Lebanon Protests Flare Over Syria Spillover

Al Jazeera reports that protests have begun along the Syria-Lebanon border, as Syria’s southern neighbor struggles to keep order as sectarian tensions and anti-Syria sentiment escalate. There are currently more than one million Syrian refugees in the country.

“The road to the predominantly Sunni town of Arsal was blocked on Tuesday by residents from the neighbouring Shia town of al-Labwa,” it says.

But “clashes erupted throughout the country as protesters fought with the army, angry over sand barriers erected on roads leading to the town, cutting it off from other parts of Lebanon…protesters also blocked a main road leading from the capital Beirut to the southern coastal town of Sidon before the army fired shots in the air to disperse the group.”

“The blockade follows days of rocket attacks on Labwa which residents blame on Sunni rebels who have fled into Arsal.”

Disillusioned Foreign Fighters Abandon Rebel Ranks

In another blow to Syria’s fragmented opposition, foreign jihadis are now starting to abandon ranks, disillusioned by months of stalemate and a series of Assad victories on the battlefield.

“Hundreds of foreign fighters have abandoned rebel ranks in northern Syria as frustration rises over bloody infighting there – a trend that suggests declining enthusiasm among hardline Sunni Muslim militants participating in Syria’s torturous civil war and raises concerns among western security officials that these combatants may head to other countries,” the paper reports.

“These fighters feel they came to fight an oppressive regime, not rebels. The numbers are not huge, but this is important because it shows the level of resentment among foreign fighters over what is happening,” said Rami Abdelrahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. “These fighters are asking, what is this cause I’m dying for?”

U.S. Orders Syrian Embassy and Consulates to Suspend Operations

The New York Times reports that the U.S. has ordered Syria to suspend operations at its Washington embassy and consulates in Michigan and Texas.

“Secretary of State John Kerry, who noted that the government of President Bashar al-Assad had continued to pummel cities and towns, said at a town-hall-style meeting of university students at the State Department that the continued presence of a functioning Syrian Embassy had been ‘an insult. And we closed it,’ Mr. Kerry said. ‘It’s that simple.’

“In comments that appeared to acknowledge Mr. Assad’s tenacity, Mr. Kerry did not repeat the Obama administration’s earlier assessment that the Syrian leader’s days were numbered. But Mr. Kerry said that Mr. Assad’s brutal tactics had cost him legitimacy and had ensured that he would face a determined opposition as long as he sought to cling to power. ‘Whether they win, don’t win, they can’t regain legitimacy,’ Mr. Kerry said.”

U.N. Says Syria War Crimes Are Enough to Indict Assad

Al Jazeera also reports that UN human rights investigators “have added to their list of suspected war criminals from both sides of the Syrian conflict and the evidence was solid enough to prepare any indictment after a new round of atrocities in recent weeks. The U.N. inquiry identified military units and security agencies as well as rebel groups suspected of committing abuses.”

“This ‘perpetrators list’, as we call it, contains names of persons criminally responsible for hostage-taking, torture and executions,” Paulo Pinheiro, the chairman of the inquiry, told the Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

“It also contains names of the heads of intelligence branches and detention facilities where detainees are tortured, names of military commanders who target civilians, airports from which barrel bomb attacks are planned and executed, and armed groups involved in attacking and displacing civilians.”

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