Dubai: Syrian government troops yesterday stepped up their attacks on key restive areas, as the last United Nations observers left the country after the end of their mandate.
Deadly fighting rocked the birthplace of the Syrian uprising as rebels doggedly resisted a regime onslaught unleashed in the key battleground of Aleppo a month ago, activists said. At least 44 people were killed, including two children, in shelling in Aleppo and Daraa.
“Jets bombarded the area (of Al Harak, near the Jordanian border) and destroyed several houses, causing casualties,” said Abu Ahmad, a member of the opposition Local Coordination Committees. According to the opposition, the government believes that some high-profile defectors, including possibly Vice-President Farouq Al Shar’a, may be hiding there.
Fighting also flared in several southern parts of Damascus as the army battles persistent pockets of resistance despite claiming it had retaken most of the capital last month.
The end of the UN mission came just days after new international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi was named to replace Annan.
“A civil war, it is the cruellest kind of conflict, when a neighbour kills his neighbour and sometimes his brother, it is the worst of conflicts,” Brahimi told France 24 television. Syria lashed out at Brahimi’s comments. “To speak of civil war in Syria contradicts reality and is found only in the head of conspirators,” the foreign ministry said in a statement published by the official Sana news agency.
Turkey, meanwhile, said the United Nations may need to create a “safe zone” within Syria to accommodate a growing number of refugees from the fighting there, Turkey, already hosting nearly 70,000 Syrians fleeing the 17-month-old revolt, may soon be unable to cope, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.
