Outspoken Assad supporter assassinated in Lebanon

BEIRUT (AP) -- Gunmen burst into the first floor apartment of a pro-government Syrian journalist Wednesday, killing him in a hail of nearly 30 bullets in a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon.

The pre-dawn assassination of Mohammed Darrar Jammo is the latest in a series of brazen attacks that have shown the growing vulnerability of the Shiite militant group, which has found itself increasingly on the defensive at home over its decision to back President Bashar Assad in the civil war raging next door.

Violence linked to Syria's war is increasingly washing across Lebanon, threatening to unleash large-scale fighting in a deeply fragmented country that is being constantly tested with ever deepening polarization over the conflict in Syria.

In recent months, violence has become more recurrent and geographically widespread, extending to predominantly Shiite neighborhoods that had been relatively immune from attacks plaguing other, mostly border areas.

On Tuesday, a roadside bomb struck a Hezbollah convoy near the Syrian border, wounding two, and last week a car bombing in south Beirut wounded 53 people in the heart of the militant group's bastion of support. Rockets have recently hit the Hezbollah stronghold south of the Lebanese capital.

The attacks come as no surprise. Although there have been no credible responsibility claims, Syria-based extremist Sunni groups have interpreted Hezbollah's moves in Syria as a declaration of war against their sect and have threatened to retaliate inside Hezbollah-controlled areas in Lebanon.

"It is still the beginning of a probably tough road ahead" for Hezbollah, said Kamel Wazne, founder and director of the Center for American Strategic Studies in Beirut. Such attacks, however, will not change the group's ideology or direction, but "will actually strengthen their resolve to continue what they started," he said.

Jammo, a 44-year-old journalist and political commentator, was one of Assad's and Hezbollah's most vociferous defenders. In frequent appearances on television talk shows, he would staunchly support the Syrian regime's strong-armed response to the uprising and in at least one case shouted down opposition figures, calling them "traitors."

His hard-line stance earned him enemies among Syria's opposition, and some in the anti-Assad camp referred to Jammo as "shabih," a term used for pro-government gunmen who have been blamed for some of the worst mass killings of the civil war.

On Wednesday, he was gunned down with automatic rifles shot at close range in his apartment in the coastal town of Sarafand, a stronghold of Hezbollah, where he lived with his Lebanese wife. The perpetrators got away.

Lebanon's state news agency published a photo Wednesday of a shirtless Jammo lying on a blue sheet soaked with blood, his chest riddled with bullet wounds. Bullet holes were clearly visible in the walls inside the house.

Hezbollah condemned the attack, saying it showed the "bankruptcy" of Sunni extremist groups fighting in Syria. In a statement, it said that the crime should serve as an "alarm bell" for Lebanese authorities "to find the most appropriate way to confront these terrorist groups before it is too late."

Assassinations of politicians, army officers and journalists who support Assad's regime are common in Syria, but the killing of a well-known Syrian in Lebanon is rare.

Syria's conflict has cut deep fissures through Lebanon and exposed the country's split loyalties. Many Lebanese Sunnis support the overwhelmingly Sunni uprising against Assad, while Shiites generally back Hezbollah and the Syrian regime.

Clashes between pro- and anti-Assad groups in Lebanon have left scores of people dead in recent months, and the violence has escalated as Hezbollah's role fighting alongside the Syrian regime has become public. The group was instrumental in helping secure a regime victory in the strategic town of Qusair near the border with Lebanon last month.

Naufal Daou, a member of the anti-Hezbollah political coalition in Lebanon, said that by defying the will of the Lebanese people, Hezbollah finds itself facing a real dilemma "inflicted on itself by its stubbornness ... and insistence to attach Lebanon's fate to that of rogue states and dying political regimes."

The slide in Lebanon toward violence is taking place amid a dangerous political void. Politicians have been unable to form a new government since outgoing premier Najib Mikati resigned in March. Parliament extended its mandate by a year and a half in June, skipping scheduled elections largely because of the instability in the country.

The country appears to be headed toward a security vacuum in September, when the term of army commander Gen. Jean Kahwaji expires. Politicians are divided over whether parliament should meet to extend his mandate.

Analysts say Hezbollah is unlikely to be affected by the wave of attacks targeting its strongholds.

"Hezbollah is very good at taking punches," said Wazne. He said the group feels stronger and more assured now that Assad has regained the momentum against rebels fighting to topple him, largely after the fall of Qusair.

Hezbollah's hard-core Shiite supporters are likely to rally further around the group following such attacks.

In other developments Wednesday, Kurdish gunmen captured most of a Syrian town near the border with Turkey after a day of fighting against jihadi groups in the area, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Such clashes have been common over the past months in rebel-held areas in northern Syria.

The Observatory said the fighting in the town of Ras al-Ayn between the pro-government militia of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, and members of al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant left at least 11 dead people dead, including nine extremists.

Stray bullets from the fighting killed a 17-year-old in a Turkish town, a Turkish official said. Turkey's military said it fired into Syria in retaliation for the killing.

The fighting broke out Tuesday after the Islamic fighters attacked a Kurdish patrol in the area, capturing a Kurdish gunman. Wide clashes broke out later in the day after the two extremist groups rejected a truce offer, according to the Observatory.

Syrian TV reported Wednesday that a car bomb went off near a mosque in the Damascus suburb of Kanakir, killing three people and wounding 10 others, including women and children.

---

Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, contributed to this report.

Britain's outgoing army chief: no-fly zone over Syria would be unsuccessful without establishing ground control

Britain's outgoing army chief has warned that attempts to impose a no-fly zone over Syria would be unsuccessful without establishing ground control, in an interview published in Thursday's Daily Telegraph.
Britain is at the forefront of international efforts to topple the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, and has promised to supply rebels with equipment to protect them against chemical weapons attacks.
But in his interview with the Telegraph, general David Richards said: "If you wanted to have the material impact on the Syrian regime's calculations that some people seek, a no-fly zone per se is insufficient.
"You have to be able, as we did successfully in Libya, to hit ground targets. You have to take out their air defences."
Richards stressed that a "ground control zone" would need to be established and that tanks and armoured personnel carriers would have to be "taken out".
"If you want to have the material effect that people seek you have to be able to hit ground targets and so you would be going to war if that is what you want to do," he added.
A lack of international consensus and the splintered nature of rebel forces made it difficult to forge a military solution, the 61-year-old general added.
Richards retires on Thursday after a military career spanning more than 40 years.
[AFP]

Syria rebels reinforce key suburb in Damascus battle

(Reuters) - Syrian rebels poured reinforcements into a key Damascus suburb on Tuesday in an attempt to push back government troops who have renewed their campaign to secure the capital and build on battlefield gains elsewhere in the country.
Fighting centered on Qaboun, a rebel-held district where Syrian troops backed by tanks and artillery had made inroads on Monday as part of efforts to consolidate control over Damascus, President Bashar al-Assad's power base.
After two years of rebel gains in a war that has cost more than 90,000 lives, the tide has turned somewhat for Assad's forces, allowing them to seize the city of Qusair last month and press on with a campaign to link Damascus to Assad's coastal strongholds.
In facing down the mainly Sunni rebels seeking to oust him, the Syrian leader has received important backing from Shi'ite Iran and from Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon as the war takes on an increasingly sectarian aspect.
At the same time, the rebels are plagued by infighting between Islamist groups and members of the more liberal Free Syrian Army, which is backed by the West and some Arab nations.
The increasingly fragmented and brutal nature of the war was illustrated by an incident in Homs province, where gunmen loyal to Assad shot dead at least six mediators sent to try to reconcile warring sectarian groups in an area where opposing sides had until now been able to coexist.
Residents said the killings on Monday evening in the village of Hajar al-Abyad highlighted the growing challenge of mediating between towns held by rebel groups and those controlled by pro-Assad militias known as "shabbiha".
In a separate incident near the Turkish border in the north, Islamist rebel fighters from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front clashed with Kurdish armed men, who generally support the creation of an autonomous region within Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition monitoring group, said the fighting broke out after Nusra fighters attacked a Kurdish patrol and took a gunman hostage.
The Kurds said they had killed eight Nusra Front militants in what they said was a territorial dispute.
PRESSING CAMPAIGN
Assad's forces are pressing their campaign at a time when the Free Syrian Army has yet to receive weapons promised by Washington but delayed by objections by U.S. lawmakers.
A U.S. official said on Monday that the Obama administration had made progress in overcoming these concerns but some details remained unresolved.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers fear the weapons could end up in the hands of Islamist militants, and would not be enough to tip the balance against the better-equipped Syrian government anyway.
Britain, meanwhile, said it would give Syrian rebels equipment to protect themselves against chemical and biological weapons as "a matter of special urgency".
Britain has said forces loyal to Assad have made limited use of chemical weapons, which the Syrian government denies.
In an attempt at unity, the Syrian opposition now intends to create a 10-member executive council that can to draw together disparate factions into a more structured army with better financing and weapons, Michel Kilo, a senior opposition figure, told Reuters in Paris.
In Damascus, the latest fighting comes almost a year after one of the rebels' most spectacular attacks in the capital - a bomb attack last July 18 which killed several of Assad's most senior security officials and led some commentators to predict Assad would soon fall.
Abu Nidal, a rebel spokesman in Damascus, said on Tuesday that his fighters were trying to prevent the army advancing further into Qaboun, which it entered on Monday.
"Rebel reinforcements are entering the area," he told Reuters by Skype. "We expect the army to advance further into the area but they will be stopped."
The intensity of the fighting could be seen in footage posted on the internet by opposition activists.
The amateur video showed a large grey plume of smoke rising from a densely built residential area of Damascus. Mount Qasioun, which overlooks the capital, can be seen in the background.
Text accompanying the footage posted on Tuesday said the smoke came from a ground-to-ground missile fired into Qaboun.
ARMY CHECKPOINT
Elsewhere in the city, nine people including a child were killed at an army checkpoint, the Observatory said in a statement. Quoting activists in the area, the British-based group said they were all shot in the head.
It added that mortar bombs were being fired by the army into the southern district of Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp on the edge of central Damascus that has fallen in and out of government and rebel control during the past year.
Activists and residents said also that at least five mortar shells hit the Damascus neighborhood of Masaken Barze, injuring several people.
Clashes and bombardment were reported by activists in nearly every province on Tuesday, from central Homs city to the northwestern farming province of Idlib to the eastern desert city of Deir al-Zor.
In the south of Syria near the Israeli border, the Observatory reported clashes between rebels and government forces in the village of al-Qahtaniya.
"Initial reports indicate that several fighters in the regime forces were killed, and some armored vehicles were destroyed," the Observatory said.
(Editing by Giles Elgood)

Car bomb kills women and children in Syria's south

(Reuters) - A car bomb killed several civilians, including women and children, in a town south of Damascus on Wednesday, Syrian state television said.
The car was parked near the Amari Mosque in Kanaker, the channel reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, quoted activists as saying seven people had died.
The small town is under the control of President Bashar al-Assad's forces but there are rebels in the surrounding area. The province around Damascus has seen intense fighting during the two-year conflict.
Syria's civil war started with pro-democracy protests that were suppressed by government forces. An ensuing civil war has killed 90,000 people and drawn in regional powers hoping to sway the outcome of the conflict.
Assad's forces, spurred on by a series of recent battleground victories, have staved off rebel advances near Damascus and further south of the capital, in areas near the Jordanian border. Insurgents have used car bombs to target areas they are not able to push into with ground forces.
(Reporting by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Israel: Suspects from Syria enter Israel army post

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Two Syrian suspects briefly infiltrated an unmanned Israeli military post on the border between Syria and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, the military said Wednesday.

When Israeli troops approached the post, they were fired upon from inside Syria, prompting the soldiers to return fire, the army said. The suspects later left the post, it added. The incident took place late Tuesday, the army said.

It was not the first time suspects from Syria have tried to overrun unmanned Israeli posts since Syrian fighting erupted in 2011. Israel has been wary of Syrian violence spilling across the border into Israeli-controlled territory.

Syrian mortar shells have landed inside Israeli-held areas, but Israel believes them to be errant shots. Israel has occasionally accused Syria of aiming at Israeli targets, and Israeli troops have returned fire.

On Tuesday, the military said a number of what appeared to be mortar shells struck the Golan Heights, causing no damage.

Israel is believed to have carried out four airstrikes in Syria in recent months against weapons thought to be destined for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

Prominent Assad supporter assassinated in Lebanon.

BEIRUT (AP) -- Gunmen assassinated a prominent Syrian pro-government figure at his home in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in the latest sign of Syria's civil war spilling over into its smaller neighbor, security officials said.

Mohammed Darrar Jammo was gunned down, shot nearly 30 times, in the coastal town of Sarafand, a stronghold of the Shiite militant Hezbollah group, the officials said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Assassinations of politicians, army officers and journalists who support President Bashar Assad's regime are not uncommon in Syria, but the killing of a well-known Syrian in Lebanon is rare.

Violence linked to Syria's civil war is increasingly washing across Lebanon, threatening to unleash large-scale fighting in the country. On Tuesday, a roadside bomb struck a Hezbollah convoy near the Syrian border, while last week a car bomb in south Beirut wounded 53 people in the heart of the militant group's bastion of support.

Syria's conflict has cut deep fissures through Lebanon and exposed the country's split loyalties. Many Lebanese Sunnis support the overwhelmingly Sunni uprising against Assad in Syria, while Shiites generally back Hezbollah and the regime. Clashes between pro- and anti-Assad groups in Lebanon have left scores of people dead in recent months, and the violence has escalated as Hezbollah's role fighting alongside the regime has become public.

Jammo, a 44-year-old political analyst who often appeared on Arab TV stations, was one of Assad's most vociferous defenders. In frequent appearances on television talk shows, he would staunchly support the Syrian regime's strong-armed response to the uprising and in at least one case shouted down opposition figures and called them "traitors."

His hard-line stance earned him enemies among Syria's opposition, and some in the anti-Assad camp referred to Jammo as "shabih," a term used for pro-government gunmen who have been blamed for some of the worst mass killings of the civil war.

Lebanon's state news agency published a photo Wednesday of a shirtless Jammo lying on a blue sheet stained with blood, his chest riddled with bullet wounds.

The Lebanese security officials said Jammo's Lebanese wife and daughter were both in the house at the time of the attack. His daughter was later rushed to the hospital after suffering from shock, the officials said.

They added that a Lebanese man was detained near Jammo's house in Sarafand shortly after the shooting and was being questioned.

Sarafand is in predominantly Shiite southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah holds sway and Assad enjoys wide support among the local people.

The militant group has taken on a major role in Syria's conflict on the side of Assad's forces, which has contributed to a spike in Sunni-Shiite tensions in Lebanon. It has also prompted warnings from Syrian rebel groups, who have threatened to retaliate on Hezbollah's home turf.

Inside Syria on Wednesday, Kurdish gunmen captured most of a town near the border with Turkey after a day of fighting against jihadi groups in the area, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Such clashes have been common over the past moths in rebel-held areas in northern Syria.

The Observatory said the fighting in the town of Ras al-Ayn between the pro-government militia of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, and members of al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant left at least 11 dead people dead, including nine extremists.

The Observatory said the fighting was taking place a few hundred meters from a border crossing with Turkey. It said members of jihadi groups had to withdraw from the town to nearby villages. It said Kurdish gunmen captured a number of fighters in the area.

The fighting broke out Tuesday after the Islamic fighters attacked a Kurdish patrol in the area, capturing a Kurdish gunman. Wide clashes broke out later in the day after the Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant rejected a truce offer, according to the Observatory.

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press

Aleppo University has stripped Recep Tayyip Erdogan of an honorary doctorate.

Syria's Aleppo University has stripped Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of an honorary doctorate citing his support for Syrian rebels and crackdown on Turkish protesters, state media reported Tuesday.
State news agency SANA said Erdogan was being stripped of the PhD because of "his plots against the Syrian people" and his use of "arbitrary" violence against protesters in Turkey.
SANA quoted Khudur Orfaly, dean of Aleppo University, as describing the decision as "a message of solidarity to the friendly Turkish people, who reject Erdogan's hostile policies".
Relations between Syria and Turkey have deteriorated sharply since the uprising broke out against President Bashar al-Assad's rule in March 2011 and Erdogan became one of Assad's most outspoken critics.
Turkey is now home to more than 400,000 Syria refugees and harbours many of the opposition's top civilian and military leaders.
[AFP]

Britain rushing to issue Syria's rebel fighters with chemical warfare protection.

Britain says it is rushing to issue Syria's rebel fighters with chemical warfare protection, including escape hoods, drugs and chemical detector paper.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague told Parliament Tuesday that roughly 655,000 pounds (nearly $1 million) worth of equipment would be sent to the rebels as "a matter of special urgency" because evidence suggests that Syrian President Bashar Assad has deployed chemical weapons against the opposition.
Syria is believed to have large stocks of the nerve gas sarin which Western powers, including the United States, say has been used to poison rebel fighters in urban areas.
Syrian officials deny the charge, alleging instead that rebels have used the arms against government forces.
Hoods and drugs can be used as short-term fixes to evade or treat sarin poisoning.
[AP]

Rebel infighting each other in Syria undermining revolt

BEIRUT (AP) -- On Syria's front lines, al-Qaida fighters and more mainstream Syrian rebels have turned against each other in a power struggle that has undermined the effort to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

After violent clashes and the assassination of two rival commanders, one of whom was beheaded, more moderate factions are publicly accusing the extremists of trying to seize control of the rebellion.

The rivalries - along with the efforts by extremist foreign fighters to impose their strict interpretation of Islam in areas they control - are chipping away at the movement's popularity in Syria at a time when the regime is making significant advances on the ground.

"The rebels' focus has shifted from toppling the regime to governing and power struggles," said a 29-year-old woman from the contested city of Homs. "I feel that the lack of true leadership is and has always been their biggest problem." She spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation from the fighters and the regime.

The infighting, which exploded into the open in the country's rebel-held north in recent days, is contributing to a sense across many parts of Syria that the revolution has faltered. It threatens to fracture an opposition movement that has been plagued by divisions from the start.

The moderates once valued the expertise and resources that their uneasy allies brought to the battlefield, but now question whether such military assets are worth the trouble - not to mention the added difficulty in persuading the West to arm them.

"We don't want foreign fighters. We have enough men and we want them out of Syria," said Brig. Gen. Salim Idris, head of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army, an umbrella group for dozens of brigades.

In strikingly blunt comments in an interview with Al-Arabiya on Monday, Idris, a secular-minded army defector who has the backing of foreign powers, accused members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant of being regime agents and "criminals."

That group, formed in April and made up of al-Qaida's branches in Iraq and Syria, has taken on an increasingly dominant role in the Syrian civil war. Many of its fighters are north Africans, Iraqis, Afghans and Europeans who have flocked to Syria to join the overwhelmingly Sunni uprising against Assad.

Gunmen from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant were behind the killings of the two rebel commanders, the highest-profile casualties of the growing tensions between jihadi fighters and Western-supported rebels.

Kamal Hamami, known as Abu Basir, served in the Supreme Military Council. Activists say he was shot late Thursday in a clash that erupted after militants tried to remove a checkpoint he set up on the Jabal al-Turkoman mountain in the coastal province of Latakia. Two of his men were seriously wounded in the shooting.

Also last week, members of the extremist group killed Fadi al-Qish, the local commander of a group affiliated with the mainstream Free Syrian Army, or FSA. The fatal attack took place in the village of Dana in the northern province of Idlib near the Turkish border. Activists say the militants decapitated al-Qish and another fighter and left their severed heads on the ground as a lesson to other rebels who challenge their rule in the area.

The executions have enraged FSA commanders, who are demanding that the killers be handed over to stand trial.

Activists also say extremists have recently been sweeping into villages previously controlled by the FSA, taking over crucial resources such as bakeries, oil wells and water pumps to secure people's loyalties. In several cases, the militants were said to seize weapons from army bases and keep them from other rebels.

But what alienates the general population is the brutality. The extremists have carried out summary executions, public floggings and mass arrests, fueling the backlash against them.

In one prominent case in Aleppo last month, al-Qaida-linked militants executed a 15-year-old boy, Mohammad Qattaa, accusing him of being an "infidel" for mentioning Islam's Prophet Muhammad in vain. Gunmen shot the boy dead in front of his parents near a stand where he sold coffee in a killing that sparked rare local protests against them.

In many parts of Aleppo and Idlib and Homs, where a suffocating stalemate has been in place since last year, residents say their support and patience for the rebels is fraying.

In Aleppo last week, residents staged a protest at a checkpoint against a blockade imposed by the militants on government-held districts, because the blockade created food shortages at the onset of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. The protest led to a physical quarrel between supporters and opponents of the siege and ended with gunshots fired in the air to disperse protesters.

Syria's uprising started in March 2011 as an Arab Spring-inspired revolt against the decades-long Assad family rule. It eventually transformed into an insurgency and civil war in response to a brutal government crackdown against the protests. More than 93,000 have been killed and millions uprooted from their homes.

The rebels are a disparate mix of ordinary citizens who took up weapons, army defectors, moderates and hard-liners, and increasingly, jihadists who have trekked to Syria from all over the world. A shortage of weapons and the inability of external players to interfere in the conflict to tip the balance in favor of one side or another has worked against the rebels.

Some FSA commanders are trying to tamp down the dispute with the al-Qaida militants, mindful of the damage the infighting has done to their cause.

"Their actions are despicable, but we will not be drawn into a fight with them," said one commander, who declined to be named so as not to aggravate the situation.

FSA spokesman Loay al-Mikdad was less delicate.

"I think they should come out in public and tell the Syrian people why they are in Syria. Is it to fight Bashar Assad or to impose a specific agenda on the Syrian people?" he asked.

"We never see them on the battlefield anymore," he said of the al-Qaida militants. "We only see them in liberated areas either next to oil wells or trying to impose specific agendas on territories."

The dispute is not restricted to Islamic militants versus moderates. In the north, there has also been deadly infighting between Kurdish and Arab groups over control of captured territory along the border with Turkey.

"This infighting is very dangerous and is undermining our revolution," said Mohammed Kanaan, an activist based in the northern province of Idlib. "People are fed up and tired. ... They are starting to hate both sides," he said via Skype.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the al-Qaida militants are working to entrench themselves and secure a place in a post-Assad Syria.

"They are trying to control everything, they have a lot of money," most of it from private donations, he said.

Still, al-Mikdad ruled out a scenario similar to the Iraqi one, when U.S.-allied groups of Sunni fighters battled al-Qaida.

"Until now, the FSA does not consider itself in confrontation with these groups. Our weapons are directly only against Bashar Assad's troops," he said in a TV interview.

"But if a fight is imposed on us, we will defend ourselves," he said.

...............

 AP correspondent Yasmine Sakr contributed to this report.

Seven Members of Syrian war reconciliation group killed

BEIRUT (AP) -- Pro-government gunmen killed seven members of a local Syrian reconciliation group near the central city of Homs, activists said Tuesday, as troops shot dead nine people including a child at a checkpoint in a suburb of the capital.

The latest killings coincide with an offensive by President Bashar Assad's troops in Damascus and its surrounding suburbs, as well as in the strategic province surrounding Homs.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the seven men, including two retired army officers, were Sunni Muslims working to convince gunmen to drop their weapons and return to normal life. They were killed Monday in the village of Hajar Abyad, where residents are known to be regime supporters, it said.

Assad's troops have captured several nearby rebel-held areas in recent weeks including the towns of Qusair and Talkalkh near the border with Lebanon. Late last month, they launched an attack to try to capture rebel-held areas of Homs, Syria's third largest city.

They have also made headway against fighter brigades on the edge of Damascus and eastern suburbs.

The uprising against Assad's rule began in March 2011 and has deteriorated into an insurgency with increasingly sectarian overtones. Rebels, who are overwhelmingly Sunni, have been assisted by foreign fighters, while government forces have been bolstered by guerrillas from the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.

The killing came three days after rebels attacked a nearby army checkpoint, killing seven people including members of the military. It was not immediately clear if Monday's killings were in retaliation for Friday's ambush.

A Syrian activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said the gunmen who attacked the checkpoint had already been cleared by the committee as they have surrendered their arms.

The Observatory said the dead included two retired army officers, a mosque preacher and a former mayor.

In the Damascus suburb of Qarah, troops shot dead nine people including a child at an army checkpoint in the area, the Observatory said.

It was not clear whether those killed were fighters or civilians. An amateur video showed seven dead men, some of them with beards, and a boy with a bloodied face. The dead appeared to have suffered bullet wounds, some to the head.

"These are Bashar's crimes during Ramadan," a man could be heard saying in the video referring to the Muslim holy month that began last week.

The Observatory also reported fighting in the town of Qahtaniyeh on the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said regime forces were attacking rebels in the town.

More than 93,000 have been killed and millions uprooted from their homes in the conflict.

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press

forcibly ejected 30 Syrians patients by lebanese hospital.

A Lebanese hospital has "forcibly"  ejected 30 Syrians patients wounded in violence in their country, an activist  said on Monday, while the hospital said they were discharged over unpaid bills.
"The Alameddin hospital in Minieh threw out 30 wounded Syrians from Qusayr"  on Sunday, Khaled Mustafa, director of an office helping refugees in northern
Lebanon, told AFP.
The hospital, in northern Lebanon, has hosted dozens of Syrians from the  town of Qusayr, a former rebel stronghold that fell to government troops last  month, prompting an exodus of residents.
"They were forcibly expelled and were insulted," Mustafa said, adding that  "80 percent of them were fitted with splints because of their serious  fractures."
"The splints were removed without any concern for their health."
"They wouldn't even let them take their personal belongings or their  x-rays," he added.
Mustafa said the patients - some of whom were observing the fasting month of Ramadan - were left to sit on a pavement for two hours before Red Cross ambulances arrived to take them to another hospital in the nearby city of Tripoli.

  AFP reports.

Egypt's new visa rules for Syrians.

Egypt's new visa rules for Syrians imposed after the army's removal of President Mohamed Morsi are only a temporary security measure and will not erode Egyptian support for the Syrian revolution, state media said on Monday.
Last week, Egypt introduced visa requirements for Syrians after local media and some officials accused Syrian Islamists of joining deadly clashes between Morsi's supporters and the military that ousted him earlier this month.
Egypt has since turned back several flights from Syria carrying hundreds of passengers and deported Syrians who arrived via other countries at Cairo airport, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled the conflict pitting President Bashar al-Assad's armed forces against insurgents trying to overthrow him. The bloodshed, which began in March 2011, has killed an estimated 100,000 people and driven 1.7 millions abroad.

        Reuters news agency.

Syrian regime attacks on villages in north kill 29

BEIRUT (AP) -- Syrian government troops pounded rebel-held villages around the northern city of Idlib with rockets, artillery and airstrikes, killing at least 29 people, including six children, activists said Monday.

After seizing the momentum in recent months in Syria's civil war, President Bashar Assad's forces are on the offensive against the rebels on several fronts, including in Idlib province along the border with Turkey. Government forces are in firm control of the provincial capital of same name, while dozens of rebel brigades control the countryside.

The Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights said government shelling overnight targeted five villages near Idlib city. Eight women and six children were among the 29 people killed, according to the Observatory.

The group, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, said the deadliest attack took place in the village of Maghra, where a rocket slammed into a row of houses, killing 13 people. Three nearby villages - Bara, Basamis and Kafr Nabl - were hit by artillery shells that killed another 13 people. Three others died in an airstrike on the village Iblin, the Observatory said.

In central Syria, a car bomb exploded outside a police headquarters in the town of Deir Atiyeh, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Damascus, killing 13 people, including 10 policemen. One child was among the dead, the Observatory said.

Syria's state news agency confirmed the attack late Sunday, but said a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden car in a residential area of the town, causing an unknown number of casualties. It said "terrorists" were behind the blast - a government term for rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad's regime.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but radical Islamic groups, including those with links to al-Qaida, frequently target Syrian government institutions, security installations and troops with car bombs and suicide attacks.

Last month, a Syrian branch of al-Qaida known as Jabhat al-Nusra claimed responsibility for multiple suicide attacks on security compounds in Damascus that killed at least five people.

The Nusra Front and other Islamic extremist groups have been the most effective fighting force on the opposition side in the past year, spearheading many of the rebel offensives that have captured military bases, towns and villages.

The U.N. estimates that more than 93,000 people have been killed in Syria since the revolt began in March 2011 with largely peaceful protests against the Assad regime. It turned into a civil war after opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown.

By BARBARA SURK
Associated Press

Rebel infighting in Syria undermining revolt

BEIRUT (AP) -- On Syria's front lines, al-Qaida fighters and more mainstream Syrian rebels have turned against each other in a power struggle that has undermined the effort to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

After violent clashes and the assassination of two rival commanders, one of whom was beheaded, more moderate factions are publicly accusing the extremists of trying to seize control of the rebellion.

The rivalries - along with the efforts by extremist foreign fighters to impose their strict interpretation of Islam in areas they control - are chipping away at the movement's popularity in Syria at a time when the regime is making significant advances on the ground.

"The rebels' focus has shifted from toppling the regime to governing and power struggles," said a 29-year-old woman from the contested city of Homs. "I feel that the lack of true leadership is and has always been their biggest problem." She spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation from the fighters and the regime.

The infighting, which exploded into the open in the country's rebel-held north in recent days, is contributing to a sense across many parts of Syria that the revolution has faltered. It threatens to fracture an opposition movement that has been plagued by divisions from the start.

The moderates once valued the expertise and resources that their uneasy allies brought to the battlefield, but now question whether such military assets are worth the trouble - not to mention the added difficulty in persuading the West to arm them.

"We don't want foreign fighters. We have enough men and we want them out of Syria," said Brig. Gen. Salim Idris, head of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army, an umbrella group for dozens of brigades.

In strikingly blunt comments in an interview with Al-Arabiya on Monday, Idris, a secular-minded army defector who has the backing of foreign powers, accused members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant of being regime agents and "criminals."

That group, formed in April and made up of al-Qaida's branches in Iraq and Syria, has taken on an increasingly dominant role in the Syrian civil war. Many of its fighters are north Africans, Iraqis, Afghans and Europeans who have flocked to Syria to join the overwhelmingly Sunni uprising against Assad.

Gunmen from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant were behind the killings of the two rebel commanders, the highest-profile casualties of the growing tensions between jihadi fighters and Western-supported rebels.

Kamal Hamami, known as Abu Basir, served in the Supreme Military Council. Activists say he was shot late Thursday in a clash that erupted after militants tried to remove a checkpoint he set up on the Jabal al-Turkoman mountain in the coastal province of Latakia. Two of his men were seriously wounded in the shooting.

Also last week, members of the extremist group killed Fadi al-Qish, the local commander of a group affiliated with the mainstream Free Syrian Army, or FSA. The fatal attack took place in the village of Dana in the northern province of Idlib near the Turkish border. Activists say the militants decapitated al-Qish and another fighter and left their severed heads on the ground as a lesson to other rebels who challenge their rule in the area.

The executions have enraged FSA commanders, who are demanding that the killers be handed over to stand trial.

Activists also say extremists have recently been sweeping into villages previously controlled by the FSA, taking over crucial resources such as bakeries, oil wells and water pumps to secure people's loyalties. In several cases, the militants were said to seize weapons from army bases and keep them from other rebels.

But what alienates the general population is the brutality. The extremists have carried out summary executions, public floggings and mass arrests, fueling the backlash against them.

In one prominent case in Aleppo last month, al-Qaida-linked militants executed a 15-year-old boy, Mohammad Qattaa, accusing him of being an "infidel" for mentioning Islam's Prophet Muhammad in vain. Gunmen shot the boy dead in front of his parents near a stand where he sold coffee in a killing that sparked rare local protests against them.

In many parts of Aleppo and Idlib and Homs, where a suffocating stalemate has been in place since last year, residents say their support and patience for the rebels is fraying.

In Aleppo last week, residents staged a protest at a checkpoint against a blockade imposed by the militants on government-held districts, because the blockade created food shortages at the onset of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. The protest led to a physical quarrel between supporters and opponents of the siege and ended with gunshots fired in the air to disperse protesters.

Syria's uprising started in March 2011 as an Arab Spring-inspired revolt against the decades-long Assad family rule. It eventually transformed into an insurgency and civil war in response to a brutal government crackdown against the protests. More than 93,000 have been killed and millions uprooted from their homes.

The rebels are a disparate mix of ordinary citizens who took up weapons, army defectors, moderates and hard-liners, and increasingly, jihadists who have trekked to Syria from all over the world. A shortage of weapons and the inability of external players to interfere in the conflict to tip the balance in favor of one side or another has worked against the rebels.

Some FSA commanders are trying to tamp down the dispute with the al-Qaida militants, mindful of the damage the infighting has done to their cause.

"Their actions are despicable, but we will not be drawn into a fight with them," said one commander, who declined to be named so as not to aggravate the situation.

FSA spokesman Loay al-Mikdad was less delicate.

"I think they should come out in public and tell the Syrian people why they are in Syria. Is it to fight Bashar Assad or to impose a specific agenda on the Syrian people?" he asked.

"We never see them on the battlefield anymore," he said of the al-Qaida militants. "We only see them in liberated areas either next to oil wells or trying to impose specific agendas on territories."

The dispute is not restricted to Islamic militants versus moderates. In the north, there has also been deadly infighting between Kurdish and Arab groups over control of captured territory along the border with Turkey.

"This infighting is very dangerous and is undermining our revolution," said Mohammed Kanaan, an activist based in the northern province of Idlib. "People are fed up and tired. ... They are starting to hate both sides," he said via Skype.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the al-Qaida militants are working to entrench themselves and secure a place in a post-Assad Syria.

"They are trying to control everything, they have a lot of money," most of it from private donations, he said.

Still, al-Mikdad ruled out a scenario similar to the Iraqi one, when U.S.-allied groups of Sunni fighters battled al-Qaida.

"Until now, the FSA does not consider itself in confrontation with these groups. Our weapons are directly only against Bashar Assad's troops," he said in a TV interview.

"But if a fight is imposed on us, we will defend ourselves," he said.

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AP correspondent Yasmine Sakr contributed to this report.

car bomb killed at least 13 people, including 10 policemen

A car bomb killed at least 13 people, including 10 policemen, when it exploded outside the police headquarters in a town north of the Syrian capital, AP reported Monday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based opposition group, told AP the explosion happened overnight in Deir Atiyeh, a town about 80km north of the Syrian capital of Damascus.
The observatory said one child was killed in the blast.
Syria's state news agency confirmed the explosion, but said it was caused by a suicide bomber detonating an explosives-laden car in a neighborhood in Deir Atiyeh. It also said "terrorists" were behind the attack - a term used by the government for the rebels battling to overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. [AP]

Syrian troops advance against rebels in Damascus

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- Government troops fired tank shells and artillery in heavy clashes between Syrian forces and rebels Sunday on the edge of Damascus, where the military has been pushing its offensive to retake key districts that have been in opposition hands for months.

The Syrian army has seized the momentum in the civil war over the past three months, wresting back territory lost to rebel forces and solidifying its hold over contested areas, particularly on the fringes of Damascus. Two of the embattled districts are Jobar and Qaboun, from which rebels frequently launch mortar rounds on the heart of the capital.

A Syrian military commander said forces loyal to President Bashar Assad have recaptured 60 percent of Jobar, south of Qaboun, and were trying to retake the rest. The commander talked to reporters Sunday during a military escorted tour of Jobar organized by the Information Ministry. His claim could not be independently verified.

An Associated Press reporter on the tour saw widespread destruction that pointed to heavy fighting in the neighborhood. Marble tile factories were destroyed. Reporters made their way in the devastated area by climbing through holes knocked in walls because of warnings of rebel snipers in the area.

At least two bodies, apparently those of rebel gunmen, lay on the floor of a bunker described by the official as a "terrorist" hideout.

"The army is advancing rapidly in Jobar ... the area will be secured in the next few days according to a well-studied plan," the commander said. He declined to be named in line with regulations.

Jobar is near the road linking Damascus with its eastern suburbs known as Eastern Ghouta. Rebels have been using the road to transport weapons and other supplies to the capital, the seat of Assad's power.

The commander said the Jobar-Qaboun axis was important to "cleanse Ghouta from terrorist groups."

Assad's government routinely describes the rebels fighting to overthrow him as terrorists playing out a foreign conspiracy hatched by Israel, the United States and some of its Arab allies in the region, like Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

During the tour of Jobar, reporters were taken to a hideout the army said it seized a day earlier after killing 30 rebels and their leader there. Reporters were shown RPG mortar rounds and explosive devices, as well as an alleged chemical material with a strong odor.

Arabic graffiti on the walls read: "The al-Tawhid Brigade," and "the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" - names of militant groups fighting to topple Assad.

Sunday's tour came as Syria's main Western-backed opposition group claimed that 200 civilians were trapped in a mosque in Qaboun as fighting raged outside between rebels and Assad's army. It warned that thousands of civilians in Qaboun could be "massacred" by Assad's army as armored vehicles and elite forces move in.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said dozens of people were held captive Saturday by regime forces in the basement of the al-Omari mosque, but they were able to escape when clashes broke out between rebel and regime forces in the perimeter of the mosque, and the troops retreated.

It said 13 people, including seven fighters, died in the shelling of Qaboun Sunday.

"They (troops) are using tanks and artillery and are trying to break into Qaboun. The shelling is very intense and there is a lot of smoke," said an activist in the area, speaking via Skype on condition of anonymity, fearing retribution.

"This is day 26 of a bombing campaign, and they still haven't been able to break Qaboun," he said.

Later Sunday, a powerful bomb explosion rocked the Deir Atiyeh town north of Damascus, killing and wounding a number of people, activists said. The bomb went off near a police station in a densely populated area, but most of the casualties were civilians, according to the Observatory and the Military Council for Damascus and its Suburbs, a rebel group.

In Washington, U.S. officials said Israel targeted advanced anti-ship cruise missiles near Syria's principal port city in an airstrike earlier this month, according to a report by The New York Times. It cited the officials as saying the attack on July 5 near Latakia targeted advanced Russian-made Yakhont missiles that Russia sold to Syria.

There was no immediate comment from Assad's government, whose key political ally and arms supplier is Russia.

Asked about the reports on the CBS-TV show "Face the Nation," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to confirm or deny Israeli involvement.

He insisted that he will not allow "dangerous weapons" to reach Lebanon's Hezbollah militants.

 Halaby reported from Amman, Jordan. Associated Press writers Zeina Karam in Beirut and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

From AP.

A shell fired from Syria hit near the Israel-Syria border in the northern Golan Heights.

A shell fired from Syria, where insurgents and government troops are locked in fierce fighting, exploded in the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights plateau on Sunday, a military spokeswoman told AFP.
"A shell fired from Syria hit an open area near the Israel-Syria border in the northern Golan Heights," the spokeswoman said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
"Initial evidence suggests the shell was a result of errant fire from Syria. IDF (Israel defence forces) soldiers are currently searching the area," she said. "The UN forces operating in the area were notified of the incident." [AFP]

Aleppo residents struggle as currency tumbles

Prices of basic goods - such as food and fuel - have been rapidly increasing in Syria, as the local currency continues to depreciate amid the civil war.
The Syrian pound has lost 80 per cent of its value since the conflict began more than two years ago.
Local businesses and traders have been forced to find new ways to get by.
Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr reports from northern city of Aleppo.

Hundreds of families were trapped

Hundreds of families were trapped on Sunday in a northeastern district of Damascus by regime troops who fought fierce battles with rebel forces, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
"There is a siege because regime snipers are posted on the outskirts of Qaboun and this makes any attempt to leave difficult," the monitoring group said.
"Violent clashes are underway between regime forces and rebels in Qaboun," in northeast Damascus where battles have raged for months as the army tries to
boot out rebel forces, the Britain-based Observatory said.
"The area has also been bombed by the army," added the watchdog, which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers on the ground. [AFP]

Two French journalists kidnapped june are alive and Paris is working for their release.

Two French journalists kidnapped shortly after arriving in Syria in June are alive and Paris is working for their release, the defence minister said on Sunday.
Didier Francois, 53, a seasoned reporter in troublespots with Europe 1 radio, and 22-year-old photographer Edouard Elias were taken hostage after being stopped at a checkpoint on the road to Aleppo.
It was unclear who was holding them.
"Every effort is being made to ensure that the conditions for their release can be met very quickly," Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told journalists.
"We know they are alive and we are stepping up our efforts," he said. "In the interests of everyone, especially those two, I cannot say any more."
According to Reporters Without Borders, 24 journalists have been killed and 23 imprisoned since the outbreak of Syria's civil strife in March 2011.
[AFP]