Syria Live Blog

Anti-government demonstrators during a protest in the town of Hass in Idlib province on April 27 [AFP]

Protests in Syria have escalated into what some are calling a burgeoning civil war, and the United Nations says more than 9,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March last year. The government blames "terrorists" and "armed gangs" for the unrest and says more than 2,500 members of its security forces have been killed.

We bring you the latest news from various sources.

Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

For more news and in-depth coverage, visit our Syria Spotlight page and watch Al Jazeera's weekly programme Inside Syria.

Protests in Syria have escalated into what some are calling a burgeoning civil war, and the United Nations says more than 9,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March last year. The government blames "terrorists" and "armed gangs" for the unrest and says more than 2,500 members of its security forces have been killed.

We bring you the latest news from various sources.

Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

For more news and in-depth coverage, visit our Syria Spotlight page and watch Al Jazeera's weekly programme Inside Syria.

4 min 35 sec ago - United Nations

The United Nations has appointed the Norwegian Major General Robert Mood, a veteran of troublesome truces, to head the force monitoring the faltering ceasefire in Syria.

Mood was understood to be already heading for Damascus when the deadline passed for UN Security Council objections to his nomination by UN leader Ban Ki-moon passed on Friday. 

Fifteen monitors are already on the ground, and the UN says 15 more will arrive by Monday. [AFP]

Tags Robert Mood, syria, UN observers
52 min 35 sec ago - US

The US is disappointed that Damascus has failed to live up to promises made to adhere to a UN-backed peace plan and will increase pressure on President Assad, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Friday.

"We intend to continue to ramp up the international pressure against the Assad regime and encourage them in the strongest possible terms to live up to the obligations and commitments that they made in the context of the Kofi Annan plan," Earnest told reporters. [Reuters]

Tags Bashar al Assad, syria, White House
55 min 35 sec ago - Damascus

This video allegedly shows smoke rising from the site of a blast in Adawi, Damascus, on Friday.

Tags Adawi, syria, syria citizen video
1 hour 55 min ago - Lebanon

Al Jazeera's Rula Amin reports from Beirut on the Damascus blasts. She says a third explosion has been reported in the Adawi area, near the agricultural department of Damascus University, following blasts in al-Midan and al-Sinaa.  

"It's not clear yet how serious this explosion was, if there are any casualties or not, but it's confirmed both by pro-government media and activists."

Tags Rula Amin, syria, Video
2 hours 1 min ago - UK

Syria's exiled Muslim Brotherhood has urged UN chief Ban Ki-moon to acknowledge that Damascus had failed to honour a peace plan and to suspend its membership of the world body.

"We ask Ban Ki-moon to announce that Assad's government has failed to honour the peace plan and to declare the plan finished ... at a time when dozens of innocent people are dying," the group said in a statement issued in the UK on Friday.

It also called for "the freezing of Syria's membership in the international organisation, until a transitional government that represents the Syrian people's will is established."

The Brotherhood, which is banned in Syria but represented in the opposition Syrian National Council, said the UN should sever all ties with Assad's government, which it said was made up of "hooligans that have taken over the state and Syrian society." [AFP]

Tags Muslim Brotherhood, syria, UN
3 hours 17 min ago - Syria

State news agency says the death toll in the explosion in al-Midan, Damascus, has reached nine. 

Tags al Midan, damascus, SANA
5 hours 50 min ago - Syria

A blast has rocked the Syrian capital's central district of al-Midan, causing casualties, Syrian state media reported.

"The explosion took place in the al-Midan neighbourhood, near the Zein al-Abidin mosque," the state television reported.

Syria's pro-government Addounia television said that five people were killed and 20 wounded in what they described as an "apparent suicide bombing".

Opposition activists said the explosion occurred as worshippers were coming out of a mosque.

Earlier on Friday, a separate explosion was reported in an industrial zone of Damascus but it was unclear if there were any casualties.

Friday has typically been a day of anti-government protests since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 13 months ago.

For more on recent developments, read our news story: Syria 'in contravention' of peace plan

[The handout image below, released by the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network, purports to show the car bomb which exploded in the al-Sinaa neighbourhood of Damascus earlier today - Photo: AFP]

Tags al Midan, blast, car bomb, damascus, explosion
6 hours 54 min ago - Damascus

A loud explosion was heard in the Syrian capital Damascus on Friday, residents said, although it was not clear what had caused the blast.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast went off in an industrial zone of the capital, near a state-owned transport company, and that it was unclear whether there were any victims.

Anti-government activists said in messages posted on Facebook that a white Mercedes vehicle had exploded in the industrial zone and that there were casualties.

They said ambulances rushed to the site which was cordoned off by security.

The blast took place amid a tenuous UN-backed ceasefire that went into effect on April 12 but has failed to take hold with violence and casualties reported on a daily basis.

For more on Syria, read our news story: Syria 'in contravention' of peace plan

Click here for a summary of recent developments.

Tags anti government activist, explosion, resident witnesses, syria, Syrian capital
7 hours 26 min ago - Geneva

Fifteen more ceasefire monitors of a total advance team of 30 are expected to be in Syria by Monday and every effort is being made to deploy the full mission of up to 300 observers, the spokesperson for international mediator Kofi Annan has said.

"We expect the 30 will be on the ground by the end of April, on Monday," Annan spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told the Reuters news agency in Geneva.

"There is no delay... It is a whole process," he said. "They are deploying at remarkable speed."

Syria's government and opposition have traded blame for a deadly explosion in Hama on Wednesday, as a two-week-old UN-backed ceasefire looked increasingly fragile.

Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut in the capital of neighbouring Lebanon, said Annan believes "the more observers on the ground the better it is".

She added that the UN-Arab League envoy "would like as many ears and eyes on the ground as possible".

For more on Syria, read our news story: Syria 'in contravention' of peace plan

Click here for a summary of recent developments.

[UN observers travel from the UN office in Damascus to Douma on Thursday, where protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule have been taking place - Photo: Reuters]

Tags Kofi Annan spokesman Ahmad Fawzi, syria, UN Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, UN ceasefire, UN observers
11 hours 33 min ago - Syria

File 62986

Here's a quick recap of recent developments:

• There are reports of fighting overnight in the town of Douma, despite a visit by the UN ceasefire monitors. The government and opposition groups have blamed each other for the outbreak of violence.

• The United Nations secretary-general says Syria is not complying with the UN-backed peace plan that it agreed to earlier this month.

• Ban Ki-moon says UN observers are reporting the continued presence of Syrian troops and heavy weapons in cities.

• Meanwhile, in an emergency meeting in the Egyptian capital Cairo, the Arab League has called on the UN Security Council to protect Syrian civilians and for more monitors to be sent to the country as soon as possible.

• The UN recently authorised sending up to 300 observers. More UN observers have been arriving in the country, with two of them stationed in the southern province of Deraa. At the moment, there are only 15 monitors inside Syria.

• Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, has condemned the Syrian government's continued use of heavy weapons on its people.

"The United States' patience is exhausted, and we are going to be watching very carefully to determine if this observer mission is having the impact that we all hoped it would, even if our expectations were low. And if it isn't, we will be very ready within the 90 day period to come back to this Council and discuss what pressures ought to be applied."

For more detail and context, read our latest news story: Syria 'in contravention' of peace plan

The image below, taken from an unverified video uploaded on YouTube, allegedly shows an explosion at a local cemetery in Douma on Friday:

Tags Ban Ki Moon, Susan Rice, Syrian government, UN peace plan, UN Security Council
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