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| In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad greets military officers in a ceremony marking the anniversary of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, October 6, 2012. |
BEIRUT (AP)
-- Syria's military will "crush" armed rebels, President Bashar Assad's
defense minister warned Saturday, as the regime shelled rebel positions
in two cities and near the Lebanese border in a widening offensive.
Neighboring
Turkey, meanwhile, set new rules of engagement after three shells from
Syria hit Turkish territory Saturday. Turkey retaliated with artillery,
as it has for the past four days, and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu said this would now be the standard response.
Davutoglu
insisted that "we haven't taken a step toward war," but Turkey's threat
to fire back for each errant Syrian shell was bound to keep border
tensions high. Turkey is one of Assad's harshest critics and a key
supporter of Syria's opposition.
The latest Syria-Turkey crisis erupted earlier this week, after a Syrian shell killed five civilians in a Turkish border town.
The
Syrian regime has apologized and tried to defuse tensions by pulling
some tanks back from the border, according to a Turkish Foreign Ministry
official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government
regulations.
Still, the week's daily cross-border exchanges have heightened fears of a regional conflagration.
Syrian
mortar rounds are likely to hit Turkey again as regime forces try to
retake rebel-controlled areas near the border. Two of the shells that
fell in Turkey on Saturday were fired in clashes between government
troops and opposition fighters in a Syrian border village.
Syria's
civil war has been stalemated for months, but Syrian Defense Minister
Gen. Fahd Jassem al-Freij insisted Saturday that the regime is gaining
the upper hand.
The government denies it is
facing a home-grown rebellion, saying it is being targeted by a foreign
conspiracy against the regime's support for anti-Israeli groups.
"The
most dangerous parts of the conspiracy have ... passed and the killing
is on its way to decline," said al-Freij, who was named to the job after
his predecessor was assassinated in July. He offered amnesty to rebels
who repent but said those who don't "will be crushed under the feet of
our soldiers."
The Syrian president,
meanwhile, made a rare public appearance Saturday to commemorate the
anniversary of the outbreak of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, also known as
the October War.
Assad laid a wreath at the
country's statue of the Unknown Soldier in Damascus, then passed along a
line of saluting army commanders in dress uniform, shaking hands with
each. The ceremony, broadcast live on
Syrian TV, seemed designed to show
Assad remains in control.
Syria's state-run
news agency SANA linked Saturday's anniversary to the current conflict,
saying that in both cases "Syria is facing an enemy armed with Western
and Israeli weapons."
Along with regime's new
warnings to the rebels, Syrian troops backed by warplanes and combat
helicopters launched attacks on rebel-held areas near the Syrian town of
Quseir, close to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, on Saturday, Lebanese security
officials said.
Opposition activists also
reported intense government shelling in the northern city of Aleppo,
Syria's largest and a commercial hub, and in the central city of Homs.
The battlefield stalemate is most apparent in those two cities.
Syrian
forces have been bombing and shelling from a distance but have been
unable to dislodge opposition fighters holed up in devastated
neighborhoods. Retaking Aleppo and Homs could give the regime some
breathing room.
In Aleppo, government forces
gained some ground in recent house-to-house combat, according to an
Associated Press journalist in the city.
On
Saturday, government troops captured the city's Sakhour roundabout after
days of heavy fighting, a Syrian official said on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Heavy
shelling also was reported in Taibeh, a town near Homs, an early center
of the uprising. Opposition activists said at least 10 people were
killed and dozens wounded.
Amateur video from
Taibeh, posted Saturday, showed several badly disfigured bodies being
pulled from the back of a pickup truck by distraught bystanders. One
body was carried away on a red stretcher.
In
another video, masked rebel fighters posed with assault rifles in what
they said is an air defense base east of Damascus they captured earlier
in the week.
The video showed captured
weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles, heavy machine guns and
large-caliber ammunition. The rebels surrounded a group of captured
regime soldiers. The captives, some with bandages on their heads, each
stood up and gave their rank and name.
The
authenticity of such videos cannot be confirmed independently because
Syria imposes tight restrictions on foreign journalists.
In
a success for the opposition activists said, rebel fighters took
control of the village of Khirbet el-Jouz in Syria's northwestern Idlib
province, about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the Turkish town of
Guvecci.
Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency
said that rebels planted their flag on the roof of a building that had
been used as a base by regime troops in the village. The takeover came
after intense clashes, with mortar shells exploding at a relentless
pace, some near the Turkish border, Anadolu said.
Two
of the mortars from that battle landed in Turkey, and a third shell hit
later in another village in Turkey's Hatay province. No casualties were
reported, but Turkish forces returned fire each time, according to
Anadolu and the Hatay governor's office.
Earlier
this week, Turkey's parliament approved such retaliation, expanding
Turkey's response options.
Turkey's leaders have reiterated that they
don't want war with Syria, but another dramatic or deadly border
incident could force unwanted escalation.
In
another international entanglement, Assad ally Iran appealed to rebel
backers Turkey and Qatar to help release 48 Iranians purportedly being
held by Syrian rebels since August.
In amateur
video posted late Thursday, rebels threatened to kill the captives by
the end of the weekend unless the regime halts military operations
against the opposition.
Iran's Foreign
Minister Ali Akbar Salehi spoke by phone Saturday with the Qatari prime
minister and the Turkish foreign minister and received assurances they
would try to help, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported.
Iran
says those abducted were pilgrims visiting a Shiite shrine in Damascus.
The Syrian opposition claims they are members of the elite
Revolutionary Guard helping the Syrian regime.
