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Friday, July 12, 2013

Protest in Homs, Syria: Are These the Bravest People on Earth?

Homs is a city in central Syria that was founded during the Roman Empire. In the Bible it is named Zobah. It was one of the oldest still inhabited cities in the world but it will never be the same after the savaging Bashar al-Assad has given it.

The people of Homs have been under siege by the Assad regime for weeks now. Their city has been reduced to this,
By this relentless bombardment by the Assad Regime

800 families, some 4,000 people are surrounded in Homs with no way out and dwindling stocks of food and supplies for self-defense.

The world ignores their plight and many on the Left cheer for the Assad regime that is doing this, and yet they have the courage to come out on the streets and protest today after Friday prays.

Update: Protest in Homs neighborhood |17 July 2013


People of Talbbisah, Homs taking to the streets despite the regime's bombardment
to demand their freedom from the Assad regime | 12 July 2013


These Protesters are in Kfar Zita, Hama, I had mis-labeled this as Homs | 12 July 2013

Are These the Bravest People on Earth?

Meanwhile, the bourgeois press is trying to spread defeatism by declaring that Homs will fall in a few days, just as they did 17 days before Qusayr fell. For supporters of the resistance in Homs, The Times of London ran this troubling headline today:
Syrian rebels prepare to abandon Homs
Nicholas Blanford
Published at 12:01AM, July 12 2013
The last opposition-held areas of Homs are set to fall within days to the Syrian army after rebel forces decided to “sacrifice” the country’s third-largest city to the regime of Bashar al-Assad, according to diplomats and opposition sources.

The fall of Homs will represent a strategic and propaganda victory for the Assad regime, strengthening its grip on the route linking Damascus to the Mediterranean coast. The opposition rebels apparently have chosen to abandon Homs in order to consolidate their hold on other key areas in the north and around Damascus.
...more behind paywall
But EAWorldView tell us that activists there say that won't happen, although they can't holdout indefinitely without help.
Reports Of Homs’ Fall Premature

Reports that Homs is about to fall to the Assad regime are premature, according to sources inside Syria.

On Thursday, The Times cited unnamed “diplomats and opposition sources” as saying that Homs would fall within days, with insurgent forces preparing to “sacrifice” the city to the Assad regime.

... The Times article insert

A trusted EA source says, however, that Homs “won’t fall today or tomorrow”, noting that the Free Syrian Army forces in the city have high morale, while the regime — despite its continued strikes — are taking losses.

Despite this, the source notes that the situation on the ground is shifting very rapidly as the battle rages on.

“I get different signals from Homs. It’s not always possible to differentiate between optimism and emotions versus actual success on the front lines. The situation is very unstable. On most points of attack the FSA still holds its ground but there are some losses of territory too,” the source told EA.

One area where the FSA has seen losses of territory has been in the Al Khalidiya neighborhood in Homs where, EA’s source says, Assad forces assisted by Hezbollah fighters are focussing efforts on taking the mosque by all means.

“It’s not always a static front line,” the source said, adding that control over some parts of the city shifts from hour to hour.

Another problem for the insurgents is the limited number of opposition fighters. Ammunition and food supplies are also dwindling because supply lines have been severely disrupted in the intense fighting of the past days.

“The fact is that the people of Homs can’t fight without help forever, and at the moment there’s no help in sight, at least not much,” the source concluded.

Meanwhile, ITV News on Friday quotes an FSA fighter from the Al Khalidaya neighborhood, Abu al Feda, as saying that insurgents were not preparing to sacrifice the city.

“This recent siege can only be described as hysterical and mad, there are so many rockets raining down that sometimes we hear them banging into each other as they fall down.

“We have had to move around 800 families to another neighbourhood to keep them safe.

“Men here will fight until the end even with a basic and limited supply of ammo and weapons.


“The situation is desperate now but we won’t leave Homs to fall into the hands of a murderous regime while we are still breathing.”
The Times has every right to say they think Homs will fall in a few days but to tell the world that the fighters in Homs are saying that it will fall in a few days and that they are now prepared to "sacrifice" it is an out and out lie.

When The Times does that, it is not stating its editorial opinion of the military situation, it is reporting false facts in an effort to promote the current Assad-Russian-Iranian and now Western Media narrative that the tide has turned and Assad is on a roll.

The first crime of these Media outlets is that pictures and videos like the ones above rarely make it even into Al Jazeera English, let alone lesser lights, but The Times takes it even further:
rebel forces decided to “sacrifice” the country’s third-largest city to the regime of Bashar al-Assad
announcing the fall of Homs before its time.

It doesn't take a military college graduate to reckon which side that kind of propaganda effort supports.

The joke is that there are still so many simpletons on the Left who think Western Media is supporting the Syrian Revolution. I rather suspect they will argue that its not a propaganda lie on the part of The Times, but that this most bourgeois of papers is actually telling the truth.

I will find that both enjoyable and ironic.

Other protests in Syria today sent messages to Al Qa'eda and Russia:

A group of protesters in Hass in Idlib Province reject any involvement of Al Qa’eda in the uprising:
Other protesters in Hass express anger at Russia’s claim this week that insurgents used chemical weapons against Syrians:

Are These the Bravest Children on Earth?



HOMS : RAMADAN des ENFANTS SYRIENS | 13 July 2013


Click here for a list of my other blogs on Syria

And the bloody struggle continues. This is the latest:





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