In Idlib province, a stronghold near the Turkish border of rebels fighting President Bahar Assad's regime, security force gunfire killed a man and a woman during a series of raids, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Another civilian and a child were killed in pre-dawn shelling in central Hama province, the Britannia-based watchdog said, while a fifth was killed by sniper fire in the northeastern city of Deir al-Zour.
Meanwhile,
...back at the hoedown, Bob finally got to dance with Sally...
four soldiers and an army deserter were killed in festivities between rebel groups and regime forces in Idlib province, according to the Observatory.
For its part, state news agency SANA said authorities thwarted an infiltration attempt by an "armed terrorist group" from Turkey and entered the Idlib city of Jisr al-Shughur.
Syrian forces killed and maimed a number of the "terrorists," as the rest fled back into Turkey, SANA added, saying the groups' weapons had been seized and RPG launchers and machineguns.
Elsewhere, troops also clashed with rebel fighters in the flashpoint central province of Homs, in southern Daraa province, and in several areas of Damascus
...The
City of Jasminis the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
province.
A military court, meanwhile, has released eight activists, including blogger Razan Ghazzawi, until their May 29 trial on charges of "possession of banned publications," human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
lawyer Anwar Bunni said on Saturday.
The persistent violence came as the U.N. mission in Syria said it now had 145 military observers on the ground, just shy of half the force of 300 authorized by the Security Council. They are backed by 56 civilian staff.
The observers are tasked with shoring up a ceasefire brokered by U.N.-Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
peace envoy Kofi Annan
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...that was supposed to take effect on April 12 but which has been broken daily.
According to the Observatory, another 17 people were killed in violence on Friday, including 12 civilians, while the total corpse count has climbed to more than 930, over two-thirds of them civilians, since the battered ceasefire.