Syrian jets bombed rebel-held areas of Damascus on Saturday, residents said, as the opposition indicated it could accept an international peacekeeping force if President Bashar al-Assad is forced from power.
Warplanes
attacked the Damascus suburbs of Kafar Souseh and Darraya, according to
the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-linked group.
The air strikes follow intensified rebel activity in the capital,
Assad's seat of power, as well as successful stormings of government
military bases in recent weeks.
"Syrian
regular forces are trying to control the areas surrounding the
capital," the Observatory said. Bombings targetted a continuous arc of
rebel presence in the capital's outer districts from the northeast to
the southwest.
Activists
reported clashes and air strikes in the provinces of Homs, Deir al-Zor,
Idlib and in Aleppo, where they said 14 rebel fighters were killed
during an assault on an army base in the town of Khanasser early on
Saturday.
It is difficult to verify such reports due to government restrictions on media access to Syria.
Syria's
Internet connections began working again on Saturday after a two-day
blackout, the worst communications outage in the 20-month-old uprising
against Assad in which 40,000 people have been killed and hundreds of
thousands forced to flee the country.
Opposition
umbrella group the Syrian National Coalition might allow an
international peacekeeping force into Syria if Assad and his allies
leave power, coalition spokesman Walid al-Bunni said on Saturday.
Some
opposition members have argued against international troops, saying
their arrival could serve as a rallying call for Assad loyalists in an
area near the Mediterranean where many of his minority Alawite sect
live.
Assad,
whose family has ruled autocratically for four decades, draws much of
his support from the sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. Most of the
rebels are Sunni Muslims.
Bunni
said the coalition was open to any proposal if Assad and his allies,
including top officers in the military and security apparatus, were
removed.
"If
this is the first condition then we can start discussing everything.
There will be no political process until the ruling family and all those
who underpin the regime leave," he added.
Bunni,
a physician who spent most of the period after Assad inherited power
from his father in 2000 in jail as a political prisoner, was speaking at
a news conference marking the conclusion of the first full meeting of
the 60-member opposition coalition in Cairo.
"IRON AND BLOOD"
Britain,
France and Gulf countries have recognised the Syrian National Coalition
as the sole representative of the Syrian people.
Most
foreign powers have condemned Assad, who has relied on his allies to
stay afloat, especially regional powerhouse Iran. Russia, Syria's main
arms supplier, and China have vetoed three U.N. Security Council
resolutions condemning Assad and reject the idea of sanctioning his
government.
Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western states on Saturday of
trying to advance democracy abroad through "iron and blood."
"Advancing
democracy through iron and blood just does not work, and this has been
made clear in recent months - the past year-and-a-half," Lavrov said,
according to state-run news agency Itar-Tass.
Russia
repeated its opposition on Friday to NATO's potential deployment of
Patriot missiles in Turkey, which wants them because of fears of a
spillover from the war in Syria.
Syrian
state television quoted a ministry of information statement saying
Damascus international airport was open on Saturday and that the road
leading to it was safe.
Since
Thursday, clashes have been reported near the Aqraba and Babilla
districts on the southeastern outskirts of Damascus which lead to the
airport, effectively closing the road and leading EgyptAir and Emirates
to suspend flights.
U.S.
web tracking firm Renesys said in a blog post that it could confirm "a
largely complete restoration of the Syrian Internet."
Rights
groups said the communications drop off was a precursor to a wider
offensive by government forces in the capital. Syrian security sources
and diplomats say the government intends to seal off central Damascus
from the restive suburbs.
Authorities
had attributed the Internet outage to a "terrorist" attack or a
technical fault. On Saturday, state news agency SANA gave a third reason
for the outage, which is said was now restored: "maintenance work."
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