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Middle East Today: Iraq --- Highest Monthly Death Toll in 5 Years
Thursday's Syria Today: Assad Appears --- Does It Matter?
1925 GMT: Refugees
Russia and China have rejected United Nations Security Council plans to inspect Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, claiming this may be preparation for "foreign intervention" .
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) "is competent for [organising] visits to refugee camps that have been set by the UN, the Security Council has no competence for that," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Slovenia.
He added, "If there was an attempt to use the Syrian refugee situation to push forward some ideas about no-fly zones, then we and China might have seen in it an attempt to prepare a foreign intervention."
Jordanian officials warned this week that the more than 500,000 Syrian refugees was placing a "crushing weight" on the country.
The UNHCR has said the number of refugees in Jordan could reach 1.2 million by the end of the year --- equivalent to 1/5 of the Jordanian population.
1835 GMT: Mass Killing
More graphic footage has been posted claiming to be of the killing of scores of people in the coastal town of Bayada by regime forces.
1825 GMT: Insurgents Destroy Shrine?
Back from an extended academic break to catch up with today's developments.....
State news agency SANA claims "Takfiri terrorist groups" destroyed the shrine of Hajar Bin Adi in the Damascus suburb of Adra on Thursday.
The Ministry of Endowments said, "Destroying the shrine of a companion of the prophet and sacrilege his tomb is a flagrant attack on all Muslims' sanctity".
.State media also said a fire broke out at Damascus International airport after a mortar shell struck a kerosene tank. Another shell hit an out-of-service commercial plane.
0445 GMT: Casualties
The Local Coordination Committees claim at least 158 people were killed on Thursday, including 31 in Aleppo Province, 29 in Homs Province, 28 in Baniyas and 23 in Damascus and its suburbs.
The Violations Documentation Center puts the confirmed death toll at 59,113 since the conflict begin in March 2011, an increase of 160 from Thursday.
Of those killed, 46,435 were civilians, a rise of 109 from yesterday.
0435 GMT: Mass Killing Near Baniyas
Activists claims the Syrian military and militia killed at least 50 people in the coastal village of al-Bayada, near Baniyas, on Thursday.
The activists claimed many of those slain were "summarily executed" by shooting or stabbing, posting photos to support the allegations of men being rounded up.
Reports said the raid followed an attack by insurgents on shabiha --- pro-regime militia --- earlier in the day, killing at least six and wounding up to 20. Mortars hit the village before a ground assault.
The opposition Syrian National Coalition accused the Assad regime of seeking revenge from the people of Baniyas because they were among the first to protest in March 2011.
State news agency SANA said troops killed "terrorists" and seized arms.