Forces of Assad pour into Damascus suburb

Syrian troops backed by tanks and helicopters have broken into a Damascus suburb following two days of shelling and intense clashes as part of a widening offensive by President Bashar Assad’s forces, activists said.

At least 15 people were killed in the offensive in Daraya, only few miles south west of Damascus, while battles also raged over a town on the Iraqi border.

Across the country, at least 100 people died in shelling and clashes, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Co-ordination Committees.

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The bloodshed yesterday coincided with the departure from the Syrian capital of the last of the United Nations military observers after their mission headed by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, meant to help end the bloodshed in Syria, failed.

Human rights groups say more than 20,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, and the fighting has spread from smaller towns and cities to the regime strongholds of Damascus and Aleppo.

Mr Annan, who criticised the lack of unified action by international partners, will resign on August 31, to be replaced by veteran diplomat Lakhdar Ibrahimi.

Division between the UN security council members over Syria appear as wide as ever, however, as Russia yesterday accused Western powers of “openly instigating” Syrian opposition groups to take up arms.

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Moscow has been Syria’s key protector throughout the 17-month uprising that has evolved into a full-blown civil war, shielding Assad’s regime from international sanctions and providing it with weapons despite an international outcry.

Russia’s foreign ministry said the West “has done nothing” to urge the Syrian opposition to start a dialogue with the government.

“Instead, they are engaged in openly instigating it to continue their armed struggle,” it said in a statement.

It claimed the Western approach to the Syrian civil was “hypocritical” and was not helping to resolve the conflict that has killed an estimated 19,000 people.

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Russia and China, both veto-wielding UN Security Council members, have blocked proposals to call on Assad to step down, with Russia claiming its opposition to sanctions against Syria is driven not by support for Assad himself, but by a respect for international law that forbids foreign military intervention in internal conflicts without UN Security Council authorisation.

In Damascus, Syrian Deputy foreign minister Faysal Mekdad said Syrian officials were “looking forward” to working with Mr Ibrahimi but said the crisis would continue as long as foreign countries were interfering.

He accused Turkey specifically of giving “terrorists”, including al-Qaida, free access to cross into Syria from Turkey.

“I think this should stop, and Turkey should stop playing this role,” he said.

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Fighting raged, meanwhile, in al-Bukamal, which is located across the border from the Iraqi town of Qaim. The border crossing has been in rebel hands since last month, but wresting control of al-Bukamal itself from regime troops would expand the opposition foothold along the frontier.

Rebels have been fighting troops for days in al-Bukamal, but early on Wednesday they took over several checkpoints, the main police station and the local command of the Political Security Directorate, one of Syria’s powerful intelligence agencies, according to Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory.