Syria Live Coverage: Airstrikes Continue Around Damascus

Photo: AFP1942 GMT: Fighting Near Border with Lebanon.

NOW Syria reports from the border village of al-Qasr, just inside Lebanon, where insurgent fire hit for the first time:

Al-Qasr [did not] feel like a place hit by lethal rocket fire just two days ago. Despite an army statement Sunday declaring its increased presence in the area, there wasn’t so much as a routine checkpoint impeding our entrance. In the village center, all shops were open; adults and children alike going about their business as usual. It could have been anywhere in the Beqaa.

Except, of course, for the two crumbled walls near the main mosque, results of an unprecedented series of rockets fired Sunday by Syrian rebels that, for the first time, left one resident dead and up to nine injured (another was killed by the same attack in Hosh al-Sayyid Ali, a nearby village on the Syrian side of the border). The blood of 23-year-old Ali Hassan Qataya, light brown by now, still spans the width of the street where he died.

“He was just visiting,” said a local resident who did not give his name. “He lived in Beirut, and came here to visit his fiancée.”

Why, then, was Qataya killed? The Syrian National Coalition, the opposition body recognized by over a dozen countries as the representative government-in-exile, said Monday that “the Free Syrian Army was forced to respond to [the] repeated aggressions” of Hezbollah, whom it accused of carrying out “military operations on Syrian territory.”

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Syria Live: "We Are Stronger Than Those Who Would Divide Us"

Protest in Kafranbel in Idlib Province on Friday

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1945 GMT: Airstrike. Graphic footage has been posted which claims to be of people trying to put a fire, including burning victims, after an airstrike on Jobar in Damascus.

1915 GMT: Insurgents and "Al Qa'eda". The opposition Syrian National Coalition has chided Jabhat al-Nusra leader Abu Mohammad al-Golani for praising the ideals of Al Qa'eda head Ayman al-Zawahiri while emphasising that JAN is fighting with and for the Syrian people:

The Coalition views with utmost concern recent statements made regarding the Syrian people and the rebels....We urge Jabhat al Nusra to stay within the ranks of nationalistic Syrians, to continue its efforts in fighting the Assad regime, and in supporting and protecting the freedom of all Syrian sects.

Other factions within the insurgency have also criticised the al-Golani statement.

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Syria Video Discussion: The Divisions In the Opposition (Al Jazeera English)

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A discussion on Al Jazeera English's Inside Syria of the state of the opposition....

After the initial set-up of last week's recognition by the Arab League of the opposition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, the programme gets to the core issue of what exactly that opposition is --- amid the resignation of Moaz al-Khatab as head of the Syrian National Coalition, the tension over the Coalition's election of Ghassam Hitto as Prime Minister-designate, the Free Syrian Army's criticism of the Coalition and the Muslim Brotherhood, and the wider question of the relationship between opposition inside and outside Syria.

Amr al-Azm, a US-based professor, sets the challenge early on: "Decisions [on the ground] have already been made and are being carried out, irrespective of whether this opposition forms a government or not."

The other panellists are Najib Ghadbian, a representative of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces in the UN, and Robin Yassin-Kassab, a novelist and commentator.

Syria Live Coverage: The Opposition Opens an Embassy

1607 GMT: Rebels Attack Base in Daraa. The rebels have continued their assault against the home of the regime's Battalion 49 just west of Alma, in Daraa province (map). As you can see from the map below, made by @stApexf of Twitter, the base is north of a group of recently captured bases and is in an area of disputed territory:

View Map of Daraa in a larger map

This area is extremely important. Just months ago, the amount of blue or green territory here was almost non-existent. In fact, the regime was so strong that it would have been hard to call any of the area "yellow" or disputed. An influx of new fighters from other areas of Syria, new defectors from Daraa province, and new rebel recruits have helped change this dynamic. Perhaps more important, rebel fighters have also returned to this area after receiving training in both Jordan, and possibly Idlib province....

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Syria Live Coverage: The Arab League Recognises the Opposition

1545 GMT: Riot in Turkish Camp. The Turkish police have disrupted a protest in a Syrian refugee camp today. The Guardian reports:

Turkish police have fired water cannon and teargas at Syrian refugees after a fight broke out in a refugee camp in Akcakale.

Turkey's Today's Zaman said refugees had thrown stones and damaged property. It said the protest came after a child was killed in a tent fire. Three others were injured.

1452 GMT: Opposition Opens Embassy - in Qatar. Following the Arab League's recognition of the Syrian National Coalition as the sole representatives of the Syrian people, the opposition group has opened it's first embassy - in Qatar. Qatar has been militarily supplying the Syrian rebels with arms for about a year (in contrast, the Saudi effort that was endorsed by the US did not start until December 2012), and Qatari-linked elements in the opposition have gained power on both Syria's streets and in the membership of the Syrian National Coalition. This is perhaps another sign that the opposition leadership is most willing to deal with countries that are willing to assist the opposition militarily.

Also, it's interesting to see that Moaz al Khatib attended the ribbon cutting himself:

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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 Analysis: An Opposition in Disarray

Moaz al-KhatibThe reasons for the in-fighting and divisions may be unclear --- the supposed explanations are more extensions-by-rumour of the in-fighting, rather than measured analysis --- but the effect is more than evident.

Even as key players in the international community have been moving aggressively, albeit behind the scenes, to consolidate support for a political and military challenge to the Assad regime, the stark question --- which was always there, but which elevated itself on Sunday --- remains:

Who represents that opposition?

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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

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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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Syria Live Coverage: Damascus Suicide Bomb Kills 42, Including Top Cleric

2022 GMT: Evening Protests. In Al Raqqah, the regime is rapidly fading into memory as protesters take to the streets tonight:

1955 GMT: Rebels Advance in Aleppo. The rebels are successfully pushing deeper and deeper into southern and western Aleppo. Rebels have now captured an important mosque in the Saleh el Dine district (map). Videos showed the rebels capturing ammunition that was apparently stored inside the mosque by nearby fighters.

Below is a playlist of several videos showing rebel fighters advancing in Saleh el Dine and elsewhere today:

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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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