Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: At Least 1600 Killed in the Deadliest Week

Al Jazeera English's report on how the Syrian conflict is affecting trade with Jordan

See also Egypt Feature: Mubarak-Era Officials "Retain Millions of Pounds" of Assets in Britain
Syria Opinion: "A Population Can Now Dismantle A Modern State on Its Own"
Sunday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Unavoidable Change on the Ground

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2055 GMT: Syria. In his press conference today, Minister of Information Omran al-Zo’aby aimed criticism at Turkey and Egypt. He paid special attention to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi after Morsi's address last week to the Non-Aligned Movement's summit in which he supported the Syrian opposition against an "oppressive regime".

Al-Zo'aby said Morsi, like ousted President Hosni Mubarak, is a stooge of the US and Israel: “The beard is the only difference."

2033 GMT: Syria. Back from a break to find a video of fire and explosions in the Sukkari district of Aleppo because of regime shelling:

1619 GMT: Syria. Claimed, graphic footage has been posted of the discovery of bodies in Mayadin in Deir Ez Zor after regime shelling.

1556 GMT: Syria. Brown Moses critiques video purporting to show insurgent capture of SA-6 surface-to-air missiles. While appearing to accept the footage, he adds the caution, "As of yet there's no evidence that the FSA have captured the launching platform for the missile, and the missiles are effectively useless without one, apart from their use as IED [improvised explosive device] components."

1529 GMT: Jordan. King Abdullah has ordered the government to suspend a 10% hike in the price of low-grade gasoline.

Saturday's price rise, which sparked scattered street protests, was the second this year under measures suggested by the International Monetary Fund to cut subsidies and ease budget strains.

1521 GMT: Syria. Activists claim 10,000 refugees have been stranded on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey's Kilis Province, as authorities struggle to process the growing influx.

An official from Turkey's AFAD disaster agency estimated that 7000-8000 were held at the border: "We haven't stopped taking the Syrians but we are doing this more slowly due to security concerns....Some people are entering Turkey then going back and coming back again."

There are already more than 80,000 Syrians in Turkish camps.

1508 GMT: Egypt. Hundreds of writers and artists demonstrated on Sunday outside the building of the Shura Council, the upper house of the legislature, protest leaked drafts of the new Constitution written by the Constituent Assembly.

Protesters demanded the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, which they described as "illegitimate", claimed that as it is not elected, it does not represent the wide range of Egyptian society. They said that the Assembly's members reflected the views of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Writers Bahaa Taher, Mohamed Salmawy, Saad Hagras, Nabil Abdel Fattah Salwa Bakr, visual artist Mohamed Abla, and publisher Mohamed Hashem were among the protesters.

1502 GMT: Syria. The Local Coordination Committees update today's death toll to 132. More than 50 of the dead are in Aleppo Province, with most slain in the shelling of Al-Bab, and 33 are in Damascus and its suburbs.

1421 GMT: Syria. The head of the opposition Syrian National Council, Abdel Basset Sayda has asked the international community for weapons and help: "We need a humanitarian intervention and we are asking for military intervention for the Syrian civilians."

After a meeting with Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, Sayda told a press conference,"I have the duty of asking for weapons that will allow us to defend against the Syrian armour and weapons that are killing civilians all the time." He claimed the conflict had killed 30,000 people and forced millions from their homes, including more than three million internal refugees and 250,000 who had fled the country. Another 100,000 people had been detained.

1349 GMT: Syria. The Assad regime has ruled out any discussions with new United Nations-Arab League envoy without an advance concession by other powers. Minister of Information Omran Zoabi said:

THe conditions for success for Lakhdar Brahimi in his mission is for specific countries --- Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey -- to announce their commitment to the six-point [peace] plan and completely stop sending weapons [to insurgents] and close borders to fighters and close fighter training camps.

The ball is not in the Syrian court, the ball is in the Saudi, Qatari, Turkish, European, and US court.

1340 GMT: Syria. Anass Aldmishiki, an activist in the Damascus suburb of Kafr Batna has described the discovery of the dead after a raid by regime forces:

We found 34 bodies today after the army left. There are still many missing people, we can't find them or their bodies. Some of the bodies were decomposed and can hardly be identified. They had been left in the heat of the sun for three days.

The Syrian army stormed Kefr Batna last Friday with 15 tanks, 20 armoured vehicles and more than 1000 soldiers. They started to smash houses at random.

Many residents were executed by the government troops. They were killed by a shot to the head, or were slaughtered with knives.

Qutaiba Berhamji, one of the medical team, who worked at the Al-Fateh private clinic was killed together with three injured patients. The clinic itself was burned.

The army stayed for three days. No one dared to move and the Free Syrian Army could do nothing to help civilians. The FSA were concerned about firing, because the regular army use civilians as human shields....

One of those killed had a note on his head which said: "Assad and no one else."

Even though the army has left it is still not safe to go out.

There are many check points at the entrance to the district which make movement very difficult. The bakeries are still shut and half the people have fled.

1159 GMT: Syria. A photograph of today's car bomb in Jaramana in southeastern Damascus --- State media claim 6 dead and 31 wounded:

The Local Coordination Committees claim 69 people have died elsewhere in violence today, including 26 in Damascus and its suburbs and 25 in the shelling of Al-Bab in Aleppo Province.

1109 GMT: Syria. Al Jazeera English's Sue Turton reports on insurgents in the Turkmen region in northwest Syria:

1103 GMT: Syria A car bomb has exploded in the Jaramana district of south-east Damascus, according to state media and opposition activists.

1050 GMT: Yemen. In a revision of earlier statements by officials, Reuters now reports that a Yemeni warplane rather than a US drone killed at least 10 civilians (see 0745 GMT) in an errant strike on two vehicles on Sunday.

1030 GMT: Syria. Jordan and the United Nations have issued an urgent call to international donors for $700 million to cope with the rising number of Syrian refugees.

Jordanian Planning Minister Jafaar Hassan said the money would be used to assist 240,000 refugees and other Syrians.

About 5,000 Syrians crossed into Jordan in 30 hours last week, bringing the total of refugees to more than 70,000.

0940 GMT: Saudi Arabia. Blogger Ana3rabeya gives a detailed account of Saturday's hearing in the cases of activists Mohammad al-Qahtani and Abdullah al-Hamid, facing up to five years in prison for their activities:

Mohammad al-Qahtani then addressed the charge made against him, that his own political activism impedes the country’s developments, “the corrupt are those who have brought our development to a halt!”. He then accused the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution of being an accessory to the secret security’s crimes against illegally detained citizens, adding that further evidence of this has been made available to the court, as many of the citizens’ families were willing to serve as testimonial witnesses --- some were already present in the courtroom.

“We must stop leading the youth into the flames of proxy wars, and then throwing them into jail cells”, explained al-Qahtani. Many observers noticed that by this time the judge was acting indifferent to the activist’s statements, forcing tired yawns to appear uninterested. He then interrupted al-Qahtani, asking him if he was simply rambling on, or if this was supposed to be part of his statement of defense, despite it being apparent that al-Qahtani was in fact reading from prepared documents that he had brought with him. The judge then allowed Al-Qahtani to continue, only to interrupt a second time with the ringing of his cell phone.

The case was adjourned until the autumn.

0909 GMT: Syria. Lakhdar Brahimi, the new United Nations-Arab League envoy, has told the BBC about the Syrian conflict, "I know how difficult it is [to resolve] --– how nearly impossible. I can't say impossible --- nearly impossible."

The Algerian diplomat continued, "People are already saying: 'People are dying and what are you doing?' And we are not doing much. That in itself is a terrible weight."

The Local Coordination Committees report that 40 people have been killed today by security forces, including 25 in the shelling of Al-Bab in Aleppo Province.

Claimed footage of the aftermath of the Al-Bab shelling:

0812 GMT: Syria. Last Thursday the Brown Moses blog wrote about a new weapon, dropped by helicopter, "the barrel bomb". Now a video claims to show the damage from the use of one of the devices, in the Meyassar section of Aleppo:

0803 GMT: Iraq. Security and medical officials said two bombings targeting security forces in northern Iraq killed two policemen and two soldiers on Sunday evening.

0759 GMT: Saudi Arabia. Jadaliyya details the continuing protests of families of detainees, who claim that the Kingdom is holding almost 30,000 political prisoners:

It has been close to two months since families of detainees have been able to visit their relatives or even get information about their well-being. The situation has been accompanied by a near-total media blackout on the issue, both domestically and internationally. Concerns about the events inside the prison are only disseminated through social media by Saudi human rights defenders and Saudi associations of families.

0757 GMT: Syria. A security spokesman has said that a Libyan intelligence officer was killed and another wounded when their vehicle was destroyed by a car bomb on Sunday in Benghazi.

The device was remotely detonated when the two got into the vehicle in a busy shopping district.

The spokesman had implied earlier that the bomb had accidentally exploded, killing and wounding the men seeking to plant the device.

0747 GMT: Syria. Speaking to the Washington Post, "senior US officials" have drawn lines on American intervention. One said, “We could get dragged into this, no question, but we’re just not there yet,” while another explained:

The bottom line is that [such protected areas] would necessitate a no-fly zone....That would require taking out Syrian air defenses. This is a very slippery slope.

0745 GMT: Yemen. Al Masdar Online publishes the names of 11 civilians, including three children, killed Sunday in a US drone attack.

Some security officials claimed that five men suspected of links to Al Qa'eda, as well as three women bystanders, had been killed in the attack on two vehicles, but other local officials and tribal leaders said none of the dead were insurgents.

0615 GMT: Turkey. Security sources have said that nine Turkish soldiers and policemen have been killed and at least eight wounded during clashes with Kurdish insurgents near the south-eastern border with Syria and Iraq.

0600 GMT: Syria. We begin with Sunday's report from UNICEF that at least 1,600 people were killed last week, the highest recorded toll for seven days since the uprising began in Maarch 2011. 

The Center of Documentation of Violation in Syria claimed 4937 deaths from violence in August.

The Local Coordination Committees added 144 people to the toll on Sunday, with 74 deaths in Damascus and its suburbs, 36 in Hama Province, and 14 in Aleppo Province.