05 Nov 2012
The Syrian media said suicide bomber struck an area named Mazzeh Jabal 86 in Damascus, but failed to provide further details.
A Human rights group, monitoring the violence from Britain, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the 50 people were killed when a suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into the area that was used by Syrian forces to mount strikes against the rebels.
But the pro-government Syrian media put the death toll only as 11.
Several other human rights group on news posted on Social Media said that several civilians were killed over the weekend in shelling in Damascus but not rebels as claimed by Syrian government.
Media reports said heavy hand-to-hand fighting was raging in and out of Damascus and Syrian forces supported by air cover and infantry regiments bombarded suspected rebel-hideouts.
Details of fighting could not be verified because the Syrian government has restricted the movement of journalists. In the outskirts of Damascus, the rebels were forced to pull-out after they ran shortage of ammunition in the face of fierce onslaught by government forces.
OPPOSITION TALKS
An air strike on Haram, a town in the northwestern province of Idlib near the Turkish border, killed at least 20 rebels of the Idlib Martyrs’ Brigade, probably including their commander, Basil Eissa, the Syrian Observatory said.
Much of Idlib province is in the hands of insurgents, but remains vulnerable to air power, used increasingly by Assad’s forces to contain his mostly Sunni Muslim opponents.
In Qatar, divided Syrian opposition groups were meeting to try to forge a cohesive leadership that would then make common cause with rebel factions fighting on the ground, in an effort to gain wider international recognition and arms supplies.
The Syrian National Council (SNC), the largest overseas-based opposition group, was expected to expand its membership to 400 from 300 and to elect a new leader and executive committee before talks with other anti-Assad factions in Doha this week.
Discussions focused on a proposal by influential opposition figure Riad Seif for a new structure combining the rebel Free Syrian Army, regional military councils and other insurgent units with local civilian bodies and prominent individuals.
Unity on Syria has also eluded major international powers since the conflict began in March 2011, with Russia and China opposing Western calls for his removal and critical of so far ill-coordinated outside efforts to arm his opponents.
Rebels have few weapons to counter warplanes and artillery, but Western nations have fought shy of supplying anti-tank or anti-aircraft missiles without a credible opposition leadership.
That has given the Syrian military a free hand, with densely populated Damascus suburbs hit by air and ground bombardments that have killed hundreds of people in the last three weeks.
Witnesses said artillery deployed on Qasioun, a mountain that overlooks Damascus, was pounding southern neighborhoods and warplanes were firing rockets. Tanks were also in action.
“WAR OF ATTRITION”
Activist Rami al-Sayyed, speaking from southern Damascus, said rebels had made hit-and-run attacks on pro-Assad militiamen in the city overnight before retreating to the nearby farmland of al-Ghouta, or the old gardens of Damascus.
“The rebels are avoiding their past errors of trying to hold onto territory, where they would be crushed. They are waging a war of attrition, hitting regime forces quickly and retreating to the rear,” he said.
In one attack, rebels fought pro-Assad militiamen in Nisreen, a southern district mainly populated by members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.
They also hit positions belonging to the Popular Front For the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), a Syrian-sponsored faction, in the nearby Yarmouk refugee camp, where at least 20 people were reported killed by army shelling on Sunday.
At least seven PFLP-GC members were killed in the latest fighting, and ambulances were seen taking dozens of casualties from Nisreen to hospital, activists in the area said.
The Syrian conflict has aggravated divisions in the Islamic world, with Shi’ite Iran supporting Assad and U.S.-allied Sunni nations such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar backing his foes.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Egypt’s al-Ahram daily that Moscow, Syria’s main arms supplier, was sending weapons under Soviet-era commitments for defense against external threats, not to support Assad.
“We do not side with any faction in Syria’s internal battle,” Lavrov was quoted as saying.
After talks with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo, Lavrov said Russia backed an Egyptian initiative that seeks to bring together Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran to try to resolve the Syrian crisis. Saudi Arabia has stayed away from the last two meetings of the disparate regional group.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have all said Assad must leave power. Iran advocates dialogue to resolve the crisis.
Russia and China, both permanent Security Council members, have vetoed three Western-backed U.N. draft resolutions condemning Assad’s government for its handling of an uprising that turned from peaceful protests into a civil war.
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