24th/May/2012

Umayya for Researches and Strategic Studies

The Daily Monitoring Report

Field Mobility
- Demonstrations took place countrywide, in which some 15,000 people participated in a funeral of two people shot dead by security forces in the Daraa city of Da'el. (1)(2)

Statistics 23rd/May Martyrs: 33

Sources:
(1) (2)

Internal Situation
- Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said that a delegation of the international monitors met yesterday the governor of Hama Anas Naem for considering the required coordination mechanisms after the number of the international monitors in the aforementioned governorate has become 28 ones. SANA also said that the delegation paid a visit to alarbaeen district, Janoub Al-Malaab, the national hospital in Hama city, in addition to Suran town in its countryside.(1) - Sufian Allaw, Syrian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resource, announced that the current Syrian government's losses hit $4 billion due to the sanctions imposed on it. He also held the USA and the European Union (EU) responsible for the fuel crisis in Syria. In addition, he said that a Venezuelan oil tanker carrying 35,000 tonnes of diesel anchored two day ago in Syria. Moreover, he said that another oil tanker is currently being prepared to be in Syria shortly. (1)(2)(3)
(4)(5)

Military Situation
- The military defector colonel Khalid Yousuf Al-Hamood, a commander in the Free Syrian Army (FSA), said some 203 elements from Al-Assad's forces, including three officers in the Damascus's countryside area of Al-Qatifa, have defected to the FSA. Clashes erupted between the defectors and the government forces, killing five defectors, while the rest managed to escape with their equipment to join the FSA.
(4) (1)(2)

- Al-Assad's forces continued shelling the Homs city of AlRastan, with shells crashing into the town at the rate of "one a minute" in an attempt to break into it.(1)(2)(4) - The government forces bombed several neighborhoods in the city of Homs, which coincided with the presence of the UN observers in Homs's Al-Qosour district.(1)(4) - Three people were killed by a roadside bomb targeting a bus on the road to the Damascus International Airport.(1)(4)

Asharq Al-Awsat The London-based Al-Hayat (3) The Kuwaiti Al-Watan (4) Al-Quds Al-Arabi (5) The Lebanese Al-Mustaqbal (6) The Syrian Al-Baath (7) Reuters (8) AFP (9) The Qatari Al-Jazeera (10) The Israeli Haaretz (11) Washington Post (12) wall Street Journal (13) The Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth (14) The Guardian (15) The Telegraph (16) Russia Today (17) Lebanon Now (18) AP
Political Stances

- Yesterday morning, a number of the bus drivers affiliated to the public transport in Damascus on the line "Al-MezzehBasatin" went on strike, protesting against the increase in the price of Mazut (fuel oil) in addition to the shortage in that kind of fuel.(1) -Lebanon's Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said that the Shiite Lebanese people- who were claimed to be kidnapped in north Syria at the hands of opposition fighters to be exchanged for detainees in the Syrian prisons- would be freed very shortly through an Arab mediation.(1)(2)(3) - The Syrian National Council (SNC) accepted the resignation of its head Burhan Ghalioun and tasks him with resuming his tasks till a new head is elected in the next June 9th -10th meeting.(2)(7) - In its statement, the Syrian National Council (SNC) condemned kidnapping the Shiite Lebanese people, adding that it does not rule out Al-Assad regime's involvement in that operation for causing turmoil in Lebanon, calling for releasing them.(1)(2)(3)(4)(6)(7) - Head of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) Riad al-Asaad accuses a group of the recently-formed "financial mafia" of being behind kidnapping the Lebanese people, asserting that he would not allow any body to harm the Shiite or Alawite people or even any other sect, noting that he is keen on unveiling the identity of the body responsible for that kidnapping.(4) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accuses the Syrian opposition of violating the ceasefire, alleging that it spoils the peace plan reached by the UN and the Arab League (AL) envoy Kofi Annan. In addition, he warned against real threat in case the conflict in Syria extended to Lebanon.(1)(2)(3)(5) - Mikhail Bogdanov, the Russian president's special envoy for the Middle East and deputy foreign minister, proposed holding talks in Moscow between Al-Assad's regime and the Syrian opposition under the auspices of the United Nations (UN).(1)(4) -The Turkish president thinks that the efforts made by the international community for handling the Syrian crisis are not enough.(4)

Arab

Political Mobility
- Al-Assad's armored vehicles stormed the neighborhood of Barzeh amid gunfire and mass arrests, with columns of smoke rising in the Damascus neighborhoods of Basatin Barzeh and Al-Qaboun near the Air Force intelligence premises, where explosions of missiles were heard.(1)(2)(4) - Al-Assad's forces publicly executed three people in Deir Al -Zour's Al-Qosour neighborhood, including two from the village of Al-Kharita.(2)(4) - Security forces forcibly broke up a sit-in staged by dozens of lawyers in the palace of justice in Aleppo, calling for the release of political prisoners. The forces detained a number of the protesters.(1)(2) - Spokesman for Union of the Revolution Coordination Committees said that Al-Atareb area is still exposed to continuous bombardment for the fifth successive day, killing at least six people, amid massive exodus from Aleppo's countryside.
(1)

International

This Report was issued by Umayya for Researches and Strategic Studies, and it contains pure news that do not reflect an opinion. Edited by Abed Alrhman Alsarraj