Syria burning

Amateur footage uploaded on social media platforms shows several video’s of objects such as flags, cars and houses burning in different cities across Syria.
Al Arabiya cannot independently verify the content of this video.

Reports from Syria cannot be independently verified as the authorities have repeatedly denied access to rights groups and journalists, and the Syrian government barred most international media from the country not long after the start of the unrest.

Syria marks the first anniversary on Thursday of an increasingly bloody uprising against Assad, with recent army gains unlikely to quell the revolt and no diplomatic solution in sight.

Amid dire warnings that Syria is set to sink into a protracted civil war, the U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has demanded further clarifications from Damascus over its response to proposals aimed at ending the violence.

He is due to report back to a divided U.N. Security Council on Friday, with Russia and China still standing behind a defiant Assad while exasperated Western powers push for regime change.

The United Nations estimates that more than 8,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting, while some 230,000 Syrians have been displaced from their homes, including 30,000 who have fled abroad, raising the prospect of a refugee crisis.