Syria remains defiant amid carnage

Syria’s foreign minister accused the U.S., France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey Monday of supporting “terrorism” by backing fighters to rebels seeking to topple President Bashar Assad as fighting claimed the lives of at least 100 people around the country. Speaking on the last day of the annual 193-nation United Nations General Assembly, Foreign Minister Walid Moallem also accused Libya of backing the rebels and said an arm of the Al-Qaeda network had taken responsibility for some bomb attacks in Syria. Moallem said outside calls for Assad to step down amid the 18-month-old conflict were a “blatant interference in the domestic affairs of Syria, and the unity of its people and its sovereignty.” His speech came three days after countries calling for Assad’s ouster met on the sidelines of the General Assembly, but announced steps far short of what the rebels wanted as they press ahead in the bloody uprising. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with Moallem prior to his address and “raised in the strongest terms the continued killings, massive destruction, human rights abuses, and aerial and artillery attacks committed by the government,” Ban’s spokesman said in a statement. “He stressed that it was the Syrian people who were being killed every day, and appealed to the government of Syria to show compassion to its own people,” the spokesman said. Ban raised the growing humanitarian crisis inside Syria, which was also spilling over to neighboring countries, the spokesman added. The U.N. said about 294,000 refugees from Syria had fled into Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey. More than 30,000 people have been killed, according to opposition activists. Moallem said that Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United States and France “clearly induce and support terrorism in Syria with money, weapons and foreign fighters.” Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have denied aiding the rebels. The U.S. and France have said they are providing “non-lethal” support and not weapons. “Under the pretext of humanitarian intervention, these countries interfere in the domestic affairs of states, and impose unilateral economic sanctions that lack the moral and legal basis,” Moallem said. “Worst of all is to see permanent members of the Security Council, who launched wars under the pretext of combating terrorism, now support terrorism in my country,” Moallem said. At a meeting of countries supporting Assad’s ouster held Friday, the U.S. and France announced increased support for the Syrian opposition. But the meeting produced no sign that the direct military aid sought by the rebels to create safe havens for civilians was on the way. Russia, backed by China, has repeatedly vetoed Western- and Arab-backed council resolutions that criticized Damascus and threatened it with sanctions. Moallem said his government welcomed the appointment of U.N.-Arab league envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and had itself long called for talks to end the conflict, but said the opposition was not interested. “The success of any international effort requires, in addition to the commitment of the Syrian government, committing the states supporting armed groups in my country, particularly Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Libya and others, to stop arming, funding, training and harboring armed terrorist groups, and instead to encourage dialogue and renounce violence,” he said. Moallem told the General Assembly that some people had tried to “fabricate a refugee crisis through inciting armed groups to intimidate Syrian civilians in border areas and forcing them to flee into neighboring countries.” “I appeal from this podium to those Syrian citizens to return to their towns and villages where the state will guarantee their safe return and their precious lives away from inhuman conditions they suffer in these camps,” Moallem said. In Syria, army shelling and air raids killed dozens of civilians including children, a watchdog said, while rebels and loyalists fought close-quarter battles in Aleppo’s main souk, where fires have gutted the city’s historic souks, a U.N. World Heritage site. The regime and rebels exchanged blame for the weekend damage caused to the souk. “Armed terrorists started the fire in order to cover up for their looting and theft in the market,” Aleppo governor Wahid Akkad told an AFP journalist in the city. However, video posted on YouTube by activists showed rebel fighters trying to put out the fire with a water hose. “We are certain that it was regime fire that started the flames,” an anti-regime citizen journalist told AFP. The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an airstrike on the town of Salqin in the mostly rebel-held province of Idlib bordering Turkey killed 21 people, including eight children. In a video released by activists from Salqin, a number of the airstrike victims are seen piled in the back of a pickup truck, their bodies charred black with limbs torn off. The Observatory gave a toll of at least 106 people – 65 civilians, 15 rebels and 26 soldiers – killed in violence across the country, while the Syrian Revolution General Commission, a network of activists based inside Syria, said that 141 people were killed. The Observatory said Mohammad Assad, a prominent founder of the “shabbiha” groups, which started life as smuggling networks in the 1980s and have developed into pro-Assad militias, was severely wounded over the weekend. It said Assad, a relative of the president, had been shot in a row about smuggling revenues in the family hometown of Qardaha in rural Latakia. A source familiar with the situation in the area told The Daily Star that the incident stemmed from last month’s detention of Abdel-Aziz Khayyer, an opposition figure with the National Coordination Body, which is tolerated by the regime. Khayyer, who is from Qardaha, is believed to have been by arrested by air force intelligence following his return from a trip to China, where he participated in discussions on the political situation in Syria. The source said that when village locals discussed the arrest in a cafe, owned by the Khayyer family, and blamed the Assad family, Mohammad Assad overheard the talk and shot in the air, sparking a fracas in which he and a number of other people were injured. The melee also saw the chanting of anti-regime slogans, and intelligence personnel were now trying to contain the tension, the source said. Also, rebels claimed to have seized an undisclosed number of missiles from the army’s arsenal in the Governorate of Rural Damascus. “With the help and grace of God we overcame an air defense unit specializing in missiles,” said a rebel commander, in a video posted on YouTube and publicized by the Observatory. “Of course the rebels can do nothing with these missiles,” Observatory director Rami Abdel-Rahman said. “But their capture is significant, partly because of the size of the operation but also because of its location in the Eastern Ghuta area of Damascus province,” Abdel-Rahman told AFP, referring to an area where rebels remain active, in proximity to the capital. UNITED NATIONS/DAMASCUS: Syria’s foreign minister accused the U.S., France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey Monday of supporting “terrorism” by backing fighters to rebels seeking to topple President Bashar Assad as fighting claimed the lives of at least 100 people around the country. Speaking on the last day of the annual 193-nation United Nations General Assembly, Foreign Minister Walid Moallem also accused Libya of backing the rebels and said an arm of the Al-Qaeda network had taken responsibility for some bomb attacks in Syria. Moallem said outside calls for Assad to step down amid the 18-month-old conflict were a “blatant interference in the domestic affairs of Syria, and the unity of its people and its sovereignty.” His speech came three days after countries calling for Assad’s ouster met on the sidelines of the General Assembly, but announced steps far short of what the rebels wanted as they press ahead in the bloody uprising. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with Moallem prior to his address and “raised in the strongest terms the continued killings, massive destruction, human rights abuses, and aerial and artillery attacks committed by the government,” Ban’s spokesman said in a statement. “He stressed that it was the Syrian people who were being killed every day, and appealed to the government of Syria to show compassion to its own people,” the spokesman said. Ban raised the growing humanitarian crisis inside Syria, which was also spilling over to neighboring countries, the spokesman added. The U.N. said about 294,000 refugees from Syria had fled into Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey. More than 30,000 people have been killed, according to opposition activists. Moallem said that Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United States and France “clearly induce and support terrorism in Syria with money, weapons and foreign fighters.” Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have denied aiding the rebels. The U.S. and France have said they are providing “non-lethal” support and not weapons. “Under the pretext of humanitarian intervention, these countries interfere in the domestic affairs of states, and impose unilateral economic sanctions that lack the moral and legal basis,” Moallem said. “Worst of all is to see permanent members of the Security Council, who launched wars under the pretext of combating terrorism, now support terrorism in my country,” Moallem said. At a meeting of countries supporting Assad’s ouster held Friday, the U.S. and France announced increased support for the Syrian opposition. But the meeting produced no sign that the direct military aid sought by the rebels to create safe havens for civilians was on the way. Russia, backed by China, has repeatedly vetoed Western- and Arab-backed council resolutions that criticized Damascus and threatened it with sanctions. Moallem said his government welcomed the appointment of U.N.-Arab league envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and had itself long called for talks to end the conflict, but said the opposition was not interested. “The success of any international effort requires, in addition to the commitment of the Syrian government, committing the states supporting armed groups in my country, particularly Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Libya and others, to stop arming, funding, training and harboring armed terrorist groups, and instead to encourage dialogue and renounce violence,” he said. Moallem told the General Assembly that some people had tried to “fabricate a refugee crisis through inciting armed groups to intimidate Syrian civilians in border areas and forcing them to flee into neighboring countries.” “I appeal from this podium to those Syrian citizens to return to their towns and villages where the state will guarantee their safe return and their precious lives away from inhuman conditions they suffer in these camps,” Moallem said. In Syria, army shelling and air raids killed dozens of civilians including children, a watchdog said, while rebels and loyalists fought close-quarter battles in Aleppo’s main souk, where fires have gutted the city’s historic souks, a U.N. World Heritage site. The regime and rebels exchanged blame for the weekend damage caused to the souk. “Armed terrorists started the fire in order to cover up for their looting and theft in the market,” Aleppo governor Wahid Akkad told an AFP journalist in the city. However, video posted on YouTube by activists showed rebel fighters trying to put out the fire with a water hose. “We are certain that it was regime fire that started the flames,” an anti-regime citizen journalist told AFP. The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an airstrike on the town of Salqin in the mostly rebel-held province of Idlib bordering Turkey killed 21 people, including eight children. In a video released by activists from Salqin, a number of the airstrike victims are seen piled in the back of a pickup truck, their bodies charred black with limbs torn off. The Observatory gave a toll of at least 106 people – 65 civilians, 15 rebels and 26 soldiers – killed in violence across the country, while the Syrian Revolution General Commission, a network of activists based inside Syria, said that 141 people were killed. The Observatory said Mohammad Assad, a prominent founder of the “shabbiha” groups, which started life as smuggling networks in the 1980s and have developed into pro-Assad militias, was severely wounded over the weekend. It said Assad, a relative of the president, had been shot in a row about smuggling revenues in the family hometown of Qardaha in rural Latakia. A source familiar with the situation in the area told The Daily Star that the incident stemmed from last month’s detention of Abdel-Aziz Khayyer, an opposition figure with the National Coordination Body, which is tolerated by the regime. Khayyer, who is from Qardaha, is believed to have been by arrested by air force intelligence following his return from a trip to China, where he participated in discussions on the political situation in Syria. The source said that when village locals discussed the arrest in a cafe, owned by the Khayyer family, and blamed the Assad family, Mohammad Assad overheard the talk and shot in the air, sparking a fracas in which he and a number of other people were injured. The melee also saw the chanting of anti-regime slogans, and intelligence personnel were now trying to contain the tension, the source said. Also, rebels claimed to have seized an undisclosed number of missiles from the army’s arsenal in the Governorate of Rural Damascus. “With the help and grace of God we overcame an air defense unit specializing in missiles,” said a rebel commander, in a video posted on YouTube and publicized by the Observatory. “Of course the rebels can do nothing with these missiles,” Observatory director Rami Abdel-Rahman said. “But their capture is significant, partly because of the size of the operation but also because of its location in the Eastern Ghuta area of Damascus province,” Abdel-Rahman told AFP, referring to an area where rebels remain active, in proximity to the capital. From DailyStar