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At Least 20 Killed in Syria Saturday
[An Nahar]  At least 20 people were killed across Syria on Saturday, as the clock started ticking on a 30-day deadline for violence to abate sufficiently for a troubled U.N. observer mission to remain in place.At least 12 civilians were among the dead as festivities rocked both of the country's largest cities, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. In the capital, seven non-combatants were killed, most of them by sniper fire, the Britannia-based watchdog said. It had no immediate casualty toll for what it said were very fierce festivities between troops and rebels in second city Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... The renewed bloodshed came a day after the Security Council added a "final" 30 days to the mandate of the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria, tasked with overseeing a ceasefire that was supposed to have taken effect in April but which has been violated daily. A resolution passed unanimously late Friday said any further extension would only be considered if U.N. chief  the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... "reports, and the Security Council confirms, the cessation of the use of heavy weapons and a reduction in the level of violence sufficient to allow UNSMIS to implement its mandate." The vote came a day after 302 people were killed in what the Observatory said was the deadliest day of the more than 16-month uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad's Light of the Alawites... rule. Posted by: Fred 2012-07-22 |
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