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Syrian violence

Car bombs hit Syria capital, dozens killed

Elizabeth A. Kennedy The Associated Press

Last updated Saturday, March 17, 2012 - 7:19am

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Twin car bombs struck intelligence and security buildings in the Syrian capital on Saturday, killing at least 27 people and wounding nearly 100, according to state media.

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Free Syrian Army fighters pray in Idlib, north Syria, Thursday, March 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Syria opposition chief rejects talks

Zeina Karam The Associated Press

Last updated Friday, March 9, 2012 - 10:28am

BEIRUT -- The leader of Syria's main opposition group rejected calls Friday by U.N. envoy Kofi Annan for dialogue with President Bashar Assad's government, saying they were pointless and unrealistic as the regime massacres its own people.

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Hassana Abu Firasl, left, a Syrian woman who fled from the Syrian town of Qusair near Homs, is seen with her family at the Lebanese-Syrian border village of Qaa, eastern Lebanon, Monday, March 5, 2012. More than a thousand Syrian refugees have poured across the border into Lebanon, among them families with small children carrying only plastic bags filled with their belongings as they fled a regime hunting down its opponents. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Syrian refugees talk of total terror

Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Hussein Malla The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, March 6, 2012 - 12:14pm

QAA, Lebanon -- Syrian refugees fleeing to neighboring Lebanon on Monday said they feared they would be slaughtered in their own homes as government forces hunted down opponents in a brutal offensive against the opposition stronghold of Homs.

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A woman holds a machine gun during an anti government slogans in a town in north Syria, Friday, March 2, 2012. Syria has faced mounting international criticism over its bloody crackdown on the uprising, which started with peaceful protests but has become increasingly militarized. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Activists allege execution-style killings in Syria

Bassem Mroue The Associated Press

Last updated Friday, March 2, 2012 - 12:53pm

BEIRUT -- Syrian activists accused regime forces of carrying out execution-style killings and burning homes Friday as part of a scorched-earth campaign in a restive neighborhood in the city of Homs, and the Red Cross said the regime blocked the group's access to the area following a bloody, monthlong siege to dislodge rebel forces.

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Villagers carry the body of Ghassan Ali, 40, who was killed during clashes between the Free Syrian Army and the government forces during his funeral in Sarmin, north of Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012. According to residents of the city at least fourteen people were killed yesterday during clashes between the Free Syrian Army and President Assad's forces. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

13 rebels die getting wounded journalist out of Syria

Ben Hubbard The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, February 29, 2012 - 11:56am

BEIRUT -- A wounded British photographer who had been trapped in the besieged Syrian city of Homs was spirited safely into Lebanon on Tuesday in a risky journey that killed 13 rebels who helped him escape the relentless shelling and gunfire.

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Fayssal al-Hamwi , Syrian Ambassador in Geneva delivers his statement to the urgent debate on Syria during the 19th session of the Human Rights Council, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Feb. 29, 2012. The U.N.'s human rights chief Navanethem Pillay says the situation in Syria has deteriorated rapidly in recent weeks and demands an immediate humanitarian cease-fire. (AP Photo/Keystone, Salvatore Di Nolfi)

Situation in Syria deteriorating

Frank Jordans The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - 10:44am

GENEVA -- There needs to be an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Syria, the U.N. human rights chief declared Tuesday, saying the situation has deteriorated rapidly as the Assad regime steps up its onslaught against the opposition.

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Pro Syrian demonstrators are protesting outside the Cartago Hotel where the Conference on Syria is held in Tunis, Tunisia, Friday Feb. 24, 2012.The birthplace of the Arab Spring hosts a landmark conference on Syria by high-level U.S., European, Turkish and Arab League officials. The protesters, waving Syrian and Tunisian flags, tussled with police and carried signs criticizing Clinton and President Barack Obama.(AP Photo/Hassene Dridi)

Pro-Syrian crowd tries to storm Tunisia meeting

Matthew Lee, Paul Schemm The Associated Press

Last updated Friday, February 24, 2012 - 11:04am

TUNIS, Tunisia -- About 200 pro-Syrian demonstrators tried to storm the hotel where a conference is being held by Arab and Western officials over the crisis in Syria.

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In this Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012 citizen journalism image provided by the Local Coordination Committees in Syria and accessed on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012, flames rise from a house from Syrian government shelling, at Baba Amr neighborhood in Homs province, Syria. A French photojournalist and a prominent American war correspondent working for a British newspaper were killed Wednesday as Syrian forces intensely shelled the opposition stronghold of Homs. (AP Photo/Local Coordination Committees in Syria) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS HANDOUT PHOTO

Crisis in Syrian city deepens

Zeina Karam The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, February 23, 2012 - 10:39am

BEIRUT -- Warnings from Syrian activists of a humanitarian catastrophe in Homs grew more desperate Thursday as government forces resumed shelling an opposition stronghold in the restive central city, where hundreds have died in a weekslong siege.

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This is an undated image made available Wednesday Feb. 22, 2012 by the Sunday Times in London of Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin photographed in Tahrir square in Cairo. The French government spokeswoman on Wednesday identified two Western reporters killed in Syria as American war reporter Marie Colvin and French photojournalist Remi Ochlik . Colvin, from Oyster Bay, New York, had been a foreign correspondent for Britain's Sunday Times for two decades, reporting from the world's most dangerous places. She lost the sight in one eye in Sri Lanka in 2001 but did not let that deter her.(AP Photo/Ivor Prickett Sunday Times)

Syria shelling kills 2 journalists

Bassem Mroue The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - 12:40pm

BEIRUT — A French photojournalist and a prominent American war correspondent working for a British newspaper were killed Wednesday as Syrian forces intensely shelled the opposition stronghold of Homs.

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In this Monday, Feb. 20, 2012 citizen journalism image provided by the Local Coordination Committees in Syria and accessed on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012, houses are seen destroyed from Syrian government forces shelling, at Baba Amr neighborhood in Homs province, Syria. An opposition group says several people have been killed in heavy shelling of a district in central Syria a day after the army sent reinforcements ahead of a possible ground assault. (AP Photo/Local Coordination Committees in Syria) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS HANDOUT PHOTO

Red Cross calls for cease-fire in Syria

Frank Jordans, Zeina Karam The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - 10:57am

BEIRUT -- The Red Cross called Tuesday for a daily two-hour cease-fire in Syria so that it can deliver emergency aid and reach people who are wounded or sick, an appeal that came as government troops heavily shelled rebellious districts in the resistance stronghold of Homs, killing at least 16 people.

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Security forces prepare to tow away a destroyed car after a car bomb attack outside the fortified academy near the Interior Ministry headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012. A suicide bomber detonated his car as a group of police recruits left their academy in Baghdad, killing and wounding scores of people, police said. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Violence down in Iraq as al-Qaida group moves to Syria

Sahar Issa McClatchy Newspapers

Last updated Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - 11:36am

BAGHDAD -- The departure of al-Qaida-affiliated fighters from Iraq to join the rebellion against Syrian President Bashar Assad in Syria has had one benefit, Iraqi officials say: Violence has dropped in this country, in some areas by as much as 50 percent in just a few months.

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Syrian forces fire on funeral in Damascus, kill 1

Zeina Karam The Associated Press

Last updated Saturday, February 18, 2012 - 8:04am

BEIRUT -- Syrian security forces fired live rounds and tear gas at thousands of people marching Saturday in a funeral procession that turned into a protest in Damascus, killing at least one person, activists said. It was one of the largest demonstrations in the capital since the 11-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad began.

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FILE - In this Jan. 20, 2012 file photo, Syrian army defectors gather at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border. As the Syrian revolt grows deadlier by the day, President Bashar Assad's greatest advantage lies in the lack of unity among the disparate forces opposing him. Since the uprising began in March, a chorus of voices has risen against the regime. In addition to the rebel fighters who see force as the only option, there are distinguished exiles who hold little sway back home, aging dissidents who spent years locked in Syrian prisons and tech-savvy young people desperate to cast off a suffocating dictatorship. (AP Photo, File)

Lebanon fears Syria violence will spread across border

David Enders McClatchy Newspapers

Last updated Tuesday, February 14, 2012 - 3:24pm

TRIPOLI, Lebanon -- In this northern Lebanese city, two adjoining neighborhoods reflect the growing concern that the violence raging in Syria could soon spill into Lebanon, whose own sectarian civil war captivated the world a generation ago.

On the one side are the men of Bab al-Tabbaneh, a Sunni Muslim area that openly embraces the Free Syrian Army, the band of military defectors that has taken up arms against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

On the other are the men of Jebel Mohsen, an enclave that is predominantly Alawite, the Shiite Muslim sect to which Assad and much of his inner circle belong.

For two days last week, fighting shook the two neighborhoods, leaving three civilians dead and two dozen wounded, including members of the Lebanese army, which was deployed Sunday to separate the antagonists. But while calm has been restored, tensions remain high, and neither side expects the peace to hold.

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This image from amateur video made available by Shaam News Network, purports to show a Syrian military tank in Daraa, Syria, Monday, Feb. 13, 2012. An activist group says Syrian rebels have repelled a push by government tanks into a key central town held by forces fighting against President Bashar Assad's regime. The Arab League called for the Security Council to create a joint Arab-U.N. peacekeeping force for Syria and urged Arab states to sever all diplomatic contact with Damascus. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL.

Activists: Syrian rebels repel attack on town

Bassem Mroue The Associated Press

Last updated Monday, February 13, 2012 - 12:19pm

BEIRUT — Syrian rebels repelled a push Monday by government tanks into a central town held by forces fighting President Bashar Assad’s regime in an 11-month conflict that looks increasingly like a civil war.

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In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian security forces walk on the wreckage of a damaged building at a security compound which was attacked by an explosion, in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, on Friday Feb. 10, 2012. Two explosions targeted security compounds in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Friday, state media said, causing an unspecified number of casualties in a major city seen as key to President Bashar Assad's grip on power. (AP Photo/SANA)

Blasts hit security HQs in Syrian city

Bassem Mroue The Associated Press

Last updated Friday, February 10, 2012 - 10:44am

BEIRUT -- Two explosions struck security compounds in the Syrian city of Aleppo on Friday, killing 25 people and wounding 175, state media reported, in a major city that has largely stood by President Bashar Assad in the nearly 11-month-old uprising against his rule.

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