Syria Update

A military commander of Lebanon's Hezbollah was killed in fighting near the Syrian capital and has been buried in his southern Lebanese hometown of Kfar Sir, residents said Monday.
"Hezbollah military commander Hossam Ali Nisr, aged 33, was buried on Saturday. He was defending Sayyida Zeinab," which houses a Shia shrine southeast of Damascus, "when his group was attacked and he was killed," one resident told AFP, without giving a date.
[AFP]

 The Syrian army has recaptured rebel-held positions in Latakia, home province of President Bashar al-Assad, state-run SANA news agency reported on Monday quoting a military source.
"The army retook control of the Nabi Ashia mountain range and adjoining areas in the north of Latakia province," the source said, of villages seized in early August by rebels trying to topple Assad.
On Sunday state television reported that the army had reclaimed rebel-held villages in the coastal province, hinterland of Assad's minority Alawite community.
[AFP]

The largest shipment of emergency aid to so far be sent to Syria this year is set to depart from Dubai on Sunday.
A convoy consisting of 33 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) lorries loaded with essentials such as shelter and cooking equipment will depart over a three-day period and be driven from Dubai through to Saudi Arabia, where it will be stored at a UNHCR warehouse before being sent to Syria.
Pallets of aid supplies from a vast stockpile in a Dubai warehouse were being loaded onto vehicles on Sunday.
With clipboard in hand, senior logistics officer for the UNHCR, Soliman Daud was there to oversee the process.
"It's meant to go inside Syria for those who are trapped by the conflict inside Syria. We expect these items to help 125-thousand people inside Syria. So it's one of the biggest convoys that we are organising for this year," he said.
The UN refugee agency has struggled to meet the needs of the more than 1.9 (m) million Syrian refugees and 4.2 (m) million internally displaced persons that have been one of the results of the ongoing bitter and bloody conflict.
Unrest in Syria began in March 2011 and later exploded into a civil war in which so far more than 100-thousand people have been killed.
[AP]