Iran blames outside forces for Syria blast
Updated 1 hour ago
[Iran blames outside forces for Syria blast ]
TEHRAN: Iran on Saturday condemned a deadly suicide bombing in Damascus, charging that such "terrorist actions" were the work of foreign governments that wanted to arm the Syrian opposition.
Iran "condemns terrorist act that resulted in killing and injuring Syrian people and also condemns foreign intervention," the deputy foreign minister in charge of Arab and African affairs, Hossein Amirabdolahian, said in a statement posted on his ministry's website.
"The parties who back sending weapons to Syria are responsible for killing innocent people. Some parties, by sending weapons and (committing) terrorist actions in this country, are pursuing their own specific goals,"
Amirabdolahian stressed in his statement that the solution to the Syrian unrest should be a "solely political one" that incorporates reforms promised by Assad.
"Some parties consider themselves above the UN and its special envoy's plan and are trying to impose their will with hasty actions," he said, in another swipe at countries that have argued in favour of arming the Syrian opposition.
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State media said at least 11 people died and 28 were wounded in Friday's suicide bombing which hit worshippers leaving a mosque after the main weekly prayers.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two civilians died.
Syria is the chief Middle East ally of Iran, which has pledged its support to beleaguered President Bashar al-Assad.
The persistent bloodshed has endangered a hard-won truce brokered by international peace envoy Kofi Annan even before the full deployment of a promised 300-strong UN military observer mission.
Amirabdolahian did not name them but Iran's Gulf Arab rivals Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been among the most outspoken champions of arming the rebels,
although both governments insist they are not yet doing so.
US officials have voiced suspicion that Iran is supplying Assad's regime with weapons and military advisers, but Tehran has denied that.
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Rebel rivalry and suspicions threaten Syria revolt
Fri, Apr 27 10:04 AM EDT
By Erika Solomon
ANTAKYA, Turkey (Reuters) - Rebel fighter Mustafa and his trio of burly men look out of place at a trendy Turkish cafe near the Syrian border, dressed in tattered jeans and silently puffing on cigarettes as they scoop into tall ice-cream sundaes.
Their battleground is across the frontier in Syria, where they are fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad. But like many rebels in northern Syria, they are so desperate for weapons and money, they are searching for new donors in Turkey.
"When it comes to getting weapons, every group knows they are on their own," says the 25-year-old with a patchy beard. "It's a fight for resources."
Nominally Mustafa's rebels fight for the Free Syrian Army (FSA), but the FSA, lacking international recognition or direct state funding, is a often just a convenient label for a host of local armed groups competing fiercely for scarce financing.
So fiercely, they sometimes turn their guns on each other.
"Everyone needs weapons. There is tension. There is anger and yes, sometimes there is fighting if rebels in one town seem to have an unfair share of weapons," said Mustafa, who comes from Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, which borders Turkey and has been a hotbed of resistance to Assad.
Such mistrust is compounded by the competing agendas of outside parties who are further fragmenting the rebel movement.
Finding a donor usually means using personal connections, rebels say. They get relatives or expatriate friends to put them in touch with businessmen or Syrian groups abroad.
But once fighters go to private donors for weapons, they have to negotiate, and the price may be ideological.
Many say Islamist groups, from hard-line Salafists to the exiled Muslim Brotherhood, bankroll many battalions that share their religious outlook. The Brotherhood has representatives in Antakya ready to meet interested rebels, fighters say.
Leftist politicians and other opponents of Islamists are trying to counter that influence by funding rival armed bands.
"These groups are all making their own militias, like they are some kind of warlords. This is dividing people," said one activist who asked not to be named. "They aren't thinking about military strategies, they are thinking about politics."
SPLINTER GROUPS
With the U.N. peace plan for Syria on the ropes, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, regional rivals of Assad's main ally Iran, are likely to increase calls for the insurgents to be armed.
Western powers wary of military entanglement in another Middle Eastern hotspot have so far said this would not be helpful, while proposing non-lethal aid to the opposition.
Even if that were to change, it is not clear how military supplies could be directed to competing insurgents hopelessly outgunned by Assad's artillery and tanks, many of whom don't even agree on a military strategy.
Several rebel groups have formally broken with the FSA to form outfits such as the Syrian Liberation Army, the Patriotic Army and The Alternative Movement, whose real identity and clout are hard to assess, because the government restricts media access to Syria.
The FSA has pledged to honor the shaky U.N.-backed truce that took effect on April 16 if the army reciprocates. But the Syrian Liberation Army says it will keep fighting.
"We don't accept the ceasefire. We have slowed down a bit, only because we don't have enough weapons," its spokesman, Haitham Qudeimati, told Reuters.
Fighters say private donors, possibly frontmen for Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have funneled millions of dollars to favored rebel groups. Many suspect the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis are getting the lion's share.
A 60-year-old rebel commander called Abu Shaham, from the central city of Hama, accused the Brotherhood of hanging back from the battlefront to overpower other rebel groups later.
"The Brotherhood is pumping money into the rebel units yet their men don't fight as much as us. They are almost always the first to retreat. Why?" he asked.
"They are not thinking about this phase in the battle. They care about what comes next. They want to save themselves for the struggle after Assad falls, to come out the strongest."
Analyst Joseph Holliday, of the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War, said if foreign powers do not engage with the rebels in an orderly way, their rivalries could create chaos.
"If we don't recognize the rebels, anyone can set up shop in Turkey and start funding opposing groups," said Joseph Holliday, of the U.S-based Institute for the Study of War. "We don't know who is arming who ... I'm afraid by the time the West decides to do something it may be too late."
Some rebels worry Islamist radicals could stoke tensions between majority Sunni Muslims, who have driven the revolt, and minority Alawites, Shi'ites and Christians, who are wary of it.
"There are a lot of jihadists who want to come from abroad, this is real," said one insurgent, who asked not to be named. "Then we will no longer be talking about Syria's fight for freedom, we'll be talking about a sectarian war."
KILLING THE "FLEAS"
Qudeimati says most rebels do not belong to any unified group because of a culture of distrust, fostered by years of fear under Syria's infamous secret police.
"The problem is the Assad regime had 40 years to create mistrust between Syrians," Qudeimati said. "The lack of unity has been part of the regime's strategy."
Some FSA rebels say they even keep a distance from the FSA's top officers, fearing they too are infiltrated.
Suspicion of "fleas" - slang for collaborators - has bred an environment where vigilante killing almost seems the norm.
"There are a lot of groups on the ground working alone and not all of them are good guys," said rebel commander Abu Shaham.
"Some are thieves or criminals taking advantage of the chaos. So we go after the fleas and chase them out or kill them. We don't have a problem shooting these people."
Last month, the commander of a rebel unit in Homs province, Amjad al-Hameed, who claimed to be funded by The Alternative Movement, criticized the leaders of several other groups.
"We have armed men among our civilians that are a burden to our revolution," he told a crowd in a March 17 YouTube video. "They are just thieves ... It is impermissible for anyone to rape women, otherwise we are no different from Bashar al-Assad."
The next day, unidentified gunmen shot him dead.
Hameed's battalion did not blame the government but other rebels, vowing to "punish them as they deserve."
Some rebels adopt the FSA label simply to improve their chances of getting funds.
"We felt forced into aligning with the Free Syrian Army because it is the most widely known. If it gets recognized, we'll get foreign aid," says the Idlib rebel Mahmoud.
At a refugee camp in Turkey, Mahmoud and his eager comrades sit next to a muscular Syrian exile who discreetly shows them his laptop and chats with them about military strategy.
He won't say who has sent him or what he wants in return. But he hints there could be weapons on offer, joking: "I've come to help buy the boys their fruits and vegetables."
(Editing by Alistair Lyon)
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Nine dead in suicide bomb near Damascus mosque
Fri, Apr 27 15:09 PM EDT
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By Ed Cropley
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed nine people including security officers at a Damascus mosque on Friday, Syria's interior ministry said, in another blow to a fraying U.N.-brokered truce between President Bashar al-Assad and rebels fighting for his downfall.
The explosion happened as worshippers were leaving the Zain al-Abideen mosque, which was under heavy security due to its reputation as a launchpad for anti-Assad demonstrations after Friday prayers.
A local resident said security officials at the scene told him a man in military uniform had triggered an explosives vest when he was challenged by soldiers as he walked towards the area.
Many of the body parts scattered across the tarmac were wearing green military-style clothing, the resident said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. But it was close to the site of a January 6 suicide bombing which was claimed by a previously unknown anti-Assad Sunni Islamist group calling itself the al-Nusra Front.
In a statement on state television, the interior ministry said 26 people were wounded in the explosion, one of several bombings on Friday.
"We had been trying to go to pray in the area but they stopped us at a checkpoint. Security weren't letting us in because there are usually protests there," one anti-Assad activist told Reuters by telephone.
"Then we heard the blast. It was so loud and then ambulances came rushing past us," the activist added. "I could see a few body parts and pieces of flesh on the road. The front of a restaurant looked destroyed. People were screaming."
State television showed images of blackened flesh and a mangled hand lying on the road as soldiers and police cleared the area to make way for ambulance crews.
Earlier, a loud blast was heard near a bus station which activists say is often used by pro-Assad militiamen tasked with preventing demonstrations in the capital. Shopkeepers said a Mercedes caught fire but only the driver was wounded.
State media reported three more minor explosions in Damascus in which four people were wounded, and said five policemen were hurt by two blasts in the coastal city of Tartous.
VIOLENCE "PICKING UP"
The United Nations says Syrian forces have killed more than 9,000 people in the 13-month-old revolt against Assad. Damascus says insurgents have killed more than 2,600 soldiers and police.
Central Damascus has been spared much of the violence, although Friday's blasts occurred less than a week after a car bomb blew up near an Iranian cultural centre in the capital.
"The action is picking up and it seems the (rebels) and Assad's forces are starting to battle it out in Damascus as well," said an activist in Midan who uses the name Mar Ram.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused Damascus on Thursday of breaking its pledge to withdraw heavy weapons and troops from towns, saying he was "gravely alarmed by reports of continued violence and killing in Syria.
The White House also said it was disappointed at Damascus' failure to adhere to its Annan plan promises and Washington would "continue to ramp up the pressure against the Assad regime".
Russia, one of the Syrian government's biggest remaining allies, on Friday said the rebels were largely to blame for ceasefire violations and accused them of seeking to provoke foreign intervention.
"This truce has not yet fully set in largely because opposition armed groups try to create provocations - explosions, terrorist acts, shooting at government forces, government buildings, administrative buildings," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state TV on Friday.
Most independent media have been barred from Syria, making it hard to verify events on the ground.
The Syrians for Human Rights Network, one of many groups opposed to Assad, said security forces had committed 86 ceasefire violations, including a helicopter gunship opening fire on a civilian area and snipers targeting protesters.
Information Minister Adnan Mahmoud accused rebels of 1,300 truce breaches and said the state "reserved the right to respond to any violation or attack," state news agency SANA reported.
A dozen U.N. ceasefire monitors are already on the ground and U.N. officials said a full advance team of 30 out of a planned 300-strong presence would be there by Monday.
The slow build-up, more than two weeks after the truce came into effect, has sparked derision from Assad's foes and frustration in western capitals, where leaders want tough measures imposed on Damascus sooner rather than later.
France says that if Assad's forces do not return to barracks, it will push next month for a "Chapter 7" U.N. Security Council resolution - which could allow action ranging from economic sanctions to military intervention.
Western powers have said they intend to push for U.N. sanctions. Russia and China have made clear that they would veto Libya-style military action and have resisted the idea of sanctions.
(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Erika Solomon, Dominic Evans and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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Two bombs explode on Damascus highway: residents
Sat, May 05 04:50 AM EDT
By Mariam Karouny
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Two bombs detonated on a central Damascus highway on Saturday, destroying nine cars, residents said, in a further sign that rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad are shifting tactics towards homemade explosives.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from the blasts from bombs planted under cars on al-Thawra Street, the latest blow to last month's crumbling U.N.-backed truce.
Fifty out of a planned total of 300 United Nations observers are now in Syria to monitor the ceasefire declared on April 12, but their presence has not halted the violence in a 14-month-old revolt that began with peaceful pro-democracy protests.
Deadly blasts have shaken major cities as insurgents seek to even the odds between their outgunned forces and the tanks, artillery and helicopters in Assad's military arsenal.
On April 30, explosions blew the fronts off buildings in the northern town of Idlib, where state TV reported nine people killed and 100 wounded, including security personnel.
Three days earlier, a suicide bomber killed nine, including security men, at a Damascus mosque, the Interior Ministry said.
An Islamist group calling itself the Support Front for the People of the Levant claimed responsibility for that bombing and for an April 24 attack on the Iranian cultural consulate in Damascus. Iran is one of Syria's closest allies.
Assad has long argued that he is combating foreign-backed "armed terrorist groups" rather than a popular uprising. Syrian officials say rebels have killed more than 2,600 soldiers and police. The United Nations estimates that the security forces have killed more than 9,000 people since the rebellion began.
(Writing by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
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Syria suicide bombers kill 55, ceasefire in tatters
10 May 2012 20:11
Source: reuters // Reuters
Smoke rises from the wreckage of mangled vehicles at the site of an explosion in Damascus May 10, 2012. REUTERS/Sana/Handout
the regime has entered a spiral of violence with no way out."
The U.S. Embassy in Beirut called the double bombing "reprehensible and unacceptable" but reiterated Washington's demand that the Syrian government implement Annan's plan.
REBELS SET TO RESUME ATTACKS
The United Nations says Syrian forces have killed 9,000 people during the revolt. Damascus blames foreign-backed "terrorists", saying they have killed 2,600 soldiers and police.
Nashar said the government had stuck to violence and had not implemented any of Annan's six-point plan.
"We want international intervention to stop this policy of killing," he added, without saying what form it should take.
Riad al-Asaad, the FSA's commander of operations, said the rebels were ready to resume attacks on government forces as soon as Annan announced that his initiative had failed.
In other violence, 10 rebels were killed overnight when tanks shelled the village of Ain Sheeb in the northwestern province of Idlib, opposition sources said. Tank fire also killed a civilian in the northwestern town of Ain Hamra. (Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Dominic Evans in Beirut, Nicholas Vinocur in Paris, Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Sebastian Moffett in Brussels, Michelle Nichols in New York and Jeff Mason aboard Air Force One; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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Syria suicide bombers kill 55, ceasefire in tatters
Thu, May 10 22:47 PM EDT
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By Oliver Holmes and Mariam Karouny
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two suicide car bombers killed 55 people and wounded 372 in Damascus on Thursday, state media said, the deadliest attacks in the Syrian capital since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 14 months ago.
The blasts further shredded a ceasefire that was declared by international mediator Kofi Annan on April 12 but that has failed to halt bloodshed pitting Assad's security forces against peaceful demonstrators and an array of armed insurgents.
Opposition leaders said Annan's peace plan was dead, while Western powers insisted it remained the best way forward.
Annan condemned the "abhorrent" bombings and urged all parties to halt violence and protect civilians. "The Syrian people have already suffered too much," he said in a statement.
The White House and the United Nations also condemned the attacks, for which there was no claim of responsibility.
Syria's foreign ministry said the attacks were a sign that the major Arab state was facing foreign-backed terrorism and urged the U.N. Security Council to combat countries or groups supporting such violence.
"Syria stresses the importance of the UNSC taking measures against countries, groups and news agencies that are practicing and encouraging terrorism," the state news agency SANA quoted the ministry as saying in a letter to the U.N. body.
The near-simultaneous explosions hit the al-Qazaz district just before 8 a.m. (9.00 a.m. EDT), residents said. One punched a crater three metres (10 feet) deep in the city's southern ring road. Bloodied corpses and body parts could be seen on the road.
State television also showed at least one overturned truck. Walls of buildings on each side of the avenue had collapsed.
One resident reported limited damage to the facade of the nearby Palestine Branch Military Intelligence centre, one of the most feared of more than 20 Syrian secret police agencies. The huge walled complex was targeted by a 2008 bombing that killed 17 people and which authorities blamed on Islamist militants.
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll from the bombings at 59 and said most of them worked for the security forces. No group has claimed responsibility.
The Interior Ministry vowed to "chase down the criminal killers and those who help or house them in their dens". It also appealed to citizens to pass on any information that might help.
MOUNTING DEATH TOLL
Rami Abdulrahman, head of the British-based Observatory, said 849 people - 628 civilians and 221 soldiers, of whom 31 were defectors - had been killed since the April 12 truce accord. The toll did not include Thursday's deaths.
The attacks occurred a day after a bomb exploded near U.N. observers monitoring the ceasefire, which state forces and rebels have both violated, and two weeks after authorities said a suicide bomber killed at least nine people in Damascus.
"This (Thursday's attacks) is yet another example of the suffering brought upon the people of Syria from acts of violence," said Major-General Robert Mood, leader of the U.N. monitors, who visited the scene.
Opposition to Assad, which began with peaceful protests in March 2011 inspired by popular revolts against other Arab autocratic leaders, has grown increasingly militarised. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday there was only a narrow window of opportunity to avert full-scale civil war.
Syrian television showed a man pointing to the wreckage. "Is this freedom? This is the work of the Saudis," he said. Saudi Arabia has advocated arming rebels seeking to oust Assad.
Nadine Haddad, a candidate in Monday's parliamentary election which was boycotted by most opposition figures, blamed Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who also says Syrian insurgents should get weapons.
"I am addressing Sheikh Hamad and I tell him shame on you. You are now destroying the Syrian people, not the Syrian regime. You are killing children going to school," she said.
Qatar condemned the blasts in Damascus and called on all sides to stop the bloodshed in Syria.
The White House said it did not believe the attacks were representative of the opposition to Assad, contrary to what the Syrian authorities and state media have suggested.
"There are clearly extremist elements in Syria, as we have said all along, who are trying to take advantage of the chaos in that country, chaos brought about by Assad's brutal assault on his own people," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
Samir Nashar, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council's executive board, blamed the state for the bombings, saying they were meant to deter protesters and U.N. monitoring, an argument echoed by rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) leaders.
"These bombs are not the work of opposition fighters," said its chief, General Mustafa al-Sheikh, adding that the FSA lacked the capability to set off such big explosions.
An increasing series of big bombings in Syria has generated various theories, including that some may be self-inflicted wounds by security agents out to discredit the rebels, or that they may show the rise of al Qaeda-linked Syrian Islamists with skills honed by years of activity across the border in Iraq.
The U.N. Security Council condemned the "terrorist attacks" and urged all parties to comply with the U.N.-backed peace plan.
The European Union also denounced the bombings as "pure terrorism", but said Annan's peace plan, backed by the EU, the United Nations and the Arab League, was still viable.
"It is the best option to try and ensure peace in Syria," Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said in Brussels. "It is the best way forward."
Annan's blueprint calls for a ceasefire, political dialogue between the government and opposition, and unfettered access for humanitarian aid and journalists to Syria.
Western powers have shunned any Libya-style military intervention in Syria, while Russia and China have blocked any U.N. Security Council action against Damascus, although both have supported the U.N.-Arab League envoy's peace effort.
Russia condemned the bombings, accusing unspecified foreign countries of encouraging such violence and saying Moscow would not yield to pressure to change its stance on Syria.
"Some of our foreign partners are doing practical things so that the situation in Syria explodes in literal and figurative sense," state-run RIA quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying in Beijing, without naming any countries.
Russia has been a strategic ally and major arms supplier to Syria during its four decades under Assad family rule.
Moscow opposes Western calls for U.N. sanctions against Damascus and any foreign interference in Syria, saying there should be an end to violence by all sides and then dialogue without preconditions, such as Assad leaving power.
France, among Assad's sternest critics, said Annan's plan was the "last chance" to end the crisis. "The regime carries full responsibility for the horrors in Syria," the Foreign Ministry said. "By choosing a blind and brutal repression, the regime has entered a spiral of violence with no way out."
The U.S. Embassy in Beirut called the double bombing "reprehensible and unacceptable" but reiterated Washington's demand that the Syrian government implement Annan's plan.
REBELS SET TO RESUME ATTACKS
The United Nations says Syrian forces have killed 9,000 people during the revolt. Damascus blames foreign-backed "terrorists", saying they have killed 2,600 soldiers and police.
Nashar said the government had stuck to violence and had not implemented any of Annan's six-point plan.
"We want international intervention to stop this policy of killing," he added, without saying what form it should take.
Riad al-Asaad, the FSA's commander of operations, said the rebels were ready to resume attacks on government forces as soon as Annan announced that his initiative had failed.
In other violence, 10 rebels were killed overnight when tanks shelled the village of Ain Sheeb in the northwestern province of Idlib, opposition sources said. Tank fire also killed a civilian in the northwestern town of Ain Hamra.
(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Dominic Evans in Beirut, Nicholas Vinocur in Paris, Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Sebastian Moffett in Brussels, Michelle Nichols in New York and Jeff Mason aboard Air Force One; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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Alawite-Sunni fighting erupts in Lebanese port city
Sun May 13, 2012 9:07am GMT
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Garbage bins set on fire block a road, as Lebanese army soldiers on their military vehicles are seen deployed in the Sunni Muslim Bab al-Tebbaneh neighbourhood in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, May 13, 2012. Two people were killed when fighting erupted overnight in the Lebanese city of Tripoli between members of the Alawite minority loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and majority Sunni residents, witnesses and security officials said on Sunday. REUTERS/Omar Ibrahim
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two people were killed when fighting erupted overnight in the Lebanese city of Tripoli between members of the Alawite minority loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and members of the Sunni majority, witnesses and security officials said on Sunday.
Rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles were used in the fighting in an Alawite enclave and surrounding Sunni neighbourhoods in the port city, 70 km (44 miles) north of Beirut.
"The clashes peaked at dawn. The sound of gunfire is still echoing in the city," a Lebanese security official said.
The fighting underlines how sectarian tensions in Syria could spill over to neighbouring Lebanon.
A small Alawite minority are concentrated in Tripoli, a conservative Sunni city where many residents have been enraged by Assad's crackdown on the 14-month revolt against 42 years of rule by the Assad family and their Alawite establishment.
Syria's Sunni majority are at the forefront of the uprising against Assad, whose sect is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon under international pressure in 2005 after a 29-year presence, but Assad retains big influence in the small but geopolitically important country through his main ally, the Shi'ite guerrilla group Hezbollah, the only Lebanese party that has an officially approved arsenal.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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Rebels kill 23 Syrian soldiers, opposition snubs Arab talks
Mon, May 14 19:24 PM EDT
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By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebels killed 23 government soldiers on Monday, activists said, and efforts to find a viable political alternative to Bashar al-Assad faltered when an opposition group said it would boycott Arab-backed talks to unite its splintered ranks.
The latest bloodshed centered in the town of Rastan, where opposition sources said President Assad's forces killed nine other people, further unraveling a month-old U.N. ceasefire pact that is being overseen by international monitors.
Rastan, 180 km (110 miles) north of Damascus, has slipped in and out of government control during a 14-month-old uprising in which peaceful protest has given way to a sectarian-tinged insurgency that answers Assad's violent bid to crush unrest.
Opposition activists said the 23 soldiers were killed during clashes at dawn that followed heavy army shelling of Rastan.
"Shells and rockets have been hitting the town since three a.m. (midnight GMT) at a rate of one a minute. Rastan has been destroyed," a member of the rebel Free Syrian Army in Rastan who declined to be named told Reuters by satellite phone.
He said that among those killed was Ahmad Ayoub, an FSA commander whose fighters were battling army forces he said were comprised of elite units and members of Military Intelligence.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels destroyed three armored personnel carriers and seized two others, capturing around 15 soldiers.
The Syrian official news agency SANA said Abdelaziz al-Hafl, a tribal notable in the oil-producing province of Deir al-Zor, was assassinated on Monday along with his son.
Opposition sources said Hafl was the 17th pro-Assad figure slain in the eastern province in recent months.
A member of Hafl's tribe said he had been repeatedly warned by insurgents to stop cooperating with the secret police, "but he did not heed the warnings and was bumped off today".
There was no independent confirmation of any of the reports of fighting and killing from inside Syria, which has severely limited media access over the course of the uprising.
Syria's Sunni Muslim majority is at the forefront of the revolt against the authoritarian Assad, whose minority Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. Assad's government says it is fighting a terrorist attempt to divide Syria.
OPPOSITION GROUP DEBATES LEADERSHIP
The exile group that claims the right to speak for the political opposition to Assad, the Syrian National Council (SNC), said it would not join Arab League-brokered talks set for Wednesday and Thursday aimed at healing its divisions.
"The SNC will not be going to the meeting in Cairo because it (the Arab League) has not invited the group as an official body but as individual members," Ahmed Ramadan told Reuters in Rome, where the group is trying to decide its leadership.
Political jockeying within the SNC has prevented it from gaining full international recognition as the sole representative of the anti-Assad movement. Executive members told Reuters they may choose a new president or restructure the council in a bid to garner broader support.
The United States, Europe and Gulf Arab states want Assad to step down but his ally Russia has blocked more robust action against Syria in the U.N. Security Council while backing U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan.
Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov defended Russia's weapons deliveries to Syria in the face of Western criticism, saying government forces need to defend themselves against rebels receiving arms from abroad.
In Brussels, the European Union said in a statement that it had extended sanctions against Syria, freezing the assets of two companies it said gave financial support to Assad's government, and imposing travel bans on three people.
But Western powers have shown no appetite to repeat the military intervention that helped Libyan rebels topple dictator Muammar Gaddafi last year, and Moscow says arming Assad's opponents would only lead to years of inconclusive bloodletting.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said last week there was only a narrow window of opportunity to avert full-scale civil war in Syria, which straddles a crossroads of Middle East conflict bordering Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Iraq and Lebanon.
Syria's 23-million population comprises a mix of sects and ethnic groups whose tensions resonate in neighboring countries.
Those tensions have flared in the last two days in the Lebanese port city of Tripoli, where medical sources said on Monday that running battles between Alawite supporters of Assad and Sunni fighters left two dead and 20 wounded.
Tension in Tripoli had been on the rise since last week when Sunni Islamists - broadly sympathetic to Syria's rebels and at times supporting them logistically - held a sit-in to protest the arrest of a man who Lebanese authorities said had been in contact with an unnamed "terrorist organization".
Judicial sources in Lebanon - where Syria has sway over the intelligence and security organs dating to the Lebanese civil war and its aftermath - said on Wednesday that Shadi al-Moulawi had been charged with belonging to an armed "terrorist" group.
(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Rome, Sebastian Moffett in Brussels and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Writing by Joseph Logan; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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21 May 2012 - 11H20
Syrian forces 'kill 9 deserters in Damascus'
An image from the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network earlier this month shows Syrian army soldiers patrolling a street in Daraa city. Syrian forces ambushed and killed nine army deserters near a north Damascus suburb as fighting between armed rebels and troops raged around the capital during the night, a monitoring group said Monday.
An image from the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network earlier this month shows Syrian army soldiers patrolling a street in Daraa city. Syrian forces ambushed and killed nine army deserters near a north Damascus suburb as fighting between armed rebels and troops raged around the capital during the night, a monitoring group said Monday.
Syrian soldiers stand guard as smoke is seen in the background following a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack near a team of UN truce observers during their visit to the Damascus suburb of Douma on May 20, 2012.
Syrian soldiers stand guard as smoke is seen in the background following a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack near a team of UN truce observers during their visit to the Damascus suburb of Douma on May 20, 2012.
AFP - Syrian forces ambushed and killed nine army deserters near a north Damascus suburb as fighting between armed rebels and troops raged around the capital during the night, a monitoring group said Monday.
The deserters were killed as they were retreating under cover of darkness from the village of Jisr al-Ab near Damascus's Douma suburb, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The watchdog had on Sunday reported fighting between rebels and regime troops near Douma, during which a rocket-propelled grenade exploded near a team of UN observers.
No one was hurt in the blast, which came as UN truce mission head Major General Robert Mood and peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous were leading observers around the north Damascus suburb.
Syrian soldiers who were on the spot have attributed the blast to an RPG rocket but UN observers have not commented on the nature of the explosion.
Heavy fighting was also reported during the night between regime soldiers and rebels in other parts of Damascus province, the Observatory said.
The clashes took place mainly in the Jisrain and Kfar Batna localities, according to the watchdog, which added there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Explosions were also heard in Deir Ezzor, Syria's main eastern city, the Observatory said. On Saturday a suicide car bomb attack in Deir Ezzor had killed nine people and wounded another 100.
Violence in Syria continues despite the presence of UN observers to oversee a truce that came into effect on April 12 but which has been consistently violated by both sides.
On Sunday, at least 48 people were killed across Syria, including 34 in an assault by regime forces on a village in central Hama province, the Observatory reported earlier. == Blast hits Damascus, Turkey sends troops to border Thu, Jun 28 20:05 PM EDT image 1 of 17 By Erika Solomon and Khaled Yacoub Oweis BEIRUT/ISKENDERUN, Turkey (Reuters) - Rebel forces attacked Syria's main court in central Damascus on Thursday, state television said, while Turkey deployed troops and anti-aircraft rocket launchers to the Syrian border, building pressure on President Bashar al-Assad. A loud explosion echoed through the streets and a column of black smoke rose over Damascus, an Assad stronghold that until the last few days had seemed largely beyond the reach of rebels. State television described it as a "terrorist" blast. Dozens of wrecked and burning cars were strewn over a car park used by lawyers and judges. The state news agency SANA said three people had been wounded by a bomb hidden in one of the cars. The fighting coincided with a Turkish military buildup on its border with Syria and a growing sense of urgency in Western- and Arab-backed diplomatic efforts to promote the idea of a unity government to end 16 months of bloodshed. But Assad himself dismissed the idea of any outside solution to Syria's crisis. "We will not accept any non-Syrian, non-national model, whether it comes from big countries or friendly countries. No one knows how to solve Syria's problems as well as we do," Assad told the state television channel of Syria's ally Iran. He said Turkey's official stance belied the Turkish people's "positive view" of Syria. A first substantial convoy of about 30 Turkish military vehicles, including trucks loaded with anti-aircraft missile batteries dispatched from the coastal town of Iskenderun, headed towards the Syrian border 50 km (30 miles) away. A Turkish official who declined to be named said he did not know how many troops or vehicles were being moved but they were being stationed in the Yayladagi, Altinozu and Reyhanli border areas. A general in the rebel Free Syria Army said on Friday that Syrian government forces had amassed around 170 tanks north of the city Aleppo, near the Turkish border, but there was no independent confirmation of the report. General Mustafa al-Sheikh, head of the Higher Military Council, an association of senior officers who defected from Assad's forces, said the tanks had assembled at the Infantry School near the village of Musalmieh northeast of the city of Aleppo, 30 kms (19 miles) from the Turkish border. "The tanks are now at the Infantry School. They're either preparing to move to the border to counter the Turkish deployment or attack the rebellious (Syrian) towns and villages in and around the border zone north of Aleppo," Sheikh told Reuters by telephone from the border. Last Friday Syria shot down a Turkish warplane over the Mediterranean. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan responded by ordering his troops to treat any Syrian military element approaching the border as a military target. This could cover Syrian forces pursuing rebels towards the border, or patrolling helicopters or warplanes. Syria said at the weekend that it had killed several "terrorists" infiltrating from Turkey. TURKISH CONVOYS A Reuters reporter near the town of Antakya saw the Turkish convoy moving out of the hills and through small towns on a narrow highway escorted by police. Another convoy left a base at Gaziantep and headed for Kilis province, the site of a large camp for Syrian refugees. Video from the DHA agency showed the group of about 12 trucks and transporters filing through the gates of the base. David Hartwell, Middle East analyst at IHS Jane's, called the Turkish action a pragmatic response to the downing of the Turkish aircraft, which Syria says was flying low and fast in Syrian airspace. "Damascus has been warned once. I doubt there will be a second warning." Turkey, in the front line of Western efforts to press Assad to step down, hosts 33,000 Syrian refugees near its southern border as well as units of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA). Members of the FSA, talking close to the border, told Reuters they did not believe the Turkish deployments were on a large scale or aimed at any crossborder intervention. "The Turks know that any large-scale military action would need international support," said a senior FSA commander who spoke on condition of anonymity. Turkey has in the past spoken of opening a humanitarian corridor on Syrian soil if the refugee flow grew unmanageable or if the violence and killing became intolerable. Wary of igniting a regional sectarian war, it insists this would be possible only with U.N. backing. Western- and Arab-backed efforts to forge a joint diplomatic approach with Russia have so far failed. Thursday's attack in Damascus follows weeks of growing FSA pressure. Rebels stormed a pro-Assad television channel on Wednesday, and have also targeted police and security barracks. Syria denies there has been a mass popular uprising against Assad and says that the rebels who have now largely taken over from months of unarmed anti-government protests are foreign-backed Islamist terrorists, including members of al Qaeda. Assad told Iranian television that his government had a duty to eliminate these to protect its people, and that Washington was content for al Qaeda to attack countries it did not like. "When you eliminate a terrorist, it's possible that you are saving the lives of tens, hundreds, or even thousands," he said. NEW ANNAN PLAN Diplomats at the United Nations say international mediator Kofi Annan will seek backing from the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and key Middle East players on Saturday for a plan for a political transition in Syria. They say the proposal does not stipulate that Assad must step down but does call for a unity government that would exclude figures who jeopardize stability - a condition that many not be enough to convince opposition groups to participate. "The proposal is still murky to us but I can tell you that if it does not clearly state that Assad must step down, it will be unacceptable to us," said Samir Nashar, an executive member of the international Syrian National Council. Rebel fighters said there was no part of the plan they could accept, and that they had lost patience with Annan's efforts. "This is just a new labyrinth. It is new silliness for us to get lost in, and haggle over who can participate and who can't," said Ahmed, an FSA fighter in Homs, epicenter of the revolt against four decades of Assad family rule in which more than 10,000 people have been killed, by a U.N. count. An FSA member in Damascus added: "The FSA is doing its work, and it is not looking to the outside world. We don't want a transitional government unless it is the one formed by rebel military councils. The world is conspiring against the Syrian revolution." (Additional reporting by Jonathon Burch and Jon Hemming in Ankara, Marcus George, Yeganeh Torbati and Zahra Hosseinian in Dubai; Writing by Ralph Boulton; Editing by Janet McBride, Kevin Liffey and Michael Roddy)
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