Monday, February 10, 2014

REBELS THREATENED TO ATTACK AID CONVOY ON A VIDEO UPLOADED TO YOUTUBE ON 29TH JANUARY

Over the weekend an aid convoy into Homs was attacked. The NATO media is reporting that the attackers are unknown, and mock the suggestions by the Syrian government that the rebels are responsible.

The (Real and True) Friends of Syria website has posted a video of somebody threatening to attack any aid convoy into Homs. The video has English subtitles. The Friends of Syria link is
http://friendsofsyria.co/2014/02/09/fsa-terrorists-threatened-to-fire-at-un-aid-convoy-over-a-week-prior-to-attack/
and the subtitled video is


That subtitled video was only uploaded yesterday, but is said to be based on video uploaded in late January. So I dug around and sure enough the original video, without subtitles, was uploaded on 29th January 2014. The original video can be found on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGDzrGnXA4w, and here it is:


It took me less than 2 minutes to find this lot.

And to see how this is being reported in the NATO media, here is The Guardian's report.

Relief convoys carrying humanitarian aid into a besieged rebel-held area of the central Syrian city of Homs came under fire for a second consecutive day on Sunday despite an appeal by the UN to government and rebel forces to respect a ceasefire, which is due to expire on Monday.

Reports described mortar bombs falling as UN and aid agency vehicles tried to deliver desperately-needed supplies to about 2,500 people trapped in the old city area.

Hunger and malnutrition are rife amid accusations that President Bashar al-Assad's forces are trying to starve rebels into submission.

On Friday, UN and Syrian government officials agreed on a three-day truce and "humanitarian pause" which allowed about 80 women, children and the elderly to leave.

The first food packages, hygiene kits and medicine went in on Saturday, but the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (Sarc) said mortar fire impacted near its convoy and shots were fired at its trucks, wounding one driver.

No one else was evacuated from the area because of the attack, which opposition activists blamed on government forces.

"We barely got our staff out alive," said Khaled Erksoussi, head of operations at Sarc. Syrian state TV said 600 people had left.

Sam Dagher, a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, reported that more than a dozen men among the latest evacuees had been "whisked away by Syrian security forces to an unknown place".

In the past, men detained in such circumstances have disappeared and there are fears the evacuation will be followed by a new assault.

The violence brought calls to respect the ceasefire, protect civilians and facilitate the safe delivery of aid.

"The UN and our humanitarian partners will not be deterred from doing the best we can to bring aid to those needing our help," said Valerie Amos, the UN's humanitarian chief.

The Syrian government blamed the attacks on rebels.

Homs, Syria's third-largest city, was one of the first areas to rebel against Assad in 2011 and has been particularly hard hit by the war.

Over the past year, the government has regained control over much of the city except for a few heavily-damaged neighbourhoods in the historic centre.

Last Friday's humanitarian agreement on Homs was the first tangible result of peace talks launched two weeks ago in Geneva to find a political solution to end a conflict that has killed more than 136,000 people and displaced millions since it erupted nearly three years ago.

Negotiations resume on Monday at the UN's Swiss headquarters but expectations for a breakthrough are as low as they were at the beginning.

The most that can be said is that both sides have agreed to attend a new session being chaired by the veteran Algerian mediator, Lakhdar Brahimi, who has to square the circle of Assad's refusal to step down with the opposition demand that he must go.

Syrian government aircraft were reported on Sunday to have dropped bombs killing at least 11 people in rebel-held areas of Aleppo, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

[source : Syria: relief convoys heading to Homs attacked for second day running, The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/09/syria-homs-relief-convoys-attacked, 9th February 2014]

Note that:
1. There is a short single sentence stating that the Syrian government blames the rebels, but there is no further investigation or analysis.
2. The report does not apportion blame to anyone.
3. The report ends with the suggestion that the Syrian government may be responsible for the attack on the aid convoy by repeating claims from the totally discredited UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that the Syrian government is dropping barrel bombs on Aleppo.

Regarding this latest claim of barrel bombs on Aleppo, I have still to see a barrel bomb being dropped. No photograph. No video. Nothing. And allegedly this has been going on for months!! Yet not one photograph or video!!

On the other hand there are reports that there is a fight between rebel factions in which they blow each other up.

So, as they say, you do the maths.

The Guardian still seem preoccupied with promoting their man Ed Snowden rather than reporting the truth about Syria .





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