Nine people suspended their membership in the Syrian National Coalition, the main political grouping opposing President Bashar al-Assad, on Wednesday one day after it named an Islamist-backed candidate as provisional prime minister.
The coalition was formed with Western and Gulf backing in Qatar last year to bring together Assad's disparate political foes and build an alternative government structure to replace his rule. But after a brief period of harmony, divisions have racked the group.
Its liberal minority accused the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and its allies, who include a handful of Christians, of assuming control of the coalition.
After a meeting in Istanbul, the coalition on Tuesday chose Western-educated exile Ghassan Hitto, who is little known in Syria, as provisional prime minister.
Hitto was backed by the Muslim Brotherhood and opposition coalition Secretary General Mustafa Sabbagh, who has strong links with Gulf Arab states, according to sources at the meeting.
"The Muslim Brotherhood, with the backing of Qatar, have imposed their prime minister candidate. We will keep away if the coalition does not reconsider its choice," veteran opposition campaigner Walid al-Bunni, a senior figure in the group of nine, told Reuters.
It also includes coalition vice president Suhair al-Atassi, and opposition campaigner Rima Fuleihan, two of the three women in the 62-member, Islamist-dominated coalition.
Tension also built up between the Brotherhood and coalition President Moaz Alkhatib, a moderate Islamist cleric who made an offer to Assad for a negotiated exit, after the Brotherhood and its allies pushed to form a provisional government that could undermine Alkhatib, according to coalition insiders.
On the field:
Syrian regime forces bombarded Southern Damascus as air
forces shelled areas in central and North Syria, the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights reported.
Fighting raged on
the outskirts of the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk between regime forces
and rebels Tuesday overnight as well, with no reports of any casualties.
The area of al-Qaseer in rural Aleppo was also subject
to intense attacks launched by regime forces on Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, reports said that the number of refugees arriving in
neighboring countries has jumped to 14,000 in a 24-hour period, up from
3,000 in December, 5,000 in January and 8,000 in February, Guterres
said. Lebanon has 360,000 registered Syrians, Jordan more than 350,000
and Turkey some 260,000.
Probe into alleged chemical weapons attack:
Syria asked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday to launch an independent investigation into an alleged chemical weapons attack by "terrorist groups" near the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said.
"The Syrian government has requested the Secretary-General of the United Nations to form a specialized, independent and a neutral, technical mission to investigate the use by the terrorist groups operating in Syria of chemical weapons yesterday against civilians," Ja'afari told reporters.
Syria's government and rebels accused each other of launching the deadly chemical attack on Tuesday, but U.S. and European officials say there is no evidence to suggest there was such an attack. If confirmed it would be the first use of such weapons in the two-year-old conflict.
Robert Ford, the US ambassador to Syria,
said on Wednesday there is so far no evidence to back reports that chemical
weapons were used in Syria on Tuesday.
"So far, we have no evidence which
substantiates the reports that chemical weapons were used yesterday. But I want
to underline that we are looking very carefully at these reports," he said
in testimony to a US House of Representatives hearing on the crisis in Syria.
Ford also said there would be consequences
for Syria's government if it were found to be using chemical weapons, but would
not discuss what those would be.
Similarly, Syria's
main opposition group is demanding a full international
investigation into an alleged chemical weapons attack in the country's
north.
The Syrian National
Coalition is also asking for an international delegation to be sent to the
site of the missile attack in the village of Khan al-Assal in Aleppo
province.
In turn, the Israeli President Shimon Peres said on Wednesday that Syria's chemical weapons should not fall into the hands of terrorists.
Syria's state-run news
agency said 25 people were killed in a chemical attack on the Khan
al-Assad village in northern Aleppo province. It said 86 people were
wounded, some critically, and published pictures of children and others
on stretchers in what appeared to be a hospital ward.
Russia, which has steadfastly supported Assad in Syria's civil war, on Tuesday backed Assad's assertion of a chemical attack.
On a separate note, President Bashar Assad on Wednesday, made a rare public appearance
when he visited a fine arts school in Damascus and met the parents of
students who were killed in the country's civil war, state TV reported.
US commander says plans for Syria contingency under way:
Meanwhile a top U.S. military commander in Europe said Tuesday that several NATO countries are working on contingency plans for possible military action to end the two-year civil war in Syria as President Bashar Assad's regime accused U.S.-backed Syrian rebels of using chemical weapons.
The Obama administration rejected the Assad claim as a sign of desperation by a besieged government intent on drawing attention from its war atrocities some 70,000 dead, more than 1 million refugees and 2.5 million people internally displaced. A U.S. official said there was no evidence that either Assad forces or the opposition had used chemical weapons in an attack in northern Syria.
As the war enters its third year, the U.S. military, State Department officials and the U.N. high commissioner for refugees delivered a dire assessment of a deteriorating situation in Syria and the sober view that even if Assad leaves, the Middle East nation could slip into civil strife similar to the Balkans in the 1990s.
"The Syrian situation continues to become worse and worse and worse," Adm. James Stavridis, the commander of U.S. European Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "No end in sight to a vicious civil war."
Stavridis, who is retiring soon, said a number of NATO nations are looking at a variety of military operations to end the deadlock and assist the opposition forces, including using aircraft to impose a no-fly zone, providing military assistance to the rebels and imposing arms embargoes.
As with U.S. and international involvement in Libya in 2011, a resolution from the U.N. Security Council and agreement among the alliance's 28 members would be necessary before NATO assumes a military role in Syria, Stavridis said.
"We are prepared if called upon to be engaged as we were in Libya," Stavridis said.
NATO has installed Patriot missile defense batteries in southern Turkey along the border with Syria that are also capable of shooting down aircraft. During an exchange with Sen. John McCain, a Republican, Stavridis said the Patriots could be positioned in such a way as to shoot down Syrian aircraft, and he indicated that doing so would be a powerful disincentive for pilots to fly in that area.
Turkey's leaders have been "very emphatic" that the missiles be used only for defensive purposes, Stavridis said. To use the batteries for other missions, including attacking Syrian military aircraft, would require consensus among NATO's members "and we're far from that," Stavridis told the committee.
AP/REUTERS/LBCI
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