The fighting is part of the escalating violence in a Syrian civil war that the United Nations estimates has killed more than 60,000 people since the revolt against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels stormed parts of the Taftanaz air base in the northwestern province of Idlib before withdrawing. The state-run SANA news agency said government forces protecting the base "repelled the terrorists' attempt to attack the airport" and inflicted heavy losses. The Syrian regime routinely refers to rebel forces as "terrorists."

The Observatory said rebels resumed their assault early Thursday in an attempt to capture the base, which has resisted several opposition efforts to take the facility in recent months.

The rebels have been pursuing a strategy of attacking airports and military airfields, targeting five air bases in Idlib and the nearby province of Aleppo, trying to chip away at the government's air power, which poses the biggest obstacle to advances by opposition fighters.

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Pentagon press secretary George Little said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed a deployment order Friday en route to Turkey from Afghanistan.

The order calls for 400 US soldiers to operate two batteries of Patriots at undisclosed locations in Turkey, Little told reporters flying with Panetta.

Turkey is a founding member of NATO and requested that the alliance provide Patriots. They will be sent by NATO members Germany and the Netherlands as well as the U.S. for an undetermined period.

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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Twin car bombs ripped through a Damascus suburb on Wednesday, killing at least 34 people and leaving dozens critically wounded, according to state media and hospital officials.

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His mother's home was bombed in the 2008-09 Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which left hundreds dead and thousands of homes destroyed. In renewed fighting last week, an entire block of buildings housing his extended family was badly damaged in an airstrike that Israel said was aimed at a militant.

While none of his relatives was hurt, the 61-year-old retired schoolteacher once again has to worry about providing shelter for his family. Some relatives are sleeping in an empty shop, squeezed in with other family members. Others are spending their nights in rooms covered in plastic wrap to shield them from the winter rain because all the windows were blown out.

"This is going to cost thousands," Azzam said. "The longer I wait, the more damage will happen," he added, pointing to a heavily damaged building sitting atop tilting concrete columns.

Azzam finds himself caught again in a pile of paperwork to seek assistance, trying to secure hard-to-get construction materials. This time, he hopes the process will be smoother, thanks to both Israel's pledges to ease its longstanding border blockade and the newfound political clout of Gaza's Hamas rulers in the region.

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On YouTube it posted video that it says shows the assassination of a high-level target:

On Nov. 11, 2012, the IDF targeted Ahmed Jabri, the head of Hamas' military wing, in the Gaza Strip. Jabri was a senior Hamas operative who served in the upper echelon of the Hamas' command and was directly responsible for executing terror attacks against Israel in the past.

On Twitter today, the force also makes clear that it is seeking to kill additional members of Hamas in the days ahead:

[embedtweet id="268780918209118208"]

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The changes would mark a profound shift in Western efforts to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad, and indicate that leaders have been waiting for the result of the U.S. presidential election before embarking on a new strategy to end the civil war that has killed more than 36,000 people.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, visiting a camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan, said the U.S., Britain and other allies should do more to "shape the opposition" into a coherent force and open channels of communication directly with rebel military commanders. Previously, Britain and the U.S. have acknowledged contacts only with exile groups and political opposition figures inside Syria.

Meanwhile, a Turkish official said Turkey and allies, including the United States, have discussed the possibility of using Patriot missiles to protect a safe zone inside Syria.

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The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights' chief Rami Abdul-Rahman says rebels overran the al-Ward oilfield in the province of Deir el-Zour near the border with Iraq on Sunday.

Omar Abu Leila, an activist in the area, says the field was still functioning until shortly before the rebels seized it.

Syria exported some 150,000 barrels of oil a day before European and U.S. imposed sanctions last year.

In 2010, Syria earned $4.4 billion by selling oil to EU countries alone. Oil was the main source of hard currency for the regime until the sanctions took effect.

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The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said four missiles fired by two Syrian jets hit a rugged and remote area on the edge of the Lebanese border town of Arsal. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that the warplanes fired three missiles that fell on the outskirts of Arsal about 500 meters (yards) from the border between the two countries.

"I heard several explosions and saw four clouds of dust billowing from the area," Arsal resident Nayeh Izzedine said by telephone referring to the border. "I don't know if it was an air raid but there was a plane in the sky."

He added that the town had been quiet two hours after the 10 a.m. attack.

The Syrian forces were believed to be chasing rebels in the area, which has been the site of clashes in the past between opposition fighters battling Syrian troops just on the other side of the frontier. Lebanese armed forces have in the past detained people in the region caught trying to smuggle weapons into Syria from Lebanon.

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Thousands of demonstrators massed outside the embassy and several were seen climbing the outer wall of the embassy grounds and raising a flag on which was written the Muslim profession of faith, an Associated Press reporter on the scene said.

Police responded by firing tear gas, and police gunfire could be heard.

A group of several dozen protesters briefly managed to enter the embassy compound and set fire to cars in an embassy parking lot. They were pushed back outside by police and special forces who continued to arrive on the scene.

Crowds angry over an anti-Muslim film ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad have assaulted U.S. embassies across the Middle East.

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The protesters breached the usually tight security around the embassy and reached the compound grounds but did not enter the main building housing the offices. Once inside the compound, they brought down the U.S. flag, burned it and replaced it with a black banner bearing Islam's declaration of faith — "There is no God but Allah."

Before storming the grounds, demonstrators removed the embassy's sign on the outer wall, set tires ablaze and pelted the compound with rocks.

It was similar to an attack on the U.S. Embassy in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Tuesday night. A mob of Libyans also attacked the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday, killing American Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

In Egypt, protesters were clashing with police near the U.S. Embassy in the capital Cairo for the third day in a row.

The violence has raised worries that further protests could break out around the Muslim world as anger spreads over the movie.

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The surge coincided with a sharp increase in the carnage in Syria, as the government of President Bashar al-Assad began using its air force against towns and neighborhoods across the country where opponents of his rule have found support. The resulting flood of displaced people, mainly in the last two weeks of August, accounted for more than 40 percent of the 234,000 refugees who have registered for United Nations support since the fighting began. Tens of thousands more have fled but have not registered.

“It’s quite an astonishing number,” Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the Office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, told reporters on Tuesday at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva. She said it indicated “a very precarious and violent situation inside the country.”

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The document, ordered by the Human Rights Council, "underlines that such violations were committed pursuant to State policy pointing to the involvement at the highest levels of the armed and security forces and the Government," according to a UN statement.

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The use of drones in the area has drastically increased in the last couple of years --up to about 12 hours of daily flight, according to Danger Room estimates -- yet so far there have been no major protests against either the military or the CIA in America or in Africa. In that sense, the shadow war in Somalia might offer a glimpse of how the U.S. will approach overseas counterrorism and conflict.

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"One day is ours, one day is theirs." 

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The defection might mark yet another turning point in the ongoing conflict, according to White House press secretary. During today's press briefing, Carney told reporters that there was no reason to doubt reports about the defection. "The momentum is with the opposition and with the Syrian people," he added. "It's clear that these defections are reaching the highest levels of the Syrian government and Assad cannot restore his control over the country because the Syrian people will not allow it.  The quickest way to end the bloodshed and suffering of the Syrian people is for Assad to step aside to enable a peaceful political transition to a government that is responsive to the aspirations of the Syrian people."

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“I accepted this task, which some called ‘Mission Impossible,’ for I believed it was a sacred duty to do whatever was in my power to help the Syrian people find a peaceful solution to this bloody conflict,” he said. Yet, "without serious, purposeful and united international pressure, including from the powers of the region, it is impossible for me, or anyone, to compel the Syrian government in the first place, and also the opposition, to take the steps necessary to begin a political process.”

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“We have to exhaust every option, every effort before we resort to military action and that’s important,” he said during a visit to an anti-missile battery in southern Israel. “[I]f they continue and make the decision to proceed with a nuclear weapon, we have options we are prepared to implement to ensure that does not happen,” he added.

Netanyahu was less diplomatic. Before Panetta arrived, he explained his position regarding a possible attack on Iran, and their reliance on U.S. assistance.

"Things that affect our fate, our very existence, we don't entrust to others – not even to our best friends."

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When it comes to praising President Obama's foreign policy skill and Toughness (in the neocon sense of that term: i.e., a willingness to risk other people's lives with the use of military force against foreigners), The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg has been one of the most reliable and vocal voices. Considered by Obama aides "as the 'official therapist' of the U.S.-Israel relationship," Goldberg has been particularly important in vouching for Obama to Israelis and American Jews on the ground that nobody will be Tougher on Iran than Obama (in return for this service, Goldberg -- like all helpful journalists are -- has been rewarded by the White House with substantial career-boosting access). In his Bloomberg column this morning, Goldberg argues that Israeli officials should pray for Obama's victory in the November election, and makes this argument in support:

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But instead of holding her breath, like the anti-government activists in the back seat of her car, she waved happily at the young soldier with the AK-47, who glared back at her through the windshield.

After this test of wills, he motioned her through. And everyone exhaled.

Um Khalid is driving the activists to Salahaddin, the most restive and dangerous neighborhood in Aleppo. There, for months hundreds of protesters have risked sniper fire and armed gangs to march through darkened streets.

Aleppo — Syria’s largest city and a commercial center traditionally loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — has been simmering in conflict for months.

Now it’s beginning to boil.

A rebel offensive launched last week on the first day of Ramadan appeared to catch the regime, still reeling from the high-profile assassinations in Damascus, off guard. Rebel fighters from the countryside easily poured in, capturing key neighborhoods in Aleppo’s center.

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“You have to have full confidence, beyond any doubt, that the morale of your military is higher than ever before, and the morale of our people is the highest ever,” said Information Minister Omran Zuabi on Syria TV.

The morale-boosting measure in question?

A bomb that had exploded inside the National Security building during a meeting of the police state’s top security chiefs. The explosion killed the defense minister and the head of Assad’s crisis management group. It badly injured the interior minister and national security chief – whose status remains unknown. Critically, it also killed President Bashar al-Assad’s powerful brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, the longtime military intelligence chief, often referred to as “Syria’s second president.”

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