http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=Sunnis Thu, 23 May 2013 02:01:10 -0400 Liveleak http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/logo.gif http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=Sunnis Wed, 22 May 2013 12:09:39 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=fe9_1369238534 fukzionists The mujahideen have captured some booty after clashes against hezbushaytaan rats in Al-Qusayr including a BMB. The mujahideen also found a shia book which encouraged the rats to kill sunnis so they would attain a place in paradise also some images of dead lebanese shia hezb rats http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=fe9_1369238534 fukzionists mujahideen capture bmp and weapons from hezbollah in al qusayir syria, syrian revolution, lebanon, palestine, iraq, iran, turkey, jordan Fri, 17 May 2013 20:48:40 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2d7_1368838010 chekmezz More than 60 people have been killed and dozens hurt in several bomb attacks apparently targeting Sunnis, in Iraq's worst day of violence for months. In the first attack, in Baquba, about 50 km (30 miles) north of Baghdad, at least 41 people were killed when two bombs detonated outside a Sunni mosque. Later, police said at least seven died at a Sunni funeral in Madain, and 14 in two blasts in western Baghdad. The attacks follows a sharp increase in sectarian violence in recent weeks, with more than 120 people killed over the three days. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2d7_1368838010 chekmezz Iraq violence: Dozens killed in blasts targeting <span class="highlight">Sunnis</span> Iraq violence,Sunnis,killed and dozens Tue, 21 May 2013 10:09:10 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=76e_1369144636 moosh Al Arabiya The rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) held Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah personally responsible for the situation in the Syrian border town of Qusayr, as sectarian tension was on the rise in neighboring Lebanon. "We announced that Hassan Nasrallah will be held personally responsible for the current situation because he in person is meeting with all of before they head to Qusayr," FSA spokesperson Louay Almokdad told Al Arabiya English. "We are today calling Nasrallah a killer of the Syrian people." Clashes between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - along with Lebanese ally Hezbollah - and the rebels raged into a second day Monday in the strategic town of Qusayr, which is between Damascus and the coast. "It has reached the audacity and extent of criminal behavior that Nasrallah met with 1,200 of his fighters in the southern suburbs before they headed to ," the FSA spokesperson said, adding the Hezbollah chief has distributed "tokens of motivation on which Shiite slogans - Yatharat al-Hussein - were written to each of his fighters." "We are certain these are fighters of Hassan Nasrallah. They are no longer Hezbollah, they are fighters of Hassan Nasrallah and Ali Khamanei." However, the FSA spokesperson also said that, along with Hezbollah, were fighters from other Lebanese groups, including the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and the Baath Party. The Syrian rebels have repeatedly warned that they will hit Hezbollah targets on Lebanese territory if the latter does not withdraw from Syria and have called on the Lebanese government to put a stop to Hezbollah intervention. The Lebanese government: a state of paralysisHowever, according to Imad Salamey - a professor of International Affairs at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, the Lebanese government cannot do anything to stop the powerful Party of God. "The Lebanese government has been and continues to be in a state of paralysis, which mostly works in Hezbollah's interest," Salamey told Al Arabiya English on Monday. "The government cannot stop Hezbollah, and the army stopping Hezbollah from intervening in Syria will definitely not be the case." "Hezbollah is being dragged further into the Syrian conflict, and it is not going to end in Qusayr," he said, adding that the movement "was dragging Lebanon into a civil war." " involvement in the Syrian issue, no matter what the pretext, will only drag Lebanon into the conflict because the Lebanese are divided ." At least three people were killed and 40 injured in two days of fighting in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli, where an Alawite minority lives. Lebanese Sunnis mostly sympathize with the revolt against the government of Bashar al-Assad, whose minority Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Source - http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/20/Nasrallah-killer-of-Syrian-people-as-tensions-in-Lebanon-rise.html http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=76e_1369144636 moosh Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into another civil war because of Qusayr - Poll Hezbollah, Syria Tue, 21 May 2013 04:43:06 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=91a_1369124757 BrooklynJAH A wave of tit-for-tat kidnappings and infighting between rival Islamic militant groups in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo risks sparking large-scale internal fighting between rebels after clashes killed at least nine militants earlier this week, activists said Saturday. The director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said a coalition of rebel groups known as the Judicial Council had accused another armed opposition faction, the Ghurabaa al-Sham, of plundering factories in Aleppo's industrial neighborhood. Aleppo, Syria's largest city and a former commercial center, is split between rebel and government control. Any internal fighting between rebels in the city would play into the hands of the Syrian goverment, which is fighting an opposition dominated by extremists linked to al-Qaida network. Aleppo, a city of 3 million that was once a bastion of support for President Bashar Assad, has been engulfed in heavy fighting since rebels launched an assault there in July and captured several neighborhoods. Over the past few weeks, regime forces have been pursuing an offensive in the city, mainly focused on pushing the rebels from around the international airport and a nearby military air base. Abdul-Rahman said tensions among rebel factions have been rising in opposition-held areas, mostly on the eastern side of the city. The two groups, the Judicial Council and the Ghurabaa al-Sham, clashed on Tuesday near Aleppo in fighting that left four members of the Judicial Council dead, Abldul-Rahman said. He added that the Judicial Council is now holding dozens of members of Ghurabaa al-Sham captive. Aleppo-based activist Mohammed Saeed said Ghurabaa al-Sham withdrew its fighters from several neighborhoods, including the industrial area, and that it had released all of the Judicial Council members it had been holding captive. "The situation is very tense in Aleppo," said Abdul-Rahman, who relies on a network of activists around the country. He said that Ghurabaa al-Sham has warned it will bring some of its members from outside the city to fight against the Judicial Council if its members are not freed. Saeed said Ghurabaa al-Sham released all Judicial Council members it was holding while the other group refused to set free Ghuarbaa al-Sham members and is still holding them. He added that the Judicial Council is an umbrella organization that includes the Tawheed Brigade, al-Sham Liberals and the al-Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra - one of the most effective forces among the mosaic of rebel brigades. "There are fears that fighting (between rebels) might erupt in Aleppo," Saeed said by telephone. In other parts of Syria, the Observatory reported that rebels captured several villages late Friday in the central province of Hama after weeks of fighting with government troops."Civilians in those areas are now cut off from contact with the outside world, and lives are in extreme danger," the coalition said in a statement. The uprising against President Assad's rule that began in March 2011 quickly became an outlet for long-suppressed grievances, mostly by poor Sunnis from marginalized areas. It has since escalated into an outright civil war that killed more than 70,000 people according to the United Nations. The conflict has grown increasingly sectarian, both in action and rhetoric. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=91a_1369124757 BrooklynJAH Syrian Rebel Groups Fight Each Other Syria, rebels, terrorist Mon, 20 May 2013 15:57:41 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5e1_1369079699 GLEISE581 Hezbollah fighters killed in battle for Syria's Qusayr(AFP) - 13 minutes ago DAMASCUS - A Syrian government assault on the rebel bastion of Qusayr raged into a second day Monday, with at least 28 members of Lebanon's Shiite group Hezbollah reported killed as they fought alongside the army. US President Barack Obama expressed concern about Hezbollah's role in Syria, in a telephone call with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman, the White House said. Official Syrian media said the army was consolidating its grip on Qusayr, a strategic prize in the two-year conflict. The battle for Qusayr began on Sunday, when regime forces backed by Hezbollah stormed the western town, casting a shadow over US-Russian efforts to organise a peace conference on Syria. By Monday, the fighting was focused on the east of the town, while thousands of civilians were trapped inside, activists said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting had left at least 56 rebels dead, six of them on Monday, and four civilians including a woman. It also said that "28 members of Hezbollah's elite forces were killed and more than 70 others wounded in clashes in the town of Qusayr yesterday," Sunday. A source close to Hezbollah told AFP at least 20 members had been killed in Syria fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces. A White House statement said Obama "stressed his concern about Hezbollah's active and growing role in Syria, fighting on behalf of the Assad regime, which is counter to the Lebanese government's policies". Syria's official SANA news agency reported that Syrian troops "are restoring order and security to the eastern part of Qusayr, eliminating terrorists (the regime term for rebels), destroying their dens and defusing bombs near the centre of the town". An activist on the ground reported intense battles in eastern Qusayr but denied the army had advanced as far as it claimed. "The army has failed to secure any definitive advance so far. The battles are focused on the east now, where the regime still had a foothold. Now Hezbollah and regime forces are using that foothold to try and break in," Hadi al-Abdallah told AFP via the Internet. He said at least 25,000 civilians were trapped. "They have no way of getting out. Trying to get out of Qusayr is a suicide operation," said Abdallah. He called the latest assault one of the fiercest since the uprising against the Assad's regime erupted in March 2011. Qusayr is strategic because it sits between Damascus and the coast and is near the Lebanese border. Violence has frequently spilled over from Syria into Lebanon, where the population is divided over the conflict. On Monday, a Lebanese soldier was killed in the northern city of Tripoli, as the army tried to quell sectarian clashes between Sunnis who support the Syrian revolt and Alawites who back Assad. In Doha, Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, lashed out against the international community. "It is no longer acceptable that influential states in the international community do not act to end the horrific tragedy and escalating humanitarian catastrophe," Sheikh Hamad said. He lamented the "failure of all international and Arab initiatives to get the Syrian regime to listen to the sound of reason". Syria's umbrella opposition National Coalition, warning that "a civilian massacre will soon take place", urged the Arab League to convene an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers and take measures "to protect Qusayr". The French foreign ministry urged "all the players in a position to avoid a new massacre of the Syrian civilian population to mobilise without delay". British Foreign Secretary William Hague said London remains committed to amending the EU arms embargo on Syria, but stressed it had taken no decisions to arm the rebels. Foreign ministers of the so-called Friends of Syria group of nations are due to meet on Wednesday in Jordan, ahead of a planned Syria peace conference which Washington and Russia are hoping to organise. On the humanitarian front, aid organisation Oxfam warned that as the hot Middle East summer approaches health risks could increase for hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon. The UN says that more than 1.5 million Syrians have fled the conflict and estimates that more than 70,000 people have been killed since March 2011. The Observatory has a higher toll of around 94,000 killed. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5e1_1369079699 GLEISE581 THINGS NOT GOING WELL FOR IRANIAN HEZBOLLAH syria iran Mon, 20 May 2013 11:12:51 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d13_1369061584 m16carbine How do you say 'Quagmire' in Farsi? By THANASSIS CAMBANIS, May 2013, Foreign Policy Magazine ARSAL, Lebanon - For more than a year, leaders in Lebanon have anxiously eyed the murderous civil war in Syria, wondering whether it would leap across the border and engulf the small, fractious country. And yet, it is Lebanon that now has jumped decisively into the fray, with Hezbollah's help apparently crucial to the Syrian regime 's strategy and survival. Uniformed Hezbollah fighters openly patrol the northern reaches of Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, fighting on either side of the increasingly porous border with Syria. Rocket and mortar teams target Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters a few miles away, and Lebanese Hezbollah infantry fighters crisscross the "Shiite villages" surrounding the city of Qusayr just across the border in Syria, which now forms one of the pivot points of the conflict. The fighting around Qusayr has brought into the open the parlor game over whether Iran and Hezbollah are active combatants in Syria's war. In an April 30 speech, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah hinted at greater involvement from the Lebanese paramilitary group in Syria, warning that the regime had "real friends" who would prevent Syria from "fall into the hands" of the United States and Israel. The thunder of artillery fire in the mountains flanking the Beqaa Valley, like the spate of no-longer-hidden Hezbollah funerals , make clear that Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsors have crossed a Rubicon. They are now fully vested factions in the Syrian civil war, and they're committed to an open and escalating fight. Not 20 miles from Hezbollah's position as the crow flies, FSA fighters flee across the border to the Sunni village of Arsal, nestled north in the Beqaa Valley in the mountains separating Lebanon and Syria. They make no distinction between the Syrian army, Hezbollah, and Iran -- because, they say, they get shot at by all three. "We could have common interests with Hezbollah, but they're attacking us. Now there are grudges, which we will have to settle after the war," said Shehadeh Ahmed Sheikh, 24, a self-described mortar man in the FSA. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor of an unfinished home in Arsal. Sheikh had brought with him 16 members of his extended family after their house in Qusayr had been destroyed earlier that week; as we talked, they squatted around him in the dwelling, which they had been assigned to by Arsal's mayor. Like many Sunnis in the area, he referred to Hezbollah, whose name means "the Party of God" in Arabic, as Hezb al-Shaitan -- "the Party of Satan." By supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the hilt, Hezbollah and Iran are risking their hard-won reputation as stewards of an anti-Israel and anti-U.S. alliance that transcends sect and nationality. Syrian combatants increasingly understand the war in sectarian terms: On one side there is the Sunni majority; on the other side, other sects and a small group of Sunnis that have made common cause with the Alawite regime. Western diplomats estimate that a few thousand Hezbollah fighters are involved in the Syrian fighting. Close observers of the group, which carefully guards its operational structure, say that they mistrust any precise numbers. But if Hezbollah has sent hundreds, or even a few thousand, of its best-trained fighters to Syria, that deployment certainly represents a significant percentage of its fighting force. During its 2006 war with Israel, the highest estimate of Hezbollah fighters killed was about 700, with the group's own official death toll closer to 300. Sunnis are increasingly framing the conflict as a sectarian jihad. The influential Lebanese Salafi cleric Ahmad Al-Assir has set up his own militia , suggesting his fighters would be just as willing to confront Hezbollah in Lebanon as they already are to travel to Syria to fight alongside the rebels there. Supporters of the regime and Hezbollah point out that the rebellion tolerates Sunni fundamentalist extremists whereas Assad and Hezbollah rely on a time-tested alliance of minorities, including Alawites, Christians, Druze, and Shiite Muslims. The propaganda of both sides has sharpened a narrative of the Syrian conflict as a struggle between Sunni extremists and old-style authoritarians, who at least protect the minorities they exploit. Deadly identity politics have taken root, and people on both sides of the conflict see it more and more as a matter of survival. Sheikh, the young Sunni fighter, planned to return to battle as soon as he settled his family: "We cannot go back to the way things were before" On the eve of the uprisings just three short years ago, many Arab analysts observed half-jokingly that the most influential state in the Arab world wasn't Arab at all -- it was Iran, awash in oil revenues and ready to lavish cash on a region in the throes of an increasingly hot Sunni-Shiite cold war. Sunni monarchs and dictators fretted about a "Shiite Crescent" linking Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Hezbollah. Tehran, for its part, strutted triumphantly across the Arab stage, bragging about an unstoppable "Axis of Resistance" oiled with ideological fervor and the supreme leader's bank account. What a difference a few uprisings can make. Today, Iran's involvement in Syria has all the makings of a quagmire, and certainly represents the Islamic Republic's biggest strategic setback in the region since its war with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ended in 1988. Syria's conflict has begun to attract so much attention and resources that it threatens to end the era when Iran could nimbly outmaneuver the slow-moving American behemoth in the Middle East. Iran -- already reeling from sanctions -- is spending hundreds of millions of dollars propping up Bashar al-Assad's regime. In the murky arena of sub rosa foreign intervention, it's impossible to keep a detailed count of the dollars, guns, and operatives the Islamic Republic has dispatched to Syria. Westerners and Arab officials who have met in recent months with Syrian government ministers say that Iranian advisers are retooling key ministries to provide copious military training, including to the newly established citizen militias in regime-controlled areas of Syria. "We back Syria," Iranian General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan reiterated on May 5. "If there is need for training we will provide them with the training." In private meetings, Iranian diplomats in the region project insouciance, suggesting that the Islamic Republic can indefinitely sustain its military and financial aid to the Assad regime. To be sure, its burden today is probably bearable. But as sanctions squeeze Iran and it comes under increasing pressure over its nuclear program, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) might find the investment harder to sustain. The conflict shows no signs of ending, and as foreign aid to the rebels escalates, Iran will have to pour in more and more resources simply to maintain a stalemate. If this is Iran's Vietnam, we're only beginning year three. The cost of Tehran's support of Assad can't entirely be measured in dollars. Iran has had to sacrifice most of its other Arab allies on the Syrian altar. As the violence worsened, Hamas gave up its home in Damascus and its warm relationship with Tehran. Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government has also adopted a scolding tone toward Iran on Syria. On Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy's first visit to Tehran, he took the opportunity to blast the "oppressive regime" in Damascus, saying it was an "ethical duty" to support the opposition. Gone are the days when Iran held the mantle of popular resistance. Popular Arab movements, including Syria's own rebels, now have the momentum and air of authenticity. Iran's mullahs finally look to the Arab near-abroad as they long have appeared at home -- repressive, authoritarian, and fierce defenders of the status quo." Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Iran's commitment to Assad has put the crown jewel of its assets in the Arab world, Hezbollah, in danger. Just a few years ago, a survey found that Nasrallah was the most popular leader in the Arab world. Along with other members of the "resistance axis," Hezbollah mocked the rest of the Arab world's political movements as toadies and collaborators, happy to submit to American-Israeli hegemony. Today, however, it has sacrificed this popular support and enraged Sunnis across the Arab world by siding with a merciless dictator. Hezbollah used to try to cultivate allies from all sects, so that it wouldn't seem to be pursuing a purely Shiite agenda, but it now appears in the eyes of the Arab world to have cast its lot -- hook, line, and sinker -- with a brutal minority regime in Syria over a popular, largely Islamist movement. A Pew survey last year found that the group's popularity was declining in predominantly Sunni countries such as Egypt and Jordan, while Lebanese Sunnis and Christians also increasingly soured on the party. In the border town of Hermel, usually secretive Hezbollah fighters have openly mobilized. They fight on both sides of the border, protecting a ring of Shiite villages in Syria that connect Damascus to the Alawite heartland. An untold number of Hezbollah fighters have been killed in Syria -- so many that the movement has stopped keeping the funerals secret and has even released videos of some of the martyrs. "We bury our martyrs in the open," Nasrallah said in his recent speech. "We are not ashamed of them." Hezbollah positions in Hermel were shelled on May 12, and the Sunni jihadist Nusra Front reportedly claimed responsibility . In their rhetoric, Lebanese politicians have sought to downplay the sectarian nature of the fight in Syria, and there are plenty of individuals who say they have chosen sides out of interest or ideology, rather than sect. Yet to most of its participants, the conflict has taken on an undeniably sectarian hue: an almost entirely Sunni rebellion, against a regime supported by the majority of Syria's other sects. "There's no difference between Hezbollah, the army, and the Syrian regime," scoffed Mustafa Ezzedine, a driver in Arsal who was recently dragged into the conflict as a literal hostage, kidnapped because he was a Sunni Muslim by a Shiite clan that wanted one of its own kidnapped members released. It doesn't matter that among his guests at a recent, lazy hashish-fueled afternoon tea was a member of that same rival clan: sectarian politics have little regard for personal views. For residents of the Beqaa Valley, the war in Syria has already drifted across the border, and they fear it could get worse quickly. The regional stakes are high as well. On at least one occasion, the Syrian conflict has cost an Iranian military commander his life. In mid-February, a shadowy IRGC officer responsible for overseeing Iranian reconstruction projects in Lebanon who went by the names Hessam Khoshnevis and Hassan Shateri was killed on the road from Damascus to Beirut. Iran put out the story that Israel assassinated their man, but Western and Arab officials told me they had seen reliable intelligence reports that it was a Syrian rebel ambush. A who's who of Lebanese politicians paid condolences at the Iranian embassy, and Hezbollah's number two, Naim Qassem, delivered a long tribute to the fallen IRGC offer at a memorial service in an underground theater in Beirut's Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs. It was the latest sign that Hezbollah is willing to risk everything in supporting the Syrian dictator -- and that Iran just may ask its Lebanese ally to fight to the end, or go down with the ship. "We would be nothing without Iran!" Qassem thundered in his tribute. "Others hide the foreign funds they receive. We proudly open our hands to Iran's gifts. What the resistance needs, they provide." http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d13_1369061584 m16carbine How Do You Say 'Quagmire' in Farsi? hezbollah, fsa, saa, syria, syria civil war, iran Sun, 19 May 2013 10:12:13 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=175_1368969342 Mr-Creosote More than 60 people have been killed and dozens hurt in several bomb attacks apparently targeting Sunnis, in Iraq's worst day of violence for months. In the first attack, in Baquba, about 50km (30 miles) north of Baghdad, at least 41 people were killed when two bombs detonated outside a Sunni mosque. Later, police said at least eight died at a Sunni funeral in Madain, and 14 more in two blasts in western Baghdad. The attacks follows a sharp increase in sectarian violence in recent weeks. A series of bombings targeted Shia areas across Iraq on Wednesday and Thursday. More than 120 people in total have died over the three days. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=175_1368969342 Mr-Creosote Iraq Bombing Kills Dozens Outside Sunni Mosque In Baquba *Graphic* Iraq, Sectarian War, Uprising, Fri, 17 May 2013 13:49:41 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7df_1368812778 Darius20190 Does this make you sunnis mad? Good singing btw. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7df_1368812778 Darius20190 Iranian shia chest thumping Chest, beating, tradition, Iran, good singing, shiite, imam hussian, lol Thu, 16 May 2013 16:09:01 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=960_1368734095 RasputinFTW The Terrorists used everything included Suicide bombers to breach the Walls The article is how is Usual the sane fucking Anti Assad bullshit but they can not hide the Reality Snackbars got fucked. _________________________ Syrian Troops Repel Rebel Attack on Aleppo Prison Syrian rebels withdrew from a prison in the northern city of Aleppo Thursday after heavy fighting with government troops, an activist group said, as it more than doubled its tally of deaths from sectarian killings in a coastal city earlier this month.The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights raised the death toll from the May 3 sectarian killings in the coastal city of Banias to 145 from 62. Activists said at the time that troops and pro-government gunmen stormed the predominantly Sunni Muslim neighborhood of Ras Nabeh and killed dozens.The violence in the coastal region of Syria underscored the sectarian nature of the two-year conflict, which has killed tens of thousands and forced more than 1 million Syrians to flee to neighboring countries.Syria's Sunni majority forms the backbone of the rebellion, while President Bashar Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, anchors the regime's security services and the military's officer corps. Other minorities, such as Christians, largely support Assad or stand on the sidelines, worried that the regime's fall would bring about a more Islamist rule.Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said some of the people who have been missing in Banias have turned out to be dead. He said the 145 include 34 children and 40 women."This is one of the ugliest massacres that took place in Syria," said Abdul-Rahman, adding that all the 145 killed were civilians. "What happened in Banias was sectarian cleansing."The killings in Banias came a day after regime troops and gunmen from nearby Alawite areas allegedly beat, stabbed and shot at least 50 people in the nearby Sunni Muslim village of Bayda.The violence in Banias and Bayda bears a close resemblance to two reported mass killings last year in Houla and Qubeir, Sunni villages surrounded by Alawite towns. Some activists said the Houla and Qubeir carnage, which they blame on regime forces and associated militias, was aimed at driving Sunnis from areas near main routes to the coast in order to ensure Alawite control there.Abdul-Rahman said some fighters were among the dead in Bayda and Houla. Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, said earlier this month that 102 people were killed in Banias. It said then that some people were still missing.In Aleppo, the rebel assault at the Aleppo prison began at dawn Wednesday with two simultaneous car bombs detonated at its entrance. By nightfall, the rebels had not dislodged regime forces or freed some 4,000 prisoners held there.The Observatory said Syrian warplanes bombarded areas around the prison causing casualties among rebels. State news agency SANA denied opposition fighters entered the prison compound, saying regime troops had repelled the attack.The Observatory also reported that government troops shelled rebel-held northern and southern neighborhoods of the capital Damascus, adding that warplanes carried out at least two air raids on the Damascus suburb of Sbineh.The Observatory and the LCC said troops also shelled the town of Halfaya in the central province of Hama. Both groups said rebels carried out attacks against regime forces in the town of Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province.Syria's crisis, which began in March 2011 with pro-democracy protests and later turned into a civil war that has killed an estimated 70,000 people, has taken on increasingly sectarian overtones. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=960_1368734095 RasputinFTW Snackbars Al Qaeda terrorits Pedophiles Fail in ' Aleppo Offencive ' Syrian Army, Syrian Arab Army, FSA, Al Qaeda, Free Syrian Army Wed, 08 May 2013 21:09:06 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d7d_1368061237 fukzionists 2013 will see Iranian influence in the Middle East continue a decline that began with the Arab upheavals of 2011. Iran's two major allies in the Arab world are Syria and Lebanon. In Lebanon, Iran arms the Shiite party-militia Hizbullah, and does so overland through Iraq and Syria. Since Israel controls the Mediterranean off Lebanon and can, when it wants to, control Lebanese air space, the land corridor for Iranian supplies to Hizbullah is key to the latter's ability to confront Israeli expansionism into Lebanese territory. Hizbullah could well have its Iranian lifeline cut. Its secretary-general, Hassan Nasrullah, has come out strongly in favor of the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, because both of them are Iranian clients. If Syria falls to the Sunni Arab revolutionaries, the latter will have a grudge toward both Iran and Hizbullah for supporting the Baath government, and will likely cut the latter off from resupply through Syrian territory. Instead, Syrian support will go to the Sunnis of Beirut, Sidon, Tripoli, Akkar and the Biqa Valley. Between 2003 and 2012 the United States, in a fit of absent-mindedness, made Iran a regional hegemon. Washington overthrew the Taliban in Afghanistan and delivered it into the hands of the Northern Alliance, a set of strong Iran allies. A brake on Iranian influence in Afghanistan was removed. Then the Bush administration overthrew Saddam Hussein, the Sunni ruler who subjected the Shiite majority and stood as a barrier to Iranian penetration of the Middle East. Without meaning to, the US brought to power a religious Shiite government that naturally allied with Iran. Then the US Congress targeted Syria for deep sanctions and the Bush hawks drove it firmly into the arms of Iran. The Bush administration backed Israel's attack on Lebanon in 2006, which strengthened the Shiite party-militia Hizbullah, which now is a key backer of the government of Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Miqati. The pro-Iran capitals stretched from Kabul to Beirut (light blue in the map below), and Iran suddenly became a much bigger player in Levantine affairs than it had been in the 1990s. The Israeli security establishment, indeed, fingered Tehran as their most pressing threat. Iran was lionized in the Arab world for supporting Hizbullah against Israel in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War. http://www.juancole.com/images/2013/01/iran_me1.jpg If al-Assad falls in Syria and is replaced by a Sunni government of revolutionaries, they will be beholden to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey (and Libya), all of them Wahhabi or Sunni powers. They will likely punish Hizbullah for its support of the Baath government, and will support Sunni forces, including the Muslim Brotherhood, in Lebanese politics. If Hizbullah can't replenish its stock of rockets, its geopolitical significance could decline, even as that of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood rises. The partitions in the following map, of Iraq and Afghanistan, are meant only to depict the regional divide over foreign policy, not to suggest an actual break-up of these countries (but who knows?) What the Middle East might look like if Damascus falls to the revolutionaries : http://www.juancole.com/images/2013/01/iran_me22.jpg A Sunni-dominated Syria might well exert influence in northern and western Iraq far beyond what Shiite-dominated Baghdad does. The Sunni Arabs of central, western and northern Iraq are chafing under the rule of Shiite religious parties, and resent Iranian influence. Mosul (now Nineva) Province famously was undecided after World War I which country to join- Turkey, Syria or Iraq. At Versailles, Clemenceau cavalierly gave Lloyd George Mosul for Iraq. The story is that Lloyd George felt he had gotten Mosul so easily that he regretted not having asked for more from his French colleague. Anyway, you wonder if Mosul's choices might not open up again in the coming years, a century after Clemenceau's friendly gesture to the UK. Likewise, as the US withdraws from Afghanistan through 2013, with a final withdrawal of active combat troops in 2014, Iran's allies in that country could be weakened in the face of a resurgent, Pakistan- backed Taliban. The Muslim Brotherhood will likely benefit from Iran's decline. If the new Sunni government in Damascus is tinged with Brotherhood influence, it may well reach out to Cairo and forge the strongest Egypt-Syria alliance we have seen since the failure of the United Arab Republic (comprised of Egypt and Syria, 1958-1961). The Israel lobbies in the United States have pushed for a US war on Iran, which the Obama administration seems unwilling to pursue. In the absence of military action, AIPAC and groups to their right (the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, the American Enterprise Institute, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy) have succeeded in persuading the US Congress to impose a financial blockade on Iran, extending even to throwing up financial obstacles to the sale of Iranian petroleum. But what if all this time the Israel lobbies were barking up the wrong tree? What if, even without US sanctions, Iran is geo=politically in decline? A new, Sunni coalition in the Levant would group Lebanese Sunnis with Palestinians (whether PLO or Hamas); would rule Damascus and Cairo; and might well give extraordinary support to the Palestinians, especially to Hamas (an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood itself). It may be that not Tyre but Khan Yunis is the greater security threat to Israel in the new Middle East that is forming before our eyes. Sunni activists may well be much more committed to giving practical help to the PLO and Hamas than was al-Assad, who merely paid lip service to the plight of the Palestinians. A Sunni, and possibly Muslim Brotherhood Syria could thus emerge as a major player, in Arab-Israeli affairs but also in northern Iraq. And, the salience of the Jordanian monarchy is reduced in case things develop in this direction. A Sunni-dominated Levant would not necessarily be hostile to the US, though it is likely to bear some grudges for US inaction in Syria. But it would likely be severely hostile to Israel. A galvanized Syrian population and a revolutionary government, plus their support for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, could introduce dangerous new frictions, at a time when the Likud Party in Israel is moving even further to the right. Increased Syrian-Israel tension is likely to be one outcome. A strengthened Hamas might well be another (Hamas is realigning away from Syria-Iran and toward Egypt-FSA). Iran is far from Israel/Palestine and has limited clients in that region. If it is forced out of the Levant, it will lose a talking point in domestic elections at most. Israel on the other hand is rather outnumbered by Egypt and Syria, both of them immediate neighbors. http://www.juancole.com/2013/01/decline-hizbullah-middle.html current statistics of shia, sunni. currently there are 1.4 billion sunni and 150 million shia. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d7d_1368061237 fukzionists The Rise of the <span class="highlight">Sunnis</span> and the Decline of Iran, Iraq and Hizbullah: The Middle East in 2013 syria, lebanon, iraq, iran, hezbollah, palestine, gaza, turkey, turkiye, saudi arabia, egypt, misr, lybia, kurdistan Wed, 15 May 2013 18:00:38 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=753_1368655090 Eretz_Zen2 Three men, one of them an elderly man, are filmed sitting while blindfolded on a curb in the middle of a large public square in the northern city of al-Raqqa in Syria surrounded by a large crowd of people and by al-Qaeda affiliated jihadists belonging to the the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (the Levant), an organization resulting from the merger of Islamic State of Iraq (aka al-Qaeda in Iraq or AQI) and Jabhat al-Nusra (aka Nusra Front). A statement precedes the execution, in which the jihadist claims that this sectarian-driven execution is in response to the Alawites' and secular Sunnis' murder of their fellow Wahhabis, whom they refer to as Sunnis. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=753_1368655090 Eretz_Zen2 The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Publicly Executes Three Alawites for Being Alawite syria, fsa, free, syrian, terrorists, jihadists, jihadis, al, qaeda, jabhat, nusra, front, raqqa, public, execution, alawis, alawites, nusayris, sunnis, sectarian, nato, turkey, qatar, saudi, arabia Tue, 07 May 2013 04:34:38 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e97_1367913927 aja9910 Title. Includes beautiful nasheed in bg. ;) http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e97_1367913927 aja9910 Battle of the One Body. Frontline updates. 05/06 battle of the one body updates shabbiha syria syrian war uprising revolution rebellion conflict fsa mujahideen sunnis saa 'alawis pigs shias scum terrorists scumbags al-zaghba hama