Syria's divided rebels have agreed to set up a joint leadership to oversee their battle to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad after coming under pressure from their foreign supporters to unite, two rebel sources said on Tuesday.
The decision, taken by dozens of rebels including Free Syrian Army leaders at a meeting inside Syria on Sunday, aims to improve military coordination among fighters and create a single leadership which they hope outside powers would be prepared to arm with more powerful weapons.
It is the latest attempt to bring together Assad's disparate armed opponents, most of whom have been fighting nominally under the FSA's banner but in practice have operated independently.
The new leadership will include FSA leaders Riad al-Asaad and Mustafa Sheikh - criticised by many rebels because they were based in Turkey - and recently defected General Mohammad Haj Ali, as well as heads of rebel provincial military councils inside Syria like Qassem Saadeddine, based in Homs province.
This as towns and villages in Maarat
Naaman, North West Syria were subject to shelling described as the worse
since the opposition fighters took control of the strategic city last week., according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The
Director of the Observatory Rami Abdel-Rahman told AFP that the regime forces
are trying to gather their troops but are facing problems in the delivery
of food supplies
to the elements
present in the
area.
The Observatory reported that in Aleppo, clashes erupted on Tuesday morning between regime forces and
opposition fighters. It also said that al-Zabadaniya area was shelled
by regime forces who are trying to take control of the city.
In turn, SANA reported that an armed forces unit killed an armed terrorist
group on Homs, destroyed a rocket propelled grenade launcher and killed many snipers.
On Syrian refugees, the Turkish Ministry
of Finance announced that Ankara has spent over 200 million US dollars from the
state budget on Syrian refugees “whose number exceeded 100,000.”
Meanwhile recent reports have emerged on scores of Iraqi Shi'ite militants are fighting in Syria, often alongside
President Bashar al-Assad's troops, and pledging loyalty to Iran's
supreme Shi'ite religious leader, according to militia fighters and
politicians in Iraq.
Iraqi Shi'ite militia involvement in Syria's conflict exposes how
rapidly the crisis has spiralled into a proxy war between Assad's main
ally Shi'ite Iran and the Sunni Arab Gulf states supporting mostly Sunni
rebels fighting the president.
The conflict has already drawn in a stream of Sunni Islamist fighters
from across the region attracted to the rebel cause, while on the other
side Syrian rebels accuse Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah of supporting
Assad's troops on the ground.
For Iraqi Shi'ites who follow Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the
uprising in Syria threatens Shi'ite influence and Iraqis fighting there
say they see a duty to help Assad because of their loyalty to the
Islamic Republic's highest authority.
Among them are defectors and former fighters from anti-U.S Iraqi cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army, the Iran-backed Badr group and Asaib
al-Haq and Kata'ib Hezbollah, militias who once waged a bloody war on
American troops, Shi'ite militants and Iraqi politicians say.
Field positions
On another note, international envoy to Syria
Akhdar Brahimi arrived in Cairo, the last stop in his regional tour that aims
at putting an end to the bloodshed in Syria. In Egypt, he held talks with the
Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs aMohammad Kamel Amro, and is due to brief
the Arab League’s Secretary general Nabil Elaraby on the results of his tour on
Wednesday.
This as Washington called on Syria’s
neighboring countries to monitor their airspaces. In this regard, the U.S. Under Secretary of
State for Arms Control and International Security met with Turkish officials in
Ankara, according to the U.S. Embassy.
Meanwhile, President Bashar Assad set December
1st as the date of legislative elections to fill 5 vacant seats, according to
SANA.
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