Syria Live Coverage: Airstrikes Continue Around Damascus

See also Monday's Syria Live: Mass Deaths from Airstrikes

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Photo: AFP1942 GMT: Fighting Near Border with Lebanon.

NOW Syria reports from the border village of al-Qasr, just inside Lebanon, where insurgent fire hit for the first time:

Al-Qasr [did not] feel like a place hit by lethal rocket fire just two days ago. Despite an army statement Sunday declaring its increased presence in the area, there wasn’t so much as a routine checkpoint impeding our entrance. In the village center, all shops were open; adults and children alike going about their business as usual. It could have been anywhere in the Beqaa.

Except, of course, for the two crumbled walls near the main mosque, results of an unprecedented series of rockets fired Sunday by Syrian rebels that, for the first time, left one resident dead and up to nine injured (another was killed by the same attack in Hosh al-Sayyid Ali, a nearby village on the Syrian side of the border). The blood of 23-year-old Ali Hassan Qataya, light brown by now, still spans the width of the street where he died.

“He was just visiting,” said a local resident who did not give his name. “He lived in Beirut, and came here to visit his fiancée.”

Why, then, was Qataya killed? The Syrian National Coalition, the opposition body recognized by over a dozen countries as the representative government-in-exile, said Monday that “the Free Syrian Army was forced to respond to [the] repeated aggressions” of Hezbollah, whom it accused of carrying out “military operations on Syrian territory.”

1432 GMT: Fighting Near Border with Lebanon. The LCC reports that there are more clashes south of Homs, near the border with Lebanon (map):

Clashes continue between the FSA and regime forces in Qusair and specifically in Tal Qadesh area in the Syrian Lebanese borders.

In recent weeks there have been battles both in Qusayr and across the border in Lebanon between rebel fighters and members of Hezbollah (map). Today, the National Coalition has asked the Lebanese government to control its borders, and has acknowledged the battle between Syrian rebels and Hezbollah fighters. AFP posts an excerpt of their statement (note, the National Coalition website may currently be down):

"The Syrian Coalition calls on the Lebanese government to exert control over its borders and put an immediate stop to Hizbullah's military operations on Syrian territory," the group said late Monday.

"We call upon the Lebanese government to take action against Hizbullah's aggressions and do everything within their means to ensure the safety of the innocent civilians on the Syrian-Lebanese border," it said in a statement.

"For weeks now, forces belonging to Hizbullah have targeted villages inside Syria, located on the border of Syria and Lebanon. Hizbullah deployed forces into some border villages and took control of those areas.

"The (rebel) Free Syrian Army was forced to respond to these repeated aggressions," it said.

1313 GMT: Rebels Repel Assad Offensive near Ma'arrat al Nouman. The Assad military was on the verge of fully breaking the siege of two key bases near a major crossroads in Idlib province. However, less than 24 hours after breaking the siege, the rebels were able to push the Syrian army back south of Ma'arrat. Reuters reports that the army offensive has not broken rebel lines, and the rebels are working to regain a full blockade of both the Wadi al Deif and Al-Hamidiyeh bases.

The rebels have sieged these two bases for months, but have been unable to defeat their thick walls and entrenched bunkers. However, the bases have been running short on supplies, and even shorter on manpower. Some rebel groups estimate that there were once more than 5000 regime soldiers that defended these bases, and now that number may be in the mid hundreds. Yesterday, videos did show supplies making it down the highway towards both bases. But those supply convoys consisted of a half dozen trucks, not the kind of massive reinforcements that would have completely erased rebel progress in this area.

Still, it is very early. It remains to be seen whether the Assad offensive has enough power to free both bases, or to break through rebel lines to the north. If the offensive works, it could mean a change of fortune for the Syrian rebels in Idlib province, but most likely it would represent a major setback that would prolong the fighting in the region for a significant amount of time. If the attack fails, however, the incident may only prove to be a small bump in the road, or even a decisive victory for the rebels.

1249 GMT: Battle for Aleppo. The fight for what was once Syria's largest city has become an extremely dynamic fight in the last month. Over a month ago, the Syrian army dispatched an army convoy to break the rebel siege of Al Safira to the southeast of the city. Al Safira is home to a very large military base that guards what may be the largest chemical weapons stockpile in the region. That convoy also linked up with Assad forces just outside the city near the Aleppo International Airport. This would have been a rousing victory for the Assad regime, except that it came at the same time that rebels were making significant gains in every other corner of the city. Now, fighting rages to the southeast of the city where Assad's offensive is concentrated, to the southwest of the city where the rebels and the regime appear deadlocked for the moment, and in the northern districts of the city where rebels are making significant advances.

It's a mixing bowl of violence, but the chaos arguably favors the Syrian rebels. As long as the front keeps shifting and the rebels keep the regime from taking the initiative, Assad cannot take advantage of his greatest strengths - his tanks and air force.

Despite Assad's overwhelming presence in the southeast, there are stories today that the rebels are on the advance, taking the fight to the Syrian army near Al Safira. The LCC offers this summary which matches some other reports:

Clashes were reported in the perimeter of Defense Factories Corporation from the western side and regime forces shell with artillery in the city.

Every other Assad offensive in Aleppo has fizzled. It's too early to tell, but this may be yet another failed attempt by the regime to regain momentum in an area that has been slowly slipping out of its fingers.

1236 GMT: Death Toll According to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, 33 people have been killed so far across the country:

11 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its suburbs; 6 in Daraa; 5 in Raqqa; 4 in Aleppo; 3 in Idlib; 3 in Deir Ezzor; and 1 in Homs.

This number will certainly rise. In the last hour there is a chorus of new information that explosions have rocked many neighborhoods in Damascus, to say nothing of the other areas where violence is reported today.

The Local Coordination Committees (LCC) is an activist network operating both inside and outside of Syria. They claim to use stringent verification processes to ensure that a member of the LCC can vouch for any information posted either on their Facebook page or their website. The LCC also cooperates with an independent organization to populate database of those killed in the Syrian conflict, which can be seen at the website for the Center for Documentation of Violations in Syria.

The LCC's casualty figures are often a mix of insurgents and civilians, and never include regime casualties. Syrian State Media has stopped reporting regime casualty figures.

Also see our description of the Local Coordination Committees and how we utilize their reports in the Columbia Journalism Review.

James Miller takes over today's live coverage. Thanks to Scott Lucas for getting us started today.

0755 GMT: Assad Declares Amnesty

State TV is reporting that President Assad has issued a general amnesty for "crimes committed before 16 April 2013".

Assad's general amnesty order is the third since the start of the uprising in March 2011.

Pro-regime Al-Ikhbariya said it will air an interview with Assad on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. local time.

0705 GMT: Regime Line

In an interview with The Guardian, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad has declared that Britain and France are "directly or indirectly" supporting Al Qa'eda in an escalating war against Syria:

There is a big conspiracy against Syria to force it to change its policies towards the Arab-Israeli conflict, to change its stance on Arab issues, and to have a government that will serve the interests of the US, UK and France.

Miqdad said the regime had "no doubt" that insurgents had used chemical weapons in Khan al-Assal near Aleppo, but added that Damascus it would only agree to a "real" UN investigation and not to a repeat of what had happened in Iraq before the 2003 war: "The game is clear. They [powers opposed to the regime] want to cover up what happened in Aleppo and create fictitious issues."

Inevitably, the minister was keen to exploit the exaggeration of last week's announcement by the Islamist insurgency Jabhat al-Nusra as a "pledge of allegiance" to Al Qa'eda:

Britain and France were complacent about supporting al-Qaida directly or indirectly. Now that Syria is flooded by Europeans fighting with al-Qaida, they are afraid. They wanted these people to come and be killed here, but when some of them started to go home, they changed their minds. They can tolerate killing in Syria and exaggerate what our government is doing, but they cannot defend this endlessly.

0625 GMT: Humanitarian Crisis

Leaders of five UN agencies have appealed to the international community to stop the "cruelty and carnage", warning they may soon be forced to suspend humanitarian aid.

"Needs are growing while our capacity to do more is diminishing, due to security and other practical limitations within Syria as well as funding constraints. We are precariously close, perhaps within weeks, to suspending some humanitarian support," the five leaders warned on Monday.

The statement was signed by UN Emergency Relief Coordinator (OCHA) Valerie Amos; Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP) Ertharin Cousin, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres; Executive Director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Anthony Lake; and Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Margaret Chan. It declared:

We, leaders of UN agencies charged with dealing with the human costs of this tragedy, appeal to political leaders involved to meet their responsibility to the people of Syria and to the future of the region.

We ask that they use their collective influence to insist on a political solution to this horrendous crisis before hundreds of thousands more people lose their homes and lives and futures, in a region that is already at the tipping point.

The UN estimates that more than 70,000 people have died in the conflict and more than 4 million are displaced, however, the officials said, "After all this, there still seems an insufficient sense of urgency among the governments and parties that could put a stop to the cruelty and carnage in Syria.",/p>

They continued, "To all involved in this brutal conflict and to all governments that can influence them: In the name of all those who have so suffered, and the many more whose futures hang in the balance: Enough! Summon and use your influence, now, to save the Syrian people and save the region from disaster."

0455 GMT: Casualties

The Local Coordination Committees claim 75 people were killed on Monday, including 47 in Damascus and its suburbs, most of them in Douma amid regime airstrikes.

The Violations Documentation Center reports 56,886 people killed since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011, an increase of 78 from Monday. Of the dead, 45,088 are civilians, a rise of 50 from yesterday.

0445 GMT: Airstrikes

The regime continues its aerial pressure on insurgent positions in parts of Damascus and suburbs on Monday, including attacks on Yabroud, Douma and Harasta, east of Damascus, and Sbeineh, southwest of the capital.

State media claimed the Syrian military "killed a number of terrorists' groups and destroyed their dens and tools in Jobar, Misraba farms [in Douma], and Harasta". The reports asserted "the leader of a terrorist group within the so-called Der'e al-Islam brigade" was among slain insurgents.