‘Mr Obama, it’s Time to Keep your Word and End this Slaughter’

The world cannot continue to sit idly by as Syrian women and children are slaughtered, says the colonel who has positioned himself at the helm of the Free Syrian Army.

He called on the United States and Europe to create a no-fly zone that would enable rebels to establish a base for operations and provide safety for refugees.

Speaking to The Independent from an undisclosed location in the Homs Governorate, Colonel Qassim Saadeddine – who this week laid bare the rifts in the rebel forces as he denounced the leadership of the exiled Colonel Riad al-Asaad – declared the Annan peace plan “dead and buried”.

In a message to the US President, Barack Obama, and the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, he said: “You said that [President] Assad must go, you said his days are numbered. Words should be matched by deeds. You cannot wait until after the American elections for action. The regime hasn’t stopped the killing, hasn’t stopped the shelling – you cannot stand still.”

A former army colonel from the Homs town of Rastan who defected in February, Colonel Saadeddine says he is not seeking a leadership role in the organisation, but claims to speaks for all the country’s regional military councils. His disdain for Colonel Asaad, giving orders safely away from the battlefield from his base in Turkey, is thinly veiled.

“The whole world knows that a true leader is one who stays with his men and fights with them on the field and is of course not outside the country’s borders,” he said. “I’m a leader in the field, I fight with my men. I don’t like to identify myself as a leader, but in terms of decision making my opinions are the ones that are respected.”

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