05/18/2013 - #Syria - Homs, Al Qusayr - Regime jet air raid on Qusayr
05/17/2013 - #Syria - Aleppo - Regime shells the outskirts of the prison with phosphorus (via @Syriansmurf)
05/11/2013 - #Syria - Dar’aa - FSA deny regime control of Kherbet Ghazali:
We deny all the rumors that Assad’s forces took control of Kerbet Ghazali, or that the FSA has withdrawn from the area.
Where are we guys? Kherbet Ghazali!
Minaret of Aleppo’s Umayyad mosque destroyed - #Syria
The minaret of Aleppo’s ancient Umayyad mosque was destroyed on Wednesday, Syrian state media and a watchdog group reported, with the regime and rebels blaming each other.
“Terrorists from Jabhat al-Nusra blow up the minaret of the Grand Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo,” Syrian state television reported, saying rebels were seeking to “accuse the Syrian Arab Army” of carrying out the attack.
Activists uploaded video shot at the scene, showing the collapsed minaret, and rebels in the area said the army was responsible.
“Tanks began firing in the direction of the minaret until it was destroyed,” one rebel said in a video uploaded on YouTube, insisting that rebel snipers were not stationed inside the minaret.
“We were afraid that it would be targeted,” he said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the collapse of the minaret at the mosque, in Aleppo’s Old City.
“The minaret of the Umayyad Mosque, around which violent clashes have raged in recent weeks, collapsed,” the group said.
There was no video immediately available showing the moment the minaret collapsed.
An archaeological treasure in Aleppo’s UNESCO-listed Old City, the mosque has been the center of fighting in recent months and already suffered extensive damage.
It recently came back into rebel hands, but has been left pockmarked by bullets and stained with soot.
Antique furnishings and intricately sculpted colonnades have been charred, valuable Islamic relics ransacked and ancient artifacts — including a box purported to contain a strand of the Prophet Mohammed’s hair — looted.
Rebels say they have managed to salvage ancient handwritten Koranic manuscripts and have hidden them.
04/24/2013 - AFP
Fierce clashes at Syria’s Minnigh airport, NGO says - #Syria
Syria rebels were early Wednesday battling regime troops inside the Minnigh military airport in the north of the country for the first time, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“The rebels, who have laid siege to the airport for months now, entered it for the first time around dawn,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
“Heavy fighting is still taking place this morning inside the grounds of the airport,” he said.
The rebels on Tuesday took a key military position outside the airport, in Aleppo province, which allowed them to launch a raid on the facility.
A group of regime-allied fighters who attempted to reach the airport to boost government troops there were intercepted by Kurdish fighters who killed nine of them, the Observatory said.
Rebel fighters have tried multiple times to take the Minnigh airport, a key military facility in Aleppo province.
Since the beginning of the year, rebel forces have been fighting what they call the “battle of the airports in Aleppo” in a bid to deprive the regime of a key supply route.
Rebels have set their sights on the Aleppo international airport, along with the Jarrah, Kwiyres, Minnigh and Nayrab military airports. They took the Jarrah military airport on February 12.
04/24/2013 - NOW
‘Top pro-regime cleric killed’ in Syria blast
A large explosion has hit a mosque in the centre of Damascus, killing Dr Mohammed Saeed Ramadan al-Bouti, a senior pro-regime Sunni cleric, state television has said.
Syria TV said on Thursday that a “terrorist suicide blast” had hit the Iman mosque in central Damascus.
“Senior cleric Dr Mohammed Saeed Ramadan al-Bouti was martyred in a terrorist suicide attack at the Iman Mosque in Mazraa in Damascus,” the station said, adding that there were reports of more dead and wounded.
Residents contacted in the area said they believed the explosion may have been caused by a mortar bomb which exploded near a political party office.
03/21/2013
Opposition chief urges world to act on #Syria
Syria’s opposition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib on Saturday slammed world governments for failing to act to stop the bloodshed in Syria, nearly two years into a war that has left some 70,000 people dead.
Khatib made the remarks as he took part in Cairo in a demonstration which he described as “a message of protest to all governments of the world, Arab and non-Arab, that can see how the Syrian people are being killed, while they merely look on.”
“All the administrations of the world can see what is happening… We cannot visit any country until there is a clear decision on this savage, aggressive regime,” Khatib told the Dubai-based Al-Aan pan-Arab television in Cairo.
On Friday the opposition coalition said it will boycott an upcoming Friends of Syria meeting in Rome and cancelled planned visits to Washington and Moscow citing the “shameful” inaction of the international community.
The opposition wants world governments to turn into action their statements of support for the uprising against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and are also seeking military assistance for rebels fighting the regime.
The UN Security Council has been blocked from acting on Syria by Russian and Chinese vetoes, while Western powers have become more hesitant to help the armed opposition to Assad’s regime for fear of the rise of radical Islamist groups.
Earlier, National Coalition spokesman Walid al-Bunni told France 24’s Arabic-language channel that the United States must honor promises of support for democracy in Syria.
“Our visit to Washington is on hold until Washington takes a stance that is in accordance with US statements on its support for democracy,” Bunni said.
“The United States is a leading force in the world, as are France, Britain and the European Union. All these have been unable to stop a butcher from committing massacres against our people,” he said, referring to Assad.
“We cannot continue listening to statements that are not accompanied by action… The world has a responsibility to protect [the Syrian people] from a butcher who has been slaughtering them for two years,” Bunni added.
02/23/2013
Damascus rebel belts shelled - #Syria
Syrian forces on Friday shelled rebel belts on the eastern and southern outskirts of Damascus where street battles also erupted, a watchdog said, as an army offensive continued for a third straight day.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Jubar district in the east and nearby Qaboon were heavily shelled, as were the Hajar al-Aswad, Qadam, Assali neighborhoods in the south.
Fighting between rebels and President Bashar al-Assad’s forces erupted at dawn around the Yarmuk camp for Palestinian refugees to the south of the capital, the Britain-based watchdog said.
It added that six rebels were killed in shelling that occurred at dawn in the city of Moadamiyeh, just south of the capital, while another rebel bastion, Daraya also in the south, was also hit by the regime’s artillery.
Clashes erupted at several places along the highway running through the capital’s eastern and southern districts, the Observatory said.
The Zamlaka neighborhood, also in the east, was bombed by government jets as clashes between loyalists and rebels erupted.
The army on Tuesday launched a major offensive against rebel zones surrounding Damascus as it sought to break the military stalemate in Syria’s almost 23-month conflict, which began as a popular uprising against Assad.
Pro-regime newspaper Al-Watan said this week that the army was “determined to crush terrorism around the capital and big cities.”
Loyalists troops made ground in the country’s north, retaking Karnaz on the strategic Damascus-Aleppo highway on Wednesday after a 16-day onslaught, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Observatory.
The outgunned rebel “fighters withdrew from Karnaz, which they seized in December last year, after heavy fighting,” he told AFP.
Opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib has offered to hold peace talks with Syria’s Vice President Faruq al-Sharaa, but Damascus has so far ignored the offer and has intensified attacks on rebel bastions.
The United Nations says more than 60,000 people have been killed in violence across Syria since the outbreak of a revolt in March 2011 that morphed into an insurgency after the army launched a brutal crackdown on dissent.
12/21/12 - #Syria - SCUD missile fired by regime forces
This video uploaded by activist contains footage purporting to show Scud missiles being fired by Syrian forces.
Activists say the footage was leaked by President Bashar al-Assad forces.
If verified, the footage further confirms NATO’s statement regarding its detection of fired Scud-type missiles against rebel forces.
