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Entries in Syria (1394)

Sunday
Mar202011

Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Coalition Attacks

Footage from Britain's Channel 4 of the aftermath of coalition airstrikes on Libya

2210 GMT: We're going on an overnight break. Coverage continues via the Live Feed from Al Jazeera English.

2145 GMT: Little confirmed information tonight, but several blasts have rocked the Libyan capital Tripoli, with a plume of smoke seen from the direction of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi's home in the Bab el-Aziziya compound in a south Tripoli suburb.

1920 GMT: Latest from Libya....

There was a spate of fire from anti-aircraft guns, apparently from nervous troops expecting airstrikes, in Tripoli. The capital is now quiet.

The Libyan military spokesman announced a new ceasefire for 9 p.m. local time (1900 GMT).

An Italian tugboat has been escorted out of port by officials of the Libyan port authority and military. The 11-member crew had been detained this weekend.

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Sunday
Mar202011

Latest from Turkey: The Insurgent PKK, Relations with Russia, the New Middle East, and Israel

Latest developments in Turkey....

What Next with the PKK?

The Kurdish separatist group, PKK, ended its unilateral truce on 28 February. Last week, its life-long-imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan said: “I will make the evaluation in the coming days in March. If something positive happens, the current state of inaction will continue until elections. If not, I am out, I will fade from the scene. My health situation is already not good enough to carry on this work.”

On the following day, three PKK guerillas/terrorists were killed by Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in Sirnak. On Friday, TSK clashed with PKK members in Bingol --- four PKK members and two village guards were killed. Was this a reaction to Ocalan by PKK ’s senior officials or an organized response by PKK with Ocalan’s permission before the Turkish New Year (Newroz)?

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Friday
Mar182011

Syria Video: Friday's Protests

Banyas in the northwest:

Syrian intelligence making an arrest in the Ummayad Mosque in Damascus:

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Wednesday
Mar092011

Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Dragging Out the Day

2045 GMT: Doctors have suggested that regime forces in Yemen used a form of nerve gas on pro-democracy protesters in Sanaa in a violent clash on Tuesday night.

The soldiers fired warning shots into the air before shooting gas and, it is claimed, live bullets into the crowd, killing one and injuring at least 75.

“The material in this gas makes people convulse for hours. It paralyzes them. They couldn’t move at all. We tried to give them oxygen but it didn’t work,” said Amaar Nujaim, a field doctor who works for Islamic Relief.

“We are seeing symptoms in the patient’s nerves, not in their respiratory systems. I’m 90 percent sure its nerve gas and not tear gas that was used,” said Sami Zaid, a doctor at the Science and Technology Hospital in Sanaa.

Mohammad Al-Sheikh, a pathologist at the same hospital, said that some of the victims had lost their muscular control and were forced to wear diapers.

“We have never seen tear gas cause these symptoms. We fear it may be a dangerous gas that is internationally forbidden,” Al-Sheikh said.

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Thursday
Mar032011

Turkey Special: Erdogan Government Reaches Out Abroad, Talks Tough at Home

Prime Minister Erdogan is striking a conservative posture at home, even as it holds out the unclenched first abroad. This does not mean he is seeking confrontation as an election strategy: there is no desire for a military clash with PKK, any more than there is a wish to use Iran and Syria against the US, but he is going to the leave no doubts. He is the man in charge.

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Friday
Feb182011

Bahrain, Libya, and All the Way to Syria: Summarising Thursday's Day of Rage

Opposition in Libya had called a "Day of Rage" for Thursday, but even before they could take to the streets, that rage was being claimed by a regime in a different country.

The surprise attack by Bahrain's police upon the opposition camp at the Pearl Roundabout in the capital of Manama killed at least four people, but even that death toll does not begin to capture the violence of the day. As the monarchy moved the Army in force into Manama, its security services prevented treatment the hundreds of wounded, to the point of inflicting a savage beating on a prominent doctor. Journalists were blocked at Manama's airport, leaving those who were already in the country --- Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times was especially prominent in reporting via social media as well as reporting for his newspaper --- to try and get out an account that took in the scope of the brutality.

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Thursday
Feb172011

Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Regime Attacks

2110 GMT: And now claimed footage of a protest in Damascus in Syria, complaining over the beating of a man by four police officers. A participant claims nearly 1500 people rallied for three hours and chanted, “The Syrian people will not be humiliated,” demanding the immediate release of beaten man with “Let him go! Let him go!” and “There is no God but God.”

2105 GMT: Reports indicate one person was killed and more than two dozen injured in today's clashes in Yemen.

Journalists have been barred from the Al-Naqeeb hospital in Aden in the south of the country, with an estimated 400 guards surrounding the facility.

Video of tonight's anti-regime rally in Aden , just before it was broken up by a pro-Government group:

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Friday
Feb112011

Turkey Analysis: Ankara Expands Ties with Syria and Iran

Turkey's relations with its Eastern neighbours are continuing to develop. On Sunday, at the groundbreaking ceremony of Asi Friendship Dam in Hatay, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Erdogan said:

Asi river is not a river separating us, drawing borders between us anymore; it is turning into a river bringing us together.

Eight years ago, when we formed the government, we said this: 'Turkey wants peace, Turkey wants calm in the region. Turkey wants stability in this geography, wants wealth all together.' We said 'zero problem with neighbours' eight years ago. Because we believe this with our hearts that the more Syria is in peace the more Turkey is in peace. The more Turkey is in wealth the more the more Syria is in wealth. Because we are nations that are rendered as brothers by history. Throughout the history, our fate has been the same, our hearts have beat together. 

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Wednesday
Feb092011

Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Surge

2150 GMT: Prominent activist Wael Ghonim today on CNN, telling the regime, " "If you are true Egyptians, if you are heroic Egyptians, it's time to step down":

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Saturday
Feb052011

Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Settling In for the Long Game

0132 GMT: We end tonight's liveblog with this report from Al Jazeera: 

 0036 GMT: There are reports of gunfire in Cairo. We cannot confirm where exactly it is coming from or who's shooting. 

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