Attacks Live Blog

The UN's secretary general urged the Syrian government to maintain its fragile ceasefire, as activists said government forces pressed on with their attacks on the opposition stronghold of Homs. 

"I urge again in the strongest possible terms that this cessation of violence must be kept," Ban Ki-Moon said at a meeting with Belgium's Prime Minister Elio di Rupo on Sunday.

Speaking about Iran, he said Tehran had to prove its nuclear programme was peaceful, adding that it had not yet done so. 

[Source: Reuters]

Al-Qaeda on Wednesday claimed responsibility for a string of attacks in Yemen, including an assault on soldiers that left scores dead in the southern province of Abyan and bombing of a military plane in Sanaa.

On Sunday, "the mujahedeen carried out a series of operations... against government forces deployed at the entrances of Zinjibar," capital of Abyan province, said the group's Yemeni branch.

The group claimed that "around 100 soldiers and officers were killed while 12 others were wounded and 73 held captive" in these attacks.

Military officials and medics had told AFP that 185 people were killed on Sunday when Islamist militants attacked a Yemeni army camp in Abyan province.

On the same day, "the mujahedeen blew up a Yemeni air force military plane in Dulaimi army base that was transporting weapons to Aden and Hadramawt" provinces, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), said in a statement.

"The blast took place after (the militants) sneaked into the base and planted an explosive device in the plane," it said. [AFP]

Two dissident soldiers and two policemen were killed overnight in separate attacks in the country's restive south, army and security officials said on Thursday.

"A landmine planted by Al-Qaeda militants exploded Wednesday overnight killing two soldiers from the 119th Brigade commanded by dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar," an army official told the AFP news agency. The general leads the First Armoured Brigade protecting anti-regime protesters in Sanaa.

The attack took place in the southern city of Zinjibar in Abyan province, where dissident troops alongside pro-government forces are battling extremists. [AFP]

Activists say Syrian security forces are storming several districts in the Mediterranean coastal city of Latakia under heavy shelling and gunfire.

At least five people have died in the shooting according to Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the activist network the Local Coordination Committees.

Abdul-Rahman says gunboats in the Mediterranean are taking part in Sunday's assault. He says they are firing heavy machine guns at Latakia's el-Ramel neighborhood.

At least 20 tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled into el-Ramel Saturday amid intense gunfire. The operations in Latakia are part of a crackdown on several cities to root out protesters demanding the ouster of President Bashar Assad.