Syria crisis: activists report 'bloodiest day yet' - live updates
LIVE• LCC claims 343 people were killed in a single day
• Cameron says Syrian bloodshed is a 'terrible stain' on UN
• Morsi warns against military intervention in Syria
• Cameron says Syrian bloodshed is a 'terrible stain' on UN
• Morsi warns against military intervention in Syria
Footage of Damascus clashes
A Lebanese TV station has broadcast footage of Syrian government troops driving rebels from a building they had occupied after a military compound in Damascus was attacked by car bombs, AP reports.
The images came from Lebanon's Al Manar TV station, whose correspondent was with Syrian troops on Wednesday on what was described as an assault to retake army command headquarters.Flames engulfed the headquarters after rebels detonated two car bombs in carefully orchestrated attacks followed by over three hours of gunbattles in and around the compound. Four Syrian guards and a reporter for Iranian TV were killed according to the Syrian government.The footage showed the bodies of three rebels inside the building after government troops took control. The bomb attacks highlighted the regime's growing vulnerability as rebels fighting to oust President Bashar Assad grow bolder.
Bahraini activist awaits verdict
Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab is awaiting a verdict on his appeal against a three-year jail sentence, writes Zoe Holman.
Rajab, is one of Bahrain's most prominent activists andbloggers and president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. He was convicted in August of taking part in “illegal gatherings” and anti-government protests. He has since appeared in court twice to appeal againt the decision. Rajab's family are reported to have been barred by police from entering the courtroom.The verdict will follow yesterday's conviction of pro-democracy activist, Zainab al-Khawaja, who was sentenced to two months prison for ripping up a picture of the king.Commenting on the role of activists like Rajab and the Khawaja family in Bahrain's pro-democracy struggle, Toby Jones of the Carnegie Endowment, wrote:Rajab and the Khawajas have remained committed to holding officials accountable and seeking justice for those traumatized and victimized since the uprising began, proving considerably more adept than the formal opposition at drawing international attention. In the absence of more credible leaders, Rajab and the Khawajas have become de facto symbols of popular opposition and for a platform that blends political opportunity with social justice.Earlier this week Amnesty International appealed for theprotection of Bahraini human rights activists. It called on the Bahraini authorities, who have come under international criticism for their detainment of opposition activists, to ensure the safety of civil society members who received threats of reprisals after participating in the 21st session of the UN human rights council in Geneva earlier this month. Citing the UN declaration on human rights defenders, Amnesty's report states that:Amnesty International is concerned that Mohammad al-Maskati and other members of Bahraini civil society who participated in the UPR (Universal Periodic Review) exercise are being targeted on account of the peaceful and legitimate exercise of their right to freedom of expression and their role in exposing evidence of human rights violations.
Bahraini anti-government protesters hold posters with images of jailed human rights activist Nabeel Rajab during a gathering outside Rajab's home in Bani Jamra, Bahrain, on Wednesday. Rajab is expected in court Thursday for the appeal of his conviction and three-year sentence on charges relating to organizing protests. Photograph: Hasan Jamali/APWednesday's death toll was 'third highest'
One of the activists groups that compiles casualty figures in Syria claim yesterday's death toll of 343 was the third highest it recorded.
An email from the Syrian Revolution Martyr Database points out that its tally hit 400 people killed on 4 February and 434 people on 25 August.
A table of its daily tally of killings available here.
Almost 300,000 Syrians refugees
The UNHCR now says there are 294,000 Syrians registered as refugees or awaiting registration.
It confirmed that it expects the number to increase to 700,000 by the end of the year.
The UNHCR's figures also showed:
• The number of people crossing the border into neighbouring countries has reached up to 3,000 people every day.
• Women and children make up three-quarters of the refugee population.
• The UNHCR needs to raise £301m to cope with the extra numbers. So far it has raised £87m.
Panos Moumtzis, UNHCR's regional co-ordinator for Syrian refugees, urged the international community to do more to help. He said:
Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey have set the example, keeping their borders open for Syrians fleeing violence. The neighbouring countries cannot do this alone. The international community must continue to demonstrate solidarity.
Updated 38m ago
Syrian troops enter Lebanon, destroy house – report
Syrian troops crossed into Lebanon this morning and destroyed a house belonging to Mohammed Akil al-Radi in the Qaa region of the Bekaa, the Lebanese National News Agency reports.
The agency's correspondent also reported of heavy machine gun fire on this region from the Syrian side.
There have been previous Syrian incursions in the area.
Iran to set up separate Syria contact group
Is Egypt's four-member contact group on Syria unravelling?
Iran, the most contentious member of the group, now says its is looking to set up another contact group on the Syria crisis, AFP reports.
It quotes President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad telling a press conference at the UN:
We do believe that through a national dialogue and a national understanding and consensus, they can, the various Syrian sides, reach a more solid conclusion, a more tangible and long-lasting conclusion.Therefore, we strive to pave the way for national dialogue and national understanding between the two sides and we are working hard to stand up and shape a contact group from various countries.
He gave no more details about which countries would be involved. Iran has been repeatedly accused of supplying weapons, soldiers and cash to Syria to prop up the Assad regime.
Egypt's president, Mohamed Morsi ,said his proposed quartet of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran represents the best way of finding a diplomatic solution to the crisis. But last week Saudi Arabia stayed away from a meeting in Cairo and this week a meeting had to be cancelled because of the absence of Turkey.
Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, address the UN general debate. Photograph: Shen Hong/Xinhua Press/Corbis
Updated 1h 18m ago
Tunisian rape victim accused of 'indecency'
A 27-year-old rape victim was summoned by an investigating judge in Tunisia on Wednesday to face charges of "indecency", al-Jazeera reports.
The charges have been brought by two police officers who are accused of raping the woman.
This is the first time that a woman allegedly raped by police has taken a case to court, al-Jazeera says quoting the Tunisian Equality and Parity organisation – and the "indecency" claim is seen as an attempt to persuade the woman to drop the rape charges.
The case comes among intense debate in Tunisia about the drafting of a new constitution, and in particular Article 28 which refers to women. The first draft described women as "complementary" to men rather than "equal".
Updated 1h 32m ago
Syrian refugees could reach 700,000
The UN's refugee agency has almost quadrupled its estimate for thenumber of people expected to flee the violence in Syria, Reuters reports
The number of refugees fleeing Syria could reach 700,000 by the end of the year, the UN refugee agency said, far surpassing its previous forecast of 185,000 reached in August.About 294,000 Syrian refugees fleeing 18 months of conflict in their homeland have already crossed into four neighboring countries – Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey– or await registration there, it said."This plan provides for up to 700,000," Panos Moumtzis, regional refugee coordinator for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, told a news briefing.
Syrian refugees carry their belongings to their tent after arriving at the Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan. Photograph: Reuters
Updated 2h 7m ago
Saudi killed in Aleppo
A Saudi was among 28 people killed in the Aleppo area on Tuesday, according to the opposition Aleppo News Network.
The website named him as Abdul Kareem al-Zaid Abu Saif. It said he went to Aleppo 25 days ago and was killed during clashes there.
In a report for the Guardian from Aleppo on Sunday, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Aleppo referred to "a babble of different languages" heard among fighters in the city – Chechen, Tajik, Turkish, French, Saudi dialect and Urdu.
The fighters sat outside the house in the shade of the trees, clutching their guns and discussing the war. Among them was a thin Saudi, dressed in a dirty black T-shirt and a prayer cap, who conversed in perfect English with a Turk sitting next to him. He had arrived the week before and was curious about how the jihad was being reported abroad.
The Saudi fighter had walked across the border from Turkey to the small Syrian town of Atmeh.
There, in a hilly landscape flecked with olive groves, the recruits were received by a Syrian who runs a jihadi camp and organised into fighting units. Each team was assigned an Arabic speaker and given 10 days' basic training, the point of which was not to learn how to shoot but to learn to communicate and work together.The fighters were then dispersed among the different jihadi organisations, including Ahrar al-Sham ("the Free Men of Syria") and Jabhat al-Nusra ("the Front for the Aid of the People of the Levant").
Abdul Kareem al-Zaid Abu Saif, a Saudi national reported killed in Aleppo. Photograph: FacebookSyria: 'a death-feud between Islamists and Ba'athists'
The Syrian uprising is only the latest, if by far the most violent, episode in a long war between Islamists and Ba'athists, which dates back to the founding of the secular Ba'ath party in the 1940s, veteran Middle East commentator Patrick Seale writes.
"The struggle between them is by now little short of a death-feud," he says.
Seale, who wrote a biography of President Bashar al-Assad's father, does not deny that other grievances such as poverty and the regime's brutality have contributed to the rebellion, "but beyond all this is the decades-long hostility of Islamists for Syria’s Ba'ath-dominated regime.
Today’s civil war – for that is what it has become – has deep roots in modern Syrian history. The rebellion has increasingly taken on an Islamist colouring, as the Swedish writer Aron Lund explains in an informative 45-page report on Syrian Jihadism, published this month by the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.It is striking, as he points out, that virtually all the members of the various armed insurgent groups are Sunni Arabs; that the fighting has been largely restricted to Sunni Arab areas only, whereas areas inhabited by Alawis, Druze or Christians have remained passive or supportive of the regime; that defections from the regime are nearly 100% Sunni; that money, arms and volunteers are pouring in from Islamic states or from pro-Islamic organisations and individuals; and that religion is the insurgent movement’s most important common denominator.
Updated 2h 28m ago
'One of the bloodiest days yet'
Reuters is more slightly cautious than CNN over activists' claims about Wednesday's death toll. It cites the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claiming that more than 300 people were killed, "in one of the bloodiest days".
The British-based organisation, which monitors violence in Syria through a network of activists, said in a report released on Thursday that 55 people were killed in rural areas around Damascus. They included at least 40 who appeared to have been shot in cold blood in the town of al-Dhiyabia, south-east of the capital. Other activists have put the death toll in al-Dhiyabia as high as 107, blaming Assad's security forces for what they said was a massacre.
Updated 2h 55m ago
Summary
Welcome to Middle East Live. Syria continues to be the main focus after activists reported the highest daily death toll so far, and world leaders remain divided over the crisis at the UN.
Here's a summary of the main developments:
Syria
• The death toll in Syria reached 343 on Wednesday – the highest daily toll since uprising began, CNN reports citing the activist group, the Local Co-ordination Committees in Syria. Rafif Jouejati, a spokeswoman for the LCC, said: "The regime is escalating the violence at every possible opportunity and it is proof that it is determined to crush the revolution by any means necessary." The greatest number of dead on Wednesday occurred in Damascus and its suburbs, where LCC cited 162 deaths, including 107 in a reported massacre in Thiabieh.
• Rebels have forced the Syrian air force to cease flights from a strategically significant airbase south of Aleppo, reports the New York Times from near the Abu ad Duhur base. Jamal Marouf, a commander credited by the fighters with downing the first MIG-21, said: “We are facing aircraft and shooting down aircraft with captured weapons. With these weapons we are preventing aircraft from landing or taking off.”
• David Cameron has launched his strongest attack over UN inaction on Syria, declaring that the blood of young children is a "terrible stain" on the international body's reputation. He used this week's report by Save the Children, which said schools were being used as torture centres, to express exasperation with Russia and China which have blocked three UN security council resolutions on Syria. "The blood of these young children is a terrible stain on the reputation of this United Nations. And in particular, a stain on those who have failed to stand up to these atrocities and in some cases aided and abetted Assad's reign of terror," the prime minister said.
• Egypt's new president, Mohamed Morsi, accused the Assad regime of "killing its people night and day" and called for a new Syria government representative of all the country's ethnic and religious groups. But in his UN speech, he said there should not be outside military intervention, pointing instead to a new diplomatic initiative begun by Egypt, Turkey and Iran, and called on other nations to join it. Morsi's comments contrasted with those of Qatari leader Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who called on Arab countries to bypass the UN and intervene directly in Syria. Morsi was also forced to cancel planned quartet talks at the UN on finding a diplomatic solution because of the absence of Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
• Syrian commentator Camille Otrakji, who describes himself as a "mild regime supporter" puts forward a power-sharing compromise deal for resolving the crisis. Under his transition plan, outlined on Bloggingheads TV, the opposition would appoint a prime minister following elections to be in charge of all domestic policy, but the current regime would retain responsibility for foreign policy, defence and security monitored by neighbouring countries. "If we get to that stage we have to recognise that the regime and the opposition will keep doing things that will disappoint people for a while. It will be a difficult process," Otrakji said.
• Activists claimed that 40 people were killed when the rebel Free Syrian Army attacked an army headquarters in Damascus. The army said four guards were killed and 14 others wounded in what it said were suicide attacks. Analysts said the attack showed that the rebels continue to have the ability to strike at the heart of regime.
• A correspondent for Iran's Press TV was shot dead while reporting from the scene of devastating twin explosions in Damascus. Maya Nasser, a 33-year-old Syrian national, was killed after being hit by "insurgent" sniper fire, Press TV said.
• Fred Hof, the US state department special representative on Syria, who described the Assad regime as a "dead man walking", has resigned, according to Foreign Policy magazine. The US Syria team will now be led solely by the ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, it said, citing administration sources.
Libya
• The National Congress has threatened to dismiss Mustafa Abushagur as prime minister-elect if he fails to form a new government by an extended deadline of 7 October, the Libya Herald reports. The ultimatum follows a request by Abushagur to extend the period in which he can form a government by 10 days.
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