By AFP TUNIS: Foreign ministers from Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, meeting in Tunis said Friday the Syrian crisis should be resolved in an “Arab framework” and opposed foreign military intervention in the country. “We are all against military intervention in Syria, and we want the problem to be resolved in an Arab framework,” Tunisian Foreign …
By Crispian Balmer and Dominic Evans / Reuters BEIRUT: Syria marked the first anniversary on Thursday of an increasingly bloody uprising against President Bashar Al-Assad, with recent army gains unlikely to quell the revolt and no diplomatic solution in sight. Official media announced government forces had cleared “armed terrorists” from the northwestern city of Idlib and …
By Agencies CAIRO: The Arab League chief said the Syrian regime’s killing of civilians amounts to crimes against humanity and called for an international inquiry. Nabil Al-Araby said Tuesday that it would not be ethical or moral to allow those behind the killings in the cities of Homs and Idlib to get away with their …
By AFP DAMASCUS: Syrian troops Tuesday pressed an assault on rebel strongholds in the Turkish border region, as the opposition urged foreign military intervention after dozens of women and children were killed in Homs. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian forces used heavy machineguns to rake the town of El-Baraa in the …
By Ahmad Khatib / AFP RAMTHA: Syrian refugees in Jordan see a grim future in their homeland, saying the regime has not yet shown its “ugly face” and are bracing themselves for more bloodshed, in which thousands have already died. A year after protests first erupted against President Bashar al-Assad’s 11-year-old rule, prompting a brutal regime …
By AFP BEIJING: China said Friday it is sending an envoy to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France to explain its position on Syria, after Beijing called for an end to the year-long conflict in the Middle East country. China unveiled a six-point peace plan last Sunday, calling for an immediate end to the bloody violence …
By Samer Al-Atrush /AFP CAIRO: United Nations and Arab League special envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, warned Thursday that further militarization in Syria will worsen a conflict there that has left thousands dead in a year. The former UN chief said he feared any miscalculation on the issue risked destabilizing the region. “I believe further militarization …
By Edmund Blair / Reuters CAIRO: Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League special envoy on Syria, will urge government and opposition to halt violence and seek a political settlement after a year of conflict when he makes his first trip to Damascus on Saturday, he said on Thursday. World powers have met behind closed doors at the …
By AFP CAIRO: Egypt’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr on Thursday warned of regional consequences should the crisis in Syria “explode,” during talks with UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Kofi Annan, his spokesman said. Amr said that an “explosion” of the situation in Syria “would not only have internal consequences but will spread to the whole …
DAMASCUS: The UN’s humanitarian chief heads for Syria Wednesday to urge the regime to let aid into devastated protest cities, with US President Barack Obama insisting military intervention would be a “mistake”. The five major UN powers discussed on Tuesday new efforts to press for a halt to the violence in Syria, which Obama called …
By AFP CAIRO: Egypt’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr has warned that arming rebel fighters in Syria would lead to a civil war, his ministry said on Wednesday. Arming the ill-equipped rebels, mainly Syrian army defectors, would “lead to an escalation in the military conflict and spark a civil war in Syria”, Amr said, according …
By Yara Bayoumy / Reuters COOLIE CAMP: When they see the plight of their Syrian kinsmen across the border, the Sunni tribesmen of western Iraq understand their rage. But with their own experience of civil war still fresh, they want to stop arms from feeding the conflict next door. Just a few years ago, this part …
By David Scheffer CHICAGO: Justice will be a long time coming in Syria, but it can begin with a Security Council referral of the situation in that wounded country to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigation and, ultimately, prosecution. The obstacles are serious, but the goal is imperative. This week, United Nations High Commissioner for …
By Ben Hubbard / AP BEIRUT: The Red Cross is trying to gain access to a war-ravaged neighborhood in the Syrian city of Homs but it could be days before aid teams are allowed in, a spokesman said Sunday. The group has been trying to enter the district of Baba Amr since Friday, the day after …
By Samia Nakhoul / Reuters BEIRUT: A Red Cross convoy carrying life-saving aid has reached the Syrian city of Homs and is about to enter the shattered district of Baba Amro, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told Reuters on Friday. “We are in Homs preparing to enter Baba Amro,” ICRC chief spokeswoman Carla …
By Tamim Elyan / Reuters CAIRO: Arab League chief Nabil Al-Araby said on Thursday he was opposed to violence as a way to end the Syrian crisis after Gulf states called for arming the rebels seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have led the Arab charge to isolate Syria, although other leading …
By Alistair Lyon / Reuters BEIRUT: Elite Syrian forces trying to destroy rebels besieged in Homs pounded the shattered district of Baba Amro on Thursday, despite international alarm at the plight of civilians trapped there. Snow blanketed the city, slowing down the military assault, but also worsening conditions for civilians, activists said. “We have not seen …
By AFP DAMASCUS: Elite troops backed by tanks massed round the Syrian protest city of Homs on Wednesday as Washington worked on a UN Security Council draft resolution demanding humanitarian access to trapped civilians. China said it backed sending international aid as diplomats said the new text being drawn up by Washington focused on getting …
By AFP UNITED NATIONS: The death toll in the Syrian government crackdown is now “certainly well over 7,500,” a top UN official said Tuesday, adding that more than 100 civilians are now often killed each day. B. Lynn Pascoe, UN under secretary general for political affairs, told the UN Security Council that the international community’s …
By Abdel Hamid Zebari / AFP ARBIL: Away from his family and living in a small flat, Omar Izzat Ibrahim is among rising numbers of Syrian Kurds who have fled a bloody crackdown to the safe haven of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. Their increasing numbers were highlighted by the announcement on Monday that authorities in Iraqi …
By Issa Samandar One can’t help but be astonished by the behavior of the United States and European governments over the vast changes occurring in Arab countries, especially their reactions towards the killing spree in Syria. They have been swift — their politicians rarely vague — in their condemnations of the Syrian regime and calls for …
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis / Reuters AMMAN: Syrian artillery pummeled rebel-held areas of Homs on Monday before an expected government announcement that a vote – decried as a sham by the opposition and the West – has approved a new constitution proposed by President Bashar Al-Assad. Shells and rockets crashed into Sunni Muslim districts of Homs …
By Agencies PARIS: French photojournalist Remi Ochlik, killed in Syria on Wednesday at the age of 28, was a passionate professional who won praise for getting as “close as possible” to the story. In his short career, Ochlik covered fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2008, the 2010 presidential election and cholera epidemic …
By Danny Kemp / AFP LONDON: Marie Colvin, who was killed in Syria on Wednesday aged 56, was a renowned war reporter for Britain’s Sunday Times whose distinctive black eye-patch symbolized her bravery and commitment. Born in the United States but based in London for decades, her long career saw her cover some of the world’s …
