The US has deployed a truck-mounted missile system into Syria, an official confirmed.

Every Sunday, the gymnasium along Beirut’s airport highway echoes with the shouting and laughter of dozens of Syrian children enjoying a rare escape from a grim and confined life in exile.

Syria’s president defied international pressure to end the year-old crackdown on an uprising against him and said yesterday he was determined to go on fighting what he called “foreign-backed terrorism”.

A GENERAL strike was observed yesterday in several regions of Syria to step up the pressure on the regime, activists said, as fears grew of an “invasion” of the besieged protest hub of Homs.