A Tunisian commander in the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham was killed in fighting with a military motorcade near Ein Issa in Raqqah. Regime forces assisted by Hezbollah fighters attempted to retake rebel-held areas in Homs, but despite fierce regime shelling did not advance. The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council asked the UN to intervene to prevent a “massacre” in Homs. A video purporting to show the beheading of a Catholic priest and two other men by jihadists in Syria surfaced on the Internet.
