Damascus Riddle-An Area Which The Syrian Forces Have Never Attacked

Nour Malas/The Wall Street Journal

Seen from Ain el-Fijeh, the Barada River Valley, outside Damascus, has become an opposition haven.

AIN EL-FIJEH, Syria—A short drive from downtown Damascus, where fighting surged again Wednesday between government and opposition forces, the rebel-held villages of the Barada Valley have been puzzlingly quiet.

For decades, Damascus families sheltered from the summer heat at the riverview restaurants of Ain el-Fijeh, a village just 15 miles up a mountain road from the capital. Now, the entrance to the village's municipal building has been painted with the design of Syria's rebel flag. Government office blocks bear graffiti reading "Independent Ain el-Fijeh." Opposition fighters train in nearby orchards.

In Ain el-Fijeh, several villagers wonder if they will be next—and, if not, why regime forces haven't returned since earlier attacks.For weeks, residents of Ain el-Fijeh have listened to the near-daily shelling of Zabadani, a town about nine miles away. On Wednesday, fighting raged in the other direction, too, as Damascus residents said Syrian government tanks and helicopters attacked the capital's southern neighborhoods of Kafar Souseh and Nahr Aisha. At least 43 people were killed in the shelling and mortar attacks, activist groups said, including 24 men in Kafar Souseh who activists said appeared to have been shot in the head.

Many in this village, home to 6,000 people, say local rebels outfoxed the government. Regime forces dispatched tanks and armored vehicles twice against Ain el-Fijeh earlier this year after residents began taking up arms, residents say. But government troops aborted their last attempted attack, in April, as local fighters consolidated control over a pumping station that sends drinking water from Fijeh's ancient spring to Damascus, say residents and the rebels who control the spring.

It isn't clear whether the government took any threat to the capital's water supply seriously; more skeptical locals believe the government will fight opponents here sooner or later.

The enclave's existence has many residents wondering about the Syrian military's strategy and strength against opposition forces. In ceding control in this area, while bigger fights rage in Aleppo and Damascus, the regime appears to have given the opposition the space to turn the 14 villages of the surrounding Wadi Barada, or the Barada River Valley region, into a haven.

"We have boycotted the state completely here," a 28-year-old defected first lieutenant who leads the Wadi Barada Military Council said in Deir Qanoun, another village in the valley, which has about 90,000 residents in all. "We don't pay for electricity anymore. Cars don't pay registration. We still get all services," said the lieutenant, known to people here as Abu Zein, or Zein's father.

The mountains between Damascus and the Lebanon border have been bitterly contested between government and rebel forces. The regime has continued to make incursions into nearby Zabadani after it briefly fell to local fighters in January, rebel fighters say. These fighters allege the town lies along a transit route for weapons between the Syrian regime and its ally Hezbollah, the militant and political group, in Lebanon. Syria's government denies trading weapons with Hezbollah.

But regime forces have lost control of other nearby towns, including in the Barada valley.

The Syrian military hasn't deployed its full capability in and around Damascus, military analysts and several observers say. The military barely used its tank arsenal to fight the boldest rebel attack on the capital last month, according to United Nations monitors in Syria whose mission expired last week.

Some monitors who had visited Damascus conflict zones noted a strategy of bombardment from afar—relying more on machine-gun attacks from helicopters or long-range tank guns, rather than sending troops to fight. That, they said, could suggest a dearth of reliable soldiers to staff ground operations as the government's elite, loyalist units have been spread across the country.

Some rebels argue government forces may have a strategy of neglect in these areas—periodically prodding towns that first rose in peaceful protest until their residents militarize, and then turning a blind eye while they become hubs for fighters that the military can later stamp out.

Joined by rocky mountain roads and lush apple and peach orchards, Wadi Barada's villages are populated mainly by members of Syria's Sunni Muslim majority. Ain el-Fijeh and other villages here erupted in early protests last year against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Local elders mediated with the security forces, leaving the townspeople to protest freely until that June, when, residents say, government forces started to open fire on protests. In response, men picked up their hunting rifles and women hurled stones at tanks, several residents said.

The first fatality here was Fatima Nasrullah, a mentally handicapped woman in her 30s. She was shot as she stood on her balcony throwing pebbles at a tank column on the street, residents say.

By January, residents here had started to help smuggle weapons in from Lebanon to the Damascus suburbs, and sent 300 men to help fight in Zabadani.

"After this, we were in the eye of the storm," said a young engineer, now a trainee with the local rebel council.

In February, after a six-hour battle with government forces, rebels claimed control of the Fijeh spring. General Mohammad Dib Zeitoun, Syria's head of political security, intervened to ask rebels to put guards at the spring infrastructure, three rebel leaders said.

The rebels agreed, and let a member of the security forces stand guard at the main spring source. When troops attacked the concrete pump building in March, the locals expelled the security agent.

"Honestly, we simply asked him to leave," said Abu Zein, the rebel commander.

Rebels say they didn't cut the water to the capital because they didn't want to harm the population.

Now, locals can be heard cursing President Assad on the streets and in line at the vegetable market, often to the surprise of the many families taking refuge here from other hot spots around Damascus.

Puzzled by the regime's apparent inattention but anticipating an attack if the battle for Aleppo fizzles, fighters here say they keep their activities secret even from family members. They sneak away to orchards they have turned into training grounds, where they say they have been joined by fighters from Damascus.

Abu Zein and two other fighters pointed out what they said were government sniper positions in the next mountain range, toward Lebanon. Gunshots echoed. The fighters said the rounds weren't from snipers, but from some two dozen rebels drilling in the orchards.

A young mother sat facing the trio, her 6-year-old daughter grabbing at her leg. Hearing for the first time that her lifelong neighbors—one a handyman, the other a salesman—are leaders with the local rebel military council, she pleaded with them to better organize themselves.

"You must fight harder," she said. Invoking what village residents call their first martyr, she added: "For poor Fatima's lost soul."

The men nodded. Their first advance on Damascus was poorly planned, they admitted, saying they learned about it at the last minute. Abu Zein also promised to balance the destruction of fighting with the revival of their village, once a popular tourist spot. "We will bring this place back," he said. "For now, we are just waiting to see what the war will bring."

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"Akin Must Have Missed His Science Class":Obama

Washington: US President Barack Obama has mocked Republican lawmaker Todd Akin over his offensive definition of ‘legitimate rape’, saying the Missouri Congressman had ‘missed his science class’. 

“Recently some of you have been paying attention to the commentary about the senator from Missouri, Akin,” Obama told a group of fundraisers. 

“The interesting thing here is that this, this is an individual who sits on the House Committee on Science and Technology but somehow missed science class,” Politico quoted him, as saying. 

“And it’s representative of the desire to go backwards instead of forwards and fight fights that we thought were settled 20 or 30 years ago,” he added. 

Akin recently sparked off outrage by claiming in a television show that victims of ''legitimate rape'' rarely get pregnant. 

He said that ''from what I understand from doctors, women's bodies naturally reject pregnancies that result from rape”.' 

Obama had earlier also criticised Akin’s definition of a ''legitimate rape'', and insisted that distinguishing among types of rape doesn't make sense. 

As reported earlier Todd Akin had apologised in an advertisement for his remarks on rape and pregnancy.

Obama had said that Akin's remarks underscore why politicians, most of whom are men, should not make health decisions on behalf of women.

   

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Assam MLA Arrested For Alleged Role In Ethnic Violence

Guwahati: A state legislator in Assam has been detained by the police for his alleged role in the recent  ethnic clashes in the state that have left over 70 people dead in the last one month.

Pradeep Brahma, who represents the Kokrajhar (West) constituency, was arrested from his house at 1 am; seven cases have been registered against him. Mr Brahma is an MLA from the Bodoland Peoples' Front (BPF),  which is an ally of the ruling Congress in Assam. Mr Bramha's supporters have blocked a local railway line.  In anticipation of violence, the police has imposed a curfew in Kokhrajhar.

The ethnic violence in Assam between the indigenous Bodo tribals and Muslim settlers has ravaged three of the four districts in Lower Assam that are governed by the  Bodoland Territorial Council.  Mr Brahma's party, the BPF, is the ruling party in the council.

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Maximum Cases Of West Nile Infections Expected This Year

The nation is heading toward the worst outbreak of West Nile disease in the 13 years that the virus has been on this continent, federal health authorities said Wednesday.

But it is still unclear where and how far cases will spread. Dallas declared an emergency last week, and West Nile deaths have been concentrated in Texas and a few nearby states, including Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma, as well as South Dakota.

So far this year, there have been 1,118 cases and 41 deaths reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Lyle R. Petersen, director of the agency’s division of vector-borne diseases, said Wednesday in a telephone news conference.

“That’s the highest number of cases ever reported to the C.D.C. by the third week of August,” he added. “And cases are trending upward.”

Because it takes some time for symptoms to develop and cases to be reported, those people were probably infected by mosquitoes two to three weeks ago, he said. The agency expects cases to increase through the end of September. In 2003, there were 264 deaths.

It takes three days to two weeks after a bite for symptoms to come on, but they may then be rapid and overwhelming.

Dr. Petersen described his own 2003 bout with West Nile.

“I was out for a jog, and within one mile I went from feeling normal to where I could barely walk,” he said.

Only about one infection in 150 becomes serious enough for the patient to need hospitalization — usually when the virus gets into the brain and spinal cord. But 10 percent of those hospitalized die, and other patients are left paralyzed, comatose or with serious mental problems. A recent study by doctors in Houston found kidney disease high among survivors.

There is no vaccine, and no drug that specifically targets the virus, so health authorities advise people to avoid getting bitten.

As of noon Wednesday, Texas had recorded 25 West Nile deaths, Dr. David Lakey, the state’s health commissioner, said during the same conference call.

The Dallas area has too many miles of roads to cover with mosquito-killing spray trucks, so the state has spent about $3 million — virtually all from the federal government — flying pesticide spray planes at night, Dr. Lakey said.

It is not clear why this is turning into the worst year nationally since the virus was discovered in New York City in 1999, nor why it is particularly concentrated in the Dallas area, Dr. Petersen said. Hot weather is known to increase transmission, but much of the country has suffered from a heat wave and severe drought has gripped the Midwestern Corn Belt.

Some experts theorize that a wet winter followed by drought creates ideal conditions for the culex mosquitoes that spread the virus. They lay their eggs in dirty, nutrient-filled pools like those left when rivers dry up, and they can survive winters with the virus by hiding in tunnels or sewers. Entomologists from HomeTeam Pest Defense in Dallas have, for example, advised residents not to overwater their lawns, which can create pools of standing water.

The virus now exists everywhere in the contiguous 48 states, and all 48 — except Vermont — have found it in local mosquitoes or birds this year. Birds act as a multiplier for the virus, which is then transmitted by mosquito species that bite both birds and humans.

Generally outbreaks begin in the Southern states and move north with warmer weather. Though much of the country experienced heat waves this year, it is not foreordained that all states will have serious outbreaks.

The spread depends on other factors, including what percentage of birds in an area have never been infected and therefore can become multipliers. (In birds and people, survivors develop lifelong immunity.)

“You can have a lot of cases in one area and not in a place just 100 miles away,” Dr. Petersen said

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California Declares Emergency As Wildfire Advances

(Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in three Northern California counties on Wednesday after a wildfire that has already destroyed 64 homes advanced with 75-foot flames on a tiny community at the doorstep of a national park.

Firefighters scrambled to head off the so-called Ponderosa Fire, which had scorched 24,000 acres, before it reached the outskirts of Mineral, a community of less than 200 people just south of Lassen National Volcanic Park.

Authorities issued an evacuation warning for Mineral as flames roared 75 feet high on the side of Highway 36, the main route into town, and burned through a rocky canyon where firefighters struggled to make a stand.

Crews also bulldozed a trench to serve as a last line of defense between the fire and the town as thick smoke and ash choked the air for miles.

"All the vegetation is ready to burn and so once the afternoon winds begin to blow up the canyon, those fuels burn aggressively and you have what we call blow-up conditions," Chico Fire Division Chief Shane Lauderdale told Reuters.

"It pushes the firefighters out of the area they are working and goes over the (containment) line and creates situations where we have to back out," Lauderdale said.

Beth Glenn, who said her family owns most of the businesses in tiny Mineral, said the town survived a fire that roared up the same canyon in the 1990s, but she worried the Ponderosa blaze could be worse.

"I don't know what's going to happen tonight," said Glenn, 58, whose motel and general store in the heart of Mineral were being used by fire officials to disseminate information to residents.

Glenn said the fire had prompted cancellations for the motel during its typically busiest month of August, and she was forced to tell guests not to come after losing power for five days.

TWO SMALL COMMUNITIES SAVED

The lightning-sparked fire was threatening Mineral after crews had turned it away from two small communities to the west, Shingletown and Manton.

All told, more than 3,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the rural California counties of Tehama and Shasta, about 125 miles north of the state capital, Sacramento, although evacuation orders had been lifted by Wednesday afternoon from Shingletown and several other areas.

Highway 44, the main artery into Lassen Volcanic National Park, was also reopened, although portions of the Lassen National Park Highway were closed along with some trails and campgrounds, according to an alert on the park's website.

The blaze was 50 percent contained as of Wednesday afternoon, fire officials said, but they listed 500 homes, 10 commercial properties and 30 outbuildings as still at risk of being consumed by the explosive fire.

Officials say 64 homes had already been lost, along with 20 other structures.

The Ponderosa fire is one of dozens burning across drought-parched states in the U.S. West, including a blaze that destroyed dozens of homes this week in Washington state and another that threatened a town in Southern California.

"Firefighters are working aggressively to build approximately 11 miles of line and strengthen existing containment lines," the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said on its website.

"As additional resources arrive, firefighters will continue to diligently defend structures, construct containment lines and build bulldozer perimeter lines," it said.

Two firefighters have suffered minor injuries fighting the blaze.

Brown's state-of-emergency declaration, which frees up funds to help combat the fires, cited the Ponderosa blaze, along with the Chips Fire in nearby Plumas County, which is roughly twice as big.

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UN Chief To Visit Iran

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to travel to Iran next week for a meeting of non-aligned nations, amid objections from the United States and Israel which say the visit sends a bad signal.

Mr. Ban's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, announced the trip Wednesday. He says the U.N. chief will convey the international community's concerns and expectations about Iran's nuclear program, terrorism, human rights and the crisis in Syria.

Nesirky says Mr. Ban is aware of the sensitive nature of his visit, but that boycotting would be a “missed opportunity.”

The United States says it is concerned Iran will use its turn to host the 120-member group to “deflect attention from its own failings.”

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland urged Mr. Ban to pressure Iran to meet its international obligations.

The Non-aligned Movement was formed in 1961 by countries that professed no formal alignment with the major power blocs at the time. The meeting next week is expected to include several heads of state, foreign ministers and other officials.

The United Nations, European Union and world powers including the United States have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Iran because of concerns it is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

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"Taxes And Cuts May Lead To Recession":CBO

Washington --

The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that the economic recovery would continue "at a modest pace" for the rest of 2012, but if Congress took no action to stave off tax increases and automatic budget cuts scheduled for Jan. 1, the economy could fall into a recession.

The nonpartisan analysis predicted that economic output would shrink and the jobless rate would rise in the second half of 2013.As it happens that less jobs have been a big concern to the Obama Team in election campaigns.

In its semiannual report, the budget office said that the economy was somewhat weaker than it projected in January. Fears about tax increases and spending cuts are depressing economic growth, it said.

In January, the office predicted that the economy would grow by one-half of 1 percent in 2013. Now it predicts that the economy will contract by one-half of 1 percent, partly due to the "sudden and sizable fiscal tightening" scheduled to occur under current law.

If Congress cannot break the impasse on tax and fiscal policy and if current law remains in place, the office said, the federal deficit will plunge, to $641 billion in the fiscal year 2013 and to $387 billion in 2014.

The budget office said that the economy would be stronger and the deficit would total $1 trillion under "an alternative fiscal scenario" in which most expiring tax provisions are extended indefinitely, automatic spending cuts do not occur, and Medicare payments to doctors are frozen instead of being reduced Jan. 1 as scheduled.

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Curiosity Travels 23 Feet On Mars

Tracks made by Curiosity on Mars during a test drive on Wednesday.

It was a modest test drive: moving forward 15 feet, turning in place 120 degrees, then backing up about 8 feet. The entire trip took about 16 minutes, with most of the time spent stopped as cameras took photographs of the progress.

But for the team behind Curiosity, the six-wheeled NASA rover that landed on Mars 17 days ago, the first tracks in the dust on Wednesday were an exciting milestone.

“It couldn’t be more important,” Peter C. Theisinger, the mission’s project manager, said at a post-drive news conference. “I mean, we built a rover. So unless the rover roves, we really haven’t accomplished anything.”

Curiosity is to spend at least a couple of years roving through a 96-mile-wide crater and up a 3.4-mile-high mountain at the center of the crater, exploring for signs that early Mars could have been habitable for microbial life.

But that journey of miles started with a roll of a few feet away from Bradbury Landing, where Curiosity set down on Aug. 6. NASA said on Wednesday that the spot had been named for Ray Bradbury, the author of “The Martian Chronicles” and other influential science-fiction novels,who died in June. He would have turned 92 on Wednesday.

Recently, Curiosity has been busy with other exercises, like vaporizing Martian rocks and seeing what they are made of (basalt, apparently, or something similar). On Sunday, the rover fired a laser instrument for the first time, hitting a rock with 30 bursts in 10 seconds and analyzing the atomic makeup from the resulting flashes of light.

On Monday, it flexed its arm. On Tuesday, it wiggled its four corner wheels in preparation for the drive.

“Everything has been going extremely well,” Mr. Theisinger said. “Really extremely well.”

Having succeeded at rock-zapping on Sunday, scientists turned the laser, which was developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, to vaporize small bits at six more locations. So far, most of the rocks appear to be a type, common on Mars, that forms from the rapid cooling of lava.

Another instrument, provided by Russia, has started firing neutrons into the soil to look for hydrogen, which would point to the presence of water. The rover has also gradually started science observations.

So far, the only broken piece has been a wind sensor that may have been knocked out by rocks kicked up during the landing, NASA said. A second wind sensor is working properly, as is the rest of the rover’s weather station, which was contributed by Spain.

The station has measured swings in air temperature from minus-103 degrees to 28 degrees Fahrenheit. Swings in ground temperatures have been even greater, from minus-132 degrees to 37 degrees.

During the next week, as more instruments are checked out, Curiosity may conduct its first analysis of the makeup of the Martian atmosphere. When that is complete, it is to head to its first destination, called Glenelg, where three types of terrain appear to intersect.

At first, Curiosity will move only about 30 feet at a time. As its engineers gain experience, the drives will stretch to longer than the length of a football field, relying on the rover’s ability to navigate for itself.

Mr. Theisinger, the project manager, cautioned that the early successes did not ensure future ones; so far, the mission has checked off only two of its primary goals, to launch on time and to land on Mars.

“We’ve got a long way to go before this mission meets its full potential,” he said. “But the fact we haven’t had any early problem is, in fact, fantastic.”

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South Africa Mourn The Dead At Lonmin's Marikana Mine

The striking workers are demanding higher wages

Events are taking place across South Africa to remember the 44 people killed in recent violence at the north-western Marikana platinum mine.

A week ago, 34 miners died when police opened fire at the Lonmin-owned mine, where workers were on strike to demand higher pay.

Previously 10 people, two of them police officers, had died in violent clashes.

The mine has been closed as a result of the unrest.

Politicians, religious leaders, workers and members of the local community are attending a memorial service at a church near the mine to commemorate all those who have died in the violence.

Among those attending the service, at the Nkangeng Informal Settlement, are the head of President Jacob Zuma's office, Collins Chabane.

Early on Thursday, a traditional prayer service was held to ritually cleanse the spot where the 34 strikers were shot dead by police.

Visiting the mine on Wednesday, Mr Zuma told workers he "felt their pain" and promised a thorough investigation of the shootings.

But correspondents say the mood at the meeting was subdued, and did not feature the cheering and ululating that usually greets the president.

Some of those present chanted "down with the police".

Negotiations

Religious leaders have brokered talks between the Lonmin management and workers in an attempt to break the deadlock in the dispute over pay.

On Tuesday, Lonmin dropped its threat to fire workers if they failed to end their strike after many workers ignored the ultimatum. The company says the strike is illegal.

Police said they opened fire last week because strikers wielding machetes and clubs had refused to lay down their weapons.

The striking miners say they are currently earning between 4,000 and 5,000 rand (£305-£382: $486-$608) a month and want their salary increased to 12,500 rand.

The company says most workers are paid about 10,500 rand, if bonuses are added.

Industrial conflict over pay appeared to be spreading to other mines in South Africa on Wednesday, with about 600 workers at the nearby Royal Bafokeng Platinum Mine also going on a strike to demand higher wages.

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Syrian Forces Use 'Hit And Run' Strategies In Damascus

James Lawler Duggan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Syrian youths ran for cover on Tuesday as a rebel fighter returned fire from a loyalist sniper in the Bustan Pasha area of Aleppo, the country’s largest city.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Gunfire and shelling rocked Damascus, Syria, and its suburbs on Wednesday as opponents of President Bashar al-Assad reported a widening campaign by the military to sow fear and death in neighborhoods where the rebels are strong and the government is too weak to assert full control.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group in Britain that maintains a network of contacts in Syria, said the latest government raid on Wednesday morning in Kafar Soussa — with tanks backed by infantry soldiers — left at least 24 people dead. In the Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun, activists said, Syrian forces executed dozens of others.

Opposition groups described both as “hit-and-run” assaults. Similar attacks have been reported in several areas ringing the capital in recent weeks, as troops and shelling intensify then fade and as the government kills and leaves.

This week, activists reported finding 40 bodies in one suburb; last week, 60 others were discovered in a landfill, many of them believed to be civilians as attacks continued even on day of Eid.

Analysts said the effort — in which the government invades but does not hold an area — underscores the challenge that Mr. Assad faces as he tries to defeat an insurgency that often slips away, only to resurface. It is an effort that experts describe as the opposite of the “winning hearts and minds” model and is based instead on the Arabic saying “rule is based on awe.”

“Terror is the basic approach,” said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Center for the Middle East. “From the beginning of the uprising the logic was hit and hit hard, punish and scare, and that would be the way to do it.”

But he added, “It’s a crazy logic, and it has not served them well.” While the approach worked when the Syrian government suppressed a revolt in Hama in the 1980s, he said, the current effort to intimidate the country into calm is increasingly showing signs of failure.

The opposition throughout Syria has not broken; it has scattered and regrouped. In many areas, from north to south, the government has claimed that its mission has been accomplished, or would be quickly, only to have the rebels resurface to fight again with help from local residents.

In Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, the government has tried nearly everything, including missile strikes from fighter jets, but while rebel brigades have retreated temporarily from some areas, they have created what amounts to formal rotation schedules in others.

They have also completed their own successful hit-and-run ambushes on the military airport that is the main base for government troops, and on the city center, while food and other supplies have been provided by wealthy residents.

In the region around the southern city of Dara’a, where the uprising began, the pattern has been similar. On Tuesday, rebel leaders said they were retreating from several areas because of an ammunition shortage, but on Wednesday, they reported reoccupying some of the places they had fled.

There are also many areas, more distant from the most concentrated fighting, where the government’s forces have retreated as rebels have made incremental gains.

Deir al-Zour is one example. An area deep into the east of the country, about 300 miles from Damascus, it has seen intense fighting at various times during the nearly 18-month-old conflict, but in recent weeks, the battle has taken on what rebels there described as a familiar pattern: government troops based outside the city, and with little knowledge of the area, use air power and shelling, but not much else.

“The Assad forces are afraid to enter the towns and villages, so they started with this new strategy of bombardment from long distance and from helicopters,” said Abu Khalaf, 40, a fighter sitting at a rebel base in Deir al-Zour. “We can succeed because we know the land, while the Assad forces are coming from outside the province.”

On Wednesday, an activist in another section of Deir al-Zour said rebels had seized two checkpoints near the Iraqi border, taking over government buildings as officials fled.

The dynamic, Abu Khalaf said, has changed: the government has become the equivalent of a foreign power. “We are fighting to liberate our country from the Assad occupation army,” he said. “We don’t have a government that runs the country; we have an occupation army.”

Deir al-Zour is also where rebels said last week that they had shot down their first fighter jet, using an antiaircraft weapon seized from the military.

The fighter who claimed to be responsible, Abu Allawi, has become a hero among the rebels, and he says he has also become a target for the government. His commanders denied requests to make him available for an interview.

Another fighter who said he was with Abu Allawi when the jet crashed said that most of the fighters in the area were defectors and that they had been using purloined military weapons — including antiaircraft weapons — to gain an advantage. He described the attack on the fighter jet as a mix of luck and talent.

“We deploy these antiaircraft guns around the villages and among trees and houses, so the regime didn’t expect us to use them like we did,” said the fighter, who identified himself with the nickname Abu Mohammed. “The surprise played a key role in downing this MiG fighter, which was flying in low; the pilot was feeling relaxed as he bombed, and when he flew in really low, Abu Allawi shot it and was able to target the body of the plane. That set it on fire.”

The Syrian government has contended that the aircraft crashed because of a mechanical problem.

The rebels’ account, which is consistent with earlier unverified reports of the downing of the plane, suggests that any strike against Syrian aircraft would not be easy to repeat.

Abu Mohammed, 35, said the initial claims that the rebels were on their way to creating their own no-fly zone, without international support, seemed far-fetched, at least until the rebels could seize or buy stronger weapons.

He said the fighters were trying to acquire Stinger missiles “from some ‘friends’ in Iraq.”

“We hope to get them because that will change everything in our region,” he said.

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Prince Harry Naked Photos Prompted Palace Call To PCC

St James's Palace has confirmed it contacted the Press Complaints Commission over the possible use of naked pictures of Prince Harry.

The palace had heard a number of UK newspapers were considering publishing the photos, a spokesman said.

It believed publication of the photos - taken in a Las Vegas hotel room - would constitute an invasion of privacy.

One ex-editor says the decision not to use the photos shows the Leveson Inquiry has "neutered" UK newspapers.

The pictures of Prince Harry, 27, and a young woman naked in a Las Vegas hotel room appeared on US gossip website TMZ.

St James's Palace has confirmed the prince is in the photos and that it contacted the PCC on Wednesday because it had concerns about his privacy being intruded upon, in breach of the editors' code of practice.

The photos are believed to have been taken on a camera phone last Friday when the prince was on a private weekend break with friends.

'No harm done'

TMZ reported that Harry had been pictured in a group playing "strip billiards".

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The pictures have been picked up by much of the US media but no British newspapers have published them, although they have appeared on a political blog in the UK.

Former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis told the BBC that before the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics and practices he would have published the pictures, but that the inquiry had "neutered" the press.

Mr Wallis told BBC Two's Newsnight: "The situation is fun, it's a good, classic newspaper situation.

"The problem is in this post-Leveson era where newspapers are simply terrified of their own shadow, they daren't do things that most of the country, if they saw it in the newspaper, would think 'that's a bit of a laugh'.

"There would be no harm done and they would not think any worse of either the paper or of Prince Harry."

Mr Wallis said it would have been in the public interest to publish the pictures.

"He is third in line to the throne, he's been on the world stage for weeks and weeks, he is supposedly surrounded by police security officers," he said.

Former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie, who also appeared on Newsnight, said the photos represented a "fantastic" story.

"Literally any journalist worth his salt, whether at one end of the market or the other, would have said: 'Thank-you God'.

"It doesn't affect Prince Harry at all. He is single and he is cavorting with ladies who wish to be cavorted with," Mr MacKenzie said.

"So where are the issues? There are no issues except one - Leveson."

Analysis

In more recent times, Harry has transformed his image. His military service has played a big part in the change. He served in Afghanistan with his regiment, and said he was keen to return.There was a time when he was known as the partying prince, falling out of nightclubs in the early hours, getting himself into scrapes and generally showing a lack of good judgement.

And time and again during his royal duties he's shown the caring instinct that his late mother demonstrated. Harry has become a huge asset to the Royal Family: committed, but with a sense of fun and mischief to which people have warmed.

So this latest episode will surely be both an embarrassment and a disappointment to his family and, most particularly one imagines, to Harry himself. His friends say he was just "letting his hair down", a young officer having a few days of relaxation before returning to military duties. But it can never be quite as straightforward as that when that "young officer" is third in line to the British throne.

'Fast and loose'

The Leveson Inquiry was launched last year in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal centred on the News of the World.

Broadcaster Vanessa Feltz, an alleged victim of phone hacking, told Newsnight: "If there is some kind of moral awakening then it's about damn time because there are too many people whose lives have been played fast and loose with for nothing more than a bit of titillation over your Frosties."

She added: "What [Prince Harry] does in a private hotel room is what we expect him to be doing.

"He's a young fellow, he's not married, he's not on state business, he's not representing the Queen, and any editor who says it's of no interest to anyone is quite right.

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