Lebanese Hezbollah militants attacked a Syrian rebel-held
town alongside Syrian troops and Israel threatened more
attacks on Syria to rein the militia in, highlighting the
risks of a wider regional conflict if planned peace talks
fail.
Another ''red line'' in the sand has been declared over the
on- going civil war in Syria - a two-year conflict in which
the estimated number of dead has reached at least 80,000 and
the number of refugees 2.5 million.
The UN General Assembly condemned Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad's forces and praised the opposition, but a decline
in support for the resolution suggested growing unease about
extremism among Syria's fractious rebels.
US President Barack Obama has vowed to work to bring the
Syrian government and rebels to the negotiating table in
Geneva in coming weeks but warned that it will be hard to get
the situation under control in Syria's civil war.
Turkey accused a group with links to Syrian intelligence of
carrying out car bombings that killed 46 people in a Turkish
border town, and said it was time for the world to act
against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Britain says it is "very likely" the Syrian government has
used chemical weapons, and Turkey has announced it is
stepping up testing of people fleeing the Syrian civil war
for traces.
UN war crimes investigators have reached no conclusions on
whether any side in the Syrian war has used chemical weapons,
the inquiry commission says, playing down a suggestion from
one of the team that rebel forces had done so.
Israeli jets have devastated Syrian targets near Damascus in
a heavy overnight air raid that Western and Israeli officials
called a new strike on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon's
Hezbollah.
Republican senators have pressed US President Barack Obama to
intervene in Syria's civil war, saying America could attack
Syrian air bases with missiles but should not send in ground
troops.
