Syria Live: The Regime's Warning Over the Foreign Base in Jordan

2040 GMT: Grad Rockets In Ma'arrat al Nouman. We've been talking a lot about Ma'arrat al Nouman in recent days. On the front lines of Idlib province, the rwebel stronghold is flanked by two important bases, both of which have proven impossible for the rebels to breach despite months of bombardment. The bases are equipped with heavy bunkers, dug in artillery, and are being provided air support by Syrian jets.

Interestingly, however, we've seen a lot of new rebel equipment show up near Ma'arrat al Nouman, including several Do-It-Yourself launchers for 122mm rockets, better known as Grad rockets. Even more interestingly, some of these weapons and rockets appear as if they have been shipped to the area, perhaps from other Assad bases where they have been captured. This suggests that the rebel command organization may be making the capturing of Wadi al Daif and the Hamidiyeh bases a priority:

2017 GMT: Wounded Rebel Commander Recovering. Riad al Assad, a rebel commander who was injured in Deir Ez Zor, is recovering in a Turkish hospital, according to a prominent activist:

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Mali (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Suicide Bombing in Timbuktu

See also Syria Live Coverage: Getting the Story Wrong on US Intervention

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1516 GMT: Egypt. Prosecutors have released political satirist and TV host Bassem Youssef on LE15,000 ($2,142) bail after hours of questioning.

Youssef is accused of insulting President Morsi and denigrating Islam on his TV show.

1509 GMT: Mali. At least three Malian soldiers have been injured in fighting today in Timbuktu, a day after insurgents killed two troops and injured another in attacks including a suicide bombing (see 0853 GMT).

A military spokesman said, "The fighting is heavy and it is ongoing. We are in the process of encircling them."

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Syria Feature: US, Britain, and France Train Insurgents in Jordan (Borger/Hopkins)

EA Video Analysis, 21 February: "How and Why the US is Arming the Insurgents"

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Western training of Syrian rebels is under way in Jordan in an effort to strengthen secular elements in the opposition as a bulwark against Islamic extremism, and to begin building security forces to maintain order in the event of Bashar al-Assad's fall.

Jordanian security sources say the training effort is led by the US, but involves British and French instructors.

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Syria Live Coverage: More than 1 Million Refugees

2055 GMT: Death Toll Rises. According to the Local Coordination Committees, 127 people have died so far today across the nation:

34 in Damascus and its Suburbs, 27 martyrs in Homs, 18 in Raqqa, 19 in Idlib, 15 in Aleppo, 6 in Deir Ezzor, 4 in Lattakia , 2 in Hama and 1 in Daraa

See our note on the casualty figures published by the LCC.

It's worth noting that the numbers coming from Al Raqqah and Homs rival those in Damascus, Idlib, and Aleppo - the locations of the fiercest fighting on the front lines.

2036 GMT: Rebel Leadership Condemns Kidnapping. Now a statement of condemnation from the leader of the Supreme Military Council, Salim Idriss:

Meanwhile, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) - the main rebel fighting force - condemned the seizure of the UN observers.

FSA leader Gen Salim Idriss told the BBC's Newshour programme he would "do everything what I can to liberate them".

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Syria Feature: The Surge in Foreign Weapons for the Insurgents (Higgins and Chivers/Schmitt)

Colonel Abdul-Jabber Mohammed Aqidi, a prominent insurgent commander in Aleppo, holds up an anti-tank M79 rocket launcher

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While Persian Gulf Arab nations have been sending military equipment and other assistance to the rebels for more than a year, the difference in the recent shipments has been partly of scale. Officials said multiple planeloads of weapons have left Croatia since December, when many Yugoslav weapons, previously unseen in the Syrian civil war, began to appear in videos posted by rebels on YouTube....

Officials familiar with the transfers said the arms were part of an undeclared surplus in Croatia remaining from the 1990s Balkan wars. One Western official said the shipments included “thousands of rifles and hundreds of machine guns” and an unknown quantity of ammunition.

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Syria Live Coverage: The Refugee Emergency Grows

2019 GMT: Death Toll Reaches 112. According to the Local Coordination Committees, 112 people have been killed today nationwide:

28 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its Suburbs, 18 in Homs including an entire family, 17 in Daraa, 17 in Aleppo, 16 in Idlib, 10 in Hama, 3 in Deir Ezzor, 2 in Raqqa and 1 in Hassakeh.

See our note on the casualty figures published by the LCC.

2015 GMT: Idlib Prison Captured by Rebels. Rebel forces have stormed the central Idlib prison, releasing 300 prisoners according to activists. Several videos show the battle for the prison and the releasing of some prisoners:

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Jordan (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Parliamentary Election --- But What Does It Mean?

Election queue in Jordan on Wednesday (Photo: Khalil Mazraawi/AFP)

See also Syria Live Coverage: A Growing Crisis Over Food?
Wednesday's Israel (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Netanyahu Claims Narrow Victory

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1530 GMT: Jordan. Opposition candidates have won a significant minority of the seats in Parliamentary elections, despite a boycott by some oppositon groups.

Initial results released by the Independent Electoral Commission had 18 opposition Islamists winning seats in the 150-seat Parliament. About a dozen leftists affiliated with pan-Arab nationalist groups, who are vocal critics of the Government. Fourteen victors from a centrist party are expected to lean toward the opposition rather than the Government in the legislature.

While supporters of King Abdullah claimed the majority of the seats, their vote total was far short of that in 2010.

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Syria Live Coverage: A Growing Crisis Over Food?

2045 GMT: Helicopter Shot Down in Aleppo. The LCC posts this video, which we also saw from other sources, of a helicopter shot down somewhere in Aleppo province. We have not seen this footage, or any similar footage, before, suggesting that this could be new. The description says the aircraft was "brought down by machineguns," presumably anti-aircraft guns:

2012 GMT: 90 Killed Nationwide Today. The death toll has risen to 90, according to the Local Coordination Committees:

40 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its Suburbs; 13 in Homs, during a raid of Qusair; 12 in Aleppo; 9 in Idlib; 5 in Lattakia; 5 in Daraa; 4 in Hama; 2 in Deir Ezzor.

The Local Coordination Committees (LCC) is an activist network operating both inside and outside of Syria. They claim to use stringent verification processes to ensure that a member of the LCC can vouch for any information posted either on their Facebook page or their website. The LCC also populates a database of those killed in the Syrian conflict, which can be seen at the website for the Center for Documentation of Violations in Syria.

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Israel (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Netanyahu Claims Narrow Victory

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1700 GMT: Palestine. A 21-year-old Palestinian woman died after being shot in the face by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank today.

Lubna Hanash was killed in a shooting outside a college near Al-Arrub refugee camp, eight kilometres (five miles) north of Hebron, medics said.

Witnesses said a civilian car with Israeli plates stopped on the main Hebron-Bethlehem road in the southern West Bank and two men wearing military fatigues got out and began shooting towards a nearby Palestinian college. Medics said another two people were injured by gunshot wounds.

A military spokeswoman said troops on a routine patrol had been "confronted by Palestinians with Molotov cocktails" and opened fire in self-defence, wounding several of them.

Meanwhile, a 15-year-old Palestinian who was hit in the face by Israeli gunfire last Friday died of his injuries, an Israeli hospital spokeswoman told AFP.

Saleh Amarin had been seriously hurt by a bullet fired by Israeli troops during clashes in Aida refugee camp, north of Bethlehem.

The two deaths raised to six the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli gunfire since 10 January.

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Jordan Feature: The Kingdom's "Syria Problem" (Pelham)

Zaatari Refugee CampAs the uprising in Syria takes on an increasingly sectarian cast, Jordan has become a crucial center for the Islamist opposition — fighters, regime defectors, and their supporters, who speak of replacing the secular-Alawite regime with a new government that brings a Sunni majority to power. More extremist groups, like Jabhat al-Nasra, an Al-Qaeda affiliate based in and around Aleppo that wants to establish a caliphate, have strengthened their numbers with Jordanian recruits in the south, and are fighting to take the capital first. And while Jordan’s own secular monarchy contends with hundreds of thousands of newly arrived Syrian refugees, it is fearful that the conflict is also creating a powerful cause for its own restless Islamists.

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