BEIRUT (AP) - Syrian activist groups say pro-government gunmen have killed more than a dozen people in the embattled central city of Homs.

Syria's state media confirmed deaths in Homs, b… Click to Read More and see additional updates

BEIRUT (AP) - Syrian activist groups say pro-government gunmen have killed more than a dozen people in the embattled central city of Homs.

Syria's state media confirmed deaths in Homs, but blamed "armed terrorists."

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 12 people were killed Sunday night while the Local Coordination Committees said 45 were "murdered." Both groups said the dead included children.

Pictures posted online by activists showed the bodies of five children who were disfigured after being apparently hit with sharp objects. At least six dead adults were covered with sheets.

The LCC and the Observatory said Monday that the attack was carried out by gunmen known as "shabiha" who have been playing a major role in crushing the year-old uprising.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Arizona Sen. John McCain is calling for the United States to lead an international effort to begin air strikes on Syria.

McCain says that the Syrian government's brutal crackdown on its opponents has resulted in war crimes and that its neighbors in the region will intervene militarily, with or without the U.S. From the Senate floor on Monday, McCain said the United States has a moral and strategic obligation to force out President Bashar Assad and his loyalists.

Last month, McCain urged international cooperation to help supply the anti-Assad rebels with weapons and other aid. At the time, he stopped short of endorsing direct U.S. military involvement.

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TORONTO (AP) - Canada has closed its embassy in Syria because of the crackdown by President Bashar Assad's government.

Canadian Foreign Ministry spokesman Chris Day said Monday the country has pulled its people out and the embassy and consulate are closed.

Britain, the United States and France also have closed their embassies in Syria.

Canada has been advising its citizens to leave for some time.

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BEIRUT (AP) - A Syrian activist group says 124 people have been killed across the country, including 64 who died while fleeing an embattled area in the central city of Homs.

The deaths were reported Monday by the Local Coordination Committees, one of the main Syrian activist groups.

The group says 64 of those killed Monday were fleeing the area of Baba Amr, a rebel-held neighborhood in Homs. Syrian government forces have been shelling the area for weeks.

The death tolls could not be independently verified.

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GENEVA (AP) - The International Committee of the Red Cross says its teams have succeeded in entering the central Syrian city of Hama for the first time in over a month.

A Red Cross spokesman in Geneva says a joint team of the ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent brought an emergency delivery of food and other items for 12,000 people.

Spokesman Hicham Hassan told The Associated Press on Monday that it is the first time the aid group has been able to enter the city since Jan. 17.

Hassan says efforts to re-enter the embattled Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr continue.

He says the humanitarian situation in Baba Amr after days of fierce fighting is increasingly dire.

Thousands have died in Syria since the anti-government uprising began in March.

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TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) - A senior diplomat attending the Friends of Syria meeting says the group will call for the United Nations to begin planning a Syria peacekeeping mission.

The diplomat said Friday the group would endorse preparations for the U.N. to send civilian police to Syria once hostilities are over. The diplomat said the envisioned operation would occur in a permissive environment and would not be a military intervention.

The diplomat, who spoke due to the sensitivity of ongoing diplomacy, said the move was part of a campaign to show that the collapse of President Bashar Assad's regime is inevitable.

It's also a signal to Russia and China, which have blocked U.N. Security Council action on Syria twice.

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PARIS (AP) - The French government spokeswoman on Wednesday identified two Western reporters killed in Syria as French photojournalist Remi Ochlik and American war reporter Marie Colvin.

Valerie Pecresse spoke to reporters after Syrian government forces shelled the restive central city of Homs.

The website of photo agency IP3 Press - which was founded by 28-year-old Ochlik (Osh-LEEK) - said he was an award-winning photojournalist who had covered events including the 2004 rioting in Haiti and the Arab world upheaval last year.

Colvin, from Oyster Bay, New York, was a war reporter who had covered conflicts from Sri Lanka to Syria. She had been a foreign correspondent for The Sunday Times in Britain for the past two decades.

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PARIS (AP) - France's foreign minister has confirmed the death of a French journalist in violence in Syria after government forces shelled the restive central city of Homs.

Alain Juppe told reporters after a weekly Cabinet meeting that French authorities have expressed condolences to the journalist's family and were working to obtain the exact details about the killing. He did not identify the journalist.

Juppe said Wednesday the death points to "the degradation of the situation" and "an increasingly intolerable repression" by Syrian forces.

The U.N. estimates that 5,400 people have been killed in repression by the regime of President Bashar Assad against a popular uprising that began 11 months ago.

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BEIRUT (AP) - A main opposition group says the death toll in Syria has risen to 50, including 30 in the battered city of Homs.

The activist group Local Coordination Committees gave the figures, but they could not immediately be confirmed by others.

The report comes as the Red Cross calls for a daily two-hour cease-fire nationwide so that emergency aid can reach beleaguered parts of the country.

Government troops heavily shelled rebellious districts in the resistance stronghold of Homs amid fears of a new round of bloody urban combat in a country careening toward all-out civil war.

The U.N. estimates that at least 5,400 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the 11-month uprising against Syria's President Bashar Assad.

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GENEVA (AP) - The International Committee of the Red Cross is calling for a daily two-hour cease-fire in Syria so it can deliver emergency aid and evacuate people who are wounded or sick.

Red Cross president Jakob Kellenberger says the situation in Syria "requires an immediate decision to implement a humanitarian pause in the fighting."

Kellenberger said in a statement Tuesday that in the beleaguered city of Homs and elsewhere "entire families have been stuck for days in their homes, unable to step outside to get bread, other food or water, or to obtain medical care."

The U.N. estimates that at least 5,400 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the 11-month uprising against Syria's President Bashar Assad.

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GENEVA (AP) - As Syria's military sends tanks and other reinforcement toward the city of Homs, the International Committee of the Red Cross is trying to work out a cease-fire.

The goal is to let emergency aid reach people in the areas most affected by the fighting.

ICRC spokeswoman Carla Haddad says the group is "discussing several possibilities with all those concerned and it includes a cessation of fighting in the most affected areas."

Activists say the military appears to be getting ready for an offensive to take rebel-held neighborhoods in Homs.

More than 5,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the 11-month uprising against Syria's President Bashar Assad.

VIENNA (AP) - Russia's foreign minister is blaming Western U.N. Security Council members for the failure to reach agreement on a resolution about Syria.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that by ignoring a suggestion from Moscow that not only Syrian government troops but also rebel forces pull out of conflict areas, the West "slammed the door" on Feb. 5 on the chances of agreeing on a resolution.

Lavrov also suggested Wednesday that terrorists were infiltrating the rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar Assad, alleging that al-Qaida elements "were also represented" among the armed opposition.

Lavrov and other foreign ministers are in Vienna for a conference on Thursday to discuss ways to reduce the drug flow from Afghanistan.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - A State Department official says Iran and Russia are providing weapons to Syria that could be used against anti-government protesters.

Thomas A. Countryman, the department's assistant secretary for international security and nonproliferation, told reporters Wednesday that Iranian weapon shipments are a matter of deep concern for the Obama administration.

Countryman declined to provide specifics about the kinds of weapons provided to Syria by either Iran or Russia.

He also said the U.S. is concerned about the status of chemical weapons and portable anti-aircraft weapons in Syria, in light of the civil conflict there. He said the U.S. is open to working with a successor Syrian government to account for and destroy those weapons.

BEIRUT (AP) - A Syrian activist group says an oil pipeline in the central city of Homs has been hit, causing a huge fire.

The Local Coordination Committees says the pipeline was hit Wednesday morning in the neighborhood of Baba Amr, which has been shelled by regime troops for the past 12 days.

Video by Homs activists broadcast on social networking sites shows thick black smoke billowing from what appears to be a residential area.

Homs is home to one of Syria's two oil refineries. It has also been one of the cities hardest hit by President Bashar Assad's crackdown on a popular uprising that began in March.

The U.N. said in January that more than 5,400 people have been killed in the crackdown.

Oil and gas pipelines have been subjected to attacks in Syria in the past months.

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BEIRUT (AP) - Syria's state-run news agency says President Bashar Assad has set Feb. 26 for a national referendum on the country's new draft constitution.

The document was handed over to Assad last week by members of the drafting committee. The new draft reportedly leaves out a clause that says the ruling Baath Party is the "leader of the nation and society."

Amendments to the constitution were a key demand by opposition groups at the beginning of the uprising against Assad in March, but the groups now say they accept nothing less than Assad's departure.

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BEIRUT (AP) - Syrian state television says 25 people were killed and 175 wounded in two explosions that targeted security compounds in the northern city of Aleppo.

The station is blaming "terrorists" for Friday's blasts, touting the regime line that armed groups looking to destabilize Syria are behind the uprising.

Opposition activists accused President Bashar Assad's regime of setting off the explosions.

The blasts were the first significant violence in Aleppo, Syria's largest city, which has largely stood by President Bashar Assad during the nearly 11-month-old uprising against his rule.

The TV cites the Health Ministry in giving the casualty figures.

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MOSCOW (AP) - Russia says its foreign minister has arrived in Syria for talks with President Bashar Assad.

The foreign ministry said Tuesday that Sergei Lavrov is joined by Russia's foreign intelligence chief Mikhail Fradkov.

The Kremlin has been a staunch ally of President Assad although Moscow has also hosted talks with Syrian opposition leaders.

Russia and China vetoed on Saturday a Western- and Arab-backed resolution at the United Nations condemning the Assad regime's crackdown on dissent and calling on him to transfer some of his powers to his deputy. The Syrian government had earlier rejected the Arab plan as intervention in Syria's internal affairs.

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Western powers are trying to pressure the Syrian government to end its crackdown on protesters in the country.

The U.S. closed its embassy in Damascus Monday and Britain recalled its ambassador.

More than 5,000 Syrians have died since the protests began almost a year ago, but the Syrian president's regime says terrorists are acting out to de-stabilize the country, and they are not people seeking to reform the government.

We've seen a domino affect from the arab spring in the middle east with protests in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. Now, Syria is in the international spotlight.

As violence escalates in Syria and pulled its diplomats out of the country. It's an attempt to pressure President Bashar Assad to back down. While recent UN sanctions have failed, President Obama has said he's not ready to fight fire with fire.

"I think it's very important for us to resolve this without outside military intervention, and I think that's possible," Obama said.

KSBY News sat down with Military Analyst Col. Chuck Clark. He served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Reagan administration.

"Anything that happens in the mid-east involves all those countries," Clark said.

He says an air strike,like we saw in Libya, isn't likely because it could put U.S. ally Israel in harms way.

"Syria is just to the north of Israel. They have surface missiles that could easily reach Tel Aviv 200 miles away," Clark said. "It's too big a risk and there are too many unknowns."

But Obama has made it clear. It's not a matter of whether to remove Assad from power, but when.

"It is time for Assad to go," Obama said during an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer.

"Anything that might affect Israel and would create destabilization in any nearby country is important to us," Clark said.

There are many Syrians who also support the current government. We spoke with a local Syrian tonight who owns a liquor store in San Luis Obispo. His family lives a mile and a half from the fighting, but he declined to go on camera for fear his family would be harmed. He calls the protesters terrorists who want to see the country ruled by religion.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon panetta has said an Israeli attack on Iran is likely in the coming months to prevent it from becoming a nuclear power.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says it is important to resolve the ongoing conflict in Syria without outside military intervention.

Obama says not every situation allows for the type of military action the U.S. and allies took in Libya, which led to the removal of Moammar Gadhafi.

The president says a negotiated solution in Syria is possible. He defended his administration's handling of the violence there, saying the U.S. has been "relentless" in demanding that President Bashar Assad leave power.

However, an Obama-supported resolution at the U.N. Security Council was vetoed this weekend by Russia and China. The resolution would have backed Arab League plan aimed at moving Assad in the direction of a peaceful transition to democracy in his violence-wracked country.

Obama spoke during an interview on NBC's "Today" show.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration has closed the U.S. Embassy in Damascus and pulled all American diplomats out of Syria.

Officials say Ambassador Robert Ford and other diplomats left Syria on Monday. It's the most dramatic U.S. move so far after 11 months of a violent crackdown on dissent by President Bashar Assad's regime.

The State Department warned last month it would close the embassy unless Assad's government stepped up its protection. It cited concerns about the safety of personnel and recent car bombs.

The U.N. says Assad's crackdown has killed more than 5,400 people since March. The revolt began with mostly peaceful protests, but armed rebels are now increasingly fighting the regime.

The Obama administration has long demanded that Assad step down. Officials insist his regime's demise is inevitable.

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BEIRUT (AP) - Syria's state-run news agency says gunmen have killed three soldiers and captured others at a checkpoint in the country's north.

SANA said in its report Monday that the attack happened in the Jabal al-Zawiyah region of Idlib province, which borders Turkey.

The Syrian uprising began nearly 11 months ago with mostly peaceful protests against President Bashar Assad, but government forces responded with a fierce crackdown. Now, army defectors and others are taking up arms to fight back, raising fears of civil war.

The attack Monday comes during a wave of violence around the country, concentrated in Idlib and the restive central province of Homs.

Army defectors have been active in these provinces.

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BEIRUT (AP) - The commander of rebel Syrian soldiers says there's no choice but military force to drive President Bashar Assad's regime from power.

Fears are mounting that government troops will escalate their deadly crackdown after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. resolution aimed at resolving the crisis. The commander of the Free Syrian Army tells The Associated Press that yesterday's veto by Russia and China of a U.N. resolution aimed at resolving the crisis was a "strike against the Syrian people."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton calls the vote a "travesty." On a visit to Bulgaria, Clinton told reporters "friends of democratic Syria" should unite against Assad's regime. She says the international community has a duty to halt the mounting bloodshed in Syria and promote a political transition that would see Assad step down.

Syrian activists are describing what could be one of the bloodiest episodes in the nearly 11-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad's rule.

The activists say government forces hammered neighborhoods in the city of Homs for hours with mortars and artillery, killing more than 200 people. Homs is Syria's third-largest city and has been a focal point for anti-government protests.

Thousands attended a funeral ceremony in a city park today for about 60 of the victims of the bombardment. Photos posted online by activists showed lines of dozens of coffins and bodies wrapped in white shrouds amid a crowd of mourners.

Thousands more protested across Syria in solidarity in Homs. A protester in a Damascus suburb held a banner reading: "Homs, your blood will not go in vain."

Assad's regime has denied the assault, calling the reports part of a "hysterical campaign" of incitement by armed groups against the government aimed at a pressuring the United Nations to act.

BEIRUT (AP) - Syria is seeing its largest protests in months. Activists say hundreds of thousands have poured into the streets across the country today, shouting for the downfall of Bashar Assad's regime.

The protests come as Arab League observers visit the country to monitor its compliance with a plan to end Syria's crackdown on political opponents.

Despite the presence of the monitors, activists say Syrian forces killed at least 19 people today, most of them shot during anti-government protests.

Other rallies this week have also been met by lethal gunfire from security forces, reinforcing the opposition's view that the regime is only letting the observers in to avoid more international sanctions.

There are also questions about whether Arab League member states, with some of the world's poorest human rights records, are fit for the monitoring mission.

An activist coalition says at least 130 people have been killed since the observers began their one-month mission on Tuesday.

The United Nations says some 5,000 people have been killed since March.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. has withdrawn its ambassador to Syria over security concerns, blaming President Bashar Assad's government for the threats.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday that Ambassador Robert Ford returned to Washington this weekend after "credible threats against his personal safety."

Toner couldn't say when Ford might return, saying it depended on a U.S. "assessment of Syrian regime-led incitement and the security situation on the ground."

Ford has enraged Syrian authorities with his forceful defense of peaceful protests, and harsh critique of a government crackdown that has now killed nearly 3,000 people. Ford particularly angered Assad's regime in July when he greeted demonstrators in the restive city of Hama.

Ford has been the subject of several incidents of intimidation by pro-government thugs.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House says there are no plans for the U.S. to recall its ambassador from Syria following an attempted attack by an angry mob.

White House spokesman Jay Carney says the attack on Ambassador Robert Ford's convoy in Damascus Thursday was "unwarranted and unjustifiable." It came as Ford visited the office of a Syrian opposition figure. He and his staff weren't injured.

Carney says Ford puts himself at great personal risk to support the aspirations of the Syrian people. He called on the Senate to confirm Ford so he can continue his work.

Obama tapped Ford as ambassador last year, using a recess appointment to circumvent opposition from Republicans. Ford can only serve until the end of the current session of Congress unless confirmed by the Senate.

BEIRUT (AP) - State-run Syrian Television says President Bashar Assad has issued a general amnesty that includes all political prisoners.

The TV says the amnesty covers all crimes committed before May 31. It also includes prisoners belonging to political parties including those belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood party. The decree was issued by Assad Tuesday. It is believed to be part of overtures by the Syrian government to the opposition, largely seen as symbolic.

Thousands of people have been arrested in the government's crackdown on a two-month-old
popular uprising. Human rights groups say over 1,000 protesters have been killed.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. officials say the Obama administration will slap sanctions on Syrian President Bashar Assad and six others for human rights abuses over their brutal crackdown on anti-government protests, for the first time personally penalizing the Syrian leader for actions of his security forces.

The officials said the Treasury Department would announce the sanctions on Wednesday, a day before President Barack Obama delivers a major speech on the uprisings throughout the Arab world with prominent mentions of Syria. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the formal announcement of the sanctions.

The move comes as Assad said his security forces had made mistakes during the two-month uprising and blamed poorly trained police at least in part for the crackdown that has killed more than 850 people.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

BEIRUT (AP) - Activists say at least six people have been killed in the latest response by Syrian security forces and snipers to anti-government demonstrations.

They say gunmen opened fire on thousands of protesters who gathered in the capital, Damascus, and elsewhere in Syria today.

According to the activists, today's crowds were kept below previous levels by the mass arrests that have taken place, and by heavy security. Despite the crackdown, thousands of people were in the streets, shouting for an end to President Bashar Assad's regime. The rallies spread to new areas of
the Syrian capital.

Soldiers occupied mosques and blocked off major public areas to try to head off protests.

Human rights groups say more than 775 people have been killed since the start of the protest movement in mid-March.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - The pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera says Syrian officials report that one of the network's journalists was sent to Iran following her detention last month in Damascus.

Wednesday's statement from the Qatar-based network urges Iranian authorities to provide details on Dorothy Parvaz, who was last seen leaving the Qatari capital Doha for Syria on April 29.

Last week, Al-Jazeera said Syrian authorities confirmed the detention of Parvaz, who holds U.S., Iranian and Canadian citizenship. She works for the network's English-language channel.

Syrian officials have sharply limited media access to the country following an uprising against the authoritarian regime of President Bashar Assad.

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BEIRUT (AP) - A Syrian human rights group says 757 civilians have been killed in Syria since an uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in mid-March.

Ammar Qurabi, who heads the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, says the group has lists of names, age, cause of death and the area where those people were killed.

Qurabi added that thousands of people have been detained in the past two months, including about 9,000 still in custody.

He spoke to The Associated Press on Tuesday as Syrian forces conducted operations in several hot spots throughout the country.

Assad has dispatched troops and tanks to many areas to crush the seven-week uprising that poses the most serious challenge to his family's 40-year rule.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration is hitting three top Syrian officials, Syria's intelligence agency and Iran's Revolutionary Guard with sanctions over their brutal crackdown on pro-reform demonstrators.

The penalties to be announced Friday will freeze any assets that the officials, Syria's General Intelligence Directorate and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps may have in U.S. jurisdictions and also bar Americans from doing business with them. Two senior U.S. officials said President Barack Obama authorized the imposition of the sanctions for human rights abuses committed by Syrian authorities seeking to quell five weeks of protests. More than 450 people have been reported killed.

The officials said Iran's Revolutionary Guard has provided material support to help Syrian authorities with the crackdown. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity before a formal announcement.

BEIRUT (AP) - Syria's official news agency says the cabinet has approved lifting the country's nearly 50-year-old state of emergency laws - a key demand of protesters.

The SANA news agency says the government Tuesday also abolished the state security court, which handled the trials of political prisoners, and approved a new law allowing the right to peaceful protests.

But it's unclear whether the moves will ease the crackdown on anti-government demonstrators. Just hours earlier, authorities issued a stern warning for protesters to back down.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

BEIRUT (AP) - Internet users in Syria say Facebook and YouTube are available for the first time in three years amid signs Damascus may be lifting its ban on the websites.

The Syrian government does not comment on its Internet restrictions. But several web users in Syria told The Associated Press on Tuesday the sites were accessible for the first time in years without having to tunnel through proxy servers.

The head of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedeom of Expression, Mazen Darwish, said he has "semiofficial confirmation" the ban is being lifted.

The gesture could be seen as a concession to stave off unrest following popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. But it's not a major compromise by President Bashar Assad, as many Syrians accessed the sites anyway using proxies.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)