Syria Feature: "Hundreds" of Saudis --- and Lots of Money --- for the Insurgency (Erlich)

Footage of a Saudi fighter in Syria

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Following a circuitous route from here up through Turkey or Jordan and then crossing a lawless border, hundreds of young Saudis are secretly making their way into Syria to join extremist groups fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Global Post has learned.

With the tacit approval from the House of Saud, and financial support from wealthy Saudi elites, the young men take up arms in what Saudi clerics have called a “jihad,” or “holy war” against the Assad regime.

Based on a month of reporting in the region and in Washington, over a dozen sources have confirmed that wealthy Saudis, as well as the government, are arming some Syrian rebel groups. Saudi and Syrian sources confirm that hundreds of Saudis are joining the rebels, but the government denies any sponsoring role.

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Syria Audio Analysis: Is Assad's Military Crumbling? --- Scott Lucas with Monocle 24

With Syria's Grand Mufti calling for universal conscription of young men amid insurgent gains, I spoke with Monocle 24's The Briefing on Wednesday about the state of the Syrian military and the current situation in the cities and countryside.

The discussion starts around the 8-minute mark in this pop-out window.

The take-away point? While President Assad's military may be under pressure and his position may be eroding, this is far from a final stage in the Syrian conflict.

Iran Live Coverage: The Clerics Vs. Ahmadinejad

See also Wednesday's Iran Live Coverage: Tehran Continues to Push "Positive" Nuclear Talks

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2032 GMT: Drone Watch. Pentagon officials have altered their story about the encounter between a Predator drone and an Iranian fighter jet (see 1848 GMT), over or near the Islamic Republic's airspace over the Persian Gulf.

"One of the US aircraft discharged a flare as a warning to the Iranian plane, which then broke off pursuit," spokesman George Little said.

Officials earlier suggested that two Iranian jets had "targeted" the Predator.

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Syria Live Coverage: Turkish Special Forces Enter the Country

1520 GMT: Fighting In Southwest Damascus. Reuters reports that despite rebel gains (described below) some of Assad's forces are well dug in, and have unleashed an intense rocket attack on Khan Alsheh:

An opposition campaigner in the nearby town of Jedeidet said troops stationed in hills overlooking Khan Sheih were attacking the area with multiple rocket launchers to try to dislodge rebels surrounding the barracks.

"I counted up to 20 explosions a minute on Khan Sheih," the activist, who uses the pseudonym of Abdo, told Reuters by phone.

A rebel commander in contact with the fighters said a force of some 1,000 insurgents had moved into Khan Sheih, which is 25 km from the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967.

1508 GMT: Rebels Push Southwest of Damascus. A prominent microblogger finds a video of a recently captured base near the capital, the 1337th Regiment Air Defense Base (map):

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Syria Live Coverage: The Bodies in Aleppo's "River of Martyrs"

2040 GMT: Large Rockets Fired Towards Central Damascus. In the last video we posted a video that shows the remains of a rocket that landed in Ein Tarma, a district in southern Damascus. Eliot Higgins and I have reviewed the image, and we are in agreement that what we are looking at matches the very unique tail end of a Frog-7 rocket. The picture on the left in the debris in Damascus, and the picture on the right is a Frog-7 on a truck launcher:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1064/868869014_d3b90b0505_o.jpg

The Frog-7 has a range of 70 kilometers, and has an average margin of error of 500-700 meters. Ein Tarma is only 1.2 kilometers by 800 meters, and is situated an alarming-close 2.7-3 kilometers from the very center of Damascus:

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Syria Exclusive: The Western-Armed Insurgents Who Executed POWs and Captured UN Peacekeepers

 The Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, filmed last Wednesday, explaining how they seized United Nations peacekeepers to force Assad to retreat from Jamlah village near the Golan Heights

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The insurgent brigade that detained 21 UN peacekeepers near the Golan Heights last week, and that executed prisoners of wars day before that, is one of the groups that has obtained foreign arms, research by EA has established.

The revelation's follows last month's discovery, highlighted on EA, that the US is backing an effort by Gulf nations to arm elements within the Syrian opposition.

Last week, as the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade seized the UN peacekeepers, video evidence indicated that it had killed a group of captives in cold blood.

Now we have further video evidence linking the Brigade to the US-supported initiative, from at least January, to get advanced weapons through Jordan into the hands of fighters in Daraa Province in southern Syria..

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Syria Live Coverage: Iraqi Insurgents Claim Killing of 48 Regime Troops

2020 GMT: Rebels Take Series of Bases Southwest of Damascus. Since Friday, rebels have overwhelmed and captured several regime bases southwest of Damascus on the road to Daraa province. Confirming the specific locations has been hard to do, but we know that the bases are in the Kiswah area (map), and to the south of this suburb as well.

We've heard from some sources that some of the Surface-to-Air missiles sites in the area were decommissioned. However, videos from the base of the 137th regiment appear to show fully-functional missiles there (hat tip to Brown Moses for sending us this Youtube channel):

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Iran Live Coverage: A Complicated Relationship with Pakistan

A report on the importance for Pakistan of imports of Iranian gas

See also Sunday's Iran Live Coverage: Looking for Energy Deals

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2031 GMT: Press Watch. Abbas Darvish Tavangar, deputy editor of the "hard-line" Tasnim News, has been released after a few hours in detention.

Tavangar was seized because of a Government complaint, the details of which have not been specified.

1815 GMT: Press Watch. The regime's mixed approach of crackdown and prison releases continues....

Journalist Ehsan Mazandarani, one of the 18 journalists seized in late January, has been released from detention.

However, Abbas Darvish Tavangar, deputy editor of the "hard-line" Tasnim News has been arrested after a Government complaint; blogger and student Badri Safiari has been detained at Shiraz University; and the permit for reformist daily Maghreb has been annulled by the Media Supervisory Commission.

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Syria Live Coverage: 21 UN Peacekeepers Freed

Release of 21 United Nations peacekeepers at the Jordanian border on Saturday

See also Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Fighting in Cairo Kills 3 After Port Said Court Verdicts
Saturday's Syria Live Coverage: Regime Shelling Prevents Release of 21 UN Peacekeepers

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1826 GMT: View from a Regime Tank. "Tank's-eye" footage of the devasted Damascus suburb of Darayya:

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Syria Live Coverage: Regime Shelling Prevents Release of 21 UN Peacekeepers

Freed UN peacekeepers arrived in the Jordanian capital Amman today

See also Syria Feature: US, Britain, and France Train Insurgents in Jordan
Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Port Said Braces for Protests After Court Verdicts
Friday's Syria Live Coverage: Opposition Leaders Cancel Trip to Washington --- Why?

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1807 GMT: Captured Governor. Claimed footage of the Governor of al-Raqqa province, captured last week when insurgents took al-Raqqa city, under the flag of the Islamist insurgency Jabhat al-Nusra --- he is the figure on the right:

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