Dozens found with hands bound in Syria's Aleppo

The bodies of at least 65 men, many of them with their hands bound behind their back, were found on the muddy banks of a small river Tuesday in the northern city of Aleppo, activists said.
 
The bodies, almost all of men in their 20s and 30s, were discovered in the contested neighborhood of Bustan al-Qasr, the director of the Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman said. Intense clashes between rebels and government troops have raged in the district since opposition forces launched an offensive on Aleppo in July.
    
Abdul-Rahman said it was not clear who was behind the killings, when they occurred or who the dead are.       

This as, activists said that Syrian troops are fighting rebels over a government intelligence complex and a major prison where opposition figures are reportedly being held in the oil-rich east of the country.                         

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Tuesday's clashes are taking place in the city of Deir el-Zour, along the border with Iraq.                   

The Observatory says the rebels now control most of the government complex, including the prison, from which they have freed at least 11 opposition figures.                     

It isn't clear if the freed people are fighters or activists.                    

Deir el-Zour has been the scene of heavy fighting during nearly two years of conflict.                    

The aid group Doctors Without Borders said last month the city is being shelled and bombed by government forces almost daily.                      

Earlier, the United Nations announced that more than 700,000 Syrian refugees have registered in neighboring countries or await processing there, as aid workers struggle to keep up with the exodus,              

"We have seen an unrelenting flow of refugees across all borders. We are running double shifts to register people," Sybella Wilkes, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told Reuters in Geneva.                

As for President Barack Obama, he authorized an additional $155 million in humanitarian aid for the Syrian people Tuesday, as his administration grapples for a way to stem the violence without direct U.S. military involvement.
 
Obama announced the additional funding Tuesday in a video directed at the Syrian people.


REUTERS