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Syria: car bomb at funeral in Damascus leaves several dead
A car has exploded during a funeral in a Damascus killing several people, as the United Nations refugee agency warned that the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey could reach 200,00 as the conflict deepens.
The Observatory says more than 25,000 people have been killed since an uprising against Assad broke out in March last year Photo: Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images
3:26PM BST 28 Aug 2012
The Telegraph
The violence followed a bloody Monday in which 190 people – 116 civilians, 40 rebels and 34 soldiers – were killed across Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the state television report of a blast in the capital’s southeastern Jaramana suburb, and said it was caused by a car bomb.
“In the suburb of Jaramana, a car laden with explosives hit a funeral held for two regime supporters,” said the Britain-based watchdog. “Some people were critically injured.”
The funeral was held for two people killed in a bomb attack on Monday, the Observatory said.
The attack came amid a marked escalation of army shelling targeting the eastern belt of Damascus, home to some of the rebel Free Syrian Army’s best organised battalions.
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The Observatory said that at least four soldiers were killed in fighting with rebels in Zamalka and Jubar, which followed fierce shelling through the night of the two eastern neighbourhoods as well as the adjacent districts of Qaboon and Ein Tarma.
On Monday, rebels from the Free Syrian Army claimed to have downed a military helicopter in Qaboon during heavy shelling and fierce fighting that also engulfed nearby Jubar as well as several towns outside the capital.
The offensive in the capital’s east follows a regime onslaught on its southwestern belt last week which, according to the opposition, included a massacre in the town of Daraya in which hundreds died.
Army bombardment Tuesday of the village of Kfar Nabal in the northwest province of Idlib, meanwhile, killed at least 13 civilians, including two women, according to the Observatory.
Gruesome footage released by the Syrian Revolution General Council, an activist network on the ground, shows pandemonium in Kfar Nabal as dozens of residents struggle to retrieve the mangled bodies of their neighbours beneath ashen coloured rubble.
Several small buses are engulfed in flames and plumes of billowing smoke are seen rising from shelled out building after what the SRGC said was an attack by warplanes.
Groups of men struggled to pick up several charred bodies, unloading them hastily on the back of a truck and the back seat of a car, which sped off for help. The footage could not be independently verified.
Elsewhere in Idlib, four rebels were killed in clashes in Ariha, while seven men were killed by government troops in the central province of Hama, bringing Tuesday’s initial toll by the Observatory to 31 victims.
In Syria’s second city Aleppo, government forces rained shells down on the Sukari district in the south and Hanano in the northeast, the Observatory reported, adding that one civilian died in shelling elsewhere in the province.
Two rebels were killed in fighting between the army and insurgents in the contested districts of Salaheddin and Saif al-Dawla in Aleppo’s southwest, it said.
Pro-regime Al-Watan newspaper on Tuesday reported that the army had “cleansed” the neighbourhood of Al-Izaa, adjacent to Saif al-Dawla district, from armed men and seized large quantities of arms and ammunition.
“This opens the way for cleansing the neighbourhood of Zabdiyeh and seizing the Saif al-Dawla and Sukari districts,” it said.
The army took back Salaheddin in early August, but pockets of resistance remain, while the rebels continue to hold sway over Saif al-Dawla and Sukari.
The Observatory says more than 25,000 people have been killed since an uprising against Assad broke out in March last year.
The figures are impossible to verify due to restrictions on the media.
Melissa Fleming, chief spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a news briefing: "The increase in the number of Syrians arriving in Turkey has been dramatic. Compared to previous weeks in which we saw about 400-500 people arriving a day, we've been seeing peaks of up to 5,000 people in one day over the past two weeks."
A growing number of unaccompanied children without parents are also turning up in camps, the UNHCR said. Refugees from the southern Syrian province of Deraa have reported being bombed by aircraft or shelled on their journey across the border.
"We are already looking at potentially up to 200,000 and are working with the Turkish government to make the necessary plans," another spokeswoman, Sybella Wilkes, told Reuters.
The figure would include the more than 74,000 Syrian refugees already registered in Turkey, which is building at least five new camps in addition to the existing nine.
In the past 24 hours, more than 3,000 Syrians crossed into Turkey, with a further 7,000 expected in coming days.
Source: Agencies
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
29082012
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
France confirms it is working to establish buffer zone within Syria
France has confirmed that Western states were working with Turkey to establish buffer zones within Syria as the international community scrambled to formulate a response to the rapidly worsening crisis in the country.
A Syrian boy rides a bicycle as smoke rises over the Syrian city of Aleppo after missiles fired from a fighter jet hit petrol tankers in the Bab al-Nayrab district Photo: REUTERS
By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent and Damien McElroy in Gaziantepe, Turkey
9:23PM BST 27 Aug 2012
As government forces launched a devastating aerial and artillery assault on the eastern outskirts of Damascus, Francois Hollande, the French president, declared on Monday night that he and his international partners were closer than ever before to a formal intervention in Syria.
“We are working … [on] the initiative of buffer zones proposed by Turkey,” Mr Hollande said. “We are doing so in co-ordination with our closest partners.”
Indicating the formation of a twin-pronged Western strategy, Mr Hollande also became the first international leader to urge the Syrian opposition to form a provisional government, promising to grant it immediate recognition once it is formed.
With refugees pouring across Syria’s borders, and Turkey struggling to respond to rapidly increasing influx, the long-discussed issue of a buffer zone to protect civilians in northern Syria has acquired a new sense of urgency.
Thousands of refugees massed in makeshift accommodation on the Syrian side of the Turkish border yesterday as Anakar sealed its crossings, claiming its camps were full.
Related Articles
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_ Britain and US plan Syrian revolution - 26 Aug 2012
With as many as 80,000 refugees spread across camps in southern Turkey, the numbers who have fled violence in Syria has almost doubled in a month.
Turkish requests for a buffer zone, which would provide a haven not just for civilians but also for Syrian rebels operating along both sides of the border, have been so far rebuffed by the United States.
It remains far from clear how a buffer zone would be policed, although it has always been assumed that Turkey and Arab States would take the lead and that there would be no deployment of Western forces.
Pressure for a more robust response from the international community has grown after the bloodiest month of the uprising so far claimed more than 4,000 lives, according to opposition groups.
With rebel fighters and government forces fighting each other to near stalemate in the northern city of Aleppo, President Bashar al-Assad has switched his attention to Damascus.
Last week, he launched his bloodiest offensive yet in the capital, with government forces launching an assault that killed hundreds of people in Daraya, on the southwestern outskirts of the city, according to opposition statistics.
Activists say many of the dead were killed in summary executions and survivors yesterday spoke of soldiers bayoneting dozens of people as they swept victoriously through the town.
Opposition fighters declared that they had partially avenged the “massacre” in Daraya after successfully shooting down a helicopter gunship over Damascus.
Video footage filmed by the rebels showed the helicopter catch fire after being struck before spinning out of control and plummeting to the ground in a ball of fire.
In recent weeks rebels have been hapless in the face of regime aerial attack, both by helicopter gunships and fighter-jets that have shown little distinction between civilian and insurgent targets.
Rebel hopes of capturing either Aleppo or Damascus may well depend on finding a systematic strategy of dealing with the aerial threat. That prospect appears a long way off, with opposition fighters admitting that they had brought down the helicopter more by luck than design.
“It was flying overhead the eastern part of the city and firing all morning,” an activist identifying himself as Abu Bakr told the Reuters news agency. “The rebels had been trying to hit [it] for about an hour; finally they did.”
The felling of the helicopter, while undoubtedly morale boosting, brought only fleeting respite for the rebels.
Ignoring the international condemnation triggered by the mass killings in Daraya, government forces have switched their focus from the west to the east of the city as part of a campaign to reassert total control over Mr Assad’s capital.
The full gamut of the regime’s arsenal was deployed, with fighter planes striking closer to the heart of Damascus than ever before as the army maintained a relentless barrage of shelling and helicopter attacks on a string of eastern suburbs.
At least 62 people were killed in the assault, opposition activists said, with shells striking a row of flats in Jobar, the district where the helicopter had been shot down earlier in the day.
As in Daraya, there were reports of summary executions as government forces advanced. Footage released by opposition campaigners showed 20 corpses on the floor of a mosque in the neighbouring district of Zamalka, among them three children.
The new bloodshed came as volunteers recovered dozens more bodies in Daraya, where the opposition claims that between 300 and 600 people were killed during a five-day battle for the town last week.
One survivor, who gave his name as Abu Firas, said that more than 100 people were killed as soldiers went door-to-door hunting for residents who had escaped the days of shelling that preceded their sweep through the town.
“Some they lined up and shot in front of their wives and sisters,” Abu Firas said, adding that he had survived by hiding on top of a cupboard. “I saw them kill three men with knives attached to their guns and there are many others dead with stabbing wounds.”
Ban Ki-Moon, the United Nations secretary general, yesterday demanded an immediate investigation into the killings, which he called “an appalling and brutal crime”.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
28082012
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
The Race is On For Assad's Billions
by Noah Kristula-Green Aug 17, 2012 2:20 PM EDT
A slipper hangs on a vandalised poster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad lying in a trash container in the northern city of Aleppo on July 24, 2012. (BULENT KILIC/AFP/GettyImages)
Assad's regime in Syria is collapsing and there are many individuals eager to claim the billions of dollars in wealth he possess. Some seek reparations for acts of terrorism. Others seek to take back wealth from corrupt benefactors of the regime. Eli Lake reports:
Finding the money is of keen interest to the modern-day treasure hunters who specialize in recovering the wealth of fallen dictators. Sometimes called financial intelligence or forensic accounting, the industry comprises lawyers, accountants, ex-spies, former law enforcement investigators and even some retired journalists, all of whom look at the unrest in Syria as a business opportunity. Some firms charge several thousands of dollars per hour for the sleuth work of a team of six to eight investigators. Others get paid a “success fee,” a small percentage of the overall haul.
“I’m hunting myself and I want to be first in the queue for my clients,” says Steven Perles, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who represents the families of victims of terrorism. Specifically, Perles is gunning for $413 million for the families of two U.S. contractors who were beheaded by al Qaeda in Iraq in 2004. In 2011, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals awarded the judgment against Syria after it found Assad’s regime provided material support to the terror group. Perles said he has hired researchers to track down the assets.
In Paris, the Syrian National Council, the main coalition of opposition groups, has already started to interview firms that can help find the money, says Ismael Darwish, a former banker and staffer with the SNC. Darwish says he first started meeting with financial intelligence firms in February. “They did not want to talk about a success fee,” he said. “At this point it’s too risky, they don’t know how much they can trace and how much they can recover.”
But investigators would be smart to act quickly, before the money they seek to recover ends up out of reach entirely. Syrian opposition and Treasury Department officials say they have already started to see confidantes of the Assad regime begin moving assets into Russia, whose government has not adopted sanctions that would freeze such accounts.
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Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
28082012
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Hollande says France would recognize Syrian opposition government
Published August 27, 2012
Associated Press
PARIS – French President Francois Hollande called on Syria's opposition to form a provisional government, saying Monday that France would recognize it once such a government is formed.
The announcement from Hollande, in a speech to France's ambassadors, amounts to an attempt to ratchet up diplomatic pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime amid escalating bloodshed in the country.
Syria's opposition remains badly fragmented, and it is far from clear whether such a provisional government could be formed anytime soon.
But Hollande's statement, believed to be the first of its kind, appeared aimed to give an impetus to the creation of such a government.
"France asks the Syrian opposition to form a provisional government -- inclusive and representative -- that can become the legitimate representative of the new Syria," Hollande said.
"We are including our Arab partners to accelerate this step," he told hundreds of diplomats and dignitaries at the presidential palace. "France will recognize the provisional government of Syria once it is formed."
Hollande also took issue with Russian and Chinese reticence about reaching tougher language against Assad's regime, saying "their attitude weakens our ability to carry out the mandate conferred on us by the U.N. charter."
Syria's opposition has been plagued by divisions and infighting since the start of the uprising last year, and a formation of a transitional government is fraught with difficulties.
Abdelbaset Sieda, the leader of main umbrella opposition group the Syrian National Council, said recently the group was making plans and consultations for a transitional government. However, several other opposition groups are known to be making similar plans, including a new opposition alliance headed by veteran opposition figure Haitham Maleh.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/08/27/french-president-to-address-syria-during-major-speech/?test=latestnews#ixzz24mHci0Xf
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
28082012
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Rebels shoot down Syrian regime helicopter over Damascus
A Syrian army helicopter burst into flames over Damascus after being struck by rebel fire on Monday, the first time opposition forces are known to have brought down one of the regime's air assets.
An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube on August 27, 2012 shows a burning Syrian combat helicopter crashing Photo: AFP/GETTY
By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent
12:03PM BST 27 Aug 2012
Amateur video footage showed rebels shooting at the helicopter as its tail caught fire. It then spun out of control before plummeting to the ground in a ball of fire as rebels celebrated, shouting "God is great".
Rebel fighters said the helicopter had been part of a heavy government assault on the Jobar district of eastern Damascus, which has been under attack since Sunday as part of a regime operation to regain full control of the area.
"It was flying overhead the eastern part of the city and firing all morning," an activist identifying himself as Abu Bakr told the Reuters news agency. "The rebels had been trying to hit [it] for about an hour; finally they did."
Residents in the area said they saw a projectile hit the helicopter before it crashed into a narrow residential street in the neighbouring suburb of Qaboun.
The felling of the helicopter will significantly boost the morale of rebel forces, who have been forced onto the defensive by President Bashar al-Assad's increasing willingness to use air assets, including fighter-jets, against their positions.
Related Articles
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_ British Muslim vows to fight to the death on Syrian rebel front line - 16 Aug 2012
_ Syria: hundreds of bodies found in Daraya - 26 Aug 2012
_ Security services 'failing' to stop British jihadis heading to Syria - 25 Aug 2012
Opposition fighters in eastern Syria last month claimed to have shot down a Russian made MiG fighter, but military experts said it was more likely that the jet had crashed due to a technical malfunction.
State television confirmed that a helicopter had crashed in Damascus, but provided no further details.
The loss of the helicopter did not appear to deter regime forces from pressing ahead with their attack on Jobar and the nearby districts of Zamalka and Irbin, two working class Sunni suburbs in eastern Damascus.
After claiming to have pacified the southern outskirts of the capital last week, including the town of Daraya where opposition activists say they have recovered more than 320 corpses, the regime has shifted its attention to the east of the capital.
Residents in Jobar said that helicopters had dropped fliers on Sunday warning them that they would "face annihilation" if they did not hand over "terrorists" they were accused of sheltering.
Hours later the district came under heavy attack by helicopter gunships and machine-gun fire, residents said.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
27082012
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Britain and US plan a Syrian revolution from an innocuous office block in Istanbul
An underground network of Syrian opposition activists is receiving training and supplies of vital equipment from a combined American and British effort to forge an effective alternative to the Damascus regime.
A Free Syrian Army fighter runs away to take cover from a sniper Photo: REUTERS
By Damien McElroy, Istanbul
7:30PM BST 26 Aug 2012
Dozens of dissidents have been ferried out of Syria to be vetted for foreign backing. Recipients of the aid are given satellite communications and computers so that they can act as a local "hub" linking local activists and the outside world.
The training takes place in an Istanbul district where handsome apartment blocks line the steep slopes and rooftop terraces boast views over the Golden Horn waterway.
Behind closed doors the distractions of outdoor coffee shops and clothing boutiques gives way to power point displays charting the mayhem sweeping Syria.
"We are not 'king-making' in Syria. The UK and the US are moving cautiously to help what has been developing within Syria to improve the capabilities of the opposition," said a British consultant overseeing the programme. "What's going to come next? Who is going to control territory across Syria. We want to give civilians the skills to assert leadership."
Once up and running dissidents can expect help to deal with local shortages and troubleshooting advice from sympathisers.
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_ Security services 'failing' to stop British jihadis heading to Syria - 25 Aug 2012
_ Reports of Britons among Islamist kidnappers in Syria - 28 Jul 2012
_ French minister calls for limited no-fly zone in Syria - 24 Aug 2012
_ British Muslim vows to fight to the death on Syrian rebel front line - 16 Aug 2012
But the activists also face two days of vetting designed to ensure that the programme does not fall into the trap of promoting sectarian agendas or the rise of al-Qaeda-style fundamentalists.
"Rather than being about promoting political platforms in Syria, it's about creating a patchwork of people who share common values," the consultant said.
The schemes are overseen by the US State Department's Office of Syrian Opposition Support (OSOS) and Foreign Office officials. America has set aside $25 million for political opponents of President Bashar al-Assad while Britain is granting £5 million to the cause of overthrowing the regime.
Mina al-Homsi (a pseudonym) is one of the first graduates of the training.
She now spends her days plotting how to spread seditious messages throughout her homeland through her own network, named Basma.
One of its main activities is to repackage video shot by amateurs into a format that can be used by broadcasters.
In addition to running online television and radio forums, the Basma team have had "tens of thousands" of satirical stickers depicting President Bashar al-Assad as a featherless duck for distribution as agitprop.
"It comes from the emails that his wife Asma sent to him calling him duckie and the cartoon duck is featherless to show that he is an emperor with no clothes," she said. "People will stick them on walls, on car doors, on dispensers in restaurants and those who have not yet joined the revolution will know that we are everywhere."
Foreign intervention in civil wars has proven to be a perilous undertaking since the end of the Cold War but in Syria where an invasion has proven unfeasible, diplomats have had to resort to creative thinking.
It was the legacy of non-intervention, however, that provided the spark for the schemes now backing Basma and others.
An initiative, proposed by Foreign Secretary William Hague, to document evidence of crimes committed in the fighting for use in potential International Criminal Court trials, has been transformed into the multinational project to build Syria's next governing class.
"This has been a generational coming of age," said the consultant, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The Foreign Secretary started this as a way to make sure that people who committed crimes in Syria would be held to account. Those of us with experience of the Balkans have taken the lessons of that conflict very much as a formative experience."
With the entry of American funding for a much wider scheme, the need to avoid the mistakes of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has also driven the planning.
"It's also not Iraq or Afghanistan – there are no bundles of cash being dropped on the problem without accountability," he said.
Jon Wilks, the Foreign Office diplomat who serves as envoy to the Syrian opposition, told the Arabic newspaper al Sharq al Aswat last week that Britain was already working to lay the foundations of democracy in a post-Assad Syria.
He said: "We must train activists on governing locally in villages and cities in Syria for the post-transitional phase."
Officials are adamant there will be no crossover between the civilian "non-lethal" assistance and the military campaign waged by the rebel fighters.
The scheme has, however, infuriated the exiled opposition body, the Syrian National Council. Its failure to provide a united and coherent front against the regime has led some western officials to brief privately that foreign governments were shifting support beyond the exiled body.
But in a barely furnished office in a tower block near Istanbul airport an SNC official decried the false promises of its allies. "We've heard a lot of promises from the very beginning of the SNC but none of those have been fulfilled," the SNC official said. "This has reflected absolutely negatively on our work. The opposition of Syria wants the world to provide humanitarian aid for the people in need and the Free Syria Army wants intervention to stop planes bombing their positions.
"Instead they go around behind our back undermining our role."
A Whitehall official said the effort was not about building an alternative to the SNC but a means to enhance the role of those dissidents still within Syria.
Victoria Nuland, the State Department spokesman, confirmed the OSOS programme last week and said its full effect would only be seen when President Assad leaves office.
"There are groups inside and outside Syria beginning to plan for that day-after and beginning to plan for how they might quickly stand up at least that first stage of transition so that we could move on when Assad goes, because he will go."
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
27082012
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Assad's forces accused of massacre near Syrian capital
1 of 9. A Syrian rebel fires towards a pro-government sniper in the Seif El Dawla district in the center of Aleppo city August 22, 2012. Aleppo. Credit: Reuters/Youssef Boudlal
By Oliver Holmes
ALEPPO, Syria | Sun Aug 26, 2012 1:31pm EDT
ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - Syrian opposition activists accused President Bashar al-Assad's army on Sunday of massacring hundreds of people in a town close to the capital that government forces recaptured from rebels.
In the town of Daraya, southwest of Damascus, some 320 bodies, including women and children, were found in houses and basements, according to activists who said most had been killed "execution-style" by troops in house-to-house raids.
Activists uploaded several videos to the Internet showing rows of bloodied bodies wrapped in sheets. Most of the dead appeared to be young men of fighting age, but at least one video showed several children who appeared to have been shot in the head. The body of one toddler was soaked in blood.
Due to restrictions on non-state media in Syria, it was impossible to independently verify the accounts.
Clashes are raging across Syria as the 17-month-old rebellion grows increasingly bloody, particularly in the northern city of Aleppo, where the army and rebels appear stuck in a war of attrition.
Fighting in Aleppo on Sunday was the heaviest in the past week, according to Reuters journalists on the ground.
Fighter jets dropped bombs and fired missiles on rebel-held districts in the south of Aleppo, Syria's largest city, as residents fled in panic. Reuters journalists there heard heavy explosions as clouds of black smoke rose a mile into the air.
The uprising, which began as peaceful protests, has become a brutal civil war. United Nations investigators have accused both sides of war crimes but laid more blame on government troops and pro-government militia than on the rebels.
The killings in Daraya, a working class Sunni Muslim town that sustained three days of bombardment before being overrun by the army on Friday, raised the daily death toll to 440 people on Saturday, one of the highest since the uprising began, an activist network called the Local Coordination Committees said.
The official state news agency said: "Our heroic armed forces cleansed Daraya from remnants of armed terrorist groups who committed crimes against the sons of the town."
The death toll for the following day, Sunday, was more than 90, including civilians and fighters, according to another activist network, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It said at least eight people were killed and dozens wounded on Sunday night when security forces shelled the southern town of Basra al-Sham in Deraa province, with the death toll likely to rise as many of the wounds were severe.
REGIONAL PLOT
Assad, who met an Iranian parliamentary delegation in Damascus on Sunday, said the crisis was the result of Western and regional states trying to crush Syria's role in the "resistance" against Western and Israeli domination in the region.
"What is happening right now is not just a plot directed against Syria but the region as a whole, of which Syria is a foundational stone," he was cited as saying by state news agency SANA. "The Syrian people will not allow this plan to reach its goals, no matter the cost."
The United Nations estimates that more than 18,000 people have been killed in the conflict that pits a mainly Sunni Muslim opposition against a ruling system dominated by the Assad family - members of the Alawite faith, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
Reuters reporters in a southern part of Aleppo saw jets swoop over the city as thick pillars of smoke rose into the air. Residents fled in panic as rebel gunmen filled the streets, firing anti-aircraft guns mounted on trucks at a jet and helicopter flying overhead.
Rebels say they control at least half the city of 2.5 million, but their hold is fragile as long as Assad's forces can unleash their air power against fighters who are comparatively lightly armed. Some rebels in Aleppo were firing assault rifles at a helicopter gunship shooting down at them.
EGYPT FOUR-WAY INITIATIVE
Diplomatic efforts to stop the violence in Syria are stalled by a stalemate dividing Western countries, Gulf Arab states and Turkey - who all support the opposition - and Iran, Russia and China - who support Assad.
With veto-wielding Russia leading resistance to action against Assad, the U.N. Security Council remains deadlocked.
Egypt is seeking to arrange a four-way meeting with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran, the main regional players in the conflict. Iran, a Shi'ite power, is Assad's main backer, while Saudi Arabia is believed to be supplying weapons to the rebels.
Iran accuses its foes in the West and the Arab world of fuelling the conflict by arming the opposition. Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian welcomed Egypt's initiative.
"Iran has its own views about the political process in Syria and will put forth these views upon the formation of this committee," he said. "We see any foreign intervention, terrorist actions and armed movements against the wishes of the people of Syria."
The Iranian parliamentary delegation that met with Assad also visited Vice-President Farouq al-Sharaa. It was Sharaa's first public appearance in weeks, quashing activist rumours that he had defected to the opposition.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the delegation, said Tehran had also suffered from "terrorism" and would continue to support the Syrian government.
"Just as Iran suffered from terrorism and overcame that difficult period, Syria will be able to do so as well," state news agency SANA quoted him as saying. "Syria's security is Iran's security."
(Additional reporting by Marwan Makdesi in Damascus, Yeganeh Torbati in Dubai and Tamim Elyan in Cairo; Writing by Erika Solomon; Editing by Peter Graff)
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Assad regime accused of 'brutal massacre' in Syria
Published August 26, 2012
FoxNews.com
This image made from video provided by Deir Press Network and accessed by AP video on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012 purports to show smoke rising after a bombing in Deir El-Zour, Syria. (AP Photo/Deir Press Network via AP video)
Syria opposition activists say President Bashar Assad's forces were responsible for a massacre in the town of Daraya, west of Damascus, as human rights groups report seeing bodies lying in the streets.
As many as 200 people, including women and children, were reportedly killed by regime forces, according to a Reuters report, which cited opposition activists. The British-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 32 people were found killed by "gunfire and summary executions."
FoxNews.com is unable to independently verify these accounts.
Video footage obtained by Reuters reportedly shows bodies with what appeared to be gunshot wounds to the head and chest at a mosque in Daraya.
Syria's official state news agency reportedly said regime forces had "cleansed" the town of "armed terrorist groups."
Britain has condemned the reported "brutal massacre."
Britain's Middle East minister Alistair Burt says, if confirmed, "it would be an atrocity on a new scale, requiring unequivocal condemnation from the entire international community."
Burt says in a statement it "highlights the urgent need for international action to bring an end to the violence, end this culture of impunity and hold to account those responsible for these terrible acts."
Burt says he has spoken to U.N. and Arab League Joint Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi to discuss the killings.
The U.N. Human Rights Council previously condemned Syria for the slaughter of more than 100 civilians in a cluster of villages known as Houla on May 25.
Activists say more than 20,000 people have died in 17 months of fighting in Syria, as an uprising that started with peaceful protests against Assad's rule has morphed into a civil war.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/08/26/assad-regime-accused-brutal-massacre-in-syria/?test=latestnews#ixzz24gt2KXa3
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
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US astronaut Neil Armstrong dead at 82
AFP
Updated August 26, 2012, 3:22 pm
Armstrong, the humble hero
Tributes have been pouring in for Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon, who died at the age of 82.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The first man to set foot on the moon, renowned US astronaut Neil Armstrong, has died, his family announced, prompting glowing tributes to his achievements and notably humble character.
Armstrong, who inspired a generation to reach for the stars, underwent cardiac bypass surgery earlier this month after doctors found blockages in his coronary arteries, but he died following subsequent complications. He was 82.
Praising Armstrong as a "reluctant American hero," his heartbroken relatives expressed hope his legacy would encourage young people to "work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves."
Armstrong and fellow Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin landed on the moon's desolate surface on July 20, 1969.
His first words upon stepping on the lunar surface have since been etched in history: "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."
The estimated 500 million people who watched the grainy black and white broadcast breathed a sigh of relief when Armstrong told mission control the module had landed safely, saying: "Houston, Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed."
But the lunar pioneer, who was decorated by 17 countries and received a slew of US honors, was never comfortable with his worldwide fame, shying away from the limelight.
Armstrong even stopped signing memorabilia after learning his autographs were being sold at exorbitant prices.
John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, recalled Armstrong's legendary humility.
"He didn't feel that he should be out huckstering himself," the former Ohio senator told CNN. "He was a humble person, and that's the way he remained after his lunar flight, as well as before."
A "deeply saddened" President Barack Obama on Saturday hailed Armstrong as "the greatest of American heroes -- not just of his time, but of all time."
His "legacy will endure -- sparked by a man who taught us the enormous power of one small step," said Obama, who was just under eight years old at the time of the historic Apollo 11 mission.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner remembered Armstrong as a "true hero."
"Ohio has lost one of her proudest sons. Humanity has gained a legend," Boehner said.
Aldrin said he had hoped that he, Armstrong and Michael Collins, the third astronaut on the mission, would have met up in 2019 for celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. But the occasion will not come to pass.
"Whenever I look at the moon, it reminds me of the moment over four decades ago when I realized that even though we were farther away from Earth than two humans had ever been, we were not alone," Aldrin said.
Collins, in a statement released by a NASA spokesman, said of Armstrong: "He was the best, and I will miss him terribly."
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the astronaut's death "marks the end of an amazing era in human progress."
"His example of service, accomplishment and modesty... will never die."
Born in Wapakoneta, Ohio on August 5, 1930, Armstrong had an early fascination with aircraft and worked at a nearby airport when he was a teenager.
He took flying lessons at the age of 15 and received his pilot's license on his 16th birthday.
A US Navy aviator, he flew 78 missions in the Korean War.
Armstrong joined NASA's predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, in 1955.
As a research pilot at NASA's Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, he flew on many pioneering high-speed aircraft, eventually flying over 200 different models, including helicopters, gliders, jets and rockets.
He reached astronaut status in 1962, and was assigned as command pilot for the Gemini 8 mission, during which he performed the first successful docking of two vehicles in space.
After retiring from NASA in 1971, Armstrong taught aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati for nearly a decade and served on the boards of several companies, including Lear Jet, United Airlines and Marathon Oil.
He also worked as deputy associate administrator for aeronautics at NASA headquarters, coordinating and managing the space agency's aeronautics research and technology tasks.
His family said they had a simple request to people in memory of Armstrong's life.
"Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink," it said.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
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Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
27082012
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
