The US has denounced Russia’s policy of aiding the Syrian regime as “morally bankrupt,” as tensions between Damascus and Ankara escalate over cargo seized from a Syrian passenger plane.
On the ground, the Syrian army took a pounding at the hands of rebels in northern Syria on Friday, a monitoring group said.
A rebel offensive killed more than 130 soldiers in two days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added, while more than 250 troops were taken prisoner as the insurgents advanced.
Photo: AFP
US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland refused to disclose to reporters what exactly had been in the cargo seized in Turkey on Wednesday, but said: “We have no doubt that this was serious military equipment,” aimed at bolstering the Syrian regime.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, however, said that the Syrian Air plane intercepted by Turkey on a flight from Moscow to Damascus was carrying a cargo of dual-purpose radar equipment, and insisted Russia did not violate any laws.
“This cargo is electrical technical equipment for radar stations, this is dual-purpose equipment, but is not forbidden by any international conventions,” Lavrov said.
Nuland said that Russia had not violated any embargo on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government, but said “the policy’s still morally bankrupt.”
“Everybody else on the Security Council is doing what it can unilaterally to ensure that the Assad regime is not getting support from the outside,” she said in Washington. “We have been saying for almost a year now that no responsible country ought to be aiding and abetting the war machine of the Assad regime.”
As fighting raged on the ground, the tensions between Syria and Turkey grew.
Turkey scrambled a fighter jet on Friday after a Syrian helicopter attacked the rebel-held town of Azmarin near the border, an official in Ankara said.
The Syrian foreign ministry accused Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of lying when he said the jet intercepted on Wednesday was carrying Russian military equipment.
Turkey’s allies have warned of the risks embedded in the Syria conflict between the neighbors, which have exchanged cross-border fire amid fears the civil war could spark a regional conflagration.
Amid the growing alarm, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle was due in NATO partner Turkey yesterday for talks with his counterpart, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
“It is important that no one pours oil on the fire. We are counting on moderation and de-escalation,” Westerwelle said.
UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi was also scheduled to appear in Istanbul yesterday after talks with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah on Friday.
Brahimi spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said Brahimi and the king agreed “on the dire need to stop the bloodshed and provide humanitarian aid to the more than 2.5 million Syrians” affected by the fighting, and 348,000 plus refugees in neighboring countries.
The Observatory said on Thursday was one of the deadliest days since the anti-regime revolt erupted in March last year, with at least 240 people killed nationwide.
On Friday, regime warplanes attacked two buildings in the Idlib town of Maaret al-Numan, where intense fighting has raged since rebels overran it on Tuesday after a fierce 48-hour battle, the Britain-based Syrian watchdog said.
Resupplying the army is “a fundamental aspect of the performance of the military,” said Emile Hokayem, Middle East expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
However, he added that regime air supremacy was no longer decisive because the troops have “lost morale.”
According to the Observatory, the rebels took 256 soldiers prisoner in capturing the town of Khirbat al-Joz and nearby areas in Idlib Province along the border with Turkey since last week.
And an Agence France-Presse reporter said the rebels, by seizing a stretch of highway near Maaret al-Numan, were able to cut the route linking Damascus to embattled commercial hub Aleppo on Thursday, choking the flow of troops to the north.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in