Campaigning Concludes for June 3 Presidential Elections
The AFP reports that Syria has concluded campaigning for the June 3 presidential election in which Bashar al-Assad is widely expected to claim victory and which the opposition has called a “parody of democracy.”
“With swathes of Syria out of government control, Tuesday’s vote will only take place in regime-held territory, far from where Assad’s forces are battling the rebels who seek to topple him,” the wire says. The opposition and its allies “will be left to watch powerlessly as the ballot returns Assad to power for a third seven-year term while the army makes advances on the battlefield.”
Rebels call the vote a farce and have urged Syrians to boycott it. Assad’s rivals, MP Maher al-Hajjar and businessman Hassan al-Nouri, are largely seen as tokens. Meanwhile, on Sunday, the ruling party called for people to re-elect Assad.
Opposition Groups Warn of Election Day Attacks
The Daily Start reports that Syria’s Baath Party is urging voters to elect Assad to a new seven-year term as fears increase that [rebel attacks will target polling stations][2] in regime-held areas.
“Opposition sources said that both civilian opposition groups in the city of Aleppo and rebel militias based there have issued warnings to people to stay home on June 3, when Assad faces a lightly regarded challenge by two political unknowns,” the paper says.
“Both Aleppo and the capital, Damascus, have seen regular mortar bomb attacks on regime-held neighborhoods in recent weeks and months. Pro-regime Mayadeen television said 23 people were killed Sunday in rebel mortar bomb attacks against regime-held neighborhoods of Aleppo, and scores wounded. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-regime group, said at least six people were killed and a number of people were injured in the incidents.”
Before Syrian Suicide Blast, a Quiet Life in the Suburbs
The New York Times profiles Moner Mohammad Abusalha, the first American citizen to carry out a suicide attack in Syria, whose involvement in the bombing last week triggered a new wave of concerns about the dangers posed by the thousands of Western jihadists fighting in the country.
Intelligence experts say Syrian rebel groups consistently try to recruit Americans.
“Americans are the crown jewels for these groups,” Rick Nelson, a former senior counterterrorism official at the National Security Council and the National Counterterrorism Center, tells The Times. “It’s like recruiting a Soviet agent during the Cold War.”
The paper says terrorist groups recruit Americans “because their passports provide them with the ability to travel to most countries. American law enforcement and intelligence agencies and others have studied why Americans become radicalized, but they have not come up with many conclusive answer.”
Nelson said that as regards the desire of men like Abusalha, “There’s no stereotype, some have sympathy with the cause, some are angry the U.S. is not doing more in Syria, some are just looking for social acceptance with others. We just don’t know what causes it, and that is what makes it such a difficult issue.”
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