Syria Live Coverage: Who Represents the Opposition?

1840 GMT: Rebel Victories Outside Damascus. In Otaybah (map), site of last week's reported chemical attack, the rebels have been killing Assad tanks and beating back his attacks for days. Today, they destroyed more tanks and armored vehicles

What's interesting - the fighter in the video is holding an M 79 Osa, one of the Croatian weapons that is part of the shipment from the international effort to arm the Syrian rebels:

#Syria #Damascus Rebels destroyed several tanks in #Otaybahhere BMP youtube.com/watch?v=S6vYbp…wikimapia.org/#lat=33.486847…

— Mark (@markito0171) March 25, 2013

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Syria Live Coverage: Regime Rejects UN Human Rights Enquiry

Claimed footage of "liberation" of Saham near Golan Heights by insurgents on Saturday

See also Syria 1st-Hand: Life in Islamist-Controlled Raqqa
Syria Debate: Does the "Free Syrian Army" Exist?
Israel, Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: US Restarting Negotiations?
Saturday's Syria Live Coverage: Fighting in Aleppo and near Damascus

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1749 GMT: Opposition Leader Resigns. The Syrian National Coalition has refused the resignation of its head, Moaz al-Khatib, asking him to go back to his work.

1719 GMT: Attacks in Damascus. Journalist Alex Thomson reports that insurgents have hit State television in the capital:

Two mortars have hit STV building and carpark. Some damage and vehicles destroyed.

— alex thomson (@alextomo) March 24, 2013

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Iran Live Coverage: Worrying About Syria

See also Saturday's Iran Live Coverage: Keeping an Eye on Human Rights

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1609 GMT: Election Watch. Another sign that reformists will participate in June's Presidential election....

Hojatoleslam Rasoul Montajabnia, the deputy of the Etemad-e Melli Party of detained opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, has suggested that --- to see more participation in the election --- former Presidents Mohammad Khatami and Hashemi Rafsanjani must be involved without necessarily becoming candidates.

Montajabnia said, "With their active presence in the election environment, the intellectuals and the critics of the country’s officials and rulers will become interested in participating in the election."

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Syria 1st-Hand: Life in Islamist-Controlled Raqqa (Abouzeid)

Mass demonstration in Raqqa last Friday

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Raqqa City was once dubbed the “hotel of the revolution” because it became home to hundreds of thousands of people displaced from fighting elsewhere who sought refuge in a place considered firmly in the grip of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Earlier this month, however, the city in north central Syria, which was late to the anti-government revolt, became known for something else: It is the first and only provincial capital that Assad’s regime has completely lost — with the rebels taking control of it within the span of a week.

The regime will likely lose the entire province within days. There are only three remaining regime outposts in this vast eastern tribal area that extends all the way to the Turkish border: there’s Division 17 a few kilometers outside the city; the military airport at Tabqa about 40-to-50 kilometers away, and Brigade 93 in Ain Issa, some 70 kilometers away. All three positions are under heavy rebel attack and government counter-attack.

But here in Raqqa city, some 100 kilometers from the Turkish border crossing of Tal Abyad, the scars of war are faint. Warplanes still rumble in the air, mainly to aid the men besieged in Division 17, but, despite reports from earlier in the month, airstrikes and artillery shelling in the city are now rare.

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Syria Debate: Does the "Free Syrian Army" Exist? (Lund and Debeuf)

General Salim Idriss, head of the insurgent Supreme Military Council, addresses Syrian expatriates, 24 February 2013

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One of the themes in our daily coverage of Syria is the state of the insurgency, from the ideology and organisation of different factions to the supply of weapons to the efforts to declare an umbrella leadership such as the "Free Syrian Army".

Last week, Aron Lund brought these issues into stark relief with a post on Syria Comment questioning if one could even speak of an FSA. Days later, Koert Debeuf replied on the website with a vigorous defence of a leading group directing the

EA's James Miller comments:

Lund made some important points in his initial article. To criticise it by saying that it was an oversimplification would be unfair. After all, nothing is more complex than the "Free Syrian Army", and Lund has produced an impressively concise summary.

Debeuf, however, makes a more important point. The "Free Syrian Army" has never had any meaning more than it does todayinsurgency.

The opening and closing sections of the Lund and Debeuf articles....

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Syria Live Coverage: Fighting in Aleppo and near Damascus

Today's funeral of cleric Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Bouti, killed in a suicide bombing on Thursday

See also Syria Audio Analysis: The Damascus Mosque Bombing and What's Next --- Scott Lucas with Monocle 24
Lebanon (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Prime Minister Resigns --- What Next?
Friday's Syria Live Coverage: Damascus Suicide Bomb Kills 42, Including Top Cleric

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2005 GMT: Insurgent Advance. Claimed footage of the "liberated" town of Saham in Daraa Province near the Golan Heights today:

2005 GMT: Shots Fired on Israeli Troops. The Israeli military has announced that shots were fired at an Israeli patrol jeep in the Golan Heights on Saturday evening.

The vehicle was damaged but there were no injuries.

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Syria Audio Analysis: The Damascus Mosque Bombing and What's Next --- Scott Lucas with Monocle 24

I spoke with Monocle 24's The Briefing yesterday about the suicide bombing inside a Damascus mosque, which killed 49 people --- including the leading pro-regime Sunni cleric Mohammed Said Ramadan al-Bouti.

Listen to interview, from 6:48 mark, on The Briefing's homepage or in separate pop-out window.

We assess the attack: Was al-Bouti the target? Who is responsible? Is this a "sectarian" assault, as at the start of the Iraq civil war in 2006?

And then there are the ramifications and next steps --- can the Assad regime use the bombing to rally support against a menacing, immoral opposition? Can the opposition ensure that this incident does not halt the momentum of growing international support for it?

Syria Live Coverage: The Uncertainties Over Chemical Weapons

President Assad on Wednesday with families of those killed in the conflict

See also today's Israel, Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Obama Visits West Bank
Wednesday's Syria Live Coverage: Trading Blame Over "Chemical Attacks"
Syria Special: Assessing Tuesday's "Chemical Weapons Attacks"...and Who is Responsible

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1938 GMT: Whole Neighborhoods Leveled in Aleppo. In the last two days, many districts in Aleppo have been intensely bombed by Assad's airforce. By the end of last night, more than a dozen civilians were killed and dozens more injured as homes collapsed in the Sukary district, trapping many in the rubble.

Today, this video shows some of the devastation in the Tal Zarazir district, in the southwestern part of the city, close to Sukkary (map).

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Syria Live Coverage: Trading Blame Over "Chemical Attacks"

1940 GMT: Rebels Capture Mosque in Center of Daraa. The Omari Mosque has been captured by the Syrian rebels who continue to push deeper and deeper into the center of Damascus (map).

Al-Omari mosque in #Daraa has be librated. It is the cradle of the revolution #Syria youtube.com/watch?feature=…

— SND - Support Syria (@sndlifesyria) March 20, 2013

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Syria Live Coverage: Opposition Coalition Names Ghassan Hitto as Prime Minister

2050 GMT: Rebels Advance in Southeast Damascus. Not far from the site of the other reported chemical weapons attack in Otaybah, the rebels are engaged in an assault on the Conference Hall and Palace near the Damascus International Airport (map). This video reportedly shows smoke rising from the Palace as the result of rebel attacks. Other videos show the rebels launching weapons at the target:

This weekend, rebels pushed closer and closer to the airport. Meanwhile, rebels appear to be advancing deeper into the Jobar and Al Maamouniyeh districts of east-central Damascus (map). In the west, the rebels have continued to rebuff the regime's attacks against Darayya, and are edging towards key bases further to the southwest. Remarkably, the regime has not yet pushed this most recent wave of rebel advances back.

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