Middle East
Syrian Forces Storm Into Restive Town Near Turkey
Syria ratchets up military operation on Jisr al-Shughour
European powers step up pressure on Syria
Hundreds in Syria flee to Turkey, fearing army assault
Syrian Leader’s Brother Seen as Enforcer of Crackdown
As reports mount of defections in the Syrian military and the government staggers from the killing of soldiers and police officers in a northern city this week, President Bashar al-Assad may turn increasingly to his brother, Maher, whose elite units in a demoralized army could prove decisive to his government s survival, activists and analysts say.
Syrian opposition say mutiny in army behind latest violence
Syria's opposition said Tuesday that a military mutiny in the town of Jisr al-Shaghur is behind the recent violence that left more than 120 people dead. The government said armed groups attacked security forces and a security post and set fire to government buildings on Monday, leaving up to 123 policemen dead
Syria Says 80 Security Officers Are Killed by ‘Gangs’
Syrian protesters turn on Iran and Hezbollah
Syrian forces shoot dead mourners
‘Scores killed’ in fresh Syria protests
Syrian activists call for ‘Children’s Friday’
Syria security forces kill 27 at Hama protests, rights group says
Protesters ‘killed’ in Syria town
Syria Bashar al-Assad ‘grants general amnesty’
Syria to End Nuclear Secrecy
Syrian tanks attack three central towns
Syria Restive towns ‘surrounded’ by tanks
Reforms urged to end Syrian unrest
Fresh fatalities as Syrians brave crackdown
Syria death toll ‘surpasses 1,000’
Syrian government forces are being blamed for the deaths of more than 1,000 civilians in a nine-week crackdown on nationwide anti-government demonstrations. Amar Qurabi, head of the Egypt-based National Organisation for Human Rights, said on Tuesday that his group has documented the names of 1,062 people killed since mid-March, along with the locations of where they died.
Syria’s defiant women risk all to protest against President Bashar al-Assad
Thousands Across Syria Defy Crackdown
Dorothy Parvaz: Inside Syria’s secret prisons
US ‘to impose sanctions on President Assad’
Syrian heavy weapons fire on Homs
Deaths as Syrian army storms border town
At least four people have died after army troops stormed the town of Talkalakh in the restive Homs province in western Syria. Witnesses said those killed on Saturday were among dozens of people attempting to leave Talkalakh and enter Lebanon, which borders the town, a day after a mass demonstration there against the rule of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Syrian troops ‘won’t shoot’ protesters
Lebanese police send fleeing Syrians back to face Assad regime’s violence
Official Says Syria Has the Upper Hand Over Protests
The Syrian government has gained the upper hand over a seven-week uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, a senior official declared Monday, in the clearest sign yet that the leadership believes its crackdown will crush protests that have begun to falter in the face of hundreds of deaths and mass arrests.
EU imposes arms embargo on Syria
The European Union is imposing an arms embargo on Syria, where the government is conducting a bloody crackdown on protesters. Monday's statement said the EU is also prohibiting 13 Syrian government officials from travelling anywhere in the 27-nation union, and is freezing the assets of those officials.
Syria Broadens Deadly Military Crackdown on Protesters
A military crackdown on Syria s seven-week uprising broadened Sunday, with reinforcements sent to two cities under siege and more forces deployed in a town in a restive region in the south of the country, activists and human rights groups said. Fourteen were killed in Homs, the groups said, and hundreds reported arrested.
Deaths reported as Syrian forces storm city
EU to impose sanctions on Syrian officials; UN to send team to Daraa
More deaths on Syria’s ‘day of defiance’
Activists claim that up to 30 people have been killed in Syria where thousands have taken to the streets for another day of anti-government rallies, dubbed a "day of defiance". Human rights group Insan said that at least 16 people had been killed in the central city of Homs, six in Hama and two in Jableh. It said the total death toll was 26 but didn't specify where the other two deaths occurred.
Syria protests Rights group warns of ‘Deraa massacre’
Syria Arrests Scores in House-to-House Roundup
Thousands Are Said to Be Detained in Syria
62 said killed in bloody ‘Day of Rage’ clashes in Syria
Syrians Take to Streets Despite Recent Crackdown
Thousands of Syrians took to the streets of several towns and cities Friday in what organizers had proclaimed a 'Friday of Rage' against the government s bloody crackdown of a six-week uprising that has begun to reshape politics in one of the Arab world s most authoritarian countries, activists said.
Syrian funding causes embarrassment at British university
Syrian opposition vows to ‘break the regime’
Syrian opposition figures have said their "massive grassroots revolution" will break the regime unless Bashar al-Assad, the president, leads a transition to democracy. The statement on Wednesday from an umbrella group of opposition activists in Syria and abroad, called the National Initiative for Change, said a democratic transition will "safeguard the nation from falling into a period of violence, chaos and civil war."
Syrian Army Storms Dara’a, Cracking Down on Rebels
The Syrian Army stormed the restive city of Dara a with tanks and soldiers and helped detain dozens in towns across the country Monday in an escalation of the crackdown on Syria s five-week-old uprising, according to residents and human rights activists. They said at least 25 people had been killed in Dara a, with reports of bodies strewn in the streets.
Syria Escalates Crackdown as Tanks Go to Restive City
The Syrian Army sent tanks rolling into the restive southern city of Dara a and carried out arrests in poor towns on the capital s outskirts Monday in a sharp escalation of a crackdown on Syria s five-week-old uprising, according to human rights activists and accounts posted on social networking sites. They said at least five people were killed in Dara a, and bodies were in the streets.
More Syrians Missing, Hinting at Wider Crackdown
Dozens of residents have gone missing in Syria since Friday, many of them from the restive city of Homs and towns on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus, human rights activists said Sunday, amid signs that the Syrian government may widen its crackdown on a five-week uprising that has already killed hundreds.
Syria protests Security forces ‘fire on mourners’
Syria urged to end deadly crackdown
Barack Obama, the US president, has said Syria's deadly crackdown on protesters "must come to an end now" and accused Damascus of seeking Iranian help to repress its people. Almost 90 protesters were killed on Friday, according to human rights group Amnesty International, in the bloodiest violence in a month of escalating protests against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's rule.
Obama condemns ‘outrageous’ use of force
US President Barack Obama has accused Syria of using "outrageous" force against protesters and of seeking Iranian help to quell weeks of unrest. He condemned "in the strongest possible terms" Friday's violence in which more than 70 protesters were killed. He said President Bashar al-Assad refused to respect the rights of protesters, and had instead used the same tactics as his Iranian allies.
Syrian security forces shoot protesters
Dozens of people are reported to have been killed in Syria as security forces use live ammunition and tear gas to quell anti-government protests across the country. Activists sent a list naming 43 people from across the country who they said had been killed by security forces during the "Great Friday" protests.
Syria unrest: ‘Bloodiest day’ as troops fire on rallies
Protesters in Syria have reported 60 people killed by security forces - the highest daily death toll in five weeks of unrest against President Assad. Protesters were shot when they gathered following Muslim Friday prayers, a day after the country's decades-long state of emergency was finally lifted.
Syria braced for anti-government protests
Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, has appointed a new governor in the central city of Homs, where witnesses say security forces have been deployed in anticipation of more protests. The official news agency said on Thursday that Ghassan Abdul-Al was named for the post after the government sacked his predecessor on April 7.
Syrian opposition figure arrested in Homs
Syria Meets New Defiance With Bullets and a Warning
The government in Syria tried to placate protesters with promises of reform Tuesday while bluntly warning its people to end more than a month of demonstrations, a now-familiar strategy in one of the Arab world s most repressive countries that has so far failed to blunt the most serious challenge to its 40-year rule.
Thousands attend Syria protesters’ funerals
Syria protests swell as tens of thousands turn out
Thousands demonstrate in Syrian cities
Syrian security forces have dispersed thousands of protesters marching towards central Damascus from the suburb of Douma, witnesses say. Haitham al-Maleh, an activist and lawyer, told Al Jazeera on Friday that protesters were close to Abasyeen Square when the intelligence services brought several buses carrying men with "pistols and sticks" who attacked protesters. He said those injured were taken away by medics.
Assad forms new Syrian government
Syrian security forces attack village
Syria blocking medical treatment for protesters
Syrian opposition says 200 killed in protests
If Assad falls, we will see all the region’s alliances unravel
The Syrian regime, long a key player in the Middle East power play, has decided to fight back with full force. It seems determined to defeat the tidal wave of popular protest that smashed the regimes of Tunisia and Egypt, that is threatening rulers in Libya, Yemen and Bahrain, and is now challenging state power in a dozen Syrian cities.
Syria deploys army in troubled city
Assad attempts to appease minority Kurds
The delusions of Bashar al-Assad
Assad announced himself a dictator
They laughed when he laughed. Their hearts raced in anticipation, not over those much heralded reforms which failed to materialise - "Weren't emergency laws abolished last week anyway?' asked one - but over the excitement and grandeur of the occasion: the packed parliament, the crowds of cheering supporters and, of course, President Bashar al-Assad himself.
UN watchdog inspects Syrian nuclear plant
Syrian protesters march for freedom
The Syrian President I Know
Mr. Assad is a licensed ophthalmologist who studied in London and a computer nerd who likes the technological toys of the West; his wife, Asma, born in Britain to Syrian parents, was a banker at J. P. Morgan. He is a child of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the cold war. Contrary to American interests, he firmly believes Lebanon should be within Syria's sphere of influence, and he is a member of a minority Islamic sect, the Alawites, that has had a chokehold on power in Syria for decades.
Syrian Leader Blames Turmoil on ‘Conspiracy’
Turkey sees Kurdish threat in Syria unrest
Demonstrations in Syria against President Bashar al-Assad's rule threaten to destabilize Turkey's security arrangements with its neighbor to contain Kurdish rebels, while a collapse of Assad's state could prompt a regional push for Kurdish autonomy. Ankara has responded by gently nudging Damascus to accept some democratic reform, but its converging economic and geopolitical interests with Syria make this an uncomfortable task. - Jacques N Couvas (Mar 30, '11)
Water crisis floats Syrian unrest
The regime has attempted to blame the United States and Israel for organizing the unrest, but this argument is unlikely to persuade anybody except Assad's ardent supporters. It is hard to avoid the fact that the region of Daraa, where the current round of protests started, is one of the poorest in Syria. According to a recent Jerusalem Post report, "The city is home to thousands of displaced people from eastern Syria, where up to a million people have left their homes because of a water crisis over the past six years."
Syria ‘to lift emergency law’
Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, told Al Jazeera's Cal Perry in the capital Damascus on Sunday that the law would "absolutely" be lifted, but failed to give a timetable. The repeal of the emergency law, in place since the 1963 coup that brought the Baath Party to power, has been a key demand of protesters who have taken to the streets in recent days to demand greater political freedoms.