Obama says to Iran return drone aircraft

The president said Monday that the Usa has asked Iran to come back a U.S. drone aircraft that Iran claims it recently brought down in Iranian territory.

"We've wanted it back. We'll observe how the Iranians respond," Obama said in a very news conference, alongside Iraqi Pm Nouri al-Maliki.

A top-notch Iranian military official previously vowed never to return the unmanned American stealth plane who's says it's.

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"No nation welcomes other countries' spy drones in their territory, with no one sends back the spying equipment and it is information time for the united states of origin," said Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy commander of Iran's military, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Sunday.

"It makes no difference where this drone originated and which group or country sent it to invade our airspace," Salami said. "This was an action of invasion and belligerence."

Shoes thrown at Iran's president

Cheney accuses Obama of neglecting to act

Mystery surrounds drone downed in Iran

Former U.S. Vp Dick Cheney on Monday criticized Obama's decisions on the drone, but also for an entirely different reason. He explained that, following your aircraft took place, obama really should have ordered an airstrike over Iran.

"The right reaction to that would are already to go in just after it had opted down and destroy it," the Republican, who served with President George W. Bush, told CNN's Erin Burnett. "You can perform that from the air ... and, essentially, help it become impossible to allow them to take advantage of having captured that drone."

Instead, "he asked nicely to enable them to return it, plus they aren't likely to," Cheney said.

American officials never have confirmed how the drone shown in a video released last Thursday by Iranian media is really a U.S. aircraft. But Pentagon spokesman George Little claims an American drone is missing along not been recovered.

Two U.S. officials have confirmed to CNN the missing drone was section of a CIA reconnaissance mission that involved both the intelligence community and military personnel stationed in Afghanistan.

Iran's official Iran Republic News Agency said the country's military had downed the drone near Kashmar, some 225 kilometers (140 miles) in the border with Afghanistan on December 4.

Salami said downing the plane was "very valuable for us" and "a victory for individuals along with a defeat for enemies," IRNA reported.

He also said Iran had downed other drones earlier but we hadn't announced those instances simply because they are not as vital.

Iranian TV has aired images of what it says is the drone, an apparently intact RQ-170 drone propped with a pedestal and triumphantly displayed.

One U.S. official said the us can't be certain it's the real stealth drone, because U.S. personnel do not have access to it. But he added there is not any reason to consentrate it is a fake. However, an additional senior U.S. military official declared that a major real question is to how a drone might have remained virtually intact due to the high altitude it is considered to have crashed from.

The health of the drone inside the video suggests it was not shot down but a break down system failure, aviation analyst Bill Sweetman said. There isn't any burn marks from your fire, no holes no outward damage. Sweetman noticed a dent down the industry leading but doesn't determine what this means.

"It's fairly clear here in the pictures how the outer wings are already separated. Now you ask ,, did which happen inside the accident or (did they take) them off and away to move the aircraft?" Sweetman asked.

Iran's U.N. ambassador said in a letter a week ago that the drone flew 250 kilometers (150 miles) into Iranian territory "to the northern region from the capital of scotland - Tabas."

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The letter from Ambasador Mohammad Khazaee to U.N. Secretary-Genera Ban Ki-moon as well as the heads of the General Assembly and Security Council said the drone "faced prompt and forceful action" from the armed forces.

"My government emphasizes that blatant and unprovoked air violation from the U . s . government is tantamount to an act of hostility against the Islamic Republic of Iran in clear contravention of international law, particularly, the essential tenets in the U . n . Charter," Khazaee's letter said.

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He necessary U.N. condemnation of U.S. "acts of aggression," along with "clear and effective measures being taken up finish these dangerous and unlawful acts in line with the United Nations' responsibilities to keep international and regional peace and security."

Syrian uprising in UN 5,000 killed

As explosions and gunfire continued to ripple in Syria, the U . n . high commissioner for human rights on Monday raised the death toll through the Damascus government's crackdown on anti-regime activists to seal to five,000 people.



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"This situation is intolerable," Navi Pillay said inside a briefing for that U.N. Security Council.

Within 24 hours that Pillay spoke, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as well as a resident of Homs -- an opposition hotbed and frequent site of violence although in the past -- reported a gas pipeline exploded close to the city, following by gunfire and circulating military airplanes.

The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, or SANA, played up local elections Monday just as one expression of "democracy and free will." Yet the Homs resident said there was no proof voting in this city. Instead, this witness reported nonstop shooting and bombardments.

Such violence is certainly not new in Syria, with Pillay reporting more than 200 individuals have died during the last 10 days and "the Syrian population continues to are in fear of further violent repression."

The Syrian government, meanwhile, has consistently blamed the violence on "armed terrorist" gang members and denied any efforts to peaceful civilians.

CNN cannot independently confirm events for the reason that Syrian government restricts access of international media towards the country.
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Pillay said Monday that "the nature and scale of abuses" indicate that Syrian forces likely committed "crimes against humanity." Citing reliable sources, she said a lot more than 300 in the dead are actually children "killed by state forces."

Several defectors from military and security forces said they were given orders "to shoot unarmed protesters suddenly," based on Pillay.

"Independent, credible and corroborated accounts demonstrate these abuses have taken place in a widespread and systematic attack on civilians," she said.

Homs is a huge regular flash point. As nightfall arrived Monday, many city residents attended bed afraid the steady waves of violence could soon cave in to a historic siege.

Opposition figures said the Syrian government had warned people in Homs to halt anti-government protests, return weapons and surrender defecting military members by Monday night -- or face attack by government forces.

Syrian forces gave a 72-hour warning, said Lt. Col. Mohamed Hamdo in the Free Syrian Army, an opposition group of defected Syrian military personnel. Activists in the grass said the ultimatum was issued Friday for Homs.

The government have not acknowledged any deadline for Homs in state-run media.

Hamdo said you can find concerns in regards to a repeat products happened in 1982, when Syria's military -- acting under orders from then-President Hafez al-Assad, father of current Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad -- launched an assault on the capital of scotland- Hama, killing thousands.

"People are incredibly afraid," said Wissam Tarif, a person rights activist in Beirut, Lebanon, with all the organization Avaaz, that's in contact with people in Syria.

You can find enough troops around Homs "to dominate the city," he was quoted saying, and casualties are actually increasing "in huge numbers" within the last couple of days. Hamdo said the military has dug trenches around Homs and largely make the grade off.

"There isn't electricity, water, along with the communication line is much worse. The meal supply can be decreasing, due to the fact little your meals are planning," he explained.

The Syrian government denied reports of water and electricity being outside in the location, as outlined by a SANA report.

In reality, besides a tale about seven "army, security and police martyrs" being buried Monday, state-run media failed to report much on such dire conditions or violence.

Rather, state TV painted a photo of normalcy, with reports of local elections under way across the nation.

SANA noted that 3,000 candidates are vying for seats inside the Homs region alone. It billed the elections within the "process to build institutions, promoting democracy inside them for hours the comprehensive reform process led by President Bashar al-Assad."

Activist groups, though, offered an alternative story.

The Local Coordination Committees of Syria, a network of opposition activists in the united states, said Monday the Syrian army and security forces killed 21 people, including four ladies and three children. Thirteen from the deaths were in Homs, three were in Hama, three in Damascus suburbs as well as in Idlib.

And fierce clashes broke out between security forces and defectors in the cities of Daraa and Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which collects information from people in different parts of the nation.

Hamdo, from the Free Syrian Army said, "We conducted an operation late yesterday against the Syrian forces in Idlib and killed eight ones and injured 22. Two of our men are critically injured."

He also said Syrian forces were conducting mass arrests of shop owners who shut their stores Sunday included in a nationwide anti-government strike.

The Syrian government, via SANA, on Sunday quoted people saying there was no strike with no symbol of a strike.

The very last nine months has seen a regular flow of clashes, amid reported government push-back against activists demanding democratic elections along with the end of al-Assad's regime. Al-Assad has been around power since 2000; his father ruled Syria for three decades.

World leaders and diplomats have widely condemned Syria's crackdown and called onto it to halt violence against the opposition.

The Arab League announced it will hold emergency meetings now in Cairo. In a very statement on Egypt's state-run MENA news agency, an Arab League official said leaders will "discuss the Arab response to a note from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem to approve the signing of an agreement on an Arab League observing mission to Syria with conditions."

Pillay's report especially drew strong responses from representative countries' ambassadors towards the U . n ..

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Britain's ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, referred to it as "the most horrifying briefing that we've been in the protection Council during the last 2 yrs," citing the 1000s of deaths and "tens of thousands of detentions, rapes, torture (and) violations of abuses right through the system from the Syrian regime.

German Ambassador Peter Wittig said his country is "shocked and appalled" with the U.N. human rights branch's look at the problem, calling it "unbearable" that the Security Council appears "condemned to be silent on Syria."

"We share the assessment the Syrian security forces have committed crimes against humanity this season," he was quoted saying. "And the world thinks the Syrian authorities didn't work their international obligations of human rights law."