Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Unavoidable Change on the Ground

See also Saturday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 10,000s March Outside Manama

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2128 GMT: Yemen. At least eight people have been killed by a US drone strike on two vehicles in Radaa in the centre of the country.

"Five were killed and eight injured and we are still investigating who these men are and in what way they were linked to al Qaeda," one official said.

Three women were also killed in the strike, a local tribal chief claimed. He said that the strike had targeted Abdulraouf al-Dahab, a local al-Qaeda leader, but that it failed to kill him.

Some tribesmen and military officials said that no fighters had been killed in the air strike, in which 14 civilians, including three women and three children, died. The officials said Sunday's airstrikes were based on faulty intelligence that the passengers were al-Qaeda members.

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Iran Snapshot: Head of State TV Admits Mis-Translation of Egyptian President's Speech on Syria (Press TV)

Head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Ezzatollah Zarghami, has accepted a mistake in the translation of the Egyptian president’s address to the 16th Summit of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran.

“The shortcoming was only in the one case of translating the name for Syria into Bahrain in one of the [IRIB] television channels,” Zarghami said on Sunday. He added that, while Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was addressing the summit, a technical mistake occurred during the IRIB Channel 1’s live broadcast of the speech and therefore another translator was replaced, who made the mistake.

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Iran Interview: Ali Larijani on the Nuclear Issue, Syria, and Detained Opposition Leader Mousavi (Slavin)

While in Tehran to cover the Non-Aligned Movement's summit, Barbara Slavin of Al Monitor spoke with Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani.

Larijani's line on Iran's nuclear programme is the expected one. So is his assurance that sanctions are not hampering the Islamic Republic and his appeal to leave Syrian President Bashar al-Assad alone.

What may be more interesting is Larijani's effective declaration that opposition figure Mir Hossein Mousavi --- held under strict house arrest, without criminal charge, for 18 1/2 months --- will remain in limbo.

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Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 10,000s March Outside Manama

Friday's mass march in Bahrain

See also Syria 1st-Hand: A Wanted Activist Restarts His Work from Washington
Will Israel Attack Iran? --- Daniella Peled and Scott Lucas on Monocle 24
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Insurgents Seize the Initiative

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2201 GMT: Syria. AFP reports on prisoners released today by the regime:

As they emerged from police headquarters in the Syrian capital on Saturday, several of the prisoners being set free had nothing on but their underwear, many were barefoot, and others had their heads shaven.

The backs of some still bore the tell-tale marks of beatings, while others had swollen limbs. Many had been missing for weeks or even months.

Civil servant Basil, 31, told AFP he had been on his way home with his wife and son to Zamalka, a rebel-held town northeast of Damascus, when the security forces arrested him because his ID card was broken....

Before they were freed from a stench-filled room in the police headquarters -- the detainees had been unable to wash ever since they were thrown into jail -- the men being released were made to fill out and sign a form.

"I declare that I was set free from police headquarters in Damascus on September 1, that I regret my action, and that I pledge not to take part in any more unauthorised demonstrations," the declaration stated.

Across the country, a total of 267 were released on Saturday, the authorities said. Of that number, 158 were set free from the Damascus police HQ.

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Syria 1st-Hand: A Wanted Activist Restarts His Work from Washington (Williamson)

For many asylees who come to the United States, their political engagement dries up as they lose their connections with home and struggle to earn a living. But Washington, with its think tanks and politically engaged expat communities, offers more opportunities for involvement for people like Nakhla, who is still deeply entrenched in the war in Syria.

For eight months, through the auspices of the institute, Nakhla has been putting together "The Day After", a nongovernmental organization that connects Syrian dissidents worldwide to develop a blueprint for what should happen once al-Assad is ousted. The NGO is funded mostly by the State Department, with additional funding from some European governments and NGOs.

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Iran Propaganda 101: Press TV Re-Arranges Ban Ki-Moon's Words

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On Thursday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon addressed the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran. Press TV did not cover the speech. Instead it used Ban Ki-Moon's press conference today --- rewriting the translation on its own video --- to claim, "UN Censures West’s Threats Against Iran's Nuclear Energy Program".

A comparison of the Press TV account and what Ban Ki-Moon said on Thursday....

NUCLEAR ISSUE

Press TV: “I have condemned the threats by any member state to destroy or delegitimize another. I have reminded the leaders...throughout the world to lower the volume and stop the provocation that can lead the area down a slippery slope of conflict."

Ban Ki-Moon: "For the sake of peace and security in this region and globally, I urge the Government of Iran to take the necessary measures to build international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear programme."

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Insurgents Seize the Initiative

2035 GMT: The perfect illustration of the dangers of being a cameraman in Syria - claimed video from Al Bab, north of Aleppo:

1910 GMT: Syria. Activist Hama Echo reports that fighting continues to intensify in Deir Ez Zor:

Fierce clashes taking place around the Hamdan military airport in Deir Ezzor. [DPN] It's a staging area for Assad's troops and artillery.

—   (@HamaEcho) August 31, 2012

The Free Syrian Army appears to be gradually (even painstakingly) advancing. Despite the superior firepower of the Assad army, the regular army does not appear to have the manpower or the will to successfully defend the eastern provinces. The question is whether the FSA's lack of logistical support will force it to retreat before they finally break through Assad's line. Time will tell, but this news may be sign that a new offensive is under way, and it's worth monitoring in the next few days.

1832 GMT: Syria. While we've yet to find video of a downed helicopter in Sarmeen (see updates below), we've found several reports of protests there. This video, and another, reportedly show today's crowds:

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Iran, Syria, and the Non-Aligned Summit: 5 Questions and Answers

Ban Ki-moon Said Iran should have an important role in the solution of Syria crisis. What is your opinion? Can Syria be settled down without Iran’s involvement? Why？

Ban Ki-Moon's attitude is similar to that of Egyptian President Morsi, with the added condition that Iran must stop giving military assistance to the Assad regime.

There is no political resolution of Syrian crisis, with or without Iran, at this point. The regime is committed to defeating insurgents; insurgents are committed to fall of Assad.

Instead, the planning is over what form of aid should be given to insurgents, including a possible "buffer zone" in Syria, and over a transitional government.

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Syria Feature: Insurgents Fighting With A Hodge-Podge of Weapons (Chivers)

Photo: Bryan Denton/New York TimesWorking together and at the urging of antigovernment fighters, local businesses and tradesmen have organized into a network engaged in making weapons, in part by delegating different tasks among the various trades. Some shops concoct explosives and propellants, a job that one organizer, Ahmed Turki, said had best been accomplished by a local painter with experience mixing chemicals. Others, who have electricians’ skills, wire together the circuits for makeshift bombs.

Machinists and metallurgists assemble rockets and mortars, as well as the bodies for mortar and artillery shells or the large cylinders often used to hold the charges in roadside or truck bombs. (These men also manufacture truck mounts for machine guns captured from government forces; one novel design included using a disc brake from a motorcycle to arrest the movement of the weapon as its operator adjusts the gun’s elevation.)

Still others remove the propellant from captured tank and artillery rounds, which is then repurposed in the rebels’ arms.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Assad Says, "The Situation on the Ground is Better"

2134 GMT: Syria. US journalist Austin Tice is still missing in Syria, and his news agency, McClatchy, has released a statement that it is now believed that Tice is in the custody of the Assad regime:

Statements in recent days by Czech diplomats, information from Syrian rebel supporters and reports from people inside Syria indicate that the 31-year-old Houston native, who contributed to McClatchy Newspapers, The Washington Post and CBS News, was detained by Syrian government forces near the Damascus suburb of Daraya, his last known location.

The U.S. State Department says the Syrian government has not responded to inquiries about Tice that were made through official channels and that U.S. diplomats were “working through our Czech protecting power in Syria to get more information on his welfare and whereabouts.” A Syrian official in the United States declined to comment Thursday...

On Monday, the Czech ambassador to Syria, Eva Filipi, told a Czech television interviewer in Prague that “sources” had informed her mission that Tice was in detention, though further information had been hard to come by because of an Islamic holiday at the time. The Czechs, who oversee U.S. interests in Damascus because the U.S. closed its embassy there in February, sent a formal diplomatic note about Tice to Syrian counterparts, she said.

“Our sources report that he is alive and that he was detained by government forces on the outskirts of Damascus, where the rebels were fighting government troops,” Filipi said in response to a question about Tice. “Our additional steps were halted by the fact that the report came at the beginning of the final holidays of Ramadan and therefore we had a week off in Syria and some our contacts were not in Damascus.”

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