Page 49 - Avery Friedman News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

bales, his state of mind before his recent deployment to afghanistan? >> reporter: certainly as you mentioned he's 38 years old. he's the father of two young children. he had deployed to iraq three times, was on his fourth deployment to afghanistan when this shooting rampage that he's accused of occur. if you talk to his lawyer and we've heard from his family, his neighbors and friends, they all say that he's a family man, a love husband and they are shocked by hearing this news that he's accused of this. let's listen to what his friend and his neighbor had to say. >> he had such a b...

who once spoke out against the killing of civilians in a war zone. sergeant bales' identity had been withheld for six days because of the pentagon's concerns about his security and that of his family. athena jones is live for us out of washington. what more do we know about bales, his state of mind before his recent deployment to afghanistan? >> reporter: certainly as you mentioned he's 38 years old. he's the father of two young children. he had deployed to iraq three times, was on his fourth deployment to afghanistan when this shooting rampage that he's accused of occur. if you talk...

engage president assad in some kind of talks and what kofi annan has gone there to do today is call for a cease-fire and get political talks going. the activists fear bashar al assad will just use this as a smoke screen to continue his military advance on the ground. that what he is looking for here is time to sort of continue the maximum sort of most deadly part of his campaign so he can sort of wrap that up and sort of push down the opposition, if you will, around the country so that from now on in the future, the death toll will be much lower and people will say, oh, the situation...

message that he's giving the u.n. diplomat there. >> so underscoring that real contradiction, nic, some are alleging that the assaults being leveled by the government is actually intensifying while these talks were taking place. >> reporter: this is what the activists fear. they think that while the international community tries to engage president assad in some kind of talks and what kofi annan has gone there to do today is call for a cease-fire and get political talks going. the activists fear bashar al assad will just use this as a smoke screen to continue his military advance on ...

yards wide and it tracked through the city on the southeast side. everybody has been accounted for. most people are -- we do not have any injuries, just a couple injuries, no fatalities but marked damage on the south side of town. >> you're talking to us at the same time you're live streaming these images for us and in these images we are seeing people walking around. are these residents that are surveying the damage or are these first responders who are there to help, volunteers? >> reporter: both. we have a lot of local people here that are people walking down the streets that are ...