Syria Direct: News Update 11-12-2013
* The Syrian National Coalition reached an agreement to form […]
12 November 2013
* The Syrian National Coalition reached an agreement to form an interim government led by Prime Minister Ahmad Toumeh Tuesday, after three days of discussions in Istanbul. The General Commission of the SNC named eight ministers alongside Toumeh, five of whom were confirmed by voting among SNC’s members, the SNC said in a statement.
Former Syrian National Coalition Prime Minister Ghassan Hitto shakes the hand of Ahmed Toumeh, the Coalition’s new Prime Minister Monday in Istanbul. Photo courtesy of the Syrian National Coalition.
* Two Syriac Bishops kidnapped in Aleppo six months ago, Paul Yazigi and John Abraham, are still alive and are being held by Al Qaeda in Syria, the Chief of the U.N. Mission to Syria Mukhtar Lamani told the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar Tuesday. Lamani said widely-reported false information about the Bishop’s whereabouts led to the breakdown of negotiations for the Bishops’ release.
* Five children were killed and twenty-seven were injured after rebel shelling fell on a school in the majority Christian neighborhood of Qissa’a in Damascus Monday. Missiles also resulted in material damage to the Church of the Holy Cross and the Corlis Church in the same neighborhood, reports the official Syrian news agency SANA.
* Three opposition-launched Grad rockets targeted a military facility in Latakia Monday, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A Syrian military source reports the rockets were launched from an area held by Jabhat al-Nasra. The largely regime-held northwestern coastal city experienced two months of calm.
