COMMENTS_ Syria uprising: live

Syria uprising: live

Live coverage of developments in Syria, as 100 people are killed in less than 24 hours and Assad's tanks roll in to Homs.

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A Syrian woman holds prayers for the victims who were killed during the attacks Photo: REUTERS/Fadi Al-Assaad

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Syrians protest in Doha, Qatar Photo: AP Photo/Osama Faisal

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov seen during a news conference in Moscow, Russia Photo: AP

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Damages inside a home following shelling at the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs, Syria Photo: EPA

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Two damaged military vehicles after clashes in Homs Photo: REUTERS

By Sarah Titterton
6:30PM GMT 08 Feb 2012
882 comments

• Opposition: 100 dead - including 18 babies
• Activists report tanks in Homs
• Cameron: "Very little confidence" in Russia-Syria talks
• China: Hague's criticism of UN veto is "irresponsible"
• US begins reviewing military options, says CNN

Latest

19.22 French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev to give full support to an Arab League peace plan to persuade Bashar al-Assad to quit as Syria's leader, AFP reports.

During a phone conversation, Sarkozy also told Medvedev of "the necessity to increase the pressure on the Syrian regime to cease its brutal repression of the Syria people," said a statement from the French president's office.

19.19 Telegraph video of a convoy of armoured vehicles streaming into Homs:


19.10 Doctors Without Borders has quoted Syrians as saying that many civilians who have been wounded in their country's violence are unable to get adequate medical treatment - in part because security forces have taken over many public hospitals.

The aid group released a video in Paris on Wednesday showing interviews with 10 wounded Syrians and 5 Syrian doctors who have fled the nation.

The unidentified witnesses said many wounded are afraid to go to such hospitals for treatment, knowing that Syrian authorities could arrest them and subject them to interrogation or even torture. Instead, some get whatever treatment they can in private clinics or makeshift hospitals in homes.

18.32 Russian president Dmitry Medvedev tells Nicolas Sarkozy "unilateral" Syria steps should be avoided.

17.16 As the onslaught on Bab Amr continues to destroy the nieghbourhood, Syrian state television claims that Homs residents requested the army's intervention to protect them. Telegraph video:


16.44 Syrian TV is now claiming the citizens of Homs requested the army's intervention. One man tells the camera:

We request the intervention of the army to protect us from the gangs, we can't go anywhere, we have been forced out of our homes in Karm al-Zeitoun. There are snipers in the streets.

16.13 A new Telegraph story details more of the unimaginable last few hours in Homs today:

Pleading for help from the outside world, Syrian activists said they were in desperate need of food and medical aid. Troops fired rockets and mortars while tanks entered the Inshaat neighbourhood and moved closer to Bab Amro, the district hardest hit by bombardments that have killed nearly 200 people in the last two days.



Yet another explosion in Homs

15.19 The BBC are reporting that amongst the dead are 18 premature babies, who perished when their hospital was hit by power cuts. The BBC's Paul Wood, one of the few Western reporters still inside Homs, reports more on the "despair and hysteria" now gripping the city.

He says:

One word sums up the mood in Homs - despair.


15.12 Syria's opposition claim as many as 100 civilians have been killed in Homs today, Reuters is reporting. Syrian TV is still blaming the explosions in the city on "terrorists" laying charges.

14.38 Shashank Joshi has blogged for the Telegraph on "a case of dangerous moral equivalence" in Syria, the UN veto and the Guardian newspaper.

He examines an article in the Guardian by Seumas Milne entitled "Intervention in Syria will escalate not stop the killing" - and promptly tears it apart. An excerpt:

Milne is right that there is a “proxy war” being waged against Iran, and that broader geopolitical concerns shape the various actors’ perspectives... But Milne’s suffocating “anti-imperialist” worldview leads to a deeply unpleasant moral equivalence between a reluctantly militarising opposition and unyielding regime. This leads to some absurd conclusions. Such as the idea that poor, misunderstood Russia is simply protecting itself from Western depredations. “Russian officials have privately assured opposition leaders that the quarrel is with the US, not them,” Milne tells us. That’s a relief, then. Those being slaughtered in Homs don't know how lucky they are.



A destroyed tank in Homs

13.52 The aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said the Assad regime is persecuting doctors and healthworkers who treat wounded people, and denying medical aid to opponents. The aid agency says "medicine is being used as a weapon of persecution".

A Syrian doctor quoted in the MSF report said:

We are constantly being pursued by the security forces. Many doctors who treated wounded patients in their private hospitals have been arrested and tortured.


The report is all the more chilling when you hear the latest from Homs, where a doctor in Baba Amr, Ali Hazouri, tells AFP that there are about 500 people wounded - half of them women and children.

He said a field hospital has been hit repeatedly over the last few days, adding:

One rescuer from the Red Cross had both legs blown off in the shelling. We have shut down the hospital and are treating the wounded in their homes... We need the Red Cross to be allowed in to evacuate the wounded," he said. "And we need food.

13.50 Syrian TV is now reporting that several people have been killed and wounded in a car bomb in Homs, AFP reports.

13.23 David Cameron says he has "very little confidence" in the promises made by Assad to Russia yesterday. Speaking in Parliament, he said that the Kremlin had to "look at their conscience and realise what they have done".

13.10 Russia's Vladimir Putin has warned that the world faces a growing "cult of violence" in the world - and warned that leaders cannot act "like an elephant in a china shop" over Syria.

From AFP:

We of course condemn all violence regardless of its source, but one cannot act like an elephant in a china shop... Help them, advise them, limit, for instance, their ability to use weapons but not interfere under any circumstances... A cult of violence has been coming to the fore in international affairs in the past decade. This cannot fail to cause concern ... and we must not allow anything like this in our country."

12.22 The US has begun reviewing its military options in Syria, CNN is reporting, with one official calling it a "scoping exercise".

The report says officials are downplaying the review as routine and that all emphasis remains on a non-military solution - for now.

A senior official is quoted as saying:

The Pentagon is closely monitoring developments in Syria. It wouldn’t be doing its job if it didn’t put some ideas on the table. But absolutely no decisions have been made on military support for Syria.

12.18 China has denounced William Hague's criticism of the UN veto as "extremely irresponsible".

12.10 "Frightening" video doing the rounds on Twitter today purportedly from Homs - showing lorry after lorry after lorry rolling past carrying armoured vehicles and other weapons. The video, below, cannot be verified, and it's not clear where exactly the convoy is and where it is heading. There are reports that columns of tanks are heading for Homs today.


12.03 UN rights chief Navi Pillay is now calling for urgent international action to help Syrias.

The statement on AFP:

I am appalled by the Syrian government's wilful assault on Homs, and its use of artillery and other heavy weaponry in what appear to be indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas in the city. The failure of the Security Council to agree on firm collective action appears to have fueled the Syrian Government's readiness to massacre its own people in an effort to crush dissent.

11.45 The influential US blog The Drudge Report has linked to a report suggesting that Iran has sent 15,000 troops to help Assad. The report sites an account published in Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper two days ago - but it may have over-egged what the newspaper actually said. From Ha'Aretz:

A top Iranian military official is activly aiding the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad in suppressing popular unrest throughout the country, a top member of the National Syrian Council said on Monday.

According to the Syrian official, Kassam Salimani, commander of the Quds Force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard special forces unit, has arrived in Syria recently and has taken up a spot in the war room which manages army maneuvers against opposition forces....

The Quds Force includes 15,000 elite soldiers who operated, among other locations, in Iraq during the war, and the specialty of which is engaging in unconventional warfare on foreign soil. Among other duties, the Quds Force is in charge of traning and funding Hezbollah.

So the report does not appear to actually suggest that all 15,000 forces have been sent to Syria. Nevertheless, if true, the links are worrying - and for more reasons than one. A Reuters report has already speculated on Obama's worst-case scenario fears that the Syria conflict could spiral into a proxy war for the US.



Members of the Free Syrian Army train outside Idlib

11.41 Foreign Policy has published a photo essay showing what they are calling "Syria's Ground Zero", or the remains of Homs after the bombardments.

11.16 A report out of the Washington Post is claiming that 11 Iranian pilgrims kidnapped in Syria have been released after help from "friendly nations".

The Iranian foreign ministry did not elaborate on who those "friendly nations" to Iran and Syria were.

10.47 The diplomatic finger-pointing continues: Beijing has called William Hague “irresponsible” for saying that China’s decision to veto a United Nations resolution condemning the bloody crackdown in Syria opened the door to more violence.

10.27 Mishal Husain at the BBC is tweeting a bit more on what Syrian TV is showing:


10.22 Two alerts have just come over the AFP wire: One saying that Syrian TV are claiming an "armed terrorist group" (the regime's moniker for the rebels) has attacked an oil refinery in Homs; and another saying that Turkey is planning an international conference on Syria. More shortly...

10.17 The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights are now saying the 47 people killed since midnight in Homs include three entire families. They included at least three children aged five, seven and 15.

Hadi Abdullah, another activist, told AFP: "We fear a new massacre".



Rebels gearing up for the fight against the Assad regime

10.10 Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov is speaking out again today, insisting that Syrians must decide the fate of Assad.

AFP are reporting that he "sidestepped" a direct question from a journalist about whether he urged Assad to step down. Lavrov is quoted as saying:

Any outcome of national dialogue should be the result of agreement between the Syrians themselves and should be acceptable to all Syrians... Trying in advance to decide the result of national dialogue is basically not the job of the international community.

He also criticised the decision by Gulf states to pull their ambassadors out of Syria, and expel Syrian ambassadors from their countries.

I do not think that recalling ambassadors helps create conditions that would be favourable to the realisation of the Arab League's plan... To us at least this logic is not clear, as was unclear the hasty decision to freeze the work of the Arab League's mission in Syria. The presence of foreign observers always plays a restraining role and it was unclear why a number of Gulf states recalled their envoys from this mission and why the mission after that was suspended at the very moment its report was supposed to be heard at the UN Security Council.

09.17 Footage shot in Homs by an independent cameraman over several days this month depicts what life has become inside parts of Syria's third-largest city:


08.39 The regime is now setting fire to homes in Homs, reports Al Arabiya:


08.32 The Daily Mail this morning outlines a three-step plan approved by David Cameron to force Assad from power:

• British officials are to help the Syrian opposition with develop a plan for the future of their country, and show them how to win the hearts and minds of the Syrian people;

• Britain will back new EU sanctions;

• Cameron will also back the Arab League's efforts to oust Assad

08.03 One activist who spoke to The Guardian has accused Assad's regime of genocide. Karam Abu Rabea said:

The regime didn't expect us to continue our struggle against them. They didn't think we would persist. So now it is using its last card. It is the genocide card.



A member of the Free Syrian Army trains in Idlib

08.02 Reuters are reporting that 47 people have died in Homs since midnight as armed forces loyal to the regime battled into the city - just hours after the Russian foreign minister said Assad had assured him that he was "fully committed" to peace.

It is believed that troops have killed 150 people in Syria in the last 48 hours. This is the fifth day of the "major offensive" on Homs.

Activist Mohammad Hassan told Reuters:

Electricity returned briefly and we were able to contact various neighbourhoods because activists there managed to recharge their phones. We counted 47 killed since midnight... Mortar and rocket fires have subsided, but heavy machineguns and anti-aircraft guns are still strong... tanks are in main thoroughfares in the city and appear poised to push deep into residential areas.

08.00 GMT (10.00 Damascus) Hello and welcome to The Daily Telegaph's live rolling coverage of the crisis in Syria, where President Bashar al Assad is continuing his assault on rebels against his regime.

Syria live: February 7 as it happened
Syria live: February 6 as it happened


***

Showing 1-25 of 882 comments


stephenreal
22 minutes ago
I find it odd that Russia and China would support a post colonial power
set up the 19th century French with such religious fervor. Odd, you
would think they would be for the revolutionaries instead of the
remnants of French colonialism? This political and financial support effectively makes them neo-colonialists.


Allen_Snyder
Today 06:33 PM
The killings were committed by those gun men who went into houses to kill those civilians. Who were those gun men? The motive of these killings is likely to get "sympathy" from the west hence to get direct military aid from the west. There is no evidence to suggest those gun men were Syrian government troops. In any case those who smuggled weapons to those activists to start armed struggle and to exact violence on other group of Syrians have a lot to answer for the trouble in Syria.


dkrause
Today 04:54 PM
To think that the Russians will relinquish their naval base in Syria and their only passage way to the Mediterranean is a trifle ludicrous. So far the USA and its allies have not met a power capable of waging war on land, sea, air (and space) since WW II. To say that the consequences would be devastating for all the parties involved would be an understatement. Russian ICBM cannot be intercepted by any of the western powers and they can reach London, Paris and New York in less than 45 minutes; that's a fact and not a tall-story told to sell the war against Iraq. Furthermore, China is also against military intervention in Syria and since China is the prime lender to most western economies (and the reason for their survival)... well, you can infer the rest.



______ mrbomber
Today 05:09 PM
There's NO reason to blame Russia for persevering their navy base in Syria even if you think that's their only reason of vetoing. US didn't impose massive propaganda and political intervention against Bahrain after their crazy crackdown on the mass protestors as well as in Saudi, because they have their navy bases there. The double standard is so staggering that you just cannot believe their take on Syria has any motive involved with ''humanitarian purpose''.

Secondly, the idea to impose NO FLY Zone without the declaration of war is extremely dangerous game NATO is playing. Because they simply lead the role examples of any offensive military actions could be imposed without the political negotiation and it means the world war could be triggered anytime anywhere and without the notice of each other



mrbomber
Today 04:39 PM
The propaganda of War is rolling like those cheesy scripts out of
Hollywood which have been recycled time after time, year after year.

Not even a slight change of format or rendering

How desperate is that for being a ''fair and balanced'' journalist institution? Because the coalition government said so?



dagda1
Today 04:32 PM
If the west is so concerned about civilians, why have the US/UK etc. imposed crippling sanctions on the civilians of Syria and Iran.


Is this a form of aid I am unfamiliar with? I don't think the sanctions helped too many civilians in Iraq or maybe I have go this all wrong and starvation etc. is actually good.



Allen_Snyder
Today 01:16 PM
There are two sets of Syrian people in Syria and we should not take sides.

The Syrian government has arms and so does the opposition. It is not "peaceful" protest any more as it is 100% armed confrontation. The Syrians must know what will result in armed uprising and violent confrontation. UN should concentrate on defending UN charter and promote peace and negotiation in Syria. Get the both sides together around the negotiation table and force them to take up their own promises and exercise restraints. Failing that then enforce the arms embargo. This does not disadvantage opposition. If they are determined then they must find way to pursue their government without violences. That will change the game plan altogether if the opposition manages that. The reported on going armed struggle make the peaceful solution all too urgent



______ bertalexi
Today 02:50 PM
..... and just how do you propose 'forcing' both sides to take up their own promises and exercise restraints. Reminds me of the 'Peace Compact' of the late 1930's - basically everybody must disarm, upon pain of being forced to do so!



______ m8
Today 01:22 PM
Indeed.

The situation in Syria is that there are Sunni Islamists on one hand-the so-called "activists", and then there are the minority groups on the other- Alawites (Assad's group-14% of the population), Christians (10% of the population),Kurds (9%) and Druzes (3%).

So basically the minority groups are terrified to death by the prospect of having medieval barbarians in power (as they quite right should be).

If foreign powers intervene in Syria, it will be the start of a bloody secretian war.



Thrasos
Today 11:50 AM
And every day, every year, 10 people die from avoidable error in the NHS. That's 390 this year so far. Haven't noticed the BBC, the Grauniad, The Independent, Sky going on and on and on about those deaths. Maybe it does not pass the lefty news filter?


Firozali A.Mulla
Today 09:19 AM
The U.S .population, which was one-third smaller than Russia's at the time of the Revolution, is now 313 million and growing: "The Soviet Union put the United States on the ideological defensive for the first time in its history. ... In November of 1917, V. I. Lenin led the Bolsheviks to
control of Russia in 'ten days that shook the world.' Now in putative control of a huge nation, the Bolsheviks saw themselves as leaders of a global movement to
liberate people everywhere from bonds forged in the American and French Revolutions of the late eighteenth cen­tury and fastened on the limbs of workers in particular during the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth. Lenin defined imperialism as 'the monop­oly stage of capitalism' and 'a colonial policy of monopolistic possessions of the territory of the world which has been completely divided up. We only want to keep on thinking kicking Greece and not use any other method. "Whether as supporters or critics, Americans paid close attention to Rus­sia because it seemed to exemplify a new revolutionary spirit detached from their own largely
liberal, middle-class tradition; indeed, it seemed rooted in an attack on middle-class capitalism and democracy as enslaving rather than liberating forces. Tensions ran
high in the United States because the revo­lution in Russia implied that a communist. . “Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt,
kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.” ~ Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA



______ Tony_0pmoc
Today 12:23 PM
The World's Political Map has changed dramatically over the last 100 years, and nearly reversed.

Because it has been such a slow process, many people haven't recognised the changes.

Now it is places like Russian cities that are advertising in English for inward capital investment and people for small scale Capitalist Companies to start up.

Meanwhile in the West - Large Corporations, have absorbed or destroyed small competitors, and in effect become Powerful Monopolies who use their size and Financial Power to Control Government. This is Extremely Close To Communism, or More Accurately Totalitarian Fascism. The effect on the General Population is much the same. Dictatorship and Impoverishment.

I know several young people with good degrees who have moved to China and feel extremely welcome there and are doing well.

The World has turned upside down.

After WWII, many German Nazis were deliberately attracted to, and employed by the USA Government and Corporations. They were highly intelligent. The political changes in America may not be entirely co-incidental.

Because of the dramatic Political Switch in Russia over the last 30 years, which involved a great deal of poverty for most ordinary people, there has also been a massive clear out of the very rich and powerful, a large number of who'm now live in Central London.

Russia has gone through the changes and is now ready for business, as the West self implodes under Dictatorship.

Its Russia, China and South America, that are the last remaining obstacles to a Worldwide Dictatorship, which is very Definitely not Benign nor Capitalist/Competitive in Nature.

Meanwhile people continue believing the same old tribal nonsense and propaganda from the TV and Newspapers that are far more effective than anything the Soviets produced.

Tony


unclesams
Today 09:18 AM
Will timeline continue as predicted by the following democracy fiction?

Democracy fiction: 20 essential steps for implementing democracy in a country (part 2)

9. Propose an UM (United Mess) resolution that will stir up more violence/hatred to prove you are right in your efforts to stop violence.

10. If your UM resolution is vetoed, express your anger immediately to stir up anger worldwide against those who have vetoed your resolution

a) To expose how bad they are and how righteous you are

b) To put pressures on them to make it easier next time,

c) To make opposition groups/government becoming more desperate for violence to prove you are always right.

11. Propose an international coalition to support opposition groups

12. Call in your buddy for a coalition force

13. Start bombing all over the land to “protect” their civilians so that they can live a peaceful life while being waked up by bombs every nights.

14. Slaughter tens of thousands people accidentally. Try not to show any bloody pictures in public media so that nobody will understand what that number means and be horrified

15. Kill their leaders unintentionally. Never ever capture them alive to avoid future troubles

16. After the country is bombed into desolation, put together a democratic government while still doubting if it will be better than the previous one


dagda1
Today 09:12 AM
The USA and their lapdogs need to go to Regime change anonymous.

The continual wars and the continual regime change is unrelenting as is the media's pushing of these unwanted wars.

Every time the US changes a regime, their puppet junta turns against them after a number of years. It has never worked and never will.

Just look at Libya which has descended from a country with one of the highest standards of living to anarchy with the "good" Al Qaeda flag flying above the Libyan court house . Articles like this are just tiresome. We want to concentrate on what happens in the UK but we are bombarded with Syria at every avenue as they try to train our senses to accept yet another war.

The BBC should be changed to Syria 24 or anti assad 24. The coverage Syria is getting is disproportionate to where it is in respect to us. I am exhausted. After this it will be Iran next. We have not even got a military to do anything about it but we posture like we do. I hate it and I am sick of it with every part of existence. Stop this now.


______ Dr_Drug
Today 02:17 PM
"Every time the US changes a regime, their puppet junta turns against
them after a number of years. It has never worked and never will."

Just look at Gerhard Schröder's comments about Iraq.


hatebigots
Today 09:41 AM
Go to your beloved Syria then.

See things for yourself, like NGO`s are doing right now.
Instead of thinking you know more than everyone else just because you have a laptop.

the "good" Al Qaeda flag flying above the Libyan court house was removed after a few hours by Libyans because it was illegal.
Basic propaganda really fools you,huh? It only has to be western hater.

Stop being a puppet & start thinking for yourself.

Or go to Syria & start shooting protesters if you hate them so much.

Your hate speeches sometimes are very sad...


____________ m8
Today 01:04 PM
Mr. Bigot,
You say: "See things for yourself, like NGO`s are doing right now."

NGO's have withdrawn from Libya.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worl...


This is as a direct result of NATO's war crimes there.


Fail.



____________ hatebigots
Today 02:57 PM
slave m8,
that article says nothing about your imaginary "NATO`s war crimes".

& NGO`S job is to expose war crimes. Like they did with Gaddafi. And extremist rebels.

You were saying, slave?

Fail.


____________ m8
Today 03:47 PM
Insults never enders others to your cause, Mr. Bigot.

Since laziness seems to be your hallmark, here's a nice little article about NATO war crimes in Libya. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...

From the International Criminal Court, no less.


Double Fail.


____________ Tony_0pmoc
Today 01:24 PM
NATO's war crimes are becoming increasingly transparent, even in the case of Libya, before they had taken place. How any so called Liberal, can support Nato's bombing a population to protect them, as almost the entire American and British Liberal Left did, demonstrates not naivety (surely they can't be THAT stupid), but Complicity in War Crimes...
There was more opposition to the Bombing of Libya, from the Telegraph and the extreme "right" - even Con Coughlin (to my amazement), than there was in The so called Liberal Left Guardian and Independent..

Anyone who thinks we have a Free Press, should try and get a job working for them, and survive The Induction (Psychological Brainwashing Process).

It appears that all our Senior Politicians are treated to the same process.

God help us.

Tony


____________ hatebigots
Today 02:58 PM
what NATO`s war crimes?...
I believe in human rights NGO´s not in dictator´s lapdogs


____________ dagda1
Today 01:34 PM
tony_0pmoc they are falling for it again with Assad. I despair how the public just fall for the tyrant du jour time and time again.
How many civilians have NATO killed in the past year, never mind assad


____________ hatebigots
Today 02:59 PM
How many civilians were kiled by your precious gaddafi?

NATO didnt attacked Syria...

But Assad killed more than 6000.
Not mentioning their total number of victims since their clan took power in 1971...


____________ Dr_Drug
Today 02:18 PM
" tyrant du jour"

The UN should have each day of the year named after a tyrant.


____________ El_Pesidente
Today 10:21 AM
Hahahahaha, now that was funny coming from you "Stop being a puppet & start thinking for yourself" Hahahahaha

____________

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