Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
attended prayers on Tuesday, the second day of the Eid al-Adha.
Eid al-Adha, or Feast of
Sacrifice, marks the end of the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in
Saudi Arabia.
The Hajj must be carried out at
least once in a lifetime by any Muslim who has the ability to do so as one of
the pillars of Islamic faith.
Muslims traditionally celebrate
Eid al-Adha with the sacrifice of animals - usually cows and goats - after
traditional prayers in mosques.
Eid al-Adha lasts up to three
days, and in Muslim countries is a public holiday.
Doctors Without Borders:
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called Tuesday on Syria’s
warring groups and the international community to make aiding needy civilians
as urgent as dealing with chemical weapons.
MSF called for humanitarian aid to be treated as an equally pressing
priority.
The appeal came four days after the Organization for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons (OPCW) won the Nobel Peace Prize, in a strong endorsement of
its Syria mission.
Syria became a full member of the OPCW on Monday, in another step toward eliminating its chemical
weapons stockpile by mid-2014.
The push to eliminate Syria's stockpile of about 1,000
metric tons of blistering and nerve agents stems from an Aug. 21 chemical
weapons attack on opposition-held suburbs of Damascus. Hundreds were killed,
including many children. The West says the Syrian government was responsible,
while Damascus blames the rebels.
Syrian President
Bashar Assad said Monday that his country stopped manufacturing chemical agents
in 1997 because they became an "outdated deterrent." He said Syria
has since concentrated on its missile capabilities.
On the field:
An activist group said Syrian
warplanes have been bombing the suburbs of Damascus while rebels have fired
mortar shells at the capital on the first day of a major Muslim holiday.
Tuesday's fighting shows how
entrenched both sides in Syria's civil war have become. Earlier in the
fighting, the sides occasionally attempted to observe holiday cease-fires.
The Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said rebels fired rockets and mortar rounds at
three Damascus neighborhoods. An amateur video posted online showed three
rockets being fired, leaving a trail of dark smoke.
The Observatory said the regime bombed rebel areas
near the city of Hama, killing three children, and Damascus' Eastern Ghouta district.
LBCI/AP