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As Syrian forces retaliate against rebels in Damascus a day after a deadly bombing attack that killed three regime leaders, reports Thursday suggest President Bashar Assad has fled to the coastal city of Latakia.
Assad, who was noticeably absent after Wednesday's bombing, is directing the government response to his top lieutenants' deaths from the Mediterranean sea resort, Reuters reports, citing opposition sources and a Western diplomat.
"Our information is that he is at his palace in Latakia and that he may have been there for days," a senior opposition figure told Reuters.
Arab League ministers held an emergency meeting on Syria in Doha Sunday. They said they regret that all Arab and international efforts to stop the bloodshed in Syria have failed. They said Assad should immediately give up power and that the Kofi Annan peace plan should now focus on a transitional government. The ministers also pledged $100 million to help Syrian refugees. They gave no details about where President Assad would settle if he stepped down.
In Syria, activists say security forces attacked rebels in the capital, Damascus, with helicopters and tanks, while rebels launched an offensive against the government in Aleppo, Syria's largest city. The activists say government troops used helicopter and tank fire to try to drive rebels out of the Damascus neighborhoods. Syrian state news agency SANA denied that helicopters were deployed. It insisted the capital was normal and said security forces chased what it called "terrorist" remnants from the streets.
Iraqi officials say Syrian forces have retaken control of one of two border crossings that the rebels seized last week, while Turkey says rebels took over another border crossing with Syria on Sunday. Aleppo had been largely untouched by the 16-month uprising against President Assad. It is home to Syrian elites and merchants who have benefited from his authoritarian rule.
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Benjamin Netanyahu says Syrian President Bashar al-Assads days are numbered. I think the [Syrian] regime will go," he said. "I do not know if it is days or weeks or months, but I do not think it is sustainable. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, the prime minister said he worries chaos in Syria could allow chemical weapons to fall into the hands of sworn enemies of Israel.
Can you imagine Hezbollah - the people who are conducting, with Iran, all these terror attacks around the world - can you imagine that they would have chemical weapons? It would be like al-Qaida having chemical weapons. It is something that is not acceptable to us, he said.
Netanyahu declined to specify what Israel might or might not do. Do I seek action? No. Do I preclude it? No, he said. The Israeli prime minister repeated his contention that Hezbollah, backed by Iran, was responsible for last weeks suicide bombing in Bulgaria that killed five Israelis and wounded several others. Hezbollah has not commented on the incident. Iran has denied the allegation and says it condemns all terrorist acts.
Appearing on another U.S. television program, CBS Face the Nation, Netanyahu declined to comment on news reports quoting Israeli officials as saying they are working with British intelligence to prevent possible terrorist attacks at the London Olympics. Forty years ago, 11 Israeli athletes were killed at the Olympic games in Munich.
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State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the Obama administration has "grave concerns" about the use of tanks and fighter jets in the densely-populated city near the Turkish border. "This is the concern, that we will see a massacre in Aleppo, and that's what the regime appears to be lining up for," said Nuland. Opposition activists quote sources close to Syrian security forces as saying the government is amassing troops on the southern outskirts of the city, which already has seen helicopter and tank attacks against rebels in the past six days of fighting.
Nuland said thousands of people are fleeing the government "onslaught" on the commercial capital. "This is another desperate attempt by a regime that is going down to try to maintain control, and we are greatly concerned about what they are capable of in Aleppo," she said.
Asked what the international community can do to stop the violence, Nuland again blamed Russia and China for vetoing tougher United Nations action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "The U.N. Security Council has been checkmated in this circumstance, which makes it all the more important, as we have always said we have a two-track policy. We want to work in the U.N. But if not, we will work with those countries who want to support the Syrian opposition in seeing a new day," said Nuland. For the United States, that support remains non-lethal. Nuland said the Obama administration believes that arming Assad's opponents would only lead to more violence.
At a time when more than 100 countries in the so-called "Friends of the Syrian People" group are trying to move toward political transition, Nuland said Iran is taking an "extremely dangerous" position in continuing to supply weapons to Damascus. "This is further to the unconscionable actions of the Iranian government that has been supporting the Assad regime all the way through this conflict, and even as the violence escalates, continues to provide material support, training," she said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is calling for a further extension of the U.N. observer mission in Syria, offering to contribute 30 Russian observers. Nuland said that if the situation in Syria does not improve, the United States believes U.N. observers should be withdrawn.
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