EVEN at the darkest moments of the terror campaigns that scarred these islands, and there were far too many, the hope that protagonists might come to their senses — as they eventually did — always existed.

Syrian government troops carried out hundreds of indiscriminate aerial attacks in the past year, most with barrel bombs, in defiance of a United Nations Security Council demand to stop, a US rights group said, calling for a UN arms embargo.

Two Israeli soldiers have been killed in a Hezbollah strike on an army convoy near the Lebanese border, the military said.

Five ethnic Chechens from Russia have been arrested in France, including one with a cache of explosives, as four other men appeared at a Parisian court, the first to face charges over recent attacks.

Material damage of benefit to al Qaeda, says Syrian military

Israeli war planes have unleashed airstrikes against Syrian army targets in response to a roadside bombing in the Golan Heights that wounded four soldiers.

Syria’s army and Lebanon’s Hezbollah seized full control of the rebel bastion Yabrud yesterday, dealing the opposition a heavy symbolic and strategic blow in the Qalamoun region along the Lebanese border.

The chief of the UN relief agency supporting Palestinian refugees said he is “deeply disturbed and shaken” by the despair and destruction he had seen in a besieged camp in the Syrian capital.

The UN weapons team investigating the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons has been attacked by sniper fire as it set out in convoy for the area where hundreds of civilians died.

Syrian government forces backed by Lebanese Hezbollah militants are tightening their grip on a key rebel district in central Syria, activists say.

Up to 150 Irish troops will be deployed to the Middle East to protect a sensitive border crossing.

President Barack Obama has decided to authorise lethal aid to Syrian rebels but US officials are still grappling with what type and how much weaponry to send the opposition forces and how to ensure it stays out of the hands of extremists battling for control of Syria.

Hezbollah fighters and Syrian rebels have exchanged fire in a remote area of eastern Lebanon overnight, leading to a number of deaths on both sides, according to a Lebanese security official.

The Syrian regime is expanding its use of widely banned cluster bombs, an international human rights group said in a report today as the deadlocked conflict entered its third year.

The chief of Syrian rebel forces says his fighters are in “desperate” need of weapons and ammunition rather than the food supplies and bandages that the US now plans to provide.

MAY

1982: Main events

The international envoy tasked with pushing to end Syria’s civil war has said the situation is still “worrying” after discussing the crisis with president Bashar Assad.

A mortar attack has killed 29 pupils and a teacher in a Damascus school, according to state media.

It is being hailed as a miracle in a conflict that has seen endless misery.

ON Oct 3, a mortar shell crossed from Syria into Turkey and smashed into Zeliha Timucin’s home, killing Timucin, her sister, and three of her kids.

Syrian government forces appear to have recently made use of cluster bombs, weapons banned by most countries because of the danger they pose to civilians, a New York-based rights watchdog has said.

Former President Mary Robinson has urged the international community to take a tougher line with Russia and China over their support for the Syrian Government.

Another mortar shell from Syria struck Turkish territory today, prompting a fourth straight day of retaliatory artillery fire, and reviving fears that the crisis in Syria could spiral into a regional conflict.

Syrian warplanes and artillery have pounded the central city of Homs, subjecting the former rebel stronghold to its worst bombardment in months, activists said.

Syrian army shelling and helicopter attacks on suburbs of the capital Damascus killed at least 62 people yesterday, opposition activists said.

The Syrian government is pounding the country’s second city, Aleppo, with military helicopters, activists said today.

Russia has urged Syria to refrain from using chemical weapons.

Israel would “have to act” if the Syrian regime collapses and there is a risk Syria’s chemical weapons and missiles could fall into the hands of militant groups, the Jewish state’s prime minister warned yesterday.

Israel would “have to act” if the Syrian regime collapses and there is a risk Syria’s chemical weapons and missiles could fall into the hands of militant groups, the Jewish state’s prime minister warned today.

Syrian troops clashed with rebels in the city of Aleppo for a second day today, forcing inhabitants to flee to safer areas in some of the fiercest fighting to date in the heart of the country’s northern commercial hub, activists said.

UN special envoy Kofi Annan has acknowledged that the international community's efforts to find a political solution to the escalating violence in Syria have failed.

President Bashar Assad has formed a new government headed by a loyalist member of his Baath Party, Syria’s state news agency has said.

Syria said it shot down a Turkish military plane that entered Syrian air space, while Turkey vowed to “determinedly take necessary steps” in response.

Syrian government forces pounded areas in the central province of Homs today in a renewed push to regain control of rebel-held territories, and activists said at least 38 people were killed in shelling there over the past 24 hours.

The weekend massacre of more than 100 people became a potential turning point in the Syrian crisis yesterday as even staunch ally Russia took an unusually hard line against President Bashar Assad’s government.

Syrian security forces have stormed student dorms at a university in the north west after anti-government protests, killing at least four students and wounding several others, activists and opposition groups said.

The United Nations failed the people of Syria because of Security Council power games, writes Colm O’Gorman

A member of Syria’s security forces has been killed and three others injured by a roadside bomb in the central province of Hama, the official news agency said today.

Syrian forces opened fire across two tense borders, killing a TV journalist in Lebanon and at least two people in a refugee camp in Turkey on the eve of a deadline for a ceasefire plan that seems all but certain to fail.

Syrian troops have shelled a southern village and clashed with army defectors holed up inside in violence that killed a 15-year-old boy and five government soldiers, activists said.

Two wounded Western journalists escaped from Syria today after being trapped for days in the besieged central city of Homs, activist groups said.

Syrian forces murdered journalist Marie Colvin after pledging to kill “any journalist who set foot on Syrian soil”, it emerged last night.