Protests as Sudan Lifts Fuel Subsidy

23 September 2013

Khartoum — The Sudanese government abruptly implemented previously announced austerity measures on Sunday evening by raising the price of a gallon of petrol to SDG21 ($4.65) and diesel to SDG14 ($3.17).

Sources told Radio Dabanga that Khartoum has turned into a quasi-military barracks due to the tight security measures imposed in anticipation of the 'wrath of the streets'. Nevertheless, demonstrations broke out yesterday, at the Souq El Arabi and the Nilein University in central Khartoum, the neighborhood of El Deim in Khartoum, and in Wad Madani, the capital of Gezira state. At the same time leaders of political parties and activists were arrested.

The government also announced a substantial increase of the prices of a number of commodities, which led to the 'synchronization' of the rate of the Sudanese pound on the 'parallel market' as the black market is termed in the Sudanese media. The dollar jumped to SDG8.20.

In Wad Madani yesterday tens of thousands citizens and students went on the streets to protest against the raise of prices and demanding the 'fall of the regime' which led to the closure of shops and public transport. Three petrol stations and the branch of the French-Sudanese bank on the Soug El Kabir went up in flames, as also happened with a government administration unit at Soug El Malaja. The police reacted by shooting with rubber bullets and making heavy use of tear gas. Dozens of demonstrators were arrested.

One of the demonstrators in Wad Madani told Radio Dabanga that the heave use of tear gas caused injuries among the demonstrators had to go to hospital for treatment. She said that the protesters raised banners wording that "the Sudanese people demand the overthrow of the regime", and "Hey policemen, how much do you earn?"

The authorities in Wad Madany announced that the security services and the police on Monday managed to contain "the limited riots". According to the official news agency, Sudan News Agency (SUNA), the government accused a 'group of saboteurs' that had attracted a 'group of vagabonds' of pushing its way to the central bus station of the city. SUNA reported that they caused damage to a petrol station at the Soug El Jadid and that they tried to destroy the television station of Gezira state and a number of government service offices, but the situation came quickly under control and peace returned.

In Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, where there were protests in El Deim, Soug El Arabi and El Nilein University, the police used tear gas and sticks to disperse the crowd. A number of activists of the Sudanese Party and of Girifna were arrested in Khartoum North. An activist informed Radio Dabanga that "thunderous demonstrations" started from El Deim popular neighborhood, led by women shouting "down with the regime". They were surrounded by the security men after Amarat Street was closed. Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that a number of the women were arrested.

At the Nilein University in Khartoum students went out to demonstrate but were quickly cordoned by a huge police force. The demonstrators then tried to restart their protests at the Soug El Arabi, which was also surrounded by police.

The Cabinet, under the chairmanship of President Omar El Bashir, approved on Monday the removal of subsidies on fuel, the consecutive adjustment of the rate of the Sudanese pound: 5.70 against one US dollar, as well as a raise in price of a gallon of petrol from SDG12.50 ($2.83) to SDG21 ($4.65) and a gallon of diesel from SDG8 ($1.81) to SDG14 ($3.17). The price of a cylinder of cooking gas went up to SDG25 ($5.66).

The Cabinet approved an increase in wages of civil servants, in accordance with the President's decision. The civil servants will receive 50 per cent of their October salary before the Feast of the Sacrifice. The President also announced that an amount of SDG150 ($34) million has been reserved for the support of "poor families", to be implemented as soon as possible, just as he directed "special and quick support" for the state of Khartoum in order to constrain the rise in prices of the public transport.

The governing National Congress Party stressed that there will be "no return" to the rise in prices and the removal of the subsidy on fuel implemented on Sunday evening. The President gave a press conference on Sunday evening, together with leading figures from the government and Ministers, that lasted more than two hours, during which he presented arguments for the 'required austerity measures'. El Bashir expects that the fear of the citizens will reside when they will witness an improvement of the economy following the austerity measures.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201309240632.html.

American jihadi slain in Somalia by rivals

September 12, 2013

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — An American who became one of Somalia's most visible Islamic rebels and was on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list with a $5 million bounty on his head was killed Thursday by rivals in the al-Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabab, militants said.

The killing of Omar Hammami, an Alabama native known for his rap-filled propaganda videos, may discourage other would-be jihadis from the U.S. and elsewhere from traveling to Somalia, terrorism experts said.

Hammami, whose nom de guerre was Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki, or "the American," was killed in an ambush in southern Somalia following months on the run after falling out with al-Shabab's top leader, the militants said.

Reports of Hammami's death have cropped up every few months in Somalia, only for him to resurface. But J.M. Berger, a U.S. terrorism expert who closely follows the inner workings of al-Shabab, said he thinks the current reports are accurate.

The rebels did not immediately present proof of Hammami's death. Hammami was highly critical of al-Shabab's leadership over the past year and freely shared his views in Internet videos and on Twitter, making him a marked man.

Somalia has long been an attractive destination for foreign fighters, and al-Shabab counts several hundred foreign fighters among its ranks, including about two dozen Somali-Americans from Minneapolis recruited over the past several years.

Hammami's death will hurt the group's recruitment efforts, said Abdirizak Bihi, an advocate for the Somali community in Minnesota and the uncle of a young man killed in Somalia in 2008. "We always knew the Somalis inside Somalia knew that al-Shabab was bad," Bihi said. "We were concerned about the Somalis in the diaspora ... who never really knew the facts on the ground and were always manipulated and misled."

"So that's why it's a victory. They now know exactly what al-Shabab is, as much as the Somalis inside." Terrorism expert Clint Watts wrote on his blog, Selectedwisdom.com, that Hammami's plight "probably soured recruitment pipelines from the West into Somalia."

Along with Adam Gadahn in Pakistan — a former Osama bin Laden spokesman — the 29-year-old Hammami was one of the two most notorious Americans in jihadi groups. He grew up in Daphne, Alabama, a community of 20,000 outside Mobile, the son of a Christian mother and a Syrian-born Muslim father.

His YouTube videos that featured him rapping and his presence on Twitter made him one of the most recognizable and studied U.S. foreign fighters. The FBI put Hammami on its Most Wanted Terrorist list in 2012 and offered a $5 million reward in March for information leading to his capture.

U.S. prosecutors had charged Hammami with providing material support to terrorists. In Alabama, Husam Omar, vice president of the Islamic Society in Mobile, a mosque Hammami once attended, said he had not heard of the reports of his death.

"I'm shocked," Omar said, declining further comment. A man who answered the door at Hammami's parent's home declined to identify himself and said, "I am sorry, I cannot talk about it right now." The home is in an upper-middle class neighborhood with manicured lawns where most houses fly American or Alabama University flags.

A member of al-Shabab who gave his name as Sheik Abu Mohammed told The Associated Press that Hammami was killed in an ambush in Somalia's southern Bay region. Some of Mohammed's associates carried out the killing, he said. Two other fighters with Hammami, including a Briton of Somali descent, were also killed, he said.

Hammami, an Arabic speaker, moved from Alabama to Somalia and joined al-Shabab in about 2006. He fought alongside al-Shabab until they had a falling out amid increasing tension between Somali and foreign fighters. He first expressed fear for his life in a March 2012 web video that publicized his rift with al-Shabab.

The first serious attempt on his life came in April, when al-Shabab's leader, Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, also known as Godane, ordered the killings of several of Hammami's associates. "Just been shot in neck by shabab assassin. not critical yet," Hammami tweeted after the April attack.

Al-Shabab and al-Qaida announced formal merger in February 2012, but the Somali militant group maintained a reputation of being hostile to foreign fighters. Hammami accused al-Shabab's leaders of living extravagant lifestyles with the taxes fighters collect from Somali residents. Another grievance was that the militant leaders sideline foreign militants.

Hammami has been "a thorn in the side of al-Shabab" for more than two years and "one of the few surviving dissenters after Godane's bloody purge over the summer," said Berger, who runs the website Intelwire.com.

"Hammami brought a lot of unwelcome outside scrutiny on Shabab from the international jihadist community. His story will likely be a case study on what can go wrong when Westerners join jihadist movements," Berger said.

Before the falling out, Hammami made frequent appearances in combat videos, and in 2011 he released two rap songs, "Send Me a Cruise (missile)" and "Make Jihad With Me." In December, al-Shabab slapped Hammami publicly in an Internet statement, saying his video releases were the result of a "narcissistic pursuit of fame."

Last week, Voice of America interviewed the wanted American, who said he was unlikely to ever return to the U.S. "That is not an option unless it's in a body bag," Hammami said. Frequent Twitter postings over the last year alluded to the fact that Hammami's life was in danger.

"i'll be a mujahid till the day i die whether it's shabab who kills me or someone else," Hammami wrote in an April Twitter posting.

Straziuso reported from Nairobi, Kenya. Associated Press reporters Amy Forliti in Minneapolis, Melissa Nelson in Daphne, Alabama, and Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama, contributed to this report.

Home Sweet Home - Changing Times Bring Somali Diaspora Back

by Chiara Francavilla
6 September 2013

With prospects improving in the country, some of the Somali diaspora are coming home.

"A cappuccino here is more expensive than any other coffee in the world," said Mohamed Ali as he addressed the audience of the second TEDx conference held in Somalia's capital.

"An espresso machine uses a lot of electricity and Mogadishu is the most expensive city in the world by kilowatt/hour," he said, introducing the story of Ahmed, a returning diaspora member who partnered with local engineer Isse to create a coal-powered coffee machine prototype. "Ahmed now has the cheapest espresso in Mogadishu and Isse has 100 machines that he rents for $100 dollars a month."

On August 31 a TEDx conference - the 'ideas worth spreading' event - was held in Mogadishu, the capital of a country that is still considered by some a 'failed state'. Despite this, spirits were high as the speakers, mostly returning diaspora members, articulated their hopeful visions of a new Somalia.

But this time optimism was accompanied by concrete examples of change in the wake of the installation of the country's first permanent government in over two decades. There is a definite feeling that something has changed or is changing and this is bringing back some of the 1.5 million Somalis living abroad, like Ahmed, or like Ali, a US-trained human rights lawyers returning to help aspirant business men and women, especially young Somalis.

"I'm passionate about entrepreneurship as a tool to fight poverty and unemployment," Ali told Think Africa Press. Somalia's unemployment rate is estimated to be 54%, up from 47% in 2002, according to a 2012 Somalia Human Development Report. The situation is worse for young people, as unemployment for 14- to 29-year-olds reaches 67% - one of the highest in the world.

Alongside speaking at the TEDx event, Ali inaugurated the first 'Youth Entrepreneurship Summit' in Mogadishu as director of the leadership and entrepreneurship organization Iftiin Foundation with Generation Change, a US-sponsored initiative active in several developing countries.

"Each new event is usually launched by the US embassy in each respective country," he explains. "However, because there is no US embassy in Somalia, my organization Iftiin Foundation launched the program in Mogadishu."

84 young Somalis joined the summit. All coming from different backgrounds, they had one thing in common: business ideas. Many had identified a service gap to fill. Ali is full of enthusiasm for the innovation of the group: "One young woman was telling me how she wanted to create an ambulance service. Another has a project for a microcredit group for women," he says.

As part of the youth leadership program, young Somalis will receive mentoring and will be supported in finding investors for their projects. Lack of capital and technical ability, such as forecasting and managing financial risks, are the main obstacles to young entrepreneurship. The diaspora can take care of the former, as in Ahmed and Isse's case, and programs like his can do the rest, said Ali.

A year on

It has been almost a year since Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was sworn in as the president of the Federal Government of Somalia, the first permanent authority since the collapse of all formal institutions in 1991.

"In the last year the environment has really changed," argues Ali. "Since the establishment of the permanent government there is greater security and a greater recognition of Somalia among the international community. This has the potential to attract more international investments."

One of the clearest signs of increased international recognition and improved perception of security has been the reopening of foreign embassies, such as those of the UK, Kenya, Iran and Uganda, with other countries having announced plans to do so, including the US, UAE, and China.

On August 27 Fowsia Yusuf Haji Adan, Somalia's foreign minister, met Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on an official visit to China. Wang Yi said that his country was willing to gradually restore "high-level exchanges" with Somalia, including economic and trade cooperation and active participation in Somalia's reconstruction.

"Somalia is the first East African country that established diplomatic relationship with China... the friendship between the two peoples has never changed," he said.

Somalia's strengthening of international ties prompted the International Monetary Fund to recognize the Federal Government of Somalia in April 2013, paving the way to resumed relations after a 22-year break. "The decision is consistent with broad international support and recognition of the Federal Government, which allows the IMF to offer Somalia technical assistance and policy advice," said Ralph Chami, division chief at the IMF's Middle East department.

Increased international cooperation has also led to the improvement in one of the areas that has traditionally been in the focus of the international community: piracy. Adjoa Anyimadu, research associate for the Africa Program at Chatham House, noted a dramatic reduction in the number of piracy attacks emanating from the coast of Somalia in the last two years.

"The has not only been a reduction in successful hijackings, but also in the number of attempts that pirates are making, demonstrating that piracy has become a less attractive means of revenue generation for many young Somalis," she said. In 2011 there were 199 incidents, but by the end of 2012 this figure had dropped by almost two thirds to 70. In the first eight months of this year there have only been ten incidents, according to the ICC International Marine Bureau.

Shaky stability

Security might have improved, but Al Shabaab, the Al Qaeda affiliated rebel group, remains an active threat, as testified by a recent ambush on the presidential convoy and a suicide attack on the UN office in Mogadishu in June, in which 15 people were killed, among other incidents.

The reduction in piracy attacks was also questioned by Anyimadu, who noted that the improvement was the result of "short-term" solutions such as increased international patrolling of the waters, more vessels following best practices to avoid attacks and increased presence and acceptance of private armed guards on board.

And whilst some return to Mogadishu, others leave. Médecins sans Frontiers (MSF) was forced to exit the country in August after working continuously in Somalia since 1991. The organization cited increasing violence against MSF staff and the apparent complacency of Somali authorities.

"Ultimately, civilians in Somalia will pay the highest cost," said Dr Unni Karunakara, MSF international president. "Much of the Somali population has never known the country without war or famine. Already receiving far less assistance than is needed, the armed groups' targeting of humanitarian aid and civilians leaders' tolerance of these abuses has effectively taken away what little access to medical care is available to the Somali people."

In 2012 MSF provided more than 624,000 medical consultations, admitted 41,100 patients to hospitals, cared for 30,090 malnourished children, vaccinated 58,620 people, and delivered 7,300 babies. Those services will not be replaced by funding from the IMF at least, as the fund is unable to support the country financially due to $352m arrears.

Old and new

Collaboration between returning diaspora and locals may not be as natural as it might seem. Mogadishu-based journalist Hamza Mohamed reported increasing intolerance of locals towards returning diaspora members occupying positions of leadership or heading business activities.

Ali acknowledges the tension. "That understandably happens, when you have lived for 20 years of civil war, stayed in Somalia despite it, and then someone comes in and opens his own business," he said. However, he argues that this change is more of an opportunity than an obstacle. His initiative received plenty of support from local businesses and associations, including Jazeera Palace Hotel, the Somali Tourism Association and the Somali Student Union.

"I was educated in the West, and I'm coming back to help out my fellow Somalis," said Ali. "I know they have been here all their lives, they know the challenges, they know the problems. I want to be their partner and give them access to the resources and networks that I developed in the US."

And with him, many others return, such as Zainab Hassan, former fellow at the University of Minnesota, who is now leading the restoration of Somalia's national library, with the vision of giving young Somalis a place to hang out other than the street.

Zahra Mustaf, an Australian architect, has gone back with two daughters to help rebuild Somalia's education infrastructure, with the aim of sending 1 million children to school in three years. 21-year-old Canadian Iman Elman has taken the return a step further by becoming the first female commander in the Somali Army. "[After that] I was no longer a Canadian in Somalia. I was a soldier serving my country," she says.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201309090357.html?viewall=1.

Bosnia privatization protests reach other cities

February 06, 2014

TUZLA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Violent protests by thousands of unpaid workers in a northern Bosnian city spread to other parts of the country Thursday and have morphed into widespread discontent in an election year about unemployment and rampant corruption.

Police used tear gas to temporarily disperse the protesters in Tuzla who threw stones at a local government building. The protesters returned after the tear gas volley, surrounded the empty government building and set tires and trash on fire. Police were reinforced with special dog units.

The protests in Tuzla, which began Tuesday, are about an ongoing dispute involving four former state-owned companies that were privatized and later filed for bankruptcy. Thousands gathered in four other cities in solidarity with the Tuzla workers, but also to protest against Bosnia's nearly 40-percent unemployment rate and politicians whom they accuse of being disconnected from citizens' needs.

More than two dozen people sought medical help in Tuzla, mostly from the effects of tear gas. The majority of those injured were police officers, including one who was hospitalized with a chest injury from a thrown object. A police spokesman initially said the officer was fighting for his life, but a hospital later said his injuries were no longer life-threatening.

The demonstrations have reached Sarajevo, Zenica, Mostar and Bihac. The protesters in Sarajevo, the capital, threw eggs at the local government building. One of them, Nihad Alickovic, called for more citizens to join the protest.

"Take your problems out on the street," he urged. Residents of buildings in Tuzla yelled insults and threw buckets of water at the officers who passed by in full riot gear. Elderly neighbors were seen banging cooking pots on their windows and balconies.

The four former state-owned companies, which included furniture and washing powder factories, employed most of the population of Tuzla. After they were privatized, contracts obliged them to invest in them and make them profitable. But the owners sold the assets, stopped paying workers and filed for bankruptcy between 2000 and 2008.

The leader of the Tuzla region, Sead Causevic, told Bosnian state TV that the "rip-off privatization" was already concluded when his government took power and that the workers' demands are legitimate. He blamed the courts for obstructing justice, saying the workers have turned to them years ago, but no judgment has ever been passed.

Bosnians have many reasons to be unhappy as general elections approach in October. Besides the unemployment rate, the privatization that followed the end of communism and the 1992-95 war produced a handful of tycoons, almost wiped out the middle class and sent the working class into poverty. Corruption is widespread and high taxes to fund a bloated public sector eat away at paychecks.

Al-Qaida breaks ties with group in Syria

February 03, 2014

CAIRO (AP) — Al-Qaida broke off ties with one of its purported branches in Syria and distanced itself from the rebel infighting in that country's civil war, according to a statement Monday.

The announcement appeared to be an attempt by al-Qaida to put its house in order and reassert influence among rival Islamic groups that have turned against one another in Syria. Signed by the al-Qaida "general command," the statement said the leadership has cut off the affiliate known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, after it disobeyed orders from the terror network's leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.

Al-Zawahri last May ordered the Islamic State to operate independently from a rival al-Qaida branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, led by Abu Mohammed al-Golani. Al-Baghdadi rejected al-Zawahri's orders and unsuccessfully sought to merge the two branches.

In Monday's statement, al-Qaida said it "did not approve of the creation of nor did it control" the Islamic State, and therefore has "no organizational ties with it." "We distance ourselves from the sedition taking place among the mujahedeen factions (in Syria) and of the forbidden blood shed by any faction," the statement said of the infighting among Islamic extremists.

The jihadis, or holy warriors, it said, should realize the "enormity of the catastrophe" and the implications "this sedition" can have on the holy war in Syria. The authenticity of the statement could not independently be verified but it was posted on websites commonly used by al-Qaida.

The rebel-on-rebel fighting has added another bloody dimension to the Syrian crisis, which erupted in March 2011 as an uprising against President Bashar Assad's rule but later evolved into an armed insurgency and civil war.

The war provided fertile ground for militant Islamic groups and over time, the Islamic State and the Nusra Front emerged as the two main al-Qaida-linked groups until their falling out last spring. The Islamic State, meanwhile, largely eclipsed the Nusra Front in many parts of northern Syria.

Charles Lister of the Brookings Doha Center said the al-Qaida statement reflected its "attempt to definitively re-assert some level of authority over the jihad in Syria." It also showed al-Qaida leadership's failure to take a genuinely commanding line in the rivalry between the Islamic State and the Nusra Front, and made it inevitable that al-Zawahri had to issue a decisive ruling with permanent consequences, said Lister.

Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

17,000 could have been tortured to death in Al-Assad's prisons

Wednesday, 05 February 2014

Some 17,000 Syrians held in Al-Assad's prisons are feared dead as news of the torture of a further 11,000 detains also emerges, a Syrian human rights organization said.

The death of a Syrian dissident in prison raised concerns about the possibility of the deaths after a photo released by a former member of the regime revealed that around 11,000 prisoners were tortured to death while in the regime's custody.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the death of Wissam Sara, who is the son of the well-known Opposition figure Fayez Sara. Wissam, a father of two, was killed on Monday as a result of the torture he was subjected to inside the military prison in Damascus. The group expressed fears that the fate of more than 17,000 detainees, who are missing inside the regime's prisons, could be the same as Wissam's.

The opposition human rights group based in London called on the international community and the UN Envoy in Syria Al-Akhdar Al-Ibrahimi to pressure Al-Assad's regime to release more than 100,000 detainees currently held in basements and prisons. It said it had already sent the names of 10,000 detainees to Al-Ibrahimi's office.

In an Arabic statement obtained by CNN, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it considered last month to be the worst in terms of the number of deaths since the beginning of the Syrian revolution on the March 18, 2011. The observatory documented 5,794 deaths that occurred in January alone.

The statement also pointed out that the number of civilian deaths in the first months of 2014 had reached 3,013 including 358 children, 225 women, in addition to the death of 1,281 opposition fighters. The number of unidentified victims reached 30, in addition to another 14 deaths from the regime's dissidents.

They said the number of deaths of fighters from the Islamic Brigades, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and Al-Nusra Front has reached 1,251 deaths, adding that most of the dead don't hold Syrian nationality and some of them are unknown.

As for the regime's troops, the number of deaths reached 923, in addition to 502 deaths from the "people's committees", the National Defense Force, Shabiha and informants loyal to the regime. There were also deaths from Hezbollah and 52 among non-Syrian and Shia fighters who are loyal to Al-Assad's regime.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/9592-17000-could-have-been-tortured-to-death-in-al-assads-prisons.

Syrian forces hit mosque with crude bomb, kill 11

February 04, 2014

BEIRUT (AP) — Men pull a girl from the rubble and haul her onto a dirty sheet of plastic, while another child, coated in white dust save for a red streak of blood from his nose, lies with his crushed leg dangling off a gurney — the grisly aftermath from the dropping of a crude "barrel bomb" by Syrian forces on the city of Aleppo.

The bombing — one of at least seven such attacks in Aleppo on Tuesday — struck a mosque that was being used as a school, killing at least 11 people, activists said. A video supplied by activists contained scenes of the carnage.

It was the latest example of the heightened use of barrel bombs, devices packed with fuel, explosives and scrap metal that are hurled from helicopters, often indiscriminately. Since Thursday, around 80 people have been killed by barrel bombs used by Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces to try to dislodge rebels from Aleppo, according to figures provided by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists on the ground.

The video uploaded from the rebel-held Masaken Hanano district showed the aftermath of the explosion at or near the Uthman Bin Affan mosque, where adults were teaching children the Quran, said activist Hassoun Abu Faisal of the Aleppo Media Center.

The video, excerpts of which are at http://apne.ws/1c0t9yt , was consistent with what reporting by The Associated Press found. A cameraman films from inside a vehicle as it speeds toward a place where dust is drifting into a clear blue sky. The camera swivels to men and boys running around a building that has been torn in half by an explosion.

"Are there martyrs?" the narrator asks. His camera focuses on a lump of red flesh in a vehicle. It is the beginning of a grim litany of death, as seen from the jerking camera. A child, his legs missing, lies on the ground, partially covered by a blanket.

"Are there anybody's children here?" cries one man. "Bashar, you lowlife!" cries another, referring to the Syrian ruler, raising his hands angrily to the sky. Another man shakes a blackened body inside a vehicle.

A man carries a lifeless boy, lifting him partly by his clothes, and leaves him on the sidewalk near two other mangled corpses. An older man with a bloodied face stumbles toward the child, weeping, "Oh, God, your grace, oh, God."

The cameraman also captures scenes of the boy with the crushed leg and the girl pulled from the ruins. The Observatory said at least five of the dead in Masaken Hanano were children. The use of barrel bombs across Syria has been widely condemned by human rights groups because of the weapons' indiscriminate nature. They have been a key part of a government strategy to wrest back parts of Aleppo seized by rebels in mid-2012.

Far from the battlegrounds in Syria, Assad's chief ally, Russia, expressed confidence that the government would return to the U.N.-hosted peace talks in Geneva that began in January after three years of war.

"We have no doubts that the government representatives will take place in a second round of talks between the Syrian sides in Geneva," Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian deputy foreign minister and Moscow's special envoy to the Middle East, said in comments carried on Russian news agencies.

Assad's government has not committed to attending the next round of talks, expected on Feb. 10. "We hope that both sides will continue a patient, constructive discussion," Bogdanov said.

Associated Press writers Laura Mills in Moscow and Ryan Lucas in Beirut contributed to this report.