shannonmollyes: A truce in Syria? Peace envoy calls for ceasefire during Eid. (+video)

International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is asking Syria's closest regional ally, Iran, to help arrange a pause in the fighting in Syria during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha.

By Angus MacSwan,?Reuters, Dominic Evans,?Reuters / October 15, 2012

UN-Arab League peace envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi (l.) speaks during a joint news conference with Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari at the Foreign Ministry in Baghdad on Monday.

Mohammed Ameen/Reuters

Enlarge

International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi appealed to Iran to help arrange a ceasefire in Syria during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha as rebels and government forces fought street by street and village by village on Monday.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Brahimi made the request in talks with Iranian leaders on Sunday in Tehran, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's closest regional ally in his campaign to crush a 19-month-old uprising.

The veteran Algerian diplomat said the civil war in Syria was getting worse by the day and stressed the urgent need to stop the bloodshed, his spokesman said on Monday.

He suggested the truce be held during the Eid holiday, which starts around Oct. 25 and lasts several days. It would "help create an environment that would allow a political process to develop".

There was no immediate response from either side and with fighting raging on Monday in several Syrian cities and in the countryside, it was not clear if they would want to put the brakes on any battlefield advantages.

The crucial strategic battles in a conflict that has claimed more than 30,000 lives since March 2011 are being fought in an arc through western Syria, where most of the population lives.

Aleppo street-fighting

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two rebel-held districts in northeast Aleppo, al-Shaar and Karm al-Jabal, came under heavy bombardment from Assad's forces on Monday. It also reported fierce clashes in the district of Jdeideh, just north of the ancient citadel in Syria's biggest city.

Syrian television showed footage of soldiers inside Aleppo's Great Mosque, which dates back to the 8th century and was badly damaged in fighting between government forces and rebels battling for control of the Old City.

The mosque's medieval arches were charred, its elaborate wooden panels smashed and metal filigree lanterns lay broken in the courtyard. The sound of nearby gunfire could be heard.

Assad issued a decree on Monday establishing a committee to restore the mosque, though it was not clear how that would happen with fighting still raging in Aleppo.

In northwestern Idlib province, government warplanes bombed several towns on Monday, the pro-opposition Observatory said.

Rebels had surrounded an army garrison on Sunday close to a northwestern town in the latest push to seize more territory near the border with Turkey, opposition activists said.

Several hundred soldiers were trapped in the siege of a base in Urum al-Sughra, on the main road between Aleppo, Syria's commercial and industrial hub, and Turkey.

"Rebels attacked an armoured column sent from Aleppo to rescue the 46th Regiment at Urum al-Sughra and stopped it in its tracks," Firas Fuleifel, one of the activists, told Reuters by phone from Idlib province, the main base and supply route for insurgents fighting in Aleppo.

He said a jet was shot down while trying to provide air support to the column.

Assad's forces still control the city of Idlib on a main highway linking Aleppo to the port of Latakia, making the route an important rebel target.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/04Swdu01bHc/A-truce-in-Syria-Peace-envoy-calls-for-ceasefire-during-Eid.-video

weight watchers rawhide bigfoot sandra dee twilight zone december 21 2012 mayan calendar