BEIRUT, Lebanon — In rare public remarks addressed to Syrian security forces seeking to suppress a 17-month revolt, President Bashar al-Assad acknowledged on Tuesday that “the enemy is among us today,” lauding loyalist troops for fighting a “crucial and heroic battle,” according to news reports quoting the official SANA news agency.
The call to arms was described as the first public appeal by Mr. Assad since a bombing in mid-July killed some of his most senior aides and spurred speculation about his whereabouts. His comments, marking the 67th anniversary of the founding of the Syrian Army, were carried by SANA but there was no immediate broadcast on state-run television.
The embattled Syrian leader was speaking a day after Syrian rebels said they had taken control of at least two important police stations in central Aleppo, maintaining their hold on several neighborhoods Tuesday despite air assaults and shelling by government troops.
Nearly two weeks have passed since the fighting began for control of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and commercial center, and both sides seem to be digging in for an extended battle.
Opposition groups on Tuesday also spoke of fighting in a Christian area of central Damascus.
“The army is engaged in a crucial and heroic battle,” Mr. Assad said, according to Agence France-Presse, “on which the destiny of the nation and its people rests. The enemy is among us today, using agents to destabilize the country, the security of its citizens and continues to exhaust our economic and scientific resources.”
His characterization of the fighting seemed to indicate that, after dismissing his adversaries as “terrorist gangs,” Mr. Assad had acknowledged the severity of the fighting and the high stakes involved in his political survival. But he insisted that his forces had stood their ground, despite the steady spread of armed opposition through Syria’s major cities in recent weeks.
Mr. Assad said his foes “wanted to deprive the people of their national decision, but they were astonished to see these proud people, who confronted their plans and defeated them.”
“You men of the country,” he added, “you have demonstrated, in dealing with the war waged against our country by the terrorist gangs, that you possess an iron will and a keen awareness.”
“Our military remains the backbone of the motherland," the Syrian leader said.
Mr. Assad did not identify the so-called agents further. But his government has long accused outside powers, including several regional countries, of fomenting the violence that has washed over Syria with increasing virulence since the uprising began in March, 2011.
On Tuesday, SANA also published the text of a letter sent by the Syrian Foreign Ministry to the United Nations, renewing accusations that “armed terrorist group” backed “openly with funds and weapons by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey committed horrifying crimes against innocent civilians in Damascus and Aleppo and are still doing so in Aleppo.”
The letter also alluded to “the capitals conspiring against Syria — particularly in Ankara, Doha, Riyadh, Washington, Paris, London and Berlin.”
In Aleppo, residents and activists said on Monday that the Syrian Army was attacking from a military base on the city’s southern edge, while rebel commanders and activists said the rebels controlled eastern sections of the city as they continued to fight for neighborhoods near the center of the city and in Salaheddiin, a large neighborhood in the southwest part of Aleppo.
The larger of the two police stations that rebels said they seized on Tuesday lies near the old city of Aleppo and its ancient iron gate. The second, smaller station is a few miles away, and rebels and activists described both locations as strategic because Syrian troops had been using them as bases, dividing rebel fighters in the surrounding neighborhoods.
“Since the beginning of the uprising, this criminal” — a common reference among rebels for President Assad — “transformed these stations into military centers,” said Col. Abdul Jabbar al-Okeidi, the head of the Aleppo military council of the Free Syrian Army, the largest armed resistance group in Syria. “There are no more policemen, just security forces and thugs and snipers.”
Analysts said the Syrian police had generally not been involved in Syria’s 17-month-old conflict, but police stations — as fortified government institutions inside neighborhoods — have become increasingly valuable military locations. Rebels said the Syrian Army had been using jail cells to hold captured rebel fighters, while gathering troops at the stations to stage attacks or fire from the rooftops.
The stations “also represent a source of intelligence and a network for information for the regime as well as a refuge for government officials,” said Elias Hanna, a retired Lebanese general and an expert on the Syrian military. “Taking over a police station means denying the government a presence in the area, and controlling it.”
The battles for the stations appear to have been bloody. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group based in Britain, described the largest of the two stations as a three-story building occupied by dozens of officers and soldiers who were killed during a battle that lasted seven to eight hours. Colonel Okeidi said that about 50 Syrian soldiers had been captured, including a colonel — an assertion, like the others involving the death toll, that could not be independently verified.
Rebels also posted a video online that they said showed the second, smaller police station after fighting had ended. It included footage of rebel fighters with AK-47s walking through a ransacked, bullet-riddled station, stepping over at least a dozen bodies.
In the same area, rebels said they had captured several members of the Barri clan, a prominent Aleppo family close to the government of Mr. Assad. Rebels accused the clan of killing 15 fighters. One video posted online showed dozens of young men identified as Barri family members or associates with bloodied faces. Another showed several of them, including one man wearing only underwear, being executed outside in broad daylight.
Early this week, rebels said they seized an important checkpoint northwest of Aleppo, making it easier to move in supplies and troops from the Turkish border. But for residents of Aleppo, as the fighting has continued, basic needs have become harder to satisfy.
Several people in Aleppo said on Tuesday that gas and food were scarce or unavailable as shop owners stayed closed and families tried to hoard whatever they could. “There is no water or electricity in many areas,” said Abou Raed, an activist in Aleppo. “And the schools are now overcrowded with the displaced.”
He added, “People are not really moving out now because of the shelling.”
In neighborhoods across much of the city, residents said the streets were empty and quiet on Tuesday except for the sound of gunfire, helicopters and artillery shells.
Outside Syria, divisions among opposition groups appeared to deepen. The Council of Syrian Revolutionary Trustees, which is an offshoot of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group in exile, nominated one of its own leaders, Haytham al-Maleh, to form a transitional government.
Mr. Maleh, a former political prisoner who resigned from the Syrian National Council over what he described as inefficiencies, said he would form a government including all sides of the opposition, arguing that a new government must be formed immediately to avoid a “political or administrative void” once Mr. Assad’s government was toppled.
Mr. Maleh said his group would move to Aleppo after what he called its liberation from Assad government control.
Damien Cave reported from Beirut, Lebanon, and Alan Cowell from London. Dalal Mawad and Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, and an employee of the The New York Times from Aleppo, Syria.
The call to arms was described as the first public appeal by Mr. Assad since a bombing in mid-July killed some of his most senior aides and spurred speculation about his whereabouts. His comments, marking the 67th anniversary of the founding of the Syrian Army, were carried by SANA but there was no immediate broadcast on state-run television.
The embattled Syrian leader was speaking a day after Syrian rebels said they had taken control of at least two important police stations in central Aleppo, maintaining their hold on several neighborhoods Tuesday despite air assaults and shelling by government troops.
Nearly two weeks have passed since the fighting began for control of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and commercial center, and both sides seem to be digging in for an extended battle.
Opposition groups on Tuesday also spoke of fighting in a Christian area of central Damascus.
“The army is engaged in a crucial and heroic battle,” Mr. Assad said, according to Agence France-Presse, “on which the destiny of the nation and its people rests. The enemy is among us today, using agents to destabilize the country, the security of its citizens and continues to exhaust our economic and scientific resources.”
His characterization of the fighting seemed to indicate that, after dismissing his adversaries as “terrorist gangs,” Mr. Assad had acknowledged the severity of the fighting and the high stakes involved in his political survival. But he insisted that his forces had stood their ground, despite the steady spread of armed opposition through Syria’s major cities in recent weeks.
Mr. Assad said his foes “wanted to deprive the people of their national decision, but they were astonished to see these proud people, who confronted their plans and defeated them.”
“You men of the country,” he added, “you have demonstrated, in dealing with the war waged against our country by the terrorist gangs, that you possess an iron will and a keen awareness.”
“Our military remains the backbone of the motherland," the Syrian leader said.
Mr. Assad did not identify the so-called agents further. But his government has long accused outside powers, including several regional countries, of fomenting the violence that has washed over Syria with increasing virulence since the uprising began in March, 2011.
On Tuesday, SANA also published the text of a letter sent by the Syrian Foreign Ministry to the United Nations, renewing accusations that “armed terrorist group” backed “openly with funds and weapons by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey committed horrifying crimes against innocent civilians in Damascus and Aleppo and are still doing so in Aleppo.”
The letter also alluded to “the capitals conspiring against Syria — particularly in Ankara, Doha, Riyadh, Washington, Paris, London and Berlin.”
In Aleppo, residents and activists said on Monday that the Syrian Army was attacking from a military base on the city’s southern edge, while rebel commanders and activists said the rebels controlled eastern sections of the city as they continued to fight for neighborhoods near the center of the city and in Salaheddiin, a large neighborhood in the southwest part of Aleppo.
The larger of the two police stations that rebels said they seized on Tuesday lies near the old city of Aleppo and its ancient iron gate. The second, smaller station is a few miles away, and rebels and activists described both locations as strategic because Syrian troops had been using them as bases, dividing rebel fighters in the surrounding neighborhoods.
“Since the beginning of the uprising, this criminal” — a common reference among rebels for President Assad — “transformed these stations into military centers,” said Col. Abdul Jabbar al-Okeidi, the head of the Aleppo military council of the Free Syrian Army, the largest armed resistance group in Syria. “There are no more policemen, just security forces and thugs and snipers.”
Analysts said the Syrian police had generally not been involved in Syria’s 17-month-old conflict, but police stations — as fortified government institutions inside neighborhoods — have become increasingly valuable military locations. Rebels said the Syrian Army had been using jail cells to hold captured rebel fighters, while gathering troops at the stations to stage attacks or fire from the rooftops.
The stations “also represent a source of intelligence and a network for information for the regime as well as a refuge for government officials,” said Elias Hanna, a retired Lebanese general and an expert on the Syrian military. “Taking over a police station means denying the government a presence in the area, and controlling it.”
The battles for the stations appear to have been bloody. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group based in Britain, described the largest of the two stations as a three-story building occupied by dozens of officers and soldiers who were killed during a battle that lasted seven to eight hours. Colonel Okeidi said that about 50 Syrian soldiers had been captured, including a colonel — an assertion, like the others involving the death toll, that could not be independently verified.
Rebels also posted a video online that they said showed the second, smaller police station after fighting had ended. It included footage of rebel fighters with AK-47s walking through a ransacked, bullet-riddled station, stepping over at least a dozen bodies.
In the same area, rebels said they had captured several members of the Barri clan, a prominent Aleppo family close to the government of Mr. Assad. Rebels accused the clan of killing 15 fighters. One video posted online showed dozens of young men identified as Barri family members or associates with bloodied faces. Another showed several of them, including one man wearing only underwear, being executed outside in broad daylight.
Early this week, rebels said they seized an important checkpoint northwest of Aleppo, making it easier to move in supplies and troops from the Turkish border. But for residents of Aleppo, as the fighting has continued, basic needs have become harder to satisfy.
Several people in Aleppo said on Tuesday that gas and food were scarce or unavailable as shop owners stayed closed and families tried to hoard whatever they could. “There is no water or electricity in many areas,” said Abou Raed, an activist in Aleppo. “And the schools are now overcrowded with the displaced.”
He added, “People are not really moving out now because of the shelling.”
In neighborhoods across much of the city, residents said the streets were empty and quiet on Tuesday except for the sound of gunfire, helicopters and artillery shells.
Outside Syria, divisions among opposition groups appeared to deepen. The Council of Syrian Revolutionary Trustees, which is an offshoot of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group in exile, nominated one of its own leaders, Haytham al-Maleh, to form a transitional government.
Mr. Maleh, a former political prisoner who resigned from the Syrian National Council over what he described as inefficiencies, said he would form a government including all sides of the opposition, arguing that a new government must be formed immediately to avoid a “political or administrative void” once Mr. Assad’s government was toppled.
Mr. Maleh said his group would move to Aleppo after what he called its liberation from Assad government control.
Damien Cave reported from Beirut, Lebanon, and Alan Cowell from London. Dalal Mawad and Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, and an employee of the The New York Times from Aleppo, Syria.