Bashar al Assad Live Blog

Violence in Syria killed four civilians on Saturday, one of them a woman, a rights watchdog said, even as a UN mission
charged with overseeing a battered truce neared half its planned strength.

In Idlib province, a stronghold of rebels fighting President Bahar al-Assad's regime, security force gunfire killed a man and a woman during a series of raids, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A third civilian was killed during pre-dawn shelling of the village of Mork in central Hama province, the Britain-based watchdog said, while a fourth was killed by sniper fire in the northeastern city of Deir Ez-zor.

Troops clashed with rebel fighters in Idlib, in the flashpoint central province of Homs, in southern Daraa province, and in several areas of Damascus province, the Observatory said, without any immediate word of casualties.

The persistent violence came as the UN mission in Syria said it now had 145 military observers on the ground, just shy of half the force of 300 authorised by the Security Council.

They are backed by 56 civilian staff. [AFP]

A video posted online in the name of a shadowy militant group is claiming responsibility for twin suicide bombings in the Syrian capital this week that killed 55 people.

In the video posted late Friday, a group calling itself the Al-Nusra Front says the bombing was in response to attacks on residential areas by the regime of President Bashar Assad.

"We fulfilled our promise to respond with strikes with explosions,'' a distorted voice says.

The video's authenticity could not be independently verified. The Al-Nusra Front has claimed past bombings in Syria through posts on militant websites.

Little is known about the group.

Thursday's bombing in Damascus raised fears that al-Qaida-linked extremists are joining the anti-Assad fight. [AP]


Two Turkish journalists who were detained for two months in Syria are on their way home following mediation by Iran,
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced Saturday.

"I have just spoken with Iranian Foreign Minister [Ali Akbar] Salehi. Our two journalists, Adem Ozkose and Hamit Coskun, about whom we had no news since they left for Syria, are on their way to Tehran now," Davutoglu said on Twitter.

"We expect them to arrive in Tehran shortly. At the request of our prime minister we are sending a plane to Iran to pick up our journalists," he added.

The minister did not state whether the pair had been handed over to Iranian authorities.

Coskun, a cameraman, and reporter Ozkose of the newspaper Milat entered Syria in early March to film a documentary on the bloody crackdown on dissent in the country.

They were last seen on March 9 near the rebel stronghold of Idlib, in the northwest near the border with Turkey. [AFP]

AmbassadorRice

The UN Security Council has strongly condemned the "terrorist attacks" in Syria, urging all parties to the 14-month conflict to cease armed violence and comply with a UN-backed peace plan.

"The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attacks that occurred in Damascus, Syria, on 10 May, causing numerous deaths and injuries," the 15-member body said in a statement.

The Security Council also called on all parties in Syria to "immediately and comprehensively" implement UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan, in particular to cease all forms of armed violence.

The council "reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation”.

The statement was released after a Security Council debate on the global fight against terrorism during which Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari said there had been an increase in "the scale and frequency of terrorist activities and operations in Syria" since a shaky April 12 truce took hold.

Syria has said that Damascus suicide attacks was the work of what it called "terrorists" armed and funded by foreign organisations and media.

The foreign ministry made the accusation in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hours after the deadliest bombing attacks.

"These crimes show that Syria is targeted by a terrorist attack launched by organisations armed and funded by parties who proclaim their backing to terrorist crimes," state-run SANA news agency quoted the message as saying.

It also accused unnamed "media that incite violence of being behind these terrorist crimes".

These media ask rebels "to commit crimes by offering them in exchange media coverage" of their fight against the regime", the message said.

The ministry also said that "300 soldiers and members of the security forces have been killed by armed terrorist groups since April 12," when a putative ceasefire technically went into effect.

Bashar Jaafri, Syrian ambassador to UN, has addressed the UN Security Council after the blasts.

Jaafri told the Security Council that al-Qaeda was infiltrating opposition fighters in Syria.

The Syrian ambassador presented a list of what he called “terrorists” and organisations operating inside Syria.

He gave names of 12 foreign terrorists killed in government operation, including a French, a Belgian and a British citizen.

He furnished massive documents, including CDs, before the Security Council with "confessions recorded from some individuals that they were terrorists and they arrived in the country for terrorist operations".

He also accused some countries of funding terrorist operations in his country.

Smoke rises from the wreckage of mangled vehicles at the site of the explosion. [Reuters]

 

 

A US State Department official responsible for refugees says Washington has allocated $40m to assist relief organisations aiding victims of the Syrian crisis.

Anne Richard, assistant secretary of state for population, refugees, and migration, said the money will be funneled through international and local agencies inside Syria and in surrounding countries, including Jordan.

She said Palestinians and Iraqis in Syria will also benefit.

Richard told reporters on Thursday in Amman that she discussed contingency plans with Jordanian officials, but declined to provide details.

 

China and Russia, Syria's closest allies, have urged all parties in Syria to "stop violence" after the deadly explosions in Damascus.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government blamed the attacks on what it called "terrorists", while the opposition accused his regime of staging the bombings to threaten UN observers.

"We ask all parties to stop violence and co-operate with (UN-Arab League special envoy Kofi) Annan and UN special envoys," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after talks with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in Beijing.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei also called for an end to the violence and condemned a Wednesday bomb attack on UN observers in the conflict-torn state that wounded 10 soldiers escorting them.

Lavrov also told reporters that Russia would not change its stance on the Syrian situation.

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