Syria Live Coverage: Civilian Deaths in Aleppo

The destruction in the Al-Bab section of Aleppo

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Saturday's Syria Live Coverage: Opposition Boycotts International Talks Over Aleppo Deaths

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1816 GMT: Regime Strike. At the end of this clip, a direct hit on an insurgent truck with an anti-aircraft gun in Khan al-Asal in Aleppo Province:

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Syria 1st-Hand: Burning Army Boots to Stay Warm in Aleppo (Atassi)

Photo: Basma Atassi/Al Jazeera

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Abu Mohammad seemed to be excited by the fact that he is helping people stay warm, but when asked about the potentially harmful fumes from the burning of boots, he said: "Only God knows what chemicals come out of these boots. People have been using coal, wood, unrefined petrol and all kind of stuff to warm themselves. So this doesn't matter."

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Syria Live Coverage: Regime Fires SCUD Missiles on Aleppo?

1934 GMT: Explosions - a Universal Experience. From western Damascus to the eastern suburbs, as well as in the southern districts of the capital, heavy shelling is reported in every corner of Damascus. Across Daraa and Idlib provinces, similar patterns can be seen. It's anecdotal evidence, but it seems that the amount of firepower pounding Syria's cities is even more brutal than on a typical day.

The death toll, which is still rising, reflects this. The LCC now reports that 142 people have been killed nationwide. Even though some of these people were killed last night in Aleppo, this still marks an escalated death toll, and when the total number of those killed in the reported Scud missile attack are counted, the full fury of this violence is evident. Here is the distribution of casualties according to the latest report from the LCC:

fifty one martyrs in Aleppo, most of them were uncovered from the Badrou district masscare yesterday, fifty eight martyrs in Damascus and its suburbs, eleven martyrs in Idlib most of them in Shaghar town, nine martyrs in Homs, five martyrs in Hama, three martyrs in Deir Ezzor, three martyrs in Raqqa, and two martyrs in Daraa.

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Syria 1st-Hand: Aleppo --- Hunger, Disease, & Little Hope (Sly)

Before the War --- Protest at Aleppo University, May 2011

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Some blame the Free Syrian Army for starting a fight it couldn’t finish. Others blame the government for steadily escalating the use of force to try to crush the rebels. Many, like Awuf, blame both. “We are civilians trapped between the two sides, and they are using us like wood on a fire,” he said. “Both sides are wrong.”

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Syria Live Coverage: Starving in Aleppo

Queuing for bread in Aleppo, 8 December 2012

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Saturday's Syria Live Coverage: "The Land Where Assad Killed Santa Claus"

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2125 GMT: The opposition Local Coordination Committees are reporting 94 people killed in the regime strike on the bakery queue in Halfaya.

The Committees claim 191 people have been slain across the country, with 43 deaths in Damascus and its suburbs.

2045 GMT: Blogger Razan Ghazzawi writes after the Halfaya mass killing:

Look into Halfaya martyrs’ eyes and dare to tell me you’re worried about “Islamists” in Syria. Dare to tell me, you piece of shit, that you’re worried about “FSA [Free Syrian Army] human rights violations,” worried about “civil war,” about Qatar and KSA, and that’s why you won’t support people’s revolution.

So you’re worried. I see. That explains a lot. Of course.

Newsflash: the minute you have forsaken the people of Syria, the Syrian people have also forsaken you and what you worry about, habibi: you and your civilization doesn’t exist in our time and space. It’s over, you and I aren’t fellow human beings anymore.

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Syria Feature: A Requiem for Aleppo (Hanano)

Once Upon a Time in Aleppo --- Video from 2006

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Ruins are sold to us as romantic and poetic. As tourists wandering ancient sites, cameras dangling from our necks and guidebooks in hand, we seek beauty in the swirling dust over the remains of a dead civilization. We imagine what is was like then, before empires decayed and living objects became historical artifacts. But that kind of romanticism is only afforded with the distance of time and geography. In war, ruins-in-the-making are not beautiful, not vessels of meaningful lessons, not a fanciful setting for philosophical contemplations on the follies of men. When you witness it live, when it is real, and when it happens to your city, it becomes another story altogether.

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Syria 1st-Hand: A Letter from Aleppo on Deprivation, Islamists, the Opposition...and Hope (Walls)

It is for this child, it is for Hamza’s memory, for the Qashoush, for nearly 50,000 fifty thousand Syrians, young and old, who were murdered in such cold blood by the Assad gangs --- accompanied with the fanfare barked by ugly and cruel herds of mindless loyalists --- it is for the victims, for Syria, and above all it is for humanity that Syrians can’t lose hope. We can’t afford to lose it, even knowing that this regime might and can easily resort to mass murder weapons in its arsenal.... To the scared child I say, sweet child, they have been bombarding us for forty two years. Little by little, they destroyed our heritage of civility. But my sweet child, we will get that back. Granted, we may lose some of our innocence, but from you dear child, we will learn it again....

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Syria 1st-Hand: Visiting the "Deadly Stalemate" in Aleppo (Abouzeid)

Destruction in the Bustan al-Basha section of Aleppo

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The street warfare isn’t winning the rebels any more friends. The urbane Aleppans have never really warmed to the opposition fighers, most of whom come from religiously conservative Sunni Muslim small-towns --– and there is growing concern that the rebels are turning more sectarian. The rebels know they’re not really welcome. “The Aleppans here, all of them, are loyal to the criminal Bashar, they inform on us, they tell the regime where we are, where we go, what we do, even now,” says Abu Sadek, a defector from Assad’s military now with Liwa Suqooral-Sha’ba, one of the three rebel units in Bustan al-Basha. “If God wasn’t with us, we would have been wiped out a long time ago.”

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Syria Analysis with Videos: The Insurgent Advances Across the Country

Free Syria Army units in control of an artillery piece and other equipment, reportedly in northern Idlib province, where the base of the Regular Army's 46th Regiment was located:

UPDATE: More video has been added to the bottom of this entry:

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In Idlib and Aleppo Provinces, the Free Syrian Army is expanding its hold on territory and has not suffered a military setback in these two regions in more than two months. The insurgents are no longer lightly armed, accelerating the pace of their advance.

In Damascus, the regime still holds the upper hand, and the probability of a sudden collapse of the Assad strength is minimal. However, the Free Syrian Army is still winning battles. Despite intense bombing campaigns by the regime, the FSA is keeping Assad forces on the defensive in some locations.

Having to concentrate on the capital, the stretched regime forces have failed to retake Ma'arrat al Nouman, the key in the northwest to Aleppo and Idlib. Assad forces appear to be retreating in the east, with only one remaining airbase in Deir Ez Zor Province.

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Syria 1st-Hand: Opposition Tries to Implement Justice Through Courts in Aleppo (Chick)

Insurgent in Aleppo (Manu Brabo/AP)The legal council hears about 15 new cases a day, says Abu Ibrahim. It has recognized marriages and divorces and mediated family disputes. There have been many cases of theft, but in each case the council has ordered the thieves to return what they stole, and has declined to punish them because of the difficult circumstances of war.

In fact, the council has yet to punish anyone. That's partly because it has little power to enforce its rulings, or to force an armed group to turn over prisoners.

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