August 25, 2012 -- Updated 1358 GMT (2158 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Lebanese pilgrim released in Syria, arrives in Turkey
- Turkish foreign minister: "No regime fighting its own people can survive long"
- Opposition: A regime warplane fires on neighborhoods in Aleppo
- Syrian government: Armed forces "continue pursuing terrorists in Aleppo"
(CNN) -- With one week left to go, August is already
the deadliest month in Syria's 17-month crisis. Opposition activists
report more than 3,700 people killed -- mostly civilians -- in just the
past few weeks. Here are some of the other key developments on the
crisis that spirals out of control:
On the ground: A war of words from Aleppo
The Syrian military's
frontal assault on the opposition appears to be ratcheting up, with
indiscriminate bombings from jets and rockets fired into civilian areas.
More than 10 missiles
landed in Idlib province as planes opened fire with machine guns, the
opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said.
Meanwhile, residents in Aleppo endured "intense aerial shelling" by a regime warplane Saturday, the LCC said.
Photos: Showdown in Syria
Alawite voices inside Lebanon
Lebanon pulled deep into Syria conflict
'Syria becoming a proxy war'
President Bashar
al-Assad's government had a different take on the situation in Aleppo,
the commercial and cultural heart of Syria.
"Armed forces continue
pursuing terrorists in Aleppo and its countryside," state-run media
proclaimed. "Armed forces destroy seven cars equipped with machine guns,
kill terrorists and seize their weapons in Aleppo city."
Across the country, at least 13 people were killed Saturday, the LCC said.
The region: Abducted Lebanese pilgrim freed
Hussein Ali Omar, one of
11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims abducted in Syria, was in Turkey on
Saturday after being released, according to a representative for
Turkey's foreign minister.
"We are trying to get
him to his country," the representative said. "We think our efforts may
have helped." The Free Syrian Army has denied an allegation it was
involved in the May abductions. The other 10 pilgrims are still being
held.
The development follows
the kidnapping in Damascus of a Lebanese man, Hassan Salim Meqdad, by
Syrian rebels who accused him of being a Hezbollah member. In response,
Meqdad's brother, Hatem Meqdad, told Lebanon's state news agency that
his family kidnapped 26 Syrians living in Lebanon.
Turkish Foreign Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu, meanwhile, rejected claims that his country was
shipping weapons to Syrian rebels in their quest to oust al-Assad, the
Anadolu news agency reported.
"These are the arguments
which authoritarian regimes had always used to conceal their internal
problems," Davutoglu told the NTV news channel, according to Anadolu.
Davutoglu added, "No
regime fighting its own people can survive long. (The al-Assad regime)
has months, and maybe even weeks -- not years."
Diplomatic front: New envoy says the Syrian people are 'our first masters'
Lakhdar Brahimi is the new U.N. and Arab League envoy to Syria, but he said the Syrian people will be "our first masters."
"We will consider their interests above and before anyone else," the Algerian and longtime U.N. diplomat said Friday.
Brahimi, who replaces
Kofi Annan after months of fizzled attempts to broker peace in Syria,
told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of his anxiety about the new
post:
"Secretary-general, when
you called me, I told you that I was honored, flattered, humbled and
scared, and still in that frame of mind. I will definitely give this my
very, very best," Brahimi said.
The Syrian crisis broke
out in March 2011 after protesters, inspired by the success of popular
uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, took to the streets demanding political
reform and an end to four decades of al-Assad family rule.
The movement devolved
into an armed conflict after a brutal crackdown by al-Assad's forces.
Opposition forces say more than 21,000 people have died.
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