Syrian Rebels Say Their Revolution Will Push On
AFP reports that Syria’s exiled opposition slammed President Bashar al-Assad’s re-election as “illegitimate” on Thursday and vowed to continue its uprising against his regime.
The government said that Assad won another seven-year term with 89 percent of the vote, with 73 percent nationwide turnout, and that “the high turnout was a strong message to the West and the countries implicated in the war on Syria. The Syrian people … are determined to choose their fate on their own and look to the future.”
Meanwhile, “Tens of thousands took to the streets in government-held areas even before the results were announced Wednesday evening, waving portraits of Assad and the official Syrian flag. As celebratory gunfire erupted in the capital and loyalist areas across Syria, at least 10 people were killed when the bullets fell back to earth,” according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“In the roughly 60 percent of the country controlled by rebels, activists reacted with the Arab Spring slogan that has been the rallying cry of their uprising – ‘The people want the fall of the regime.’ Pro-government newspapers all carried front-page photographs of the re-elected president. Images of Assad in suit and tie, or military uniform, filled the programming of state television.”
ISIS Kills Seven Children in Northern Syria
Amnesty International, the international human-rights watchdog, says that seven children were among the 15 civilians killed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the country’s northeast, where the extremist group is battling Kurdish militias.
“Five men, three women and seven children from two families working on land mainly owned by Yezidi Kurds were killed in the Isis raid on May 29,” the BBC reports. “The rights group said that the victims may have been mistaken for Kurds belonging to the Yezidi faith, who had mostly fled the area after ISIS fighters took over last year. Fighting was reportedly taking place in nearby villages between the jihadists and Kurdish militia group the People’s Protection Unit (YPG) around the time of the attack.”
Amnesty’s report says that “apart from the likely motive and the fact that ISIS operates there, [sources] believe ISIS was responsible because of the clothing and behavior of the perpetrators and the flag they were carrying.”
Looking Into Syria from the Golan Heights
Nicholas Casey of the Wall Street Journal reports from the Golan Heights, the thin border strip where Israel has increased its troop presence to prevent a Syrian attack.
“Each morning after sunrise, soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces stand on a hill and look into their binoculars over two parallel fences topped in barbed wire that stretch out in front of them as far as the eye can see,” he writes. “Behind the soldiers are towns with names like Kiryat Shmona and Metula, sleepy Israeli suburbs where minivans hit speed bumps and the tract homes all look about the same. In front of them, beyond the two fences, are al-Quneitra and Bir Ajam. There, smoke rises over the green flatlands where the sounds of rockets mark Syria’s civil war.
“For three years, this group of Israeli soldiers has had a singular view of the conflict, perched high up on the hillsides of the Golan Heights that were won from Syria in 1967 and again in 1973. Battles unfold between rebels and the Syrian government. Explosions of mortar shells thunder over the expanse ahead. In a town below, the regime flag flies over the main square one day; later an assault happens, and rebels raise the Islamist black flag of jihad.”
Suggested Reads from Our Editorial Team
The Economist: Syria’s War
Reuters: France Says Syria Chlorine Gas Samples May be Inconclusive
Newsweek: Poison Control in Syria
Deutsche Welle: Syrian Art Flourishes in Exile