Syria clashes with armed infiltrators from Lebanon

 Syrian state TV says soldiers have clashed with two armed groups that infiltrated from Lebanon, killing several of them.

The clashes took place in the suburbs of the central city of Homs, which is near the border. Syrian forces chased the groups back into Lebanon, the TV reported on Sunday.

The TV report said the clashes erupted late Saturday. No other details were immediately available.

Also Sunday, Syrian troops pressed their offensive to retake rebel-held areas in the northern city of Aleppo, Homs, towns around the Syrian capital of Damascus and southern villages on the border with Jordan, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights,

via Chron

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Syrian fighter pilot along with MiG-21 defects to Jordan

A Syrian air Force pilot, Col Hassan Mirei al-Hamadeh, along with his MiG-21 Soviet built aircraft defected to Jordan and landed at the King Hussein Air Base in Mafraq, close to the Syrian border, Thursday 21 June.

The pilot has asked for asylum on humanitarian grunds, as the colonel would be tortured or killed if he returned home.

A Jordanian security source said the pilot had flown from al-Dumair military airport, north-east of Damascus.

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Pakistan Supreme Court Disqualifies PM

So finally the decision came - the Pakistan's Supreme Court disqualified the embattled prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and ordered him to leave office. 

The court observed that the PM had already become disqualified with effect from 26 April vide its earlier order but the PM had blatantly violated the court order by continuing to clinging to his seat.

While the decision is a big blow to the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP), it is unlikely to lead to the fall of the unpopular government. The present government is least liked in the country as its members are involved in corruption cases and woes of people have multiplied by mismanagement of power sector and almost day long spells of load shedding.

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We are facing a real war waged from the outside: Syrian President

"We are not facing a political problem because if we were this party would put forth a political program. What we are facing is (an attempt) to sow sectarian strife and the tool of this is terrorism," Assad said in a speech to parliament, broadcast on Syrian television.

"The issue is terrorism. We are facing a real war waged from the outside," Assad said.

via Jerusalem Post

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Syria massacre in Houla condemned

Western nations are pressing for a response to the massacre in the Syrian town of Houla, with the US calling for an end to what it called President Bashar al-Assad's "rule by murder".

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council this week.

The UN has confirmed the deaths of at least 90 people in Houla, including 32 children under the age of 10.

The Syrian government blamed the deaths on "armed terrorist gangs".

Read more: BBC News

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Syrian rebels flee shattered stronghold

Defeated Syrian rebels abandoned their shattered stronghold in Homs, giving way to a 26-day army assault on a city that had become a symbol of the year-long revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.


Activists said Syria's army had begun hunting down and killing insurgents who stayed to cover their comrades' "tactical retreat" from the city's battle-scarred Baba Amro district, although the reports could not be verified independently.

Soon afterward, the international Red Cross said Syrian authorities had finally given it the "green light" to take aid into Baba Amro on Friday.

Read more: Reuters

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Syrian troops launch ground assault on Homs

Syrian ground forces were mopping up the last pockets of resistance of Homs on Wednesday, a security source said, even as Washington worked on a UN Security Council draft demanding humanitarian access.

"The area is under control," the security source told AFP in Damascus, requesting anonymity. "The army has started combing the area building by building and house by house. Now the troops are searching every basement and tunnel for arms and terrorists.

Details: France24

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Army general assassinated in Syria

Gunmen assassinated an army general in Damascus Saturday in the first killing of a high ranking military officer in the Syrian capital since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March, the country's state-run news agency said.

SANA news agency reported that three gunmen opened fire at Brig. Gen. Issa al-Khouli Saturday morning as he left his home in the Damascus neighborhood of Rukn-Eddine. Al-Khouli was a doctor and the chief of a military hospital in the capital.

Read more: CBS News

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US provided formal charges against NGO members in Egypt

The United States said on Wednesday it has been notified by the Egyptian authorities of the formal charges against US citizens working for pro-democracy groups in Egypt.

Egyptian judicial sources said on Sunday that Egypt would try 44 people, including 19 Americans, over the alleged illegal funding of non-government organisations promoting Egypt's fledgling democracy.

Read more: Straits Time

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Syrian Opposition pressurize Russia to broker deal with Asad

Soon after Russia 9and China) vetoed a draft resolution at UN for sanctions against Syria, the Syrian opposition is now pressurizing Russia to broker a deal with President Asad to end the ongoing bloodshed and use of military.

Haitham al-Manaa of the National Committee for Democratic Change (CNCD), Syria’s second largest opposition group, asserts that Russia now is the key player.

“The Russians need to give the final ‘hit’ to Assad. Without the Russians Assad does not even have enough to feed his army,” said al-Manaa.

Read more: France24

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Gaddafi loyalists take back Bani Walid

Fighters loyal to Muammar Gaddafi have seized back the town of Bani Walid and raised the late dictator's green flag, in a blow to Libya's struggling provisional government.

Reports said at least four people were killed during clashes between besieged forces loyal to the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) and armed and well-organised supporters of Gaddafi. 

"They control the town now. They are roaming the town," one militia member was quoted as saying of the pro-Gaddafi fighters, according to Reuters.

Bani Walid, a former regime stronghold 110 miles south-east of Tripoli, was one of the last to succumb to pro-government forces after the capital fell in August. 

Read more: The Guardian

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Prosecutor demands death by hanging to former President Mubarak

[ via DeMorgen ] 

In the trial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, (83), the prosecutor demanded the death penalty. The same punishment he asked for the co-accused of Mubarak. The former president is on trial for involvement in the deaths of demonstrators protested against his regime.Monday, the process continues.

The deposed leader on trial for his alleged involvement in orders that were given to shoot at the people during the protests in early 2011.Officially 846 killed and wounded and 6,000 wounded. The prosecutor called it mass murder and consequently demands the death penalty.

Read more: DeMorgen (Translation from Dutch required0

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Baghdad blasts kill 63

[ via Reuters ] 22 Dec

As expected just days after the U.S. troop withdrawal a series of bombings hit Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 63 people in the first big assault attack on Iraq's capital since a sectarian crisis erupted within its government.

At least 18 people were killed when a suicide bomber driving an ambulance detonated the vehicle near a government office in Baghdad's Karrada district, sending up a dust cloud and scattering car parts into a kindergarten, according to police and health officials.

The tensins are increasing as the Iraq's Sunni minority is feeling being marginalized since the rise of the Shi'ite majority in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. Many Sunnis feel they have been shunted aside in the power-sharing agreement that Washington touts as a young democracy.

Read more: Reuters

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