into and stole from the church, letting off multiple rounds inside which caused structural damage. Damage to the sealed-off church, including broken windows and evidence of forced entry, were observed by the group a week after the attack.
The priests’ quarters next to the church were also appropriated by rebel gunmen, who used it as a base to fire upon government forces in a neighboring village. A resident said medicine had been stolen from a clinic belonging to the church, homes had been looted and civilians were kidnapped, at times for ransom.
In the village of Ghasaniyeh, gunmen broke into another church, stealing gas and diesel fuel in late November. A cross had been left on the floor, but apart from the forced entry, no other damaged was observed.
"While the motivation for the church break-ins may have been theft rather than a religious attack, opposition fighters have a responsibility to protect religious sites in areas under their control from willful damage and theft," Human Rights Watch said.
The destruction of the Shia holy site was carried out on December 11 after rebels took control of Zarzour village.
A video published on YouTube the following day purportedly showed armed rebel celebrating the expulsion of government forces from the village as a fire rages in the Shia mosque.

An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube by user @syriarage showing Syrian rebels seizing the village of Zarzour on December 11 2012, where they allegedly torched the local mosque.

One rebel, identifying himself as a member of the Amr bin Ma’ad Yakrib al-Zubaydi Brigade, proclaims the "destruction of the dens of the Shiites and Rafida," a derogatory term used against the Muslim denomination.
Rebel fighters claimed government forces torched the mosque before leaving, but two local residents said anti-government forces set the fire upon seizing the town.
Human Rights Watch independently confirmed that the damage to the site had been deliberate, lending credence to the video’s authenticity. The investigators witnessed that the windows at the site had been shattered, prayer stones were strewn across the floor, religious posters had been ripped off the walls, and charred items lay in a pile on the floor, indicating “they were piled on top of one another and deliberately set on fire.”
“The destruction of religious sites is furthering sectarian fears and compounding the tragedies of the country, with tens of thousands killed,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
“Syria will lose its rich cultural and religious diversity if armed groups do not respect places of worship. Leaders on both sides should send a message that those who attack these sites will be held accountable,” she continued.

An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube by user @syriarage showing Syrian rebels seizing the village of Zarzour on December 11 2012, where they allegedly torched the local mosque.

An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube by user @syriarage showing Syrian rebels seizing the village of Zarzour on December 11 2012, where they allegedly torched the local mosque.

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Christians in crosshairs

Multiple reports of attacks on minority religious sites have surfaced in Syria as the armed conflict to out Syrian President Bashar Assad has killed more than 60,000 people and driven over 650,000 out of the country, according to UN estimates.
The 22-month-old rebellion has taken on increasingly sectarian dimensions, as primarily Sunni Muslim rebels have battled pro-government Alawites – an offshoot of Shiite Islam – and many Christians who link their survival to that of the Assad government.
Christians have increasingly viewed the current government as a guarantor of their religious freedoms. Religious persecution faced by Egyptian and Iraqi Christians in the wake of regime change has only increased fears that religiously tolerant Syria will be transformed by Islamist elements of the opposition.
Such sentiments have put them in the crosshairs of rebel fighters.
In August, Syria’s state news agency SANA reported a massacre in nearby Jandar village which left 16 civilians, mostly Alawites and Christians, dead.
In June, at least 9,000 Christians from the western Syrian city of Qusayr neighboring Homs were reportedly forced to seek refuge after an ultimatum from a local military chief of the armed opposition.
In March, sources inside the Syrian Orthodox Church have claimed the systematic “ethnic cleansing of Christians" by the Free Syrian Army was taking place in Homs.
A letter sent to Agenzia Fides – the Vatican’s press agency – by Orthodox sources in Syria said that “Militant armed Islamists…have managed to expel 90 per cent of Christians in Homs and confiscated their homes by force.”
Agnes Mariam, a local Christian leader in Syria, told RT in September that the persecution of Christians was a reflection of how their faith had excluded them from Islamist elements within the opposition.
“The Christians have been discriminated against not because they are Christians, but because by being Christians they couldn’t participate in Islamist demonstrations. Sometimes, this led to severe violence against them. You know, we had more than 200,000 Christians that had to flee out [of Syria] because of this ambiguous position.”
.rt.com 
23/1/13

An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube by user @syriarage showing Syrian rebels seizing the village of Zarzour on December 11 2012, where they allegedly torched the local mosque.

An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube by user @syriarage showing Syrian rebels seizing the village of Zarzour on December 11 2012, where they allegedly torched the local mosque.