President Bashar al-Assad's forces launched a helicopter-backed offensive to retake a rebel-held town between the Mediterranean and the Turkish border on Monday, killing four opposition fighters, an opposition Free Syrian Army official said.
The fighting in Qastal Maaf, a mountain town on the road from the port of Latakia to Turkey, marks the first outbreak of major fighting in the strategic forest region, 8 km (5 miles) from the border and home to some of Syria's northern air defences, Selim al-Omar said from Latakia.
Damascus witnessed a new round of clashes between opposition
fighters and pro-regime troops at dawn on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights reported.
Clashes were also reported
across Aleppo's
neighborhoods.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Laurent
Fabius called on Monday for holding talks with Russia in order to “tighten the
noose” financially on the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, stressing
that the current crisis in Syria is costing Damascus around 1 million euros per
month.
In an interview with RTL
radio station, Fabius said that the war in Syria is costing Assad around 1
million euros per month, noting that he only has reserves for a few months
"without the support of Iran and Russia."
Fabius excluded the
possibility of delivering arms to the Syrian opposition, "given that France is committed
to an arms embargo imposed by the European Union against Syria."
The French foreign minister stressed that “good coordination” is needed in the
event of formation of a new contact group over Syria .
Meanwhile, French President Francois Hollande will receive today Special envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi.
On another note, Turkish
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced that Turkey
cannot absorb more than 100,000 Syrian refugees, stressing that a buffer zone
must be established in Syria
in order to accommodate the influx of refugees.
The Turkish minister suggested,
through the Turkish Daily Hürriyet, that the U.N. sets up camps for Syrian refugees inside Syria to absorb the influx of
refugees fleeing violence in their regions.
Later today, Opposition sources reported that a helicopter gunship attack on the Damascus suburb of Daraya killed at least 12 people on Monday and several other parts of the city came under aerial bombardment by President Bashar al-Assad's forces, residents and opposition activists said.
A YouTube video, which could not be independently verified, showed several people with missing heads and limbs in the wake of the attack on the conservative Sunni Muslim southern suburb, from where Free Syrian army rebels have been operating.
Activists and residents also reported helicopter rocket and machinegun fire in the southwestern suburb of al-Mouadamiya and the eastern suburbs of Akraba and Deir al-Assafir, as well as the Damascus neighbourhood of Kfar Souseh. An activist group earlier reported at least 12 dead in al-Mouadamiya.
AP/ REUTERS/LBCI