A moment of truth in Damascus and Washington

By David Rohde

(Reuters) -- The harrowing images emerging from Syria — from this hysterical young girl to these rows of corpses — should be a turning point in a conflict that has killed 100,000 people. The deaths, if proven, demonstrate either the depravity of Bashar al-Assad — or the rebels fighting him.
But the Obama administration has spent so much time distancing itself and Americans from acting in Syria that a serious U.S. reaction is politically impossible in Washington. And instead of learning its lesson — and respecting Syria's dead — the White House is repeating its destructive pattern of issuing empty threats.
Hours after the images appeared, National Security Adviser Susan Rice demanded on Twitter that the Syrian government "allow the UN access to the attack site to investigate" and vowed that "those responsible will be held accountable."

Syria government, rebels ramp up conventional weapons use

By Peter Apps

LONDON |(Reuters) - Syria's warring sides might have struggled to get the foreign arms they want, but even before this week's apparent chemical attack both government and opposition were using ever more powerful conventional weapons.

On Wednesday, opposition forces accused the government of President Bashar al-Assad of killing hundreds with a nerve gas attack in the suburbs of the capital Damascus.
The government of Bashar al-Assad denied the charge, but with international condemnation mounting, analysts said it was becoming ever more likely that western states and their Gulf allies would finally get on with seriously arming the rebels.

Obama says won't rush into costly Syria entanglement

By Erika Solomon

BEIRUT |(Reuters) - President Barack Obama called the apparent gassing of hundreds of Syrian civilians a "big event of grave concern" but stressed on Friday that he would not rush to embroil Americans in a costly new war.

As opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad braved the frontlines around Damascus to try and deliver tissue samples to U.N. inspectors from victims of Wednesday's poisoning, Obama brushed over an interviewer's reminder that he once called the use of chemical weapons a "red line" for U.S. action on Syria.

Assad's forces bombard Damascus suburbs after gas attack: activists

AMMAN |(Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces bombarded rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on Thursday, activists said, keeping up pressure on the besieged region a day after the opposition accused the army of gassing hundreds in a chemical weapons attack.

Rockets fired from multiple launchers and heavy mortar rounds hit the neighborhoods of Jobar and Zamalka, which are on the eastern outskirts of the capital. Between 500 and 1,300 people died on Wednesday from chemical weapons attacks in those areas, which are part of what is known as the Ghouta, the activists said.

Activists say nearly 500 killed in gas attack near Damascus

 
By Dominic Evans and Khaled Yacoub Oweis

BEIRUT/AMMAN |(Reuters) - Syrian activists accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces of launching a gas attack that killed nearly 500 people on Wednesday, in what would, if confirmed, be by far the worst reported use of chemical arms in the two-year-old civil war.

An opposition monitoring group, citing figures compiled from medical clinics in the Damascus suburbs, put the death toll at 494 - 90 percent of them killed by gas, the rest by bombing and conventional arms.

Activists say more than 200 killed in gas attack near Damascus

By Dominic Evans and Khaled Yacoub Oweis

BEIRUT/AMMAN |(Reuters) - Syrian activists accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces of launching a nerve gas attack that killed at least 213 people on Wednesday, in what would, if confirmed, be by far the worst reported use of poison gas in the two-year-old civil war.

Reuters was not able to verify the accounts independently and they were denied by Syrian state television, which said they were disseminated deliberately to distract a team of United Nations chemical weapons experts which arrived three days ago.

Assad's forces counter rebel gains in Syria's Deir al-Zor

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN |(Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces attacked rebel positions in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor on Tuesday, days after a rebel advance threatened to bring the whole city under the control of anti-Assad forces, opposition activists said.

The provincial capital on the banks of the Euphrates, 430 km (270 miles) northeast of Damascus, anchors a vast, arid oil-producing region bordering Iraq. Half of it fell to rebels a year ago but Assad's forces have held out in several districts in the west of the Sunni Muslim city and in the airport to the east.

Russian and US officials will meet in the Netherlands next week for syria peace conference preparation.

Russian and US officials will meet in the Netherlands next week to discuss preparations for a long-delayed international peace conference on Syria, Russia's deputy foreign minister has said.
"This meeting will take place in the middle of next week in The Hague," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told Russia’s Interfax news agency on Monday.

Defiant Hezbollah leader says ready to fight in Syria

By Stephen Kalin and Mariam Karouny

BEIRUT |(Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah accused radical Sunni Islamists on Friday of being behind a car bomb that killed 24 people in Beirut and vowed that the attack would redouble his group's commitment to its military campaign in Syria.

Clashes kill 18 rebels in central Syria

 

BEIRUT (AP) -- President Bashar Assad's forces killed at least 18 rebels in central Syria in clashes near the country's main north-south highway, activists said Tuesday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting took place overnight in Hama province near the town of Morek, which straddles the major road that links the capital, Damascus, with the largely rebel-held northern provinces.

Since last year, the government has been battling rebels for control of the highway, which the regime wants to keep open so it can resupply its forces bogged down in fighting in the contested city of Aleppo and elsewhere in northern Syria. The opposition wants to cut the route to prevent supplies and reinforcements from reaching those troops.

The fighting is part of the broader battle in Syria's civil war for control of the country's north. Over the past year, the rebels have pried free most of the northern countryside from the regime, while the government still holds the provincial capitals, with the exception of Raqqa and parts of Aleppo.

Last week, opposition fighters captured a major air base in the north near the border with Turkey and swept through a string of villages in the heartland of President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect in Latakia province on the Mediterranean coast. Those advances were some of the most significant rebel gains in months against government forces, which have been on the offensive in central Syria and around Damascus.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria since the country's revolt began in March 2011 with largely peaceful protests. The conflict slowly shifted into a civil war that has destroyed many of the nation's cities, forced millions from their homes and shattered the economy.

Russia and the United States, which support opposing sides in the conflict, have been trying to coax the Assad regime and the Syrian opposition to the negotiating table for peace talks in Geneva, although the conference has been repeatedly postponed.

Late Monday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told Russia's Interfax news agency that a peace conference is unlikely to go ahead before October.

"It's unlikely to happen in September because of other events including the ministerial week at the U.N. General Assembly," Gatilov said. "We would like to see it happen as soon as possible, but you have to be realistic about circumstances that could affect that summit."

Even then, it's unclear whether Russia and the U.S. will be able to force the two sides to sit down together for talks.

Last month, the head of the main Western-backed opposition coalition said the group will not take part in any peace negotiations until rebels gain the upper hand on the battlefield.

Syrian authorities denied reports of an attack on President Bashar al-Assad

Syrian authorities denied reports of an attack on President Bashar al-Assad's motorcade as he drove to a Damascus mosque to attend prayers marking Muslim holidays.

It was the first report of a direct attack on the embattled leader since  the March 2011 outbreak of the anti-regime revolt in Syria.

Several media outlets, including Saudi-based Al-Arabiya television, and activists on the ground said a rocket attack targeted Assad's motorcade headed to Anas bin Malik mosque in central Damascus to join Eid al-Fitr prayers marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

"Regarding the information reported by Al-Arabiya, I can assure you that it is completely false," Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi told state television. "The president arrived at the mosque driving his own car, he attended the prayer and greeted everyone in the mosque as he does every day when he meets people," Zohbi added.

"Everything is normal," Zohbi added. "They wanted to spoil the celebrations for Syrians."
[AFP]

Syria Update

Activists and local opposition groups in Syria accused regime forces for using poisonous form of gas in the city of Douma and Adra, outskirts of Damascus.According to the local media offices, Syrian army has launched a series of attacks on these two big cities on Monday. More than 400 people have been hospitalized showing symptoms of convulsion, shortness of breath, profuse sweating and frothy sputum, activists said.
The video footage below, which cannot be independently verified by Al Jazeera, shows injured civilians rushing into a hospital.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2HpTETmOLyY
[Al jazeera]

Ballistic missiles used by the Syrian regime are killing many civilians, including children, an international rights group said on Monday.
These missiles "are hitting populated areas, causing large numbers of civilian deaths, including many children", said Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has investigated nine ballistic missile strikes that killed at least 215 people in  six months.
Among those killed in nine attacks from February 2013 to July 2013, 100 were children, said HRW, which has visited seven of the sites.
Such missiles have what the group described as a wide-area effect, and when used in populated areas cannot distinguish between civilian and military  targets.
The New York-based watchdog said "military commanders, as a matter of policy, should not order the use of ballistic missiles in areas populated by
civilians".
[AFP]

 Syria's President Bashar al-Assad described the main opposition National Coalition as a "failure", adding that it can have no role in ending the country's war.

"This opposition is not reliable, it is a failure at the popular and moral levels, and it has no role in solving the crisis, because it only seeks to make gains," Assad said in a rare speech televised on Syria's state TV channel on Sunday.

[Source: AFP]

Former US envoy to Syria Robert Ford is being considered as Washington's next ambassador to Cairo, sources familiar with internal discussions said on Sunday as US and European mediators sought a peaceful resolution to Egypt's crisis.
Ford was described as a leading candidate for the post, according to two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. The State Department declined to comment and Ford did not
respond to emails.
Ford, a fluent Arabic speaker, had antagonized Syria's government with his high-profile support for demonstrators trying to end 41 years of rule by President Bashar al-Assad.
He was withdrawn from Syria briefly in October 2011 because of threats to his safety. He left Damascus for good four monthslater after the United States suspended embassy operations as the situation in Syria deteriorated.
[Reuters]

Syrian troops consolidate gains in Homs city

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- Syrian government forces backed by Lebanese Hezbollah militants forged ahead with their assault on a key rebel district in the central city of Homs Sunday, activists said, as President Bashar Assad's forces try to crush resistance in the few remaining opposition-held neighborhoods in the city known as the "capital of the revolution."

The push on Homs is part of a broader government offensive on rebel-held areas that has seen regime troops retake some of the territory they have lost to opposition fighters in Syria's more than 2-year-old conflict. Assad's forces turned their sights on Homs, the country's third-largest city, after capturing the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanon border last month.

Government troops have made headway in Homs in recent days, capturing a 13th century landmark mosque in the contested Khaldiyeh neighborhood that had been in rebel hands for more than a year. Homs holds immense symbolic and strategic importance to both sides, and the ferocity of the fighting for control of it has left much of the city in ruins.

The opposition accused the regime of pulverizing Khaldiyeh and said their victory was "hollow."

On Sunday, Syrian state TV had live coverage from Khaldiyeh, which is located on the northern edge of the Old City, broadcasting footage that showed gaping holes in apartment blocks, shattered buildings with collapsed floors and blackened facades. Soldiers and reporters walked through rubble-strewn streets. The military took TV crews working for pro-regime media outlets deep into the neighborhood, suggesting the army was confident it had secured the area.

An unidentified Syrian army commander standing before a destroyed building in Khaldiyeh told an embedded state TV reporter that the military expected to "liberate" the last part of the district within the next two days.

Syrian government forces captured the ancient Khalid Ibn al-Walid Mosque in Khaldiyeh on Saturday. Syrian TV aired a report with video from inside the mosque, showing heavy damage. The video showed debris littering the floor and a portion of the mosque appeared to have been burned.

Famous for its nine domes and two minarets, the mosque has been a symbol for rebels in the city, and the government takeover dealt a powerful symbolic blow to the rebellion. On Monday, government troops shelled the mosque, damaging the tomb of Ibn al-Walid, a revered figure in Islam. Video showed the tomb's roof knocked down.

The Observatory and other activists said government troops are backed by members of Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has been fighting alongside regime forces in their assault on rebel-held territory in the central region.

Syria's main exiled opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, acknowledged that rebels had retreated from parts of Khaldiyeh, calling it a "tactical withdrawal."

"After the heavy bombardment of the Khaldiyeh area of Homs, using thousands of rockets, explosive barrels and large amounts of heavy weaponry ... Assad forces have managed to overtake a few yards of the land that they have pulverized," it said in a statement.

It said Assad was attempting the lift the sagging morale of his soldiers by exaggerating its victory in Homs, and vowed that rebels would soon retake the area.

In addition to its symbolic value, Homs is a geographic lynchpin in Syria. The main highway from Damascus to the north and the coast, a stronghold of President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect, runs through Homs.

An official in the Homs governor's office said a car bomb exploded near a checkpoint on the Homs-Tartous highway, killing three people and wounding 5 others. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements.

In northeastern Syria, the death toll from nearly two weeks of clashes between al-Qaida-linked fighters and Kurdish militiamen rose to 120, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group. It said the dead include 79 fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Jabhat al-Nusra, both al-Qaida-affiliated rebel groups. The Observatory monitors the Syrian war through a network of activists on the ground.

The latest round of fighting flared in Ras al-Ayn on July 6 in the predominantly Kurdish province of Hassakeh in the northeast near the Turkish border. Kurdish gunmen are fighting to expel the militants, whom they see as a threat.

Also on Sunday, the Coalition condemned the reported execution of scores of government soldiers by rebels in a northern Syrian village several days ago, and said "those involved in such crimes will be held accountable."

The group, made up of exiled opposition leaders, said in a statement that it was forming a commission of inquiry to investigate the incident in Khan al-Assal.

Syrian activists say rebels killed 150 government soldiers, some after they surrendered, on Monday and Tuesday in the village outside Aleppo, the country's largest city.

State media said that 123 "civilians and military personnel" were killed in a "massacre" and others were still missing.

The Coalition said initial reports showed "armed groups" not affiliated with the main rebel coalition were involved. It did not elaborate, but the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra says its fighters participated in the battle.

Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said the crime "will not pass without punishment," vowing that the perpetrators will pay a "dear price."

In an interview with Syrian TV late Saturday, he said the "massacre" aimed to spread fear and panic among people at a time when the Syrian military was achieving significant progress on the ground.

In a separate statement, the Coalition urged Egypt to release dozens of Syrians it said were arrested last week allegedly for violating residency regulations.

It said Egyptian police arrested at least 72 Syrian men and nine boys at checkpoints on main roads in Cairo. Some had valid visas or residence permits but were arrested "on the pretext of not having residence permits," it said.

The Coalition said regulations concerning Syrians' entrance into Egypt were changed. Since July 8, Syrians have been required to obtain entry visas and security clearance before they are allowed to enter Egypt.

It urged the Egyptian government not to deport Syrians, saying Cairo has an "ethical and humanitarian duty to protect the Syrian people fleeing the tyranny" at home.

---

Karam reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

Syrian Government Blamed for Ballistic Missile Attack

By BEN HUBBARD and HWAIDA SAAD

Published: July 27, 2013

 BEIRUT, Lebanon — A missile attack by government forces on the city of Aleppo in northern Syria killed at least 29 people, including 19 children, Syrian monitors said Saturday.

According to the monitors at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the attack struck the Bab al-Neirab neighborhood in the city’s southwest, home to the headquarters of a number of rebel brigades, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which is linked to Al Qaeda. It was unclear how many of the dead were civilians, but the Syrian Observatory, which monitors the conflict from Britain through a network of contacts on the ground, said four women were among the dead.

The forces of President Bashar al-Assad have stepped up the use of such missiles, which often reduce city blocks to rubble, a strategy that analysts say suggests that the military lacks sufficient infantry to accomplish its goals.

Also on Saturday, Syrian state news media reported that talks between government officials and a delegation from the United Nations over allowing access for investigators to the sites of suspected chemical weapons attacks during the war had resulted in “an agreement on the ways to move forward.” The report gave no further details.

Reports of small-scale chemical weapons attacks have surfaced a number of times in the past year, and the war’s continued escalation has raised fears that Mr. Assad’s forces could deploy chemical weapons on a wide scale or that those weapons could fall into the hands of extremists.

Syria has yet to let the full team of United Nations investigators enter the country, and the delegation’s visit last week sought to negotiate access. The government has wanted to limit the places the investigators can visit.

One site the investigators hoped to visit was Khan al-Assal, a town west of Aleppo where both the government and the rebels reported a deadly chemical weapons attack in March, with each side accusing the other.

Visiting the site could prove difficult because rebel fighters took it over on Friday, reportedly killing about 150 soldiers. The Syrian Observatory, which sympathizes with the opposition, said about one-third of them were executed by an extremist rebel brigade after surrendering.(New york times)

At least 29 people, including 19 children, died in a missile strike by regime forces in Aleppo.

At least 29 people, including 19 children, died in a missile strike by regime forces on the northern Syrian city of  Aleppo, a watchdog said, revising an earlier toll.
"At least 29 people, including 19 children and four women, were killed in Aleppo's Bab Nairab neighbourhood in a surface-to-surface missile strike by  regime forces"  the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said  on Saturday.
The London-based watchdog, which relies on a wide network of medics and activists on the ground, had earlier given a toll of 18 dead, including three children.

Syrian troops capture historic mosque in Homs.

By ALBERT AJI and BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- Syrian government forces captured a historic mosque in the central city of Homs on Saturday, expelling rebel forces who had been in control of the 13th century landmark for more than a year and dealing a symbolic blow to opposition forces.

State-run news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying that troops took control of the Khalid Ibn al-Walid Mosque in the heavily disputed northern neighborhood of Khaldiyeh.

Syrian TV aired a report Saturday night with footage from inside the mosque, showing heavy damage and the tomb's dome knocked out. The footage showed debris strewn on the floor and a portion of the mosque appeared to have been burned.

The mosque, famous for its nine domes and two minarets, has been a symbol for rebels in the city that is known as "the capital of the revolution." On Monday, government troops shelled the mosque, damaging the tomb of Ibn al-Walid, a revered figure in Islam.

After capturing the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanon border last month, government troops launched an offensive on rebel-held areas in Homs, Syria's third largest city, late in June. They have been pushing into Khaldiyeh and other neighborhoods in the Old City that have been under opposition control since 2011.

A Homs-based activist who identified himself only by his nickname, Abu Bilal, for fear of government reprisals, said troops entered the mosque area from the east. He said regime forces now control more than 60 percent of Khaldiyeh.

"There are very fast developments in Khaldiyeh," Abu Bilal told The Associated Press via Skype. He said he had no further details from local rebel commanders.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported heavy fighting around the mosque, saying the government troops are backed by members of Lebanon's Hezbollah group.

A journalist embedded with Syrian troops told the AP that a reporter for Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam television station was wounded near the mosque. A sniper's bullet struck the thigh of journalist Roa al-Ali, the journalist said, asking his name not be made public as he wasn't authorized to give information to other media outlets.

On top of its symbolic value, Homs is also a geographic lynchpin in Syria. The main highway from Damascus to the north as well as the coastal region, which is a stronghold of President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect, runs through Homs. Both rebels and the regime place a high strategic value on the city.

And although Assad's forces have been on the offensive in recent months, activists say the regime wants to capture the entirety of Homs to include it in a potential future Alawite state - stretching from Homs to the coast - where Assad could make his last stand if the civil war swings against him.

Assad is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, while most of the rebels fighting to topple his regime are Sunnis.

Khaldiyeh had a population of about 80,000 but only some 2,000 remain there today as residents fled the violence. The heavy fighting over the past two years has destroyed wide areas and knocked down entire buildings.

Earlier Saturday, Syria's state media said talks between the Syrian government and a United Nations delegation tasked with investigating chemical weapons allegations in the nation's civil war have "resulted in an agreement on ways of moving forward."

Assad's government invited a U.N. team to visit Damascus earlier this month after requesting that the world body investigate an alleged chemical attack in Khan al-Assal, a village in the north. The Syrian regime and the rebels fighting to topple it accuse each other of using chemical agents in the March 19 incident, which killed 31 people.

Assad's government refused to have a possible inquiry include other alleged chemical attack sites in Homs, Damascus and elsewhere.

A joint statement by the foreign ministry and the U.N. that appeared Saturday on SANA's website said the meetings were "comprehensive and fruitful and resulted in an agreement on ways of moving forward."

It did not elaborate. The U.N. team couldn't be reached for comment.

Saturday's announcement on the possible U.N. probe agreement on Khan al-Assal coincided with government allegations that the rebels committed "a massacre" in the village, killing 123 "civilians and military personnel," according to a SANA report. SANA said others are still missing.

The report said "terrorists" were behind the recent killings in Khan al-Assal, a term the government uses for rebels. The Observatory previously said at least 150 government soldiers were killed on Monday and Tuesday there, some after they had surrendered.

A statement released by al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra - or the Nusra Front - said 150 soldiers, pro-government gunmen and Shiite militiamen were killed in Khan al-Assal. The statement said fighters captured 63 soldiers alive but 55 of them fled. Nusra Front said its members killed 15 of them before 40 surrendered. The statement did not say if the 40 were still alive.

The conflicting claims could not be independently reconciled.

In Aleppo, a rocket fired by government forces into a rebel-held district killed at least 29 including 19 under the age of 18 and four women, the Observatory said Saturday. The attack happened Friday during government shelling in the Bab al-Nairab neighborhood of Aleppo.

Syria's conflict began in March 2011 largely as peaceful protests against Assad's rule. It escalated into a civil war after opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to the U.N.'s recent estimate.

---

Associated Press writer Barbara Surk in Beirut contributed to this report. Mroue reported from Beirut.

regime forces gained ground in the Khaldiyeh district in Homs

Hezbollah-backed regime forces gained ground in the Khaldiyeh district in Homs after ousting rebels in fierce clashes in the flashpoint city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Regime forces now control "60 percent of Khaldiyeh," the London-based Observatory said.
They also reported earlier that regime forces captured the Khaled bin Walid mosque.
Syria's official press also said the army was now back in control of most of Khaldiyeh, while an activist on the ground told the AFP news agency that the sector was being shelled "day and night". (AL-jazeera)

Regime forces have control half of the Khaldiyeh district of Homs after fierce fighting

Regime forces backed by Hezbollah have control half of the Khaldiyeh district of Homs after ousting rebels in fierce fighting in the central Syrian city, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.
"Loyalist forces backed by fighters from Hezbollah have advanced over the last 24 hours and now control 50 percent of Khaldiyeh," the watchdog said.
Its chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that overnight, "there was continuous heavy mortar and artillery fire" and that the rebel district was still being pounded. He said rebels were putting up "fierce resistance" amid "very intense clashes".
Military network the Syrian Revolution General Commission also reported heavy fighting in the district that has been besieged by regime forces for more than a year.
"Khaldiyeh is being targeted by an uninterrupted heavy bombardment, and on the ground there is fierce fighting between Free Syrian Army fighters and regime forces backed by Lebanon's Hezbollah trying to take the district," an SRGC statement said.
It and the Observatory both said the Old City district of Homs -- dubbed the "capital of the revolution" against President Bashar al-Assad -- was being pummelled too.
The latest regime offensive on besieged rebel-held neighbourhoods of Homs is now in its fourth week.

Syrian rebels kill dozens in offensives in north and south

 
BEIRUT | Fri Jul 26, 2013 8:00am EDT

(Reuters) - Syrian rebels say they have overrun army positions in the north and south of the country this week, including an offensive in which a rights monitoring group said 51 soldiers were executed.
Insurgents have focused on taking isolated army outposts, mostly in rural areas while forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have made gains in recent months around the capital Damascus and the central city of Homs.
One video, posted on YouTube on Wednesday by a rebel group calling itself the Supporters of the Islamic Caliphate, shows around 30 bodies of young men piled up against a wall. Blood is splattered on the wall and one corpse is smoldering.
"Tens of Assad's (militia) killed," says a man off camera. He said the footage was filmed in the area of the northern town of Khan al-Assal which was taken by rebels last week.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad monitoring group, cited activists on Friday in Khan al-Assal who said that more than 150 soldiers were killed on Monday and Tuesday in and around the town.
The Observatory said that figure included 51 soldiers and officers who were executed.
Another video, posted by a rebel group in the village of Hara in the southern province of Deraa, shows several dead soldiers in a room, lying in a pool of blood with head injuries.
"These are Assad's dogs," says a voice off screen.
The United Nations says more than 100,000 people have died in the Syrian uprising since March 2011, which turned into an armed insurgency after the authorities used force to suppress peaceful street protests. Ancient buildings and artifacts across the major Arab state have been destroyed in the fighting.
Assad's forces have been on the offensive since last month when the army, backed by militants from the powerful Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, recaptured a border town near Lebanon straddling supply lines between Damascus and Syria's seacoast.
 
Both sides are accused by rights groups of abuses, including executing enemy combatant, and the war - pitting Sunni majority rebels against Assad's own Alawite sect and Shi'ite Hezbollah - has descended into sectarian hatred.
State news agency SANA reported on Thursday that "army units have made considerable headway in the battle against the armed terrorist groups in al-Khalidiya neighborhood in Homs city."
 
It said the army had killed scores of "terrorists" in Homs, where whole districts have been razed by two years of conflict, with neither side ever fully taking over the city.
 
Assad's forces also clashed with rebels on the outskirts of the capital on Friday. A resident of Damascus said warplanes were targeting the northern Barzeh district.
"People close to Barzeh say the sonic booms and subsequent bombardment blasts have been unrelenting all day," she said.
(Reporting by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Syrian troops advance in central city

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- Syrian government troops gained ground in clashes Friday in two rebel-held neighborhoods in the central city of Homs, edging closer to a historic mosque and closing in on opposition fighters in the area, state television and activists said.

The advance came amid a wide offensive by President Bashar Assad's forces, launched in late June, to try to recapture rebel areas in Homs, Syria's third largest city.

In the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, a bomb exploded Friday evening, causing casualties, both the state-run news agency SANA and the pro-government television station Al-Akhbariya said. Neither the agency nor the station reported specifics about the attack. The blast went off in the same square where a car bomb exploded Thursday, killing 10 people and wounding 66.

With about 1 million residents, Homs lies along a main artery linking the capital, Damascus, with regime strongholds on the Mediterranean coast to the west. Homs has played a key role in the country's civil war, now in its third year, and the struggle for control of the city also has underscored the conflict's increasingly sectarian undertones.

Activists, who consider Homs "the capital of the revolution," say the regime wants to capture the entire city to include it in a future Alawite state - stretching from Homs to the coast - where Assad could possibly make his last stand. Assad is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, while most of the rebels fighting to topple his regime are Sunnis.

In recent weeks, Assad's troops have captured several nearby rebel-held areas, including the towns of Qusair and Talkalkh near the border with Lebanon.

State TV said Friday that troops advanced in Homs' northern neighborhoods of Khaldiyeh and Jouret el-Shayah.

The report said the government forces were getting close to Khaldiyeh's 13th-century mosque of Khalid Ibn al-Walid, famous for its nine domes and two minarets. On Monday, government troops shelled the mosque, damaging the tomb of Ibn al-Walid, a revered figure in Islam.

An activist in the city who only identified himself as Abu Bilal for fear of government reprisals said the troops were now about 50 meters (yards) from the mosque. "Resistance cannot stand up to tanks, warplanes and mortars," Abu Bilal said, speaking from the city via Skype.

In Damascus, officials said pro-government troops were advancing in battles with rebel forces in the now mostly empty Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. Clashes in the camp, which has mostly been under rebel control since last year, broke out earlier this week.

Since the start of the unrest, Syria's half-million Palestinians have struggled to remain on the sidelines but many were eventually split between pro-and anti-Assad groups. In particular, young Palestinian refugees joined the rebels in the fight against Assad's regime.

Thousands of the camp's residents have fled to escape the fighting and have gone to other areas in Syria or to neighboring Lebanon.

Anwar Raja, a spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, which is pro-Assad, said Friday that the Palestinians who are fighting with government forces want to "cleanse the camp of terrorists' gangs" and bring back its residents.

Khaled Abdul-Majid of the Popular Struggle Front, another pro-government faction, said the Palestinian fighters, known as Palestinian Popular Committees, have captured nearly a third of the mostly empty camp.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nearly 150 soldiers were killed on Monday and Tuesday after rebels stormed and seized the village of Khan al-Assal on the southwestern edge of the northern city of Aleppo. He said 51 of them were shot dead after they were captured alive and surrendered to rebels.

The report could not be independently confirmed. Syria's official media does not release casualty figures for security forces and regime soldiers.

The Britain-based group also said Syrian warplanes bombed an office of the main al-Qaida-linked rebel group in Aleppo city.

The strike late Thursday at the local headquarters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant killed six members of the jihadi group, said the Observatory, which has a network of activists on the ground.

Also Friday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that Polish journalist Marcin Suder, who was kidnapped in the rebel-held town of Saraqeb in Idlib province this week, likely was taken by a dangerous and radical group seeking ransom. Tusk told journalists that Suder's abduction "probably has the character of a robbery."

Suder was reporting from Syria as a freelancer, Suder's Polish agency, Studio Melon, said Wednesday.

Another photographer, Jonathan Alpeyrie, was released after being held for 81 days by a Syrian milita, the New York-based agency Polaris Images said in a statement Friday. Polaris said Alpeyrie, of New York, had been abducted in April while working in Syria's Yabrud region, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Damascus

More than 100,000 people have been killed in the Syrian civil war, the United Nations now says, up from nearly 93,000 just more than a month ago.

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 Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Cassandra Vinograd in London and Monica Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.