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The Syrian regime has fired Scud missiles at rebel forces trying to oust Bashar al-Assad, a U.S. official said Wednesday, after Human Rights Watch (HRW) report warning that incendiary bombs were also used.
\u201cScuds landed within Syria,\u201d the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
Earlier Wednesday an AFP journalist in northwestern Syria reported hearing several fierce explosions daily from up to 15 kilometers (10 miles) away.<\/p>\n
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said \u201cwe\u2019re seeing missiles employed now\u201d but she refused to divulge intelligence on what type of missile.<\/p>\n
But the U.S. official speaking later said he could confirm a New York Times story that the regime was unleashing Scuds.<\/p>\n
There was no word of any casualties caused by the Soviet-era weapons, famously fired into Israel by Iraq\u2019s Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War.<\/p>\n
The unguided, short-range ballistic Scud missiles, depending on the type employed, have a range of 200 kilometers or more.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, HRW warned that Syrian forces have dropped incendiary bombs on populated areas, calling on the authorities to stop using a weapon that causes \u201cespecially cruel human suffering\u201d.<\/p>\n
Most of the weapons found appeared to be two kinds of Soviet models, one of which releases 48 incendiary submunitions over an area the size of a football field, it said.<\/p>\n
Incendiary weapons contain flammable materials such as napalm, thermite or white phosphorous, which can set fire to buildings or cause severe burns and respiratory damage. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese weapons cause especially cruel civilian suffering and extensive property destruction when used in populated areas,\u201d Reuters reported Steve Goose, director of the arms division of the New York-based rights group, as saying.<\/p>\n
Political recognition<\/strong> The declaration, issued at a \u201cFriends of Syria\u201d meeting in Morocco, coincided with battlefield gains by jihadists fighting Assad\u2019s forces and a rapidly deteriorating refugee situation as winter sets in.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, full recognition is given to the National Coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people,\u201d Moroccan Foreign Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani told a news conference after the meeting his government hosted in Marrakesh.<\/p>\n The talks on the 21-month-old conflict brought together representatives from 114 countries, including about 60 ministers, the Syrian opposition and international organizations.<\/p>\n They came just a day after U.S. President Barack Obama endorsed the National Coalition, following a similar move by the European Union.<\/p>\n The Friends of Syria again called on Assad to stand down, and stressed that his regime would not escape punishment for violations of international law.<\/p>\n A statement also warned Damascus against using chemical weapons, saying this \u201cwould draw a serious response from the international community.\u201d<\/p>\n British Foreign Secretary William Hague described the growing recognition of the National Coalition as \u201creal progress.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen the important thing is to channel more assistance through them — in our case… non-lethal assistance… and then of course we need more humanitarian aid.\u201d<\/p>\n Those at the meeting also called for unimpeded access for humanitarian groups inside Syria.<\/p>\n Coalition spokesman Yaser Tabbara underlined hopes the Marrakesh meeting would help alleviate a mounting humanitarian crisis and support the needs of \u201cliberated\u201d areas, in terms of salaries and services, which the group estimates at nearly $500 million per month.<\/p>\n Under pressure to unite, the opposition agreed on November 11 to establish the coalition and group the various rebel forces under a supreme military council.<\/p>\n But jihadist rebels in Aleppo, a key front line in northern Syria, rejected the agreement, saying they want an Islamic state.<\/p>\n Among them is the Al-Nusra Front, which the United States blacklisted on Tuesday as a terrorist organisation, citing links to Al-Qaeda in Iraq.<\/p>\n National Coalition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib called on Washington to \u201cre-examine\u201d the move.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can have ideological and political differences with certain parties, but the revolutionaries all share the same goal: to overthrow (Assad\u2019s) criminal regime.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, who led the U.S. delegation to the talks, said: \u201cWe have extended an invitation to Moaz al-Khatib and the coalition leadership to visit Washington at the earliest opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n But he defended the terror blacklisting.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAl-Nusra, as the president made clear, is little more than a front for Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and all of us have seen what Al-Qaeda in Iraq tried to do to threaten the social fabric of Iraq,\u201d Burns said.<\/p>\n With the total death toll from the civil war now topping 42,000, according to a rights monitor, the U.N. refugee agency said the number of Syrian refugees who had fled to neighboring states and North Africa had now passed half a million.<\/p>\n In the latest violence, at least seven people were killed and 50 wounded when three bombs struck the main entrance of the interior ministry in Damascus, a security official said.<\/p>\n Interior Minister Mohammad al-Shaar and other top ranking officials escaped unharmed, state television reported.<\/p>\n Other bombings in the capital killed four people and wounded another 26, the Observatory and news agency SANA reported.<\/p>\n The Observatory said 121 were killed nationwide, including 57 civilians.<\/p>\n Source: Alarabiya<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Syrian regime has fired Scud missiles at rebel forces trying to oust Bashar al-Assad, a U.S. official said Wednesday, after Human Rights Watch (HRW) report warning that incendiary bombs were also used.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c54-reports"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Putting further pressure on the Assad regime on Wednesday, Arab and Western states recognized the opposition National Coalition as the sole representative of Syrians.<\/p>\n