Bashar Al Assad
West expels Syrian envoys
Source : AFP | Damascus | 30 May 2012
Western governments ordered out top Syrian diplomats yesterday in protest at the killing of at least 108 people in a central town last week as international envoy Kofi Annan met President Bashar Assad in a bid to rescue his battered peace plan.
The apparently coordinated moves by the European Union, the United States and other governments including Australia and Canada overshadowed the Syrian government’s efforts to talk up the progress made in the crunch meeting between the UN-Arab League envoy and Assad.
Terrible Massacre Will Be the Beginning of a Long Civil War in Syria
By : Patrick Cockburn | The Independent | 28 May 2012
Parts of Syria are convulsed by civil war, while in other areas life continues almost as normal. At the same moment as more than 30 children had their throats cut and dozens of civilians were killed by shelling in Houla in central Syria on Friday, people in Damascus were picnicking on the slopes of Mount Qassioun, overlooking the capital.
Syria Massacre Draws Condemnation as Russia Sides With Assad
By : Flavia Krause-Jackson and Donna Abu-Nasr | Bloomberg | 28 May 2012
The massacre of more than 100 people in the Syrian town of Houla drew international condemnation as Russia, which sells weapons to President Bashar al-Assad, sought to deflect blame from Assad's armed forces.
Tensions rise in Lebanon after cleric’s killing
Source : Reuters | Tripoli | 21 May 2012
Lebanese soldiers shot dead a Sunni cleric and a second member of a Lebanese political alliance against Syrian President Bashar Assad in northern Lebanon yesterday, security sources said.
Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahid and Khaled Miraib, members of the March 14 alliance, were shot in their car as they sped through an army checkpoint without stopping, the sources said.
Residents of the northern region of Akkar said that they had blocked off roads to protest against the deaths.
US tells G8 Syria’s Assad must go, cites Yemen as model
Source : Arab News | Camp David | 21 May 2012
President Barack Obama told G8 leaders meeting at Camp David that Syrian President Bashar Assad must leave power, and pointed to Yemen as a model of how political transition could work there, the White House said on Saturday.
Ben Rhodes, an Obama deputy national security adviser, said the recent focus on securing access for UN monitors and keeping track of cease-fires had distracted from the fundamental problems in Syria, where Assad, whose father ruled the country before him, has been attacking protesters for 14 months.
Syrian opposition chief: Peace plan in ‘crisis’
By Bassem Mroue | AP | 11 May 2012
A Syrian opposition leader said Friday the regime is trying to destroy a UN-brokered peace plan for the country. The accusations came as security forces fanned out following twin suicide car bombings that killed 55 people in Damascus.
The bombings fueled fears of a rising Islamic militant element among those seeking to oust President Bashar Assad and dealt a further blow to international efforts to end the bloodshed. Assad’s government blamed the blasts on armed terrorists it says are driving the uprising.
UN convoy attacked in Syria; 7 killed
By Reuters | Amman | 09 May 2012
Syrian rebels killed at least seven pro-government militiamen in a Damascus suburb yesterday, activists said, and an explosion wounded eight soldiers escorting UN cease-fire observers in the southern province of Daraa.
The Damascus attack with rocket-propelled grenades on a bus carrying the fighters through the suburb of Irbin prompted the army to seal off the area and respond with shelling, activist Mohammad Saeed said.
Syrian opposition boycotts elections
Source : Agencies | Damascus | 08 May 2012
Syria's government said voters turned out in large numbers on Monday for a parliamentary election it sees as central to its reform programme, but opposition supporters denounced the exercise as a sham and reported more fighting between rebels and troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
In Washington, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the unrelenting bloodshed "totally unacceptable and intolerable."
4 students killed as Syrian forces raid university
By Elizabeth A. Kennedy | AP | Beirut | 04 May 2012
Syrian forces stormed student dormitories during an anti-government protest at Aleppo University Thursday, firing tear gas and bullets in an hours-long siege that killed at least four students and forced the closure of the state-run school, activists said.
Syria violence kills 23 despite UN-monitored truce
By Erika Solomon | Reuters | Beirut | 01 May 2012
Violence erupted in two Syrian provinces on Tuesday, with a rights group reporting 10 civilians dead in an army mortar attack and 12 soldiers killed in a fire-fight with rebel gunmen as UN monitors sought to shore up a shaky cease-fire.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the 13-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad, said nine members of one family died in mortar bomb blasts in a village in the northern province of Idlib.
