WikiLeaks: Almost 2.5 million Syrian cables to be published

WikiLeaks on Thursday began publishing more than two million emails from Syrian ministries of presidential affairs, foreign affairs, finance, information, transport, culture and companies .

The so-called 'Syria Files' show how the West and western countries "say one thing and do another" when it comes to dealing with the Assad regime, the self-appointed whistleblower site says.

The statement quoted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as saying: “The material is embarrassing to Syria, but it is also embarrassing to Syria’s opposition," Reuters news reported.

“It helps us not merely to criticize one group or another, but to understand their interests, actions and thoughts. It is only through understanding this conflict that we can hope to resolve it," the website’s founder Julian Assange said.

According to WikiLeaks , the emails date from August 2006 to March 2012.

It is worth to mention that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is currently holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in a bid to gain asylum.

Meanwhile, three senior Syrian officers, including a general, were assassinated Wednesday by gunmen in different parts of Syria, said the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) on Thursday.

A brigadier general was assassinated on the road linking the capital Damascus to Soueida, a Druze region in the south, and a colonel was killed in the province of Hama (center). The third officer, a commander, was killed on the road to Aleppo (north).

"Each of them was driving when they were fired upon by armed men," said the president of the SOHR Rami Abdel Rahman.

On Wednesday, at least 99 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the on going violence. The dead include two generals who were killed in the fighting.

Also on Wednesday, A Syrian general and a number of soldiers defected and crossed into Turkey, a Turkish diplomat told AFP.

The diplomat told to AFP that a total of 66 people fled into Turkey from Syria on Wednesday, including the general and two colonels as well as soldiers and their families.

More as it becomes available.

Sources: http://wikileaks.org/syria-files/

http://dawn.com/2012/07/05/syria-gunmen-kill-three-senior-officers-ngo/