UN envoy in fresh Syria peace bid

24 December 2012 Last updated at 12:18 GMT The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, meets Lakhdar Brahimi

International peace envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi has held talks with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, in a fresh bid to end the conflict.

Mr Brahimi said they discussed "many steps to be taken in the future", but he did not elaborate.

On Sunday, opposition activists said dozens of people had been killed in a government air strike in the rebel-held town of Halfaya in Hama province.

Syrian state media blamed a "terrorist group" for the attack.

Mr Brahimi drove into Syria from Beirut on Sunday, after fighting closed Damascus airport.

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The main activist groups put the number of dead from the Halfaya incident at more than 90. But they named or otherwise identified only 23 of them, all men.

Several video sequences of the incident and the collection and burial of victims also showed only the bodies of adult males, despite assertions that many women and children were at the site when it was hit. However, crowds outside bakeries are often largely composed of men.

It is not conclusively evident from the footage that the targeted building was a bakery.

With independent investigation and reporting not possible, it is not out of the question that regime jets managed to strike a concentration of rebel fighters - though the activist account of a bakery being hit may well be true.

The government itself made no claim of having struck rebels in that area, but it does not acknowledge the use of its air power in the struggle.

"I had the honour to meet the president and as usual we exchanged views on the many steps to be taken in the future," he said after meeting President Bashar al-Assad on Monday.

President Assad expressed support for "any effort in the interest of the Syrian people which preserves the homeland's sovereignty and independence", the state-run Sana news agency reports.

It is the third visit to Damascus by Mr Brahimi since he was appointed joint UN-Arab League envoy to Syria in August.

However, he has made little progress on a peace process so far and it is unclear what new ideas he may be bringing.

Rebels have been fighting Mr Assad's government for 21 months. Opposition groups say more than 44,000 people have been killed.

In the latest violence, activists said a government air strike had struck a bakery in Halfaya on Sunday.

They put the number of dead at more than 90, but the BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon says they named or otherwise identified only 23 of them - all men.

One activist in Halfaya, Samer al-Hamawi, told Reuters news agency: "There is no way to really know yet how many people were killed. When I got there, I could see piles of bodies all over the ground.

"We hadn't received flour in around three days so everyone was going to the bakery today, and lots of them were women and children. I still don't know yet if my relatives are among the dead."

Syrian state TV blamed an "armed terrorist group" for the attack, saying the group had then filmed the incident to blame it on government troops.

Five days ago, the rebel Free Syrian Army declared Halfaya a "liberated area" after taking over army positions there.

Our correspondent says the rebels want to take control of the whole of Hama and link up the territory they control.

As has happened many times before, he adds, the government has hit back with massive firepower at the areas it has lost.

A UK-based activist group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said there had been other air strikes on Sunday, including one on the town of Safira in northern Aleppo province, which killed 13 people.

It said more than 180 people had been killed across the country on Sunday.

The SOHR is one of the most prominent organisations documenting and reporting incidents and casualties in the Syrian conflict. The group says its reports are impartial, though its information cannot be independently verified.

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Syria 'still using Scud missiles'

21 December 2012 Last updated at 11:41 GMT The opposition said missiles landed near a northern airbase last week Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says Syrian government forces are continuing to fire short-range ballistic missiles at rebel fighters.

A Nato source told the Reuters news agency that surveillance had detected multiple launches of "Scud-type missiles" on Thursday morning.

Mr Rasmussen said it was the "act of a desperate regime approaching collapse".

Last week, Nato and the US said more than six missiles had been fired from the Damascus area into northern Syria.

However, the Syrian foreign ministry strongly denied using such weapons.

The military is believed to have access to a range of artillery rockets and medium-range missiles, some capable of carrying chemical weapons.

These include the Soviet-designed SS-21 Scarab and Scud-B missiles.

'Need to protect Turkey'

Speaking to reporters in Brussels on Friday, Mr Rasmussen confirmed Nato and its allies had detected new launches of Scud-type missiles.

"We strongly regret that act," he said. "I consider it an act of a desperate regime approaching collapse."

"The fact that such missiles are used in Syria emphasises the need for effective defence and protection of our ally Turkey," he added, referring to Nato's decision to deploy several Patriot missile batteries along the country's southern border with Syria.

On Thursday evening, US officials also said forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had resumed firing ballistic missiles against rebel positions in recent days.

They said there was no indication that the missiles were armed with chemical weapons and had no information on any casualties, the New York Times reported.

Contacts inside Syria told the paper that one attack had taken place on Thursday near Maara, a town in a rebel-held area north of Aleppo, near Turkey. The missile reportedly missed its target and no-one was hurt.

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Ex-general fears Syria 'collapse'

24 December 2012 Last updated at 02:08 GMT A sudden Syrian state collapse could lead to a period of Islamic insurgency, Professore Sir Paul Newton has warned. Sending Western troops into Syria too soon could create a power vacuum and a "sudden, uncontrolled state collapse", a retired British general has warned.

Prof Sir Paul Newton said weapons of mass destruction could fall into the wrong hands if the state disintegrated.

His warning comes in a report co-authored with three other Exeter University academics.

Foreign Secretary William Hague has said he would not "rule out any option to save lives" in Syria.

Sir Paul, a former lieutenant general, was part of a strategic military planning team and helped conduct operations in Afghanistan, Kosovo, East Timor, Northern Ireland and Sierra Leone during 38 years in the Army..

The report - written along with Professor Gareth Stansfield, Dr Andrew Rathmell and Professor Jonathan Githens-Mazer - concludes that premature military action by the West could lead to the increased destabilisation of the already volatile situation in Syria.

'Catastrophic'

"Although it may appear attractive in the short-term, the one scenario that must be avoided is sudden, uncontrolled state collapse," Sir Paul insisted.

He added: "This may seem like a paradox given the pressing need to end humanitarian suffering and the risk of the conflict spreading. However, it could be catastrophic.

"If unmanaged disintegration of the Syrian state were to occur, access to weapons of mass destruction would be uncontrolled," he warned.

The 56-year-old, now a director at the University of Exeter's Strategy and Security Institute, believes the recruitment of members of President Assad's regime into the government which replaces it could be vital in avoiding the kind of insurgency activity which dogged Iraq after the 2003 conflict.

'Insurgent threat'

It is feared any power vacuum created by a premature military intervention could be filled by al-Qaeda-linked jihadi groups.

"Without a clear and pre-emptive assurance of amnesty or a similar guarantee for the vast majority of the regime's security apparatus there would also be the prospect of a bitter and protracted insurgent threat in Syria.

"The people with 'blood on their hands' are quite capable of setting up their own 10-year insurgency if they are not included," Sir Paul added.

He said the British government should seek to drive a wedge between the top of President Assad's regime and the bulk of its security services.

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Neither side can win - Syria VP

17 December 2012 Last updated at 17:00 GMT Farouq al-Sharaa is reported to have pushed for dialogue with the opposition Syrian Vice-President Farouq al-Sharaa has said neither the government's forces nor the rebels can win the 21-month-old conflict.

Mr Sharaa told Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar that the situation was worsening and a "historic settlement" was needed.

He said neither the opposition nor the security forces could bring about a decisive end to the ongoing violence.

Meanwhile an Italian citizen and two others were kidnapped near the town of Latakia, Italy's foreign ministry said.

All three are said to work at a steel plant and have different nationalities. The ministry has decided not to provide further information about the three in order to protect them.

In a separate development, there are reports that a senior Lebanese politician has been blacklisted by the US for allegedly assisting the Syrian government to launch attacks in Lebanon.

AFP news agency quoted a US Treasury Department statement as saying former information and tourism minister Michel Samaha had been labelled a "specially designated global terrorist".

'Syrian solution'

Mr Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim, has rarely been seen since the uprising began.

He is not believed to part of President Bashar al-Assad's inner circle, which is dominated by members of his family and his minority Alawite sect.

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The current leadership... cannot achieve change alone after two years of crisis without new partners ”

End Quote Farouq al-Sharaa Syrian Vice-President However, the 74-year-old is the most prominent government figure to say in public that the military will not defeat the armed rebellion.

Mr Sharaa spoke to al-Akhbar - a pro-Assad daily - from the capital, Damascus, where there has been intense fighting in recent weeks as government forces have used warplanes and artillery in effort to dislodge rebels from positions in the surrounding countryside.

"With every passing day the political and military solutions are becoming more distant," he said. "We should be in a position defending the existence of Syria. We are not in a battle for an individual or a regime.

"The opposition cannot decisively settle the battle and what the security forces and army units are doing will not achieve a decisive settlement."

Mr Sharaa said any settlement "must be Syrian" but also must involve regional powers and the UN Security Council, and lead to the formation of a "national unity government with broad powers".

It is not clear what kind of role Mr Sharaa has in mind for Mr Assad in such a government, says the BBC's James Reynolds in Turkey.

However, the opposition has rejected all suggestions which might keep him in power and their recent gains make them believe that they can topple him by force, not negotiation, our correspondent adds.

'Dramatic escalation'

On Monday, the army reportedly told people to leave the Palestinian refugee camp at Yarmouk in southern Damascus, suggesting an offensive was imminent.

It came a day after activists said fighter jets had bombed the camp, killing at least eight people sheltering in a mosque. Footage posted online purportedly showed bodies and body parts scattered on the stairs.

Rebels captured a tank after overrunning the Hananu military academy in Aleppo on Sunday

Afterwards, clashes flared between Palestinians from the pro-Assad Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and rebel fighters.

"There is a state of real war in the camp now," resident Abu Mohammed told the AFP news agency on Monday.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Monday urged Palestinians in the camp to "expel" what he termed "terrorist groups" there.

State news agency Sana said Mr Muallem had also telephoned Ban Ki-moon after the UN secretary general expressed concern at the "continued dramatic escalation of violence" in the camp.

Mr Muallem said it was the UN and international community who were "responsible for the frustrations of the Palestinians because they have not implemented UN resolutions related to their legitimate rights".

In northern Syria, rebels said they had captured the Hananu military academy in Aleppo, the second major installation taken in a week in the area.

Commanders also said they were launching an operation to seize control of the central province of Hama. Qassem Saad al-Din, a member of the rebel military command, told Reuters that fighters had been ordered to begin surrounding and attacking checkpoints.

"When we liberate the countryside of Hama province... then we will have the area between Aleppo and Hama liberated and open for us," he said.

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