Dubai: Syrian troops yesterday launched an assault on a central rebel bastion, with dozens of people, including 23 soldiers, reportedly killed across the country.
Three troop carriers were destroyed in the clashes that began at dawn on the outskirts of Rastan, a rebel-held city located in Homs that UN observers toured last month. "The regime forces in the course of two hours fired 300 rockets at Rastan before launching their assault," Sami Kurdi, a spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army, was quoted by AFP as saying from Rastan.
In Quraya in the eastern province of Deir Al Zor, a 15-year-old boy was killed by machinegun fire as regime forces raided the town, the opposition Syrian Observatory said, bringing to at least 36 the number of people killed yesterday.
The Syrian National Council (SNC) said it would not join Arab League-brokered talks set for tomorrow and Thursday aimed at healing its divisions. "The SNC will not be going to the meeting in Cairo because it [the Arab League] has not invited the group as an official body but as individual members," Ahmad Ramadan was quoted by Reuters in Rome, where the group is trying to decide its leadership.
Meanwhile, five more people were killed and at least 16 wounded in Tripoli yesterday during sectarian clashes linked to unrest in Syria.
A security official said four men died in Jabal Mohsen, populated mainly by members of the Alawite sect. A fifth person was killed near Bab Al Tebbaneh, a neighbourhood located opposite Jabal Mohsen and populated mainly by Sunnis. Heavy automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenade fire was heard in the two districts throughout yesterday.
