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July 17th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
“We have a clear plan to control the whole of Damascus,” said Col
Kassem Saadeddine, a spokesman for the joint command of the Free Syrian
Army. “We only have light weapons, but it is enough.” As in the
previous two days, the bulk of the fighting took place in Sunni suburbs
north and south of the city centre.
Rebel forces claimed to have shot down a government helicopter, though they
provided no evidence. Video footage was released showing rebel fighters
dancing around a captured armoured vehicle.
The FSA predicted that Mr Assad’s days were numbered. “We advise Bashar
al-Assad to get out of Damascus now, otherwise he will die inside the
capital,” said Louay al-Mokdad, a logistical co-ordinator for the rebel
group.
In what appeared to be a significant change of tactic by the armed opposition,
he said that rebel units from Homs, Deraa and two other cities had been
drafted into the capital. In a sign of Mr Assad’s desperation, government
troops were recalled from other parts of the country to reinforce the
capital. They included soldiers based on the border of the Israeli-occupied
Golan Heights, Israel’s head of army intelligence, Maj Gen Aviv Kochavi,
told a parliamentary committee in Jerusalem.
Tanks and lines of armoured personnel vehicles positioned themselves around
the Midan, within three miles of the Presidential Palace. “The regime
forces are using speakers telling people to leave. They are threatening to
shell the area,” said Tarek, a Damascus activist.
Gunfire rattled throughout the district as FSA rebels clashed with government
troops and loyalist paramilitaries. Snipers were positioned behind sandbags
on Midan’s rooftops.
Although helicopters were seen flying above the city, it was unclear if there
was any truth in rebel claims that they had opened fire on opposition
strongholds.
On Tuesday night, General Manaf Tlass, a military defector, called for a
political transition in Syria. In his first statement to the media since his
defection was announced on July 6, Gen Tlass said the regime held “the
majority of responsibility” for the crisis and confirmed he was in
Paris.
A general in the elite Republican Guard charged with protecting the regime,
Gen Tlass is the son of Mustafa Tlass, a former defence minister and close
friend of Mr Assad’s late father and predecessor.
While the focus of Syria’s civil war is shifting towards Damascus, it is far
from certain that the rebels are yet in a strong enough position to take the
capital.
Tuesday’s clashes were more widespread than previous days, but they were also
less intense, suggesting that some rebels may be on the defensive.
Despite suffering several military defeats in major cities, opposition
fighters have clung on to their strongholds north of Damascus, particularly
in areas close to the Turkish frontier. But their ability to hold territory
closer to the capital has so far been much patchier.
Even so, Mr Assad’s position is weakening, a fact that appeared to prompt a
small but potentially significant shift in Russian policy. Sergei Lavrov,
the Russian foreign minister, declared that Moscow was ready to seek
consensus in the United Nations Security Council over a resolution to end
the Syrian conflict.
Meanwhile, gruesome video footage showing the corpse of the late Libyan leader
Col Muammar Gaddafi being abused by the men who killed him was highlighted
by Syrian activists as an example of what could happen to Mr Assad. In the
video, Gaddafi’s body is seen lying in the laps of armed men in the back of
a minivan. At one point, they use his head as a ventriloquist’s dummy,
though the sound quality is too indistinct to hear what they are making him “say”.
A Syrian activist posted a link to the video on Twitter with the comment: “Someone
needs to send this to Assad”.
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