Fighting roils Syria as rebels make gains

An influx of heavy weaponry has aided anti-regime forces in recent weeks in a conflict in which an estimated 70,000 people have been killed.

5 Seconds

00:00

March 1, 2013

A child is seen in Aleppo while injured by heavy bombing from military warplanes in the Syrian city. Syrian government forces fought fierce clashes with rebels Friday, attacking a police academy.

/ Aleppo Media Center via AP

March 1, 2013

Anti-Syrian regime protesters hold banners and chant slogans during a demonstration in the neighborhood of Bustan Al-Qasr in Aleppo.

/ Aleppo Media Center via AP

March 1, 2013

A Kurdish woman dances during a demonstration in the town of Qamishli, Syria.

Manu Brabo / AP

Feb. 28, 2013

A girl from Aleppo looks outside a window of an abandoned building where her family and several others took refuge because of fighting between Free Syrian Army fighters and government forces in the northeastern city of Qamishli, Syria.

Manu Brabo / AP

Feb. 28, 2013

Thousands of Kurdish students chant slogans during a demonstration supporting the Kurdish language in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli.

Manu Brabo / AP

Feb. 28, 2013

A defected Syrian police officer, Adnan al-Hamod, 33, lights a kerosene lamp inside an underground shelter he made using a jackhammer to protect his family from shelling and airstrikes in Jirjanaz village, in Idlib province. Across northern Syria, rebels, soldiers and civilians are using country's wealth of ancient and medieval antiquities to protect themselves from the two-year-old war. They are built of thick stone that has withstood centuries and are often located in strategic locations overlooking towns and roads.

Hussein Malla / AP

Feb. 28, 2013

A rebel sniper takes aim at government forces with his Dragunov SVD rifle from a house in the eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor. The United States said it would for the first time provide direct aid to Syrian rebels, but not the arms they had hoped for, as well as $60 million in extra assistance to the political opposition.

Zac Baillie / AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 27, 2013

A boy runs as he holds a Kurdish flag in Ras al-Ayn, Syria. The United Nations says an estimated 70,000 people have been killed since Syria's civil war started in March 2011.

Manu Brabo / AP

Feb. 27, 2013

Members of the Kurdish Popular Protection Units join Free Syrian Army fighters to stand guard at a checkpoint in Ras al-Ayn, Syria.

Manu Brabo / AP

Feb. 27, 2013

Abu al-Yaman, left, a Free Syrian Army fighter and commander of Knights of the North brigade, cheers as he leaves a cave with other rebels to reconnaissance a Syrian army base at Jabal al-Zaweya, in Idlib province.

Hussein Malla / AP

Feb. 26, 2013

Free Syrian Army fighters take their positions as they observe the Syrian army base near Maarat al-Nuaman.

Hussein Malla / AP

Feb. 26, 2013

A citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center, authenticated based on its contents and other Associated Press reporting, shows people searching the rubble for dead bodies and injured victims at a site in Aleppo where houses were hit during a missile attack by Syrian government forces.

/ Aleppo Media Center via AP

Feb. 26, 2013

Syrians ride a scooter and one gestures as they pass by a street in Maarat al-Nuaman that was damaged by the shelling of government forces.

Hussein Malla / AP

Feb. 26, 2013

A boy holds a Kurdish flag as he and others carry toy guns on a street in Ras al-Ayn, Syria.

Manu Brabo / AP

Feb. 26, 2013

A Kurdish woman loads her family’s belongings on a truck after their home was destroyed by a government airstrike in Ras al-Ayn, Syria.

Manu Brabo / AP

Feb. 26, 2013

A Kurdish family sits near a fire to keep warm in Ras al-Ayn, Syria. The Kurdish Popular Protection Units and Free Syrian Army soldiers signed a cease-fire and cooperation agreement to prevent the possibility of an Arab-Kurd conflict in the future.

Manu Brabo / AP

Feb, 25, 2013

A boy walks past members of an Islamist group as they hold flags during a protest against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Deir el-Zor, Syria.

Khalil Ashawi / Reuters

Feb, 25, 2013

Free Syrian Army fighters dance as they sing songs against the Assad regime during a party in a cave near Jabal al-Zaweya, in Syria’s Idlib province.

Hussein Malla / AP

Feb. 25, 2013

A girl, Bushra al-Hassan, 4, who was injured in an airstrike, cries in Idlib, Syria. The Syrian government is ready to hold talks with the rebels, Syria's foreign minister said Monday.

Hussein Malla / AP

Feb. 25, 2013

Young Syrians play on swings at the Bab al-Salam refugee camp in Azaz, Syria, near the Turkish border.

Giath Taha / For Reuters

Feb. 25, 2013

People shout slogans during a protest outside the Syrian Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, to demand the release of a Yemeni doctor detained by Syrian authorities over alleged links to militants. The doctor was reportedly arrested in Syria in December and sentenced to death this week.

Mohamed al-Sayaghi / Reuters

A Syrian man stands on the rubble of his house while others look for survivors and bodies in the Tariq al-Bab district of Aleppo. Three missiles fired by Syrian regime forces left 58 people dead, among them 36 children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Pablo Tosco / AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 25, 2013

A woman who fled her house with her family because of shelling collects water from a cistern in Idlib, Syria.

Hussein Malla / AP

Feb. 24, 2013

A Free Syrian Army fighter prepares fire to cook inside a cave in Idlib, Syria. Syrian rebels used captured tanks to launch a fresh offensive on a government complex housing a police academy near Aleppo and clashed with government troops protecting the strategic installation Sunday. Arabic writing on the wall at right reads, “God is great.”

Hussein Malla / AP

Feb. 24, 2013

A Syrian villager, Abu Ibrahim, 73, writes the name of his granddaughter on her grave in Idlib. She was killed in an airstrike by Syrian government forces.

Hussein Malla / AP

Feb. 23, 2013

An armed Syrian man keeps watch from inside the living room of a house in Aleppo, Syria.

Bruno Gallardo / European Pressphoto Agency

Feb. 23, 2013

Syrians carry the body of a 6-year-old girl found under the rubble of a building in Aleppo. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday that surface-to-surface missiles fired by Syrian regime forces left 58 people dead, among them 36 children.

Pablo Tosco / AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 23, 2013

Residents of Aleppo search for bodies in the rubble left by a missile attack that hit the area one day earlier. The strike was the latest salvo in a fierce and bloody seven-month battle for Syria’s largest city and economic center, a key prize in the civil war, the Associated Press reported.

Bruno Gallardo / European Pressphoto Agency

Feb. 23, 2013

Residents of Aleppo dig into the rubble left by a missile attack a day earlier. The apparent ground-to-ground missile attack struck a quiet area that has been held by anti-regime fighters for many months, the Associated Press reported.

Bruno Gallardo / European Pressphoto Agency

Feb. 22, 2013

A displaced Syrian operates a makeshift barbershop in the Azaz camp north of Aleppo. According to Syrian activists, the number of people in the Azaz camp has grown by 3,000 in the last weeks because of heavier shelling by government forces.

Manu Brabo / AP

FEATURED PHOTO GALLERIES

A protestor in a Guy Fawkes mask walks past razor wire outside a security perimeter of the G-8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland on Monday, June 17, 2013. The summit is taking place under heavy security, with some 7,000 police lining roads and checking vehicles. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Photos of the day

G-8 summit, massive protests rock Brazil, Britain’s Royal Ascot and more.

Two-year old male rat named Dyatlik wears a costume during a rodent exhibition in Minsk, Belarus, Saturday, June 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Animal views

Rodent exhibition, swimming with elephants, Mexico’s feline mayoral candidate and more.

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 14: Johnathon Carrington, valedictorian at Dunbar High School, laughs with family and friends after his school's graduation ceremony at Howard University on Friday, June 14, 2013, in Washington, DC. Carrington, who grew up in Tyler House public-housing apartments and is graduating from one of DC's low-performing high schoolsy, where academic expectations are high. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

Johnathon’s journey

Johnathon Carrington graduated Friday as the valedictorian of his neighborhood school, Dunbar High, and is headed to Georgetown University. But Carrington, 17, is nervous, and so are...

U.S. actress Sandra Bullock poses for the media during a photocall to promote her latest move 'The Heat' in Berlin June 18, 2013. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch (GERMANY - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT)

Eye on entertainment

Sandra Bullock, Jessica Sanchez, Snooki, Billy Porter, Billy Crystal, Sean Hayes, Gwen Stefani and other celebrities.

LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 16: Reenactors dressed as knights stage a medieval jousting competition at Eltham Palace on June 16, 2013 in Eltham, England. The 'Grand Medieval Joust' event at Eltham Palace, an English Heritage property which was the childhood home of King Henry VIII, aims to give a great insight into life at the palace during the medieval period. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

The Grand Medieval Joust

The Grand Medieval Joust at Eltham Palace, an English Heritage property that was the childhood home of King Henry VIII, aims to lend insight through reenactment into life at the palace...

In this June 8, 2013 photo, youth compete in the Sao Carlos slum local soccer tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The pitch is just dirt and the incandescent lights aren't so bright. But when the boys' feet strike the football in the Sao Carlos slum as night falls every Saturday, big league dreams glow, inflated by the hope of escaping the shantytown with sporting skills. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Brazil’s other soccer fields

With the Confederations Cup opening this week and the World Cup one year away, all eyes are on Brazil, where soccer is arguably played with more passion and art than anywhere else....

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 16: John F. Tatum Sr. hugs his grandson John F. Tatum III during his annual Father's Day block party on Sunday, June 16, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post)

Father’s Day picnic in Northeast D.C.

A decades-old backyard barbecue in Northeast Washington draws hundreds in honor of dads everywhere. “It’s off-the-chain fun,” says Butch McNair, who has worked one...

LAS VEGAS, NV - JUNE 16: Miss Connecticut USA Erin Brady reacts after being crowned Miss USA during the 2013 Miss USA pageant at PH Live at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on June 16, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Miss USA 2013

Miss Connecticut USA Erin Brady is crowned Miss USA 2013 in Las Vegas.

Back to Previous Gallery

Discussion Policy | FAQ | About Discussions

Comments

Add your comment

Read what others are saying About Badges

SuperFan Badge

SuperFan badge holders consistently post smart, timely comments about Washington area sports and teams.

More about badges | Request a badge

Culture Connoisseur Badge

Culture Connoisseurs consistently offer thought-provoking, timely comments on the arts, lifestyle and entertainment.

More about badges | Request a badge

Fact Checker Badge

Fact Checkers contribute questions, information and facts to The Fact Checker.

More about badges | Request a badge

Washingtologist Badge

Washingtologists consistently post thought-provoking, timely comments on events, communities, and trends in the Washington area.

More about badges | Request a badge

Post Writer Badge

This commenter is a Washington Post editor, reporter or producer.

Post Forum Badge

Post Forum members consistently offer thought-provoking, timely comments on politics, national and international affairs.

More about badges | Request a badge

Weather Watcher Badge

Weather Watchers consistently offer thought-provoking, timely comments on climates and forecasts.

More about badges | Request a badge

World Watcher Badge

World Watchers consistently offer thought-provoking, timely comments on international affairs.

More about badges | Request a badge

Post Contributor Badge

This commenter is a Washington Post contributor. Post contributors aren’t staff, but may write articles or columns. In some cases, contributors are sources or experts quoted in a story.

More about badges | Request a badge

Post Recommended

Washington Post reporters or editors recommend this comment or reader post.

You must be logged in to report a comment.

Comments our editors find particularly useful or relevant are displayed in Top Comments, as are comments by users with these badges: . Replies to those posts appear here, as well as posts by staff writers.

All comments are posted in the All Comments tab.

More about badges

Get a badge

To pause and restart automatic updates, click "Live" or "Paused". If paused, you'll be notified of the number of additional comments that have come in.