BEIRUT (Reuters) – Rebel strikes against military bases across Syria have exposed President Bashar al-Assad’s weakening grip in the north and east of the country and left his power base in Damascus vulnerable to the increasingly potent opposition forces.

Rebel fighters, who have taken at least five army and air installations in the last 10 days, are still waging an asymmetrical war against a powerful army backed by devastating air power, and predict months of conflict still lie ahead.

BEIRUT, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Rebel strikes against military
bases across Syria have exposed President Bashar al-Assad’s
weakening grip in the north and east of the country and left his
power base in Damascus vulnerable to the increasingly potent
opposition forces.

Rebel fighters, who have taken at least five army and air
installations in the last 10 days, are still waging an
asymmetrical war against a powerful army backed by devastating
air power, and predict months of conflict still lie ahead.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel on Sunday that thousands of rockets would rain down on Tel Aviv and cities across the Jewish state if it attacked Lebanon.

Speaking four days after the ceasefire which ended a week of conflict between Israel and the Islamist Hamas rulers of Gaza, Nasrallah said Hezbollah’s response to any attack would dwarf the rocket fire launched from Palestinian territories.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has stirred anger across the Middle East among populations who hope that Arab uprisings can translate into a tougher stance against Israel.

Television footage of Israeli airstrikes and pictures of civilian casualties, including four children killed on Sunday, have fuelled rage in the region.

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.