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Title: NATO Has Plans To Defend Turkey If Needed As U.N. Calls For Unilateral Truce In Syria
Source:
Al Arabiya
URL Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/10/09/242714.html
Published: Oct 9, 2012
Author: Al Arabiya
Post Date: 2012-10-09 10:54:04 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 1432
Comments: 4
By Al Arabiya with Agencies The head of NATO said on Tuesday the military alliance had plans in place to defend Turkey against attack if needed, as the United Nations chief urged the Syrian regime to declare an immediate truce. “We have all necessary plans in place to protect and defend Turkey if necessary,” Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters before a meeting of the alliance’s defense ministers in Brussels, according to Reuters. Following Syrian gunfire and shelling, NATO ambassadors threw their support behind Turkey in an emergency meeting last week. Turkish forces have retaliated against the bombardment from northern Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are battling rebels. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged the Syrian regime to declare an immediate truce to bring an end to the conflict that he said had left 20,000 dead over the last 19 months. “It is unbearable for the (Syrian) people to continue like this. That is why I have conveyed to the Syrian government (a) strong message that they should immediately declare a unilateral ceasefire,” he said. He told a joint press conference in Paris with French President Francois Hollande that the reaction he had got from the Syrian government had been to ask what opposition forces would do if the regime called a truce, AFP reported. “That is exactly what I have discussed and I am in the process of discussing with the member states of the (United Nations) Security Council and the countries in the region,” he said. Ban urged “the opposition forces to agree to this unilateral ceasefire when and if the Syrian government declares it” and he called on countries supplying arms to either side to stop in order to ease the suffering of the Syrian people. Meanwhile, a watchdog said on Tuesday that twin blasts at a military base near Damascus by suicide bombers, one driving an bomb-laden ambulance, killed dozens of people while the fate of prisoners held there is unknown. The attack, the latest in a spate of assaults on Syrian military and government installations, was claimed by al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, which said it was to avenge Muslims “oppressed or killed” by the regime. “Dozens of people were killed in two suicide attacks against the air force intelligence branch in Harasta” late on Monday, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdul Rahman told AFP, referring to a town just northeast of the capital. “The fate of hundreds of prisoners being held in the basements of the (building) is still unknown.” “The regime has not said a word about what happened last night,” added Abdul Rahman. “I hold the regime responsible for the fate of the prisoners. They shouldn't be holding all of these people in the first place.” The Observatory said in an earlier statement that Syrian regime artillery hammered Harasta as well as other rebel belts across the country from dawn on Tuesday. Al-Nusra Front, which was unknown before the start of the revolt against Assad’s regime but which now regularly issues statements claiming suicide attacks in Syria, said it was behind the Harasta attack. “In revenge for those who have oppressed or killed Muslims, the decision was taken to strike the Air Force intelligence branch in Harasta,” al-Nusra said in a statement posted on jihadist online forums. The group described a three-phase operation in which a suicide bomber drove a car loaded with nine tons of explosives to the front of the building, and 25 minutes later, another fighter drove through in a booby-trapped ambulance. The militants then targeted the area with mortars, according to the statement. The attack sparked intense fighting between rebels and the army, which at daybreak pounded the town with shells, the Britain-based Observatory said. It said Syrian forces on Tuesday also rained shells down on rebel strongholds in the second city of Aleppo, which has been fiercely contested since mid-July, and in Idlib province near the Turkish province. The army also kept up a siege of rebel neighborhoods of the city of Homs – Syria’s third largest -- and the nearby town of Qusayr, sources on both sides said. “The army is in the midst of trying to cleanse the last rebel districts of the city of Homs,” a Syrian army commander told AFP. “The army has already cleansed the villages surrounding Qusayr, and is now trying to take back the town itself,” the commander said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A security official told AFP the army hopes to retake the besieged areas by the end of the week to free up troops for battle zones in the north, such as Aleppo. Homs province has suffered some of the worst bloodshed and destruction of the uprising which erupted against Assad’s regime in March last year, but since July the main focus of the conflict has shifted to Aleppo, the northern metropolis of some 1.7 million people. Resilient Assad The embattled Syrian President showed more resilience that his regime will stay undeterred when he appointed Stam al-Dandah as the new ambassador to Iraq. The previous ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf al-Fares, made headlines in July when he defected.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
Russia will defend Syria. NATO, bring your nukes. 9/11 and Israel. Nothing else makes sense....;}
www.reuters.com/article/2...sis-idUSBRE88J0X720121009 HACIPASA, Turkey | Tue Oct 9, 2012 10:14am EDT (Reuters) - NATO said on Tuesday it had drawn up plans to defend Turkey if necessary against any further spillover of violence from Syria's border areas where rebels and government forces are fighting for control. Rebel suicide bombers struck at President Bashar al-Assad's heartland, attacking an Air Force Intelligence compound on the edge of Damascus, insurgents said. Activists living nearby said the bombing caused at least 100 casualties among security personnel, based on the ambulances that rushed to the scene. "Assad...is only able to stand up with crutches," Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, once a close ally of Assad, told a meeting of his ruling AK Party. "He will be finished when the crutches fall away." Erdogan, reacting to six consecutive days where shells fired from Syrian soil have landed on Turkish territory, has warned Ankara will not shrink from war if forced to act. But Ankara has also made clear it would be reluctant to mount any major operation on Syrian soil, and then only with international support. Syrian forces and rebels have clashed at several sites close to the Turkish border in the last week. There has been no sign of any major breakthrough by either side, though activists said rebels killed at least 40 soldiers on Saturday in a 12-hour battle to take the village of Khirbet al-Joz. It was not clear whether the shells landing on the Turkish side were aimed at Turkey or simply the result of government troops overshooting as they attacked rebels to their north. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in Brussels the 28-member military alliance hoped a way could be found to stop tensions escalating on the border. "We have all necessary plans in place to protect and defend Turkey if necessary," he said. Just outside Hacipasa, a village nestled among olive groves in Turkey's Hatay border province, the sound of mortar fire could be heard every 10-15 minutes from around the Syrian town of Azmarin. A Syrian helicopter flew high over the border. Villagers used ropes and small metal boats to ferry the injured across a river no more than 10 meters wide into Turkey. On the Syrian side, men wearing surgical masks and gloves tended to the wounded on mats laid on the ground. "They are burning houses in the town," said Musana Barakat, 46, an Azmarin resident who makes frequent trips between the two countries, pointing at plumes of thick smoke in the distance. "There are rebels hiding in and around the town and they are going to make a push tonight to drive Assad's forces out," he said, a Syrian passport sticking out of his shirt pocket. A crowd gathered around a saloon car, the blood-stained body of a man who had been pulled wounded from the fighting slumped across its back seat. Those with him said he had been rescued alive but died after being brought over the border. Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Monday the "worst-case scenarios" were now playing out in Syria and Turkey would do everything necessary to protect itself. Gul and Erdogan, in seeking Western and Arab support, have repeatedly warned of the dangers of fighting in Syria spilling over into a sectarian war engulfing the entire region. Turkey's chief of general staff General Necdet Ozel flew by helicopter to several bases in Hatay province on Tuesday, part of Turkey's 900-km (560-mile) border with Syria. U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi will go to Syria soon to try to persuade President Bashar al-Assad's government to call an immediate ceasefire. SUICIDE BOMBERS The militant Islamist group al-Nusra Front said it had mounted the suicide attack on the air force intelligence building in Damascus because it was used a centre for torture and repression in the crackdown on the revolt against Assad. "Big shockwaves shattered windows and destroyed shop facades. It felt as if a bomb exploded inside every house in the area," said one resident of the suburb of Harasta, where the compound was located. But much of the fighting in the 18-month-old uprising has concentrated around the border area. The shelling of the Turkish town of Akcakale last Wednesday, which killed five civilians, marked a sharp escalation. Turkey has been responding in kind since then to gunfire or mortar bombs flying over the border and has bolstered its military presence along the frontier. "We are living in constant fear. The mortar sounds have really picked up since this morning. The children are really frightened," said Hali Nacioglu, 43, a farmer from the village of Yolazikoy near Hacipasa. A mortar bomb landed in farmland near Hacipasa on Monday. Unlike the flat terrain around Akcakale, the border area in Hatay is marked by rolling hills with heavy vegetation. Syrian towns and villages, including Azmarin, are clearly visible just a few kilometers away. "It's only right that Turkey should respond if it gets fired on but we really don't want war to break out. We want this to finish as soon as possible," said Abidin Tunc, 49, a tobacco farmer also from Yolazikoy. NATO member Turkey was once an ally of Assad's but turned against him after his violent response to the uprising, in which activists say 30,000 people have died. Turkey has nearly 100,000 Syrian refugees in camps on its territory, has given sanctuary to rebel leaders and has led calls for Assad to quit. (Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Adrian Croft in Brussels, John Irish in Paris; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Daren Butler and Ralph Boulton)
It is not easy reconstructing 'molded minds'...
Don't sugar coat it, it was a COTTON field! This could have serious implications for Hillary's wardrobe selection. WWW III is the only option. /s
Obama's watch stopped on 24 May 2008, but he's been too busy smoking crack to notice.
Turkey's been promised something. It won't be worth it.
#2. To: mcgowanjm, Syria Clashes Intensify Near Turkey Border (#1)
#3. To: Brian S, *Neo-Lib Chickenhawk Wars* (#2)
A mortar bomb landed in farmland near Hacipasa on Monday.
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul
#4. To: Brian S (#2)
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