By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
Syrian warplanes launched 60 airstrikes against rebel targets around the country on Monday, the most intense air raids across the country since the uprising began 19 months ago, according to anti-regime activists. The suburbs of the capital Damascus were particularly hard hit.
Syrian warplanes and artillery struck rebellious suburbs east of Damascus, while rebels attacked regime positions elsewhere near the capital Sunday, violence that marred the third day of what was meant to be a four-day holiday truce, activists said.
Syrian warplanes and artillery struck rebellious suburbs east of Damascus, while rebels attacked regime positions elsewhere near the capital Sunday, violence that marred the third day of what was meant to be a four-day holiday truce, activists said.
A Syrian warplane flattened a three-story building, suspected rebels detonated a deadly car bomb and both sides traded gunfire in several hotspots across the country Saturday, activists said, leaving a U.N.-backed holiday truce in tatters on its second day.
A suicide bomber detonated explosives outside a mosque packed with senior regional officials in northern Afghanistan on a major Muslim holiday Friday, killing 41 people. The officials escaped unhurt, and many of the dead were soldiers and police.
Syrians took to the streets for the largest anti-regime protests in months in several cities Friday, taking advantage a lull in fighting as a cease-fire took effect at the start of a Muslim holiday. But scattered violence including battles over a northern military base and a Damascus suburb illustrated the difficulty of maintaining even a limited truce.
The Syrian army promised to observe a four-day cease-fire for a Muslim holiday starting Friday, while rebels claimed to have taken control of new areas in the key battleground of Aleppo.
Syria's protracted civil war is spilling across its borders, creating breeding grounds for extremists, sharpening sectarian schisms and threatening to destabilize U.S. allies in the Middle East.
The current international peace plan seeking to stop Syria's civil war suffered a major setback Wednesday, when an al Qaeda-inspired militant group rejected a cease-fire proposed by the international envoy.
Syrian warplanes on Tuesday struck a strategic rebel-held town in the country's north in an attempt to reopen a key supply route, activists said, as a U.N.-proposed cease-fire meant to start this week appeared increasingly unlikely to take hold.
Syrian warplanes on Tuesday struck a strategic rebel-held town in the country's north in an attempt to reopen a key supply route, activists said, as a U.N.-proposed cease-fire meant to start this week appeared increasingly unlikely to take hold.
A taxi rigged with explosives blew up near a police station in the Syrian capital Sunday, killing at least 13 people even as the U.N. envoy to the nation's crisis was visiting Damascus to push his call for a cease-fire in talks with President Bashar Assad.
Turkey and Germany on Friday threw their weight behind calls for a Syrian cease-fire during a Muslim holiday next week as the international envoy for the conflict arrived in Damascus to push for the plan.
The international envoy to the Syrian conflict on Wednesday called on President Bashar Assad's regime to take the lead in implementing a cease-fire during a major Muslim holiday later this month.
The international envoy to the Syrian conflict on Wednesday called on President Bashar Assad's regime to take the lead in a cease-fire during a major Muslim holiday later this month, calling it a "microscopic" step toward ending a crisis that he said could consume the whole region.
