Syrian rebels create new unified military command

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Saturday that the Syrian Army and the rebels clashed in Reef Damscus, while the southern neighborhoods of the capital got shelled, as well as the city of Rastan and Homs District.

Local Coordination Committees said that the shelling on the southern neighborhoods caused the injury of a number of people and the destruction of several homes.

Separately, a senior official with the rebel Free Syrian Army says commanders from all over the country have elected a new Supreme Military Council and a chief of staff.       

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal the meeting's outcome, says the move is similar to last month's conference in Qatar that unified political groups.       

In this context, Syrian rebel groups have chosen Brigadier Selim Idris, a former officer from President Bashar al-Assad's army who defected, to head a new unified military command dominated by Islamists, opposition sources said on Saturday.
   
Idris was elected by 30 military and civilian members of the joint command after talks attended by Western and Arab security officials in the Turkish city of Antalia.


Positions:  

Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Saturday that he had seen "some evidence" that the Syrian regime is preparing to use chemical weapons against rebels.  

"We and the US, as I said in parliament this week, have seen some evidence of that and that is why we have issued strong warnings about it. We have done so directly to the Syrian regime,” he stated.  

Meanwhile, the UNHCR announced that the numbers of refugees who fled to Iraq reached 63,000 and that most of them live in Kurdistan region.  

This as, the UN announced increasing the numbers of its forces in the Golan region to prevent any clash between Syria and Israel.  

For his part, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the UN unarmed peacekeepers received threats and reported clashes between rebels and the regime forces in the demilitarized zone. 

As for the head of Germany's foreign intelligence agency, he said that Assad's government is in its final stages and will be unable to survive as more parts of the country slip from his control.
  
"Armed rebels are coordinating better, which is making their fight against Assad more effective," Gerhard Schindler told the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung newspaper, in an interview made public on Saturday.
  
"Assad's regime will not survive. "Evidence is mounting that the regime in Damascus is now in its final phase," Schindler said


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