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In this Sunday, May 4, 2014 photo, Syrian National Symphony Orchestra conductor Missak Baghboudarian, right, talks to a singer during a practice at art school which adjoins the Damascus Opera House in Damascus Syria. Two students were killed and five others were wounded when a mortar landed outside the Opera building in April 2014. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)

Damascus opera suffers under mortar strikes

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC - Associated Press

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 29, 2013 file citizen journalism image provided by the Local Committee of Arbeen which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, members of the UN investigation team take samples from the ground in the Damascus countryside of Zamalka, Syria. Syrian opposition activists and other witnesses tell The Associated Press that Syrian government forces have attacked rebel-held areas with poisonous chlorine gas in recent months. They say the attacks left scores of men, women and children coughing, choking and gasping for breath. The reports have been denied by the Syrian government and have yet to be confirmed by any foreign country or international organization. But if true, they highlight the limitations of the global effort to rid Syria of its chemical weapons. (AP Photo/Local Committee of Arbeen, File)

Watchdog says Syria must destroy toxic chemicals

By ALBERT AJI and BARBARA SURK - Associated Press

FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2014 file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad, hold up his portraits as they march during a demonstration is solidarity with government forces, in the al-Inshaat neighborhood of Homs, Syria. A Syrian lawmaker on Wednesday registered his candidacy for the June 3 presidential election, becoming the first contender in the June 3 vote that will held in the midst of the country’s civil war and has already been dismissed by the West as a farce. President Bashar Assad has suggested he would seek another term in office but has not yet announced his candidacy. (AP Photo/SANA, File)

Activists say Syrian airstrikes in north kill 30

By BARBARA SURK - Associated Press

In this image taken from video obtained from the Shaam News Network, posted on April 18, 2014, an anti-Bashar Assad activist group, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, two women and a young girl are treated by a medic in Kfar Zeita, a rebel-held village in Hama province some 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Damascus. Syrian opposition activists and other witnesses tell The Associated Press that Syrian government forces have attacked rebel-held areas with poisonous chlorine gas in recent months. They say the attacks left scores of men, women and children coughing, choking and gasping for breath. The reports have been denied by the Syrian government and have yet to be confirmed by any foreign country or international organization. But if true, they highlight the limitations of the global effort to rid Syria of its chemical weapons. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network)

Syrian activists accuse Assad of new gas attacks

By ZEINA KARAM and DIAA HADID - Associated Press

In this photo taken on Sunday, April 20, 2014 and released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, speaks with Syrian citizens during his visit to Ain al-Tineh village, near Damascus, Syria. Assad visited on Sunday a historic Christian village his forces recently captured from rebels, state media said, as the country's Greek Orthodox Patriarch vowed that Christians in the war-ravaged country "will not submit and yield" to extremists. The rebels, including fighters from the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front, took Maaloula several times late last year. (AP Photo/SANA)

Syria to hold presidential election on June 3

By Albert Aji and Diaa Hadid - Associated Press

This photo provided by the anti-government activist group Aleppo Media Center (AMC), which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian man carrying the body of a child killed by a government forces airstrike in the Al-Ansari neighborhood, in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, April 15, 2014. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center, AMC)

Jordanian jets strike vehicles on Syrian border

By OMAR AKOUR and ALBERT AJI - Associated Press

Syrian youth soccer player killed in mortar attack

Associated Press

Syrian youth footballer killed in mortar attack

Associated Press

In this photo released on Sunday, April 13, 2014 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a Syrian forces tank arrives to take position during clashes with Syrian rebels, near the town of Rankous, Syria. The seizure of the villages comes a day after Syrian troops backed by fighters from Lebanon's Shiite militant Hezbollah group captured the nearby town of Rankous. (AP Photo/SANA)

Syrian troops choke off rebels north of Damascus

By ALBERT AJI - Associated Press

Damascus, Ore., residents ready to exit city

Associated Press

In this Friday, April 11, 2014 image made from amateur video, provided by Shams News Network, a loosely organized anti-Assad group based in and out of Syria that claim not to have any connection to Syrian opposition parties or any other states, and is consistent with independent AP reporting, shows a man as he lies on the floor with an oxygen mask at a hospital room in Kfar Zeita, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Damascus, Syria. Syrian government media and rebel forces said Saturday, April 12, 2014 that poison gas had been used in the village, on Friday injuring scores of people, while blaming each other for the attack. (AP Photo/Shams News Network)

Poison gas claims complicate Syrian civil war

By BASSEM MROUE - Associated Press

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, black smoke and flame rise from the rooftop of a building that was, according to SANA, attacked by a mortar shelled by the Syrian rebels in Damascus, Syria, Saturday April 5, 2014. Al-Qaida's leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, called on fighters to determine who killed his chief representative in Syria, a man many militant groups believe died at the hands of a rival militia, in a move that highlighted a conflict between rebels that has killed hundreds. (AP Photo/SANA)

Mortar fire kills 2 near opera of Syrian capital

By Albert Aji and Diaa Hadid - Associated Press