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Russia says Assad struggling to hold fort as rebels gain ground
Source: Agencies |
December 14, 2012, Friday
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RUSSIA said yesterday that Syrian President Bashar Assad is losing control of his country and the rebels might win the civil war, the first time Moscow has acknowledged the regime is cracking under the force of a powerful rebellion.
NATO also predicted Assad's fall, with Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen saying the regime's collapse is "only a matter of time."
"An opposition victory can't be excluded, unfortunately, but it's necessary to look at the facts: There is a trend for the government to progressively lose control over an increasing part of the territory," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told a Kremlin advisory body.
Bogdanov also said Moscow is preparing to evacuate thousands of its citizens from Syria, where nearly two years of violent conflict have killed more than 40,000 people and turned Assad into a global pariah.
Opposition fighters have seized large swaths of territory in northern Syria along the border with Turkey and appear to be expanding their control outside of Damascus, pushing the fight closer to Assad's seat of power in the capital.
In a Damascus suburb, a bomb blast yesterday near a school killed 16 people, at least half of them women and children, the state news agency SANA reported.
A day earlier, the US, Europe and their allies recognized the newly reorganized opposition leadership, giving it a stamp of credibility and possibly paving the way for greater international aid to those fighting Assad's forces.
At the same time, international condemnation of the regime has grown more intense as Western officials raise concerns that Assad might unleash his chemical weapons stockpiles against rebels in an act of desperation. On Wednesday, the US and NATO said Assad's forces had fired Scud missiles at rebel areas.
Syria denied the Scud allegations, calling them nothing more than a conspiracy.
But the NATO secretary-general said the military alliance detected the launch of a number of the unguided short-range missiles inside Syria earlier this week.
"We can't confirm details of the missiles, but some of the information indicates they were Scud-type missiles," he said. "In general, I think the regime in Damascus is approaching collapse. I think now it's only a question of time."
NATO also predicted Assad's fall, with Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen saying the regime's collapse is "only a matter of time."
"An opposition victory can't be excluded, unfortunately, but it's necessary to look at the facts: There is a trend for the government to progressively lose control over an increasing part of the territory," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told a Kremlin advisory body.
Bogdanov also said Moscow is preparing to evacuate thousands of its citizens from Syria, where nearly two years of violent conflict have killed more than 40,000 people and turned Assad into a global pariah.
Opposition fighters have seized large swaths of territory in northern Syria along the border with Turkey and appear to be expanding their control outside of Damascus, pushing the fight closer to Assad's seat of power in the capital.
In a Damascus suburb, a bomb blast yesterday near a school killed 16 people, at least half of them women and children, the state news agency SANA reported.
A day earlier, the US, Europe and their allies recognized the newly reorganized opposition leadership, giving it a stamp of credibility and possibly paving the way for greater international aid to those fighting Assad's forces.
At the same time, international condemnation of the regime has grown more intense as Western officials raise concerns that Assad might unleash his chemical weapons stockpiles against rebels in an act of desperation. On Wednesday, the US and NATO said Assad's forces had fired Scud missiles at rebel areas.
Syria denied the Scud allegations, calling them nothing more than a conspiracy.
But the NATO secretary-general said the military alliance detected the launch of a number of the unguided short-range missiles inside Syria earlier this week.
"We can't confirm details of the missiles, but some of the information indicates they were Scud-type missiles," he said. "In general, I think the regime in Damascus is approaching collapse. I think now it's only a question of time."
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