Syrian rebels said they shot down a government helicopter over the capital Damascus, as fighting intensified following the departure of United Nations military observers and the failure of cease-fire efforts.
The Syrian Revolution General Commission website said that the aircraft was downed by anti-government rebels. While the crash was confirmed by state television, the broadcaster gave no further details. The BBC and Al Arabiya television showed footage of an aircraft falling to the ground in flames.
Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have used helicopter gunships and artillery in a bid to push anti- government fighters out of Damascus and Aleppo, the country’s most populous city. Aug. 25 was the bloodiest day since the uprising began 17 months ago, with 440 people reported dead by the opposition Local Coordination Committees.
UN monitors completed their withdrawal from the country a day earlier, marking the end of a four-month international effort to implement the cease-fire negotiated by Kofi Annan, the organization’s Syria envoy. Annan resigned this month, accusing world powers of “finger-pointing and name-calling.”
At least 77 people have died so far today, including 47 in Damascus and its suburbs, the group said by e-mail. It said government troops have imposed a “stifling” siege on the town of Madeeq Citadel in Hama, where residents “are calling out for help” and fear massacres by security forces.
More than 23,000 lives have been lost during the uprising, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates.
Opposition forces said they shot down a MiG-23 combat plane on Aug. 13 and posted a video showing a burning aircraft. The government acknowledged the crash and blamed technical problems.
The Syrian Observatory and the LCC, a network of activists within the country, are among several groups opposed to Assad’s government which offer casualty numbers that cannot be independently verified.
Assad yesterday vowed to defeat the rebels “no matter the cost” and reiterated his charge that a “foreign plot” was behind the violence, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.
Assad and most top officials come from the Alawite sect, affiliated with Shiite Islam, while the majority of Syria’s population and many leaders of the armed uprising are Sunni. Assad’s father and predecessor, President Hafez al-Assad, in 1982 used the army to crush an Islamist-led rebellion in Hama, killing about 10,000 people according to Human Rights Watch.
The situation in Syria is going from “bad to worse,” Arab League Secretary-General Nabil el-Arabi was cited as saying yesterday by Egypt’s state-run Middle East News Agency.
The number of refugees who have fled Syria has exceeded 202,000, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Aug. 24. Registered refugees included 61,000 in Jordan, 51,000 in Lebanon, 16,000 in Iraq and 74,000 in Turkey, it said, though many other Syrians fled without registering.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dana El Baltaji in Dubai at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at [email protected]
The Syrian Revolution General Commission website said that the aircraft was downed by anti-government rebels. While the crash was confirmed by state television, the broadcaster gave no further details. The BBC and Al Arabiya television showed footage of an aircraft falling to the ground in flames.
Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have used helicopter gunships and artillery in a bid to push anti- government fighters out of Damascus and Aleppo, the country’s most populous city. Aug. 25 was the bloodiest day since the uprising began 17 months ago, with 440 people reported dead by the opposition Local Coordination Committees.
UN monitors completed their withdrawal from the country a day earlier, marking the end of a four-month international effort to implement the cease-fire negotiated by Kofi Annan, the organization’s Syria envoy. Annan resigned this month, accusing world powers of “finger-pointing and name-calling.”
At least 77 people have died so far today, including 47 in Damascus and its suburbs, the group said by e-mail. It said government troops have imposed a “stifling” siege on the town of Madeeq Citadel in Hama, where residents “are calling out for help” and fear massacres by security forces.
More than 23,000 lives have been lost during the uprising, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates.
Opposition forces said they shot down a MiG-23 combat plane on Aug. 13 and posted a video showing a burning aircraft. The government acknowledged the crash and blamed technical problems.
The Syrian Observatory and the LCC, a network of activists within the country, are among several groups opposed to Assad’s government which offer casualty numbers that cannot be independently verified.
Assad yesterday vowed to defeat the rebels “no matter the cost” and reiterated his charge that a “foreign plot” was behind the violence, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.
Assad and most top officials come from the Alawite sect, affiliated with Shiite Islam, while the majority of Syria’s population and many leaders of the armed uprising are Sunni. Assad’s father and predecessor, President Hafez al-Assad, in 1982 used the army to crush an Islamist-led rebellion in Hama, killing about 10,000 people according to Human Rights Watch.
The situation in Syria is going from “bad to worse,” Arab League Secretary-General Nabil el-Arabi was cited as saying yesterday by Egypt’s state-run Middle East News Agency.
The number of refugees who have fled Syria has exceeded 202,000, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Aug. 24. Registered refugees included 61,000 in Jordan, 51,000 in Lebanon, 16,000 in Iraq and 74,000 in Turkey, it said, though many other Syrians fled without registering.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dana El Baltaji in Dubai at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at [email protected]