Syrian Regime Says It's Taken Over the Key City of Qusayr

[Comrade Grumpy]

Source: CNN

The Syrian government announced Wednesday it has taken control of the strategic city of Qusayr, where government forces and Hezbollah fighters have been battling rebels for weeks. There was no immediate reaction from the rebels.

"Our heroic armed forces carried out swift and special operations in Qusayr that led to the annihilation of a number of terrorists, the surrender of a large number of them ... fully restoring peace and security to Qusayr," Syrian state-run TV reported Wednesday.

If true, the loss of Qusayr would deal a significant blow to those trying to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

<snip>

France has said Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite militia backed by Iran and Syria, has dispatched up to 4,000 fighters to Syria to bolster al-Assad's forces. Those fighters have "produced major results," particularly in the battle for Qusayr, said Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/05/world/meast/syria-civil-war/?hpt=hp_t1

---

This would be a strategic victory for the regime.

[Alamuti Lotus]

1. Yes, this appears to be an important victory at the moment

The takfiris lost many of their veteran commanders in the fight (particularly a top Libyan commander of an-Nusrah), including many of their most experienced foreign fighters. Qusayr was the main conduit betwen the terrorists' supporters in Lebanon (prominent figures of the so-called "pro-west" Hariri group and other factions of the M14 coalition) and their pseudo-stronghold in Homs region. Betwen the takfiri defeat in Qusayr and the SRGC split from the puppet exile coalition, this is a bad week for the foreign governments conspiring for the war in Syria.

There's a remarkable quote in the CNN piece:

"If Qusair falls at the hands of the regime, there is no way to stop the acts of reprisal, and that retribution will (reach) another level," rebel spokesman Col. Abdul Hamid Zakaria told Al-Arabiya last month.

"This will lead to Shiite and Alawite towns to be completely wiped out of the map by some."

Well damn, why doesn't the US gov't just arm these guys immediately?! They seem to have important work to get started with!

[bemildred]

2. They (the takfiris) would have done better not to fuck with Hezbollah.

Nasrallah was trying to stay out of it until they threatened his supply lines, or so it seemed to me. He was in an awkward situation. You won't see any more of that.

Dramatic change in the course of the war too, eh? I am most impressed. I expected it would make a difference when Hezbollah came in, but it was like a whole new script.

Erdogan appears to have stepped on his dick too. Nothing like a swelled head to get you in trouble.

[mojowork_n]

4. He may have heard his wallet talking to him.

...Kind of like that big, bloodthirsty venus fly trap in "Little Shop of Horrors," saying "Feed me, Seymour."


http://ih3.redbubble.net/image.12332413.6775/flat,550x550,075,f.jpg

There was a good article on Turkey yesterday, that provided a few revealing details on who was protesting, where, and providing a few of the reasons why:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Erdogan-Risks-The-Must-Go-by-Pepe-Escobar-130604-517.html

Is this the Turkish Spring? No, at least not yet. Is Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan the new Mubarak? No, at least not yet.

History keeps warning us it takes just a spark to light a political bonfire. The recent spark in Istanbul was provided by a small group of very young environmentalists organizing a peaceful sit-in, Occupy-style, in Taksim Square to protest the planned destruction of one of the city center's few remaining public green spaces, Gezi park.

Gezi park's destruction follows a globally tested neoliberalism racket; it will be replaced by a simulacrum -- in this case a replica of the Ottoman Artillery Barracks -- housing, what else, yet another shopping mall. It's crucial to note that the mayor of Istanbul, also from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), owns a retail chain that will make a killing out of the mall. And the man holding the contract for this "redevelopment" is no less than Erdogan's son-in-law.

Predictably harsh police repression led to the protesters being joined by top cadres from Turkey's main opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP). And sooner rather than later, the Taksim Square green theme morphed into a Tahrir square-style "Down with the dictator."

[bemildred]

9. Ah, Pepe, thanks.

Some interesting bits there.

WRT Erdogan: they never seem to learn. You CANNOT govern a politically divided country, which Turkey is, like it was politically unified. He was doing pretty good until he decided to get snotty and throw his weight around.

[Alamuti Lotus]

5. yes, ironically, this is exactly what the opposition wanted

They've been provoking Hizbu'llah inside and outside of Lebanon almost since the start, trying to draw them in:--I assume they saw things going a little differently than this.

There's an aspect of this intervention that is going relatively unnoticed. Certain press offices--mostly the Saudi-Qatari/Hariri/NYTimes types--are hyping up the fact that some (the usual, well-rehearsed sources) are just so shocked and appalled that Hizbu'llah finally responded to force with force, overlooking how immensely popular and demanded this move was with their popular base. Shiite communities on the border have been demanding their protection for at least a year now that I am aware of.

The events in Turkey would be high comedy if not for the fact that people are getting mowed down by the riot police. I read a report from Syrian government types, demanding that Erdogan stop using violent force against protestors or resign; at least they haven't lost their dark sense of humour in all this, and in a macabre way I can appreciate that.

[bemildred]

7. By paragraph:

Yes, precisely. But they (FSA or whatever they call themselves) don't appear to be "reality based". There was a while back there when I thought Assad might be trying to widen the conflict - he was looking pretty desperate - which would also have been dumb. None of the present combatant parties will be happy if the big boys send troops in, all bets will be off at that point, and all their assets wasted. But Assad appears to have been out-dumbed here. It's not that I like Assad much. I used to know a guy whose family got in trouble with the Assad family ...

I just stopped reading all that contrived twaddle sometime last year. I was aware of what you say, about the border fighting, but I think I probably got it from scanning headlines.

Well, the Turks have never been ones to get upset about a bit of blood. Erdogan needs to be replaced by someone with a smaller ego, he used to have some finesse, now he thinks he's Putin or something. I saw that Syrian jab. I'm wondering how this will affect the Kurdish "peace initiative" too.

WRT Hezbollah and this conflict, I am reminded of that chestnut: combat creates clarity. Hezbollah, by going to war, just created a lot of clarity. That was how I figured it, but it's always nice to find you were not full of it. Now we have to worry about whether some dipshit in some distant foreign capital will decide that he just cannot let this go on and ups the ante.

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. Rebels vow genocidal response to Qusayr's fall.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/05/world/meast/syria-civil-war/?hpt=hp_t2

If Qusayr falls at the hands of the regime, there is no way to stop the acts of reprisal, and that retribution will (reach) another level," rebel spokesman Col. Abdul Hamid Zakaria told the Al-Arabiya TV network last month.

"This will lead to Shiite and Alawite towns to be completely wiped out of the map."

Indeed, video appeared Wednesday on YouTube showing what the poster said were Free Syrian Army fighters launching rockets at two Shiite villages, inhabited mostly by Assad loyalists, in an overwhelmingly Sunni region in the northeastern province of Aleppo.

Last week, Brig. Gen. Salim Idris of the rebel Free Syrian Army asked the public to "excuse (the) FSA" for any retaliation.

______________

[Adsos Letter]

8. Not surprising.

Last edited Thu Jun 6, 2013, 11:48 PM - Edit history (1)

Vendetta appears to be a driver over there.

I just recently watched FRONTLINE's "Syria Behind the Lines." After the bombing of al-Bara one of the elders told the film maker on the scene that "this will cause 50 years of vendetta," or words very close to that.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/syria-behind-the-lines/

Edited to include correct link

[oberliner]

10. Probably a translation error

Wiped off the map?