Syria
Latest stories
Israel Wants World Action in Syria to Stop Conflict Spread

Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon called Thursday for "massive intervention" by the international community in Syria to prevent the conflict there engulfing neighbors Lebanon and Iraq.

"The longer the wait, the more chaos and victims there will be," Ayalon told a small group of journalists in Paris ahead of talks with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

W140 Full Story
Report: Assad May Be Granted Clemency by Britain, U.S.

Syrian President Bashar Assad may be granted safe passage or even clemency by the United States and Britain if he agrees to join peace talks in Syria likely to be held in Geneva, reported the Guardian on Thursday.

It said that Britain and the U.S. are willing to make this offer as part of diplomatic pressure aimed at holding the conference in Geneva.

W140 Full Story
Pope Warns Full-Blown Conflict in Syria Would Affect Region

Syria risks descending into a full-blown conflict which would affect the entire region, Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday as he called on the international community to act.

"There should not be any effort spared... in getting Syria out of the current situation of violence and crisis... which risks becoming a generalized conflict which would have very negative consequences for the country and whole region," he said.

W140 Full Story
Four RPGs from Syria Land in Hermel Village

Four rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) fired from Syrian territory landed in a village in the Bekaa region of Hermel.

The rockets landed in the village of al-Msharrafeh and were fired during a clash in the Syrian town of Qusayr.

W140 Full Story
Jordan Grants Asylum to Defecting Syrian Pilot

Jordan granted political asylum to a Syrian pilot on Thursday hours after he landed his jet at a military air base in the kingdom, in the first such air force defection in the 15-month revolt.

"The council of ministers has decided to grant the pilot, Colonel Hassan Merei al-Hamade, political asylum, on his request," Information Minister Samih Maaytah told Agence France Presse.

W140 Full Story
NGO: More than 15,000 Killed in Syria Conflict

Violence has killed more than 15,000 people in Syria since a revolt erupted last year against the regime of President Bashar Assad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday.

At least 10,480 civilians, 3,715 soldiers and 830 army defectors have been killed in the crackdown and in clashes since March 2011, said the Britain-based group, which counts those who have taken up arms against the regime as civilians.

W140 Full Story
Report: CIA Vetting Arms Flow to Syria Rebels

U.S. intelligence operatives in Turkey are vetting the flow of weapons to Syrian rebels to ensure they do not fall into the hands of Al-Qaida militants, the New York Times reported Thursday.

The Times cited unnamed U.S. officials and Arab intelligence officials as saying the weapons were being paid for by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar and funneled across the border by a shadowy opposition network.

W140 Full Story
Syrian Troops Pound Homs and Qusayr

A torrent of heavy mortar and machinegun fire killed at least four people in and around Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported, a day after nearly 100 people died across the country.

Streaming video from Homs on the bambuser.com website showed smoke billowing from a residential district as the staccato of automatic gunfire was punctuated by the thud of mortar blasts.

W140 Full Story
Khoury Says Poor Border Demarcation Reason behind Syrian Incursions

Head of the Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council Nasri Khoury attributed the Syrian incursions into Lebanon to the lack of clear demarcated borders between the two countries.

“The land between Lebanon and Syria in al-Qaa and the northern border are poorly demarcated,” Khoury said in an interview with al-Liwaa newspaper on Thursday.

W140 Full Story
Arab League Calls on Russia to Stop Giving Syria Weapons

The Arab League demanded on Thursday that Russia stop supplying arms to Syria, as a regime onslaught of Homs and its surrounds appeared to stall a Red Cross bid to rescue trapped civilians.

The pan-Arab bloc's deputy secretary general Ahmed Ben Hilli issued the appeal in an interview in which he also called for U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's mandate to be revamped, and for Iran's inclusion in talks on Syria.

W140 Full Story