Shelling continued Sunday on several neighborhoods in the
city of Aleppo controlled by rebels at a time when the Syrian government
announced it had "purged" the district of Salahhedine and inflicted
"great losses" upon the rebels, a claim which opposition
activists dispute.
On the other hand, SANA
reported that an armed terrorist group tried to infiltrate from Jordan to
Syrian and from Lebanon to Syria in Rif Talkalakh in Homs.
Meanwhile, AFP
reported that following 10 hours of combats, the Free Syrian Army took over a strategic
point at the Adnan checkpoint, northwest of Aleppo, which allowed it to link
the city to the Turkish border. AFP added that dozens were killed from both
sides and tanks and armored vehicles were seized.
Separately, the British Foreign Office announced on Monday that the Syrian Chargé d'Affaires in London, Khaled al-Ayoubi, has resigned.
"Mr al-Ayoubi has told us that he is no longer willing to represent a regime that has committed such violent and oppressive acts against its own people, and is therefore unable to continue in his position," a Foreign Office statement said.
Al-Ayoubi was the most senior Syrian diplomat serving in London, it added.
Earlier on Monday, the National Syrian Council
accused the Syrian regime on Monday of carrying out a “genocide” in Maadameyat
al-Sham.
The council confirmed in a statement
that pro-regime forces under the command of Maher and Adnan Assad are
shelling the town brutally, as they have imposed a blockade on the city.
The “Free Syrian Army” suggested a “national rescue project”
stipulating the establishment of a Higher Defense Council that would be in charge of forming a
presidential council made of six military and political figures. This council would
manage the transition phase in Syria following the fall of President Assad.
In the latest defection news, a Turkish official announced
that the deputy police chief of Syria's western Latakia city, a
brigadier general, defected and fled to Turkey overnight with 11 other Syrian
officers.
The official said in
addition to the officers, about 600 Syrians had crossed over into Turkey in the
last 24 hours bringing the total number of Syrian refugees in Turkey to around
43,500 Syrian government forces battled rebels over one of their strongholds in
the northern city of Aleppo on Monday, with each side claiming victory.
Meanwhile, the Turkish army
continued to strengthen its troops on the Syrian-Turkish border by sending
missile batteries, tanks and combat machinery for the infantry south of the
country.
International positions:
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon
Panetta said on Sunday that Syrian President
Bashar Assad's use of helicopter gunships to counter a civil uprising will
prove to be "a nail in Assad's coffin,"
While giving no indication that
the Obama administration is contemplating military intervention, Panetta said
it is increasingly clear that the Syrian crisis is deepening and that Assad is
hastening his own demise.
For his part, French Foreign
Minister Laurent Fabius announced that France that will be assuming the
Security Council’s rotating presidency in
August, will call for on foreign ministers to hold an emergency meeting to
discuss the situation in Syria.
In a brief press conference held in a hotel
in Damascus, the head of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria, General Babacar Gaye
said that he saw with his own eyes “heavy shelling and major damages” in the
cities of Homs and Rastan.
Also on Monday, Pope Benedict
XVI's representative to Damascus, Archbishop
Mario Zenari, urged religious leaders in Syria to call
for an end to the violence, warning that the “cancer of conflict” was
spreading across the country.
REUTERS/LBCI/AP