18+ Warning - Adults Only - Contains Graphic Images from the Syria Revolution for Freedom from 50 years of Dictatorship - Not for Shock 18+ Syria Rebels Advance on Deir Ezzor Military Airport - Assad on Defensive in North 1-Sept-13 اشتباكات على اسوار مطار دير الزور العسكري 1 http://iranian.com/posts/view/post/20095 Daily News Brief repost from Iranian.com blog contributor FG304 HUGE REBEL OFFENSIVE IN QALAMOUN MOUNTAINS OPENS WITH MAJOR VICTORY FG3049OpenPosted 9 hours ago Rebels have captured a huge armoured base (Brigade 81), some vehicles and two compounds in Qalamoun northeast of Damascus close to the Lebanon border. I think these units belonged to Assad's Third Division. Victory here would threaten the road between Damascus and Homs and the westward route into Lebanon. At least 75 regime fighters dead, 4 T-72 tanks and two Shika tanks destroyed in Ruhhaybah. No report on whether the brigade belongs to Assad's elite Republican Guard which would be a nice blow to Maher Assad. This is high ground, and has been used for shelling rebel positions and nearby towns in the past. Syrian rebels capture a group of spies who claimed to be members of the Free Syrian Army in al-Qalamoun. That's a death sentence. The FSA also took the Kassar barrier in heavily bombed Zabadani, killing more than 30 regime forces. https://twitter.com/TaziMorocco/status/374244463259840512/photo/1 http://www.maplandia.com/syria/dimashq/az-zabadani/ In other news... #1. DEFECTIONS CONTINUE: 35 members of the surrounded 17th division in Raqqa have gone left the reservation to join the rebels. Defections have accelerated for many reasons since the chemical attack: A. Disgust with that attack B. No desire to face cruise missile attacks for the Assad Brothers and Makhloufs. C: Sheer contagion: News of defections elsewhere is hard to hide. D: Resentment over fellow soldiers and civilians being used as human shields. E. Resentment over the regime placing soldiers in basements and artillery on rooftops in pro-regime neighborhoods. IN OTHER NEWS #2: Senior Syrian military chiefs tell captain: fire chemicals or be shot http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/425981/Senior-Syrian-military-chiefs-tell-captain-fire-chemicals-or-be-shot #3: Capured shabiha (war criminals) about to face richly earned justice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBTzmFb7Ct8&feature;=youtube_gdata_player #4: SORRY, NO SURRENDER ALLOWED FOR SHABIHA!: A truck full learned that today during an ambush. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRVUaNk-bLk&feature;=youtube_gdata_player #5: Syrian regime gloats over Obama's backing down Obama will say, "I didn't back down" but it will just add to the well-earned contempt he has build up around the world since bugling Syria from the star. http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-state-run-daily-calls-obama-move-retreat-083126900.html #6: Attackers torch Saudi religious police building http://news.yahoo.com/attackers-torch-saudi-religious-police-building-144047930.html #7: ALEPPO: Jabhat Nusra is reportedly leading an assault on Aleppo Central Prison. Other FSA brigades also involved, Senior Syrian military chiefs tell captain: fire chemicals or be shot chatter indicates walls breached. #8: Another MIG has been reportly shot down today—this time in the Qalamoun area. #9: RUMOR ONLY: 1,000 pro-Assad fighter from Iraq have flown back home via Damascus airport. Source: Markito0171. If so, why now? #10: MORE DETAILS EMERGE ON A VIDEO. Yesterday I provided a video showing rebels using mines to kill shabbiha. I wondered why the second group would walk into the same fatal trap. It turns the dead apparently belonged to a regime outfit charged with dismantling IED, according to Markito. What they didn't expect were land mines. When the first group was blown up, the second probably assumed a IED had blown. They then stepped on the second mine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DQ9sjMQvKY #11: CONVOY ATTACKED: Rebels attacked a regime convoy along the Salamiyeh-Tabqa highway, destroying three vehicles and inflicting substantial losses. #12 QUOTES OF INTEREST: "From Syrians I'm talking to inside are mad. Not only opposition, but civilians afraid that so far US reaction to CW has only empowered Assad." --Elizabeth O'Bagy of the Institute for Study of War. "How many Syrians are now looking at Jabhat Al Nusra and saying: 'well at least they deliver'"—the 47th. "When enemies like Assad are emboldened they do dangerous things. An irresolute policy is bad for anyone.

• published: 02 Sep 2013
• views: 171