Each week, HuffPost World will provide the top stories out of Syria and a recap of events in the country's year-long uprising, as President Bashar Assad’s regime continues its bloody crackdown.
June 16 - June 22 In Review
- A video showing dozens of mutilated bodies surfaced on Friday. According to Syrian state TV, at least 25 men were killed by "armed terrorists."
- U.N. observers in Syria suspended their mission after a sudden spike in violence. Head of the monitor mission Robert Mood explained intensified violence posed "significant threats" for the 300 unarmed monitors in the country.
- Syrian government troops intensified their assault on the central city of Homs. Hundreds of families were trapped between the fighting, and the United Nations called on rebels and the army to allow civilians to evacuate.
- A Syrian fighter pilot who defected to Jordan was granted political asylum.
- A Turkish war jet went missing near Syria's coast, prompting speculation it had been shot down by Syrian security forces.
Media Not To Miss
GlobalPost -- 'On Syria's Front Lines'
GlobalPost's Tracy Shelton accompanied a group of opposition fighters in Syria's northeast on a retaliation mission. Government troops had shelled the city continuously, and the fighters decided to launch an attack against one of the army's holdouts. Shelton met the rebels at their headquarters, and found one of the group's members ... singing the Backstreet Boys.
WATCH:
The New York Times - 'C.I.A. Said To Aid In Steering Arms To Syrian Opposition'
The New York Times reports a small number of CIA agents are working from southern Turkey to help distribute weapons to Syrian fighters:
The C.I.A. officers have been in southern Turkey for several weeks, in part to help keep weapons out of the hands of fighters allied with Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups, one senior American official said. The Obama administration has said it is not providing arms to the rebels, but it has also acknowledged that Syria’s neighbors would do so.