DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: UN Moroccan Military Monitors Arrived In Damascus To Oversee Syria Ceasefire Between Assad's Government Forces And Opposition Activists

DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: UN Moroccan Military Monitors Arrived In Damascus To Oversee Syria Ceasefire Between Assad's Government Forces And Opposition Activists

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 18, 2012: UN monitors who arrived in Syria earlier this week walking through the lobby of a Damascus hotel on April 17, 2012. 

Moroccan advance team leader Colonel Ahmed Himmiche (front -L) acknowledged that a hard-won UN military observer mission to oversee a Syria ceasefire will be 'difficult.' (Photo - Getty)

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DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: It Is A Shame - If Bashar al-Assad Is Following Gaddafi's Footsteps, Syrian Taking Up Arms

DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: It Is A Shame - If Bashar al-Assad Is Following Gaddafi's Footsteps, Syrian Taking Up Arms

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 20, 2012: A Syrian rebel looks out after Syrian army tanks enter the northwestern city of Idlib, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012. Syrian government forces renewed their assault on the rebellious city of Homs on Tuesday in what activists described as the heaviest shelling in days, as the U.N. human rights chief raised fears of civil war. (Photo - AP)

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DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: It Is A Shame - If Bashar al-Assad Is Following Gaddafi's Footsteps, Almost Civil War

DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: It Is A Shame - If Bashar al-Assad Is Following Gaddafi's Footsteps, Almost Civil War

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 20, 2012: Syrian rebels are seen during a weapons training exercise outside Idlib, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012. Syrian government forces renewed their assault on the rebellious city of Homs on Tuesday in what activists described as the heaviest shelling in days, as the U.N. human rights chief raised fears of civil war.  (Photo - AP)

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DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: It Is A Shame - If Bashar al-Assad Is Following Gaddafi's Footsteps, Tanks Rambling

DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: It Is A Shame - If Bashar al-Assad Is Following Gaddafi's Footsteps, Tanks Rambling

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 20, 2012: Syrian army tanks enter the northwestern city of Idlib, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012. Syrian government forces renewed their assault on the rebellious city of Homs on Tuesday in what activists described as the heaviest shelling in days, as the U.N. human rights chief raised fears of civil war. (Photo - AP)

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DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: U.S. Drones Flying Over Syria To Monitor Crackdown - Report

DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: U.S. Drones Flying Over Syria To Monitor Crackdown - Report

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 19, 2012: The United States is flying unmanned reconnaissance planes over Syria to monitor the regime's escalating crackdown on dissent, U.S. defense officials told NBC television on Saturday.

The drones are being used to gather evidence on the Syrian security forces' violence against pro-democracy protesters that can be used to "make a case for a widespread international response," the U.S.-based broadcaster quoted the unnamed officials as saying.

The Pentagon officials stressed that the U.S. is not preparing the ground for a military intervention, but is simply collecting evidence of President Bashar Assad's crackdown on protesters.

There was no official comment from Syria on the report.

The West has ruled out a Libya-style military intervention in Syria to stop 11 months of bloodshed.

Meanwhile, there have been disagreements regarding what action must be taken against Syria. Turkey refuses to set up buffer zones for civilians on its border with Syria, and demands that the transfer of equipment and medicine be done via the sea and not through its territory.

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DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: Syrians Are Demonstrating Against Bashar Assad's Regime In Homs

DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: Syrians Are Demonstrating Against Bashar Assad's Regime In Homs

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 9, 2012: This image from amateur video made available by Shaam News Network on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012, purports to show Syrians chanting slogans during a demonstration in Homs, Syria.

Activists say 95 people have been killed so far on Thursday. Hundreds have reportedly died since last week.

Homs, Syria's third-largest city, has been a leading focus of unrest in the 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the "appalling brutality" of the onslaught.

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DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: Suffering Deepens In Bombarded Syrian City Of Homs

DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: Suffering Deepens In Bombarded Syrian City Of Homs

 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 9, 2012: This image from amateur video made available by Shaam News Network on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012, purports to show smoke filling the air from a house on fire in Homs, Syria.

Activists say 95 people have been killed so far on Thursday. Hundreds have reportedly died since last week.

Homs, Syria's third-largest city, has been a leading focus of unrest in the 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the "appalling brutality" of the onslaught.

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DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: Homs Being Surrounded By Syrian Military Tanks

DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: Homs Being Surrounded By Syrian Military Tanks

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 9, 2012: This image from amateur video made available by Shaam News Network on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012, purports to show a Syrian military tank in Homs, Syria.

The Syrian army has launched fresh mortar and rocket attacks in the city of Homs, as the government continues a push aimed at crushing rebel forces.

Activists say 95 people have been killed so far on Thursday. Hundreds have reportedly died since last week.

Homs, Syria's third-largest city, has been a leading focus of unrest in the 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the "appalling brutality" of the onslaught.

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DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: Syrian Rebel On Guard In Idlib, Syria

DTN News - SYRIA UNREST:  Syrian Rebel On Guard In Idlib, Syria

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 9, 2012:  A Syrian rebel peers through the scope on his weapon in Idlib, Syria, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012. Syrian forces fired mortars and rockets that killed scores of people Thursday in the rebellious city of Homs, activists said, the latest strike in a weeklong assault as President Bashar Assad's regime tries to crush increasingly militarized pockets of dissent.  (Photo - AP)

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DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: Syrian Forces Battle To Retake Damascus Suburbs

DTN News - SYRIA UNREST:  Syrian Forces Battle To Retake Damascus Suburbs

 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 29, 2012:  Syrian soldiers killed 19 people in fighting to retake Damascus suburbs from rebels on Sunday, activists said, a day after the Arab League suspended its monitoring mission in Syria because of mounting violence.

Around 2,000 soldiers in buses and armored personnel carriers, along with at least 50 tanks and armored vehicles, moved at dawn into the Ghouta area on the eastern edge of Damascus to reinforce an offensive in the suburbs of Saqba, Hammouriya and Kfar Batna, activists said.

The army pushed into the heart of Kfar Batna and four tanks were in its central square, they said, in a move to flush out rebels who had taken over districts just a few kilometers from President Bashar al-Assad's centre of power.

"It's urban war. There are bodies in the street," said one activist, speaking from Kfar Batna. Activists said 14 civilians and five insurgents from the rebel Free Syrian Army were killed there and in other suburbs.

The Arab League suspended the work of its monitors on Saturday after calling on Assad to step down and make way for a government of national unity. It said Arab foreign ministers would discuss the Syrian crisis on February 5.

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby left for New York on Sunday where he will brief representatives of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to seek support for an Arab peace plan that calls on Assad to step aside after 10 months of protests.

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DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: Syrian Blasts Kill 14, Arab Monitors May Stay

DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: Syrian Blasts Kill 14, Arab Monitors May Stay

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 21, 2012: Bombs killed at least 14 prisoners in a Syrian security vehicle on Saturday, and fierce battles erupted between rebels and state forces as the Arab League considered whether to keep monitors in place.

The League looks set to extend its monitoring mission in Syria, given the lack of any Arab or world consensus on how to halt the bloodshed there, an Arab diplomatic source said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the 10-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, said an explosive device planted on a road in the northwestern province of Idlib had killed 15 detainees and wounded dozens.

Syria's state news agency SANA said a "terrorist" group had set off two explosions on the road between the towns of Idlib and Ariha, killing 14 prisoners and wounding 26. Six police guards were also wounded, some critically.

Activists in Idlib offered a very different account, saying the vehicle had actually been carrying dead bodies. They uploaded videos of corpses on the bloodied floors of a hospital morgue, some of which appeared to be decomposing, and said they had come from the vehicle.

Foreign journalists are mostly banned from Syria and such reports are impossible to verify.

Elsewhere in Idlib, clashes broke out between rebels and troops in the city of Maarat Noaman.

"Ten soldiers were trying to desert and their escape sparked clashes between the army and the rebels. One rebel was martyred when he helped give the defectors cover and nine army personnel were killed," the Observatory's head Rami Abdelrahman told Reuters by telephone from Britain.

The Observatory said troops had clashed with army deserters who had joined the insurgency in the town of Jebel al-Zawiya, also in Idlib province, which borders Turkey.

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