To its supporters, the Al-Farouq Brigade of the Free Syrian Army is a leading unit in the fight to remove the Assad regime; to its critics, it is guilty of kidnappings and abuses.
Channel 4 features the work of French filmmaker Mani as he moves on the front line with the Brigade. A take-away line from a fighter, "It's not about the army anymore or toppling the regime. It's a sectarian conflict now."
Monday, September 10, 2012 at 10:11 | James Miller in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 1919 GMT: Syria. According to Russian Vice Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Syrian President Bashar al Assad would step down if he lost an election:
French newspaper Le Figaro quoted Bogdanov as saying in an interview after meeting Syrian dissidents in Paris that the "regime is still solid" and supported by an important part of the population who feared those who could take his place.
"Assad told us himself. But I don't know how sincere he is," Bogdanov said. "But he clearly told us that if the people didn't want him, and if they chose a different leader in an election, he would go."
1608 GMT: Syria. The LCC's death toll has now reached 102:
67 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its Suburbs (including 36 who were field-executed in Tadamun, 17 martyrs were found in Zamalka, and 3 who were field-executed in Mouadamiyeh), 16 in Aleppo, 6 in Hama, 4 in Daraa, 4 in Idlib, 2 in Homs, 2 in Lattakia, and 1 in Deir Ezzor.
"Memories at the Checkpoint" by Tamer al-Awam, killed on Saturday in Aleppo
The battle with this regime is not about me, it is not about you, it is about humanity. My dear friends, I can now tell you why it has been very hard to write. Over the past few months, my closeness to some of the young and brilliant people of Syria has enriched my life, but it has also made the tragedy, and the mess closer than ever.
I will not forget, nor will I forgive. I will not seek revenge, but rest assured, I will seek justice. And defending this regime, even covertly, makes one part and parcel in the murder of the friends I have lost. My cursing the regime and its supporters is only an impotent response, but I, with the help of countless Syrians, lack no potency in following them through this planet and in making them pay by all legal means for their collusion with this abomination called Assad and for their disgustingly inhumane efforts to cover the stench with slogans of resistance and nationalism. They will pay for the murder of my city, and all other cities in my Syria, for killing my friends and for making my mother, brave as she is, cry.
Thursday, September 6, 2012 at 7:49 | Scott Lucas in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Free Syrian Army fighters with destroyed armour of the Syrian military in Jabal al-Zawiya, August 2012
Some of the men laugh as they recount some of Abboud Barri’s wilder antics, like the time he set out on an extremely perilous but heroic journey to the besieged town of Rastan, halfway between Homs and Hama, to deliver much needed bags required for blood transfusions. Others recall how Abu Rabieh, a respected revolutionary figure in Idlib province, refused to give Barri a gun, fearing what the former agricultural worker might do with it. Abu Rabieh was shot dead late last year in an ambush. A few months later, Barri formed a military unit, which he now says includes some 58 men. “He was always a risk taker,” one of the men later says about Barri. “In the beginning of the revolution, before there was so much destruction, we didn’t want hot-blooded risk takers who didn’t carefully study their actions. Now it doesn’t matter.”
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 6:14 | James Miller in EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 2112 GMT: Syria. In recent weeks France has significantly stepped up its rhetorical attacks on the Assad regime. President Hollande has even moved for the recognition of a transitional government, and has asked for an internationally imposed no-fly zone.
Originally, most scoffed at this as a political move to make Hollande look strong, since there is no international appetite for such moves. However, Reuters now suggests that France is supporting local governments in 3 Syrian provinces, and is even considering supplying artillery or other weapons to enable rebels to defend Aleppo, Idlib, and Deir Ez Zor from Assad forces:
Paris said last week it had identified areas in the north, south and east that had escaped President Bashar al-Assad's control, creating a chance for local communities to govern themselves without residents feeling they had to flee Syria.
"In zones where the regime has lost control, such as Tal Rifaat (40 km north of Aleppo), which has been free five months, local revolutionary councils have been set up to help the population and put in place an administration for these towns so as to avoid chaos like in Iraq when the regime pulls back," the source said.
2100 GMT: Syria. Since this morning we've been watching the LCC's death toll rise. Now, as we could have anticipated based on other reports we've seen, the number has hit 260, and could easily continue to rise:
Tuesday, August 28, 2012 at 21:45 | James Miller in EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran
An Assad helicopter shot out of the skies over Damascus
2115 GMT: Syria. Claimed footage of the Free Syrian Army shortly after they captured a missile facility:
The opening statement, from a unit of the FSA in the Damascus suburb of "Eastern Ghouta", says a group stormed a rocket maintenance and modification base in the area of Iftrees, finding rockets in a ready-to-launch state and clamed some had been modified to carry unconventional warheads.
According to the statement, "It is not unlikely for the regime to resort to using rockets with unconventional warheads such as chemical, biological or other warheads. The Higher Military Council calls upon Arab nations and the international community to rapidly intervene militarily to save the lives of Syrians before this regime takes revenge with a new level of crime that would have catastrophic consequences on the entire region."
However, Brown Moses, analysing this video from the base, questions the unconventional warfare claim: "What we can see in this video are SA-5 surface to air missiles....It also seems very unlikely these missiles would actually be any use to the FSA without the correct equipment and training, as well as enough time to move them to a safe location before the Syrian Army responded."
Damascus, Daraa, Free Syrian Army, helicopter, shot down Friday, August 24, 2012 at 3:48 | James Miller in Africa, EA Global, EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
Bahraini activist Ali Mushaimaa protests Thursday's visit by King Hamad to British Prime Minister David Cameron in London (Photo:Instagram)
See also Syria Snap Analysis: New Patterns in a Bloodier Conflict
Thursday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Nationwide Battle
1913 GMT: Syria. According to the Local Coordination Committees, an Al Jazeera reporter was wounded in the Saif al Dawla district of Aleppo:
1900 GMT: Syria. The fighting in Syria has crossed over the border into Iraq. This week, the Free Syrian Army made significant advances near al Bukamal, in the Deir Ez Zor region. In response to the FSA capturing several border crossing points, Syrian jet fighters reportedly attacked the border crossings, moving over Iraqi air space in the process.
Now, the LCC reports that Iraqi soldiers have also fired at Syrians near Al Bukamal.
Thursday, August 23, 2012 at 10:13 | James Miller in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran
Tracer fire, or perhaps even rockets, reportedly fired from regime aircraft over Darayya Wendesday night.
The clashes of recent days have been far more widespread, but smaller in scale. The Free Syrian Army is conducting more guerrilla-style warfare, individual attacks designed to remove the regime's initiative, cramp its supply lines, soften its hardened locations, and damped its morale. The response to those attacks has been disproportionate, indiscriminate, and ruthless, with the civilians paying the highest toll.
Free Syrian Army, Syria Thursday, August 23, 2012 at 4:14 | James Miller in EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 1944 GMT: Syria. Some of our readers and Twitter followers have been asking us about Austin Tice, an American journalist who was covering the conflict in Syria. Tice's Twitter account went dark last week, and while initially the lack of Tweets was unnoticed, in recent days it has caused concern.
EA has contacted Tice's editor, and she has just shared with us an article explaining that Tice is missing.
His subsequent silence didn’t raise immediate alarm because he’d planned to leave that week, on a journey to the Lebanese border that often takes days because of the fighting en route. The Damascus suburb where he was last known to have been has faced heavy bombardment in recent days that has made communications difficult. Tice’s family and colleagues are concerned for his safety and are asking anyone with knowledge of his whereabouts to come forward.
"We understand Austin’s passion to report on the struggle in Syria, and are proud of the work he is doing there. We trust that he is safe, appreciate every effort being made to locate him, and look forward to hearing from him very soon,” Tice’s parents, Marc and Debra, said in a statement from Houston, his hometown.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012 at 11:51 | Scott Lucas in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Abdul Hakim Yasin, the commander of a Syrian anti-government fighting group, lurched his pickup truck to a stop inside the captured residential compound he uses as his guerrilla base.
His fighters had been waiting for orders for a predawn attack on an army checkpoint at the entrance to Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. The men had been issued ammunition and had said their prayers. Their truck bomb was almost prepared.
Now the commander had a surprise. Minutes earlier, his father, who had been arrested by the army at the same checkpoint in July, had called to say his jailers had released him. He needed a ride out of Aleppo, fast.
“God is great!” the men shouted. They climbed onto trucks, loaded weapons and accelerated away, barreling through darkness on nearly deserted roads toward a city under siege, to reclaim one of their own.
