• Both sides in Syria commit war crimes including murder, torture, UN says

    Aamir Qureshi / AFP - Getty Images, file

    A Syrian woman hold her injured son in a taxi as they arrive at a hospital in Aleppo on Feb. 8.

    By Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters

    GENEVA -- A United Nations investigation has concluded that both sides in Syria's civil war have committed war crimes, including murder, torture and the use of children in battle, and investigators said Monday that Syrian leaders they had identified should face the International Criminal Court.

    The investigators urged the U.N. Security Council to "act urgently to ensure accountability" for the violations in the conflict, which has killed an estimated 70,000 people since a revolt against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011.

    "Now really it's time. … We have a permanent court, the International Criminal Court, who would be ready to take this case," Carla del Ponte, a former ICC chief prosecutor who joined the U.N. team in September, told a news briefing in Geneva.

    The inquiry, led by Brazilian Paulo Pinheiro, is tracing the chain of command to establish criminal responsibility.

    AP Photo / Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

    In this frame grab from amateur video taken Nov. 1 and provided by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a man said to be a rebel gunman steps on a captured soldier in Saraqeb, northern Syria.

    "Of course we were able to identify high-level perpetrators," del Ponte said, adding that these were people "in command responsibility … deciding, organizing, planning and aiding and abetting the commission of crimes."

    She said it was urgent for the Hague-based war crimes tribunal to take up cases of very high officials but did not identify them, in line with the inquiry's practice.

    Del Ponte, who brought former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to the ICC on war crimes charges, said the ICC prosecutor would need to deepen the investigation on Syria before an indictment could be prepared.

    Pinheiro, noting that the Security Council would have to refer Syria's case to the ICC, said: "We are in very close dialogue with all the five permanent members and with all the members of the Security Council, but we don't have the key that will open the path to cooperation inside the Security Council."

    Karen Koning AbuZayd, an American member of the U.N. team, told Reuters it had information pointing to "people who have given instructions and are responsible for government policy, people who are in the leadership of the military, for example."

    The inquiry's third list of suspects, building on lists drawn up in the past year, remains secret. It will be handed over to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay when its mandate expires at the end of March, the report said.

    Pinheiro said the investigators would not speak publicly about "numbers, names or levels" of suspects, adding that it was vital to pursue accountability for international crimes "to counter the pervasive sense of impunity" in Syria.

    'Mass killing'
    The investigators' latest report, covering the six months to mid-January, was based on 445 interviews conducted abroad with victims and witnesses, as they have not been allowed into Syria.

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    "The ICC is the appropriate institution for the fight against impunity in Syria. As an established, broadly supported structure, it could immediately initiate investigations against authors of serious crimes in Syria," the 131-page report said.

    Pillay, a former ICC judge, said on Saturday that Assad should be probed for war crimes and called for outside action on Syria, including possible military intervention.

    Government forces have carried out shelling and air strikes across Syria including Aleppo, Damascus, Deraa, Homs and Idlib, the U.N. report said, citing corroborating satellite images.

    "In some incidents, such as in the assault on Harak, indiscriminate shelling was followed by ground operations during which government forces perpetrated mass killing," it said, referring to a town in the southern province of Deraa where residents told them that 500 civilians were killed in August.

    'A crime against humanity'
    "Government forces and affiliated militias have committed extra-judicial executions, breaching international human rights law. This conduct also constitutes the war crime of murder. Where murder was committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, with knowledge of that attack, it is a crime against humanity," the U.N. report said.

    Those forces have targeted bakery queues and funeral processions to spread "terror among the civilian population."

    "Syrian armed forces have implemented a strategy that uses shelling and sniper fire to kill, maim, wound and terrorize the civilian inhabitants of areas that have fallen under anti-government armed group control," the report said.

    Government forces had used cluster bombs, it said, but it found no credible evidence of either side using chemical weapons.

    Rebels fighting to topple Assad have committed war crimes including murder, torture, hostage-taking and using children under age 15 in hostilities, the U.N. report said.

    "They continue to endanger the civilian population by positioning military objectives inside civilian areas," and rebel snipers had caused "considerable civilian casualties," it said.

    "The violations and abuses committed by anti-government armed groups did not, however, reach the intensity and scale of those committed by government forces and affiliated militia."

    Related:

    'Full-on crisis': 5,000 refugees flee Syria daily, UN says

    After almost 2 years, Assad allows UN aid into rebel-held areas

     

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  • Heavy fighting breaks relative lull in Damascus

    Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

    A Free Syrian Army fighter throws a hand grenade inside a Syrian army base during fighting in Damascus on Sunday.

    By Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Reuters

    Heavy fighting erupted in and around Damascus on Wednesday as rebels battled President Bashar Assad's forces, breaking a lull in the conflict, opposition activists and Syrian state media said.

    Assad's forces also came under attack in the east of the country, where a suicide car bomb struck a military intelligence compound in the city of Palmyra, causing dozens of casualties, they said.

    Authorities in Damascus closed the main Abbasid Square and the Fares al-Khoury thoroughfare as fighters attacked roadblocks and fortifications with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.

    Accounts of intense fighting were reported by a number of news agencies, including Al Arabiya News and The Associated Press, in addition to state and activist media.

    "The areas of Jobar, Zamalka, al-Zablatani and parts of Qaboun and the ring road have become a battleground," activist Fida Mohammad said from the district of Qaboun.

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    Another activist said an army tank stationed at the main al-Kabbas roadblock on the ring road had been destroyed. Residents reported explosions across the east and north of the capital.

    In Jobar, a working-class Sunni Muslim area adjacent to Abbasid Square, mosque speakers chanted "God is Greatest" in support of opposition fighters who attacked roadblocks in the neighborhood, activists said.

    They said tanks stationed on the edge of the central district of Midan, just outside the walls of Old Damascus, shelled southern districts of the city.

    Syrian state television said: "Our noble army is continuing its operations against the terrorists in Irbeen, Zamalka and Harasta and Sbeineg, destroying the criminal lairs."

    Assad's symbols of power came under attack in Palmyra, 140 miles northeast of Damascus, on the main road to the oil-producing east of the country.

    A bomb destroyed part of the back wall of the military intelligence compound near the Roman-era ruins in the city and then a suicide car bomber drove through, detonating the vehicle and destroying parts of the facility, activists in Palmyra said.

    They said it was not immediately clear how many people had been killed in the blast and clashes which followed. Video footage, which could not be immediately verified, showed a large cloud of thick smoke rising in the city.

    "The first car bomb struck at around six in the morning. The second one, which caused the larger explosion, broke through into the compound 10 minutes later," activist Abu al-Hassan said from the city.

    He said tanks stationed in the compound fired shells in response into an adjacent residential neighborhood, killing several civilians.

    Roadblocks across the city also came under attack.

    The state news agency said two "suicide terrorists" blew up cars packed with explosives near a garage in a residential district, killing and wounding several people. Among those killed was a woman, it said.

    Street demonstrations against Assad's rule erupted in Palmyra at the beginning of the revolt almost two years ago. But the army has since tightened control of the city, which is situated near a major oil pipeline junction.

    After a failed uprising in the 1980s led by the Muslim Brotherhood against the rule of Assad's father, the late President Hafez Assad, thousands of rebels were executed in a military jail in Palmyra.

    Related:

    ANALYSIS: Israel's airstrike likely to complicate Syria crisis

    Full Syria coverage on NBCNews.com

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  • France launches 'tough' ground offensive against Mali's Islamist rebels

    Eric Feferberg / AFP - Getty Images

    Malian people watch as a French armored vehicle leaves Bamako to begin deploying to the north of Mali as part of the "Serval" operations on Wednesday.In a joint offensive launched with Malian soldiers on Jan. 11, France is using air and ground power to defeat a militant Islamist group controlling the north of the country.

    By Bate Felix and Alexandria Sage, Reuters

    BAMAKO, Mali — French troops launched their first ground operation against Islamist rebels in Mali on Wednesday in a crucial action to dislodge al-Qaida-linked fighters who have resisted six days of airstrikes.

    France called for international support against Islamist insurgents it says are a threat to Africa and the West and acknowledged it faced a long fight against well-equipped and determined militant fighters who seized Mali's vast desert north last year.

    After Islamist threats to exact revenge for France's dramatic intervention, an al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility for a raid on a gas field in Algeria in a number of foreign workers were believed to have been kidnapped.

    A column of French armored vehicles moved into position on Tuesday at the town of Niono, 190 miles from the capital Bamako. With the Malian army securing the northern region near the Mauritanian border, Islamist fighters were encircled in the nearby town of Diabaly.

    French army chief Edouard Guillaud said his ground forces were starting their campaign against the alliance of Islamist fighters, grouping al-Qaida's North African wing AQIM with Mali's home grown Ansar Dine and MUJWA militant movements.

    After tripling its number of troops to help stop Islamist fighters advancing on Mali's capital, the French president has pledged to stay in Mali until stability has returned. Meanwhile, A UK transport has arrived and thousands of African troops are on the way. ITV's Rohit Kachroo reports from Mali's capital

    "In the coming hours — but I cannot tell you if it's in one hour or 72 hours — yes, of course we will be fighting them directly," he told Europe 1 radio.

    In Niono, a resident reported seeing French and Malian troops in armored vehicles heading toward Islamist rebel lines. Fighting was reported in Diabaly but it was not immediately clear if French ground forces were involved.

    Human shields
    Guillaud said French military strikes were being hampered because militants were using the civilian population as a shield.

    "We categorically refuse to make the civilian population take a risk. If in doubt, we will not shoot," he said. Residents who fled Diabaly confirmed the Islamists had used the towns inhabitants to protect themselves in recent days.

    French fighter jets, meanwhile, struck the headquarters of the Islamic police in Niafunke, a small town on the Niger river near the ancient caravan route of Timbuktu, residents said.

    Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian acknowledged that France faced a difficult operation, particularly in Western Mali where AQIM's mostly foreign fighters have camps.

    "It's tough. We were aware from the beginning it would be a very difficult operation," Le Drian said.

    French President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday French forces would remain in Mali until stability returned to the West African nation. Hollande said France hoped, however, to hand over to African forces in its former colony, "in the coming days or weeks."

    The conflict in Mali raised concerns across mostly Muslim West Africa of a radicalization of Islam in the region. In Senegal, a traditionally moderate Islamic country, President Macky Sall warned citizens to be vigilant for attacks.

    Al-Qaida-linked Islamist rebels in Mali have promised to drag France into an Afghanistan-style war. They've launched a counteroffensive after four days of French airstrikes on their northern strongholds. There are reports the Islamists have seized control of Diabaly a town 250 miles north of the capital Bamako. Jonathan Miller Channel Four Europe reports.

    "We must be on the watch in our towns and villages because infiltrations are taking place," he said in a speech on Tuesday. "You will hear foreign preachers talking in the name of Islam. You must denounce them to authorities."

    The fighting in Mali, a landlocked state at the heart of West Africa, has displaced an estimated 30,000 people. Hundreds have fled across the border into neighboring Mauritania and Niger in recent days.

    "We were all afraid. Many young fighters have enrolled with them recently," said Mahamadou Abdoulaye, 35, a truck driver who fled from the northern Gao region of Mali into Niger. "They are newly arrived, they cannot manage their weapons properly. There's fear on everybody's face."

    Additional reporting by Tiemoko Diallo and Adama Diarra in Bamako, Lamine Chikhi in Algiers, Alexandra Hudson in Berlin; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by David Lewis and Giles Elgood

    Related stories:
    French to send 1,000 more troops to Mali; US playing supporting role
    ANALYSIS: Why France is taking on Mali extremists
    Al-Qaida-linked fighters destroy 'end of the world' gate in Timbuktu

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  • France bombs rebel strongholds in northern Mali

    According to military sources and witnesses, more than 100 people, including rebels and government soldiers, were killed during an air assault by French forces. MSNBC's Thomas Roberts reports.

    French fighter jets pounded an Islamist rebel stronghold in northern Mali Sunday as Paris poured more troops into the capital Bamako.


    France is determined to end Islamist domination of north Mali, which many fear could act as a base for attacks on the West and for links with al-Qaida in Yemen, Somalia and North Africa.

    The attack on Gao, the largest city in the desert region controlled by the Islamist alliance, marked a decisive intensification on the third day of French air raids, striking at the heart of the vast territory seized by rebels in April. The rebels have occupied the northern two-thirds of the poor West African country.

    Upward of 200 rebels have reportedly died in the firefight. Malian authorities said 11 soldiers were killed during a battle in Konna, and about 60 others were wounded.

    Nicolas Vissac / ECPAD via AFP - Getty Images

    A handout photo released by the French Army shows a French military preparing a Mirage 2000D fighter plane at the French military base of N'Djamena, Chad.

    France has deployed about 550 soldiers to Mali for “Operation Serval” – named for an African wildcat. France is leaning on African nations to also contribute troops for an operation that the United Nations has stressed should be “African-led, African-owned.”

    Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara immediately pledged 3,300 African soldiers. Former French colonies Senegal, Niger and Burkina Faso have all pledged to deploy 500 troops within days.

    Algeria, which shares a northern border with Mali, has allowed France to make full use of its airspace, said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. Fabius said he was grateful for Algeria’s support given that the country’s leadership have pushed for a political solution over a military intervention, worried that al-Qaida militants and refugees would be pushed into southern Algeria.

    The United States is considering sending a small number of unarmed surveillance drones to Mali as well as providing logistics support, a U.S. official told Reuters. Britain and Canada have also promised logistical support.

    As fighting took place in the north, Bamaka was calm, with the sun streaking through the dust enveloping the city. Some cars drove with French flags draped from the windows to celebrate the French intervention.

    Hundreds of Malians lined up to donate blood destined for their troops locked in a fierce battle against Islamist rebels occupying the northern two-thirds of the poor West African country.

    The road ahead could be hugely expensive and last months, not weeks, warned Reuben Brigety, one of the U.S. State Department’s leading officials for Africa.

    "A massive, massive undertaking," he said when he spoke at London’s Chatham House in late October. "That is incredibly difficult terrain; it's a vast expanse. It will take a long time to take and hold."

    -- Reporting by Reuters' reporters Bate Felix, Chine Labbe, John Irish, William Maclean, Catherine Bremer, Lamine Chikhi, Adama Diarra, Tiemoko Diallo, Rainer Schwenzfeier, Joe Bavier, Leila Aboud, Phil Stewart.

     


  • Syria activists: Several die after Assad's forces use 'poisonous gases'

    By Ayman Mohyeldin, NBC News

    CAIRO -- Several Syrians have died after inhaling poisonous gas released by government forces in rebel-held districts of Homs, local eyewitnesses and activists claimed Monday.

    Civilians were admitted to hospital with serious breathing problems after Sunday’s attack, according to doctors and groups who posted what they said was video of the aftermath to YouTube.


    The gas is thought to have been a concentrated irritant, but not one of the deadly chemical weapons stockpiled by the regime of Syria president Bashar Assad.

    Claims by either side in Syria’s bitter civil war are almost impossible to independently verify because journalists are rarely allowed access to the country.

    Pesticide poisoning?
    Mousab Azzawi, chairman of the London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights and a doctor, told NBC News that his organization had received reports from three eyewitnesses on Sunday.

    He said field doctors in Homs were seeing patients “losing consciousness, experiencing severe shortness of breath and vomiting.”

    “To our understanding, this is similar to poisoning with pesticide,” he said, although he was not aware of any pesticide that could take the form of a gas.

    Airstrike kills dozens of Syrians trying to buy bread, activists say

    Azzawi added that they were “very concerned and deeply worried” that the attack might be a sign that Assad’s regime might use chemical weapons “on a very small scale.”

    Walid Fares, spokesman for the Homs Revolutionary Council -- part of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, the umbrella organization recognized by more than 100 countries including the United States -- issued a statement to NBC News on Monday.

    It said “poisonous gases” came from shells fired by government tanks in the districts of Al Bayada and Al Khalideya.

    In Syria's Aleppo, 'We're starving. I can bear it but what about my children?'

    “The shells did not explode but rather emitted a cloud of white smoke and it landed in residential areas… where revolutionaries had gathered and which led to tens being injured,” the statement said.

    It said symptoms included “complete absence of vision” as well as nausea, lost consciousness and severe breathing difficulty.

    “The initial analysis of the doctors in the hospital confirmed that it is a poisonous gas that contains banned substances,” the statement added, citing videos that claimed to show patients being treated.

    'This isn't the first time'
    It said there were seven deaths as of early Monday - naming six of the victims - and close to 50 injured.

    A third group, the Local Coordination Committees - a network of local opposition councils across Syria - told NBC News: "The LCC has not yet confirmed what the substance was, but doctors in Homs are confirming the use of toxic gases. This isn't the first time; residents of Homs and Zabadani were reporting the use (confirmed) of white phosphorus months ago.”

    Two YouTube videos showed patients being treated in hospital for the symptoms of a gas attack. In one, a doctor says in Arabic that the gas is “definitely not Sarin” but is “definitely” poisonous.

    US officials: Syria loads chemical weapons into bombs; military awaits Assad's order

    Earlier this month, President Barack Obama warned Assad that the use of chemical weapons by his regime would be "totally unacceptable." "If you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons there will be consequences and you will be held accountable," he said.

    The alleged gas attack came hours after a senior Israeli defense official said he believed Syria's chemical weapons were still secure despite the civil war.

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    Amos Gilad told Army Radio that the both sides had become deadlocked but there was no sign of Assad heeding international calls to step down, according to a Reuters report.

    "Suppose he does leave, there could be chaos ... in the Middle East you never know who will come instead. We need to stay level-headed; the entire world is dealing with this. At the moment, chemical weapons are under control," Gilad said.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Syria fires more Scud missiles at rebels; NATO chief condemns Assad regime

    Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters

    Damage such as this, seen Friday in Aleppo, has been frequently blamed on Syrian fighter jets firing missiles at rebels. The military is now firing Scud missiles, as well, NATO says.

    By NBC News staff and wire services

    President Bashar Assad's military has fired more Scud missiles inside Syria, NATO officials said on Friday, more than a week after the Western alliance first detected such arms being used on rebel targets.

    "I can confirm that we have detected the launch of Scud-type missiles. We strongly regret that act," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said, calling the launches "acts of a desperate regime approaching collapse."

    A NATO source said there had been multiple launches of Scud-type missiles inside Syria on Thursday morning.

    The Syrian military has fired Scud missiles at rebel forces in the north from the Damascus suburbs. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

    On Dec. 12, U.S. officials confirmed to NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski that the Assad government had been launching the missiles at rebel fighters in the north of the country. The officials said that as many as eight Scud missiles had been fired over several days from launchers in the suburbs surrounding Damascus at areas considered rebel strongholds. According to one official, the United States has tracked the Scuds by radar.

    Rasmussen used the Scud launches to justify NATO's decision to dispatch Patriot anti-missile systems to NATO ally Turkey — a deployment criticized by Syria, Iran and Russia.

    "The fact that such missiles are used in Syria emphasizes the need for effective defense protection of our ally Turkey," he told reporters after talks at NATO headquarters with Djibouti Prime Minister Dileita Mohamed Dileita.

    "The recent launch of missiles has not hit Turkish territory, but of course there is a potential threat and this is exactly the reason why NATO allies decided to deploy Patriot missiles in Turkey, for a defensive purpose only," he said.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • In rare interview, Syrian vice president says neither side can win

    An attack by Syrian fighter jets kills at least 25 in a Damascus mosque, opposition activists say, hours after the deputy foreign minister tells Channel 4 News the government is not targeting civilians. Warning: This report contains some distressing images.

    By NBC News wire services

    BEIRUT -- Syria's longtime vice president said Sunday that his regime and the rebels are both going down a losing path after 21 months of civil war, a rare admission by a top government official that President Bashar Assad's victory is unlikely.

    Martyn Hayhow / AFP - Getty Images, file

    Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shara'a, pictured in this Oct. 18, 2004 file photo of a press conference in London.

    The comments by Farouk al-Sharaa came as an Islamist faction of Syrian rebels captured an infantry base in the northern city of Aleppo, and Syrian warplanes blasted a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, killing eight people and wounding dozens, activists said.

    Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim in a power structure dominated by Assad's Alawite minority, has rarely appeared in public since the revolt erupted in March 2011. 

    Al-Sharaa told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar that neither the rebels nor the Assad regime can "decide the battle militarily." It appeared to be an attempt to show that the rebels are not the solution to the Syria conflict, and their victory might bring chaos to the country.

    PhotoBlog - Destruction and resistance: Window into war-torn Syria

    Balancing that, he said the Assad regime "cannot achieve change."

    The solution to the conflict must come from within Syria, al-Sharaa said, adding that any political settlement "must include stopping all types of violence, and the creation of a national unity government with wide powers."


    It was far from clear that Sharaa's comments represented the view of the government.

    But he is still the most prominent figure to say in public that the crackdown will not win. The paper, which generally takes a pro-Assad line, said Sharaa had been speaking in Damascus.

    Excerpts of the interview were posted on Al-Akhbar's English-language website late Sunday. The full interview will be published on Monday, the newspaper said.

    War in the capital
    In the first phase of the 21-month-old civil war, which has claimed at least 40,000 lives, Damascus was distant from the fighting.

    The ancient, once-bustling city has been devastated by war and even health clinics are forced to operate in secrecy to avoid being bombed. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    Rebels have now brought the war to the capital, without succeeding in delivering a fatal blow to the government. 

    Assad regime losing control of Syria to rebels, his key ally Russia says

    The Assad regime has long rejected Western involvement in the civil war and has called for talks with the opposition. Most rebel groups refuse to meet with Assad, demanding his removal from power before laying down their arms.

    Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed an order that sends Patriot missiles to NATO ally Turkey to defend its border with Syria. The US will also deploy about 400 Americans to operate the missiles. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    Last week more than 100 nations, including the U.S., recognized the new Syrian opposition council as the legitimate representative of the country, a boost for the opposition forces that have been bombing regime targets in and around Damascus, once an impregnable stronghold of the Assad regime.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Assad regime losing control of Syria to rebels, his key ally Russia says

    The ancient, once-bustling city has been devastated by war and even health clinics are forced to operate in secrecy to avoid being bombed. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    By NBC News wire services

    Syria's most powerful ally, Russia, said for the first time Thursday that President Bashar Assad is losing control of his country and the rebels might win the civil war.

    While Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov gave no immediate signal that Russia would change its stance and agree to impose international sanctions on Assad's regime, his remarks will likely be seen as a betrayal in Damascus, The Associated Press reported.


    Russia's assessment could further strengthen the hand of the rebels, who have made some significant gains in their offensive, capturing two major military bases and mounting a serious challenge to Assad's seat of power, Damascus.

    "We must look at the facts: There is a trend for the government to progressively lose control over an increasing part of the territory," Bogdanov, the Foreign Ministry's point man on Syria, said during hearings at a Kremlin advisory body, the Public Chamber, according to the AP.

    "An opposition victory can't be excluded," he added.

    Destruction and resistance: Window into war-torn Aleppo

    NATO also predicted Assad's fall, with Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen saying the regime's collapse is "only a matter of time."

    "In general, I think the regime in Damascus is approaching collapse. I think now it's only a question of time," he said.

    Russia mulls evacuating its citizens
    Bogdanov's statement marks a clear attempt by the Kremlin to begin positioning itself for Assad's eventual defeat.

    He said that Russia is prepared to evacuate thousands of its citizens from Syria, although he didn't say when that might happen.

    At the same time, Bogdanov reaffirmed Russia's call for a compromise, saying it would take the opposition a long time to defeat the regime and Syria would suffer heavy casualties.

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    "The fighting will become even more intense, and you will lose tens of thousands and, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of people," he said.

    "If such a price for the ouster of the president seems acceptable to you, what can we do? We, of course, consider it absolutely unacceptable,” he added.

    Syrian forces have fired Scud missiles at rebels, US officials say

    Bogdanov repeated that Russia would stick to an agreement reached in Geneva in June calling for negotiations involving the government and the opposition.

    Russia has joined with China at the United Nations Security Council to veto three resolutions that would have imposed sanctions on Assad's regime over its bloody crackdown on the uprising that began in March 2011.

    Moscow also has continued to provide the Syrian government with weapons despite strong international protests.

    The Syrian military is now firing Scud missiles at rebel forces in the north from the Damascus suburbs -- and so far at least two of the Scuds have landed in civilian neighborhoods. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

    'The moment of collapse'
    Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of the magazine Russia in Global Affairs, told the AP that Bogdanov's statement marked an effort by Russia to position itself for the fall of its ally.

    "It's better to talk about it now than keep saying until the moment of collapse that things remain under control," he added.

    Obama says US recognizes Syrian opposition coalition

    The statement may also reflect new information about the situation on the ground received by the Kremlin, he told the AP.

    "A public statement like that appears to indicate that the balance is shifting," Lukyanov added.

    Asked if and when Russia is going to evacuate its embassy in Syria, Bogdanov said that the "moment hasn't come yet."

    He added that the Foreign Ministry is looking at possible evacuation plans for thousands of Russian citizens, most of whom are Russian women married to Syrian men and their children.

    "We have plans for any occasion," Bogdanov said.

    He said that "half of them support the opposition," adding that Syrian opposition delegations that have visited Moscow have included some Russian citizens.

    The Interfax news agency said that if the government decides to evacuate Russians from Syria, it could be done by ships escorted by the Russian navy and by government planes.

    Tens of thousands trapped in city
    Meanwhile, the humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres said Wednesday that fighting in Syria had trapped tens of thousands of people in the city of Deir al-Zor and there was urgent need for medical teams to be authorized to evacuate the wounded, Reuters reported.

    Deir al-Zor has become one of many urban battlegrounds in the 20-month-old revolt against Assad in which more than 40,000 have died. With daily army shelling and routes cut off by fighting, many residents are trapped.

    "MSF appeals for international and impartial medical assistance to be officially authorized by the government and for such assistance to be respected by all parties of the conflict," the group said in a statement. 

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • View from northern Syria: Rebels control countryside, open roads

    Fuel is in short supply in Syria, and bread costs 20 times what it did several months ago. Still, the rebels are advancing. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    NORTHERN SYRIA -- Syrian rebels who were in control of swathes of the countryside north of the key city of Aleppo told NBC News on Sunday they were besieging a large base full of government soldiers. 

    Rebels told NBC News producer Ghazi Balkiz that a large government base nearby was under attack. "We can hear bombs going off right now," he said.  


    "In this area, the rebels control the countryside and open roads, and the Syrian army only controls the bases and the skies," he said on the telephone from an area north of the country's commercial capital.  "In a 20-mile radius there are three bases, and the rest is controlled by rebels."

    A Syrian army soldier who had defected to the rebels told NBC News that morale among the pro-Assad forces was very low. 

    The NBC News team in Syria did not release details of its exact location for safety reasons. 

    The news of rebel advances came after a newly formed joint command of rebel groups said it had chosen a former officer to head a new Islamist-dominated command. This was part of a Western-backed effort to put the opposition's house in order as President Bashar Assad's army takes hits that could usher his downfall.

    The rebel groups chose Brigadier Selim Idris, one of hundreds of officers who have defected from Assad's army, as its head, opposition sources in Turkey said on Saturday.

    Idris, whose home province of Homs has been at the forefront of the Sunni Muslim-led uprising, was elected by 30 military and civilian members of the joint military command after talks attended by Western and Arab security officials in the Turkish city of Antalya.

    Nearly two years into the civil war in Syria, 41,000 people have been killed. Although the rebels have more control now, they fear chemical warfare. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    The unified command includes many with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and to Salafists, who follow a puritanical interpretation of Islam. It excludes the most senior officers who have defected from Assad's military. 

    Syria rebels warn civilians Damascus airport is now a 'legitimate target'

    Rebel advances
    On the Damascus battlefront, Assad's forces used multiple rocket launchers on Saturday against several suburbs that have fallen to rebels who have fought their way to the edge of the city's international airport, where foreign carriers have suspended all flights. 

    Rebels, who have overrun several army bases near Damascus over the last month, appeared to be holding their ground, encircling a main military base in the northeastern suburb of Harasta, known as "idarat al markabat," near the main highway to Aleppo, according to opposition campaigners.

    "The fighters made slight progress today. They captured a weapons depot and got to a tank repair facility in the base, but all 20 tanks inside were inoperational," Abu Ghazi, a rebel who was speaking from the area, told Reuters. 

    "The weather cleared and MiG fighters hit rebel positions around the base. Rocket launchers did not stop for the last three days. The site is crucial for the regime," he added. 

    Indeed, the state of the weather is key for rebels, according to NBC News' Balkiz.

    "The rebels love it when it is overcast (because) aircraft can't bomb because they don't have the visibility," he said.

    Slideshow: Syria uprising

    /

    A look back at the violence that has overtaken the country

    Launch slideshow

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Syria rebels warn civilians Damascus airport is now a 'legitimate target'

    Rebels say they have momentum capturing heavy weapons from the Syrian army and are closing in on Damascus, but the entire region is still bracing  for what could be a very violent end to one of the Middle East's most entrenched regimes. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    By NBC News wire services

    Syrian rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad said Friday that Damascus International Airport was now a "legitimate target” and warned civilians going there did so "at their own risk."

    The announcement comes as fighting between Assad's troops and rebels intensified near the airport just south of the capital.

    Clashes in the area forced the closure of the airport road for the second time this week.


    The fighting has also forced the suspension of commercial flights in the past week.

    Two fighters operating in the capital's southern suburbs said the rebels were trying to besiege the airport in an attempt to cut military supplies to the regime. The two spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

    Endgame for Assad?
    Western opponents of Assad suggested that an endgame was approaching in the 20-month-old conflict that has killed 40,000 people.

    "Events on the ground in Syria are accelerating, and we see that in many different ways," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said before talks on Thursday with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia, which has backed Assad.

    "The pressure against the regime in and around Damascus seems to be increasing," Clinton said in Dublin.

    Related content:

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    US officials: Syria loads chemical weapons into bombs; military awaits Assad's order
    Syria regime 'reeling, armed to the teeth' with chemical weapons
    More weapons in Syria could trigger 'all-out war'
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    Syria's government says that is not the case, and that the army is driving rebels back from positions in the suburbs and outskirts of Damascus where they have tried to concentrate their offensive.

    NBC's Andrea Mitchell weighs in on what's the next move diplomatically in response to Syria's chemical weapons threat as Russia agrees to explore the option of moving to an interim government without Syria's President Assad. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    Many who have followed the events on the ground say talk of an endgame is overblown or premature.

    "I think it's unreasonable to expect that the battle is in its last stages right now," said Rami Abdelrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has tracked the fighting since it began in March 2011.

    "The big advances are only in the media. The situation is certainly not good, for anyone. The Syrian economy is dead. But conditions for the rebels are not good either. ... Rebel-held parts of Aleppo are barely eating and are always at risk of army shelling,” he added.

    "It is true however that the regime is withdrawing from many areas ... and the regime is being exhausted," he told Reuters.

    Airport 'under siege'
    Cutting access to the airport —just 12 miles from the city center — would be a symbolic blow. The rebels acknowledge it is still in army hands.

    "The rebel brigades who have been putting the airport under siege decided yesterday that the airport is a military zone," said Nabil al-Amir, a spokesman for the rebels' Damascus Military Council. "The airport is now full of armored vehicles and soldiers."

    International concerns are mounting about Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, many of which are believed to be stored in war heads that could be fitted on hundreds of scud missiles, in artillery shells and in air-dropped munitions. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    "Civilians who approach it now do so at their own risk," he said.

    Fighters had "waited two weeks for the airport to be emptied of most civilians and airlines" before declaring it a target, he added.

    He did not say what they would do if aircraft tried to land. A rebel spokesman on Thursday said fighters would not "storm the airport but we will blockade it."

    Foreign airlines have suspended all flights to Damascus since fighting approached the airport in the past week, although some Syrian Air flights have used the airport in recent days.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Colombia army: At least 20 FARC guerrillas killed amid peace talks


    By Reuters

    BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombian forces have killed at least 20 Marxist FARC guerrillas in air and ground attacks near the border with Ecuador, an army general said Monday, the deadliest strike against rebels since the latest peace process started.

    Despite talks to end 50 years of war, Colombia's government has vowed to keep up military operations even while the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, called a two-month ceasefire as the two sides try to hash out a deal.

    Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is hoping a decade of U.S.-backed blows against the FARC has left the group sufficiently weakened to seek an end to the war.

    In the most deadly attack since the two warring sides started negotiations in mid-October, an airstrike followed by a ground assault on three FARC camps in the southwestern Narino department killed at least 20 rebels late Sunday.

    An end to war? Colombian government seeks peace with FARC rebels

    "On the strength of the attack we found human remains that are in the process of being identified. We're talking about more than 20 dead, but the figure could be higher," Gen. Leonardo Barrero, head of the Joint Command Southwest, told Reuters.

    Barrero said that security forces have so far been able to identify six of the bodies.

    Narino is a microcosm for a range of problems facing Colombia -- weak government presence, drug production, poverty, and the presence of guerrillas and new criminal gangs that sometimes fight, sometimes become allies.

    Ingrid Betancourt, a former senator and presidential candidate in Colombia, was abducted by FARC guerrillas and spent more than six years in captivity. She speaks about surviving the ordeal and her new book, "Even Silence Has an End."

    Colombia 'milestone' as FARC frees captives after over a decade

    'Months, not years'
    Peace talks, which are taking place in Cuba, are trying to tackle some of the root causes of the conflict such as agrarian development, drugs, political participation of opposition groups and victims' reparations.

    Santos said at the weekend that the discussions should not drag on for too long and said they must be completed by November next year or earlier. The rebels have said they would remain at in negotiations as long as necessary.

    French journalist captured by FARC after being dropped into jungle

    After a short break from the first round of discussions in Havana about rural development, negotiating teams are expected to resume talks this week.

    Both sides have said negotiations were going as expected.

    "Last night I met with my negotiating team. The balance of the first meeting was positive. No one is thinking about modifying timeliness. Months, not years," Santos said Monday in a message to his 1.4 million Twitter followers (in Spanish).

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Syrians risk lives in battle to protect nation's ancient sites

    Zain Karam / Reuters

    A damaged ceiling is pictured in Bab Antakya district of Aleppo, Syria, on October 2, 2012. Aleppo's Old City is one of several World Heritage Sites in Syria that are considered at risk.

    By Alastair Jamieson, NBC News

    Editor's note: This story includes a correction.

    Updated at 9:15 a.m. ET: Even as civil war tears the nation apart, it seems Syrians can agree about one thing: The need to protect the country’s antiquities and World Heritage Sites that represent thousands of years of human history.

    Rebel fighters and ordinary citizens are risking their lives to document the damage being done to Syria’s ancient treasures and museums, according to Western monitors.


    Now Bashar Assad's regime has joined in. Maamoun Abdul-Karim, director general of antiquities and museums, has launched a campaign, called "MySyria," (in Arabic) asking communities to help protect the nation’s cultural heritage from the civil strife.

    All six World Heritage Sites have now suffered damage as the conflict widens, according to Emma Cunliffe, a volunteer monitor for the non-profit Global Heritage Fund.

    One of oldest cities
    Destruction includes heavy looting of temples and tombs in the trade city of Palmyra and a devastating fire in the medieval souk in Aleppo, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in human history.

    World heritage body UNESCO has led the outpouring of international concern. Aleppo dates back to the 10th century B.C. and the present city is deemed to have "Outstanding Universal Value," by UNESCO.

    Reuters, file

    Demonstrators protest against Syria's President Bashar Assad in the ancient city of Palmyra on November 18, 2011.

    "Pictures and video evidence gathered by people on the ground shows the extent of the damage and prove that none of these sites are now safe from the conflict," said Cunliffe, a postgraduate student at Britain's Durham University.

    'Emergency red list' targets Syria's looted treasures

    Looting, which led to the theft of many of Iraq's national treasures during the conflict that deposed Saddam Hussein, is also a risk in Syria.

    "Large gangs of men turned up at Iraqi sites, totally overwhelming the protection, and looted on a vast scale. If that starts to happen in Syria there will be problems because there's little that can be done about it,” Cunliffe said.

    More Syria coverage from NBC News

    She said each side in the conflict blamed the other for damage to ancient buildings, but it was not easy to verify the claims.

    Cunliffe said many people in Syria made films showing the damage being done to ancient sites.

    She said that one man “who uploaded most of the videos of the damage to the citadel of Qal'at al-Madiq in January to April stopped uploading when the government took the citadel/village in April. I have assumed the worst.”

    Slideshow: Syria uprising

    Osman Orsal / Reuters

    A look back at the violence that has overtaken the country

    Launch slideshow

    New 'intelligence' body set to fight illicit trade in world's priceless treasures

    Abdul-Karim hopes to encourage Syrians to prevent the war from causing permanent damage.

    “The war in Syria has hit ... all aspects of life, including antiquities considered the common heritage of all Syrians, regardless of their thoughts or political alliances, whether loyalists or opposition,” Abdul-Karim told news website Al Akhbar following the campaign's launch.

    He said there was also evidence of antiquities being smuggled out of the country.

    'A loss to human civilization'
    Dan Thompson, director of global projects at the Global Heritage Fund, said that there was little that could be done until the fighting stopped.

    A Cluster Bomb reportedly dropped by Syrian government warplanes has killed up to 10 children as they played in a village on the outskirts of Damascus. Warning: There are distressing images. ITV's Bill Neely reports.

    “The continuing damage and destruction of World Heritage Sites and other national antiquities in Syria during the present conflict is not only a loss to human civilization, but also greatly reduces the socio-economic potential these sites offer to local communities and the country as a whole,” he said in a statement.

    "At present, unfortunately, the most anyone can do is to closely monitor and publicize the devastation … and plead for both sides to respect the country’s cultural heritage, as UNESCO has done."

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