Bharat Rakshak

Damascus, 18 June (AKI) – Several hundred westerners including Italians have been captured fighting alongside rebels seeking to overthrow president Bashar al-Assad, government sources told Adnkronos on Tuesday.

“We are holding 300 westerners, of whom six or seven are Italian, according to the information I have. They are all converts to Islam,” the source said.

Converts to Islam are particularly dangerous because they are eager to prove their loyalty and have nothing but Islam in their life anymore.

One of the good things about the Syrian Civil War is that it is diverting the sort of people who would otherwise be killing Westerners.

Four Egyptian Shia Muslims have been killed in a mob attack in a village near the capital Cairo, officials say.

The attack on Sunday targeted a house where a group of Shia worshippers had gathered for a religious ceremony.

The attackers accused those gathered of trying to spread Shia beliefs, reports say.

Shia Muslims are a small minority in predominantly Sunni Muslim Egypt, but anti-Shia rhetoric has increased recently due to the conflict in Syria.

Eyewitnesses told the BBC that an anti-Shia crowd numbering at least several hundred formed around the house.

The mob then reportedly demanded the Shia leave the house before storming it and trying to set it alight.

Images from the incident show the victims being dragged through the streets.

One of those killed was a local Shia leader, Hassan Shehata, officials say.

Eight others were injured in the attack, according to security sources.

A health ministry spokesman told Egypt's Mena news agency that the bodies "showed numerous puncture wounds and severe bruising".

One eyewitness, Hazem Barakat, told the Ahram newspaper that police stood by and did nothing to stop the attack.

As in other countries in the region, anti-Shia rhetoric has been on the rise in Egypt due to the civil war in Syria, which has often been described in sectarian terms.

Earlier this month, an influential Egyptian cleric called on Sunni Muslims to go to Syria to join the battle against President Bashar al-Assad.

Last week, Israel conducted an extensive military exercise that saw the participation of the IDF ground forces, the Israeli Navy and the IAF. The precise goals of the exercise were not made public and remained a secret. However, assessments are that it was aimed towards Israel's northern arena - towards the tension with Syria and Hezbollah.

What was not known was that at the same time, the Russian Navy vessel CCB-201 - one of the Russian Navy's largest intelligence vessels - was present in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The CCB-201 is no ordinary intelligence vessel, but rather a naval intelligence gathering unit which is similar in its characteristics to Israel's Unit 8200 - a SIGINT collection and decryption unit capable of intercepting and listening to military transmissions between naval vessels and aircraft in the Mediterranean Sea.

The emir of the small but economically strong Gulf state of Qatar, a major diplomatic broker that has played a key role in the Arab spring, is set to transfer power to his son in a first for the Arab world.

"The royal palace announces that Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, will address the Qatari people at 8:00 am (0500 GMT) on Tuesday," said a statement carried by the official QNA news agency.

An official said the emir will "announce the transfer of his powers to his son", Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

The palace statement declared Tuesday an official holiday in the gas-rich nation which has punched above its weight in recent years.

Qatar-based satellite television channel Al-Jazeera said the emir met "with the royal family and prominent members of Qatari society. He has informed the meeting of his decision to hand power over to his crown prince."

Sheikh Hamad, who used Qatar's immense gas wealth to drive its modernisation and transform it into a major player on the world's diplomatic scene, came to power in a coup in which he overthrew his father Sheikh Khalifa in Al-Jazeera reported earlier that the emir's planned meeting with royals and prominent members of society "comes amid news about the intentions of the emir to transfer power to his heir apparent".

A diplomat said that by stepping down of his free accord the 61-year-old emir would "score a first in the Arab world," where autocratic rulers held power uncontested for decades until the Arab Spring revolutions that toppled regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
Read more: http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_06_24/ ... -son-0180/

Austin wrote:India’s Energy Ties with Iran Unsettle Washington

The Syrian government will not go to the Geneva talks to hand over power and the opposition should not “bother” going if they expect President Bashar al-Assad to resign, Syria’s foreign minister said on Monday.
Walid al-Muallem said Assad will not step down. “If your condition is President Assad’s resignation, don’t bother coming,” he said at a Damascus press conference.
Muallem slammed the decision by “Friends of Syria” to arm the rebels, saying the move would only prolong the war.
“What was decided in Doha is serious because it aims to prolong the crisis, violence, and killing and encourage terrorism.”
He said rebel fighters had little prospect of matching the power of Assad’s army despite foreign support.

“If they expect or fantasize that they can create a balance of power, I think they will need to wait years for that to happen,” Muallem added.

Austin wrote:Cedric Maps are known to be biased and is he pro-FSA guy.

KLNMurthy wrote:

shyamd wrote:These are militants based in North West Yemen on the border with Saudi. They waged a big war in 2004 - 2009/10. They are a sect known as Zaidi - which is supposedly an offshoot of Shia islam.
They started off with fight against Yemeni military and then Saudis intervened.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia_insurgency_in_Yemen

Saudis didn't fair well - the regular army was rescued by other units - I think SANG. TSPAF were helping the RSAF in air operations. Although majority of operations were led by the ground forces.

It was this failure that led the Saudis to ask India to help teach them Mountain warfare and set up a school there.

Didn't Yemen or a part of it have a communist government for a time? I don't remember seeing too much discussion of pure commie memes (as opposed to the Baathist nasserite memes) in the arab world. It would be instructive if some of the gurus could elucidate on this aspect, and maybe give some thoughts as to the possibility of using communism as a lever to undermine the salafi stranglehold.

A Syrian branch of al-Qaida on Tuesday claimed responsibility for multiple suicide attacks on security compounds in Damascus that killed at least five people in a weekend assault on the center of the regime's power.

The claim by Jabhat al-Nusra — its first in months — came as the U.N.'s special representative trying to end Syria's civil war said hopes for convening a peace conference next month are fading.

Jabhat al-Nusra claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks in a statement posted on a militant website, warning Assad that his "criminal regime" should know that its fighters "do not fear any confrontation with the enemies."

The group said it sent seven suicide bombers wearing Syrian military uniforms to break into a police station in northern Damascus and a security compound in a southern district of the capital.

It also posted pictures claiming to show the attackers. Their faces blurred, the men are seen wearing military uniforms and holding Kalashnikov rifles as they sit on the ground with black Jabhat al-Nusra banners hanging behind them.

The Nusra Front has emerged as the most effective rebel force fighting to oust President Bashar Assad.

On Sunday, June 23, Syrian Catholic priest François Murad was murdered in the locality of Gassanieh, northern Syria, according to a statement from the Custody of the Holy Land sent to the Fides Agency.

Murad was targeted by armed militants, while he was residing at the monastery, which was dedicated to Saint Simon Stylite

“The world must know that the support of gunmen by the west is helping extremists in killing Syrians”, Pizzaballa said, adding that, “with such stances, not a single Christian will remain in the East.”

According to local sources, the monastery was raided by gunmen, who proceeded to execute François Murad, loot and burn the building. Four-thousand people are reported to have since fled the area.

Christians in Syria are being increasing targeted by sectarian armed groups in Syria, of which there are between several hundred and over a thousand.

In May, a Christian village located in Homs countryside, was overrun by armed men and it’s entire population massacred.

Two Christian bishops who were kidnapped by Chechen gunmen in Aleppo earlier this year, are still missing.

habal wrote:Vatican against arming of Islamist rebels.

After murder of a franciscan monsigneur at Al-Ghassanniyya Francois Muraad's vicious murder at hands of Jabhal Al-Nusra, the al-qaeda allied faction of rebels backed by Barak Obama. This has further galvanized the Vatican against any further arming of the Islamist rebels.

Lalmohan wrote:the christian monasteries of the middle east are historical treasure troves of artefacts, icons and manuscripts - i guess we are going to lose them all

Khaled Meshal was recruited by the CIA sometime in 1971 and was instructed to join the Muslim Brotherhood. He was to organize Palestinian students and penetrate Islamist groups while he was in Kuwait and Jordan. He did exactly that. The CIA informed Jordanian and Israeli intelligence about Meshal with clearly inflated ideas about his potential. They were encouraged to build up his persona and there’s no better way to do that than to allow him to survive an assassination attempt. Now he was legitimate. He was targeted by the enemy for his (non-existent) role in military operations for Hamas (he had zero military experience). The people respected him. Unfortunately, so did Iran which saw in him and Hamas a pathway into Palestinian politics. The Iranians convinced the new Syrian president, Dr. Bashar Al-Assad, to go along and allow the Muslim Brotherhood into Damascus, just this one time. What a mistake that was.

The US's Afghan Exit May Depend on a Syrian One

The single most critical reason for why Washington will not risk entering the Syrian military theater – almost entirely ignored by DC policy wonks – may be this: the 2014 US military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“Help, we can’t get out”

There are around 750,000 major pieces of American military hardware costing approximately $36 billion sitting in Afghanistan right now. The cost of transporting this equipment out of the country is somewhere close to the $7 billion mark. It would be easier to destroy this stuff than removing it, but given tightening US budgets and lousy economic prospects, this hardware is unlikely to be replaced if lost.

Getting all this equipment into Afghanistan over the past decade was a lot easier than getting it out will be. For starters, much of it came via Pakistani corridors – before Americans began droning the hell out of that country and creating dangerous pockets of insurgents now blocking exit routes.

An alternative supply route through Afghan border states Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan called the Northern Distribution Network was set up in 2009, but is costlier and longer than going via Pakistan. And human rights disputes, onerous conditions on transport and unpredictable domestic sentiment toward the Americans places far too much leverage over these routes in the hands of regional hegemon Russia.

Unlike Iraq, where the US could count on its control over the main ports and Arab allies along the Persian Gulf border, Afghanistan is landlocked, mountainous and surrounded by countries and entities now either hostile to US interests or open to striking deals with American foes.

In short, a smooth US exit from Afghanistan may be entirely dependent on one thing: the assistance of Russia, Iran, and to a lesser degree, China.

'Rambo' Modi's next mission: Save 'Indians' from Saudi crisis due to new job law, Nitaqat expected to hit by July 3...

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has started preparing the ground to rescue Indians who are expected to be deported from Saudi Arabia as it goes ahead with its new job law, Nitaqat. Sheela Bhatt reports

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has activated his officers to meet the crisis that is expected to be created by the new Saudi Arabian labour law Nitaqat, which is expected to come into effect from July 3

Sources told rediff.com that the Gujarat government has contacted Rajiv Mehrishi, secretary in the Overseas Indian Affairs ministry, and preparation are in full swing to meet the emergency.

The Modi administration thinks that once the new law is implemented, the Saudi government may start deporting Indian labour not fitting into the new conditions of their law.

The Nitaqat law makes it mandatory for local companies to hire one Saudi national for every 10 migrant workers.

The Saudi government has repeatedly stated that only "illegal blue-collar Indian workers" would be affected by the Nitaqat law, but India is likely to face unprecedented crisis if the government there implements the new law firmly.

Last month, Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid had met his counterpart Prince Saud Al Faisal in Jeddah to put forward the case of the Indian workers, who have been feeling insecure and fearing a likely crackdown by the Saudi authorities.

However, local companies can hire Indian workers who are either not having enough legal papers (living illegally in Saudi Arabia) or need the legal support to remain in the country beyond the July 3 deadline.

Out of Saudi Arabia’s 70 million expatriate workforce, around 20 per cent are Indians. Few local companies have come forward with job offers, but the deadline is too close to solve the issues.

Modi’s team has activated its machinery to face the eventuality of the Saudi government “forcing” Indian workers to return home.

shyamd wrote:got some interesting stuff to detail on this Syrian saga. Stuff going on behind the scenes are just incredibly complex and tie into so many other issues - that its difficult for one person to keep track of everything going on.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister says all personnel had been evacuated from the navy resupply base in Tartus, Syria, adding that not a single Russian military serviceman remained in the country.

Mikhail Bogdanov made the announcement in an interview with the Al-Hayat newspaper. “Presently, the Russian Defense Ministry has not a single person stationed in Syria. The base does not have any strategic military importance,” the newspaper quoted the Russian official as saying.

Russian media have verified the statement and the business daily Vedomosti quoted an unnamed source in the Defense Ministry as saying that this was true as all military and civilian personnel had been evacuated from the Tartus base and there were no Russian military instructors working with the Syrian military forces. The source added that the withdrawal was prompted not only by the increased risks caused by the ongoing military conflict, but also by the fact that in the current conditions any incident involving Russian servicemen would likely have some unfavorable reaction from the international community.

Russia currently has a 16-ship flotilla in the Mediterranean Sea but none of them has called at the port of Tartus in recent months and there were no reports of such plans.

Mikhail Bogdanov is also Russian President’s plenipotentiary for Middle East issues and he headed the Russian delegation at this week’s talks between Russia, US and UN on preparations of the major international conference on Syria, dubbed Geneva-2.

Bashar al-Assad Not a Dictator, Says Former British Ambassador to Syria
Posted on June 25, 2013

Ex-diplomat Andrew Green defends Syrian ruler and accuses No 10 spin of failing to understand situation on the ground

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is not a dictator – just a figurehead – according to a former British ambassador to Syria.

Sir Andrew Green’s remarks in the Spectator are likely to enrage critics of Assad’s regime at a time when David Cameron is discussing whether to follow the US decision to arm rebels in Syria.

In a blogpost entitled “If you think arming the rebels is the answer, then you don’t understand Syria”, Green, the former diplomat and founding chairman of the organisation MigrationWatch UK, criticised the “spin generated by Number 10 in recent days”.

“All this spin reflects a fundamental failure to understand the nature of the situation in Syria,” he argued. “Bashar al-Assad is a figurehead, not a dictator on the pattern of Saddam Hussein, or even his [Assad's] father.

“What some outside observers fail to realise is that the Alawites, having run a very tough police state for 40 years, simply cannot afford to lose power,” he said.

“If they were to do so, they believe that they and their families would be massacred. They may well be right.”