BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian security men and students wielding knives attacked a protest march at Aleppo University on Thursday, activists said, killing four and rounding up dozens of demonstrators who were demanding President Bashar al-Assad step down.

In an unusually bloody incident for Syria’s hitherto fairly peaceful commercial hub and second city, video posted on the Internet showed young people chanting slogans against the ruling family and being drowned out by gunfire. Activists posted images of a bloodied corpse and what they said was a burning dormitory.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian security men and students wielding knives attacked a protest march at Aleppo University on Thursday, activists said, killing four and rounding up dozens of demonstrators who were demanding President Bashar al-Assad step down.

In an unusually bloody incident for Syria’s hitherto fairly peaceful commercial hub and second city, video posted on the Internet showed young people chanting slogans against the ruling family and being drowned out by gunfire. Activists posted images of a bloodied corpse and what they said was a burning dormitory.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Violence erupted in two Syrian provinces on Tuesday, with a rights group reporting 10 civilians dead in an army mortar attack and 12 soldiers killed in a fire-fight with rebel gunmen as U.N. monitors sought to shore up a shaky ceasefire.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the 13-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, said nine members of one family died in mortar bomb blasts in a village in the northern province of Idlib.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad say they are shifting tactics towards homemade bombs, hoping to even the odds between their outgunned forces and his powerful army.

A series of deadly blasts in the past week suggests they are getting better at it.

ANTAKYA, Turkey (Reuters) – Rebel fighter Mustafa and his trio of burly men look out of place at a trendy Turkish cafe near the Syrian border, dressed in tattered jeans and silently puffing on cigarettes as they scoop into tall ice-cream sundaes.

Their battleground is across the frontier in Syria, where they are fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad. But like many rebels in northern Syria, they are so desperate for weapons and money, they are searching for new donors in Turkey.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Seven people were killed and 20 wounded, including members of the security forces, in a suicide bombing in the central Damascus district of Midan on Friday, Syria’s state news agency SANA said.

Opposition activists said the explosion occurred as worshippers were coming out of the Zeen al-Abadeen mosque.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria blamed “terrorist” bomb-makers on Thursday for an explosion that ripped through a building and killed 16 people in the restive city of Hama, where hostility to President Bashar al-Assad runs deep.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based anti-Assad organization tracking the 13-month-old conflict in which at least 9,000 people have died, gave the same death toll but said the cause of Wednesday afternoon’s blast was not clear.

ISKENDERUN, Turkey (Reuters) – A German-owned ship suspected of carrying weapons and ammunition heading to Syria was being towed into Turkey’s Mediterranean Iskenderun port for inspection on Wednesday, officials said.

The “Atlantic Cruiser” is already being investigated by Germany after Der Spiegel news magazine reported the ship was carrying Iranian weapons to Syria in breach of an arms embargo.

NORTHERN SYRIA (Reuters) – Syrian rebels like Said and Ayman lurk in a shady pine grove just minutes from their village, but it has been months since they saw home. They are sticking to a cause that has battered everything but their resolve to battle on.

Frontier fighters in the year-long revolt against President Bashar al-Assad are quietly securing posts on Syria’s border with Turkey, where they can pass supplies and also fight Syrian troops who get too close to home.

NORTHERN SYRIA (Reuters) – Syrian rebels like Said and Ayman lurk in a shady pine grove just minutes from their village, but it has been months since they saw home. They are sticking to a cause that has battered everything but their resolve to battle on.

Frontier fighters in the year-long revolt against President Bashar al-Assad are quietly securing posts on Syria’s border with Turkey, where they can pass supplies and also fight Syrian troops who get too close to home.