Syrian opposition records progress in Yarmouk refugee camp fighting

Clashes between Syrian rebels and an armed Palestinian group loyal to President Bashar Assad raged inside a Damascus refugee camp Tuesday, as the Syrian military deployed tanks outside, activists said.            

On the other hand, the Syrian regime forces withdrew from a number of areas in Hama’s northern rural region, following fierce clashes with rebel groups that started around 48 hours ago, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.         

Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that the concerned authorities arrested a bus carrying 200 explosive devices in Homs.          

Russian diplomats said that two Russian citizens and an Italian have been kidnapped in Syria.                             

Details were few, but a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Syria said all three were employees of a private company in Syria.                                                             

The spokesman, Sergei Markov, told Russian state-controlled television Channel One on Tuesday that the three were kidnapped on the road between Tartus, where Russia has a naval base, and Homs.                                                                     

The Interfax News Agency reports that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, said "all necessary steps are being taken in Syria and other countries that may influence the situation."                                          

In this framework, Russia has sent warships to the Mediterranean Sea in case it has to evacuate Russian citizens from Syria, Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed naval source as saying on Tuesday.                                     

A group of two assault ships, a tanker and an escort vessel left a Baltic port on Monday, the source said.                                        

"They are heading to the Syrian coast to assist in a possible evacuation of Russian citizens ... Preparations for the deployment were carried out in a hurry and were heavily classified," the source was quoted as saying.                                                     

Positions:                                    

On the international level, the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called on Teheran to send a clear message to the Syrian regime to end the violence against its people.

For his part, the Arab League Secretary General met on Tuesday with the international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and discussed the latest developments pertaining to the Syrian crisis, according the a source from the Arab League.                      

In turn, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos declared on Monday that she asked the Syrian government to allow ten more NGOs to work in Syria in order to offer assistance for the people.            

However, an NBC news team was freed in Syria during a firefight at an Islamic rebel checkpoint five days after being ambushed and kidnapped by 15 heavily armed gunmen, correspondent Richard Engel said on Tuesday.    

Engel, 39, who along with production crew members Ghazi Balkiz and John Kooistra disappeared after crossing into northwestern Syria from Turkey on Thursday, said their kidnappers were members of a militia loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.         


REUTERS/AP/LBCI