Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Re-Focusing on the Conflict

The moment that crowds charged the US Embassy in Yemen on Thursday

See also Iran Propaganda Feature: Fars News Makes Up Interview with "Bahrain Opposition Leader
Thursday's Libya, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Extraordinary Death, "Everyday" Death
MENA Video Special: The Biggest and Most Important Protests are in Syria

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2146 GMT: Syria. Earlier we reported that the Free Syrian Army conducted an offensive against Assad positions in the Saleh el Dine district of Aleppo. We also reported that there were rumors that the Assad military retreated after the battle. Now, we've found many videos showing fighters inside the district today, claiming that they have captured the entire area. But this may be the most compelling evidence.

The video below claims to show the district being shelled, an activity that would not be possible if Assad troops were still in the district. Another video shows fires burning there, reportedly the result of the shelling:

The key to winning any battle is to maintain the initiative. The Assad regime is failing to do that. The FSA is mixing up attacks in the east with assaults on the military airport, and really disrupted the pattern of battle last weekend when they briefly captured a major military base in the heart of the city. The center of the city has been shelled for four days, and now this turn of events suggests that, at least for the moment, the Assad regime is more content to sit back and shell opposition forces than fight them on the streets.

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Iran Propaganda Feature: Fars News Makes Up Interview with "Bahrain Opposition Leader"

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On Saturday, Fars News featured an interview with a "Sheikh Sadiq Kadhim Al-Jamri", a Bahraini who extolled the Islamic Republic as a model for Muslims in the Middle East. Al-Jamri said that it was the late Ayatollah Khomeini who had first inspired the "Arab Awakening" with the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which had "brought revolutions to Muslims from Tunisia to Egypt and Libya to Yemen and Bahrain ".

But who is Sheikh Sadiq Kadhim Al-Jamri?

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The UN Tries Again With Assad

1618 GMT: Bahrain EA's John Horne reports:

A group of Human Rights organisations have written to US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton "asking her to suspend all US military aid to the government of Bahrain because of its human rights violations".

The letter brings attention to the US Leahy Law (Section 620M of the Foreign Assistance Act) which states that:

No assistance shall be furnished under this Act or the Arms Export Control Act to any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.

The NGO's cite a series of reports which they argue constitute "credible information", adding that "attacks by the police and other security forces on unarmed, non-violent, pro-democracy activists rise to the level of 'gross human rights violations,' particularly so when the attacks resulted in death.

The letter continues:

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Bahrain Opinion: The Significance of the Detention and Treatment of Nabeel Rajab

Nabeel Rajab in July --- his last interview and his arrest by hooded security forces

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Rajab's case appears to raise the stakes. On previous occasions since the start of the uprising in February 2011, including in the spring, he has been held but soon released. This time, the detention --- despite international criticism --- appears to be long-term and, if his wife is correct, accompanied by solitary confinement and ill treatment.

Is this a step beyond for the regime's approach to Rajab and other political prisoners, inflicting humiliation and exerting psychological torture while claiming a desire and dialogue and the pursuit of reform? And if so, is there any possible remedy for the situation?

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Deaths and Executions on Both Sides

Claimed footage of an attack on a building of the security forces in Zabadani in Syria

See also Syria Video Feature: Does the Free Syrian Army Represent The People?
Monday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Deaths and Executions on Both Sides

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2010 GMT: Syria. According to the Local Coordination Committees, 115 people have been killed by regime forces today:

40 martyrs were reported in Aleppo; 25 in Damascus and its suburbs; 23 Hama including martyrs from Kafarzeta and Halfaya; 11 in Deir Ezzor, among them 4 in the shelling of Shehail and 4 in Bokmal; 6 in Daraa; 5 in Idlib; 2 in Lattakia;2 in Banyas 1 in Homs.

See our note on the numbers release by the LCCs.

As you can see, the deaths in Aleppo today have been very high, with Damascus and Hama (particularly Kafer Zita, as we noted earlier) accounting for most of the rest of the fatalities today.

We saw a continuation of a pattern that has become familiar - the regime is using longer-range artillery, and air strikes, to inflict much of this damage, both to buildings and to lives. However, after several weeks of intensification, there are no signs that either the Free Syrian Army, nor the peaceful protesters, show any sign of giving up their resistance to President Bashar al Assad.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Renewed Battle in Aleppo

1919 GMT: Syria. According to Russian Vice Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Syrian President Bashar al Assad would step down if he lost an election:

French newspaper Le Figaro quoted Bogdanov as saying in an interview after meeting Syrian dissidents in Paris that the "regime is still solid" and supported by an important part of the population who feared those who could take his place.

"Assad told us himself. But I don't know how sincere he is," Bogdanov said. "But he clearly told us that if the people didn't want him, and if they chose a different leader in an election, he would go."

1608 GMT: Syria. The LCC's death toll has now reached 102:

67 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its Suburbs (including 36 who were field-executed in Tadamun, 17 martyrs were found in Zamalka, and 3 who were field-executed in Mouadamiyeh), 16 in Aleppo, 6 in Hama, 4 in Daraa, 4 in Idlib, 2 in Homs, 2 in Lattakia, and 1 in Deir Ezzor.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 7 Weeks Later, The Battles in Aleppo Continue

Saturday night's opposition rally in Bab Qibli in Hama Province

See also Bahrain 1st-Hand Special: Friday's Manama Protests and the "Overwhelming Humane Side of People"
Syria 1st-Hand: Darayya After the Mass Killing --- "The Stink of Death"
Syria Photo Feature: A Moment of Life and Death in Aleppo
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Fighting Escalates in Aleppo and Damascus

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1957 GMT: Bahrain. The Speaker of the Council of Representatives has called on ambassadors of "Western" states to condemn the "vandalism, sabotage, and targetting of the trade sector by the chaotic rallies" of the leading opposition society, Al Wefaq.

Authorities tried to prevent an Al Wefaq march on Friday by declaring it illegal and mobilising security forces around and in the capital Manama, but smaller demonstrations occurred throughout the city, with the police trying to disperse them with tear gas.

See Bahrain 1st-Hand Special: Friday's Manama Protests and the "Overwhelming Humane Side of People"

1951 GMT: Libya. The Prosecutor's Office has said that the trial of former leader Muammar Qaddafi's son Saif al-Islam will be delayed by five months to include any relevant testimony obtained from the interrogation of Libya's former head of intelligence.

Government officials said in August that Saif al-Islam's trial on charges of war crimes would begin this month, but the extradition of Abdullah al-Senussi from Mauritania on Wednesday led to the postponement.

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Bahrain 1st-Hand Special: Friday's Manama Protests and the "Overwhelming Humane Side of People" (Ahlam Oun)

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Jamila Hanan tweeted something today that hit the exact overwhelming sense I felt on Friday in Manama and could not find the words to describe it. She wrote:

Sometimes the world seems such a horrible place, but the more one exposes evil, the more one discovers that love is even stronger.

And it is very true. The hospitality, care, and their act of kindness was more powerful than all of the repression happening outside. They help people in need in spite of the danger of being raided and attacked any moment.

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The Latest from Iran (8 September): The Threat Is Not Israel --- It's the Economy

See also The Latest from Iran (7 September): Challenges on the International Front

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1945 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Sierra Leone has removed nine vessels from its shipping register after finding they belonged to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.

Iran has been trying to reflag its ships, using countries such as Tuvalu, to bypass Western sanctions aimed at choking off its oil exports.

In mid-August, Tanzania announced it was de-registering 36 Iranian vessels and that it was dropping the Dubai-based shipping agent who flagged them without its knowledge.

1910 GMT: Media Watch. I have been interviewed at length tonight by the radio service of State broadcaster IRIB about sanctions and Iran's nuclear programme.

If anyone hears the broadcast version of the remarks, please let me know.

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Bahrain Video Discussion: The Conflict and the Regime's Public-Relations Effort

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin hosts a discussion on Huffington Post Live with guests Brian Dooley of Human Rights First; Fahad AlBinali of the Bahrain International Affairs Authority; Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists; Justin Elliott of ProPublica; Leah McElrath, a social media activist; Maryam Al-Khawaja, acting President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights; and Mohammed Al-Muharraqi, a surgeon who works for the Bahrain Defense Forces.