Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Stripping Opponents of Citizenship

2016 GMT: Syria. A medical charity group distributing aid in Syria says that government forces are stealing the aid:

"When the regime attacks one of our medical facilities, whether it's a hospital or something else, they load up everything they can carry, and they burn the rest," said Tawfik Chamaa, a Geneva-based doctor and spokesman for the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organizations (UOSSM).

"They take as much as they can, and that just depends on how many soldiers they have, but most of the time they resell it on the black market," he told a news briefing in Geneva.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN World Food Programme (WFP), global aid agencies with a presence in Syria, said two specific allegations that Chamaa made about other foreign aid being diverted were unsubstantiated.

But the ICRC said it was treating them "very seriously" and following them up with the UOSSM and Syrian authorities

This is also not a claim we have seen any evidence for. However, Syrian troops have infamously placed snipers on roofs of hospitals, shelled hospitals, raided hospitals and arrested patience, and have otherwise forced most of Syria's medical care underground.

2010 GMT: Yemen. Another assassination - a military intelligence officer was killed today in the capital city, Sana'a:

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Suicide Car Bomb Kills More than 50 Regime Troops

2205 GMT: Bahrain. EA's John Horne reports:

The Bahrain government has revoked the citizenship of 31 Bahrainis who are members of the opposition. The individuals include opposition leader Dr Saaed Shehabi, former AlWefaq MPs Jalal Fairoz and Jawad Fairooz, academic Abdulhadi Khalaf, and Ali Mushaima, the son Hussan Mushaima, leader of Haq and current political prisoner. In a statement published by Bahrain State media, listing the names, the Interior Minister claims it was done on grounds of "state security".

Bahrain expert Marc Owen Jones notes that Twitter account @7areghum tweeted the names before state media:

In true #Bahrain style, cyber vigilante @7areghum tweets list of 31 activists deprived of citizenship before the state news agency does

— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) November 6, 2012

This is a concerning return to the worst of last years repression. In a recent article, Owen Jones noted that the @7areghum account was still active, despite it being cited in the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry report:

Trolling in Bahrain has became so severe that a report commissioned to investigate human rights abuses in the country last year actually mentioned it. In particular, it focused on the actions of @7areghum, a Twitter account that “openly harassed, threatened and defamed certain individuals, and in some cases placed them in immediate danger”. The legal experts charged with compiling the report concluded that @7areghum broke Bahraini law and international law. Despite this, the Bahrain government do not appear to have asked the US government to subpoena Twitter to release information about the account.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Talks and Declarations as 234 Die on Sunday

2131 GMT: Bahrain. EA's John Horne reports:

Amidst calls for an independent investigation, the Bahrain government has blamed the opposition for the reported bombings. Minister for Information Sameera Rajab said that the attacks "are due to religious fatwas issued by some religious figures who haven't ceased inciting violence against civilians and policemen". This is a likely - if false - reference to Sheikh Isa Qassim, spiritual leader of AlWefaq, the largest opposition society. The Interior Minister implied that the deaths were an end to any possible dialogue between the regime and the opposition:

What happened was a terror act and major part of our work focuses on chasing those terrorists. Negotiation couldn't be carried out with terrorists and talks couldn't take place within this violence.

In a statement, AlWefaq condemned the incidents, adding that it is its "fixed stance to refuse violence". They also demanded "independent parties" to investigate this and previous incidents, as well as "to allow credible media and human right organizations to take part in presenting the truth to the public".

2125 GMT: Bahrain. Images, broadcast by State TV, of the victims of today's bombings:

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Syria Video Analysis: A Beginner's Guide to the Spread of the Insurgency

Joseph Holliday of the Institute for the Study of War explains how he tracks the spread of the insurgency through international media, YouTube videos, and Facebook pages:

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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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Better-Armed Insurgents Step Up Pressure on the Regime

Claimed footage of insurgents using a T-55 tank to attack regime forces near Taftanaz in northwest Syria

See also Kuwait Feature: A Moment of Truth for the Country?
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Deaths from the Air

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2035 GMT: Kuwait. An indication of the size of the demonstration tonight:

Emerging pictures from Kuwait protests. Attendance estimates up to 200,000. Cannot confirm yet. twitter.com/MoAlsuwaidan/s…

— Mohammad Alsuwaidan (@MoAlsuwaidan) November 4, 2012

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Deaths from the Air

Bahraini police arrest Said Yousuf Almuhafda of the Bahrain Center of Human Rights on Friday

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2125 GMT: Egypt. About 1000 activists rallied in Cairo on Saturday demanding an end to brutality in Egyptian prisons and calling for a ban on torture in the new Constitution.

Aida Seif al-Dawla, of the El Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, told the crowd near the Ministry of Interior that the group has documented 150 cases of torture in the 100 days since President Mohamed Morsi took office in June.

"Oh martyrs rest in peace, the struggle continues," chanted the demonstrators, who hung posters showing the disfigured faces and bodies of torture victims.

The protest commemorated the death of Essam Atta, a young Egyptian whose family said he was tortured to death by authorities in October last year while held in Torah prison south of Cairo.

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Syria Feature: War Within a War? The Tension between the Free Syrian Army and Kurdish Militias (Solomon)

Claimed footage of Free Syrian Army attack on Kurdish rally in Ashrafiyeh in Aleppo, 26 October

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After a week of clashes between anti-government rebels and Kurdish militants in Syria's Aleppo province, the two sides are observing a tenuous truce.

It is a war within a war which neither side wants.

"We want to fight the regime and instead we are fighting a new front that we don't need or have time for," said a fighter of the rebel Free Syria Army, warming himself over a fire on a on a mountain overlooking olive groves and stone villages.

"We should be in Aleppo fighting, instead we are camping."

The situation exemplifies the tangle of alliances, loyalties and rivalries -- local and international --- complicating the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Bickering Begins Over "New Opposition Council"

2011 GMT: Syria. As of an hour ago, the Local Coordination Committees were reporting that 133 people have been killed so far today:

42 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its Suburbs; 32 in Deir Ezzor; 20 in Aleppo; 15 in Idlib; 8 in Lattakia;8 in Homs; 7 in Daraa; and 1 in Hama.

See our note on the casualty figures posted by the LCC.

That number will increase, possibly substantially, before the end of the day. Heavy shelling campaigns have been reported into the night, and the LCC now reports that even beyond this, the bodies of 25 people have been found in a basement in Aleppo.

The casualty figures have risen to the level that they were at before the ceasefire. Even during the ceasefire there was barely a letup in the number of deaths. For the civilians, it's only getting worse, and despite FSA victories across the country, there is no sign that the regime will fall any time soon.

1944 GMT: Syria. A Safe World for Women reports that a young female blogger, Fatima Khaled Saad, originally tortured while detained by the regime, has died of her wounds.

Fatima was a part of a network of civilian journalists, as many others did, she adopted a different name, and was known among her circle as Farah El Rayes.

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EA Audio: James Miller on Opposition Leadership & Failure of Ceasefires

On Monday, EA's James Miller spoke with Monocle 24 about the breakdown of the Eid ceasefire. The conclusion - ceasefires will not work, and the violence inside Syria's capital is becoming asymetric and increasingly dangerous as a result of air raids, battles, and car bombs. This is a direct link to the audio, which starts after the 1 hour 10 minute mark.

This morning, James spoke to Monocle 24 about Hillary Clinton's attempts to create a new transitional Syrian opposition leadership. We discuss Clinton's strong language, her disappointment at the direction of the Syrian National Council (SNC), and the possible direction of both the Syrian opposition leadership and the US involvement in the conflict. The conversation starts at the 6 minute mark.

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