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Syria: Army retakes Damascus suburbs - Monday 30 January
• 'At least 37 killed' as violence continues
• Russia tries to set up peace talks in Moscow
• Read a summary of today's key events
• Read more: Army digs in after retaking Damascus suburbs
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Welcome to Middle East Live. It was a bloody weekend in Syria. Here's a summary of the main developments.
• Troops seized back eastern suburbs of Damascus from rebels late on Sunday after an unprecedented operation that saw around 2,000 troops and at least 50 tanks and armoured vehicles flood the area, according to activists. An activist named Kamal, in the eastern al-Ghouta area on the edge of the capital, told Reuters:
The Free Syrian Army has made a tactical withdrawal. Regime forces have re-occupied the suburbs and started making house-to-house arrests.
Maher al-Naimi, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army of defectors fighting Assad's forces, appeared to confirm that account:
Tanks have gone in but they do not know where the Free Syrian Army is. We are still operating close to Damascus.
The Guardian's Luke Harding writes:
The unprecedented operation appears an attempt to regain the initiative from the rebels, who have grown increasingly bold in recent weeks. The BBC's Middle East correspondent, Jeremy Bowen, discovered the FSA openly manning roadblocks in Damascus last week, just 30 minutes away from Bashar Al-Assad's presidential palace.
The insurgency, which is still raging in towns and cities across Syria - with further protests in Aleppo on Sunday — has now definitively reached the capital.
The Washington Post says the regime "is looking weaker than at any point during the past 10 months", according to analysts, in an article written before the army reportedly seized back the Damascus suburbs:
Assad still holds the loyalties of the security forces, particularly the officer corps drawn mostly from his own Alawite sect. Diplomats in Damascus suspect, however, that defections among the rank and file are accelerating faster than had previously been thought, as soldiers deployed without leave on low pay for nearly a year find themselves drawn to the revolt.
A ceasefire agreement under which security forces were forced to withdraw from the town of Zabadani, 20 miles west of Damascus, leaving it in the hands of the Free Syrian Army, came about in large part because the government feared soldiers would defect in large numbers if they were forced to keep attacking the city, according to activists in the town and diplomats.
"In Syria, looking weak is a dangerous thing, and if they can't control the Damascus suburbs, they do look weak," said a western diplomat.
• Activists said that more than 60 people were killed on Sunday, many of them in the Damascus suburbs. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 27 civilians were killed Sunday, most of them in fighting in the Damascus suburbs and in the central city of Homs, a hotbed of anti-regime protests. Twenty-six soldiers and nine defectors were also killed, it said. The soldiers were killed in ambushes that targeted military vehicles near the capital and in the northern province of Idlib. The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCCs) said 64 people were killed nationwide, including 16 in the Damascus suburbs (it does not include army deaths). Saturday was even bloodier, according to the LCCs, which reported 98 deaths. The LCCs' reports cannot be independently verified.
• The increase in violence came after the Arab League suspended its widely-criticised monitoring mission on Saturday, citing the "critical deterioration of the situation in Syria and the continued use of violence". The League's chief, Nabil Elaraby, flew to New York on Sunday to try to win support on the UN security council for his peace plan, designed to end the violence through political means. Syria has categorically rejected the Arab League's plan as "foreign interference". A draft resolution echoing the Arab League plan - which would see Assad step down in favour of his vice-president and allow free and fair elections - could be put to the vote in New York this week, but there were indications that Russia, Syria's closest strategic ally and key military supplier, would block it.
9.22am: The Local Co-ordination Committees, which report on protests in Syria, say there has been renewed shelling in the Damascus suburbs today.
They report explosions in Maleiha and Saqba. The LCCs also say Rankous, 20 miles north of Damascus, which has been under tank fire since Wednesday according to activists, has suffered renewed shelling with several homes destroyed.
The reports can not be independently verified.
The US-based Syrian exile Ammar Abdulhamid has blogged that attacks on the apparatus of the Assad regime "will become part of daily life in Damascus and its suburbs":
Some reports claim that a major attack on the General Headquarters of Air Force Security near Damascus' own Tahrir Square in Central Damascus did take place. Others speak of an attack on the local police station of Naher Eisheh in Old Damascus. There have also been reports of clashes between loyalists and rebels in Rabweh Region to the northwest of Damascus. Security forces did open fire on protesters in Jobar neighbourhood in the eastern parts of Damascus. The neighbourhood is practically an in-city extension of Eastern Ghouta Region.
Still Assad loyalist troops have managed [to re-establish] their presence in various communities in Eastern Ghouta and Qalamoun, but this is far from re-establishing control. Rebels simply don't have enough arms and ammunition for direct head-on combat at this stage. Mounting guerilla warfare, on the other hand, is a different matter. Indeed, and for the foreseeable future, attacks on loyalist troops and security headquarters, checkpoints and convoys will become part of daily life in Damascus and its suburbs in tandem with loyalist crackdown, killings and detentions.
Activists have posted video footage purporting to be of the assault on the Damascus suburbs on Sunday.
This video of troops walking alongside a tank was reportedly filmed as they entered Ain Terma.
This purports to show shelling of Irbin.
The New York Times has a picture gallery of Rankous, 20 miles north of Damascus, near the Lebanese border, which has been under siege from government troops since Wednesday, according to activists.
The Syrian state news agency, Sana, reports that "an armed terrorist group" has attacked a gas-pipeline running from Homs to Banias, near the border with Lebanon.
There have been a number of attacks on pipelines since the Syrian uprising began in mid-March with the government consistently blaming armed terrorist groups. The Assad regime says such groups are behind the violence that has engulfed the country since protests began.
Sana also claims that an armed terrorist group killed a doctor in Homs "in the framework of targeting the Syrian medical, technical, and technological expertise".
Update 10.07am: The Local Co-ordination Committees claim that the doctor, Mostafa Safr, was killed by the Assad regime because he "contributed in the treatment of the wounded in the revolution".
Neither Sana's claims nor the LCCs' can be verified.
In the Financial Times, Roula Khalaf writes that Saudi Arabia is becoming an increasingly significant player in the international community's response to events in Syria:
By withdrawing Saudi members from the team of Arab monitors, a decision that was quickly followed by other Gulf states, and by calling for "all possible pressure" on Damascus and holding a meeting in Cairo with the Syrian opposition, the prince dealt a blow to a mission he deemed a failure and injected momentum into stalled diplomacy ...
Saudi Arabia has now given fresh ammunition to western allies at the UN security council to push back against Russia, which has so far blocked action. The Arab League is asking the security council to adopt a peace plan that calls on Mr Assad to give powers to a vice-president and form a national unity government ...
"The substance of what is being offered and the fact that it is the Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, that are doing the engagement gives a window of opportunity to turn the Russians around," says Salman Sheikh, analyst at the Brookings Doha Centre.
Photograph: Str/AFP/Getty Images The Syrian opposition has claimed that Bashar al-Assad's British-born wife Asma, tried to flee the country with help from the security forces. From the Jerusalem Post:
The sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm that "a convoy of official vehicles was seen heading to the airport in Damascus", before they were intercepted by brigades of army defectors.
According to the source, there was a heavy exchange of fire, which prevented the family's escape, who then returned to the presidential palace.
We cannot confirm this report.
Mrs Assad has been criticised by many for staying silent during the bloodshed in Syria, while Vogue magazine was also condemned for a gushing profile of her - later taken down - entitled "A Rose in the Desert", which praised the Assads as "wildly democratic".
She made a rare public appearance with her children at a rally in Damascus earlier this month (above left). But in today's Times, Martin Fletcher says her views on what is happening in the country remain a mystery (paywall).
A Saudi newspaper recently claimed that she had intervened to help some employees of one of her charities who were arrested for joining an anti-government demonstration. In September she reportedly summoned some aid workers to find out what was really happening in Homs, although she apparently remained expressionless when they told her. A family friend told a Syrian source based in London that she "wasn't sleeping at night because she's so worried".
Of course, it is possible that living in relatively peaceful Damascus and being surrounded by regime stalwarts, Mrs Assad really believes the regime's propaganda about the opposition being a bunch of armed terrorists. It is possible that she is in denial, especially as she appears to be devoted to her husband and may well believe that he alone can hold his disparate country together. But neither scenario seems likely. "She's too clever — too smart — for that," the Arab commentator says. "She knows everything. She's fully aware," says her former Syrian colleague, who insists that she has full access to the internet and western media. "She's highly intelligent and worldly wise. I find it very difficult to imagine she shares the view that this is a conspiracy of saboteurs and al-Qaida," says a friend of her father's.
Everyone agrees, however, that if she is appalled by the crackdown there is little she can do except plead with her husband in the privacy of their home.
The Syrian Revolution General Commission said this morning that 18 people had been killed by the army and security forces today, eight in the suburbs of Damascus, six in Homs, three in Deraa, and one in Idlib.
Reuters is reporting that "street battles" are taking place in the suburbs of Damascus this morning. Syrian troops have control of Hamouriyeh, according to activists and residents, the news agency writes.
As troops advanced through Saqba, the Free Syrian Army of defectors "mounted scattered attacks".
In Deraa, in the south, residents told Reuters that defectors and government troops were fighting gun battles that had left 20 dead, most of them government troops.
Amar al-Sadeq (a pseudonym), a Damascus-based activist with the Syrian Revolution Co-ordinators Union, says that nine people have been killed in the Damascus suburbs today.
He says the fact that the army has regained control of some of the suburbs is not a concern in itself but the rising death toll is.
This scenario has been repeating itself so many times over the 10 months of the revolution. The army have done this several times before in Homs City, in Idlib, in Hama. They would go in, they would deploy themselves there and make extra checkpoints but they were not able to gain control for many reasons.
The Free Syrian Army use the guerilla-warfare style for the operations and they can really easily mobilise and relocate. They will be able to launch operations on those checkpoints if necessary and the army will not be able to sustain its deployment there for a very long time. What we are afraid for is the civilian casualties ... For example, yesterday 18 were killed [on the outskirts of Damascus], today so far nine were killed, including a child. They would usually retaliate against all the area just for hosting the soldiers who have defected or simply because its an area of protests against the regime.
It hasn't yet reached the centre of Damascus city, it's still in the outskirts even though some of the outskirts are very, very close to the city. It's very significant because the regime can't hide this from the people in Damascus, its loyal people ... It's very significant and we think it's a very critical time for the regime considering the estimated number of 50,000 defected soldiers all around the country.
Sadeq also commented (off tape) on the reports that Bashar al-Assad's wife has tried to flee the country (see 10.30am). He said he could not confirm the reports but said it was "very likely for Assad to send his family away at this stage".
Russia seems to have begun its moves to block or slow the progress of a UN security council vote on the Arab League plan for Bashar al-Assad to step down as Syria's president, Reuters reports.
Gennady Gatilov, Russia's deputy foreign minister, said that recommendations from the Arab League monitors in Syria should be presented to security council members, including Russia, before there was a "substantive discussion of this issue" by the security council.
Gatilov said:
It would be logical, considering the complexity of this issue, for security council members to be able to study the recommendations and conclusions of the observer mission in detail. Only after that would it be possible to count on a substantive discussion of this issue in the security council.
Nabil Elaraby, the chief of the Arab League, is due to brief security council members tomorrow to seek support for the league's plan. Britain and France want the security council to vote next week on a draft resolution supporting the plan, which would see Assad step down in favour of his vice-president and allow free and fair elections.
On Friday, Gatilov said the draft resolution was unacceptable in its current form and an attempt to rush it to a vote would fail, suggesting Russia might veto it. Assad's resignation must not be a precondition of a peace process in Syria, he said.
Here is a map showing the location of various places in the Damascus suburbs that we have reported on today.
Hamouriyeh - Syrian troops have control, according to activists and residents.
Saqba - The Free Syrian Army mounted "scattered attacks" on government troops as the troops advanced through this area.
Tahrir Square - Some reports claim that there was a major attack on the General Headquarters of Air Force Security near Damascus' own Tahrir Square in Central Damascus over the weekend.
Old Damascus - There are reports of an attack on a police station here over the weekend.
Rabweh - There have also been reports of clashes between loyalists and rebels in Rabweh region to the northwest of Damascus over the weekend.
Jobar - There are reports security forces opened fire on protesters here over the weekend.
Ghouta - There are reports the regime has reoccupied this area and the Free Syrian Army has withdrawn.
Irbin - A video purports to show shelling here.
Rankous - Reportedly under siege by government troops since Wednesday.
The Syrian Electronic Army, a group of web activists loyal to the Assad regime, hacked into al Jazeera's Syria live blog and replaced coverage of protests with pro-government pictures, ars technica reports:
The relationship of the Syrian Electronic Army to the government itself is unclear. However, the group's domain was registered in May of 2011 in Tartous, Syria, and its site is hosted on servers maintained by the Syrian Computer Society — a group Assad was the head of before assuming Syria's presidency, and introduced the internet to Syria in 2001 ...
On their own site, the Syrian Electronic Army announced the "code re-penetration" of the site by a "professional Syrian battalion" of hackers, denouncing al Jazeera for broadcasting "false and fabricated news" to "ignite sedition" among the people of Syria and achieve the goals of "Washington and Tel Aviv.
In September the group hacked Harvard University's website and it is the second time this month it has targeted al Jazeera, according to the report.
Syrian TV has accused al Jazeera of inciting unrest in the country and even of building "cinematic replicas" of Syrian cities and squares in the Gulf state of Qatar in order to fabricate the uprising in Syria.
Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, is to travel to the UN in New York tomorrow to push the security council to pass a resolution on Syria, Reuters reports.
The Local Co-ordination Committees, which report on protests and violence in Syria, have been posting on their Facebook page about people killed in clashes with security forces across the country today.
As we have been discussing in the comments below this blogpost today, none of their claims can be independently verified because of the difficulties in getting permission to report from Syria.
Idlib
The LCCs say a man named as Mohammad Fakher Ghadry was killed by Syrian security forces at a checkpoint in Idlib, in the north of the country.
Homs
In Homs, in the west of Syria, the LCCs list 15 dead so far today, including four children.
They write that security forces and the Shabiha (ghost) pro-Assad militia killed a family of five, named as Mohammad Turki Al-Mohammad, Ebtisam Al-Khodr and their children Amjad, Tahiyat and Ahmad. In addition, they report that a 10-year-old child, Talia Salibi, was killed by a sniper in the Karam Zaytoun area. Bilal Farook Al-Fashkha, 27, was shot dead by a sniper at Karm Shamsham checkpoint, they claim, and Mohammad Nour Dalleh, Ghazwan Al-Naser and Adham Sabsabi were killed by security forces in Qusoor. They write that Zakaria Mohammad Ferzat, 28, was killed in the Rastan area of Homs today. Another, unnamed man, was also killed in Homs today, they write. A defector, Naji Fajr Bashan, was also killed, they write. A doctor who treated "the wounded in the revolution", named as Mostafa Safr, was also killed in Homs, the LCCs write. Also in Homs, Jamal Idris was killed in Baba Amr by "indiscriminate shelling", they say.
Damascus suburbs
Six people have been killed so far today in the suburbs around the capital, the LCCs report.
The LCCs report arrests and raids by security forces and the Shabiha in Hajar Aswad and Hamouriyeh, Damascus, as well as shelling in Hamouriyeh. Five were killed today in Hamouriyeh, they claim, reporting the sounds of "large explosions and violent clashes in different areas in eastern Ghouta".
A demonstration marched for the Grand Mosque in Jobar, chanting about the army's presence in the Ghouta area to the east of Damascus. They post a video purporting to be of students demonstrating in Moadamiya, in the suburbs of the capital.
In Irbin, also in the suburbs of Damascus, "the regime's forces have been attempting to storm the city since the morning from two sides, forcing the residents of Sarout neighborhood to flee," the LCCs claim.
In Zamalka, in the suburbs of the capital, Omar Mohammad Jameel was killed, the LCCs report.
Deraa
In Deraa, in the south of the country, the LCCs say two young men were killed at a checkpoint in Daeel: Marwan Mohammad Taha Shihadat and Mohammad Atallah Al-Ghazzawi. Two others were also killed by security forces, one named as Mohammad Hosain Naeem Ayash. In the Seida area of Deraa, Saeel al-Ghanem was killed by "random shooting", they report.
Three more people were killed in the Deraa area of Harak, they report, one named as Abdelrahman Hariri and one as Bashir Ghbari.
The LCCs post video purporting to be troops and Shabiha arriving in Nasseeb, Deraa, and write that there have been clashes between the Free Syrian Army and the regime's army there.
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES. They also post a video purporting to be of the "martyred" body of a man killed in Herak, Deraa, named as Abdul Rahman Al-Hariri. Another body is also shown.
They post two videos of protest marches in Deraa.
Hama
In Hama, just north of Homs, the LCCs claim the city is at a "complete standstill" after shelling during the night.
This map shows where all of those places are.
Here is a summary of today's key events so far.
• Violence continues in Syria today, with activists reporting over 30 people killed in clashes with security forces today, around half of them in Homs, in the west of the country (see 1.05pm). Fighting also continues in the suburbs to the east of Damascus, the capital, where the army moved in to regain control yesterday. The Free Syrian Army of defectors are regrouping and using guerilla tactics, Damascus-based activist Amar al-Saadiq (a pseudonym) told the Guardian (see 11.45am). He claimed there were 50,000 defected soldiers in the FSA now and said it was "very significant" that the rebellion appeared to be reaching the outskirts of the capital. US-based Syrian exile Ammar Abdulhamid said guerilla attacks on government troops would soon become a part of daily life in Damascus and its suburbs (see 9.34am).
• Russia has begun moves to slow down progress towards a UN security council vote on an Arab League plan that would see Bashar al-Assad step down as president in favour of his deputy (see 11.50am). Britain and France want the security council to vote next week on a draft resolution supporting the plan. The Saudis are seen as being key to changing the Russians' minds (see 9.58am).
• The Syrian opposition has claimed that Bashar al-Assad's British-born wife Asma, tried to flee the country with help from the security forces (see 10.30am). This cannot be verified.
• The Syrian state news agency, Sana, has reported that "an armed terrorist group" has attacked a gas pipeline from Homs to Banias (see 9.50am).
The Syrian authorities have agreed to take part in talks in Moscow mediated by Russia, and Russia hopes the Syrian opposition will also agree take part, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement today, Reuters reports.
But a senior member of the Syrian opposition council told Reuters separately that no invitation had been received from Moscow and that it would be refused anyway.
Moscow has offered to host the talks in an effort to end the violence in Syria that has been going on since protests began against Bashar al-Assad's rule 10 months ago.
Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, is to address the UN security council in New York tomorrow to try to push the Arab League peace plan forward. While not calling for UN sanctions against Damascus, the draft resolution does say that the security council could "adopt further measures" if Syria does not comply with its terms.
State media and the opposition both report violence in Dera'a, in the south of the country,but inevitably with differing narratives.
Sana, the state news agency, says six soldiers, including a colonel, have been killed by "an armed terrorist group while they were in the line of duty".
It says the group attacked a car carrying the soldiers in the Dera'a countryside and in the clash a number of the attackers were injured or killed.
The Local Co-ordination Committees, which report on protests, say there have been clashes between troops loyal to the regime and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Deraa. They accuse the Shabiha (pro-regime militia) and security forces of raids in Deraa. They report the death of one member of the FSA in Deraa and also five civilians (see 1.05pm). Their reports cannot be independently verified.
Earlier, we reported the hacking of al-Jazeera's Syria blog by the Syrian Electronic Army, a group of web activists loyal to the Assad regime (see 12.19pm).
Opposition hackers have also been busy, in their case hacking a Russian government website (bizarrely, it appears to be the website for Russia's embassy in Singapore).
Here is a screenshot of the webpage.
The wording underneath says Russian ammunition is killing Syrian women and children and it says Rusisia is providing "moral support for [the] Syria regime in [the] United [Nations] security council [to] disrupt any solution to protect the Syrian people from the dictator's crimes, which [are] supported by [the] Russian regime".
The Guardian's Syria interactive has been updated to reflect the clashes in the Damascus suburbs.
The first senior military officer to defect during the Syrian uprising has been executed, AFP reports. It quotes the Syrian League for Human Rights as saying:
An air force intelligence unit last week carried out a sentence to shoot dead officer Hussein Harmush.
He appeared on Syrian state television in September "confessing", after his return home in unclear circumstances.
The lieutenant-colonel defected in June with senior members of an army unit responsible for a crackdown in the town of Jisr al-Shighour.
He had been received by Turkish officials but when he disappeared from a refugee camp in September, opposition activists claimed he had been betrayed by his hosts as part of a deal in which he was traded for nine members of the PKK Kurdish militant group.
A video has been posted online of protesters unfurling the Syrian independence flag from a bridge crossing a major road.
Activists say it was filmed at the Mazzeh Highway in Damascus.
Military defectors claim to have destroyed nine tanks and the political security headquarters in al-Rastan, Homs, according to the Local Co-ordination Committees. Homs has been a hotbed of protests against the Assad regime. This video purportedly shows the operation. A tank can be seen bursting into flames. The claims cannot be independently verified.
A blind cleric who is an outspoken critic of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has fled to Jordan, according to a dissident.
Mosque preacher Ahmad al-Sayasneh was smuggled into Jordan on Saturday from the rebellious border town of Deraa through a hilly northern border area devoid of Syrian patrols, said Fadi Abu Mustafa of the Free Syrian Army. Mustafa says Jordanian police are questioning the cleric.
Al-Sayasneh, a Sunni Muslim, preached at Deraa's Omari Mosque, delivering sermons calling for civil disobedience. Syrian dissidents say he was jailed and tortured for his anti-Assad remarks.
Danny Abdul Dayem, a British citizen of Syrian descent who said he was shot in Homs last year, and recalled his experience on BBC2's Newsnight appears to have returned to the restive city.
In this video, purportedly filmed today, he claims to be in the opposition hotbed of Babr Amr.
Smoke can be seen in the background and explosions heard. Dayem says:
"One of the router bombs just landed over there. You can see the smoke ... Over 100 router bombs landed in Babr Amr today."
Another video from today purports to show a farmer being shot at while lying on the ground in Babr Amr.
Reuters quotes Walid al-Bunni of the Syrian National Council as rejecting Russia's plan to host peace talks between the Syrian government and the opposition in Moscow. Al-Bunni said:
We rejected the Russian proposal because they wanted us to talk with the regime while it continues the killings, the torture, the imprisonment.
Here is the Russian foreign ministry statement announcing the talks:
We have received a positive response from the Syrian authorities to our call [to hold talks in Moscow]. We hope ... that the Syrian opposition will agree to that in the next few days, putting the interests of the Syrian people above all other concerns.
Reuters notes: "Moscow's offer of talks may be an attempt to strengthen its arguments against a western draft resolution at the security council supporting an Arab League call for Assad to cede power."
Reuters reports fighting in Deraa today as killing at least 20 people, "most of them government forces", as well as fighting between troops and rebels in Homs.
The Associated Press reports that the Arab League resolution on Syria has the support of at least 10 UN security council members, citing a French official. This means it can go up for a vote.
Egypt's military rulers are considering ways to speed up the transition to civilian rule, including moving up the date for presidential elections, following a series of mass street protests in the past week to commemorate the first anniversary of the uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak, according to the Associated Press.
The Local Co-ordination Committees, which report on protests and violence in Syria, have posted more updates on their Facebook page. These cannot be independently verified.
In Hama, they report heavy shelling and clashes between regime forces and the Free Syrian Army at the Madiq Citadel.
In the Damascus suburb of Mouadamiah, two students were shot when a headteacher called the security forces to report his students demonstrating at his school. The security forces fired live ammunition and nail bombs, the LCCs report.
In the Damascus suburb of Jobar, residents have declared a strike in solidarity with Ghouta in the east, the LCCs report.
In Jabal Zawieh in Idlib, regime forces are shelling a village called Sarja with heavy weapons, the LCCs report, and there are reports that the entire population has fled.
In Homs seven people were killed when a building collapsed after the minaret of a mosque was hit with two artillary shells, the LCCs say. There was "random shelling" of homes using heavy machine guns.
The LCCs also posted videos of various demonstrations around the country.
Here is a summary of today's key events so far.
• Violence continues in Syria today, with activists reporting at least 37 people killed in clashes with security forces today, the majority of them in Homs, in the west of the country (see 1.05pm). Fighting also continues in the suburbs to the east of Damascus, the capital, where the army moved in to regain control yesterday. The Free Syrian Army of defectors are regrouping and using guerilla tactics, Damascus-based activist Amar al-Saadiq (a pseudonym) told the Guardian (see 11.45am). He claimed there were 50,000 defected soldiers in the FSA now and said it was "very significant" that the rebellion appeared to be reaching the outskirts of the capital. US-based Syrian exile Ammar Abdulhamid said guerilla attacks on government troops would soon become a part of daily life in Damascus and its suburbs (see 9.34am).
• Russia claims the Syrian government is ready to attend peace talks in Moscow – but the opposition Syrian National Council has rejected the idea (see 4.19pm). Russia may be attempting to reduce support for a UN security council resolution supporting an Arab League proposal for Bashar al-Assad to step down as president in favour of his deputy and institute free and fair elections. Britain and France want the security council to vote next week on the resolution. The Saudis are seen as being key to changing the Russians' minds (see 9.58am). Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby is to seek support tomorrow for the peace plan.
• The first senior military officer to defect during the Syrian uprising has been executed, AFP reports (see 2.37pm). Hussein Harmush defected in June with senior members of an army unit responsible for a crackdown in the town of Jisr al-Shighour.
• The Syrian opposition has claimed that Bashar al-Assad's British-born wife Asma, tried to flee the country with help from the security forces (see 10.30am). This cannot be verified.
• The Syrian state news agency, Sana, has reported that "an armed terrorist group" has attacked a gas pipeline from Homs to Banias (see 9.50am).
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