Today’s Death Toll: By end of Wednesday, the LCC documented 146 deaths, including 15 children and 13 women: 74 martyrs fell in Aleppo, 23 martyrs in Damascus and its Suburbs, 12 martyrs in Homs, 11 martyrs in Daraa, 9 martyrs in Hama, 6 martyrs in Hasakeh, 2 martyrs in each of Deir Ezzor and Lattakia, and one martyr in each of Raqa and Swaida (LCCs).

Points of Random Shelling: The LCC also documented 253 different points of shelling, 19 of which were hit by aerial strikes from war planes and choppers, 2 were hit by thermobaric bombs, and one area was hit by both thermobaric and phosphorus bombs. Artillery shelling targeted 112 points: 75 of which were hit by mortars and 66 by missiles (LCCs).

Clashes: Free Syrian Army rebels clashed with regime forces in 109 different points, liberating police station No. 25 at the Jordanian borders, and seizing the Samad and Mothalath checkpoints in Daraa. They also managed to push back a military attack on Mleiha town in Damascus Suburbs (LCCs).

News

Russia says diplomats’ families out of Syria, denies large-scale evacuation as fighting rages

Russia Criticizes Syria Rebel ‘Obsession’ With Assad Exit

Syria’s food shortages worsening, U.N. says

Syrian civil war devastates farming: U.N.

NATO to activate Turkey’s missile system near Syria border

Syria rebels accused of looting churches Rights group says fighters have burned and looted Christian and Shia places of worship, increasing sectarian fears.

Walkie-talkies as lifeline in wartime Syria Hand-held transceivers help residents to communicate and also keep track of impending attacks in absence of other means.

Video report on casualties in the ranks of pro-Assad militias

Special Reports

Syrians Struggle With Shortages as Economy Buckles
Syria’s economy is buckling under the twin strains of violence and sanctions that have sapped the government’s finances, devastated the nation’s cities and left its industry and infrastructure in ruins… With the economy in tatters and work hard to come by as the war grinds on, many families don’t have the deep pockets for anything other than the cheapest option. One woman said she waited for four hours to get a pack of subsidized bread.

The Economist: The axis power
Almost two years into Syria’s uprising, now a full-blown civil war, misery and despair are growing across the land. Lakhdar Brahimi, the joint envoy of the UN and Arab League who is trying to mediate, is making no progress. A military solution looks far off too. Though rebel fighters continue to make advances in the north and east of the country, Mr Assad’s forces are consolidating along the north-south axis from the capital, Damascus, to the coastal heartland of his Alawite sect. “This is never going to end,” says a usually hopeful rebel commander from the eastern province of Raqqa.

Remember The War In Syria?
More and more groups are being dragged into a conflict that no-one is destined to win… The Christians and Druze minorities would have preferred to stay on the side lines, but the lines have been crossed and the war taken to them.

Robin Yassin-Kassab: Fund Syria’s Moderates
We can’t say that helping the Syrian rebels didn’t work, because it has never really been tried.