Bashar Al Assad

Source : AFP | Istanbul | 25 Jul 2012

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Syrian opposition was close to victory, and warned that Ankara was ready to respond to any “hostile” action by the Damascus regime.

“We think that the Syrian people are closer than ever to victory,” Erdogan said at a dinner on Monday, according to the Anatolia news agency.

“This bloody regime in Syria is bound to leave sooner or later. What’s more, the ruthless killings committed in panic in recent days show the world that the Syrian regime is on the road to oblivion.”

Source : Agencies | 24 Jul 2012

It took more than three weeks to reach it and cost the lives of 12 of his men, but when Abu Omar Dadikhi and his rebels finally marched through the Syrian border post separating their town from Turkey, the "Gate of Peace" fell without a fight.

For 24 days Dadikhi and his Free Syrian Army brigade, The Storm of the North, pushed slowly forward from their town of Azaz only five km (three miles) away, choking the supply lines to government troops before seizing the gate at dawn on Sunday.

By Joseph Klein | FrontPage | 23 Jul 2012

Russia and China predictably vetoed the proposed United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing sanctions against the Syrian regime, which was submitted for a vote on July 19th by the United Kingdom.

Source : Reuters | Beirut | 21 Jul 2012

A fourth member of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s inner circle died yesterday from a bomb attack this week and his forces fought to recapture border posts and parts of Damascus from fighters who have converged on the capital, with the raging clashes entering its sixth day.

As refugees flooded across Syria’s borders and UN officials said they had heard banks in Damascus had run out of cash, Russia’s envoy to Paris added to a sense Assad’s days were numbered by saying he had accepted he would have to leave power.

Source : Agencies | Amman | 20 Jul 2012

Amid an outrage over Russia and China's double veto of a UN resolution on Syria, Syrian opposition leaders declared that regime of Bashar Assad is in its last days as rebel forces seized control of the nation's borders on Thursday.

Syrian National Council chief Abdel Basset Sayda warned that yesterday's veto by Russia and China at the UN would have "disastrous" consequences.

The UK, US and France said the UN had failed the people of Syria.

By Bassem Mroue | AP Beirut | 18 Jul 2012

A suicide bomber struck the National Security building in Damascus Wednesday killing the Syrian defence minister, Daoud Rajha, during a meeting of Cabinet ministers and senior security officials, state-run media said.

Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat has been killed and the Syrian Interior minister and wounded according to Hizbollah's Al-Manar TV. Republican Guard troops have sealed off Shami Hospital in Damascus after ambulances brought casualties from the explosion site according to activists.

By Erika Solomon and Mariam Karouny | Reuters | Beirut | 17 Jul 2012

Clashes in Damascus between rebels and state forces raged for a third day on Tuesday, in the fiercest fighting to hit Syria's seat of power since the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad began 17 months ago.

Security forces and armored vehicles surrounded rebellious areas such as the southern district of Midan but have been unable to rout opposition fighters, activists say.

Source : AFP | Damascus | 16 Jul 2012

Syria’s army blasted rebel strongholds in Damascus with mortars Sunday, sparking the “most intense” fighting in the capital since the revolt erupted 16 months ago, a monitoring group said.

The army’s offensive, aimed at driving rebels of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) out of Damascus, was launched soon after Syria’s foreign ministry held a press conference to deny its troops had carried out a massacre in Treimsa village.

By Mariam Karouny | Reuters | Beirut | 12 Jul 2012

Syria’s ambassador to Iraq defected on Wednesday in protest over President Bashar Assad’s violent suppression of a 16-month uprising as the UN Security Council remained deadlocked over the next steps in the crisis.

“I declare that I have joined, from this moment, the ranks of the revolution of the Syrian people,” Nawah Al-Fares said in a video statement posted on Facebook. He did not elaborate or say from where he had posted the statement.

Source : Agencies | Damascus | 09 Jul 2012

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday warned that time was running out for the Syrian regime and it needed to start a political transition to save the country from a "catastrophic assault."

"It should be abundantly clear to those who support the Assad regime their days are numbered," Clinton told reporters on the sidelines of a conference on Afghanistan in Tokyo.