The Syrian National Coalition
welcomed the British recognition, noting that it will encourage other European States to
follow suit, a spokesman said.
Britain has officially recognised the fledgling Syrian National Coalition opposition group, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Tuesday.
"Her majesty's government has decided to recognise the national coalition of Syrian revolution and opposition forces as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people," Hague told parliament.
The coalition was formed earlier this month in Doha to unite Syria's splintered opposition groups, in an attempt to boost their chances of securing foreign aid and arms in their bid to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
This as mortars hit Syria's Information Ministry building in the capital Damascus on Tuesday, Syrian state television said, causing some damage but no casualties.
This as Syrian opposition fighters stormed a northern air defense base near the border with Turkey on Tuesday in their latest offensive against military fortifications, opposition sources said.
More than half of the sprawling compound at Sheikh Suleiman has fallen to rebels as fierce fighting raged at the site, 18 km (11 miles) from the border with Turkey and 30 km northwest of the contested city of Aleppo, rebel sources and opposition campaigners in the area said.
Syria TV blamed "terrorists" for the attack, referring to rebels who have been fighting a 20-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.
Syrian rebels said they had
seized the headquarters of an army battalion near the southern gate of Damascus
on Monday, the nearest military base to the capital reported to have fallen to
opposition fighters in a 20-month revolt.
Activists said the Syrian army had attacked
southern districts of Damascus with shelling and rocket fire all day to try to
stop the rebels seizing the base, in some of the heaviest bombardment of the
capital.
"Multiple rocket launchers
are just making huge, random destruction," said Rami al-Sayyed of the
Syrian Media Centre, an opposition organization monitoring the crackdown by
President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
The Islamist rebel groups Ansar
al-Islam and Jund Allah Brigades said in a statement that they had taken the
Air Defense Battalion base near Hajar al-Aswad after four days of fighting.
The district had been home to
thousands of refugees from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. These were at
the forefront of the movement against Assad's autocratic rule at the beginning
of a revolt that has now turned into a civil war, in which activists say 38,000
people have been killed.
Louay al-Dimashki, an opposition
activist who said he had documented the fall of the base on video, said the
rebels had targeted the compound with mortars then attacked in small groups,
killing 14 loyalist troops and taking 35 prisoners.
Inside Damascus, a roadside bomb hit a
minibus along a route used by security forces and pro-government media,
activists said. The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three
people had been killed and at least 10 wounded.
The Syrian National Coalition was promptly recognized
by France as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
POSITIONS:
NATO member states have agreed to supply Turkey with a sophisticated Patriot missile defence system to counter a potential threat from Syria and talks on its deployment are in the final stage, Turkey's foreign minister said on Tuesday.
"The countries who supply NATO with Patriot systems are known, we have reached an agreement with those countries. The official application will be completed as soon as possible," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference.
"Intensive work is underway and the talks have reached the final stage."
REUTERS