פיגוע בצמרת הסורית: „3 בכירי המשטר נרצחו Syrian defense minister assassinated in Damascus blast

פיגוע בצמרת הסורית: „3 בכירי המשטר נרצחו”

Syrian defense minister assassinated in Damascus blast
המורדים הגיעו הכי קרוב שאפשר לאסד: לחימה חסרת תקדים של 4 ימים בדמשק הגיעה בצהריים לשיא, כששומר ראשו של הנשיא פוצץ מטען במהלך ישיבה ביטחונית. שר ההגנה ראג’יחה נרצח, לפי דיווחים גם שר הפנים וגיסו של אסד. קרבות ליד ארמון הנשיאות
רועי קייס והסוכנויות

פגיעה אנושה בצמרת הביטחונית של משטר אסד, ושיא חדש במלחמת האזרחים של סוריה : כלי תקשורת ערביים דיווחו בצהריים (יום ד’) כי בפיגוע במפקדת הביטחון הלאומי בדמשק נהרגו שר ההגנה הסורי דאוד עבדאללה ראג’יחה, שר הפנים איבראהים א-שער, וגיסו של נשיא סוריה בשאר אסד, אסף שווקאת, שאף הוא בכיר ביטחוני. עד כה אישרה הטלוויזיה הסורית הממלכתית רק את מותו של שר ההגנה ראג’יחה. לפי מקור ביטחוני סורי, המחבל שהפעיל את המטען שממנו נפגעו הוא שומר ראש במעגל הפנימי של הנשיא אסד.

 

הדיווחים על מותם של שר הפנים ושל אסף שווקאת, בכיר המשטר הידוע באכזריותו, פורסמו בערוץ „אל-מנאר” של חיזבאללה, המקושר למקורות סורים, בערוץ „אל-ערבייה” ובכמה ערוצים נוספים במערב. ארגון מורדים איסלאמיסטי המכנה עצמו „ליווא אל-איסלאם” נטל אחריות לפיגוע. במקביל דווח כי מתנהלים קרבות עזים קרוב לארמון הנשיאות באזור דומאר בבירה הסורית, בין צבאו של בשאר אסד לבין כוחות המורדים.

 

קרבות קשים בדמשק – שידור חי

 

עוד חדשות מהעולם :

 

מעט אחרי 12:00 בצהריים הודיעה הטלוויזיה הממלכתית של סוריה כי מחבל מתאבד התפוצץ באזור בניין הביטחון הלאומי בדמשק. לפי משטרו של בשאר אסד, הפיגוע אירע בזמן ישיבת קבינט שבה השתתפו שרים ואישי ביטחון בכירים. בהמשך דווח כי כמה אנשים נפצעו, אחדים מהם קשה, ובחלוף זמן מה הודיעה הטלוויזיה הסורית על מותו של שר ההגנה ראג’יחה.

 

סוכנות הידיעות הסורית הרשמית דיווחה כי הפיצוץ נועד לפגוע בבניין הביטחון הלאומי, המטה של גופי המודיעין הסוריים. כ-500 מטר משם שוכנת שגרירות ארצות הברית. לפי הטלוויזיה הסורית, עדי ראייה אמרו כי המשטרה סגרה את אזור

הפיגוע, ועל עיתונאים נאסר לגשת לזירה.

 

 
 
 

 

סגורסגור

הטמעת הסרטון באתר שלך

קוד להטמעה:

אחרי הפיצוץ בדמשק בצהריים


היום מגיעה לשיא חדש הלחימה ברחובות דמשק, שמתנהלת זה היום הרביעי ברציפות. תושבים בדמשק ופעילי אופוזיציה דיווחו כי המורדים תקפו הבוקר מחסומים של צבא אסד ליד „ארמון העם” של הנשיא, מתקן עצום מהתקופה הסובייטית המשקיף על הבירה. „יכולתי לשמוע רעש של ירי מנשק קל ופיצוצים שהולכים וגוברים מכיוון המחסומים”, סיפרה יסמין, ארכיטקטית המתגוררת באזור דומאר בדמשק.

 

 

דאוד עבדאללה ראג'יחה, שנהרג בפיגוע ההתאבדות (צילום: EPA)
דאוד עבדאללה ראג’יחה, שנהרג בפיגוע ההתאבדות (צילום: EPA)

 

 

בתמונות וידאו שהעלו פעילי אופוזיציה לאינטרנט נראתה לכאורה אש בוערת הלילה כתוצאה מהתקפה של המורדים, אולם תושבים שראו את האש אמרו כי לא שמעו פיצוצים המצביעים על כך שמדובר בתוצאה של התקפה. הקרבות העזים בדמשק הם אתגר חסר תקדים עבור שלטונו של אסד, וסימן להחרפה נוספת במלחמת האזרחים המתחוללת במדינה, מלחמה שבה נהרגו לדברי האופוזיציה יותר מ-17 אלף בני אדם.

 

 

קוברים הרוגים בסוריה (צילום: רויטרס)
קוברים הרוגים בסוריה (צילום: רויטרס)

 

 

דומאר הוא אזור מאובטח היטב, והמחסומים הצבאיים בו ניצבים רק כמה מאות מטרים מהארמון עצמו. קרבות התנהלו במהלך הלילה גם בשכונות הדרומיות עסאלי, קדם, חג’אר אל-אסווד ותדאמון, רובן שכונות שבהן מתגוררים סונים מוסלמים

 

ופליטים פלסטינים.

 

מוקדם יותר דיווחה סוכנות הידיעות הסורית כי חיילי צבא אסד נלחמים במורדים בשכונת אל-מידאן שהאופוזיציה טוענת כי השתלטה עליה, וכי הם מסבים למורדים „אבידות כבדות”. ארגון אופוזיציה סורי מרכזי שמושבו בבריטניה טען כי מסוקים של הצבא תקפו שכונות בדמשק. מאוחר יותר היום צפויה מועצת הביטחון של האו”ם להצביע על החלטה נוספת המגנה את סוריה, אך גם החלטה זו לא תכלול פעולה ממשית נגד משטר אסד.

 

A szíriai hadsereg hatvannál több katonája halt meg két nap alatt Damaszkuszban a Szabad Szíriai Hadsereg (SZSZH) felkelőivel vívott harcokban – közölte szerdán az Emberi Jogok Szíriai Megfigyelő Központja (OSDH).

„A szíriai reguláris erők 40-50 katonája halt meg tegnapelőtt (hétfőn) a damaszkuszi harcokban és legalább húsz tegnap” – mondta az AFP hírügynökségnek Rámi Abder-Rahmán, a londoni központú civil szervezet igazgatója. A jogvédő központ adatai szerint kedden Szíria-szerte 93 halottjuk volt az erőszakcselekményeknek, köztük 48 civil.

Ellenzéki aktivisták és szervezetek közlése szerint a kormányerők helikopterek támogatásával támadták szerda reggel a főváros Kabún és Barza negyedeit. „Kabúnt körbevették a harckocsik, és a rezsim erői minden irányból lövik a negyedet” – írta a Szíriai Forradalom Koordinátorainak Szövetsége a Facebook közösségi oldalon.

Közben más kerületekben – Midánban és Kfar-Szúszában – folytatódtak a hadsereg és a főként dezertőrökből álló SZSZH összecsapásai – tájékoztatott az OSDH. A főváros több pontján is füstoszlopok emelkedtek a magasba, s a járműforgalom a szokásosnál kevésbé sűrű volt.

A kormányhoz közel álló al-Vatan napilap azzal a címmel jelent meg szerdán, hogy a damaszkuszi csata „rövidesen véget ér”, és a főváros „az agresszorok temetője” lesz. A kormányerők másutt, Damaszkusz tartomány több városában és a közép-szíriai Homsz tartományban is lőtték az ellenzék csapatait, az északi Aleppóban, az ország második legnagyobb városában pedig hajnalban összecsapások törtek ki.

A szíriai fegyveres erők újabb két tábornoka menekült Törökországba a szerdára virradó éjszaka – közölte egy török külügyi illetékes. „Körülbelül 330 szíriai, köztük két dandártábornok szökött át Törökországba az éjjel” – mondta a név nélkül nyilatkozó forrás.

A két magas rangú katonatiszttel húszra emelkedett azoknak a szíriai tábornokoknak a száma, akik a hazájukban tavaly március óta tomboló erőszak elől Törökországban kerestek menedéket. Jelenleg mintegy 43 300 szíriai menekült tartózkodik a szomszédos országban az idézett külügyi forrás szerint. Az ENSZ Menekültügyi Főbiztosságának (UNHCR) kedden közölt adatai szerint másutt, Jordániában 33 400 szíriai menekült van, 30 900-an távoztak Libanonba és 7900-an Irakba.

 

Syrian defense minister assassinated in Damascus blast
Suicide bomb attack strikes National Security building in Damascus during a meeting of cabinet ministers and senior security officials • Deputy Defense Minister and Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law Assef Shawkat reportedly killed.

News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
An undated handout picture released by state run Syrian Arab news agency (SANA) on 10 July 2012 showing Syrian Defense Minister Daoud Rajha, center.

 
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Photo credit: SANA

 

Daoud Rajha to the right of Syrian President Bashar Assad

 
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Photo credit: AP

 

 
 
 
 
An undated handout picture released by state run Syrian Arab news agency (SANA) on 10 July 2012 showing Syrian Defense Minister Daoud Rajha, center.

 
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Photo credit: SANA

 

Syrian Defense Minister General Daoud Rajiha was killed on Wednesday after a suicide bomber struck a government building. Al Jazeera reported that the interior minister and intelligence chief were also injured in the blast.

 

Wednesday’s attack struck the National Security building in Damascus during a meeting of cabinet ministers and senior security officials.

 

The capital has seen four straight days of clashes pitting government troops against rebels, who are trying to bring down the regime by force.

 

The fighting is an unprecedented challenge to government rule in President Bashar al-Assad’s seat of power.

 

Al-Manar, a Lebanese-based TV station controlled by Hezbollah reported Wednesday that the Syrian president’s brother in-law and Deputy Defense Minister Assef Shawkat was also seriously wounded in the explosion. Sky News reported that Shawkat had actually been killed.

 

Al-Mayadeen, a Lebanon-based news channel, said several senior security officials had been killed in the blast, without giving details.

 

Activists in Damascus said by telephone that Republican Guards sealed of the Shami hospital in the capital after ambulances had brought casualties from the site of the explosion.

 

Earlier Wednesday, an army barracks near the „palace of the people”, a huge Soviet style complex overlooking the sprawling capital from the western district of Dummar, came under rebel fire at around 7.30 a.m. (0430 GMT), activists and a resident said.

 

„I could hear the sound of small arms fire and explosions are getting louder and louder from the direction of the barracks,” Yasmine, who works as an architect, said by phone from Dummar.

 

Video footage broadcast by activists purportedly showed fire in the barracks overnight as a result of an attack by mortar rounds, but residents who saw the fire said they had not heard explosions to indicate it was a result of an attack.

Dummar is a secure area containing many auxiliary installations for the presidential palace and the barracks is just hundreds of meters from the palace itself.

 

Fighting also erupted overnight in the southern neighborhoods of Asali and Qadam, and Hajar al-Aswad and Tadamun – mainly Sunni Muslim districts housing Damascenes and Palestinian refugees.

 

Asad and the ruling elite belong to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam that has dominated power in Syria since a 1963 coup.

 

Government troops used heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns against rebels moving deep in residential neighborhoods, armed mostly with small arms and rocket propelled grenades.

 

Rebels directed their fire overnight at a large state facility turned headquarters for pro-Assad militia, known as shabiha, drawn mainly from Alawite enclaves in nearby hills.

 

Army tanks and anti-aircraft guns, used as an infantry weapon, took positions in the northern neighborhood of Barzeh, where hundreds of families from the neighboring district of Qaboun are seeking shelter.

 

„Anti-aircraft guns are firing at Qaboun from Barzeh. There are lots of families in the streets with no place to stay. They came from Qaboun and from the outskirts of Barzeh,” said Bassem, one of the activists, speaking by phone from Barzeh.

 

In the central neighborhood of Midan tanks and infantry fighting vehicles known as BDMs took positions in main thoroughfares and sporadic fighting was reported.

 

„Armor have not been able to enter the alleyways and old streets of Midan. The neighborhoods old Zahra and the old area near Majed mosque are in the hands of the rebels,” said Abu Mazen, an activist in the district.

 

Rebel fighters have called the intensified guerilla attacks in recent days, which have targeted shabbiha buses, unmarked intelligence patrols and armored vehicles in the capital, the battle „for the liberation of Damascus” after 16 months of revolt.

 

But senior opposition figures took a more nuanced view.

 

„It is going to be difficult to sustain supply lines and the rebels may have to make a tactical withdrawal at one point, like they did in other cities,” veteran opposition activist Fawaz Tello said from Istanbul.

 

„But what is clear is that Damascus has joined the revolt,” Tello, a Damascene, told Reuters. „By hitting well known Sunni districts of the city, such as Midan, the regime is exposing the sectarian nature of the crackdown.”

 

Information Minister Omran Zoabi said on Tuesday security forces were fighting armed infiltrators in Damascus. He said many had surrendered while others „escaped on foot and by car and are firing randomly in the air to frighten people”.

16 months ago. Activists say Syrian government forces have also used helicopter gunships to battle rebels in the capital Damascus.

 

The activists say that helicopters fired heavy machine guns during overnight clashes in the neighborhoods of Qadam and Hajar al-Aswad as a ring of fierce clashes nearly encircled the heavily guarded capital.

 

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that, „The fate of the Assad family is sealed, but on its way out of power it can kill more people. The Assad family is holding on to power at the cost of the continued slaughter of its own people. The world understands, the International Red Cross made a very important declaration [on Sunday] that it sees the situation in Syria as a civil war.”

 

Barak added that „there is a disturbing lesson in the fact that the entire world, even when these grave events unfold before all of our eyes, cannot manage to gather the fortitude, legitimacy or the unity required to… put an end to this bloodbath.”

 

Nawaf Fares, Syria’s ex-ambassador to Iraq and the most senior Syrian politician to defect to the opposition, told the BBC on Tuesday that Assad’s regime will not hesitate to use chemical weapons if it is cornered. When asked if he thought Assad might use chemical weapons against the opposition, Fares replied he could not rule it out, describing Assad as „a wounded wolf and cornered.”

 

„There is information, unconfirmed information of course, that chemical weapons have been used partially in the city of Homs,” Fares told the BBC. „It doesn’t occur to any Syrian, not only me, that Bashar al-Assad will let go of power through political interventions. … He will be ousted only by force,” he said.

While the clashes in Damascus were focused in a string of neighborhoods in the city’s southwest, for many of its four million people the violence brought ominously close to home the strife that has deeply scarred other Syrian cities.

 

In high-end downtown cafes frequented by the business and government elite tightly bound to the Assad regime, customers watched as black smoke billowed on the horizon and the boom of government shells reverberated in the distance.

 

„Without a doubt, this is all anyone is talking about today,” a Damascus activist who gave his name as Noor Bitar said via Skype. „The sounds of war are clear throughout the city. They are bouncing off the buildings.”

 

Meanwhile, Syrian Ambassador to Belarus Farouk Taha defected on Monday and aligned himself with the rebels. Also Monday, Morocco asked the Syrian ambassador to leave the country. Within hours, Syria’s state-run TV said the Foreign Ministry had declared Morocco’s ambassador to Syria persona non grata.

 

International diplomacy has failed to stop the violence, and world powers remain deeply divided over who is responsible and how to stop it. The U.S. and many Western nations have called on Assad to leave power, while Russia, China and Iran have stood by the regime.

 

Also on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the West of using blackmail to secure a U.N. Security Council resolution that could allow the use of force in Syria. Lavrov objected to the text of a Western-backed resolution that calls for sanctions and invokes Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which can be enforceable militarily. He said Russia had been told that if it opposed the resolution, Western nations would not extend the mandate of a U.N. mission sent to Syria to monitor a cease-fire.

„We consider it to be an absolutely counterproductive and dangerous approach, since it is unacceptable to use monitors as bargaining chips,” Lavrov said.

 

International envoy Kofi Annan, who has made little progress in brokering a political solution in Syria, met Russian leaders in Moscow on Monday. The meeting — the latest in Annan’s efforts to save his faltering peace plan — comes a day after the conflict crossed an important symbolic threshold, with the international Red Cross formally declaring it a civil war, a status with implications for potential war crime prosecutions.

 

Monday’s fighting and Wednesday’s attack that killed the top minister suggest that deep cracks were appearing in the tightly controlled facade of calm that has insulated Damascus from violence throughout the uprising. Damascus — and Syria’s largest city, Aleppo — are both home to elites who have benefited from close ties to Assad’s regime, as well as merchant classes and minority groups who worry their status will suffer if Assad falls.

 

But for months, rebels have been gaining strength in poorer towns and cities in the Damascus countryside. Some activists suggested Monday that recent government crackdowns in those areas had pushed rebels into the city, where they were determined to strike at the heart of the regime.

 

„It seems there is a new strategy to bring the fighting into the center of the capital,” said activist Mustafa Osso. „The capital used to be safe. This will trouble the regime.”

 

Another activist, who gave only his first name, Moaz, said he had never seen such violent fighting in his neighborhood of Tadamon, a poor, densely populated area south of downtown.

 

He said the army had parked armored vehicles at the neighborhood’s entrances and posted tanks on its north and south edges.

 

Some two-thirds of the neighborhood’s residents have fled, while those who remain are scared government snipers will target them if they leave now, he said.

 

But so far, the rebels have kept the army out, destroying three tanks and one armored car with rocket-propelled grenades, said Moaz, declining to give his full name for fear of retribution. Others spoke on condition anonymity.

 

Amateur videos posted online Monday gave glimpses of the fighting. In one, a dozen fighters crouched Sunday behind sandbags, firing at a tank down a rubble-strewn street with a machine gun and rocket-propelled grenades. Another video showed a burnt station wagon with at least three charred bodies inside that an off-camera narrator said were government troops.

 

The fiercest fighting was in the southwest neighborhoods of Mezzeh, Kafr Sousa, Al-Midan, Tadamon, Nahr Aisha and Al-Zahira, while activists also reported clashes in the western suburbs and in the northern neighborhood of Barzeh.

 

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12 people were killed in and around Damascus, among some 90 people killed nationwide. About a third of the dead were government troops, it said.

 

Activist claims and videos could not be independently verified. The Syrian government bars most media from working in the country.

 

The government said little about the clashes, but the state news agency said the army was hunting an „armed terrorist group” in one of the neighborhoods. The regime blames the uprising on terrorists acting out a foreign conspiracy to weaken the country.

 

Streets were largely deserted in neighborhoods near the fighting. Many families have fled or are still trying to get out, and fear grips those who remain.

 

„Assad will only go after he kills all of us,” said a 28-year-old mother of two reached by phone in the Midan neighborhood, who declined to give her name for fear of reprisals from Syrian security.

 

The Syrian regime has grown increasingly isolated throughout the crisis, with a number of Arab and Western nations withdrawing their ambassadors to protest the crackdown.

 

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York that Annan should tell the Russians what he told council members last week: „that he needs the council to come together around a resolution that makes very clear that there are consequences for non-compliance.”

 

The British draft circulated Monday among Security Council members threatens non-military sanctions against Assad’s government if it doesn’t withdraw troops and heavy weapons from population centers within 10 days.

 

A closed council session Monday afternoon made no progress in bridging the differences.

 

Rice, the U.S. envoy, said the observer mission has been unable to do its job because of the escalating violence and if the council is not prepared „to back up the mandate we gave them with the tools at our disposal, even to threaten sanctions, not even impose sanctions under Chapter 7, then we’re leaving these guys hanging — and it’s completely, not only ineffective, but it’s immoral.”

 

The Security Council has scheduled a vote on the resolution Wednesday — leaving two days for possible last-minute maneuvering before the observer mission’s mandate expires. Both the British and Russian texts have been put in a final form for a vote.

 

Meanwhile, Lebanese media outlets reported Monday that both the Syrian and Lebanese armies have reinforced their respective armies positioned along their shared border, not only to prevent the civil war in Syria from spilling into Lebanon, but out of concern that Israel may be looking to pre-emptively attack in Syria in order to thwart the transfer of chemical weapons from the Syrian regime to the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist organization.

 

Assad will now find it more difficult to project business as usual after the rebellion against his regime turned into pitched battles on the streets of the capital Damascus on Monday, and the noose of international pressure around the regime further tightened.