BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian army abandoned its last base near the northern town of Saraqeb after a fierce assault by rebels, further isolating the strategically important second city Aleppo from the capital.

But in a political setback to forces battling to topple President Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations said the rebels appeared to have committed a war crime after seizing the base.

BEIRUT, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Syria’s warring parties largely
held their fire on Friday at the start of a four-day truce
marking the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, a short pause in
hostilities which have killed 32,000 people and threaten to draw
regional powers into a wider conflict.

President Bashar al-Assad’s armed forces announced a
conditional ceasefire on Thursday evening, responding to an
appeal by international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi.

BEIRUT, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Syria’s warring parties held
their fire on Friday morning at the start of a four-day truce
marking the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, a short pause in
hostilities which have killed 32,000 people and threaten to draw
regional powers into a wider conflict.

President Bashar al-Assad’s armed forces announced a
conditional ceasefire on Thursday evening, responding to an
appeal by international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – At least seven people were killed and dozens wounded in gunbattles in the Lebanese capital Beirut and coastal Tripoli on Monday in further unrest linked to the conflict in neighbouring Syria, security and hospital sources said.

The clashes have heightened fears that Syria’s civil war with its sectarian dimensions is now spreading into Lebanon, pitting local allies and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against each other.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese troops and gunmen exchanged fire in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday, wounding five people, deepening a political crisis following the assassination of a senior intelligence official, security and medical sources said

Four people were also killed, including a 9-year-old girl, and 12 wounded in clashes between gunmen in the northern city of Tripoli, the sources said.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Thousands of people started gathering in central Beirut on Sunday for the funeral of slain intelligence officer Wissam al-Hassan, a ceremony likely to become a rally against Syrian authorities.

Hassan, who uncovered an alleged Syrian bomb plot inside Lebanon two months ago, died in a car bomb blast that killed seven other people and wounded 80 in Beirut’s Ashrafiyeh district on Friday.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s political opposition has called for a mass turnout at Sunday’s funeral for slain intelligence officer Wissam al-Hassan, turning the ceremony into a political rally against Syrian authorities and Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Hassan, who uncovered an alleged Syrian bomb plot inside Lebanon two months ago, was killed in a huge car bomb blast that also killed seven other people and wounded 80 in Beirut’s Ashrafiyeh district on Friday.

BEIRUT, Oct 17 (Reuters) – The international mediator on
Syria said on Wednesday its civil war risks spilling across
borders to engulf the Middle East and appealed for a temporary
truce he said could mark a small step towards defusing 19 months
of conflict.

Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League envoy, has proposed
that both President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebel fighters
seeking his overthrow hold fire during the Islamic feast holiday
of Eid al-Adha that starts next week.

BEIRUT, Oct 15 (Reuters) – 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.

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.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hezbollah’s increasingly visible support for President Bashar al-Assad and its latest military challenge to Israel has put the militant group on a collision course with domestic opponents who accuse it of dragging Lebanon towards regional conflict.

While still denying it has sent forces to Syria to fight alongside soldiers trying to crush a 19-month-old uprising against Assad, Hezbollah has held a number of public funerals this month for fighters killed performing “jihadi duties”.