CAIRO -- With fighting now encroaching the suburbs of the Syrian capital, the conflict is entering into a new dimension for the first time in nearly 10 months.

The Syrian military has regained control of the Damascus suburbs after rebel fighters over the weekend made strong advances around the capital, threatening the grip of President Bashar al Assad. The Syrian News Agency say security forces attacked "terrorist hideouts" in the Damascus countryside -- a loosely veiled acknowledgment that the fighting is now on the doorsteps of the capital.

But the attention on the capital and its outlying areas is a sign that rebel fighters who are part of the loosely knit Free Syrian Army have grown more brazen in their attacks as they go on the offensive against government troops. The fighting near the capital comes as a spike in violence has left several hundreds of people dead over the past five days. Both the government and opposition activists continue to blame each other for the violence that only seems to be escalating.

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Syrian opposition fighters say the spike in violence is a sign that Assad's regime is desperate and launching whatever counter offensive it can to crush a stubborn uprising against his rule. Syrian analysts say with the international community convening at the U.N. to discuss the Syria crisis, the regime sees a window of opportunity in which it can resort to violence before pressure and possibly action is ratcheted up against Damascus rendering it impossible to continue on the same path.

An Arab League monitoring mission tasked with making sure Syria complies with an Arab peace plan to end the violence has been suspended. Syrian opposition says this has given Assad the greenlight to crack down in the blackout of media and monitors.

Read more: Gunfire 'everywhere': Street battles rage in Damascus suburbs

Some Syrians say the Free Syrian Army has grown in strength as more supporters and defectors join its ranks buoyed by its will to fight on despite being overpowered and outnumbered. As their numbers grow, the Syrian military is increasingly fatigued and weary, according to opposition members. Time is the regime's enemy, they say.

But Syria's fault lines are now spilling over into the international arena. U.N. Security Council members are convening in New York on Tuesday to discuss endorsing an Arab League plan that calls on Assad to hand over power immediately. The biggest objection so far has come from Russia which sees such attempts as interference in Syrian domestic affairs.

Russia instead has gone on its own diplomatic offensive, offering to host negotiations between the Assad government and all of the opposition forces. But a member of the Syrian opposition tells me Russia's efforts are only so that it does not appear as an obstacle to the will of the international community without offering an alternative. The Syrian opposition will not enter into any dialogue with Assad's government without preconditions. At the top of its list of demands? The President must agree to step down from power immediately.

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By Paul Goldman, NBC News Producer

TEL AVIV – The grief and sorrow on both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is torturous. Families from both sides have been left to mourn their lost loved ones after years of armed conflict. Young kids that died on the West Bank streets fighting Israeli soldiers and young Israeli kids that boarded a deadly bus not knowing a suicide bomber was sitting next to them.

It is natural for family members of victims to feel a mix of incredible emotions: anger, grief and a desire for revenge. 

Out of all those emotions one amazing organization was born: The Parents Circle Family Forum. Its members all had immediate family killed in the conflict.  But instead of hanging on to hatred and revenge, they have all worked to spearhead a reconciliation process between Israelis and Palestinians.

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“We are unfortunately witnessing an acceleration process of dehumanization,” said Dr. Aliva Savir, a member of the Parents Circle Family forum. “There is an urgent need to stress the human dimension of this conflict.”

This week, while leaders from both sides are at the United Nations and the world is focused on the Palestinians bid for statehood, more blood was exchanged on the streets of Israel.  But this time the blood was given willingly through intravenous tubes.

The family forum organized the “Blood Relations” project during which about 50 Israelis and Palestinian who had lost loved ones in the conflict donated blood.

Palestinian Wajee Tameise and Israeli Mashka Litvak sat next to each other while they made their donations. Tameise lost his brother to the conflict in 1991. Litvak also lost her brother, Arnon Litvak, who died during an army battle in 1970 and her father, Moshe Litvak, who was killed during the 1947 war for independence.

Their blood donations will be shared by both Israeli and Palestinian hospitals with the message "Will you hurt someone who has your blood running through their veins?"

“We want to be part of any future political agreement,” said Ali Abu Awwad, one of the project’s managers. “There is a need for an ongoing dialog towards peace, whatever the result of the Palestinian quest for an independent state is.” 
 

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Ten years since the shattering events of 9/11 changed the world, many Palestinians remain focused on what is unchanged: their dream of a sovereign state alongside Israel is still just a dream.

Many believe the last decade was actually a huge setback for their cause – especially because of America's subsequent war on terror.

“I think 9/11 was a turning point for Muslims and Arabs all over the world,” said Palestinian journalist Malak Hasan. “Since then the West is more compassionate with the Israelis than with the Palestinians. They think that we are only terrorists and deserve what is happening to us.”

Many here say that sense of prejudice has built barriers between the Arab and Western world and has created suspicions and misconceptions on both sides.

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Shadi Issa holds both U.S. and Palestinian passports, but said he still has difficulty traveling. 

“It's very bad. We cannot travel freely,” he said. “When I travel anywhere in the world I feel that people are looking at me. They ask me questions like, ‘Where are you from? Why are you here?’ Even if I'm going on vacation,” Issa added.

Nahed Freij is a business consultant and another frequent traveler. When asked if she gets the same treatment and how she feels about it, she replied matter of factly: “It’s discrimination.”

Still ten years on, there is no lack of compassion for those who died on 9/11. “We were all victims, because when people die, everyone is a victim,” said Rasha Sansur, among the crowds shopping in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

But ask around and you're also likely to hear Palestinians give credence to the many conspiracy theories that surround 9/11.

“The Mossad knew about it and the CIA knew about it. There were 3,000 Jews in the building who didn't go to work that day, it was not a random thing. Someone told them,'' Ashraf Abu Iram was quick to say during a conversation in the middle of a busy street in
Ramallah.

Still, Palestinians this month are focused on New York, not as much on the commemorations for 9/11 as to events a few blocks away.
At the United Nations headquarters on Sept. 20, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to ask the General Assembly to recognize an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. 

“Lately we are focusing on our state, we are thinking about the vote in the U.N., it is the most important thing for us now,” said 23-year-old Sama Anfus.

But the fact that the United States has vowed to veto the move only confirms in most Palestinian minds that the legacy of 9/11 in this part of the Middle East is one of division and discord.  

 

 

By Rohit Kachroo, NBC News

WAJIR, Kenya - At first glance, the massive drought which has swept across Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia appears to be a crisis caused entirely by nature.

As we traveled north through Kenya into one of the worst-hit areas, the lush green of the Nairobi suburbs disappeared into gray sand and dry earth. In three hours, I counted the carcasses of 27 cattle by the roadside, and one giraffe - apparently killed because the land could not sustain them. The striking images of the landscape seem to represent a deceptively simple assessment of the drought: the dirty work of Mother Nature.

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"The only reason for all the suffering in this region is the lack of rain," one desperate doctor told me as he lifted up yet another severely malnourished baby so that he could be weighed. The doctor is wrong.

Witness the outbreak of famine or drought and you'll usually see that there has been an outbreak of war nearby. In this case, the lawlessless of war-torn Somalia is driving people into neighboring Kenya. In Ethiopia, high inflation and fast-rising food prices have also forced people out. Many of those refugees have been competing with the recently killed animals that we saw on our journey for water and food. Consider that and the deadly cocktail behind this current crisis doesn't look so basic. Human hands are all over this.

Kenya's refugee camps are packed. Dadaab, the biggest refugee camp in the world, was originally built for 90,000 people but now has 380,000 refugees, UNICEF officials told Reuters this week. About 10,000 more stream in each week.

Bloodshed and turmoil
Many of the children arriving are stick-thin and desperately hungry, fleeing the impact of dry weather. But there are adults who appear to be well-nourished. Many are escaping their homeland because life in a stinking, over-run camp is better than the bloodshed and turmoil back home.

It all suggests that the solution might not be as simple as some donor appeals might imply. Aid agencies asking for tens of millions of dollars in donations will be able to do great work easing the anguish of many people.

Jane Cocking, Oxfam's humanitarian director, told The Associated Press that 12 million people face "a fight for survival". Oxfam hopes to raise $80 million, its largest ever appeal for Africa.

The U.N. has said the Horn of Africa is experiencing one of the worst droughts since the early 1950s.

But aid groups won't be able solve the crisis on their own. They can't end war. They can't cut food prices.

Cynics will say that it is a reason for the world not to get too involved. Many people have suggested the same thing to me. "This happens every year," they moan; on that point they're correct. Some parts of the region are so familiar with drought that they are synonymous with it. These are re-occuring crises which cannot be solved by even the greatest donor appeals.

But although the cause of the crisis is complex, the consequence is simple - painfully simple. This year's drought and "pre-famine" do appear to be particularly bad. The United Nations believes that it might lead to a "human tragedy of unimaginable proportions" - a grave warning indeed. Charities say that the world must act now to avoid a catastrophe.

But after this crisis, there may be many more - a tragedy in itself - because this is a combination of drought, refugee crisis and food crisis which has been made by men as well as nature. However, aid workers say that is no reason to look away.