Syria uprising intensifies, spills into Lebanon

[dipsydoodle]

In Lebanon, a 17-year-old girl was among three people killed and 23 were wounded in clashes between Sunni Muslims hostile to Syria's regime and Alawites who support it, a security official said.

Ten of the wounded were Lebanese soldiers, including a sergeant in critical condition.

The rival factions in Tripoli fired guns and rocket-propelled grenades at each other in the bloodiest clashes since June, when six people died in the wake of demonstrations against Syria's government.

In recent years Tripoli has been rocked by intense clashes between members of its Sunni-majority community and Alawites -- the community from which hails the Syrian president.

http://news.ph.msn.com/top-stories/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5872590

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Damn...not good.

[dipsydoodle]

2. There may be actually worse to come

If you root around you'll find that Iraq is likely to side with Iran if this becomes even more of a Sunni/Shia issue. Muqtada al-Sadr has apparently already discussed this with Iran.

From December for example :

Syria: fall of Bashar al-Assad will bring war to Middle East, warns Iraq.

Iraq has raised renewed fears that the Middle East will be engulfed by sectarian bloodshed if Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is deposed as the country falls into civil war.

Nouri al-Maliki gave his most unequivocal support yet to the Assad regime, and even hinted that its downfall could force Iraq into an Iranian-led alliance against the Arab world's Sunni states.

"The killing or removal of President Bashar in any way will explode into an internal struggle between two groups and this will have an impact on the region," said Mr Maliki, refering to predictions of region wide conflict between Sunni Muslims and the Shia sect. "It will end with civil war and this civil war will lead to alliances in the region. Because we are a country that suffered from the civil war of a sectarian background, we fear for the future of Syria and the whole region."

Although relations with Mr Assad, once a strong supporter of Saddam despite being a member of the Alawite Shia sect, were initially strained, his regime has collaborated with Baghdad to curb militant groups linked to al-Qaeda operating along the Iraqi-Syrian border.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8934317/Syria-fall-of-Bashar-al-Assad-will-bring-war-to-Middle-East-warns-Iraq.html

[tabatha]

3. That is one of the reasons there is no inteference.

The Syrians are on their own.

Iraq are majority Shia who now run the country, where they did not before; Syria is run by minority - surely Iraq should be able to understand that the majority should rule. Or do they just believe in the rule of convenience - Shia should rule regardless of whether they are majority or minority?

[leveymg]

5. No interfererence?

Beginning last year, according to several sources, the Saudis are known to have dispatched Sunni fundamentalist contingents from Iraq and Lebanon into Syria to help the opposition Syrian forces (the Saudis have been building up Sunni militias in Iraq and Lebanon to counter the rising power of the Shi’as in these countries). These Jihadi militants are basically what we used to call al-Qaeda, and there have been a string of signature terrorist bomb attacks inside Syria. The Saudis and Gulf States have given FSA and other armed militia groups tens of millions of dollars to buy weapons and supplies and pay salaries.

It is also known that the U.S. State Department has provided at least $6 million to London-based opposition groups. That is in addition to the truly covert aid, training, and direction provided by other US intelligence agencies and the Pentagon, the scale and activities of which remains a closely-guarded secret. Then there are other countries engaged in their own covert operations against the Assad regime.

No interference? Surely you've developed a sense of humor, and that claim is said with some deep-seated irony.

[The Stranger]

13. Yes, there may be "interference," but "al-Qaeda" being involved sounds like complete pro-Assad bulls

hit.

Do you have any links for what you post as being "known"?

[leveymg]

14. Al-Zawahri calls on AQ and Jihadists to join the Syrian Sunni uprising

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/12/us-syria-zawarhi-idUSTRE81B05320120212

Al Qaeda leader backs Syrian revolt against Assad

By Martina Fuchs

DUBAI | Sun Feb 12, 2012 2:05am EST

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, in a video recording posted on the Internet on Sunday, urged Syrians not to rely on the West or Arab governments in their uprising to topple President Bashar al-Assad. In the eight-minute video, entitled "Onwards, Lions of Syria" and posted on an Islamist website, the Egyptian-born Zawahri also urged Muslims in Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan to come to the aid of Syrian rebels confronting Assad's forces.

"Wounded Syria still bleeds day after day, while the butcher, son of the butcher Bashar bin Hafiz (Hafez al-Assad), is not deterred to stop," Zawahri, wearing his white turban and seated against a green curtain, said.

"But the resistance of our people in Syria despite all the pain, sacrifice and bloodshed escalates and grows," he added.

Zawahri took command of al Qaeda after Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces in a raid in Pakistan last May.

[The Stranger]

15. Want to try again?

You said there was "al queda" operating in Syria.

What you posted does not support your assertion.

Want to try again?

[leveymg]

16. The Saudi Jihadis in Syria are al-Qaeda, by any other name, still being paid to blow up the

"enemies of G-d" by the same oilygarchs who paid bin Laden's expenses from 1997 on.

Just ask Prince al-Turki.

[The Stranger]

17. You were supposed to provide a link.

Trying to group them all together as one and using a recognized name isn't going to cut it.

[leveymg]

18. McClatchy Newspapers: U.S. officials: AQ bombings behind Syria bombings

I don't just make sh-t up. You owe me an apology.

U.S. officials: Al-Qaida behind Syria bombings
By JONATHAN S. LANDAY

By JONATHAN S. LANDAY
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- The Iraqi branch of al-Qaida, seeking to exploit the bloody turmoil in Syria to reassert its potency, carried out two recent bombings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and likely was behind suicide bombings Friday that killed at least 28 people in the largest city, Aleppo, U.S. officials told McClatchy Newspapers.

The officials cited U.S. intelligence reports on the incidents, which appear to verify Syrian President Bashar Assad's charges of al-Qaida involvement in the 11-month uprising against his rule. The Syrian opposition has claimed that Assad's regime, which has responded with massive force against the uprising, staged the bombings to discredit the pro-democracy movement calling for his ouster.

The international terrorist network's presence in Syria also raises the possibility that Islamic extremists will try to hijack the uprising, which would seriously complicate efforts by the United States and its European and Arab partners to force Assad's regime from power. On Friday, President Barack Obama repeated his call for Assad to step down, accusing his forces of "outrageous bloodshed."

The U.S. intelligence reports indicate that the bombings came on the orders of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian extremist who assumed leadership of al-Qaida's Pakistan-based central command after the May 2011 death of Osama bin Laden. They suggest that Zawahiri still wields considerable influence over the network's affiliates despite the losses the Pakistan-based core group has suffered from missile-firing CIA drones and other intensified U.S. counterterrorism operations.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/10/2635537/us-officials-al-qaida-behind-syria.html#storylink=cpy

[riderinthestorm]

6. Iran is directly "interfering", so is Russia.

I know you don't believe it but I'm sure the US is "interfering" as well. Iraq is said to be providing assistance as well. I'm pretty stunned that after all this time, you honestly think nobody is meddling or providing arms and direct "interference" in Syria...

[Fool Count]

7. The assumption that there is any correlation between what they "honestly think" and what they say

is not really applicable to lying propagandists.

[tabatha]

8. There is no military interference by the West, to be more specific.

There is assistance to both sides, with the most going to the Assad regime.

[tabatha]

9. I meant as in Libya.

I have seen no evidence that the US is interfering, militarily. There is commentary on the AJE blogs that does not indicate that.

Recently the UK said they would be sending equipment to help the protesters - but there is no military interference as in military help.

[CAPHAVOC]

4. I agree with Ron Paul on this mess.

I hope we do not become the Muslim Brotherhood Air Force again.

[tabatha]

10. That is what I call interference.

[nanabugg]

11. I thought that the Alawites were Sunni? Help me out here. nt

[riderinthestorm]

12. Shia, and getting help from their Shia brethren in Iran and Iraq.

And support from Russia and China.

I don't see Assad going anywhere, anytime soon. He has some extremely powerful allies, friends in the region ready to go to war for him and supply him.