Defected Syriam
Prime Minister Reyad Hijab held a press conference on Tuesday whereby he stated
that Assad’s regime has effectively “fallen apart” and has now control of
30% of the country.
Hijab called on
all “honorable” officials to defect from the Assad government and join the Syrian
revolution. He also called for the unification of opposition fronts.
"I defected at my own will, and was not overthrown as was stated by the regime", he confirmed.
Meanwhile, United Nations emergency relief coordinator Valerie Amos arrived in Syria on Tuesday at the start of a three-day regional trip to discuss humanitarian aid for Syrian civilians trapped or displaced by the fighting, a statement said.
Amos, who entered Syria on a land convoy from Lebanon, is scheduled to meet Syrian authorities including deputy foreign minister Faisal Mekdad, as well as officials from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, spokesman Jens Laerke said.
"They crossed the border and were welcomed by officials from the ministry of foreign affairs," he told Reuters in Geneva.
Amos will discuss ways of increasing emergency aid to civilians, but fighting must ebb before there is any real hope of gaining access to hot spots, diplomats said on Monday.
The humanitarian situation in Syria has worsened in recent weeks as fighting spread to Damascus and Aleppo. Two million people are now estimated to have been affected by the crisis and 1.5 million have been internally displaced, according to the world body.
For her part, Advisor to the Syrian President, Buthaina Shaaban is due to arrive in China to hold talks on resolving the crises politically.
On the Field:
Veteran fighters of last year's civil war in Libya have come to the
front-line in Syria, helping to train and organize rebels under
conditions far more dire than those in the battle against Muammar
Gaddafi, a Libyan-Irish fighter has told Reuters.
The Libyans aiding the Syrian rebels include specialists in
communications, logistics, humanitarian issues and heavy weapons, he
said. They operate training bases, teaching fitness and battlefield
tactics.
This as the
Salahedeen and Saif el-Dawla neighborhoods
are witnessing heavy clashes on Tuesday after pro-regime forces successfully
entered the city of Aleppo. This as Central Damascus becomes the hub of
escalating arrests.
160 people
were reported dead on Monday, including 41 pro-regime military men and 19 Opposition
fighters according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
On Monday Syrian fighter jets targeted the small town of Marea, thirty kilometres (20 miles) north of Aleppo , striking a field and a local swimming pool.
After the jets left, young men rushed to the bombing site to find two car-sized craters in a dirt field next to a swimming pool on the town's edge. Two smaller craters were nearby.
A man working at the privately owned pool said only three people were there at the time and that none was injured.There were no confirmed fatalities. It is unclear why the area was targeted. Residents said there was no rebel base nearby.
Also on Monday, Syrian rebels circulated video of what they claimed was the downing of a warplane and armed men later holding the captured pilot who ejected as the MiG fighter was engulfed by flames.Syria's government acknowledged a pilot bailed out of a disabled plane but blamed the crash on a technical malfunction.
The authenticity of the images or the claims could not be independently verified.If the rebels did bring down their first aircraft, that could signal a significant jump in their firepower and give opposition forces their most high-profile military captive.
Nationwide, the relentless bloodshed, including alleged massacres by pro-regime mobs and retaliation killings by rebels has already claimed more than 20-thousand lives, activists say, and will be further examined in a report expected on Wednesday by the U.N. Human Rights Council's independent commission probing abuses in Syria.
International Reactions:
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says plans to set up a no-fly zone over parts of Syria are "not on the front burner," despite persistent calls from Syrian rebel forces that they need the added protection from escalating regime air-strikes.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, Panetta said he is confident the U.S. could successfully enforce a no-fly zone over Syria, but doing so would require a "major, major policy decision" that has not yet been made.
For its part, Switzerland banned three more
Syrian firms, including the national airline, from doing business in the
country and imposed travel bans and asset freezes on 25 more Syrians, mainly
military officials.
The move aligns neutral Switzerland with
a move by the European Union (EU) announced in late July, the State Secretariat
for Economics (SECO) spokeswoman Antje Baertschi told Reuters from Berne on
Tuesday.
Syrian companies’ subject to asset
freezes now includes Syrian Arab Airlines, the Cotton Marketing Organization
and Drex Technologies, SECO said in a statement. The move stops the flag carrier
from landing at Swiss airports, because Swiss financial and airport services
would not be provided, Baertschi said.
AP/REUTERS/LBCI