Rebels

BEIRUT -- Negotiations were underway Thursday between the United Nations and rebel forces in an effort to secure the release of 21 U.N. peacekeepers being held in southern Syria near the Golan Heights, a Syrian opposition group said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had received word from the rebel battalion responsible for the abduction that insurgents were negotiating with delegates from the U.N. and from the Arab League. There was no official confirmation of talks from either  organization.

BEIRUT - Twenty-one members of a United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Syria near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights were taken captive Wednesday, apparently by armed rebels, according to the U.N. and opposition activists. The action represents a potentially serious escalation of the violence and chaos sweeping Syria, where an armed insurgency seeking to topple the government of President Bashar Assad is nearing its second year. Amateur video purportedly from the scene shows armed men flanking three white vehicles emblazoned with U.N. logos.

BEIRUT - Intense military bombardment was reported Tuesday in the north-central Syrian city of Raqqah, where rebels have overrun much of the city and taken several high-ranking prisoners, including the provincial governor, according to opposition activists. Opposition forces are trying to consolidate control of an entire city and a provincial capital for the first time, marking a potential milestone in the almost two-year effort to overthrow the government of President Bashar Assad.

BEIRUT - The Syrian opposition said Monday that rebel fighters had taken control of much of the north-central city of Raqqah, where video showed jubilant residents toppling a statue of former leader Hafez Assad, father of the president. The capture of Raqqah, if confirmed, would mark the first time in the nearly 2-year-old war that rebels had won control of a major city and a provincial capital. Meanwhile, the Iraqi government reported that at least 40 Syrian soldiers who had taken refuge across the eastern border in Iraq had been killed in an ambush.

A decade ago, Canadian writer-director Kim Nguyen started working on the script that would become "War Witch," a film about a girl in sub-Saharan Africa who is kidnapped by rebels, conscripted as a child soldier and forced to commit horrific acts of violence. Around the same time, Rachel Mwanza was abandoned by her parents in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at age 6, living with her grandmother for a time and then fending for herself on the streets of Kinshasa, the capital. Nguyen was finally able to put his film into production in 2011 and cast Mwanza in the title role.

BEIRUT - Syrian rebels must give up their weapons before the government will agree to hold peace talks with them, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in a newspaper interview published Sunday. “We are willing to negotiate with anyone, including militants, who surrender their arms,” Assad told Britain's Sunday Times in a rare interview with a western publication. “We can engage in dialogue with the opposition, but we cannot engage in dialogue with terrorists. We fight terrorism.

BEIRUT - Syrian rebels must give up their weapons before the government will agree to hold peace talks with them, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in a newspaper interview published Sunday. "We are willing to negotiate with anyone, including militants who surrender their arms," Assad told Britain's Sunday Times in a rare interview with a Western publication. "We can engage in dialogue with the opposition, but we cannot engage in dialogue with terrorists. We fight terrorism. " Assad's government routinely refers to the Syrian rebels as terrorists.

BEIRUT - Syria and close ally Iran lashed out at the United States on Saturday for providing aid to Syrian rebels, the latest salvo aimed at depicting the West as resisting peace talks to end the almost two-year conflict. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem accused the Obama administration of engaging in a "double standard," pledging support for a political solution while helping to bankroll the Syrian insurgency. "We know that the United States is important and has a role, [and]

President Obama's decision to provide the Syrian opposition with another $60 million in aid - while continuing to withhold weapons - will disappoint those who have argued that the United States should step up its role in the battle to overthrow President Bashar Assad. But the administration is right: Arming the rebels now would be a mistake. On Thursday, Secretary of State John F. Kerry announced the new aid program, which he said would help the Syrian opposition coalition deliver food, medicine, sanitation and education.

ROME -- Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Thursday announced the first direct U.S. aid to Syrian opposition fighters, but the more-than-$60-million package will not include the arms or high-tech gear the rebels have long coveted. Kerry, on his first trip abroad as chief U.S. diplomat, said the United States would supply food rations and medical supplies to the military wing of the opposition and $60 million to its political arm to help provide basic government services in the areas controlled by forces opposed to President Bashar Assad.