Anti-war demonstrators protest against a possible war with Syria, in Istanbul on Thursday. The Turkish parliament's green-light for cross-border operations in neighbouring Syria is not a war mandate, said the deputy prime ministry in televised remarks. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images
Anti-war demonstrators protest against a possible war with Syria, in Istanbul on Thursday. The Turkish parliament's green-light for cross-border operations in neighbouring Syria is not a war mandate, said the deputy prime ministry in televised remarks. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images
The UN security council has now issued a unanimous statement condemning the bomb attacks in Aleppo earlier this week which reportedly killed 48 people, Reuters reports.
The statement says:
The members of the security council condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attacks in Aleppo, Syria on 3 October, causing dozens of deaths and over one hundred civilians injured, responsibility for which was claimed by the Jabhat al-Nusra group affiliated with al-Qaida.
Two videos posted on YouTube today purport to show the shooting down of a government helicopter in East Ghouta – where rebels earlier claimed to have captured an air base.
The Guardian is unable to verify this footage.
More videos are appearing. Brown Moses is tweeting links to them.
Anti-war activists fear Turkey is being drawn into Syrian conflict
A Turkish anti-war blogger, who took part in last night’s protest in Istanbul, says he fears Turkey is getting embroiled in Syria’s conflict.
Serhatcan Yurdam, a 21 year old media student from Istanbul, told the Guardian: “We are against the Assad regime, but we are also are against war with Syria. The conflict in Syria is an internal problem.”
Speaking via Skype through his brother who acted as interpreter, Yurdam said:
Erdogan’s statements are about the politics of the Middle East, they are not about democracy or human rights. Turkish society doesn’t want any conflict or war with Syria.
We can’t tell whether Erdogan’s supporters agree with him, they just never say ‘no’ to him. He thinks he is the chosen one, so he can do whatever he wants.
Erdogan will lose support if he becomes more hardline. Today he said he doesn’t care what people think, he thinks it [military operations against Syria] are legitimate.
We just hope there won’t be war against Syria. We are worried there will be more clashes near the border. The international community should urge Erdogan to stay calm.
We don’t know whether these strikes at the border are coming from the Syrian army or the rebels. We think that Russia, Iran and the US are all in a game for the balance of power in the Middle East. Maybe they want to draw Turkey in.
Nothing is clear in Turkey. They gather in Parliament [to discuss the motion to authorise further military operations] behind closed doors. We don’t know what’s going on, we don’t have a chance to see how they decide.
The Syrian military has been ordered to stay 10km away from the Turkish border, according to Turkish news site ntvmsnbc.com, citing "reliable sources".
The Syrian administration has told its military to keep aircraft at least 10km away from the Turkish border and to avoid artillery fire near the border ...
The report also said a number of Syrian warplanes which approached within 10km of the Turkish border despite this warning had been ordered to turn back immediately by Syrian authorities.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that testing Turkey's capacity for deterrence would be "a fatal mistake".
Striking a belligerent tone in a speech to a crowd in Istanbul, Erdogan said: "We are not interested in war, but we're not far from it either. This nation has come to where it is today having gone through intercontinental wars."
Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Photograph: Aden Altan/AFP/Getty Images Photograph: ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images
Erdogan is talking angrily now: "Some say 'peace, peace, peace!' What peace? We are not wild about war, but we're also not distant from it."
Today's message from the protesters in the rebel Syrian stronghold of Kafranbel, reads: "Obama and his coward Nato have taught all [the] world's rulers the art of telling lies skillfully".
Morocco has withdrawn accreditation from a journalist working for the French news agency, AFP, after he wrote an article linking the palace to a political party competing in by-elections.
Reuters says an official statement carried by the state news agency today described the AFP story as "unprofessional".
The journalist, Moroccan national Omar Brouksy, has worked for AFP since 2009. He was beaten by police while covering a small protest in August and was previously the editor-in-chief of a French-language weekly shut down by the state.
AFP seems to have offended the palace by mentioning that the Authenticity and Modernity Party was founded by Fouad Ali el-Himma, a close friend of the king.
Jordanian journalist Jamal al-Muhtasab, who has been taking part in today's demonstration in Amman, estimates the crowd at 30,000. Speaking on his mobile phone, he told our colleague Mona Mahmood:
The protest organised by the Islamic movement in Amman started immediately after Friday prayers. People marched from different parts in the capital to gather in front of al-Hussein mosque.
The Islamic movement called for this protest 10 days ago and [it] was welcomed by many youth and union movements. The protest today is meant to show people's anger at the lack of real willingness by the head of the regime to make comprehensive reforms.
Also it shows the majority of the Jordanian people refuse to take part in the elections as they reject the law of elections. The majority of the Jordanian tribes won't take part in the elections. People have many objections towards the electoral law. They demand reform first, before holding elections. One of these demands is that the people are the source of authority.
What is happening in Jordan now is a farce and a circumvention of the constitution. It seems that the king does not intend to do any real reforms after the parliament was disbanded – no real desire to amend the electoral law and respond to people's demands.
For background on the political situation in Jordan, it's worth reading Samer Libdeh's article, "Is Jordan heading for chaos?", which appeared last Saturday in Comment is free.
Meltem Turkoz a university lecturer who was at last night’s anti-war protests in Istanbul said around 5,000 people took part.
Many feared Turkey is on the verge of war with Syria and they are suspicion of a government motion allowing Turkey to launch military operations abroad, she said in a telephone interview from Istanbul.
There’s always a sense in Turkey that there’s something going on that we don’t know about. Is this a game that Turkey is being pulled into?
Some Liberal intellectuals who initially backed prime minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan now see him as a much tougher figure, she said.
Turkoz said a variety of groups were represented shouting a range of slogans including chants against Israel, the US and the Turkish government. There was a feeling that "'we don’t want to be imperialism soldiers’," she said.
But there were also banners in support of the Syrian opposition, Turkoz said. “I saw signs that said we are with you Syrian people, but we are against war.”
There was a heavy police presence, but the protests were largely peaceful apart from an incident of rock throwing, Turkoz reported.
Demonstrators hold placards reading "No War" and shout slogans as they take part in a protest against a possible war with Syria, in Istanbul. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images
The Jordan Times certainly can't be accused of sensationalist coverage of the demonstration in Amman.
In a seven-sentence news report headed "Thousands of Islamists protesting in downtown Amman", it says the protesters are seeking "better elections law, more constitutional amendments and effective anti-corruption efforts".
It adds that activists from a rival group, known as the “loyalist camp” suspended a rally that was also planned for today in the same area, in order to avoid possible clashes.
A video posted on YouTube shows dozens of rebels dressed in army fatigues celebrating as black smoke rises from a military installation behind them.
A middle-aged man holding an assault rifle says the assault on the base, in the Eastern Ghouta area was carried out by a rebel battalion from the town of Douma - both places are a few miles east of the capital.
It is unlikely that rebels have the ability to fire the missile but they might be able to use the explosives to make improvised bombs.
When rebels have captured army bases in other parts of the country during the 18-month-old revolt, fighter jets have bombed the sites shortly afterwards.
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Here is a live stream from downtown Amman.
The demonstrators can be heard chanting "God, country, freedom – and that's it".
George Grant of the Libya Herald has visited the area to take a look at the forces ranged against Bani Walid.
Revolutionary brigades from across Libya have joined the Libya Shield and the National Army at four camps surrounding the former Gaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid, with commanders preparing for an assault as early as Saturday ...
“We are ready to advance but we are still waiting for a political solution”, said Colonel Mohammed Musr, head of the Misrata Military Council and commander of the camp at Bir Dufan. “We don’t want anyone to die”.
Nevertheless, with rocket launchers and machine guns being ominously and intermittently test-fired, Musr admits that the chances of a negotiated settlement being reached with Bani Walid are narrowing. “There are no negotiations with Bani Walid at present”, he said, although this claim has been contradicted by leaders in Tripoli.
Grant seems unimpressed by this army, though he thinks it is probably stronger than anything Bani Walid can muster.
In the scorching heat outside the commanders’ tent, the mood was at once both drowsy and chaotic. For hundreds of metres in every direction, soldiers could be found eating, sleeping, chatting, and in almost every case taking refuge from the sun in tents or on sheets strung from the sides of vehicles.
Nobody, not even those in charge, was able to put a precise figure on how many men had been assembled, nor did there appear to be any discernible logic governing how the camp was organised. The new model army this was not.
What this ragtag mixture of brigades lacked in organisational wherewithal, however, was compensated for in terms of raw firepower and combative spirit.
It is not known how many forces Bani Walid has at its disposal, but few believe the town can match what is now ranged against it.
Mehmet, a resident of the Turkish border town Akcakale, describes how close he came to be hit by Syrian mortars.
Speaking to Reuters he said:
This is how close we came. We came out and saw our neighbour's house completely destroyed. It was awful. For the last 20 days we haven't slept, we're worried about what will fall on our heads. This was not the first time they have hit us.
Look at the refugee camp they've built for the Syrians. Where have they built it? Right at the exit to our town. So the Syrians fire mortars at us. We act like a magnet. Our town has become a buffer zone.
We are stuck in the middle, what is this? If we're going to go to war, let's go to war but right now we're sitting here like targets.
Turkish local residents check a house which was hit by a mortar bomb fired from Syria in Akcakale. Five people including a child were killed and at least 13 were wounded when a Syrian shell hit the town on Wednesday. Photograph: Ahmet Caner Baysal/Andalou Agency/EPA Photograph: AHMET CANER BAYSAL / ANADOLU AGENCY/EPA
Syria tried to get the security council to condemn Wednesday's bomb attack on Aleppo in its statement on the mortar attack against Turkey, according to the BBC's UN correspondent Baraba Plett.
#Syria asking that #UNSC also condemn terrorist attacks in #Aleppo in its statement reacting to the #Syria mortar fire on #Turkey
A digger working at the site of three explosions that rattled Saadallah al-Jabiri Square in Aleppo on Wednesday. Photograph: KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/Rex Features Photograph: KeystoneUSA-ZUMA / Rex Features
The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the shelling by the Syrian armed forces of the Turkish town of Akcakale, which resulted in the deaths of five civilians, all of whom were women and children, as well as a number of injuries. The members of the Security Council expressed their sincere condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government and people of Turkey.
The members of the Security Council underscored that this incident highlighted the grave impact the crisis in Syria has on the security of its neighbours and on regional peace and stability. The members of the Council demanded that such violations of international law stop immediately and are not repeated. The members of the Security Council called on the Syrian Government to fully respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbours.
The members of the Security Council called for restraint.
The diplomatic blog Inner City Press says the key compromise was inserting the final nine words.
Among the slogans written on signs and banners carried by the protesters were: “This War Is Not My War,” “No to Imperialist Intervention in Syria,” “We Will Halt the AK Party’s War Politics,” “We Won’t Be the Soldiers of Imperialism,” and “U.S.A. Take Your Hands Out of the Middle East.”
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