By Evann Gastaldo 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Tag Archives: President Bashar
Syrian Rebels Seize Key Provincial City
By Neal Colgrass 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Syria Needs Grow As UN Watches ‘Tragedy Unfold’ With Millions Out Of Reach
By The Huffington Post News Editors
* “Watching tragedy unfold,” U.N. aid chief says
* Rebels say 3 million in their areas need help
* Amos says Syria still refusing aid via Turkey
* U.S. calls for “direct, cross-border delivery”
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, Feb 19 (Reuters) – The rebel-held north of Syria remains largely out of reach to aid operations, even though they have been stepped up elsewhere in the country torn by civil war, U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said on Tuesday.
“We are watching a humanitarian tragedy unfold before our eyes,” Amos told a news briefing. “We must do all we can to reassure the people that we care and that we will not let them down.”
Syrian opposition representatives told the United Nations this week that some three million people living throughout rebel-held territory require international assistance, she said.
The Syrian government still refuses to allow U.N. convoys to cross from Turkey into northern Syria, as most border crossings are controlled by the Free Syrian Army, she said.
Four million Syrians were deemed in need of aid late last year, but the situation has deteriorated since due to shelling, inflation, and shortages of food and medicine, she said.
Some 70,000 people have been killed in the nearly two-year-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad that has also sent 860,000 refugees fleeing abroad, according to the world body.
Typhoid has broken out in an rebel-held Deir al-Zor due to people drinking contaminated water from the Euphrates River, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
In the last few weeks, the U.N. refugee agency reached rebel-held Azaz with aid for the first time. WHO has delivered vaccines in many opposition-held areas, Amos said.
“Cross-line operations are difficult but they are …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post
Syrian rebels loot artifacts to raise money for fight against Assad
By hnn
MAFRAQ, Jordan — To the caches of ammunition and medicines that they lug each day from this border city back into their homeland, Syrian rebels have added new tools to support their fight against President Bashar al-Assad: metal detectors and pickaxes.
The rebels, struggling to finance their effort, have joined an emerging trade in illicitly acquired Syrian artifacts and antiquities, selling off the country’s past as the war for its future intensifies….
Source:
WaPo
Source URL:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/syrian-rebels-loot-artifacts-to-raise-money-for-fight-against-assad/2013/02/12/ae0cf01e-6ede-11e2-8b8d-e0b59a1b8e2a_story.html
Date:
2-12-13
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at History News Network – George Mason University
Iran official: Attack on Syria is attack on us
A senior Iranian official says his country considers any attack against Syria an attack on itself, one of the most open statements of support yet by Tehran to its ally.
Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iran‘s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted by the semiofficial Mehr news agency on Saturday as saying that Syria plays a major role in the “resistance front” of anti-Israel states and militant groups.
“For this same reason, an attack on Syria is considered an attack on Iran and Iran‘s allies,” he says.
Iran is Syria‘s most important ally in the Middle East. Tehran has provided President Bashar al-Assad’s government with military and political backing for years, and has kept up its strong support for the regime since the uprising began in March 2011.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News