AMMAN (Reuters) – A bomb exploded near army and security compounds in Damascus on Sunday, Syrian television said, and fractured opposition groups seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad began unity talks abroad to win international respect and arms supplies.

The 50-kilogram (110-pound) bomb, near a large hotel in a heavily guarded district, was described by state media as an attack by “terrorists” – the government’s term for insurgents in the 19-month-old uprising against Assad.

AMMAN (Reuters) – The fragmented Syrian opposition will attempt once again this weekend to forge a common policy to gain international respect, obtain weapons and, most importantly, topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a formerly imprisoned dissident said.

“An alternative to the regime is dearly needed,” said Riad Seif, a liberal politician who is battling cancer and managed to leave Syria only a few months ago after having been imprisoned.

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian government war planes have intensified air strikes on suburbs of the capital Damascus that have fallen under rebel control, taking the death and destruction to new levels in the 19-month-old conflict.

Civilians have been the main victims, activists say. Footage posted by the opposition shows scenes of carnage, with mangled bodies and houses reduced to rubble.

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian warplanes bombed rebel targets with renewed intensity on Tuesday after the end of a widely ignored four-day truce between President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and insurgents.

International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has said he will pursue peace efforts despite the failure of his appeal for a pause in fighting for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

AMMAN, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Syrian jets bombed suburbs of
Damascus and a car bomb killed 10 people in the capital on
Monday, the last day of a four-day truce which U.N. chief Ban
Ki-moon acknowledged had failed.

Each side blamed the other for breaching the Eid al-Adha
truce arranged by international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who
nevertheless promised to pursue his peace efforts.

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian jets bombarded Sunni Muslim regions in Damascus and across the country on Sunday, activists said, as President Bashar al-Assad kept up air strikes against rebels despite a U.N.-brokered truce that now appears to be in tatters.

“The ceasefire is practically over. Damascus has been under brutal air raids since day one and hundreds of people have been arrested,” said veteran opposition campaigner Fawaz Tello.

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian troops bombarded a town near Damascus on Thursday and fighting raged in and around the northern city of Aleppo, a day before a proposed truce for a four-day Muslim religious holiday.

President Bashar al-Assad’s government was expected to make a statement later in the day on whether it accepts the temporary ceasefire advocated by U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

AMMAN (Reuters) – A warm autumn day in the Syrian village of Qardaha and a man walks in to a cafe where two customers are arguing. He pulls a gun; shots are fired. The newcomer is wounded and one of the other men killed.

But this is no obscure local feud; it reveals frictions among President Bashar al-Assad’s core supporters. For Qardaha is the ancestral home of the ruling dynasty. And the man who strode in with a pistol was the beleaguered president’s cousin.

AMMAN (Reuters) – A warm autumn day in the Syrian village of Qardaha and a man walks in to a cafe where two customers are arguing. He pulls a gun; shots are fired. The newcomer is wounded and one of the other men killed.

But this is no obscure local feud; it reveals frictions among President Bashar al-Assad’s core supporters. For Qardaha is the ancestral home of the ruling dynasty. And the man who strode in with a pistol was the beleaguered president’s cousin.

BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) – Turkey has banned all Syrian aircraft from its air space as it takes an increasingly firm stance against President Bashar al-Assad, while Syrian rebels said on Sunday they had made more gains in a key province near the Turkish border.

Human Rights Watch said Syrian government forces had dropped Russian-made cluster bombs over civilian areas in the past week as they battled to reverse rebel advances, an act which rights groups say can constitute a war crime.