Wüstenschiff

(...) drangen die bewaffneten Einheiten am Morgen in die Dörfer Ablin, Baliun, Marajan, Ihsem und Al Rami ein. Die Verbindungsstraßen zwischen den Dörfern seien unterbrochen und Kontrollposten eingerichtet worden. Die Sicherheitskräfte hätten überdies mehrere Menschen festgenommen. Oppositionelle haben für Donnerstag zu Demonstrationen in den betroffenen Ortschaften aufgerufen.

In einem Vorort von Damaskus (Anmerkung AV: es geht um den Vorort Daraya) sollen syrische Truppen mit Tränengas auf Trauergäste bei der Beerdigung eines getöteten Bürgerrechtlers geschossen haben. Wie der Aktivist Mustafa Osso vom Netzwerk Local Coordination Committee am Mittwoch mitteilte, ereignete sich der Vorfall am Dienstagabend. Kurz zuvor hatten US-Botschafter Robert Ford und andere Diplomaten, die der Familie von Ghajath Mattar ihr Beileid ausgesprochen hatten, die Trauerfeier verlassen. Es sei niemand verletzt worden.

BEIRUT (AP) — About 200 Syrian opposition members have met outside the capital, Damascus, in a significant gathering of dissidents on Syrian soil.
The Syrian opposition consists of a variety of groups with often differing ideologies, including Islamists and secularists, and there have been many meetings of dissidents who say they represent the opposition. But Saturday's meeting was unusual in part because it was held inside Syria, rather than neighboring countries.
A news conference was planned for Sunday.
The Syrian uprising began in mid-March, amid a wave of protests in the Arab world that toppled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Syrian President Bashar Assad has reacted with deadly force that the U.N. estimates has left some 2,600 people dead.

Lebanon hosting nearly 4,000 Syrian refugees - UN

BEIRUT (AFP) - Nearly 4,000 people who fled to neighbouring Lebanon between March and September as Syrian troops crack down on anti-regime demonstrations have registered with the United Nations, a report said. The report by the UN Development Programme released late on Friday said more than 3,580 Syrians registered with the UN in north Lebanon by September 7, more than 600 of them between September 1 and 7. “In the past two weeks, new arrivals from Syria have come to Lebanon from villages of Heet, Tal Kalakh and in Homs as clashes flared in those areas,” it said. “Most Syrians who have been displaced from their villages in recent weeks enter Lebanon at official border crossings since unofficial crossing points are reportedly heavily guarded by Syrian authorities.”