Syria Live Blog

Activists in Qusayr paint banners to resemble the 80-year-old flag of the Syrian Republic, used by the opposition. [AFP]

People continue to take to the streets across Syria, where the uprising is becoming increasingly militarised. Activists say more than 7,000 people have been killed since protests began in March last year. The government blames "armed gangs" for the unrest and says more than 2,000 members of the 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.

30 min 40 sec ago - Homs

Armed forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad bombarded the Jobar residential neighbourhood of Homs on Saturday where thousands of civilians from an area overrun by the army had taken refuge, an opposition activist organisation said.

"In an act of pure revenge, Assad's army has been firing mortar rounds and 500 mm machine guns since this morning at Jobar. We have no immediate reports of casualties because of the difficulty of communications," the Syrian Network for Human Rights said in statement.

Jobar is adjacent to the district of Baba Amr in Homs, from where the Free Syrian Army pulled out this week after almost a month of army shelling. Activists reported mass executions by loyalist troops who subsequently entered the area.

Local activists in Homs also reported heavy machinegun fire from army road blocks in the neighbourhoods of al-Khalidiya and al-Qusoor.

[Source: Reuters]

Click here to read our latest news story on Syria.

For more on Syria, visit our Spotlight page - Syria: The War Within

Tags Bashar al Assad, Jobar, syria, Syrian government troops, Syrian Network for Human Rights
54 min 40 sec ago - Deraa

A suicide bomber blew up a vehicle in the Syrian city of Deraa, killing two people and wounding 20, including security force personnel, the official SANA news agency reported.

The "suicide terrorist" struck near the al-Masri roundabout in the centre of the city, south of Damascus, which was the cradle of the uprising that erupted against President Bashar al-Assad's government in March last year, SANA said.

Opposition activists denied that the explosion was caused by a bomber but did not give an explanation for the reported attack. 

Click here to read our latest news story on Syria.

For more on Syria, visit our Spotlight page - Syria: The War Within

Tags casualties, damascus, SANA news agency, Suicide bomber, syria
1 hour 2 min ago - Syria

Teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent did not enter the battered Baba Amr district of Homs, ICRC Damascus spokesman Saleh Dabbakeh, told the AFP news agency.

"No teams entered on Friday Baba Amr, and [authorities] have not allowed entry of aid," he said.

"We are still in talks," he said, shortly after a Damascus-based ICRC official told AFP that a team went into the neighbourhood on Friday to assess the needs while negotiations were continuing with authorities to allow aid in.

Government  forces overran Baba Amr on Thursday after nearly a month of bombarding the opposition-held neighbourhood of Syria's third-largest city.

Click here to read our latest news story on Syria.

For more on Syria, visit our Spotlight page - Syria: The War Within

Tags Baba Amr, homs, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Saleh Dabbakeh, Syrian Arab Red Crescent
1 hour 16 min ago - Syria
The Syrian army launched an offensive early on Saturday against opposition fighters in the village of Ain al-Beida, not far from the border with Turkey, the Turkish news agency Anatolia reported.

It quoted witnesses as saying around 2,000 soldiers and 15 tanks were involved in the operation to seize control of the village only a few kilometres from Turkey.

The army overran the village and set fire to the houses, Anatolia said.

The agency said opposition fighters injured in the clashes had been taken to Turkey for treatment.

Residents in the Turkish village of Guvecci, just across the border in the southern province of Hatay, told the AFP news agency by telephone they had heard automatic gunfire and artillery at dawn.

Some 7,500 Syrians have fled to Turkey since the outbreak of anti-government unrest almost one year ago, on March 15.

They are housed in camps in Hatay, where members of the Free Syrian Army, made up of deserters from the Syrian security forces, also are based.

Turkey, which shares a 910-kilometre border with Syria, broke its former alliance with Damascus over the government's brutal crackdown on opposition protesters, which has left more than 7,500 people dead according to the United Nations.

Click here to read our latest news story on Syria.

For more on Syria, visit our Spotlight page - Syria: The War Within
Tags Ain al Beida, Anatolia news agency, Guvecci, offensive, turkey border
1 hour 24 min ago - Deraa
Syria's state-run news agency says a suicide bomber has detonated his car in a southern city, causing several casualties.

SANA says the blast occurred in the heart of the city of Deraa on Saturday morning. The city is the birthplace of the nearly year-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least two people were killed and several others wounded in the explosion. The group says the blast occurred near a petrol station in an area known as Deraa al-Balad.

No further details were immediately available.

[Source: AP]

Click here to read our latest news story on Syria.

For more on Syria, visit our Spotlight page - Syria: The War Within
Tags car bomb, Deraa al Balad, SANA news agency, syria, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
4 hours 59 min ago - New York
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is demanding that aid workers in Syria be allowed into the stricken district of Baba Amr in Homs. 

The International Committee of the Red Cross says it has been prevented from entering the area, despite being given permission just a day earlier. 

The Syrian government has not said why, and activists say soldiers are cleaning up after reportedly executing remaining fighters. 

The Syrian Ambassador to the UN says Ban has slandered his government. 

During a speech, the secretary-general said the Syrian government was systematically killing its people.

Read our news story for more detail and context: UN chief criticises 'atrocious' Homs assault

For more on Syria, visit our Spotlight page - Syria: The War Within
Tags Ban Ki Moon, homs, International Committee of the Red Cross, syria, United Nations
15 hours 1 min ago - Syria

Citizen video shows residents in the besieged city of Homs collecting snow for drinking water in desperation, after government forces completely cut off the city from running water, food, electricity and medical supplies for weeks.

Tags protests, snow, syria citizen video, youtube
15 hours 10 min ago - Europe

James Stavridis, the top US military official in Europe, said on Thursday that if the international community gave the Syrian opposition fighters arms, communications equipment, and intelligence, that would help speed President Bashar al-Assad's removal from power, the Foreign Policy magazine reported.

"The commander of US-European Command told the Senate Armed Services that NATO is not doing any "detailed planning" for ways to aid the Syrian opposition or protect Syrian civilians," it said.

"But under intense questioning from the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Stavridis admitted he believed that giving material aid to the rebels would help them get better organized and push forward the process of getting the Assad to step down.

To read the full article on Foreign Policy's website, click HERE.

Tags Assad, protests, rebels, syria
15 hours 20 min ago - France

Two wounded French journalists, who were evacuated from the government besieged Homs district of Bab Amr, have arrived at a military airport near Paris after escaping the protest hub where two fellow Western journalists were killed.

A plane transporting reporter Edith Bouvier, 31, and photographer William Daniels, 34, flew in from Beirut, arriving at Villacoublay airport where they were met by relatives and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy said that Syrian authorities will "be called to account for their crimes before international criminal jurisdictions".

"The crime that they committed, the crimes that they have committed, will not go unpunished," Sarkozy said, also praising a "chivalrous" Daniels for staying with Bouvier in Babr Amr during the heavy bombardment.

Daniels praised the people of Homs, saying: "All of Baba Amr supported us. They treated us like kings. We were in one of the most protected houses. These people are heroes who are being massacred."

As his eyes teared up, Daniels added: "Those who saved our lives are surely dead, although I don't know. ... It was nine days of non-stop nightmare with our hopes crashing over a silly detail just about every day."

Tags journalists, protests, syria
15 hours 45 min ago - Syria

The bodies of two Western journalists who were killed by government bombardments in the Homs district of Bab Amr,  have been taken to a hospital in Damascus, the capital, the AFP news agency reported.

A three-vehicle convoy of one car and two Syrian Arab Red Crescent ambulances, carrying the bodies of US reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik, arrived at the Assad University Hospital at around 1845 GMT.

Tags journalists, protests, wounded
Content on this website is for general information purposes only. Your comments are provided by your own free will and you take sole responsibility for any direct or indirect liability. You hereby provide us with an irrevocable, unlimited, and global license for no consideration to use, reuse, delete or publish comments, in accordance with Community Rules & Guidelines and Terms and Conditions.

Al Jazeera Live

What's Hot


Recent Comments

This work is licensed under Creative Commons. Please read our attribution policy.