Sep 9, 2013

Weapons for war and art and Germany’s strongest man and more in today’s daily brief.

: Chinese soldiers guard inside the gate of the Chinese Defense Ministry’s Bayi Building while James Miller, US under secretary of defense for policy, meets with Major General Wang Guanzhong, China’s deputy chief of general staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), in Beijing on September 9, 2013. (Alexander F. Yuan/AFP)

: Free Syrian Army fighters work as they prepare rockets in a makeshift weapon factory in Aleppo September 9, 2013. (Loubna Mrie/Reuters)

: A Free Syrian Army fighter works as he prepares a rocket in a makeshift weapons factory in Aleppo September 9, 2013. (Loubna Mrie/Reuters)

: Photo taken on September 2, 2013 in Monrovia shows AK-47s, bazookas and other deadly arms displayed before being hammered, filed and welded by German blacksmith Manfred Zbrzezny and his apprentices in a workshop on the outskirts of the Liberian capital. (Zoom Dosso/AFP)

: A Guarani Ava Indian child lights a ceremonial pipe called a Petygua which wards off bad spirits, during a ritual as they prepare to take back their ancestral plot of land they call Tekoha Yvoh’y, in Guaira, Parana state, near the southern border with Paraguay, July 31, 2013. The Guarani tribe is immersed in a bloody conflict with farmers over possession of their ancestral land that has characteristics of a territorial war, in spite of Brazil’s indigenous policy being considered one of the most progressive in the world. The conflict highlights the risks being run by an agricultural superpower whose leftist government is trying to sort out centuries of ethnic disputes over ownership of the land from which much of the nation’s wealth sprouts. (Lunae Parracho/Reuters)

: Guarani Kaiowa Indians look at their hut destroyed by a fire set by an unknown arsonist in their makeshift camp squeezed between highway BR 463 and their ancestral land called Tekoha Apika’y, where they have been since 2009 when they last failed to take back the land from farmers, near Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul state, August 31, 2013. The Guarani tribe is immersed in a bloody conflict with farmers over possession of their ancestral land that has characteristics of a territorial war, in spite of Brazil’s indigenous policy being considered one of the most progressive in the world. The conflict highlights the risks being run by an agricultural superpower whose leftist government is trying to sort out centuries of ethnic disputes over ownership of the land from which much of the nation’s wealth sprouts. (Lunae Parracho/Reuters)

: A Guarani Kaiowa woman stands watch near their makeshift camp on the edge of the ancestral land they call Tekoha Takuara, where their chief Marcos Veron was shot to death in 2003, in Juti, Mato Grosso do Sul state, August 12, 2013. The Guarani tribe is immersed in a bloody conflict with farmers over possession of their ancestral land that has characteristics of a territorial war, in spite of Brazil’s indigenous policy being considered one of the most progressive in the world. The conflict highlights the risks being run by an agricultural superpower whose leftist government is trying to sort out centuries of ethnic disputes over ownership of the land from which much of the nation’s wealth sprouts. (Lunae Parracho/Reuters)

: A Hindu priest of sangam returns through a marshland after the flood waters receded at the sangam area in Allahabad on September 9, 2013. (Sanjay Kanojia/AFP)

: A Cuban faithful takes part in the procession of the Virgin of Charity on September 8, 2013 in Havana. (Amil Lagey/AFP )

: Heinz Ollesch, for several times bearer of the title “Strongest man of Germany”, pulls a seven-tons truck on September 9, 2013 in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, to promote the German Truck Pulling Championships. The competition is scheduled to take place during the Commcar fair for commercial cars from October 12 to 13, 2013 in Chemnitz. (Hendrik Schmidt/AFP)

: A Guarani Ava Indian girl has her face painted as they live on the edge of their ancestral land they call Tekoha Yvoh’y, while awaiting a court’s decision on the eviction of farmers occupying the land, in Guaira, Parana state, near the border with Paraguay, August 2, 2013. The Guarani tribe is immersed in a bloody conflict with farmers over possession of their ancestral land that has characteristics of a territorial war, in spite of Brazil’s indigenous policy being considered one of the most progressive in the world. The conflict highlights the risks being run by an agricultural superpower whose leftist government is trying to sort out centuries of ethnic disputes over ownership of the land from which much of the nation’s wealth sprouts. (Lunae Parracho/Reuters)

: Kalderash Rom Maria “Mercedes” Chiciu, 3, shows off her belly dancing skills as her grandmother Exspertiza Dumitru (sitting) looks on at the field near the Bistrita monastery where thousands of mostly Kalderash Roma have gathered on September 8, 2013 in Bistrita, Romania. Every year thousands of Kalderash Roma from across Romania arrive to visit the nearby monastery to pay tribute to St. Gregory and to gather at the field nearby for a day or more of feasting, dancing, visiting and business dealing. Romania’s Roma, many of whom call themselves tsigani, or Gypsies, are divided into different tribes that were once distinctive by their craft. The Kalderash were coppersmiths but today are known for dealing in scrap metal and metal products. Many Kalderash are among Romania’s most traditonal and least assimilated Roma and most marry in their teens. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

: Kalderash Rom Bianca Radu kisses an icon of the Virgin Mary as her cousins Scumpa Carpaciu (C) and Rosalinda Radu look on during their annual visit to pay tribute to St. Gregory at the Bistrita monastery on September 8, 2013 in Bistrita, Romania. Every year thousands of Kalderash from across Romania arrive to visit the monastery and to gather at an open field nearby for a day or more of feasting, dancing, visiting and business dealing. Romania’s Roma, many of whom call themselves tsigani, or Gypsies, are divided into different tribes that were once distinctive by their craft. The Kalderash were coppersmiths but today are known for dealing in scrap metal and metal products. Many Kalderash are among Romania’s most traditonal and least assimilated Roma and most marry in their teens. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

: Waders flock together seeking new feeding grounds during the incoming tide at the RSPB’s Snettisham Nature reserve on September 09, 2013 in Snettisham, England. The reserve lies on the edge of ‘The Wash’, one of the most important bird estuaries in the UK, supporting over 300,000 birds. A few times every year higher than average tides force thousands of waders including Knot, Oystercatchers, Sanderlings, Black and Bar Tailed Godwit and Plover to take flight, and advance up the mud flats in search of food. The event is one of the most incredible wildlife spectacles in the UK. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

RELATED
Clashes renewed near Syrian capital over historic Christian town
Stephen Kalin , Reuters
8:02 a.m. EDT, September 9, 2013

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian government forces launched an offensive to wrest back control of an historic Christian town north of Damascus on Monday, activists said.

In the past six days, the town of Maaloula has already changed hands three times between President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebel groups, some of which are linked to al Qaeda.

Combatants say the intensity of fighting over the town is due to its strategic location near the road leading from Damascus to the central city of Homs.

But fighting in an area with such religious symbolism could increase anxieties among the Christian minority, who have watched sectarian violence between majority Sunni Muslims and the Alawite minority overshadow the revolt against Assad’s rule.

The fighting near Maaloula, in the Qalamoun mountains north of the capital, threatens ancient Christian sites nestled in the hillsides that were a site of pilgrimage for Christians and Muslims alike.

The Britain-based Observatory, which opposes Assad, said that troops and militia loyal to the president re-entered Maaloula early Saturday but withdrew in the evening when rebels brought in reinforcements.

Retreating government forces continued to shell and clash with insurgents on the outskirts of Maaloula on Sunday and Monday, said Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Observatory, though violence inside the town abated on Monday morning.

Maaloula has several churches and important monasteries as well as the Greek Orthodox nunnery Mar Thecla, visited by many Christians and Muslims who are drawn by its reputation as a holy place where the sick would be miraculously healed.

A sizeable number of the inhabitants of Maaloula, as well as Sarkha and Jabaadeen, two nearby Sunni towns, still speak Aramaic, the language of Christ.

Abdelrahman said 18 rebel fighters were killed and over 100 injured during Saturday’s fighting. He could not confirm the extent of casualties among government forces.

Restrictions by Syrian authorities on independent media make it difficult to verify these accounts.

PILLAGING DENIED

Most residents had fled Maaloula when fighting erupted last Wednesday around a roadblock manned by government fighters.

Rebels entered the town later that day but withdrew on Thursday. The Mother Superior at Mar Thecla denied reports circulated by pro-government groups that rebels had pillaged Christian holy sites.

Among opposition forces who took control of the town on Saturday were the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Members of that group uploaded a video statement to YouTube on Sunday renouncing any intention to occupy Maaloula.

Surrounded by about ten rebels wearing balaclavas and carrying assault weapons, a man says the fighters had aimed to take over a roadblock near Maaloula last week and only entered the town to defend it from government attacks.

“Soon we will withdraw from this city not out of fear but to leave its homes to their owners. They were not our target. Our target was mainly military,” he said.

The video ends with an interview of two elderly women wearing the black garb of Christian nuns. One of the women says that the rebels treated them “very well”, but the rest of her comment was drowned out by the near constant sound of shelling in the background.

Syria’s Christian community is wary of the rising power of Islamist groups within the rebel movement but has remained largely on the sidelines since 2011, when peaceful demonstrators began protesting four decades of rule by the Assad family.

Christians make up roughly 10 percent of Syria’s population. A small percentage so far have taken up arms in the civil war that broadly pits minorities, in particular Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam, against the Sunni Muslim majority.

Sept. 9 Photo Brief: Weapons for war and art and Germany’s strongest man

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