BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s prime minister says a group of Lebanese Shiites who were kidnapped in Syria have been released.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati says the group was released Friday and is heading back to Beirut. He says the men are in unharmed.
Lebanese and Syrian officials have said armed gunmen in Syria kidnapped 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims on Tuesday. The kidnapping set off protests in Beirut’s Shiite-dominated southern suburbs where residents burned tires and blocked roads.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian forces fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse thousands of protesters calling for President Bashar Assad’s ouster Friday, killing two people in the northern city of Aleppo as the regime struggles to vanquish the 15-month-old conflict, opposition groups said.
Crackdowns on protests, as well as other government and rebel attacks, are routine despite the deployment of more than 250 U.N. observers who have fanned out around Syria to monitor a cease-fire brokered by international envoy by Kofi Annan.
Despite the daily violations, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that there was no “plan B” for the Annan initiative.
Friday’s violence during weekly anti-government protests was reported by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists on the ground, and by the opposition Local Coordination Committees.
The Observatory said one person was killed and another wounded in Aleppo, a major economic hub which has remained largely supportive of Assad throughout the uprising but where anti-regime sentiment has been on the rise in recent weeks.
Aleppo-based activist Mohammad Saeed said one of the protesters later died of his wounds, raising the number of those killed in the city’s Boustan al-Qasr district to two.
He said more than 10,000 people were protesting in the city. “The regime is desperately trying to put down the protests in Aleppo but all this violence will backfire,” he said.
“Down, down, down. Down with Bashar Assad,” the protesters shouted as they marched in the Salaheddine district.
Amateur videos posted online by activists showed several wounded people, including a teenage girl, being carried away by other protesters.
The Observatory said a boy was also killed by snipers fire in the Damascus suburb of Arbeen ahead of a protest there.
In the southern town of Inkhel, several people were wounded when troops opened fire at protesters, while in the central Homs region, seven people were reported wounded as a result of security forces’ gunfire.
In the capital Damascus, troops fired tear gas to disperse a large demonstration that started as protesters emerged from the Daqaq Mosque in the restive Midan district in Damascus.
Earlier, government forces shelled the Qusour and Jobar neighborhoods in the city of Homs, but there was no immediate word on casualties.
The U.N. estimated in March that more than 9,000 people have been killed in the revolt against Assad, which began in March 2011 as a largely peaceful protest movement calling for reforms but has since morphed into an insurgency. The death toll rises every day.
The violence in Syria has spilled over into Lebanon, where deadly clashes linked to the conflict next door have killed at least 10 people in the past two weeks.
Lebanese and Syrian officials have said armed gunmen in Syria kidnapped 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims on Tuesday, setting off protests in Beirut’s Shiite-dominated southern suburbs where residents burned tires and blocked roads.
Lebanese officials said the pilgrims have been located and are expected to be freed soon.
The U.N.’s Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that Annan’s peace plan is the only option right now for ending the violence in Syria.
“At this time, we don’t have plan B,” Ban said in an interview Thursday with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
The former U.N. secretary-general’s plan calls for a complete cessation of violence but Ban said “unfortunately, this has not been implemented.”
He said the deployment of U.N. observers to Syria has had “some dampening effect” but the violence hasn’t stopped. Ban said this requires “strong political will” by Syrian President Bashar Assad and full cooperation by opposition forces.
Ban said he spoke Wednesday to Annan, who said he will be going to Syria soon but no date has been fixed.
BEIRUT (AP) — Security officials say troops stormed an apartment in west Beirut, killing a Syrian gunman who had engaged in an hours-long shootout with the security forces.
The shootout came amid heightened tensions in Lebanon where deadly clashes linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria have killed at least 10 people in the past two weeks.
The officials say the gunman first shot at the troops on the street in Caracas neighborhood, then fled to his apartment, which the soldiers stormed early Thursday. The body of another man was found in the apartment but it’s unclear how he died.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Five soldiers and policemen were also wounded in the gunbattle which caused panic among residents in the area.
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian forces on Friday fired on protesters holding the largest opposition marches yet in Aleppo, a sign of rising anti-regime sentiment in the country’s biggest city, which has largely remained supportive of President Bashar Assad throughout the 15-month uprising.
The head of the U.N. observer mission in Syria warned that neither his team nor armed action could solve the country’s crisis, and called on all sides to discuss a solution. But the regime kept up its assaults on opposition areas and protests, while the head of Syria’s largest exile opposition group dismissed the U.N.’s plan as unrealistic.
Anti-regime protests in Aleppo have been growing since a raid on dormitories at Aleppo University killed four students and forced the temporary closure of the state-run school earlier this month.
The May 3 raid was an unusually violent incident for the northern city, a major economic hub, where business ties and large minority populations have kept most residents on the side of the regime — or at least unwilling to join the opposition.
On Thursday, some 15,000 students demonstrated outside the gates of Aleppo University in the presence of U.N. observers, before security forces broke up the protest.
Even bigger numbers took to the streets Friday. Aleppo activist Mohammad Saeed said it was city’s largest demonstration yet, with more than 10,000 people marching in the Salaheddine and al-Shaar districts and nearly as many more elsewhere in the city.
“The number of protesters is increasing every day,” Saeed said. He added that several people were wounded when government forces fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse the rallies.
“It’s a real uprising happening in Aleppo these days,” said Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Thousands of people elsewhere in the country also staged anti-government rallies in solidarity with Aleppo. Friday is the main day of protests across Syria and this week’s demonstrations were dedicated to “The Heroes of Aleppo University.”
Opposition activists said security forces opened fire on protests in several locations, including the Damascus suburbs and the central city of Hama. They also said the regime shelled the central town of Rastan, which rebels have controlled since January.
Amateur videos posted online Friday showed shells whizzing through the air and slamming into residential areas in Rastan, sending up clouds of smoke.
The Observatory also reported three people shot dead by security forces in the al-Tadamon neighborhood in southeast Damascus.
More than 200 U.N. observers are in Syria as part of a peace plan to end the crisis. The head of the observer mission cautioned Friday that neither his mission nor armed force can stop the bloodshed without genuine talks between the two sides.
No number of observers can achieve “a permanent end to the violence if the commitment to give dialogue a chance is not genuine from all internal and external actors,” Maj. Gen. Robert Mood told reporters in Damascus.
International powers have pinned their hopes on the peace plan for Syria that special envoy Kofi Annan brokered in April. The plan paved the way for the U.N. observers, and it calls for a cease-fire and dialogue to end the conflict.
The U.N. estimated in March that the violence in Syria has killed more than 9,000 people. Hundreds more have been killed since then as a revolt that began in March 2011 with mostly peaceful calls for reform has transformed into an armed insurgency.
Both sides have flouted the cease-fire, raising concerns that the peace plan is ineffective and the violence is spinning out of control.
Annan’s spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, said in Geneva that the envoy would be visiting Syria soon, but did not give a date. A high-ranking military adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Babacar Gaye, arrived in Damascus on Friday.
But dialogue seems a distant hope. The opposition says it will accept nothing less than the regime’s ouster, and the government brands its opponents as terrorists.
On Friday, the head of Syria’s largest exile opposition group, the Syrian National Council, said he had little hope for Annan’s plan.
“We have no illusions on this mission,” Burhan Ghalioun told The Associated Press in Paris, where he is based. “In reality, it’s a mission which was done in order to hide the lack of international consensus. That’s all.”
Assad says the popular will is not behind the country’s uprising, and claims that foreign extremists are driving the unrest to destroy the country. He has pointed to a rise in rebel attacks on military targets as well as suicide bombings in major cities to bolster his case.
The most recent bombing, which targeted an intelligence building in Damascus on May 10, killed some 55 people and has raised fears that extremist groups are exploiting the chaos in Syria for their own purposes.
At the United Nations, Ban said he had such fears.
“The recent terrorist attacks in Damascus suggest that these attacks were carefully orchestrated,” he said. “Having seen the scale and sophistication of these terrorist attacks, one might think that this terrorist attack was done by a certain group with organization and clear intent. I have strongly condemned these terrorist attacks.”
In Damascus, Mood spoke out against the rising violence.
“I am more convinced than ever that no amount of violence can resolve this crisis,” he said. “I am concerned about the incidents where explosives, improvised devices are targeting innocent civilians, innocent people because it is not going to help the situation.”
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Karam reported from Beirut. AP writers John Heilprin in Geneva, Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, Ron DePasquale in New York and Catherine Gaschka in Paris contributed reporting.
BEIRUT (AP) — A key activist group on Thursday accused Syria’s opposition council of drifting away from the spirit of the country’s revolution, dealing a further blow to a body already facing major political and organizational challenges in its quest to oust President Bashar Assad.
The activist group, called the Local Coordination Committees, threatened to suspend its membership in the Syrian National Council if its concerns are not addressed.
“We have seen nothing in the past months except political incompetence in the SNC and a total lack of consensus between its vision and that of the revolutionaries,” the LCC statement said.
Since its inception last September, the Syrian National Council has acted as the international face of the Syrian revolution and served as a reference point for Western leaders when it comes to the Syrian opposition. If it continues to deteriorate, it could complicate efforts for the West and others to get behind the opposition.
Fifteen months into the uprising, Syria’s opposition is still struggling to overcome infighting and inexperience, preventing the movement from gaining the traction it needs to present a credible alternative to Assad. Its international backers have repeatedly appealed for the movement to pull together and work as one unit.
The U.N. estimated in March that the violence in Syria has killed more than 9,000 people. Hundreds more have been killed since then as a revolt that began with mostly peaceful calls for reform transforms into an armed insurgency.
The SNC, whose leaders are largely Syrian exiles, has tried with little success to gather the opposition under its umbrella and has alienated minorities inside Syria, including the Kurds and Alawites. Some opposition figures accuse its leadership of spending too much time in airplanes and being out of touch with reality on the ground while several prominent dissidents have already quit the SNC, calling it an “autocratic” organization.
In Thursday’s statement, the LCC — a network of activists based both inside and outside of Syria — accused the SNC leadership of marginalizing council members and acting alone on major decisions.
The LCC said the council has “drifted away from the spirit of the Syrian revolution in its quest for a civil and democratic state based on the principles of transparency and transfer of power.”
In a rare acknowledgment of shortcomings, a leading figure inside the council said the group needed an overhaul and should become more inclusive.
Bassma Kodmani, a Paris-based senior figure in the council, said over the telephone Thursday that the LCC concerns were “justified and legitimate.” She acknowledged this week’s opposition meeting in Rome during which Burhan Ghalioun was re-elected for a third, three-month term as head of the SNC, was marred by the absence of several members and should have been better prepared and organized. She did not elaborate.
But Kodmani also said differences within the Syrian opposition were “natural and healthy” and a sign of democracy, “otherwise we would be just like the Baath Party and the Assad regime.”
Ghalioun, a Sunni Muslim professor at the Sorbonne in Paris who has led the council since its formation in September, has been criticized by some opposition figures of being too close to the Muslim Brotherhood and of trying to monopolize power..
Ghalioun ran against George Sabra, a Christian council member seen by many as a better choice to soothe concerns by Syria’s religious minorities, some of whom have remained loyal to Assad out of fear for their future in case his regime collapses.
In a televised interview following his re-election, Ghalioun acknowledged divisions within the SNC and said the group was working on a new strategy.
Unlike Libya’s National Transitional Council, which brought together most factions against Moammar Gadhafi’s regime and was quickly recognized by much of the international community, Syria’s opposition has no leadership on the ground and has not been officially recognized by significant powers.
A conference sponsored by the Arab League in Cairo to help unite the disparate opposition was canceled this week, largely because of infighting between various groups.
BEIRUT (AP) — A key activist group threatened Thursday to withdraw from Syria’s main opposition umbrella grouping, saying the council has drifted away from the spirit of the Syrian revolution.
A pullout by the Local Coordination Committees from the Syrian National Council would be a blow for the group, which is already facing political and organizational challenges in its quest to oust President Bashar Assad.
And if the SNC continues to deteriorate, it could complicate efforts for the West and others to get behind the opposition.
Fifteen months into the uprising, Syria’s opposition is still struggling to overcome infighting and inexperience, preventing the movement from gaining the traction it needs to present a credible alternative to Assad. Its international backers have repeatedly appealed for the movement to pull together and work as one unit.
The SNC, whose members are largely Syrian exiles, has tried with little success to gather the opposition under its umbrella and has alienated minorities inside Syria, including the Kurds and Alawites. Other opposition groups accuse it of trying to monopolize power.
Several prominent dissidents, including Haitham al-Maleh and Kamal al-Labwani, have already quit the SNC, calling it an “autocratic” organization.
In Thursday’s statement, the LCC — a network of activists based both inside and outside of Syria — accused the SNC leadership of marginalizing council members and acting alone on major decisions. It threatened to suspend its membership in the council and later withdraw altogether if its concerns are not addressed.
“We have seen nothing except political incompetence in the SNC and a total lack of consensus between its vision and that of the revolutionaries,” the statement said.
The LCC said the council has “drifted away from the spirit of the Syrian revolution in its quest for a civil and democratic state based on the principles of transparency and transfer of power.”
Earlier this week, Burhan Ghalioun was re-elected to a third, 3-month term as head of the SNC. A Sunni Muslim professor at the Sorbonne in Paris who has led the council since its formation in September, he has been criticized by some opposition figures of being too close to the Muslim Brotherhood and of being out of touch with the reality on the ground in Syria.
Ghalioun ran against George Sabra, a Christian council member seen by many as a better choice to soothe concerns by Syria’s religious minorities, some of whom have remained loyal to Assad out of fear for their future in case his regime collapses.
In a televised interview following his re-election, Ghalioun acknowledged divisions within the SNC and said the group was working on a new strategy.
Unlike Libya’s National Transitional Council, which brought together most factions against Moammar Gadhafi’s regime and was quickly recognized by much of the international community, Syria’s opposition has no leadership on the ground and has not been officially recognized by significant powers.
A conference sponsored by the Arab League in Cairo to help unite the disparate opposition was canceled this week, largely because of infighting between various groups.
BEIRUT (AP) — The U.N.’s observer mission in Syria was caught up in a burst of violence Tuesday captured on video, with a roadside bomb damaging its cars just minutes after witnesses said regime forces gunned down mourners at a funeral procession nearby.
The mission confirmed its vehicles were hit by a bomb shortly after they met with Syrian rebels, and said there were no injuries.
It was not clear how close the observers were to the funeral shootings, but if confirmed, a regime attack on a civilians directly in front of the observer mission could put pressure on them to describe publicly what they are seeing in Syria. They report back to the U.N. but have not publicized their findings.
The attack in the northern town of Khan Sheikhoun is at least the second time that U.N. observers have been caught up in Syria’s violence. Last week, a roadside bomb struck a Syrian military truck in the south of the country just seconds after the head of the U.N. observers team drove by in a convoy.
A video of the bomb attack was posted by activists online. “The front of a U.N. car took a direct hit,” activist Fadi al-Yassin, who witnessed the incident, told The Associated Press. “Everyone ran in panic but the observers stayed in the car. People tried to talk to them but they wouldn’t even open their windows.”
Just minutes earlier, Syrian forces fired on a funeral procession, activists said. Al-Yassin and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that as many as 20 people may have been killed and said many others were wounded, some of them in serious condition. It was impossible to independently confirm the toll.
“This is a real massacre and it took place in the presence of U.N. observers,” Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Observatory, said of the attack on the funeral. He called for an international investigation and for the monitors to state publicly what they saw.
A video posted by activists online appeared to show the exact moment the U.N. vehicle was struck. The video shows two white vehicles clearly marked “U.N” with people milling around it, and two others parked a few meters behind. Slippers apparently left behind by the mourners running away from the shooting earlier are seen strewn about on the ground.
The blast blew off the front of the first vehicle and sent up a plume of smoke as people screamed and frantically ran for cover. The four cars are then seen slowly driving away.
Ahmad Fawzi, a spokesman for Syria’s special envoy Kofi Annan, confirmed the observers were caught up in the country’s violence as they met with the rebel Free Syrian Army.
“The U.N. Mission in Syria reports that shortly after 2 p.m. local time today, a (U.N.) convoy of four vehicles was struck by an explosion from an improvised explosive device,” Fawzi said in a statement. “Three U.N. vehicles were damaged. No U.N. personnel were injured.”
The Syrian uprising began in March 2011 with mostly peaceful protests calling for change, but a relentless government crackdown led many in the opposition to take up arms. Some soldiers also have switched sides and joined forces with the rebels.
World powers have backed a peace plan that was put forward by Annan, but the bloodshed has not stopped. More than 200 U.N. observers have been deployed in Syria to oversee the truce between the government and armed rebels.
The U.N. estimates the conflict has killed more than 9,000 people.
U.N. spokesman Hassan Seklawi said 211 military observers as well as 66 civilian U.N. staffers working for the observation mission have been deployed in the country, with teams based in major cities such as Aleppo, Hama, Idlib, Deir el-Zour, Daraa and Homs.
The number of military observers is expected to reach the maximum of 300 later this month.
Burhan Ghalioun, the head of Syria’s opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Council, called for decisive action to enforce Annan’s peace plan, warning it risked failure. He spoke Tuesday in Rome, where the SNC re-elected him to another three-month term during a conference of council members.
An international aid agency meanwhile warned Tuesday that Syrian forces are targeting medical workers and patients who were wounded in the 14-month-old conflict, forcing doctors to scramble to help the injured in makeshift clinics.
Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, which is not authorized to work in Syria, sent teams into the country secretly. They reached the rebellious areas of Homs and Idlib, where they found patients and doctors at risk of attack and arrest.
“Being caught with patients is like being caught with a weapon,” the group quoted an orthopedic surgeon as saying in an Idlib village. There have been previous reports of authorities targeting medical facilities, health workers and their patients in Syria.
The Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees activist group said Tuesday at least three people were killed in an explosion the night before in the Syrian coastal city of Banias, home to one of the country’s two oil refineries. The explosion destroyed a building but the nature of the blast was still not clear, the Observatory said.
The state-run news agency, SANA, said the blast happened when terrorists were preparing a bomb killing the three who working arranging it, as well as a 3-year-old boy.
The Observatory and the LCC also reported shooting by government troops in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour near the border with Iraq that left at least three people dead. They added that the rebel-held central town of Rastan was again under intense shelling by government troops.
U.N. military observers on their way to the central city of Hama on Monday reported heavy fighting in Rastan and nearby Talbiseh, and convinced government forces to re-open a highway they had been blocking, according to a statement from the U.N. in New York.
Across the border in Lebanon, Lebanese troops deployed Tuesday in tense areas of the northern city of Tripoli after three days of sectarian clashes killed at least eight people in a spillover of the conflict in Syria. Officials said two of the eight people died of their wounds overnight.
Lebanon and Syria share a complex web of political and sectarian ties and rivalries, which are easily enflamed as Sunni Muslims who support the rebels trying to oust Assad battle members of the tiny Alawite sect, followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam who are Assad’s most loyal supporters.
Lebanese security forces supervise the opening of a street blocked by Shiite Muslims in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, May 22, 2012, to protest against Syrian rebels kidnapped of 12 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims in the Syrian northern province of Aleppo. The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has appealed for calm following the abduction of 12 Lebanese Shiites in Syria. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)(Credit: AP) 
In this citizen journalism image provided by Sham News Network SNN, an anti-Syrian regime protester, holds up a Cross and Crescent painted with colors of the Syrian revolution flag during a demonstration against Syrian President Bashar Assad, at the Damascus suburb of Yabroud, Syria, Friday, May 18, 2012. Syrian security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse thousands rallying Friday in Aleppo in what activists said was the largest protest yet in a city that has largely remained loyal to President Bashar Assad during the country's 15-month uprising. (AP Photo/Sham News Network, SNN)THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS HANDOUT PHOTO(Credit: AP) 
FILE - In this Monday, June 20, 2011 file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad delivers a speech in Damascus, Syria, at Damascus University. In his first interview in six months, Syrian President Bashar Assad insists his regime is fighting back against foreign mercenaries and not innocent Syrians aspiring for democracy in a year-long uprising. (AP Photo/SANA, File) EDITORIAL USE ONLY(Credit: AP) 