Syria Direct: News Update 9-05-2013

* Contradictory news about the defection of the former Defense Minister, Ali Habib from Syrian regime – some rumors say he is in Turkey, but the Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman neither confirmed nor denied the news. SNC member Kamal a-Labwani told Sharq al-Awsat newspaper that Ali Habib had fled to Turkey with the help of Western intelligence agencies, saying that his defection “does not mean that he is among the opposition, [just that] western countries need him before the strike on Syria.”

* Syria News Channel: Government sources deny the news about Ali Habib’s defection, saying that he is still at home.

* Sky News: Bouthaina Shaaban, one of Bashar al-Assad’s closest political advisors, said “al-Qaeda and its allies kidnapped children from Latakia and moved them to Ghouta in Damascus, then used Sarin [gas] on them.”

* After U.S announces the strike against Syrian military bases, Damascus markets witness a steep rise in prices of all materials; vegetables and meat prices nearly doubled, Kolona Shorkaa.

* Government forces targeted 33 churches all around Syria since the beginning of revolution, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in Syria.

*Al-Manar: Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad warns of the consequences of any military strike against Syria by the United States, saying that his country will respond to this attack not only against Israel, but also Jordan and Turkey, if they were to participate in such an operation. He added that Syria would not change its stance even if a third world war broke out.