Syrian refugee camp under air attack, eight dead – activist reports

Screenshot QudsNetwork's video claims to show Al-Yarmouk neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, after an alleged air bombardment by Syria's government forces (December 16, 2012 / Image from youtube.com)

Syrian warplanes have attacked a Palestinian refugee camp close to Syria’s capital city, Damascus, killing eight, activists report. The camp not only hosts Palestinians, but also Syrians displaced by the country’s ongoing conflict.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least eight people died when at least one rocket struck a mosque that houses refugees who had fled from the fighting in Damascus.

“Warplanes staged an air strike on an area near Al-Bassel hospital… in al-Yarmuk camp, hurting several people,” said the Observatory. They added that "the toll may rise, because several of the injured are in a critical condition."

A video allegedly filmed by a witness shows several dead bodies sprawled in what appears to be a mosque yard in al-Yarmouk. The surrounding streets were covered with shattered glass and blood stains. The video was uploaded to youtube by QudsNetwork, a Palestinian news outlet, but cannot be independently verified.

Al-Watan daily reports the area erupted in violence Sunday as government troops clashed with opposition forces. The edition says Palestinian self-defense forces support pro-Assad fighters. Other sources insist Palestinians are divided over the conflict and can be found fighting on both sides.

Al-Yarmouk is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and is located in a strategic region to the south of Damascus, where government forces have been attempting to push back rebel fighters for the past couple of weeks. In August, there were reports that a mortat attack killed at least 20 people in a shopping area there.

In the wake of the reports, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas appealed on Sunday for an “immediate” halt to firing on Palestinian refugee camps in Syria.

"We call on the warring sides in Syria to spare the Palestinian people and their camps in Syria," he said as quoted by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Over 500,000 Palestinians live in Syria which has been going through a harsh civil conflict since March 2011. Over 32,000 people have died in clashes between opposition and government troops, with a further 420,000 becoming refugees in what is widely viewed as an uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad. Syrian state media, however, maintain that Damascus continues to “cleanse” what they have branded as “terrorists" from the region.

In other developments, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared Sunday that the struggle within Syria is not Assad’s government cracking down on its own people, but that the opposition, which is funded from abroad, is committed to a military confrontation and rejects any dialogue.

“The battle is not at all between the regime and its people. There is a division. A segment of the population supports the regime and another supports the opposition which has taken up arms and is being aided by regional forces and there is an armed confrontation,” Nasrallah said as cited by Lebanon’s Naharnet.

“The battle is far from over in Syria because the armed opposition is rejecting any dialogue with the regime, which will bring further violence and bloodshed,” he added.

Hezbollah has been accused by the Syrian opposition of sending fighters to Syria to help Assad, but the group denies these allegations.

Tunisia in turmoil: Stones thrown at president, unrest 2 years after Arab Spring

Inhabitants of Sidi Bouzid shout slogans before hurling rocks at Tunisia's President Moncef Marzouki and parliamentary speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar on December 17, 2012, in the central town of Sidi Bouzid 

Tunisian protesters in Sidi Bouzid, the epicenter of the country's Arab Spring uprising, threw rocks at visiting President Moncef Marzouki and other top leaders in a show of protest. Two years after the revolution, Tunisia is still gripped by unrest.

In late 2010, a 26-year-old university graduate lit himself on fire in Sidi Bouzid. Protests broke out across Tunisia on December 17, 2010, and were then repeated across North Africa and the Middle East. Tunisian President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali was the first ruler to be ousted in the Arab Spring uprisings, following months of violent unrest. 

One week ago – nearly two years after Ben Ali was deposed by the popular uprising – tens of thousands of protesters turned out in a mass strike planned by the country’s most powerful labor union, aimed at the stagnant economy and police brutality.

Two weeks earlier, another protest saw over 200 people wounded in clashes between Tunisian security forces and thousands of protesters in the impoverished town of Siliana. Fighting there raged on for several days, according to local medics. 

The unrest comes during a period of record unemployment in Tunisia. In November, the World Bank approved a $500 million loan to alleviate the country’s economic woes; another $700 million came from other donors. It was the second loan approved by the World Bank since the Arab Spring swept Ben Ali from power.

Most activists say that the Arab Spring brought about the exact opposite of what the demonstrators intended.

“The situation is worse right now in comparison to years before the revolution. Personally, I don’t feel safe anymore. When you see all the violence of the police of the salafis. Even the police are attacked sometimes. And there’s less freedom. I received so many messages from girls who say they were harassed on the street, even by police, who didn’t tolerate the way they dress,” Tunis-based activist and blogger Lina Ben Mhenni told SW.

The turmoil in Tunisia mirrors similar structures across the region. Experts say that the policies the newly elected leaders enact are not far from those of their predecessors.

In Egypt, opposition groups are urging a mass protest on Tuesday over alleged vote rigging during the national referendum on a controversial draft of the constitution. On Sunday, the Muslim Brotherhood announced the first results, prompting anger and accusations of electoral fraud. The next vote in the referendum is scheduled for the coming weekend.

“Those who voted for the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt did so because they wanted economic changes, not just getting rid of Mubarak and letting Morsi in. And Morsi, even though he’s obviously a very different political figure to Mubarak in terms of his ideology, has carried on much the same policies in terms of economic policy,” journalist and broadcaster Neil Clark told SW.

“I think it has to be a different type of a democratic system. The democracy that the US would like to impose upon Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and other countries throughout the region, even Libya, where war was waged last year to topple the Qaddafi government, is not suitable to the people inside of that region,” Detroit's Pan-African News Wire editor Abayomi Azikiwe said to SW.

Siege of Bani Walid: Foreign fighters, phosphorus bombs and nerve gas

The besieged Libyan city of Bani Walid has been plunged into chaos. SW the former Gaddafi regime stronghold is under attack by militias bolstered by foreign mercenaries, and they used banned weapons like white phosphorous.

­The sources denied reports of the last few days that Bani Walid was retaken by the Libyan government. Residents said that militia forces have continued their assault, while preventing the refugees who fled from reentering the city. 

A man who claimed his relatives are trapped inside the besieged city spoke with RT, saying, “There is no food; there is nothing to support the life of people. And the militia does not allow anyone to come back to their homes.”

“They are demolishing homes with machinery and tanks. There is no communication or internet so people are not able to connect with each other,” the source said. He is currently in Egypt, and refuses to reveal his identity over fears of personal safety.

He believes the real reason for the inoperable communications is that many people have been killed inside Bani Walid by the forces besieging the city and now they are trying to prevent information about the killings to be leaked outside. 

The militia attackers have claimed they are battling ‘pro-Gaddafi’ forces, but the source slammed that motive as a “lie and a dirty game.”

“They use foreign snipers, I think from Qatar or Turkey, with Qatar covering all the costs,” he said. He claimed that a ship with weapons and other equipment recently docked in the port city of Misrata, where the assault on Bani Walid is allegedly being directed.

“There is no government in Libya. Groups of militia control everything. They don’t care about Libya, they don’t care about the nation,” he said, adding allegations that the majority of militia fighters have dual citizenship or passports from other countries.

“We ask the envoy [Special Representative] of the Secretary-General of the United Nations [for Libya] Mr. Tarik Mitri – where is he now?” he said. “Where is the United Nations? Where is the EU? Where is the Human Rights Watch? We ask for an intervention now as soon as possible – please!”

In an October 23 UN session, the US blocked a statement on the violence in Bani Walid drafted by Russia, which condemned the ongoing conflict in the city and calling for a peaceful resolution.

Witnesses claim militia used chemical weapons in Bani Walid

“I can confirm that pro-government militias used internationally prohibited weapons. They used phosphorus bombs and nerve gas. We have documented all this in videos, we recorded the missiles they used and the white phosphorus raining down from these missiles,” Bani Walid-based activist and lawyer Afaf Yusef told RT.

“Many people died without being wounded or shot, they died as a result of gases. The whole world needs to see who they are targeting. Are they really Gaddafi's men? Are the children, women and old men killed – Gaddafi's men?” Yusef said.

The forces attacking Bani Walid have been ordered to use “all means necessary” in their assault on the city. “To all parasites and leaches, a message to all of them across Libya, wherever they are: Whoever you are, however strong you are, and whoever your back is – the revolution should win,” a militant said in the TV report.

Looming humanitarian catastrophe in Bani Walid

The humanitarian situation outside Bani Walid is reportedly nearly as dire as that within the besieged city. Those who managed to flee the violence now find themselves stranded on the desert roads outside the city.

Thousands of Bani Walid residents have reportedly tried to reenter the city, but were stopped at makeshift militia checkpoints composed of pickup trucks armed with mounted machine-guns.

“Look at the people over there, they got a gun and they’re shooting at people with it,” a Bani Walid resident said, pointing in the direction of a checkpoint. He claimed that those who fled the city had been forced to stay in the desert for more than a week.

“Where is the government?” he said.

'600 killed in Bani Walid fighting in one day' – source

Amid conflicting reports that the Libyan city of Bani Walid was captured by army forces, RT has learned that 600 people were allegedly killed in Wednesday’s fighting, and over 1,000 have been hospitalized. Locals are appealing for international aid.

Libyan officials claimed that government forces conducted a 20-day siege before capturing Bani Walid, the last stronghold for supporters of the Gaddafi regime, and seized the city. Sources in the town gave conflicting reports, saying that local militias were responsible for the siege and now control of the area.

“We continue to receive conflicting reports. From sources on the ground, we’re hearing that the army is withdrawing from the city, although we are hearing of widespread killings. Government sources say the city has fallen,”

An individual in Italy who allegedly has relatives in Bani Walid spoke to RT about the current state of the city. Calling himself ‘Alwarfally’ – referring to a tribe from Bani Walid – he asked to remain anonymous for the interview.

He said he contacted his family in the besieged city, who told him that the situation there has stabilized: The militia retreated, but only after kidnapping a local member of the ‘Council of the Elders,’ which was tasked by Bani Walid’s tribal leaders with governing the city after the fall of Gaddafi.

 “Bani Walid’s people got the control of the city again,” Alwarfally told RT. “[The] situation in Bani Walid is better now. Militia fell back after the fight that happened yesterday, and everything is good.”

“Militia kidnapped the consul of Bani Walid, his health is poor,” he said. “They will take him to Misrata and I don’t know what will happen to him. He is a very good man. He didn’t have anything to do with what happened, he is just a council member in Bani Walid.”

The Misrata militia that allegedly laid siege to Bani Walid was the same group accused of war crimes by Human Rights Watch last week.

Alwarfally also claimed that at least hundreds of people were killed during the 20-day siege.

“The number is really big,” he said. “One the first day that [the militia] came, there were about 70 bodies from the fighting. Yesterday night there was 600.”

“The number of people in the hospitals is over 1000,” he added.

Whether government forces or militias are behind the violence, video footage from the town paints a very graphic picture.

“Some of the photos and video we’ve been receiving show dismembered bodies and children who have been killed. Some of that footage is coming from Bani Walid television,” Slier said.

Militias blockaded the town for the past 20 days in an attempt to locate those responsible for the death of Omran Shaaban – the man credited with capturing Muammar Gaddafi last year. The Warfalla tribe controlling Bani Walid was accused of kidnapping and torturing Shaaban.

The people of Bani Walid have been appealing for help from the international community – but Moscow's aid efforts were stopped by the United States.

Washington blocked a draft statement, proposed by Russia, on the resolution of violence in Bani Walid earlier this week. The statement called for a peaceful solution to the conflict.

A year on from Gaddafi’s death: Reports Khamis Gaddafi's captured as government forces pummel Bani Walid

As the Libyan army is continuing its assault of the anti-regime stronghold of Bani Walid in an attempt to crush the remnants of his loyalist followers, media speculate Khamis Gaddafi was captured during the siege and died of wounds.

Reports on Twitter confirm that Khamis Gaddafi, Colonel Gaddafi's son, has been found alive in Bani Walid, this comes after earler reports on Twitter that he had been captured by the government forces.

The version which says the youngest son of the Libyan former strongman has been captured also claims he sustained serious wounds and died, reports Al-Arabiya citing own sourses.

Khamis Gaddafi was said to have been killed by a NATO airstrike in August 2011, but this has never been confirmed by evidence.

Fighting has gripped Bani Walid for the last two weeks as security forces and militia attempt to enter the town to arrest individuals accused of a series of kidnappings.

“All the families are still here, nobody decided to leave,” a town official, Abdul Salem Al Fukahi, said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg. “They will stay in their homes and live or die.”

Mohammed Megaryef, Libya’s de facto head of state after the Congress fired PM Mustafa Abushagur, said that the fight for is not over yet.

"The campaign to liberate the country has not been fully completed," Megaryef, the head of Libya's national assembly, said on state television on Saturday. He cited the “corruption and weakness” of some government bodies as the root cause for the “state of discontent and tension among different segments of society.”

The fighting erupted earlier this week after militias allied to the Libyan army reportedly shelled the hilltop town.

The violence comes after the kidnap, shooting and torture in Bani Walid of, Omran Ben Shaaban, credited with capturing Gaddafi last year. Shaban died of his injuries last month while undergoing treatment in Paris. It is widely believed he was killed by Gaddafi loyalists.

The General National Congress (GNC) said it would bring Mr. Shaaban’s killers to justice. It gave Bani Walid a deadline to hand him over and pro-government militias effectively put the town under siege for two weeks prior to Wednesday’s clashes.

Amnesty International say hundreds of the town’s residents have been unlawfully taken into custody by militia groups and that the town has been left without food and medical supplies.

Tribal elders tried to negotiate a solution and they hoped the army would be able to enter Bani Walid peacefully. But reports from inside the town said Friday it was still being shelled.

There are also unconfirmed reports that chemical weapons may have been used in the fighting.

Ali Alkasih, a spokesman for the Warfalla Tribe abroad – the same tribe which supported Gaddafi throughout his 42 year rule – says that chemical weapons had been used in the attack resulting in one death and dozens suffering from suffocation. He added that tanks and artillery had also been used, information based on personal sources in the town.

Annie Machon, a former agent in Britain’s MI5, “Gaddafi’s regime is reported to have stockpiled chemical weapons while in power so there is a possibility that there are still a lot of old chemical weapons floating about in Libya that might fall into rebel militia.” Although she added that she doubted that, “This stuff has been given to the official Libyan army and is being used against dissident populations.” 

Libya’s GNC has so far failed to curtail violence in the country and bring militant groups formed of former rebels under control.

A report by Human Right’s Watch released Wednesday revealed that the Libyan rebels who captured Gaddafi then abused and murdered him along with his son and loyalists.

Sabah Al-Mukhtar, President of the Arab Lawyers Association described the finding as no surprise and an “embarrassment” for NATO, given that they had backed the same militia groups.

He added that government forces are not in control of the fragmented militias that still freely operate in Libya.

“Their allegiance is not to Libya. Their allegiance is to their tribe, their town or their background,” He said.

Machon explained that no matter how brutal Gaddafi had been, he did at least provide a certain degree of stability and quality of life.

“Yes he could be brutal but that very strength allowed him to bring together the disparate tribes and corrupting religious, secular groups within Libya and taking away that control NATO abruptly removed any centralized power and the people are suffering for it now,” she said.

Lebanon on a knife-edge: Anti-Syrian tensions rising

Tensions run high in Lebanon as the government declared an emergency meeting following a bomb attack that killed a top security official. Clashes and protests have been reported throughout the country amid opposition calls for the PM to resign.

Riots and protests continued into Saturday as thousands of people across Lebanon voiced their ire at the car bomb blast in Beirut on Friday that eight and wounded over 100.

Enraged citizens blocked roads with burning tires as a sign of their protest, while clashes in the city of Tripoli close to the southern Syrian border fueled fears the Syrian conflict is spilling over across the border.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati offered to step down amidst the fallout of Friday’s deadly attack, but President Michel Suleiman refused his resignation.

“He asked that I stay in place because it is not a personal issue but one of the national interest,” Mikati said.

Lebanon’s political opposition bloc, the March 14 Alliance, continue to hold the pro-Syrian government and its prime minister responsible for the Friday’s attack, which killed intelligence chief Wissam al-Hassan.

The secretary-general of Lebanese opposition group Future Movement, Ahmad Hariri, said that the attack had been masterminded by embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Hariri also condemned Lebanon’s current PM Najib Mikati to resign immediately, saying that “he is personally responsible for the blood of General Wissam al-Hassan and the innocent.”

“We accuse Bashar al-Assad of the assassination of Wissam al-Hassan, the guarantor of the security of the Lebanese,” Hariri told a Lebanese TV station.

Mitkin joined the chorus of those linking Friday’s bombing to the civil war in neighboring Syria despite the accusations lobbed at him. The PM said on Saturday the assassination of police Hassan was connected to his role in the August arrest of former minister Michel Samaha. Samaha had allegedly conspired to set off explosives all throughout Lebanon in a bid to destabilize the country. He was often accused of being “Syria’s man in Lebanon,” and was viewed as untouchable due to his connections in Damascus.

Former Lebanese Interior Minister Ziad Baroud told al-Jazeera that it was too early to ascertain who was behind the bombing.

"We have no indication whatsoever [of who is behind this]. We know this is a strong and sad message, and we know this could destabilize the whole country," said Baroud.

The attack has come at a time of strong antagonism between pro-Syrian regime groups and anti-Assad factions in Lebanon. Many fear that the conflict in Syria will exacerbate sectarian divisions in neighboring Lebanon.

Rifts are growing steadily wider in Lebanese society as the countries Sunni Muslims get behind the rebels and the Shiites offer their support to President Assad.

The security official who was assassinated was a Sunni Muslim who opposed Assad and the regime’s strongest ally in Lebanon, the Shiite group Hezbollah.

The blast struck the Ashrafiyeh district of Beirut, a majority Christian neighborhood of the Lebanese capital. An explosives-laden car was detonated in a grounded street at rush hour, injuring over 100 people and decimating surrounding buildings.

It was the first car bombing in Lebanon since four years ago, when Lebanon’s top anti-terrorism investigator was killed along with three others.

The UN has condemned the attack calling for a thorough investigation to find the perpetrators, while the US called the blast a “terrorist attack.”