Free Republic

Following are excerpts from an interview with Syrian opposition cleric Sheik Adnan Al-'Ar'our, which aired on Al-Safa TV on Febraury 10, 2012: Interviewer: We've just received the news that Messi, the soccer player, donated money to treat 1,000 wounded [Syrians]. This non-Arab player sent a clear message to the Arab League, which has not given money to treat a single wounded person so far. Adnan Al-'Ar'our: Good people, this is shameful, by Allah. Good people, we don't want any weapons from you. All we want is for you to treat the wounded and open up your hospitals. Have your hearts...

As Syria's rebellious cities are bombarded and the regime's tank crews prepare to move, only a rag-tag and poorly armed but determined army stands in their way. The last straw for Captain Abu Mahmoud came when 13 of his fellow officers were lined up and shot by a Syrian firing squad. They had been identified as potential deserters - all officers have their own team of watchers from military intelligence to monitor their behaviour - and were executed just in case, he said. He was headed at the time with his Third Division for Idlib in the north, scene already...

Syrian forces bombarded Homs on Monday, killing 50 people in a sustained assault on several districts of the city which has become a centre of armed opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian National Council opposition group said. The bombardment came a day after the United States promised harsher sanctions against Damascus in response to Russian and Chinese vetoes of a draft U.N. resolution that would have backed an Arab plan urging Assad to step aside.

In a barrage of shelling, Syrian forces killed 200 people and wounded hundreds early Saturday in Homs in an offensive that appears to be the bloodiest episode in the nearly 11-month-old uprising, activists said.

AMMAN (Reuters) - Street battles raged on the doorstep of the Syrian capital on Monday, as President Bashar al-Assad's troops sought to consolidate their grip on suburbs rebel fighters had taken only a few miles from the centre of Assad's power. Activists and residents said Syrian troops now had control of Hamouriyeh, one of a cluster of districts where they have used armored vehicles and artillery to beat back rebels who came as close as eight km (five miles) to Damascus. An activist said the Free Syrian Army - a force of military defectors with links to Syria's divided political...

Syria rebels gain foothold in Damascus By Jeremy Bowen BBC Middle East editor, Damascus When the BBC team approached a checkpoint set up by the rebel Free Syria Army in the suburbs of Damascus, masked men with Kalashnikov assault rifles and hand grenades moved towards us - a few of them offering dates and biscuits. It is customary to give mourners something sweet, and a funeral was about to start that they said they were protecting. I had no idea before I saw them with my own eyes that the Free Syria Army was so active in and around Damascus....

Army defectors overran a protest hub near Damascus before pulling back, activists said on Sunday, ahead of an Arab League meeting to decide the future of its heavily criticised observer mission to Syria. Fierce clashes erupted late Saturday in Douma, just northeast of the capital, after security forces shot dead four civilians at a funeral in the town, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "Groups of deserters took control of all districts in the town of Douma, near Damascus, after fierce fighting on Saturday with Syrian security forces," the Observatory's chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Rights chief calls situation "intolerable" but Syrian ambassador to UN says country is victim of "huge conspiracy". More than 5,000 people are now believed to have been killed in the Syrian government's crackdown on protests, the United Nations human rights chief has told the UN Security Council. The UN's Navi Pillay said on Monday there were reports of increased attacks by opposition groups on President Bashar al-Assad's security forces but highlighted "alarming" events in the besieged protest city of Homs, according to diplomats in the closed meeting. More than 14,000 people are estimated to have been detained and at least...

Damascus: Syrian President Bashar Al Assad defiantly vowed to fight and die if needed as an Arab League deadline for his government to stop its lethal crackdown on protesters expired with 20 more people killed. Upping the pressure on Syria, the Arab League on Sunday announced it had rejected amendments proposed by Damascus to its proposal to send a 500-strong delegation to monitor the violence in Syria. (con't at link above) And Turkish President Abdullah Gul said there was “no place for authoritarian regimes” in the Mediterranean region. Among the dead on the weekend were four intelligence agents killed as...

-excerpt- ...Bashar Assad’s uncle, a former Syrian vice president and military strongman who many say has blood on his own hands....claimed Tuesday that the Syrian people need a strong, stable hand to end the crisis — and he’s just the man

Fourteen civilians were killed in a crackdown on dissent against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday, activists said, despite a deadline by the Arab League for Damascus to take steps to end the bloodshed. The Arab League, a powerful political group of Arab states, set the Saturday deadline for Syria to comply with a peace plan, entailing a military pullout from around restive areas, and threatened sanctions if Assad failed to halt the violence. But on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12 civilians were killed in security force raids while two army defectors died when...

OTTAWA — The Canadian government has been quietly engaging Syria’s opposition and pro-democracy movement, including facilitating several meetings with Foreign Minister John Baird and opening the doors of Canada’s embassy in Turkey to the Syrian National Council. “We have right now a very good relationship with the Canadian government,” Syrian National Council member Osama Kadi said Thursday. “We have met with the minister of foreign affairs many times and he has showed a very positive attitude toward the Syrian National Council.” In late August, Canadian Ambassador to Turkey Mark Bailey hosted a reception to honour and welcome SNC members and...

Dozens of soldiers and security forces were gunned down by suspected army defectors in southern Syria, a deadly ambush that comes as President Bashar Assad increasingly appears unable to manage the crisis, activists said Tuesday.

Syrian activists say tanks mounted with machine-guns have fired on a city at the heart of the country's uprising.

Machine-gun fire and explosions erupted inside a Syrian city at the heart of the country's uprising Wednesday as activists reported two grisly attacks that killed at least 20 people in the past 24 hours.

BEIRUT (AP) — A Syrian official and witnesses say Damascus is planting landmines along parts of the border with Lebanon.

Syrian forces shot dead at least 24 civilians on Friday when they fired on demonstrators demanding international protection from President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on seven months of unrest, activists and residents said. Most of the killings took place in the central cities of Hama, where Assad sent tanks and troops to crush dissent three months ago, and Homs, a center of increasingly armed opposition to his autocratic rule.

Syrian troops going house to house have detained more than 3,000 people in the past three days in a rebellious town that government forces recently retook in some of the worst fighting since the country's uprising began six months ago, an activist said Monday.

Syrian dissidents meeting in Turkey have formally announced the creation of a council designed to overthrow President Bashar Assad's regime.

A Syrian nuclear engineer was assassinated in a hail of bullets in central Syria Wednesday, the latest casualty in a string of murders this week of academics and scientists, Syria's state-run news agency and activists said.