Syria helicopters strike Damascus suburb; diplomacy stalled
Source: Reuters
BEIRUT | Mon Jul 2, 2012 10:54am EDT
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian attack helicopters bombarded a suburb of Damascus on Monday and Turkey said it had scrambled warplanes near the border in the north, as a 16-month conflict entered a more violent phase and diplomacy appeared to have failed.
Fighting has come to the gates of the capital in recent weeks and is also raging throughout the country as the battle to unseat President Bashar al-Assad increasingly takes on the character of an all-out civil war, fuelled by sectarian hate.
Syrian government forces have launched an assault on Douma, a city on the edge of Damascus where they stormed a rebel stronghold two days ago leaving bodies rotting in the streets of the nearly abandoned town.
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Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted by the RIA Novosti agency as saying Syrian opposition leader Michel Kilo will arrive later this week, while Abdulbaset Sieda, the new head of the Syrian National Council, another opposition group, will visit Moscow after July 10.
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"The Annan peace plan becomes significantly more feasible if the Russians engage with the Syrian opposition," reports CBS News' Pamela Falk, from the U.N., "because it will give Russia the possibility of maintaining a relationship with a post-Assad government, and the dynamics change from an East-West conflict to international support of a transition government."
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Moscow's determination to preserve its last remaining ally in the Middle East has contradicted efforts by the U.S. and other Western powers to replace Assad with a democratic government. The Syrian uprising has killed some 14,000 people since it began in March 2011, turning the country into one of the world's most unstable regions. U.N. observers say the violence has stepped up significantly in the last two months.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57464711/russia-to-meet-with-syria-opposition-annan/?tag=cbsnewsMainColumnArea
