Pro-Assad journalist killed in Damascus as Aleppo battle rages on

Damascus : Syria | Aug 12, 2012 at 6:21 PM PDT

By saleh1966

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A journalist working with Syria’s state-run SANA news agency has been killed in his residence just outside the capital Damascus, SANA news said in a statment.

Al-Ikhbariya TV channel said that the head of SANA international news department, Abbas Ali, was assassinated by an armed terrorist group at his home in Jdaidet Artuz outside the capital on Saturday evening.

Last week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had said that Syrian state television presenter Mohammed al-Saeed had been executed. He was executed following an interrogation, the group stated, according to a report by the SITE monitoring group, which tracks Jihadist websites.

Meanwhile, four days after launching its ground offensive to cleanse the rebels from Aleppo, tanks and warplanes of the Assad regime continue to pound Aleppo city and its neighborhoods.

According to SOHR, the neighborhoods of Shaar, Tariq al-Bab, Hanano, Bustan al-Qasr and Salaheddin all came under bombardment.

"Our fighters have managed to retake parts of the city’s strategic Salaheddin district," the Free Syrian Army leader told AFP news.

For its part, SANA news said that armed terrorists have prevented residents of the city of Aleppo from returning to their homes.

SANA also reported that the Syrian army killed a senior leader of armed terrorist group in Salaheddin district on Sunday,without giving any details regarding this news.

In Homs, soldiers assisted by militia called the shabiha executed 10 young people in the Shams neighborhood, according to the Syrian National Council, the main opposition coalition. The victims were selected from a crowd of 350 people gathered in one place, said SNC.

On the political level, the Arab League’s emergency ministerial meeting on the Syrian crisis has been postponed indefinitely without explanation by the Arab League, the Arab League’s Deputy Secretary-General Ahmed Bin Helli said on Sunday, AFP news reported.

On the other hand, Reuters news reported that Bin Helli said that the meeting was postponed because of the minor operation undergone by Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.

However, the Arab League’s emergency ministerial will discuss the conflict and the nomination of Algerian diplomat Lahdar Brahimi for the post of the new U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria.