Rebels tighten the noose around Assad's Syria as Assad said to be planning exit

Syrian defector says Assad planning exit: A former member of Syrian President Bashar Assad's media office who defected to Turkey says Assad and his family are preparing to escape to Russia. Russia is preparing more than 300 apartments for Assad's extended family.

 I know that after 60 days the Assad family will escape gradually," he told Qatar's Arab-language television station in an interview in southern Turkey this week. Assad will be the last to leave the country and will only do so after he receives international guarantees that he won't be subjected to prosecution, al-Omar claimed.

In a sign of escalating tensions, Turkey diverted its civilian planes Friday to avoid using Syrian airspace. The two neighbors have been engaged in a diplomatic tussle since Turkish civilians died in cross-border shelling last week. Turkey imposed the new route for Jeddah-bound planes because it considers Syrian airspace unsafe, according to the official Turkish news agency. The route mostly affects pilgrims going to Saudi Arabia. Planes will use airspace belonging to Jordan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, said TRT, the news agency.

Turkey used F-16 warplanes to force a Syrian airliner from Russia to land at Ankara's airport for a search Wednesday.Turkey has intercepted Iranian shipments of arms headed to Syria through Turkish territory and airspace over the past year. In those cases, the government remained similarly silent about the nature of those shipments, perhaps to avoid embarrassing Iran, a neighbor and major Turkish trading partner. Once-strong relations between Turkey and Syria have grown tense over the past year after the Syrian government began a bloody crackdown.

THE Syrian army has suffered its highest death toll since the start of rebel hostilities with at least 87 soldiers killed in one day, an observer group says, amid fears the civil war could become a broader conflict as tensions with Turkey escalate. 

 Thursday was one of the deadliest days of fighting with at least 210 people killed across the country, including 64 rebel fighters and 59 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The war of words between Syria and Turkey heightened when Ankara said on Thursday that it had found military supplies on a passenger plane it intercepted en route between Moscow and Damascus.

  Syrian rebels captured an air defense base east of Aleppo on Friday as government forces battled insurgents on several fronts across the country, activists said. Clashes were also taking place at a military barracks close to Maarat al-Nuaman, a town on the main highway to the northwestern city of Aleppo which was seized by rebel forces earlier this week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The pro-opposition Observatory gave a death toll for Thursday of more than 260 people, including civilians and combatants on both sides in violence in the capital and the north, west and east. It said 92 soldiers were killed on Thursday 

We have to wonder what is going to happen when Assad falls. Will he use his Chemical weapons and blow this wide open before he takes flight? I think not because Russia is against it. After what Russia has done to the Syrian people there is no way in the short or long term I can see the rebels allowing Russia to stay in country at all. A new Syria is not going to be allied with Iran so how will this affect Iran beyond further alienation?

 

This has turned into sectarian warfare with a myriad of outside interference and not just from Al Qaeda. This is no longer just about unseating Bashar Al Assad. What is to come I am afraid will be worse than what Syria was  under Assad.

You have to be very concerned about what is happening in Syria. I still have a problem believing Russia, China, and Iran are  going to allow Syria to fall to Democracy. What we saw after the voter fraud in Iran was mild compared to what the IRG will do if this movement spreads to Iran. I really wish Bashar would step down but Iran is the elephant in the room any way you look at it. The total middle east breakdown we have written about numerous times is well under way. We can only hope we keep it from erupting into WW3.

In closing: You know Putin just got himself reelected as President, he did this so he could be at the helm of Russia as he like me knows 100% that world war is our future. He plans on marshaling China who is rapidly building a more formidable military and whoever he can to take on US hegemony.Russia watched helplessly as we had our way in Libya. Putin blames what is happening in Syria on our interference and Libya for training the protesters to fight against Bashar Al-Assad.

Putin is going to do everything possible to keep us from helping the Syrian people and I really feel for them. I do not see this going down the way Libya did and Iran and Russia are going to make sure it does not. I am afraid the Syrian people are going to be sacrificed, sacrificed in what is merely an opening salvo in this the wars for future dominance. I just heard that Russia is gathering forces to go into Iran via Armenia for a quick strike through Georgia. We have a showdown setting up that looks disastrous for the worlds future. It will be a miracle if we can keep this from turning into WW3!



James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com