Syrian Army retakes central Aleppo

"State media hailed the recapture by the army of three Christian neighbourhoods in the heart of Aleppo, but clashes between troops and rebel fighters raged in other parts of the city and in the southern belt of Damascus. Syria's deputy foreign minister Faisal Muqdad accused neighbouring Turkey of providing the rebels with arms and rear bases, as Turkish and US officials held talks on hastening President Bashar al-Assad's fall. "   Yahoo News

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It seems to have become difficult to "open" the site for SANA, the "Syrian Arab News Agency."  Information management and operations?

The Christians who are the majority population in that part of Aleppo are celebrating.  As I have said before, the re-capture of Aleppo is a slow and deliberate process.

The Syrian Army has re-captured one of the border towns along the fromtier with Turkey.  That is the first in a process of establishing a cordon sanitaire along the border.  pl

 

http://news.yahoo.com/us-uk-warn-syria-chemical-weapons-threat-065107928.html?_esi=1

Comments

[Gorgon Stared]

Fisk returns to Aleppo

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-rebel-army-theyre-a-gang-of-foreigners-8073717.html

He'd previously been covering the Palistinian flight. Many say they sported the regime, but apparently Assad thought otherwise.

[Matthew]

Col: If this why President Obama warned about Syria's chemical weapons? That's probably more politically savvy than telling our people, "We need to intervene to save the foreign head-and-hand choppers stuck in Syria."

[turcopolier]

Matthew

IMO the import of the warning is that the US will not intervence overtly short of first use of chem weapons. pl

[Alba Etie]

Col Lang
Do we know how for sure that the Obama administration was actively supporting the FSA ?
We seem to know that Turkey is supporting the FSA with arms , safe haven , and even boots on the ground. Are there American boots on the ground actively supporting the jihadis in their fight against Assad ? It appears to me that the BHO administration has recalibrated its support for the rebels . It sure looks to me that the statement about chemical weapons green lighted anything else al Assad wanted to do & use on the jihadis.

[Poul]

How will the Syrian government handle the Kurds. Leave them for last?

[Charles I]

First post I ever made here in 2005 was about Kurds.

An article on the Syrian Kurds by AP reporter Zeina Karam appeared in the Toronto Star This week.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1246419--syria-s-kurdish-minority-emerges-as-a-winner-in-conflict

". . . Last month, villagers say, Syrian security forces simply abandoned posts in several border towns and villages. They were quickly replaced by fighters from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD. The group is affiliated with Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is suspected of having ties with Assad’s regime.

Gerges called the regime pullout a win-win situation for the Syrian regime.

“They know they cannot take on the Kurdish community and they realized that they have common interests with the PYD because the common enemy for both of them is Turkey,” Gerges said.

PYD officials deny any links to the PKK or the Syrian regime. They say they will not allow Syrian authorities to return to the areas they relinquished — but nor will they allow Syrian rebels to enter their areas.

It is a unique opportunity for the Kurdish community in Syria, and residents say a politicization process has already started.

For the first time, Kurdish flags have replaced Syrian flags in towns and villages near the border areas, and cultural centres have sprung up and some people have begun taking classes in the Kurdish language, which was forbidden by Assad. Kurdish parties also are beginning to build networks with their counterparts in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Mustafa Osso, a Kurdish lawyer and activist in the Syrian city of Qamishli, says the reports of Kurdish empowerment and growing autonomy are exaggerated, and that Syrian forces may return at any minute.

“But what is sure is that there will be no going back to the previous era of subordination and oppression,” Osso said."

Their fate is surely not in the hands of Syria alone, but subject to Turkish concerns, as were the Kurds of Iraq.

[Babak Makkinejad]

I think only recently (the last 18 months or so) were the Kurds in Syria were granted Syrian citizenship.