Saudi Arabia offers Russia deal to scale back Assad support -sources

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday that 62 rebel fighters were killed in a Syrian army ambush at dawn near the town of Adra, east of Damascus.

The state-run news agency SANA did not give a death toll for the ambush but said the rebels were from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front. It said all the rebels were killed and machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades were confiscated.

SANA said the "terrorists" included non-Syrians and the Observatory said that eight rebels were still unaccounted for after the attack.

Arms smuggling attempt:

On another note, a Jordanian security official said that border police have arrested five Syrians attempting to smuggle a large cache of arms into the kingdom.

The official said that anti-tank missiles, surface-to-air missiles and assault rifles were seized.

He did not say if the alleged smugglers, who were caught early Tuesday, were affiliated with any side in Syria's civil war.

Saudi Arabia - Russia:

Saudi Arabia offered Russia economic incentives including a major arms deal and a pledge not to challenge Russian gas sales if Moscow scales back support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Middle East sources and Western diplomats said on Wednesday.

The proposed deal between two of the leading power brokers in Syria's devastating civil war was set out by Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week, they said.

Russia has supported Assad with arms and diplomatic cover throughout the war and any change in Moscow's stance would remove a major obstacle to action on Syria by the United Nations Security Council.

Syrian opposition sources close to Saudi Arabia said Prince Bandar offered to buy up to $15 billion of Russian weapons as well as ensuring that Gulf gas would not threaten Russia's position as a main gas supplier to Europe.

In return, Saudi Arabia wanted Moscow to ease its strong support of Assad and agree not to block any future Security Council Resolution on Syria, they said.

A Gulf source familiar with the matter confirmed that Prince Bandar offered to buy large quantities of arms from Russia, but that no cash amount was specified in the talks.

A Lebanese politician close to Saudi Arabia said the meeting between Bandar and Putin lasted four hours. "The Saudis were elated about the outcome of the meeting," said the source, without elaborating.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, could not immediately be reached on Wednesday for comment about the meeting. A Saudi Foreign Ministry official was also not immediately available to respond.

Amnesty International:

Satellite images have laid bare the suffering inflicted on Syria's largest city, a London-based rights group said Wednesday, cataloging hundreds of damaged or destroyed houses and more than a thousand roadblocks.

Amnesty International said it had worked with the American Association for the Advancement of Science to analyze pictures of Aleppo taken by aerospace imagery providers DigitalGlobe and Astrium for signs of destruction in the metropolis, which has been the scene of months of vicious fighting between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and the rebels fighting to topple him.

Many of the photographs released by Amnesty show a general view of the city, with red dots meant to indicate damage and destruction.

The rights group said the damage was "emblematic of the relentless bombardment" and said analysis of the satellite imagery showed the destruction was "severely lopsided," with opposition-controlled neighborhoods overwhelmingly hit.


AP/REUTERS