Syrian opposition to meet in Paris on the 28th of January

Syrian opposition leaders will meet in Paris this month; French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday, decrying an "abominable" situation in which he said 100 people a day were being killed in an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.           

"The situation is horrific and Bashar must go as fast as possible," Fabius said.              

"There will be a meeting of the coalition in Paris in a few days, on the 28th. It's a coalition recognized by more than 100 countries, led by extremely respectable people who simply want to restore democracy in Syria," he said.                

Meanwhile, Syrian government troops battled rebels in several areas outside Damascus while regime warplanes bombed opposition-held areas around the capital, including an airstrike on one village that killed at least seven people, activists said.                  

Rebels seeking to topple President Bashar Assad have seized swaths of territory in northern Syria but have become bogged down in their push for Damascus, where government troops are still firmly in control. While the opposition fighters have established footholds in suburbs east and south of the capital, Assad's forces have kept them from advancing into the heart of the city and regularly hit them with artillery and airstrikes.                   

Much of the fighting Sunday was focused in areas east and south of the city, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, while government jets were bombing rebel areas.                     

An airstrike on the village of al-Barika, southeast of the capital, killed at least seven people, including five members of the same family, the Observatory said. Other activists provided the names of the dead, including the mother and father of the Shehadeh family and three of their children.                 

It is worth noting that health officials from a UN delegation on a humanitarian mission to Syria met the country's health minister in Damascus on Sunday.                 

The UN team was made up of representatives from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.                   

They held talks with Syrian Health Minister Saad al-Nayef on how to improve the infrastructure of medical facilities in the country that has been ravaged by civil war.


REUTERS/LBCI