Daily Newsletter – 02/11/2013

Safi to Russia: Assad Must Go, No Assurance on Survival

Spokesman for the Syrian Coalition, Louay Safi, said that Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry
Medvedev, is obviously letting go of the idea of Assad’s survival in light
Read more…

Syrian Coalition: Assad Must Be Held Accountable
The Syrian Coalition stressed that “it is not acceptable that the process of securing the delivery and dismantling of chemical weapons should come at the expense
Read more…

Assad Mobilizes Tanks, More Massacres Feared
The Syrian Coalition warned in a press statement of a “new massacre committed against the people trapped inside the neighborhoods of southern Damascus and Ghouta,
Read more…

Death Toll: 20 martyrs in Syria today, 66 yesterday. 
The Local Coordination Committees documented 66 martyrs yesterday in Syria.  20 people were killed until six in the evening of today, including a child, citing nine martyrs in Daraa, eight martyrs in Damascus, two in Aleppo, and one martyr in Idlib. (Source: Local Coordination Committees)

Regime forces renew shelling on Damascus’s southern suburbs
Regime forces renewed artillery and missile shelling on al Hajar al Aswad and the Yarmouk refugee camp, accompanied with clashes between regime forces and the Free Syrian Army on the al Thalatheen street in Damascus, with reports of  a number of martyrs and wounded . Regime forces also shelled the Alasali neighborhood in Damascus with mortars. Elsewhere, mortar shells fell on the Jobar neighborhood of Damascus with no reports of injuries. The regime forces shelled the neighborhood of Qaboun with “57” guns from a location on Mount Qasion. (Source: Local Coordination Committees + Smart News Agency)

FSA kills 30 militants of “Abu al-Fadl Abbas”, Advances on rural Damascus
In the battle of the “Lifting the Siege of al Moadamiya”, the Free Syrian Army took control of Tel al Qabousiya and part of al Salam highway in Damascus.  They also killed thirty – militants of the “Abu al Fadl Abbas” brigade and destroyed a tank in al Hujaiyra. The Free Syrian Army targeted with mortar rounds the 137 Regiment located west of Damascus. Activists reported the fall of three mortar shells on neighborhoods in the city of Jaramana. Meanwhile, Assad regime forces shelled the town of Khan al Sheeh with artillery, which led to deaths and injuries of some. A car bomb also exploded in al Matahen neighborhood in Yabrood in Qalamun, which resulted in injuries due to the explosion. Some activists in the area recorded regime forces launching a Scud missile from the 155 Brigade in Qutaifa towards the north of Syria. (Source: Local Coordination Committees + Smart News Agency) 

Air raids and artillery shelling on villages in Rural Homs
Regime warplanes launched several air raids on the town of “Maheen” in rural Homs in coincidence with violent artillery shelling which targeted the outskirts of the town. Regime forces also shelled the city of Krak des Chevaliers near Homs with rocket launchers from the surrounding villages as tank shells pounded residential neighborhoods in the town of Talbeesa in rural Homs alongside violent clashes on the outskirts of the town. The Free Syrian Army also managed to destroy a Gvozdika vehicle at the al Ismant checkpoint in Eastern Hama and killed a number of regime forces. Regime forces also shelled the village of Umm Nir in Jabal Shahshabo from the Tel Osman checkpoint. (Source: Local Coordination Committees + Smart News Agency)

Nine dead due to bombing by regime forces of Dara’a towns
Regime warplanes launched two air strikes on the town of Atman. Regime’s artillery stationed in Panorama Battalion shelled the town of Saida, while artillery stationed in Battalion 285 shelled the town of Naemeh in Dar’a, killing nine martyrs in the shelling besides causing heavy damage to the infrastructure in the area. (Source: Local Coordination Committees)

UNICEF: 400,000 Syrian children in Lebanon need help
The Organization of the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) announced yesterday that more than 400 thousand Syrian children in Lebanon need urgent help from the international community before the start of the winter season. The UNICEF statement came after a meeting of its chief executive with Lebanese President, Michel Suleiman, and Prime Minister, Najib Mikati. UNICEF said in its statement that “All parties expressed concern about the impact of the coming winter in the coming months and the urgent need to work in order to prepare for this challenging phase.” It is noteworthy that Lebanon hosts 805 thousand Syrian refugees according to the United Nations, half of them children. (Source: Elaf + of AFP)

Jordan prevents cars from entering Syrian territory
Jordanian authorities stopped vehicles operating on the line of Amman-Damascus from enterin Syrian territory, while allowing Syrian vehicles to come only as far as the Jordanian border, without entering into the territory of the Kingdom. A senior Jordanian official said that “the Jordanian authorities have asked the Jordanian vehicles working on Oman-Damascus line to drop off passengers at the border point (Jaber), then they are to be transferred to Syria in Syrian vehicles which were allowed to come only as far as the Jordanian border, without allowing them to enter the territory of the Kingdom.” The official did not give further details about the reasons for making this decision. The Jaber border crossing, as knows as the Naseeb border, is one of the border crossings between Jordan and Syria and is located between the town of Jaber, in the Irbid Governorate in northern Jordan; and the town of Naseeb in the province of Daraa, in southern Syria.  The crossing was the busiest crossing on the Syrian border before the start of the revolution in March 2011. (Source: UPI)

Increased cases of malnutrition in the besieged areas
Spokeswoman of the World Food Program (WFP) announced in Geneva yesterday that the United Nations is conducting an evaluation of “disturbing information about the increasing cases of malnutrition” among children in areas under siege in Syria. She pointed out that the Agency has been able to help 3.3 million people in Syria in October, a record number since 2011. WFP managed to help 2.7 million people in September, but they were trying to help four million, which could not be achieved because of “insecurity and problems in access to Aleppo and Hasaka.” In the province of Aleppo, the program succeed in helping only 175 thousand people instead of 750 thousand in need of food assistance. Analysts say that the Assad regime, through laying sieges, seeks to pressurize the civilians inside these towns as they are considered the social incubator of the revolution. (Source: Al Haiyat + AFP)