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July 25th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
“Military helicopters are flying now over the town. People were awakened
by the sound of explosions and are running away,” Rafe Alam, one of the
activists, said by phone from a hill overlooking Tel. “Electricity and
telephones have been cut off.”
Opposition activists said thousands of troops had withdrawn with their tanks
and armoured vehicles from the strategic Jabal al-Zawiya highlands in Idlib
province near the Turkish border and were headed towards Aleppo.
Rebels attacked the rear of the troops withdrawing from the region at the
villages of Orom al-Joz and rami near the main Aleppo-Latakia road and at
the village of al-Bara west of the Aleppo-Damascus highway, activist
Abdelrahman Bakran said from the area.
In Aleppo, helicopters swirled overhead firing missiles throughout Tuesday,
residents said. Rebels were battling government forces by the gates of the
historic old city. Troops fired mortars and shells at rebels armed with
rifles and machineguns.
“I heard at least 20 rockets fired, I think from helicopters, and also a
lot of machinegun fire,” a resident near one of the areas being
shelled, who asked to be identified only by his first name Omar, said by
telephone.
“Almost everyone has fled in panic, even my family. I have stayed to try
to stop the looters; we hear they often come after an area is shelled.”
Residents said fixed-wing jets had also flown over the city, followed by loud
noises, although there were contradictory reports as to whether they had
fired.
Some residents said they believed the planes had dropped bombs, but others
said booming sounds could have been caused by supersonic jets breaking the
sound barrier. A correspondent for Britain’s BBC television said the jets
had fired.
Assad’s forces have occasionally launched air strikes from fixed-wing jets on
other cities during the uprising, but tend to rely on helicopters for air
strikes in urban areas.
The 16-month-old uprising has entered a new and far more violent phase in the
past 10 days since rebels poured into Damascus in large numbers.
Last Wednesday, an explosion killed four members of Assad’s closest circle
inside a security headquarters, a blow that wiped out much of the top
echelon of his military command structure and shattered the reputation for
invulnerability that his family has held since his father seized power in a
1970 coup.
Western powers have been calling for Assad to be removed from power for many
months, and now say they believe his days are numbered. But they fear that
he will fight to the bitter end, raising the risk of sectarian warfare
spreading across one of the world’s most volatile regions.
Syria raised the alarm even further on Monday by confirming that it had
chemical and biological weapons. In a statement that may have been intended
to reassure the world but seemed to have the opposite effect, it said it
would not use poison gas against rebels, only against external threats.
Assad’s international protector Russia added its voice on Tuesday to those of
Western countries warning him not to use chemical weapons. Western diplomats
said Russia may have pressed Syria to make Monday’s statement after the
United States and Israel openly discussed their worries about chemical
weapons.
US President Barack Obama said the world would hold Assad and his entourage
accountable “should they make the tragic mistake of using those
(chemical) weapons”.
Brigadier General Manaf Tlas, a member of Assad’s inner circle who fled Syria
this month, appeared on al Arabiya television in his first public comments
since defecting. He called on troops to abandon the government.
“I address you … as one of the Syrian Arab Army’s sons who reject the
criminal behaviour of this corrupt regime. The honourable people in the
military would not accept these crimes,” he said on al-Arabiya
television.
Tlas is a member of the Sunni Muslim majority, and his defection was seen as a
sign that the Sunni establishment had abandoned Assad, a member of the
Alawite minority sect.
Elsewhere in the country, activists said government troops and pro-Assad
militia known as shabbiha had attacked a mosque in a village northwest of
the city of Hama.
“Troops and shabbiha left the roadblock on the edge of Shariaa and
crossed the main road and began firing automatic rifles on the worshippers
as they were entering the mosque,” activist Jamil al-Hamwi said by
telephone from the area.
“We have confirmed the names for 15 bodies and it is estimated there is
a similar number still to be collected from the streets,” said Hamwi,
who uses a pseudonym for security reasons. The account, like others from
activists, could not be confirmed. Syria restricts access by international
journalists.
At least nine people were killed in army shelling of al-Herak, a town south of
Deraa, the cradle of the revolt against more than four decades of Assad
family rule, activists said.
Video posted on the internet showed the shattered bodies of a veiled woman and
six children in colourful pyjamas, some of them very young. Four lay on one
doctor’s table.
In Damascus, troops were trying to snuff out rebel resistance in several
areas, including Barzeh, near the centre, and the southern districts of
Hajar al-Aswad, Asali and Qadam.
Tanks prowled the streets of Midan, a neighbourhood recaptured by the army
from rebels on Friday.
Assad reshuffled his security team on Tuesday, according to a Lebanese
security source. He said Ali Mamlouk had been named intelligence chief in
place of Hisham Bekhtyar, one of four top Assad security aides killed in
last week’s blast. ID: nL6E8IOETI]
Israel, which has publicly discussed military action to keep Syrian chemical
arms or missiles out the hands of Assad’s Lebanese militant allies
Hizbollah, said there was no sign any such diversion had occurred.
“At the moment, the entire non-conventional weapons system is under the
full control of the regime,” a senior Israeli defence official, Amos
Gilad, told Israel Rad
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