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DAMASCUS - Syrian troops Monday reclaimed most of
Damascus after a week of heavy clashes. Fighting was still raging in Syria’s
second-biggest city of Aleppo, however, as rights activists reported that
violence across the country killed at least 52 people, including 24 civilians. And
President Vladimir Putin of Russia, the Syrian regime’s main international
ally, warned of a protracted civil war should rebels be allowed to remove
President Bashar al-Assad from power.
Kassem
Saadeddine, spokesman for the joint command of the rebel Free Syrian Army
(FSA), said Makdissi’s remarks gave cause for concern. “The regime admits
having chemical weapons, and as it has not signed any treaties, that proves
that it will not hesitate to use them,” Saadeddine told AFP.On Monday, the
United States warned Syria. “They should not think one iota about using
chemical weapons,” Pentagon press secretary George Little told reporters.The
White House has said Washington would “hold accountable” any Syrian official
involved in the release or use of the country’s chemical weapons.
UN
chief Ban Ki-Moon said that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be
“reprehensible” after Damascus raised the possibility of using such arms if
there was an attack from outside. “It would be reprehensible if anybody in
Syria is contemplating (the) use of such weapons of mass destruction like
chemical weapons,” Ban told reporters in Belgrade on the fourth leg of his
Balkans tour.
Putin
warned of a protracted civil war in Syria should rebels be allowed to remove
Assad from power. “We are afraid that if the country’s current leadership is
removed from power unconstitutionally, then the opposition and today’s
leadership may simply change places,” Interfax news agency quoted Putin as
saying.
Iraq
also rejected the Arab League call for Assad to step aside, describing it as
interference. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, meanwhile, instructed Iraqi forces
and the Red Crescent to allow in Syrian refugees and provide them with support,
reversing an earlier decision.Makdissi also vowed Syrian forces would soon
regain control of several border posts that rebel forces seized along the
frontier with Iraq and Turkey. The rebels “will not hold onto them and they
will be gone in a few days,” he said.
On
the ground, government forces reclaimed most of Damascus, after a week of heavy
fighting with rebels, who remain in the city but are planning a guerrilla
strategy, activists and regime sources said. An activist who identified himself
as Ahmed told AFP via Skype that “the battle to liberate Damascus continues,
and there is still fighting in several areas of the city.” A security source in Damascus confirmed the city
had been reclaimed by government forces. Elsewhere, rebels and troops clashes
violently in Syria’s commercial hub Aleppo, where the rebel FSA says a war of
“liberation” is also underway.
Clashes
engulfed the eastern Sakhur and Hanano City districts, leading residents to
flee the areas, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.Regime troops also
used helicopters to pound the central city of Homs - symbol of the uprising -
and nearby rebel-held Rastan, activists said. The Britain-based Observatory says
more than 19,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March
2011. As tens of thousands of Syrians flee escalating war and chaos, the EU
looked at ways of boosting humanitarian relief and beefed up sanctions and an
arms embargo against the regime Monday.Joining talks with their European Union
counterparts, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Sweden called for a
hike in aid to Syrians who have fled to safety in neighbouring Jordan, Lebanon
and Turkey. “We have to step up humanitarian assistance for the people
fleeing,” said British Foreign Secretary William Hague, as France’s Laurent
Fabius and Sweden’s Carl Bildt demanded the EU “do more” to help Syria’s
neighbours cope with the influx. Brussels meanwhile announced it was increasing
by 20 million euros its emergency aid to Syrian refugees to total 63 million
euros.
Meanwhile,
President Michel Sleiman on Monday accused Syria of violating Lebanese
territory after a house in the east of the country was hit by a blast and
shells fell on the northern border. In a rare protest against Syria, the
Lebanese president “has asked Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour to send a letter
to Syria’s ambassador to Lebanon, addressing the Syrian authorities, to protest
this issue,” a statement said. Sleiman “expressed his displeasure” after a
house in the eastern Qaa region was hit by a blast and shells fired from Syria
slammed into several villages along the northern border.
A
security official told AFP that “unknown people from the Syrian side
infiltrated into Lebanon on Sunday in the region (of Qaa) and blew up the house
of Jamal Ghadada, on the Syrian-Lebanese border, after mining it.”Sleiman “also
asked the army command and the relevant authorities to coordinate... in order
to avoid a repetition of these violations once and for all,” according to the
statement. The protest was the first of its kind by a Lebanese president since
Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon in 2005 after nearly three decades of
political and military hegemony over its smaller neighbour.
There
has been an increase of cross-border clashes, some of them deadly, and shelling
from Syria into Lebanon in recent weeks, particularly in the north and the east
border areas.
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