The al-Nusra Front denied
on Thursday the injury of its leader Abou Mohammad al-Jawlani in raids
targeting Damascus Reef.
The leader
of the radical rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra was reportedly wounded on Wednesday by regime
shelling in southern Damascus, according to the Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights. Several other fighters were injured in the
incident, the Observatory said. The leader was identified by his nom de guerre,
Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani.
Al-Nusra, which has pledged allegiance to the al-Qaeda terror
network, is one of the dominant forces in the civil war, and its fighters are often
found on the front lines.
Positions:
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that France proposed designating the al-Nusra front
in Syria a terrorist organization.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration has said it is considering providing weapons to
vetted units in the armed opposition, following the recent revelation
of a U.S. intelligence assessment suggesting the Assad regime used
chemical weapons.
But the U.S. maintains deep reservations
about providing direct military assistance to the rebels for fear that
advance weapons would end up in the hands of al-Qaida-linked groups that
have been the most effective fighting force on the opposition's side.
Washington believes that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would not be part of transitional government in the country, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday.
Kerry made his comments to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh in Rome.
"The foreign minister will work with us, as they have, to try to bring all the parties to the table so that we can effect a transition government by mutual consent of both sides, which clearly means that in our judgment President Assad will not be a component of that transitional government," Kerry said.
Prior to talks with Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser
Judeh, Kerry pointed out that all parties are working to form a
transitional government with the consent of both sides, which means that
President Assad will not play a role in the said government.
On
Tuesday, Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced in
Moscow that they will convene an international conference on Syria with
the goal of corralling Assad's government and opposition representatives
into peace talks.
Their initiative is identical to a plan,
set out in Geneva last year, to bring the Damascus regime and opposition
representatives together for talks on an interim government. Each side
would be allowed to veto candidates it finds unacceptable.
The
Geneva proposal also called for an open-ended cease-fire and the
formation of a transitional government to run the country until new
elections can be held.
Even the most modest international
efforts to halt the fighting have failed as neither side in the Syrian
civil war has embraced dialogue, which underlines their resolve to
prevail on the battlefield.
The main Western-backed
opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, said Wednesday it
welcomes the U.S.-Russia effort to reach a political solution but that
any transition must begin with the departure of Assad and officials in
his regime.
Syrian officials have said that Assad will stay
in his post until his seven-year term ends next year, and that he will
run for re-election. This as, Syria's foreign ministry said it welcomes the "American and Russian rapprochement".
For his part, Syrian Information Minister Omran
al-Zoubi said on Thursday that the government is willing to consider
any proposals for a political solution of the conflict while it retains
the right to fight "terrorists," the regime's term for the opposition
fighters and their supporters.
Al-Zoubi did not
specifically mention the U.S.-Russian initiative in his brief remarks to
reporters in Damascus. The comments were carried by SANA.
From Brazil, Egyptian President
Mohammad Morsi and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff also called for
an end to the fighting in Syria and the creation of a Palestinian state as a
way to achieve peace in the Middle East.
"We must do everything
possible to stop the shedding of blood in Syria," Morsi said. "We
believe that the solution (for peace in Syria) must begin with the creation of
a regional group with international support namely from the permanent members
of the United Nations Security Council," Morsi said.
The
Syrian conflict began as peaceful protests that turned violent when
Syrian President Bachar Assad tried to squelch the revolt. The United
Nations says more than 70,000 people have been killed and around 1.2
million have fled the long-simmering violence taking place in the
country.
Chemical Weapons:
A British spokesman said Britain believed it was "very likely" that the Syrian government had used
chemical weapons, but said it had "no evidence to date" that rebels
fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had used such arms.
When asked about reports that rebel forces
had used the banned nerve agent sarin, a spokesman for Prime Minister David
Cameron said: "Our assessment is that chemical weapons use in Syria is
very likely to have been initiated by the regime. We have no evidence to date
of opposition use."
Turkey has sent a team of eight experts to the border with Syria to test wounded victims of the country's civil war for traces of chemical and biological weapons, the state-run Anatolian news agency said on Thursday.
Turkey started testing blood samples last week from Syrian casualties brought over the border for treatment to determine whether they were victims of a chemical weapons attack.
On the field:
Syrian warplanes pounded rebel targets in two northern provinces on Thursday as regime troops pushed on with an offensive to reclaim more territory from the opposition.
The strikes came against the backdrop of a new, joint U.S.-Russia effort to bring the sides in the 26-month-long conflict to the negotiating table.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Assad's air force was shelling rebel positions in Aleppo and Idlib on Thursday. The group said regime planes were hitting rebels near the Mannagh military air base outside the northern city of Aleppo, the provincial capital.
The rebels stormed the base, which lies near the border with Turkey, and captured parts of it on Sunday but were later forced to retreat in the face of regime's superior air power.
In neighboring Idlib province, heavy clashes were underway Thursday outside several army bases near the government-controlled provincial capital, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of informants inside Syria.
In Damascus, the state-run SANA news agency said government troops regained control of one more village and some land near the country's border with Lebanon on Thursday. The agency claimed Assad's troops inflicted heavy losses on the rebels in Aleppo and Idlib.
In the past months, the rebels have captured large swaths of land in the north and northeast, including the entire city of Raqqa and several neighborhoods inside Aleppo, Syria largest urban center and its main commercial hub.
But the opposition fighters have struggled to hold on to the territory, frequently complaining to their Western backers that their weapons are no match for Assad's weapons arsenal.
In Lebanon, a senior security official said several
rockets landed Thursday on Lebanese territory, the latest incident of Syria's conflict spilling over the country's volatile borders. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with state regulations. There were no reports of casualties in the incident in the northwestern Lebanese town of Hermel.
Meanwhile, Turkey's state-run agency said the country has stationed a team of eight experts to screen injured Syrians at the border to ensure they are not victims of any chemical attack.
The Anadolu Agency said a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense vehicle, manned by the team, has been deployed at the main Cilvegozu border crossing with Syria.
The team would examine Syrians for signs of chemical agents before sending them to nearby hospitals for treatment, the agency reported Thursday.
Officials in Damascus deny claims the Assad regime has used chemical weapons. The rebels also deny allegations they used chemical weapons.
Abducted Peacekeepers:
A video emerged online on Thursday that purported to show four United Nations peacekeepers who were abducted two days ago near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
REUTERS/AP/LBCI
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