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Here's a good piece that seems to show that the Syrian government has lost control of Idlib city and parts of the surrounding region, In northern Syria, rebels now control many towns and villages. Paul Danahar of the BBC has now also reached Qubair, and has been tweeting what he's seeing quote:We are here. In front of a burnt out building is carcass of a donkey inside the buildings are gutted. The UN have not found any people yet
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# ? Jun 8, 2012 14:46 |
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# ? Apr 29, 2024 01:48 |
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This extermely disturbing and graphic video has been posted online : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS_vjw1jo9c It appears to show soldiers doing some pretty terrible things to detainees, several people are trying to get more information about the video, and figure out where it was filmed, and what is being said in the video.
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# ? Jun 8, 2012 15:10 |
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Here's more from Paul Danaharquote:We are hurtling through deserted towns on our way to Damascus. The driver is scared. When we entered some areas he puts his foot down #Syria
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# ? Jun 8, 2012 16:28 |
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Small arms fighting in the capitol.Al Jazeera posted:Fierce gunfights between security forces and rebels have broken out on the streets of a neighbourhood in the Syrian capital, Damascus, residents said, as government troops battled to take back the rebel bastion of Khaldiyeh in the central city of Homs.
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# ? Jun 8, 2012 20:18 |
There was a march in Cairo today in protest against sexual harassment that is pervasive in Egypt. The marchers were harassed by men which turned into clashes. The women fled. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCCT_QPh654&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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# ? Jun 8, 2012 21:53 |
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Sivias posted:Small arms fighting in the capitol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF5nrky5AYo al-Qaboun isn't that far from the center of Damascus.
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# ? Jun 8, 2012 22:42 |
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I've put together a blog post with the evidence gathered from Qubair by the UN and press who visited there today, which you can read here.
Brown Moses fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Jun 8, 2012 |
# ? Jun 8, 2012 23:27 |
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I'm not one to normally call bullshit, but that video seems really staged. It's quiet for the first 3 seconds, then you hear a click, and the gunfire starts. Some shuffling like he's turning a recording up and then gets louder. The rest of his videos don't have any of the same feel of lacking in authenticity.
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# ? Jun 9, 2012 00:55 |
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Either the NTC or ICC have just embarassed themselvesquote:Libya detains International Criminal Court lawyer over documents
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# ? Jun 9, 2012 20:49 |
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This will hopefully appeal to some minority groups in Syria http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/syrian-national-council-elects-kurd-its-new-leader/ quote:(Adds details, quotes)
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# ? Jun 10, 2012 02:16 |
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I have mixed feelings about expat groups taking power. Can they really claim popular sovereignty or is their authority derived from outside powers?
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# ? Jun 10, 2012 02:19 |
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McDowell posted:I have mixed feelings about expat groups taking power. Can they really claim popular sovereignty or is their authority derived from outside powers? It seems to be mostly exiles trying to form a new government. From what I've read the Syrian National Council doesn't seem to have much say in what is actually going on in the opposition movement, and definitely not in the FSA.
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# ? Jun 10, 2012 02:42 |
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Xandu posted:This will hopefully appeal to some minority groups in Syria There's no way that Turkey is going to keep tolerating them if all of a sudden the SNC's platform also includes Kurdish activism.
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# ? Jun 10, 2012 03:09 |
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VVVVVVVVV Whoops, thanks for pointing that out VVVVVVVVV
Brown Moses fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Jun 10, 2012 |
# ? Jun 10, 2012 13:15 |
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That was pretty interesting, but I think you may have posted it in the wrong thread.
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# ? Jun 10, 2012 15:24 |
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suboptimal posted:This is the most dramatic tank explosion I've ever seen: I think this deserves to be on a new page. That was quite a thing. Turret gets hit by RPG -> rounds in turret explode (?) -> tank begins accelerating like crazy in part due to the poo poo cooking off inside (note the smoke pouring out of the barrel) -> and tank explodes when the fire reaches the lovely Soviet era ammo compartment. Any tanker guys have a better explanation? That was insane.
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# ? Jun 10, 2012 17:31 |
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HoveringCheesecake posted:I think this deserves to be on a new page. That was quite a thing. Turret gets hit by RPG -> rounds in turret explode (?) -> tank begins accelerating like crazy in part due to the poo poo cooking off inside (note the smoke pouring out of the barrel) -> and tank explodes when the fire reaches the lovely Soviet era ammo compartment. Not a tanker guy I think it may have been fuel cooking off before the explosion. It looks like a flame thrower for a bit and that's not something I'd normally associate with ammo cooking off. In any case this is a fairly vivid depiction of something that we mentioned a year ago around the time Libya was really starting. Tanks are not an "I win" button in urban warfare. There are a lot of cheap anti tank weapons or jury rigged explosives that can and will seriously mess up a tank . the trick is always getting close enough, and in urban warfare where ranges drop precipitously, tanks can get seriously hosed up by determined guerrillas. This is why you see a lot of tanks being used as short range artillery, pulling up outside a town and lobbing shells in indiscriminately. At short ranges tanks can be blown up, disabled, or simply over run with depressing regularity.
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# ? Jun 10, 2012 18:11 |
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I don't think there's any mechanical means to make the tank accelerate. The driver presumeably put his foot down the moment he realised he's been hit, in a vain effort to get away. Look at this Panther kill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90vnW1UR5hY Ammo being burnt basically looks like this. Presumeably the ammo in the turret burns first (this is where the hit apparently occurred). Eventually the fire spreads to the main ammo stores in the hull, and then boom. Fangz fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Jun 10, 2012 |
# ? Jun 10, 2012 18:24 |
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Fangz posted:I don't think there's any mechanical means to make the tank accelerate. The driver presumeably put his foot down the moment he realised he's been hit, in a vain effort to get away. I don't understand what you mean by mechanical means. You mean the smoke pouring out of the barrel that I mentioned? I just thought that might have imparted a little extra bit of acceleration since, as you said, the driver probably floored it when they realized what happened. As for the video, yes I've seen it many times. In fact I think we discussed it in one of Grey Hunter's threads at some point? Anyway, I don't want to drag this too far into a "how does tank blow up?" discussion. I watched that lovely video of the soldiers taping their war crimes that was posted in the thread. Always a good decision. Glad they were laughing and having a grand old time, though!
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# ? Jun 10, 2012 18:42 |
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There were lots of reports of Mubarak dying yesterday, but it appears he's just in critical condition.http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gnQTw3Y0XUYS1IlxiR6qLBGTpk3w?docId=86b42558b5674b80b11167396ad223f1 posted:Hosni Mubarak is slipping in and out of consciousness eight days after the ousted Egyptian leader was sent to prison to begin serving a life sentence, a security official said on Sunday. Part of me wonders if this isn't just an attempt to get him transferred out of Tora, though. There were lots of reports before his conviction of him being in good shape, but still choosing to appear in court in a hospital bed.
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# ? Jun 10, 2012 22:04 |
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There were reports today that a missile battalion near Homs defected, and gave the FSA plenty of time to loot their base before it was blown to pieces by Assad's artillery. I've put together a post about it here. It might be significant as it appears they got their hands on Shilkas, which might counter the helicopters being used against the FSA in certain areas.
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# ? Jun 10, 2012 22:15 |
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Ghassan ben Jeddo, who quit al-Jazeera last year over its coverage of Syria is launching a new satellite channel in Beirut tomororw called al Mayadeen, which promises to be unbiased in its coverage. It's not transparently funded and it's "point of reference" is Palestine and resistance movements though, so it remains to be seen just how unbiased it is. Still, more competition is good and at least one of the reporters working there has done good work. http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/al-mayadeen-tv-new-kid-block
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# ? Jun 10, 2012 22:30 |
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Xandu posted:Part of me wonders if this isn't just an attempt to get him transferred out of Tora, though. There were lots of reports before his conviction of him being in good shape, but still choosing to appear in court in a hospital bed. I'm pretty sure his "life sentence" is going to be him spending his final days in a "hospital room" that's more akin to a luxury apartment than a medical facility.
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# ? Jun 10, 2012 22:48 |
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Couple of videos from the FSA showing the results of their extrajudicial executions, first a Syrian army colonel they accused of murder, robbery, abducting woman and forcing other soldiers to shoot on civilians. The second is an alleged shabiha they stored in a deep freezer, and looks like they shot him in the forehead.
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# ? Jun 10, 2012 22:49 |
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HoveringCheesecake posted:I think this deserves to be on a new page. That was quite a thing. Turret gets hit by RPG -> rounds in turret explode (?) -> tank begins accelerating like crazy in part due to the poo poo cooking off inside (note the smoke pouring out of the barrel) -> and tank explodes when the fire reaches the lovely Soviet era ammo compartment. It's difficult to tell based on the quality of the video, but the vehicle looks like a BMP rather than a tank (the title of the video also labels it as such but omits any model number). I've only peered inside a BMP once or twice but if I remember right they pretty much store all of the ammo in a ring around the inside of the turret, not in any special compartment like you'd see on a modern tank. It's definitely the ammo cooking off initially, followed by the gas tank(s?) if I had to guess. I used to be a tank crewman, but they never really told us what it would look like when we got blown the gently caress up. The videos of the women protesting the sexual harassment in Egypt are a drat shame. I really hope they're able to affect some manner of change, because the amount of harassment women get there is beyond belief. FeculentWizardTits fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Jun 11, 2012 |
# ? Jun 11, 2012 02:23 |
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Spakstik posted:It's difficult to tell based on the quality of the video, but the vehicle looks like a BMP rather than a tank (the title of the video also labels it as such but omits any model number). I've only peered inside a BMP once or twice but if I remember right they pretty much store all of the ammo in a ring around the inside of the turret, not in any special compartment like you'd see on a modern tank. It's definitely the ammo cooking off initially, followed by the gas tank(s?) if I had to guess. I used to be a tank crewman, but they never really told us what it would look like when we got blown the gently caress up. Not to get too far off topic, but that looks like a MBT to me. T-72 or something similar.
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# ? Jun 11, 2012 03:29 |
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HoveringCheesecake posted:Not to get too far off topic, but that looks like a MBT to me. T-72 or something similar. No, its not even an IFV, its a troop transport BTR-60 edit: or maybe not, since the BTR-60 isn't tracked, hull loooks exactly like one though, seems too narrow to by a BMP, no chance its a MBT edit2: it must be the angle, that turret is too large for it to be anything but a BMP, probably a 3 Jarmak fucked around with this message at 07:05 on Jun 11, 2012 |
# ? Jun 11, 2012 06:57 |
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Lots of reports of Mubarak being in a coma, and his heart stopping only to be resuscitated twice, might be the final curtain for him.
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# ? Jun 11, 2012 13:29 |
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Just read an article on Syria, where the journalist mentioned popular uprisings in 2000 and 2001. Anyone know what that was about? He didn't really elaborate, and I don't remember anything. A few demos and then it fizzled out?
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# ? Jun 11, 2012 13:46 |
midnightclimax posted:Just read an article on Syria, where the journalist mentioned popular uprisings in 2000 and 2001. Anyone know what that was about? He didn't really elaborate, and I don't remember anything. A few demos and then it fizzled out? After Hafez al-Assad died there was a period of civil opening where people had hope that Bashar would open up Syria to democracy; a similar thing happened after Mubarak took power. It was crushed after it was deemed that it got too out of hand. The Syrian Opposition in the Making: Capabilities and Limits Ufuk Ulutas. Insight Turkey. Ankara: 2011. Vol. 13, Iss. 3; pg. 87, 19 pgs quote:The Anatomy of the Syrian Opposition az jan jananam fucked around with this message at 15:21 on Jun 11, 2012 |
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# ? Jun 11, 2012 15:15 |
This more has to do with fashion culture but nice to see some honesty: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/world/middleeast/syrian-conflict-cracks-carefully-polished-image-of-assad.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&hpquote:None of the articles about Mrs. Assad struck a nerve quite like the 3,200-word March 2011 profile in Vogue titled “A Rose in the Desert.” In it, the writer, Joan Juliet Buck, called Mrs. Assad “the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies.”
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# ? Jun 11, 2012 16:12 |
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az jan jananam posted:This more has to do with fashion culture but nice to see some honesty: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/world/middleeast/syrian-conflict-cracks-carefully-polished-image-of-assad.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&hp Interestingly, one of the links in that piece goes to a post from The Atlantic about how Vogue has scrubbed the article from the internet. Only one copy remains on some Rome-based Assad fan webpage. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/01/the-only-remaining-online-copy-of-vogues-asma-al-assad-profile/250753/
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# ? Jun 11, 2012 16:52 |
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There's been an interesting article on improvised Syrian weapons that's being discussed on Twitter, and one of activists posted this picture, which apparently is used to attack checkpoints: I'm going to look into improvised weapons and see if I can get some more pictures.
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# ? Jun 11, 2012 23:13 |
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If I were a US security expert I'd be really concerned with the CIA letting youtube enable Syrian Revolutionaries. Lots of real IED / urban combat tactics circulating!
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# ? Jun 11, 2012 23:22 |
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McDowell posted:If I were a US security expert I'd be really concerned with the CIA letting youtube enable Syrian Revolutionaries. Lots of real IED / urban combat tactics circulating! Internet-trained revolutionaries? Someone light the uglycat symbol. It is pretty amazing, if slightly depressing, the ingenuity desperation creates.
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# ? Jun 12, 2012 03:46 |
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It's the chassis of a kid's pedal "kit" car fitted with an electric motor and a pneumatic pump for steering. I used to do pretty much the same when i was a kid. I think kansas star might have blown the story a little out of proportion.
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# ? Jun 12, 2012 06:08 |
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The photo is a seperate thing, it was Tweeted as an example of other DIY weapons being used by the FSA. Apparently it's driven to up checkpoints and detonated.
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# ? Jun 12, 2012 08:44 |
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Somewhere, the inventor of the Goliath is doing a fistpump.
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# ? Jun 12, 2012 08:55 |
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Spakstik posted:It's difficult to tell based on the quality of the video, but the vehicle looks like a BMP rather than a tank (the title of the video also labels it as such but omits any model number). I've only peered inside a BMP once or twice but if I remember right they pretty much store all of the ammo in a ring around the inside of the turret, not in any special compartment like you'd see on a modern tank. It's definitely the ammo cooking off initially, followed by the gas tank(s?) if I had to guess. I used to be a tank crewman, but they never really told us what it would look like when we got blown the gently caress up. Yeah, here's a picture of the 73mm Grom cannon. The BMP-3s, if this is one, have a 100mm self-loading cannon of similar design, mated with a 30mm cannon as well. You can see from the RPG-like dummy cartridges and the shell cozies that the ammo carousel wraps around the turret.
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# ? Jun 12, 2012 09:07 |
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# ? Apr 29, 2024 01:48 |
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This video was posted by activists in Homs showing this church being hit by government shelling in in Bostan al-Diwan. What's unclear is if it was deliberately targeted, or hit by random shelling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUNPCgZEZjQ
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# ? Jun 12, 2012 09:18 |