Syria Live Blog

Syrian forces fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse thousands of protesters calling for President Bashar Assad's ouster Friday, killing two people in the northern city of Aleppo as the regime struggles to vanquish the 15-month-old conflict, opposition groups said.

Friday's violence during weekly anti-government protests was reported by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists on the ground, and by the opposition Local Coordination Committees.

The Observatory said one person was killed and another wounded in Aleppo, a major economic hub which has remained largely supportive of Assad throughout the uprising but where anti-regime sentiment has been on the rise in recent weeks.

Aleppo-based activist Mohammad Saeed said one of the protesters later died of his wounds, raising the number of those killed in the city's Boustan al-Qasr district to two. He said more than 10,000 people were protesting in the city.

"The regime is desperately trying to put down the protests in Aleppo but all this violence will backfire,'' he said.

[Source: AP]

UN-Arab league envoy Kofi Annan will visit Syria "soon", his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi says. [Reuters]

Syria's UN ambassador has complained that his mission is unable to open a US bank account due to sanctions imposed on his country.

Last year several US banks suddenly closed the accounts of a number of diplomatic missions and foreign diplomats due to the high costs of monitoring financial activity to prevent money laundering and monetary support for terrorist activity. 

Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari told the UN budget committee that because of the closure of his mission's accounts last year, it found a new bank in Washington.

"This new bank has now closed our accounts unexpectedly and the Syrian delegation is now without a bank account here in the host country," he said. "We are now facing enormous difficulties as we search for another bank. All of the banks we have contacted have refused to open an account for our delegation."

He blamed the problem on "unilateral sanctions." The US and European Union have imposed an array of sanctions on Damascus due to the Syrian bloodshed, which they blame on Assad's government.

"We are therefore unable to receive adequate transfer of funds in order to cover the expenses of our delegation on a daily basis," he said. "We are therefore unable to maintain our financial commitments to the organisation this year." 

"This is an absolutely absurd situation," Ja'afari said. "It's even surreal." [Reuters]

The rebel Free Syrian Army said on Thursday it is making "every effort" to locate and release a group of Lebanese Shia pilgrims kidnapped in Syria's northern province of Aleppo.

"The leadership is making every effort to find out where the abductees are, and to make sure they are freed," FSA official spokesman Colonel Kassem Saadeddine said in a statement.

Saadeddine reiterated that the FSA had no involvement in this week's kidnappings, condemning "all kidnapping operations, regardless of their nationality or religious belief or sect".

At the same time, he complained over the treatment of Syrian refugees and anti-regime figures in Lebanon.

"Revolutionary Syrians in Lebanon have faced persecution, kidnap and murder," he charged. "We will no longer be silent on any action carried out by any Lebanese parties affecting Syrians in Lebanon."

The FSA spokesman urged "the Lebanese state to take full responsibility in hosting and protecting Syrian refugees in Lebanon," where the government is dominated by a coalition that supports Syria's regime.

Lebanon's state news agency on Tuesday reported that the FSA had abducted a group of Shia in Aleppo on a bus returning via Iraq and Syria from a pilgrimage to holy sites in Iran.

Syria's main opposition coalition has called for the prompt release of the group, blaming Assad's regime for a "security vacuum" in the unrest-swept country.

The Syrian National Council "does not think it is impossible that the regime is involved in this operation," in order to sow "disorder" in neighbouring Lebanon, the group said.

News of the kidnappings prompted their families and thousands of supporters to pour out onto the streets of Beirut's mainly Shiite southern suburbs on Tuesday night to demand their release.