4:01 PM - 16 Nov 12 · Details
TIMELINE – 16th NOVEMBER 2012 14.43 GMT:
As official figures for confirmed deaths in Syria passed 37,000 this week, fighting still rages across the country without any sign of respite.
Yet Another Defeat for Assad
In Ras la-Ayn, the Kurdish/Arab border town with Turkey in Hasaka province, there was finally some peace, at least temporarily, yesterday when FSA fighters eventually took over agricultural company buildings which the Syrian Army had used as a base in the Asfar Najjar neighborhood.
A captured Government soldier said, “We were prepared to fight against small groups, not so many rebels” and went on to describe the Army’s attempt to resupply them. “They dropped food once and weapons twice from a helicopter, but each time they missed and the Free Army [FSA] took the supplies”.
The FSA commander present said, “We started the attack with about 400 or 500 fighters,” but later others joined them. The commander confirmed that they had tried to negotiate with the Army for them to surrender 3 times but it had only ever turned into a delaying tactic.
Even the Syrian Air Force seems to have given up the fight for Ras al-Ayn for the moment, as there were no bombing raids at all on Thursday, allowing local residents who had fled to Turkey to return to their houses on the Syrian side to at least collect some of their belongings.
The Opposition fighters said that after a few days rest they will continue on further south. This video report from CNN, filmed a few days ago while fighting was still in progress, gives a flavour of the tension at Ras al-Ayn, HERE:
Message to the World
Being Friday, mass anti-Assad demonstrations took place throughout Syria, especially in Homs, Hama, Deir el-Zour and the Damascus suburbs this morning.
In Aleppo a large protest in Al Tariq district was fired upon by Government forces.
Elsewhere in the country, Assad’s troops kept up the usual artillery and jet attacks. Rastan, in Homs province, which has been under siege continuously for 5 months now, was pummeled yet again this morning,HERE:
And at Haffah, Latakia, local people were subjected to this horrendous rocket attack seen in a leaked video from “fun-living” Syrian Army personnel, HERE:
CLUSTER BOMBS REPORTED FALLING ON THE DAMASCUS SUBURB OF DOUMA, WHILE FSA MEDICS PATCH UP SEVERELY INJURED ASSAD SOLDIER:
From the Damascus suburb of Douma, they have reported cluster bombs falling on the roofs of buildings,HERE: and the Brown Moses blog issues a timely warning to all Syrian activists not to handle the damn things as many are still live. In some of the videos he has collected, activists are seen throwing shells down in the road and and banging rocks against them, HERE:
Unconfirmed FSA successes in the last 48 hours include the removal of a large checkpoint on the Aleppo – Raqqa highway giving them control of a stretch of more than 100 kilometres, the shooting down of another helicopter at Wadi Hait and the defeat of a body of Iranian and Hezbollah fighters around the Sayeda Zeinab shrine in Damascus.
Syrian Army Tank on Fire
This attack on a Government convoy, destroying at least 1 tank, 1 armoured BMP vehicle and a truck, was definitely successful, HERE:
The FSA are also announcing the complete liberation of Abu Kamel in Deir el-Zour province this morning, where another MIG was reported shot down a few days ago.
The FSA, as well as Government forces, have continued to come under attack in recent weeks for the way they treat prisoners, including summary executions and human rights abuses. It is therefore heartwarming to watch this video where an Assad soldier, severely injured by a grenade exploding prematurely, is treated medical staff who normally support the FSA.
