Jew World Order

• Syrian troops and tanks drive rebels from pivotal Damascus neighbourhood
• More than 300 killed in single day yesterday, activists said
• Fourth member of Assad’s inner circle dies of wounds from Wednesday bomb blast during a high level security meeting
• Russia and China veto UN resolution to step up sanctions against Assad
• David Cameron calls on Assad to step down

By
Graham Smith

PUBLISHED:

03:38 EST, 20 July 2012

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UPDATED:

11:42 EST, 20 July 2012

Syrian troops and tanks today drove rebels from a Damascus neighbourhood where some of the heaviest of this week’s fighting in the capital has left cars gutted and fighters’ bodies littering the streets.

More than 300 people were killed in a single day yesterday, activists said, as the military struggles to regain momentum after a stunning bombing against the regime’s leadership.

It has also emerged that a fourth member of President Bashar Assad’s inner circle, national security chief General Hisham Ikhtiyar, died of wounds he suffered in Wednesday’s bomb blast, which went off during a high level security meeting in Damascus.

The bombing has been a resounding blow to Assad, killing his defence minister and his influential brother-in-law along with another security official, all central to directing the crackdown on the uprising against his rule.

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Comeback: Syrian soldiers lift up their guns as a salute for Syrian President Bashar Assad in the Midan district of Damascus today. This photo was taken during a government-organised tour of the area

Assad forced: The military is struggling to regain momentum after a stunning bombing against the regime’s leadership on Wednesday killed four of the president’s closest advisors

Up in smoke: Tyres set on fire by demonstrators block a road in Jubar near Damascus

Burnt-out: The latest bloodshed follows British condemnation of yesterday’s decision by Russia and China to veto a United Nations’ resolution to step up sanctions against Assad

The blast, six days of sustained
fighting in neighbourhoods across the heart of the capital and the fall
of several border posts into rebel hands have pointed to the unravelling
of Assad’s grip on power.

Regime troops today regained control
of the district of Midan in south Damascus, but rebels launched new
fighting in several other districts of the capital, activists said.

The latest bloodshed follows British condemnation of yesterday’s decision by
Russia and China to veto a United Nations’ resolution to step up
sanctions against Assad.

Foreign Secretary William Hague today said the international body
could be sidelined in efforts to support the opposition movement.

He warned that other countries would
step up the supply of arms following the failure of the Security Council
to approve a resolution threatening sanctions against president Assad’s
regime.

The UK’s ambassador to the UN, Sir
Mark Lyall Grant said he was ‘appalled’ at yesterday’s decision, which
he predicted would lead to ‘further bloodshed and the likelihood of a
descent into all-out civil war’.

And he dismissed as ‘irrational’ the
arguments of Moscow and Beijing that the Western-backed resolution could
act as a precursor to military action.

But the Russian ambassador to France
today said he believed that Assad had accepted he would have to leave
power although only in an orderly fashion, but the Syrian government
swiftly denied this.

Getting out: A family of refugees flees Damascus as a result of the worsening violence

Ball of fire: A huge explosion erupts over Zabadani, outside Damascus, yesterday. Over 300 hundred people were reportedly killed across Syria on Thursday, the highest daily toll of the revolt

Urban warfare: A Syrian Army tank convoy drives past Victoria Bridge and the Four Seasons hotel (left) in central Damascus yesterday

City on fire: Flames alight in the Rukneddin district of Damascus are clearly visible across the city

HAGUE CONDEMNS RUSSIA’S VETO OF UN RESOLUTION ON SYRIA

William Hague today issued a fresh condemnation of Russia’s decision to veto a UN resolution on Syria and said the international body could be sidelined in efforts to support the opposition movement.

Although the UK would not offer ‘lethal support’ to the rebels, he warned that other countries would step up the supply of arms following the failure of the Security Council to approve a resolution threatening sanctions against Assad’s regime.

The Security Council will consider a further resolution today to extend the mandate of the observer mission for what Mr Hague said would be a ‘final’ 30-day period.

He said Russia would regret its use of the veto, claiming Moscow used a ‘spurious argument’ and warning that its interests in the Middle East would suffer long-term harm as a result of its stance.

China lined up behind Russia in blocking the resolution and Mr Hague said the Security Council was ‘failing in its responsibilities’ as a result of the stalemate.

‘We will all be doing more outside the Security Council and intensifying our work to support the Syrian opposition, to give humanitarian aid, outside the work of the Security Council,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

‘We do not give lethal support, but I have no doubt there will be other countries that will give greater lethal support to the Syrian opposition in these circumstances.’

Mr Hague said he did not expect the UK to be involved in arming the opposition to Assad’s regime.

Ambassador Alexandre Orlov told
French RFI radio that Assad signalled readiness to step down when he
accepted a recent international declaration which foresaw a transition
towards a more democratic Syria.

Mr Orlov said: ‘At the Geneva
conference, there was a final communique that foresees a transition
towards a more democratic system.

‘This final communique was accepted by
Assad. Assad nominated his representative to lead the negotiations with
the opposition for this transition. That means he accepted to leave,
but in an orderly way.’

Syria’s Information Ministry quickly denied this, saying Orlov’s remarks were ‘completely devoid of truth’.

Yesterday’s vetoes at the UN in New York came
just hours after Prime Minister David Cameron issued a personal plea to
Russian president Vladimir Putin to help the Security Council send
‘clear and tough messages about sanctions’ to the Assad regime.

Speaking during a visit to Afghanistan, Mr Cameron warned that Syria was facing civil war unless Mr Assad stepped down.

‘I have a very clear message for president Assad. It is time for him to go,’ said the Prime Minister.

‘It is time for transition in the regime. If there isn’t transition it’s quite clear there’s going to be civil war.’

But yesterday’s vetoes by Russia and
China are likely to have the effect of shoring up Assad and allowing him
to remain in power for longer.

A rival Russian resolution to extend
the UN observers mission in Syria by up to 90 days after its mandate
runs out on Friday was dismissed by Britain as ineffective.

Addressing fellow-ambassadors at the UN, Sir Mark said: ‘The effect of their actions is to protect a brutal regime.

‘They have chosen to put their
national interests ahead of the lives of millions of Syrians. The
consequence of their decision is obvious – further bloodshed and the
likelihood of a descent into all-out civil war.’

Devastation: People walk along a street in the western town of Atareb, near the border, after clashes between Syrian soldiers and Free Syrian Army forces

Organised: Rebels train near Aleppo yesterday after seizing control of all of Syria’s border crossings with Iraq

Exodus: Iraqi evacuees arrive in Baghdad after the Iraq government called on tens of thousands of its citizens still living in Syria to return home because of escalating violence

Yesterday’s 11-2 vote, with two
abstentions, marked the third time that Russia and China have acted to
block efforts to step up pressure on the Assad regime.

It came a day after the most daring
strike by rebels since the outset of the uprising 16 months ago, when a
bomb inside a crisis meeting in Damascus killed three leading regime
figures, including Assad’s brother-in-law and the defence minister.

And officials in neighbouring Iraq today confirmed that Syrian rebels are now in control of the Syrian side of the main Abu Kamal border checkpoint on the Euphrates River highway, one of the major trade routes across the Middle East.

Rebels also claimed control of at
least two border crossings into Turkey at Bab al-Hawa and Jarablus, in
what appeared to have been a coordinated campaign to seize Syria’s
frontiers.

In Damascus, a
witness in the central old quarter district of Qanawat said the huge
headquarters of the Damascus Province Police was black with smoke and
abandoned after being torched and looted in a rebel attack.

Swearing in: Assad was yesterday pictured with the newly appointed Defence Minister General Fahd Jassem al-Freij. Assad’s whereabouts are currently unknown

On the run: Syrian president Bashar Ahmed (left) and his wife Asma (right) are believed to have fled Damascus after three top government officials were killed in a bomb attack in the capital on Wednesday

‘Three
patrol cars came to the site and were hit by roadside bombs,’ said
activist Abu Rateb by telephone. ‘I saw three bodies in one car. Others
said dozens of security men and shabbiha (pro-Assad militia) lay dead or
wounded along Khaled bin al-Walid street, before ambulances took them
away.’

The next few days
will be critical in determining whether Assad’s government can recover
from the devastating blow of Wednesday’s bombing, which wiped out much
of Assad’s command structure and destroyed his circle’s aura of
invulnerability.

Assad’s
powerful brother-in-law, his defense minister and a top general were
killed in Wednesday’s attack. The head of intelligence and the interior
minister were wounded.

Government
forces have responded by blasting at rebels in their own capital with
helicopter gunships and artillery stationed in the mountains overlooking
it.

Assad’s failure to
appear in public for more than 24 hours – he was finally shown on
television on Thursday swearing in a replacement for his slain defense
minister – added to the sense of his power evaporating. His whereabouts
are not clear.

Fireball: Armed rebels clash with Syrian government forces at Tadamon Police Station in Damascus

Rubble: Syrians inspect destroyed houses in Dael, in the southern province of Daraa, as reports suggested that the uprising had reached a potentially pivotal point

Devastation: Flattened buildings are all that remain of Juret al-Shayah in Homs – scene of some of the fiercest fighting in the long-running uprising

Diplomatic
efforts – rapidly overtaken by events on the ground – collapsed in
disarray on Thursday when Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council
resolution that would have imposed sanctions unless Syrian authorities
halted violence. Washington said the council had ‘failed utterly’.

Activists
in Damascus said rebels were now in control of the capital’s northern
Barzeh district, where troops and armored vehicles had pulled out.

The
army had also pulled out of the towns of Tel and Dumair north of
Damascus after taking heavy losses, they said. But they said troops were
hitting the western district of Mezzeh with heavy machine-guns and
anti-aircraft guns overnight.

The reports could not be confirmed. The Syrian government restricts access by international journalists.

A
resident who toured much of Damascus late on Thursday said he saw signs
the government’s presence was diminishing, with only sporadic
checkpoints and tanks in place in some areas. The Interior Ministry at
the main Marjeh Square had a fraction of its usual contingent of guards
still in place.

Shelling
could be heard on the south-western suburb of Mouadamiyeh from hills
overlooking the city where the Fourth Division, commanded by Assad’s
brother Maher, is based, he said.

Syrian
television showed the bodies of about 20 men in T-shirts and jeans with
weapons lying at their sides, sprawled across a road in the capital’s
Qaboun district. It described them as terrorists killed in battle.

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