have been found, but not their parachutes. The Turkish cabinet discussed the crisis on Monday, a day before NATO ambassadors in Brussels were due to consider their response. Ankara has invoked Article 4 of NATO’s charter, under which consultations can be requested when an ally feels its security is threatened. More than 33,000 people have fled into Turkey since Syria’s violence began i…
says. In Damascus, another vital battleground in the war, army sources said rebels had been pushed from a last stronghold. The rebels said they had withdrawn. Meanwhile, Iran is seeking the release of 48 Iranians kidnapped on Saturday. Iranian diplomats and Syrian state television blamed the abduction, which took place near the shrine of Sayyida Zainab in a suburb of Damascus, on “armed grou…
…that Iran also be allowed to attend, a move strongly opposed by the US and its allies. The UN says at least 10,000 people have died in the uprising that began in March 2011. The Syrian government says 6,143 Syrian citizens have been killed by “terrorist groups” since. The main rebel fighting group, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), has become increasingly better organized – and armed &…
…40s, is a commander of a unit of the elite Republican Guard. As a young man he attended military training with President Bashar al-Assad. Gen. Manaf Tlas has been under a form of home arrest since May 2011 because he opposed the security solution that the regime has been implementing, sources say. He also was the first government official to meet the opposition back last year to try to start a dia…
…meeting being held in Qatar this weekend. The US is hoping a new leadership will help unify the disparate opposition elements and bring a successful conclusion to an uprising that has killed more than 36,000 people since protests against President Bashar al-Assad erupted in March 2011. Divisions have arisen not just between Islamist and secularist groups, but also between those operating inside Sy…
Syrian PM Wael al-Halqi has survived a car bomb attack targeting his convoy in western Mazzeh district of Damascus, state television said. There are also reported to be a number of casualties. UK-based activist group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Wael Halqi’s bodyguard had been killed, AFP news agency reported. The blast is believed to have been a suicide attack. Syrian PM…
of 90 deaths are confirmed, this would be one of the deadliest air strikes of the civil war. Rebels have been fighting President Bashar al-Assad for 21 months, with opposition groups saying more than 44,000 people have been killed. The latest violence comes as the joint United Nations-Arab League special envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, arrived in Damascus to discuss ways to end the unrest. One a…
…ernment troops might also have used chemical weapons, but said further investigation was needed. She gave no details of when or where sarin may have been used. Her commission was established in August 2011 to examine alleged violations of human rights in the Syrian conflict since March 2011 and is due to issue its latest report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in June. A separate United Na…
…EU foreign ministers agreed to freeze the assets of 26 individuals and three firms close to the Syrian government. They will be added to a blacklist which already contains the names of 129 people and 49 entities. EU member states will also be required to send inspectors to board planes and ships believed to be carrying weapons or suspicious supplies to Damascus. The inspections will only take pla…
…arch 2011. The UN said in May that at least 10,000 people had been killed. Syria blames the violence on foreign-backed “armed terrorist gangs”. In June, the Syrian government reported that 6,947 Syrians had died, including at least 3,211 civilians and 2,566 security forces personnel. …
…n groups agreed a deal to bring together their disparate factions. The fractious opposition has been under pressure from the US and other backers in the region to clinch a deal. Sheikh Moaz al-Khatib, 52, left Damascus for Cairo in July after several periods of detention by the Syrian authorities. He had earlier attempted to bring the conflict to an end and in an interview with Reuters news agency…
…jets was shot down by Syrian security forces Relations between Turkey and Syria, once close allies, have deteriorated sharply since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011. The Turkish military said it lost radio contact with the F-4 at 11:58 local time on Friday while it was flying over Hatay, about 90 minutes after it took off from Erhac airbase in the province…
…oons of the Prophet Muhammad Feelings in the Islamic world have already been running high over amateur video Innocence of Muslims mocking the Prophet Muhammad, which emerged in the US this month. Some 30 people have died in violent protests over the film. Concern has been expressed by the White House over the decision to publish the cartoons. The complaint against Charlie Hebdo was filed on Wednes…
Abdullah Mahmoud al-Khalidi, a senior Syrian air force general, has been killed in a Damascus suburb, state television reports. Abdullah Mahmoud al-Khalidi was shot dead late on Monday in the capital’s Rukn al-Din district, it said. The attack appears to be the latest in a string of rebel attacks on high-level figures from President Bashar al-Assad’s administration. In July a bomb kil…
nd drowned as she drunkenly tried to tie up a dinghy against the boat. According to a witness whose account has never been disclosed, Natalie Wood was screaming for help as she drowned Marilyn Wayne, 68, believes new statements from her and Dennis Davern, skipper of the Splendour, had triggered the latest police probe. She said: “I have been waiting for years for them to take my account ser…
Two more senior Syrian diplomats have defected amid mounting pressure on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, the US has confirmed. Syria’s representatives in the United Arab Emirates and Cyprus – who are husband and wife – are reported to have fled to Qatar. It comes amid intensifying clashes in the key city of Aleppo, where troops are trying to halt a rebel advance. UN mem…
Dear friends, This morning, 4 western journalists are home safe with their families, the echoes of the horror and heroism of Baba Amr still ringing in their ears. Over 50 Syrian activists, supported by Avaaz, volunteered to rescue them and scores of wounded civilians from the Syrian army’s killzone. Many of those incredible activists have not survived the week. Abu Hanin is one of the her…
Lindsay Lohan’s father made it clear he’s not a fan of Mark Heller, his daughter’s attorney, before the star arrived for her Monday hearing in Los Angeles. Objecting to Mark Heller’s presence in the middle of the hearing, Michael Lohan asked him: “Why are you still up there?!” The 52-year-old celebrity father then launched a vitriolic attack on Mark Heller as he left the courtho…
…e action against Syria, he adds. Relations between NATO-member Turkey and Syria, once close allies, have deteriorated sharply since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011. Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have fled the violence across the border into Turkey. Inside Syria, the violence continued on Thursday with state media reporting that “armed terroris…
A warplane has attacked a petrol station in the north-east of Syria, killing at least 30 people, opposition activists say. A rebel group said people had been queuing for petrol and diesel near Ain Issa at the time. The village is some 20 miles (32 km) from the Tal al-Abyad border post, seized by rebels on Wednesday after a lengthy battle with government forces. The number of casualties was expect…
te TV. UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said initial investigations had suggested that most of those killed in the village of Taldou, near Houla, were summarily executed. Rupert Colville said 49 children and 34 women were among the victims. UN observers who visited Taldou said many of the victims had been killed by close-range gunfire or knife attacks. Eyewitnesses said pro-government sha…
…s. According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 74 people were killed across Syria on Monday. An activist website, the Violations Documenting Centre, said there had been 29 deaths in the past week from bombardment in al-Haffa. All but three of the dead were civilians, it added. These reports cannot be confirmed independently because Syria heavily restricts journalist…
…er details. Kofi Annan’s spokesman, Ahmed Fawzi, said on Tuesday that an advance team from the UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) would arrive in Damascus “in the next 48 hours” to discuss the deployment of international monitors. The team would be made up of five to six people, he added. The announcement comes the day after Kofi Annan urged the UN Security C…
…some areas three weeks ago. Aleppo is Syria’s largest city, and Salah al-Din is considered a vital supply route for government troops coming from the south. The Syrian Observatory said at least 26 people were killed in Aleppo on Wednesday – it said they were among 130 people killed across the country. Meanwhile, three days after Prime Minister Riad Hijab defected to the opposition, th…
…mi. At the table will be envoys from Saudi Arabia and Qatar – leading backers of the rebels in Syria. The mandate of the United Nations observer mission in Syria – which now comprises some 150 observers – is due to run out in a week’s time. But UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says there still need to be people on the ground to make impartial assessments of the military sit…
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