44 dead in air raid on Syrian city

An air raid on a Syrian rebel stronghold according to rescue 44 people have been killed. Among the victims of the attack on the town of Maaret al-Numan in the northwest of the country according to the indications were numerous children. Syrian Air Force fighter planes had flown over the city all morning. The Syrian rebels had captured the strategically important town earlier this month. Maaret al-Numan is located on the highway that connects the capital, Damascus, Aleppo. Nationally, died on Thursday, according to activists, at least 98 people. Since the start of the uprising against Syrian President Bashir al-Assad died in March 2011 after opposition information already more than 30 000 people. According to human rights activists also have at least 28 000 people have been abducted and disappeared. So the activist group Avaaz, told the BBC that it had the names of 18 000 of 10 000 missing and know other cases where people have been abducted by soldiers or militiamen. Brahimi arrived empty-handed to Syria Notwithstanding the heavy fighting is hoping the special envoy of the UN and the Arab League, Lakhdar Brahimi, still, the conflict of a ceasefire during the Muslim Eid of 26 to 28 October to convince. A spokesman for the Syrian foreign ministry told AFP Brahimi will meet on Saturday with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in Damascus. A spokesman said Brahimi, the Special Representative will also "very, very soon" meet with Syrian President Bashir al-Assad, but "not on Saturday." The Syrian government has until now Brahimi proposal for a cease-fire during the Muslim Eid not yet approved in the coming week. The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) said in the matter were not responsible."The SNC can not decide on Brahimi's proposal, since it related to the armed groups in Syria," said SNC member Mohammed Najati Tajjara. The Asad regime, which had on the EU sanctions initially responded with a shrug, said meanwhile that coercive measures were intended effect. They met but not the leadership, but the nation. Meeting the opposition planned in Qatar The SNC wants its members on 10 November rally in Qatar to decide on an extension of the Council. The reported members of the SNC-General Secretariat of the Agency DPA in ad Dauha. The meeting will have the motto "union of the opposition and the Syrian revolutionary forces." "I expect that even former Prime Minister Riad Hijab will attend the meeting," said SNC member Tajjara. Hijab had dropped in August after only two months in office, from Syria and joined the opposition. The spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, Victoria Nuland, said that they hope that the opposition will soon choose a leadership body that represent democratic principles and have a strategy for the transition period after the fall of the regime.