Syrian protest

By Al Arabiya | 12 Jan 2013

Little Mohammad, who is no older than seven years, every day roams the streets of his Aleppo neighborhood looking for his parents who died in overnight shelling by Syrian regime forces.

Syria’s northern city of Aleppo, which was once known as the heart of the country’s economic power, has been under constant shelling by forces loyal to President Bashar Bashar al-Assad.

Every day, there are tragic stories about people losing their loved one in the violence that has gripped the country for almost two years. The story of Mohammad is no different.

By AFP | 09 Jan 2013

The Ottoman-era palace now serving as their school in the rebel-held part of Aleppo's historic center may have a gracious interior court and high ceilings.

But it's the walls, the solid stone walls, that are the reason the children are taking their classes there.

"This area isn't very safe. The frontline is just two streets from here. But this building is very high and its walls are fairly thick, which protects the children from the mortar rounds," says its principal, a theology studies graduate who goes by the name Abu Salam Mustafa.

By AFP | 07 Jan 2013

A defiant speech by President Bashar al-Assad calling for peace in Syria on his terms has met rejection by the opposition and internationally, with only his ally Iran on Monday backing his stance.

Assad’s plan was “detached from reality,” a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said, while Britain said Assad’s address was “empty”.

The office of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Europe’s position remained that Assad should step down to permit a political transition.

By Agencies | 03 Jan 20103

The United Nations has lifted the Syria conflict’s death toll to 60,000, in a dramatic indication of the brutal extent of the crackdown on the country during the uprising which developed into civil war.

U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said in Geneva that researchers cross-referencing seven sources over five months of analysis had listed 59,648 people killed in Syria between March 15, 2011 and Nov. 30, 2012.

By Agencies | 02 Jan 2013

A group of some 20 Syrian soldiers including a general defected from the army Tuesday and fled to Turkey, joining hundreds of other ex-troops from Syria’s military, a Turkish diplomat told AFP.

“The soldiers who fled to Turkey include a general, three colonels and several other officers,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

By Yara Bayoumy | Reuters | 31 Dec 2012

Gravediggers at the cemetery in the northern Syrian town of Azaz no longer wait for bombs to fall before they break the ground. The dead come too fast.

A war plane dropped two bombs that destroyed at least six houses on Saturday. Eleven people were killed, activists say. Some children were buried two to a grave to save space.

On Sunday morning the workers were back, digging fresh graves for the next victims, whoever they may be.

Source : Agencies | 26 Dec 2012

Turkey has confirmed that Syria's embattled president Bashar al-Assad has asked Venezuela for asylum for his family as opposition forces continue to make military gains on the ground.

According a report published by Turkey's Akşam daily on Wednesday, Turkish officials in Caracas visited the Foreign Ministry and inquired about the letter. The Venezuelan officials confirmed the letter but declined to give details on its content.

By Associated Press | 20 Dec 2012

It wasn’t exactly a break-up moment between Iran and ally Bashar Assad. But Tehran’s whiplash diplomacy over the weekend suggested its embrace of the Syrian president could be cooling.

Just a day after Iran’s foreign minister pledged unwavering support for the embattled Assad, officials in Tehran outlined on Sunday a step-by-step peace plan for Syria capped by elections that presumably could usher in a new leader in Damascus.

By AFP | 13 Dec 2012

A car bomb killed 16 people outside the Syrian capital on Thursday hours after a bombing wounded the interior minister as Damascus ally Moscow acknowledged the regime may lose the fight against rebels.

The latest bombing struck outside an army housing complex and near an elementary school, and children made up seven of the dead and many of the 23 wounded, state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

By Jon Queally | Agencies | 13 Dec 2012

In a move that notches up the potential for a western military intervention in Syria, the US government on Tuesday formally recognized factions of the armed opposition group facing off against President Bashar al-Assad in what has been an escalating and bloody civil war in the Middle East country.