Syrian opposition rejects U.N. transition plan
Source: USA Today
BEIRUT (AP) – Syrian opposition groups on Sunday rejected a U.N.-brokered peace plan for a political transition in Syria, calling it ambiguous and a waste of time and vowing not to negotiate with President Bashar Assad or members of his "murderous" regime.
The disappointed reaction underlined the seemingly intractable nature of the Syrian conflict, which this week saw some of the bloodiest violence since the start of the uprising against Assad's regime in March 2011.
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Maleh described the agreement reached in Geneva as a waste of time and of "no value on the ground."
"The Syrian people are the ones who will decide the battle on the ground, not those sitting in Geneva or New York or anywhere else," he said by telephone from Cairo, where opposition groups are to meet Monday.
Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-07-01/syria-un-plan/55957804/1
Activists: Over 14,000 killed in Syrian uprising; more than half in last 4 months
(CNN) -- More than half of the over 14,000 people killed since the Syrian crisis began 16 months ago were slaughtered in the past four months, according to tallies from opposition activists.
June was a particularly gruesome month, with 2,386 people killed compared to 1,196 in May, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria said.
The bloodshed continued Sunday, with at least 20 people killed, according to the LCC. The dead include several people who died from injuries sustained in a blast at a funeral procession in Zamalka on Saturday, the group said.
more: http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/01/world/meast/syria-unrest/index.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
...they entered the country prepared for a fight
Russia’s SA-24 ‘Grinch’ Lands In Insurgent Hands
Fears that some of the world's most sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons that disappeared from government warehouses in Libya would end up in the hands of stateless insurgent are being realized.
At least some of the roughly 480 high-performance SA-24 “Grinch” shoulder-launched missiles that disappeared during the Libyan uprising have reappeared in the hands of insurgents on the borders of Israel, say senior Israeli officials.
The advanced weapons were smuggled out of Libya to Iran. From there the supply line split, with some weapons going to Syria and finally to the military wing of the Hezbollah organization in Lebanon. Others were smuggled into Egypt and then to Hamas in Gaza.
“They are in the Gaza Strip,” an Israeli official tells Aviation Week. “I don't know in what numbers. They also are in Lebanon.”
The Russian-made SA-24 is a top-of-the-line, man-portable air defense system (Manpads) that is lethal to aircraft, helicopters and UAVs to an altitude of 11,000 ft. U.S. officials earlier confirmed that Libyan weapons went to Hezbollah and Gaza, but contended they did not know the fate of the SA-24s. Only empty packing crates were found in Libyan warehouses.
Opinions are mixed about the impact of these weapons.
http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_03_12_2012_p27-433282.xml&p=1
Tin foil screeders can start the
"It was a robot phantom jet
shot down by a foreign supported organization working in Syria
to make it look like the Syrian military done the dirty deed"
