Following rebel gains, the leader of the Syrian opposition made his first visit on Sunday to areas near the embattled northern city of Aleppo as fighters trying to oust President Bashar al Assad captured a police academy and a border crossing along the frontier with Iraq. ...
04:19 AM, Mar 04, 2013
Beirut: A video that appears to show a unit of Syrian rebels kicking terrified, captured soldiers and then executing them with machine guns raised concerns Friday about rebel brutality at a time when the United States is making its strongest push yet to forge an opposition movement it can work with. UN officials and human rights groups believe President Bashar Assad's regime is responsible for the bulk of suspected war...
02:53 AM, Nov 03, 2012
Geneva: Up to 700,000 Syrian refugees may flee abroad by the end of the year, the UN refugee agency said on Thursday, nearly quadrupling its previous forecast for the exodus from the deepening crisis. Most faced what was likely to be a bitterly cold winter living in tents with little prospect of returning to their homeland, it said. The agency urged Western donors to help raise nearly $500 million to...
01:18 AM, Sep 28, 2012
Beirut: Two Syrian activist groups say about 5,000 people were killed in Syria in August, making it the deadliest month since the uprising began more than 17 months ago. Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday that 5,440 people, including 4,114 civilians were killed. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said 4,933 civilians were killed in August. The civil war witnessed a major turning point in August...
11:19 PM, Sep 02, 2012
Beirut: Syrian state-run news agency SANA says President Bashar Assad has appointed a new prime minister to replace one who defected this week to neighboring Jordan. Assad appointed Wael Nader al-Halqi, elevating him from the post of health minister. Halqi is a member of Assad's ruling Baath party and hails from the southern city of Daraa, birthplace of the Syrian uprising. The 48-year-old held the post of secretary general of...
05:27 PM, Aug 09, 2012
Anadan: The guards pulled him from his cell before dawn on Monday, bound his hands, blindfolded him and drove him to an empty lot in the Syrian city of Aleppo. They sat him in a row with 10 other captives, he said, then cocked their guns and opened fire. "They sprayed us," recalled 21-year-old Mahmoud, the lone survivor of the latest mass killing of Syria's civil war. "The first bullet...
04:39 AM, Aug 07, 2012
United Nations: The reported brutality in Syria's biggest city, Aleppo, where forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebels continue to face off in bloody clashes, may amount to crimes against humanity, the UN chief said on Friday. "As we meet here, Aleppo ... is the epicenter of a vicious battle between the Syrian government and those who wish to replace it," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the 193-nation UN...
01:41 AM, Aug 04, 2012
Beirut: The Syrian regime threatened on Monday to use its chemical and biological weapons in case of a foreign attack, in its first ever acknowledgement that it possesses weapons of mass destruction. Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi vowed, however, that Damascus would not use its unconventional arms against its own citizens. The announcement comes as Syria faces international isolation, a tenacious rebellion that has left at least 19,000 people dead...
06:28 PM, Jul 23, 2012
Damascus: Syria's 16-month bloodbath crossed an important symbolic threshold on Sunday as the international Red Cross formally declared the conflict a civil war, a status with implications for potential war crimes prosecutions. The Red Cross statement came as UN observers gathered new details on what happened in a village where dozens were reported killed in a regime assault. After a second visit to Tremseh on Sunday, the team said Syrian...
07:56 AM, Jul 16, 2012
Beirut: Syria says the year-old revolt to topple President Bashar al-Assad is over, but the army again shelled opposition areas on Saturday and rebels said they would not cease fire until tanks, artillery and heavy weapons are withdrawn. Washington and Gulf Arab states urged peace envoy Kofi Annan to set a timeline for "next steps" if there is no ceasefire, and Saudi Arabia repeated a call for rebels to be...
02:56 AM, Apr 01, 2012
Beirut: Syrians closed their businesses and kept children home from school on Monday as part of a general strike, a powerful show of civil disobedience to pressure President Bashar Assad to end his 9-month-old crackdown on a popular uprising. The open-ended strike takes direct aim at the country's already ailing economy. It is designed to erode Assad's main base of support - the new and vibrant merchant classes who have...
01:29 AM, Dec 13, 2011
London: Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad has warned that Western military action against his country could cause an 'earthquake' that could create 'another Afghanistan' and burn the whole of the Middle East. His warning came hours after UN chief Ban Ki-moon asked Syria to 'immediately' end attacks on civilians, saying the violence is 'unacceptable.' Western countries "are going to ratchet up the pressure, definitely," Assad told the UK's Sunday Telegraph...
03:37 PM, Oct 30, 2011
Beirut: Western powers risk causing an earthquake across the Middle East if they intervene in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad said, after protesters called for foreign protection from a crackdown in which 3,000 people have been killed. Assad's warning came ahead of Syrian government talks on Sunday with the Arab League aimed at starting a dialogue between the government and opposition and ending violence which has escalated across Syria in recent...
07:50 AM, Oct 30, 2011
Beirut: At least 31 people were killed across Syria in the latest wave of violence, notably clashes between gunmen believed to be army deserters and troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, a Syrian activist group said on Monday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday's death toll included 17 members of the army and security forces as well as 14 civilians, many of them in the opposition hotbed of...
03:39 AM, Oct 11, 2011
Beirut: Syria's foreign minister warned the international community on Sunday not to recognize a new umbrella council formed by the opposition, threatening "tough measures" against any country that does so. Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem did not specify what measures Damascus might take. But he went on to say that countries that do not protect Syrian missions could find their own embassies treated in the same way. "We will take tough...
10:28 PM, Oct 09, 2011
Beirut: Syrian security forces opened fire on protesters in several parts of the country on Friday, killing at least eight people and wounding scores, while masked gunmen burst into an apartment in the predominantly Kurdish northeast and shot dead one of Syria's most prominent opposition figures. Another leading opposition figure was beaten up by pro-government gunmen and rushed to a hospital in Damascus, activists said. The slaying of Mashaal Tammo,...
02:27 AM, Oct 08, 2011
Amman: Syrian forces shelled residential districts in Latakia on Monday, residents said, the third day of an assault on Sunni neighbourhoods of the ancient port city which had seen mounting protests against President Bashar al-Assad's autocratic rule. Assad, from Syria's minority Alawite sect, has broadened a military assault to try to crush a five-month street uprising demanding his removal since the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan on...
09:21 PM, Aug 15, 2011
Amman: Syrian security forces killed at least 14 civilians in attacks on tens of thousands of protesters who marched against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad on the first Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, activists said. Local Coordination Committees, an activists' organisation, said seven of the protesters were killed in the capital's eastern suburb of Erbin, one in Mouadhamiya, a southwestern suburb 30 km (19 miles) from...
02:03 AM, Aug 06, 2011
Beirut: Syrian troops tightened their siege on the city of Hama on Tuesday, sending residents fleeing for their lives and drawing a fresh wave of international condemnation against a regime defying the growing calls to end its crackdown on anti-government protesters. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with US-based Syrian democracy activists as the Obama administration weighed new sanctions on Syria. Congressional calls also mounted for action against President...
01:50 AM, Aug 03, 2011
West is pushing for a resolution condemning President Bashar Al Assad for a brutal crackdown on protesters. ...
09:08 PM, Aug 01, 2011
