Sometime late last Aug. 8, NATO warplanes flying from Europe arrived over the Libyan farming village of Majer, where forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi were withdrawing and anti-Qaddafi forces were claiming ground. Civilians were in motion, too — seeking pockets of safety away from the roaming sides, neither of which fought with precision or clear rules. This is the type of situation in which air support can be especially risky and in which, even with a careful calculus of modern target planning, mistakes are likely.
The aircraft that night have never been publicly identified by NATO, which has treated their origins and nationalities as strict military secrets.
2345 GMT: It has been another important, memorable, historic, messy Friday. By the end of the day, tear gas clouds were still settling in Bahrain, fires still burning around the Egyptian cabinet building, and, in the most under-covered story of the day, 23 people died today in Syria, "among them are 4 children and 4 women, 9 martyrs in Homs, 5 martyrs in Hama, 4 martyrs in Daraa, 2 martyrs [in the] Damascus Suburbs and one martyr each in both Deir Ezzor and Idlib."
In Egypt, we have reached yet another turning point, with the news that many members of the advisory council to the ruling Supreme Command of Armed Forces. will resign over today's violence. This is yet another sign that the old ways have yet to be erased, and the revolution, taken for granted for many months now, is far from over.
In Bahrain, protests have not "returned," as some completely out-of-touch headline writers have suggested, but it is fair to say that recent violence, and the arrest of some prominent activists, will further fuel a protest movement that has been exponentially growing for several months.
But what happened in Syria? Missing in the "more deaths" headline that the mainstream media keeps running, is a serious analysis of the conflict. Even in Homs, besieged for months now, the brutality of attacks in Baba Amr marks yet another escalation, or perhaps even a sign of a desperate regime that has run out of tools besides shells and bullets. In Hama, we see yet more signs that the city may be facing Homs's fate. In the Damascus suburbs, the strength the security forces in the streets suggests that the Assad regime is also desperate to keep the protests from growing any further close to the capital. The reports from Deir Ez Zor, a serious crackdown against protesters and an escalation that we have not seen in several months, suggests that the regime is worried that if it does not continue to rotate its targets then it will lose control.
However, today's media coverage had far more problems than bad headlines. The media struggled to keep up on stories in Egypt, a location with a large media presence. Furthermore, coverage of stories like Syria and Bahrain have been nearly non-existent. In fact, a major Syrian activist voiced his displeasure at the media's coverage, then turned to EA to keep the story rolling.
This lack of coverage can have significant consequences. Bahrain, Syria, and Egypt (just to name the three that were busy today) all play key roles in the world, and in US and European economic and geopolitical strategy. Beyond that, the activists in those countries, and the citizens in those countries, deserve to have these stories covered. The media, once again, has failed in that respect.
We thank EA's readers for helping to change that, and we'd ask that, as things continue to develop here, you keep in mind how important independent media organizations like EA are in changing and influencing how the media covers the Middle East, and beyond. EA's writers depend on you, but the people in the places that we cover depend on you too.
We're closing the LiveBlog for the day, though we'll be reporting again in the morning. Again, thanks for reading and contributing.
Observers often comment that the Syrian uprising has not reached Damascus. It is true that businesses and restaurants are open in central Damascus, that the traffic is as messy and congested as ever, that fashionable shopping malls bustle in the early evening with well-coiffed teenagers who descend from chauffeured luxury cars.
Unlike Homs, or Deir Ezzor, or Deraa, there are no tanks in the streets of Damascus, not even the ones painted patchy blue in a flimsy attempt to disguise the army as police. But the myth of Damascus’ sustained invincibility is just that – a myth. The signs of turmoil in the Syrian capital may be subtle, but they are nonetheless alarming.
The moral reasons for a no-fly zone have only grown as the humanitarian crisis has worsened. The geopolitical incentives are stronger than ever. Now the logistical and practical possibilities are emerging.
There will be a no-fly zone, with or without US participation. Turkey wants it, France is chomping at the bit for it, and at the end of the day the rest of the world will realize that there is at least one more domino that needs to fall.
Andrew Gilligan of The Daily Telegraph talks about his interview with Syria's President Assad
Amidst the continuing violence in Syria, with more than 60 people reportedly killed in the last 48 hours, we note a move by the Assad regime on the public-relations front.
Access by foreign journalists has been restricted since the uprising began in Syria, with those who do get in, save exceptions such as Nir Rosen and Anthony Shadid, closely monitored by government officials. This does not guarantee presentation of the regime line --- the recent despatch by Liz Sly in The Washington Post, mentioned in EA this week, is highly recommended --- but it does restrict coverage of the protests, clashes, and military operations.
However, President Assad and his advisors have apparently decided this is not enough, as tensions and casualties escalate in cities such as Homs and Hama. In what is far more than a coincidence, they have set out their case to two British journalists, Robert Fisk of The Independent and Andrew Gilligan of The Daily Telegraph.
2230 GMT: Upset at the disqualification of a political party for "irregularities" from Sunday's election, a crowd of protesters allegedly tried to attack the regional government headquarters today in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring. Police reportedly fired into the air to disrupt the protests:
2221 GMT: Al Jazeera is now reporting that today's death toll in Syria has topped 40. The other significant development? Most of the protesters were killed in Hama, adding credibility to details that EA reported earlier.
After 42 years of absolute power in Libya, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi spent his last days hovering between defiance and delusion, surviving on rice and pasta his guards scrounged from the emptied civilian houses he moved between every few days, according to a senior security official captured with him.
Under siege by the former rebels for weeks, Colonel Qaddafi grew impatient with life on the run in the city of Surt, said the official, Mansour Dhao Ibrahim, the leader of the feared People’s Guard, a network of loyalists, volunteers and informants. “He would say: ‘Why is there no electricity? Why is there no water?’ ”
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 7:03
Sometime late last Aug. 8, NATO warplanes flying from Europe arrived over the Libyan farming village of Majer, where forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi were withdrawing and anti-Qaddafi forces were claiming ground. Civilians were in motion, too — seeking pockets of safety away from the roaming sides, neither of which fought with precision or clear rules. This is the type of situation in which air support can be especially risky and in which, even with a careful calculus of modern target planning, mistakes are likely.
