Massive fighting has broken out in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in northwestern Syria, with both sides claiming the other responsible for starting a battle that left at least 21 people dead and a number of others wounded. Four UN monitor were also captured.
The monitors were with Syrian forces when fighting broke out at the site of a funeral. Rebels say that the troops attacked a funeral procession, but the military insists that they were attacked first. One of the vehicles the monitors was riding in was destroyed in the fighting, and troops with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) made off with the monitors.
Reuters contacted the FSA regarding the monitors, and spoke with one on the phone. When asked if he was being held prisoner, he didn’t reply, but another person insisted that they were “safe with the Free Army.”
FSA spokesmen have since said that they are working on a way to escort the captured monitors out of the country, saying that permitting them to leave FSA custody was out of the question because “the regime will terminate them because they have witnessed one of its crimes.”
The Syrian government was the first to report the capture of the UN monitors by the "rebels," and it turns out to be true.
The more one reads about the details of what is going on in Syria, the more it becomes apparent that the "Free" Syria Army et al want to destroy the cease-fire and get rid of the monitors. It also becomes apparent that they are the aggressors. They have blown up a car wash (!), bombed what seems to be the Syrian equivalent of the Pentagon, bombed the protective convoy with the UN mission and now captured some UN observers. And this is a group funded by the West.
The standard take on the cease-fire is that it has failed, which is unclear although it is certainly imperfect. And NPR gave the reason the other day in summing things up. It has failed because "the Syrian government continues to attack the rebels and t he rebels continue fighting back." That message of defensive rebel groups is belied every week now by the facts.
The West will stop at nothing to overthrow the government of Syria, the stepping stone to Iran. Pepe Escobar and a few others point this out in a forthright and clear way – but they are few indeed.
The monitors were captured to 'protect' them from seeing the acts the 'rebels' were about to commit? Or the monitors saw something that shouldn't be seen.
According to article it says one of the monitors' vehicles was destroyed so those who weren't captured for their "protection" probably have a good idea of what really happened at the funeral.
What a world when any group with guns can overthrow a nation, enslave it’s people and hoard all the wealth. Surely if there is a logical purpose for this world it would be to prove the harm in it.
To say that handing them over to the Syrian government would mean the monitors "termination" is so bizarre it boggles the mind. Clearly the FSA are a the lunatics here which should be an indicator that they're operating at the behest of YOU KNOW WHO!
Wow, so they captured some non-combatants. What a mighty and great military victory for our brave and wonderful allies. No wonder this made the wire services.
What kind of reporting is this? It talks about a monitor, and then switches to monitors. Was one monitor involved, or more than one monitor was involved.
I read the same report elsewhere, and it said a few monitor were kidnapped by the rebels.