4 . Trabzon BARU Lo aoe @ANKARA ise) S . TURKEY AZERBAUJAN 2 lzmir G o} ATHENS Konya Tabriz ° Antalya, Adana, TEHRAN © Rhodes | = NICOSIA: ia rate 5 Latakia | R A N Y, CYPRUS Tripoli ¢ Hamadan Ai te, BEIRUT ¢, 7aneay Spx LEBANON Esfahan® Haifa I R A Q bs, . ISRAEL AlHillah” Al Kut Ports. Tel Aviv o o Ahwa

Lebanon and Iraq. In addition, Gadhafi used heavy weapons from the start, but Assad hasn't. SPIEGEL: Yet tanks have been deployed in Hama, Homs and Latakia for some time. Elaraby: When I flew to Syria 10 days after taking office, they also tried to tell me that there had been no riots in Aleppo or Damas

e movement toward a breakup of the country, as Alawite supporters of the regime retreat to their ancestral homeland in the northwestern region around Latakia. And there’s no sign that either Assad or his Russian patrons are paying any more than lip service to a political settlement. One potential game-cha

e movement toward a breakup of the country, as Alawite supporters of the regime retreat to their ancestral homeland in the northwestern region around Latakia. And there's no sign that either Assad or his Russian patrons are paying any more than lip service to a political settlement. One potential game-chan

gents for the bloodshed -- anyone but its own forces. Civilian deaths at the hands of security forces there, and more recently in the coastal city of Latakia, have outraged opinion across the country, setting alight long pent-up anger at the denial of basic freedoms, the monopolistic rule of the Baath part

ly occasions on which large numbers of people are permitted to assemble-have spread from Deraa to at least a dozen other cities including Baniyas and Latakia on the Mediterranean coast, as well as to the northern city of Homs and some suburbs of Damascus. * With the Alawi-dominated regime under threat, the

four, and potentially five, chemical weapons production facilities in Syria. One or two are located near Damascus, the other three situated in Hama, Latakia, and al-Safira village, near the city of Aleppo. Hama is one of the hotbeds of the Syrian revolt, which Assad's tanks attacked in early August and wh

owever, by bloody events that took place on Friday, March 25. Violent demonstrations broke out in the midland city of Horns, in the coastal city of Latakia, and in Sanamein, near Daraa, where 12 people were killed (10 of them from the Syrian security forces). Overall estimates put at least 61 people d

.provided intelligence gathering capabilities, they know the CW units generals on first name basis . they perceived the naval outpost in Tartous and Latakia as strategically important for them. and they are making an effort that we don't like, to protect those assets.we should be realistic. the challenge

ages and towns that abut it suggest a process of ethnic cleansing to prepare the way. An Alawite coastal ministate that folds in the port cities of Latakia and Tartus, home to the Russian navy's key warmwater port, may not be viable in the long run, but that doesn't mean the regime's core won't try for

unities in the cities. Between 1943 and 1957, Alawite migration tripled the population of Hama, and between 1957 and 1979 it quadrupled the size of Latakia. Many Alawites also joined the military. Since Ottoman times, Sunni Arabs had largely spurned army careers, but Alawites welcomed the opportunity

a predominantly Sunni city, protesters have accused Iran and the Lebanese party Hizbullah of participating in the suppression of demonstrations. In Latakia, clashes have also erupted along sectarian lines. Lebanese and Iranian involvement, however, seems improbable; the rising tensions are likely an exp

recent meeting with Putin over the Iran negotiations in Geneva), nor has the Israeli Air Force's destruction of newly arrived Yakhont missiles in Latakia several months ago jeopardized Israeli-Russian relations. Another incentive for Israel to court the Kremlin is that it clearly admires Russia's app

is chief of security. Security forces opened fire on the demonstrators and some were killed. The protests then began to spread, most dangerously to Latakia, a city in the north with a mixed population of Sunni Muslims and Alawite Muslims, the latter a minority sect from which Assad and other members of

n my eyes, worth all the palaces in this world." He had pined to leave that poverty; he had come down from his mountain village to the port town of Latakia, on the Mediterranean, to get a secondary-school education; he had made it to the military academy, and the uniform had given him all that was now

sad's father and predecessor, More Video Hafez, killed tens of thousands of citizens in 1982. Protests this weekend continued in Damascus, Aleppo, Latakia and Horns. A statement on Friday by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admonishing that time is running out" for AI-Arad to allow reforms was

Pb No No IFIIM 121 PIA 0 Wound as No No Spine Motel Corporation EFTA01691114 Call Records for 240 of 83s Customer PIN Data Mae CID Latakia Duration ONO Type Fonvereled 911 Intonational OriginatiN_Cell Site 1.1618RJUMYERra.. 11FL1S1t.R_ILHAVLiiiiii: NFLFICA- 1902 1663 C4t 15166 af

, banned since 1980. We frighten ourselves with phantoms of our own making. No one is asking or expecting the U.S. Marines to storm the shores of Latakia. This Syrian tyranny is merciless in its battles against the people of Horns and Zabadani, but its army is demoralized and riven with factionalism

tarian war is one of the regime's preferred tactics. In March, Syrian friends have told me, its shabiha militia tried to spark social breakdown in Latakia by pretending to be a Sunni mob while it shot up Alawi areas and an Alawi mob as it terrorized Sunni neighborhoods. Syrians say the regime is armin

led him to make a positive statement. However, since then, there had been reports of tanks being deployed to llama again, and of a new operation in Latakia that was even worse than the one in Hama. Secretary Clinton and President Obama had been in contact with the Turkish Government to inform them that