Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Intervention is Here

A funeral in the Khalidiaya section of the Syrian city Homs --- the six victims are wrapped in shrouds because there are no coffins left amidst the deaths and regime siege

See also Syria Special: Intervention is Coming --- So How Should It Be Done?
Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Meeting in Tunis

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1800 GMT: One of the protests at today's funerals in Aleppo, Syria's second city (see 1148 GMT):

An anti-regime protest in Taibat Imam, Hama Province today:

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Syria Special: Intervention is Coming --- So How Should It Be Done? (Hirsh and Slaughter)

Claimed footage of a firefight in Homs on Friday between regime forces and the Free Syrian Army

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Friday's developments, both in public and behind the scenes, indicated that international intervention is not just on the way for Syria --- it has already begun. On Monday, an EA analysis assessed the options, concluding that arming the opposition could do more harm than good but that a no-fly zone protecting both insurgents and civilians might be possible.

Two new analyses pick up on this. Michael Hirsh writes how history indicates the US and Western Europe will eventually intercede in the crisis, so we should do it sooner rather than later. Anne-Marie Slaughter analyses how the world could intervene in Syria in order to stop the Assad regime.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Meeting in Tunis

Shelling of the Baba Amr section of Homs in Syria this morning

See also Syria Feature: Asking Again, "Will Aleppo Rise?"
Bahrain Feature: The Long Tentacles of the Regime's PR Octopus
Sudan 1st-Hand: Protests and Raids at the University of Khartoum
Thursday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Deaths of The Journalists

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2142 GMT: The Local Coordination Committees of Syria are now reporting that 97 people have been killed today nationwide, including victims of two "massacres."

Two massacres were committed while the Friends' of Syria Conference being held The Syrian regime committed two new massacres today in Homs and Hama; where the number of martyrs in Hama reached 30 in two separate massacres and the number of martyrs in the Khaldieh massacre in Homs reached 33. The number of martyrs in Syria today is 97 so far in different cities. The Local Coordination Committees regrets the world's inability to stop the regime's brutal violence, which is increases steadily and kills more innocent Syrian victims every day

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Syria Feature: Asking Again, "Will Aleppo Rise?" (BSyria)

Students demonstrate at Aleppo University on Thursday

See also Syria Feature: Will Aleppo Rise? (27 June 2011)

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Aleppo's dismal reputation among Syria's revolutionaries is slowly changing. The regime's hold on the city has been increasingly challenged: Recent Fridays have witnessed sizeable protests, and the residents of the lower-income neighborhoods of Fardous, Marjeh, and Sakhour are taking to the streets regularly.

Aleppo is also becoming increasingly violent. Assad's security forces shot dead 13 people in the city last Friday, according to local activists -- on par with the number of fatalities in other hotspots. On Feb. 10, twin car bombings targeting Aleppo's Military Intelligence bureau killed 28 people. The growing Free Syrian Army presence in the areas around the city is also making it hard for Aleppo to remain a bystander to the revolution.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Deaths of The Journalists

The award-winning photograph from Libya by Remi Ochlik, who died on Wednesday in Syria

See also Journalism Feature: Marie Colvin Remembered --- "To Report These Horrors of War With Accuracy and Without Prejudice"
Syria Video Feature: Life and Death in Homs
Wednesday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Death of A Journalist

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2140 GMT: In Palmyra in Syria, a cameraman films a man firing a rocket-propelled grenade, which strikes far too close for comfort:

2120 GMT: Back from a break to find the report of the Local Coordination Councils of Syria that 101 people, including 14 children, died across the country today --- 47 in Idlib Province, 26 martyrs in Hama, nine in Deir Ez Zor, seven in Daraa, five in Quneitra, four in Homs, two in Raqqa, two in the Damascus suburbs, and one in Aleppo.

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Journalism Feature: Marie Colvin Remembered --- "To Report These Horrors of War With Accuracy and Without Prejudice"

Marie Colvin, Chechnya, 1999

Our mission is to report these horrors of war with accuracy and without prejudice. We always have to ask ourselves whether the level of risk is worth the story. What is bravery, and what is bravado?

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Syria Video Feature: Life and Death in Homs (Mani/Channel 4)

Britain's Channel 4 presents the coverage of life and death in Homs in Syria by French photojournalist "Mani":

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Death of A Journalist

Marie Colvin, the journalist for The Sunday Times killed in Syria today, speaks to CNN on Tuesday about the death of a baby in Homs

See also Bahrain 1st-Hand: US Activist Radhika Sainath "Joining the Protests, Being Detained"
Syria Feature: Homs --- Dying Without Food, Medicine, or Supplies

Syria Special: Points to Consider When Arming an Opposition
Tuesday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "A City of Torture"

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2015 GMT: In Idlib in Syria, a gunman fires in the direction of the cameraman who screams, "Damn it, that was right beneath me!":

Protesters at Aleppo University raise the Syrian "Flag of Independence" today:

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Syria Special: Points to Consider When Arming an Opposition

The Free Syrian Army in Idlib Province

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A no-fly zone, one that targets Assad's tanks and artillery --- even if it is only over parts of the country --- would diminish the threat that the Syrian military poses to both the civilian population and the Free Syrian Army. That no-fly zone would provide for transport of humanitarian aid into(and possibly injured civilians out of) the country. This area would also become a base of operations for the Free Syrian Army to gather strength without fear of reprisal from the air or from the ground. Most importantly, this option would introduce little in the way of additional weapons. In effect, a no-fly zone, one that also targeted the heavy weaponry of the Assad regime, would allow Syrians to determine Syria's fate.

This would be no small task, and would likely amount to open war with the Assad regime. However, arming the opposition, without supporting it from the air, would also sentence thousands or tens of thousands of soldiers --- on both sides of the conflict --- to their deaths without effectively dismanteling Assad's primary threat and without supplying safe harbour for civilians caught in the crossfire.

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Syria Feature: Homs --- Dying Without Food, Medicine, or Supplies (Damon and Korouny and Lee)

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Last week "Sammy", an activist in Homs, concluded an interview with EA's James Miller, "I do not know what the world is waiting for. Is it a terrorist group, or a revolution?....At least they need to send relief, to help the humanitarian situation. We need humanitarian aid."

This morning we post two videos and an article about the situation inside Syria's besieged city. At the top of the entry, CNN's Arwa Damon reports from Baba Amr in Homs on the lack of food and other essentials and the efforts to get supplies to the population.

Below, Mariam Korouny writes for Reuters about the crisis, and Al Jazeera English posts a video report by Laurence Lee about the deaths and shortages.

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