Heavy Weapons

BEIRUT - Just when they expected a flood of heavy weapons to help them make a major push against the forces of President Bashar Assad, rebel commanders in Syria say, arms shipments from outside the country have instead slowed, prolonging a conflict now nearing the end of its second year. Though rebels have made gains in the north and east, seizing military bases and checkpoints, opposition figures who had made predictions of quick victory now say their arsenal is at a level that can support only a war of attrition.

BEIRUT - Just when they expected a flood of heavy weapons to help them make a major push against the forces of President Bashar Assad, rebel commanders in Syria say, arms shipments from outside the country have instead slowed, prolonging a conflict now nearing the end of its second year. Though rebels have made gains in the north and east, seizing military bases and checkpoints, opposition figures who had made predictions of quick victory now say their arsenal is at a level that can support only a war of attrition.

In their last debate together, President Obama focused on one of the few areas on Syria policy where he and Mitt Romney have a substantial difference: giving heavy weapons to opposition members. Although the Obama administration has been helping Arab allies choose which opposition groups to give small arms to, it has opposed providing heavier anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons, fearing they might fall into the hands of extremists. But the former Massachusetts governor, in a major foreign policy speech two weeks ago, said he believed the United States should help the opposition obtain such weapons.

BEIRUT — The speaker conveyed a message of harmony at a funeral for some of the first victims of the Syrian uprising. "We are all one," Moaz Khatib told mourners gathered on April 2, 2011, in Duma, a largely Sunni Muslim town outside Damascus, the Syrian capital. The victims had died at the hands of President Bashar Assad's security services, dominated by his Alawite sect. But the speaker eschewed sectarian rhetoric. "Alawites are often closer to me than other people," Khatib told the crowd in the largely Sunni Muslim town, in a video posted on YouTube.

Russian and Chechen commanders worked out a cease-fire covering heavy weapons Monday amid signs that President Boris N. Yeltsin is trying to distance himself from the unpopular military operation in the breakaway region. The Defense Ministry said follow-up talks will seek to broaden the truce in the Kremlin's assault on the region's secessionist rebels.

Guerrillas of the Palestine Liberation Organization, driven out of their last bases near Israeli forces, handed over their heavy weapons to the Lebanese army Saturday. The Syrian-backed Lebanese government, saying guerrillas no longer threaten the Jewish state, promptly urged Washington to push for an Israeli withdrawal from the area.

This city's besieged people enjoyed a welcome respite from shelling Sunday, a day after the deadline for the warring sides in Bosnia to place their heavy weapons under the supervision of U.N. observers. But steps toward a full truce or resumption of aid flights depend on a new round of peace talks set to start in Geneva on Friday. Mortars--not covered by the weapons agreement--rained bombs overnight onto Dobrinja, a badly hit suburb, killing five people.

Western governments Thursday called on combatants in the Balkans to surrender their heavy weapons and resume talks on the future of Bosnia-Herzegovina without conditions, effectively commanding them to undo five months of savagery that has killed thousands and made 2 million homeless. The negotiations, to open in Geneva next week, are to be part of a vast new bureaucracy created by the conference delegates to tackle the Yugoslav crisis, one that they conceded was beyond their ability to resolve.

A mortar blast, a surge in machine-gun fire, a thwarted aid delivery and U.N. discovery of dozens more heavy weapons in Serbian-held territory made clear Wednesday that the siege of Sarajevo has not really ended. Although the capital remains calm in comparison with the unbridled bombardment of the last 22 months, U.N. officials are finding it more difficult each day to pass off the NATO ultimatum for ending the strangulation of this city as a resounding success.

Mortar shells crashed into a jammed refugee hotel in the Bosnian capital Monday, setting it ablaze and sending frightened people screaming into darkened streets. Sarajevo radio said five people died. The Hotel Europe, home to 1,500 refugees, was still burning hours after four mortar shells smashed into the five-story building. Sarajevo was lighted by flashes of gunfire and other explosions. "There was fire everywhere," said 13-year-old Almier Jipa, who fled the hotel to an underground cafe.

In their last debate together, President Obama focused on one of the few areas on Syria policy where he and Mitt Romney have a substantial difference: giving heavy weapons to opposition members. Although the Obama administration has been helping Arab allies choose which opposition groups to give small arms to, it has opposed providing heavier anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons, fearing they might fall into the hands of extremists. But the former Massachusetts governor, in a major foreign policy speech two weeks ago, said he believed the United States should help the opposition obtain such weapons.

The U.N. General Assembly condemned the Syrian government's latest attacks on rebellious citizens Friday in a symbolic vote that also criticized infighting on the Security Council that has thwarted intervention to halt an escalating civil war. The resolution deplored the violence engulfing Syria's biggest city, Aleppo, and included a call by Arab neighbors for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down. As violence surged, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that a flotilla of its warships was heading for the eastern Mediterranean Sea. It issued conflicting accounts of whether the vessels would dock at Tartus, a Syrian port where Russia maintains a naval base.

BEIRUT - Fierce clashes and hours of bombardment were reported Saturday in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, where rebels and government forces have been bracing for a critical battle in the nation's commercial hub. It wasn't clear whether Saturday's fighting signaled the start of a major government offensive to retake the city, a confrontation that could prove a decisive moment in the 17-month rebellion against Syrian President Bashar Assad....

WASHINGTON - After pressing for 16 months for a change in government in Syria, the Obama administration is scrambling to prevent growing bloodshed and the apparent unraveling of President Bashar Assad's hold on power from paving the way to regional calamity. A day after the brazen assassination of three top military aides suggested armed insurgents had begun to gain the upper hand, Assad appeared on state-run TV on Thursday to show he was alive as heavy fighting continued for a fifth consecutive day in parts of the capital, Damascus.

BEIRUT - The U.N. Security Council on Sunday condemned Syrian army artillery and tank barrages on a civilian neighborhood where 108 people, most of them women and children, were killed, suggesting in a carefully worded statement that government forces were largely responsible. As international outrage escalated, some viewed the carnage as a possible turning point in the conflict. The government and opposition groups exchanged blame for the massacre Friday in the township of Houla in western Homs province.

Islamic fighters have seized the town of Elasha, 11 miles southwest of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, residents said. The Islamists mount daily attacks on government troops in the capital, but analysts say it will be hard for them to take total control of the city while Ethiopian troops allied with the government remain there with attack helicopters and heavy weapons.

Islamic fighters have seized the town of Elasha, 11 miles southwest of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, residents said. The Islamists mount daily attacks on government troops in the capital, but analysts say it will be hard for them to take total control of the city while Ethiopian troops allied with the government remain there with attack helicopters and heavy weapons.

Cease-fire talks between warring Muslim militiamen in Tripoli foundered, triggering new fighting in a 10-day battle that has claimed 183 lives in Lebanon's second-largest city. Security sources blamed the stalemate primarily on a failure to agree on how to collect and store the heavy weapons of both sides. A day earlier, mediators from the Syrian military forces that control the roads around Tripoli appeared to have been close to imposing a cease-fire.

Afghan warlords began turning in heavy weapons to the government Thursday in the first significant step toward the demilitarization of the capital since Russian tanks rolled in 26 years ago. A convoy of Russian-made artillery, including BM-21 rocket launchers, D30 howitzers and antitank missiles nicknamed City Killers because of their ability to destroy a city block in one blast, queued up along Darlaman Road in Kabul's southern district.

NATO halted its aerial bombardment of Bosnian Serb positions Thursday after the rebels agreed to begin lifting the 41-month siege of Sarajevo. The Bosnian Serbs said they were willing to withdraw some of their heavy guns from around this devastated capital in exchange for an end to North Atlantic Treaty Organization air strikes and a requirement that Bosnian government forces register their heavy weapons with the United Nations.