Syrian government troops fought deadly battles with armed rebels as the European Union on Monday urged Russia to overcome differences over Syria to end 15 months of bloodshed.
In talks at Saint Petersburg with Russian President Vladimir Putin, EU President Herman Van Rompuy said the EU and Russia “might have some divergent assessments” of the situation in Syria. The meeting came a day after President Bashar al-Assad vowed to crush an anti-regime uprising after the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) announced on Friday that it was resuming “defensive operations.” The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 19 soldiers, eight rebels and 19 civilians were killed in violence across the country on Sunday.
Fresh clashes erupted between the regime and its foes in Idlib province late on Sunday, killing two opposition fighters, as explosions were reported in Damascus province, the Observatory said. Fighting continued on Monday with the Observatory saying Syrian forces used helicopter gunships to strafe positions in the northeastern province of Deir Ezzor, while at least eight people died in violence across Syria. On Saturday, 57 soldiers were killed in Syria, the largest number of casualties the military has suffered in a single day since the uprising broke out in mid-March 2011, the watchdog said.
EU leaders agreed with the Russian president that a UN-backed six-point peace plan “as a whole provides the best opportunity to break the cycle of violence in Syria, avoiding a civil war,” Van Rompuy said. Russia, alongside China, is opposed to military intervention in Syria and has resisted strong UN Security Council action against its Soviet-era ally. Also pushing for a transition was US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said on Monday during a visit to Armenia that she spoke with UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan to discuss the Syria crisis. Annan has agreed to travel to Washington on Friday “to discuss next steps in his six-point plan and in particular political transition” in Syria, a senior State Department spokeswoman said. A truce brokered by Annan has been violated daily since it went into effect on April 12, and 108 civilians, most of them women and children, were massacred in the central city of Houla last month.
Annan will discuss the Syria crisis at the Security Council and UN General Assembly on Thursday. Also on Monday, the exiled opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) reported violence across Idlib, saying regime forces were using “tanks, rocket launchers and artillery” to bombard several parts of the province. The pro-regime Al-Watan newspaper on Monday accused Saudi authorities of “plotting” against Syria and of turning Lebanon into a springboard for attacking the country. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal was “sending arms to fighters and mercenaries they are financing in north Lebanon,” where weekend clashes between pro- and anti-Damascus factions left 14 dead, it said. Prince Saud accused Assad on Sunday of “manoeuvring” to gain time while ignoring Annan’s six-point peace plan. “Every initiative has been accepted by the Syrian regime and was not implemented. This is a way used by the regime to gain time,” Prince Saud said.
