BEIRUT (Reuters) – Dozens of people were killed and many more wounded in an air strike that hit a Syrian bakery where a large crowd was queuing for bread on Sunday, activists said.

If confirmed, it would be one of the deadliest air strikes of Syria’s civil war.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Dozens of people were killed in an air strike while queuing for bread in Syria’s central Hama province on Sunday, activists said.

Such a toll, if confirmed, would make it one of the deadliest air strikes in Syria’s civil war.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Dozens of people were killed and wounded in an air strike on a bakery in Syria’s central Hama province on Sunday, activists said, with some reporting up to 200 dead.

“There is no way to really know yet how many people were killed. When I got there, I could see piles of bodies all over the ground. There were women and children,” said Samer al-Hamawi, an activist in the town of Halfaya, where the strike hit. “There are also dozens of wounded people”

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Rebels thrust into a strategic town in Syria’s central Hama province on Thursday, activists said, pursuing a string of territorial gains to help cut army supply lines and cement a foothold in the capital Damascus to the south.

They have made a series of advances across the country, seizing several military installations and more heavy weaponry, hardening the threat to President Bashar al-Assad’s power base in Damascus 21 months into an uprising against his rule.

BEIRUT, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Russia sent warships to the
Mediterranean to prepare a potential evacuation of its citizens
from Syria, a Russian news agency said on Tuesday, a sign
President Bashar al-Assad’s key ally is worried about rebel
advances now threatening even the capital.

Moscow acted a day after insurgents waging a 21-month-old
uprising obtained a possible springboard for a thrust into
Damascus by seizing the Yarmouk Palestinian camp, an urban zone
just 2 miles (3 km) from the heart of the city, activists said.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Russia sent warships to the Mediterranean to prepare a potential evacuation of its citizens from Syria, a Russian news agency said on Tuesday, a sign President Bashar al-Assad’s key ally is worried about rebel advances that now threaten even the capital.

Moscow acted a day after insurgents waging a 21-month-old uprising obtained a possible springboard for a thrust into Damascus by seizing the Yarmouk Palestinian camp just 2 miles from the heart of the city, activists said.

BEIRUT, Dec 14 (Reuters) – Desperation for food is growing
in parts of Syria, where fist fights or dashes across the civil
war front lines have become part of the daily struggle to secure
a loaf of bread.

Conditions are especially dire in the northern city of
Aleppo, where civilians enduring incessant clashes and air raids
in rebel-held districts say hunger is a new threat to survival
in the 20-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Up to 200 members of President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority were injured or killed in an attack on their central Syrian village on Tuesday, activists said, while to the south rebels and state forces battled for the outskirts of Damascus.

With a broad grouping of governments opposed to Assad meeting in Morocco on Wednesday, an official in the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood criticized the United States for designating an Islamist rebel group as a terrorist organization, meaning it would get no American help in the fight against Assad.

BEIRUT, Dec 9 (Reuters) – U.S. and Russian officials have
given their commitment to a political solution for the deepening
Syrian conflict, a United Nations envoy said on Sunday, but
Moscow dismissed speculation it was preparing for President
Bashar al-Assad’s exit.

With rebels now fighting on the doorsteps of Damascus,
Assad’s forces kept up their now daily artillery strikes and air
raids on eastern suburbs as well as some rebel-held districts on
the capital’s outskirts.

BEIRUT, Dec 9 (Reuters) – Syrian rebels backed by radical
Islamists captured a northern regimental command centre of
President Bashar al-Assad’s army, activists said on Sunday, as
Russia dismissed speculation that it is preparing for its ally’s
possible exit from power.

Assad’s forces hammered rebel units on the outskirts of
Damascus as they tried to drive back opposition fighters rebels
seeking to advance toward the embattled leader’s seat of power.